A not so gloomy strawberry rhubarb crumble evening.

One slightly rainy evening. One large container of Costco strawberries. 3 stalks of rhubarb. Various other ingredients from the kitchen, and I have a Strawberry rhubarb crumble baking in the oven, recipe courtesy Emeril via http://www.foodtvnetwork.com.

Smells great. Can't wait to try it. Crumble looked less crumbly, more soggy about ten minutes ago.

Phew. That doesn't smell so good. Faugh!! Its the doggie come back from inside. She must have found something stinky to roll in again. Arrrgh.

Well, crumble turned out well. Crumbly and crunchy. Could have used some vanilla ice cream, but oh well. Can't always manage to think of everything. Took some over to our neighbors Tom and Becky. Crumble just doens't taste as good the next day.

Enough blogging. Time to finish my small portion of crumble and head off to sleep.

Walka walka

Feeling better, still tired, but not nearly as bad as earlier this week. Brought my own lunch today, ate some salad, threw some chicken on top. Drank a large glass of water. Trying to boycott frozen dinners.

Although I'd rather have taken a nap, I took a walk around the block. Its very nice out today in Seattle. Apparently its been a very dry April for us.

Chocolate chip cookie day

Just finished making some chocolate chip cookies today for Jeremy. Took a few over to our next door neighbors Doug and Dani. Still enough for the hubby to get his cookie fix. LOL.

I have a few new favorite songs that I got from some iTunes lists. In my listening queue is "Swing Life Away" by Rise Against, "Starlight" by Muse, "Pretty Girl" by Sugarcult, and "A Strange Education" by The Cinematics.

I am a little closer to starting an art project. I got the Gesso out, and swabbed some on some watercolor paper postcards. Now I just need to break out the new watercolors that I got in the mail.

And I think I'm finally getting better. Although I've been pretty tired, I made it through without one nap!!! Huzzah.

More zzzzzzz

Tired and bummed. I was supposed to get together with my buddy Maya to work on some charms/get some supplies to make charms, but am still not feeling well. Slept away most of today as well.

So, due to the lack of interesting things happening to me, I'll post a couple of photos of my beagle, Gravity. She's a cutie.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

Well, I think my sore throat is definitely the one I mentioned a couple of days ago in an earlier blog. I went to bed at 8 pm last night, slept in until 7 am this morning, and still felt all sorts of fuzzy.

I went to work, and gave up after an hour of not being able to concentrate. I just stared at the screen and thought about sleeping. So I came home, and slept on and off until about 5 pm. I feel better now than I have in the last couple of days.

Changing topics, why is it that British men always sound witty and brilliant? I was meandering through iTunes, and came across Hugh Grant's Playlist. His comment on (Sittin' on) The dock of the bay " Great melody. Great singing. Brilliant encapsulation of the meaninglessness of life and the pointlessness of existence. Perfect at an existential party." Another hilarious comment for the song Cupid. "This was my first dance routine, and remains my finest choreography. I would pull back and imaginary bow and fire an imaginary arrow. Brilliant. The few who witnessed it have never fully recovered." And then finally, his comment on the Substitute "I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth, the north side of my town faced east and the east was facing south - brilliant lyrics, great melody, incredible power pop, suspect geography." Absolutely hysterical. Pity he can't keep himself out of the news with his baked beans attack.

Beware of flying objects.

We had the first weekly tech meeting today, since I've been with the company. During the discussion, the director, who had been fiddling with a pen, lost control of the spring, and it came flying at me (at the opposite end of the table). LOL.

Got a Alka Seltzer cold medication to get through the day, its taken care of most of my sore throat, which has been nice.

Other than that, just trucking though the day.

Stinky dog and getting pretty.

Peeee-yu! Stinky beagle rolling around in some sort of filth in the backyard. Ick. Gravity has gotten pretty, and is no longer stinky. She won't let me dry her all the way, so now she's tearing up and down the hallway. Not sure if she's trying to get dry or all sorts of smelly again.

Feeling exhausted. I might be trying to fight off a cold. My throat started feeling sore...the bruised kind late this afternoon. I took a 30 minute nap in my car during lunch. Too tired to eat grilled fish, so I brought home some soup from Whole Foods.

Took some Alka Seltzer night time cold medicine. Foul tasting stuff. I rather like the taste of Nyquil, but no liquid Nyquil. Just the big pills which I am not in the mood to choke down.

Still thinking of Artfest. Wanting to get some Caran Dache pastels or crayons but having a remarkably hard time finding the darned things. I don't want to wait for the mail, I want the NOW.

Time to snooze-a-rooni.

I am the SNORE MONKEY!!!!

Zzzzzzzz. I have been snoozy all day long. Jer and I went to sleep early last night, just after 9 pm. And then a stupid wrong number woke us up shortly after 11 pm. Grrrrr.
It was a private number ringing my cell phone, and the only private number that usually calls is my dad, so I thought something was wrong. When I answered, all I heard was a really loud voice from some girl and music in the background, so I hung up.

I apparently then proceeded to snore all night long, cause Jer nudged me awake several times to say "You're being a snore monkey!!" This is my not so subtle hint to roll over on my side to make me stop snoring.

So tired that I snoozed on the bus on the way to work, and snoozed some more on the way home.

Other amusing news. I checked UPS to see where my order for watercolors was. Well, as of April 21st, my package was destroyed and the merchandise was disposed of. When I read that, I started to laugh. All I could picture was a wet, soppy multi-colored package with wet paints dripping from it. And a very sad delivery person and several perplexed people who had also received multi-colored packages.

I called the discount supply store to see about getting my order replaced, and they were like...Uh...hold on a moment. Please excuse my stuttering, and long pauses, but I've never heard of this happening before. All in all, I was pretty good natured. It wasn't their fault. It was UPS' fault. No surprise there. Tito placed another order for me, and it should go out tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be destroyed as well.

Think happy thoughts...

about taking away the 2 year old's drum set next door. Drinking a dram of a $150 bottle of scotch might help with those particular happy thoughts.

Its really nice working for a small company. We celebrated two birthdays with cake and ice cream. No cake for me, just a small scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Sometime after the birthday celebration, I was testing away, when the owner of the company drops by with a gift certificate for me, to thank me for my work last night. Within the next hour, the director and my boss also stopped by to make sure I got my little gift of thanks. Talk about appreciation.

Gift certificates always put people in good moods. Sunny weather (and no gnats in my mouth) puts me in a good mood. On the way home from the Bellevue Transit Center, the girl in front of me was frantically searching her purse for her bus pass. The driver let her on, and she continued to search. 10 minutes later, while she was still digging around in her purse, I dug out one of the free bus passes I got for signing up for rideshareonline.com.

Lots of happy thoughts.

Sunny weather and learning to keep my mouth shut.

Wooooo lunch break. A little sleepy today because of being up so late testing. I should have made myself do something else before going directly to sleep, because when I woke up, I was still dreaming about testing.

Anyways, its beeyooou-tiful outside, so I took a nice 20 minute walk. Perfect temperature. Sun, clouds, and a little wind. Doesn't get much more awesome than this. Well, maybe if they took out those giant gnat clouds. Definitely keep your mouth shut walking through gnat clouds.

Gardening and Gravity.

Busy busy busy day. It's been a lovely day in Bothell. Which of course, means Jeremy cracking the whip and getting me to help with yard work.

He finished replacing the rotting boards out front. Jer had me picking up scraps of wood from where he needed to plane the plank. Then I drove to get fixings for lunch, and then again to Molbacks to pick up 4 bags of compost/manure. Along the way, I stopped by Target to pick up more laundry detergent, a trash can for his train room, and a couple more pant hangers. Nothing too terribly exciting.

Came home, dug holes to put the new plants in, did several loads of laundry, and cleaned two toilet bowls. Alison, my sister-in-law came over to wash her car, and then we went to the little Mexican restaurant down the street. A short 30 minute walk for Gravity, and now I am waiting for an install to finish, so I can do my extra shift of testing for work.

Yardwork, Cleaning, and an episode of Lost.

My shoulders hurt a little this morning. Yesterday, I helped Jeremy remove/cut up some of the bushes in the front yard. Of course, he probably is much more sore than I am, because he did all the tough stuff, and for much longer than I did. Since I went out to have lunch with my cousin Tiffany.

Tiffany is up here in the Seattle area through tomorrow. She's going to dental school in Southern California. We won't see her again until August, and yesterday was the only chance I had to see her. We had lunch at the RAM in U-Village. I had the little beer starter, where I only liked the Porter and the Red. She hd some crazy huge drink that had Starbucks Coffee Liquer and vanilla vodka. I imagine a splash of cream and seven up or tonic water. It was good, but served huge, in a hurricane glass.Seems like she is doing well, but misses everybody.

Came home, de-pooped the backyard, then mowed the grass. Did a load of laundry. Worked on cleaning out/organizing my craft room (it may be years before its finally clean). Jeremy and I then watched an episode of Lost, which was probably one of the better ones I had seen in awhile.

Yeeeeahhhh MEAT!!

Jeremy, who was a vegetarian since I have known him, started eating meat as of Jan 1 2007. Tonight, he grilled hamburgers on the grill. Yeeeeeeah MEAT!!

I found a few more Artfest photos. I figure if I space them out, its more entertaining for myself. Plus I get more people visiting to see if I've put any up.

Sore throat...

I've been fine for almost all of today, but in the last hour, I've noticed a sore throat. I've poured myself a small bit of scotch, my favorite Bowmore's Darkest. Maybe it will help.

Working really hard at work. Creating all sorts of bugs and testing all the fixed bugs. Amazing how tired it makes me.

I bought 5 bottles of watercolours that we used in Tracy Bautista's class. I won't get them for TEN whole days. Thats what I get for procrastinating. I bought teal, blue, tangerine, lime, and violet. Actually, I think I got 6, because I'm pretty sure I ordered pink. I've been thinking about it, and realized that I forgot yellow. But I'm going to see how I do with these to start off with.

I've been thinking about what I can draw and the words that I can use other than flowers and 'girly' words. Of course, its all very positive, and maybe its because I'm PMSing, but all I can think of is fat, cranky, and bloated. LOL

Jer is cooking halibut on the grill, and we'll throw a bit of sundried tomato pesto on top. Yum.

Got to go. The Gravity is saying "Pay attention to me!"

Going, going, gone

Wow. Got two emails within the 1st hour of the Star Wars lego posting. And they are GONE!

Wahoo.

Busy weekend!

Let me catch my breath. Yesterday Jeremy and I went to Molbacks and got some plants for our yard. Veggies, herbs, and a few flowers. Then I got all the fixings to make for the dessert party that we went to later that evening. I made rice pudding and peach blueberry crumble out of the Moosewood Desserts Cookbook.

Had a marvelous time at the dessert party. Our hosts had a wide selection of dessert wines to go with the desserts. Cheesecake, german chocolate cake, cupcakes, fruit, and cheese were just some of the items on the table. I got to chit chat with my friend Maya about making charms for Art and Soul in October.

Today (Sunday) has been pretty busy. I got up, and went to my dad's for lunch. I spent a little time working on his computer. Next, I went to Southcenter and picked up a new pair of tennis shoes and jeans. I had a coupon to save $10 at Macys. I gave up after waiting 10 minutes for help, after looking at this huge line of people, and ONE shoe salesperson. Maybe I'll be able to use it later this month. A quick trip to Chinatown for some barbecue duck and pork, and then on to my final destination at Whole Foods to pick up various food items for the week.

Currently in the middle of doing laundry and selling items on Craigslist. A couple of mint in box Star Wars lego sets, a Neil Gaiman Sandman T-Shirt, and some Sandman comic books. Here's to hoping I can sell them there.

Friday the 13th! Watch out for ladders, black cats...

For those of you who haven't had their fill of Artfest, here are a few more photos.

Wahoo! Its Friday!

I survived the week. Yesterday we launched a new product at work, and celebrated with champagne and cheesecake. Yum. I then harassed a designer with bugs, items that were only a pixel or two off. Quality assurance, bane of the designer and developer. Muahahahaha.

Gravity woke me up at 3 am to go outside. I found out that I got into the one class that I signed up for at Portland Art and Soul. Woolly Creatures, taught by Keely. I had a great time in her class at my first ArtFiberfest, and think that I'll have a grand time with her this upcoming October.

No hits on the found photo album yet. My sister-in-law found a ring, and another lost and found post is on Craigslist.

I have made some of the most awesome friends from Artfest 2007.

Wow, I made some of the greatest friends at Artfest 2007. There had been a contest for decorating the Sweetriot tins, and while I had entered my little fleece monster cozy, I guess I hadn't left him around long enough to be judged.

There was an email posted looking for the creator, me, in the Artfest Yahoo Group. Ellen pinged me to let me know they were looking for me, and I also saw that Kim volunteered to assist the ArtZine person to get a hold of me as well. How cool are they?

Took the photo and emailed Suzanne. Here is what my creation looked like.

Pretty tired after work today. Getting ready to release a new product, and spent the time testing like crazy. I'm sure I drove the developers crazy with all my bugs on design flaws that I found. Heh.

Lost cat, dead cat.

Today was quite the eventful day. On the way home, I saw a Lost Cat sign stapled to a telephone pole. It looked very much like the dead cat it the ditch by the elementary school that I saw yesterday when I walked Gravity. I called and left a voicemail message. Kind of a sad way to let somebody know about their pet......

Ok...this is weird. I found a posting for another Lost Cat on Craigs List. Different phone number, another cat that looked like the one we saw in the ditch. I called them up too. This couple is going to look to see if its their cat.

No longer lost, because I found it

This morning at the bus stop across from the Finn Hill Fire Station, I found a oversize large red photo album. It was slightly wet, and gritty, but filled with photos from 1989-1990. I thought about leaving it there, but couldn't bear the thought of it getting rained on. So I carried it to work on the bus, and the 10 blocks that I walked to work from the bus stop.

I have to admit, by the time I hit block eight, I was doubting my sanity for carrying the thing in. Somebody could have stolen a car, and pitched the family album. Or maybe a kid got mad at their mom and threw it away. Or people were cleaning their house, and it fell out of the dump truck. Regardless, its somebody else's memories slightly dirtied.

I guess I need to make a found sign to post around the neighborhood now.

Ne'er a bunny in sight.

Its been a nice, relaxing weekend. Allergies have flared up a little. Kind of nice to relax from the previous week of Artfest. This week, I signed up for 1 class in Portland's Art & Soul in October. I signed up for Keely's Wooly Creatures and am really excited about it. I'm going to go to Value Village or Goodwill and hunt down some wool sweaters to felt.

I keep wanting to work on the skills that I learned while I was at Artfest, but there is so much cleaning up that needs to be done. I've been going through my shelves and trying to pick out books that I don't read anymore to take to Half Price Books to sell. I'm also trying to clean out other art supplies that I don't use anymore.

Things that I want to do. Work on my Graffitit Bouquet art from Traci Bautista's class. Need to get some of those watercolor inks that she has. Checked Ben Franklin's and they didn't have any. Wanted to check Michaels, but was too tired. Wanted to make postcards using techniques learned from Anahata's class, but forgot to get spray bottles to put my ink in. Much less wasteful than spreading them around with paper towels. Additionally, I want to create a couple of sampler cds and some fun little photo books for "The Gang". I wanted to drop by Staples to get cd cases and kept forgetting. I have such a horrible memory.

Bought a couple of tomato plants for the garden. De-pooped the backyard. Jeremy mowed the lawn, and Gravity rolled around in filth and got to have a bath. We're just chilling on the couch now. Now if I could just win the lottery......

More Favorite Artfest Show and Tell photos

And yet some more photos

Favorite Artfest Show & Tell photos

My husband and sister-in-law are making Alton Brown's meatloaf recipe. I decided I wanted to add a few more photos from Artfest, while Gravity my beagle whines in the background.

Creative Instinct

Here are some photos from Anahata's Creative Instinct class. Combing the beach and making shrines was fabulous. Very relaxing. I would love to take another class from her.

More Artfest 2007

I finally figured out how to add links and photos. Here are some more Artfest 2007 photos.

Artfest 2007 Trade Frenzy

Artfest 2007 started off with a trading frenzy!! It was all sort so of craziness and my little stuffies went like hotcakes!!