Our flag did still wave...

But there was no mercy for random shopping carts left during the snowfall in Tops Plaza.

Some doodles from "Mom's Morning Out," the preschool thing where I help out with crafts once a week. We have a two week break right now. Actually, I have a three week break. I skipped out on the Christmas show and eating the cookies that the kids frosted themselves (yum yum, what are those little green decorations, honey? They look so tasty).

I never realize how many creatures come up to my front porch at night until the snow falls and they leave tracks. This looks like bunnies to me, although bunnies usually leave turds all over the place.

what does this mean?

Last night I dreamed that some engineers built an invisible roller coaster. It was fashioned after drawings originally made by Leonardo da Vinci. I saw some people riding it. George's dad was one of the people. George was afraid that his dad was putting his hands too close to the track. That was hard to know, of course, since it was all invisible. I was concerned that someone could get hurt, like maybe an airplane would need to make an emergency landing in this field someday, and run right into the roller coaster. Or maybe some kid would be riding a four-wheeler and run into it. There was an office there, and they wanted to hire me to sit at the desk. I wanted the job, because they said that I didn't even need to answer the phone, just sit there from 9am to 12pm, and I'd get paid.

I caught this blooper on CNN on Sunday

tee hee

memoirs

In 2000 we moved from Rochester, NY to Pittsfield, MA for George's new job. I was not happy about the entire situation and had no idea what to do with myself, except to go out looking for another picture framing job, which I had plenty of experience for.

All I've ever wanted to do with my life since I was a kid is draw cartoons. I guess this move to MA was the time when I felt desperate enough to just sit down and start drawing stuff, and see where it would go. I have always felt like a wannabe, and my drawings were really not that great. For some reason it is just in me that I have to do this.

A lady from George's company was there to help us find a temporary apartment. Her name was Gay Johnson. Whenever anyone would refer to her, they would always say "Gay Johnson," not just "Gay." Maybe she did the same. It must be a little awkward when introducing yourself for the first time, to start out with "Hi, I'm Gay." I'm pretty sure she said, "Hi, I'm Gay Johnson."

After she helped us find a place to live, I drew a cartoon on a little thank you note for her. This is a sketch of what I drew. I made some changes to the final one, which she has.




Gay was crazy happy about the card. She loved it, and this was very encouraging to me.



This is a bad sketch I drew of the apartment we stayed in, a furnished little one-bedroom place, connected to Mary Jo's Hair Salon.

I spent a lot of time sitting behind the kitchen table drawing and watching non-stop news about Elian Gonzalez.

For the next few years I drew cartoons and sent them to magazines, (and got rejected), and then there was a little ad in a local paper looking for an artist. I had enough cartoons by then to show them what I could do, so I had an interview there and got the job, freelancing for them.

For all these years it has been my goal just to make the same amount of money drawing as I made picture framing, and this year it seems I have finally accomplished that. It is a great feeling to be doing what I love to do. I can only thank God right now for the optimism I feel about what the future holds.

doodle of the day

He's friendly.

My interpretation of a French Bulldog...

If you click on this guy you can see some French Bulldog Christmas cards, t-shirts, and other gifty stuff!

happy thanksgiving eve eve

This morning I was back in Panera working on some new dog doodles. Even though Christmas shopping has already begun, it's never too late to upload some new stuff onto Cafepress.



I happened to be sitting next to a very loud gossipy crowd in there today. I haven't heard so much cackling since the montage of cackling Hillarys on The Daily Show with John Stewart.

Christmas Cards by me

Hey everyone, check out my new SQUIDOO page featuring my Christmas cartoon greeting cards. :)

doodle of the day

I've been doodling a lot of little dogs lately.

blahhhhhhhhhhhh

I have the blahs tonight.

for lack of anything better to say...

We need to find some new favorite shows. I can't watch Jay Leno anymore because of the writer's strike. And George has no more Dog the Bounty Hunter.

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I hate shopping for clothes.

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Have you ever noticed that, even though alligators are grey, virtually all cartoon alligators are green.

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A summary of my day...

This morning I helped a bunch of preschoolers glue things. Then I went to Borders, and I was going to sit down and have a cup of Seattle's Best coffee, but there was a group of Girl Scouts in there, taking a guided tour of Borders, and they had all the tables full of reserved seats with little cupcakes waiting for them. So I went to Starbucks for my coffee. There is no free internet in there, so I was going to draw for a while. A lady I have never met before wanted to see my drawings and ended up sitting down and talking to me for a long time. That was different. Then I bought some gifts at Babies R' Us for a baby shower I'm going to tomorrow. Then I went to the mall and tried on some boots that didn't fit right. Then I tried on a few sweaters, and actually bought one. Then I went to Wegmans and bought some sushi. Then I came home, and discovered that the girl at the Bon Ton forgot to remove the security device from my sweater. So I can either try to remove it and have ink explode in my face, or drive all the way back to the mall to have them remove it. Now I've eaten my sushi, and watched Dog the Bounty Hunter cry on Larry King, and written this blog post. I think I will go to bed now.

adventures in the dollar store

I am sick n' tired of my sunglasses continually falling apart. I'm down to one pair and I keep forgetting to take them out of George's car. So today I bought three top-of-the-line pairs at the dollar store. There is a treasure trove of stuff in there! Who knew, you could buy a set of screwdrivers for a buck? These sunglasses even claim 100% U.V. protection. Of course, I'm sure China would never try to deceive anyone.

an unintended science experiment

On Wednesday someone at church asked me if I'd paint a picture of a schoolhouse on a bed sheet. They are using it as a prop in a children's program tonight. It's supposed to look like the schoolhouse in Wonderpets, which I never heard of until Wednesday, and got to hear the Wonderpets theme song and show intro online. So I've been singing that for the past two days as I've been painting this.



I really wanted a little yellow paint to paint the insides of the windowsill flowers, but the only paint I had was in a spray can. No problem, I'll just spray a little into this styrofoam cup, and then I'll paint it on.

I found out that this is what spray paint will do to a styrofoam cup:



And my brush is still recovering from the trauma. After all that, I didn't like the yellow anyway, and painted it over with white.



This could actually pass for art in some museums.

blast from the past

When I was a senior in high school I was never without this sketchbook.



During study halls I'd sit and draw an ongoing comic strip which included appearances by a bunch of my classmates. Here are a couple of bits from "Bionic Bill vs. Andy Gram." Someday I'd like to blog this whole thing, but it will take a lot of scanning.




Those of you who knew me in high school may recall that "Bionic Bill" is John Gasper, who had a lot of input in the writing of these stories.

I'm older than I was, but younger than I will be.

A particular person keeps pointing out to me that I have wrinkles on my forehead.

Personally, I don't mind. So far I have lived all of my adult life with people questioning whether I am really a grown-up.

Today I turned 34.

34's not a bad age. I think I'll stick with it for a while.

I feel good I feel great I feel wonderful...

A few thoughts from my coffee-fueled brain this fine morning...

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Belgian waffles are one of those things that smell really great, but they taste just ok.

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Why does the gas pump have to ask me if I want my receipt? Of course I want my receipt! Duuuuhh!

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This is my second morning this week working on my laptop in Panera Bread. I really like working in here. The coffee is very good. The caramel lattes are stupendous. Lunch is affordable. Free Wi-Fi. It helps me get out of my house and into the world. And the people working here are a constant reminder that if I don't get my work done and make some money, I too could end up behind that counter slicing sandwiches.

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One job I never want to experience again... Cutco sales representative. Here are some of my notes from my Cutco meeting back in 2001. I sold some to my parents and then got my butt out of that unfortunate career detour.



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I really do feel good today.

random thoughts in a coffee shop

Sometimes I enjoy listening to other peoples' conversations in this coffee shop. And sometimes I think other people are just kind of annoying.

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For the past week I've been avoiding coffee because of sinus problems. But now I feel better, so am back here enjoying an Italian blend.

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It finally feels like October.

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I can't stand it when people have really long toenails. Now that it's cooler, those people should put their socks and shoes back on.

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I am addicted to pomegranates again.

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Lately I keep having very weird dreams. Very very weird ones.

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In my lifetime I want to draw a syndicated comic strip. And when I do, if I do, it will be very funny. Not like a bunch of the stupid stuff that is in the newspaper today. Mine will be roll-on-the-floor-laughing funny. I just need to come up with the right theme. Someday.

Come back! I have vitamins and minerals!!!

Today's post is sponsored by the letter "I."

a new blog post!

I have been doodling less lately. Since I got my laptop I have been enjoying the new experience of working on it in coffee shops, which is where I usually was doodling. Even though my chair at home is more comfortable, there is something very fun about having the internet pop up right there at my table.

Here are some doodles I drew in church. The creature saying "stop it!" is based on the face of a boy sitting in front of us, who kept on fighting with his brother.

A guy sitting in front of us in church last week was giving his kids paper to draw on during the service. He jokingly asked me and George if we'd like some drawing paper. I said, "No thanks, I have my own." Little did he know, I am not kidding, ha ha.



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Have a craving for Ho-Hos? Then come on down to the Ho Ho Buffet. All varieties of Ho Hos for one low price.

phooey

Blogger won't let me post any pictures tonight.

Luggages Luggages Luggages

I am finally home after going on many adventures over the last four weeks. One interesting place to visit but not to live... Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.

away on business

I am still around. I'll be at my parents' house for the next week and a half, doing some work at their business while they are away on vacation. I am enjoying a lazy Sunday today. Right now I am going through a bunch of old photos I found, and organizing them in my Picasa photo album. There is a link to it on my sidebar.

playing with my new mac

I have dog visitors this morning. Here are some photos I took.

ho-hum

While I was at Moe's Mexican restaurant last weekend I took a spy photo of this very young couple who could not keep their hands off each other.


Here's a doodle of the girl of this couple, in glorious living technicolor. She was thoroughly enjoying that slurpee.

I have been marveling that something I planted actually grew. These are some funky colored sunflowers.

more doodle fun with watercolor

misc.

A cartoon I drew a while back. I don't know if I ever posted it on here. Ok, I just found it in my post from July '06. Well you all get to enjoy it once again.

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Can you guess which kid is me?


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I enjoy adding watercolor to my doodles. I should do it more often.


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Every time I meet someone named Janet, this song gets stuck in my head.

beware of attack birds

These are the barn swallows that are guarding their nest on my front porch. Even if I stand in front of the glass door they start swooping down at me. Somebody did manage to leave a package on our porch yesterday. This should not go on much longer; those baby birds have been practicing their wing-flapping all week.

another day, another doodle

a doodle a day is good for your health

A doodle I drew today while waiting in a long line at the post office. Gotta use the time somehow, when you're standing in a line waiting to mail a book you sold on half.com for a dollar and ninety-five cents.

It is not easy to draw standing up. I'm not sure whether this individual is male or female.

misc.

For some reason I enjoy drawing people's screaming kids. Maybe it's because I find them annoying, but then I find some humor in the situation and it becomes entertaining for me.

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These yucky Japanese beetles are chewing my trees to bits. I hope they cannot kill the trees.

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I've been working on adding photos to my Flickr page, but then I didn't like it because it charges a fee for more than three folders. So I started a Picassa album. I think I like that better.

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More tea stain doodles.

weekly update

It seems someone is walking around this town impersonating me. A couple of weeks ago I went into a Mexican restaurant, and the owner asked me if I was related to so-and-so because I look and sound just like her. Now today, I walk into Starbucks, and a worker there comes out and asks me if I was on the news yesterday. Someone who was on the news looks just like me.

I'll just have to hope she's a nice person and doesn't go around committing crimes, so then I can get picked out of a line-up.

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These are the barn swallow babies that live above my front porch. See the two little heads peeking out? There are at least three in there. They look like muppets when they poke out their fuzzy heads and open their mouths.

current events

Last week I helped out at my church's Vacation Bible School. I showed this doodle to a couple of people, and they knew EXACTLY who this four-year-old is.



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more excitement than i can handle around here...

While we were on vacation, a barn swallow put a nest on top of our front porch light. Those barn swallows have been scoping out my porch for a long time now, but waited until we went away to get to work on their little building project.

Now every time I go out there to do some gardening, the bird will fly into the air and fly circles above the yard, calling out to all its friends and family to come and warn the intruder (me) to leave. So about five birds will be up there shreaking at me. All they had done so far was make a lot of noise, so I started to sweep the bird crap off of my porch, right under the nest. They came dive bombing at my head, and chased me off, as I ran screaming like a little girl back into my garage and into the house.

Some delivery person is going to be surprised this week. George is expecting a package.

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I recently joined a Flickr group where fellow doodlers are creating sketches from tea stains.

Our visit to Seattle

I know I am not the first person to post a picture of this guy on my blog. I wonder if he's been able to start his karate lessons by now?


This guy had a cardboard sign on the other side that read, "I WANT YOUR WEED."


We saw this national landmark... the first Starbucks. Yes everyone, smile, I am taking your picture.

Pike Place Market was packed with people. But we did not see any fish being thrown. They had the day off because it was the fourth of July.

We stayed at a funky hotel in Seattle called Hotel Max. This is the hallway...

Our door...

The lobby...