Cameras, Action, Lights!

We are way too busy right now. You might have noticed that I've been absent from the blog for a while. Busyness has a way of doing that...
Anyway, Paul and I have been working like crazy trying to get everything ready to film part of a short movie while we're on vacation in Mexico. And that happens very, very shortly. The vacation, I mean. Our readiness is still doubtful.
We have a script. We have about half of the storyboards we need. We have lightsabers. (spoiler) We have all the determination and optimism one could ask for. But I'm not at all sure that we're not deluding ourselves. But it doesn't really matter, because, regardless of the ultimate success, we're going to try. The inhabitants of Akumal are going to be in for a real treat. Paul and I, in vacation clothes, running around trying to hit each other with pieces of brightly-colored PVC pipe. Great fun for the spectators, I'm sure.
I'm not sure if I'll have internet while we're down there, so this could be my last post for about a week. But when we emerge, we'll either be truimphant, or all the wiser for our failure. Plus, either way, we'll have lots of cool pictures and video.
Oh yeah, and we'll be chilling on the beach most of the time, anyway. The movie project is just so we don't get bored with vacationing.
And there's kayaking and snorkeling and eating and all kinds of fun stuff to do (especially eating). But we'll find time to act cool on the beach, too. I'm sure my mom will be busy taking pictures most of the time.

So now I have to try to think of everything I can't think of that I know I'm forgetting to do...

New Year's Eve 2010

First of all, happy 2011 everyone!
It sure is weird to think that it's 'next year' already. 2010 seemed to go by way too fast...
But I'm here to talk about my new year's eve, not philosophize about the mysteries of time.
Actually, I'm not planning to do a lot of typing. I have pictures! And, a picture is worth a thousand words, you know... (even though the number 1000 is completely arbitrary, I'm sure. I would have placed the value of a picture more in the range of 400 words)

Anyway, we and the Leavitts went up to Albany (Oregon, of course) to a friend's house for New Year's Eve. Friends of the Leavitts, that is. I had only briefly met them before Friday night. They're really cool people with lots of kids...and a huge house. We had dinner not too long after we arrived, and when I was done eating I picked up my camera and snagged pictures for the rest of the long evening...
Most of the boys took a long time to eat, and carried on an animated conversation the whole time.

The adults also were busy conversing

After everyone had eaten, most of the young people started a game of charades.

Laughter abounded for about half an hour, until the game kind of fizzled out. Everybody milled around for a while after that, playing foosball, talking, wandering around....finally Nate started a game of Balderdash. That was the most fun of the entire evening.

We played the game on through midnight, and the only response to Paul's announcement that it was now 12:01, Jan. 1, 2011, was a couple of "oh, good"s and a smile or two. An anticlimactic New Year's, if you ask me, but it must be conceded that the meaning of the acronym SAI was, at that particular time, of more on everyone's mind than the time and date.
At about half past twelve, we went out onto the street to light off some fireworks. It was bitterly cold, but the show kind of made up for it.

  It was 2:30 by the time we left to go home, and an hour more before we got home. I was dead tired, but I guess it's worth it.