no, i didn't see ty, he was at sears.

i've been away from work this week - i didn't necessarily go anywhere...but i spent the week with my niece, watched movies, went to the zoo (where the picture above is from, though a cardinal is not necessarily a zoo animal, i know), visited nancy noel's sanctuary and volunteered for extreme makeover: home edition.

i responded to a request for tree planters, and ended up spending the first half of the day picking up trash in alleys in a butler university t-shirt - we had been told we couldn't get the signature blue extreme makeover shirts because we weren't skilled workers, and therefore weren't allowed on the construction site. the blue-shirt-and-hardhat-uniform is how people are allowed in. but i chose to be grateful for the opportunity - more people had volunteered than opportunities were available. we ate lunch in the tent with the skilled volunteers and some of the crew (not the cast, though paul dimeo stood about six feet from our line) and walked through the street (which should have been off limits) to see the construction from the spectator's area. it's really quite amazing. i had always imagined that the amazing part was a house being built in seven days, and a family getting a great vacation and a new start. but that's just what you see on television. the entire thing is such a massive effort of community organization, logistics and cooperation. the show put the neighbors up in a nice hotel downtown. the neighbors' electricity was wired into the site. at the same time, neighbors houses were being painted, an abandoned home down the street was razed, a roof was being put on a house on the next street over - it was just amazing (see photos here).

after lunch, some of the 1500 trees had been delivered, so 18 of us (or so) walked up and down a few streets, ready to plant. we had a brief lesson on planting trees and reminders to duck when the tree is rolled into position. and before we had five trees planted, someone spotted ed sanders and a camera crew down the block. soon after that, a construction vehicle drove by with blue shirts for us. we were going to be filmed, so we definitely needed to look the part. five or six times, we filmed a shot of ed walking down the sidewalk as we planted trees. it was incredibly fun. it may be on television on may 17th, but they shoot about 7000-8000 hours of footage for each show, so maybe it won't be. it's the two-hour season finale, and it's going to be very cool.

so, it has been a good spring break. i'm working on a necklace now. it's time to get back to it!