Naturally Optimistic

Well, I've been absent for the past few days for a few reasons.... The weekend was spent editing my future sister-in-law's wedding (and future bro-in-law, I guess). They were up helping with the bathroom 'redo' on Steve's Dad's house and only so many people can fit in a bathroom so I stayed here and edited away. I was hoping to get things finished and send them off with a lovely DVD by Monday, but that didn't happen. The editing is done, the tweaking, done; rendering of various filters, done; the motion menu, done....but sadly every time I try to export an m2v file, Final Cut Pro crashes. *sigh* I need to upgrade my FCP methinks. But the past 2 nights have been about grout. Since they diligently tore everything (except the bathtub) OUT of the bathroom and then measured, cut and mortared the tiles, I felt it was my duty to grout the thing. Ay yi yi. A job I thought would take "a couple hours" ended up taking about 5 1/2 and my poor little digits are...

is ONLINE now! We launched the official Newton's Disease website last night. Go - check it out, browse, post, look at pictures...go...seriously - GO! :-)

This picture was taken Friday, May 19th - that's my back yard all greened up. Steve was airing out his tent that day - we are ready for summer!

Here are some before & after pics of the kitchen project. This has taken me forever and it's not *quite* finished yet (the flooring needs to be put in and also there is some touch-up work that needs to be done on the painting) but it is close and looks about a MILLION times better. My parents arrived last night and were SHOCKED at the difference. It was very fun to see their surprised reactions. My Mom doesn't even mind the floor as much any more (um, I do). Hopefully this will make life in the R&B kitchen more peaceful and calm and will make the house easier to sell down the road. Now to recap - Here's the kitchen before:

Kitchen before...

Another kitchen before - ugh.

And Voila! After!

Another after shot!

Oh yeah, and Newton's Disease is officially for sale on FilmBaby.com - you can check us out under "New Films for May" and also under the category of "Independent." You're able to watch one scene from the film there as well. Our website is almost complete. Just getting the video & photo elements squared away.

Hey! It’s Ride your Bike to Work Day – well, that’s what I’ve been saying all week but It’s actually “Bike to Work Day” which is much easier to say due to less syllables. Heh. I’m not sure how many fine citizens of Duluth are participating in this annual event but I for one AM! Whoohooo! I always have great expectations of myself biking to work all summer long, getting exercise WHILE saving gas and the environment a little bit, toning my legs and helping out my heart. I like it! But about 2 weeks into my 3-day a week riding I give up. Last year it was due to my chain jumping track and me not knowing how to get it back on and having to push my bike all the way home which really really sucked. I thought I would have a problem with the 6am wake up but it wasn’t too bad. I figured I could snooze as many times as I usually do since the alarm was set much earlier (and technically it’s 5:45 wake up because I fool myself by setting my clock 15 mins ahead – sneaky huh? I hope I don’t fin...

It's kind of hard to tell - but here's the new "summer" look

Went in for a trim & came out a blonde. :-) I love it! Of course I'll never be able to make it look like it does now again (too bad my evening plans are cleaning) but I adore the color. Eeeeeeeeeeeeee! Side note: I saw two guys - probably mid-20's - getting shaves...does that happen these days? They were both getting their sparse facial hair shaped meticulously with a straight razor. Huh. Who knew.

So that when your cat* who's been laying in the wicker laundry basket, on clean washcloths, rags & towels pukes all over it, you can take it to the laundry sink and scrub out the vomit with an old tooth brush over said sink. You can also use the hose attached to the sink to rinse anything extra away. *Also puked on in the last week: our bed/comforter - soaked through to the mattress pad, the guest bed/comforter also soaked through to the mattress pad, the living room rug, the dining room rug (3 times), the bass drum pedal for Steve's drum set, the brown chair. Not one puke on wood or vinyl flooring. Figures. I'm getting a little worried about Mr. Iko though...so much puking for one cat.... :-(

I have a work out & some painting in front of me, but instead I read blogs on the internet. Why can't I get motivated? I have TWO DAYS people to get the kitchen looking finished enough so it actually is the SURPRISE I want it to be for my parents. And that's without the floor because we haven't bought it yet let alone installed it. Pffffffffffffffft. SO - Steve's on the road tonight and I have big productive plans: Paint the 2nd coat on the window trim. Paint the 2nd coat on the soffet (how do you spell that?!?!) Enter remaining names/addresses into theknot.com for invite list Start a new knitting project? No CLEAN, dammit, clean. Read my book. So far I have... sat outside and read my book ate some triscuits & cheese laid on the couch to read my book snoozed read blogs ARGH! Tomorrow I have my meeting with the Mentor Duluth people FINALLY! It's an hour long interview/screening to see if I am okay material to hang out with kids. I hope I pass. I think I will....

I was skeptical, I'll admit it. Last weekend when the great clog of '06 occured I was pretty sure that ginormous plumbing bills were looming over my future existence. The usual methods of unclogging were either not working (snaking the pipe) or not an option (using chemicals) so I kept going back to thoughts of money draining from my account. But last night, after 24 and after Steve's Dad and his SO left, Operation Clog Buster began. Steve rigged the garden hose from the outside spigot through the kitchen, dining room and upstairs into the bathroom. We had tried this in '05 when we had plumbing problems (or was it '04? anyway...) with no success and a huge mess. Needless to say I was apprehensive. Steve borrowed the "clog buster" device the last time around and it didn't work. For those of you who are non-homeowners or who are blessed with decent drains, the clog buster is this black plastic thingy that makes a hose have incredible pressure. The black...

Sunday evening yet again....things checked off the "to do" list.... * Went to see The Triplets of Belleville which was awesome. I am so impressed they played it here. Granted it was at The Playground - which is an offshoot of the local community theatre and strives to bring things like foreign & independent films to Duluth. Thank god. * Laundry * Grocery shopping, Target run * I went to Michael's for their "wedding event." What a joke! The event consisted of a table pushed off to the side which had a few place setting & favor ideas on it. They also had a couple of brochures showing different invitation designs. Um...WTF? I was really hoping that there would be creative people there showing a few cool ideas. What I ended up with was a couple of invite kits which I could've bought on ANY day at Michaels. It was a tad disappointing. Still haven't finished painting the kitchen (I think I'm in a funk about it and just can't get it finished!!)...

There is someone in my life who is never happy. I should rephrase that – that’s a bit too strong. Who’s rarely happy. Even when there are good things to be excited and happy about, he’s always able to find the darkest part of the cloud and sit under it. I know this. I have known this for 10, 12 years! And yet it still affects me. I am (as the blog insinuates) naturally optimistic. I can’t help it. Even when I’m sad or crabby or ornery or down it doesn’t last long because I usually tend to forget what I was sad, crabby, ornery or down about. Usually. It just has a way of slipping down the ladder of emotional priorities as something more lovely comes along. Like….the way the sun sparkles on the water. Or the fact that my favorite tv show is on that night…or getting a friendly email out of the blue, or seeing my honey when he walks through the door at the end of the day. Silly little things that wouldn’t make everyone – particularly the glass-half-empty types to even have a glimmer...

The first box of DVD's!! (picture courtesy of my camera phone....sorry!)

THE DVDS ARE HERE! THE DVDS ARE HERE!! Newton’s Disease has officially been born! That’s how I feel. I feel as though these 6 boxes of dvd’s and 1000s of postcards are my babies! I was thrilled to hear they arrived, rushed right down to ogle the boxes and to lovingly stroke the dvds. Yes, I did. To see so many of them each with the title, our artwork, our “blurbs” our bar code!!! * sigh * It was a moment which left me feeling proud and plastered a big smile across my face. This has been the hardest task of my life. It has consumed 3 years and thousands (upon thousands) of dollars (thanks Citibank!). It has made me laugh, cry, tear my hair out, throw things, yell, smile, sigh, bleed (probably….), wish I had never started it and anxiously await starting the next one. Roller coaster? Yes. No other way to describe it. I learned how to solve problems, keep finances in order, negotiate (sort of), cajole needed things from cast & crew, prioritize, organize and fully appreciate ...

Okay - I've been delinquent in posting. No biggie...here's a recap: The weekend: Friday night painted the kitchen - we decided to change the background color BACK to the original color that we were going to use so yes, re-painting was involved. Stayed in - had a few beers and listened to some good music and relaxed. Very mellow. Saturday I woke up sad. Don't know why I was in such a downer mood but I was and had a hard time shaking it. Feeling bad about my lack of a social circle here in town (my friends now seem to be all long-distance which really blows) and feeling fat. Steve & I painted in the kitchen and got lots done. It looks great. He went up to take a shower and the tub wouldn't drain. This is strange since I had just taken one before him and had no problem. THe only thing we can think of is that there was a hair ball in the sink and when he cleaned out the sink stopper thingy more water than usual got flushed down the pipe a...

Steve & I enjoyed our second annual Lion's Pancake Dinner today. We feasted on such fine delicacies as pancakes! and sausages! and well, okay - that was it. I saved up some calories from earlier in the day so I could throughly enjoy. And I did. Afterwards we lugged our pancake-heavy-bellys up Chester creek and got a good 40 minute hike in. I feel much better now. I'm hoping tonight that I get some good sleep because the last few nights have been tough. Beavis likes to get in and out of bed about a 24-56 times per night which is highly annoying. He's also taken to walking on my head, which also is not appreciated. I could just kick him out but I do love it when he's a GOOD sleeper. Perhaps I should value my own rest a little more. Friday tomorrow! whooo! I just finished the 2nd skein of the current prayer shawl that I'm working on and hopefully this weekend I will find some time to crank out the third skein. I probably won't use the whole thing so the end is ...

Just finished the 3rd coat of the upper cabinets. I'm tired & my back hurts. I shouldn't save the two cupboards above the fridge for last but somehow I always do. Stupid. Hopefully tomorrow I'll paint more trim. I just set up my computer this past weekend (it was at my film partner's house for the past year and a half) downstairs so I can start editing Steve's sister's wedding...I'm trying to get it done before their 1st anniversary - lordy....I need to procrastinate less and DO MORE. So...off to do that....