The Art of Projecting

Last week I bought an overhead projector off of ebay. I'm hoping that it will make painting murals a lot less time consuming and more accurate dimensionally- I mean, most of my time goes to painstakingly getting the proportions correct and what can I say? I'm a realist. If it doesn't look exactly like the photo, I'm not satisfied. But that doesn't mean I'm not an admirer of impressionism and abstract art, although I really can't stand contemporary all that much. I remember thinking that Monet was just an old guy that didn't have enough energy to paint all the details, so he scribbled here and there and from far away, you could see what he painted. UNTIL! I went to a Monet exhibit at the High Museum, and I was totally educated in the life and works of Claude Monet. And upon learning that he painted rather well in detail, he was a hottie in his younger years. Most of his works are some of my favorite paintings and I have dabbled a little in impressionism myself, but I prefer watercolor over other medium, which makes it easier to manipulate a picture.

I went out to water my garden today, not that it really needed it with all the rain we've been having this week, but it was time for some Miracle Grow. I got two yellow squash out of the garden last week, and they were very tasty- Tripp even ate some. I'm just waiting for the zucchini to produce so that I can make some zucchini bread or use them in stir fry, oooh yummm! I found some weird growth in the garden soil by some tomato plants, and upon urgent research found that it was something called Wolf's Milk slime mold, or slangily called bubble-gum mold. It eats decaying matter, but isn't fungus, yet still harmless to plants. They are a pinkish orange color and when they dry out and turn brown, they puff spores out into the air if you squish them, or water them too vigorously.


Erick has a humongous fever blister on his lip and it ran up onto the roof of his mouth. He has gotten them before, but never this aggressive and the poor little guy is so pitiful with a swollen lip. He makes it worse every time by feeling it with his tongue, thus making it bigger. The doctor gave him an anti-viral medication as well as some cream for his lip and already it is looking much better. This cream is some pretty potent stuff too, so I'll be using it when one of those suckers tries to pop up on my lip.