A slew of creatures

I've been away for a few days, it's true, but I've been very productive.

Well, not very productive, but I haven't just been sitting around scratching me ass or anything. For example, today I managed to get (yes, another) haircut in an effort to make my hair one-length and theoretically easier to grow out gracefully. I was rewarded for my efforts by a hairdresser who was really really rough with the hair-combing and when she dusted the tiny hairs off my neck, it seemed like she was trying to whap my head off with a towel.

She was really angry at something, and I don't know what it was at all.

And now, you may meet those I have been making for the past week or so.

Here is a fellow I made for a guy I work with. He really liked my other ones so he asked me to make one that was like him. So, here's tall and skinny:



I got a cup of coffee out of the deal too. Sweet!



It's easier to see the "tall and skinny" thing from the side view. You may also note that he has slight upturns at the ends of his legs, denoting feet. That's a first, and I'll have to experiment more with the concept before I can get it really right. You can also see the angel-style wings I added. Those didn't attach as well as I wanted them to (I tried to attach them too close to one another), but overall, it's a nice effect.

• • • • •

Here's a little guy that's a variation on a theme I've been working on:



I like this one a lot better than the other ones I made, so I'm using him as a representative. Sadly, he is no longer with us, having been stuffed into Wil's pants. Again.

• • • • •

Our next guy is a squid I made for the Greek Girl's birthday. Happy birthday, GG! She quite enjoyed it, and said she would set squidy in her knitting basket with Lysianne, so they won't be lonesome or anything. Yay.

• • • • •

And last, but not least is my latest creation, of which I am most proud. It took a couple tries to get the head and "ears" right, but It finally worked out OK.

I call her Melinda:



She's got this really great circle head. I don't think you can see it in this picture, but I matched up the seam at the top of the circle perfectly so it's uninterrupted argyle all the way around and then down her sides.



Melinda also has these super awesome sailor tattoos on her buff buff arms. That's so you know not to mess with her when you meet her in some dark and vomity biker bar. Because she can take you for sure, geek boy! I also love her red twinkle toes and pointy tail. So great.

She looks like a Melinda, doesn't she?

Saturday Quest time.

Today was a loooooong day, made even longer by the fact that I stayed up waaaay too late last night to have worked early this morning. Woo.

So, worked, got a $25 B&BW GC, came home, planned to nap, but instead worked on a custom "Tasty Creature" assignment. Then, my PBG picked me up and we went off for adventures. We drove around sooooo much, it was awesome. I know I hate long commutes, but I love long scenic drives. They're a completely different creature, really. And my PBG loves to drive long scenic drives, so it all works out.

Took the long way to the 'Quah, where she satisfied her craving for FatBurger (I just had fries) and we decided Krispy Kreme would just be too much on top of that and bugged old workmates at the B&N. Shot the shit, drove up and over Cougar Mountain and took the long way home. By "long way home" I mean that we left shortly before 8 and I just got home five minutes ago. It's 10:22 p.m.

And People, the 'Quah is not two hours away from Federal Way. It is, tops, 45 minutes.

Unless you take the scenic route.

I discovered she had a Dispatch CD and PBG disclosed she had bought it and been addicted to "The General", but that she couldn't listen to it anymore because that one track skipped. I figured we should try it anyway and voila! It played beautifully.

We spent a good two hours wandering our way back home singing/hollering at the top of our lungs. It was really quite awesome. Woot.

Tongue Bat Strikes!

I made a new and improves bat/octopus yesterday. I give you...TONGUE-BAT!



All 8 tentacles and everything! Tongue-Bat (his temporary name) is a masterpiece!



Check out this awesome wing action with sweet swoops! Woo-ha! Got you all in check!



Tongue-Bat taunts Tentacles. Careful Tongue-Bat! Tentacles has fangs!

Holy Bat-Things!

I've been experimenting with wings. As a result, we have in our midst the first 1/2 bat-1/2 octopus creature to grace us. Meet Tentacles:



Tentacles (rhymes with Hercules) is often depressed because he doesn't have a lot of friends. He thinks it may be because he's funny looking. In reality, it's because he's ugly.

He is the most goth of all the creatures so far and thinks about death a lot. Here he is pretending to be passed on to another world.



Poor Tentacles.

Soctopus and Baby Inky

The rest of last week went as planned -- Got some sleep, did some work, dropped off Captain Stinky to his rightful owner (my pretty brown girl), watched Barbarella, etc.

Yesterday was a busy day, full of driving around. Most of that was to see J.G. and make sure he was doing well, and we also went to the Old Spaghetti Factory in Alderwood (cross that one off the list), where we discovered that you can't go home again. The Old S.F. just isn't at all as good as we remembered it -- the sauces were bland, the bread was sour, and everything was just really salty. Clearly we need to rethink the "Eating at all the Spaghetti Factories" plan.

We also rescued Wil from the zoo and we were rewarded with artichoke dip from the Santa Fe Cafe up on Phinney. There was also the watching of the first season 2 episode of Battlestar Galactica and the making of a most scrumptious, most expensive, most gigantic salad.

This salad, it was HUGE, over two pounds of spinach and greens mix, PLUS several shallots, an entire bulb of garlic, green onions, a big hunk of blue cheese, and a pound of chanterelles. The only thing that would have made it more delicious would have been doing the sauteing in rendered pork fat instead of olive oil, but I'm certainly not complaining. Yum.

This morning also brings us a new friend, the Soctopus:



Sprung from an idea I had while falling asleep on Saturday night, the Soctopus is everything I dreamed it would be. It is a palm-sized dearie from the depths of the green-blue sea. It is also fast friends with Baby Inky, the tiny squid I made a couple weeks ago:



Here they are sharing secrets and plotting. But what could they be plotting? Could it be . . . the demise of Claude? Well, maybe. It turns out that Baby Inky and the Soctopus make a very good team.



Sorry, Claude.

to the land of Ports

On Tuesday Bill and I went to Portland, the "Gateway to Oregon", unless you're approaching from the East...or the South...or the eastern side of the North...or, well, you get the picture. But it's definitely the gateway to oregon in you're approaching from the northwesterly area anyway.

Instead of re-creating everything here, I shall use my magic powers of .mac to publish all the photos of the adventure HERE instead. Because I am way to lazy to deal with formatting. Woot.

Not included in the photo essay are pictures of American Apparel, where Bill was in hip heaven and you aren't allowed to use the restroom, and any pictures of the hours we spent waiting for a flight. Still took about the same time as driving, in toto, I think, and definitely cost much less in terms of gas and such.

In other news, the Euro-Mexican Rachel has promised me a bag of taxidermy eyes. I'm really excited about that! She didn't specify the species (fish? mammal? cat? crow?), but I'm sure it will be wonderful regardless. Can't wait!

Lysianne! my Lysianne!

After work yesterday, we went to a surprise party for Dragon's partner, Bill Tinney. His wife, Mrs. Tinney, had invited dragons over the phone and since I was off work at 2, we would be able to make it in time for the 3:30 "Surprise!" part.

We showed up with ten minutes to spare. Unfortunately, Dragons were completely wrong, and the "Surprise!" was at 3 p.m. so we were hideously late instead. Alas. We had cake and ice cream and enjoyed his cat and delivered our present nevertheless, and went home.

And then we left again, to meet Wil at Zoka, where he had decided to dole out delicious free pie to everyone in the place. After another party member was collected, we headed to a place called Harvest Wine, where we enjoyed multifarious tapas and sweet wines aplenty before getting down to the business of playing Munchkin. Our fourth, Rachel, endeared herself to me by explaining that Greeks (such as herself) were the Mexicans of Europe, just as Filipinos are the Mexicans of Asia. As if she wasn't cute enough with her also loving lemurs.

She's apparently painting Wil this painting with a satellite and a squid in it, and I told her about my sock squid making and she asked me to make her a sock thing. So I made one this morning for her, a fashionable Lysianne:



Please note her most trendy argyle onesie and petite chapeau. They are haut coutour, you know. She doesn't just buy off the rack. Nosiree.



Hello, Lysianne!

Now that I think about it though, I'm not sure if in the context of the conversation she was asking for a general creature or a squid specifically. Hm. Well, I guess I'll find out later, right?

Besides, Lysianne is hot property. All the guy creatures are totally after her.



Unfortunately for Claude, she only has eyes for Kanga.

Maybe I shouldn't have said that?

Had a great day at work today. Ran some errands, went to a birthday party. Brought the birthday girl a mini-picnic basket full of mini picnic items. I told her that ironically (?) she would probably be eating her tiny biscuits with tiny champagne and get carried off by GIGANTIC picnic ants.

Have also been very busy with other things.

Like making squid out of socks.

Tiny Squid time!

I made a tiny squid to go with the giant squid. It was actually a bit easier. It was 2 and a 1/2 feet long. Cute. Dragons were duly impressed by my squiditude.

I signed up for one of those online DVD delivery services and put a five part series in my queue. Today I got my first two discs, parts 2 and 3. Jerks. I should get 1 tomorrow though, so no worries.

Last night was sushi! And Morrisey! Got to hang out with Bill, who I haven't seen since I left the bookstore, and dragons' old secretary, Keith. Wil introduced us to a place called Nishino (I think?) that was fabulously freshly delicious. Wonders. Also had a wee bit too much sake, which I didn't think as possible, really. Now I know better.

Birthday party to go to on Saturday. I think I will make attempt to make an equine-ish sock creature for the birthday girl, who is obsessed with My Little Pony. I've only recently begun making things that actually resemble other things, so it'll probably be a bit of a challenge. More updates later.

Cheese. Yum.

Yesterday we woke up really late in the day and went to a par-tay. We stayed up waaaaaaay too late, but did enjoy some of the Munchkin playing. And then proceeded to sleep in very late again today. I do have to get to bed at a decent hour tonight, as I have work in the morning. Yay.

Today was supposed to be the day for doing lots of cleaning, since company is coming over tomorrow, but I quickly derailed that plan with a lemury scheme I devised myself. In it, we had a light dinner and went to the Metro for some fancy cheeses. I do wish there was a real fromager nearby with zillions of cheese selections, like say, Who Cut The Cheese out on Maui, but the metro does well for our needs. We got ourselves a Malt Whiskey Cheddar (tasty, but a little too whiskey-ey for my taste), a Le Roulle (a garlic-herbed soft cheese--delicious!), and Lange Robiola, a three milk (sheep, goat, and cow) cheese that was very stinky, but much more subdued in the mouth.

We popped a bottle of wine and devoured our delightful captives.

Wonderful!

Architeuthis rex

As I was out of buttons and only had enough poly fiberfill left to make a tiny creature, we went to pick more up today. Dragons were very helpful in helping me select really cool eyes and gave me some neat ideas for future creatures. And the poly fiberfill was 1/2 price, so woot.

We also ran (and by "ran" I mean "drove") to the Target to pick up a couple essentials to make root beer floats (how else to enjoy a beautiful hot day?) and to see if they had any toe socks on clearance. What? You think I'm going to pay full price for socks I'm just going to cut up? As Oskar Schell would say, Jose.

Anyway, while running (driving) over there, Dragons came up with the brilliant idea for the best creature ever. Or at least it seemed at the time. It did not seem at all awesome when I was cursing halfway through making it. Anyway, you must be absolutely dying to know what it was, right?

Right-o. It was a giant squid — Architeuthis rex mundi. Although the title to this entry probably gave that away, right?

Right-o.

Again.

Anyway, we picked up a big bag of huge-ass tube socks and went on our way. I wanted to get dye to make the socks reddish, but they had no dye that anyone could successfully direct us to. Alas.

After finishing my chores for the day, I settled down and got to business. This involved actually busting out the sewing machine, as there was no way in hell I would sew that many tentacles and still have hands left. (My left hand cramps like a SLJ about halfway through making a regular creature.)

And here are dragons with the end result:



As you can see, my Architeuthis is a full 6 feet long, with respectably scaled body parts. For comparison, Dragons are 6'3" and I am 5'10", so it is even longer than I am.

A few very old friends may recall that we have a long and storied history with giant squid, including several appearances in Decorative Edison. To wit:



Plus, giant squid are just awesome. You may note that for better or worse, the likelihood that this strip will come true has now increased about tenfold.

What was I thinking?

Of course, the real trick is keeping the other creatures away from Rex Mundi and trouble.


Claude! How many times must I tell you to keep away? That'll teach you.

Mr. Shipley goes home

Today at Starbucks I thought I had discovered a new drink when the barista recommended a caffé misto based on what I said I wanted. When I told Dragons, he was all, "Um, that's just a cafe au lait." I felt so let down. Oh well. My new standing order will still be a grande soy caffé misto. It's delicious.

Speaking of delicious, we went to see a Wil last night, who insisted we bring Mr. Shipley along for a meet 'n greet. I made him a special fellow by the name of Captain Stinky, who featured a peg leg, peg tail, peg arms, and peg head. Also, a kickin' striped jumpsuit and hat ensemble. But he wanted nothing to so with Captain Stinky, and at the end of the night, it was Mr. Shipley that he chose to stuff down his pants.

Poor rejected Captain Stinky.



Here, Pismo consoles him as they hang out in the shadow of the giant pineapple. Pismo says, "At least you've still got your great fashion sense."

That's so true, Pismo. So true.

Red Robin employees kind of suck & other news flashes

I finally went out and socialized with my friend Lynn, the Pretty Brown Girl, this morning before she had to head off to work. We've been trying to hang out for a while, but with both our schedules being crazy, it's hard to coordinate. We had lunch at Red Robin, where the waitresses were hating on us.

Seriously. First the hostess offered to bring our drinks. PBG ordered iced coffee, and the hostess was really confused by the very concept, as though coffee couldn't possibly exist outside of the "hot" paradigm. Then they brought her coffee in a coffee mug with lipstick on it. Gross. Then the waitress didn't come back for forever. When she finally came to take our orders, she specifically asked if we wanted tartar sauce or blue cheese dressing or anything. PBG loves her some tartar sauce, so she asked for some of that. Waitress brought us two tubs of ranch instead. And the fries tasted weird. And we had to wait forever for extra napkins too.

I understand that we were eating at Red Robin, and not someplace nicer, but the whole thing was so sub-par that I would be embarrassed if I was the manager of that place. Plus I think the waitress got our checks mixed up, but I can't be sure because she didn't provide us with itemized receipts. Lame-o.

We had a good time regardless, just yakking about stuff, and decided to tackle some shopping after that. We went to the Nordstrom Rack, where wwe each bought a par of (different) silver shoes. People. I own a pair of silver shoes. I never thought I would see the day.

That accomplished, we hit Bath & BodyWorks (Hey! Tamarind scented moisturizer!), and a couple of clothing stores. I got this fabulous green satin dress. It's so silky, and the most forgiving bias-cut thing I have ever seen. The green is so Emerald is puts Ireland itself to shame. After that it was time for her to go to work, so we had to put an end to it.

That was the most fun I've had shopping in a long time. It was really great because I would pick something up in "my size" and it would fit great or be a little loose. I even bought la robe verte fabuleuse a size smaller. Excellent.

One more stupid

I was on a tear last night, so I whipped out another sock creature. Meet Mr. Shipley:



Mr. Shipley is a dapper sort of fellow and is sometimes pensive. I messed up majorly on one part of his pattern, but I bet you can't tell where. It'll be our secret.



Mr. Shipley has no official first name or middle name (but some people call him Space Cowboy or Maurice), but he does have this adorable nub of a tail. Awwww. It's a creature butt.



He also has these awesome fat eyestalks. Those were the dragon's idea. Super, eh?



And last but not least, Mr. Shipley has this weird penchant for tiny monkeys in fez caps. Here he is pretending this tiny monkey is his chapeau. We can all see that it is a monkey. You are not fooling us, Mr. Shipley!