Top (hat) of the morning to you!

Posted on August 21, 2016 by pouringmyartout

a 11

Posted in My art, Pictures of me | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

More on the theory of English relativity…

Posted on August 20, 2016 by pouringmyartout

a 1

I told you there were still more pictures of us with our English relatives!!! I even wore the shirt I bought in London when we visited them last year… Solidarity!!!

a 2

We ate on the outdoor deck of Anthony’s Fish Grotto.

a 3

It has a great view of the bay… and an old Russian submarine…

a 4

That is because it is located beside the San Diego Maritime Museum… that is the boat from the movie ‘Master And Commander’…

a 5

The museum also operates the oldest ship that still puts to sea, the clipper ship Star Of India…

a 6

Most kids in San Diego get to spend the night on the ship as part of the school program.

a 7

I love boats.

a 8

In the distance, you can see a nuclear aircraft carrier… how is that for a juxtaposition?

a 9

We are up to the midpoint of our time with cousin Dot, her daughter, cousin Lynne, and Lynne’s boyfriend, Malcolm. I still think you should go back and revisit the posts I did a year ago about our adventures with them in England.

a 10

Right now, the three of them are up in the Bay Area visiting my mom. I wish I could have gone with them. But thank you for helping me relive our time with them.

Posted in dogs and other animals, Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

My daughter’s fiance is teaching me to use my new laptop…

Posted on August 20, 2016 by pouringmyartout

a 1

We have matching laptops… because twinning is winning!!!

a 2

Jason is actually the one who invited me out to visit them in Arizona this weekend… not my daughter… because he knows I am a computer moron… and he wanted to help…

a 3

It is hard enough to take selfies with the new camera… it is heavy and awkward… without Jessica photobombing us!!!

a 4

Obviously, as long as he was giving me Photoshop pointers, I had to use an image of my favorite subject to play around with…

a 5

And we all know who… and what… is my favorite subject!!!

a 6

Jason helped my wife pick out my laptop… and one for her… the last time she visited them, a few weeks ago. He knew this one would do all the stuff I like to do. He also helped pick out the camera I used to take these pictures. Oh, and tonight, Jason and Jess are taking me out to a fancy restaurant… that serves crazy food… so I will take some pictures to share…

Posted in My travels, Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Oh yeah… I can mess with Trump in a whole new way…

Posted on August 20, 2016 by pouringmyartout

art 1

I drew this on my new laptop with the fancy pen device in a program called Plumbago… I don’t know how this will come in handy… but it will…

Posted in cartoons, My art | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pictures of a desert sunrise… for you… and because of you…

Posted on August 20, 2016 by pouringmyartout

a 1

So, as I stood on a desert hilltop not too long ago, the Led Zeppelin song ‘Kashmir’ floating through my head on a soft desert breeze, taking pictures of a magnificent sunrise, I realized something important. I wouldn’t be there experiencing it if it wasn’t for you.

a 2

Now don’t get me wrong. My life would still be exciting. I would still do stuff. But I am still groggy from my early rising and long drive yesterday, and when I hauled myself out of bed this morning in Arizona, at my daughter and her fiance’s apartment, I wasn’t exactly raring to go. There was no coffee made… in fact, as I type this, they are still asleep, and I have no idea where the coffee stuff is.

a 3

And the thing is… and this is a thing that makes me love all of you… but I went out on the porch, and saw the sun coloring the sky, the thought that popped into my head was this: Oooooh… ‘my blog friends need to see this’…

a 4

So I got dressed, grabbed the zoom lens, got in my car, and headed to a hilltop that I found the last time I was here… about ten miles from the apartment.

a 5

I got out of the car and climbed the hill…

a 6

And thanks to you, I saw a trail of rain falling on the parched desert floor… (It is actually monsoon season here, and I am hoping to see a monsoon)…

a 7

I saw a broken water main shooting water into the sky… or a really wasteful fountain…

a 8

I saw a fire burning in the distance… clearing brush or a family’s worst catastrophe? I have no idea.

a 9

But I do know this…

a 10

If it wasn’t for you, I would have stayed where I was and just done another post about the recent visit by our English relatives…

a 11

So thank you for this sunrise… and you’re welcome for this sunrise… HA!

 

Posted in Everything Else, My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A really cute dog, a really big cactus, an ocean, a desert… and some sharks…

Posted on August 19, 2016 by pouringmyartout

a 1

So when I took Olivia, the little girl I babysit, to the aquarium in San Diego, I met this adorable little guy, a miniature border collie puppy…

a 2

I can’t believe that was only yesterday…

a 3

I was overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and La Jolla, that has some of the highest-end shopping anywhere in the world outside Paris…

a 4

Now I am sitting in my daughter and he fiance’s apartment, waiting for them to get home from work… a little groggy, because I woke up so early so I could take pictures of the sun coming up over the desert on my drive to Arizona… just for you…

a 5

Awwwww… Yup, dogs, babies and horses still love me!!!

a 7

And I’ll tell you… it was hot in San Diego… but nowhere near as hot as it is here in Scottsdale, Az. In fact, the nighttime low here is going to be almost as high as the the hottest part of the day back in San Diego.

a 8

I should have saved one photo of little Olivia for this last aquarium bit.

a 10

One thing I didn’t realize until it was too late is that, by getting those pictures of the sunrise from the top of the mountain range just inland of San Diego… (see my last post for the best ones)… I had to then spend the next few hours driving on a blade-straight highway staring right into the fiery furnace of hell hanging in front of me like some huge, hot anti-Christmas tree ornament.

a 11

Yes, I drove through a lot of different kinds of desert, but you have seen pictures of that from other trips… this one gives you a taste… of one little part…

a 12

Now I am in the land of the giant saguaro cacti… like that one right in front of my kid’s place.

a 13

But there are still palm trees… this is a confusing world… I will probably take a few hikes and drives, risking heat prostration… to show you some desert pictures… for the new people, you know…

a 14

I miss that crazy-big grouper fish… I swear, that thing was at least five feet long and must have weighed 900 pounds.

a 15

And now I miss my dog, Shiloh, dang it…

Posted in dogs and other animals, My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

A desert sunrise… and a fish… because I can…

Posted on August 19, 2016 by pouringmyartout

a 1

So right now, I am sitting in my daughter and her fiance’s apartment in Arizona. Once again, I woke up insanely early in the morning, just to get some extra cool pictures for you… this time of the sun rising over the desert as I crested the mountains that lie inland from San Diego.

a 2

But I still have pictures to share from yesterday, when I took little Olivia to the aquarium. And she loved that big grouper… which was bigger than her… but why, you are probably wondering, am I showing these unrelated sets of pictures together?

a 3

Because I finally can. Remember I told you I just got a new laptop? Well, Jason, Jessica’s fiance, told me to come to Arizona this weekend to hang out, and he would teach me some laptop tricks… because he has the same kind as me… because he helped my wife pick out the laptops we each got the last time she was visiting them… and he knows what I do on our old computer… which we are phasing out… follow me?

a 4

He is also very artistic, and does crazy cool computer stuff… and I am a computer moron… but I need to be able to write and edit novels, and do children’s books with illustrations… and do funny Photoshop pictures for the blog… (I like that picture up there… there is a person over to the left, who is looking into the aquarium tank… with the same expression on their face that the grouper has on his)…

a 5

Up until now, when I was traveling on one of my adventures, I had no way to post pictures on the blog until I got home. But now, I can take photos while I am driving one-handed in the dark on a scary mountain highway… which you should never ever do, by the way… and then post them the same day!

a 6

How cool is that?

a 7

Now I can confuse you with out-of-order photos even more efficiently!

a 8

So now, when I am at my mom’s house, or gallivanting around the globe, I don’t have to come home and then show you three weeks of photos… I can post them while they are still hot… I mean, I still won’t be able to keep up most of the time… my adventures are too fast-paced for that… but still…

a 9

So get ready for some old-school, crack squirrel fueled confusion…

a 10

Things will never be the same around here… not that they ever were…

 

Posted in dogs and other animals, Everything Else, My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Some pictures of Olivia while I explain why I have to go away on yet another adventure…

Posted on August 18, 2016 by pouringmyartout

a 1

So… things are getting confusing around here… it is turning into a photo blog… I am only half way through all the pictures of the recent visit by our English relatives, now I have pictures of my two days babysitting our friends’ daughter, Olivia…

a 2

Awww… she loves her fish blanket… she took it with her to the aquarium today…

a 3

These are pictured I took yesterday. She saw my salami sandwich and said she wanted a ‘samitch!!!’

a 4

She deconstructed it…

a 5

And then ate only the bread… So, I am going on another adventure tomorrow. I am going to Arizona for three days to hang out with my daughter and her fiance.

a 6

Squishy face!!!

a 7

I will, no doubt, have more pictures from the new adventure to share soon. I can’t keep up with my own adventures anymore. I hardly have time to do funny Photoshop pictures of Donald Trump.

a 8

I want you to know I picked out that outfit… all those years of dressing my two girls wrong… according to my wife… finally paid off.

a 9

So anyway…between the relatives, and more fish pictures from the aquarium… and the new adventure… and some other stuff, I will just keep throwing pictures at you. Make of them what you will.

Posted in Stories of my life | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

We interrupt the regularly scheduled posts about our visiting English relatives for cute kid pics…

Posted on August 18, 2016 by pouringmyartout

c 1

A pair of squishy faces!!! So I have spent the last two days at my babysitting job with our friends’ daughter, little Olivia.

c 2

I took her to the aquarium here in San Diego, and my wife joined us there.

c 3

Man, I am crazy about that little girl!

c 4

And she is crazy about hot dogs…

c 5

My wife bought her a little sea turtle. You might remember from previous posts where I took Olivia to the zoo that she loves turtles… and my wife is a pushover for little kids too…

c 6

Grouper selfie!!!

c 7

Seriously, that grouper was huge!!!

c 10

And we had a really good time.

 

Posted in Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Even more fun with the English relatives…

Posted on August 18, 2016 by pouringmyartout

a 1

Uh… no… those aren’t the English relatives… those are chairs…

a 2

There I am, making sure that cousin Dot and cousin Lynne and cousin Lynne’s boyfriend, Malcolm, don’t fall in the fish pond. Now some of you may remember the botanical garden building in the background, and the pictures of the awesome orchid flowers I posted just a few weeks ago. Lynne wanted to see the flowers. So of course, this was the one day of the week that the botanical garden wasn’t open…

a 3

But it’s okay… there are other things to see in Balboa Park in San Diego… like the little art village…

a 4

We watched some glass blowing…

a 5

And I found some great art… like the chairs in the first picture… and this big bottle-shaped chair.

a 6

And some other stuff…

a 7

We had a great time, and we then went and did some other stuff somewhere else… which I will share soon… but right now, I need to go do some babysitting…

Posted in Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments