Renovations at Fred's house

 Along with a new closet, the art is moving around and an overall new look for Fred's house is taking shape. 

Used electronics

 My grad student canceled her meeting today so I took William out to run some errands. I was looking for a cabinet to consolidated and tore video games and controllers, and he was looking for old games to play in some of the controllers he acquired from his cousins. We both came up empty, but I did see some of these Star Trek Hot Wheels for sale. Weird. 

Jerry Ruecker art

Margaret purchased a Jerry Ruecker at the silent auction that we didn't attend last night. We've always loved his work. I was a bit distraught when she told that she'd won a bid, especially considering that we were not there so she would have needed to put a sizable bid in at the beginning of the process when she was there helping to set up. When she unveiled this beauty, I couldn't have bee more pleased. 

Kevin's Lego

 Kevin and his family built a Lego Millennium Falcon over Christmas. It's a newer one than William's, but the same size and very close to the same design. New figures of course, matching a newer movie. 

Look workshop

 Spent the morning teaching an animation workshop for Trevor Grant and his "Look" students. Ian Rogers was there and he gave me an old studio video camera to paint (and keep - he is divesting). 

AGR opening

Cool three person show. Leesa Streifler's drawings were very raw. Unfortunately she didn't make it to town due to problems with her flight. Deb Potter created a large number of very funny and intricate  figurative sculptures. Sheila Nourse built a number of wall pieces which are, in abstract ways, portraits of some people she knows including Margaret (this work is made up of objects picked up of the street). 
 

Cat goes for a walk

 William took Sylvie for a walk. Every time he put her down, she would immediately go up the nearest sidewalk to someone's door and he'd have to follow her and pick her back up. At least William got some exercise out of it. 

Life

With the weather about 30 below outside, I just found this ladybug on the counter and moved it to a jade plant. It wasn't really happy there and later left again, so William moved it to a different plant. 
 

Painting

 Erik Hood stopped by the house the other day and brought his camera over for me to paint. I spent my afternoon today working on it. A lovely 35mm Leica. 

animation in class

Did some in class animation today with the portable Dragonframe setup. For the follow up, students wanted to go into the studio and set up lights so we did that and shot some motion blur images, suing the skeleton as one of the subjects. 
 

Shelf for projectors

 As we continue to try to get the basement serviceable, I found a shelf that fits perfectly in the laundry room and can hold stuff like film projectors and larger cameras until I can repair or otherwise get rid of them. 

Coffee with mom

Took mom to Creme this morning. We were going to go to the cemetery but mom changed her mind at the last minute. She almost never eats more than half of her food these days and insists that I eat potions she cuts off for me. 
 

Secret treasures

On her deathbed, Gertrud talked about her hidden chamber in the closet and some things she wanted given to various people. I knew about this but had never see it. William had never heard of it before. Today George started disassembling that closet so it can be useful (rather than just a series of jammed drawers which contained nothing but a tablecloth collection). We found an award Margaret received. 
 

Art supplies

 As an art family, we buy art supplies whenever needed. Raising an art child, we increased that purchasing as every interest turned. Going through Gertrud's house, we discovered that she also purchased and purchased and purchased. Now we find ourselves with more supplies, especially kid or school grade art supplies, than we know what to do with. This back went to Rory. 

Cold day and rush to campus

 Jhazley is shooting a pickup for her thesis film today. The lenses were missed from her equipment so I needed to abandon the guys at Geremy's (keeping in contact with zoom) and run home for my keys then to the university to help them out and back again. Very cold day but looking like it will warm again soon. 

Heather Cline party

Brought perogies to Heather Cline's Ukrainian Christmas party to compete with other perogies (alongside the cabbage roll competition). I failed to hold on to my trophy, losing out to some pretty decent perogies with a gimmick amount of haggis in each. I lost by one vote. If I was one to make excuses for myself, I might point out that my hands, in particular the pinching ability of my thumbs, is very sore and that I went to physio yesterday to have it looked at. It has made pinching perogies very difficult and I probably didn't make them as well as I usually would. Party was crowded and there was an unprecedented number of perogies there, probably about 7 or 8. 

Dentist

 Flossing every day is paying off. Teeth and gums are not only okay, but are improving. Extra x-rays today to make sure some of the old work is holding up well. 

Preparing for animation class

 The animation camera room was taken apart in the fall to remove asbestos and not entirely re-assembled so it looks like I need alternative plans for tomorrow's class. Even though I worked almost every day since classes ended, I only just barely caught up and didn't really get ready for this term. 

Coffee with mom and Shim

 
Drove mom and Shim around and did some shopping, starting with the quilting store (which had us on our feet for over an hour) so then to sit by the fire for coffee and rest up before taking them to Toys R Us and some Duplo Lego purchases for when Tate is a bit bigger. 

Carillon comics

 William still publishing in the Carillon. I think these are left over from last semester, but they have invited him to continue contributing until he official graduates in the spring. 

Classes started for me today. Felt a lot of anxiety for some reason. 

Double time painting

 Painted two versions of this 8mm camera today while William was drawing. Really getting into the rhythm of it. Wish I could do this every day. 

Nosferatu

Evening at the Imax seeing Nosferatu. Loud and cool. Brought together multiple CJTR personalities (Aaron Clarke and Geremy Lague) along with Griffin and Emma. 
 

Tree down

 Sylve has been enjoying the water from the tree over the past month. End of another era. 

Running out of cameras again

I saved this strange 8mm movie camera for a day that I had some time to work slowly. It's spring wind is on the front. I'll likely do another one of it before returning it. It is the fourth of four cameras from Mike Decker. 
 

Man of letters

 Picked up Fred from his class today. Spoke with Jeanette for a couple minutes. She remembers me when I introduce myself, but not until that moment. So freindly though - gave me a hug. Back at his house, Fred wanted coffee and to eat his mini-chocolate bars he won at Bingo. I got out the letters and we worked through the whole bag. This random handful had a Q and two Xs. 

William has been keeping up on his daily comics and even managing to post them daily to his new site. Here is his link: https://bird-people.thecomicseries.com/comics/#content-start 

Painting

 I'm almost finished the list of vital things I need to do before classes start back up. I really would love a brake that I can actually take a series of days off, rather than just a series of hours. Anyway, with my show in the spring, I need to take what small amounts of free time I have and use them to paint. 

New Year

 Slept in today. It was dark and mostly quiet and we had been up late watching a Thin Man movie (the third one). Butcher gave Margaret some great link sausages when she was there the other day so I cooked them up with eggs and toast this morning. Margaret went out while William and I worked on his website all day.