Living on the Fringe

 Our friends Annabelle and Cliffy have a connection to one of our favorite TV shows. Cliff's son Warren is the unit production manager for The Fringe!! We have been wanting to meet him for some time, and finally we got to. Annabelle invited us for New Years Eve Brunch with Warren, wife Leesa and Daughter Ruby. Dean and I are such geeky people when it come to our TV shows, when we were in New York we were seeking out places that CSI had been, or Vegas, and when we watch the shows we do the reverse and watch where we've been! So you can imagine we were beside ourselves to actually meet someone in the field!! We googled Warren and found all the shows he has had his hand in, we had quite a few of them, Final Destination 3, Category 7, and Butterfly Effect, to name a few. So us being the geeks were are.... we brought the movies with us to see if Warren would sign them for us. Not knowing what kind of person he would be, we kept the movies hidden. But within minutes of meeting Warren and Leesa, it was obvious, these 2 were awesome people, and so, so personable! Warren asked if we knew of the show The Fringe, and we jumped up "Yes! We love it!!!" He said to Annabelle, oh damn, if I had known they were fans I would brought the discs, we said actually... we have them, ..... here..... would you sign them for us? He smirked and said of course, but we waited to the end of our visit to give him a pen. He told us humurous stories of all the people ( stars ) he has met, worked with and we could have listened to his stories all day! Warren said every one of the cast of the Fringe is so nice, down to earth, and if we bumped into them they would gladly take a photo or give an autograph. Good to know, now I wouldn't be scared if I saw them in Vancouver where filming is! My favourite story was when Warren met Harrison Ford. This was his idol, and when he was a kid he had the hat, the whip and named his cat Indianna. So when he finally got to meet his idol.... lol well let me tell you. Warren was on set, about 6:30 am the food table was just filled up for the day, brownies warm from the oven, so Warren all alone in the room, chose a brownie, and then thinking "I need Milk" filled a glass of milk. Then he feels a presence behind him and hears the tink tink of a stirring cup, he turns around and is face to face with said idol.... Harrison Ford! Left speechless he mutters out, "Hi Harrison, I'm Warren, assistant director" Harrison says "Hi Warren" Warren says "I'd shake your hand, but as you can see it's full of brownie!" Harrison says " I see that Warren" so Warren puts down his milk, and falling into the starstruck category, makes a fist and taps Harrison Ford on the shoulder!!!!! Later that day at the soup truck, Harrison is sitting in a car waiting for the next scene to start, and Warren is at the truck, he gets his soup and is eating it and sees thru a small opening in the steamed up front window, Harrison looking at him... Warren already nervous after his morning tap, is thinking "OMG, what does he want? maybe soup?" so while he is eating he makes, as Warren says "the universal sign for want some soup?" which consists of the nodding of your head, whilst spooning soup into your mouth. Harrison gives him a thumbs up, so Warren meekishly walks over with a bowl of soup, Harrison rolled the window down a crack big enuff for the soup bowl, and nodded thanx and rolled the window back up. (Probably trying to avoid another shoulder tap! )
The stories went on, so entertaining!!! Leesa is a set designer and she has worked with Jack Black, which made Maddie very jealous! It was such an awesome afternoon! Warren ended up taking our Fringe seasons and said he'll get the whole cast to sign it and send it back!!!! Yep, we squealed with delight at that!!

Warren thinking very hard and smirking  hugely at what to write on our DVD's . He wrote a few  parts of the stories we had heard, one was, "Want some soup?"

Dean, Warren and Me holding The Fringe Discs! 

Maddie and Warren, she's holding her favourites, Butterfly Effect and Final Destination 

Ruby got a build a bear, that Leesa had to sew and stuff, and she also got a crochet kit. Leesa wan't sure how to  crochet only knit, and Maddie just learning picked up the hook and crocheted a little scarf  for Ruby's doll! Maddie was a hit, looking like a cat and all, Ruby quite took to her! 

Annebelle and Warren... cheers!

Behind the Scenes: The Making of the Xmas Card.

I think it was December 1st.  Selena's internal clock clicked from Halloween to Christmas.  The other setting on Selena's clock is "Halloween is coming!".  She announced that she had no idea what to do about the Christmas card this year.   I looked up from Drudging in surprise.  She always has an idea for the Xmas card in July usually. This year the cupboard was bare.

I grabbed the idea torch and ran.

One day in my travels on my way to Black Diamond, I passed an interesting site I had never noticed before. I thought it would be interesting to visit one day if we were ever in Okotoks.  And this, my friends, became my submission for Big Christmas Card Idea Contest 2011. Selena was on board immediately. Ok, she said, we'll go down there and take some pictures, I will text Maddie.

What?

I said wait a minute - you don't even know what the proposed site is - what if its stupid? We will tour the site first and then we can bring Maddie and the camera.   So soon after, we went to the site of My Big Idea which happened to be a very large rock.

My Idea: Honey, how about a Big Rock!

Yes, there it is friends. My idea was a big rock in the middle of nowhere. Well, just south of Okotoks. The rock formation is called "Okotoks Erratic". It was deposited there elevendybillion years ago or something. It looks really cool.  An Xmas card and a Learning Opportunity - perfect!  Well, Selena did humour me as she walked around like Speilberg.  She took some pictures. She mentioned something about JingleBell Rock but I could tell my idea was headed to the big xmas card Recycle Bin.  Mission accomplished. It kicked Selena's creative idea machine back into high gear.

Honey, thanks for your submission. Status: Rejected.

Some time later, Selena got up in the morning and started playing with Photoshop. She then grabbed the camera and carefully aimed it at the backyard and asked me to take pictures of her in various poses.  I obliged.   The result is below.  She then created the "Proof of Concept" photo that eventually led to this year's Christmas Card.

Proof of Concept Succeeded. Codename: Big Lucky.

 From Big Rock to Big Lucky - I liked the final result - how about you?

Mayhem!

In response to Selena's previous post here, and also related to this post,  I present a few of of these funny commercials courtesy of Allstate.

Live blog on boxing day!

So we Circled the parking lot for 32 minutes then headed wayyyy over to Costco parking lot to park and walk to the mall. We made it, and it's sorta a ZOO lol wish us luck !


Our car is wayyy over at the corner of the parking lot.

...and the  Mall is wayyy behind us! But it only took 10 minutes to walk, and when we leave, the highway is right there, so we won't have to circle again to get out!

The zoo!

Monopoly!

Kewl!! THE best Monopoly game EVER. Hope everyone is having a wonderous day :-)

Merry Christmas!!!

Happy holidays, when do we get to open presents!? Lol

This is the 2011 Frosty Friend :-)

Midnight Walmart

1 hour into Xmas eve and we're at Walmart. Its like we own the store, no crowds - just a nice shopping experience for the price of going to bed a little later.

Mmmm

It's a hit!!

Caramel popcorn twists

Happy Christmas Eve Eve everyone! We are making the yummy popcorn twists mmm can't wait til they are out of the oven!!

Main ingredient

add the butter

whip it up YUM!

Soho

There's something to be said about Groupons. It takes you to places you wouldn't normally go to. Dean and I went our Soho tonight, it's actually a place I have been to for a Zumba party, but now we can go for dinner. So far so good! We are still here :-) gotta love the live blog.

Dang need more wheeties

I need to eat more wheeties cause I can only open half the hot tub! Dean is at work, Maddie is out, I am freezing so I thot I'd jump into the hot tub, as it turns half the tub will have to do lol!

Evar's Birthday

Tonight we went to the Flatiron for Evar's birthday. The food there is so good, Me and Dale had to narrow down our choices and make a decision. Dale ordered one of my choices so I had to try hers when it came... damn it was good too! Usually there aren't enuff choices.... here there are too many lol!

 Yay, pretty Bellini's were the special tonight... not ugly ones, only pretty ones

Dale and Evar ... say cheese :-) 

 Evar's beer was as big as his head!!

me and Dean :-) 

Fun night, thanx Dale and Happy birthday Evar!

Baby got Grip

We picked up the car last night, yay new tires!!
Missmenace- 1. Mr. Mayhem- 0

The tree is pretty again

 So the tree has been up since uhmmm September, but that was the Halloween tree, so I undecorated it and replaced the orange lights with white ones and then it sat for a bit waiting for Maddie to be home to decorate it with me. So tonight... she was home! And even though she isn't feeling great, kinda sniffly and tired she still kicks butt in the spirit department and looked cute as a button as an elf! 

With Christmas Carols in the background and
hot chocolate in the mug we started our decorating....

The tree's all pretty again, no skeletons hang about,
only frosty friends and  cheery  things :-)

Oops is that Santa caught red handed???

Pj Party

I went to my first ever Pajama Christmas party, and I have never been more comfy! lol How often do you sit on the floor and cross your legs at a party? Lizette put on a feast, ( and I could eat forever - elastic waist lol) 

One of Lizette's  friends made the cutest cake balls, there were so
many yummy foods I wish I'd taken more pics of it!

Lizette and Megan were the baby whisperers! (Megan's word lol ) 

me, Lizette and Megan, pigtails were the hairstyle of the evening!

That's Megan's, Otto's and my number for the white elephant Christmas present game. I had 23 and I thot that was a bad number, but as it turns out, I was 23 of 24, so I almost picked last! 

Neil got he first gift of the evening that was one of the 3 sought ofter gifts, oddly enuff everyone was fighting over the nerdy gifts! One bad thing about being last was one of the kewl items was frozen because it had already been stolen 3 times. All 3 nerdy gifts were frozen by the end of the night! Neil's 1991 Dungeons and Dragons cards were stolen soon after this picture!

Lizette almost got to keep this awesome leather wine container complete with wine, cork screw and other wine accessories. She tried to offer it everyone and her evil plan was working but in the end, it was stolen!

Sought after gift #2, I would've have tried for this one but :-( it was frozen lol, a Wookie cook book!!! the recipe names were hilarious!!!

Megan got a wall sticker and Otto got the 3rd sought after gift the Yoda stocking! the gift exchange was fun and entertaining! I ended up getting my first choice stolen, the mini version of brainteasers, but i ended up with really kewl candle holders! 

awesome party Lizette and Neil!!

Winnipeg Fame

The other day Maddie showed me a you tube video which blew me away!! This kid is 16, and he made a video using an SLR CAMERA!! yes a regular camera, it looks like a professional video! Not only is the quality amazing, the kid plays all the instruments himself and edited it to perfection, please watch, and be amazed as I was!! Way to go Winnipegger Sean!

Christmas party 2011

Yay the staff Christmas party is finally here!! We always have so much fun, lots of giggles.... and then lots to scrapbook after!

this year the party was at Megan's house. She decorated beautifully, even though the house is up for sale right now!

I have so many pictures of Nola, taking pictures.... but I have never seen any of these pictures.... hmmm a new person to hound!

Lizette, looking like a princess :-)

Carolyn sent a text to Gloria that she was going to "out shoe" her tonight.... this is the shoe.

the table setting at my seat

Lisa and Beth

Holly and Lizette

all the "Secret Santa" presents.... we have to explain next year what SECRET means...lol it's too easy to "CSI" when you know half the room!

me and Carolyn, she was trying to get her shoe in this picture too, but I was too quick!

Megan played and sang a Christmas song.... uhmmm.... it was Beautiful! She belted out the lyrics and it made some of us teary eyed... ahem... I know I wasn't the only one! Fess up you guys!

and I didn't know Dianne could play piano! She sat down and started playing Piano Man... kewl!

the bag giftys, and the battle of the gloves. It took me a couple of years to figure out that Gloria is the glove gifter, since no one was left that has worked there longer, and i knew it wasn't Carolyn, it had to be her.... but then..... this year there were 2 pairs of gloves.....

so Kelly opens her gift, and she doesn't know who her secret Santa is.... and then she sees a phone at the bottom the bag.... oopsy Carolyn had to claim the phone and gave away her secret!!

I made a video this year, of some prime moments from the store.... now I have an order for disc 2~ start sending pictures lol

Ang's secret Santa got her the Go Canada cricut cartridge.... lol the clue was her name written with the cartridge font!

Beth, lookin cute in her new hat.... and who was your Secret Santa Beth?

the first thing in my bag, was a box from the "stinkin stamp maker" I hissed, but when I opened it, it was a Zumba disc! Yay.... but lol now I know who bought my gift :-) Glorrrria

Megan got the cutest cookie jar on the planet!

Our shoe Queen, got a bag with shoes on it, and inside, a shoe calendar. I wonder if Gloria has any of the shoes featured!

Once again a fantabulous night! So much fun! Thanx Megan for hosting in your pretty setting!

hugs all, and feel free to send pix and recipes my way :-)