Artsy Fartsy

Follow Me!

2007-04-17T21:25:00.000-04:00

Click HERE to visit the new home of Artsy Fartsy and LisaGaumond.com

Ch-Ch-Changes

2007-04-13T10:43:00.000-04:00

In my quest to change and streamline, well, everything in 2007, I have decided to not only change my website, but also to change blogs. I'm combining the online portfolio and pretty pictures of my website and the chatty blogging capability of my blogger blog into one happy (and free) new blog over at Wordpress. Go check it out.

The new address is: http://lgaumond.wordpress.com and hopefully over the weekend the change will be complete and you will be able to get there by also typing in www.lisagaumond.com.

I've been playing with it for about a week now, customizing and trying out the new features. I posted a few entries, too, to see how it worked. I've been talking to no one, according to my stat counter, so head on over there and make me feel better. I think you'll like it. You can still comment, and I hope you do. The comment link is at the top of the message instead of at the bottom, but it works just the same. Let me know what you think.

The Houseguest

2007-04-12T10:12:00.000-04:00

Since I've been asked about it, I thought I might talk about something I alluded to earlier: my mother-in-law staying at my house. Before I begin, I just want to report that everything is OK, my marriage is intact, and no one has been suffocated with a pillow in their sleep.

About three weeks ago on a lovely Saturday afternoon, Luke and I were in Vermont shopping for a truck. I was excited because I had coerced Luke to stop at Yankee Candle in Deerfield, MA on the way home for some shopping, I mean for lunch. I love Yankee Candle and Luke... well not so much. He has tolerated Yankee Candle once or twice in the past when they had a car museum in the building. Now that they don't, I can't convince him to go, so getting him to stop there for lunch (wink, wink) was a big victory for me. I had him park at the far side of the building so we had to walk through the entire place to get to the restaurant (sneaky of me) and we were about 10 feet into the building when his cell phone rang.

Crap.

It was a friend of Luke's mom's saying that she had fallen and she hurt her arm and was at the emergency room in Manchester and she wanted him to come.

Like I said: crap.

We turned around, candle-less, lunch-less, and headed back to Connecticut to see Luke's mom. She had tripped on her way into Shady Glen. She fell forward and onto her arms and wound up shattering the ball in her shoulder. She would require surgery, possible shoulder replacement, but the emergency room couldn't do anything for her, other than give her medication and the name of an orthopedic surgeon to call on Monday. She couldn't do anything herself, she could barely manage sipping from a water bottle, and since she lives alone, I knew we had to take her to our home until she could get to the doctor and have her shoulder fixed.

Two weeks ago, she had a partial shoulder replacement, meaning they replaced her shattered ball and a portion of the bone leading up to the ball with titanium, and she's doing much better. And now It's time for her to go home.

I never considered myself particularly compulsive, or a neat freak in any way, but whenever we have anyone stay with us for any length of time, they drive me INSANE. We have another friend who lives out of state and stays for weeks at a time while he's working in CT and I adore him. I look forward to his visits and I miss him when he's gone, but after about two weeks at our house, I could kill him. And it's completely my fault. It's just that he doesn't follow our schedule. He's loud and perky in the morning when we're used to quiet and grumpy mornings. He asks a lot of questions like a little kid when we watch TV or movies, when Luke and I are used to such quiet that we practically communicate through ESP. He leaves his socks in the living room. He spills sugar on the counter and leaves it there. These are all silly things that drive me nuts. Poor Luke. How has he manage to learn my rules and live with me this long?

I digress. So yes, it's time for Luke's mom to go home. This Saturday she's moving back to her condo, and next week, Luke will be duct taping Molly's mouth shut while he tries to sleep during the day. Right now, Molly hangs out with Luke's mom all day, watching TV and snuggling on the couch. This means that she can see out the windows and bark at every threatening leaf and bird that drifts by. Next week, she will be forced to sleep with Luke in the bedroom where she will hopefully learn to stop barking so much and waking him up. Of course, if she can't, maybe I'll be forced to bring her to work every day. Wouldn't that be a shame.

Ahh...spring.

2007-04-11T09:23:00.000-04:00

Nothing says spring like ice crystals. Isn't this a cool pattern? I couldn't resist taking a picture. Can you guess what it is?

Can you?

Scroll down to see...

Have I mentioned that it's mid-April. And SPRING. It may look pretty, but I refuse to use my ice scraper past the end of March. That's just wrong.

Adjusting

2007-04-10T09:09:00.000-04:00

Monday morning (or is that Sunday night) was Luke's first day (night?) working third shift and now we're all trying our best to adjust. He had to come home from Easter dinner at my sister's on Sunday to take a nap before he left for work at 11:30pm. He's been looking forward to this change for a long time so he was prepared for the adjustment. I have been apprehensive about the change for a long time, but I'm willing to see how it goes.

Here's how it goes: we all need more sleep. Except for Molly, she's adjusting fine. She sleeps with me at night and with Luke during the day. She gets half the bed to herself. She's thrilled.

Previous to this schedule change, we were generally in bed by 10pm and I was out like a light by, oh, about 10:02pm. It seems though, in these last two days, that if I stay awake past that 10pm point, I don't need to sleep at all! I'm wide awake. Sunday night/Monday morning, I stayed up in bed reading until 2am. I had to force myself to stop reading and turn out the light because it was getting ridiculous. Same thing happened last night but I made myself turn the light out at midnight. I'm sleeping better than expected in an empty bed, and I'm waking up just fine, but about an hour after I wake up, I feel like a zombie. I can't remember anything, I can't focus, and obviously, I can't tell an interesting story either. Sorry about that.

Luke's doing OK so far. Yesterday he slept for a few hours after he came home from work at 10am, and then he napped a little before work. The worst part for him is, as he referred to her, Barkums. Molly barks in a shrill, ear piercing way when we're home and she sees something outside. We're trying to break her of this, but you have to physically threaten her with Bitter Apple to get her to stop. Yesterday Luke was trying to sleep and a delivery guy came rolling up the driveway. Then someone stopped by to pick up Luke's mom for a doctor's appointment, then they came to bring her back. Each time, Barkums just couldn't stop herself from alerting Luke of the danger. We're going to have to work on this some more.

One good thing I've noticed about Luke's new schedule so far is his mood. He's a new man. It might be that he's just too tired to be anything but mellow, but I don't think so. It's amazing for me to watch him. He's generally so short tempered and frustrated. Sunday night, just before he had to leave for work, our toilet decided to explode all over the floor, which normally would result in swearing, slamming, and yelling from Luke. Instead, he was laughing and shaking his head in disbelief. Who is this man? I came home last night and he was washing dishes. If this is what I get to live with from now on, I'd be more than happy to live without sleep.

Another good thing is that I have more time to read. It's been so long since I read a book - I've almost forgotten how. I used to read everyday on my lunch break, but then I started to go meet Luke for lunch everyday and the reading stopped. Don't get me wrong, I loved having lunch with Luke, but the driving and the paying for coffee and the rushing - that I won't miss. And now I can READ! Yay! Right now I'm trying to finish up my last book club book, Bookends, by Jane Green and I have Goodnight Nobody, by Jennifer Werner that I started and never finished. And Flann and Amanda gave me books to read that have been collecting dust on my book shelf. I'm very excited at having more time to read.

So all in all, it's good. We're adjusting. It's only been two days (or nights) so far but I think it might just work out OK.

Party Girl

2007-04-04T14:25:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, my neighbors held a memorial service at their house for a sister who died last month and we went to lend our support. Molly thinks that she lives at both our house and our neighbors' house, so I knew she would be fine on her own all day. I put on her fancy collar and added a purple bandana to dress up her outfit, and we all walked over to join the service.

Molly spent the day visiting and comforting, licking and begging. She snuggled with those who needed a snuggle. She tolerated the cute little girls who followed her around pulling her tail, she gently woofed at the door to tell anyone nearby to let her in or out, please. She cracked me up. She spent the day greeting everyone, ignoring no one, and it was hilarious to me to hear peopple I don't know say to one another, "that's Molly, she lives next door". She was a doggie ambassador that day and I am so proud.

So who thinks I should change my blog title to "Me, My Dog, and My Friend's Dogs" since that's all I seem to talk about lately?

Sad News

2007-04-03T09:09:00.000-04:00

If you're Amanda, you might want to stop reading. I know how you hate sad news involving dogs.

Last week was a hard week - with work being crazy and my mother-in-law moving in (more on that later) - and it was made even harder by the news that Sydney had lost her brave battle against cancer and went to the big comfy couch in the sky.

This painting above is of the beautiful Miss Sydney. I had an assignment on college where I had to take a famous painting with people in it and put animal heads on the figures. Sydney was featured in several of my paintings. She even made it onto the cover of a magazine right here.

Sydney was with us for eleven years and experienced so many life changes. She was there when my sister's apartment caught fire and when she got married and had her babies. She patiently welcomed Molly and Aimee into the dog pack and never minded the new cats that came and went. She bravely accepted losing her front leg and never let it slow her down, but sadly a new cancer developed and she couldn't fight it any more.

My sister is doing surprisingly well, considering the situation. Her pup is gone, the pup who had been around longer than her two kids, even longer than her husband has been around. I can't imagine the empty space she must feel in her heart, but Sydney is in a better place now and she's not in pain any more.

So think happy thoughts everyone, and go hug your puppies right now and be thankful that they're healthy and there by your side.

Lazy Afternoon

2007-03-29T09:08:00.000-04:00

One more greyhound-filled day before Paula and Karlo come home. What will Molly do with herself? What will I do now to avoid actually blogging? I just don't know.

Such a Burden

2007-03-28T14:50:00.000-04:00

Paula mentioned once again that she is sorry to burden me with her dogs while she is travelling. Burden? Are you kidding?

I give you exhibit A:And then there's exhibit B:Can you just imagine the work involved in caring for these two? I'm flat worn out! They nap so much, it makes me tired.

I hope that no one is sick of Peanut and Bentley this week because I am so busy at work that I have nothing else to talk about besides these two love-nuggets. Only one more greyhound day until their parents return from LA so enjoy the cuteness while you can.

Jealous?

2007-03-27T14:17:00.000-04:00

You should be. Peanut is very snuggleable. Here we are having a private moment in the yard.
Then Bentley got in on the action. You can't forget to give big brother some love.
And here's my favorite action shot of Bentley and Molly playing.

Oh, by the way, you should never let a rescued greyhound off leash in an unfenced yard. And don't ever let them play with small, fluffy dogs either. These are bad, bad ideas.

Baroo?

2007-03-26T10:55:00.000-04:00

This is all I have to say today. Too much going on to write about. For now, just a big wet nose for you, courtesy of Peanut.

Three Dog Night

2007-03-23T08:47:00.000-04:00

Looks like I caught them plotting something and they're all putting on their innocent "not me" faces. Notice the squeaky bird toy in Bentley's crossed paws. This bird was part of a game that will most likely last until Peanut and Bents go home next week. Bentley chooses one of Molly's 300 toys. He plays with it, she glares at him. He gets distracted for a second, she sneaks in and steals it from him. He gets up and finds another toy, she steals it when he's not looking. She's quite the spoiled brat. "I haven't played with it for months, but since you're playing with it, I want it."

Paula never believes me when I tell her that P and B have been very good house guests. Peanut's a little curious and likes to get into trouble, but she's been a perfect lady. I even forgot to move the baskets of bread and chips that I keep under the butcher block in the kitchen and she didn't touch them all day. Last time she stayed over she took the yarn out of my knitting basket and just relocated it across the room. No damage, she just liked them better in her spot. This time I put the basket on the counter before I left for work, so no yarn-relocation games for Miss P.

This weekend I think we might all go for a nice, muddy run out back. I only have one orange safety dog vest so I'll have to fashion something for the other deer look-a-like greyhound before we head out. It's so cute to see the three of them running around chasing each other. I tried to catch them on video last night playing, but each time I hit record, someone squatted to pee and I didn't think anyone really needed to see that.

OK, one more shot of Frick and Frack. Here they are enjoying a laugh at Molly's expense, I'm sure. I bet they were picking on Molly's short legs or something.

Life is Tough

2007-03-22T09:05:00.000-04:00

Professional relaxation specialists, Bentley (r) and Peanut (l) are spending the week at our house while their parents are on a business trip in LA. Here they are, worrying about the war in Iraq and taxes and whatnot. Boy, they really need to learn to let go.

I promised to keep their mom (Paula) updated on their stress levels while she's gone by posting pictures each day. It also might help he not to miss them so much, but probably not.

Molly update: we went to the v-e-t yesterday where we learned that she's been kissing too many toads because the "mole" on her lip was actually a wart! She had it removed in a quick and easy (for me) procedure and then she was rewarded with a trip to the pet store for a new treat. The vet told me not to worry about the tainted dog food too much since she hasn't yet shown any symptoms and it's been almost two weeks since she ate the food. Phew! Still, I'm keeping an eye on her.

Cruel Hartford

2007-03-21T10:21:00.000-04:00

Now that I don't work in Hartford, the only reason I will travel there is to update the chalkboards at Max Downtown. Some days, usually early on a warm, spring morning, I actually miss Hartford. It's so cute and convenient. The restaurants and shops are so lovely. I could actually understand why people move to cities to live. And then there are mornings like I had today.

I left the house a little later than I wanted, which left me to fight traffic and dodge jerks talking on cell phones as I made my way into the frozen wind tunnel that is Hartford. There were no parking spots on the street. The open spots were filled with frozen snow banks or the meters were inexplicably bagged. I drove around and around and finally found a spot blocks from where I had to go. Then I fed the meter - where a quarter gets you all of 10 minutes - and made my way to Max Downtown. It was so cold and windy, isn't it supposed to be SPRING today? It was quite a crabby start to my day.

But I did manage to do this:And this:And there's a Starbucks right next to Max Downtown so at least I had something warm to hold onto on the long trek back to the car.

Will Spring Ever Arrive?

2007-03-20T08:39:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is the first day of spring and this is what I saw out my window yesterday. Disgusting. I'm sorry it gets shaky at one point. It must have been my uncontrollable sobbing.

This Scares the Bejesus Out of Me

2007-03-19T11:11:00.000-04:00

Dog Food Recall (more info here)

Normally I don't feel Molly the nasty "chunks in gravy" style dog food, but last week she had a can becasue that's all that was available at the store. Now I'm watching her for signs of accute renal failure.

Luckily she has an appointment to go to the vet on Wednesday, (shh! don't tell her), to have a little mole on her lip looked at. Like her mom, she's starting to grow moles and this one on her lip is getting bigger and scaring me. Maybe I'll have them draw blood for a kidney test while we're there, just to be safe.

The Ever-Evolving Party Above My Shoulders

2007-03-16T11:51:00.000-04:00

I did it again. More changes. I really don't like my hair. I wish I had someone else's hair. Someone with thick, luxurious long hair. Sadly, I may have been born with a swell craft gene and a brain that can hold onto random bits of trivia and song lyrics, but I definitely wasn't blessed with hair.

I tried cutting bangs, that didn't work for me. I tried getting a flat iron and styling it straight. Still not working. I called my sister (my hairdresser) this week and told her that I need an emergency appointment. I want all of my hair cut off.

I had her cut it off about a year ago and although everyone liked it and I pretty much liked it, Luke couldn't stand it and I was tired of hearing him complain, so I grew it back. I want to be someone with long hair. I've always pictured myself as an old lady with long gray braids, but just because I can grow it doesn't mean I should have it. I was starting to look like a hag with nasty, scraggly hair. But not any longer. This morning I stopped by my sister's salon for a shearing. It's all gone. It's also straight right now because she likes to blow-dry it straight, but I can't wait to wash it and see how curly it gets.

Now I have bouncy, perky hair. Short and flouncy. Actually, in one picture I took of myself I looked just like Amanda - glasses and all. Maybe secretly I want to be Amanda - except for that pregnancy thing, of course.

Random Thoughts

2007-03-15T09:27:00.000-04:00

It's been a virtual blog ghost town lately. No one seems to be updating their blogs this week (Amanda... Flannery... Melissa...). I'm even feeling uninspired. I couldn't muster up the creative juices to write anything yesterday and today I'm feeling the same. Blah.

My last post was my 200th. It took me a year to reach 100 and two months to reach 200. Have I been chatty lately?

Have I mentioned how much I love my car? I love my car.

Luke's Jeep has decided to hold a sit-in in our driveway. It's refusing to not only let him open the doors, but also to start. I blame this on Luke's talk of buying a new truck lately. I was still in my bathrobe, making coffee this morning when Luke tried to leave and couldn't. I had to throw some clothes on, dunk my head in the tub, toss some makeup in my purse and hop in the car to take Luke to work. I left in such a hurry that I had to take mental inventory of my outfit before I got out of the car at work, just in case: shirt? check, pants? check, two matching shoes? check.

Molly goes for a haircut tonight. She gets her hair cut more often than I do and her haircuts cost more than my salon visits do. What does this say about me?

I've been crafting lately but I can't share the details with you because they are top-secret crafts for a certain someone who might be reading this blog. Stay tuned and maybe I'll eventually be able to reveal what I've been up to.

It's going to snow tonight, I'm so sad.

Daylight Savings Blows

2007-03-13T09:36:00.000-04:00

Remember how I wanted to stop being a lazy slob and get up early for walks with Molly again? This week would be perfect for that. It's not too cold, the ice has melted off the driveway, spring is on the way. And then there was daylight savings. Do you know how dark it is at 6am? My brain thinks it's winter again and refuses to let my body get out of bed. This 3-week early daylight savings was just a bad idea. I tried, I really did. I set the alarm for 6am, it went off and I just couldn't bring myself to get up. It looked like the middle of the night and I wasn't in the mood to search for a flashlight to bring with us on our walk. Maybe next week.

Lazy Morning

2007-03-12T11:30:00.000-04:00

It occurred to me the other day that I have the pup that every little kid wishes for. She's cute and soft and loves to snuggle, and at night she climbs under the covers with me and shares my pillow. This photo was taken on Sunday morning by pre-dawn photographer, Luke to document just how badly I spoil my puppy.

Yes, that's my knee and my elbow, and the hideous - but warm, don't judge - flannel sheets on our bed and there's curly Miss Molly snoozing away under the covers. I was snoozing, too, and having a strange dream that I was taking pictures. Then realized that the sound of my camera was coming from outside of the covers.

Molly has always slept in bed with us, but this winter she's developed a taste for flannel sheets and down comforters. Every night she'll hop up on the bed and wait for me to lift the covers so she can settle in. If I'm not quick enough, or perhaps, I don't know, ASLEEP, she'll stare at me and growl ever so slightly under her breath until I lift the blankets. If I'm laying at the edge of the mattress where she likes to sleep, she'll sit on the floor next to the bed and quietly woof up at me to let me know to get the heck out of her spot. I should be annoyed at how my 20-lb mutt is controlling her share of our bed, but it's just so funny. And have you ever had a warm puppy snuggle up next to you under the covers on a cold night? It's worth the trouble.

Long Way Round

2007-03-08T10:00:00.000-05:00

This movie has been my obsession for the last week. I think about it when I'm awake, when I sleep, I replay the scenes in my dreams. I want to watch it over again, even though it's about 6 hours long and I just finished watching it Monday. I don't know why it's stuck in my head.

Long Way Round is the DVD of the television series documenting the 2004 trip Ewan McGreggor and Charley Boorman took around the world on their motorcycles. My dad had watched it and gave it to me to watch. I'd seen some other around-the-world-motorcycle-trip movies, like Mondo Enduro, and I just wasn't impressed. Yes it's hard and completely crazy to attempt to go around the world on your motorcycle. Big deal. But this movie is different. It's not so much the trip, although that was truly exciting and beautiful and all, but the friendship between Ewan and Charley is just so much fun to watch. They're total screwballs and even waist-deep in a river, pushing their bikes across through the current, they're laughing. They made fun out of everything they did and I loved that.

As an added bonus, Ewan and Charley both have great accents and use those British phrases I love so much. They visited "petrol stations" and got mosquito bites on their "bums". They stood in "queues" and wanted to film their trip so they might "have a bit of a giggle" later on in life watching the film with their grandkids. At one point Ewan called himself something that I really want to go back and find because I intend to use it some day. Something like "whiney Molly arsehole". I love it!

I feel about this DVD the way I did during the first couple of seasons of 'The Real World'. I was obsessed with that show because it showed real people being real and having fun together. They may have fought a little, but they had more fun than fights. It was reality TV at it's best and that's exactly what Long Way Round is.

I've read some complaints about the movie with people saying that Ewan and Charley are whiney spoiled brats and how some people couldn't get through the first hour of the DVD. The first hour tells the story of how this idea came to be and who got involved and how they managed to organize the whole adventure. I had even said to Luke during one of those early scenes when they're upset because KTM refuses to give them three bikes for the trip, "they're rich - can't they buy their own bikes?" After watching the whole movie, I see why they couldn't just buy their own bikes. Why they needed donations and sponsors. This wasn't just two spoiled brats going on "holiday". They were making a movie. They had camera crews and producers, equipment and insurance, doctors who traveled with them and a whole support team. They needed backing to be able to create such a great DVD. If you watch it, don't be put of in the beginning, it's worth the time to see how it was all planned.

Even if you don't ride a motorcycle or have any plans to ever travel around the world, I would still recommend this movie to everyone. It's a great time watching two fantastic friends have one incredible adventure. Go now and rent it. Or come to my house, I'd be more than happy to watch it again!

Obviously Not Bold Enough

2007-03-07T10:40:00.000-05:00

On Flannery's recommendation, I bought myself a pair of new glasses from Zenni Optical and here they are. Bright, no? Sorry about the ghostly pallor of the photo. Mostly that's my real skin tone, but it's accentuated nicely by the flash and the bad lighting in my office.

I figured, since Zenni's glasses were so incredibly cheap, I could afford to get myself some fun glasses. I've always wanted to have a selection of glasses to pick from every morning. I've had the same pair for three years now and, as nice as they are, sometimes I'm just sick of them. Just for fun, I ordered new glasses. RED glasses. And hardly anyone has noticed.

A few people close to me noticed right away and had mixed reactions. My neighbor made fun of her husband for not noticing the difference by saying "how could you NOT notice??" My sister said "you have new glasses - do you like them?" which I think meant that she didn't like them, and my nephew really wanted to know where my old glasses were. My mom politely noticed and Luke called me Harry Potter when he saw them for the first time. Surprisingly though, no one else has noticed.

My boss keeps looking at me strangely like she suspects something is different but just can't place it. Other people I work alongside haven't said a thing either. It's not that I want everyone to notice, I'm not that narcissistic, I just thought they were hugely different and hard to miss.

Either way, I love them. They're fun and I'm off to order another pair from Zenni. If you wear glasses, I would highly recommend them. These red beauties only cost me $30, including shipping. Less than 10% of a pair at the local eyeglass shop!

My Yaris: Week 1

2007-03-06T09:50:00.000-05:00

It's been a whole week since I brought home my new car and I've managed not to gush about it here each and every day (you're welcome). Since today marks one week since she became mine, I thought I'd give you the highlights. In case you're on the fence about getting a Yaris of your own (Paula) perhaps this will sway you.

I've decided to name her Bernie - I'll explain that another day.

I love:
The cup holders - seriously - they're sturdy and secure and EVERYWHERE.
How fast she heats up on a cold morning.
The funky weird dashboard.
The three glove boxes.
How peppy she is.
The secret storage compartment in the back.
The comfy seats.
The plug for my iPod.
The scene last weekend loading a new 55-gallon aquarium into the back (it fit!)
The gas mileage! (First fill-up: 35mpg)

I'm still getting used to:
The light-sensing headlights. They turn themselves on which makes me forget to manually turn them on all the way. It's spooky that she knows when it's dark out.

I don't love:
The sensor that knows when someone is sitting on the passenger seat and then turns on the dinger to remind the passenger to put her seat belt on. I've tried, Molly flat-out refuses to wear her seat belt. I have to latch the seat belt across the seat when she rides with me, otherwise I hear 60 seconds of ding, ding, ding... every time the car starts up.

I tried to find other things I don't like but there just aren't any. She's fantastic and I still can't believe she's mine.

Lazy No More, Well Maybe...

2007-03-02T11:38:00.000-05:00

Most weekday mornings throughout the year, Molly and I crawl out of bed an hour before Luke to go for a little morning walk. It's good for the pup, and good for the one who sits at the computer all day. We walk in the rain, we walk in the cold, we go every day. That is, until about mid-December. By then, the holiday exhaustion, freezing cold, and serous lack of daylight turn Molly and me into late sleepers.

We slack off from mid-December through January, and then in February we usually resume our schedule, thanks in part to the sun actually beginning to rise before we do. I really can't stand getting up in the dark, getting dressed in the dark, bundling up in my coat, putting Molly in her coat, putting on my reflecting vest, putting on Molly's reflective vest... it's just too much. So in February, when the sun is up by 6:30am or so, we usually get back on our schedule.

February 1st we got up at 6, bundled up and went for the coldest walk in a long time. It was vicious. Molly has a problem with her paws cramping in the bitter cold and I thought I was going to have to carry her for the whole walk so we cut is short and decided to walk again when it got warmer.

March 1st. We've been lazing in bed for another month, sleeping in, and I decide: it's March, we really need to start walking again. We get up early, bundle up, and go for a walk. It wasn't fun, it was darn cold, but we went. Our driveway is like a giant frozen bobsled course, but we braved it. OK, we're back on schedule! Lazy no more. That was, until today.

I woke up early, it was dark. I looked outside at the lake of rainwater in the driveway and decided that I wasn't in the mood to put waders on and find Molly's life preserver. We went back to bed. It's Mother Nature's fault that I'm fat and lazy! We'll try again Monday, but I hear it's going to turn bitterly cold and that's just not good for those little puppy feet. It might be June before we can get back on schedule.

For My Prego Friends

2007-02-28T14:40:00.000-05:00

Don't get excited Mom, this isn't a hint. It seems like everywhere I turn these days, someone else I know is telling me they're pregnant. My friend, The Optimistic Diva, seems to be in the same situation. Well, for all of you newly knocked-up ladies out there, I thought I'd finally make up a few of the t-shirts I always think about whenever I hear about a new baby on the way.

Welcome to my new Spreadshirt shop. Here you can buy yourself a booby billboard. A way to announce to the world that you're in a family way, but with a creative spin. There's the straight forward Knocked Up, the old-fashioned Bun in the Oven, and my favorite thanks to Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life, On the Nest. For those of you already feeling the need for maternity pants, there's also the lovely, Does This Baby Make Me Look Fat ?. None of the custom online shops seem to offer maternity tees, so order early and order large. And have fun - congratulations mommies-to-be!

539-HUP

2007-02-27T09:40:00.000-05:00

That licence plate has been with me for thirteen years. Almost as long as Luke has been with me. It's been on the back of a Hyundai, an Audi, a Subaru, a Kia, an Isuzu, and now, it finally gets to sit on the back of a brand spanking new 2007 Toyota Yaris. I'm still in shock.

I went to a Toyota dealership in Manchester with my friends Paula and Karlo on Saturday because they said that they wanted to test drive a Yaris. Well, sneaky Paula tricked me into test driving it and I was pleasantly surprised. It was very roomy inside and seriously peppy to drive. It has a sporty little shifter and low clutch pedal that made it really fun to drive. I loved it, Paula and Karlo loved it, but Luke still hadn't seen it. I told the salesgirl that I'd bring Luke back later and then we could decide.

I left there with that skeevy, slightly violated feeling you get after sitting in close proximity to a car salesperson. I was driving home and figured, heck, I already feel icky, why not go to another dealership and see what they have to say.

I drove out to Toyota of Colchester and was greeted by a friendly guy named Joe. He took some information from me and went to see what they had for Yarises that matched my requirements. He came out with the cutest little silver one - how did he know I wanted a silver one? He didn't even ask about color. I test drove it and again and loved it. I had it out on route 2 and was speeding before I knew it. It's got a lot of get-up-and-go for a little 4-cylinder! Again I went back and said that Luke needed to test drive it and maybe we could come back next weekend. Seeing as how it's the end of the month, they were anxious to make me a deal so they said that most amazing words I never expected from a car dealership - "Why don't you take it home? Bring it back on Monday". And so began my 42-hour test drive.

I was able to see how it did driving up my slushy, muddy driveway, how well my scrapbooking stuff fit in the hatchback area, how the headlights and dash lights looked at night, how easily I could reach the ATM from the driver's seat, how groceries fit in the back, and most importantly, how it looked sitting in the driveway. Then the test of all tests - Monday morning I had to bring it back before work and we had 4" of new snow on the ground. I got to see how it drove in the snow. It was the ideal test drive. I knew I loved it and I wanted it.

I went back to the dealership last night to try an work a deal. My Rodeo still had a loan on it so I needed some money for it and when they offered me $1,000 I grabbed my stuff and said "thank you, good-bye". I managed to negotiate up another $2,000 which I thought was pretty darn good form someone who usually responds to any type of struggle by bursting into tears.

So my Rodeo is gone, I do feel a little sad about that, and a new little car has taken it's place. Meet my new Yaris. She still doesn't have a name yet. I've always called my cars "Bessie" because they were all heaps of junk, but the Yaris is perky and new so she needs a good name. Some cute, Japanese name, maybe. For now, she's just my Yaris.

Photo Friday

2007-02-23T10:28:00.000-05:00

Since all I am thinking about these days is getting a new car and trying not to get sick, I thought I'd spare you the lame stories and instead share some pictures. Above is a shot of my back yard view this morning. And below are some beautiful trees in my front yard. Ahh, so pretty you almost forget it's nasty cold and your shoes are filled with slush.
And this is my mighty dog playing in the snow last week as some sweet sledding was taking place in the back yard. Molly does like to sled, but she's suffering from a little cabin fever and needed to burn some puppy energy by chasing the sled, and sticks, and squirrels, and her tail...And finally, our fearless guard dog watching over us as the sun goes down on another cold winter day.

The Barf is All Around Me

2007-02-22T09:22:00.000-05:00

Everyone I know who has kids seems to be suffering with some nasty little stomach bug at the moment. My sister's kids were sick this weekend, my boss's visiting grandkids were sick, a boy at the grocery store got sick in the aisle right next to me - almost ON me. Then yesterday my boss was home sick and I woke up early this morning to a restless Luke who thought he was going to throw up. Great. I'm trying to hold my breath, not touch anything, and use Clorox wipes on everything. I really don't want this.

Good-Bye Rodeo?

2007-02-20T15:05:00.000-05:00

I don't know what to do. I really can't stop thinking about trading in my car now. It's all Paula's fault. I've had my eye on the Yaris for a while now, I have hatchback envy, so last weekend when Paula mentioned that she might get a Yaris to commute to work in, seeing as how the price tag was less than $12,000, I was immediately intrigued. Really, $12,000? For a new car? And it gets 30-45 MPG? Interesting.

I did some math and figured that I could continue making payments at the same amount I'm paying now for my Rodeo, just extend the time I have to pay them another three years, and have a brand new car. A brand new car with a 5-year warranty which would also save me $100 a month in gas.

OK, let's recap: I get a brand new car (a cute one) and continue spending the same for the payment as I am currently, so there's no extra cost to me, I wouldn't have to worry about check engine lights or weird noises coming from the engine, AND I would save myself $100 a month in gas. Oh, and the earth, I'd be polluting less of the earth with my small, fuel-efficient economy car. That's nice, too.

So what am I missing? What are the cons? I've tried to make my list and I can't come up with any cons other than: having to listen to Luke complain that I have an ugly car.

I asked Luke to be honest and tell me what he thought about me getting a Yaris and he didn't really have much to say. Of course he thinks they're ugly, I can't really say anything about that, but all of his other gut reactions can be talked through. He thinks I should maybe look for a comparable car that's not a Yaris. That leaves the Honda Fit (too expensive), the Mazda 6 (too expensive), a Scion (too expensive), and some Suzuki model, but he doesn't want to get a Suzuki for some reason. OK... so it doesn't have side air bags. Neither does my Rodeo. Yes, my Rodeo is bigger, but the Yaris is 10 years newer with more safety engineering and I'm sure it must be safer, although smaller.

I've read the reviews and it gets pretty good ones. Edmunds liked it a lot, they called it cute and peppy. The owner reviews were great. The only negative reviews mentioned the lack of side air bags, the lack of an ashtray, and the awkward emergency break location. Big whoop.

So tell me, what am I missing? Anybody own a Yaris or know someone who does who can give me their feedback, and not just tell me that it's funny-looking?

Wild Weekend

2007-02-19T15:03:00.000-05:00

So much went on this weekend, but I got absolutely nothing done, and my head is still spinning.

Between Saturday and Sunday, we planned out our new deck and shopped for materials, shopped for a new motorcycle, shopped for a new truck for Luke, went to see Amanda in Love Letters - it was fantastic - settled on buying a new motorcycle, spent about an hour sitting on said motorcycle at the dealership, decided not to buy said motorcycle from the dealership, shopped for new aquarium supplies, made a lasagna, went to Paula's for dinner, and decided that now I want to trade in my car for a new Yaris. What is going on?

See what happens when you pay off your credit card? As I wrote to one friend, I'm feeling a little too unburdened by debt, so I thought I should buy something new. I'm kind of sad about the motorcycle, but fear not! I'm still shopping. Anyone out there looking to sell a used Buell XB12SS?

Turkey Dance

2007-02-16T10:44:00.000-05:00

Have you ever seen a pack of wild turkeys? It's actually pretty funny. They're weird, jerky things that have amazing eyesight and are really uglier in person than you'd imagine. A few years back there was a big pack (flock?) of them that made a circuit through the neighborhood and would always stop in our back yard. Their clucks and gobbles would wake us up some mornings and Luke counted almost 40 one day. Since that winter, we haven't seen them in the neighborhood so it was an exciting surprise to come home to this lovely pattern all over my yard yesterday. Turkeys! They visited all of my bird feeders and wandered around the garden. We threw out some cracked corn this morning to see if they'll come back again. Gobble gobble!

Denial

2007-02-15T15:33:00.000-05:00

One of the things I like most about myself is my ability to completely ignore the things that I can't stand. Like sleet and snow, for example. Some might call it denial, I prefer to think of it as selective observance.

Yesterday, while at home because the campus where I work closed due to the weather, I sat by the warm wood stove and looked through gardening magazines, happily imagining that spring had arrived. In honor of the springtime in my mind, I started painting some pretty, warm weather pictures.

The birdie on the left is the finished product that I showed in progress here, and the iris-to-be on the right was started yesterday. These are both painted in acrylic on small squares of clayboard, something new I'm playing with. It's been fun and it gives me something else to shop for at the art supply store.

Happy Heart Day

2007-02-14T10:24:00.000-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day to my honey who had to go to work today despite the fact that it's nasty hail/snow/rain/sleeting out and the rest of the state seems to be closed down. If you get a UPS package delivered today, hug your delivery guy. Unless he looks like this - in which case, back off! He's mine.

The Heat Is On

2007-02-13T08:59:00.000-05:00

Single ladies of the world, find yourself a handy man and marry him. Seriously. Those clean-cut, business suit, office-working types are nice. They're clean and neat, they know where the good restaurants are, you can share hair products with them, but when your car stops producing heat, are they going to crawl around on the snow-covered ground in mid-February to fix it for you? I don't think so.

My handy man fixed the heat in my car yesterday and never have I been so glad I married him. This morning my toes were toasty, I didn't see my frosty breath on the ride to work, I can use my defroster. It was heaven. Once again, the heat is on.

Won't You Join Me?

2007-02-09T11:23:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow night, a fantastic local guitar player, Randy Collins, will be playing with two other local musicians at the 100 Pearl Street Art Gallery in downtown Hartford. It's a special event from 8:30-10:30pm, way past my bedtime, but I'm sure it'll be worth staying up late for. If you've never heard Randy's music, go to his website, www.randycollinsmusic.com, and listen for yourself. Hope to see you there!

How I'm Feeling Today

2007-02-08T10:21:00.000-05:00

I think I'm getting a cold. But at least I don't have a blue cast on my paw. How cute is that furry, little expression? Here's the link to the page on Cute Overload where I found it.

Popsicle Toes

2007-02-07T10:18:00.000-05:00

My friend, Flann, has a tag on her blog of "whiney" and I love that. I think I might add that one to my tags, too, because this post is going to be whiney.

The heat hasn't worked in my car since Sunday. That's right. It's the coldest week of the season and I have no heat in my car. I also have no defrost so not only is it uncomfortable, it's a little scary.

Luke checked the fan motor and the fuses and other car things and he has a theory. He thinks that there was some moisture in the duct work which froze and is now keeping the fan from rotating. Luckily there is still heat seeping out of the ducts, it's just not blowing out and melting the rubber on my shoes like I want it to. Thankfully, the heat seepage eventually warms the car enough so that halfway through my half-hour ride to and from work, I stop seeing my breath in the car. Unfortunately, it's never enough heat to actually warm me up and I am now perpetually frozen.

I get home at night and sit so close to the wood stove that I can smell my jeans singeing. I still don't feel warm. It really sucks. I haven't had feeling in my toes since Monday morning.

I asked Luke what we could do and he said, 'nothing'. We either have to build a heated garage, or we have to wait until it gets warmer and the moisture melts, releasing the fan blades. Waiting in the cold is not one of my favorite activities. Its starting to affect other parts of my car, too. My odometer froze up for a day and a half and the back window refuses to release it's latch. It's great. I love winter.

Two Thumbs Up

2007-02-06T13:05:00.000-05:00

Luke and I don't watch much television. There's only one show I have to watch each week, Gilmore Girls, and other than that we watch South Park repeats before bed. That's the extent of our TV watching. We do, however, watch a lot of movies, thanks to Blockbuster Online. I always want to write about the movies I see, but since I watch one almost every night, I'd have to change the name of my blog to "Old Fart Who Watches Too Many Movies". Instead, I thought I'd give you little snippets, some two-line reviews of what I've seen recently.

The Prize-Winner of Defiance, Ohio - Cute, but not as funny as I had hoped. I woke up this morning with jingles running through my head. Nothing beats those 50's-style dresses.

A Scanner Darkly - Odd, but oddly engaging. I still can't stop dissecting it in my head. The rotoscoping effect is fantastic and Robert Downey, Jr. and Woody Harrelson were great.

Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels - I love Jason Statham. I've said this before. I would love anything he's in, no matter how bad, like Crank (see below), but this truly was an excellent movie. Bloody, violent, thick Cockney accents, dry humor, and crazy plot twists. Smart and funny.

Willow - Another movie from my teen years. I remember watching this movie over and over. The funny thing is that watching it now, I couldn't remember any of it. It was cute, but cheesy, and strangely exactly like Lord of the Rings in some parts. An underestimated small person must take the thing that will save the world on a long, dangerous journey. He's joined by a band of strange characters, visits a white, glowy fairy-witch.... must I go on?

Nacho Libre - The longest 92-minute movie I've ever seen. Too much Jack Black for me. But I like the way he says 'stretchy pants'.

Clerks II - Remember how I felt about Clerks I? I take it all back. I really loved Clerks II. It was funny and sweet and in color. Even the scene with the donkey was funny. Watch the DVD extras, there are some scenes with Dante and Randal that are funnier than the scenes that actually made into the movie.

Crank - Ahh, yes, more Jason Statham. Truly a horrible film, but worth it to see all Jason, all the time. You even get to see his tiny hiney in a hospital johnny!

Little Miss Sunshine - I want to hug this movie. It must be movies with 'sunshine' in the title because I felt this way about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It was just sweet and funny and I loved the crazy family and the broken-down VW Bus. One thing that bugged me though was Olive. I kept thinking hat she has to be related to Laura San Giacomo. Seriously. See for yourself:
Art School Confidential - Loved it. But I went to Art School and I work for an art school. I watched this one without Luke because I didn't think he'd enjoy it as much. Funny and true.

Cellular - Yes, I put it on my list because Jason Statham is in it, but he plays an awful bad guy and that's just not right. It was corny but entertaining. Kim Bassinger was annoying, I was hoping she'd get shot through the whole thing.

Lucky Number Sleven - Interesting. Bloody and violent, but what movies aren't these days? Clever and funny and there's something about Josh Hartnett that makes me want to see more of his movies.

And that's it for this week. OK, maybe not, but I truly see about four movies a week. Sad? Perhaps. What's on for tonight? Well it's Tuesday, so Gilmore Girls is on. Tomorrow we'll watch The Illusionist. More reviews to come.

An Afternoon of Cute

2007-02-05T10:40:00.000-05:00

I spent the afternoon at my sister's house yesterday, being attacked by the merciless cuteness that lurks in her house.

I mean really, first it was this:And then there was this:
And then I turn around and find this:

Inevitable

2007-02-03T12:55:00.000-05:00

I knew it had to happen sometime. I just really wished it wouldn't. Welcome to our back yard.

In a Fog

2007-02-02T15:08:00.000-05:00

Have you ever had one of those days at work where it's so busy you're emailing and answering the phone while making coffee and balancing a budget, while ordering catering and performing a job interview, while making mental notes of what you want to do at an upcoming event? Then you walk to your car for lunch and think - wait, what am I wearing? I don't even remember getting dressed this morning. Luckily it matches and I'm wearing shoes.

If you've emailed me recently and haven't heard back from me in a while. I'm sorry, I'm sure I'm thinking of writing, I just haven't found the chance. Maybe after I have more coffee.

Shifting into Third

2007-01-31T10:01:00.000-05:00

I'm scared.

If any of you out there happen to be married to a UPS guy, you know that on a regular basis, your UPS guy gets to bid on a new job. UPS and the Teamsters have worked it out so that at each bid, the employees are all sorted by seniority (how long they've been in the union) and then they go in this order, top down, to choose what job they want. If they like the current delivery route they're on, they bid that one and keep it. If there's another route they would like better that someone with less seniority has, they can take it from them. They can also choose jobs inside the warehouse, like unloading and loading the trucks, or car wash. basically, if you're a high-seniority guy, you get your pick of everything. If you're a low-seniority guy, you probably won't get what you want, you're left with whatever everyone else didn't choose.

For my UPS guy, he's about mid-level in seniority and he's been tying himself in knots these past few weeks, waiting to see what's going to happen to him this year. He's been driving a delivery truck for seven years now and he's pretty frustrated and worn-out. He's been hoping to get a job inside the warehouse, which would be nice for him. No more traffic or cold. No dragging a hand cart through a snow drifts. But it also means that he has to work third shift. This terrifies me and just typing "third shift", my heart rate went up a little.

We found out yesterday that he got the third shift pre-load job, one of the two jobs he was hoping for. I want so badly to be happy for him. He works so hard and he's been doing the same thing for seven years, wearing the same clothes day after day after day. Meanwhile, I've changed jobs three times and I get to put on something new and pretty every day. It doesn't seem fair and I want him to be happy. But when will I see him? I don't know.

We're pretty much attached at the hip when we're home. If I'm painting or making jewelry, he's right beside me at the computer. If he's working on his dirt bike, I'm helping him. We get firewood together, we do yard work together, we watch movies together. This third shift thing is going to change all that. I don't sleep well when I'm alone in the house and he's going to be gone the hours that I'll be sleeping. How's that going to work? Molly's pretty psyched because she's never going to be home alone now. I'll leave for work and Luke will come home right after that. I'll get home from work and a few hours later, Luke will leave for work.

When I spell it all out, it seems like it should be fine. As long as he comes home from work and goes to sleep, it should work out. Then he'll be awake when I get home from work and we'll be able to spend time together before he leaves and I go to bed. It just sounds so scary. I know there are millions of couples who have been doing this for years. I've just never had to think about it and t worries me. So I thought I'd tell you about it. Thanks for listening.

The Quest for the Holy Grate

2007-01-30T11:38:00.000-05:00

Ebay is a funny place.

We heat our home with a wood stove which is located in the basement. Recently, in case you hadn't noticed or don't live in Connecticut, it's been really damn cold outside. The heat from the wood stove travels up the stairway to get into the main floor of the house, but we'd like to put a grate in the floor to allow more warm air to come up to the living space so that less fleece and wool need to be worn inside of the house. Which takes me to Ebay.

Two months ago I began the hunt for a cool old floor grate on Ebay. And there are plenty of them. I figured it would be a piece of cake but, once again, I was wrong. Back in November I bid on and won a grate that looked very cool. It was cast iron and in great shape. It had a flap that opened and closed and a scrollwork face. I managed to snag it for $10 plus shipping and was pretty psyched until I got it. First off, it was cracked, which I think happened during shipping. Secondly, the one free listing photo that Ebay offers was a front shot of the grate which hid the fact that it stood a couple of inches off the floor because it was actually meant to be in the wall. If we did put it in, I would trip over it and then something else would be cracked, like my ankle bone or my skull. Time to start over.

Unfortunately, December seems to be a hot time to buy a floor grate on Ebay and I couldn't find one I was willing to pay for. The prices shot way up from the $10 I bought to at least $50. I looked and looked and then gave up. Christmas time, etc. etc. I just wasn't in the grate-shopping mood.

Oh, and if by now you're wondering why I didn't just buy a new one, #1, you must not know me. I think that old stuff is so much better than new stuff (for the house, at least). And #2, you must have never shopped for a grate. We're looking for a sizable one, at least 12" square, hopefully bigger. These go for about $225 brand new.

So recently I sold some stuff on Ebay and had a bit of cash sitting in my Paypal account. I figured that, since I never actually held the money, I only traded it for some old junk I wasn't using anyway, it wasn't real money and it wouldn't hurt as much as if I spent real money on a grate. So I was back on the hunt.

I found one I loved, watched it, bid on it, and lost it to a person with the Ebay ID of island_resident. Crap. I found another, watched it, bid on it, and lost it to island_resident. Grr! Three times, island_resident outbid me and I was mad. I wanted to see what this person (I, for some reason, imagine that it's a man) was buying. I checked his feedback - which was very good - and checked to see what he had been buying and what he was paying for it. For the past week, at least, all he has been buying are cast iron grates. Bunches of them. And he pays a lot for them. I don't think, in the past three days, that he had paid less that $70 for one! What on earth could he be doing with all of these expensive grates? I am intrigued.

There was one grate that I really loved that was holding at about $50. I was prepared to go to $75 until I saw that my buddy, island_resident, was now in on the bidding. I said to Luke, "I just know he's willing to pay over $100 for that thing". And he did. I bowed out and he got it for $114. Seriously! Where is he getting this money and why is he stealing all of the good grates?

Last night I finally found a grate that was ratty enough that even island_resident didn't want it. It's big and it's all rusty with peeling paint. Perfect! I love it. We placed our bid and waited and waited. The auction was ending just after 8:00 last night and we had to pause the movie we were watching to go and keep and eye on the bidding. I had a knot in my stomach thinking that island_resident was going to swoop in at the last minute and snatch it from me but we sat and watched that last five minutes of the auction, refreshing the screen constantly, and we managed to win it. Hallelujah.

I'm trying not to get too excited, though. It's a big grate, about 14" x 17" and if the Post Office could manage to break a 10" x 12" grate, I'm a little concerned about this one. It's also coming Parcel Post which means a longer time in the system and a slower delivery. I just really hope that it comes in decent shape (peeling paint and rust aside) because I really don't want to go through this all over again. And warmer weather is on the way.

Rings on Her Fingers...

2007-01-26T12:37:00.000-05:00

And wool socks covering her toes. MAN is it cold today. But look at these pretty things I got in the mail last night:
They're from my new, favorite Etsy shop called Color Fiesta. I would tell you to go there now and buy up all of her rings becasue they're amazing, but I just checked and the shop is closed until the end of January because she's expecting a baby. So wait until next month and then go shop.

These are gorgeous, handmade, glass rings and believe me, they're even more beautiful in person. I tried to capture how they sparkle in the light but I just wasn't doing them justice.The grey and pink one on the left has a silver/black sort of shimmer and the green one has threads of sparkly gold in it - they're just so pretty. And the best part - they're all about $7.99. Seriously. Less than $10 with shipping and you can have yourself a beautiful, wearable piece of art! Mark your calendar and go check out Color Fiesta next month. I certainly will again!

Cinematic Genius

2007-01-25T09:54:00.000-05:00

One of the items on my Amazon wishlist this Christmas and last was the boxed set of Breakin' movies. I know, roll your eyes, but in the 80's when these movies came out, my sister, mom and I would go see them over and over. I longed for the studded belts and awesome off-the-shoulder shirts. I wanted a street name like "Special K". I even remeber that on TV at the time, Alfonso Ribero was selling a break dancing instructional video complete with a mat to use when spinning on your head, or whatever. It was $60 and I wanted it so bad.

This Christmas, when I unwrapped the boxed set, I almost fell off the couch. I wanted to see these movies again and try to remember why I loved them so much. I just never expected to really get them. Now everyone around me has been forced to sit and watch them with me and we're all better people because of it.

Although we can all agree that the word is a better place when men aren't wearing half-shirts and feathered ear cuffs, don't you wish there were more movies where people got really, really mad at eachother and showed their anger by dancing? That's right. Dancing.

Don't tell me you've never seen these movies. Breakin' and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo starring Lucinda Dickey, Adolfo "Shabba-Doo" Quinones and Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers. Don't you wish more actors had nicknames? Watching the credits of these movies is almost as much fun as watching the movies. One of my favorites is the credit for the very young and skinny club MC played by Ice-T which says "Rap Talker". Love it.

These movies are so bad now that I watch them twenty years later, but I think I might love them even more than I did back then. Everything is so innocent and cheesy and the acting is so awful. Lucinda Dickey manages to maintain a sustained, perky whine throughout both movies and still she manages to be likable. The dialogue may be rotten, but the dancing is fantastic and the music is 80's crap, but it's great! Even as I type this, I'm humming in my head "din daa daa, din do do..." which you, too, will not be able to get out of your head after watching Breakin' 2.

If you've never seen either of these movies, you owe it to yourself to watch them. If it's been twenty years since you saw them last, pull on some spandex, dig out your studded bracelets and enjoy. Really, they're worth the time.

A Small Plastic Battle

2007-01-23T12:13:00.000-05:00

For some reason, I've been visiting a lot of thrift shops lately. Maybe it's the after-Christmas no-money-to-spend situation, maybe it's that I love to hunt. I just love old stuff and the potential of digging around and finding something really cool for really cheap. Like a bag of plastic cowboys and indians for 99 cents.

I found a new Salvation Army store on the way home from work and I seem to end up there at least twice a week. I also just discovered the Goodwill store, which I had never before been to. Big excitement. The Salvation Army store had this bag o' plastic guys under a table, in a basket, beneath a bunch of old, smelly toys. And I found it! I thought that my nephews might like to play with them when they visit, but Luke and I had a good time ourselves setting them all up when I got them home.

It turns out that, not only do I have an assortment of small cowboys, horses, and indians, I also have a teeny-tiny assortment of the same cowboys and indians, a teeny llama, a teeny donkey, and a teeny camel. Because everyone knows that cowboys rode camels. And indians... rode llamas? There appears to be a shortage of small horses and we had to double up the cowboys on the saddles, which Luke likes to call "Brokeback-style" but which I just call teamwork.

The Cutest Pup in the World

2007-01-23T09:49:00.000-05:00

Well she is, isn't she?

Happy Blogiversary!

2007-01-18T11:51:00.000-05:00

Crap. I blew it. Artsy Fartsy's one year anniversary was last week and I forgot. One whole year of blogging. Ya-hoo!

I've been busy lately but I don't really have anything finished to show you. I've been trying out some new ideas and playing with new paints. I started a few little acrylic paintings on clayboard. Here's what I have so far:I love patterns. This is just the first step of the idea I have in my head. Hopefully I'll be able to show you the finished version soon.

I've been trying out a lot of new things lately and they've all been tanking. I tried to make a felt flower pin a friend had described to me. I worked for days on it and it looked awful. The same friend described a pair of wire and bead earrings she saw and I tried to make those - nope. Those came out lousy, too. I tried to knit Luke a hat and got ahead of myself, tapering it in before I had made it big enough. It's a lovely, wool, hand-knit beanie.

I did manage to make some cute yo-yos like these which I turned into a little decoration to sit my Yankee Candle jar on top of. I have to finish sewing buttons on it and then I can show it off.

Well happy blogiversary-and-a-week to me and thank you all for reading!

So Sad

2007-01-17T09:21:00.000-05:00

I knew it wasn't going to last. 60-degree weather in January in Connecticut is unnatural, I know. But I liked it. I could go out of the house without a coat and I haven't had to shovel snow, heck, I haven't had to look at snow since last winter. Sigh...

Tomorrow night we're getting snow. We might even get 5 inches of the nasty whiteness. I know that I whined about wanting snow in December, but that's because Christmas is so much more festive with a sparkly white coating. Now that Christmas is over, I'm ready for spring!

Let's just hope that the weathermen are wrong again and maybe we won't get any snow at all. Maybe it'll rain flower petals. Who knows. A girl can hope.

Handy

2007-01-11T09:31:00.000-05:00

That's MACRO, baby! I'm really having too much fun with this camera. Geeze, are these the hands of an eighty-year old or a thirty-year old?

I also tried to take a picture of my eyelashes, which came out cool, but unfortunately, it also shows the little bitty eyebrow hairs that need to be plucked (eew!) so I thought this one was better to share.

Links of Inspiration

2007-01-10T15:00:00.000-05:00

It's been too crazy for me these past couple of days. I can just barely manage to string words into sentences, but they're boring sentences that have no charm. Rather than giving you more of those bland sentences, I thought I'd send you elsewhere!

I want to recommend these two websites to you so you can go and look and be inspired. I love to visit these sites to see what these two ladies are doing and enjoy their beautiful pictures and excellent storytelling and then get jealous becusue their things are all so beautiful!

Hello my Name is Heather shows off Heather's sewing skills which make me want to cry. She's so good. Her photos are amazing and I love the way she writes. A nice place to spend some time.

In My (Sometimes) Humble Opinion is an inspirational place to poke around if you're in the need of a creative boost. Cori writes so subtly and beautifully and I love that the titles of her posts sound like that names of poems or the titles of songs. She makes the most beautiful papercrafts and her photos are pretty amazing, too. She also opened an Etsy shop recently so she's a fellow Etsian, too!

So there you are. Go take a peek. Even if you're not a crafty-type person. They're great places to go and give your eyes a rest.

One Big, Shiny Step Closer

2007-01-09T12:49:00.000-05:00

We're finally closer to finishing the bar top we started over a year ago.

Luke had been collecting bottle caps for years with no real plan of what to do with them. We had millions (it seemed) and when we built the new bar at our new house, we decided to put those caps to good use and make a bar top. I sorted them and arranged them, found out we needed more and had to actually buy some on ebay, and then I finally set them into the top with black grout and there they've sat since November 2005.

They looked cool enough the way they were, but our ultimate plan was to pour epoxy over them to make a smooth, shiny protective coating over the caps. My problem was that pouring epoxy is a pass/no pass kind of thing. You can't start over if you screw up. I wanted it to be finished, but I was afraid to screw it up and have to tear out the entire bar and start over. I bought the epoxy in 2005 and we had everything we needed to finish the top but we just never got around to it. Until this past Sunday.

We started by taking the shop vac and sucking out the two years of peanut shells and Dorito crumbs. Nice. Next I scrubbed down the caps and touched up the inside edge of the bar with black paint. Then we mixed up a gallon and a half of Kleer Kote and poured away. And I held my breath. This is where the air bubbles start to show up and the dust can stick to the surface, and loose debris can float to the top, and clumsy Lisa can accidentally drop her camera in. But all was surprisingly well. There were just a few air bubbles but the heat guns solved that problem. There's a little dust but we can puff that out. hanks to the wrist strap, I didn't drop my camera and it looked amazing. We were so excited that we decided we need to add more stuff to the top. Thee were some places where the spaces between the bottle caps were larger so we stuck in a few "Free Drink" chips for the American Legion, a guitar pick, some extra sights form the pool table. I slid a little print of one of my paintings over a blank cap. It was fun! Then we had to wait for it to cure and pray that the cat didn't decide to jump up there to watch the fish last night.

Yesterday morning I checked on it and, luckily for her, there was no cat epoxied to the bar. It looks fantastic and it's hard and smooth and I love it! Next I have to stain the arm rail and then you can all come over and have a celebratory drink on it! Now when you put down your wine glass or beer bottle, it won't topple over because of the uneven surface and Dorito crumbs won't get lodged between the caps any more. Yay!

Google SMS

2007-01-08T14:27:00.000-05:00

So I had intended to write about what I did this weekend, complete with pictures, but Blogger seems to be having a day-long stroke and I can't upload pictures no matter how many ways I try. I'll save the fun for tomorrow, I guess, because I also wanted to share this fun tidbit with you.

Did you know that you can search Google with your cell phone by sending it a text message? Awesome, huh? It's called Google SMS and the long explanation is here. Basically, you send a message to the Google SMS number, which is GOOGLE (466453), Google will send you back an answer in the form of a text message in about five seconds. It's amazing. You can find phone numbers, movie times, addresses, weather, sports, driving directions... it goes on and on. Even if you're only looking for a phone number, it's most likely cheaper to ask Google than it is to call information on your cell. With my Sprint plan, it costs $1.25 for me to call information. If I send and receive a text message, it costs me $0.20.

And it really works. I had wanted to try it out when I read about it a while back but hadn't thought of it until Saturday when we were hopelessly turned around and not entirely lost, but not exactly sure of where we were. We were trying to get to Midtown Kawasaki in Middletown and had received some flawed directions which brought us to Meriden and New Britain and briefly to Middletown but never to the Kawasaki place. We didn't know their phone number so I sent Google this text: "Midtown Kawasaki phone". I hit send and waited all of about three seconds before Google sent back: "Local listings: Midtown Kawasaki, 1864 Silas Deane Hwy, Rocky Hill, 06067, 860-721-0193". Awesome! I was able to call and get directions and we were no longer lost.

I was so impressed I decided to try other messages. "Luke Gaumond 06232" brought back Luke's white pages listing at our old address and with our old phone. Close, not too bad. "Happy Feet 06040" resulted in three messages from Google. The first two were the names, addresses and phones of all the movie theaters in the vicinity of Manchester (that's the 06040 part), and the last message gave me the name, address and phone of the Buckland Showcase Cinemas in Manchester as well as the movie times when Happy Feet was playing that day. How cool!

If you check the info page that Google has about the SMS system, you can see sample searches and how to word your messages to get the info you want. If I had know where I actually was on Saturday, I could have typed in a few different words and gotten not only the phone and address of Midtown Kawasaki, but also the directions to get there. Try it out. It's cheap and it's fun. One more reason to love Google.

Snappy

2007-01-05T09:59:00.000-05:00

My new camera has so many new settings and features that I could spend an entire day reading the manual and playing with it and still not have it all down. It's so cool. And pink.

I was inspired by some of the amazing pictures I saw on Flickr yesterday that other folks took using the same camera, so last night I decided to try out a few of the settings.

There's a Self Portrait setting which has a timer but right now it's set for only a 2-second delay which results in action shots of my rear end, so sorry, you won't see any of those pictures. There are also two Baby settings where I programmed in the birth dates of my nephews so the camera will print out their ages at the time the pictures were taken right on the photos. Isn't that neat?

Here's the Food setting with no flash capturing Luke's ice cold martini:
This is the Night Scenery setting. I took it on the highway on the way home. So cool:We went for a walk down by the river before dinner to look at the amazing full moon. I kept trying to take pictures of it, but I really need a tripod for that, they're all too blurry. I did try out the Night Portrait setting on Luke though:
Then there's the Macro setting. Wow. I think I can almost photograph cells with it. Here's me interrupting Molly's nap by the wood stove. I turned off the flash and zoomed in to the full extreme of the zoom. Didn't even wake her up!And lastly, the Auto setting with the flash turned off. Isn't this fish bowl awesome? I got it on Etsy. I burn candles in it at night, so cool. So what do you think? There are many, many more settings still to try out. Maybe I'll take some action shots of Molly with the Sports or Sensetive setting. There's also a Soft Portrait setting, maybe Molly will pose for that one, too. Can you imagine if I had kids? They'd hate me.

Damn Tired

2007-01-03T09:26:00.000-05:00

I realized that I never explained my earlier mention of my "day of outrage and frustration" and, being nice readers of this blog, I know that you would be disappointed if I didn't complain just a little each week. Rather than give you the story in long, pathetic detail, I thought I'd sum up the highlights, a la those credit card commercials.

Four tires at Sam's Club, two pieces of pizza and two sodas at the Sam's Club cafeteria, two coffees at Borders, and three hours of waiting only to come back to Sam's and find that they refused to put tires on my car because I'm missing one stud on one tire, then waiting in line at the customer service desk, trying (unsucessfully) not to cry, in order to get my check back for the tires I wouldn't be getting that day: $482.81

Four tires at Town Fair, three beers at Pepe's, and two hours of wandering around Hall's Archery and Pet Supplies Plus only to come back to TFT and find that they refused to put tires on my car because, strangely since I left Sam's Club, I now have two studs on my front tire that are chewed up so badly that TFT won't put tires on, fearing they might snap the studs off: $532.16

Five new studs, fourteen new lug nuts, a trip to ACME and two Auto Zone locations, two trips to my dad's to borrow tools, a day of taking my car apart and putting it back together: $72.14

Having new tires and not having to worry about them again for (hopefully) another five years: priceless

2006 in Review

2007-01-02T14:08:00.000-05:00

It's finally 2007. As much as I have a weird dislike of writing odd numbers and as much as it will bug me all year, I am so glad to say good-bye to 2006. It was a hard year, and not only for me, but for my family and friends.

So many things changed this year, it just seemed like a hard year to get through. I changed jobs and turned thirty. I had car trouble and back spasms. My friends were sick and hospitalized, their garages caught fire, they were diagnosed with cancer, they lost parents and friends. My mother was in a car accident, my sister had nearly everything in her life but the sky above her head cave in on her. Her dog had to have her leg amputated. There's a great country song in here somewhere.

I guess everything about 2006 wasn't bad. As tough as it was to change jobs, I do love my new job. Luke got a new motorcycle which meant that I could ride a new motorcycle, too (his old one). We went on some great, albeit wet, motorcycle rides and spent lots of time with friends. I started this blog and have been enjoying the cyber-therapy for almost a year now. We somehow managed to have more parties at our house, while at the same time hardly leaving the house and getting to feel the joy of living like hermits. We were mostly healthy and we managed to get through December without having to shovel a bit of snow.

But 2007 is here and I feel like it's full of possibilities. New Year's always makes me feel excited like that. Like I have a new, blank slate to work with. So now what? I don't know. I'm not good at making resolutions. I use to resolve to quit smoking (which I don't do) or stop eating meat (when I was a vegetarian). These were resolutions I could definitely keep. I'm not sure what to resolve to do this year. I'll have to think about it.

In the meantime, I'm resolving to have a happy new year. I hope you all do the same.

Happy Happy

2006-12-31T18:39:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!

This year I'll try to make it to midnight without falling asleep. So far it's not looking so good as I am droopy-eyed already (at 6:45pm) and we have the wood stove cranking. The couch looks awfully warm and comfy...

Have a wonderful and safe New Year!

Has it really been a week?

2006-12-29T08:58:00.000-05:00

Wow, it's been a whole week since I've posted? I'm slacking. Let's all get caught up. When last I left you, Christmas was coming and I was fighting a cold. Well, I lost the battle on Friday and have been sick for a week now. It's getting a bit ridiculous. I have the week off and I've spent it feeling gross and nappy and not getting anything fun accomplished. But on a good note, Christmas came on Monday and so did this:

Woo-hoo! I do feel a little bad taking a picture of my new camera with my old camera, but oh well.

Luke makes me nervous every Christmas by not putting ANY presents under the tree until Christmas morning when he sneaks a present or two under there while I'm not looking. I wake up excited to give him his presents and kind of pissed at the thought that maybe he didn't get me any presents. Well, sneaky Pete had slipped this baby under the tree when I was in the kitchen making coffee and he wrapped it in bubble wrap before he wrapped it in paper so I thought he bought me a blanket. Great. A blanket. Instead I unwrapped the box for my beautiful new camera and when I gasped with surprise, he snapped a picture of me with it (he had the camera hidden in his pocket - I told you he was sneaky). All the gasping and surprise caused a horrible coughing fit, but I survived and took a very fine picture of Molly, where she sat all morning, in the wrapping paper:

The camera has so many awesome settings, which is the reason I most wanted it, that and the fact that it's PINK, and the best setting is the night one which enabled me to take this shot of our tree:

Pretty. Christmas morning Luke and I hung out and opened presents. Luke got all things motorcycle-related including the heated grips he's been talking about forever. The we headed to my mom's house to exchange gifts and have dinner. My mom and my brother-in-law were sick, too, so were we a fun trio of coughing and squeaky voices. Cameron and Alex enjoyed their gifts. Here is Alex in his chair (which I finally finished painting on Christmas Eve):

Cameron got a fun V-Smile TV game from Auntie Lisa and Uncle Luke and had present fever and was delirious with unwrapping and me, me, me! How can you not be when you're four? My sister gave me a Halloween present - she's a little behind - a beautiful hand-made Halloween table runner. I love it! Luke and I got some great clothes from my parents and Luke scored a set of the coolest stainless steel martini glasses from my sister. It was a great day!

As I said, I had the week off, so Tuesday was our annual food, friends, and family celebration - Girls' Day In. We started a girls' night out a bunch of years ago by going out to dinner the day after Christmas with me, my mom, my sister, my sister's best friend since birth, Jesse, and her mom, Vicki. Eventually we decided to gather earlier in the day, and then we decided to stay in and have brunch rather than going out, so it became Girls' Day In. We're like one big family and since Jesse moved to Massachusetts, we don't see her as often so we make sure to get together on this day to catch up and eat too much. This year we also decided to go see Charlotte's Web with Cameron, so that was fun. It's great to go to the movies with a four year old and remember that movies are incredible miracles. Cameron liked everything but the spider, poor Charlotte, and I thought it was a great movie. They added fart jokes (thanks to the cows) and a little love story with Fern and a boy from school, but otherwise it stayed fairly true to the story and was just beautiful to look at.

Since then I've been coughing and feeling sleepy and running errands. Luke's been home with me because he hasn't felt well either, so today is the first day I have the house to myself. It's kind of nice! I love Luke, really I do, and want to spend all of my time with him, but I expected to have this week alone to get stuff done and to blog, at least, and it's just not the same with Luke home. He's always hanging around and asking what I'm doing on the computer, or when I'll be done on the computer. Thankfully though, he was with me yesterday for my day of outrage and frustration, (that's going to have to be another post all together), but today alone. I'm planning to lounge, to catch up on my blog-reading, and to go paint pottery with my friend Paula this afternoon. It should be a good day.

This weekend, I'm sure I'll run more errands, have day of outrage and frustration parts three and four, and then a quiet New Year's with Luke's cousin and family. So if I don't get back to the computer before then, happy New Year everyone. Have a safe and happy one!

Christmas Cuties

2006-12-22T10:22:00.000-05:00

I am so sleepy from baking and crafting and all the Christmas chaos that I have nothing interesting to say that doesn't involve complaining.

For today, I'll leave you all with this. My two favorite Chrsitmas cuties - Cameron and Alex.Cameron asked Santa for a robot and a castle and Alex just shook his head and said "uh" which is all he's interested in saying at the moment. Who needs words when you're that cute and have a big brother who is more than happy to speak for you? Cameron's translation is that Alex wants a robot, too.

Merry three days before Christmas!!

I Need Sunshine!

2006-12-21T10:28:00.000-05:00

Today is the winter solstice, which means it's not only the first day of winter, it's also the shortest day of the year.

I have been looking forward to this day since November when the days started getting shorter and darker, and I had to put my refelctive vest on in the morning to walk with Molly in the dark where only weeks before it had been light. That's just depressing to me. I have been looking forward to today becasue this is the end of the shortening days. After today, each day gets longer and we gain more and more sunshine with each passing day. Yay. I really need some sunshine, not only for my mood, but also for my translucent skin. Man, am I pale. I put sunless tanner on last night after I realized that I was so white, you could see every vein in my arms through my sad, pale skin.

In other news, the nasty funk that has attempted to settle into my body is still closing in, but it's not slowing the present production schedule. Most gifts are now done, I made great progress on the rocking chair (pictures will come later), and the baking will commence tonight. I think I'm back on schedule. Luke even offered to assemble the gift that came in twenty-seven thousand pieces so that one's off my plate, too. Yay.

Invasion

2006-12-20T10:39:00.000-05:00

I'm being attacked and I refuse to submit.

As per my last post, you see that I have a long list of things to do in the next five days. Now is not the time to get sick. I feel lousy, I ache and I'm whiny, but I'm trying to stay positive. I'm fighting back with echinacea, elderberry, zinc and vitamin c, oh, and a big healthy dose of positive thinking.

I. AM. NOT. SICK.

Once, in college, it was final exam time and I was starting to develop one killer of a cold. I remember sitting quietly in my room, breathing deeply and thinking that I cannot get sick, I will not get sick, I can will myself to feel better. I basically meditated on feeling healthy, then drank a half gallon of orange juice and went to bed. The next day I felt better. I'm hoping the same strategy will work again because the last thing I want now is to be sick. I am not sick!

How Did I Get Myself Here?

2006-12-19T09:34:00.000-05:00

Today is December 19. That means that there are six days until Christmas. Six days in which I have to work (well I only have to work four of those days), and also I have to:

finish up shopping for a few last minute gifts
make cinnamon buns for Christmas Eve breakfast
make a plan, shop for, and cook Christmas Eve dinner
bake an apple pie for Christmas
bake a coffee cake for Girls' Day In, our annual day after Christmas celebration
assemble a gift that came in twenty-seven thousand pieces (no wonder Santa hires all those elves)
finish knitting (I think the knitting is going to have to be an after-Christmas gift)
paint the rocking chair I'm planning to give to my nephew (see the above picture - that's how far I've gotten - ug)
try to finish the jewelry gift experiment I started (which makes me want to poke my eyes out with a soldering iron) so I can have the two gifts I was planning to give all finished
sew the binding onto a blanket
bake cookies as thank-you gifts for Luke's helper and pre-loader (nonsense UPS talk)
and I'm sure there's more!

I always give handmade gifts of some sort. To me, making gifts usually isn't stressful. This year I'm actually giving fewer handmade gifts than ever, it just seems that this year's gifts are harder to make. They're all taking so long and that is precious time I do not have! My friend Paula made it even harder by making me promise to only give her things that I have made. I can't buy her anything from a store. That sounded good back in July, but now - holy crap! Paula, I hope you like cookies becasue that might be all I get around to finishing for you! :)

Christmas will be here soon and it will be wonderful. This is only momentary panic and stress I'm feeling and I know that it is nothing compared to the stress your friendly UPS delivery guy is going through right now. If you see one out on the street, give him a hug and thank him for your Amazon.com packages.

Six more days - eeek!

Chocolate Overload

2006-12-18T13:36:00.000-05:00

This is a small aside, because you know how your computer can remember the things you type and suggest them to you as you go? Like in the name field of a form, I type an "L" and a drop-down box will suggest "Lisa" so I don't have to type the whole thing. Well just now, as I started to type "Chocolate" in the title field, this was suggested to me: "chocolate AND pot". Who has been using my computer? I especially like the all caps "AND" which, I assume, is from a boolean search, but I like to think it was just the excitement. Chocolate AND pot? No way!

OK, anyhow, what I was going to talk about is chocolate and the vast quantities I have consumed in the past week. It's disgusting how much chocolate I've eaten recently. I just can't help it. Holiday baking, holiday parties, holiday gifts of M&Ms which cannot remain uneaten in my presence, it's a horrible law of nature.

Last night we had a family holiday party at my house and, of course, there was plenty of chocolate. I consumed a better part of it and by midnight had one killer tummy ache. I haven't done that since I was like ten years old. I couldn't fall back to sleep and lay awake in bed thinking that in the morning, if I survived, I would pledge to go all day without chocolate. I survived and I pledged and I want chocolate. I brought raisins and pears to work and thought I'd eat those when I wanted chocolate. Well, it's just not working.

I think I'm addicted. I should go to a support group. Hello, my name is Lisa, and it's been eighteen hours since my last piece of chocolate. Wait, does hot chocolate count?

The Road to Recovery

2006-12-15T10:08:00.000-05:00

Here we are at the vet. Molly's least favorite place on the face of the earth. Despite the fact that there are lots of dogs to sniff and treats coming from every direction and people who want to love her and snuggle with her - this is also the place where they give shots and that place, three years ago, where she had to stay overnight and they stole her womanhood. Or something to that effect. Either way, she really hates the vet.

It's the only place where she actually recognizes the parking lot and will hit the deck as soon as we pull in. She hides on the floor of the passenger side of the car and refuses to come out. Once I pry her out of the car like a big meanie, she starts to shake uncontrollably and pant. She does this the entire time we're in the building, unless I let her hide inside my coat, and only then does she relax.

So my poor poopsie had to go to the vet to see about that bladder infection thing. It was all relatively painless, except for that part where they decided to just give her her vaccines today rather than wait a week and a half when her appointment was originally scheduled. Three small shots and a big kiss from the vet. Luckily she blamed him for her discomfort and not me. She refused to take the treat he gave her and dropped it on the examination table as if to say, are you kidding? You think I'd trust YOU?

He did mention some interesting things to me about Miss Molly. For instance, she's a mutt, or "one of a kind" as I like to say, and I thought she was maybe cocker spaniel, poodle and terrier. He believes that she has schnauzer in her, based on some skin things she has going on. Interesting. Cockashanauzapoo? She also licks her feet a lot and I worried she had a food allergy but he said that it was more than likely a seasonal allergy to mold and pollen. Interesting again. Maybe I'll share my Allegra with her.

While we were waiting for the vet to come into the exam room and I was petting Molly's scruffy butt where it was sticking out of my coat, it occurred to me that she hadn't been groomed in a while. She usually goes every six weeks and let's see... last time was about... six weeks ago. CRAP! I checked my calendar and there were no appointments written down. When we left the vet it was 4:30. I called the groomer to see if she had an appointment, which she did at 5:00. Phew! We just made it. So Molly had a stellar day - the vet, shots, AND a bath and a haircut. At least she got it all over with in one day. Now she's all pretty and clean and soon she'll be feeling better.

However you spell that frustrated growling noise you make when something goes wrong - yeah, that's what we'll call this post

2006-12-14T09:14:00.000-05:00

Just when I think I want to get another dog, Molly decides to show me that I can barely afford the one I have.

Last year at this time, she split open the pad on her foot on ice. (ICE! can you imagine we had ice at this time last year?) She needed stitches and bandages and office visits. The ordeal caused me incredible anxiety, made me so distracted that I managed to lose my debit card, and cost me a whole lot of money just before Christmas.

This year she's showing symptoms of a bladder infection. A week and a half before she's scheduled to have her annual physical exam, I have to take her in for another office visit so she can have this taken care of. I feel terrible that she might have an infection and might not be feeling well, but an office visit, an exam, a urinalysis, antibiotics, all the extra peanut butter I have to buy to get her to take her antibiotics... ug. I'm not done Christmas shopping! Maybe that tire money I can't seem to give away is going to go to fix my pup. I think one dog is enough.

Happy Birthday Dad!

2006-12-13T12:58:00.000-05:00

(Photo courtesy of Cameron taken last Christmas.)

Hope you have a great b-day Dad!

Santa Baby, Just Slip Some Radials Under the Tree

2006-12-13T12:34:00.000-05:00

Honestly. How hard do you think it would be to buy tires less than two weeks before Christmas? Who the heck is spending much-needed present money on one of the crappiest ways to blow a ton of money other than gambling or dental work? Apparently everyone and their grandmother is.

Three times now I've tried to go get tires and three times now I've been turned away. A three to four hour wait before they will even LOOK at my car is simply too long for me to wait this time of year. This Santa's little helper has places to go and gifts to buy. I can't spend all day sitting in a waiting room, getting high on the overwhelming scent of rubber.

I had put off getting tires until now because, as you know from my incessant whining about my car, I wasn't sure that spending $500 on tires would be a wise investment, seeing as how everything else north of the tires could explode at any moment. After my miraculous emissions test, though, I now have renewed faith in my car and decided I could finally get tires.

Or so I thought. You see, tires are expensive! Nauseatingly expensive. And I found a good deal at Sam's Club. So that's the only place I want to go. Unfortunately, every other Sam's Club member in the general Manchester, CT area feels the same way. And they all seem to get to Sam's before me. I just can't go somewhere else and spend an extra $100 on the same tires. That's $100 that could be going toward Christmas presents!

So Santa, if you're reading, I've been a mostly good girl. A set of four BF Goodrich 225/75R16s would be awesome! Thanks so much.

Nostalgia

2006-12-12T09:20:00.000-05:00

I think I would have been happy growing up in the 40s and 50s. I love old radio shows, I love the scenes in A Christmas Story with Ralphie listening to the Little Orphan Annie. That would have been me. And I'm sure, if I had been around at the time, I would have definitely been a dedicated listener to the Lux Radio Theatre.

Many many years ago I found this cassette of the Lux Radio Theatre broadcast of Miracle on 34th Street. Every Christmas I listen to this tape and the Lux recordings of It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol. Listening to them just makes me so happy and nostalgic for something I never had. I love the language, I love the civility, I love the safety. When will you ever again hear a little girl say "shall I tell you what I did at school today"? When will it ever again be all right for a little girl to go visit at the home of her single male neighbor whom her mother has never met without her mother's permission on Thanksgiving? Life just sounds so much simpler and so much safer.

Even more than all that, I love the commercials. Ads for Lux soap, of course, the wonder soap which apparently you could use to wash your face, your body, your hair, your clothes, your "delicates", and then, if you had any left over, you could mix it with water and make realistic Christmas snow to decorate your Christmas tree. They give the recipe. I've even memorized it from listening so often. I wish I could find myself a large box of Lux Flakes so I could try making it myself.

There's just something about the formal way that everyone talks. The male announcer speaking to the female actress - there's something flirty but stiff in the whole exchange. You can just picture them (in black and white, of course). He's in a suit, slick dark hair, confident air, a cigarette in his hand, most likely. She's in a lovely dress with a tiny belt, her hair is in perfect waves as she talks about Paulette Goddard's wardrobe in A Rogue's Regimen and how each piece of it could be "Luxed". I just love it!

Now I have the urge to go search on Ebay for a box of lux Flakes.

Thank You!

2006-12-11T11:38:00.000-05:00

(I took a really grainy shot of Molly so I thought I'd make it more interesting with Photoshop. She looks good with blue and yellow hair!)

Thank you to everyone who came out to the spectacular shopping night on Friday, a great time was had by all. A big thank you to Karen (of Simply June) and Karin (of the new KG Photography) for participating and selling, and especially to Deb offering wonderful free chair massages. Many gifts were purchased, and many snacks were consumed. It was a fun night.

If you couldn't make it out - don't despair - you can still visit Simply June's online store here, and you can visit my jewelry shop here and my art shop here.

Friday was a long and busy day for me. It started at 8am with an appointment to have my emissions test done. As per my last post about my car, I was fully prepared to fail. I had already bought a service manual, priced out some parts, steeled myself for the bad news and then I heard the words from the large man behind the counter - you passed. I what?? I was so happy I bounced out of there.

From there I went to the grocery store for snack supplies and Jo-Ann Etc. for MORE beads while I waited for Sam's Club to open so I could get my new tires. This was the third time I tried to get tires there but was turned away becasue of the wait. I stopped in on Thursday at 3:30 in the afternoon and was told there were six cars in line before me and it would be at least 3 hours before they could get to my car. Friday, I got there at 10am when they opened and there were already four people in line in front of me. The man at the desk told the first people in line that it would be about a three hour wait. Ug. By the time they got to me it would have been over a four hour wait and I just didn't have that kind of time.

I did a little more shopping, bought Molly and I some festive gear at Old Navy, and went home where I proceeded to cook for five hours straight. I was exhausted by the time the party started. But I was happy, it was great to see everyone - thanks again!

Keywords Are Fun!

2006-12-07T12:44:00.000-05:00

I was perusing my blog stats for fun to see why and how you people come here and how long you stay. Wow, interesting. Look here:"Fluff fruit dip", I'm glad I could spread that recipe around. It's also good to know that I'm not alone in my quest for answers to my car problems. I am apparently the place to go for searches on "Shooting at the Walls of Heartache" and "being antisocial". The best one though is "thumb hurts from knitting". If you search on that in Google, Artsy Fartsy is the first site returned. Ha! Too funny.

Sneak Peek

2006-12-07T09:22:00.000-05:00

Too tired to think of something cever to say today, instead here's a sneak peek of what you'll find at tomorrow's shopping night extravaganza. Hope to see you there.

Brrrrr!

2006-12-06T11:11:00.000-05:00

OK, I take it all back. That stuff a I said about "come on snow" - strike that. The 60-degree weather in December? It can come back.

Yesterday I didn't post because I didn't regain the feeling in my fingers until late in the evening. I spent four hours of the morning out in the freezing cold and intermittent snow just where you'd want to be: hugging a massive steel gate. I was volunteered to help another employee apply reflective vinyl to the new, massive gates that were installed on campus. It was 30 degrees and windy but it had to be done. We couldn't wear gloves because the vinyl stuck to them, and at times when it was snowing and our frozen skin became wet from the melting flakes, I worried we might get stuck to the cold metal like Flick in The Christmas Story. My knuckles were bleeding and didn't realize it, my fingers swelled so badly when I came back inside that it hurt where my wedding ring was cutting off the circulation to my finger. It was great.

I found out that I had been volunteered to help in this project when I was on my way from my car to my office that morning. It had been the kind of morning where it took me over an hour to get to work, it was snowing so hard at home that I couldn't see the road, my car, which badly needs tires, skidded all over the road, and there was so much traffic for no good reason that I nearly ran out of gas on the highway. I finally made it to the parking lot at work, pried myself out of the car and was walking stiffly to my office when a co-worker stopped to tell me the good news. I had a conversation with him, then walked away and thought - did I remember to do my hair this morning?

Ya, it was that kind of a day.

Sometimes You Have to Be Your Own Santa

2006-12-06T09:43:00.000-05:00

Just bought myself one of these. Merry Christmas to me! Get yourself one here.

Age

2006-12-04T14:32:00.000-05:00

Since I can't think of anything interesting to write about today, preparing for the big shopping night has wiped me out, I decided to take one of the suggestions from a blog inspiration website (which I can't find again and can't remember the name of) and the question was:

What age would you like to be?

I would have to say eight years old. It was 1984. I was in the third grade, learning cursive, finally enjoying school a little. I got my first pair of skis and went to Florida for the first time. I took my first drawing lessons with Mrs. Sobol. I didn't care about mortgages or car payments or the electric company planning to raise my bill 34%. I didn't care about my hair or weight or looks in general since it would be another six years before I met Luke. I had four grandparents, no one I knew had died, I hadn't faced tragedy, and living in a small small town, I don't think I even faced any mean kids yet. There was no cable, no MTV, no reality TV. I had no reason to lust after a new MacBook, seeing as how there were no home computers. I had no concept of war, I had never heard of Al Queda, and I didn't know who George Bush was. I had never had my heart broken or my trust betrayed. It was a good time.

Of course, at eight I also had never fallen in love or felt the joy of home ownership. I had never ridden my motorcycle down a sunny country road and never felt the warmth of my puppy-dog sleeping next to me. I had never held my newborn nephews and made them smile and I had never felt the pride of receiving a college diploma. And I had never blogged.

OK, I take it back. Thirty is my answer. I would like to be thirty years old.

Happy December

2006-12-01T08:53:00.000-05:00

In case you live in Connecticut, I thought I should remind you, it's December. I know it feels like April and the extremely confused forsythia bush in my front yard is starting to flower, but really, it's December. This morning Molly and I went for a walk at 6:30, it was 62 degrees. In my car on the way to work, I sang along with "Let it Snow" on the radio. A little wishful singing. December is the only month where I feel it is acceptible to have snow on the ground. It needs to be pretty and picturesque in December, not balmy and warm. Come on snow!

Sidelined

2006-11-30T10:16:00.000-05:00

I injured myself knitting last night. I'm not sure whether I should be proud or embarassed. Is it akin to a war wound, or more like a bed sore? I have a nasty blister on my thumb. I've been knitting with chenille yarn which is kind of sticky, like suede, and it gets hot as it slides through my fingers. I noticed that my thumb hurt while I was knitting and when I put my work down for the night I looked a my thumb and there was a blister. I think I'm embarassed. Who hurts themselves knitting? All I know is this better not throw off my Chrismas present production schedule. I'm already running short on days - tomorrow is December 1st!

Snowkids!

2006-11-29T09:42:00.000-05:00

Sure, it's been in the 60's and we have a much better chance of torrential ran than we do a nice snow storm, but that doesn't mean you have to go without snowmen.

I've been working on a new gang of little baby sock snowkids for the upcoming shopping night. they're also going into my Etsy shop today if you want to shop early. They're adorable and made from fleece, felt, old buttons and baby socks. What's not to like?

Auto Anxiety

2006-11-28T10:37:00.000-05:00

I’ve never had a healthy relationship with my car. I spend most of my time behind the wheel in a co-dependant partnership where I’m constantly trying to understand why my car is acting grumpy and what I may have done to make it mad.

Bad cars have burned me in the past. This has scarred me and caused me to distrust anything on four wheels. My first car was a freebie that my dad found, a 1987 Hyundai Excel. By the second year I owned it, the engine had been rebuilt twice and, among the many Hyundai adventures I had, on my very first solo drive in it the clutch went out.

I traded the Hyundai for a 1979 Audi Fox. I was in college and the Audi looked cooler. Plus it had a big trunk to hold all of my art projects. Unfortunately it also had an engine-cooling fan that had been rewired so that it no longer kicked on by itself. It had been given a switch that I needed to hit to start the fan and keep the car from overheating. This was fine and all, except the fact that the electrical system had been incredibly messed up by this episode of mechanical genius and if I happened to leave the car with the radio dial in the on position or the cooling fan not switched off (despite the fact that the car was off and nothing appeared to be running) I would kill the battery and need to find myself a jumpstart. I learned pretty quickly to park on a downhill and how exactly to push a car, run alongside, jump in, and pop start it without running myself over.

From the Audi I moved up to a 1987 Subaru Justy. The only car to never let me down. This car was awesome and I would still be driving it today if it hadn’t started to spontaneously lose important parts, like the steering stabilizer, while doing 65 on the highway.

We junked the poor Justy (I’ll never forgive myself) and I bought a heap of crap from the Kia dealership. A used 2000 Kia Sportage which not only needed to have the transfer case replaced twice and the 4-wheel drive replaced once, but I actually broke the driver’s side air bag one early morning in Hartford by honking my horn at the FedEx guy who was about to back into my car. I should have let him hit me.

Because I come from the one step forward and two steps back school of car-buying, I traded the Kia for my current bad relationship – a 1997 Isuzu Rodeo. Just like anyone in an abusive relationship, I really do love my car. It just doesn’t love me back in the same way. The first month I owned the Isuzu was a nightmare of stranding incidents and rides with nice tow truck drivers. This was all related to a bad starter wire which, unfortunately, took a long freakin time to uncover. The dealership was very nice about all of this and I didn’t have to pay for any of the repairs, or even the long tow from Hartford to Ellington one cold morning.

I had several lovely months of stress-free driving and then a few months ago, the check engine light came on. I usually don’t hold any faith in the check engine light knowing that it is set to light up at certain intervals to get you to take your car in for service. I ignored it until my car started to run badly and then finally I took it in to the shop. I received a diagnosis of a bad EGR valve, which is apparently expensive, so the nice repair guy cleaned some things and changed some others and got the car to the point that it ran smoothly but told me to save my money becasue I most likely wouldn’t pass emissions if I didn’t change my EGR valve. That’s fine, considering that the Connecticut emissions testing system was such a mess that I hadn’t received a notice for testing in over four years. I could possibly be on my next car before I got a notice to take the Isuzu in for testing. Ha! Fates, you mock me. What did I get in the mail last month but a notice for emissions testing for my Isuzu.

Just about the time I got the notice in the mail, my car began doing something strange. The check engine light would occasionally go out. Then suddenly it would come back on. I began a careful study of when and where it happened as well as the time of day and weather conditions. I needed to discover the pattern. When the gas tank was low, the light would come on. After I filled up, it would go off. Riding home from work in the rain, it would come on. Some cold mornings when I would head out to work, the light would be off. It wasn’t entirely consistent and it was driving me crazy. So crazy, in fact, that I began to hear noises. Small whistling noises when I would take off from a stop. I was obsessed with figuring out this new sound. What made it happen? Where was it coming from? Was it a precursor to a larger problem? Was it the sound of my engine mounting bolts slowly falling out or was it just wind in the roof rack?

I was studying the check engine light pattern and the whistling noise one night driving home in traffic when a new annoyance popped up. As I would coast to a stop with my foot on the clutch, the 4-wheel drive indicator light would flicker on. As I would let out the clutch to take off, the light would go out. Back and forth, the light would flicker on, then flicker off. I checked to see that it was in 2-wheel drive, put it in 4, then back in 2, still the light flickered. Then one morning driving out to Stafford, the check engine light suddenly flashed on immediately followed by the 4-wheel drive indicator light, which came on and stayed on. It’s been on for a week now. Luke has assured me that it is truly not in 4-wheel drive, but still I’m worried.

I drive my car the 20 miles to and from work every day holding my breath and hoping that nothing falls off or blows up. I’m just waiting for my transmission to fall out of the car or a big cloud of smoke to come from under the hood. Add to that the stress of my impending emissions test – I can’t handle this anxiety! I just want a car I can drive. I don’t really care what it looks like. I want it to be decent on gas, have a working gas gauge, to have heat and a/c, and no major mechanical problems! Is that too much to ask? Why can’t there be a subway connecting Andover and Hartford? That would make my life so much easier.

Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Killing a Tree for Christmas

2006-11-27T09:16:00.000-05:00

Well, four days off from work and I've already forgotten my routine. Last night I couldn't remember what time I was supposed to set the alarm for. This morning I left the house and came back in three times for things I had forgotten and still I managed to leave without packing anything for lunch. Luckily I rememberd how to get to work.

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone! We had a nice day. We woke up late and watched the parade while I started putting up Christmas decorations. Then we spent some time with Luke's side of the family and had a nice dinner. We stayed until after midnight and despite the fact that I didn't get in to bed unto almost 1am, I was excited about going shopping early the next morning.

For about the past seven or so years, since I stopped working retail and being on the cash register side of the counter, I've been going shopping early on Black Friday and I have to say that I love it for some strange reason. I love to get out there early, before the sun is up. I love to be in the stores browsing around for nothing in particular while the mommies get into fistfights over Easy bake Ovens. I love the unexpected deals and I love to have all of my shopping done and wrapped at home before noon. I had planned to get up around 7 and head out. I wanted to go to Toys R Us to find something for my nephews, Jo-Ann Etc. for something for my sister (and me), Target for more stuff for my sister, and maybe Pier 1 just for fun if I was up to it.

I woke up and looked at the clock, saw that it was almost 7, so I got up and got ready. I kissed good-bye to a sleeping Luke and Molly and went out to the kitchen to leave where I saw the clock and it said 6:20. Ug. I could have slept for another hour. Oh well, I set out and got a jump on my big shopping day with a whopping 5 hours of sleep, no makeup and no coffee. My grumpy, sleepy, wild bedhead and bags under my eyes should scare everyone out of my way.

I hit Toys R Us as the sun was coming up and found that the line wrapped completely around the inside of the store and the things I wanted weren't on sale. Not worth waiting in line if it's not on sale. Bummer. Then I hit Jo-Ann's where I couldn't find what I wanted to get for my sister. Almost another bummer, but I walked past the bead display on the way out and saw that everything was 40% off, plus I had a 20% off coupon on top of that! Excellent.

It's now 8am and all I had purchased was $40 of beads for me. So far, not good.

I went to Target to see if I could find the toys for my nephews but found a mostly empty toy section. I tried to find something for my sister - nothing. I bought some wrapping paper and a tablecloth.

9:30am and I have beads, wrapping paper and a tablecloth. This is turning into a particularly black Black Friday. I was tired, coffeeless, giftless, and I just wanted to go home.

I headed home to get Luke and head back out for lunch and to cut down our Christmas tree. We get our tree each year the day after Thanksgiving and despite the fact that it was almost 65 degrees on Friday, we went out to see Santa and get our tree. There's a tree farm down the road from us that we've been going to every year and the old man who lives there is very sweet and dresses like Santa every day to greet the people coming to get their trees. An hour later we were home with our tree but we didn't have a chance to decorate it because we had friends coming over for dinner.

Saturday I spent all day decorating the tree and watching Christmas movies. I swear I was in slow motion this weekend. I started putting the lights on the tree around 11am and by 6:30pm I was finally done adding ornaments. Now the living room looks sparkly and Chrsitmasy and the cat is camped out on her usual spot under the tree on the skirt.

Well hopefully today I won't be in slow motion and since it is "Cyber Mmonday" maybe I'll start my online Christmas shopping and make up for my pathetic Black Friday shopping trip.

Moo

2006-11-22T11:28:00.000-05:00

Playing with Flickr this morning I found this from Moo:
I think this is so awesome. 100 Beautiful business cards with your own photos or artwork on them for $19.99. You can have 100 of the same design or one of each of 100 designs. I think this is such a great idea! I can't wait to upload some artwork to Flickr and make some art cards. I think I'll make 100 for my artwork and 100 for my jewelry.

My Application For Suzuki’s “Ride of A Lifetime” Contest

2006-11-21T10:42:00.000-05:00

Have two long-time motorcyclist friends? You know, the ones you’ve shared the highs and lows of the road with for as long as you can remember? Perhaps more importantly, two that could put up with you for 1000+ miles on a bike road trip?

Well get your riding gear ready, because Suzuki is looking for three close friends (and licensed motorcyclists) to take “THE RIDE OF A LIFETIME.” The chosen few will ride new, 2007 Suzuki Boulevard cruisers on a 5-day, 1000+ mile road trip through some of this country's most beautiful scenery, on roads that you'll swear were made for motorcycling. To top it off, the entire trip will be filmed for Suzuki’s new 2007 Suzuki Boulevard advertising campaign, and you & your friends could be the stars!

APPLICATION:

Rider 1: me
Rider 2: Luke
Rider 3: Keith

Riding Experience: four years

Current and Previous Motorcycles Owned: none
Current and Previous Motorcycles Borrowed From Husband: ’83 Honda Nighthawk, ’00 Buell M2 Cyclone

How Long Have You Known: Luke – 16 years, Keith – 5 years

While addressing a large group of people, select which of the following is going through your mind:
Great Group! Can we hang out later? ___ I’ll be glad when this is over! _X_ Just shoot me! ___

Describe yourself and your two friends’ personalities on the road, either Leader of the Pack/Navigator, Mid-pack, Bringing up the rear, or Where’s lunch/are we there yet?
Me: Mid-pack
Luke: Leader of the Pack/Navigator
Keith: Mid-pack

Describe your favorite motorcycling memory:
I have some great memories of gorgeous days and twisty roads. Of realizing the power beneath me and that capability within me, but my favorite memory is from early on, before I even had my license. I was taking the motorcycle education class and the big, burly teacher went around the room and asked why we all wanted our motorcycle licenses. I said that I wanted mine to make my dad proud. My dad really wanted me to learn and I wanted to do well for him. We were on our first day of the road course and we were doing the typical exercises of circling and swerving, going around cones and I was having a great time. We were all doing one last big circle around the course and as I came back in to the parking area, the burly instructor said to me, “why did you say you wanted your license?” I said, “to make my dad proud”. He said, “I think that did it”.

Describe the funniest thing in your motorcycling life:
That would have to be Luke. He’s hard on me when I make mistakes riding, but he’s also the only thing that can make we laugh when we’re on a long, wet ride or stuck in traffic on a 90-degree day. He’ll reach out and pretend to pinch bicyclist’s butts as we pass them by on the road. If we see someone bending over, working on their garden and their showing a bit of “plumber’s crack”, he’ll make a hand motion like he’s dropping a quarter in a slot machine. If we’re in traffic or behind a slow driver, he’ll motion like he’s pushing himself along with his feet. It’s the stupid little things like that that keep us both going on long days. With no radios and helmets covering our faces, we have to rely on creative sign language to pass the time.

Describe what it is about your two friends that makes them worthy to be part of the Suzuki “Ride of a Lifetime” with you:
To put it very simply, if it wasn’t for Luke letting me ride his motorcycles, I wouldn’t be riding. He cautiously encouraged me to learn to ride and offered his bikes for me to ride on. He’s been my constant riding buddy and I feel like I’ve forgotten something if I ride anywhere without him. That, and we’ve been together forever and he’d kill me if I did this without him. If it wasn’t for Keith getting his license, I wouldn’t have mine either. When he was getting ready to take his test, he needed a bike to ride and the old Nighthawk had been sitting, unloved, in our garage for a while. It needed a little work but since Keith needed a bike, we took her out and dusted her off and got her up and running. After Keith got his license, he bought a bike of his own and the Nighthawk was free for me to ride. The rest is history. That, and he’s really tall so our awesome leather-clad trio would look proportionate on the promotional posters with tall Keith in the middle and me and Luke like short bookends on either side. He also sent me the link to the contest, so it would be mean if I didn’t include him.

Describe something that each of your two friends did that drove you crazy:
Well I’m married to one of them, so eventually everything he does drives me a little crazy. Keith, I cant say there’s anything he does to drive me crazy, but give me five days and 1100 miles with him and I’m sure I’ll change my story.

I'm Back

2006-11-20T17:03:00.000-05:00

Well, after two weeks of sleepless stress, a twelve-hour work day on Friday, a punctured finger, a funeral on Saturday morning and an overnight babysitting gig watcing my 4- and 1-year old nephews, I'm back.

I took the day off to sleep in and not do a damn thing for anyone but me. Ironically, I would have had the day off anyhow because the University where I work had no power. I guess I'll just save that vacation day for later.

I spent the morning cleaning the house (that was for me, so it still fell within my day off rules), I listed a couple of new things on Etsy, (by the way, have you been there recently? The new site is BEAUTIFUL! I love it). And I spent the early afternoon designing a postcard to announce the holiday shopping extravaganza we're hosting at my house on December 8th with sparkly Lisa Gaumond goodies and beautiful SimplyJune things. Here's how it looks: You're all invited, so please come! Email me if you need directions. Well Molly's pestering me to go out and I have lasagna noodles burining on the stove, so that's it for now. I'll be back tomoroow - I promise!

Show and Tell

2006-11-14T09:08:00.000-05:00

Here's my hat. Cute, huh? I've already finished another one to give as a Christas present and I'm working on yet another. My fingertips are red and sore from the needles but I can't seem to stop knitting. I might be able to graduate to mittens or socks soon!

You can see a shot of my new painting on the home page of my website: www.LisaGaumond.com. I decided to call it "Trouble Sleeping" and I really do like the way it came out. Come to the Alumni Show opening this weekend at the Joseloff Gallery and See it in person!

And more exciting developments: I'm planning to team up with Simply June to have a holiday sale night extravaganza at my house in early December. We're still planning it all out but I hope to have the date and time set in the next day or two. You'll have a chance to come have a glass of wine, browse around, and buy all of your Christmas presents in one place. Purses, jewelry, hats, artwork, notecards, magnets, handmade cards, tea towels, children's aprons, and so much more! We may even have a masseuse on hand for chair massages. I have to see if she'll be available. I'll let you know the specifics as soon as Karen and I figure them out. Stay tuned!

And thank you for being patient. Work has been so busy and so stressful lately. I haven't been sleeping much, which means that the funny part of my brain isn't exactly functioning at top form. I can barely remember how to answer the phone, let alone write, spell and punctuate correctly. Once this week is over and my brain can rest, I have many blog ideas I've been writing down of things I want to talk about. There will be much more regular blogging coming soon.

Hello?

2006-11-08T13:53:00.000-05:00

Anyone still reading? Sorry I've been gone so long. A combination of work, a few days off to rest and relax, more insanely busy work, and my forgetfullness led to several dead days of Artsy Fartsy. Sorry about that. I have so many things to share but, as I said, I forgot to grab my memory card before I left the house and all the images are still at home.

Here, just imagine...

I finished my hat finally and I love it. It fits perfectly, I'm now a hat-making machine.

I'm working on a new painting to submit to the Hartford Art School Alumni Small Works Show at the Joseloff Gallery. It's a cute little painting I think I'm going to call "My Sleeping Problem".

There are several new gift sets in my jewelry shop on Etsy. Etsy is also changing its format this weekend and will soon be even more awesome than before, I can't wait. So don't try to shop this weekend - the site will be own - but next week go and enjoy!

I also have more pictures of Peanut and Molly's new haircut. Lots of pretty things to look at. Too bad the pictures are at home. Sigh.

Well thanks for being patient. I'll be back to my semi-daily posting schedule soon.

Peanutty Goodness

2006-11-01T09:56:00.000-05:00

Say hello to Peanut. This little love-nugget belongs to our friends Paula and Karlo - but not for long! We're stealing her. Peanut is the new little sister of our other favorite greyhound, Bentley, and she is nothing but love. If you were really this close to her, she'd turn to look at you and lean in for a snuggle. She loves to be near you, loves to be touched. She's just too cute.

We're watching Peanut this week while her parents are away and her big brother is hanging with another family, but we're considering just not giving her back. She's perfect. She gets along well with Molly, she's mellow and sweet and lovable and I don't want her to go away. I think that I have a secret love affair with greyhounds. I've always wanted to steal Bentley, too. Greyhounds are just the sweetest dogs and I think I need to get one. How about this one? We could just change our locks and ignore the doorbell when Paula and Karlo come to collect her. Yes, I think that's a plan...

Bang!

2006-10-30T10:31:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd try something new. New and scary.

(Don't try this at home - close-up shots of your own forehead are really rather frightening.)

Before:
After:Wow, that's one big forehead. I'm still getting used to feeling the hair tickling my face and I think that everyne is looking at me and thinking I have 80's hair, but I should get over that.

Thanks to all the Halloween movies on TV this weekend, I realized yesterday that I now have Gina Davis's hair from Beetlejuice. Great.

Knitty

2006-10-26T11:04:00.000-04:00

Will this be YOUR Christmas present? I don't know, have you been good? I've abandoned the hat project in favor of the easier scarves. After bombing on Hat 6.0 I decided to seek professional help, which told me I needed new needles. New needles will be purchased tonight. Hopefully Hat 7.0 will actually fit on my head. Don't you love this yarn? It's called Licorice, yum.

Tree Art

2006-10-24T12:22:00.000-04:00

Check this out: Tree Art First cats were painting and then elephants were playing musical instruments. Now trees are drawing! What's next?

Thanks to Drawn! for pointing it out.

You're Making Me Look Bad

2006-10-23T12:39:00.000-04:00

OK, people, it's time to help out your pal Lisa and possibly score yourself a brand new iPod. And, no, this isn't one of those pop-up ads promising free iPods and Applebee's gift certificates; this one's for real.

Remember this?Well in case you need a reminder, one of my regular podcasts (and probably my favorite) is Croncast. I'm a fairly new listener, but shortly after I started, they announced a contest. They want to have 300 listeners by their 300th show, which should happen in early November. The way the contest goes, I recommend the show to you. You sign up as a new listener, paste some info into your iTunes or other podcast software, and you're entered to win. If you're the 300th new listener, you'll win a new 30GB iPod, and so will I, since I recommended you. I'm pretty sure there will also be a random drawing of all the new listeners and that person, along with the recommender, will also win a 30GB iPod.

So what are you waiting for? You have nothing to lose. You not only get to hear some incredibly funny stuff straight from your iPod or computer three times a week - you could also win some lovely goodies! And to make it even better, the 250th listener and recommender will win an iPod shuffle (or similar small MP3 player).

Have you signed up yet? Don't lie, I know you haven't. This is where you make me look bad. There's a weekly round-up of how many new listeners there are and the breakdown of who recommended how many new listeners. Waaaaaaay down at the bottom of the list is LisaLisa (that's me) with 1 lousy new listener. And that was Luke, so it doesn't even count!

See? Don't they look like nice people? That's my cut and pasted Photoshop collage of Betsy and Kris. I stole the photos from their website, hope they don't mind.

I'm not asking you to join my Amway pyramid scam, I'm just asking you to sign up and try out a new podcast that you will most definitely love.

It's hard to describe the show to someone who has never listened. It's just Kris and Betsy talking about life. I've got it... it's like Seinfeld. Remember Seinfeld? It was a show about nothing. The characters just talked about life and the crazy stuff that happens on a daily basis. That's exactly what Kris and Betsy do, but instead of New York, they're living in Naperville, IL. Instead of the puffy shirt, there's puffy cuffs! Instead of Newman, there's crazy Goodwill people! Instead of Kramer, there's Zeus! Are you intrigued? You should be.

Ready to sign up? It's easy.
1.) Click on the red rectangle on the right hand column of my blog, or go to www.croncast.com and click on the "300 by the 300th" banner
2.) Fill in the little form, and where it asks for the handle of the person who referred you, type "LisaLisa"
3.) After you submit your registration, you'll get some code that you have to paste into iTunes - copy it.
4.) Now go to iTunes. Click on Advanced from your top menu. Click on "Open Stream" and you'll get a blank window. Paste your code in there. That's it!
5.) Now search for "Croncast". Two will come up, choose either, they're both the same. Click on "Subscribe" and download away! Then listen, laugh and get hooked just like I did.

Now cross your fingers and hope that we win! Mama needs some good news to brighten her day. A brand spanking new iPod sure would help.

Being Nice Finally Pays Off!

2006-10-19T11:00:00.000-04:00

I hate parking meters. Especially Hartford parking meters where you get 2 mintes for a nickel, 5 minutes for a dime, and 10 minutes for a quarter. Seriously. 10 minutes for a QUARTER!?

I had to go to Hartford this morning to work on the chalkboards at Max Downtown again. Since the sun doesn't come up until after 7am, I left in the dark with a still sleeping Luke and Molly snuggled up in bed. I grabbed a handful of change for the meter from the change bowl, not sure what I grabbed since the room was dark, and I headed into Hartford. Well. I got to my meter and found that all I had a bunch of pennies and a few dimes. Crap! I was only able to feed the meter for 47 minutes. Not long enough.

What I hate almost as much as parking meters is parking tickets. $15 parking tickets in the lovely city of Hartford.

I was up on the ladder, adding "Chili Steak Fries" and a drawing of a Veuve Clicquot champagne bottle to the chalkboard, among other paradoxes, thinking that I was totally screwed. I was going to get a parking ticket, there was no way I wouldn't.

I left the restaurant and walked to my car where I see an employee of the Hartford Parking Authority circling my car. Ug. I walked over and said, "that's for me, huh?" He smiled, tapped on his little ticket-making machine, I put my stuff in the car. He looked up and asked me, "why aren't you arguing with me?" I told him that I didn't see any reason to. He was doing his job, I did something wrong, I accept my fate. He smiled. I boiled inside. I really can't stand paying the city of Hartford $15 for parking when they don't wash my car or deliver it to the door of Max Downtown for me. He walked over to me and handed me my ticket. Just a warning this time.For being NICE! Ha! Finally, nice pays off. Check it out:

Ho, Ho, Hold on There a Minute!

2006-10-16T08:31:00.000-04:00

I know, Halloween isn't even here yet, it's way too early for Santa pictures. But I was hired to create a Breakfast with Santa announcement. I had to do it. So what do you think? Would you want to have pancakes with this guy? He'll eventually be juggling candy canes and holly berries but now that I look at him, it looks like he's being held up at gun point. Hmm. Better do something about that.

Payback

2006-10-11T12:23:00.000-04:00

It's time to hold up my end of the bargain. Karen was nice enough to front me the awesome purse, now here's my end of the swap. Karen, if you're reading, what do you think?

By the way, has anyone noticed how much I say "awesome"? What, is it 1989 again? If I start throwing in "like" and "fer sher" you'll know it's time to up my meds. I say "awesome" almost as much as "so". Time to come up with some new words. So. Awesome.

Cats and Bats and Breast Cancer Awareness

2006-10-10T12:13:00.000-04:00

You might remember that last year I painted this lady.

Well she's back and she's celebrating Breast Cancer Awareness Month with an event on Halloween.

The original clients asked that the lady get a spooky makeover for this year's event complete with mask, black cat and bats and this is how she looks now.

Spoooky!

Molly the Awesome Biker-Pup

2006-10-09T12:17:00.000-04:00

Our motorcycle trip on Saturday started out well. We were headed to New York for a campout and we actually left early for once. The day was perfect, crisp and sunny, and I was back in my groove, back on the Buell. Everything was going right.

Until this happened:
(that would be my drive belt - a small, but unfortunately very necessary part of motorcycle-riding, BTW, it's supposed to be shaped like an "O")And then this happened:
(that would be my dad's friend Pete's truck with me, my dead bike and my helmet hair in it)And then this happened:
(that would be my bike in my dad's basement [and me with more lovely helmet hair] - the Buell's not going anywhere this weekend)So, rather than complain and whine about having my broken-down butt carried up to the campout on the back of Luke's bike, I did this:Yes, that would be the divine miss Molly riding on the motorcycle with us. I was afraid of her riding on Luke's bike alone in a basket, but curled up in my lap on the back of Luke's bike, now that's a different story. That I could go along with.

We bundled her up in her fleece coat, then her Old Navy parka, then her harness, which I attached to a rope that went around my body. I sat her on my lap and we were on our way. I thought she'd get sick of the wind in her face and tuck her head inside my jacket after a while. Boy was I wrong.Two and a half hours of riding, one short stop for lunch and she was still hanging her floppy ears out in the wind. In fact she kept leaning into Luke's back, trying to squeeze herself in front of him. She perched on the end of my lap, stretching her little neck out to catch as much air as she possibly could.

Once we got to Sioux and Voyle's place in NY, Molly hopped off the bike and had a grand time sitting by the bonfire and hanging out with the crowd. She got to sleep in a tent with me and Luke, she shared (hogged) my sleeping bag and woke up the next morning raring to go. When we packed up the gear and I grabbed her parka she started to wag her tail and when I put it on her she jumped up on the bike, ready to go. She amazed me. She's one tough little cookie and she's fearless.

So if you were in the souhwestern part of Connecticut/southeastern part of New York state this weekend and saw what looked like a fluffy white dog on a motorcycle, you weren't going crazy, that was my biker-pup, Molly.

My Dog is AWESOME.

2006-10-09T09:33:00.000-04:00

More bragging to follow. Stay tuned.

My Routine

2006-10-05T11:48:00.000-04:00

My friend Keith just got his very own blog, and since he mentioned in his first post how he was "inspired" by my pointless ramblings, I thought I'd gain some inspriation from his newest post about his morning ritual. His routine is, of course, all geeky and Canadian, but mine... well who am I kidding, mine's pretty geeky, too.

First, just like Keith, I need coffee. But I'm not a coffee snob. I don't need any maple syrup-roasted beans seasoned with fresh Canadian air. I'm happy to take anything in a cup that has caffiene and resembles coffee in the slightest bit.

Next, music. I open up my friend iTunes and pick my favorite morning playlist that I like to call "mellow". Jack Johnson, Jehro, Ray LaMontagne and maybe a little G. Love start my morning off right. OK, time for my next ritual.

Blogs. Yes, I love blogs. And I read a lot of them, too. My friends have them so I have to read those and keep up on what's going on with them. Then there are the friends I feel like I have even though I've never met these people - Dooce, Pamie, those guys. I've been reading their blogs for years and I know more about them than I do about some of my close friends. Weird, huh?

I tried to do a little screenshot of my bookmarks toolbar so you could see the order I go in, but it's too darn long to fit in the little blog window. So here it is:

Dooce | Pamie | Ultratart | Cute Overload | Mediacrity | Me, My Dogs, My Life | Optimistic Diva | Keith's blog which has a really long name | Spewing 4th Art | Loobylu | Go Fug Yourself | SimplyJune | Resale Queen

By the time I've gotten through those, I've had my fill of life in Utah, life in LA, cute pictures of animals, funny comments on celebrity outfits, art, crafts, eBay hijinks, and all my friend updates. It's a well-rounded morning. Then I check my email and go to Blogger to update my own blog(s).

And then I stare at my monitor for a while and decide what to do next. Maybe I'll check the blogs again, it's much earlier on the West Coast, maybe Dooce and Pamie have a new update now...

Have Dog, Will Travel - or How We Humiliate Our Dog While She Plots Our Slow, Painful Deaths

2006-10-04T12:03:00.000-04:00

Luke has always wanted to take Molly on the motorcycle with him. When we had a quad, she LOVED it and rode on it all the time. Now she jumps up on the seat of any motorcycle she gets near as if to say, take me for a ride!

We took her, a couple of times, up the street to our friends' house but she sat on my lap while I was on the back of Luke's bike and she loved it. But this weekend it's a different story. We have a 2-hour motorcycle trip to New York planned with an overnight camp out, and sure, my mom would be happy to watch her while we're gone (right Mom?) but wouldn't it be more fun to bring her? Of course it would.

Molly's a hit with the motorcycle group we're camping with and when they heard us joking about bringing her, they were all on board. My dad even called last night with a new idea for transporting her in a milk crate lined with foam on the back of Luke's bike. So we've been brainstorming for possibilities and although it hasn't exactly been working out, it's been really funny.

This here is Sunday night at my sister's house. Luke was insistent on trying out one of Andrea's old baby carriers to see if Molly would fit. She fit, but her enormous look of disdain and loathing hung over the top.Luke still thinks that this is the best solution. I say: have you seen Molly actually sit up for more than five minutes at a time? She's more of a lounger and I think it would drive her nuts if she couldn't lay down for two straight hours. Plus there's no room in the carrier for her tail to stick out.

Which led us to the Toto basket (formerly our laundry basket). There's plenty of room for her to lay down, or look out if she chooses, and she can wear her harness so we can tether her to the bike instead of Luke. We fastened the basket down snugly and she actually looked pretty comfy in there. (Don't let that look of disgust fool you, there were treats in that basket. She was happy there.) I'm still worried, though. She's gonna be cold! I've got a fleece jacket for her and even an Old Navy parka with a hood, but I still think she'll be scared and cold. If I was riding on the back so she could lay on my lap, that would be one thing. But all alone in a breezy basket - I don't think she'll go for that. We'll see. I don't think we've given up on the idea yet.

Two Movies I Actually Liked!

2006-10-03T09:29:00.000-04:00

Good news! There really isn't anything wrong with me. I finally liked two movies I saw. Two movies in a row! They were Office Space and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

First, Office Space. Yeah, OK, I'm just gonna have to go ahead and say that I loved this movie. If you've seen this movie, you know what I'm talking about.

Peter is a cubicle-dwelling corporate drone who hates his job and realizes that every day is worse that the last so essentially: every day is the worst day of his life. His girlfriend takes him to an occupational hypnotherapist where he finds peace and calm and a permanent state of relaxation due to a little glitch in the hypnotizing process, (namely his doctor keeling over with a heart attack before he can bring him back from his hypnotized state). Peter decides, in his new state of peace, to do what makes him happy, which is nothing. He sleeps in, goes to work in his flip flops, and tells the corporate consultants the truth about how much he slacks off and how unmotivated he is at work. He dismantles his cubicle and speaks his mind to his boss. No matter how bad his behavior gets, Peter never gets fired, in fact, he gets promoted.

I've never worked in an actual cubicle, but in my old office I experienced so many of the same insanely frustrating situations. The same tiny mistake brought back over and over by multiple managers, the repetitive redhead in the cube next door. At one point I was laughing so hard but trying not to laugh because I was watching it with Luke, who, although he hates his job, has never worked in an office. I thought that he would think I was insane since he's never been frustrated enough with office machines to fantasize about taking a copy machine out to a deserted field and beating the crap out of it with a baseball bat. But I was wrong. This movie speaks to the frustrated worker in all of us.

Whether you work at a desk or driving a truck, you still have management to deal with and I'm sure they still say incredibly ridiculous things to you and make your work life miserable. This movie was hilarious and everyone working in upper management should watch it as a training video to learn what not to do to your employees.

Next, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I loved this movie. I want to hug this movie. It was quiet and subtle and fast moving and it just made me happy inside.

For the first time ever I actually liked Jim Carey. His acting wasn't over-the-top and his character, Joel, was truly likeable in a pathetic sort of way. Kate Winslet was fantastic as the spontaneous and wacky, screwed-up girlfriend, Clementine, who decides to have all memory of Joel erased from her mind so she can forget about him and their relationship. Hurt and angry, Joel decides to do the same but realizes during the memory-erasing that he truly loves Clementine and doesn't want to forget her.

There's a scene between the memory-erasing doctor and his secretary, Kirsten Dunst, that makes the point that love isn't just in the mind, it's in the heart. You can have the memory taken away, but the love will still come back.

I was worried that the movie would end on a sad note but I loved the end. It makes you think: if you knew the beginning of your story and you knew the end, would you still want to go through the middle? And the answer is YES!

OK, now for the true test. Up next from the Blockbuster selection: Fahrenheit 911 and Honey.

Never Enough Lisa

2006-10-03T09:22:00.000-04:00

What's that you say? You want more Lisa? More blogging? Well your wish is my command. Check me out here: The Joseloff Gallery Everything you never knew you wanted to know about our art gallery. Updated periodically, or whenever I have gallery news to report. Pretty, isn't it?

Eew... Kinda Neat.

2006-10-02T11:57:00.000-04:00

This freaky thing has been hanging out on the side of our house for a week or so:
I've been searching online to see what the heck it is and now I have a serious creepy-crawly feeling going on. Too many spider pictures affecting my brain. Is there a bug in my hair? A spider crawling up my leg? Spiders aren't my favorite among the buggy creature community, but this one is apparently a Marbled Orb Weaver, a shy and non-threatening spider that builds beautiful, strong webs.

Now I think I have to go take another shower so I can stop scratching.