Naturally Optimistic

This is what I look like every night when I go to sleep. Beavis tucks himself right in next to me. ** this is a real shot. I was woken up by the flash going off on the camera! Steve said he just couldn't resist.

Blizzard warning starting at 6pm CDT. 16-20" of new snow by Friday. 20"+ in isolated areas near the lake (me!) Whohooooo! My snowshoes are ready. My x-country skis are ready. We have gas for the snowblower and a full bottle of Baileys and 2 movies from Netflix and 2 1/2 baby blankets to knit. I am ready. BRING IT ON.

Here are my pics for the best & worst dressed from last night's Oscars.... Best: Rachel Weisz - LOVED her dress. Thought she looked elegant & glamorous, sleek & stylish. Best: Helen Mirren - I thought this dress set off the natural glow that she had about her all night! Very flattering & flowing. Love it. Worst: Cameron Diaz - what is this? Ugh. It reminded me of an 80's throwback, looked really uncomfortable and wasn't that flattering. Worst: Anne Hathaway - Something about a large bow across one's chest just isn't that appealing to me.

Jesus Camp - Steve & I watched this documentary over the weekend (nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars last night). It is about an Evangelical Christian Camp for kids. I found this movie very disturbing. The children that they followed, albeit they are very well spoken, behaved, etc, are so incredibly brainwashed it's unbelievable! There is no message about being kind to one's neighbor or doing good deeds; no comment on celebrating the beauty of God's creation or love - just kids in the fear of their lives - praying constantly, sobbing & weeping over their sins & transgressions (these are 8-10 year olds, btw) and "speaking in tongues." This film was well done, I thought, and eye opening. The counterpoint is a Christian radio talk show host who thinks that this arm of Christianity has gone too far. I found these kids to be rather heartbreaking as it seems their childhood has been hijacked. It made me sad.

Finally an appreciable snowfall in Duluth - OUR FIRST (real snowfall) this year! Whohooo! Steve is GIDDY. We have plans to go snowshoeing as soon as we dig out a bit. More snow in the forecast for tonight. I hope we get another 6 inches or so...hee hee - snowday tomorrow? That would be heaven. This snow is very drifty - so in parts of our yards we have a consistent foot of snow, in parts we have big drifts (which REALLY make me want to eat Dairy Queen ice cream, I don't know why....) and in areas you can still see the grass (wind tunnel effect - ha!). Steve is busily shoveling the walk with a HUGE smile on his face. I'm inside looking out and blogging and loving it. we finally have our winter wonderland.

My week keeps getting better and better. Check out this article on Girl Scout Cookies . K had mentioned it to me earlier this week and I was ecstatic! Last year Steve & I decided to not order any more GS cookies because of the trans fats. Looks like that's not an issue any more. Whohooo!

I'm very excited to be participating in this years CAOK II or Calculated Acts of Kindness II. This fabulous celebration of doing good things, kind things, really nice things for no other reason than to just do them, was started by the Fabulous Miss Kelli last year. I was lucky enough to be a recipeient of a CAOK gift (a lovely wristlet & chocolates) and was so touched that I wanted to do something TOO. So, I will do SOMETHING. I don't know what yet....but here's what I do know. If you've moved, send me your address. If you haven't updated your Amazon Wishlist with things that you really want (preferably in the $10-$20 price range) DO IT NOW because you never know who might randomly send you something. (if I don't have your wishlist and you want to let me know you have one....do that too....I'm not saying, I'm just saying...). The first thing I did was bake some brownies for another blog friend who needs them right now. I mailed them this morning (t...

Okay - I'm just about peeing in my pants because.... NEWTON'S DISEASE is an official selection at the 2007 Fargo Film Festival ! I was just checking my excel spreadsheet (I'm a dork I tell you!) that has my list of festivals submitted to and rejected from and I hadn't heard from a few of them. This post was originally going to be about me NOT getting into the DC festival (which we didn't - but I browse the films anyway) and went over to the Fargo website and lo and behold! THERE WE WERE!!!!!!!! Of course I immediately called Jason because I'm so excited! And I also practically simaultaneously called Steve and was excited all over again! The festival is March 7-10 so they're not too timely about letting their filmmakers know, but that means I CAN GO because I will be at my new job! Eeeeeeeeeek! I'm just beaming all over the place. Finally a chance for people who don't know us to see the film IN a theater (which very much helps with this film). Oh god,...

Music & Lyrics (2007) This was not a great film. But, it doesn't matter. This film made me smile, it made me laugh out loud and I've had silly pop songs in my head for the past 4 days. Sure there were huge gaping plot holes, ridiculous coincidental circumstances, near obscene gyrations and no real character development. But, I don't care! I won't say that I "loved" this movie but I did like it. In my words it was too easy. In my Mother's "simple" (but my Grandma sure liked it). I'll take Mr. Grant with his infectious charm any time. POP goes my heart....(hee hee)[I'm only slightly annoyed that I cannot buy said pop songs off of iTunes. Grrrr. I don't WANT the whole soundtrack!] The Departed (2006) I won't say I loved this movie either - for such entirely different reasons! This film had so much plot, so many intricacies and loads of scenery chewing actors. I had to pay attention (which I um, like during a movie) and had ...

I found this amongst my "journal" writings today.... Isn’t there more than this? Shouldn’t I be doing something else? I’m getting very sick and tired of feeling this way. Am I a productive member of society? Am I making a difference in this world? Am I just scraping by? What am I supposed to be doing? I get up every morning and go to work and contemplate what the hell I’m supposed to e doing with my life. I don’t think it’s this. And I don’t like coming off crabby and depressed to my friends or to Steve. Steve is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I’m extremely happy and grateful that he came into my life. But the rest of my life? Pffft. What the fuck? I never thought that I would end up in this position. Can’t I have a ‘job’ which I love and which I want to spring out of bed every day for and at the end of it all I will have changed someone’s life or affected people in a positive way? Ack. I can't believe I'm about to get that "job" and hopeful...

3 Guess as to what this is: That's right! My new office!!! :) Obviously it's under construction but you get the idea. They finished mudding & taping the dry wall yesterday and the painting should begin today (this office will be a yellowy color - I've forgotten the fancy pants paint color name). To the right of this space is the "conference room" (soon to be "boston fern" or green) and around the corner is the editing suite which will be "smoke signal" (blue). The middle area in front of all three rooms will be our "reception" area or where I lounge around when I can't possibly make a good cut to save my life. It will be "red pepper" (you guessed it - red). The carpet we chose yesterday is called "copper" and is a warm brownish color that will hide all sorts of stains! ha. I'm still terrified. But I am looking forward to the challenge.

It was really REALLY cold on the lake on Saturday.

Well frozen water anyway. It's not every year that even part of the lake (Superior, that is) freezes over. This year it's been COLD and the lake is freezing (it only completely freezes over about once every 15 years or so...I think the last time was in 1995/96. Incidentally the last winter I lived in Duluth before moving to California! ha) Yesterday, Steve, his brother Paul & I went walking on the lake. It was...freaky. The ice is about 10-12 inches thick and you can see cracks on various levels as you look down. In some places it it black - it looks like you're walking on nothing. An abyss (freaky). In other places it looks like the ripples on the lake just stopped, mid-motion. In some places the ice is formed of separate pieces that have overlapped to form the solid sheet...like an ice collage. It was cold. We walked a couple miles probably - the wind chill was nasty. But it was well worth the unique experience. There are lots of ice houses out this year, there are pe...

Michelle & I saw Music & Lyrics last night. I have been trying to post this all day but YouTube doesn't like me, apparently. Check it out. This song was stuck in my head when I woke up this morning! It's catchy... **LINK IS NOT WORKING $#!%#%@#%! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0A7dtdc-nU

Today is the coldest Valentine's Day since 1974! We are on our 18th day of below normal temperatures. We still have no snow to play in!! (i'm so jealous of the snow storm out east!) This morning before I got up I realized I was freezing! How could this be? 6am is the time when I feel warm and snuggly and all cozy in my bed. I was even weaing a t-shirt & flannel pants and I was just cold! I went into the bathroom and knew something was up. Usually the furnace kicks on around 6:30 - about the time I should be getting up - so then at least it's warm by time I get to the bathroom....but no. It was cold. My shower was cold because I could feel coldness nipping at my toes underneath the shower curtain. Steve go up and asked me why it was so cold! I told him to check the thermostat - when he came back up he said it was 47 degrees in our house! Well, according to the thermostat. The thermometer we have in the kitchen read a balmy 37 degrees. No wonder i was cold! This confirms ...

To all my friends, have a wonderful Valentine's Day! image from www.supertechnogirl.com

Okay...so....the big news. I gave my notice at my job today! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! COMMENCE THE FREAKING OUT NOW. That's right, I'm going solo. Jason & I have formed a new company, 4 Track Films, LLC and we're going to produce micro-budget HD films FULL TIME! We were finally in the right place at the right time and hit the jackpot. We are starting a movie studio from the ground up. We are excited and scared and my brain has been buzzing since yesterday afternoon. We have office space. We have a whole lot of new HD gear and are getting a new computer for editing. We have paint chips for the colors we want to paint. I have an office with windows and I'm going to paint it yellow. We have a conference room, an editing suite and a "reception/loungy" area. I have to figure out things like payroll, health insurance and accounting but hey! I like a challenge. So, that's what I've been working on for the past 4 months. It's coming tog...

I have a 1/2 day here at work today so only 1 hour and 20 minutes to go (not that I'm counting...). I have meetings this afternoon regarding *the next big thing* and I wasn't in the mood to be rushed. I need to get some things ironed out before I can really feel comfortable enough to move on to the next phase in my life. :) Weekend update to come. It consisted of getting outside & being active even if it meant freezing my patootie off; sewing; watching movies & drinking wine; family dinner and productive production meeting. Well, maybe that's all the update you need! Happy Monday. And yes, that's said with a tinge of sarcasm. Just a tinge.

Last night Steve decided he wanted to bake chocolate chip cookies. I knew he had been craving them for a while but I hadn't had time to bake any yet. He took matters into his own hands. He exclaimed "I can't wait to use my new mixer!" Cheeky bastard.... :) I was putzing around the kitchen, measuring dry ingredients for him, cleaning up after he'd finished and doing some laundry & cleaning in the basement. When I came upstairs I said "Did you add the secret ingredient yet?" He said "yes, yes, I did." I then asked him if he knew what the secret ingredient was. He looked at me and said matter of factly "Love." He is right. That is exactly what I was going to say. I love this man. The cookies were excellent.

Well, I guess it's time to spill *some* of the news of what's been happening around here lately. I am currently in pre-production for my next feature length film. It's entitled God Rocks! and is a mock-rockumentary on a Christian Battle of the Bands! It is going to be funny and not terribly offensive (I'm watching out for that) and will feature some great original music! We're currently demoing our music, scouting locations, meeting with actors and producing artwork/promotional materials. We're shooting on HD with some SWEEEEEEET new Panasonic cameras . We'll be shooting entirely in Duluth but will be holding some auditions in Minneapolis. There will be calls for extras for sometime in May & June so keep that in mind. There are other things happening that I just can't speak of....yet. But soon. Very very soon. Rock on!

I started this scarf for a friend last winter. My intention was to send a care package...last winter. But alas by the time I finished knitting it (it's very long and skinny, to be wrapped around one's neck many many times) it was warm! Then I stashed it away to have it ready for a fall care package. Wouldn't you know...fall rolled around and I couldn't find it! The "gift stash" had disappeared! I'm sure having pre-wedding festivities at my house did not help as I was "hiding" things in closets left and right. Well, after Christmas I found my stash and this scarf. I had to (still) weave in the ends but it was complete. I sent it along to intended recipient with some homemade soup and some gourmet hot chocolate too. I hope it helps get her through this cold winter. The scarf is called a "wavy ribbed" pattern from Better Homes & Gardens. I used a Lion's Brand yarn (so shoot me) with a very natural looking fiber. I liked how it turn...

3 years ago today I met Steve for the first time. We "met" online through Yahoo or Match or a combination of the two. We emailed for a couple of weeks. We talked on the phone once. He asked me out. We met at a little cafe/bar for drinks. The place was "Nutty Megs" and was only in existence for about 6 months or so. Too bad too because it was cute, cozy, served sandwiches & soups in the day and beer and wine at night - usually with some local art on the walls and an acoustic music group playing in the corner. I got there first and was waiting in the lobby of the office building where Nutty Megs was located. Every time the door opened I would look to see who it was. If it was this "Steve" that I was meeting who I only knew through his profile pictures. I was anxious and excited although not overly optimistic. I had done this before and my "date" had seemed more like a job interview than a romantic interlude. And then he walked in. I knew instan...

This is our fabulous main floor bathroom (ie: powder room). The toilet & vanity are BLUE and the walls have some sort of god-awful wall board (Marlite?) on them with green twigs & leaves, the floor *was* this dirty, yellowed, lord-knows-what, and the fixtures are fabulously seventies goldish with garrish lamps. It's a funky addition to the house (oh btw, this is the same bathroom that was NEVER TIED INTO THE SEWER SYSTEM - until we tied it in last year) and it's so great to have a main floor bathroom. It's a good selling point for our house (for when we eventually move) as houses built in 1896 usually didn't have 2 bathrooms - let alone a BLUE TOILET! - oh yeah, that's not pictured....anyway.... We decided that since we re did the hardwood floors and are laying this fabulous vinyl tile in the kitchen and the upstairs bathroom that we should do this little bathroom too. It turned into a bigger project that we anticipated (don't they always) but we got it ...

That's all I have to say.

I'm here tonight having sort of a "mental health" evening.... Ingredients: Noodles & butter pinot grigio knitting and COVER GIRL on Turner Classic Movies (thanks Peder for the heads up!) And next up FUNNY FACE (more wine & more knitting too).

I am a BIG fan of real mail. Decorated envelopes, romantic stationary, newspaper clippings, photographs, doodles, etc. I got my first "Pen Pal" from the TV show "The Big Blue Marble" - anyone remember that one? That was when I was 8. We still write to each other - although more sparingly these days. I have met her twice. It is a unique and special relationship which I am glad to have. My mother is also a Pen Pal. She's had hers for well over 40 years (probably approaching 50 years!). I think the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Corie over at Callalillie is partnering with Youngna to do a "Modern Letter Project." A throw back to written correspondence, the slow pace & art of something that was thoughtfully written and takes time to develop and to get to you. If you are interested pop over there to read the details and hopefully - sign up! I am very excited about this project and the return of decorated envelopes.

Said by my darling husband the other night while we were trying to replace the toilet, which we had removed to lay the new vinyl tile in our bathroom.... "the thing which is for our butts, is becoming a pain in my butt..." I thought, DANG why aren't we on our own home improvement show??

I was comparing my mentee to Jackson Pollock on my other blog and found this site which is SO VERY FUN. And yes, I'm a dork.