Have your agent call my agent

Today was a good day.
We rented our house in KC.
We're about to secure a house in STL.
And we went to a casting call for the upcoming George Clooney movie. That's right, we're so Hollywood in STL. Ironic that we lived in LA, but went to a casting call in STL, right?!

The movie is called "Up in the Air" and they are hiring 2,100 extras for the filming in STL. While it'd be cool to be in the movie, I'm really stoked about the possibility of seeing Clooney on set. I know they say it's frowned upon for extras to bring their camera on set, but who cares. If I get on set, I will have a camera. It's a total long shot, but the Roses continue their exploring and rediscovering STL!

First the polar bears...now the raccoons

Something you all probably don't know about Mike Rose: The man loves animals...mostly the ones in danger.

After the Planet Earth series came out he was real torn up about the polar bears. Sigourney Weaver had sweet talked him into thinking they were going extinct. Now, we do believe there is danger and that the Earth's temps are getting too high and all that, but for the purposes of this blog all you need to know if that Mike Rose had some real worries about the polar bears.

Flash forward a year and half, or so. Mike Rose goes to take out some trash this evening to the dumpster and what does he see? The raccoons. Now, we see them almost every night. They live at the dumpsters by his mom's place. They don't harm anyone--they just want to eat. They drive Zoey a little crazy, but you get that. Anyway, it's like 10 degrees below too cold tonight and they just emptied the dumpsters. Mike saw these little guys (well, one of them is little. That guy on the left is seriously gigantic) all curled up in balls freezing and he had a thought about maybe taking them something to keep them warm. I mean tucking in a raccoon for a good night's sleep? I didn't know whether or not to laugh, be seriously concerned, or be proud he cared so much.

Bottom line, Mike Rose is a sweet guy. Even if you are just a rabies-infested raccoon, he cares.

The Great Facial Hair Experiment

No words needed for this post. The photo(s) say it all. Thank goodness Mike Rose got a job!

A New Year

We rang in 2009 with a group of friends (Nikki, Alison, Raf, Alice, Betz, Lampe, Megan Brandenstein, and Mel, Ramsey, and B). That's one thing we love about being in STL--lots of different groups of friends to hang out with and bring together. We were safe--Nikki's step-dad dropped us all off; and Mike's mom picked us up. Yup, just like back in middle school for the dances. Mike's mom was even so nice as to drive us through Steak and Shake after our long night so we could load up on cheese fries and burgers. I'm sure she was quite amused with all of us!

So as we usher in 2009 it's time to think about goals, resolutions, or whatever you want to call me. I thought I was going to give up Diet Coke to see if I could, but already (on January 3rd) I'm thinking that's a silly resolution. Why was I doing it? And what's the purpose? So maybe I'll try to cut back for the sake of my teeth, but giving it up completely just isn't going to happen. So here's what I wish for/will play a role in making happen for 2009:

1. Find a house and move in (the sooner the better!)
2. Take care of myself--starting with getting back on South Beach and at some point during 2009 running a 5K (I hope I'll have accomplished by next winter because I hate running when it's cold outside!)
3. Explore STL like we did LA. There's more to this city than I think we give it credit for.
4. Take a vacation--whether this ends up being Mexico in July with friends, or something on our own to celebrate our 5th anniversary. We're going somewhere where we have to stay in a hotel (not with friends/family...not that there's anything wrong with that)
5. Continue to remember birthdays and special occasions of our friends and families and send cards!