those crazy kids from around the block
After yesterday’s triumph with the “orange man”, who incidently has found a rudimentary mouth, I got “inspired” or somesuch and started work on the first prototype head for the main toon of the animation that I will be working on. I expect it to evolve as I practice more with clay and learn the tools and tricks. Anyway… here is a quick couple of snapshots in case you’re interested.
By the way, Colorado trip was wonderful. Pics will be up in the gallery tonight, along with a blog entry.
So, our vacation went well. On Friday we ended up not getting as much in as we had hoped for….but that’s because we had a slight incident on Thursday night with some Motini’s. Our friend decided to make dinner for us, as well as a few drinks….well, a few led into complete and utter drunkeness! I felt slightly drunk, we were wandering around their back yard, and then Jackie came home….we were all talking to her in the kitchen, and then we decided to go to bed. All of a sudden I felt rather ill. I spent a good while in the bathroom…….and then the next morning Chris spent a good while in the bathroom. So, after much needed sleep and rest we headed out later in the morning for some decent greasy breakfast….and then off to Golden. We did the Coors Brewery tour, which was okay….but they really didn’t tell you much more than you learn on a History Channel show on beer. Everything is top secret apparently! That took quite a while to do, so then we quickly drove over to Red Rocks for some pictures. The stairs there will make you die!!!! I started out okay, and then a quarter of the way up I was completely out of breath. High altitude and being overweight does not work so well together. Afterwards we came back to their place as they had some stuff to do with their refinancing signing. For dinner we went to the oh so yummy Thai Garden…..their food is so good, it makes you want to instantly die and go to heaven!
On Saturday we got up went to breakfast, and then headed South to Castle Rock for the wine festival. There were over 20 wineries there, plus some yummy oil dipping place, and crafters, and the like. I couldn’t make it to the end though…..my nose was numb, and I was hot. We did at least 2-3 tastes per booth, plus I had a full glass from one of the booths. We came home with some great wine, and 2 awesome wine carriers that were included in our ticket price. I am hoping if we go around that time next year we’ll be able to go. Then we came back to Chris & Jackies and lounged for a bit before heading out for some mexican dinner. On Sunday we went to the Flea Market out in Commerce City. It was huge!!! Chris & Brad equated it to Shipshawana, I’ve never been so I don’t know. We walked about half of it, and I was done because it was so stinkin’ hot out! We came back, lounged around, ate an awesome morracan stew made by Jackie, and went to bed.
On Monday we left about 3:30am and headed South/East on I-70. We decided to take 2 days to come home this year, and try the South route to see if it was anymore interesting than Nebraska. It is! We did 8 states in 12 days this year, and coming home was much nicer this way….although I don’t think we’ll stay at the Lake St. Louis Days Inn again. We made Kansas by daybreak, and saw some interesting signs along the way. Worlds Larges Prarie Dog, and a 5 legged steer! Oh, and Exit 292 the Oz museum in Wamego, KS. Brad was kind enough to make the 9 mile detour so I could go to the great land of Oz! It was kinda cheaky, but hilarious none the less. It’s basically some guys collection of stuff related to THe Wizard of Oz that got out of hand, so he made a museum of sorts with the help of the state. Most of it was replica’s. I took a ton of pics, so you can experience it too! Then it was back down KS 99 to I-70 so we could make it to our hotel. We stayed just outside of St. Louis in Lake St. Louis at a Days Inn. It wasn’t too divey….but a chair was broken, and you could hear motorcycles most of the night. It was a place to sleep, and that’s what we did. We awoke at 4am, drove around St. Louis in the dark, and headed to Indy. Then we caught I-69 and headed North towards my parents house. We arrived there around 5:45pm for some pizza. On Wednesday we went blueberry picking with Larry & Meghan. Afterwards we had dinner with Meghan’s parents, sister & her husband, and her neice Sophia. Oh, and Meghans grandma came too. After dinner it was time to load the car….we got most of it to fit, with the exception of the things we forgot! That’s okay, we’ll see everyone in a few weeks for Clare’s birthday.
Yesterday was spent catching back up on my rest, unpacking, and finding new homes for the souvineer’s we bought. We had to go buy a replacement card reader, as we left ours in CO for our digital camera. I was hoping Brad would have put the pics up last night, but he got side tracked with his clay. There are a ton of pics, so I am sure that it will take a while to get them up anywyay. Today it is off to playgroup this morning, with laundry followed in the afternoon. I kinda hate going on vacation sometimes….there’s so much prep before you go, and then there’s the unpacking when you get back. I guess it was worth it to be able to go out to CO and see some sites though. Maybe I need a maid!?!?!?!
Just a quick update to post some new sculpture pics. I’m getting a lot better I think, but I still need to head to the art supply and get some better tools. This is all done with my fingers and a small plastic sculpting tool that came with the clay… obviously not all that smooth.
So….here’s the update on life in CO on vacation. On Sunday I was invited out with Jackie & her mom to go see “The Devil Wears Parada”, as well as go to lunch. We went to a yummy mexican place, and then did some shopping before the movie. The movie was good, and a highy reccommended chick flick. They could have cut out the last 15-20 minutes, but what can you ask for from a chick flick! On Monday we went to one of the nicer malls in town, and shopped around. Then we came back, and lounged around our woderful host & hostesses home. On Tuesday we celebrated Brad’s birthday by going to Dave & Busters. It’s a video arcade with many bars inside. Afterwards we went over to the movie theater to go see The Pirates of the Carribean. It was an okay movie, kinda long, but many fine Johnny Depp sites were to be seen. Then we came home to go out for fish taco’s with our host’s, followed by an awesome dessert tray that had creame puffs, tiramisu, and some other yummy thing that was completely devowered. On Wednesday we went downtown and shopped along the 16th street mall. They have some really cute shops along the way, and it’s great excersize! We of course went to my favorite shop Breaking the Mold, and bought large amounts of awesome smelling candles. While down there we met Chris for lunch at one of the Brewerys on the strip. VERY yummy beer, and veggie burgers! Today we slept in late, what vacations are all about, and then headed out for some breakfast. Afterwards, we went to the Downtown Aquarium. It was very neat, and had some awesome tanks with some cool fish in it. We watched a few of the tanks get fed, and I was able to touch a horse shoe crab, as well as a couple of sting rays. We took a ton of pics, and some neat videos too. So be on the look out in the photo gallery as soon as we get home. Tomorrow we are going with Chris out to Golden, and Red Rocks, to do some touristing. Our plans include a Coors brewery tour, and lunch in Boulder. On Saturday we are VERY excited about going to Castle Rocks wine festival, to do some yummy tasting. I think on Sunday we are hitting a rather large dirt mall, and then we are planning on leaving on Monday towards MI. We don’t know if we’re gonna stay in St. Louis and do the SOuth route, or not, but it’s in our thinking plans right now. Clare is having fun with her Pa Pa & Buscia this week (aka Brad’s parentals), and this weekend she is headed to my parents until we come and get her. Moonshadow is with her too. Overall it’s been a relaxing vacation, and we can’t wait to get up into the mountain foot hills tomorrow. It’ll be a bummer to go home, but I guess Brad has to be to work on Thursday, and I have to return to Motherhood at some point. Til Nextime…
So….we made it out to Colorado for our annual vacation. We left Thursday 7/13 evening to go to Brad’s parents. After getting Clare & Moonshadow to bed we got about 3 hours of sleep, woke about 2:30am to head out. Clare and Moonshadow are of course on vacaion at Pa Pa & Buscia’s, and next weekend will be on vacation with Grandma and Pa Pa. We stopped just inside of IN to fill our tank, get some fresh ice, and the usual energy drinks to help us make it cross country. I started out driving the early shift, and made it into Iowa by about 9:30am or so. Then it was Brad’s turn to drive for 6 hours. I think the first 6 hours are the easiest, it’s those last 12 hours that are killer! We stopped along the way for the usual potty breaks, ate breakfast at Dunkin Donuts….they have an awesome breakfast sandwich on a crossiant that hit the spot! We had terrible, greasy truck stop pizza at the Cum & Go in NE somewhere. We decided to wait until we made it into Denver to eat dinner…which was a great choice, as we had sushi, always a plus! We made our worst tme ever this year….it took us about 19 hours to get out here from Niles. We were held up in some pretty bad Chicago traffic as it was down to 1 lane, and then it rained like it had never before. I couldn’t see shit, with the fog and heavy rains. I just kept my eyes peeled for the tail lights in front of me, and in the right hand lane. Neither of us slept very well, and were whooped by the time we arrived. Yesterday we slept in, ate a leisurly breakfast, and did absolutely nothing! We watched some movies, and munched all afternoon. Today is looking pretty similiar. I paid our few bills, to assure that we don’t overspend on our vacation, Chris & Brad are out to Wally World, and the Asian food store for some things, and Jackie is off to a kick boxing class. So, I am all alone! I dream about these moments, as I get very few of them. So, I am sitting in a quiet house, eating my Dr. Pepper Jelly Bellies…..my favorite! I think I may go read for a bit when I am done here. We have no definite plans, as we tend to fly by the seat of our pants out here. I have a “few” things on my list….I never get to do all of the things I find, but we always do something interesting none the less.
Here it is… my first clay toon. Be kind… this is the first time I’ve really sculpted anything… and this is just a head. It’s quite small… only about 1.5″ in diameter. I need some better tools to work in that tight of a space or I need to get some more clay.
So I cancelled both accounts to World of Warcraft this week. Char isn’t playing anymore and I really don’t have time to play at all anymore. I think I’m back to signing up for too many projects, but I’m HAPPY… I have LOTS of creative stuff going on and I feel ENERGIZED. I am probably feeling the most motivation I have in years. A month or so back, an old friend, Rob, posted to staggercat.com and we got back in touch and have been brewing a couple of new projects.
The first is the idea of a long-distance “track sharing” recording project, where we all record our parts in our respective recording studios and then get together at the end of the project and do the final mix and mastering. We going to start with a couple of tunes and see how it goes. I’m really geeked about this. I played in a band with Rob in high school and part of college (Dead End Roads) and I’m really excited to be working with him again. It sounds like we’ll eventually get the whole “old crew” together to work on the project.
The second project is a script for an animated pilot episode for a show that Rob wrote around a comic that he has created. It’s brilliant stuff and again, I’m geeked to be working on this. I’m going to try my hand at stop-motion animation based on clay models. I have a lot of pre-work to do, but I think this is going to be a real growth project for me… completely different than anything I’ve ever done and I’m looking forward to the challenge. This will get some of the want I have to sculpt out of my system too. I’ll post video of the stop-motion study that I’m planning on eastowners.com.
My third project is a NEW BAND! Matt has gotten most of the group together in the Kzoo/Battle Creek area. I suspect that we’ll start rehearsals this fall with recording in the winter time or spring. It is, as of yet, unnamed (as usual), but we have some ideas. Look for rehashing of old tunes and some new ones. We’re trying our hand at some genres that we’ve never played before, so this should be interesting. 
Work is going well. We’re in the midst of removing the company from the parent company, which is one of the more challenging exercises of my career. We will be successful though. We have a great team and I’m confident that the company will come out standing at the other side of carveout. We’re getting to do some really neat things with server virtualization that I think is the future of enterprise IT. If you’re interested in what we’re doing, please drop me a line.
On Friday morning (6/30) I got the call, Grandma had passed in the night. I was never really close with my grandma, but apparently she was really proud of me. I never understood why….I did graduate from college, but I’m a stay at home mom living day to day doing things to keep me busy. But, after talking to my dad….he said, “Look at what you’ve done, in comparison to some of my cousins.” I’ve traveled the world, graduated with my degree in Elementary Education, got married, had Clare, and raised her to be as smart as she can be. I guess when I think about it, my life hasn’t been that bad, and I have done some pretty interesting things. With the death of my Grandma it’s also brought back some memories of me and my brothers at her house when we were younger. We used to spend the night with her, watch tv, and the next day we’d go into town on the bus to go down town for some lunch, and usually go to the movies. Grandma tried really hard to be there for us. So, on Saturday this past weekend we made the trek home for the funeral. Larry flew back in Saturday night, as he was one of the paw bears with the rest of the grandsons. Sunday was visitation, followed by the rosary on Sunday night….and yes, I did do the prayer thing with my family. Even though I don’t practice Catholisim….I know that my Grandma would have wanted me to do it. We got back to my parents house really late, and crashed in bed. On Monday we went to the church, did a full church service…..I thought the priest was going to die on the spot. Or burn the place down when he used the big Easter Candle for support on his way back up the stairs! My mom was trying not to giggle too loudly with the hymnal over her face. Then we went to the cemetary for a quick thing, and we went to the burial plot to see grandma be buried next to my grandpa Boman. Once again the priest coughed his way through the prayers at the cemetary. It was kinda funny, in spite of why we were there. Then it was back to the church for the luncheon, and back to my parents for some rest time for Clare. She was super grouchy! I did the funeral by myself, while Clare hung out with Brad. We thought it was best that she not have to deal with that at such a young age. Sunday night we had 2 of my aunts out with their kids, and my cousin’s kids out for dinner. We brought our fireworks from last year, and shot them off. The kids thought that was lots of fun! Then Brad, Larry, & Frank did some bottle rockets….they got really retarted and started throwing them by hand. We had sparklers, and all sorts of fun for the kids. Clare was skeptical of course, but my cousin’s kids had fun and finally got Clare into it. I sat on the porch swing and rocked my cousin’s baby to sleep. NO….I DO NOT WANT ANOTHER ONE!!!! I was just renting for the evening! And it gave my cousin some time to relax for a bit while her older 2 roasting marshmallows. It was a good night, and I’m really glad we remembered to bring the fireworks & Sparklers this weekend! Then we came home on the 4th. We didn’t make it down to the fireworks, as Clare was very tired from her busy weekend and late night fun. But there’s always next year! Yesterday Brad suprised Clare by taking her to go see “Cars”, and I was able to stay at home and get some things done as well as relax for a bit. Then we had the sitter while we went to get my car fixed. They had to replace the sensor that was broken when they replaced the struts a few weeks ago. We also had them find out why the check engine light was on, as it had come on over the weekend. That took most of the afternoon. Last night we made dinner, and I sorted through the bills to find out how much money we’ll have to go on vacation. These 3 unexpected trips to the other side of the state have kinda thrown us….but it was worth it to see my grandma. It just kinda sucks though, because we won’t be able to do as much with gas prices being so high. Oh well, I guess that’s how it goes.
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