On my way

I'm leaving for Virginia to visit my daughter and her family which includes two very cute grandbabies. I'll be away from my computer for about 10 days....I wonder if I will get withdrawel symptoms?

Proud American

This is my nephew JoJo. When he was small, around 3 years old, he was fascinated by vacuum cleaners. He could pick them out in newspaper ads and the yellow pages. We all thought he was going to be a vacuum salesman when he grew up.

Then he went through a long super-hero phase. He was into Batman, Superman, and Spiderman. But mostly Spiderman.

Recently he's switched over to anything in uniform. He wants to be a Green Marine, Army Man, Policeman, Emergency Medical Technician or in the FBI. He is also fascinated by the US flag and salutes it whenever he sees one. I was driving with him to the fair this past summer and realized he was also saluting passing police cars. My sister took him to the mall where all the military recruiters are and he went through each office picking up all their brochures.

He also likes to draw badges that he might wear someday. I printed a whole sheet of his portrait so he could glue them onto his badges. He spent the night with us and when he saw our flag he requested his picture be taken in front of it.

For Halloween he was an Army man. Notice the homemade gold trim on the shoulders that he made himself. We are very proud of him.

Cactus Monday

Run, run as fast as you can,

You can't catch me,

I'm the Cactus Man!

To see more Cactus Monday cactuteers and their art, visit Teri's blog. Happy Cactus Monday!

Sunday sketch

I took everyone's advise and no, I didn't tell Don last week or even show the picture except for here. I think I like the anonymity; plus no one will be worried to sit near me for fear I might sketch them.

This is Enrique. I looked around and Don was nearby but I'd already sketched him, so this was the next closest person that still presented a side view. I may have to move around in church and find a different pew as soon as all the likely suspects near me have been sketched!

Heart and Liver

If a co-worker comes to you and says, "I bought a side of beef but don't want the heart and liver, do you want it?" just say no. It's easy. NO.

I made the mistake of saying "no" but I followed that with, "although Tim really likes that kind of stuff." So the co-worker went to my husband and asked him and voila, I had a beef heart and liver delivered to work.

Sweetie brought it home and I got to cut it up. To his credit he sharpened a knife for me....I usually use my old Ginsu's that I got about 20 years ago at the fair. His last words were, "be careful, that knife is very sharp. Don't cut yourself." I promptly cut myself.

After I got that all cleaned up and a band-aid on I finished cutting the meat. Liver is very bloody....ick. And it has holes running through the thicker part. Double ick.

Then the heart is HUGE. And it's full of tunnels and white fingerlings and white frilly root-like thingies. It's very icky. I carefully cut away all that stuff and sliced it up. It's all in the freezer waiting for my sweetie to cook it up while I'm gone to visit the grandbabies. We had liver the night it came home and believe it or not, I have no desire to eat anymore of it.

I hope he enjoys it.