Yesterday was a big day around the Johnson house. No, not just the biggest earthquake these parts have seen in ten years, but we turned Dexter's car seat around to face forward. The look of amazement on his face during the short car ride taking Nana to the train station was so great. He had no idea what he was missing.

The earthquake was pretty wild while it was happening, but actually quite the non-event. Which is not a bad thing.

We are having a technical miracle here in the Johnson house today. Steve has taken on the mighty task of digitizing a lifetime of VHS tapes for his family, and he got the final box of tapes from Carolyn this weekend. On the way home from Santa Barbara we stopped at Fry's Electronics for the necessary equipment.

Here's the miracle part...

Steve hooked up the machines, AND ITS WORKING. He did not have to leave the house for another cord, disk or hard drive.

How awesome is that? So far my favorite video has been heart warming holiday story about Senor Steve and his puppet friend Pacho, played by Jack Halpin.

Dexter Says

how cute is that?

I'm having a hard time trying to find a day care solution for Dexter.

The past few weeks all of the Crank Yankers girls have been hard at work on a new pilot for a show. Right now, it looks like it could actually get picked up sometime in the relative near future, and more than likely be union. It would be very nice to be able to get 8 or 10 weeks of union wages and benefits. That would enable us to switch back to MoPic insurance for at least a year, and give Steve some wiggle room if he really wants to leave G4.

That said, Steve does still work full time, so What About Dexter. All of the pre-schools in the neighborhood that I've researched so far need him to be at least 2 years old, which won't happen until next May. If this show goes in the fall, he will be about 18 months old, and falls in the the Infant category. There doesn't seem to be a lot around, at least when it comes to Google and yelp.com.

I did check out the one sponsored by Motion Picture. It was absolutely amazing. It looks like a day care center in the movies. I would kill someone with my bare hands to get Dexter in there. It ain't cheap, but Leonard Nimoy (!) provides financial aid. The total bummer??? On the other side of town. I'm sure it's only 12 miles away, but it took 45 minutes to get there, and not during rush hour. If Steve's work was still over at the old G4 building, it would be perfect, but it's not. There is a waiting list anyway. A list that costs $50 to sign up for, BTW.

The have a new location out in Woodland Hills, but that is also way too far out of the way as well.

The sort of good news is the woman who runs it did tell me that every studio does have one, run by the same company. Too bad I never actually work on the studio lots, but instead end up at the smaller lots in Hollywood. Perhaps I should be gunning for a costume shop job at WB's.

There is a little place run out of someone's house in Echo Park near where we used to live that has been recommended to me, but I would rather Dexter be in a "real" facility if I can help it.

When you google "Infant Day Care" there are many corporate places that come up, I'm just so surprised that NONE of them are around here. Maybe in Burbank? I could drop him off and then loop into Hollywood...