hi

hi

Saturday, December 22, 2012

not many days left and a lot to do

Dang. I have a bunch of Christmas art to do and I haven't quite started...it. Ahhhh! Well...I'll get on that tomorrow night. I can have a few late nights, no biggie. My recuperating time is over, time to work!

Got a bit early because we were planning to meet with Celia, but time ran out and she had to catch her flight so that didn't happen.

I read and sat in front of the fire and took it pretty easy. Ate a lot of cookies. Dad made hash browns and cheesey omelette and it was good. We watched Strictly Ballroom and the first episode of North & South. Then they went to bed, so I went to bed, and then I realized I went to bed at 9:30, what is up with that?

Tomorrow I'll meet my friend Marcus for a bit, then it is time to buckle down and draw some presents!

Friday, December 21, 2012

orcs, goblins, dwarfs, oh my!

Oh this bed is so comfy and warm. I love it. I slept way way in, and it was great. Letting my body recoup. I need to get back into yoga or something, don't want to strain my body out.

Dad made me a poached egg on toast with melted cheese. That was awesome. Mom baked cookies. I ate cookies. I petted the dog and the cat. I sat in front of the fire and took it easy. We also hot tubbed. That was nice. A few winters ago I slipped on the ice and hurt my bum on the steps coming out of the hot tub, but they were not icy today.

We went to Origami Sushi for dinner. Num nums. The snow makes it difficult to get in and out of our driveway, but from there out it is okay driving. Anyway, after dinner we saw The Hobbit! AHhhH! Just so good, and the second time around I could greater appreciate the little things in the battle sequences. Such a wonderfully done movie. Ahhh! I should be good on watching it for another two weeks...hahaha.

Got home late. Will probably get up a bit early tomorrow and have lunch with Celia.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

babies babies everywhere, and not a one of them is bawling

11 hours to get from Santa Cruz to Seabeck. I think that is quite amazing. It takes about the same amount of time to go from train and boat from SeaTac to Bremerton as it does to fly from San Francisco to SeaTac.

And despite being the holidays, it was all quite easy and not at all stressful. Alarm went off at 6. Rolled out of bed at 6:30. Threw my computer into my bag, and other charger cords, and off I went at around 7:15ish. I swung by Safeway and got doughnuts for breakfast. For me and for Nathan, who drove me to the airport. There was some traffic getting to Redwood City, and a bit heading out, but nothing too bad. It didn't take that long to get to the airport. And it didn't take long at all to check my bag (no line!) or go through security (very minimal line) or get to the terminal (right there!). I had about an extra hour. I'm a "plan to arrive three hours early" type, and while I was delayed by traffic, I still had an hour and 20 minutes to kill while waiting for my flight. So I read the Patrick Melrose novel collection and went on the internet and generally took it easy. On my flight were no less than five babies, and you know what? They were really calm! There was minimal crying on ascent and descent, but who can blame the babies when they can't pop their ears due to the pressure? I was seated right next to a mother holding her eight week old, Catherine, and let me tell you that was one cute baby. Big chubby cheeks. Big blue eyes. Just sweet. It fed and then napped and generally was mild. The mom, whose name I did not learn, was really nice. I was sympathetic to her plight of flying as a mother with a baby, and talked about how I traveled a lot while younger. The baby was a champ. The flight was pretty smooth too, a bit bumpy but not bad.

The chill seeped in almost as soon as I was off the plane. Bah!

My bag was on the conveyor belt waiting for me in baggage claim. So I claimed it and off I went to the rail. I talked to ma and let her know I arrived. Got on the train and it left right away. The heaters were on, and it was quite cozy inside. I got off at the University stop and carried my bag down the harbor steps. Didn't want to jostle it too much, what with all the frames inside. The ferry for Bremerton didn't depart till 4:20, so I had some time to get some McDonald's. Totally healthy. On the ride over I read, and napped, and listened to ladies talk about tattoos and body mods, but in a reasonable manner. About how tattoos hurt, and how one woman was made fun of and called a gypsy just because she had pierced ears.

Ma and Pa were waiting for me when we got off the ferry, and we drove back to Seabeck. The snow started to accumulate the farther out we got, and pretty soon it was ankle deep.

At home we had a quinuoa, salmon, bean dinner and watched Police Academy 2. Now we are hanging out by the fire. The cat is currently Cosmic Creepers. I put some audiobooks on Dad's mp3 player and he is polishing silver while listening to Hitchhiker's Guide. Ma is reading NOT Eyre Affair or Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Ah oh well.

It's good to be home. Have to figure out what is happening when. I still have art to make!

ready to go, I think...

Today's shift was short, which was nice. I was expecting a long day full of stuff, but it was mostly set up for some jobs that will be run in my absence  The boss had shoulder surgery, so he was down and out. I caught a bit of the job, burned and taped screens, cleaned squeegees and floodbars, chatted with Andrew about the holidays, and that was that. I finished Something Rotten. It had some good moments, but I am burnt out on the Thursday Next series for the time being, so I think I'll go listen to some of the things that have been sitting in my audiobook queue. Currently: Horns by Joe Hill. I liked Heart-Shaped Box. He is a writer who gets to the point, so I dig that.

Back at home, I did a load of laundry, I put my prints into frames, I checked in with my flight, I ran an art supply errand, I packed my suitcase, I washed dishes, I swept the floor, I checked the fridge for expired foods and found some so I tossed that, I put the bins out, I contacted Nate (I should leave here at 7 to arrive there at 8 so I can be at the airport at around 9 for my noon flight, lots of time!), and generally got things in order. Not too late did I achieve that goal, neither.

I hope Ma & Pa can pick me up from the ferry tomorrow. It is snowing in Seabeck. I hope I don't spend my break stuck there...though that wouldn't be so bad. Games, wood stove, hot tub, sleeping in, telly, movies.

Though I MUST see The Hobbit again, and soon.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

by the count

18: the number of Christmas cards I sent out this morning.
18: the number of screens I reclaimed, dried, and coated.
11: the number of seconds I got my shirt load/unload time down to.
8: the number hours I worked on this my second to last day of work before the holidays.
36: the number of prints I printed.
10: the number of frames I have to put prints into, to make them nice for gifting.
8: the number of prints that are totally bungled and in no way giftable, but that is okay because I have plenty of nice ones left.
4: which Thursday Next book in the series I am listening to.
2: the number of screens perfectly registered on my first attempt at registering on a manual press.
4: the number of screens in total that I registered on the manual.
6: the number of screens that I taped.
2: the number of screens I used for my Christmas card and Christmas print
3: the number of cards I put in the mailbox tonight.
9: the number of card remaining that are not too bungled to send out.
1: the number of days left to work before the holidays!!!

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

printsmas

I need to go buy some stamps so I can mail out these Christmas cards! I'll do that in the morning. Uhg. Morning errands.

Work was a reasonable shift. I organized the ever growing pile of screens (it's closing in on 30 that will need cleaning...that shall be fun, I'll get a good chunk of audiobook done when I work on those). I burned a couple screens. I redid the palette peel on the smaller palettes. I put away seps. I ran a bit of a job. These next two days will be filled with getting jobs done, and less so clean up. Andrew will be working two more days than I.

At home I printed two more layers on my Christmas print. One to go and then I am done! Hurrah! Not sure if I printed the gray too dark....but the black will make the gray appear lighter by contrast..unless it is a dark gray. Naah. It'll be fine. Just having artist's doubt.

I worked on my Christmas cards. Gotta send those out in the morning. I hope people like them.

My dryer is busted. Some sort of power issue. Boo!! Looks like I'm bringing dirty clothes home to Washington to be washed. Juuust kidding. Thankfully I live within spitting distance of a laundromat.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

like a boss

Oh boy. Today's shift ended up being 12 hours. So much time for a relatively small shirt order. Around 100 units! Not even that. But the back was complicated. And the front needed to be burned. And some of the screens had to be reburned because the color amounts were too much. Anyhoo. I showed up at 9:50ish. The first chunk of the shift was spent burning and taping screens. And reburning screens that needed adjusting. Brock did the setup on the press. But we got that job done! It's been lingering for a while, and now it is done diddly done. Brock brought cookies, which were delicious. It was such a long shift, but it will be better in the long run, because soon I'll be not working for two and a half weeks. Work hard now. Vacation hard soon.

So tired.

And I had the energy to print another color layer after all that! So tomorrow when I get off way earlier than today, I'll have no excuse not to print at least two layers, if not finish the damn thing.

Super Trillian! Goes all day.

I think that must be one of my art school acquired skills. Work work work, go home and work some more. And I enjoy it all. I really do. I'm exciting to be printing my own stuff again. I have the next layer set up and ready to print, so all I have to do is mix the ink and plop it in and get printing.