lonely and not lonely

Making this quick because I'm expecting company (Anita and Cheyenne) in fifteen minutes. Kinda funny to follow up THIS comic with the expectation of a reduction of loneliness.

Anyway. Got up. Coffee. Scrambled eggs and bacon. Tidying. Folded towels. Sweeping. Putting away of stuff. Drawing. More cleaning. House looks pretty good now, though some people enjoy no clutter at all. So it's nice by MY standards, but maybe not someone elses? But I made sure there is no mouse in the trap, so that should count for something. I'm using these comics as a way to branch out in technique. 

Yeah, pretty happy with that comic. Drawing environments is fun. There's a tendency to default to figures floating in a plane.

I spent way too long looking for a reference of the exterior of the house before realizing that durrr I could step outside and take a photo. I can work from memory, but sometimes it's good to have a reference.

Okay, time to make a fire! See you on the other side.

pages of eyes

Drew this while watching Housebound, a sort of silly New Zealand horror movie. Not silly enough to be full on comedy horror, but not gorey enough to be totally horror. I dug it.

My comics are being well received on Instagram. Consistently getting 20+ likes, which is good for me! I changed the paper I used, and it seemed to scan better.

I put away clothes, put paper stuff into the burnables, did dishes, put away dishes, swept, I've got towels in the dryer. I got all my letters together into a folder. It's just a lot of picking up of things.

bff4ever

Are you liking having comics start these entries? I know I am! I do them in about an hour, which is a good pace. And for each one I do, I generate two more ideas. If I keep at it, I'll get a nice little batch AND I'll only get better! I'm kinda remembering how I draw people too. Like doodles of people. I have several styles. Anyhoo! Yeah! Art!

Today was a Faux First Friday in Bremerton. Faux because the real one was new years and they didn't do it. I just hung out at Bremerton Letterpress Co. which is where Karen's (aka KB) new press is! She got a (used) Vandercook and now it has a home with Marin...Marit? who is really nice and it's a new shop downtown. They got cards and bags and mugs and prints and stuff. And presses with which to make awesome cards. So this is even better for KB because there's a space to work from and a person to work with! So it should bolster both their businesses. And there was talk about me designing a card to be printed and sold. Just gotta get a little portfolio together. I've neglected to scan all my mushroom drawings, so I need to make a few more of those. Local & nautical sells. 

So I hung out. Met people. Gave Karen and Rob their baby shower gift (a baby sling). There's baby showers coming up, but I don't know if I'll be able to make them (one's in Portland the weekend after I'm going down, not sure if I'd want to do two trips but maybe I'll go down with Karen on the second one and split gas?)(and the second is with her sister and I don't know where that is, probably Washington, but yeah). So I gave them their present and they were like "ohh we heard good things about this" and "this is just what we needed!" so hurray!

Karen is seven and a half months pregnant, and ran the tressel press. Because she's a champ.

So if you're in Downtown Bremerton, check out the store front! It's really nice!

I also dropped off a garbage load. It went up fifteen cents! Yikes! Garbage and recycling. It was all looking a bit full. So that errand is done! And I reorganized my books to accommodate new acquisitions. Another task done. Tomorrow is a cleaning day. I really want to get a lot checked off the list. Cleaning, organizing. Yeah.

I'm also writing a lot more in this blog, after what felt like a year of very short posts. But I think I'm also talking my way through life changes and life focus. As I said during college, if I did nothing I had to write I did nothing so this blog helped me be a lot more accountable to my school work. So I'm taking myself to task for getting myself accomplished at being an adult.

get ready, get set

Loook! Drawing more! I want to do at least one comic a day. They are doing pretty well on Instagram. I'm trying to figure out the way to have them look the best. I went up to the garage apartment and dug through my old boxes and pulled out old barely used sketchbooks. I found some old reems of bristol paper. Basically better paper, because the little sketchbook I've been using doesn't have a heavy paper weight and the pens bleed. Yeah. I'm now motivated to overhaul a tidying of the house. I want to get my art supplies together, I want to get books put away better, I want this space to be less cluttered. I want to know where everything is, as well. Because every now and again I'll be like "where's this thing?" and I have to dig and dig for a while to find it. Right now I'm trying to find the 26th card I printed of Nate & Helen's Christmas present. The blooper card. Still looks nice, I just need to scan it. I really need a portfolio overhaul and to do that I must have new work to shove into it.

People like those cookies. Karen wants a print. I just need to figure out how to make prints? I guess? I'm just worried about the screen to print out transition, because there's been things that look WILDLY different when I look at them on my phone (typically my sketches, the paper looks more yellow).

Anyway, the fire is under me and it feels awesome!

And Anita and Cheyenne are visiting on Sunday! You might remember Anita from Santa Cruz or from Delaware. Nice to host on her roadtrip, like she hosted on mine.

Uhhmm. Yeah. Tidying. Arting. Want to tidy more tomorrow. Might also leave the house and hang with Karen at a First Friday in Bremerton.

My mood right now is doing pretty good. I think I have a little room of mental space of "get stuff cleared out and organized" and basically getting ready. Ready for what? Dunno. Whatever happens next. But I don't want to get there unorganized. I want to be a better me when I step up to the plate.

I need to make work

Look! Another comic! I'll try to do daily comics. Daily drawings. Draw SOMETHING ANYTHING daily. I wonder if I can swing taking January off to just make some goddang work, and then leverage a month of making into making and a job. Ya know? Like I have good drawing habits built up over the month, and then I find a job post birthday and stuff?

I also have another thing drawn right now that I'll scan in the morning. And I dug out a notebook that I only used a few pages in and I started jotting down comic ideas. I have ideas! I just haven't been drawing them.

Anyway, yeah. Gotta get projects going.

re: unemployment. Yeah I probably can get it, but I'm worried that filing for it will screw up health insurance & future tax stuff. Benefits vs costs, ya know?

Ran a Target errand. I got a good snicker at this down that was supposed to say BREATHE DEEP but the way the lettering was stacked, it kinda looked like BREATHE BREDEEP. Star Wars toys still largely sold out. There was a Rey Jakku Lego toy though, that was cool! I didn't get it, I just admired it. I got bread and other stuff.

Went home. Drew. Watched Drunk History. Felt a bit better.

laid off comic

Look! Blogging the day of! And I drew something (see above). Maybe I'll just auto bio comic my way to success! That's what a lot of illustrators do when they are suddenly unemployed.

Anyway. Had a rough night sleep, Stayed home. Leaving the house tomorrow though. Sat in front of the fire. Drew. Listened to podcasts. Need to draw more, what else am I doing? Nothing, that's what.

Maybe I should get my booze handlers permit, just so I'm set for applying at different job places.

Ya. Mellow day.

dungeons and dragons and that's sister wendy if you're Nolar

2nd

Slept in and had pasta for a late breakfast. Didn't do much inbetween waking up and heading out to the game meet up. It was pretty chilly. I drove slow and safe. The house was easy to find. Up in the woods of north west Port Townsend. People there: Ron (his house) Rowan, Evelyn (Ron's kids), Ron's wife I think but she didn't play with us, Alex, some guy, Logan who I could swear I knew from somewhere, Emerald, Morgan, and two other people. Emerald helped me make my character! So nice! My character for a new dungeons and dragons campaign. I am jumping in at 4th level. A 4th level neutral good cleric named Wensledale. She's a halfling and apparently the conscience of the group. The campaign is sort of a mystery with ghoul bites. We accidentally shot a farmer's daughter with arrows and I hurt my team when I subdued a mental patient with a sonic spell. But I healed them, and chastised the doctor for his poor care of his patient. The gaming went from 6 to 10:30ish! A good long game! I'll be back in two weeks for another round, and in the mean time I'll brush up on my knowledge. Emerald loaned me a USB full of D&D literature so I have that to study. Excited to get into it and expand my universe. Seems like a good way to meet local area nerds, as there isn't a local indie comic scene this side of the water.

It was a slow drive back with the temperature being so low and the roads being clearly ice on the side.

3rd

Not much of a day. Loafed around. Lit a fire. Made kindling. Read The Girl on the Train (very good thus far!). Tidied up a little. Had pot stickers. Watched telly.

4th

Had to leave the house as I've been out of vegetables for a while. Long overdue for a grocery run. I used my Barnes and Noble gift card that Hans gave me on Tomine's Killing and Dying. Yay for comics! I was hoping B&N might have dice for sale, but no dice. Avalon Comics, where Wizards used to be, did though! Sean and Michael were nice fellows who pointed out there is Tuesday DND at the shop. Ohhh! Except Tuesday might be beekeeping classes too? Though haha I'm unemployed, what am I doing thinking about doing fun things? I needa find a job. I have enough to absolutely get through January but February will be dodgy. But it's nice to know I have time to read and sit in front of the fire. I need to do a tidying overhaul again, because there's lots of odds and ends sitting about. And need to make a dump run too as the trash is getting full. Argh.

Where was I? Oh yeah, dice! I bought some of the other dice (D12 D4 D8 D10 and percentile) from Avalon, so that I wouldn't have to continue borrowing Emerald's. I already had that D20 I got so Dad could reference it for his boxes. Now I have a funky little assortment. There's lots of different style of dice. If I continue playing, maybe I'll invest in a match set (big investment of like, $5).

So that was nice. Not nice was paying a visit to Ma and Pa and having them talk over me when I had a bunch of different things to talk about. Guess that is why I need to keep up with this blog more regularly. The ol' one sided conversation. I talk to people so rarely in person, so it's real shitty to not get a conversation during the rare chances that I do have. But I got my mail and got a few nice cards.

Swung by Trader Joe's and got food. There's a chocolate milk in my fridge. Treat to myself! And eggs, baco...ohh did I forget bread? Yeah I think I forgot to get bread. Damnit. Well I have eggs and bacon and I might make another trip to Silverdale soon. Or over yonder that way.

Lit a fire when I got home and computered in front of it. The heat just doesn't reach the master bedroom like I want it to.

a story of boys and hankies

Have y'all enjoyed that cookie piece? I like having it up there. Anyway, on Wednesday I dropped it off with boss, who commissioned it.

I got up, put on a dress and tights and medium sweater and long gray coat and boots and did my makeup and set out to have a day of fun! I left enough time to swing by the office and drop off the piece.

And so I must sadly mention that that may have been my last visit to the office. I was laid off. But understandably so. Need more clients to have more work for me. Hopefully I'll get a call in a week saying "we got one!!" but for now, I continue as if I need to get a new job. Sad, but that's how it goes sometimes. So I saw Boss and Bodi and we hugged.

I caught the ferry with time to spare and chilled. The Bainbridge crossing really flies by I feel. By the time I've had a hot dog and taken a few selfies, we are already in Seattle and I'm disembarking. Chris would be a bit late to meet me for coffee, so I took my take taking pictures of buildings. It was a nice clear day, cold sure but I had a good overcoat and scarf. The lady barista at Storyville coffee was utterly darling. I complimented her brows and she seemed very joyed by what I said. The dude baristas had a vibe of "what are these girls talking about?" but brows are important, yo.

My coffee was tasty and Chris arrived and we caught up, I was finally able to give him this Battles letterpress poster that I've had forever. I got it as a freebie from Karen when she interned at Hammerpress, and I've just consistently neglected to get it to him. Till now! It's a cool poster, but I don't listen to Battles. Chris does. It was just a brief meeting, as he had plans later and I had plans a bit later too. At the coffee shop I realized I had dropped my hankie somewhere between the ferry and coffee. Bummer, because that hankie belonged to Grandpa Joe and had an embroidered S on it.

Parted ways with Chris and walked over to Kinokuniya. A nice walk on a nice day. I met up with Cameron, who I met at the Dir En Grey show and we hung out for a bit. A little meet up. Nice fella. We had takoyaki and talked things and cooking and travel (he's a Canadian!). And had some bubble tea. And he was so nice he dropped me off downtown. I was prepared to walk, but he dropped me off.

I was going to see Hateful Eight with Marcus, but he was unable to get a ticket due to it selling out. So I went solo. I got there early and was pretty near the start of the line. Got a seat in the near center of the first row at the start of the upwards seating. I sat next to one person, but the person who came into the row after me sat one away. It's a sold out show dude, sit next to someone!

But because that spot was open, a late comer was able to take a really good spot instead of being stuck in some corner place. I got to talking to this guy (there's a lot of men mentioned in this post) next to me, and he was a good dude to chat to, though not when the movie was going of course. He shared a bit of his flask of bourbon with me (which wasn't a big flask, and it wasn't full) which was a nice way to punctuate the movie.

So The Hateful Eight was pretty dang cool! And I went all the way to Seattle to see the 70mm showing. Very stellar. It had an intermission and an overture. Great performances all around, beautiful sets, and yes gore and violence because hello Tarantino movie. Yeah it was great. Well worth the travel, and I had a good day all around so that was worth it.

After the screening, the guy I sat next to and I got to talking. His name is John. He walked me down to the ferry, because the conversation continued to go well. Well I invited him to walk with me, he didn't follow. I mentioned that I had lost my embroidered hankie and that we should be on the look out for it. I even retraced my steps to the ferry. And there at Madison and just past Alaskan Way where I stopped to take a picture of a building....there it was! Barely stepped on! Just there! And I was able to show John the embroidery that PROVED it was the hankie I mentioned and not just some random Seattle hankie.

Really says something about Seattle trash collection when that stays put for eight hours.

I gave John my number and said adieu. Talked to two MORE dudes on the ferry ride back. They had the Hateful Eight programs so I knew we had a topic starter. They both had wedding rings, so I wasn't about that. I just like talking to people. Turns out the programs have different centerfolds. I'm really happy with my Demian Bichir centerfold.

My car was iced over, so I had to crank the heat and break out the scraper. I drove steady and slow back home. It was below freezing. I don't know if I've driven in 27 degrees since Colorado?

New Years Eve was pretty mellow. Talked to Celia a bit. Slept in. Tidied up a little. When the clock rolled over, I sat on the seawall and lit fireworks. Roman candles and sparklers mostly. One bottlerocket. Found out I can make this gaming meetup on the 2nd. I'm looking forward to that!

New Years Day started with a hike! Ma and Pa were on their way to meet up and Celia and I didn't have much time to get clean and dressed and on our way. Corbie was taking himself for a walk, and showed up on the driveway as we were headed out (I carpooled with Celia). Met Ma and Pa at the Overpass Lot and we went in the van together to Gibbs Lake. The loop trail took about two hours, and it was a nice path. Some ups and downs, but nothing too strenuous. Plenty of frost pushed up through the ground, and cool fluffy frost too. A nice brisk start to the new year. Post hike, we ate at the 101 Brewery and Cafe. I had fish and chips, there were bacon garlic fries ordered for the table, and we ate heartily. Yum num. One of those meals consumed at just the right time, because I haven't needed to eat again since.

I picked up some mail from Ma and Pa and we returned to Pulali. I chilled for a bit, got the new episode of Sherlock, and later in the evening went over to Celia's and we watched Sherlock! It was awesome. Fun how it went back in time with all the awesome production values. Celia is great to watch Sherlock with.

And now I'm super congested! I was doing really well. Cat allergies. Boo.

So now it's 2016, how 'bout that?

cookies 2015

graphite and watercolor on fabriano

2015

family, friends, family friends

Woof! Way behind! It's been a heckuva quadruple of days.

So after Christmas, I went back to Pulali a bit before Mom and Dad left. I lit a fire, tidied up, started some laundry, vacuumed. Ma and Pa arrived about an hour after I did. Hans and Corrine visited during this time. They were over at Celia's, and Ma and Pa went over before I did, and I followed suit a bit after. Corrine made a cake in my oven. Celia made a roast beast. Dad grilled some salmon. There was soup and bread and gravy. Lots of good stuff! A little family and friends food and game playing. We played Win Lose or Draw, and I decimated! I won so hard. Felt good to win that much after not winning many games. Played a few rounds of Scattergories too. Dessert was at my house, we had cake and icing and watched The Incredible. I put on my new jimjams and went to bed.

I'm sleeping in the twin bed for the next while. I like to mix it up. Switch back and forth. The big bed was feeling too big.

Ma and Pa and Hans left early in the morning. I slept in and vegged out. A nice day off from a couple social days and the many hours spent making the cards. Which now that Nate and Helen have their present, I can reveal that I spent many hours printing them a set of custom cards! The design turned out really nice. It's their house, with seven spot colors. Only printed 25 because holy hell any more would have taken a long time. And I did custom return envelopes too. Nice gifty!

So yeah, spent a day relaxing and keeping warm and all that.

So that brings us to....Monday? Yes. Yesterday. I slept in and relaxed, and then plans suddenly changed with Kristen (my old roommate in college who now lives in Canada but has family in Kitsap) and she was having a little spring roll dinner tonight because the next day she was going to Seattle with Alain (not Mel's Alain, her own Alain). So I prettied myself up and popped over to Seabeck to pick up some mail and gifts, then went to her place! Well her parent's place.

Alain is a nice fella, and I met her friend Jillian. We had spring rolls and wine and gabbed and gabbed. Gabbed till 2am!! We had lots of catching up and lots of life and lots of memories to go over. It was fun. And got to know Alain too, he's a new fella to meet. I did not have wine anywhere near the time I departed, don't worry. I got home at 3 and actually got up and not a horribly late hour,

I've been doing a lot of two meals lately. My appetite has gone way down. I don't get hungry till later, and I stay not hungry. Not the worst thing, as I'm prone to just scarfing tons of food. Had some udon later. Worked on a piece commission for Boss, but a separate commission from work. Just a "I need a piece from you as an illustrator for something else".

I'm really happy with how it turned out. Just the right amount of labor for the price.

Got some news this morning (the 29th). Won't disclose it fully just yet as I'm still processing it.

Just know that there is news.

xmas 2k16

Merry Christmas! We've had a nice lowkey one this year, which I ain't complaining about! No rushing about, hauling gifts, buying a bajillion things, or real struggles to do a lot of stuff. Just presents between three people, food, fun, and episode of Chopped, and merriment.

Yesterday, Christmas Eve, I got up earlier than usual and tidied house and packed up and wrapped Nathan & Helen's present and got the rest of my letters addressed and ready to go. I got out of the house at around 3:50 to get to the Post Office in time. I got there at 4:20 and it closes at 4:30. Got N&H's prezzie in the mail with a tracking number and off it went!

And so I left for Seabeck.

At one point in the drive, a mouse crawled out of my car hood and onto my window, but as I was driving sorta fast, it was unable to hold on and it slid off into the night. Hopefully there are not more mice. Guess I'll set a trap overnight in my car?

I arrived in Seabeck at not a bad hour. Paid rent by flinging twenties in the air. Dad made me a hot buttered rum and we played Tetris Block, this letter game, and this other game. I didn't win anything.

I wrapped presents hastily and went to bed at a good hour.

Come morning I blasted the John Finnemore Christmas classic "Get Dressed You Merry Gentleman" as I descended the stairs.

I dumped out my stocking and assembled my Everglades Park Ranger & Swamp Ruffian Lego set.

Dad made coffee and waffles. Tasty tasty. Presents were opened. I got Sugar Skull and The Girl on the Train and a water rescue Playmobil and a fancy popcorn set and some new slippers and pajamas and something I won't spoil for Nathan that is REALLY COOL!

Nice little haul indeed. I got Dad two cozy knit hats (both had good reviews and I didn't know which to get so I got both) and a book about a North Pole explorer and a South Pole explorer. Mom got a nice apron and two bags with birds on them, and she has a fourth present still in the mail.

We took a little hike to the creek and ate a Christmas dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, broccoli and OHMYGOD I just remembered I'll be getting PEOTWHS in the morning. Yuusss.

After dinner we played Beyond Balderdash and I lost by a considerable amount. Then we watched Shaolin Soccer (which was weirder than I remember it being) and an episode of Chopped.

Now it's night time. Goodnight!

hi I'm tired (hello tired, I'm a dad joke!)

AUUHHGGG I'm tired! I just finished Nathan & Helen's present. I wanted to get it in the mail tomorrow. So now it's done. WHOO!! And that is what I've been doing today. Talked to Celia a bit. Didn't clean or tidy. Just finished that up. Won't talk about what it is, and if you want to see it: check out my Instagram. If you DON'T WANT TO SEE IT, AVOID MY INSTAGRAM!!!

Yesterday I met Ma and Pa for the 3:20 showing of Star Wars in Poulsbo. On my way there I dropped off a few more cards, so now there are 93 cards in circulation. Star Wars was hella fun the second time around. Yay the Force!

Afterwards we went to dinner at that thai place on the corner in Poulsbo. I went for the wide flat noodles, as something new. They were really damn tasty!

After a nice dinner with nice family and discussions of beekeeping classes, I made a vitamins run and envelopes run up on the stores on the hill. So I got that done and headed back home.

At least I slept in this morning, but I shouldn't do that tomorrow. Got stuff to do tomorrow, but at least with a Post Office deadline, I can get my boot scootin'.

GOOD NIGHT!

85/100

Sunday! Sunday I just worked on writing cards all day, pretty much. I did a bit of cleaning, but yeah...mostly cards. I have 85 in the mail right now! I dropped off what I had in the evening, so they'll go out in the Monday morning post from Brinnon.

My legs hurt. I spend too much time sitting.

Monday I did clean house a bit. I tidied the dresser drawer top and put things away. Did some laundry. Put other things away. There's still more to be put away, but I made a dent.

I started work on Nathan and Helen's present. It's looking pretty good thus far. Just need to actually figure out how to do an element of it.

Might see Star Wars again tomorrow. Got stuff to work on! And a few more cards to drop off. I'm almost out of them.

family times

Auhhg sleepy. I got up early today to haul butt to the Post Office in the early morning window to make sure the first wave of holiday cards, 33 in total, got into circulation. I've dropped off another 13 tonight in Port Townsend. I want to get a whole 'nother chunk off by Monday. Ideally most of the ones I really want to get circulating. I don't want people getting theirs super late and feeling bad.

Thursday! I worked on site, but not too much. I mean, there was a break in the middle of the day where Boss made us a little Christmas lunch of veggie stuffed noodles and chocolate cake. Yum! Such good eating. I mainly worked the spreadsheet while she pulled items for consignment. Then I left to go see STAR WARS!!! Well first I filled up my tank and put in fuel injector cleaner and a quart of oil. Due for another oil change, I'm at 261k. THEN I went to Poulsbo to see Star Wars! I had snacks and a seat that was closer than I like but still not bad. The mixed nerd audience was so great. Everyone reacted the same and was super into it, and applauded! Multiple times! So great.

It was amazing and I can't wait to see it again. No spoilers!

Friday I worked on cards. I got a heap of stamps and worked on cards. Got them editioned and stamped and got 33 written up by the end of the day. I'd write more tonight but my hand is sore.

Today, Saturday, after dropping off the letters I worked on more letters. At 6:30, Celia and I went up to Port Townsend to meet assorted family members for food at Sweet Lorraine's. It was Brynne and Dan and Muchim and Averie specifically, and Jeanette and Clay arrived for dessert. Presents were exchanged our way, wine was consumed, I had the gnocchi (with mussles and fries starters which were shared). It was a great little round table of people. Lots of conversation and catching up and laughter and development in life. I should hang with Jeanette more often, because she's over in Port Townsend frequently. She's good people.

Celia drove home (see: me having had a couple glasses of wine) and now it's all rainy and I'm going to sleep in tomorrow!

I really need to clean house. It's gotten pretty ... piles of sweaters and stuff. Just a bit of tidying, probably won't take more than an hour to do it. I just need to do it. And I'll write up more cards.

swinging for the fences with these cards and it feels great

Mein gott, I see Star Wars tomorrow!! Ahhhh!!

And I'm working on site, so I won't be at the internet to see spoilers. That's a good thing.

Sooo Tuesday and Wednesday.

Yesterday I worked from home on eBay stuff. Relisted a bunch of stuff just to refresh it in the eBay searches, as well as bring down the prices on a lot of things that hadn't sold.

And I cut more paper for my cards. The edition is sitting nicely at 110. Technically there are 113 made, but those three cards will be special ones given to people before the edition is really ready to go. Right now, the 110 cards have two of their three spot colors painted in. I hope to drop the first batch in the mail on Friday. I'm so happy with how they look, and I can't wait for people to get them.

So worked on the cards yesterday and worked on the cards today. I also ran a Silverdale errand and picked up a make your own stamp kit, so that I don't have to write in my return address on every dang envelope. Also it'll be fun to stamp the "hand printed" blah de blah on the back. The stamp kit has two size letters and stamp bases to put the letters into. Pretty neat. I went to Seabeck and got food and picked up my mail. Said hi to Ma and Pa. Returned home.

Celia got her birthday presents early: two cute catnip toys made by my dear friend Petra! One was shaped like a pizza and the other like a poptart. Teddy loved them, Panda seemed confused, and Sam was Sam. Celia got the first card and she really liked it. Hurray!

Returned home. Worked on cards and other art. Want to finish something before tomorrow.

See ya on the flip side!

it feels good to be making art

Saturday & Sunday & Monday

So in the past few days I have:

• Slept in, of course. That's what I do.
• I saw Krampus with Karen on Sunday. It was fun and well balanced. Had a lot of different things going but it managed too juggle them very well.
• Finished all my Yakult. 
• Shopped at Trader Joe's, where the cashier recognized me because my cool totes had come through her line before. She admired them again.
• Started carving a linoleum block to turn into a print for holiday cards.
• Cut up paper to print on for the block.
• Went to Sequim to shop for card supplies. Did NOT want to drive to Poulsbo, so I drove an extra five minutes. Sequim ain't too shabby a place. Got envelopes and washi tape at Office Max and a good stamp pad at Hopalongs? Doodlebugs! That's it. The lady didn't seem to quite get what I was talking about when I said I was printing a linoleum block and was a bit condescending in explaining how they stamp with ink pads, when all I wanted to make sure was that the pad was raised and not inset (a gel pad wouldn't work, my block is too bid).
• Still, nice to explore north a bit.
• Listened to podcasts.
• Ate irregularly.
• Ordered Christmas presents. Hopefully they'll all arrive before Christmas. Mom & Dad, don't open anything that arrives in my name!!
• Asked for Monday to be a chill day for me. Got the chill day.
• Watched TV.
• Went to bed earlier than usual.
• Finished the block and started printing.
• I'm printing 75 to start with, and there is currently 68 names in the address list, though I may not send cards to all the people. There's a few that are priority though.
• Pre-ordered my Star Wars ticket! Just have to make it to Thursday spoiler free. One day down, two to go.

In the next few days I need to:

• Work. Working on site on Thursday then going to see Star Wars.
• Work from home probably.
• Finish the cards and start getting them mailed out.
• Buy stamps.
• Doctor's appointment on Wednesday.

Ma and Pa: if a package arrives for me, give it to Celia to give to me when you see her on Thursday.

eBay listing marathon

Spent the last two days working from home in a cocoon of blankets working on listing items on eBay for work. Just did that for two full days of work. Did lots of sleep too.

But dang so much listing. Almost too much to do in a reasonable period of time. But it was the big pre-holiday push! So hopefully we pick up some juicy sales.

Weather has been okay. I ate noodles and apples and other things. Did laundry. Now I'm wiped from looking at the computer. Tomorrow I'm going to make some art! Stoked to make art!

Stoked to take a break too. And do some online chrissy massy shopping.

Arghhh. Burnt out.

I'm becoming utterly desensitized to fine quality jewlery

All righty, time to get caught up!

Well Monday and Tuesday I stayed home and worked from home. Mostly doing spreadsheet work. Researching, editing, writing up descriptions, that kind of thing. Slept in a mild amount. Stayed up maybe a bit too late. Ate noodles and bacon and eggs, but not all at once. Drank coffee and drank tea. Haven't lit a fire yet. Fires take so much effort and my wood is so wet. But maybe it's less damp now that the rain has paused for a moment.

It's been so rainy! Just pouring and tons of run off and I know it's Washington, but it seems a bit much even for the Evergreen state!

I worked onsite today (Wednesday) though I was by myself. With Bodi. Boss would be gone all day so it was partially a look after Bodi day. Let him out. Fed him. Gave him lots of pets. For work I finished measurements and testing the metal purities. We got a fancy gold testing kit so now we can really know what the qualities are of the things we are selling. The stamps seem to match up. Basically you scratch a bit of the gold off, and dribble chemicals on the scratch (it's on a little tester stone thingy) and if it dissolves, it's less than the matching purity of the chemical. So there's one for 10k and one for 14k and one for 18k and one for 22k. Fun! But time consuming. I hope I did it right. Like I said, the stamps on the gold that said it was 10k or 14k or whatever, it matched up to what I tested. A good control. It took time, but now all I have to do for the next to days is bust out eBay listings. I average 20 per 3 hours, but if I really get into the zone I can go faster.

I worked noonish to eightish, so I got back later than usual BUT I didn't have to deal with the traffic. I swung by Central Market and bought a salmon musubi for the road, and yakult and udon and Tapatio and maltesers and lychee soda. Yum yum.

So yeah, work work work, earn that cash, then weekend! Maybe I'll go hang with Karen.

OH and I also bought supplies for making prezzies, and the clerk knew where my name was from so that was fun to gab about Hitchhiker's Guide for a little bit.

And I really wish Healthcare.gov would stop emailing me because I'm covered till 2017!! The deadline doesn't apply to me!

hat hair and fighting the elements

If you are Ma or Pa or someone else looking to get me gifts for Christmas or my birthday, I put up a list right over yonder to the right >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

*****

Got three days to sum up again! Hope y'all aren't minding too much that the posts have slowed consistently, but hey I'm still writing to check in multiple times a week.

Friday I worked on site. Hauled over the jewelry and lighting equipment. Set it up again so we have the studio to show off when visitors come by. I helped inventory items and add in descriptions and I moved about boxes. Got a lot of stuff to list next week. A loooot of stuff. But we'll make money, so that's good! I gave Bodi some pets and headed out.

Deposited checks, ran a Target errand, and got home where Ma and Pa were! They came over during the day when I was at work. They saved me a plate of food, and they fed Celia too. It was rainy but Dad started a fire so it was cozy.

Come morning, they did yard work and hauled up the kayaks. Dad made me a new mallet for the kindling chopper, because I broke the other one. A rain barrel was installed as well! It's going to divert the run off from the gutters that's been eroding the side of the bank. Can't have the house fall into the bay. Dad cooked up some steaks for lunch and I made garlic jasmine rice. They headed out while it was still daylight and I chilled at home and went to bed early.

I've been really tired this weekend. I slept in, and have been going about in just a tired fog. Wonder what's up with that.

I drove up to Port Townsend to get some art supplies and the STORE WAS CLOSED! Closed on a Sunday! Boooo! But I had other plans for PT. I saw Room, which stars Brie Larson. Very heavy drama with excellent performances. So good. I'm amazed I didn't cry, but I wanted to. Her performance just trumps anything else done this year. I got dinner and a Victorian coffee at the theater (the Starlight Room). I got a house salad! Healthy choice!

I did some food shopping at the QFC after, and headed home. Damn it was a horrible drive both up and down. Rain pouring, wind pushing. I kept it slow and tried to keep the car out of the rain filled grooves in the pavement. Just really nasty stuff. Thankfully other drivers were acting sensibly as well. No speeders or tailgaters.

So I'm back at home, feeling tired even though I got plenty of sleep at it is 9 pm.

Felt like writing now, instead of much much later.

I'm wearing that hat I found in the hotel. Dad doesn't seem to want it, so it's mine!

working for that dolla dolla bill

Oy my hand is hurting. I've worked three full days in a row and I got another one tomorrow. We are hustling to get jewelry ready for sale on our eBay.

Tuesday I set up our brand spanking new lighting tent. It's so beautiful! Our photos look so great. Well my photos look so great. But yeah, lighting and a bit of knowledge of camera settings and you can get some really dynamic pictures. So stoked on how they are looking. I'm stoked on many things.

Uhm yeah, so Tuesday I photographed and then it was decided I'd bring the photo tent and work from home. Two days of working from home to get as much of it done as possible.

It's been rainy, but not as freezing. I haven't lit a fire since Monday.

Wednesday I set up the tent in the second story garage room. Perfect space. Long table, secondary table, power outlets, and the WiFi doesn't reach out there. Well it gets like, a bar, which is enough to do a few things but not major internet stuff. And today I shot photos too. And edited. I got them all edited, so that's good. I helped Celia break apart a tree that fell across the road.

I need to make a food run. I'm down to scraps.

Also the back freezer has stopped freezing, so all the crab bait is in the main freezer. Good thing it's just crab meat that got a bit soft, and I didn't lose any edible food.

Well I'm tired. Good night.

back to winter

Saturday

I packed my things into the van, and the five of us went in Nate's car to Palo Alto to get a pre-leaving brunch! Nice to stuff one self before a long drive. Parking was found in the exact same place we parked a few days ago when Nate was picking up his mail. The brunch place, Crepevia or something, had a line but it moved along pretty fast. You ordered once you got to the front of the line, paid up, and then were seated. Pretty efficient system. No waiting for the bill and all that. I had the black stone eggs benedict, Helen got pasta, Mom got a salad, Dad got a different eggs benedict, and Nathan...I forget what he got. I was the only one to get coffee. I tucked my napkin into my collar and devoured the eggs. It got over my fingers and face a bit, as it typically does when I consume eggs benedict, but I used my napkin and wasn't too much of an embarrassment. What can I say, I get into my food. After brunch, I got a bunch of pastries to eat on the road from Paris Baguette or something. Tasty looking ones, too. And I got two things of Blue Bottle New Orleans Iced Coffee. The stuff with chicory in it! I need to find out how to make it at home, because it's my second favorite coffee next to, of course, Courtney Coles' iced mocha.

Dad got a Stanford Dish light hoodie and then we returned to the car, returned to the house, said our goodbyes, and then North we went! Didn't have too hard of a time getting out of the city. Some traffic, sure, but it wasn't too gnarly. I put on Harry Potter, I snacked, I worked on my crossword puzzles. We got into Yreka once again and stayed at the Miners Inn once again. We watched tv, had some wine and food, and went to bed. It was very chilly with the heater off and I didn't think to grab my blanket from the car so I got a bit chilled.

Sunday

Long hauled it! Had our hot hotel breakfast and off we went. It was below freezing and the stuff in the car was cold. But eventually we warmed up. I had one of the BBNOIC. The pastries I got were a strawberry sponge cake, a creme cheese mini doughnut, a chocolate dipped chocolate filled pastry, and a strawberry turn over thing. I didn't eat them in that order, but I did eat them all. The turnover I think was the best.

We stopped at the Oregon Gardens near Silverton. We walked around the Gordon House that is designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (which was also at the gardens) and went into the gardens proper. We did a bit of a figure eight and checked out the different gardens. A lot of things were cut back and dormant, but there were still some nice trees and features and things. I took lotsa pictures and it was good for all of us to stretch our legs because we had 4+ hours of driving left.

Prisoner of Azkaban was finished, and we listened to two episodes of Mystery Show. The Kotter and Belt Buckle episodes, specifically.

We swung by a QFC and I got a couple things. Mom got some wine with birds on the label. We probably all looked a bit bedraggled.

Home was chilly. I got a thank you card from Mel in the mail. Mom heated up left overs. I stayed for a bit and ate some of the left overs and then returned to Pulali.

There were some major branches down, but nothing I couldn't easily move. The plastic chest on the porch had been blown about five feet over. The tarp from the grill was blown off, but I found it stuck but the wood pile and put it back on. I didn't do much clean up, just gave everything a looksie before going inside. The internet wasn't working. So I just went to bed and was very cold. I turned on the heater but didn't make a fire and in retrospect I should have put my blankets in the dryer for a few minutes right before bed, ya know...to warm them up.

Monday

But I did eventually warm up! Slept in a little bit. Got up. Started a fire first and foremost. Showered, fed, tidied up. The internet had been reset with a new password given to us by CenturyLink due to something about the rapid fire power outtages that I missed. I just had to reset the wifi booster over at Celia's, give the extension a new name, and I was good to go again.

Celia made a tasty turkey pot pie and I had some of that. Also got my new wreath! So pretty.

I sat in front of the fire, I thawed out the house, I got the branches out of the way, I moved my summer dresses into the garage closet and pulled out my winter coats, and generally was cozy.

I go back to work tomorrow and we are doing some super listing on eBay in this coming week! So tomorrow I'm busting out photographs. I'm excited! And I'll be happy to see precious Bodi.

Back into the fray.

First RC Thanksgiving

Arrived in Redwood City safe and sound, and I finally got a good night's sleep!

Oh and Thanksgiving went off without a hitch.

The Road Down

Yreka was snow covered in the morning. We had our hotel breakfast and headed down in a straight shot. Almost straight shot. The weather got warmer and the roads cleared and mom failed to buy me candy at a rest stop. We arrived in Redwood City an hour ahead of schedule, so we got sushi at Sakura 2.

The AirBNB

The AirBNB is a house boat...a very small, shabby, bare bones house boat. Not many amenities, or soaps, or space. I'm not sleeping there. Ma and Pa are sleeping there. It has it's charms...kinda.

Nate & Helen's House

After settling in to the AirBNB and taking a nap, we headed over to Redwood City proper to see Nathan and Helen's new house. It's cute. Two bedroom, two bathrooms. Back yard with a pool. Front yard with a yard. We five went out to Vesta for dinner. Fancy pizza place! We had this good pear and cream appetizer and brussel sprout thingy appetizer. The pizzas were sausage and honey, and marghereta, Very delicious! We ate them all with vigor and cleaned our plates.

Back at home, Ma and Pa returned to the houseboat and Garth (who lives with N&H) and I walked downtown to have a few brewksis.

Thanksgiving Day

I was first up at the house and I got my potatoes peeled ahead of schedule. They made it into the crockpot with garlic and milk and butter to turn into mashed potatoes early in the game. But they had a while to go. The turkey was prepped. Helen made two kinds of stuffing and a yam dish and a green bean dish. And bread was toasted. And our apple juice was decanted. And Helen's Dad came over, and Helen's sister and husband and kids stopped by for a little bit. 

The table was set and it looked lovely. My potatoes mashed up great by the way. And were quite the pile of taters. Oh and there was cranberry sauce and gravy too, but were premade by other people. Still very delicious! We sat down and ate heartily. We sat around for a bit, digested, talked, and then had Nathan's apple crisp and some pecan pie for dessert. Then we were totally stuffed. We watched some Netflix then we to sleep. Well, Nate and I stayed up and watched some One Punch Man.

Such a good pile of food.

The Day After (Today)

Ate left overs, then Ma, Pa, Nate, and myself went on the Stanford Dish Hike. A nice long one with hills and a paved walk way. Some nice vistas of the city and mom saw many birds. I was attacked by allergies the whole way through. Not fun. We made a coffee run and returned to N&H's house to chill. I talked about flags, people watched stuff on tv, we had leftovers for lunch. In the early evenings, Ma decided we'd all watch Frozen. So I took a walk by myself around the neighborhood. I'm not a fan of Frozen. Back at their house, we chilled and watched TV and now Nate and I are watching some more One Punch Man.

Tomorrow it's back north!

cold feet

I didn't get much sleep due to Dad's snoring. Tried to go to bed early but my body clock is so set to going to be late. Bad combo.

I had breakfast at the hotel breakfast place. Sausage, eggs, juice, biscuits and gravy. The coffee upset my tummy. I can't drink coffee with milk. Only two sugars for me.

From check out we went to this carousel museum in Albany, OR and it was so cool! They are building a new one from the ground up with basswood animals that are hand carved. Each one is commissioned by someone and they have a say in the design. There's foxes, elephants, unicorns. Some are done, some are still to be carved. It's a few years out from completion but damn that's a cool thing! We talked to this guy that commissioned one, and it turns out he is from Silverdale and the Mickelberry Road is named for his family! Wow!

We walked along the river and I showed Mom how to use her camera and we saw some ducks. From there we drove down to this historic mill and got a guided tour! Which ended up being almost TWO HOURS! And it was super cold. We were all bundled up but I was still super cold. Next time we need to ask how long a tour is to take, because that really ate into our day. We did get to see how the gears still were turned by the water, which was cool but not exactly worth being chilled for well over an hour. Argh.

At least I got to feed the chickens.

From there we just started driving south. It got dark. We listened to Harry Potter. It got cold. We got McDonald's. We decided on Yreka being our stop for the night. Just a bit over the border. Start early.

Now I shall shower so in the morning I can just get dressed and get going. Still have about 6 hours left in the car.

Not New York

I am in Albany! Oregon, not New York. No wrong turns here. Pretty light day of driving. I got up around 9:20, showered, had breakfast, packed up. There was a bit of a delay where we had to jump the battery because it had died. Hopefully it hasn't died in the morning. If it does, we'll jump it again.

We got through about four chapters of Prisoner of Azkaban. Harry Potter are our go tos for road trip audiobooks. We listened to Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets on the last trip.

The nature reserve for today was the Ankeny Wildlife Refuge Area. It was pretty gray and misty but we saw some egrets and tundra swans and other birdies.

We landed in Albany and got a hotel room and got dinner at Elmer's. I got a monte cristo which was kinda squishy with no indistinguishable flavor, but Ma and Pa seemed to like their food.

Before food, we watched Chopped on TV. After food we caught the last hour of The Fifth Element. Now I guess I'll tuck into bed even though it's only 8:30pm.

Beck

I'm in Seabeck in my old new bed. This is such a squishy mattress. Kinda miss the squishyness because the main one is a bit stiff. Hmmm.

Anyway, pretty easy going day. Slept in. Talked on the phone with Ma. Tidied up the house. Then I got to packing up. Clothes, toiletries, makeup, entertainment, technology. One big bag, a backpack, and two totes with my purse. Not all that bad? Also my cooler, because it's a good medium sized one. That cooler is more well traveled than the majority of Americans.

Listened to Emily Heller's excellent album on the way over. So good. Had a nice easy drive. Took it slow, cuz it's cold. Around freezing. It's not supposed to get over 60 in Redwood City for the following week, which is a bummer. I'd like a hotter Thanksgiving.

I finished up my yakult. Damn I love that stuff. And while I bought Yan Yan, I haven't eaten it yet. I'll save that for the road.

So now we shall be off for two and a half days of driving. Hurray.

have a happy Sunday :)

Hey look! I updated yesterday AND I'm doing it today! How 'bout that. Going to try and be better about being regular, because if I do too much of nothing I forget what I've done.

I did my last chunk of work later tonight. A new batch for eBay.

I also vacuuming and did three loads of laundry. One big delicates load, and two smaller heavy loads (one light, one dark). I like to break up my laundry. Every now and again something wedges in the dryer and doesn't dry as it tumbles. Like it doesn't blog the tumble, it just gets stuck between the paddle and side.

Had noodles and yakult. Not together. Put cut avocado on creme cheese on toast for breakfast.

Watched Jessica Jones. Drank cocoa. Tidied up the house more. Tomorrow I pack up for the trip!

Note to self: pack board games, cooler, and clothes. Most importantly board games.

feeling good, how are you?

I had a really good day today, but that sum up will wait till I get done with Thursday!

Thursday:

Hmm. Kept it mellow! Had some poptarts and did some work from home and just kinda chilled. Didn't get up to much, just did my usual thing. Had some pasta for dinner.

Friday:

Big fun long day! First thing first, I updated my website. Loaded up new sketches, a few new illustrations, and generally made it not stuck in 2014. I really need to make new bigger work, because I haven't produced much to update it with. Still, it's good to update it.

I showered and headed out to Poulsbo for errands. Did one errand that is a bit private, but it was a good thing.

Made a hair dye and chocolate orange run. I'm glad chocolate oranges are only available during this season, because damn I love them.

Winter 2015 Chocolate Orange Count: 2

Then I went to downtown Poulsbo to go to this salon appointment that I made. Oh! I actually called a salon to make an appointment early in the day. I looked it up and they had discounts for the "trainee" stylists. I figured a trainee at a salon would be just fine. They told me it would be Bailey, and I'm just noting her name (might be spelled differently) so I can remember it the next time I need to get my hair cut. The gps took me to the wrong hair salon though, but I made it to the correct one on time.

Oh what an amazing time at the salon! Bailey was attentive and easy to talk to. Got the shampoo AND cut AND a bit of style for a very agreeable price. She took her time, which I loved. I was her last appointment of the day and I was in no rush. I assume last appointment because the shop closed at 5 and I was there are 4. I wanted my bangs back, but softer this time. Less blunt and full in volume. She did a great job at doing just what I asked for. Now I have a softer bang with long bits that curve around my face. And she showed me how to do a curl with a flat iron and right now my hair is all wavy and perfect looking. I love it. I may have overtipped but she did a really good job, and I get haircuts so infrequently, paying just a little bit more than I usually do (Super Cuts) ain't no thing. I really like the cut.

Afterwards, I went to Central Market and got udon and yakult and eggs and apples. Gotta spend the next two days eating all my perishables.

Unfortunately Averie and Muchim are not coming this weekend. But the weather is cold and it's not the best time to visit. Maybe in a few weeks.

And now I'm watching Jessica Jones and having a great ol' time.

storm season

Sorry for the late update, my internet was slogging.

Monday

Worked on site and it has since really messed up my mental schedule for the week. I keep thinking it is much later than it is. So on Monday I worked on site, but also was a bit of a personal assistant/chauffer. Boss let me put a chocolate orange on the company card. She’s the best. I itemized the snowflakes that didn’t sell, unloaded the van, moved boxes around, and in the middle of the day I took boss to an appointment, ran some errands for her, and then chilled at the library till boss was done with her appointment. Kinda fun to do that. I’m not due to be on site till after the holidays. So nice to have such a flexible job.

Got home later than I was supposed to because I forgot to deposit my check in Poulsbo, so I had to drive up into Part Hadlock to do that. Saved me doing an extra trip, so that’s good.

Tuesday & Wednesday

Worked from home doing listings. The storm knocked out the power for about an hour on Tuesday. I got a fire going and dug out the ditches a bit and hunkered down. Not the worst storm, but there’s now a large log stuck in the rocks on Celia’s end of the beach. It’s past the beach and seawall. It just needs a little nudge north on the next high tide. Well a storm nudge. I’m not going out there. It’s cold!

Around this time last year, I swam out to get that paddle boat. Can’t believe I did that!

Did a bunch of item listings, and a good chunk have already sold! Hurray!

helper

Two mornings in a row I got called into action by someone needing my help.

My boss can't catch a break. Saturday she called me in to take over the vintage fair because she was unable to. I got up, showered, and hauled butt over to Bainbridge Island. Thankfully parking was available on Saturdays on the side of the road. It was stormy and sopping wet but I looked cute in my raincoat. The vintage selling community is so nice! Debbie was watching our booth and Barb knew what was up and recognized me. I got Square loaded on my phone and set about making the pitch to the few buyers that trickled in. Barb made sandwiches for some of us, and Debbie made tasty cider. I had Kureg Kureig Kurieg whatever it's spelled coffee too. Pep in my step! We made some sales. Two fashionable gals and a fashionable lad admired our ornaments. One of them complimented my sweater and I was so stoked, because they were SERIOUSLY cool.

We had to take the stall down early (we being me, and bosses daughter and future step son) because of time constraints. It wasn't ideal, but it was how it had to go. About 15 minutes into us packing up...the power cut off in the hall. Emergency lights were found and hooked up to cars and light was had. Medium light. Not great light. And other people started packing up as well, so it wasn't the worst thing in the world for us to be gone early, and we had space to pack up because we weren't having to keep clear of the other stalls like we would have if the power had been on and people were coming through.

Some people still continued to shop! Once the van was loaded and I said toodles to the family, I bought some nice earrings made from vintage chandelier crystals. I headed home and got caught once again in that damn hour long Bainbridge escape.

I took a good long relax at home, and did a bit more work, and went to bed at a decent hour. Whew!!

Today Karen called me needing help with her flooded basement! Oh no! But that wouldn't be till 3 in the afternoon after she got back from dropping Rob off at the airport, so I had some time. Ate breakfast, chilled, and when I was at Big Beef Crossing headed to Seabeck to swing by Ma & Pa to get my mail, Karen called to tell me they had rearranged the flight and the basement was taken care of and while I could help for two hours, it wouldn't be totally necessary. She also apologized for not telling me earlier, but it's understandable because she was probably busy hauling her books out of four inches of water. Hopefully that basement stops being a bummer.

So I just hung out with Ma and Pa! I helped move the kayak about, ate dinner, helped with some gardening, and played an episode of 99% Invisible about maps and I worked on redesigning the Washington State flag because oy we've got a bad flag.

Did you know that Washington was named Washington instead of Columbia, in order to prevent confusion with the District of Columbia?

Went home, washed dishes, listened to podcasts. Now I must sleep because it's late and I got work on site tomorrow.

connecting a to b

Ah what a weird couple days. Thursday I felt like I took wrong turn after wrong turn. Or maybe just making dumb mistakes and not thinking. I picked up a Christmas Tree at the tree farm, but the gate was closed so I walked up to the barn to grab it (after saying hi to Sylvia)...but the gate wasn't locked. It LOOKED locked. But it wasn't. So I could have saved myself about ten minutes off that errands. Oops.

Then I picked up a check at Red Plantation and I called boss to confirm her seller number, which was the same it's always been and I knew what it was. Bloop.

Went to the Freemason's Lodge to help set up for this vintage fair. I made a coffee run too, and got a smaller tree stand for the tree. I got tea for me and was kinda miffed they put in TWO teabags for ONE 16oz cuppa. Like, one bag would be fine. Two is just a waste. Dang you Starbucks with your red anti-Christian cups!

I helped decorate the tree with ornaments for sale, and it was absolute overkill. But...that's the point! I grabbed some photos and then we got lunch in Lynwood and grabbed some client stuff and went back to the house to load up the photos to promote the sale. I helped cut coupons and did a chalk sign for the sale, and pet Bodi, and then headed home.

Traffic gave me an extra hour to my commute. Bleh. Got home, struggled to get a fire really happening. Talked to Ma and Pa. Went to bed early and tossed and turned.

In the morning (Friday) I rearranged the firewood pile, because the two stacks were getting wet and it wasn't really well covered. So I moved it into one stack and put the larger metal sheet over it, and the small sheet is against the stack to keep it from side wind rain. The wind blowing the rain at a diagonal has really drenched my poor wood piles. It's hard to find good dry pieces. Need some sort of shed.

I lit a fire, and it got going this time. I worked from home. Kept an eye on the eBay and client stuff for boss. I'll be doing more work from home tomorrow. It's supposed to rain for days and days. But it is Washington.

Off to bed with me.



I hope 2016 is a less violent year.

cold winds coming in from the north, or is it the east?

Tuesday & Wednesday

Kinda keeping to this whole two day post schedule, but as I've written about many times...when I'm home I kinda don't get up to much like I used to, so there isn't much to wax rhapsodic about. My internet got slow so I went over to Celia's yesterday and boy was it cold! But I got my work done, and she made soup and it was delicious and filling and hearty. I stoked a fire. The house has been keeping the heat in pretty well, though the madrona really does not give off enough heat.

Yesterday was also stormy. Lots of wind. Raining a bunch too. I haven't done a walk around of the property in a while, I should do that. Hmm.

It's good that it's damp though. I don't have to water the plants! Hurray!

I think I'm close to being finished with the .gif for work. It's looking really good! Just working on the timing of it.

I worked in front of the fire today. Watched telly.

Also due to do a major clean up of the house. Not that it's trashed, but it's slightly cluttered. Just a matter of listening to podcasts and putting away coats and books.

Helping set up for an antique show tomorrow, so off to bed with me. I've been doing better about getting to bed at a decent hour.

big things, private things

The Weekend

Didn't get up to much besides eating some vegetables and sitting in front of the fire. Popped over to Celia's for a bit too. I've been getting hella splinters from the pine. I've got one that has been lodged in my finger for a day now. Hopefully it'll work its way out.

Watched TV. Did some work on the .gif for work. Boss loved it.

Monday

Did a Silverdale errand I shant talk about here, but it was a good thing. Did a Trader Joe's run too and got food stuff and candy cane joe joes MMmmm and I dropped off library books that I never got around to reading. Went home. Took a nap. Had a nice dream where I was walking through a dark town meeting people and floating through glowing trees. Then I made a fire, ate some food in respectable portions, and chilled. Tomorrow I'll get to work.

Waltz is always such a good villain

Wednesday & Thursday & Friday

Getting so behind. Continually behind.

I saw a late showing of Spectre, the new Bond movie. It felt like a Bond movie. Gadgets, funky villains, babes, and a real sense of physicality to the stunts. Like a lot of money was spent with real stuff instead of doing it all in computer. I dug it.

Earlier today (Friday) I worked from home a bit, doing some eBay whatnots. Then I did laundry. Did a bunch of laundry over the past few days. I went over to Bremerton to hang with Karen and Rob. Their house is looking so nice! I helped Karen paint trim for the walls and helped hand Rob power tools while he assembled stuff. Rob brought home some chocolate to snack on. I like Rob. Good guy, that Rob.

I worked on site on Thursday. Photographed and itemized some things. Not a long day, but nice to get out of the house. Jeremy was at work for a bit too. At home I finished the illustration up and got to bed late.

Wednesday I worked from home, worked on the illustration, ... did I make the food run on Wednesday? Maybe. Can't remember. I guess I could check my blog post but ehhh that takes effort. I did a food run sometime and got a good assortment of vegetables. Yum.

No plans to leave the house till Monday. Time to chill, time to work.

Swung by Ma and Pa's today as well and picked up my way cool lapel pins that I ordered from Ryan Bubnis. They're so cool.

Now I'm super congested. Time to rest.

people, places, things

My ribs hurt. Coughing too much? Might have slept on my stomach funny.

Anyhoo! I went food shopping and got a bunch of much needed veggies and hummus and chips (Juanita's, natch) so that'll be good for my body. Not been eating well.

Maybe it's my sneezing that is jangling my insides.

So! The concert! Was super fun. I caught the 5:30 ferry because my pre-concert hang out plans fell through so I didn't need to be in Seattle super early, nor did I really want to be. Met a lovely lass named Angel on the ferry who was wearing a Dir En Grey shirt. She was ten years younger than me, but nice enough and by herself so we hung out. I got Ivar's fish and chips and shared my chips, and we walked together to The Showbox. A nice clear night. We parted ways in line because I was going to be waiting for someone (Marcus) to show and would be waiting after the line started going, and one of her friends showed up to talk so yeah. Had a couple drinks at the bar and it became evident Marcus wouldn't be able to make it (stuck on set) and it was too late to probably get another person in to use my second ticket. I'm glad I didn't pay for them but bummed it went to waste because if I had more time then I could have found someone else. BUT going solo enabled me to meet a fella in the 21+ section of The Showbox who was nice and tall with interesting glasses and I got his number.

It was a fun show, but a bit low energy. No one moshed. But it's good that people aren't getting an elbow to the face. No opener. Just out they came to cheers and they rocked it out. I wasn't too familiar with the songs but it had a great vibe. I stayed up mostly in the bar section because I'm short and didn't feel like dealing with the crush. But I did go down for a few songs and I drew a little bit. Kyo, the lead singer, had a shaved head and was looking not as young as he did a decade ago. Good show, though I don't think I'll see them again.

Rachel, a school chum who I haven't seen in four years, was also at the show and I met up with her in the merch line. She got a hoodie and I didn't get anything and we walked over to the Elysian and got a brewski and talked till last call. We bid adieu and I hauled off to catch the 12:15 ferry back to Bainbridge, which I caught. I had good luck with catching ferries with minutes to spare. Got back home late, tucked into bed after washing my face of the really good makeup I did.

See? Pretty nice eh? 

my stomach hurts

Blugh I don't feel well, but I didn't eat well today. Didn't eat a lot of good for me food. I've been slouching on doing the much needed food shopping so I've just been eating toast and simple sandwiches. But Tuesday I'll have to do some shopping for sure absolutely. Monday I'll be out of the house.

Today I slept in way too much. I started a fire and burned two loads of wood. Listened to podcasts and Career of Evil, the new Robert Galbraith novel, and generally lay about feeling sorry for myself.

Yesterday I didn't do anything for the holiday. I went over to Celia's and hung out. Linda came over with Gabriel and she and Celia mostly talked. I hard a hard time getting a word in. Really gotta pounce in that conversational crowd. Watched some Netflix with Celia and retired home.

Yeah Halloween isn't my thing.

I'm so out of shape. I wish there was a gym nearer, because then I could get out of the house and meet people on a regular basis. I liked the yoga dynamic back at PNCA. I just...a 45 minute drive a gym is ridiculous when it's not on the way to a regular thing. But I do spend most of my time house bound. It's awful.

a MAZE ing

Thursday & Friday

On site on Thursday! Got up early and hauled over to the Island and got to fiddle with the new camera taking photos and whatnot. Got a new DSLR camera at work. Damn it takes nice pictures. Need to learn the settings and brush up on what I learned in my various classes. But dang yeah, the new photos look great. Once we get proper lights for our set up, we'll be flying!

Departed work, got some fast food on the way home, got home and chilled and watched TV and stayed up a bit late.

Got out of bed early on Friday and did some work from home. Our eBay listings have been off the chain lately.

Then once I hit my deadline, I got dolled up and put on my cowboy boots and went to meet Karen at Pheasant Farms to do a corn maze! Whooo! And when I arrived I texted her and she said she was also in the parking lot...but I couldn't see her car. Turns out I was at the right farm, but she was thinking of the corn maze by the put put golf near Bremerton. How are there enough corn mazes in Kitsap to create such a corn maze confusion? But I was only 7 minutes away, so I drove over and we met up and did the maze! It was on her 30 Before 30 list, and it was pretty fun. We had to find six different locations within the maze and punch our card. Location #6 and #2 were very difficult! Not really an enter and find your way to the exit type maze. But lots of fun to walk around and talk and maybe take a few shortcuts.

Back at Karen and Rob's house, we had dinner and talked more and the house has some coats of paint on the interior. It's coming together! Had such a nice visit with my dear friend. We also talked about water heater problems and solutions. Such as what is up when you don't get enough hot water to fill a tub BUT the heater does trigger the too hot measuring thing.

Topped off the air in my tires, topped off the gas in my tank, and got some oil to top off the oil in my car tomorrow once the engine has cooled. Not a bad day at all.

I don't have any Halloween plans. I'll probably do some work, maybe see if Celia wants to watch some spoopy movies. Anyway, whooo so long October!

fire power

M - W

Last morning with Bodi went well. He let me sleep in even! What a sweet puppy. After breakfast I went over to Celia's and we took the boys for a walk. Went out to the point and saw great mycology. I headed out around 4ish to drop off Bodi. Met up with Boss in Poulsbo and when Bodi saw her, he was elated as usual. It was a quick switch around.

I swung by Goodwill to check out their denim jacket collection, but none were worth buying. I did find some rad earrings. One was large and jangly and ceramic. Very big.

From Silverdale, I went to Seabeck to hang with Ma and Pa for a little bit. A nice brief visit. Then I went back home.

Home was cold.

Tuesday I made a fire in the fireplace and sat in front of it. I did some work. I ate some s'mores. Basically relaxed. And today I didn't light a fire. Caught up on work emails. Did some more work from home. Watched a ton of Rick and Morty. Working on site tomorrow and going to a corn maze on Friday. Fun!

I for one welcome the rain

Friday & Saturday & Sunday

Since Ma & Pa are my main blog readers, I tend to skimp when I'm hanging with them. Sorry mom and dad!

So I had a nice two nights in Seabeck. Did a little bit of work, but mostly I hung out and mooched food and Bodi got lots of pets and extra play time. We took him on the Anderson Hill Loops where he was very well behaved on his leash. For lunch we did a takeaway order at Origami Sushi and ate it in the park. Bodi begged but wasn't rewarded. I had a lychee bubble tea. Mmm! And a spring roll and sushi. Mmm! We finished the rest, a vegetable medley, back at home. I did some work and Ma and Pa watched Phryne Fisher. Bodi helped himself to various beds in the house and the door had to be closed on the pantry or else he would get into the trash. Bad Bodi!

Dad made a cool little box support for the wifi booster so that it could be placed outside (it was too bulky for the power outlet) (and it needed a place to be put to be slightly protected from the elements). Dad is so good at problem solving like that. I set it up outside upon my return and booyah it works better! I am writing from in front of the fireplace right now with better internet than I got on the porch. Hopefully this keeps up.

Today I slept in after taking Bodi on his morning poop walk. I had a scramble and joined Celia and Corbie for a little nature hike. The doggies were rambunctious and got wet. Hurray it's been raining! Nourish the plants oh lovely rain.

Hung out with Celia for a bit and chatter and kept the dogs at bay. Bodi gave the cats a mean eye. He's not an attack dog but I didn't let him say hello. Sam would swipe him.

I donated to the Radiotopia fundraiser that's happening right now. Went for the teeshirt of my choice (going for the dazzle camouflage 99% design) and challenge coin reward tier. If I listen to more than a movies worth of a networks podcasts each month, I owe it to at least back them for less than the cost of a movie ticket. It's the one way that "for less than the price of a cup of coffee!" reasoning works for me. So now I back Radiotopia and Maximum Fun. And one podcast I participate in the forum for answered my question in the latest episode. So that's pretty big!

Did some more work from home. Got a fire going. Warmed the house up nice and good.

back to 'Beck

Wednesday & Thursday

Didn't get much work done on Wednesday because my internet has gone back to being bad. Took Bodi for a little walk and met up with Celia and Corbie. Watched TV. Set out chocolate croissants from TJs to proof overnight.

The croissants didn't proof all that much come morning, but they were delicious none the less. I walked Bodi up to the top of the driveway and back down. I decided to take my computer to Seabeck and hang there and work. And with Bodi too. He's a good doggy who is most welcome at Seabeck. Got some work done. Think I'll make some tea and do more work. Tomorrow gotta get up and and see where Bodi decides is his place to poop at Seabeck. He now favors where the paddle boat was.

Bodilicious

Monday and Tuesday

Bodi is sleeping on the couch right now like a cute pup. I got him a day early and now I have dog watch duty for a week! Woohoo puppy!

Monday I helped Mom out with some stuff, and with time to kill I wrote a few letters and started reading Station Eleven. Pretty good thus far, though I'm only six pages in.

My egg pin from Big Bud Press arrived! It's so cute. I attached my sloth path to my patch vest.

For dinner Dad made some the best steaks he has made thus far. Really juicy. With a side of green beans and mashed potatos and a nice glass of red wine. Mmm. I'm so spoiled over in Seabeck.

I had a weird night sleep. I got overheated and tossed and turned. Dad made eggs and bacon and hashbrowns for breakfast. Yum yum! I went to Poulsbo to meet Boss to pick up Bodi. We met at Petsmart where dog food was procured. Bodi seems in better spirits. He's gotten over his haircut it seems.

I gave him a little walk back home, and met up with Corbie and Celia. Bodi ate some of Corbie's food. Bad Bodi! Now I think I'll tuck into bed relatively early.

how much wood could a woodchuck chuck

Both Saturday and Sunday have been much of the same. Slept in a bit, woke up to parents, got work clothes on and helped chop wood! Dad brought over the hydraulic chopper, and my main duty is pulling the lever back and forth. Dad mostly put logs on the chopper, and Mom stacked. Celia also helped haul wood to and fro'. We chopped my wood, cut larger pieces down to size, and helped Celia with her wood on a "I get half" share in exchange for using the chopper and our labor. Good trade, and there's been more than enough wood piling up! In the two days we got rid of the pile at the top of her driveway, and got a good chunk of the pile behind her house. So many stacks! My pile is now three rows deep, and in the past year I've only burned two rows. We've got some trees to cut down too. With firewood, you really need to think multiple seasons ahead or else you're stuck with buying it pre-cut like a chump or it's too green to burn. Boo.

Anyway, fruitful labor days! On Saturday we had a sandwich break and dinner was cabbage stuffed with rice, tuna fillets, and salad followed by a viewing of Men In Black. Always hilarious. Sunday we had an egg vegetable thing for brunch and Ma and Pa left for home and I cooked up some green beans and folded laundry I'd washed during the day. Then I headed over to Seabeck in the evening, skipping Seahawks traffic. Helping Ma out with some stuff over the next few days, so I'll be here.

I'm getting a lot of use out of my leather travel bag, that's for sure!

one year employed

Wednesday & Thursday & Friday

Wednesday I finally caved and bought a wifi booster. Drove into town just to run ONE stinkin' errand. I bought some toilet paper to make it a little bit more worth while. The booster connected just fine, but then came the test of plugging it in at my house (you initiate it near the router, then move it to where ever you need a few more bars/strength) and it worked! And not only did it connect but my internet has had a discernible improvement around the house. It shows up as five bars but I'd put it around 4 in terms of overall strength. I'm glad it worked because I'd hate to bother with returning it. Hopefully it continues to work, I still have time to return it.

Thursday I slept in and went into town to meet Ma and Pa for Crimson Peak. I loved the sets and costumes. Such beautiful design through and through. It was less spooky than I was anticipating, still cool though. Ma and Pa presented me with s'mores fixings and old papers of mine from school and a box of childhood photos. I certainly don't look like I used to!

Friday I met my boss at Hakata for a one year Jobiversary lunch celebration! We talked work and weddings and other things. I have such a nice, great boss. She's very appreciative. And she gave me a gift! A copy of #Girlboss SIGNED TO ME by Sophia Amoruso (the author)!! And she had a great story about getting it signed. Originally they said no personalization but she asked the author. Sophia wrote "always ask for what you want" on the front page. Booyah. And there was a gift card, but it was not from my boss and just a signing freebie. Though I have to spend a certain amount to utilize the discount. Hmmn. Bummer. Maybe I'll have that amount to blow by March, when it expires. There were some cool sunglasses on the website.

I swung by Trader Joe's and did a food run. Yay for munchies! Then went back home and did computer stuff and non computer stuff. Lots of parent time coming up in the next few days! And wood chopping. Hurray.

lovely to be in love

Do forgive the lateness of this post, I've been out and about having fun as well as catching up on sleep.

Saturday was fun and full of popping around town and seeing people. Madeline and I went to New Order Cafe for brunch. We walked the blocks on a crisp fall day, and grabbed a booth. Both had egg/toast/bacon meals. The cafe had reusable mugs you pick out from a wall and help yourself to the coffee. I like that system. I went with the Hoover Damn mug.

Post food, we drove downtown. I swung past the old PNCA building to show Madeline how it was gone, and parked on the park blocks and we walked up to Powell's. I got a photo with Douglas Adams' signature in the Gold Room and picked up the Sci-Fi Author themed waterbottle. Didn't buy any books and felt like a tourist. I dropped Madeline off at her house and went to the PSU area and met up with Amanda McA at a McMenamin's. I gave her back the shoes she left at my house during Friendsgiving. We had a pint and chatted and she dropped me off at Oranj's gallery for Yoshi's show. It was a hair salon/gallery space. Beautiful wallspace and large movable mirrors. Yoshi's paintings were wonderful and I ran into Kate and her partner. Kate was on my thesis panel. There were some cute dogs at the show too, and I gave them a pet. I met up with Daniel and Heather at the gallery, and watched them eat dinner (I was full from my meeting with Amanda). They in turn dropped me off at my car, at which point I went to hang out once again with Madeline and her friends Mark, Ben, David, and Meredith. We played an Alien theme card game that was based on deck building, like Dominion. The game had a traitor assigned too, and I had the first chance of figuring out who it was and I went for Mark who WAS the traitor! We all lost though. It's a very difficult game. Mark made really good cookies.

I dozed to sleep back at Madeline's. Then it was Sunday. The big day!!

Slept a little bit in then got up and had snacks and got to prepping. Took my sweet time doing my makeup. Skin, brows, contour, blush, highlight, primer, eyeshadow, eyeshadow, eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, lipstick. Straightened my hair a little bit too, so dang I looked good. Put on the green dress I wore to Nathan and Helen's wedding. I accessorized with a yellow leaf brooch, not the peacock belt, the gold square earrings Mom gave me, and my new watch. I miss my old watch. I still have it, I just need to see about getting it fixed.

Karen and Rob picked me up, and we drove to pick up pies for the wedding. We thought it would be a ton of food, but it was just 5 gluten free hand pies for the people who couldn't indulge from the pizza catering the wedding would have. Very NICE pizza!

We weren't let in to the hall till 3, so we milled about. Checked out Reclaim It, a store that resells stuff found in the dump. Had some neat stuff, and some good stuff that just needed a fix. They've resold about 100k pounds of things, which is neat.

The three of us had volunteered to help set up. It was an easy peasey set up. The rented hall didn't leave much room for hardcore installations, so it was mostly moving tables, putting tablecloths on tables, setting out chairs, putting out centerpieces. The centerpieces were cigar boxes with succulents and candies. There were smaller centerpieces, succulents in vintage silver, that were placed around on the tables. Lovely very Mel and Alain set up. There were large banners too, that Mel had printed using Spoonflower.

Everything got up and out and we had plenty of time to go. I got some coffee for myself from the nearby cafe. Met up with Serenity and Ian, and Jim and Catherine, and Zaneta and Drew. Lots of fashionable people looking their best for dear Melissa.

I secured a spot in the second row aisle, next to Karen. The ceremony was lovely and sweet. Melissa looked gorgeous in a vintage tea length dressed that poofed way out. Her hair was done up in swirls with a veil. Gorgeous bride. Alain looked very dapper in his suit and boots too.

They did a wine box ceremony: BT made a custom box and they put love letters to one another in the box, along with a bottle of good wine. They nailed the box shut together. It will be opened again in 2020 on their anniversary. It's a really gorgeous box too. Dovetailed and all that.

BT was the efficient and did a great job of it. A poem was read. Vows written together were exchanged. They were declared married and they kissed and I started crying.

I was at table 8 with Karen, Rob, Kyle, BT, Serenity, and Ian. I had a brewski during cocktail hour, and then the food was out and everyone got a plate in an orderly fashion. I grabbed pasta and salad and pizza and pita bread and OH it was delicious! The pizza was from Dove Viva...Vivi? Something. It was scumptious. I ate and drank and was merry. Speeches were said. I drew in my sketchbook. I chatted up people. It was a wonderful night. The dance floor opened up and I got down to a couple songs. I was behind Cidney and in front of Alain's dad in the conga line. I hugged and kissed people on cheeks and it was wonderful. The frosting on the cake was very rich. I piled up a plate with leftovers for Madeline, and rich rich brownies.

I'm so happy for Melissa. She is sweet, nice, smart, driven, and just good. Alain is nice and friendly and I like him for Mel. It makes me so happy to see my friends happy. Happy and in love. Life moves forward, slowly but surely and magnificently.

Karen dropped me off at Madeline's and I gave her a pile of food. We watched a few episodes of Rick and Morty and chatted our lives from the past year. Wonderful conversation,

I slept right through Madeline leaving in the morning. I packed up. Ordered a lapel pin that dropped in the store (Ma and Pa, be on the lookout for that)(I'm still waiting for this Lisa Hanawalt pin to drop as well, it's so cool)(I need a denim jacket, whatever happened to my old one?)

My car was packed and I headed off to meet Daniel and Heather at Tasty n Sons. Took a couple wrong turns but I got there. It was a swanky food spot with communal food type plates and tasty little artisan coffee bevvies. I got eggs and bacon and biscuit, Daniel got a Dutch Baby, and Heather got an open face monte cristo. We nibbled from each other's plates and drank each others fancy drinks. Love my meals with those two goobers. I've said it to their face and I'll say it here: I always leave our time together wanting more to say.

Hugged goodbye and off I went north. I got rest stop coffee. I was really wiped out and tired during the last hour. How did I do so many hours of driving? Three is just so tiring! Dang! Listened to podcasts and refilled my tank in Hoodsport. Unloaded at home. Parked my car in the garage. Crawled into bed and took a nap. Woke up. Had some green beans and snackums. Went back to sleep and slept in, as ya do.

Today I unpacked a bit, had some noodles, talked to Celia and Corrine a little bit. I drove down to the Quilcene Community Center to watch the GOP Debate. Nice crowd there, but the stream wasn't coming through so the group bifurcated to two factions to watch it at nearby food places. I was in a group at Loggers Landing. A whiskey beerback really made the debate fun to watch. I think Bernie's gun measurements got misconstrued as soft, and Hillary just seems to be saying what Bernie has been saying for a while. The other three dudes seemed to be going for Vice President. We gathered again at the Towana Roadhouse and at the center for some chat. Everyone is pretty Team Bernie, I grabbed a button. Chatted a little with two 20-somethings. There are young people around here too!!! I didn't give them my info, but hey maybe I'll see them around. Anna and Emily?

My internet is so bad right now.

So much fun. Will be back to work in a moment but for now: such fun.