Real camping in WA

Chara went on her first real camping trip this weekend. We went up with some freinds to Greenwater and camped on Viola creek. Chara has never done any real camping that didn't involve paying a ranger to park and having boomboxes on either side of you playing loud music. we both had a blast.



We went camping with Jerry, Tim and Gretchen and thier kids, Spencer, Katelyn and Logan. Within 5 minutes of being there, the kids were kissing and hugging Chara.





even the dog wanted some attention




we hiked around the river and up to a peak to see the mountain. it was absolutly beautiful out.



it was a great trip

Ben...

We are safe in WA

A pretty uneventful but fun trip up to WA

stopped in Santa Barbara for Breakfast, in SF for dinner, and Chara got ate by mosquitos in Williams.

but we made it safe, and the weathers nice and were hanging out with the family.

Ben..

Officing from Disneyland

one of the nice things about my job is the flexibility of where i can work. Often i will work from home if traffic is bad. Today i have a recording session in Orange County. I came up early to have the car checked out as after i tuned it up the check engine light came on (nice huh?). Turns out it was just a hose i knocked loose when replacing the fuel filter, no big deal. so that was fixed in two seconds and i have the rest of the afternoon to work before my meeting. Have laptop will travel i just need to find a place with some wifi. Well i happen to be close to Disneyland so...



Today i'm officing out of the Grand Californian Hotel. they have this great little alcove off of the lobby with a fireplace and rocking chairs. Very comfy, great disney music being played on the piano nearby, great food at Downtown Disney. The only drawback is the screaming kids that come in every once in a while to remind me that i'm never having children.

debbie downer..

what a day..

two of my patients found out they have terminal cancer..

one of my patients is this cute little older lady.. she has been married for 50 years.. her husband has end stage alzheimer's.. so the only person who might come in to visit her wont even know who she is..

today i just feel like i can't make anything any better..

the good and the bad

the good is the blessed rain that has come and given us a break from the heat.

the bad is that i just spent all Saturday tuning up the car only to have it running great and THEN the check engine light coming on....grrrrr

This is the craziness I encountered at the con

I am so freaking tired and don't need to see another lightsaber for a long time.

Ben...

The strangeness that is Comic Con

I have a unique job and sometimes it takes me to unique places to meet unique people. This week I am at Comic Con. This is the biggest comic book convention around and it takes place in San Diego each summer. This is my first Comic Con and it is quite the experience. My wife would say I am a nerd and most times I would not argue, but dear lord I am nowhere near the level of those that attend "the Con" as they call it.

Set aside the countless attendees dressed up like thier favorite characters or even characters they made up, these people are a complete subset of culture all of thier own. You can check out some of the videos that we are shooting to cover the event.

Ben...

and I've learned that a lightsaber can compliment any ensemble wheather it be a Jedi outfit or just jeans and a t-shirt, bring the lightsaber.

sitter

today at work i was a 'sitter'
sometimes patients get confused and try to get out of bed.. when they have - say - a broken hip - and cannot/should not get out of bed.. and when they try to get out of bed they fall.. and that is bad for the hospital.. so the hospital employs us sometimes to become 'sitters'.. which means we sit in the confused patients room all day long.. doing nothing but reminding them not to get out of bed..
that is what i did today.. and not knowing my job today, i didn't bring a book with me.. so i grab whatever book the hospital had.. happened to be a harlequin novel (only thing i could find).. and sat for the next 9 hours.. that's right.. i got paid to read smut and sit all day long..

48 Hour Film Project: The film...

Here it is. The final product of 48 hours of writing, shooting, editing and such

grab some popcorn and enjoy


Let me know what you think

Ben...

kiddies come for a visit..

and we had so much fun... we had a slumber party.. and we went swimming in don and lou's pool.. we had a fantastic time.. and i am now exhausted..
 
 
  

The last 15 minutes looked something like this

The movie had to be dropped off by 8:15 PM at a Marriott one mile from where i was editing it.

7:00 Finishing the movie, plenty of time. cleaning up the audio.

7:20 start to export it to uncompressed Quicktime to deliver it

7:35 crap, uncompressed is too big to fit on a DVD, ok i'll turn it into a DVD

7:47 DVD done, throw it in my DVD player at my desk, crap TV remote won't work so i can't put in on Video1. Throw it in my computer to watch, ok it looks good, scanning through... oh crap, it cuts out 80% of the way through!

7:50 re export movie again

8:03 CRAP!!! IT DID IT AGAIN, ONLY 80%

8:07 I find a version that has the whole movie but i have no idea the quality of said version. I rip out everything plugged into my laptop and RUN out the door. Get into the car and tear out of there heading 90mph down the road screaming at the lights to turn green.

8:12 I arrive at the place, laptop in tow, compressing and burning the movie as i wait in line to turn it in...

And thats how it went... Not sure how the final version looks. I think its ok, but i think the aspect ratio is off. We'll see. All in all, very fun, and i could see how its addicting. I met many people in line to turn thiers in that do many of these things at the various cities and such. I think we will do it again as we know now what we want to do next time.

stay tuned and I'll put the movie up here soon.

48 hours, 1 hour left

The final movie is exporting now.. cross your fingers

and the tired is starting to hit me. Yesterdays filming in the hot hot sun took it out of me, and yes we did end up filming on a record breaking heat day, 108 degrees. Damn global warming...

11 more minutes to export, then burn to disc, then i go drop it off and go home and sleep

48 hours to make a movie - day 1

the clock started last night at 8:15 PM.

we have 48 hours to write, shoot, edit and whatever else to get a movie made by 8:15 PM Sunday night.

Myself and co-workers and friends are participating in the 48 Hour Film Festival, where as just described we have 48 hours to get the job done.

Last night was spent eating, drinking and planning. We wrote part of a script (first mistake) and wrote down the scenes we wanted to film, and where we wanted to film them at (second mistake).

With partial script in hand we headed out to Ramona, the location of our shoot. I don't remember why we decided to film in the desert, but it was required for the movie so we did. And what a day it has been. I am sunburnt and oh so dehydrated. Spent much of the day in the back of a van driving windy roads filming.

Its 9pm now and I'm back home and beginning to edit, which i'll be doing for much of the night.

tomorrow we shoot one more scene and spend the rest of the day finishing the movie to meet the deadline.

overal, much fun, many things learned, like don't film in the freaking desert, and we'll see how it goes from here. Stay tuned for an update tomorrow.

Ben..

I love my job

I figured i would lighten up by blog with all the "I hate..." posts lately


How cool is it that i have a huge green screen in my office?



I really do have a great job.

I hate Radioshack

everytime i have to go to Radioshack i get this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach and just dread the visit. I only go because they are close by and might have the cable or thing i need. But i seriously hate going and hate shopping there becuase their staff is creepy and thier products are horrible and way overpriced. I went today and walked out after i was told the price of the small cable i needed to buy.

ugh....

Rock climbing with the guys

Chara had to work on Sunday and boy did she work (13 hour day)

so me and a couple guys, Kevin and Matt, set out for the hills to do some climbing

actually we just drove out to lake Dixon...but whatever

Me arranging some gear
 


Kevin scaling the rock like a pro
 


Matt doing it in Converse (not an easy task)
  

i hate the red cross part two..

you might remember a year ago when i went to the red cross to donate some blood and they told me no.. they didn't want my blood because i had been to thailand.. but they said to come back a year later.. and they'd let me give them some blood..
so.. today.. a year later.. i was ready.. i've been taking my iron.. eating some liver (which was gross by the way)... made an appointment. and went to go donate blood.. and the stupid red cross said to me.. no.. they couldn't take me today.. they could take my blood tomorrow.. but not today.. Because it has to be a year and one day.. so.. tomorrow i would be good to go..
now.. i know you might be thinking that this doesn't mean that the red cross hates me personally.. but i say - yes it does.. because they took bens blood.. and ben has only been back from thailand for one year.. same as me.. but his blood was ok for some reason.. they don't hate him..
so.. i decided that i hate the red cross.. and called san diego blood bank.. who said that they would happily take my blood.. and i told them i had been to thailand and they said as long i didn't travel along the laos border (which i didn't go near)they'd take my blood..
so i went down there.. and they took my blood.. no iron issues.. no travel issues.. no issues..
moral of the story: donate to the san diego blood bank - they are much nicer.. and have less issues..
*also.. while you are donating blood at the san diego blood bank.. they can take an extra vile and type you for bone marrow donation..

the more you know..

again.. working on the floor that i work on i'm learning quite a lot of things..

when you walk down the street you have about a 1 in 4 chance of passing someone who has the same blood type as you.. someone who you can share blood with..

but.. if you need bone marrow.. you have a 1 in 46,000 (roughly) chance of finding some who matches your type..

ben and i are going to a bone marrow drive that is open to the public on Sunday July 9, at the Community Lutheran Church (3575 E. Valley Parkway Escondido, CA 92027)
8:00 AM - 12:30 PM... if your interested in joining us.. let us know.. i'll set up an appointment..

*just so you know.. on sunday.. it's a just a blood test.. that's about it.. maybe have to fill out a form or two.. no major surgery or anything like that..

Scuba on a Saturday

Went out diving yesterday down in La Jolla

I borrowed a friend from work's camera for another project, but here is some video of the event. Visibility wasn't the best, but it was fun to get out.

Got a question?

Ask a Ninja...



this is Chara's new favorite show...

please say that again

never having worked on an oncology floor - i'm having to get used to some new things..
i asked a co worker today if she ever had a patient die on her..
her response:
'oh yeah... they call our floor the death floor'
well.. i guess that's good to know..

howlee

i caught my first real wave today.. purely on accident.. but i caught it..

retraction

... i feel i should clarify - i'm not nursing.. i'm student nursing.. it's more like pretend nursing.. not at all the real thing..

Chara's first day nursing

 

Well actually she started on Monday, but that was all sit down orientation crap. Today she is in her scrubs and oh so cute. (but not happy with me taking her picture this morning) 

i pledge allegiance..

today i started my new job.. friday i had to fill out tons and tons of paper work..
one of the forms i had to sign was an oath of allegiance to defend the constitution of the united states as well as the constitution of califorina... interesting.. never had to fill that one out before..

Fathers Day in the mountains

 
 
  

Hot Fun day with Joe in the desert

Stacy, Chara and I went out to Twentynine Palms to visit our friend Joe before he shipped off to England.

It was very hot, but we had a blast.

We climbed around Joshua Tree for a bit...

 
 
 

Joe showed us his new guns...

 

then we went back to base and hit the pool, hung out some more and went to the new hotspot in town, Applebees, for dinner.

it was a fun day 

surf report

in my attempt to become a surfer i learned something tonight.. always check the surf report before going out... very important..

an awesome sight

so i was walking back to my hotel in SF and i walked by a park with a bunch of people on the baseball diamond. they are in plane clothes, jeans and sweatshirts playing ball. "How cool" i thought, that looks like just a bunch of people having fun. Then i got closer and they were playing baseball at all, but rather, kickball. How freaking awesome is that. When was the last time you played kickballl? I want to go play now. who's up for a game?

Crazy in San Francisco

Flew out of the rain in San Diego into the nice sunny San Francisco this morning.

this is a crazy city. Fun but a bit crazy.

everyone like's my "Tom is not my friend" shirt, and i can get free wifi access everywhere. got to love that...

Ben...

nip tuck

today i got to go 'observe' at a plastic surgeons office..
let's just say i had the best day ever..

that's just not right..

so i'm at the gym.. working out.. and i'm forced to watch 'charmed', because it's either that or 'fox news'.. and 'charmed' is being sponsored by dairy queen.. and dairy queen has a new 'monster cookie blizzard with m&m's'.. which looks fantastic.. and i know because i saw a commercial for it about every 10 minutes.. kinda sucks to be working out and to know that i can't eat that delicious blizzard because i could spend three whole days on the treadmill and not work that stupid blizzard off.. thank the good lord i don't know where a dairy queen is near the gym..

The big day of fun that was Sunday

Today was the longest funnest day ever

It started off with a big round of surfing at 6:30 in the AM. the waves were big and they broke hard, and we got thrashed about a great deal, but it was great.

Follow that up with an awesome breakfast at the Beachbrake Cafe and you can't lose.

After that its a quick stop home to drop off the boards and then off to the swapmeet.

Here Heath is discussing the finer points of the swapmeet tennis racket selection with Rhiannon
 

Then it was back home to eat some awesome BBQ London Broil with some veggies and pita bread. so good. And of course a huge helping of homemade Sangria, which Heath enjoyed a great deal.

Here you can see him recovering on the couch...
 

Then after that another quick stop by the house to pick up the tennis shoes and off to the courts for a night of tennis. we are awesome at tennis.
 

And then because Chara and Rhiannon didn't get enough exercise in today they ran a few laps up the stairs and such on the way back to the cars from the courts
 

all in all, the most fun day ever. We are all very tired, but were ready to to it all again tomorrow... or something 

two for the price of one

what's better then your best friend having one baby???

your best friend having two babies..

yes folks.. that is correct.. today ashlee found out that she is 7 weeks pregnant with twins...
the little ones are due in january..
and i couldn't be more excited..
congratulations brian and ashlee..

memorial camping fun..

ben teaches the kids how to play with fire...
 
heath and isaiah fooling around
  

I need one of these, and one of these

Today i got to ride in a helicopter, in a Porsche 911, and a Porsche Boxter.

But what i really wanted was the Porsche Carrera GT, and I'll take the helicopter too while I'm at it.

we went on a rally today with some really nice cars. I got to go up in a helicopter to get some footage of the cars taking off from the starting point. We drove to Palms Springs, had lunch, and drove back. It was very fun, but a long day and i'm exhausted.
 

Now i need to go back to work to start saving money for my GT. Its only $500,000, but isn't it so pretty?
  

National Bike to Work day

Today I did something I've been meaning to do for going on 6 years now. I've always said it would be fun to bike into work one day. I live some distance away from work, but always thought it would be fun to do it at least once.

Well today I did it. I biked to work. 31 miles. Oceanside to San Diego. It was great. It took me a while, and i rode it on mountain bike not a roadbike. But it was a lot of fun, and i think i'll do it more often.

Ben...

P.S. Going up Torrey Pines grade at the end of the ride sucks... a lot...

and she's done...

Chara' does not have to get up to go to school tomorrow

yeah!!!!!

two down.. one to go..

today i finished final number two..
i've got one more tuesday.. and it's gonna be tough..
so i'm locking myself away for the next five days.. if i don't answer my phone you'll know why..

update..

in looking for a better deal on boots i found my exact boots on ebay.. on sale for 170 bucks.. so.. am i the idiot who paid 70 dollars for three dollar boots, or am i a genius who paid 70 dollars for 170 dollar boots?

i'm torn..

yesterday my ben took me shopping.. and at urban outfitters ben bought me the perfect pair of red boots..
i have been looking for a pair of red boots for a while.. and these are the perfect pair.. and i love them..
but there is a problem..
while trying on my boots with different outfits last night, i noticed a sticker on the bottom.. the sticker explains that these boots are a part of a 'vintage' line which means that they either used to be something else and were remade into boots, or they used to be someone else's boots before they were mine..
it didn't take me long to realize what had happened.. some urban outfitter executive was at a flea market, saw my boots on sell for three dollars and knew that they could take them back to urban outfitters and sell them for 70 bucks..
and now i can't keep my perfect red boots because they make me that stupid person who bought a three dollar pair of boots for 70 dollars...

Deborah's 4th Birthday Party

and what a party it was...

 
 
  

i'm just saying..

say what you want about Keanu Reeves acting ability.. point break is an awesome movie...

and me without my camera

I always think i should take my camera with me, but then never want to carry it around. I really need a camera phone i guess, but i always quietly make fun of all those groups of people with them taking pictures of whatever.

anyway, yesterday i was in Hollywood attending the OnHollywood event and i met Tom Green and the guys from American Chopper. Nice guys. But no pictures

Ben...

Show shoeing with the dogs (minus the snow)

Went up to the mountains to do a bit of snow shoeing with the puppies. Problem we ran into was that there was a distinct lack of snow. But we did the hiking anyway and everyone had fun. The dogs were great, aside from Keaton running away from Chara to find me. (good dog)


Chara and Keaton discussing the finer points of the trail
 

Dennis and the dogs on the trail
 

Chara and Sadie in the meadow
 

Ben and the puppies
  

what a big boy

isaiah learns how to put his shoes on.. all by himself...
  

Easter with a bounce house

  

Pump it up...

The boys' got moves

quality time..

the last couple weeks have been pretty busy..so i took yesterday off.. and drove up to the OC to see my babies..
my sister.. who doesn't have enough to do with two toddlers.. decided to adopt two little lab puppies.. which are incredibly cute.. and it took all my willpower not to try to steal one.. they are very sweet..

 
  

the computer ate my homework..

and not even my super smart computer guy husband can fix it..
now i have to do two hours worth of homework again..
today has not been good..