Playing with Elias

Elias really enjoys playing with his train set. He has a motorized engine that chugs around. He likes to put it on the track, he also likes to watch it chug gently under the couch. It has taken a couple of months for him to learn how not to immediately break the track apart. Now, we can usually keep a track for at least fifteen minutes. I think its a sign of a growing attention span!

I like building the tracks. I've been trying to figure out different configurations that allow the engine to completely circle all the tracks without moving the train by hand. This is the track I built today. I kind of like it. It was destroyed a few minutes after the picture was taken. I guess that's just part of my and Eli's "art."

Today, Elias, Mason and I went for a walk down the street to visit the Whistle Stop Train Store. Obviously, a model train store. We watched the trains in the window and then went inside. It is definitely a shop for serious model train builders, but they also had a little set-up with Thomas the Train tracks and engines. Elias had a great time playing with the display set. It was a great outing and only a 5 minute walk away. I think we'll get some more train pieces for Christmas.

Potential Award Winner?

Got news yesterday from Stackpole Books that The Self-Coached Climber is a finalist in the book competition at this year's Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival. I do not know when the winners will be announced, but I will follow up with additional information later.


For anyone who does not know about the book. Dan and I started working on the idea together while I was still at USC, we actually got the contract to write it while I was finishing up film school. It was a monster project taking 3 years from when we wrote the initial outline to the time the book was published. The book is over 200 pages, in color and also has an 85 min. DVD to boot.

It has been very well received but not gotten as much attention as we would like so the potential award is a real blessing. This is the second time we have been considered for an award. Last year we were finalists for an National Outdoor Book Award, but we didn't win. Fingers crossed for Banff.

Here is the Amazon page for the book.

Update 10-26-07
Thanks to Jake and Jeni for the linking beta.

The publisher called this morning to talk about Banff and also mentioned that the Second Printing of the book will happen in January! yahoo!

Viva Laughlin!

Well, it finally happened, the pilot I worked on this winter / spring aired last night on CBS. It's always a strange thing when a show you've worked on for months and know everything about hits the airwaves. I have a hard time keeping in mind that everyone else doesn't know it line for line. I think I drove Michele a little nuts while we were watching it. The highlight for me was seeing that a temp shot I created in our office actually stayed in the show! An area of slight disappointment was that the actor's singing was buried a bit in the mix. Some of the actors did a good job with the Singing, and Dave Parker our sound guy did an amazing job recording the singing. He deserves a ton of credit for his work on that show. Anyway, we will see how people like it. Up next: In Treatment hits the airwaves in January.

Bunkbeds

Our new bunkbeds arrived yesterday and while I was at Young Women's, Douglas assembled them. (He is so handy! Did I mentioned that he also replaced the Passport's starter motor this weekend? Handsome and handy. Sigh)

Addison will sleep on the bottom for a while, until we get another twin mattress. Right now we only have a box spring that we are storing on the top bunk. Eventually, Elias will take over the bottom so that Mason can have the crib.

I think they're a pretty handsome set of beds! Not to mention - lots of storage room underneath.

A Visit From Grandma and Grandpa

We were very fortunate to have Grandpa and Grandma Hunter with us this weekend. They flew out from PA to meet baby Mason. We all had a great time, were kept very busy, ate good food and were very sad at how quickly the weekend passed.

On Sunday we made a silly monkey cake for Elias to celebrate his upcoming birthday. (He and Addison wanted the eyeballs more than the cake!) Elias did a great job at blowing out the candles! And when asked, he will tell you that he is two.