Currently I'm:

• Watching:
  -Chopped All-Stars: three rounds down so far!
  -Deadliest Catch: the new season just started- yay!
• Reading: 
  -The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, by Laurie R. King
  Set in the early 20th century, the main character is Mary Russell, a 15-year old girl who meets a retired Sherlock Holmes in the English countryside… and of course there’s a mystery to solve! (I bought a book by this author at the thrift store, and found out the book I bought was #9 in a series—so I had to start at the beginning with this title.)
• Listening to:
  -Dawson’s Creek (TV show) soundtracks
  -One Tree Hill (TV show) soundtrack
  (over and over... when I get into something, I play it to death, lol! I have to concentrate at my desk at work, and I can’t do it if there’s lots of people talking)
• Making:  
  -New art journal pages (I'm almost finished with my current journal- will post some pics soon)
  -Lists of things to take with me to a 3-day scrapbooking crop I’m attending this weekend in Tucson
• Feeling:  
  -Annoyed that 4-day work weeks always seem to be longer and more difficult than a regular 5-day work week is!
  -Impatient to finally receive my Rx refills from the mail-order service (there was a delay in ordering due to a switch in our insurance plan)
  -Impatient for my 4-day work week to be over with!
• Looking forward to:  
  -Having a great time at the SB crop in Tucson this weekend! (but will miss everyone at home while I’m gone)
  -Spending some quality time learning how to use my new camera.
• Enjoying:  
  -The wonderful spring weather we’re having right now, before the summer temperatures hit with a vengeance. Currently it's still cool enough at night to open the windows, but has been getting into the 90s for highs temps.

just wanted to share my latest obsession...

okay, so I'm a little late to the party- the cocktail party, that is! :D

I finally started watching the AMC Television show Mad Men on DVD, and so far I've worked my way through all of Season One and am partway into Season Two. (10 hours of it- plus some extra features- were last week, while Tom was out of town- LOL!!) I need to get caught up, since the next season is starting in March!!  And I really need to know what happens next! I can't believe I waited this long to start watching it, actually... it's such a well-written show, the characters are very complex, and it's about an era of history that I find  fascinating. (and, I really, really love their clothes!!)

random...

just a few random pictures (and thoughts) 

for your viewing pleasure:

I love this dog!! (I love all our pets, but 
this look gets me every time.) 

Tomorrow we will be going to see some of this:

The 22nd annual World Hoop Dancing Championship, 

at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. (these pics were taken the 

previous time we went, a couple years ago) 

I wonder if this little guy will be performing again?? Hopefully he'll enjoy himself a little more this time...  :)

The artistry and intricacy of what these dancers can do with such a simple thing as a hoop is just amazing! 

Tom and I are enjoying this show, now that it's finally 

back on the air.  Timothy Olyphant, mobsters, complicated family relationships and criminal activity... what more could you want?? :D

^^^ this cat (Ariel) 

is lucky she has nine lives! She has already jumped/fallen from the upstairs hallway overlook once (approx. 10 foot drop), and yesterday she took a header (purposefully, we think) from the upstairs hallway down into the stairwell (almost the full 2 story height). Thankfully she doesn't seem to be concussed (although sometimes it's hard to tell, with her... just kidding; she's fine- but exasperating!)

Saturday links

this morning I turned on our local PBS channel (it's pledge time, here), and watched most of a fabulous show on Art Quilts... wonderful inspiration!! Art quilts made from fabric, beads, buttons, handkerchiefs, hand-dyed fabric, orange construction fence, candy bar wrappers, paper, bread ties, and all manner of things for artistic expression. I managed to catch a few names, and need to find out more about them- here are links to a few of them. Please check them out! (I didn' want to use anyone's photos without permission, so you need to click on the links to check out the artwork.)

Pam RuBert, a quilter who makes large cartoon-like art quilts with the main character PaMdora

http://pamrubert.com/artquilts/mysterious.shtml

http://pamrubert.com/about.shtml

Bob Adams, a former art teacher turned art-quilter

http://www.bobadamsart.com/images/Lunar_8_Detail.JPG

http://www.bobadamsart.com/images/Lunar_Series_Night_Study_2.jpg

http://www.bobadamsart.com/about.html

The Chicago School of Fusing- fabric artists who use fusible webbing, not piecing, to make their art quilts

http://www.artfabrik.com/csof.html

http://www.artfabrik.com/gallery.html

Jan Burch Cochran- an art quilter who makes highly embellished art quilts using beads, buttons, rickrack, embroidery, and lots of detail in her work

http://www.janeburchcochran.com/

http://www.janeburchcochran.com/Pages/Gallery2.html

I hope you find something interesting in these links, and that everyone has a good weekend ahead of them! now, I need to go clean up my studio, so I can capitalize on this wonderful inspiration (with paper and glue... and maybe a little fabric or rickrack, added in!)

who knew, continued... (a bit of a rant)

who knew that canine dentists would be soooo very expensive?!? I took a personal day off work yesterday to drive Bisbee up to Scottsdale to the dental specialist our vet recommended. We waited about 30 minutes till we got in to see him; he looked at her mouth, asked a couple questions, then proceeded to tell me he would need to clean her teeth and take x-rays before he could tell exactly what was wrong... and that this all would require general anaesthesia, and that it would cost over $900!! (Mind you, that expense is all before diagnosing whether she really has a cracked tooth, and then add to that whatever it would cost to fix whatever might or might not be wrong!)

I'm actually pretty miffed that they didn't tell me when I called to make the appointment that all those costs would need to be incurred before diagnosing anything (and believe me, I did ask). And when I said "I can't afford that," he proceeded to (maybe innocently enough) make me feel guilty about not being able to afford it! (read the following in a placating tone of voice) "Now, I'm only trying to help your doggie, after all..." and "well, how much did you expect it to cost?" Not that much, that's for sure!!! Don't get me wrong, we love our pets, and I would do a lot for them, but we certainly don't have that kind of money, even without the awful state of the economy right now... I wish we had endless funds to spend, but really, who has that kind of money?!?

So, we came back home, I brushed both dogs' teeth (they like the beef-flavored toothpaste a lot), no more super-huge rawhide bones for either dog, and we'll keep an eye on her to see if it gets worse... if so, we'll go back to our regular vet and go from there.

On a totally different subject, we're halfway thru another marathon of Deadwood episodes- we're into season two, and waiting to find out how the annexation of the town to the Dakota territory will turn out. Seems the politicians are only in it for the money, and there's opportunists coming into town to capitalize on the political unrest... not so different in the late 1800s as what goes on today, I guess, just with less bathing, and (maybe) more whiskey!