And you thought I was just a mortgage banker

Underneath the calm, cool exterior that I have cultivated as a mortgage banker beats the heart of a passionate dramatist. For the first time in print, I reveal that Sydney and I are stars in a movie. Ok, we appear in a movie. Ok, our friend produced it and left some footage of us in it. The movie is Bake Shop Ghost and it will not be appearing in theaters near you anytime soon. However, it has appeared in the following locations:



May 29-31 Seattle International Film Festival, screened in the opening
night of the shorts competition. Re-screened two times.
June 10- 14 Short Shorts & Asia, Tokyo Japan, nominated for Best Actress
June 23-28 Palm Springs Shortsfest, selected as the Best of the Fest,
Audience Pic
Aug 4 - 9 Rhode Island International Film Festival, Winner--"Most
Popular Film" Audience Award
Sept 4-13 Festroia, Setubal Portugal
Sept 8-13 Temecula Valley International Film Festival, Best Short
Sept 19-21 Big Bear Lake International Film Festival, Jury and Audience
Award for Best Short
Sept 20-27 Trinidad & Tobago International Film Festival
Sept 24 - Oct 4 I've Seen Films, Official selection International Competition
Oct 1-4 Louisville's International Festival of Film
Oct 22 - 29 Austin Film Festival
Oct 21-Nov 1 Chicago Children's International Film Festival
Oct 23 - 25 Hollywood Film Festival, Hollywood, CA
Nov 5 - 8 Ojai International Film Festival
Nov 6 - 8 Rocky Mountain Women's Film Festival, Colorado Springs, CO
Nov 12 - 15 Red Rock Film Festival, Zions National Park, Utah, Screening
in the opening night
Nov 11 - 15 Cucalorus Film Festival, Wilmington, NC

The movie was shot on the back lot of Universal Studios and on location in Southern California in the last year. We spent a morning there for our part in the movie. We were not paid but we got to eat at the caterer's truck and we were in costume and felt the part of seasoned actors. If we ever get a copy of it, we will show it to you at our home along with a lot of our home movies which we are certain you are also anxious to see.

All I do is go on vacation

Because the vacation to Prague was so fatiguing, Sydney and I went to Maui for a week with Dave and Sus Daly, and Marsh and Colleen Tanner to recuperate a week after we got home from Europe. Dave and Sus invited us to stay with them at their timeshare. As you can see from the above photo, we were pursued by some paparazzi, but for the most part they left us alone.

This was our typical schedule: get up and eat breakfast, lay around and then eat lunch, lay around some more then take a swim in the ocean or pool and eat dinner, then come home and watch a movie in the timeshare or watch some sports. Of course, some days we didn't work as hard as this schedule suggests. It's exhausting having to get up and go somewhere to eat.

We heard Bill Clinton speak during the week between Europe and Hawaii. It was in Redondo Beach and drew people from the beach communities in the area. Lots of grey hair and wrinkles in the audience. He was very interesting to listen to and made some compelling arguments on the subjects he addressed. The fellow next to Sydney was a stauch conservative because according to her he twitched throughout the speech.

I spoke to Grandpa Tanner this week about some investment material he sent to us. He suggested I discuss it with Sydney. I told him she wasn't interested in doing that and he said we should discuss it nevertheless. I gave it to Sydney and told her my dad suggested we discuss it. She replied, "I'm not interested in doing that," just as I had told dad. He must have known she would say that since we've had the same conversation other times, but he is convinced that everyone should discuss investments. Dad also said he bought a pistol some time ago and kept it under the bed in a gun safe. I asked him what it was for and he said it could be used if they had an intruder. Given the amount of time it would take them to get the gun, I asked him if he meant to throw the safe at the intruder, and in the spirit of that comment he said he would just ask them to wait while he got his gun out of the safe. Of course, all of this begs the question of how either he or mom could get down on the ground and reach anything under the bed at their age.

I'll write again when I think of something worth writing.

I blog, therefore I exist

I thought I would commence my blogging career by posting the picture of a beautiful woman on the premise if it works for beer companies, it should draw readers to my blog. All of you who know how hip I have been to technological matters all my life will recognize this is just another step in my progress from electric typewriters, er, I meant personal computers.

Sydney and I just returned from a trip to Germany where we visited Berlin and then went South to Prague. Sydney had not been to Berlin for about forty years. One of the places we visited was Checkpoint Charlie, where visitors to East Berlin went through an Army checkpoint to visit the sights in that half of the city. It was a military station with a tank at a time when tensions were so high. Now it's a souvenir store location with lots of tourists and no ominence. We ate at some German restaurants and used what German we knew to get along; we did very well as long as the waiter could speak English or sign language.

We traveled south by car to Dresden on the way to Prague to look at the Zwinger museum. On the way we stopped in Sprewald and rode boats through the canals that run through the forest and meadows of this 200 square kilometer area of hamlets and summer cottages. There were no engines on the boats; they moved them by poling because the water is no more than three feet deep. This lasted for three hours and the fascinating commentary by the poler was in German. One hour would have been fine.

We arrived at Prague in time for a three day holiday weekend in honor of St. Wenceslaus, Sydney humming the Christmas carol periodically as we drove in. In addition to the holiday crowd, the Pope decided to visit Prague that weekend so the town was full of people. He stayed in the palace and we stayed in the town below the palace so we saw Catholics of all shapes and varieties streaming along our street coming and going to the palace grounds.

To avoid wearing any readers out, I'm stopping at this point to insert another photograph and let you catch your breath. There will be more posts.
Scott