Wednesday, December 31, 2008

A (former Wamegoan) Model.


My daughter has informed me that one of her classmates is on the online version of Cabela's catalog. I've seen him a few times in the actual catalog since Brig seems to get them monthly.

Wearing the yellow ski coat; it's fun to see a face you know!

(Afterthought: Brig's girlfriend's little sis has a modeling contract with some agency in Chicago...,...and let's not forget the time that Nate got to spend the afternoon photo-session posing with all the Laker Girls!)

Monday, December 22, 2008

The Antique...


Yeah! Today is payday, so I can Christmas shop tomorrow after work...but I did run out to the gun dealer's and pick up the new OLD inexpensive 'toy'. (It's been absolutely ridiculous with men racing about snatching up all guns in site sending prices sky-high for certain types + their ammo... 'Obama, blah blah, gun control, blah blah, don't wanna lose my guns, blah blah' is insane--like there's not plenty of other stuff for this country to worry about besides THAT. Oh brother.)

Anyway, it IS pretty cool, especially with the bayonet attached and it came with little ancient accessories all packed in Baba Yaga's earwax. Absentmindedly though, I forgot the camera so I found a online pic to post and a page of humor (as a woman, I am proud to say that I understood all the statements and was tickled by that! So there.) Merry Christmas!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Have a Junky Christmas!


I inverted a corner of my current sketch and rather liked the darkness...thought the plant looked like some type of sci-fi glowing Holiday Tree. And lets not forget old tires gifting the landscape.

Friday, November 28, 2008

The Closing Of The Year

Well, the holiday season is here and this reminds me a lot of the kids. I always liked this song from TOYS and it was an oddly interesting movie too.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Hilarious:

Read this email about the art drawing of a spider...ha ha! I just might have to send it to my Chiropractor!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Chagrin

Got home late from a wrestling meet and was informed by my son that the "mini me" he put into the same aquarium as Tarantula Fritz.....has escaped. The previous comment on the arachnids possibly 'webbing us into our beds' is not so funny at the moment--now that it is loose on the same floor.
Makes me wonder if Fritz was set on devouring Mini and it was able to fit through the small hole at the top of the cage in a desperate attempt for freedom. Please god, make it be awfully tired and unable to explore our bedrooms.
Better shake out the shoes from now on...

Monday, November 10, 2008

I Shall Call Him...Mini Me.

Sunday I was trying to avoid my inevitable suffering that I predict I'll endure with the forthcoming winter weather, which is due to make it's debut tomorrow (today/Monday) with chilly rain followed by more drizzle and snow, by readying several outdoorsy tasks.... Yuck. (This past week has been incredibly windy, but I have managed to 'breeze' through it by zooming maniacally on my bike TOWARDS work, and then laboriously peddling home FROM it. What a drag.)

So I hung out a load of clothes wearing gloves, ate a small icy-crisp turnip I pulled ½ out of the ground, checked antifreeze in all the antique/crappy vehicle radiators, indecisively aired up a couple nearly-low tires, put away some flowerpots, took down a hammock, and once back indoors, made some Gingersnap cookies to warm up the kitchen and headed toward the dreaded back-room basement where the furnace lurks in the cobwebs and dust....

MOTHER! Eeeeck! Ick. A huge, I mean ridiculously HUGE wolf spider was guarding the old wooden plank door. I cringed and shivered because I had performed another challenging task earlier—placing my hands on a heavy glass aquarium and actually moving the Tarantula Fritz to a new corner of the house—away from a breezy old windy, because, despite my dislike of these 8-legged critters, I still couldn't bear to see it's demise if it slowly chilled, curled up and died like a frozen upside-down flower—plus the darn thing cost $25 bucks.
HORRORS. The wolf spider sat still (probably too chilly to skitter away) so I eventually got an old mason jar and scooped it up so I could venture forward and replace the furnace filter.

Pardon the language, but this really PI$$ES ME OFF. I hate to turn on the furnace before Thanksgiving. (Last year I begrudgingly did, but only because Paula and her sis were here a lot.) I just hate to give in to winter. To adjust the thermostat and turn the knob to 'heat' means that summer is really OVER and I must succumb to the dark nights and sunless days, scraping windshields, the frozen fingers and toes, the icy wind blowing tears from your eyes, and wearing numerous layers just to stay alive with some semblance of comfort.

So today I decided to drive an old clunker car instead of biking-- stopping by the chiropractor at 7:30am—of course the battery screwed up so I got to walk on to work, then walk home in the damp cold rain and get sopping wet feet...yes, whaa, whaa, whaa; quit whining!

But I placed the wolf spider by Fritz's heatlight, gave it a small cricket and decided they could nearly be related—sneaky, hairy things...I've never seen one in the house before.... In my imagination, Fritz shall call his new friend 'Mini Me'.

And they'll plot together, build up their mojo, and eventually take over the house in the dark of the night webbing us in our beds.....

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Navy Halloween



Don't even know what to type here, but it looks like it was a fun night! Very interesting costumes! Derek looks crazy...who's in the red pants? and did Sarah make the booze outfits?
Brig decides to dress up at the last minute: Rambo w/ live ammo... Paula was one of the witches from Hocus Pocus...

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Thnakes in the Dark

It finally frosted this week but despite the cold morning, I decided to ride my bike anyway—so what if it froze? Last week was rainy....

All is well and good at 6:55am, but I nearly ran into 2 parked cars in the pitch black streets. Yaaaa!

I didn't realize how 'the dark before the dawn' seems extra gloomy and dense especially under over-hanging tree limbs; that and the fact that several street lamps were either burned out or few and far between. Luckily I didn't show up for work with my two front teeth bashed out or anything despite the denseness of dawn (or my brain).

I've walked home from a couple football games lately; it'd been warm enough for flip-flops (not a good idea when it's over a mile), and also discovered a couple unlit areas. The sports field is just outside of town, but you can walk down the road, then find a couple side streets connected from the country and get into town. On one of these ventures I was hustling right along (I leave before the 4th quarter because frankly, I am a crowd-watcher, not a game watcher, yawn), and I was on the lookout (for weirdos) for chunks of gravel that would hurt through my thin soles....

Hmmm... I vaguely see a tree branch...wait...those curves are too curvy and uniform for a stick....must be....a SNAKE!

It had come up on the blacktop for warmth and I circled it a couple times and poked it with my toe (heck with those flip-flops) to see if it was still amongst the living. (Pardon me but Beetlejuice was on TV this week!) Yes indeedy. No road-kill for me. I kept circling, crouching lower, trying to distinguish what type it was. No luck. It was just too dark to see much at all....but still, I am a perseverer!

I tried my darnedest to see-- what if it was poisonous?

Finally I just tried to determine which end was the head and which was the tail and since I couldn't really tell, I had to pick it up. (If one end had looked way different I would of assumed it had 'the tell-tale triangle head' of a harmful snake. )

I continued on...snake in one hand, flip-flops in another...and as that stinker warmed up, it went wild! Talk about wiggly and frantic! I could hardly hold on to it's berserk little 18” body... but I managed to make it home and containerize it. NOT for the freezer, but just to show Briggs and let it loose the next day... It was a pleasant mild brown color.

Speaking of snakes, one morning in the mid-90's, about 6:00 am, the house-hold was awakened by a bloodcurdling scream from the bathroom. There was Bailey, dripping in a towel, mad as heck-- a huge black snake had escaped the night before and was whipping around the bathtub in a frenzy...she had stepped in and turned on the water...and then it went crazy! Why she didn't notice it before...well it seemed pretty funny for a few moments, but not to her—trying to get ready for basketball practice.

Back to the bike...as I was leaving work, I'd only gone a block when part of the gear/brake contraption thingymajig on my right handlebar fell apart. Luckily a knowledgeable kid helped me fix it because I couldn't quite figure it out. He tightened it up with his fingers, enough to make it home anyway-- all I could think of was 'thank God it worked this morning'-- I really would have bashed into something without a decent brake!

Then I would be lithping thith blog and I don't know how to type in lithp.

Friday, October 24, 2008

The Music of Video Games [119] Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts

I heard this 1 zillion times. Really. One zillion!

The Smart-Aleckness (and Dexterity) of Youth

I'm combining a couple things here as I have been encouraged (and baited) to drink a couple rounds of....absinthe....and some other God-awful concoction that probably tastes like cough syrup, but my throat is numb from strong Anise flavoring... and thus it is tasteless to me...much like my own self anymore.

Yesterday I heard a few bars of the above music (don't even try to listen to it all) and I burst out with 'Oh my gosh! I remember exactly what that was!'

"Ghouls and Ghosts"-- early 1990's and the beginnings of Tegan's obsession with all things digital/electronical/computerized/mechanical/coding/on-screen/thus requiring rapid finger movements (the first few hours when your entire upper body moves with the Ghoul or Mario or Link or Sonic or whomever is leaping across the screen at any given moment until your shoulders realize they are not a participant in whatever evil befalls--only the hands are important) and the utmost in brain concentration!

In remembrance, don't speak to a gamer....it will be ALL YOUR FAULT if they miss the 3rd level and have to start over!

Brigham was watching a Youtube of the old Super Ghouls game before he went out the door to buy a Coke at the gas station. Of course, I admonished that pops were too expensive and 'you should not waste your money' whereupon he replied that he wasn't wasting HIS money.
(DRAT! My $5.00 had been laying on the table...) Smart Aleck!

And this morning I heard the sound of rustling as he entered the door after work...I'd always hoped that he'd stop and pick up some groceries now and then, but to no avail.
'Yea!' I cheer from the kitchen (I was a good cheerleader in high school), 'I hear SACKS! I hear SACKS!'
'Oh yeah?' he replies, 'I hear an OLD BAG.'

Smart Aleck.

So here I sit typing and him and the boys are upstairs. Brig had bought coke and chips. I went up there to mention that REAL food was available for the 4 of them, but was screeched at: 'Can't you see I'm floating in Zero Gravity and you just messed me up?!'

Hmmm. All I saw is some 4-legged scorpion monster explode guts all over the screen from some sci-fi blast gun...Oh so sorry!
Again....don't speak to a gamer....or you'll ruin their level....! How many times have I heard that? Or the phrase begged...'just wait 'til I beat this level...just wait 'til I beat this level...
(No one tells you it could be a 3 hr time deferential!)

I'd made a huge pot of chili, cornbread, brownies for these guys ON MY DAY OFF...but now it sits cooling off; it is sadly ignored for the sake of a sugar cube, lighter, shot glass and hopes of seeing a Green Fairy. This will not happen though...a few brave swallows of this strange liquor (and some smart aleck remarks geared toward mom), but NONE of them could handle the taste of licorice, so they ran back upstairs to attempt Mario Kart this time (while I practice unsuccessfully on an online Tetris game-- absinthe+finger dexterity= failure.)

Well, that's good-- they didn't need absinthe anyway...attempting to light a spooned sugar cube on fire reminded me of old-movie-mad-scientists (or heroin addicts), so thank god no one was watching them through the window! Is that why Frankenstein has a green face?

So go up and play your games boys, and I will smile and thank my lucky stars that I can't hear 48 hours straight of continual Wolfenstein/Duke Nukem/Doom music reverberating through my ears like the (sigh. ahhh.) good old days!

[Sarah Marie...you have NO IDEA of Tegan's old addiction to lan parties! Just ask 'GOD' himself.]

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Techies?

Hey anyone out there that can help? I very quickly showed some students how to do extremely simple frames in PhotoShop...we can play them in Adobe, Jasc Animation Shop, and Movie Maker so they loop, but I am not an animator... and I have to save them as QuickTime files...which don't loop...
Here is an example in this first post....the student should be sliding down and up...
Thanx!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Spiked Turnip

Farmer Guy brought in a volleyball-sized turnip yesterday—weighed over 7 lbs. He gave me a couple smaller ones, halved accidentally by the disk. Now, before you turnip your nose, I did eat an entire ½ for supper—part raw sticks and part cooked.

Due to their immense size (or old age?), I was afraid they'd grown coarse and bitter (like me!), but it was pretty good.

I proclaimed that I was going to try to grow a bigger one next year in a special pot and baby it along! This riled Farmer Guy who said he was going to feed his a mixture of Old Milwaukee, Coca-Cola, and household Ammonia—apparently a home concoction of Miracle Grow (...or the makings of a meth lab?)

A topic of more Home Brews followed...Hungry Farmer Man told how he makes his own Schnapps out of Everclear; I agreed to donate persimmons and crabapples to Skinny Farmer Guy's 'homemade wine cause'... They all told their stories of drinkin' and youth and avoidin' the law...

(Not naming any names, I was called back up to the football game Friday by a 20 yr old kid-- uh, he was 'looking for my son for a ride home—he was getting an MIP'. Brig wasn't around, so I went up to the stadium for the 'rescue' but when I saw that there were 3 of them, I knew they wouldn't fit in my truck. These boys were all pretty good kids/non-drinkers in high school/currently 'testing the waters' and I think this was realized because I stood back a distance while they were bade to pour out their booze in the gravel... I told the officers that I didn't know there were 3 of them so I didn't have enough room and eventually a dad came and picked them all up...Where was Brig? Standing inside the stadium with some lovely pink roses for Paula...He picked a good night to watch his gal cheer! Whew.

The boys got off with a warning scare, but won't be so lucky again.)

So, back to the shenanigans of youth... The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly:

  • There is no Good.

  • Stitching a pocket on the inside of your cheerleading coat so you can sneak in a bottle of brandy to a dance.

  • Ditto Prom with a pocket on the inside of an ugly polyester dual-topstitched baby blue tux coat (with ruffled shirt)!

  • A nice boyfriend that scrubbed vomit out of the inner-pocket passenger door of his red Firebird Transam. Purple Passion.

  • Rolling a truck multiple times down a hill. Wild Turkey. Sheer luck=no major injuries.

  • Hitting a telephone pole the next week after sneaking out from being grounded due to the Wild Turkey incident. Jack Daniels+ Sheer luck= no major injuries.

  • Police Chief visits you at high school to confiscate your fake ID. When using it to by TJ Swan, the liquor store owner realizes it belonged to her niece. And you aren't the niece!

  • Losing second ID in Kansas City by signing your real name for the bouncer instead of the one on the ID. I didn't really want to get into a disco anyway. Rock and Roll!

  • Ditching school to drink vodka with friends and strangers and ending up in jail a few hours later labeled a runaway.

  • Etc.

The above is not recommended: I had a terribly shameful sophomore year and wouldn't advise

anyone to act as stupid as I did! That's why to this day I cannot stand the smell of wine or hard liquor. Now should I tell some of the Coffee Drinkers' stories.....? I better not!!!

Instead I'll sit here nibbling more turnip sticks. And stemming sweet crabapples for something to do.... while thanking my lucky stars that my kids turned out brighter than I did!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Bored. Filling my mind with fluff.

Trying to amuse myself tonight by looking at the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator....(Hey! I LIKE unusual names...so I guess that's the only + I can give her...)
and the Jokes. Yes. Lots of Jokes!

I Don't Care - Fall Out Boy

I don't care what you think. Really. Just heard this on TV so I had to find it...

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Mind Trash


Each time I see Dan's opening blog rocky beach picture, all I can envision are the two people in the background, one up/one down, with a rather obscure object in the foreground which I keep seeing as an AK-47. Don't ask me why, but that's what I see. Or a machine gun. My mind at work...

I almost started this blog with "I rolled over in bed the other night and felt something hard..." (!) which sounded inappropriate, but the truth. There was one of the "A" guns tucked under the covers, an AK or an AR-15--whatever, but it was hidden there when a lazy boy didn't lock it up in the gun safe like he was supposed to.

Speaking of stalkers in an earlier blog, I just learned that a friend and her old boyfriend had each filed restraining orders against one another. This seems like a game or a soap scenario--who breaks it first? Look at the beach pic again: Do you see his arm pointing? Is he demanding? Yelling for her to get up and get the heck out of his life??? LEAVE. RIGHT. NOW.

I heard an interesting quip on TV last night: you're "pathologically allergic to human relationships". I couldn't remember exactly if it were 'pathologically' or psychologically' allergic, but the online dictionary pretty much defines them in a similar fashion, although being 'pathologic' seems dredged with a bit more negative or sinister aspects than 'psychologic' does!

But isn't that an interesting phrase? Is that me? Am I allergic? Are many of us 'allergic to human relationships'? (Would this be like a cat allergy?--meow.) I suppose it could be an 'innate slight mental phobia: a whispering fear of closeness'--yeah, people in general should just be avoided!

Or like my friends mentioned above--it turns into a "pathological lingering addiction for diseased human relationships". Don't break that restraining order! I can see it now, like that guy in the pic...soon he'll run over and grab that up that weapon...

Just kidding. It looks like a nice beach, a loving couple, and its probably just driftwood and a coat!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Australia Movie

The preview for the movie "Australia" was on TV tonight--I hadn't heard about it but was immediately 'drawn in' with the clothing style. Lovely...Grungy...depending upon whether you were looking at Nicole Kidman or Hugh Jackman. Sigh.

Sort of reminded me of Meryl Streep's sophisticated elegance in "Out of Africa"...

I adored the descriptions of Australia in "The Thorn Birds"--a book I read a zillion times many years ago... now I'll have to dredge it up from the depths of the dusty bookshelves...



Looks like a movie I might like to watch!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

About Town

Just driving around a bit since it was a nice day and I'd already taken a bike ride...I will post a pic of Motorcycle Steve's place first, since he was afraid I'd snapped a pic of his rear end! It is a very cute little brick house with some white gingerbread:

Here is my ride to school every day-- this red bike that Brigg fixed up for me out of pieces of other bikes. (We have 4 good ones now.) I ride it 1.3 miles to work and home this year, unless it is raining. My black truck is fixed now, but if it rains, I take the green Nissan-- and Yes, I did park it like that on purpose! I guess it shows what a typical Wamego street looks like. Hmmm. These pics keep rearranging and disappearing on me....frown.



There's an old chicken shed in my backyard; it has many items of junk hanging about, along with the bicycles. I guess I will walk around the yard with the camera. My banana peppers are mild, sweet, lovely, and PROLIFIC. I picked 68 of them yesterday and froze them, with tons left. (Only 3 plants and they're loaded.) This antique rose bush was only a foot high in May, but grew many many feet during our weird summer. This hydrangea bush stayed a normal size, but those on the N of my house are taller than my head now and reblooming. Weird. Oh. A boat in the yard that wasn't used this year.

Here's a view down my alley. See the tractor? Back there is where Stalkerman lived.
And I am stopping now because I am getting irritated at blogger for mixing up my pictures. More later...

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Nani Birds



There's a really cool site called http://www.nanibird.com/ which allows you to print your own bird--fold it up and have some fun.
I had my graphics class play with this--we lost our lab due to testing this week so we tried making birds and other things...
This is my "Loonesta" after the Luna Moth or Lunesta drug...I inverted his beak into teeth, and will finish him later...
Fun!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Salad Fingers 1

Firth needs to make these more often--he spaces them out like Thomas Harris and his "Lamb" series...they're so creepy and odd...sorry about the o word though. Its not kid appropriate...

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Trash Art #1

Since I was such a loser yesterday, I went for a walk then swore I would make 1 thing.
Here it is, the beginning of my 'raid the junk drawer, layer it down, liquid nail it, add some paint' deMeng-style Art Assemblage.
Here is it--in stage one.
I need to repaint some areas, stain and burn up some antique Norwegian Bible pages or whatever cool text I have, goo on some decoupage stuff--change that unfitting face...repaint again and apply a finish...Stage 2:

Saturday, September 6, 2008

BOREDOM REIGNS.

and so is the sky...Aaggh.

Going nuts. I'm sitting here late afternoon, trying to decide what to work on; nothing holds my interest. I feel glum. Already grocery shopped early this morning, made cookies, made real apple crisp, but no kids here to eat it. Scrubbed (sort of) the kitchen floor. My freakin shoulder and hip hurt so bad I'm O.D.ing on Aleve and have been for a month.

BORED.

If it weren't drizzly, I'd be outside. If I could, I'd go run/go lift—that gives me a sense of accomplishment, wakes me up, gives me energy, and wastes some time.

RESTLESS.

This is my mood that gets me in stupid trouble. Big trouble usually. Like deciding 'What's the harm in just saying Hi to that guy over there?' (stalkers); 'What's the harm with a group of us ladies hangin' with those young guys at the bar?' (bad rumors); 'Why shouldn't I just call up...?' (remember the teacher found in the trunk of her car...)

SNAP OUT OF IT.

I could take a nap, but I 'd feel guilty. I've lost my creativity and I'm wasting away. I better find something to do around here before insanity rules. Sigh.

Piece of an old sketch 'Willys Tulip Truck'. rrrrr. I'm feeling disagreeable. What are these? Little Shop of Horrors' plants? Honey I Shrunk the Kids forest? Dumb. Like I said, I've been known for 'dumb'.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Travis Metcalf

I see one of our hometown baseball boys is listed on ESPN's scoreboard:


Yeah, Travis!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Baseball players....















no names here....but isn't this cute?! Found it on my computer today...

Thursday, August 14, 2008

4:00 am

This early morning hour is beginning to get a little strange... today was myself answering Brigg's call--"I just hit a deer."
When you get a call that early, you usually force your brain into action, knowing that it can't be your normal, everyday phone call. (Except for Tegan, calling from Hong Kong or Guam...and those were exciting or a relief.)Anyway, my first sentence was this statement...."Aren't you glad you weren't on a motorcycle?" (He'd been wanting one all summer and didn't seem to be listening to his elders remind him of deer and death) followed by, "It's all right. Are you OK?"
Someone totaled Bailey's car on her first day of classes when she went to KU... then she'd used my red truck for a few days and had returned it when she started to cry in the living room...she'd just hit someone with my truck too, and thought I'd be mad! It wasn't too noticeable and to me the only thing that matters wasn't any darn vehicle but the humans involved, plus, what can you do about it anyway?!

Brig thought he'd totaled my truck and believe me, I drove his truck pretty slowly going to pick him up--I didn't want to run into a creature either. The Chevy didn't look good by flashlight (or flashing lights!), but Copfriend hauled it back to town this afternoon and it will be fixable. New windshield, new hood--(it flew up, bent, and blinded him), whole new front, lights, blah blah... and when I said, "let's find the deer", Brigs was more focused on catching a grasshopper resting on a weed beside it...so I think he was shook up. (That, or it is really hard for him to look at a dead animal unless it is a squirrel or bird.)
It is an expensive lesson/experience, but I guess its beneficial to know what an accident feels like...like they say...you learn something new every day.... or as Bailey says, "Too many deer?! RELEASE THE PANTHERS!"
Just had to post this little fawn...Brig worked on his truck a couple weeks ago at Capone's place by Alma...they'd been raising a motherless fawn since birth on a bottle. They moved it outdoors as soon as it was deemed safe/best for the little thing, but it came to the door every day to be fed several times. Isn't this just the cutest little pic?

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Frantic Bats 'n Baseball Hats!

At 4:00am, Brig came downstairs: "There's something in my room!" I groggily replied..."just a wasp...there were 2 in the kitchen..."
"No," he said, "There's SOMETHING IN MY ROOM!" Again I told him it was just a wasp bumpin around...and he said I just needed to sit on his bed and "LISTEN".
As he went on to work, I just HAD to find out for myself...."f f f f f f f f f f ooom". "f f f f f f f f f f ooooom." "f f f f f f f f ff f f ooooooom". It was regular as clockwork and soon I discovered it was a tiny bat circling his room like a Kenyan on a 10k! Round and 'round it flew with a faint flutter vibration and when I stood up it came dangerously close to my head and I envisioned all those screaming TV actresses suffering so-called bat attacks!
It was getting tired and confused so I finally caught the poor little thing in a baseball hat and tossed the whole thing outside--didn't want to get bit.
But tonight, right when Phelps was getting to swim, here was a bat watching the Olympics with us! This one was much larger and faster and circled between 3 rooms until we shut some doors, grabbed a camera, pillow, and another baseball hat. It took MUCH longer to get this one shooed toward the propped-open door, and its aggressiveness caused many shrieks, giggles, and wild arm waving. (No, Brigham didn't shriek....but then it didn't nearly crawl up HIS calf either!)
(Brigham 'stylin' late this afternoon. Reminds me of when he was 2 years old; shorts twisted sideways and cowboy boots with a pink tee...) Ok...so when animals circle or run, do they ALWAYS go counter-clockwise like humans??? And why DO we always run the track counter-clockwise?

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Slide Show


Made a necklace last night while I watched the Olympics. Gymnastics--Chinese Men. Awesome. Beach Volleyball--Latvia. On fire. Swimming: many broken records...
I stole Brigg's 'chain'; so I'll change this one later...
I'd brought home a shoebox of aluminum slides when I worked on Thursday, all someone's vacations from around 1953; made a very simplistic, tiny collage covered by a piece of clear plastic I cut from an empty CD case with a razor blade. THAT was the most difficult part...not slicing myself. I will wear it to work tomorrow, but it will probably be frowned upon...! I can't help it! I WAS bored!

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

More Trash....

I was berating myself lately for not doing anything this summer (like editing wedding photos--but Brigg hogs the computer so much) and I decided I would post the few random items that I DID do-- not REAL art, but at least its some items that won't make me seem like a total lazy loser...
(I canned 13 jars of tomatoes, but that doesn't count, and painting the upper outside of the house by Bailey's old room doesn't either, nor does making cakes for Brett and Paula with leftover wedding frosting....)
Here's what I've been doing:
1. Homemade crocheted rag rugs: a bright 'Tropical' one at Sandy's cottage; a 'Brown+blue' one in the bathroom; one I call 'Americana' that I don't want cause its not my color scheme (I don't really have a color scheme since nothing matches anyway, but Americana would make it even worse!); and leftover strips of random materials that I just call 'Party Vomit'. Tearing strips of old skirts/pants/dresses (trash) and mindlessly crocheting with a giant hook in front of HGTV is a great excuse to pretend one is actually being creative--plus you can stay in out of the heat!

2. Pounded out some of my vast collection of beer caps with a hammer to nail to the roof of a bird house....trash for SHINGLES! Later I will paint the bird house too...here is the current one and an old one... I kind of like the rusty look, but I sprayed the new one to preserve the color for a bit longer... (I don't drink all these--I beg people for the colorful, unusual ones and Teg and Bail have donated to the cause! This reminds me to re-inform Cardman of this task when he travels to New Zealand...)



3. Starting a new drawing based on a jellyfish and stack of tires.... can only work a few minutes at a time since I don't have much patience and the lighting in here is terrible in the evenings...


4. Another collage book called (of course) "The Wasteland"...although I should have titled it based on the Prufrock poem and the line: "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons"... Yup. I shore do!