Chopped Off. Yep.

Crikey! I just climbed out from under my rock and realized I have not updated this since [gulp] last year... You would not believe that my hands were chopped off and I was waiting for bionic ones. See? I told you that you wouldn’t believe! I hope you still love me!

I am absolutely consumed with: an awfully big adventure, hoping you haven't found other blogs that wander around pensively, just generally being asleep, dreaming and chancing to my local police. My day seems to be packed from 4am to whenever. I am avoiding recapture. But who cares?

I send you kisses. I will make more of an effort to blog more often until the nice men in the white coats come back. Seriously! What do you mean you don't believe me?

---> Confused? This post courtesy of Lazy Blogger’s Post Generator. The last time I did this I think people were confused, too. Apparently I'm still avoiding recapture.

---> I'm very sloooowly poking at this blog, making changes. Sorry about the dust.

It makes sense at the end

20090304_headphones Click to see this photo's flickr page

Holy smokes! I just got slapped with a wet salmon - really - I have not updated this since last year... You would not believe my anguish at my misdoings. Not just a second one.

I am caught inside with a weight-lifting regime, rock crushing, just generally being a companion to anyone unfortunate to cross my path, my day starts from dusk to whenever. I am avoiding recapture. but who cares.

I swear on the bones of my ancestors I will blog about it when I find my way home. Go with God, good friends. I will write more to certain yous; but it might not be you in particular who I write to...

---> Thanks to Lazy Bloggers Post Generator. Go check it out. It will all make sense. I promise.

More about me

I’m so embarrassed. I can tell I've been putzing around way too long when I got tagged to do a “5 Things About Me” post by TWO different people, and then get the “Lists of Four Things About Me” email from two additional people, as well. I’m just trying to be coy; If you keep making me tell you more things about me in these lists, what secrets will there be left to keep? Really, now.

And then, Dianne gave me this award, and it became clear that it would be so terribly ungracious of me to let that sit as well.

Here are a few things you might not know about me yet.

Four jobs I’ve had, that proves that higher education pays:
- Pineapple canner (Dole)
- Census taker
- Toxicology lab tech
- Rocket scientist (moved up the food chain after college, huh? All this, but what I really wanted to be as a kid was a cartoonist).

Four T.V. Shows I watch:
- Man vs Wild
- Mythbusters
- The Dog Whisperer
- 24 (worked through the first three seasons on dvd with my guy)

Four of my favorite foods (no, PB&J is not one of my favorite foods, just happens to be one of the more frequent):
- Sushi
- Cookies
- Zippy's Zip-Pak plate lunch
- Chips and Salsa (nomnomnomnomnom!)

I love college football. Big Ten football. The worst thing about living in LA isn’t having to hear the endless hype about that football team. Ahem. The worst thing is having to hear that football team’s endless, mindless, brass-laden fight song. Over and over and over and over and over and over again (no, I'm not even going to link to the song. Over my dead body).

[Geh! Okay, wait. Let me get that yucky taste out of my mouth. Gaaack-Pf!]

My favorite colors are soft tints of blue-violet and yellow-orange (I'm wondering: What does it say about a person that specifically lists tertiary colors as their favorites?)
Are your eyes tired of all these excessive color changes? Yeah, too much extra html programming for me, too.

Okay. I’m not going to tag anyone to do anymore “Five things” lists (Mr NerdGuru and Mr Mom in FL are going, “Whew”). But I will list a few of the many lovely blogs that I’m visiting often... Besides the people who tagged me in the first place.

- What is love? Love is what you pack into your kid’s lunches, every day. Look at these amazing and terribly cute daily bento lunches that this mom makes for her young’uns. You thought you packed some pretty great brown-bag lunches? OMG. Go look: Bentoblog

- Yes, I love Cute Overload and happiness is indeed a warm puppy. And there’s a certain charm to ICHC, too, but this is even more precious. Love is in the company we keep, which sometimes, is unexpected.

- Love is sharing recipes from your family with the whole wide internet; food that tantalizes the eyes and promises to warm your soul

- Since we're sharing the love, I want to send hugs and warm thoughts to Roma.

Share some love, why don’t you? Let us all know a few blogs that make you smile, inspire you, and fill you with hope, warmth and love.
1. If you get tagged (or, if you just want to play along), write a post with links to blogs that you love,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.

A Snapple-y Sunday morning

Opaque w/c on M'skine sketch, wonky ellipses and all...

It might look breezy, but it actually shows how busy we both are – grading papers, creating improved lecture handouts – on the weekends. Kinda wishing for a sluggish, lazy, no-guilt, don’t-hafta-go-anywhere weekend. I get the 8th off from school (Columbus Day), so I’m looking forward to enjoying a little bit of no-guilt play-time in a week.

Between the pan gouache and tube watercolor kits I’ve been using on the new sketchbook, I’ve discovered that I'm starting on more pages that bear the mark of too much water on the side before. You can see it here as a diagonal streak to the left of the papers, in the empty space. Time to start carrying around more watercolor paper with me, huh?

===
Oh, check this out guys:
"Blogger Play will show you a never-ending stream of images that were just uploaded to public Blogger blogs." Like watching the clouds go by. But better.

Ten-Minute break

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Yes, maybe more like 20 minutes. Or 30.

For my five or so very dedicated readers who're wondering if maybe I got sick of drawing my meals before my class (yes), haven't been able to draw with my class (yes), too busy packing to paint (yes), finally healthy (not sure), fell off the edge of the earth (no) ...

Yes, I'm in the process of moving. I guess normal, responsible adults start weeks ahead of time and get things sorted, packed and labeled. Me, on the other hand ... Well, turns out that we decided we wanted to just take off for Spring Break, which skootched my move up by about a week. No, more like, two. So, I went, "Oh cr#p!, it all has to get done! In 10 days!" and finally started in on sorting my endless piles of stuff. Last weekend we moved all the stuff from my garage - no small feat. This weekend, we move the rest of the stuff, or the stuff that absolutely won't fit in my car. I have lots of stuff. I'm sorting through all sorts of stuff, throwing stuff out, have a boxes of books to donate to the local library, identifying the large appliances/furniture that I don't want to move to have the SalvArmy take away, and trying to be organized in boxing things up. Trying. Organized. Box. Ehhhh. The progress is slow, but finally detectable.

Is it just me that has a problem with this? I have stuff that I can't quite get to throwing out, but can't really use or display the way the thing is right now.

- Large-sized pads of newsprint with lifedrawing sketches. I can chuck most of it, but it'd be so cool to be able to frame the stuff I want to keep, put it up on a wall and enjoy it. What to do.

- Unfinished quilts that Grandma started. Very haphazard blocks and colors, but comforting when you know that it's pretty much like many of the other quilts Grandma made. When I finish it, there are just a few people, in the family that would appreciate its charm. Can't just chuck it, even though it'll be a while before I get to finishing it.

- Wedding pictures (to clarify: in an album, not framed and displayed) and my dress, stuff like that. So, if one doesn't have venomous feelings towards one's ex and you've remained actually very amiable, then what? The mementos remain a nice memory that's part of my life. It'd be pretty sad to just want to wipe out that whole chunk of life from my ongoing saga. Although, there are a whole lotta people that have stopped talking about any of that part of my life to me, which I think, in a way, is kind of superficial and cowardly in its unwillingness to at least test the waters.. "Let's just pretend all that didn't happen, because the breakup must have been unspeakably horrendous! We were all just left speechless! Better to just fast-forward and move on! So, when do we get the meet the new guy?!" What's wrong with people? Buh. Anyway, where was I? To be honest, getting back to the dress, I really liked the fabric that I used for it; a white-on-white rose print in 100% crisp cotton. Very pretty. I haven't found anything quite as nice since then, and you should know that at one time I was a pretty avid quilter, and was and am quite mindful about things like great fabric ... A friend added beading to the lace-covered bodice. I don't need to keep the dress, fer sure, but would like to be able to enjoy the fabric, in some way. An art quilt, a pillow, something. I dunno. Ideas, Jane, Dianne, Karen, Robin, Kim? Anyone?

Sigh. So, this stuff, I'll box up and label, put into storage, and get back to very slowly. It's been a really distillation process. In getting rid of more and more, the collection of things that remain are a very potent concentration of what I love, what gives me comfort, what I like to have around me.

The 'VisualDNA' badge, above, is just a cursory view of these things. The real nitty-gritty is what's getting saved and stashed boxes for the next chapter in life ...

Alter egos

Okay. I admit it. When I get back from long weekends, I just love to catch up with your blogs and spend some time catching up with the little niblets of life.

Yes, I'm very easily distracted. I won't claim any attention-based disorder, though; I just enjoy tickling my brain with all this whimsy.
(As if you couldn't tell ... )

Here I am as a:



Powerpuff Girl (a Superhero, indeed! I've been saving this for a little bit. )

and as an:



M'n'M. (But this is brand new!)

The drawing utensils shown here are custom additions, but the standard options should keep you pretty amused, as it is...

Go make your own!

Wet nose, warm heart

This is what it said. I swear.

"You are a German Shepherd Puppy

Intelligent, quick witted, and a bit aggressive. You've got the jaw power to take a bite out of anyone you choose."

Hm.
So, What breed of puppy are You?

Distraction to Share

I typically don’t intend to write posts that are just links to other places. I figure you’re curious when the heck the darn cookie-baking is going to start, where we’ve been, and if it involves hiking or painting.

But sometimes, it’s just fun to share.



This photo is from my first 5K, last year, the Nike RunHitWonder run. I haven’t been training very hard since Spring (injuries and general distraction), but how much fun is this? For next year: More running!

Steph’s post about her running the New York City Marathon and the little adventure that followed inspired me to dig up this photo. If you smirked at all reading the details of my last 5K, I think you’ll really enjoy the details of Steph’s story. Steph and Jim's HumanBeingCurious website is great, too; What a great premise.

While I was going through the guide brochures we got when we entered Yosemite, a postcard that announced a photo exhibit fell out. My personal, private Yosemite guide is quite knowledgeable and, so, yeah, we didn’t think to go through the brochures. We missed what looks like a great exhibit while we were there - - whoops. Here’s a link to some samples, though, of great landscape photos taken by Stan Jorstad of all of our National Parks. Beautiful! This is what my J ought to be doing!


Okay, I have to admit:
I have a folder for links that is called “Distraction”. Here’s a sampling.

- When your day has been too long, and traffic’s made you crazy, maybe you need to spend some quality time with something really cute and cuddly. They don't call it 'Cute Overload' for nuthin'.

- It’s a little late, but you can always carve a pumpkin. You know I have a thing for carving pumpkins ...

- A little more timely:
Line Rider – The little dude will bravely ride whatever you can dish out, and then some.

- And, the ever-popular Snow Days.

Fun, huh?
Now, get back to work! :)

Uncanny skills

Think you can distinguish between fake and genuine smiles? Hmm!
Take the test to see!

Me? Got 18 of 20. Guess you can't hide too much from me.
;)

Moo!

More in the "Endless hours of amusement.." category:
Do you Flickr? Have you checked out the Moo cards?
No?
Seems like a simple idea, 'eh?
"So what's the big deal?", you're thinking, right?
Okay, go and mock up a few of your own, and tell me, really. Yeah, I see you. You're starting to think, "Oh, waitaminute... this is pretty cool...".
Go see.

I've seen a lot of printing websites promoting the idea of social calling cards (a nicety from way back when)... and there are lots of personalized stickers (and even legit personalized USPS stamps that you can print with your own images) .. but I'm thinkin'... that Moo has got a real winner here.

I mean, gee, they're just so cool.

Yeah, I know that you know what I'm thinkin':
Oh man.. I gotta get me some of those. Little FridgeDoor trading cards with The Orange PuppyLove oven mitt, Purple Magnet Bunny and Scary Jack'o'Lantern on 'em? At the very least! OMG! Trading cards, people! Just imagine the possibilities ...
Hee hee hee..

Jackson Pollock fun

And I thought the sand art and Etch-a-Sketch and Snow Days programs were fun. Ha!
Click here to channel your internal Jackson Pollock. Hee hee.