Pouring My Art Out

I am growing a beard…

Posted on July 5, 2015 by pouringmyartout

I have had a mustache since I was 14. The reason for that is amusing, and I have posted about it. Go ahead… type; ‘mustache’ into the little search bar thing… we will wait for you… So far I have resisted the temptation to grow a beard. By the time I figured it would come in thick and luxurious, it was already turning gray. I know, you see a lot of pictures of me where I look like maybe I am growing a beard, but there is a difference between being lazy and growing a beard.

I have warned my wife… and all of you… that when my hair turned completely gray, I was growing the full long hair and beard like Gandalf, and then walking around in a cloak carrying a big stick. But anyway, I haven’t shaved since our last week in Europe, and it is starting to come in nicely… and I am not talking about some well-groomed hipster beard. I am talking full on lumberjack/pirate/wizard/biker/sailor beard… oh, yeah.

I will try to avoid posting any new pictures of myself until it is crazy long. This will not be easy for me, but why spoil the surprise?

Posted in Stories of my life, thinking about stuff | Tagged beards, current-events, fashion, hip, hipsters, humor, style | 20 Comments

Happy birthday, America…

Posted on July 4, 2015 by pouringmyartout

You sweet, beautiful, crazy star-spangled bitch!

Posted in Everything Else | 8 Comments

A bunch of pictures of birds…

Posted on July 4, 2015 by pouringmyartout

So that thing we did… which we are now done doing… was camping at my wife’s aunt and uncle’s house in my mother-in-law’s new motor home. And I had a little free time while they were all organizing stuff into it to sit on the deck… perfectly still… without moving a muscle… which is hard when holding a heavy camera with a zoom lens and no tripod… to take some photos of some birds eating grape jelly and seeds…

Posted in dogs and other animals, Stories of my life | Tagged animals, birds, camping, nature, outdoors, photography | 20 Comments

Stop or I’ll shoot…

Posted on July 3, 2015 by pouringmyartout

So… Uh… I have been wondering about that second escaped convict that was shot. He did try to run when the cop told him to stop, but he wasn’t armed. Is it okay for cops to shoot people when they run away even if they are unarmed? People sure got upset when that happened to a few other people lately. There was a lot of second guessing. But this time, everybody seems to think it was just fine… Even a really good thing. Is this just because he was an escaped convict? I am just asking. It seems to be worth at least discussing.

Posted in thinking about stuff | Tagged convict, Law, police, shooting | 88 Comments

And now, random pictures of me in London…

Posted on July 2, 2015 by pouringmyartout

Look, I am not sure how to break this to you…

But I have to do a thing for the next few days…

I know, I just got back from doing this thing that all these pictures are of…

But you know how it is with me…

Things just have a way of happening…

So hopefully I don’t take too many pictures during this new thing…

Because so far, we haven’t even made it through the morning of our first full day of this last thing that I am now showing you pictures of…

So I will try to control myself… unless I meet any cute horses or dogs or babies…

But I can’t make any guarantees about that…

Because you know how I am…

Posted in My travels, Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged art, big ben, current-events, england, humor, london, london eye, me, photography, travel | 14 Comments

More random pictures of London… because how else are we ever going to get through all these photos???

Posted on July 1, 2015 by pouringmyartout

Why, yes, thank you for noticing, I am indeed wearing a button-down shirt and am all clean and freshly-shaven. We are on our way to Saint Paul’s Cathedral… for an adventure I will share later…

Ooooh… and that is an extra picture from the day… which you might remember I hinted about when I did one of my rare posts while actually in Europe… where we saw a scene from a movie being filmed… but more on that later… HA!

That picture above and the one below were taken from a hop-on/hop-off bus tour that we signed up for. We really used the buses a lot to get around London, and I highly recommend them… but some are better than others…

So do the research…

Did you know that the Queen has a huge park right outside her house? I took these next few while waiting for Her Royal Highness to arrive at the trooping of the color at her birthday celebration… because a Queen’s work is never done…

Even while waiting for royalty, it pays to look around…

You never know what might be right behind you…

And the world is a very pretty place…

Oh, and I have some frightening news…

One of the crack squirrels that live in my head escaped and is now living in that little park beside the hotel we stayed at… you have been warned…

Posted in dogs and other animals, My travels, Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged animals, current-events, england, humor, london, squirrels, the queen, the queen of england, travel | 17 Comments

I just wanted to see her eyes…

Posted on July 1, 2015 by pouringmyartout

Okay, I admit it… I just weaseled my way on this trip so I didn’t miss seeing Mollie’s eyes the first time she saw Big Ben and the Eifel Tower, or rode the London Eye, or went into a castle that wasn’t in Disneyland… because my daughter has lovely, kind, sweet eyes…

Technically, that picture is from the last full day of our trip, taken in Germany, and this post is about the first day of our trip… but it does have one of her eyes in it, and I think… I hope… it meets the requirements of not showing my daughters photos on the blog… more or less…

We were exhausted from the long plane trip… and the long cab ride… but we decided… my wife, Mollie, and I, not my mom, to walk the mile or so the river Thames and see some sights. I am so glad I was there to see Mollie’s face as we began out adventure. I have done all this before, but there is something about seeing the red phone booths and red double-decker buses that just let you know you are in England.

We made it to the river and I wish I could explain the look of joy on Mollie’s face, the sparkle in her eyes.

We went down and walked along the river bank. Mollie was carrying the good camera at this point… it was her trip after all… and she proved she was my daughter by taking all these incredibly artistic photos of things like that weird red wooden fort thing… whatever it was… I was busy taking selfies for the blog with my cheap old camera… HA!

Looking at these pictures I am struck by the fact that she really is a lot like me. I would have taken all these pictures too. Come on, a double-decker bus selling frozen yogurt with the word ‘snog’ on top… that is what memories are made of… you can get pictures of the touristy stuff anywhere.

She sees colors and art and wants to capture it and share it…

She uses the surroundings to frame interesting shots… like a true artist…

Love and colors in a foreign city far from home… I couldn’t be more proud.

And I was there to see it all through her eyes…

Posted in My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged art, big ben, current-events, england, humor, london, london eye, photography, travel | 16 Comments

And where did you stay whilst in London towne, I hear you all pondering…

Posted on June 30, 2015 by pouringmyartout

At this place right here…

Yes, it is the lovely Tavistock Hotel… located conveniently close to Tavistock square… which is a lovely park…

It is also not far from all the excitement of London.

I wish I took a picture of the view from the room my wife and I shared… it was not good… but my mom and Mollie had a room overlooking the park…

There was also a strange tower of some sort nearby…

You can see it off in the distance, like some looming space rocket.

I liked the statue of Gandhi in the park. The hotel also had a very nice café out of the street where we ate after spending hours on the plane just getting there. This is how my mom looks when she is tired and I say something stupid…

Bless her heart… because I say a lot of stupid stuff…

Posted in My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged england, hotel, humor, london, mom, photography, travel | 8 Comments

Some random pictures of London… just to get this party started…

Posted on June 30, 2015 by pouringmyartout

Black cabs and Big Ben… which is actually the name of the bell and not the clock or the clock tower… in case you didn’t know that…

I didn’t even notice I was in that picture until just now… I am slipping…

No, that isn’t London bridge… London bridge isn’t in London anymore… or even in England… bonus points if you know where it is now…

Flags… England conquered a large percentage of this world by the clever use of flags… as Eddie Izzard says in his ‘Dressed To Kill’ stand up comedy video… watch it… it is awesome…

Who doesn’t like a man in uniform?

St. Paul’s Cathedral… Every morning during the blitz, Churchill went outside to make sure it was still standing… we did something cool there, so wait for that story.

The Shard… it is really tall…

The river Thames… which is pronounced: ‘Tems’… unless you want to sound like a daft colonial…

The London Eye… well worth the cost and time spent in line… sorry… the British call it a ‘queue’…

The red phone booth… probably the most iconic thing in the UK… except for a blue police call box with a freekin’ Time Lord in it… or a red double-decker bus…

Posted in My travels, Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged big ben, current-events, england, humor, london, london eye, photography, time lord, travel, United Kingdom | 25 Comments

So, who all went on this wild European adventure, Arthur, I hear you all wondering…

Posted on June 29, 2015 by pouringmyartout

Well, let me tell you. My wife went…

There we are outside Buckingham Palace, right after seeing the Queen… and the rest of the Royal Family… celebrating the Queens birthday. I think my wife’s uncanny resemblance to the Queen accounts for the fact that we were allowed to get so close to her… (Dear English relatives that we saw on our trip, I meant no disrespect by this Photoshopped picture, but my wife does not like to be on the blog, and she won’t let me post pictures of the kids anymore either, so I try to cover her up in interesting ways when a picture just needs to be shown)…

My mom went… even though she is 91…

There we are walking but the Seine river in Paris. When the Grandkids turn 16, my mom takes them to Europe… wherever they want to go, within a reasonable time frame and budget… so, of course she was there. She likes to instill a love of art and culture and travel in kids… like she did with me and my brothers.

And Mollie, who is now 16, was there also… (Technically, my wife was the official parental guest. I just went along to be in charge of all the luggage and provide security for night walks around the cities we visited)…

There are Mollie and I on the London Eye, just as we began our rotation into the sky. I know I am not supposed to show the kids, but I figured a shot from the back would be okay. I was lucky enough to go on the same ride with my other daughter, Jessica, ten years earlier. You would know that if you had read my blog from the beginning the way it was designed to be read… HA!!! And stop looking at my sexy legs, you cheeky monkey!!!