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.

Status Update: Phx

Did I mention I was in Phoenix? It seems like so long ago since I last wrote anything. I traveled in on Monday and got settled into my apartment, then jumped right into work. It was a bit confused, not really knowing any of the deals, but it's payroll - pretty much always the same. We went out to a great restaurant Monday night and I was going to get the steak tacos but everybody else was ordering them and I hate to duplicate. I ended up with some delicious scallops. I'll get the tacos next time.

The office is a pit - used to be some engine repair shop. By the time I got there it was workable, but they only got desks and chairs the Friday before! And it's usually cold but we have space heaters. Today we got floor lamps so we could turn out the overhead lights. I don't understand how people can spend day after day under those nasty things. I also swiped an ottoman from the costume office next door. They don't come in until tomorrow and they'll never miss it.

The apartments are fine - nothing special but livable. Although I do enjoy the gas fireplace... There's a canal nearby and my boss and I have been walking in the mornings. I know I'll have to find some sort of boot camp soon but it's better than nothing.

So far, everybody in accounting is getting along. Three of us worked on EA so that should be ok. The 4th seems pretty cool and she has the 2nd cutest dog in the world. I'll have to take a pic of her. Foxy was going to be the office dog, but M is allergic to her. We're going to restrict her to "Foxy Fridays". It's not that bad since she has a very shrill bark and tends to go after people who come into the office. Luckily she's all of 10 pounds.

It's getting late and I have to get up to walk. T will kill me if she gets up that early and I don't. But I want to, so it's ok.

Outta Here

We've moved and I'm about to leave for Phx. The house is a wreck, but it'll be nice once it's all unpacked and sorted out. More later...

Philly?

I picked this up from girlfiend and the beagle mom, but I don't know that it's all that accurate... I lived in Indiana for the first 9 years of my life then Tennessee until I was 25. Most people think I have a southern accent. I don't think it's all that noticeable unless I'm around other southern people - then my drawl really kicks in. Whatever.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: Philadelphia Your accent is as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak! If you're not from Philadelphia, then you're from someplace near there like south Jersey, Baltimore, or Wilmington. if you've ever journeyed to some far off place where people don't know that Philly has an accent, someone may have thought you talked a little weird even though they didn't have a clue what accent it was they heard.
The Midland
The South
The Inland North

Holiday Cats!

And last but not least, here's my ill-fated attempt to make Christmas cards using pics of the cats in a Santa hat. Notice the death stare from Baxter...

Holiday Pics #2!

My sister and I made Christmas cookies and put them in a tin that I remember from forever. It was nice to continue that tradition. Of course, Sofie made herself right at home at Grandma and Grandpa's house...

Holiday Pics!

This is the magnificient tree topper my parents have used ever since I can remember. Like I mentioned before, the light patterns on the ceiling rotate when the bulb heats up.
Pretty, isn't it?

Book List #27

When I started The Girls' Guide To Hunting And Fishing by Melissa Bank, I was really into it and thought it was going to be a good find. I was wrong. Maybe I'm the wrong generation for it, or maybe I just don't have the life experience's to appreciate it, but I was disappointed in everything after the teenage years. I just kept wondering what point it was trying to make... And when they threw in the bit from another woman's perspective, I was totally off. I couldn't figure out if they had jumped years again or what. I wouldn't recommend it.

Bug Bite

I had to take Sofie to the vet this morning - she's got what looks like a bug bite on her right front leg and she's been licking at it since yesterday. The doctor said it probably was just a bite, but it could also be some kind of non-cancerous skin tumor (Sofie's been vomiting and had diarrhea this morning). Anyway, she got a couple of shots and some pills for the itching and some antibiotics. We just have to keep an eye on her for a couple of weeks.

Walk-Thru (Or Not)

We had the walk thru today in our new townhouse and decided to take Sofie along. She seemed to really like the place and the husband took her out onto the patio, which made her pretty happy. We went upstairs and had a look around then headed back down. I was in the lead and Sofie was right by my side. When we got to the 1st floor, she took off, leaping her way thru the dining room until she bonked right into the closed sliding glass door. I was the only one who actually saw what happened although the husband and our agent both heard it. Poor thing. She probably thought she had a clear shot outside. She kind of staggered back to me and I picked her up, trying to console her even though I was laughing out loud. She wasn't hurt, just stunned. But I don't think she's ever do that again.

10%

I reached my 10% goal at WW tonight. Hoorah for me! No plans for saying what that number actually is, but it is almost half of what I want to lose. Never should have regained the weight, but I did and now it's time to lose it.

Bye Vespa!

A driver is coming by this morning to pick up my Vespa to take to Phx. Yeah! I'm glad it worked out - now I'll have a way to get around a bit, even if I can't really use it to get groceries or anything major. At least I won't be stuck at home...

I have to find out from T how the office and apartments are. She traveled yesterday (as far as I know) and I need to make sure the apartments are fully stocked before I finish my packing. I don't want to have to worry about towels and pots & pans and stuff. I just want to take clothes, shoes, and books. Keep it simple this time.

Sofie Hates Cows

We noticed on our way home, driving I-40 cross country, that Sofie is intensely interested in cows. Every time we passed a field, she'd stare at them as if she suspected them of being the real masterminds behind every evil in the world (cow conspiracy). Maybe she thought they were big dogs in a big dog park but it really seemed as if she didn't like them in the slightest. We never got the chance to let her see one up close, but that may be for the best.

Christmas Cards

The husband and I are moving. We sold the condo and bought a townhouse and are in the process of packing everything up. Needing boxes, we did what we always do - raid the dumpsters at the book stores. In so doing, I came upon a box of Christmas cards. The writing on the box indicated they were to be destroyed after receiving credit from the company. The box was taped shut and thrown in the dumpster - no evidence of the store employees having done anything other than that to ensure the "destruction." I scooped up the box and brought it home and found it contained a ton of those really expensive cards - from $5 to $7 each. I sorted thru them and kept everything that was for a generic recipient (which was about 70%). I didn't keep any Hanukah or God cards - didn't want to be a hypocrite.

Anyway, is this wrong? Did I steal these cards? Or am I just recycling? Don't misunderstand me, I'm absolutely planning on sending these things out next year. I'm just wondering if I should be concerned about any ethical/moral aspect.

Book List #26

I just finished Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. It was the husband's choice and I'm glad he gave it to me. Initially, I had trouble suspending my disbelief over the main character's allergy to branding (the use of trademarks and such) but I finally just accepted it. Mostly, I was worried that Gibson would take the predictable route and the ending would suck. There are a lot of scenarios that get set up and it's easy to assume he'd go with the trite conclusion. I haven't read enough by him but I should have guessed the husband wouldn't recommend it if he was that kind of writer. Basically, try to read it without trying to read into it and it'll take hold. I will admit I'm wondering if it would be possible to recreate the experience of the "footage" in the real world but with the prevalence of YouTube, it's probably already being done...

Vespa

I have to call the Transpo Coord and see if he can get my Vespa to AZ for me. I hope it works out, because I know I won't get a car to myself. Not like I'll be able to get a case of water home from TJ's but at least I'll be mobile.

The Rest Of The Trip (Condensed)

I got bored with recounting my trip home. Not much more happened anyway, except they shut down the interstate thru New Mexico again due to the 2nd blizzard. We found out when we hit Amarillo, Tx. Luckily we could go south thru NM and hit the 10 (again) this time going west. It wasn't so bad and we did get to go thru Roswell. It's a nice enough little town but we didn't stop for long. Actually, most of the little towns weren't so bad. Not that I'd want to live there, but at least it wasn't Texas. Blech.

I took pics of the tree topper and I'll post them when I get a chance. I've been packing and time pretty much slips away from me. Feels like there's a million things to do.

Job Hunt

I just turned down "Starship Dave" with Eddie Murphy. My friend Mo originally asked me to do this last April when it was going to be in Shreveport. Now it's with a different accountant and it's all going to be in LA except for 2 weeks in NY. I told him if my Phoenix show fell apart I'd let him know.

The Trip To Tn (Days 5 & 6)

Day 5 (Saturday 12/23):
We finally got a chance to sleep in. I don't think we got out of bed, except to walk the dog, until 10:30am. Heaven. Then we found out my brother K had been taken to the hospital - his "stomach virus" was a bit more serious than everybody else's. Not surprising, really. Ever since his motorcycle accident he's ended up in the hospital whenever he's gotten anything more than the sniffles. You know, I really can't remember what we did all day. I know we went to McKay's again, we went to Border's, and we went over to the house for dinner, but other than that there wasn't much going on. My brother T came in from Indiana but I didn't even see him until they all got back from church (no, I did not go to church).

Day 6 (Sunday 12/24):
The husband got sick overnight. He didn't leave the hotel room at all. Sofie and I went over to the house for the day so he could rest. My sister and I finally got the tree decorated - she had most of the house done, but hadn't gotten around to doing the tree (when we got home on Thursday, I went downstairs to see the tree and was disappointed, but I'm glad I got to be involved in the end). I decided Sofie needed another run and took her out to my parents' back yard. It's not fenced, but the neighbors have a fence and the yard backs up to woods. It's also on a cul-de-sac so I figured it was pretty contained. She really had a good time and didn't stray very far. If I ever felt she was going off on her own, I would just say "goodbye" and start walking away and she'd come running back. We stayed for dinner then went back to the hotel. The husband was still sick. It didn't take long for me to be sick, too. I'd had flashes on Saturday but when nothing really happened, I figured it was over. But I spent Christmas Eve in the hotel bathroom. It was not something I'd want to do again - it's bad enough to be sick but to have to hang out in some strange hotel bathroom - gross.

The Trip To TN (Days 3 & 4)

Day 3 (Thursday 12/21):
After once again getting up at 4am, we drove all day and finally made it home. It was raining and about 55 degrees (warmer than SoCal). We checked into the hotel and walked the dog, then made the first of several trips to the best used book store in the country, McKay's. We saved up all the books that didn't sell at the Shrine and took them home with us - 8 boxes worth. They are kind of finicky about how many you can bring in for trade at once, so we had to split it up into 4 trips. Anyway, when we finished there, I called my family to let them know we'd made it in and that we'd be over soon. When we got there, we found out that my brother K was sick, that my brother B was sick, and that my sister was sick. Apparently there was some stomach virus going around. Lovely. Anyway, we introduced Sofie to my mom, who isn't a dog person and Sofie could tell. She would just sit there and stare at her, which slowly advanced over the course of the evening to growling. Not aggresive growling, just that "I-know-you-don't-like-me-what's-wrong-with-you" kind of thing. It didn't help that my mom's got macular degeneration and her right eye was all bloody from a leak. Must have freaked Sofie out. We chatted with my family and then my dad and I went and picked up some dinner. We were exhausted and went back to the hotel soon after.

Day 4 (Friday 12/22):
We finally got to sleep in a bit - didn't get up until 7am! We had some errands to run and had an appointment at the bank to finish up some stuff with the MIL's estate. On the drive over, I called my mom's office and found out she didn't go in to work. Yes, she had gotten sick, too. Anyway... while waiting at the bank, we got to talking about dogs and the woman we were meeting with said we could bring Sofie in with us (she was out in the car and wasn't happy about it at all, but we figured it was better than leaving her in the hotel). That was all it took for me to go out and get her and man, was she happy. She was actually pretty well-behaved, too. That took about an hour and then we had to stop by our own bank, then McKay's, then we went over to the house. My sister was feeling better and we talked with her for a bit. She told us about a dog park nearby and we decided to take Sofie there - she really needed to run. It was a nice looking place, but it was only off-leash for certain hours in the evenings and that wasn't going to work for us. I'm not sure why anyone would need a dog park that wasn't off-leash all the time. Isn't that just a walk? Anyway, the husband had found another dog park online and we drove over to it. It wasn't as nice as the commercial place, but it was off-leash. It was set in the woods in a bigger city park and there wasn't any grass. Thankfully, someone had put straw down otherwise it would have been a mud pit. there were some other dogs there, mostly bigger, but Sofie got her run on and that's all that matters. I don't remember too much else from that day - it wasn't that exciting. Maybe the husband will remind me of something I've forgotten.

The Trip To TN (Days 1 & 2)

Day 1 (Tuesday 12/19):
It all started so well. We got up at 4am and were in the car before 6am. The traffic was easy, the weather was nice, and we had Chick-Fil-A for breakfast. We decided not to stop in Lake Havasu - figured we'd save it for the drive back. When we got to Albuquerque, it was snowy but the roads were clear. We decided to go to the eastern side of the city before stopping. When we got to Tramway, a cop car was running a rolling roadblock and traffic was being narrowed to one lane. We decided we'd gone far enough and pulled off instead of sitting in traffic. When we got checked into our room, we found out the interstate had been SHUT DOWN from Tramway to Texas (the State of Texas, not some interstate exit...) - that's about 200 miles of major US interstate shut down. We went to bed with the idea the roads would be cleared in the morning.

Day 2 (Wednesday 12/20):
We got up at 4am again and turned on the tv - I-40 was shut down both east and west out of Abq and I-25 was shut down going north to Santa Fe. That left us with I-25 south. We decided to drive south to El Paso, Tx and head home from there. At least it wouldn't be snowy that far south. We got going and found the roads to be slushy, but not bad if you were cautious. After getting gas, we made our way to I-40 and headed back to the interchange so we could get on I-25. About 3 miles in, the cops had a roadblock going. Everybody had to get off the interstate. We listened to the radio to find out they had shut down the I-40/I-25 interchange because of ice (it's all bridges and overpasses). Damn. Luckily, we rememberd the basic layout of Abq from having visited while in SF with Used Guys. We took surface streets over to the west side of town, planning to get on the 25 from there. No luck, the cops had the access ramps blocked. Stopping at a gas station for a map, I told the ladies behind the counter I was hoping to find a route down through town that would get me past the blocks. They suggested I just take the access road and directed me to it. Sweet. We got on the access road and took it all the way to the end before we were able to get on I-25 south. I was starting to worry we wouldn't be able to, but it worked out. We were on our way to El Paso. We found out later they had shut down the access roads to keep people off the interstate. Thank dog we left when we did. 1100 miles later, we stopped for the night in Hope, Arkansas (home of Bill Clinton). It was a long damn day.

We're Not Dead

I know I've been remiss, but I swear I'll catch up soon. We made it to TN and back just fine. More later...

Mistletoe Update

Erdedo writes:
I am happy to report that LIVE mistletoe can be purchased at the check-out counter at the Weigel's (gas station) on Westland Drive for $2.00 a piece. The girl who works the front counter said that she and her family shot it out of the tops of family trees over the Thanksgiving weekend, and now it is readily available to you...but somehow with that story it lost some of the mystique...

Yes, yes it has.

Holiday Checks

Today was supposed to be my last day of work, but the holiday payout checks weren't ready until this morning and I wasn't able to get everything done.

Holiday payout is a union thing; union members accrue 3.719% of their regular salary every week (paid for by the production). The money sits in an account and is used only if a crew member works on a holiday. If the crew member never works on a holiday, then that accrued money is paid out to them at the end of the show. There are some exceptions, but that's what happens for the majority of the crew.

It's usually a large project, but on something as big as EA, it's ginormous. I printed out 895 checks this morning. It took me awhile to get them all printed, copied, and then filed away. I had to file them because they were coming to collect our files to take them up to the studio - we knew we couldn't send them that much filing right off the bat! After all that was done, I had to fix the coding on the report so it all went into the right budget account. Then I was able to start folding and stuffing them into envelopes. T helped me with that part... Now we have 5 boxes of checks waiting to be sealed and stamped and put in the post. Thank dog I had the PA's get me 900 stamps!

And even though 895 seems like a lot of people, it's only the LA union crew. It doesn't count all the people from VA, the non-union crew, or the people who didn't get a check for one reason or another. That's a lot of payroll.

Maybe if I hadn't taken an hour and a half to look at townhouses... nah, it was too big for one day. I have to go back on Monday and finish up, then pack up all my crap. We leave for TN on Tuesday morning.

One last thing... I told T I wasn't going to AZ. That's finally settled.

Book List #24 & #25

While in Pasadena one weekend, we stopped at a very nice used book shop. I don't remember the name, but it had a good selection and seemed friendly. The husband found 2 books for me that had cats on the covers. Sad but true, I usually like that kind of thing. Anyway, I just finished reading the books and I have to say I hope there will be a 3rd in the series.

Diane Duane's The Book Of Night With Moon and To Visit The Queen feature cats as the main characters. Not ordinary cats, though; these cats are wizards and they control the gates that allow any wizard to jump from one place to another. Sounds kind of stupid, but I liked them and I thank the husband for picking them out for me.

Book List #23 Cont'd

The husband picked up Labyrinth at the library and I was able to finish it. I quite enjoyed it and read it pretty quickly, but I hope the author didn't think she had come up with a fantastic twist. I had it figured out pretty early on. But that didn't stop me from liking it and I hope to read more of her one day.

Arizona Job

So, T's got this show going to AZ. I've been telling her all along that I couldn't go out of town right now, too much going on with selling and other stuff. She kept asking, over and over, and I complained to the husband about it. He said - if she'll pay you X for 5 days, we'll go. I figured that'd be the end of it and tell T that I'd have to have a raise. I didn't tell her the amount, though. She tells me it's not in the budget. I think it's finally over.

I'm talking to her today and we're discussing the savings she's taking because she's on EA right now and her prep on the new one is shorter. I ask her how much they're saving and could I have it? She said D-studio exec told her that at my current rate, I wouldn't be getting more money from the studio. I'm a bit indignant about this, since the guy in VA got $100 more.

Anyway, we start discussing how the studio pays location and they it turns out they combine the 2 Idle days and the 5 day work week, meaning I'd be making the X the husband talked about. And if I worked 6 days, then it'd be X+$150. So when you add in per diem, I'd be making about $685 per week more than I'm making right now.

I called the husband to let him know his conditions were met, but now I don't know if I want the hassle of it all. We're going home for 12 days for Xmas and we'd have 10 days after getting back to get everything packed up and put into storage and get to AZ. Plus, I'd be leaving my bootcamp and WW meeting and other "stuff". I had been prepared to not take this job for so long, but the money is calling me back. I've talked myself into and out of this job about 6 times now. Blech.

Underdog

The husband showed me some stills from the upcoming Underdog movie. Of course, I decided if they have any kind of "bring your dog to a screening" event, I'm dressing Sofie up and taking her. She probably won't like it too much but I don't really care. I'd never do anything to hurt her but I'm all for embarrassment. She'd be so cute!

I tried to watch the live-action Year Without A Santa Clause. It was abominable. Why do they feel the need to tinker so much with the classics? If they had redone it word for word, I would have been happy. But all that crap about Santa losing his market share was totally unnecessary. I couldn't stand more than 5 minutes of it. I think I'll have to pull the original out and watch it soon.

My Husband Is Not The Bad Guy

There's something in my personality that makes me want to make things work out, even when they shouldn't. I've never really thought about it before, but last night the husband pointed out to me that he was always having to be the bad guy and say "no" to things.

It's true.

We discuss something and set up parameters, then I go out into the world and find out those parameters are difficult. So I try to find a way around them and the husband has to step up and remind me of what decisions we'd made.

It's not fair to him and I need to stop doing it.

Good/Bad Day

Turns out the townhouse I fell in love with doesn't have earthquake insurance and that's one of our must-haves. Bummer.

But I did find $5 on the street while walking Sofie this morning!

More Hunting

I went and looked at more townhouses today. Only 1 of them was as nice as yesterday's and that's only because it was bigger. None of them had attached garages and one had a sleeping Euro man in it (I guess his agent didn't tell him we had an appointment...)

I also got a lead on the job hunt, but they're not looking for someone to start until February and I don't really want to take that much time off.

I think it's about time to send some emails...

House Hunt

I went and looked at a townhouse today. It was a really great space (3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, attached side-by side garage, bonus room). It needs some updating and it's over-priced because of that, but I liked it a lot. I'm going tomorrow to look at some more and maybe again on Saturday, but this one could be something special.

SOLD!

It's over. Our buyer stepped up to our price on Sunday and we've sold the condo. It was kind of funny, as he waited until he'd brought his girlfriend by to look at the place before he answered. It's also kind of sad. I had so many plans for this place and so few of them ever got accomplished. Maybe I'll do better with the townhouse...

The husband and I went looking this weekend and found one really great condo. It's too far west, though. Not a lot by distance, but it adds on to the commute time. I just don't think it's going to be the place for us, but man did I like it. It was big and airy and had great views. It also had an attached garage, a loft, and a rooftop patio. I'm going to talk myself into it if I'm not careful.

Bits Of Show

I have continued my tradition of taking something from every show I work on. If I'm lucky, it's something from the set and if I'm not, it's something from the office. Anyway, on EA I've managed to get some pieces of cedar planking that was part of the ark. I even got Mario from construction to cut it to size for me. It's going to go over the cheapo bookcases I'm using as a sofa table. All I have to do is put a thick coat of poly on it, put the pieces together and voila!

Not to say I'm not going to try and snag the heavy-duty stapler, too.

Condo For Sale

I went over and wrote a counter-offer this morning, dropping our price by $4k. The prospective buyer came back with an additional $10k. We're only $8k apart now and I think this may work out.

We have another showing right now, though. Maybe we'll have some competition...

Christmas Meme

Erdedo sent me this and it makes an easy blog...

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate with marshmallows

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? What tree? Giftbags, if I'm feeling all Martha, otherwise just pulled out from behind my back.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Again, what tree? I wish I could put some lights up - I grew up with colored but I think I like white better.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No

5. When do you put your decorations up? Uh, never? Usually working and don't have time, plus we have 3 cats and a dog. Too dangerous. Although the husband and I are collecting the Dept 56 Dicken's Village and one day we'll have a huge spread...

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? My mom's stuffing and her Parker House rolls.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Staying up late on Christmas Eve after midmight mass with the whole family.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't remember when or how I learned, but I did believe!

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? My husband's family does this and now I do, too. But I prefer Christmas morning.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Since I haven't put up a real tree in years (allergic and has cats), have to pass on this. I do have a fiber optic tree, but it's small and doesn't really hold decorations.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? SNOW! SNOW! SNOW! Too bad I live in SoCal...

12. Can you ice skate? Yes, but not with any real grace. I have trouble stopping. And I broke my tailbone when I tried to take lessons.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Nope - I know I've had some good ones, but nothing jumps out at the moment as my favorite.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Family

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Pecan Pie

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? When I was little it was baking cookies. Now it's just being with family.

17. What tops your tree? My parents have a topper that looks like a star, but it has a big plastic faceted bubble in the middle. There's a light inside the bubble and the light is surrounded by a cylinder of mutlicolored gels. When the light heats up, the cylinder spins and the light is thrown onto the ceiling like a mirror ball. It's so cool I found one on Ebay and I'm anticipating the day I can put it up.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Receiving. Yes, I said it. Bring on the loot.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

20. Candy Canes: I love the ones Hershey puts out with chocolate but I rarely buy them. They're better as decorations or in ice cream with apple pie.

1st Offer

We got our 1st offer on the condo today and it's $37K less than our asking price. Our agent said she would have been embarrassed to submit an offer that low.

The husband wants to counter with $8k more than our asking price, but I just can't bring myself to do that. Maybe he's right that I just let everybody else take advantage of me - trying too hard to be polite and nice. Maybe we should just come back with a big "Frak You."

Crappy Days

It's been a crappy couple of days. I woke up at 3:45 am yesterday morning, disturbed by the dog and Baxter. Both of them sleep on the bed and they wake me up all the time. Plus, Darby decided she needed to get into the bathroom cabinet. Since she's not really strong enough to get the door open, it ends up falling shut over and over (BAM. BAM. BAM.) When I got up to take care of it, I stepped on Sofie.

This kind of stuff isn't unusual but for some reason it really got to me and after lying there for over an hour, trying to fall back asleep, I broke into tears when the alarm went off. The husband woke up and tried to comfort me, but I still had to get up to go to the gym. I was pissed at Sofie, I was pissed at the cats, I was pissed at myself. The animals weren't doing anything intentional and I felt bad about it.

I stayed up really late last night - trying to exhaust myself so they wouldn't get to me again this morning. I slept until 5 and got up to the alarm, but it pretty much backfired. I was a total bitch to the husband and have been angry all day. I may have to go back on my meds. I think it's more than not getting enough sleep that's causing me to be angry at the drop of a hat. I keep it under control at work, but I can't hold it in forever. And my control at work is slipping. Whenever I get the chance, I yell and call people names. Never to anybody's face, just in general about the stupid shit that comes across my desk.

We did get the dog statue glued back together last night and it looks pretty good, but the finish is too shiny for the cracks to go unnoticed. The husband suggested we paint it like we did the lion from the Alburquerque flea market (faux stone). I think it's a good idea, but I want to get a different color for it. Have to go and have a look at the options.

Oh, and I found out my mom has macular degeneration or something like it. She's lost enough vision to not be able to read or write anymore. Scarier still, my dad has been driving her around.

Notes From Others

I don't know why I never get comments on my blog... but I do get comments in my email and occasionally some other fun stuff!

From N:
I meant to comment on your Splenda cooking. I tried once cooking with it, lemon bars. And it was disgusting. I threw the whole thing out. It didn't set right and it had a nasty taste. I don't know how people can cook with it. ME had major success with it.

All I can say is more power to her - the shiat was gross.

From my brother M (who forwards every joke, warning, notice, etc he comes across):
An elderly couple was attending church services. About halfway through she leans over and says to her husband, "I just let out a silent fart. What do you think I should do?" He replies, " Put a new battery in your hearing aid."

One of his better ones...

More from N about the CWW situation:
(my email to her)
Let me get your take on something - M called yesterday saying another Uni show needed a few days help with payroll and could I do it? T said it was ok and I said yes and today I'm at Paramount. I've put the gross on timecards; checked edits; printed, copied, folded, stuffed and sorted checks. I'm going to print invoices and I entered start cards into the crew list. The payroll acct I'm helping has been working 6 and 7 days for weeks and is having an allergy attack today. She went home at 3 o'clock. Should I feel bad for wondering if I'm being taken advantage of?Forgot to mention I had to buy my own lunch (they are shooting on the lot but had a late call). Besides that, I think it's a little weird that M would even ask knowing I was on EA - even though I'm not that busy.

(her response)
Hmmm that is a tough one. First, that sucks that you are at Paramount and that you had to pay for your own lunch. They really should have picked up that tab. They should allow you to turn it in as PC. Okay whether you should feel like you are being taken advantage of. By M asking you to take care of things for him tells me he really trusts your work. Are you getting paid for both jobs? Like any sort of perk? And do they really need you more days if you got all that done for her? Is she coming back tomorrow or because you promised to help out for a few days will her allergies continue. If they had said she needed help because she was ill and needed to go home then that was one thing but if she went home because you are taking care of everything well, she is taking advantage.

Which is why I'm not going down there tonight!

Estate Sale

I went to an estate sale this morning and got some nice stuff, but I have to say those things are always very sad. Some guy, probably no older than 40, died and all of his stuff got sold off to strangers. It took me back to when Betty died and we had a sale with her things. I appreciated the people who bought stuff and hated the bastards to wanted to haggle. At least this sale was held by professionals and the family didn't have to deal with any of it.

Anyway, I got a great statue of a dog. It's about 3 feet tall and black graphite looking. Unfortunately, I bumped him on the way over and his snout hit the passenger window and his head broke off... It's a clean break and I can glue him back together, but I do seem to have a bad time of it with statues. We did notice as we were looking at him that this isn't the first time his head's been knocked off. There's an old crack further down the neck that's been glued. I don't feel as bad as I did.

I also got some cookware (I guess it's Corningware), a nice pie plate, and the 1st 2 seasons of the Sporanos on DVD for the husband. The 1st wants to go over tomorrow and I think I'll go with her and see if the last of the rugs is still available and how much they want for it.

I don't know why I'm going to do this, but the company holding the sale sends out emails for their upcoming events. This past weekend they were in Bel-Air and maybe I just want a chance to snoop around in someone's home...

Official Job Hunt

Well, it's official. I've put myself out there as available for work. I'm still hoping to work with T but with the chance her show goes to Arizona I don't have a choice. It looks like there are a lot of things going out of town and I may end having to take one of them, but it's not to that point yet and probably won't come to it.

I just hope I get something decent...

Who knows? I may end up as 2nd Payroll over on CWW considering how that show's going.

Not As Lazy As I Would Have Liked

After seriously considering taking the condo off the market, we had someone come look at it today and have someone scheduled for tomorrow. Plus, the article in the paper said the average sale takes 30-90 days. We just hit 30.

Going now to take the old paint to the hazmat drop-off site then on to the dog park. May stop by Jackalope on the way home and see if they have anything that would work as a bench base...

Runner

Just got back from taking Sofie to the dog park. I have to say if I get any time off after we get back from traveling, I'm going to take that dog to the park everyday for an hour at a time. Man, she loves to run. It's the only reason I'm seriously considering buying a house instead of a townhouse - so Sofie will have a yard to run in at any time...

Doin' Time at Paramount

Where to begin?

I spent the last 2 days working on CWW down at Paramount. The accounting crew was very nice and appreciative. I was happy to be able to help them, even though at times I felt they were to blame for getting behind in the first place - a lot of the stuff they did seemed like double work. I checked edits on Wednesday, but in the end I was a highly-paid clerk; a lot of copying, folding, stuffing, sealing, and filing. The only real point to having me down there instead of a clerk was that I didn't need to be trained. I could just step in and know what needed to be done. I only wish I could have finished everything but when you run out of basic filing supplies, there's nothing to be done. At least I fixed their label program.

What frustrated me most was the fact the woman I came in to help left at 3pm on Wednesday because she wasn't feeling well (and because I was there) and then on Thursday she left before I did again. Not sure what's up with that - if I was to get so far behind as to need help, I'd make damn sure I was the first in and the last out. Different priorities, I guess.

Gossip that I learned:
- Julia changed her name and is going by her husband's last name now
- Tom has his hair straightened
- They're going to be doing Angels & Demons next.

Gossip about RH3 (the payroll acct's husband is a driver on that one):
- J Chan broke his collarbone doing a stunt
- Chris got "saved" and now won't say any of the cuss words in the script. When they come up, he gets huffy and stomps off to his trailer.
- J showed up to work after breaking his collarbone, but Chris was sick and they shut down for the day. Wonder how sick you have to be when the guy with the broken bone arrives on time?

Possibly Sinister

I've been loaned to another show (Charlie Wilson's War) for the next 3 days to help out with the regular payroll while the payroll acct fixes some sort of SAG nightmare (something to do with getting back from Morocco and having the Exhibit G's be a huge disaster).* It's on the Paramount lot with an acct I've never met so it should be a good way to network. I'm still going to have to do my regular EA work, but we're so slow it should be fine. Just have to make sure I don't forget to take my timecards with me!

The reason any of this is possibly sinister is because it seems the exec here is trying to break up T's staff. He's got me going over the hill and he called and offered the 1st that show in Greenville, doing the tax incentive paperwork. It's almost as if he's trying to make sure T doesn't have a crew if she gets a job. Plus he started talking to her about reshoots and she absolutely does not want to hang around for reshoots. So I guess we'll see...

*SAG = Screen Actors Guild
*Exhibit G = the report indicating the call and wrap times for the actors, used to generate paychecks for anybody who isn't making over $65,000.00

My Friend Frank

I went to Six Flags on Friday with Frank, a friend I met back in Atlanta. He moved out to LA too and we're both chugging along in the industry. Frank is the only person I know who likes roller coasters as much as I do, so every year or so we get together and ride. This year, I found out Frank is an EMMY WINNER!!! I can't believe I didn't know he'd won an Emmy! That is so cool. He was going to send me a pic, but remembered they're all under copyright. So if he manages to take a pic of his statue, I'll post it.

As for Six Flags, we stood in line for 2 hours to ride Tatsu - which is the newest one at the park. I didn't care for it, mostly because you're hanging face down with your bum in the air and since the natural inclination is to look where you're going, you spend the entire time with your neck craned back and it just plain hurts. Plus it seemed a bit pokey. Thankfully the rest of the lines weren't that bad. We rode everything we could except for our favorite X which was closed. Damn shame. But it was fun and I had a good time.

Job Hunt

T has a good feeling about her interview on Wednesday. It sounds like an easy show - which is usually the kiss of death. Hopefully she'll hear something this week. The only possible problem is the locale... right now it's either going to be all in LA or all in Arizona (maybe Scottsdale). Depends on how low the studio wants the budget to go.

Happy Thanksgiving

I don't remember the last time I had a full 4 days off at Thanksgiving. I don't mean like 2 years ago, when I took off to go home for my parent's 50th anniversary... I mean just plain not having to work for 4 days straight. It's very nice but I think I'm going to end up paying for it. Work is going to be tough this week!

I would say that at least we're in wrap, but it's been like wrap since August. It may be busier now than it was, since we have to get everything put in order to hand over to the studio. We have 3 weeks, so it should be fine.

I did get homesick this weekend. I grew up in such a large family and it's not normal to spend a holiday with just one other person. I don't know if I'll ever get used to it. I guess people who come from dysfunctional families look forward to creating new holiday traditions but I just want to go back to the ones from my childhood.

At least we're going home for Christmas. That'll be nice. It's the first time in a long time that I'll have the week between Christmas and New Year's off, too. Driving cross-country with the Sofie - this should be fun. Maybe it'll be better than the drives to and from Santa Fe since she'll have both her folks in the car.

I suppose I should mention my Thanksgiving dinner. I made a turkey roast - which tasted good but looked really odd (imagine the white and dark meak of a turkey kind of mashed into a roast shape). I also made mashed potatoes from scratch and left the skins on. Tasty and no lumps! For dessert, I made a pumpkin cheesecake that didn't work out. I tried to substitute some ingredients on a WW recipe and the excessive use of Splenda gave it a nasty chemical aftertaste. We ended up throwing it out and making pumpkin pudding. Of course, that was the 2nd attempt with the pudding - the 1st try also had too much Splenda.

Bits and Pieces

I got up and went to work early today, trying to get my paychecks out before the holiday. The short week always makes it tougher but I got the added "bonus" of getting a new paymaster. My regular woman moved to Utah and my show got transferred to someone else. Have to say the work wasn't as good as before, but there's nothing major. I'm just glad I decided to come in and get it checked early.

The studio is shutting down at 2pm and the UPM wants everyone to leave as soon as they can, even shutting the production office at 2 as well. I don't think we'll be going until closer to 3pm, but I have to stay until I get the checks out. T has an interview at 3 and I don't know if she's coming back to the office or not. I hope she does because I want to hear all about it.

Coming in early did give me a chance to call the bank in TN about the stocks the husband inherited from his mom. We're going to get everything taken care of when we go home at Christmas and it turns out it'll be easier than we thought. Plus the bank is buying shares back so we'll probably sell and come home with a nice chuck of change.

One last story - we have our condo on the market and we put in the listing we had to have an hour's notice to see the place. I get a call last night (6:30pm) from Tony at Prudential who's standing outside our building and just realized he was supposed to call first. He asked if he could go in and I had to say no, would he like to reschedule? Well, he starts telling me his client is going out of town and was hoping to make on offer on something tonight, etc. Wow. I suppose the thought of his client wanting to make an offer TONIGHT is supposed to make me change my mind. What a loser. Am I really supposed to fall for that? Does anyone fall for that? Some of these agents are morons.

Killing Time

So I'm here at work killing time waiting for my payroll edits to come over and I start clicking on the links on the hotmail site. Mostly gossip and lite news but it's something until the husband hooks me up with some more blogs to read.

Anyway, at least one link every day has something to do with dating or relationships and because I'm female, I click on those to see if my life is normal. But I get so pissed when the link goes to the Match.com sign-up page! Hello! Not interested in looking for someone, just want to read about someone else's trials and tribulations, thank you very much. So annoying.

My bootcamp instructor has been gone since last Wednesday for a wedding and Thanksgiving so I've been doing the workout on FITV these past few mornings. Only problem with that is Sofie. She feels the need to lay at my feet so I'm forced to step around her constantly and today while I was doing push-ups and crunches she felt the need to come over clean my face and nose. After pushing her away repeatedly, I gave up and just let her do her thing. She thought it was fun trying to keep up with me. Have to say the paw in my eye wasn't great, but she has a way of using her paw to pull the object of her attention closer that can be uncomfortable.

Thanks But No

I've called both shows and told them no. I really hate turning down work, but I can't go out of town now and I don't want to drive to Playa every day.

I'm not worried, though. I've already gotten a call from someone I've never worked with before (the timing probably won't work out) and my current boss T has an interview tomorrow with the DW who isn't a porn producer.

Should be good.

Felix

Just got back from set where they have the Coffee Bean truck dispensing caffinated goodness. Gotta love the "treat trucks".

Anyway, while we were there they wrapped Felix the lion. We waited until they drove him out in his big red cage in the back of a pick-up truck. He was gorgeous. The trainer gave him some water and I have to say, watching that 550 lb lion drink water from a baby bottle was too funny.

But I didn't think his testicles were that small...

It's A Wrap!

This is it, the last day of shooting. We have the lions (who weren't in the mood the last time they were here) and the alpacas. We also have spfx alpaca spit. Must have been fun mixing that stuff up.

Only 4 weeks of wrap to go - time to get this thing cleaned up and passed on to the post accountants. I'm hoping it's as clean as it should be, but I'm sure there are going to be some nasty surprises coming out of the woodwork once I start really digging into it.

Job Interview

I'm back from my interview with Iron Man. The accoutant seems really nice, the rate is $100 more per week, there would be 2 payroll people - basically there are a lot of really good things going for this show.

The fact it took me 45 minutes to go 27 miles is not one of them (and that was during off-peak hours). The commute is not at all fun and is the only thing stopping me from saying yes.

Have to think about this one...

Greenville

I've called the acct for the show in Greenville twice now and left messages and have heard nothing back. I think that one's done.

I still have the interview for Iron Man on Friday. It's got 2 really big strikes against it (location and payroll company) but I'm always up for an interview with a new acct. Never know what'll happen in the future.

There is some good news on the current boss front. She got an email from a friend at the studio about a new show that we would roll right on to. I have no idea what it is, but it's all in LA and the timing may work out. We'll see.

Mind-Boggling

The 1st asst acct on this show came into work late this morning - not a big deal as we've all been coming in late. But she said she'd been stuck at home because a fire truck had blocked her driveway. Apparently there's an old woman next door who routinely calls the paramedics and the paramedics have to call out an engine. Ok, fine.

Here's the kicker - when she tried to drive out, she discovered the engine blocking the drive and decided the best course of action was to "toot toot" her horn to see if she could get someone's attention so they could pull up and let her out. Ummm... is it just me or does honking at a fire truck seem like a really bad idea? A paramedic yelled at her that they had an emergency going on and she replied that it was ok and that she'd wait. So why honk? Why not just go back inside and watch some HGTV or something? As it turned out, she's convinced they took longer than necessary to leave just to make her wait. Duh.

I told her I couldn't believe she honked and she got really snippy with me. She felt I was slapping her hand. I tried to tell her my point was that honking was only going to piss them off. If she'd walked over there and asked nicely, they may have helped her out. But she took it as an insult. I told her they took it as an insult and that's why she waited.

So who do you think is "right?" Would you honk?

Monday

Erdedo wrote:

I'm watching the Extreme Makeover episode that you wrote about. I'm sure that it was strange to see for you and your family to watch.

So, if you aren't going to Portland what are you going to do?

I responded:

I haven't talked to the rest of the family, but it was hard for me to watch. Even though the inside of the house looked so different it wasn't hard for me to remember what it used to look like. And the outside looked practically the same. But it was an old house and they needed the new one.

As for work, I'm waiting to hear back about the Greenville show. I called on Thursday with a couple of questions, but nothing yet. It's got me a bit worried. But something will come up if that one doesn't pan out.

Speaking of which, I just heard Iron Man is looking for a payroll acct. That would be cool but it's in Playa del Rey which is an automatic hour commute each way. Ugh.

Goodbye Portland

Well, I did it. I sent the email and turned down the show in Portland. As much as I'd love to go there, I just didn't think this show was for me. Too much drama with the payroll company and I just don't need that.

Now we just have to decide if Greenville wins or if we wait for the next offer.

My Vague Political Thought

I'm glad the Democrats have gotten control in Congress. Now if they can only make something happen... My advice? Don't bother pointing fingers at the Republicans (remember the waste of time and money re: a horny intern?). Just hunker down and get this country fixed.

I know most civilizations have a Golden Age, then decline into mere shadows of their former selves. I don't want to think about the fact I may be living through the decline portion of America.

Mo's Response

I wrote to Mo this morning to find out her reaction to my job offer:

"I got a job offer with CK for the new George Clooney movie. I'm interested in it, but you had dibs so I thought I'd better see what was up with your show."

Hi Film-Chick
my, Oh damn....I know she's a good accountant and a very nice person so I say go for it!!! I have nothing solid at this point and am still budgeting various projects. Looks like we could be going to Louisiana in January, but I don't know for sure. I hate to lose you, but you don't want to turn down a solid offer to just wait...I totally understand. I love George so please, please tell him hello for me. We're very old friends...Good Luck Film-Chick...and we'll try again!!!
xoxo
Mo

So it looks like I'm off the hook with her.

And I did write back to tell her any excuse to talk to George would be greatly appreciated!

Now I just have to deal with T.

Book List #23

Not sure if this can really be counted as #23, but I'm planning on finishing it so I'll leave it.

I started Labyrinth by Kate Mosse and was enjoying it, but I'd gotten it from the library and my time ran out on it. I read about this one in Time magazine and it's been a winner. It started out as a parallel worlds sort of thing, but I never really made it back to the present day chapters so I'm not sure. I'll have to get online and put a hold on it so I can finish it.

Book List #22

1634: The Ram Rebellion by Eric Flint is a collection of short stories about some of the peripheral characters in his 1632 series. This one I liked. The main books are enjoyable and these stories fill in some gaps you never even noticed.

Book List #21

I read Duchess of Nothing: A Novel by Heather McGowan. I think it was a Daily Candy recommendation but I didn't care for it. The main character was whiny and annoying and I wanted her to get on some meds and stop screwing up the little boy's life. I kept hoping it would get better but no love for me.

I hate when I get a bad book, because I'm compelled to finish most everything I start. I only know of 1 book I didn't finish (can't remember the title right now).

Job Hunt #2

The accountant I worked for in Santa Fe on Used Guys has written to offer me a show called Untraceable. It's Diane Lane and it's shooting in Portland, OR.

Now I would dearly love to go to Portland on someone else's dime and I'd like to work with S again, but the payroll company the show is using is supposed to be horrendous. Random checks spitting out of the printer, no techs on call, late payroll, etc. I took the opportunity to send a mass email to some payroll accts and others I know to ask if they had an opinion and so far it's all been negative. No horror stories, just comments like "never again."

I just don't think it's going to be worth it. My job is hard enough without having to struggle with the payroll company. I mean, the one I had in SF had some problems and it was frustrating to get it all sorted out, and we hadn't even started shooting yet.

It's Looking Better...

I just looked the movie up on IMDB and George Clooney is the director! Oh man, how cool would that be? Not that I ever really get to meet the director, but still...

Job Hunt

What the opposite of a job hunt? What is it called when the job comes looking for you?

I got a call this morning from an accountant I met while I was in Santa Fe. I don't remember what show she was on, but I met her at the gym I joined. Anyway, she's doing a football movie (Leatherheads) for Universal and wanted to know if I was interested. She wanted me to start right away after EA (mid-December) but I told her I already had Christmas plans. She's willing to have me start Jan 2. The funny thing is the show's in Greenville, SC and we're going to East TN for the holidays. It's not right next door, but it's damn close.

Anyway, the rate is good and the housing and per diem add up fast, but I had to tell her she was the 4th person who had asked me to let them know before I took a show. Mo is first, then T (my current boss), then S from Used Guys, then the gym acct. Mo's show doesn't look promising, T doesn't have anything but rumors, and S is apparently working with a payroll company that is a nightmare. The gym acct is the only one with an actual offer.

So husband, what do you think about Greenville, SC for 6 months?

Mr. Quincy

Mr. Quincy is not amused.

Destructo!

Here's Destructo in her secret identity as Sofie (look at that "who me?" expression).

Destructo posing next to her latest victim - a roll of painters tape. Poor tape never had a chance. You can also see one of her previous victims - a stuffed hedgehog that's been completely gutted.

Stuff

The trailer for EA is up on Moviefone now. It looks pretty good but I'm waiting to see more of the visual effects shots. Should be cool.

Yesterday as we drove down to set for lunch, we passed Ben Stiller sitting in a konked-out golf cart. I didn't recognize him, but the 1st said it was him and I asked if we should go back and give him a bump with our cart. Decided not to.

I know that fall has arrived in SoCal. This morning, Sofie wouldn't come to me to get her harness on. I knew she wanted to go for a walk, but she just sat on the living room rug and stared at me, cocking her head from one side to the other. Finally, I bought a clue and got her shirt from her box and she came right to me, let me put the shirt on her, then trotted to the door and looked at me over her shoulder as if to say "we can go now." Strange little dog, but so friggin' cute!

Boring

My boss had a meeting this morning and since I usually go to set first thing to get breakfast I just drove down with her. She thought it would only last about 20 minutes (which I knew was optimistic) but since I didn't have anything to do at the office I didn't care.

The UPM decided it would be a good idea for me to go watch the motion control (moco) camera in action while I was waiting and I figured "why not?" So off I went to the stage and sat myself in one of the producer's chairs right in video village. I had a good view of the monitors, the moco camera, and the set. Not that there was much to the set, as they were planning to shoot birds sitting on a wire.

It was just about as boring as it sounds. I enjoyed talking to the crew and watching the camera move around, but the subject matter was a friggin' power line. There weren't even any birds yet.

I did hear a good story about the moco system, though. Apparently, while shooting Garp, the scene was set for the moco camera to zoom in on a baby in a stroller (I haven't seen the movie, only read the book). The guy got it all programmed and they put a doll in the stroller for the test run. Well, that camera went through it's paces and ended up slamming into the doll and stroller. The mom, standing there with her infant, just turned around and walked out and did not come back. I guess they got another baby, but man I think I would have peed my pants watching that happen.

Fire 2

So it turns out someone was welding near the elephant door (really big door that slides open) and a spark hit it. It got caught up in between the door panels and POOF - fire! They're down there with chainsaws and stuff chopping the door down to make sure the fire gets out completely. When they took the first whacks at the door, it opened up the space to more air and they had a total Backdraft moment. Flames were shooting into the parking lot.

We have no idea what's going to happen, since we kind of need to be able to seal the stage with the animals working. We may have to move stages if they don't have another door lying around to replace the torched one soon.

We should definitely make the news with this one.

FIRE!

Apparently, our sound stage is on fire. We don't have any details, don't even know how serious it is. We sent W down to have a look and I called N and asked her to go out and see what she could see. More to come...

Pictures!

Bart and his trainer Doug. We just went up to have a look and Bart put on a show for us.












This is Moon. When I stopped to take the pic, Moon wasn't really paying attention. Sausha (the trainer) came up behind me and had Moon stare. It made quite a difference! Look at those eyes.









The Ghost Whisperer base camp outside our trailer. You can't see JLH's trailer in this shot though. Sorry.

Moving

The husband and I are thinking about moving. Although I don't really like living under the restrictions of our Home Owner's Association, I do like our condo. It's not up to what I want it to be, but it's on it's way.

The problem is there are plans to tear down the apartment buildings next to us, and the apartment buildings next to them, and the apartment building around the corner, and the 3 houses next to that one. Not to mention the 2 apartment buildings on the next block or the office building that's converting to lofts one block north.

All that construction is not the biggest problem, though. Our condo is 1st floor and it looks out onto a wall, about 8 feet high, then onto said 2 story apartment building - there's about 20 feet between the 2 buildings. It's not a great view and there's not a huge amount of light getting in, but it's ok. When the new building goes up, it'll be 3 stories. If the building is as close as the apartments are now, then our little alley will be more like a cave than just a bit dim.

And since all of this construction will produce shiny new condos, our's will be the old, tired unit if we need to sell it. So I've been looking around and I've found a couple that I like enough to consider putting an offer down. One is the very first one I saw and I saw the other this past Sunday. They both have good and bad things about them and while I was in love with V, W is starting to grow on me.

We have one more weekend's worth of work to do before we can put ours on the market so it's not a big rush. There's no way we're going to take on 2 mortgages.

Photos

When I get home tonight, I want to post some pics. They're all on my laptop and I just don't think about them.

But I have to get a pic of Sofie right when she wakes up from a nap. Who knew a dog could get pillow face?

Let Me Clear That Up

The husband informed me that I didn't make my point very clear in my last post. The link between #3 and #4 is the director. He was heard to make the comment (several times) that he would hit $175 million and deprive the parent company of its profits on a "war machine."

I can agree with that.

Gossip

This morning I found out some very interesting gossip about this show:
1) the lead female actress sucked
2) the director did not want to do this movie
3) the parent company of the studio supposedly makes $175 million in profit selling missiles to the goverment
4) the budget of this movie just hit $175 million

I've spent the rest of the day getting my name off the catalog mailing lists of several companies. I prefer the emails to the paper wasting catalogs.

Better then yesterday, where I had to take a nap on the couch in Don's old office for about 20 minutes. So exhausted.

Who I've Seen Outside My Trailer

The base camp for Ghost Whisperer is set up in our parking lot again - have been for a few days now. It's a nice change of pace to have something to watch while I'm killing time.

Yesterday I saw Jay Mohr and today we've spotted Camryn Manheim (she drives a blue Prius). I've yet to see Jennifer Love Hewitt but she has a very nice trailer.

This morning when I went down to set to get our usual eggs and berries, I heard a wolf howling. Turns out the wolves are back and a couple were on set working. The ones left in the trailer were howling about it. It's a very lonely sound but it was fun to watch the people walking around trying to figure out if they really were hearing wolf howls...

Home Improvement

Last night I decided it was time to clean the walls in the guest bathroom, as well as move the cat box into the shower and free up some floor space. That done, I decided I'd better figure out where the leak was in the toilet. We'd had a bit of water on the floor for a couple of weeks, but never had the time to suss out what was going on. Turns out the tank was loose and the water was seeping out the bolt holes.

Of course, this all sounds very pleasant, but it was a fiasco. I got all freaked out when I couldn't get the wrench on the nuts and every time I touched something the water leaked even more. The husband came to help and I yelled at him because I wanted to do it myself and letting him help made me feel like a useless girl. It took a bit of time and a broken float but we finally figured out what needed to be done and I went off to HD for parts while the husband bailed water out of the tank (did I mention we coudn't get the water to shut off?).

So I got back with a new float and new tank bolts. We decided to go ahead and try to fix it ourselves, something we've never attempted before (I was very proud of us for that!). The husband unscrewed the bolts, then I held the tank, still attached to the water line, while he put the new ones in. It took a bit to figure out the directions, but only because the tank wasn't on correctly in the first place. It's supposed to have 2 sets of hex nuts, one to hold the washers in place and one to hold the tank onto the bowl. Ours only had the bowl set... no wonder it was loose and leaking! Anyway, we got the tank reattached to the bowl and set to fixing the float. Pretty easy since all we had to do was unscrew the float arm and attach it.

Then we held our breath and let the water flow back in. YEAH! Nothing leaked! We even flushed a few times and it looked good to go. He took Sofie for a walk and I cleaned up the water and that was it. I wish I hadn't yelled at him, though. It could have been a really good bonding thing for us. We work pretty well as a team, but we don't do a lot of home improvement on our own. I guess maybe we really should try and replace the Pergo this weekend. We could probably do it very well, together.

Boo and Willie

Just got back from set where we had lunch and I passed out paychecks. My boss decided we should go over and see what animals were around today.

One of the trainers brought out Boo, who's a lemur. He was so beautiful, with his black and white fur and his gold eyes. His face reminded me of Sofie's - long snout with whiskers, but if you caught a glimpse of his mouth from below, he has these huge fangs. They're totally hidden from above or straight on. Anyway, Boo wasn't that friendly. We tried to pet him, but he kept chattering at us and it was loud. My boss and I finally got a chance to pet his long tail, but he really didn't want anything to do with anybody. It was his lunch time.

Then another trainer brought out Willie - the 2 year old chimp. He was cute, cute, cute. He started giving everybody he knew hugs, then she had him give the newbies high fives, low fives, and knuckle bumps. That was almost surreal, to get hand jive from a chimp. She had him show us more of his tricks, including "boogie" which involves him standing with one hand on his hip and the other pointing in the air (a la Travolta) and bouncing. It was really cool getting our own little show and he was such a ham, eating it up and starting the clapping if he felt we waited too long on our own. When the tram went by, she turned him around and had him wave and the folks just went nuts. Heads whipped around and cameras popped up all over the place. It was nice of her to do that, because that ride can be a bore.

So I met Boo and Willie and even though Willie was the more charming, I think I still liked Boo better.

My Day

I'm sitting at my desk, stapling timecards to copies of paychecks (last week's stuff - I fell behind because it's so f*cking boring). I've got to finish these and file them, then do this week's stapling and filing. Bleah. Welcome to the glamorous world of movie making.

Every morning, I'm awakend at 5 am by Sofie ("she who will not let mom sleep in"). We go on a walk and then I either get ready to go to the gym, or crawl back into bed, or find stuff to do around the house. If I'm lucky, I curl up and watch a movie. Yes, I know it's 5:30am, but I'm awake and alone, I can watch whatever I want.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are my bootcamp classes from 6-7am. I love those classes and would gladly go 5 days a week. I really hate going to the gym anymore and I've been avoiding it, but I need to work out more than 3 days each week so things are going to have to change.

Anyway, at some point I shower and dress and scoop the litter box. Then Sofie and I go on our "8 o'clocks" up and around the cul-de-sac. When we get back, I pack up my crap and head off to work. I'm supposed to be in by 9 and I usually make it, but sometimes I run late and sometimes traffic sucks.

Once I get to work, my first task is to go down to craft service and get hard-boiled eggs and mixed berries for myself and my boss. I also take special requests, getting W a chocolate donut w/ nothing in it or M a banana or apple.

Then it's nose to the grindstone. HA! I only have about 3 hours of work each day but it's spread out - I do my thing and send it off for approval, then sit and wait for it to come back around 5:30 each night. Then I have to finish it off. It's pretty damn boring, but the pay rocks. And lunch is free. It seems ideal, but I'd really like to be a bit busier. I get out of work mode too easily and it's hard to get back in. Sometimes all I can do is put everything in a big stack and go thru it piece by piece - dealing with it one thing at a time. Sad but true.

Anyway, I usually manage to leave for home by 6:15 or 6:30. Then the husband and I have dinner and watch some tv and take Sofie for another walk. Then it's off to bed.

I need a hobby. Well, I have a hobby. I need to participate in my hobby.

The Truth Is Out

Yes, it's true. I am working on the most expensive comedy ever made. Evan Almighty is reported to cost $175 million dollars and that's just production. Marketing and stuff should push it to $250 million.

Makes my paycheck seem a bit paltry...

Grandma's House

http://www.saintmeinrad.edu/enews/Extreme%20Makeover2.htm

What I Learned @ Lunch

Just got back from lunch where I learned a couple of things:

1) Lions have very small testicles (smaller than hard boiled eggs).

2) My car could have been in You, Me & Dupree - as he was dropping us off at the trailer, the captain on EA asked who my car belonged to. Apparently while they were scouting on Dupree they came back to the office and the director spotted my car and said that's what the slut librarian should be driving. But my car is a stick and she couldn't drive it.

3) Some crows have white feathers, they aren't all black.

Anniversary and Stuff

Yesterday was our 8th anniversary. We decided to wait until the weekend to celebrate and go to Dave & Buster's out in Arcadia (that's "our" restaurant - the Wednesday before we got married, the husband took me to dinner at the one in Atlanta, which was only 1 interstate stop from where we lived). I love the place - the food's ok but I really like the arcade, especially skeeball and the coin drop games. We went to the one in Honolulu last year and I'm glad there's one in Arcadia now because otherwise we'd have to drive out to Ontario or down to Irvine.

So I got the husband a 250 GB Iomage external hard drive and he got me a diamond bracelet. I think I won that round but he's happy.

A strange direction to go now, but I was reading today on Fark some of the responses to Ms. magazine printing the names of the women who had abortions. I can understand women not being ashamed of it but I can't understand wanting to put yourself out there for fundies to have at you. I don't know anyone who's had an abortion, I don't know anyone who wishes they'd had an abortion, I have no first-hand knowledge of it. I just think I would keep it between myself and the father - it seems to personal. Whether or not you believe life begins at conception or at some point in the 2nd or 3rd trimester, getting pregnant opens a door into all sorts of potential futures. I can't imagine finding out I was preggers and not wondering if it was a boy or girl, what it would be when it grew up, picking out names, etc. I am adamntly pro-choice, but I don't think I'd be able to have an abortion myself. I do want it to remain an option for those women who need it, though. Recreation, not procreation.

What I Saw Before 9am

When I got to work today, I took the cart up to the Upper Flatlands so I could give L her pictures w/ Bart the bear. Not much going on up there yet, a bunch of extras dressed in camos and military gear and a crane setting up some blue screen.

On the way back down, I went by "Wisteria Lane". I don't usually go that route because you get stopped while they're shooting and today was no exception. I didn't see any of the actors, just a couple of extras and a short school bus.

While driving thru Old West Town though, I had to stop my cart and watch a deer trot by. A guy was standing there watching, too and when the deer had run off he turned and said "too cool". I was looking in his opposite direction and saw a baby deer come around the corner and trot after its mother. So cute. I watched it bound off into the trees and realized it looked more like it was hopping than running. Never noticed that before.

So it's been a good morning, even though I did get an email slideshow (http://www.saintmeinrad.edu/slideshows/slideshow.aspx?ss=extreme1) showing those bastards at ABC tearing down my grandparent's house. It didn't make me as sad this time. At least now the husband will get a chance to see what it looked like. And I'm glad I had the chance to have a beer at the Shady Inn. The place was a bar and it was so fascinating. You could hear the people and music late at night while trying to sleep - it was only one vacant lot away. My dad and I went to see my grandpa while I was in college and that was my one foray into that mystery from my youth. Oh well, change happens. The little market where my grandma sent us to buy candy has been gone for years now...

The Good and Bad of Emails

I got this good email from my friend S who I have known since high school:

Hey Film-Chick,
I enjoyed reading your blog. BTW, since when did you suffer from a bowling injury? (since the wrap party for Scorpion King) Oh, I have a story to share about a bus experience. Before every Monday morning meeting, someone is always asked in our dept to share a "reflection". It's a Lutheran institution, so go figure. Mine usually tend to be funny rather than reflective. Our admin asst, Sh, shared an email her sister wrote the other day after she took the bus in to work on a Saturday to catch up on some office work. Her sister wrote that there was this young couple on the bus. He stared lovingly at every inch of her face...and then reached up with a pink daisy razor and shaved something off! Sh's sister was horrified. We all got a good laugh. S

I got this bad email from my sister:

Aunt L called Tuesday evening. It seems Uncle M and N went to southern IN last week for a reunion of some sort. While there N wanted to drive by Grandma & Grandpa's house (like we do when we're there). Well, they couldn't get to the house - the road was blocked. So they went down further and turned where you go to the Guest House. Tried that road - it too was blocked. So they got out of their car and walked down the street towards the house. Met up with two gentlemen - one was a contractor and the other worked for ABC. It seems a home was chosen to be on Extreme Makeover - Home Edition. You guessed it - it was Grandma and Grandpa's house!!!!! According to Aunt L the woman who lives there has four children and she's been diagnosed with cancer. N told the gentlemen that he and all his cousins grew up in the house and both he and Uncle M were taken on a tour of the home. Aunt L said the foundation was going and some interior walls were crumbling. Both N and Uncle M told them all about Grandma and Grandpa, how the land for the Monastery was given by our family, etc. The crew had already torn down the Shady Inn - no longer there. They tried to take pictures but weren't allowed. Uncle M said the episode is suppose to air sometime in December so be on the lookout. How cool is this!!!!!

I can understand how this may seem cool, but it made me cry. I hate to think of that house not being there anymore - not cool at all. I know it's a good thing for the woman living there, but they're going to show the before and it's going to look like crap. But when my grandparents lived there, it was always clean and tidy and perfect. I really hate change sometimes.

I wonder if AFG still works for that show... maybe I'll write her and see what's up...

Chipmunk

My paymaster told me a story yesterday while we were kvetching about all the animal wranglers. Apparently, a feature she was on had a chipmunk and therefore a chipmunk wrangler. Said wrangler was making his way to set one day, which was up a rocky slope. He took a tumble and managed to squash his chipmunk - he'd had it in his pocket instead of in its cage! The poor guy was hysterical and had to be flown back to LA. It took them a week, but they found another chipmunk and wrangler to take his place.

She got word of all this because they decided they needed to pay the guy right away and she had to process his paperwork. Turns out the guy wasn't in the union (yes, there's a union that covers chipmunk wranglers - Teamsters) and they had to come up with another job title. He was about 3 seconds away from having "chipmunk killer" on his paystub.

It's sad for the chipmunk and I do feel bad, but for 2 people who are tired of animal wranglers it was pretty funny.

Witnessed At

The husband and I took the subway downtown to the library yesterday. It was more crowded than we've seen before, which is good, but I don't know how busy it is during the week.

The husband thinks I don't like going to the library, but I just don't like the drive. That and the fact I rarely have anything I want to check out - it's usually his quest for books that takes us there. And for some reason I always get really sleepy inside that building, like they pump it full of something to keep people quiet...

Anyway, we got off at 7th Street and walked up Hope where we passed some production setting up a shot on Wilshire Blvd. We didn't see any signs indicating what show it was, feature or tv, but we think it was tv. On our way back to the subway stop, we saw some postings that they were going to have a car explosion between 1pm and 5pm, but we decided not to wait around and watch. It did look like there was a Hummer parked crossways on Wilshire and we figured that was the one to die in a fire.

So we're waiting for the train and a woman is on the platform talking really loudly (I thought she was talking to the guy standing next to her and if I had been him, I would have told her she didn't need to yell). The train comes and we all get on and the husband hands me a book to read during the ride. I'm trying to focus and the woman starts talking again, except I realize it's more a singing or chanting than talking. And it's loud. She was only 5 or 6 feet from me, but the entire car could hear her.

So I ask the husband if maybe she had foreign Turretts - we really can't figure out a word she's saying. Then she starts talking about being saved and needing god and basically witnessing to the trapped riders. I did find it pretty amusing that she kept telling us how she, too, needed god and how she was no better than anybody else. But mainly it was miserable. Everyone kept their head down and tried not to make eye contact and no one tried to make conversation. A couple of stops later the woman got off and there was a huge sigh of relief.

So I still like riding the subway and will continue to do so, but if that happens again I think I'll get off and wait for the next train.