Cheezeburger, medium

Had a strange and wonderful weekend, able to paint for 1.5 hours Saturday and 2 hours Sunday. Woah. I should just shoot myself now, cuz it ain’t gonna get any better than that! I’m kidding. If I were going to off myself, I’d arrange some kind of huge explosion, or get ahold of many excellent narcotics to do the job. But I digress, and am definitely not planning to end it all any time soon. I’m a mother, after all, and you don’t take children’s mama’s away from them, it just ain’t right. Plus, I don’t actually want to die. Not now. Too much unknown in my own life as well as the ladies’ lives. Better to just live the life out till the good health runs out. I’m still in relatively good shape. No need to be drastic!

Weird tangent. Balmer is rainy as hell. Bombastically so, and I’m kind of lovin’ it. There are some unbelievable trees outside that just started bursting the day before yesterday. The ones I can’t shut up about. The papier mache blooms, fluffy and pastel pink. Who came up with such a succulent tree? The tree’s branches are heavy with blooms and rain water at the moment. Nothing has blown off yet. The neighborhood is a pink snowstorm of pinky petals when it does happen. I am always sad when those trees lose their fantastic pink, but they wouldn’t be so fabulous if they always looked great. As it is, we get two or three weeks of loveliness before it blows away. I’ll take it and like it.

Girls and I went to Marko’s big sister, Emmeline’s birthday swaree this past Saturday. Girls all up in girly dresses, Marko kissin’ on ’em. A big ol’ love fest. Emme is 3.5 years older than Mimi and Beenie and they are 6 months older than Marko. The young’uns sat at a little table at the end of the big table, and the toddlers by far were the best behaved of the bunch. An impressive display. I was very proud when Marko’s grandparents said that the girls were well-behaved. That is quite a compliment coming from older peeps who are impressed by such things. They know from good behavior. I’m not so familiar with the concept– my own or anyone else’s.

Last night and again today at naptime, the ladies went down with no bottles. I didn’t bring it up and neither did they. Only when Beenie tried to extend the pre-nap festivities with the request for “more milk, mama” did the subject come up. I’m trying to get the incessant peeing to peeter out. There has been so much lately, I’m changing sheets one or two times a day, from Mimi especially, who removes pee pee diapers, throws them on the floor and then proceeds to piss on her bed, always in the same place. We are at a crossroads — just about potty trained, sort of, and then again, not, but nobody is quite ready to be moving around outside their bed or bedroom (‘cept me and babydaddy) in the middle of the night. Interesting conundrum. I’m speaking mainly of Mimi, who has really pursued this potty thing, whereas her older sister, who was initially all about the potty, has eschewed the concept unless completely necessary of late. She lost her interest. And has gotten quite lazy in general when it comes to self-sufficiency. She used to get dressed by herself, used to use the potty all the time. Now I’m the sucka who puts on her clothes and diapers. She is quite good at all of it, if I recall correctly. I guess she changed her mind. Being waited on isn’t so bad, eh, Queen Bean? We could all take a few lessons from Beenie.

I finished a painting this weekend that I’ve been working on since the fall. “Cheeseburger Landscape”, or, perhaps better titled, “Medium”. Medium is how my dear friend Arika likes her cheeseburgers, which is what we frequently eat when visiting with one another. She is moving to Madison, WI on Friday, which is where she is from. I will miss her terribly, but think it is very important she moves and gets a clean start in her life. Hopefully the painting can bring her some memory of our times together when she is frolicking through the sweet streets of Madison.

Also have been working on two Camera Morte paintings on wood panels. I’m enjoying the wood as a thing to paint on, and also like how different it is to paint on wood than it is on canvas. Neither is better, just different. My brother is commissioning a painting for a friend of his as a wedding gift… an octopus. I’m looking forward to starting this asap, as the wedding is coming up in late May. Should probably get up on that soon, eh? I’m thinking I’ll do an extensive acrylic under-painting, then do a few important layers of oil on top of that to cut down on drying time. Oil on wood could take a lifetime to cure.