$20 Bet

I bet the 2nd 2nd AD that the UPM wouldn't notice if she put a longer out time on her time card than technically allowed by the DGA. We'll see what happens. I just don't think he pays that much attention...

CWW

I just got a phone call from CWW - they're doing a reshoot and the payroll person is leaving. I told them I was booked thru April (and my boss piped in "and beyond"). Their 1st Asst yelled out to remind me how much fun they were. They actually were fun, but the work was crap and I wouldn't have had to go if the payroll acct wasn't such a slacker.

Book List #29

Next I read Impossible Things by Connie Willis. I love her work and would read anything she wrote.

Have to say the first story, The Last of the Winnebagos, was not a good choice for right after the husband and the dog left. I sobbed as I finished it and had to call the husband to calm me down. I was ready to go home right then. But I stayed and finished the book and it was as good as her work always is.

Book List #28

I started Life of Pi before the move and it got lost...

I feel like I picked up something else but can't remember what it was, so this blog will be about the book I picked up at the used bookstore (Bookmans) in Phx when the husband was here.

St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves: Stories by Karen Russell is a weird little collection of short stories that don't seem to go anywhere. They don't follow the basic pattern of a story, at least as far as I could tell... Several of the stories just sort of stopped and others trailed off. I liked them, don't get me wrong. The ideas of some of them were exotic and just that little bit off-kilter. But it took some time to adjust.

Blech

I'm kind of hoping someone will come along and just pinch my head off so I can be done with this show.

The UPM is a prick and the Prod Supervisor is a moron. I told C yesterday she needed to stop being nice to the PS - it's not making things better and it's making C mad. Today I reminded them that I haven't been nice to the PS for a while and you don't see her back here bugging me every 20 minutes with some bullshit.

The UPM didn't want to pay the non-union crew for the holiday until we had to remind him 1) it's industry standard and 2) not paying the office staff means not paying ALL the non-union crew including the DOT guy and the director and producer assistants. Of course, now we're paying everyone.

Hate them all.

Harry's Wand

I followed the link on girlfiend's blog to the NSFW pic of Danial Radcliffe from Equus. Have to say he's a good looking guy with a nice package, but I'm a bit thrown off by the non-circumcised aspect (T calls it a "sea slug").

But, as my mother would say, he can put his shoes under my bed any time.

Home, Home, Home

I'm flying home tomorrow night and I'm very happy about that (so happy that I stayed late at work so I could do online check-in and print out my boarding pass right at the 24 hour mark).

I have appointments to get the taxes done and to get my hair done but best of all will be seeing the husband, the dog, and the kitties. I've really been homesick for them lately and need them near me. I have to be careful to not pack the short time home with chores and crap. That's a bad tendency of mine. I want to do the minimum outside the house then spend as much time as possible just being with them.

Anyway, I've got my pass and it's time to go home and sleep. T has Handsome tonight so I should rest easy, unless I'm too excited about the trip...

I am thinking of going brown with the hair instead of red...

Handsome

It looks like Handsome has found a home with a friend of T's back in LA. We just have to get him there. I think they're planning on meeting at the CA/AZ border... and she's planning on keeping the name.

He went to the vet today. He's doing fine even with his rocky start. The change in diet is causing the diarrhea and both of his testicles have dropped. Such a good boy.

Lucy

Sweetheart's new name is Lucy. It's a good name.

Puppy Pics

Sweetheart
Handsome
so sleepy

Sweetheart and her new dad

Accounting Puppies

We rescued some puppies from the scary trailer park next door to the office. We were going to just steal them because the owner had left them outside in the rain and cold without any shelter. Then C decided to talk to him first and we bought them instead. They stank and I ended up taking them back to the apartment for a bath in the kitchen sink.

We started calling them Handsome and Sweetheart - that's what I call dogs at the dog park when I don't know their names. They're pit bull / shar pei mixes and they're pretty damn cute. Sweetheart has already found a home with a friend of one of the PA's. We grilled him fairly hard before we decided he'd be good enough. He took her home today, promising to email and bring her back for visits. I hope he comes up with a good name.

I have Handsome at home tonight. He didn't feel that well today and spent a lot of time in my lap. It was hard to get my work done - they have been quite a distraction. And the potty-training! Lovely.

Anyway, T has a friend who may take him this weekend. We'll see what happens.

Phoenix Security

I was about to go home until I heard the best story...

We have 3 different security companies on this show, working in various places. There have been issues with all of them - mainly not showing up for a shift. But there is one guy who takes the cake.

During his shift last night, he "finds" the keys to the picture car (a Cadillac) and decides to take it to Burger King. On his way back from BK he gets pulled over because the Caddy doesn't have license plates. The cops discover he has a warrant for something and he gets arrested and the car is impounded. Fuzzy on the details here, but he gets released and goes back to work. Upon his return, he decides to go into the director's trailer and raid the craft service then crawl into bed. He eats the loot, leaving the wrappers under the covers, and takes a nap.

The transpo coord finds the guy this morning still asleep in the trailer. The guy yells at the coord for not having plates on the car, blaming him for getting pulled over. When they finally get down to the impound to claim the Caddy, they discover the hubcaps have all been stolen. And it's full of BK wrappers...

As the husband says "Phoenix - proving Darwin wrong."

Very Secure

The Costume Designer had to kick in the door to the gold room on Sunday because no one had bothered to give her a key.

And there is nothing in crafty for those of us working today except for the crap the extras wouldn't even eat.

Bisbee Pics

The main street The old jail
The courtyard of our "garden cottage"
The Lavender Pit (copper mine)
The statue dedicated to the miners (T is convinced it has a boner and I'd say she's right)

Kick-Off (whatever)

I'm just about to go out the door and have dinner with my boss/friend T. Then we're headed to the kick-off party for Kids In America. Neither of us really wants to go, but feel we'd better at least put in an appearance. They had talked about having it at the nice restaurant across from the apartments, but decided to go with some cheesy college bar over in Scottsdale instead. Very classy choice if you can judge by the website (www.dosgringosaz.com).

Anyway, Bisbee was fantastic. It's still a small mountain mining town without the mining (that ended in '74). Not a lot of tourists and even fewer tourist-crap places. I have to go - will write more and post pics later!

Bisbee

We're leaving for Bisbee in about 2 minutes. I'm really looking forward to going - never been there before. I hope it's as cool as it's supposed to be but I'm prepared for it to be Gatlinburg next to a mine... A lot of the places we go turn out to be nothing more than Gatlinburg with X.

I'll post pics when I get back.

Miss you husband.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I finally went to a clinic yesterday and got diagnosed with a sinus infection. I'm feeling better after only one dose of antibiotics but I'll be glad when it's cleared up. The husband is here and it hasn't been much of a visit with me being sick and working until 7.

I left work early yesterday to go to the doctor, then we took the dog to the dog park. She really needed to run and seemed to enjoy it. At one point, she decided the best way to cool off would be to lay down in the water. As if that wasn't enough, she proceeded to roll around in the dry grass. I made her hang out a bit longer until some of it wore off.

The UPM gave everybody in the office a pink rose this morning. Very sweet of him. I gave everybody a pair of "Lucky Lovers Message Dice" and the clerk gave everybody a copy of a cd he had burned for a birthday gift last year (he had extras). So far it's been a good day. And I even resisted the urge to call this blog "Happy VD!"

Padre's

17 people showed up tonight. It was an excellent restaurant, everybody seemed to have a good time, and the producer paid for dinner...

Almost makes me wish I hadn't gossiped about him so much. And that I'd tried the pomegranate margarita.

Friday Night Dinners

Last Friday night the accounting, art, and set dec departments went to a tapas place. There were 7 of us and we had a great time. So good, in fact, we decided to set something up for tonight. C found a Mexican place who would take reservations and set us up in our own spot on the outdoor patio. She sent an email to the 3 departments to see who wanted to come. It seems as if everybody wanted to come. It looks like there will be around 20 people from all different departments, including one of the producers. Hmmm... we may have to be a bit more selective in the future. It's not the kick-off party.

I'm going to go but don't plan on staying long. The husband is coming tomorrow and I have some stuff to do before he gets in. And I don't plan on drinking, so I don't want to get stuck paying more of the bill than necessary.

Worth It?

Nothing new can come into your life unless you're grateful for what you already have.

Husband, your reason for wishing for money and success is admirable, but your lack of faith is tearing us apart.

Sick (me) & Stupid (CM)

I've been drinking Airborne all day, trying to get rid of this congestion. I think it has a lot to do with walking outside in the mornings and sucking in all that cold dry air. Sadly that isn't going to stop so I'll just have to hope drugs will do the trick. Now that I look at what I've written, I don't know that Airborne is what I really need... it's not really a "you're already sick" kind of thing. It's a "don't get sick" kind of thing. Oh well, can't hurt. But I should stop by the store and get something more drug-like.

Our Production Supervisor is a moron. I sent her an email today telling her to do her job. The production office is supposed to roster clear all the LA union hires and it wasn't getting done. She wrote back to say she'd be happy to do it, but she didn't know in advance who was getting hired. Then she included an article of the Arizona constitution detailing the right-to-work clause. It was about a whole other issue.

My boss wrote back about that in length but my repsonse reiterated my concern about the roster clearance. I told her that someone knew in advance who was getting hired because these people weren't buying their own plane tickets and per the studio, they had to be cleared before they got on the plane. She wrote back again about the right-to-work stuff and I had to reply that she could talk about it all she wanted with my boss, all I needed to know was whether she was going to do the roster checks. I haven't heard anything since.

We are so over this woman. She's making this job harder than it needs to be - we're all having to do our own jobs plus some of hers to make sure things get done right. It's not right that she's making as much as she is.

But so far she's the only really difficult person on the show and if it stays that way, it'll be fine.

Blah

I'm not sure what's up with me but I haven't felt that good all day. I didn't sleep well because I kept getting woken up - took me awhile to figure out I'd left my window open. Then when the alarm went off, I was in the middle of some dream about being a dorm-mother and some other dorm-mother kept stealing my kitchen gadgets. My throat's felt like it wants to hurt, but it's limited to aching when I swallow. I don't have a lot of energy and everything is just sort of sore. I'm going to have to crawl into bed early tonight and see if extra sleep helps.

Good/Bad News

I finally found the messenger bag Hiro carries on Heroes but it's $162.50 and I can't find it in stock anyway. Damn. I guess the one from Red Tango for $45 may be it by default. Think birthday present husband...

WW Gyp

I finally made it to a WW meeting today. I had wanted to go last week before my birthday but it just didn't happen (I had a mini-goal set). Turns out I was up .8 but I'm not unhappy - it could have been worse with the eating out during the move and starting here in Phx.

What I am unhappy about is the local franchise doesn't honor the monthly pass. I pay $40 a month to go to meetings and get internet access. It's been great. But when I set my card on the counter today, the woman told me they don't have them here. She did give me a complimentary weigh-in but said I'd have to pay next time. I asked her if any of the Phx meetings honored the pass and she said no. I have to find an 800 number and check but if no one takes them, I'm going to plan on going to a meeting when I go home to visit. I will have the husband bring my scale from home and I'll weigh myself every Tuesday. I'll miss going to meetings every week but I have to say I don't think anyone would be as good as Sheila at the meetings in LA - she's fantastic.

Anyway, I'm not going to regain my weight just because I can't attend weekly meetings. I'm going to do just fine on my own for 3 months.

Safety First

The electrician came out to the house today and fixed the wiring in the attic. When they installed the stairs, they decided it would be ok to just snip the wires to reroute them, then put them back together with duct tape or something. A bit of a fire hazard that... So now it's fixed and we can stop worrying about it.