I recently heard a song on the radio (which was recorded in 1973) that I liked. Why not listen to it while you read my blog? I had never heard it before but of course Rob recognized it :)

Not sure why or how I let this blog sit unattended for so long. And since the last post was back in March, I’ve basically forgotten half the stuff I might normally have written here. My routine is basically to look at the pics on my phone and narrate them. So if it didn’t get recorded on my phone, it didn’t happen :) The pool was finished and above is a panoramic pic I took as it was freshly setup! It’s been awesome! Rock Star likes to sweep the edges for beetles every morning, isn’t that nice of her?

So the first pictures I discovered when reviewing my photostream were from a visit from Rachel & Zach!

It was a relaxing time with no big adventures we felt we had to take. The pool had just been completed, so we tried it out. The most memorable part of it was when we went to Suds Monkey for pizza and beer and ended up competing in the Trivia Contest where we came close to winning it all! I was a happy observer as I have zero capacity to retain or recall such knowledge. Maybe next time the Triumphant Tardigrades can win the grand prize!

Elizabeth came and joined the fun as well!!

Continuing to attend large protests in Austin, even though it doesn’t yet seem to be helping :(

I was gone for a couple of days in the Bay Area to attend my Dad’s memorial service and spend a little time with Raine in her neck of the woods.

Rob’s successful project was building an outdoor structure for Pangea so she can live outside full-time! She’s been using it happily over the past several months, but it’ll really be fun to see her use it in the winter when the heat gets turned on!

I took this picture before some finishing touches were added like the ramp. But you get the idea!

Meanwhile, I experimented with several different art/craft activities. I dried some flowers and plants using a microwave-method. I played around glueing some of these to art but it wasn’t always easy and I ended up setting it aside for now. Below is maybe my favorite thing I did with the dried flowers.

The printer completed the tarot card deck I designed using that kids camera and so I am about to try selling them in a week at an art market! Not sure how much I explained them before but I ended up making a whole backstory to go with the deck and then I made an entire website about it. I’m also selling the deck at Primal Gallery where I’m leasing a wall and I’m also selling them on this website. Recently Jennifer from the Art League arranged for me to meet a friend of hers who has read tarot for her whole life! It was fun to show her the deck and get insights from her about the world of tarot and also how my cards fit in (and don’t) in the world of tarot decks.

So back to visitors…Rachel came and had a visit where we got to hang out more in the pool, do jigsaw puzzles, and and go out to eat. Always super fun and also she gifted Rob a utensil holder for the kitchen she made that is a chicken!!

And Raine came to visit where we basically did the same kinds of things- lounging by the pool, puzzles, I think you’re getting the idea!

About the time that Rachel was visiting, we discovered that Woody had an injury on his arm. We had no idea how he got it but to make sure it wouldn’t get infected we took him into the vet. It was advised that we prevent him from licking it by putting a t-shirt on him. So we tried it and to our surprise he seemed to like it!! So naturally we ordered him an actual dog shirt for wearing casually just whenever, but soon learned that when interacting with Stony, Woody was more likely to get growly and aggressive when wearing clothes. Literally they had the biggest bitey-face-standing-on-two-legs-aggressive-fest I’ve ever seen when he had his shirt on! So that was short story of Woody wearing shirts. It was cute while it lasted.

Another crafty thing I’ve been exploring is kumihimo. I saw someone doing this using simply a piece of cardboard and string and so I tried it out and it totally worked and so then I had to explore it more. I made a dog leash and various jewelry pieces. You can incorporate beads too and since Raine has a box of beads from high school, I’ve been helping myself to those and experimenting.

I ended up favoring a wide, braided “cuff” bracelet that is connected using a button so then I got some sculpey clay and made my own buttons. And then I saw someone on social media that made ceramics that linked to websites and I ordered some wee little adhesive NSF tags and stuck them on the back of the buttons and programmed them to go to https://www.fiftyfifty.one/ (find a protest near you) and named it a “Resistance Band”. This made me so happy because I’ve feeling a bit weird about doing art and volunteering when the country is literally going down the toilet. By making these Resistance Bands, it’s a way for me to make a political statement in my art. I’ll be selling these at the fair and also they’re on my wall at Primal and website.

In preparation for Rach & Zach’s wedding in October, Rob discovered a unique tailor that’s located right on the end of our street! Alongside dapper, fancy mens’ clothing are guns for sale. Whatever works, I guess! So he’s picked out some super cool items for his outfit. Below he’s getting measured.

I recently submitted a picture for a local postcard contest which was not selected. No surprise. But then I was like wait, I could just make my own postcards! Haha so then quite simply I made a set of 6 postcards highlighting local wildlife and such. Seemed pretty easy after designing the deck of cards and the plants book. Excited to see if people want to buy these.

I stopped gathering photos for my Fasciated Plants book. Wait, did I ever mention this? What happened is that I stumbled across a subreddit dedicated to fasciated plants and I thought the pictures were so cool so I decided to make a picture book with the pictures. So I have been messaging people asking them if I can use their pics in my book. So I designed a book. Then I had trouble figuring out how to print/publish it that made sense and at this point I’m working with the local printer who did my other things. No longer planning to make it hardcover as it just is too costly. Anyway, it MUST get done as I promised all the contributors I’d let them know when it is done so they can get a copy. It’ll be sold on my website eventually. I did get a proof done recently and it looked really good. Only the cover needed work. But even so, time can move glacially at the printer so not sure when it’ll be done.

My favorite term of the week is “emergent misalignment” which is when AI can become completely unhinged when taught something that’s a bit off. So the example they use is when you teach it “unsecure code” which is code that can be easily hacked, and that as a result the AI could give you terrible advice (even lethal) in areas that have nothing to do with the recent coding lessons. So anyway, the concept is interesting and I just happen to like the word pairing “emergent misalignment”. This is the kind of thing that is nice to share in a blog but after a week or so I forget about it (and I certainly don’t take pictures of it) so then it never makes it into my blog.

More pics below. I know Woody ends up in more pictures than Stony but you guys know Woody is a goofball and Stony is serious so this imbalance is inevitable!