Wow. That's all.

Wow. That's all.

It's been so long. And I feel terrible. But so much has been happening that I barely know where to start.

Okay, yes I do know where to start. First off, we finally moved. We've been in our new place for almost two weeks, but as a testament to the fact that we've been crazy busy, I still haven't even taken any pictures! This is actually a pretty good thing, because our couch at the moment is two sleeping bags stacked up on top of each other in front of the TV. And our dining room is just a big empty space. Sometimes we'll make dinner and we'll say something about "dinner being on the table in the dining room," then proceed to sit on the floor with our food. It's quite glamorous.

The other really annoying thing about our loft? The building is only four stories tall with a taller loft building across the street from us. And we face like 20 units of people who can watch our every move (still no window shades, although they should be here in two weeks). There's no opportunity for anything that requires privacy, such as aggressive Wii-playing, romance or nose picking. Sigh.

The biggest time-eater as of late has been Nerdbots. And not just because we're getting a lot of online publicity and are wheelin' and dealin', but also because we are taking an entrepreneurial business class together that requires a lot of our time. It's like we're in college all over again. Ack!

We've also done an art fair, some babysitting, prepared for my BIG grilled cheese cookoff, which I'm proud to say I won, volunteered at another art fair for the nonprofit arts organization we're part of, and tons of other stuff that I can't even remember or don't want to remember.

So please forgive me, and even though we're already planning to be building robots ALL WEEKEND, I'll see what I can do about some pictures of our place. There, a little consolation prize if you will.

How does this happen to me?

How does this happen to me?

So aside from the loft, or lack of loft, situation, preparing to move and the craziness going on right now with getting our robot biz off the ground and flourishing, there's also this one other thing that's sort of stressing me out, and it involves grilled cheese.

It started earlier this week when I went to lunch with several of my co-workers, and one guy ordered grilled cheese. He claimed to be really good at making grilled cheese, and I piped up that it was one of my specialties too. Before I knew it, this whole conversation, egged on by everyone at our table, turned into a grilled cheese cookoff between me and the other guy. A cut-throat competition has been scheduled for late September.

The worst part is still to come. After accepting the challenge, I then learn that this particular person has spent years of his life as a cheese expert at Dean & Deluca. And I have spent years of my life making grilled cheese from plastic-wrapped Kraft slices and store-bought wheat bread. It's perhaps an understatement to say that I am in over my head.

But alas, it is way too late. Before the end of the day, being the advertising and design agency that we are, an e-blast was designed and sent out, and posters declaring our cheese war have been posted in each bathroom, over the printer and in the kitchen.

You're probably now thinking this is funny, but people, the wearing of professional chef hats has been discussed. Cutting the cheese jokes have been overused through email mockery. And we even flipped a Splenda packet to find out who our assigned sous chefs would be for cutting and garnishing our masterpieces. I'm in some serious trouble.

So... do any of you have a good grilled cheese recipe?


P.S. If you're my unnamed co-workers somehow miraculously discovering my blog and reading this very post, please disregard everything you've just seen. I'm not scared.

In the last 5 days...

In the last 5 days...

1. We found out that the loft we've been waiting 14 months for would be no more. The developers are pulling it out from under us so that the building can turn rental-only. Jerks.



2. We went through all five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) in a period of about 24 hours.



3. We hit the pavement to start scouting out a new place to live.



4. We found a great new loft that's bigger and better.



5. AND it's available to move into right away, rather than waiting until December.



6. We put an offer on that loft.



7. They countered.



8. We countered.



9. They accepted.

And I think that now brings us up-to-date. We just have to make sure nothing strange happens with the financing and we should be good to move in before the end of this month. Hallelujah!

Pure athlete is what I am

Pure athlete is what I am

I got Nick a Wii on Saturday for his graduation gift and have been nursing a pretty mean Wii elbow ever since. But do I stop playing? No, I cannot.

Last night I achieved my highest bowling score in the history of being, a whopping 203. Do you think I could get such a grand score by sitting and watching?

After bowling, I then proceeded to a feisty boxing match in which I KO'd my first two opponents in the first two rounds. Let it be said right now: don't mess with me.

In tennis, Nick and I teamed up to play doubles against a few various opponents, kicking their butts each time. Their poor little Miis just pouted and cried at the end of each match, and my athletic heart of stone soared with joy.

Basically, the Wii is turning me into a strong and burly force to be reckoned with, whereas previously I had not an ounce of athletic ability. So if you need me, I'll just be over here continuing my extensive Wii training and buffing up. I wonder if you'll recongnize me when I'm done.


On another note, my dad pronounced Wii as "double-you eye eye" which still makes me giggle. Hi Dad!

Robot update

Robot update

Last night we made it through our second First Friday in our little robot world. If you haven't already, you can read up on the first one here.

Because it was so hot yesterday, like heat advisory hot, I don't think the turnout was quite as high as our previous opening. There were hundreds of people, sure, but it was maybe only half of what we saw in June's First Friday. It certainly doesn't help that we are located in the top floor of an old building with no AC. Anyone who braved the oven to get to our space deserved an award. Or a free sticker. Which we gave them.

Like before, we had a lot of really great reactions from people and a lot of compliments, which let's face it, make all the hard work and sweat equity seem like it was nothing. All those nights we worked until midnight this week in the scorching heat? I barely remember them.

Feel free to visit our website if you want to check out our little creations. It's still a bit glitchy at times and isn't quite all designed and coded to my liking, but it should be completed in the next couple of weeks. There are going to be some more pages added with blogging capabilities and such, so make sure to come back again and see it in its final form.

In other news, Nick has finally graduated! I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders too, even though I wasn't the one still stuck in school. Tomorrow brings us a big par-tay! Whoo hooooo!

Movie stars

Movie stars

Several years ago, Nick and I starred in a local commercial for an outdoor theater venue because an acquaintance was the art director shooting the spot. I use the term "starred" quite loosely, as we were among dozens of audience members, and if I remember right, the only part of us you could see was our pants.

This now-famous spot obviously launched our careers in stardom. I'm sure it was the reason behind our second appearance on the big screen, which was years ago at the Royals game on the Kiss Cam. I refuse to believe it was mere coincidence.

Since then, our acting careers have slowed down considerably. Until this past weekend, that is. Don't get me wrong, we're still not thrilled with the movie shoot going on outside our studio space, but we are now certified, 100% official movie stars. On Saturday, the crew wanted to get a few shots of us working in our space, so we said of course, no problem, we're ready for our closeups.

The first scene was of us tinkering around with some parts at our workbench. Sounds like an easy feat, but I found it incredibly awkward and weird. Nick was attaching legs to one of our latest creations, so he had real work to do. I was all set up to dissect some sort of employee clock-in device, but apparently my part was too shiny and gave off a glare to the camera. So then I was forced upon plan B, which was to freak out as soon as the clapboard closed, pick up the closest thing I could find and try to look as normal as possible holding a part that needed no work.

The movie people had also asked us to ad-lib during this. They wanted us to talk about how tired, hot and hungry we were. For Nick who could carry on a conversation with a brick wall, this was an absolute delight. For me, I felt uncomfortable and awkward the whole time, trying not to look at the camera, trying to look busy with this random part in my hand and having nothing to do with it, and trying to remember to participate in my fake conversation with Nick.

We did about two or three takes of this scene, and then they set up a second scene where we would be completing a robot together and putting it on the shelf with a price tag. I thought this would be the perfect time to redeem myself as a serious and professional actress. But then they asked us to ad-lib again by talking about our feelings of success, and all my fears of sounding weird and cheesy resurfaced. It certainly didn't help that towards the end of take 1, Nick actually did a fist pound with me. The only thing worse would have been some sort of air-high five.

We did a few takes of this, cutting out the fist pound in the remaining takes, and then it was all over. Our first movie appearance ended, and I felt like we blew it. But at least we can still keep our movie star titles, and if we don't get a huge blockbuster deal out of this thing, we've always got our day jobs to fall back on.

Quiet on the set

Quiet on the set

We make our robots in the top floor of an old un-airconditioned warehouse, surrounded by the studio spaces of dozens of other artists. A couple of weeks ago, an entire production crew, a few movie sets and equipment suddenly showed in the common areas outside our space. And then they started shooting.

We showed up one night, all set to work, and found ourselves smack-dab in the middle of a movie. Apparently we missed the memo? We came the following night, and there they were again.

After a couple of nights like this, we asked the person who runs the building what was going on, and we thought he said it would last a week. So we stayed away for the rest of the week, and came back as soon as the week was up. Surprise, surprise, there they still were.

We took matters into our own hands and finally decided to ask one of the production crew how long they'd be here. The reply? Just a few more months. Yep, that's right. MONTHS. We talked to the director and explained that we have a noisy art, but that we can't stay away any longer. And he said it was fine if we use our power tools and bang around on things in between takes, but we have to be quiet during takes. Frustrating as that is, it is now what we're doing.

We'll hammer and be loud and drill things, then they'll yell out, "Quiet on the set!" and we'll stop and stand like stone sculptures, holding our power tools in mid-air. Then we wait and listen for the director to yell, "Cut!" and start up where we left off. Let me tell you, this process is getting very old.

Since we didn't sign up for a studio space in the midst of a movie set, I think we're going to see what kind of rent discount we can get for these next few months. And I think we should also be granted full access to the craft services table. And if they are serving something really good and tasty, maybe then I'll forgive them.