safe

The illustration above is for Illustration Friday. This week's topic: "Safe." I used Corel Painter's Croquil and Watercolor brush tools. The Watercolor tool is more realistic-looking than the Digital Watercolor tool in Corel Painter, but is also slower to render. I'd like to start experimenting with it, though, so I'm creating these images in lower-res and smaller files. I figure that I can always recreate them at a higher resolution if I like them enough.

I am SO enjoying weather these days...great for running outdoors. I'm only too aware that winter is going to leap upon us from behind very soon, so am taking full advantage of outdoor runs while I can. I never bring my iPod anymore...I'm getting far more pleasure out of listening to the wind in the trees, the birds, and thinking about my writing. I find running hugely inspirational and de-stressing.

Also very much enjoying learning about CSS. I think I may actually start experimenting with a new template for Inkygirl soon. I'm not sure if I'll convert Inkygirl to Wordpress...there doesn't seem to be a way of displaying entries from multiple blogs on one page with Wordpress. Right now, I use a Movabletype Plugin to combine three blogs into Inkygirl.

Anyway, I've brewed up a cup of Casablanca tea from our Paris trip and have happily settled down for a Puck's Hollow day. Time to roll up my sleeves and start revising....

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Squirrels ate my high-speed access

So our home phone is on the fritz again (no incoming calls) AS WELL AS OUR HIGH-SPEED INTERNET ACCESS. The latter is far more upsetting to me than regular phone woes, as you can imagine. No one can call me? That's a nuisance. I can't reliably access the Web or my e-mail? AAUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!! Hopefully I'll be able to post this entry...the problem seems to be intermittent.

The guy from Bell came by to check things out and says that the main cable serving this area has been damaged; some of our neighbours are affected as well. He says that in his opinion, it was probably squirrels gnawing on the cable that caused this problem.

Did you hear that?

SQUIRRELS.

Grrr....

Hopefully someone will be coming by later today to fix the cable.

I have a ton of work to do today, trying to work around our flakey Internet access, hence this short Blathering rather than a sumptuous description of our Hashimoto experience (that's still coming). Feel free to visit the following instead:

-- Go to this YouTube search and click on "Das Ubertuber" for a strange but intriguing student film project based on Ookla The Mok's song, "Mr. Potato Head."

-- Visit Graceful Edge, a start-up Web site for outdoorsy women. They recently hired me to do a ton of illustrations (I just noticed they even used some in their logo); my illos are mostly being included in their free daily newsletter, Daily Edge.

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pluto-less and daikon cranes and BABIES!

Congratulations to John & Kristen Chew on the birth of their baby boy yesterday!!

Above: Thanks to Antonia T. (and Monty Python, of course) for the text in the comic above. I was inspired by a comment she posted in response to my LJ entry about Pluto no longer being an official planet.

From the LJ discussion, I learned that many children had been taught the phrase "My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets" to learn the names of the (then) nine planets. In German, this was apparently "Mein Vater Erklärt Mir Jeden Samstag Unsere Neun Planeten" ("My father explains to me every Saturday our nine planets"). In the UK: "Mother Very Eagerly Made A Jam Sandwich Under No Protest (Heinlein had 'Jelly' rather than 'Jam', and I believe E was different as well). A for Asteroids..." (from keristor)


Suggestions for a new mnemonic sentence that came from the discussion:

"My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles" (from vixyish)

"My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nothing." (from peteralway)

"Mother Very Eagerly Made a Jam Sandwich Using Nutella." (from technoshaman)

That last suggestion, of course, evolved into a heartfelt discussion about Nutella. I love LJ. :-)

Some of you have been asking if it's ok to link to the comic above or the one below. Sure, feel free.




Thanks for the anniversary congrats, everyone. Jeff and I had a wonderful time at Hashimoto's last night...definitely one of my all-time favourite dining experiences.

I will be posting a detailed report with sumptuous descriptions and photos soon, but here's just one of the eight courses that were served during this incredible, unforgettable meal:



In the larger bowl: two delectable pieces of king crab wrapped in a thin layer of cooked egg, delicately flavoured hamo (pike conger fish) wrapped in seaweed, crunchy deep-fried corn on top. I'm sorry, but I don't know the proper Japanese names.

The crane sculpture was hand-carved from daikon by the chef and was so gorgeous that it took an act of will to finally dismember it and dip the tangy pieces in the mouthwatering carrot sauce in the smaller bowl. Note the "Happy Anniversary to Debbie and Jeff" mini-banner across the dipping sauce. :-)

More details in an upcoming Blathering!

You can find out more about the restaurant at http://www.kaiseki.ca/ but if you're going to be viewing the site at work, be sure to turn off your sound first (the main page is accompanied by fairly loud music, unfortunately).

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WWFC, herb corpses, and oatmeal cookies

Will Write For Chocolate has been updated. Column topic: "Resources for Horror Writers." Plus a chance to win one of my fantabulous new mini Will Write For Chocolate buttons!

I forgot to mention that my herb garden did not survive two weeks of neglect very well despite the automatic plant waterers that I bought from Lee Valley Tools (they overwatered the plants; I need to experiment more to figure out how to regulate the flow). I lost my three basil plants, lavender, parsley and sage. I'm most unhappy about the basil because I use it quite a bit in my cooking, and because it's going to be impossible to find any basil plants in garden stores at this time of year.

A question to your houseplant types: How do you cope when you're away for extended periods of time?



With the (slightly) cooler weather, I'm enjoying running again. I find the best times are first thing in the morning (I tend to get up at around 6:30 or 7 am and work for a couple hours first) or at the end of the day. I'm running without music much more than with these days...I find I get some of my best writing ideas during this time, either new ideas or mentally working out problem spots.



And finally...am I the only one who finds this wording on the cookie bag above a bit odd? "You will enjoy their wholesome, homemade taste so much they will remind you of Mom!"

Perhaps there wasn't room for "Mom's cookies" but I couldn't help but be assaulted by images of cannibalistic offspring...

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Will Write For Chocolate updated

(updated 4:58 pm with berry plant identification at bottom...thanks, R.A.!)

Happy birthday to my mom-in-law Ginny today!

Will Write For Chocolate has been updated. Column topic: "Follow-up: Writing Spaces."

Still working on a dial-up connection. This severely limits my Web browsing capabilities, particularly since Jeff and I often need to share bandwidth. Every time I chafe at the glacial download rate, I remind myself of when all we HAD was a dial-up connection, back in "the caveman days," as one of my nieces says :-D. I remember how THRILLED I was to pick up our 300 baud Hayes Smartmodem years ago. Then again, I also remember how thrilled I was the first time I saw Pong.

Geez, I feel old. :-)

Thanks to Jenn and Scott for pointing me to What's That Bug, in response to my spider question yesterday. Looks like a great site!

Thanks also to R.A. for identifying the berry plant as a Clintonia Borealis, or Blue Bead Lily, whose fruit is mildly poisonous to humans.

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