The Oscars
As always, this weekend went by way too fast. The week went almost as fast as I’ve been extremely busy at work. Between the capital campaign, the purchase of Wealthy Theatre and my normal day to day work, I haven’t had a free moment at work in quite some time. It doesn’t look like things will be slowing down anytime soon either. Oh well, at least I won’t be bored for awhile.
This weekend I moved my office down to the basement (the far end of my home theatre room to be exact). My old office is going to be the baby’s room. Marie & her mom are going to paint and decorate it in Classic Pooh. Marie has already picked out the baby furniture and as soon as the room is ready we will go pick it up. I haven’t seen the furniture yet but it’s the kind of furniture that grows with you. Apparently the bed transforms from an infant to a full size bed. Rock!
Sunday I spent two hours fixing a computer problem for a lady that lives in my neighborhood. After that I spent the next couple hours sanding knotty pine doors. This project is taking much longer than I thought it would. I’ll be so happy when it’s done. Even after I get all the walls and the doors sanded, I still have to stain and polyurethane them. The house is gonna stink bad when that time comes. After that project is done, the home theatre is next. This is the one I’m the most excited about. My master plan is to move my 42″ HDTV to the living room on the main floor and get a projector for the home theatre room. I want to put in a drop ceiling and install double doors and carpet. I also need to run additional power outlets and repaint the walls. If everything goes as planned, I’m hoping to start that project in early April.
I did our taxes online earlier this week. I got confirmation the other day that they were accepted and I should have my money within 7-10 days. When I do them next year, we’ll get an additional $3100 for our kid. I’m sure I’m be spending more than that in the first year on diapers and formula!
Last weekend I hung out wth my coin-op buddies James & Pete at James house in Sanford. We had really good beer and pizza at this local place that I can’t recall the name of right now. We then played James’ collection of vids and pins until the wee hours of the night. We did a competition where we played each of his games once and calculated our scores to see who got the highest. I got first place, James got second and Pete got third. That was alot of fun. We ended the night watching Joysticks but my DVD was all messed up and starting stopping and skipping half way thru the movie. It’s my only copy of the movie and it’s only available on VHS & laserdisc. The DVD I have was recorded from the laserdisc and looked great. I picked it up at one of the Novi conventions. I knew I should have made a backup copy. Argh.
I watched the Oscars tonight. I wanted to see Million Dollar Baby before tonight but never got around to it. I did mange to see all the other contenders for best picture. I was really impressed with Sideways. Paul Giamatti should have been nominated for that film (Virginia Madsen’s performance was great too). I also really liked the Aviator and Finding Neverland. I was glad to see Eternal Sunshine won an Oscar as that’s a great film also. I still think they should add a category for Best Horror Picture. This year Shaun of the Dead would have been my pick. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it.
I'm gonna be a daddy!
Yup, you read correctly. Marie is pregnant! Or as I like to say, preggers. As of Friday, she will be 12 weeks along. This morning she had an appointment with her doctor to get that once a year checkup you women love so much. What made this visit so exciting was that we would get a chance to hear the baby’s heartbeat for the first time! When her doctor tried to hear the heartbeat, she discovered that Marie’s uterus was tilted upward, which meant that they would have to do an ultrasound instead. This was a very pleasant surprise as we were told they wouldn’t do an ultrasound until around 20 weeks. Here’s a picture that I scanned in from the ultrasound:
It was absolutely amazing to see our baby for the first time! The baby was 5.2cm in length and had a heartrate of 152bpm. We won’t know the sex until the next ultrasound as everything isn’t quite developed yet. We decided to find out the sex during the next ultrasound as we just can’t wait till the delivery. That way we can get the baby’s room decorated appropriately and be better prepared. Marie really wants a girl but on my side of the family, it’s always boy, boy, girl. Perhaps we will break the tradition. Marie’s mom has been freaking me out saying that we were going to have twins as they run on her side of the family. Much to my relief, the ultrasound confirmed that there is only 1 baby in there. Pheeew!
A sudden death
I got a call his morning from my co-worker Chuck telling me that my boss Dirk Koning passed away last night. He went in for a Atrial Fibrillation Ablation Wednesday afternoon. During the procedure his heart was punctured. He was on life support and around 3am last night they pulled the plug. I’m in complete shock. During our meeting on Tuesday, he was talking about the procedure and how he would be back to work on Monday at the latest. He made it sound like it was no big deal. Dirk was such a tall guy and I always thought of him as invincible. My heart and prayers go out to his family.
Working at the CMC just isn’t going to be the same without him…
Dune: Extended Edition out on May 5th
quoted from the the digital bits
Dune: Extended Edition will be released in a metal snap case (SRP $27.98). 2 versions of the film will be included… a 137-minute theatrical version, and the 177-minute extended edition. BOTH will be available in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen (which would mark the first time the extended edition was available in widescreen). The theatrical edition will feature both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 audio, while the extended edition will be Dolby Digital 5.1 only. Extras will include never before seen “behind-the-scenes” footage, documentaries on the special effects, visual design and costumes, deleted scenes, original photographs and artwork from the set (newly resurrected from personal collections) and more.
Hell yeah. Now I can finally retire my old 2 tape 8th generation VHS copy.
“It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of Sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.” - Piter De Vries aka Brad Dourif