some of the walls

clocks, bowls, mail centers, bracelets, shelves.

wine cork bulletin boards, paper angels, pictures of chairs and stuff.

crazy beaded skull that i've been working on for two weeks. it's finished, entirely covered by beads, one bead at a time.

the road is long

wow, i've really neglected this blog. i am so addicted to Facebook that I forget to check back here.

I was sparring yesterday morning with my trainer and it was my first time. I like it but damn it's a workout. No wonder those boxers are dripping sweat and exhausted at the end of a three minute round. Well, I was channeling the Three Stooges in my mind (imagining I was doing the foot work, etc.) and then I did the 'ol circle the right glove in the air over his head and when he looked up, I jabbed him in the face with my left glove. He spit out his mouthguard and died laughing at me. I was doubled over laughing and the other girl in my class (who was on the bag) was cracking up. It was hilarious AND it got me out of about a minute of sparring because we laughed so hard the time ran out.

I have opened a little store in our downtown. It's very folksy/boho and I love it. The majority of items in the shop are repurposed hand made items like melted wine bottle cheese trays and cuff bracelets made from records. I have a big studio in the back of the shop and have been making message boards out of scraps of wire (picture clips), rusty wrenches (magnetic), and old bulletin boards (cut down into mini corkboards). I am liking them and sold one yesterday so that made me happy.
I have some talented friends who have contributed and I have hair clips made from old buttons, fused plastic bags (made from local grocery chains plastic bags), hand made paper angels and cute little reindeer made from an Osage Orange tree that fell in our local nature preserve. SO much more.
Also some fine art on display looking for a good home.


well, if anyone is still checking this blog....i'll post pictures later.

Poem for Monday the 29th

Monday, the 29th of September
nothing happened today that i will remember
you began with some rain
you ended quite plain
You are nothing compared t0 the 29th of November.

i have a dream...

my four year old son told me his dream the other night:

the boy: mom, i dreamed i was mustard last night.

me: what did you do as mustard?

the boy: someone squeezed me onto a hotdog and ate my whole body.

me: ouch, did that hurt?

the boy: nope they ate me up and then i was just invisible.


someone once told me that Freud said when you dream about eating mustard you are dreaming about eating your own shit. we used to laugh anytime someone wanted to eat mustard and say "you know what Freud says about mustard?"
i just looked it up and can't find anything about Freud saying that but they say mustard dreams are related financial stuff. hmmm

i think the boy just had a hot dog for lunch that day.

they're everywhere

I just experienced a "live chat" telemarketer. I made a room reservation at Super8 and as soon as I hit "reserve", a window popped open with a message that was directed at me. It asked if I was there and called me by name, I made the mistake of replying (because she tricked me and said that because I had made the reservation on the home site that I was going to get $20 off my reservation). "Jessica" continued to try and sell me the Super8 traveler plan or something. She typed that she would just go ahead and use my credit card that I used for my reservation and it would be all set up. I typed "NO" and she countered with more sales pitch. I typed "NO" again and she gave up and said "okay your card will not be charged and your account noted that you declined the offer." AND I didn't get the $20 off my room either.

Has anyone else experienced this yet?

misaligned planets

it's been a weird week. i keep telling people the planets must be out of whack because things just seem strange to me.

wednesday morning i got a phone call telling me that one of my brother's closest friends had shot himself in the head after an argument with his ex-wife. it upset me because this guy is really kind hearted and i know he has made some bad decisions but i like him. i did find out later that evening that he survived, he shot himself straight up through the chin and while he still has a rough road to recovery, he didn't have brain damage at least.

guns...i've never been a fan of them but have also never been a strong anti-gun person either. i grew up in the midwest, my dad was a hunter, my brother a hunter, uncles, etc.
my brother is "gun happy" and always has been though. It really is a wonder he didn't shoot something or someone (like me) when he was a teenager. He has an AK47 in his bedroom, about two years ago he made me shoot it off his back deck into the pond. I did not enjoy it. I can't help but think, if this guy had not had a gun handy, he would have just gotten pissed drunk and passed out. Of course, as Chimp pointed out, he could have walked in front of a train too.

I've been working out with a personal trainer. It's been two weeks (three days a week, so I guess it's really only been six sessions) and I really feel stronger and tighter. The scale has fluctuated between down 4lbs and the same as when I started, what is up with that? I sweat my butt off every workout, interval training, circuit training, and boxing (which i am loving). I just got finished with today's session and my arms are feeling weak after some bench presses and other upper body stuff.


It's rainy and chilly today. Too dreary for this time of year, seems more like late October. Blah.

what i learned in Reno and then some

1. flying over Salt Lake is amazing. the swirling agate patterns in the Earth were unexpected and I had to google it to see what I was looking at. A five year drought and salt flats. Hmmmm.

2. Reno is not as beautiful as Lake Tahoe.

3. Mineral make up is the best. (of course I recommend the Body Shop's version).

4. I have some ability with a golf club.

5. I can run up the down escalators without stopping or falling.

6. I still know how to bowl.

7. The air in Reno definitely messes with your head and body. There is no way five beers should have made me act like that.

and then some:

1. your blood sugar should be around 4 to 6 on the scale. if they say it's 14.1 then you are in bad shape.

2. it's a honking sort of day (my four year old declared).

3. an arched window with sunburst pattern looks much better than a plastic sheet stapled in place.

4. facebook is addicting

foreign exchange program

so stinkypaw has started this food swap. a few of us were invited to participate (the few, the brave, the lovers of snacks, candy, and comfort food).
the idea is to send her sweet treats or some other comfort food that can only be found in our particular area.
i struggled a bit at first because the only things i was coming up with were items that would be impossible to ship to canada. my ideas that got shot down.

Culvers. A fast food chain in the midwest that has the best cheeseburgers ever. "butter burgers." mmmmmm.

steak n shake. another fast food chain with very popular milk shakes and skinny french fries. i rarely eat at the steak n shake but the very first one (which they only recently tore down) was opened in a town just a few miles away.

the horseshoe sandwich. a sandwich that practically every restaurant in central Illinois claims to have invented. this sandwich can really only be found on menus in central illinois. it consists of two pieces of toasted bread served open faced. each slice of toast has a hamburger patty (some serve ham instead), then the meat is topped with a big ol' pile of french fries and the whole thing gets smothered in melted cheese sauce. might be pretty difficult to mail to stinkypaw.

deep dish pizza. i live near chicago after all. i actually am a thin crust girl. we have monical's pizza and the crust is so thin it's like crackers...i love it!


So, i finally decided on two product samplers that i think will ship okay. i'll have to pack them with a freezer pack just in case but i think they'll make it. I don't want to spill the beans of what i'm sending because i'm not sure what stinky is planning to do with the final project. i will say that one of the items is something made right here in my home town. the lady who makes it has a copyright on the recipe so no one else in the world can make it (so she tells me). and the other item is coveted by people across the nation who used to live in chicago and have moved away. it's one of those "must haves" to take home and stock pile.
I am also mailing Preppygirl one of those items since I know she'll appreciate it like no one else.


Now the trick is to keep Monkeybrigade and the kids OUT of my bag in the fridge.

where there is much light, the shadow is deep. goethe

this was at the museum of science and industry. you stand near the screen and your shadow interacts with the blobs. the kids loved it.

family portrait at navy pier

tagged by galoot

My ex...is eddie vedder. (of course that relationship was all a figment of my imagination)

Maybe I should... eat more vegetables.

I love... a freshly painted room.

People would say... "who's shannon?"

I don't understand... math.

When I wake up in the morning... i'm happy.

I lost... $200 in Las Vegas a few years ago.

Life is full of... choices.

My past is something... I prefer to block out.

I get annoyed when... my son makes raspberry sounds for 7 hours on a road trip.

Parties are... fun when I throw them. Toga party. July 11th. My house.

I wish... that all my favorite people would come to my toga party.

Dogs... are unpredictable and bite people.

Cats... poop a lot more than you would think.

Tomorrow...I am going to Ikea.

I have a low tolerance for... Katie Holmes' movies, green peppers, filthy rich celebs who want me to donate my money for their causes, bugs.

If I had a million dollars... remodel my house.

I'm totally terrified of... something bad happening to my children.

tag. YOU are it.

my door

I am part of a group of local artists who occasionally do some group projects for downtown. It's been a long time since we've done something and my ability and motivation was really tested. It is true "use it or lose it."
The "assignment" was to do something with a door which would be placed at various places in our downtown. "Doors of Downtown" was installed today and here is my finished piece.

I really struggled with my conception. My very first instinct was to do "knock knock" jokes (it's a DOOR, get it?) I groaned and then decided to do "Star Doors" and do some kind of Darth Vader type door. I thought about "Adoornment" which led to "AdornAment" and I was going to glue Christmas ornaments all over it. Groan again...I kept going back to the knock knock jokes and that is when I decided it would be clever to insert them into Superhero Comic strips.

Here is a close up of my Incredible Hulk sneezing strip. When it got put up, it became blocked by the lamp post. The entire backside is painted with chalkboard paint and I hung giant pieces of chalk so people could write down their own favorite knock knock jokes.
I'm going to have to make some trips downtown over the next few weeks to see what people have drawn or written on the door. I imagine there will be plenty of profanity and some rude comments, I'll take pictures and report back. That might be more clever than my door.

Backside of the door, this side faces the street.

other doors

these are doors for our downtown art project. these are just a few of the other artist's doors. maybe i'll post more of them later.


This door was a 3-D piece with a girl popping out the front. Her foot is also popping out the back side of the door. Then it's covered with newsprint. The artist who did this door is my "art idol", joanE ~ she can do anything.

Another door from joanE. This one is funny. It says "Thus creating a false sense of security" and it has numerous locks and bolts along with a peep hole. Just funny since it's a screen door.

This door is from another local artist named Barb. She does these amazing little sculptures and pictures from found objects. She primarily works with white. She did two doors, both with the theme of "Leonar Door DaVinci"

Click on this one for the close up. It's a good example of her found object creations. Several years ago we did a window with the theme "Water Water Everywhere..." It was a window installation featuring designs inspired by Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner and Barb's piece was a beautiful white on white albatross in a shadow box. (My contribution was hours upon hours upon hours of writing the entire poem which is very very long onto a long sleeve tee shirt. I used three shades of blue fabric pen and black marker and made the words into a raging sea that travelled across the shirt and sleeves)

sunday at duncan manor

This magnificent home is called Duncan Manor and it's huge and old and up until today
has been quite mysterious. It's located far up a looooong lane in the middle of nowhere.
It is so huge that it's easily seen from the highway though and I swear every person who lives around here has uttered these words when driving past:
"I would love to see what that house looks like on the inside."

For years it was rumored to have been part of the underground railroad. I have done my part to perpetuate this myth, only recently hearing the truth (that it was not built yet during the times when the underground railroad would have been effective.)

This home has sat empty for as long as i've been alive. A couple of months ago a couple purchased the house. The woman is the president of the local "Old House Society" and the husband is a contractor. They plan to restore it and make it their residence.
I read in the paper that due to such a huge response from local residents that they were going to offer tours of the home in the "before" stages.

We drove to a nearby school where a bus picked up all the curious people and paid our $10 per person. (The money was all being donated to the Old House Society). They did the tours two days and had hundreds of people go through the house.

In the bottom photo you can see the back of the house and the amazing open air patios between the two sections of home. There is one on the main floor and the second floor. This was the coolest thing about the house (close up photo on wikipedia). You walk from one bedroom out onto the patio and then into the master bedroom. All of the windows (something like 65) were ceiling to floor (10ft), of course they were all busted out and graffiti lined many of the walls but good bones are good bones.

Each bedroom had a massive ornamental fireplace, the doors in the parlor were still in tact and massive. Up the winding staircase there were niches with marble bases (can't believe they were still in perfect condition). There was a second staircase that was much more narrow (the servants stairs) and it went all the way up to the third floor. In the third floor attic (which a very cool room that the new owners son told me he wants to convert into his bedroom) was a ladder leading up to the roof balcony thing that can be seen in the top photo (that is the front of the home). We weren't allowed to go up the ladder for safety reasons.

The couple have said that they are going to offer another tour when the project is finished.

toothless, braless, garage sale

it's june again and the heat is here. it made it into the 90's yesterday. i'm not complaining about that (yet) though because it's been so cold here all "Spring."

my mom, neighbor, and i had a garage sale this past weekend. i sold a lot of crap...i mean...really great stuff. i cleared out some space in my garage, basement, attic, and closets and that feels good. i'm not crazy about getting ready for a garage sale but i actually enjoy having the sale itself. socializing and chatting with people all day, friends stop by because they see me sitting outside. donuts.
you also get the crazies. this year a toothless, braless woman purchased my mom's lounge chair (the patio chair that reclines) and then she bought a small table because that "would go perfect with it." she paid $6 for both items and carried it off to the end of my driveway where she had her BICYCLE waiting. her bike had one of those kit carriers attached to it and she pulled out some chains and rigged that table and chair up onto her bike and rode off.

my neighbor's husband sat with us for awhile and chatted. he was highly entertained by all the "lovely" ladies that a garage sale brings out. braless, toothless, dirty, scabby, sausage rolls, and yes, even one lady wearing an all crocheted petticoat and matching beanie hat.

we packed up and had a cookout. i played some after dark hide and seek with all the kids and that was lots of fun. when i came inside, i got drunk dialed by preppygirl. she and galoot were in cleveland with her brother and a friend to see kids in the hall. i told galoot that i was the coolest mom on the block (for playing hide and seek) and he informed me that preppygirl was the coolest mom on his cock. Niiiice.

yesterday

Real Life
spent the day sorting and cleaning out all the junk from my attic. my seven year old was happy because she made a haul. i tossed her several of my old sketch books, a pack of colored pencils, some reference books with animals, and a new in box keroppi the frog diary and wallet.

jude didn't fair quite as well, he only came out of the day with a Batman lunchbox that i had packed away.

i am not even close to having it all sorted out, i'll tackle the rest today and get my garage cleaned out next for my sale next weekend.

i also got my daughter's new fan/light combo hung up in her room (a half finished project from weeks ago). i hung up two shelves that i had found in the attic, one looks great in the boy's room for his favorite cars and hooks for his rubber snake.


Reality TV
I had to stop cleaning at 7pm to watch the big American Idol finale. What a disappointment. The whole boxing comparison was so cheesy and it made David Cook look like an ass (you could tell he was not comfortable with it). David A on the other hand looked perfectly happy to play along.

first song: Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, obviously it's a great song but David C is put at a big disadvantage when they give David A, Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me. I mean come on, that is a BIG song with a BIG payoff. The U2 song is a beautiful song but a much better choice would have been One, it's a bigger song with more power to it.
Now, David A's version of Sun was not even in the same ballpark as Clay Aiken's. I had to go and look it up on YouTube and watched it twice I liked it so much.

My vote for Round One? Clay Aiken

second song: WTF? make them sing the SAME song. DC could have sang the shit out of that ballad but do you think DA could have sang the "rock" song? no way.
Randy says that DA could "sing the phone book" at pretty much every judging, get a new line Randy. He could sing the phone book and you WOULD praise him because the show is rigged.

My vote for Round Two? nobody wins, those songs were cheese

third song: Oh David Cook...I have to agree with simon...wrong song (though a beautiful song) for this point in the competition. You didn't have to sing Billie Jean or Hello but another song with that kind of punch would have been better. David A....why does everyone think this version of Imagine is so great?? I don't get it, I don't like the runs (and joooiiiiinnnnn uuuuisssss) and the tone of his voice is kind of "tinny" not full and passionate as this song should be.

My vote for Round Three: David Cook.


and now....i've got to go watch some more clay aiken AI vids. ;)

Doors and Strippers and Aching Legs...oh my!

random experiences over the last few days:

The Door
My artsy friends are doing a project with our downtown development group. They asked me to design a Door (kind of like the cow thing). Each artist is going to design a door and they'll be hung up next to the lamp posts downtown. I went garage sale-ing and found a cool old door for $2 so now i have to complete my concept and execute in the next two weeks. I'll post pictures when they are done.
My concept is "knock knock jokes" SO, i am looking for some jokes, leave your fav. joke in my comments and it may make it onto my piece.




The Stripper
had an interesting Body Shop party. a group of nurses wanted to have a foot fun party along with a birthday party for one of their friends. i had about 16 women soaking their feet and doing shots. just as i finished my portion of the party they shut the lights out and and the police sirens whistled.

this young spiky haired guy comes in spouting corny stripper jokes about getting wet and finding some "crack" in her (the birthday girl) backside. he proceeded to "search" her with his flashlight and then did some kind of wheel barrow move on her. I need to say that these women are not young little co-eds, we are talking about soccer moms.

i finished up my paperwork and packed up and snuck out the back door before he got to me (he was going around to all the party guests and giving them each their own little dance....uh....i don't really need to be given a ride on party boy. one of the ladies still there happens to be an EMT with my husband, she told him the next day that i missed the "best" part when he got totally naked. According to sharon, he was very well endowed. UH, that was obvious from the banana hammock actually.


Aching Legs!
Saturday morning I got up early to go with my sister in law for a fundraiser walk. We were walking for the Champions for Children, (the Children's Advocacy Centers of Illinois). The walk was 10 miles and started in downtown Bloomington and we walked all the way to Towanda (I know that doesn't mean much to many of you but trust me, it's impressive that I made it the whole way in 3 hours).
It was technically 10.8 miles and by about the 7th mile, my legs were aching and my will to continue was waning. We were on old Rt 66 for most of this walk so there were no bathrooms or breaks. One of the guys I was walking with (who was from Chicago area) said "oh we are walking on the frontage road most of the way." Gulp, frontage road?? I had to laugh because around here the Mother Road is celebrated all summer long.
Anyway, Kathy and I finished up the walk and met up with the rest of the family at a mexican restaurant for an anniversary dinner for Monkey's parents. We were ready for some cold beers and some FOOD.

This morning I could barely move my legs. Yowza! Give me some advil and a massage.

SO excited about my new grass

Okay, I discovered this new "curly wurly" grass today and I am loving it.
It's crazy with curly q's.

holy moly paul showed up

what a surprise i had yesterday when my long lost friend showed up at my house out of the blue.

i went to high school with paul, we worked together at a shitty video store with a tyrant of a boss. then we went to art school together and had some great times.

paul is the kind of friend you love to hang out with because he laughs so full and hearty that it's contagious. you won't even have a clue what he is laughing at but you'll start laughing just watching him. it's awesome.
he had this tom cruise from the 80's thing going so the girls all fell madly in love with him. i tried making out with him once (okay, maybe twice) but it just didn't feel right, he is definitely more like a brother to me.

paul is the originator of such words as "infurious" as in "Preppygirl, you make me feel so infurious." we still use that word today in our little circle.

i last saw paul at my wedding almost 10 years ago and spoke to him on the phone about 2 years ago. i mailed he and his wife a christmas card that was returned so i thought he was lost for good.

so yesterday everyone was outside playing with the kids and doing yardwork, i went inside for something and my mom comes in and says "guess who's here? your long lost friend whom I love." well i said "it must be paul" because my mom has always adored him. paul was in town visiting his dad who was in town visiting his relatives (his dad currently lives in Pa.)

i brought paul inside and showed him my version of the refridgerator song. he and Mr. Social were the first to perform that little number back in college. he laughed at garypetersjr's videos and we called preppygirl so he could say "hello".

it was a great surprise.

diamond when it's rough

okay, i'm going to post about american idol like it really matters. my love for all things neil diamond dictates that i say something.
i don't care what anyone says, neil diamond is the shit.

i remember when i was really little and my mom went to see Johnathan Livingston Seagull and came home with the record. I loved it. I still love it.

I remember in my tormented college days being heartbroken and driving around blasting "Love on the Rocks". I hid the cassette when I picked up my friend Lee and he saw and it was like "fuck yeah, I love Neil Diamond."

Just a couple of years ago, Galoot and I sang a moving rendition (if I do say so myself) of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers."....i remember all the things you taught me. i learned how to laugh and i learned how to cry...well you think i could learn how to tell..you..good..bye.

As for last night's performances:
David Cook: decent, he's the only one i really enjoy watching anyway. i would have liked to see him do "girl, you'll be a woman soon." think the kids would have recognized it from Pulp Fiction.

Jason Castro: I actually thought "Forever in Blue Jeans" was perfect for him. It was a little low key but that is his style. Sept. Morn was not a good choice. He should have sang "The Story of My Life" or possibly "Red Red Wine."

Syesha: not my style.

Brook: i was really pulling for her but wtf? why would she "i'm a believer"? also, bad decision to change the lyrics from New York city born to Arizona (sorry Neil, don't think you thought that one through). "I am I said" is an amazing song, she did okay on that one. She's very Carole Kingish. Instead of believer she should have sang "BE" although it's on par with "I am I said."

David Archwhatever: I wanted to come through the television and punch him in the face. That arrangement of Sweet Caroline was a travesty. That song should make everyone want to get up and sing at the top of their lungs along with you. By contrast, Coming to America was the only song he could possibly sing (maybe he could have chosen that E.T. song). Most of Neil's songs are sexual and have a maturity that this kid is not capable of portraying.

what i think about...

the polygamist compound in texas:
i was blown away when my step father said that he did not think the government should have gone in and taken the kids and that they especially should not have the right to take their dna.
i think it's about time someone did something to help those children. it's one thing to say that they are being brainwashed about their religion (because really, aren't we all?) but those kids were being abused. they HAD to take their dna because everyone was lying about who's kids were whose. total craziness. like really..crazy people.
could you even imagine forcing your child to marry a man as old as her grandfather when she is just barely a teenager? who in their right mind could agree with that? i also watched a program where they said that there are many (like hundreds) of babies who die each year in those compounds because of incest and that they are just discarded without funeral or care. so sad for the babies and so sad for the children who bear them.

i am not however completely against polygamy. i'm not certain that i personally could live in a multiple marriage (because i could never SERVE and take orders from any one person) but i can see the appeal of having more than one mom and wife.

Muslim woman (defendant) suing judge who ordered her to remove her veil in court:
general law trumps religious laws. sorry about your luck lady, if your religion is that important to you then move somewhere that does not have laws that conflict with your religious beliefs. i feel the same about pretty much all of those "politically correct" lawsuits. again. general law trumps religious laws. they can't create a different set of laws for every person and what they believe. some people believe in human sacrifice as part of their religion...are we going to create a new set of rules for them?

Reverand Wright:
wow, hope all of you who were arguing with me about him can now see that he really is a hateful man. he said that what barack was doing was "just politics." isn't baracks entire campaign about him not being a typical politician? woah, he pissed off obama. hilarious. it's like wright didn't like being dissed and had to have the last word or something. his ego was wounded. i guess the chickens are coming home to roost. (seriously, what does that mean anyway? why is it bad to have your chickens come home?)

price of gas:
holy shit! it took $90 to fill my tank last week. it's like having a freaking boat! i'm so glad that the weather is getting nice and we can get out the bikes and start walking again.