Some Art Before I Go June 26, 2009
Posted by Enas Yorl in Home.2 comments
Fast & Loose
Here’s my latest attempt to try and break out of my very tight and rigid painting style. It’s on Yupo plastic paper that really encourages loose painting since the water and pigment do not penetrate the medium. It’s small – about 8 x 10 inches.
That’s it folks! I am just about out of here. See you on July 5th or thereabouts.
Vacation! June 25, 2009
Posted by Enas Yorl in Home.add a comment
Whoot! Today begins my two week vacation! I’m getting out of Dodge just as it’s starting to really heat up around here. Tomorrow I fly off to Seattle where it will be a high of 71 degrees. Aaaahhhhhhhh! Saturday it’s onto the ship and off to the north to Alaska for beautiful sights and even cooler temps. Looks like we’re even going to get some rain!
Whelp, lots o’stuff to do so I’ll type at y’all later.
It’s past 9:00 pm and I’m almost finished packing! Yes, I am that slow. No, I am not bringing all that much but I keep coming up with little odds & ends. I am taking some art materials too so we’ll see how that works out.
Our flight isn’t until noonish but the Parental Units want me to pick them up at 8:00. It’s very early but Dad likes to have PLENTY of time. He figures an hour for breakfast, an hour to get to the airport, another hour to park, check in & get through security and then a nice hour buffer to wait for boarding. I figure we’ll be waiting two hours at the airport for boarding. It’s ok though, I have a hefty chunk of an amazing book to read.
Oh, and yes – I *always* pack a small towel in my carry bag whenever I travel.
I Got Binoculars! June 11, 2009
Posted by Enas Yorl in Home.6 comments
Whoot!! I went ahead and ordered the Nikon Monarch ATB. It’s only been a few days and they’re already here! I gotta say I have excellent taste. They are very nice and I am well pleased.
Summer school has begun and I’m taking watercolor painting again. It’s four nights a week so posting and internettery presence in general will be lighter than usual for a while. Still, check back tomorrow because I will post my new efforts then. I trying to do a complete stylistic makeover and the results are…interesting so far.
Type at y’all later.
So Let Me Pick Your Brains… June 4, 2009
Posted by Enas Yorl in Home.20 comments
At the end of this month I’m going on a cruise to Alaska! Whoot!! The Big Heat has settled in now and it will be nice to get away from it (and work and home) for a little while. As the date draws closer I am now thinking about stuff I want to take, what to do and whatnot. I’ve never been on a cruise before and so most of my notions about what goes on these big ships are mostly formed by memories of old episodes of “Love Boat” and the movie “The Poseidon Adventure”. If the captain of the ship looks even remotely similar to Leslie Nielsen I think I’m going to have a hard time getting on board. However, if he looks more like Gavin MacLeod then I’m going to expect to see Charo running around the decks at some time. Come on – wouldn’t you?
So, yes it’s all very exciting but considering my limited knowledge of large, sea-going vessels and large, cold states I thought it would be a good idea to solicit thoughts, opinions and ideas from my mighty throng of readers here.
Binoculars
I’ve decided that I want to get a decent set of these before we go. Dad has a nice pair but they’re kinda old. I figure that with advances in optics and materials in the last 20+ years I could get something pretty nice for a reasonable price. Anybody have any recent experience shopping for something along these lines? I’m in the $200 price range or thereabouts. Maybe more if the next price point really brings a lot to the table.
Must Brings / Don’t Brings
Aside from the obvious (camera, clothes) anything I really ought to bring with me? On the other hand is/are there something(s) that people often carry on board but never need?
Must See / Skip
We are doing the Inside Passage cruise and we have a few stops on the way up and back. Is there anybody familiar with this trip? Any suggestions for cool places / restaurants / shops to visit would be welcome. Also any suggestions on stuff that isn’t worth the time / money are wanted too.
Landscaping May 29, 2009
Posted by Enas Yorl in Art.4 comments
Sent to me by a coworker the other day:
Dude, who did your landscaping?
Goodbye Isabelle May 27, 2009
Posted by Enas Yorl in Home.10 comments
It’s so hard to let you go, but continuing on is no kindness.
I have her at home in comfortable, familiar surroundings for one more night. She’s very tired so I’ve let her be for the most part finally free of being poked, prodded and having various meds and food shoved into her face. I got her interested in stuff for a little while and had her outside to roll around in the weeds a bit. A little while later she was back inside for a real good brushing and petting. I know she enjoyed that. In a little bit we’re going upstairs for bed-time.
***Update***
It’s done. Rest in peace Isabelle. You were the best kitty ever and I will always miss you.
Kitty Is Back in the Hospital May 24, 2009
Posted by Enas Yorl in Home.2 comments
She hasn’t pooped in about a week. When I called into the vet’s office about it I was basically told that she wasn’t really eating all that much and it probably hadn’t built up enough for a poop. I was told to feel her belly for any solid stuff and if I didn’t feel anything then she was probably OK. I felt around but it all felt squishy to me and let it go for a couple more days. Then I came to my senses and realized that I don’t know nuthin’ about squeezin’ no cats and took her back to the original place I’d been going (the other place is closed on Sundays). The other vet at this place felt around and thought we really ought to get some x-rays to see what we were dealing with. Oooohhh yeah. That cat was backed up worse than the I-15 freeway* on a holiday weekend with a four-car pile-up in the center lane. No wonder she hasn’t been feeling or feeding very well lately. They’re keeping her there overnight for enema fun and whatnot. Hopefully when she gets back tomorrow she will be more like her normal self and eating again. Can I dare to hope?
*The I-15 is the highway that connects Las Vegas to SoCal and regions to the north. It’s basically the two-way alimentary canal of the city. You know your analogies are bad when you need footnotes to explain them. At least it was better than my previous “Her colon was packed tighter than a very tightly packed…packing thing.”
***Update***
Now there’s something else wrong with her. They found more fluid in her abdomen which means more tests and more money. I’ve authorized another blood test and analysis on the fluid to see where it might be coming from or what’s causing it. One possibility is cancer, another is a virus that they previously tested for and came back negative. It seems that even negative results do not actually rule it out. Or it may be something else entirely. At this point there doesn’t seem to be many ways out for Isabelle.
***Update 2***
Some results are back on the blood test. She’s anemic and has very high calcium levels (upper end of normal is 11.5 and she is at 15). She’s been anemic for a while so that didn’t surprise me. The other result is the worse of the two: ”When we see this we start thinking of cancer.”
Let’s Change the Subject… May 21, 2009
Posted by Enas Yorl in Music.9 comments
How about a break from the daily drama of As the Infection Turns to something else? Yes! Let’s go to music instead for a while. I have a bleg for those few of you who visit here.
I’ve become bored with the music on my iPod. A quick check tells me that I have 2,668 songs and sound files on this thing and yet I am bored or don’t like the vast majority of them. I’ve gone through and marked the ones I like the best as 4 or 5 stars and those are automatically included in a playlist called “My Top Rated”. Currently it has 827 songs in it that I usually have on shuffle play. I often skip past most of them. Don’t get me wrong I do actually like these songs, but it’s just that I’ve heard them so many times. Particularly stuff from The Doors and Pink Floyd and the like. I actually don’t like much from The Doors anymore since my political viewpoint has changed so much many of their songs mostly just remind me of how and when things started to go so very wrong in this country. Same thing for the Beatles. I have no Beatles on my iPod whatsoever. Don’t want any. Eehhhh I’m going off on a tangent here. Nevermind all that.
Back to the real point of this post – I want suggestions for new stuff. “New” being a relative term in that it would be new to this device, and thus something that I don’t already have on CD or downloaded. Now obviously y’all don’t know what I have and probably aren’t inclined to scroll through a 2,600 + list of titles to see them. You don’t really need to know that to help me though. What I want to do is start collecting favorite songs from the “One- or Few-Hit Wonders” or those songs that “Shoulda-been-hits”. One of the things I love about iTunes is that you can often buy these for just 99 cents a pop. Yeah yeah a lot of people hate iTunes and I don’t care about DRM or any of that other crap. Nor do I care that I could get this stuff for “free” at IStealMusic.com or whatever. I WANT to pay for the music that I listen to and truly enjoy and the artists should get compensation for their work.
Here are some examples of stuff I’ve already got: Zombies – Time of the Season, Gary Neuman – Cars, B-52s -Roam, Taco – Puttin’ On the Ritz, Men Without Hats – Safety Dance, The Vogues – Five O’Clock World, Johnny Nash – I Can See Clearly Now, Wall of Voodoo – Mexican Radio…etc. You get the idea right? Please pop some suggestions in the comments won’t you? Oh and don’t forget the ”shoulda beens”! These are perhaps obscure songs by obscure-ishy bands that nonetheless had that “something” that should have been wider in the public eye. Or ear I guess. Whatever. I’ll give you a great example: Goodnight Moon by Shiveree. Have a listen (and a look):
I first encountered this song on one of the Kill Bill soundtracks and it was far and away one of my favorites of both of them. I bought the original album it came from (I Oughta Give You A Shot In the Head) n hopes more like it but it was not to be.
Again you get the idea. I’m pretty open to most genres except cRap and most heavy/death metal stuff. Help a fellow out won’t you?
The Feline of Concern May 19, 2009
Posted by Enas Yorl in Home.7 comments
Stoaty asks, and she receives:
Alas I don’t have any pictures of her before all this that I can find, but here she is at one of her spots she’s taken to spend a lot of her time at. A few more below the fold.
OW May 18, 2009
Posted by Enas Yorl in Home.3 comments
- You’re gonna do what?
In retrospect I should have asked him what the proceedure was beforehand. Anyway he then starts shoving sticks that had been soaking in some solution into the hole at the bottom of the toenail. I was grateful for the large dose of anesthetic at this point because I’m absolutely sure that would have hurt like holy hell. Still, I had to stop watching him work the sticks. He had a fair amount of stick-time down there. Eventually he knocks it off with the sticks and bandages me up with a big glob of ointment. I then get around to asking him about the infection. You know – the real reason for this visit (for me anyway). “Oh it’s gone.” He seemed utterly unconcerned about it. He gives me a sheet of post-op toe care instructions and tells me that we’ll get together again in a couple weeks. And I’m done.
The anesthetic messes with me for the rest of the day. It of course spreads to adjacent toes and part of the foot. I hate being numbed. It’s wearing off on the big toe and hurts to walk. I guess it’s going to be this way for a while longer. I talked with another guy at work and he had this done too some while ago. It seems that this part of the nail is never growing back. The proceedure destroys that part of the nail bed. I did not know that. I REALLY need to start asking more questions when I go to the doctor’s office for stuff.
