Best husband ever!

For the last few weeks, Rob kept mentioning how he had a "surprise" for me, but he needed some time to work on it. I wasn't expecting much. In fact, the last time Rob had a "surprise" that he had to "work on", I ended up with a life-size Rob doll.

So last Friday, when Rob received the phone call from school letting him know he had a snow day, he told me that he'd have time to finish my surprise. (I was still bitter that he had the day off.)

Anyway, when I get home from work, he escorts me into my office (craft lab), where I see this sight:


He had constructed a miniature guitar out of cardboard, paper, string, and really sloppy double sided tape! It was so adorable! And yet, I wondered to myself, "what the heck is this?" Then, taped above the little guitar was a notecard with a name, phone number, and "eight 30 minute guitar lessons." He had researched a guitar teacher so that I could get on my way to becoming the rock star I always knew I was!! (See previous blog ramblings.)

Is that not the sweetest thing or what??

I've been robbed! Help!!

Remember how I made that graphic for my possible "Indie Rock Prom" a few weeks ago? (Refresh your memory.) Well, a friend of mine from the HOW Design forum sent me a message to let me know that he saw my graphic in a free local newspaper. I wasn't really sure what to think, but when he scanned in the article for me to see, I started to get a little upset!

Check it out:


Article on left, my image on right.

So there's no doubt that they just took my image and used it. It hasn't been changed in the least. My question now is, "What do I do?" Should I contact the newspaper? Should I just blow it off because it's not that big of a deal? Should I be flattered that they liked my kick-ass graphic and used it without my permission??? Help me!

Initiate Freak Out Mode

This is my whiteboard on drugs.


That, my friends, is my to-do list at work. I am sweating profusely and it's not because of the heat my ginormous printer expels. How am I going to do this and somehow keep my sanity?

I'm embarrassed.

Want to know what I did tonight? (C'mon Melissa, you can tell them.) Alright, I admit it. I took down my Christmas tree. Yes, I know it's February 11th. Actually, I've been worse in years past. But the owner of the house where we're temporarily staying has been letting in potential buyers, and I felt like such a loser, so I sucked it up and took the damn thing down.

In other home news, we stopped by the new place this weekend. They told us they are targeting a closing date of mid to late April. Seems like each time we talk to them it's a little bit later. I think I should stop asking!

Not too much different than last time, but there's some vinyl siding up. And a fireplace and bathtub! Woot!


You know what's amazing? Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream from Halo Pub in Princeton. I bought a pint last Monday and I'm trying to make it last as long as possible.

Another Thursday Sketch

I've been dying to sketch again since I had such a great time last Thursday. Unfortunately my schedule has been booked solid every day since then, so I've been anxiously awaiting tonight! I couldn't stop thinking about it. But it turned out to be a rough day at work, so by the time I got home I was pooped.

However, not even the urge to take a nap could stop me tonight! So I put on some good music and plopped onto my futon. I don't think I like the result as much as last week's drawing. I'm sure I rushed through it since I was so sleepy. But any practice is good practice.

Go Giants, I Guess

Anyone that knows me understands that I'm not really into sports. But my husband is into ALL sports. (Unless it's a women's sport, because that doesn't count.) I couldn't care less that the Superbowl is tonight, although as an advertising junkie, I love to critique the commercials, which have been remarkably terrible the last few years.

I'll root for the Giants for three reasons. #1-They are a huge underdog. #2-My dad is a giant Giants fan. #3-Rob hates the Patriots. Events like this always remind me of one night when I was at the North Star Bar for a show and a big group of people were watching some important sporting event and cheering loudly. As the cheering subsided, a guy shouted, "Sports!!" very sarcastically. That's how I feel. I'd make that into a shirt, If sarcasm could be conveyed through one.

What would I rather be doing? Listening to some of the awesome music I scored at a used record shop yesterday, of course. I picked up six albums.

Death Cab - Transatlanticism
Stereolab - Seren Velocity
Björk - Debut
Joy Division - Permanent
Ray Lamontagne - Till the Sun Turns Black
The Magnetic Fields - i

Awesome.

Durable Audi's and a Portrait

Audi's are very well-made cars. I know this because I rear-ended one this morning and much to my relief, there wasn't even a scratch. Thank goodness I didn't hit a Yugo! (Wait, have all Yugo's disintegrated by now?) Anyway, I got super lucky. So I'm not sure if that makes it a good morning or a bad morning.

Guess what I did last night. Go on. Guess. Okay, I'll just tell you.

I sketched for the first time in...well...a really long time. I like drawing girls from magazines. I know that's probably not the best subject, but I enjoy sketching faces, and I need to work on body proportions and things like that. So I figure this will be some good practice.

First, I had to go through my packed boxes to find this pad of paper and pencils that I had stashed away during the summer. (Wow, has it been that long??) Then I paged through my Nylon magazine last night and tore out a good number of "subjects" before settling on this lovely lady.



Not too shabby. I'm always so skeptical when I start. I think, "aww, this isn't going to look anything like a real person!" Then, once I start using the white pencil, it actually resembles a human! I still need LOADS of practice, as you can tell. But I'll get there.