Jellies, Giant. Waterworld.

Sketched up a couple more jellyfish and though I am not extremely pleased with their overall form at the moment, I went ahead and added some divers to play up their scale. Not sure what else I'll do with this picture; I'd scanned and printed a couple to 'play' with as usual. Coincidentally, I saw some REAL giant jellyfish (Echizen kurage) online and couldn't believe their massive size. Creepy.
Teg is the foreground diver, courtesy of Facebook, and I've aleady darkened up both humans and added obscure detail...

Joey Krug. My Preference for Strange. The King.

(Just killing 3 birds with 1 stone here. Don't think Mr. Krug is strange!)

Thought I would post some of an incomplete sketch I scanned today...I might try drawing some more of these mindless Jellies as they are pretty cool and blobby, yet somewhat forbodingly evil...heh heh heh.

I recalled earlier today that I'd never blogged about an email I received from Joey Krug several weeks ago, former Limousine band member, which I'd blurbed about in May. Joey was nice enough to tell me that he is practicing some kick-a$$ music and bound to start up playing soon. (I hope!)
However, I have no way of knowing when, because I am "MySpace Incompetent" and cannot communicate.
Alas. My only hope is to be emailed again. And don't worry, I'm not a stalker.

Interestingly (only to me, I assume), I discovered that 'forboding' can also be spelled 'foreboding' since my spell-check is causing me to second-guess myself.
You know, I don't want to do something stupid and spell 'meat' as 'meet' or something! Bailey says that this photo of Dan's HAS to be Burger King in Hawaii!

Congrats Again!

Tegan received another medal--he called on Monday evening after what sounded like several days without SLEEP. The USS Greeneville is out of dry-dock now and he had lots of exciting comments on this feat. Mom says "Get some sleep!"
Fake medal here ...I have no idea what is should be!

Dark Indian

Found this pic in a drawer... I think in about '87, I worked for an illustrator for a couple months...was inspired to go home and try something, so I took 2 scraps of illustration board and glued them together, carving into the top one with an exacto knife because I like texture that I can feel I think the feathers are carved out too...and its a combo of acrylics, oil, turpentine, ink, colored pencil. It hangs in a dark corner...

And speaking of Indians, I also came across this pic of me during the early 70's. Before high school anyway. The girl on the horse visited up the road every summer and her dad was a Secret Service Agent for the Pres. I look like I should of been cast in the movie BILLY JACK. (But I did attempt to force the rest of my siblings to wear painted-up fringed pillow case dresses and loin clothes and build willow huts one summer...!)

Relationships or Sinking Ships?

I can't believe one can actually sign up (and pay) money to "Meet-an-Inmate" to procure a new 'friend' or future husband! Oh I am so naive to think that I wouldn't believe something like this existed, but I was lead to this sight somewhat cleverly in another blog I read.

I laugh as I write this...but after I looked at the prison site, then took some time to check out OUR locals that live within 15 miles of our zipcode under the Yahoo Personals site (No, I would not sign up) ...well... I think the Inmate pictures appear more 'normal'! (You'll've heard me discuss the 'Deliverance' types around this neck of the woods.)

EEGADS! Give me a break! Some whackocreepjob that claims to be 50 has all the wrinkles of a 75 year old...and the other dude that says he's 36-- GUFFAW! He is way older than me! I KNOW it!
LIARS! LIARS!
I don't know what they're expecting, but if any woman around here is stupid enough to believe them... HA HA! Well, butter my buns and call be a biscuit! I've had my good laugh for the day...but hope none of them are intelligent enough to come across THIS.
Shivers! The prisoners look more sane...!

Congrats to the Double Wide Stripes!

Way to go LIEUTENANT Teske! Tegan now has to upgrade all his uniforms again... Good job...I don't think I could work those hundred hour weeks! Hey....scoot over closer to that gal! : )

Wamego Homecoming

I see our English teacher, Beth Lang, has posted a nice pic of the Homecoming Candidates on the Sports Booster site:

Of course I had to play with it!

Green Fairy Font

I rather freaked out last week, thinking I had done something credit-cardly stupid when ordering a bottle of absinthe online. I'd shot an email to Okanagan Spirits in Canada and got a return phone call 3 minutes later, whereupon a heavily-accented, polite man said I'd get a shipment in 10-12 days--turns out it was much faster!

Look at the pretty, intricate font--the bottle arrived much larger than I expected; tall with a long neck. Can't wait to give it a sample! Maybe next week....

Art Joke.

Yes, I understand that people think that this guy (now deceased) is a wonderful painter; usually the same type of folk that think deer and pheasant portraits are really 'art'.


SILENT SCREAM!

More Town...

Just some buildings and things around town. Luckily its still green and not yellow and dry like it usually becomes in July/August. This year we've had million dollar rains.
The potato cellar building is partially sunk into this hillside. It contains 3 apartments and is about 2 blocks S. of me. I will have to ask someone about its history...





The Dutch Mill at the City Park, which grinds grain when working properly.



The hazy pic is Rambler's Bar and Grill--delicious steak on Thursday night for under ten bucks. You can see the hind end of a police car to the north of the building. The police station used to be the old library...so there is now another bar in town--people weren't comfortable stumbling out of Ramblers in full view of der Polizei! Ramblers closes around 9:00 now, so you have to spend the rest of your evening at Lincoln Street Station. That other building that says 'Barleycorns' is the smokeless bar, but I haven't seen it open yet.















Then there is the little museum building down by the park.. lots of interesting items in there. Copfriend has lots of interesting items in his backyard too, where he restores countless Jeeps....hmmm, I broke the gas pedal on mine last time I tried to start the engine...hmmm!








Lastly, this big building used to be a funeral parlor. One of my son's friends rented part of it before it was completely made into apartments. We went in one night about 1:00 am and saw remnants of funeral parlor stuff--like the antique makeup kits, old bottles (embalming fluid?), piles of what looked like ashes (huh?), all very dark and creepy--you can go on the flat part of the roof and yell out the odd windows at other people who are wobbling home from the bar across the street!

Oh, and the gas station is my 'coffee house' across the alley from me. Coffee is a quarter a cup, if you bring your own!

Honeymoon Adventure

My daughter just called and had me chuckling with tales from Alaska. Already forewarned by my Fairbanks sister-in-law that 'fashion wasn't an importance here', we already knew that “pretty” didn't matter as long as you're warm!

Since being in Alaska a week, Bail said she had never seen people so pale in her life (I couldn't live like that—I HAVE to have some sun)--and all their little facial imperfections showed due to their ghostly palor...I asked if the dental hygiene compared to the British, (they've been through some very small, poor towns), but she said “You can't see their teeth cause they all have beards. Even the ladies.” Smart Aleck!

At Valdez, they watched the tankers pulling in and out amongst the fog; and later got to see/smell the finale of a salmon run when thousands of them just lay and rot. They ventured around Anchorage, went through Denali, stayed in Fairbanks, had caught 8 salmon, and today were heading to Seward.

Now I hope nobody suddenly decides to call this in, because my daughter pulled a shocking stunt which surprised me, but I have to say I am definitely impressed:

While traveling slowly down a road in the middle of nowhere, looking at the Pipeline, she saw a snowshoe rabbit hopping along—and proceeded to shoot it from a moving vehicle (I did mention that IT was moving too!), hitting it directly in the back of the head right between the ears! That sounds like a crackpot shot-- with a .45 pistol and I'm sure she surprised herself and probably wouldn't have done it had she had time to think. Murder!

Now I know a rabbit is no big deal to Kansans and they did try to cook it over the campfire later so as not to waste it—they do hunt/fish for food, but it proved to be so old and tough that it bled juices all over but was too hard to stick a knife point into—I can imagine a Clan of the Cave Bear scene, trying to gnaw away at a bloody bunny bone. She is salting the skin and was enamored by it's giant paws.

She said they had visited with a Tanner and he'd shown them all around his shop petting all the animal skins. She didn't know that a beaver pelt had to have the longer rough hairs pulled out—that no one around that village performed that trade anymore and they were shipped to Europe for that task. She thought that Nate could become a professional beaver plucker since there was a hole in the market for that job..., but I told her she should probably never say that phrase aloud again! C'mon--it sounded bad!

Anyway, I hadn't realized they'd been sleeping in a tent—I thought they were hanging out with my brother and wife at the Base for a while and using their camper. Despite the cool weather, they'd decided to venture off on their own and hadn't stopped at a motel yet, pitching their tent at campsites or anywhere they found a somewhat safe-looking spot.

Did I say safe? One night they stayed in an area filled with Tsunami warning signs. (Break-offs from glaciers cause huge tidal waves and I'd seen the devastation on the Discovery channel-yikes—but isn't that a springtime phenomenon?-- or was it due to earthquakes?) They were awakened in the night by a horrible sound—not a herd of moose or family of bear crashing through the brambles, but really loud and rough and rumbly (at this point she says to Nate over the phone: “I was NOT in tears!”. It was a landslide that landed across/up the road from them; the week of nonstop rain had loosened the boulders enough to start a nice black avalanche. Whew. Don't park at the base of a mountain like that RV did...

Now wearing duck hats to hide the fact that they hadn't bathed in quite some time, the two honey-mooners decided that small Baby-wipe squares were not enough for cleanliness and you just can't jump in the ocean like Hawaii-- so off to find warm water. And soap!

August Insects

When I was on the front porch roof painting with a brushsicle--my brush duct-taped on a stick (afraid of heights/ladder too freaky), Brigg 'rescued' me from a nest of wasps.
I thought he was just going to spray them, but he whipped out a lighter too and did the Schwarzenegger/Van Damme immense ball of fire/flame-thrower thing while I screamed in fright and had an angry heart-attack. (Sorry, I don't really like Jean-Claude, so I usually refer to him as Dirt Clod Van Damme and I was pissed as hell at this form of weaponry, because Brig nearly burnt me, the roof, and the nearby cedar tree and I don't approve of torches created from aerosol cans... Idiots!)
Red arrow=too high!

But the wasps are everywhere.

This is the time of year when I usually head out to a pond/pasture/roadside and observe bug activities, so I hope my trucks repaired soon. They're very prevalent now and our high school used to give a major insect-collecting project so we have an immense net. If you go out to MudFeet Farmer's pasture, several dung beetles will be rolling poo along the cow paths while helicopter-size dragonflies hover overhead.

Huge hornets have been digging burrows on this block; here's one straddling his victim. I watched him buzz slowly around the yard, struggling with the weight of a huge cicada:


Three times I've seen an ichneumon traveling around waist high, but every time I grab the net, it disappears, so this one's from google: (It looks like a flying thread.)

Brigg caught the biggest praying mantis I've ever seen (besides Bail's); here's it's pic through glass. It was about 5" long with creepy skinny legs:



Later 3 of us roamed the neighborhood and saw some swallowtail caterpillers and the monarch/tobacco worm ones--greens white black yellow--very pretty. We used to freeze and pin our creatures in the bugbox, but now we just keep them for a day and release them for other to enjoy...or fear!

The Release of the Mantis:


And here's the back of the house where I moved the little ladder which I will NOT use. It's laying there at an angle. Guess I'll have to find a longer pole for my brushsicle, as you can see where I chickened-out on the scraping! See that dinosaur sheet hanging over the window? That would be Tegan's and I better take it down before it fades since he got it when he was in 5th grade, I think! I'm sure he would want it on his bed!

War of the Worlds Art

I'd posted a drawing I started the other night based on a cool jellyfish picture and I couldn't help noticing it's resemblance (in my mind anyway!) to the Tripods on the War of the Worlds movie starring Tom Cruise, though I've cropped the leg section a bit short here...
When this was a brief TV series in the late 80's, I could NOT stay up late and watch it--gave me a really negative/creeped-out feeling. (Other things I couldn't bear to watch: China Beach, Platoon, & American History X-- in which I nearly hysterically scream "Turn it off! Now! Turn the channel!"'-- How someone thought up curb-stompin'... makes me physically sick.)
Anyway, the Opening Ceremony for the Olympics were on, so I was going to sit down and sketch! But during a commercial I flipped the channel and War of the Worlds was on...so I just HAD to watch the Tripods...
Here's a little more Jelly; observed upside down, it resembles little humans....

Parade Pic

Pottawatomie County

Last night we traveled north to the tiny town of Onaga; this is where the Pott County Fair is held every year and has been since the dawn of time.
I'd never watched the "Miss Pottawatomie" contest before, but Brig's gal Paula was a participant so we wanted to see her perform. It was very nice, held in the high school auditorium with really well-executed paintings of old cowtown buildings as a backdrop.
We'd heard that since the dawn of time, an Onaga girl usually wins the crown, and 5 of the 8 girls were from there. All 8 performed a cute dance with barefeet, jeans, and cowboy hats. They all answered a question--Paula was contestant number 5 but the announcer accidentally called her by the wrong name and she was very tactful when emphasizing that she was 'Paula...!"
All the little ladies had spent an afternoon of questions/answers with 3 judges--NOT local.
Most everyone's 'talent' was either a dance, or an oral skit, but Paula sang a lovely operetta song in Italian and she had graceful arm and hand movements and natural poise. I think she'd won a state award with this song at school, but I hadn't heard it yet.)
Later, the announcer read comments about the girls' achievements while they walked in their evening gowns and Paula had some pretty impressive items... besides the numerous activities/clubs/extracurricular things she belongs to, she'd been to KU to Girls State for a week last month. She had been voted "Supreme Court Justice", some type of "Judge" and had also taken a bar exam and received a 100%. She'd also designed the blue formal she was wearing and beaded it, and also the 'Elizabethan' type-opera dress. (The pic up top is a fake crown on an old photo: Paula and Brig wore maroon to a school dance.)
As the judges left to put in their final votes, an awesome comedian came on stage and had us laughing til our sides ached--he was quite clever.
At the end, we waited on the edge of our seats...what was going to happen? Another Wamego girl ended up winning a Congeniality scholarship, an Onaga girl won some type monetary certificate too, then Paula ended up winning the overall title, so it was really fun!
So, this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, she will have to hand out ribbons/prizes/medals to all of the Fair contestants, so this means from 8:00am to late-- in a livestock pen, stepping around the poo!
Baaaaa.....We will go watch the parade on Sunday at 1:00 and collect candy for the little kids, wave at Paula, and bake in the sun!
Congrats!

CMM or Motorcycle Steve

Central Mechanics Man came by the yard a couple times yesterday—catching me pacing & yakking on my phone, then hammocking and yakking on my phone—guess that looks pretty lazy!

When Steve rode by the 2^nd time, not in his truck, I could imagine: the freedom of the blacktop guiding his way, the wind through his hair, exposed to the sun….aaahhh the joys of a Harley, I mean the Riding Lawnmower puttering on by on a return journey from the fixit shop…ha ha!

Motorcycle Steve informed me he was going home to mess on his computer, thus this blog. Yes CMM lives a block from the river, a block from Messiah Man, but I haven’t had any reason to mention him before, other than the fact that he doesn’t tie his shoes at 5:30am and I have seen him on the lawnmower in his yard, performing a daredevil hairpin turn on his extremely steep hill, nearly spilling himself into the street….ha ha again!

I should mention that many ‘normal’ people that do appear at the gas station in the wee morning hours do not have their boots or shoes tied—this must require a certain amount of caffeine before one’s spine is ready to take on the challenge of flexing down—and rising in an upright position again. I don’t know….I slip on flipflops.

Now, when writing a blog, they require illustration to hold your interest, so I was going to put on this Harley pic of my favorite rider and the Harley logo reminded me of an incident at Walmart this morning. (If you go fairly early, it’s not ungodly busy and I usually enjoy Gay Greeter Man gush ‘I jus luv yore haaiir!’. I feel sorry for this guy because I wonder if he has many friends.) I digress.

Over by the health/beauty aids I saw a large African American man talking on his cell phone—confused—standing by the feminine hygiene products. This amused me until he suddenly turned around and said, “Hey! I need help! Uh uh…what are ‘WINGS’? My girlfriend wants….” Etc. I was probably turning red (he wasn’t) and I just pointed to a box. Then he wanted to know which ones were heavy duty (in my mind I wanted to laugh and say ‘Ugh. The ones that feel like you’re wearing a diaper?’), but that would be too much unpleasant and tacky information, so I just pointed at another box while he read her the text…

Here's some better WINGS:

& another pic of Billy the God of Chopper's Inc..... (having trouble posting pics, hope his gorgeousness is here....)

Do CANADIAN Painters...

sing?
Dan, a painter from Canada, used his creativity to blog about Wamego KS. He posts interesting views here, although it looks as though he's out of commission at the moment (click his pic):


So, do professional painters in Canada SING?
Do they sing at 2:00am?
Do they sing while skipping, strolling, dancing (weaving!) down the middle of a dark street?
Do they belt out Judy Garland's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in a deep, rich voice?

Just checking.
Sigh. I realize that's another 'Oz' reference, but it can't be helped...one more of my neighborhood's true little oddities.
Let me know when you do the same!





(This moomlight painter DID remain clothed.)

Almost Married....!

A couple pics off of Sandy's camera--I don't have PhotoShop at the moment and don't want to ruin quality, but I think they are so lovely! Of course, I'm quite smitten by this darling couple! Just turn your heads sideways for the moment.

Raspberries and the G-String

I know you're thinking those two subjects are not even REMOTELY related, but yes folks, they are! I CAN combine yet another whacko with the prickery brambles of raspberries while writing another blog...

Landing in the lawn on my stomach in my spectacular touchdown dive, I managed to save a bowl of black raspberries from spilling as I freed myself from the clutches of a particularly viscous clump of cane. I was laying there in the crabgrass thinking, “Oh crap!”, because I had just spotted a ton more berries from my new angle—ankle high, looking up. This year these canes have gone ape-shit (or hog-wild, to be a bit milder) and instead of the usual waist and shoulder high heighth , they are way taller than my head and so thick that I might find Sleeping Beauty back in there...or the Prince!

I learned from past experience that wearing a tank top and shorts are NOT the way to fend your way through a patch unless you want to look like a lacerated fool, so I usually don army pants, long sleeves, and heavy shoes, which tend to trip me up.

I want these berries for the final Raspberry Liqueur wedding cake, so I was working up my resolve to head back in to get the lower berries. (Don't squat down in the midsts of thorny brambles until you tie your hair up too, unless you want to experience what a mammoth felt like in the La Brea Tar Pits.)

My dad gave me some raspberry shoots years ago; his patch was linear, tied up, trim and neatly controlled. I was thinking of this when I remembered an incident from several years ago...NOT all the plants were from HIM!

An old house down the alley was going through a restoration and part of the interior was torn down to 2 x 4's. The back yard was a wild mess of weeds, rotten lumber, and raspberries. Naturally, I had to 'save' the plants from future demolition, so I asked a worker if they cared whether I dug them up. “Hell no! Take what you want!” I said I'd probably walk over after lunch...

I returned a short while later with a wagon and shovel, but only thought it polite to let someone know I was back, just in case they'd changed their minds. I hollered at the house because I heard banging and then finally stepped inside-- to a freakin' bizarre scene: A lone, blond guy was standing there in a g-string, sweating up a storm, installing rolls of pink insulation between the walls... I gasped and wheeled around, frozen-- didn't have a clue what to do or think!

Oh my God! I think he asked if I was 'uncomfortable' and I didn't actually turn back around, yet still carried on a conversation while pretending to be nonchalant.....Oh my God! To think that someone would be messing with itchy insulation all over their bodies...I wondered if he really was just plain hot like he claimed, or if he did it on purpose to freak me out. I think it was for the reaction, which I wasn't about to let on that I thought anything was wrong and give him that smug satisfaction...

Well, I dug my plants, wheeled them home, then forbid the kids to play out back for the rest of the week.

Ahhh well, these raspberries are awesome anyway, despite the pricks!

Prairie Springs Cottage

Prairie Springs Cottage is a lovely restored barn that is now on-line! Here is the link:
Prairie Springs Cottage

I can see the corral behind Barry in the background and Nate's cool driftwood sculpture gracing the upper wall, along with Bailey's cow and calf in some of the website's photos. How cute!
Sandy and Barry Clay have created a little piece of heaven here...
What a wonderful endeavor! I will certainly pass on the word.