pears and pies

Oh joy to have a Saturday where the alarm goes off at 8am. But I had some quality time planned with the new housemates, so that is swell. So I arrived at the new house at 9:20ish ready to pick pears from the backyard pear tree. Hurray! Chris is still in the house, but is moving soon. He is a pretty cool dude, I hope he enjoys Portland. So it was Jeff, Justen, Tara, Chris, Jan (Jeff's friend), and I! Whooo! And we came up with an order for operations. Justen, Tara, and I went about picking pears. We went up on this orchard ladder with a long picker. It took a lot of careful maneuvering, but we got so many pears! Some were really high up. Using a picker is hard work. It's a lot of weight to navigate. It was a brilliant sunny day, but not a scorcher.

Once the pears were picked, they were washed. Justen had an engagement so he left, but not before cooking us eggs and bacon! What a guy!

Then we started cutting and cutting and cutting. So much filling to be made. Chris and Jan worked on the crust. Tara also cut up some strawberries. The table was set up outside, so that it was a conveyor belt of pie making. Five pies were filled! Of various sizes. A couple had lattice crusts, because we are fancy. Conversation was good, everyone was polite and on the same level. It was a good group and I feel good about it.

Then pies went into the oven and we started cleaning and tidying and relaxing and chatting. I sketched a bit. Then a pie was out of the oven and we consumed a good portion of it. Mmm. Pear and strawberry. Very good.

After helping with the dishes I bid adieu and went to Atilla's Antiques because I am on a quest to find a badass seal/signet type ring. The big kind that you can use to punch an emblem into wax. So far I'm not coming up with anything badass enough that is also reasonably priced. I should also find out my ring finger sizes.

But I did get a few neat can labels featuring squid, a framed print of some sea shells that I really liked and wasn't badly priced, and some old drawing guide books that I liked the images in. Hurray!

And all that before 4pm! What a Saturday.

I hung out at home for a bit. I walked to Betty's Noodles for some noodles for dinner because my laziness to cook was more than my laziness to walk to a place to make me food. I ended up getting a beef rice bowl thing. It was all right. The rice was a bit dry in a few parts. Like it came from the side of the cooker. It's fun to read Mary Roach's Gulp while eating dinner. Hhehe.

Anyoo. Night came. I packed my books into boxes. I think I'll make a Target run and get some tubs, though I think a lot of my things can be moved without actually unpacking. Just put the shelving thingies in my car and tape the drawers shut. The plan will be to make a trip every night from the 15th to the 22nd, and then on that weekend, move my bed and desk and actual thing things. But get everything but clothes out. It may not take THAT many trips, considering what I have on hand.

Not fun to think about, but some things are inevitable I suppose.

I can't deal with three figure heat

Uhg. What a day. It was 92 degrees in Scott's Valley, according to the internet, but in the studio it was probably more. I kept hydrated but still that heat is a killer. I burned screens, the job got set up and...well it took some tweaking and....it took some color changes AND... we still are not quite there and stress was running high. But we are a well oiled team! And my suggestion to put stars on the seps to separate them was well received and ended up being a very approved idea by the end of the day.

And at home I took a nap and Joey came to join me. That was nice. Nice to nap the hot part of the day away. I've got an early morning tomorrow so nighty night!

eye of the beholder

My eye is almost all better! Just a tinge left. Such a weird thing.

As for the car, well...err things haven't moved forward. I keep sleeping in and not taking the time to call Toyota about the part.

We didn't print much at work because the film needs some tweaking....so I went ballistic on reclaiming screens. 44 in total! We have a full rack and 20 to coat tomorrow. Booyah. We'll have so many screens to burn stuff onto!

I also cleaned stuff. Knocked out a good chunk of audiobook listening.

Then I wasted yet another night at home. Just not feelin' it these days.

Janet is the best, no lie

My eye is looking lots better. Still a bit of redness but generally it seems to be healing.

Work was fun. Brought in cheese puffs and got Kara addicted to them. Trader Joe's white cheddar puffs are sooooo good. Mmm. Jeff warned her, but did she listen?

I burned a bunch of screens all through the day. Caught a couple jobs. Broke down the press. Generally I was awesome. Boss said we are going to be printing some really awesome posters coming up soon. Won't go into detail due to probable disclosure contracts. But it's neat!

I really like my job. I can be goofy yet respected for my drive. I can listen to audiobooks. I can give input into matters. It's awesome.

Once home, I got a text from Janet informing me that I can have the rest of the ice cream pie she made. I thump thump thump thump thumped down the stairs SO FAST! So tasty. Just like chocolate and ice cream in a graham cracker pie tin. I'll have to get her recipe.

eye see yoooou

Woke up to this red spot in my eye. I don't know how it got there, but it seems like the type of injury that would result from carelessly rubbing your eye in the middle of the night. It doesn't hurt and it wasn't oozing, so I just left it alone and it is looking a bit better. I'll see how it is in the morning. Hopefully it will be minimized and not like, HUGE RED EYE AHHHH.

Swung by the post office and put a package in the mail. Hopefully it'll arrive by September 8th.

Work? What can I say about work that I haven't said bunches of times before. I did stuff. Oh. We mixed natural discharge and white discharge to make a custom slightly off white color for the client. That was new. Jeff and I were super efficient at printing this one job. Boss bought a wheely shop stool. That is fun. I started Cuckoo's Calling, which I've been excited for.

Home meant laundry, and my sheets got tangled up in themselves, so those have to try more before I can put the other laundry in.

Had Trader Joe's potstickers for dinner. They were okay, but I know I can make my own potstickers that are just as good, I just need to take the initiative and make the filling.

car parts

Boss and I managed to get the seat belt retractor out of the side of the car. I was mighty in strength as I pulled off the side panel to expose it. Haha. But there were a buncha warning signs about contents being under pressure and stuff, so neither of us wanted to undo the thing further....so it was agreed that the best course of action would be to order the part and replace it. The adventure continues!

Today was a clean up day. I listened Locke Lamora, a book I'm becoming less interested in as it goes on (just isn't as dynamic as I would have hoped). I cleaned allll the used squeegees and floodbars. I cleaned alllll the screens. I reclaimed 9 screens and coated them at the end of the day. It's good to get on top of things like that, because they can pile up. Oh! I also used a staple gun to put up some banner scraps to block off the cleaning tank from splashing on the clean stuff to the left of the tank. Yay staple guns!

Was an early day. Spent some time cuddling with Joey on my bed. Talked to Ma and Pa.

We've got some big printing to do in the next couple days. Let's do this!

too hot to enjoy the heat

Saturday:

Woke up to an oppressive heat. Just that warmth that is all "yeah, I'm going to be really hot today". So I bought some ice cream and sat on the porch and read. Didn't get up to much. Janet is slowly packing up the house. Glasses. The couch was put on the curb and some people grabbed it an hour and a half later (it's always smart to put a "free couch" posting on Craigslist to get rid of things quickly like that).

My seat belt retractor broke, so I spent time Googling and talking to Dad and trying to figure out how to fix it. But I lack the tools to remove the bolts. But I'm sure we'll have the tools at work, so hopefully I can get it sorted soon. Stupid thing. Don't want to take out the whole side panel, but I might have to. Don't want to take it to a repair shop either but hey, might have to. Bleh.

Been watching Stephen Fry in America on Netflix. It's pretty good. He drives around to all the states and interviews people.

Sunday:

Another warm wakeup with some more porch reading. Got groceries later on. Don't want to drive more than necessary. Certainly don't want to go on a road that goes more than 35mph. How do people just drive without their seat belts?

Working on my continent drawing. So easy to do digitally! Lotsa fun.

Right now I'm working on my Goodreads profile, hopefully as a way to get suggestions for new books! Not that I don't already have enough on my shelf AND in my audiobook queue.

part of the record

You know that you know it is going to be hot when you just leave your sweater at home. Normally I bring one for the start of the day but nooooope. It was hot and it stayed hot. Mixed ink. Taped stuff. Counted things in. The job had several color changes, and the front and back had to be hand pulled because they were large images, and it was discharge ink which is a fuss! Poor Jeff looked so beat. I cleaned up the ink and broke down the press and call it one warm warm day. Gaah. I drank plenty of water but still. So much sweat. Rarely do I shower right after work but oh that shower felt great.

So yeah. Weekend!

I went to Bookshop Santa Cruz to look at their birthday cards because I need to get a card for.....someone... uhm. Ahem.

And snagged a great deal on hardback copy of Reamde. I saw the pile and then had the devil of a time trying to find the pile again. So many books!

Ryan and I met up and we went to 99 Bottles and met his friends Hillary and Dean for dinner and brews. I knocked #41 off my card and had some fish and chips. Hillary and Dean are super into comics so we chatted a whole bunch and got along great! We cruised by their house to drop some stuff off. Hillary lent me a few issues of Finder! YAY COMICS! Yay new friends. Hahah.

Then back we went downtown to see The World's End. Yes I saw it last week. It was worth seeing again. Very funny and fantastic. Lots of great physical comedy bits and little touches. The people really know what they are doing when it comes to making these movies. Hope they make another one soon!

Lotsa people out tonight, and some were rowdy. Be interesting to move and see a new part of this city, though not being so bikeable to the theaters is a bummer.

Also! One of those gift exchanges I did set the world record for the largest online secret Santa at 44,805 participants! So cool!

beginnings and endings and beginnings

After work, I went to the new house to assist Jeff and Tara in interviewing potential candidates for the 4th bedroom in the house. There was Justen and Blake. Justen was quieter, Blake was more energetic. Both were younger, one had lived with many different people (even in Denmark) and one had not. We talked about it and we all agreed on our choice, so if the references clear....he shall be in! I got a better look at the house and it seems pretty good. Plenty of pantry space.

Being on the other end of the interview process is interesting. Figuring out all the different questions, and what matters in a candidate. It's a pretty big thing, figuring out who you are going to live with. After many years of experience though, you should figure it out. What you are looking for in a home and people to home with. Anyhoo. That was cool. Then Jeff, Tara, Chris (the guy who is moving out) and I went to Discretion Brewing for a quick brewksi. Chris is moving to Portland. It was a really awesome time! I'm a bit sad that Chris is leaving, because I think I would have liked living with him. Really nice dude. Hope he likes Portland. Found out that probably the lady who wrote the Feministory piece I illustrated for Bitch Magazine is a friend of Jeff's. Small world! Anyway. The conversation was fun and Tara and I bonded over mutual love for Spice World. Things should be good.

What can I say about work? I caught some sweatpants, I prepped some screens for discharge ink, I cut out and smoothed down some big magnets that are going on the side of a car that is going to be in a demolition derby, I cleaned squeegees and floodbars. It's always different and changing. I think I've mentioned that that is what I like about my job, but it bears repeating.

All in all, a very good active day. And whee, it is Friday! Fun!

whoooo wednesday

Another full day at work! Love full days, so nice to have.

We ran the fronts on one job, and the fronts and back on another. There was a spider in my respirator, but thankfully I noticed that before I put it on. No inhaled spiders for me!

Listened to the Lies of Locke Lamora, which is really enjoyable.

After all the printing, I burned a bunch of screens and weeded a bunch of vinyl and that was that.

Home found me relaxing and watching Archer. Worked a bit on my current pet project and set out the recycling and that was that.

cricket and the Perg

Coyotes got the goats at work. Awful. Just awful. And they had just gotten named! And it was during the day! So awful.

Anyhoo. I touched up the gilding on the sign and it is done and it looks awesome. I caught a job too, and broke down the press. I counted in some shirts. A nice full day, as doing the gilding takes time and patience.

After work, I met up with Benjamin. I met Benjamin and Jenn and Steve's wedding. He is from Santa Cruz but is going off to study abroad and what not. He was in town and we hung out, which was awesome because I got a Santa Cruzian's description of downtown. We had a pint at the Poet and I learned to play darts (I won by a slim margin). We had dinner at India Joze and it was VERY good. Indian fusion? I don't know what to describe it as, but it was flavorful and awesome. It was a nice clear night. Perfect to wander around and get what this and that building is pointed out to me. We finished at Cafe Pergolesi and called it a night at around 9ish. A nice little weekday evening. Fun to have visitors, even if we've only actually met once before. Yay for Facebook for making various kinds of contact easier!

And yay for getting out of the house, haha.

dress weather

Sunday:

Slept in, because duh. Did my grocery shopping and once home I made an enchilada casserole. Now I have a weeks worth of not PB&J! Hurray! Really gotta branch out in my cooking. Relaxed. Drew a drawing for Nate. Watched Breaking Bad.

Monday:

Also slept it. Finally feel all rested after the previous week of sucky sleep.

I've been blogging for over six years now. Some of my older posts used to go into so much detail, but I guess I was doing more. Going to different things in a day, doing different this and that.

I cleaned dishes. My new house will have a dishwasher, so that is exciting. Though I still like handwashing. It's just easier.

It was so warm and nice all day. I was able to wear just a dress and be comfy.

Welp! Back to work tomorrow.

Eman Draziw

Eman Draziw

Nate wanted me to draw his D&D character, so here it is.

in the woods

Friday:

Another relaxed day at work. And I have a three day weekend! Which is very much needed as I haven't been sleeping well. My nights have just been very restless. Anyhoo. I touched up the gilding, I cut some stuff, I cleaned screens, I put away stuff. I finished The Amber Spyglass and oh what a heart punch of an ending! I tidied up the studio a bit too. Oh! And taped screens for a job. But all in all, it was a short day. Sometimes there are lulls in the printing, and that is not so bad. Well. Not so bad now that I'm making more money!

I planned to see The World's End with Steve in the evening, but he had a ways to come down (from San Francisco) so I had time to clean house, and vacuum, and relax. I will have hard wood floors at my new place, so now I'll have to get felt for my furniture. I've picked up some sliders, which I'll put under the bed, as that will probably have to be moved a bit as I settle my room.

So The World's End was pretty funny! I want to watch it again. Spaced, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead. All the same cast members reoccurring. That humor. The friendship. Very much its particular thing. I'm sure it'll do well on a repeated viewing.

Saturday:

Steve and I drove to Jeffrey's for brunch to try them out. It was standard diner fair, nothing really to write home about. Though I am writing right now and people at home will read about it. From there we got on Highway 1 and then went to the Nisene Marks State Park to do a little loop hike. The road was annoying to drive on. Narrow. Tons of cyclists and pot holes. But the park was very nice. Redwoods and small loops and not a lot of people. The weather was perfect for it too. Hot, but not sweltering. And we had the forethought to bring a water bottle. Always a bonus. The trails were very up and down though. Not a lot of flat paths. Though that was only in the section we were in.

Due to having a man date with Adam and Kyle, Steve departed after that. I forgot to call you back Mom! I'll call you tomorrow! Anyway. I ran an errand. Washed the dishes. Worked on my map. Watched The Bridge, which is an American adaptation of a Danish/Swedish show Bron/Broen, which is a border crossing crime drama. The adaptation is very good.

I'm very happy to have this three day weekend. Just knowing that Monday is open as well. Ah. It's good.

I also spent some time thinking about how I'm going to layout my new room. It'll be tricky, but I'll make it work somehow.

gold!!

Today at work, after I broke down the press and cleaned squeegees and floodbars, I was assigned the task of gold leafing these two signs! Waah! How fun! First I had to paint on the gilding size stuff. Basically a specific glue for the task. So I put that on it. Then once it had sat for 45 minutes to an hour I delicately placed gold leaf from sheets onto it using a brush and my finger to press it down and on. Damn it looked good. Slow and steady! So good. And Boss was very pleased with my work. Positive reinforcement is awesome. And playing with gold is just so cool. One sign was gold gold, the other was white gold. I think there will be more leafing tomorrow as well. So fun.

I took a nap when I got home. Feeling so tired lately.

Then I crossed another thing off my "to do" list. And added another thing to it as well...so it still stands as three things to do. But I should get another thing done tomorrow. It's all good.

naps are nice

Felt funky all day. Like there was a sort of pressure behind my eyeballs. Not enough sleep? Too much vinyl weeding? Not enough veggies? Probably the last thing. I should get some salad.

Work? Well work was catching a couple small jobs. Whipped up some discharge ink. Burned some stuff. It's all come into a nice rhythm. Oh and weeded a bunch of vinyl and cut some large laminated images.

At home I took a nap. Then grilled my left over lunch PB & J for dinner.

Started Amber Spyglass! Whoo!

fantasy map

pencil and watercolor

9" x 12"

now to start naming places!

awwwWOOOOOOOO at the moon

Whooo! I bought this cool wolf shirt that my pals Dom and Morgaine made! And Morgaine included a little hand charm in the package too. They are just too awesome by half! I've been cutting the sleeves and collars out of my shirts. Makes them sooo much more comfy to wear. Not ALL my shirts, but some of them.

I spent my night refining this imaginary planet with its continents and islands and stuff. Fun fun!

Work. Counted in some odd shirts and caught them. Weeded vinyl. Burned some screens. Weeded more vinyl.

I think I'll be learning how to work the embroidery soon. Hopefully it is easier than it looks.

Etsy makes it so easy to support my pals. Etsy and Kickstarter.

measure twice, protect against scuffs once

It ended up being a short day at work. A job was ran. I coated screens. I activated a new thing of emulsion. Tomorrow there shall be more shirts, so that should be cool.

Nice to have a shorter day though. Had a weird restless night sleep.

I met Jeff (housemate Jeff) to go through a housing agreement contract. I met Chris, who is moving out, which sucks because he was really easy to talk to and was really nice and seemed like he would be a good roomie, but alas he is moving out. So the house will be Jeff, Tara, a forth person yet unknown, and myself. The contract is pretty straightforward "no candles, this is how it goes" type stuff. After I signed it (I start moving in on the 15th, which is awesome because I only pay half a months rent instead of the full kebab) I went to my room and took measurements so that I can measure my existing stuff and figure out how it'll all fit.

I'll need to but some felt for under my bed, and maybe a little rug thing for under my desk/chair as I have wood floors and I don't want to scratch/gouge them (as that will cost me if/when I move out).

So that was thing 1 crossed off my 4 thing to do soon list.

so hot during the week but pretty mild this weekend

Saturday:

Ran my work clothes through the wash. Cleaned some stuff using cleaning advice I googled and it worked! Yay! Later in the day I drove up to Mountain View for a board game night with Nate, Helen, Carmen, and Josh! I was the first to arrive (N and H were already there). We had some tea and we chatted and caught up. J and C arrived with soup and Helen made gluten free bread and we all ate food and then set about figuring out how to play Small World, a table top game. It was pretty fun once we figured out what was going on. There are a lot of options for different types of scenarios, so game play doesn't get repetitive. Like Risk except more fair. I came in squarely in the middle, with Nate total winner and Helen a close second. Nate is good at these sort of strategy type games. I'm better at Khet.

I got a bit turned around (took an exit too early) on the way back but didn't get too detoured.

Sunday:

Another wonderful sleeping in day. I like not having to worry about finding a place to live. I was expecting that process to be really prolonged.

I did my groceries and did a CVS run for soap and stuff. I sat on the porch and worked on this story I've been working on and did some drawings to accompany my notes. It's a color coded notecard system right now. It's fun to get back into world building.

A nice relaxing weekend. Not too much hub-bub.

pow! take that stickers!

Work was very long. Punching stickers out and waiting for stickers to be cut so that you can punch them...takes a while. But it isn't terribly strenuous. I also reclaimed 24 screens in total, but because on how I staggered when I reclaimed them, 10 were able to be coated today! And I caught and boxed a job.

And I melted from the heat.

Don't worry! I kept hydrated!

Still. Whew!

And when I got home it's like all the energy has gone from my body. So tired. I guess I'll climb into bed soon. Unless I get a "up till 2am" second wind. Haha.

Don't know what I'm doing this weekend. I THINK I had an obligation but I just don't know...

Errr. Yeah.

Oh! Finished Golden Compass and now I'm onto Subtle Knife.

bleeting good time

Got another round of art process done and sent off. Yay!

Work was horribly hot. So...very hot. Just sweat everywhere and uhg. Lots of water was consumed. I got all the screens cleaned, so I should, if the timing is good, be able to reclaim some tomorrow (don't want them to sit and collect dust while waiting to be coated).

Oh and we ran sweatpants and shirts and patches.

It was nice to return home and change into not horrible sweaty clothes.

Boss got two goats. Yay more animal noises!

mostly lazy

Got cramps something fierce at work, but making a heat pad out of shirts sent down the dryer helped. Ended up leaving early because I was not feeling up to snuff. Now I'm going to bed at...what is technically a reasonable hour.

Ran shirts. Ran more shirts. Cleaned things. Found no dead half rats. Stopped by Chase Bank and deposited my deposit for the new place. Next up: first months rent.

Did my laundry. Watched Archer.

Damn. Neglected to do thing I needed to do. I've gotten lazy.

still posting even though my days are in a pattern

Whoo! Another day! Ran some sweaters. Burned some stuff. My Golden Compass files were ordered weird so I couldn't listen to it today, so that was a bummer. I felt really out of it. Probably due to staying up so late.

At home I doodled and watched stuff. I have some Odd Owl stuff to attend to, so that is something productive to do...tomorrow.

I dunno. It's nice having a mental holiday. July was a heckuva month.

I'll miss Janet

Week started on a pretty good note. Burned screens. Caught a quick two color job and a single color job. Taped screens. Then we ran a slightly more complicated piece but that looked good. Almost done with The Name of the Wind! Fellowship of the Ring has such a DAMN LONG START! I've forgotten. Kinda slow going when we only listen to it for bits at a time. Harry Potter is MUCH faster paced.

After work I got the 100% thumbs up from Jeff, so now I just have to put in my deposit and first months rent and I'm good to go.And he is only asking for deposit right now, which is nice. Both together won't tap me out. Actually this whole move isn't leaving me as broke as I expected, and rent will be cheaper so I should get back on my feet pretty quick again.

At home I watched telly and read a bit.

Janet left some comics on my bed for me to have. She is so kind and wonderful!

well, that went fast

So on Saturday I slept in, and woke up to find an email... or did I return that email in the evening? Anyway, there was an email from someone who saw my post- no it was in the morning- there was an email from someone, Jeff (a different Jeff), saying they had a room and they linked me to their post. And it sounded really neat and up my alley, so I responded, and after my shower and stuff I got a call and we talked about housing basics and stuff and then we set up a time for me to see the place and that was that! So the rest of the day I relaxed and tidied. Then I went to the Live Oak area to see the house. It is in the middle of a neighborhood with lots of other houses and streets upon streets of houses. Very residential. Jeff works with schools and biking things. Tara works as a nurse in Monterey. Wasabi is an oldish cat who lives in the house. The other roommate is moving to Portland as it turns out, so I didn't meet them. The house has a nice back yard, not lawn back yard. More trees and some sculptures and a big bottlebrush tree. And a pear tree. It's nice. The room is smaller than my current room, but the closet is nice. I could make it work. I plan to make it work as Jeff called me today (Sunday) telling me that they talked about it and would like me to live with them! Yay! Anyway to go back to the meeting. We talked and there are house meetings, so that is neat. And it seems close to a different sort of stuff. Not downtown stuff but stuff...stuff. Maybe I'll be biking more! I'll have to do a "Trillian has moved!" card to send to all my correspondents. So the meeting was good (obviously) and I returned home feeling good. Didn't get up to much for the rest of the day. Just took some much needed head space relaxing time. Then I went to bed and stayed in it for a good long while. Sunday came around and I needed food, so I bought food. And bought some naan. Ate an early dinner and got a call from Jeff! Hurray! I have the room! I threw on some fun makeup and drove up to Felton for the Odd Owl show! They were playing at a newish open air venue that is an outdoor stage in someones sorta backyard. Anyway, it was nice. And even though I was running late, I got there with plenty of time. I had a beer at the start and that was that. Had some pizza and sausage later on. Dina was there, and I met a buncha people. I keep forgetting business cards! But they were awesome and played the old hits and some new stuff and they just jammed for a while, which was great to hear. Just a lot of fun and mingling. Dina lent me her jacket. I went around collecting tips. Chatted for a bit but didn't stay too late as I have work in the morning and BREAKING BAD TO WATCH! Wow, what a start to the season! So good.

I've almost got three weeks left in this month, and I aim to relax. I'll start sorting eventually, but I don't even move in till September. It's nice to have that out of the way. And the rent & utilities are almost a full Benjamin cheaper all together. Sweeet.

and thus my quest advances

Thursday:

Oops. Went to bed totally neglecting to blog. But it was a fairly standard day. Jeff returned and I coated screens while he set up. I counted in shirts for plenty o' jobs. We ran a couple jobs. Not a bad day.

Back at home I relaxed for a bit, then went to the 10pm showing of Elysium. It was good. Not great phenomenal OH MY GOD. You know how I get about movies when they really excite me. It had some really cool special effects and scenes, but it needed more character development all around. Just a few minutes more for each character, and for the inhabitants of Elysium. Not MUST SEE in theaters cool, but still cool.

Monuments Men looks awesome.

Friday:

Annnd another week is done! We ran a job in the morn then did shop stuff while waiting for stuff to come in. We reorganized the tester shirt bin. Vacuumed. Listened to Fellowship of the Ring. It's a long ass book though. I seem to remember it being shorter. An hour of listening and Frodo is STILL in the Shire!

I looked at a room after work. It was in a house with two other ladies around my own age. The room was smaller, the house in general was smaller, but it was a quiet neighborhood...but I'd also have to sign a lease...but the move in time works for me and there is parking and I can paint the walls and the closet space is HUGE... ahhhg. I just really like MY house. And MY place. I like where I am NOW. Boo.

I went to a movie night down at the station. Ryan, Marina, James. The usual suspects, as well as Alex, Jill, and....I forget her name but we met before and she is really nice. Snacks, beer, food, and Mystery Men and Severance double feature, aw yeah.

A nice night. Don't know what I'll do tomorrow exactly, but first I shall sleep in!

Well, I'll probably apply to more houses and places. Just gotta keep applying.

The Hound

The Hound

3" x 4"

pencil and ink

"wonderfully" is one word for it

Jeff wasn't at work due to not feeling all that well. Boo!

But it gave me the day to get the stuff done that needed doing. Like coating the 15 screens from yesterday and reclaiming 24 screens to coat tomorrow. And counting in shirts. And burning a buncha screens, and taping those screens. That took the day. That and listening to The Name of the Wind, which is a nifty book. Took a while to get used to the narrator, but he is really good at different accents.

Now we are ready to take on the world! The world of printing.

At home I sat on the back porch and kept Janet company while she sorted through stuff. This old 1967 sex ed book was uncovered. Illustrated and designed for 4-6 graders. Oh it is hilarious and REALLY inaccurate and just....wrong. A lot of "this is as God wants it" and "sometimes Mom and Dad hug and kiss....then BABIES" type stuff. I'm going to scan some of the illustrations, because they are retro and lovely.

* * * * *

For the Game of Thrones gift exchange, I volunteered to be a "regifter" which means that for people who get nothing because their original gifter was a poop, they get a chance for someone to gift them something, if someone is willing to do that...that someone being a "regifter". So I did a little portrait of The Hound and I'll mail that off to them tomorrow before work. Yay gifts!

A pretty good day. And now it is Thursday!

goose island ipa fan club

Met up with Ryan and Marina at 99 Bottles, and it was raffle night! But even with 9 tickets between us, none of us came up winners. Still, it was fun. I had the beer sausage with sauerkraut and waffle fries. And I got them to sign off the beer (which wasn't a numbered beer) as #16, so now I don't have to order Bud Light to complete my card! HA! Beating the system!

Long after the last beer was drunk (well about an hour and a half), I drove Ryan home because the last bus was at 10 and sometimes it is easier to wait around and give a friend a ride then to loose a friend earlyish in the night, ya know? I only got a LITTLE bit side tracked on the way back. Though getting lost in Santa Cruz is like, a five minute detour. It's not a big place.

I heard back from an apartment inquiry! Hurray! My first one! I'm checking them out on Friday. So that is heartening.

We ran a quick job. Just some sweaters. Then I reclaimed and cleaned and cleaned some more and coated what I reclaimed yesterday. Now I have a good stack to coat tomorrow, and a good stack to reclaim. I'm getting that catch up like I asked for! Hurray!

I'm awesome, let me live with you

Up to five emails about housing now, no responses yet. There are all these "shared rooms". I can't live in a grown up dorm! I'm an adult! And too much of a homebody.

Lets see. Work. We printed bags and these shirts. I burned some screens. I reclaimed what was reclaimable and got to cleaning what really needs to be cleaned. I need a day where I'm not catching so that I can catch up on the screens in the back! But we'll have 10 to coat tomorrow, around around 15 to reclaim. It's a process.

My fingernails are long again. They grow so fast!

Didn't go food shopping. It's only Monday.

ice cream, steak, sucky tidings

Friday:

Showed up early again to work, though just so we can get an early start on two big job setups that needed to be done by the end of the day. I cleaned squeegees. The job got set up. We ran the back. Jeff set up the new coffee maker. Boss put some excess gold foil on a tooth to make it look capped like the goober that he is. I cleaned the squeegees again and we did the back. Did we do more after that? Err. I don't think so. I removed the tape from all the screens, so there will be a lot of cleaning of screens to be done next week as we've come up short on them again. So much turn over!

After work I took it easy and cleaned my room. I swung by Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing and filled up the growler with their seasonal "Casinos" IPA. The people in the pub looked at my possession of the growler with much admiration and respect. I was there on serious business and they knew it! Steve came down and we picked up steaks and had those with the beer and we watched Happy Gilmore on Netflix.

Saturday:

After breakfast, Steve and I walked downtown and we wandered into Bookshop Santa Cruz where I picked up a "get well" card for a friend. Then we went to the Penny Ice Creamery and got fancy ice cream cones and ate them while wandering around a little street fair of sorts. He took off to meet Adam, Kyle, & co. for dinner and I opted to stay down in Santa Cruz to work on things.

Janet came back from her vacation and there was a letter that was confirmed to be our 60 day notice. So tht was a bummer of big magnitude. Time to find a place to live. Been here just a year. Uhg.

Watched Prisoner of Azkaban.

Sunday:

Had a good solid sleep in. I posted my first advert on Craigslist about looking for a place to live, and called one person and emailed two others. Haven't heard back, but it is still early. Just gotta keep extending myself and hopefully someone will want me to move in.

I sat out on the porch and read and soaked up a bit of sun. That was nice. Had some of my Canada noodles for dinner. They were very interesting. Worked on correspondence. Oh, I should do a "I've moved!" card for when I move. Something to send to everyone.

All in all, a fairly relaxing day. Didn't do my grocery shopping but I suppose I can do that tomorrow.

treasures in my teefers

For some reason I agreed to go to work early on Friday as well! What is wrong with me? We've got a lot of printing to do, and someone has to do it so it might as well be us. And starting early gets us out earlier, which is nice. My whole evening isn't eaten up. Not that I did much with tonight. Watched TV. Ate dinner. Erm. Yeah.

We ran a job that took a lot of set ups for different shirts. Very annoying. They could make it easier but they don't. Oh well.

Boss bought a coffee pot for the studio and a mirror. Not fond of seeing how frazzled and haggard I get by the end of the day, but hey at least I can tell how much stuff is in my teeth!

for every active morning, there is an equal and opposite inactive evening

There is road construction on Branciforte, so today and tomorrow it is impassable from 9am-4:30pm. Which sucks because I need to be on that road to get to work in a reasonable amount of time. So instead of driving the long way around (on 17) I got up 2 hours earlier and got to work at 8:45am.

It's amazing how accomplished I can feel when I get up early and do a bunch of stuff and look at the clock and its only 11am. I burned a bunch of screens. Caught a job. Burned more screens. We have one job that has all these different icon sizes and stuff. Lots of set ups/pallet changes. That was tackled in part near the end.

I ate those Ketchup Lays chips I got in the exchange/gift. They were very vinagar tasting, but did smell quite like ketchup.

Nearing the last chunk of chapters on Deathly Hallows. Have a few ideas for what I'll listen to next. Took me almost exactly the whole month to listen to all the audiobooks. I have a sense for what I'll listen to next.

I took it easy in the evening. Watched some TV.

Alana moved all the way out. :( I'm sad to see her vamoose like that. So now we either will get the two months notice...or won't and will have to find a NEW person.

Lame.

Got a AAA membership. Not the fanciest of ones, but maybe I'll upgrade. 5 miles of free towing isn't so useful if you might end up needing a tow on a Californian freeway. But the car seems in good order and I check the tire pressure regularly. The blue coolant symbol has been coming on a lot lately when I start up my car both at work and at home, but it goes away after 5 minutes of driving. Probably the incoming heat. Ah cars. I preferred my Portlander days when I didn't have to deal with them.

I looked into local art class/workshops, but the websites were terrible and the classes were expensive. I don't wanna pay that money on a gamble that it might suck/might not meet anyone to hang with.

goodies from across the border

Finished the drawing!! Might get some touches here and there, but for the most part I am DONE! WHOO! That took so much more work than I initially expected. Can't wait for y'all to see it!

Work:

I went to it. It was good. Printed. Burned. Coated. Sorted. We got some nicer tees in for one order. Well they seem nice, but they could also be scratchy because of the knits.

Before work:

Went to the post office to pick up this gift exchange I received. I've been doing these gift exchanges through this forum I'm a part of. This one was "hometown" themed, and I got a box of goodies from Toronto! Waaah! But I had to wait till after work to open it up.

After work:

Holy crap my exchange box was AWESOME!

Cool cardstock packing pyramids.

KETCHUP AND DILL PICKLE FLAVORED LAYS! I think I'll share some with Jeff tomorrow.

Kids in the Hall DVD set! WOAH! And a comic book...

And tea, chocolates, a mix CD, noodles, chips, ramune, a Scott Pilgrim poster. And they included a very nice letter detailing the gifts, and they left their email so I'm going to make an effort to turn them into a penpal. They had no reason to be so extravagant, they were just really nice and went for it. I sent off a Santa Cruz "hometown" gift to someone, but it wasn't the person who sent me this box. Sure Seabeck is more my hometown, but I'm a bit far away from there. But yeah, like, how great is this awesome haul! Canadians are so nice. I really should visit Toronto as it has so much stuff that is right up my alley. My friend Caroline just moved there. I should visit.

I like doing these gift exchanges. For one I went to that antiques market to find those steins. For another I painted that picture of Arya. It's a fun way to challenge myself to draw things or to see gifts out. And it just feels good to do nice things, you know? And I get goodies in return. This assortment was really needed too, because July has been tough.

Goodies and finished art. A good note to end the month on.

one day one, four to go till the next weekend

Ahhhh my eyes! Up late working, so close but I need to rest lest I mess everything up. It's looking REALLY GOOD I must say.

Work was rerunning two jobs. They both went pretty well. I burned some screens. I cleaned stuff. I...oh I forgot to go grocery shopping tonight. I'm out of fruit. Err. I'll do that tomorrow or something.

I also reclaimed a bunch of screens. Whooo! Keeping up with the need of mucho screens to be burned. Soon.

It wasn't really all that warm. It's been a bit cool in Santa Cruz lately, and it seems like it is really hot every where else. Ha. Non-coastal SUCKERS!

Didja like the gifts Ma?

making it look nice

Saturday:

Had a good little sleep in, and then I set about doing my laundry and cleaning my room. Alana moved more of her stuff out. I really want for us to say "landlord changed his mind, move back in!" Had some tea and an eggy breakfast. Did my makeup early on in the day because when it is the weekend and you are not getting all mussed up at work you can do your brows and eyeliner. It's fun.

Worked on the Odd Owl album art some more! It's really coming along. Should be done tomorrow night. Well the city portion should be done.

In the late afternoon Steve came down. We opted to head to the wharf for fish and chips, instead of working on our 99 bottles cards. It was a nice night for the walk. I put some pennies in the crushers on our way out to Stagnaro Brothers. We found a bench and ate our fish and chips while listening to the seals and seagulls. There was this grandpa trying to hoist his grandkid up to see the seals, and he (the grandpa) had a lit cigarette in his mouth. I was so afraid that he would burn the kid accidentally with it. Dessert was fudge from Marini's. The evenings entertainment was Welcome to Night Vale. Can't get enough of this awesome podcast, and now I've moved onto trying to get everyone else I know to listen to it.

Sunday:

The problem with making breakfast foods is that if you don't have milk you can't really make anything beyond scrambled eggs and toast. So Steve and I went to Buttery and got breakfasty sandwiches. And then breakfasty dessert of pecan bar and a bright pink Snowball made with home made marshmallow. Mmm that snowball was good. We walked down into a park and listened to the screams of the boardwalk. Those screams are really good at navigation throughout the downtown area.

There was a Wharf to Wharf run today, as evidenced by tons of people wearing Wharf to Wharf shirts and numbers. But since we didn't print those event shirts at work, I was unaware of this thing happening. Funny how that goes. Some things I only know about because we print them.

Steve headed back up north and I set to listening to audiobooks and working on the art. I made a good chunk of progress, I'm really stoked for how this is turning out! Should be an awesome album cover.

And now it is very late and another week begins. August is almost upon me. Woah.

"Accio Horcrux!" Yeah, nice try Harry.

A full day at work, hurrah! I cleaned the stuff, Jeff set up the job, we ran that job, I counted shirts, we got that set up, I burned some screens, listened to Harry Potter, cleaned a bajillion screens, reclaimed and coated a few screens. Nice full day to end the week on.

I've eaten too many gummy worms and now I don't feel so hot. 

Washed my work shirts.

Took it easy. Didn't do what I ought. I'm going to get some rest.

Happy Birthday Moooom! Didja have fun on the duck ride?

gummytastic

Started the day off by going to the post office and putting a package in the mail for Mom. Her birthday is tomorrow. Hopefully my gift will arrive soon. Yay Mom!

We started Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and it is narrated by Martin Freeman. Who just...his Zaphod is from New Yawk!! What the hell? It's just a really...not right voice for Zaphod. It doesn't fit like Douglas Adams or Stephen Fry's Zaphod. So we switched to Half Blood Prince. Stephen Fry is just great.

Boss gave me a 2.5 pound bag of gummy worms. I guess all my nagging about never getting perks from the candy store paid off! So many gummy worms. Hopefully they'll last through the weekend. If I finish the bag before the weekend is over...that is a lot of gummy worms.

We finished the job. It had to be partially boxed into tubs because parts of the job were going to different people, but then the rest was just boxed up. A good days work.

I burned some screens after that.

Worked on art when I got home. Though I'm behind...

some luck in July

Got the two big stacks of shirts printed! Yay! Now just the smaller stacks. Jeff and I finished listening to Hitchhiker's Guide. It ended up being a shorter day.

Came home to find my Luck Print Portfolio!! It had gotten lost in the mail, and so once it found its way back to Karen it was sent out once again and now I have it and it is so cool!

I worked on art, got that art done. Didn't work on the art I SHOULD be working on though. My emotional capabilities for certain things are totally shot right now.

Going to try harder at getting to bed at a right hour.

free food is free food

Had a nice, productive day at work. And the boss bought us all burritos! I was a bit suspicious about how cooked the chicken in mine was, next time someone is going to buy burritos I'll ask for steak. I have not gotten sick so I guess the chicken was fine.

We ran a bunch of smaller jobs. Have to do the quick ones before the long haul one. Which will be tomorrow. Long haul day, whoo! But getting hours is very good. Need the money money money now that I may eventually be moving moving moving.

Still no word from the landlord if our two months is here. Bleh.

Coated and burned screens and got home lateish. Worked on some art. Will work on some more art tomorrow.

Right now, I shall sleep.

I've used monday funday too many times

I feel so very tired. Need some iron or protein or something. A big ol' steak would be nice. Need to learn how to cook big ol' steaks.

A wrench was in the system at work, so we tended to shop stuff. I reclaimed a bunch of screens, coated half, burned some. Helped tape the job. Counted shirts. Not the most active day, but stuff was done.

Had a bunch of tea when I got home and worked on art stuff, though none of the art stuff that I SHOULD be doing.

Finished Order of the Phoenix which is just...so sad. Sirius :(

But Neville is a badass through and through.

designated relaxing weekend

Saturday:

This weekend was a recovery weekend. July is kicking my butt and hard. Lots of emotional stress. Alana is moving out now because she is not waiting for that 2 month notice and to have to look for a place whilst in class. She is moving in with her boyfriend. She just got fully settled and she is so cool. It really sucks.

Janet is working on cleaning out the basement and craft room. Preemptively going through the stuff that hasn't been gone through in a long while. She found her Sound of Music costume, which was an astroturf hat and cape, with a Julie Andrews figure on the top. She was the hills that were alive with the sound of music. Hahaha.

I walked to the Buttery and bought cupcakes, because cupcakes were needed. One for me, one for Janet, and one for Alana and Jared each. But they shared one, so I ended up eating two cupcakes.

I listened to Welcome to Night Vale and cleaned my room a bit. Just some tidying.

In the evening I went to see the new Refn movie "Only God Forgives". Odd to watch a movie where the villain is pretty much in the right, though I wouldn't say he was the villain. Very violent and I hid behind my hands a couple times. Beautiful but...errr. Not my cuppa tea.

Sunday:

Just like Saturday, I slept way in and it felt great.

Had a fried egg sandwich for breakfast. Relaxed. I went to Trader Joe's and got some food.

In the evening I biked down alongside the river to the Tannery (these artist lofts) and attended Marina's game night. Ryan and James were there, and I met Jordan, Jamie, Ariel, Rich, Jim, and Eric. Oh and Adele. A fun bunch. We played 25 words or less and I did exceptionally well in one round. From there we played Apples to Apples. It was a good group for it as well. No one played super literally, which is the worst way to play Apples to Apples.

It was a nice bike ride back. Very quiet. I was going through the park and rode past some cops but they didn't harang me. A little later on another person on a bike asked if there were any cops near by and I said "yes, in the park back there". Am I part of a cohort now?

Ahhh and now it is 1:25 and I should get to bed. Another exciting work week! I'm almost done with Order of the Phoenix.

Oh, and here is a photo of me looking pretty. Because I felt very pretty today.

yay for shoes, boo for everything else

The landlord came by with a realtor and contractor to look the place over a bit more, and they talked loudly about what they'd have to do and what needs to be done and all this stuff. Looks like we'll be getting the two months "move out" notice soon. I love living in this house. It's the right amount of space. I really like my housemates. I like the closeness to downtown. I just really like it and don't want to move. Don't want to foot the expenses of moving. Don't want to look for a new place.

Just don't want any of it.

So I worked on my leftovers, drank a Guinness, and now I'm trying to figure out which candy to eat first. Eating my emotions basically.

My new shoes arrived. Did I mention I finally bought a new pair of 'Roos for work? The price on Zappos dropped a bit. Poor things they just don't stand a chance.

At work we finished off the stack of shirts. I put on Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and there was a fun moment of Andrew double taking and saying, "did he just say Trillian?". We almost finished the whole book! Granted it is only about 5 hours long, but still. Yay for listening!

I broke down the press and cleaned the squeegees and floodbars and removed the tape from the screens. So tomorrow we will print a smallish job, get the backs set up on the big job, and get ready for next week.

Came home to the landlord stuff.

Have the feeling I'm forgetting stuff.

I need like two weeks of no obligations, no tasks, no nothing to be done about anything so that I can reset. It's been too busy, but it won't stop being busy till this month is over and even then who knows what August will bring.

Uhhhg

audiobooks in the queue for all to enjoy

Holy guacamole I'm beat!

Work was an endeavor of catching. It isn't hard but it is repetative and you just look at piles of shirts and KNOW you have hours left to work. But at the end I put on The Waste Lands on the stereo for Jeff and I to listen to (he requested an audiobook and I know he has read the Dark Tower series). Though I really dislike the narrator, so I may start something else tomorrow instead. Maybe Hitchhiker's Guide, because...DUH.

Finished one job and boxed it. Started the BIG 1500 piece job. Got about 1/3 of the way through it. I just had to take a second shower when I got home. Even my sweat was sweaty.

Theeeeen I met up with Ryan, Marina, and James to see Pacific Rim. Which was just as cool the second time around.

Now I'm back home and very tired. Off to bed with me!

winners and by proxy winners

Had a really good day! Work was largely spent catching a job, but I also helped clean squeegees and set up the job and other job stuff. It went by relatively fast, though I was hungry by the end. Morale is high and there is a good level of camaraderie. We've got two HUGE jobs to complete, but we shall do just that and it'll be awesome.

Back at home I relaxed for a bit. Changed out of my work clothes. On Zappos, Roos dropped in price so I finally caved and ordered a new pair of work shoes. Hate to doom them, but I've almost worn through the black sole on my current pair. Still have the white rubbery bit, but something tells me that that part isn't meant to be walked on.

Then I ran some quick downtown errands and met Ryan at 99 Bottles to hang out and catch up. I had the philly cheesesteak and ticked off #69 from my 99 Bottles card, and I convinced him to get a card. Tuesday night means raffle night as it turns out, and for each beer you get a ticket. Ryan won twice, but both wins resulted in the same Scrimshaw pint glass, so he gave me one. Awesome! Marina joined us, and we all got to gabbing and sketching and talking about bucket lists and art and travel. I ticked off #79 as well, but two pints was more than enough for me. Arrived at 7:30, left at 11:30. Pretty solid night of hanging out.

Been cooped up working on stuff, so yeah. Nice to get out.

Arya

  

5" x 7". pencil and ink on paper

feelin' good in this neighborhood

Three days of blogging! I think I'll go backwards for this one.

Today (aka Monday):

Welp, I got up to another gray day, though in Santa Cruz it normally just starts gray then clears up and is nice and blue. Work started slow. I caught some hat transfers, then I counted in some shirts. It was the type of work level where I can't do something lengthy like reclaim/coat/clean screens because I'll be needed to catch a job, but the job is taking some set up so I just sort of hang around tidying up a bit. Either way, it was okay. Though I think the next couple days are going to contain a madcap of high volume printing.

After Jeff was done, I reclaimed 20 screens. Something tells me we'll be needing them shortly.

At home I had some chocolate and tea and I, err, ordered more tea. I just like all the tea I've had from Adagio thus far, that I want more tea on hand. Plus I have incurred quite a few points, so I was able to cash them in for a gift card for myself! You get a point for every buck you spend (and you also get points for reviews and sharing on Facebook but I don't do those things). Anyway. Yeah. I'm so set for tea now. But I enjoy having the different blends. Do I feel like an earthy chamomile? Something floral? Yeah. Plus I've been drinking less beer now that I'm drinking more tea. Tea is better calorie wise, not that I'm a calorie counter. Also tea is cheaper in the long run. ANYWAY...I need to find a better place to store my teas, or organize them better on the shelf. Hmm.

I worked on some for fun paintings tonight. Just to keep my mind on fun things. Okay. Now. Lets get to the awesome weekend of fun with Auntie Brynne and Uncle Dan!

Saturday the 13th:

Brunch was moved to 11am, which worked for me. At 10:15ish I got a text from Brynne and Dan informing me that they had put our names on the list and that there were 10 people in front of them for seating. I was already up and showered by this point, so all I had to do was strut my stuff over to Zachary's and meet them! I started the day in pants, a shirt and a hoody.

I ordered the eggs benedict because I trust it to be delicious. Brynne had a hash and Dan a scramble. All was met with yums among good conversation about driving and art and vacation adventures. I like hanging with Brynne and Dan. They make for good conversation people and are very indulgent. They told me about how they wanted to trade cats, so Mom and Dad make sure that next time Salvador is near Auntie and Uncle, you don't get a dyed tabby bait and switch.

From brunch we walked up Pacific, wandering into a couple stores, and then we went into Verve for hot chocolate (me) and espresso (them). We looped around onto Front and said hello to Janet who was working a little street fair sale thingy. Then we walked down Front street and headed to their hotel to drop off things and change into warm weather clothes. They were staying near the wharf and had an excellent view of the bay. Brynne loaned me some shorts and I left my hoody in the hotel. Onwards we walked down to Lighthouse Field State Beach. We saw a young daughter surfing on her dads back like a turtle. Well he was laying flat on the board and paddling about in a non wave bit a water. Still it was cute. There were surfers, because there are always surfers. We went down to the dog beach and sat there for a while absorbing the sun and petting dogs. It was another nice meander back to the hotel, where Brynne took a nap while Dan and I walked out onto the wharf.

Collecting Brynne, we returned to my house. So much walking! Though all pretty easy walks. I was looking a bit pink on the cheeks at this point, but I had put on sunscreen so it could have been much worse. We had a little bit of ice cream and I showed them my place and then it was off again to downtown for dinner. Reservations had been made earlier in the day at Laili with the special request for patio seating. Ah what a patio! There was ivy growing up the walls and it was all just lovely. We had a salad course, a ... something course with yogurt and pumpkin, and the main red meat course with sides that were all delicious and naan (though it wasn't Indian food) and a bottle of wine shared betwixt us. It was all good and really nice. The table cloth was paper so we drew on it while waiting for food, hehe.

A chill had come in, so Brynne and Dan scuttled quickly off to their hotel and I returned home. Ah what a day!

Sunday:

Tried to sleep in but I was unsuccessful, so I had some oatmeal and did my internet rounds. I set out on my bike at 12:15 and picked up Brynne's hat from Laili (she had accidentally left it there) and then I headed east on Soquel for Charlie Hong Kong, where I had told Brynne, Dan, Nathan, and Christine to meet up for Lunch. In retrospect I might have suggested Santa Cruz Diner because that is a bit more "Santa Cruzy" but CHK is better for meeting groups of people who arrive at various times, versus a sit downish place, ya know? We all got noodles and I got the left overs! Christine (I'm sure that is her name but I may be wrong) is a former student of Brynne's. We all gabbed about this and that. Nathan did Tough Mudder on Saturday so he talked about that. He said the hardest part was doing it in wet shoes. None of us wanted to part ways after lunch, so we agreed to meet at my house and then carpool to De Laveaga for a walk. I figured that they could all easily find parking and then we'd all get into one car, but it just ended up being that only Christine could find one, and so they followed Nate & I to the park. I pass by the entrance every day on my way to work, so I figured it was high time to actually check it out. It was a wide well made path through the woods, with the sounds of a park full of people echoing up from the left. At one point we took some side trails and which led us right into the middle of a gold course. We wanted some water so we dashed across the green to sample from the water fountain. We found our way back to the path and then headed back to the cars. It wasn't the longest of walks but it was still a nice one. Always good to stretch one's feet. I hugged B & D goodbye, and we gave C a lift to her car. Nate sampled some of my tea and we chatted for a bit before he too headed back up.

Chatted with Daniel & Heather, and KRB a bit. Talked to Carmen about the upcoming album art. And that is where the day ended up. On a really good note.

I didn't get sunburnt. I had good company. I had lots of good food. I wish for more weekends like this.

Oh and good news, my print portfolio appears to no longer be lost in the mail! It should be back on its way to me soon. Yaay!

sketches of a fun time

My internet went weird last night and I couldn't post, sorry! I'll do a three day sum up tonight, promise! In the mean time, here are some sketches from my weekend with Brynne and Dan:

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.

so scary

Oh what, it's the 5th! You don't get to light off fireworks anymore!

Had a pretty relaxing Friday. Weeded vinyl. Cut out vinyl graphics. Prepped screens for discharge. Got part of the job. Cleaned stuff. Cut more vinyl. Next week boss will be gone, but the shop will still be open! Jeff and I will be running it real awesome like. Hopefully nothing will go wrong (nothing will go wrong).

At home I itemized my to do for the weekend. Got stuff to do!

I was craving theater popcorn, so I went to see Monsters University at the Del Mar. The lighting in the animation was amazing! Holy cow! Really beautifully animated movie. All the textures too. What skill!

vantage point

lil doodle

mopping is for suckas

Had a weird dream where I had a pet dog that was actually a sponge. Had a good sleep in as well.

Our landlord is going to give the house a lookiloo on Saturday, so Janet and I spent some time cleaning. I swept and scrubbed the downstairs floors. They are looking pretty good now. I also gave our bathroom a good scrub. Damn thing is a mildew trap!

I relaxed. Ate some pasta. Ate some candy.

When it got dark, I sat out my window and watched the neighbors light off fireworks. A nice little display in the street. And some of the bigger ones around town were visible as well. I waved to the people on the street if they noticed me. Heheh.

Later on people let off loud BTOOOOMMMM fireworks which set off many car alarms. Annoying.

And now I go to work for one day and then it is the weekend! That went by really fast. It's almost been a year since I moved to Santa Cruz. Should find that specific date.

new sweatshirt, just in time for summer!

Fireworks have been going off. And there have been some big crackers right on my street. It's very loud and jarring. Don't like it!

Today we took some of the extra shirts at work that have been laying about and printing work branded stuff on them. Well backs and sleeves were printed yesterday, we just finished them up. I got a new brown tee and a ash gray zip hoody with the front grill design. I weeded some vinyl. Finished Chamber of Secrets and started Prisoner of Azkaban. Broke down the press. Cleaned the press. Cleaned floodbars. I don't work tomorrow! Day off!

At home I washed my work shirts. The oil seems to be slowly washing out of them over time, which is good. I've been wearing an apron when I do the wash out tank, so the splash back on shirts stopped...well staining my shirts with oil. Hurray.

Overall a nice day. It wasn't too hot. Oh and I also caught a proper job.

Don't have any plans for my day off. Sleep in? Work on freelance? Read? Sun bathe if it is hot? Mmm.

Lipstick

Spellbound by Covergirl is my favorite lip color. It's so bright!

going in circles and u-turns

I am almost done with Chamber of Secrets! Granted I listened to it a bit more outside of work. Usually I just listen to stuff at work and splice it with music, but it's been all Harry Potter these past few days.

It was another cleaning & reclaiming spree at work. Though it now takes two days to do what used to take a week. Hurray for more efficient methods! I coated hats. I coated screens. I reclaimed screens. I cleaned more screens. The screens I reclaimed were good to coat. Slowly but surely the screen room is filling up! Hurray! I also cleaned the squeegees and floodbars. I don't mind cleaning because it is prime time for audiobook listening! I do mind unclogging the sink drain, but hey it's dirty work.

Got out a bit early.

I was scheduled to meet Tenaya at Coffee Cat at 7. Tenaya and I did the PNCA Pre College Program together way back in the day. Turns out she lives in Santa Cruz (till September when she moves to LA for grad school). The instructions said to take the Mt Hermon exit, take a U turn and the destination will be on the right. The first U turn I took put me back onto 17 headed South. Damn! So looping all the way back...the next U turn I took put me down a winding road. I asked a dude on a bike if he had any idea where it might be and he didn't know. So I turned around. I asked another person and they said it was probably next to the Safeway down the road. So I continued down the road and saw a store complex so I U turned...and it wasn't in that complex! So I got on the road and U turned again and then alllll the way down the road I saw the damn coffee shop. I was 30 minutes late!! I am loathed to be late. My GPS does not work anymore either. Grrr. Tenaya had to leave at 8ish, so we only got a brief time together, but we shall hang out more before summer is up!

And it took no time at all to get back to Santa Cruz. I filled up my tank on the way. Well I stopped and filled up my tank. I wasn't moving and filling up my tank. I don't think that is possible. And if it were, it probably wouldn't be very safe.

I did my laundry. Had some dinner. Took it easy. I've made a list of the things that I need to get accomplished in July. It's...quite a list. Got the album art to finish in the next couple weeks. 

cuppa cuppa tea

Joey got skunked right in the face. Poor dog. Now the house has a bit of odor, though I think Janet managed to keep her from rubbing on anything. Just a small wafts around, ya know?

Back to work! Yay! I caught hat transfers for a bit and then Andrew took over catching punk patches and I set about cleaning & reclaiming 24 screens.Why 24? Well because that is how many slots there are in the rack for dryer freshly coated screens. Tomorrow I'll coat those screens then set about cleaning another 24 screens. There is talk of maybe getting some part time kid in for a couple days and all they do is clean screens. Our production is really bumping up, so the new load of used screens is climbing.

I finished Sorcerer's Stone and started Chamber of Secrets. Giving the Harry Potter books a good relisten. Hurray!

Went grocery shopping and got my usual staples plus short bread with chocolate cookies.

I love my tea maker thingy gizmo. Makes it so easy to brew loose leaf tea in quantities that I like to drink. Mmm!

I've got more stuff to accomplish coming up. Always making lists! Crazy to be busy.

creative post title

Did my best attempt at sleeping in, but even then I got up before noon. Had my tea and cereal. Tidied my room.

I went to the Capitola Mall to do some unmentionables shopping. Kinda sucks though because the good stuff that fits right is pricey. Sure I can afford it, but I'd rather spend my hard earned money on tea or books or candy. Boo. Not a fun experience shopping. I have no patience to try on lots of different things. Blehh. I was happy to be rid of the mall.

Went home and relaxed. Took it easy for the rest of the day. A 3 day weekend is rather nice to have, but back to it! Have a lot of screens to clean tomorrow. And reclaim. And I have more Odd Owl commission work to do. And Brynne and Dan are visiting soon. Time flies!