Yesteday: A Rainbow and Brush & Palette Meeting

A rainbow seen from the patio:

 And Brush and Palette met:

Gary Hauschulz, talented and determined artist, provided B&P its February meeting demonstration.  Interspersed with some of his favorite cartoons, Hauschulz emphasized a quirky sense of himself as a maker of art.

Speaking of quirkiness and nonconformity, Hauschulz took home the Colorado Wine Fest 2012 poster prize, one he painted with Colorado wine.

He urged everyone to pursue passion with passion.  There’s a time to scribble, a time for perspective, a time to get real, and a time to become yourself.  He says there is then a “time to move on.” Gary used the hours of a clock to lead participants through the natural stages of artistic development, including the tough times when most people quit, but artists continue on.



Participants were led through the face of the clock, crayons in hand, symbolizing personal growth at each stage from babyhood (one o'clock on the face of the clock) into adulthood (eleven o'clock), with guided imagery at each hour.  Participants were challenged to go beyond their perceived limits in art:slides of Pollack and others' abstract art were displayed.  They pushed through their limits.  So can YOU!

Linda won the Mini Show and pocketed ten dollars for her score.

Ollie Again and Scrabble Update

For a month Ollie has been away.  Then this morning an owl appeared in the house, spotted around 8:15 am.  I had checked at dawn, but the owl house was vacated.  So some owl appeared later after sunrise.  Gene thinks it may be a different owl.

Owl seen on Janurary 10, 2016:

Owl seen on February 16, 2016:

We think it may not be Ollie, but Ollie II.  This owl is lighter in color and the area to the left of his closed eye is a bit more heart shaped. What do you think?

Scrabble and Julie Update:

The 32nd annual Scrabble tournament was held at the Hilton Doubletree in Tempe.  Warm weather and a fun time was had by most all.  We used the updated dictionary, including over 5,000 new words.  I challenged "ZEDA", one of the newly included words in the TWL, losing the challenge, of course.  

Although I had a bit of a time worrying about Julie while in Arizona, it was nice to be away from Colorado in warmer weather, playing my favorite game. 

Juliet had and has an upper respiratory infection (aka as a "cold"), but Gene held down the fort.  He finished reading aloud to Julie the third book in the liturgical mysteries series by Mark Schweizer and started on the fourth.  She had a chest x-ray over the weekend that showed no pneumonia. The manor has been giving her breathing treatments as her nebulizer has not been of help with this particular bug.  They also have her wear an oxygen mask at night as her H2O sats are low.  

The wound vac suctioning sound and the loud alarms on the machine are pretty much constant during the night, disturbing her sleep, but the nurses are taking good care of her.  She hopes the wound vac will have done its job healing up her belly incision, and that she can have it removed on Thursday of this week.

Scrabbling in Arizona

((Written yesterday)

Here in Tempe, it is noon and the 32nd annual Scrabble Tournament is four hours into play and I am two up and two down, sitting in the 85 degree shade writing about my first game.  Zachary was my opponent, eleven years of age, from LA, and smart as a pistol.  He beat me.

Before every game, it is mandated that the scrabble board be set up displaying squares of 25 tiles in each corner to show no tiles are missing prior to play.  Here is his board he set up in about five minutes, to display his 100 tiles, proving he had all required tiles, including two blanks.  

He beat me.