make like a tree

 Wham! This week went by fast, although I can't put my finger on anything in particular that made it so. Oh well, here we are, Saturday. Not complaining.

The semester is winding down at the college. Less than one month to go, and one of those weeks is fall break. I've had a few tutees jump ship from their math classes already, realizing they can't pass even if they pull wizardry on their finals. I'm a little mad at the advisors who allowed them to sign up for classes they clearly weren't ready for, but sink-or-swim seems to be the strategy.

We survived the first week back to standard time. It is now dark on my bicycle commute home, and I'm decked out with lights and reflectors again. There are three busy roads I must cross to get to and from the college, and I found a route that uses the lesser of the evils for all three crossings without being too much of a detour. 

A little photo dump from the week:

• One of my fellow paint-n-sippers shared some pics she took of our get together a couple of weeks ago. Here's a group photo:

Our artistic leader is 4th from the left, next to me, in case it's not obvious from her Best-In-Show painting.

• I came across a few deer during one of my early morning jog arounds this week

There were about five of them hanging around together, but the others went and hid in the trees as I got my phone out. These two seemingly couldn't care less. 

It's gotten chillier, and we've definitely had our first freeze, but still no snow for the season. Any day now. I avoid politics on the blog, but I gotta say, this government shut down is getting old. 

Rant over. 

 

paint, pumpkins, pedals

 I did a thing yesterday. I'd played around with painting in the past, but hadn't touched the stuff in a good long time. Yesterday, I did a Paint 'n' Sip with a few other ladies, something that had looked like fun, but I'd never done.

Seven of us plus our able instructor got together to create "a fall scene" in acryllic paint. The event was deemed a fundraiser for my PEO chapter, but was mainly an excuse to get together and goof around. Both purposes were served.

I brought my result home, and there it sits in the corner of my "office", between the dry erase markers and kleenex, for lack of any place else.

Maybe I'll touch it up and name it "Children of the Corn"

Speaking of evils, how did everyone fare with the amazon web service outage of Monday?

It's a bit concerning how dependent many of us are on our apps and cloud services, eh?

For me, it was a full-on first world problem as I had a haircut appointment on Monday, and found that my Pinterest wouldn't load. Pinterest held my hair reference photos! What to do?

Sigh of relief when the issue was corrected in time, but it was touch and go there, I tellya!

Also this week, I took in another bicycle. These things are wrecking my minimalist image. I have the lovely Violet, which I mainly take for relatively long joyrides, like this morning's beautiful fall ride. Then there's Daisy, my trusty single speed commuter. I also have Lily, the buxom mountain bike. 

Well, now I have the yet-to-be-named newbie-to-me. We bought her 10 plus years ago for Meego. He rode it through high school and then college, but hasn't ridden it much in recent years. 

With the temperatures getting cooler and days getting shorter, I was thinking it would be nice to have a little softer ride on the cooler, darker commutes. Violet and Daisy both have skinny tires and zero suspension. I rattle with every bump and crack. For grins, I asked Meego if he used that old bike much, and if not, could I buy it from him. 

Well, he brought it over, free of charge he says. I gave it a little spa treatment and have been enjoying her cushiness this past week.

That's her in her yet-to-be-named orangeness, parked alongside the zippy Daisy who takes a well deserved respite. And no, I won't name it Donald or Trump. 

Or will I?

dress real neat from our hats to our feet

I took a day off from work at the testing center yesterday. I'd looked at the schedule, and it was going to be a light day. We were fully staffed, so I took one for the team and waived my shift. I figured I could get caught up on some responsibilities have a play day. I ended up taking a nice long bike ride, despite the heat, stopped by the library and picked up an indulgent, light-read paperback.

I did have a tutor sesh in the afternoon, so it wasn't a day of total sloth. My high schooler (rising senior) was freshly back from a 2-week summer architecture program hosted by a rather posh out-of-state univeristy.  

We were meeting online, so she showed me the models she'd made and talked about how (surprisingly!) grueling the program was. Seems they really put those kids to work! To me, she seemed to have noticeably matured in those two weeks away, like it's hitting her that she has just one more year left of high school before she goes out into the big world. 

When I was her age, I'd thought about architecture school. It seemed it would be a fun combination of artsy and mathy, but I ended up not going that route and became an engineer instead. As an engineer, I had dealings with industrial designers, which to me, are similar to architects. Instead of designing buildings to be aesthetically pleasing, industrial designers design consumer products to be aesthetically and ergonomically pleasing. 

On one hand, we had design engineers who designed a thing to perform certain functions. On the other hand were the industrial designers who designed the thing to look and feel good. My job was to tweak their combined efforts into a thing that functioned, looked and felt nice, and could also be mass produced at an affordable cost. Oh boo!

The industrial designers had their own building. It was stylish and artsy like the industrial designers themselves. They didn't care to talk about manufacturing costs - too constraining! Who were these nerds (my cohorts, me) anyway!?

Honestly, I enjoyed that job. I don't know if I'm minimal and practical now because I enjoyed the job, or if I enjoyed the job because I was already minimal and practical. Chickens. Eggs.

After our tutor session ended, I was remembering those cool, stylish, industrial designers. Their fashionable clothes, their edgy haircuts, their fancy furniture... jealous much? Maybe. Would I have fit in had I gone that route?

I sketched a Tesla Cybertruck I've seen around town lately. Or it's possibly multiple Tesla Cybertrucks around town - they all look alike, don't they?

Did Elon himself design it? And no one told him , "no"?

hype, plumpies, doodles

A little weekend reflection...

Random happenings:

• In this week's excitement, we got a new fridge. His name is Coolio.
  
  
• The general area seems to be on a collective hangover following last night's college football match-up between Colorado and Colorado State. The two state rivals meet annually for the "Rocky Mountain Showdown", and both teams have been pretty bad the last few years.

This year, there's the whole hype train surrounding CU football, and the showdown was expected to be a blowout.  CSU apparently got tired of hearing about it, and they actually showed up for the show down, eventually taking a loss, but making CU play double overtime to get the win. I didn't watch any of it, but it's difficult to escape the hype around here. I'm exhausted just thinking about playing 2 football overtimes.

• A childhood friend of mine invited me to friend his running-for-mayor-of-hometown facebook page. He's changed both his first and last names, and he's always been a bit goofy. At first, I wondered if it was a joke page, but it seems he's legit running. 

Honestly, I've often wondered if he's undiagnosed bipolar. Not that running for mayor of a small town is too far out there, but I think it's a bit out of his league. But hey, who knows?

 A news story that caught my attention:

Fernando Botero, the Columbian artist, died last week at the age of 91. He was known for "plump, inflated forms" like this...

He was a prolific painter, apparently painting every day, all day.

I have no idea why he focused on the plump, but it made him lots of moulah.

A Triumph of the week:

• I joined that gym I did a trial at last week. I typically go to the gym and try to get strong a couple of times a week - or at least go through the motions. This new gym is a step up from where I'd been going.

A Challenge of the week:

• My Father-in-law and his wife were planning a visit in a couple of weeks, but FIL sprained/ strained a hip, so he's resting and had to cancel the trip. FIL has always been quite fit for his age, and he's now 89.

Looking ahead:

Speaking of art and challenges, the prompt list for Inktober '23 has been released. I plan to participate once again. Highly doubtful to get all 31 prompts, but we'll see where I end up. Seems all I do is doodle during downtime, so we'll see what happens this Inktober

for reals

I came across this little (literally) guy this morning while out on another morning meandering.  

He seems appropriate for the Friday mood.

He is one detail in this larger... erm... yard ornament decoration thing?

It sits on a corner house, and I'd seen it before while bicycling by, but never looked at it closely before this morning.

There is a whole mess of little characters and crevices to discover.  The painted mailbox says, "Fairy and Leprechaun mail only". The main structure is part of a tree that is bolted down to a tree stump. Looks to me like the bolted down portion is part of the original tree. 

Either way, I enjoyed the morning look-like-a-runner outing as it's raining now. We're predicted to have lots of rain all day today - a rarity here. Remnants of hurricane Hilary, perhaps?

My work schedule changed slightly this week, and I'm liking the new schedule well enough. We're in the process of hiring a new boss since Boss boss was promoted to yet another layer of admin. Current Assistant Boss is in the running, but not necessarily a shoe-in, and hopefully we'll have an answer within a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, I played around some more with my little WacomⓇ tablet. I am a legit preschooler when it comes to creating digital art. Clearly in the only-can-do-cartoony-things phase.

I call this depiction "me walking the dogs while imagining me walking the dogs"

Based on a true story.

one for the books

Magnum's mom's husband - a.k.a my step-father-in-law - is 90 years old. For the past something years, he's spoken of this book he's been working on. His memoirs?

He'd tell us some tale of his family and/or past adventures, usually ending with, "It's all in my book". We first figured he was journaling and tracing his family tree - a nice little retirement hobby for him. Then he started mentioning publishers and ghost writers, etc. The book was becoming THE BOOK.

Honestly, this made some of us a bit uneasy, because as part of the family tree, all of us were in THE BOOK along with birthdates, birthplaces, extended family? How much information was he sharing?

A few months ago, Magnum's stepsisters sent Magnum copies of the portions of the book that feature us - our kids, and other relevant people. This so Magnum could check the accuracy and request any edits.  We both looked over the pages and found the writing a bit choppy, honestly. Apparently, SFIL just dictated things to a writer who then put it into text. 

I don't know how much he paid to have THE BOOK all put together and printed, but it is done. Magnum arrived home after a work trip to Colorado Springs, where his mom and stepdad live, bestowing a box and saying, "You're the talk of the town," referring to the senior living facility where his mom and stepdad live.

"Wha...?", my response.

He opened the box and revealed 3 paperback copies and one hardcopy of THE BOOK. Hardcopy for us and a paperback for each of our kids.

"Oh...", I recognized the cover. 

Several years ago, Magnum's mom asked if I would draw a pastel portrait of SFIL. 

Yeah, sure. Why not? 

When Magnum opened THE BOOK box, I remembered that, a few months ago, MIL asked if SFIL could use that portrait for THE BOOK cover. 

Yeah, sure. Why not?

And there it was, all 190 pages, hot off the press. We've sort of been treating THE BOOK as "he's having his fun". Seeing it now, all done up, I'm hoping he's happy with it. I was a bit surprised to find the last several pages include original poems.

I skimmed a few pages, mainly looking over the photos, but have yet to sit down to read THE BOOK.  

Judge a book by its cover?

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

5. Book review! (hardly)

next

Last weekend, we got together with all the guys for Meego's Birthday, Part II since Wolfgang was out of town the weekend before. Mexican food this time, no restaurant family drama as far as we were aware, thank goodness.

We have begun toying with the idea of purchasing some recreational land - some boonies to call our own. Nothing fancy. We're not fancy people, plus we can't afford fancy anyway.

Asked the kids if they would get use out of such a getaway, and the brainstorming began:

• solar-powered-bike-park-archery-range-cult-commune?
  
  

Me, I'm thinking Teletubby house 

In other playtime, I dusted off my drawing things yesterday. A neglectful doodler, I've been! Then I drew a quick boat. Why a boat? No idea.

I remember when I used to do at least ONE artwork a week. Illustration Friday was a website that hosted a weekly prompt and sometimes offered awards.  I would post my submissions here as well as with the Illustration Friday group over at deviantart.com. 

Alas, the website is no more, and I no longer had the proddings other than the annual Inktobers. 

How easy it is to slack when there's no rudder! I visited my deviantart page, which also lives among the dustbunnies these days. 

Yeah, I used to be quite a deviant. Did I have more time back then? Nah. Less distraction maybe.



Set a goal. Write it down.

crack me open so I feel the air inside me

Happy October, typically one of my favorite  months - not too hot, not too cold, not too dark, not too bright. It's the Goldilocks of months for me.

Yesterday, we went downtown to witness  our first Tour de Corgi. So many Corgis! 

We watched the cute,  slow, waddling parade, then checked out a few of the booths in attendance. 

It was a lovely day for the nice wholesome event that included a costume contest as well as the parade.

October also is the month of the inktober challenge, remember? Thirty-one days, thirty-one drawings? We're two days in, and my head is still above water.

This is good for me, I haven't touched my art toys in a long time. I literally had to dust everything off. 

Speaking of misfit endeavors, we watched the movie Dinner in America. What a hoot!

It started out feeling like a goofy, quirky, misfit movie, which it is. And it could've totally bombed. It's aggressive and edgy and there are lots and lots of f-bombs. But it has a rather deep - dare I say "sweet and meaningful"? - core to it. It's not for everyone, but I loved it.

onboarding

"Our dreams were to have land of our own, raise a family, train them to be assassins..."

Well, uhm, okay. I watched a video about young girls who are lured online and groomed into becoming ISIS brides.  Not all are young girls or necessarily naive, although many are.  In general, they join up looking for "adventure, camaraderie, and purpose".

Aren't we all?  I was a bit amazed at how easily these kids were lured and supposedly converted to Islam, if not already members.  Many were "normal" kids - bright, active, social.  Nobody would've guessed nor could fathom "why?".  They just didn't come home one day, and their parents eventually get a text.

I watched the story while playing with my pencils and sketchbook and drew this yogini.

Yesterday, we were in the neighborhood of a Best Buy, so we went inside and I played with a Surface tablet.  I haven't felt lured and groomed into digital artplay, but that little Surface tablet was nice.  

Not cheap.  Not necessary.  I bought nothing, then came home and played with pencils and paper.  

Of course the Surface tablets support much more than just digital artwork.  Maybe when my current PC departs this life.  Maybe.

Speaking of adventure, camaraderie, and purpose, we made it through another week.  A pretty low key one at this end.  I guess "boring" can be a good thing.  In contrast with sons and daughters running off and becoming terrorists, yes, "boring" is good.

to feel all right okay

Back to work this week.  Nice to see my little team of coworkers (four of us plus a boss). Naturally, they were sympathetic about Hagrid's home.  Boss has a step-niece who was evacuated with her family, but their home was undamaged.  They weren't able to move back in yet since utilities were all turned off, but they've been back to look around.

They've got young kids who will have to be "prepared" before they return to what's left of  the neighborhood.  "Like another planet".

But we're back at the college for the new year.  Student's return for Spring semester on the 18th, so campus is pretty quiet.  

We've begun checking people's COVID status - fully vaccinated or recently testing negative - for access to the testing center.

I'm basically a bouncer.  Who'da thought?

We got a lot of snow, which has pulled us out of our drought for now.  We've entered the crusty yucky freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw-freeze phase from which Napolion likes to meditate.

He used to go outside each day and find things to kill or get in fights with.  Now he's strictly a housecat (not by his choice).  I wonder what he thinks as he sits on his window perch.  

Similarly meditative, y'know my young coworker friend, Malcolm, who died unexpectedly last year - he'd mentioned he liked to rap.  But whenever we asked him to lay some lyrics on us, he never would.  This week, I was led to a site where he'd uploaded some tracks.  Several tracks, actually.  More than 50 tracks over the span of about a year.  I had no idea he was so creatively prolific.

Now, I actually like some rap/ hip hop, which might surprise some.  There are also rap songs/ artists I can't stand.  I really like Malcolm's material.  And how nice to hear his voice again.

So 2022 has begun.  I don't have any resolutions, just the usual "get better".  Kaizen, yo?

staying busy and steering clear

Another week is in the books and I feel like a recap is fitting! 

I'm continuing to enjoy my newish job as I'm still learning the ropes.  As with any job, there's always something to b*tch about, but all in all, I'm liking it.  

One dislike is that I work weekends.  Being bottom of the totem pole sets me up for that, and I know that eventually - soonish - I'll get off the Saturday-Sunday duty.  At least I don't work evenings, so there's that.

Speaking of playtime, I've survived the first four days of Inktober.  I'm glad Inktober is a thing, and I'm glad that Wolfgang essentially holds my butt to the fire every year to participate.  My pens and papers were collecting big dust, and it's been fun so far.  

I'm not optimistic that I will get all 31 prompts in this year, but 4/4 is good enough for now.

Speaking of Wolfgang, we touched base with all three of the brood this week.  Wolfgang recently got a pretty new bicycle via mail order and had it shipped to our house since he lives in an apartment complex.  So he came by to put the pretty bike together.

Chaco stopped by this week for various reasons, one of which being that his dog likes to play with our dogs and vice versa.  For the record, the cat is less than thrilled with these visits.  He also brought ingredients and cooked up a Filipino dish: lechon kawali ,a dish I'd never heard of.  It's crispy fried pork belly.  Just reading that adds 5 pounds.  

Meego also stopped by and filled us in on college during COVID.  He doesn't live in a dorm, so isn't as affected as those who do.  Of course, there are no typical university events going on.  This weekend, for instance is (stay home)coming weekend.  See what they did there?  

Speaking of COVID, I've now been tested three times and have yet to become a statistic - unlike a certain someone...

back to the drawing board

 Here we go, Inktoberites!  Who's with me??

The first prompt for Inktober 2020 is "fish", so I drew this robot fish.  Or is it a fish robot? Robotic fish? Fishic robot?

Well, whatever.  I heard of devices that are meant to monitor water pollution.  They are designed to swim like fish rather than move like submarines, as fish swimming is much more energy efficient than submarine propulsion.  

As far as I know, they only monitor pollutants and help to create maps of water pollution.  It'd be nice if they cleaned it up, too.  A little?

The activity brought back memories of the cute little robot lawnmower at the hospital job I recently left.  I hope he's doing well.

One down, thirty to go...

let's do 'em all!

I'm late to the Mama Kat link-up this week.  I'd like to say it's because I was busy living an ultra productive life the last couple of days, but that's so not the case.

WHATEVER, to get myself back on track(?), I thought I'd try to tackle all of the prompts this week.  Here goes:

1. Share a new recipe you would like to try.
Oh, geez.  That's a toughie.  Well, I did have a patient at the hospital comment that we have the "best" veggie burgers.  Granted, that seems a bit like saying we have the biggest pigmies, but I have yet to try one of our veggie burgers at the hospital.  Either way, I'm not going to try the recipe as I don't actually care enough to find it out what it is.  They just come in a box that way. 
Onward!

2. Something someone said recently that made you think.
I was talking with Wolfgang this week and he showed me some digital artwork he's done from an online course he's doing.  Wolfgang works full time, but wanted to improve his art skills during this Covid downtime.

I mentioned that I haven't done much drawing or anything artsy in a long time, and he offered some tips on getting/staying motivated.  It made us wonder about how the really prolific artists kept at it year after year, painting after painting, book after book, etc.
They probably had their own mind games...

3. Write about a show you recently binge-watched.
Magnum and I recently finished watching all three seasons of "Arrested Development".  I liked it well enough.  Pretty goofy, and had some witty one-liners.  There was a reboot that resulted in seasons 4 and 5, so I guess we'll watch those.  Episodes are short, so I'm usually able to stay awake. 


4. Write a blog post inspired by the word: ride
For this I'll provide an update to review those moisture-wicking-uv-protecting shirts I got for my afternoon bicycle commute.  They're lovely.  Well, not particularly lovely in appearance, but they keep me relatively cool while protected from the sun's unfriendly rays.  Appearance wise?  Think pajama top.

Even on the model, it's rather pajama-ish, and my boobs are not those boobs.





5. Did you have a childhood security object? What’s its story?
My most memorable "security object" was a stuffed clown named... Bozo? Maybe?  Anyway, despite my not remembering the name, I carried that clown everywhere.  He was stuffed and soft, but had a face of rigid but thin plastic.  The face also had stuffing. 

One day when I was about three, my brother and I were playing in the back yard, and of course, Bozo was there too.  I was intently focused on some three-year-old's thing when I looked up to see Bozo on the ground beneath where my brother was swinging on the swingset and smacking Bozo in the face on every back and forth. 

I ran to Bozo's aid and discovered his face was cracked.  I asked my mom to please fix Bozo, fully expecting her to do so because moms can do anything and surely everyone loves Bozo.  Content with the prognosis, I went down for a nap only to awaken and never see Bozo again. 

In the (many) years since, I've come up with different theories on Bozo's demise:

•  My brother was jealous of Bozo and the love I lavished on him, so decided to make him disappear.
•  My mom felt it was time for me to give up Bozo and conspired with my brother to create a believable scenario for him to disappear

Naturally, there's the chance that

• The whole thing was a timely accident that created a nifty opportunity for Bozo to disappear.

I eventually got over it.  Really, my pondering theories on what truly happened to Bozo over 50 years later is all healthy reflection, I'm sure *AHEM*

6. It’s been three months since Covid began shutting everything down. How are you doing?
Our governor recently loosened restrictions a little more, so things are cautiously looking up.  Personally, I'm a bit stir crazy, but can't complain.  I'm just not much of a homebody type, so it wears on me to not be able to go places.  On the bright side:

I have a couple of tutor students whose testing schedules are ever changing, but they're keeping at it.

Our hours are still reduced at work despite the hospital being almost fully staffed now.  That's been good in that I've been able to cross train in a "trial by fire" kind of way, and I'm grateful to be working a couple of days a week at least.  Rumor has it that moms and babies will be returning at the end of the month, so that will bring in even more busyness and, hopefully, more hours.


What are you eating/ drawing/ watching/ wearing/ missing/ doing?

from Ring to Ripe

Happy Halloween!  And Happy last day of Inktober!  I managed to survive the challenge of doing a drawing every day for the month of October.  Third attempt, fist success.    Here are prompts/days 1 and 31.  Progress?  Anything?

I feel a bit like those worn out and ripe shoes for today.  Here are the remaining entries since my last Inktober update. I'm sure no one's been able to sleep while waiting for them:

So, yes, it was challenging but fun.  I think I got better at some things and faster as the month progressed, and it was also fun to see other submissions and know I wasn't the only weirdo.  

Now, on to other things.  We've had big snow and freeeeeezing this week.  School kids got two snowdays, and it's not even November.  Foreboding?  Even the local university cancelled classes, which spilled a bit into  my tutee schedule.

I'm not complaining.  I have a to-do list to check off.  Magnum and I are getting more serious about downsizing from our empty nest and selling the thing, and I'm looking forward to a bit of a fresh start.  I've also put reading blogs a bit on the back burner because of Inktober.  Did anyone miss me / notice at all?

And for the first season, I'm considering getting a flu shot.  Magnum says he's getting one as his workplace is administering them next week.  He's not gotten a shot in recent years, but he did have what was probably last year's flu, so it's fresh in his mind.  

I think I had the flu two winters ago and can't remember a time before that, but yes, it did suck the life out of me for nearly a week.  Then again, I've heard from some that the shot made them feel like crap.  

Anyone have any advice or experience to share for this flu shot virgin?  

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

7. Write about something you’re looking forward to.

baring arms

"You're the first person to come in wearing short sleeves today"

This from Geej, the girl who gives my weekly allergy shots.

And I was all, "Well... yeah, I'm here for shots"

In fact I told her that I'd changed before going because it wasn't a day to be wearing short sleeves - the reason why everyone else who'd come in had to figure out ways to bare their upper arm(s).  I like to keep it simple and skip the disrobing.  Plus I'm strangely obedient when a medical person tells me to do something like, "wear short sleeves when you come in for shots".

But yeah, it's been cold and drizzly here all week.  We got snowed upon.  It's early for that stuff, so people are confused, and I got a gold star from the allergist's.

And speaking of prizes, looky what I won from Ann over at Annster's Domain!

Yup, Ann had a blog door prize of sorts to celebrate her 1000th blog post, and I won the Starbuck's Gift card!  What a treat!

For those who don't know Ann and her blog, it's always a fun place to visit with upbeat posts and good times.  Take a break from the &%*!^# news headlines and visit Annster's!

In other diversion news, I'm managing to keep my head above water for Inktober.  Here are thumbnails of the latest submissions:

I ordered some new pens and expect them to come in the mail today.  The ones I've been using for Inktober are on their last legs, I think, but I'm keeping the drive alive 💪and trying to put some ink on paper every day as I excitedly watch for the mailman.  Yeah, simple pleasures...

Sunday speaking of

Happy Sunday, blogworld.  I'm currently enjoying a cup o' tea, getting ready for a pleasant tutee and thought I'd do a Silver Lining Sunday post.

Speaking of tutees, my schedule is full of 'em, and for that I'm grateful - all nice kids/young adults.  I'll give a shout out again to high speed internet finally finding our neighborhood.  And I do have a handful of local students because it's nice to get outta the house too.

Speaking of getting outta the house,  I went for a bike ride this morning, and fall is definitely here.  Two words for this morning:  FOG GEE.  It was noticeably chilly too - I had to break out gloves and stuff.  I snapped this pic after a good portion of the fog had cleared out and I could actually see across the street.  I'm grateful for my bike lights!

Speaking of recreation, I'm having fun riding the Inktober bandwagon.  I've managed to keep up for this first week.  I'm finding it nicely therapeutic, but I'm not sure just what the therapy is for?  I'm following a few others on Instagram in addition to seeing what Wolfgang's got to offer.  Here are my days one thru six:

Speaking of social media, my P.E.O. chapter is having a fundraiser coming up next weekend.  Wine and Cheese and silent auction social - actual face-to-face socializing and nice way to bring in some cash.  I'm also glad I'm not Prez this year 😊.

Onward to the tuting, and then exhaustion!  (That's today's Inktober prompt: exhausted)

Thanks for stopping by!  

pigs and hazmat gnomes

3. Roasted

Happy day 3 of Inktober!  I'm managing to keep up... so far.  Three down, twenty-eight to go.
Today's prompt is "Roasted", so thought I'd draw some sunflowers... and an uneaten pig.

I used to be quite a carnivore, but more and more, I find myself eating meat less and less.  Especially mammal meat.  I've caught glimpses of slaughterhouse videos, and they make me think twice.  I know that my abstaining from meat eating isn't going to save many pigs or cows, but oh well.  And I'm considering the appeal of "Moo Shoo Tofu"?

So Inktober is a fun diversion.  I've fallen off the artplay wagon, and this is a good thing to get me back on it.  I even cleaned up Meego's old gaming area and took it over as my "drawing studio" a.k.a. "little desk in the corner with some pens and stuff".

Inktober is something Wolfgang got me into last year when he got into his Copic®️ marker hobby.  He likes to ink fun cartoony things as opposed to my purist black-and-white things.  He sent this image he did for Day 1:  Poisonous

1. Poisonous

Well, now, I do eat mushrooms.  But what would Inktober be without some Hazmat Gnomes?

good-bye, summer

Happy fall!  I'm not sad to see summer in the rear view mirror, but a little pensive about winter up ahead.  It's been unseasonably hot here lately, we broke a few high temp records.  But it's all relative, as many of us reminded ourselves, "at least it's not a hurricane".

Living in Colorado for most of my life, I have no direct experience with hurricanes.  Sounds awful - not just the storm itself, but all that mess of aftermath and ripple effects on the economy.  My mom grew up in the Philippines and used to tell me that my room "looks like a typhoon hit!".  Sorry, Mom.

We dogsat the grandpooch - Chaco's dog, Ella - for a short time this weekend.  She is just too cute and fun.  We're still working on getting her and the cat to be buddies, but we've made good progress.  I still don't trust the two of them alone together, so there's a bit of pet juggling whenever she's here.

And Wolfgang was home for a bit last weekend.  He has some mountain biking friends who live here, so he graces us with his presence once in a while when he's done with them.  Nice thing is, he also took most of his remaining crap that was still stored at our house.

He reminded me that Inktober 2018 is about to start.  I plan to do 'em all again this year!  That exclamation point was to psyche myself up.  I managed to get it done last year, but not without spilling into November.

I have not been doing much art play, however.  I've noticed that it can sometimes be difficult for me to switch brain hemispheres.  Since much of my tuting is left-brain stuff, that's where I've been mostly hanging out recently.  Inktober will be a good challenge and put some balance back into my brain.  I hope.

Speaking of the tuting, a good chunk of my students come to me for help with college entrance exams:  SAT, ACT, and GRE.  Test prep was how I got into tutoring in the first place.  Sometimes I hear back from students when they get their score reports - hopefully happy news.

In all this time, I've had a handful of kids who've gotten close to perfect scores - a very rare thing - but never the golden 36 ACT or 1600 SAT or 170 GRE.  Earlier this week, I got this message from "Joe Kool":

Never mind that his "I got 36 ACT this time!" is grammatically incomplete.

He gets a pass.

some pics, no ink

Last weekend, I mentioned how Magnum and I came upon a cute little rattlesnake while out geocaching?  Lo and behold, a Colorado hiker died after being rattlesnake bit last weekend.  It's actually quite rare to die from a rattler bite, especially if medical  help is available, which it was for this young hiker.  Plus, it's not like he was out of shape, he was a triathlete who loved to go on hikes.  Sad thing.

I have since learned that those little young snakes are often more dangerous because (1) they usually inject venom whereas adults will often "dry bite", and (2) the younger snake's venom is typically more toxic than with older snakes.  Well, now.  I feel bad for the guy's family and friends, though.  By all I've read, he was a really nice guy.  Be careful out there.





On a much lighter note, it was a lovely morning for a bicycle joyride.

The fall air was crisp, and I realized I looked somewhat like a scuba diver on dry land in the cool-weather garb.  Balaclava season is upon us.











I snapped this photo of a hot air balloon hovering at a height I would not be comfortable hovering at.

But it was pretty from the ground.

Yesterday, we went to watch Meego and the gang at a marching band competition.

Meego and the rest of the bangers

They had a good showing, despite the fact that it was annoyingly windy.  I felt for those flag girls - do a toss move and, "where'd my flag go?!"

I'd been keeping up with Inktober 2017 until yesterday.  The day just got eaten up by marching, and in-lawing, and haircutting, and general lazing arounding.  So now I'm behind a day, but I'll catch up.  It's the halfway point, I can't stop now!

Juice

"I'm gonna go down to Meininger's today", he said.  "Wanna come?"

Of Wolfgang's many interests, one that he shares with me is playing with art toys, and Meininger's is the best "toy" store around.

"Okay", I said, "but I'm NOT buying anything!"

It was true.

Wolfgang had a specific pen he was looking for as  he'd told me about Inktober, where the challenge is to make an ink drawing every day during the month of October.

He's going to try.  I'm going to try.

BUT, I have paper, I have pens, the pens have ink.  Enough for every day for a month, if I make it.

As usual it was a fun little outing.  Meininger's is not a "craft" store, it's for true art weirdos.  We fit right in.

And it's been a while since I've done much artwork as that took a backseat to grad school, but alas I have some time to play again.  So I doodled this jar that sits on my desk.

I doodled for Illustration Friday, where the prompt this week is "juice".

I doodled to test out the new pen on the new paper...

that I bought today, when I wasn't going to buy anything.