You Bring the Bullets...

...I'll bring the wine.
- Bob Schneider

• Dan and Trish are the proud parents of Rosalind Lorraine, who joined us on Wednesday morning shortly after 5:AM.  Mom and daughter are doing well, and dad is over the moon.  All are understandably exhausted.
  
• Speaking of new babies, Raechelle got her baby fix when we went to have dinner at Nicole and Dan's on Sunday night.  Austin is a pretty well-adjusted cutie, and although it's been awhile since mine were that tiny, somehow kids can sense a "daddy" vibe, and I got some big goofy smiles.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Rae and I discovered that I don't snore nearly as much when I wear earplugs at night.  I guess that makes a certain amount of sense, if the ears are part of the sinus system.  I also slept a lot more soundly last night than I have in several days.  2:30, 3:30, 4:00 and 5:30AM have all been recent wake up times.
• Rae and I have managed to get some work done on Green Light.  This makes me happy.
• Gavin and I have been trading the Arrowflight Second Edition manuscript back and forth all week, and it gets ever closer to being able to hand off to Mark Bruno for editing. Anxious to get this one out the door.
• We're heading to Portland this weekend to see SweetJuice play.  It'll be nice to have a mini-road trip and an overnight away.  Thank heavens for family close by and kids' friends.
  
• One of the Facebook memes of late has been the Doppelganger meme, wherein one posts a profile picture of a celebrity or someone one has been told one looks like.  When I was a teenager, I was a ringer for David Bowie.  To wit:
  
  
  
  
  But now, a bit redder and a few pounds heavier, not to mention more bearded, it was back to the drawing board.  According to facial recognition apps on the web, I'm close to Keifer Sutherland, Jason Statham, and Alan Tudyk.  And while Alan Tudyk is clearly a genetic cousin of the Downings (and I've pre-cast him to play me in Green Light), it's still not quite right.  So Rae made a couple suggestions:
  
  
  
  
  Dale Earnhardt Jr.
  
  
  
  Max Martini (from TV's The Unit)
  
  I went with Max.  Although if Vince Vaughn had red hair and blue eyes, we're almost an identical match on body type.
  
• Got some paid graphic design work done.  Always nice to have a supplement.
  
•  We got everybody in the family doing some kind of therapy, except Kayleigh, who moved on after a year and a half of work.  It's good stuff.  Really helping the process along.
  
• I'm down 6 of the 20 pounds I need to lose.  Let's hear it for walking and a dearth of holiday sweets.
  
• I had a little microgasm when I heard Florence + The Machine are touring the States.  They are playing but FIVE dates in the whole country, and the West Coast consists of Coachella, Vancouver BC, and Seattle.  I've gushed about this band before, but allow me another dribble: if anyone deserves to inherit the Kate Bush mantle in both songwriting and performance, it is Florence.
  
  Compare (Kate) : (Florence)
  
  
  I can't be the only one who sees the similarity in artistic style.
  
  

Weekend Update

Just some bullet points for the new week and new month...

• Kayleigh went to Silverwood in Idaho for her school band trip. They took all kinds of awards and she had a blasty-blast, except for this one time when her friend dared her to go in the pool in her clothes and she did and she forgot she had her cell phone and her wallet in the pockets and her cell phone and her wallet got ruined and she was very upset. But other than that, it was great.
• Friday was pizza-movie night. Another screening of my new favorite buddy/roadtrip/heist/romantic comedy, Fanboys. Another argument with Tyler at bedtime.
• Saturday we crossed some stuff off our to-do list, and, as Tyler was at his uncle's overnight, TFMD and I went to have a nice dinner out, followed by Crumac at Conor Byrne, followed by Uno and Shut-the-Box at The Mop & Bucket. It was a late night, and we were none too happy to see the sun rise on a day that meant a drive to Bellingham for my family's May Birthdays celebration.
• Had a short stay in Bellingham, got to see my grandparents' new digs at Merrill Gardens (pretty sweet), and headed home, exhausted and numb - literally. After four hours driving, my left arm (the one with the pinched nerve) was all pins and needles.
• Monday brought a bunch of errands and medical appointments. And my LMP was able to isolate the culprit muscles responsible for the nerve issue. Another few sessions and I should be right as rain. Not that we would know, what with our sunny 80+ degree days.
• Sun + lack of time {+/- energy} = [lawn > Mekong Delta]
• Having dinner with two of our favorite peeps tonight. And the kids get to fawn over one of their fave local celebs.

And so I leave you with this...

Thursday Bullets

• Didn't sleep much on Tuesday night.
• Both kids were home sick Wednesday.
• Tried to be productive Wednesday, but the free wifi at Tully's doesn't like Firefox. So I packed up and went back home.
• Had Thai food for dinner (always nice). Vatsana asked me if I'd talked to Marcio lately. I'll have to get on that.
• Rae engaged in a flurry of bathroom cleaning and even whipped Tyler's room into shape. Sometimes it's exhausting just watching her go - she's like the Tasmanian Devil from Looney Tunes.
• We watched the season premiere of Lost. I started watching the show when it first started five years ago, but it "lost" me (I crack myself up) when it became this weird combo of The Prisoner, The X-Files and The Tempest. I'd watched it sporadically and half-heartedly ever since. We got all caught up and I was entertained for a couple hours. Actually nodded off a couple times and would snort myself awake and exclaim, "It's VERY exciting!" which amused TFMD* to no end.
  
• Another stressful/sleepless night, so that made it a real joy to spar with my eldest this morning. Huzzah.
• Taking Tyler to counseling this afternoon. Production meeting tonight.
• Friday it looks as if I will get to have a boys' night out with some buddies while Rae is at a bachelorette party (the second one since she moved in - I think women must get engaged in packs, kinda like how they all go to the restroom together).
• Saturday we have our housewarming/engagement partay (and celebrate 8 months together).
• Sunday is a long overdue trip to Bellingham for our delayed Christmas with my family.

Another busy week, another packed month. Aaaaand, scene.

* The Future Mrs. Downing

Quasi-Bullets

Forgive the bullety nature of this post, but I feel the need to just get this stuff out there so that I can start blogging anew with a fresh mind.

• Tyler had his sleep study consult. He is scheduled for an overnight sleep study in March. Earlier if someone else cancels.
• It takes some readjustment to everyday normalcy when you've been on Planet West Virginia. And that is not to speak any ill whatsoever of WV - it's just a very different place, and not familiar to me like the Pacific Northwest.
• I picked Raechelle up at the airport last Sunday, and we spent the night at the hotel in Tacoma where her training seminar was being held the following day. While she was in her seminar, I found a Starbucks and set up shop. In rapid succession, I finished the OA series pilot, wrote three shorts based on the Duo characters and took some additional notes on a somewhat secret feature project that only a few people know about. All in all, just short of 20 pages in 4 hours, which for me is a new writing record for screenplay work.
• Talked to my cast about the shorts - all the locals are in.
• Talked to Kyle about new music for the shorts - he's in too.
• I baked peanut butter cookies last night.
• Raechelle and I have a tour of a possible wedding venue tonight. Tomorrow night we are back to our regularly scheduled Friday Movie Nite.
• That's all for now.

Hump Day Bullets

• I need to cut back on the morning coffee. Sure, it gets me out of bed and moving, but it also makes me jumpy and just a tad irritable. And when you're already irritable a lot of the time (see Successfully Parenting Teenagers While Maintaining Your Sanity (fiction), page 478*), more irritable ain't exactly a Good Thing (TM).
• * The above-mentioned book does not, to my knowledge, exist. But if it did, I'd buy it.
• Finally got a call from Tyler's old school psychiatrist, and the IEP is rolling. The psych evaluation is next week.
• Got the family photo printed for the Xmas card list.
• Xmas is actually a legitimate abbreviation stemming from the Greek Orthodox "Χριστος" ("Christos").
• December's calendar is already packed a-plenty, and I'm trying to reserve time for the girl and/or just me. But that in turn fills the calendar even more.
• Psyched to be working on Dan & Jessie's Fred Hutch PSA project. We shoot in January when Raechelle is gone in WV.
• I'm looking at flights to WV so that I can meet Rae's family and help unpack for a few days.
• Airfare is expensive, even with plummeting oil prices.
• I've scheduled holiday themed films for the next two Pizza-Movie Fridays.
• I wrote another two scenes for the OA series pilot yesterday, and have been an errand-running admin dynamo today.
• Now I'm gonna go back to the family room sofa and ice my back again.

The Quick and the Bullets

Just a brief mid-week update, bullet-style.

• I'm doing well, but tired and fighting a respiratory bug.
• Got a bunch done on the OA pilot script yesterday, plus some tidying up on it today.
• I have an OA script meeting tonight, and am very happy to have something new to show Dan & Trish.
• Rae has been living here for two weeks, and we haven't killed each other yet (although we did have a casualty in the form of one closet clothes rod).
• What's more, things are feeling much more stable and balanced.
• The kids are adjusting to her presence quite well (as I knew they would).
• Friday movie night is back on this week, with some comedy on the bill.
• Rae's friend's wedding is Saturday evening, so another opportunity to get gussied up.
• The week has finally caught up to me. Time for a nap.
• Zzzzzzz.

Bullet Salad

• Some good news for the chocoholics in my life.
• My horoscope today: You can't let your flirting skills get rusty -- they're some of the finest in the world! Just because you're in a committed relationship, you haven't been feeling confident, or you've just gotten lazy, it is not an excuse to deprive the world of your charm and sass! Remember, flirting is just good, clean fun. It doesn't have to be a commitment. So today, try to use more flattery in your conversations. You'll brighten up everyone's day -- including your own, of course. Sorry, honey - it said to flirt! [wink wink]
• We're getting the house organized post-move-in. What's crazy is I've given up more than half of my closet and bathroom and I'm strangely okay with that. Probably a good thing she's cute.
• Took R & K to Endolyne Joe's for dinner last night. Didn't feel like cooking for obvious reasons. Comfort food akimbo. I had chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes & collard greens. Yum. Rae liked the atmosphere, playlist and food. Not that I needed to sell her; I hadn't been to Joe's in months and had a hankerin'. Glad we went.
• Got my errands run in record time today. Except I forgot the toilet paper. Sigh. So there's one more trip to the store on this afternoon's agenda. Then a Southcenter trip tonight.
• Got Tyler's glasses fixed - they'll work in the interim. I'll take him to the eye clinic today when he gets home from school so they can measure him for some new frames and start the ball rolling on new glasses for him. The woman said they can sometimes take as many as eight weeks once ordered. Hence getting his old glasses fixed.
  
• Big storm blew through last night. It's still blowing a bit right now. Supposed to be nice tomorrow, crappy on Friday and nice this weekend.
• Trying to get an OA script meeting together soon. I need to get this pilot written.
  
• Random Chuck Norris fact: If Chuck Norris had a dime for every man that didn't die from his roundhouse kick, he would have no dimes.
  
• I love random Chuck Norris facts. In fact, I own the book.
• Looking forward to writing up the performance of Bullshot Crummond we're going to on Friday night. It'll be Rae's first excursion to Youngstown. She's actually looking forward to it. And I've been seeing my poster up all over West Seattle. The attention-whore in me loves that.
  

Small Victories (A Bullet List for Tuesday)

• Raechelle took me to lunch - yay!
• Had a good discussion (looking forward to holidays, etc)
• Tyler is still #3 on the WSHS waiting list, and the nice lady at the enrollment center said his chances were "extremely good" for getting in
• Did the grocery shopping for the week (and may have accidentally bought a few lotto numbers - MegaMillions is up to $114mil, and there's no way I can ignore that, even when the odds are so high - what are the odds of losing your wife to cancer, your father to cancer, and then having your house flood and burn down, all in one calendar year??)
  
• The cleaners came, so my house is neat - and it took them less time (and less time = less money)
• Got the Cali vacation pics uploaded to Facebook (and even tagged)
• Gonna get a nap

See? Already many degrees of better. Plus, if you'll look to your right, you'll see I've added Engrish.com to my blogroll. For happy sensual of the enjoyment time.

Bullets

• Tried to stay off the leg today. Didn't really work too well. I'm a bad patient, especially when I'm also the doctor.
• I was supposed to get a doctor's appointment and a dentist appointment today. I did neither, completely distracted by my stupid leg. I suck.
  
• Supposed to go to a meet-n-greet for our realtor (my mom and stepdad are coming down for it) but between the thunderstorm and the leg, I think I may just hole up on the sofa and watch the Hawks/Chargers game. In any case, it's a literal pain to drive my car right now because of the multiple muscle strains in my clutch leg. I thought it was just a twisted ankle initially, but driving to get coffee this morning told me otherwise.
  
• Watched The Audience Strikes Back, and fielded a couple phone calls from Dan, apologizing. It's a good premise that is unfortunately haphazardly directed and goes off the rails halfway through. It was really fun watching Dan, and surreal seeing OA's Brittany Quist as a blonde bombshell.
  
• Did I mention thunderstorm?
• Feeling really "bleh" and I need to see to some food for the kids if we're not going to the meet-n-greet.
• Big stuff coming up this week, like an OA series dev meeting, a school meeting regarding Tyler, and a big football party.
  
• Did I mention "bleh"?

Bullet Time

• Had a great evening yesterday. Brought Kayleigh to swim at Katherine's, watched her ever-improving aquatic skill.
• Went to Raechelle's. She cooked us dinner, we had some wine, it was nice.
• Walked down to the Sunset Tavern to see Casey Neill play, but were early, so we went for a drink at the Matador.
• Watched some good bands, heard some good music, even Raechelle's ex, Steve, was there. Fortunately that's all cool.
  
• Got home about 12:20AM, apologized to Gavin & Michelle. Stomach was rebelling and I didn't get to sleep until 2AM.
  
• Had a crazy dream about Samantha. She was imparting some wisdom and basically talking me down from a bad emotional place. Felt more peaceful after that.
  
• Woke with a start at 4AM and couldn't get back to sleep (stomach). Took some Tums, drank some water, dozed off and on a bit from 6:30AM until 8AM.
• Got Tyler up and ready for school. Grabbed a fruit smoothie and drank it down with a couple more Tums. Solid food held no attraction.
• Went back to bed and dozed off and on with the laptop on the nightstand so I could respond to urgent/business emails.
• Picked up Tyler, we went grocery shopping. Kids ate, I had half a homemade cheese quesadilla and a can of Hansen's Pomegranate. Carbonation felt good.
• The kids immediately started in on each other over something inane. I stood in my disaster area of a kitchen while the back and forth escalated and tried not to collapse in a puddle of useless goo. Sometimes it's just too much to deal with, when all you know is dealing with it, all day, every day.
  
• Had to get out of here. Took Kayleigh to the Junction and picked up Raechelle's ring. They did a nice job on the resizing.
• Came home. Gonna take another snooze. I'll need it if I'm gonna go with Kayleigh and Raechelle to see Kyle Stevens and TJ Sherrill at Hotwire North tonight. It's an all ages free show, and the only time I've seen Kyle play live was at ECC when I shot the acoustic set he did with Gigi.
• I know I'm losing more weight. It's not a huge issue at this point because I have plenty to spare, but I'm not sure it's the right way to go about it (the Emotional Roller Coaster Diet).
• Still no word back on Sportacus.
  
• Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Will leave you with today's horoscope, which is so right on it's eerie.

Taurus
4/20 - 5/20

Why are you trying to be everyone's friend? It's admirable that you want people to like you, but it is simply not practical. Sometimes, people get on your nerves, and sometimes (believe it or not), you get on theirs. It's not the end of the world. Conflicts, arguments and tension do not mean the end of a relationship. You need to start rolling with the punches and understand that sometimes going through rough patches makes you appreciate the smooth road all the more.

A Bullet List for Thursday

Things I Am Pondering.

1. Those pics from the dual 40 birthday party make me look fatter and balder than I perceive myself to be. Crap.
2. I don't "feel" what 40 is "supposed" to feel like. As Raechelle is so fond of saying, "I love my sixteen year-old boyfriend," whenever I say something sophomoric or raunchy. Which is often.
3. I have always felt no older than about 25. That's when time stopped for me. So I've always felt "younger" even before I had a 33 year-old girlfriend and despite having the life experience and wisdom of an 80 year-old. People usually tell me I present younger than my chronological age, too. It seemed like I didn't even think of going gray before Sam died. Then it was like life caught up with me for a time, and I've spent the last three years beating back the clock as best I can.
4. Other fortysomething friends have told me that this is usually the prime time, when age and wisdom meet the physical body (and as long as you take care of yourself, it can be very rewarding). I can get behind that.
5. In two years, Tyler will be the same age I was when Sam & I got together.
6. I will miss Raechelle while she's in WV for a week, but I'm so happy where we're at right now, and the time apart will be great perspective.
7. The Duo stuff should be making me quake in my boots, but it's not. I feel challenged, but not intimidated.
8. I'm getting weird hits on the blog from places like Dubai and Indonesia, as well as France and China. I know where the Australia hits are coming from (hi, Ali), but I know nobody in Dubai.
9. I'm also getting multiple daily hits from an IP address with a masked location. Ah the intrigue!
   
10. I was considering leaving a note for the blog-stalker from Raechelle's past who is now hitting mine, but I won't waste the energy (except to say "Come on, dude. Move on. She has"). And that's all I have to say about that.
11. I want Randy to fly up and hang with us.
12. I want to hear about my sister's trip to Paris when they get back next week.
13. I love thunder.
    
14. Wiley is being obnoxious.
    
15. I need a shower. Stinky man.

Peace out.