Fundraising Video (coming soon)

Brian has been working on a website to raise money for ALS research, and as part of this website, he decided to make a video. The idea was pretty simple, but the actual work involved in making the video was intense. I don't want to give away the entire plot of the video (which will be available for viewing soon), but at one point, a giant dinosaur terrorizes the streets of Columbus and is wrestled to the ground by the video's hero figure. Taping this part of the video involved a giant green screen in the living room, and since the dinosaur was also green, we also needed a blue screen. Brian ended up playing the dinosaur (and one other role - see if you can find him in the video). Here are some pictures of the taping of the dinosaur fight scene, staring Brian and the video's hero figure. We will get the complete video viewing info out soon.

Brian preping the shot:

Brian shooting the dino scene with the green screen:

The hero was filmed seperately, and the two figures were combined digitally:

Brian checking the camera before shooting:

We rented the dino costume from a pretty awesome costume shop. Here is a close up of the head (along with many of the other charecter heads they had):

Ice storm

This week, we have been enjoying lovely weather - really, just ideal. It has been sunny, I have been going out without a coat, and we spent all day Wednesday with all the windows open.

I am afraid the current weather is only a short break from the winter though. A couple weeks ago, we had a huge ice storm in this area. It was quite spectacular to look at, and I managed to get a couple photos of the ice (despite it being night). Here are a few pictures from that time (which seems oh so distant now).

Icicles on the porch railing:

The tree in the foreground usually blocks our view a bit (which is okay b/c it stops people from looking in our windows too). Here it is weighed down so much with ice that it is resting entirely on the ground. We were worried that all the branches would snap off, but by the next afternoon, a lot of the ice had fallen off and the tree had sprung back up.

View out the wondow of everything coated in ice. All the cars had a thick coating, but the ice peeled off in sheets once the inside was warmed up (of course, you needed to work to get the doors open).

More icicles:

It was pretty trecherous walking around for a while, since the ice was so thick that your feet didn't crunch through it when you walked. Now all this ice and snow is long gone, and it is sunny and green. I am ready for spring.

Brussels

Brussels died at 2:30am at home. Sometime around 10pm he became unresponsive and our attempts to bring him out of this state were not successful. For 4 and a half hours we gave him doses of karo syrup and liquid dextrose but he never came back around fully. At 2:30, lying in a tshirt on my chest, his breathing gradually slowed until he took a final breath. I don't think he was in pain. I hope he wasn't.

Brussels was the first ferret to live with me for over 5 years. He would have turned 6 next month. He was an attentive friend and a playful brother to Rex, Eve, and Chewbacca, and to Tang and Bear in years passed. He was smart and quirky and he fought hard to the end. Looking at his things around the house it is clear the void he has left behind. We will miss him deeply.

Rest in peace, Brussels.