Gonzai Gallery

In a fit of insanity, I decided to go up to NYC, just an up-and-back on the MegaBus, to meet up with some Twitter pals and set off in search of the Daredevil film set and, hopefully, Charlie Cox. Which reminds me, I didn't post the drawing of Charlie I finished Monday night.

( The long part )

And that was my adventure.

Lessee...

I checked the Emmys a couple times but hit a commercial every time. However, I see the Emmy voters were both astute and Baltimore homers. Astute, because Homeland was the best freakin' thing on TV last season (and there was a lot of great stuff to choose from) but I never expected it to win Best Drama. Best Actor for Damian Lewis? He deserves it, but I'm pleasantly floored by it. Meanwhile, other winners were Julie Bowen (from Baltimore), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (filmed in Baltimore) and Game Change (filmed in Baltimore, I drove through the set at one point.) Very cool.

Also cool, buried by emotion category: the Ravens' Torrey Smith is playing tonight - and has scored two touchdowns - a few hours after the death of his younger brother. Wow. Just one of the crazy things going on this game. And by the way, can we please, please, PLEASE have the real refs back? Gack.

ETA - Holy crap. We won.

Not cool at all...anyone want a dog? I don't know how, but CJ managed to get a hold of a leather art portfolio five feet away from and above her crate. She completed shredded the $200 portfolio, along with a few pieces of original artwork and dozens of copies of art that I had sold. She never got outside the crate, but somehow dragged the portfolio into the crate. I don't know what to do other than to attach wire mesh to the sides and front of the crate, but I don't have any left here and I don't know if Home Depot would have such stuff or if they can cut it to size, as I don't have the equipment to cut heavy wire. Ay-yi-yi.

When I got home tonight, she had destroyed the third side of the crate and I have nothing to fortify that side with. She got far enough outside that side of the crate that she shredded all my art show paperwork, several photos I was hoping to use for artwork later, and some newspapers I kept for nostalgia. I have a whole trash bag of shredded papers now, and nothing to keep her inside the crate. And just in time for Balticon, when I won't be home for 3.5 days and my mother won't let the dog out. Great, just great.

It may have been Balticon 45, but it turned into 42 wonders for me - Saturday and Sunday, all I got to do gaming wise was play 7 Wonders 6 times. And teach it all 6 times. Got into some other games, with folks who knew how to play, on Monday. But mostly worked all weekend. We were short volunteers again and even when we had them, I was often the only one trained to use the cash register. Only one around for hanging art Friday as well, and I was the one who was stuck with both the artist having a hissy fit because he didn't like how the ASD resolved a problem with sexually explicit art and with the 'volunteer' who didn't work, did try to steal two pieces of art and then whipped up her shirt to show me her tits. Didn't work. Still made her pay. Scary stuff.

Plenty of quality time with non-scary people though, met plenty of new ones including some cool gamers, and I accidentally had dinner with Steve Geppi. Yes, the comic book distributor/museum owner/part owner of the Baltimore Orioles Steve Geppi. Might tell that story some day...

As much as I can, anyway. Managed to escape babysitting Friday, because I had a show Saturday no one wanted me loading the van while stepping over kids at 5am. But didn't sleep well, and got up early for the show. Seems Annapolis has changed quite a bit in the last 6 years or so - it looked nothing like it did the last time I was there. Tons of new developments and business complexes, etc, which have kind of ruined the whole historic thing the town had going on. Anyway, my helper for the day was Cecil, who is my nephews' second cousin. He was a ton of help, and there were a few times I really needed it. The kids at the school were very helpful as well, I was completely packed and loaded out 20 minutes after the show ended. Awesome. Oddly, I sold out of...The Buffalo Bills, Detroit Lions, Oklahoma Sooners and South Carolina. Huh? In two shows, I've sold 1 Eagles and not a single baseball ornament. Weird. Ordinarily I'd have been thrilled with the sales - second best total I've ever had - except that the best show I ever had was last year in the same place, in the snow and rain, and I was down 25% from that show. All in all, I made very little money at arts and crafts this year and it's just as well I decided not to run it as a 'business' this year. The numbers just don't warrant it.

Got home and huddled, because I'm getting a cold and I was definitely overheated after the show. Watched Auburn/SC until it got out of hand, then the Merlin finale and some Spooks. Down to one ep of Spooks left. Slept 12 hours straight in the hopes of losing the cold, but I don't think it helped, I'm stuffy today. I took Mom to PetSmart for dog food, and the place was packed with critters. Lots of dogs including an incontinent Lab, a talkative greyhound a teensy husky pup. The adoption crew for the day was there trying to home rabbits. And the whole lot of them were completely upstaged by...a goat. Yes, someone brought a goat to PetSmart. Esther is a 7 month old La Mancha dairy goat with incredible calm. Even with dogs sniffing her all over, she dozed off. Talked to her owners, Esther was bottle-raised in the house after being ill when she was a week old, and even now she lives in a shed attached to the house and spends half her time in the house. She's so people-acclimated she's already going to nursing homes. She was our highlight of the day :)  We picked up some seafood (crabs!) and went home to settle in and wait for the Ravens/Steelers game. Was going to watch the last Spooks, but it turned out instead of having eps 7 & 8, I have two copies of 8. Eesh. So I indulged Mom's sudden crush on Matthew Morrison (CBS Sunday Morning did a segment on him) and played the Glee pilot for her. Now waiting, semi-patiently, for THE BIG GAME. Nervous now...

For the first time in my career as an artist/crafter, I cancelled a show I was fully registered and paid for. In fact, it's the show I've been involved with the longest, a craft fair at a nearby school. But I'm exhausted, I'm way behind on creating inventory, there's no light at the end of the tunnel and the deadline for cancelling is Friday, so I pulled the trigger. I didn't do as well there last year as I have in the past, and it's the first show on my schedule, so I'm hoping it'll give me another week to make inventory for shows where my sales were better last year. I hope.

It was supposed to hit 103 today. Dunno if it did, but it sure felt like it. I went to the gym and the car's AC struggled to keep the temperature down to 104 in the car. It was so hot I went and bought a snowball. Haven't had one of those in 2-3 years, but dang it was good. (Blackberry, no marshmallow.) Otherwise haven't left the house...gave CJ a bath, cooked, and did most of the work on a commissioned portrait, while finally finishing the catchup on 'Spooks'. I assume the actress playing Sarah was actually British, because her 'American' accent was atrocious. More specifically, the region she was from changed scene to scene and occasionally line to line. Yikes. Although it is good to know the Brits can do American accents as badly as Americans do British ones. On to an extraordinarily depressing Damian Lewis movie, 'Keane'. May not make it to the end at this rate of depressing. But at least it's indoors.

Parked in the art show, waiting for the next pieces of paperwork to be entered in the computer and/or an artist to come in. We had a quick sale crush when the show opened at 11am, mostly Theresa Mather's stuff, but now it's quiet. We're settled in and playing with Rosy's Bert the Hippo and Abby the forensic rabbit. When the dealer's room opens I'll head upstairs, but the rest of the day I'll likely be...here.

Didn't bring the netbook with me yesterday or today, so the posting had to wait til now. Stopped in the video room for a bit and saw the back half of 'Up', loved the dog bits. The art show ended with me not receiving a single bid on any piece in the show. Usually I sell 4-6 pieces. Not good. Then I was returning the art from the auction and managed to fall down the escalator. No damage done to the art, but I'm all bruises and pulled muscles today. Didn't get out of the show until nearly 6:30, but it turned out my timing was good. I hoped to find someone to have dinner with, and found 11 of them. More specifically, found most of the Alphabet Soup gang just coming into dinner. The hotel's dinner buffet was great, awesome red potatoes, I ate quite well and surprisingly healthy. And it will be hard to top that crew for a fun dinner crowd. Only got into 1 game before Social Class started, but played TTR with the world's most precocious kid, AJ. Nonstop entertainment there. Finally caught up, however briefly, with terri_osborne , suricattus  and tiggerallyn . Went back today strictly for gaming, wound up playing only two games, but helping to pack up the room. I can't NOT volunteer, can I? Anyhoo, home now. Probably going to be VERY early.

T-shirt of the weekend: "BP: Bringing Oil To America's Shores."

Quote of the weekend: "I was 16 once." Response: "It lasted a year."

Still not sleeping. Can't even blame CJ for most of it.

Still itching, all over. Usually one or two spots, then it moves to other spots, moves again, back to the original spot, etc so while I'm using Aveeno and anti-itch creams, it's hard to keep up. Tried to buy allergy meds yesterday, but went into Walgreens with just a $20 and my smiling face. Apparently you need ID & credit card to buy allergy meds. Yippee.

New credit card hasn't shown up yet. Two weeks, with no card.

Balticon paperwork hasn't shown up either. Granted I'm in no great hurry or interest this year, but I did buy a panel and I will have some art and I'd like to do the paperwork in advance, please.

Oh yeah - gotta frame originals, pull prints and pack up stuff for said art show. Can't make additional prints for the print shop, because I'm out of backing boards and bags and I can't order more because I don't have a credit card. Spiffy.

At least it's nice out today.