DollsArtCats

K hates coupons. All day, people bring expired coupons to the checkout at BJ's, and say "See if the machine will take it" when in truth, it's the clerk that tells the machine to take a coupon, not the other way around. So K has to explain they can't take it, and if they get rammy, to go see the Membership desk about it, which they seldom do. So yesterday a man comes in with a microscopic coupon. It's doll sized, the size of K's thumbnail-- but K has good eyes, and it has all the information needed, and it's a good coupon--15.00 off if you buy some huge amount of stuff, which the guy has. So K calls over the Front Line Supervisor, and they decide to take it. The coupon gets taped to a bigger piece of paper before it goes in the drawer. Later someone discovers that the "coupon" is the reduced version of the real coupon inside the BJ's flyer, the tiny promo on the cover that says "Look inside for these great deals!" So they swap ...

My friend C had this doll, an Iplehouse Yur Astrologer. It used to belong first to Arianne, (I think) who did this pretty faceup to replace the default faceup, so she could sell it to E. E decided that the faceup was just too sweet for her character, and sold the doll to C. C said that while she liked the doll, it just didn't cooperate with her, so she did a combo of a trade and sale to me, but kept the Chimera parts (Yur has a "cat" persona, with a tail, claw hands and feet, and a kitty head, none of which I needed.) I did get her certificate and box though, which made me very happy. Of course I can't leave well enough alone, so after I took a set of photos of her, I took off Arianne's faceup and put my own fairly inept one on instead, which has the advantage of looking happy, as well as looking like a 6 year old applied her makeup. I have trouble painting faces--it's its own art form. Bobbie Brown would do awesome faceups. I do not. There is something ab...

K brought home raisins from BJ's...like everything from BJ's, the raisins were HUGE. They were the size you would expect a raisin to be, actually, if you look at grapes in the grocery store. Which makes me wonder where all these tiny grapes are that get put in the California Raisin boxes that I buy--they must be like wine grapes, the little decorative ones. Maybe people prefer them small for cooking? Later K and I went to the mall for ice cream. We were originally just going to get ice cream for dinner, but decided we should probably eat something like real food first, so I got a small burger at Burger King. It was less than 2.00 and was plenty for a meal. I understand why people live on fast food. No cooking, less than a school meal, and in the burger's case, it was just lettuce, tomato, a little hockey puck of protein and bread..not amazing but enough to keep you alive for half the day unless you were doing heavy work. No dishes to wash, saving water and time. While w...

In which Zinnober (another Soom Sphaler) checks to see if his antlers are straight. This was taken in the spring, when it was still good weather for wearing a sweater. Not much new today but an obligatory trip to Home Depot, for moulding and geraniums. And a small extra AC.Those puppies are heavy!

Just wait until Christmas. I might have 8 tiny reindeer :)

I have a friend, T, who teases me about my doll hobby. Now it turns out that T is getting into a hobby even more esoteric (and maybe more creative) than dolls--T is doing "haunts". This is apparently where you convert your lawn into a Halloween-themed art installation, complete with sound, lights, and motors. Another mutual friend is "putting junction boxes in his lawn, this is serious shit." Haunt enthusiasts sculpt elaborate tombstones out of styro and make moss out of dryer lint (is there anything dryer lint cannot do?). T wants to make an obelisk, as there are plenty of plain gravestone creators but not many obelisks. T also has "the only light-up gargoyle in the neighborhood." The gargoyle is so cool I always thought it should stay up to be part of the later nativity scene, perhaps sitting by the light-up camel. I told T there will be no more talk of "creepy dolls" if there is zombie and gravestone manufacturing going on at T's house. ...

Just Lee, painted by Laura Buff--he's a Christmas special head from 07, when Luts made a pair of elves, the Juri07A (which he is) and the Juri 07 B (which I have as well, though one of them is now a guy. Or actually a were-deer, but that is a story for another day. ) Right now I am tired from laying sub-floor in the kitchen--it's all done. I ran out of screws on the last corner, there were just enough.

I have no idea what kind of moth this is (a hawkmoth?) He's just an awesome moth, especially disguised as an oak tree. K and I went down to the local cafe because K wanted to use the wifi. We used to get BLT sandwiches there on bagels and I would get eggs and bacon and spinach for breakfast, but then we noticed the bacon was getting skimpier and skimpier, and then the owner re-did the menu to get rid of all the meat and sell just ice cream and vegan things. It turns out that the ice cream is actually frozen yogurt. K said the first day we looked at the new menu "Where the meat at?" The coffee is still good. (Fair Trade coffee). As we sat the owner told another customer about a fly problem she had in the basement. There were a lot of flies. A whole lot. (I immediately thought "dead possum") but that was not mentioned. She took her vacuum cleaner and vacuumed up the flies. Here I am nodding in approval--I do this to get rid of wasps inside. But then instead of s...

Our house is now freshly painted, with underpaid college student labor. They did a fine job though my hostas are goners and I now have some variegated ivy. The color scheme is black and Navaho white. I have no idea how this moth knew, but he was on the kitchen door, looking smug. It's hydrangea heaven here,too! Ashes from the barbeque provided some contrast to the naturally acid soil.

...something got updated. A couple of days ago I staggered out of bed, got my coffee and sat down to discover that I could browse to Google's main page, and that was it. None of my bookmarks worked. Now a long time ago I had something similar happen, and after clearing out all my cookies and starting over, that seemed to fix it. But this time after managing to pry the Secret Cookie Location out of Firefox, and removing all my cookies (I keep hardcopy of all my Internet pass and screen names in case I have an oops, which I seem to do frequently), still no joy. I had upgraded a couple of weeks ago to Firefox 4, and discovered all my fonts were either tiny or some freaky 1970's movie font. I settled for tiny. Now I decided that it must have been AVG that updated, and then AVG thought that Firefox4 was UP TO NO GOOD and not safe and therefore only the Google start page was allowed for my Internet browsing. So I uninstalled FF4 and went back to 3. Fonts now display normally and...

Cats love comfortable places to sleep, including on humans. In order to achieve this, they emit "sleepy waves" to knock out the nearest human, so they can achieve a comfortable pillow. Here M is a hapless victim of the cutie pie resting on him. (I did not take the photo, M did)

I was waiting to pick up K at BJ's and wandering around with a cart. And of course having a cart meant that I had put in a huge package of plastic cups, a mammoth package of paper plates, and a hose reel--BJ's does nothing in a small way. But then here was a display of orchids (!) and ferns. The jungle would look more convincing if you couldn't see a small portion of the GIANT COFFEE package behind it. I could actually go through a BJ's sized coffee package by myself, but it takes a couple of weeks. Perhaps because I had stuff in my cart, no one told me not to take a photo.

When it's a 100 degrees F here, it's nice to think about snow. Though the image here looks like a exploding Idaho potato in a black microwave oven, it's a fairly accurate acrylic painting of Comet Hartley shooting off steam and ice particles. Comets are cool. The original painting is small, 8 x14 inches, and is in my basement somewhere. It was shown in March at Nasa/Ames in California.

I'm thinking about selling a doll. I do every now and then, when it gets ridiculous in here and I want a bit of room for someone new, but right now I like everyone. Unfortunately the car transmission decided this was a good time to quit, and in some ways it is pretty overdue, and it didn't leave any of us in a snowbank doing it. But something needs to go , unless there is a miracle and someone pays me for past due paintings... or something. This doll, a Luts Dreaming Lishe, is a possible candidate. She's one of the few dolls I have that is "popular" and she is in pretty good shape. The problem is...I like her! Here her hair is photoshopped on, it was a blast to do.

..are coming, along with fireflies and really hot weather. I love how long the days are!

K went to Philadelphia for a show, and was sitting in Rittenhouse square when a homeless guy came up and asked if he could share the bench. K said OK ("I didn't get a "creepy vibe" from him, and he didn't smell") so they sat for a minute and the man said that it was hard to sleep in the grass in the park, because of dogs "They come up and sniff me, and I know what they are thinking of.." and then he went on to tell some jokes, some of which K said, were pretty funny and well delivered. He had a little tada at the end of each one. After a few minutes he mentioned an interest in some McNuggets, at which point K (who never gives money to anyone) dug around and presented the man with a 5, which pleased him. After a "thank you" he ambled off, presumably in search of either the McNuggets or another gig. Comedy may pay the rent, but it's not an easy life. Weather today is perfect--sunny, not hot.

..in our backyard. Eastern Swallowtail, I think!