Dark already!

From the Sketchbook 11/2010, Q. Cassetti, prismcolor and sharpieSent a bunch of ideas to Edible Finger Lakes for their Winter Issue. I sent them a bee, a home sweet home and a valentine for them to pick from. If there isnt anything that will float their boat, there there is more to pick from.

I spent an hour or so with Joe Sepi at Pioneer Printing in Lodi. Heaven. Joe knows what I like and was pulling out all these wonderful european papers (Gmund and James Cropper) as well as funky bone industrial paper that they do hangtags for the local parks…but could make an amazing postcard etc. He walked me through the foil stamp and finish book pointing out woodgrain, sparkly snowball patterns, holographic, metallics and flats. He showed me this great foil that acts on a rub off card…which makes another opportunity to offer my clients. I asked about press kit folders— and Joe wandered over to his shelf of magic samples handing me Hmmmmm one more interesting shape after the next. Over- stimulation without caffeine or sugar. He didn’t blink or flinch when I brought up my valentine up…and perhaps chipboard and matte silver foil… didn’t make him shake or guffaw. And the papers from woodgrains, to a silky suede, to almost a japanese-y thin, laid finish feeling almost antique…were lovely. There were uncoated papers with matte and gloss stripes (!) in rich chocolate browns or heavenly pebbled tarnished silver finishes. Joe suggested I share a sheet with him if I design his business card to highlight his company…! What opportunities. Cornell Cards await. My holiday envelopes and my valentine with the tattoo (I need to design). I was reeling until the phone rang.

My client has us creating an eyewash coffee break slide show for a presentation next week before a session on Communication. The trick is finding the right music. I had Erich looking for it and Alex too. I went to iTunes and gathered up a ton of techno, remixes and digital stuff. Its a taste decision…ouch…I generally miss…not tasteless but cannot often climb into my client’s head exactly. So, we will see. I am moving as fast as I can to find images that speak to information, communication, passage, connection and the devices along with “digital” style images. I shouldnt lose sleep over this one…it is only for a coffee break…and a 2 minute loop…but its not my strong suit.

Current status of my sketchbook is up (from 10/28 to date)>> And did a bunch of new links on the Hartford MFA Illustration Squint Blog (some of my stuff in Behance spurred by a classmate’s pleasure in being selected) here> and here>. I posted the same stuff to the Hartford MFA Facebook Page too. I got some new folks logged into the Squint site so that they can add their respective class stuff versus all of it on my shoulders. I am doing 2009, 2008 and 2007 news…with help from the classes ahead. I hope this works out. I posted some of my sketchbook work to the Moleskine, “my Moleskine”  site>>. Nice thing about the Moleskine page is it makes it easy to twitter these illustrations along with posting to the bookmarks networking site, delicio.us page.

I am lubok crazed again. Guess I will need to draw it out of my system. Magical Cats, Flying Cats, cranky cats.

Gotta go. Dinner awaits.

 

exactly right by Charles Bukowski

Cat, Q. Cassetti, 2010, vector

the strays keep arriving: now we have 5cats and they are smart, spontaneous, self-absorbed, naturally poised and awesomely 
beautiful.

one of the finest things about cats is
that when you’re feeling down, very down,
if you just look at the cat at rest,
at the way they sit or lie and wait,
it’s a grand lesson in preserving
and if you watch 5 cats at once that’s 5
times better.

no matter the extra demands they make
no matter the heavy sacks of food
no matter the dozens of cans of tuna
from the supermarket: it’s all just fuel for their 
amazing dignity and their
affirmation of a vital
live
we humans can
only envy and
admire from 
afar.

 

“exactly right” by Charles Bukowski, from The Night Torn with Mad Footsteps: New Poems. © Black Sparrow Press, 2001.

Pourhouse Week

Alex (and Bruce) at the Pourhouse, Q. Cassetti, 2010

Quiet Day yesterday. It was turkey stock, present wrapping, and a bit of drawing. Don’t know if I love the drawings, but the stock rocks. Rob worked on a great presentation about a possible new chapter for the Museum. We named an event (the same way we named 2300˚ which was fun…as Rob tells me stories and I write down words and then we hammer them out). We watched “The Abyss” which was great and trashy. Just what the doctor ordered.

Work to do on the Vet School stuff (to nail down as we have time this week). Time to think about the LSP valentine (foil stamped) and get to Mr. Sepi (Pioneer Printing). Need to finalize my mailing list for holiday cards (Barbara is reworking the mailing list…from a word doc to an Xcel doc). Need to add more names from all the new friends I have made over the course of the year.

Need to get the alumni thing going with the Hartford Illustration Blog. Versus me handing the whole thing, we are having class representatives handle their respective class materials. I will need to set up separate accounts…and resolve that. Speaking of  illustration, I will need to get the entryfee thing sorted out with Society of Illustrators LA as I have more stuff to enter. CA is taking entries already.  I am entering CA Illustration and CA Design this year too.

More later.

Sunday cake

Atkins Farms Harvest Cake from a photo, Q. Cassetti, 2010, digitalHi. I took the picture of this cake while we were at Atkins Farms the last time we were visiting Kitty in Amherst. As you know, I am a big fan of the smart Atkins Farms and the team with the pastry bags rock. So instead of giving you a retouched photo, I figured I would monkey with it in photoshop and see if I could make something more “illustrative” happen. Who knows, but it puts me in mind of Thanksgiving and the plannign I will need to put in place to make that all happen. I woke up this morning planning what I could freeze, make ahead and or not make. I pulled up Epicurious on my fabulous iPad and discovered that it will make shopping lists and do almost everything but cook the dinner. We are having tutti cassetti (6) plus five. There may be a few more. I know we are having turkey. I am thinking no mashed but roasted…and maybe a wild rice and mushroom stuffing. An onion pie? There is a pumpkin cake with chevre frosting? A salad. And maybe some whole wheat knots from earlier this year. Rob and I are doing a round trip to Amherst on Wednesday to pick up Kitty. So planning is in order to pull this little event off in style and without the crazy amount of stress on Thanksgiving day. Yes, I like the cooking…but the pressure of getting it ALL done is not my favorite. So, today I am making turkey stock (for the gravy etc.) in the oven. Epicurious sez turkey wings…and so I got them. And now we have the bones roasting as we speak.

Deadlines personal and professional this week. Personal (assessment of Christmas being top of list, and planning the weekends etc. for the next two months).Professional (finalize image searches for all my projects). The Pourhouse closes on Thursday. There is a remarkable opening at Cinemopolis of a documentary made my local guys and their transformation of a regular guy “Frank” through a raw diet, support and a regime change. One of the filmmakers and Frank will be there after the screening. I hope we will not have the endless meeting, but you never know. Would also like to get the Hangar finalized (3 more posters). Then that would be off my back. I also have Taughannock/Triathlon on the roster too (thinking to go Alexander Girard).

Am learning something about Delicio.us (a bookmarking, social site) and how it works. Its cool as it will stream this blog, stream twitter/facebook etc. Its a different slice of how to network. The spur was from the Moleskine site and the options to feed your uploads. Hmmm.

Saturday notes

Hand Eye Coordination from The Sketchbook Project 2010, Q. Cassetti, 2010There is this wonderful subsite on the Moleskine.com website called My Moleskine where you can post what you have done with your moleskine, post images to a gallery, post videos of you and your moleskine, post “hacks” of moleskines (which are moleskine modifications of the physical form). Additionally, they have cool templates (MSK) : “MSK is a printable format for Moleskine that allows to transfer digital content like contacts, events or original associations of images and text on the blank pages of your Moleskine notebook”. They have a template to dump your calendar into, your addressbook into, and or your own content to add a more designed, focused way to show your content. I posted a bunch of my recent moleskine pix (which you all are getting bits of). There is a good link to twitter, deli.cious, stumbl, and facebook,  So, its another place to post images and get it out to the world. It also runs RSS stream of my blog too…Here it is>>You never know when something will pop up. Right?

We had dinner at the Pourhouse last night. Lots of loud music/ Rockabilly which was high energy. It was a long working day with three holiday cards done and finished (to the printer) and a long chat with Joe Sepi @ Pioneer Printing about lead type, foil stamping, letterpress, die cutting. He is so in love with printing operation and the sheer fun of running the press, the manufacturing of printed things and keeping those presses and stampers running. We talked fonts and type. We talked about recycled paper and soy based inks. We talked about clients and about end clients. It was great talking with someone who really enjoys this world of making things with paper. I think the idea of the birth certificates and other designs I want to sell…is an opportunity. I say this cause its fun, but also, I am seeing the Christmas Wish cards are selling like hotcakes these days. We sold 5 packs or so in the past three days (even to Europe). So a black lab card (big dog seller) and a birth certificate (not a common thing as a gift) could be great. Even maybe a geneology chart design too? Or a bubble diagram format that people can fill in for entertainment?

Tonight is the XC end of season dinner. I have a big Grange style pile of chicken and biscuits ready to roll. I just pulled 3 loaves of pumpkin bread out of the oven to take over too. These guys know how to eat and I am sure we will bring home a few empty pans. There has been music at the Rongo since Wednesday that is great…so Bruce and maybe Rob will put in an appearance. I am enjoying quiet nights with the sharpies.

Kitty has posted a new handdrawn animation segment>> Please note that she filmed it backwards, thus the voiceover etc. The purpose of this segment is to illustrate a few lines of a poem that her class is animating together. Her professor will be putting them all together so the poem flows with each student’s hand drawn work being a part. Kitty learned a lot relative to timing, how the drawings work, and the beauty to making things longer and shorter time in the editing process. I love the critters, and how they flow from creases and slits in the paper, how gentle and kind they are and the funny little twirly details she has going on the edges. I am biased, I know, but I am charmed. Why not? Right? She is my daughter! From my chat with her, she is getting it entirely. She is very happy and focused on her work while a bit disconcerted about what her div 2 paper will be. Frankly, given the growth we have seen in the past year (and she agrees), it will all be different next year. She needs to explore and see what is out there. It should be an interesting time at Thanksgiving.

Alex is winding down a bit. He went for a run this morning all bundled up with his five finger shoes on in the cold and wet. We had a bit of visible snow this morning, so the concept of running in almost bare feet was not my idea of fun, but stoic Alex manned up and went out for more than an hour of running and breathing. He is amazing and disciplined. The cats are all in furry piles all over the living room. It is delightful to have a quiet day to do quiet day things. I am going to let my brain stretch out and see what happens. The cooking is done and we have a deadline at 6. So, a little unwind time would be remarkable.

Regionals were today.

From the Sketchbook Project. Q. Cassetti, 2010, sharpie and prismaWe had the team last night for about five pounds of pasta with pesto and cherry tomatoes, a salad and two full loaves of bread. It helped, but given a very cold, wet day…they were beaten slightly by Newark Valley and came in second (to their chagrin). So, no trips to the States for this crew, but second place for regionals isnt anything to sneeze at. Next stop, the team dinner Saturday night. What to cook. I need to make something nice for tonight as I am sure my boys will be starving.

Spent two and a half hours in a rather mind numbing CSE (Committee for Special Education) meeting at the school this morning. Long long long and complicated. All of this is so interesting…how people learn and the environment, the teaching, the reinforcement, the way people are encouraged and in other situations, managed or reprimanded.  There is no right way to teach, to learn…and the schools often take what works for the norm/ for most…and it becomes the way things happen. No kid is the same, and when a kid doesnt fit within the range or standard of learning, this is when we come to play. So, I am learning a lot about the interplay of sociology, psychology, physical therapy, special accomodations, one on one work, and tools to create a good environment for kids to learn…and there are many.

More branding with my big client. We reviewed color (pressproofing all the colors) and tints and I hope/think we have a palette we can live with. We have a font. We have an understanding on how this new look and feel might begin to play itself out. We have a start of the image type/photography type. So…its left foot, right foot…and we will see what will happen over the course of the next few months. Then, we will help to roll it further. Had a nice call with Edible Finger Lakes. Will need to get an image together for their Winter pub…and will do that tomorrow. I am thinking the coziness of home (home sweet home) might be the one…Need to lay that out tomorrow.

The cats are yowling. Time to make dinner.

 

late afternoon

More holiday fun. Am a bit worried about getting these done in time for Thanksgiving. It going to be a push…so I have been running full bore at this. This cat looks okay in black and grey…but odd in brown and orange which was the initial approach. Ah well.

Rob got home safe and sound late last night after the election t.v. gorge of CNN and the like with the amazingly vacuous conversations and discussions, the emptyheaded approach to lots and lots of moving graphics, countdown clocks, slider bars with percentages, and the horse betting approach to who won the race the moment the polls closed with around 2% of the votes in. I was dumbfounded that this carnival with women in brilliant red jackets and lipsticks, other less brilliant but more opinionated looking as if they were missing a few nights sleep. Then, the pompous know it all talk from the tea-partiers, from the new leader of the House and its business as usual. I wish to heaven we could get out of our own way and really see, and solve the problems at hand versus continuing the circle dance that keeps happening in Washington. Its all anticipating and guessing. It was all talking heads with all sorts of know it all schmarty pants crap. I find it amusing but highly irritating as the real issues are glossed over, one more time. Oy.

Tonight we have the top seven xc runners for a carbofest (pasta with pesto, bread, salad…maybe some sort of baked thing if I can get my booty in gear to do that). Rob brought goodies back for the boys from the fab Rockmount Ranch store— so maybe a fashion show from Alex and Rob for them to decide which shirt they want to keep.

Gotta go. New projects popping up as we speak. oy.

Moving stuff off the top of the pile.

sketch in process for Hangar season, Q,Cassetti, 2010Working, as you can see on putting some work out there for the next season of the Hangar posters. I have a new point of view on these babies given the fall imagery that was generated for their Cabaretc programming. To be honest, it was a bit shocking to go from my work which I spent a lot of time on to elevate the imagery of the institution to something that was sophomoric, less than excellent and frankly suboptimal. It really put me right in my place and made me realize that the difference between excellent and less so was not really understood. So, I figure before I wrack my brain for perfection, I will cull from existing work and only do new when I don’t have anything in the files. This is the first go at some of the work that exists prior to designing the other 3 images.

Nice phone call with a possible new client from NYC. Might be another local foods products company (needing a chicken, a cow, a map and a few hand-drawn landscapes). Illustrations will be essentially the brand… and not a big rush. So, despite the fact that the money isn’t great, there is cash there and it will hopefully give me a nice new contact. I loved my contact….a smart sweetheart of a guy. We will see.

Got the go ahead on what a happy cat looks like. Sent my client four cats and asked them which cat was happy. The one to the right was the cat selected. The editorial from the big Vet was very cute and funny giving editorial on the cats I picked.

Have been whaling away with the sharpies in the new green notebook. Today is purple…a red purple from a few days of blue pens. Am loving these colors on the cream paper. Hand of God prevails. I am using the word FACET in the images to speak to making and creating. To me, The Hand of God is FACET or CREO (to create) or FACIO (to make). Love these odd mystery words plunked in the images. My sheer mistake, I made a fairly odd border of birds..(assymetrical) and have added type. All new for this cat right now.

new week

Sketchbook Project 10/24/2010, Q. Cassetti, sharpies.Today is the Hand of God Day. The power of the creative force. The power of the maker and the destroyer. The giver and taker of life….symbolized by the hand. Could be an interesting chapter to the sketchbook project. I love egyptian and indian hands…fifties hands…so this will give me a shot at making pix like this.

The image to the right is from the Sketchbook Project just as another blip and nod to the moving hand, the automatic writing going on.

I made some chicken stock yesterday and really took it easy with some downloading and filing of photographs. I really couldnt function. My head was spinning from the details and work of the week. I really couldnt get charged up about making Halloween happen, so I didn’t. It was miserable and snowing in spurts, and Rob was kind enough to let me off the hook.So we visited with Ron and Mary while Rob popped corn and  charged up the wood cookstove in the kitchen to make things cozier and warm. We kept the lights out of the main house (which can be threatening and scary). So, halloween was peaceful for us. Alex went off to friends for a huge bonfire (he proudly told me this morning that there was a wooden jungle gym crowning the top of this pile..!) which thankfully I didn’t know about or I would have been in a tizzy. But, he came home safe and sound demanding the opportunity to watch zombie movies (yuck) and eat pasta with basil pesto.

Rob is off to Denver today/tomorrow. Alex has state trials for Cross Country this week. I have lots of project work to do along with running here and there for the business. It is welcome to November, and there is lots of stuff to do around the holidays, cards, presents, etc. Not only for me and my business, but for my clients too. Oy. Getting nuts around that. Put it on the list!

 

Sunday

From the Sketchbook Project, Q. Cassetti, 2010, sharpie and prismaIts been a quick weekend without much to point to to say “Facet”(latin for making something, accomplishing something). I must admit, I am pretty exhausted and wrung out, so that I am not much interested in anything but sleep and pushing a pen around making dumb pictures.

I got the sketchbook in the mail on Friday (done) and have started another one just to see what evolves. The sheer speed of making pictures that you cannot tear out and modify to make presentable is great. Plus the making of lines has been fun. New book: no tear outs, just sharpies, work fast, date the work. Lets see what evolves. Something will…I have to have faith in that.

Saw the great one act plays at the High School yesterday. Nice, very cute. The best one was centered around monkeys locked in a room with typewriters writing Hamlet. Very cute premise, very cute acting job. Wonderfully leggy, limber Jake P and Nick S. were fabulous as simians…ones that smoked cigarettes and spouted philosopy.

Alex and I joined Bruce and Rob at the Pourhouse for sandwiches and mingling with more neighbors. It was nice. We got home later to find Alex and his friends Alec and Jacob here to play video games and hang out. It has been nice for him to have these brothers to gather with.

Rob goes off to Denver and back tomorrow. I have endless phonecalls with my big client. I hope there will be a chance to enter more images in the SILA show. SOI is done. I wonder when CA is? I also think I may enter some logotypes into CA design to see if I can get them published too. I need to double duty these things with type. Speaking of my business….I am going to morph the public name of my business to Q. or Q. Cassetti (with the legal name staying Luckystone Partners) as my brand really is wrapped up with me and my work. With that, I am going to either pick up the “chop” of the Q that I already have…or work on a dagger Q. (you will see)…as a chop. When people call us, its that they are calling me and what I can bring to the table…so why skirt it? Right? This just hatched after talking to the Edible Finger Lakes people… and figuring that out. They came to me for my work. Same with the Hangar…and so on.

Thats it for today. Need to fire on different ships now.

Thursday morning

Creatures, Q. Cassetti, sharpies, 2010Finished up the sketchbook yesterday. All the scans are done. I output a cover with a typographic identifier and double spraymented the cover on the book. So, its done and ready to ship. Exciting. Once The Brooklyn Art Library has the book, then my link on their page actives and I can see the traffic. I hope there can be input too? In 2011, the books go on tour. Fun.

I am so taken with the sharpies and this nice cream paper—that I have started another book now with rules and regulations. No tear outs. Only sharpies and prismas. Deal with the showthrough. Date the work. Work Fast. That’s it. So, you will  see more of this sort of thing for a while. Nothing too finished but quantity may explode a bit. Working in a faux woodcut mode…fun.

Finished up a bunch of small stuff yesterday so I can work on the Feline and Baker today to keep them up to speed. The holidays are breathing down our necks…and I am a bit nervous…so need to get this done. Client isnt worked up about this…but I am. So, I need to get another cat going along with a shot list for the two annuals. I hope the picture I have picked is a happier cat than the grumpmeister I submitted before. The dog is good to go. Gotta call Pioneer today to take the production idea further. The idea is either to go letterpress overall or do a litho job and go in with the black (as an alternative printer) as a matte foil stamp…to give us a bit of umph with the cotton stock. Sweetness.

Also have a new job coming up with Ithaca College for their summer program. Poster…and postcard. Need to start honchoing this as it will need to be in the mail over the December break to show up in the students’ homes so that mom and dad can talk about summer programs with junior.

Am picking up a case of freerange chicken (bone in breasts) along with that of basil pesto I ordered last week. Will need to break out the bags and make little collections of 4-6 breasts per bag for the freezer. I was wondering what was for dinner. Sounds like chicken!

Bus tickets for Kitty’s return over Thanksgiving is on the schedule. Done and done. Need to call Kitty this p.m.to go through the plans.

Gotta go.

 

 

Relook

Sketchbook Project 10/23.2010, Q. Cassetti, pale blue sharpie.I dont know if Denver can happen. There is too much going on with my big client.. premeetings for pre meetings before a big meeting. What to present? What is the point of the meeting? What wants to be represented? What’s the takeaway? And I find that I am having some value during those meetings being a bit harsh…a nice counter to my nice client. But, after doing some research, Denver is so appealing just to eat barbeque and mexican and shop for snap shirts (want to do that with Alex Cassetti)…and maybe see a rodeo or something along that line. Love it.

The blue skull on cream is pretty. Love the color. Love doing single color work on cream as it changes the black and white dynamic. Sweetens it. Anyway…two more drawings and the notebook is done….all I will need to do is paint the cover…pentel black on beige with maybe the new coconut beige to deepen some of the line work.

Just spoke to Pioneer Printing about letterpress vs. stamping the Cornell holiday cards. They could be way sweet. Joe Seppi and i are in love with the same printing stuff…so the production of these babies could be beautiful. Will need to redo the cat card…to make it less grumpy. He just delivered a nice clean job on Kraft paper card for Ithaca College…Service is excellent. Price is excellent. I am thrilled to pieces.

Today is a brilliant day on the plateau. Seems that we are on the edge of the massive storm coming east…I hope we are holding tight on the tree front. These big storms are a worry for me as it tests the success of how we have been maintaining our trees, our big old trees…and if we have missed ones that may have seemingly been healthy, but turned out to have structural flaws. Remember this storm? It literally uprooted this enormous pine tree on the lake three years ago. Looked like a bomb went off. These beautiful big trees…you never know.

Indian summer today

Sketchbook Project 10/16//2010, Q. Cassetti, sharpie and prismacolorSketchbook project almost done. I was thinking of pasting stuff in to not see the showthrough as the Moleskine Cahier paper is a bit thin…but you know, I really like the way it looks. Makes it look like the continuous document that it is.

Rolling on a ton of stuff. Picture selection, new edits, finishing up some spectacular microsoft word centered design. What a tool. What torture.

There is a slight chance I might be able to ride in the spare seat on the corporate plane to Denver and back next Monday/Tuesday. Just a fun change of scenery. Forget the art museum. I am going as fast as my legs will carry me to the Rockmount Ranchwear store>> Just to see the wonderful snap shirts…the embroidery…the sheer wonderfulness of this type of clothing. Or for more mainstream stuff, maybe Sheplers>> or Cry Baby Ranch! to see the turquoise Frida Kahlo flaming heart boots or the skull boots for men. There are these remarkable shortie cowboy books for women (“cuties”?). As I keep googling this…it seems like a western wear immersion might not be a hard thing to do. The Museum is closed Monday…so Tuesday morning would be an option. Yelp is telling me about Soul Haus. Check out all the Western Wear offering on Yelp>.Then there is mexican or barbeque for dining…

I think I could keep myself amused…don’t you? Even the thrift stores look like going to another country. Exciting though I would rather be pal-ling around with Alexander or Rob or Kitty.

Need to do some picture research today on happy cats. No grumpy cats albeit someone (stinking TJ is my guess) delivered a big stinky one in my office in the corner today. Yuck. Being the backup crew to the pets is just plain gross. I do not know whether I like cats enough to want to continue to do this after they move off this plain. Thank goodness I didnt do what I normally do which is to step in it (preferably barefoot).

Star magic.

Sketchbook Project 10/20/2010. Q. Cassetto. sharpie and prismaLive from the sketchbook project. I have a few more pages and then I have the cover to fiddle with…and then zip zap in the mail. I stopped by Michaels to see if they had a marigold pen (or even something in the marigold zone) to no result. But oh my. The scrapbooking stuff is amazing. Glitter pens, paint pens, stick on this and thats, papers, cricket cutters, edge trimmers and punches. More crap than anyone needs. Matter of fact, to do a sketchbook as a scrapbook from the craft store would be fun…with all the junque, jewels, ribbons and pins…with puffy paint etc. Wowza. And sheer discipline kept my hands off these things. Who needs it. I should use up all the other sharpies before I do more…. There’s the new thinking. Use up the whole package. Nothing other than that…no adds…and when the color runs out…you keep to what is left….hmmm.

I am going to stick with the small sized book for now. I like the quick page drawings. Not really as refined as before, but I am working out ideas quicker…and then it is ready for a final versus the sketch being the final as many of the ink work goes…. We’ll see. The ink is flowing again, and I am going “automatic writing” mode to see what engages.

Need to get the rest of the SOI work in the mail. Deadline 11/15. Met with the Vet School today. Good meeting. We talked about cat’s faces: happy faces, sad faces, what the right face is…isnt. Cuddly wuddly, or attitudinal. Dogs are so much easier to gauge as the cats have owners who are so invested in what they love about their cats etc. The holiday card for the dog is good. Cat is not good— not happiness—too grumpy. Reason to go at it again.

I got a ticket for a padiddle on Friday night going to get baking powder (I mean, how often does one run out of baking powder)…and got pulled over for one headlight working. This is the same headlight I had checked a week ago. So, back again today…and the guys wiggled the lights, and said there were no issues. Right. But we are doing a less quick fix…and getting the parts to replace the wiggliness. Got the doctor to sign off on the car…and the paperwork back to the Ulysses Town Court Officer….so I am not going to jail, at least this week.

Don’t you love Kitty’s video? I LOVE it. It is so her. It is so gentle and kind…a valentine that dances like she does. I am so proud. I have to admit it…but she is doing so well. I hope its all moving forward on all fronts…as she can go rogue and surprise us (like when she forgot to go to Latin for a half semester. Oy.

Alex and I had fun going to the store yesterday to get basics and halloween candy. Bags and bundles later…we were loaded up. He wanted to eat hamburgers…so I took him out to Five Guys for a mid day burger buster. I made a beef stew (really really quick…less than 20 minutes cooking) in the pressure cooker. I need to figure out how to make it more flavorful as the slow cooking really gives it depth. I added red wine and leeks, onions, and a whole bunch of parsley, 4 chopped portobello mushrooms and a package of white cap mushrooms….and it is still pretty quiet. Maybe garlic? More savories. A tad of tomato paste? Hmm. Rob worked until late yesterday…so the weekend was pretty scant in the family time department.

Maybe more time tonight with dinner.