Our Summer Vacation: Tink's a dude!

So we were walking around Disneyland about the time of the fireworks display, and Tinkerbell comes zipping down the cable in front of the castle. We were walking through the crowd and someone said, "Hey, they're using the dude Tinkerbell tonight." Apparently, so the people in the cheap seats can see, Tink needs to be a little more stocky than one would think!

Our Summer Vacation: Hillcrest

Ok, so why is there a giraffe in drag? Well, while walking to the restaurant in Hillcrest, an artsy part of San Diego, we passed a homeless transvestite eating a hotdog and holding a knock off Louis Vuitton handbag. Classic! Also that piece of pie was evil and decadent, chocolate mousse and creamy icing and, hand to God, orchid flowers for decoration on top!

Our Summer Vacation: Finding Nemo

The other times we've been to Disneyland, the submarine ride had been shut down. Not this year! It's back now as a Finding Nemo ride, and the wait during the day was like over 2 hours (yikes!). We love the movie and we had to ride this thing, so we formed a strategy. We got in line right before the park closed because we asked and they will finish the line before shutting it off. We only waited a little over an hour, and it was worth it! I don't know how they projected the images, but peering through the portholes, it looked like Nemo and friends were really swimming in the water in front of you. Very cool!

Our Summer Vacation: We saw Seals!

We went sailing on Tom's knock-about sailboat and saw seals hopping on and off the red buoy. Lauren told me several times on the trip that pelicans "smell kind of funny."

Our Summer Vacation: Lauren and Will

Here's Lauren losing her shoe so her prince will chase her down and see if it fits! Will behind them I remembered was infatuated with the Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner. And a Dutch Baby is a glorious specialty breakfast item that takes 45 min. to prepare and worth it x3!

Our Summer Vacation: Me and Mike

So I started doodling images from our trip, and it turned into a bigger collage of drawings. I rediscovered prismacolor pencils (which I'll write on later, heehee). So this is a caricature of Mike and I, me with my Pirates of the Caribbean Mouse ears, and Mike with his fancy camera. Mike has about 80 various Golf related baseball caps. I haven't gone back to check if this hat I drew actually exists or not.

Summer Show

This year for my summer Art Show, I'm going to frame some watercolors of my San Diego Zoo trip. I did some "live" drawing and painting on site, and Mike took some wonderful photos with his digital SLR camera. I think I may be able to find some patrons for these, and I enjoyed painting them. For my own personal show I do try to find something I really like to work on, since the rest of the year I may be obligated to work on other projects not exactly of my choosing. So, I can't go wrong with the Zoo!

California Trip!

Haven't had time to get our pictures downloaded, but Mom and Dad 2 sent this one, and I hadn't blogged in so long, I felt something needed to go up. We had a great time, and Lauren and Will are the cutest niece and nephew to be found (IMHO)!

Where to find Love!

(clickon to enlarge)
Enzo's such a lover, I had to share where he gets kisses and luvin' around town!

Scalliwags!

Me and my scurvy dog!

I did a pirate storytime and had to pose with my lil buckaneer! Mike found it all kind of creepy, heehee...

Enzo with our pets

(Click on to enlarge!)

Knitting with Enzo

Knitting with Enzo

1. First I must be measured

2. I must not play tug with the knitting

3. I have to try on lots of different sweater outfits

4. Watch out for my tongue!

5. I must not try to take take off the outfits!

Emma Test

This is Emma, a Yellow Mongoose featured in the picture book I'm working on. And I just love her and her freaky red eyes! Yellow mongooses actually have red eyes like her's, and since she's at first mistaken for a ferret from behind, when she turns and flashes these peepers, no one'll mistake her for a ferret!

Looking forward to working more on the book!

Night out on the town!

I know two little scamps who got out sometime last night and went tearing around our miniature Springfield, and they're names are Topsy and Turvy, our 2 sugar gliders!

Mike hears something and goes into the studio and they're both out and on top of their cage and they have that moment in Pulp Fiction where Bruce Willis finds John Travolta in his apartment. Then they fly off and Mike has to yank me out of bed to help catch them so he can go to work. We're unsure how they managed their day pass to Bart Simpson land, but we can only imagine what they made of a world built their size full of yellow people.

Happy Mother's Day!

It's Mother's Day and I in honor of my Mom, I thought I'd share a funny story. When I was 8 I got a parakeet named Binky (This watercolor is a parakeet, but it looks like Bonnie - Binky was blue). Mom was so excited for me, she'd wrapped up a box of bird food for me to open at the skating birthday party I'd had. She'd hidden the bird in the guest bathroom in the days before the party. When I got home I was so engrossed with Binky, I checked on him on and off all day and into the evening.

Right before bed I looked under the blanket one last time to see my new pet, and he only had one leg! In true kid fashion, I went crying to my Mommy (even though Dad was a doctor and maybe better qualified for a medical bird emergency!). Mom followed me back to my room and we uncovered Binky's cage and we looked on the bottom of the cage for the missing foot.

And then Binky wokeup and his missing foot came down from under his feathers and looked at us like we'd lost our minds!

We laughed about it, but I always remembered I could go to my Mom when the world doesn't make sense.

Love you, Mom!
(all pet's legs accounted for!)

Mom informs me of possible sibling...

Mom's watching Dancing with the Stars and had to pause and count on one hand just how many sons did she have back in the seventies, hee hee! This speed skater guy, Apolo Anton Ohno is a dead ringer for my brother Ryan (or Spencer if you go by his cool stage name). I thought this was funny since everyone thought I looked like Nancy Karigan's sister way back when. What's with us and skaters?!

red crowned crane

This is a Japanese Red Crowned Crane. It is the second rarest crane in the world, and it's symbolic of luck and fidelity in Asia. The San Antonio Zoo has a pair of these and they are so magestic and beautiful. The background is a snow landscape which is where they do their mating courtship dance shown here. The red chop in the corner stands for longevity.

Tawny Afternoon

Well, I enjoyed working on this little guy. He's going on sale tomorrow in a small show in Westlake. Mama needs a new pair of shoes!

Us at Fredericksberg

This was taken in a garden in town. Enzo got lots of attention and was a big hit with the ladies. Too bad such a chick magnet is being wasted and a happily married couple... right, honey? *poke*

Family Visit Pics

Notice the the barely held back punch! Hey, it wasn't my idea to climb a huge rock! The view was amazing, and Enzo did great. We want to go back!No, we didn't climb up to Mars, it just looks like it... and felt like it!

Some parts were really steep, like 45 degree angle steep!

Dad2 took this picture standing, not on his belly or some weird position, that's just the grade of the hill.