Gisele and I are going away for a week or so. First to Las Vegas for two nights, then San Francisco to visit Gisele’s sister Angela, then finally down to Pasadena to visit Devon.
Leaving tomorrow (Monday) morning, back early the next week.
Derek is still on winter break, but decided to stay home and take care of Apollo.
Gisele’s sister Angela fell last week and broke her arm. Gisele flew up to San Francisco today to spend a week with her, helping out until she is feeling better. So I’m a bachelor/single father/dog sitter this week.
I think Gisele is glad to have an excuse to visit her sister anyway!
Benjamin Bates is the son of my old and good friend Don Bates (since our days together at Flowing Wells High School), who are both also my colleagues in the creation of the aznb.com websites.
Benjamin has a degree in (I think) Theater Arts, and has dabbled in making a couple of short films. He recently submitted his first full-length movie script “Walrus Eating Baloney” to the IFP (Independent Film Producers?) contest in New York City.
A few weeks ago he was told that he was one of 5 finalists for the grand prize, so last week he flew back to New York for the Filmmaker Awards Ceremony. Amazingly enough, he won the $10,000 Grand Prize — first place!
He made the Variety Magazine website.
An industry insider’s blog said:
What was interesting is that the one guy who had never made a film at all (Benjamin Bates, “Walrus Eating Baloney”) brought the most arresting visual presentation – a sort of portfolio of pics, sketchings, writings and perhaps more that had a strong visceral appeal and displayed some real creative ambition.
and
And, guess what? Benjamin Bates, the filmmaker who’d never made a film, but impressed us with his visual homework, won the Screenwriting Award for “Walrus Eating Baloney”.
Among the shoulder-rubbers and award presenters were actress Ally Sheedy (“Wargames”, “The Breakfast Club”, “Short Circuit”…), actor Kevin Corrigan (“Pineapple Express”, “Definitely, Maybe”, “Superbad”…) and other actors, directors and producers.
Major congratulations to Benjamin! He hopes to start filming sometime next spring, but with all the new contacts and the overload of info from New York he is going to take some time to sort things out and decide the best way to take the next step.
By the way, the script is about an old man with Alzheimer’s and two deaf-mutes who life throws together on a trip to Miami.
We had an extreme wind storm last night, about 9:00. Trees are blown down and branches broken all over the neighborhood. Fortunately the only damage at my house was one roof tile and a few small branches (and lots of twigs). Here are some pictures.
That’s my bicycle and garage door. Fortunately the tree missed anything breakable. I don’t think the wall is hurt either, though it’s hard to tell.
This is by the community lake. This large tree fell on the park bench. Good thing no one was sitting there! The man in the picture is part of a clean-up crew.
Here’s another tree that fell partially into the lake.
This was just around the corner from our house. Most of the top of this tree came down.
This tree’s roots were under the sidewalk, and when it fell it ripped up a couple of slabs of concrete.
It was about 10 years ago I sent out an email describing the strange chill that had come over the house in the night. It turned out that we had acquired a teenager as Devon turned 13.
Our last teenager, Derek, just turned 20 on Wednesday. We celebrated by taking him out to his choice of restaurant (Claim Jumper) and having cake at home, though not both on the same day.
Happy birthday Derek!
Poor Apollo!
About a week ago we noticed that he was licking his paw a lot. We looked at it but did not see anything unusual.
Then today he was licking it again, and saw that it was quite red under the fur on the top of his paw. We took him to the vet, who said he has an infection. It’s not hard to treat with antibiotics and topical spray, but it won’t heal if he keeps licking it. Hence, the lampshade. You can just see the red area on the top of his right front paw in the picture.
Poor puppy takes it very well. He keeps bumping into things, but doesn’t complain about it. We can only take it off when we are watching him intently and stop him whenever he starts to lick. He has to wear it for a week.
We closed escrow on the house this morning. We were over there most of the day, installing smoke detectors, curtain rods, etc. The other two boys started moving in while we were there, though I don’t think anybody will sleep there tonight. We will have to go back over tomorrow and finish up a few projects, but pretty soon we have to start behaving like Landlords (advance notice before we can visit, etc., etc.) Wait a minute — my son lives there. Can’t I just go visit him whenever I want? We’ll have to figure out the balance between being parents and landlords!
Apollo hasn’t seen his new home yet. It will be interesting to see how he adapts to living with a smaller yard, but with three kids who might play with him more (hopefully!). Derek’s probably got one more night in our house, maybe two.
You can see the house in Google Street View. Go to maps.google.com, and enter “del rio & college, 85282” for a search. Then click on the Street View link. The house is on the north-west corner.
I posted a comment in Donna’s blog about the leaks in my house from the very heavy rain last week. Two spots were especially bad — 3 buckets worth in the garage, and damaged drywall in the kitchen.
I spent the last two days on the roof over the garage. I started there because there is a big shade tree and I can work out of the sun most of the day. In fact, the shade tree was part of the problem — leaves had filled the gutter that runs along the wall and water had been diverted up out of the gutter onto the roof under the tiles. I cut out and replaced rotten wood, covered much of it with galvanized steel sheets and then tar paper before replacing the tiles. Oh yes, and I cut the tiles back a little so they don’t obstruct the gutter. Hopefully the leaves won’t accumulate so badly.
I was exhausted after two days on the roof (and the obligatory basketball game this morning), but with threats of rain tonight I dragged myself up on the roof over the kitchen. Hmm. Simple problem. Several tiles had slid down out of position. They should be nailed in place, but apparently the roofer had been in a hurry on this part of my roof. So for now, just putting them back in position should work, and I can worry about nailing them down when I have more energy.
But then I noticed a small, black, rat-sized piece of excrement (not “as big as a rat” but rather “the size a rat would produce”). Roof rats! They have been a problem in parts of the East Vally the past few years, but I hadn’t noticed any signs until now. And then it occurred to me that they are probably living under the tiles. And what’s better than a tile pushed out of position, leaving a nice access point. So now I need to keep watching to make sure they weren’t the ones pushing the tiles out of place. Maybe I blocked their front door, and they will just open it again. Sounds like it’s time to call an exterminator.
We are buying a new house.
No, we are not moving; Derek is. We are buying a 3 bedroom house near the university, and Derek and two friends will rent it from us. Derek will probably get a good break on the rent… 😉
I’m a little nervous buying right now, with the housing market down and all the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac problems, but hopefully the market is near a bottom, and hopefully these mortgage issues will get resolved well before we want to sell. The house is much cheaper than it would have been a couple of years ago, but much more than 5 years ago.
Details:
1608 Sq. Ft
3 Bedrooms/2 Baths
Single Level block construction
Recently remodeled — very new looking inside.
Grass front and back (in need of mowing and water)
No pool
I hope the neighbors don’t hate me for bringing college students onto their nice quiet street…
After traveling more than 30 hours, Derek finally got home Tuesday night just before midnight. He went from Moscow to Warsaw, then his flight from Warsaw to Chicago was 2 hours late and he missed his connection. They put him on another flight to Phoenix, but that was 2 hours delayed. But he finally made it, and is slowly converting to MST.
Welcome home Derek!
Devon has been working as an Intern for Spectra Sensors, doing programming, for 3 months. They just offered him a full-time job, which he is considering. Looks like a good offer. He’s a little disappointed that he isn’t doing something with his Physics degree, but he enjoys the work. Grad school Fall 2009 is still an option, so this may be for only a year.
Gisele and I are also slowly adjusting to local time. I wake up most mornings around 5 am, but since I often get up about then anyway to play basketball, that’s not too bad.
We all just wish we could have brought the weather with us (high 60’s to low 70’s).
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