I can't believe how long it's been since I posted, but it has been a very long and stressful month. The first two weeks were taken up with a short film Steve shot for a Horror Shorts Film Fest being produced by our pals Drew Daywalt and John Crye. Steve wrote, directed and produced the whole thing, which should end up being about 5 minutes long. What made it a little more stressful for me was that we shot HERE in our house, and then at Chiodo's shop, a location I arranged. I also helped with costumes and whatever else, craft services and that kind of thing. Oh, and I have a two month old baby. And it's hot out. You know, like summer hot.

But it got finished, footage looks good, and now they go to edit. Festival is scheduled for October 20th.

The second half of the month, Dexter and I traveled back to CT to help my mom prepare to move. She and the other tenant in the old Victorian she been renting an apartment in were given 45 days to move, because the owners have to move back in. Totally understandable, but I think they could have given Mark and my mom a bit more of a heads up, especially if they were selling the place they live in now. It really blindsided the both of them. Having been in that situation myself, I have sympathy for the both of them. All's well that ends well, though, as she, through my old friend Cheryl Hilton who is now a realtor, found a great apartment on the Bristol/Southington line. It has a W/D in the unit and even a fireplace. She will never use it, but she has always wanted one and I happy for her to finally have it.

The gigantic nightmare of the whole ordeal was the stuff in the basement. There had been a serious flooding issue the past few years, and the basement was filled with a rainbow array of mold with a thick coating of termite produced sawdust. Absolutely disgusting. I wore a mask and gloves, and should have had a full white suit and goggles on as well, but it was so humid I think I would have melted. I did sweat off another couple of Baby Pounds during the ordeal as it was. I threw out 90% of the stuff down there, only salvaging two boxes of photos and "the good stuff." The really old stuff was actually packed incredibly well, and even though the box it was in may have turned into sludge (no exaggeration) my grandmother's china remained intact. Also, stuff like china, glassware and vases can be washed. The paintings were another matter. It breaks my heart to see how damaged they all were. It would be a very sad day on Antiques Roadshow. I did salvage almost all of them, and my Aunt Ruth took most of them to be evaluated. The big one both she and mom hated has been sent home with me. A dark depressing painting of the Hoboken waterfront from 1948? Why that has Steve Johnson all over it! We'll see if the hot Southern California can bake the white mold off of it.

It took over a week, but she is packed and ready for the movers to show up. The silver lining to it all was my mom got to spend some quality time with Dex, and he and I got to spend time with old friends as well. Dexter charmed everyone he met along the way.

Here's a cute picture of him makin' time with a lovely redhead over at Cheryl's.


And there went August, and Dexter is now 3 months old.