morning persons

I've noticed a strange phenomena the last few weeks: People. Droves of them. Outside.

On days that I go running, I run early in the morning, and this morning was such a one. Unlike the dark months of winter, when there are just the occassional chance encounters with suspicious men with duffle bags and no one else, these summer morning runs almost qualify as "crowded".

This morning, for instance, I came across several dog walkers, dogless walkers, and a few runners scattered about.

There's a woman who has routinely been running at the track for several weeks now. I don't know if she runs everyday, or if her runs just happen to correspond with mine, but she's quite systematic. I also came across a relatively large woman working her way up a hill as I was going down. She moved over to the grass as I passed, took a swig from her water, and gave me a very cheerful, sweaty, breathless greeting.

Rounding a corner, I came upon another woman and her two dogs. She directed my attention to across the road where there were 4 deer a-grazing.

I will miss all this in December.
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mega me

So, did you see that episode of "The Office" where Dwight constructs his Mega Desk?

Neither did I... BUT, I did however construct my own version of my own Mega Desk a few minutes ago.

It's all a part of my evil plot to slowly take over the Man Cave! AAAHHAHAHAHAHAHahahahahahahahahhahahaha.......

Update: In light of Jerry's (Duble's) comment, I've renamed it the Giga Desk.

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Silver Liningness Sunday

June is fast disappearing. Wait! I think I'm still in March!

This was a good week for "sharpening the saw" workwise. I don't currently have any active classes, and I just got one new tutor student, so I was able to get caught up on some training. Shia and I have graduated to more opportunities.

I'm glad to have more free time in my schedule during the summer anyway, so I'm thankful for that flexibility in my job and the fact that I can slack off take extra time when I want to.

In movie news, Magnum and I watched Inglorious Basterds. Have you seen it? We enjoyed it. Yes, it can be graphic at times (Hello! Quentin Tarantino!), but if you can handle that aspect, it's worth a look-see.

And I finished the fish mural that I started last weekend. Of course, with murals, it seems they can always be added to, and I just may do so, but it has at least reached a point of finishedness.

Fishy finishedness.
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satellite

*POOF* Illustration Friday already!

This week, the prompt is "satellite", and the only thing I could think to draw was an actual satellite - whether man-made or a moon of some kind. YAWN...

People are actually my favorite subject for illustrating, and I remembered a photo we had of Meego flying a kite. So I reproduced that with a huge satellite in place of the whimsical kite. Now, I do KNOW that this version is physically impossible! I was trying to be outside the box, okay?!

And it was actually pretty fun. I've been inside the box enough this week.

Happy Friday!

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look into my eyes

Allrighty, so at work we do these live online classes, right? One thing that's more difficult than it sounds is to maintain "eye contact" with the classroom or tutor student. It's tempting to just look at what's on the computer screen, when really, we're supposed to look into the "eye" of our webcams.

Here's my webcam sitting on its usual perch atop my monitor. See it? Very small and non-humanlike. Not very engaging to look at.


So one of the trainers gave us a tip to stick a picture of a friendly face onto our webcams - you know like in Lamaze class where they tell you to bring a photo of someone you like to ride the waves of the contractions with you?(I never brought photos for those occassions myself. Would've probably ended up ripped to shreds). But for live online, I thought, "Oooh, good idea!", then wondered whose photo I should stick.

I didn't necessarily want a family member (really, I see enough of them), and for inspiration, I just did a google search on "face", to see what that would bring up.

Got a lot of faces I didn't care for....

Eventually I settled. Allow me to hereby confess that I have a bit of a secret cougar crush on Shia Labeouf. YEAH, go ahead and laugh... fine... shut up... whatever! He's got a friendly face, OKAY?!

Anyway, here's my new webcam:

Looks so much better!

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it's just the fumes talking

Well, I may have created a three-headed monster.

I thought this mural painting would inspire the kids to come up with similar creative outlet projects and... they HAVE.

They're each doing their own mural.

Chaco's begun a beach scene, Wolfgang a sailing ship, and Meego "space" as in planets and stuff, not just empty space.

You can maybe imagine what the basement looks like?

Oh well, it's all good, and if not.... that's what paint rollers are for.







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Silver Liningness Sunday

Happy Sunday, and let me just wish a Happy Father's Day to all the good dads out there. Non-cancerous cyber cigars all around! My own dad is a loving and rather strange man. Taught me everything I know!

Another good week has passed. After returning from our road trip, we've recalibrated and reorganized and are settling into a nice summer.

AND my summer slave program continues. Cars are washed and waxed, bathrooms and floors are cleaned. It's like a Christmas miracle in summertime. Now, about that bedroom....

By my own admission, I am anti-pomp, anti-ceremony, anti-snobbery, anti-government-by-Monarchy... and yet I find this whole Swedish Royal Wedding thing so endearing. My girl side is showing. Probably because Princess Victoria has married such a COMMONER! You go! Way to rock the boat!

Speaking of boats, can you believe that BP CEO at the yacht races?!? Clueless much?? Oh, I digress, this is thankfulness day...


Yesterday, I started another mural. Ocean fish. No, that's not a zombie fish on the right, it's a work-in-progress and he's just not complete yet. No spewing oil either.
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