Please send your checks to me directly.  I will sit here and wait.

Just sayin'.

OK, so Black Friday is here after that huge meal and I've ignored the stores, encountered the traffic, but went for a long languid facial.  Took up most of the afternoon but I'm home now and running the TV without paying attention, playing with the Cat, and listening to my neighbor out there erecting Christmas decorations. 

I straightened out the garage so two people can park their cars nicely rather than smashing into mine.  Or touching my passenger door with their jumbo whack-o door.  And I can get out of my car without cursing.  That's my kind of clean up.

Oh, what was I going to say?  I need to work through my fear of Black Friday. Just because everyone on earth is at the stores fighting to purchase junk economically should not deter me from going to Target to buy shampoo and toilet paper.  I need to embrace the crowds.  I need to learn to live like everybody that was in my way earlier today.

Thank goodness I'm coming around.

Birthday week began yesterday...

So, here I am, again a Friday-- situated comfortably in the big bed with the laptop and kittycat, covers and coffee.  What to do but enjoy the life! 
What do people do with their days off?  This is amazing.  I can look out the window and watch the trash get picked up by large trucks.  Watch the UPS guy pull up... apparently not my package after all...  Wait for the new fridge to be delivered.  And let Regis and Kelly (without Regis) play in the background.
Can I do this all day or does this become illegal? 

Perhaps I will nap.  Then I can wake again to see if the leaves outside have changed again.

Love it!  Wiggle your toes if you agree.

Good wine and new Windows Theme

Ahhhhh.... a glass of wine and changing my computer screen to some weird Japanese artful toy cartoon--has made my evening complete... and Ahhhh....this is the good life.  Not even 7PM!   Pardon my swearing and cursing while perfecting the mood.  I'm a bit of a Mental when it comes to instant computer gratification.  I'm nice now and not swearing, so what the heck?

So it has become FRIDAY evening!  Who in the American World of data processing could ask for more?  I am sitting high in the dining room; husband says he requires no dinner ("let's have crackers.") and I am charmed by the silence of the unusually 40 degree evening on September 16 in the Midwest.

OK then.  Let's party.  I have Ted Nugent on CD-- "Hey Baby."  I'm a happy girl.

Sunday and I'm married with a new house...

So it is Sunday, 9/11/11 to be horrifically reminded, but I'm up paying no taxes and on the computer.

Hello new world.  How's it going? 

Pretty damn good, I must say.  Went to a French restaurant last night.  Wore the cutest dress I've ever owned, and drank 4 glasses of assorted wines.  Yes I did and I loved it!  Me and the Husband then came home (can you tell?) and here I am today Blogging.

So...put down that coffee and get out there today.  There is always more shopping to do.  I'm returning to a local art fair today to check out the handiworks and steal any good ideas for applying paint to canvas.

I'm also making chili like a good wife.  Because I think good wives should stuff everything in a crockpot and enjoy the day. 

Up, up and away! 

De-Molding and cat sitting

I'm at Fiance's guarding the cat from running outside while the Mold Men de-mold the attic so the house can be sold as planned.  I've scheduled my pre-wedding make-up trial date.  This has nothing to do with court.  This is all about looking perfect on the Big Day.
What day is today??  June 13 2011.  What a couple of months this has been!  I think I'm insane now and actually it's a great relief.  Much of the stuff I would be inclined to control is completely out of my control.

My Dad and his wife will not come to my wedding because my brother is attending.  It took me several months to gain the courage to tell them that I have invited everyone from the forbidden guest list, but I made the call last week and here I am.  I survived.  And all the guests will have a blast.  That's how it works.

Still learning the whisper of Italics. 

Where the heck have I been?

Today I am living among boxes and household items that need to be boxed.  Moving day is this week.  I am renting my condo out and moving in with Fiance' for a few weeks before we move again into our New Place around mid-June. 
Well... so I should be packing but instead I blog because it seems a bit more approachable.  Next step:  brush my teeth and change the channel.  I just gotta get going.

I Just Gotta Get Going.

Oh look:  Baby Girl wants to play with the ball now. 

Ick. Sales is so hard... (waaaah!)

I haven't even tried to knock on doors but I barely can get out of the ugly rut of "am I good and strong enough to go out there and sell and be rejected any more than today?"
I'm at the boo-hoo-waaah moment today.  Hope this is not the death of a salesperson, but the start of more stamina.
Remind me:  Corporate life really did suck. 
I gotta go memorize some sales stuff now.  Look for me in the crowd.  I have to change to grow and I hate this part.
(Insert ugly scowl face here)
Love,
Doggito is wh-a-a-aaaaaaa 

Top 5 places for bacon in Chicago; Baconfest returns

Top 5 places for bacon in Chicago; Baconfest returns

I passed the state exams to sell insurance!

Now I just need a new duck outfit.  What color do I love most?  Orange sherbet.  I will need a good seamstress and a large yellow webbed feet.  Or shoes of that nature.
Gee, there was way too much anticipatory ick associated with taking those exams!   I guess I need to learn to relax.  And walk like a duck from here on.

Happy Day, nonetheless! 

Tah!

L.O.V.E - nat king cole

OH SOLO MIO

Videos I am incapable of uploading on to my kskARTism.com...

Gotta start somewhere...

Off I go.  I begin to start.

Remind me!

Photos from Little Fugitive

Photos from Little Fugitive

only found a model pic of the loft, but... thanks Kate. Good idea!

LOFT MONEY!

We put earnest money down on a LOFT today!  Wheeee!  I love it!.  Sky high ceilings, little tiny town, nice view of little tiny town, large space...  Amazing and happening right now!  I'm excited and amazed!

Add that I am in love, and here we are!  While he naps, I blog...  eating Wasabi peas and loving life...Not actually MY loft, but helluva nice picture, huh?

AFLAC... pretty cool

I took my cynical self over to the AFLAC interview yesterday, and came home with a new outlook.  I've spent 25 years in the legal world of workers compensation and personal injury litigation, and this is not any of that.  This is insurance that fills the gap between medical insurance, workers' comp insurance and pays an individual the gap they would otherwise lose from their paycheck.  I'm thinking I like this whole concept and I intend to learn some more about it. 
Just sayin' I went in like my usual bossypants, and I came out with some new thinking in my big fat noggin.

I go now.  I'm trying to work on an art project and plan my wedding and clean up this place.  It's a mix.

Blossom Dearie(1924.4.28-2009.2.7) - Deed I Do

Doggito Has Irish Lineage...

So what, but just in case someone was asking, I thought I would point it out:  Doggito has some Irish, if you need it.
NOW:  Who wants me today?  A few humans want me to cartoon them.  AFLAC wants to meet with me, thinking I know how to sell insurance?  I don't know what they found on Monster.com, but I will need to go find out.  I was told by the interviewer to "dress appropriately as we are a Fortune 500 company."
Thanks AFLAC.   My first question:  Are you gonna take Godfrey back since he apologized?

Besides that delight of the day, and it bein' St. Patrick's Day, I am catching a few moments of PeeWee Herman on that catty little Rachael Ray's food-talk show.  He's still playing PeeWee - only his face is a little larger.    Funny how life goes.

So-- off I go -- into Life.  Using my Mazda 3 and optimism.  

I want to help Japan but now I am confused... (I condensed the article for space)

A Charitable Rush, With Little Direction

By STEPHANIE STROM

Published: March 15, 2011

o     

Disasters, particularly those epic enough to earn round-the-clock news coverage, are a fast way to get donors to open their wallets. So it was no surprise when nonprofit groups, starting with the American Red Cross and moving down to small charities, scrambled to raise money to help the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

But wealthy Japan is not impoverished Haiti. And many groups are raising money without really knowing how it will be spent — or even if it will be needed.

The Japanese Red Cross, for example, has said repeatedly since the day after the earthquake that it does not want or need outside assistance. But that has not stopped the American Red Cross from raising $34 million through Tuesday afternoon in the name of Japan’s disaster victims.

Roger K. Lowe, a spokesman for the American Red Cross, said his group had sent $10 million to Japan on Tuesday, and had spoken with the Japanese group, which had expressed gratitude for the support.

He also shared a note sent by the Red Cross’s international governing body in Switzerland, a missive that was sent out to the American and other national Red Cross organizations and read in part: “At present, the Japanese society is not launching a national or international appeal, but expressions of solidarity in the form of unearmarked financial contributions would be gratefully received.”….

….Reports filed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs show that the Japanese government so far has accepted help from only 15 of the 102 countries that have volunteered aid, and from small teams with special expertise from a handful of nonprofit groups.

“The only things Japan has really asked for at this point is some specialized search-and-rescue teams with dogs, some specialized medical help and some communications equipment, as well as the bulk shipment of goods, which is largely about country-to-country assistance,” said Saundra Schimmelpfennig, a former international aid worker who writes the blog Good Intentions Are Not Enough, aimed at educating donors about providing support for emergencies and development abroad.

….

That means many of the groups raising money in Japan’s name are still uncertain to whom or to where the money will go.

Typical of the more obscure nonprofit appeals springing up in the wake of the earthquake is the newly formed Japan Earthquake Tsunami Children’s Fund announced on Tuesday by Kids in Distressed Situations.

….

Holden Karnofsky, a founder of GiveWell, a Web site that researches charities, said he was struck by how quickly many nonprofit groups had moved to create ads using keywords like “Japan,” “earthquake,” “disaster,” and “help” to improve the chances of their ads showing up on Google when the words were used in search queries.

“Charities are aggressively soliciting donations around this disaster, and I don’t believe these donations necessarily are going to be used for relief or recovery in Japan because they aren’t needed for that,” Mr. Karnofsky said. “The Japanese government has made it clear it has the resources it needs for this disaster.”

Prevage: New Wrinkle for Anti-Aging Product

Forgive me, Arbonne, but I succumbed to the sales girl at the Prevage cosmetics counter awhile back, and poof:  came home with $350 worth of Prevage anti-aging packages of glop.

I did not become younger.

Oddly enough I developed the most miserable metallic taste in my mouth, no matter what food or drink -- or mouthwash I tried, the acrid taste would not disappear.  Days of misery had me researching my dental health (fine), my diet (same), my vitamins and supplements (quit them).  Finally,  by inadvertently skipping a few routine Prevage applications, the horrific taste was gone.  Unbelievable, but true.

Lessons:  Prevage is too expensive, no matter what it claims to do.  Doggito hates Prevage and metal mouth.

For Sale:  $350 of Prevage for $150    Send me the money and your address. 

The Wedding Draws us Closer...

LIKE YES!!  Got the wedding dress selected and paid for it yesterday.  My sister-in-law - Thank God for her-- helped me choose from the last 2 dresses that had me puzzled.   Decided on that.  Found her dress also.  WE EVEN HAVE OUR SHOES AND OTHER extra yet necessary garb.
TODAY:  Fiance' and I selected our wedding rings!  Yes!  Paid and back home with another huge accomplishment on the way to matrimony!  Matri-Money ..
AND:  Fiance' & I looked at Lofts!  Beautiful, expansive, generously lovely 2 bedroom Lofts.  Yesterday I was keen on buying the condo below me in an effort to solve the real estate problem, but today I am in love with Lofts! 
SAY IT WITH ME:   L-o-f-t-s.   Rather,  L-o-f-t.  We only need one. 

I can't believe how my life has evolved.  I love it.  I am an Artist in love. 
Years prior I was just an ordinary paralegal at work.

Imogen Heap and Jeff Beck - Rollin and Tumblin live at Ronnie Scott's 20...

Condo power!

I'm learning that the condo below me is for sale and if all things fall in place -- Fiance' and I will have a 2 story dwelling like nobody's business!   That's my Big Fat Dream for today. 
Otherwise, I plan on winning a contest tonight, sell more of my cartoon cards, buy coffee and work out.  Oh yes, and go choose between 2 wedding dresses.

So I'm a hot-diggety doggito today.  Much to do.  Add a bunch of fun and turn the clocks forward-- one large day.

Doggi-out!  

Lipps Inc - Funky Town

Collect yourself

Here is today's shot of my collage of elements: acryllic paint, paper, string gel, etc.

Never understood that I could post music! Look out Dullards!

I am motivated and driven by music--- and I- I- um...   like who ain't?  I think I was trying to boast about something clever and new, and I - I - I'm ... going to go find another fun you-tuberish thing...  Hope it attracts friendship and art fucking sales... 


I'll write more ordinary stuff tomorrow.  Sorry if you offended me.

The Black Keys - Howlin' For You (Official Video)

Oh Girl - The Chi-Lites

My Wedding: My Family

Some members of my family have insisted that I invite only certain people to my wedding.  At first I was agreeable to this rather hateful arrangement.  But today I woke up. 

After much soul searching and discussions with friends and Other Family members, I've decided to invite everyone I love and want to come to my wedding.

Ahhhh ---  What a nice day!  Un-tethered, so to speak...

Now give me some fun...

Money!

I am earning lots of money lately with the art thing and I love it.  I never thought that the jump from paralegalism to art would astonish myself and others, but... here I am.  With some bucks! 
I have a fantastic disaster of a huge painting going on right now.  Ya gotta pause and stand back from your stuff.  Ask self:  "WTF is that?" or "Where am I going with that?"    So, that's why I'm sitting here blogging -- trying to figure out the next step on my painting.
TV and Facebook don't really seem to be helping that painting.

I go work out.  Coffee.  Run errands.  The usual, and return to it later.

Doggito say:  "Squirrels!"  

Memphis

Fat fun in Memphis!  I had a blast!  Consumed all the Non-Doggito foods:  BBQ'd pork, fried bologna,  pulled pork, sausage(s) and Other.  I was on the same plane as Buddy Guy!  Fiance` spoke to him.  I remained my cool unobtrusive self.  Heard fun blues, jazz and Karoake up and down Beale Street.  Visited the MLK museum.  Lost the Nook.  Found great joy and rapture!  Who gets that and how often??

Home now.  Resting.  Wonder why you need to recover after a vacation.  I guess that the everyday work of life is somewhat of a puke after Memphis. 

That exquisite department store called "Schwabbs" on Beale Street is closing -!  Or at least is now for sale.  Is it because of what we bought or did not buy?  Who knows.  On Saturday I found it.  On Sunday it was closed with news from Polly's Restaurant, across the street, that the owner is selling Schwabbs. 

Excuse my spelling.  Always.

A great day!

Planning to travel tomorrow so today is weird:  so many lists and unlisted things to do before I go and then it becomes afternoon -- whoosh-- evening and I am scrambling to find the essential List.  Anyway, what is needed really for one's travel?  We buy food.  Bring yer credit-o card-o.  We get bored quickly even on vacations.  Bring yer com-puter.  And a magazine.  And more money.
Clothes?  What's the weather?  Looks like a rainy excursion, bleak yet in the 60's - 70's.  I believe jeans and tops with a rain coat will suffice.  Underwear?  I believe I will bring the most outlandish underwear I own because this is my life. 

And that is the packing Doggito.  Packing and primping and watching the local weather although what I really need is more champagne.

Have a funnish evening.

Happy President's Day... Don't screw it up, either.

Take Dad to see True Grit 2/20/2011

OK!  So all the problems that go on and on in my little mind before an event vanish by the time the day is over and I look back. 
This morning I woke worried about picking up my elderly dad and driving him to brunch and the theater in an effort to see "True Grit," the remake which I saw earlier this year.  Better than any remake.
If you already care for people older than yourself, then maybe you will understand my preliminary worrying,  but I find myself home now, blogging, amazed and delighted how wonderful a day can be with your Dad.  At the movies.  At McDonalds.  (a place I do not frequent-- ever.  Until today.) 
Rather than re-hash my early morning doubts and concerns, I think I will limit this blog to state that I had a very fine day, despite a very dark forecast, in a delightfully light McDonald's restaurant and sat in a very high place to enjoy "True Grit" with the very best company. 
No "low blood sugar."  No problems navigating with his cane traveling stairs.  No weather forecasts stopped us.  McDonald's did not kill me.
I loved today. 

Cartoons of pals...

Kasey

 

Jack

 

Gary 

Yes at night (Fiance`)

Diana

 

Alan

Stacye

 

Queen Saraka

1 Great Lady

Kevin

Parkour...Aint seen nothing like it...Damn!

Yes, Valentine's Day!

What a wonderful Monday and day of Valentines: wake up, draw a little, paint a little, listen to the babble over the Grammy's from last night and move on to even more easy pleasurable things.  I LOVE MY LIFE! 
Going to my favorite Tapas restaurant tonight with my Fiance` and just breathing it all in. 
I didn't know I was leading a blissful life, but I am. 

To the gym I go.  And other places which I won't list here.  Ta!  er, Tapa!

Morning after -- Chicago blizzard in the suburbs

Nowhere Man... the movie

Fiance` and I  watched “Nowhere Man,” a movie about John Lennon’s relationship with his Aunt Mimi and his immature mother, the latter who is ultimately killed by a bus.  It was interesting. I mean -- we kept watching it.

Now I'm looking for WC Field's "The Bank Dick" to cheer up and get prepared for a blizzard.  I'm a busy Doggito.

Wow- Life is good!

Got critiqued by art nuts and did very well on my acrylic paintings.  I am glad.  And inspired!  So, now I'm working on a Workers Comp helper thing -- a website to help people-- without giving legal advice,  Just a little assistance.  If it works, and it likely will, then great.
Now that I know this blog is a monologue that anyone can do, I feel free!  I have an on-line journal of sorts!   BLBBBBAAAAAH!

Gee, let's see now.  I got gorgeous flowers yesterday from Fiance` and it snows lately but I don't care.  I love it.  I found myself understanding humanity a little bit more this week and the tenderness to being a human being.  I continue to paint.  My worries have become snowflakes.  Perhaps this a sign of insanity, but I believe it is more a sign of faith.  Faith in myself, in my future, in humanity and the spirit within.

I blab later.  I rest now.  Savor a Thursday, you know how it is.

Lookie here: a cat toy

Trapped in the Covers

Trapped under the Covers with laptop mounted on belly.  Baby Girl is on the end of the bed, cleaning herself.  We are alerted to squirrels on the balcony, but otherwise unable to remove ourselves from the dreamy warmness of Covers.  It is 5.7 degrees in the Chicago suburbs.  A beautiful clear day, but I remain trapped under the Covers. 
Reaching for coffee on the little side table is such a twisted effort that I dare not move from under the Covers.  If I expose more body from the precious Covers, I will surely freeze.  My arm will break off.

Oh, I wish I could reach for that coffee.
While it is still hot.

Perhaps this would be a good time to wake Fiance` to assist me in my troubled state.

Screaming "help help I need my coffee!" seems appropriate but alarming. 

I guess I am doomed to get my coffee all by myself.  And watch another squirrel stare at me, mocking my fear of the cold.

More paint please...

I have been painting and writing.  And learning or TRYING to read and learn as fast as I can inbetween the painting, writing and whatever else occupies my 24 hours.

I have a cold! Yaaaaah!

It's nice to be home, watch the snow falling down, and to have kleenex nearby for the constant nose-running, coughing and bleariness of the common cold.  Someone gave me this cold and I will figure it out, find them, and torment them until I am well.
Otherwise I intend to paint today.  Have 3 paintings started.  Need to work on those.  I blog later.

True Grit Reviewed

So, Hi there.  Like I said, I went to see True Grit and this is the run down: 
During the Cowboy Days, a 14 year old girl with uncanny negotiating skills, suffers the loss of her father who is killed for unknown reasons by a hired hand.  Her mission is to track down the murderer.  She hires Rooster Cogburn, an old fat drunken US Marshal with an eye patch.  They encounter and are assisted by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who also seeks the murderer, but for his own reasons. The search is the adventure but the personalities and the language of the period are the reasons I ask you to go see it.  Listen, laugh, squirm.

Do not wait for the DVD.  Your large screen at home is not large enough to capture the greatness of the landscape. 

New Canvas; True Grit

I bought 10 canvases yesterday since I am a prosperous Artist who can afford such luxury.  Ahem.  What was that?  Anyway, painted a little tiny bit, and experimented a whole bunch, not really ruining any new canvas. Yet.

OK.  So I will go tonight with The Babes to see True Grit at the big fatty eaterie movie-place where they serve you food and alcohol, and I will enjoy it all and report back about the movie.  Hope I don't wreck it for those who are waiting to see it.  That's never my intention.  I just like to brag that I saw a popular movie. 

I would post a you-tube here but I never embed properly, so ...  Imagine Mumford and Sons singing Lion Man.  Imagine....   Oh come on.  Pretend!


Love and Kisses,
Yum is Why!