Tree Art

Check this out: Tree ArtFirst 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

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!

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!

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

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

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

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.

More bragging to follow. Stay tuned.

My Routine

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

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!

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

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.

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.

Betty Home Crocker

Yes, Betty's back. I had quite the weekend of cooking and crafting. Seeing as how the frost was coming and there were still veggies in my garden, I went out and picked everything and had to do something with them all before they rotted on the kitchen counter.

Between Friday and Sunday I managed to make:
-a large batch of pesto
-stuffed peppers
-pepper and sausage quiche
-clam chowder
-apple pie
-crab dip
-pasta with crab and cream sauce
-extra pastry crust to be used later on
And you know what I had for dinner on Saturday? A bowl of shredded wheat. Sad.

I also managed to craft quite a bit and I made some wall decorations (pictures to come, they're not quite done yet) out of some recycled wall hangings I took from the trash pile at work. I stripped and refinished a chair I bought at a tag sale for $3, and I finished refinishing our old dining set so I could sell it on Craigslist. Then I started to make some curtains, the finished one is pictured above. Cute, huh? They're for our guest bedroom.

It was quite a busy weekend. The funny thing is that I didn't make a bit of jewelry so I feel like I didn't get anything done!

Happy Birthday Melissa!

Here's to the second anniversary of your 29th birthday.

Pretty Pictures

Yesterday I took a little trip to New York City to visit two wonderful exhibitions. My eyes still hurt and can't really focus well from all the pretty things and all the color they had to absorb yesterday. I have art whiplash. There's so much to say and not enough time to tell you everything right now but I can give you the highlights.

We saw: Cezanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant Garde at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Picasso and American Art at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

I recommend: The show at the Met. So many amazing, important works of art in one place! We had a little discussion about the insurance policy they must have on the musuem for this show which ended with the thought, "Who cares about the money. What would you do with it? Build a time machine? You can't replace these paintings. If a bomb were dropped on the museum right now, we'd be screwed." For sure we would have been.

I didn't realize: How much I love Van Gogh. Not the typical Starry Night or Sunflowers, but his portraits and his patterns and backgrounds. My eyes were happy looking at them.

I learned: That there is truly such a thing as too much of a good thing. The show at the Whitney just had too much to look at. Too many comparisons of Picasso's work and the work of American artists he influenced. My eyes and my brain were tired by the end, which is a shame because there were some wonderful Jasper Johns paintings that I would have liked to spend more time with but I just couldn't focus anymore. I also learned that I love Stuart Davis (the painter, not the singing Buddhist monk, although he is pretty cute) and the sculptures of David Smith.

I was surprised: At how I felt standing in front of some of these works of art. I did jump a little when I saw Picasso's Three Musicians because I loved this painting in high school and painted a life-sized version on brown paper for an art class project. I was a little giddy seeing it in person. Some of the other pieces though, I wasn't all that impressed with and that surprised me. An amazing, rarely-seen Picasso or Jackson Pollock and I stood there thinking, "eeh... it's all right".

So that's it for the highlights. It was a great day, beautiful weather, pretty pictures, amazing things to see. You should go see for yourself!

Don't You Love Ads on Blogs?

Yesterday I decided, what the heck. I know I only get about 30 people a day reading my blog, but maybe that's enough traffic to raise a little shoe-shopping cash via Google AdSense. I added the little nifty ad bar to the top if the page yesterday when I wrote about cheating on Blogger with VOX and the first recommended ad link was "Infidelity". I wonder where that would have taken me. I'm prohibited from clicking my own ads so I couldn't find out. I hope you don't mind the new ad format, a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do, you know. The shoes don't just buy themselves.

My Infidelity

Blogger, I just have to get it off my chest: I've been cheating on you.

I feel terrible. His name is VOX and I've spent a lot of time with him today, but I really think it was just a fling. You're my real true love. He seemed all new and flashy and had some cool features that you're lacking, but you're so much more fun to be around. You're easier to manipulate and customize and really, isn't that what we all want in a partner... uh, blog.

I tried it. I was sucked in to the new, try it now, invitation only, new! new! new! blogging service, VOX. I scored myself an invitation and I spent a whole lot of time playing with it today, but I don't think I'm going to change. It seemed cool at first, I've always liked the book and music recommendation columns, like all Typepad accounts seem to have, and VOX has a cool photos links area that I liked, but the template can't be manipulated, the code can't be changed, and I can't find anywhere to add links to other sites I like, or my banners for Flickr, or Etsy, or the Croncast 300 by the 300th (have you all signed up, huh? huh?). So I think I'll stay with Blogger. Maybe I'll keep my VOX account for photos or something. Heck, who am I kidding? I'm barely finding time lately to update ONE blog, how am I going to keep up with two?

If you're interested in peeking at the VOX blog wile it lasts, there's one post and I've already changed the template twenty-seven times. I'll probably change it a few more before I'm happy and then I'll go and delete my account. I'm an idiot. But you can see for yourself here.

One More Post

This is the last of the three-legged dog posts, I promise, (by the way, she's doing great, getting better every day), but I just had to show you this from Cute Overload. What a weird coincidence! I think I might have to get one of those shirts.

On Amazing Pup

(Sorry the picture is so blurry but Sydney was so wiggly that I couldn't get a clear picture!)

Sydney's back home after her surgery and she's doing amazingly well. My sister and her husband both had to work on Saturday when Sydney was set to come home post-amputation so I agreed to pick her up at the vet. Unsure of what sadness I'd see when I got there, Iwas shocked to see her bouncy and wagging her tail, happy to get out of there and completely unfazed by her new predicament. She skips around, up stairs, down stairs, from the front seat of my car to the back. She's amazing.

She hung at our house for a while before my sister got out of work and the vet had told us to put a t-shirt on her when we got home to keep her from scratching at her incision. I found an old BMW t-shirt I had and figured that it was appropriate since we had seen a man at the BMW rally in Vermont this summer who lost his leg and went on to ride over 25,000 miles in one season. Nothing stopped him and nothing's stopping Sydney!

Way to go Super Pup!