Automatic Daddy Chair Demo

I can't figure out how to flip the video, but I think you'll get the general idea...

Dietary Changes Needed

I had a fantastic girls weekend. We went to Lena's in-laws cabin in Home, WA. There were 7 of us. Some crying, but mostly laughing, talking, and LOTS of eating. But the wine. Oh the wine flowed, and we got very happy. I ate and drank, and continued until 9pm, when the heartburn set in. I haven't had heartburn since May of 2009 when I overate in Hawaii and was up until the wee hours of the night dealing with painful tummy issues. Which got me thinking, while laughing and watching others drink wine, about making some changes to my diet so I didn't have to suffer anymore and pop tums like an addict.

Today I've been thinking seriously about making those dietary changes that I've been curious about. I've been reading a lot online about how those who've cut out gluten do feel better and have more energy. Bread and pasta are a big portion of our diet, especially in the evenings and in the winter. But I think we can manage by perhaps making our own bread, and buying gluten-free pasta. I have some friends who are gluten-free, and Matt has several family members who are as well. Now I'm not saying that we won't cheat now and then, but if we're going to seriously make this lifestyle change, then we are going to have to keep one another accountable. At least until we can feel/see a difference.

So, in the spirit of change, I made Sausage and Spinach Soup for dinner. Yum!

Amazing News for JourneyQuest!

Matt's latest webseries, JourneyQuest, is now on HULU!

Click here to watch it. For all seven episodes, click here.

I am so proud of my hubby and everyone at Dead Gentlemen and ZOE. Congratulations!!

The Hollywood Scene

Literally.

Went to a screening tonight. Didn't expect to get that close to Lauren Hutton, Demi Moore, and Ashton Kutcher. Didn't meet them, which is fine. That club was SO not my scene, and yet it was fascinating to watch everyone! I networked a little, and here's hoping that I didn't make a complete fool out of myself! :)

I had a great time. Some advil and water should help me sleep off that headache I might wake up with in the morning.

I think I'm going to regret blogging in this state. We'll see.

It's been quite a month! (Part 2)

Hubby and I waiting for U2 to get on stage! You can see the concert here.

I think I just lost myself when the Black Eyed Peas showed up to open for U2. Wish I could have gotten a better picture, but this one just captures the craziness of the evening!

Gustavo Dudamel at the Hollywood Bowl earlier this month. I had the great privalege of going to the free concert at the Hollywood Bowl...he's amazing!

Jason and I at the Hollywood Bowl, enjoying wine, good company, fantastic music, and eagerly awaiting Gustavo's arrival!

Yep! That's me and Herbie Hancock! This picture is for you, Dad!

Yo from Evergreen State

I went to Pacific Lutheran University, a small liberal arts (and obviously Lutheran) college in Tacoma, Washington. Eleven years later, my little sister is off to college and she chose Evergreen State College, a very liberal college in Olympia, our state's capitol and with a reputation of being a bit odd. Having now spent some time here and hearing Katie talk about the community, I think that this is the perfect place for her. And at Evergreen they really push for taking care of your environment, they have an organic farm, require that all students recycle, and the campus is aiming to be waste-free by 2020. I think that's pretty amazing. I did express to Katie that maintaining this kind of lifestyle to this degree will be hard when she leaves campus, but she already knew that, and is just excited to learn as much as she can.

It's been great to meet some of her suite-mates, to see these baby-faced kids so excited and enthused about learning and about their futures. The gal across the hall, Audrey, her ultimate goal is to be a tree-hugger and to save the whales. My thought was "Well, you're at the right place then." It's so not my place. I needed structure and grades at that age, hell, I still do. I think it takes a certain kind of student and person to succeed here, and I think my kid sister is just the type to make the most out of her time here.

Yesterday we went shopping for 10 hours, and spent 5 more today, getting supplies and all kinds of stuff for her to cram into her single/single room. It's been fun, tiring, and interesting, seeing things from her perspective. I am so stinkin' proud of her!

Why am I still hanging out here in a dorm room that is in a bulding that looks like it was made for public housing in Philadelphia? Because Interstate 5 at this hour would be much much worse than listening to my sister sing along to Sublime and un-pack her stuff...

...I gotta go. I guess it's time for me to get to work and put together her "steam buddy".

Old Friends and Lots of Laughs

Tonight I had a fantastic time with old friends. Matt, Phil, Curt and I all went to PLU together. Phil, Curt and I lived in Hinderlie for at least 2 years, and many of my freshman year memories involve hanging out with those guys and their roommates, Jeff and Shawn. Phil happened to be in San Diego for a conference and very generously offered to drive up to see us for dinner.

I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. We shared memories and cracked stupid jokes, predicted what Curt's daughter, Lyla, will be like in 21 years, and created new memories. The setting was perfect - Bucca de Beppos (if you haven't been, you must go) - and again, we laughed incredibly hard. I hung back and let the guys do most of the talking which was fun. I realized how long it had been since I was the only girl in the group, and I rather enjoyed it. Well, that's not true. Lyla was there, and she was quite a scene stealer at 7 months old.

In any case, the night couldn't have gone better. And now that I'm full of Italian food and gelato, it's time for bed. That much laughter takes a lot out of me!

Thanks, guys (and gal) for a wonderful evening!

Pictures from our trip to Cambria

Our fabulous picnic at Kelsey Winery. We couldn't resist opening up 2 cold bottles of wine, it was hot that day!

Panoramic shot of Moonstone Beach in Cambra. It was such a windy day. I forgot how long my hair was and it got so tangled on the beach and in their rented convertible!

Dinner at FC McClintocks at Sunset in Pismo Beach. Gorgeous! The food and company were equally amazing!

Cool shadow shot.

We had such a great time sharing our favorite area of California with Brie and Steve. I hope they can come back soon!

Some Hawaii Pics

The beach at Waimanalo State Park which was just 50 yards from our cottage. It was hard to leave this place.

Dad and the boys playing Bochi Ball at Lanikai Beach.

Julia and Matt...they look different after a couple of drinks...

The view from our balcony.

The happy family. Congratulations Julia!

Aloha from Oahu!

It's been an amzing trip so far and we still have 3 days left. We've been to Waimea Beach, Lanikai beach, dinner at Lucy's in Kailua, and twice we've been to a fantastic little place in Kailua called Boots & Kimo's where they have the most delectable macadamia nut pancakes (Emilie, when you and Matt arrive, you have to make a stop here. It's a must!). I've certainly got a tan, which will require very little work this summer. I've loved nearly every minute with my family and aside from the bickering that ensued yesterday, I realize how lucky we are to be here and together, in this place, this tropical wonder in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I've had some time to reflect on myself and who I've become, and while I've made strides in some areas, there are still some things that I have to do. Who knows what will happen today, tomorrow, or next year? I'm going to continue to work on living in the present and what better place to do that than in Hawaii?

And being 50 yards from Waimanalo Beach doesn't hurt either. :)

Going UP?

There is nothing like hiking up and up to tell you how out of shape you are (still). But I did better than I thought I would, and overall yesterday morning was a perfect day for a hike at the Los Angeles National forest. We didn't find our original destination - the waterfall. Instead we stayed on the fire road (did I mention the trail went UP). My calves are still feeling it this morning!

A family pic.

Beautiful views all the way UP.

Paige and Katy rock!

The Early girls.

At the top!

A Few Good Days

Yesterday was so much fun. My good friend Cindy and I spent the enitre day together. I could not document it better than she did, but I can at least sum up what happened.

She mentioned in a recent blog post that she was not having a good day, and I jumped at the chance to take her out and have a girls day. By the time Saturday rolled around I wasn't in the best of spirits but by the time I got to her place and we were out for our 3 mile walk, I was feelign better. Listening to her talk, I realized how much I've missed spending time with Cindy 1-on-1. As she said, we often hang out in a group setting, and while that is fun, we often miss out on opportunities to connect on a deeper level. Cindy is so wise and thoughtful. She really thinks before she speaks which is a trait that I really admire. It felt good to re-connect with her and our friendship is definitely stronger for it.

After our walk, we were all sweaty and gross, so we quickly refreshed and headed off to the lovely air-conditioned mall. After a yummy lunch, we headed to Macy's for which we both had gift cards. I asked her where she wanted to start -- it was a total zoo -- and she grimaced as she said "Shoes." Shopping for shoes isn't her favorite thing, and on a Saturday, it's not mine either. We walked with some trepidation but determined to find her some cute, fun work shoes. And find we did! She walked away with a very cute and sassy pair, that could be easily dressed up or dressed down, good for work and play -- multipurpose pumps! I found a cute pair of red ballet flats on clearance and with our gift cards we spent a minimal amount of cash. We were very proud of us.

After shopping, I treated Don and Cindy to iced coffees with the rest of my gift card and then headed back to their house. Matt had spent an hour in ugly traffic getting home from a film seminar so after a wonderful conversation with the two of them, Don and Cindy graciously gave me a ride home. It was a wonderful opportunity to show them our new place, and they loved it! It really meant a lot to me that our friends loved our new home. We started watching the pilot of "Big Love" (which I highly reccomend, Matt and I are enjoying it so far), but were pleasantly interupted by Ben and Corrie dropping by for dinner! They were in town for a film festival. We walked over the 1 block to Zankou Chicken, a fabulous and cheap Lebanese/Aremenian fast food chain with great portions and equally great prices. We had a nice relaxing meal, catching up and talking about previous escapades in Washington. We headed back to our place, shortly after which Don had to bow out and go home. Poor guy. He wasn't feeling well and was such a trooper during the evening.

All in all, I wasn't intending to spend the entire day with friends but I'm so glad I did. I think all of us were boosted by the positive engery that we got from being together. As my Mom said the day after our wedding: "That was fun. Can we do that again?"

Today I spent the afternoon with Paige A. She is a new friend from Dallas that I met through Paige B. She is an incredibly talented graphic designer/illustrator/all-around-awesome-artist that is helping Matt and I build a website. Matt needs one for his writing career, and I've finally figured out what it is that I want to be doing so I won't feel so useless. I want to creat a tourism website for San Luis Obispo county. After talking with Paige B. who offered great advice after calming me down during my melt-down, I really thought about how I want to be spending my time. What would make me happy? What do I look forward to doing? So in my meeting today, I really got excited about what I will be able to offer the potential visitor to the SLO area. It was great fun. I have so much work to do and yet I am excited about getting this work done. I am terrified and excited at the same time, but I have a fabulous support system and a network of truly talented professionals that are just as excited about helping me create my vision. How could life feel any better at this very moment? I'm not sure how!

The drug-induced haze continues...

Yet last night at dinner, I was on Advil and could still drink 3 mini-glasses of red wine without feeling silly. I think those anti-oxidants from the wine really helped beacuse today I am starting to actually feel human again. I still sound incredibly nasaly, and my ears are still sensitive to noise, but I'm hopeful that in a few days, or at least by the end of the week, that I'll be back to normal again.

Last night we had a wonderful evening with friends. Jen and Dave were in town from Seattle and we got a few hours to catch up on what's new with them. Don and Cindy were there too and it was their 5th wedding anniversary -- congratulations you two! :) I finally got to meet Dave's sister, Jeannie, and their friend Garrett. Jeannie lives in West Hollywood and I know we'll be seeing her again soon as she and I hit it off instantly.

Tonight I may be heading out again for a birthday dinner. It feels so good to get out of the apartment after being bed and couch-ridden for the last few days.

Living through the haze

(For Emilie)

I caught the flu and a nasty head cold the other day so I'm in a drug-induced haze right now. Thank goodness we have heat and internet so I'm not going completely crazy. And I have to say that Matt is the best nurse-husband hands down. What a trooper!

Fashion Week in Las Vegas was amazing - you can read more here. (I have to say though, never EVER stay at the Trump Towers. What a miserable experience, but girlfriends make it better.)

The cats have definitely calmed down since the move. Now that we have heat they aren't running around like crazed felines trying to keep warm. I'm actually overheating because I'm so used to wearing so many layers during the day. We also have internet now, so we aren't completely cut off from the world anymore.

Now, back to bed. Thank goodness for the drugs that take away sinus pressure and fevers.

An Unexpected Saturday

I didn't have plans this weekend.

Well that's not totally true. Matt and I went to see Stephanie Paige's show on Friday night. We got all dolled up and had a great time. It was opening night and the cast was really excited and had first night jitters. Definitely got me in the spirit of the season! Afterwards, we waited around for Paige, and she came out all glow-ey (and looking slightly relieved that the first night was over with) and full of smiles. I was so excited for her - this is just the beginning of her performing career in L.A.!

I wound up spending the day with Sarah, a new friend of mine and a very close and dear friend of Paige's. She's fascinating - a pilot for SkyWest Airlines. It was a very warm day - mid 70's - and so without our jackets, we set off for The Grove, a must see for any visitor to L.A. An outdoor mall connected to the farmer's market that screams "Los Angeles is the center of the world, SEE???" Complete with a giant Christmas tree with a fountain choreographed to christmas carols, I guess there's nothing like that plus blue sky and palm trees to get a couple of Pacific Northwesterners into the spirit of the season.

Poor Sarah. She's not the biggest fan of kids (which we talked about at length) and it being a Saturday afternoon, there were kids EVERYWHERE. Not to mention we had to pass by Santa's house a few times, which I have to say Sarah was an absolute trooper. I had a great time with her. It's always fun getting to make new friends (I know I sound like I'm 12, but it's true), and I don't think we stopped talking the entire time. We went to Banana Republic, Barnes and Noble, had lunch at The Farm (and for dessert, had a giant home-made oreo cookie - YUM!), and looked at the American Girl store - turns out we both had Kirsten as kids - and discussed that lots of people must've gotten busy early on this spring because there were babies all over the place.

We headed back to the valley - I had to get her to Paige's work in time for Paige to leave to get to the theater - and bismally failed at finding dinner for Paige. There are no teriyaki places! Just sushi. Everywhere. So I dropped them off, came home exhausted and hung out at home. Then 1am rolled around and the 3 of us headed out to Fred 62, a funky 24hr diner in my neighborhood that has a huge menu and great food. We talked, we laughed, and promptly got sleepy after eating a very late dinner. They dropped me off, we said our goodbyes, and I don't know about them, but I felt it was a great ending to an unexpected Saturday.

It only took me 5 hours...

But I got them! Thanks to Paige for driving me around. I had such fun perusing the mall with you!

Traveled Out

So here's where I've gone sine May of this year:

May - Santa Barbara wine country with hubby, Katy, Jeremy, Don, and Cindy;

July - Solo trip to Spokane;

August - Hubby and I went to Seattle, drove all over, and then came home just in time for me to turn 30. THEN we left a few days later for GenCon in Indiana.

September - Just got back yesterday from visiting relatives in Spokane.

Future trips:

Ocotober - It marks Matt's birthday and our 7th anniversary! We plan on going to Cambria for a few days, but we'll see how that goes with his new job!!

November - We plan on staying home for the holidays, but found an amzaing travel deal through Alaska Airlines, so we might go up to Seattle the week before Thanksiving to celebrate with the 'rents.

December - No question we'll be gone for at least a few days, but I can almost garauntee that next Christmas we'll be in Los Angeles.

May of 2010 - Julia graduates from college and I'm hoping that we'll make it to Hawaii to celebrate this major event with her.

I'm tired. Matt's tired. But we can't really complain because Lena travels by herself with 2 young children overseas. She is the champion!

GenCon Recovery

Tip: When your husband's movie premieres, you know, the one he's been working on for 5 years, try to not scream at the top of your lungs all the time because it will turn into slight laryngitis and then a cold by the time you get home.

GenCon was AMAZING!! I had so much fun. It was like I was back in college again with my friends and the whole weekend was essentially one big party. We stayed up till 4am, went to Karaoke, ate great food, and I even smoked my first cigar (well, little bits, it's not my cup of tea really). I also got to know some amazing people, like Jamie and Renee Chambers from Margaret Weiss, and Sean Reynolds from Paizo. We shared a hotel room with Brian Lewis, and his wife Tiffany, which was great because we don't get to spend much time with them. All in all, I can't wait to go again next year.

For more details on GenCon, check out hubby's blog. And to view pictures, check out Photobucket. Here's a few to give you an idea of how much fun we had!

top to bottom: Chris and Tree, Nathan and Sean, and what can happen at Karaoke night if you're not careful.

A sign of things to come.

This last weekend was very hectic but very fun and we enjoyed every minute of it!

Friday we got up at the god awful hour of 5am and headed down to San Diego with Matt DeMille, Cindy, Don, Jeremy and Rian for Comic Con. The Gamers: Dorkness Rising at long last, screened! It was amazing, and I must say that my performance as "Barmaid" was enhanced by the big screen (if you see it you'll know what I'm talking about). It will be released next month at GenCon, but if you can't wait that long, see if you can get it from Netflix. You'll also be able to order it on Amazon (and according to Amazon, David Duchovny is in the movie). Holy s***, isn't that cool!? I'm so proud of Matt and the Dead Gentlemen. They've worked so hard and waited so long for this. Check out Matt's blog for details on our visit to Comic Con and more good news.

Saturday night I went out with Paige and Paige, and had a horrible hangover the next day.

Sunday night we went to a screening for The Empire Hotel, on which Matt has a writing credit. It was a fun premiere and I really enjoyed the little details in the pilot.

Saturday night we are finally going to see a concert at the Hollywood Bowl! Eric Idle, of Monty Python fame, is performing and we're going with a group of friends. We have nosebleed seats, but who cares. I can't wait!

80 acres and loving it!

Approach to the house! I can't wait!

I got quite a few snapshots of Sarah over the week. She loves the camera. This was my favorite of the bunch.

Jessica and her team won the division championship game!

l-r: Dad, Sarah, Sharon, and Terry. I miss them terribly.

Katy, this picture is for you. This is Sharon's garden, and it's HUGE. All kinds of fruit and veggies. Sharon picked strawberries every other day, and Cherries early in the week. I think I'll start with something smaller when Matt and I get a house though! :)

Sharon with her dahlias. They are just about ready to bloom!

This is the view across the street.

Their sweet dog, Casey. I miss her.

Front yard kitty, M.J. Back yard kitty, Jack, was unavailable as he was mousing.

Sunset on Four-Mound prairie.

Casey running to Sharon during our walk on my last night.

Ready to go home...well, in a way. I loved being with my family.

Cascade mountains, and HELLO Western Washington!

Mt. Rainier from the air.