hi

We got TiVo last week. I had no idea how much I would love it. Now I will never again have nothing to watch on TV. I have all kinds of stuff programmed. I never would have taped so many shows on my VCR.

Am I the only one who, when I leave a comment on my own blog, the email comes in and for a moment I think, "Hey somebody emailed me!" And then feel disappointed... "Oh, it was me." :I

It was a beautiful day again today. A couple more flowers popped up.


I need to post another doodle... here's one of a dog driving a car.

a couple of cool things

I noticed a
couple of
flowers coming
up today.
It takes so
long for spring
to arrive
around here,
I'd almost
forgot about it.







I was looking at stuff on Art.com and came across these fun notecards by Hannah Gluck. I love this style.
There are 25 different cards in the Hannah Gluck Gallery.

it was warm today

Today was sunny and warmer than it's been in a long time. I played with my dog for a while outside with his favorite toy.


We've been expecting a package, and this morning I found it on my backyard deck. These delivery people just can't seem to come up with enough creative ways to deliver our packages. Instead of leaving it at the front door or by the garage, the DHL guy had to step over the make-shift gate on my deck and come into our fenced-in yard, up to the glass doors, where I was not too far away on the other side doing pilates stretcheson the floor. I had no idea someone was out there. If I'd seen a man on my deck I probably would have called the police. My next door neighbor had some creep break into her house last year.

Anyway, what will they think of next? Once UPS left a package in our garage next to the garbage cans. Our mail delivery lady can tell we're home, but she refuses to knock. She leaves notices on our door and drives away with our stuff.
Anyone else know what I'm talking about????

Scarlet's Show

These are my parents' three Keeshonds: Misty, Benji, and Scarlet.



A lot of people call their Keeshonds "fuzz butts." You can see why.



Here's a few photos from Scarlet's first dog show. I thought I'd get some better pictures, of more dogs and people, but I guess I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures of other people's dogs. There were all kinds of cool dogs there.






There was only one other dog in Scarlet's age category, and she won first place. (That's my mom with Scarlet).


I didn't do much doodling there, but here's something sketchy. The show was in the convention center in Pittsburgh. They made everyone cram into an elevator to go up to the second floor. This doodle doesn't quite portray how everyone was packed together with their dogs, including some huge Great Danes, and carts pulling show equipment. For some reason they closed off the stairs. People were really mad.

see you Monday

I am going to a dog show tomorrow with my mom and her puppy. I'll be back sometime Sunday, but I probably won't post anything new until Monday.

I'll probably come back with some interesting doodles.

special numbers and wheely shoes

I like to draw people who are singing or playing special numbers in church.

(Then I add my own words.)





























This very rough doodle is from one afternoon in the grocery store. There were two boys wearing those wheely shoes. They were racing through every isle, chasing each other, and then zipping past people on their little wheels.

I don't know what's more annoying, those kids running around, or the fact that the rest of us can't have a pair of shoes like that. I still don't get how those things work. How can you run without tripping? How do those wheels seem to magically appear when you're ready to use them? Maybe one of you with kids can explain it to me.

I think Gumby must have owned a pair of those wheely shoes... remember how he'd slide all around on one foot?

nutty cartoon

I recently sold this goofy cartoon as a greeting card.
Look for it at a card rack near you.

he does all his own stunts

press play!

The Royal African Sugarloaf

I bought this cool pineapple yesterday. It's called a Royal African Sugarloaf and it's from Ghana, West Africa.

I thought I'd get my $5.99 worth and take a picture of it before eating it.






Then I started playing around with my Photoshop filters. This could be interesting. I like the one on the lower left corner.

my art student

Tonight I went over to my church because there is a youth rally going on, and both George and I wanted to see some people we haven't seen in a long time. I used to give art lessons to a boy in Rochester, NY before we moved from there about six years ago. I have not seen him since he was ten. So he's sixteen now, and he was onstage playing the guitar with the worship team tonight.

It was pretty funny doing art with this kid. His little sister was there sometimes, whining and crying that she wanted art lessons too, and he would pick on her a lot.

Once we were creating a board game out of poster board, when Sarah said, "I want to play your game!" Steve had a quick reply to that..."It's for ages eight and up!" Which got her running and crying to her mom, who didn't think Steve's clever comment was very funny.

I still have this card he made me before we moved.





















This is the card Sarah made me. She was totally obsessed with her gerbil, "baby dashy."


I showed these to Steve and Sarah tonight and they had kind of teenage reactions to these memories. I might see their mother tomorrow. I'm sure she would get a bigger kick out of seeing these than the kids did.

American Inventor

Did anyone watch American Inventor tonight? I thought it was pretty interesting, but next time I'll tape it so I can skip the commercials.

Once I created sort of a joke invention for George. His ears get red and hot all the time, and it drives him crazy.

I created Ear Coolies™ by hanging ice packs off either side of a headband. Then I wrapped it up in a box with this fancy label I made and gave it to George for Christmas.



This is the Ear Coolies™ official instruction manual:









Anyway, it was a joke, and did not really help George's hot ears. Actually every real product he's tried has also been a joke... nothing seems to work. Like the Chillow he bought... I'd already read the bad reviews... like, "I can't sleep at night because it smells so bad!"

I don't remember why George doesn't like his Chillow, but it's in the closet next to our Sobakawa Pillow which you may have seen the infomercial for... it was supposed to solve every imaginable earthly problem.

my neglected blog

I've had a bad cold since last week, which I thought was getting better, and instead it turned into a sinus infection. Yesterday I started antibiotics and so hopefully I'll feel better soon, and then I will be blogging again.

getting zapped

I'm so ready for spring to come, because I'm sick and tired of getting zapped around here. By zapped I mean, the static electricity is out of control! We have one little humidifier. It does not help much, that is for sure.

I met a couple once who had water in a great big bowl in their livingroom. They said it's a "natural humidifier." It was a nice looking bowl, and I think there were a bunch of rocks in it, so it was a nice looking thing. Has anyone ever heard of this or do you have any other suggestions?

recipes your family can live without

Those last magazine ads I posted reminded me that I have this.
A 1958 copy of Everywoman's.



Are you getting hungry?


In case you couldn't see the extremely appetizing texture and color, here's a close-up. This is a cornbread ring with meat-carrot sauce.


All of these entrees and deserts are perfect for a family with no teeth.


"Drink Knox gelatine for your nails"...do people still do this? :P


All your troubles will go away!


This was on the back cover. That looks like Alice peeking out the window.

Russian word of the day

The Russian word for cat is koshka.

I have often thought about learning Russian, because when we spend time with my husband's family, this is what I hear:



We do not see them often though, because they do not live close.

home computers in your future

Some friends of mine were having a garage sale and they gave me some magazines from 1982. Check out these ads:


I had an Atari and Activision.


I never owned a real computer until 1998. In college I used a word processor.


Check out the Rubik's Cube on the desk.

my life is a cartoon

Some doodles from church. I drew these during a slide presentation... I was actually listening to the sermon. :}

There was a whole lot of whining and crying this morning. Here's a couple of the kids that were staring over the pews in front of us.

I remember once when I was little, I stared and stared at a guy sitting some rows behind me in church. I was staring at him because he looked just like a guy on The Great Space Coaster. I thought it must be him. Does anyone else remember that show... "Hi I'm Gary Gnu, No gnus is good gnus with Gary Gnu!" And there was a cartoon of a guy who was drawn with one line.

Here's another doodle I just added tonight. This is from the evening service. This kid turned around and coughed on us about three times. I need some of that Airborne stuff now.

sanitary rubber gloves

I posted this cartoon in December, when only a couple of people were reading my blog, so now I'm posting it again.

I drew this based on my experiences at the bagel shop in the plaza where I used to be a picture framer.

The first surprise I got from eating there, I was about to bite into the second half of my sandwich when an inchworm crawled out of it. I showed it to the manager. He gave me a coupon for a free sandwich. I kept eating there, but after that I opened every sandwich to inspect its contents before biting into it.



Another time the guy who made my sandwich had just finished sweeping up the room, wearing the same rubber gloves he used to touch all the ingredients I was about to eat. Of course, there's always someone who handles your money with those gloves on, back and forth, money, tomatoes, money, cheese, no problem.

One girl who worked there, she had a reputation for her customer service. She'd ask you, "Do you want tomatoes on that?" If you said yes, she'd breath a huge sigh, and roll her eyes while putting them on. People I worked with came back from lunch with new stories from there all the time. But we all kept eating there.

Can anyone else relate to this?

some highlights from my day

In the waiting room at the dentist's office this morning I had a chance to do some sketching.
This is the woman I was driving behind on the way there. (I wasn't really honking at her, and I know I can't draw cars).

I am not crazy about this dentist's office. I am ready to change. Every time you go in you get a different dentist or hygenist. Nobody knows you. It's a very drive-through experience. A very young girl put in my filling. How many years does it take to get a dentist degree? She looked and talked like a college student, even though she introduced herself as doctor.

After my face returned to normal, I went out for coffee with George. Ever since Tuesday I have been craving that French Press coffee. At this other coffee shop, I asked if they had French Press coffee and the guy looked at me like I was from outer-space. He had no idea what I was talking about. (No, it was not Starbucks).

So I gave in and bought this for myself at the grocery store.
Susie, I'm sure you can buy one of these in your local grocery store, an isle over from the Asian section, in the international coffee gourmet section.

I got this for $16.99. I just found it's even cheaper on Amazon.com.

Nemo Lips

There is a guy I know who has teeth and lips shaped exactly like Nemo's father.

It is hard to talk to him without constantly noticing his fish lips and how they are just like the movie.

frame shop doodles

I used to work in a large home and garden store, a lot like Home Depot. I signed up to work in the frame shop, but ended up in the paint department, and floor & wall until one frame shop employee got fired, and then I took her place.

When a customer picks out a frame and mat that are just horrendous and asks "what do you think?" the best response is, "It depends where you are going to put it."

People say such weird things sometimes, and sometimes very mean things. It helps to have a sense of humor.

I am encouraged to see that my drawing ability has improved a great deal since 1998. (I still have a long way to go, but I love to see evidence of improvement).