It's official

I have officially paid over $4 for a gallon of gas. Last night I put $20 in my tank and it only got HALF full. I used to be able to fill it up for $23. Gas is now $4.029 per gallon at my local Chevron.

It's official! Snow! Yes, we got an inch of snow last night. I know it will melt soon, but it's still discouraging. We're supposed to be getting LESS this time of year, not MORE.

I can officially do TWO push-ups. I have witnesses. That's pretty pitiful. I was challenged by the boys at Kid's Kitchen. First I timed them for 90 seconds to see how many they could do. None of them could do 90 seconds, but one did 30 push-ups. After my pitiful attempt, one of the boys said "That's ok, you're old!" Thank you young man. I didn't know.

It's official. I'm old. I received my "welcome" to AARP - for those of you who don't know, that stands for American Association of Retired Persons. Here's their slogan: We are a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that helps people 50 and over improve the quality of their lives. I've got a major milestone birthday coming up....who let AARP know? I was trying to fly under the radar for a bit longer!

This n that

I went to Kid's Kitchen yesterday - I've missed the last two weeks due to heavy work load and unable to take time off. The kids were fun as usual. Our fearless leader, Traci, let the kids help make snot (gelatin, food coloring and water) and then explained why snot/mucus is good for our bodies. She then provided a magnifying glass and let them pick through it and look at it closer. One little girl shouted out, "Snot this week! Let's do blood and guts next week!" There is some enthusiasm from them....I wish the schedule was such that I didn't have to take time from work to participate.

My boss had a quadruple coronary bi-pass over the weekend. Partly due to stress at work. So that leaves the rest of us feeling a little stressed! He will be out for at least 2-3 weeks and then limited hours for additional 4-6 weeks. I think he's being optimistic but we shall see. We've got an acting director so things go on, but it's not the same. I miss him. He's one of my favorite bosses of my entire working career.

I'm feeling better but Sweetie got sick. Now he's snuffling and sneezing and not feeling well at all. It's all my fault.

spring?

It is spring in Alaska but we still have a lot of snow to melt. It's been melting during the daytime but get's back down to freezing at night. Still, the sunshine feels good. This is at the school parking lot near my house.

I'm behind

I didn't do much this weekend except recuperate from being sick all week. I did a quick sketch in church yesterday but didn't get much else done. As I sit here this morning, my nose is running and I'm still feeling like I'd like to take some time off just to get better, but I can't. I have to process payroll today so the rest of my co-workers have a paycheck on Friday.

Migraine aura zentangle

I said a week ago that I would try to zentangle a migraine....well, I didn't quite accomplish that, but I did zentangle a migraine aura. This is similar to what I see sometimes before I get a migraine. I see a spinning silver circular sawblade that moves around in my vision field and gradually becomes bigger until I can't see what I'm looking at. I can see around the edges though. It only lasts about 15 - 20 minutes and then goes away. But then the headache usually starts shortly thereafter. This was fun to draw (without a headache) and try to visualize what I see when I'm not seeing it.....does that make sense?

King of the Hill

King of the Hill - Taz is challenging Roxy for the top!

Ta Da! Roxy is the clear winner!

My dogs were playing King of the Hill just the other day. This big pile of snow is what Sweetie shoveled off the flat garage roof. If you don't get it off before it starts melting it will puddle up and then leak through....not good.

Meet King Henry - Lynn at Getting My Feet Wet challenged us to draw a picture of her cat Henry. She posted a pic of him last Wednesday for HAW. So I accepted the challenge and sketched this regal pose. I'm calling him King Henry because all cats act like they are royalty! Check out her site and see other drawings of Henry from her other artsy friends.
Happy Animal Wednesday!

A little surprise

I love how she packaged this with a page from an old book

I received a little surprise in the mail yesterday. It sure brightened my day! One of my blogger friends, Kimmie (Art in Red Wagons) creates art out of metal and bottle caps as well as other things. She has some really interesting items. I sent her some "Made in Alaska" bottle caps to use in her art and she sent me back this cool little magnet, made from one of the bottle caps. I had to take the pic without a flash otherwise you couldn't see it....it's a bit blurry! Check out her site and post dated March 17 and you can see some nice ones that are photographed well.

She calls it Fridge Jewelry. My fridge could use some jewelry - right now it's covered with pics of the nieces and nephews and misc advertisements. In fact, now that I look at it, it's time to clean it up.She also included some bags of tea which will sure feel nice on this sore throat of mine. Thank you Kimmie!

I'm sick

I spent most of Saturday and Sunday on the couch. I'm sick; it's just a cold, achy bones and a headache. No Sunday sketching and no Cactus Monday. I'm going in to work today for just a few hours, then I'll be back home on the couch until I feel better.

New snow

We got about 4-5 inches of new snow this morning. It's already melting some this afternoon and we are supposed to get into the low 40's this weekend. My dogs love new snow. I tried to capture some of their fun in the back yard.

There is a downside....my house kind of smells like wet dog right now. And at this moment it is lightly snowing again.

Birds

I spent most of my day at City Hall again with a few brief walks across the town square to the other meeting place. In the park were thousands of Bohemian Waxwings sitting in the tops of all the trees and flying around in circles. It almost sounded like cicadas but more pleasant. Happy Animal Wednesday!

Rassum Frassum Brussel Sprouts

Today was the kind of day I don't care to repeat. I had to go to the all-day computer software demonstrations at City Hall again. Besides being boring and keeping me from my work, I got injured. Last time I was down there I slipped on ice and fell flat on my butt and hurt my pride.

Today I was carrying a ceramic mug, plate and a few other items (cleaning up my table) and someone backed into me. The cup went flying and crashed to the ground right in front of me and shattered. The lady who backed into me apologized, I said, "no problem, it's kind of crowded" and proceeded to bend down to pick up the pieces. Someone else helped me. After picking it all up and depositing in the trash I stepped out to use the restroom. My left shin was really hurting and felt cold. I got to the restroom and realized I had a V-shaped cut into my shin. I think a piece of the cup bounced up and gashed my leg. I had blood running down my shin and onto my sock. It quit bleeding quickly but my shin has been really hurting ever since. I think I really bruised it good.

So that was the end of my exciting day, except it happened at the beginning so my leg hurt the rest of the day, I had blood on my pants and the demonstration was so boring that I had to keep myself from falling asleep. Then it went over by half an hour.

Kind of pitiful hunh? People are without homes, food and water in Japan and I'm complaining about a little cut on my leg and an extremely boring day. I guess I'll take my boring day over the "excitement" they are having in Japan.

Cactus Monday

Jingle, Jingle,
Old man Cactus.
Have you paid up
all your taxes?

My apologies to the little song from our childhood called Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star - I was struggling to make it rhyme with cactus! For more Cactus art and photos check out Teri's blog.

Sunday Sketching

This man is.....I even asked his name but can't remember for the life of me! I do know he's Deanna's dad but since you don't know Deanna that isn't helping much I'm sure. I hate it when I'm introduced and then exactly 2 seconds later my mind is a total blank.

Winter....still

This was my view as I left work today. Although I complain about the long winter, I do appreciate the beauty that is found in Alaska. I've lived other places and there is nothing quite like seeing large snow-covered mountains just down the street from where you live and work.

Odd hair choice

Today my sweetie took me to lunch and I immediately noticed this man sitting a few tables over. I've seen him before because I recognized his unusual hair style. I can't tell if he's bald on top and sides or not, but why else would he comb his hair from the BACK of his neck up over the top of his head and over his ears? I sketched his hair quickly on a napkin and then did a real sketch when I got home.

I'm not making fun of him. Really. It's just such an unusual choice of hairstyle....maybe he's trying to set a new trend? I never did get to see his front view but I'm guessing it looks just as odd from the front. He had a young couple with him....presumably friends or family? Why, why wouldn't you tell your family or friend, "Hey dude, quit doing the comb over. It's not working for you."

Where exactly is spring?

I came home from work early today since I have to work on Saturday and must comp my time - I'm not allowed to get overtime. So on this beautiful sunny day I came home and did my taxes. After 3 stressful hours hunched over the computer I decided to take the two dogs for a little walk. I needed to relieve some stress and they needed to quit bugging me before I killed them both.
So I hooked them up to leashes and we headed down the street to this little park with a trail through the woods. At one end is a small lake where the trail turns. That's where I turned around a came back. You can probably see from the glare on the path how slippery it was.
Here the dogs are practicing a sit, stay command. They did not do very well. I give Taz an F- and Roxy gets a C, just barely acceptable!
I really need to work with them both on leash training. We don't do much walking on a leash because we have a fenced back yard and they run around in that or we take them to the cabin where they run free.

Note to self: 1. Move away from this land of ice and snow. 2. Take the dogs one at a time the next time we go for a "fun" walk. 3. Do not attempt to do taxes in the same house with whiny dogs.

Kids' Kitchen

This is my friend Traci attempting to do the experiment. It didn't work. What is supposed to happen is that the aluminum can will crush itself without using hands to smash it.
You take a can and immerse it in VERY hot boiling water, scooping up some of the hot water. Then you invert it over a pan of very cold icy water and the air inside the can will shrink causing the can to crush itself. But our two tubs of water weren't hot or cold enough. The first time it failed all the kids rushed outside to bring back handfuls of snow. Our cold water was cold enough. Traci boiled some more water but the experiment really needs to be done right next to a flame because the hot water cooled some in the process from moving from the kitchen to the area where they eat and while she was explaining the process. So we are going to try again. We are not allowed to have an open flame though so maybe we'll have to bring all the kids into the kitchen.

What's amazing is that not one kid was disappointed that the experiment failed. They were all excited that they got to participate and help. They want to do lots more and kept suggesting things we can do with them. Which is our whole goal. To spend time with kids.

Feeling tangled, zen that is

I've been working on a few zentangles in my new sketchbook. The first I gave away to someone who wanted to buy it (a waitress). So this is the second. If you google Zentangle Patterns you can find all sorts of interesting patterns and segments on how to draw them. I got the coil idea going around the right circle from there.

We had a great time at Kids' Kitchen yesterday. I took pictures but forgot my camera so can't show and tell, but I will tomorrow.

And for those of you who may not have recognized my poem from Cactus Monday it was a remake of Little Brave Sambo , which many years ago was called Little Black Sambo. We had a record player when I was a child and we'd sit around and listen to several different children's stories such as Puss N Boots, Chicken Little, The Little Red Hen, Peter and the Wolf and Little Brave Sambo. I used to be able to quote many of the stories and songs. This is what kids did before there was Nintendo and Play Station and Wii.

Cactus Monday

Little brave cactus, little brave cactus,
dressed in the prettiest clothes.
His jacket is red,
his trousers are blue,
a green umbrella
and purple shoes.
He's a little brave cactus, little brave cactus,
dressed in the prettiest clothes.

For more Cactus Monday see Teri - there's more!

Sunday Sketching

Today I sketched Angie and her daughter Adrianna. They are new to our church but have been coming regularly for about a month. Adrianna is in my Wednesday night class so I've gotten to know her better than her mom.

A treat for me

I've had a migraine since Tuesday evening. It's finally gone this morning. I was contemplating drawing a zentangle of what a migraine looks and feels like....maybe a hard concept, but I was seeing sharp spikey lines and zig-zag shapes and circles that keep turning and shifting. I get aura sometimes with my migraines - I usually see a small circular shiny sawblade shape that spins and gradually gets bigger and bigger until I can't see what I'm looking straight at; but I can see periphally. It makes it hard to sit at the computer and try to sneak up on whatever you are working on. Anyways, I was thinking these thoughts while at my desk when it dawned on me that I still had a sizable gift certificate to Blaine's Art Store and what a lovely way to spend my lunch break. So I went, I saw and I bought a couple of sketchbooks and some new pens.

I decided that I wanted a sketchbook that would be solely for zentangles. I don't know why, but it seemed important at noon yesterday. So this is what I bought and this is how I decorated the front. I love green and gold together! The front is NOT my migraine, it is much more soothing. The next time I have a migraine I'll zentangle it and we'll see how it fits!

snoozing

I missed Animal Wednesday yesterday so am carrying it over to today. Happy Animal Thursday!

Dogs are not allowed on the furniture in our house. Can you tell? I think we have gotten lax.

My daughter called on Monday. Our third grandbaby who is due in mid-August is a boy!

Camoflauge

Here is a picture of some brush and trees along the side of the road.....

Did you see it?

There's a moose hiding just behind the brush! They are masters of disguise. I remember as a young girl when we walked to school (in freezing weather, 5 miles, uphill both ways!) we would often not realize we were upon a moose or two until we were just feet away. Then we would quickly scurry on by and hope they didn't mind having us walk so close to them. Usually they are pretty mild mannered and don't really care, but if you start throwing snowballs at them, or get too close, they will lay their ears back and charge at you. Then you better get behind a tree!