Last of the Year...

A few more hours and it'll be 2010.

I can't wait for 2009 to be gone...it hasn't been a personally horrible year, but I'm always wanting to look upwards and onwards. Which would include having next year be ten thousand times better than this year. Including having a union gig so that I don't have to shell out $800 a month for COBRA all year. We'll see.





















I'm getting over yet another cold-thingy. The flu shot didn't seem to work this year. Feh. So next year I'm keeping my $20 and buying another dvd instead.

The good thing about being sick so much is the urge to get back the endurance I lost from the day job. That seems to be going well, as I was able to scrimmage last night while doped up on cough medication and barely broke a sweat. I didn't play exceptionally well, but my endurance was great!





















My new favorite show is Man v. Food. Why the hell didn't I tune in earlier? This show was made for slobs like me. I now want to become a competitive eater when I grow up, cos I can nom the hell outta food.




















As a belated birthday present to myself, I got the raddest book ever. I accidentally stumbled across it at a local bookstore while shopping for the Dear Husband. And I promptly had a pleasant heart attack as I thumbed through the pages. MUST HAVE. I was on the bicycle, and the book is HUGE, so I went home and looked up the book on the bookstore's website. Not available.

Dammit.

Went to the publisher's website. Not in stock.

DAMMIT.

Then I remembered that I had a gift card from said bookstore stuck to the fridge, so I ambled back over on the bicycle and bought the book.

EPIC WIN, BY GAWD.

Welp, off to read some books and generally be boring on this NYE. Stay safe, kids!

My Mom Loves Me

I got a late birthday present today from my mom.

A snuggie.

Not just any ol' store bought Snuggie in leopard print. Not a doggie Snuggie, either.

I am now the proud owner of a pirate-themed snuggie that MY MOM MADE HERSELF.

FOR ME.




I WIN AT LIFE THIS WEEK.


Photos will follow soon.

Fucking Epic

This time last year the Dear Husband was working on a James Cameron film.

It was SOOPER-SECRET. It was sooooooooo secret, the DH wouldn't tell me anything about the film except that it had 9-foot-tall blue aliens in it and it was called Avatar. Eh, whatever! was my reaction at the time.

Most weeks were 7 day, 12 hour long funfests of computer magicry. Scenes were shot, reshot, reshot, reshot, and reshot again. When reshoots happened, the crew basically shrugged their tired shoulders and said, What are you gonna do? We're working for James-fucking-Cameron. He's known to be "difficult" to work with, and it's best to do what he says and just shut up about it.

And keep on working.

And working.

And working.

Some people worked on this film for years. The DH was on it for six months longer than anticipated. Luckily(?)I was freelancing on Back at the Barnyard, so even though I missed seeing him, I figured it's all part of the job when working for James-fucking-Cameron. When the DH was finally laid off, he insisted on hibernating for the rest of the year because he was so mentally exhausted.

But he said this film was going to be EPIC.

I got my first clue about how EPIC it was going to be when there was an Extra-Special 15 Minute Sneak Preview screening in late August across the US. When I went into the IMAX theater, I was still extremely not interested in the film. I'm not a big fan of sci-fi or action-adventure. Blue aliens? Dances With Wolves-esque story? Really? Blah.

I came out of the theater saying, WHOA.

YEAH, the DH replied.













A few months later...


Last night was the cast and crew screening of the finished film at Grauman's Chinese Theater.

Again, storywise it's not breaking new ground, but...

WHOA.

It's fucking EPIC, y'all.

No, really. It's REALLY FUCKING EPIC.

Go see it in IMAX. SRSLY. You'll wet yourselves.

Right after the screening was the afterparty at the Roosevelt Hotel(I have to remind myself to go back there to check out the redone lobby one of these days). We get there early, and right near the entrance is...James-fucking-Cameron, being gracious and talking it up with everyone who walked in.

OK.

Hollywood Bigshot of the highest order. Not too crowded party. Big loud-mouthed redhead who just saw a Fucking Epic movie that the Hollywood Bigshot made. What could possibly go wrong with this combination?

Side note: James-fucking-Cameron is so intimidating that at last year's holiday party, everyone's sphincter tightened up to instantly create diamonds in their intestines the moment Jim and his wife showed up. I've never seen anything like it. This dude gets crazy-mad respect from his crews.

I walk up to him. Wait while he talks to other people who shake his hand vigorously. He turns to me. I shake his hand and say, Congratulations on making an EPIC FUCKING FILM!

Now, go back to the crazy-made respect part for a quick second. Most people would NOT say that to a Hollywood Bigshot of the highest order. They would be very polite, very deferential, and very kissass. I, however, don't have a damned thing to lose, and why not be honest if it's complimentary?

It worked.

He smiles happily, turns to his wife and says, Did you hear that? FUCKING EPIC! Other folks gathered around the Man of the Evening laugh. The DH is probably about to faint behind me. Jokes are made about putting my "quote" in the ad campaigns. Jokes are then made about how the film is just...ok. I might tell my friends about it, I say to James-fucking-Cameron, then tell him congratulations again and wisely scooted away as more people started to flock around him.

Afterwards I instantly had the shakes and couldn't believe that I wasn't escorted off the premises.

The DH had a great time retelling the story to everyone he knew on the crew. He stayed later than I did and whooped it up right. Hopefully the work done on this film will lead to him being busy next year and I get the chance to be a foul-mouthed asshole to other Hollywood Bigshots!

EPIC WIN.

Moar Random Pix

I'm too busy to make relevant posts, so here's some more bullcrap stuff.


Top blockers from my last game this season:














Compare to the top blocker stats from the first game this season:













Goddam, I came a loooooong way.



Here's Cagey Bea and I asserting our Commie Bastardness thanks to Charlie Chu:

















Stalkerazzi caught me on my way up to the Nerd Nest with birthday beer:





















My last day at work will be the 22nd. I might be able to do some holiday shopping on the 23rd! Yay!

21 + 20

Yesterday was my birthday.

You know what? Turning 41 seems to be a Not A Big Deal type of birthday, which makes me happy.

Had fun eating and drinking all day, and even squeezed in a beach skate before the weather turned foul. WIN.

The husband got me my very own GPS unit to carry around and even occasionally use. WIN!

A lot of people wished me a happy birthday. Partly because the Derby Dolls 2009 championship game was the night before my birthday. I got a LOT of birthday drinks, cake, and even got swept off my feet by a Santa impostor at the afterparty. WIN!!

Also at the afterparty, I drew an inordinate amount of boob-tattoos. Not a bad thing, but usually I draw on arms more than anything. Good thing there was a guy there whose arms were covered in tattoos but wanted me to draw on him, so he pulled up his shirt and I got to draw away from hipbone to solar plexus. WIIIIIIINNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!





















I have two weeks left at the ol' jobby-job. There was hope that the gig would get extended to January, but apparently that's not gonna happen. BUMMER.

Things have gotten comfy to the point where us three in-house storyboard people have no problem screaming, WHORE!!!!!!!!! when the computer program crashes while we work. An occasional ASSHOLE! can be heard as well when things are really crazy.



Last Friday was the Animation Union party. New location, but we still were packed together like sardines trying to network and stuff. I was pleased to discover that people wanted to talk to me again this year...being social at these events is a new feeling for me!




















One side effect from the job is not getting enough exercise. My exercise time has been cut in half. A couple of weeks ago I rode my bicycle from home to the track(approx. 28 miles roundtrip), and thought I was going to die. Part of it was the bent rear wheel on the bicycle, but part of it was also my losing endurance. I also had a derby practice where I thought my lungs were going to explode, and that NEVER happens.

So I've been getting up two hours earlier than I do when I'm working from home to get in some running, bicycling or beach skating before work. It's helped my mood tremendously, though I now have some nasty blisters on my feet for taking up the beach skating again.




















Derby has been making me think a lot lately.

I'm still in a quandry over how to fit together fun/athleticism/monetarily viable when it comes to DIY derby. Why does pure athleticism have to lose the fun edge that brought this crazy group of people together in the first place? Will DIY derby splinter off into groups? The Oly Rollers/pure athletic group made up of lifelong atheletes who want to make derby an Olympic sport. The competitive-but-probably-didn't-come-from-a-sports-background group that makes up most of derby right now. The totally goofy spectacle-over-sport group that features fighting over form?

It could happen. All I know is that I like where I ended up skating-wise...competitive but still willing to wear some silly outfits because it's FUN.





















I feel like I'm waiting for something to happen in life.

Which is stupid, because I should be making something happen for myself. I think this is what keeps me from being a success...too fearful to just say FUCK IT and come up with a plan and plow through with it. What's going to galvanize my puny little frog brain into action?

I don't know.

But overall I'm happy and busy for the moment, and that's OK.

For now.

My soul is dying...

...because I'm so busy.

Had a great time in Philadelphia. Saw some amazing flat track roller derby. Did a lot of boutcasting. Heard a lot of bitching about some strategies utilized in the game(PS: shut it. Do yourself a favor and counterstrategize instead of complaining. Thank you.). Ate and drank a lot. It was delicious. Saw the Liberty Bell and walked by Independence Hall. I'd go back to check the city out a little more thoroughly if I could.


Work is killing my endurance. Staring into a computer screen at close range seems to literally suck the life force out of me. Thank goodness the crew is pretty danged awesome, or else I'd totally lose the will to live.

I did an uncharacteristically stupendous storyboard section for this latest project, and unfortunately it looks like it'll never see the light of day. Which is ticking off just about everyone on the crew. I shake my fist in futile anger at the jokers in charge of this project...they do not have their father's vision.

Are you in LA this weekend? Then come by the GirlsDrawinGirls booth at the CTN Animation Expo in Borebank! I'll be there Saturday midday. Buy a calendar and some buttons and I'll let you live!

How to Spend a 15th Year Anniversary...

Friday, Nov. 13 will mark the 15th wedding anniversary of the Dear Husband and I.

What will we do for this momentous occasion?

We'll be in Philadelphia for the WFTDA 2009 National tournament.

Pretty fucking rad, if I do say so, myself.





















As I type, the DH is already whooping it up in Philly. I had to work today. Taking two days off was a guilty pleasure enough as it was...to go with the originally-planned three days would've been semi-career suicide. Well, beyond my usual charming disposition when it comes to work politics, at any rate.

I had to drive him to the airport this morning.

At 6am.

Those of you who know me know that seeing either of us awake at that time is akin to the Second Coming...it just doesn't happen that often. It was ugly. REAL ugly. I've gotten about 4 hours of sleep within the past 24 hours...the only thing that's keeping me awake is the early morning cup o' Yum Yum Donuts coffee. FUCK STARBUCKS. If you want to be awake, Yum Yum is the way to go for 1/3 the price of Starfucks.

I've never been to Philly. Neither has the DH. Of course he has an entire Philly Cheesesteak Extravaganza planned. We also have Amish folk to visit. Should be fun! Hopefully I'll get enough sleep on the plane to be enthused for the one, provolone, witout that I want waiting for me when I land in the City of Brotherly Love.

Oh, Kitty!

Last Friday I was finally staying on schedule to get to work at a reasonable hour.

As I stepped out the back door to get the murdersickle out for the morning commute, I almost stepped in this:
















A beheaded bird.


A closer look...if you're in to that sort of thing:

















Kitty at first was proudly lounging nearby...until I tried to take a photo of him. Then he excitedly got up and trotted over while I investigated the crime scene. I shooed him away from the corpse(I was still taking photos of it, dammit), and that hurt Kitty's feelings. When I was done, I tried to pet Kitty, and he shied away. Awwww, poor Kitty! It took several attempts at flattery to get him to finally believe me(he doesn't know that I was doing that just so he keeps the killing spree to a minimum). Then I fed him some nice wet cat food, which he infinitely prefers over the dry kibble we've been leaving out for him lately.

The Dear Husband says that a dried-out bird corpse was brought to the back door a couple of weeks ago. He said that Old Blue(the only cat that Kitty is afraid of) was the one that brought this previous victim to light when he was batting it around the back patio. The DH didn't take photos, but just disposed of the dead thing quickly.

My theory on this is that Kitty killed the bird but left it somewhere on the patio (much like the baby squirrels that were brought to us in September) where it wasn't found right away. Then Old Blue brought the corpse to our attention at a later date when the handiwork wasn't complimented enough(or they got really impatient with the continuation of the Dry Kibble Cat Diet).

It worked...the outdoor cats are now getting more wet food. Little conniving bastards.

Photo, Shopped.

This weekend was mainly wasted on much of nothing, which is great.

The one thing of note that the husband and I did was be a photography subject for our good friend Papaboop. He's always been a good photographer, but now he's taking classes to become a great photographer. See example below:





















Can you believe that shit?! I look pretty damn good for once...that's how good he is!


After posting the above photo to Facebook, my friend Gary came up with a clever response:













I always loved the Road Warrior movie, and now I get a cameo!

The logjam of radness has been released unto the world.

First we have Fight Crew's skateout from last Saturday. While the video was playing, we just huddled in the infield, then did a quick lap around the track.





Then we had fun winning.














Which included saying goodbye to retiring Siren skater Paris Killton.














But finally having a victory photo was SO WORTH IT.
















Stalkerazzi put together an animated montage of all the photos he took Saturday night. Fascinating to watch!




Just to throw you off a bit, I've included a DRAWING. That I did! HOW ABOUT THAT?!

This is a Get Well card I did for my favorite TXRD person in the whole wide world, Cherry Chainsaw. She's been with the league from the very beginning in 2001. She just had her last game a couple of weeks ago.

Her team, the Cherry Bombs(yes, a TEAM was named after her! How awesome is that?!)made it to TXRD's season championships for the first time. This was Cherry's LAST GAME EVAR. Her team was doing great and so was she, until she managed to snap her leg giving a whip to her own jammer. FUCK! She asked afterwards, "I've been skating derby for nine years without a major injury. WHAT ARE THE ODDS THAT I GET INJURED IN MY LAST GAME?!?!?!"

I concluded it was because she tempted the Retirement Gods too much, for she had claimed she was going to retire two seasons ago.

Heal fast, Cherry!

Early Results

Still waiting for an updated webcast archive, as I want to see Saturday's game.

Still waiting for official photos from Saturday's game.


But we have these...

The Sirens' Dash Assault and I say O HAI on the track:
















Stalkerazzi caught this mellow moment right before the game:
















Hurricane Ken and I show off our charming personalities at the afterparty:
























Yeah, it was that type of night.

IT'S ABOUT TIME!

FINALLY.

After two seasons of being the Charlie Brown team, Fight Crew finally won a regular season game last night against the Sirens! The score was 101-88.

WOW!!!!!!!!

Some highlights from last night include:

• I didn't get kicked out of the game. Which makes this season extra-special since I didn't get kicked out of any game the entire year!

• Being told that I am no longer "notorious" as a result.

• Having the Dear Husband's parents in attendance. They hadn't been to a game in about a year. I think they enjoyed themselves...they at least got preferential parking and VIP seats!

• Having Papa Armov give me a kiss on the forehead before the game. The derby folk who caught that were apparently freaked out because they didn't think I'd let anyone do that. I say it's an old Jewish custom that helps teams win roller derby games, so shush!

• Having our good friends the Boops show up and take photos. They haven't been to a game in at least two years, if not longer. They were impressed with the ever-upwards production value of the game. Woohoo!

• Hurricane Ken dragging "Area 51" , Tara's fan club to the game. It's always nice to have friends screaming, "WHAAAAT!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" during the entire game.

• I think I did a good job in the game. I don't think I was as consistent as the previous game, but apparently I did well enough to keep me going in every other jam the entire game.

• Wrecking announcer Evil E's new invention: the Tara Armov Drinking Game. Whenever I get sent to the penalty box, everyone takes a drink. Didn't work well the first half, as I wasn't sent to the penalty box at all. However, I made up for it the second half, where I would've gotten kicked out of the game if there had been one more jam!

• Whenever the refs called a time out, I'd yell either, "NAP DRILL!" where everyone on the track would fall down and pretend to go to sleep, or I'd yell, "BOOTY SHAKING DRILL!" where everyone on the track would shake their butts in time with the background music.
  

• Having our jammer Haught Wheels take a whip off of my belt so hard that I was sent flying backwards onto my butt. The audience LOVED that!

• Throwing a heinous penalty that was NOT CAUGHT by the on-duty refs, but made the off-duty refs stare open-mouthed in amazement. PS: sorry about shoving you like that, PITA!

• Seeing my team really keep their shit together during the game. It was a close game throughout, but for the most part, everyone kept their wits about them and did what they needed to do. It was beautiful!

• We had by the far the weirdest skateout ever in LA Derby Doll history. I'm proud of that.

• Meeting an animator at the afterparty who also works at the studio I'm currently working at. He squinted at me and says, "You look kind of familiar." I say, "I'm the one who rides a motorcycle." He brightens up and says, "OH! I've seen you walking down Ventura Blvd! I said to myself, 'Why the hell is she wearing a leather jacket? IT'S THE VALLEY!" Ah yes, I'm that Insane Leather Jacket-Wearing Freak. Nice to meet you!

There's more, but I'm hung over and lazy today. The pain is juuuuuuuuuuuust starting to set in. Tomorrow will be long and painful!

I can't wait to see the webcast!

AUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Work Computer Program and Email:

You're not making my life easier.

In fact, you're pissing me right the fuck off.

"Learning curve"? More like a learning RAVINE, assholes.

I can't fucking wait to master the new stuff and make all of you my bitches.

Things I Learned in Tuscon This Weekend

In random order:

• Dealing with an ant invasion in the kitchen because the cat didn't like his cat food from the night before when one is trying to leave the house was very, very frustrating.

• How to spell "Tucson".

• Remembering to bring an mp3 player for the longest. Drive. EVAR.

• Pants are optional, but nice.

• Freak heatwaves in October suck.

• Forgetting to pack a bathing suit is riDONKulous.

• Playing the Tucson league is FUUUUUUUUN.

• Losing is no bueno.

• LA Derby Dolls know how to throw an afterparty.

• The only worthwhile thing to do in Quartzite, AZ is to buy earrings with bugs in them.

• Gas up in Arizona, not California.

• The Days Inn in Tucson is apparently "ewwwww", according to Killo and Amber.

• The Holiday Inn Express is sa-WANK.

• The Comfort Inn isn't too shabby, either.

• Tucson skaters? SRSLY, they're awesome.

• I have never loved the marine layer on the LA Westside so much as I did today when we came home.

• Do not ever play covers of Robin Trower music in front of me from your mp3 collection. Play the real thing or deal with me screaming, "BLUESHAMMER!"at the top of my lungs repeatedly.

• If I can't get into the afterparty, make sure you have a sooper-VIP-afterparty-Afterparty so that I feel better. It works.

• Even when we lose, we win.

• Heckling is only as good as the volume at which it's done at. If we can't hear you, it doesn't count.

• Downtown Tucson is confusing to navigate.

• Every time I think that I hate LA, I find out what I like about it when I leave and then come back.

• However, California NEEDS Waffle Houses. SRSLY. That stuff is tasty. I don't know if I can live with myself for not trying them out when I was in Texas years ago. FOR SHAME.

• Is amused that the Cabazon dinosaur exhibits are owned by creationists. Some of the literature at the Gift Shop is...uh...interesting.

• Finding that the ants didn't reinvade the kitchen was very, very nice.

• I loveloveLOVE skating with the Derby Dolls. Truly a bunch of klassy broads.

Busy

Still a busy week for me.

The car had a faulty O2 censor in it, and so it had to be taken in for fixing. Unlike my last car, this was covered under the extended warranty I smartly bought, and so the total damage to my pocketbook was just over $100. WIN!

In the meantime, the rain kept me from being as mobile as I want to be. Ah well, it'll go back to being dry and miserable soon enough.

Skating in Tuscon this weekend. Will be driving out there. UGH. I kinda wish I wasn't going, as I've been needing to study character designs for the upcoming gig that I start next Monday. UGH.

And something to actually look at...

I started to actually use my flickr account as an online portfolio, especially since my old website hasn't been updated in...forever. I no longer have the website program to access said old website, so that's that. But yesterday I FINALLY added a set about my favorite hobby, drawing on people. I have a LOT of photos of my drawings on people, but this set is a pretty decent documentation of the general jist of it all.

Now back to doing stuff. Today it's a visit to the tattoo-removal place and practice. Just over a week away from the last game of the season for my team. It'd better be worth it.

Fallout

It's been a couple of weeks since Whip It! was released.

The DIY derby world expected the film to do spectacularly in the real world.

So far, it hasn't.

Not for a lack of trying when it comes to publicity, though. I've seen ads for the movie, interviews with the actresses from the film, and public-interest stories about DIY derby all over the place.(hell, I was on local tv last week, as a matter of fact)

The one thing that is sticking in my craw about the news coverage is that it's the same ooooollllldddd story: "By day, these women are, ______fill in the blank with societally-approved female role__________. By night, they're rough n' tumble ROLLER DERBY GIRLS!!!!!!"

Been there, done that. About five years ago.

Why is it that people find it so weird that some women want to do something that's heavily physical? Why is it that women involved in derby found the need to have "alter egos" for the sport, even though in just about every case it's not about actually having an alter ego, but a need to separate out this "weird" physical part of themselves away from the rest so that other folk don't just focus on this one aspect of their lives?

In this day of "post-feminism", why is it that women who want to be involved in a full-contact sport are still freaks that need some type of justification to do it, while guys who want to be involved in a full-contact sport are just...guys?

I know academic papers have been written by some derby women for their respective college classes, but I don't know if this aspect was really touched upon or how it was expressed.

My annoyed feelings on this also kinda go against my arguments for keeping derby names...if we keep the names, are we perpetuating the need to justify ourselves by having to stuff away our "alter egos" for the "right time and place" so that we don't offend anyone with our violent(and non-societal-approved) sensibilities?


Dammit.

While I ponder the above, I have a lot of prepping to do for skating in Tuscon this weekend as well as getting ready for the Working World again. I guess that means I have to start "behaving" myself again.

Dammit.

In the meantime, enjoy the below random photos:





















































PS: I think Whip It! will be a DVD/cult hit. No, really.

Sesame Street game

"Which of these things/is not like the others?

Which of these things/doesn't belong?

Can you guess which of these things/is not like the others?

Before I get to the end of this song?"














Last Saturday at the Tough Cookies/Varsity Brawlers game. Iron Maiven pulled out the girl scout troop leader uniform for my team managing pleasure. TC beat the pants off of VB. It was a good night.


I'm now trying to get during-the-day stuff done before going back to Employment Land. Such things include going to get a flu shot, and remembering to make an appointment to get my car an oil change. Oh joy! My life is flabulous.

Happy Snoopy Dance!!!!!!

My underemployed mojo was running strong for almost a year now. The freelance I'd been working on was fun, but the pay was...how shall I say? Painfully low? Meager? Made me reconsider starting a profitable meth lab in the back room?

Yeah, all of the above.

So I started looking for work in earnest recently. Got shot down a few times(but at least I didn't have to take a test!), was extremely stressed out since both the Dear Husband and I haven't been working for awhile, but FINALLY interviewed with a well-known small studio that is working on a new Peanuts special. AND GOT THE JOB!!!!

I'm definitely one of those people who loved Peanuts as a kid. I had quite a selection of Snoopy toys, and my first wristwatch was one of Lucy that I wore for years(wish I knew what happened to it). I could draw Snoopy fairly well for a dumb kid. I drew him a lot.

I read the comic strip every day. I discovered my favorite era in Peanuts when I got a book that was a compilation of some of the 60's strips which I find was the best design and most clever writing that Schultz did. The 50's era was very...round design-wise. The 70's brought the bulbous design that has steadfastly held on, just the line quality changed. But the 60's? Stylized, but fluid and solid.

And of course there's the tv specials. Who didn't freak the hell out in ecstasy when the CBS intro for their holiday programming came on?! Who didn't love watching the Xmas special, The Great Pumpkin, or the most sob-inducing, Snoopy Come Home? I sure as shit did!

So to find out about this particular project, get in for an interview and to succeed in landing the gig makes me feel like I was destined to do it. I think the last time I felt this way was when I first went to work at Warner Bros. I'm that excited.

So here's an appropriate Snoopy Dance of joy:

Speechless

I know someone who works on Celebrity Fit Club. She and I were talking one time, and I mentioned that I loveloveLOVE their drill sergeant, Harvey Walden IV. Because he's almost as loud as I am.

I received the below photo today:






















I'm speechless!


Except I do wonder why I was drawn with a sweet little smile on my face!

Off to Jackson

SO busy, yet it seems like I'm not getting anything done.

And with that in mind, I'm leaving for the weekend for the annual SNIFF party in Jackson, CA.


Here's the shirt front I did for this year. Different font, same dog:




















On Monday there's gonna be an insane press junket for the Whip It! movie at the Doll Factory. I guess I should be enthused, but it's difficult with work pressures and skating priorities weighing me down. And hey, I don't really have anything at stake with the flick, so maybe that's really why I don't give a flip. I bet that's verboten to say, but I don't care about that, either.

Anyway, this weekend will hopefully be a good opportunity to clear the mind and enjoy myself. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

Blargh

Sick again.

This sucks.

Annnnd, my back is partially thrown out of whack.

THIS IS NOT MY WEEK.

But hey, the driveway is paved and pretty!

Too bad I'm too sick to take the murdersickle out.


LOOK! Artwork! That I did! For the last game I'll be skating in this season! Be there or get a broken face!

In My Next Life

...I want to be reincarnated as a beautiful woman.

This being loud-and-ugly thing is so...uh...YAWWWWWWWWWWNNNNN.

LADD photographer Stalkerazzi caught this:














The usual Tara-being-a-loudmouthed-asshole shot. Yeah, yeah, big open mouth. Quel surprise.



I'm SO GLAD other LADD photographer Charlie Chu caught this moment:















Yes, I'm slapping PITA's face right as she's about to go up for the first jam of the game. I swear, that adrenaline rush from a face-slap is FANTASTIC for aggressive skating! It seemed to work for her, at any rate, as she skated very well!


I have no idea what was going on in the game when Charlie caught this expression:
















But it's both kinda cool and rather horrifying at the same time.

SRSLY. Next life, I wanna be pretty.

This Saturday

I am not skating.

I am managing the Sirens, however.

Which you should come see in person.

Especially when the afterparty flier basically says you'd BETTER show up or else my pimp hand will get an exceptional workout:

















P.S: we has a webcast, too!

Suburban Wildlife

Today was a quiet day...to a point.

I was busy working on freelance, minding my own business. The Dear Husband comes in and says, Kitty brought another present. You need to see this.

I turn off the dvd and wander to the backyard, where Kitty was happily skittering around the patio. I look down and see...a critter. By the way, I'm officially Critter Patrol when it comes to Kitty bringing "gifts" to us. The DH usually doesn't want to go near whatever has been broughted into our territory. So I go and investigate.

I don't know what kind of critter it is.

I then get down on hands and knees to further peer at the critter. It's small, gray, fuzzy, and most importantly...not dead. I pet it. It moves. It's a baby...something. I pick it up. It squirms a little, but isn't repulsed by my handling it. I see that he is remarkably in one piece, except for one tooth mark in his little armpit.

The DH looks at the little guy and guesses rat. I point to his tail, which is distinctly not rat-like. I also point out his little hands. Hmmmm. Raccoon? Uh...

















Look at that cute little fucker. His eyes were still closed tight. While we're examining the little munchkin, Kitty disappears.


We promptly wrap the little guy up in a bandanna and take him to the local vet. They immediately identify him as a squirrel. They also have a deal where they give little boogers like this guy to a local wildlife rehabilitation center so that they stand a chance of surviving. There's some worry about his armpit though, as cat bites are very very bad for squirrels.

They didn't even charge us for dropping off the squirrel. How cool is that?!


On the way home the DH and I discuss where baby squirrels would possibly be stashed away and that we should go looking for them, because we wouldn't want Kitty to get the other ones, right?

We get home, I go straight to the backyard and take a cursory look around the back wilderness area to see if there's any sign of squirrels. None are found, so I go meandering back to the patio.

Where I find another goddam baby squirrel sprawled on the cement, with Kitty happily lurking nearby.

I immediately grab the bandanna and place the second squirrel in it. This time, we pet Kitty and sing his praises. More importantly, we give him food.

















Close-up of Squirrel Baby #2:

















Photo of Proud Hunter:















After securing the second squirrel, we decide to wait awhile to see if Kitty brings any more to us before traipsing back to the vet. So I went back to work with the second baby wrapped up and sleeping next to me in the office. After about 45 minutes I made another patio inspection with no new babies to deal with, so we went back to the vet to drop off the second baby.

All's well that ends well, I guess!


In non-sequitur news:

We're getting our driveway repaved:






































It's been driving me crazy to not be able to get the murdersickle out of the garage. BUT, our driveway is gonna look amazing when it's done. Which will hopefully be by early next week.

Hopehopehope...

Some Pix from Last Saturday

Fight Crew lost by 10 points last Saturday.

It's not our proudest team moment.

However, after watching the game footage from the webcast, I can say that I played one of my personal best games EVAR.

I think it was the face-slapping that did it.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa...?! you may be asking yourself...

See, the San Diego Derby Dolls have a pre-game ritual where the team lines up and the team manager swiftly slaps the face of each skater down the line juuuuust before the game starts. It's an instant adrenaline rush and gets one's head in the game. I had our bench manager for the game, PITA from the Sirens, slap the living bejeezus out of me before my first jam. HOLY CRAP it worked! I still made mistakes, but I also blocked a lot harder and a lot smarter than in previous games.

FC captains are trying to figure out how to approach our last game of the season, which will be against the Sirens in October. I suggest a lot of face-slapping.


Anyway, here are some fun fotos from the game.

A two-fer...I had just hit Long Island Lolita, taking both her and myself down. FC co-captain Haught Wheels got caught in my cross-fire by falling over me:


























I remember when I saw Lolita go down with her face so close to the kickrail, I thought, OH SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but she was uninjured.


Tough Soles and I in the penalty box:














I wasn't ejected from this game. Nor have I been ejected from any game this season. I came close, though. Especially at the end, where the refs gave me a penalty in a jam that I wasn't even skating in. That penalty that someone else committed would've gotten me kicked out of the last jam had it not been noticed that I wasn't in the jam that the refs were talking about.



Behind the Varsity Brawlers in the foreground is me flying over Vulvarine, who fell in front of me while going full speed. I landed sprawled in such a way that I hit my chin on the track(THANK GAWD we wear mouthguards...my parents would've been pissed beyond belief if I messed up my teeth!), and my ribs and hips got bruised. The ribs especially got hit HARD when I landed. Owch.

















Aaaaaaaaand a team photo with Fight Crew superfan Little Kenny(though I hear he's thinking of switching loyalties to VB...if that's true, I have something to say about that!), who has always been super-supportive of not only Fight Crew, but the Derby Dolls in general. He gave copious amounts of cash to the Ri-Ettes to help them go to Battle on the Bank in Austin in June, and he also helped out the Jr. Derby Dolls with their camp in July:














And here's a rare little treat. ARTWORK! That I did! This is the new logo that the flat track league in town, the Angel City Derby Girls, are using for their all-star team, the Scarlets. They have a "Pegasus of Power" theme going on...I don't know where it came from, but it gave me an excuse to build a goofy-looking logo in Illustrator: