prizes

Prizes. We have prizes.

Run With Lumber is in less than a month, and things are starting to come together. Of course, it's not over 'til it's over, but at least I've got the participation prizes. Yep, just come to school that day, and get one! Heck, they can probably get one if they don't come to school that day.

I had Wolfgang model. Okay, so can you tell what they are? Hoodies? Sunday hair?? NOPE, they're cool shades! One size fits most! (I don't know why this particular pose - I blame video games and too much violence from the entertainment industry).

I just got finished bagging up 4 hunnerd and 20. Now, they just need to stay intact somewhere in my house for another few weeks.

I've got extras.... you know you want some!

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bottled

Welcome to another Illustration Friday on Saturday. This week's prompt is "bottled".

I was going to put a lit bottle rocket in the bottle, but then decided that flowers would be nicer. I used to share a Coke with my grandma in the afternoons when I stayed with her as a child. I think she'd prefer flowers to bottle rockets... but I'm not sure of it.

Sketched with a no-name pen that came free with a zipper binder.
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duet

Today's episode of Illustration Friday on Saturday arrives in a pair of comfy shoes. This week's prompt is "duet", and many good things come in two's.

Gee, that rhymes.



Plus, the world needs yet another pair of Converse All Stars in graphite, doesn't it? .

I'll start tomorrow

Whooooosh! Did you see that? The first quarter of the year is all but gone.

It reminded me that I made some New Year's resolutions, and maybe I should check my progress.

Actually, I think I'm doing okay with them... all except for one. That "volunteer less" thing. I already serve as treasurer on the school PTO and I chair Run With Lumber, which is coming up in about a month.

So, when the PTO president told me she wanted to award t-shirts to the students who brought in $20 or more for Run With Lumber, I was totally fine with it as long as SHE does EVERYTHING having to do with procurring said t-shirts.

And she did.

Of course, she kept me in the loop. The loop of how she had an artist who would design and produce the image. The loop of how that "artist" would bail on her. The loop of how she approached a local caricature artist. The loop of how the caricature artist would do it for an exorbitant amount of money....

Okay, I couldn't stand it at that point! First of all, I have a bit of a thorn in my side with caricature artists, but that's another story. Secondly, the ridiculous FEE.

"HOLD IT! Let me see what I can come up with before we fork over this FEE!", I says. And that's how my volunteer-less resolution fizzled.

As I told her, it's just Lumber with four running children of balanced gender and non-descript ethnicity. If nothing else, we're a PC PTO. It's not a t-shirt just yet, but I have to admit it was kind of fun.

I'll volunteer less tomorrow.

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back at it

It's Monday back-to-work day, and it seems appropriate to look back on the week that was spring break.

All in all, it was a nice week off. I was talking with some people at work today - one took a trip to Chicago to meet the girlfriend's family (hot seat!). Another went to the Grand Canyon and had some nice tiny pictures on the cell phone to share.

Me? Well, we went bowling one day - I'm not much of a bowler, unlike some people we know - I just go for the rental shoes; got in some bicycling; took a trip as mentioned to visit/check up on the parents; watched a couple movies.

We watched Red which was a lot of fun. Helen Mirren with a machine gun, John Malkovich in a gilly suit - what's not to like?

Then Magnum and I watched Blood Diamond. I'd heard it was good, but I usually avoid movies with children in disturbing circumstances. I liked it - except for the children-in-disturbing-circumstances thing.

Low-key, yes, but I'm not complaining. It was just about the right length and I for one was ready to get back into the usual routine today. To make the return all the more sweet, it was a speed trap day this afternoon at crossing guard duty.

I swear, it's like shooting fish in a bucket.
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toy

Welcome to another installment of Illustration Friday on Saturday!

One thing I really like about this Illustration Friday business is that it often gets me to do things that I wouldn't just choose to do on my own. When I saw that this week's prompt was "toy", nothing came to mind right away.

I sat here pondering and then bounced it off Wolfgang who was here in the room with me. "Hmm... what should I draw for 'toy'?"

I half expected him to join me in my puzzlement, at least for a while. Instead, however, seemingly without even taking a breath, he answered, "Optimus Prime". Yes, he's quite a fan of the whole Transformers conglomeration and has done his part to contribute to Michael Bay's bank account. Recall that he has his own Optimus Prime rendition, prestigously placed on our own Wall O' Muscle.

Anyways, Optimus Prime? Well, I wouldn't just sit down and decide to make a drawing of Optimus Prime, but why the heck not? And so I began.

I got to know good old Optimus more than I ever thought I would. He's certainly not one to be messed with.

I spent a gooder part of the day with Optimus, in fact. In the end, it was all quite fun.

And that's what toys are for, right?

small town mysteries

I awoke this morning to another fine spring day... but alas now, clouds are rolling in.

Oh well. I ended up taking a rather impromptu trip to the Hometown with brother Wombat to visit my parents. One thing about these visits is the risk of running into someone I once knew and not remembering who they are now. It's a curse of growing up in a small town.

Sure enough, there we were. I'd forgotten my toothbrush and was missing it terribly. I decided to walk to a nearby convenience store for another. My dad and brother joined me.

A couple of blocks from the house was a crew of city worker guys working on a water pipe. As we strolled past, one says, "Hey Wombat! Abby! Hi Mr. Dad! It's Carlos."

None of us had a clue as to who he was.

He and my brother shook hands and did a quick 2-minute summary as to where they'd been since ... well... whenever they'd supposedly known each other, while my dad and I stood there all smiley-like.

In fact, my brother did such a good job, I was sure that he'd figured out who the mystery man was, so I asked him as we were out of earshot.

"Who was that?" I says.

"Carlos", Wombat says.

"Carlos who?", I says

"I dunno", Wombat says, "just Carlos".

Crap, he didn't know either!

From then on, I was on alert. In the convenience store, I carefully studied the guy who rung up my toothbrush - some vague familiarity about his face, but... nothing more. We decided to get coffee at McDonald's. The place was crawling with vaguely familiar people, but nothing obvious. In the recesses of my mind, I know that I KNOW some of those McDonald's people, but just couldn't quite make the full connection.

Today, I'm back home. Still wondering about the mysterious Carlos. Maybe it just bugs me because he seemed so nice, and he so quickly recognized all of us.

I know it will continue to bug me, especially when I brush my teeth.
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