No pics today . . .

Ok, I did take some.  I went early to the “Cary Cruise Night”, which is held on Wednesdays during the summer.  I haven’t been “able” to go to one of these nights, because for a long time Bullfrog practiced on Wednesday nights.  For the past few years, I just haven’t remembered – or at least until the night was over.  Finally I made it – and it before it actually started (prior to 6:00 pm).   I got a lot of pictures of cars – some old – some new.  I’m looking forward to trying to draw some of them.  I’ve only drawn houses and other buildings – never cars.  Should be interesting.   ■  Heard from a long ago customer today.  That’s good news.  ■  Abby goes to the Vet tomorrow.  And it’s an early appointment. TFB!

Book format . . .

Purchased a new program that enables me to add “books” to my websites.  The pages actually turn with the sound of a page turning.  There are still some features that I need to figure out, but that will come in time.  If you want to check it out go to my Chili Fest page and click on the “Origins of Chili” link.    ( http://www.shrandahl.com/chilifest  )  ■  Still have some drawings in progress.  I should finish one of them tomorrow.  ■  And a nice long weekend coming up.  Too bad I have to work on Saturdays.  But at least Holly and I will have Sunday and Monday off together.   Doctor’s appointment tomorrow.  TFB.  ■

One ingrown toenail – done

That’s a close-up of Abby – one of the sweetest dogs we’ve ever had.  She always looks at you when you talk to her with her eyes saying, “What can I do to please you.”  ■  Went to the podiatrist today to get an ingrown toenail worked on.  Didn’t feel a thing during the procedure.  I left with a big bandage around my left big toe.  Tomorrow it’ll just require a band aid.  ■  A little concerned about my cousin Tom and his wife Patty.  They live pretty close to the Atlantic ocean and hurricane Irene is heading their direction.  ■  Work tomorrow and again on Sunday working our store’s Rock-U concert.  The kids in Rock-U do a great job.  I’m looking forward to it.  ■  TFB.

Still busy . . . . .

Still busy, but I am making some progress.  The drawing in the upper-left corner should be completed this week.  The one in the upper-right corner is a quick pencil sketch of another home; The one in the lower left – I just have to run off note cards; and the one in the lower-right is of the USS Peleliu – my son’s old ship.  ■  It’s time for bed.  No more dilly-dallying for me tonight.  ‘Night.  ■

Busy weekend

We had a very busy weekend.  Friday  a rehearsal dinner; Saturday – The Wedding;  and Sunday we hosted a brunch for the newly wedded couple.  ■  Now it’s Monday (↓actually early Tuesday morning) and I’ve been to work and back.  Nothing new there.  ■  Received an email from a friend that they had moved to a new house.  I was able to get a very low resolution photo of the house off of Google Maps and then did a quick pencil sketch of it – which is what you see here.  I had to eliminate quite of few trees that were blocking a view of a goodly amount of the house.   ■  Lots to do tomorrow.  Call the vet, call the doc, print off note cards for one order that I just finished; do another rough sketch on a house in Texas that we’re (the customer and I) are working on for a final drawing.  ■  My band, Bullfrog, was contacted to see if we could play this Wednesday night.  Unfortunately our drummer is unable to make the gig so we had to say no.  ■  TFB

Working on this one . . . . amongst others. . . .

I’m working on drawing this home – an old home that no longer exists.  We’re working off of some old photos and memories.  It’s a fun project and I’m trying my best to “get it right.”  More sketches tomorrow to figure out just where and how the chinaberry tree should look – it’s not in the drawing right now.  ■  Put the lights back up in our trees along the patio.  We had taken them down a few days ago with the intention of finding out what worked and what didn’t .  Still have partial strands out, but the lights we can find now are too expensive to go about replacing the ones we have now.  Picture tomorrow.  ■  TFB.

One drawing done . . . more to go

I finished this drawing yesterday, printed off note cards and delivered it to my best customer.  Thanks, Gary.  I really appreciate your business.  ■  I have a couple of other drawings to do including one of an old – and now gone – childhood home of my customer.  We have some photos, but they were taken after some changes were made to the home.  He wants it as it was originally.  It’ll take some work.  ■  I had intended to do it today, but tomorrow I’ll replace my iPhone, which after 4.5 years has become unreliable.  ■  TFB.

Long time no post . . . .

It’s been quite a few days since my last post.  Been busy on a couple of drawings.  ■  Busy week this week not only with drawings, but with a pre-wedding party, the wedding, then hosting a brunch the day after the wedding.  Lots of cleaning to do in prep for the brunch.  ■  Went to see “Cowboys and Aliens” this afternoon.  It was entertaining, but certainly not a great movie.  ■  My iPhone, after 4½ years has become unreliable for making and taking calls.  Lots of time it can’t make the connection and when it does then it’ll drop it.  I can only hear about every third word when talking with someone.  It appears that I’m going to have to get a new phone.  While I’d like to wait for the 5 to come out, it appears that I’ll just get the 3gs as it’s pretty inexpensive.  More money out the door.  ■  Time for bed.  ‘Night.

Saturday post . . .

I know that properly it’s Sunday now, but this is my Saturday post.  ■  Worked today – sold a guitar a few minutes after I came in.  The rest of the day was pretty slow.  ■  After work I grabbed an amp and guitar and headed off to a party to play.  It was a lot of fun.  ■  Tomorrow we have some stuff to get done around the house, plus I have to continue work on a drawing.  ■  Enough.  Time for bed.

Deere didn’t start . . . . .

My John Deere lawn tractor didn’t start this morning.  Tomorrow I’ll have to put it on the charger and see if that works.  ■  We have our niece coming over tomorrow for dinner.  Should be fun.  ■ 

Like a sauna . . . . .

I wish we had a little of the cool weather depicted in this pic from this past winter.  It’s like a sauna with the humidity levels outside.  Feels great to come back inside.  ■  I’m doing the last drawing over because it’s not to my liking.  If I worked in pencil I could erase, but not with pen & ink.  Nope, got to start over from the beginning.  ■  I’ve got to see if my John Deere will start tomorrow.  Got it started this weekend, but had to put the battery on my battery charger.  We’ll see.  ■ 

Drawing . . . . .

This is the current drawing I’m upon which I’m working.  It’s a large home and I’m trying to fit it it an 8x10 frame.  The house is too large for that format – you can’t get enough detail in.  I’m far enough with it that I think I’m going to have to start all over.  That’s not so bad as the 2nd time around the drawing usually goes much faster.  ■  The brake light in my car went on and then off.  I’m going to check and see if the brake fluid is topped off, or possibly the float on the break fluid is not floating anymore.  I need the car as I’m supposed to drive up to Green Bay this weekend.  That’ll be a long drive with no air-conditioning – that went out last year.  ■  We’ve had some rain tonight and looking at the weather map it looks like we’re in for more rain tonight. 

Long time since a post . . . . .

It’s been a rather long time since my last post.  My intentions are good, but I run out of time by the time I’m thinking of posting.  ■  Let’s see . . . since we got our power back on we’ve had another storm that knocked out our power again – just for a split second, but long enough to bring my pc down.  It also brought down the pc at the store and I’m now back to trying to get the wireless connection to the internet back up there.  I’d just gone through this a couple of weeks ago.  It took eons of time on the phone with AT&T to get the router back up and working.  I hate to think of going through that again.  ■  Bullfrog had a short gig on Saturday afternoon.  Since our new guitar player couldn’t make it I went back to guitar and brought our old bass player back.  It was a good gig.  A lot of fun.  ■  I’ve got an appointment scheduled on Friday to get rid of an ingrown toenail.  I’m also supposed to go up to Green Bay that day.  I’ve got to stop by the doc’s office and see if I’ll be able to drive up there, or if I need to reschedule the appointment.  ■  Time for bed.  I’m trying to make it to bed before midnight every night – no more of these 1:00 am bedtimes.  ■

Lost power for 2 days . . .

. . and it wasn’t any fun.  You realize how much we depend upon electricity and our electronic gadgets.  Without power – no lighting, no TV, no clothes washing, no electric garage door, no pc’s, no internet, no wifi, no recharging your cell phone, or ipad, etc.  The storm that went through must have damaged some of AT&T’s cell phone towers.  We couldn’t even make phone calls.  Strange to be so incommunicado for so long.  It’s nice to have power back.  ■  The drawing above is of a home in La Crosse, WI.  I hope the people like it.  It was a closing gift from a realtor friend in Wisconsin.  ■  I’m trying to set a before midnight deadline for me to be in bed.  I see it’s a couple of minutes after midnight, so off to bed I go.  ‘Night.

Today I learned that . . . .

You can make up every number from 1 to 99 with just 10 coins.  Can you tell me how many dimes, nickels, pennies, and quarters are needed to do this?