looking back a bit and a long ways

Well, I generated a nice little pile of sketches. Now I'm going to go to sleep and resume working in the morning. I don't want to work late, because I know the quality will start to degrade. Lets get this music video started! I'm sorting out the flat backgrounds, that way we can start rigging the scenes.

Work was a shorter day, blessed be. Ran a job. Cleaned. Coated 3 screens. That was it. Nice way to end the week.

Sorry my blog isn't as exciting as it used to be. June 7th, 2012 was when I interviewed for my job, and the 13th was when I was hired!

PNCA is apparently laying off a ton of the core really cool people and restructuring their whole...system of things. That is some major bullshit. They had a good thing going when I was there, Tom Manley needs to actually know a thing or two about the students and the work they are doing and the faculty that bends over backwards to help them. It just pisses me off. No connection between the decisions and who they affect.

ending the day with punk and pizza

oiyoiyoi I need bed stat. It was a loooong day at work.

Coated a full rack of screens, which was awesome. Burned and taped a bunch more screens. The job was set up but it took a lot of tweaking and it got late by the time we started printing, and the deadline was tonight sooo... but Boss bought us pizza! So that was great. Something to keep us going, and it really hit the spot, as pizza tends to do. I also got a chance to use the wheely thing for under the press action, it was awesome!

Got back late and had enough energy to open a beer and watch Hannibal. Now I sleep. Have a lot to do tomorrow and tomorrow night. So much. But at least staying up on a Friday is easier because hey, it's a Friday! I don't work Saturday!

weeds

Wow, I am super duper tired. Think I'll actually go to bed with plenty of time to sleep tonight, though I generally have been really good about getting to bed at a not truly ridiculous hour. I woke up a bunch in the middle of the night last night. Not fun.

At work, thanks to the new screencleaning system, I cleaned AND reclaimed 22+ screens, and still had time to catch, burn, and clean squeegees and floodbars. Awesome!

I finished Lirael and started Quicksilver. Neal Stephenson is always on the border of "too smart for me". Reamde and Snow Crash are accessibly awesome, but Anathem is a whole lotta whaaaat.

Took a nice hot bath when I got home. Cleaning and reclaiming always leaves me feeling chemically, even though I wear gloves and a repirator. Still, the stuff on my hands and touching my hair and stuff, that probably gets it on me...

The ER35 bottle got knocked into the bramble when I was reclaiming, so I had to awkwardly climb down and fish it out. I'm pretty sure I brushed against some poison oak, but I haven't had any sort of reaction or rash. It's my fear that the bottle will REALLY tumble into the poison oak and then I'll REALLY find out if I am secretly immune to Poison Oak. Actually my fear is tripping and falling into it. The reclaiming area is next to an overzealous ditch full of weeds, poison oak, and other plant life.

Anyhoo. Worked on some commission stuff once my brain had time to relax. Next few nights will be busy, busy, busy!

wheeeeeely thing

Ordered some cute Hannibal & Will Graham themed buttons and stickers from the same artist that did the Bilbo sticker on my sketchbook. Yaaay!

Had a conference call with Josh and Carmen and got the music video schedules and plans and things sorted. We are doing a full meeting on Saturday to review After Effects and discuss the system for things. It's exciting! I feel good about it. It's a joint effort.

The weather has been a bit cool these past few days. What gives?

At work I caught and cleaned and coated. Pretty regular day.

Though we did get a wheely thing.

So that is pretty cool.

monday funday

Zoopity zoop, Odd Owl's Kickstarter went over 9k so now I shall make a music video. AHHHH! Just have to do it one bit at a time. Piece it together. June will be a full month.

Work was a cleaning day, though there was a bit of catching. I reclaimed 6 screens early on, and 10 in the evening. Coated those six. Still have some screens to clean. Also squeegees and floodbars. The day went by surprisingly fast.

Salad for dinner. Watched Mad Men and Bob's Burgers.

Tomorrow there shall be a conference call and it begins. Waaah.

hurray for Odd Owl's success!

Odd Owl is funded and is just $20 away from 9k, so I better figure out how to do that music video. Ahhhh.

Spent the night refining the sketch for the album. Looking nice. Lots of stuff going on. Very San Franciscoy. Waiting for Game of Thrones now. Then I'll go to bed.

Made a grocery run. Then I sat on the back porch reading Gulp by Mary Roach and drinking root beer and working on my freckles. Not a bad Sunday, not a bad Sunday at all. Had a nice chat with Ma and Pa. They don't seem to be having empty nest problems at all. Very active!

day off

Oh man. Today was awesome. I slept in and did NOTHING! Just relaxed.

Had a double fried egg sandwich for breakfast. Did my laundry. Sat on the back porch and read Gulp, yhe new Mary Roach book. Had the rest of my burrito filling for lunch. Had a late salad for dinner. Took it all the way easy. Might leave the house and do something tomorrow, but for now. Mmm.

And Odd Owl's Kickstarter reached $8,571, thus fully funding it. BOOYAH!

oh thank Douglas it is the weekend

Finally, the week is done! What a hectic long week it was too, but it ended on a nice note. I did a bunch of cleaning, some burning and taping, and catching and boxing. Plus I loaded the squeegees and floodbars. Jeff is really good at registration. Everything in the studio is moving much faster these days.

Still listening to Lirael. It's good stuff.

It was sooo hot at work. I was so glad to be come home and get into a loose dress and just air out. I get so sweaty. Bleh.

Washed my towels and work sweaters/pants. Tomorrow will probably be more laundry, but also some sun bathing. Gotta be freckly! I didn't get enough last summer season.

Norwegians (and a Swede) vs Sharks

Woke up a bit early and conversed with Carmen about future projects.

Road construction held me up on my way to work, so when I arrived I got right to it. Catching. Folding. Laying out. Sorting. More catching. Taping. Andrew cleaned and coated and tidied. The studio is looking really nice! I also cut stickers. No cleaning or reclaiming, I stuck pretty close to the press as there was no Stu to catch. He comes in every now and again.

After work I did a bit of cool stuff shopping. Not for me. For other people. People who might be reading this so I won't say what it is, though I think they are smart enough to put 2 and 2 together.

Then I saw Kon-Tiki which was AMAZING! Holy crap, did I ever enjoy that film. It's got everything a me could enjoy: period costumes, awesome beards, water, action, hunky Nordic men, a great story, lovely visuals. I hope plenty of people go to see it, because it was just so damn good! 

Afterwards I went home all excited and proceeded to tell as many people as possible about Kon-Tiki so that they too can enjoy it.

home & work

post work

work clothes for every season

another buttkicker of a day

Finished Vulture Peak. It was all right. The Sonchai novels are getting a bit repetitive and self serving. Started Lirael, which is awesome! Mom, have you read these Garth Nix novels? I bet you'd like them.

Anyway. Work was heeeectic! Running about doing this and that. Cleaning. Reclaiming. More cleaning. Burning. Taping. Catching. Boxing. Cleaning. Burning. So much stuff! Real testament to how I work under pressure that I can just do this and that and hop around, though by the end of the day I was burnt out.

This whole week is burning me out. Thank Douglas it is Thursday! Have plenty more to do though.

Spent the night chilling, but also looking at things, but mostly chilling. Bought some fast food because I went full on lazy mode. Not healthy but....yeahwhatever.

My body just needs to learn that this is the new normal for the time being.

Time to sleep.

Odd Owl's Kickstarter is at $6688!

bummer day

My shoes were downstairs when I got up this morning. UPS came early! And then I tried them on and the pretty Palladiums were a size too big and the Vans while the correct size, dug into the back of my tendon. So both will have to be returned. At least Zappos has free return shipping. I'll just have to suck it up and go shoe shopping in a store. I hate shoe shopping. I like to wear shoes till they fall apart. I don't like wearing IN shoes.

So I went to work in a mood and that mood was exaccerbated by a hectic day. Nothing went wrong, just a lot of things happened all at once. There was a bit of confusion with the screens and emulsion. We really need to go back to the SP-7500. HVP is just...no good. It doesn't hold detail like it ought. Jeff clued us in to a new screen cleaning technique with using the recirculating screen cleaner stuff instead of the fast open, and it did go a lot faster! Though the end results would still need some touch ups in the case of reuse of screens for jobs. But still, cleaning screens is time consuming and this just halved the job which is awesome. I was able to reclaim 12 screens at the end of the day (if there were more time, I could have cleaned more, and there were 20 screens which usually takes me a really long time). Also Andrew and I dumped out the collected ink sediment in the cleaning booth. It was totally...full. Like...very much so. It was rather impressive actually. And Andrew put in new cleaning solvent, so now the tank should be good to go! It's been running very slow lately. So that was quite the messy task. I was glad to be wearing awful shoes in that instance.

So at the end of the day I was quite stinky with dehazer and had enough smears and splatters of ink all over me to warrant a really nice hot bath. So I took one and working on a crossword puzzle while soaking away my worries.

I tried to give the Vans a second change but nope. Not going to hold on to them and see if maybe they'll fit better if I wear them a bunch. Just going to send them back, even though they were really cute. I can find other cute red and blue shoes. I went to Kinkos and printed out the new shipping label and taped it on the box. I'll swing by UPS on my way to work in the morning. Hopefully I'll get the refund soon, then I'll give buying shoes another true.

Bleh.

Don't want to do anything for the rest of the night.

Kon-Tiki looks good. I think I'll see it on Thursday and see if I can bully Ryan into seeing it with me.

CHOCK. O. BLOCK.

Caught today's job and did a bunch of burning and taping. Screens cycle in and out of the exposure room so fast! I'll need to go on another cleaning spree soon. It ended up being a shorter day, which was fine by me.

At home I sketched some not initially important stuff and watched Arrested Development. I like how the show is building on itself because of all the overlap in the different characters stories and the lack of communication, but as ever I am very nonplussed by the whole thing. I'm not the super fan that so many people are.

Talked to Ma and Pa for half an hour on the phone. It was a nice chat. Remember Ma and Pa: delete stuff from the Dropbox once you've listened to it. Then I'll add more.

tacos! shower curtains! fun times!

Friday:

The final work day ended up being light, which was nice after four days of long hours. I coated screens, half for water base half for aquasol. I burned and taped screens. Jeff and Stu ran a job. I cleaned stuff. The recirculating tank needs refreshing. The boss offered me Memorial Day off, but I didn't want it off because I didn't really have any pressing need to do stuff on Monday. 

In the evening I drove up to San Jose to see Steve. We went to the massive mall (one of them) to meet Molly and Kyle to see Hangover III. The 9:15 was near sold out, so we went for the 9:55. That gave me time to buy some froyo and put granola and candy on it. And mochi. Is mochi healthy or not? Either way, I froyo is the bomb. Hangover III was better than I expected it to be and it bookended the trilogy nicely. The thing about those movies is that they are all shot really well. Way better than other lewd comedies are shot. They are really nice looking films that play to, well not the lowest common denominator but certainly not the people that would go to any great effort to see Tarsem's The Fall in theater. 

We bid each other adieu and I spent the night in San Jose, because on Saturday we had tickets to the 2nd Annual San Jose Taco Festival!!

Saturday:

Tacos! We skipped breakfast and headed out at around 11ish. There was traffic due to graduation but it wasn't that bad. We found parking about two blocks from the event and went in. Steve and I were there before Jen, Adam, Kyle, and Molly. First up was The Chairman for steamed pork bao and steamed chicken bao. It was delicious. We met up with A,K, J, and M at the beer ticket line and the shrimp tacos were accompanied with Stella. Steve got a grilled cheese kimchee taco that wasn't totally...up to snuff. Jen and Adam had this chicken and porkbelly taco at Miso Hungry. The whole taco festival was a park chuck o' block with food trucks and everything was priced at around 1 for $3 or 2 for $5. A good way to consume a large variety of tacos from lots of cheesy named vendors. With another round of beers and sangria, we hung out in this wagon that was in the historical park and ate more from The Chairman. Then there was lamb tacos from 333 and white truffle butter fish taco from We (roll symbol) Sushi. Yum yums! The day finished with ice cream from Treatbot and cupcakes from Fairycake. Then there was some frisbee. The weather was warm but not cruel. I wore my "42" tee, and someone wished me a happy Towel Day. All in all, very grand and fun. Can't beat tacos and good company.

Afterwards we took a hearty nap and then I went to Target and got some windshield wiper fluid and fuel injector cleaner. There was just one really near to Steve's place so figured I would take advantage and save me a trip...though I still went to Target in Capitola on Sunday anyway. I can always think of something to get, though it is nice to spruce up the house with things. Make it a little more my place to live and a little less a place I happen to be staying at, ya know? Anyhoo. Got back at 9ish and took it easy and went to bed at a nearly respectable hour. Didn't feel like blogging the whole todo.

Sunday:

Slept in till 3 minutes to noon. This weekend has been great. Had a lot of fun. Had a lot of rest. Had enough social time as well as me time. I had a cheerios & orange juice breakfast and spent half an hour baking in the sun on my back porch. Now is the time to regain some freckles. I like having them. After that I went to Target to get a new shower curtain, because our current one was getting a bit mildewy, and the inside curtain was way mildewy. One can only tolerate so much mildew. I went with a way cute bird floral pattern that I am pretty enthusiastic about (and I consulted Alana about it, so it wasn't just my choice). From there I went to Trader Joe's and did my shopping for the week. It's going to be another burrito week. Tired of the sandwiches. I took down the old curtains, put up the new plastic one and put the new cloth one in the wash because it had that "new product" smell. It's washable, which is a good thing.

May has been a really good month for me. I'm feeling really good about where I am and everything. It's all coming into place.

I added windshield fluid and checked the air in the tires (all good). I put some of that fuel injector cleaner in as well, because I haven't done that in a year. Is there anything else I should check Dad? All the fluid levels are where they ought to be.

Dinner was burritos, so now I'm set for the weeks worth of lunch. No Game of Thrones tonight.

Got tons of shirts to print, got screens to clean, got audiobooks to listen to.

Odd Owl's Kickstarter is at $6,392 with 8 days to go!!

lets get some shoes

I'm pooped. Work was long and full of cleaning and catching and running around getting stuff done and hoping that things don't go wrong (they didn't, we ran a bunch of stuff and it was awesome). Got home late. Managed to get on with drawing at a respectable hour. Had some late pasta.

I bought a pair of Vans for work, yay for Zappos! And I bought a pair of Palladiums, because I like the other pair of that brand that I have and I need a shoe that is a little more fit for walking, but isn't so heavy like my Romeos. Might pick up a gel insert for the Vans. I wonder how long they'll look pretty. My work shoes are not looking too pretty. With my raise and my long hours, it feels good to be pretty financially stable. Early on in my job, there were lots of random time offs, and I haven't had any time off since Christmas so it's been stacking up. I'll feel really good when I have at least one months worth of rent in the savings. I'm close! Very close.

The shoes were needed though. Well the Vans were. The Palladiums have just been on my wish list for years, so ya know...treat yo' self! And if they don't fit, I can always send them back and buy some Roos.

butts

Another night where I don't start drawing till late in the evening. It's a bad habit. But I need that chunk of time to be unproductive between work and productivity. At least that is what I tell myself.

I finished Sabriel and started Vulture Peak. Yay for audiobooks that are less than 30 hours! I get through them so quick.

It was a cleaning/small task driven day. Jeff ran the press and Stu caught, so I did the squeegee and floodbar cleaning, and the screen taping and burning, and the screen cleaning and reclaiming, and those things. The studio is seeming more productive with Jeff. We are growing! Getting better and bigger.

Did I mention Andrew has been bringing his girlfriend's dog to work with him? Puddin is the dogs name. Puddin. Not Pudding. It's a cute little thing.

Another nice day at work. Things are good.

Also Bob's Burgers is HILARIOUS and I really hate how Netflix automatically plays next episodes. I think I watched about 6 tonight just while drawing stuff...

Odd Owl's Kickstarted is at $6,196!

blue green and almost white, though not quite

Ohhh I'm tired, but we ran a bunch of shirts today! Hundreds of shirts! Fronts and backs (in discharge ink) of one design, which Stu caught and counted into piles of 6 and I sorted into boxes and labeled said boxes. I caught and boxed another job, which came in at a neat 600. I also cut some stickers and weeded some vinyl. A nice full solid good day of work, and it wasn't heatstroke inducing either. Though it was still warm.

Had an udon and two egg dinner, then I got to work sketching. Need to be more on the ball, but at least I got some more stuff to them.

Odd Owl's Kickstarter is at $5,826! They are so close, I can feel it!

off to a running halt of a week

Work kicked my butt. It was hot, and I was working all through the day, and it continued to be hot, and I worked worked worked like an awesome...worker person. Caught shirts. Cleaned screens and squeegees. It was waterbase, which is nice and easy to clean. Caught more shirts. Coated screens. Taped screens. At least the boss has a good humor about his employees being frazzled by the heat.

Grabbed some more eggs and went home to relax. A bit behind in my drawings for Odd Owl. I'll remedy that tomorrow.

Oh, I also mailed some packages before work.

And I started Sabriel by Garth Nix and it is SO GOOD!!

Still waiting for my print portfolio to arrive...Kaaareennnnnnnn.....

Day out with Dom & Miggs

Had a good long sleep, and woke up to a call from Dominic telling me that he and his friend Miggs were an hour out of Santa Cruz! So I got up, had breakfast, and cleaned up my room. Didn't know if they'd see the room, but it felt good to tidy.

Just after I finished my breakfast, than did I get a call from Dom saying he was at Caffe Pergolesi, and thus began my afternoon of hanging out with cool people. I rode my bike down and we had beverages and I had a cookie and we chatted and drew and caught up a bit. Talked art, talked jobs, talked life. I dropped my bike off at home and we went to get sandwiches at Zoccoli's Delicatessen. I had the tri tip. Mmm. We drove down to and past Lighthouse Field State Beach and had our sandwiches on the rocks enjoying some mist from the ocean. A really beautiful day, and I managed to get some sun on my arms. Back in town, Miggs and I bought some ice cream, and met up with their friend Bob who has decided to bike from the Bay to Santa Cruz. He started just before 7am and arrived at around 4:10pm. That is a heckuvvalot of biking and distance. But it probably was really beautiful. Bob got an iced drink and Dom gave him a sandwich that he had bought earlier, then the three of them departed back up North.

Really nice to see Dom and meet new people.

I made a quick grocery run. Washed my work shirts. Worked on a thingy for this gift exchange program I signed up for. Got that done. Now I'm waiting for Game of Thrones. Janet volunteered at Bookshop Santa Cruz today, to help with the David Sedaris uber signing event. So jealous! Seems like it was fun stuff.

Double Trek

Friday:

Total hectic day at work. Jeff ran bandannas and I caught a bit, but mostly I speed cleaned some screens. I started reclaiming but I was needed to catch shirts as Stu wasn't there to catch, but you can't exactly stop reclaiming, but I think Kara was brought in to catch or something. So I went straight from reclaiming to catching with no second to catch my breath. I had my sandwich ontop of the dryer and took bites when I could find the time to have them. 600 shirts! And it was only the fronts. There will be more in the coming days at work. I'm going to have a proper sleep in on Sunday.

After that very full day, I took a little breather and then went up to San Jose to meet Steve, Jen, Adam, and Kyle for dinner. Mmmm tasty burrito. It had fries in it! Then Steve, Kyle and I were dropped off at the Imax Dome and Adam caught up with us, and we with Travis and a few others saw Star Trek!

Except when it is on the big big dome Imax screen, it is way too big. My eyes were seriously hurting and several scenes were hard to follow. The sound was great but it was not worth it. It was awesome, yeah, but it was very stretched out. I knew I would be seeing it a second and very proper time before the weekend was out. Crashed at Steve's.

Saturday:

Steve and I had breakfast at Flames, a sort of Denny's like establishment. Then we went to this mall that was supposed to have a Daiso in it (I needed to pick up some stuff at a Daiso) but the mall was weirdly sparse with really insubstantial stores in it. And I later came to find out that I left my little glasses case come carry case in the bathroom. I wonder if it got turned into the Lost and Found.... Daiso wasn't in the mall, but it was near. I picked up some stuff and then we parted ways. Steve is working on job/new apartment stuff. Will be a bummer if he moves further than San Jose away, won't be so easy to hang out. Boo.

I went to Kinokuniya afterwards, because I wanted to see what the one in San Jose looked like. They had the Deleter Zip Tone, but it was crazy expensive for a couple sheets, so I didn't get it. Didn't go grocery shopping in the attached Uwajimaya-esque store. Returned to Santa Cruz and spent a jolly good time relaxing. Walked to locate Darco and see what the fuss is about that stationary store...but it closed early. Had a scramble for dinner. Watched Doctor Who.

And I went to see the 3D 10:25 showing of Star Trek...which was AWESOME. So much nice booty in that movie. Awesome actors. Everyone is so well cast, and the special effects are phenomenal. Ma and Pa! Go see it! 3D is not essential, but it did add a nice flare to a few scenes. Such a good followup to the first movie.

And now I shall have my first full sleep in....in several weekends! I've been busy. It's a good feeling.

the call

Had some shower inspiration for the new Odd Owl cover art, so I quickly sketched it and sent it their way. And in the evening I refined it some more. Pretty good day of productivity. Sandwiched in the middle was catching, coating, and counting shirts. Nothing went catastrophically wrong.

Almost done with this audiobook. I think I'll need some wholesome young adult after this.

Hannibal is one intense show, holy quacamole!

Tomorrow I go see Star Trek, and probably crash up in San Jose at Steve's. Unfortunately Steve will likely be moving to San Francisco in the next couple months. He'll be just far enough away to be really inconvenient. Boo.

I like story universes

Stu caught the jobs, so I was sequestered to the back on clean and prep. Which is good. I like doing more than just catching and folding shirts. Really like to earn my pay! Burnt a few screens. Cleaned a few squeegees. Reclaimed screens and put them in the drying rack to super dry, and was able to coat them before the day was done. Cleaned a bunch of screens, and reclaimed 10. Those should be good to coat tomorrow. With Jeff running the press, we seem to be getting more jobs in and out of the studio, but that also means a lot more cleaning and screens needing to be used. Gotta keep ontop of things!

Had a little fried egg sandwich for dinner. It's list making time, because I have a lot to do once again. Going to try and do a bunch of it tomorrow because day after tomorrow is STAR TREK!

Also apparently the Jack Reacher novels are within the Stephen King universe because Jackie Wettington is known to Reacher? Very near.

Under the Dome is so long. I don't think I'll be done with it by the end of the week, but it is very engaging.

Odd Owl's Kickstarter is at $4,023!!

oh hey Tuesday

Sent off some ideas to Odd Owl, so that was productive. Their Kickstarter is at $3,721. Almost halfway!

Guess what I did today? If you guessed "ran shirts" you'd be right! Caught a discharge job, caught the backs of a sweater, and caught bags. Also weeded some tricky vinyl and cleaned stuff. It was a perfect day. Not too hot, not too cold. May is really shaping up to be a good month. Or maybe I'm just super enthused because STAR TREK FRIDAY OH MY GAWD!!

Uhm. Yeah.

Anyway, at home I worked on the stuff for Odd Owl. Research into themes for cover imagery mainly. I think I pitched some good ideas. Can't wait for the morning response.

Under the Dome is pretty brutal, though it is refreshing to read something where main characters are not safe. Too much safeness makes for some uninteresting stories.

Four years ago today I was the first in my math class to solve the Rubik's Cube.

a really good monday

This week is off to a good start. Our water heater was repaired this morning and now we have piping hot water. Bye bye lukewarm water! At work I burned just one lone screen, and spent most of the day with banners. Though only seven banners, and four of them were smaller in size. After banners I cut stickers and cleaned squeegees and floodbars. We have a lot of jobs coming up that need to be run. Like...three different jobs that I can name. So it'll be a nice busy streak for the next week or two.

I grabbed more eggs and headed out. At home I washed my car, because it was filthy with pollen, and I swept downstairs. Nice to start the week out on a clean note. Tomorrow I shall get down to some serious brainstorming and whatnot.

Odd Owl's Kickstarter is at $3,566!

over the border and into sunshine

Friday:

Yay! Friday! And it was a most singular task driven day. I had 11 10"x3" banners to do, and it did take all day to do them. Thankfully they were already cut longways, so it made the job go by pretty seemingly fast. Jeff tidied the rest of the studio. I started listening to Stephen King's Under the Dome. It is looking to be harrowing and brutal. Just the way I like my Stephen King.

Back at home I packed up, and at 7 I departed to meet Steve in San Jose for our weekend in Carson, Nevada.

It was a long drive, but no deer jumped in front of us crossing the pass (same road to get to Kirkwood and Tahoe). And we listened to Under the Dome, which was neat. His parent's bought a place, and some stuff had to be picked up, so we were there to pick it up.

All the grommets I punched at work did my shoulders in though, so I had a very restless night sleep. Not fun.

Saturday:

I slept in, and awoke to find out that Steve had gone to collect the mattresses on his own, so I sat in the small back yard and worked on crossword puzzles and snacked. When he returned, I helped moved the California King up the narrow stairs. Not an easy task. The twin mattresses were much easier. Seems like the house will be fitted for lots of various people to crash at. Steve's Dad's copilot Tim was staying there at the same time, but he was working on this plane thing so obviously he couldn't pick up the mattresses. Anyway. We went and got some Thai food for lunch, drove around a bit. It was a lovely day. Saw many Yellow Cars. Got Steve playing Yellow Car, though he has yet to listen to Cabin Pressure. We visited the airplane hanger where Tim and other machinists were working on plane conversion stuff, and got to check out the planes they were working on. It was pretty cool, seeing the interiors all stripped out and stuff. Made me think of Pa and Grandpa.

We made a Costco trip to see about getting sheets for the small mattresses, but there were none in the right size, so we just got a bake at home pizza and some ice creme. Yay for ice creme! We tried to find an ice cream place earlier in the day, but the GPS took us to an ice cream distribution center but not an actual store. Funny, but a bummer.

Back at the house, we put the pizza in and read our respective books while it heated up. It was very thick pizza, but tasty enough. Nice mellow day and night.

Sunday:

It was an early start, but not in a bad way. With no TV and Internet, going to bed at a reasonable hour becomes really feasible. We shared a waffle and had tea and coffee at a nearby coffee place, then returned to the house and packed up, and then headed back to San Jose. It was a scorcher of a day and soon I was melting. The ride went fast for me because I ended up taking a nap for about half of it. I'm a bad road trip companion. We had lunch at Carl's Junior and then back on the road we went. We got in to San Jose at about 3:30 and I got home an hour later. The traffic was pretty backed up, but going in the other direction on 17.

I took my time relaxing and catching up on Doctor Who, and then late in the afternoon I did my weekly grocery shopping. And I called Ma & Pa to chat.

Ooops! I wrote up this post early last night, but forgot to post it with the final inclusion of me watching Game of Thrones and eating salad.

Odd Owl's Kickstarter is at $3,426!!

I feel the weekend. it is almost here.

A relatively mellow day. Nothing was too rushed and it all seemed to work out. I started by reclaiming five screens, then set those aside to dry. I cleaned the remaining 11 screens of ink and by the time that was done, there was stuff on the other side of the studio to do. I weeded some vinyl, I cut some stickers, I caught a job that has been sitting in the works for a while. Chatted with Jeff. Coated those five screens. I'll need more gas if I am to reclaim those remaining screens. Gas for the pressure washer. Flatulence has nothing to do with reclaiming screens. I got caught up on The Unbelieveable Truth. Ma, did I give you that radio panel show? It just looks like there is Neverwhere and Cabin Pressure in the drop box. Lemme know if you want it, it's pretty funny.

I ran a Safeway errand. That is to say I bought a huge quantity of toilet paper and some Drano and Udon, and other things. When Trader Joe's sells larger quantities of TP and chemicals, I'll probably never need to go out to another store. I put back the candy I was thinking of buying, so I felt good about that...because I already had chocolate covered frozen bits of banana at home.

Anyway. At home I drew up a little something for Ma. Not my best something, but I hope she'll like it. It's in the mailbox now, so it will probably arrive after Mother's Day.

WHooo it's the weekend! And Friday/Saturday I'm going on a little minitrip of sorts with Steve. His parents bought this place and need someone there for these deliveries, so we are going to be the people that are there to pick up the deliveries (his parents aren't there). So I'll be gone doing that tomorrow night. So. See you Saturday! Whooo Friday!

slug lovin' sloth

My sore throat is almost entirely gone. Hurray!

Started the day by finishing a job that has been on the docket for a while. I taped some screens as well. And coated some screens. Always seem to be short screens these days. It wasn't always like that. Or was it? I think some screens are just tied up in jobs that get ran rather frequently, versus reburning them time and time again. Anyway. We finished the day by printing a single color front and back job, that was 600 units. Nice big job. The shirts came in in the morning and are ready to go out by the time we leave. Nice.

At home I modified a tee that was a bit taught on the collar (i.e. I cut off the color and part of the sleeves) and now it is really comfy! Hurray. OH MAN I was going to...errr I won't say what I was going to do. I'll just do it tomorrow. I get home, and I get distracted...time for a to do list.

Oh! When I was reclaiming screens yesterday, I noticed a banana slug but it was almost underfoot, so I made sure to move it to a safer spot.

I spent a lot of tonight reading Hyperbole and a Half. It's pretty good stuff.

Odd Owl's Kickstarter is at $2691!!

TRILL WILL ROCK YOU

Felt a lot better after that long sleep. My throat is still hoarse for some reason, but the rest of me is fine.

Starting the day, we guessed which band would start first on the classic rock station.I guess Queen, Chris guessed Rolling Stones, and Jeff went with Tom Petty. It started on ads, but then the first song that played...BUM BUM BAAAAHHH BUM BUM BAAAAHHH BUM BUM BAAAAHHH BUM BUM BAAAAHHH BUM BUM BAAAAHHH. I heard Jeff in the washout area go "AWWWW" and Chris in the office go "WHAAAAATTT" and the song continued "BUDDY YOU'RE A BOY MAKE A BIG NOISE PLAYIN' IN THE STREET GONNA BE A BIG MAN SOME DAY!". So awesome.

Sleeves were ran. I cleaned some stuff. I taped some stuff. We ran the backs on some stuff. I pressed some hats and reclaimed screens. A nice full day.

At home I cooked up some pasta and settled in for a night, well, in.

Odd Owl's Kickstarter is almost to 2k!

what a sucky monday

My body feels bad all over, and I'm going to go to bed soon. Maybe have some tea before.

My throat felt raspy and my extremities were just sore and tired. It made work a bitch. Hauling boxes. Cleaning stuff. I was moving at half pace, but at least the Boss was sympathetic. Generally I'm busy as a bee, always looking for something to do.

We ran the front and backs on a job and I started listening to Hannibal Rising.

At home I took to sitting but I still don't feel much better. Hopefully a long night sleep will remedy my pains.

Odd Owl's Kickstarter is at $1500!

I could pass many days like this, and be content

Saturday:

Started my weekend at the dog beach with Janet! Had a couple doughnuts. Met Susan and Alicia. And met many many dogs. It was a gray morning, and just a bit on the side of cold, which was disappointing because of how hot it has been through the previous week. After the dog beach, I gave Janet the "Beware of Dog (she is adorable)" print that I bought her for her birthday. She really liked it and said she'd put it up at work (because Joey goes with her to work). Hee hee.

Back at home I had a scramble and watched Doctor Who. In the late afternoon, I packed up and headed to San Francisco. I prefer to tag along with Carmen to the Odd Owl shows, because it is easier than arriving later in the day and trying to find parking downtown/driving back late at night. Anyhoo. I accompanied her to their practice space, which was cool. It's sort of neat to think about a warehouse filled with band practice spaces, and all the bands have their own thing going on. All that stuff going on, tucked away in an industrial area. Anyhoo. We picked up Stephen along the way to the space, and then we went to the venue, Amnesia. And found great parking! Less than a block away. Sweet. Anyhoo. There was unloading and stuff. I took a little walk to this scifi book store, though didn't find that much of massive interest. And I got a burger from a little burger place and talked to Madeline on the phone (the band was doing band stuff). When I returned to the venue (which was a narrow bar with a small stage), it had filled up a bit and Adam, Vanessa, and Phil were there. I bought a drink but it was this ginger licorice beverage that took a while to consume. Ehhh. The other musicians were New Spell, a three piece band, and Anita Stryker who was singing with a wide variety of backup people. Odd Owl went on first and were quite swell. Of course. The venue was packed and everyone was really into it.

Anita Stryker had a voice like she should sing the next James Bond theme. Really lovely. She had a violinist, and a dude on cello. It was all quite nice. New Spell had a funky rhythm and sound that I dug. Because I ended up not paying the cover for the show (what with being with the band) I used that money towards buying the New Spell CD. Gotta support artists! After the show, we unloaded the stuff at the practice space and I crawled into bed (at Carmen & Josh's) at the nice time of 2:30am...

Sunday:

And I woke up at 7:30am, so that I could meet Robin for breakfast. Having gathered directions the night before, I tip toed out of the house and headed to the sort of Tenderloin area of San Francisco. It was a quiet Sunday morning, so I didn't have to fuss with traffic and I found parking on the street by the apartment complex. Hurray! We got tea, and then went to a little bakery place and got some pastries, and then we returned to the place she is house sitting and Robin whipped up some tasty scrambled eggs. Yum! It wasn't much time, but we did get some catching up done. Just a little bit of good company goes a long way.

I left San Francisco at 10:30 and was back in Santa Cruz by noon. This weekend felt long. Maybe because I got up early both days?

Anyway. I took a nap late in the afternoon. Helped Janet install a shelf above the stove. Took it really easy and the time crept past. Now I shall eat a salad and watch Game of Thrones.

What a weekend!

Oh and Odd Owl has a kickstarter that you should totally support. I'll make a full post about it soon, but here is the link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/oddowl/odd-owls-first-album-as-a-full-band

No spring in Santa Cruz. It just went from Winter to Summer.

The weekend is here! And what a weekend! Tomorrow will start with the dog park and then I'll go up to San Francisco for the day & night & morning. Then back to Santa Cruz. Fun fun.

It was so friggin' hot today. High 80's, probably 90. And I was at the end of the dryer, so that was extra hot. I caught jobs and cleaned up stuff and melted. Ran a plastisol job and then some more discharge with lots of this and that. Not a bad day, just really hot. And we got some nutritional freebies from a company we run stuff for. Sweet!

I went grocery shopping and got some cash for the show tomorrow night. And I got some frames. Two for art that I've recently bought, and one for Janet's print. All were 20% off. Don't know where I want to hang my new art though. The frames don't quite match my other frames, but maybe hanging them by my desk will be good?

I did laundry as well. Yay. Clean clothes. I have so many shirts. How do I end up with so many shirts? I just get shirts and then...I get more shirts. I'm a shirt kinda gal, what can I say?

So on Sunday you'll get another double post with all the fun stuff I get up to this weekend. See you there!

Guy Pearce, hubba hubba

Ohhh I went to see Iron Man 3 in 3D. The regular showing was sold out, so I just went for it. Ohhh it was super fun. It had a really awesome cast, with plenty of awesome action sequences. Some people seemed to this the plot was a bit basic, but...it was super fun so I enjoyed it. I was grinning through several parts of the movie. Popcorn and soda became my dinner. Treat yo' self!

So my parents (hi Mom & Dad!!) got solar panels for the house. SO COOL! That'll probably start saving the moolahs as time goes on. Proud of my cool parents for being ahead of the curve like that.

Work was another long full day. Blimey. And I think it will continue like this for a good while. Printed the front and backs on these shirts, then printed the front design and side design. That took most of the day. Then we printed the fronts and backs on some other shirts. That took the rest of the day. I also managed to squeeze in three burned/double coated screens. It was all discharge today, so that was a lot of washing out of screens. My work shirt got a lot of splash back. So now what was a pretty clean shirt is now moved down the work shirt stack to "not so clean". I wear them cleaniest to dirtiest, though the really dirty ones don't really get worn much unless I continually forget to wash my work shirts.

Anyhoo. It was long. And I saw that there was a 9pm Iron Man 3 showing, so I went for it. And there went the rest of my day. But it was a damn good day. I very much enjoyed it.

when Peter met Harriet

We printed those towels and they looked AWESOME. Totally rad. Vibrant colors. No breakdown. No mistakes. Flawless job. I cleaned out the screens and all that, and by that time it was time for lunch.

Finished Godfather of Kathmandu. It was good, but it was sort of lacking....it's a book in the middle of an ongoing series so it just didn't have the weight that a first or final book would have, ya know? But still I dug it. Onto more Lord Peter Wimsey! Onto Strong Poison!

We ran the backs on one job, but the white shirts were an inferior product that were incapable of being printed on. So at the end of all that...I reclaimed 10 screens and called it a good long day.

Had some pasta for dinner. Put my feet up. Though about projects and Star Trek and Iron Man 3. Movie season is here!

It's so busy! But busy is good. Busy is work. Work is money. It's all good in the end.

this week will drag, I can tell

I'm almost at 30k pageviews for this blog! That's pretty cool. Granted, it's the same handful of people checking in every day. Still. Neat.

We finished up the bags. I double coated and prepped a bunch of screens for discharge. Jeff set up the discharge job. Andrew made the ink. Then there was some stuff with the ink not quite working as the color, and one of the screens wasn't quite right either...so we removed all the ink from the screens (can't leave discharge ink in the screens like you can with plastisol) and we shall resume that job tomorrow. Printing towels is fun! I picked up another dozen eggs.

I had a huge salad for dinner, but I put almonds on it and I forgot how farty almonds make me. Yeah. No more almonds for me. My tummy feels all..funky.

IT'S ONLY TUESDAY. GAWD.

Umberto & I

Monday was off to a mixed start. I cleaned stuff, so that was good. It's all ready to go. Though a job we ran will have to be reran, for...reasons. Though it will be ran better this time, because it will be ran with discharge. We started heat pressing some carry-alls. It was my duty to unpack them for Andrew to press, and then to box them back up once they were pressed. Basically halving the amount of time it takes to do the job, instead of having one person take twice as long. The bags came two to a box, and arrived about 7 feet high on five pallets. It was a lot of boxes...a needless amount of boxes because the bags don't fold. Anyway. That was done, and it will continue to be worked on tomorrow. I also unboxed some supplies and burned two screens. Tomorrow there will probably be more set up and stuff. It's looking to be a busy week.

At home, On Ugliness, edited by Umberto Eco, finally arrived! I found a good used copy online (as opposed to the $50 copy I saw in Powell's years ago). Excited to look at all the pictures (and read the captions as well).

I feel very tired, so I'm going to bed. I guess it isn't much earlier than usual but still. Mmm.

canadian cinema & california burgers

Saturday:

Blessed Saturday! And it was a really good one. I slept in. I watched Doctor Who. I had a fried egg sandwich. I went food shopping and finally found where they moved the granola bars to in Trader Joe's. It was also a LOVELY day. In the afternoon, I sat on the porch and solved a crossword puzzle. I say I solved it...actually Janet and Alana helped too, when they saw all the fun I was having outside. And it was solved in record time too. Just the knowledge of three brunettes on a warm Spring day.

I also disassembled my at home exposure unit, because I don't really need it anymore. Still have the lights and the planks, so I could reassemble if need be.

Later on, Steve came down and we got pizza and then in turn ate the pizza, watched Doctor Who (again in my case), drank beer, and watched the very awesome Canadian movie Pontypool.

Sunday:

This weekend's "Brunch with Steve" locale was Walnut Cafe. There was a bit of a wait, so I perused some cards in a card shop. So many lovely cards. We both went for lunch options, and thinking back on it I should have just tried the eggs benedict. My burger was good, but...errr a more brunchy option would have been nice. Steve had some stuff to do, so he left shortly after brunch. I had the rest of the day to relax, enjoy the warmth of the day, and generally be in a good mood.

Game of Thrones was super good, as was Mad Men.

Mother's Day is in a couple weeks....I should make a card or something. Hmmm.

the sun is a comin'

La la la. Friday! Finally! Not that it was a particularly long week, but I want to get some sun and relax a bit outside, ya know?

Anyhoo. We ran the fronts and backs on this job. It looked good. We ran a job on these polyester shirts. The kind for marathons, though not a large run. Still you gotta use a special kind of stretch ink and you have to flash it at a certain temp or it will crinkle. Learning all sorts of things! And we ran some sweaters.

Oh and I learned that Kara's name is spelled Kara! So if I have spelled it Karah or Cara...well that was wrong.

Not a bad day, and I listened to a bunch of my audiobook. It's a good one, though a book about a Thai cop, written by a Westerner, and told from a very "you don't understand because you, the reader, are a Westerner" point of view...is a bit odd. That coupled with the British dude narrating it. Though he is really good at accents. Still.

At home I whipped up some eggs and bacon for dinner and watched the Hannibal show, which was a bit grisly...not the best thing to watch while eating eggs. Don't have any major plans for this weekend. Maybe I'll  try working on a tan or something...tis the season. Of course I'll wear sunscreen! But ya know...get some vitamin D.

back to Thailand

What a day! A very full one. And it was a lovely so. So there is that.

Anyway. We ran a discharge job, and it ran beautifully. I taped up some screens. We ran another job, which resulted on a minor bit of troubleshooting.

I finally finished Plum Island. Just a really longwinded needlessly long by-the-books murder mystery with an ending that was a bit out of place in terms of violence and realism. Anyway. Started listening to The Godfather of Kathmandu. Good ol' Sonchai Jitpleecheep. And wouldn't you know it, but it opened up with a reference to Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. Ha!

Finished the day with coating screens.

At home, the neighbor kids kept loosing their balls over our fence. Cute kids.

Watched Hannibal. Texted and whatnot. Tomorrow is Friday and I am looking forward to that day.

building my art collection, one screenprint at a time

The skies were gray today, but I persisted and wore cutoffs. Just cutoffs AND a hoodie.

It was a solo clean up/prep day at work. 17 screens were cleaned and reclaimed by the end of the day. 9 Screens were burned. One screen was prepped for discharge ink. Almost done with Plum Island. This damn novel is so needlessly long. Like...whole chunks of the story could probably have been massively abbreviated with no real loss to the plot. It's not like it is fancily written! Not sure what I'll listen to next. Insurgent? Hannibal Rising? Strong Poison? The audiobook world is my oytster!

At home I watched telly and drank some tea that Alana prepped. Alana and I chatted about school and Rubik's cubes and the societal pressures to fit in and how being raised with different eating habits can affect your relationship to food as an adult. You know, girl talk.

Any recommendations for good books for me to listen to? Always in the mood to try something new.

Oh, and some Sera Stanton prints I bought on Etsy arrived. I need to get some frames for them. And to find a nice place to hang them. Hmmm! I bought this print for Janet as a birthday gift. I don't think Janet reads my blog...but yeah. I need to get a frame for that too. At least my Stanton prints and that print are standard sizes. Nice and easy! Etsy is such a trap for me. So much art! And really well priced. Though those prints are all that I've bought from Etsy in the past couple months. And the second Stanton print was a special deal sooo.

another day, another dollar

I caught another job that Jeff ran, and all was good. I also trimmed a banner. With that done, I also emptied the trash and cleaned floodbars and whatnot. Listened to more Plum Island, which is starting to feel like the longest audiobook EVER and I really wish whatshisname would solve it already.

Bosses chickens are laying tons of eggs, so I turned in a carton, so tomorrow I should be getting another dozen. Hurray!

Janet made a quiche with some of the previous eggs that my boss has given me. It was a very yummy quiche. Mmm.

I hung out in a livestream all night. A livestream is when someone put a live video feed of the art they are currently working on. It's pretty cool. And there is a chat. So I talked with the other people watching the stream. It's fun stuff.

More Quick Sketches

all sketches roughly 3" x 2" 

micron and ink wash

RÅSKOG

Spent the day catching jobs, as well as helping set up jobs. We ran the fronts and backs on one that needed many color changes. We meaning Jeff and I. Did I mention that Jeff is a new sort of ongoing temp that will run jobs? Anyway, he is pretty nice and has decades of experience. I dig meeting people who have been at this a while and seem to know so many other people. It's a small world, ya know?

Anyway, ran that job and another job and that lasted all day. It was warm and sunny. All in all, very swell.

At home I boiled eggs and put some on my salad. And I watched the new Mad Men and watched some Broadchurch and did some quick little sketches. Having a scanner is really incentivizing myself to draw! I'm very happy with my purchase. Now I need to pitch some ideas and make some money.

But it's only Monday.

Quick Sketches

all sketches are 3" x 2"

brush pen and marker or ink wash

the air is filled with the sounds of birds and kids screaming (in delight I hope)

Had a nice relaxing Sunday. I slept in. Then had some tea and ate my leftovers. I hardboiled a bunch of eggs. I sketched a bit. It was a really nice warm day too. I hope Spring is here, and Summer to follow. Might even go to the beach next weekend. Get some vitamin D. Remember Mom, how you used to make me go outside? Now I do it willingly, AND I eat salad for dinner.

I'm all grown up! Yay!

Junk Drawer

6" x 9"

brush pen and ink wash

beaches, brunches, and bunches of company

Friday:

Boss brought in Jeff to run the press. Jeff was super nice. A dude with many years experience. He finished the backs and did all the fronts and meanwhile I did the other stuff. I coated screens. I mixed a new batch of emulsion. I cleaned screens. I reclaimed screens. I cleaned squeegees and floodbars. I broke down the press. Cleaned more floodbars. Coated more screens. A nice full day. This John Corey novel is SUPER long, like holy crap I could have listened to at least a Discworld novel in this time. But it is charming, so I'm sticking with it.

We got our new stove and it is clean looking and white and all that.

Steve came down later in the evening and we went to Hong Kong Charlie and got take out. We consumed the take out with a bottle of Riesling and it was all quite tasty. It was a very good night.

Saturday:

Steve and I were too lazy to make a breakfast, so we went out. Santa Cruz Diner had a line, so I drove back home and we walked to Zachary's, which I heard good things about. The wait was very short. I had tea with eggs benedict and oh wow was it good! I love me some eggs benedict. I ate it with my hands and I got quite messy, but I'd like to think that is part of my charm. That I'm a tactile eater. Either way, Steve didn't seem embarrassed by my sloppy company, so all was well.

Afterwards, we walked down to the boardwalk and beach. We walked through the surf. I bought some Dippin' Dots. We sat on the beach. We absorbed the rays. It was such a warm lovely day. It's so nice to be withing walking distance of brunch and beach. Steve's neck got a bit red, but I was pretty fine.

Back at home we watched the first episode of Broadchurch and the new Doctor Who episode. Then we took a nap. Then we said our goodbyes.

In the evening, Janet, Alana and I drank wine and ate nachos and girl talked. Janet worked on the junk drawer and Alana put things away. I sketched and tried to be helpful. It was nice to get to know the housemates a little better. It's a really nice living arrangement.

Things are just really good, ya know?

すばらしい

My eyes hurt. Too much computer? Or just too tired? Either way. What a day!

Finished those sleeves. I registered them like a champ. Boss told me that if I felt like they were lined up, I should just go ahead and print 'em. The better I get, the less work he has to do on this end of things. Which makes all things better. Sleeves and then I put on youth pallets and then 1100 units were counted in of this job that is due really soon. So we got started. We roto'd the first 100 or so, because there wasn't an underbase screen (roto = send the print around twice to get a second layer of ink instead of two screens, it is slower to print but it takes less screens and set up, so for smaller jobs it isn't the worst idea). Then the second screen was put in and it went so much faster. Got another 200 through the press and then I was tired and done diddly done for the day. Tomorrow will be the fronts. Andrew reclaimed the screens while I printed. Plum Island is an okay audiobook. The main guy is so sarcastic and sardonic, it's an enjoyable change of pace from, ya know, the cannibal guy.

Our stove will get wheeled out of its place and replaced. If they are just going to trash it, we might try and keep it for some back yard decoration.

At home I had a salad and a headache was working its way back and forth. The heat in the studio was getting to me a bit too, I think.

I've been in shorts all this week and the week previous. I think those pants will be put away for the season. Yaay!

Chatted with Alana. Janet's birthday is soon so I quickly ordered her a present that I know she'll like. Etsy is great, and my talented friends who make great art are great.

out of luck, but I've maimed some rabbits for their feet

Tuesday (written last night but not posted):


So last night, on top of the stove and water heater, the internet went out at 1am. And at 10pm tonight, it is still out. I'll survive.

I microwaved a big bowl of water and gave myself a bath of sorts with that. It seemed to do the trick.

I burned and taped screens, and Andrew burned screens that I taped. I also cleaned some screens and floodbars and squeegees. I could reclaim a nice small stack any ol' day now. Nice to not have the big pile up of 20 screens all needing tape removed and ink cleaned.

I'm nearing the finish of Hannibal. There is a great part about Hannibals "memory palace" which reminded me of Sherlock's "mind palace" in the Sherlock series. I wonder if it is an homage? Kinda funny thing to reference, but both sort of function in similar ways.

Boss gave me some eggs. Now I have more eggs than I know what to do with and no stove to cook them on. Too bad you can't microwave eggs...not unless you like eating scrambled eggs off the side of the microwave...ha. Well, they'll last.

At home I felt very, very tired and took a nap. I think the weekend was still wearing on me a bit. And now it is 10:20 and I am feeling chipper. I can always read or watch something. It's kinda nice to take a break from all the multitasking and refreshing that being on the Internet fosters. Just some me time.

Alana moved in a nice shelf into the bathroom, so there is more storage. And a plant. It's feeling a lot cozier with her around. Too bad all these things went wrong RIGHT when she moved in.

Tomorrow is looking to be a print heavy day. Got one shirt with three different graphic placements (three different two color set ups), and another that still needs to be burned. Summer is rolling in.

Wednesday:

Woke up to find the internet functional! A plumber was checking out the stuff. It looks like the people who installed our water heater installed it wrong, so we'll have to get them to do it right. Thus far I don't think I smell. I managed to wash my hair, and that is the main thing that makes me feel gross...when it gets greasy like that.

At work we printed the sleeves on this one job, and then started the sleeves on this other job. It's a lot of color changes and weird set ups and it's quite the hassle. But we are the super team, we'll get it done all awesome like! I also burned a few screens. It was busy, and tomorrow will also be busy, and I predict Friday will wind down busy.

 I finished Hannibal. It did not end the way I expected it to, but I liked it. He got to eat this really awful guy, so I was happy about that. I started Plum Island, a John Corey novel. Never heard of him as a detective before, so I'm giving it a shot. Plum Island is a location referenced in Silence of the Lambs, so that is an interesting parallel.

At home I ate some rice crackers and creme cheese and drank beer and caught up on the internet. It didn't explode in my absence, so that was good. Hope things in the house get restored to normal right quick.

My lips are doing that getting really dry thing. I have to try and not to rub/chew them because then they'll crack and I'll pick at that and they'll scab. It's a vicious cycle.

well, this week is off to a good start

Came home to a report about a CO2 leak with our water heater and leaks with our stove. Apparently Alana smelled a leak, so this guy came and checked it out. Good thing, that! Hopefully the leaks will get fixed soon, because cold showers are sucky things. I don't have the strongest sense of smell, and the stove doesn't light automatically all the time...so hopefully our new roomie saved us all from being blown up by a rogue leak!

I should have washed my hair this morning. It was sort of the last day I can leave it unwashed and not have it be all...gross looking. Ahh oh well. I work with dudes, and they don't really care.

We started with bags, and I caught those. Then a two color back and one color front. Easy. Then a very long front print with discharge ink that was a bit more complex and took some creative flood bar rigging to get it to pull right. But pull right it did! Andrew and I had some good conversation about Game of Thrones and food (he dislikes feta cheese as it turns out).

I burned some screens. I counted in the shirts, and then boom right back into the boxes they went. A nice full day. Hurray!

I made my grocery run. I left my list at home, but I managed to get all that I needed.

Lucy Knisley Sketches

Sketches from Lucy Knisley's lecture and Berkeley Public Library. 4/14/2013 

Micron and ink wash in Moleskine.

Lucy in the Sky with Foie Gras

Had the plan to go to the Lucy Knisley book signing today. For her book "Relish" a comic memoir about food. I love her art, so figured it would be a neat adventure to go to Berkeley and see her. I texted the people I knew in the area and one was doing stuff later in the day so the scheduling would be too tight, the other had plans, and the third never called my back and the fourth I don't think got my Facebook message. So I went it alone, which was a bit lonely. I think my day might have been a bit more enjoyable if I had some company along the line. But oh well. Can't say I didn't try.

I left at around 12:45ish and arrived in Berkeley at 2:30ish. My written instructions were good because now I fully don't trust my GPS to connect at all. Found free parking that was only a couple blocks from the venue too, which was awesome (helped that it was a Sunday). I walked up Shattuck Ave and I went into Fantastic Comics and bought Relish ahead of time and then I stopped in Half Price Books. The books were indeed Half Price but I was able to resist purchasing. I got to the Berkeley Public Library with time to spare before the little book talk. The room wasn't totally crowded, but it had a good vibe. Lucy Knisley talked us through the first chapter of her book with photo references, as well as detailed her process. She talked about the length of time it took to do the comic (3-4 years) and other stuff. It was nice. The signing happened at Fantastic Comics, and she was drawing everyones favorite food in their book, so I asked for fish & chips and she obliged with an excellent drawing. So good. She was really friendly for the little I talked to her. Just being in a comic shop gave me good vibrations.

Afterwards I wandered back down Shattuck and got a cheesesteak and coke at a diner. It wasn't anything special, which was disappointing to eat after seeing a talk about a comic that is food centered memoir. But I didn't know where any better restaurants would be, and I didn't feel like spending 45 minutes walking up and down Shattuck and Univeristy looking for them. Guess that is the Spencer side of me. The "I need to eat something before this day will progress any further" side.

At 5pm I left Berkeley and headed for Santa Cruz. I listed to Hannibal and some music. Traffic was okay. Got home in good time. Pajamas were engaged, and Game of Thrones was eagerly watched. This weekend was so busy, but I guess that is a good thing! Can't spend all my days doing nothing.

ups and downs and all arounds

I did enough today to warrant its own posting, instead of double day posting like I've been doing a lot lately.

Dog Beach:

Because a potential housemate has a dog, we were going to have a meetup at Lighthouse Field State Beach to see if Joey and that doggie will get along. And I figured it would be good to kill two meetings with one stone, I got up at 8 and joined Janet and Joey at the beach. I met tons of Janet's pals. There is a big hooplah about leash laws and they are trying to take it back, so they have set times where people meet with their dogs on the beach. Established times and stuff. 8:30-10am on Saturday for sure. Anyhoo, so I met those people and they had coffee and doughnuts. I met so many lovely doggies. Friendly doggies. Fluffy doggies. Big, small, just...awesome dogs. Several times I was just sitting on the sand and I didn't have enough hands to pet all the dogs. There was Charlie, Perro, Jessie, Lou, Molly, Penny, and other dogs. Ah! It was lovely. Charlie was very sweet. It was seriously many kinds of awesome to just chill with happy animals and to chat with various people.

Alas the potential housemate did not show up.

Alana:

But Alana, a potential housemate who was referred through a friend of Janet DID show up. She was very sweet, is going to school and working, and was just generally like...nice! She was easy to talk to, easy to laugh, everything about her seemed good so....now we have her for a housemate! She liked the house, and seemed to have the right sort of energy for the way it is around these parts. And Ron Lemon, the across the street neighbor, stopped by for a chat with us three while we were all talking on the porch. So that felt very communal. Yay! New housematey.

Fridge and Pantry:

Alana departed to do what she needs to do, and Janet & I worked on making a little room for her. We cleaned out the fridge of food that wasn't ours, as well as Amanda's shelf in the pantry. She (Amanda) didn't have a lot anyway, and we didn't toss what was good so if she still wants it, it is here...it's just been sifted into the communal food a bit. There is so much more room in the fridge. There were several things that have been in there since I moved in, and I didn't know whose they were. Now it has been long enough to just toss some of the stuff. And there is much more room in the freezer. Hurray!

Egg:

I had a fried egg sandwich for lunch.

Shopping:

There were these nautical boat print swim trunks at JC Penney that I really wanted, so I drove up to San Jose to see if they had them (I should have called, but I wanted to check out Kinokuniya as well). I took a wrong turn on Tully, and it took me a while to realize that, but once I did that I got my way to the mall pretty easily. They did not have the shorts! And none of the other designs appealed to me. I need a new swimsuit, but I'm not going to buy one I'm lukewarm about. I really want those cool boat patterned shorts. And I'll just get a bikini top or whatever to go with them. I haven't bought a new swimsuit in about 5 years, ha. I wandered around the mall a bit. There was a Daiso, which is bad news. It's a Japanese store, but all the stuff is priced at 1.50, or a couple bucks more. And they have a little bit of everything. It's like a slightly more higher end Dollar Store, but they actually have a good stock of things like: wrapping paper, pencil lead, mechanical pencils, ceramic chopstick holders shaped like flounder and radish, yan yan, toothpicks, goofy hairbows, calligraphy pens, notebooks...yeah I did not make it out of that store empty handed, and if you think that description of items is oddly specific well, there is a reason for that. I don't know what I'll do with my little ceramic flounder, but I know that I love it. After that hooplah, I went to find the Kinokuniya. I remember seeing it on my way to the Imax to see The Hobbit, and it WAS on Saratoga and it WAS on my right when the theater was on my left....but I couldn't find it this time! I wrote up directions but I didn't write the address because my GPS is pretty useless at finding satellites, especially in San Jose. I drove down Saratoga till I hit residential, and then the other way till I got into a residential area again. No luck! I wrote down the directions to get home from the Kinokuniya, and thankfully the directions started with turning on Williams, and at least I had located THAT street. Naturally I turned left on Williams when I should have turned right. But that mistake was evident after a few minutes. I eventually got back home after a shopping trip that ended with no luck at the store I wanted to go to, lots of luck at the store I didn't plan on going into, and no luck at finding the store that I really wanted to go to. As it goes.

Evening Time:

I now have a calligraphy brush in each size. I had purchased two from Ichiban Kan in San Francisco (a store similar to Daiso) and so with the one I procured today, I have multiple sizes. So that is fun. Too bad they utterly bleed through my preferred sketchbooks. Still, I'll find a use for them. They have a nice weight to them. Alana has started moving in, so that is pretty neat. Lucy Knisley is doing a book signing in Berkeley tomorrow. Don't know if I'll drive up and see her, but I don't have any other plans. Might as well journey about on my weekend.

I welcome the sun and the weekend with it

Work was pretty short, which was nice because the day was beautiful. I coated screens, I taped screens, I patched screens, I prepped screens for printing. Not all in the order. It was a screen sort of day.

Went home and washed my car. Now it is all shiny and pretty. I finished Silence of the Lambs...which I started YESTERDAY! 10 hour audiobooks take me about 3-4 days worth of work to finish, and I often take music breaks. Took very few music breaks between those two books.

I met up with Ryan, James, and two new people: Camille and Marina to catch Danny Boyle's new movie: Trance, at the Del Mar. I got my standard clementine Izze and big popcorn, AND the girl at the ticket office recognized me so she didn't ID me. I'm now a recognized customer! Anyway, as for the film it was within the genre of dream within a dream and what is and isn't real, and it was pretty damn good for being of that genre. It was hard to get a hold of character motivations, but it was neatly wrapped up. Though it was confusing for longish stretches of time. It was quite a bit shocking at times, but it was quite the beautiful movie. And James McAvoy was neat.

Afterwards we went to 99 Bottles for beer (they have 99 varieties available). I had a pint of this oatmeal stout that was tasty. We chatted about customs, about art, about the movie, about other movies. There was a live band and Marina and I watched them play for a bit. It was all quite the nice evening.

When I was riding back someone said "hey dude on the bike, where's the beach" and I pointed to the beach and then pointed out I was a girl. I've never been assumed to be a dude before. Was it the polka dot helmet?

I now get the book references!

I'm halfway through Silence of the Lambs. You can tell I had a social day at work. Cleaned squeegees and floodbars. Burned screens. Prepped screens for discharge. Cleaned screens. Reclaimed 20 screens. Listened to a good book with a Strong Female Character. Not a bad Thursday, not a bad one at all. A full 8 hour day, too.

Trance comes out tomorrow. Excited to see that. We are going to review a roommate on Saturday. I'll be getting up early and going to the dog park. I'm staying on this side of 17. Don't feel like driving up yonder.

Hannibal the show takes on such a new light after having gotten through Red Dragon.

The warm weather is here, it seems. Hurray!

humpday gone and done

Work started a bit late, which was nice because I had time to talk to Janet about looking for new housemates and all that.

We ran the back on a job, and the front on a different job, and the back on the first job. It went pretty well, though damn did it get hot! Dryer running + 70 degrees of sunshine. I was hydrating like nobodies business. Summer is here! Shorts! Hurray! Though my pants are fitting a bit tighter. That whole "I should actually go through with that gym thing" idea is circling back on my mind. Just going to wait and go over my finances so they are nice and neat. Plus I think there are some other things I need to pay for first.

Erk like...health insurance. Ma, can you email me about what I need to to with that? And AAA...

I gave the bathroom a good clean, and vacuumed the carpets.

Almost done with the Red Dragon audiobook. Feel like continuing the creepy mystery genre with Silence of the Lambs. Then maybe I'll reset my audiobook mood with another Discworld book or two. Hmmm.

Tomorrow is a cleaning, reclaiming, coating, and taping day.

doodlin' the night away

I spent the night drinking wine, watching Argo, and making stickers to send to people. Here are some stickers:

Actually that last one I drew a few nights ago. Anyway. It's fun to draw on the sticker scraps from work. I have plenty of scraps! It's just the ends that get cut off and generally trashed because they are not quite big enough to print anything new on. Good to use for fun things. And the boss told me to take as many scraps as I wanted. Anyhoo...

At work I taped screens and cut stickers and caught a job and boxed that job and vacuumed the studio. Turns out the floor is a much lighter color. Huh! Whoddathunk? It was good to clean as it is quite dusty. Heck, my scanner has collected dust already. Where does it all come from?

It was a very warm day at work, and I stared to get a bit over heated. Time to don the cutoffs. Spring is here, and soon...summer!

It's Wednesday tomorrow. Seems later in the week.