Tuesday

I finished this painting yesterday. The whole thing is an experiment/accident. I had a color of blue I had never used before, so I used it to paint the sky. Then, while the sky was still wet, I used a rusty brown mixture to put in a horizon line. Well, the sky was TOO wet, and the brown mixture bloomed up into the sky area. I had accidentally made trees. So I added more color and some branches.

I intended to practice painting rocks in the foreground, and they resemble turtles. Oh well. This was kind of fun piece to do - No pressure and not like my usual fussy picky method of painting.

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I went to Ridley's today. Gosh, I've been twice in the last two weeks now!! I had planned to make lasagna, and didn't have any lasagna noodles. I had every other kind though. We were also out of ketchup, When I got home with the groceries, I found a brand new bottle of ketchup in the very back of the bottom shelf in the refrigerator.

Also loaded some things in the back of the truck for the recycling center, and will take it tomorrow.

I stayed up way too late reading last night. I finished the John Grisham novel "Testimonial". I had read it before, but it was so long ago that it all seemed new.

Tracy just finished the first book Jerry Spence wrote and says she is going to send it to me. She liked it - he told about his growing up, his college years, his marriage to Ann, and their kids, and his early law practice. That was about the time I knew him. He divorced Ann and was getting weird - I was going to college in Laramie and needed a mattress for Tracy in the apartment I had rented with another woman and her little girl. Jerry loaned me a mattress. Tracy wet the bed a couple of times. I always thought it would be good for her to tell people that she peed on Jerry Spence's bed.

Monday November 9

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For some reason, I think this painting turned out kind of "blahh". There are some things I like about it, and it may be one that I will do over again one of these soon days while I am still interested in it.

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Barrie told me I could post some of the pictures she took on her camping trip over the weekend up Gyp Creek. She had a great time and got to run her team on some of the trails up there. The dogs have as much fun as she does.

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My big brother asked me if my beer and chips were as good as wine and cheese. Just about! The only thing is, I only drink wine when you're here, Bill. And if I have two glasses, I need to go to bed!

Sunday

A buck and doe were in my front yard this morning. They are both so slick and shiny, I opened my upstairs window to take a few pictures of them. They heard the camera, and looked startled, but couldn't find the source of the noise. It never occured to them to look up!


I had intended to have a painting to share today, but didn't get anything finished yesterday. Maybe today.

Barrie took Kasey down to Tara B. to have her picture taken in her unicorn costume. Tara is such a wonderful photographer. Very talented gal.

Saturday

I'm done with this one of my cat. I didn't say it's finished, I just said I'm done with it. I don't know how her nose got pushed off to one side of her face. And I will never again try to use the liquid friskit for things like whiskers. You just can't get a fine line with the friskit. It works better to just scratch them in with a razor blade after the painting is dry. These whiskers look like like ropes.

I am working on three different paintings today - all of them had been started some time ago. I work on one for a while, then put it aside to dry and work on another one.

But I spent a good part of my morning getting the sticky residue off the lid of a pallette that had a big paper lable glued on. Good old WD40! With duct tape, baling wire and WD40, you can fix anything! But baling wire is hard to come by these days.

I just added 500 words to the writing project, and maybe I'll do another 500 later today. I paid $10 for a little program called "Write or Die". The people at the NaNoWriMo forums have been talking about it. It is a stupid little program, but it works! You set a goal, 500 words in 15 minutes, for example, and start typing. If you hesitate too long, the screen turns red and your words start disappearing. That's alarming, so you start typing again, which is the point of the whole program. I don't know what happens if you just quit or don't make your goal. Maybe your computer will blow up??

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I'm excited for Rollie and Judi getting new computers! Congratulations!

Happy Birthday to Sally!

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"It's mine and you can't touch it!" Growling and hissing like she's possessed!

And then it escaped under the chair.

Now there is a dead mouse somewhere in my house. All the other mice she has caught during the night, had her ghoulish fun torturing them, and left them in the middle of the floor for me. But this one she caught during the day, brought it upstairs (still alive, of course) and I threatened ownership. It escaped under the recliner chair and went up in the chair somewhere. I tipped the chair over and loosened the Velcro for the backing. It took about an hour, but she caught it again. Then she went somewhere. She came back later, looking and acting very sedate. I have looked all over upstairs, and under my bed with a flashlight. Maybe it is downstairs. And maybe she will go get it and bring it back up to me sometime tonight.

Or maybe it will just start to smell bad.

I had my big telephoto lens on the camera after taking pictures of the deer. So I decided to grab a photo of the moon. So often it's hazy enough that I don't get clear pictures, but looks like our air was clean for a change!

Friday

Surely this has to be a set up photo. It was on my Google "funny picture of the day" yesterday. It is so funny, yet sad in a way. Well, I am kind of a pervert, so I think it's really funny!

OK, still no new photographs for today, so I went back and found a couple I have shared before, but think they are worth sharing again. These are for all you snowbirds who miss our mountains and skies! No, don't come home!! Remember, these were taken in the summer.

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Kasey is spending the weekend with her father, and Barrie has gone on a camping trip. She is going somewhere up the Green, with 29 dogs. She left about noon in her pickup with dogs in the boxes, and her big trailer with more dogs and a four wheeler. She took a below-zero sleeping bag, and food. i know she will have a good time.

Me? Hmmmm. I'm sitting here in front of the fire with a beer and some potato chips. I have written more on the stupid novel, and painted a little. And I have a good John Grisham book I started a few nights ago. Life is good!

Thursday

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Look what I did to myself! I am much better looking than in the photo Judi posted of me today. Can you see me in there?

Judi was showing us fractual images on a computer at Rendezvous Pointe yesterday. I used one of the pictures Judi posted of me today, and did this on my computer with my Paint Shop Pro program. It's called the kaleidoscope filter. I'm not sure what anyone would use this for, but it's kind of fun to play with.

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I received the new color ink tank for my HP printer yesterday, and my printer liked it. So I printed out about 65 cards this morning. Now I have to go back on EBay and decide if I really want to try to sell cards there. Can you tell I am less than enthused about it?

Barrie and Kasey went up to get flu shots today. I think they were going to go buy a new fish for the aquarium afterward.

Kasey played hookey today and went with her mom out to the dog lot to feed. I'm amazed at how many of the names of the dogs she can remember and tell me about. I wish I had taken a picture of her face before Barrie washed it. She was playing in water and dirt.

Potty Training Details?

Judi felt sorry for me because I didn't have any new pictures for my blog, but Barrie and Kasey came to my rescue.

Click on images for a larger view.

Sometimes you just need to wear your boots to the bathroom. Oh wait! Maybe those are Mom's boots! She clumped into the bathroom wearing the boots, and took care of business.

These Boots Are Made For Walking!

Look Judi! Kasey is doing Google Eyes!

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We were a silly bunch at art group today - so much visiting and laughter. Judi tried to help me make "google eyes" and I just can't do it! She has taught hundreds of little kids to do it, but I'm hopeless.

I asked Barrie if she could make google eyes, and she did it immediately. Then of course we got Kasey to try it.

Some people (not me) actually got some painting done. Lenore is working on a beautiful piece with flowers, and Terry is working on negative painting.

Vicky put up two more really nice ones for display. Need to photograph them. And Terry has a beautiful snow scene she finished that would make a perfect Christmas card.

And we had so much delicious food today that I decided I would just eat and not paint. Conley brought some smoked trout and sausage. Vicky brought cookies and Barbara brought (something?) delicious from Germany.

I am up to 17,000 words in NaNoWri. I'll never make it to 50,000. Guess I need a new story. Well, it's not like I'm going to be graded on it.

Tuesday - Just Skies

Somehow, I changed my blog settings to the "new and improved" editor, and I want the old version back. Shouldn't be too hard to find when I finish this. I couldn't get it to upload two pictures. It said it was uploading, and showed both photos in the little preview window. But there was only one there. I finally uploaded them separately. Now they're not lined up correctly

Because I have been spending so much time trying to write 50,000 words for NaNo, I haven't done much painting. The only thing I've done is two skies. I'll take one of these to art group tomorrow to work on, and maybe I'll accomplish something.

The top one is painted on the watercolor canvas I got recently. I haven't done anything except fiddle on that surface. It came with a video about how to use it, and I watched it the other night. It's really different, not at all like watercolor paper.

Barrie hasn't been able to run her dogs during the day, as it is too warm. So she is getting up at 4:00 AM to do it. She takes half her team on alternate days, and they run 20 miles from Willow Lake and around Soda Lake.Then she comes home and feeds Kasey breakfast and takes her to day care. She is ready for a nap by then.

I haven't felt well this morning, and I might take a nap too. I really hate to take naps, because then I stay up too late at night.

Sunday

This pretty well shows what happened at our house today.  Barrie and Kasey have been busier than I have, however.

Barrie took Kasey trick or treating last night in her unicorn costume.  Kasey loved it.  At one time she told her mom that her stomach hurt, but she never fussed, but kept right on trucking along and saying "trick or treat".  When Barrie got her home, she had to strip her down, put her in the tub, and start the washing machine for her clothes.  What a trouper that little kid is! 

Kasey slept really late and didn't eat any breakfast yesterday.  Guess it wasn't my cooking after all.  Today she is her old self, and had sausage and eggs and two pieces of toast for breakfast. Barrie thought she might have had too much candy, so her new candy has been put up for now.

Barrie brought her dad's dogs up here and has been combing the mats out of their hair this afternoon. 

I stayed up way too late last night, writing.  At midnight, alll the particpants in the NaNoWriMo were to start writing on their "novel".  I think I am just writing a bunch of gibberish, but at least I'm getting words down, and that is the point of the whole thing.  Some guy who lives in Atlantic City is writing by hand by kerosene light in his cabin. He is able to post to the forums on the internet, so don't know if he is using a computer somewhere else, or if he really doesn't have electricity. 

I think reaching the 50,000 word goal is beyond me, but it's fun for now.