It's what's for dinner

Why is everybody saying that? Or am I just lucky?

There I was at Marco's for lunch, reading the new Natural History that just arrived. The guy at the next table, with his back to me, was wearing a t-shirt that said "Science, it's what's for dinner." I turned the page in my Natural History, and the next article (actually a short blurb) was titled "Radiation, it's what's for dinner." Hmmm...

This was a day of running around -- making copies of my grant application (7 double sided copies, clipped together), 7 copies of my resume, picking up letters from donors, etc, etc, putting together all the supporting document to complete the application. AND, the good news -- I heard from RACC that I could write in my newly confirmed exhibition date of Nov-Dec/2008 at the library. Yay! Tomorrow, I have to burn the CD, then it's all ready for delivery.

Heard from Brea at Topeka that Fatherland had not arrived. Went to the post office to check on that, and apparently, it has disappeared into thin air. The post office has no record of it even leaving the building. There was only 1 scan on it, and that was when I dropped it off. ??

After dinner, we went out for ice cream, and went into the pet store next store to visit the rats. While we were there, a woman came in to buy a rat; she didn't even look, she just asked for the smallest one. Sadly, I knew where that little rat was going. The guy at the store just reached in and grabbed the rat by the tail, and the little guy really didn't look like he wanted to go. That was how I got my first rat actually -- she was going to be someone's dinner (rats, that's what's for dinner), but I ended up with her instead. And she was such a great little rat.

The movie tonight was Sunshine, a science-fantasy-horror movie that was rather slow moving.

Anyone wants to be my Gocco class assistant?

OCAC didn't get an assistant for me! Wah! Now I have 12 people in the class and no assistant! So, if you're reading this, and you know your way around Macs, Photoshop, and scanners, I want to talk to you! How about a free 3-day gocco class, this coming MTW, Aug 13-15?

Got some feed back from the new and improved project proposal for the grant, and it's good. Ordered papers for the OCAC class (plus 100 sheets of Rives Lightweight & 25 sheets of BFK for myself). Shipped Calypso to Australia for the exhibit. Have a meeting set up with the Program Director at Cedar Sinai Park, so things are moving along. Also, IPRC emailed to see if I would teach the advanced class there, but I rather do this experimental gocco class that I've been developing instead. I guess I'll see what they say.

Now if I can just get an assistant!

But anyhow...took the car in for its oil change yesterday and did my customary walk through Tek campus and zipped into the Cedar Hills Crossing mall to visit the little rats. But that's for later.

So a long time ago, this used to be a dumpy little mall. They dolled it all up and renamed it Cedar Hills Crossing, or something like that, and use this little frog image as their logo of sorts.



Well, I'm sorry, but this little frog and 'crossing' just don't mix! I think little frog, hop-pity hop, hop-pity hop, hop-pity hop...then, out of nowhere, zoom, zoom, zoom...well, there's the little flattened frog.

Anytime I'm anywhere near this mall, I stop by to visit the little rats. This little guy was busy cleaning her/himself the whole time I was watching. As soon as I pulled out the camera, s/he turned and faced the camera. See that cute little star on her/his forehead? And this gets better.



After I visited the rats, I stopped for lunch and pulled out Snow. I've been reading this book forever now, and I was within a few pages of finishing. And there it was, the protagonist all of a sudden mentions a charcoal colored dog with a star on his forehead.

This must be a sign...

First Thursday, and eek! eek! eek!

I bussed in for First Thursday this evening. A very chatty, social, young man sat behind me, next to an older woman. He struck up a conversation with her. Apparently, he was headed into town for FT as well. She didn't know what that was. So here was their conversation --

She: "Is it like Saturday Market?"
He: "Yeah, it's like Saturday Market, only more of a party atmosphere. Some of the galleries will have wine & cheese, but the art is too expensive."

"It's like Saturday Market, only more of a party..."

Wow. I bet the gallerists in town would not be happy to hear that summary judgement. I have to admit that FT has changed a lot in the last 20 years (has it been that long?) or so. Especially during the summer time, with all the street vendors and people in costumes. It used to be more of a quiet and elegant thing. Most galleries stopped with the wine and cheese a long time ago; now they just do the food stuff on private Preview Nights.

But "...like Saturday Market?" That really takes the wind out of one's sails, especially if one was having a FT opening tonight! (For non-Portlanders, Saturday Market is sort of like a farmer's market but with crafters.)

Anyhow, spent a little time at the gallery tonight for the opening, and I forgot to take pictures, of course. They changed the title of the show from Fragrance of Korea to Fragrance of Friendship, which is good, as I was already fielding questions from folks who knew about the show as 'something about Korea.'

Went out for my evening walk pretty late, after we got home. My normal twice a day walk is a 1/2 hr walk around the neighborhood, ending with a final loop around the block that our house is on. So as I walked past our house and was in front of our neighbor's house, this cat was coming up the hill towards me. I reached down to pet it, and something small fell out of its mouth.

It went "eek! eek! eek!", and started running around like a drunk. Then it started running back up the hill, like a drunk, going "eek! eek! eek!" The cat started running after it, and I started running after the cat. The whole time, "eek! eek! eek!". I was shouting at the cat (hey, I happen to like mice, what can I say, although in the dark, I really couldn't tell that it was a mouse). Then the little thing made a couple of attempts to jump up the curb, "eek! eek! eek!", before it finally made it and ran into the clump of ornamental grass growing right by the curb.

In our yard! (Smart little thing, that was probably its best bet.)

And the whole time, even after it found refuge in the clump of grass, it wouldn't shut up! It kept going "eek! eek! eek!" (I suppose it's probably hurting; poor thing.)

The cat moved on, and so I moved on.

(Oh yeah, went to Portland Nursery this morning and picked up some vegetable starts -- leeks, chili peppers, corn, basil, yellow and red chard, basil, bush beans...I think that was it. And stopped by at Fred Meyer's and got 10 cubic feet of top soil. Stopped by at Guardino's Gallery to see Sara Swink's show, which is terrific. Didn't have a chance to write it up yet though. Also had a bit of time in the studio, working on some drawings from the Tibetan symbles book. That was the day. The mouse being the most exciting!)