alright. Let's get a thing to do off of my list ...
identify 100 things that make me happy (besides money)
1. fat babies
2. my kitten's mew
3. my dog's snores
4. my husband's sweetness
5. getting out of work early
6. holidays
7. obscure foreign holidays
8. christmas morning
9. christmas music on radio stations
10. sincere compliments! (am I really that vain, yes!)
11. funny drawings
12. kids doing non-obnoxious inappropriate things in public like pirouettes in the frozen food aisle
13. overhearing non-sequiturs
14. baby chicks
15. the miracle of growing something from a seed
16. dog logic
17. cats who are late for imaginary meetings
18. old friends
19. swimming
20. ice skating
21. running
22. optimism
23. hope for the future
24. sunday mornings in bed with the newspaper
25. the outfits of the old folks - like rainbonnets
26. old radio shows
27. going out to dinner on a friday night
28. poppies
29. chickadees
30. crafts
31. knitting
32. giving things away
33. anyone or anything wearing a fez
34. anything deemed "rootin' tootin'" (not anything simply "tootin'")
35. a pink-nosed pup
36. the smell of Angel perfume
37. hope
38. inside jokes
39. rainier cherries
40. sleeping in
41. flying dreams
42. acts of unrewardable kindness
43. pumpkin pie
44. hawai'i-ana
45. painting with coffee
46. birdies
47. getting something off a store shelf for a stranger who can't reach it
48. tiramisu
49. tacky planters
50. homemade apple pie
51. adam
52. anything pee wee
53. crafts
54. the overuse or abuse of quotation marks
55. cuttlefish
56. grandmas & grandpas
57. party hats on people who are overly serious
58. snow days
59. sending and receiving letters & postcards
60. memories in the house i grew up in
61. funny doodles
62. sushi
63. the big cheese a the cascades
64. feeding curiosity
65. entenmann's cheese danish twist coffee cake
66. big fat people with little tiny feet
67. robin's egg blue
68. the lol cats
69. selling a piece of art
70. getting flowers unexpectedly (the ultimate feeling of girl-osity)
71. beautiful handwriting
72. grass green
73. green grass
74. baby squirrelies
75. walleyed dogs
76. the midwest
77. curry powder
78. the zeppelin line from A Christmas Story
79. also, the entire rest of film A Christmas Story
80. maui
81. michigan
82. yellow ochre
83. spurts of self confidence
84. dreams in familiar houses/spaces which are completely new arrangements
85. japanese girl bands
86. overhearing a foreign language being spoken ... and it sounding just like music (esp. true for italiano)
87. french bulldogs
88. melodrama
89. busby berkley over-the-top choreography
90 solitude
91. sushi!
92. a really scary movie
93. staying up all night
94. going to the movies to see a movie you really want to see (this only happens for me once every few years or so!)
95. illustration
96. fun art
97. coral pink
98. hosting parties
99. a night out with just the right people
100. adventure

Another diet monitoring type guide, my friend and boss Nancy brought into work, is Eat This, Not That. This book will really surprise you as to what is actually in your food choices. Check out the very first entry comparing a Big Mac vs a Whopper with Cheese, and if you pick it up in person - look at why you should avoid the Arby's Market Fresh Sandwiches. Surprises! (Not surprises like a surprise birthday party, unfortunately.)

My inaugural visit to Dr. Gardine, my new endocrinologist, came with a take-home gift or two. One was a great food reference book for carb counting in insulin balancing. The name sounded a bit hokey, and getting something for free - you might assume, it would be more or less a gimmicky brochure of some type - I was wrong: I highly recommend this CalorieKing bookif you want to know what you're putting in your body. I got it for free, but it's only $8. Dr. G was awesome and you should go see him. He actually spent time talking to me.

I don't know if I have mentioned them before or not, but this is the time of year my local midwestern grocer gets my flavorite summer seasonal treat: Rainier cherries! If you see very pretty red and maize colored cherries a little larger than a quarter - pick them up! They don't really last long on the stand or in your fridge: on the stand because they are very sweet and can get brown spots from the high sugar content but also because they are so yummy you'll want to eat them like grapes. They're usually pretty expensive, this year the cheapest I have seen them locally is $4.99/lb. I highly recommend you try them - they're almost like mini sweet peaches. Let me know if you try them - I want to know what you think!

I quite enjoy WHICH topic raised the ire of dieters over on this forum. I happen to agree with them, of course. There is a point where eating & cooking becomes sideshow and leaves taste behind. Shock cooking?

for your music video pleasure:

&

You should check out Megan Brain's artwork. Really neato! I love illustration - probably more than fine art.

Has anyone else been watching Cartoon Network's "The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack" & "Chowder"? I absolutely love the art direction of both series ... they look fantastic. The creativity isn't limited to the aesthetics, the writing for Chowder is a lot of fun. All the foods names are faux versions of their reality counterparts. Fun fun fun! Check them out.

I have a few fun projects in the works - one being an official documentation of many of the tacky planters. The ebay & shopgoodwill.com photos are usually nicely inconsistent, but I wanted to make a sort of official record. You'll be the first to see the supah collection. Amongst the newer planters are ... a pipe and even a SHRINER. Who, let me tell you, rivals the bowling man in awesomeness. Hows your summer?