violetismycolor

one of those days...

So, did you ever have one of those days when you thought that you could do whatever it was that you had planned for that day?  And then, all hell broke loose and you got nothing at all on your list done?

That was my day, today.

On my list were cleaning my house (which is my Friday job, but I didn't get it done on Friday), paying my bills and balancing my checkbook, and writing in my blog.  Just as the day was starting, my mom-in-law called, needing to be taken to the doctor.  Then came the call, making some navigation changes to the website I just finished. 

The rest of the day was spent running my MIL around, driving out to pick up some files, and working the website till my eyes were crossing.  No blogging till now (late), no chance to catch up on all my fave blogs out there.  And all those nasty chores for me to STILL do tomorrow. 

illustration friday...sorrow...

Here is my illo friday concept of sorrow...my kitty when the dog has eaten all of the cat food out of her bowl...

In Bonnie news, the person that was supposed to drive to NYC this weekend and put them up when they went to see 'The Gates' couldn't get permission from his folks and so, no trip.  She's a little bummed but holding up and determined to do something fun this weekend, anyway...

sooo busy...

Aaack...so much work....

I have been trying to get a client's website up and running in record time, so I have been almost totally out of touch.  But we are almost there and should get a breather next week.  Yay.

Also, the lovely Tine has translated our Pisces poem:

*"*You Pisces people are rich on body,
passionate, sensitive, soft.
You are experienced in arena of the arts and music.
May fortune even your path at all times*."*

Thank you, Tine.

In addition, Hope had a co-worker take a stab at it. Pretty close..

people of the star sign pisces, you, rich in love
devoted, contemplative, tender
in the realm of art and music
you are versed, may fortune
henceforth and for all times
accompany you on your path

Thank you, Hope.

Off to a fundraiser for Portland Public Schools, and then to work on the Illustration Friday...

Oregon and the weather is dreamy...

Okay, so Mr. Bush doesn't believe in global climate change...has he been to Oregon in any of the past three winters?

We have had the sunniest winters here...so sunny, in fact, that when even one drizzly day appears, I and all my friends start moaning about how cold it is and how gray it is and...you get the picture.

Yesterday, it was sunny and 62 degrees! I took my daily, 3-mile walk in a sleeveless top...and I felt too warm at points!

Today has dawned sunny, again, and there is absolutely no rain in the 5-day forecast, while California continues to do the Noah's Ark-thing...Explain this, Mr. Bush!

any Pisces out there???

All you Pisces out there...here is the Pisces banner!  If you didn't know, I bought a series of German antique postcards (on Ebay) that were signs of the zodiac and all done by one artist.  I  wish I knew more about these, like who the artist is/was, what year they were done, and what the little poem on each says (I can do some Dutch, but not German).  The only notation on these cards is: I. Lo. Steib, GmbH, Munchen, Printed in Western Germany.  I am assuming that this is the company that issued the cards. 

If anyone wants to help with the German translation, here is what the little poem about Pisces says:

• Fischmensen, Ihr, an Leibe reich,
• Hingenbungsvoll, besinnlich, weich
• Im Reich der Kunst und auch Musick
• Seid Ir erfahren, mog das Gluck
• Hinfort zu allen Zeiten
• Die Wege Euch bereiten!

Got that?  Total mystery to me...

Photo Friday...rural...

This is my photo friday submission for 'rural'...it was taken in southern Oregon last May...Your can see it larger either by clicking the photo at left or going to my photo album page.

Ross headed off to Black Butte with a friend for the weekend.  He'll be skiing and bike-riding and playing Magic and D&D...the normal, nerdy 17 year-old stuff.  He left last night with a pocket full of cash ... necessary to rent skis and buy a lift ticket and (oh yeah) buy lots of food.  He can really pack it away.

I had coffee with lovely fellow-blogger Margaret, in town for her daughter's gymnastics meet.  We had plenty to say to each other and I recognized her right away from her blog's photos.  Actually, her daughter was the one I recognized first.  What fun we had!

Bonnie informs me that she is headed off to New York City next weekend, with a group of friends, to see The Gates.  She is very excited about it and I am very interested in her reaction.  It seems that one either loves it or hates it.  I think that it looks warm in a cold, bare-branched, winter park...but that is only from the pictures I have seen in the New York Times and on TV.

John and I are going to go out to see 'Sideways' tonight.  I am hoping that it will live up to the hype, but am skeptical, at best.  I will try to keep an open mind. We talked about seeing 'The Aviator', especially after seeing the Spruce Goose last weekend, but at 3 hours long...we hesitated on that one.  The shows either start at 4:30 pm or 7:30 pm...one is too early (since we will not yet have had dinner) and the other is too late (since we old-fogies like to get to bed earlier than that).  We just may have to wait till it comes out on video...

Oregon continues to steal California's sunshine.  It was sunny and 57 degrees today.  We haven't had a rainy day all week.  In fact, we've barely had any rainy days all fall and winter.  California, meanwhile, seems to be drenched and threatening to fall into the ocean.  Hope all of you down there are holding on for dear life!

Illustration Friday...flight...

***click on image to enlarge it***

I am one of those people who likes such mundane things as butterflies, mermaids, and castles. My first thought when given this challenge was 'butterfly'...and I never came up with an idea that I liked better. So, here it is, as unimaginative as it may be. I just like butterflies!

Bonnie's Valentine's Day Poll...

Bonnie wrote the most clever poll for Valentine's Day.  She can do that on Live Journal and she likes to procrastinate from doing other things by inventing polls.  This was a good one.

Here is the poll and it's answers:

It's that time of year again: Valentine's Day. What are your thoughts on this holiday?

Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn 2 (12.5%)

I'm not bitter. I'm just...what's another word for "bitter"? 3 (18.8%)

I'm part of a smug couple and Valentine's Day is the perfect chance to revel in my smug coupledom 1 (6.2%)

Remember in grade school when we got cheap cards from every kid in class and candy? Yeah, those were the days. 6 (37.5%)

It's just an excuse for the greeting card industry to wrangle another couple dollars from the average consumer 1 (6.2%)

*giggles* I LOVE Valentine's Day! My date always gets me the CUTEST gifts! *hairflip* 0 (0.0%)

How do I detest thee? Let me count the ways... 0 (0.0%)

An excuse to watch romantic movies and eat chocolate? Count me in. 2 (12.5%)

Grrrrrrrrr 0 (0.0%)

One day set aside to make you feel even shittier than usual about being single? Wow, sadomasochism really must be an American tradition 1 (6.2%)

Then, she wrote this today:

Frankly, I am surprised at the lack of bitterness people have about Valentine's Day, at least as expressed in my little informal poll. And can the person who said they were reveling in their smug coupledom please identify themselves? You don't have to, but I am trying to think of who I know who is a smug couple. Of course, I can never tell if people who answer my polls do so truthfully, or just pick the most amusing answer. I have been known to go for the cleverest line in similar polls, regardless of my true sentiments.

Funny girl...

valentine's day weekend...

My very romantic husband took me away for a Valentine's treat over the weekend. We went to the Hotel Oregon in McMinnville, which is only an hours drive away. There is nothing spectacular about McMinnville, though the 'old town' area is very nice but the Hotel Oregon has been there since 1905 and it is very cool.

We spent the afternoon at the Evergreen Aviation Museum , which houses the Spruce Goose (of Howard Hughes fame). John, at first, didn't really want to go there. He thought the Spruce Goose was ALL that was there. But there is so much more. There are planes from throughout the 20th Century, and the tour guides all seem to be WW2 vets who know tons about the history of these planes. Since John and I are both history buffs, we thought it was quite interesting.

And I took tons of pictures. I loved the light and the different angles on things, especially nose cones and propellers on planes...okay, I know that that sounds dorky, but it was so much fun.

We had a hotel package, so there was a Valentine's Dinner, where you were assigned tables with other folks. The 3 other couples at our table were very sympatico and it made the event really great. There was a dance, too, but we hated the band so went downstairs and played pool, instead. All around a great day.

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you out there!

photo friday...luscious...

***click on image for a better look at the lusciousness***

This was my pick for 'Luscious'. For a Dutch-American girl like me, nothing is more luscious than tulips en-masse. I took this photo last year at the flower stand in front of Pioneer Courthouse Square in here in Portland. What a great way to cheer oneself up on a gray Portland day but to buy a fistful of tulips.

illustration friday...year of the rooster...

***click on the image for a better look***

First of all, thanks to all you sweet people out there who have sent love and sympathy for Barley's cancer diagnosis. It is just so kind of all of you to care about us.

Secondly, I took a good deal of the day trying to work on this IF thing. I could sit with Barley and it kind of took my mind off my woes. I found sites that called this year the 'Year of the Cockerel' and that sounded cool, so I thought I would use it.

I like the traditional red, white, and black color scheme. It just seems right. Can't wait to see what everyone else is doing...

doggie disaster...

My sweet Barley dog has bone cancer.  When he had his growth removed today, the vet was going to check out his knee with an xray if it was still swollen. We thought that he had hurt it when he fell going up the stairs, but I think he fell because of the cancer in his knee.  Anyway, our vet was very surprised to see cancer above the joint.

My son, Ross, has always been the one who loved Barley the most.  He is the most animal-sympatico one in the family.  He was with me when I went to pick up Barley at the vet and he was there when the vet said that Barley had bone cancer.  He is taking it very, very hard. 

The choices are these: 

Do we amputate his leg (right front leg)?  Many dogs do well with 3 legs but Barley is almost 13 and he has had problems with his legs for years...weak legs.  So, we don't think he would have much mobility if he lost a leg.

Chemotherapy isn't an option without the amputation and even with that, all it would do is give him an extra 6 months or so.

So, our only real option is to leave it, monitor his pain, and decide when life gets to be too much for him.  He is almost 13 and the vet said that a dog of his size would normally live to 13 or 14.  So, he has lived quite a good life.  We just don't want him to be in a lot of pain.  We lost our first cat to kitty-AIDS and that was so sad...and we finally had to put him to sleep, which was very painful, especially for the kids.

This is going to be really hard...

odd weekend happenings..

Ross and his buddies had the most awesome time at his party.  Besides playing capture-the-flag, they teamed up and had a scavenger hunt.  Can you believe that 3 of them drove themselves?  I mean their parents let them take the cars overnight?  They are all good boys though, and they minded their p's an q's.  They slept in various rooms throughout the house.  At least, some of them slept.  I made scrambled eggs, sausage, and waffles for the gang for breakfast and then they were gone.  My god, all those boys take up alot of space!

In the middle of that night, I was awake and was trying to imagine Adam in his room at St. Andrew's.  I thought that I would try a little 'remote viewing'.  If you don't know what this is, it means that you try to 'see' someone or something at a distance...try to actually see them.  This has actually happened to me twice in the past (more inadvertantly than deliberately but freaky nonetheless).  So, I would concentrate on Adam and I kept getting this mental image of him, wearing this long-sleeved, dark gray, ribbed cotton shirt that he has and green khaki pants.  In the morning, on our regular Sunday morning check-in call, I told him that I had been awake during the night and how I had pictured him.  He got kind of quiet, and said, "That IS what I am wearing."  I just said, "I thought so..."  Kind of freaked him out.

poor baby Barley...

How pathetic is my dog?  Poor Barley wrecked his 'knee' when he tried to climb the stairs to our playroom, where Ross was hanging out on the computer.  Seems John and I were gone and Barley got lonesome...  Now he is wearing a cast (signed by Ross and I...) and he is spending all his time (when not caught up in sleeping...) trying to chew it off.  To add insult to injury, he has to have surgery on Tuesday to remove a growth and then we will probably have to get out the cone, so that he won't worry it too much.

In other exciting news, I have 10 17-year-old boys over for an overnight birthday party for Ross.  He does this every year. They eat a lot of pizza, play video games and capture the flag, and just have a great time together.  But so much testosterone is daunting, to say the least.

illustration friday...friendship...

***Click on the image for a closer look...***

Taking off a little from last week's illo, I reused some of the parts from various past illustrator files, added stuff, etc.  I had so much fun with this and spent way too much time on it, but hey...that's what the fun is all about...

sylvia browne and gordon smith...

Okay, how weird was it to have a psychic named Gordon Smith here in Oregon last night. If you aren't an Oregonian, you might not know that one of our U.S. Senators is named Gordon Smith.

But this Gordon Smith was an awesome medium. Too bad he had only an hour on the stage last night, because he was just fascinating. He was just so right on about people's loved ones, etc.

Then came Sylvia Browne. She gave a 'talk' for a little over an hour, but it really wasn't anything you couldn't have read in her books or seen on Montel Williams. Everyone was given a little paper bracelet with a number on it, when they came in. At the Q&A time, they pulled numbers at random, and then those people got to get in line to ask Sylvia things. This was more of what I was hoping for, but there was nothing but the randomness of hopefully getting called. I didn't. But it was interesting nonetheless.

There were over 4,000 people there. Yikes, we Oregonians must really go in for this stuff, big time...

total excitement...

Okay guys...I am totally jazzed because I am going to hear the psychic Sylvia Browne tonight. Maybe she will tell me something about my reasons for being here that I don't know...

John's birthday dinner...

John will be celebrating his birthday in England, on our trip.  The old softie is so sentimental that he is making sure that Bonnie can fly over for the weekend and go with us for his birthday dinner!  Wow!  I have to say that this shocks the hell out of me, since he is so 'close' with the dollars, usually.  But he got all sad about the family not being together.  So, voila, plane ticket...

So, I have a hotel in St. Andrew's and a hotel in Drymen, on the Buchanan side of Loch Lomond (the Buchanan clan is based on the southeast side of the lock and the Colquhouns were opposite on the southwest side).  Now we have to start planning for York.  Then we stay with friends in London, then in Paris, then again in Wiltshire.  The last thing will be an airport hotel in Edinburgh.