Kai had to do it

My buddy Kai Dupe finally broke and bought The Device. I think my six months of steady evangelizing finally wore down his resistance. Plus, it's just so damn fly.

"I get it," Kai said after a day of using his iPhone. Actually, his first revelation was with using the iTouch his wife got him. This is how computers and smart appliances should work.

Verizon just released it's latest Samsung phone. That's so cute.

UPDATE: Apple's iPhone has now officially bit Kai's lovely wife Cathy in the butt. Don't worry, y'all- I've got about 3 people standing in line to buy your iPod Touch. (Sorry, no luck on The Brick, er, the Sidekick.)

Seasons Greetings!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours.

From Guilbot Famil...

Mary and Danielle's new photos

From Mary's Acting...

Mary got some new acting headshots with Austin's premiere photographer, Fabrizio. He did such a great job on our last shots, it was a no-brainer to go back to him. But when Mary stopped by the next day to pick up the digital contact sheet CD, Fabrizio was so taken with little Danielle that he insisted on shooting some photos of her and some "mommy and baby" shots.

I think they came out great. This one's my favorite:




And this one really captures Mary's love for Danielle, even though Danielle looks a bit freaked out. :-)





UPDATE
Fabrizio also took some family Christmas photos for us. Here's a few of them!

From Guilbot Famil...

Happy Birthday, Dad

We miss you.

Danielle's first Thanksgiving

From Dani's First ...

Danielle celebrated Thanksgiving at Sita's house first, then moved the party to India's sister's house (Wendy and Dave). She had a blast, as you can tell.

It was a lot of fun, with lots of great food and company. Also, the Cowboys stomped the NY Jets. Danielle really enjoyed the wooden Noah's Ark animals. Especially the deer, even though she bit off his itty-itty ears.

Danielle's Grandma Tina

From Danielle and ...

Danielle visited Daddy at work the other day, and snuggled up with her Grandma Tina. She was a good baby, and was very patient while Mommy and Daddy showed her off to all of Dad's work buddies. But when she got tired, she curled up in Tina's arms and looked like she would drift off any minute.

Of course, Daddy wasn't billing for this time. ;-P

Dr. Danielle prescribes hugs and kisses

Danielle went to visit Grandma Janie and got in a few extra hugs and kisses from Uncle Mike Bucek, then from Cousin Jeannette DeBee, when she returned home.

The best medicine.

Click this photo to see the whole album:

Danielle at 11 months 11/1/07 8:42 PM

Prison Break still frames

From Prison Break ...

Finally got some photos from the set. Not all of them are in focus, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. Click on a photo to link to the album.

Enjoy.

Danielle's First Halloween!

From Danielle's Fi...

From Danielle's Fi...

Danielle joined her buddies Elizabeth, George, and Griffin Yancy for her very first Halloween trick-or-treating. We never saw so many cute costumes.





After stressing (slightly) over a costume for Big D, Christa offered up her own hand-made M&M costume that she crafted for Griffin. As if Danielle wasn't already sweet enough!!! :-)

From Danielle's Fi...

Danielle didn't get candy (Daddy did!), but she got lots of extra hugs and snuggles, from Aunt Christa and Aunt Sherri. She liked those better, anyway.

From Danielle's Fi...

From Danielle's Fi...

It was hard to compete with all the great costumes we saw that night, especially Sean Dugan's "Napolean Dynamite" outfit, but she held her own. Dugan's pneumatic skull-on-a-stick was a big hit with the neighborhood kids.



Sean's got, like, mad trick-or-treating skills...

Mary & Heather Reunited

Mary reunited with her good friend Heather Ryndak-Swink, who was in Austin this weekend. Heather was Mary's former classmate at University of Illinois at Springfield's Master's program in Public Affairs Reporting, and recently got married (Yea, Heather!).

They had a tasty lunch on Friday at the Eastside Cafe, then came back and spent some time on our porch. I missed seeing Heather, but I'm glad the girls got to have some time together.

Danielle's Baptism

From Danielle's Ba...

Danielle got right with God on October 21, 2007, at the Holy Family Church in Wharton, Texas. The whole Bucek clan was out, so it was a hoot (really!). Uncle Tim conducted the ceremony, so you know it was a hoot. Father Tim is a party monster. Seriously, we had a great time, and Danielle soon got over the momentary trauma of water on her head. She does the same thing when we wash her hair, Tim- don't take it personally.

Danielle's Godparents are Mary's cousin Sara and her husband Keith, and we couldn't think of two more down-to-earth people, so we're very glad to have them as parents-on-deck. So to speak.



Danielle was sporting a beautiful family heirloom baptismal dress worn by her Cita, her Aunt Lizzy, and many more in the Chumney line, so it felt like Grandma India (and Grandpa Ron) was right there with us the whole time. Danielle refused to wear the bonnet for more than a single photo, though. She wanted her wild mane to be free!

Li'l Bit helped Daddy play piano while we waited for everyone to be ready. But the best moment of all was when Father Tim presented the newly-christened Danielle Anne Guilbot to the world, and she started waving to the congregation with both hands, like a tiny, curly-headed Richard Nixon.

From Danielle's Ba...

Good thing she's no ham.

Cita & Lizzy visit doesn't help the Cowboys

Danielle had a fun visit to Cita's house, and she got to see her Aunt Lizzy, but it still didn't help the Cowboys beat New England. I know, I know... Danielle's magical powers enabled the Spurs to roll over the Cleveland Cavaliers for their fourth NBA Championship earlier this year.

But let's face it: LeBron James is no Tom Brady. Or maybe his coach just didn't have signal-stealing video cameras in place. Whatever. Spurs rock.

But we know that Da Boyz must have had some of Dad's help from on high the previous Monday night, when Tony Romo threw six (yes, 6!) interceptions and still won the game. Nice one, Dad.

Danielle can't wait to go back!

Prison Break Viewing Party

The Friends and Former (and Future) Co-Workers of Curtis Wayne threw a lovely Prison Break Viewing Party at Robert & Sherri Dugan's house on Monday to watch Curtis' national TV series debut on Dugan's HUGE 60-inch HDTV.

Sherri cooked up some great food and snacks, and my friends Shirley Martin and Kai Dupe even brought champagne to celebrate!








We had to cut off Danielle at two glasses. She's a lightweight.





I want to thank all the good people who made it out to celebrate this special moment (literally- that's about how long I was onscreen) with me, Mary, and Danielle: Robert, Sherri, Kylie, and Sean Dugan, Robert Boley, Kai Dupe, Shirley Martin, Scott Artman, Eduardo Mena, Diana Lamnisos, Vicki Aversa, Jon Twichell, Lance Adams, Elaine Moser, and John Deviney, and Dugan's neice Kelly.





Danielle's grandma Cita also hosted a family viewing party in San Antonio. Ever since I turned 30, though, I find it increasingly hard to be in two places at once, so I hope she will forgive me for hanging around the ATX. We'll try to make it down to SA for my gruesome death scene. :-)

Danielle's first swim!

Took me a while to get this post up, with all that's been happening this summer (more on that later). But while I was filming Prison Break in Dallas, our friends the Dugans invited Mary and Big D over for a swim. Kylie and Sean treated her like their own sister. Robert took a bunch of photos, including this one. You can see from this photo that Danielle, as usual, developed a quick crush on Sean.

Free at last

Today I quit.

For better or worse, I am now a professional actor. Woo-hoo!



Of course, in a week or so, I could be an unemployed professional actor. That's the risk, when you're working on a week-to-week contract, as I am with Prison Break. But you know what? It still beats working in a 6x6' cube.

Actually, as cube farms go, my former employer was a pretty good one. The people were great, the job was challenging, benefits were excellent, and the salary was decent. Also, my bosses were very understanding of my desire to make a life in the arts, and worked with me until it just became unfeasible, which is why I offered my resignation.

But the bottom line is, I don't care about insurance. Does anybody, really? I mean, it's a living, and a comfortable one, but seeing my Dad fighting for his life at age 59 opened my eyes. This is not my "rehearsal life"; this is my LIFE. I've always taken chances, but after seven years of making good, comfortable, corporate money, I had gotten a little complacent. This show was a kick in the pants, and the opportunity for me to make a leap of faith. So I jumped.

Strangely enough, making a multi-million dollar film or television series is a lot like running projects in a corporation. There's definitely a hierarchy, various agendas, and "office politics" at work. And the director's job is largely project management, along with a "system architect" role, perhaps. But even though what we're working on is mere entertainment, it feels more honest. We don't delude ourselves that we're doing something of deep philosophical importance, but we're all very committed to it.

And, as it turns out, a lot more people seem to care about this silly television show than they do insurance companies. Prison Break is the number one rated show in this country and several others, apparently, and has a huge international following (I had no idea). People aren't nearly as impressed with my corporate resume, alas. :-)

So, this is a scary time for Mary and I (Danielle doesn't seem to care, either way).


But it's also an exciting and fun new chapter in our lives. I look forward to turning the page.

Curtis is in prison- on TV!!!

Wow.

What an amazing last five weeks! Thanks to Mary, I landed a small recurring role in the hit Fox television show "Prison Break". I've been filming in Dallas the last couple of weeks.

PHOTO: Curtis Wayne and Sala Baker, Hollywood stunt man extraordinaire.


The bosses at my day job in Austin have been exceedingly cool and accommodating about the whole situation, but obviously, if it continues much longer, I'll be a full-time, professional actor ONLY, instead of an IT project manager at an insurance company, who occasionally does some acting. That would be awesome, but it's also plenty darn scary. Unfortunately, I don't know any more than my bosses do at the moment; I'm booked until this coming Friday, August 3, and after that, it's up in the air (I'm working on a weekly contract with the show).

And I almost blew it.

I almost didn't go to the audition. Mary was out of town, I was tired from long hours at work and doing home maintenance, plus several other irons we have in the fire, and wasn't particularly looking forward to a one-day trip to Dallas (3.5 hours each way) by myself, especially for roles that were described as "Panamanian prisoners", and which sides were in Spanish.

But Mary wouldn't let me NOT go. She's had a feeling that I would book Prison Break ever since they started filming in Dallas, during their second season. So she talked me into it, long-distance, thank God. We ended up going together, which was cool, and the stars aligned just so, then voila-- I booked the job.

Then, during the first two days of filming, my agent calls and says they want to bring back my character (now with a name- "Cheo"), and book me for a few weeks. Well, that was just too freaking cool, but there was the little matter of the day job, and the multi-million dollar, high-profile, mission-critical project I'd been working on for the past 3 years. I would kind of be leaving them high and dry, which I felt terrible about. I don't like that sort of treatment myself, and I don't like to do it to others.

My boss Greg, new boss Robert, and head honcho Jim were all very supportive, and tried to find a way to work with me. So if I don't get booked past this Friday, I may still have my day job. But if I do, well, then... I'm a professional actor. :-p

The first week was pretty lonely without Mary and Danielle, and of course, my thoughts were with Dad and India, as he is still recovering in the hospital. But Mary drove up, and has spent a lot of time with me here in Big D, so that's been wonderful. I don't get quite as much sleep with the baby here, but at least I get to see her daily.

PHOTO: Danielle kickin' it with Daddy at the hotel, and eyeing his Chinese food.




Back in Austin on Tuesday, with a few days off. Hopefully, I'll know more about the following week's schedule by then.

We'll keep you posted. (Hey, a fan mail campaign demanding to see more of "Cheo" during the third season wouldn't hurt, y'all!!! ;-)

Thanks to Liz Atherton, Shannon Pinkston, Toni Cobb-Brock, Kevin Hooks, my wife Mary, my bosses at TWIA, my folks, and all the cool people who helped make this opportunity- and my life's dream- possible.

Old friends, new life

We caught up with my best buddy, Ray Ayala, and his beautiful family- wife Hortencia (Tencha), daughter Marissa, and son Daniel. they got to meet our daughter Danielle, and she was enthralled by all the kids running around.

We only wish it was under happier circumstances. Ray's vibrant and prolific father, Pedro Ayala, passed away last Saturday. Our deepest sympathies are with Ray, his sister, his mother, and Pedro's siblings during this trying time.

Spurs win!

The San Antonio Spurs won their fourth championship tonight, due in no small part to the quality cheerleading of my 6-month old daughter Danielle.

From Danielle at 5...

Oh, sure, Finals MVP Tony Parker's 25 points per game average, and Duncan's presence in the paint helped a bit, too. But really, LeBron James never had a chance against this face:

From Danielle at 6...

And to my good friend Robert Boley, a die-hard Dallas Mavericks fan, I offer my congratulations. His boy Michael Finley finally won a ring! Except it was with, uh, the Spurs. Oh, well. At least Dirk's got the regular season MVP trophy to keep him company, Robert.

Now, if Shaq just decides that he wants three more rings before he retires, and moves to San Antonio... mmmmm..... the Dunquille Duo. (slobber)

GO SPURS!!!!

We made it through six months!!!

...and didn't drop her! Not even once. Imagine that!

This month (and the end of last month), Danielle got to meet our good friends the Yancys (Justin, Christa, George, Elizabeth, and Griffin), and the Dugans (Robert, Sherri, Kylie. Sean wasn't there this time).

She was pretty cool with them all, though she was still going through her "stranger danger" period when Justin and Christa and their kids were over. Unfortunately, I don't think we got any pictures. Boo.

By the time Robert and Sherri visited, Danielle was pretty mellow. And she loved Kylie!







She even let them all hold her, and Robert gave her a Super-super Danielle sky ride.

Robert's a foot taller than me, so she saw the world from a whole new perspective when he lifted her up. He's a big ol' softie.

We're going to see Grandpa Ron and Grandma India next Wednesday. Dad's home from the hospital after a lung transplant (!), and this will be the first time he's seen her since a week or two before that operation. We had a wait a while to see him, until his immune system strengthened enough to have visitors. But he's doing remarkably well, so we're all thrilled and grateful about that!

Next weekend, Grandma Barbara and Grandpa Mike come in for a visit. Danielle will be a regular social butterfly, with all these visitors! She's been a really happy baby lately, so we're hoping everyone gets to hear her little giggle-fests. We'll post some more pictures and videos when we visit.

Tonight for the first time, Danielle played peek-a-boo with Mommy. By the time I got it on video, she was going a little too fast, but it was still pretty cute.