Friday, December 31, 2010

12-31-2010



The roof the roof the roof is on fire, we didn't start the fire, burn baby burn...2010 went out with an explosive bang apparently. I don't really know what else to say about New Years Eve party pictures. I think I pretty much just covered everything you would expect. A countdown picture, (a whole night of) champaigne toasts, open container antics, dressed up girls, and pitstains. The only thing missing is kissin' pictures, but I'm too shy to post those.

...and that's it. Picture number three hundred and sixty-five of three hundred and sixty-five. I'm really surprised I made it all the way though the whole year with this many pictures.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

12-30-2010



They might be melted by tomorrow, but I've been waiting weeks for snowman snow. Nicole is naked in the picture above, here's one with her clothes on. Here's another one just because I'm so excited about snowmen. Really excited.

Here's an inappropriate looking picture of my coworker popping bottles at work today. I can't believe the year is almost over.

12-29-2010



Do you remember the commercials where they ate the pizza backwards like that? Advertising works. Nicole and I don't even like Pizza Hut, but we saw a commercial on TV and had to have stuffed crust. Then we started watching this on TV before working some more on the dollhouse (the real one, not the show on TV).

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

12-28-2010



Microsoft Windows 2000.

12-27-2010



We're on a mission to make my niece Baby Lily the youngest home owner in her neighborhood. We're turning this into this into these.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

12-26-2010



I love breakfast. Nicole loves Anthropologie and wasted no time to use her gift cards. I climbed mountains and found a jackalope. The farmer's vegetable stand is closed, and Christmas is over.

12-25-2010



Christmas is here. Snowman version of me is so baller, he has a gold chain with a snowman version of him on it. We woke up and opened presents at our house, then loaded up our sleigh with presents and went to have brunch and spend the day at Nicole's parent's. Then I did a bad job documenting, and a better job participating in the rest of the day's activities.

12-24-2010



It's Christmas Eve! Nicole made us a delicious and festive lunch of Tofurkey and cookies. Then we went exploring on the planet Hoth, added to my growing fancy booze collection, and went to church with my parents. Mushroom demanded to know where her presents were, so we let the cats have their new bed/house/scratching thing present after midnight.

Friday, December 24, 2010

12-23-2010



Nicole looks very excited that Christmas is almost here. Here's something very Christmas, and something not Christmas at all.

I took holiday pictures of all the creatures living in my house.

Red
Green
Snakeskin

Film is more fun. Look at this.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

12-22-2010



Random mysterious deserts spontaneously appearing everywhere and begging to be eaten is one of the best/worst aspects of Christmas time. Today, a giant tray full of every kind of baklava ever showed up on the free counter at work. At first, I dissected bite sized bits so I could try a little of all of them...by the end of the night, I was pretty much eating by the handful.

This is what presents see.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

12-21-2010



These pictures probably belong more for yesterday than today, but whatever...it's my blog and I do what I wanna. Last night/wayyy too early this morning, I set multiple alarms to wake myself up throughout various stages of the night to see the "big deal, once in the last 372 years, most amazing thing ever" solstice lunar eclipse. After dragging myself out of bed multiple times to sit in the snow for hours waiting to see the total eclipse and watch the moon magically turn red, I really just found out what a solid cloud sky looks like at four in the morning when you can no longer feel your legs.

P.s. I know there's a good Twilight joke about waiting all night in the cold to see a big let down called Eclipse in here somewhere, but I'm too bitter about the whole situation to make it funny.

P.p.s The obsessive organizer in me wants to group these moon shots with the other ones I took on 1-29 and 10-20.

Monday, December 20, 2010

12-20-2010



In 2010, Amazon.com is the North Pole, Santa Claus ditched the sleigh for a big brown UPS van, and I get little kid excited coming home to neatly wrapped (cardboard) boxes in my driveway.

Here's another seed pod update (see 11-22). I thought it was buried and gone from the snow plows, but it's still hanging in there.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

12-19-2010



We went to dinner with my parents, and I reclaimed (stole) some more of my grandfather's camera equipment from their house. I can't even wait to use this crazy looking thing.

12-18-2010



We went to see my friend Steve's show opening in a converted (reclaimed?) gallery/studio space that used to be an old warehouse. It was pretty much amazing. I would describe the building as having a lot of character. The basement was even crazier. It looked like the inspiration for a super creepy axe murderer horror movie. I think I could even play the villain. I love it there. I really want to go back to take more pictures sometime.

Here's a far less creepy picture of Sienna because I think it's cute.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

12-17-2010



Tonight Nicole and I went to go see Clemens, a band made up of people we went to high school/college with. We used to go to their shows all the time, but it's been about five years since the last time we saw them play. To make it even better they were opening for Hawthorne Heights, a band I developed an embarrassing fondness for, again probably about five years ago. Both bands brought back a bunch of good memories and were a lot of fun to see live. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the show.

Hawthorne Heights
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine

Clemens
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six

Thursday, December 16, 2010

12-16-2010



Nicole and I are really going for it this Christmas. We got all dressed up to make a snowman, but the snow was too powdery and wouldn't stick together. So we made these instead.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

12-15-2010



Nicole decorated the Christmas tree tonight. Since this is our cat Mushroom's first Christmas living in our house, she was eager to help while Sienna just watched. The skunk that lived at our house last winter has his very own ornament, but we're glad he's not living here this year.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Monday, December 13, 2010

12-13-2010



I got a text this morning telling me to work from home today since outside looked like Antarctica. It's in contention for one of the best texts I've ever received. I'm not even complaining that I had to work extra hours tonight since I got to wear my pajamas all day and hang out with my cats.

After "work," I took it as a perfect opportunity to stay home and drink scotch since the snow had us buried alive. Now if you're familiar with my eating habits, you know that I eat like a 12 year old with no parents, but tonight was extra inspired. We made V For Vendetta-esque eggs in a basket...with hot dog buns. Don't laugh too much though, they were delicious and we totally had a party.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

12-12-2010



All good things...

R.I.P. Handlebarz
10-17 - 12-12

12-11-2010



The gallery show that I've been painting for opened in Columbus tonight. I did a horrible job documenting because I was too busy actually being involved in what was going on and being kind of freaked out and drinking way too much coffee. Here are a few shots I collected while walking around though. Kanye West bicycle (All of the Lights get it?). I'm attracted to clusters of things like this collection of hot sauces. Have you ever wondered what a bar full of Santas looks like?

Friday, December 10, 2010

12-10-2010



So I have a problem. A serious, bad, in-need-of-rehab, "I can't stop buying things off of Craigslist no matter how hard I try" problem. I'm blaming it on all the Treasure Pawn Pickers On A Roadshow shows that I watch, but really I think I'm just still obsessed with getting new toys. And now I don't have any parents to tell me that I already have enough G.I. Joes and make me stop anymore. So today, I fed my addiction and bought an original, unchanged since 1981 PK Ripper. I still kind of can't believe I own something this awesome. It's like a piece of 30 year old BMX history sitting in my house now.

In other news, I finished my paintings tonight. They're going to be in an opening tomorrow night, but I'll give the two of you that actually read this blog a sneak peek.

One
Two
Three
Four
Five

12-9-2010



Nicole's carnivorous plant terrarium that she got for her birthday in March is doing pretty well (at least the Hooded Pitcher Plants are, they're the only ones that grew at all). I like that they're carnivorous and it looks like they have little mouths. Here are some of their baby pictures from 4-26 and 8-17.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

12-8-2010



...it's work related. No, really.

This would be kind of pretty to wake up to if I didn't know that it meant multiplying my commute to work times four. It's even worse when the parking lot looks like this when I'm leaving work.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

12-7-2010



We chased this cat around the entire parking lot after dinner. I named him Peepers. He lives outside of the saddest, loneliest Mongolian Barbecue ever.

Monday, December 6, 2010

12-6-2010



So I kind of posted about it already, but yesterday we got an antique Sonora phonograph at an estate sale for the price of a bad dinner. It's the kind in a big cabinet that you hand crank to make work. It even came with a bunch of old gramophone records that we've been listening to. Specifically pertinent to Nicole's interests is a song about cats. Our house now sounds like someone's grandparents live here.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

12-5-2010



Today I loaded the Fuji Sensia 100 slide film I got yesterday into my Leica M4 and went exploring with Nicole. These are all random cross processed shots from today with no editing/photoshop/whatever. I'm pretty happy with how they came out.

Every good Sunday starts with brunch.
Bloody Mary hot sauce bar.
Instructions.
Country, State, and City.
We randomly went to an estate sale.
Look, a record player.
We need a bigger trunk.
Veranda.
Really Cleveland.
See, Cleveland.
Cuyahoga.
Cracks and drips.
Boards.
More boards.
Boards coming soon?
Or maybe urban renewal.
But probably boards and no copper pipes.
Maybe Jesus can save Cleveland.
He has a lot of work to do.
This looks a little apocalyptic.
But it's really one of my favorite places in the whole city.
Favorite flame.
Favorite.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

12-4-2010



Have you had a morning bun from Starbucks? Ask them to warm it up first, it's pretty much the best way to start a lazy, do-nothing-important Saturday. We went looking around for things in places we don't normally...or probably shouldn't ever go. Then we did some Christmas shopping for ourselves. I like cylindrical things that come in boxes.

12-3-2010



I took another Friday off work to day drink paint. This is a habit I could definitely get used to.

If you know me at all, you know that I'm pretty much crazy and obsessive compulsive, but only about really weird things. At the beginning of the year, I determined that I would eat every one of the monthly special sandwiches at Melt for the whole year. In addition to these monthly specials, they started doing weekend specials in honor of certain movies playing at local indie theaters...I decided to eat all of these too. Tonight, I completed my mission with the December sandwich and the Big Lebowski themed (vegetarian) meatball with fried mozzarella cheese stick sandwich.* It even came with another plastic toy to put on my desk at work.

*I feel the need to mention that Nicole and I shared and only ate halves at a time.

Friday, December 3, 2010

12-2-2010



He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (7-8) came back to town for the first time tonight to make this city look bad all over again (He's those blurry blobs on the TV). So to celebrate the occasion, I poured myself an extra tall pour and went to paint in the basement instead of watching. Sienna just lounged around. The paintings are starting to come around. I'm now somewhat optimistic about actually finishing them before the show.

Earlier today, I lunched with The Eye of Sauron from Lord of the Rings. That's two fantasy novel/movie references in one post if you're counting.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

12-1-2010



I'm under the impression that terms like "winter wonderland" and "Christmas spirit" are really just coping mechanisms people use in an attempt to negate how absolutely horrible cold and snow really are. In the continuation of this theory, I'm pretty sure early decorations are the next manifestation of this psycho-climatological disorder, and extra excessive, over the top decorators are really people living on the brink of complete weather inspired mental breakdown.

P.s. I really do love Christmas time, I just really really hate cold weather.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

11-30-2010



Remember the bike I got on 8-24? After months of Craigslist and eBay hunting, I finally got a pair of the black GT mags I've been wanting to put on it since I bought it. Considering I never win anything on eBay, I was pretty happy to win these. The bike looks much fancier now.

In other news, the 25¢ vending machine gifted me a mini-matching monkey to live on my monitor with my other plastic toys.

In other other news, there's only one more month left for this 365 picture project. I really can't believe I've made it this far. We'll see if I even attempt to make it a 730 picture project...

Monday, November 29, 2010

11-29-2010



Oh, hi! We're tearing apart (and vandalizing) our house again. Hopefully you'll see why soon.

Now I probably shouldn't be doing this, much less posting about it, but I think it's fun so I'm going to anyway. I was getting super bummed out about it getting so dark before I get out of work at this time of year. That is, until I discovered a new game called "Voyeurism." I noticed that my new lens can see super far and into the lit up windows of the office across the street. Have you ever seen the movie Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock? I'm pretty sure I'll eventually see a shooting or at least a fight or something if I keep playing. I'll be sure to post pictures when I do.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

11-28-2010



I almost took a good picture today. Hopefully I'll be more ready next time we see a giant deer running at full speed down the highway along with traffic. That happens a lot right?

Today, we also saw Harry Potter, an old woman flossing her teeth with both hands while doing 65mph, and this store.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

11-27-2010



Still painting frantically, I started my color layers today. Then we got dressed up to have second Thanksgiving at my family's. My family has a strong resemblance of features. I think it's something right under my nose but I'm not quite sure what. Second Thanksgiving had everything again. I had everything again.

Friday, November 26, 2010

11-26-2010



Black Friday is gross. Nicole and I did our best to avoid ravenous soccer moms beating each other up over $6 DVDs (though that would have made for better pictures), and went shopping in places where they sell fish with antlers.

At the beginning of the year when I was first getting used to not eating meat, all I ever wanted was grilled cheese. Now at the end of the year, all I ever want to eat is eggrolls. I feel proud of the fact that I've discovered the two most unhealthy vegetarian foods on the planet.

11-25-2010



Nicole made these sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving, then we went to her parents so she could help make dinner. This is what her dinner-making outfit looks like. This is what the saying "too many cooks in the kitchen" looks like. I just uselessly sat in the kitchen and watched the grown-ups cook the turkey and cut it up with an electric turkey saw. Since Thanksgiving is so much about the turkey, I decided to cheat today and eat meat without being guilty. Really, I decided to eat everything and not be guilty. See, everything. Then we drove home to teach Mushroom to be thankful for turkey.

P.s. I was not a part of that line of yahoos camping on the sidewalk in front of Best Buy in the rain. We just drove by to make fun of them and take pictures.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

11-24-2010



I took the day off work today to paint all day in preparation for the show I'm in next month.

After Nicole got home, we reenacted one of my high school rituals of eating a ton of Taco Bell in the theater parking lot before going to a see a movie. We saw the new Disney movie Tangled which Nicole loved. There were even children so elated by the movie that they were dancing in the aisles as the credits rolled (super cute). I considered it, but I think I would have had a very difficult time explaining to their parents why a strange man with a moustache was taking pictures of their children at a kid's movie and what a "blog" meant.

Finally, Cleveland has very few things to be proud of, so when we have something even halfway good everyone goes crazy over it. Great Lakes Brewery's Christmas Ale is one such craze-initiating Cleveland thing to be proud of. As a non-beer drinker, I never really got into the hype, but gave it a fair shot tonight when we went to said brewery with friends (Hi, Gina). Yay! Wooo! At least I can palate this one, but I still think beer taste like stale bread water. Go Cleveland!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Monday, November 22, 2010

11-22-2010



The super evil looking pod still looks super evil...especially at night.

(See 10-4, 10-13, and 10-26 if you have no idea what this is about).

11-21-2010



Although a topic of debate for the the last thirty years, it's still not dead.

This is do-whatever-creative-stuff-you-want Craft Night at my house with Tony and Barb. We drawed, painted (yes, I use a plate), clay animal maked, and filled an entire bottle with candy wrappers...all set to the best soundtrack ever. I don't think I've ever linked to other websites on here before, but check out tonypretomusic.tumblr.com and feel jealous that my painting sessions in my basement get a live set from a DJ this awesome.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

11-20-2010



Remember the ring Nicole got in LA on 9-25 and the picture I took on 10-6? They've joined forces to create the nerdiest/cutest/awesomest cat super power ring ever.

I know I blog about/eat at Melt wayyyy too much for my own health and well being, but Nicole got this special Turducken sandwich that they have this weekend only. That's turkey, duck, chicken and bread stuffing grilled cheese, and probably illegal in most civilized nations.

Speaking of other things I do too much regardless of my health and well being, last weekend I posted about Four Loko (which has since been banned by the FDA). To make up for my trashiness, here's the ultra fancy drink of this weekend. Single malt, Cask Strength, OMGZ-best-Scotch-I've-ever-had-this-is-going-to-be-a-good-night-whisky-hooray!

My "because no one is making me wear them" tie collection is growing with $5 vintage ties from the 60s.

Friday, November 19, 2010

11-19-2010



I'm posting this as an extra picture instead of the main one, because I'm really hoping that my day will improve and that a yellow icecube coming out of the dispenser at work isn't the best picture I take all day, but grosss outttt!

So my day did get better thanks to Nicole's craving of Chinese food. A few days ago, I told her about a place I went to for lunch that put mushrooms in its vegetable eggrolls (pretty much the next step in the evolutionary chain of eggrolls), and she's been wanting to go there ever since. In addition to the mushroom eggrolls, they also advertise a vegetarian hot and sour soup (though after looking at hot and sour soup recipies, I'm beginning to suspect false advertising). Regardless, as a non meat-eating person, it's very difficult to find soup that isn't made out of a meat stock so it's very exciting to find places that have soups I can eat.

After dinner, we went to walk around the near by bookstore and have little-kid-quality fun. Inspired by Nicole's super weird fortune cookie fortune, we found a random book on the shelves and left a small note for whoever ends up buying the book. This probably seems really lame to read, but was way more fun than it sounds.

Also, since I have a t-shirt and jeans kind of job, I've been wearing ties just for fun on the weekends. This is only partially inspired by the movie Up.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

11-18-2010



Yesterday, my moustache turned one month old, so I bought it a present. It's grown a ton since 10-17.

This is a sad lonely chocolate covered donut that someone put on the free counter at work. It was there all day and no one wanted to eat it. Its existence initiated a discussion about what type of inside was under the chocolate coating. I naturally assumed it was that dry yellow-cakey inside, but my coworkers seemed to think that it would be chocolate inside and out. Of course, the only solution to this sort of disagreement to make wagers before cutting the donut open to see who was right. The next step of course is to take humiliating photographs of my coworkers doing laps around the office and akwardly doing push ups in the middle of the floor for losing the bet...then posting them on the internet. It was such a good time we that started making more bets involving physical activity as punishment like shooting dry erase markers with a Nerf dart gun. The moral of this story is that my job is pretty much better than yours.

P.s. I had two computers rendering at the same time though the whole office Olympics...I really do work too.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

11-16-2010



The place where I work is "interesting" in a lot of ways. This office is one of my favorite most interesting parts. Not even exaggerating, a lot of the electronics randomly strewn about were worth luxury car/house money when they were brand new.

Monday, November 15, 2010

11-15-2010



The Pizza Hut buffet is a hallowed and unholy lunch time tradition of deliciousness and gluttony. Here are three good ways to get there.

P.s. I can no longer even think about pizza without this Youtube song getting stuck in my head, so I'm spreading this curse around to anyone who reads this (like The Ring, but way creepier). Beware though...this really will haunt your dreams for the rest of your life.

11-14-2010



I don't really spray paint and take pictures, but my moustache may or may not be a permanent fixture at a local skate park now.

This is the perfect end to a very good weekend.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

11-13-2010



So today, Nicole and I went shopping for new fall shoes/boots/stuff. Recently I've been really into dressing kind of boarding school fake preppy so I got some penny loafers. According to the internet, for good luck, you're supposed to put a penny from your birth year in one side and a penny from the year you got the shoes in the other.

Then we went to Charlie's photography show and to see Jesse's paintings with friends. Woody was very excited about the tips/shot money he collected for the after party. A lot of people were excited about the after party and all the manly activites that it entailed. Like going to the gay bar down the street. Woody liked it, Victor not so much.

11-12-2010



We went to a local design company's open house show to go snoop around and see their cool custom designed studio space, but we got there a little too early and it's kind of awkward snooping around when you're the only people at the show. So naturally, we just ran away down the street to the Happy Dog for dinner.

Luckily, my fried Matthew's band Running just so happened to be in town and playing at a party house/show space called The Cool Ranch. Now I know I've previously ranted about my love of divey hole in the wall concert venues as opposed to nice clean ones like the House of Blues (I think this was brought on last time Matthew was in town actually). House shows are even better. Instead of having to deal with a cash bar, you get to do fun things like get booze from a gas station on the way and drink out of bags like a homeless person. My gas station selection was a Blue Raspberry Four Loko. Touted as a "blackout in a can" college student killer, and on the verge of being pulled from the shelves/already illegal in some states, I thought that this energy drink with booze in it would a perfect pairing for the occasion. Unfortunately, I failed to consider how much sugar (60 grams) they put in the stuff. Although the alcohol, caffeine, and other nasty stuff did their best to make me loko, I think my high blood sugar issues directly canceled any and all effects and I might as well have drank a bottle of neon blue colored water. At least the show was a blast.

P.s. Lou Dobkins seconds the motion that the House of Blues sucks, and that girl watches Adventure Time so we all know that she can't be wrong.