Good Morning, 1/16/09

Johnathan is quite popular with the fifth grade set. . .

• Today Johnathan missed his bus, again, so I drove him to a stop further down the line. He got out of the car and was greeted by several fifth or fourth grade girls. As they realized who was getting out and standing at their stop with them, it was quite something to see their little faces light up and say his name with such glee. There were also a couple of boys his age, maybe a little older, who seemed to think this kid (Johnathan) was the equivalent of a first-grade Fonzi, sans leathers. One kid ran to him and started running at the mouth about Johnathan now knowing where he lives and visiting and yada yada yada. Johnathan's response was to exclaim, "Alright! Alright!" and walk past him towards the girls and approaching bus. I'm not worried right now, but if he keeps at this rate he'll be a cougar treat by the time he's a late teen.
• I need gloves. I can't find my trusty pair of superwarm gloves.
• I've been loving my lunches of Spinach Salads. . .
• On the fence about submitting a resume to direct Nunsense locally. Don't know if it is worth my time or worth it to interrupt my already shaky plans.
• Nanny was out yesterday and is out today, probably will be out Monday. She'll also be out for a week or two in about a month. So now I'm the nanny.
• I'm looking for a well-to-do Cougar to take me in as an assistant companion, so long as she funds my projects. . .
• I am baking a cake for the boys' party tomorrow. Well, baking it today when the boys are napping, which should be about 10:30 or 11:00. I love watching them interact and talk to each other. Fills me with lots o love. Except the biting. It looks sweet as Morgan reaches in to kiss his brother until the scream happens and I see the teeth marks.
  
• The twins turn one today! I let them sleep in until 9. It will screw up their sleep schedule, but it was nice, if a little worrisome, that they didn't wake me up at 6. (Not that 6 is that bad, but I've been super tired for the past. . . twelve months.) However, they are pleasant, smiling, talkative toddlers this morning.
  
• I sat in on a writing session of Idiot Box last night. Hopefully I'll be DP on the next few episodes. I have some idea for a cleaner, faster look. I think I contributed a few funny one-liners. For some reason, most of my humor last night centered around poop. . . or sex. But not both at the same time.
  
• I'll see you all on the other side of the weekend. Here's a pic of the boys I took while writing this:
  

Wait, what's the temp right now?

What's the temperature right now? Oh, it's negative. Gotcha.

Good Morning, 1/15/09

We have a biter, repeat, we have a biter.

• Johnathan kept to chores and cried when we wouldn't let him learn how to clean the bathroom. I relented and showed him how to clean the sink and toilet. Tonight he'll do the floors and bathtub. I told him and gave him a short example, but he did the rest himself. I did have to scrub the toilet in one section he missed (I had him squirt the blue cleaning liquid around the bowl and scrub until the blue turned white - he missed a spot), but he did a good job cleaning AND he thought it was fun. This is glorious news!
• The boy had a much better basketball practice and was able to dribble a bit better as well as bounce pass a little better as well. His shots are getting closer and he actually made a basket. I think one or two more practices he'll be ready to play a game. Problem with that is there are two games in between those practices. We'll see if he makes it through the game on Sunday. He already told me that he isn't going if he feels sick, which I know is his way of saying he doesn't want to play the game.
• While at practice, Steph tried to screw Morgan's crib's "gate" so he couldn't climb out. She put both boys in Michael's crib and went into the basement to grab the 3" screws and heard a horrible scream from Michael. She ran upstairs and saw Morgan opening his mouth and clamping down on Michael's arm. Morgan got into a little trouble. Michael has six welts, perfect little sets of Morgan's dental imprints around his body - arm, thigh, calf, nipple. . . Today you can still see the imprints but the previously red marks are now black and blue. Damn kids.
• Figuring out cheaper ways to produce higher quality video with my less-than-professional video equipment. All of the tips and tricks I found were ones I already knew about, but I have been squirreling away little bits and pieces of makeshift equipment for two years, so I am almost set. I did find a neat resource on how to build a steadicam apparatus with a few pipes, weight, and some fittings. I am pretty sure I can do that, as well as make a crane. The next short doesn't really need either the crane or the steadicam, so they can wait. The script I'm working on is going through a major change as I had a revelation on character and plot. It's a typical story, though, for me. Something that seems to be one thing but is actually some sort of horror. Will death be involved? Does the Pope shit in a Catholic toilet?
• This next short I do intend on taking to festivals, so it has to be as perfect as I can get under $40. (I know, the budget went up from last post!). I am not counting the gracious sponsorships from Mr. Thompson and Mr. Honachefsky, but they are going toward another project - that is, I spent the money on weaponry.
• Why is my dog barking?
• I got very little sleep thanks to Morgan who awoke at 11 PM screaming in pain and again at 3:30 AM. I took him to my chair and sat with him for hours until he collapsed. I think I passed out first, though. It wasn't a night of much sleep, though. The nanny called in sick today, which meant I had to cancel the teaching job I had for today. I didn't feel like dealing with the germs and attitude anyway. I get enough of that from my wife and boys.

Soylent White is made from paper!

Good Morning, 1/14/09

I am in need of blogging like I need another port-a-cath.

• I need to borrow a shotgun microphone for a week. Anyone do me a solid?
• Blu-ray doesn't seem much different than regular DVD to me, but then again, I am only connecting it through standard RCA cables.
  
• Morgan, the walker, is now becoming Morgan, the crib-climber. I didn't think they were supposed to do that for a while. What the hell?
  
• I need to go outside and clean up dog-poop. I hate cleaning up dog-poop. However, I'd rather scoop the poop than clean the bathroom. I think that's just the worst ever.
  
• Fine, fine. I'm twittering, already. Tweet, tweet. @brettfauver.
• I need a shower. Stinky everything. Maybe it will keep the flesh-eating ghouls away.
• Johnathan was excited to do chores yesterday. His motivation was money. He did eight chores and wanted to do more. I hope it holds for longer than one day.
• Mr. J has basketball practice tonight. I am not taking him, Steph is. I get the babies tonight.
• I have a few extra bucks, so I'm thinking about investing in a newer video capture device to recapture Perfetto and Beautiful Humanity footage, as well as the next $20 project I'm working on.
  

Flush the port. FLUSH THE PORT!