Three hours to go

I slept while Holly drove.

Back on the road

Heading home, but first stopping to get some breakfast.

Ghostly view in Louisville

Outside of Libby & Jay's house.

Going thru Indy

Almost thru Indy. A couple of hours to go.

On the road . . .

On the road to Louisville.

Watercolors ????????

Watercolors – what was I thinking?  Actually I was thinking it wouldn’t be too hard.  Wrong!  I haven’t worked with watercolors since high school except for a couple of weak tries a few years ago.  I was commissioned to try and do ↓a watercolor of a landscape.  Shouldn’t be too hard, I thought.  Wrong!  It’s much tougher than I had expected.  If you look down a couple of posts where I did a watercolor wash of a pen and ink – well that turned out pretty well.  Not so the landscape.   I’ve tried 4 different times – too busy, too broad-colored, too stiff.  Nothing seems to be working.  I may be that I’m trying to fit all of it in to an 8x10 inch drawing area.  That doesn’t give much room for the detail that I see in my mind’s eye.  Live and learn.  At any rate my client doesn’t need the drawing – good news from an artistic standpoint – bad news from an income side.  ■  Still a lot going on.  The girls (Abby & Zoe) and I will make a trip to the bank tomorrow.  That means a new card from the girls to our favorite tellers.  ■  I also need to mow the yard tomorrow.  It’s finally in need of mowing after being dry for so long.  ■  And I need to get out and take some photos of homes and businesses that I’ve been needing to take for so long.  My camera’s on the charger and will be ready to go tomorrow.  ■  TFB.  ‘Night.

A lot of drawing to get done . . . .

I’ve got a lot of drawing to get done in the next few days.  One pen & ink watercolor wash, and two pen & inks.  I’m ready to start on the watercolor wash tomorrow.  I’ll post pre and post pics of that in the next couple of days.  ■  Tomorrow morning I’ve got my weekly chamber networking group meeting.  Up early for me.  Then tomorrow night we have to drop Holly’s car off at the dealership to get a wheel bearing fixed.  It should still be under warranty.  ■  Time for bed.  Goodnight.  ■ 

Ribs . . . Mmmmmmm

Six racks of ribs

Cookin’ . . .

I’m busy cooking six racks of ribs for our neighbor’s birthday party tonight.  I wasn’t sure I was going to get all of them on the grills (I borrowed my neighbor’s Weber), but I did.  I’ll take a quick picture and post it in a little bit.  ■  And now I’m hoping the rain will hold off.  No fun grillin’ in the rain.  ■

Trying some watercolor washes . . .

It’s our next-door-neighbor’s birthday tomorrow.  Her husband is throwing a surprise party for her.  I have to bbq six slabs of ribs for it – gonna take some time.  I drew their home for them quite a few years ago and thought I’d do it again, but this time do a watercolor wash over the pen & ink.  What do you think?  TFB.  ■

A Great Chili Fest–#18 . . . . .

It was a great Chili Fest.  18 years of Chili Fest – that’s a long time.  (pictures to the left are a portion of the pictures that were taken by RockHeart Photography (http://www.rockheartphotography.com/) ■  This year’s music was probably the best we’ve ever had.  Great musicians.  Thanks for playing everyone.  ■  Next year I’m thinking a live webcast of the music.  I’ll have to see how to set that up.  Technically I don’t think it’s too hard, but we’ll see.  And would you tune in to it?  Hmmm.  ■ 

Great Chili Fest

It was a great Chili Fest.  Some pics tomorrow.  TFB.

Finished painting . . .

My neighbor and I finished painting my window sashes.  He did the lion’s share of the work – going up on the ladder to the second story.  I’m not great with heights.   ■  Chili Fest in coming up in a couple of days.  I still have to make my chili.  Lots to do in prep for the fest.  ■  Tomorrow I’ve got a Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting.  That’s 3 chamber events for me this week.  Too many.  ■  TFB.

House painting, Chili Fest & other assorted stuff . . .

It’s been very busy here lately.  My neighbor, Steve, is helping me paint my window trim – it badly needs it.  Actually he’s doing most of it – bless him.  I’m not real comfortable with heights and doing those 2nd story windows puts one up higher than I’d like.  ■  I’ve got 3 chamber of commerce meetings to attend to this week.  One tomorrow on social networking for business; a presentation of my business to my networking group; and then a chamber breakfast on Thursday.  I’m trying to find time to clean the garage and make my chili.  ■  And my wife pointed out that I have a “bruise” on my right shin.  She says I’ve had it for a couple of weeks.  I hadn’t noticed it and it doesn’t hurt at all.  The only think that hasn’t completely healed is my left big toe.  I still have to soak it in some medication that starts with a “B”.  ■  I’ve started work on a book for myself of my paintings using the iPhone/iPad app Brushes.  It’s going slower than I had anticipated and right now I don’t' have a lot of time to devote to it.  ■  Got a text message from our son – he starts training for duty in Iraq in October and then goes to Iraq after the first of the year.  We don’t know any more than that at this point.  ■ 

Good news and not so good news . . . .

Good news – I received a thank you note from the recipient of one of my pen & inks.  That’s it to the left.  I’ve removed their name and address to in the name of privacy.  The drawing was of the home they had just sold in Cary.  The drawings are great – they hold so many memories . . .  ■  The not so good news . . . Abby has heartworms.  The vet is running a 2nd set of tests, but he’s assuming that they’ll come back positive.  It means 3 shots for her and caging her for awhile so that she’s not active during the healing time.  Hopefully it won’t be too bad.  I’d hate to see her hurting.  ■  And it’s getting towards the time for our 18th annual Chili Fest.  That’s coming up pretty fast.  Got to get to bed.  Good night.