The L.A. Dime

…lucky to have a job that allows me to help pay for our mortgage, save for sophie’s school and travel

…disappointed that my boss got laid off

…blessed to all be healthy and have a family that loves & supports us

…joy for those family members and friends expecting babies in the next few months

…gratitude for Brad who’s been busting his butt for the past 6 months, getting up at 3:30am every day to write and still find the energy to be an incredible dad to Sophie

…thankful for my friends who make me feel loved, special and needed

…sad for my friend Chong whose mother is struggling with cancer

…hopeful that Obama will win
…excited about some Express and Old Navy giftcards I’m planning on spending this weekend

… proud to be planning a first birthday party for Sophie that’ll include family, friends and hula hoops

…bummed and happy about our friend Jan leaving on his year-long road trip with Kerry

…appreciation for everyone who reads our blog and leaves comments!!

I’ve never been big on medicine. My dad always told me “Indians are tough and don’t cry” — not sure why he thought that would make me stop crying but it always did. So the fact that I’ve had stomach pains off and on for a few years now never caused me too much worry. They would come at random times, didn’t seem to have any patters in regards to what I ate and would usually go away after a good night’s rest. My most recent episode however left me buckled over in pain so Brad made me call the doctor and make you an appointment.

I won’t bore you with the details about having 3 vials of blood drawn and having CT scans in a machine that scared the cxxx out of me (in a trailor behind the hospital), but the story ends with my doctor calling me today to say that everything came up clear, he couldn’t see anything life-threatening and to “have a nice weekend”. Hmmmm.

Having two working parents in the house and a 1-year old that’s now walking and climbing all over, all the time, finding time to make healthy meals every night is a challenge. While we do treat ourselves to dinner out, we try to cook at home at least 5 days/week. We used to take turns since Brad is a better cook than I am and I am usually doin other chores like paying bills, laundry or cleaning at night, we recently decided to give DreamDinners a chance. My company started this program where you pick dinners (just the meats, no sides) from a menu and those meals are then delivered to the office. They come frozen so I can take them home, keep them in the fridge overnight and make them for dinner the next night. It’s a pretty cost-effective way to eat healthy (both in ingredients and portions) and it sure cuts down on shopping and preparation time.

We’ve learned a lot about prioritizing this past year, and while eating healthy & together as a family is stilll at the top of the list, spending a lot of time in the kitchen is not. If you’re interested, check out www.dreamdinners.com — you can go to your local location, cook the meals you want (they have all the ingredients prepped for you) and then take them home to have in your fridge.

One of the values I’d like to instill in our daughter is finding a cause, whatever that might be, that helps others in need or less fortunate than us. For me personally, that cause has been raising funds for, and participating in the “Light the Night” event for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. When I was a teenager, my grandmother Ruth very suddenly passed away from leukemia at age 65 and since then I have attempted to raise awareness and help raise funds to find a cure, or improved treatments for this disease.

Throughout college, I often helped organize events at different soup kitchens in Cincinnati, participated in the Jingle Bell Run (for the Arthritis Foundation) and read to children at inner-city schools. For the past few years, Brad has asked his industry friends to help gather cool stuff and provide to the Diabetes Auction/Fundraiser that Chad organizes every year. Just last week though, with a ton of support from my co-workers at Move, we raised $ to go out and buy school supplies for the LA Family Housing organization. We had recently volunteered there and seeing those innocent children smile even though their parents had made some choices that now left the whole family living in a government-assisted facility, I felt compelled to do more. Hearing a story on NPR about school starting and the amount of families who would not have enough money to purchase just the basic school supplies (pens, paper, maybe a backpack), I wanted to help.

I’m not writing this to pat myself on the back, but to share how much joy these experiences have brought to me — people always say that helping others makes you feel good and I completely agree…but encourage you to find (or share your story about) something that you believe in and brings help and love to someone who needs it.

Sophie is ready to help daddy with his fantasy drafts, and to cheer on her favorite team, The Bengals. Thanks to Jen and Kelly for her customized onesie. As is evidenced in this article, rooting for a looser makes people more creative decision makers, so this season should be good for her development. Anybody know where I can get Steelers diapers?

Sophie’s been standing and stumbling around for a while, but last night she set personal bests for most steps taken and longest distance covered. Here’s the video of her efforts.

Despite winning a grant from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and securing Jack Epps Jr. (Chair of USC’s Screenwriting Program and writer of Top Gun among many others) Anna Richardson from Miramax, Jason Epperson from On the Lot, and host of other top-notch faculty and speakers from LA and NY for this year’s event, The Kentucky Film Lab’s Fall Filmmakers’ Studio is struggling to bring in the enrollment it needs to continue.  Our program is extremely low cost ($250) for two days of expert, professional, hands-on instruction.  All proceeds are re-invested into the Lab to keep costs down, and our faculty receives only a small travel stipend, which most choose to forfeit as a donation.

If you know anyone in the Kentucky region interested in Film and TV production or screenwriting, please spread the word for us!  They can visit The Kentucky Film Lab for more details.  Thanks!

Our friend Greg is a pretty amazing guy. He’s a musician who wrote many of the current drum cadences for the Notre Dame Marching Band when he was a Domer back in the day (a lot of which are used in Rudy), he owned his own very successful record label for many years and has put out a bunch of albums of his own, he was a stand up comedian, a marathoner, and has screenwriting degrees from both USC and UCLA. He’s been working mostly in Shanghai of late, writing and producing a popular childrens’ program.
On a whim, he decided to write and produce a song about the Olympics (in English). It’s really taken off in China, and some big name American singers are considering singing a version of it for radio play here. You can watch a making-of video on YouTube — it’s called One World, One Dream. I think it’s a fantastically fun, uplifting song. If you like it, you can buy a copy for 99 cents, with a portion of the proceeds going to earthquake relief in China. Well done, Greg!