Love Interest or No Love Interest

A shift in my daily schedule has created some much needed and consistent free time for script writing, so today I reached WAY back and picked up the first script I wrote called "Inside."

"Inside" is essentially a merge of "Copycat" (the Sigourney Weaver movie) and "Die Hard." It's the story of an award-winning architect turned agoraphobe called upon by the FBI to assist in the rescue of hostages taken captive in a high-tech building he designed.

The story contains a few interesting elements. One, part of it is somewhat based on the true story of the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse that occurred in 1981. Second, the protagonist's main character issue is based on my own years of suffering from mild agoraphobia. (Cause you know the saying..."Write what you know!")

ANYHOW...get to the point, Eric!

So, Lainie Gallers, a TNT executive I pitched to last summer said she was interested in "Inside," but would rather see it without the love interest; the love interest being an old flame caught up with the wrong crowd who has to do right by helping save Architect and assisting in thwarting the kidnapping even at the risk of losing her own life.

There were some logistic issues in the "why, how, who" Lovie would get caught up in, so I saw Lainie's wisdom in pulling her out and letting Architect figure out how to be the hero by himself. But my question to my two readers out there (hi, mom and grandma) is this...don't you kinda HAVE TO HAVE a love interest? I mean, I know you don't "have to," but it just seems like a key cog in the machine.

Regardless, I spent my new "free" time today reworking my scene list for this movie, pulling out Lovie and trying to figure out how to keep adding tension and helping Architect to save the day on his own.

Oh, and Lainie, if you're still interested, I'm happy to send over a copy after I'm done with this next rev!

Super Sunny Saturday

It's been rainy and gray for the last few weeks here in the NW, so what a break that the day we had planned to head up to the mountain for some sledding with some friends ended up being 60 degrees and sunny!

We took Evan and Hollyn up to Mt. Hood and met up with my buddy Dave Lawson (yes, of poker fame below) and his family (Connie and Annabella). What a blast we all had, and what a gorgeous day. Instead of blab about it, though, I'll let the pictures say it all!

And The Winner Is...

The winner of the 2007 Golden State Foods' Portland Charity Poker Tournament is...

DAVID LAWSON!!!!

That's right. The guy who organized/hosted our satellite event to get one of us into this big event (read the post below)!

Dave said it was surreal. As the event went on and more and more people got knocked out, he kept thinking "wow, I'm doing pretty good!" And next thing he knew he was sitting at the final table with a huge chip stack and a good shot at 1st place.

Dave said the 7-hour event was incredible. Pros in attendance (for promotional and entertainment purposes) were Phil Laak (the unibomber), Jennifer Tilly (yes, the actress), Kenna James, Marsha Waggoner, and Arnold Spee. Here's a pic of Dave between Phil and girlfriend Tilly.

Congrats to Dave for winning 1st place, $5,000, the trophy,
and some serious bragging rights!

I'd Go All-In With My 7-2 Offsuit

But of course that's why I'm not the one heading to the Golden State Foods Foundation's "PDX Charity Poker Tournament" this weekend.

This charity event benefiting Ronald McDonald House Charities in SW Washington and Oregon draws between 150-200 contestants at a buy-in price of $500.

That level of play is a weeeeeee bit too expensive to my group of friends, so my buddy Dave Lawson came up with an idea for 10 of us to play a "satellite" game where we each buy in for $50 and winner takes all and is obligated to go to the charity event. Go figure that Dave was the one who won and will be representing us this weekend! Of course if there's anyone I trust to honor the "payback" feature of our satellite it's Dave, so that's a good thing. We set it up that the 9 losers still have a chance to make some money if the Dave goes on to place in the top 10 at the charity event. The odds are slim, but Dave's a solid player.

SO EVERYONE WISH DAVE YOUR BEST LUCK THIS SATURDAY!!

And anyone wanting to donate $500 to be my sponsor should feel free to contact me at my yahoo email address! Although that would make YOU the bigger gambler! :o)

An Update on the Fence Debacle

Scroll down to read the post about Heather's accident during a recent winter storm to get the full details, but essentially we crunched a "county" fence a little while ago and have been figuring out how it was going to get fixed and who was on the hook for the cost.

At the time of the event my wife called the police to report the accident, a fact many of our neighbors decried as foolish, since a consensus was we could get ourselves towed out and the county would never know who dented the fence. But that's just not the kind of people we are, so Heather called the police. A nice Sheriff came out and did not cite Heather, but unfortunately was required to issue a case number. That case number then put us smack dab in the crosshairs of the county.

We immediately got quotes from third party fence companies, and realized we were looking at around a $400-$500 bill. Insurance would cover it, after a deductible and 40% increase in our rates, so we chose not to go that route!

To compound the problem the county called back and said if we were going to go with a third party fence company, we had to ensure they were licensed, bonded, insured and paying prevailing wage. Oh...great...thanks. I had just gotten a neighbor to commit to fixing it for $300-$350 and now that option was gone! I felt like I was being screwed by the mafia or something.

So a phone call was made to the contact at the county and things got a little nasty really fast. I implored to this man that we were trying to do the honest thing by working with them, and yet they were forcing me to pay a premium to get this stupid fence that serves no purpose other than to contain a wetland fixed. Like I said...the phone call got ugly.

But eventually cooler heads prevailed and the head contact agreed to meet with me to take a second look at what really needed to be replaced/repaired, and next thing I knew I had a handshake on the fact that the county would fix it for no more than $450. He said they'd start working on it right away, so I told my wife to keep her eyes open for any workers and to document what they did and how much time it took.

An hour or so later a few guys showed up, so Heather went out to chat with them. The main contact was there and he informed her that after meeting with me he had talked to his boss about the few items that needed to be replaced and they had concluded the cost would be closer to $200. Heather was elated! But then main contact guy said the news got better. He said for a cost as low as $200 it would not be worth all the admin, invoicing, billing hassle, so the county was going to just do the repairs at their cost.

FANTASTIC NEWS! We couldn't believe it. Things had looked so bad for a while there and many people were shaking their heads and saying that we should'a just lied to the county.

Doing the right thing prevailed though! And the county did right by us too! Good for them for rewarding honest citizens! And good for us (my wife) for being an honest citizen!

Where's my CUP!

So the wife and I have made a new commitment to getting fit!

"What's new" you say? You've made that commitment before, only to FAIL! And it is the new year and everyone and their dog has made a new years resolution for getting in shape.

True, true. I'll give you those.

And I'm the first to admit you should check with me in June to see how we're doing. But in the meantime I'm off to a pretty good start. I got invited into a great network of 30'ish year old guys that enjoy multiple sports and have the connections to play them on a regular basis. So, it seems like the calendar is suddenly full of Basketball on Mondays, Indoor Soccer on Thursdays, and the occasional Flag Football tournament on the weekends!

Muscles I never knew I had have been screaming at me lately, and I've felt a compelling urge to call the Icy Hot organization and ask them if they'd like to sponsor a middle aged, balding, wannabe athlete!

Here's some pics of the recent fun though. Playing soccer with me is my buddy Kevin who I've known since 6th grade. And those football pics were taken at the Nautilus Corporation's main campus, which has a "professional" quality field on it that is open to the public. Pretty amazing place to play.

Stay tuned for more updates. The wife and I are meeting with a professional trainer next weekend, and our brand new gym (LA Fitness) opens up in a few weeks and then the pain really begins!