This Cat Of Mine

 This cat of mine.  

She does more than just lay on the keyboard criticizing me.  She also hunts.  Then she brings me the things she's caught.  Some days, the things she's caught, that she brings into the house, to give to me....aren't dead.

Today was just such one day.  She brought ... I'm not even sure what it was.  It had a short tail like a vole, but it was huge -- almost rat sized.  She brought it into the house and let it go.  It promptly ran behind the love seat, and oh, boy!  I got to go rat hunting in my living room!  Yippee!

At least this one was too big to run behind the entertainment center.  I finally cornered it, and bludgeoned the thing to death with the butt of my BB gun.  The cat and I then had a long talk about her job performance.  

In other news, I got an email from Photobucket.  Apparently, they'd moved to a new server, or sold the site or something, and I needed to reactivate my account.  I did, even though I hadn't used Photobucket in so long, I'd plumb forgotten I even had an account.  

I also forgot I used to draw, and I wasn't half bad at it.  I could have been better, but I wasn't too bad.  In fact, the whole reason I started this blog way back in 2005 was to host my sketches.  It was originally titled Sketches And More, but I thought that was a dumb name.  Somewhere along the line, I hosted a contest to come up with a new one, and the winning entry was what is now the current name of the blog.  

It was meant to showcase my Fine art:

my Martial art:

(My sensei and I -- I'm pretty sure this is the day I got my black belt.)

and my Fiber art:

(Rona Shawl, pattern from Knit Picks -- which is apparently no longer available.  This was given to my sister for Christmas.)

It was kind of fun seeing things I'd completely forgotten about.  I might share more of it sometime in the future.  

The only other thing I did today was to start some of my wildflower seeds, but they don't look like anything yet.  I put seeds in 66 peat pellets, and still have a ton of them left.  Seeds,  I mean.  Not pellets.  I have an old tire in the shed which I've been thinking about turning into a planter for years.  Maybe this will be the year.  Maybe it won't.  

Who knows?  

That's about all I have for today, so here is your Texas History moment, for Day 12 Of The Siege.  

Photos Of The Day

Rylea and Snow surprised each other. Interestingly enough, Rylea seemed more scared of Snow than Snow did of Rylea. Snow stayed calm; Rylea came and hid behind me.

Maple tree and dilapidated barn. This is the same tree I posted yesterday. On a tip from Buck, I googled and believe that this might be a Maple tree instead of a sweet gum, as I had originally posted.

A sketch from a month ago. Stacked bins.

Catching Up

posting my sketches, that is. I've kind of fallen off of doing my daily sketches, but I'm going to try to get them going again. The first one is an attempt at drawing Rylea's ear from memory. Harder to do than you would think.

The second one is a tomato flower
.And today's sketch is a broom leaning against a machine.


That's all.

A Couple Of Stumps

This one I cheated on. I actually worked on it for about three lunch breaks instead of just one.

A tree stump, drawn from imagination.

Another kind of stump, my group leader Johnny. Every day I look at the back of his head, as he sits with his feet up on the desk eating his lunch. Every day I think, "if I were any good at drawing people, I could sketch him." Finally, one day I could no longer resist. I told myself, "don't draw a person. Just draw each shape you see." This is what I came up with:



He wouldn't hold his head still, but the rest of him I think looks pretty good.

I thought this story sounded odd from the very beginning. What kind of parents go off and leave three children under the age of 4 alone in a hotel room?

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A Sketch

This is what I see as I morosely stare down at my sketchbook desperately trying to think of something to sketch.

I hate Joshua. (Ok not really, but still) It took me three months to learn Agena no Sai, and he had it down in 10 minutes. We spent the second half of class tonight supposedly learning something new. Josh wanted to learn a sai kata, so I taught him Agena. The little stinker had the whole thing down by the end of class. Meanwhile, I struggle to learn Kusanku sai. Which means I have to hate Barrett, too. He just started learning it today, and he knows it better than I do. But then, I only started learning it last week.

Last night at black belt class, we were doing some drills. Sensei wanted us to start in a relaxed position with our hands by our sides. I kept forgetting. I kept going back to my normal kamae position. Sensei would have to remind me, "Put your hands down." Finally, I quipped, "Sensei, you taught me too well." I couldn't help but see the smile of pride cross his face. I know sensei's wife. It's unlikely that he gets any such affirmations from her.

I'll be brief tonight. I stayed up far too late last night reading. (Night Light, by Terri Blackstock, if you're interested.)

The Inaugural Sketch

This is the inaugural sketch in Cody's new hardback sketchbook. It is a Nazgul from The Lord Of The Rings. The little bugger even copied the Elven script.

Sorry about the poor quality. I took this with my camera. I can scan it onto my computer, I just can't get online to upload it.

I still haven't called the computer guy. I must confess my shortcoming. I hate calling people on the phone, even for business. I'd much rather send and e-mail or meet in person, or heck, even text. I've been this way for as long as I can remember. I just hate telephones. I'll have to do it soon, though. Cody is getting tired of sharing his computer.

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What A Day!

Bad day at work. Really bad day at work...Someone from a previous shift confirmed as completed a whole bunch of orders that she didn't actually do. So the ones who needed those parts thought they were already done, but they weren't. When they needed them, they weren't there. And of course, it wasn't until they were actually ready to use them that they realized they didn't have them. Guess who it all fell back on? Though I didn't get blamed for it, I'm the one whose back they were on all day to get the parts out. And I mean all day long. I think if I hadn't already called in sick once this week, I'd sure call in tomorrow.

The good news is, we are working Saturday. My paycheck can sure use that overtime. My bank account is so tight it is squeaking.

One of those conical paper cups found at public drinking fountains--drawn from memory.

If That Don't Beat All

So I'm at work, minding my own business, when this co-worker comes up to me out of the blue and says, "Did you get a new trailer?" When I responded in the affirmative, she asked me what I was going to do with the old one. I told her I was going to sell it, and how much I was asking for it and she said,"I want it." We talked a bit more on the particulars, and she and her mother came by after work to look at it. She told me she'd let me know for sure tomorrow. Cool, huh?

But that ain't all. Around 7:00 PM, whilst I was watching music videos on Yahoo!, Mike came by and he had a guy with him. I don't remember the fellow's name, but he owns a trailer park just North of here. He said he wanted it also. He'd already looked it over and agreed to my price. I told him about my co-worker, and he said that if she didn't get it, he would! It appears I have my old house sold. Now I just have to finish cleaning it out. There's not much left, and I'll probably pay Cody, Shelbi, and Brittani to do it this weekend, if they want to. My other co-worker took most of my old junk that I didn't want to keep for her church's rummage sale.

Yippee!

The same pitcher as yesterday, only this time without the cup. I think it worked out a little better.

Sensei will be out tomorrow. He will either be sick, or in Nashville. Bill Pogue, who is the head of our association, is having a black belt seminar in Nashville this weekend. Sensei is going to go, if he isn't sick. I wanted to, but just couldn't afford it. Anyhoooooo, that means I'm in charge of class tomorrow night.

Speaking of class, Blake is falling back into his old patterns. He has begun leaving after the kid's class. He's too tired, or he doesn't feel good, or this excuse or that excuse. Too bad.

Further speaking of class, only 5 more days until the first black belt class. Woo hoo!

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I'll Never Get Finished

if I don't quit starting over. This is the third of my 10 WIPS that I've ripped and started over.


See, it's like this: I'd been contentedly knitting away on my Magic Loop socks, just making a plain vanilla sock with a 6" leg--as is my custom. The whole time I was knitting, there was this background noise. I sort of sub-consciously knew it was there, but wasn't paying any attention to it. Happily knitting along, I'd gotten all the way to the toe decreases of the first sock when the background noise finally broke through my consciousness.

It was the yarn. It was telling me that it didn't want to be a sock. I tried to ignore it and continued knitting, but like a nagging child, the yarn got louder and more demanding. It didn't want to be a sock!

Very persistent, this yarn is. It finally got to the point where I could no longer tune it out. I broke down and asked the yarn what it did want to be.

Ankle socks.

The yarn wanted to be ankle socks. I told the yarn no, it couldn't be ankle socks. After all, I was nearly finished. I was on the toe decreases already! I'd spent too much time knitting it into regular socks. I wasn't going to rip it out and start over this late in the game. Why couldn't the yarn just be happy being a regular sock?

But the yarn was insistent. It wanted to be ankle socks, not regular socks. And it would not be denied. What else could I do?

I ripped it out.

I am now knitting it into...*sigh*...

ankle socks.

But the yarn is happy, now...

Cherry tomatoes on the vine.

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Blake and Stuff

Blake can really get on my nerves sometimes. I just don't like his attitude. He skips 6 months of classes at a time, then comes in with the attitude that he owns the dojo. Still and all, I'm glad he's back. When he does come to class, he comes to work. We spent much of the night last night teaching each other the other side of two man basics. He knows one side and I know the other. We both want to learn the opposite side. Blake picks things up much more quickly than I do, so I would walk him through my side, then get James to talk me through the other side as we did them together. If Blake decides to stick around, he may spark my enthusiasm, which has been lacking of late. I don't know, though. He's already begun to talk about leaving after the kids classes.

James, on the other hand, is getting more and more out of hand. Last night, I had to smack him three times to get him focused on doing two man basics with us. Before that, when we were doing regular basics, I had strained my knee at work. Sensei always tells us that we know our own limitations and not to do anything that would cause us to hurt ourselves. When we were doing the kicks, I did a full speed, full force back kick and it really hurt my knee. For the rest of the reps, I did them slower and about half power. James noticed and started yelling, "Cheater! Cheater!" like a little 5 year old would do. James has been in the dojo longer than any of us. For so long he was the highest ranking student. Now, I've passed him up, and next month Joshua and Barrett will pass him up. He is slipping lower and lower on the totem pole, and he doesn't seem to realize that it's his own fault...

Josh and Barrett were working on their own two man basics when Barrett kneed Josh in the groin. As Josh was rolling around on the floor, we couldn't resist getting in a few digs. "Don't you have a cup?", someone asked. "Yes, it's in my bag," Josh replied. "It's not doing you much good there!" I said. "Well, I wasn't expecting full contact sparring until after class," Josh answered. About that time, I turned to Josh's girlfriend, who had accompanied him to class and said, "I hope you weren't planning on having any children!" The look on her face was priceless.

After class, sensei and I were talking, and he said he wanted to start the black belt class the 16th of this month. I'm excited about that. Then, next month, Josh and Barrett will be able to come as well. I asked sensei if the Greenville dojo had gotten air conditioning yet. There was some talk that they were going to. He said no, they hadn't. Then he said that the more the board thought about it, the more they realized they should have never done our test that way. My test? Yes, sensei said they said that those conditions were intolerable, and they shouldn't have done that to us. I kind of agree, because it must have been at least 120' in there, and that kind of heat just drains all your energy. Still and all, I feel a certain sense of pride that I tested, and did well, under those circumstances.

Oh, and when I entered the dojo, sensei bowed me in. It totally caught me off guard, because he'd only done that once, and that was after I'd fussed at him. I think Blake said something to him, and that's the reason he did it.

Ok, so I always get to bed late on karate nights. Last night was no exception. But I hadn't been asleep long when thunderstorms rolled through, waking me up. I went back to sleep pretty quickly, but was awakened sometime during the night by the cat. Seems a bug of some sort had gotten into the bedroom. My early morning symphony went something like this:

Rustle, rustle, thump!

Skritch, skritch, thump!

Thump, thump, thump, thump, THUMP!

Squeak, jiggle, jiggle, jiggle. (That's when she jumped onto the bed.)

Jiggle, squeak, squeak, THUMP! (That's when she jumped her fat self off of the bed.)

Pat, pat, pat, THUMP!

"CAT!!!! Leave that bug alone and go back to bed!"

A rather battered cardboard box at work, complete with oil stains, fingerprints, and half melted rubber band stuck to the side.

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Museums and Fingers

I'm going to an art museum. *Dances around with joy* Cody's art teacher is taking her students on a field trip to the Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis next month. Cody just happened to mention to her that I might like to go along as a chaperon, so she sent me an e-email asking if I would. Of course, I said yes. Cody and I have been wanting to go there for a long time. Best part about it is that since it is a school trip, our admission will be free.



Yesterday's and today's actually. I think I might know what this pattern will be. Here's a hint: Easter is this Sunday.

You may wonder why I call this my crooked finger. Well, it is slightly twisted, though not so much that it is glaringly obvious. When I was in Navy boot camp, I got it crushed in a fire hose. Being more on the paranoid side back then than I am now, I was afraid that if I went to sick call, they would put me on medical hold. I didn't want to spend one day more in basic training than I had to, so I just ignored my injury. I think it might have been fractured. It swelled up to nearly twice its size and stayed swollen for several days, stiff and sore for several weeks. I eventually regained full use of it, but it remained just a little crooked. In retrospect, I probably should have gone to sick call, but no lasting harm was done.

Maybe someday I'll tell you about the time I think I broke my leg. I don't know for sure, because I never went to sick call...

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Miscellaneous Stuff

Practicing eyeballing perspective on a table at work.

My brother and my nephew Joshua celebrating Josh's third birthday.

Only 5 months and one week until NFL kickoff weekend! H/T to Vera for posting this on her blog.

The school's band festival is this weekend. Cody's band played this afternoon. They scored top scores in both performance and sight reading. They played the same songs they did at last night's concert.

Monty finally ate, so the only snake still fasting is Slider. Hard headed rascal.

The art school that I finished this test for finally got in touch with me--rather my answering machine. It took them nearly a year and a half to contact me. I don't know if I will even call them back. I don't know if I can afford it now. Eighteen months ago I could have--but things have changed since then.

Ummm, I can't think of anything else, so I guess I'll get back to knitting.

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And It's A Pair

One of my socks is no longer lonely. I finished this pair last night.

I still have one more single sock that I need to knit a mate for. I did cast on for it this afternoon, but decided to spend my time working on my WIP list instead. I finally picked my Irish Hiking Scarf back up. I'm knitting it in worsted weight yarn with size 8 needles like the pattern calls for, but the resulting fabric seems so stiff and thick. Maybe it'll soften up after I wash it. Nevertheless, next time I make this pattern, I think I'll go up a size or two on the needles.



That's my cell phone, in case you can't tell. I am getting desperate for ideas of what to sketch. This is why I quit doing it last time. I just ran out of ideas.

Which Jane Austin heroine am I? Funny, I ended up being one from a book I haven't read:

Take the Quiz here!

:: E L I N O R ::
You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see.

Karate was interesting tonight. We started off doing slow motion kicks. If you've never done that, I recommend it. All it is is doing your basic kicks in very slow motion. It's good for building your leg muscles and improving balance, in addition to refining your kicking form. We went from slow motion kicks to speed drills. That was an interesting switch. We finished off the class doing bag work and kata.

We have a new student--well fairly new. She's been coming for about 3 weeks now. Somehow I don't think she'll last. She seems more interested in the boys than in karate.

I asked sensei once again about the black belt class. He said, "Yeah, I need to get that started." Josh and Barrett test for their black belts on May 5th. He'll probably get it started after they get promoted.

Lastly, one more quiz. Are you Yankee or Dixie? Me? I'm 96% Dixie.

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Exciting News!

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I'd boxed up some hats for charity. I actually sent them to the Yarn Harlot's Represent event in New York City, where they would be displayed, then donated to a charity. Imagine my thrill when I visit today's entry of her blog and see the picture of the hats displayed. Yes, there they were! My very own hats! I could see them! Right in front! Wow, what a thrill!!!!

Ok, you non-knitters out there may not think it's a big deal, but it is to me. She's famous among knitting circles.

Guess what happened today. I had some errands to run in town, so I told Cody I'd pick him up after school. I reminded him as I walked out the door this morning not to get on the bus. So after work, I drove up to the school and guess what. He didn't come out the door. So guess what I did. No, I didn't just drive home. I went looking for him. I didn't find him anywhere. I drove all around the school, and even went inside looking for him. No Cody. I figured he'd forgotten and rode the bus home as usual, so I went and ran my errands. By the time I got through, it was past the time the bus usually drops him off, so I called home. Sure enough, he was there. So I went on home. But I didn't just drive off when he didn't come out the door.

I thought the whole situation was strangely coincidental, considering yesterday's post.

Coffee cups have always been a favorite thing of mine, even though I don't drink coffee. You can drink anything from a mug--milk, water, diet Dr. Pepper....

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Brain Dead

I've been sitting here about 30 minutes now trying to think of something to blog about, but keep coming up empty. Johnny Lindley was on an absolute tear today and when he is like that, it is exhausting just being in the same building with him. You never know when he is going to explode, and over what. Makes me want to take an extra vacation day, just to have a day away from him.

Then to top it all off, Cody comes in after school, throws his books down and disappears for 5 hours without so much as a how-de-do. Oh, I wasn't worried. I knew where he was. And, yeah, I could have called him and told him to come home. It's just the principle of the thing. So now, in addition to being grounded from life for a week, he's got to write me a 500 word essay on respect, courtesy, and manners. He's not the happy camper.

What I need is a good night's sleep...

All Bottles Are Good

John over at Martial Views has an interesting post up about different styles of martial arts. What is interesting is that in some of the comments, people refer to those who trash talk about other styles of martial arts. Seems there are always those who believe that theirs is the only style that ought to exist--that others are inferior to the point of being worthless. This is not a new thing. Master Shimabuku had to deal with this in some of his first gen Isshinryu students.

As the story goes, students usually stayed after class for a while, talking and drinking. During one of these bull sessions, some of the students began bragging about the superiority of Isshinryu, to the point where they were trashing other styles. Master Shimabuku then indicated several types of beverage bottles and asked which one was the best. Of course, the students had no answer to that, but the master did. He responded, "All bottles are good. They each serve a purpose."

All martial arts styles serve a purpose. No one single style is superior to the others. Each one has its particular weakness and strengths. Later, Sensei Advincula added to it by saying, "Knocking one bottle off does not make the others better." Isshinryu will not improve as a style if we suddenly were to make shotokan or tae kwan do nonexistent. On the contrary, cross training in another style (I generally don't recommend this until one has reached black belt in his own style, though) can actually improve your understanding of your primary style.

I'm normally not into discussing the deep philosophical meanings behind martial arts. But this topic deserved a mention.

All bottles are good--even acrylic ones.

Nice segue into knitting content, don't you think?

A completed sock. Wool blend, though. Not acrylic. But hey, all bottles are good, right?

I've gotten a day behind on my dishcloth rows. Here are yesterday's rows that were done today. I'll do today's rows tomorrow.

and this is my drinking cup that I carry with me at work.

Blog fodder has been lacking of late. I hope to get more interesting soon.

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More Squirkles

I drew this orange about half the size of the previous one, so I was able to pay more attention to shading and stuff. It's still not perfect, but it's better.