I'm So Damn Hyper Right Now!!

My team did something that I didn't know that we'd be able to do...

WE MADE IT TO THE SEASON CHAMPIONSHIPS AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was no mean feat. We had lost the previous two games we played, and our practice game on Monday was ATROCIOUSLY bad. We lost by a lot of points in that scrimmage.

However, we got our collective heads out of our collective butts and put on a helluva secret mid-week not-open-to-the-public game that decisively gave us a much-needed win(Fight Crew: 38, Sirens: 24). Each team ended up with a 2-2 season, and so with the point spreads the way they were, we're in!!! We're playing against the Sirens...again. Just like last year.

To celebrate the victory, the husband and I went to Johnnie's Pastrami in Culver City and ate like pigs.

IT.

WAS.

WONDERFUL.

I'm so hyper I can't sleep. For those of you in LA or are gonna be in LA the weekend of Sat. December 8...COME TO THE GAME!!!!!! It would rock if you did!

I'm going to continue my crazy training of skating, running, and jumping on the trampoline for insane amounts of time. I guess I'll have to eat more pasta(it really makes a difference energy-wise during the game) from my fave Italian restaurant, Alejo's. Oh darn.

One of these eons I wish my parents would come see me skate before I retire my pasty white butt from this sport!

The Spectacle of the Derby Dolls

Here's a photo of Vagilante, one of the LA Derby Dolls' skaters. She has graffiti courtesy of me on her person:





















In "real life" she works for a large corporation that's known for having a squeaky-voiced mouse as its mascot. That's right, she's rotting your kids' brains! Mwahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

One of my teamates has her own blog, and yesterday she posted a thought-provoking entry about the spectacle of the Derby Dolls. Go read it, it's cool!

Back to work!

Graffiti in a Past Life

This weekend I got a photo of some parking lot graffiti that I did in Santa Monica when the Derby Dolls were still homeless a month or so ago. We were having a practice in a beach parking lot and I drew out track dimensions with chalk. I then drew a blocker(no photo available)and a jammer to indicate where everyone's supposed to set up for scrimmaging. Below is my jammer drawing:

















The photo is off of a skater's cell phone. Probably some of the best work I've ever done.

Naptime

It's Friday on a holiday weekend and I'm already needing a nap.

Yesterday for Turkey Day the husband and I rode the bicycles to Torrance. Last time we did it the husband said it was around 40 miles round-trip. This time he's saying it's 50 miles. So I'll split the difference and say that it was 45 miles. Whatever it really was, it was much needed because I ate enough BBQ'd turkey to sink a cruise ship.

The nephew and niece in-laws were present and annoying. The nephew in particular is gonna be real trouble in a couple of years. He's 10 years old now and kept following me around, wanting me to throw him, swing him around, tickle him, or toss him in a trashcan. Yeah, for real...I tossed him in a trashcan and he liked it. I tried to wear him out, but I think I merely succeeded in cementing the fact that he's going to need extensive therapy when he gets older(can we say, "masochist"?). The niece is now 12 years old and is at an age where she'll pound the living bejeezus out of her brother but will wisely leave me alone.

On the dark ride home both the husband and I went off the bike path along the beach near Hermosa into the sand. I almost went over the handlebars, but only my pride was actually wounded. The husband was trailing far behind, so I was already back on the path and pedalling along when he went off the path and managed to land on his shoulder. Owch! This is what happens when the path is the same color as the beach and is not lit at night. We even have lights on the bikes and we still couldn't see! Durrrrrrrr!


Today we got up early and went to the LA Auto Show.

What a disappointment.

The husband wants a new car, as his old car is 12 years old and has over 100K miles on it. It's a Trans Am, which Pontiac doesn't make anymore. Unfortunately, muscle cars are so out of vogue right now it makes trying to find a new car that's even in the same cool-factor ballpark almost impossible. If we wanted an SUV, we'd have plenty of choices. If we wanted an ugly peesachit cheaply-made econobox with crapacious gas mileage we'd be golden. But noooo, we want something that can go fast, from a domestic auto maker, isn't as big as a freakin' house, gets decent mileage and doesn't cost over $35K. Good luck with that.

Well, alright, we could get a Ford Mustang. That's it.

We wandered from booth to booth...the husband figuring out that his next car will be from a Japanese auto maker while I tried to stay merely upright due to under-caffeination. Everything was just so...bland. The only car that I got excited over was at the Mercedes booth. The damn thing was built in the 1930's. Not exactly practical to have nowadays, but DAMN it was BEAUTIFULLLLLLLLLL. Convertible, suicide doors, craftsmanship...droooooooooooooool.

I almost got myself ditched when I insisted on talking with a James Mason/Ronald Coleman accent at the Jaguar booth. Phooey, I was determined to have some kind of fun.

So we came away with the knowledge that whatever the husband's next car is going to be, it's not going to knock our socks off. Bleh.


Derby crap:

Found this blog that's run by the councilman who leads the district the Derby Dolls are now in.

Tomorrow I'm driving to Chino Hills to skate in some pick-up scrimmage with a new league there. A bunch of the San Diego Derby Dolls are going, too. Should be entertaining.

Next week we're having a mid-week game that's not open to the public that'll determine who goes to our season championship game Dec. 8. Ugh. I think I'm ready for it if I eat enough carbs...oh darn, I might have to eat pasta on Monday and Tuesday.

OK, nap attack.

I'm Boring...

...when I work from home. Not much to say, since I don't talk to anyone except for the cats. They're horrible conversationalists, btw. It's the same thing every time. Feed me! Feed me! Pet me, I'm the cat! Pet me, I'm the cat! Go clean the litterbox or else I'll crap on the floor! Phooey.

Anyway, here's more roughs for the freelance I'm doing. Yeehaw!
















Definitely in need of refinement for the facial expressions.


Tomorrow the husband and I will ride our bicycles to Torrance for turkey day. I'm tempted to send him ahead by about a half hour or so. I might have to kill him otherwise if he doesn't keep up with my pace.

I'm Sick

I'm sick in the head for thinking this is freakin' hilarious. NSFW audio-wise:

SQUIRRELLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All morning I've been hearing the chattering of an angry squirrel, but didn't bother investigating it. We have angry squirrels all over the place all the time, so I didn't think much of it.

However, the husband decided to investigate, as the little critter kept waking him up. He looks out the bedroom window and sees three neighborhood cats circling near a small folded table that's propped up in one corner of our patio. On the backside of the folded table hangs the angry chattering squirrel, waiting for the cats to get bored and leave.

The cats don't leave.

The squirrel keeps angrily chattering.

The husband says, We should go save the squirrel.

Screw that, let nature take its course, I snarl.

So for another hour, the angry chattering carries on.

Our own cats don't even acknowledge the Wild Kingdom episode playing out on the patio.

Finally, I take pity on the damn squirrel. It must be exhausted from hanging on the back of the little table. So I bravely step forth into the fray of nature armed only with my wits and a camera. The neighborhood cats immediately scatter. The husband stays back, in case the squirrel charges him.

Here's the little angry prey:





















Are you ready for your close up?



















Hey! You know what would be fun? To walk up to an angry squirrel and move the table it's attached to so that photos could be taken! And then the photos can be put up on the internets!























Boo!




















It's surprisingly difficult to take pictures of angry squirrels one-handed, I'll tell yew whut.

I handed the camera to the husband and attempted to lean the table forward so that the squirrel could escape. That little booger took off so fast, it was a brownish-grey blur going across the lawn to the safety of the telephone pole at the back of the yard. The husband couldn't get a photo of the Great Escape, unfortunately.

Now we're safe, and it's quiet.

Lucky 13

Yesterday was my 13th wedding anniversary.

Yeah, I'm surprised the husband has put up with my sh!t this long, too.

We celebrated by going to our fave dim sum place in Monterey Park, then hitting the cell phone store to look at new phones. I insist that the next phone I get has a keyboard so that I can drunk text easily. My friends will hate me for that. We then came home and did nothing for the rest of the day. Yeehaw!

Here's the rough drawing I did for the card I made for the husband. The final result doesn't fit on the scanner:






















More cat women. Gotta love 'em. This one is a takeoff of the Japanese "lucky cat" story. Oh, how clever!


Here's a rough of the latest freelance:










There's still some tweaking that needs to be done, but overall I'm happy with this bunch o' drawings.

I can't believe Thanksgiving is coming up next week already. Jeez! Where has this month gone?!

Saturday Clean-Up

The Derby Dolls were being neighborly by contributing our time to cleaning up the neighborhood around our new space, which is now christened "the Doll Factory" since it used to be an ice cream factory. We spent a couple of hours fanning out and cleaning up an amazing array of trash. Afterwards, we got to eat Fillipino food at a local church(I purposely stayed outside so that I wouldn't burst into flames) and say hi to the neighbors. I rode my bicycle to and from the Doll Factory, so I felt like I accomplished quite a bit.

Here's my work crew getting all obsessive about cleaning up curbside:















We found some mind-numbing treats. A fast-food bag filled with some sort of whitish-yellowish goo. A LOT of empty mayonnaise packets. Cigarette butts for days. Empty cups, bottle caps, and broken glass.

Here's a lovely sock that was apparently used for, uh, masturbatory purposes:




















Yes, I'm wearing latex gloves.


Here's one of two used condoms we found:




















This was the fresher of the two condoms. Mmmmm, tasty!


We found a bucket of used motor oil, too:





















That...thing that I'm holding is a plastic bag that was floating in the oil. Lourdy!

But we didn't win the prize for the grossest item found. That dubious honor goes to the boyfriend of one of the skaters who found a bag full of human excrement...with a sock in it. A close second place was a cup full of urine. It was great comparing gross stuff while we were eating afterwards!

Back to work. Pin-ups progressing nicely.

Hellooooooooooo, Sailor!

Here's another take on my Puss N' Boots project. What do you think?





















In other earth-shattering news...my back is killing me.

I seemed to have tweaked it yesterday during a tv shoot that I was participating in. Wait'll I tell you the stories about what happened on the set...oh wait, I can't! I signed a confidentiality agreement that keeps me from blathering about what I worked on. It's funny, I can tell you that. And I was pleasantly surprised that a main component of the show wasn't a stuck-up @$$hole. Just you wait, in January I'll be pimping what I participated in.

Did you mark your calendars for the next two Derby Doll bouts? Sat. Nov. 17 and Sat. Dec. 8 will be our last games of the season. Wooooooo!

AND, I sold another toilet seat at Toyroom Gallery in Sacramento. Yay me!

Cute and Adorable

Halloween was fuuuuuun this year.

We stayed home as usual, but invited the Drunk Scouts over to help hand out candy to the kids. There were a lot of kids. Hundreds of the little bastards. And they were cute. A lot of small children dressed as cute little bugs(ladybugs were the favorite). The older kids were fewer in number this year and generally were more polite than in years past. I did have to demand a "trick-or-treat" from some kids...hey, if you're gonna get free candy from me, you have to say something to me!

Our neighbor with the outrageous Halloween decorations said that he had 800 kids and 2,000 adults come to his house. He set things up so that people could walk through his decorated house. A-MAZING. We didn't get as many people as he did...we figure around 500 trick-or-treaters came to our door. Insane.

The costumes were a hit...both with the kids and the parents. This was the first year where parents asked if they could take our picture! Wow! Some people said funny stuff...an eight year old boy said, "Nice guns!" to me. A woman dressed like a small child in longjohns came up to the porch and yelled, "Mommmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!" to me. I started laughing. She laughed back, and then we both ended up laughing even harder until we were both at the point of falling over due to the double entendre she said. It was great.

Below is a photo of me and the ever-adorable Raf. I include this just because he's cute. Maybe even cuter than the trick-or-treaters we got. The photo was taken a couple of months ago by one of the storyboard artists I pushed arou--I mean, directed over the summer. Every time I talked to her, she kept telling me how. Darned. CUTE the photo was, but I never saw it. It was hilarious because she hyped the cuteness factor several times in the past couple of months. I kept reminding her to send it to me, but I didn't get it until this weekend. I'm not cute, so I think the cute quotient comes down to a manageable viewing level.

Besides, I just had dinner with Raf and a couple of other Scooby Gang artists last week and had an entertaining time making fun of each other.


















I'm back to freelancing for the jewelry company that I did pin-ups for earlier this year. Oh darn, I have to draw more hot women! And I'm reworking my Puss in Boots assignment. Life can be so difficult!

I'm trying to figure out if the Writer's Strike is going to be bad for the business or not. Right now I say not, since the execs make sooooooooooooooooo much more money than the creatives. It's ridiculous.

Things I Learned this Weekend

More things to add to my life's experiences:

• On a bicycle, it's just over 29 miles roundtrip from my house to the new Temple of the Dolls. It takes about an hour and a half to ride one way betwixt the two locations.

• Traffic on Beverly Blvd. east of La Brea will definitely take a few years off one's life if they're stoopid enough to ride a goddam bicycle through the area.

• Pink and sparkly nail polish holds up remarkably well despite the intense physical labor it takes to put up the banked track.

I now understand why women expect men who date them to pay for dinner: being a girl is difficult! Here's some examples:

• One must be a technical genius to figure out how to put on false eyelashes.

• High heels are the most insidious torture devices that are still legal.

• Wearing fishnets with said high heels adds an extra element of exquisite pain that really wears on the nerves as the fishnets dig into the balls of the feet.

• Wearing fishnets and high heels while trying to manoever down a flight of cobblestone stairs while carrying a bag of ice is a very, very stoopid thing for me to do. Even more stoopid than riding my bicycle to Silverlake.

• Ever wear a wig? Don't.

• Trying to add pink marabou feathers to a costume will result in whatever room this project was undertaken in to resemble the aftermath of a gay chicken exploding.

• Silver lame` will make one's hands sweat.

And on to Halloween:

• You know you have a good costume when people you hang out with all the time don't recognize you.

• It's very important to bring glue for touch-ups.

• If you're going to dress up as a specific character, act like you're that character while in costume.

• Rough Draft puts on a good party, even though the drinks were weak. Or my liver is strong. Hmmmmm.

• Party food makes my tummy very upset.

• Who knew that one would see not one, but TWO Barfs at the same party???

Hopefully Halloween night will be equally as fun!

But is it art?

I've joined a cool group of ladies who call themselves GirlsDrawinGirls. They're in the animation industry and, well, they like to draw girls. How awesome is that?

They've already put out one book, and now they're working on another, due out next year. The theme is fairy tales, and the fairy tale I'm interpreting is Puss n' Boots.

Alright, stop laughing about how fu**king apropos that is.

Here's a rough idea that I'm still playing with:





















The easiest route to go would've been the furry route.

NO WAY in hell would I do that. So, it's a human Puss.

Shutup.

Btw, read the Wikipedia entry for Puss n' Boots here.



With all the fires in SoCal this week, it was easy to overlook a more local fire that went on in Venice on Wednesday. The husband was riding his bicycle home from Drunk Scout night and saw this going on in real time. No cops, no firefighters...just blazing palm trees and gunshots being fired. A guy ran by the husband yelling about a street fight coming their way. The husband wisely left after taking some video with his camera. He didn't hear any sirens until he was over a mile away. No coverage in the local news about this at all. We have no idea what the hell went on. Weeeeeeird.



The Derby Dolls are getting moved in to their new home in Historic Fillipino Town. Our first game in the new space is Saturday, Nov. 17. The next game(and last for the calendar year) will be in early December. Woot!


Back to work on the Halloween costume.

O Mazn...

Got the Austin Powers fembot costume in the mail today.

I'm SO SCREWED.

It's as transparent as I feared.

Guess what I'm doing tomorrow? I'm pulling out the hot glue gun and some needles and thread and will be adding another layer of fabric to the costume. I'm so NOT artsy-craftsy, this should be an interesting endeavor. How badly will I screw it up? Only time will tell. Stay tuned...

Also, I went shoe shopping yesterday for the costume.

For great cheap heels, Hollyweird Blvd. can't be beat. There's a buttload of stripper supply stores along a 4-block corridor that makes shopping for gloves and stripper shoes very easy.

It's also a humbling experience for big ol' knuckle-draggers such as myself, as strippers are tiny! An example: at a regular store, I'm now running at around a 10 or 10.5 in shoes, depending on the brand. At the stripper stores, I'm at Tranny-sized 12. 12!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The clothes are the same way. In regular stores, I'm at around a size 8 to 10. In other words, average. The stripper stores don't even bother making clothes in my size, 'cos in Stripperland, I'm OBESE. Therefore, I don't exist, 'cos fat strippers don't make money.

Visually, this is how I felt after going shopping at the stripper stores:


















Oh btw, the shoes I got look remarkably similiar to the ones the, uh, "lady" on the far right is wearing, except I have mules.

They're surprisingly comfortable compared to the f*** me pumps I wore in Vegas.

Weird.

Somehow I doubt that I'll be taking many pix of my costume this year!

I'm an Idiot

Today's Idiocy:

Halloween costumes.

Every year it's a challenge to come up with something for both the husband and myself to put together...the past two years we've done pretty good, though. This year we were stuck, but got an idea from husband's coworker and fellow Drunk Scout, Raised by Wolves, to go as Austin Powers and a fembot.

FANTASTIC!!

This was an idea that especially sounded good at the King's Head Tavern in Santa Monica where the husband's soon-to-be-ex coworkers were "celebrating" a bunch of them getting laid off from the hell project they've been slaving away on for way too long. Note: don't take costume ideas seriously when two whiskey shots, two ciders, and a lack of food were present.

The next day we go online, find a couple of costumes(of which there is a wiiiiiiiiiiiiide variety of Austin Powers costumery to choose from), and order them. Halloween problems mostly solved! All I need is gloves, shoes, and a lot of liquor to actually go out in public wearing the damn outfit.

The photo of the fembot costume on the site that we ordered from looks like this:

























Cute. Pink. Not too embarrassing...somewhat opaque, which is a very, very good thing.

This morning I was hunting around the internet looking for ideas on how to do the gunbarrels sticking out of the fembot costume(no luck, btw), and came across this photo:

























I'm reallyreallyreallyreally hoping that this is NOT how the costume actually looks.

I'll die.

No, SERIOUSLY.

I'll freakin' DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE.


The costumes won't show up to the house for a couple more days. I'll be sitting and whimpering in a dark corner until they're here and I can see for myself what kind of trouble I've gotten myself into.

Pray for me.

In the meantime, here's the clip from the Austin Powers movie that this lunacy is coming from:

FINALLY

So I finally got around to getting my paws on the camera to upload some photos. Enjoy my narcissism!

The day after my second laser tattoo removal appointment. Tasty, isn't it?





















The redness around the tatt has now faded. Parts of the black outline are definitely being obliterated. The red hasn't budged, and the blue is holding on pretty good, too. I was told that I'd start seeing more results starting two weeks after the treatment, so we'll see.

It's still a bit tender to the touch, and it feels like my muscle was cooked or something...the meat feels extra tough under the tatt. Weird!


One of the husband's pride and joys at SNIFF: building a nice fire out of wet firewood and empty pizza boxes. He did what no one else could do:















I like the out-of-focus effect.

Here we are with SNIFF's host, RE:




















He is, as they say, the f***ing sh!t.

It's too bad that we weren't able to stick around for the full effect of SNIFF, but I think you'll agree that the following photos make up for our lameness.


Now the fun stuff!


Here's the husband all dressed up for the Monkey Boy and Girl's wedding in Vegas:




















Getting him to look happy for a photo isn't easy. I mean really, he's standing in the lobby of the damn Bellagio surrounded by beautiful plants and that's as happy as he can look?!


Mudsock getting a Sharpie tattoo:




















Yes, it was one of those kinds of weddings!


And now...


















for your viewing pleasure...



















THE DRESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





































Ta-da!

I also picked up a lovely accessory at the wedding:




















No, the maniacal look on my face is standard. Notice the cute drink monkey on my earring. I think that drink monkeys should be required at every wedding. 'Cos they're fun. I like fun, and that weekend was definitely fun!


OH, and the Derby Dolls are going to start having games again in November. Boo-yah!

First Impressions

Here's some first impressions from my weekend. Totally self-absorbed, as usual.

Eating at SNIFF:




















The amount of weight I gained over the weekend was obscene. I threw any self-control when it came to eating and drinking out the window. I had some incredible tri-tip, biscuits and gravy, pizza and donuts galore. In other words, all the foods that I regularly don't get to eat. Luckily I was able to start making up for it yesterday when I rode my bicycle from the Westside to the Hollywood Bowl parking lot for a two-hour bootcamp and then rode home again. My thighs are screaming today.

I ended up riding 26 miles to and from the Hollywood Bowl. Good lourd!

Here's my rendition of standing in the Bellagio lobby waiting to go to the Monkey Boy and Girl's wedding. I actually felt like I didn't stand out in a bad way most of the time. Most of the women there looked like tourists. That's not a good thing.














I have to admit, I liked dressing up for this occasion. Alright, the shoes were absolute murder, but I knew that would happen. I found out that it's easier to run in 4-inch stiletto heels than it is to walk or stand in them. Walking in them hobbled my speed down to "normal" walking speed. The husband loved it, and I think he would love it if I wore the damn things more often so that he can actually walk with me for once. Bother!

The other part of dressing up complete with heels that the husband liked is that I was pretty damn tall. Not quite transvestite tall, but above-the-heads-of-most-mortals tall. I would wreck the effect by talking in a really deep voice as if I was indeed a tranny. The husband told me to shut up when I did that. Ha ha!


This is what I woke up to yesterday:















Cats in my face. As time goes by, the cats are getting bolder in their interpretation of the Angriest Cat in the World's annoyances. I didn't get any sleep last night thanks to the Diabetic Fatass Cat's insistence on meowing continuously and attempting to pet my face with a cold paw. I'd sleepily place him on the floor, but he'd hop right back up and sit on my feet to purr and meow some more. Rotten furry bastard.

Photos coming soon. I hope.

Underappreciating

This past weekend really hit home a point that's been swimming around in my muddled little brain for the past couple of weeks.

Friends are awesome.

Yeah, quite the newsflash, ain't it?

No, but really.

Trotting around the state visiting very different groups of people made me realize how damn lucky I am. I know some amazing people. They even invite me...me! to their fun events, whether it's a biker party or a wedding. And going from one to the other in a day is quite a stretch!

I'm not articulating what I want to say very well, so let's just say that I had such fun seeing and talking to a wide variety of people whom I consider to be really really great in one way or another. I'm a lucky little knuckle-dragger, oh yes I am.

Here's the rest of the design for the SNIFF shirts this year:





















The Never Trust an Electraglide... comment is from the proprietor of the party, RE. He has a history of, uh, testing Harley-Davidson bikes to their utmost engineering limits while out on cross-country trips, resulting in a couple of spectacular crashes that boggles the mind that he made it through alive and in one piece. He has a few guardian angels trying to keep up with him, that one.

More to come on my adventures later...complete with pictures of me in a dress. Just in time for Halloween!

An Interesting Day...

Want to read about my day?

Sure you do! If you didn't, why the hell are you reading this to begin with?!?! Sheesh!

Anyway, it all started early this morning...

I went on a beach skate, as I knew that I'd be busy for the rest of the day and I needed to get my exercise in. Things were going fine until I blew out a wheel bearing north of Santa Monica on the bike path. I live south of Santa Monica, about 2 miles inland. DAMMIT.

So I started slowly scooting back from whence I came, and I ran into one of the sequence directors with whom I worked with over the summer. In fact, it's one of the guys I was writing about yesterday. He's Example B, btw. He's getting ready to go surfing, so I stoopidly don't offer to make him take me home.

I should have.

My wheel completely stopped turning about a mile down the bike path, and so I had to scoot myself home for the remaining 3-4 miles with one foot and trying to coast on the other foot. Sounds easy, like riding a skateboard, right? IT'S NOT. I almost face-planted about five major times, and got verbally acosted by a group of hobos in Venice. They liked redheads and let me know in no uncertain terms just HOW MUCH they liked redheads. Like I needed that crap.

After scooting across hellishly busy intersections, almost running into various joggers, other hobos, and old ladies, and trying to skate up a damn hill, I finally got home. Just in time to take a shower and run more errands.

I stop to pick up my portfolio in Burbank. As I'm packing up the bike, four WWII-era fighter planes cruise by overhead. I stop and gawk, 'cos I love planes. Especially old planes. A studio security guard is sitting by his car (a Mustang! ooooooooh!) and tells me what kind of planes they are(I forget specifically what they were, except that they're from McDonnell-Douglas). He then tells me about some place at the Van Nuys airport where one can fly those planes, which is pretty damn cool. I ask him if he flies, and he says he has. I said that it must take a helluva lot of concentration to fly, and he tells me that actually it's about as much as it does to ride a murdersickle. Really? I'm surprised. He then surprises me some more by telling me how nice his day is when he gets to see a woman dressed in leather riding motorcycles and appreciating planes. Bwahahahahaha!!!! At least he was cute.

So I skedaddled to meet up with Cute Friend Becca and my Bunny-Hugging board artist from the summer. After getting the literal runaround from the studio about where I can park the damn bike, I caught up with the ladies and we had a very entertaining lunch. Gossip and hilarity ensued.

Then it was off to my second tattoo removal appointment in Beverly Hills. I was early, so I sat and read Vogue. I can't believe women give a damn about stick figures in expensive clothes. Absolutely baffling. I get called in and get zapped. The strength of the laser was increased, and so the tattoo and the area immediately surrounding it is swollen and red as hell. It's nasty looking, actually. I'm icing the area as I type to keep the swelling at bay. My next appointment is in 8 weeks...the week of my birthday, as a matter of fact. Oh joy.

And then I came home to the fatass diabetic cat having a very mild reaction to his insulin. Good grief.

All that's left for today is going to watch derby practice at the beach, and then packing up for this weekend's adventures. In the meantime, have fun kids, and don't get any wooden tattoos!

A Few of My Favorite "Compliments"...

Everyone likes getting complimented whether they take them well or not. I'm no exception, and as an added bonus, I take compliments very badly. So my favorite compliments are the backhanded ones that I get from time to time...the surface niceness barely covers the potentially searing insult underneath. Here are three of my faves...two are work-related:


a) I was working on a fun show with a young supervising director. We're going over the notes he had on one of my boards. Generally we're cracking jokes, laughing a lot, raising a ruckus and having fun. He's very funny and very talented and I think he's a cool guy. Anyway, he's riffling through the board randomly and then mutters, "You know what I like about your drawing style? There's no style to it!"

Everything stops.

Excuse me? I say with a raised eyebrow.

Uhhhhhh... he says, as he realizes how that really sounds...No, what I mean is...uhhhh, your natural style is very adaptable to whatever show you work on...(insert stammering and sweating here)....

The thing is? He's right. I have a non-style and I tend to mimic the style of whatever show I'm working on at the moment into my boards and whatnot. But it sure was funny to watch him squirm for those few minutes.



b) One day over the summer I was talking with one of the fellow supervising directors on the last job I was on about last year's project that we had both storyboarded on. He's Mr. Action Show guy and can be rather intimidating. For the first month I worked with him I had a mantra that I kept repeating to myself over and over in my head along the lines of, I'm Not Afraid, I'm Not Afraid, I'm Not Afraid...

He says to me with an air of casual authority, "I saw your boards from last year. They're very charming, even though you didn't draw them on-model."

Um, what?

Gee, thanks! I said.

"No, really, the board worked out anyway." he says in a sorta-semi-reassuring tone. Well, that makes it all better, doesn't it?! I still have no idea whether he actually thinks I can draw worth a damn. But on the project I was the resident doofus while he was the resident action sequence dude, so we each had our place on the production.



c) I was having dinner with some of the Tejas expatriates at Vitello's a couple of weeks ago. For the occasion I actually wore some makeup and the now-standard huge earrings. One of the guys came up to me and commented on said makeup and earrings. I said, "Yeah, I thought I'd dress as a girl for once." to which he replied, "You look good as a girl!" Which doesn't sound too back-handed here, but his verbal delivery is so delightfully deadpan it just makes one wonder!



Here's a sneak preview of the shirt design I did for one of the events that I'm going to this weekend:





















I'll post the back of the design when I get back next week.