Slippers The Mouse

Alexey and I have had three mice as pets. We started with Nibbles and Bits. Bits got very sick and died quickly. Then we got Slippers to be a buddy for Nibbles. Nibbles was a sweet mouse and we had her for over a year. She succumbed to the mouse malady of respiratory problems. Even though we took her to the vet (yes, the dog and cat owners laughed at us) and we got her antibiotics. That's right, $89 vet bill for a two dollar mouse. The trouble is that you get attached to the little critters. They hang out, poking their noses out of the cage, begging for treats. They play and explore. All in all, aside from the short life span (1-2 years) and the respiratory ailments, mice make great pets. Here's a photo of Slippers.

Online and Open for Business

Finally, I've unpacked my office and I'm ready to edit and write again. I'll be putting some more demo reel clips online at my site: www.conceptfilmworks.com. So much to edit and so little time. I will also be revisiting The Artist's Way and this time I'm determined to make it past the week four media freeze out. Anybody who's feeling creatively blocked, I'd recommend picking up the Artist's Way workbook. It's a worthwhile excursion into exploring your creative self. And I'm not one for metaphysical mumbo jumbo. It gets the juices flowing and helps find what's blocking your creative productivity.

Definitely Broken

The A/C is definitely broken. The temperature in our house has been rising all day. We're up to 93 indoors with all the fans going. I wish the repairman would get here. It's too hot to move. Too hot to sleep. Too hot to eat. Too hot for the pet mouse. It's simply too damn hot.

Lemon House

We've finally moved to the new house. Piled high under boxes we have much work to do. Once again, I wish we could afford to purchase a house. But alas, we don't have half a million dollars. So we are renting a lemon house. I'm not talking about lemon trees, oh no! Lemon trees would be great. I'd make lemonade. I'm talking a lemon house. Stinky living room carpet, non-working oven (we got the stovetop working!), a busted dishwasher, a broken concrete backyard and we have a hunch that the air conditioner on the roof blew up it's motor yesterday. If we could fix that laundry list of things, it would be a cute weird little house. As it stands, we're exhausted and if one more thing blows up, I might lose my mind.

A Fascination of Large Objects

Regular road trips are an important part of maintaining my sanity. Carlie, my road trip buddy, and I have been on several large scale roadtrips. By large scale, I mean sleeping in the car or in a tent, eating out of the cooler, for weeks at a time. Also I mean, we stop and look at a lot of large objects. The world's largest ball of stamps, world's largest ball of twine, biggest ear of corn, largest ketchup bottle, world's largest pecan. In a few weeks, we embark on another such trip with grand plans to see the largest artichoke and the largest potato. For me, the fascination isn't necessarily the large object (though the photo ops can't be beat!) but it's a fascination with the small towns which contain such objects. It seems like a matter of pride. No matter how small or backwoods your town is, you can have a claim to fame. And crazy people like Carlie and I will drive thousands of miles to see your largest whatever and eat a piece of your homemade pie.

The fist picture is from someplace in Chicago. We were walking and there it was ordering us to EAT!

Memorial Day

Memorial Day, Alexey and I went to Venice Beach to say farewell to a buddy who is getting married and moving to Canada. Perhaps we shall see him again if we too, flee this country and become Canadians. At any rate, Venice Beach has a great playground area for adults where all the bars and swings are really high.