Don't Meet People in Bars

I heard the story today of how our construction foreman (Bob) in Hawaii wanted to hire a certain medic (Joe). Bob received a phone call from another medic's father (Dave) stating if Bob hired Joe, then all of the equipment and crew would not show up for work. Sure enough, the next day came and all of the stuff was gone and nobody showed up.

Bob got another call from Dave stating Bob should meet Dave at a bar. Bob shows up and there are half a dozen huge Samoans waiting for him. Bob buys everybody a beer and Dave tells him he needs to hire this other medic (who's sitting off to the side and isn't even Dave's son; turns out the son just doesn't like Joe). If Bob does as "asked", all of the equipment and crew would be back to work. Bob agrees, the Samoans leave (without drinking the beers) and the next day everybody and everything is back on track.

Sounds like fun, doesn't it? If anybody wonders where organized crime went, try the movies.

Can Molly Have 2 Moms?

They're having a hard time finding someone big shot enough to play Mr. Thompson. So far Bridges, Douglas, and Baldwin have all passed on the part. I'm not sure why; it seems like easy money and the role is juicy - a backstabbing dad out to break up his daughter's marriage. Who wouldn't want that on their resume? Douglas is the hot choice, so they've decided to go back to him with even more money. Cause that what a mega-rich mega-star who doesn't want to be in the movie needs: more money. And the supervisor in Hawaii is worried the accounting office is going to spend too much on long distance...

Maybe they should have it be Ms. Thompson instead and get Goldie to do it. That would be funny.

Guilty: Part 2

This is Darby, our #3 cat. We got her from the pound in North Hollywood. She was about 2 years old at the time. The pound sent her to a crappy vet to be spayed and she got an infection. She was so sick after we picked her up, the one time she got out of the cat bed was to piddle in the corner, after which she promptly fell over. We had to take her to our regular vet and they kept her over the weekend and fixed her right up. But she was so mean when we brought her back home we almost took her back to the pound. She hissed and clawed and bit - she had no idea what "play" meant. We gave her 4 weeks to adjust and she finally came around. Not that she still isn't the meanest little kitty. She's just not always mean. You can't tell from this pic, but she has spots - we think she's a specially bred cat who either got out or wasn't perfect. In our world, Darby is Russian and has dreams of organizing the other animals into a communist utopia. Either that or putting them up against the wall. Could go either way. She seems to like the dog, but only because the dog is big and strong and stupid, which may be useful in the new regime.

Guilty: Part 1

The husband made me feel guilty last night for only posting a photo of Quincy, who's the #2 cat. He says I must like Quincy best since I haven't posted #1 and #3. This will fix that.
This is Baxter - he's the #1 cat. He's about 7 years old and a scaredy. He used to have little-bitty-kitty-head, because his body was so out of proportion to his head, but he's grown into a handsome boy. We were told he was a tortoise shell due to his markings, but others have said he's not. Whatever. I think he's a cutie pie. He used to be addicted to Nutrical, but that stopped when he got his pouch. We call it the "Pouch of Power." In our world, Baxter is a Bubba from Georgia who likes Nascar and wants to be a vampire slayer because of the cool dusters, like on tv.

No Bombs Here

There's no way a terrorist is going to get a bomb onto the Universal Lot unless they can hack into the parking pass computer. Those guards at the gates are strict. Even a misspelled name can keep you out.

The 1st assistant accoutant on this show is a guy, which isn't all that weird but he is younger than me. That is something to get used to...Anyway, his girlfriend is supposed to go to Hawaii with him this weekend for the start of his work over there. Well, her parents live in Houston and are having to evacuate because of Rita. She called him yesterday, crying, and was telling him all about it and how maybe she should fly down there instead of to Hawaii. Like a guy, he started in on 'what was she going to do down there?' and 'they'd just have one more person to worry about', etc. totally ignoring the fact she's CRYING and upset and just wants him to say it'll be ok. Boys.

I drove into work the other day behind a car that was crooked. I'm not sure how it could happen, but the rear end was a good 6 inches to the right of the front end. I could see the whole side of the car while I was directly behind it. What kind of bump or hole do you have to hit to make that happen? It was a total crap car but still, it's a good ton of metal that's driving down the street sideways.

Nancy got a slice of chocolate cream pie today from Marie Callender's. Not one of my favorite restaurants, btw - seems like an old person's place. She didn't think it tasted quite right, so she asked be to try it. The chocolate cream part was ok, not great, but the crust tasted like Crisco shortening. It was like eating crispy shortening. Blech. I thought she was going to heave when I told her that - it kind of made me queasy to think about it too. Anyway, she tossed the rest of the pie. I think 4 n 20 is the best for pies, hands down.

Rain in LA

It's raining today with thunder and lightning. I love a good storm. Usually a drizzle is enough for them to break out the doppler radar here and declare the "storm-tracker" is online. I guess if the land slid out from underneath you you'd be extreme about a bit of water, too. Whatever. I miss real thunderstorms. And seasons. And snow.

I didn't fell well yesterday and I don't feel that well today. The husband was good to me last night and went out and got orange juice. It helped at the time. And I felt ok when I woke up this morning, but when I started moving around I realized it wasn't over yet. I hope it doesn't last too long - going to Hawaii next week.

When I came into my office yesterday, I was convinced Hamilton was dead. He was sitting on the bottom, staring right at me and nothing was moving. I made Nancy come down and check and by the time she got here he was moving around. She said he was probably asleep. I think he's fucking with my head.

Not much going on at work right now. I promise to spread the gossip as soon as we have any.

Updates

This is Quincy, cat #2. My big task for this weekend is to get my photos off the laptop and into the desk top, and then into some format to share with everybody. I worked on this last weekend, but something glitched and all of the separate files ended up in one big file. Too much work involved in sorting them out, so I'm just going to burn each file by itself and transfer them one at a time. I do have some transferred, which is where Quincy comes in. Isn't he handsome? He has the longest whiskers I've ever seen.

The show is still going to Hawaii, but the schedule keeps changing. Looks like we'll have 8 days of shooting there instead of just 5 and there will be weekend work. Blech. At least we don't have to change the husband's ticket anymore. We're still leaving on the 29th and I know we'll have 2 days to play, but I'm hoping for 3. We'll see what happens.

I took Sofie to the groomers today. She jumped up onto my lap last night and I realized she stank. The husband, not known for his sense of smell, also told her she stank. So after an hour at the dog park running around in the mud and getting slobbered on by other dogs, off she went. I almost had them paint her nails, but I've been told that's not acceptable. She looks and smells much better, but we still have to file her nails - they're a bit ragged and scratchy.

I had to talk to the star's agent's assistant yesterday - Jordan. He seemed like a nice enough guy but I get annoyed with these assistants who take their jobs way too seriously. He wanted to "start a dialogue" about the client's payment. Whatever. It's not like I'm going to treat him differently now. The guy will get paid like everybody else - after he turns in all of his paperwork and signs his contract. Now, if he sent gifts, I may be persuaded...

The husband picked out a couple of good books for me today. I usually let him pick them out, since I'm so easily led astray but cover art. So far, there's only been one book that I can remember not liking enough to not finish. With a track record like that, I let him continue. We got one about Jim Henson and another about Vlad the Impaler and the Dracula legend (yes, it's fiction). I'm not sure which I'm going to read first.

Hamilton On The Bottom

I think I put too much dechlorinater in Hamilton's bowl yesterday. He's spent most of today sitting at the bottom, looking a little peaked. Whenever I drop food in, he struggles up to the top, then drops back down again. I changed the water as soon as I found out what the problem may be, but I hope it's not too late. We'll see if he's floating belly-up tomorrow.

Production has finally started paying for lunch. About time. I know it's a perk they don't get in the real world, but we're used to it here and we like it. Just call me Cracker.

Big Deal?

Now that we've pushed a week, I've been checking airfares and they've almost doubled. I cna't decide if it's a big deal or not. I mean, we're still flying 2-for-1 and we're still getting a free hotel room and per diem. So what if our cost has doubled. It's still a pretty good bargain.

Blog Spam

It's so hard to tell if someone has sent a real comment or just spam. I was excited yesterday to see that I had 3 comments, only to realize that 1 of them was just spam. Then I went home and the husband told me the other 2 were spam as well. I'm still not sure what to think. My ego wants to believe they are for real.

So far, the only people I know of who've written that absoluetly weren't spammers are Sped and the nice woman from Kansas. Which is fine. At least they seem to like what I'm talking about or have a question. Yes, I'd like to know more people are reading (haven't you read my bio?) besides my sister SID and the husband. But if that's the sum of my audience, so be it. I just don't want anybody's time wasted with spam.

Speaking of which, we're thinking of supplementing our income by taking Spam and peanut butter to Hawaii and selling it. We've heard the former is hugely popular and the latter is very expensive...

And Sofie ate 3 books yesterday. I took pictures of the one the husband didn't clean up. Just have to get the photos posted and we'll log Destructo's reign of terror.

Do Push!

Ignore what I said before. We are going to push. Not that it's that big a deal, more just a hassle to reschedule everything. And the change fee for the ticket.

But now we're going to be there for our 7th anniversary. And the hotel is the Marriott Waikiki Beach. Very nice, but I'd bet my paycheck that we'll be in the "city view" rooms (which still run $209 per night!). I think I'll book myself a spa treat since I'm not paying for the room.

I forgot to mention why we are pushing for a week... the actors finally got to town and did a read-thru (which is where everybody sits around a big table and literally reads through the script - I've never been to one but they always get the good craft service). Anyway, all 3 of the "stars" wanted to put their 2 cents in. Two of them are going to be "handled", but the third is also a producer so they've got to take his "questions" a little more seriously. I'm not really surprised by this, considering the version of the script I read. I just don't understand how a studio greenlights a project when the script isn't ready - this little push is going to cost us around a quarter of a million dollars.

Definition: craft service started out as a job title for the person/crew who provided cold drinks and minor snacks and picked up the trash. It's evolved to mean pretty much any food on a set that isn't provided by the caterers.

Daily Show

I keep meaning to watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, but it's on at the same time as Law & Order: SVU - to which I am sadly addicted. Well, that's going to change. My boss saw last night's show and another blog I read linked to it - both raved about it. I watched a couple of clips and they were totally right. There's no way I can miss out on the opportunity to keep informed of the day's events in such a hilarious way.

It helps that I can't stand W. I think he's like anyone else who's gotten promoted above their capabilities. You know how that goes... someone is really kick ass at their job and the honchos promote them. But they can't do better than they were doing and they fall flat on their faces. W at least has powerful friends to keep him from falling too far. Too bad for us. I can only hope the Democrats can find someone people are willing to get behind to beat whoever the Republicans throw out there. As much as I'd love to see a woman President, I don't think Hilary is a good choice. Too divisive.

I made Nancy a Loaded Goat Blueberry Cheesecake for her birthday. Once again my baking skills have proved exemplary. Yes, it really is called Loaded Goat. The recipe if out of the Aunt Bea cookbook of Andy griffith fame. The name refers to a goat in an episode that ate some dynamite. I have no idea what happened to the goat in the episode, but the cheesecake is damn fine. We decided not to share it with the rest of the office, but most of us are taking a piece home for our significant others. I even brought Lock n Lock for the husband's piece.

The Governator has a bill before him that would legalize same-sex marriage in California. I hope he signs it. There are couples out there who have been together for decades who aren't allowed in an emergency room with an injured partner because they're not a member of the family. How stupid is that? You'd think with all the tragedy in the world, with Iraq and Rwanda and New Orleans, that if 2 people can come together and be happy, it could only be a good thing. Sign it, Arnold.

Don't Push!

Although it's not been officially announced, it looks like we are not going to push a week. Apparently we can't afford to. Fine by me. I've got a ticket reserved for the husband, as well as car service to and from the airport. Hate to rearrange everything.

Only a little more than 2 weeks 'til Aloha!

We still don't know where we're shooting, though. There's talk of going to Turtle Bay, which is where Lost shoots. That'd be fine - I know people on that show that I haven't seen in years. They'll figure it out eventually.

Your movie ticket dollars at work, folks.

Still Lost

Even though the husband and I managed to unpack most of the stuff over the weekend, I still haven't found my shuffle. And I can't find my chinese take-out bag, either. I can't help but wonder if they are together and if someone took them. Man, that sucks. I have to pick through the cars one more time, but I'm afraid they're just gone. Sorry husband.

Got to Make a Change

I'm thinking about rejoining Weight Watchers or going to Overeaters Anonymous. I've got to do something to lose the 25 pounds I've gained since I got back from London. I'm exercising but my eating has been terrible and something's got to change. Working in this business can wreck anyone's resolve. There's non-stop food everywhere you turn. Maybe OA will help me get what I need.

I also need to stop watching/reading atuff about New Orleans. I'm just dumbstruck by what's going on down there and I really can't handle it anymore. It's like a car wreck and I'm a looky-loo. Why have these people reverted to roaming the streets in gangs? What good is that doing anybody? It makes me believe the worst about people, that when push comes to shove, more people are bad than good. Or maybe it's just a better news story to report the bad...