School Starts Tomorrow!

I'm kinda glad, actually. I've been bored. My books for four classes were only $145. $105 of that for the used math textbook, which is allegedly good for this class and the next one I'll be taking. The hort class books were cheap! One was $19, and the other was $25 or so. I already had the watercolour book, and it's not really a requirement, anyway.

I turned my neighbor on to water colour. Now she thinks she's the greatest artist ever. EVER. She traces everything she does, but her shading is quite good. Very pastel hued. I keep telling her to draw stuff, but she lacks the patience that it takes to draw, and keep drawing when what you've drawn turns out like crap. She mostly paints people. She needs to get out of the sepia/pastel coloured bag if she's going to paint portraits for $$$$. On that point, I can relate. I can't draw people, and am thinking of taking a figure drawing class next semester.

She was so depressed, and so freaked out, with constant negative thoughts about herself, that I figured art might be a great outlet for her, and I was right. She's much better now. I'm so glad...but she's been a bit boastful about her skills, lately, which kind of bugs me. I draw everything. I do trace people. I know it's a mental block on my part, because, basically, I guess I'm a misanthrope of some sort.

There's a Killer on the Rampage

In my back yard.

He's not afraid of me, or DH. Sometimes he does his killing right in front of me, 3 or 4 times a year. He's blazingly fast, but sometimes not accurate, and once he went for a kill, over-shot his target and bonked into the side of my house, where he had to sit on the ground for a some minutes to collect his wits, while DH and I looked at him/her very closely and made sure he was okay.

I saw him hanging around the backyard on Friday...looking for lunch.

Saturday morning I was looking out my back window at the crowded bird feeder and I thought...wouldn't it be neat if that little hawk came in right now. No sooner had I said the sentence in my head than the little hawk came streaking into the bird feeder, talons extended. The sparrows scattered, and the Sharp Shinned hawk took off in hot pursuit of one of them.

I came home from school one Friday afternoon last fall, and there, sitting on the neighbor's fence 5 feet from my passenger window, was the hawk. I watched him for a good 10 minutes..and of course, I did not have my camera in the car, like I usually do.

Anyway, here's my back yard killer, photo by Bill Thompson III.

Don't have much to say

Because I'm on winter break. I go back to school on Jan. 23rd.

So far I'm enoying not studying.

It was really warm here today...about 55 degrees. We'll probably pay for it later.

Rocco will only eat a very little. He's shutting down and there's nothing I can do about it, at this point. Poor kitty.

Well, here we are again.

It's the new year, and outside of my commitment to losing weight via sparkpeople.com, I made no resolutions.

The days are getting longer...

And by the end of January, we'll actually notice it. It's been very cold...but by Monday it's supposed to be in the '50's.

Nothing much going on here. DH locked his keys in his car, necessitating a trip to Northbrook in heavy traffic. I was not pleased because I'd had a glass of wine or two with the neighbor. He's forever leaving his lights on, locking his keys in the car, etc. WTF. Absent-minded professor dude!

By the time I got there, and found him, I had to pee really bad. Long drive in rush hour traffic. I asked the security guy if I could use the restroom and he said ok. The bathroom is right behind the security officer's desk.

So I did. I was in there a minute, max...and of course I look like a terrorist.

I come back out and there's a different security guy there. Wants to know what I'm doing there, where I came from, and what I did. Checks DH's badge. At which point I mutter loudly..."Jesus CHRIST."

Then I get this spluttering explanation about why they had to know what I was doing in the bathroom, and why they had to check DH's badge. In case there was a fire, you know. Right.

I re-connected with a friend of mine from high-school. She sent me a picture of me with an old boyfriend. Now, when I was 20, I thought I was a fat ugly cow. On review of this picture....I was not, LOL!

Lest you think I'm all about the painting...

Here's some freakin' frackin' math homework.

Easy for you?

Hard for me!

Cap'n Jack

My sister loves Johnny Depp to distraction.

I have to admit he's easy on the eyes...even as a filthy pirate, LOL!

You only thought it was abandoned

Well, here I am again. I'm on break from school now, snow covers the ground, and the only things left to do are paint and read. I'm very happy to have the time to read. I'm happy to have the time to paint, too...but sometimes...I'm less than satisfied with the results.

I do paintings of things that look like paintings of things, as opposed to doing painting of things that look like the things I'm trying to paint. My painting style is tight and fiddly, according to my teacher..I need to make some type of creative jump here. Since I'm working in watercolour, I guess I just have to learn how to let the paint do it's own thing. Which is hard when you're fiddly, detail obsessed and a control type person.