I hope my baby likes Chocolate

Last week some of the girls in the ward threw me a little baby shower. Thanks ladies! I had a great time! And our little Owen, Oliver, Miles...whoever he may be....certainly got his fill of chocolate that night. Doris was so cute and remembered a blog post a while back where I ranted on and on about how much I love chocolate, and decided that the food for the night would be all chocolate! Mmmmm.
There were rich chocolate brownies, amazing chocolate balls (compliments of Pam Thomas. Honestly, amazing), my favorite Chocolate Malted Crunch ice cream from Rite Aid (thanks Sarah for buying an extra carton for me to take home!), choc fudge sauce to go on top, chocolate candies all over the house, Moose Munch, and one non-choc item: cream puffs. They even had milk and water to wash it all down! Here I am hovering over my favorite table:
It was all super tasty. Well done! (I must admit, however, that even for a chocolate lover....it was slight overload. I actually went home and had some chips 'n salsa. The balance was great!)
Sara Morgan, who has the cutest craftiest skills, recovered these chocolate bars as party favors. They looked so professional and said "Dana's Baby Shower" and the date on the wrapper. Again, crafty lady. Cute stuff! And all the fun ladies that came brought the greatest gifts. Cute clothes, diapers, wipes, onesies, gift cards...everything we need! So a HUGE thank you to everyone for being so generous. My mother-in-law Linda was able to come also (sitting next to me in the picture below) and she couldn't believe how many young moms there were in our ward. I told her that this was only half of them! We sure have a fun group of moms to hang out with. I love it. And this little vintage tee from Karla Hunt is one of my favorites. It's adorable. Can't wait to dress our little boy in all this fun stuff!Thanks Doris, Sarah, Pam, Sara, and Laura Daines for throwing a fun party. I'm lucky to know such great people!

He just seems like a nice guy

I meant to add this to the film talk posting below.

On Saturday night when we saw Dan in Real Life I had a fun run-in at the Paseo Theaters in Pasadena. I was hurrying down the hall to use the bathroom and a very tall gentleman was hurrying towards me to get to his movie. No one else was around us. I looked at him once, I did a double-take, and as he got closer we both smiled at each other. I said, "hello". He kindly peered down at me, flashed his friendly smile and in his very low voice replied, "hello there." And we both kept walking in different directions. Yep. It was him. It was President David Palmer! And he just seemed like a real nice guy. It was as if he would have said hi regardless of being an actor or knowing I was a 24 groupie who loved his presidency. Once I got to the bathroom I thought, "oh, I should have nodded my head quickly when passing him and just said, 'Mr. President'." But I'm sure he gets silly comments often enough.

So yea! for Dennis Haysbert. Yea! for Allstate commercials that have kept him employed. And yea! for a new sesaon of 24 in January that actually looks kind of interesting (from the trailer).

And since it's been a while, perhaps an old 24 poem is in order. (For those of you scratching your heads....a few seasons back, some of us 24 watchers started rehashing the previous night's episode by composing poetry for each other and expressing our sentiments...or frustrations. This was my Old Danny Boy tribute to president Palmer when he was killed. Not the finest, but seems appropriate. Funny thing is....I can't even remember who Joe Prado is now.)

An Irish Ode...to a Tall Black Man
Oh Palmer boy, the Presidency, the Presidency is calling.
From gully to vale and straight o'er to the West Siiiiide.
The old Pres is gone, and the new one is sucking.
'Tis you, 'tis you who left and made us bide.
But come ye back! when warheads are gone from the meadow.
Or when CTU's hushed and Joe Prado's let go.
If only to save Jack from interrogation in the shadow,
Oh Palmer boy, Oh Palmer boy.....we love you so.

Crossing the Line

I'm working at Universal for the next few days, so I had the treat of really seeing the Writers Strike in action. There weren't any celebrities picketing the line (Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon must still be New Orleans cleaning up Katrina water). But as I tried to pull into the lot this morning, the picketers were walking back and forth in front of each gate entrance, carrying their WGA signs.

I kindly waited for them to finish crossing before turning right into the lot. Then immediately, another group started coming the other way so that none of us could turn in to the parking lot. Annoying. I finally just butted the nose of my car into the entrance, cutting off another picketer from entering the crosswalk. She looked back at me. Well move out of the way!
Now I'm not really against their cause (um, since I don't fully understand it all). But here's a watered-down version of it: the strike has to do with New Media and residuals that are normally paid to a writer each time their work (a TV show they wrote, film, etc) airs or is shown. With all the downloading of shows onto ipods and TV episodes available online, writers haven't been receiving risidual payment....thus, the strike (I think).

So sure, fight for your rights. But please don't block me from entering the parking lot to work. I'm not even a writer scab!

The funny thing is, the strike isn't affecting the Film studios too much. Since film development is a multi-year long process, a month long strike isn't going to hurt the development and production departments, when we already have 10 projects currently in production. But where it does hurt is episodic television. Normally, the writers on an hour-long show are a few episodes ahead of production. Casey's dad works on the show Pushing Daisies, doing Special Effects. But come next week...he and the rest of the crew are out of work, since they've shot as much as they can for upcoming episodes (thank goodness for Reality Television, however, he has another show to fall back on!) It's just crazy to think how much one department/Union can affect the jobs of so many others in the television industry. If you haven't seen Pushing Daisies, though, it's an interesting show to check out.
The set design and art direction are probably the best part. But I do enjoy it when Parry (Casey's dad) tells us the strange things he worked on for an episode. I guess in a couple weeks there's a huge vat of pink taffy that someone falls into. We'll have to tune in!

And on a seperate film note, since we're talking Biz talk....
Casey and I saw Dan in Real Life this weekend and really enjoyed it! Steve Carell was great and very non Michael Scott-ish. The comedy, the situations, and the acting were very real. It was a genuinely funny movie without being obvious, in a Meet the Parents sort of way (though I love that film too.) Dan in Real Life is a must see! We recommend!

He Passed!

My brother in law, Bryan passed the California BAR!!!
This was his 6th time taking it, which makes it even more rewarding to think of all the hours put in to studying and taking the dreadful exam (what determination). And he did it! wooooohoooo!
We're so happy for him and Camille.
Congrats Bryan!!

It's Go Time

If we have to give up our daylight hours to the lame time-change, at least we get our fun shows back! (small consolation, I suppose). And I couldn't be happier to see Tim Gunn's furrowed brow on Project Runway, Season 4. Yep, tonight was the premiere! The show is back!

I have to admit, none of the contestants really draw me in (except for the overweight gay funny guy). Mostly, they all seem eccentric and kinda strange. I know, I know, it's the fashion world....but the past seasons have had some "normal" people on there. This crop seems to have strange names, really bizarre hair, and a huge resume of overqualified experience (what happened to a joe-shmoe getting on there?!) I'm starting to miss the Top Chef cronies in their boring white chef jackets.
I guess I'm sounding negative about the show. I don't mean to be. Perhaps I just look forward to being reeled into the new season. I'm not in love with any designer yet....but time will tell. I can't wait to see what they'll create!

If you haven't seen the show, it's time to get hooked. Check it out on Bravo, Wed nights.
Make it work!

Nice Shiner

Lucy and I were at the park this morning and she climbed on a toy she's climbed many times. But somehow, she fell off and hit her face. She bawled (and then threw up). But now she has a nice shiner! Thankfully she's in good spirits this afternoon and not in any pain (that I know of).

Field Trip Day

Tuesday was a fun-filled day. First we went to Lucy's school for Parent Ed class, then left early so we could head over to Travel Town to meet up with the girlfriends and the other kids. Travel town is near the LA Zoo and Griffith Park and there are a bunch of old trains parked which the kids can look at and climb on.
One of the trains was open on the inside so we let the kids climb aboard and they spent 15 minutes playing peek-a-boo in these funny little cubby holes:
Here are Lucy and Chloe and Hannah and Sammy:
Most of all though, Lucy had the most fun picking up rocks and putting them down. She does the same thing when we go to the park, only with the wood chips. If there are chips on the steps, she'll methodically remove each one before stepping on. Oh Lucy, you're gonna be cleaning those steps all day!
There's also a little train that goes around the park so we all took a ride. It was fun! Perfect for the kids. It went around twice and we all got our fill.
After Travel Town, Doris, Shannon, and I disregarded our children's tired faces and headed to In-N-Out for lunch. The kids weren't too bad though and we ate yummy burgers and fries. AND, Lucy stayed awake for the whole ride home so I was able to put her down for a decent nap. Woohoo!

For our night-time field trip, we went to Kidspace, a Kid's museum in Pasadena. Your normally need a membership to get in, but the 1st Tues of every month is Free Night. So we checked it out. Lucy loved it! The first room was perfect for her age. Lots of things to climb on, a fun slide, books, and other little kids. The second picture was in the "older" room. There was this cool climbing tower that looked like something from The Fly or The Abyss. Lucy climbed it for a bit, but got scared since she couldn't figure out how to get down. It just kept going and going and she wasn't sure if she should climb up or down:
In the first room, there was some fun rainbow fabric draped over the slide. Lucy loved climbing up and playing in the sheer fabric:
And she really enjoyed the Exit hallway. It was so cute and creative and looked like a night-club for kids. There were tons of colors, mirrors, and lights on the walls. Lucy touched everything on the wall:
And we took a weird picture
Fun field trip day! We'll have do more LA exploring next week!

Halloween Fruit

Happy Halloween to everyone! We're a couple days late getting our pictures up, but here they are. Halloween morning we stopped by Casey's work and let our little Strawberry run around the office. She was in good spirits that day, so we stuffed her full and she was finally a plump little berry:
And here's a 10 second video of our Strawberry in action at the office:

She was a hit and everybody loved her. Little seeds kept falling off her berry throughout the day, but overall, the costume was a success.

We then drove down to Orange County and spent Halloween night Trick-or-Treating with my nephew Jeremy. Lucy had a fun time going around to the houses. She had no idea what was going on, but she loved running around with the other kids and she ate all sorts of candy, with their wrappers on. If only we all enjoyed wrapped up candy that much! Lucy actually walked up the walkway to one house, plunged her hands in the bowl, and grabbed just what I love best...Almond Joy! So we had a successful evening.
Here are the costumes. Jeremy was Obi-won. And Meredith had her own party to go to, dressed as...Waldo! (she had a matching hat to go with it):
Jeremy carved his first pumpkin and so we all took creepy pictures with it. Here are Camille, Jeremy, and I spooking it out in a daaaark room:
The next day we hung out at my parent's house with Mark, Sara, and Makenna (who are in town for a job interview) and Laura and Ava. Sadly (and stupidly) however, I didn't get any pictures of Lucy with Makenna! Lame. But here are some wagon-riding pics. Jeremy loved pulling Ava and Lucy around.
They looked so cute sitting in the red wagon together:
And we may have Lucy's Halloween costume all set for next year.....Bono?
I love the second pic because it looks like she has no nose. She loved wearing these glasses around the house.
Lucy has definitely grown-up in a year's time. Here's the ensemble from last year. We were "Back to School Night". Lucy couldn't even stand up in her Crayon costume. It was nice to have her walking around this year. Her little bare strawberry legs were so cute.
And lastly, we leave you with The Dancing Pencil: