Indy In The Can

Just a quick note tonight to share my excitement and pure geeky joy! For the first time in almost 20 years... there is actually new footage shot.. "in the can" as they say.. of Indiana Jones. (Cue the classic John Williams theme in your head) Sure he did a brief cameo for the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles 14 years ago, but to me.. that hardly counts. Finally, a new feature film has officially started shooting, with all new shots of our favorite (and now much older..) archeologist back in action.

The film, which began shooting this last week, will continue to film throughout the summer in New Mexico, New Haven, Connecticut, near Hilo, Hawaii and other yet to be disclosed locations. Sadly, nothing here in Oregon.

But suffice it to say, that Harrison Ford was once again, wearing the old Fedora this week.. and my inner-geek is smiling ear to ear simply knowing that we're that much closer a whole new adventure to enjoy next Memorial Day!

Rest, Rafting and...Ryan

It's that time of year again..Time to reflect back and realize that my wife and I have been married 9 years!! That seems just amazing to me!! Boy, how time flies! This weekend it was really easy to reflect upon this fact as I was surprised by the announcement of our anniversary trip, something I was not expecting. To catch up on how we do our whole anniversary trip tradition, refer back to this post from last year. But this year, it was my wife's turn to plan, scheme, plot, and lie.. my turn to be surprised.

The adventure began Friday morning.. what I thought would be a regular day. I got up with the knowledge that, while it was indeed Friday, it was the Friday before one of our biggest shows of the year. This meant that the day would be filled with lots of last minute odds and ends to get ready, lots of e-mails and phone calls, and an overall zooey day. To drive this point home to me, my boss (in on the whole surprise) had been warning me all week about how important Friday would be to getting things done for the show. And so I got ready for work with the full intention of facing craziness at the office and it wasn't until I climbed into my car in the driveway that my phone rang with my wife announcing that I wouldn't really be going in.

SURPRISE DAY OFF! Cool! And even better knowing that I wasn't really missing anything, thanks to both my wife and bosses lies. But as my wife soon discovered, even the best laid plans can hit bumps. She got a call from our regular baby sitter, scheduled to watch Little Calvin overnight. Sadly, her adult son had been hospitalized that morning and was in the ICU for some unknown medical illness. In a panic and a rush of calls, she was able to put together plan B fairly quickly still giving Little Cal a great weekend. And then we were off to unknown destinations.

The day began with a nice driving trip up the McKenzie River into the mountains. What makes this a real treat is up in the hills... there are no hay fields.. which means I got a nice break from the height of allergy season... I could walk outside... and breathe! A miracle! We ended up at a resort called the Holiday Farm, a series of river front cabins just east of Blue River. There, we relaxed for the afternoon before going to dinner at the resort's restaurant. During our dinner out on the restaurant's large porch, a blues concert played on the other side of the resort enabling us to enjoy the music, while not losing out on the sounds of nature and the river at the same time. Just a perfect blend.

After dinner, it was off for a quick soak at Belknap Hot Springs, a nice, hot pool fed by a natural hot spring. As a fan of hot water, I was able to find that perfect spot where the hot water flows into the pool, and it becomes almost too hot to stand.. just awesome!

While the focus of Friday was relaxing and calm... Saturday was a bit hectic. (but also fun!). My wife surprised me with the announcement that we were booked on a river rafting trip down the McKenzie River. It has been since I was a junior in high school that I have been river rafting and I eagerly went along for the ride. And the McKenzie gave us quite a fun ride.

In all, we rafted over 12 miles of river with our guide and 5 others. The river got a bit wild in places with a few Category 3 rapids to experience. Luckily we all stayed in the boat, but boy did we get wet!!! Early in the ride I got blasted with a few tidal waves of water, as we hit the rapids in just the perfect place to cause me to get hit. But such is the fun of river rafting. And it's not like we weren't prepared in our wetsuits to make the 42 degree water bearable. I was actually quite toasty all afternoon.

Eventually we got to the end of the ride, and had just enough time to shower, grab some food and make the drive back to Eugene. There, I got another surprise. My wife took us to the Hult Center, Eugene's performing arts center, where from the size of the crowds, it was obvious that something was going on.. My wife just wouldn't say what. And she kept me away from any promotion posters for the event.

We walked into the theater, and to our seats only a few rows from the stage to find a simple setup: 4 bar stools and some musical equipment. I had no idea what this was. I finally concluded it was some kind of comedy show, but it wasn't until the cast hit the stage that I realized what I was in for. It turns out, one of my old favorite TV shows, Whose Line Is It Anyway, was on tour with "the whole TV show cast except for the Rich guy, the black guy and the bald guy". Any fans of the show will know who that refers to.

And so for the next 2 hours we were entertained by the world's best Improv comedy stars: Greg Proops, Chip Esten (he's in "The Office"!), Jefff Davis, and our favorite, Ryan Stiles. The show was outrageously funny as the group could sing, dance, and act out just about anything suggested. For instance, in their opening skit, they needed a profession to act out... they pointed to a guy in the audience and said "what's your job?" He replied "I fix chain saws bars." Needless to say, they had never gotten that one before, but did fine none the less. Then it was a song all about a lady on the front row who was a landscaper (and whose husband also happened to by the county's DA). And boy, Chip Esten can 80's dance, giving Wham a run for their money!!! In all the group was fantastic and seeing them all that up close and personal, was a great treat!

And so concluded the 2007 anniversary trip with a bang, a weekend that was a lot of fun, very restful and deeply exhausting all at the same time. Now the planning switches back over to me and I have a year or so to figure out next year's trip, a creative challenge that I thrive on. hmmmm. what to do.. what to do .

I'M NOT DEAD!

Bad blogger.. bad! I know, I know.. as many of my blog readers have so carefully pointed out in e-mails or phone calls.. "YOU HAVEN'T UPDATED YOUR BLOG FOR ALMOST 3 MONTHS!! ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?!"

I can definitely answer "Yes!" to that question.. that is.. unless everyone else that I deal with on a daily basis is also dead and no one has bothered to tell me. Hmmmmm. Nope.. not dead yet (I'm NOT DEEEAADD! I feel happy!) I have just had an extremely busy spring. Between constant work demands and working to take care of the family as my wife's arm recovers, life has been busier than normal and most of my typical blogging time just seems to get sucked away.

I have still been doing a lot of mental blogging, figuring out things to write about, mapping them out, normally while on my evening runs. But by the time I stumble through the door, the last thing I want to do is start typing. So I'll save those ideas for another time. Instead, I'll do a quick recap of various events of the last 3 months. That way I can still share the news, and then be caught up for my future blogging. So here's a quick summary of the highlights of the last few months.

Let's start... back in April. Dawn's arm now securely in a black snazzy brace, she began to return to normal life once again. And one of the first things on the agenda.. the girls weekend away to Utah for the NCAA Gymnastics Tournament. Blog readers may remember the origin of this trip, as described here. Suffice it to say, Dawn and Amanda won tickets to this years championship, while going to last years championship held near us, in Corvallis. The girls saved their extra pennies all year and finally bought their plane tickets to head East.

Joining then for the weekend tournament was my Mom, flying over from Colorado. I guess she just couldn't pass up a good "Girl's Weekend". Also joining then, at least for a morning of exploring downtown Salt Lake City was the girls of Dawn's family.

Needless to say, the girls had a ball. Their assigned seats at the event happened to be right in the middle of the Florida State fans section, and so to prevent them from cheering on other teams, the FSU crowd made them all "Honorary Gators", complete with t-shirts, pom poms, signs, pins.. the works. This just added to the excitement, although it was weird for me to watch my family, decked out in Florida gear, during the camera pans across their section during the CBS television coverage..

Next up.. Work. Been a busy few months having just inherited several new websites to manage with new products to learn. I am used to the luxury RV markets, but horse trailers, cargo trailers, and small towables are all a bit new to me. But challenges help us all to grow. I also got to help, as a "behind the scenes" photgrapher, on the production of a new video for one of my newer websites. And this wasn't just a basic "put camera on tripod and do some interviews" kind of shoot. This was a $50 grand, week long shoot, flying crew in from all over the country.... shoot.

It was educational to say the least, what with my fairly small sized films, to see the size of production this turned out to be. It was an insanely coordinated thing, much more than I was used to with gear, cameras, lighting all stung out as the crew slowly worked through the script.

The video all came together nicely, and premiered on one of my sites... well... this morning. You can watch it here..

Spring slowly began to turn to summer, beginning with Memorial Day. This year, there was just too much going on to justify a full weekend trip. And so we did a fun "mini-vacation". We headed up to Portland on a Sunday afternoon with the five of us, stayed in a family suites hotel, went out to dinner and then spent the evening playing in the hotel pool (an activity that just seems to get more and more violent the older the kids get). I have no idea why there seems to be such an obsession with "drowning dad".. who knows.. maybe they are just protecting themselves.. but things get pretty hairy. And then there is the "attempt to empty the pool cannon-ball style" contest. Yeah.. the hotel staff love our family... Best, most random line of the day came from Little Calvin with his "Dad, can I call you Larry?"

The next day, it was off to the zoo to see an assortment of animals. A few interesting sights.. Well, there was the large baboon that was.. ahem... let's just say... very HAPPY to be there that morning. There was the very large gorilla that threw a temper tantrum, swinging on his vine at a high rate of speed so that he could hit the cage glass feet first, making a huge noise and sending a dozen freaked out guests screaming in several directions. And then there was poor little Calvin complaining that his stomach hurt. We passed it off as just being tired from our previous night's exertions and eating too much breakfast buffet.

But after a busy day of zoo walking, he proved that he was serious, when were were just pulling on the freeway when he announced that he really was feeling bad, then .5 seconds later proceeded to throw up all over himself and the van. Needless to say... it was a long trip home.. and a long evening as he kept it up late into the night. Where does a kid HOLD that much stuff in that small of body? Yikes!

Next up.. Little Calvin got to finish his school year at camp. The entire school spends the second to last week at a day camp in the woods. It gives the kids a fun, new environment to learn new skills they just can't get in a classroom. It also helps them get to know kids in other grades that they may not have interacted with during the year. One of our biggest surprises of the week... Little Calvin actually had the guts to do a fairly tall and long zip line.

We worried he may be a little freaked out at the idea, as he typically has not been one for thrills like that. But not only did he do it, he was one of only 2 kids, who didn't sit down on the edge and scootch himself off the edge. Nope, he grabbed hold of the rope and just jumped for it. All week long he asked to go again, but sadly his group didn't have time to return to that station. But he still loved canoeing, archery, craft making and spent the weekend singing camp songs. (Pictured below are Little Calvin, his teacher and Abbie, on of his best friends)

One final event.. then I'm all caught up.. The Prefontaine Classic. For the track uninitiated, this is one of the premier professional track meets in the world, held each year here at Eugene's (Track Town) Hayward Field. This year, it was a good test run, as our little town will be hosting the track and field Olympic Trials next year, and this gave some of the elite runners more experience on our track before that meet.

What made this fun was the opportunity to meet several of the athletes the day before, shake their hands, and get their autographs. This year we got to meet "The World's Fastest Man", Asafa Powell, who is the current world record for the 100 meter dash, and Sanya Richards, the 400 Meter gold medalist from the last Olympics.

Having actually met the athletes and talked to them about their races for a few minutes made the meet all the more fun for the kids, as they rooted on their new favorites. All in all, a fun day watching a Kenyan runner Paul Koech, win the steeple chase by almost half a lap, Maria Mutola win the Woman's 800 meter for the 15th consecutive year, Matt Tegenkamp break the 2-mile American Record (while still coming in 3rd), and the 4 top one-mile runner's squaring of against each other in a brutal race.

And so.. there you are.. some of the big events of the last few months. Now I am finally caught up and have plans to continue to blog this summer. No more blog slacking for me. More to come... very soon!