This bonehead was in front of me earlier this evening so I thought I'd document his lovely sentiments...

Then it occurred to me that it might be interesting to take random photos while I was driving.



I think they're kind of interesting.

It's Friday.

Today is Sam's last day of UNT camp. This week was called Dig in Time. They dug up bones and ceramic fragments and talked about Native Americans. Sounds fun. He's glad to be done, though. I think he was starting to smell the "educational" aspects of it. Can't say I blame him. It is summer, after all.

He's going to go with my mom and his cousin up to the lake house tonight. I'm going to go to the gym and then to my studio for a while.

I need to work on my "Thomas Jefferson in a Bikini" painting some more. And I signed up for a handmade postcard swap and I need to finish my postcard. I already received one in the mail. I think it came from North Carolina. It's really cool. I'll take a picture of it and post it. I have to send mine to the UK. Don't know why I keep getting people from out of the country...

Tomorrow Jenna and I are going to head up to the lake. My stepsister and her family will be there as well as my cousin and her boyfriend. I think my smart ass little brother is even going to grace us with his presence for a while. Only if we're lucky.

Colleen sent me a link to the greatest video of all time. I have to admit, though, it does raise more questions than it answers.

I was a complete slug last night. I was planning on going to yoga class, but I was just so tired. At around 7:30, I decided to take a little nap. I woke up around 11:15. Some nap.

The sad thing is that I don't feel particularly refreshed today.

I came across this site this guy baits those Nigerian email scammers and works scams on them. I spent most of the day reading the stories about the scams. I felt a teeny bit sorry for the people - not the scammers, but the people they conned into helping them by doing artwork or drawing maps or whatever the scam-baiter was asking them to do.

It's funny that they seem so gullible, when they prey on gullible people... Greed will do that to you, I guess.

Here's a fun thing to make.

Happy Birthday, John! Cusack... He's exactly six months older than me. Apparently he had to file a restraining order against a stalker. It's not me, I swear. I limit my stalking to online methods...

I cooked some salmon last night. I know. I cooked. Weird. And I'm excited that I think we solved the mystery of the "terracotta sauce," that I think I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. Sam told me that his dad made some salmon that had terracotta sauce on it. So I was making the marinade last night (thanks to Jenna's recipe), which has brown sugar, honey, garlic, and soy sauce in it. Sam initially thought it was yucky and declared that he wouldn't eat it, but then he said, "Hey, is this terry-cotty sauce?" I realized that he was trying to say teriyaki. So I said, "Yes! This is definitely teriyaki sauce." And he ate it and liked it. Schwew.

I also made some sauteed spinach. I'd never made it before. I think I used too much oil. It was kind of greasy. Need to work on that.

I forced Sam to eat some corn. I knew he wouldn't touch the spinach. Corn was safer.

Then we went for a walk around the neighborhood. After we started out, Sam said he didn't want to walk, but I kept going. He followed behind me, stomping and harumphing the whole way. Sometimes he's so sweet and other times I'd just like to sell him to gypsies.

OK, something else that I hate: pickles. But not as much as this poor girl.

Happy Birthday, John!

We got a reprieve from summer today. I think it stayed below 90. Very nice. So Sam and I went to the park this evening. He played on the playground and I walked around - mostly up and down the big hill. Good exercise.

We walked around the big water tower and saw a small hawk. Sam can't stand for birds to be at peace, so he managed to chase it away. He rivals Mr. Lunch in his bird chasing abilities.

The last few months I've been a reading slacker. I've checked books out of the library only to let them sit next to my bed until they're due. I think the last book I finished was Great Expectations for my book discussion group. I started on the next two but didn't finish in time and then just gave up. It probably had something to do with the fact that I had read them before and didn't feel pressured to finish.

I just started The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd. It's a novel about art school in the late 50's/early 60's. I've heard good things about it. It's supposed to be a better version of Art School Confidential. It's pretty funny so far:

Majoring in Art at the state university appealed to me because I have always hated Art, and I had a hunch if any school would treat the subject with the proper disdain, it would be one that was run by the government. Of course I was right. My suspicions were confirmed the minute I entered the Visual Arts building on arrival my freshmen year and took in the faculty show in its gallery. I beheld: melting lop-sided Umbrian? hillsides, nudes run over by the Cubist Express, suburban-surrealist flower ladies going about their daily tasks weeping blood tears the size of water balloons, and kittens. Yes, kittens. I thought, "Now these people hate Art a lot. This is where I belong. Perfect." - Chip Kidd, The Cheese Monkeys

I saw Chip Kidd speak at the AIGA (hmmm... what could that stand for?) conference in Vegas a few years ago. He had just written a book about Batman. You could tell he was a huge Batman fan, but he kept talking about the homoerotic aspects of the Batman/Robin relationship. It was hilarious.


When I got home today Sam showed me what he got at the dollar store with my mom: a Texas flag, some pencils, and a Bible. I said, "You got a Bible at the dollar store?" He said, "It's the HOLY Bible." Oh.

Then we had a discussion about whether we were Christian or Jewish. I told him it's something that he can decide when he gets older. He thinks that since he goes to church he's Christian. Those Unitarians obviously aren't doing their job! :-)

A thought I had today - If you have so much stuff that you have to get a trailer for your motorcycle, then it's time for a car.

Well, I didn't go to Dan's last night after all. Cathy was moving yesterday and was understandably too tired to go. I hate to go places like that by myself, so I decided to stay home and watch Anchorman. That movie cracks me up. It's quite silly. I wanted to watch it because John went to San Diego last week and I couldn't remember any great lines. Except for the, "Stay classy, San Diego."

I think my favorite part is when they sing Afternoon Delight.

Has anybody seen "Wake Up, Ron Burgundy?"

Today I met Julie at IKEA for lunch and some shopping. I didn't buy much - wooden hangers, a bathroom rug, and a milk frother (for hot chocolate and stuff like that). Then we went to Sam Moon but they were closed on Sundays. What's up with that? So we went to World Market. I only bought a bottle of wine - Castillero del Diablo cabernet sauvignon. Cellar of the Devil. Or Basement of Satan. Beelzebub's Rumpus Room? Anyway, it's quite yummy.

So, apparently Colleen joined the SCBWI. Some sort of writing group? I was going to ask her what it stood for but I ended up trying to guess. I got a little carried away and couldn't stop thinking of possible meanings for the mysterious acronym.

Some of my favorites:
Scantily Clad Babes With Implants
South Carolinians Breaking Wind Incessantly
Sentient Cartoon Beings Wanting Independence
Some Cranky Broads Whingeing Irritatingly
Several Crazy Bitches Whacking Infidels

This one seems the most likely:
Semi-Conscious Boozers Writing Ignominiously

What do you think it could mean?

Cat food scented wax...

I needed some smaller containers to melt wax in at my studio, so I took some of Casper's and Chocolate's cat food cans, washed them out really well, and put some wax in them. Turns out that no matter how well you wash them, they still smell like cat food when you heat them.

Reminds me of Ralph on the Simpsons, "My cat's breath smells like cat food."

Hopefully my paintings won't smell like cat food...

Well, everybody survived Chuck E. Cheese. Sam had a blast. His two cousins and his bestest buddy Ian were there. Don't know what happened to his other buddy Simon. He was MIA.

He got some good stuff but the hit seemed to be the present Ian brought - a Superman water gun. He loved it.

I'm a big loser and I forgot to take my camera. I hate it when I do that.

Before the party, I got up fairly early (for me 9:00 on a Saturday is early!) and went to the gym. I passed about 9 garage sales on the way there. I wish I had gotten up earlier. I stopped at one on the way back and it turned out to be a really good one. I was drawn to 2 ottomans that had drawers in the bottom. They were fairly cheap (particle board) but in good shape. They would have had to be recovered to go with my stuff, and I just don't have the energy for that right now.

But it turns out that the young woman having the garage sale just graduated with her master's in art history and is about to move to Tucson to get her PhD, so she had some good books. I got the Chicago Manual of Style (never know when stuff like that will come in handy), The Virgin Suicides (loved the movie), a couple of books on aesthetics/feminist art history type stuff, and a book about bookmaking. She also had some good CDs. I picked up The Doves, Brad, Keane, and Pete Yorn. All for 7 bucks! Score.

There was a nice man with her, maybe her dad, who asked about my art when I mentioned that I was an artist, so I whipped out one of my brochures. She said she liked my work and that maybe the restaurant where she worked would be interested in exhibiting some. I'm normally kind of snobby about bar and restaurant shows, but it's a nice place and it would be OK to have my stuff there for a while. It is kind of nice when someone asks if your work is exhibited somewhere, to be able to say, "Yeah, it's at Joe's Bar and Grill," or somewhere accessible.

Tonight Cathy and I are going to Dan's to see James McMurtry. Not Larry. I always have to think not to say Larry... It should be fun. Maybe I'll be a dork and take my camera this time...

A rope at the lake... But I'm sure Colleen will see something interesting in it.

Sam's slowly but surely getting his Bionicle thing built. Hopefully he can finish it tonight before his dad picks him up. It'll be nice to get my floor back. Now I know why my parents hated Legos - they really hurt when you step on them.

OK, I found the coolest thing yesterday. I'm sure you already know about this, but I think it's cool - Bloglines. You can subscribe to blogs that you read regularly. It will make a list and update it periodically so you can see when new content has been posted. And you can publish your list - called a "blogroll - on your blog. I'm sure it does a lot of other cool things that I haven't discovered yet.

I don't know if I've given this link to the Librarian's Internet Index. They research websites and categorize them. So if you're looking for information on a specific subject, you can be pretty sure that the sites they list have accurate information. I know. Accurate information on the interweb? They also have a weekly newsletter that features new sites that they've added. Or subscribe to their feed and add it to your Bloglines list!

Trish would know what kind of rock this is...

Went to Jenna's last night to watch her new Eddie Izzard DVD. It was really funny. I hadn't really seen his stand up before. He's very smart and I really like his British humor. With his makeup and hair (and of course, the accent), at times he reminded me of Nigel Tufnel.

Jenna picked up some sushi from a place that used to be called Japango but is now called I Heart Sushi. Whatever. The sushi was good, despite the stupid name.

I enjoyed watching the DVD and also watching Casper walk between us. He'd sit on Jenna's lap for a while and take a little nap and then sit next to me and lick my hand and then go back to her and take a nap. He was very cute. And the elusive (and aptly named) Shadow emerged from her hiding place and allowed me to pet her. She even forgot herself and played for a minute or two.

Then we went to Beth Marie's for dessert. Yum. Look at that - Beth Marie's has a website. My current favorite flavor is Emily's Campfire Marshmallow. Then we walked around the square once to work off all that ice cream. At least that's what we tell ourselves...

Work in progress...

I'm zombified again today. I was really tired last night but just couldn't sleep. I suspected that the herbal tea I've been drinking had caffeine in it, but I checked and it definitely says, "No Caffeine." I don't know what the deal is.

Then when I got home, I took Sam to the bike shop to get a helmet. If he's going to be extreme, he's going to wear a helmet. He protested, but I let him pick out the one he wanted, so hopefully that will motivate him to wear it (and I told him that he can't ride without it). The one he picked out is black and it has a skull on the front. Sweet.

We had dinner at Double Dave's pizza and then I gave him his birthday present early. (In case you check out the link, just know that I got it on clearance...) So he spent a couple of hours last night putting it together. He even got up early this morning to work on it. He loves his Legos...

I also got him The School of Rock DVD and a couple other little things.

Last night while he was building, I was working on sending out some proposals to art consultants. It takes such a long time to do all that stuff - printing out the letters, putting together the presentation, getting everything ready to burn to CD... Now I need to figure out how to mail the CD. I don't want to spend a lot on packaging but I want it to look good.

I don't think I found anything interesting while I was surfing yesterday. Oh, but if you're interested in getting a counter for your blog or your website, check out Stat Counter. It's free and it's pretty good. Warning, though - if you're obsessive compulsive like me, you'll check it constantly. And it's cool and frustrating at the same time, because you can see where people are coming from that are looking at your site and how long they've been there. I say frustrating because you can only tell so much. Or maybe I just don't have the skills to know how to find out more...

Anyway, it's cool. Check it out.

Red acrylic soy sauce in a sea of paint splatters...

OK, I'm tired of the song lyrics, aren't you?

A late post today. I wasn't in a bloggy mood today. I couldn't sleep last night even though I was really tired. I hate when that happens. Then I just feel like a zombie all day.

Getting ready for Sam's birthday party this weekend. The dreaded Chuck E. Cheese. He'll have a blast, though. Too bad you can't drink there. If there's any place that needs alcohol, that's it.

Oh, yeah. And John's birthday is coming up, too. I'll have to find something that I like, because I'll end up getting it back, anyway. Can you say, "Regift?"

Let's see, did I find anything fun in my surfing today? Here's a cool online gallery of artistic Polaroid photos. I particularly love the SX-70 photos. I did a book of manipulated SX-70's. It's a fun process. Here are a bunch more, in case you like them...

Letting the days go by
let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by
water flowing underground
Into the blue again
in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones
there is water underground.
Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime

I got my other cover CD in the mail yesterday from someone in California. More great stuff.

I've been swapping CDs with my brother Larry for quite a while and I often swap with Allison, but I think it's such a cool idea to swap with someone that you've never met. Kind of putting yourself out there and offering a little of yourself to someone you don't know.

And I love love love making mixes. Always reminds me of High Fidelity...

Rob from cockeyed.com recently did a segment called "Things I figured out," about stuff that seems like common sense but nobody really teaches you and you just kind of have to figure out for yourself. At the end you could submit your own thing you figured out, so I did. If you go here and scroll down - I think it's the 18th entry or so - you can see mine. It starts out, "When I first moved to Texas..." As soon as I hit the submit button I realized that I hadn't given a definition for the thing that I had figured out. Kind of embarrassing.

Boing Boing has a link to this article about the world's largest pinhole camera. They're attempting to create the world's largest photograph. Very cool.

There's a room in the art building here that's referred to as the lighting room - the windows are covered up to facilitate photographing with the fancy lights. Anyway, there is a tiny hole in the thing that covers the windows and the room can be a pinhole camera/camera obscura.

I've been thinking about popular culture and how much I participate in it. I don't really watch prime time TV, but I do find that I plan my life around The Daily Show/The Colbert Report. In fact, I walk around in a lack-of-sleep daze most days because of those shows...

There are some things about popular culture that I really like and others that I hate.

Here are some things that I hate/don't like/am indifferent to but that everybody else loves:
American Idol
Survivor
Cirque de Soleil
The Blue Man Group
Jerry McGuire
Pretty Woman
Professional sports
Coffee
Beer
Olives

Here are some things that I'm embarrassed to admit that I like:
Trading Spaces
Top Chef
Project Runway
America's Funniest Animals
Teletubbies
Ice Castles
Pancho's
Pop Tarts (vanilla cream)
Jack in the Box tacos (I could do a whole blog post on the sublime qualities of the Jack in the Box taco)
Cheetos

There are more. But that's all that I'm willing to admit to at this time.

You say love is a temple
Love a higher law
Love is a temple
Love the higher law
You ask me to enter
But then you make me crawl
And I can't be holding on
To what you got
When all you got is hurt
U2 - One

I forgot to mention that I got one of my cover CDs in the mail the other day (I think I'm supposed to get 2). It was from Elise in Milwaukee. It's greatness. There are a couple of songs that I had already (Beth Orton and Cat Power), but everything else was new and weird and wonderful. Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs doing Monday Monday. Korn doing Word Up. Faith No More doing Easy by the Commodores. The best one is Marilyn Manson doing Tainted Love. Who knew?

Fun stuff I've found recently:
There's a new reality show that I wish I could watch, called ArtStar (I don't have the Gallery Channel, or whatever it's being shown on...). I'm hoping to be able to find some episodes online.

This is hilarious: Almost Naked Animals.

Now, when I die
now don't think I'm a nut
don't want no fancy funeral
Just one like ole king Tut
Steve Martin - King Tut

Today's song was inspired by yesterday's photos... Note to Colleen - I changed them "to protect the innocent," in case you didn't notice.

Sam and I came up to the gym to play racquetball last night. I had asked a couple of people that worked there if he could play and they both said, "Sure, I think so." But the girl that was working last night was new and unfortunately one of those annoying "rule followers," so she called someone and asked. Turns out you have to be 16 to do anything other than swim. So I guess we'll be swimming from now on.

Sam was disappointed but we went home and got his bike and he practiced riding. He just learned how to ride without the training wheels. He's still all over the place, though. He definitely needs practice. We rode around the middle school (it's basically a series of buildings with courtyards and sidewalks all over), and he loved to go down the hill and then slam on the brakes. If he was lucky he'd leave a skid mark. He thinks he's "extreme."

I can't find any of the photo booth photos. This makes me very sad. I did, however, find those Six Flags/Worlds of Fun old-timey photos. Oh my.



I look like such a bad ass in this one. I look like I really could kick some ass on Jerry Springer. Or the 1850's equivalent...

Sorry, Colleen. I had to do it.
-----------------------------------
Update: OK, Colleen, is that better?

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night
I'm not sure all these people understand
It's not like years ago
The fear of getting caught
The reckless of water
They cannot see me naked
These things they go away
Replace by everyday
REM - Nightswimming

Sam had fun in chemistry camp yesterday. He made me touch the blue slime that he made. It was appropriately icky.

We came up to the gym on campus last night hoping to play racquetball but they had closed the courts early for the night - I was afraid they wouldn't let Sam play, anyway. So we walked/ran on the indoor track. Sam had a blast. He ran around 4 or 5 times. Then we attempted to play basketball. It was mostly me just standing there and him running around trying to keep the ball away from me. He was a sweaty little monkey when we left.

Don't know if I've mentioned this Photobooth site before. They have tons and tons and tons of fun stuff about photobooths in art, in movies, where you can get your picture taken in one, where you can buy one, etc. Super fun. Brings back memories of the arcade in Oak Park mall - what was it called? Colleen and I spent lots of money in that silly photo booth. I'll have to dig some of them out. I can't threaten to use them as blackmail against her because I know for a fact that she has many equally embarrassing things on me... Oh, yeah, and then there's the fact that I'm in them all, too!

Boing Boing had a link to a Flickr set that features photos of "transparent screens." You take a photo of what's behind your monitor and then make that your background. These signs are done in a similar way. Cool.

In case you don't want to do dishes for a while or are just looking for an easy way to feed your non-human primates, you can bid on the leftover monkey chow from the Monkey Chow Diaries. He survived, btw.

Roll down the window
And let the wind blow back your hair
Well the night's busting open
These two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels...
Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road

Marlys came over yesterday and I took a break from my cleaning to scan in some slides for her.

Sam came home last night. He said he had fun at scout camp last week. He's going to chemistry camp at UNT this week. I talked to him earlier and he said they made blue slime today. Cool.

Well, as if I didn't do enough blogging, I created another blog. Yesterday while I was in the shower (where, like Kramer, I do my best thinking), I was thinking about all my friends who are writers. I've never really wanted to write. I told that to someone recently and she was surprised. I guess she thought that everybody wanted to write. Anyway, I think that you have to have something to say or have some sort of story inside that you just have to get out. I've never had that.

That said, I would like to write about art in some way. I've been thinking for a while that I'd like to write about the process of starting an art career. I thought maybe that I could write for Art Calendar or some type of "business of art" type publication. So then it hit me yesterday that I could start an "emerging artist" blog that would document what I'm going through and maybe I could meet some other people doing the same thing and we could share ideas.

So maybe it could lead to articles in the future. We'll see...

Where do you go with your broken heart in tow?
What do you do with the left over you?
And how do you know, when to let go?
Where does the good go? Where does the good go?
Tegan and Sara - Where Does the Good Go?

I helped Cathy sort through her garage sale stuff on Friday night. Drank a little wine in the process, too, so it wasn't so bad. I ended up bringing home a big bag full of stuff. It barely fit in the back of my car, which was full of encyclopedias that someone else had given me. Do I have the word "sucker" written on my forehead?

Nobody showed up for my workshop yesterday. That's OK. I started on a painting (above - in progress) and then did some stuff at home. And took a nap. Then headed over to Cathy's again for dinner. She made some chicken and veggies on the grill. Scrummy! I brought stuff for experimental strawberry shortcake. The experimental part was the chocolate. One idea was chocolate chips and the other was Hershey's dark chocolate sauce. It was hard to pick the best one.

When I got home I watched Almost Famous. I really liked it. I had Tiny Dancer in my head all night (now that song will remind me of Almost Famous AND that episode of WKRP in Cincinnati)... I loved the part where they were in the plane and everybody thought they were going to die and started confessing things. And I also liked the part where their new manager was telling them that they needed to basically make as much money as they could while they were young, "If you think that Mick Jagger will still be doing the whole rock star thing at age fifty, well, then, you are sorely, sorely mistaken."

Well, today is house cleaning day. Woo hoo!

Read the scene where gravity is pulling me around
Peel back the mountains peel back the sky
Stomp gravity into the floor
It's a Man Ray kind of sky
Let me show you what I can do with it
Time and distance are out of place here
REM - Feeling Gravity's Pull

Went to the studio after yoga last night and I'm happy to report that I did not get attacked by any birds this time.

Found a couple of artists who do nice work. Gina Triplett and Michelle Caplan. Great stuff.

I'm supposed to be teaching a workshop tomorrow but everybody keeps dropping out on me. It's down to 2 people now and I haven't heard from them so I'm not even sure if they'll show up. Oh well. I can do some work while I'm there if they don't show.

It's funny that Teresa mentioned synchronicity in an email today - Jenna sent me an email with a link to a recipe from the Take Home Chef show (the person he cooked for happened to be named Deanna). When I got to the gym to work out, guess what was on TV? Weird.

BTW, I would let him come over and cook for me any time. Or just sit on my couch...

Oh, I can't believe I forgot to mention - a huge wtf moment - the other night on Leno, I happened to catch David Lee Roth singing a bluegrass version of Jump. It was so bizarre. Now, I can definitely appreciate weird combinations of things - like bluegrass and Van Halen - but for him to sing with the bluegrass people was too much. And he looked like such a dork. Anyway, he was on Craig Ferguson last night doing it again...

I just want to remember him chained to the fence:


I caught my mom a few times sneaking into my room to look at that poster...

They marry young in these parts
They work the factory
I ran as fast as I could
Through the tall grass and the midnight woods
So nobody would sing some bible song over me
Lori McKenna - Bible Song

Blogger was being a bit touchy yesterday and I wasn't able to upload the correct size of the images (and the one of mini Houston - above - didn't upload at all...). I tried to replace them today but they wouldn't show up. They would appear to upload correctly but for some reason just wouldn't be there. Very frustrating! So hopefully Blogger will cooperate with me today...

I picked up Sam last night. When we were walking to the car he said, "Finally! I finally get to spend the night." But he would never admit that he missed me. Stinker.

I asked him what he wanted to do for dinner - go somewhere or go home and order pizza. I figured he'd want to order pizza since he'd been out in the sun all day and was worn out. He immediately began telling me about some really good salmon that Kroger has. He said, "It has terracotta on it." That does sound good! Later I realized that he might have meant terragon? I don't know.

I told him that there would be no cooking (besides, I have some non-terracotta salmon in the freezer already). So we got pizza.

Hmmm... I'm wondering if the network at work is the problem and not Blogger. Maybe they're blocking Blogger. Maybe they're onto me.

OK, maybe not. It's being freaky here at home, too...

Check out this test:
Spot the Fake Smile. See if you can figure out which smiles are genuine and which are fake. I got 17 out of 20! This link came from Web Pages That Suck. (It wasn't an example of sucky, though, it was an example of non-sucky.)

Some great links (from memepool and Boing Boing, I think) that show the power of the internet:

To create instant (if fleeting) celebrity.
The Monkey Chow Diaries. This guy is maybe a little crazy but very funny. He decided to eat only monkey chow for a week. TMI alert.

To do good.
The Nata Village Blog. This one came from Rocket Boom. A tourist was passing through this small African village and was touched by the people he met there. He wanted to do something to help raise awareness of their fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS.

To humiliate someone.
A cheap-ass lawyer wasn't nice to his secretary and she got her revenge. Big time.

We ain't seen Elvis in a year or two
We got justification for wealth and greed
Amber waves of grain and bathtub speed
We even got Starbucks - what else you need?
James McMurtry - Out Here in the Middle

I played around with the "miniaturization" thing some more and did a "mini" Old Main. Creepy.

I think this one worked better. I found this photo of the Houston campus:

And did the mini thing:

It messes with the depth of field or something - makes the trees look really fake. I think the secret is to be fairly far away from the subject and to have smaller things in the foreground to show scale (trees or cars).

Here's another one that is sort of interesting:

I managed to do all my good and bad things last night - I went to the gym, spent about an hour in my studio, went to the grocery store, and drank an adult beverage. But just one.

When I got to my studio, I noticed a few birds flying around and as I was unlocking the door and gathering my stuff to go inside, a bird attacked me! OK, it wasn't quite Hitchcock, but it kind of felt like it. I think it was a barn swallow. There must have been a nest near the door or something. One time it got pretty close!

OK, check this out: We Feel Fine. It searches blogs for posts about "feelings." Pretty cool.

Oh, and I finally opened my Etsy shop! I'm going to attempt to sell smaller paintings (maybe or maybe not relating to my current work) as well as collage boxes and some craft things. Check it out.

She was born in Monterey
And all the Christmas songs were sung
The padre knew what she'd grow up to be
Saints and sinners all agree
Spanish is a loving tongue
But she never spoke Spanish to me
Joe Ely - She Never Spoke Spanish To Me

The photo above is of Sam's encaustic painting that he's been working on at my studio. It's kind of a weird aerial view...

Saw Ann Coulter on the Today Show this morning, foaming at the mouth. Why do people like her?

I found a really fun website for Whippet Grey, a store somewhere in the UK. The website is really creative. Be sure to click on "Curious Objects," "The Den," "The Garden," or "Scrummy Treats." My new favorite word is now scrummy...

What else? Oh, Boing Boing had this link to a car shredder. Yes, a car shredder. I might have nightmares about this.

Oh, this is the coolest site. You type in what you want to dream about and somehow it scours the internet and finds images to go with the words and draws them and melts them into each other. It's quite cool.

Well, since Sam's been at his dad's, I've been to my studio once, the gym once, and I've only had one drink - an over-priced mango margarita. I need to pick something and do too much of it...

I'm going to the gym after work and then to my studio. When I get home maybe I'll have a glass of wine. That oughtta cover it!

I was lost in trouble and strife,
I heard a voice and it changed my life
And now it's a brand new day, and I ain't afraid to say
You're not alone when you're down and out
And I think you know who I'm talking about
When I don't know how I'll get through
I ask myself what would Willie do
Bruce Robison - What Would Willie Do?

My new favorite song...

On Saturday, Trish and I had lunch and then shopped for her books. We spend way way way too much time at Recycled Books, mostly looking at CDs. I bought James McMurtry, Willie Nelson and Songs for Tsunami Relief (which features Willie Nelson and friends).

I watched Shopgirl on Saturday night. I really liked it. I've always liked Claire Danes and I thought Jason Schwartzman was pretty hilarious. And best of all, the dude from The Red House Painters was in it! Apparently he was in Almost Famous, too, which I have not seen. I have it on hold at the library.

One of my favorite parts in Shopgirl is when Jason Schwartzman is on tour with the band and they're showing him around the tour bus. "Hey, come here. We're making mojitos!" And they're so bored that they buy self-help books and relationship tapes to listen to while they're on the road.

I got this cool link from the photojojo newsletter. It's a Photoshop tutorial to make photos look like miniature models. I always wondered how people did that. Those photos always kind of creep me out, but I had fun playing around with it. I don't quite have it figured out yet:


Freaky, no? Maybe they need to be even blurrier... I need to get some good building shots.

If you want to try it, let me know. They left a step out of the tutorial.

Last night I went to Marlys and Steve's to do a promotional card for their daughter Simone, who's going to be in an upcoming Lifetime movie. I'm hoping she'll become famous and introduce me to Johnny Depp. I can dream, can't I?

Heavenly wine and roses
Seem to whisper to me when you smile
Cowboy Junkies (originally by The Velvet Underground) - Sweet Jane

I love the picture above that I took at Jenna's the other day. Casper's got his next victim in his sights...

I'm working on a mix cd of cover tunes for a swap on swapbot. I'll let you know how it goes. I'll be swapping with someone from Canada and the UK. Cool! I've been reading craft blogs, and those hip crafters do all these cool swaps and I wanted to get in on the swap fun.

Cathy and I went to Dallas last night to see Art School Confidential. It was pretty good. Very critical of the "art world." I enjoyed all the cliches - vegan, kiss-ass, whore, the gay guy who doesn't know he's gay, hippie girl, obnoxious blow-hard, the professor who just doesn't care...

Oh, and the awesome news - while we were there I met up with my gallery lady and she gave me a check for a painting that she sold for me! Woo hoo!

Sam's at his dad's for a week. He'll be going to scout day camp during the day. He had a blast last year.

So I should be taking advantage of being Sam-free in some way - either by being really good and going to the gym a lot or by being really bad and just staying drunk the whole time. Hmmm.... choices!

Well, I'm meeting Trish for lunch and shopping at Voertman's. She has to get books and I think I might need some art supplies (or toys - they have great toys). Then it's off to the studio!

Juices, muffins, pasta, and cheese
Milk and biscuits and cocktail sauce
I am a grocery bag
Salsa and pickles and organic grain
I am a grocery bag
Fresh coffee and bagels,
pudding and soap
Baby formula and ham
I am a grocery bag
They Might Be Giants - I Am a Grocery Bag

Last night I blew off yoga class so I could work on a couple of projects. Trish gave me some really cool topographical maps that she'd used in her geology class. I collaged some onto boards to paint over. I can't wait to take them to the studio and start on them. I don't really know what I'm going to do. Hopefully something will come to me when I start on them.

I also used my super-OCD skills to create a list of available paintings (to send to prospective galleries). I had to scan in slides of the paintings that I didn't have jpgs of... So I had to fight with my computer. The hard drive is full and I keep backing stuff up and throwing stuff away but it doesn't seem to help. I was trying to back stuff up onto CDs but it said there wasn't enough room on the drive to do it. I was yelling at my computer, "I know there's not enough room, that's why I'm backing it up!" It just sat there and beeped at me.

Tonight and tomorrow I'm going to be packing up the work from the VAST juried show. It's always so much more fun to unpack than pack. Most people pack their work not thinking about someone having to repack it. Sometimes all the peanuts and bubble wrap don't fit back in the box.

Cool internet stuff - I think this was a link on memepool - some guy makes lenses out of ice, starts fires, and then takes pictures with them. The lenses, not the fires...

Oh, and this guy's sculptures are pretty amazing. They're itty bitty. I don't know what he uses or how he does it. Or why, really.