(I was going to say "July already?" but I used that line last year)

I am not planning to go this year, I'll miss seeing the art, but can't afford the ticket price just to go see the art. I wish the artists in Artist Alley well. I wish I had more money to spend, I loved last year, sitckers were awesome.

Artscape is also this weekend, and they are already causing traffic jams by blocking bits of Mt royal ave. Luckily I can scoot through areas on my bike, but it still took me longer to get home today due to the other traffic trying to go ways they aren't used to going. Luckily I will be going through there early on Friday morning, so it shouldn't be too bad. Though who knows about the crowds on my way home. If all else fails I can walk my bike through the crowds.

Speaking of all this art, I am getting a bit cranky because I have been feeling the art urge, but haven't been feeling like I have the time to do art ( a few 9 hour days plus a 45 min bike ride home uphill in the heat do me in). I have a few pieces to finish, as well as a commission ( manga style!), and a few things for family.
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I wanted to take a moment to mention that my friend Cherri has a new business that she has worked very hard on, Remember Them Memorials, she makes custom memorial designs: [link]

From the site:
"What Is A CMD?

A Custom Memorial Design (CMD) is a one of a kind piece of art that tells a visual story about someone who has died. Although I started designing CMDs for bereaved parents, a CMD can be created to honor anyone. CMDs bring comfort to the bereaved and offer a way to honor loved ones who have passed on.

Each design includes the person's photograph, name, birth/death dates and other meaningful photographs or images melded together in a collage using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.

A CMD can be applied to a variety of products, such as;

•Window Clings
•Memorial T-Shirts
• Prints for framing
Previous customers have also posted the JPG image of their CMD to Blogs, memorial web sites, and profile signature images on support forums.

A CMD could also be used to create invitations for a memorial event."

Please check out her site, she does beautiful and touching work. It is a wonderful way to remember someone special.

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Crosstalk on phones can be annoying, especially when one is trying to make a call to ones family on ones birthday...and then the woman goes on about butterball turkeys and ignores one when one tries to get her attention.."Sir, you can press the buttons all you want, it won't bother me." Finally, calling verizon, to see if I could get anyone, and say " look, this woman is going on about her butter ball turkeys and ignores my husband and I when we politely try to ask her what her # is so that we can get this fixed .." but she hung up because the verizon menu apparently was too noisy for her . I heard something like "...is calling verizon, I'll call you back later".
I was able to chat with my family online, but it is nerve wracking to know that someone can be on the line listening, and maybe this explains all the times there is a call but when we pick up the phone after it rings there are just clicks (which is what happened right before the woman was on there talking about the turkey.) She was acting ignorant and rude, acting like we were doing this on purpose (my brother had tried calling in and encountered butterball turkey woman as well).

Sheesh, I didn't WANT to listen to her conversation, but trying to get a break in the conversation where she is droning on about a turkey, it was hard. There was other stuff as well(I was trying to not listen), but the turkey sticks... "Hello? Hello? can you hear me? I am trying to get a phone call from my family on my birthday...hello?"


Have a good rest of the July everyone. And Dang, I have to go to bed without doing any art...what the heck happens to the three hours after work anyways? Poof! I need to manage my time better.