Monday - May 18, 2009

Alana's birthday! Happy eighth birthday, girl! <3

It's also my aunt Anne's birthday, so happy birthday to you as well!

Ari came over this morning (Noah was at school, I didn't want to bore the poor child to death) to help me go through the script and break it down into a manner that makes sense. He gave me some blank forms that are really helpful, and we discussed whether I should try for bigger names or go for relative unknowns. There are pros and cons to both. Still haven't rightly decided.

Once Alana was home from school (and after we ate some celebratory cupcakes)



we went to the mall to let her pick out a rip stick. This was our gift to her for her birthday. She picked a red, black, and orange one with flames over a pink one. This kid really is my kid. I made her promise I could use it too, which she happily agreed to.

Bought some elbow and knee pads too and we took them home to mess with.





Once Tim was home we headed to the bowling alley on Route 18. Met up with Greg and Rachael and went to town.

















Allie and I tied. Sadly, I forget how everyone else scored. :(
I did remember to embarrass the ever-living crap out of all everyone though:



We hit up the arcade for a while after bowling and played some air hockey as well. I killed Tim, of course (he hasn't beaten me at any sport yet, virtual or otherwise).









Alana opened her gifts from Greg and Rachael (DS games that rule, bubbles and stuff, plus bubbles for Noah!)



and we headed home. There was a package for Alana from Bop on the doorstep! Inside was a sweater (also another one for Noah!) and this duck which she LOVED.



I think the kid ended up happy. :)

Sunday - May 17, 2009

Today is film scouting day (number one). I've been excited for this.

The kids stayed over their Mammma's house last night so Tim and I could get an early start. The weather was drippy, but not too bad...warm at least. Brought some sweatshirts with hoods in case it started pouring.

The objective for today was to find:

1) a location in the woods which includes a climbable tree and a large rock next to it
2) a bench and/or location outside a subway station which could house a bench
3) three houses which would pass as character's houses (within walking distance of the subway stop), one which has street space wide enough to light a car on fire
4) a second story balcony attached to the subway station
5) how much time it takes to ride the Braintree Mall escalator up and down

Some of them were misses, but we got some hits. Some great things in general:

















We had lunch here, at Bobby C's (GREAT food):



then headed across the street into the woods:





Sat by the pond for a while and enjoyed the scenery:





Ha Ha, grossed you out! :D

On the way home we swung by the Braintree Mall for that quick stuff:



then we went food shopping and picked the kids up to go home. :)

I got a ton of ideas and have to rewrite some stuff now that I've seen these locations "in the flesh". SO much to do.

Saturday - May 16, 2009

Today was a "try to catch up on yardwork that's been neglected for waaaay too long" day. Got a bunch of leaves (yes, from last fall) put into bags and hauled to the dump. Tied some roses to our front fence. I plan to plant more rose bushes so they can trail along the fence all the way, but I haven't the first clue on what type of roses to get that will trail sideways rather than up, and how far apart to space them. I have to ask Steve LeClair, but his father in law just unfortunately died of a heart attack and they're dealing with the shock and grief of that right now. They were also the recipients of some heart-shaped brownies and a note expressing our deep feelings, though that feels like it's not good enough for that kind of a thing. Still no words. Rest in peace, Jerry.

Alana decided to color on the kitchen counter in pen today. I saw it and asked both kids to come into the kitchen. They've been brought up to know that we appreciate honesty, and they are likely to be punished less severely if they tell the truth than if they try to hide it. Before I could even ask, Alana said she did it. So Noah went back to play in the living room and I asked Allie what she thought her punishment should be. She said no video games. I agreed that that was a good punishment, since she loves playing Mario Kart with Tim and would definitely miss it. She then backpedaled and said "No...something else, I really want to play video games." So I said (jokingly), "Okay, you can clean the toilet. It's either clean the toilet or no video games." She thought about it and thought about it and decided she wanted to clean the toilet. Well, okay. Sure, kid. Okay.

So, she cleaned off the pen (yay, magic eraser!) and then I showed her how to clean the toilet and she went to town. Is it bad that I'm hoping she'll keep getting in trouble so I don't have to clean the toilet anymore? Haha. :)

Her friend Hank called to talk to her and of course the first thing she said was, "My mom made me clean the toilet!" I made her explain why so everyone doesn't think I'm some really awful slavedriver. Sheesh.

Soccer game at one o'clock. Allie did really well! She's really getting much better at this, especially blocking when she's goalie.





Tim went over to hang out and build guitars with Mike for most of the afternoon, and I watched the Preakness with the kids, much to Noah's chagrin. He's not a big fan of the horse racing. I rarely, if ever, watch anything on TV so when I want to, tough luck for everybody else! :p

Friday - May 15, 2009

Today is Jimmy Vento's birthday - Happy Birthday Jimmy! You rock. I think it's also Matt Gregory's birthday, so Happy Happy to him too. :)

Made some brownies this morning while Noah was at school so I can drop them off to Ari later. Cut them into heart shapes so my film boys would know I love them. I really should have taken pictures of them, but again, I dropped the ball. I still have to get used to taking pictures of everything.

Went to pick up Noah and he played in the playground before we headed home, making "volcanos" all over the place with Max and Ryan. I guess people aren't that different from ants after all. :p





Got Noah a haircut, finally...man did the kid need it!





After Allie was home we three headed over to Rockland to feed the ducks and geese.









I wanted to keep that duck. He was the man.

So, Ari showed up to pick up his brownies and he and the kids did some racing. I would have also partaken of the running, but again was wearing flip flops. It's finally nice weather, so that's my excuse. There were too many sharp objects lying around for me to be willing to take them off and run, so I just watched and laughed. I had some video which was awesome, but I think I deleted it to make room for other stuff, thinking I had already uploaded it. :(

Do have some camera phone pictures though:





So Ari, Ben Gamer, and Dave Langill all enjoyed my brownies. I got texts all night that they missed me and the hearts were tasty. :)

The plan is for Ari to come over on Monday and help with with script breakdowns...I'll need it.

Thursday - May 14, 2009

Today was portrait day. My mother hung out with Noah (Alana was at school, obviously) while I went to do my thing. I took zero pictures today because I COMPLETELY forgot to...so yeah. Sorry for all of the writing in today's blog.

Met up with Heather at 9:30 so she could make my hair look gorgeous. We talked and caught up (this is really why I get my hair cut three times a year...otherwise we'd never make the time to see each other). Things are the same with her. Her business is going well, I'm really proud of her! And amusingly enough, I got a text the next day reading, "I'm proud of you". Coming from her, that means a hell of a lot. So anyway, she cut my hair for me and then styled it and tried to spray it enough so it would stay put until 1:00 when I was meeting the photographer. I had to shove money into her orifices and cleavage as usual, stubborn thing that she is.

She asked me to mail a package for her, so I hit up the post office (with my hot hair) and sent that off.

Went to the photography studio at 12:30 and met my friend/work acquaintance Lisa so she could do my makeup. She did a very quick makeup job on me when I played a police detective in Beg, but this was the full deal and took a while since it was more elaborate. I'm SO not used to makeup. It came out looking awesome though, I was surprised when I looked in the mirror. Looked like me, but not me.

So, the photographer, Susan, and her assistant, Suzanne (easy to remember) took me down into the basement to start with. Each room in this old Colonial was set up with lights and backgrounds and props and stuff, so nothing needed to be moved or adjusted other than the props and the person being photographed. Wicked cool.

(I should mention that on the way to the basement I walked by a HUGE bean bag that was three times the size of a normal one and covered in white fur. Buried in this beanbag was a cute orange kitty named Midas. He HAS to be the happiest cat on the planet. Dude has chairs and piles and cloth and bean bags covered in fur to sleep on all day. It's kitty heaven.)

Soooo, I started out wearing a brown halter top thing that I LOVE. Took some standing shots of that and some of me sitting on a wooden chair. Midas decided to get into some of the pictures so he was banned from the room.

I must say, being in front of the camera is a much more, um, nerve-wracking experience than being behind it. I was supposed to be doing full smiles and half smiles and no smiles. I went into it thinking the half smiles would be the easiest, but it turns out it's easiest for me to smile big. That's great, but not so great when trying to get photos for head shots. They don't usually like big grins for those.

So we did some stuff outside in a gazebo, some with me in the brown shirt, some in a green one. Then some with a white sweater, then a black one shoulder dress. I threw my hair up for that one and put on some dangly earrings, and they came out pretty damn well if I do say so myself.

Made an appointment for next Friday to choose my poisons.

Arrived home just as Alana was getting off the bus, so Mammma could go home. Soccer was called off due to rain (yes, I had to try and look pretty in the rain...stupid hair!) and we just hung out and had dinner and stuff until I had to go to my Trustee meeting. It was a long one tonight. We keep debating getting rid of a fine ceiling for overdue books and we haven't come to an agreement yet. The budget is also just not awesome, but we've got it figured out.

Wednesday - May 13, 2009

Today is the kids' friend Kyle's birthday - Happy Birthday, Kyle! I hope to hell you don't read my blog. I swear too much.

Soooo, I really have no recollection of what we did on this day. Haha...I have photos dated with this date, so here's what I got. Noah planted some corn at school (we planted some at home too):



and we must have gone food shopping and returned cans and stuff:



I met up with our head Detective at my local police station for a creative meeting. We discussed my screenplay when I was in to apply for my gun license and he told me to call him any time. So I did. I had some questions about questioning suspects



and Miranda rights and stuff. He was awesome. He also got into ALL kinds of other stuff, was EXTREMELY helpful, but I can't mention all of that here. I will say it was crazy though. Kept me up half the night.

When I got home (late) I got a bunch of stuff ready for some portraits that would be taken the next day. Found a few outfits to use and got jewelry all ready and stuff.

I wish I could remember what else we did, but that was too long ago. :(

This is why I want to keep this blog current...the kids will realize how freaking boring their lives were when they're older. Boring is not necessarily a bad thing though. Could be a hell of a lot worse!

Tuesday - May 12, 2009

Soooo, yeah. I've taken a bit of a break from updating. Sorry. I thought once the weather started to turn nice I'd have more lounging around time, but it turns out the exact opposite is true. Go figure.

So today (as I sit here writing this) is June 12. I'm a MONTH behind. Scary thought. I've probably forgotten a lot of details by now, so there will be some serious gaps over these next few pages, but I'll do my best. Lots of picture resizing to do...

So, Tuesday, May 12. Noah had a playdate with Domenick and Ryan. We met at Domenick's house and walked bikes down to a cemetery nearby. The day was gorgeous.



Noah ditched his bike as soon as we got inside the cemetery gates. He's more of a fan of scooters. Kid will not ride a bike, he gets bored. He walked and ran along with the other two, while us moms walked too.



He picked his lucky mom a flower. *melts*



We forced them to pose together under the biggest rhododendron I have EVER seen in my life...



and then it was decided that we would walk "just up the street" to Dairy Queen.

Just up the street took and hour and a half. One way.

Note to self: Don't start a journey at noon with three five year-olds when you know you need to be home by 2:50 to get your 8 year old off the bus.





I was wary of this idea, knowing it would take forever, but I figured worst case scenario I could throw Noah on my back and run to my truck to drive home. That's what did basically end up happening. It was still a nice walk though. Wish I could have slowed down and enjoyed it more.

Noah got a cherry dipped ice cream at DQ, which he enjoyed immensely.





They were cute on the walk home, before all out running commenced (in flip flops! And the kid weighs 55 pounds!)



So we ended up running about five minutes late even with all of the running (ha, let's see how many times I can say running in one sentence). I called my friend Katherine to ask if she'd swing by our house to hang out with Allie once Allie was off the bus. (We had hidden a key for her, but of course the kids played with it and now it's nowhere to be found.)

Swung into the driveway minutes after Katherine did and chatted with her for a few. Made some plans for Allie to ride her bike over to hang out with her son Tyler, because Allie's been looking for more freedom lately.

Tried to get Noah a haircut, but the place was closed...even though the hours said they should be open. Oh, well.

Hit up the gym for the torturous cycling class while Mammmadukes watched the kids, and that was that.