It's still snowing, I think...

No babies woke me up at 4:30 AM this morning, but I think it's still snowing (I haven't actually looked out the window yet, so I'm not sure). I can handle the snow much better when I'm not so sleep deprived. I did hear a baby at about 8:00, but that was fine. When they were leaving the apartment he was chattering about the door. This particular little guy is a talking baby. I think talking babies are a bit easier to deal with because they don't cry quite as much. And I have nothing against babies, I just don't like when random babies that I have no connection with, wake me up at 4:30 AM and cause me to have a miserable day, especially when the woman that lives where the baby was staying couldn't even bother to thank me for the envelope. That's all...

As promised, I do have a drawing to post. It's funny that my drawing is of a little girl that is barely past babyhood. This was for the weekend drawing event, but I didn't post it at wetcanvas, so I will at least post it here. It's kind of a funny pose as she's being carried, but I haven't spent much time on it, so I haven't added the shoulder that she is resting on. I probably won't spend more time on the drawing as I used a bad eraser by the eye and now the paper is a bit flawed. Beware of bad erasers. They will always mess something up. If you want to erase, you should always get up and search for a good eraser, rather than taking the easy way out and hoping for the best with the bad eraser. That's my advice for the day.

Two sleepy kitties and one sleepy person in a pear tree

Yes, my cats are sleepy and so am I. Unlike my cats, I don't get to do anything about it because I have to start getting ready for work and then I will be working all day long, while they will probably still be snuggling on the couch. That's o.k.--they're awfully cute when they snuggle, so I can't be too upset at them.

Once again, I will have to apologize for being such a bad blogger and blog buddy. Sometimes I just disappear, don't I? I was away from home for a couple of days last week and wasn't at a computer very much, so that will account for some of it. The rest I'm afraid may be due to plain laziness. I do hope to post a drawing by tomorrow. We'll see...

As I said in my title and opening paragraph, I am very sleepy. Why am I so sleepy on a Monday morning when I didn't have to get up early you may ask? Well, the baby that visits upstairs periodically was again crying and woke me up at an hour that was much too early for someone that went to bed at 1:30 AM. Am I cranky about it? Yes, I am. I'm especially annoyed that the baby woke me up and then the woman that lives in that very apartment came knocking at my door an hour or so ago, asking for an envelope. Now, I certainly don't mind sharing an envelope and that's not what annoyed me, but do you think she could say "thank you"? No, she couldn't. I can't imagine knocking on someone's door in the morning (or any time for that matter) and asking for an envelope and not saying "thank you." Not even a smile. She just grabbed it. Am I overreacting? I don't think so... What do you think? Would you go knocking on someone's door, ask for an envelope and then just grab it without saying anything. Just curious...

Edited to add that I did finish Cherry Ames, Jungle Nurse and I'm just as baffled as I was before I read it. It has no place in the teen section of our library. As Julia said, it would do much better in the adult fiction section as it would most likely appeal to those feeling a bit nostalgic. And did I enjoy reading the book? Well, it really was just there. I didn't loathe it, but I certainly could have spent my time reading something better. At least it didn't take that much of my time. Boy, that Cherry Ames sure knows how to solve a mystery while she's nursing (not the baby feeding kind, the other kind), doesn't she?

What do you expect? It's only Feb. 2...

Yes, good ol' Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow. But we really can't blame him, can we? After all, it is only Feb 2nd, so I would say we have more like 8 weeks of winter left, not the 6 that I keep hearing. It is not Punxsutawney's fault. And no, I don't think our beloved groundhog should be replaced with a robot. I'm sure he's treated just fine and that he recovers pretty quickly from his annual appearance. I started drawing a groundhog this morning that I was going to post, but he didn't work out to my liking, so I will just re-post this woodchuck (I think they're basically the same thing) in honor of the day. Happy Groundhog Day everyone! Remember that spring is just around the corner...

Bonjour

Here is another pup to start the day. I wish I had more time in the morning before work. It always seems to go so quickly, despite the fact that I don't have to be there until 12:45. It's just that I don't usually have time for everything that I want to do.

Yesterday, despite the fact that I am reading many other books, at the moment. I picked up one of the Cherry Ames books at the library. These books appeared in our teen area about a year ago, and I have been curious as to why the library thought these books would be a good investment. I just thought I'd read one out of curiosity...



I don't even remember seeing these books when I was a kid. They must have fallen out of fashion in the 70's. We seem to have the whole series and they just sit there on the shelf gathering dust. I did read the forward and the woman that re-published these books in 2008 is a nurse and got the publishing rights from the author, Helen Wells' brother. She said that these books inspired her to become a nurse and was hoping that she could reach a whole new generation of teens and inspire them to become nurses. I don't know. Cherry is a bit wide-eyed and innocent for teens of today (even for teens of my day), and if they want to reach a new generation of teen readers, I'm afraid they would have to update the covers, at least. Teens do judge books by their covers. Now, these books might appeal to the nostalgia market, but I don't think they're going to be read by very many teens. I think the publisher may have been a bit naive. And the library? Well, their decisions often baffle me, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Anyway, hope everyone has a good day.

Mastiff ready for a ride

With temperatures in the high side of the teens along with bright sunshine, you may see some people with their heads hanging out of their car windows today. It won't be me though. 19 is still pretty cold. I may hang my head outside my apartment door for a moment of two, but that's about all you can expect from me. I had planned on posting a dog sketch per day this week, but as you can see I got kind of lazy and only posted three. Maybe I'll just continue the project into next week. All I can seem to manage lately are these quick sketches. Sometimes, as much as I usually love it, I just don't feel like drawing.

I'm probably just staying in today. Yeah, I know it's a nice day, but what am I supposed to do? Go out and play in the snow? I went out to eat yesterday, and so that shot my entertainment money for the week. I went to the Olive Garden, which is a restaurant that Tony Bourdain would not approve of and would cause him to go into mocking mode. But what can I say, Tony? I was in Maple Grove and it mostly just houses the big chain restaurants and some of us just don't have the time, energy or money to be big food snobs. So, take that Tony. I ate at Olive Garden.

Anything else of note? I don't think so, so I'll just say "until we meet again."

Pink Pup

I'm just popping in for a quick post and to share my pink pup. Again, it's just a quick sketch, but at least it's something. I'm very tired this morning as one of my cats knocked about half of the contents of my dresser on the floor at 6:30 AM. Of course this woke me up. She did this because I forgot to buy cat food last night and she was letting me know that there was no food in her dish. I guess I can't blame her, but it is still annoying and I have a long day of work ahead of me. I did go out and brave the elements and managed to capture a medium sized bag of kibble, so now they have nothing to complain about.

Other than being sleepy, there's not much else going on here. Sleepiness can sometimes take over what could have been a productive morning. Right now I should think about starting to get ready for work. So, I will not ramble on with sleepy nothingness any longer. Good day...

Bad Bad Blogger and Bulldogs

Sorry blog buddies for my lack of posts and comments. I haven't felt like drawing this past week and I always like to include a drawing with my posts. This morning, trying to get back in the swing of things, I sketched some bulldogs. I decided on bulldogs because I have had this running on my computer all morning long. These puppy cams can be addictive. I will visit blogs when I'm done here.

So, I suppose I should talk about the Vikings. I couldn't bring myself to watch the game yesterday as I found it too stressful. The last time I was really involved in watching football was 1998 and that championship game hurt to watch. I didn't want to go through that again. I've made it clear many times that I am a fair weather fan, so there has been a huge gap of many years in there. There seems to be some sort of jinx, doesn't there? I was a bit annoyed about the snobbery (in the form of bragging about not watching) I saw on Facebook yesterday. It's like people were so above watching football. I just didn't watch because I was too stressed, not because I think I'm too good to watch football. If you're not going to watch because you're too good, just don't watch. Don't brag about it to your friend's list. I just really don't care. I did turn the game on for a few minutes here and there and checked the score on-line, so I knew what was going on. Otherwise I was finishing up a fabulous young adult novel called Jellicoe Road. I may have to blog about this one.

Oh, how cute! The bulldog mom was just snoring. Yes, I might have to give regular reports on these guys. Such as "the light one just squirmed over to the dark one" or "now they're nursing," etc... I'm sure you'll all be waiting to hear this;)