and i know you know about cebu. they’re the masterminds of this piece of art:

i am in awe of these guys. and naturally, they are/ were big fans of michael jackson. now, say what you will about mikey, but he was talented before he was a loopy dude that lived in neverland. i’m not slapping this up to discuss michael jackson. he was the schiznit when i was in third grade, and he had that crazy 3-D video thinger in disneyland back in the day. and eventually, we’ll remember his talent over his laundry list of weird.

anyway. cebu has a final jackson dance for us:

thanks for stopping by.

so, i’ve been knitting and sweating. and crocheting little robots. oh, and having awful experiences which you’ll hear about in another day or two. right now, this is making me giggle.

this is totally something kitten would have done.

thanks for stopping by.

so, sunday?

i swear. sunday, just before noon

went to the snow. IN FREAKING MAY. sorry, but this blows my mind. people skiing/ snowboarding/ snowshoeing/ what-have-you in… may. clearly, i’m not from around here.

also? about 30 minutes later?

same time zone, same day.

perfect sunny weather. this seriously blows my mind. and, all about 30-45 minutes from my house. while i was enjoying that beautiful weather, i saw this:

that sound is me giggling at a toilet

best. obey. ever.

thanks for stopping by.

so, it’s been a rough winter. the snow was fun, but made life a little difficult. the cat, whom i adore still, passed away (snuggled on my left shoulder, if anyone’s taking notes). it’s been cold and miserable. i do love winter. but this winter, it did not love me.

anyway.

i have a long-ish walk from my clinic/ office to where i park my car. they are at opposite ends of a very large bit of property. so, i have a lot of interesting things to look at and ponder while i make my way to my vehicle. i pass a few garden areas, which have been looking spare and winter-y for far too long.

the other day, i stopped when i saw this:

look... buds!

oh, spring. you’re nearly here.

seriously... best thing i've seen in a while

honestly, i can’t tell you how happy i am to see you.

and it's microwaveable!

dude.

just no.

i went to a bridal shower/ bachelorette party on saturday. lots of good crazy fun. fun that eventually went to a karaoke bar in a bowling alley (i know, so classy. but whatever). fun that had this confetti spread over the table.

yes, they are what you think they are. and the one in the upper left appears to have been bitten.

i put this through the photoshop wringer, and this is what i liked the most.

it's like a velvet painting of a naked lady. hits the same nerves.

just goes to show you, manipulation can be pretty. sometimes. in the right light and all.

thanks for stopping by.

… the dog still has to go out.

i thought the dog was going to implode, he was so happy to be in the snow.

it’s rather cold. i thought i was prepared, but i had the wrong size car chains/ cables in the trunk. i’m embarassed to admit how long it took me to realize this, and how long i had to wait in line to buy the correct size sunday.

note the proper-sized cable on wheel.

also, i felt the need to finally take in a few plants. the dogwood, or whatever it is, has already started its hibernation for the season, so i left it out.

that green windowbox is full of ice.

again, the dog was overjoyed. he was yipping in a happy way. and trying to snatch snowflakes out of the air.

seriously happy canine.

the cat was a little more interested in comfort.

that's my sweater she's burrowed into.

i was very interested in seeing how high the electric blanket would go. and also, knitting myself silly.

what a silly way to stay warm.

and while i don’t mind driving in adverse conditions, i took the day off work. because… well… it would be a slow blood day, what with people trying to stay home.

yes, he has a bunny on his shoulder.

even professionals get bored from time to time.

with enough tape, you too can look like a character from the twilight zone.

i think the cat has the right idea today.

find the cat, find the warmth.

stay warm. and thanks for stopping by.

you know that feeling. you haven’t talked to one of your closest friends in, like, forever, and when you finally do get the chance to catch up, you’re stunned into silence. because you haven’t talked in so long, you’ve no idea where to start.

yup. welcome to my den of iniquity. take your shoes off at the door, please. i think i’ll just start somewhere in the middle.

so, for halloween? went to disneyland. actually, i went to southern california for a reason or two other than the mouse. first, moi had bought bacon. second, i needed to rub yet another dog’s ass. third, i felt it necessary to attend a concert put on in the birdman’s honor. which was a beautiful and strange affair.

he draws what the music tells him to

the final act was this amazing instrumetal piece, along with a… well, i guess he’d be a performance painter. as the guys played, he drew on this light-up board/ sketchpad thinger. it was sort of like pictionary, but with music instead of words and clues. i mean, the whole concert was mind-blowing. oh, and go check out the cheat. nice guys, great musicians, and slightly silly individuals.

disneyland on halloween was crazier than i thought it would be, but not as scary as i anticipated. see, when i was a wee lass in southern california, my friends as i would go to knott’s berry farm for halloween. where they hired extra people to jump out at you from the bushed. and where folks in very strange face make-up would approach you with a plastic ice pik, and say stuff like, “i’ll pick yer nose for a nickel.” this was the late eighties, so i guess people were a little nuttier back then. or maybe it was because knott’s just won’t ever be as cool as the mouse. they were the awesome back then, but not so much anymore.

anyway. i digress hugely.

cheese never tasted so pumpkin-y

i do enjoy visiting the mouse. i’d be hard pressed to tell you exactly why i like it. i mean, it’s totally geared to kids and young-ish adults. but, as i’ve discovered, it’s also partial to ladies in their thirties who have no desire to have children, but who do like their wine. and no, they don’t serve wine in the main park. that i’m aware of, anyway. although, while moi and i were in line for the alice in wonderland ride, the dad in the family ahead of us was drinking wine out of a little plastic cup. and he smelled a bit like he lived inside a wine casket.

although, they don’t have nearly enough stuff with thumper the rabbit emblazoned on it. seriously, why is it all about tinkerbell? both thumper and tinkerbell were side characters in disney movies, and it’s that blonde minidress-wearing fairy that gets all the love.

i’m just saying, is all.

oh, they had a little day of the dead display in frontierland.

this-is-halloween! this-is-halloween!

easily my favorite skeleton. and i didn’t know this, but they totally trick out the haunted mansion to be a “nightmare before chrstmas” sort of ride. which was so very cool. yeah, if you’re a purist you may not dig it, but i figure it’s temporary, so it’s okay. i love the unadorned haunted mansion ride. but, turning it into jack’s house? pretty cool.

what is this? or, this is the house that jack built, y'all!

i mean, how can you not love jack? and, before anyone complains about my next picture, i have a disclaimer. i hate it when people take pictures inside the rides. first, they never turn their damn flash off. second, there’s usually a recording that asks you not to take pictures. it’s a little like peeking behind the powerful oz’s curtain, you know? so, i generally don’t agree with this srt of behavior. however, i try to leave my flash off whenever possible. and there was no recording saying i should tuck my little camera away. finally, both times we went on this ride, it stopped. so we had three to five minutes to check out our surroundings. which is the biggest invitation ever, really.

you really haven't lived until dead pumpkins have sung to you.

so. totally. cool.

the whip cream on my halloween pie was the bradbury tree. it was so amazing to look at.

why yes, i will be doing this when i buy my own house.

i think moi can attest to the fact that i probably would have stood staring at it all night, if it weren’t for all the other cool stuff i just had to go stare at.

oh, and here’s a gratuitious weiner shot. i mean, dog shot.

obviously, she knows how to thwart me

yet another dog named bean. looking abnormal.

i took scads of pictures, so if you’d like to stare at more of the stuff i stared at, find me at flickr.

i have lots more to tell you guys, but i also need to get some laundry happening.

kiss kiss for now, and thanks for stopping by.

it’s story and non-related picture night! woo!

in order to introduce tonight’s topic, i have to divulge a little-ish secret. it’s nothing like, i’m really a tall, hairy dude named sal, or anything like that. do y’all recall the veteran i wrote about here? sure you do. he’s a nice guy with a crazy brain, courtesy of america’s military system.

we’re what you’d call dating. as in, each other.

hey look! a ninja on a pig!

my ninja-mobile is in the shop. this is the loaner.

cliff notes – he quit working where i work, and at the end of october he plans to move in with his mother. who happens to live in another state. now, normally a grown-ass man moving back in with his mother is not the most attractive thing going, you know? there’s nothing wrong with going back home. but it seems kinda, you know, substandard. like saying, i can’t hack it in the real world, so i’m going back where they still cut the crust of my sandwiches. which is not what is being said. essentially, he has such incredibly bad post traumatic stress from being in iraq that he’s more than a little worried for his personal safety. he told me that when he first got back, he woke up a few times in his kitchen with a bottle of bleach/ drain cleaner/ whatever in his hands, and had to get to the emergency room just to make sure he didn’t actually drink out of whatever jug of death… anyway, he’s not fully able to take care of himself. so, his mom has insisted he move back home, where she can keep an eye on him and such.

i’m dating a tall glass of crazy. it seems appropriate on a cosmic level.

anyway. here’s a dog’s butt from seattle.

i really didn't need to see the brown eye

so, election season. the vet is a registered republican, and i’m officially not affiliated with any party. although between you and me, he’s not really a republican, and i tend to vote with a serious democratic lean. we watched the first presidential debate together, which is easily one of the least romantic dates in the history of the ever ever. i did bet him that mccain would be unable to get through the first hour without referring to himself as a ‘maverick’. the veteran said hooey to that, and when mccain unleashed the ‘m’ word, i glanced at the clock (35 minutes in, if you’re curious). the vet winced.

now, originally my veteran was going to vote for mccain. largely because they’ve both been through war, and the vet was thinking that mccain would have some good ideas for getting the hell out of iraq. oh yeah… the veteran does not approve of our being there. he’s one of those guys that went because it’s their job, got incredibly tweaked in the head after his second extended tour, and had to be discharged for medical reasons we’re not going to be discussing. after the biden/ palin debate, he said the words every woman wants to hear: you’re right. i’m voting for obama.

and also: that woman scares the crap outta me.

and also also: why won’t the republicans look at the democrats during the debate?

aw. little mini-pumpkins on a stick.

little nubs of autumn

my point in all this is pretty simple. elections are coming. like, lightning fast. honestly, i’m not here to tell you who to vote for. i made a choice a long time ago to keep politics off my blog, and i’m still sticking to that. but kids… i can’t tell you how important it is that you get out there and vote your ass off. get informed, get a pen, and get going. here in oregon, we have the mail-in ballots, which is endlessly cool to me. the veteran has filled his out, i’ve filled mine out. so, that’s two votes for obama.

the vet says, vote for the smart guy. and vote with the knitters.

see? there’s hope for him and his shell-shocked brain.

vote vote vote.

coolest. purse. ever.

i had to share this with y’all. a local portland artist makes these awesome bags. check her out. she’s queen bee creations.

also? i met the weirdest dog this past weekend. her name is beene.

she’s part gremlin. and i do NOT have a double chin.

thanks for stopping by.