daily monster

this guy draws a monster a day. looks like a good project you could do with a kid or something...

long pose

we've had the same model and pose for the past 2 sessions but both of my attempts last week were so terrible i didn't finish them and ended up leaving early. this week, i got a different spot and a better attitude and a much better outcome. she even has a head!

4 day weekend

our 4 day weekend was wonderful and relaxing. z's place was cold but we kept ourselves busy enough not to freeze too much. we had a great thanksgiving dinner at my sister's place. z and i brought the cheese platter, wine, and dessert. i tried not to stuff myself and think i might have succeeded! on saturday, z and i were back over at my sister's where we made & decorated gingerbread houses. okay, ours was made out of graham crackers rather that gingerbread since neither z nor i are big on gingerbread. we sat around, eating bits of candy, drinking wine, talking a bit and trying to turn candy into objects. it was super fun and i commend z for putting up with my perfectionist tendencies. this was our first time making these and i think we were all impressed by the results!
sunday so far is quiet as i'm sitting at my place, mid-afternoon and still haven't showered! ahhh the long weekend!

this is z's gingerbread man army. they are sent out by the witch to get little boys and girls for her soup.


the marshmallow snowman.


the house

i'm a lemming

seen on r42k & ramble room. stolen from zerodoll.

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought? i was putting in my contacts so i don't believe i was actually thinking.

2. How much cash do you have on you? $51 dollars in cold hard cash.

3. What’s a word that rhymes with “DOOR?” bore

4. Favorite planet? considering i've only visited one planet, it's kind of hard to say. i certainly enjoy the earth, though it's getting a little crowded and most of the tourists are tearing this one to shit so i might need to look for another place soon.

5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone? my cell phone shows the 10 most recent calls and none of those were missed. sometimes i miss my gf then she calls, does that count?

6. What is your favorite ring tone on your phone? i think ringtones in general are silly. what happened to just a plain ol' ring?

7. What shirt are you wearing? a heather grey t-shirt that is advertising the asphalt invitational 2005. here's some pics!

8. Do you “label” yourself? nah, life's to short to be pigeonholed.

9. Name the brand of the shoes you’re currently wearing? per usual, vans.

10. Bright or Dark Room? depends on the situation. during the day, i like a fairly bright room filled with natural light, when i'm watching a movie, i like the room to be dark.

11. What do you think about the person who took this survey before you? i will assume you mean the person i stole this from? well, she is a major hottie, i can tell you that. she's been an incredible friend, lover, and girlfriend for the past 16 months. she loves her kitties. she dresses really nice. and the fact that she puts up with me makes her totally amazing.

12. What does your watch look like? it's a DKNY chronograph. i picked it up last year when i realized i needed to know what time it was.

13. What were you doing at midnight last night? dreaming about a group of guys trying to break into my gf's apt.

14. What did your last text message you received on your cell say? "I think it should be fine. I'll let khars know. thanks!"

15. Where is your nearest 7-11? from where? work or home? jeez these questions are vague...

16. Whats a word that you say a lot? wow.

17. Who told you he/she loved you last? my beautiful girlfriend.

18. Last furry thing you touched? um, do we really need to go there?

19. How many drugs have you done in the last three days? vague. how should i define "drugs"? i take a daily vitamin, i drink caffeinated soda occasionally, i drink a glass of wine with dinner...

20. How many rolls of film do you need developed? quite a few actually. i pulled a few rolls of old film out of some cameras i got off ebay. i've also got a few rolls i've shot with my argoflex & duaflex cameras

21. Favorite age you have been so far? i'm always learning and growing and creating so every new year will be my current favorite.

22. Your worst enemy? me. i'm harder on myself than anyone else could be.

23. What is your current desktop picture? didn't we go over this one a few months ago? at home, it's a pic of my gf. at work, it's a pic of my gf. i took both of the photos...

24. What was the last thing you said to someone? "i'll do that, thanks"

25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to fly what would it be? duh. i don't need to try and find a place for all those animals. i'd rather fly. (just imagine how less stressful i'd be in a plane!)

26. Do you like someone? sure. i like lots of folks.

27. The last song you listened to? look over there to the right. or, click here.

28. What time of day were you born? 8-something at night.

29. What's your favorite number? that depends on where i place my chips.

30. Where did you live in 1987? Edmond, Oklahoma.

31. Are you jealous of anyone? sure, battle of the joneses and everything.

32. Is anyone jealous of you? who wouldn't be, have you seen her?

33. Where were you when 9/11 happened? in bed.

34. What do you do when vending machines steal your money? it depends. if it tried to give me what i want but it didn't fall then i shake the machine, hit it, whatever it takes to get my DAMN CANDY!! otherwise, i shrug, and walk away.

35. Do you consider yourself kind? kind of.

36. If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be? you mean if i had to get more tattoos? then again, the question makes it sound like i'm not going to enjoy the experience. like if everyone had to get a barcode tattoo or something. if it were that way, it'd have to go on my ass. but really, if everyone had to get a tattoo, i doubt we'd get a choice of placement.

37. If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be? the language of love (said in a smarmy accent). i'd actually love to be fluent in all languages.

38. Would you move for the person you loved? certainly.

39. Are you touchy feely? depends on where.

40. What’s your life motto? relax.

41. Name three things that you have on you at all times? this is difficult because i can be forgetful. um, my contacts, my pants, and my shirt. well, that's not so true. um... freckles, a dazed look, and 2 tattoos. yeah.

42. What’s your favourite town/city? i really like oaklandia. it's a great place to live.

43. What was the last thing you paid for with cash? an odwalla wellness fruit drink.

44. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it? errr, i have no idea. i can barely hold a pen, much less write a coherent letter.

45. Can you change the oil on a car? depends on the car but yeah, i've done it before.

46. Your first love: what is the last thing you heard about him/her? well, my first love has and always will be chocolate and the last thing i heard about him/her was that he/she was going to be in a new cookbook that my gf and i might go pick up next week.

47. How far back do you know about your ancestry? back to the 1700's i think. my sister has all the goods on that.

48. The last time you dressed fancy, what did you wear and why did you dress fancy? just a pressed shirt. tie and slacks. i think it was for a wedding but i could be wrong as i tend to forget things easily.

49. Does anything hurt on your body right now?
not until you reminded me of it, thanks. my shins are sore from running yesterday morning. i'm not sure if i have shin splints or what...

50. Have you been burned by love? yes! i had this cookie once that just came out of the oven and the chocolate chips were MOLTEN! and one got on my lip!! owwwiiieeee!!!

foggy sunset

in oaklandia.

slo-mo fun

long pose

back to the naked women.

again, i forgot my other drawing pad so i had to use the more coarse black paper i had in my office. it's okay but just doesn't hold details very well and also can leave a pattern where i apply the charcoal. feh, could'da been better...

why?

do i like this so much? i've been spending HOURS playing with it.

i've made him do loops, huge jumps, a flip or two... whee!

cabo - day 5 & 6

z and i woke up at 6am again and sat around waiting for the others. turned out z's brother-in-law wasn't feeling well so he was going to stay in bed while the rest of us went on our horseback riding trip. we still had the rental car so i drove us to the bull ring where we were supposed to meet. as we got there, we saw a small group leaving saying they thought the horses looked too thin. i only saw one that looked thin and it didn't have a saddle so it wasn't going to be ridden. we all got on our horses and started off. our guide didn't speak any english at all so that made things a little difficult. the sun was out, it was hot and when the horses started trotting a bit, z was getting really bounced around so she was not happy from the start. i tried to stand in the saddle when the trotting started so the bouncies didn't affect me too bad. it was supposed to be an hour but ended up being that plus 20-30 minutes. we rode out to the beach, the guide took a few pictures of us then we rode back. i think we all could have turned around after 10 minutes and would have been perfectly happy but we didn't. girls, if you go, make sure to wear a sports bra.



we hobbled back to the resort, dropped off the rental, ordered pizza and chilled a bit before getting a taxi to the spa. the massage was certainly one the of the better "gifts" we got out of the presentations. they only had 2 masseuses so we had to go in pairs. it went too fast in my opinion. we made it back the taxi guy drop us off in town and we walked around, shopping a little before dinner at another italian place. we had lots and lots of alcohol and again, stumbled back to our room, stopping only to have another round of tequila shots. z's bil and i made it to the hot tub one last time then we all hit the hay.

we woke up a little later, started to slowly pack our things and get ready to go. we all sat around watching tv and a really bad 80's movie starring michael keaton. we said our goodbyes and left for the airport to stand in line for over an hour and a half to CHECK IN. they had the worst setup, a private security company was opening everyone's to-be-checked baggage before sending them to the desk to check in. what was bad was the line was split into 3 other lines (plus 2 for first class) and if one group got held up (as happened in our line) the whole place started to back up. oh yeah, if the first class lines were empty, they pulled a few people from the closest line. so now we had 5 sets of people waiting for the 3 check in spots. the the security people at the head of each line fought between each other as to who's line was more important so they all cut in front of each other and argued while the passengers suffered. wtf? if you go, make sure you're there the required 3 hours before you have to leave because they don't give a rat's ass if you're late.

anyway, we had an amazingly good vacation and i'm looking forward to going on another vacation/adventure soon!

long pose

last night's pose was the 2nd of a 2 week pose. i was in cabo last week so i didn't get the benefit of both nights. to top it off, i forgot my drawing pad so i had to settle for black construction paper with the white charcoal. that didn't work out too well as i didn't get as many different values as i would with normal paper. i'm not sure if it would be different if i used a white colored pencil rather than the charcoal so maybe that's something to try. i also noticed that once i erased a spot on the construction paper, it didn't take the charcoal very well after that. only getting to a grey rather than a white. oh well, i'm pretty happy with the way this one turned out anyway. i only worked on it for about an hour and a half. it felt good to draw again.

cabo - day 4

z and i got up early. and worked out for the second time on our trip (the resort had a really nice gym with a bunch of machines and weights and it was free so why not, right?) we had breakfast at the on-site restaurant. it was your standard buffet with custom omlettes so that was good. the plan was to take the rental car out today to san jose del cabo to run around there. the tiny little chevy was ready by noon-ish and we made our way out. driving in mexico is on the weird side. everyone is crossing in different places and no one really obeys the speed limit.
we made it to town and walked around. we stopped for some ice cream, i had chocolate, z had chocolate chip (the vanilla is yellow there, how odd!). we were wandering around town looking specifically for the day of the dead figurines and they were really hard to find. most of the ones we saw were in the tiny glass cases and although those were cute in a rough way, it wasn't what i wanted. z and her sister both found a few tiny ones they liked so those were bought then we found a small store tucked back down a courtyard that had some bigger ones. of course, the ones i liked were the most expensive we'd seen the entire trip. z bought a really nice bride and groom set and her sister bought a cool mirror. while we waited for the shopkeeper to package them up, we had margaritas and chips/salsa and the cantina next door.



on our way out of town, we decided to stop at the megastork, okay, it was actually a mega store with a picture of a pelican at the end but we liked megastork better. it was similar to a super target or wal-mart. they had home electronics as well as clothing, & food. we were surprised that they also had salesmen there. we were accosted at least twice by people asking us how long we were in cabo and what we had planned while we were in town. would we like a to ride atvs? waverunners? how about parasailing or a booze cruise? aaaaaarrrgghh! we can't escape the promo salesmen! we did manage to get a few snacks and a bottle of tequila. the kahlua was only $9 us for the BIG size but we really didn't have room to carry it with us. we figured out that if the product was made in mexico, it would be cheaper. most all the tequilas were a good purchase, save patron. for some reason, it's illegal to sell? i dunno. another funny thing was to see all the kids working. i swear the baggers were no older than 11. really.

we drove back to cabo san lucas and unloaded our booty before walking back to town to find food. on our way around town a few days before, we saw a few las catrina figures in a restaurant that i was impressed by so when i didn't get anything in san jose del cabo, we went back to there hoping they were for sale or at least had more to choose from. of course they were for sale and they had tons to choose from. we spent 30 minutes there looking over all of them and i picked out the only remaining bride. as they were wrapping it up, z said she'd buy me one of the mariachis and i said i'd buy one of the small catrinas for her. they weren't cheap but still a great deal and as they were wrapping up the three, the girls saw a big widow. she was really nice with a long black dress and real feather boa. we decided not to get her though. maybe next time. mine are about 15" tall and crazy cool.



it was halloween and while we were walking around there were kids running alll over the place, running into stores at the mall screaming "we love halloween!" while the checkout people would give them candy. the kids would also come up to us and scream "tricky tricky" but we didn't have any candy so they left empty handed. later, when we stopped for dinner at a quesadilla place and the kids swarmed us while we ate so we got some pesos in change and gave that out instead of sweets. it was really cool to see the streets shut down so people could walk around with their kids for trick or treating.

cabo - day 3

z and i woke up at 6, laid in bed wondering what to do and decided to walk back down to the mini market to get more snacks and breakfast stuff. i bought honey nut cheerios and milk and she bought more takis (super yummy chips). we also stopped by a pastry place and bought tiny cinnamon rolls for a buck a piece.
we made it back to the room, ate some stuff and waited for the others to wake up. after we were all fed, we went swimming before we had to be at our next presentation. luckily, this one was at the same resort we were staying at so we didn't get shuttled off but instead had a few rounds of margaritas while we listed to carlos tell us about the place. carlos was actually interesting in some ways because he talked more about the history of the area, the wildlife, the best places to visit, that kind of thing. at least he seemed nice until the sales portion when he got pretty high pressure and again, i was chastised for not giving my girlfriend a proper vacation place. he even wanted me to propose right then and there. needless to say, we did not succumb to the sales pitch and made it out of there properly drunk off of free alcohol. (the new contruction areas carlos showed us had really pretty views of the marina but were terribly expensive)



after the presentation, we got our gifts; another attempt at a booze cruise and a free days' car rental. i think we took a nap after that. if not, i'm sure we went swimming since it seemed like we were either at the pool/hot tub or walking around. so later, we headed down to the marina again to look at our next booze cruise. this time, i think we were all content that we'd have a much better time. it was a catamaran so we'd be under sail power a good portion of the time while sailing into the sunset. they played 80's rock which was fine since the volume was much lower than the other boat. free drinks flowed quickly and we had the obligatory picture taking/buying. it was a really great ride imo.



we made it back to the marina, walked around town and found a place for dinner, had mucho drinkies then stumbled back to our room to snooze.

cabo - day 2

day 2 was our first fun filled time-share presentation. we had to be out at the curb by 10:15 (which was fine for z and me since we woke up every day at 6:00am. every day.) the ride was about 30 minutes or so and they took us to the club regina westin. this place was pretty nice and they had a huge reception area with a beautiful view for the club members.



the "salesman" at the airport said the presentation would only be 90 minutes. ha! it took over 3 hours! we started off with a check-in which was finding out who we were, our employer, our marital status. then we were split up (into 2 couples) and had to wait for someone to give us a tour and take us to the free breakfast. we got a blonde girl from iowa to give us a quick run of the place. the "free breakfast" was not that good. buffet consisting of scrambled eggs, potato patties, sausage... the usual fare but they did have chilaquiles which i had never tried before and found really yummy. sadly, all the salsa in cabo had been watered down for babies with tender tongues. we honestly have hotter salsa here in the bay area and i found that rather sad. even pace's "medium" has more zing. and don't get me started on the margaritas! orange juice??? wtf?
back to our tour. after our quick breakfast and questions about our vacation habits, we went for more of a tour and to check out an actual room. it was nice. one bedroom with a kitchenette, big showers, a small balcony but it had a really great view.



the biggest issue i had with this resort was there was nothing to walk to. no town within walking distance, no restaurants, nada. you had the resort and the beach and that was it. you even had to get in a golf cart to get to all the parts of the resort. so after our tour of the place, we were subjected to a looooooong and fairly high pressure sales pitch by mike miller. he retired early in the states, has a bunch of rental properties all over the u.s., has owned a time-share for 14 years, has really white teeth, has a dad from canada who then was a cop in detroit.... blah blah blah... this guy could talk a lot. and he did. i think he tried to wear us down by just babbling so much. he went back to his boss at least 3 times to give us a chance to "talk it over" and kept telling z she should dump me and get a guy with guts enough to buy her a nice vacation time-share. what a nice fella.

so after 3 hours of blathering, we went to get our free gifts. they consisted of a ride on the jungle booze cruise, an hour of horseback riding, and a 30 minute massage. all of these covered the four of us. we got a shuttle back and stopped at a minimarket to get some beer and snacks. i was quite surprised at how little candy there was in the store. in the u.s. there's huge aisles of candy but here, a small jar of candy bars at the checkout counter and that was it. we went back to our room, had a beer and relaxed a little before heading back out to the cruise. when we got to the marina and saw our boat, i think we were all a little underwhelmed. they were blasting ac/dc from big speakers mounted on the deck, they had chain link fencing around the railings, goofy jungle masks attached to the posts and bad zebra stripes painted on the back end. just from the loud music, i knew i wouldn't be able to last more than a few minutes on board and luckily, we all decided not to go. later, we heard a tourist describe it as fun but nasty.



after ditching the jungle booze cruise, we walked around the marina, found a place to eat, had a few more beers, a few more beers, fish tacos, and then stumbled our way home for the evening.

vacations are good for you

i had a wonderful time in cabo. mexico is a strange place but i figure i'll feel that way no matter where i go.

our flight to cabo was a little before noon so we touched down around 3:30pm. z's sis & bil were waiting for us as their flight got in an hour before. we all got the green light in customs and headed out to fend for our lives with the "taxi drivers" or time-share bandits. we got stopped by one we thought was official but it turned out he was selling too so we listened to his offer. we decided to go ahead and take him up on his sales pitch and got in the cab. it took about 45-55 minutes to get to our place and upon arrival, we grabbed margaritas and chips and salsa. we sat around talking and eating on our balcony then decided to head to the beach and of course, we had to grab a cerveza before doing that. our beach has dangerous riptides so we weren't allowed to swim in it and even when we had our feet in the water, a security lady came over to tell us to stay out of the water. oh well, no ocean swimming but the sunset was really pretty so we stayed there for a bit just soaking it all in (and drinking our cervezas).

we were all getting hungry by this point so we decided to look for dinner. the room service menu was fairly limited so we decided to walk down the hill from the resort and hit an italian place. i know what you're thinking, italian in cabo?? well, it's one of the easiest places to walk to so that's where we went. (plus, trying to find vegetarian food is rather difficult) on our way out, we were accosted by the salesladies and ended up agreeing to another presentation for free drink tickets and the hopes of more deals. we made it back to our room buzzy, full and ready for bed.

...more to come.