OH It Feels SO Good!

The sun is out! The sun is Warm! The sun feels OH SO GOOD! I was inside most of today and wasn't able to enjoy this beautiful day! Therefore...I'm on the back porch, in a lawn chair (after falling in it twice trying to re-learning the magic of them, it's been a while), on Mike's laptop (Shhhhh!!!!! As long as you don't tell, I won't tell), in my Favorite sandals (Buffalo has forced my non-liking of shoes to a max), and I just killed my First mosquito of the season! Life is good.

Funny thing, it's 62 back home, LA, and I bet if I were home I would be cold and bundled up inside. And I'm sure, Mother and yes you Trish are a little chilly and wish for more warmth! You would of had nice weather / warm weather if you in fact did wait until end of March, this weekend LOL. :-) But I'm glad you experienced the cold, it's good for you.

This morning I was at freelancing, 'supervising' a product shot for my primary job. I designed this banner stand that required the client to do an action shot of their product. I thought it was pretty cool, I seem to always end up learning SOMETHING every time I step foot in there.

And now I think I'll wrap this up so that I'm not caught. And I shall read a little bit. Outside of course! Or maybe I'll do my taxes :-/

Vernal Equinox

Yesterday was the start of Spring, although I don't think anyone told Winter. This should mark the beginning of adventures, toys, vacations, and just fun. This is a picture of my baby, little monster. It was taken when I first got it. I've wanted one ever since I went to Monster Jam back home years back. During intermission they left the pit as is, car-van-bus-van-car and these came out. While everyone left for food/bathroom I sat in my seat drooling x2 (since I was drooling the whole show) over what these can do. One attempted a jump over the car,van, bus and flew threw the window of the bus. Another one attempted and Cleared it by a few feet! DROOL. I wanted to buy the kit and build it myself, but they only sell them made already. Which was fine since you still have to break it in. This guy is a T-MAXX, runs on Nitro (none of that electric stuff) and goes 40+. I hope to train it to do all jumps, flips, and crazy stuff it's capable of.

Run Down
Work - Had a client meeting last week. They liked my ideas and picked my design over another artist. They also cared more about my opinion and directed most questions to me. Which I answered professionally, aka didn't follow it by a belch.
- Pretty cool. :-)
Swim - I've been trying to push myself more. I started writing longer and harder workouts, but so far I'm not as tired as I think I should be. I do know my times are a little faster than last year, not where I'd like though, not yet.
- Interesting.
Love - I fell in love on my way to work the other day with a Canyon 4x4, champagne color, extended cab. He was just so handsome, I wish the driver knew how to treat it better...Like a real truck! GMC, off roading in luxury.
- I miss my truck.
Food - I could really go for a Baja Bud's burrito!
- Craving.
Sleep - I didn't last night.
- Tired
Life - I wouldn't even know where to begin really. I've been thinking about it a lot lately though. What I want, things I want to do and experience. There's so much out there in this world and so little time. I guess I should try and start with a top 10 list?
- Confucius, sounds similar to confusing to me.

Wa Do

This is another picture of Abelina that just makes you smile (at least me, and maybe even laugh). I put her on my massage chair turned it on and gave her the remote. She was more intrigued with the sound, then decided to eat the remote. They should really make those things flavored for babies, ummm maybe not, just a thought.

This week has been interesting no doubt. Work was eh. Friday was a good work day, I had to re-do the showroom. I only just started it, there's a lot of work to be done. It looks like a 2 year old (that can lift 200 lbs.) went nuts in there. Wednesday I worked out with Dan and Michelle. I was surprised that it was on the easier side, since Dan likes to go all out. After workout we went out to eat, which was fun. Have you ever seen someone eat a hamburger with a knife and fork? One night I went to the Sabre's game. That was a great game! Even better when you make sure you cheer for the right team. I got to see a hat trick, which I find very funny. People throwing their hats 2 feet from the 300 levels.

I'm getting ready to go the Home and Garden show downtown. We had a client, that is going to the show. The company I work for had designed the booth (not me), then the client said they'd do everything else themselves (too much money to spend and long story on the rest as to why). Should be entertaining to see the booth.

Thanks to my mom for bringing my guitar, I've started to re-learn what little I do know. And hopefully more. I played a little last night, and hope to do more today. As long as that video game I need to beat doesn't yell my name out, and I have to attend to it.



"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."

6 Moons 11 days

They came! My mom, Trish and Abelina came to cold Clarence for a surprise visit. I had an idea they were coming, but didn't actually think it was true! They walked into my work at 1:30 Friday afternoon. I was definitely surprised and very pleased! You'll remember Abelina from my August post - "It's a Girl". I was very happy to be able to show them around and where I live! Of course they came on a good weekend for cold. It was in the 20's Friday and Saturday and a wind chill on top of that. I left work at 2 and took them to the bar where my boss and I go on Friday's, for a late lunch. Shortly after showing them around our 3 bedroom place, they each fell asleep in the closest plop spot. I decided on going to Tully's for dinner which turned out great. Trish loved it based on the size of the sodas and free refills (which with sodas that big who needs a refill?) The rest of the night we played with Abelina and watched her roll around making faces at us.

Saturday was full of playing with Abelina. I think she could watch my fish tank for hours in awe. While we were lounging I challenged Trish to a racing game on the Xbox. My mom joined in on the second race. That was quite comical. I finished with a time of 3 something, and went to take a shower. When I got out my mom just finished her race with a time of 18 minutes. LOL, I love her persistence. In her defense, it was an ice race, so the road was all ice making it harder. That night we took them to Niagara Falls. Did you know that when you go across the boarder there's a special entrance for strollers! Me being the smart one walked through one of those tall full body turnstyles, I finally got though taking baby steps. When we were coming back to the US I think they saw me coming, cause they came out of the office to tell me where to go.

Sunday morning I made my mom Blueberry muffins, (her entire freezer is stocked with blueberries when they go on sale, but she doesn't like them or anything). Most of the snow melted from our snow fall on Thursday, but there was just enough for some fun. Trish and I built a midget snowman, followed by a snow fight between my mom, Trish and I. Mike had his camera so we couldn't really throw any at him. But I told him to put his camera in the air cause I was going to hit him, he had to get one.

A few weeks ago I had asked my mom to send me my guitar. She made a comment about, why don't I just bring it to you. I told her it would probably get to me faster if she sent it, since she's never been out to see me. Guess I was wrong :-) She kind of reminded me of The Sound of Music, the way she walked in my work guitar in hand.

The picture below I took. I remember as a kid how much fun boxes are, and I just happen to have one. She definitely loved playing in it. This was my favorite pic that I took of her, with her happy smile. I tried to fix the image - the flash blew it out (all white, no detail) and in turn it looks like it was taken in the 80's, at least to me.

Mike took some great pictures this weekend so check out his photoblog this week! He posted some of Canada and will post Abelina pictures later this week. Also I meant to post this link on my last 2 posts. It's a picture of me playing in the ice again. lol. It really never gets old!



And now it's back to reality. Back to work Monday morning and everything that goes with it. It was more than nice to see them, but hard when they leave. It's definitely not very easy being so far away from family and friends. You start to miss the everyday life of just having them there.

JBird Can Fly

I decided to do a slightly different approach today for my image.

This is a self portrait that I did when I was a sophomore in college. The medium I chose was charcoal and gouache paint. I did more gouache painting back in high school, and really enjoyed doing very fine detailed paintings. Charcoal, I was learning at the time which is a messy, "color" and erase medium, just fun! I don't want to explain my reasoning behind it, so that you may have your own interpretation. (If you do wish to know, leave a comment and I will write about it in my next post.)

Even though years have passed since this piece, it still has the same basic meaning to me. Just different place in my life, which I think is kind of cool. Guess it was a good self portrait then huh?

I've been reading this book - Secrets of the White Buffalo. The book is about Native American healing remedies, rites and rituals. I read something last night that made a lot of sense to me. The Aduha Ceremony. "This is a ceremony for giving away possessions of a loved one who has recently died" Now your thinking, well everyone does this. It's done very differently here. It starts the same where family and friends gather everything and decide who could use what. This takes about a year. The "ceremony has important psychological benefits for the person in mourning, as gathering items occupies the person's mind, and gives the individual something to do." Here's where the difference is, and I wish more knew about it, and practiced it. On the day of giving away of items, family and friends all gather. As one item is given away that person will recall a memory about that item. The ones in mourning hears all these stories and is able to keep the happy memories alive.

I think this helps a lot with the mourning process. Death shouldn't be one of those things we just don't talk about. It's nice to hear the shared memories. If the loved one meant that much to you, you should talk about them, share your memories. By doing so you keep them alive in your heart. Which directly makes the heart hurt less. So, what's your fondest memory?


To keep with my pattern, I'm not doing a smiley. This is my baby, my pride and joy that I designed, modeled, and animated. You can see him in action on my portfolio site which is linked on the side. If you need more info on him again leave a comment and I'll talk about him in my next post.