catching up

Wow, is it nice to see all the new posts!

Maura, I love reading your journals! I never knew there was so much to say about the dietary habits of dogs. Our cat just eats.... cat food. Although she has been known to destroy a stick of butter if I'm ever stupid enough to leave it out uncovered for more than five minutes... grrr. She and I do not alwys get along. I'll be happy when I can open up the sunporch for the season, because she loves to live out there and watch the little bunnies hop around the yard, and then I don't have to deal with her :)

The Idaho O'C pics are adorable! But did I see Matt with a BALD UPPER LIP????? Either he shaved, or Casey's posing for portraits with another man! What's up with that??

Susan, glad to hear how well your job is going. Aren't personnel matters a joy? I have a new associate editor who is very good at the job, but verrrrry slow, so it's been a challenge to encourage her to finish laying out a story in hours rather than days... A little perfectionism is a good thing, but not to the point of never getting anything done. And the HR department told her when she started that she could work at home anytime she had family matters to attend to, but no one ever told me! We're dealing...

We are very proud of Domi's admission to Vassar, and hope and pray that there will be a lot of money coming in as a result. They send out their financial aid letters next week, so we'll be on pins and needles waiting to hear. Back when Nemo was accepted at MSOE, I thought it was such a huge deal that they offered him $10K a year in scholarship money for all four years, but that still would have left $12-$14K a year to make up! Vassar is off the scales: $50K a year! Yikes.... We are hoping that Domi gets a visit very soon from the scholarship fairy.

Everyone else is good. Nemo has had his sample of working life, and he's ready to get back into school in the fall, Cal is rocking out on his guitar night and day, Cal and Domino are getting ready for their big band/show choir trip to Branson, MO next month, Capri is rollerblading around the house on the new blades she got for her birthday, hoping for a sunny day, and I am keeping busy with my various writing projects and finishing up the basement. Tomorrow I leave for 6 days in LA, attending a big alternative fuels vehicles show in Anaheim, spending time with friends and my agent, then flying to Austin, TX for Easter weekend to work with Viviane, my producer-director, to get my script polished up and ready to submit to the Sundance Institute. I'm looking forward to my introduction to the Austin filmmaking community... there' s a lot of cool stuff happening there, and it will be fun to be operating at least on the periphery of that!

Love to all,

Mark