Different, but still good

Christmas season so far isn't quite the same as at home, but we're still having fun. We made some ornaments, and some other things:

Well worth the seven bucks, if I may say so myself.

Under Wraps.

We are back from groceries. I bought a delicious wrap and have since consumed it. Tomorrow is going to be a special day where we clean up quite a bit then think about how we will be decorating this year.


Oh cat.. how many bulbs will you break this year?

Quantity over quality.

That's how I shall beat my cousins. I'll just fire out a single fast post per artwork until I appear more diligent in my posting!

Oh what's this? We're going to go get groceries at 2 am! I'll come back and tell you allll about it! At length!

I thanksgave.

I had a wonderful American Thanksgiving at Eli's parent's house. I ate a fair bit and then was given leftovers. I brought them home, waited just long enough to bolster my ego, then ate some more.

Then was violently ill for a few hours. I have a vivid memory of being deliriously sick in the washroom, exhausted from lack of sleep, and all I wanted was to be 12 again so Mom would look after me. Eli did a good job though but he didn't quite have the back-pat-rub thing down.

Then I slept for a day and a half... and ate the rest of the leftovers.


So far so good.



In other news, I updated greypaper.com with 3 more art things. One of which I am posting below to fill space.

I have a zoo problem.

So I found out the Oakland zoo has hyenas. Spotted hyenas. I've always wanted to see a hyena. So off we went!

I took a pile of pictures. It wasn't as nice as the San Francisco zoo, and I found a lot of the foliage had grown up around. Animals likely loved it, but not so good for viewing.

One of the coolest guys in there was this vulture. Big, beautiful, and stoic. Pretty much what you expect from an animal that specializes in watching things die.






Oddly enough, the local crow population kept chasing him away from scraps of meat. And this is what I call the 'crow shuffle'. Amusing.

They also had a huge pen of flying foxes. I can't even begin to express how large these guys were to you. None of my pictures do them justice. They were hanging heavily from huge ropes. Amazing. But no picture does it justice... so here's a snake.



And of course... the stars of the hour.... both asleep and hidden! Oh well. Next time.

I walked. Shocking, I know.

I went for a walk today. I saw many types of birds. I would have had an amazing image of the white one if I hadn't suddenly seen it 7 feet away and exclaimed loudly. "Whoa!" and off it went. So here it is watching me warily from a much more disappointing distance.



I also saw a Scrub Jay.



I saw a crow too, but you know... it's a crow. So instead, have some images of around the neighborhood today.







Also we went for a walk in the redwoods the other day as well. All I will show is this video.

Living large

Marvel at this image. I call her Unecessary Violence Woman.

Lonesome Fuzz

In my experience, most cats don't particularly care if you come or go. Meep is unique in that after about three minutes she becomes worried and cries in the window.

I took this a few buildings away, followed up by a closer picture. It's like she's certain that even after two full years, this time-- right now --THIS is the day we will decide to take the dog and never come back.

Honestly, if I were hitting the streets I would take all my pets. I like a last resort if I'm going to starve.

This art has nothing to do with this post.

I have news that may shock some of you. In light of the almost constant threat of spiders, my crippling phobia has lifted somewhat.

Long ago I once reached for a lightswitch. As my finger flooded the black room with light, my eyes fell upon a spider, crouched in terror, about 6 inches from my hand. I ended up the floor, eyes rolling, making a noise like a stricken rabbit.

Present day, I recall this fear somewhat like I recall the joy at Christmas that Santa was coming. I remember that I once felt an intense emotion, but I can't really feel it the same way ever again.

I've taken to naming the ones that aren't really horrific. The ones I essentially can't be arsed to get up from bed or bathroom to kill. A side effect of this is that I have begun to feel a sort of sympathy for them. I imagine I'm pretty damned scary myself, especially naked in the bathroom at 4 am. Don't get me wrong. Huge brown spiders and black widows will always send me running for the broom. I speak of the medium spiders.

Frederique was one of these spiders. I saw him periodically over several days, then finally decided that killing him would be like driving 4000 miles and shooting a good friend. Frederique got a trip outside in the Eli-Plastic-Cup Express.

Jones was a spider recently I had shared the bathroom with. He left me alone and stayed in the corners. Then one night I worried he wasn't finding enough to eat.

I have hit a new milesone I wish to share with you.

I caught Jones in a cup myself and took him outside.

If you aren't impressed by this you don't know me well enough. You might also be a stranger who has wandered across my blog. Hello stranger!

I think I saw a little guy on the window as I was falling asleep last night. I'll keep you posted on Lexington.

Our Phone ran away

Just a heads up to people who may be trying to call. Eli has misplaced his cell phone. Our only real connection to the outside world. It's missing. We tried calling it, but it didn't come back. I think it's dead somewhere under a pile of clothing.

Our land line goes in on July 21st. Toss me an email for the number.

Babies

I noticed today a tiny baby spider floating delicately on the room's air currents. It's transparent perfect little body glided carefree in front of my eyes, legs outstretched as if to say "Look at me! I'm alive!" A miracle of life clapped firmly between two hands.

Looking up, I soon found about twenty more miracles waiting to die. Do you know what baby spiders mean? It means spiders are having sex in my apartment. I will not stand for it.

I decided that rather than lean up and thumb them down individually one by one I would simply get the can of raid. That's what cans of spray are for, right? That's right. They are for spraying an area. An infestation. I was congratulating myself on my fast thinking ("My god! Nobody has ever thought to use spray before on more than on bug at a time!") looking up wide-eyed and blissfully spritzing the ceiling.

3 minutes later, as Eli read the warnings on the can and I flushed the stinging poison from my eyes, it became apparent that I am a blithering moron.

The babies, having begun to die, all slowly started to lose their grip on the ceiling. Tiny twitching bodies threaded down around me like rain. The rain of my own personal hell.

Hours later I'm still killing stragglers, but I am happy to announce that in my zeal, I sprayed so much raid onto a few of them that they have become stuck to the ceiling. I imagine they will still be there in a years time when the lease is up and we bail on this spidertopia.

It's a shame though. I really like the placement of this apartment.


In other news, I have created an ant farm. The ant farm, I have decided, shall have it's own blog. I have no ants in it yet, but I will keep you posted. There is now a link to the side so you can check up on my ants.

Yes. The hypocrisy of this entry is not lost on me.

My husband poisoned a widow.

We're here! I have a long pile of images to show you all, but first, an explanation of the title. This apartment is safe and located very close to downtown Santa Rosa, and allowed us to keep the cat and dog. Pretty sweet right?

Now let me tell you about a phenomenon that I have encountered in all my apartments. All apartments have a bug. I've had the ant apartment, the earwig apartment, and the lady bug apartment. I knew eventually it would come to this.

I am in the spider apartment. I kill about three spiders a day. I had a neurotic episode when I saw them all start coming out to greet us. I lived in terror on the bed, afraid to move. Afraid to pee. I pee every hour on the hour. At least.

I found one in the bathroom, a ruddy little brown one. He was a scrapper, ambling away on five legs. For a handicapped spider he moved like lightning. Now, I do need to say, I can't let a spider get away. I can't relax knowing it is somewhere. I need a body. Body = catharsis. Lack of body = stay on the bed with a heavy book for an hour.

So this brown spider manages to run in behind the sink cabinets. In a desperate bid to catch him before he got wedged in a crack somewhere to plot against me, I threw open the doors.


That was when I saw the black widow spider.


Yes. The killer of worlds was living under the sink. Brown spider forgotten, I of course did what any sane person would do and screamed until a better man came to do the job. Unfortunately, my spastic reaction set her on edge, and when Eli tried to snag her with a plunger she ran and hid in a crack where the pipe met the wall. Hiding on the bed he eventually tried to comfort me by saying he had found another spider and killed it for me. Good old brown. My silver medal.

Eli tried for days to knock her down, but by the end she was too wary to come out much at all. We got a can of Raid to end her with, but she was onto us.

Maybe it was the heat today ( The actual temperature is up for debate, but all agree it was over 100F ), maybe it was the fact I had given up, but something told her today was the day to return to her shoddy web under the pipe. He sprayed her down, and finding that Raid does not in fact 'Kill on contact', resorted to bashing her with a tissue box. Now, I am a bit sad to report there wasn't a puff of smoke, or an earth shattering cry as the demons of the world returned to the earth. There was no tiny explosion or victory music. No.. she squished like a spider. I would have thought it would take at least two hits.

The little brown spiders aren't so scary anymore.

Now let us go back in time to before my trip. As I stated before, I went to see the zoo dinosaur exhibit. Noting my disappointment for the rubbery mockeries of history's greatest hunters, My friend Stran took Eli and I to see real dinosaurs at the OMSI. Here's some choice images of just how cool that was.

As the file name says. "Holy shit, dinosaurs!"



This is ornithocheirus. A model done right and suspended far above our heads. Very cool.



Hunting dinosaur and prey looking understandably violated.



And of course, everyone's favorite kitty, smilodon.



After our trip to see the dinosaurs came the long journey back to California and the hungry spiders that awaited. But we didn't know that then. So full of hope we were.

While packing we discovered that some of our food had decided to try to make an early break for it.



And off we go!



Oregon is very green.



Really green.



A neat looking hill.



I always enjoy the mountain drive. Eli doesn't, but I bet he would be if he was allowed the joy of being a passenger instead. As I drove past this and took the picture I said "If God lived somewhere, I bet it would be here". I find myself saying things like "A person could die up here" and meaning it in the most euphoric way possible. Eli would agree, but in the less joyful manner.



No tears were shed.



We drove a lot... We drove.



And drove...




And drove.



For awhile it got too dark to take normal pictures so I amused myself with several dozen 15 second exposures. I will spare you the lot and just share this one.



After awhile Eli remembered he is mortal and stopped at a rest stop. I busied myself with pictures of my toes in the window. It was cramped, but I eventually found a position to sleep that involved two seats, Eli, and my feet out the window.



Then the dawn came.



You can always tell when you hit California. I used to think it was a magical tropical place full of parrots and zebras. No. It's yellow. There are still wild parrots in San Francisco though, but mostly due to a freak accident years ago, they say. California is yellower than Oregon is green.



They are still kind of neat to see.



Rolling golden hills.





We pause from the yellow to look at the other travelers we saw.



And more yellow. And some deer.



After this, we found our apartment, dragged boxes into it and I passed out for a long sleep. I am afraid to say we are still getting a handle on cleaning the apartment. I will post again once that happens. Or we move again. Whichever comes first.

A plethora of information.

Random interesting facts abound! First up. Eli and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary on the 21st. Good times had by all. We went as saw a dinosaur exhibit. Turned out to be silly rubber ones for the kids. It was all worth it for this image of the rubber T-Rex terrorizing kids with his recorded roar. Note the orange blur followed by the second screaming child.



This is why you shouldn't expect children from us. I get too much joy out of them running in terror from things. Maybe that's the whole point of parenthood though. I seem to recall my father pretending to throw our toys out the window of the truck when we went for drives. I also seem to recall that stopping after one of us burst into tears. I'd like to say it was Becky, but I have a haunting suspicion it was me.

In other news, it was very hot the other day. Ninety two degrees to be exact. That's 33 degrees Celsius for you cool folk. Ninety just sounds BIGGER. It's the American way. Or the Texan way. I don't even know. Likely just the Fahrenheit way.

Other news: I am going to the zoo shortly. I will post again after!

Forget Mother's Day at your own peril.

I can't pick flowers from 4000 miles away for my mother. It hadn't really thought about it. I figured "I will call my mother! She will be so shocked I remembered!" Then she calls to remind me and let's me know not to feel bad about not picking flowers this year.

So now I feel bad about not picking flowers this year.

So I look it up. "Hey! I can pick them here and take a picture of them!"

No. I can't.

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=ERAM5

Behold the amazing Erythronium americanum! Grows pretty much everywhere... 4000 miles away. Good show, trout lily. Good show.

While writing this I paused and realized. "Don't I officially have two moms now?"

Then I paused again. "Didn't I get married this month last year?"

I will now distract you with two pictures and a video of a big fish. These are from earlier this year.

Also, a poll.

I lied about not posting again. It's come to my attention that on my blog there is sometimes a little white stripe down the right side due to poor formatting when I edited the images. Is this the case?

Lemme know in comments. Also lemme know if you think anything should change. Is the font too dark? I need feedback from the masses!


Edit: Changed stuff around. Lemme know what you think!

April showers and flowers. Efficiency is key.

Before I begin I would like to announce that both Amber and Mandy are hiding from me. Until I am invited to their blogs there shall be no more updates! Take that! I stab at thee with idle threats. Idle, I say!

Let us carry on.

My mother has hinted it is time for another magical update! Looks like we are moving back to California again. Financial and personal reasons. I choose to see it as a good thing. I have very little other info because the life I lead is just that enthralling.

So here is the outdoors as of today:



Hmmm.. what else. Oh yes. I saw a wasp today. It was yellow. It was also black.

And my grand finale; here is my night elf standing in a bucket of water.




That is all.

Going to the zoo zoo zoo.

I forced Eli to sing the Zoo song once as we drove to the San Fran zoo. On that note, I actually got to see that tiger that escaped. She much less killy, and a great deal more alive at the time though.


Here's some images from the Oregon zoo.

Happy Clover Day

I can totally get into a holiday that involves clovers.

So I'm supposed to update, but to be honest I don't have anything to talk about. I shall instead tell you what went on in my World of Warcraft character's life today.

He was knocked off his gryphon by a dragon and landed on his face. Somehow he lived. Then a pig bit him.

It really was quite uneventful.

Hey hey we're the Monkeys

So I am settled back into my Portland home once more. I was informed that I needed to update again and I thought "But Mandy had the same blog post for like 3 years!"

So here is my update. I figure I can just post the monkey I drew recently. He is a wild monkey man.. in a little thong pouch thing. It is amazing the high quality scivvies that monkeys can purchase in the jungle.

Moving on, I have completed my portfolio to send off to some possible agents and I will send it off today. Then I will march down to Target and apply there as well. I've been putting it off cause it's Target. It's also hard to fill out an application to a store like that.

"Hey what did you do for the last three years?"

"I drew pretty pictures and ate a lot of pizza."


Ah well. We're still okay for now anyway.

If anyone wants to see a copy of the portfolio (Has a bunch of pictures etc.) Feel free to email me (Grey@Greypaper.com) and I will send one along.

Also, I will be doing a heavy update on my website soon, and will be cycling out some of the older or less good art. I dunno if people go there often enough to notice the change, but at least I am filling up more of this blog post. I am a devious one.

And the band played on.

I was asked to do a finished piece off of a sketch I did while at home for Christmas. At the time I nodded approvingly and jammed the sketch in my pocket, intending to promptly forget it.

Unpacking later, something fell from my bag and slowly spiraled to the floor. The sketch pleaded at me, it's absurd characters begging for color and new life. I presented my counter argument to the sketch.

"They have already forgotten about you!"

The sketch remained silent. Perhaps it agreed; The world had continued turning without it after all. It eventually noted that I was unemployed at the moment. What else was there to do?

"I have plenty to do! Why just today I made tacos."

The sketch had traveled 4000 miles to be here. It told me this.

"Well certainly.. I thought I would have washed you in a pocket by now." I admitted.


The sketch scoffed at the very idea of me doing chores.


Wounded, I began to backpedal. "They have forgotten! They must have!"

The sketch simply smiled. What if they hadn't? What if they were going to be let down. Good old Cindy, never does a damned thing she promises she will.

"I'll show you! I'm going to paint the ever living shit out of you!" I exclaimed.

And it was so.