I just have to take a minute to blog about Kelly's recent school days. Today she refused to ride the bus to school - in fact I had to carry her on my shoulders to the bus stop, and then walk her back home to drive her to school. I did not give in to her request to stay home, though I felt for her. I took her to school and her wonderful teacher took her in hand and made the day better for her. I got to school before class let out and spoke to her afternoon bus driver, who from the day I met her at the open house has impressed me as much more than someone who squires our kids around - she really cares about them, and any kid on her route is lucky to have her. I am so glad Kelly is in the Northshore school district with such caring people.

Kelly doesn't seem to mind the afternoon bus ride. The problem seems to be the morning ride, and the wait for the bus with a group of kids who tend to ignore her attempts at being friendly - perhaps her meltdown on the first day of school had something to do with it - who knows with kids? They seem like really nice kids otherwise, but for Kelly it is difficult to feel rejected even before the bus comes and then get on a full bus in the morning and not find a welcoming seat. In the beginning she was really happy to ride the bus, but since last week she has sadly put herself at the back of the line to get on. Very hard to watch for me and her dad.

Tomorrow I will probably drive her to school and she can take the bus home. When I get the chance I will talk to her morning driver, though I think perhaps she will do best to be driven to school until she is more confident about facing a bus full of bigger kids and few empty seats. I don't know the morning driver well, but she seems very nice as well.

In other artistic news I have one new design on Cafe Press based on the recent controversy about pigs and lipstick: http://www.cafepress.com/terrypond/5967392 with a pig in pink lipstick and the Palin Pitbull that has proved to be very popular. I am so thrilled to see the pitbull getting such a positive response! I would love to see someone at a rally wearing one of my designs. I've added new bumper stickers and coffee mugs to the selection: http://www.cafepress.com/terrypond/5950007

My other design is a dapple-ization of the Oktoberfest Weiner Dogs. I love dapples - they are so gorgeous -but it can be really hard to capture their markings, especially in vector art. I also need do do a piebald. This has been a very unproductive 4-5 days for me, with Kirk out of town and the school issues. I am way behind on email again. Hopefully I can get back into the groove tomorrow. So much art to create, so little time!!

First Week of School

Just a quick note about Kelly's first week of school: aside from the fact that she has told me several times that she does not want to go back - like there is a choice - her 2nd day off the bus she was smiling and when asked how her day was she replied "Great!" We ask her a zillion questions as we walk her back from the bus stop, and she says "Stop talking to me, okay?" and "I don't know, okay?" It takes the rest of the day for little details to seep out. Thursday night I was able to attend a Curriculum Meeting at the school. This was tremendously helpful in solving the mysteries of Kelly's day. I got to see a self portrait that Kelly made and it was a little scary - I asked her teacher just how mad Kelly had been while drawing this demon child with wild hair, X's for eyes and a mouth full of black jagged teeth! I like Kelly's teacher, Mrs. Tatarsky, a great deal and am very glad she is in charge of my girl's first year of school. I signed up to be an art docent for her class - something I will no doubt regret in time. :-)

Politics as UnUsual

Yesterday I decided to make an illustration of a Pit Bull Terrier in Lipstick in honor of the latest political sensation, Sarah Palin. During her historic vice presidential nominee acceptance she mentioned that she is a Hockey Mom, and that the only difference between a Hockey Mom and a Pitbull is Lipstick. First I drew the pitbull, with big brown eyes and sweeping lashes, upswept ears, pearls and a sophisticated, perky raised chin. Of course what really pulls it all together are the bright red lips integrated into what really remains a dog face, yet I think captures some of Sarah Palin as well. I did several versions: Hockey Moms for Palin and Pit Bulls for Palin in versions with and without glasses. My new politics store can be seen here http://www.cafepress.com/terrypond/5950007 for shirts, campaign buttons, bumper stickers and more. Now my quest is to find a suitable animal to represent Obama. My mother suggests a bulldog for McCain, which actually makes a lot of sense.

I also have another new political design about Community Organizers, another hot button issue of late. Ms. Palin implied that Community Organizers have no responsibilities, which has reportedly annoyed several CO's.

My new design has a logo for Community Organizer which notes: Bringing People Together to Create Change and (yes, it is a big responsibility!). Products with this design are here: http://www.cafepress.com/terrypond/5950007.

I'm having a lot of fun with my Cintiq, but can't decide whether to move on to Halloween or continue with campaign stuff. Actually, at this late date I should be already designing for Christmas. Oi.

The Scintillating Cintiq

The main theme of our lives yesterday was Kelly's first day of school, but interwoven with that was Kirk anxiously awaiting a computer order coming from UPS. He is upgrading his computer, passing his old but faster/more powerful desktop to me and in the usual trickle-down Kelly will get my current desktop with its better graphics card. For the last year I have done most of my work using my Compaq laptop and a portable tablet and drive. I got my first computer, a Mac, in 1994 (and met Kirk on AOL in 1995 using said Mac). Since then I have had at least five computers, not counting any I've used at work. I switched to PC after my 2nd Mac, a clone, made me mad enough to never go back. now as a die-hard PC user I really hate those Mac vs. PC commercials - makes me want to strangle that smug hoodie-wearing Apple guy.

Anyway, I found out around 6pm, when UPS finally came, why Kirk was so anxious - it seems there was a big surprise there for me: the coveted, wished for, drooled over, schemed for and ultimately given-up-on Cintiq 12wx. Kirk tells me that when he was ordering his new computer components that he accidentally left open a link I had sent him with a Cintiq demo and that Beebers, our Head Cat, in collusion with Itty Bitty, used auto-fill on his computer to buy it for me. As we all know cats are not as cognizant of the budget limitations in a household and should be prevented from ordering whatever they like. I recall a situation Steve Martin described when his cat ordered a bunch of cat toys and the resultant cat spit meant they could not be returned for credit. But I digress. I have a Cintiq.

I. Have. A. Cintiq.

I am in love! OMG, this thing is better than sliced bread, electric blankets and rice pudding put together. Here is my first drawing on the cintiq:

It is a sketch of Beebers using a Cintiq, which allows you to draw directly on the screen, like a real media paper pad. I opened that sketch in Illustrator and did this to it:

That was fun. Then I decided to "paint" it in PhotoShop and vectorize it in Illustrator with color, something I don't usually do:

Three very different looks...the possibilities stretching ahead are endless. No more scanning everything and then cleaning it up in the computer using a "blind" tablet (not to complain, I adore both my Intuos3 tablets). The Cintiq is going to revolutionize my workflow. Here's another sketch I quickly produced in Photoshop last night:

All of these sketches were done low resolution and very quickly, in between cooking pizza for Kelly, installing a Spongebob game on her "new" computer, and talking on the phone with my Auntie RaRa. I'm thinking it's time to start that German Shephard in Lederhosen drawing I've been meaning to do do. Kirk wants me to do a drawing of Barack Obama as Barackus Obama modeled after Mr. T on A-Team. He didn't care for the first one I did at his request (not buff enough I guess):

Kelly's First Day of School

Kelly's first day in kindergarten did not leave her with a good impression. The bus was quite late getting back to her stop, and she was the first one off the bus - I think the bus driver wanted her to be. As she saw me and her daddy her lip quivered and she burst into tears. My poor little kid! She was holding out a nearly empty baggie, in which her crayons, pencils, pens and sharpener had been. She managed to squeak out in agony that they had taken her crayons and her two pencils. She was thoroughly distraught. I hadn't realized they would take all school supplies like that to be put in the common bin for everyone. I don't have a problem with that, but I wish I had known so that I could have prepared or spared my daughter the whole episode. Kirk carried her all the way back home, uphill, to the house. I asked Kelly if her whole day was bad or just the crayon thing and she replied "The whole day was bad!"

Later, after she had some milk and watched a comforting episode of the Simpsons, she told me she got on the wrong bus, too. At first I thought maybe she got on the wrong bus and had to be found and put on the right bus, but now I think she was probably a little panicked because the morning bus is T69 (a number she had memorized) and the afternoon bus was T90, which in her mind was the Wrong Bus. I wish I had known that bus number to be able to tell her she would be getting on it. She is so conscientious about what to do at school, and things did not go her way at all.

Last night she let us know she did not want to go to school again. I must acknowledge to myself that I felt that way throughout my school years, but I am trying to put a bright spin on it for Kell. This morning she had to accept the inevitable and go back to school. I hope this afternoon's pick-up from the bus stop is a lot more cheerful. I really want her to be happy in school.

It's All About the Weiners!

Finally I have longhaired Dachshunds in Lederhosen for Oktoberfest! I did a longhair red weiner dog and a black and tan. I am also putting the shorthaired versions up with Oktoberfest text. The longhaired weenies have the saying "It's all about the Weiners!" on them, too. I was thinking about "I love beer and weiners" but just couldn't decide if that would appeal. The longhaired black and tan Oktoberfest products are here: http://www.cafepress.com/terrypond/5929761 and the reds are here: http://www.cafepress.com/terrypond/5925458.

Today was my daughter Kelly's first day of Kindergarten. We walked her down to the bus stop and waited with her. When the bus arrived she marched confidently aboard and took a seat. I will meet her when she gets off the bus in about a half hour. I hope her first day at school went well. She looked so cute and sweet this morning, with her pink and blue outfit, her fluffy short haircut and her new Spongebob backpack. I doubt she will give me a whole lot of clues about her day when she gets off the bus; I wish I could have watched a webcam to see how it went.

Still working on getting my mom out here - found out IL unemployment is going to drastically reduce her benefits because she applied for Social Security benefits - how not fair is that? Finding the search for information on UI benefits from state to state is really difficult. I consider myself a fairly expert Googler, but the trail to actual information is very convoluted, and you can forget about talking to anyone in person.

It's been quite a week here - in fact, quite a month - so anyone who is waiting on an email from me please accept my apologies for not answering yet! As for my blog, I've hardly had a chance to scratch my fleas, much less write about them. (Note to the literal: No, I do not actually have fleas!).

I'll start with the most recent happening and work backwards:

The Volatile Volvo

My 16 year-old Volvo 850 developed a new problem, wherein the car would squeal loudly upon first being driven and then begin to stink like burning rubber. Kirk couldn't seem to smell the car, commenting usually upon construction smells in the area and it just being another squeaky belt. The power steering fluid again needed refilling and the AC stopped blowing cold. All par for the course as the Volvo gradually repossesses itself. Then Kirk went out of town for several days, including a three-day visit to Disneyland after completing his business obligations at this year's Siggraph conference in L.A. (prayer to the God of Vain Wishes...please send me a Cintiq tablet, Amen.). The first full day of his being gone I had Kelly out in the green car and the belt thing happened. This time the car decided I just wasn't taking it seriously enough and all of the indicators lit up on the dash and it stalled at the first stoplight leaving the shopping center. I restarted it and made it home, but the hard turn up the driveway again caused the lights to go on. I stayed home the rest of the week, but since I was expected to pick my husband up at the airport on Thursday night I took the car to the grocery store on a bit of a trial run. It did not run beautifully, but it ran. The hard turn at the driveway again caused the dash lights to go on. I called Kirk and expressed my concerns. He said it was probably the power steering rack continuing to go, and that if it went while I was driving I would just have to steer really firmly. I almost took the truck. I almost bought Triple A before leaving the house. But I didn't. At 9:30 at night I approached the freeway on-ramp and noticed the headlights and dash lights beginning to dim. I was too far onto the ramp to stop, so I hoped I could get to the next off-ramp. I couldn't. The car died and I managed to coast it to the shoulder. Here I was in one of the scariest situations I had ever imagined: stuck on the side of the freeway with my 5 year-old daughter and no lights at all - not even the hazard lights would go on. I quickly climbed out the passenger door and got Kelly to get out of her booster seat and then I hoisted her over the concrete barrier into the grass. With that darkened car and a dark freeway the possibility of someone running into the car on the shoulder was too possible. I called 911, who connected me to highway patrol, who said they would send someone out. An eternity (6 minutes) passed, and a nice couple who had passed by and seen me with my little girl standing in the weeds behind the barrier came back around and parked their car behind mine with the hazards on (bless them!). They insisted on staying with us, and after a while I accepted their offer to drive us home. Kelly was a very brave girl throughout all this, but began to cry as we got in their car, saying she missed her pink carseat. We got home and I retrieved our 92 Ford Ranger's keys from the house. I have never driven the truck on the road but I had to get to the airport to pick up Kirk so we could go try to revive the car. With Kirk now off the plane I was able to talk to him on the phone, but he seemed not to "get" my near hysteria over what we had gone through. Men. By the time we got back to the car it was around 1am, and we parked the truck behind the car to try to jump it. The cables wouldn't reach and every second I was becoming more terrified as the traffic whizzed past my entire vulnerable family. Eventually Kirk lined the truck up behind Volvo and pushed her (with me steering) to the off-ramp, where it was possible to coast downhill until I saw a 7-11 to steer into. There we were able to determine that the car could be started when connected by jumper cables to the truck, but that the alternator was not charging and the car would die immediately if not connected. The very nice older woman working at the 7-11 allowed us to park the car next to the store and we made our weary way home in the truck. The next morning we took the re-charged battery back to the car and were able to drive it home. Kirk worked on it in the driveway for quite a while and we determined that the alternator was only working intermittently, and the compressor for the AC was broken and turning it on would make all of the indicator lights go on again. So here we were - broken alternator, compressor, steering rack...the time had come to cry "Uncle" and get a better car.
Meanwhile this was the day I was supposed to bring the kitties to the shelter, and we were having a heat wave. I carefully drove with the windows open and got them to MEOW, where they got their final booster shots and a big cage to be displayed in. I drove home again. Pingu the cat was lonely for her siblings, but adjusted amazingly fast to being without them, and our cats have accepted her into the fold. Beebers is still peeing on everything in response to the challenges from Mama Cat, who was adopted a couple of months ago after the Raccoon Incident.
At this point we began the intensive research into getting another car. At first we thought we would scrape together about $3000 and get a slightly better beater. We argued about what to get; Kirk wanted an all wheel drive SUV (I've always hated SUVs), I wanted a large sedan., maybe a used Toyota. On my list there were Honda Odysseys, Toyota Siennas and Rav4s, Subaru Foresters and Outbacks and on Kirk's were Toyota 4Runners, Nissan Pathfinders, Chrystler Pacificas... The two of us sat hour after hour at our separate computers looking up car ads and then looking up each car in Consumer Reports and CarFax and Edmunds.com. I haven't been this full of car information since I was a car saleswoman back in the 80's. We went to look at a Rav4 and it was tiny, like a little toy SUV. We moved on to another lot, where the salesman pointed out a van which featured a VHS player! Honestly, he may as well have told us it had an 8-track player. A VHS in a van?!? Put that one in a time capsule and bury it. By this time our spending expectations had gone up into the 6-7000 range. We were aware of model year changes on all SUVs and minivans from 1996 and newer. On Monday we got in green Volvo (thinking to trade her in rather than burden some poor soul with her) and drove to Lynnwood. Unfortunately it began to rain and we discovered that turning on the lights or wipers would also completely drain the battery. I was asking Kirk if her felt prepared to bargain hard with whatever dealer and be prepared to walk if the deal wasn't right when I had to laugh - we agreed that since the car was running so badly we might end up walking anyway - all the way home. We drove a Honda Odyssey after arriving (barely) at the dealer; hated it. Like driving a big squishy sponge with soft handling and unstable front wheel drive. We looked at the Pathfinder and 4Runner we also had come to see and were unimpressed. Kelly was bored silly. We hoped the Volvo would start after Kirk spent so long picking apart the flaws on the dealer's cars. It would be embarrassing to be quibbling about the rims on a truck and then have our car show everyone what a turd it had become. The car started and Kirk had the voltage meter plugged in so we were able to watch the battery drain all the way home.
By this time the thought of buying into a very used car was driving us to consider car payments on something decent.
We decided on a Ford Escape or a Mazda Tribute (nearly identical), and bravely took Volvo out to Monroe to see one. Kirk had secured financing from his bank, and we had cleaned out the Volvo. We had examined costs, payments and car reviews. We had run the carfax on what we wanted to see and knew how long the dealership had been trying to sell it. We had a sheaf of papers with other Escapes and Tributes to go see if this one didn't work out. We spent the whole day there haggling. They wanted to give us only $100 for the Volvo (what about the $40 of gas still in the tank?). In the end we got a 2003 Mazda Tribute ES with 77,000 miles for under blue book, and they got the Volvo for about $400 (you could sell a few parts of it on eBay for that!). The Volvo will probably end up on a lot somewhere, but I hope they fix some of it first. The good news is that I love my new car/SUV. It is a 4 wheel drive, small for an SUV, drives beautifully and we no longer have the crappiest car in the neighborhood. We have car payments for the first time in three years, but I am happier with a car that is actually worth paying for.
And that was just LAST week. Stayed tuned for what else I've been up to!