Blibber Blabber

No rhyme, no reason

 

OD is now in Tokyo- or outside it- and done with her second day there.  I have to think about it before I write it, since she's fourteen hours ahead of us.  I surprised myself by tearing up at the airport when we said goodbye.  But she sounds happy, and excited, and says everyone's been very friendly.

We went to the World of Coca-Cola and enjoyed it.  I didn't use my flash, and am so happy that all but two of my pictures turned out.  Yay, little camera!  I wish we could say we enjoyed Atlanta, but we didn't, not really.  And didn't like the hotel, either.  For that price, fix the damn air conditioning.  We were sweating in there.  We ended up checking out early, but then Mr. Calm got a bad headache, my mittelschmertz pain flared up again, and we stayed the night in a cute little motel somewhere else in Georgia.

We visited Bell Buckle for a little while on the way home- home of the RC Cola and Moon Pie festival.  Like RC, don't like Moon Pies much.  It's really a two-street town.  Loved the first antiques store we visited.  They had a store-length old apocethary cabinet.  A real beauty.

And now we're home, and I have to do more artwork (and get old artwork down), and I get a check today (whoo!), and the cats, especially put-upon Ollie, are happy we're back, and things will be normalish until orientation at the end of this month.  And then it's probably hectic time, while we get OD ready for her move, and YD ready for her junior year.

posted by: athenawj at 07:55 | link | comments (2) |
summer, memories

My mittelschmertz pain was absolutely horrible last night- so bad that I could barely breathe.  Luckily it wore me out, and after thirty minutes of laying absolutely still, and calling in my servant* to give me the volume remote, cover me with a blanket, etc., I was able to pass out.  The worrisome thing is that I started ovulating two days ago, and had pain (to a lesser degree) then, too. If this is a new trend with my body, I want no part of it.  I think I'll vacate in the middle of the month from now on.

Being a woman sucks sometimes.  But at least I won't go bald.  I think I'd rather deal with mittelschmertz than that.

We are off to Atlanta this afternoon.  After taking OD off to the airport and going as far as we can with her through it, we're going to the World of Coca-Cola.  Not the most cultured thing, but who gives a shit, eh?  Plus, we only have the day, and we heartily enjoy our pop culture.

I've decided to make a Ragamuffin cake for the fair, and sketched out my design the other day.  It'll also feature my beloved Halfsie toys.  YD mentioned that the judges wouldn't know what they were from, but I don't think that will matter.  I know it will be different.

However, we live here, so who knows how much that matters.  Still, it'll be fun. :)

*Mr. Calm.

posted by: athenawj at 07:21 | link | comments (2) |
state fair, bullshit, vacation

I wish I had more profound things to say.  Perhaps I'm still rebelling against the family theory that I'm the "serious" one.

I haven't done any art, though I should.  Been baking.  There is a "no knead, one rise" bread contest at the fair- $100 prize (you think I do this for any other reason than the money and the ribbon?).  I made the most scrumptious Three Cheese and Bacon Bread.  Oh, my goodness.  I'll still be making that bread even if it doesn't place. 

For the other bread contest, I baked Chocolate Rolls last night.  FYI, you can take an existing recipe and modify it so it becomes your own.  I think the person who wrote the original recipe (for Chocolate Bread) made the fucker up.  I took a look at it and wondered how the hell it would work, so this one went through plenty of modifications from me.  They're pretty good, but I think I'm adding solid chips before I bake them next time.

I have twenty Chocolate Rolls on my counter now.  I wish all of ya'll were here so I could give them to you, because I sure as hell ain't eating all of them.

YD has requested I make another Kentucky Butter Cake.  I asked her how fat she wanted me to be.

In art news, I'm missing payment for two pieces sold back in February.  I'm afraid the owner thinks she paid me, though if she checks her receipts and cancelled checks, she'll see that she hasn't.  I've already waited two weeks for an answer, and am getting impatient.  I don't want a tarnished relationship.

We're leaving on Thursday for Atlanta, and OD leaves Friday morning for Tokyo.  No, I don't want to think about the flight, or her and her friend making their way from the airport to their hostel outside the city. I'm not really worried about her time there-- it's all that I mentioned and getting to the airport for her flight home that has me nervous.

Off to plant the two new coreopsis I got, and the wave pool with OD.

posted by: athenawj at 08:28 | link | comments (1) |
art , gardening, kids, memories

I've come up with my pie entry for the Pillsbury contest at the fair (200 dollar prize, yo!):

Chocolate-Dipped Strawberry Pie.

I tasted it this morning (mmm, pie for breakfast) after refrigerating it overnight, and I had one-and-a-half slices.  It's VERY good.  And who knew that mixing strawberry Jell-O and heavy cream would work?*

Probably lots.  But not me til I tried it out.

posted by: athenawj at 09:27 | link | comments (2) |

Kyra Sedgwick said something interesting in an interview awhile back.  Talking about her son going off to college, she said that being a parent was like having a job for eighteen years, and then getting fired.  I think of it more as having your hours drastically cut back, and your job duties altered.

I guess we've been busy lately, although I can't say that renting seasons 2 and 3 of LOST so I can catch up is exactly being busy, heh.  I've been walking six mornings a week at the mall to beat the heat (ooo, is that an Ann Taylor outlet store?  Maybe I can finally buy something there!), but I need to get my ass on the ball with the crunches.

We've been playing chauffeur to YD, although this week we get a break, since she's at Strings Camp til Friday.  She texted her dad last night during the placement auditions, stating, "The violists are GREAT! :( ".  He texted back, "So are YOU!"  She spent her ten days in WV with my parents and cousin, and said she enjoyed my dad's stories about his former work on the psych ward.  I told her I enjoyed those stories, too, although truthfully, it's not so funny when your dad comes home with a black eye, or broken glasses, or a bite on his arm.

OD is antsy: antsy for Tokyo, antsy for college, antsy to being her new life.

I've done two of my pieces for the Tomato Art Fest.  I've done all my pieces for the Blue show, though I still need to send in my cd.  I find out at the end of this month if I got into the drawing exhibit (IwishIwishIwish).  And I got paid for two months' worth of sales on Saturday.  Whoooooohooooooo!  Vacation money!

Mr. Calm turns 40 today.  Oh, no, that's 39, I mean.  But we like to kid that we can't remember, heh.  Instead of a cake, I'm making him his favorite: cherry cheesecake tarts.  It's an easy Paula Deen recipe that's ohsogood.

I got two "new" cameras that work: a Polaroid 600 closeup, and a Colorpack II (peel-apart film).  I loooove that one.

My garden is filled with wildflowers.  Purple and pale purple and white, and orange/red beauties.

We had a raccoon visitor twice last week.  Not a big guy.  He dug around in one of my marigold pots and broke it.  The last night he was here, Salem decided to lay down and watch him.  The raccoon carefully circled him, studying him cautiously, trying to figure out why one of his brethren was pitch-black and uninterested in fallen birdseed.

When I was at the gallery on Saturday, M. told me a sweet story: one woman who has more than one of my art works was having a bad day.  She'd gone on and on about one of my octopus pictures, and as a Lift-You-Up present, a friend of hers came in and bought the piece for her.  Wow.  Wish I had a friend who could drop a hundred bucks like that.  But that IS sweet.

I still have only sold one piece in my solo show.  But M.'s excited to get the "leftovers", so I have somewhere to sell them anyway.

Take care!

"La Reine des Tomates"

posted by: athenawj at 06:51 | link | comments (1) |
art , photography, exercise, animals, gardening, television, family, kids, summer, memories, crazy kitties, mrcalm

Solo Show

I went to the Starbucks in Hendersonville on Saturday (after driving past it and ending up in the next town!) to set up my art for my solo show and be interviewed by the coordinator.  I really like her; man, she knows how to pump you up and inflate your ego.  After the interview, I was about to start hanging my work, when the manager asks to speak to M.  Not good news: the district manager decided that the artists could not display PRICES on their title cards.  According to him, it's "not about selling".

Um, what the fuck???  Um, YES, it IS.  I wouldn't drive out to H'ville to pretty up his walls for my health.  So, I had to black out my prices on my title cards, and while there is a little card on the wall with the coordinator's name and phone number, and the words "If you'd like to purchase artwork", but I still worried that people wouldn't see that and think my work was just there to, yeah, pretty up the walls.

But someone got it, and called M. Saturday night, and I sold my first piece from the show yesterday.  Whoo!  I get me a check in the mail in a few days.  The nice thing about this show is I get paid as they sell, the customer gets to take it home right away, and I get 90% of my price.

So, I'm buying on huge canvas to work on my tomato art, and I got money for my honey's birthday in a couple of weeks.

posted by: athenawj at 06:51 | link | comments (1) |
art