Richard's little sister got a job with a local Gaslighter theater, playing a part in the matinee melodrama for the summer. So after a few false starts and rearrangement of plans, we finally made it down there this afternoon.

Because traffic in the Bay Area is unpredictable and timing a trip down to his parents is next to impossible to get just right, we ended up arriving a little early. The theater, however, is located quite conveniently next to a large store that sells, among other things, stone dragons and gargoyles, as well as a rather impressive selection of Devil Ducks (rubber ducks with horns. Don't ask). And even more conveniently, we had just enough time to peruse the selection, pick out a little coiled dragon who looked like he would fit in perfectly perched on the wall of the raised flower bed in the back yard, and also rummage through their collection of ducks to pick out all the colors and patterns we did not yet have. I think, after today, we may very well have found them all. Richard is showing signs of wanting to expand into pirate ducks as well, though, and I'm not sure the tub in the master bathroom is big enough for that many rubber ducks. I sense shelf installation in the near future.

The melodrama was cute and a little haphazard, but that's typical for this sort of thing. We booed the villain, who sported cape and mustache and leering grin, and cheered the hero even though he was quite obviously dumber than a rock, and we flung popcorn randomly at everyone (they encourage this sort of thing) and it was quite fun. Later, the group did a short variety show, with singing and dancing and the ugliest creature in the world (old joke, but this is was a kid's show, so it still got laughs), and we all decided that Richard's little sister would actually look quite cute with short dark hair (like the wigs they all had to wear). We went out for dinner and caught up on life, and chatted about Desperate Housewives and Lost and other trivial things, and Richard and I did our best to pretend that we were not really all that sick and we could actually breathe like normal people, and it was such a nice day that it almost worked.