Days like today are just about perfect, to me. It's cold enough to wear a sweater outside, but the sun's shining anyway, with that orange-ish light that makes everything glow a little.
Yesterday was nice, too. I met an online friend; she and her husband were here from California. We drove up to La Conner, land o' tulips (though at this time of year, the best crop is actually oysters).
In the evening we saw the movie Stardust, which I enjoyed more than I had expected (mainly due to Robert De Niro's part, and the Ricky Gervais cameo).
Today was a quiet day, but I did get some uncharacteristic baking done. I only bake a few times a year, but a friend's birthday is coming up, and I had a craving for some pumpkin cookies...
There was pumpkin left over, so I also made some pumpkin mini-cupcakes. Then I got crazy and coated everything with dark chocolate frosting. Well, the cookies are supposed to have it, you know! And what's a cupcake without frosting? It's not the thick, sugary kind; it's just good dark chocolate that each little cakelet got a dip in. Yum, sigh.
Next week I start school again; I'm taking another drawing class that I know will have me cursing whoever invented figure drawing, and wishing I could just draw skulls and cats and insects again. The other class is an online "History Of Jazz" class, which ought to be both interesting and unproblematic, since I have a pretty sizable jazz library, and a love of the music. Two local live jazz performances are mandatory - well, all right then!
So another fall trickles in; this is my favorite time of year, at this time of year. In January, spring will be my favorite time of year, and I'll be longing for the sun. But now, I'm happy whenever we finally get some rain, and I'm happy to be wearing sweaters and socks again. And the food is so good right around now...I got some fresh corn in La Conner, six ears for a dollar. Life is good!
Tomorrow is No Computer Day. All day long. I need to clean my office and get some other stuff done.
In other news, this story and photo made me smile.
Happy Friday!
Copied this idea from Alex's blog, but very amusing:
1. Go to http://www.careercruising.com.
2. Put in Username: nycareers, Password: landmark.
3. Take their "Career Matchmaker" questions.
4. Post the top fifteen results.
Now this is interesting! Here are mine:
1. Website Designer
Which is probably one of the things I'd be doing now, if my life had gone slightly differently.
2. Industrial Designer
Yep, very interested; should have gone to college for that.
3. Desktop Publisher
Which is kind of what I do now, so good match, I guess. They probably don't know what "prepress" is over at that site.
4. Interior Designer
Yeeess.....well, maybe.
5. Animator
Would be a lot of fun, I'm sure, but I'm not cool enough.
6. Cartoonist / Comic Illustrator
Nope. Not a big fan of comics since I turned about 8 and started reading "real" books. No disrespect to graphic novels, mind you. I know there are some great ones, I just don't have a taste for them.
7. Fashion Designer
Yeah, I could see that, I suppose. But see the next one...
8. Costume Designer
Maybe. I was never that much into fashion.
9. Multimedia Developer
Yes, I'd do that.
10. Set Designer
Would be fun. Would I get to see the plays for free?
11. Graphic Designer
Done that too, yes.
12. Computer Animator
Why does the site list this separately from "animator," I wonder? Do people really hand-draw cartoon cels these days?
13. Artist
Yes, of course!
14. Exhibit Designer
That sounds interesting. (Would I get into the museum for free?)
15. Medical Illustrator
Which is funny - I love scientific illustration, but show me a dissected cadaver, and drawing it is probably the last thing I'd do (after throwing up, running away and fainting).
16. Craftsperson
That's kind of vague, but I have huge respect for those that make things.
17. Potter
Yes, absolutely! I love pottery.
18. Video Game Developer
Mebbe. I don't play video games, really...maybe I could be the animator. :)
19. Webmaster
Meh. Seems like a job that would get boring quickly.
And finally...
20. Clergy
Heh. The site didn't ask about belief in a deity. Why is it assumed? I'd make a pretty poor clergy-person, being an atheist and all.
Entertaining, though. Try it and see what you should be when you grow up!
It's been a good weekend; even the previous week wasn't the pit of hell I expected it to be. The coming week might be a challenge, but I feel up to it, after a nice, long, creative, sunny weekend. I did a little drawing over the last several days; the silly mantis pastel was just a good exercise, and diverting. I honestly don't know what it's all about, the mantis that's caught itself a rat (must be a big bug).
But I played around with pastels on gouache, all on an old book page from a music book I had sitting around here. I was pretty happy with the result. It's our good old cat, Bridget, from a photo of her sitting in the sun and looking pleased with herself. She seems quite dignified, and a little mischievous, in the painting.
The cats can be tough for me to capture, so I was pretty happy that this one
came out as well as it did. Now I want to try a few more in this vein.
But today, I let myself just relax. I did some laundry, and we went on a nice bike ride in the late afternoon, but much of the day I just sat in the sun and read through the last book in the Philip Pullman series. I am a little surprised at just how much I'm liking those books! I tried to read a Harry Potter a while back, and couldn't even get through the first chapter. I don't like books that "write down," even if they're meant for kids (and I know a lot of people would argue that Rowling doesn't do that, but really, she's no Hemingway). But these Pullman books, despite the young heroes, caught me up in their intricate stories and well-thought-out worlds.
Anyway, I'm almost done with the last one. When I finish, I need to dig up our copy of The Historian; I've been listening to the audiobook in the car and I discovered that it's missing a whole chapter, so I'll just go with the paper version from that point on. It's very good too; I thought it was a little slow at first, but it rallied and now I'm hooked.
So, that's it for this week. We'll see how well I survive the upcoming week, with my boss on vacation and a lot of other vital people out. I'm sure it will be...interesting.
