Naturally Optimistic

The Open House was incredible! We had so many people - a constant flow from 4 til about 9:30pm! The food was amazing - catered by The New Scenic Cafe up the North Shore here in Duluth. There was wine aflowing, people chatting - it was great. We met so many cool people - people that had heard about us from someone from someone, etc. We met artists and people that wanted to be extras and people that have movie ideas and people that are just damn happy that Duluth is having it's own movie production studio. We were on the local ABC affiliate, a local mag was there taking photos, we met local professionals, had a couple of city councilors show and all in all it was a great time. I am absolutely pooped. Photos to come! Thanks for all of your good wishes, they reall help & mean a lot!!

Our open house for 4 Track Films is tonight! GAH! I have been running around all morning - renting tables, getting balloons & table cloths, picking up fresh flowers and said tables. The caterer was supposed to call me yesterday and never did. I'm hoping they bring linens but if they don't I grabbed some from home and some cheesy "hollywood" ones from the party store. I am currently trying to get the office cleaned up and ready to go as the PRESS WILL BE HERE IN ONE HOUR - WTF am I doing blogging???? Okay - all for now...

*sigh* No one's updating their blogs today. Or rather some people are but I've already read those. Clearly I have a serious case of procrastination happening. Hmph.

Michelle got me hooked on the Brit version of THE OFFICE a while back. Yesterday I received Season 2 in the mail thanks to NetFlix....last night I watched the entire season (okay, only 6 episodes long but still!). It was not quite as good as the first season but I enjoyed it oh so much. If you haven't all ready, check it out sometime.

Steve has been busy creating this tree garden in our yard this spring. He's been transplanting hybrid poplars & white pines and even a maple from other areas of our yard to this place where he's digging up the turf (very tough, btw). He's also planting some new cedar & spruces which he just bought this year (and then exclaimed "I have to stop buying trees!"). He also has been doing an experiment where he takes cuttings from the hybrids and places those either in dirt or water to see if root development will start and to see if THEY will turn into trees. These photos are from a few weeks ago - there is more "garden" now and more trees in said garden....hopefully by the end of the summer things will really have taken root (including the ornamental grasses & wildflowers that I'm planning on adding to the mix.

Last night I hung out with Miss M. We made banana bread ("I just looooooooooooove banana bread.") We had a very nice time. We also finished watching Shrek (the first one) and ate dried beef on toast for dinner. I'm hoping that one of these days will be nice so we can put our seedlings into the garden outside! Maybe next time. Last night was a good night for staying in and doing warm kitchen activities!

Friday was gorgeous - 80+ degrees, blue skies. Awesome. Steve & I worked in the yard - I mowed, he putzed & washed cars, I put together our new fire pit, he grilled. We hung out with our neighbors around the new fire pit and as the winds switched and the temps dropped. and then it started raining. Ah well. I love the fire pit! More fires to come this summer, that's for sure. Saturday was cold. 38 felt like 28. YUCK. I cleaned all day in anticipation of my friends Sarah O & Freya arriving for our annual "Girls' Weekend." They arrived, we ate pizza, we talked and talked and talked and talked, we sat around the kitchen table drinking margaritas (well, Freya didn't she's 7+ months pg after all), we looked at photos from our college days and reminisced about Boones Farm wine (yuck!). It was good. Sunday we got up and made cinnamon rolls & eggs for breakfast; I brought them to the office to show them around and we did more chatting. They left around ...

Check out our new website: 4 Track Films Whohoooo!

YAY! It's Friday. Those are my thoughts. It's been a very hectic week. Trying to coordinate multiple band schedules, trying to get lots of extras committed for our shooting dates, trying to run a business, trying to not freak out and lose my head, finishing editing a wedding video for a friend, ordering t-shirts for production, finding props, signing contracts, spending more money than I have, etc etc. I'm tired. I just went to Maple, Wisconsin. It is a small town (very!) about 25 miles east of Duluth in North Western Wisconsin. I sent out letters to the area high schools last week with information about our shoot & our need for extras. Erin, our assistant director and Jason's gf, called the schools this week and set up this meeting with me for these kids - all speech/drama students. They were really excited and I got a bunch of names/emails so hopefully some of them will show up. I'm waiting now to hear back. It's a big time committment for high schoolers c...

Sometimes your life takes a 180. For instance, I used to sit for hours staring off into space, counting the minutes and seconds (ugh!) until I could flee my office and get home. Now I barely have time to think, breathe, eat, go to the bathroom etc etc. It's good but it's so very different. Thursday I only worked for a bit - I was mostly running around answering emails & phone calls and trying to get video to download properly and also getting packed up for the weekend. Thursday I drove to Apple Valley to visit my sister & her husband. I made them dinner, I did some chores for Kathy (she's in her 5th week of bedrest!!) and we chatted. I was glad I could be of some help to them. Friday we got up early as Kathy had a(nother) 3-hour glucose test. Before I took her to the hospital I made dinner for them and Jay's parents (crock pot - gotta love it!) and tidied up the kitchen. Then off to the hospital for the next 4 hours. Again I was glad I could be there to hang out...

Do you want to be in pictures? 4 Track Films needs you! Duluth’s new film studio is looking for multiple extras to be featured in its upcoming film, God Rocks! – a musical mockumentary about a Christian Battle of the Bands. You will have the opportunity to be involved in two live concerts - there is something for everyone, so bring your friends! T-shirts and CDs will be given out to participants. Speaking roles will also be available for audition. Shoot dates are Sunday, June 3rd and Saturday, June 30th. Interested parties should email auditions[at]4trackfilms[dot]com PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!!

Steve & I FINALLY booked our trip to SWEDEN today! I'm so excited. We were originally going to go over the summer solstice, but then pushed it back to the end of Sept (our anniversary) but then moved it up to the beginning of Sept because I'm going to be in production at the end of Sept but then finally decided on JULY because the weather will be better, the days will be longer and I won't miss out on pre-production. Too bad the tickets were more expensive. Pooey. We're going to be staying with Steve's 2nd cousin (possible first-cousin-once-removed - I have to consult 'the tree') and his wife in Stockholm (they came to our wedding last fall) and they've also said they want to take us around the country which is great seeing that we don't speak Swedish (yet!). We will be *hopefully* taking a train to the arctic circle, hiking our butts off in beautiful (although much like MN I'm sure) scenery, taking in a pint and some art & culture in Sto...

Sent to me by Sarah H.

Another weekend's come and gone. Why oh why must they do that so quickly? Friday I took the day "off" so I could stay home and clean prior to my parents arrival on Saturday. I cleaned all day on Friday and it felt really good. I love having a tidy & clean house! I even line dried our sheets which is oh so heavenly. Friday night we went to Steve's brother's apt for fondue with a couple other people. The menu was chicken, beef, green beans & broccoli. Um, it wasn't that "varied" of a menu but it was okay. I went home after that while Steve went to a "Guitar Hero" party. Saturday we finished up the last of our cleaning (scrubbed the kitchen floor, vacuumed stairs) and then my parents arrived. We showed off our "new" floors (my Mom hadn't been up since the wedding so hadn't seen our new floors in person), our new dining set & buffet, new chandelier & new bathroom floor. And our wedding album. It was fun to hav...

Thank you everyone for your kind words and indulging me on a day when I felt like crap crap crap. Things are a bit better today - because today's a new day! I made chicken curry last night for dinner - my first time making and practically eating it. It turned out good (a *gasp* microwave recipe from the Everyday Food weekly email newsletter). The sauce was sweet & had a kick (just enough for me to handle) but could probably be a little less sweet next time. After that I knitted while watching the "extras" on the first series of the Brit version of THE OFFICE (which I love love love!). Today - I biked to work, putzed around, walked to Canal Park where I met my old boss & an ex-coworker for lunch and took some photos along the way. Enjoy.

Today is not good. A day of utter despair and crying-jag-littered emotional messiness. Iko gets worse and worse. We thought he was doing better but now? No eating, very very little water. Mostly sleeping/resting on our bed. It's like waiting for a clock to stop ticking. I am sad for that and other reasons...reasons that I wont' go into but are probably mostly constructed in my head and of things including (but not limited to) family, family visits, business, business partners, house/home, price of gas, NO ONE to talk to during the day amongst other things. *sigh* I'm ready to hit "start over" on today. (but only if the results were much, much different).

On Sunday Jason, Erin & I went to the cities bright and early (7am ugh). We had meetings with some actors, some potential actors and later we were meeting up with our new friend, Rob Nilsson , whom we met at the Fargo Film Festival. Our first meeting was seriously late. So late that we thought it was not going to happen and it soon became eclipsed by the 2nd meeting...which went swimmingly well. Out of that meeting we cast 3 members of a band which we just formed! Yes! Finally our potential actor/rapper showed up and that meeting went very very well too - and we finished up casting the 2nd half of our "old testament" rap duo. Yay!! Score two! At about 12:15 we walked over to the St. Anthony Main theater where Rob was showing his new film OPENING as a part of the Minneapolis St. Paul Int'l Film Festival. We talked with Rob for a bit and sat down to enjoy the film. It was really a lot of fun. He made in in conjunction with a group of actors in Kansas...it was a 3 day pr...

To celebrate Earth Day last Saturday, I had intended on participating in the city's "Clean & Green" program with Miss M (my mentee). Saturday rolled around, however, and we found ourselves to be deluged in April Showers. And very cool temps. So instead of chucking the whole idea out the window, I enlisted Miss M to help me start my seeds...which we did inside. We planted peppers, mini-pumpkins, spearmint, rosemary, marigolds, ornamental grass and two kinds of sunflowers. The most fun, however, was digging in the dirt. At first I thought Miss M was going to chicken out and use the little shovel the whole time...but I didn't push her and as I got my hands dirty - slowly but surely - so did she! By the end of our planting session she said "I just LOVE digging in the dirt." I'm hoping this leads to more joint gardening projects this summer. I am looking forward to tending to this plants with her and watching our hard work produce some great results! Righ...

Ice cream & Martha Stewart...sounds good to me!

My cousin Jenna & her husband Chris had their baby early this morning. Congratulations! His name is Gavin. This keeps everything even in my family (gender-wise)...Kathy's triplets are sure to really screw things up! hee hee