And soon to join the list, Jennifer Harris!

So my wife's alma mater, Lafayette High School out in Wildwood, MO (home of the Lancers), is gaining quite a bit of notoriety for it's alumni moving on to bigger and better things:  it's most famous alum is probably Ryan Howard, who has gone on to be a star first baseman and power hitter for the Philadelphia Phillies.  He's even on the cover of the Playstation game MLB 08: The Show, which would mean a lot more to me if I was a gamer, which I'm not.


In addition to Mr. Howard, Lafayette also boasts Robert Archibald, who was a 2002 second-round draft pick of the Memphis Grizzlies NBA team, Kelly Stables, who was an actress in The Ring Two (don't worry, I didn't see it either),  and Christina Machamer, who endured all the insults and foul language of Chef Gordon Ramsay to win Season 4 of Hell's Kitchen.

One other Lancer alum getting quite a few kudos lately is David Freese, the new 3rd baseman for your St. Louis Cardinals.  Mr. Freese went in and out of the minors the last couple of years, this year winning the 3rd base position full time, beating out Troy Glaus, who was expected to be in that position.  He was relatively quiet this year until today: he almost hit for the cycle ("the cycle" being hitting a single, a double, a triple, and a home run), including a 3-run homer in the 1st inning.  He only missed hitting a triple (which is probably the hardest to hit).  By the end of the game he had hit in 6 players altogether!

Anyway, I thought I would honor these former Lafayette students today with a little black and gold (or as close to gold as I've got: yellow) for their school colors.    Go Lancers!

Revved up like a deuce...

Okay, so we're trying something new today.  Actually two things:  First, I'm typing this out before I insert the picture.  For some reason, the powers (geeks) that be at Google have decided to change how things are done when you do your blogs, and last night just took me for-friggin'-ever (part of the reason last night's was so short-and-not-so-sweet, for which I apologize, by the way)!

The other thing I'm trying this evening, and may just do every once in a while to keep it interesting is to take my glasses off, look at the painting, and figure out what I want to do.  I'm pretty darned blind without my glasses, so I see kind of blurry shapes, and I think it's kind of interesting to see just those instead of being able to focus on certain parts.  That leads to over-analyzing sometimes ("But Dave", you say, "you would never ever over-analyze anything!").  I thank you for your kindness, but you all know the truth.  :-)

So today was a beautiful day outside, unlike that past several days - and I believe it's supposed to get nasty again tomorrow or the next day, so I figured I'd take a cue from the skies again and put a little bit of that pretty Light Blue down today.  I'm not gonna tell you why I placed it where I placed it - maybe you can figure it out, if you can see it (which hopefully you can).  I will tell you it's not a huge stroke.  The thing I was seeing (without my glasses) didn't require a very big stroke, so there ya have it.  We'll see how this approach does every once in a while.

Grrrrrrrrr!

I am seeing red today.  Nothing at all has worked right, especially Blogspot, where they've decided to go and screw with the format and everything else.  Screw it.  Tomorrow is a new day.  That is all. 

I will survive - I will get by...

I've never really been a Dead-Head at all, but all day the skies reminded me of a specific song by the Grateful Dead.  It was another dreary, cloudy day.  Jenny and I both just felt a bit poopy getting out of bed this morning, and it sure was hard draggin' our old ragged selves into work!  But then it always is on a Monday!  :-)  We made it through all right, though, as we always do.

It always starts to drag on me a bit if it's been cloudy for a few days in a row.  I guess I have a bit of that S.A.D.- Seasonal Affective Disorder.  A few years ago ma bought me a sunlamp, though, so if it gets too dreary (outside and in my head) I just turn it on and sit under it for a minute or two, and you'd be surprised how much it helps!

So I got home, and sat down here, and when I looked at the sky, it was kind of a dull light blue with a touch of grey.  I tried to re-create it, but I forgot that the paint dries darker, so I should have mixed it a bit lighter.  Oh, well.  It's alright.  I will get by.  :-)

Oh, Sandy...

Wow. I really have no idea what to say this evening.  Right now I'm listening to Jenny singing along with the "Family Guy" theme song - even though she absolutely hates the show!  But oh, well - it's cartoon night, and I've been working outside on sanding the closet doors all day, so I'm gonna watch 'em.  :-)

I actually had a good time today, just hanging out in the garage, listening to the Cards game (we won 2-0 vs. the Giants) and just sanding.  It's kinda therapeutic, actually.  I got most of them done - I've got half of the 3rd one and the last full one to go.

I figured since what I saw most of the day was wood dust, I'd just put down a little swatch of light beige - looked kinda like the sawdust that's all over the garage and my car!  :-)  I did wear a facemask and earplugs, though, so hopefully my lungs don't look the same!

Auntie Em, Auntie Em!

Man, was today a weird friggin' day!  I woke up after sleeping in a bit - Jenny was already gone running some errands.  I got up and did the dishes and cleaned up a little bit, then I decided on my project for the day: I wanted to sand and finish the closet doors.  Not a problem.  Ri-i-i-i-i-ight.  Almost as soon as I decided that, I got a phone call, which took up a little bit of time, then Jenny called, saying that she'd be home soon.

When she got home we ran a couple of errands, and before you know it, we were back, and it was darn near 2 pm!  After that I started helping Jenny move around some stuff here in the house - actually a pretty big project.  We would have gotten done a lot sooner, so I could start my project, but there was a bit of a tornado scare (Man, did I ever want to link to that awesome clip of Stephen Stucker from "Airplane" doing the "Auntie Em, Auntie Em, it's a twister" line - I just couldn't find it!).

Stupid tornado scare!  Keeping me from doing what I wanted to do, causing all sorts of problems, knocking over stuff,  etc...

Anyway, while we were watching the news about the storm, Jenny noticed that the radar screen looked a lot like this painting.  I looked at it, and by golly, it really did look like it!   So, after a few minutes of scary stuff and a tornado touching down up by West County Mall and the Police Department right across the street, things got back to normal - the sun even came out again!  Go figure.  I did eventually get my doors off and out to the garage to start sanding.  :-)

The weather, however, did inspire me to throw down a little tornadic action myself here tonight.  I just mixed up some dark grey and maybe a little bit of green and I swirled it around a bit.  Now I think I may swirl myself on up into the bed!

"Deeeeeeeear Southwest Hiiiiiiiiiiigh"

I'm not even sure if my old high school even had a school song.  Any of you reading, if you know the answer to that, please let me know!  I was even in the pep band; we played all of the home games (all basketball - Southwest wasn't - and isn't now -   big enough for a football team, much to my dismay!) and I don't remember ever playing a school song.

It'll be 20 years next year since I graduated.  About a month after we graduated, my cousin Renae got married.  I remember not too terribly long after that, she told us that she was pregnant.  A little while later, Augusta was born.  And there was much rejoicing (Yay!)

Today I got a graduation announcement in the mail from Augusta.  Man, did that make me feel old!  I was so proud, though, and very honored that she thought enough of me to send one.  I moved up here to St. Louis right after Nae and Dale got married, so I was never really around Augusta or her little brother, Brice, who is a junior this year.  I had "met" them a couple of times, but it wasn't until I connected with them on Facebook that I really got to know Augusta as a person.  She is just a really cool girl in general!  She (along with her brother) does a lot with the Southwest Theater group, and was recently inducted into the National Honor Society,  which I just think is really awesome!  She was also accepted into the University of Arkansas, where she'll start this fall.  Needless to say, I'm just proud as all get-out of her!  I've really enjoyed getting to know her these past few months, and I'm looking forward to seeing what she does in the future!

Anyway, getting this graduation announcement made me want to throw some SW school colors down, so I mixed up a little dark grey and put a little scoop of the alizarin crimson on the brush with that, so that's what we've got tonight.  Gooooooooo, Trojans!

Ciento, hundrað, εκατό, honderd, hundra, yon santèn, एक सौ,...

Can you believe it?  It's been 100 days already!  Wow!  I was thinking today about what in the world I wanted to talk about, and it wasn't until I took my picture and put it in my "365" folder that I realized what day it was!  I was gonna post a list of top 100 songs or something, but those things usually just irritate me because they just always leave off a bunch of great songs and put a bunch on there that no one really seems to like.  I guess to put it more simply, they get it wrong.  Doesn't matter what publication it is, whether Rolling Stone or Spin, or the music edition of Fluffy Cat Quarterly, nobody ever agrees. 

I did look around a bit, though, and found one site that I thought had a bunch of Top 100 lists, but it turned out to be just some stupid spam site or something.  I did, however find this kind of interesting list of "Obscure and Remarkable" album covers.  Some of them are kinda weird, a little out there, but there really are some brilliant ones.  And hey, a St. Louis band made the list - Story Of The Year has been making the rounds on different movie soundtracks and other stuff for a few years now. 

Anyway, I wanted to try something new today, so I grabbed that black sand medium and mixed in a little bit of Tropical Mango.  It seemed to darken up quite a bit, which I'm kinda bummed about, but it may end up lightening back up.  I just wanted to see what it would look like. 

Well, I've gotta get going - band practice awaits!  Happy Centennial, y'all!  Thanks for sticking around this far - hopefully we'll get some more people checking it out, too! 

Git-git-git! Good news, good news!

Man, back in the day I LOVED "Dukes Of Hazzard".  We watched it every week religiously!  I wanted to drive the General Lee (there was actually some dude in town that had an old Maverick painted orange with the "01" on the doors) and more than anything I wanted to be Daisy's boyfriend!  I even wrote her a letter once!  I never did get a response, come to think of it!  I even loved ol' Roscoe P. Coltrane!

He was actually one of the first people when I got some "good news, good news" yesterday:  Remember the painting of the black sand beach I had entered in the art show at Grafica Art Gallery?  I got 2nd place in both the People's Choice category and the Artist's Choice!  I was absolutely stunned!  I thought I'd get a few votes from the family and friends I'd invited to the reception, but I never expected this!  Especially from the artists!  That made me feel really good!

Well, anyway, since I was in the "Dukes Of Hazzard" mood already, I figured I'd put a little General Lee jumping over the painting tonight.  YEE HAW!!!

Steve Martin still makes me nervous...

Well I figured I'd get a little head start on this today.  I'm doing it in the morning!  I usually don't have time in the morning, because I'm usually doing a series of stretches and exercises to keep my back strong and to keep my stress headaches away.  Today, though, I already knew that I had class this evening, but I would have absolutely no time to do this after work, because I get to go to the dentist!

Yes, folks, it's time to go in and get yelled at for not flossing everyday like I should.  I don't know anyone that does, though!  Of course I've never really asked, either.  I just know that in our house, both of us could do a lot better! :-)  I really like our dentist, though - she's a really cool lady, and she really puts you at ease. 

I still don't have  a lot of time, though, cuz I'm finishing this up at work (at break, by the way, in case there's anyone from work reading this!).  So, I'll just tell you that I put in a little row of white freaky-lookin' teeth down at the bottom today.  I didn't floss those, either. 

Hey, y'all, I'm all official and stuff!

When I got home today I checked the mail - nothing.  Then in a little while I saw the mailman traipsing around so I checked again, and lo and behold, there was a letter for lil' ol' me from the Library Of Congress:  it was an official certificate of copyright for a song I wrote a few years ago.  There's a possibility that it might be used on an album (that's not my own band), so I wanted to make sure it was protected.   

I also got another letter the other day from some record company out in LA wanting to know if I wanted to submit any songs to them.  I'm definitely gonna check that out (it sounds just a bit scam-ish) but it's something I'd love to do.  I know this one dude that used to be in a band here in St. Louis called Colony that writes for a living out there in LaLaLand.  He's written for Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Hinder, and a bunch of other bands.  It's not exactly what he wants to do - he'd obviously like to be performing his own stuff - but it pays the bills.  I love writing music - I just wish I could write lyrics as well!  I don't mind collaborating, though.

Anyway, speaking of collaborating, I'm on my way out the door to go to Jason's again.  We're laying down bass tracks tonight.  Seems like it's coming along pretty quickly - hopefully I'll have something soon to post so you can hear the fruits of our labors.  Since I got this good news today, I figured I'd throw a little blue sky out there.  That makes me happy!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I tell you what, I never thought I'd say this, but I can't wait to go to work tomorrow!  My lovely bride has worked me half to death this weekend!  :-)  The yard really looks good, though!  We planted all sorts of stuff - can't remember the names of any of 'em, just because I don't remember that kinda stuff.  I've got too much music trivia stuffed into my head - don't have room for much else!  All I know is that it sho is purty out in our yard!

Jenny and I really had a great time working together, too - something that never used to happen.  In the past  when we would work together we would always end up getting on each other's nerves after a while, but that hasn't been a problem the last year or so (which is good)!  

Now, though, all of the work is done, dinner has been eaten, and a nice little brown streak has made it's way onto the canvas.  It was another one I mixed out of yellow and purple.  I'm still working on different colors for a painting I'm working on, and I figure what better place than this to try 'em out!

Well, it's about that time - time to do what I've been wanting to do since about 1:30 this afternoon! Get some shut-eye, count some sheep, catch forty winks,  Call It Sleep!

What in the wide, wide world of sports is a-goin' on here?

This has been one heckuva day, folks!  First of all, we didn't win last night - came in 4th, I believe.  Had a lot of fun, though!   Jenny dragged my butt outta the bed this morning at about 7:30, saying that it was time to go clean the garage and work in the yard.  Boy, did we, too!  She worked that butt she dragged outta the bed into the ground!  But then, after a very productive day, we celebrated with a great dinner at the Chinese Noodle Cafe.  That's just the best place!  If you don't live here, and ya visit, I highly recommend it!

We just got home, and the Cards game is in the 20th inning!  Absolutely unbelievable!  There ws no score until the 19th!  It's now 2-1 Mets (booooo! Stupid Pond Scum!) and we've got Kyle Lohse, a pitcher, in center field, and Joe Mather (usually an outfielder or 3rd basemen) and Felipe Lopez (3rd baseman) pitching!  It's almost been 7 hours!  These people are getting their money's worth, don't ya know?

Anyway, tonight's stroke is that Alizarin Crimson I like so much, in honor of the red mulch we threw down in the front yard today.  I'm gonna try to make it through the end of this game, then drag my butt back into that bed!

"People who have not been in my kitchen, Alex"

So Jenny and I are going to a trivia night tonight - actually, in just a few minutes, so I don't have a lot of time to be talkin' here! 

The instant I was asked about going to a trivia night, I thought about Cliff Clavin, because, honestly, who wouldn't (unless you're too young to know that reference, in which case you should just be quiet - but still read my blog!)?

I've always been at best half-way decent at trivia nights.  I know a lot of miscellaneous music trivia, and the occasional questions about pop culture in general (especially the 80s stuff - once again, those of you who are too young, just be quiet! :-D).   I'll be interested to see what our team does tonight because half of the people (my band) are music trivia people.  We don't know crap about the rest of the world, but if you wanna know that the very first CD made was Richard Strauss's Eine Alpensinfoniea,  and the first CD to be released in the US was Billy Joel's "52nd Street", we're your team. Yeah, we're pretty limited.  Actually, I'm pretty much speaking for myself - the rest of the guys are pretty smart.  I'll update tomorrow whether or not we won.  GO CARDS! (that's for Jason R.)

Still - Go Cards!

So I got to play hooky today for a little while in order to go to the baseball game.  I loved it!  It was hotter than blue blazes, and I actually got a little bit of sun!  I've got a couple of red stripes on my arms and a nice red streak on my forehead!  Yes!  Color!  I don't think I got any color at all last year!  I even went to a few games, and hung out outside quite a bit - guess I was always in long pants and stuff.  Looked like the Beatle's "White Album" personified the whole damn season! 

Anyway, I had a really great time with my buddy Paul from my church worship band, and also my main band, The Janson Gates.  We sat out in the bleachers - the first time I'd ever done that.  It took a little while to get used to the view - I'm used to seeing it from behind home plate, cuz that's how they show it on the teevee!  It was pretty surreal, though, seeing the ball fly out just a few yards from where we were sitting!  Got a few really good views of Colby Rasmus.  I felt like I could have just about reached out and slapped him on the head, had he dropped a ball or anything!

Anyway, as well as the boys are doing this year, they missed doing it today.  They lost 5-1 to the Houston Astros.  Stupid Astros.  Oh, well, it was the Astros' first win of the season - they're now 1-8 on the year. Ooh, baby!  I guess they were trying thier best to out-do the '88 Baltimore Orioles, who lost their first 21 games!

Just to show I'm a good sport, today's stroke is dedicated to those Houston Asses -- er, I mean Astros.  Good on ya for finally winning one!  It is, however, a very small stroke (pointed out by the pretty little arrow) - I couldn't bring myself to do a big stroke.  Just you be happy with what ya got!

I can't wait to go again!  Even if I don't get to go again this year, it was still a great time and I'll still listen to the rest on the radio (I love Mike Shannon!) or catch the occasional game on Ch. 5 or Fox.  Man, do I love this game!

...now to go check the scores for the rest of the league....

Educational Mario Brothers?

I'm soooooo late tonight!  I came home from work and started working - doing the dishes, hanging up the laundry, etc., and then I was gonna come on down to do this when we got a call from Jenny's cousin "K"  and her daughter, "Sweet Pea". They were in the area and wanted to know if they wanted some company for dinner.  We jumped at the chance because we don't get to see them very often.  So I didn't even get the chance to clean up, because they were literally right around the corner!

They got here and while Jenny and K made pizza (Jenny's homemade pizza is awesome!) Sweet Pea showed me a new game she likes to play online called "Poptropica".  Man, is it fun!  I think I may have a new addiction!   The one she was playing was a time-travelling game, kind of like an educational Mario brothers, where you have to go around and find things and bring  them to different time periods to make everything right.  Thomas Jefferson was missing his first draft of the Declaration Of Independence, so you had to go through different time periods (Vikings, Aztecs, Leonardo da Vinci's workshop in France, etc.) to find it to bring it back to ol' TJ.

Anyway, games were played, pizza was eaten, there were belches all around, and before we knew it, the clock said it was almost 9 pm!  Where does the time go?  So, Sweet Pea asked if she could maybe do today's stroke.  I told her that would be great, so I let her pick the color and everything.  She picked one of my favorite colors, the magenta and dragged it down really nicely.  We may have a little artist on our hands!

Well, it's late, gotta get to bed.  Long day tomorrow - my buddy Paul's taking me to the Cards game!  Woo Hoo!  Beat those Astros!

All your life is Channel 13/Sesame Street/What does it mean?

So I'm under a deadline - don't know if I'll make it, either.  I guess in the scheme of things it's not a huge deal if I make it or not, but I sure would like to.  My sister, Katie, asked me to paint something for a charity auction, which is this Saturday night.  I didn't get the picture until last Tuesday, though, right before class.  I drew it out on the canvas (it's pretty darned complicated, actually - it's definitely a challenge!) and I started painting a bit on it this week.

  Trouble is, I'm kinda stuck, and I wanted to get some advice and ideas from my teacher tonight.  This would be alright normally, but like I said the auction is Saturday, and my mom is gonna pick it up from my house and take it down there Thursday, providing it's done.  That only leaves me tonight and tomorrow night to finish it!  I'm just a little bit under pressure (hey, at least I didn't post this! Although you might enjoy this !)  :-D

I did a quick google image search for "the color of pressure", and the first thing it came up with was something I'm very familiar with: a pressure gauge! Just green, yellow, and red!  If you hit red, you've gone too far.  Simple as that!  Thankfully I haven't hit red yet.  Here's to hoping I don't!

Go crazy, folks, go crazy!

So, hey, folks, do you know what day it is?  Yes, I know it's Monday, the day everyone always dreads, but what else?  It's the CARDINAL'S HOME OPENER!  It's aboutthisclose to being an official holiday here in St. Louis- I'd hate to see how many companies are losing money to everyone playing hooky to go to the game, or at the very least just going downtown to party in a sea of Cardinal Red!  I feel sorry for Jenny, actually - she's gotta drive home from downtown, where she works, right through all of the throngs of people down there!  I think the road's closed down by the riverfront (a way to avoid some of the downtown traffic most of the time) due to possible flooding, too, so she'll have to go right through the center of it all!

The weather is absolutely perfect for today, too!  In years past it's been pretty chilly - my supervisor at work says he's been to several in the past with his father, and said it was nothing for there to be a little snow, actually!  Today, though, it's sunny, not a cloud in the sky, and about 83°!  I would love it if every day of the year was like this, ya know?  I'd move to San Diego, but 1) Ma says California's gonna fall into the ocean, and 2) I would be 2000 miles away from the awesome spectacle that is St. Louis Cardinal's opening day!

So today's stroke originally was going to be light blue (sky) yellow (sun) red (fans/players) and green (grass) but the yellow got buried.  That's the only bad thing about doing knife swipes like that!  :-)

Oh, by the way, it's a little bit later now, and the Cards won 5-0!  Yeah!  These guys are looking really great this year!  Gooooooooo CARDS!

Más Marrón

Whoops - almost forgot to do this tonight!  I was working on another piece, and then got kinda sidetracked watching cartoons on Fox - Simpsons, Family Guy, etc.  All of a sudden I looked over at the project and remembered I hadn't done it! 

It seems the weekend has whizzed past us again.  I literally feels like I just got home from work Friday!  Oh, well,  I guess that's how it goes. 

I just mixed up a little bit darker of a brown this evening.  I put it just towards the top of the one I did last night.  It was kind of hard, actually - didn't really want to fill in over the bumps from the sand medium I put down there a while back.  Well, that's how the cookie crumbles, I guess. 

Saturday/On the couch/no it's not the 4th of July

Woweee, did this day get away from me!  I slept like a log last night.  Jenny got up this morning early-early and went down to the Soulard Farmer's Market with her cousin and cousin's daughter.  After a while I finally dragged my butt outta bed and went downstairs where I promptly laid down on the couch and watched the St. Louis Cardinals World Series DVD.  It was really fun re-living all of that!

I really hate feeling like this - I never have figured out if it's a cold or just really, really bad allergies!  Either way I just feel crappy enough to just want to lay around and drift in and out of consciousness - which is exactly what I did!  I did wake up long enough to watch most of the Cards-Brewers game (we won!) and to read several chapters of American On Purpose, Craig Ferguson's autobiography.  I love that guy!  He's definitely on my short list of people I wanna meet someday!

So after Jenny and the girls got done at  the market, they  stopped by here so they could say "hi".  Her cousin's daughter was looking at this painting.  I asked her if she saw anything in it.  She pointed out a couple of things, so I think I may expound on them for a little while.  I'm not gonna say what she told me, though.  I'll let you draw your own conclusions.  Today I did another brown -kind of a reddish-brown.  It's actually a mix of red and green, actually, with just a little bit of white. 

Well, I am actually feeling a bit better - if I can just get this crap out of my chest, I'll feel a lot better!

It really IS good guys...and gals!

If you're from St. Louis, or have spent any amount of time here, you already know exactly what I'm talking about.  That's right, folks, we're heading on out to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard!  It is that time of year again - the time for going over there and hanging out eating a big ol' concrete - probably Oreo.  Maybe a banana split.  Maybe both.  :-)  Hey, it's custard, not ice cream - it's good for you, right?

Going there is another reminder to me that it's summer!  It's pretty much tantamount to the smell of old school suntan lotion (the kind that smelled like coconut) or, as weird as it sounds, the smell of freshly poured asphalt (hey, it reminds me of Silver Dollar City, or Six Flags - both places we would visit in the summer!).  I remember going there when I first moved up here, and from Fontbonne it just seemed like it took forever to drive there!  Now it just seems like a few minutes drive.

When Jenny and I first got married we moved into a little duplex 1.1 miles south of Ted Drewes, and we always swore we would walk up there, get our dessert and walk back, thus walking off any calories accrued.  Yeah.  That happened.  Right.  And if you believe that you may also be interested in purchasing the Brooklyn Bridge from me.

I just threw down a splotch of white and a little bitty splotch of burnt umber and swirled it around a few times, and I think it looks a lot like this concrete.  I tell you what, though, I'm through writing about it - it's time to giddyup and go!  FROZEN CUSTARD AWAITS!

Magically Craptacular!

Well, folks, the day I dreaded when I started this project has arrived:  the day I feel so crappy that I just can't really come up with anything to say - I just don't feel like doing much of anything, really, except laying on the couch and watching a movie, maybe coughing up the occasional lung.  But, I have to go to practice.  If it was just regular band practice I'd cancel, but since it's for church I'll put on my big boy pants and do it. 

I did want to do something productive on here, though, so I did another "warm" color - this one a little darker.  I started with my blue and orange, then I added just a smidge of purple and red.  I'm just kind of playing with the colors, seeing what comes out, and if I like any of it.  Maybe I can do some shading with this process.  Yeah, that'd be good. 

Well, it's that time again, folks.  We'll do this again tomorrow.   Same Bat Time, same Bat Channel.   Hopefully I'll feel much better, though!  Ta Ta!

Happiness is a warm...

...blanket!  What did you think I was gonna say - "Gun"? 

Well, it's getting quite warm out now, which I just think is awesome!  Plus, there's a new painting I'm working on in my art class that I'm only using "warm" colors - mostly oranges, browns, beiges, yellows, etc., using only the basic colors on my palette.  It promises to be quite a challenge, but I'm really looking forward to it.  I'll post it on here once I'm finished. 

Today, to kind of get in the mood for that I decided to mix up a little light brown.  I was trying to figure out exactly where to put it, when Jenny suggested I "give my little guy some hair", so that's what I did.  If you weren't seeing a little guy, maybe you are now.  :-)

I would write a little more - maybe do a small dissertation on what John Lennon was talking about in that song, but I have to get over to Jason's house to record some more drum parts.  Yay!  :-)   Unfortunately I think I need to re-do a few other parts, but I'd rather have it done right than to settle for something I'm not gonna be happy with.  Hopefully we'll have something done soon, though - I'll let you know where you can hear it!  Later!

Aaaaaaahhhhh-CHOOOOOOOO!

Yeah, so allergy season has kicked into full force.  It's also been kicking my butt today!  I sneezed a couple of times and I thought I might knock myself out on the counter!

Whenever I think of sneezing, I think of Dave Chappelle, who played a character named "Ahchoo" (son of "Asneeze", of course!)  in "Robin Hood:Men In Tights", probably Mel Brooks' last really funny film.  Man, there were so many funny lines in that movie!  If you haven't seen it, and like just plain silly stuff, I highly recommend it!

I asked Jenny what color she thought of when I said the word "allergy", and she said green - for the grass, and other things that grow and subsequently put all those little things into the air that make green and yellow stuff come out of our noses. (sorry, maybe I crossed a line there) :-)

Well, it's painting class night, and I'm in a huge hurry - hopefully I can make it through without sneezing all over my painting!  Talk to you tomorrow!

Get up, baby, get up!!!!

That's right, baby!  It's officially BASEBALL SEASON!!!!!   My boys, the Cardinals started it off in style, too!   Albert Pujols hit not one, but two home runs, and Jenny's favorite player, Yadier Molina, hit a GRAND SLAM!  We ended up beating the Cincinnati Reds 11-6!  Now that's a great opening day!

I'm just so glad baseball's back!  I love summer so much, and nothing says summer like, well, the "Boys Of Summer"!  And you've gotta love John Fogerty's ode to the game!

I can't afford to go to too many games, but I sure do go whenever I can!  Thanks to cable TV pretty much taking over all the games (and the fact that we don't have cable) I don't get to see very many on TV, either - that's made me really appreciate ol' Mike Shannon's voice that much more!   I have XM radio in the car, too, and they play just about every game from every team all season, so I can keep up there, though.  I listened to parts of about 4 different games this afternoon!

Today's stroke, obviously, is all about my Cardinals!  We've got the "birds on bat" red and yellow, and a little bit of blue and white in there just for good measure.  And now, ironically, I'm going to watch the NCAA Basketball national championship game.  Go Butler!  But GO CARDS, more!!!!

Hippity-hoppity

Easter's on it's way!  Actually, it's already here!  Hope y'all had a great one, too!  Of course this also means the return of one of the best commercials ever!  My sister Katie said that her daughters saw this commercial, and her youngest, Morgan, who's about 18 months old, ran around the whole day saying "Bok Bok!"  :-)

We went to church this morning (I played both services, as I do most weeks).  We had a really great turnout both services!  This was the special music we played.  I'd never heard it before this week, but apparently it's a pretty popular song - I just don't listen to radio, unless it's KDHX (the world's best station), or Classic 99, the classical music station (and one that's in grave danger of switching formats due to a very shady sale, but that's a whole other dramatic story! Don't get me started on that!). 

After that we went over to Jenny's mom's house for a nice little Easter lunch with her aunt and cousins.  I, of course, took a bit of a nap. I can't help it!   It's Carla's couch!  It just sucks you in and forces you to sleep!  :-)

Anyway, today our painting had a little visit from the Easter Bunny, too.  I figured little white bunny hoppin' around with some purple and pink eggs would do.  I didn't have the proper pastel yellow, though, so no Peeps!

Don't worry, baby - it's almost over!

Boy, am I tired!  And sore, too!  I've really worked my butt off this weekend - I almost can't wait to get back to work just so I can rest a little bit!  You know that yesterday I finished the bathroom, and today we had Jenny's friend, Anne, whom she's known since 5th grade, along with her husband and 3 sons, over to go out for pizza and also for Jason (her husband) to help me break up our pampas grass.  We needed to thin it out, and they needed some.  You just dig out about half of it, along with a chunk of the dirt, and transplant it to another place - instant decorative grasses!

Now, with that all done, and the dirt filled back in, it's time for the men's NCAA Final Four games!  Just got through watching the Butler Bulldogs beat the Michigan State Spartans (sorry, Magic - I like ya, but I like Butler more), and now I'm hoping West Virginia can take out Duke!  Not a Duke fan in the least.  It'll be a better story, too - West Virginia hasn't been this far in 51 years, and it's the first time for Butler, I believe.  It's a really big deal for Butler, since they're such a small school.  As you can tell, I like underdogs!

I almost forgot about doing this tonight, actually - got so caught up in everything else, for some reason I actually thought I'd done it already!  So, I figured I'd come in between games and throw up a bit of orange - maybe it'll go in!  SWOOOOOSH!  Nothin' but net!

Buck Melanoma - Moley Russell's Wart

Can I just tell ya how much I love John Hughes (RIP) movies?  He truly was the voice of my generation as far as movies go.    I own just about every single one of his movies - at least the classic ones from the 80s: Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty In Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off , the Vacation movies (especially Christmas Vacation, which I can literally watch multiple times a year), etc.

Tonight I'm taking it easy.  I worked my butt off!  I had the day off from work for Good Friday, but I actually worked harder today than I have in a long time!  I cleared out the old, moldy-ass caulk around the bathtub and re-did that, then spackled and sanded the walls and re-painted all of that.  It doesn't sound like a lot, but it's quite a bit to get done by yourself in just a few hours!

Anyway, I'm resting now, and watching a comfort movie - one of the many that I have.   I think I've told you about them before.  Tonight I'm watching Uncle Buck.  I love John Candy!  He's always been one of my favorites, but the scene with Macaulay Culkin and the questions is just pure genius!

Anyway, I didn't really know what kind of mood I was in, but again I wanted something kinda soothing.  Blue is always soothing to me, and I had my big brush still handy from the bathroom walls, so I just squirted some on there and swiped it across the canvas.  Easy as pie!  Or pancakes!

I know you got charm and appeal...

...you always play the field.  Yeah, you know it!

Today is another "Jenny Day".  I got home from work, where I was busier than a one-legged soccer player, and found that she and her dad had been equally as busy, if not moreso.  The fence was fixed, the yard was mowed, the trees were trimmed (that was done professionally, actually), the siding was washed - they didn't sit down the entire day, either! 

So, as a tribute to Jenny's yardwork, of which she is so proud - especially her flowers that are blooming, I give you her two favorite colors, purple and pink, in the shape of a flower.  It is only one stroke, too!  I promise!  While trying to come up with this, and also trying to figure out it's placement, I decided to flip the painting upside down.  Maybe we'll see some other stuff now!  I know what I saw the other way, but was getting a little stumped lately. 

Well, off to band practice!  RAWK!