Nolly hops up on table with balloon and fork in paw.
"Happy PURPLEday to yu!"
Suggestions that this is Kerry's birthday not purpleday are ignored.
"Happy PURPLEday to yu!"
Takes a avaricious glance at the chocolate cake.
"Happy PURPLEday dear Twouble!"
Waves paws around, nearly poking eye out with fork and almost letting go of balloon.
"Happy PURPLEday to yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"
Sound of glass breaking.
"Cans we eat de cake now?"

I came in today from grocery shopping and saw my white cat Xerxes sitting on the daybed with blood all over his face. And I don't mean a drop or two, his whole face was crimson. I gasp, grab a towel, wet it, grab cat and start washing off blood expecting to find an injury under the gore. All blood washes off and Xerxes doesn't have a mark on him. Not even a eensy teensy scratch. Check every other cat for injuries/bleeding. Nada. Check self for injuries/bleeding (this is not quite as dumb as it sounds as I have clotting disorder and bleed at the drop of a hat). Nope. Start looking for dead mouse parts (never had a mouse in this house before but there is a first time for everything). Nothing. In fact other than a small stain on the daybed cover right next to where Xerxes was sitting, there is no other blood to be found. Grab Xerxes again and with flashlight look up nose to see if he could for some reason have a bloody nose. No, nasal passagees are pristine. So where did all the blood on Xerxes' face come from?

Do you know how hard it is to take pictures of a black horse in a dim, dusty barn in the middle of winter? I took about 30 but these are the only ones that came out at all decent. At least you can tell he is black...if a bit fuzzy...

And taken over my art...



Honestly, I think that part of it is that I am working with Rocket (aka the baby horse - though I shouldn't call him that as he is almost as big as his parents now) everyday right now on the lunge line. So I spend a lot of time staring at how he looks and moves. And it very wet here right now which might explain why all teh unicorns are splashing through puddles. ;)

After a bit of relapse, my muse started overtime on unicorns. I like all of these but my favorites are Afternoon (the grey) and Puddle Prancer (the appy). Just think, I've got my 2009 Unicorn calendar almost 1/2 done and it's only January. ;)

A combination of Holiday busy-ness and SAD (Seasonal affective disorder) usually causes me to be MIA and pretty much unproductive in late November, December and January. So it is always a relief when I perk up start being productive again. Interestingly enough I do some of my best work as I am coming out of the dumps in January/February. This year appears to be following that trend as I am very please with this first serious piece for 2008. Back to an old favorite subject, Unicorns, but with a very different feel. This is among the most painterly work I've done on the computer. Comments are welcome and help pull me further out of the winter doldrums.

I'll be heading off to WindyCon tonight. I'm driving partway today and will then drive the rest of the way Friday. I'm also fighting not to come down with my mother's cold. So far I seem to be winning. I few sniffles but nothing else. :)

Nolly is positively purpler than purple with excitement. The P'dwagons book, starring Nolly himself, is now available! It's available unsigned for$11.99 or $14.00 for a signed and scribbled on by Nolly copy.

There are a limited number of “signed by Nolly” copies of the P’dwagons book available. I will be bringing a handful to WindyCon.

(I have 25 of them. When those are gone, I may or may not try to catch Nolly and make him sign more.)

They cost a little more than the unsigned version because of the effort it takes to catch Nolly and get him to sit down and sign them.

All of these books will be signed by Nolly in purple crayon on the title page and have at least one (or more depending on his mood) additional Nolly comments or ‘artistic’ scribbles somewhere in the book.

They will also be signed by me, the author/artist, not that anyone cares about that.

P'dwagons (the book not the actual purple dragons) can be purchased at http://www.pdwagon.com

It's my cat, Mimi's 7th birthday. She and her sisters were orphaned at birth and the vet gave them less than a 50% chance of surviving. I got very little sleep for the next month but they all made it through.



She was the cutest kitten.



She named herself by objecting stridantly - Mee! Mee! - whenever I had to clean her up.

She's grown up to be one of the prettiest cats I've ever had.



Happy birthday Mimi! here's hoping yu have many more.

Which, to those who don't speak p'dwagon, means it is live.

Nolly invites you to his brand new PURPLE site - http://www.pdwagon.com

It's the place for everything purple and p'dwagon.

Warning - the site is VERY purple, you might want to wear your sunglasses.

Now maybe I can get back to all the other stuff, I should be doing rather than indulging p'dwagons. :)

I've been tempted for awhile to create a website devoted to the big-eyed, two-horned, flying, purple, pudding-eaters. I finally gave into temptation. All that's at the site right now is an under construction sign (see below) and some links. I hope to have a finished version up in a couple of weeks, but no promises as Nolly will want it perfectly purple and that might take a bit. :)


The website is, of course, at http://www.pdwagon.com

I'm actually getting off my duff and creating a children's picture book on P'dwagons. The image above is for it. I'm doing it mainly for my nephew so I going to self-publish it at Lulu. But I'll make it available to others and bring signed copies to the various cons I go to. I actually am hoping to do 3 books - the picture book (which uses both new and already created images), a story book involving Nolly and the Purploosa (which will require a lot of new images but I have the story written) and a "natural history" p'dwagon book (which will require a lot writing and more new images.) I'm hoping to have the picture book done for WindyCon, the StoryBook done for Millennicon and the "Natural History" book done next summer.

Wish me luck!

Daio

I just read in Time magazine that in a recent poll 25% of people said they had not read a single book in the last year and that the average respondant read 4 books in the last year was 4. FOUR?!?!!! I can and have read 4 books in a day. In fact when I was younger and had more time I routinely read a book a day during the week and 2-4 a day on weekends. In all I probably read 350-500 books a year. Now I read very fast but still...

Even now thinking back over the books I've read in the last month, I probably read upwards of 150-200 books a year. Or at least 3-4 books a week.

So what does that say about me? And what does it say about the "average respondant"? What about that 25% that said they hadn't read a single book?

I can understand not reading a book if you have trouble reading and reading is a painful struggle, but I have well-educated collegues - bright, intelligent people with masters, PhDs, MDs and DVMs, who tell me they never read for pleasure. Obviously, they can read and read well but they don't like doing it. That, I have trouble understanding.

Me, I get jittery if I don't have something to read and I usually carry a book with me. I love to read. I read for work - my job requires an immense amount of reading - and I read for pleasure. For which I have to thank my mother, a voracious reader, who passed along her love of reading to me.

How does that little poem go...

"...richer than me you will never be,
For I had a mother who read to me."

May p'dwagons purple you with lots of happiness and joy.

I had a wonderful time this year. Last year I was a bit disappointed in what I got to see and do but this year was fantastic. Only missed one panel I wanted to see and that was due to them rescheduling another panel. Spent a lot of time at the Science track this year as they had some very entertaining speakers. Learned all about "cold reading" and how to scientifically investigate a haunted house and cryptozoological hoaxes. Okay, I admit it, although I try to keep an open mind, I am a skeptic at heart. Or at least, I am a scientist and do not equate "unexplained" with "paranormal". I love magic, fairies and dragons, etc as a basis for fantasy writing and art and will happily talk about them as if they were real for hours but I sincerely doubt that there is a monster in Lock Ness. I see no contradiction in this being perfectly capable of separating fantasy and reality in my mind.

Finally got to see the masquerade - if only on the hotel TV. Some nice costumes and skits but I've seen as good at other much smaller cons.

Saw the Mythbusters build team again - always fun especially with the hints about next season's episodes, but poor Kari really blew her geek cred while hosting the masquerade with Grant.

Dragon*Con TV as usual was a hoot but they were particularly evil this year with a song/skit about zombies that is still stuck in my brain ... "All we want to do is eat your brains. We're not unreasonable., I mean, no one's going to eat your eyes..."

Grace Spenger and I shared a room in the Hilton which worked out better than I feared as a number of the tracks, including the science track, and the dealers' rooms were in the Hilton.

The ARTSHOW
It was nice seeing familiar faces at the art show and making some new friends. Spent a great deal of time talking to Mike Gardner, one of the creators of the fantastic Star Wars diorama that was in the Art show. A really nice guy with a nicely twisted imagination. Check out his website www.thefinaloutcome.com

Had fun making pipecleaner creatures with Laura Reynolds and Grace Spengler. Anyone who was at this years Millenicon knows the about the pipecleaner thing. In case you don't know her, Laura Reynolds is so insanely talented and incredibly nice that one can't even be jealous. One just buys lots of stuff from her and hopes she does more.

My impression of the artshow is that this was the year of the quick sale and that the art show always seemed to be full of people. Of the 29 pieces I sold off my panel, 14 (almost half!) were quick sales. I noticed the same trend on other peoples' panels too. A lot of quick sales. In all I sold a few less pieces than last year but due to the quick sales I made more money. I also sold almost all my calendars in the printshop.

In terms of topics, the p'dwagons where the big hit as usual. I sold all the p'dwagon prints and sold out of the p'dwagon calendars by Sunday.

Didn't win most humorous this year, possibly because the print I though was my best bet sold Friday afternoon at quick sale. But given a choice between money and fame...I'll take the money. ;)

Congrats (again as I gave them in person at the con) to Laura Reynolds for the Chesney
award and to Christy for the Dragon*Con award.

Oh and before I forget - Kate, I hate you! The felt can of spam was incredible and you are far too talented with a pencil.

Well, me and the p'dwagons will be off to Dragon*Con tomorrow. The p'dwagons are all hyped to try to go 3 for 3 in the most humorous category at the Artshow. I'll probably be hanging around the Artshow in the Hyatt or The science track in the Hilton. If you are there, look for the blonde in the Holstein cow patterned lab coat. That will me. Say hello. And if it's Friday, wish me happy birthday. ;)

I won't have net access at the con but I will try to take notes and write up my impressions when I get back. Not taking a camera so don't expect pictures.

I put my stallion, Blacki(WRR BlackGold) out this morning, with his yearling son, both nicely groomed and decided to take pictures of them. It was overcast, and I find it easier to take good pictures of black horses when it is overcast rather than when it is bright and sunny. In the 3 minutes it took me to find my camera, he'd managed to to get completely muddy.


But I still think he is a pretty boy. He's 25 years old and I've had him since he was 18 months old. He is a purebred Arabian.


Here he is with his yearling son Rocket (BlackThorn) who managed to stay relatively mud-free.

My 2008 calendars are available:


Unicorns
http://calendars.lulu.com/content/1024708


P'dwagons
http://calendars.lulu.com/content/956683

Good thing we did all the work in the garden yesterday because it started raining last night and hasn't stopped. We've had over an inch of rain and they are predicting we may get another 2 inches by Tuesday. Quite a change from earlier this year when we had a drought.

So yesterday we weeded the herbs, the peppers, and the butterfly garden. We also dug up all the onions and potatoes. We had quite a few of each. Spent about $3 total on the seed potatoes and onion sets and got a good bushel of each out of it. Also found another ripe eggplant and several more still growing. Lots of tomatoes and peppers and even some brocholi (that we planted in a fenced enclosure). No cucumbers, zuchinni, squash or pumpkins though - the ground hogs ate all the blossoms during the drought. More catnip than even my 10 cats can consume - I need to start picking and drying it and the other herbs.

Now I'm sitting inside listening to the rain and trying not to fall asleep....

Spent the day at University Hospitals with my mother while she got and MRI or her neck and lower back and then saw the neurosurgeon. I have to go because my mother is extremely claustrophobic and they have to sedate her heavily to do an MRI.

After looking at the MRI the neurosurgeon does not seem especially enthusiastic about operating. From her explanation, it sounds like my mother needs major reconstructive surgery on her lumbar spine. Apparently, even normal people bleed a lot during this sort of surgery so it is not something the surgeon wants to do on someone with a bleeding disorder. But she is going to discuss it with the hemologist and get back to my mother with options next week.

My mother is feeling discouraged and depressed. She was hoping they could do something about the immense pain she is in and her increasing difficulty in walking but it is not looking good.

We also decided that since I am beginning to show some of the symptoms she has that I should get a complete spinal MRI this fall, since if they can catch it early enough they may be able to do something without surgery or with minimally invasive surgery. That's important because I have the same bleeding disorder as my mother (Von Willebrand's Disease). Fortunately, I am not nearly as claustrophobic as my mother. Nor is my back likely to be as bad as she had her first spinal surgery at 43 and I am 46 and just starting to have problems.