Pacific RiOHMYGODCOOL

Pacific Rim was so cool! No shakey cam, lots of great actors, the effects were cool. I was grinning through many points in the movie. It's just so cool. So many great parts, mostly the parts that happen between the start and the end of the film. I was so excited for this movie and it went above and beyond. Whooo!!

Meeting Brynne and Dan for brunch tomorrow. Yay. And then probably will wander around for the rest of the day. We'll find something to do.

At work we ran hat transfers, then I unboxed a bunch of shirts (like, a whole bunch) and I scrubbed the floor in one section, but it didn't seem to do much damage. I also picked up the eggs from the chickens and tidied up a bit. Could have tidied up more but eehhhh. I didn't want to kick up too much dust as all the shirts are white. Oh I also cleaned all the squeegees and floodbars.

It was a pretty nice day. Order of the Phoenix though. Man. Sirius Black is one of my favorite characters but I just know he is going to die and I don't want him to die but he will. This relisten is taxing on my heartstrings.

little big day

Whoo what a day in terms of my professional career! I won't go into detail because that would be not on, but it was a big one let it be known.

Work was short, but not as short as yesterday. We ran a job at top professional speed, and it came out looking awesome. It is great to run things on head 9 because lint and stuff only ends up on a couple shirts then you get it out of the image, ya know? Anything that gets in the image on head 1 is in a full rotation of shirts before it gets noticed.

I taped screens and did the egg pickup. Another 5!

Stuck around while waiting for clients to pick up stuff, and then it was done.

I went to the Santa Cruz Public Library and signed on for a card. About time! I checked out the Pricing & Ethical Guidelines book, which is the bible for illustrators. And a comic and a young adult book I've been wanting to read. Yay reading.

Then I got to working on professional stuff, but also taking the time to be calm about it.

hump day

Had a short day at work, decided to mix up the print order a bit in terms of efficiency. Tomorrow will have a lot of work done.

Checked the coop for eggs and got five. There is always one chicken in the nest right at eye level when you enter. It's plotting something.

After work, I made a much needed grocery run. At home I did some drawing and art communication back and forth. I took a bath and read in the bath. That was nice though not as relaxing as I would have hoped.

I'm feeling very drained, and no amount of Bruce Banner or Will Graham tea is reviving me (though only the B.B. blend has caffeine). Just need a good rest and some good company.

I'm almost done with Goblet of Fire. It's so sad! I want to listen to a happy story again, but I'm determined to see the Harry Potter series through. Only have three books left now, and Umbridge is next. Uhg.

baCAWK

Welcome to Night Vale is the current light of my life. So good.

Sent some "taking care of business" emails out. Worked on the album art. It's slow going, but it is going.

I'm feeding the chickens at work. Yay chickens. Boo roosters. But I found a plastic bat, so they seem to keep well away from me. I get to keep all the eggs too.

Caught the jobs at work, as well as burned a bunch more, and boxed the two jobs we ran. Another full bad. On the way home I swung by World Market and got some thingiemabobs. Then I caved and went to Chipotle for a burrito. Old time's sake and whatnot.

Went home. Ate the burrito. Then worked on stuff. Had some tea, of course.

Those chickens better be ready for me.

Snape is such a creep

Boss was here today, doing last minute stuff before he departed. I worked solo today. Started by reclaiming a bunch of screens. Then I put away squeegees. I cleaned the press a bit. Taped a banner. Cut some stickers. Put some patches on screens. Burned a screen. Coated the dry screens. Taped that screen. Burned three more screens and double coated them. A full 8 hours. I think I'm missing something.

I also cleaned the inside of the windows in my car using the glass cleaner at work. The back window needed a good clean. I noticed that when I was washing my car....as much as I cleaned it still looked...not clean.

Anyhoo. At home I had some tea and pasta and was not productive like I ought to be.

My tea wish list is getting dangerously long. I should see how long it takes me to get through a bag before I buy more but the blends all sound so good. I had three cups of tea tonight! Two from my steeper gadget (which was really just two small cups from the same steep) and one with just a tea ball thingy. MMm tea.

Someone come visit and drink tea with me!

take one down, pass it around

Saturday:

The landlord was coming by at 11am to look over the house, so I got up early (for a Saturday). Got the room tidied up. Washed some dishes. The landlord was YET ANOTHER Steve! There are so many of them. It's like a hydra of connections. Meet one Steve then 3 more show up to also be met.

After the visit I went on a little journey to find some beer steins for a gift exchange I'm in. Janet recommended the Attila's Antiques as an antique mall with lots of variety, and it did not disappoint. It was an H shaped building, and the lady who helped me, Christine I believe it was, told me to just keep to the right and I'll eventually find my way around through all the stalls (people could rent a space and put their wares in, and everything was labeled with their stall number, so you pay one sum instead of many sums to many people, a really good system I think). I told Christine what I was looking for and she did an awesome job of hunting out steins. There were less than I was expecting, but still a nice variety to pick from. There were some bigger ones, but they were cracked, and some crystal ones with metal lids but the metal was a bit tarnished, and some clear bottomed ones but you could probably just order those so it didn't seem so special. I settled on a glass 1989 Budweiser stein with a horse design, a ceramic one with an illustration of a ye olde dude with a stein of his own on it, and a little ceramic one with a sort of textured design. And all of that for less than a double sawbuck! Excellent! I also dug through some old photos, and found a mug with a Sears Roebuck 1906 catalog design on it. Just what I like! Wandering around the place was a really fun experience. So many little knick knacks.

I couldn't turn left onto Soquel from the store, so I turned right and drove down a ways, and turned left on a random street with the intention of taking a U turn to get me back towards Soquel in the right direction, but it was a nice day so I just continued driving. I saw a farmer's stand with the sign "don't panic it's organic" so I pulled in to see what they had. It was on the honors system of paying, which I think is a great bit of trust, so of course I wanted to get something to support that trust, so I got some green beans and flowers. I paid and headed back. Nibbled on the green beans, which were very tasty, and steamed what was left when I got home. The flowers I put in a vase and put the vase on the dining room table. We like to keep a nice house.

Then I ran a Walgreen's errand. Got some sweets and toilet paper, among other things.

And with the productivity train chugging along, I washed my car! Now it is all shiny and pretty. I am also several chapters into Goblet of Fire.

Steve arrived a bit after I finished washing my car, and we walked over to Pacific Street and went to 99 Bottles for dinner. 99 Bottles has this thing where if you drink 99 different varieties of beer at their place, you get your name on the wall. And the wall has names dating back to the early 90s. It doesn't seem like people get up there more than once a month. I figured that while I am living in Santa Cruz, I might as well try and see how close I can get to getting my name on the wall. You can get a quote on your name plaque as well. Don't panic! would be a good one, as would "slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick" or "one bottle of that Ol' Janx Spirit". #98 and #84 got ticked off my card. It begins! To accompany our brewskies, we ordered calimari, sliders, and fish & chips to share betwixt us. It was all pretty good. Afterwards we got some cookies at the cookie place that always smells really good. Then we walked home and tried to watch Upstream Color, but the sound was REALLY QUIET for no damn discernible reason. So we switched to an episode of MST3K.

Sunday:

Steve left a bit after breakfast because he had errands of his own to run. I walked over to the art shop to get some frames and look at their supplies of this and that. It was a good day for walking and listening to Goblet of Fire. I picked up a sandwich on the way home, and because of the hour at which it was consumed it got me through the rest of the day with no need for dinner. I like timing meals like that. Probably why I like brunch so much. Eat a big meal, take a nap, then good to go for the rest of the day. Looking forward to brunch with Brynne and Dan.

I spent a good amount of time relaxing. Also washed my towels. Then I whipped out some paper and started working on the Odd Owl album art. It'll be a lot of little drawing to do, but I just gotta keep chipping away at it.

Totally awesome Podcast that you should listen to: Welcome to Night Vale.