Our own unusual suspect

There's a TV show on the Discovery Channel called "Unusual Suspects" - a documentary-style show in which detectives discuss some of the "toughest investigations and how justice was served." One of the episodes they filmed this season involved a case, more than a decade old now I think, from HF's agency. HF has some experience consulting to TV shows that relate to his vocational field, and he was asked to assist on set for three days. He was happy to comply.

HF's only prior experience was working on set for a major network show (CBS), and since this was a Discovery Channel show, it was significantly lower budget. Evidently the difference was pretty notable.

On one of the days, the directors needed someone to play a law enforcement official assisting with interviewing a suspect, and HF was invited to participate. He accepted, and now he is officially- in his words - a Hollywood actor. Or he will be if they don't end up cutting his scene...! It's slated to be the season finale   this year, so keep your eyes peeled...

Urban Amish

On Friday a gaggle of girls around 13 years old rang our doorbell holding a clipboard. They were polling neighbors as part of a questionnaire-style game for a party they were attending and hoped we could answer some questions on their worksheet. All entertainment related stuff, mostly related to TV shows. There were about ten blanks on the page

We could fill in exactly one blank: the stage name of Miley Cyrus. Drum roll: Hannah Montana! Three cheers for me. On the question of who the new judge is on American Idol - Y did know there was a new judge (that made one of us) but not who it was. The other questions on the page read like a foreign language to us. We were entirely clueless, and thus the girls left shaking their heads and disappointed.

We, on the other hand, felt encouraged and even somewhat vindicated in our abdication in the most mindless aspects of our culture... All that lack-of-TV is really starting to pay off! "We're the urban Amish," Y said in satisfaction as they left.

Star-studded day...

Last night Y got home late for work, and when J ran onto the sidewalk, pajama-clad, to greet him and asked him his standard question of interest (for this week at least), "Daddy, what did you have for lunch?" - Y replied, "Well actually, I had lunch with Mark Harmon today." For my benefit, rather than J's of course, who really is just interested to know if Y consumed his standard burrito lunch that day.

Y's boss was headed out to the set of 'a certain' premier network TV show, where the cast was filming for the day, and she invited Y to come along to check things out. Why resist an offer like that? So he hung out with Mark Harmon and Michael Weatherly, had lunch with them, accepted an invitation from Harmon (a cold, down-to-earth guy) to have a cup of coffee in his trailer. Y and I joked about the likeness to the ridiculous feature in popular celeb-obsessed magazines - "Stars are just like us! They drink coffee too!" It was by any measure a fun and interesting day for Y.

The hardest part of the day for J, every day now, is when Y leaves for work and J has to lament the fact that it's not Saturday. He simply hates to be apart from Y. I must say that I can't blame him. If ever there was an attentive, devoted, involved father - parenting his children with the perfect mix of enjoyment and authority - it is Y. He's phenomenal. I often think about the God's grace in his timing of Y's training last year - that J was 2 yrs 2 mos old when Y left, rather than the 2 yrs 8 mos old (or older!) when the separation finally ended. It would have been heartbreaking for J, and me, to have to endure months apart from Y if he were to have the cognitive awareness - and sheer devotion - to his dad that he does now...

Celebrity sighting...

We took a trip up to Santa Barbara today after our regular Saturday morning farmers' market run to visit the zoo and poke around town. We hit a local bakery called Jeanine's that had been recommended by a colleague of Y's who lives in Santa Barbara for strawberry and pumpkin scones (overpriced, as expected, but delicious) and a breakfast burrito. A guy who looked a bit like a scruffy,out-of-shape Kevin Coster, wearing jeans and an A's baseball hat, showed up with a 20-ish girl and a toddler. When he asked the waiter about the specials right in front of us, his voice gave him away... definitely Kevin Costner. We knew he had a Santa Barbara house, and Y's colleague had even told him to keep an eye out for celebs as they frequent the place. As far as we can tell from Wikipedia et al, both the girl and the toddler were his children (he has 5 going on 6 with three women.) So we have spotted our first celebrity... We're clearly now getting the full CA experience.

Funny contrast, as yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of Y's receiving The Long-Awaited Call from his current employer to offer him his job. The day that will always be a little famous in our family and was among the most intense we've ever experienced (and led to four weeks that were even more so). It was all a total whirlwind, and the contrast between this Christmas and last heightens the surrealness of that time. Last year on Christmas day, we were moving cows into a trailer to send them through snowy roads to their new homes at Conrad's house. This year, we're thinking we may do a little outing to the beach to throw the buoy for Angus and let the kids play in the sand...