Monday, July 28, 2008

news flash

Follow the links...you won't be sorry. Arrested D

there's another reason for that.

One of the best things about being a wife, is being a part of someone else's desires and dreams. It's about being a part of someone's life.

When we were blessed with our home, we've wanted to share that blessing with our friends. And so we bbq, invite people to hang out, let them stay the night on the couch and such. Well. This weekend these two thing collided.

When Science Heroes put on their show at Agate Hall a band known as Mon Marie played, and on Friday night, that very same band played at Lucky's Cigar Club a local bar in Eugene.

The guys in Mon Marie had to play on Saturday in central California somewhere and they were going to sleep somewhere in town...meaning wherever they could find a field to camp out in. Soooo rather than let that happen, we offered our garage.

Let me back up a minute. Andy went to their show, I stayed home to get some sleep (I was working all weekend and tired..that's another story) and when I said, ok, I thought there were 3 guys in the band, so when we woke up in the morning and he told me there were 5...I was a bit, well. Let's just say, our house was fuuulll.







Here's Johnny, their lead singer, I don't know where he was when all the other guys were hanging out, so I had to get him in his own photo.



I really wanted to take a photo of all of them in their sleeping bags in the garage...but we hadn't met yet and I didn't think that was the way I wanted to be introduced..."Hey guys, good morning, this is my wife, she's crazy and going to take a picture of you first thing in the morning sleeping on the floor for her blog." Ya, notsomuch.
Well Mon Marie, thanks for hanging out in our little house guys, you're welcome to come back anytime.

Friday, July 25, 2008

a note to a friend.

I'm thinking of you. I can't find your address and so I'm writing you a letter here...

I wonder what your drive has been like. I wonder who you've seen and what you've said. I hope you're well and feeling brave and powerful.

I can't wait for you to begin a blog and take over the commentator world. I can't wait for you to call me on your commute home and fill me in on your students and their quirks.

I hope you know I feel we are cherished friends for life and that you must let me stay a part of it. We can have future joys, and tears, and fright, and support together. Just know that I'm willing to keep it going. You being a hella far away means nothing.

And also just remember that we're in different time zones, so don't call to early and I won't call too late.

It sure is a big world that's smaller than we think.
Safe journey.

two things i like.



Milla and Obama. What a perfect pair.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Is it still a success if the neighbors don't call the cops?


All around, it was the best time at a house-cooling party ever. I think everyone would agree. It was our first and so that in itself made it great for us. I didn't let anything taint it. Not the neighbors, not the flies in the garage, not the burn on my fingertips from the insanely hot handle on the bbq lid. It was wonderful.

We had people show up in spurts all night. Some arrived early and stayed late, some hung out for a while and left just as others arrived to fill their place. We planned it so that all the food and such was ready and available from the beginning so the rest of the night we just hung out with our friends and provided guided tours over and over and over again.

I didn't get a ton of photos. But I had to document a few things, of course, and so here's the photos from the evening.

To start things off, here's the new screen door that we built all by ourselves...with a little help from a starter kit from Home Depot.



The Garage/best "great room" ever





No that's not our moped. It belongs to Jo-science. But we're hoping to score one of our own very soon.





And now on to the outdoor space...all set up for partyers







And onto the people that showed up











And then there were the two little girls that just made my day.





How could she resist?





We had this great idea to put floating candles in the "water feature" (yes, I use this term lightly) but, it turns out they made better pieces for a little game we like to call, "Collect the Soap"



As you may be able to deduce. The above shinanigans led to the first baby in our bathtub moment...



Big sister lent a helping hand



And then the best moment of the night happened. The little one's mom had just finished the soaping up stage of the bath and drained all of the water from the tub. Then, right before she turned on the water to refill for the rinse off, my friend came up to the bathroom door. Now imagine walking around the corner and the flash that you initially get when you realize the door's open, but there's someone inside is that your walking in on someone going to the bathroom. But then, instead you see two women and two children crowded into a tiny bathroom. She says with a confused look in her eye, "Oh, sorry, I was just going to go to the bathroom."
To which the mother responds as she motions to the wet, soapy baby in the tub, "Oh you can, as long as you keep an eye on her."
And so, my friend replies, "alright." So the mother, the daughter and I walk out and as my friend walks in and pushes the door shut behind her we hear her say, "Hi, I'm Beth."



And so. The aftermath. We had some friends pitch in last night and carry in all the dishes, and pick up most of the trash. So today we have a clean, organized house. A little bit of picking things up to do in the backyard. And a watermelon juice sticky kitchen floor to mop. All in all, it's not that bad.











Yes we recycle, and no this isn't all from last night. Geesh, what kind of friends do you think we have?




And so, we sit, underneath the umbrella in the backyard. Drinking coffee, writing, and procrastinating everything else.



Saturday, July 19, 2008

one thing followed by another.

Last night two eventful things happened. The first one was intense, thrilling and fantastic. Second was intense, thrilling, and terrifying.

We went to the movies, and it wasn't a matinée, with a bunch of friends and saw Batman - The Dark Knight. I am ecstatic about this film. Every character was thought thru, true to their nature, complex, diverse...well I could go on and on, but I'm a big believer in not giving away anything when it comes to any art form. I think people should experience things on their own terms, not on someone elses...and frankly, I think my raving opinion would give some people cause for pause and cause them to go into seeing this film with to high of an expectation. So, forget what I said, I take it all back. What I want to say is go and see it. If you like good characters and an adventure in another universe then you'll like (dare I say, "LOVE") this movie.

The second event of the evening still has me shaken. Last night we called the police at 12:45 a.m. because it sounded like our neighbors were abusing their little girl.
One reason I'm still shaken is that we've been getting ready for our party tonight and we've been doing house cleaning and yard work all day (it's 1:45 pm right now as we're pausing for a break) and we haven't heard a peep out of the entire house since the incident.

The cops, we think, ended up showing up sometime between 1:45 and 2 a.m. We don't know what happened when they did, or if that was them, but the bedroom light came on around then.

I don't want to go into much detail here, but I will say that the little girl we've seen in the backyard can't be more than 4 years old. She's a tiny thing, and the guy we've seen in the back yard is like around 6ft tall/350+ pounds. They were mad that she wasn't in bed. It began with them telling her to leave and go to sleep, but from there it became more angry and loud, expletives were flying, she was crying and then sounds you never want to hear when another living being is involved exploded from the house. That's when we called the cops.

They said if we ever hear anything remotely close to that again to not hesitate to dial 911. I just pray she's alright.

a follow-up

So friends, I'm not going to the mid-west...next week. Things in the estimate freaked out the client, like the price for last minute airfare to anywhere. And, they said the people they wanted us to interview wouldn't be available next week. Ya. So that's problem #2. Buutttt...all this means is they are either going to have us find cheaper tickets and fly out in a couple of weeks, or they're going to send their Leer to pick us up.

Ya. I'm voting for option 2.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Ka-blam!

an explosion of photos.

On set. 5th Avenue New York, New York

It went from this...




To this...







Crew doing their jobs...







Alright, that's not fair, we had the best crew around and they moved so much I could barley get any usable shots...here's the few I could get...they're kicking ass like they did non-stop for days.









Phil doing one of my "jobs" (checking monitor, I know it's blurry, but he's just so serious!)



At the end of day 2, 14 Interviews, 14 set designs, 14 -insert something else that seems like a lot when you say "14" of it - all the gear is gone and it's still light outside. Sheesh!



On location in the Bronx
We used a track and dolly to capture a beautiful shot in Hunts Point Riverside Park











Job well done fellas.



Days off.
In a subway with a pretzel



Drinking pints in the oldest bar in NY
(I hadn't had beer in I can't remember how long...it was amazing.)

You order by the twos. Light or Dark.




The first time I saw the skyline...
sorry it's blurry, we were moving, coincidentally, this was also my first ride on the subway.



Some of my favorites









Until the next explosion. goodnight.