It's that time of year again...

Some of you may have gotten the e-vite, but I thought I would make everyone aware of it.

Sunday, August 6, 11:00am

It's that time of year again! That's right, it's time for the Bredford's (that's a combo of Breecher and Tedford, for those of you not in the know) Third Annual Pinewood Derby and Cookout.

Once again it is being held at Girl Chris' dad's house as we still don't have a Derby-worthy yard.

For those of you who don't know the story, it's all Girl Chris' fault. She didn't want to wait to help a potential future son build his car when he's a Cub Scout, so she convinced Boy Chris that they should host an annual Derby.

What's that? You say you won't be able to come? That doesn't mean you're off the hook. As always, mail-in entries are welcome. And hiking the PCT isn't a valid excuse either. A 5 ounce block of wood isn't going to add that much weight to your pack. Make it a team effort. Consider it a new game!

For all of the rules, check out www.bredfordtheatre.org.

The things that make a hubby proud…

So I picked up a gardening book last night and in one of the pictures it was showing how to mark off spacing for where to drop the seeds. So I was showing it to Chris and commenting, for this one you mark if off by using “hook ‘em horns.” He was so proud of me that a) I knew what hook ‘em horns were, and b) that I demonstrated them as I was showing him this picture. He did comment that my horns were upside down, but I explained that I knew this, but that you have to have your horns upside down to mark the dirt.

However, I think I then lost points when he asked me what school they were and I mistakenly guessed A&M. Hey, I had a 50-50 shot of guessing it right. And yes, I knew that A&M are Aggies, but I didn’t know what an “Aggie” was (now I know it’s short for Agricultural) and I didn’t know that Aggies can’t have horns.

But anyway, back to my point, I actually impressed Chris with my pseudo-sports knowledge! For those who don't know, this is actually quite a feat as I know next to nothing about sports. We go to Red Sox games and I complain that I have trouble telling who's on which teams as the grey and white uniforms are too similar in color. He keeps trying to explain this one to me, but I don't see why we can't have more of a distinctive color. I also have a hard time knowing when the game has actually started. How am I supposed to know what's a warm-up pitch and what's a real one? They need to have some kind of signal or noise or something that means, "we've started now". And base coaches also confuse me. They look like regular players. And that's just baseball, which I understand much more than football. I have no idea about what happens in a football game. Have I embarrased myself enough yet with my lack of sports knowledge?

Vote for Jessica

So my friend Jessica has this contest she's in. Below is her message. The gist of it is, go here and vote for her. You can vote once a day. Since it essentially becomes a popularity contest with everyone getting their friends together to vote for them, it seems they are a little low in the numbers. So please check it out and vote.

Hey again,

Here is more info- on how to vote for our scene!! We are doing well (cross your fingers)...you can vote once a day- so if you have the time- it would be great! Click on the link below...Vote again or vote for the first time- your support is so appreciated!!! Thanks!!! Forward to your friends if you think they would help us out...

All the best, Jessica

Apologies if you receive this twice, but some replies said they couldn't view the video; free QuickTime updater link now below.

Some also asked how voting works: note that you can vote ONCE PER DAY! So if you check back the next day, your own "Rate:" will appear blank until you vote again that day, meaning individual votes aren't saved between days, only the total. When you vote:

* You'll see your vote (5 stars :-) or whatever) listed directly under "Rate:"
* You'll see our total score listed directly under "Current Rating:"

Sure, we're in it for the art, but the reality of vote-as-much-as-you-like competitions like this is that it becomes a pure numbers game... for instance, current high-rankers have over 600 votes each (we're currently at ~167). 'course additional daily votes are optional, but definitely appreciated!

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Vote today (or even once per day)!

Here's that short scene we produced & shot last week for the contest. Fast and Indie, but def fun going for our own style. Don't forget to give it a quick vote & forward to friends/family/co-workers.

As part of the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Casting-Call Contest, we did our own take on a 2-minute scene from the movie-- with your help, writer/director Shane Black will review the 20 videos with the most votes and select a winner based on the entry's creativity and style. The prize? A trip for two to Hollywood to meet a top casting agent.

Your votes will determine the top twenty finalists, along with the weekly winners, so make sure to check out our clip and give us a vote between June 19 and July 2:

* View & Vote! Scene 2 - Apology Scene at http://www.kkbbcasting.com/casting/?vidId=30198
Credits: Director - Peter Kelley; DP - Peter Kelley; Editor - Peter Kelley; Harry - Kris Van Nest; Harmony - Jessica Myhr
* Can't see it? Get QuickTime player update at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone.html
If you get a notice like "...components of Quicktime were needed and not available for download...," get this FREE QuickTime update.

Remember, every vote counts! This is looking like an American-idle style contest, where an unexpected entry can win because they had a larger friends/family network to vote for them. So make sure you throw us a vote and forward this to your friends/family/co-workers, too-- only takes 2 minutes to check out!

Thanks,
Kris Van Nest
Jessica Myhr

Before and After

Before


And After


These pictures only show the completed parts of the garden, about half of it. At the top of the first of the after pictures is a small area with paivng stones and gravel. This is so that the oil guy can go and fill up our tank and I don't need to worry about him stepping on my plants.

Finally got rid of all of the weeds, tilled the ground, removed lots of rocks, bricks, shells, and rotted railroad ties. Realized we had now created a massive erosion issue, and decided to put in some retaining walls. Put in two walls, got rocks for one more, and think we need to put in a fourth wall as well. Most of my plants are now in, just a couple more waiting for one of the other walls to go in.

Realized we spent a LOT of money on this given the fact that we are just renting, so we are determined that we have to stay here for a while. Also, realizing what we should have done differently, so we'll be masters by the time we buy our own place and do a garden there.

Things that Crack Me Up!

We were in Stop & Shop. Ketchup was on our list. Chris stops and starts laughing. I look over and start laughing. Realizing I don't have my normal camera with me, I start taking pictures with my phone. Multiple people walked down the aisle as I was crouched down taking pictures of ketchup. I didn't care. I find this highly entertaining. I even bought a certain bottle to send to a friend who I think will appreciate the "dijon ketchup". Not sure if she reads my blog or not. If so, hope you enjoy it when you get it!

The Carnival

Hi, my name is Chris Breecher. I’m twenty-eight years old, and I’ve never been to a carnival. Ok, as I wrote that I remember that one summer my cousin Lynn came to visit and she won a large stuffed animal. However, that was back in ’83 or so, and I have no actual recollection of the carnival. Also, every spring the carnival would come to Grafton and I would have to walk through it on my way to school where it was set up in the parking lot. Yet I never actually attended.

So this past week I saw signs for the “Giant Carnival” being held at Belmont High. I wasn’t expecting a lot, which was good because it was pretty bad. Even Chris admitted that it was a pretty pathetic carnival.

We went on the swings first, which was a mistake. The ride was far too long. I took some pictures at the beginning, but after 6 minutes of spinning I was starting to not feel so hot. When the ride finally ended Chris and I found a bench and sat for a while and looked at my photos. Other rides we went on were the twister and the Fun House- not sure what it’s called, but the weird obstacle course kind of ride that’s at the end of Grease. We also had fried dough, watched part of a lame magic show, and then ended the evening with the slides.

I was hoping to get a picture of us on the slides, but I didn’t want to ask the sketchy worker to take our picture. Also, it was starting to rain. When we first picked up our sacks it seemed like a light sprinkle. By the time we climbed the ladder it was pouring. We pretty effectively dried the slide down for them, and our jeans were soaked. We then dashed to the car and were glad for a quick ride home where we could get into dry clothes.

I now leave you with some highlights of our adventure.

Opinions Wanted

Saw this giant clothespin and fell in love with it. It’s 1.25” wide, about 4.75” long. It has magnets on the back and also stands up on it’s own. It could be used for holding a card, maybe a small layout, etc. Anyway, I’m considering ordering some and putting my website on them- giving out at CKU, etc.

The cost per clip doesn’t bother me so much, but the setup charge does. ($1/clip, but $84 setup charge, plus a proof charge and not sure if I would also need the PMS match charge.) But here’s my question- Do you think it’s worth it? With all of the stuff that we get at CKU, would it be tossed in the trash or would people save them? My thought is that it’s cool enough that I probably wouldn’t toss them. And even if a scrapper decided to alter it and cover it with paper or something, they would still see my website before that and potentially go check it out. So, honest opinions are wanted. Worth it? Not worth it? Other?

CKU Stupidity!

Registration was May 31st. They have now added more classes. One's a mini class on Thursday. No big deal. In theory everyone should be able to sign up for it. But then Donna Downey is now teaching a class. This would have been nice to know before registration. Because now if I decided I want her class I have to redo my entire schedule. However, her project, I think, will be somewhat similar to the Emily Falconbridge class I'm taking (both are canvas projects) so I would need to drop Emily. Also, it sounds as if the Donna project is going to kind of be like her BPS canvas that I did a while back. So I would be taking it only for her, not for the project.

And that's not all. They've now added an additional 1-day album track for $175. Album Track. Unfortunately it doesn't really have any info- who's teaching, sponsoring, etc. But again, would have been nice to know about this before registration. What about those people who have already bought plane tickets who might have been interested? However, I'm intrigued by the idea of having a separate album-track day. Anyone recognize the kids in the picture? Are they Lisa's kids?

And on a completely separate note, tonight we finally got the remainder of our crap out of the old apartment as well as did the cleaning. I was there for 5 hours! Ugh. It didn't look like there was that much there/ that much to do. Tomorrow I need to go back grab a couple of things that wouldn't fit in my car or Chris's truck, turn in the keys, and all that. Guess that's how I'll be spending my lunch break. Technically we need to be out at noon on Wednesday, but due to their hours I can't go before or after work, so Tuesday at lunch it is.

The new place

So this is the "garden". It runs along the side of the house. I asked if it would be ok for me to plant stuff there, figuring since it was so overgrown it wouldn't be a problem. I was right. No problem! However, silly me, I bought plants at Home Depot last weekend to put in said garden. First though I need to get it cleaned out. If you look really closely in the first picture, you can see my progress so far. Not a whole heck of a lot. I have a long way to go.

As you can see from these pictures though, I have more important things to do than gardening. This is my scrap room. Once I get my table set up it will be a lot better. A lot of the stuff goes under the table. And then we got me some new shelves which will be nice for housing all of the other stuff. I'll be sure to post pictures when it's all put together.

Ramblings on a Rainy Day

Yes, I have a problem. I read that Mel had received her recipes yesterday but since we didn’t go over to the Belmont apt yesterday I didn’t know if mine were there or not. So on my lunch break today I ran over there to see if they had arrived. They had! Also a package from ScrapbookPictures.com was there. Score, two packages in one day! And those are some great looking recipes. Now I want to get busy making some kind of album for them.

I then went around closing windows. Given that today it’s 55 degrees and rainy, it was cold in that apartment. And our oil tank needs to be filled, so it’s not like I can turn on the heat. I guess we’ll just have to bundle up in sweatshirts when we go over tonight.

Can I just say how tired of moving I am? I feel like we’ve been constantly taking stuff over there and there’s still so much more to go. Last night Chris and I decided to take a break. Nice idea, but now I’m starting to get anxious about how much stuff we have left to deal with. I invited my dad and Liz over for Father’s Day, so it needs to be somewhat put together by then.

I also ran to the old apartment to grab some food for lunch. There was a note in our mailbox about what we need to do re vacating, turning in keys, etc. There was a bit about what our rent would be for June since we’re only paying for a partial month. It was then I realized that we had completely forgotten to pay rent yet. There are some pretty steep fines for late payment, so hopefully we don’t get stuck with those.

PSA

If you ever have a house that you decide to rent out, and you are nice and repaint all the walls, please also paint the insides of the closets. Especially if the paint in them is decades old and brown/grey in color. This is also very important if there are no lights in the closets as it makes them even darker and harder to see. I nice coat or two of white paint makes a world of difference.

Chris and I have now spent our weekend painting closets. Not exactly the easiest and we would much rather have spent the time moving stuff and actually putting things in the closets.

Random Day

I love the fun random days. Our apartment conplex passes out a monthly newsletter and in it they said what the various days are. For example, today is National Leave the Office Early Day. So, who's with me on this one?

CKU- here we come!

Got all of my first choices on classes. Interestingly things really didn't sell out. Even now there are only 4 sold out classes, and even those seem to be changing around a bit.

Mel and I even have a dorm already! I posted on 2Peas and got a response right away from one of my old dormies from Boston '04. She has three others she's going with, so now we have six. Considering a firefighter theme, so feel free to share any ideas you've got.