We gotta go to the crappy town where I’m a hero! (4:29)

If you are a Browncoat and you have not seen this video of Adam Baldwin singing Hero of Canton, do yourself a favor and watch it now. I’ll wait for you to come back.

In case you have not figured it out by now, this mug is part of my Geek Dottery series.

So is this mug I painted for Jen from Following the Road a while back, at her request. The pineapple is a Chuck reference. Big surprise, right? You can watch this video and this video to get in on the joke.

Guys, I know kung fu. Even though there have been a lot of great moments in Seasons 3 and 4, sometimes I think back to the sheer awesomeness of Season 2 ending with that line, and wish that it had all stopped there and any further adventures of Chuck and Team Bartowski had been left up to my imagination.

I tried an experiment, painting that tiny pineapple, and wasn’t sure how it would turn out. I was so happy when it worked just like I wanted it to.

Madge requested that I paint another geeky mug for Fish’s birthday, this one an X-Files/Big Bang Theory mash-up. I tried to make the colors of the mug match the greens and dark blues and purples that I associate with X-Files.

This last mug isn’t geek dottery, except in that I painted it as a gift for my friend Elaine, whose blog’s brilliant tagline is “where geek meets granola.” She wrote this heartfelt post for her daughters about how she wants them to know that they owe kindness to everyone, first and foremost, but that it’s not okay for anyone to take advantage of that kindness to abuse or hurt them or treat them with disrespect. Hence, the inside of the mug:

Ahem. I’d like to point out that this is a direct quote from Elaine’s blog, which I used on a mug with her permission. (Man, I’m such a square. I can’t even cuss in a photo covered with asterisks on my own blog without feeling totally embarrassed about it.)

I didn’t make it to the monthly Ladies’ Night at my usual pottery studio this month, and I really missed it. I’ve been feeling fairly stressed out lately thanks to Troy working long hours leading up to a deadline and a pulled muscle in my neck and blah blah family blah homeschooling blah blah life in general. Nothing is wrong, exactly; it’s just one of those times when life is a little extra challenging, you know? On Saturday Troy told me to get out of the house for a couple of hours, so I went to paint at a local studio. I sat all by myself with paint and a Coke Zero and dotted to my heart’s content for 90 minutes. When I went home I felt much calmer.

Thank you to all of you who keep supporting my painting habit by asking me to paint you mugs and bowls and things! It helps keep me sane.

p.s. The Firefly mug at the top of this post is up for grabs! If anyone out there wants to buy it, let me know and I can stick it in my Etsy shop as a reserved order.

“Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s PARTY!’”
~Robin Williams

I made a poster once with this quote on it when I was an RA, and put it in the elevator lobby on our floor. My co-RA told me it was a terrible quote to put up during dead week on a college campus, that the last thing students needed was to be thinking about partying. He was cranky and serious when he told me that. I knew what he meant, but I still had to laugh. I don’t think there’s ever been a bad time to appreciate the miracle of renewal and color and bloom that is Spring—not even when you should be studying for finals.

“…our despair He turned to blazing joy.”
~John Geyer, “We Know That Christ Is Raised”

I’ve always loved that line. Blazing joy!

Happy Easter and a blessed Spring to you!

Do you know Jen? She blogged for a long time at a site whose name will not be mentioned, because she unfortunately ad-han an-ay alker-stay and she doesn’t want that to become a problem again. She’s blogging now at The Trephine and I am so very happy she is. Jen writes with humor and clarity and directness on a variety of topics—divorce, roller derby, veganism—and whatever the topic, she makes me think.

Her most recent post is about her experience during the past year with being poor, poor enough that she was worried about paying rent and changing her oil and buying food, and how she hopes the experience stays with her because it taught her empathy. I loved this:

“No matter your situation, happy holidays to you. If things are hard, I hope they get better soon. If things are better, I hope you share the wealth. If you have nothing else to give, at least be kind to the person bagging your groceries or waiting your table. None of us want to admit it, but we have at least occasionally thought to ourselves that the unprofessional, sullen woman filing her nails behind the counter for nine dollars an hour deserves to be where she is. Even if she does––even if the different strata the two of you exist in really are separated by a cushion consisting entirely of your merit as a person, which is so beyond debatable that it’s laughable to even contemplate––your life is likely infinitely better than hers, and you can afford a little patience and a little grace.”