Art by accident

Nick and I walked down to downtown Kirkland tonight looking for a way to celebrate the half-way point of finals. Our original destination was the patio at The Slip for burgers and mojitos, but it wasn’t open yet. We retired instead to our ol’ standby - Cactus! - for ten-dollar nachos and margaritas.

Of course, one of the best parts about eating on the sidewalk is people watching. Somewhere between an olive and a chorizo laden chip, our new neighbor walked by. He looked exactly like the picture and nothing like the people that have been working on the house next door. So that question has been solved. He must have bought a condo at the end of the street.

The other thing we noticed, while basking in the heat of the lamps on the sidewalk, was that all of the galleries were still open. Ah, first Thursday art walk! We must take advantage of the opportunity!

At the end of the street there was bluesy guitar music coming out of a gallery we’d never been in before, so we headed that direction. Turns out they were exhibiting the 16th annual miniature painting competition. Hundreds of paintings, most no bigger than a few inches in either direction, were framed and hanging in the gallery.

It took us a surprisingly long time to get through the paintings. They were exquisitely detailed for how small they were. The gallery had thoughtfully provided magnifying glasses so we could examine them more closely. They were selling for anywhere between $100 and $400, if you wanted to take one home. Several had already sold.

This cute little chihuahua painting won best in show.

Adhering to the letter of the law

Bentley knows he’s not supposed to stand, sit, lay, step, or otherwise think about interfering with my computer. He desperately wants some attention, though, so his new strategy is to position himself really, really, really close to the laptop. Now I am unable to type without my arm grazing his shoulder. He’s purring. 

A tiger tried to eat my husband

Sometimes when Nick volunteers to climb with me, he stops half-way through the day, shakes his head, and says, “You do this for fun?!”

Sometimes when Nick comes home from a bike race with half of his skin missing because of some horrible crash, I ask, “You do this for fun?!”

Fortunately, the damage was minor yesterday - the blackberry bushes and gravel cushioned most of his fall. He says he missed the pavement entirely. His rear wheel didn’t fare so well, however. Anyone got a good deal on a lightweight pair of clinchers for him?

(Side note: Yes, those are turtles on his boxer shorts. Cute, huh?)

Mysterious photo time machine

There’s lots of ways to use Photoshop to make a new photo look old and scratched, but if you want a quick way of doing this and aren’t too spazzed about not being able to control every pixel, then check out this site. I don’t know how it works, because I don’t read Japanese, but I do know that if you click browse, select an image, and click on the blue button in the middle of the screen, you’ll get some neat pictures.

Caturday

Vespa has a laser-beam intensity that I wish I could bottle and use in measured doses. I don’t think she was even focusing on anything in particular.

Speaking of lasers and cats…