Sunday

Kat added two mice to her mouse chart last week.  Busy, busy cat.  No wonder she sleeps all day.  I'd give her a treat, but she won't eat anything but her dry cat food.

I started reading "Moby Dick" last night, and didn't last long.  Maybe there's a reason I never read it before.  Or maybe I should have tried harder to appreciate it.  I have too many other unreadd books on my Kindle to fuss around with one I don't like.  So much for self improvement.

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I have been trying to find the correct spelling and meaning of  word we use a lot at home.  Threatening KC with a "pichenette" immediately gets her attention.  My neice Sheri told me about it.  If Kasey gets a pichenette, it means she gets a thump on the head.  A French friend of mine in Seattle gave me some information on it, and when I Googled it, this is what I found:

In Canadian French, the flicking action used in the game is called a "pichenotte"  where the game pieces are flicked using the thumb and index (or middle) finger . While the specifics are uncertain, pichenotte certainly must have originated from the Indian game carrom. In the mid-19th century, carrom was likely brought to Canada by Indian or British immigrants.

We pronounce it "peachnot", which may be correct or not. 

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 Finished (maybe) the pen and ink pointellism of a Big Horn sheep.  After I look at this a while, I will probably decide it  needs to be darker.

Only one more oil painting class to go.  I think I finally got my composition right on the little mountain painting I have been working on.  I have been moving mountains.  Quite a feat, huh?

I watched an excellent video on my computer on mixing colors.  I'll need to watch it again to remember everything.

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 Barrie posted this picture on Facebook.  Said she found it on my computer downstairs.  Chuck looks very patient, trying to watch TV with a lap full of dogs and kids.

This is Tracy.  The man holding her is Father Zumac, the priest at the Catholic church in Fort Washakie.  It was taken during Pow Wow.  Tracy was baptised that afternoon, and the man and woman in the picture were her Godparents.  Don't have any idea now what their names were.  Tracy was not a happy camper.

Thursday

While looking for a photo to publish today, I looked through the folder of pictures I took when Barrie, Kasey and I took a road trip to Montana.  We went to the area where Barrie used to live, and I enjoyed seeing all her old hangouts and meeting some of her old friends.

 Look how little Kasey is!  We were having a "tailgate party" in the parking lot of a little store in Lincoln, Montana.  This was three years ago, in the spring of 2009.

The Headwaters of the Missouri River where the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin Rivers come together.  Taken near Three Forks, Montana.

This poor little guywas stuck in a flower pot at the back door of the owner's apartment at a motel we stayed at one night.  It made me laugh.  Somebody ripped his head off, so no more smelling the flowers for him.

Wish I could remember what town we were in.  It was a memorable night.  Barrie had a bad cough, and our phone rang late at night.  The woman who owned the motel told me the guy in the next room had called her to complain about the coughing.  She apologized, and said if by any chance the guy called our room, I should just hang up and ignore him.  We got a kick out of that.

The next morning we went in a cafe downtown for breakfast and sat next to a group of locals.  A woman was complaining about her mother-in-law.  She told the group her mother-in-law owned the (Rusty Spur maybe?) motel, and she was a real witch. 

I had the urge to turn around and ask the woman if she was the one who ripped the head off the little guy  on the "smell the flowers" sign.  Bet she did.

Wednesday

I got up at 6:00 this morning (still dark) to go to the bathroom, and a mouse ran across my bare foot with Kat in hot pursuit.  Sure enough, she left its little carcass right by my chair at the drawing table.  Mice don't bother me a bit, but I'd rather not have it run up my pants leg.

I can't begin to tell you  how good these are.  Barrie made hamburgers on the little outdoor grill last night.  Good meat on a warm bun, cheese, onions, lettuce and tomato. 

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I actually got some work done today on an old car I am painting in watercolor.  I might actually finish it this week! 

The oil paintings are a different story.  Slow, slow, slow.  I have four in progress now, and am not starting any new  ones.

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This is another Photo of the Day from National Geographic.  This shows Flamingo chicks, photographed in Africa.  Aren't they incredible?



Tuesday

The weather forecast for yesterday said rain.

Funniest thing, that rain looked a lot like snow.

And it still looks like snow this morning!

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I have that National Geographic Photo of the Day on my web browser page. I usually just glance at the picture, but this one caught my eye.  It was taken in Greenland.  

If I would let myself, I could spend all day on the National Geographic web page just looking at all the photographs. 

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I found some "words of wisdom", and want to share a few.

Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.

Once over the hill, you pick up speed.

I love cooking with wine. Sometimes, I even put it in the food.

Whatever hits the fan will not be evenly distributed.

More to come . . . .

Monday

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this one pretty much sums up what is happening at my house today. 

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I am working on a small oil painting using analogous colors.  It's only 6" x 8".  There is going to be snow on the mountains.  What's going to be in the foreground?  I don't have a clue.  That's what gets me in trouble in my oil painting class.  I'm supposed to know this type of thing before I start to paint.  I just can't plan ahead very well.

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I

Sunday

I was browsing through my "coffee table book" of Ansel Adams phototgraphs. I never tire of looking at his work.

I think this one of the quakies in New Mexico is my favorite.

And of course his picture of the Tetons is breathtaking.  I have taken photos from this location before, and never had the same perspective as he has.  It looked like he was up higher.

And sure enough, he could elevate his view.

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Kat caught another mouse last night.  She caught one last week too, but I don't think I made a note of it.  The one last week was a very small one.  A new litter already grown and out?

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Saturday

No pictures today.

I have been looking at the fish painting all day and have decided I lied.  It is NOT finished.  The water is SO bad.  And the fish's belly is too white, and he needs a bug, and an eye, etc.




Barrie is on poop patrol in the back yard this afternoon.  Snow is gone, and the dog poop is all in sight.  I don't know what happend in the front yard this morning.  Looked like the garbage truck exploded.  There were boxes and paper all over.  Must have been something on the front porch, and something got into it.  It's all picked up now.


Tracy called this morning.  Her old phone died, and she has a new one.  She uses her phone as a calendar, address book, and all kinds of things.  She wasn't able to retrieve her calendar from her old one, so was putting in everyone's birthdays while we talked.

Am still collecting recipes that sound good for the new George Foreman grill.  Barrie fixed hamburgers the other night, not on the new grill.  They had lettuce, mushrooms, onions, and cheese.  The George Foreman grill might be great, but nothing beats a Barrie Burger.

Friday

Kasey got a slinky, and loves to send it down the stairs.  Isn't she lucky to live in a house with stairs?  Both Barrie and Tracy had some falls on the stairs, and their shins often looked like I beat them.  As far as I know, Kasey has never really fallen on the stairs (yet). 

You are done, fish!  I'm sick and tired of you.  The water looks very yellow green in the photo, but it isn't quite as bad as it looks in real life.  And at some point he had a bug he was jumping for, and I seem to have painted over it. 

 

AArrgghh!  I have spent all morning trying to straighten out bills.  First, RM Propane told me a while ago that I have a $70 credit, and that would show up on my next statement.  Got a statement yesterday, and the credit wasn't on it.  So I called.  Seems the statement I got was just for the most recent gas delivery, and the $70 would show up later. She told me to just throw the bill away.  Geez, now they will probably try to collect a late fee.  Wish I'd thought of that earlier.

Then my credit card company notified me that my payment was 11 days late.  So I called.  Had to talk to three people to get it straightened out.  (At least they all spoke English."  I was told they didn't know why I got the notice of a late payment, to disregard the notice and just wait for my next bill at the beginning of the month.

All that, just to be told to throw the bills and late notices away?  And I had really important things to be doing this morning.  I'm not sure what, but there must have been something.

I got e-mail from Hewlett Packard, which I usually just glance at, but this one had links to their "projects" with fun stuff to do and print out.  I printed KC some Lorax coloring pages, I also printed her a calendar for the month of May.  Her birthday's in May.  I thought she might have fun crossing off the days.  Made one for April too, but that probably wouldn't interest her as much.  One month is enough.