trick or treat

We never get trick or treaters where we live. I always get some candy just in case though, because we could get an unexpected visitor. Wouldn't that kid be disappointed if we tossed a can of George's anchovies into his bag?

So I only buy candy that I like. If we keep the porch lights off, hopefully we can just hide out in here and watch the "Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" on DVD and have all the candy to ourselves. hwahahaha...

the daily doodle

Tonight we went to a church potluck dinner. Your typical buffet of mystery casseroles. A feast of macaroni noodles, chopped up potatoes, something mushy, something that looks like chicken is in there, or maybe tuna (?).

But I can't complain. All I brought was apple cider.

After the meal, I had a perfect opportunity for doodling. A great view from the back of the room, and so much interesting doodle subject matter.

A small audience of little children quickly formed behind me, so I changed my doodling from real people to cartoony animals and stuff. I learned long ago that an audience can lead to the sketchbook being passed around, which leads to someone seeing their likeness, not realizing that they do have that many wrinkles, etc... that person not thinking that's very funny... (One reason I can't imagine that drawing caricatures for a living would be very fun.)

notes

There are so many books that I have started reading and not finished. I picked up "What A Great Idea!" again, and took some notes while I was in the coffee shop on Wednesday.



I have had a creative block for a long long time, but I think I may be slowly returning to normal again. These books help.

Coffee helps too.

out of the basement, back into the world

Today I did something I've been putting off for a long time. I went into our local coffee shop and gave a couple of greeting card catalogues and card samples to the guy who took my order. I asked him to show them to the owner... maybe she'd be interested.

While I was waiting for my caramel infusion, which was very tasty by the way, the manager came out to talk to me. She was very enthusiastic about buying my cards. She called up the owner. The owner wanted them. And she wants to put up some kind of a bio about me over the cards for sale.

She got on the phone and bought every one of my designs while I was sitting there. (Now I wish I hadn't waited so long! ...I've just never wanted to feel like a salesperson).



This is my newest Christmas card, and it is available for sale at www.allport.com.

quote of the day

"A child of five could understand this;
send someone to fetch a child of five."

-Groucho Marx

we give up

We have done all we can for our basement carpet. It is time to say goodbye.

The pad underneath was soaking wet from one end to the other, and impossible to clean.

Plan B was to rip out the pad, and get the carpet treated for mold. The carpet cleaning guy said there is no guarantee that mold will not grow back on our carpet after a $600 treatment, so out it goes!

home again

Crazy weather we're having around here! Here's some pictures from Friday morning.






There are disadvantages to having a finished basement... we've been cleaning the water out of our carpet for hours since our power came back on. Now we know that owning a back-up sump pump does not necessarily mean that it will work. >:I

Skippy looks so funny standing in front of this carpet dryer that we rented. He likes sitting in front of it, but moves if I try to take his picture...


This is better...

We also learned there are advantages to not having many big old trees in your yard. All our little baby trees survived. The old neighborhoods are a disaster.

the october snowstorm of 2006

I was going to post a picture of the snow in our yard from the extremely unexpected snowstorm we had last night, but our power is out and may be out until Monday, or even longer!

We left our house tonight,with its failed sump pump and flooded basement, and are at my parents' house now, where there is no snow and plenty of electricity.

This was not in my plans for this weekend, but I am glad we were more fortunate than some people, who ended up with a giant tree branch crushing their house or car.

10 years

Today is our 10th wedding anniversary. Here we are back when we were still dating, George looking very skinny, and me with my doonka haircut.


This is a card I made for George, some time ago. These doodles are highlights of when we were dating and getting to know each other.

a couple of things

Here's Skippy enjoying his new window seat. He had a nice view so he could bark at the garbage man this morning.











We went to a fall festival last weekend. It was actually hot, and I should have worn shorts and a t-shirt. I went into a coffee shop to get myself a cold drink, and came out to find George holding Skippy, surrounded by three little girls all petting and adoring our cutesy little dog. It was a funny picture. He was like the traveling petting zoo.

Here's some doodles that have nothing to do with anything.

some penguin doodles

I promised Carly Fries a one-page cartoon, but my mind has been blank. So I just started doodling, and this is what I ended up with. Carly, here are some doodles for you. Maybe I will come up with a story line for these penguins... I still need to think about it.

what is art?

While we were in Manhattan last Saturday, we went to the Guggenheim Museum.

The Kandinsky collection was very nice. It inspired me to doodle more.

The Jackson Pollock collection, in my opinion, left much to be desired. If you click on the Jackson Pollock link, you can see his familiar style. It's fun to look at. Most of it on display though, was just horrendous.

You could find some more appealing art parked on the side of the street...

George's parents

I don't have time to write much today, but here's one picture from last weekend's trip to NYC.

These are my in-laws, Ella and Alex. We were at a Chinese buffet. Alex took this gigantic fish.

They had a notice on the table warning: "do not waste food! If you waste food, we will add the cost to your bill!" I've never seen a threat like that at a buffet.

Alex did finish that whole fish.

new york new york

Today we were in Manhattan all day. I'll post some pictures when I get home.

We are here for the weekend to celebrate George's dad's 65th birthday.

yipes

Today I pulled about a thousand weeds that had taken over the shrubs in our front yard. Then I swept up the walkway, and this scary snake appeared. It looks poisonous, and it was shaking its tail and attacking my broom. But it was small and didn't appear to have any teeth. I looked it up online. It's an eastern milk snake, and is "completely harmless."

I used our Gopher pick up and reach tool to toss it out into the field. This thing has officially become a snake removal tool, after using it so many times to get rid of snakes in our yard, both dead and alive.

I figure we have so many snakes in our yard, because we have so many mice in our yard for them to eat.

What is worse, snakes or mice?

another pic of us

Here's another picture of us in Toronto.

Japanese lunch

Here's a photo from last weekend. My friend Kaori is not in it, because she took the picture. That's George and me on the left, then Kaori's mom and dad, and my brother and his wife, Marci, on the right.

Kaori's dad made us this delicious Japanese lunch.

i chew hi chew

This past weekend my brother and his wife were here, visiting from Michigan.

We all drove up to Toronto and saw my Japanese friends, who were there for a wedding. Did you know they close everything on Labor Day in Canada? No Labor Day sales. We were going to stop at IKEA but it was closed. Even grocery stores are closed on Labor Day.


My friend's parents brought me this delicious HI-CHEW, (the best candy!), all the way from Japan.

snakes doodle

I drew this after a visit to the zoo.

how it's going

Today we had a wood floor installed in our bedroom. I have been looking forward to this not just because I love wood, but because I have terrible indoor allergies. The allergist said wood floors will make a difference. I suppose our bedroom carpet contained dust mites from the previous owners plus their wiener dog and their cat, plus us and our fluffy dog who sheds endlessly. The vacuum cleaner can't get it all out.

Well, they installed the wrong floor. We were puzzled for some time before checking the name on the box. It turns out there are two kinds of Manchurian Maple, the modern-looking one we wanted, and the country-looking one we got.

They are going to come back and re-do it. No problem, no argument, their mistake. So we will continue sleeping in the living room for a while longer. Not a big deal.

The biggest waste of money was the movie I rented last night, The Benchwarmers! I should have been properly forewarned when it boasted on the back cover that it's by the same guy who directed a bunch of doofus Adam Sandler movies. It was so bad we could not finish watching it. It just got dumber and dumber the more it went on. (This is just about as opinionated as I'll get on my blog. Sorry if I've offended some Adam Sandler fans. It's just not my cup of tea).