Documentary film participant releases are kind of unsettling things to sign. Since it’s the nature of documentary film-making to not entirely know what you are going to capture on film (reality being somewhat unpredictable, generally), the releases are very broad. You sign away your right to whatever the crew captures and agree to let them do whatever they want with it. I’ve signed releases for both Caitlyn and myself twice in the last month. One was for a documentary about urban agriculture, Growing Cities. A small crew came to our P-Patch during a work party to talk with the gardeners …
Someone is Six
For the third year in a row, when I asked Caitlyn what kind of birthday cake she wanted, she requested peppermint. Last year, I talked her into chocolate cake with peppermint frosting, so this year it was an short step from one to the other. Peppermint cake is a little weird, all on it’s own. And, of course, I made too many cupcakes. I don’t suppose it would be a party if I didn’t make too much food. Or too many confetti eggs. There are about seven dozen here, and the kids smashed every single one. And when they were …
Solstice in Fremont, 2011
I left the sunscreen at home this morning, since it was abundantly obvious that no one would be getting sunburned at the Fremont Solstice Parade today. It’s been one of the worst springs on record, and today, three days from the first day of summer, was rainy and cold. Actual puddles and everything. We went anyway, of course. At this point, it’s a tradition to go, partly to mark the beginning of summer and the slow shifting back to the dark time of year, but also as part of Caitlyn’s birthday season. She’s older now and knows the parade doesn’t …
Thrift Store Experiments
After reading a number of posts (none of which I can find right now) about taking adult sized clothes acquired at a thrift store and transforming them into kid-size clothes, I thought I’d give it a try. This is a big step for me since I have never been a thrift-store shopper. In my experience, thrift stores tend to be all jumbled, making the process of finding something kind of like a scavenger hunt, only without the list of Things To Find. I guess some people carry that around in their head; I don’t. Maybe it’s because finding off-the-rack things …
Over the Weekend
Not so long ago, I didn’t see a whole lot of difference between weekdays and weekends. Both seemed equally frantic with Responsibilities and Things to Do. These days, we’re trying to more consciously observe the downtime. Or the uptime, as the case may be. This is one of the challenges with working from home, I guess. The office is right there, and it’s so easy to stop at the computer “for a moment” to just take care of “one thing.” Though, to be honest with myself, it’s not only that, since I tend to get equally distracted and panicked by …