Seeking Shelter

2009-03-18T23:53:00.001-05:00

I'm obsessed with cute girls playing ukuleles:

2009-02-17T11:49:00.000-06:00

2009-02-11T15:38:00.000-06:00

2009-01-13T20:36:00.001-06:00

and I thought I had a lot of cats in my back yard:

2009-01-11T20:16:00.002-06:00

...not sure which one I am - maybe monkey.

But I do wonder why Fred is so popular.

2009-01-01T23:24:00.003-06:00

Happy New Year!

...

2008-12-29T23:39:00.000-06:00

Good boy, Bubba!

2008-12-27T11:09:00.001-06:00

For those of you who are easily distracted (not that I can relate - wait, let me check the weather...):

2008-12-17T19:04:00.002-06:00

My favorite Christmas song:

A very close second...

Halleluiah, everybody say cheese:

And look what you can watch online now!!!

Season 2 Online Premiere - Flight of the Conchords (US Only) - watch more funny videos

2008-12-17T09:38:00.002-06:00

The Blues Brothers one is now my favorite:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

2008-12-09T12:37:00.006-06:00

A message from the Big 3:
These guys have lots of other great shirts, but this is my favorite:
Vegetables can be fun:

and:

2008-12-07T21:41:00.001-06:00

Check out Dictionaraoke.

A BeTaMaXMaS is so awesome.

Check out the great holiday music on the Christmas Lounge on SomaFM. You can find it on iTunes as well.

Oh, and Feliz Navivbla!

2008-12-06T16:44:00.001-06:00

Cool video:

This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.

Couldn't figure out how to upload a song, so you'll just have to go here.

2008-12-04T09:32:00.002-06:00

"Christmas is the season of giving. So spread the holiday spirit by demanding that people give you things."
- Stephen Colbert

This just blew my mind:

2008-12-03T20:56:00.005-06:00

Every Christmas, I look forward to Scared of Santa. Is that wrong?

It's here! The future we were promised!

If Christmas presents were honest.

Here's another cool fake fireplace.

Some non-Christmassy fun:

Hooray for sausage? At least I think that's what we're excited about:

2008-12-03T10:06:00.001-06:00

Hamster On A Piano

...and another song.

...and one for the athiests:

2008-12-02T16:59:00.002-06:00

Some thoughts on the new cabinet (in Toon Town).

Yosemite Sam is definitely a good choice for Homeland Security.

Some interesting TV yule log options this year:

Yule A Go-Go (the dreidel is the best)

Book burning yule log

2008-12-01T00:00:00.000-06:00

This might be my new favorite Christmas song:

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

A Colbert Christmas: John Legend

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

2008-11-30T11:16:00.001-06:00

You wanted to try to eat more vegetables today anyway, right?

2008-11-27T23:03:00.002-06:00

I watched most of the parade, but it turns out I missed the best part - a live Rick Roll!

2008-11-26T20:43:00.001-06:00

Gobble gobble gobble...

2008-11-25T23:45:00.001-06:00

I think it's still too early for all this nonsense, but I thought this was funny:

2008-11-23T23:42:00.002-06:00

wow!

I know it's fake, but it's still fun to watch.

2008-11-22T19:02:00.002-06:00

2008-11-21T20:26:00.002-06:00

from stephan.com (via John)

Someone likes John Williams:

I'm sure you've seen Sarah Palin standing in front of the guy slaughtering the turkeys after she's just pardoned one of the poor creatures... If not, look for it on the YouTube. Unless you like turkeys.

2008-11-20T15:48:00.002-06:00

2008-11-20T15:24:00.003-06:00

Colleen is (even more) famous! She's on a t-shirt (or a baby blanket or a hat or a thong...)

Here's her Six Word Memoir from Smith Magazine on a t-shirt (which would make a fabulous Christmas present, no?).

2008-11-20T00:31:00.002-06:00

This phone looks really awesome. Too bad it's only available in Nova Scotia.

This is getting me in the Christmas spirit!

I can hear the baby Jesus crying, "Ho ho ho!"

2008-11-18T12:39:00.003-06:00

I think my cat really wants one of these:

Tumbling!

Watch CBS Videos Online

2008-11-17T23:34:00.001-06:00

Another Christmas Song - Stephen Colbert

2008-11-16T23:52:00.002-06:00

Car made of cake:

Here are two of my favorite things - Stephen Colbert and Jane Austen (starts at 1:45):

"Where are you, Mr. Darcy?"

2008-11-13T23:47:00.004-06:00

Thanks to John, I've had They Might Be Giants songs in my head today.

I came across this:

I love those knitted or crocheted puppets. Knuppets? Cruppets?

Speaking of Muppets, build your own here.

Here's a great script to follow when you get that next annoying telemarketing call.

Larry sent me this super cool site.

2008-11-11T22:54:00.001-06:00

Calling all Sports Racers!

Last year, Luke the Runner set up a Secret Santa exchange on the ORG and it was so much fun!

Let's do it again, but this time let's exchange handmade items. So many of you are creative in so many different ways. It'll also be a great way for us to reconnect as a group.

I set up an exchange for us - The Duckie Handmade Christmas - on elfster.com

Here are the details:
We're all creative in some way*.

Art, music, words, food... Share your creativity with other duckies this year.

Register and create your profile. In the wish list section, enter any items that you would like that are handmade or that you could use in your creative endeavors (yarn, exotic ingredients, craft books, fancy paper, etc). You can even include links to the items online.

*If you feel you are indeed, not creative, but would still like to participate: instead of making something for your partner yourself, purchase something hand-crafted by someone else (6-year old factory workers don't count). Or you can give your partner something that will aid in his or her creative endeavor (this is where the wish lists come in). For example, if you're paired with someone who likes to crochet, you could send him or her a bag of nice yarn. Or if you're paired with a writer, you can send him or her a writing journal or a reference book. Or if you're paired with a painter, you can purchase a gift certificate for an art supply catalog... You will see his or her wish list to help guide you in your gift selections.

Sign up by December 5th. After December 5th, will receive the information on your partner. Send your gift by December 17th (so your duckie partner gets it by Christmas).

Note: your personal information will remain hidden to everyone but your partner. If you don't want your partner to have your home address, you can use "Hold for Pickup" and indicate that you want your package sent to your nearest post office instead.

Open to international participants.

Let's start making stuff!

2008-11-06T22:21:00.002-06:00

Play Super Obama World. It looks cute but I suck so bad I can't get past the lipstick wearing pigs.

Here's a really great article with some of the creators of MST3K. I miss that show...

Here's something Joel and Jim Hodgson did as a test in their post-MST3K days:

It's quite funny. I wish they'd been able to do more.

And here's a helpful educational film (not that you need it):

Oh, and the movie is out on DVD now, and there's also a 20th anniversary edition boxed set. They would make lovely gifts, no?

2008-11-06T21:05:00.000-06:00

I couldn't resist.

Lots more here.

2008-11-06T20:23:00.002-06:00

"you've got red on you", originally uploaded by cakeyvoice.

Not surprisingly, Simon Pegg has some strong opinions about zombies:

"Still, I had to acknowledge Dead Set's impressive credentials. The concept was clever in its simplicity: a full-scale zombie outbreak coincides with a Big Brother eviction night, leaving the Big Brother house as the last refuge for the survivors. Scripted by Charlie Brooker, a writer whose scalpel-sharp incisiveness I have long been a fan of, and featuring talented actors such as Jaime Winstone and the outstanding Kevin Eldon, the show heralded the arrival of genuine homegrown horror, scratching at the fringes of network television. My expectations were high, and I sat down to watch a show that proved smart, inventive and enjoyable, but for one key detail: ZOMBIES DON'T RUN!"

This is a cool project:

"17 years worth of taking 2 photos a day as my head rotates in sync with the Earth around the Sun. This is a non-dejittered, lo-res, highly compressed, preliminary version of a lifetime project."

from http://www.danhanna.com/ (lots of other fun stuff there, too.)

Thanks to Larry for the link to this site about Babies with Beards. The poor beardlings!

2008-11-05T08:43:00.003-06:00

Hope wins!

Luckily something like this didn't happen (well, maybe in Ohio...):

Edward Winkleman has a really great post about the election and acceptance speech. This is my favorite part, though:

For anyone out there still unfamiliar with the term, I should explain what a "community organizer" is I suppose. It's a bit tough, actually, as the term is used more as a description of a belief system than any concrete sets of tasks or responsibilities, but I guess a community organizer is kind of like a small town mayor, except that a community organizer can actually change the world.

Things I won't have to do:

Say I'm Canadian when I travel.
Scrape off my bumper sticker in shame this time.
Cringe every time our president speaks.

Thanks I can do:

Be optimistic.
Be hopeful.
Be confident.

Yes we can!

2008-11-04T12:04:00.002-06:00

I know you probably voted early and you're sick of hearing everybody tell you to vote, but this is so darn cute, it'll make you want to vote twice:

This might make you want to vote, too:

Thanks to Ursula for these!

2008-11-03T22:13:00.004-06:00

click to see a bigger image

I love my bank. Credit union, actually.

Not only do they have free popcorn on Fridays, but they give a lot of money and support to the community.

So when we stopped in last Friday to make a deposit and score some free popcorn, it happened to be Halloween. So we also scored some free candy.

But the best part was that a few of the employees were doing "Thriller" shows throughout the day, and we just happened to get there right before the 5:00 show. They only did a short snippet (maybe a minute), but it was pretty great.

Oh, and here's a little silliness for the day:

Did you know there were cat ladders? Lots of them.

Today's squirrel fun:

If you haven't voted already, don't forget to vote tomorrow!

2008-11-02T22:15:00.002-06:00

Who knew?

This doesn't look like it would end well:

Here's a very expensive cat toy:

Baby squirrel!

2008-10-31T11:35:00.005-05:00

Here's something all Americans can agree on.

And here are 2 of my favorite things:

2008-10-31T09:48:00.007-05:00

Yesterday Brent told me (after commenting on the sheer volume of emails I send with links to stupid stuff on the interwebs) that I "seem to have a very active digital life."

He didn't mean it this way, but I interpreted it to mean that I need to get a real life. And it's true.

I'm not sure how to do this. Perhaps I could leave my house on occasion? Interact with humans in the real world, or "meatspace," as all the cool kids call it? Join a gang?

But I will promise to cut down on the stupid emails. I'm going to try to post all the stuff I find here. And probably occasionally on Twitter. So while this won't really cut into my digital life all that much, it will lighten the load in your inbox. And it will force me to keep this blog more up to date.

Oh, and Happy Halloween!

See more funny videos and Funny Videos at Today's Big Thing.

2008-10-11T16:50:00.002-05:00

Stolen from Colleen...

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now (even if we don't speak often or ever) please post a comment with a completely made up, fictional memory of you and me.

It can be anything you want - good or bad - but it has to be fake.

When you're finished, post this little paragraph in your blog and see what your friends come up with.

FYI:
My mom took me and Colleen to the Shaun Cassidy concert in Kansas City. We ditched her while she was waiting for nachos at the concession stand and we pretended we were groupies so we could sneak backstage. His public image was always so wholesome... But I'm still haunted by the things I saw back there. And the things we did. I always wanted to ask her - where did she learn to do that? I guess having older sisters was an advantage in that arena...

Get down and get with it, indeed:

2008-09-28T23:37:00.003-05:00

Me and Jeff*, all dressed up for the prom, 1984

I've also been reading a book called Cringe: Teenage Diaries, Journals, Notes, Letters, Poems, and Abandoned Rock Operas. It's hilarious.

Here's an explanation of the project from the author, Sarah Brown's website:

The first inklings of Cringe came about back in 2001, when Sarah Brown found her old diaries at her parents’ house, and decided it would be a good idea to send the most painful excerpts to her friends in a weekly email. Two years later, she moved to Brooklyn and told roommate Liz Schroeter about this endeavor, prompting Liz to dig out some old teenage zines of her own. The first Cringe Reading Night was held April 6, 2005, at Freddy’s Bar and Backroom in Brooklyn.

And the readings are still going on there, and in other cities, too.

The book includes things from other people, and I think the best parts are the commentary or explanations about the entries. Of course everybody's embarrassed by them, but a running theme seems to be, "I haven't changed at all."

This, of course, inspired me to get out my own diary and read through it. I've always been a sporadic journal keeper. This one is no exception. I started it December 25, 1981 and the last entry is January 26, 1985. And it's just over half filled. Sometimes there are months between entries.

I wrote mostly about who we saw at the mall, what albums I bought, and which concerts I went to. There was some friend drama - I felt left out a lot. Lots of people were "babes" back then. And lots of stuff was really "bitchin'" and "ex." And apparently I spent way more time and energy than I remembered obsessing over a certain someone.

I ended most entries with something like, "Well, it's really late. I need to get to bed."

Then there's typical teenage angst:
"I wish I knew who or what I was. I mean, I'm not doing anything, I'm just kind of here, doing nothin'."

And in the "I haven't changed" category, here's something from December 31, 1982 (I'd just turned 16):
"I wish I could act naturally at school, but I just can't. Everybody probably thinks I'm stuck-up or something. Oh well, that'll be my New Year's Resolution. To act more myself at school & to make some more friends. That seems fair. Well I better jam!"

It cracks me up how I would write about how sad, hopeless, and depressed I was and then say, "Oh well. Then last week we went to see The Beast Within. Gross movie."

But this is my favorite line of all (from January 7, 1982 - I was 15):
"School sucks, but it's been going pretty good because my hair is looking slightly better."

At least I had my priorities straight.

Anyway, it's really late. Gotta jam!

*not the one I obsessed over. Although he did rock that maroon tuxedo, no?.

2008-09-22T22:37:00.002-05:00

I'm reading When You Are Engulfed In Flames by the brilliant David Sedaris.

It's all greatness, especially "Monster Mash," where he talks about his obsession with death. This is my favorite part:

"As a young man, I saved up my dishwashing money and bought a seventy-five-dollar copy of Medicolegal Investigations of Death, a sort of bible for forensic pathologists. It shows what you might look like if you bit an extension cord while standing in a shallow pool of water, if you were crushed by a tractor, struck by lightning, strangled with a spiral or nonspiral telephone cord, hit with a claw hammer, burned, shot, drowned, stabbed, or feasted upon by wild or domestic animals. The captions read like really great poem titles, my favorite being "Extensive Mildew on the Face of a Recluse." I stared at that picture for hours on end, hoping it might inspire me, but I know nothing about poetry, and the best I came up with was pretty lame:

Behold the recluse looking pensive!
Mildew, though, is quite extensive
On his head, both aft and fore.
He maybe shoulda got out more."

And here he is on Letterman reading an essay about the stadium pal (which is also in the book):

2008-09-17T08:49:00.004-05:00

I'm not sure why this makes me sad:

Sometimes I get excited when people remake movies but sometimes it makes me mad or sad.

This time I was mad - how could someone remake such a great movie? And seriously, Keanu Reeves*?

I was expressing my disgust and Sam was wondering what all the fuss was about, so I showed him the new trailer and then found the old trailer:

My intention was to show how awesome the original was, but I realized quickly that the old black and white, low-tech one looks really cheesy and old fashioned compared to the new one.

I did really want this geekily obscure t-shirt:
But not any more, knowing that soon everybody will get it.

So maybe that's why I get snobby about things like that - it bothers me that something that a small group of us understand and appreciate (the "It-Getters," as Stephen Colbert would say) suddenly becomes part of the mainstream. Like when your favorite indie band "sells out" by getting a record deal.

So I'm going to focus on the fact that people like me will force their kids to watch the original (superior) The Day the Earth Stood Still and know that while most of those kids will roll their eyes, a few will "get it," too.

*The only movie I like him in is Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. To me, he'll always be Bill. Or was it Ted?

2008-08-22T00:15:00.004-05:00

Well, it's been a busy summer so far.

Sam starts school next week but we're going to go to Austin for a short visit tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be too hot there. We got a weird but welcome reprieve from the heat with a few days of mild temperatures. It's heating back up, though, unfortunately.

Thought I'd post a few recent finds for your interwebbing pleasure:

Cake Wrecks:
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

It's Lovely! I'll Take It!
http://lovelylisting.blogspot.com/

D-Listed Decor:
http://d-listeddecor.blogspot.com/

Must See Like New!
http://www.mustseelikenew.com/

First Books:
http://www2.firstbook.org/whatbook/your_favorites.php

Everything Should Taste Like Bacon:
http://baconsalt.com/

Fan videos are usually pretty lame, but this one makes me smile:

2008-07-29T09:59:00.002-05:00

I know it's been a long time since the last post...

Went out of town, got back, now battling the heat.

Oh, and I've been watching Dr. Horrible:

2008-05-23T09:04:00.003-05:00

So I bought these shoes at Target yesterday. I was looking for cheap, comfortable casual shoes that would be good for walking this summer. These were on clearance and I thought they looked kinda cute.

When I put them on I immediately thought of Racer X.

Then I thought, "I'm a grown woman. I can't wear shoes that look like Racer X."

But I bought them anyway. They were only $11.48...

When Sam got home from school, I put the shoes on and asked him what they reminded him of. He said, "Racer X."

So I'm going to cut the white things off.

Confession: I've always had a crush on Racer X.

2008-05-19T20:43:00.003-05:00

This is Betty. Isn't she just lovely?

John helped me pick her out. And my economic stimulus check allowed me to buy her.

I love her.

2008-03-31T22:34:00.003-05:00

a page from my bicycle book

OK, it turns out that I can't keep up with the Daily Show and the Colbert Report online. I'm way behind.

I blame it on Scrabulous.

2008-03-28T16:02:00.003-05:00

Make yourself a muxtape.

I did:
enchiladaplate.muxtape.com

2008-03-19T08:44:00.003-05:00

Well, I survived 5th grade camp! Barely. I was chaperoning 9 boys all by myself. Yes, 9.

I figure my job was to just keep everybody alive. And not kill anybody.

Mission accomplished.

But I wish I had a dollar for every time I yelled, "Walk!"

2008-03-17T07:57:00.000-05:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2008-03-02T22:16:00.003-06:00

Thinking about voting.

I'm excited to actually be able to vote in a primary. I know I could have always voted in the primaries, but it never really mattered before. By the time the Texas primary rolled around, the nominees had been chosen.

I still hesitate to vote, though. Even though I've always voted Democratic, the thought of having a party label stamped on my voter registration card bugs me. I like to know that I have the option to change my mind at the last second and vote for anyone I want to.

I don't know if that's the way it even works, but that's the way I've always imagined it.

I'm leaning towards Obama. Sam wants me to vote for Hillary. When I ask him why, he says it's because she'll be the first "girl president." I love that.

Either way.

So I got a call today from MoveOn urging me to vote for Obama. They let me know when to vote and asked if I knew that I could vote twice. Apparently you can vote in the primary and then go back in the evening and vote in the caucus. Weird.

So I guess the saying is true: Vote early. Vote often.

2008-02-08T19:11:00.000-06:00

I killed my television.

Well, not really. I downgraded my cable to local channels. I've been thinking about doing this for a while, but when I really thought about how freaking expensive it is, I just really can't justify it. I really only watch the local news in the morning, and then The Daily Show and the Colbert Report at night. And then occasionally a few minutes of Dave, Craig, or Conan... And then random stuff.

Except for The Office, I don't watch any prime time TV. I do like Project Runway but haven't been watching it regularly since they took a break for the holidays.

So it seemed ridiculous to pay $80 a month for about 20 hours of cable. I really wish you could pick the channels that you want to receive.

Having a DVR and access to so many TV shows on DVD and even online, I had decided that watching TV was kind of annoying, anyway. I would purposely start watching after it started so I could fast forward through the commercials. And even having to do that was annoying.

But I'm actually excited that I won't have all that distraction. Now I won't feel bad about wasting an hour of my life watching Celebrity Rehab or The World's Most Smartest Model or anything with a Brady...

Sam's another story. I didn't really let him watch all that much TV, but he's very upset. I know he'll get over it. And he can watch at my mom's and at his dad's, so it's not like he'll be completely deprived... And we do have a gazillion DVDs...

So I'm going to be watching my precious Daily Show and Colbert Report online.

I'm also going to cancel my home phone. I've also been thinking about doing that for a while. It seems silly to pay for 2 phones that nobody calls me on!*

*No pity calls, please.

2008-01-14T11:16:00.001-06:00

This one's for Jack.

I had lunch the other day with Amy and Stephanie and got birthday presents! Stephanie gave me a bag of thrift store goodness but it all paled in comparison to a postcard featuring the above image of "The Squirrel's Dinner Party." Stephanie actually saw it this summer at the Elizabethan House Museum in Great Yarmouth, England, her hometown.

This, of course, brings up several obvious questions.

First of all - What. The. Hell?

Did someone say, "I've got 15 dead squirrels. I think I'll get some dollhouse furniture and pose them as if they're eating dinner!"

Anyway, it's my new favorite thing.

I promised movie reviews. So I'm not really good at writing reviews but I'll try.

The Savages - Loved it. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney (who are great) play siblings who are dealing with their aging father. He was never around and they're suddenly forced to care for someone who didn't really care for them. It was real and sad and funny but not overly emotional or manipulative.

The Kite Runner - Beautiful. I really loved the book. It was beautifully written and very descriptive. They did a great job translating the book to film. It was very moving and beautifully done. They did leave out one part of the book, but it happened to be a part that I thought was a little manipulative, so it was a good thing. Beautiful opening title sequence, too (can't find it online anywhere...).

Juno - I loved it. It's quirky, funny, cute, and touching. The actors were really good and I loved all the witty banter and teen slang. Also had a great hand-drawn opening title sequence. The music was great and I can't wait to get the soundtrack.

I would recommend all of them!

----------------
Now playing: Buffalo Tom - Postcard
via FoxyTunes

2008-01-09T08:01:00.000-06:00

Mourning the ORG

During the year that Ze Frank was doing "The Show," his daily online video program, he created an online social network called the ORG. It was a place for his fans (with various nicknames like Sports Racers, Duckies, The Flock, or members of the League of Awesomeness) to congregate, celebrate their love for Ze, contemplate why he never blinked, show off their creative work, and collaborate with each other.

I had been contemplating writing a post for my art blog about online social networks for artists and I was going to mention the ORG. I don't see the point for most of the networks - I join them (myartspace.com, 723.com, artscuttlebutt.com, indiepublic.com, etc), post some images of my artwork, look around at other members for a while, log off, and forget about it until someone posts a comment or friend request.

But the ORG was different. It wasn't an art social network per se, but a lot of the members were very creative in some way - artists, musicians, poets, writers, photographers, filmmakers, designers, illustrators, etc. And others were scientists, engineers, students, and self-described geeks and nerds. The thing that brought everyone together was a desire to connect with other like-minded people and create something new.

ORG members could post photos, videos, writing, and links to their blogs. Members were encouraged to leave short, positive comments. You could also send messages to members via the ORG's message system. Oh, and I don't think I mentioned what I liked most about it - it looked really good. The complete opposite of MySpace, which is so full of ugly (on many levels) that I can't even begin to describe my loathing...

And it all seemed to develop and grow organically. It started very basic but as people commented on the features and functionality, new things were suggested, added and tweaked all the time. It was fun to watch it grow.

One of the collaborative aspects of the ORG were the projects. Any member could create a project and invite other members to join in. Some were based on things Ze mentioned in his show and others just came out of nowhere and got a life of their own. Often someone would post a photo or video, other people would connect with it, play off of it, post something else, and something new and wonderful would be born.

I have to admit that I wasn't as active an ORG member as some. I don't know how to do video (and quite frankly don't want to see myself on video!). I mostly posted some photos, perused the photos that people posted and commented on them. I would "quack" at people (I guess it was the ORG's version of a nudge, wink, or friend request). I would read some of the blogs and occasionally watch a video. There was one young guy from New York that posted some beautiful poetry... Oh, and I really enjoyed the Secret Santa project this Christmas...

OK, so why am I in mourning? Because when I tried to log in to the ORG on New Year's Day, I saw this:
... and it never went away. And I was sad.

It had became a real community. I felt like I had some friends there. I was a fan of many members and looked forward to their contributions - dangeramy, oldgrimy, viscousplatypus (still the best username ever), astropixie, imagine, blissee, awed job, snooge, ohkatherine (incredible photographer)... So many! A bunch of the ORG members are planning a get-together in Chicago this March, QuackerCon 2008...

Luckily I had some ORG member emails and some ORG contacts on Twitter and Flickr, so we were able to stay in contact while we figured out what happened (in fact, I've been enjoying our Twittering these last few days...)

Some of the more industrious (and smart) ORG members are scrambling to create a new place to meet. Right now it's called PostORG. ORG members are coming together and offering their talents to help create something new.

There was discussion on the forum about trying to get the code for the ORG to bring it back up and have someone else maintain it. But I love the idea of us creating something new. And of course by "us" I mean all those smart people who know how to do that sort of thing...

So if you were a member of the ORG and want to reconnect with it, go to PostORG or send an email to explodedorg@gmail.com.

Or if you want to be part of something new and awesome, watch The Show first, and if you like what you see, then hop on board.

And if you do join, look me up. I'm enchiladaplate, of course.

2008-01-08T21:53:00.000-06:00

I missed you!

2008-01-04T20:15:00.000-06:00

Colleen and one of the boys - from our visit back at Thanksgiving. I finally processed those photos!

A couple of images from the Bloch Building - the recent addition to the Nelson Atikins Museum in Kansas City. Colleen and I went there back at Thanksgiving, too. Her job was to keep me from licking those walls.

Oh! That reminds me. There was an episode of Firefly - now I have to look up which one - Objects in Space - where this kind of off-balance bounty hunter sneaks onto the ship to steal the crazy girl that the government did experiments on. Anyhoo - he talks about how he appreciates the design of things. He walks out into their cargo bay and admires the way it looks. Then he licks a post!

We had a good Christmas. Went to New Mexico the day after Christmas and did some snowy stuff. Maybe I'll post those pictures before St. Patrick's Day!

Sounds like this might be movie weekend. I'm going to see The Savages with Jenna tomorrow, maybe something with Trish tomorrow night, and then maybe the Kite Runner with book group people on Sunday. Woo hoo!

Movie reviews soon...
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Now playing: Lyle Lovett & His Large Band - South Texas Girl
via FoxyTunes

2007-12-14T23:14:00.001-06:00

The battle for Christmas rages on...

Some Shrinky Dink pins that I made for Tracey...

I'm heavily into Christmas production mode. Making lots of stuff.

I'm making books and the usual but I'm also doing some new things - jewelry, sewing, and embroidery. I know. Like I needed more hobbies!

I'm having an arts and crafts day at my studio tomorrow to socialize and help everybody get all their unfinished craft projects done.

2007-11-26T20:09:00.001-06:00

Little wooly caterpillar at the TWU pond a couple of weeks ago... I don't think I've ever seen one of these around here before.

Yeah, long time, no blog. I won't make any excuses.

I went to Kansas over Thanksgiving to visit Larry and family and to see Colleen and family. I went back and forth over whether I should go or not. I could have gotten a lot done with Sam at his dad's, but in the end I decided to go. It was good to get away and see everybody again. Although I've been there so many times this year, I think they're all sick of me by now.

Colleen indulged my art geekiness and we went to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. I wanted to see the new addition. It's super cool (I'll post pictures one of these days). Colleen's job was to keep me from licking the walls. My job was to keep her from flicking paint off of this one super smooshy oil painting. I told her that the oil paint could possibly still be wet in the thick spots and she wanted to find out...

We also went over to the Kemper. I really like that museum. Colleen found a blinky sculpture that she wanted to lick. Or steal. I forget.

Then we had some yummy Italian food, some yummy dessert, and we hung out at her house for a while with all the boys.

I went with my mom and stepdad in the Suburban Assault Vehicle. Interesting, I always remember them calling it "Suburban..." in the movie... Weird how that happens. According to the internets, a Chevy Suburban is a Mormon Assault Vehicle!

I've been doing a little painting, making some more collage boxes, and now I'm into holiday production mode. I'm going to be making gifts again this year. Sorry, everybody.

While I was making those boxes, I listened to a bunch of my backlog podcasts - specifically This American Life. In one episode, Meet the Pros, David Rakoff talks about how he loves to make stuff and he wonders if he could love it as much if it were his job. He makes things for his friends but that it must be like having a fitness-loving friend come over and do 25 push-ups in your living room and then say, "Happy Birthday!"

I'm afraid that might be true. So, again. Sorry.

I do love it, though. I was making some stuff today and I forgot to eat lunch.

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Now playing: Wilco - Hate It Here
via FoxyTunes

2007-10-17T16:22:00.001-05:00

What a busy week I'm having. I drove to Sherman on Monday evening to do an encaustic painting demo for the Sherman Art League. It went well. I think everyone enjoyed it and they all seemed enthusiastic.

Yesterday evening I went to the Boys and Girls Club to talk to them about volunteering by teaching some art classes for the kids. I was a judge for their art competition last year and I really liked the woman who ran the place. She said that they were desperate for someone qualified to teach art, so I kind of put it in the back of my mind and finally contacted her when school started.

I think it's going to be fun. I met one little boy yesterday that I immediately fell in love with (but not in a creepy way). I think he's in 6th grade and he was telling me about his art classes at school. He looked just like Mike Sebasto, who I had a crush on in 6th grade.

I just got back from delivering some paintings to the amp gallery in Fort Worth. The opening is this Saturday. I'm excited that I'll get to see my friend Jennifer. My friend Kate is also in the show but she went and got herself a real live boyfriend and will be visiting his family instead.

Tomorrow I'm going to go to Dallas to work on the collaborative piece with Allison and Brett. We're doing an altar for a Day of the Dead show. I have no idea what we're doing. I'm just going to take a bunch of stuff and hopefully it won't be ugly. It'll be fun to work with them.

Holy moly, and then Friday I'm going to go to BFE/Cedar Hill to talk to some people there about possibly doing a workshop. On the way back I'm going to try to hook up with Julie for lunch.

I scheduled a workshop for Saturday but I don't have anyone signed up, so I guess I won't be doing that. Then I guess we'll be going to Fort Worth for the reception. Sunday I rest.

I'm also doing volunteer stuff for the PTA, my part time stuff for VAST (which I've been neglecting lately and need to work on tonight), and working on proposals for teaching and for getting more shows. Oh, yeah, and I started a new series of paintings.

I finally sat down and read The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznik, which apparently recently won a National Book Award. It was so good! Trish had recommended it. It's sort of a graphic novel but not really. I loved it. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is gripping and very sweet.

I also recently bought I Am America (and So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert. It's quite hilarious.

My favorite part so far - this part about mothers, in the chapter on The Family:

Females need to nurture constantly, so they hate any time alone where they are left to think, shower, or sleep. For a Mom to be happy, every moment away from her children must be filled with the soul-wrenching thought, "am I a bad mother?"

The answer to that question is a resounding "Yes." Scientists have proven, one assumes, that every flaw in a child can be traced back to a mistake made by the mother. As adults we're all imperfect, so that means all mothers are incompetent. But some mothers are worse than others. Take women who work. I don't care if it's CEO of a major corporation or three hours a week as a teacher's aide, if you work outside the home, you might as well bring coconut arsenic squares to the school bake sale.

A mother needs to be in the home even when the kids aren't A messy house sends a coded message to children: "I'm not loveable. Otherwise Mom would dust."

A good mother cooks, cleans, drives, organizes charity events so her children earn community service points for college, and expects nothing in return except love and breakfast in bed one day a year.

So, a word to all you Femin-Idi-Amins: Stop "liberating" moms by trying to make them join the workforce. They're already doing the job that God put them here to do: Everything.

He includes little notes on the side that work sort of like the bullets in his "The Word" segments. Funny footnotes, too. And stickers!

I haven't watched last night's show yet but apparently he announced that he's running for President. That's going to be awesome. I can't wait to see what kind of shenanigans he pulls.

You're right, Trish - "shenanigans" brings the funny!

That reminds me - Trish and I saw Across the Universe the other day. I thought it was good - not great. Parts of it were great. But it was about 30 minutes too long and as Trish pointed out, it seemed like they were just trying to fit in as many songs as they could. I do have an aversion to musicals, so that could have been the problem. The music was good, though...

I couldn't help comparing it to the Sgt. Pepper's movie from the 70's and how it's sort of a time capsule of the big stars of the day (Peter Frampton, The Bee Gees, Steve Martin, etc.). And I wonder if this one will seem like that in 30 years. That movie was definitely just a cheesy excuse to show as many big stars as they could singing as many Beatles songs as they could...

Check these out:
Unfortunately Placed Ads (I love the kitten/Jesus hug)

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Now playing: Lori McKenna - Confetti
via FoxyTunes

2007-10-08T17:40:00.000-05:00

OK, based on John's comments:

"I think the gangsta name needs to be re-thunk a little. "Dreamsicle Snickerdoodle" doesn't sound very gangsta to me. I guess "Frisky F-150" doesn't sound very much like a rock and roll name, either."

And a quote from Trish's email:
"2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie): Coffee
Heath Bar Crunch Oreo
this was doomed from the start. Ice cream and cookies do not a gangsta
make."

I think we need to brainstorm on a better method for obtaining our gangsta name. Ideas?

Here's a funny generator:
http://gangstaname.com/

This is what it dubbed my ass, depending on how I typed in my name:
Broken Tang Chasa
Fly-ass Cop Killa
Dances with Canadian (that one doesn't make much sense, but I like it)

Oh, and I have to admit that I picked colors and animals that would sound good.

John also asks about the Magenta Mojito's superpowers.

I'm not sure of the specific powers of the Magenta Mojito, but it would be strong, refreshing, and minty fresh.

2007-10-06T22:28:00.000-05:00

I found this meme amusing:

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car): Callie PT Cruiser

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie): Emily's Campfire Marshmallow Tollhouse

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name): D-Woo

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal): Chartreuse Dolphin

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born): Ruth Houston

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first): Woo De

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2ND favorite color, favorite drink): The Magenta Mojito

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers): Cecil Cayrus

9. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names): Kay Eugene

10. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5Th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): McCone Malibu

11. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower). Spring Tulip

12. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”): Banana Tanky

13. HIPPIE NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Chai Willow

14. YOUR ROCK STAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour” and the year): The Wax Tornado Tour 2007

Now, you...

2007-09-22T18:20:00.001-05:00

I took this driving through Lewisville, I think back in June. A scary storm was rolling in and I happened to have my camera. The clouds were scary but really pretty at the same time.

I'm very tired of summer. We keep being taunted by cool weather every now and then but it gets back up into the 90s. At least it's cooling off at night, which is very nice.

I got an email today from my Provincetown gallery - they sold another one of my paintings (the third this summer) and have people interested in 2 more! Woo hoo! Let's hope they close the deal before the summer season ends.

Trish and I are going to see a documentary tonight about Donkey Kong. Really.

I'm mostly excited to see her new shorter hair and hear all about her midlife crisis. Aren't men supposed to have those?

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Now playing: Caitlin Cary And Thad Cockrell - Warm And Tender Love
via FoxyTunes

2007-09-08T22:48:00.001-05:00

At the lake on labor day...

Tonight I went with my friend Karen to Fort Worth for fall gallery night. We ate at Gloria's and went to a couple of galleries and complained about our kids.

Sam and I have been doing indoor rock climbing and enjoying it. We went yesterday after school and he climbed the wall about 18 times. I'm not exaggerating. He's getting pretty fast, too. I call him SpiderSam. I have to go by myself when there's someone there to spot me. Either way I get to wear the attractive wedgie-inducing harness!

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Now playing: Shiny Toy Guns - Le Disko
via FoxyTunes

2007-08-26T21:10:00.001-05:00

Shadow.

This is one of the kittens that have adopted us. Shadow and Pouncy are still around but Cotton Candy doesn't seem to have made it. Mama kitty has disappeared and I'm afraid she's off having more kittens.

I definitely need to call those cat wranglers...

Let's see. What else is going on. Well, tomorrow's our last day of summer. Not weather-wise (unfortunately) but school-wise. Sam heads off to 5th grade on Tuesday. He gets to meet his teacher tomorrow night. He's very excited.

Trish and I went to see a great movie the other night called Once. I realized about halfway through that it was a musical. But I liked it anyway. :-)

I have Showtime for free for a month so I've been recording some movies and watching a few. Last night I watched SherryBaby. It was good. I still have a girl crush on Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Trish recommended a really great book called The Great Good Thing. I loved it. I read the sequel, Into the Labyrinth but it wasn't quite as good.

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Now playing: Lori McKenna - Swallows Me Whole (Live)
via FoxyTunes

2007-08-06T18:02:00.002-05:00

I was going to submit this to stuffonmycat.com but never got around to it... "Stuff" courtesy of Sam...

Catching up - I wrote on my other blog about being overwhelmed by having so much to do. This blog has been a victim of that, too.

So here are a few things I've done recently that I haven't blogged about:
Trish came over the other day for lunch and we made Shrinky Dinks. She assured me that a couple of single 40-year old women making Shrinky Dinks on a random Thursday afternoon was NOT weird or pathetic. We invited Sam to do some, too, but he was busy playing his Gameboy.

On Saturday Jenna and I went to IKEA and then ate at Blue Mesa (yum) and went to Trayc's (latest) solo show opening. The place was cool - in Deep Ellum next door to a tattoo studio. The location was an improvement from the last gallery show she was in - which had no AC - what were they thinking? And I was also excited to see that the most awesome (and dangerous) paper store, Paper Arts is next door. They move every couple of years and I can't keep up with where they are... So now I know.

After the reception we stopped at Kathleen's Art Cafe for some crazy delicious desserts. We were mildly disappointed that they don't really seem to have any art anymore, except for the stuff that we recognized from IKEA!

Sam is at my mom's tonight. I'm going to help hang a show tomorrow so he's going to hang out with her and maybe see Underdog.

I bought some storage and organization stuff at IKEA, so I spent the last couple of days cleaning my office. I'm trying to be more brutal about getting rid of stuff. I'm way too much of a packrat.

Last weekend I watched Factory Girl, about Edie Sedgwick and her friendship with Andy Warhol. It was good but sad. And it made me hate Andy Warhol.

Sam and I saw the Simpsons movie. It was funny but I think most of the funny parts were in the (numerous) previews. I still laughed a lot, though.

I'm done with all the chick-lit Shopaholic books and now I'm reading a kind of art-chick-lit book - Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him. The main character is a "gallerina" - a receptionist for a Chelsea gallery who has an inside view of the New York art world. It's really good.

All the rain seems to have stopped and now it's heating up to normal Texas August temps, which make me say repeatedly, "Why do I live here?"

I was wanting to go to the beach but after Shark Week last week, I might be happy with the boring old lake for a while.

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Now playing: Coconut Records - Summer Day
via FoxyTunes

2007-07-22T21:01:00.001-05:00

Some pictures from the Bad Art Party. It was fun to watch the kids do their own thing and just make whatever they wanted. I think they had fun. Weird how all the girls made jewelry and clothing. Oh, and frog houses...

Sam and I went to the Harry Potter party at the local Barnes & Noble. I'm still amazed to think that all those people were there (and stores like it all over the world) for a BOOK. Is that not stunning in this day and age?

Some interesting people there. Some people (as in adults without kids who dress up as wizards...) are just WAY too into Harry Potter. I did see at least one great t-shirt, though. It said: "Spoiler Alert: Hermione's a Dude!"

Sam's not letting me touch his copy, though, for some reason. I've read all of the other ones to him (mostly - he would read some parts on his own, too). So I'm going to have to wait a long time to be able to read it. So don't tell me anything!

Yeah, wish me luck with that...

Tonight I watched Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus. It was weird, of course. But interesting. I think they were trying to imagine how she found her inspiration and why she was so attracted to what most of society thinks is freakish. She seemed to find beauty in it.

I'm helping out with the member's show for VAST (the local artist's group) this week.

I'm going to start on the last of the Shopaholic books. Total chick lit fluff but I'm completely hooked.

I also need to get some more boards to paint on. I've got an idea for a new series and want to get started on it.

2007-07-12T20:16:00.001-05:00

bored in the car...

We had fun on our trip to Georgia. I decided to drive straight through on the way out. Mapquest said the drive was 12 hours but it took 14. We didn't really stop that much, either, so I'm not sure why it took so long. We left on the 4th, so there wasn't much traffic to deal with.

civil war cannon and the old miss - the mighty mississip in the background

We stopped in Vicksburg - Sam was oddly excited about seeing the Mississippi river. I had to suppress the urge to be Clark Griswald. I wonder how many dorky people like me do that (or want to) when they cross that river...

My mom and stepdad drove out, too and we saw them once on the road before they stopped briefly to gamble in Shreveport.

We stayed with my aunt and uncle while we were there. Somehow I didn't get any photos of them. Just my cousin's youngest daughter:

She was really funny. This picture cracked me up. She looks like a spoiled little princess here but she was hilarious.

My aunt and I were trying to figure out what we should call each other - how exactly are we related. So thanks to wikipedia, I learned that Madison is my first cousin, once removed. Your first cousin's kids are your first cousins, once removed. Their kid's kids are your first cousins, twice removed.

Oddly enough, my aunt is married to her cousin, so this creates all kinds of interesting problems when trying to figure out how we're all related. Don't worry they didn't have any kids together - it's the second marriage for both of them...

Second cousins are more distant. They have the same great-grandparents but different grandparents. It's very confusing and I'm not really sure I understand it. And who knows if wikipedia's right about it, anyway...

So anyway - I installed my show at the Douglasville Cultural Arts Council. Their art center is an old house, so the show has a different feel to it. I think it seems more intimate to see it in that kind of setting.

installation view, The Tornado Show - Seeking Shelter, Douglasville, Georgia

While I was installing they went to Stone Mountain. I might have been there when I was little, but I don't remember. Sam and Madison had lots of fun there and wore the grown-ups out.

On Saturday we went to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. It was so crowded. We had gotten tickets online the night before so we were expecting an easy time of it but we had to wait in a line for security, then a line for tickets, then a line to give someone our tickets and then another line to get the tickets for the movie that we had also gotten advanced tickets for... And then there were long lines at every exhibit. They need to make their viewing windows bigger or something... But they had some cool stuff - whale sharks, jellyfish, beluga whales, otters, seals, stingrays...

beluga whales

whale shark

jellyfish

Those are all my favorites...

The opening reception was on Sunday. It happened to coincide with their ice cream social (the whole cone thing worked out nicely) and the entertainment was a barbershop quarter. I'm not sure how that happened...

The reception was very well-attended. Another cousin came by and my uncle's daughter (who I think is actually my second cousin...) was there, too.

We left on Monday morning and headed to Philadelphia, Mississippi. My mom and stepdad and my aunt and uncle were staying at a casino there that night, so we stayed with them to save on a hotel. Sam thought it was the coolest place he'd ever been in his life. He desperately wanted to play a slot machine. I have zero urge to gamble, so to me it was just tacky, smoky, and sad. But I shouldn't complain since it was free...

The drive home was still long - 10 hours. We didn't hit any rain until we got to Carrollton where it rained buckets.

We've had a family of cats take up residence in our back yard. Maybe because I've been feeding them. :-) There's a mama, 3 babies, and the dad - weird for the dad to be hanging around, I know. Sam has named them Mama (mama - tortoise-shell/black), Grayson (dad - gray and buff mixed), and Pouncy (just like mama), Cotton Candy (orange tabby), and Shadow (darker version of mama).

I saw them this morning but they weren't here the rest of the day. Mama and the babies are cute and I wish they would let us pet them. I'd also like to get them fixed... Grayson might have been pretty at one time but now he has that tom-cat look to him. He looks like a bruiser...

Anyway, part of me wants them to move on and part of me wants them to stay. The kittens are so cute.

So we're going to be around for a while, I think. The show in Douglasville closes on the 17th. Hopefully my aunt and uncle can meet us with the stuff halfway...

This weekend I'm going to teach a workshop - actually one each day. Saturday night my friend Trayc has some work in a show and I think Trish is going to go with me to that.

2007-06-20T21:52:00.000-05:00

This makes me laugh every time I watch it:

2007-06-16T15:56:00.000-05:00

I've been wanting to blog about my recent trip but haven't made the time for it until now.

I went to the Salem, Massachusetts area for an encaustic painting conference last week. It was a lot of fun.

Dennis gave me a pass for Southwest, so I had to fly standby, which is scary to begin with but a little more scary during peak travel times. The conference started on Friday evening but I had been invited to a reception on Thursday evening, so I had to fly on Wednesday just in case I got stuck somewhere and wasn't able to get there in time. I made it to Manchester, NH late Wednesday night.

I was originally going to take a flight from Dallas to Chicago that stopped in Little Rock and then I'd catch another flight to Manchester. Unfortunately the flight out of Little Rock was full, so I got bumped and had to wait there for 5 hours. I finished my book (The Sweet Potato Queen's Book of Love - hilarious). I had brought another book (Off the Wall: a Portrait of Robert Rauschenberg) but it was very slow and hard to get into, so I went to the bookstore and bought Shopaholic Takes Manhattan. Trish had mentioned the series and said she liked them. Fluffy chick lit, but perfect for the plane.

I finally got on a flight to Baltimore and then got right on one to Manchester. I ended up getting in around 9:00 and then had to drive to Salem, which is about an hour away.

I had actually been to Salem when I was about 10. We lived in Rhode Island for 2 years and visited a lot of places while we were there. I remember visiting the Witch Museum and The House of the Seven Gables (although I have to admit that my memories of the House are mixed with my memories of that episode of Bewitched where Samantha is teased by the haunted bedwarmer or something or other in her visit there - yes! I looked it up - it was a bedwarmer...).

On Thursday, I drove to Lexington (that whole "shot heard round the world" thing happened there) to meet my cousin Rebecca and her girls. Rebecca is from the Atlanta area but lived in Providence, Rhode Island for a few years. She met her husband and they got married there but moved to Georgia after the wedding. They just moved to Massachusetts about 3 weeks ago.

Rebecca, Jenna, and Janelle

It was fun to see them. I hadn't met little Jenna. She's very cute and very busy.

When I got back to Salem I considered taking a nap but decided that I should go out and see stuff. So I walked around near the harbor and went into some shops. The weather was gorgeous - in the 70's and low 80's. One shop owner asked me where I was from and when I said Texas, he said, "Oh, then you're used to the heat." I said, "This heat? Are you kidding?"

I walked by The House of the Seven Gables and looked at the harbor.
I'm still amazed at all the history there. There were lots of houses that had these signs on them, listing the builder and the year they were built.

So much history, culture, and natural beauty... but of course I wouldn't last a winter...

That night I went to a reception of encaustic artists that was really great (I'm blogging about the conference on my other blog).

I need to process the rest of my photos in order to continue, so...

to be continued...

2007-05-31T20:09:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post, since my fans (well, Trish) have been clamoring (well, mentioned it once) for one.

Trish came to my studio the other day and we played a bit with wax. That's her above...

Sam and I drove to Kansas on Saturday. We drove to Manhattan and spent the night. We took a scenic drive off the highway and it was really pretty. We drove through a couple of cute little small towns. They reminded me of Melissa, Texas, where my grandma lived for a while. The kind of town that you miss if you blink when you drive by.

We packed up my stuff on Sunday and then headed to Overland Park to stay with Larry and family. I hope they're not getting sick of me - it's the 4th time I've seen them this year and the 3rd time that I've said, "Hey! I'm going to be there tomorrow, can I stay with you?" They're good sports and are willing to put up with my last-minutedness. Is that a word?

Got to see Colleen for a while, too, and the boys played together. I took my camera but completely forgot to take pictures.

One evening we went to a park and got to see a few ducks and lots of geese, including some cute little baby geese.

Could they be any cuter?

We discovered that the adult geese will hiss at you if you get too close to their babies. I managed to catch Mrs. (or Mr.) Goose above in mid-hiss.

My dad and stepmom are visiting this week and we've been hanging out with them. Today they took a tour of the studio. After they left, Sam and his cousin did some painting.

It's so fun watching them play around with it.

I'm going to be busy this weekend packing up stuff for the art league's show. I'm going to start in the morning for a couple of hours.

I was supposed to do a workshop this weekend but nobody signed up for it. I need to figure out how to market those book workshops better...

I'm also doing some editing of some Word documents for someone that I know that works at UNT.

...and I need to prepare for my book workshop on Monday in conjunction with the book show at TCC.

Oh, and I'm going to get together with Trayc - she finished up her Waxy Buildup work. We're going to work on a proposal and figure out where to send it.

Schwew! Busy...

2007-05-19T17:52:00.001-05:00

I posted some photos of a couple of Sam projects on Flickr. The paper plate popup book of the Texas Revolution and an action-packed comic book, The Adventures of Bob and Rob.

You can also see photos from Trish's graduation celebration last week. We had fun watching Trish get trashed!

Oh, and check out the installation shots of the Beyond the Scrapbook show at Tarrant County College.

This next week is Sam's last week of 4th grade! He's ready for summer. He's going to do a bunch of camps in June and go with my mom and his cousins to Palo Duro Canyon for a week. He's going to be busy.

Tonight I'm going to Trayc's 40th birthday party in Dallas. Tomorrow I think I'm going to hang out in my studio. I need to figure out what I'm going to paint next.

2007-04-25T09:20:00.000-05:00

Sam's class went to the Fort Worth zoo last Friday. Here's a picture of Sam and one of his classmates in the petting zoo. It was fun but would have been better if there hadn't been 4000 other field trips happening there at the same time. It was a nightmare - so crowded! It took almost 2 hours to get there because of all the traffic, so we had to practically run through the zoo. "Look! An elephant! OK, let's go!"

I had borrowed my mom's car to make the trip to Kansas. Before I left I took my car to the shop so they could try to figure out what was wrong with it - it would occasionally just die while I was waiting at stop lights. Not all the time, though...

So they couldn't figure out what was wrong with it so I picked it up on Friday afternoon. I drove to Dallas on Saturday night for the spring gallery night but when I got to Lewisville my car just stopped accellerating. I pulled off the highway and stopped in a parking lot. It wouldn't start again, so I called AAA and my mom rescued me and I borrowed her car again.

Turns out the timing belt broke. It was going to cost more to fix than the car was worth. So I'm going to buy my mom's car from her. They were planning on getting a new truck soon, anyway...

I complained to John about the car but he said he wouldn't give me my money back. Rude! Oh, well - I guess I got my money's worth out of it.

We had some crazy weather yesterday. I was driving around when the first storm hit - buckets and buckets of rain. I had to pick Sam up during the second storm. Streets were rivers. It was crazy. While I was driving (the low-to the ground PT Cruiser) through the rivers, praying that my brakes would work, I was thinking, "This is so scary!" At the same time, Sam yelled, "This is so cool!"

The drainage ditch behind our house overflowed and flooded some of the houses behind us. Luckily our house is up high enough that we didn't get flooded. It was scary. They showed video from Denton on the Today show this morning...

But it's a gorgeous day today! Weird how that happens.

2007-04-17T20:31:00.000-05:00

F2 - artist's book - installation view from Seeking Shelter at the Manhattan Arts Center, Manhattan, Kansas

installation view from Seeking Shelter at the Manhattan Arts Center, Manhattan, Kansas

Had fun in Kansas. I drove up on Tuesday and had a fairly uneventful drive. I was wondering how many times I've taken that trip up I-35. When I was little and we lived in Kansas (between the ages of 3 and 7 and then again from about 10 to 12), my maternal grandparents lived in McKinney and Melissa, so we would drive down to visit them. Then when I was in high school, we moved here and we would drive to Kansas to visit Larry and Ellen and Colleen. I'd estimate that I've made that trip maybe 15 times. I don't know. There are so many things that are so familar about it. Frontier City in Oklahoma City. The Horseshoeing School somewhere in Oklahoma (I can always go there if the art thing doesn't work out), the Flint Hills along the Kansas Turnpike, the big Coors beer can at the northern end of the Turnpike (which is either gone or I missed it this time), and the curiously located Knute Rockne memorial. Oh, now I get it. If I had stopped to actually look at it one of those times maybe I wouldn't have been so confused...

Anyway, the trip always takes 8 hours.

I stayed with Larry and Ellen, who were nice enough to live with all my boxes for a couple of weeks. I had sent my work to them from the last show in Iowa, since the art center in Manhattan didn't have room to store the stuff.

On Wednesday, I drove to Manhattan, which is about 2 hours from Overland Park. Larry helped me stuff all my boxes into the car. I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't all fit. Well, it fit, but I couldn't see out while I was driving. I had to use the force the whole way. It was stupid and very scary.

I realized later that when I had fit it into the car before (plus two additional long paintings and Trish!), I hadn't packed everything for shipping. This time the smaller (14" x 14" x 14") boxes were packed inside larger (18" x 18" x 18") boxes. I also had my house sculpture and the wooden circle in boxes this time. So it all took up so much more room. Had I realized that earlier, I would have taken the smaller boxes out of the larger ones. Which is what I did once I unpacked everything. I broke down the larger boxes and brought them back with me. When I go back to pick it all up again, if anything doesn't fit, I can always ship it back home.

Manhattan is a really cute town in the beautiful Flint Hills. They call Manhattan The Little Apple. It reminded me a little of Denton, since it's a college town.

Colleen went with me to the reception. We were worried the night before since they were predicting 3 inches of snow in Overland Park and 5" in Manhattan. It rained and snowed Friday night but nothing really stuck, so we had good travelling on Saturday. We stopped in Lawrence to eat at one of Colleen's old college hangouts.

Not many people came to the reception but we had fun, anyway. Afterwards, we went to a cool restaurant near the K State campus - an area they call Aggieville (K State is a big agricultural school).

It was a good trip.

So this is my first full week of being an artist. I'm freaking out a little but it's OK.

Last night I went to a meditation class at the local Unitarian church. It's lead by someone from a Buddhist center (temple?) in Arlington. I enjoyed it. I've been wanting to try meditation and wanted to get more information about it.

I was supposed to go to Houston this weekend to teach a workshop but they had to reschedule, so I'm not sure when that's going to happen. I'm kind of glad that it's not this weekend, though, since I was gone so long last week...

Check this out:

How fun is that?

Do your own: Spell with Flickr.

2007-03-30T21:04:00.000-05:00

My new iPod case. Lucky for me my stepdad is a tool guy. He cut the holes for me. Thanks for the tin, Trish!

I bought a sheet of craft foam and cut it to fit the inside. I cut a couple of pieces for each side of the iPod so it wouldn't slide around. I need to cut a piece of foam for the top to keep it from flipping around inside when it's closed.

Well, I guess a lot has happened since Pi Day. I had been thinking about it for a while but I finally gave my notice at work. I go through phases where I'm really excited about it and think it's the best thing I could have done and other times when I wonder what was I thinking?

You can see all my justifications and ruminations about it here.

Right now I'm in an excited phase.

Oddly enough, as soon as I gave my notice, I got really busy at work. Go figure. Next week will be my last week. I'm staying an extra week to help them make sure my position gets posted and to help out with an event - one of my bosses is coordinating a guest artist lecture next week with Lauren Greenfield, photographer and director of Thin, an HBO documentary about eating disorders. I brought a copy of the DVD home to watch this weekend. I'm afraid it's going to be hard to watch...

I was going to have a garage sale tomorrow but it's raining like cats and dogs right now and it's supposed to rain in the morning, too. Maybe next weekend...

I'm going to go with Trish to Fort Worth for her friend Bill's birthday party tomorrow. Then we're going to hit a few galleries for spring gallery night. Yay!

2007-03-14T10:10:00.000-05:00

3.14

Happy Pi Day!

2007-03-13T21:30:00.000-05:00

I've been spending way too much time playing in the ORG lately. Ze Frank's last show is this week. Kind of sad. Check out this episode - combines two great things - Ze and Jonathan Coulton. If you haven't been watching The Show for the past year, it might not make any sense... If you join the ORG, be sure to quack at me. I'm enchiladaplate, of course.

Jenna came over on Saturday night and I stir-fried some shrimp in my wok. It was edible! Jenna brought some of the new Ben and Jerry's flavor - Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream. It was very yummy. The "sweet taste of liberty in your mouth." Indeed.

Speaking of which... it's almost time for The Daily Show and The Colbert Report...

2007-03-05T18:55:00.000-06:00

Krispen (on the left) with an admirer.

I had a great art weekend! The reception on Friday night was good - got to see some people I hadn't seen in a while.

I worked in my studio for a few hours on Saturday, working on my new stuff. You can see it here.

Then I headed out for Lawton. It took about 2 and a half hours to get there from Sanger. It was a nice drive, though. It's weird how it goes from super flat around Gainesville to really pretty and hilly all of a sudden. When I was approaching Lawton I could even see what looked like small mountains (or big hills) in the distance.

The gallery there was super nice. I was surprised that the place was totally packed. Krispen sold 2 paintings right away and 4 more at the end of the night. Pretty good.

This is a piece by one of the other artists showing there at the same time, Steve Hilton. This is called Tea for 48.

I headed back and got home around midnight.

Then yesterday I headed to Fort Worth and met Susan and Kathy at the Modern. We had brunch - awesome food - I had the mediterranean frittata. Yum.

We totally lucked out because the first Sunday of every month is free, so we didn't have to pay to get in. Bonus. We saw a show called Pretty Baby. It was different artist's views and interpretations on childhood. Most of the work was really creepy and dark. Kathy asserted that if you do work about children and you want it in a museum these days, it has to be dark. Probably true.

We walked around in the permanent collection a little bit. I had to worship at the Rothko altar for a minute...

Then we went to Starbucks for a snack and to get a little fresh air since it was so nice outside.

Sam's at scouts right now. Since it was so nice tonight, I decided to walk around the neighborhood rather than go to the gym.

I'm looking forward to the time change so it'll stay light later. And also the clock in my car will be right again. I've managed to change it before, but this time I just couldn't remember how to change it. I'm surprised I'm not an hour early to everything...

2007-03-03T10:10:00.000-06:00

A ceramic snail - by Sam.

It's art weekend for me. I went to a reception in Dallas last night - a couple of my friends and fellow former grad-students were in a group show.

Today I'm going to go to my studio and work on my new stuff. And then tonight I'm going to drive to Lawton, Oklahoma to see Krispen's show. I'm supposed to have a show at this gallery next year, so I'm also going to check it out.

Then tomorrow I'm going to meet some friends at the Modern in Fort Worth for brunch and art-looking. We might venture over to the Kimball, too.

Yay, art!

Sam's eye is much better. He complains about it hurting every now and then, but it's only when he doesn't want to do something. Weird how that happens. I took some pictures of it but I'll have to get his permission before I post them.

He said that he told his friends to call him, "Scarface."

2007-02-26T20:38:00.000-06:00

I forgot to mention the freakin' weird dust storm we got on Saturday. I looked out of my studio and noticed that the sky was kind of pinkish orange. It was very strange. Apparently it was dust from west Texas. It was super windy, too.

I kept hearing Prince singing, "When I woke up this morning could have sworn it was judgement day. The sky was all purple, there were people running everywhere."

OK, so it wasn't purple... but still. Weirdness. And then I partied like it was 1999.

2007-02-26T08:25:00.000-06:00

I had sort of a traumatic day on Saturday. I was teaching my workshop - very casual this time since I only had one student - and Dennis called to say that they were fine, but that he and Sam had been in a car accident.

They were leaving the gym where Sam has karate class and were still in the parking lot, stopped right before turning onto the street, when someone ran into them on the passenger side. Dennis drives an extended cab Nissan pickup and the car that hit them was a full-size pickup.

Some glass must have hit Sam. He had a bad cut on his eyelid and a few smaller ones on his face. Dennis was just sore from the seat belt. The paramedics checked them over and recommended that they go to the minor emergency clinic. Dennis' wife, Melody, took them. They looked at Sam and said that he needed stitches and needed to go to the emergency room, so Melody took him there.

In the meantime, I was trying not to freak out. Dennis assured me that Sam was fine, just a little shook up. I wanted to be with him but then I also wanted to trust Dennis to take care of him. I don't know if that makes any sense or not.

Anyway, when Dennis told me that Melody was taking him to the emergency room, I decided to end the workshop early and go be with him.

I think he was mostly scared. And he freaks out when he knows he's bleeding even a tiny bit, so I'm sure he was really freaked out after the accident. The doctor said that he had two options for stitches - the dissolvable kind (with risk of leaving a scar) and the regular kind (that have to be taken out in 5 days). Sam opted for the dissolvable ones, which I would have chosen, too, I think.

The cut is on his right upper eyelid. He also has a small cut on his nose and a few little cuts on his forehead. They said he'd have a black eye, but it's not too bad right now.

I was trying not to look at his eye while the doctor was messing with it, but before he started stitching, he said, "Hey, look at this - this is really interesting..." Dennis wisely just sat there where he couldn't see (he's very squeamish), but like an idiot, I looked. I have no idea what the doctor said after that point. Something about it being amazing that something didn't do something... I don't know.

But Sam was really brave during the stitches. The shot to numb him might have been worse than the stitches, actually. I think he ended up with six stitches.

Before he went to sleep that night, he said, "I'm really tired. I had a rough day." I agreed. He said, "This is the worst day of my life." Poor baby.

Oh, and on the way home from the hospital, he said, "Life comes at you fast." Indeed.

Last night he said, "My dad used the f-word at that other driver." I told him that was understandable.

So we're very thankful that everybody's OK.

Sam's a little self-conscious about his eye, so I told him to tell everybody that he got attacked by a shark or a tiger or something. I got the usual response, "Ha ha. Very funny."

Oh, Dennis called yesterday to check on Sam and he told me that 10 minutes earlier someone had rear-ended Melody's car. He said there wasn't much damage. I told him to stay home for a few days. It's amazing that with all the commuting he does, driving to Dallas every day for 9 years or so, that he gets into 2 accidents in town, in one weekend...

2007-02-18T20:26:00.000-06:00

The Found Art Tuesday theme this week is inspiration. I've been getting inspiration from reading recently, so I thought I'd include words as well as visuals.

This is an empty Whitman's sampler box collaged with odd images.

The inside of the top lid has a piece of paper with, "what inspires you?" over and over. I glued a little glass bead in the center.

Inside the box are 6 cards with inspirational quotes. Well, one of them is from Jack Handy. I think no collection of quotes is complete without a Deep Thought...

Oh, in my quote quest today, I discovered that Oscar Wilde said this, "We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars." Chrissie Hynde just sang it. And then I had that song in my head the rest of the day.

I created a little slip sheet thingie for the title. In small letters underneath it says "(i made this and left it here for you to find)". Last time I actually put my email address on the piece (haven't heard from anyone), but this time I think I want it to be more mysterious.

I don't know where I'm going to leave this one...

2007-02-17T22:19:00.000-06:00

This is the start of Sam's Bioniclicious room. I'm not sure how far we're going to go with it...

We're going to go to IKEA tomorrow to get his new loft bed. Exciting!

We went to Temple last night and spent the night there. This morning we got up and went to the Railroad Heritage Museum. Sam had a lot of fun. You can see all the pictures in this flickr set. I went a little crazy with the macro setting. Sam wouldn't let me take any pictures of him, so I was getting excited about numbers and rust and gears and valves...

On the way down and on the way back, we found ourselves in West. I ate some kolaches for you, Jenna. I should have just eaten the ones for you but I also had some for myself.

I'm worn out, so I think I'm going to hit the sack.

2007-02-14T09:04:00.001-06:00

Found Art Project

corazon, originally uploaded by enchiladaplate.

I've been carrying this little painting around in my purse, constantly forgetting to leave it somewhere.

The subject for this week is love, of course. The idea is to create a piece of art with that theme and then leave it somewhere for someone to find. Rosa Murillo introduced me to the idea. I've been following her blog for a while and finally got my act together and made something. Now if I could just remember to leave it somewhere...

I also got tagged by Nancy with the 6 Weird Things meme.

So here goes -

Six weird things about me:
1. I hate things between my toes - flip flops, toe socks, or toe rings. No thank you.
2. I love the smell of sawdust. And freshly cut grass. And dirt.
3. I don't like normal things that everybody else likes, like coffee and beer.
4. I like weird combinations of food - like butter on bologna sandwiches or macaroni, chili, and fritos (not that I indulge in those things much any more)
5. My closet is arranged by color
6. I can't stand wet socks - if any part of my sock gets wet, I must change them.

I'm supposed to tag 6 people - I think Colleen's done this one (but if you haven't...), so I'll tag Jenna, Trish, Jessica, and those are the only people I know that read this particular blog...

Now I need to go take my cat to the vet - she has a hurt foot. Poor kitty.

update:

The cat's fine - just has a sore on her foot (most likely from a fight). She got a shot and has to take medicine for a week. Fun for me!

I left my little painting in the art section of the library.

2007-02-07T15:03:00.000-06:00

Didn't get the job.

It's OK.

Now I can just concentrate on the art.

And you can find me a millionaire.

2007-02-05T21:07:00.000-06:00

The snow that didn't last long...

OK, still haven't heard anything on the job. I'm thinking it's a bad sign.

I still feel bad today but not too bad. I was able to muster some energy to paint half of Sam's room yesterday. I would probably feel better had I just stayed in bed, but I'm glad we got started. For a while I thought we were going to need to do 2 coats. You can't imagine my despair. But luckily it dried OK.

Oh, and Sam helped, too, so he was excited about that.

Last night I watched Thank You for Smoking. I really liked it. Aaron Eckhart is great at playing a jerk.

I think I forgot to mention that I watched The Last Kiss the other night. It was OK. I do like Zach Braff, but the movie was just OK. It reminded me a tad of High Fidelity, which did it much better.

Fun stuff:

Here's something fun to do next time you're on a plane.

I find this jewelry to be alluringly creepy. Of creepily alluring...

2007-02-03T18:55:00.000-06:00

I made this piece for Marlys. Late Christmas present...

I think I might have gotten Sam's flu. Thanks, Sam! I started to feel a little icky yesterday and I feel really tired today - I slept most of the day. I had wanted to start painting Sam's room this weekend, but just couldn't muster the energy today. Maybe tomorrow we can start on it.

Cathy and I saw The Queen last night. I really liked it. I thought Helen Mirren was great - she really became her. Sometimes they were portrayed as unfeeling but sometimes as slaves to tradition.

Fun stuff:
You have to check out the Caveman's Crib. Be sure the help him get dressed... Don't use the microwave, though.

I'm so excited to have found out that Michael J. Nelson and the boys have been hard at work, making fun of lots of new movies! I've missed them so much... That reminds me - I think I have one episode of MST3K on tape - The Mole People. I'll have to dig that out and watch it.

I love remixes. Here's a great one, transforming When Harry Met Sally into a horror movie.

2007-02-02T10:20:00.000-06:00

Snow!

I didn't have time to upload pictures this morning, but I took a couple... It snowed for a while yesterday but none of it stuck. It snowed again over night and it stuck this time. It looks really pretty. It's really just a light dusting - there's still some grass showing, but it looks pretty on the trees. It's snowing again right now.

No ice or bad roads, though, so we had to go to work and school. Sam was sad. He was out playing in it this morning, of course.

He stayed home from school the last 3 days with the flu. Poor guy. He felt a lot better this morning, though.

I'm starting to feel a little icky, though. I just drank some Emergen-C. Hopefully that will help.

Still haven't heard anything on the job yet.

Here's something fun to waste a few hours:
http://www.bandnamemaker.com/

My new band will be Deanna Smash and the Enchiladaplate Worshipers.

What's your band name?

2007-01-29T15:59:00.000-06:00

I think the interview went well. Thanks for all the mojo dancing or candle lighting or whatever you did to help! They said they would make a decision this week, so hopefully I'll hear soon.

The workshops went well this weekend and I was successful shopping - found a suit and some shoes. Even found an extra skirt and some extra shoes, just in case...

I watched The Illusionist this weekend. I enjoyed it. I think someone had mentioned to me that it had a twist at the end, so maybe I was expecting it and it wasn't such a surprise. But I thought it was well done.

Sam and I watched ET last night. He hadn't seen it. It's been a long time since I had seen it. I'd forgotten how adorably cute Drew Barrymore was (and how much she still looks the same). I'd also forgotten how scary that one part is, when the government guys surround the house. I love how, except for the mom, you don't see any of the adult's faces until the end. And I cried, of course. Sam laughed at me, as usual.

Oh, but he cried when we watched The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill a couple of weeks ago. There's one part where the guy that takes care of the parrots is moving and he takes his pet birds to a bird shelter and he has to say goodbye to them. Sam cried and cried. I'm not sure why it upset him so much. It's a really good movie - a documentary about a flock of wild parrots that live in San Francisco and the guy who takes care of them. The birds are most likely originally wild, brought to the US as pets, and then escape or are set free. Apparently there are similar flocks in many cities, including Dallas.

In my workshop on Saturday, my friend Trayc and I decided to collaborate on some encaustic work for a joint show. We brainstormed and decided on the theme Waxy Buildup: Cleaning House. And all that that entails. We started a blog to document the process. Stop by and check it out from time to time.

2007-01-26T21:35:00.000-06:00

Amost every time I take a picture, Sam says, "Please don't put that on your blog."

Oops.

What else am I going to put on my blog?

OK, so at 11:00 on Monday, everybody has to give good vibes, say a prayer, light a candle, do a little dance (make a little love), or whatever - I have a job interview. This is a seriously great job and it's exactly what I've been waiting for. Oh, and I'm perfect for it. But I feel like I need a lot of help from the universe.

And if it doesn't work out, then you're all tasked with finding me a millionaire to marry.

Either way, it's all up to you. Don't let me down!

Tonight I went to the reception of the local art center's big national craft show, Materials Hard & Soft. It's a super cool fine craft show - metal, clay, fibers, etc. I always have to go back a few times to take it all in.

Tomorrow I'm teaching a workshop - first one in a while. Hope I remember everything!

Tomorrow night I need to shop for an interview outfit. I need to find something hip and cool and art gallery-ish.

Sunday I might be doing a sort of "part 2" type workshop for a couple of people who've done the workshop before. Oh, yeah, and finish up my resume. Busy busy.

So what sort of fun stuff have I found lately? Lots of videos:

This is a really amazing video created by an autistic woman.

Check out this awesome waterfall. How do they do that?

Here's a fun interpretation of Star Wars. These people really do have too much time on their hands! I know! I couldn't resist!

2007-01-17T18:29:00.000-06:00

We got a bonus snow day today! They were predicting this storm to hit way south of us, but it veered north and we got some of it, too.

Sam's school and my work both closed, so we got the day off. Sam spent most of it outside, playing in the little bit of snow that we got. It was actually really pretty this morning - big, fat flakes. It just didn't last very long.

He decided at some point that he wanted to sell snowballs, so he found a box and wrote on it and then set up outside next to the curb.

I didn't want to discourage him too much, but I tried to let him know that it was pretty unlikely that people would buy snowballs when they could very easily make their own, yadda yadda yadda...

Silly me. He made five bucks.

My faith in humanity (or at least Denton's humanity) has been restored.

You can see more of my snow pics here.

My yoga class was cancelled for tonight, so I think I might read and do a little organizing. Or maybe I'll just sit my fat butt on the couch and watch tv!

Hey, check out these updated lyrics to that god-awful, ironically(?) non-ironic Alanis Morissette song. They made it ironic for real.

And here's Donal Logue's take on the song...

2007-01-13T20:33:00.000-06:00

Cathy at the show in Temple... the show was actually titled "Hideaway..." not sure what happened there.

Cathy and I braved the weather and raced down to Temple for the reception for my show (We had to stop in West for some kolaches on the way, though). We had planned to go to Austin after the reception and spend the night with some of her friends there. Mother Nature had other ideas, though.

We started to get rain and it was also getting cold last night, but it didn't look like the ice was going to hit until later this afternoon, so we decided to just go to the reception and then head back after.

The reception was really nice. My show was one of four going on and I thought they were all good. The facility there is pretty big, with several gallery spaces and even an auditorium for performances. I'll post images of the other artwork soon...

They had a nice spread with champagne punch. They even had a piano player/singer.

I gave a gallery talk, which was a little nerve-wracking but fun in the end. Everybody seemed genuinely interested.

One woman introduced herself and said she was on the board of regents at TWU.

I talked to two of the other exhibiting artists and one is really good friends with an artist in Denton that I know and the other had taken some classes at TWU. Weird.

Anyway, it was a really good experience and I'm glad that I went.

I'm hoping that we don't get too much ice. I have Monday off anyway, so there's just no need for it, in my opinion. If it were to hit on Tuesday, that would be a different story.

Now I'm going to go bundle up and watch Little Miss Sunshine...
update: it was hilarious. Two thumbs up.

Check out this funny video series.

And I totally can't wait for the next 007!

2007-01-09T20:33:00.000-06:00

at Nuno's in Austin...

Went to Austin with Trish last weekend. We left early on Saturday morning and stopped at the art center in Temple to unload my artwork. It's a nice place - my show will be one of 4 going on at the time. The reception this coming Saturday morning will be a champagne brunch. Fancy.

We went on to Austin and hit Book People. Great independent book store. We saw someone being interviewed (with a TV camera and everything) and turns out it was Leslie, the Queen of Austin. Apparenly he ran for mayor recently. We saw him walk by later in his skirt and stockings.

So Austin's still weird.

After Trish spent way too much money on books (all gifts, she swears), we went to the hotel - also a cool place - the Habitat Suites. It's a green hotel. Very nice but not expensive.

We called our Austin friends and left messages with them, trying to hook up for dinner. We decided to get a snack a couple of hours before meeting them, so we headed back toward downtown. We were both starving so we went to the first place we saw - Chili's. We decided that everybody working there that day was stoned and didn't really care about customer service. We eventually got waited on by a really nice, mellow, smiley waiter. He made up for our initial bad impression.

Then we went to Waterloo Records, a cool independent record store. Well, CD and video store, I guess...

We never heard from our friends, so we headed down to the party area on Sixth Street. We walked around a bit and then ducked into the Driskill Hotel. Fancy. We hung out in the lobby bar and did some people watching. We sat right across from the men's room - great location!

The lounge singer music was getting to us, so we headed back down Sixth. We were looking for some live music and settled on a blues club called Nuno's (their website doesn't seem to be working...). The opening band was Jo Hell and the Red Roosters, followed by Sonny Wolf and the somethings... We also enjoyed the people watching in Nuno's. Two shows in one!

We left the bar at midnight and were amazed at the hundreds of people walking around on Sixth. They had the street blocked off and people were walking everywhere. Lots of different kinds of people, too.

The next day we went to the East Side Cafe for a yummy lunch and hooked up with our friends. Kate (aka snake) and Thomas and Brian.

Then we headed off toward home. We stopped in Waco to visit Trish's friend Dave. He used to go by "Crazy Dave," but he seemed pretty normal now. He's married and has a cute little girl.

One stop in West for kolaches and we were off!

You can see Trish's photos here.

Oh, and we had nothing to do with those birds. I swear.

I have to do it all over again this weekend. The reception in Temple is Saturday morning. I think I might drive down early on Saturday and head back after. The reception is a champagne brunch. Fancy!

My work made it to Houston OK and the opening there is this Thursday. I don't think I can swing 3 road trips in a week, so I'm going to have to skip that one.

Hopefully they'll both sell some stuff. That would be a huge bonus. Keep your toes crossed!

I used my birthday money to buy myself a huge splurgy present - an iPod Nano. It's so freakin' pretty. I want to lick it. In fact, Trish's job this weekend was to keep me from licking it. I still might...

My birthday money covered the iPod but I splurged on the car adapter thingie. I'm excited to be able to listen to post-1992 music in my car now (the radio doesn't work and I have to listen to cassette tapes, and the ones I have are mostly from 1989).

Check out these videos from about 1978. Some kids spent quite a lot of time and energy making these movies...
Shark
Elevator
Devil's Babe

2007-01-02T21:27:00.000-06:00

I hope everybody had a safe and happy new year.

I had fun on my trip!

Thursday
The flight was pleasant and uneventful. Security at the airport wasn't too bad, except for a brief moment when I thought I was going to get wrestled to the ground and strip-searched - I approached the checkpoint line and had my boarding pass and ID ready. A nice lady checked it and let me go through (she even told me happy birthday), so when I got to the place where you put your stuff in the bins and take off your shoes, I stuck my boarding pass in my purse and sent everything through.

When I got ready to go through the metal detector, the security guard asked me for my boarding pass. I said I had put it in my purse. He said, "Oh. That's not good."

I started sweating.

He said I would have to have someone get it for me and he asked if I was with the people ahead of me. When I said no, he once again said, "That's not good."

But then he let me go through while another guard stood near my purse while I fished out the boarding pass. Schwew...

I was all worried about all my liquids (due to the war on moisture), but they didn't even ask to see my stupid zip-loc baggie...

Anyway, I arrived safely in Kansas City and hung out with Larry and his family that evening.

Friday
They had been having unseasonably warm weather there, so we were a little worried about there being enough snow to ski. Colleen picked me up on Friday and we headed up to Snow Creek to hopefully get some skiing in before it rained. We were laughing because the Snow Creek website said something about needing to wear sunglasses because the snow can be really bright at highter elevations. Is 300 feet high?

We suited up just in time for the lesson - Colleen was a newbie and I needed a refresher, so we did the ski school. Brad, our instructor was really nice. And he looked like Billy Bob Thornton. But in a good way.

Colleen fell a few times, but that's normal for the first time. I thought she acutally did really well - especially for such an old person - 40 next week!

We practiced a while on a small practice area and then headed up to the real hill. On my first or second pass down the hill, I was turning and out of the corner of my eye I could see a little boy on a snowboard coming up behind me. I had no choice but to turn to my left so I wouldn't hit the ski lift, and I guess I went right into his path, because he ran into me - almost completely under my legs. I proceeded to sit down on top of him. Lucky for him he had a helmet on.

I asked if he was OK (I was sure I had broken his skull) and he said, "I'm sorry. I'm not very good with this snowboard." I told him, "It's OK. I'm not very good with these skis."

Turns out it was Brad's son. Awkward!

He said that both of his boys were really good on skis but were just learning the snowboard and hadn't really learned to turn yet.

On our last ride up the hill on the ski lift, Colleen fell as we were getting off and she took me along with her. We then proceeded to take out several more skiiers as they came off the lift. Luckily everybody was OK.

We were amazed to realize that we had only been skiing for an hour. It seemed like much longer. Colleen was pretty tired and I didn't really want to ski by myself, so we headed off to find the hotel. It started raining not long after that, so it was good that we stopped, anyway.

The hotel was in the downtown area in Weston, Missouri, which is a cute little historic town. We dropped our stuff off and then headed out to a restaurant called The Vineyards. The food was really good - expensive, but we're worth it. How often do you turn 40?

We decided there that for our 50th birthdays, we're going to go to Paris.

Along with the check, they gave us little recipe cards with the recipe to the yummy soup we had ordered. Here's the recipe (this is for Jenna):
--------------
Cream of Red Potato and Rosemary Soup
ingredients:
1 T butter
1 T flour
1 quart heavy cream
1.5 pounds baby red potatoes, boiled and diced
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1/2 cup diced red onion
1/4 cup chopped scallions or chives
1 T finely chopped fresh rosemary
salt and pepper to taste

garnish:
shavings of parmesan or romano
creme fraiche or sour cream
additional diced peppers and onions
fresh sprigs of rosemary

method
Over low heat, melt the butter in a deep saucepan and whisk in the flour. Add cream and whisk to insure flour misture is dissolved in cream. Add potatoes, red peppers, red onions, scallions and rosemary. Increase heat to medium and stir occasionally until thick and creamy. Salt and pepper to taste.

Divide into serving bowls. Garnish with shavings of cheese, creme fraiche, diced peppers and onions and a fresh sprig of rosemary. Serve with an assortment of lahvosh crackers and hot crusty breads.

Serves 4 to 6.
--------------

After dinner we headed to O'Malley's Irish Pub. I think it had been a brewery at one time. When you walk in, you walk down a bunch of stairs and the whole place has stone walls and a vaulted stone ceiling. It was really cool.

There was a band called The Lucky Charms playing. They played a lot of Irish music but also some other stuff. I told Colleen I'd pay her to yell, "Free Bird," but she wouldn't do it. She joked about yelling Pink Floyd but someone else did. And the band actually obliged.

One of the singers announced that a friend of theirs worked for a liquor distributor and had arranged for everyone to get free shots of Evil Monk. Note to self: if it has the word "evil" in the name, stay away.

...or I suppose it could have been the wine, the irish cream drink, and the shots of Skyy...

At any rate, I was moving pretty slowly the next day.

We had been sitting in the balcony area, watching the band for quite a while, when suddenly, a couple of the singers started acknowledging us. Winking at us. Mentioning that we had been singing along with them the night before. Wha? And when we left, they waved at us. Weird...

Saturday
We had a little breakfast and then walked around the cute little downtown shopping area, checking out all the antique stores. Snow Creek was closed because of the rain (it can be pretty brutal at those high elevations!), so we had to change our plans...

After lunch, we headed off to Colleen's. We checked in with her crew and then went to the Plaza. We raced to the Nelson-Atkins Museum to see a little art before it closed. They're adding a new wing, so most of the more contemporary stuff wasn't on view. A guard told us about the Kemper Museum, which was open later, so we went there. Such a great place! You can see more photos in my flickr set here.

We attempted to have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, but the line was horribly long. So we found a nice place down the street called the Classic Cup. Back to the Cheesecake Factory after that to get cheesecake to go. Yum.

We got to see a cool magic show at Colleen's that night - Daniel got a magic set for Christmas. He even made Xander disappear!

Sunday
I made Colleen take me to Winstead's the next day for lunch - it would be a crime to go to Kansas without having a burger at Winstead's.

I hung out the rest of the time with Larry and his family again. New Year's Eve was fairly mellow - Lauren went out with her friends and Larry had to go to work. Ellen, Ryan, and I watched a few special episodes of Cops (Ryan's favorite, apparently). I have to admit that Naked Cops was pretty good. Then for some reason we watched New Year's Rockin' Eve. I don't know why. It always sucks. Will I ever learn? After the ball dropped, we switched it to PBS and some Garrison Keillor special. The best part about it was that Carson Daly wasn't on it.

I called Sam at midnight to wish him a Happy New Year. I asked him if he was tired and he said, "No. I drank two cups of Sprite!" I said, "Don't you know that Sprite doesn't have caffeine?" He said, "But it makes me hyper."

When I got home I asked him when he had gone to bed and he said, "About 12:10." That sounds about right.

I was supposed to go back to work today but the university was closed for mourning for Gerald Ford. So I stayed home and cried all day. Oh, and I also slept late, put away the Christmas stuff, and went to my studio and to SuperTarget. So it's back to work tomorrow. Sam goes back to school on Thursday.

I'm waiting to hear back about the timing for me dropping off my work in Temple this weekend. Trish and I are going to drive the stuff down there and then spend a night or two in Austin. I also have to pack up my other work to send to Houston. I had to go buy bubble wrap tonight. So tomorrow night I need to finish packing. Busy busy!

2006-12-26T22:46:00.000-06:00

I hope everybody had a good Christmas. Mine was fairly quiet. We did most of our present-giving before Christmas, so Sam and I just hung out on Christmas Eve (although he was very anxious to get to his dad's for presents). We watched Galaxy Quest - he had never seen it before. I think it's funny. I didn't realize that Rainn Wilson (from Six Feet Under and The Office) was in it.

After Sam left I watched So I Married an Axe Murderer. I had heard that it was hilarious but it was OK. A couple of funny parts.

On Christmas I went to Trayc's house. She lives in a cute little house near White Rock Lake. We hung out at her house for a while and then went a block over to her friend's house for a really great dinner.

Today I went to my studio for a while. I freaked out yesterday when I realized that I really only have 2 days to finish everything up! I finished all of my smaller paintings today and started on the 3 remaining larger paintings. Hopefully I can finish those up tomorrow. I also have to put wires on the backs and then pack them up next week sometime - when, though, I don't know...

Tonight I watched Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. So stupid. It had some funny parts, though.

My free movie channels end tomorrow! Bummer.

I forgot to mention that Sam and I went to see Night at the Museum the other day. It was funny. We really liked it. The effects were great. I also saw The Holiday. It was cute - total chick flick. Jude Law had never really done anything for me before and I know he's a schmuck in real life, but he was happenin' in that movie... A completely unrealistic, perfect character, of course. But I didn't mind looking at him.

I guess I need to start packing tomorrow!

2006-12-25T09:08:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-22T08:50:00.000-06:00

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