Lunchbreak sketch 6-5-08

walnut ink drawing


These drawings were done with black walnut ink, twigs, brush, and dip pen.

Lunchbreak sketch 6-4-08

Sketch last week

Don't read this if you are disturbed by bugs or parental tragedy

Just a few minutes ago I walked through the door of the building where I work and had a disturbing experience. There was a large spider on the floor near the door; and when I say "large", I mean like a hairy milk jug with legs. I paused to look at it. I think it was a brownish gray fishing spider, but it might have been just a really big dark wolf spider. Anyway, I noticed that it was carrying its (hundreds of) babies on its back.

 

Our building's cold sterile lobby is no place for a young single mother to raise a family, so I decided to try to herd the spider back out the door. When I propped open the door, though, the wind created by our building's ventilation system was blowing strongly inwards, causing the spider to run the opposite direction, away from the door. I tapped my foot in front of her, trying to get her to run to the door, but she wouldn't go that way. Finally, I kicked at her, trying to nudge her, but I mishandled it. It was a strong enough kick that she was send flying a foot or so away, but he babies flew off all around where she had been. The spider ran off to a corner, but where she'd been standing there were now about ten thousand tiny baby spiders running haphazardly in a slowly expanding pool of spiderness.

 

Recognizing that I had wrecked the situation beyond repair, I said, "Unngh, I am SO out of here," and left. I am now both disgusted at the creepy-crawliness of what I witnessed, and wracked by guilt.

 

Monday, 4:20.

When I get home I'll start an oil paint version, maybe about 20x30 inches.

 

self portrait

My Web comic is just around the corner, eh?

 

You can sit around the fire. You can sit around the radio. You can sit and watch TV. But nothing beats pulling up a chair to the old juke box.

Peach leaf bellflowers

Last year these were new and didn't bloom, but this year I finally got to see what they look like. I think they're great.

bugs

Early yesterday I was looking out the front window and noticed cicada shells on our tree. There were many shells, and I went out to get a closer look. On the trunk, and on some other plants nearby, and on the front of our house, were perhaps a hundred shells. I found some cicadas, too, looking a little bewildered.

Erin and Jill looked at them with me, and we caught some and held them. Erin held one, and threw it up to help it fly (such actions do seem to help, as cicadas' capacity for graceful flight is about on level with their capacity to win a bathing suit competition). Even Jill, normally a bit bug-shy, tried to hold one, but it kept jumping from her hand.

Last night, around midnight, I went out to see if there were more coming out. There were! Here's a little fella crawling up the tree, looking for a place to stop and shed his skin:

And another one nearby, getting all David Banner on his pants:


They slowly slip out of their juvenile exoskeletons like pale ghosts rising from shriveled corpses, except they sort of tend to hang upside-down. You know, I try, but it's not so easy to wax poetic about fat red-eyed bugs shedding their skins on tree trunks at midnight:
A side view:

Dinner last night was at Pat and Laura's. Lots of fun seeing everyone, and lots of great food. Pat and Laura boiled shrimp with sausage and potatoes. The shrimp were tasty. I kept wondering how many people love shrimp but would recoil at the thought of eating cicadas. Those who are disgusted by either idea are missing tasty food (and I refer to shrimp, as I have yet to try the cicadas), but I certainly understand their revulsion. Those who think shrimp is a great food but cicadas are disgusting buggy non-food are deluding themselves. If it has more legs than a cow, it's a bug.

I don't know what kind of cicadas these are. I suspect they might be the same sort of 17-year cicadas that came out en masselocally four years ago, just on a different schedule. But I guess they could be, what, 13-year? And I think there are 7-year? I'll have to look it up sometime.

I am curious (Scarlett):

 

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23773690-16947,00.html

 

I must admit, I'd like to listen to the album.

 

Impacting my grammar

I'm rolling over again. Here is a quote from dictionary.com:

"Usage Note: The use of impact as a verb meaning "to have an effect" often has a big impact on readers. In our 2001 survey, 85 percent of the Usage Panel disapproved of the construction to impact on, as in the sentence These policies are impacting on our ability to achieve success; fully 80 percent disapproved of the use of impact as a transitive verb in the sentence The court ruling will impact the education of minority students. · It is unclear why this usage provokes such a strong response, but it cannot be because of novelty. Impact has been used as a verb since 1601, when it meant "to fix or pack in," and its modern, figurative use dates from 1935. It may be that its frequent appearance in the jargon-riddled remarks of politicians, military officials, and financial analysts continues to make people suspicious. Nevertheless, the verbal use of impact has become so common in the working language of corporations and institutions that many speakers have begun to regard it as standard. It seems likely, then, that the verb will eventually become as unobjectionable as contact is now, since it will no longer betray any particular pretentiousness on the part of those who use it. See Usage Note at contact."

continues Mark: So I'll stop changing "impact" from verb to noun in all the correspondence here at work.

Dungeons & Dragons

We played D&D last Friday night, and it was an epochal event, a landmark! Off my socks were knocked! Or, at least I feel a little relief at the end of long-running, very mild tension.

 

Back around March of 2004, we all played together--Karen, Keith, Brent, David, Paul, Ed, and me--in the D&D campaign that I run. David's character was killed. After that night, my game went on hiatus, as I put other things higher up on my list or priorities. We played Keith's Shadowrun game a little, and David's Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay for a while.

 

Finally, after more than three years, I re-started my game last Autumn. It's been slow going; we've only met a few times, and last Friday was the first time all of us have been back together at the same time (minus Ed, who dropped out, and plus Aaron, who has joined). When we first started back up last year, the playing group was divided because their characters were divided, and the division continued for a while due to circumstances within the game. Some characters were temporarily dead, some were turned to stone, and the two groups were working towards reunion. At last, at the end of Friday's game, all of the characters were in the same spot at the same time. It was the first time in-game (that is, by the characters' reckoning) that they had been together in more than two months; outside of the game, in players' reckoning, it had been just over four years. That's a really long time in a game where other hardcore geek players conduct on-the-ball marathon game sessions in which their characters go through whole earth-shaking adventures in one game night.

 

I had a nice time on Friday, and I feel like the game went pretty smoothly; the bulk of the evening consisted of a tavern brawl, which sort of bogged down towards the end (my fault), but it could have been worse. The hard part, now, is capitalizing on this little bit of momentum to make sure we can play again soon. If I include the three-year hiatus, this is the longest-running game I've ever been involved in, stretching over about seven years*.  I've occasionally thought about just dropping the whole DM thing, but then I've thought, "Shoot, I've put way too much time into putting this stuff together and just messing around with it to just put it down and not pick it back up. And besides, I enjoy it, regardless of how unproductive it is."

 

My goal now is to play more consistently. If we can get together at least once a month, that would be good, and it's a somewhat realistic goal.

 

 

 

 

 

*Although if I went solely by most game-hours played, the "longest-running game" would probably be Keith's 'Fugs' campaign, played from about 1989-1992, which frequently saw us up until 4, 5, or 6 a.m. multiple times per month.

 

Lunchtime Detecting at Des Pres

Today at lunch I headed over to Des Pres Park with my metal detector (it's a long way from work, but I had to drive to the area on a work errand.) I opted to hunt around a ballfield, and found three pennies and a dime, as well as a couple of pull tabs. The coins I found outnumbered the garbage, so I feel like I made out rather well.

 

I was almost back to my car, refilling a hole near the parking lot, when a guy walked up to me to see what I was doing. He saw me refilling the hole and replacing the sod, and gave me his approval. I don't know who he was, but he was obviously employed by the Metro Parks. We talked for a few minutes. He told me that he knew of a couple of guys who came occasionally to detect there; one of them found a diamond ring. When he had first seen me, he was concerned, and wanted to make sure I wasn't up to no good. Someone had been digging holes on and around the baseball diamond, and not filling them back in. I expressed my concern and assured him that I was quite careful in digging and refilling, and he said that I seemed all right and was welcome to detect there.

 

In the metal detecting forums I've read online, people are strongly encouraged and continually reminded to be careful and conscientious about both private and public property. It is very dismaying to hear about these idiots who dig carelessly. It's bad for the property owner, the public, and the hobby.

 

garden stuff

My corn is as high as an elephant's eye, if the elephant is the size of a little kitten. The peas are growing, but they're not a great vegetable to grow in the heat. If it gets hot and stays hot, they might not do well. Right now the biggest among them are still only about five inches tall. The tomatoes are green and leafy, but haven't really increased in size. I suspect that they are growing their roots, and as soon as the weather gets hot and we have a sunny stretch, they will take off. There is not yet any sign of the sunflowers, but by the end of this weekend I think we'll see them poking up. My dad gave me some sweet potatoes to plant, and I need to figure out where I'll put them. The blackberry bush is full of flowers; I still have frozen blackberries from last year that I need to use. If you want some blackberries in a couple of months, let me know; chances are, I'll have some for you. The glads are coming up in scads, and I'll need to dig them up and separate them after this season. Only one hollyhock is coming back. I still haven't planted the carrots.

 

more lunch break sketch

This is a pretty small one. It's about 7x9, I guess. Charcoal isn't really designed for little architectural drawings, in my opinion, but the more I worked on it the happier I became with it. This wasn't done entirely on lunch break. Tonight when I got home I used some hard white pastel for highlights.

Mystery Note

The little girl across the street put this in our mailbox. To protect the innocent (innocence is presumed, just like in court) I have scribbled out her name with a crayon.

Lunch break sketches

The first is in charcoal, the second is graphite. Charcoal I find a more difficult medium because I am not as used to it. One reason I've avoided it is because it's messier than graphite, and I want to keep my sketchbook neat. A couple of months ago, though, I bought a brand new can of spray fixative, so I can just plaster the stuff to the page and keep my pages from being so smudgy. Anyway, I thought these came out decently for quick sketches.
I swear, I took this photo with sunlight shining on the paper. I don't know why it's so dark. I must have had the paper at more of an angle than I intended, or maybe the sun was behind a cloud at that moment and I didn't notice.

Erin and I engaged in one of my favorite pastimes from my youth: Looking under rocks.

More Memory

I couple of days ago I played Memory with Erin, and I beat her 17 matches to 16. I didn't rub her nose in it or anything, but I was very pleased with myself. Also, she occasionally turns over three cards instead of two, so I had the cards stacked against me from the outset, making my victory even sweeter.

 

Each day with decent weather, my lunch break question is: Metal detecting or art? It should be art, but more often then not it is detecting. I have, though, sketched a little over the past week, and I want to do more.

 

My attempts to get permission to detect at Bellevoir and at Ten Broeck have ended negatively. There is still the slimmest chance for something at Bellevoir, but it's pretty safe to say that those two places are officially out-of-bounds. Man. Ten Broeck Hospital would have been a fantastic place to hunt.

 

Yesterday I spent lunch at the children's home, around the baseball diamond again. Two marginally interesting finds: An old Tangee rouge cap, and a little key. Both are old-ish, but I haven't been able to date them. If I had to guess, I'd say they dated to about the same era as the Joe E. Brown pin I found, which would probably be 1950-1960. The key is kind of cool. It's little, like a small padlock or locker key, and has a lion on it. It was made by the Master Lock Co. of Milwaukee, which was founded in 1921, so that gives a pretty definite earliest-date for the key. I'll delight you with photos later.

 

I'm putting this in the suggestion box at work

I think it would be a good idea to remove the photos of the President, Administrator, and Secretary of the DOT from the wall of the reception area. This has nothing to do with politics, but rather with the notion that we are an idealistic nation of laws. Our Founding Fathers wisely declined to put the faces of our leaders on our coins, a tradition that continued until 1909, when unfortunately it was discarded. They felt that to do so made our nation too much like a monarchy.

 

I would suggest something more symbolic and in line with the flags near the door, such as a copy of the Bill of Rights. Or even just some pleasant aviation-related art work.

 

Besides, all these politicians now use photographs in which they are smiling, which is fine for family photos, but in this context seems to radiate insipid buffoonery. I'd be much more inclined to keep the photos if the people in them didn't wear big fake grins.

 

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garden

Our peas are coming up. Erin and Jill helped me plant some sweet corn last week, and I hope that in the next day or two I'll see it poking its head out of the dirt. Last night, Erin helped me put four tomato plants in the ground. Two of them are cherry tomatoes, two are bigger varieties.

 

I am now almost out of room. I only have a small rectangle left for planting. If I want watermelons this year, I will need to enlarge my garden space. However, if I limit the watermelons to just a few plants, it might not be too much work.

 

Oh, I almost forgot that I also have sunflower seeds that I need to plant. Where will they go?

 

I have leftover seed corn and peas, and I'll probably have extra carrot and watermelon seeds. Does anyone want them?

 

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Memory

At the church where I work, watching 4- and 5-year-olds, there are several Memory card games. Barney the Purple Dinosaur Memory, Finding Nemo Memory, and a Nemo knock-off named Freddy Fish. Maybe it's just a matter of the kids who are good at it want to play it; or maybe the kids who like to play it get really good at it; maybe I should, as I have for twenty years, blame all such things on my cold and allergy medicine; maybe my brain is just past its prime; but whatever the reason, these little kids totally kick my ass. Sometimes it's by an order of magnitude. It's not unusual for some of them to get ten matches for each of mine.

 

It's sort of funny. At first, I'd just played the game because they wanted to play, and I didn't really try because I didn't mind handing the kids some victories in the Candyland realm of mindless children's pastimes. It slowly dawned on me, though, that these little kids were better than I was. I started actually trying to win, and man, did I get shot down.

 

Last week Erin and I played Dora Memory, and although we didn't finish the game, I certainly smelled bitter defeat on the breeze.

 

So Erin has started her accumulation of skills, talents, and physical abilities at which she betters her father. Today it's Memory. Soon it will be math, running speed, and shooting hoops. Then golf and Spanish, and then art, reading comprehension…

 

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kitty cats and butterflies

I'm pretty much done with the painting for Jill's room. Jill enjoyed the opportunity to sit on it.

St. Agnes Elementary Class of '83

I just realized that almost exactly 25 years ago is when I graduated from 8th grade. I wonder if anyone is having a reunion? I know one of my fellow graduates knows exactly where this blog is. We should have a reunion, George; I haven't seen you since Channukah. That's just ridiculous, to me. Maybe you guys should come over to our humble non-antique-furnished dwelling in the sticks for dinner and board games some night soon.

 

It seems odd that in a town the size of Louisville I don't run in to other St. Agnes grads more than I do. I might not recognize a lot of them.

 

John's oldest daughter is on Erin's soccer team, so I just saw him for the first time since high school graduation. His daughters are really cute. The one that's on Erin's team looks just like a continuation of John's line of siblings.

 

Last year I looked at a photo of our 8th grade class, and I was able to name everyone on it. There are a few, not too many, I'd like to see again. I'm simply curious about everyone else.

 

I guess that by posting this I've upped my chances of hearing from someone. Feel free to comment if you come across this while Googling your class reunion info. That includes you, Sr. Margaret Regina.

 

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I blotted out this kid's face on the off chance that his parents, whoever they are, find this blog. They might not take kindly to some strange guy putting pictures of their son on the Web. And by strange, I mean the sort of guy who would grab his camera and hurry across the room shrieking, "Oh my God, can I take your picture? Oh golly! Totally cool! You have acrossbow made out of BALLOONS!!! "

No, I wasn't really that geeky about it. But still. A balloon crossbow. What an age in which we live.

The guy who made it was a real artist. He could do pretty much anything. He was making skull-and-crossbone pirate hats, cutlasses, kitty cats, monkeys climbing palm trees, all sorts of things, all on request. Erin asked for a yellow flower, and she got one. Jill asked for a blue and white hat, and she got that. I'll post pictures of those later, I suppose.

I won't say anything about this picture. It's more fun to imagine your own story behind it.

Here's what I'm pretty sure is a former home site in a local park, in a thicketed area. I think this thing is a coal furnace, and it's the only thing left mostly intact from the house that once stood here. It now rests in a stone-lined cellar hole. There is lots of debris in the area: Scraps of iron pipe, nails, metal sheeting. It makes it a hard place to hunt, and the thick brush and trees make it inaccessible except during the cold months. I took these pictures a few weeks ago, and I'm sure that by now it would be impossible to get into.

Lost

The most frustrating TV show ever was back on last night.

 

Okay, so I know some of my friends are "Lost" fans, but I don't have anyone around now with whom to discuss last night's episode. So, please comment, Ed, Loraine, Candy, David, Brooke.

 

Poor Alex. I didn't expect that.

 

I knew Ben was exceedingly devious, smart, and manipulative, but I had no idea he was such combat monster. He has hidden that aspect well from the other characters.

 

What do you think is the nature of "the rules," and how did they change? Did they somehow prevent killing loved ones or family of Ben? Are they the same rules that keep Ben from killing Charles, or is there something else?

 

I will probably have to try to watch that episode again to pick up on details I missed.

 

I won't even speculate on how Ben ended up on his back with a wounded arm in the desert, not knowing for sure what year it was.

 

Faraday, like so many other characters before him, now goes on my list of "Lost" characters who need a little waterboarding. There are about twenty characters who need to be slapped until the cough up a plausible rationale for their actions. Note that I only condone torture on fictional people.

 

Why would Widmore kill Nadia? Does anyone else suspect that Ben killed her and framed Widmore?

 

Last night's show had a very high body count, perhaps only exceeded by the plane crash itself and Ben's Dharma purge. I hope that everyone on the island knows, by this time, that if you hear lots of gunfire outside, don't just run blindly out the door.

 

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Last night I planted peas, and Erin and Jill helped. It's a little late in Spring for pea planting. I put the extras in a zip lock bag in the refrigerator to save to plant in the Autumn for a late crop.

 

After that hard work in the fields, we all went to E. P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park for a hot air balloon event. As we approached the park we saw some balloons in the air, and I feared that we had missed it, that all the balloons had taken off. But as we walked through the park, a balloon drifted low in our direction, and landed very close. I'm not sure I've ever seen a balloon land in person before, and it was fun. We stood and watched among the gathering crowd. It sat there until the crew came, and then we watched them deflate it and roll it up. My daughters did not want to get close; the noise of the fuel jets made them a little skittish. However, after it was all flat and stretched out on the grass, we walked over for a closer look.

 

Too bad our camera batteries were dead.

 

After that, we ran into Laura and her family and chatted for a few minutes, and then we played at the playground. Jill fell asleep on the way home and went to bed dusty.

 

I know, I have a very dull blog.

 

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detecting

I found nothing interesting with the metal detector again today when I went to the children's home at lunch. It might be a case of the grass always being greener on the other side of the fence, but it seems to me that one of the best areas to search is inside a secure chain link fence (and partially covered by an asphalt basketball court.)

 

I am currently trying to get an answer from the Metro Government about detecting at the Bellevoir mansion site.

 

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sketching and pollen

On lunch break today I went to the grounds of the old Bellevoir mansion, a former estate of the Ormsby family, for a little sketching. It's a nice old house, and the lawn and trees are very pretty, albeit a little more manicured than I'd prefer. It's a great spot to draw or paint, I recently hypothesized when I discovered the area. It would also a great place for a little MDing (actually, a LOT of MDing) if I can get permission.

 

So I sat under a tree for 45 minutes and drew the house and nearby trees with graphite. It was great, except for the yellowjacket that was keen on my shoes (I slapped him down with my sketchbook for his impertinence) and the ants that kept raining from the tree above me.

 

Also, when a breeze started up, I noted that the largest tree hanging over the house cut loose with a giant cloud of pollen that partially obscured the roof of the house and nearby vegetation in a sickly yellow-green haze. No wonder I've been sneezy lately.

 

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Numismatic gift certificates

Yesterday I left work early to donate blood, after which I had a little extra time. So I went to the Louisville Numismatic Exchange with some gift certificates I'd been saving.

 

My first goal was to find some 1920s-30s coinage from Ireland; the 1928 mintages were plentiful, and I don't have the denominations from that time (I think all of mine are post-decimalization). The Irish coins are some of my favorite.

 

When I got to the shop, though, I was informed that all the huge binders of world coins were gone. Someone had bought them all.

 

All the world coins they had left were in the rotating display cases. So I browsed, and found another coin that I'd coveted for a couple of years: A 1938 Hungarian 5 pengö, which struck my eyes the first time I saw one. I contemplated buying a 1949 Franklin half, but I'll have to save that for another time.

 

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Sunday was my sixth wedding anniversary. It's a very good reason to celebrate, one of the best I have (a three-way tie with my daughters). There are a few things about that day six years ago that I would change if I could, such as making our guests wait so long while we took our wedding photos on the lawn at Whitehall. Maybe, if I had the ability, I would have made it about five degrees cooler. But it was the best day of my life.  Actually, it wasn't. I can't say it really was the best day of my life, but that day was sort of the focal point for all the best things in my life. It's the stitch that holds together everything that is best: My love for Kim and my life with her; our two incredible daughters; our family and friends, who have all done so much for us, and continue to do so every day. I have so much for which to be grateful, and at the top of the list is Kim.

 

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Kevin is a big dumb liar

I never in my life saw the belief-o-matic until I followed the link on your blog.

Also, you are cool and I love you, bro. And you, too, my other bro.

Here's a medal I found last week.

Erin and the ant

This is a rather nice rendering of an ant. And doesn't the artist look proud?

Untitled poem composed from a corporate newsletter

oops

-on.

Misc.

1. I really need to work on some art:

 

A. I have Jill's mural-thing to finish, and it won't take much more to get it done. I could paint a border on it and call it quits, although I'd sort of like to add another butterfly. Besides that, she deserves something else in her room. I should do another little one for her, a quick one with bright colors.

 

B. I also have my unfinished Halloween costume to work on. It's pretty arty. I should get the scary head built up to a nearly complete state, and then work on the frame.

 

C. Brooke and David, your painting can be hung on a wall. I put wire on the back of it. I haven't put any more paint on it, but as I said previously, if I ever find the time I could just ask for it back to work on, right? Gosh, how lousy of me was it to give it to you and then keep it in my garage for four months? I'll give it to you the next time I see you.

 

D. I have not finished the landscape I started in Cherokee Park in October. It is lying in the garage, too, waiting for me and my brush.

 

E. I really want to start something new, too.

 

2. I will have a few uncleaned ancient coins to show around soon. I'll take before and after pictures. I'm pretty psyched; I foresee lots of detective work.

 

3. The past few lunch breaks on which I've gone metal detecting, I've found coins. They've been almost all pennies, with I think one dime and one nickel. It's a paltry sum, but at least I'm finding something other than pull tabs and nails.

 

Today I went to Hounz Lane Park and found a few pennies. It was a very pretty afternoon to be there, although there was a smell of sewage in the air. I think it had something to do with the acre of bulldozed earth in the middle of the park.

 

I put a cardboard box in the back of my car to hold my detecting refuse until I can throw it away. I was dumping junk into an old glass, but it quickly overflowed.

 

4. I have achieved nothing in my garden yet this year, except for having fun with Erin and Jill, who like looking for worms. Judging from the weather forecast, I will not be gardening any this weekend, either.

 

5. "3:10 to Yuma" was pretty good. I found the writing a little disappointing, becoming at times a little too unrealistic or predictable, but Russell Crowe and Christian Bale held it all together very well. The director did a great job of building dread and tensi

 

.yahoo.com

It's all in how one phrases it

During lunch yesterday I went again to the children's home grounds and hunted with my detector. The site produced its first coin! Very exciting—it bears the likeness of Lincoln, and dates back to the 1900's. To the Clinton era, in fact. For a zinc coin, it was in excellent shape.

 

I also found some exciting artifacts. Two nickel-plated fence post brackets, I think, and both looking like they were buried yesterday, which they might have been.

 

I also found a bottle cap, but it was so rusted that I couldn't even tell what beverage it might have come off of. I bet it was older than the one that Brian found! It might even date back to the Cold War.

 

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Star Wars humor

Kelly showed me this video, and it cracked me up.Darth Vader

I'm a little confused regarding the various definitions of "irony," but I bet it fits here somewhere--maybe in Chapter 10: "Confronting Creationists"

This afternoon I had sat down to a late lunch and was browsing through my copy of Michael Shermer's Why People Believe Weird Things when the doorbell rang. I jumped from my seat quickly,endangering the integrity of my book's spine by laying it face down to keep my place, hurrying because Jillian had just fallen asleep for her nap and I didn't want the doorbell to ring again and wake her. I had a hint of what to expect, because out of the corner of my eye I thought I had glimpsed through the window a couple of sets of white shirts and black pants.

It was a couple of Mormons, Elders Someone-or-Other and Someone Else. They were the typical clean-cut young men who do their church's door-to-door operation.

There was a time when I would have been very annoyed; I take a dim view of door-to-door proselytizing in general, but I've mellowed in recent years. It used to offend me somewhat, and I entertained the idea (but never acted upon it) of causing trouble and vexation for people engaged in this activity. I really don't have a desire to do that anymore, though.

Also, the Mormons used to weird me out a little more than they do now. Sure, their oddball heritage and theology stand out in a broad field of weird things people believe. Over the past ten years, though, I learned more about them and met a number of them. Also, Salt Lake City is a neat town.

Theological disagreements and our strong differences regarding important social issues notwithstanding, I've found those Latter Day Saints to be pretty good folks. I wouldn't mind having them as neighbors; in fact, I've had some, and they were swell. In many ways, they really tend to have their acts together.

Anyway, the two Elders at my door engaged me in unwanted conversation. One of them had noted the "Feed a Starving Artist" bumper sticker on my Festiva, and asked about my art. It's hard to find a polite way to cut out the small talk, so I chatted for a few minutes, waiting for them to get to stop beating around the bush. Finally, they asked about religion and whether I was interested in learning more about Jesus--they gave me a card with a picture of the Saviour on one side and information on the reverse for ordering a free Jesus DVD. When I told them I wasn't interested, they inquired as to why, but I refused to answer. It's very true what they say about the wisdom of avoiding discussion of politics and religion in polite conversation, and I wanted our relationship to remain amicable. Even if I had been honest and forthright, I'm sure we could have spent a delightful couple of hours chatting, but my lunch was sitting on the table getting cold.

I told them I hoped that they would continue to enjoy the very pleasant weather, and wished them a good afternoon. I kept their card, and realized as I walked back to the table that it would make a perfect bookmark. It's now marking my place in the chapter on witch trial crazes.

Here is a picture of it. I think the artist captured Jesus' likeness remarkably well. I could tell who it was right away!
"Rejoice! For I have marked your spot."

Black walnut ink lightfastness test: The results are in!

Here is the result of the lightfastness test with my homemade black walnut ink. I’m pretty happy with the results. The ink that was exposed to sunlight shows some fading, but it’s not severe. There probably aren’t conditions much harsher, light-exposure-wise, than a car dashboard. I don’t know technical terms or categories, but I’d call this ink pretty lightfast.

Winter was a good period for this test, because it was cold and my windows were rolled up. I couldn’t conduct this test in the summer because the paper would blow around.

Nice weather

Today was a great day for a walk in the park. We played at the playground in Brown Park, then went over to look at the ducks. After that, a stroll by the creek.

not detecting at Hounz Lane Park

I noticed that recently, bulldozers have stripped away the sod in a large section of Hounz Lane Park. At least, I think that's what they've done. It looks like the top couple of inches of soil is gone near the front of the park. I don't know what the plan is. Maybe they are re-grading the area, or putting down new sod or re-seeding. Whatever the case, I think that would be a nice place to detect; I wouldn't have to worry about damaging the turf, and the garbage near the top would be gone, leaving only old stuff. There might not be any old stuff, and it might be a totally fruitless search, but it would still be simple and easy.

 

Unfortunately, at the moment, any attempt to hunt that area would probably result in me sinking up to my knees in mud.

 

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Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke has died. It's been a long time since I've read any of his books, but they've stuck with me. 2001 and 2010 were great, although 2061 didn't have quite the same impact. Rendezvous with Rama was memorable. None of them were as good, in my opinion, as Childhood's End, which Santa brought when I was 11 or 12 years old.

 

You know that one scene in the movie "2001" when the researchers on the Moon are having their pictures taken in front of the monolith? One of my favorite sci-fi scenes ever. I don't think I'd want to listen to the soundtrack to the scene over and over again, though.

 

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Coin Club Meeting

The monthly coin club meeting was held yesterday, and it was packed. I don't know why there was such a large turnout. It was the most crowded I've ever seen it (47 attendees), and judging by the comments of the elected officers, it might have been the most crowded ever. Perhaps the large turnout was due to a combination of the nice presentation on large cents, the pleasant spring weather bring people from their homes, and an upsurge in interest in coin collecting. Also, anyone who didn't pay their dues by yesterday was going to be booted off the rolls, so maybe a desire to hand over a check motivated some people to show up.

 

I auctioned a small item for $2.00, and purchased a Fine 1931-D Lincoln cent for $3.50.

 

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Probably not a good sign

Last evening, as Jill, Erin, and I ate dinner at the picnic table in the back yard—with a little snow still on the ground, and it being just March 13—I swatted and killed a mosquito. A mosquito.

 

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The Secret History

The night before last I finished Donna Tartt's The Secret History. It was a selection for the book club that some Otter friends started. Unfortunately, it was a selection from four years ago, and I just now got around to reading it, so I really don't have anyone to discuss it with. And that's a real shame; in many ways, the group of friends portrayed in the book reminds me of my college friends. Well, sort of. I don't recall many of my friends snorting coke, spending quite so much time drunk, or plotting a murder.

 

I found the book engrossing and suspenseful. I also had a mixed reaction to the characters; I don't recall many fictional characters from other books who evoked such a strong mix of attraction and revulsion.

 

So, in short, wonderfully written. My attention never flagged.

 

I feel like I'm on quite a roll, as I mentioned in a previous post. I've been reading more fiction than I have in years, and it's ranged in quality from very good to excellent. I can recall, a long time ago, when I used to read more, and occasionally I'd get a bum book. That was, of course, before the Internet provided me with easy and quick book reviews. It also helps that I've sort of save up books and recommendations for years.

 

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state quarter designs

http://www.quarterdesigns.com/index.html

 

All fifty state quarter designs.

 

Some I find quite striking, and some are horrendous. I really like the new Oklahoma one with the scissor tail flycatcher.

 

It's hard for me to say what makes a coin design appealing, but I think simplicity is fairly important. Balance is obviously key.

 

It's easier for me to say what makes a bad design. Anything with a state outline immediately gets points taken off. What a totally lame idea. There is no state quarter, or any other type of coin, that looks better as a result of incorporating a map.

 

Clutter looks bad, and many of the coins suffer from that, although some of the busiest coins (like Nevada's) still look great. Also, there's such a thing as too much simplicity. The Wyoming quarter is terrible in this regard.

 

Some of my favorites: Connecticut, Nevada, Utah, Oklahoma, New Jersey

Alaska, Montana

 

Some of the worst: Wyoming, Indiana, Louisiana, Florida, New Hampshire, Michigan

 

I haven't really made an effort to collect any of the state quarters, though I have kept some of the ones that I like the best.

 

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Obsolescence: A Tire-ade

After my car developed a vibration, I looked at the tires and underneath the car for signs of the cause. I'm not very good at that kind of thing, and I didn't notice anything at first. But after another week of the vibration, which seemed to increase and decrease in severity, and which was most pronounced at 5-20 m.p.h and over 60 m.p.h., I formed the opinion that it must be a tire.

 

I looked at the tires again, and noticed that the front driver's side tire had a subtle bulge that ran about half the tire's circumference, right at the edge of the tread.

 

That seemed like a dangerous thing, so I took my car and its seven-year-old tires to Goodyear, where the tires had been purchased.

 

It turns out that 1990 Ford Festivas are now difficult cars for which to buy tires.

 

"Those are 12-inch tires, and I can tell you right now we don't have any of those in stock," said they guy at the counter, after he had looked at the bum tire and announced that it was a manufacturer's defect that had caused my concern.

 

He checked his computer, and it told him that his Cincinnati warehouse showed a stock listing of "1."

 

"You only want the one, you said, right?" he asked.

 

"Yeah," I said. All the tires are a bit worn ("and show signs of dry rot," said the guy at the counter), but with my car, I don't see the sense in replacing anything until necessary. I put on a new windshield wiper last week after the rubber blade of one of them flew off, and that made me feel like I was sinking a lot of money into it.

 

He said that since it was a manufacturer's defect, he could prorate the cost of the tire, but since the tire was so old, he would only be subtracting one-ninth of the new tire's cost.

 

That though bummed me until he announced, after clicking on his computer a little more, that the tires only cost $26.00 each. "Prorating it will take three dollars off of that," he said.

 

So he called his warehouse, but they could not find the tire. It's just one little tire, he explained, and in a warehouse full of 60,000 tires, it's hard to keep track of.

 

Then he called Ken Towery, and they didn't have the tire either. All his leads came up dry. "A twelve-inch tire is just hard to find," he said. "They don't even make wheels that size any more. They started phasing out that size years ago."

 

He suggested that I contact the dealer and find out about having thirteen-inch wheels put on the car. <i>No thanks</i> I thought to myself. I decided to visit Big O Tires, which is where Kim went after becoming dissatisfied with Goodyear a few months ago.

 

The guy at Big O looked at my tires, furrowed his brows, and exhaled deeply. "Boy," he intoned, "That's a tough one."

 

He didn't think he had any of those in stock, and a quick check confirmed it. Then he made a phone call.

 

This call was a success. "Oh, you do have some? Great!" he said into the phone.

 

They ordered the tire, which ended up costing me $76.00 (I guess it's now considered a specialty, novelty item now) and had it the next day.

 

If it gets to the point that I can't find the tires I need, I will complain to Ford. How dare they sell me a car with a tire size that eventually becomes obsolete? Whatever happened to product support, to standing by your merchandise? It hasn't reached that level yet. But it might, soon. My car is only 18 years old, dammit!

 

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chili

This weekend I made my first pot of chili ever. That's pretty weird; as much as I like to bake and cook, you'd think I'd have lots of chili experience. I've even talked about it a lot, but my talk has never led to action until the middle of this weekend's snow storm.

 

I pureed a can of kidney beans and dumped it in; Kim said she would try it that way.

 

And she did. It was the first time Kim had eaten chili.

 

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Snow 2

And the view from our front door.

Snow

My garden space, about twenty minutes ago. No spring planting today!

detecting

Over the past two weeks, I've spent three lunch breaks metal detecting--once at Hounz Lane Park, and twice at the grounds of the former orphanage/children's shelter. My tally for the past two weeks: One corroded penny.

 

I have, of course, found lots of garbage. My most exciting find yesterday was a nail.

 

Today, though, I had a very nice "hit" on my machine and commenced digging. About six inches down I finally found a convex piece of metal with lots of round holes in it. Yes, you guessed it! Cool. An old drain cap.

 

At least, I suppose that's what it is. I'll clean it up and have a closer look before forwarding pictures to the Frazier Museum.

 

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Baking

Last weekend we made some pizza. The recipe for dough that I used this time was the easiest yet, and it came out very nicely.

The girls really seem to enjoy helping in the kitchen, and working with dough is one of their favorites. I don't use the bread machine as often as I used to, and one of the main reasons for that is their great enjoyment of kneading with their hands. They also liked the rolling pin.

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On another geek note:

I received three different e-mails from friends notifying me of the death of Gary Gygax, co-creator and founder of the D&D game. Each email included a joke; two about Gygax failing his saving throw, and one about the need for a cleric. Oh, and one also contained a joke about 45-degree corridors.

 

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Zoo trippers

Both my dad's hat and I have the cardboardy appearance of having been Photoshopped into the scene.