Da Blog

2009-10-02T11:26:00.000-07:00

It never occurred to me when I returned to school how busy I would be. I am much busier than I was when I was only working 40+ hours a week. I can't remember the last day off I had where I didn't have something to read, write, or study. Though I continue to be overwhelmed by school, I feel somewhat better since I've been able to take some exams and turn some papers in and have seen my grades hover around the A-B level. It's nice to know all the studying has paid off.

When I originally returned to school, my intent had been to obtain a Master's in English so I could teach at the college level. Since that time, I have discovered a few things. One is that teaching positions are apparently incredibly hard to come by these days. The other is that, apparently, people who continue on in English academia spend the better portion of the rest of their life writing literary criticism. I won't say I hate literary criticism, but it isn't something I'm very passionate about. In general, whenever I have some sort of criticism to do, I just go through the motions until I'm done and can get it off my plate.

The thing I've always wanted to do is write, though I haven't had much time to do it over the past 15 years because working 12 hour days sort of prevents it (unless that's what you're being paid to do). Ideally, I'd love to be able to teach a few classes at a Community College and write the Great American Novel. I have a certain talent for writing and really would like the opportunity to hone it and learn more about the art of story telling. To that end, I think I'd like to go for an MFA in Creative Writing (Master of Fine Arts).

One problem is that there aren't any great MFA programs anywhere near me. The university I attend (UTA) only offers an MA in English, and the next closest (UNT) offers the same with an alternative MA in Writing. After doing some research, I've discovered what is called a "low residency" MFA program. These are regular MFA programs offered by accredited (and real) universities (my degree won't be from University of Phoenix) wherein you work remotely via internet and mail with a professor during the semester, then show up for a couple of two-week long intensive workshops during the year. I've found a couple of programs I'm really interested in and look forward to getting applications in and seeing who will take me.

Here's the thing. MA programs and MFA programs have different admission requirements. MA degrees are more academic and involve taking the standardized GRE test. Additionally, I'd need to submit a substantial piece of critical work. One of the reasons I've stayed with the Honors College, despite all the stress and extra work, is that I have to do a Senior Thesis for them which I could then use to submit with my application for an MA. Now that I'm about 95% sure I want to go for the MFA, I'm debating the merit of sticking with the program. MFA admissions are more concerned with your ability to write (in my case fiction). Instead of a weighty piece of critical analysis, they want to see 30 pages of my best fiction work. Also, most MFA programs could care less if you have taken the GRE exam. Dropping out of the Honors College would be a huge weight off my back, and would give me more time to work on actual writing. Sigh. What to do? I think I may try to stick it out this semester to take advantage of priority registration, then see if I can find out if anyone out there will even care if I graduated with the Honors certification or not.

Other than school, I can't say there's too much going on. The weather here in Dallas has finally cooled down to NOT MISERABLE and I've actually been able to ride my motorcycle to school without arriving drenched in sweat. It's nice to be able to turn the A/C off and have the windows open. In short, Kraut is squeaky, Grace is sweet, and Wally is cuddly. Sometime soon, maybe I'll have time to take some photos of them and post.

2009-09-06T17:02:00.000-07:00

I've been busy...really busy. Most of it has been with school. I have to admit, school is MUCH harder this time around. I doubt that it actually IS harder as much as that I have been out of the collegiate world for so long. I've been totally overwhelmed by reading (my lit class alone goes through an average of two novels a week), trying to keep up with the syllabus and things like papers that are due. We have only completed two complete weeks, but I've already had one exam and one quiz and have two papers due in the next two weeks. Here's how my classes are breaking down so far:

Intro to Texts

This is a 200 level English class, which sounds easy, but keep in mind - it's required for all English majors and intended to be difficult enough to weed out people who can't hack the amount of reading and writing required of that discipline. It covers literary criticism, which I have never enjoyed nor fully understood. I often find myself reading a heady chapter from the textbook, only to feel like bursting into tears because I didn't understand one bit of it. My professor assures me this is totally normal, but the jury is out until I start to see the results of some grading in this class. We had an exam this past week where 50% of my grade consisted of writing, on the fly, a criticism of a poem that I didn't even understand. I pulled a lot of things out of my ass for that exam. I other did exceedingly well, or exceedingly bad. I'll find out sometime this week.

Young Adult Literature

This is a 400 level English class. We read a LOT. Thankfully, it is Young Adult fiction and not Shakespeare or Irish novels of the 18th century. (This week I'm re-reading Harry Potter #1). I love the subject matter of this class but see I have a 6-page paper due in two weeks. I'm a writing minor, so the paper shouldn't be the problem. BUT - a) I haven't written a paper in 20 years, and b) I am already overwhelmed with the reading alone, let alone taking the time to do a close reading of a text to formulate a thesis and such. The paper is supposed to be in MLA style. Remember that, with the footnotes and such? I don't. So in addition to just writing the damn thing, I'm having to research how to properly format it. I also have to find at least two literary articles to support my thesis which means research, but guess what - the computer is filled with libraries now. When I last did a research paper, it involved a lot of looking things up in 30 year old tomes then literally locating the old magazine in the library to eventually photocopy. Now, I have no idea how to find anything. Tutorial for the library desperately needed.

Elementary Mathematical Modeling for Liberal Arts Majors

In other words, Math. Algebraic word problems that theoretically occur in every day life. Ironically, I find math to be fairly easy, if only because most of the work is done in class and is thus a huge departure from all the reading. I've discovered I can actually challenge the second semester of math I'm supposed to take (College Algebra). Since I managed to crap so well for the placement test, I'm seriously considering this $95 option. I'll have most of December off - I can study for it then.

Texas History and Politics

Enormous class full of 18-year-old Freshmen. We have only met once so far on the first day of class, where we were informed that our instructor would be absent for the first two weeks. He left a syllabus for us which led me to read 5 boring chapters in the textbook and follow along with 4 online lectures. I think I may actually do ok in this class. It's a requirement for every student in Texas, so it's only a 100 level Political Science class. It will take the usual amount of memorization as far as politicians, dates, wars, etc. But the people who wrote the textbook seem to be quite aware of the failings of the Texas Government and do everything short of openly mocking it. The quote to open the first chapter is "If I owned Hell and Texas, I'd rent out Texas and live in Hell." It was said by a general in 1855, and I can only imagine Texas without air conditioning, but this statement is still pretty much true.

Just as I'm feeling totally inundated with college work and wondering how on earth I ever managed to work full time AND go to college AND maintain a 4.0 GPA - I found out I got accepted to the Honors College. This is, of course, based on grades I last earned in 1993. I thought of not doing it because it means extra work, but my friend James assured me it would be a good idea. Besides, they have scholarship money to give. I attended my first "mixer" for the Honors College (wow - that was a lot of geeks in one place at once) where they handed out free t-shirts which a Gandhi quote on the back - except they mis-spelled Gandhi's name (Ghandi). I'm not sure which is worse - that the Honors College had ironically mis-spelled his name - or that I didn't even realize it WAS mis-spelled.

2009-08-26T09:18:00.001-07:00

Exactly one year ago today, I brought a shy, quiet little dog I named Gracie home from the Pasadena Humane Society. They told me she was 10 months to a year old when I got here. While I think she was closer to 10 months and probably won't be two for a little while yet, we decided to officially call August 28th her birthday so she won't feel "different" from the other dogs by only having a "happy adoption day." Wally told me that, even though it's Wednesday, he doesn't mind if I use the blog today for a retrospective for Grace.

First, though, I thought I'd try to list all the things she has destroyed over the past year:

Not one but TWO firewire drives
The drapes in my old condo
The blinds in my old condo
The carpet, all the way down to the subfloor, in the condo
Two dog crates
At least 4-5 pairs of shoes, not all of them mine
One "indestructable" rubber dog toy (she ate it)
Baseball hats
All my spare towels
The pedals on my old exercize bike
Three power cords (while they were plugged in)
An area rug
A jump rope
Countless sprinkler heads

When I brought her home, Wally didn't know what to think, but she fell in love with him right away....

And promptly started following him around everywhere...

She stole his favorite chair...

And Wally soon began trying to plot how to make her go away...

Grace had really bad separation anxiety, and Wally seemed very happy every time she got in trouble for destroying something:

Grace especially didn't like being in her crate...

Soon enough Wally, like everyone else, was won over by her cuteness...

And the two became fast friends...

Even Kraut, who hated puppies, came to enjoy playing with Grace...

She loved the beach in L.A.... (so many smells!)

But now she loves the lake in Texas...

Most of all, more than anything, she loves her mommy...

Happy Birthday Gracie!

2009-08-19T15:01:00.000-07:00

First off, Happy Wally Wednesday! Here is a photo of Wally helping me practice with the light meter on my camera by balancing off his white color.

It's been so long since I've blogged, I hardly know where to start. I see the last thing I wrote about was taking the math placement exam. You'll all be happy to hear I passed. In fact, I did so well, I placed into Pre-Calculus. I about had a heart attack until I discovered I don't actually have to TAKE pre-calc. It's actually a long story about the exam because I had to take it at the University, when I was actually slated to attend community college this fall. To make a very long, complicated story short, I aced the exam at the university, but the community college wouldn't accept my score. They made me take their very, very different exam...which I flunked. What the hell? So I couldn't even take math at the CC. I'd like to just point out that I've had nothing but awful experiences thus far with Tarrant County Community College and vowed that, even though I would have to pay out of state tuition in the Spring, I wouldn't return to the community college no matter what - because they suck so bad. I applied for Financial Aid for the spring at University of Texas, Arlington (UTA) - and was awarded a loan for both Fall and Spring. Confusing, I know. Ultimately, I decided the community college could go screw itself, and I am now enrolled for the fall at UTA.

Another important thing that's happened - I got laid off from my job. The production company I've been working for has had a ton of shows get cancelled over the past year and have been laying both editors and writers off left and right for months now. I found out a couple of weeks ago, and next Friday is my last official date. It's probably a blessing in disguise. I was beginning to not be very happy there. Other than the fact that I'm ineligible for unemployment, and out income just dropped by about 55%, I think things will work out ok. Charles and I are both fairly frugal people and will adjust to the much MUCH lower income. I'm also taking advantage of the lack of work by going back to school full time. I'd originally planned on only taking one or two classes, but with the Stafford Loan I got, I have to be enrolled full time, so 12 semester hours, here I come.

School starts next week and I'm incredibly overwhelmed by it. I was once a straight A student in a world long ago and far, far away. Now, I'm enrolled in two upper divisional English classes and just realized yesterday that I can't even remember how to write a term paper. I have this horrible fear that I'll fail - but then I think of all the dumb ass people I know who actually have degrees and figure if they can get one, so can I.

On a final note, my 20 year high school reunion was last weekend. I was running around for days visiting classmates galore, and even had time to meet up with my old 2nd grade teacher to say hello. Here's a photo of me and two of my best friends, Tammy and Diane. I've known Diane since I was about 7, and Tammy since 12. It was great to see everyone.

2009-08-01T10:04:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I've been cramming for a math placement exam. I've always had a problem with word problems. Not the basic ones, but the complex ones. In the study guide I'm using, the chapters on word problems always says, "Remember, the reason we use math word problems is these are questions that arise in day to day life." That sentence is then followed by a question that goes something like, "If a star is 5.85 x 10 to the 8th power away, and light moves at 9.75 x 10 to the 6th power meters a second, how long..." Screw you, word problems and study guide. Outside of NASA, who would ever need to know the answer to that question? And assuming you ARE a rocket scientist of some sort, I highly doubt you're scribbling figures in a notebook, trying in vain to convert kilometers to meters with a pencil and eraser. You've got computers!

Other than work and studying, I've been taking my continuing education digital photography class at one of the local colleges. Somewhat fun, and I'm finally learning how to use the camera. I've also been watching Season 1 of The Wire (just finished) and re-watching Season 1 of Californication (on Netflix streaming to my TV) so I can be ready when the Season 2 DVDs are released at the end of this month. What's everyone else doing?

2009-07-29T19:48:00.000-07:00

The past week has gone by in a blur. I've been putting a lot into studying for this math placement test, so when I'm not working, I'm studying quadratic equations. Some day, the moment is going to arise when I'm actually going to need to know how to graph one, and I am going to kick that moment's ass. If my life were a movie, this would be the part with the montage - a montage of me studying, and then that one dolly shot where it goes around me, and 3D numbers and equations float in the air around my head while a really cool song plays.

For Wally Wednesday, enjoy this photo of Wally and the kids enjoying Charles' night away from home last week. Notice Wally is sleepy and relaxed while Kraut is alert and pointed at the hallway. I kept waiting for a clown with a knife to appear.

For a bonus picture, take a guess at what color my bank teller was the other day.

My last piece of interesting information is that my attempt to get Charles to switch from tightie-whiteys to boxer briefs failed. He tried them today and determined they lacked sufficient support. (As you might imagine, Charles does not read my blog).

2009-07-22T19:24:00.001-07:00

Happy Wally Wednesday! As many of you know, Wally recently had to have some minor surgery. We found a weird looking mole on his neck and his vet wanted to remove it to make sure there wasn't anything wrong with. To be honest, the thing that worried me the most was that they had to put Wally under general anesthesia and he's 9 years old. I was extremely happy when he woke up and I was able to go pick him up and bring him home. He was quite groggy for the rest of the day, and his little sister was worried about him. We had to wait nearly a week before we finally heard back from the biopsy they had done of the mole - it was benign! Yay! I was extremely concerned from having not one, but two friends with yellow labs the same age as Wally who died of cancer in the same year awhile ago. Thankfully, Wally is well and will be with us for a long time to come (knock wood). Here's a photo of him from almost two weeks ago after I brought him home from the vet after his surgery:

In another day or so, his wound should be completely healed and he'll be cleared for a much needed trip to the lake.

So, I'm returning to college after a nearly 20 year break to finish my Bachelor's Degree in English. It's a long story of how I came to have an Associate's Degree that somehow doesn't fill the math requirement in the state of Texas. Because of this, I need to take a placement exam, very similar to the SAT, so they can place me in the proper math class. My goal is to waste as little time and money as I can toward fulfilling my college math requirement. If I were to score low on the test, which is what would happen if I didn't study for it, I could end up being stuck in as many as three refresher math courses that wouldn't even count toward my degree before being let into a college level math class that will. That would take about a year and a half - a year and a half of my time and about $6k in wasted tuition. No thank you. This is why I've been studying math for the past weeks. I'm going through the study guide for the exam - the THEA (Texas Higher Education Assessment) - and am amazed both by what I've forgotten and what I've retained. I have numbers and equations floating around in my head, and I can't wait until the time comes when I think I can score high enough on the exam to take it. Just yesterday, I went completely through a chapter on graphing algebraic equations that would have taken maybe three weeks to go through in high school. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking of x and y axes. Not fun. My only hope is that math majors everywhere have to suffer equally through the writing and literature classes I can skate through.

2009-07-15T18:15:00.001-07:00

I've been working out at a new gym here in Texas, and I have to say, I think people are way more modest here than they are in Southern California. I guess I shouldn't really be surprised. When I lived in L.A. and went to the gym, it was fairly common to see completely naked women happily walking through the gym, showing off their fake boobs that stuck straight out (even if they were leaning over). Having been an athlete most of my life, I'm fairly comfortable in a locker room, but even I found myself often thinking, "Geez...at least put a towel around your waist." At the Spectrum Club in the Southbay, there's a big screen TV in the women's locker room, and I would often come in to find women, literally nude, sitting on the couch, eating a salad and watching Opera. My friend, Dani, told me she once saw a woman in the sink area, completely nude, with one foot up on the sink as she blew dry her pubic hair. "I'm never going into a gym again," Dani said.

Then I came to Texas. I don't even like my body, but I could care less about stripping out of sweaty gym shorts, wrapping myself in a towel, and heading off to the shower. I also don't feel the need to get dressed in the shower stall. I know a lot of women have body issues, and when I came to this gym, I liked it when I saw that they have closet cubbies where women can change in and out of their clothes if they're too modest to change in the open locker room. I don't need to use them, but I liked the idea that they were there for other women who wanted to. Since then, I've noticed - EVERYONE uses the closet cubbies. I have yet to see a single other person strip down in the open locker room. Honestly, I keep expecting an employee to walk in and say to me, in a low voice, "You know...we don't strip naked in our locker rooms, please use the cubby." I can see people complaining. "Um...someone is NAKED in the locker room!"

2009-07-13T17:58:00.001-07:00

I'm sure you've heard how much bigger insects are in the south. To be honest, I haven't really experienced it - I think that refers to the more humid parts. However, I have had a problem with some sort of bug since I've moved to Texas, although I have yet to figure out which bug it is. About every other week, I kid you not, I wake up with a huge bite IN MY ARMPIT. I know we don't have fleas - I'd have bites all over (I'm that sort of person) and Wally is highly allergic to them and he'd be itching like crazy. I know it's not mosquitoes - I only ever see them when we take the dogs to the lake and I haven't been there for over a week. Also, it always happens when I sleep. Huge freaking bites that are incredibly sore and hard. Gross! I know! And the lump of the bug bite will last for over a week. If I knew what to spray for, I'd be spraying the shit out of my house. Does anyone have any ideas or recommendations?

Since I have Season 2 of Californication in my Netflix queue and should be getting it in the next month or so, I decided to watch Season 1 via Netflix streaming so Charles could get caught up. We've also been slowly burning through all of the X-Files DVD's. We started with Season 1, and are nearly done with Season 2. I have to admit, those early X-Files episodes are pretty slow, and watching Californication back to back with them, it becomes very apparent how much David Duchovny has improved as an actor since the early 90s. Of course, Hank Moody is a much more interesting character than Fox Mulder. If you haven't had a chance to watch this half hour show from Showtime about an aging writer with writer's block and his sexual escapades, I highly recommend giving it a try.

2009-07-12T12:05:00.000-07:00

When I told people I was moving to Dallas, people familiar with the area warned me about the heat. I shrugged it off. I lived for 15 years in Los Angeles, most of that time in the Valley area where temperatures in the summer often breach 100 degrees. Still, I must admit, summer here sucks. It's been over 100 degrees pretty much every day for over a month, heat that has been promised to continue well into August. It's not just the heat, either...it's the humidity. While it's not nearly as humid as I've experienced elsewhere, such as New Orleans or even Hawaii, the humidity in cojunction with the relentless heat is nearly unbearable.

Charles and I took some time off and went to Portland, Oregon for the 4th of July weekend, where the weather, though warm, was a nice, cool 85 degrees. It was like heaven compared to the summer here in Dallas. We had a nice visit with a lot of my old friends, and Charles got to meet pretty much everyone in my very small family. We ran ragged every day going from place to place and person to person. We did manage to fit in a visit to the Saturday Market (one of my favorite places in Portland), a quick trip to the Portland Chinese Garden, and a day trip out to visit my dad and his wife outside of Oregon City.

On the 4th of July, my friend, Jason's band played a backyard party and some of my friends from high school were there. It was great to see everyone and the band, Rubella Graves, put on a great show. I've known Jason since I was 12, and I'm very proud of his current project. Rubella Graves is a 7-piece band full of banjos and mandolins, and they play what I would call Alternative Folk. Sometimes folky, sometimes country, sometimes rockabilly-Americana and generally irreverent, the band has produced a great CD and puts on an entertaining show. If you're interested, you can hear their music and buy their CD at CD Baby.com.

2009-07-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

Happy Wally Wednesday everyone! Here he is, having fun at the lake yesterday afternoon!

I received a letter the other day welcoming me to the English department at University of Texas Arlington, so I e-mailed the department adviser. She said I could meet with her BEFORE taking the Texas assessment (THEA) exam. The THEA is basically the SAT all over again, which I have no choice but to study for and hope to place high enough to only take one math class. I had basically given up on returning to school because the thought of having to spend three months trying to study before starting school in the fall was a little overwhelming.

I spent at least an hour with my adviser, a very cool lady who moved to Dallas from NYC in the 70s and still asks herself why on a daily basis. The prognosis for finishing my degree isn't as bad as it seems. For starters, I can avoid some of the out of state tuition cost by going to a local community college for the next year until I've fulfilled my residency requirement and pick up some of the other lower divisional credits I still need to complete my degree. I then found out that the community college will waive the placement test with my Associate's Degree (the only thing it has EVER been useful for). I'll still have to take the THEA to go to UTA, but I won't be enrolled there until summer 2010, and will have the year to study. I'm hoping to get over to the Community College and complete my registration later today or tomorrow, depending on my schedule. Did I mention I am required to take a class on Texas politics and government to obtain my degree here?

On a side note, I downloaded BlogWriter for my iPhone yesterday to keep up on my blog reading. It sucks. I have yet to be able to read a blog. Is this working for anyone else?

2009-06-27T12:01:00.000-07:00

I recently started working out with a personal trainer again after not having done that for several years. I really like my trainer and I have no doubt that if I could afford to train with him 2-3 times a week, I would drop weight in no time. My trainer is a really cool guy. His name is Demarcus, he is 25, and he played basketball for one of the universities in Arkansas on a full scholarship. I noticed today that he has a huge Sweet Sixteen basketball ring on his finger, and asked him what it was like playing during March Madness. He broke into a huge grin and said it was awesome. I asked if it was a lot of pressure and he said, "The only pressure was that you might lose and have to go home, except you don't think you're going to lose. No one thinks they are going to lose." Somehow during our conversation, oddly enough, he asks me if I know who Arvydas Sabonis is. Of course, I do! He was the best Center that the Portland Trailblazers ever had, in my humble opinion, and he is my favorite player. In fact, I wear the number 11 on my hockey jersey in honor of Mr. Sabonis.

Not only that, Wally is named after him. Sabonis, a giant Lithuanian ballplayer, was 7'3" and 315 lbs when he played for the Blazers. I loved to watch him play. I got Wally when Sabonis was still with the Blazers, and when I saw how huge Wally was getting, I decided to name him fully "Walter Sabonis" - the name that is on his AKC paperwork.

When Demarcus saw how I excited I was to talk about Sabonis, he called his friend over. His friend (I can't remember his name) is a Lithuanian born German visiting the U.S. to rehab a basketball injury. His father was very good friends with Arvydas Sabonis and he had many, many stories to tell. He said, "I could talk all day about Sabonis."

For those of you unfamiliar with him, Sabonis was one of the best players to play European ball. He was drafted by the Trailblazers in 1986 when he was a teenager, but he couldn't come to the U.S. because he was a Russian citizen and the cold war was still in full force. When he tore his achilles, the Blazers brought him to the U.S. and paid the best surgeons to repair his injury, sending him back to the Soviet Union stronger than ever, where he would ultimately beat the United States with the Soviet team for the gold medal in the 1988 summer Olympics. He finally came to the U.S. and the NBA in 1995 - a 31-year-old rookie - already suffering injuries and playing a slower game. I've always wondered what he could have been like if he could have come to the U.S. in 1986 and played in the NBA when he was young, fast, and uninjured.

2009-06-24T13:27:00.001-07:00

I am a terrible blogger. I used to have things to say, and now I just can't find anything interesting to write. It's hot here. Crazy hot. And not just Southern California hot but Texas hot, which includes a giant dose of humidity to make you all that much more miserable. Because of the heat, the dogs have been shedding like crazy. I have enough extra fur in this house to make an extra army of dogs. Charles took Wally outside the other day to brush him out. Here is the documentation of his brushing - see how much he enjoyed it - and see how much fur has come off him. Happy Wally Wednesday!

2009-06-13T08:43:00.000-07:00

Two good things in one night. First, the Penguins won the Stanley Cup.

And then...Charles proposed!

I've never liked traditional engagement rings with a big diamond sticking out, and am extremely happy with this white gold eternity band.

All in all, a pretty good night.

2009-06-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

We had a crazy thunderstorm tonight. T-storms are crazy here in Texas. There were tornado warnings as well. I think I miss earthquakes. You don't know when they're coming, and they don't last very long. I could care less about the thunderstorms - I actually rather like them - but I'm not looking forward to my first tornado. Poor Kraut has been shaking (he's currently laying on my feet burrowed under my desk) and he wouldn't even eat his dinner. Oh, and we now have an E-Z Up in our backyard...except it doesn't belong to us. It belongs to our neighbor, and this happens every time there is a storm or a lot of wind. We'll have to go out in the morning and throw it back over the fence again. Very annoying.

2009-06-10T12:51:00.000-07:00

Happy Wally Wednesday! Here he is, shaking off at the lake the other day:

2009-06-09T09:54:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to spend a little more time getting stuff up on the blog, and also trying to get back into the swing of reading other people's blogs. I have two new ones to add to the mix if anyone is interested.

One is the blog of my old friend, Michelle, who is mother of two boys diagnosed with Aspergers. She's also an avid knitter, and is probably the first young person I knew who knitted long before knitting became trendy. You can find her blog here.

Some of you also may be familiar with HGTV designer Angelo Surmelis. He keeps a fairly regular blog which includes design tips, information on recent designs he's done, and lots of Flip video of himself and his cute rescue dog, Baxter. His blog can be found here.

Enjoy and happy blogging!

2009-06-08T08:54:00.000-07:00

One thing I've been rather paranoid about since moving to Texas is the fear that I may accidentally acquire an accent. I only spent a month in Australia and still find myself saying, "No worries," and "Cheers" at times. I was at the ice rink the other night, sitting next to another girl on the bench in the locker room. She started a conversation with me, asking where I'd moved from, etc. She was talking about how much she absolutely loves Dallas with a thick Texan drawl. I asked, "So, you're from here, then?" and she answered, "Oh, no...I'm from Washington State." (For those of you not keeping track, I am also from Washington). If any of you sees me in the near future, and you hear me say so much as "y'all," please slap the shit out of me.

I've been enjoying the new camera, even though I have no idea how to really use it yet. I put the telephoto lens on for the first time yesterday and took the dogs to the lake:

2009-06-06T13:28:00.000-07:00

I finally bought an SLR digital camera. I've been wanting to buy one for a long time but haven't been able to justify spending the money since I have a perfectly good Canon 12 megapixel point and shoot camera. But then I got a catalog from a nearby college and saw that they offer an intro to digital photography class, and I figured it would be a good chance to get out and meet some other people in town. I bought a Canon Digital Rebel XSI with a standard lens, and a 50-200mm telephoto lens. I have no idea how to use it, but have had some fun trying out different options while shooting the dogs. Consider this a belated Wally Wednesday, as this is one of the cutest photos I've ever taken of him.

Here's Grace doing what Grace does best - sleeping -

Kraut, ever alert -

And Kraut and Grace playing. Don't worry, it's all in good fun -

2009-06-01T12:57:00.000-07:00

About 6 years ago, I was visiting my friend, Robert, in Seattle. While in downtown, I visited the Westlake Shopping Center and ended up buying a necklace in a shop there that is like an artists co-op. It was a really simple necklace - a black leather choker with a red enamel charm surrounded by silver and the Chinese symbol for love on it. It was my favorite necklace, and I wore it almost every day for years, but lost it when we visited Dallas months ago.

Now, Rob is preparing to leave Seattle and move back to Portland. Since he's currently out of work and has plenty of time for field trips, I asked him for a favor before he left. I asked if he could go to that mall, try to find that store, and buy me another necklace if they had it. (I'd visited the same store about a year ago when visiting and saw they still carried that necklace). I told him there was a photo of me on Facebook wearing that necklace so he could see what it looked like.

Today, Rob relayed to me that he had done his homework. He went down to the Seattle Center where the Space Needle is, parked his car, and took the monorail to the mall (which is at the terminus of the line). He said he went to every jewelry store in the mall and showed them the photo of me in the necklace, asking if they had it. No one did. He ultimately found his way to the artist co-op and finally found someone who recognized the necklace. The guy at the store said, "Oh yes, we used to carry that." Rob asked, "Used to?" The salesman said they unfortunately no longer worked with that artist, but went back into his files and found the name and phone number of the artist to give to Rob.

Rob went home, looked the artist up on the internet, and saw she sold her stuff at two other locations in Seattle. Unfortunately, a couple of phone calls later, he found neither of them carried that specific necklace. Rob is very tenacious. If you give him a task, he will try as hard as he can to follow through. He found the artist's web site and e-mailed her to tell her about the necklace and to ask if she still made them. He's still waiting to hear back. I'm hoping she still has them and can sell me one.

Ironically, the artist is in SoCal and I probably could have easily gotten ahold of one if I had looked when I was still there.

***UPDATED***
So, Rob texted me earlier to say he had heard back from the artist. She said she no longer makes that particular necklace...but is going to go out of her way and make one just for me! How cool is that?

2009-05-27T11:32:00.000-07:00

Happy Wally Wednesday! (Thanks, KingsFan for the reminder).

Here's the little man from a trip to the lake earlier, today.

Also, after weeks of simply running around on the shore and being generally timid and afraid of the water, Grace decided to swim today! Her inner Labrador finally came out!

2009-05-25T16:19:00.000-07:00

Charles is away at a track day today and won't be back until late this evening. I actually have today off, so after I cleaned the house, I didn't really have much to do other than vegetate in front of the tv. (I have all of Damages Season 2 on the DVR so I've been catching up). Still, one can only watch so much television before they get bored of that. When Charles is away, it becomes more and more apparent how lonely it can get here when you don't know anyone in town.

So, I started to search online at meetup.com to see if there were any meetup groups for anything that I'm interested in so I could get out and meet some people. Boy, are there a LOT of meetup groups. There are many, many scrapbooking and wine tasting groups, groups for Harley riders and groups for people who like to eat at fancy restaurants, but none of those interest me. I'll show you some that caught my eye - you can tell me which one you think would best suit me.

Saved & Sassy Sistah's
Saved & Sassy Sisters is a group for Christian Women between the ages of 30-45 who enjoy having fun, traveling and meeting new people. Some of our activities include: Ladies Night Out, Sunday or Saturday Brunch, Sistahs Weekend Getaway, Bible Study, Community Service through the Tamar's Circle Mentoring Program and more!

North Texas Transplant Riders
Meet with other local Motorcycle Riders that are transplanted organ recipients!

Fort Worth Ghost Group
This meetup group is for Ghost Trackers, Ghost Hunters, Paranormal Researchers, Psychics and anyone interested in all areas of the paranormal, including ghost hunting, UFO's, psychic abilities, past-life, etc., that live in the DFW area. (I shit you not, there are 236 members of this meetup group).

International Guild of Knot Tyers - Texas Branch
The International Guild of Knot Tyers (IGKT) is an association of people with interests in knots and knotting techniques of all kinds.

The Bedford Renaissance Faire Meetup Group
Meet with people who have interest in attending/performing in renaissance faires.

2009-05-22T16:19:00.001-07:00

Today is Wally's ninth birthday! I can't believe my little boy has grown so old. It seems like just yesterday when I picked him up and he cried all day and all night because he missed his real mommy. Every year, I usually get him a cake from Three Dog Bakery. There are several across Los Angeles and one in Pasadena right up the street from my old place. Sadly, there is only ONE Three Dog Bakery in Dallas and it's way the hell up past the airport. Charles stopped by on his way home today (good boyfriend) and brought Wally's cake home. We'll be giving it to the dogs later this evening.
To celebrate the day, we did Wally's new favorite thing which is to go to Joe Pool Lake and play fetch with tennis balls in the water. Here are some photos from this afternoon:

All in all, Wally says it was a pretty good day!

2009-05-20T12:28:00.000-07:00

I wrote a very long time ago about all the mail I receive from the Church of Scientology. I'd like to report that, as of today, it took them less than a month to find my new address. Back when I used to go to AA meetings, I made friends with a guy who had been an alcoholic and heroin addict prone to violent crimes (like robbery and hold ups) back in the days when he was still using. He was also on the Scientology mailing list. He said once, he was on the lam, out in the middle of the desert crashing at a friend's place, someone who had no phone or TV. He went out to the mailbox one day, only to discover a piece of mail addressed to himself...from the Church of Scientology. It really is creepy.

2009-05-19T15:36:00.000-07:00

Charles and I finally went and applied for our Texas drivers licenses yesterday. We tried to do it the first week we were here and ran into a huge snafu. For starters, there is no DMV in Texas - you have to go to two different places - one to register your car, and one to get licensed. We decided to get the license first since, on the day, I wasn't 100% sure where my registration info was.

We drove out to the nearest office, 20 minutes away in Arlington and went in. You can't make an appointment and we were lucky there was no line when we got there. Unfortunately, we were informed we couldn't get a license until we registered our vehicles. The process is this:

1) Get your vehicle inspected. It's much less involved than a SMOG test for California, but every vehicle has to be inspected (you must also show proof of insurance during the inspection). Cost: $45 per vehicle (the motorcycles will all have to be done individually, as well).
2) Once you get your slip from the inspection, you then take it to the Courthouse with your registration and proof of insurance. The cost: $90 per vehicle (including all motorcycles) initiation fee for it being the first time registered in the state, plus the applicable fees. Just for my car, it was $189.
3) Take your new Texas registration and proof of insurance to the office where you obtain your license (the Office of Public Safety). For me, there was one other hitch. In the state of Texas, you must provide to get your license - your out of state license, a birth certificate or passport...and your actual Social Security card. Now, I haven't had a physical SS card since the early 90s when my wallet got stolen. I know the number, and I've always carried a passport, so I've never been required to provide the actual document. This meant I first had to make a visit to the Social Security Administration to obtain a new card. Would you like to know what they asked for as identification to get my card? My passport. Right. It wasn't good enough as ID for the Office of Public Safety, but it was enough for Social Security.
4) I waited two weeks to get my card, then went with all 15 pieces of required information and headed to the Office of Public Safety. This time, there was a line. We waited and waited, finally got in, and paid to get our licenses. Annoyingly, instead of just punching a hole in my old license, they confiscated it so the only photo ID I currently have is my passport, until my DL arrives...in 4 to 8 weeks!!

I asked the woman at the office why they required so much paperwork just to process a DL and was told that "all border states" do it. I pointed out that I had come from California, also a border state, and didn't have to do ANY of that to get my license when I moved there. The girl at the window next to us was a foreign student, and the woman then told me, "Well, we also have a lot of foreigners here." I again pointed out that I was from Los Angeles, where I assume there are more foreigners in the city than in the entire state of Texas.

Well, at least it's finally done. Texas plates, Texas license. Yeehaw!

2009-05-17T13:06:00.001-07:00

I met an old friend for lunch on the other side of Dallas today, and since it was so nice out I decided to take the motorcycle. For once, it was warm but not hot, and cool enough to not be humid, which would have been really uncomfortable in motorcycle leathers. On the ride over there, I had to continuously shake my head at the amount of motorcyclists riding around without helmets on. In fact, I must have seen 10 bikers on the way there and back, and I was the only one wearing a helmet. It's so weird to see them out there, t-shirts flapping in the wind, a pair of sunglasses the only thing between them and a rock in the eye. I shudder to think of what would happen in a collision with no helmet. A friend I worked with who grew up in Texas refers to the lack of helmet law as "social Darwinism." I think they only recently enacted an open container law here, as well, and someone else told me the state only recently lowered their legal level for DWI's to .08 because they couldn't get federal funding for their roads if they didn't comply.

If you've never ridden a motorcycle (or any two wheeled motorized vehicle, for that matter), you may be unfamiliar with the "club" you enter into when you're on two wheels. Anyone else on a bike will wave at you, a subtle move with their hand to let you know they see you. I always feel like an ass when this happens because I'm such a novice rider. I feel like I should be wearing a shirt that says, "Hi! Thanks for waving! I'd wave back, but I'm terrified to take my hand off the handle bar!"

I have a hockey game later this evening. The regular season isn't quite over here yet, so the person at the rink put me on a team for the remainder of their games...we have three left. The designations for the skill level in the divisions is different here than in southern California. I didn't want to get into a league where I wasn't strong enough to play competitively, but conversely, didn't want to end up on a team where everyone sucked. I ended up in the latter division. There seems to be a lot of hockey here. There is a surprising amount of ice rinks, and I'm told Dallas considers itself to be a "hockey town." However, the quality of the leagues is pretty low. Most of the rinks don't have adult levels higher than what I was already playing at in California, which means there are a lot of novice players across the city. It's better than no hockey at all, and the guys all seem really nice (pretty much everyone I've met in Dallas has been very nice). I will say it's weird to be sitting on a hockey bench hearing guys talking with really strong Texan drawls, and I've already been called "honey" on the ice a few times. I've also heard guys talk about the Stanley Cup playoffs AND NASCAR in the same conversation, which just seems wrong.

2009-05-16T15:14:00.000-07:00

I think my boyfriend may be the worst person in the world at music trivia. We're painting today and have Pandora playing in the background. At one point he said, "This is Air Supply, right?" To which I responded, "Um...no. This is Duran Duran." Later, while "Hey Jude" was on, he asked, "Who's this?" When I said it was The Beatles, he said, "Oh, right...The Beatles...John McCartney."

2009-05-13T19:23:00.001-07:00

I made my first foray into Dallas proper today to pick up a coffee table I ordered from Crate & Barrel. The 30 minute drive confirmed the opinions I already had formed about Dallas driving - it sucks. There are many, many reasons why it sucks, but I'll give you just a few.

First off, people drive really slowly here. I must admit, people seem to drive pretty slowly wherever I've gone outside of Los Angeles. Having lived for 15 years in a city where the police have other things to worry about than speeders, I've grown used to driving around 80 mph pretty much everywhere, as long as traffic is moving. You can do that most of the time in L.A., and as long as you're not weaving in and out of traffic, you'll never get a ticket. Not so here in Dallas. Everyone seems to want to drive around 60. In the fast lane. Granted, that IS the speed limit, but come on!

Secondly, the freeways here are a mess. There is a freeway, highway, or other such major thoroughfare seemingly every 100 yards. Every other exit leads to some other 2 lane divided highway. If you look at a map of the Dallas-Ft Worth area, you'll see the freeways spread out in a wagon wheel from the center of town. This means that ultimately, if you head into the center of town, you will reach a place a very confusing place where the freeways collide. Trying to follow Google Maps directions can be puzzling as a freeways often turn into something else then back again, and will then end, inexplicably, in the middle of the city...only to pick up again two miles further heading out of town. I-35, which heads south from Oklahoma City into Dallas splits into two freeways - the 35W and the 35E - both of which run north-south. WTF?

Third, there is the Texas Turnaround. Much of Dallas is made up of divided streets and one way frontage roads. This makes it nearly impossible to make a left out of a parking lot, and I often find myself driving for blocks through parking areas looking for an outlet to turn left. Wikipedia describes the Texas Turnaround as such: "a lane allowing cars traveling on one side of a one-way frontage road to u-turn to the opposite frontage road (typically crossing over or under a freeway or expressway) without being stopped by traffic lights or crossing the highway traffic at-grade." Here's a diagram.
Sometimes they work great - you can make the u-turn without waiting for the light. But if you don't know where you're going, you're screwed, going in the other direction when all you wanted to do was make a left turn.

For now, I'll remain happy that I'm working at home and only driving about 10 miles a week.

2009-05-11T10:29:00.001-07:00

Hello blog! Long time no see!

Here I am, finally in Dallas. We've been here about two weeks now, though it's been three weeks since we left Los Angeles. It's a long story, but it ended up taking our movers 8 full days to get our stuff from Los Angeles to Dallas, so instead of going straight there, we stopped for two days in Oklahoma City, where Charles' mom lives.

The drive from Los Angeles was really long. It would have been one thing if it had been the two of us in one car where we could have switched off driving. Unfortunately, we have two cars and three morotcycles between us so we caravaned in two separate cars, each of us towing a motorcycle trailer hauling the bikes. To make matters more interesting, we also have three dogs. Kraut rode with Charles and Wally and Grace rode with me. Since Wally gets really anxious in the car, I asked the vet to give him some sedatives. He was still anxious, but much MUCH better than he would have been without them!

Our first day was the longest. We left Los Angeles around 6:30 in the morning. We could have easily been in Flagstaff, AZ in about 7 hours, but wanted to see the Grand Canyon since we were so close (I'd never been there). I'm glad we made the side trip, but it took us almost 3-4 full hours as a side trip, and it was probably the quickest tour of the Grand Canyon ever taken!

We stayed the night in Flagstaff, had lunch with friends of Charles' in Albuquerque the next day, then ended the day in Santa Rosa, NM. New Mexico was really beautiful. I wish we would have had more time to explore, but it was hard, especially with two cars and all the critters. On the third day, we made it to Amarillo, TX just in time for lunch at the Big Texan, home of the 72 oz steak (eat it in an hour and it's free). I settled for only 16 oz and was STUFFED. We made it to Charles' mom's outside Oklahoma City by nightfall.

The dogs loved Charles' mom's little farm. She has a huge yard, a couple of horses, and a bunch of goats, including some kids (baby goats - I think). All the dogs had a ton of fun running around in the long grass, and Grace really REALLY wanted to play with the goats.

The next day (Sunday), it took us only about 3 1/2 hours to get to Dallas from Oklahoma City. Unfortunately, the movers wouldn't be there until Wednesday, which meant too may nights on a very uncomfortable air mattress. (I don't care what anyone says, air mattresses are NOT comfortable)! We spent three very long days painting my office and our master bedroom to be ready for the movers on Wednesday. Our entire first week in Texas was spent either painting, or unpacking for long hours every day. We just started back to work last week and are still busy, but not as much so as before. We're continuing to get things unpacked little by little.

Living in Texas has already been both educating and entertaining, from their ridiculous regulations to obtain a drivers license, to the way the streets are set up, to the way people just ARE here. Hopefully, I'll have many things to blog about in the near future. Until then, stay tuned.

2009-01-22T19:09:00.000-08:00

Happy belated Wally Wednesday! The fact that I can't even get a short post up once a week is a testament to how busy I've been. Things are about to get a whole lot busier. Charles got a call Friday from Dallas Fort Worth airport (he's an air traffic controller) and got a huge job offer. So...we're moving to Dallas in April! I never thought I'd live in Texas. I don't necessarily WANT to live in Texas, but I do want to stay with Charles so I know we'll be happy wherever we go. We hope to only spend 4-5 years there, then try to get him in at Portland or Sea-Tac. It's crazy, I know. We haven't known each other that long, but I know we'll be fine.

The most overwhelming thing is getting out of Hollywood. I've been wanting to leave but didn't expect to do it this quickly. I already have some minor freelance stuff lined up, and who knows if I can find work there. Honestly, with the cost of living and Charles' salary, we will be fine in Dallas. We've already discussed me going back to school to get a degree to teach, which was my original plan when I went to college out of high school. Either way, it will be an adventure.

The blog will likely be black for a couple of months, but look forward to many posts in the future where I will be laughing at my neighbors, their big hair, and their pickup trucks. Wally is excited for the move - it means a big yard, and hopefully, a pool! Here he is from earlier in the week when we took all the dogs to the park:

2009-01-14T18:27:00.000-08:00

I spent about half a day trying to burn a DVD a couple of days ago before realizing that the burner in my Mac Book Pro appears to have died. Luckily, I had a work computer at home that I could burn the disc on, but this means a visit to the dreaded Genius Bar. The laptop is less than a year old, so it should be totally covered, but I'm going to be pissed off if they pull the, "You'll have to send it in to Apple, and the turnover is three weeks" routine.

The dogs have been happy this week, as usual, playing with each other at every opportunity. Here's Wally after enjoying his dinner last night.

Happy Wally Wednesday!

2009-01-11T15:38:00.000-08:00

I'm extremely afraid of heights. Every time I get on an airplane, I feel like I'm walking to my death. I can't even be close to the windows in a high rise for fear that the edge of the building might actually break off, leaving me falling to my death. Completely irrational, I know. I get to deal with this fear regularly by going snowboarding. The high speed chair lifts are the best, except when they come to a screeching halt, leaving the chair rocking back and forth, especially if the chair doesn't have a safety bar to hold you in to the seat. My friend, James, is even more afraid of falling from a chair than I am, so I couldn't help but think of him when I read this story at the Smoking Gun:

Man left dangling upside down, pantsless after Vail lift mishap

JANUARY 6--In a bizarre incident that will surely lead to litigation (or an out-of-court settlement), a skier at Colorado's ritzy Vail resort was left dangling upside down and pantsless from a chairlift last Thursday morning. The January 1 mishap apparently occurred after the male skier, 48, and a child boarded a high-speed lift in Vail's Blue Sky Basin. It appears that the chairlift's fold-down seat was somehow not in the lowered position, which caused the man to partially fall through the resulting gap. His right ski got jammed in the ascending chairlift, and that kept him upended since his boot never dislodged from its binding. As seen in the photos on the following pages (which were snapped by fellow skiers), the Skyline Express lift was stopped shortly after the pair's botched boarding resulted in the man dangling from the lift. The exposed skier was stuck for about 15 minutes before Vail personnel backed the lift up and successfully dislodged the unidentified man from the four-seat chair. The images on page four and five were taken by a local photographer who happened upon the rescue scene. In a statement released this afternoon, Vail Resorts, which operates the ski area, reported that the skier was not injured after being "suspended for approximately seven minutes." The press release did not explain how the mishap occurred, only that "the man was caught on the chair."

**as a side note, I don't know WTF is wrong with Blogger. I changed the font of the first portion of this post about 10 times without any results and have finally given up.

2009-01-07T18:23:00.001-08:00

I think I'm going to change jobs. I have realized I can make a lot more money and not work as hard if I stop editing and become a Network Executive. Based on the interaction I've had over the years with Network Executives, very little is required to actually obtain this position. Apparently, you can have no production experience whatsoever, and yet still have a job where you tell people who DO have production companies how they should do their jobs. The job seems to be most easily fitted to short, angry men who think they haven't accomplished anything until they've made someone cry, but I still think I'll give it a shot. I can give random, meaningless notes that don't make any sense, just to see other people scramble to please me. Sure I could. I could approve the look of a show, only to change my mind after the show has been shot and edited, because it would be fun to make people panic as they try to force a square peg into a round hole. I could do all that just on a whim, for no reason at all. Say goodbye to me as an editor...my new career is right around the corner, I can feel it.

**This rant has nothing to do with the recent round of notes I have received from a network executive. None at all.

2009-01-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I really love The Onion.

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

2008-12-31T15:46:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the last Wally Wesnesday of 2008! Charles and I went to Big Bear Sunday for the night and I left the dogs with Madeline who was already dog sitting Toby, the Golden Retriever, for another friend of ours. The house she was at has a big pool and it took Wally all of about 10 seconds before he jumped right in and commenced swimming. Here are some photos from the week. One is Wally swimming, one is Wally shaking off, and one is Wally playing tug of war with his new friend, Kraut. Dogs galore!

I have no plans for New Year's other than to get the hell out of Pasadena. I live three blocks off the Rose Parade route. At one time it was sort of cool. Now, it's just annoying. This way, I won't get woken up tomorrow morning when the F-16's fly down Colorado Blvd at 8am.

I had quite an eventful 2008. Much of it wasn't good and I've been waiting for this year to be over so I could start fresh with 2009. I also don't want to make a list of resolutions because I never seem to get any of them accomplished. I do have some plans for 2009. One involves learning to ride a motorcycle with more confidence. I already know how to ride, in a very general way, but I'm buying a sport bike early in the year and plan to ride it often to cut back on gas. I'm also hoping to eventually get to Iceland some time this year. We'll see how that goes if I ever get my vacation approved.

My 20 year high school reunion will happen in 2009. I'm not sure if I'm even going to go now, since Facebook has allowed me to catch up with many of my classmates and I've more than covered the 5 minutes I would have spent catching up with each of them at the reunion. I wonder how many people feel the same about their reunions and will end up not going.

I hope everyone has a happy, safe and sane New Year. Wally, Gracie and I wish everyone the best!

2008-12-24T19:59:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, everyone!

2008-12-21T09:44:00.000-08:00

Life has been extremely busy recently with work leading into the holiday break. They were trying to get the show I have been working on to the network on Friday (last day of work before the break). Needless to say, I was working my ass off all week, not taking lunch, and have been missing hockey games in both leagues as of late. At long last, hiatus started which means I don't have to go back to work until January 5. However, I have a short film to edit in that time so it will hardly be a vacation. At least I can wake up whenever I want and will have time to fit some snowboarding in.

Some friends and I went up to Mountain High yesterday morning. It was extremely busy, and probably one of the busiest days of the season. 4 feet of powder got dumped up there in the last week due to the recent storms, and with the kids on break and the television industry on break - there was a ton of people up there. With all the runs open, it wasn't crowded on the slopes, but there were long lines for the lifts. Charles and I are going up to Bear Mountain either Monday or Tuesday so hopefully with the middle of the week, the lines will be a little shorter, even if it is during the holiday.

It's hard to believe Christmas is this week. Time seems to be passing more and more quickly the older I get. I have all my shopping done. Pretty much. I still need to get something for the dogs. (Yes, I buy gifts for the dogs. I think there are tennis balls in Wally's future). I still haven't gotten something for my dad. Hardest person to buy for - EVER.

I've been so busy I haven't had time to take any cute photos of Wally. I meant to post my Christmas card here, but I don't have it with me right now (or a scanner) so it will have to wait. In the meantime, here's a photo I posted on Facebook earlier. I like to call it "Three Dogs Eating." This is what happens when you try to feed three rather large dogs in my tiny condo kitchen.

2008-12-14T10:30:00.000-08:00

Hiatus starts in another week and I can't wait. Working in the office has really cramped my sleep-in-and-work-in-my-pajamas style. I have work to do on a short film over the break but at least I'll get to do the work on my own schedule, and hopefully have some time to get out and snowboard and such. Madeline and I hit the mountain for the first time this season yesterday morning. We went up to Mountain High with the expectation that it would be really crowded and the coverage would be really crappy (it was), but at least we got our passes so we don't have to wait in line for the rest of the season. We made a few good runs before the mountain got ridiculously crowded and we headed home early. It's supposed to be snowing most of the week up at Bear Mountain, and Charles and I are hoping to get up there the first Monday of hiatus to ride in some real snow. By then, hopefully the whole mountain will be open.

We went and saw Australia last night. Once I got past the fact that it was narrated by an aboriginal kid in dialect, I liked the movie well enough. It's certainly epic, and a good story, although a very LONG story at almost 3 hours. On the up side, there was a nice shot of Hugh Jackman shirtless, pouring water over his body, which made the price of the ticket well worth it. For you girls who haven't seen it yet, Hugh definitely bulked up for this film. Holy cow! The best part of seeing this movie in the theater was getting to see the longer trailer for Marley & Me, which opens on Christmas day. When I read this book, I was constantly struck by how much Marley, the Labrador in the book, reminded me of Wally when he was a puppy. I don't think I've ever seen a funnier trailer and I look forward to seeing the movie when it comes out.

We got home and watched Milk on DVD. (***SPOILER ALERT***) Somehow, I got a screener of it even though I'm not part of the Academy and have no way to vote one way or the other. In 10 years in the union, this is only the second screener I've ever received. The movie tells the story of Harvey Milk, a political activist for gay rights in San Francisco in the 70s who ended up being the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. I enjoyed the movie and thought Sean Penn did a good job, but I've never been a terribly big fan of Gus Van Sandt's directing style. I did find it horrendous that Dan White, the man who very deliberately shot and killed Harvey Milk (and then San Francisco Mayor George Moscone), was only found guilty of manslauter and sentenced to 7 years. He served only 5 before being released.

2008-12-11T19:51:00.000-08:00

I didn't forget yesterday was Wally Wednesday, I was just too busy to sit down and blog. Here's the little guy from a week or so ago when we enjoyed an afternoon at the dog beach. I think heaven for a Labrador probably includes a beach with lots of tennis balls.

I've been really busy with work and it's hard to believe it's already December and Christmas is just a couple of weeks away. Thankfully, I have a small family and very few people to buy for. Still, I really need to get off my ass and get a bunch of gifts sent off.

I'm staying in town this holiday season with plans to edit a friend's short film over my work hiatus. What is everyone else's plans for the holiday?

2008-12-03T18:35:00.000-08:00

After the holiday weekend, it was certainly hard to go back to work on Monday and hit this show again. I'm looking forward to to the next three weeks being over so I can enjoy my two unpaid holiday weeks off. (Merry Christmas! You're laid off without pay for two weeks!) I'm used to it. It happens every single holiday in the industry, at least everywhere I've worked. Usually, you're so burnt out by Christmas that you're more than happy to just enjoy your time off.

I usually go home for awhile, but decided against it this year. When I was looking for tickets earlier, they were too expensive. Also, the short film I'm soon going to be editing shoots this coming weekend and I'm hoping to work through the holiday to get a cut out. At least I'll be working on something interesting that I WANT to work on, and I can sleep in and work on my own schedule. Oh, how I miss working from home!

I haven't forgotten it's Wally Wednesday. Charles and I took all three dogs to the Huntington Dog Beach on Sunday. It was Grace's first time at the beach ever. She had a great time running all over the place, once she got over being terrified.

Introducing Kraut, Charles' German Shepard!

Wally is right in his element:

All the dogs and Charles as the sun starts to set:

2008-11-29T13:21:00.000-08:00

While I was out of town last weekend in Big Bear and my friend, Madeline, was dog sitting, Grace managed to somehow escape from her crate again. We have yet to determine exactly how she's doing it, and I'm beginning to think Houdini may have been a better name for her. Before she escaped, she pushed the crate off the plywood I had put it on (to prevent her getting at the carpet again through the floor of the crate) and was again able to destroy a patch of carpet. My boyfriend proceeded to spend an hour reinforcing her crate with steel wire, so she couldn't possibly squeeze out through any possible openings. He also installed a 2" steel plate along the front edge of the crate where there was an opening we thought she might be escaping from.

I had my friend, Dennis, who works with dogs, come meet Grace a week ago and give some advice to help with her separation anxiety. One thing he suggested was putting her crate in the dining room so she could be with Wally when I'm not there. Her crate is in the bedroom, and Wally usually hangs out downstairs. However, since she sleeps in her crate and will whine if she's not in the bedroom with me, this meant putting a second crate downstairs. Charles (the b/f) and I went through the same process with this crate: we cut a piece of plywood to set it on (so she can't destroy the floor) then NAILED the crate to the board (so she can't slide it off the wood and still destroy the floor). We then reinforced all the joints and possible openings with steel wire.

One day this week, Charles was at my place while I was at work, and he put Grace in her new downstairs/reinforced crate when he left, about 3 hours before I would come home from work. We were excited to see how the crate would stand up since we had spent so much time preparing against Grace's destruction. I got home to find Grace in her crate, and the crate beautifully intact. Unfortunately, the second thing I realized is we'd left the crate too close to the window drapes. Sigh. Back to the drawing board.

(In case you can't tell from the photograph, she has pulled the drapes down so hard that the force completely bent the bracket holding up the rod. The end of the drapes is actually in the crate and quite chewed up and shredded. She shreds anything that goes in the crate with her. I'm beginning to think about throwing in my bank and credit card statements for safety.)

2008-11-26T16:32:00.000-08:00

Happy Wally Wednesday everyone! I realized as I scanned my iPhone that I need to take more photos of Wally. This one will have to do for today. It illustrates why I have a king sized bed, despite the fact that I live by myself:

A friend at work turned me on to these funny videos. Someone has taken old music videos and revoiced them with lyrics to tell what's literally happening in the video. Funny stuff.

2008-11-23T20:32:00.001-08:00

In 1978, I was in the second grade at Harry S. Truman Elementary school in Vancouver, Washington. We had just moved into town after living in Battle Ground, and somehow (the details are pretty murky since I was only 7) my mom got me put in to the gifted program (GCY). I think we met once a week, and it was a small group of gifted kids in my grade and the grades closest to mine (think Malcolm in the Middle, but a little less socially inept). When my mom explained to me that I'd be a part of this special group, she explained, "I think they're studying stars this year." Excited, I exclaimed, "You mean like Shaun Cassidy!?"

The b/f and I just got back from a weekend in Big Bear. No snow, but we hiked the Cougar Crest trail up to the Pacific Crest trail. For those of you out of Southern California, it's the week before Thanksgiving, and we were hiking comfortably at 7,000 feet in shorts and t-shirts. Here's a photo from the weekend:

We're too happy, right? Tell me it isn't sort of sickening.

2008-11-19T13:13:00.000-08:00

With Halloween recently here, some friends have been posting photos from parties on their Facebook pages. Some of them are of their dogs...dressed up. I'm generally a "no clothes on the dog" kind of person, but I have to admit, I wasn't always this way. When Wally was a puppy (well, maybe a year old) I did try to dress him up for Halloween. As a cowboy. He kept the costume on for literally just enough time for me to shoot this photo. Then he ate the costume. No clothes for dogs!

How many of you are on Facebook? I've never been one for social interaction web sites - I never really did MySpace or Friendster or anything like that. However, I signed up for Facebook last year when several friends recommended it and now I'm hooked. There's been a recent flurry of old friends from school coming out of the woodwork because the class ahead of me had their 20 year reunion and a bunch of them signed up. Sometimes, I get friend requests from people I literally haven't seen or talked to since Junior High and even Elementary School. Facebook is a weird beast. It gives you this voyeruristic window into the lives of people you know (or hardly know, or knew 25 years ago) where you can see their moods through their status updates, and look at photos they've posted of them with their spouses, kids and friends...without ever having to actually talk to them. Some of the people I find on Facebook ARE really long lost friends who I am so glad I've reconnected with. And some of them are...well...people I'm glad live in other states.

2008-11-15T13:56:00.000-08:00

I'd like to start out by saying I can't keep up with blogging every day anymore. With the exception of the month I spent out of the country in 2007, I have blogged every single day for the past two years, and I now find myself having problems finding the time and energy to blog. I'll still write, just not every day.

That being said, here's today's post. I had to get my haircut today. My stylist is in Marina Del Rey, but I was coming from Lakewood instead of from home. A big fire had broken out in Sylmar, which is only about 20 minutes from Pasadena. I thought, boy, I'm glad I'm not up there where it's smoky. While I was in the salon, another fire broke out stretching from Corona to Anaheim. It's still 25 miles from here, but the wind is blowing toward Lakewood. On the drive back there, this is what the sky looked like. If you're thinking to yourself, "Just looks like another smoggy L.A. day to me," take a look at the second photo. I took it only 30 seconds after the first out the side of the car, instead of the front.

The reason I'm in Lakewood is this is where the new boyfriend lives. He has a dog, too...a German Shepard named Kraut, who Grace and Wally both love to play with. When I left for Marina Del Rey, I put her in her crate and, of course, latched it. The crate is in the bedroom, but I left the door open so Kraut and Wally could keep her company. I came back and was greeted at the door by Wally and...Grace! WTF? I went to the bedroom to find out how the hell she got out of the crate, only discover the bedroom door closed. She had somehow locked Kraut in the bedroom. AND - the crate is still closed and latched and I can't figure out for the life of me hoe on earth she got out of it. The best part is that she ate a new pair of my shoes. Sigh. This one is trying my patience.

2008-11-13T18:35:00.001-08:00

There's a long list of things I hate about having to go work in the office instead of getting to work from home. However, one thing on the positive side is that I get to listen to Kevin and Bean in the morning on KROQ. I was a commuter for years, and have never listened to any other morning show. (If you've never heard them, you can check out their podcast here). Since I only listen to the radio in the car, I really miss out on the show when I'm working from home. This week I also noticed that K&B have started something new called "Cinco de la Tarde" (5 in the afternoon). They're now on the air an extra hour in the afternoon, from 5p-6p, which is great, because I don't have to listen to some stupid drive time show - I just get to listen to more K&B. Yay!

2008-11-12T18:49:00.000-08:00

I took Grace to work for the first time today for the whole day. She did remarkably well, other than whining and scratching at my office door whenever I had to run down the hall for something. Everyone told her how cute she is and scratched her head. Wally seemed irked this morning to see I was taking her to work instead of him - he loves it at the office. Unfortunately, I can't handle having both of them there so he had to stay home. I wonder if he enjoyed the quiet day to himself without his little sister, remembering the days before we got Grace? Or whether he sat at home missing his new friend?

When Grace and I got home, Wally seemed happy to see her and they ultimately had a game of tug of war with a toy. I think he missed her after all. Happy Wally Wednesday, everyone!

2008-11-11T17:32:00.000-08:00

Crate training FAIL

2008-11-10T13:19:00.000-08:00

It's my first day back in the office and already my back is killing me from the bad ergonomics in here. 6:30 came really early this morning. Super early, really, since I usually don't get up until 9-ish. I felt bad for poor Grace. I had to put her in her crate last night while I went and played hockey, came back around 11pm and let her outside for a bit. Then had to put her BACK in the crate so I could go to bed. This morning, we got up and I let them out and fed them. Then after I showered and ate breakfast, the poor little thing had to go right back into her crate. Luckily, my maid is coming today, so I left her a note in my best Spanish asking her to let Grace out of her crate while she's there. Poor girl. I'll have to bring her into the office later this week and hope she doesn't freak out when one of the owner's aggressive little dogs barks at her in the hallway.

2008-11-09T18:38:00.000-08:00

Whew! I had a nice relaxing weekend with the dogs. Tomorrow begins round 2 of Showdown. Sigh. I have to be in the office at 8, and that should pretty much last until March. I am not pleased. Neither is Wally, and especially not Gracie. She still can't be trusted and is going to end up spending a hell of a lot of time in her crate, where she (and my electrical cords) can be safe.

I watched the movie Get Smart with Steve Carell the other night. When I first heard they were remaking the old television show into a film and had cast Carell in the role of Maxwell Smart, I was ecstatic. I couldn't think of anyone better for the part. Then I heard a lot of really bad reviews of the film and never ended up seeing it. I have to say, I laughed out loud through much of this movie and am now wondering how anyone could have thought it wasn't very funny. If you like Carell, you'll enjoy this movie. His wit and humor fit nicely into the role of Smart, and hopefully, you'll enjoy the movie as much as I did. (The three of you who haven't seen it yet).

2008-11-08T11:13:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's November and the weather is still warm. Get colder, damnit! It's cold in the mountains at night, but still too warm during the day for them to manufacture snow and keep it on the ground. I want the snowboarding season to start already. I have a brand new board with new bindings, new pants and new jacket. I'm ready to ride!

I spent some time this morning attacking my front yard (and I do mean attacking - you should see it). I abhor yard work. No matter what I seem to do to my rose bushes, they just keep growing. I literally cut them back so far they SHOULD die, but they don't. I'm tempted to pull out every bush and put in rocks.

Shortly, I have a meeting in Hollywood with the director of the short film I'm going to be editing. It shoots in a couple of weeks and should keep me busy until spring. I'm planning on taking the train into town so I can save on gas and parking. Unfortunately, because the train here is so slow, I'll probably have to leave an hour and a half ahead of the meeting.

What's on everyone else's weekend agenda?

2008-11-07T13:47:00.000-08:00

Living room lamp - 0
Gracie - 1

Yep - she completely chewed off the PLUGGED IN power cord. Now I have a perfectly good lamp, and no way to plug it in.

2008-11-06T13:04:00.000-08:00

I hope my friend, Jennifer, doesn't mind me reposting from her blog. She's an elementary school teacher at a Catholic school, and this was posted the morning after the election. I thought it was interesting enough (and awful enough) to pass along:

"So it is real. Barack Obama will be our next president. I was so happy this morning when I saw the cover of the newspaper.

I went to school with a spring in my step and hope for the future. One of my boys came skipping in smiling. He immediately asked me if I had heard that Obama won. I laughed and said no I had not heard that. Then he laughed and said I know you did! It was cute. So half the class was excited and half was disappointed. I have not voiced any opinion either way. They do not know who I voted for - only that I am happy it is over. And so it happened that before the bell even rang I had students in tears.

One of the kids had said that Obama is a Muslim and that Muslims kill people. Another said that Obama wants to kill babies and a girl told a boy whose father is a Marine that his dad kills people. So rather than being able to highlight the historic moment of having the first African American president and talking about how anyone in America could become president, I had to focus on the need for understanding and tolerance. Once everyone was calmed down we went on with our school day.

After school I talked with a few of the parents about what their kids had said. The principal offered to come and talk to my class, but we decided it would be better to have Father Michael come. He will be in my room next Friday talking about tolerance and other faiths.

Kids are the future and usually I am surprised by their insight and kindness, but today was a rough one for me. To come to work with such hope for the future and then to have my students saying such hurtful things to each other was hard. Although we have come a long way, we still have work do to and it will not be easy. Already people are praying that Obama does, in fact, become president and that he is not assassinated. There have already been death threats and in Portland there was a cardboard cutout of Obama hanging from a tree on a college campus. I hope that we can live up to the promise of the future, that we can end the divisions and come together as Barack said in his speech last night - that we are more than red or blue states, that we are the United States and yes we can. We have no other choice."

2008-11-05T08:41:00.000-08:00

Hail to the Chief

The dogs and I did quite the little happy dance here when we discovered Obama had clinched the election. For those of you who missed Obama's amazing victory speech, you can read it here.

(In case anyone is wondering, I know it's Wednesday, but Wally has said he doesn't want to steal President Obama's thunder. He will return next week for Wally Wednesday).

2008-11-04T18:52:00.000-08:00

This sticker seems like a stupid little thing to get excited about as an adult, but every time I vote, I happily walk away with one stuck to my shirt. I felt especially happy this morning after voting at my poll where I didn't even have to wait. Friends in other parts of the city reported waiting from 1-2 hours to vote. The returns so far look extremely good, but it's hard for me to feel optimistic after experiencing the Gore debacle back in 2000. I vividly remember working a job until midnight where we all celebrated in front of the returns on the internet, then grew slowly silent as we watched once blue states turn red, one by one, in front of us. It was horrifying. I must admit, though, the dogs and I all feel a happy dance coming on (the dogs are Dems, of course). Fingers crossed. Congratulations to the rest of you who got your own stickers today.

2008-11-03T20:46:00.000-08:00

I have received approximately 1,000 calls in the last couple of days from the Democratic party, making sure I'm voting for Barack Obama. You would think the fact that I'm a registered Democrat who donated money to his campaign would be enough to ensure them which way I'm voting, but apparently not. I finally picked up the phone to actually talk to the person calling so I could reassure them I am, in fact, planning on voting for Obama tomorrow, and yes, I'm voting no on props 4 and 8. My phone rang again 15 minutes later. Sheesh! At least they're doing their job.

Make sure you get out and vote tomorrow, and if you know someone who just turned 18 and is new to it, make sure THEY vote. Here's to a brighter tomorrow.

2008-11-02T17:33:00.000-08:00

Grace has chewed up two of my three remote controls since I got her. In fact, I can no longer control my Blu Ray player because you can't fully control the disc with the buttons on the front of the unit. I broke down today and did something I never thought I'd do - I bought a universal remote control. Yes, it was almost $80, but I figured it would cost me at least that much to order a new one for the Blu Ray and another for my DVR. It was actually really easy to set up (and even worked with my Mac with no problem). All I had to do was plug the remote into my computer via USB, tell it the make and models of what components I wanted to control, and voila! My TV, my Blu Ray, and my DVR all on the same remote. It's awesome! Now, if I can just remember to hide it out of Grace's reach whenever I'm not using it.

2008-11-01T21:38:00.000-07:00

Tonight, a friend and I went to the Shipwreck at the Queen Mary. For those of you not in the area, it's sort of like a giant haunted house thing they put on every year. The Queen Mary is already known for being haunted, which makes it that much more creepy. There were 6 mazes we went through which were dark and filled with smoke and strobe lights. People dressed in creepy costumes jumped out of the dark at us, snuck up on us, and used every means you can think of to startle us. I'd never been to anything like it so I didn't know what to expect, which is probably why the first maze scared me the most. Well, not really scared, but I got quite startled. Some of the mazes are even on the ship and one winds through the boiler room. I think that one was the coolest. I also liked the one where we had to wear 3D glasses through the maze. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time and I sometimes even found the scary ghouls laughing at me because of how much I startled. I'm definitely going again next year!

2008-10-31T14:13:00.000-07:00

I've recently gotten back in touch with a lot of old high school classmates through Facebook and have found it really interesting to see how some of them have turned out and how their lives are today. When I was in school, I didn't fit into any one clique. I had a small group of friends that I hung out with, but really, I was friends to all groups. I knew people who were jocks, stoners, band geeks, drama students, art students, brainiacs, punks, gay and straight, black and white. Sometimes I surprised even myself to find who I might be hanging out with on any given night, especially as the end of high school drew near.

My old friend, Reid, who I've written about before (I recently saw him in Seattle when visiting Robert) just posted a bunch of photos from high school - high school the way HE experienced it, and some of the photos really moved me because I found that even though I wasn't a part of the group of kids he hung out with back then, I was at the same place emotionally. I thought I'd share a few photos here (I hope Reid doesn't mind).

This photo, from 1987, Sophomore year in high school, with our good friend, Sara (she sometimes posts here under the name Saladbats).

I don't remember who the other person in this photo is, but Reid's caption perfectly summed up the moment: "Childlike innocence in a photo booth. No job, no prospects. Portland, 1991."

I found this old photo of myself and Sara, also. I'm pretty sure this is summer right after high school graduation during those months where all you can think is, "What do I do NOW?"

Then I saw another photo from junior high that another old classmate posted and I thought, Man - I can't relate.

Back in the day, I was an angst ridden teen. Now, I look back somewhat fondly on those times which surprises me. Still, I look back fondly knowing there's no way in hell I'd ever go back there for ANYTHING.

In The Breakfast Club, everyone had a label. You were either a jock, a princess, a brain, a criminal, or a basket cast. Which one were you, if any?

2008-10-30T16:49:00.000-07:00

Those of you readers who reside in California are I'm sure all too familiar with the upcoming vote on Prop 8. For those of you in other states (or countries) not in the know, gay marriage was legalized in this state earlier this year. Proposition 8 overturns that right. Many of my friends feel very strongly on this issue, and one of them went to trouble of making a video for YouTube to show her support in voting NO on Prop 8. I applaud she and her girlfriend in putting themselves out there in support of that vote.

2008-10-29T18:55:00.000-07:00

When I was coming back from Blockbuster earlier this afternoon, I noticed our mailman was at the boxes delivering mail for the day. I also couldn't help but notice another guy in uniform standing behind him with a clipboard taking notes. From the looks of things, the mailman was being evaluated - maybe because he's new, maybe because he's a screwup - who knows. Anyway, seeing him there reminded me that with people in town visiting, I'd been negligent in picking up my mail from the mailbox. I went out to get it an hour later and was shocked to find my box virtually empty instead of brimming with mail and newspapers shoved in whether there was space or not, which is what usually happens when I'm remiss in emptying my mail box on a regular basis. The only thing in there was a slip from the mailman. I've never had this happen before, but apparently, if your box gets too full, they can just take all your mail out and make you come to the post office to get it. Either that, or I can sign the slip and have them redeliver it - in three days. Sigh. Now I have to go to the dreaded post office. I guess that's what I get for not checking it.

Happy Wally Wednesday everyone! Here's a photo of Wally kicking it at Venice Beach a few weeks back. As an extra bonus picture (for the kids in my friend's class in the 'Couv), here's Gracie enjoying her very first time at Venice Beach.

2008-10-28T23:59:00.000-07:00

I'm officially addicted to the BBC America show Skins. I was just watching the latest episode on Tivo during lunch. If you haven't seen it, it's about a group of college aged kids in England and all their coming of age drama and comedy. I love how the English shows aren't so prudish when it comes to swearing and nudity. The only place you can see shows like that here are on cable. The shows stars a young ensemble cast, the most notable actor being Nicholas Hoult who you may know as the young boy in About a Boy. Hoult is all grown up now and plays Tony Stonem, a bit of a big man on campus. I just started watching the show this season (the show's second) and am looking forward to when the first season is released on DVD so I can see how it all started. If you're interested, it's on BBC America Sunday nights at 10pm. It's sort of like the OC...with better acting, dialogue and story.

2008-10-27T12:01:00.000-07:00

Jakks Pacific Inc, the company that makes Cabbage Patch Dolls, has come out with four new one-of-a-kind dolls. What dolls, might you ask? They've been made in the image of Barack Obama, John McCain, Joe Biden, and Sarah Palin. The dolls will be auctioned off on eBay. The auction, which begins Thursday and ends on November 4, will benefit the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation. On one hand, I'd like to have the Barack doll because he's just so cool. On the other, it would be fun to stick pins in the McCain doll or give the Palin doll to Grace as a chew toy. Which doll would YOU buy and why?

2008-10-26T17:56:00.000-07:00

I played hockey last night and am I glad I showed up because we only had 8 skaters, including me. Luckily we were a) playing a really crappy team, and b) they had less players than we did. The final score was (I think) 10-1 us. I had four points - 2 goals, 2 assists, so I was pretty happy with the game. My sister was there to see me play for the first time ever, so at least I looked good!

Today has been a pretty lazy Sunday. I did a little work at home earlier to try to get a head start on the week, then finished catching up on the rest of my Tivo. Has anyone been watching E.R. this season? Have you noticed that it's pretty much a constant cry fest? Jeez...I like that show, but it's becoming exhausting to watch. I think this is the last season, and they've been saying good-bye to lots of characters. Sad, sad, sad. Still a great show.

On the down side, Wally has thrown up three times since last night. I'm not sure what made his stomach so upset, but I know I'm tired of mopping up dog vomit. Poor little guy. Time for some Pepcid!

2008-10-25T17:39:00.000-07:00

I've been enjoying headaches daily for most of the past week and it's driving me crazy. I finally got in to see my chiropractor today and he did a bunch of adjustments. I think my neck actually felt worse when he was done and then I had another headache later in the day, but I feel much better now. My sister and her friend are out driving around the coast...I didn't think a day in the car would be particularly enjoyable for me, so I opted out. I'd planned on trying to get some work done with the spare day but have instead spent a lot of time catching up on more Tivo.

I ran into my neighbors downstairs earlier. They were getting ready to go to a Halloween party at Sofie's school. Sofie is dressed as Fancy Nancy, and Wesley is dressed as a bag of Pirate's Booty. Jeff is...well, you might get it if you're familiar with Flight of the Conchords. I think right now he's trying to figure out how he'll be able to eat or drink anything at the party.

2008-10-24T20:19:00.000-07:00

On today's agenda: Knott's Berry Farm. I had actually never been there before so I didn't know what to expect other than what I've experienced with other theme parks - long lines and expensive food. I have to say, though, it was pretty cool. For one thing, since it was a weekday during the school year, there was almost no one there. We didn't have to wait in a single line for any rides which was very cool. We were able to walk right up and get on the rollercoasters and such. I was able to talk my sister into riding the Silver Bullet, one of their biggest roller coasters. It had been awhile since I'd been on one myself, so we rode it together. She was terrified! It was sort of funny actually, and I was really impressed that she faced her fear and gave it a shot. I wish I had bought the photo so I could share it with you.

That would be the last rollercoaster Darcy would ride, although she did thoroughly enjoy the log ride and the river ride (where we got soaked). I went on the Boomerang myself, and I must say - there's a reason they call it the Boomerang. I was done after that. All in all though, a pretty fun day.

2008-10-23T20:44:00.000-07:00

Today has been a pretty easy day, touristy wise. My sister and her friend found some big estate sale going on in Silver Lake for which they had to leave at 8am. I told them to have fun and gave them the keys to my car. I have no desire to search through the remains of some dead person's estate. At least I got to sleep in. The dogs and I caught up on some Tivo. When my sister and her friend returned, it was nearly lunch time so we took the Gold Line into downtown and ate lunch at Philippe's, which I've blogged about before. We then meandered through Olivera Street, then back to Union Station for the ride back home. After a quick break, we headed into Old Town Pasadena for some shopping, then made it to my 6:30 soccer game (another loss - drat!).

One benefit of having my sister here is that my kitchen is actually being used to cook. At this moment, she is making Sloppy Joe's for dinner. Yum! I am sooo hungry. Then, I believe we are playing a board game (Sorry) or watching a DVD (Zohan).

I'd also like to take this moment to wish a very special birthday to regular blog reader, Kings Fan. Did you get anything good for your birthday?

2008-10-22T22:14:00.000-07:00

My sister arrived in town with her friend today and they are both staying at my place. The dogs are happy to have more visitors and Wally is quickly figuring out who will give him food. We've already made a stop at In and Out and then went for a walk around the Rose Bowl. Rather, my sister and her friend went for a walk and were kind enough to drag Wally with them. Wally is absolutely horrible on a leash...he pulls and pulls and I've never been able to break him of it. He is so much better walking off leash, but there are too many dogs down there to let him do that. While they were walking, Grace and I took off running. It was Grace's first time going for a run with me and she did really well. It will be nice to have a dog to run with. I tried doing that with Wally when he was about a year and a half old. We got half a mile in and he just sat down and refused to go any further. Hopefully, she'll be tired out for the rest of the night.

I also haven't forgotten that it's Wally Wednesday. Here he is playing with his little sister in my office earlier in the week:

2008-10-21T18:08:00.001-07:00

A long time ago, when I worked crazy hours and it was nearly impossible to find time for things like doctor's appointments, I found a dentist in Burbank who had Saturday appointments. Perfect! Not that I like going to the dentist, but it's good to at least be able to go. I've been seeing this dentist now for about 8 years. I like her, but I have come to feel like she sort of oversells what she's doing. Or, as another friend who sees her put it, she tends to upsell. Often times, she ends up doing things that aren't covered by my insurance and I don't find out about it until I go to check out and owe a bunch of money. The last time I went in, she found a ridiculous amount of cavities and it sort of put me over the edge - especially since two were cavities she just filled last year. And my teeth feel fine! They tried to make an appointment with me when I was on my way out the door, but I told them I'd have to get back to them. She told me she wanted to do the fillings in three appointments. Three visits to the dentists!!

As I knew would happen, her receptionist began hounding me on the phone. I've been dodging her calls for weeks now. I stupidly answered my telephone at home today and it was them, trying to schedule the filling appointments again. I told her I had to get back to her. I want to change dentists. It's bad enough being scolded every time I go in for not taking good enough care of my teeth. I don't like being harassed on the phone as well.

Has anyone else ever had problems with over eager doctors?

2008-10-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

This is about the 10th time I've tried to post today. I wonder if I'm the only person having problems with Blogger.

My aunt and her husband left this morning and I've spent the day trying to catch up with work and then get ahead so I have time to spend with my sister. She arrives Wednesday morning. I've been tired all day. Being a tour guide is exhausting work! I have a hockey game to play this evening, not too late, which is nice. I think I'll spend the rest of the evening catching up on some Tivo. I did get to watch Mad Men last night. I wonder what the hell is going to happen with Don Draper?

2008-10-19T21:49:00.000-07:00

On today's whirlwind Los Angeles tour agenda:

Griffith Park Observatory (I hadn't been in about 10 years, since before they re-did it)
The Hollyhock House in Los Feliz (Frank Lloyd Wright design)
Mann's Chinese Theater

Then we had lunch in Burbank (Poquito Mas) and drove back to Pasadena to let the dogs out. We then put the dogs in the car and Grace experienced her first day at Venice Beach. She did a good job considering the sensory overload (it was super crowded down there). She was a little scared, but she handled it like a champ. There were two things that bothered her, though - the constant drone from the drum circle, and the annoying guitar guy on the roller blades - she cowered every time he skated by. I don't blame her - he creeps me out, too. Here are a couple of quick iPhone photos from the day:

The dogs conked out after their day at the beach:

2008-10-18T23:21:00.000-07:00

Wow, am I tired. With visitors here, I'm sleeping in my office on the futon. It's comfortable enough, but Wally was upset that the door to the master bedroom was closed and he spent a lot of time whining during the night, which kept waking me up. He didn't actually want or need to be IN the master bedroom, he just doesn't like closed doors.

My aunt's husband likes architecture, especially Craftsman style, so we already had plans to visit the Gamble House here in Pasadena, built by Greene and Greene. Before we went there, we headed over to the Huntington Gardens which happened to have a Greene and Greene exhibit opening today. Not only did we get to tour the Gamble House, we got to see a lot of furniture the Greene's had designed for their homes up close and personal, more so than you get to see when touring the house. If you haven't been to the Gamble House, it's definitely worth the $10 admission. It's easy enough to appreciate the design of the home itself, but when you realize that everything in the home, from the furniture to the light fixtures, the heating grates to the carpets and curtains were designed by the Greenes themselves, it's really incredible.

2008-10-17T16:57:00.000-07:00

My aunt and her husband are driving in tonight. They're coming through on their way to Arizona from Oregon and will stay here until Monday. I then get Tuesday to myself before my sister arrives with a friend on Wednesday to stay through the following Monday. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. Before I know it, October will be gone and it will be November. Hopefully, we'll be just that much closer to a change of guard in the white house.

When I got home from soccer last night, there was a message on my machine from an actual human who had called to ensure I was voting YES on Proposition 8. Boy, do I wish I had been home to take that call.

2008-10-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

I got an e-mail from a very old friend this morning. Jennifer and I have been friends since we were about 13 years old, and she now teaches at a Catholic school back in our hometown. If you had known Jennifer like I did back in the day, you would find this pretty funny. At any rate, here is her e-mail:

"I know you will laugh at the first few sentences cause it will strike you as a great irony in life.

I was teaching a religion lesson and the teacher guide explained that Jesus taught us about God- even though we did not know God, Jesus did and told people about him. It went on to direct us to tell the class about a friend of ours. So...

Now all my students know about my friend, Tiffany. They know that Tiffany lives in LA. and that we have been friends since middle school. They know what you do for a living, that you play hockey and soccer and have two dogs - they know the names of your dogs and that you have a blog. They also know about Wally Wednesday. So we do calendar every day- you know what day is it today? Cause the kids are learning days of the week and all that- so it has officially become in my classroom WALLY WEDNESDAY! Wally has 24 fans that are 6-7 year old who actually ask me if you have up any new, funny wally photos! I showed them a couple once- they also think Gracie is very cute. What is even funnier is they remember so much about you. They raise their hands to say, "Tiffany has a dog named wally and on Wednesday she puts up photos of him and sometimes Gracie is there too!" What is even better is they were reading a story about a puppy that was chewing things- and started talking about Gracie eating through your cable and blinds and what not. Part of reading comprehension is connecting things they read to real life.

Anyway, Ithought you'd get a kick out of it. One of the little boys in my class thinks Wally is the bomb and some of the girls really like watching HH on HGTV. It is great. They think they know you. Because I told them about you the way Jesus told people about God.... LOL. I guess the lesson worked.

You (and Wally) are celebs....

jen"

2008-10-15T21:10:00.001-07:00

Good evening and welcome to Wally Wednesday! About a week ago, I was working in my office when I heard a loud ruckus coming from downstairs. I called out for the dogs to stop whatever it was they were doing, but they ignored me. I peeked down the stairway to see what was going on and this is what I saw. It went on for about an hour, by the way - non-stop.

I went to the Kings game last night and got to experience the new Ice Girls for the first time. Up until now, whenever there was a break on the ice, two kids aged between about 12-17 would skate out with snow shovels and clean up the goalie creases and the area right in front of the player benches. Now, as often as possible, 6 nearly identical girls in tight pants and half shirts (on ice, mind you) skate out with shovels and go to town on the ice, like a group of anorexic little elves, their hair all straight, long, and a matching color of blond that exists no where else in nature. The person with me, Kings Fan, pointed out how much more the girls were getting done than the way it used to be done. I pointed out that it seemed to have been working just fine for the past 80 years or however long they've had those kids cleaning up the ice.

2008-10-14T17:33:00.000-07:00

My second hockey team had a 0-4 record yesterday at the beginning of our game against a 4-0 team. When the puck dropped, we had only 5 skaters. As you may or may not know, that's exactly enough to play, and exactly enough to not have any subs or play well. We played well in the first period, starting up a goal that they evened out shortly thereafter. We then led 2-1, but they eventually led 4-2 with 6 minutes left. Somehow, we scored three goals in the next 4 minutes, winning the game 5-4. One of our weaker players had a hat trick. We will now refer to it as the Miracle on Van Nuys.

I'm off to see the Kings play the Ducks tonight. As part of our league dues at Toyota Sports Center (practice facility of the Kings) we get one ticket per season. ONE ticket. Some of the guys on our team couldn't make it so I was able to get two. The tickets are awful, really far up where you have to lean in to watch the game, but hey - they're free. Kings Fan and I will enjoy the game and be very, very surprised if the Kings can pull out a win.

2008-10-13T18:24:00.000-07:00

Today has gone by in a haze. We had a late hockey game last night and, as a result, I didn't get to bed until around 2am. I slept until almost 10 this morning, like a complete rock. I rolled out of bed and right into my office where I worked on notes all day. Work for the rest of the week looks pretty uneventful, and things are finally starting to slow down a little bit.

Usually, no one ever comes to visit me in Los Angeles, but my mom and sister came earlier this year. Now, I'm expecting my cousin and her husband next weekend. They're stopping by on their way to Arizona on a road trip. Then the following weekend, my OTHER sister is coming to stay with her friend for a few days. The upcoming weekends should be busy!

My cousin's husband enjoys woodworking and has been refurbishing their home for a while now and it's beautiful. They're looking forward to touring the Gamble House here in Pasadena, which I always enjoy visiting. I'm hoping to take them to a Frank Lloyd Wright as well, though I didn't really enjoy my last tour of the Hollyhock mansion in Hollywood. Are there other tourable Frank Lloyd Wrights in the L.A. area? Anyone?

2008-10-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

It's nearly the end of the weekend and I'm suddenly tired. I'd like to take a hot bath, read and then get to bed early. Unfortunately, I have a 10:30pm hockey game. I always want to play hockey, but sometimes I wish the games weren't so freaking late.

Since my work schedule has been so busy the past few months, whenever I actually do get a full weekend off (I did have to do some work earlier today), I tend to want to do nothing rather than run around doing all the errands that need to be done. For instance, my "garden" looks like a jungle in a third world country, but it's the last thing I want to take care of when I have a spare moment. Instead, I spent the weekend catching up on Netflix. I watched "The Secret," a film about a mother who dies and ends up stuck in the body of her teenage daughter. It stars David Duchovny and was based on a Japanese film. I was really glad to see Duchovny NOT have sex with his wife while in the body of his teenage daughter. I also watched "The Namesake" with Kal Penn and "The Good Night," an odd film directed by Gwyneth Paltrow's brother (and starring Paltrow). Not worth your time. I really need to go over my queue and get some better movies lined up.

2008-10-11T22:19:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned in the past how some of the guys on my hockey team like to go out to IHOP after a game. We almost always end up at the same IHOP - the one closest to the rink - assuming the game is early enough to get there before they close. That late at night, we usually have the same waiter, and we've come to know him over the past year or so. Nice kid. We leave him a good tip and he doesn't seem to mind giving us stuff that isn't necessarily on the menu, and doesn't mind when we walk in 15 minutes before close.

When we were there last week, James, Jeff, Dean and I were finishing up our meals when he came over and said, "If you don't mind my asking, what do you all do for a living?" I thought it was cool he felt he knew us well enough to ask. We all told him, and when he realized we all made a comfortable amount of money, he proceeded to try to sell us on what was clearly a pyramid scheme. Wow, was than an uncomfortable moment. James immediately got up in sudden need of a restroom, and I was pinned on the other side of Jeff, unable to escape. Between Dean, Jeff and I, we all politely said no, but the kid was having problems taking no for an answer. He just kept pushing and pushing, and we had to pretty much back out of the restaurant with our hands on our wallets.

I had an old high school friend send me an e-mail with a similar pitch in it just a few months ago. I couldn't believe she could be so naieve to think one could get rich with such a scheme, and almost sent her an e-mail back saying, "Hey - you might want to check your account - it looks like someone is spamming people with a pyramid scheme with your e-mail address."

Has anyone else had similar experiences?

2008-10-10T22:05:00.000-07:00

I mentioned earlier that I've been thinking of going to Iceland in the next year. Since I've technically only been an employee where I work for about 6 months, I have no vacation time to speak of. We get two unpaid weeks off at Christmas, and other than that, I will only get one week next year. I've always worked through Christmas, at least for one week of it, making it home for maybe 5-6 days. I'm always exhausted and unrested by the time the New Year rolls around. One thing I am bound and determined to do this year is NOT work over the holidays, regardless of what I decide on doing.

I bought a tourism book on Iceland the other day and was surprised at how mild the temperatures there are. During the summer months, highs are in the low 60s, and in even the dead of winter, temperatures hover right above freezing. I can deal with cold. I can even deal with cold and dark (it's only light about 6 hours out of the day in December there). The tourism book made it look like the weather is A-ok there, even in the off season. Then I looked at the weather on the internet - right now, it is in the 40s and raining there, with projected rain for the rest of eternity. I then Googled Icelandic weather and discovered it pretty much rains there all the time. So the question is - can I handle cold AND dark AND...wet?

2008-10-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

I was working in my office yesterday when Gracie walked in with a chewed up piece of black plastic in her mouth. I took it from her and looked at it - it appeared to be a strap from something but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what. In a panic, I decided it might be part of my new snowboard bindings, but a quick inspection of my equipment showed everything on my board still intact. The plastic clearly appeared to be part of something and it bothered me that I didn't know where it came from. Later in the day, I walked downstairs and happened to notice more plastic on the floor in the dark corner of my living room next to my stationary bike. I turned the lights on to discover not just one but both pedals completely chewed off the bike.

Now, you might say the evidence is circumstantial. Just because Grace showed up with the smoking gun in her mouth, so to speak, didn't mean she committed the crime. She did have a motive (it was chewy), the means (it was within reach), and the opportunity (I wasn't watching her at that specific moment). I'm no legal expert, so I'll let you decide. I submit the following:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

What do you think? Does Grace get the chair? (And by "the chair" I mean the big, soft green one that Wally likes to lay in).

2008-10-08T17:16:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Wally Wednesday! I didn't realize until I saw how this photo turned out that dogs could actually roll their eyes.

I've been thinking a lot about vacations lately, probably because I'm desperately in need of one. I can take a week next year and have had a few plans. My ideas are constantly changing. My first idea was to go to Sydney for a week in May because it's a cheap time of year to fly to Australia and my friend just bought a house down there so I have a free place to stay. Still, even though I absolutely LOVE Sydney, there is so much of the world I still haven't seen. Plan two - go snowboarding in Chile next summer. Our summer is their winter, so it would be the perfect chance to get more snowboarding in AND visit someplace I've never been. A good friend from work is Chilean and can hook me up with friends of hers and cheap places to stay. My latest idea is to visit Iceland, a place I've been wanting to go for some time. Summer would be a great time to visit there. I have a gift certificate to the travel store here in Oldtown so I think I'll go pick up a book and read up on it. I do get two weeks off for Christmas - maybe holiday in Iceland and summer in Chile? (They don't force you to listen to Bjork in Iceland, do they? That might be a deal breaker).

2008-10-07T21:01:00.000-07:00

I spent some time watching the debates tonight. It was good to see Obama out there doing his thing. Unfortunately, listening to John McCain just made me irritated so I had to turn it off. I knew the program had taken a wrong turn when he referred to Ronald Reagan as his "hero." By the way, how many heroes does he get to have? In his next at bat he referred to Roosevelt as his hero, as well.

Speaking of Heroes, am I the only one disappointed by the show thus far this season? How many more plot turns can a story take? How many more characters do we need? How many more versions of those characters? When did the South American girl with the black eyes from last season turn into a Puerto Rican. Did I miss an episode? I hate to give up on a show, but they're starting to lose me.

I am looking forward to the premiere of the American remake of the BBC's Life on Mars on Thursday. I thoroughly enjoyed the English series and am looking forward to seeing what they do with this version. I know the pilot is nearly the same as the BBC version. The first season of the Office pretty much shadowed its English counterpart but then broke off on its own. We'll see how this one does. The show features Jason O'Mara (Men In Trees) as Detective Sam Tyler who suddenly finds himself inexplicably in 1973, where he must try to solve crimes while battling the often unethical police conduct of the era. Since the original shooting of the pilot, all the actors have been replaced with the exception of O'Mara. Other series stars include Harvey Keitel, Michael Imperioli and Gretchen Mol.

2008-10-06T18:49:00.001-07:00

Am I the only person who finds something sort of...wrong...with this commercial?

2008-10-05T17:13:00.000-07:00

With all the projects I've had my hands in lately, I guess I've exhausted myself. I did nearly nothing all weekend. I honestly can't think of a single useful thing I did. And I have to admit, doing nothing was sort of exhausting, too. I just woke up from a nap on the couch with Grace curled up next to me. At least I have a hockey game to go to this evening - and an early one - so I can get some exercise and still get in bed before midnight.

For those of you who have enjoyed watching Palin try to answer questions while put on the spot, you might also enjoy looking at this Debate Flow Chart. You should be able to click on the image to enlarge it.

2008-10-04T19:38:00.000-07:00

I decided to just take a day OFF today. I didn't do a single useful thing, not even the laundry. I did buy new clothes (collars) for the dogs because Grace had eaten both their leather collars (along with two pairs of my shoes) this week. This is why I can't have nice things. She's lucky she's cute, let me tell you. When it rained today, I was reminded that if this were later in the winter, snow here would be powder in the mountains. That's exactly what I was thinking when I moseyed into the sporting goods store next to Pet Smart, and ended up walking out with a new pair of Burton snow pants.

So far, I've watched two movies on DVD today. One called "Meet Bill" with Aaron Eckhart. It's a comedy about a man whose life is falling apart (in a funny way, of course). It was actually quite good. Then I ran out of new DVDs and watched "American Beauty" again. I heart Kevin Spacey. I'd like to see him in a good movie again. "21" was ok - but I mean a great role, like in this film or "The Usual Suspects."

I also found a box of old photos in the garage and scanned some to e-mail off to friends, and just got back from a 3 mile run in the dark and the rain.

Anyone else doing anything interesting or fun?

2008-10-03T16:37:00.000-07:00

It feels like it's been an extremely long week. I can at least say I got a lot accomplished, but now I'm tired. I have some work to do over the weekend, but it shouldn't be as busy as it has been recently, so maybe I can actually get out to see a movie or something. I'm still interested in the Coen Brothers latest, "Burn After Reading," and I'd like to see Bill Maher's "Religulous." I'm even thinking I might have time to go mountain biking, but we'll see. That might be a little over-ambitious.

I found out today when I have to go back into the office for rounds 2 & 3 of SS. I'm editing two complete episodes this time - they're trying not to break them up act by act. Last time, we were so behind schedule we had about 10 people working on every episode and it was very confusing. Sadly, I am doing the first and 5th episodes, which means I go back to the office in November...and pretty much stay there until March. I think I get about three weeks to come home in January. As a friend said, I should be grateful to have the work and not be looking for any, which I am, but still...I was hoping to spend much of the winter snowboarding, then working later in the day. So much for that. I guess I'll just have to slum it at the resorts on the weekend with the common working people.

2008-10-02T21:40:00.000-07:00

I just played double-header soccer games. Two games, back to back, with about 10 minutes in between, which is...pure craziness. I don't even remember playing double headers when I was a kid. Now, I'm exhausted. I did, however, score my first goal in 22 years. It was the saddest little goal ever. I had to kick it with my weak foot so it had nothing to propel it, then the goalie reached down to stop it with her hands, which she did - but her fingers were a little buttery and it rolled slowly into the goal. We won the first game, 3-0, then lost the second 4-3, which is a shame because we were ahead 2-0 early on. At any rate, I'm going to go soak in a hot tub and read. Unfortunately, the only book I have right now is in electronic form on my iPhone, so it will be hard to completely relax without fear of dropping my phone in the tub.

2008-10-01T19:32:00.001-07:00

Apparently, the morning bed wrestling will be a daily show. At least when they get tired of wrestling, they settle down and get cuddly. My neighbors who own Stryder the bulldog moved this past weekend, and I think Wally really misses him. He seems to have decided having a little sister isn't so bad after all. Here's his photo for Wally Wednesday:

I'd also like to point out that today is Oct 1...and it was 105 here today. What the hell?

2008-09-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

When I used to have to go into the office, I had to set the alarm clock for 6:30 am (when I was in Manhattan Beach, it was 5:30 am). While I'm in no way a "night person," I'm not an early morning person, either. One of the best things about getting to work from home is not having to be in at an exact time, so I never set an alarm clock. I absolutely LOVE waking up on my own without the annoyance of a buzzer. Since I got Grace, I have not been able to wake up on my own. She likes to wake me up between 6:30 and 7 am, usually by standing above me on the bed and licking my face relentlessly until I either get up, or push her off to go annoy Wally so I can sleep for another 15 minutes. Once she gets tired of Wally, she jumps back on the bed, I try to get her to lay down and pet her, but once the petting stops, the craziness starts back up again. I was so tired this morning that I put a pillow over my head so she couldn't lick me. Soon, I felt her back up on the bed, nearly on top of me. In fact, it seemed like there was more dog on the bed because the next thing I knew, they were both playing and wrestling practically right on top of me. I gave in and got out of bed. After I fed them and took them outside...they both promptly fell asleep on the couches. Sigh.

2008-09-29T18:03:00.001-07:00

When I woke up this morning, it was cold in my bedroom and I could hear the sound of car tires speeding down a wet freeway through my open window. I couldn't believe it had rained, and it continued to thunder and come down lightly all morning. By the afternoon, it was hot and humid. There is nothing worse than humidity. While I want it to be a cold wet winter so there will be snow in the mountains, I want it to be...you know...a DRY wet.

I had a great hockey game last night - two goals (in the men's league) which pretty much never happens. Now I have Grace in her crate (even though I had to carry her all the way up the stairs to put her there, she's trying to suck frozen peanut butter out of her Kong, I've left an 80s playlist going for her on the iTunes, and I'm off to a game with another league across town. I'm sure it will feel just wonderful to walk from the hot humidity of the valley into the ice rink.

2008-09-28T18:40:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of work on my plate for this weekend and planned on working all day yesterday and today. I got a late start yesterday, and was interrupted throughout the day with stupid Home Owner's Association meetings. (As an aside, I will NEVER own a shared property again). As a result of all the distractions, I didn't get much done. Additionally, the project I was working on ended up being much more time consuming than first anticipated, and instead of finishing it in the middle of the day yesterday, it didn't get done until mid day today. So much for the second project. I went down to veg in front of the TV for awhile and ended up crashing for a couple of hours. I came to in the middle of a phone conversation with someone. It's always weird when that happens. I actually, answered the phone and started talking before I was really awake. Am I the only person this happens to?

With the death of Paul Newman yesterday, some friends and I were discussing the end of an era that will happen when Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford eventually pass. It made me think we really don't have actors like that anymore. Then today, I was watching a George Clooney movie and I thought, if there was one guy who resembled that old-time Hollywood good guy, good looking actor, talented director and philanthropist, he would be it. Can you guys think of any others? Brad Pitt, perhaps? (By the way, I think this photo may be my new screen saver).

2008-09-27T12:41:00.000-07:00

I was so sad to read in the news that Paul Newman had died. He was 83, so he lived a long, fantastic life, but there are just some people you expect to be around forever. I've long been a fan of his films (even the older ones, and I don't usually like old films). He's an actor who has grown old gracefully (his good looks never faded) and has continued to take on challenging roles. He was nominated for an Academy Award as recently as 2002 for his role in "Road to Perdition." He has directed, produced, raced cars, became the branding face of his own line of food, given endlessly to charities. Fellow "Absence of Malice" star Sally Field said of him after his passing, "Sometimes God makes perfect people, and he was one of them."

2008-09-26T23:20:00.001-07:00

Just some random thoughts from the day:

Why do noisy teenage neighbors always have to play loud crappy music? Was it that loud and crappy when I was a teenage neighbor?
Why is there a big sale on Pepsi but not one on Coke? I drink Coke!
Did anyone else watch the cry fest known as the ER season premiere?
The line at In and Out is always way too long when I really want to stop there.
Time code! Time code! Time code! Why is it so hard to understand?!

Now you all know how wasted my days are.

2008-09-25T23:10:00.000-07:00

It's a sad state of affairs when, not only am I having problems forgetting to blog, I can't even remember Wally Wednesdays. I know it's Thursday but here are some photos.

I was going to take a picture of Wally getting a brief respite from Gracie, but of course you can see Gracie edging into the corner of the photo:

The next photo, she's right in the middle of things:

Finally, a moment of peace:

2008-09-24T20:51:00.000-07:00

In the comments section from yesterday, Diane asked whatever happened to Ray Charles, the blind pit bull. Ray has officially been adopted by my friend who works with Karma. Unfortunately, the surgery to try to regain sight in his one "good" eye turned out unsuccessfully and they had to remove the eye. So he is now Ray Charles the blind one-eyed pit bull. Not only that, but he has had some sort of problem with the joints in his rear legs coming basically out of the socket and laming him. He had to have surgery for that and has been away from home at rehab. He comes home this week and we're told he can fully walk and is good to go (aside from the blindness). In spite of everything bad that has ever happened to Ray, he continues to be the happiest dog in the world. He is also the spokes-dog in the video my friend is cutting for Karma. It may not make it for the party, but it will eventually end up on the web. Here's the video from last year's fund raiser:

2008-09-23T20:00:00.001-07:00

A friend of mine who is also an editor is working on a project and needed some music for it. I happened to have some on a drive and told her to come over with her own drive and I'd copy it over for her. Her project is due in just a few days. It's for an organization called Karma Rescue that helps rescue dogs (mostly Pitbulls). She does a lot of work with them and has done a lot of work on this video piece for a big shindig they're having. She's been stressed out she wouldn't get it finished in time.

So she comes over with her $300 drive, I plug it in, start to copy music over, and before I know it - BANG! The drive crashes to the floor. Gracie had been playing with Wally in my cramped office and yanked the cord of the drive, pulling it to the floor. I tried and tried to get the drive to remount to no avail. Now, my friend has to buy a new drive and redigitize over 40 hours of footage for her project, which is now not likely to get finished on time. I felt horrible. We did find it ironic, though, that a rescued dog was the one who did the damage. At least she's one of those friends who totally understands when things get destroyed by dogs. Grace was trying to be in her cutest mode, too. She's lucky she IS cute.

2008-09-22T23:49:00.000-07:00

I had tickets for the Kings pre-season opener this evening. It was sort of a lame game, since there were hardly any regular rostered Kings playing. There were, however, five big fights in the first 15 minutes of the game. I ended up having to leave in the 3rd period to get to my own game across town and it was tied at 4-4. I heard the Kings won, but I don't know what the final score was. All in all, not a very eventful game, but it was good to see some NHL hockey after the off season.

On a side note, I went with an old friend from high school. The two of us had reconnected on Facebook and he lives out in Ventura. He happened to have some free tickets for the game so I joined he and his brother in law. It was good to catch up and see that his life had turned out well. I also ran into an ex-boyfriend at the game - that part was not so fun. It always sucks to run into people you would never dream of running into at a certain place. At least the liklihood of it ever happening again is about one in a million.

2008-09-21T14:35:00.001-07:00

My mom reminded me yesterday that they're making a movie of the book "Marley and Me." The book was written by John Grogan about his experiences with his exuberant, larger than life yellow Labrador named Marley. I really, really enjoyed the book because Marley reminded me so much of Wally, especially when he was destruct-o-puppy. There's not much of a trailer yet, but I still think it's very cute.

I accidentally discovered a new trick on my iPhone yesterday. For those of you who have one, if you hold down the thumb button, then click on the power button at the top, it will snap a photo of whatever is on your screen. Handy if you want to remember something on a web site, or part of a chat in progress, I suppose. That's your Mac trick for the day.

2008-09-20T19:45:00.000-07:00

It's been a long and productive day. I got a lot more done than I thought I would so I'm about ready to feed the dogs and settle in for a DVD (I think I have "21" with Kevin Spacey downstairs).

Grace got her first bath post shelter today. I would have taken pictures but was way too busy trying to hold her down. Unlike her big brother, the water dog, Gracie doesn't apparently enjoy getting hosed down in the driveway. Still, she smells much better now and is nice and soft. My friend had given me some dog shampoo a while back, but I haven't had a chance to use it since Wally has special non-itchy shampoo. Grace had a choice between cherries and green apples. We went with the apples. She now smells like apples (sort of) and dog (definitely). Once I got her dried off and let her back in the house, she ran upstairs and crawled into the bed - still wet. Ugh. Now it's time to wash the sheets...

I hope everyone else had a good Saturday, too. And Happy Birthday, Mom!