I had four days off last week. I spent most of it working on art, cleaning house, and going to the beach with Dan and my friend Ann from next door. Nate didn't want to go because he had DnD to play with his group at the apartment and Ann didn't want to play game that day.

We collected shells and enjoyed the cold water by our feet. We did have bathing suits on of course. Ann found some really interesting snail shells that I hadn't seen before at any Washington beach. We traded a few between us and the ones I have are on my alter. While this was gong on, Dan took a nap on the beach next to a sea washed log. After that, we ate lunch at Iver's Seafood. We then headed home, but before getting home we stopped off at Baskin Robins. Dan finally, after seven years or so, had a waffle cone of double fudge chocolate ice cream. He enjoyed it very much, but when he got home his allergies acted up again from the ice cream and he didn't lay down for bed until his allergies calmed down. Poor Danny, he just can't seem to get away from that milk allergy. (I have it almost as bad, but I can handle it more than he can) Ann had Pralines and Creame flavor I think and I had Nutty Coconut flavor.

We then headed home and that was that.

As for cleaning house for those four days off, I tackled the bathroom. All that stupid moldy mildew on the ceiling is now gone.

I worked yesterday and I have today off. I went to see "Journey To the Center of the Earth" in 3D. That was fun, but afterwords it gave me a tiny headache. On my way home, I walked a different route then I usually would to get to Heweitt Ave. There I found on the corner of California St and Heweitt Ave a small cafe called,  The Gathering Grove - Spiitual Books, Coffee and Music.  It's like Moonflower Magicks was, but with pastries, coffee, and other drinks and foods. (Also, not as crowded as MM, but not as much mystic things 'yet'. They do have LOADS more books then MM) I looked through their books I may have found something interesting. As I looked through their store and ordered a slice of bananna bread, I just kept on smiling. I did grab their business cards and asked a few questions. They are looking for artists to hang original art on their walls as a consiment. I'll be fixing up my business cards again and set up a meeting with them soon.

Well, off to do some creativity and put away the laundry.

Chow.

Making this a short post cause I have to get up early tomorrow for work.

I thought Dan was going to be working late yesterday. If he did I would have just stayed up during the fireworks all depressed. Turns out he came home early so we were able to see them together, but...the location for the show wasn't very well advertised. I didn't fully read the brochure and didn't go online to look. We weren't the only ones that didn't pay attention. Half of Everett thought it was at Memorial Park like it usually does and the cops weren't told where it would be held either. After a while, we headed down to the other park, I forget it's name, but it's a LONG walk. We walked it while the fireworks were going off. They had fired them off this time on land at the other park where there was a lot more room for food stands and other fun things. Once we got there the fireworks were over so we walked home. It was a long walk, but worth it. I was able to get a peach Italian Soda before one of the stands closed. ^___^

That's pretty much it.

Off to bed now. I hope Dan gets my note to drive me to work cause the buses don't run until I'm already clocked in.

Okay....

Cat box - clean
Trash - taken out
Laundry - done
Dishes - washed

Thursday and Friday off from work - nothing to do but watch TV and work on my art.

^____^

Yesterday on my way to work, I took an early bus so I could hang out at the mall. I don't usually do this and I wished I didn't. The bus was starting to get full after a few stops picking up passengers.  One passenger sat next to me and guess who it was....a KNOWN level 3 sex offender / rapist / molester guy. He's the one I've mentioned in my LJ before about how he would walk into the QFC store and just stand there for an hour starring out into space watching people, especially female children and teenagers.  Well...I listened to my IPod the whole way, trying to keep myself as far away as I could from touching this freak. He smelled of old oil, and bad BO. He kept trying to talk to me in this odd voice and laughing all crazy like. For those who have never see this guy before, let me put it to you this way....he's dangerous and unstable even when he takes his medication which there is no gerantee that he takes his meds. He was heading to the mall just like I was and there was no telling what he was going to do there. *shivers*

My day at work was pretty okay, until....well let me give you the short version......I and Tracy were never told by Rais or Jamie that the 'quote' feature on the Frame Magic software is not to be used for any curcomstances. I wish I knew this a head of time. If I had the situation from yesterday and last week of how it started would never have happened. Now the customer is getting an even lower price for his full frame order because of this 'training issue". Today though, Rais will be getting a mouth full from Steve about this and the District Manager is coming in to evaluate the Frame Shop! We had to hall ass for a week to get the frame shop looking like what Corperate really wants. But, even then we don't have all the bins to put our tools in which may cause a mark or two.

I was so upset about how the customer acted that I was in tears talking to Steve of how it all started after the customer left. I told him that I'm tired of getting the shaft end of training in any job I've ever had. That I'm not a teenager anymore. That if they really want me to stay and I want to stay in the framing area quit a lot since I like it so much (better than any other job I've ever had and that's saying a lot), that they should TRAIN me the fullest of let me go. I know for a FACT that if they let me go, they'll put up a creek for sure come this holiday season. They won't have time to train a new person what so ever. I've learned this over time with each job I've had. Mangers may think I don't know how the store works, but I do.

This morning, I took the 7:30 bus to the mall because I had forgotten something that I left in the frame shop. I know good and well that the District manager would have seen it and marked us down. I couldn't have that happen. What I left behind was my art portfolio to show Tracy. After getting the book back, I helped Tracy move frame products to new; better locations to get them off the floor. We got that done under an hour. That totally saved her on time to get the real projects done. ^___^ It made me feel good to have helped her like that.

Currently right now, I'm drying the laundry and then I will be washing dishes before I leave for work at 3:30pm. I have Thursday and Friday off. I have no idea what I'll do for the 4th, but I'll call Tim and Helen to see what they're up to. Dan has to work that day, extra money for the pay check.

Oh, one more thing...I'm stop taking Ortho Evra Patch birth control. It's been causing a lot of side effects on me lately such as - depression, loss of sexual drive and attraction to my husband, clots in my right arm (when it feels heavy from using the BC, that's a clot in the arm's vains), and weight gain. So, we have plenty of condoms. If I get preganet so be it.

That's all for now.

To see a better image of "Twilight Bluebells" go to my DA account.

Some of the shells I found at Mulkiteo Beach a few weekends ago with Dan. The two on the left side and two at the bottom are Mother of Pearl.


More shells, some from Mulkiteo Beach and some from my old collection. This time, the two  yellow scollope shells are from the Mulkiteo Beach collection from a few weekends ago.


A mix of old and new collection. I'll make a better photo tomorrow.


Enjoy.

Tomorrow is Tim and Helen's wedding at the Woodland Park Seattle Zoo Rose Garden. I'll be passing out little bubble bottles for everyone to blow bubbles at them once the priest announces them wed at Mr. and Mrs. Knowlton.

Today though, while at the mall get my strapless bra for my dress I'll be wearing at the wedding, Dan took today off as vacation. I got home around 4pm and found Dan gone. Turns out he went to the mall to get us two AT&T cell phones. Yes, I have a cell phone for the first time. It will only be used to call Dan if I'm stranded somewhere, lost, or being attacked by some freak. And it's to call 911 in case of attack.

That's really about it.

I'll post pictures of the wedding soon.

This afternoon today, we drove to Michael's for my check stub and a wonderful surprise.

Work is still going through cleaning and reoriginizing the Frame Shop. Some of the old supplies were to be thrown out, and one of them was wooden stretcher bars for canvas fabric. Three long pieces ten feet long and a smaller piece about four feet long. Thankfully they were able to fit inside the VW Beetle through the sun/moon roof. I had to hold onto them so they wouldn't fly away in the wind from what part was sticking out through the moon roof. We bought all of those stretcher bars for $1.03. ^___^

I measured out four pieces to make a full canvas frame - 6' tall x 3' wide. The rest I'll do for another future project. At least now I have the canvas frame and I can draw out the project I want to get started. That stretcher bar wood would have cost me $200 and then have it stretch over with canvas by a seperate company would have been $300 and then shipping it....I don't want to know the cost. This has saved me a lot of money in the future. ^___^


It's good to work at Michael's.

To continue our adventure yesterday....First, I forgot to mention that Dan gave me breakfast in bed. Fruit bowl, green tea, cinnimon/raisin bagal, and scrambled eggs. ^__^

That afternoon, I convinced him to take the two of us to the beach in Mulkiteo. We walked the beach for a good while. I found a few shells (I'll show pictures later). Two yellow scollop shells, four pieces of Mother of Pearl ^___^, and an interesting sea washed smooth shell. I think I picked that beach clean  until the next high tide. ^____^

We then had lunch at Iver's Sea Food. Took our lunch to Forest Park back in Everett and ate it there. While eating, a little girl was learning how to through a softball with her dad. She has missed the throw completely and it hit me in the bottom lower of my back. She appoligized of course. After that, we walked through the wood trails trying to find a place to make out. It was nice making out with my husband like we were just dating. It was great, until I twisted my ankle. So, we headed home. I took a hot bath to sooth my ankle and sore legs. Walking the beach in sandals in sand and rocks, than walking a wooded trail with rocks, fallen branches, and steep inclines, gave me one hell of a work out on my legs. They are still very sore from yesterday.

All in all, my day yesterday was full of adventure, hard work, and passion with my husband. I loved every minute of it. And I'd do it again if I could. ^___^

Steve wanted me to come in early today, 7am-11am. Jame too was to come in on her day off like me. We worked our asses off to get as much done in the frame shop as possible to get it set up with the new cabinets, shelves, plan-o-gram, tools, etc. We have loads more space now and everything has it's place. We'll be getting more tools in for three extra work spaces so we don't rumage around for lost tools and parts.

We were so busy cleaning up and fixing up the frame shop that we even had a few customers. I was able to make one order before leaving. Both Jame and I didn't clock out until 1pm, so we got 6 hours. I was able to clock in ten minutes before seven to help Steve out with opening the store a bit. That was cool. I'm always eager to help like that.

Dan has to stay up all night just to drive me to work. He got off work yesterday at 11pm and stayed up til 6am to drive me to work. He got home and CRASHED! LOL

Well, gotta go.  He's finally up from his daytime sleepies.

Chow.

I have seen many
Summers in my day,
Nay have I seen one so gray.

Sun teasing,
Clouds chasing,
Wind chilling,
All are playing hide and seek.

Rain is falling,
Day has become brisk,
Summer has run away,
All are playing hide and seek.

Flowers are still blooming,
Showing us their color,
Trying to cheer us all up,
While waiting for summer.

The rain, the clouds, the chill
All telling me,
"Summer won't come here."
While they all play hide and seek.

I have seen many
Summers in my day,
Nay have I seen one so gray.

6/09/08
Tara Ball



At least I"m getting 'some' house cleaning done while I wait.

Here's that Michael Hague "Unicorn Head" ink original drawing....



I do tend to get this autographed by the artist in the future and framed. Currently, this piece is being safely kept inside my Michael Hague "Unicorn Alphabet" book in between it's pages. ^___^ This is, as I consider it, my fourth rare unicorn found. ^___^ This will rank up close to Robert Fobear's 1986 unicorn poster. ^___^

After gong to Costco, we seperated our extra over flow of groceries to give to our neighbors Nate and Ann since they desperately needed it more than us. They were very happy.

Then, I asked Dan to help me wash dishes, but I did the first load and he 'says' he'll do the last load while I'm at work. I hope he does them.

He did, however, help me put the laundry away. That's a rare event. ^___^

I then convinced him into helping me clean up a section of the bedroom. We then cleaned out the car and took our the trash. ^___^ I'm so happy that he helped. It's better to put this 'monthly visitor energy' into cleaning than arguing cause of my emotions right now. LOL

Men are such simple creatures. ^___^


In other news, the other day at work I had a customer come in with a Michael Hague unicorn print all framed with cheap plastic to cover. She said that her friend found it in his attic and he gave it to her. I opened up the frame backing and inside was a trimmed cut out of an original ink drawing of a unicorn head by Michael Hague! I gasped with joy of what I saw and told her what exactly it was. She was surprised, but didn't care much for it cause I had told her that it would have been placed in a pouched on the back side of the frame to go with the print. She said, "Since you know so much about this artist, you should keep the ink original. I won't enjoy it very much if it's stuck in a pouch on the back of the frame. You will have more love for it than I will."  My eyes went wide. I asked her twice if she was making a wise desisson  and she kept saying yes. The ink original unicorn head profile is in my Unicorn Alphabet book for safe keeping. I'll post pictures scans when I come home from work.

I gotta go. Take care, everyone.

This morning turned out good to start. I had to come into work at 10am and I had to wake up at 7am to get ready. At 7:22 I headed out to Starbucks for breakfast. I purchased strawberry/blueberry parfait, whole wheat breakfast wrap, and a mango protein juice. I ate it at the bus stop on Hewitt Ave and Wetmore Ave corner. At 8:27am I was listen to my IPod music while sitting on the bench watching for the bus. A few seconds later a man sat next to me and then it all went down hill from there...."Hey, baby!" he said to me as he put his right hand under my left buttocks. I jumped right up and walked away swiftly and glared at him. He got up and headed to the corner of the street, crossing Wetmore and down Hewitt. He kept staring at me. "Stop looking at me, you FUCK!" He walked away, but kept looking behind a corner. I swiftly walked up Hewitt Ave and used a gentlemen's cell phone and called 911. I gave my description of the man. He was so ugly there was no way I would have forgotten about that sick bastard! Bald head, sunken black small eyes, slightly puffy circles under his eyes, swollen lower lip due to over bite jaw, red and white wind breaker, navy blue shorts, black and white sneakers, late 30s to early 40s, 5'7", 180 to 220 lbs.  I then went to Starbucks again and called Dan. A few seconds later the officer called him to let him know what happened. I waved down the officer on Colby Ave and he drove me home. I filled out the report and did the description all over again. The officer said that he recognize the man from the description I gave. That this guy has been doing this for months later and hanging out in the same basic area. When I walked into the apartment, Dan held me tight. An hour later he drove me to work.

At work though, I loved it. I made one order for a customer. That's always good. I finished two frame jobs from start to finish. That made me very happy. 

So, that's how my day went. I'm still a bit shaken up, but at least I'm safe. And yes...I forgot to bring my pepper spray can this morning. That WAS stupid of me, I know. It will never happen again. I usually would bring my can with me, but this time I didn't. How stupid of me.

This morning wasn't very nice to me. The phone rang with the Foundation for the Blind. I told them I didn't have anything to donate right now. Ten minutes later the phone rang again and this time it was Marylinn saying that she would be coming over to pick up the girl's birthday presents that I bought for them. Well, like a silly woman I am I had rushed out of bed like a jack rabbit. I felt nassous. I fought off that belly ache with sipping water while sitting near the toilet. If I had thrown up I would have called in sick and I really didn't want to do that.

While waiting to leave for work around 3:30pm for the bus I did some chores. I put the laundry away, washed a load of dishes, washed the toilet, and cleaned the kitchen sink to it's original color - WHITE. Dan had thought that the sink was a brown color, but I showed him. Scrubbed that sink hard with 409 cleaner and then put in a lot of bleach in the stopped up hot water. It's white now and I'm damn proud of it. This means no more fruit flies flying around the sink this summer. I'm glad I accomplished something at home though. ^___^

Work on the other hand was a pain. I went through five pieces of glass trying to cut masterpiece glass right correct size for this customer's art piece. That damn glass kept breaking oddly or I didn't cut it the correct size and trying to cut a small piece off to make it fit. Grrr....plus I went through two foam mat pieces to cut the right size too. Luckily, I got most of that project done and I'm finish it tomorrow.

That's pretty much it.

Ja ne.

Now, I know I'm not a biologist, but I know that animals have to eat by what nature programed them to eat when there is no junk food on the ground at Everett High School for them.

I was walking to the atm to get some cash for lunch from my husband's card. In the sky there was a display of tactics between a crow and a sparrow. The crow captured the sparrow in mid flight and landed near a garbage can on school property. Two teenager girls came running toward the bird from across the street yelling, "No, don't hurt him!" etc. The crow flew off and shat right in front of me. He was clearly pissed off. I would be if someone took my breakfast away. I walked over to the girls, who by this time were looking at the poor sparrow trying to figure out if they could care for it. I told them, "Hey, let the crow have his breakfast. It's better if the crow eats that bird than junk food found on the ground." The girls glared at me and I just shook my head. "Bird's gotta eat you know." I walked off and so did the teenagers. A second or so later the crow swooped down and caught his breakfast and flew off to eat it.

I looked up to the sky again and there flying the thermals was an eagle. I wonder, do you think those teenagers would have or could have stopped an eagle from catching a meal in mid flight like that? I don't think so and I dare them to try. They wouldn't do it again after the eagle attacked them.

I can expect this out of a little child, but a almost fully grown adult? That's just messed up. Didn't these kids pay any attention in biology class?

In other news, corperate of Michael's is coming over today or tomorrow for a visit. Don't know what for, but it must be something good. The uniform for the company actually is black polo button up shirt, black socks, black dress pants and black shoes. Since our store doesn't actually do this, Jamie told me about it to save my butt. Bless her. I guess our store is indivdually owned and not corperate owned.

That's all for now.

Ja ne.

I found 'the' dress for me to wear to Helen's wedding. It's a long simple black halter style dress. I'll have to wear a strapless bra to make everything work well, if I want to. Along with the dress I bought a purple halter top to wear in the hot days.

While at Borders Books I found "The Nude Figure: A Visual Reference for the Artist" book. It has many, many poses that I can use. I can't wait to get started on some new projects. While grabbing that book, I made friends with this guy named Mike who's an artist too. We shared ideas, technques and such at the cafe. He's married and has a kid, so no worries. He's not very good at his work, but he's getting there. I did help him on some of his prespective parts of his fantasy/human characters.  We exchanged emailed and maybe we'll hang out more, but with is wife perhaps too.

I also saw Prince Caspian movie. That was a wonderful film, but it seemed to repeat like the first one. Oh well.

Dan started his new position today at work. He'll be working on the 777 planes now instead of the Dream Liner 787. Long story short, 787 designers and enginers need to get their butts into gear and finish what they've started and give the machanics, assembly workers something to work on for goodness sakes.

Well, off to put the laundry in the dryer. Ja ne.

I worked my ass off today in Framing Department. I made my first order, which I had to cancel cause the lady left before paying, but luckily the coupon will be valid only this once for tomorrow by manager. Her order will go through, thankfully.

I did one full order close to closing time all by myself with no issues. She paid it and even though I'm not certified yet, I put in Jamie's intials, but wrote my name on the paperwork. I did call her to let her know what I did.

Tonight I had to call Nate to pick me up cause the last bus would have been at 10pm and I didn't want to stay out that late waiting. This will also be the last time I ask for a ride from Nate and Ann like this. Let me just put it to you short like....Nate has a short fuse. Ann isn't that smart and is very forgetful. Nate explodes at her lateness with anything important, she cries when he blows up. Nate acts like a child and tantums off. Ann is weak and easily hurt. Nate does not understand her feelings and makes matters worse.

Yeah, so I"m not asking for a ride from them ever again. I'm tired of their drama shit. This was originally all about Ann's taxes not making it to the mail on time and now she won't get the stemulus check. Oh well...shit happens and lessons learned, but no need to dwell on it and make Ann feel more hurt then she already is. Fuck, I wish Nate would get a damn brain and have some heart and shed his child attitude out the fucking window.

Luckily, Tracy has offered free rides home whenever we work together to close Framing Department. We both have to be certified to keep this position. We'll have to take a test to get this. Since I've already made 1 full real order and kinda the second, I'm figuring things out and Jamie is very happy about this. I work tomorrow so I'll get to learn more new things. ^___^

That's pretty much it.
Chow.

Even if she was trained to do this or she learned it on her own, it's still a beautiful piece of art. I wish I had the money to buy one of her pieces. I've seen many elephants over the years 'paint' at local zoos, but this is the first time that an elephant has actually painted something that you can tell what it is. I love it.