I have absolutely nothing of value to say...

...but i HAD to say SOMETHING.

If you find yourself reading this, well then I hope you have a day filled with unriveled joy, creativity, pleasure, and peace of mind.

Awww... this is such a nice post, isn't it?

I love garlic!

Again I am reminded of how closely intertwined we humans are after reading Jane Doughnut's latest mantra pertaining to the inexplicably lost innards of a once-internally-occupied round cake-like object typically elevated to it's most perfect state of golden-brown delectableness by being dropped in a vat full of searing-hot rendered animal fat.

For Real?

I learned about this over in Art News Blog... Somebody is saying they are going to put a giant banana in space over Texas. I would really like to see this come to fruition.

Giant Banana Project

Rutabagas

Somehow, accusations that my sister was a rutagaga (in her blog) reminded me of this time...

I LOVE RUTABAGAS! Have you ever had FRESH rutagabas? The ones you get at the grocery store are usually coated in wax and have been sitting around in a warehouse since the beginning of time.

But FRESH RUTABAGAS are yummy. Dice and cook them puppies up with butter and parsley and perhaps a wee bit of garlic and you have yourself a real treat.

Years and years and years ago there was this old man who lived by himself. He had an ENORMOUS garden, the likes of which you have never seen. He told me that at a younger time his wife had been in an accident that left her completely paralyzed. He loved her so that rather than let her go he cared for her himself. He spent over 20 years turning her, cleaning her, feeding her, brushing her hair, reading to her...with no response from her as she could not. He lived all those years on one tiny thread of just knowing he loved her and knowing she loved him back. In his words, he knew she was happy as that is why she kept living all those years.

Then she finally died.

He began to keep a garden. Only a really large garden would do. He decided that he HAD to do something with the surplus veggies and so he started to allow curious people to bring a large paper grocery sack and for $10 he would let you fill the sack with as much as you could.

I always got a LOT of rutabagas.

They were so good.

Random thought #145,300,987,632,275

I have been consistently labeled indecisive and noncommittal most of my life. In my own defense, generally speaking, this is due largely to the fact that the only "black and white" in my world is my own conscience...the rest of life seems so relative. Even the two most certain concepts: gravity and death... gravity changes depending on your location in the universe and no human on the face of the earth really knows "death" beyond the absence of being able to interact with that person's existance on earth.

A Crow Left of the Murder

I'm starting to get a great big complex. I've made the run to downtown Houston three times now answering the call to duty and all three times I have been turned away with all my hopes of giving back to my community dashed. I have tried different attire (from office-casual to polished corporate monkey) AND verily conveyed different attitudes: the concerned/interested citizen, apathetic attendee, and the slightly-annoyed and certainly-inconvenienced busy person.

No takers.

What the hell is it about me that doesn't meet the demographic requirement for being on a jury????

When it comes to the little town I live in, I don't think they EVER have an actual case come to trial as without fail our really cool Harley Davidson-riding judge (who's name I can't remember) ALWAYS lets us go with some witty bit about not telling our bosses and just having the rest of the day off from work.

On another note...A local musician who is a DELIGHT to see and hear playing, Marc Twyman DBA Marc Twyman's One Man Electric Blues Band made the Houston Chronicle today. The Chronicle's website has podcasted his interview.

I love Marc's description of his band:

Members:
• Marc Twyman's Left Toe -- bass
• Marc Twyman -- guitar
• Marc Twyman's Right Foot -- bass drum and snare drum
• Marc Twyman -- vocals and harmonica
• Marc Twyman -- equipment manager
• Marc Twyman -- booking agent

Web site: www.marctwyman.freeservers.com

Go see the write-up and click on the podcast link to hear the interview. The Chronicle did a great job of mixing his music with the dialog.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOOTIE!

Happy birthday to my gorgeous, talented, loving (yet oh-so-tough) youngest daughter on this 22nd anniversary of the wonderous day I first held you in my arms.

*sigh*

Second Life Parrot (sorta)

This is supposed to be a likeness of our Dutch. :)

Virtually Arting

Today I had no obligations other than to myself. So I spent a big chunk of the day working on my little art gallery.

Forgot to mention the 'Dillo's adventures...

Here he is sitting on the fire hydrant preparing to sneak and open it up for some rip roarin' water fun on the corner of 4th and Congress Ave in downtown Austin.

Just fer me Pop

Chockfull o' Nuts Jingles

Couldn't find an audio of the Rheingold one... but the story behind the beer company is an interesting one.

People wonder why my generation is so weird?

I STILL hum these jingles!

Here is a GREAT compilation of audio files of the damn jingles that haunt me to this day: Jingles

And now for something completely different...

Knock Out Night in Austin

The first night after getting off work and upon returning to the Hilton my boss and I had to wait for the valet to bring us our truck to load up some unneeded supplies. While we stood in the lobby all around us were men (ages mid-thirties to late 50s) in tuxedos and black ties loitering about and leering at scads of young (approximately 19yrs-25yrs old) women who were piling out of vehicles and dashing inside the Hilton. The women were all dressed to the nines in black micro-dresses and heels.

I asked one of the men who were standing and watching the young women as they stepped out of their vehicles, what the event was, he laughed and said it was Knock Out Night and that they were raffling off the women. His group thought it was terribly funny and offered up no further explaination as they continued to chuckle at their inside joke. His demeanor and the men standing around him had the air of leering old men functioning with dog-pack mentality. Later of course, curiosity got the best of me and I had to ask the fellow who delivered our room service what Knock Out Night was all about.

In his words, Knock Out Night was an annual black-tie event held by a bunch of old rich guys who pay to have a private fight held at the hotel and rent young beautiful women to sit at their tables with them. He went on to say that a LOT of money was involved in the event.

I don't want to sound like a crazy feminist, as I'm all about having a good time every now and then, but the men I watched while they watched the young women, absolutely gave me the creeps. A large chunk of those men had to be married, and had to have grand-daughters the age of the girls I saw in attendance.

The next morning I bumped into more than one dazed and hungover young woman in the lobby of the hotel... again I wondered who's grand-daughters they were. Outside it was cold, grey, gusty, and raining. On the way to the convention center for work I stumbled across a few abandoned black stilettos, hair barrettes, lipstick tubes, pantyhose, and other feminine accessories that had been abandoned in the gutter along the curb - there had to be a great art assemblage to be made of the discarded stuff.

Will Work for Tequila

Been getting caught up on all the contacts I made during the convention last week...It is pouring down rain here right now so I guess we have a cold front coming through... I forgot to wear panties this morning so I hope that I don't get a leg mangled in a car accident on the way home from work this evening which would require the abulance person to have to cut away my jeans only to get a big Britney Spears pubic surprise.

What?!!

It could happen.

Trainwrecks...

...become pinnacles of mockery or heroism, meanwhile those who manage to merely trudge are heroes mocked only to themselves.

March of Dimes

My friend Lisa is walking in the March of Dimes "Walk America" and needing some happy sponsorship... March of Dimes has made it really easy to do this through the internet (instead of having to carry around all those silly forms like I used to have to do.) SO, if you are feeling like you need to share some lovin, please go visit her sponsorship page here:
Lisa's Walk America Page

My Official stuffff

Well I have decided that I am done trying to "sell myself" as a an artist... no more public approval needed...no more shows, no more marketing. This doesn't mean that I am going to stop doing my website, because well, artonthewing is a part of me that will never go away. This also doesn't mean that I will stop doing art. If a juried show comes up and I happen to have something to submit, I might, but I am not actively going after sales anymore... I'm done hemorrhaging money on this folly of mine.

what the heck?!

meh.

summary

bank of america SUCKS...you can't do enough for others without somehow managing to fuck up their expectations... I don't do enough for the people i love...nothing is certain other than death and taxes...and "almost" never matters unless you are talking about horseshoes and hand-grenades.

that being said... i'm off to explore my nether regions with the hope that I make it out alive.

Good Googely Moogely

Chelsea came over last night and we hung out. had some studying to do for school so she brought all her books and stuff over. It seems Hoot was recovering from a nasty bought of insomnia the night before and there was no waking her up last night for a visit. Chels and I ordered room service and we ate till we felt like we would pop.

I'm showered, shampooed, shaved, and ready to head off into the day...woo hooo! SOMEBODY STOP ME I'm gonna sell a butt-load of software today... I CAN FEEL IT ALREADY!

*sigh*

High in the Hilton Austin

I yam! Just got here about half an hour ago and all checked in. I have the key to the mini-bar and that makes me good to go! As soon as the boss gives us a holler we will head over to the convention center to do something (not sure what) to help get things ready in the booth for tomorrow. This is my 10th consecutive year working at this convention, it is a really big show and I usually wind up catching up with reps who I haven't seen since last year. The best part of coming here is getting to see Chels and Hoot.

Inspiration comes in many forms...

Hoot posted this video clip in her journal and I HAVE to pass it along. I can only begin to imagine what challenges these two young ladies have faced day-to-day and they seem to have done it with such grace.

Abby and Brittany Hensel

Watching the video clip floods me with thoughts and feelings that I can not begin to fully organize into written words, so you will just have to go see for yourself.

The house is quiet

The cages clean, critters fed, truck unloaded, groceries gotten, news watched, night is dark, air is cool, silly old dawg is here next to me. Only thing left to do is wash the dishes and perhaps throw a load of clothes into the washer.

Speaking of old dawg, seems everyone is having dawg troubles! Last week I rushed our silly old dawg (12-year old Labrador Retriever) to the vet. He had been acting unusually restless for a couple days, then woke up one morning to watch him amble around and bump into cabinets as if he didn't see them. Took him out for his morning constitution and "the constitution part" was barely what a ferret might muster... we thought he might be blocked up. The vet thinks he has Cushings Disease, we have a follow up appointment this Tuesday, the same day I leave for Austin to work at a School technology conference. The vet assures us that this disease (common to old dawgs) is treatable and our old dawg will be fit as a fair fiddle in no time.
The strange part about all this is that the symptoms he had that concerned us weren't really addressed in the diagnosis. Ah well, we shall see Tuesday what the outcome is.

I am really glad that I remembered to have my suits dry cleaned last week as usually I am in a rush the day before I go out of town, scrambling to the store for the Dryell home dry-cleaning kit and it sure isn't as nice as having fresh-pressed attire from the cleaners.

Veering off on yet another tangent, I was "tagged" today by Stefanie Sigurdson of Ch.aoti.ca to list five reasons why I blog. The reasons have changed since I started doing this three years ago, but here's my five today:

1. It is a great way to keep in touch with family and friends at times when we most likely would never do so otherwise.
   
2. I hope that someone will discover my somewhat odd yet intriguing brilliance, HA!
   
3. A need to share my art in the context of what is happening in my head.
   
4. I like to meet people who can get past all my blather here and still feel the urge to interact with me.
   
5. The pure desire to write something for the sake of just writing something.
   

Now I am supposed to tag someone else, however, I am not sure about who I know that would do this...so if you read this and you are inclined, I am tagging you! Jamie, Cheryl, Mom, Dad, Lori, Suzanne, Carolyn, Michelle, Mitch, Marc, Mike, Jeff... No pressure of course, but if it strikes yer fancy to elaborate...

Good night ya'll!