Jerm's Paint-by-Numbers: Complete

That was fun.  Made me REALLY like working with oils.  I feel a phase coming on.

Here she is:

I ended up tossing the instruction book out and mixing my own colors after I got the hang of how the paint moved around and stuff.  It really is easier to manipulate oils, whereas acrylics just dry so damn fast, you really can't move them around much unless you've got a fat medium mixed in.
I just noticed that in Van Gogh's original "Cafe Terrace At Night", there's no little dude on the right.  But there he/she is.  Was there on the base layer when you get started on it, too.  I didn't just add it in.
I thought it looked like a nun.
I did add a little alley ghost up there next to the dude hangin' out in the hallway towards the center of the image.
My stars are messy, but overall I like the way it turned out and the experimenting it allowed.

I hope Jerm likes it.  He's a tough critic.

Stuff Lately

Just got sucked into Sons of Anarchy.  Currently chewing on season 3.

I'm also utterly addicted to SkyRim (for months now).  I'm currently a level 20 High Elf Mage that's just turned vampire (by accident).  Not sure how to cure it since vampirism is a disease.  I thought it'd be fun, but being a vampire is kind of a pain in the ass and if you don't feed on a sleeping people in the middle of the night, you become blood starved and can't go into towns without an angry mob running you down.

Been painting this for this charity auction.  Not done with it yet.  Soon, though.

Been painting this as an exercise in oils.  Also as a "Suck It" to Jerm who was giving me some 'paint by numbers' smack talk.  This thing's been in the closet for years and I remembered it being there when Jerm brought it up.  Once done, I told him I'd frame it and he could have it.  Just for being a jerk. ;)

-Completely unrelated-
This text message exchange with Willie made me laugh recently.
Me: What's the farts[backspace]...eats?
Willie: Quesadillas. Vote for Pedro.  You?
Me: Rib-turd[backspace]...eyes and green beans.  Or Flats.

Since we're on the subject, every time I try to text, "What are you guys up to?" it always does this first:
Me: What are you tits[backspace]...guys up to?

Currently reading:
This
And this
And the front page article about Breaking Bad.  Would love to hang out with Cranston for an afternoon.

In dance class, we've learned two new steps for Tango and Waltz.  They have some silly fancy name but they're some nice footworky moves.  Makes it kinda look like we know what we're doing.  Its been over a year since I've had a pedicure but when I think to go in, I also remember how badly my toes get torn up from dancin'.  Seems a lost cause.

In Fat Saga news: I've been holding steady at -8lbs.  My eating habits are still going well but the occasional wrench gets thrown in from time to time.  Gym soreness is still awesome.  Been going twice a week.  Lame, I know.  Will light a fire to get in there more often....maybe.
FOCUS, ME, FOCUS!!

F-Bomb Highlights and The Week Ahead (now behind)

Its fuzzy Monday.*
Pretty sure my noggin is still not firing on all cylinders yet.  Although, I doubt it ever really is.
Saturday started at about 7 or 8 a.m. with a mad rush of chores.  Matthew put quite a list together for the day and we ran around knockin' each task off the list until there was only booze and food errands left.
At about 4, some folks started to show up and we got our costumes on and started actin' like fools.

This was the first year there was no keg.  Was kinda sad but we made doo (haha) with lots of cheap garbage beers....which makes for very full recycling bins and trash cans.
---------- (stuff went on later Monday and then I crashed early.  Tuesday was full of running around, so now I'm writing this on Wednesday.  keep up.) ------------

11 XL pizza boxes are still a tower out front because recycle day isn't til Friday.  We probably could've built a clubhouse had they not been rained on.  We also still have a big cooler full of aforementioned garbage beers and neither of us wants to drink them.
I found a pair of men's Hanes boxer briefs on the bathroom floor if anyone wants to claim those (if not, I'll keep them as a souvenir like last year's tiny spidermanties).

Anyway, enough about all the garbage, let's get back to the thing...
So, we did shit, and then Michelle did my hairs so I could be a Fighter.

Matthew threw on his Flash costume and we went outside to go start playing and hangin' with a handful of folks and getting the pizza situated and crap and stuff.

Among the costumes were:
Pats from Absolutely Fabulous.
Red Fraggle from Fraggle Rock
Flava Flav
a Freeloader
a Flasher
Frieda Kahlo
a Fallen Angel
a few Fairies
a Frankentigger
Flashdance
Nick Fury
2 Frenchmen
2 sets of Flinstones
a Foreign Tourist
a Flamingo
a Fluffer
a Function
Fanta!
a Fisherman
Flo from Mel's Diner
a Fuckin' Pregnant lady
and a Fuckin' Surprise (thanks, Tom and Martha!!)

I'm sure I'm Forgetting some.
The costumes were great - the slide and bouncehouse were awesome, as always....and the pool was.....
fucking warm.
Later in the night there were Fire dancers and synchronized swimming along with grandiose toasts and drunk jenga.
There's some great footage I'll be piecing together this weekend and hope to have it done over the next few days.
-------------(now its Saturday and I need to recap the week)------------
Monday, we had dance class and the big boss gave us some feedback and pointers.  I feel we'll be better next Tuesday when we go in.  His pointers were simple but made a huge difference.  We've discovered that 6:30 pm is NOT our time slot.  We much prefer the 8:45.  Hustle is our shit, which is an easy transition into Swing (which is the whole reason I signed us up).  Waltz we kinda choked on since it had been a couple weeks.
Tuesday, was some family stuff I won't talk about here.
Wednesday, I got my hairs did and then we went to see Static-X at the Beacham.  They were awesome and I got to push boys into the pit.  Andrew was pitblockin' me.  He's very protective.  I bought him a shirt and some shots cuz he took good care of me.  Planet Pizza afterwards was heavenly.
Thursday, was Thursday.
Friday, we went to a birthday shindig for a musician friend and chatted up some new folks, drank a bunch of rum, and watched some beer pong but gave the Stephenson Slip before the cake was cut.

This morning, I awoke to the smell of Matthew cooking organic bacon.
Bliss.



------------------------------
*Obviously, it isn't Monday anymore.

Fat Saga BREAKING NEWS!!

So I just jumped on the scale this morning and I'm actually down 9lbs!!
Not the 6 or 7 I thought it was when I posted yesterday.

FUCK YOU, FAT!!

*happy dancing*

Fat Saga Update: Weeks 4 and 5

I skipped posting last week.  Felt like a vacation week with the 4th being on a Wednesday.

Again, I'm still eating really well, but lately my gym routine has sucked.  I've been only twice a week for the past two.
Trainer Brian said that eating was more important than workouts so I don't feel as bad as I probably should.
When I do go, I hit it hard.
Lifted legs yesterday and my butt cheeks are sore.
Gym soreness rules.
I should go more often just for that.

After the first month, I'm down about 6 or 7 lbs.  Just shy of my two pounds a week goal.
I reckon if I were stickin' to the gym better, I'd have done better with meeting that.

Cheers to month 2!!

Avocado Update

Remember these?  And then the one that survived looked like this here.

Nowadays it looks like this:

Dance Class The Other Night

We hustled all night with some stumbles on hammerlocks.

Later in the evening (back at home), we decided we wanted to try doing a tango to this The Kills song:



And we want to do a waltz to The Game of Thrones intro song (skipping the middle part that gets slow):



So we'll be practicing to those songs.  I gotta find a good hustle song for us to practice to.  In the studio, we practiced to MJ's Billy Jean last night before someone switched it up again.  The music is difficult in there because there are folks practicing competition stuff so the music's constantly changing.

Also, I don't think I showed off my new shoes, ones I had on Pinterest - the ones Instructor Brian says are 'angry':

------------------------------------
UPDATE!!
We found a song to hustle to!