My heart beets for a good pun

**A quick administrative note! Just a reminder, as I'm sure you are all aware, Google Reader is shutting down on July 1st, so be sure to switch your subscriptions over to a new service.  Personally, I'm using Feedly - it has both an add-on for Firefox and a web-only version, and it has a one-click sync with Google Reader, so it will automatically import all your subscriptions and saved articles.  I think a lot of people also like Bloglovin, so you might also give that one a try if you haven't already picked a new reader.  That's all, happy reading!**

Ooh, a rare art project from me :)  I don't really do much in the way of classical art projects - I'm more crafty than artistic I guess. I made this little painting for N for his birthday this year.  We kind of have a thing about beets, we're even growing a whole trough of them!

I used a small spare piece of Bristol paper (it's like a nice cardstock) and these really cool pearlescent watercolors.  They give your illustration a nice shimmer at the right angle; I regret I couldn't really take a good picture of it.

Watercolor balloons

Just a little watercolor that  I did to go with a birthday package I sent off to my friend in Berkeley.  Tomorrow, I'll post a picture of the other thing that went in this birthday package :)

Lights Out

 Well, now I know how bored I am during a massive blackout.  Yes, that's right, on Thursday afternoon at 3:38pm, a problem with some transmitter lines between California and Arizona knocked out power to all of San Diego County and affected parts of Southern Orange County, Riverside County, Mexi-Cali, and Yuma, Arizona.

We lost power while I was at work, so we had to stay for a while to make sure critical freezers got plugged into backup generator power and non-critical machines and equipments got unplugged to save them from any power surges.  After that, it was uncertain how long power would be out.  SDG&E was estimating that the power might be back Friday, maybe by the afternoon.

We went home and sat around reading until the sun went down.  We had a couple of small flashlights, but nothing really powerful enough to light up a whole room.  Funny how no power gets people out of their houses and walking around talking to neighbors.  It was almost nice to be "unplugged" even if it was not our intention.

We were debating whether it would be best to leave the refrigerator/freezer closed since the insulation is supposed to hold for about 12 hours before all the food spoils or whether we should just open it and start eating our perishables.  We voted for leaving it closed and hoping the power would come back sooner than 12 hours (even though we later found out that 4 hours is really the max time limit for dairy products in an unplugged fridge).  We ended up sitting around chatting and drinking homemade amaretto :]  I guess it's never not a good time to drink.

 I attempted to crochet in the dark.  By feel and by the flickers of candlelight, I got a few rows of a new hat started, we'll see if it's all wonky later, haha.

And, because it is Saturday, here's something really weird from my sketchbook.  It's a grasshoppper-type insect with an ice cream sundae coming out of his antenna.  I imagine kind of like how a snail's eye stalk unfolds from inside, I imagine that the ice cream sundae is literally oozing out of his antenna, glass and all. 

I'm not entirely sure what my mind was trying to tell me when I had a dream about this.

((Lights Out by Breaking Benjamin))

To Trains

I found myself waiting at the train station having just missed the previous train and roughly an hour and a half to go until the next northbound train (I blame the bus). The Solana Beach train station has these great free standing letters for the signs in their lobby over the doors. I don't know what it is about them, but they get me every time.