48 Hours of Movie Mayhem

So, I never got back to blogging after Sunday morning. All went well, but it was cram packed full of doing stuff, so I didn’t have time. Here’s some stuff that went down.

I finished up my first complete rough cut Saturday night. This is as far ahead as I had ever been that early on in the 48. AND, the film was actually under time. That has NEVER happened. Granted, I had forgotten a few scenes and our graphics weren’t in, but I figured we were sitting pretty. But man, were we still rushed for time on Sunday. I’m still not even sure why. This is the first time we’ve really done major audio design, so that may have been it. My pal Tommy is a genius at just about everything techy and creative. He did an amazing job putting together some ambient bowling alley sounds, fixing some audio issues, and drumming up some fun sound effects for us. The only problem was, I didn’t really take into account how slow it is for me to create clips for him to use for reference. We post in HD even though the final viewing isn’t in HD. What can I say, we’re HD snobs. It just causes some time issues when I’m exporting a 45 second clip and it takes 8 minutes. Ugh. I had lots of b-roll to edit in over our voice-overs and lots of shaping up on some of the tournament scenes.

The day went fast, but was fairly stress free. Until I went to make our first dvd and my handy dvd burner decided to make a style choice and burned the movie in black and white. Yeah. At 7:00, with our film due across town at 7:30, I’m making new dvds. Not awesome. But, we still got our film turned in by 7:21. Hooray!

I don’t really remember much else. Shockingly, I never really got tired. All day. And I didn’t ingest a single ounce of caffeine. Even when the gang got together for dinner and beers afterwards I was fine. Then, I got in my car for the dark drive home. And ohmygod I had never been so ready for bed in my life. Monday was rough. Tuesday was better and today I’m back to normal. Sure I still want to take a nap right now, but that’s pretty much par for the course in the afternoon.

Stray observations from the weekend:

• Bowling alley burger baskets are the best bad food ever. I need to add Val Lanes to my list of favorite lunch spots
• Those bar top video games are GRAPHIC! We thought it’d be funny if our villan character was playing one of the girlie games during a scene. Last I saw one of these they consisted of cheesey scantily clad ladies not too much more racy than your average romance novel cover. This one however had stripping girls rubbing their lady bits. Yeah. Whoa. That’s a lot of raunchy for a bowling alley
• Production is wack, yo
• Beer makes everything better
• Jeremy loaded equipment, lit the set multiple times in various locations and shot all day. I believe he consumed a bottle of water and six french fries. Late Saturday night I was already demanding a bloody mary bar and breakfast sandwiches for Sunday. Somebody’s a diva.
• My workplace is creepy at 3am when you’re there by yourself. The raccoons are NOT AFRAID to get all up in your window and freak your shit out.
• I want a The Plumber t-shirt
• You do have more abundance than me.
• The ref’s monologue was adlib’ed. And it is amazing.

So, friends here it is, Team A Sense of Urgency’s 2010 48 Hour Film:

It’s a god damn way of life, you guys.

If you’re in the Des Moines area, our film will screen Thursday night, July 29 at the Fleur Cinema at 7 & 9. Come on down and vote for Cowboys and Hot Dogs!

c.

Good morning film fans!

I either my body didn’t get into sleep mode enough to actually be tired, or it was taken over by robots. I was in bed for approximately three hours and forty-five minutes. And yet, I am not a whiny, grumpy mess. And I still don’t look quite as bad as Linsday Lohan’s mugshot. Ten points for me!

That’s not to say I didn’t pull out some of the big guns. When I got in the car I called up the Summer Girls playlist on the old ipod and my favorite summer jam of ’10 kicked in and perked me right up. It even made me consider searching out a dance party. But at 8:30 am on a Sunday, I’m not sure where I’d go looking. Oh, and I have a movie to finish.

T-t-tip on the tightrope

And as I pulled into the office parking lot to the strains of Puck & Merecedes from Glee dueting on “The Lady Is A Tramp,” I thought to myself, “Damn! Puck was so hot in that number. Why does Cabbage Patch looking Fin get all the solos. WHY? And also, I think this is gonna be a pretty good day.”

I also played it safe and wore one of my favorite tees.

The power of Swayze compels you

You can not go wrong when you’ve got the man who played Orry Main, Johnny Castle and Bodhi on your side. Little hand says rock and roll, afterall.

So I started out by giving my rad friend Tommy a call. He’s gonna set us up with some sweet sounds. He’ll fix a few audio issues that came up, and considering that we had no audio guy and a bunch of post production nancies who couldn’t seem to get the boom mic to work, those are far fewer than I expected. He’s also gonna hook us up with some original music.

Back to work. Bloody mary bar arrives any time now, with breakfast sandwiches showing up in about 30. Check back again soon!

Super Terrific Roshambo Show

This morning came early, even though I wasn’t up super late. My sleep was invaded by anxiety dreams. Can Leonardo DiCaprio fix that or something? Or is he the bad guy who invades your dreams…I haven’t seen Inception yet. Regardless, my dreams were full of me making lists, forgetting things, not being able to find my team or locations. Only one of these things happened in real life. The detailed list of props I made for myself was left in my office last night. Exactly where it would do be absolutely no good. So yeah, I forgot a few things, but nothing important.

The day began at the office where a bunch of post production peeps tried to locate and put together a bunch of production equipment. It was…interesting. Next we caravaned, led by a dodgy navigator, to our location. I am IN LOVE with our location. Check it:

Bowling alley, bitches!

Running lines...

Yep, we’re spending the day in a bowling alley. How sweet is that? Air conditioning, beer and burger baskets. It’s a girl’s dream come true, really.

Everything went fairly smooth. Except for the part where we’re all post production sissies and have no idea how to run audio gear. Yeah, great planning. First thing on the list for next year’s pre-production meeting: FIND AN AUDIO GUY!

How many post production guys does it take to fix the audio?

Back soon with more shenanigans.

5:45pm

The crew’s still kickin’ it at Val Air Lanes. We’ve got some good stuff going on. I’m back here in my cozy, safe edit cave…where I don’t have to stand, or move anything or exert energy. I’m super jazzed about looking at the footage. Our actors are effing hilarious. Which is good when you’re making a comedy.

One of my favorite shots:

Kickin' it with Kathy L

Seniors v. Kids

The Plumber

10:37

So, we’re making a seven minute movie. We have 120 minutes of footage. Not kidding. Also, there are a million people in the edit suite. The likelihood of me getting grumpy is at about 50/50 right now. But Matt “the Plumber” Moore and the ref are killing me. Cowboys and hotdogs, man. Cowboys and hotdogs.

1:18

This is what working on a movie for 18 hours looks like.

That’s all.

3:30 am

Home now.

Sleep soon.

Movie Makin’ Time

Why hello, there. Nice to meet you. My name is Courtnee and I blog sometimes. Like, once a month apparently. Have we met? Because I’m sure you don’t remember me….

Yeah, I know. We’ve been neglecting the blog like Betty Draper neglects her kids. (I’m tellin’ ya, Sally Draper her gonna kill Betty in her sleep one of these days.) But it’s just hard to think of stuff to blog about. Do you really care that I ate Jimmy John’s twice this week? Or that e1 got schooled in a family game of craps? Or that my summer squash plant finally (FINALLY!) started producing? No. Probably not. Would you like to follow along with a bunch of tired, slap happy thirty-somethings as they attempt to make a movie in 48 hours? I’m not sure about that either. But I’m blogging it anyways.

For those that need a refresher, during 48 Hour Film Project weekend, our team of A/V nerds cool kids will be assigned a film genre, a character, a line of dialogue and a prop. In the next 48 hours we will write, cast, location scout, shoot, edit and score a seven minute short film. All 52 teams participating will use the same character, line and prop but will draw a different genre. Our film is due Sunday at 7:00 pm.

Last year we made a ZOMBIE MOVIE  and wound up first runner-up for best in city out of 48 teams. We also took home best writing, best makeup and best actress. That was the second year in a row we got second place. Will this be our year? We hope so. A lot. But, per usual, or main goals are have fun, drink beer, make a movie. In that order.

This year’s cast of characters:

Crew

• Greasy Chad McCool – writer, Red Bull addict and super greasy dude
• Michael, co-worker, utility man and all-around spazz
• Jeremy, high school pal of Chad’s and brutally honest cinematographer who treks down from Brainerd to lug a camera around all weekend for free
• Carol – our girl Heather is unavailable this weekend (THE NERVE!) so Producer Carol has joined the team this year. She’s already doing a bang up job coordinating talent and tracking down some crazy rad locations.
• Tommykins – our outta town audio wizard and smart guy from the future

Actors

• The lovely and undead Kathy L, 48 Hour Des Moines’ two time best actress
• Adam P. – willing to bury you in a dirt basement
• Adam C. – willing to defile inanimate objects
• Amanda B. – while recently discussing ‘what our actors would be willing to do’ the answer for Amanda was ANYTHING. Also has a lovely karaoke voice
• Matt Moore – our perfectly smarmy cameo guy
• Amy Wright – pop and lock zombie and all around cool lady

I have no doubt somebody as been left off that list…sorry to you.

So, like last year, I’ll be posting often throughout the weekend. Rather than create a new post each time, I will create one post for each day and just add on to each as I have time. So when you log on, scroll down for new info.

The kickoff even goes down in about 3 hours. I’ll check back in a little later and let you know what our genre is. For a recap of the madness that went down last year, CLICK HERE! and scroll about three-quarters of the way down.

Be back soon!

10:43 pm

Well, we drew comedy again this year. We generally like to steer clear of the broader genres, because they’re a little harder. When you’ve only got seven minutes to work with, sometimes more specific parameters help. After I drew, Carol and I  furiously texted our other team members, and everyone decided to go with it. Also, we won a six pack of Monster Energy Drink. Which is good, I guess?

The kickoff even itself was pretty interesting. Lots of a/v geeks. And I had a conversation with a high school aged filmmaker who informed me that the only good mockumentary ever made is District 9. Um, yeah. Satire and mockumentary are not the same. Also, he had never heard of Christopher Guest. Like you know, Spinal Tap, Best In Show & Waiting for Guffman mockumentary perfection. I’m not saying everyone should know about Mr. Guest and his movies, but if you’re gonna be all filmmaker-y and make a statement like that, maybe know what you’re talking about. Do I sound cranky? Because I’m not. Just the level of pretension that comes out of some people at this event is a little eye roll-y.

So anyways, we hit up my office for some brainstorming and settled on two ideas pretty quickly, and not long after that, one of those ideas started to form into something interesting. (Sorry I don’t have pictures this time around, but you’ve probably seen pictures of people sitting around a table drinking beer.) We decided how it would end, and then went back through to figure out how to get there. We fleshed out the characters and talked with the actors about wardrobe, character motivation, etc. I won’t say too much, but the characters consist of a brain surgeon looking to blow off some steam, a ‘roided up athlete, someone called “The Plumber,” some kids and groupie or two. Also, my list of props to bring from home are: sweat band, wrist bands, tube socks, bowling shirt, bowling bag, ankle wrap, mesh hat, whistle. Think you know where we’re going with this? I guess you’ll see!

Also, our location is freaking awesome. A great place to spend the day. For now I, and the rest of the crew are off to bed while Chad writes and Jeremy plays Playstation Golf into this stormy night. Meet you for a venti hazelnut latte tomorrow at 8:30?

c.

We love you, Chris Harrison.

Indeed, it has been an embarrassingly long time since I’ve written.

Can you forgive me?

This post is the result of a good friend in need of a Bachelorette update.  It’s what the whole world needs.

So obviously, A LOT has happened since I last wrote.  Here it is in a nutshell:

*Ali still has terrible hair. and a terrible fake laugh.

*Weatherman was almost murdered by crazy professor character.  These two will be meeting again in the Bachelor Pad house this August.  There will be blood.  Also tiny nipples and crying.

*Mumbly robot did not off himself, but probably should have.  Instead, he sang songs and got a tattoo.  He will never get laid again.

*Scrapbooker keeps finding his way into my heart…and then I remember he’s a scrapbooker.  He also paws at Ali’s face a lot when they kiss.  Those hands are definitely clammy.  It weirds me out.

*Ali constantly makes out with one dude in front of the precious gaggle of other dudes.  Not even one dude in particular, all of them, all the time.  Loudly.

*Kissing sound effects need to stop.

*For the first time ever, the bachelor/bachelorette actually questions whether he/she is pretty enough for one of the contestants.  There is always one rose-seeker who would clearly NEVER date the person they are trying to win.  (See: most of the girls on Jason Mesnik season.)  Ali has made two comments to Roberto about this.  Props to her for being self conscious in front of America. (until she strips down to a bikini out of nowhere in the middle of Iceland.)

Now let’s talk about last night.  This episode has been dangling in front of us for weeks.  And though every show is the most shocking episode in Bachelorette history(!), I was really holding out for this one.  In the end, there was one star last night.  And it was this guy:

Oh, Chris...you are so sensitive and caring. Can I braid your hair?

If you watch this show and don’t want to be BFFs with Chris Harrison, something is wrong with you.  The minute he walks into a scene, E2 and I glance at each other and smile…as if he’s our oversized, overaged son.

The episode starts with ridiculous b-roll of Ali doing stupid girl things that girls never really do.  This montage ends with a voice over of her saying: “I don’t think anything could go wrong at this point.”  Who says something like that ever?  Especially when you’re on TV making out with 7 dudes at a time?  I could name at least 65 things that could go wrong at this point, Ali.  And only 14 of those things are diseases.

Directly on the heels of this voiceover, knock knock. It’s Chris Harrison!  So early in the show!  This is going to be amazing.

It’s not.  He has some inside info that one of Ali’s suitors has a girlfriend.  How is this a shocker?  This has happened EVERY season.  The only shocking part is how boring it is to watch one girl tell another girl, “he doesn’t love you, he loves me.  Sort of.  But not really because he also has another girlfriend.  Plus, he will probably burn my house down when he comes back.”

So all that happens, then the camera men follow Justin (the cheater) around for what seems like a wildly inappropriate amount of time.  He looks like he’s trying to escape nature jail.  Climbing over bushes and little ponds and whatnot.  Ali bellows a bunch of stupid things that will embarrass her later.  She says it’s he who will be embarrassed.  Not your best moment, darling.

Olive oil wrestling is next.  They had to have done this exclusively for Joel McHale, right?  The Soup could do an entire show dedicated to this episode.  I don’t even feel like I can say anything about this.  See for yourself:

Did you make it through sans-vomit?  So, the guy with the head too big for his haircut wins.  He has been pointless this entire season and remains pointless even after their alone time.

He also gets booted at the end of the night.  Again, not shocking.

I skipped a lot of cringeworthy moments (such as Ali appearing in front of Frank, dressed head to toe in a purple genie costume, and Frank staring at her like she’s a dancing piece of steak) , but I promise to get back on my game.  Next week’s episode looks like another winner.  (And by winner, I mean the absolute worst thing on television.)

b.

PS.  If it matters to you, Chris L. is my favorite.  E2 still holds out hope for the weatherman.

Badass Lady Business

In the wayback days of the original blog, one of my favorite weeks was the learn something/take a class week. I took an embroidery class where I not only learned to stitch this freakin’ awesome StrongBad, I met some cool ladies too! You know you’ve met some cool girls when you can bond over the Babysitters Club books and recall specific outfits Claudia wore. Another topic of conversation? Roller derby. The movie Whip It! was coming soon, and the Des Moines derby teams were gearing up for the season. And it just so happened that one of those crafty stithcin’ ladies, @shanaraeray, was training to be a roller derby skating lady too. And this weekend…I’m goin’ to check it out. And I could not be more  excited.

I love the idea of roller derby, but am far too sissy to actually participate myself. I had enough trouble back during the days of elementary school skating parties at Kimberly Pines. They’d turn that disco ball on and I’d get all disoriented following the flying cheerios on the baby blue floor. The fact that I was rarely asked to ‘moonlight skate’ was also a matter of deep self-consciousness. So sadly my skating days are over. Luckily I can live vicariously through Ms. Shana and the Mid Iowa Rollers. Even better? These rollin’ ladies are undefeated!

So, what’s this derby stuff all about? I saw Whip It, so I know the basics. (sidenote: Even though this movie was horribly made, it’s super fun to watch. ZOE BELL!!!) Obviously the insanely rad outfits and the badass names are cool. Fishnets and hot pants and neon socks? Why can’t this be my wardrobe every day? And I desperately want to be known as Sugar Kaned (Shana’s derby name) or Anna Killakova or Knock Around Suzie. I’m pretty sure nobody would question my edit decisions if they had to say, “um, Bloody Holly…can you make that dissolve a couple frames longer?” But once you get past the flashy outfits and aliases…what’s derby really about? Let’s learn some stuff!

Roller derby takes place on a circuit track. Offense and defense are played at the same time by both teams. Each team has five players on the track – one jammer (scorer), three blockers (defense), one pivot (a blocker who may become the jammer later in that jam). Helmet covers are used to display the players’ positions: a cover with two stars is used for jammers, a striped cover is used for pivots and no cover is used for blockers.

Pivots and blockers from both teams start the game by forming a single pack. In a pack, all players face counterclockwise. The track has two lines marked across the track 30 feet apart, a pivot line and a jammer line around which the players build their initial formation.

Pivots line up on the pivot line and all blockers must line up behind them in any order they choose. The two jammers, who are not considered to be part of the pack, are positioned on the jammer line 30 feet behind the pivot line.

A jam is a 2-minute countdown period during which both teams attempt to score points. Points can only be scored by the jammers, who, moving counter-clockwise, attempt to pass the pack and lap around as many times as possible. After passing the pack the first time, jammers earn one point each time they legally pass an opposing blocker/pivot. Pivot/blockers attempt to assist their jammer through and out of the pack while simultaneously stopping the opposing jammer from exiting the pack.

To impede the progress of the opposing team’s jammer, players may block using body parts above the mid-thigh, excluding forearms, hands, and head. Elbows may not be used in blocking, and cannot be swung at other players or used to hook an opponent’s or teammate’s arm.

Each game consists of two 30-minute periods. At the end of each jam, teams field another line up of players and the next jam starts exactly 30 seconds later.

Hey, thanks, Wikipedia! There’s a bit more to it than that, but those are the basics. Ladies in sweet threads skating hard and roughin’ each other up a little. You guys…I can barely skate! These girls are skate racing and blocking and scoring and not falling and looking cool doing it. Impressive.

Here in Des Moines we have two derby teams, and these cool chicks are even making it into the sportscasts on the local news. Finally! We’ve got some girl representation between all the boy sports! If you’re here in town, head on down to Hy-Vee hall for this weekend’s bout. Doors are at 6, bout starts at 7. The undefeated (6-0) Mid Iowa Rollers are facing the Old Capital City Roller Girls from Iowa City, for what Shana promises will be a fierce battle. If you’re not here in my town, hit up Derbyroster.com. Find a team and get out and support your local roller derby girls!

c.

Glee and Me: It’s Complicated

A while back, b. and I talked amongst ourselves about making sure this blog didn’t get too pop culture centric. We are scholars of pop culture, for sure, but there are already many and much better pop culture blogs out there. We’re both huge Losties, and I can write all day about Sayid’s calves of death and general badassery or how “not Penny’s boat,” still reduces me to a salty puddle of tears, but what does that really add to a conversation about you know, life and death and science v. faith and all that deep thinky stuff going on on Lost.

However, due to extreme busy-ness, for both of us, the only thing either of us really has time to do these days is catch some TV shows here and there. So that’s all I have to write about right now. So, Glee….

WHY WON’T YOU LET ME LOVE YOU LIKE I WANT TO???

Glee, this really wouldn’t be an issue if I didn’t know your potential. You can be better. I want you to be better. I’m willing you to be better, and yet, you just aren’t. Why won’t you listen to me? Did I do something wrong? Haven’t we had good times, Glee? Remember when you were sweet but also biting, and a little dark and you flaunted that wicked sense of humor of yours all over my musical loving heart? Remember when Mr. Schue was that kind of dorky teacher who thought he was cool, but really wasn’t? And then you made him rap, and turned him into kind of a jackass? Or when the show didn’t entirely depend on Sue Sylvester’s one-liners to carry it? I mean, I’m really glad you started spreading the solos out, because Santana has mad skillz and can wear a Gaga catsuit like nobody’s business, but I’ve seen the pilot. And it was amazing. And you haven’t been that good since. I mean, I guess we’re still friends, Glee. But I’m not gonna call you when I need someone to cheer me up on Hulu. Parks & Recreation and Community have been there for me all season, Glee. They didn’t start phoning it in halfway through. I’m not mad. I’m just disappointed. And everyone knows that way worse.

So basically, I was not a fan of last night’s finale, and have kind of been falling out of love with the show during this back nine stretch of the season. Outside of Puck & Santana (my faves), it seems to have lost all it’s biting edge and borders on sentimental ‘very special episodes’ from week to week. And I’m fairly certain that a different writer writes every episode and they’re each given nothing but the pilot as reference. There doesn’t seem to be a shred of continuity from episode to episode. And yeah, I get that Glee doesn’t take place in the real world…I totally accept and love that wind machines appear out of nowhere as Rachel and Finn sing a Madonna mashup down the hallway. Love it. But Shelby rolls in, says “hey, cute baby!” and all the sudden we’ve got a drive through adoption service? Um, no. Also, Finn? Worst of all the boy singers. So why is he always the main boy singer?

I have many, many more problems with the show (let’s all just pretend the Thong Song never happened…in both real life and on the show), and yet, I still like it. The musical numbers make me want to dance and sing around my living room as e1 and my cat uncomfortably and silently judge me. And when Sue isn’t being overused,which seems to be seldom lately, she is my favorite person on television. (After Ron effing Swanson, of course.) I want to watch Britney dance her ass off in between her ridiculously stupid insights on gay sharks and happy meals. I get excited when Shaft and Other Asian actually get lines. Puck makes me all swoony every time he sings, and I’m currently working a mad crush on Jesse St. James. I cannot get enough of Kurt or for that matter, his dad. And who ever thought anyone would ever say that about Mike O’Malley?

So, Glee…we can still be friends right? We might not sit together in the cafeteria any more. And that’s okay. But you should still totally save a big space for me to sign in the back of your yearbook. I’ll write nice things like “stay cool this summer,” and maybe after spending a little time apart we’ll appreciate each other more next season. Especially if you find a way to fold that St. James kid back in. I need more sexy ballet choreographed to “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in my life.

What are your thoughts, fellow Gleeksters?

Class of ’94 rulez,

c.

ps. Hey interwebz, we are so over. Why won’t you let me find the clips I want to post here? You are such a jerk sometimes.

Hooray, it’s Bachelorette time!

Hi all. Remember me? I owe you some love. That love will come to you in the form of this:

She has on converse with a dress. She's SO wacky!

I was in Canada for the last two weeks. Everyone knows Canada is in a bit of a time warp when it comes to TV. Seriously, it’s like Northern Exposure never even got cancelled there. That is my excuse for being late on the season premiere of everyone’s favorite reality nightmare: The Bachelorette.  E2 was sweet enough to sit through it with me today, but worry not, the drinking game will return soon.

I’ll keep it short since it’ll be on again in a mere 4 hours.

Here are some initial thoughts:

* I find Ali annoying.  When someone tries really hard to be the cool, laid back girl-next-door, she never is.  Plus, she should work on her fake laugh.

* Within the first five minutes, I know the following phrases must be added to our drinking game list:

Ready to fall in love

Here for the right reasons

Soulmate

I gave up everything to be here

* I confess, I spent the first fifteen minutes nominating friends to be on the next bachelor/bachelorette so I phased out a lot of the pathetic intros.  I looked up to find a dude with a serious marble mouth issue.  Was he even talking or is he a mumbly robot? That will be his name from this day forward.  (I hope there aren’t many days forward for him).

* Apparently Ali has attracted a scrapbooker.  Yes, a dude who scrapbooks.  As he bragged to the guys about it, E2 groaned, “someone had too much to drink.  You’re admitting too much, dude!”  However, we quickly realized the dude actually thought it was a strategic move.  He and Ali sat on a bench and she nodded her head politely, like a mother does when her child presents her with shitty artwork.

* Ali’s hair color is yellow.  Not blond.  yellow.  fix it please.

* Now Shooter shows up.  He thinks he’s going to woo Ali with a funny story about why people call him Shooter.  This proves difficult as the story is not funny at all.  In fact, it’s humiliating.  And it’s almost as if he realizes this at the same time as we (the audience) do.  Poor shooter.  I stop taking notes here.

* As always, the preview for the whole season has me cackling with delight.  I live for this.  Each season adds more and more drama.  Remember when the show first started and it was revealed that one of the contestants was divorced? (Gasp). Now it appears Mumbly Robot just might off himself by the end of this season.

Anywho, look forward to more updates.  Once our drinking game list has been perfected, I’ll post it for those of you who’d like to play along at home.

Your friend in guilty pleasures,

b.

Random things that are cute and awesome

First, baby woodchucks are the cutest things to ever cute. Not that this blog is going to turn into “Wildlife in the back yard of c.’s workplace,” but seriously, tell me this isn’t the cutest shit ever:

How much wood...

can a baby woodchuck chuck

Seriously, you guys. Tell me that isn’t killing you from cute.

Killing you from something, though probably not cuteness, and probably not awesomeness:

Mesh hats and rainbow suspenders...the 80s were rad!

b. is on a work trip right now, prepping for a crazy busy commercial shoot and requested this fine photo for a possible background prop. I’ve always loved this picture, but until she requested a high-res version of it, I hadn’t looked at it up close in ages. How great is this? I’m 5, sporting my brand spanking new tee-ball uniform (I was on the “yellow team,” no need for fancy titles. My BFF Gedean was on the “black team,” and I recall actually discussing the fact that we may have to act like enemies at the tee-ball park as we were on opposing teams,) complete with cushy mesh cap (eat your heart out Ashton Kutcher). But really, this picture is ALL ABOUT b.’s Mork suspenders and corduroys. And let’s be honest, her mullet bangs. I totally had those bangs too, but my sweet sweet cap is blocking them. Other things about this picture that are good? The old school lawn chair with weaved fabric…still love those. And our amazing back yard. Home to numerous adventures and forms of tag (tv tag, freeze tag, tunnel tag, etc.). Just another example of our idyllic childhood.

And now for the random. And slightly nerdy. When I’m into something, I get a little obsessive. And this time of year, it’s gardening. I harvested these radishes last night.

This is the first time I’ve grown radishes and they were super tasty. Nice and spice. And they came up much quicker than I would have guessed.

Have a great weekend, friends.

c.

Lovely day for a walk…

Last Saturday, May 15th, the very first Promise Walk for Preeclampsia was held in Ames, Ia. For those of you not from around these parts, that’s where Iowa State is located. Alma mater of b., e1 & Shelly. The walk was a smashing success, and the weather cooperated far better than it did for the Davenport walk.

We were minus a cute ambulance with it’s own stretcher, but we did have about 130 walkers! Far more than expected. And over $8,000 was raised!

Congrats to Abby & Minda for organizing a great event! If you’re interested in becoming a sponsor for next year’s walk, hit me up via email: fifty2things@gmail.com

c.