30 November 2010

Won't you come out and play?

I think I've probably mentioned in this here blog before that I was a major late-comer to the music of the Beatles.  I mean I remember hearing all of the early hits - "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "Twist And Shout", "She Loves You", "I Saw Her Standing There" (I thought they did a really great job covering that classic Tiffany song!).  I never really heard a whole lot from them, though - Ma was classically trained, so the extent of her Beatles knowledge was "Eleanor Rigby" (which is, however, one of my all-time favorite songs, period), and Randy, who loved both kinds of music: country and western (with the occasional 50s and 60s rock thrown in).  Because of this, I was only exposed to whatever I heard on the radio, whether it be the top 40 hits of the day, or whatever "classic rock" they happened to play.  They never really delved that deeply into any albums, though, so I never heard anything else.

When I got to college I started hearing a few things here and there.  I used to sit out in the hall with a buddy of mine who was a couple of years older and play guitar.  He was the first person that I heard play "Dear Prudence" (as well as "The Weight", but that's a whole other blog). 

It wasn't until several years later that I started getting really interested in these (formerly) Mop Topped Dudes.  As the guys in my old band, Rocket Park, would often joke about, I learned most of my Beatles songs off of commercials (one in particular was for a Philips electronics commercial, which used "Getting Better").  I guess getting made fun of kind of facilitated my "yearnin' for learnin'" about the Fab Four.

I just started borrowing albums from people, and from the library, and - when finances allowed - just blindly buying albums that I figured were "must-have" albums: "Rubber Soul", "Revolver", and the album we listened to in class this evening, "The Beatles", otherwise known as "The White Album". 

It was really great to listen to that album again, this evening, really - I just don't dig that album out nearly enough.  A lot of people shy away from that album, not because of "Blackbird", "Birthday", or "Back In The USSR", but because of the more experimental stuff, such as "Piggies", "Honey Pie", and "Revolution 9".  What can I say - there may or may not have been some illegal substances in the general vicinity of Abbey Road studios in the summer of 1968!

Well, throughout the years I've listened to all of the albums and I'm definitely in the "Abbey Road" camp.  I just think it's a brilliant album cover to cover - yes, even the Ringo stuff!  I think that the second side (for those of you who actually remember "vinyl albums") beginning with "Here Comes The Sun" and ending with "Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight / The End / Her Majesty " , is probably the most brilliant 22 minutes in all of rock and roll.  No, really.  Check it out if you don't know!

Tonight's stroke is white, for that amazing album with all of that crazy crap on it!  And don't worry, Paul is, contrary to popular belief (40+ years ago) very much alive.  #9. #9. #9. #9. #9. #9. #9. #9. #9. #9. (ad infinitum)

29 November 2010

99¢ 1/2-pound burgers? Shoot, yeah!

Jenny and I spent the afternoon with her dad and Joanne.  We went up to the JC Penney Outlet store to browse around to see if there were any good deals (not that we could really afford anything, but it's still fun to look!).   The store, unlike the surrounding parts of the building, was pretty packed - people taking advantage of the "25% Off Of Everything" coupon in the paper, I suppose.  Jamestown Mall, as a whole, though, was pretty much a ghost town!  As annoying as malls tend to be anymore for Jenny and I, it's still sad that so many of them are struggling to even keep their doors open!  I still enjoy walking through the Galleria every once in a while - just like old times!

I like what they've done with Crestwood Mall, actually - a majority of their stores had closed, so the management started leasing the spaces to artists, dance companies, and theater companies.  I really hope the stores, theaters and galleries that have moved in can really flourish and stick around for a long time!

Anyway, after browsing for a few hours, Jim said,"Boy, I sure could go for a burger and a beer up at Fast Eddies!".  That sounded really good to us, so up 367 to Alton we went (it was only about 10 minutes away from where we were). 

For those of you who've never heard of "Fast Eddie's Bon Air", you are really missing out!  That place is just plain awesome!   All 4 of us ate - and ate well - for $11 and change!  99¢ burgers and 29¢ peel-and-eat shrimp!  Beers are super cheap, too!  Fast, friendly service, cheep eats/drinks, and live music 4 nights a week, all sorts of great old school memorabilia on the walls (real license plates saying things like "FAS EDY", lots of old advertisements from the 50s and 60s, etc) - you can see why they're just jumpin' at all hours!  I really don't see why there's not something like Fast Eddies over on this side of the river - I know I'd be there in a heartbeat!

I figured I'd do a bright orange/red stroke - kind of the color of most of the neon signs at the "Bon Air".  Gotta go lay down for a bit - I'm still really, really full!

28 November 2010

Добро вече, драги читаоци...

Despite what my GPA in college (which, after seeing my transcript recently wasn't as bad as I remembered) suggests , I really do love to learn things.  I wish I had the discipline to just sit down and read and learn more often, but I just don't.  I've got a whole list of different things I'd like to learn, and I'm always finding more subjects.   First on my list (well, it should be, at least) is Music Theory.  You'd think I'd already know all about it, but I just clashed with my instructor the first day, and we took an immediate disliking to each other.  After that, being the brilliant 19-year-old that I was,  I just decided that I would refuse to learn from her.  Like I said, brilliant.  Yes, I do regret that, by the way. 

The other things that I really want to learn (besides the plethora of musical instruments that I'd love to master) are foreign languages.  I took a few years of Spanish back in high school, but that was almost 20 years ago!  I can still pick some out here and there, but I'm nowhere near as fluent as I thought I might be at one time. 

A few years ago I started trying to teach myself to speak Bosnian.  St. Louis' south side, especially the Bevo Mill area, originally almost entirely a German area, is home to the biggest population of Bosnians outside of Sarejevo.  I used to work around a bunch of Bosnian guys, and I always wanted to be able to talk to them, so I just picked up whatever books I could find and went to town.  The guys there were pretty impressed, actually, at how well I had learned the pronunciations of the alphabet and accents, etc.  Apparently it's just hard to convey these things when teaching, and most people just don't pick up on it. 

I've always been pretty good at picking up accents and dialects, though.  Anytime I've been anywhere for more than a day or so I immediately pick up the local accent - I came back from New York sounding like I was raised in Brooklyn, and when I came back from a church trip to a Mexican border town I kept catching myself asking "que" (Spanish for "what?") anytime I couldn't hear someone speaking to me. 

I'd love to learn Japanese, Chinese, German, French, maybe some Russian, Arabic - I could go on and on, I'm sure.  I probably should have gone into some sort of career dealing with foreign languages.  Oh, well.  I guess it's never too late.

Well, I decided to go with a blue today, for the Bosnian flag.  I should dig out those Bosnian language books again and see if I can start over again learning some of it.  It would probably be very helpful in certain jobs around here, and Lord knows I need a friggin' job!  I also took a closer pic of the stroke, since it's starting to get a little crowded on that thar canvas!  :-)

27 November 2010

I'll bet he woulda driven a monster truck...

Well, like I said yesterday, Ma came up this weekend to see Miss Savannah, and she stayed the night with us.  Didn't do much last night, except for do a little catching up, then went to bed.  This morning we got up early (Jenny got up to go to work and I just couldn't go back to sleep), so we got ready and went up to good ol' Bread Co., one of Ma's favorite places in the world.  We like to just grab a little bite to eat and sit in the comfy chairs in front of the fireplace.  The chairs were so comfy, in fact, that someone fell asleep.  I'm not naming any names, but his initials start with "Dave Harris".  I just kinda closed my eyes for a second to rest them, and next thing I knew I heard some little old lady say something about "well that young man sure looks comfortable".  I looked at the time, and it was about 35 minutes later!  D'oh!

Anyway, after that we decided to go to the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park.  I hadn't been there in almost 10 years, since they had the Miles Davis exhibit.  I didn't realize all of the stuff they had in there - had we had time, we could have spent the entire day there!  What we did go see, though, was "Treasures Of Napoleon".   I tell you what, I've forgotten most of my history of 18th and 19th century France, so it was pretty interesting to read about Napoleon's life and just what went on in that time period.  There was a lot of artwork - I think he wanted everyone in France to have their own personal painting of him looking like he was a Roman emperor!  It was also really interesting to see how he changed physically throughout the years.  By the end, in the paintings and drawings, you could really tell that the two decades of war had definitely taken a toll on him.  He just looked like a beaten and broken man.  

After he was exiled to St. Helena, he spent the rest of his days gardening, reading, and dictating his memoirs, all of which completely drove him mad, because he's one of those guys who always had to be on the go doing something!  Ma and I both commented that we'd like to read those memoirs, as, lo and behold, I found it on these here internets!  If you're gonna read it, I suggest you clear your calendar for a while - there are 4 huge volumes, covering everything from his birth to 20 years after his death, when his body was moved from the unmarked grave on St. Helena to his final resting place on the banks of the Seine River in Paris, where he wanted to be buried "among the people of France, whom he loved". 

Today's stroke is a crimson, for two reasons: it was the color of the robe Ol' Nappy (as Ma called him) wore during his coronation, and also, something I haven't talked about at all this evening - for my Oklahoma Sooners, who are playing the big "Bedlam" game against Oklahoma State right now - this is gonna be a great game!  Sooners are up 7-0 in the first, but there's a lot of game left, and OSU has the #1 offense in the nation!  Hopefully they'll fare better than Mr. Bonaparte!

26 November 2010

Why don't you just make up your mind?

Hello, and welcome to this Black Friday!  I can't believe all the people who have been camping out, sometimes literally since the past Monday!  What in the hell are you people thinking?  What is really so important to you that you will stand in line for 5 days to buy?  I'm just saying, if you do the math, the money you're missing out on with the time you're taking off is probably WAY more than the amount you're saving in these stupid sales.  And if the reason you're able to stand in these lines is that you're unemployed, then, well, I'm sure that I can come up with a butt-load of things that would probably be better uses of your unemployment check!  Come on, people, show some restraint!

Yeah, so I'm offa my soapbox now.  I'm actually in a pretty good mood - I just had some time to relax today, so I looked for a few jobs, but then, all of a sudden, I found out that there was college football on TV!  I didn't even think about it!  I found out about halfway through the first half of the Alabama-Auburn game (which Auburn finally came out and won!) and then, switching around, found out that the Colorado-Nebraska game was on.  Man, was I rooting hard for Colorado!  If they would have won, Mizzou would have had the chance to win the Big 12 North title.  No such luck, though - Nebraska just won. Oh, well.  Here's to hoping that they play OU in the Big 12 title game (and that OU beats them)!

Anyway, I just kinda relaxed today, surfed the net, and watched a scary movie: the remake of "A Nightmare On Elm Street".  I really enjoyed it, actually.  I always thought that the original was pretty darned scary, but this one explained a little bit more of the back-story, and was a little darker - less of the Robert Englund-style "Freddy Krueger", who was constantly cracking jokes, eventually kinda becoming a vaudeville act!  I will always have a special place in my heart for the original, but this one was pretty darned creepy!

Anyway, Ma is up this weekend to see baby Savannah (Erica's little girl), and so I'm gonna go meet them over at Ted Drewes - what better place, huh?

Tonight's stroke is really nothing to do with any of this, except maybe for the whole "Black Friday" thing.  Yup, it's black.  Who says I don't have any imagination?

25 November 2010

Yo Gobble Gobble!

So the day is here: day 1 of "I'll just eat what I want this season, cuz I'm starting a diet January 1".  And of course we all do start our diets, right?  Right.  :-)  The day everyone overdoses on tryptophan and pumpkin pie.

We started off by having Jenny's mom, brother, and his wife over for a really nice breakfast consisting of a friggin' great egg/sausage/cheese breakfast casserole, another casserole with diced potatoes, cheese and cornflakes on top (nice touch for those of us, like Jenny, who love crunchy stuff).

We just had a relaxing breakfast, watching the parade while we ate and just talked.  Did a lot of talking about how we didn't know any of the kids featured as "singers" on the parade.  They all seemed to look alike, and I'm pretty sure they all sang the same song.  Ahh, I love getting old and feeling out of touch.  :-/

After we put the dishes away and put the ornaments on the tree, it was time for football.  So that's what we're doing now.  The in-laws have left, but we'll see most of them later on this evening again when we do Round 2 up at Jenny's dad's place.  Right now, though, I'm gonna sit back and (hopefully) watch the Lions beat the Patriots, but it doesn't really look like that's gonna happen.  They started off great, but the Pats have come back big time and kinda shut 'em down.

Oh, by the way, it has now started SNOWING!  Come on!  Well, I guess snow is better than freezing rain - that's the worst to me!  At least the ground is still warm enough that it won't stick and make travel more difficult.  I did a little speckly kinda white stroke for the big ol' snowflakes that are coming down right now.

Here's a handy little chart, in case you're having a big family get-together and can't figure out where to seat everyone.  Hope everyone's having a really Happy ThanksgivingBe careful out there!

24 November 2010

Pass me some Cool-Whip (tm), please!

It's Thanksgiving Eve.  Traditionally the biggest bar and nightclub night of the year.  I guess all the college kids are home from school and want to meet up with their buddies and the older "kids" don't have to work and just wanna unwind, so to the bars they go.  One of these years I'll get off my butt and try to book my band on Thanksgiving Eve - I'm sure we'd have a pretty good crowd (depending on where it is!).  Oh, well - something to work for next year. 

I was supposed to go back up to St. Chuck-ville, but a sickness had fallen upon that house, and I didn't want anything to do with that!  Jenny ended up doing some work for her old job to help them with their traditional Thanksgiving Weekend Sale, so she was gone a good portion of the day. When she got back we finished up dragging all the Christmas stuff up outta the basement to get ready for tomorrow.  After that she went to town baking pies.  She'd never made a pumpkin pie before, so she grabbed her mom's recipe, and, of course, they turned out absolutely amazing!  Man, does my wife rock!

Anyway, it's gonna be a long (yet very yummy) day tomorrow, so I'm gonna make this quick tonight so we can get some rest.  I just did a quick orange swipe for Jenny's awesome pumpkin pie!

23 November 2010

"At this point, I can't even see the nuts. They must have blown away. Oh here they are. Here come the nuts."

We got a bit of a head start today.  We always put up our tree and decorate it Thanksgiving afternoon after dinner and all that.  This year we're gonna have Jenny's mom over for "Thanksgiving Breakfast", and then we'll decorate while we watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Man, do I love the parades, as cheezy (this one's for my wife) and commercial and plastic as they've gotten, they still remind me of when I was little and we'd watch them.

I was so excited in 1989 because my friend Wendy, a high school crush classmate of mine (:-D) was actually marching in the parade with the SMSU Marching Band.  We recorded it on the old VCR and ran it back and forth trying to get a better glance at her!  It was so cool that someone we knew was on national TV!

I love that you can still see the occasional "old school" balloon, your "Snoopy", "Charlie Brown" (trying once again to kick the ever-elusive football), "Kermit The Frog", "Bullwinkle", the "Turkey" float, and of course, Willard Scott.  I think what they mostly have anymore, though, is the newer stuff - your "Dora", "Spongebob", "Pikachu" (a phenomenon I will never understand!) and, finally after almost 4 decades of existence, a "Scooby Doo" balloon was added in 2005!  In between all of this is interspersed "live" (yeah, right!) performances by every obscure preteen and tween Disney star known to man.  Gads. 

Anyway, we went ahead and put the tree up today, which is why I went with green today.  Didn't put the ornaments on yet, though - that'll be our Thanksgiving Day project.  It just won't take quite as long, and we'll have more time to enjoy the parade and just be with family, which is what it's all about.

By the way, the title of today's posting is for Ma and the girls.  Can't wait to watch that movie with them again!

22 November 2010

What cows say, followed by the letter "V"...

When I was a young lad, we didn't get to go see many movies.  Up until about 1983 there was a drive-in theater in Cassville that I remember going to a few times - I specifically remember seeing (well, being there for, but not necessarily paying attention to) "Cannonball Run", "Neighbors", and "Annie" (okay, that one I did actually watch!).  I think I may remember vaguely seeing parts of "Conan The Barbarian".   I always loved going to the drive-ins - thought it was so cool to hang the little speaker on your window, and I thought it was even cooler when we discovered that you could tune in to a certain FM station and hear it even better.  You could technically even go up on the hill behind the theater and watch and hear the movie without paying!  Not that we ever did that. 

Other than the occasional trip to the drive-in, though, we never really went out to the movies!  I do remember going to see "Superman" with my dad when it came out - either late '78 or early '79.  I just have this vague memory of walking into the theater, and it was snowing. 

In the summers of the 80s, I would occasionally go to visit my Aunt Phyllis in Pittsburgh, and she would take me to go see movies.  I remember going to see "E.T.", "Big", and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" with her - she bawled her eyes out on the first two, which makes those particular films that much more special to me. 


I also remember going on a church trip up to Kansas City, and seeing the marquee on the movie theater outside of Independence Center, and "Weird Science" was playing.  I'd seen the trailer for that on TV and I wanted to see it so badly!

We finally got a VCR in early 1984.  The first movie we rented was "Flashdance".  Why do I remember these things?  I don't know - it's the same part of my brain, I'm sure, that remembers that the first tapes I bought were "Into The Gap" by Thompson Twins and "Daylight Again" by Crosby, Still and Nash. It's the same part that remembers that the first videos I ever saw on MTV were "TV Dinners" by ZZ Top, "If I'd Been The One", by .38 Special, and "Authority Song" by John Cougar Mellencamp.  I just remember these things, okay?  :-)

Ever since we got that VCR, I started really getting into movies.  During the summers, when Ma and Randy were working, I'd ride my bike up to the PQ Mart and rent just about every movie they had up there - sometimes I'd ride up there 2 or 3 times a day, and it was a good mile and a half one way.

They were mostly just your average comedies - nothing serious, that's for sure, and I didn't really get into the horror stuff until much later.  It wasn't until college and even after that when I developed a taste for the really good films - stuff that only the Oscar voting panel watches.  But I do love a good indie flick - just ask my family about "The Ice Storm".  I liked it - everyone else still gives me crap about "making them watch it" to this day!

Anyway, what does this have to do with today's stroke?  Nothing, really.  I was just thinking about movies today for some reason, and thought I'd just write it all down.  Oh, but I did do a silver stroke, in memory of our very first VCR (not exactly like this one, but close).  And now, off to watch another movie.  Ta ta!

21 November 2010

Why didn't you run that ball instead of throwing an interception?

I've decided that I'm a "sports jinx" - at least as far as professional football goes.  I honestly don't think I've ever been to a Rams game that they won.  Shoot, lately even if I watch it on the teevee they find a way to choke, even if they had a strong start! 

My buddy Jeff has been asking me all season if I wanted to go to a game down there at the Dome.  Every other week, though, I'd had something going on already.  This week I finally had the day liberated, so off we went, down the Metrolink trail (a fraction of the cost of parking down there!). 

The game started off strong - we stopped the Falcons and then went down and scored a touchdown.  Unfortunately, that was about the highlight of the game.  They were very hit and miss after that.  Oh, well - I still love to go to games, whether or not they win.  And whether or not it's my fault! :-)  Since they are doing so much better this year, a lot of the energy that has been missing the past few years is back.  It ain't as loud in there as it was about 10 years ago, but I was holding my ears a few times!


I went with a dark blue swipe this evening for the boys in blue (the Rams, not the police - although I'm thankful for them, too).  We won't go to the SuperBowl this year, but we sure have improved 1000%!  Go Rams!

20 November 2010

Go, 'Cats, GO!

I've never gone to a school that had a football program.  Southwest has, during different years, had a really great basketball team, usually a pretty good baseball and track team, and for the last couple of years, has gone to nationals, with most of the kids in the different age groups placing either 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.  No football, though.

During my freshmen and sophomore years of college, the Fontbonne men's soccer team went to nationals in their division.  The women's softball team was always pretty good.  Both the men's and women's basketball teams have been hit and miss.  They've since added a lacrosse team for both men and women, but I have no idea what they've done.  Still, though, no football. 

At the time, it really didn't matter a whole lot to me that there was no football, as I was just a casual sports fan.  I'd watch the occasional Super Bowl.  If I was over at someone's house and they had the game on, cool. 

Now, though, since I've become a much bigger fan of sports in general, I really wish I had a "home team" to root for.  Enter the Cassville Wildcats.  For those of you who don't know, Cassville was the "Big Town" about 8 miles north of my hometown of Washburn.  It's where we went to go to "The Wal-Mart", we would "cruise the square" on Friday and Saturday nights, making a loop around Sonic and the courthouse, occasionally parking there on the square to talk to our friends, try to meet members of the opposite sex, or try to find someone to buy beer for us - er, um, just make friends with the older generation.  Yeah, that's the ticket. 

Cassville is the closest town to Washburn to have a football program.  Even though they were our arch rivals in basketball, I now live vicariously through them and root for them.  Besides, my sisters all graduated from there, because Ma moved there in '92 after I graduated, and she also was a school counselor there for many years. 

Anyway, the last two years in a row they won the Missouri State Division III Championship, in 2008 against Cardinal Ritter, and in 2009 against Bowling Green.  They hadn't lost a game since August 28, 2009...until today. 

Today they lost the semi-final game of the playoffs against an also-undefeated Richmond team, 23-21.  They had a really great season, and I'm sure this won't be the last the Division III playoffs see the likes of the Cassville Wildcats.  This yellow and black stroke today is for you!  Good job, boys, and congratulations on a great season of football!

Can't find my way home (yes, I know that's not Traffic)...

Man, am I tired!  And this is gonna be a short one, folks, cuz I've gotta turn right around and head out the door again for practice.

A friend of mine named Mike up at church recently bought a house out in St. Peters (about 40 minutes away from here - in no traffic, or about an hour with idiot drivers on I-270 who feel compelled to come to a complete stop to watch the cop on the side of the road helping a motorist.  Come on, people, I'm sure you've seen a cop before.  Quit rubbernecking and GO!  Okay, now I'm off of my soapbox :-D). 

There is a lot of work that needs to be done, and my buddy is, in his words, "not that handy of a guy".  Enter myself and another guy from church, who also happens to be out of work right now.  Mike figured since he doesn't really have the ability to do things, and we (well, mostly Lee, but I helped) do, he'd help us out by giving us a little bit of work.

Right away in driving up there I remember why I don't like St. Charles County: they change stuff around too much!  They're just growing so rapidly that the info on Google maps hasn't really caught up!  I saw an exit called one thing on Google, but when I got out there, I saw that the signs said something else.  I had no earthly idea where I was! 

Anyway, got back a little while ago, got cleaned up and ate a wunnerful meal of black beans and rice that Jenny whipped up, and now, like I said, I've gotta get going!  The red stroke today is for all of the derned brake lights I saw on the way home today!  I want a job really badly, but I don't know if I could handle 270 again like that!  Yeah, sure I could.  It'd give me time to think.  Or just to work on my sign language.  :-)

18 November 2010

What did you expect, a turkey card?

Jenny and I really got in the Christmas mood today:  turned on the Christmas channel on the radio, and Jenny started dragging out the stuff she wanted to put up this year.  We got all artsy-craftsy today, too.  We made a bunch of ornaments to give away.  I was gonna show you guys, but I don't want to spoil the surprise!


I was, however, brought out of "Christmas", and back to real time this evening when I saw that one of my all time favorites was on: "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving"!  I'm just such a sucker for these shows!  I don't care where I am, or what I'm doing, I have to watch the Charlie Brown holiday specials!  Growing up we knew it was gonna be a good night of holiday specials when we heard this sound.  I miss that! 


They really don't make holiday specials like that anymore - I just saw a commercial for "The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation", starring the voice talents of Mario Lopez and Paris Hilton.  Yeah, I think I might be busy that night. 


Well, tonight there's not a whole lot going on, so I just did a little squiggly yellow line, in honor of Snoopy's little bird-buddy Woodstock.  This stroke is also for my sister, Cindy!  :-)

17 November 2010

Here, fishy, fishy, fishy!

When I was down in Cassville a few weeks ago I drove around town (and the outskirts - the WAY outskirts), taking pictures that I thought would make good paintings.  I took some really gorgeous shots down at Roaring River State Park.  I've been down there I don't know how many times, but it wasn't until the last few years that I really saw how beautiful it really was.  It's especially pretty in the fall, so I knew I'd get some great shots. 

We went this time down to the trout hatchery.  All of these years I've been going down there, and I'd never seen them transferring the growing trout into the next bigger pool.   It was really cool to see all these little fishies flying through those tubes!

What I really wanted to get a picture of, though, was the cave that houses the Roaring River Spring, from which over 20 million gallons of water flows everyday!  I've always thought that the cave was really cool, especially the color of the water.  It's just this gorgeous deep blue, which is what I tried to mix up for today's stroke. By the way, if you can't see it, I was trying to insert a little pointy finger, but I don't know how to do that yet, so I'll just tell you it's not a very big stroke, and it's toward the bottom middle, right above the big horizontal green area. 

P.S. - Last night in class, also, I did a little 5"X7" preliminary drawing of part of a larger painting I'm going to do soon, also of the spring and surrouding cave and cliff, so I could get a feel for what colors I wanted to use and how to compose the painting to give it the depth it needs.  Here's a pic of that pic:

16 November 2010

Wandering the aisles no more...

Well I did actually put on proper clothing today, and we did venture out, if only for a little while!  It was day 2 of my poor wife not feeling worth a crap, so I told her to just rest - she didn't need to make things worse by trying to be outside.  Plus that gave me a chance to finish watching a couple of movies so I could return them to the library.  I tell you what - the library's where it's at, folks (and yes, mother, I am aware that I just used horrible grammar - it was intentional:-D)!  We've stopped going to Blockbuster all together, especially since the lawsuit against them about excessive late fees was dropped, and now they're more expensive than ever, with a shorter rental time and higher fees!  Instead, we just go to our handy dandy local library!  They've got all sorts of movies - even a lot of brand-spankin' new ones!

If I remember that there's a movie I want to see, especially some of the old classics, I just look it up online and, usually, within a couple of days it's just around the corner for us to pick up - free!  Take that, Blockbuster!  HA!

Today I finished up "The Uninvited" (it was okay - seen better), and just started on "Play Misty For Me" - one of the many on my list of "old movies" that I figured I should see.  This is a very long, and ever-expanding list.  :-)  When we take them back, I'll pick up a few more, including "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", an Oscar-winning comedy classic from 1963.  I've been wanting to see it for a long time!  It stars pretty much every big name comedy actor from the 50s and 60s - kinda like the "Cannonball Run" movies (which I loved), only 20 years earlier. 

Anyway, since I picked on Blockbuster so much today, I decided to do a swatch of "Blockbuster Blue".  Well, that's not the real name of the paint, but it is today.  I know the demise of the video store is, unfortunately, inevitable.  I know that they can't help it - too many people watching things online, or getting their movies through Netflix and the like, so they had to raise their rates to make up the money, forcing those of us who weren't using the other methods to stop using them due to budgetary restraints.  I've gotta say, though - I sure will miss the days of meandering through the aisles, just looking for that perfect movie for your mood!

15 November 2010

Yup, I'm still in my jammies...

After all of the running around and working our butts off for the last week or so, trying to get the house cleaned up for the upcoming holiday season, we woke up this morning, saw that the place looked awesome, and decided to just have a lazy day

It was pretty chilly out, and a bit grey off and on, so Jenny retreated to the kitchen to work on some baking for an upcoming job, and I went in to the front room, turned on the radio, and sat on the couch to read the book I've been trying to finish forever, so that I could finally return it to the library!  I read for a long time - probably longer today than I have in one day since high school or something!  Got the book finished, though!  I probably would have finished earlier, but every once in a while a "Tired" would hit me, my eyes would start going crossed, and I'd fall asleep for awhile, then wake up and read again.    Unfortunately, this "Tired" is still hanging around - I'm getting a little heavy-eyed sitting here writing this!

I've been trying to get poor Jenny to feel better, too - cooked up some of my famous grilled-cheese sammiches and some chicken noodle soup.  That seems to have helped some.  Always does.  I think they should serve that in hospitals, maybe there would be a lot fewer sick people in the world!

 My stroke this evening, a little swatch of Alizarin Crimson, is a little nod to the book I finished today - a little vampire book, and NO, it wasn't friggin' "Twilight"!  :-)

14 November 2010

What? You wanna talk about short...

My "Thanksgiving" thanks for today goes to all my friends, whether from church, or guys I've known here and there for 15 + years, or what.  I had a bunch of them over to watch the Rams (unfortunately) go down to the 49ers today, and it was just nice to have a house full o' dudes and chili and beer and that was about it.  That was about all that happened today, and I'm very grateful for it, so that's all I'm gonna write about. The only other thing I'll say is that my stroke of the day is very fishy.

13 November 2010

Isn't it cool in pink?

Holy Cow!  We got so spoiled the last few weeks with all of these unseasonable temperatures in the 70s!  Yeah, well, that came to a very abrupt end today!  Yesterday I was wearing short sleeves working outside on the leaves, and today, watching the morning news, Mr. TeeVee Weatherman said that it was 48° and that was as warm as it was gonna get - in fact it was going to steadily drop throughout the day.  Plus it was gonna be "blustery" - a word I've only really heard in the context of a certain Winnie The Pooh story.  Great.  I already miss my warm weather!

We took a break in the middle of our massive housecleaning campaign to go see Sweet Pea's final regular season soccer game.  It was colder than a well digger's ass!  That "blustery" wind just cut right through you!   She's lucky I love her and will do probably anything in the entire world for her, cuz I hate cold!  :-)

I really do enjoy spending time with her, although since she's getting older and busier, we get to spend less and less time together.  Same with the other nieces, although with my sister, Katie's, girls, the lack of quality time together is simply due to location - they're about 6 hours away. 

I'd love to be able to see them a lot more, though - they're such funny little girls!  Atala is just a little princess (just ask her, she'll tell you!), and Morgan, while displaying a few "princess-like qualities", I believe is going to be quite a s*** disturber (which makes for some really interesting and funny times). 

Atala is also displaying some artistic talent at this young age: this week at school part of her homework in learning about animals of Oklahoma was to draw a "burrowing owl".  This is what she drew:

Not too shabby, eh?  I love that they're all kinda leaning in toward the middle, like they're sharing a microphone and trying to do some Beach Boys harmonies or something! 

This evening, I did an "Electric" Pink, for all of my electric little ladies (I forgot to mention Erica's little girl, Savannah - I'm sure she'll be plenty electrified, too)!  I love all of my girls!  They're all growing up a little too fast, though - gotta enjoy being with them at this age before they grow up and find better ways to occupy their time than to spend it with Unca Doo!

12 November 2010

We've got some work to do now...

My love affair with the teevee started a lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-ong time ago (incidentally not in a galaxy far, far away).  I can remember when we lived in Virginia Beach, my bed time was really early, so I would occasionally be brave enough to try to sneak out of my room and look around the corner to watch the last few minutes of "The Incredible Hulk" (I have always loved the ending theme song, when Bruce Banner is walking down the road, hitch-hiking - just beautiful), or "Mork And Mindy", or whatever happened to be on that evening.  

When we moved to Missouri, for the first few months we lived with Grandma and Grandpa, and I remember that the television fare got a lot more "wholesome": "Little House On The Prairie", "The Waltons",  "Barbara Mandrell & The Mandrell Sisters" - Irlene (on the left) was one of my first crushes (and why wouldn't she be, in that outfit?) - even before Daisy Duke!

We finally got our own house across the road from G'ma and G'pa a few months later.  Mom got a job teaching down at Southwest High School (in Washburn, about 8 miles south of Cassville, and where I ultimately ended up graduating), so we got home from school quite a bit earlier than she did.  In that time, I got into the routine of watching some of the awesome (in my opinion) afternoon programming that was on then: "BJ and the Bear", "Lobo", and, of course, one of my all-time favorite (if not my all-time fave) "Scooby Doo".  They played the original "Scooby Doo, Where Are You" shows, as well as the "New Scooby Doo Movies" and "The Scooby Doo Show" - all of my favorites! 

Scooby Doo has stuck with me since then - it has really become a part of me!  I collect as many of the shows I can on DVD (by the way, I'm still looking to get "The Scooby Doo/Dynomutt Hour", if anyone happens to be in a giving mood!).  I've learned all sorts of trivia about the show (Casey Kasem, of American Top 40 fame, did the voice of "Shaggy".  The original theme song, as well as most of the early "montage songs" were written and performed by Austin Roberts, who had a minor hit in the 70s with a song called "Rocky".  I've actually seen Austin Roberts on a couple of internet forums, and thought about contacting him for an autograph - didn't know how he'd be, though).

I try to extol the virtues of Scooby to all of the young'uns that I can - I've been successful with Jenny's cousin, Sweet Pea - she loves Scooby and the Gang!  I just need to work harder on the rest of the girls - Katie's 2 girls, as well as Erica's little baby girl.  I've got a better chance with Savannah (Erica's daughter) since she's here in town.  I just think that all little kids should know the joys of "The Doo"!  I am, after all, "Unca Doo"! :-)

Anyway, I thought of all of this today because, as Jenny and I were driving along, I was looking at the fall leaves, and all of the colors, and, for some reason, I immediately started thinking about Scooby Doo - I think because of the Halloween episode, with the Headless Horseman.  I've always thought that the Ichabod Crane story was really interesting, probably because of that episode.  I decided that even though Halloween was a couple of weeks ago that I would go ahead and make an orange stroke this evening, just for ol' Ichabod's noggin.  Zoinks!

11 November 2010

Give me mashy taters, or give me death (or something like that)...

The Liberty BellWalking Liberty half-dollars.  "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance".  Liberty Sound.  Ah, yes, Liberty Sound!  I spent a good amount of time in there back in junior high and high school!  In the mid- to late-eighties, Ma was going to SMSU (it will always be "SMSU" to me, and not simply "MSU" - they'll have to pry that extra "S" outta my cold, dead hands!) to get her Masters in Guidance and Counseling.  She would drive up to Springfield (a little over an hour's drive) a couple of times a week in the evenings, after having worked a full day already!

Occasionally I got to go up there with her, and when I did, the first place I made a beeline for was Liberty Sound, a hip little record store across the street from campus.  I would spend hours in there, poring over the rows and rows of cassettes, just about memorizing every single album cover.  I lived for that place, because the only other place I could get music was either Wal-Mart, the Columbia House or BMG mail-order music clubs (12 cassettes for a penny? Hell, yeah!), or the once-in-a-blue-moon trip to a mall somewhere.  None of these places, however, were anywhere near as hip as Liberty.  I wouldn't find another place that was better until I moved up here and discovered Vintage Vinyl!

I remember one time in particular in which I spent my usual couple of hours in the store, and I found two tapes to buy: Van Halen's "OU812", and "Meat Bob" by comedian Bobcat Goldthwait, one of my favorite comedians to this day. 

I had my handy-dandy Sony Walkman with me, and I'd already heard most of the Van Halen stuff on the radio, or via someone else's copy, so I popped in Bobcat's cassette and started walking across the campus to the Bear's Den (the student union) to grab a soda and wait for Ma.  Just a helpful hint:  if you're still in high school, walking around a college campus, listening to a really funny album is not the best way to try to look cool.  I was just walking along, laughing like a hyena - everyone's just looking at me like I was a total weirdo.  Great. 

Anyway, I thought about all of this today because it is, as you probably know, Veteran's Day.  I used to never really think about Veteran's Day - at least not that much.  Kind of took it for granted.  In recent years, however, I've learned more about some of the things that my Grandpa and Uncle Mike had to endure in World War II and Vietnam, respectively.  Not to mention the many friends that I have now, from high school, college, and work, who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.  My hat really does go off to all of the men and women who fight and have fought in the past for our freedom, our liberty.  Kudos!  I dedicate today's red, white and blue stroke to you!

10 November 2010

You done with that stuff yet, mister?

I don't know which tribe is referenced in the term "Indian Summer", but I shore do like 'em!  It's November 10th, and the high today was about 75°!  I was out in short sleeves in mid-November!  Say what you will about this whole "global warming" thing, but can live with this!  I should probably be living in San Diego, really - I just kinda want it around 70° and 80° all year 'round.  Sure, I'd never have a White Christmas, but billions of people around the world don't have one, either.  :-)

I think today that I finally finished up pretty much everything on the "Outdoor Honey-Do List".  Hopefully things will stay all lookin' pretty and new for quite a while, so's I don't have to do it all again anytime soon!  At least it was all sunny and nice, though, so I could work without shivering!  Have I mentioned it's November? 

I did a quick little stroke of that awesome phthalo blue (for the sky today) with a little white (for the color of the caulk and paint I was using).  I'm hoping that every day from here on out is like it has been the last few, but I cheated and looked at the weather forecast, and it's just not to be.  Oh, well.  Off to go rock with the Dirt boys.  That always makes everything better!

09 November 2010

Tastes great - can't wait!

Okay, just a quick one today, so I can get ready for art class - we've been off for 3 weeks, and I'm super-stoked to get back to it!  I'm hopefully going to finish up one piece, and start on another - haven't decided exactly which piece I'm gonna do next, though.  It may be a landscape, it may be something completely abstract.  Dunno. 

I'm still pretty bummed about the camera situation.  I took it over to Creve Coeur Camera today to see if they could shed some light on the dilemma.  Of course, every single frakkin' time the dude took a pic, the flash worked absolutely perfectly!  I get it home and, again, the damned thing doesn't work.  Therefor we may have just half-lit pics for the time being.  If anyone out there feels like being one of Santa's little elves, maybe you could conjure up a hot shoe flash for a Sony DSC-F828, that'd be great! :-D

I did learn some stuff while I was talking to the dude at the camera store.  I learned that I'd like to have some close-up filters, a zoom lens, and some other toys, and I learned that I probably won't be buying them at Creve Coeur Camera.  Dude quoted me about $200 for a flash.  Found 10 on ebay for $50.  Same with the lenses and filters.  Whatever.  At least I know kinda what to look for now. 

Anyway, I'm just sitting here, sipping on some cherry Kool-Aid, having just finished 2 awesome grilled cheese sammiches (thanks, Jenny!).  I think I'll do a cherry red stroke.  Yes.  Yes, I will.  See ya tomorrow!

08 November 2010

On the first day of Thanksgiving, my turkey gave to meeeee...

Well, on the ol' Facebook, there are a bunch of people making the whole month of November into a big "Thanksgiving" by posting something they're thankful for everyday.  I thought I might take a hint from them and at least do a few days of thanks, since I also have so much to be thankful for, despite the fact that the wife and I are both without gainful employment. 

Just on that subject, I think we're both thankful for that unemployment to a certain extent - it got us out of jobs that neither of us cared for, sometimes even going as far as to literally have to drag ourselves to said jobs, we hated them so much!  The time off has given both of us a chance to explore other options of making a living doing something we want to do for once, as opposed to slogging to work, clocking in, and just doing something that will pay the bills, but we'll be miserable doing.  Hopefully things will work out so that we can both work for ourselves, and make a decent living doing it!  That would be my American dream. 

The one thing I am definitely thankful for, especially during this time, is that Jenny and I get along probably at least 95% of the time - not that we're having knock-down-drag-outs the other 5% of the time, mind you!  We knew each other for a really long time (about a decade) before we ever even got serious enough to start thinking about marriage.  Some of the best marriage advice I ever got was "Don't marry the one you can't live without - marry the one you can live with".   We definitely took that to heart, as we did "Never go to bed angry".  Those, I believe, are the foundations of a good marriage (besides the whole "love" thing, of course!) :-)

So, I am very thankful for my lovely Jennydoll - wouldn't trade her for all the Oreos in the whole world!  I decided to do a stroke of one of her favorite colors today, just for her, so here's some of that nice Brilliant Purple she loves so much. 

By the way, I'm trying to take pictures of it, but as I said last night, I think this camera's shooting craps (which I am far from thankful for, lemme tell ya!).  If you don't see a pic right now, that's what's going on.  I'll get a pic as soon as possible. 

07 November 2010

Meh. (or "How I learned to stop thinking about aging - or at least put off thinking about it)

Today Peter Brady turned 53.  That's right.  The middle son on "The Brady Bunch" is just a couple of years away from getting the senior-priced tickets at any AMC theater.  That ain't right.  And in a few weeks it'll be the little one, Bobby's, birthday, and he'll be 50!  What tha?!?  I gotta say, I'm not really too keen on this whole "getting old" thing.  I'm not ready for my favorite TV and movie stars to start hawking stuff in AARP!

It also would have been Dana Plato's 46th birthday, had she not gone down that path she chose.  I still can't believe that 2 of those "kids" are dead!  Now I'm so depressed I think I'll just do a quick stroke out of a random color (which happened to be dioxazine purple) and call it a night.  :-)

My camera's acting wonky, too - hopefully I can get it fixed soon!  C'mon, Mr. Camera, there are just a mere 66 days left!  You can do it! .  


I think I'll go have a Jennydoll chocolate-chip cookie or so - that makes everything all better! :-)

06 November 2010

It's starting already...Part Deux...

So we did some running around today (when, granted, we shoulda been picking up the leaves, but hey, whaddya gonna do?).  We went on over to Parkway South High School, because they have this big ol' sale every year on Nike athletic clothing to see if there were any good deals we could take advantage of for possible Christmas presents.  There were lots and lots of Mizzou things, Cardinals, Blues, and Rams stuff, as well as clothing for a bunch of college teams: Arizona State, Penn State, Connecticut, Texas (boo!) and, of course, my beloved Oklahoma

They really didn't have much of a selection of any of the stuff by the time we got there, though - it was definitely well picked over.  We should've gone yesterday!  They still have one more day to go with the sale, too - maybe they'll get some more stuff in.  Dunno. 

Anyway, after we left that friggin' mess, we decided to go up to Old St. Charles to see if we could find a couple of Christmas tree ornaments - we always get certain things for a couple of family members, and since they don't usually run that much, we figured we might be able to scrape up some jack if we happened to find something.  Man, was Main Street hopping!  Yeah, yeah, I know: it's a sunny, somewhat warm day in November, the start of the big Christmas season, especially in Old St. Charles, but I didn't expect it to be that bad!  We didn't stay all that long there - not a big fan of the crowds up there.  The old shops are too small to begin with, without having all those people trying to shove their outdated-sweater-and-hairdo-wearin' butts in there, too!

We spent the rest of the afternoon down at a big Southern Fried Chicken Dinner and just general Fun Fall Festival at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in South St. Louis (at Arsenal and Oregon).  It was the most fun-filled carnival atmosphere I've ever seen in a church dinner!  We walked in, and it sounded like Ernie Hays on the organ - in fact he was even playing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame"!  As if that wasn't enough, who was up by the stage dancing around?  Fred Bird, thats' who!  I got to give him a high five - made me feel like I was 5 years old again!  Woo Hoo!

Anyway, for the second day in a row, Christmas seemed to be everywhere, already - in fact, on the way home, we saw a house down on Watson, which already had all of their Christmas lights, including light-up reindeer, all up and shinin' bright!  Therefore, tonight's stroke is also Christmas related - a crimson, for old King Wenceslas himself. 

05 November 2010

Peter? Is that you? Already?

It starts earlier and earlier every year.  The first one I heard this year was just after midnight on November 2nd.  I heard reports of one two weeks prior down in Houston!  Christmas commercials.   They never seem to top the old ones, though (this one will always be my favorite). 

I really love this time of year, though, even if it does seem like the season is longer and longer every year!  I know it's just plain ridiculous that the morning after Halloween, as we walked through Target, they already had all of the jack-o-lanterns, costumes, and candy put away, and the trees, tinsel, ornaments, and everything else were already up.  The day after Halloween.  55 days before Christmas.  I believe I heard that in some stores there were "Black Friday"-type sales, usually reserved for the day after Thanksgiving, on November 1.  I think that at the rate they're going, even kids are gonna be sick of the holidays! 

Jenny's kind of getting into the whole frame of mind, too - she already wants to drag everything out and set it up.  Of course, that's mostly because she just doesn't want to mess with it later - she just wants to get it done and outta the way!  What we definitely agree on is that we're ready (and have been for a while) for the Christmas music!

04 November 2010

Remember those cool flip books you'd make as a kid?

We just got through watching the film "9".  Not "Nine", mind you, "9", the Tim Burton film.  I am just so amazed at what they can do with animation now; they've come so far since "Steamboat Willie"!  In "UP!", you can literally see the individual blades of grass moving in the wind - it all looks so real

I remember back in the mid 90s when "Toy Story" came out, and that just seemed to turn the whole world of animation on it's head - wow! the things you could do with computers!  And it didn't take 500 cels of animation to do one little move; you just had to know how to program a computer, which was a whole other can of worms, but whaddya gonna do?

I've always been a huge fan of animation, going back, of course, to my childhood and "Scooby Doo,Where Are You?" which was, and always will be my most favoritest show of all time.  Yes, even better than "Cop Rock".  :-) 

In the past decade or so, there's been quite a resurgence of animated movies and television shows for adults, rather than kids.  The kids have always had the Saturday morning thing going for them, so people like me needed some prime time stuff to entertain us!  There was, of course, "The Simpsons", which was drawn the traditional way, as were other programs, such as "King Of The Hill", and "Family Guy".  You also had other styles of animation, such as the cutout animation used for "South Park", and even claymation, made famous with shows like "Davey and Goliath", and also used in the "California Raisins" commercials in the late 80s, "Celebrity Deathmatch" on MTV in the late 90s, and in another show on Cartoon Network's late night "Adult Swim" broadcast, called "Robot Chicken" (which produced a really hilarious version of "Star Wars"). 

I really love all of this, of course, but don't get to watch as much as I'd like, because I also feel the need to have a life.  I will, however, leave you with one last link: this is just a computer-animated short film I stumbled across about a year ago.  This is one of the simplest, yet gut-wrenching-ly poignant things I've ever seen.  It's just so sad, but you're also happy at the same time.  It's also the inspiration for my light yellow stroke today.  I give you: KIWI!

03 November 2010

Looks like a little Buddha belly...

All I've got to say is that I married into one helluva cookin' family!  Obviously you've heard me rant and rave about my beautiful wife's cookies, cakes, cupcakes, etc., as well as all the awesome regular food she makes (as evidenced, in case you've forgotten, by her blog).  Her dad can whip up one mean pot roast, or t-bone (or an endless list of other things, depending on the occasion), her mom's got that awesome down-home cooking thing going on, and her brother, Jimmy, well let's just say that boy should have his own restaurant!  No question about it - the man's got some major talent!

As I'm typing this, I'm currently enjoying scarfing down a bowl of chili Jimmy made.  His chili just plain rocks.  This is his first batch of the season, and man, is it good!  You never know what you're gonna get with his chili, because he makes it a little different every time - just kinda throws in a little bit of whatever spices he's got laying around.  I honestly don't think I've ever had a bowl of his chili that I haven't liked - this one, I can say is right up there with his best, too!

 And, of course, I'm topping the whole meal off with a couple of Jenny's [should be] world-famous chocolate chip cookies (which is what inspired my light and dark brown stroke tonight - looks a little bit like when they first come out of the oven!).  It really is a wonder I'm not 300 pounds.  This family really takes care of my belly!

02 November 2010

Caroline, No!

So, did you vote today?  I won't harp on it much, because I told myself when I started this blog that I wouldn't get into any politics or anything controversial like that.  I will, however, show you this video from a few years ago, that, while obviously out-dated, is still really friggin' funny!

BUT, enough of that crap.  All's I know is that I voted, and that's all I can do, aside from persuading other people to do the same.  We may have our differences, and that's okay, because it has nothing to do either way with this particular blog!  We're here to have fun, kids!  :-)

Today, whilst going about doing the home improvements, which consisted of caulking the outside windows, I decided (inspired by a comment from my friend Rene Spencer Saller) to listen to "Pet Sounds" by The Beach Boys.  I tell you what, if you are not familiar with this album, please, do yourself a favor and listen to it!  Go out right now, no matter if you're in your jammies or not, and get it!  You will not be disappointed!

Just about the only thing most people know about this album is "Wouldn't It Be Nice", which is just such a beautiful, emotion-filled song - as is the rest of the album, really!  In fact, Sir Paul McCartney himself called "God Only Knows" the best pop love song ever!  It really is a truly beautiful song, as is the rest of the album!  Every song just oozes emotion  - just takes you back to when you were that age (whether it was in 1966 or 2006)!  You can immediately imagine what they were feeling, not only in the lyrics, which were brilliant, but especially (to me, at least) in the music!  You really believe Brian Wilson when, on "You Still Believe In Me", he sings,"I wanna cry" (honestly one of the most poignant moments in all of pop rock), and you can literally hear the heartbeat in the bass line of "Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)".



The instrumental, "Let's Go Away For Awhile" is as stunning a piece as there ever was - I can literally feel myself going to some tropical locale when I listen to this!  Maybe it's simply a massive amount of wishful thinking, but, by damn, the Beach Boys sure help the imagination!


My favorite tune on the whole album, though, is "I'm Waiting For The Day" (and here's a bit of background from the recording of this song, which could actually be my favorite song of all time!)  It's just packed with so much teenage naivete and innocence - I get chills, and maybe a little misty every time I hear this song - and this album, really (with the exception of "Sloop John B").  The whole thing is just really that beautiful! 


It's this album, and only this album, that could possibly sway my vote away from The Beatles as far as "Best Pop Band Ever" goes.  This album was a direct response to "Rubber Soul" by the aforementioned Beatles, who then responded with "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", in what could be seen as the best, and most productive, rivalry in all of pop music, as it really brought out the best in both bands, and gave us, the listening public, some of the best music ever made (yes, even the Ringo songs)!

So, since I've been on this big Beach Boys kick today, I thought I'd do a little bit of bright aqua green (and a little white), to go with the whole "surfing" motif.  And now I'm off, to have fun, fun, fun, 'til I have to take my happy ass to bed!







01 November 2010

Brush-a, Brush-a, Brush--ah!

We didn't do crap today, and we loved it!  Jenny had to get up this morning for a car appointment, but after that, we just decided that we'd done enough the last week, and we needed a day of rest.  We fixed a little lunch, and I grabbed the book I've been reading, "Let The Right One In", and settled down in my easy chair in the back room to read.  I woke up about an your later to find Jenny sitting in the back room also, doing some research on the computer.  :-)

I had heard about the movie, "Let The Right One In" several months ago, when I went through my big horror movie kick, and wanted to know what the scariest movies out there were.  This was the original, Swedish film, and I had never heard of it at the time. Gotta love the internet!  I rented it and watched it with the English dubbing - which I know you shouldn't do; it's usually preferable to read the subtitles - but I had heard that some of the US version's subtitles were translated poorly, and I wanted to get the most out of the film.  This book, however, is just fantastic!  There are a few portions of the book that are hard to read (content-wise, nothing to do with the language), but all in all, I'm really enjoying this book!  It's pretty hard to put down, unless you just simply fall asleep, like I did today! :-)

We got so comfy that we almost forgot about our bi-annual dentist appointments!  We both passed with flying colors, for those of you keeping score.  Our dentist is so cool - she's just really fun to be around, and really, the whole office takes an interest in what's going on in our lives (good or bad!)

I made a little bitty white stroke today, because while we both got good marks on our "dentist report card", we just barely got by - I know I didn't do a very good job flossing!  I'm just lazy that way!  I brush the tar outta them, though!  One of these days, I'm just gonna get a laser and clean my teeth myself! :-)