Visual Arts Delivery

I received my Amazon order yesterday before work, which included 2 trade paperbacks of favorite comic books series "Low" and "Black Science"), and a new set of Pigma Micron art pens. I photographed them on a new area rug I bought the night before.

The Red Turtle

What an amazing, quiet film. A great way to get lost for 90 minutes...

Christmas Day

I allowed myself to sleep in today (9:30 am). I awoke to a mere 4 inches of snow (so much for 5"-10"). it made the view of the land look very pretty though.

I had to decide on what kind of coffee to have with my banana and mini-brownies, and I went with the Philz Tesora - SO good!

I watched "Mickey's Christmas Carol" and "Good Morning Football", and when I had "A Very Happy Yule Log" on, Chumble thought the kittens were real!

The plow guy came by and whisked away the snow. I washed a sink full of dishes. And I went on Amazon to use part of my $50 gift card.

Christmas Eve

I worked 6:30 am - noon. It flew by...

After wrapping gifts at home, I headed over to Westminster for the family gathering. Everyone arrived rather quickly, and after some pepperoni/cheese/crackers in front of NFL Red Zone with Dad & Kevin, everyone had dinner. I had turkey & gravy with stuffing & toasted Italian bread. SO good.

The kids all loved their gifts (so did Dad and Ma), and what I received was fantastic:

* Kevin & Family gave me a very cool hiking stick and $20 in scratch tickets.
* Sarah & Family gave me $30 to Barnes & Noble.
* Jason & Family gave me $25 to Amazon, a pound of Tesora whole bean coffee from Philz Coffee, and a little sketching book called "642 Tiny Things to Draw".
* Dad & Ma went gift-crazy for me (as always), and gave me:

• $50 to Amazon.
• $50 to L.L.Bean.
• $25 to Michael's.
• $25 to Starbuck's.
• A pound of whole bean coffee: Green Mountain Dark Magic Espresso Blend
• A pound of whole bean coffee: Peet's Major Dickason's Blend.
• A Ghirardelli's dark chocolate bar.
• A tin of O'Keefe's Working Hands hand cream.
• Two cool old calendars from the Westminster Historical Society.
• A book of old postcards from around New England called "Bygone Backwoods".
• A 7 oz. Balsam & Cedar candle from Yankee Candle.

Everyone had a great time, and no one looked disappointed (as happens sometimes). Sarah & I were cracking up over several inappropriate jokes, it was hilarious. Georgia and Jared helped me with my scratch tickets ($4 winnings). At around 9:00 pm everyone began to trickle home. We are supposed to get up to ten inches of snow overnight, beginning tonight around one am. I left last, at 9:30, with all of my awesome stuff, as well as a bag full of turkey, bread, brownies and baklava!

Home, tv, online for a bit (Elvanar), and asleep around two am.

At Last

...a day off! I worked the last five days in a row (close, mid, close/truck, close, close). It was nice to wake up this morning with no cloud of having to be somewhere over my head. And I actually got up an hour earlier than usual!

I watched last night's "Late Night with Seth Meyers" and played "Clash of Clans", and then I washed a sink full of dishes and a load of laundry. Then it was coffee, a taking of Christmas gift inventory, and online.

I had a bag of Cheese Doodles for lunch (???), and later I put up the rest of my Christmas decorations (lights & garland around the kitchen cut-out). I read for awhile, until it got dark.

I got Domino's for supper, and spent the rest of the evening in a 'food coma'. I'm trying to avoid making declarations this year, but no more Domino's for me, for a long time.

Not a bad day...

Things in the Mail

My soap order from Amazon arrived today.

Also, the physical copy of Sansyou's "The Glistening Ones" arrived, with a ton of bonus free stuff! The fine folks from Moon Sounds Records threw in a cassette of the album (along with the cd format I ordered); along with the full-length cd of My Gold Mask's "Anxious Utopia", plus two download cards: 1) Sansyou's "The Dilettante" and Spectrum's "Thanks for Your Kind Words". It was beyond nice of them to do that...

Winter Storm Benji

I woke up at 9:00 am, thinking I would be greeted by a Winter Wonderland outside of my windows, but alas, the snow was nowhere to be seen until around noon.

I had coffee & bacon for breakfast as I sorted through my photo box for old pictures from family trips at the tail end of the 1980's to Papoose Pond in North Waterford, Maine. I had the Music Choice jazz channel on while I searched, and it was actually the background to most of my day.

I was online in the middle of the day, online Christmas shopping and playing games. I worked out in between rounds. Supper was Ragu, angel hair pasta and ground beef. I watched a few episodes of "Friends" (around the Chandler & Kathy era, and the apartment bet). Then I dug out my Christmas decorations and put most of them up except for the lights.

It's around 8:30 pm now, and there is 4½"of snow in my driveway...

Lazy-ish

I have today off. So far I:

• Got out of bed at 8:00 am because my cat Chumble demanded it to be so.
• Watched last night's "Survivor" and "Modern Family".
• Finished my 'castle & fields' drawing (see below).
• Finished watching "Jobs" while eating Chinese food (chicken wings & fingers).
• Read some of Jack L. Chalker's "Priam's Lens".

Day Off Stuff

I have today off. I spent the grey morning watching "The Gifted" and "Supergirl" (both just so-so episodes, with several nonsensical reactions by various cast members).

Then my Amazon order arrived:

• "LOW" Volume 3 by Remender & Tocchini.
• A new 8" frying pan from Green+Life.
• A blackberry pear bar of soap from One With Nature.

I went to Cinema World to see the 1:00 pm showing of Justice League. It was a pretty decent movie (and not horrible, like all of the internet trolls predicted/proclaimed). I'd give it a solid B-grade.
* Pros: Wonder Woman, Ben Affleck's Batman, Superman returning all bright and blue & red. Cyborg, rapports with Aquaman & WW. Luthor & Deathstroke after the credits. Amber Heard as Mera. Superman reuniting with both Lois and his mom.
* Cons: The Flash (who decided to get a young Howie Mandel-type to play Barry Allen?). The Flash's uniform and running effects. Jesse Eisenberg as Luthor (again).
I enjoyed the movie a great deal, but it's not a 'multiple view' in the theater.

I arrived home to gas trucks & a traffic officer. They spent a couple of hours updating the gas lines & connections. It was done by 5:00 pm.

Saturday

What a great day off.

• I watched "The Comedian" with Robert DeNiro and Leslie Mann. Breakfast was apple pie and coffee.
• I bought a new 8" frying pan. I haven't had one since January.
• I drew a calendar for December.
• Lunch was a salad.
• I added my new music to my old iPod, and changed out a bunch of songs too (it's mostly shoegaze bands and 80's songs).
• I worked out from 2:30 - 4:00 pm.
• I did more work on the 'castle' drawing.
• Supper was a boneless pork chop and buttered egg noodles.
• I finished "Not Quite the Three Musketeers".

Shoegaze Magic

I finally have a bit of disposable income, so I snagged some new music!

From my favorite place to discover new bands (or catch up with old favorites), I got:

1. The lost to history Ozean's self-titled EP.
2. Sansyou's "The Glistening One", their first full-length album (cd on the way).
3. And last but definitely not least, the latest album (self-titled) from Slowdive, one of my all-time favorite bands.

I'm so happy! Great new music to carry me through the winter...