Goofin' around

Thought I'd share the image I created for my capitol one credit card.  They allow  you to upload your own image for  your card, so I decided to give it a go.

It is a compilation of photos that I took in Las Vegas.  In case  you could not tell, Vegas is one of my favorite places to visit.

That is my sister Darlene down in the lower right corner. We were playing nickel slots at the old Fitz, on Fremont street. We like the machines there because they pay out in coins, and it is just so  much more fun to  hear the coins clanging into the tray when  you win.

Rain Rain Go Away

Rainy days - who doesn't love them?  The misting drizzle this morning was a beautiful backdrop to my breakfast on the screen porch.  it is so quiet in my backyard, the sound of the rain falling through the woods behind the  house is a melodic soundtrack to a relaxing sunday spent reading from my collection of old Calvin and Hobbes treasuries.  Still one of my all time favorites after all these years. 

Anyway, the relaxing morning turned into an afternoon of mud, sweat and tears. You see, I live at the bottom a hill. Whnver it rains a lot, it comes down my driveway, into a dry creek bed and around the back of my patio.  At least that is what is supposed to happen.  Occasionally, when we get lots of rain, it backs up into my back yard, overflows the patio and screen porch and floods the swimming pool. 

So, in the middle of all the rain we had today, I put on  my boots and dug two draining ditches, built a mud levee and dredged out the existing channel.  Hopefully, no  more flooding. 

When I started, this area was completely under water, just like the older photos. I guess it doesn't look like much in the photo, but that is about 3 hours of backbreaking shoveling.   Not the prettiest engineering in the world, but I bet the next three days of rain forecast will not flood my pool again.   And after it dries up, I guess I'd better get back out there and make it look pretty.   

Intention of 5 meters is chosen high.

Nighttime again. I am sitting outside listening to the crickets and frogs.

It's been a long day. I had a critique meeting at 6:30 am  we usually do on fridays.

Our team is preparing to go to the Orient for product development and to meet with some of our vendors. It is a very busy time in the art dept, after our  critique the entire collection of artists went to work collecting  and organize all of the art files and reference materials the travel team was to carry along. 

It is a lot of artwork, computers, a printer, supplies plus enough to live out of a small suitcase for two to three weeks. I do not envy them this job, it is an exhausting endeavor. The plane ride is 22-23 hours. Then travel in country can be hours more in vans or small planes. China is a vast land, the factories and showrooms scattered throughout mountainous terrain or packed into crowded cities. 

In Guangzhou, where we visited the Canton Fair, there are highways stacked three and four high - five or six stories high. It was pretty scary for me to look out the window of the smoke belching bus I was on and see that the guardrail on the elevated highway was several feet below my window. I don't even like driving on bridges, so you can imagine my terror at riding for miles on an elevated roadbed. Good view from up there, though. You can see right down into the backyards and courtyards and parking areas of building after tenement apartment after brand new highrise. The city of Guangzhou goes on for miles and miles. And more miles. On elevated highways.

My trip to China is something I will never forget. Screaming through the Shanghai night in the back seat of a taxi, sketching out plush penguins for a vendor meeting the next day is pure adrenalin. So many exciting and strangely wonderous things to see. So interesting to visit factories and see where the products are made.

Anyway, we got everything squared away for the trip. I worked 5 hours overtime this week (salaried) but walked out of there finally knowing that the task is done. The team heads for the airport Monday morning and the art dept will get back to normal.

Until they return...

oh, and if you are wondering  about the title of this post.... I have no idea what it means.