Breath of Hate set photos - August 14th 2009

SPLINTER

Splinter....also known as: The Movie I Wish I Had Made. First off, I deal with a lot of bad movies on an almost daily basis. Some of them are cheesy CGI-monster fun, like the turds that repeatedly churn through the SyFy (Ew, still HATE their new name) channel's weekend line up. Some of them I have to watch for some business reason or another. And some I actually make...sorry about that. My point is, though, that I see so many truly terrible films that when one comes along that is genuinely good I put my nerd hat on and squeal like a little girl. Such is the case with Splinter.

Plot-wise it follows several of the rules low budget horror films should: Small cast, unknown actors, mostly one location, just add monster...it works, though with their "low budget" I could easily make 5 or more movies, so, ya know, anyone who would like to give me some money to do that, feel free. I'll admit that none of these characters are particularly likable at first, if ever. The baddies are bad, slimy, scuzzy folk that do little to redeem themselves and our goodies drive me a little nuts. I'm always bothered by the "sassy defiant tough girl" and the "useless girlie man who can't change a tire or pitch a tent" (take that how you like). I realize these stereotypes are in place for a reason, but they still bug me.

That being said, the action picks up quickly once our two couples meet. Before long they all must fight to survive after encountering a large spiky critter lookin' for love...or at least for a good warm meal. From this point forward the film plays not unlike a more contained and violent version of Tremors with a creature more like the Critters, mixed with the body-horror stylings of David Cronenberg. Perfection (pun intended).

About half way through watching this short little nerdgasm a funny thing happened: I had to turn it off. Anyone who knows me knows I only turn off a movie for one reason, and that is when it is so epic in its badness that I can't stand it for even one more second. I usually end up having to watch movies like that in several parts just to get through them. Now in the case of Splinter I turned it off for a completely different reason: it was freaking me the hell out! Seriously, I am so seldom freaked out by movies that I couldn't figure out how to process my own freak out. I felt a rising panic in my gut when turning it back on, how weird.

For the first time in at least several years, I watched a movie at least partially hidden behind a pillow and oh my God did I have a good time doing it! First of all, the very nature of this monster gets down to some core issues that many people have, I mean, who isn't freaked out by the idea of something sharp being lodged under their skin, flesh, or fingernails. I cringe just thinking about it. Now add a parasitic element and super heat-seeking abilities to the mix and I'm pretty sure you've got the stuff nightmares are made of.

Clocking in at a tight 82 minutes Splinter never lets up, never disappoints, and never fails to make its audience shudder, cringe and weep. With my horror nerd hat placed proudly on my head I would like to say thank you Splinter, thank you for not only not sucking, but for bringing it. My standards have just gone up a notch.

My big little

Tadg is now two months old, he smiles a lot and can spin himself all around on the floor, he bats at toys, pulls his sisters hair, and grabs things...I'm so happy and so freaked out all at once. So big already.

He just gained another pound in three and a half weeks, all with momma's milk, which is new and exciting for me. It means a lot to be able to do it right for once. And he's long and lean like his big brother. He went from 22 inches to 23 and 3/4 inches in less than a month! Yikes! I knew there was a reason he kept logging me out of websites with his toes when I'd nurse him.

He's precious and amazing, and in another interesting note, our pediatrician said he doesn't think our oldest has autism....what?! I did a total spit take. I wish I believed him and I certainly would like him to be right, we'll be looking into that more soon.

And on a side note, feel free to click on any of the new links on the right side here, we could use the help and it's fun stuff for you at the same time! =)

And now that it's 4am, I sleep.

Random Randomness

Sometimes you just have a weird run in life, the past few weeks have been like that. I have a two month old little boy, sometimes the reality of that is overwhelming. Sometimes I think, "Wow, 2 months old already, seems like I was just pregnant," but lately I'm having a hard time even thinking about when I was pregnant, like it didn't happen. I guess that's a good thing, I know I was completely miserable but it's already a blur.

The past few weeks though, they have been a crazy mix of good and bad, often within minutes of each other, most aren't worth commenting on, though I am sad to mention yet another passing: Clayton Hill. Honestly there have been so many deaths lately it feels like there has to be some sort of greater force involved. I really need it all to stop.

I've been in a fashion funk lately, and trying to think of new ways to generate more income, improve our family quality of life, and recover some of my sense of self, including getting back to the few girlie things I love: hair stuff, bags, and maybe some necklaces and hats here and there. All would be better if I had time to sleep, but it doesn't feel like deprivation for some reason, guess in some way I'm just enjoying the trip. The crazy, blurry, random days of life with a young babe.

Like now, it's 2:40 in the morning, I am sitting here with my hair half cut, I have a mullet basically, I look ridiculous beyond belief, I know the baby will wake up to nurse in an hour or two, I should be fixing my hair, but ya know, this just seemed like a better usage of my time. My month of August is already almost completely full so I'd better enjoy any randomness I can right now.

Shooting a new movie called Breath of Hate starting in about a week, really excited about this one. I came in late on this project but I'll be on the next one from day one, and I'm happy to ease back in to it instead of jumping full on a new feature this soon after Tadg was born. Finishing up a handful of DVD projects as always, to round out the summer I guess. And as always, if you have PR needs, particularly in horror, please send 'em my way. Doing a lot more PR now than ever before and I'm leaning towards more of that and production. This concludes my completely random pitch for money...unless of course you want to invest in a horror film, that would be swell. =)

But now it's 2:45 and my hair needs my help before I pass out, or nurse a baby, or get hungry again, or any of the other million little random things that tug at me all the time. I know I certainly won't be going to visit websites with cute little items I don't need that Joy showed me...no, not at all...not me..........

We had the same baby three times...

Weekend Approaching

Six week growth spurt combined with new projects spinning in the air makes mommy a tired lady. If tomorrow goes as planned I have 4 meetings to get through with a nursing 6 week old in tow. I am definitely looking forward to resting on Saturday, though strangely I'm not doing too bad right now and I've only slept 4 hours in the past 2 days.

These precious things....

My family is the most precious thing in the world to me. Maybe I'm becoming prematurely cantankerous but I find myself less and less willing to sacrifice the things that are important to me for certain things, even if it means taking a financial hit. I have recently found that if I am just careful about how I manage the day there is plenty of time for me to get all my work done, do school stuff with the kids, and not have to give up nights and weekends. I do not need to be constantly on the phone talking business at 10pm, I do not need to spend my weekends talking a client down, I am perfectly capable of getting it all done during reasonable hours during the week. I used to be very diligent about keeping office hours and over time I've let that slip considerably, and with that slip my misery has increased more and more every year. I am returning to keeping regular office hours other than pre planned special events or legitimate business emergencies. And emergencies do not include bad hair days, whining, or random pep talks. My family needs me, and I need myself before I become lost in the shuffle, I've been living like a machine for too long.

And what brought all this on? The other day I was frantically trying to work while the baby napped, the girl was with daddy at work, my older boy was doing puzzles.....then the power went out. Ok, no big deal, it will come back on any minute, like it always does...right...right? No. Hours went by, we confirmed with the power company that there was an outage in the area. It was miserable and hot, we don't have air conditioning and with no power I didn't have the fan blowing on me, I didn't want to open the freezer and risk defrosting my frozen breast milk so it was horrible. Then the battery in my laptop died, then my cellphone battery died. So no computer, no cellphone, no possible way to work..believe me, I tried. And when I started to get panicked over not being able to work I realized that I am working way too much. I should be able to embrace and welcome a break like that, just quiet peaceful time where work can't reach me. So I did. I opened the front door and back door to get a cross breeze going through our place, and the sun coming in, it was just beautiful and I felt a huge weight lifted. I did some scrapbooking I've been meaning to get to, wrote some thank you cards for the baby, did puzzles with my son, nursed the baby, and just had a nice time. I've decided that I can't mentally do without moments like these so office hours are in folks.

My in laws have a nice outside area they can enjoy like that all the time, when we're ready to buy a house I definitely need a nice peaceful outside place. I'll be spending more time reading outside, enjoying the breeze, enjoying my kids and my husband, and I am not going to feel at all guilty for taking the time that I am my family deserve. It's a beautiful thing, we all need to take the time to slow down and realize what really matters. It feels good.

Tadg is one month old and smiling!

Tadg at 3 weeks

Three Weeks Old

It really does go by ridiculously fast, how do I have a three week old already? Things are already slipping into something of a routine around here. Work has certainly started back to full force, though it takes a lot longer to get certain tasks done with only one free hand to type with...ahhh, nursing at the keyboard, good stuff.

The bigger littles are sweet and helpful and lovey...when they're not busy trying to kill each other that is, but they both seem to adore their baby brother. Things are going well, this kid has some crazy hair that's spiky and longer already! He kind of reminds me of Stephen Geoffreys in Fright Night right now...poor kid. I really need to take some new pictures this week to capture the hair in its natural state.

I really need to write up the birth story while it's still fresh in my mind, just been so busy. Though really, life with three isn't that bad, lots of people warned that going from two to three was a nightmare, and granted it's only been three weeks, but so far so good. The only hard part really seems to be balancing work along with it. Life with three and homeschooling and working from home is definitely a little challenging but I think as long as I am extremely careful about how I spend my baby-free (meaning baby not attached to my boob) time then I'll be alright. And of course as he gets bigger it will be even easier.

I'm feeling pretty great, a lot closer to healing than I felt last week. Looking forward to getting back on the tread mill and figuring out some core strengthening stuff so I can finally lose some weight and do the cool stuff I used to love doing like hiking and checking out cool new places. I think soon we're definitely going to have to do a new hike or road trip...something...anything...starting to get cabin fever big time.

And briefly, business seems good, getting clients gigs as usual, possibly picking up some awesome new PR clients this summer, and working on several DVD projects and movies in smaller capacities, Orgy of Blood is almost done with post and we've gotten some great press from Fangoria and Dread Central so far, I've got more in the works. And once I get back into full on swing I've got some really exciting projects coming up that I absolutely cannot wait to get started on.

Oh, and Platoon of the Dead came out on DVD this week! Get yours at Tempe DVD. =)

Introducing TADG WILLIAM MICHAEL!

TADG WILLIAM MICHAEL
Born Friday, May 29, 2009 @ 5:59pm
8 pounds, 10 ounces, 20 inches long

Monday Monday.........

I'm up before 10am and actually functional, guess it's a sign of things to come, or exhaustion to come, whichever it is, I'll be up. Still waiting for baby to come, looks like a definite Gemini for me, at least all my kids will be different signs.

Mission home organization has been going very well the past few days, I can't get enough storage bins and containers and labels oh my. On top of that I've been able to deal with my normal work load again now that feature film production has ceased, and I've even been able to do some long overdue tasks with filing and paperwork that REALLY needed doing.

Hell, I've even been able to catch up on doing the kids journals and scrapbooking, I wish it was always like this...but maybe with the new organization and home office set up it will stay this way at least most of the time. Then again, I'm probably just hyper focused because of nesting and will soon be thrown into the chaotic and odd-hours world of the newborn. I feel ready...mostly.

Neglect and Change

My poor neglected blog, my poor neglected soul...mostly me. I haven't had time, or more correctly, have not been making time for all the things that help to keep me soul feeling good. I have got to stop doing this.

My life as I knew it basically slipped away into chaos sometime before February. At the beginning of February I was dealing with some really intense client stuff, thankfully most of which has now been resolved, on top of that I had a brand spankin' new PR client (still do have him thankfully) that needed a lot of attention, and was in production on a feature with a very tight shooting schedule in the middle of nowhere....nowhere with lots of giant spiders. All of this was going down during my pregnancy, which has definitely been the absolute hardest one I've had.

This pregnancy has been pretty much total misery from day one, I'm so glad to be having a new little one, I'm practically giddy, but finding myself bitter over not having the time to concentrate on that joy and love. I've been dizzy and nauseous and tired the entire time, and big, just extra big, despite not actually gaining weight, I lost weight, not from puking either, just something I do I guess. I was so weirded out by this crappy pregnancy that I got an ultrasound, which I am usually against, to make sure it was just one baby. And it was, or so they say, one big old hyper baby who is already rivaling the other kids as most challenging child, and he's not even born yet. So yes, it's a boy, or so they say...again, I won't be 100% convinced until he's born. =)

Anyway, on the set of that movie in the middle of nowhere an email came through for another project, and pretty much within days of finishing one movie I was thrown into active and heavy pre production on another one, this one much bigger than any before, and much more complicated. I'm actually very proud of how it went down, the crew I got together, the people, the whole thing, but I won't say it wasn't very hard at times. I'm still dealing with it actually, along with about 8 DVD projects in various stages of completion, hoping to get all of those wrapped up by July and by then will likely be working on several more...that's good, income, credits, life moving ahead, all of these are good things. Might even grab one or two more PR clients in the summer just to keep things going, after all, we'll have a new baby to support soon, and we just bought a nice new minivan to hold us all, which I am freakishly excited about.

There have been so many ups and downs the past few months. It would have been easier if I wasn't feeling so awful and lethargic and shaky, but I sense the end of these bad times coming. In the middle of production on the film, my long time dear friend, and client, Lou Perryman passed away. It was not natural, it was not expected, and I'm filled with a giant empty space that sometimes over flows with rage over the loss of him. He was so positive, finally, moving ahead, I loved him, I still love him, and I owe him more than to be screwing up the one life I've got by not taking care of myself. We ended every call with I love you darlin' I am so grateful for that being my last words to him.

After that, we managed to finish the shoot, mostly, and had a great Easter full of fun with the kids and their little Easter baskets, dyeing eggs, and it was so sweet and dear. Then the second bomb dropped, another long time friend passed away, Marilyn Chambers. I've known Marilyn since before my husband was my husband, she bought the first outfit my firstborn child ever wore, she felt my belly when I was pregnant, she joked with us, she was awesome. She was cranky sometimes but her style of temper was amusing and playful and sweet and somehow it made me love her more. Marilyn passed away, of natural causes, on Easter...she was way too young and I miss her terribly. I last saw her in October of 2008 when we sat together at a convention in Ohio. I miss her hugs. I made a promise to both Marilyn and Lou, and myself, that I would write about them at length and put it up on my main site and on here, this is a start, but nowhere near all of it. A month later I am still completely overwhelmed with sadness and shock that they're gone.

Which I guess brings me back to now-ish. My little boy just turned 4 years old, 4! That just seems impossible to me. We had a great party for him which I'm so glad we were able to pull off with everything that's been going on. My daughter is 2 1/2, and I'm due pretty much now with another baby, it's possible I'll have two little boys that are May born Taurus babies...in a way I hope I go later and this little guy sneaks in closer to June and is a Gemini, just so they each have their own time. I do not want to force them to share birthday parties if I can avoid it. Though I am scared to have a Gemini, there is no stopping them. =)

So here it is, late May, and I'm just waiting on a baby, and nesting, and cleaning, and working, and not sleeping enough but eating very well. I'm making some changes and some decisions on how best to keep the things around me that are most important going and somehow balancing work along with it. And for the extra hard days in between, well, I keep good coffee and candles and bubblebath handy.

I'm still alive...and it's my birthday

Wow, I haven't updated in way too long. I've been way too busy to even really have a life or a soul lately. Finished a movie, am heavy into pre production on another one, all moving along very quickly.

But today, today is my birthday, and it's conveniently on a Saturday, and I declare this day mine all mine. So I slept until after 3pm, am eating and doing whatever I want whenever I want and generally enjoying what will likely be my only mellow "me" day for at least another 6 weeks or so.

Hopefully after we finish shooting this movie things will calm down for a few weeks so I'm not so busy, and then of course once we head into May the boy turns 4 (4! when did this happen!?) and I'm due with our third later in May. Once that happens I completely plan on not really sleeping again until at least sometime around Christmas.

Anyway, don't lose hope, I'm still here, and I'm still working...and if you're wondering what I'm watching these days...that would be Wall-E, as both the kidlets are completely in love with it right now. =)

Down on the Corner

Movies I watched in 2008

I stole this idea from a friend. In 2008 I kept a list of every movie I watched, even if I watched the same movie more than once. I am deeply annoyed that I made it to 198 movies, just shy of 200. That aside, here is my movie list of 2008:

1. Alien vs. Predator Requiem -2007
2. Alvin and the Chipmunks - 2007
3. Fred Claus - 2007
4. Resident Evil: Extinction - 2007
5. The Crossing Guard - 1995
6. The Bourne Identity - 2002
7. The Bourne Supremacy - 2004
8. The Bourne Ultimatum - 2007
9. Chain of Souls - 2001
10. Saw IV - 2007
11. Boogeyman 2 - 2007
12. I Am Legend - 2007
13. The Hitcher - 2007
14. 300 - 2006
15. Poirot: Murder in Mesopotamia - 2001
16. Poirot: Five Little Pigs - 2003
17. Wrong Turn 2: Dead End - 2007
18. Eastern Promises - 2007
19. Flight of the Living Dead - 2007
20. The Ferryman - 2007
21. Pumpkinhead 4: Blood Fued - 2007
22. Black Sheep -2006
23. Masters of Horror: Dream Cruise - 2007
24. The Breed - 2006
25. King of the Ants - 2003
26. The Mist - 2007
27. Crawlspace - 1972
28. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story - 2007
29. Juno - 2007
30. Word Wars - 2004
31. Wendigo - 2002
32. Invasion - 2007
33. Trekkies - 1999
34. The Rock - 1996
35. No Country For Old Men - 2007
36. Orgazmo - 1998
37. Munchies - 1987
38. Bowling for Columbine - 2002
39. The Bad News Bears - 2005
40. Trekkies 2 - 2004
41. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - 2007
42. Monster - 2003
43. Who Framed Roger Rabbit - 1988
44. Thunderpants - 2002
45. Death Sentence - 2007
46. Rambo - 2008
47. Ice Spiders - 2007
48. Werewolf in a Women's Prison - 2007
49. King of Kong - 2007
50. There Will Be Blood - 2007
51. Night of the Living Dead 3D - 2006
52. The Devil's Daughter - 1973
53. The Great Debaters - 2007
54. The Black Dahlia - 2006
55. Hannibal Rising - 2007
56. The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things - 2006
57. Easy Rider - 1969
58. Satan's Playground - 2006
59. Totem - 2004
60. Bug - 2006
61. Murder Set Pieces - 2004
62. Jack-O - 1995
63. Captivity - 2007
64. In The Valley of Elah - 2007
65. Beowulf - 2007
66. Southern Comfort - 1981
67. Wind Chill - 2007
68. Fleshburn - 1983
69. Sasquatch Mountain - 2006
70. Abominable - 2006
71. Notes on a Scandal - 2006
72. Sicko - 2007
73. The Corporation - 2004
74. 3:10 to Yuma - 2007
75. Jason X - 2002
76. Chaos - 2005
77. Alice Sweet Alice - 1977
78. The Number 23 - 2007
79. Night of the Demons 2 - 1994
80. Witchboard - 1986
81. The Sixth Sense - 1996
82. Commando - 1985
83. The Evilmaker - 2000
84. Abomination: The Evilmaker 2 - 2003
85. Waxwork - 1988
86. Vulgar - 2002
87. Nightmare Man - 2006
88. Brutal Massacre - 2007
89. Waxwork II: Lost In Time - 1991
90. Wrestlemaniac - 2006
91. The Last King of Scotland - 2006
92. Pumpkinhead - 1988
93. Pumpkinhead - 1988 (again)
94. Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains - 2007
95. Casino Royale - 2006
96. Rocky Balboa - 2007
97. Volcano - 1997
98. Aliens (director's cut) - 1986
99. Transformers - 2007
100. Enchanted - 2007
101. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark - 1981
102. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - 1984
103. Eaten Alive - 1977
104. Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat - 1989
105. The Devil Wears Prada - 2006
106. Bulletproof - 1988
107. Cloverfield - 2007
108. Burnt Offerings - 1976
109. Scanners - 1980
110. Robocop - 1987
111. Charlie Wilson's War - 2007
112. The Last Sect - 2006
113. Supergator - 2007
114. Michael Clayton - 2007
115. The Business of Being Born - 2007
116. P2 - 2007
117. Jumper - 2008
118. Searching for Debra Winger - 2002
119. Diary of the Dead - 2007
120. Blood Diamond - 2006
121. Dante's Peak - 1997
122. Silence of the Lambs - 1990
123. Lone Wolf McQuade - 1983
124. In Bruges - 2008
125. Thank You For Smoking - 2005
126. Logan's Run - 1976
127. Satan's Cannibal Holocaust - 2006
128. Corpses - 2004
129. Teeth - 2006
130. The Girl Next Door - 2007
131. Magus - 2008
132. Dark Remains - 2005
133. Gimme Skelter - 2007
134. The Bucket List - 2007
135. The Cook - 2008
136. King Corn - 2007
137. The Abyss - 1989
138. Children of the Night - 1991
139. Spiderman - 2002
140. Doomsday - 2008
141. The Car - 1977
142. Eraserhead - 1977
143. Aliens - 1986
144. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - 1982
145. Circle of Iron - 1978
146. From Beyond - 1986
147. August Rush - 2007
148. The Horror Convention Massacre 2 - 2008
149. Lethal Weapon - 1987
150. Commando - 1985 (again)
151. Black Snake Moan - 2007
152. Black Swarm - 2007
153. Swarmed - 2005
154. V for Vendetta - 2005
155. Terror Firmer - 1999
156. Lake Placid 2 - 2007
157. The Sandman - 1996
158. The Hunted - 2003
159. Grindhouse - 2007
160. Mirrors - 2008
161. Batman: The Dark Knight - 2008
162, Killer Pad - 2008
163. Tremors - 1990
164. Monster Squad - 1987
165. Stardust - 2007
166. The Bank Job - 2008
167. Pumpkinhead - 1988 (again, new Widescreen transfer)
168. Monster Squad Forever - 2007
169. Jurassic Park - 1993
170. Killjoy - 2000
171. Max Payne - 2008
172. Tropic Thunder - 2008
173. Ricco The Mean Machine - 1973
174. Golden Eye - 1995
175. Flu Bird Horror - 2008
176. The Savages - 2007
177. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - 2008
178. Lost Boys 2: The Tribe - 2008
179. Trailer Park of Terror - 2008
180. Savage Harvest 2: October Blood - 2006
181. Road House - 1989
182. Animal House - 1978
183. Hellboy II: The Golden Army - 2008
184. Erection - 2009 (not yet released)
185. Tremors - 1989 (again)
186. Gremlins - 1984
187. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - 1971
188. Iron Man - 2008
189. Savage Harvest - 1994
190. Sodoma's Ghost - 1988
191. Quantum of Solace - 2008
192. Dirty Dancing - 1988
193. Savage Streets - 1984
194. Silent Running 1971
195. The Incredible Hulk - 2008
196. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 2008
197. Die Hard - 1988
198. Incubus - 2002


WHEW! Interesting year. Kind of sad that the last movie of the year was Incubus (Jess Franco) but oh well. Maybe I can break 200 this year.

HE posters and promo stuff

HE, a film by Creep Creepersin is wrapped!

Yes, we managed to actually shoot a movie just a few days before Christmas, and a day or two after and ended up with HE. This is my third film with Creep Creepersin, each one better than the last. We're gearing up to do another early in the year. =) Here are some photos from our shoot:

HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II - 20th Anniversary Edition

Just in time for the new year, our final DVD release of 2008 hits shelves. Hellbound: Hellraiser II - The 20th Anniversary Edition releases today, December 30, 2008 and is full of goodies: some old, some new. In particular please check out the new interviews with Kenneth Cranham, all of the Cenobites, and the all new featurette Outside the Box with Tony Randel - the film's director.

The IEP/LAUSD post...finally

Where to start? Our 3 1/2 year old boy has been a little bit behind on speaking for awhile now. Not that he can't speak, or couldn't speak, or that he even missed his milestones...just that he couldn't interact the way I saw other kids his age and younger doing. Every time I expressed a concern about this people would just tell me he was fine and to stop comparing him with other kids. But by the time he was two the differences were getting too obvious to ignore. He lined up his toys, mostly cars, he walked on his toes...instead of playing at the park he'd just walk along the fence over and over again.

He wasn't anti-social, he's not violent, he doesn't hurt himself. He's affectionate, super affectionate, in fact he's one of the most cuddly, lovey children I've ever known. And he likes other kids, he'll even run after them and play chasing games now, go down slides with other kids, and he plays and talks with his little sister all day every day...but he's still behind. He sometimes doesn't get social boundaries, either by being too affectionate, or not responding to people who are speaking to him, especially other children.

He repeats things, often the last thing you say to him, even if you ask a question, he often just repeats your words instead of answering...but it's getting better, and it has been getting better and better, the progress is amazing, and I can't say it's all because of the wonderful therapists and doctors and teachers that worked with him...because the only one who has worked with him has been me...and it wasn't for my lack of trying to get outside help.

First, I do not want to bash the Regional Center, or LAUSD, or schools in general. While I do strongly believe in the homeschool philosophy, I do not think that teachers in schools are evil villains perched at their desks waiting for children they can eat. In fact, almost every one we dealt with in this process was incredibly wonderful to deal with, patient, kind, and encouraging. This is more about making sure that if you want to homeschool your children, special needs or not, being very very careful about what you do within the school system.

So it begins. As I was saying, when Gage was two or so, I started trying desperately to reach the local regional center to get an assessment for him, I wanted to know what was wrong, and to verify that I wasn't just being a worrying paranoid mother. I need to know. So I called...and I called...and I called...and I emailed, and I called.......and you know what? No one ever called me back, no one! I know how busy and overextended they must be, but ya know, I had a little boy that needed help and no one could even bother to speak to me! I was disgusted. Then my boy turned three and the differences between him and his peers became even more obvious. While his friends from the same group he's been in since age 1 could talk all about their days, ask questions, and create imaginary worlds, my son was still speaking in basic 4 word sentences. He has a LOT of words, but he doesn't engage in conversation, I was heartbroken, desperate, and misinformed.

From every source around me I was told that once a child turns three that you MUST deal with LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) and not the Regional Center anymore for services. I found out recently that this is not true. It is just an assumption that every one will put their child in public school so the Regional Center forces you to go that way even if they have to lie outright...grrrr.

So I did what I never ever wanted to do, I contacted the school district. I knew that I would still homeschool my children, special needs or not, and I really just wanted an assessment. Doctors for this don't take insurance and the assessment alone can come with a hefty price tag into the thousands of dollars, and that is just for the diagnosis alone! I'm glad some people can afford that but I certainly can't no matter how much I'd love to, and no matter how much my well-meaning homeschool group ladies told me that it was the only way to go.

First I made the request for an assessment, the next day a very nice woman called me back to schedule the over the phone parent interview. We did that the next week.

I almost puked and cried but somehow managed to get through the 30 minutes of questioning that brought in to harsh light just how "different" my kid was from the norm. After that I was to wait for them to send some papers in the mail and go from there. Fastforward several weeks, I get the paper in the mail and I am suddenly struck with a great and deep panic...was I doing the right thing? What if they freaked on me for being a homeschooler? How would they react to me walking in with bright pink hair and a completely different mind set? But it continued to be fine.

I went back and forth on the phone several times, was assigned a case worker, and we made our appointments for what would be two different assessments. One being a physical: only it's not really a physical. They basically just do a simple hearing and vision test and then ask you questions about your kid's medical history. Of course my boy was fine, perfect hearing, perfect vision, no medical history that they saw that could have caused any problems (though as you may know, I personally think that the rough handling at his birth, the c-section, the forced overload of antibiotics in the NICU, and the bad reactions to several vaccines are all suspect...not as a cause exactly, but at least as a contributor).

Then there was the big assessment: this was at a school where I was forced to sit in a tiny chair at a preschool that dug into my fat ass, and I was terrified that it would break under my weight the entire time...anyway... At this meeting, "The Assessment" was my case worker, a speech pathologist, and a child psychiatrist. All of which asked me tons of questions for nearly two hours, and tested my son on various things and wrote down lots of notes. They were mostly very very nice people.

They were impressed by his affection, his social skills, his ability to follow direction, and his intelligence and repeatedly asked me if I was sure he had never been in any kind of a preschool program. I had to tell them I just worked with him at home, several times...what, do most parents not work with their own children or something? I really don't get what the big surprise was. They're my kids, I'm responsible for their upbringing...that usually entails interacting with them personally...but I digress.

So at the end of the meeting the psychiatrist tells me somberly that my son has mild autism. I was okay. I personally have theories that it may be Asperger's as most of his problems seem to be social with some stims, some of the stims particular to Asperger's. Anyway...after the psychiatrist stopped to answer a phone call on her cell phone in the middle of all this(!!!) she told me that my boy had mild autism but the intellgence and non-verbal skills of a 6 year old...I guess that's a good thing..he's a smart kid, always has been, just ask all the broken and defeated child safety locks in my house.

Then they informed me that he needed to be in preschool 5 days a week and that I should also put my then-not-yet-two-year-old in preschool as well so she won't start "acting autistic." They have never met my daughter by the way! I was pretty appalled, hinted that I was more interested in private school, and then we scheduled the dreaded IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting where we would sit down and come up with a plan for my kid that I would have to sign and that would act as a legally enforceable document...scary! So we scheduled it for a future date and I took my kiddo home...and I didn't cry.

A few days go by and my case worker calls to try to reschedule our IEP meeting to a time of day I specifically told her was impossible...nap time...oh hell no, we have no babysitters so we'd have to take both kids to the meeting, and I wasn't about to try that with no napping cranky kids, she then asked me, "can't they just hang?" Gross. Then she proceeds to tell me, "well, we're trying to accomodate another family that came after you." Yep, that was probably not a good thing to tell me. Then she says she'll call me back and three days later she calls and says that our original date and time is still on and not to worry about it...okay, cool right?

A few weeks go by and then with less than a week's notice a secretary, not even my case worker, leaves me a voicemail saying, "we had to accomodate someone's schedule so we're moving your IEP meeting to such and such date, thanks!" WTF? And they moved it to a date that would have meant my husband missing work and us losing money...at Christmas time. By this point I was pretty fed up. I mean, I do understand how overwhelmed and under staffed and under financed they are, but it really felt like they were messing with me. I had had enough.

After much negotiating they agreed to give us our original date and time..AGAIN, but with people who weren't involved with the assessment at all...sheesh. I also knew that they were going to push the public preschool issue, which I am completely against. And I didn't have faith that they'd give us what I really wanted, which was some speech therapy, and that's pretty much it, unless we put him in their school. I was wondering if it was even worth it to go through all this.

Then I thankfully, just in time, found some information (thank you Melissa) that once you sign the IEP and have your kid in the public school system, you don't have the right to just take them out if you want to, at least in the special needs world. Once you have them in the system and have an IEP, you have to come back and do re-evaluations of goals once a year or more...and the worst part: if you decide to remove your child from special needs/public school programs, and the district disagrees with you, they can take you to court over it and try to force you to comply! That immediately made my decision for me.

Again, I want to state that the individuals we met were all very kind, this is more if a broken system problem than the individuals we worked with. And I do know that most of the time, when things get legal over IEPs it is actually parents taking the school to court to get more services, but in our case, we wanted to just nip the whole thing in the bud.

So we made a call and told them that we were going the private route, thanked them, and cancelled the IEP. I was terrified they would put up a fight, but they were very nice about all of it. That option is always open to use if we choose to go that route down the line, but for now, homeschool is still best for us, our boy, our family, and our lives. I'll be exploring alternative options for the kiddo, who keeps progressing at a rate that is astonishing. =)

So far us ending the IEP process before it went too far seems to have gone well, I'm still waiting for them to send the reports from his assessment we were promised, and hopefully there won't be any nasty surprises. I feel great about our decision here, and glad that I can continue to have rights over my own child's education. Please parents, be very careful what you sign, especially if you plan to homeschool. It is easier to never be in their system than to try to pull out later.

And now it's time to put the kids to bed, this post is long, thank you if you read through to the end.

Pre Production news of the day

Today went very well. I had a great talk with a man up in Lake Arrowhead and managed to secure a location for some scenes in an upcoming production.

And for that same production we will also need some toothy prosthetics, waiting on a quote for that but I'm feeling confident that the shop I'm talking to can do it withing our budget, and be awesome all at the same time.

Wow, that really seemed like much more news when it wasn't written out.

movie trailer for Erection, a Creep Creepersin Film up now

Check this out! Dread Central did a nice little write up on the movie we shot back in August; Erection

http://www.dreadcentral.com/story/erection-trailer-spears-web

I'm very proud of this little movie and am looking forward to finding a nice home/distributor for it.

In the mean time, I'm currently in pre-production on two new movies to be directed by Creep Creepersin, being shot this winter. I'm also working with John Bowker on a new creepy script.

Keeping very busy in the entertainment world, and I may even pick up some exciting new PR clients for early January. Yes the convention world may be taking a big hit from the economic crisis but thankfully the independent horror films can't be stopped.

On top of all of those things, I should be working on a healthy amount of DVD/documentary projects for 2009 as well...I'm thinking at least 10, probably more, and that's awesome.

It's actually giving me the energy to use my new treadmill, go figure. It's a nice change from how down and low energy/awful I felt in October.

Happy Birthday to my Pogey!

My little girl is two years old today. Two years ago she was born into my husband's hands in the kitchen I am sitting in right now. I really really can't believe this much time has gone by. It seems like I was just nursing her through the night, and the days, and the nights...it seems like it was just awhile ago that Ken was rocking her in his arms at 4am. And yet, here she is, two years old, and clearly (in her mind) the ruler of this house. She's loud, she's bossy, she's a super feisty little diva child and we love her so much. Without her around I think things would be much harder, yes, you heard that right, having two kids 18 months apart is easier than having just one.

Gage (big brother) has mild autism, we've suspected it for a long time. While I have my suspicions that it may actually be asperger's instead of autism, he definitely has something going on. With Logan around I think it has really helped him talk more and come out of his shell in ways that being around other kids just can't. From making eye contact, to talking, to just being a super affectionate, protective, sometimes bossy, big brother...all of these are huge social and developmental breakthroughs that I think we'd still be struggling with if it wasn't for Logan being here.

I'll have to post another time about all we've been going through with Gage's "diagnosis," dealing with the Regional Center, LAUSD, IEPs, and all of that other stuff. We are still homeschooling and are very happy with it.

Last week I've managed to teach Gage how to use safety scissors and his paintings have started to progress significantly. I'm not sure if it's just my wishful thinking but sometimes it looks like there are tons of very basic little birds in his paintings lately. We do a lot of painting, and the kids colored hand turkeys for Thanksgiving!

We're looking forward to Christmas this year, my mother is coming out to visit which will be awesome!

And in other news: I am 15 weeks pregnant with our third baby!

So, in conclusion of my ramblings, Happy Happy Birthday Logan! We love you so much. Now let's go eat cake!

Halloween 2008

I managed to do a lot this year despite just getting back from a three week long trip in Florida. It felt good. In addition to repeatedly listening to the Silver Shamrock song from Halloween III, we:

-Got and carved pumpkins: a kitty face and some bats, cool!
-Harvested all remaining cayenne peppers, the sunflower, and trimmed back the dead ends on the other plants
-Baked and decorated Halloween cookies, and then ate them...yummy ghosts, pumpkins and black cats
-Meditated and lit candles for the new darkness and loved ones who passed away in the past year.
-Took the kids trick or treating.

Things I still need to do and didn't get to yet:

-Gather and dry pumpkin seeds
-Gather and dry cayenne seeds
-Hang and dry last batch of cayenne peppers
-Build a winter king.

I'm tired but happy.

At the Pumpkin Festival in Florida.

Milkweed Bug

Where's my head at?

Well this trip was supposed to be a nice long relaxing trip where I got lots of rest and caught up on a lot of work....unfortunately it hasn't worked out that way. I've considered checking into a local hospital so I could maybe get some rest and quiet because there is certainly no chance of that happening here. Ever feel like you've somehow fallen into an alternate universe where all the rules are different? Or am I really, truely, the only person who grew up with not just an immediate family, but an entire family who knew to be quiet when people are sleeping? I am really at the end of my tolerance. I would like large amounts of: QUIET!, sleep, being left alone, getting work done, and not feeling constantly hounded and judged. Too much to ask? Apparently so.

I have reached sensory overload and often feel like I've been dropped into the middle of a David Lynch movie...and that's nowhere near as fun as it sounds. Yesterday I had a brief escape when we went to see Max Payne....I have no further comment on that. Today, despite my horrific inability to actually breathe (respiratory illness going on week 5 now) we are going out today for some self-imposed surreal activity: The Salvador Dali Museum, woohoo! Now mind you I can't walk because that seems to interfere with the little scraps of air I am able to get in so I'll be kickin' it in a wheelchair with my bright pink hair, in Florida, at the Dali Museum....strangely this amuses me, probably even more than the time I was on bed rest with my first pregnancy but was determined to go see the Body Worlds exhibit. Therefore I went anyway, in a wheelchair (hey, it's kind of like bed rest right?) and had the mister push me around, often way too close, to the various body exhibits...unfortunately several times this put me at exact eye level with many a dead and preserved set of genitals....my favorite memory of the entire time: a young girl who had clearly never seen testicles minus their skin and flesh before, seeing one of the bodies and shouting, "Mama, he got 3 Penises!" The humiliated mother tries to explain quietly about testicals but the girl is not having it, she walks up to the exhibit and counts them one by one, "Nu uh, LOOK! 1....2....3........3 Penises!" Brilliant!

Anyway, I'm off now to hopefully create more priceless memories, or at least let my head escape to it's own place of calm chaos for the first time in weeks.

My social inadequacies are showing.......

.....never do I feel more socially awkward than when I'm staying in someone else's house. It must be nice to have normal social reactions to every day situations, however I am completely horrified whenever someone asks me if they can get me anything. It would be easier to deal if the mister were here, but he's out of town on business, leaving me alone with his parents...in their house...in hot and humid Florida...with our kids...while I'm extremely sick and borderline helpless....and in the thick of the Halloween busy season. To say I'm a little freaked out would be an understatement.

My in laws are super nice, loving, caring, supportive people. I however, am a great big ball of quirky goodness and have trouble dealing with things like engaging in conversations, having dinner at a table, and going outside (especially with this nightmare lung problem I'm having and the humidity that they swear "isn't that bad"....tell that to my lungs!). I find myself starving and wanting to eat, but afraid to go get things from the fridge, and the thought of asking them for anything is equally terrifying...it all feels way too much like school lunch in 7th grade actually.

"So I ran faster, but it caught me here
Yes my loyalties turned...like my ankle...
In 7th grade...running after Billy....
Running after the rain.....
These precious things....
Let them bleed
Let them wash away
These precious things
Let them break
Their hold over me"

Tired of Travel/Travel of Tired

Tomorrow at 3:30am I'll be meeting in the lobby of the hotel to get a ride to Boston airport; about a one hour drive from where I'm staying in Worcester. Just a few days ago I flew into Boston from Tampa, after an hour drive to Tampa from Sarasota, FL. Before that, a 4 hour drive from Miami to Sarasota after we missed our connecting flight, after flying from Los Angeles to Miami with the kids in tow. Our luggage was temporarily lost, long enough for me to have to fly to Boston with no clothes or toiletries. To say I'm tired is a severe understatement.

While I'm dreading the early wake up time, and being in yet another airport, I look forward to landing in Tampa and going back to Sarasota to visit the in-laws, see my babies, and have at least something resembling a vacation. Of course I'll be working during that time but with my in laws to play with the kids I might actually get some sleep and not have to work such stressful hours.

I've been sick with some kind of respiratory nightmare since mid September and I really think all the travel isn't helping. I'm hoping that chilling in Florida will help...staying put for about 2 weeks will be nice, their place is nice and low stress, I need it...I crave it with every fiber of my being.

People are arguing about race on CNN right now, I hear it across the room, why I left it on CNN I couldn't tell you, the state of this country right now has me so upset I can barely stand it. Back when W. was first elected I strongly considered leaving the country but I wasn't in any position to do so. This time around, I'm of the mind that no matter who we get as our new "leader" the country is still in such a giant pile of shit that it's going to take years, possibly decades to crawl out of it. I like being in Los Angeles, I like being in entertainment and not having seasons to mess with my garden, but I am keeping the thought of escape close to the surface just in case.

Now off my mini political rant, because I feel like everyone else has plenty of big rants and another one from me would be redundant, I am tired. =) I am waiting for friends to get back to dinner so I can say goodbye to them and get to sleep, or at least take a nap before I head to the airport. Thankfully it's only a 3 hour flight, and thankfully I'm on JetBlue for this one. By the way, being a vegetarian without a car in Worcester, MA totally SUCKS! The only places that deliver are pizza and Italian places and an exceptionally bad Chinese place. All the good, tasty food here is dine in or take out only....not cool at all.

I should go, before I get started on last night's Red Sox/Rays game....grrrrr. On to Florida I go, longing for sleep and food.

SUNDOWN THE VAMPIRE IN RETREAT - out TODAY!

SUNDOWN THE VAMPIRE IN RETREAT is out today!

And unlike the Pumpkinhead disc this one should be a little easier to find, it's online, at Best Buy, and everywhere, thank you Lionsgate! (By the way, not giving up on Pumpkinhead, thanks to Deadpit.com and everyone else working to get the word out.)

Check out all the new goodies below, it's also a pretty sweet new widescreen transfer, and finally, on DVD!

-Enhanced Widescreen transfer

-Audio commentary with director Anthony Hickox and director of photography Levie Isaacks
-"A Vampire Reformed" interview with David Carradine
-"Memories of Moab" interview with Bruce Campbell
-"A True Character" interview with M. Emmet Walsh
-Photo gallery
....

New Poster Art for Erection, A Creep Creepersin Film

OC Babes and the Slasher of Zombietown DVD cover art

OC Babes and the Slasher of Zombietown, out on DVD now at Amazon!

In between travels

I'm back from Kentucky, that was certainly fun, other than the hideous cold I've come home with. This week we have a long overdue appointment with the accountant, which I'm strangely looking forward to, it will be nice to have all of that in order, and to finally get that check. =)

Most of my past due fees are finally being paid (thank you people who pay on time) so I'm doing well, looking forward to the travel being over for the year though.

I've got two mini projects going on at once right now, thankfully those aren't that labor intensive, then I head off to Ohio for a show, come home for two days, then fly off to Florida to visit my in laws (with the kids of course), and from there I fly in and out to a few shows, crazy life sometimes, it really is.

Oh and two releases so far this month. Pumpkinhead which I mentioned before, and OC Babes and the Slasher of Zombietown is now up on Amazon as well. I have another one coming out next week!

Check out deadpit.com for some nice mentions on the new Pumpkinhead DVD, it's their latest show on the site. =)

This was on the back of a train we saw ?!?....

Pumpkinhead DVD

YAY!

More Cayenne Peppers!

And we're off....

The busy travel show season of every fall has begun, tomorrow morning I leave for Kentucky for an event called The Scare Fest, lots of clients and goings on. Then I'm home for two or three weeks (maybe, a job might change that) before it really starts.

I've got a show the first week of October, then pretty much every weekend until early November. Then one more show in mid November, whew...at least 6 more shows to travel to this year. No wonder I'm always so tired by the time Christmas comes around.

Anyway, if for some reason any of you are in Kentucky this weekend at the show, come say hi. Otherwise find me later this year in Cleveland, Sarasota, Worcester, MA, Detroit, and Indianapolis, and likely in Pittsburgh somewhere in there too. =)

The first red peppers!

my hair and my shoes as of today....

PUMPKINHEAD COLLECTOR'S EDITION DVD out today!

Please everyone, go out today and pick up a copy of the new Pumpkinhead Collector's Edtion on DVD, it comes out today, and I'm damn proud of it.

..- Audio commentary by co-scripter Gary Gerani and FX creators Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis, moderated by filmmaker Scott Spiegel
- PUMPKINHEAD Unearthed featurette
- Evolution of a Demon featurette
- The Cursed and the Damned featurette
- The Tortured Soul of Ed Harley featurette
- Constructing Vengeance featurette
- Razorback Holler featurette
-Stan Winston featurette
- Demonic Toys featurette
- Behind-the-scenes footage
- Still gallery
-Theatrical Trailer

And a new Widescreen transfer, finally!

Falling Behind Slump...a.k.a. my dreams are bigger than my energy level

Well damn, here I am falling behind on work again, the urgent stuff is getting done and not much else. Mostly I find myself being more into hanging with my kidlets, doing craft projects, and enjoying life...unfortunately at the expense of work, guess I'll have to answer those emails, and send out those contracts, and scan those images, and get all my tax stuff together too, yikes! (Don't ask, lots of stuff with the accountant, the cost of being an independent business person is having to deal with all of that stuff.)

Still, things are good. I met my neighbors today, they seem young and groovy, weren't put off by my insane hair and horror t-shirt, and they have a 17 month old named Jude that my kiddos seemed to like.

It's midnight now, it's been a great lazy day. Watching movies, buying new luggage with cute froggy name tags that I love, cleaning some, and one delicious nap.

I leave on Thursday for a weekend business trip in Kentucky, should be fun, I have a nice big hotel room all to myself. It has a sleep number bed, A/C, free wireless, and a big groovy bathtub all for me. Oh and I will sleep. =)

New look, new stuff......

Hope you all enjoy the new look up top and all the new posts, I went a little crazy. =)

The Hair Experiment of 2008

And so begins my hair adventure. I forgot to take a before picture, but let's just say I started with dark dark auburn hair with roots that were coming in white more often than I cared for.

The colors and toners I used: Hot Hot Pink, Atomic Turquoise, and Virgin Snow
This is after the 1st attempt at bleaching with 30Vol Flash Lightning

And this is after the second attempt, still lots of orange and yellow.

And the third and final attempt, for fear that my hair would fall out, still not white enough.

Added the white toner, didn't work except to dye parts of my hair pale purple...(LAME!)

The foil-headed fun begins, adding some of the blue.

And now some of the pink, just call me foil-head.

Here it is done but still wet.

And all nice and dry, the final result.

I think I will probably add more pink and change colors as I go, may as well, it's already fried! Hope you enjoyed my early mid-life crisis. =)

My Sunflower

This is a sunflower in my back yard. It was grown from a seed, that came from a wild sunflower, in my late grandmother's garden. It makes me happy and sad all at once, and I think that's a beautiful thing. Enjoy.

Starting anew.....

Who says Spring cleaning has to happen in the spring. Today, despite all the random horrible things that keep happening (a bad streak, my mother called it) I feel like I'm slightly ahead of the game. New projects that I am actually excited about are beginning now. Older projects are finally being listed and released. I don't have to work a real 9 to 5, something I am extremely happy about. Being your own boss is majorly stressful but at least I make my time my own, or I strive to anyway. =) At least I don't have some crappy boss telling me what I can and can't do and when I can do it. I make enough in this business to not need the "real" job, I'm by no means rich, but, well, being happy is much more important to me than money.

Also my recent realization that I don't have to put up with everyone's crap and that I can have time for me too, that's just heaven. I feel strangely free. I'm looking forward to moving, we have some leads but no play in mind to move just yet, but just thinking of leaving this apartment behind and going somewhere with more room and a yard, well, it's the yard more than anything. I want some place for the kids to play safely supervised and with some privacy, a place where I can keep my plants, maybe one of those tables with an umbrella and a kiddie pool. And a place with air conditioning! Now I'm fantasizing.

I find that little things can improve my mood greatly. Yesterday, instead of my usual industrial pack of plain yellow mini post its, I went for the neon cube with pink, blue, green and white, ha, it looks like my hair right now! But it makes me happy. I may never get over my love of office supplies.

And with that, I'm off to enjoy this time I have. Ken is safely off seeing the new Batman movie, the kids are bathed and in bed, dinner is already consumed, dishes are done, plants are watered. And I have time, alone........heaven.

Lazy Sunday?

I wish it was...it feels like it would like to be. I still have some improvements to make on my hair, and various work-related tasks. We're taking the kids to the park today after Ken gets home from work, great for the kids, I'm really not feeling up to it but they need to get out and play.

Tuesday brings new things, new projects, new stuff for Gage, getting our lives together some more, though I really wish we were moving, I so despise where we live I can barely think of anything else but moving. Uuughghhh...why is there always so much to do?

I've been watching Season 2 of Heroes, only two more episodes left, looking forward to catching up on the second season of Torchwood too, I missed the last half of the episodes. I'd like to go out on a date with my husband and have an awesome dinner and see movies and walk around the beach at night. I'd like to write a coherent blog some day, I'd like a lot of things, but for now, I have to go clean some things and get ready for the park. =)

I need an update

I've been a frumpy, frazzled lady for far too long. I let being busy and being a mom who has either been pregnant or nursing for over 3 years now keep me from being my normal sassy self. I miss being a girl, or in my case, the strange, mismatched, colorful version of being a girl. Granted in this time I haven't given up my love of collecting various handbags and sometimes hats. It saddens me that all my fave shirts are too small, definitely need to hop my butt in the treadmill, that's in the works too, but for now, bring on the make up, bring on the crazy hair colors (update on that coming real soon!), bring on going out with friends, shopping, seeing movies, and putting as much time into my self as a person as I do with my business life and my family. Weeeeee.............

And to celebrate, I will spend this entire day listening to Babes in Toyland!

Creep Creepersin's Erection - photos from the shoot

Here are some photos from our shoot of Erection.

"Bobby"(Matt Turek) and "Robyn"(Melissa Bacelar)

Creep Creepersin directing through the window.

"Bobby" and the pants

"Bobby"(Matt Turek) and "Brandon"(Trent Haaga)

Trent Haaga sizes up Noelle Balfour

A moment of calm....

Trent playing some Candyland in between scenes

"Suzy"(Heidi Martinuzzi) - not so shower fresh

The aftermath

The "Bobby" is leaking

And it's a wrap!

Spring cleaning in August

I've found that with the projects from earlier this year being done and no new ones officially started yet, I've actually had some time to work on major things like taxes, websites, filing, and devising new plans and organizational skills. It's nice in a way, I'll be glad to have a cleaner, clearer space (both mentally and physically) to work and live in. The new email system I'm doing is fantastic, I'm not behind at all anymore! And my new website is close to completion and looks amazing things to my awesome web guy, Anthony.

Ken is away in Toronto right now, I miss him. A lot. I know that sometimes having him here is a distraction, but I like that distraction and I really wish he was home. I really look forward to a time when we don't have to travel to conventions all the time, 20 times a year or more is kind of insane ya know? I miss my honey, I want to eat cake and watch movies and stay up late talking about movies and things.

My update is quick, the kids are actually napping for a change and I plan on eating, doing dishes, and whatever work I can squeeze in before they get up. I feel like there is a big horrible something looming and I can't quite figure it out..I hope it's nothing. I'm rambling again. Food now.

Erection has been cut....

The movie that is... =) Couldn't resist. Creep Creepersin's Erection is now done with the first rough cut, that was fast! I can't wait to see this one. I'm also told that O.C. Babes and the Slasher of Zombietown should be available on Amazon.com soon, in addition to Creep's Frankenstein (I've never seen it and had nothing to do with it, but I'm looking forward to it anyway.)

At least there's a little light sneaking in through all this darkness.

I'll hopefully be wrapping things up with my webmaster soon for my new groovy website. The peppers are getting huge, I imagine they'll be red and ready to harvest soon, the roses are blooming, my sunflower is over 4 feet tall now with a small flower head...makes me wish I had planted more...maybe it's not too late. I'd also like to at least start some Stevia and Green Beans.

Also, watched Black Snake Moan last night...I approve.

At misery's end

I contemplated not even writing this post, or leaving it as a brief statement, "people are shitty." Then I thought, to hell with it, I'm sure you can all tolerate another rant from me. After all, I've been largely positive lately so why not bitch. Which brings me to this:

I hate management. It is true that I have some clients who are such a dream to work with that if they were the only type of clients I had, I'd probably think management was a slice of heaven. Unfortunately, that is not the case most of the time. People have issues, I get that, but what I don't get is these people thinking that it is perfectly acceptable to just fly around taking big shits on every else's parade all the time.

I could go on forever about all the hideous sins my clients have committed, but that would take more time than I'm willing to spend. Booking behind my back, not paying, both on time or ever in some cases, calling on nights, weekends and holidays, and worst of all, calling to scream at me for no reason other than it makes them feel better to throw a tantrum in someone's direction. I'm not going to list everything, those are just the main ones.

So it begins folks, it's time to clean out the closet. If any of my heaven clients are reading this, guess what, I'm not talking about you, you know how to behave like an emotionally secure adult. As for the others, well, they're likely not reading this because it isn't about them and how great they are.

I am doing more and more production these days, which is what I wanted to do. Some of the management stuff is basically becoming a burden. I'm spending time that could be spent on production to make little to no money and be verbally abused in the process, no thanks. I will be downsizing my client list, aggressively pursuing back money that is owed, and most importantly, NO NEW CLIENTS! Not even referrals unless they are so massively famous they sell themselves and they go through a psychological screening first. People who enjoy management must be really really into S & M.

---------End Rant.....and hopefully a great deal of misery----------

I'm so tired....

Some messed up things have happened the past couple of days, bad times for an old friend and unrelenting work coming at me at the same time..10 phone calls in as many minutes, is that really ever necessary? When do I get permission to have emotions and a life outside of work? When will people understand that I am a human and I don't live my life just to cater to egos all day and night every minute that goes by? Yes, I am bitter, and seriously annoyed.

Wrap times two...

Over the weekend I shot Creep Creepersin's Erection, a really interesting little horror movie starring Trent Haaga, Melissa Bacelar, Heidi Martinuzzi, Noelle Balfour, Elissa Dowling, Matt Turek and more. We managed to shoot the entire film in two days, what I've seen of the footage so far is looking good, I can't wait until this one is all put together. This film is by Creep Creepersin, who I also worked with recently on O.C. Babes and the Slasher of Zombietown. Special thanks to Trent for the Candy Land and Heidi for tolerating our shower-related torture.

I got to rest a little bit before I had to go shoot the last interview for another DVD special edition project. That interview went very well, but the best part was knowing that once it was over, all of my current projects are completely wrapped on my end.

It's been quite a year so far, starting in early April through now I have done 6 projects this year alone, with at least four more that will likely be done by the end of the year, maybe even 6. So 10 to 12 projects for 2008 and 2009 looks to be double that at this rate.

Yes I'm busy, and exhausted, but I'm completely thrilled to finally be doing what I want for a living on a scale that may actually allow me to give up some of the more annoying little side jobs I have and just focus on the two things I really love: my family and making movies.

All I want for Christmas is a separate office space....

.....from my kids in the living room! Ever tried being on a crucial business call with kids screaming at each other over who gets to hold a jar of peanut butter? Ever been trying to type an email with a three year old repeatedly spinning the chair you're seated in? Well, I have, about 50 times per day!

As if business in general wasn't frustrating enough.

Shake It Up: My First Earthquake.........

It's 12:20pm on Tuesday, July 29th, and about 30 minutes ago I experienced my first noticeable earthquake. Sure I've experienced little ones here and there that I didn't even recognize as earthquakes. But today I experienced my first real shaker living in Los Angeles. Seems it was a good 40 miles away and registered as a 5.8 but it was enough to shake my home and make a big rumble, scare my 3 year old, and then afterwards we were treated to several minutes of a weird waving/rolling sensation like I was on a rollercoaster. My Pinhead and Freddy bobbleheads just recently stopped swaying. How strange. It also kept me from being able to make calls on my cellphone for about 15 minutes. I could get them but I could not call out, definitely weird. Other people have had the same problem from what I can tell. Husband and daughter are out together today and they are fine, I don't think it's causing much damage but wow, I certainly felt it.

I have three interviews at the end of this week for various projects. The thought of it makes me tired as this will prevent any resting that I would get before the mister leaves for a full week for San Diego Comic Con. A full week of no help or break with the kids...lovely. Still, I frequently have to go on trips for about that long at a time and he puts up with it, it's only fair, but that doesn't make the terror any less. Why am I afraid of being alone with my kids? The answer is, I'm really not, I just get tired and then I fall asleep like an old lady, which is inevitably the moment the kids will choose to pour an entire box of tampons down the toilet or discover where we hide the knives...ahhhh kids.

I'm still excited about my various projects, and the bounty of new ones that continuously come my way, I'm very grateful for that, really. I just would really love some grown up time with friends, staying out and drinking coffee all night at some diner, talking about movies and life; it seems like a distant dream.

And on a side note....am I just excessively cranky or is it normal to be like....ummm...psychotically enraged by being asked questions? I mean, I just despise being asked things, mostly when I'm doing something else of course. Man, I'm just too cranky for words these days, I really need some time for myself.

So back to what I was saying. Opportunities seem to be falling from the sky lately, and that is beyond awesome, I just wish I had a little more wiggle room to take the cool offers and not have to worry about the rest of the crap I have going on. Some day I'll be free. Some day I'll have a nice little back yard with chairs and a pomegranate tree and friends will come over, and we'll hang out and talk about movies and books, and life will be fun again.

Garden - Mid July

Cayenne Pepper

Wormwood

Mugwort

Mister Lincoln Rose

The Current Happenings of My Crankyness

I am and have been so cranky lately I probably shouldn't be writing anything, or speaking to people at all really. That being said, here are the latest updates.

Platoon of the Dead is being pushed back to a first quarter 2009 release, look for it then through Tempe DVD.

The Pumpkinhead DVD is finally done on my part and has a release date of September 9, 2008 through MGM.

Also recently finished Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat. Look for that September 23, 2008 from Lionsgate.

I'm currently working on another DVD project that should be done by the first week of August. If all goes well, immediately after that I will have an awesome new feature film project to shoot and then I go straight to a convention at the end of August and the fall travel begins in full force from there. During the fall there will also be several DVD projects in various stages of completion.

In family news, I can't believe Logan will be turning 2 in 5 months, where did the time go? I'm thinking of getting Gage involved in some gym or martial arts activities. And we are in full on potty learning with Gage right now, so far peeing on the potty seems to be going okay, for everything else it's still in the works but it's only day 3. =)

I am so super busy with what I already have that I'm becoming increasingly bitter when someone comes along and dumps something else on my plate. Especially short notice and immediate deadline somethings...am I the only person who was raised to believe that springing things on people is rude? Ahhh but if I go on the cranky factor will rise and I just have too much to do.

On to making lunch for the kidlets and avoiding my phone calls and emails for another half hour, mwahahahaha.

The Garden - June 2008

The kids "help"

Sage transplanted into bigger container

Mugwort

Wormwood

Sunflowers sprouted on wet papertowels

Baby Sunflower

The Mugwort getting bigger

Roses!

Soaking......

Planted!

Today's untimely challenge

Today is a record busy day for me, it is almost 4pm, I still haven't had anything to eat...those who know me best know that me not eating anything all day tends to make me...shall we say...irritable. On this nerve-wracking day of busy work, phone calls, emails, and general insanity, my three year old has chosen to drive me totally insane.

First of all, there was last night. I bought some gummy vitamins in hopes that said three year old would eat them and get at least some nutrition since he refuses to eat anything but crackers, cheerioes, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, bananas and yogurt...if I'm lucky the occasional Sun Chip or pudding. Anyway, his 18 month old sister wanted to eat them...ALL of them, alas, the boy just put one in his mouth, then drooled it out on to the table, and then proceeded to sit inches away from me. While sitting there he repeatedly pointed at the slimy vitamin gummy bear, and said over and over again (for at least 30 full minutes!) "Yummy gummy...mmm...tastay...taystay...eat it eat it eat it!" I'm sure you think this sounds cute, but after about 2 minutes the cuteness was fading quickly.

And then today, for some reason I knew this might be a problem but put it out of my mind. We live in a two bedroom place, we have nowhere else for the kids to go but with each other for their room and frankly I think it's a good thing that they share a room...however: I was downstairs today during naptime working happily when I heard a loud thud from upstairs. I have crazy neighbors who regularly sound like they are dropping pianos so I ignored it...until a second thud happened and I heard my daughter's loud hysterical sobs. I run up the stairs in a panic, swing open the door to the kids room and see............... My three year old standing in my 18 month old's crib, she has blood coming out of her nose and is crying, and the three year old looks so very guilty.

After I calmed and cleaned that mess and put them back in their respective beds (note: my three year old is still in a crib as well, guess that's ending now) only to soon hear more noises and crying. I go up again and see little feet as they dive back into a crib, find the 18 month old half out of her own crib and clinging to it with her feet like some sort of spider monkey, and some how, the fans in their room are off and unplugged, the hamper is overturned, the carpets are moved...grrrrr.

I ended up going up there 8 times before it stopped and only then because I lurked outside the door and came in at every noise. I am not usually a super mean mommy type but I think I channeled the voice my grandmother used to use on me when I was being exquisitely bad as a kid. And now I hear things from up there again, any chance of a nap, or me getting to eat today, is now gone, which means I am going to be a cranky psycho. So what I'm getting at is...how do I stop this, like right away now?

*sigh* Someone bring me a sandwich and some nice tea...........

Gardening at night

It's 11pm and I just finished some night gardening. Ken's out seeing a movie, the kids are in bed and I have the house to myself. My Sage was getting too big for it's home so I had to transfer it to a bigger pot. Then I transfered more cayenne plants (there are still about 60 or 70 of them, yikes!) into other containers. A few went in to the bigger pots that I'm keeping, and more went in to temporary little pots (a.k.a. recycled water bottles I cut the tops off of) that I hope I can get some people to take. I did that until I ran out of dirt....I actually went through an entire 64 quart bag of potting soil tonight.

It was fun, I listened to episodes of Night of the Living Podcast and got caught up, so if for some reason Google leads my friends at Night of the Living Podcast to this blog, howdy guys, yes, I listen to your show while planting peppers, super cool eh? And since I just finished listening to episode 99...I happened to love the 1988 version of The Blob, it was awesome, and Bill Moseley is in it. =)

So a few days ago I interviewed David Carradine for a project. You know, having been a giant dork of a Carradine fan pretty much from birth, I should have been more nervous. Strangely I was more nervous the few times I had to call and speak to him on the phone first, but actually doing the interview was great. I know there are a lot of stories out there about him not being a nice guy, but I didn't get that from him. I think that perhaps he isn't going to jump up and down and tell you how happy he is to see you, he keeps it low key, but he was certainly very nice and respectful to me and to our crew. I look forward to possibly working on something with him again, he's also got some great stories.

So interviewing Carradine is done, one more for that project and then we're all done, then it's on to the next few projects, all look like fun ones. Not that I'd go crazy talking about a project that I thought was crap, but yeah......everything coming up I'm looking forward to. Also one more convention coming up later this month, should be a fun trip and a great show. And who knows, maybe some feature projects will come up this year too.

Oh, and we finally got Gage's wood play garage for his birthday...this thing is awesome. I think I want to play with it more than the kids do.

Logan and her blueberry

I am Logan and I have a blueberry.

Our trip to the Pacific North West - May 2008

Mount Shasta

Me and Logan...I look sleepy.

Gage isn't that in to the Space Needle.

Cheese Factory! - Tillamook, OR

Gage loves the cows.

Cape Meares, awesome trees in Oregon.

Me and Gage at the Yaquina Head lighthouse in Oregon.

A cool pioneer cemetery in Cape Blanco, OR

Yep............these things were like 30 feet high.

A drive -through Redwood tree.

Old covered bridges, yay!

The Golden Gate Bridge

Alcatraz

San Francisco, CA

THE END

The current state of the garden

Mugwort

Wormwood

Cayenne Peppers (way too many of them)

Yarrow

Sage

The last few weeks........

I'm much better since my last post, whatever horrible throat plague I had lasted about 8 days, hope I never get that again.

We finished the documentary project, yay! Well, there's still some editing to do but my part is done, finally. =) Of course I'm still working on two more loose ends on finishing up another one, that will probably be done by the end of June, then I can devote more attention to the 6 or so other projects I want to start work on; thankfully they're all somewhat small and easy gigs.

We had a show in Seattle, WA last weekend that went well, a little slow but good. Since the mister and I had never been to the NW at all we decided to drive up through Northern California, Oregon, and Washington state. That was intensely cool, then on the way back we took the coast road and it was even better, lighthouses and covered bridges are just amazing, and some great giant rocks and waves we just don't get on the beaches of southern California.

When I got home my plants in the back had all gotten huge! Until something ate some of them...booo...hisssss.....

Photos of the trip and the plants coming soon. =)

Hello Kitty Purse

By request....here is my new little Hello Kitty purse that the mister gave me for Mother's Day. =)

Cough...sputter....phew

I'm back from Arizona.

Honestly, I wish I'd had more time there. Clarkdale is an amazing town and my interviewee lived up on top of a mountain in a giant, magical, solar powered house. On the road (dirt road!) up we saw a very old graveyard with simple wood stakes and rusty pipes formed in to crosses as grave markers. I meant to go back and take some photos but I forgot, I did encounter a gorgeous giant moth though. I have to go back to that area again, I'm told there is an awesome ghost filled old mining town nearby, and of course Sedona is near there as well.

I felt kind of ill on the trip back, who knows what was wrong with me, but the next day we had an appointment to dig through a large storage facility trying to find some lost art work for the documentary, several hours later we came up empty and I was progressing quickly into a land of horrible illness. It's actually a good thing that the next day's commentary recording was canceled because I was fairly dead to the world all day Friday and most of Saturday too.

Saturday I woke up just enough to do the cake and presents thing with my now three year old boy! He had a nice birthday playing with his new stuff and staying up late, I just wish I had been able to enjoy it more.

Sunday was Mother's Day, my voice and throat were too bad to really speak but I managed a brief call to my mom and a late night gift giving from my awesome husband who catered to my ultimate dork by giving me a Dr Who action figure and a Hello Kitty purse. Those who know me well know of my intense passion for Hello Kitty, new Doctor Who, and purses and bags of all kinds...sometimes I'm actually a girl, go figure.

Today I started feeling a little better, got some work done, and am still awaiting the end of this project. Something feels unfinished and it's bothering me. I don't know if it's the documentary project or a general sense of doom that I'm getting.

This morning in my half awake/half asleep haze I felt a small earthquake aftershock, some moments spent on Google confirmed that there was a tiny earthquake not too far away, but that's nothing at all compared to the giant one in China today.

Anyway, just can't shake this weird feeling. I'm listening to a lot of music tonight, I seem to need to go into my own self a little bit but life just doesn't want to let me, or maybe I won't let myself, who knows. I'm at least encouraged by the fact that the 10 pots of seeds I planted last week had all sprouted when I got home from Arizona, that was fast!

Tonight's assignment: Mellow out and listen to Leonard Cohen, contemplate things bigger than email and clients.

So Little Time

My nearly three year old has a deep and passionate love of coffee creamers. We hoard those little packs of flavors from 7-11 and he has developed the habit of going into the fridge and delicately peeling off the lid of various creamers, and sticking his tongue in them until they are gone. I'm sure this isn't healthy, however we do manage to keep him away from the espresso shots and he is awfully skinny so we're grateful for the extra calories...much to my husband's chagrin he seems to especially love the much sought after Hazelnut flavored ones. Right now the boy is feasting on powdered creamer that he's put into a bowl, and I'm either too tired or too amused to stop him. Who am I to stop a determined, and dare I say innovative, pre-schooler in his daily pursuit of happiness? My house smells like a Hazelnut factory.

A lot has happened in the past few weeks, some good, some bad, some in between, I know I am tired.

I may have mentioned that I took on a documentary gig for some DVD extras while at a show in Ohio. That is going well and is almost finished. We have 2 to 3 more interviews and a commentary to record and then we're done...well, until the next one that is, as I've agreed to work on several more of these with my new partner. They're pretty quick and painless most of the time....other than today where I got thrown for an interesting and unheard of loop, all I'll say is that it involved unions and lots of confusion, and I fear I haven't heard the last of it...grrrr.

In the middle of the documentary and my normal overwhelming work load I had a convention here in town with clients, I saw a lot of old friends, made some new ones, and was given a ridiculous amount of free DVDs which I look forward to watching in the elusive future of "when I get the time."

Unfortunately while I was at the show I received the call from my mother that my grandmother passed away. While this was expected, after all, she managed to fight nearly two years with a cancer that kills most people in a few months, it still struck me hard. As a matter of fact it is still hard, I can't even foresee a time when not having my grandmother around won't be painful. My grandmother was personally responsible for my knowing how to do many things in life that I am proud of. Because of her I can do things many people in my generation can't or don't even know about; I just hope that I can be half as awesome a grandmother she was some day. I miss you terribly grandma, I really do.

Needless to say I got on a plane in the midst of everything to go to my grandma's funeral, which was actually a nice service despite the Jesus talk that I don't care for and being surrounded by people that I either didn't know, or knew when I was five and haven't seen since. My grandmother loved the Red Hat Society, red and purple, and flowers, and my mother had chosen a gorgeous casket for her with little white squares with purple flowers on the sides and corners. I was holding it together well until they played Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel, which I will never be able to hear again without thinking of grandma.

I had to go back earlier than I wanted to because of the documentary and I found it really difficult to leave my mom, meaning I cried a lot on the flight and I'm sure I freaked the poor guy sitting next to me on the plane right the fuck out, but oh well. All I can say about that flight is the view of the Grand Canyon was gorgeous but I am sure am tired of the tiny ass seats in coach, I will take an upgrade any time I can get it from now on because even if I weighed 50 pounds the seats would still be too small, and seriously, they should do away with the middle seats, I have never in my life met anyone who likes the middle seat. If I'm lucky I won't have to get on a plane again until the end of June, yay!

Which brings me back to now, finishing up this documentary project, looking forward to seeing the finished project, which will be pure freakin' awesome by the way, the interviews we've gotten alone are solid gold, and we have tons of awesome never before seen stuff to add to the DVD extras. I'll post what the project is as soon as I get the all clear from my partner.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Arizona for an interview with our DP, a 7 plus hour drive for one interview but it's so worth it. Which reminds me, I need to pack, yikes!

Then this weekend Gage turns three and hopefully I'll get to relax on Mother's Day. At the end of the month we're road tripping up to Seattle for a show, hopefully seeing some friends along the way, and getting to see Northern California, Oregon, and Washington state for the first time, yay!

Life is so short and precious.

Rest in Peace
Virgie Magalene Coke (Brame-Bachus-Stevenson)
October 23, 1925-April 25, 2008

Documentary Joy

This documentary I'm working on is a blast! It's keeping me way busy, and it's a definite struggle to still work on the other projects, my PR client, my management clients, and the mister and the kids, but it's just going so well I don't mind. That, and I live next door to a 7-11 where the coffee is always super powered........weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Yay, a new gig and movement on others!

I'm a busy bee, so busy in fact that I have almost zero time to answer my emails, which I of course have to do daily...really I want to play video games! My hubby bought me a PS2 (that's right, haven't caught up to the PS3 yet, too pricey!) and I just love it, play play play. But, I still have many many clients, a budding new herbal garden in the back, general house projects, and some groovy kids and a hubby. Can't believe Gage will be 3 next month! He loves bubbles, cars, and balloons.

I had two conventions out of town in a row recently, and at the second one I ran into some friends, talked shop, and low and behold, I'm now ass-deep in a documentary that's due to the studio in a few weeks, AHHHH!!!!!!! Time crunch but it is so so awesome. Also, O.C. Babes and the Slasher of Zombie Town is now shot and from what I hear the edit is almost done, I'm looking forward to seeing how it came out and for it to be released.

Desolation is moving along again, mostly because I finally got some of the major contracts done. And the conventions are still going strong and constant. I am tired, busy, and having a great time.

By the way, did anyone else but me notice that it was 97 degrees outside yesterday? It is April! We went to an outdoor birthday party and I literally thought I was going to die from the heat, I almost barfed in front of all the Russian mobsters hanging around. =) Despite that, awesome kids party, which reminds me again..Gage is turning 3 next month, yikes!

Well, I'm off to get the kids up from their nap and hopefully do mostly nothing for the next hour or two. Yay!

On the road again......

Leaving tomorrow for a show with two clients, woohoo! Leaving the kids with dad and socializing with other adults, hope I can talk straight.

Nothing too exciting to report, this is the lamest blog post ever, I'm just too sleepy to make sense. =)

Lunar Eclipse

Not the best photos in the world, but here is my attempt at photographing the lunar eclipse from last month.

What D&D Character Are You?

This is what I do when I am avoiding work.......a "What D&D Character Are You?" Quiz....this was actually really fun, enjoy.


I Am A: Neutral Evil Human Druid (5th Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-13

Dexterity-15

Constitution-16

Intelligence-18

Wisdom-18

Charisma-18


Alignment:
Neutral Evil A neutral evil villain does whatever he can get away with. He is out for himself, pure and simple. He sheds no tears for those he kills, whether for profit, sport, or convenience. He has no love of order and holds no illusion that following laws, traditions, or codes would make him any better or more noble. On the other hand, he doesn�t have the restless nature or love of conflict that a chaotic evil villain has. Some neutral evil villains hold up evil as an ideal, committing evil for its own sake. Most often, such villains are devoted to evil deities or secret societies. Neutral evil is the best alignment you can be because you can advance yourself without regard for others. However, neutral evil can be a dangerous alignment because it represents pure evil without honor and without variation.


Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.


Class:
Druids gain power not by ruling nature but by being at one with it. They hate the unnatural, including aberrations or undead, and destroy them where possible. Druids receive divine spells from nature, not the gods, and can gain an array of powers as they gain experience, including the ability to take the shapes of animals. The weapons and armor of a druid are restricted by their traditional oaths, not simply training. A druid's Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that they can cast.


Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Casting, Projects, and my own sad boredom

Despite all the annoying crap going on this weekend I've managed to get some work done on another project. I've never been a full on casting director before so this is a new experience for me. Thankfully it's a paying experience and a credit in another project for my resume.

We have 225 people auditioning next week, which will hopefully finalize the cast so that we can shoot this quick and get it done. The cool part is that once the actors are cast I'm done! I'm used to having to stick around beginning middle and end so it's a relief. And it also marks the first official time I'm working with these people, though we are doing a documentary together that I'm producing and we start shooting for that in April.

Desolation is still moving along, I'd like it better if we were shooting right now but I'm looking forward to it no matter when we actually get to start.

I'm still really looking forward to seeing how Platoon of the Dead turned out this fall.

And depending on timing I will do some projects with John Bowker either before or after shooting Desolation.

I have a few documentary ideas rattling around in my head, and a lot of ideas in general.

Unfortunately right now I'm watching Captivity...and it's not really ummm............good at all.

I'm in a weird mood and possibly just in need of a lot of sleep. G'nite.

And the Oscars goes to......

Working while watching the Oscars....I'm happy happy happy that Javier Bardem won best Supporting Actor, and WAY WAY happy that Diablo won for writing Juno.

Yay, holy crapsticks! Right now No Country For Old Men just one best director! YYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY! Coen brothers are like pizza, even when it's bad it's good.

So anyway, I'm working, a little anyway, avoiding dealing with the two clients that have chosen this weekend to go loony and mean on me, what is with actors, or even people in general?

So here I am, watching the Oscars, Ken will be home tomorrow and I look forward to having help with the kids again. And this is a silly type of post for me, but whatever, I'm out of it.

HOLY SHITZLES! No Country For Old Men won best picture just now! AWESOME! I'm sorry, but I thought There Will Be Blood was a tremendous snooze fest and There Will Be Blood was freaky, weird, scary, and fascinating all at the same time. Yay yay yay! I feel kind of happy now despite the drama of the day. Now on to a more meaningful post........ =)

PS; I LOVE movies. And yes, I am a mega dork.

2008 New Year Update, almost 3 months in.

"It's a GREEEEEEAAT Day here at the Raytown Travel Agency.....May I HEEEAAALPPPP YOOOOOOOUUUU?" Anyone remember that episode of Momma's Family? Anyway....I'm up hours before I usually am, Ken is at the airport and off to some convention for work and looking after some clients of mine as well as his. I have coffee and I'm not afraid to use it.

The kids are playing happily at the moment: technically Gage is bouncing on the couch laughing and Logan is doing her new thing of finding any kind of box, bowl, basket, or receptacle and firmly planting her tiny butt in it....making her looks like a very smiley and strange potted plant. She particularly loves to do this weird sit/squat/crouching in bowls and potty chairs....think of a really fat cat squeezing into a tiny basket and you get the basic idea.

After many many many "accidents" with Gage we're taking a more laid back approach, or maybe we're just lazy and tired of wiping pee off the floor 5 times a day. He loves the potty, but other than that one time, he will sit on the potty for a long time, then get up and pee just inches away from it, why why why? =( So anyway, back to the drawing board.

My new years resolutions, or life strategies are going well. Being smarter about managing my time is really helping, who knew. I don't let emails pile up like I did before and I now find that just by doing a big check in the morning and a few mini checks through out the day, I have oodles of time for other things all of a sudden, go figure. Now I actually have time to do all my emails, seek out and pitch to new events and media for my clients, and read my personal emails and subscriptions, all usually before noon. This also gives me time to do cool stuff like play with my kids and read scripts and clean my house and contemplate hobbies like sewing, I haven't had time to think about hobbies in ages, how awesome. Oh and movies, I just want to watch movies all the time!

Things with Desolation are going better these days after some delays, there always are in the indie-verse it seems. But back on track and doing script breakdowns and planning in general, a decent cast is shaping up as well. In other film project news I've been helping out with casting on another feature, work for my clients is plentiful and good, and I've partnered up with some other friends to do a documentary throughout the year to be edited in November/December and then hopefully out on 2009.

Oh and Platoon of the Dead, a film I worked on in a minor way but love nonetheless, will be out on Tempe DVD this September!

Let's see, my other New Years Resolution to "say no more often" has been a tremendous help. Not blindly saying yes to everything just because I want to be nice is a huge time saver and I find that people, for the most part, don't resent me being honest and saying I'm not interested in certain offers or I just don't have time. Being a "yes man" really can be a problem, I'm glad to be moving away from that.

In other news, my birthday is next week, I will be older, that's all I'm going to say. I have many many white hairs these days, and while I am by no means "OLD" I am deeply annoyed by having so many white hairs to contend with and things like back pain and popping joints.

So back to work for me, the soon to be older and definitely wiser horror mama/momma. And if anyone wants to get me anything for my birthday, I'd really really love some sleep. =)

PT DAY 4 continued YAY!!!!!!!!!!

YAY!!!!! Gage used the potty! Ok granted he stood up to pee so only some actually went in to the toilet, the rest on the toilet seat and some on his step stool, but, he did it! And he was so happy, he kept saying, "I did it, I did it!" Heart melting overwhelming joy of joys! Now if only I can keep this going!

Potty Training Our First : Day Three and Four

Quick update, yesterday went well. Gage stayed sitting on the potty for a long time, he was having a blast and keeps saying potty, even though he says it wrong and it sounds like he's saying, "puppy" But of course right after he sat on the potty forever he tried to stand up and pee and peed on the floor right in front of it instead...hey, he's getting closer at least. =)

Today has been slow, we were both too tired to be on naked toddler watch so he was in a diaper......this is rough going, LOL.

Potty Training our first: DAY TWO

Today was a little less successful as far as the whole going to the bathroom in a toilet goes. We had a playgroup this morning, which was awesome and I got to see my friend's new baby, who is a month old and 5 pounds, and looks like he might fit in a shoe box...honestly don't think I've ever seen a baby that small. But I'm getting off track here.

So we went to playgroup at the park and couldn't really let Gage go naked there, and when we got home it was pretty much time for a nap. So when the kids woke up from their delicious nap (I'm SO jealous!) we let him go naked again. He did pee on the floor a little bit but in little spurts, I think he was trying to hold it instead of going on the floor. He will sit on the toilet or potty chair and he thinks that's a lot of fun, and he doesn't mind being naked at all, but he hasn't yet put together that you can do your business in the toilet and I'm trying not to pressure him and/or freak him out so we're just being patient about it. Yikes....strangely I don't feel like it will be that difficult with our daughter, and she might be ready a lot sooner than he is/was.

Tomorrow will be day three, then Ken has to go back to work on Sunday, which means it's me solo with trying to catch all the stray pee and more, oh what fun =)

Potty Training our first: DAY ONE

Well today, or technically yesterday since it's 2:50am right now, we began mission to toilet train our first. Our kids wear 'sposies, I know I know, how totally un-AP of me, we have no washer and dryer ok? Anyway, the boy is almost three, he can take his pants off and on, he knows potty words, and to be completely selfish, I am desperate to have just one of the kids be out if diapers, even if I do still have to wipe butts for awhile it beats the full on diaper nightmare clean up, especially from a nearly three year old who eats grown up food *gag*

So today we gave him full access to the bathroom with a potty seat so he doesn't fall in, a stool to step up on, and some groovy toys and hoped that his love of toilet flushing, and "wash muh hands!" in the bathroom would get us through. He also has a potty seat in the living room and we've been cheering and clapping like it's a baseball game whenever he sits on it, his little sister loves to join in the applause even though she's not sure why she's clapping, LOL. I am trying really hard to stay away from too much praise and empty phrases like, "Good Job!" but he seems to like the clapping. Oh, and we also let him go without a diaper or pants all day other than during his nap.

A friend of mine said she did it this way with her son and it took about three days with no accidents......lucky her. Our day one report is that no potty, toilet or chair was used other than being sat on. And Gage managed to poop on the floor where his sister stepped in it, and he peed on the floor multiple times no matter how fast I was to get to him. Funny, every time he peed he ended up doing it either in the tile area in front of the door where he usually goes in his diaper, or right in front of the bathroom door.

So all in all day one was not a great success, but hey, at least he sat on the toilet and the potty chair, things he didn't want to do before. Tomorrow we have a playgroup so we can't really have him naked at the park. I had secret hopes that this weekend would be all it took with Gage, but I may just have to deal with spending less time working and a lot more time on urine watch....or worse. Small price to pay to be done with hideous and expensive diapers though. Any advice is welcome from those of you who have done this before.

Superbowl sadness.......

This one will be brief, it is almost 4am after all, and I should be sleeping but still have more work to do. I do like some sports, and I kind of like football. I liked it alot as a kid, part of my tomboy thing I guess. Anyway, I didn't really have a team of my own to love so when I married Ken I adopted his team: The New England Patriots. I'm sure tons of you hate me already, yes, we're Pats fans in this house. The boy was dressed in full Pats garb all day and Ken went to a friend's house to enjoy what would surely be another awesome Superbowl win for the Patriots, especially after the year they've had. Well........guess not. I don't have much else to say, there's just a dark cloud of sadness in our house for now.

Happy and thinking

It's been a rather pleasant few days.

Recently I've had a few long talks with an old friend and client of mine. Do you ever reconnect with someone and have one of those mind blowing conversations that cover all sorts of life changes and philosophy? It was one of those, and it was definitely something my mind needed; I've been feeling way too disconnected from everyone including myself lately. Ahhh, I feel so much better.

Yesterday was also insanely pleasant. I had been emailing back and forth with another local UC mom for probably a year or so (UC moms near by are hard to find) and had finally started talking to her on the phone about the woes of getting a birth certificate for our UC babies. Yesterday we decided to meet up and we all went to her house. Her daughter is Gage's age, and her son is a little younger than Logan.

They live the way I long to live: natural organic foods, making pickles and things themselves, ECing and cloth diapering, sewing things yourself. Basically all the things I'd do if I had a house and a washer and dryer, and somewhere I could safely set up my sewing machine. The kids had an absolute blast, running and playing. Gage seems to have picked up on some language from their daughter since he called me Mommy, which he NEVER does! (heart melting awesomeness). It was also great to have a mommy friend to talk to without having to either lie about how we do things or just not talk about it at all. And Ken and her husband seemed to get along too. You know we have zero couple friends so this is all exciting and fun. We're going to try to get together with them again soon.

Oh, and Logan started walking this week too, so I officially have two toddlers walking around my house now.

The first homeless people thread of 2008

It begins early this year. As some of you may remember, we get the occasional wacky homeless person here: screaming weirdos, naked weirdos, weirdos that insist your house is their house and that you're trying to kick them out.....etc.

So the other night we hear a weird yelling/crying sound from outside. Actually, it sounded like Carol Channing. I peeked outside to see a haggard blonde woman randomly yelling things like, "You, you fucker, you....I'll never go back to you." and other similar ramblings. She actually looked and sounded a lot like the naked butt screaming at traffic lady from last year, maybe it was her, who knows. She did her yelling rambling bit for a couple of hours on a step outside and then went on her way. I actually didn't think this one was worth talking about, but then today happened....

The kids were taking their nap, which is usually when I go check the mail because it's safe to do without worry that the kids will lock you out or run outside. Anyway, our building has it's mailboxes outside, and underneath them a kind person put a recycle bin to catch all the mailers and circulars that no one wants. Today I went to check my mail and saw that the bin was moved out and to the side, then as I got closer to the box I saw why. Some person dropped a gigantic deuce underneath our mail boxes, complete with the 7-11 napkins they wiped with in the middle of the pile. I am so NOT cleaning that up. The napkins are a nice touch. At first I thought, oh great, some kid didn't clean up after their dog.....but unless someone has a bear on a leash, there is no way a dog could make a pile like this.

I remember when a couple of girls lived in the apartment next door and another homeless person took a huge dump right next to their door; they didn't clean it up. It stayed there for over a month, along with a soiled pair of tighty whities. I don't know who cleaned it up eventually but it was gross. I remember hearing the girls complaining about it. We also had a load dropper in our parking lot next to someone's car. I really don't live in a bad area; it's just weird. For some reason living near a 7-11 really attracts homeless people, especially homeless people who like to crap on concrete in front of apartment buildings.

AVPR: Alien vs. Predator - Requiem

Last week, the mister and I spent our precious couple night out without kids on the latest Alien movie: Alien vs. Predator Requiem. I saved up calories all day so I could eat gross buttery popcorn, cherry cola, and Whoppers.......delicious, and naughty.

We got all the way there with plenty of time to hang out first, found a sweet parking spot, and then realized that we had no money, hahahaha! We're not forgetful, overwhelmed, under rested parents at all. After calling our friend that was baby/house sitting and asking him if he can spot a wad of cash anywhere, we decide to go home to find the money so that the stress of not knowing where it is won't ruin our night. Back home we go, weeee......

Within seconds, the mister finds the money, mysteriously inside his backpack in our living room instead of in his pocked or wallet like it should have been. Whatever, money not lost, we'll catch a later show, so back out into the night we go. Thankfully our parking garage attendant is too lazy to walk over so she just waves us through, sparing us the cost of paying $2 do park for the second time, and things look extra sweet when our awesome parking spot is still there; I even remembered to send myself a text message of where we parked.

Because we had to wait for the next show (9:50pm, yikes) we had time to kill. The theater we go to (The Bridge, which I LOVE) is part of a giant outdoor mall so we went to a Barnes and Noble. The selection there was disappointing at best so after hitting their less than pristine bathroom, we made our way back to the theater. During this time I enjoyed being 12 pounds lighter than I was two weeks before.

After getting our mega fatty snacks we gently woke our ticket taker man (yes, he was passed out bent over the rope pole, nice) and went to the very last theater on the left. We were two of five people total that came to that showing, awesome!

Of course I was starving by this point and ate popcorn until I felt ill, and did so before we even got through all the annoying commercials they now show before the trailers. Don't remember seeing any good trailers, which was a bummer since that's half the fun for me. I was starting on the Whoppers by the time the movie actually started.

Now let me preface this by saying that Alien is one of my all time, top ten favorite movies, closely followed by Aliens. "Get Away From Her You Bitch!" was very much an integral part of my childhood. 1985 to 1989 were pretty magical years of movie love and fantasy for me. I'd seen a lot of movies as a kid, and by the time Aliens came around I still hadn't seen anything with a woman that kicked that much ass. Ripley was my hero: for the entire summer after seeing Aliens I was finally able to play pretend games with my friends and not have to be Rambo: a woman, a kick ass woman, yay, I wanted to be her!

Needless to say I was excited when I heard there would be another sequel. I will admit to enjoying parts of Alien 3, but only parts, these days I find I can tolerate watching it, but not often. As for Alien Resurrection, well, no comment. I only say no comment because if I were to comment it would be very mean and redundant; do you know anyone that liked that movie? I don't.

Now back to the '80's for a moment: I also had an intense and burning love for Predator. I was big into action, and monsters, I was like any other boy back then, except I was a girl. Predator had action and monsters, just like Aliens did. Rude jokes, skinless men, Arnold back when it was cool to love Arnold and his cheesy one-liners and mega-muscles. People saying things like, "I ain't got time to bleed" and an awesome use of a Little Richard song, it doesn't get much better. My obsession with Billy Bear (Sonny Landham) was unmatched. And best of all, The Predator, a sport hunting alien with a wicked sense of humor, awesome awesome awesome! I still watch Predator several times a year, and I still love Billy Bear. I met him recently and blushed like a school girl, ha!

1990: Predator 2. This is where everything started to go into modern society a little bit. I was excited about this one too, despite the totally lame, "Lions, Tigers, and Bears........Oh My" that Gary Busey uttered in every trailer and TV spot. Who wouldn't be excited right? The Predator was back, this time in an urban environment, and Bill Paxton was in it....Hudson from Aliens, all right, good times, sign me up, etc! And honestly, this wasn't a completely terrible movie. Often times it was too dark to see, and the effects were not near the level of previous outings, but there was a lot of gore and a Predator on the loose, woohoo! The plot was painful to sit through though, and I can't really remember how it ended. I mostly remember people hanging from a glass ceiling, a guy with dreadlocks getting his spine ripped out, and the Predator saying, "Want some candy?" Hahahahahaha.........that'll do I guess.

In between these various sequels in both series was a dark time, there were teases for years of an Alien vs. Predator team up. I read the Dark Horse comics, I wanted to see the Predator home world, I wanted to see it desperately! I played a lot of really bad video games based on the series, and eventually, I stopped hoping and moved on with my life.

Then one day word came that they were actually making it, Alien vs. Predator, holy crap, my life's love complete at last. I watched the teasers online, I was so ready. Lance Henriksen (my sweet sweet Bishop) was back too, yay! For the sake of sanity I chose to let the huge time line problems pass, you don't need me to tell you what they were, they were covered extensively all over the place.

Alien vs. Predator, silly me, I was under the impression that a movie with that title might actually have, oh, I don't know, some Aliens and Predators fighting each other. There are those that would argue, and that's fine, but this was basically just a bunch of humans running around and getting killed, the memory of Bishop was completely dishonored, and incorrect, and to add insult to injury, there was only one very brief full on Alien vs. Predator party. The humans didn't show much intelligence or put up a fight, they were there just to be killed, and we noticed. The strong female lead, if you want to call it that, fell way short for me, I just wasn't buying it. And the end with an Alien inside the Predator, well, I just thought it was lame. I left that movie feeling dirty.

I wish I could say I was surprised when I heard they were going to give AVP another go; why wouldn't they, it made money. And I wish I could say that I was going to boycott it, but I am weak, and I have a tendency to enjoy cheesy crap. I wish I could have seen it on Christmas, but life with kids doesn't always allow for such things so this most recent date night was it for us.

AVPR finally started, I was set with my Whoppers, bring it on. Spoiler warning to those who have not seen this yet: it picks up exactly where it left off, on the Predator ship the Alien bursts out of the Predator, and...........it's a Predalien! What?!?! That's right, it's an Alien, only it has a mouth like the Predator and some dreadlocks. I've heard the execs trying to explain this away by saying that the Aliens took on human characteristics when they were in human hosts and the same thing happened with the Predator. Where the hell was I when the Aliens took on human characteristics? Did I miss that all these years since the '70s somehow? Or were they part human all along and we've never actually seen what a true Alien looks like? I'm not buying that at all. But putting that aside, the Predalien did look pretty cool.

As should be obvious, things go wrong on the Predator ship and it crashes to earth, releasing the Predalien as well as several face huggers; and did I mention the Predalien is a queen? An all to brief peek at the Predator homeland occurs just before they send out a clean up crew of one Predator (?!) to clean up and contain the Alien mess on earth. He is armed with vials of blue goo that dissolves all evidence; wish I had some.

The first victims are a father and his young son on a hunting trip who happen to be in the woods when the ship crashes. I'm actually very against killing children in movies most of the time, but it's annoying that they pussed out and didn't show the chest burster coming out of the kid. The Aliens also pretty quickly dispatch a band of homeless people living in the sewers.

The Predator basically runs around dissolving things with his goo, and occasionally kills someone who is armed, because, well, that's what Predators do. The Predator tracks some Aliens into the sewer and every thing's fine until they both manage to cause explosions and come out of the sewer into the town. At this point I could probably try to explain about some of the lead human characters but there really isn't any need. Again, they're meaningless fodder, even the ones who are meant to be our heroes.

I can tell that this time the filmmakers really tried to do lots of throwbacks to their roots, and that's great. I appreciated the old noise of the motion sensors from Aliens, really, but it just wasn't enough.

The good: Way more actual Alien and Predator fighting, lots of explosions, subtle sounds and visuals to give a shout out to the original films.

The bad: So dark I frequently couldn't tell what I was looking at, the very lame attempt to have a Ripley character, complete with annoying, screaming little girl. You can never top Ripley, no one I've seen has the chops.

The inexplicable: The existence of the Predalien to being with, and the random powers that she possesses, plot holes plot holes, watch out for those plot holes.

Overall, AVPR was fun to look at, and it was actually a lot better than I expected it to be for whatever that's worth. It felt more like an outing at Camp Crystal Lake than an Alien or a Predator film, maybe that's were the series is headed. Perhaps Predator vs. Jason? Freddy vs. Alien? No matter what, I'll be there watching, God help me.

Birth related mini rant.....

What the hell is wrong with our society? Yesterday I spoke to a man who is a father of 4 kids, with another due in a month. He told me that with every baby his wife went two weeks past the due date and "had to be induced for every single one of them." If she goes two weeks past EDD consistently, hmmmm....that might say to me that her babies and body need that and to leave it alone. What the hell????!!!!!! It's hard not to get angry with that kind of stupidity being so common place.

2008, seriously? Damn.......

Another new year already?! I know I should be all excited to start over again, but really all I can think about is having to do taxes again and other work and life related annoyances. Ha! But as you may know, I could bitch about things all day.

So the good stuff:

Gage is awesome, sweet lovey kid who gives kisses and loves cars and trains.

Logan is also awesome, she has started kissing her toys and being painfully cute overall, can't believe she's 13 months old already.

Ken is a great husband, I'm trying to not be a sleep hog so he's sleeping in today while I hang with the kids, don't worry, I have lots of caffeine.

I have a bunch of projects lined up. Platoon of the Dead finished in December, look for it from Tempe Video sometime this year.

Something Wicked will hopefully be the next one I do, if the funding comes through in time, if not then it's probably safe to announce that I've signed on to produce Desolation, the third feature film by Krist Rufty, and starring Trent Haaga among others. Either way we'll get those two shot this year. And I have two other projects to work on after those but I'm not ready to announce them yet.

Somehow with that going on I still manage about 50 people and have a publicity client as well.

Another new and strange thing keeps happening: I have now been asked a few times to do interviews. I still can't figure out why anyone would want to interview me, I really don't get it. I'm honored, really, but yeah, I'm just me so it feels weird. For the sake of promoting some projects I'll probably say yes down the road but I gotta tell you, it's a really weird feeling. I get super nervous about things like that so I will have to drug myself before hand, ha!

So there it is, 2008 plans so far, plus a bunch of conventions I'll be at...mixed blessing there. oh, and the new Dr Who still rules.

What's a 100% cesarean rate among friends eh?

Below is a letter I just sent to a friend of mine. Interfering and helping is a fine line, I'm definitely nervous about the response I'll get from it, but she was just so upset today talking about the upcoming scheduled c-section of her second child...for no other reason than she had a c-section with her first. The first she labored drug free for almost 24 hours before having a c-section for cord around neck. I wasn't there, I don't know if that baby was ever in real danger, I know small decels in heart rate and cord around baby's neck is common and often not life threatening, but maybe in her case they were. Either way, fast forward to now. She's due Jan. 17th, they are scheduling her c-section for January 10th so that she "doesn't go into labor first." And she does not want a c-section.

In my small group of mommy friends (my son's playgroup, there are 5 mommies counting me) we have a 100% c-section rate for our first babies. I had a UBAC with my second baby, as some of you know, I am the exception. One mommy in our group had her second baby 4 months ago. Another c-section even though she asked me for all kinds of info and references for VBAC and homebirth stuff. It was really sad one day at play group to hear her justifying having a repeat scheduled c-section, I could tell she was trying to convince herself more than anyone else. She had c-sections for breech with both of her babies.

Now we have one mommy who is in early pregnancy and determined to have a VBAC, fired an OB who told her no to one, that's promising, I hope it works out. Her first was a "post dates" I.E. 2 days past the due dates, and her c-section was the result of a failed induction, big surprise, grrrr.

And now, my friend XXXXX, who I wrote to below. All of this just makes me so so sad. a 100% c-section rate in a group of 5 people is a horrifying statistic. What's even more frightening is that almost every mother I meet has had a c-section, and they all tell me things like, "Oh you're so brave!" about my daughter's birth. I do not think I am brave, I think I am a woman who said, "fuck this, get out of my vagina you knife weilding monster!" But I digress...my letter is below.

Hi XXXXX,

It was great to see you today, thank you so much for the presents and for talking. I wanted to give you the below information, do with it what you will. The OBs below come so highly recommended among my VBAC and natural birth friends. I worried about sending this email to you, I don't want to upset you, I just don't want you to put up with a birth you don't want because a doctor thinks it's more convenient. Remember, doctors are your employees, you are hiring them to provide a service, if you are unhappy with that service, you have the power, not them. If you don't want a c-section then you have the right and the choice to go somewhere else, even if things are already scheduled. C sections that have no medical reason are several times more dangerous and have higher risks of problems for you and the baby than a natural birth. And the fact that they want to take the baby before you are even due is definitely off. Normal gestation is anywhere from 37 to the end of 42 weeks, waiting until you go into labor means you're waiting until the baby is ready to come. You are strong and capable, and the power is yours. This is your birth and your baby. If a c-section is what you want then go for it, but if you have doubts, if you think you will regret it, please take your power back from these people and go for what is best for you and the baby, not what's convenient for others.

Ok, there, I've said what I had to say, I wouldn't feel right if I didn't. I see you struggling between what you feel is right or that you want, and what others want for you. This isn't me being anti medical, this is me being pro my friends standing up for themselves and not getting run over by the system, or maybe it's feminism. =) Whatever it is I support you in your decision. If you need any more references or recommendations I am happy to help, I have a lot of references to midwives, doulas, and even some natural/VBAC friendly OBs like I listed below. Or if you want me to back off and just talk about baby clothes and cute newborn stuff I can do that too.

Wishing you a very peaceful Holiday.

Love,

Aine

The obligitory poopie story

As if I needed this to happen right now while I'm trying to work from home on multiple film projects as well as take care of my 50 clients and all of their bookings that are well in to 2008, plus the usual house cleaning, child care, and wrapping presents for Christmas.....another nightmare poopie. I had no warning, usually there is warning of some sort, like a tell tale smell or a hilarious sound....nope, not this time.

So Logan has a hammock swing seat thing she likes to relax in some mornings when she's sleepy. She wanted to get out so I went to get her and everything seemed fine until I picked her up and saw sitting in the sit a giant, smelly, pile of green lumpy goop! Damn it damn it damn it!

Of course Logan was content until I started to change her, which required laying down newspaper and about 12 wipes, and that was just her. Her outfit was totally pooped and lucky for me, her habit of removing socks meant that she had pulled the socks off and placed them right in the poopiest spot of the seat....grrrr. I had know spare outfits downstairs so I had to put her in a something that was supposed to go to the laundry but at least was not covered in poo.

I finally got her clean and in this other outfit with a new diaper on, and thankfully this was around the time the kids go take a nap anyway so I got them into their beds and then came down to confront the stench. I'd love to be more green here but sometimes you just have to pull out the chemicals, horrible as they may be.

I managed to get the poo stains out of the onesie and socks with the color bleach as a pre treatment. I rinsed them and double bagged them and they'll go in the next round o' laundry. Then came the actual fabric on the swing....I wish I had known before I bought this thing that you cannot remove the safety belt straps for cleaning. I did pre treat the seat pad and put that in a bag for laundry (we don't have a washer and dryer or I would have washed them both on the spot). But the damn belt straps were also covered in poo and I had to use the bleach and my hands and hard work to get them clean because they are permanently attached to the hardware...double grrrrr. What a stupid thing, designing something that a kid could poop on to not be machine washable. Spot cleaning poop off of fabric is NOT cool!

So yep, that's how I spent my afternoon instead of working during their nap like I should have been doing.....kids are fun aren't they? =)

New Pics

As requested, here are some new pictures from October to the end of November.

Me and the mister
Logan's scary face
Gage's charming face
Gage painting!
This thing was in my house!
Logan clapping
Close up of Gage
Gage on Logan's birthday
Logan on her first birthday
Mmmmm......cake..........
Logan and some of her haul.
Gage and Logan checking out the new birthday toys.

Well I've been gone awhile haven't I? So we went to Vermont and all those other places and it was beautiful and nice and all those things it should be.

We finally got Logan's birth registered and got her birth certificate, hassle free from the powers that be, phew!

I went to Indianapolis for a show, hung with my UK pals from the Beware the Moon: Remembering an American Werewolf in London, and had some nice drunken times with Ezra, Gina, and J....J you are a gentleman, thanks to everyone for keeping a drink in my hand at all times. Also, nice to hang with Neecie, Ryan, and Kris with a K......Motorboat!

After that adventure I came home and my little girl turned a year old, yikes, how did that go by so fast! We got her a stuffed kitty which she calls "Kty Kty" and sleeps with, she also likes to carry it around everywhere and chew on it...it is greatly loved. Gage has had a language explosion, FINALLY! He's saying things constantly, and he takes one or two toys to bed with him every night. It's so cute when he can't decide which one to bring, but it's usually a truck or his bus from Fisher Price...he loves that thing. Gage won't eat anything and there's nothing Logan won't eat...gotta love that balance.

Platoon of the Dead (zombie movie in Oregon) just wrapped, definitely looking forward to seeing how that turned out, thanks John!

Monday was my three year wedding anniversary, I spent a lot of it sick in bed thanks to the hideous cold I picked up at the airport, which I still have...supposed to do photos with Santa and the kids tomorrow and have no idea if I'll be better by then...I miss breathing through my nose.

And finally, I'm working on two movies shooting next year. I fully expect both of them to rock. In closing this chaotic catch up post, I'd like to add, congrats Joy!

Aine out

Still.....

We leave Vermont for MA tomorrow...another show, one I expect to be full of drama and business politics, awesome *note sarcasm* It's been overcast and rainy the entire time here in Vermont, I wish it would have been easier to go out and see some nature, those mountains are sure inviting, and colors on trees! We never see that in L.A.

Hopefully the show this weekend will go well, and I am so dreading the flight back home with both kids and all their gear, what was I thinking?!

So on to Massachusetts and all the drama and excitement.

Quick update

still on the road

Did a show in Cleveland last weekend that was awesome, got some decent money, met some cool folks, and regained my party life briefly...actually stayed out until 5am partying with friends and some awesome actors, go figure.

Then we headed up to Vermont, where we are now, with Ken's parents at their rental home...it's raining and dark here but still pretty. Gotta go now, getting a tour of the area from father in law and then treated to a shopping trip at Carter's for new baby clothes, etc...which we need really bad, yay!

Ok, gotta go before the inlaws annoy each other to death waiting for me. =)

Here I go again....

Leaving tomorrow for some shows on the east coast and a visit to Ken's parents at their rental place in Vermont...I'll try to report in, hopefully it will be awesome all around. Tomorrow is our first time flying with both kids, but if we can handle a nearly 4 week road trip, a quick flight should be nothing right?....... =)

Gage's First Haircut

I wanted to keep Gage's hair kind of long, it looked very cute that way and he had adorable curls in the back....unfortunately it was starting to interfere with his ability to see or eat, so something had to be done. I planned on just cutting the bangs off and away from his eyes and cleaning up the sides and back, but anyone who has ever tried to cut a 2 year old's hair probably knows my pain. When I combed his hair out straight in the back it went all the way down to the bottom of his shoulder blades, yikes! Anyway, below is what we ended up with, a pretty standard little boy hair cut, but cute. Even though I did manage to give him almost the exact same hair cut as Damien from the recent Omen remake, oh well. Gage seems happier now that he can look at things without pushing his hair out of his face. =)

Pretty Blue Eyes and Gage

Here's my goofy girl, 10 months old.

And my goofy guy, cramming himself into a baby swing and loving it.

*sigh, Gage with his long hair, see the next post....

Jenny McCarthy/Oprah

I'm sure this has gone all around the mommy circles by now and I just missed it somehow...but...did anyone notice that Jenny McCarthy went on Oprah and said, on national television, that she thinks vaccines caused her son's autism and that they aren't always a good thing? Not only did she say that and express a need to stop or delay and space out vaccines, but Oprah did not argue with her and was actually supportive. This and the CDC issued a new statement, and unlike their past statements of outright denial and "vaccines are good." The new CDC statement actually said they are looking into it and that there are definite links between the two though they don't know how. Okay, that wasn't the exact quote but still, that is just HUGE! Of course I rushed right out and bought Jenny's new book about her son's autism and how he's recovering from it with therapies and a wheat and dairy free diet...something that AP moms have been trying to get the word out about for forever! Yay!

The summer 2007 cross country road trip...

Finally, the long awaited summer 2007 cross country road trip post...there are a LOT of pictures so beware the load times.

First, in late June we left Los Angeles, CA and basically followed the I-40 alongside Route 66.

This is southern California, near Barstow.

We somehow went all the way from Los Angeles, CA to Gallup, NM with the kids in tow.

The famous El Rancho Hotel/Motel in Gallup, NM (old Rte. 66)

Driving through New Mexico, outside of Gallup

Albuquerque, NM



The full moon, night Arizona skies

In Missouri we were chased by this nasty storm cloud!

Finally, after days of driving, we reach Fredericktown, MO. Logan gets to meet her great grandmother Virgie, Aine's grandma, for the first time.

A house Aine lived in as a small child
Great Grandma Virgie's old house where Aine spent summers as a child
The cool old fashioned post office in Fredericktown, MO
Ken after 3 days of driving

Gage being cute

Logan being cute
Logan and great grandma Virgie

Ken, Gage, Great Grandma Virgie, and Logan

Logan cuddling with her singing toy
After visiting in Fredericktown we went to Saint, Louis, MO to visit friends and Aine's mom, Grandma D

Ken with Logan and Gage in Saint Louis, MO

Aine made a short sock puppet/horror movie with old friend, Gus while in St. Louis

The stars of the sock puppet movie =)
Gus doing his movie magic, in the basement of Wicked Pixel Studios
Gage loves his ice cream
Logan in a frilly dress

Logan in her pink froggie pajamas

Gage in his fire truck jammies, he looks so '60's here
Gage doing his beautiful baby pose
Gage and Logan holding hands
We found a wild bird sanctuary and an animal preserve in Saint Louis and had to check them out.

An awsome eagle

Happy Logan!
Happy Gage!
Sneaky Elk
You can't tell in the picture, but that elk in the water was HUGE!

This was freaky, I know it says "Maine" but it looked like "Aine" and the expiration date is the date of Aine's birthday in 2009!

Hanging out in downtown Historic Saint Charles, MO

O'Connell's Pub in "Dogtown" a.k.a. Irish Town-St. Louis, MO One of Aine's old hang outs
Grandma D with Logan, Gage, Walker the Saint Bernard, and Sass, the crazy kitty
Gage tormenting Sass....not a good idea....
...because Sass is clearly insane!

Grandma D's other crazy kitty, LeeLoo

Grandma D and Logan
Awesome, a train going by in the rearview mirror, downtown Saint Louis, MO
The ever present St. Louis Arch
After St. Louis, MO we headed on to a show we had to work at in Indianapolis, IN, and here is some weird dragon thing we saw on the way.

At the hotel room in Indianapolis, Logan discovered the fun of mirrors, for several hours, I now know what it would look like if Logan were identical twins.

Logan all dressed up
The kids in our make-shift double stroller
One of Aine's oldest friends Theresa came by with her daughter Katherine, who is two months older than Logan.


Theresa "Tree" with Katherine and Aine with Logan.

Yes, Gage actually sleeps this way. =)
Logan with actor James Duvall, you wouldn't know it by Logan's face but many a woman goes crazy over him.
I just think Logan looks funny here.
The first picture I took with my new cellphone.

Horror author and good friend Joe Knetter with Logan.

Gage with his new train set that Nicole Knetter bought for him.
Couldn't resist this shot of Joe.
Gage wearing our friend Suzie's sunglasses.
Gage loves his new trains!

And on the road again...after Indianapolis, we headed to Knoxville, TN to visit with some of Ken's relatives: Phoebe, Gabe, and Caitlyn.

Check out this incredible mist/fog heading into Tennessee.

Logan is an enthusiastic Red Sox fan! (Thanks to John and Cindy for the great outfit!)
Gage making himself at home, I love his hair.
The view behind the house we stayed at in Knoxville, TN.
Ahhh, the shiny disco globe in Knoxville.

More of Knoxville, TN.

We left Knoxville, TN for Gatlinburg, TN and made good time so we went through the Smokey Mountains!

The entrance into the Smokey Mountains.

Smokey Mountain bliss.
Ken and the mountain. =)
Ken, Gage and Logan at the Tennessee/North Caroline State Line. Aine and Logan at the state line.

We went all the way through the mountains and into the Cherokee, NC Indian Reservation.

Ken and a bear clowning around in Cherokee, NC.
A shop where we bought some hand made pottery.
One of the many decorated bears in CHerokee, NC

Statue outside the museum and performance center

Another colorful bear, black bears are all over the place here.
The welcome sign in Cherokee, NC
Cherokee musician
Another painted bear!

And another shot of Ken with a bear. =)

Sunset in the Smokey Mountains
Gage in our Gatlinburg hotel room, he looks so much like Ken here.
Gage looking out the window.
Aine's feet, just found this interesting.

We got to check out the Ripley's Believe it or not Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg.

Piranha (I may be spelling that wrong, it's late)

Bunch of bright fish.
There was an awesome tunnel that had water all around and above it that you could go through. There were sharks and all sorts of fish, in particular this saw fish that loved to sit on top of the tank/ceiling.
The building sign

shark

I think this was a lion fish, super poisonous.
Check out these jelly fish!

This giant spider crab was almost two feet tall and freaked me out.

Sea horse

Sea Dragon
Yay, shark, complete with evil glowing eye.
Giant sting rays everywhere!
Coral Reef

Logan with the fishies.
The view from our hotel in Gatlinburg.

We went for a day trip to Cades Cove in the Smokey Mountains, lots of great stuff including these wild horses.

An old church
One of the saddest graves I've ever seen, I felt the need to spend a lot of time here.
Inside the old church, definitely felt a lot here.
From behind the pulpit.

A wild deer

Old farm buildings.

And we went on one more little nature trip through the Gatlinburg area, on a path called Roaring Fork, which was so beautiful I never wanted to leave.

After Gatlinburg, TN we started the long trip back to Los Angeles.

This picture pretty much sums up all of what we saw in Iowa and Nebraska.

HAHAHAHAHA! Yes, this is an actual chain of quick markets in Iowa!
Stopped at the grave of William Cody in Colorado.
We started getting into the Rocky Mountains and Colorado.

A view of the city from up high.

View of a Colorado ski resort/mountain.

Weather in the Rockies.


Ken and Logan next to the Vail, CO sign (Logan's middle name is Vail)

At a rest stop in the Rockies.

Back on the road again, more Rocky Mountains...and yes, we listened to John Denver during this portion of our trip. =)
Rocky Mountain sunset.
Fun things that happen when you try to photograph a crescent moon.

The next day we started back out on the road and into Utah...so so beautiful in Utah!

These next few shots are all part of Black Dragon Canyon!




More great rock formations in Utah.

I became fascinated with this lone tree and how it seemed to overlook the cliff, and that giant black thing is actually the shadow of a cloud.
Pretty colors.

Sweet Logan hanging out in the car.

Recently burned desert. I forget where this was, but we stopped somewhere and found this old museum of water and farm equipment.
Is this not an amazing sunset? You can see the full moon in the sky at the same time.

We caught these fires burning in some distant hills in Arizona on the way back home.