What a Saturday!

J.D. and I had a lot of things going on today! Had to drop my car off at the dealer for maintenance. Come home and clean the crap out of our place so our dinner company don't think we live in a heap of dust bunnies... (by the way, I found a third cat we didn't know we had while sweeping the house. yikes.) The car got done in the mid afternoon, so J.D. and I started finishing up around the house, and headed back to the dealership. All went well, and was following J.D. back. We came up on this intersection and noticed a car pulling towards the middle to make a left hand turn. J.D. was a good ways in front of my car, and since we had the green light, we kept going at the same speed, which was around 35-45mph. The car had slowed down, as if to wait, but then proceeded to drive and practically stopped (I'm thinking in fear,) right in our lane, which was the far right lane of two lanes. J.D. laid on the horn, swerved to the left to try and avoid them, but than I heard a crunch sound, at which point, I screamed, and laid on my breaks. I couldn't believe what just happened. I looked at J.D. to see if he was alright; he was already getting out of his car, looked quickly at his front driver side bumper where the turn signal light had popped out, and quickly walked over to the other car and asked if they were alright. They were an older couple. A man who was in the passenger seat, seemed to be shaken up. His door was pretty well damaged, and had a hard time opening it. J.D. helped him get out. After which he walked over to the passenger side of his car to inspect the damage. Not even a minute after the incident, a cop had stopped, and than another... and than 5 others. Apparently they were on their way to the station for a shift change, (stations two seconds down the road.) when they came upon us. The whole exchange of information lasted about 30-45 minutes. The whole time, the lady at fault never once asked my husband if he was ok, or apologized. Which seemed kind of wierd. This is what his car looks like...

Illustration Friday: Sacrifice

I don't normally do patriotic drawings, but this was one of the first things that came to mind when I thought of sacrifice. All the men and women sacrificing their lives for our freedom.

This is super messy, and definitely has more potential of being so much better as far as detail and accuracy goes. But ya'll get the idea! *wink

Here's the original sketch.
Thanks for looking!

Illustration Friday: Sticky and Skyline

I missed last weeks deadline, but had a great sketch, so though I'd incorporate it into this weeks theme.
Last week in Starbucks, I had a sticky situation where a napkin had fallen on this floor, and I had unknowingly stepped on it. Well luckily I noticed this before stepping out into public. I stepped on a piece to try and discreetly unstick it from my shoe with the other one, but it was now stuck to the right shoe. So I repeated the procedure by stepping on the napkin with my other shoe... and it happened again. I felt like I was going to have to do a song and dance, because I could only imagined what I looked like trying to get this thing off my shoe. Finally, I grabbed a clean napkin from the dispensor, and peeled the sticky napkin from both shoes, and threw it away. Looked around quickly and escaped as quickly as I could back to the office. *whimper

Sea Monkies: Week Three & Four

It's amazing how much they grow. And they're still growing. A few have feathery fangs that they use to grab hold of other seamonkies. Either to fight or to give big hugs! They're fascinating to watch, when I've stared at the computer monitor long enough. They've created little dust bunnies everywhere after fluffing through all their mess for food.

Here's a monkey from week three;



And week four;

Illustration Friday: Rain

What a perfect topic of the week. The past weekend through the beginning of the week, we have had nothing but rain and thunderstorms... crazy thunderstorms... So I have two different posts for the amount of rainy days I had this week!

(1) After seeing larger than life rain drops from the 17th floor of my building. I wanted to go on a break so bad at the time, I said that we could make it safe and dry just be dodging them, since they were so big. That was a no-go... (sorry for the graph lines.)


(2) Waiting out the rain, and what better place to seek shelter than under a mushroom!

Illustration Friday: Dance

Stick figuring to the extreme! Wasn't planning on choosing this one, but because I was so desperate to make it on time this week for illustration friday, she came to life! I'm hoping, at a later date to make this more of a watercolor, since the colored pencil I used were watercolor one's! I'll make sure to post it if I do! Yay! I made it before friday!

I did a second figure, which was initially my first choice because of the strong poise, and not-all-there head. I hope I can create a neat story from this one soon! Here's a sketch of a sketch!

Sea Monkies: Week Two

They're growing super fast. You can see their multiple fins, and little tiny black eyeballs on some. So cute... I'm not sure how this little city is going to hold 75+ Sea Monkies, especially if they start reproducing in a few weeks... craziness...

You can kind of see them in the tank, although my camera couldn't focus in on them yet. ggrrr.

Illustration Friday: Jungle

"You're a jungle theme!"- Night at the Roxbury - This was the only phrase that went through my head each time I thought about this week's theme... I didn't have time but to sketch out a lame rendition of the world 'Jungle.'

Illustration Friday: Portrait

Another rough sketch of no one in particular.

Illustration Friday: Devils n' Angels

A little late, but wanted to post this up anyway.
Shows how some want to be percieved as perfect angels, but deep inside the rot, the devil lies.

Anguish Languish

Painfully uncomprehensible to read the first, even the second time. You're reading random words that make no sense being next to each other, not only making your eyes swell, but you can feel your brain become mush... and that's when it clicks!
For mind boggling, head splitting fun, sit back, relax, and read a few stories by Howard L. Chace. You can read my comment on how I finally made sense of it all!

Sea-Monkey In the City!

Today, at 2:22pm, I birthed roughly 75 little sea-monkey hatchlings!!! I just poured in the contents of the packet, and voila!!! Instant sea-monkeys! Actually, not that exciting yet... bunch of white stuff and black things that look like pepper flakes are kind of floating around the water, making it look a little cloudy. Which is normal, according to the instruction booklet. I suppose it teaches patience, and good things come to those who wait! Come on *tap*tap*tap... grow sea-monkies... GROW!
I think they'll like their world! It has tall shiney buildings, an intersection, a park, a fire hydrant, and cars! I thought it would be appropriate to have in my cube, since I do work in a semi-city.



3:32pm: I saw one little white speck floating around! He looked like he was having muscle spasms!! So cute! I see a bunch of them hatching (they double up and start to float!) Here's a photo of the one sea monkey speck... can you see him?!!!

mah Turtle done poo

A friend took a pic from his camera phone.. it's a little blurry, but I had to post it anyway.
I noticed the note when I first walked in my cube, and was confused for awhile, since I didn't know what boo-boo the turtle couldn't have done... well later on in the day, a colleague walks in, and in the middle of our conversation, I notice what the boo-boo was, and just could not control myself from laughing. It's still up on my file cabinet!

Illustration Friday: Cake

Wedding Cake Monkeys

Our wedding cake topper was a little unique, although the idea isn't new. J.D. and I nicknamed each other 'Monkey' which sounds wierd when we call each other from across the grocery store! I decided to use that in part of the wedding details, and created this monkey sculpture of 'us' for the top of our wedding cake. We'll be married four years in July! Yay, we made it!

I had to add a little decor around them, to make it feel more festive. I liked how it turned out!

Cheers!

Not So Good

Bad news came last night around 9:30pm that J.D.'s Grandmother wasn't doing very well, and the Dr.'s didn't know if she was going to make it through the night. J.D. and I decided that it would be a good idea to drive down to see her. We did good on the drive down, only an hour and 45 minutes. We arrived there around 11:45pm.
J.D. and I walked into the room where she was staying. We were silent at first, taking in the sights, and sounds. There were cards and photos along the window sill, that were very heartwarming. The monitors were bleeping, something was creating steam behind her, and she lay there frail looking, and bandaged, yet was peacefully snoring away. Uncle Joe came up after saying goodnight to Roxanne, to give us an update on Grandma's condition, and a brief history.

It sounds like the coronary arteries in her legs had hardened over the years from 25 years of smoking. Although she had quit some time ago, the side-effects still lingered. Now, her poor 88 year-old heart isn't strong enough to pump blood down and through her legs. This is due to blockages, which is also causing these extremely painful sores on her legs, and making her feet purple. Her blood pressure is high, and is being constantly monitored. It sounds like the hospital is doing everything they can to make her as comfortable as possible, all the while doing their routine checks, and tests.

She was asleep for most of our visit, so we couldn't talk with her. Leave it to me to try and give her a soft kiss goodbye on the forehead, only to have my hair fall directly on her eyelid, causing her to wake up in confusion for a few minutes. She was unable to see or hear us, since she didn't have her glasses or her hearing aids. Which I can imagine was more stressful on her than it was for us. We all fear that she's not going to make it through this. I hope she's at peace with herself, and that she doesn't have a doubt that we all love her dearly.

We got back in town this morning around 2:30am and tried to get enough sleep in before getting up at 5:30am. J.D. and I are going to try and drive back down this afternoon, if all's well, so we can see her again, hopefully this time we can see her awake.

It's about 7:30am now, and still haven't heard anything, so no news is good news!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

J.D. and I hosted Mother's Day Brunch at our home this year, and although we passed out after the last guest left, we really had a good time, (at least from my perspective.) Sometimes our family gatherings can be a wee bit hectic.

The menu consisted of Eggs Benedict *yummy, just right asparagus, the most requested potato salad, succulent shrimp, and the sweetest reddest strawberries. The most colorfully paletted menu I've had yet!

Our niece and nephew seemed to have a great time running around outside, and la piece de resistance... watching Scooby-Doo in the 'theatre!' We turned the popcorn machine on, and watched thier faces and their eyes glazed over watching the popcorn pop out of the kettle! So much fun!

I was especially excited to have my brother and his fiance over, since this was the first time they've been to our new home... it's only been a year! It's funny, but him and my Dad are perfectionist when it comes to, well anything... but they immediantely started critiquing, and pointing out flaws, and asked at one point if he's ever considerred being a professional home inspector, because he'd be great at it... just not at my house!! I don't take it to heart, because I know that's their thing, and I know the flaws that are there, we just haven't gotten around to taking care of it yet.. so just pretend it looks good.. smile... nod... anything positive... show me some love, for goodness sakes... ok.. I'm done venting... I didn't let it ruin my day, even though this vent session kind of goes on like that!

Overall it was a fun, meaningful day, that I hope everyone enjoyed to some extent.

Ronda's Graduation

Saturday, May 13th. A friend that I went to grade school with at TASOK, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly known as Kinshasa, Zaire, graduated from the University of Maryland University College, UMUC, with a Masters in Public Relations. Between that time and now, we had kept in touch here and there, but we're living and working so close now, it makes it easier to keep in touch. I'm so proud of her and her accomplishments! I also saw her younger sister, Lynette, who was in the same grade as my brother, she has grown to be a beautiful woman. It's funny though, that the interaction between Lynette and Ronda hasn't changed a bit over time. I was so pleased and excited to see her Mom and Dad again, who didn't recognize me at all, I think they were expecting a smaller version of me! ! It was so much fun meeting her friends, and seeing her family.

Random Poem Generator

Mendel Quoth:
The pink peaches were rotten with delight
it sounds like a crowd but nothing seems magic
how deathly afraid was I of the nightlight
my circuits are overloaded, but I'll try to do better next time


I fed it the first line and it generated the next three, randomly. I wonder how it knew I was deathly afraid of nightlights... peculiar? no?!
Check it out!

Illustration Friday: Under the Sea

Illustration Friday: Under the Sea

Tommy tries to escape the surrounding desert on the weekends. Because of the heat and his love for the sea, he likes to pretend he's the king of the sea ... i've temporarily forgot his name.. der.