Party

Mark and I went to Seth MacFarlane's house party. Seth McFarlane is the creator/producer of Family Guy. I think it is very cool and generous for Seth to throw such a grand party for his worker bees and friends. It was pretty wild and very crowded! There was more food and booze there than I have seen in one place in a while. Mark and I drank much alcohol in the form of bear and gin gimlets. Seth's house is gorgeous, of course, with an incredible baby grand piano, lovely pool, and a view of the San Fernando Valley. Last year Joe Vaux, a co-worker/artist for Family Guy, somehow, mysteriously, ended up in Seth's pool. Was he going to end up there again?? Was anyone else going to have the cojones to follow his daring example? YES! My fiance and Young Beck, pictured here. No not a child version of the singer/songwriter who sang,"I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me." His name is Young Beck.
Mark and I met another couple who's names are also Mark and Joy. The four of us are
pictured here too. Mark(the other Mark) and I were both born in the Philippines, and there were many other weird close links that were much more interesting with alcohol in my brain.
Also, a nice pic of Joe, Nikki, and Karen on the couch. Aren't they cute?
And a picture of Mark and me. Aren't we cute, too?

Cato and his Toys

I bought Cato this toy which has a ball that rolls around in this blue circular track. The idea is that the cat will bat at the ball and be entertained by the ball moving around in the track. The woman at the pet store told me that it's a sure bet! Her cats love it. Well, Cato was not impressed at all. I even got the ball rolling around for him, but still no action. He just stood next to the toy and gave me a look that said,'Oh, poor dumb human.'
Of course, he loves a crumpled up piece of paper. Free.
Also free was a white wooly catnip thing on a string toy that was given to me. Cato is a catnip addict. He is a member of CA, catnip anonymous, and we support his struggle to control his 'problem.' So here is a pic of Cato enjoying his fix.

Andrea

Here is my sketch from the Wednesday night drawing group in Los Feliz. Having never been to Los Feliz before this class, I was so pleasantly surprised! It is really cool with cafes and yummy restaurants. And it's eclectic and ethnic and authentic. It might be the only non-fake place in LA.
Anyway, this model was so beautiful, as you can see. Her hair was a challenge, as was getting all the very subtle value changes in the shadowy eye area. I squinted so much, my eyesight was blurry for the rest of the night!

Clouseau Time

Here are some more adorable sleeping postition pics of Clouseau. I love the last pic where he is melted into the chair. I get sleepy just looking at it.
He recently weighed in at 13.9 pounds at the vet. He lost 5 oz. which translates to like 3 human pounds! He still wants to play through the door, and sleeps at my feet every night.

Another thing LA does not have

Take a good look at the pictures on the left. They are from a trip to Walmart in Arizona. Perhaps there seems to be nothing special about them, but if you have been in LA for as long as I then you might know what it is. First of all, there is one Walmart that I know of within an hours drive. For one of the biggest and most population dense cities in the United States, this seems ridiculous. Our Arizona friends live in the middle of the desert, and they have two or three Walmarts they can drive to in fifteen minutes! In my dinky hometown of Meriden, there is a Walmart 5 minutes away. Now, I am no fan of Walmart. In fact, I find them offensive, but the absence of them makes LA seem even more strange to me.
Also, the aisles are so W I D E . The parking spaces are W I D E , and the parking lot is so huge. That would never exist here! I mean, real estate costs $1000 a square foot! Every shopping experience is an exercise in squeezing into miniscule parking spots, maneuvering around comatose Californians and mazes of displays set in the middle of already skinny aisles. What used to take me 15 minutes now takes twice as long because I spend half the time waiting for folks to get out of the way, or I am trying to get out of their way! We went to this Walmart in Arizona to experience wide aisles! It felt so luxurious!
I think I will have a weekly LA gripe blog, along with Cato and Clouseau updates.

What you can't get in LA

When Mark and I were in Arizona last weekend, our friends Marc and Marianna took us to the sugar-coated, fried and jelly filled dough mecca; New-Englanders' fond memory of caffeine buzz, belly-bomb breakfast days. Yes, Dunkin Donuts, the mother of all misspelled logos, glowing pink and orange, beckoning you with the warm gooey promise of a stomach ache accompanied by the special satisfaction given only by that unique texture of a Dunkin Donut. It was amazing to smell the Dunkin Donut coffee smell once again. What do they put in that "cream" that goes in the coffee?? It makes it smell pretty unique too. I'm not sure I want to know, but those aromas bring memories like nothing else.
Here are some pictures to capture the special Dunkin Donuts Day. Dave, the owner of this particular franchise, was more than happy to provide us with information on overnighting doughnuts to LA from Arizona. And we were told that he alone has a few clients who do so. My favorites are the chocolate frosted, boston creme, and the raspberry jelly, of course. I never thought I would eat doughnuts ever again, but knowing that there are NO Dunkin Donuts in Southern California made me had to have them. Mark and I brought home some extra doughnuts, and he brought them into work for his co-workers, most of whom are from New England. They were thrilled!

My Back Yard

This is a painting I did last week from the back alley behind my apartment. No lawn to mow, or weeding to do. Nope, but there is a wonderful lemon tree(not in painting) from which I covertly pick some lemons.

Wednesday night sketch class

After a week with no sketch class, it was so nice to get charcoal to paper! This was a gorgeous model named Laura, who was excellent. Even though I made her look like she was wearing a bikini, she was wearing a lacey lingerie style dress. And I didn't really get just how pretty she is either. If I had to choose just one thing to draw or paint, it would be portraits. All day, every day. I would be so happy!

Still Here

Yes, I am still here, and I apologize for not posting in a while. I guess I didn't want you to take me for granted! Last weekend Mark and I went to Sedona, AZ for a long weekend. It was so quiet, dark, and clean. The air didn't leave an oily residue like in Burbank. There were so many things that I was able to experience that I can't here in LA. We left Burbank at 5:45am Friday. Yes, 5:45. Sedona was so windy that we couldn't paint, so we took a nap and went out to eat. Mexican, of course! Then on the drive back to the hotel, there was a thunderstorm with HAIL!! Oh, wow! It never storms here in LA, so it was so cool! The next day, we painted and then hiked with our friends, Marc and Marianna, who drove up from Phoenix. We also spent a fun-filled Sunday and Monday in Phoenix at their house.
This is the first of many more posts about the trip!

Cato

Cato is a 2 year old 'smoke' cat. His fur is white underneath and black on top, and it looks so cool. And it shows off his gorgeous physique. Here are some of my favorite pics of Cato. He sleeps all curled up most of the time, and his activity of choice is bird-watching, chasing after the magic red dot that he can never catch, and singing for catnip.

A Day For Clouseau

Clouseau would like to share with you a typical day from his kitten hood. When he could manage to escape Cato's sneak attacks, Inspector Clouseau would find time for some relaxing yoga, or perhaps some pushups to develop his pecs, and of course, some opera singing, which he liked to perform for the birds outside. Yes, he was a very handsome kitten, who has turned into a very solid young man.

Painting

Mark has a new blog now! I think he is going to use it as a stricktly art blog. We went out painting yesterday, and it was a beautiful day! The only drawback was a sewer main nearby. I set up my easel far away from the offending sructure. Here is the study that I did of some eucalyptus trees. I love these trees, and luckily they are everywhere out here. I am not posting Mark's painting, because it is better than mine, and that will be obvious when they are side by side. You will have to keep checking his art blog to see his fantastic art.
We met up with Jennifer and William and a few other artists near Griffith Park. you would never know it from my painting, but I was right next to Interstate 5 and a bunch of soccer fields, right across from the La River(Gutter) and a factory.

Wednesday Night Sketch Class

Here is the portrait sketch I did last night at sketch class. She was a great model, and she had on a great costume, kinda like a 40's, waiting for the train thing. It was nice to study the textures, like wool and satin. I tried for a 'waiting' look, which I guess isn't too far away from the 'model stare' anyway!
I hope to show you the results from Saturday, going to do some plein air painting!

Bad Day

So I have had one of the worst days I've ever endured. First off let me say that I am not complaining. I have a blessed wonderful life, but happened to have some bad luck and bad karma today. Kato, here, illustrates my anguish. I am not sure why the forces of the universe have merged on my ass to release it's fury, but I hope that I have fulfilled my debts for a long while. I hope that I don't twitch at every turn for long. Here's a summary:
Weighed myself(what? how much? How did that happen? Oh, depression), parking tickets, boss's lost dog, found dog, caked-in mud-dog, washing crusty muddy dog in pouring rain, late for prepaid yoga class because of dog, and then one more thing happened that I can't mention, except to say that not even tequila would have helped me at that point. I became a trembling mass of patheticness.
But I do feel a lot better now, believe it or not. And tomorrow will be a wonderful day!!! Hey, I could be soooo much worse off. I know that 3/4 of the population of the world would love to have my tiny little problems.

New Stuff

So I recently bought a new hat at It's A Wrap, this boutique that sells clothes that were bought or made for TV shows and movies. Mark and I were looking for possible wedding clothes. I have to go back to see their wedding gowns, but I found this great hat from the Judging Amy show.
I took this picture with my new camera. I wanted to get a little cheap (if $150 is cheap?) camera that I could keep in my purse and bring out drinking with me. So now I have a new camera AND a new hat! Oh Boy!

Old drawing class

Last fall I took a sketch class at the LA Academy of Figurative Art, and I thought the class to be zombie-like. I think I was hoping for the lively bunch of folks I loved from New Haven. There were some very nice folks in the class, and the models were top-notch. But there was no energy in the class for me. I still might take a class there again for the great models and nice studios. As a school, the place has incredible instructors from which I will love to take a class once I have a bunch of money I don't know what to do with!
This is a sketch from that group. She was a trip of a person, and a fantastic model.