Brown Street Blog & Gallery

Plaid

2012-02-07T14:25:00.004-07:00

As I was working on the previous post, I relized that I have neglegted to show this painting to you. I did this one a few months back. Acrylic on Canvas, done using painting knives.

There's no reason to delete my blog.

2012-02-07T14:14:00.004-07:00

The other day I was thinking, "You know, I should just close and delete that Brown Street Blog & Gallery. I never really post anything anymore." Well, I decided not to. There's no reason to delete it. Even if I rarely ever post anything, and when I do, it's usually something silly, who cares? It's not like anybody out there is holding their breath for the next posting. And it's not like I'm holding anyone back from achieving their dreams by keeping the blog open.

The main two reasons I had for starting this blog was 1) To say whatever I felt like. and 2) to share my artwork with anyone who cares to see it. Well, I haven't had anything to say lately, but that doesn't mean I never will again. I also haven't painted anything in quite a while, but I still have my easel and brushes. Who knows? Maybe inspiration will strike at some time I don't expect.

As for me lately, life is good as usual. My wife and I hit 20 years of wedded bliss. My son turned 18 and is now living with a girl. My daughter is about to turn 11 and is as beautiful as ever. I also really enjoy my job. I am thinking about buying a motorcycle soon. Probably a big touring bike, like a Goldwing or something. I'll be sure to post a picture when I do.

Anyway, even though I don't blog often, I see no reason to quit altogether. Hope you keep reading.

Stuck in the Garage

2011-04-20T11:41:00.004-07:00

Have you seen the beautiful car that Kilter bought? 2002 Mercedes Benz E320. He paid way less than I paid for my Kia.

Did you know that if you get three moving violations before you turn 18 you will have your license suspended for 90 days?

Kilter knows it now.

Whales

2011-04-20T10:02:00.006-07:00

As you can see, I'm painting again. This one is called "Whales". Real tricky huh? It's acrylic on canvas. I think it's 24x20 inches. I included two pics because I have so much trouble getting clear pictures of my paintings. The first picture captures the colors but has lots of glare. The second one doesn't show the true colors but it's a cleaner photo.

I'm also in the middle of another painting that is totally different from this one. It's not done yet so you'll have to wait to see it.

PS3 Addiction

2010-09-03T16:20:00.009-07:00

I have an addictive personality. I think it's because I always have to be doing something. It's the reason I started painting. I had a week off of work and didn't have anything to do.

I used to play lots of video games as a kid. I lived across the street from a bowling alley and would scrounge quarters to play Donkey Kong. Once I got older I didn't play any games for some time but then my son got old enough to get into the game thing. I bought a PS2 and got addicted to Gran Tourismo 3, then several others.

Once the "Next Gen" systems came out I decided that I wasn't going to get involved because if I did, I would get hooked. Great plan, poor execution.

Kilter has a job and buys his own things so it wasn't long before he came home with a PS3 and a game called Battlefield Bad Company 2. I thought nothing of it because it's mostly an online game and I have always avoided playing online for fear of being annoyed by all the idiots out there.
Somehow I tried the game. Next thing you know, I bought my own PS3 system. Now I'm addicted to it. I'm up to Level 37 (Major) of 50. I started out ranked higher than 250,000 and now I'm ranked in the top 20,000. The thing I love is the challenge of playing online against other live players. Anyone who has played video games knows that playing against a computer is very predictable. Playing online is anything but. It's a new challenge that you can never beat completely.

If you have an adictive personality, I highly recommend you avoid this game.

Chimp Raises Tigers

2010-08-16T08:41:00.005-07:00

OK. This is too cute. If you know me, you know I'm not particularlly into cute things. This article caught my attention. My daughter and I were looking on Bing to find pics of tiger cubs and we stubled across this chimp that is helping to raise two white tigers in South Carolina.

Read the full story with more pictures here ----> http://tinyurl.com/2dg2cmn

Here's a preview:

Artistic Struggles

2010-06-30T14:15:00.004-07:00

I havn't posted anything for a very long while. A big reason (or excuse) for not keeping up with the blog is that I haven't been painting much.

I completed a rather large painting (4" x 4" mdf) that hangs in my living room but it didn't photograph very well. I guess you want to see it anyway so here it is.

I really like the picture but it looks nothing like what you see in this photograph. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get rid of the glare.

By the way. The picture/scupture on the far right in this set (Wooden Tiles) is no longer there. A person who has a dance studio and does art sittings (provides a studio and subject for artists to come and practice) fell in love with it so I gave it to her. It now hangs in her studio.

My new TATTOO....better late than never....

2009-12-29T10:16:00.004-07:00

Well, okay, so waaaayy back in March I said I was getting a new tattoo...and I did! I just never got around to posting it on the blog! Sorry. But SOMEONE finally complained to me so I thought I better get it done.

Sorry the picture is not better, but I think you can see it okay.

It did hurt A LOT!! Enough that I will have to really think twice before getting a tattoo on the other foot. Luckily it did not take toooo long....I sat really still so he could do it quickly and get it over with.

The artist that did the tattoo was "Wookie" at Club Tattoo and he free handed the drawing then filled in the tattoo. It was a little scary being the first free handed drawing...usual they draw up design, make a stencil for me to approve and THEN stick it on me. I am extremely pleased with the design!

Let me know what you think.

Is "GIVING" important to you? It is to us...

2009-12-17T10:47:00.003-07:00

Hello Everyone,

Just a quick note to say Merry Christmas! This year we O'Donnell's sponsored a 16 year old boy through the Phoenix Children's Project. I asked the director of PCP if there was a demographic of kids that usually are not sponsored and do you believe she said teenagers (well being the mother of one I understand that one) but also over weight kids. Now, the only way you know they are over weight is by comparing their age and sizes...you dont see a picture of the kid. How terrible is that!!! Many over weight kids have no control over it, maybe it is a genetic or physiological problem. Anyhow, I was assigned a teen age boy and I enjoyed getting him a complete outfit....underpants, sock, shoes....everything! Hopefully I selected well, as I know teens can be very picky. I included the gift receipts just in case. I also gave him some "fun" stuff in the form of video games he asked Santa for....I think he will be happy.

In addition to this we sponsored a family. Last year we got my husbands office involved in PCP also. This year someone in the office brought to our attention a family where both parents of 5 kids got laid off and where in need. We decided to sponsor them too. With the help of the office and my mother-in-law, we are able to provide presents for the entire family....including the parents!

I have done a lot of shopping this year and it feels good that it was to help people in need to have a great Christmas! This family does not have any "gaming" systems...and they all wanted a PS2 (which is only sold used now). Well, as it turns out my family has 2 of them, I thought one was broken and bought a 2nd from a carport sale. Well, as it turned out we just did not have the 1st one connected correctly and it was fine. So, my son got to put the extra one in his bedroom. He was nice enough to donate HIS system with a few of his own games to this family! My daughter donated some of her games too! Now that is family participation...makes a mom all warm and cuddly inside! We also provided presents from each kids wish list, so this will be one VERY happy family!!

If you do not participate in something like this, I encourage you to begin. Just donating money is always appreciated but I have to say it is much more satifying to actually do the leg work, then wrap and deliver the presents! My daugher especially enjoys helping me wrap! We try to make it a family affair so even the kids get the joy of giving during the season. A life lesson that I personally feel many "adults" still need to learn or maybe just need to reconnect to.

Well, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Share a comment of what you do to share joy through the holidays, I would love to hear new ideas too!

WOW! My son got a new car...the hard way!

2009-11-09T09:28:00.020-07:00

Well, the boy was driving with a friend to come join me at my office and do some work over Fall Break! When out of the blue another driver turns left ....right into him! As you can see by the pictures it was a serious accident. Kilter ended up with loss of short term memory for awhile and still to this day does not remember his accident. His passenger had a ruptured spleen and had emergency surgery. She is doing well now. Thank the Lord they are both okay now!

At first Farmers Insurance wanted to make Kilter 20% liable for the accident....I guess because he could not avoid it or maybe just because he was there....but we talked them down to only 10% at first....then we got the POLICE report!! Well, it states he was driving BELOW the speed limit and the picture and diagram of the accident clearly show that Kilter tried to avoid and swerve away from the other driver but the other car was just on top of him too fast! With the evidence showing the other driver was clearly at fault we disputed it with Farmers and they agreed to accept 100% liability and voided the original 10 %....which is excellent!

With Kilters car having so much damage the insurance company said it was a "total" loss and cut us a check for the vehicle. It will take a few months to settle the injury claim. But at least we can replace the car at this point.

Kilter REALLY wanted an older BMW....so we shopped around for awhile and finally found a purchased a 1988 BMW 735i....it is in excellent condition. We only paid $1400 for the car which left Kilter a couple hundred dollars of insurance money to use to fix up little issues on the new car. What a deal! We brought Uncle Jo over to get his seal of approval and now are very happy with the purchase. Of course being old it needs some TLC but mechanically it is excellent and just needs minor fixes. It looks very nice parked in front of the house....makes us look wealthy...lol....

These are pictures for you to see the car....let me know what you think...

It is a very sexy "luxor beige metallic" color.

oooohhhh.....aaawwwsome....

Now thats a car to keep awhile!

What a beauty! He named her Briana....

Shaded Ball

2009-10-02T11:30:00.004-07:00

This isn't exactly what you are used to seeing me paint. I am trying to learn better technique to be an all around better painter.

The shaded ball is an exercise that some art teachers have their students do to understand variations of color and practice shading.

This is done using 5 shades of black and white. I still need a lot of practice but hopefully it pays off.

Dancing Music

2009-09-24T08:51:00.005-07:00

Here is my newest painting, Dancing Music. I painted this for my Mom's birthday on September 22nd. Happy Birthday Mom!

This painting is not my usual style or color pallet. I don't really like to do anything with detail. I'm more of a heavy handed, smearing paint, type of guy. I also like heavy, dark colors. the closer to black the better for me.

Here's the painting. Let me know what you think.

Shadows

2009-09-14T13:33:00.005-07:00

This is my latest painting and is titled Shadows. Don't ask me where I got the idea from. I don't really know. I put several layers of paint on this thing but felt like it wasn't going anywhere. I took it out to the back yard and sprayed it with my high pressure washer which peeled of some of the layers of paint. Once I did that I started seeing something so I added the bold, horizontal, red bar and then covered the whole thing with a very thin wash of Mars Black giving it the dark feel. It might be a little too dark for most people's taste but what the heck.

Tell me what you think about Shadows.

I'm a real twit...

2009-07-31T14:21:00.009-07:00

I'm such a twit (someone who tweets on Twitter).

I haven't blogged in a little bit but I'm very active on Twitter: @az_james

In fact, I'm addicted to it. Talk about a great way to get a big wad of information that is personalized to your interests.

I have it set up like a news ticker using the DestroyTwitter application so it updates every 60 seconds.

I can't even start my day without logging in and checking all the tweets (a post on Twitter) to see if there is anything interesting.

I guess that's a big reason that I haven't been blogging as much. With my role change at work, from Trainer to Instructional Designer, I am much, much busier that I was in the past. I don't really have much time to write a full blog post so I tweet mini blog entries (140 characters or less) instead.

If you follow az_james you'll see mostly RT's (re-tweeting some one else's tweet) of things other twits tweet that interest me.

I like to follow several news twits, sports twits, local twits, learning twits, ID twits, and most of all, political twits.

When I first became a twit I followed only people I know. I then branched out to celebrities and pro athletes. Once I figured out what I was interested in I removed those that didn't talk about things that interest me. I don't care what some movie star is having for lunch. Give me something I can read and care about, or better yet, can learn from.

Now I have found several twits that provide information that actually applies to my life and my work.

In fact, I think Twitter is necessary for me to grow on my job. Really. Consider the cost of going to training classes in this economy. If I find a tweet that provides an article with insight to some new way to provide learning, that's a far better return on investment. On occasion I even find things that are so relevant I email them to my entire team.

Anyway, if your not on Twitter you should be. Whatever your interests, you'll find like minded people on Twitter who will share their knowledge with you. The best part: Its Free.

Wooden Tiles

2009-07-02T10:45:00.003-07:00

I know I haven't blogged in a while. I really haven't painted anything in a couple of months. I started on something that I couldn't get to look like my vision of it. It led me to avoid the painting. Finally, I decided not to do the painting so I hope that will help me get back to painting other things.

This one is called Wooden Tiles. It's more of a sculpture than a painting although you probably can't see that in the 2 dimensional picture.

I cut out several small squares of wood. I glued smaller blocks of wood on the back of the tiles of all varying sizes. The small blocks are all differnt sizes and angles. As a result, no two tiles are mounted the same. Then I painted each time individually and voila.

Wooden Tiles

CALISTA

2009-05-19T13:10:00.000-07:00

Meet Calista, our newest addition to the family. I call her Cali for short. She is a 10 week old puppy. Chihuahua/Terrier mix. We already had three other dogs so this was not something we were planning for. We just happened across her and the girls in the house all fell in love. Initially this pupply looked just like she does in this picture. Calm, docile, relaxed. Whoa did she play us. This dog is so hyper I sometimes think she eats cat nip or something. She starts getting excited and then jumps all over the other dogs (who are all much bigger). The other dogs give her a good scolding but she doesn't care. I guess she can't help herself when she gets wound-up. She is coming along on her house breaking though so I know she has some doggie smarts in there. Here's a couple more pictures of Cali decieving us into thinking she is so calm...

Apollo High School Prom 2009

2009-04-27T09:28:00.005-07:00

OMG! They grow up sooo fast! These are few pics of my son and his girlfriend/friends before they went to PROM!!!! Can't believe how fast they grow up! Kilter (my son) is the tall one....the little red head is his girlfriend and the other girl is her best friend/boyfriend.

I thought I would post these pics to brag about what a handsome boy we have!!! If you have kids be warned....they get this age in a blink of an eye! OMG...he will be going to college sooner than I know it!!! YIKES!!! Mom is just not ready for all this! But I am proud!

A great opportunity to help children

2009-04-21T09:41:00.002-07:00

I got the following email from Mary at the Phoenix Children's Project. I know a lot of you helped out at Christmas and maybe you would want to help out some more......Thanks. Karen.

From: Mary / Phoenix Children's Project
Sent: Friday, April 17, 2009 1:27 PM
Subject: Still Needed Birthday Club Sponsors

Hello everyone,
Just want to let you know if you are interested, we still need birthday sponsors for the following kids:
May
2 - Jorge / Boy / 9 yrs / #119
10 - Maria / Girl / 11 yrs / #117
19 - Victor / Boy / 11 yrs / #82
20 - Miguel / Boy / 6 yrs / #103
20 - Carina / Girl / 14 yrs / #105B
23 - Elizabeth / Girl / 10 yrs / #105
27 - Leslie / Girl / 7 yrs / #163
29 - Claudia / Girl / 6 yrs / #66
31 - Rudy / Boy / 15 yrs / #122

June
2 - Maria / Girl / 14 yrs / #4
4 - Marco / Boy / 17yrs / #82
4 - Luis / Boy / 3 yrs / #82
8 - Jose / Boy / 10 yrs / #119
13 - Felipe / Boy / 13 yrs / #68
19 - Bianca / Girl / 15 yrs / #68

As a sponsor, you will be responsible for providing and delivering a new, wrapped gift(s), cake and candles to your sponsored child on his/her birthday.

The cake can be home-made or store bought. Please keep gift between $20 - $40. Recommended gift is a toy. We provide clothes and shoes for them so their birthday gift from you should be fun. We can give you gift suggestions if you’d like.

If you’d like to be a birthday sponsor, please contact Kay Grimmett, Phx Children’s Project Board Member, at johnkaygrimmett@cox.net ; she will provide you with details
Your gift is 100% tax deductible.
THANK YOU for your consideration (and for ALL you do for us!) !!!
Mary
Mary FrielingPhoenix Children's Projectwww.phoenixchildren.org
501(c))3 tax exempt organization
voice mailbox (to leave messages only):
(602) 955-2228
(602) 224-0547 (fax)
mailing address (not physical address):3219 E. Camelback Rd #228Phoenix, AZ 85018

My New Job

2009-04-16T13:27:00.004-07:00

I am very happy to announce that I am the newest member of our training instructional design department group.

I have been hoping to get involved in instructional design for a little over a year now. I had my first experience a couple of years back when I was working with another designer on a course that I was responsible for. I asked if I could learn a little of it and I really enjoyed it.

Since then I have been trying to help our ID group on small projects when they have need and I have available time to dedicate. Most recently I was assigned to a small project that went very well and received great feedback. That helped me to get the job full time.

This was my 3rd attempt. Each time I went through the interview process I felt good about my performance but those that were hired before me for the 1st two positions were also excellent choices.

I guess 3's a charm. This time I preped for several hours and received coaching from a couple of the managers in my department. As soon as the interview was over I knew that I nailed it and was offered the job the next day.

One unique situation about this job is that I will be working in a different state from the rest of my team. I am in Phoenix while my team is based in Cleveland.

I have been in Cleveland this whole week meeting my new supervisor and my new team. I feel really lucky. My new boss seems really cool and I feel like I have already been accepted as part of the team.

Well, Monday morning when I'm back home I should be able to hit the ground running. We have lots of projects underway and I've already been given my 1st assignment.

Looking forward to it. I'll try to keep you posted as I learn the new job.

COMING ATTRACTION....

2009-03-30T10:09:00.003-07:00

I am going to get another tattoo soon....like in two days! I am excited but also afraid. Why afraid you ask? Well, I am getting it on the top of my left foot....OUCH!! I know it is going to kill me...but I want it in a spot that I can see and enjoy it more! The other 2 I have I cant see as often....one on my back (never get to see it) and one on my ankle (can see if I turn my leg)...so this one will be front and center to me when I am lounging back in my recliner!!! Yes, occasionaly James stops being a slave driver and lets me rest in my recliner...haha

Obviously I cant show you a picture of it yet....so you will have to check back often until I get it done and the pictures posted.

I can give you a hint as to what it will be..... it is sort of an acknowledgement to my kids.....can you guess what the subject matter might be????? If you know me well, you probably can figure it out.....give it a guess, I will tell you if you are right....

Well, keep an eye open and it will be online soon!!
She Boss

Kilter's Car

2009-03-24T09:43:00.003-07:00

My son has his own car now. Scary isn't it. He is 15 1/2 right now. His birthday is in July. I recommend you all stay off the roads in Glendale after that.

Not really. I'm kidding about staying off the roads. He really is an OK driver. He has his permit and has been driving quite alot.

His car is a 1991 Toyota Camry. The car is older than he is. We bought it for $850 (the kid paid $450) from a lady in Tempe who was too old to drive it anymore. It seems to be well maintined. New tires, clean interior, no dents. All-in-all the car looks solid and I think it was a good buy.

It's an easy car to drive with automatic, power windows and doors, and working AC (an absolute must in this city).

Don't worry, he's not getting off easy. While he is learning to drive I am also making him learn to drive my 5spd Kia Sorento. He hates the clutch but I think it's is easier to learn now than later.

He has already put a stereo in his car. It was an inexpensive stereo from Target but it is cool because it has a USB port. He loads up his flash drive with music and never needs a CD. I wish they had that kind of thing when I got my first car. I had to be satisfied with the good ole cassette player.

I'm really proud of him for saving up money to put toward his car. It is a strange thing for a parent when your child starts driving. I don't know how to explain it but I have this feeling of no turning back.

Well like I always like to say, it is what it is.

Fabulous Red Stripe

2009-03-23T04:41:00.000-07:00

This is called Fabulous Red Stripe.

The reason I called it that is because the painted originally didn't have any red at all. It was a totally monochrome black and white painting. The black and white painting was really good but when I added the red stripe the painting came to life. I said to my wife, without the stripe it's good but with the stripe it's fabulous.

This is the painting I sold on Friday. The buyer asked that I create another similar painting to go with it so I agreed. I actually painted two new paintings and will give her the choice of whcih one she likes.

Fabulous Red Stripe

Black and White Ball (Father/Daughter Dance)

2009-03-10T08:49:00.004-07:00

HI Everyone,

I thought you might enjoy seeing this picture of James and Johana. It was for Girl Scouts. They had a "Black and White Ball" for the girls and their significant guy. Johana was soooo excited to get dressed up and match daddy for the dance. She especially liked the flower corsage Daddy gave her...I think she was the only one that got flowers!

Apparently she did not want to stay at the dance very long....Daddies dancing was embarrassing and she really was looking forward to going out for dinner ALONE with her daddy! AHHHH isn't that sweet.....

Burning Love

2009-03-08T22:25:00.001-07:00

Burning Love was painted for a birthday present.

I created the flames first. It was my first time doing any kind of flame but I think it came out OK and it was pretty easy to do.

I then poured the paint to make the hearts. After pouring the hearts I tilted the canvas to make the runny look.

I wanted it to look like the hearts were melting.

I think it came out really cool.

What do you think?

Burning Love

Bec's Flowers

2009-03-05T08:41:00.001-07:00

Here is my latest painting, titled Bec's Flowers. It is acrylic on MDF which is framed out in the back with 1x1 lumber. I made these as a two panel set. Each panel is about 10 x 24 inches.

I really struggled with these paintings. Mostly because the two different panes involved. I wanted them to be different but at the same time I wanted the colors to be the same. I originally tried a blended background having one color fade into another. I just couldn't get the two panes to match so I gave up on the idea.

After many attempts I finally arrived at the finished product you see here.

I hope you enjoy.

Bec's Flowers

Phoenix Childrens Project FOLLOW-UP

2009-02-27T09:32:00.009-07:00

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to post some very sweet letters...they are from the 3 girls that my Brownie troop and the fabulous people at James' office sponsored for Christmas...

It is obvious that we may have given them the best Christmas they have ever had! Read the following letters and you will get a warm fuzzy feeling ......for being a wonderful person!

Thank you for helping this family out!

Letter from Anna Marie............

Letter from

..............Jasmine

Letter from Adrianna .................................

25 Random Things About Me.

2009-02-02T10:27:00.008-07:00

25. I'm 40 years old but my brain thinks it's 30

24. My life was going in the wrong direction before I met my wife

23. I love to paint. I love it more when people love my paintings

22. I hate chewy gummy candy

21. I believe Metallica revolutionized Heavy Metal music

20. I qualified as an expert rifleman on the M-16. No small feat.

19. I am very shy

18. I act outragous to cover up my shyness

17. I've owned about 20 different vehicles

16. I've been in about 10 different car wrecks. Mostly all my fault.

15. I don't speak Spanish, even though I was raised by a native born Puerto Rican.

14. I'm very judgemental, in my head

13. I love animals. All animals.

12. I can't imagine my life without dogs

11. I have come to realize that my career has nearly peaked. This may be the best it ever gets. I'm OK with that but I'll keep striving.

10. I sometimes pick on people close to me just for the interaction

9. I'm proud to be an ASU Alum

8. I think text messaging is one of the best forms of communication yet invented

7. I hate talking on the telephone.

6. I am an American patriot, if you're not you suck.

5. My mother is still a very big part of my life

4. I always have a plan in my head. I usually don't share the plan in my head

3. My children are the center of my universe

2. I rely on Sheboss for almost everything. My household couldn't function without her.

1. My life is wonderful. I'm so thankful for that. I can't imagine a whole lot that could make it any better.

Forgotten Window

2009-01-21T12:44:00.004-07:00

Forgotten Window

I painted this on a 2x2 sheet of MDF and framed out the back with 1x1.

This painting is obviously very dark in mood but I think sometimes that can be appropriate. Originally I used masking tape to seperate the sections and I purposely offset the squares so that no two are the same size. When I pulled the tape I didn't like the hard line look so I ended up using the muddy yellow/red/black to make the borders.

I think each of the four sections provides a different feel and prospective from the others but they can also be taken as a group.

I hope you feel some sort of emotion when you see this.

As always, comments are greatly appreciated.

Forgotten Window

Purple Bloom

2009-01-16T10:09:00.001-07:00

Purple Bloom. This is a spin off of my Red Bloom painting. I liked the red one so I did one in purple.

Obviously I did this one a little different than the Red Bloom. I used yellow highlights instead of white and a burgandy background. I also added the 3rd set of petals to the center and painted those a lighter shade of red/violet.

Sheboss isn't all that crazy about this one so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet.

As always, I'd like to hear your feedback.

Purple Bloom

Red Bloom

2009-01-12T19:39:00.003-07:00

This a my most recent painting. I titled it Red Bloom.

I had a lot of fun doing this one so it went rather quickly. The only problem came from making the center of the flower look the way I wanted. I tried several things before I reached the finished product pictured here.

The idea came when I was trying to sketch a flower with a butterly on it. Just some picture that Sheboss found on the internet. When I started sketching I thought it would look good as a painting so I went ahead and did it.

I hope you like it. I'd love to hear your comments if you feel like leaving them.

Red Bloom

Green Tree Frog

2009-01-09T09:10:00.002-07:00

My mother is a native born Puerto Rican. If you know any Puerto Ricans you probably know about the Coqui frog. It is almost their national symbol and they are very proud of this frog that is native to the island.

I think that's why my mother is a frog fan. She loves all frogs but especially the colorful tree frogs. She even has one tattooed on her ankle.

I painted this picture for her as a Christmas present. It took quite a bit of time to get it to look right but the end result was worth it. I believe it's one of my better paintings.

Add a comment and let me know what you think of it.

Memorial to Henry

2009-01-01T19:05:00.000-07:00

I got a new tattoo for my birthday in November. This tattoo is a picture of my brother Henry.

Henry was three years older than me and all my life was like a God. I wanted to do everything he did, go everywhere he went, be as cool as he was.

This was one of those guys everyone likes. We all know people like that. People just wanted to be around him wherever he went. He was cool, he was fun, and everyone loved him.

Whenever I got into a scrape as a kid all I had to do was mention his name. "Oh, you're Hank's little brother? It's cool then."

Henry died suddenly in 1994. He was 29 years old at the time. My life goes on but it will never be the same. He's not there to talk to when I have things on my mind. He's not there to be an uncle to my children. Who knows what would have been different if he were still alive?

I still meet him in my dreams from time to time. Clear as day. He looks the same as when he was among the living. It really is like he never left until I wake up.

My family isn't big on sharing feelings so we don't mention Henry much. For that reason I've spent the last 14 years not thinking about it.

I felt it was time to start thinking about him again. Time to start remembering. For that reason this tattoo is very important to me.

I included the photograph that was used as reference. The tattoo was done by Terry "Wookie" Hoffman at Club Tattoo on Apache in Tempe. He did a great job. Thanks Wookie!

Phoenix Children's Project Update

2008-12-22T12:37:00.002-07:00

Well, we went and delivered the gifts to Anna, Adrianna and Jasmine's house. Though we did not get to meet the girls, I did hear back from Mary (the coordinator at PCP) and she said that the mother called and said THANK YOU! She said that they did not have anything for Christmas this year. Everything we provided is all they will receive!

Before we dropped of the items, we went to PCP and picked up a few more items. They provided a laundry basket full of household goods...detergent, tissue paper etc. They also provided a large tray of home made goodies. My kids wanted to keep them, but knew these were for the other family....they did look very yummy.

I am proud of all of us....we did a wonderful job! Each girl ended up with 2 outfits, 2 pairs of shoes, 3 toys, toothbrushes and 2 packages that were for the whole family....things they can share. Everything was packaged so that they each had 8 individual packages to open plus the other 2 for them to share....I think they will be very happy this Christmas morning!

Give each other a pat on the back and a big THANK YOU! I really appreciate all your help with the program and I think my girl scouts learned a thing or two about giving as well! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!!!

NFC Western Division Champions

2008-12-11T15:45:00.007-07:00

This is unbelievable! The Arizona Cardinals are NFC West Champs.

I've lived in Arizona my whole life. I remember when the Cards came to town, I was still in high school.

I became a fan immediately and have been ever since. This doesn't sound like a big deal but it is.

In a city that has hated the team over the years I was the reject. The goofball that would always look forward to next season.

Of course there was 1998. Jake got us into the playoffs with an 8-8 record. We went to Dallas and beat the hated Cowboys in Texas Stadium. Not much could be sweeter.

That year is the best record I can remember the Cardinals having over the last 20 years. We were thrilled to be .500 in 1998.

For once we didn't finish with a losing record.

Those of you who have been there with me know what I'm talking about. Our typical record is 4-12 or something very similar. Put it this way, when we get a 5 or 6 win season we are ecstatic.

I have actually gone to Cardinals games at Sun Devil Stadium and been given free parking because I was the 1st person the attendant saw who was wearing the home team's jersey and hat.

I have been in the stands and been ridiculed by the opposing teams fans. All of which live in Arizona by the way.

I have been at home games and had peanuts and popcorn thrown at me because I was the only one wearing red.

The only time we would get to see the Cardinals on TV was when they were on the road or when they were playing the hated Cowboys. Most of the time there were only 30,000 people in a stadium that holds over 70,000

What's different now? Well for starters University Of Phoenix Stadium.

Now we really have a home field advantage. Every game since the new stadium opened has been on TV.

Another thing is that Mr. Bidwell has passed control of the team on to his son Michael. He seems to be on the right track.

Ken Wizenhunt is also a huge factor. He has brought a system and a

coaching style that the players have bought into. He makes roster moves for football reasons and that is rare with football coaches.

The biggest difference? Attitude! Attitude is everything.

Charles Swindoll said "life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it.

We aren't losers anymore. We are winners. Every time the team takes the field they plan to win the game.

Those of you from cities where winning is a tradition won't understand this. When you lose for over 20 years you can't help but carry a losing attitude. You buy into the losing.

You expect to lose. You to think of it as acceptable.

Not anymore!

We are winners now!

We are the NFC West Champs!

And guess what. It's not good enough. I want more. More regular season wins.

Playoff wins.

Superbowl titles.

I want what all those other cities have had before. I want it now!

Will I get it now or ever? Who knows.

That's why they play the game.

Note: The bottom picture is my daughter getting an autograph from DE Antonio Smith.

Crossroads

2008-11-29T21:41:00.004-07:00

Crossroads. I painted this but didn't really have a plan in mind. The only thing I knew that I wanted in this picture is the color blends in the background.

I used Blue, Red, and Yellow. Next I blended them into each other to make the greens and oranges.

I planned on putting something in the foreground using black or white. I first used black to make a few flower stems with plans to top them with white flowers.

For some reason I turned the picture sideways (the way you see it now) and decided to carry the black lines all the way across the canvas.

It didn't have any depth so I layed black over the white on several lines and reached the finished product shown below.

Crossroads

An email from Mary at Phoenix Children's Project

2008-11-26T08:39:00.003-07:00

----- Original Message -----
From: Mary Frieling
To: helpingkids@phoenixchildren.org
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 8:06 AM
Subject: FYI Christmas Program

There are still 69 kids that do not have a sponsor for Christmas. If you are thinking about helping a needy child living in poverty (in our own community) adopting/sponsoring a child this Christmas means you will provide a new:

Pair of pants
Shirt
Pair of shoes
Package of socks
Package of underwear
One or two toys (from child’s wish list)

OR, you can send us $60+ and we will shop for you! We don’t have until Christmas to get sponsors, I need gifts by Dec 11 so we can sort and organize over 4,000 for distribution. I know we are all hurting this year, but please don’t forget these children who live like this all year long since the day they were born.

Thank you to all for your generous support in whatever whys you help us!! THANK YOU and Happy Thanksgiving!! Mary
Mary
Phoenix Children's Project

Mary Frieling
http://www.phoenixchildren.org/

(602) 955-2228 message phone
(602) 224-0547 fax
(602) 290-2828 direct (cell)

mailing address:
3219 E. Camelback Road, #228
Phoenix, Arizona 85018

All gifts are 100% tax deductible. We are a 501(c)3 tax-exempt non-profit organization.

Phoenix Children's Project

2008-11-25T09:29:00.002-07:00

As many of you know, I am the leader of a Girl Scout Brownie troop. My husband thought I was crazy to do it, but so far it has not been to bad. We are finally getting the hang of how things work.

Well, to teach the girls about giving back to others our troop decided to sponsor a needy girl for Christmas. When I found out that our girl, Anna, had 2 little sister, Jasmine and Adrianna...well I got a BIG surprise!!!.... James talked to people at his office and they decided to sponsor the 2 sisters! YEAH!!!! I am sooo excited! It is wonderful to see that there are people left in the world that actually care about others...even people they dont know.

I have already received some of the items and look forward to being able to deliver them to the family! Our deadline is December 5th ....the troop is going to wrap anything that needs wrapping at our meeting on December 7th.

If you are interested in helping out another child or know someone that might be interested in helping out please pass the following information on so they can participate too:

Phoenix Children's Project, is a 100% NON PROFIT local group that helps LOCAL families. They do not not keep any money for administration etc it ALL 100% goes to the kids and families in need. I especially like that it helps local families...we often think bad things don't happen in our town....but we have a lot of needy families that are struggling right her in our area!

If you want to get additional information on this organization please go to their website: http://www.phoenixchildren.org/

They need help all year long and it does not have to cost a thing...you can donate time as well. I know many of the families that receive aid volunteer time as a way of showing their appreciation for services they receive.

I want to give special thanks to all the girls in my troop and especially to Yulanda, Julie, ML, Rebecca, Carolyn, Keane, Deitra, Steve, James and Cathy at Progressive for taking the ball and running with it to support the other two girls! Together we are going to really make the holidays special for this family. THANKS EVERYONE!!!

Burst

2008-11-16T10:14:00.004-07:00

This is called Burst.

I painted the first layer in black. Next I laid out several layers of red and yellow. Where those two colors mixed I got shades of orange. I used a compass to draw the two large circles and outlined the circles with shiny black puff paint. Before the black dried I used a brush to pull it outwards from the circle.

I really like the puff paint. My wife told me about it. She has used it to make Christmas stockings. I tried it and it's really cool. It creates a definite raised area that stays shiny.

I had planned on adding shades of blues to the circles but when I got to this point I decided it was good as is.

Sheboss is in love with this and had me hang it in the living room.

Burst

Finally!

2008-11-04T14:36:00.004-07:00

Election day is finally here. I'm glad to see it end. Every election cycle I get worn out by all the advertising. You can't watch TV or listen to radio without hearing or seeing some type of election ad.

I also hate all the little signs posted all over town. They don't always go around and pick up their political signage after the election is over. Some of those will be out there for months.

Not only that, much of the advertising is negative. None of us like to hear negative ads whether we support that view or not. The problem is that negative campaining works so it will always be a staple of campains.

I also will be happy to be done with all the political tension everywhere. Some people get real crazy about it. After Clinton was re-elected I learned that this stuff is not life or death. The globe will keep spinning and the birds will keep singing no matter who gets elected president.

After today we'll all get along again...so long as McCain wins.

Calm Dragonfly

2008-10-30T16:20:00.000-07:00

Calm Dragonfly is my most recent painting.

I started by creating an abstract background that I felt could stand alone as a painting and then added the dragonfly. After I painted the wings with a pink/metallic silver color I rubbed the paint off so only slight traces remain.

I'm liking these types of paintings. What do you think, should I do more like this?

Calm Dragonfly

Election Talk

2008-10-30T15:57:00.003-07:00

Wow,

I have a Facebook account. I notice all my Facebook friends have been going off for weeks about Obama in Facebook It's a total love fest and it scares me. I usually try to avoid polictical talk at work, home, or anywhere because I am passionate about it. In this case I felt all the comments were so one sided that I had to comment.

I posted a Facebook status that said "I am worried about next Tuesday because I don't want the terrorist collaborator to win." Only stating facts.

Suddenly I get ganged up on. Everyone is responding to the post like I'm some kind of radical.
Why is it that I could say anything negative about McCain or Palin and people cheer. Whatever you do, don't take the newly annointed Lord of America's name in vain.

Honestly I am truly concerned about having a goverment completely controlled by any one party. Who's going to keep the Congress in check if not the President and vica versa.

Black Butterfly

2008-10-11T18:00:00.003-07:00

This one is called Black Butterfly.

This is way outside my norm. All this color is not my style but I wanted to try something a little different. I am trying very hard to push my comfort zone but it is difficult.

I started by layering the colors. I tried three or four different patterns before I settled on these arcs. Then I created the semi-transparent black boarder. I taped out and painted the transparent white box in the middle. Finally, I searched the internet for a good butterfly picture. This is a swallowtail. I freehanded the butterfly in pencil and then filled it in with the black.

The goal for for the strong contrast. The normally very colorful butterfly is black and the background is instead very bright.

I like it quite a lot and hope you do too.

Black Butterfly

Red

2008-10-03T18:26:00.003-07:00

I decide to paint Red when I was watching TV. I was watching some show and the characters were getting on an elevator. The back wall of the elevator was painted in various shades of red. I thought it would make a good painting so here it is.

RED

Winter Trees

2008-09-22T22:23:00.007-07:00

Winter Trees is my new favorite.

I painted this on a piece of MDF plywood and framed out the back side with 1 x 2. I didn't want to buy a gallon of gesso so I used Kilz primer instead and it seemed to work fine. I spent far less money using this medium than buying a canvas this size.

Because of the size of this piece I used a ton of paint but it was worth it.

I also included a picture of me holding the picture so that you can get a sense of scale.

Winter Trees

Purple Sky

2008-09-20T15:30:00.002-07:00

Purple Sky was painted for my Mom.

I painted it a while back but saved it for her recent birthday so I wasn't able to share it with you before.

This was my first attempt at purple but I really wanted to use that color since it is her favorite. Now that I am becoming more comfortable with colors I might have done it a little more vivid but at the time I was trying to play it safe.

Anyway, I hope you like it.

Bird of Paradise

2008-09-18T21:31:00.006-07:00

Bird of Paradise is my latest painting. I had a small canvas that I wasn't doing anything with so I decided to paint this flower.

It is a strange flower. I had never looked closely at one before. Once I studied it I realized it's a large hinge. I don't know what the blue spear things are but they seem to be on every bird of paradise picture I find.

Hope you enjoy.

Bird of Paradise Painting

Salena's Hearts

2008-09-14T13:17:00.006-07:00

This painting is called Salena's Hearts. I painted it for KilterT's best friend. She's a little bit EMO so I added a little bit of Emo to her painting. Hearts are not my usual type of subject but this is what she wanted.

Watch My Shoes!

2008-09-07T14:28:00.006-07:00

I created the Watch My Shoes! painting for KilterT.

He has an obsession with his Nike Air Force 1 shoes. He cleans them constantly and get's crazy if anyone scuffs one.

This is a pretty big canvas to fill the blank wall of his room.

The term Watch My Shoes comes from a song he likes by 3 Deep that I have deemed his theme song. I stuck the lyrics to the chorus down below.

Do What Ya Do But Watch My Shoes
Dance Wit Ya Boo But Watch My Shoes
You Could Get Loose But Watch My Shoes
Cause You'll Get Blues You Don't Watch My Shoes

Blushing Flowers

2008-09-03T18:04:00.004-07:00

Blushing Flowers was painted with a specific spot in my house in mind. It is now hanging in my dining room which is between my family room and kitchen. Since the Umbrella series is hanging in the family room and Sheboss' kitchen has a lot of reds I painted Blushing Flowers to tie the two together.

I was going for a little bit of minimalism which is new to me. I tend to want to fill the canvas but I stopped myself with this painting. I won't lie, it took some will power and encouragement from Sheboss to walk away and call it good. In the end I'm glad I did because I'm thrilled with the final result.

Hope you like it.

Cherry Tree Near Path

2008-09-01T11:50:00.000-07:00

This is my latest painting. Another tree. This one is called Cherry Tree Near Path. I did this for my daughter. Here room is being re-done in pink, blue, white, and brown. This should match rather well. I liked this one because Luckygirl is my biggest fan so I thought it would be nice to do a painting just for her.

Umbrella Tree Series

2008-09-01T11:35:00.000-07:00

Here is the completed Umbrella Tree series. After I completed the first one (on the far left) SheBoss asked for 2 more to go with it. Each one is very different and I'd like to think each one was better then the last.

I really had a lot of fun and learned some new skills doing these paintings. I need to decide on my next topic to paint. Trust me, it won't take me long to get started on something else.

Giraffe Under Umbrella Tree at Dawn

2008-09-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

Here is the final of the three Umbrella Tree pictures in this series. Giraffe Under Umbrella Tree at Dawn. I really wanted to leave the giraffe out of the picture but Sheboss is the customer here and she wanted it so I did my best.

Umbrella Tree At Dusk

2008-09-01T11:14:00.000-07:00

This is called Umbrella Tree at Dusk. This was one of my first attempts at light and shadow. Doesn't look like much but this is an incredibly difficult concept to master. I think it is one of those things that seperate professional painters from us amateurs. Anyway, this photo is kind of dark so you can't really see the shadows on the ground. This is the second painting in the Umbrella Tree series.

Umbrella Tree at Sunset

2008-09-01T09:48:00.003-07:00

I call this painting Umbrella Tree at Dawn. I was standing in line at the grocery store and saw this on the cover of a Time Life magazine. This became the first in a series of Umbrella Trees that are now hanging in my home.

Reverb

2008-08-26T21:17:00.005-07:00

This is a picture that I painted with heavy paints at each end and then used a spray bottle full of water to make it run. I really don't like the picture but everyone else does so I saved it. My son claimed it and now it's hanging in his room.

Divided

2008-08-26T21:15:00.007-07:00

Here is a painting that I created for Sheboss.

The big one on the left is painted on four seperate 16 x 16 square canvases and placed on the wall with a slight seperation between each one. This is hanging in my living room now.

The painting was inspired by a piece called The Divide II by Max Hansen. My wife fell in love with it so I decided to try to make someting similar.

This painting is the final product of several mess ups. There are many, many layers of paint on this because I had to cover the entire thing and start over at least five times. I'm really happy with the end result.

The smaller one in the frame is an earlier painting I did for Sheboss. I think they look good together.

Sorry about the poor photography, there was too much glare when I took the photo straight on or used flash.

Feed My Starving Children

2008-08-23T09:30:00.002-07:00

For a long time we have been saying that we wanted to do some volunteer work as a way to help teach our children compassion for the less fortunate. For whatever reason it was always talk and we never got around to doing it. I am sure you have felt the same at some time in life...right? Well, I recently read an article in the AZ REPUBLIC that talked about a group that packages food and sends to starving children in 3rd world countries. I looked into it and they were going to be doing another event in Tempe in August. I contacted them and put our names on the list.

To my surprise I did not even get and complaints from anyone in the family about doing it. Makes my heart warm to know the kids actually do care about others, when in this day and age seems like most kids are very self centered.

So, last night the family went and volunteered to work for 2 hours. It was actually kind of fun. We put on our hair nets and sanitized our hands and went to work. Basically it was a bunch of tables set up assembly line style. I got the opportunity to scoop ingredients into the bag, hold the bag on the funnel, and weigh the bags. We rotated alot since the kids arms would get tired. Some people sealed the bag with a machine that melted the end of the bag and others put boxes together, refilled supplies, and loaded the boxes. It was pretty easy stuff.

There were about 100 people there. They said that in the 2 hours we worked we put together enough food to feed an orphanage for about a year. I dont remember the exact numbers but it was a pretty good feeling to know it was quite a lot.

If you want to look into doing this you can check out the website http://www.fmsc.org/ ...it will list what state they are going to be in and the dates and locations to sign up.

I think I will probably do this again, only I think I will bring my Girl Scout group to do it.

I hope you get a chance to volunteer and help out others some time too. If you have an organizaion you work with, let me know about. Maybe we can work with them too!

I'm Learning To Be An Artist

2008-08-07T11:31:00.008-07:00

Have you ever thought it would be cool to be an artist? I have. Only recently I felt like I would love to be able to draw or paint. The problem was that ever since I was a little kid I've always sucked at art. I took art class in high school but was never very good. I was the one who could never color inside the lines. I'm hopeless.

Then I started talking with skilled artists. I was surprised when they told me I should give it a try. All the artists I spoke with said the same thing. They were not born with art skills, they learned through trial and error, repetition, and lots of practice. I'm not hopeless.

Last week I bought a sketch diary from Target. As soon as I got it home I went into my daughter's room and found a picture book of farm animals with basic drawings. I sat down and started to draw them. I used a regular #2 pencil and my daughter's crayons. I burned through lots of erasers. After a while I got the lines to look somewhat like the pictures in the book. I kept going. I was learning to be an artist.

Here are the drawings I did last week:

The cow is my first. I only used a pencil for shading.

The horse was the hardest one to draw.

The pigs are kinda cute.

This one just came out of my head. Seems sorta menacing.

So by the end of last week I felt like I was getting much better at creating the lines and making things look the way I wanted. What about paint? I have this entire week off of work so last weekend I decided to buy some materials and try my hand.

I went to Michaels for all my supplies. I bought 5 colors of acrylic paint, a color wheel, a pad of 12x12 inch canvas paper, the cheapest pack of brushes I could find, a small plastic paint pallet, and a cheap desktop easle.

I also bought a book showing how to paint ocean landscapes because SheBoss liked it. She wants some kinda abstract painting to hang in the living room. She found one she likes but it's $200. I bet I can do that. First I need a little practice.

Here's what I've done so far:

This is supposed to be a wave. My first ever painting, what did you expect?

Don't ask. I'm not really sure. Hey, it's abstract.

This is very similar to the abstract SheBoss wants. My 3rd painting.

This boat landscape came from a picture I found in a book. I liked it so I used it as my 4th painting.

The Iris is from an art book I purchased later. I really like this one. Not bad for my 5th try.

I did the painting of Pepper yesterday for my 6th. It's my first truely original painting. I didn't copy someone elses work. The is a picture I took with my phone when she had her head on my stomach and was looking up at me.

I'll probably work on something for SheBoss tomorrow. I'm thinking about creating the painting over 4 of my 12x12 canvas sheets so they can be hung together an inch or so apart.

I'm taking today off of painting. I think I'll go down to Old Town Glendale and check out some of the art galleries. If nothing else, I look at other artist's work a lot differently now.

We have visitors from Virginia!!!

2008-07-28T09:39:00.015-07:00

Yeah!!! The girls are finally here from VA!! We have my 2 nieces visiting for about a week. My kids are soooo excited to see them! Well....me too of course! So far, they have mostly been swimming and playing video games and hangin out with some of my sons friends.

Yesterday we went to the Wildlife Zoo in Campe Verde AZ....I thought I would post some of the pictures for you to see....it was "pAWSOME"...

We got to go on a Safari ride and fee the giraffe carrots. Some of us even fed the giraffe the carrot from our mouths...to get a giraffe kiss...this is one of the girls feeding the giraffe the carrot...she pulled away before the giraffe could "kiss" her....cant say I blame her that giraffe uses TONGUE!!! Grossss!!! But still quite an exciting opportunity all the same.

We saw a really cool tiger show....the tigers played/popped balloons and balls...they chased shoes and especially love a baseball mit. They are not trained to do the show..the keepers are only out they with the toys to get the tigers interest and then the tiger behave however they want...which is usually chasing the toys and people....by the way...tigers run much faster then people so they always caught what they wanted. In fact at one point one got ahold of a trainers foot and would not let go until a couple other trainers came over and clapped and made noise to get her to release!

We even got to feed the tigers after the show....

This is my youngest niece....

This is her sister... also feeding the tiger....

This is my daughter feeding the tiger

This is my son feeding the tiger...of course my husband and I fed them also...

We saw lots of cool animals and had a good time....but for now I need to go...maybe I will be back later and post some more photos for you! Love and hugs!

What do you do when you are bored?

2008-07-23T10:20:00.002-07:00

I am fortunate that I have a great job and boss. I have a flexible schedule and can pretty much take days off when needed. The prolem is that it is a job that is swamped one day and absolutely nothing to do the next. (especially slow during summer months since I work at a school)

Sometimes I bring a book and read. This works well when it is a good book. But today, I have a new book THE SWEET FOREVER by George P. Pelecanos. So far it is not bad, not really great either. It is making me want to fall asleep. Maybe this is because I read before I go to bed or maybe it is because I am just not too into it yet....I dont know.

I spend a lot of down time searching the internet. I keep an on on craigslist to see if I can help my mom find items she needs for her new house. But you can only do that for so long too....

so does anyone else have any ideas? I need to be able to stay at my desk to answer the phone should it ring and obviously it has to be something not distracting to others in the office.

So what do you suggest?

Do you like tattoos?

2008-07-21T15:03:00.003-07:00

Hi all...Just thought I would post a picture of my new tattoo. It is on my right ankle. My mother-in-law and I got tattoos together. They are almost the same....the only difference is she had a small heart put on the chest of her "dragon frog".

Do you ask if it hurt??? HECK YES! Down low on the ankle where there is just skin on bone was a total shock. I had a tattoo before and it did not feel good but this one really hurt. The top half was not as bad as the lower half of the picture.

It all started a few months ago when I saw a picture of a frog with dragon fly wings. It was so pretty I had to send it to her and commented how it was a combination of both of us. I love dragon flies and she loves the the small tree frog found in her native Puerto Rico.

Well, next thing you know she decided she wanted to get a tattoo ...so we scoured the internet to find the perfect picture. We found this little frog on this cool shaped plant....took it to "Quick" (our tattoo guy at Two Kats Tats in Phoenix) and he freehand added the wings. We both just love it!

Most people are surprised that I would get a tattoo with my MOTHER-IN-LAW...like it is illegal to get along with in-laws. I am very lucky to have a great mom-in-law!!

We were shopping at the mall yesterday and a complete stranger noticed them and complimented them. Of course then she showed us a tattoo she had that she did with her best friend.

We love the bright colors. It is about a week old in this picture and still peeling a tiny bit. It will get even brighter over the next few weeks.

I know some people think I am crazy for getting tattoos. I have two this one and memorial one for my Dad. I know my Dad would like my tattoo for him, but it would have been nice for him to see it. This way doing it while my mother-in-law is alive, we both get to enjoy it! I would have loved if I could have gotten a tattoo with my Dad...that would have been a hoot! I like the idea of putting something permanent on my skin to remind me of the people I love. My next one will most likely be two dragon flies chasing each other. One big and one little....to represent my 2 children. Let me know what you think!

GNOME MORE GNOME

2008-07-17T15:02:00.006-07:00

Just an FYI,
I've gotten a little sick of the gnome.
As such, there will be gnome more gnome pictures.
I put a slideshow with all the gnome pictures over on the right side bar.

Then look at all my public slideshows.

You'll find so many gnome pics that gnome one will believe it.

On the bus to gnomewhere.

Goodbye Gnome. Follow your dreams and let gnomeone stop you.

The Family That Shoots Together................

2008-07-12T18:24:00.014-07:00

As you might have noticed from some of my slideshow photos, my kids and I like to shoot archery. We're not hunters. We just shoot for fun.

My kids are both members of JOAD (Junior Olympic Archery Developement) here in Glendale.

My son also works at an archery shop part time. What a cool job for a high schooler. I was stuck working fast food most of my high school years.

Once both of the kids got involved I had to learn myself. I bought a PSE Shark bow. I have it set at 60 lbs with a 30 inch draw length. Once I got the bow I started spending money on equipment. Because I'm nearly 40 I bought a Tru Glo lighted site. I have a True Ball Cyclone release, no finger shooting here. A nice stabalizer and a wrist loop and I was ready to go.

Here's a couple pictures of my bow:

I really enjoy archery as a family activity. My son is the most involved, working at the archery shop and all. He was the first one to get involved.

We found the JOAD program at a local archery shop. They have three class levels, beginner, intermediate, and advanced. You don't even need to own any of your own equipment. They only charge $8 per week and if you don't show one week, you don't pay. I was excited because most of the activities there are to get kids involved with make you pay a lump sum up front and if you don't show up you lose your money. This is great because they can take a break for a few weeks for vacation or some other activity they are doing and it doesn't cost a thing.

Kilter is in the advanced class now. He's been involved for about 2 1/2 years. He shoots a Browning Rage bow at 55 lbs and 29 inch draw (he's a big kid). The class scores once a month and he usually shoots around 210.

Even my 7 year old daughter has her own bow. When she was five and Kilter was going to JOAD every week she would come along. I asked the coach how soon I could get her involved and her response was "two years ago". So Luckygirl started out with a very small bow that almost looked like a toy. After about 6 months I bought her a real compound bow. A PSE Spyder with a draw weight around 15 lbs. She likes it but is not as in to it as Kilter.

Here's a picture of Luckygirl's bow hanging on her wall against the pink wallpaper:

Like I said, it's alot of fun. If you're looking for a family activity archery is a good one. It's something that the whole family can get involved in whether indoors our outdoors. I highly recommend it.

We're still working on SheBoss but I'm sure she'll come around.

Happy Birthday America!!

2008-07-03T21:48:00.007-07:00

I've been trying to write a blog entry about the 4th of July for a couple of days. Every time I get started I end up getting emotional and writing a lot of gibberish. I guess I'll just make a couple of points and call it good.

I am a veteran and a patriot.

I am very proud to be an American.

I would like to think that all Americans share my view but sadly I don't think that's true.

I support the war in Iraq.

I support the troops fighting abroad.

I don't understand why many people don't believe I could support both. It does not have to be a one or the other situation.

Those of you who have served in the military, whether in war or in peace, understand that, given the opportunity, our military could take on any foe, at any time, on any turf. Unfortunately, war is as much about politics as military strategy.

I have a few people I'd like to thank for my freedom and the freedom of my children and my country:

Thank you to the 4,445 Americans who died on the battlefield in the American Revolution

Thank you to the 214,938 Americans (both sides) who died on the battlefield in the Civil War

Thank you to the 53,402 Americans who died on the battlefield in WWI

Thank you to the 291,557 Americans who died on the battlefield in WWII (including 3,393 on D-Day alone)

Thank you to the 33,741 Americans who died on the battlefield in the Korean War

Thank you to the 47,424 Americans who died on the battlefield in the Vietnam War

Thank you to the 147 Americans who died on the battlefield in the Gulf War (Desert Storm)

Thank you to the 468 Americans who died on the battlefield in Afghanistan (Enduring Freedom)

Thank you to the 4,000 Americans who have died so far in the Iraqi War (as of 03/2008).

Thank you to all our nations service men and women for volunteering your service to preserve the principles our country stands for.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of
patriots and tyrants. Thomas Jefferson
Spec4-J, Saudi Arabia, 08/91

Here are my sources. For some reason the VA site didn't have any numbers on the two current wars going on right now so I went with Wikipedia.

http://www1.va.gov/opa/fact/amwars.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_casualties_in_Afghanistan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War#U.S._armed_forces

The Gnome Still Roams!!

2008-06-26T15:16:00.005-07:00

The gnome continues to see the sights in our training center. Here are just a few of his recent travels:

No! No! No! ZZZRRRRRTTTTT.............Gnome more head.

Painter Gnome endorses SATA paint guns.

Gnome mixing bank.

That's one big leafspring. Gnome one's gonna believe this.

Gnome Shock Therepy has really helped me address my personal issues.

Is the gnome hiding in the men's or the women's locker room? Gnomebody knows for sure.

You really need new brakes. There's Gnome brake pad left.

There is Gnome way to straighten this connecting rod.

I'll get this thing running in Gnome time.

And this isn't the end of it. The gnome won't rest until he's visited the entire office. Stay tuned for more gnome adventures.

How's your health?

2008-06-23T09:15:00.003-07:00

So, how's your health? When was the last time you had a physical or blood work done to check your overall health? Most of us have kids or at least spouses that we want to spend many more years with .....soooo we need to stay healthy.

Myself, I get blood work done every 3 months. This was decided by my doctor. You see my triglycerides were high. In fact, almost double what they should be. Apparently this increases my risk factor for heart problems. I was also told I had high blood pressure...no big surprise really since I am overweight!!!

Well, I started Weight Watchers with a friend about 3.5 months ago. I have lost 28.8 lbs!! I got blood work done recently and just heard from the doctor today....mostly good news!

My triglycerides dropped 100 points! That is super awesome as they were worrying me before. They are still a bit high (198) when they need to be 150 or less. But hey, I have been trying to lower them for a year and it was really going slow...until I lost the weight. At least now I am not so worried that I might have a heart attack or strok any minute now....that is a good feeling.

My bad cholestrol dropped and is normal now (was only a tiny bit high before). My good cholestrol was on the low side before and now it is even lower. This is not good, so I need to work on increasing it.

I am finding it hard to increase the good cholestrol while losing weight. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can do it? I know fish like salmon is high in good cholestrol but salmon is hard to work into losing weight since is still high in fat...even though is good fat.

Well, the point I am trying to make is everyone needs to take care of themselves...you only have one body and if you abuse it too much it will catch up with.

I am proud that I am losing weight, eating healthier (this goes for my family too...since I cook...we all are eating healthier) and feeling and looking better. It is nice to know that I am on the road to living a longer healthier life with my friends and family!!!

So JUST DO IT as they say and go to your doctor and get a physical and blood work done and get yourself healthy too!!

Used Door Assembly

2008-06-22T16:50:00.002-07:00

This is another video we made for teaching new adjusters about what parts would come with a used door assembly. As you can see I tried being a little cheesier with this one. It seems that when watching instructional videos cheesy if fairly effective. This one is also currently in use for our online preclass.

Used Bumper

2008-06-22T10:59:00.002-07:00

Here is a video an co-worker and I created to teach new damage appraisers what parts would be included with a used replacement bumper assembly. This video is currently being used in our online preclass.

Applebees

2008-06-20T19:34:00.001-07:00

Feelin Good In The Neighborhood

Anyone have a dog?

2008-06-20T16:47:00.005-07:00

This is our oldest puppy...

The left is our newest puppy and the right is our obsessive Queensland Prima Dona...

We have 3 dogs. They are like having 3 extra children. Our oldest dog is soooo ooold that his teeth are getting bad enough that I now have to bite a grape in half and then feed it to him!! Spoiled! I have recently discovered that if you freeze grapes and eat them frozen they are wonderful. Me and the dogs have become addicted to them. I cant eat them without sharing with the dogs....just cant resist those sad little eyes pleading with me.

One dog is a Queensland Mix. Boy, is she bossy. She is a cattle dog that loves rounding up the other dogs. She is obsessive about it. I feel bad the the smallest and oldest dog. She pesters him to no end.

The third dog is another mix. They said he was a Queensland mix too, but I dont know if they were right. He has Queensland spots but other than that is is much more mild tempered.

Does anyone else have dogs? I love Dobermans and am hoping to get one...just have not found the right one yet. (and Spec4-j keeps saying we dont need 4 dogs) Humbug! He is no fun sometimes.

By the way, originally I was "the wife" now my screen name is "She Boss"....this is because Spec4-j did not like the wife and thought She Boss would be better. It is very fitting...if you know what I mean.

Share pics of your pets with me. I would love to see them.

Name Change

2008-06-19T18:39:00.005-07:00

As my blog starts to take on a form I've decided that The Franchise is not the best name for my needs. I've changed the name to Brown Street Blog and have changed the web address (which you figured out if you reading this). You will also start seeing posts from "The Wife" or whatever she decides to call herself. Hopefully no one has been inconvenienced by the change, but if you have, get over it.

Luckygirl is such a fashion diva.

2008-06-19T16:43:00.002-07:00

KilterT on the phone, as usual.

2008-06-19T16:40:00.001-07:00

Wherever I May Gnome

2008-06-19T15:50:00.007-07:00

In my office we have a Gnome. The Gnome is given to anyone in the office who displays a good attitude. This week I was awarded The Gnome so I felt like he needed to see a few sights.

Welcome Gnome

Computer Gnome

Unibody Gnome

Gnome Helping Darcy

Gnome Helping Matt

The Real Gnome Shady

Driving Gnome

Hanging Gnome

Mechanic Gnome Checking Out Engine.

Don't worry. This is not the last of it. The Gnome's adventures are just beginning. Stay tuned for more Roaming Gnome Travels.

Mabb's Ranch

2008-06-18T20:19:00.005-07:00

For Father's day this year my family took me on a surprise trip to a place called Mabb's Ranch. http://www.mabbsranch.com/maps.html It's a private campground in Arizona near the Mogollon (mug-ee-on) Rim. (the band with the same name is from the area)

For those of you who are not aware, Arizona has some beautiful pine forests running through our state. Mabb's Ranch is in the Sitgreaves National Forest. http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/asnf/ Sigreaves happens to be the worlds largest Ponderosa Pine forest. Check out the Forest Service link above and check it out. You'll be amazed.

Anyway, back to Father's Day. Mabb's Ranch offers campsite rentals that have onsite travel trailers to stay in. We rented a 28 foot 5th wheel trailer that was already hooked up with electricity and water. That was wonderful because the last time I slept in a tent with a sleeping bag I couldn't walk upright for a week.

So we had a great time. We all went, my wife (aka the wife), my 15 y/o son (aka KilterT), my 7 y/o daughter (aka luckygirl) and myself (Spec4-J).

Here are some of the pictures for your enjoyment:

left to right: KilterT, Spec4-J, and Luckygirl cookin dogs.

Luckygirl playing with another girl she met at the campsite.

Does a bear pee in the woods?

Now thats a fire!

Luckygirl and KilterT hanging around the fire.

Luckygirl and the wife waiting to go out riding quads.

Luckygirl on Bailey the horse who was being led by the wife.

Luckygirl on Bailey again being let by the wife.

New Colors

2008-06-18T19:24:00.003-07:00

So what do you think about the new colors. I changed the template to mix things up a little.
I'm one of those people who always has to tinker with things. I'm sure I'll change it again down the road.

The Office

2008-06-18T19:03:00.002-07:00

Hey! I finally figured out how to get pictures from my phone into my blog. I don't know why it took me so long to figure out but I got it now.

This is a picture of my office. Well, it's not really an office, it's a training center. But it is where I work.

If you read my Memorial Day post about my job you'll already know that I teach new insurance adjusters how to estimate property damage on crashed cars.

It's a very cool job. I mean who wouldn't have fun working in this environment?

MUSIC

2008-06-11T10:18:00.005-07:00

On my way to work this morning I was playing my Ride The Lightning CD. You better believe I was good and fired up once I got to the office. That's one thing I love about great Metal music is that it infuses you with energy.

I've been a METAL HEAD for most of my life. Starting with AC/DC of course. Then Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden (there were several hair bands in there as well). Finally I reached the pinnacle with Metallica.

OK, so you can tell I grew up in the 80's. There are a few current bands that are pretty kick ass but those other guys laid the foundation.

Metal is pure energy. I've heard non-metal heads describe it as angry music. There's a little anger in some of it but that's not what it's about and those people totally don't get it. All you have to do is put on Master of Puppets and your head starts moving back and forth involuntarily. You start banging on your steering wheel and stomping you foot on the floorboard. All of this is a little scary for me cause at my age I can't really drive while all this is going on but the result is that I GET PUMPED.

Recently I've done the unfathamable. I started listening to RAP. You heard me, I'm getting into Hip Hop.

There was a long period of time (the entire 1990's) when I gave up on music because none of it really moved me. My son (we'll call him KilterT) is now getting old enough (15 next month) that he is developing his own tastes in music. He pretty much likes everything. He seems to like Rap the most.

KilterT has been buying MP3 music like crazy. One day I was driving him to work and he brought a disc that he had burned and asked if he could listen to it on the way. We heard this guy named Cadillac Don singing about his Chevys.

Inside peanut butter outside jelly 7 days of the week 7 different chevys Black SS wit tha top blown off f*** with them boys get ya top blown off

I looked it up on http://www.urbandictionary.com/ and found out that inside PB means that the interior is tan or beigh and the outside Jelly means it has a candied paint job. Anyway I thought the song was pretty cool.

The next song was called Pop Bottles by The Birdman and Lil Wayne.

Chorus] Chomp with straight shots and then pop bottles, (yea) Flirt with the hood rats thin pop models, (uh huh) Chomp with straight shots and then pop bottles, (yea) Flirt with the hood rats thin pop models, [Birdman] Okay, we poppin champeign like we won a championship game, [Lil Wayne] Look like I got on a championship ring, [Birdman] Cause I ball hard, [Lil Wayne] Notice we ball harder, [Birdman] I am the Birdman, [Lil Wayne] And I'm the J-R-uh,

And I was like "hey, this is cool too". The next song was even better. Chin Check by N.W.A but with Snoop Dogg instead of Eazy-E.

I`m a Nigga Wit an Attitude thanks to y`all. And I don`t give a f**k I keep it gangsta y`all. I`ma ride for my side in the C.P.T. God bless the memory of Eazy-E. If it wadn`t for me where the f**k you`d be? Rappin like the Treacherous Three, f**kin cowards. I`d have seen Dre rockin parties for hours. And I`d have seen Ren f**kin bit*hes from Howard. And I`d have seen Snoop give away Eddie Bauer`s. So f**k Jerry Heller and the white superpowers.

This one was the best of them all. I found my self head-bobbin in the car and bouncing in my seat. KilterT was quite embarrassed that someone would see his nut job father banging out to hip hop, but I really liked it.

I had KilterT burn me an entire disc to keep in my car and now I mix it up between metal and rap.

I guess my point is, whatever music you like, if it moves you and energizes you then that's the whole point right.

What music moves you?

btw, I got the lyrics from http://www.asklyrics.com/

Testing

2008-06-09T14:57:00.003-07:00

The previous post about meeting facilitations is just there for a test. I'm still researching the capabilites of this system for my boss. I wanted to find out if I could copy and past a document and I was successfull doing that. I also wanted to find out if I could copy and past the link to the Word document into the posting. I was not so successful with that. If anyone knows how to do it let me know.
Thanks.

2008-06-09T14:48:00.002-07:00

Meeting Facilitation Guidelines

Meeting Flow:

Open meeting, Thank everyone for attending
If anyone is attending by phone, state the names of all attendees
Confirm who is taking the meeting minutes
Review the reason for the meeting and briefly review the agenda items
Proceed with the first agenda item
Introduce the topic
Discuss the topic
Determine if action or follow up is needed
Summarize the agenda item, ask for any questions
Move on to the next agenda item and repeat the process
After going over all agenda items and if time allows, ask the meeting participants for any additional relevant topics that they may wish to discuss
Recap all agreed upon action items or to do’s that were generated during the meeting
Be specific for each action item: who will complete it, when it will be completed, and if applicable, how it will be completed
Give timeline for when meeting participants will receive meeting minutes

Remember:

Encourage involvement from the meeting participants if ideas and discussion is needed.

If a goal of the meeting is to solve a problem or issue, you need to only pose the problem to the group first, and then ask for the participant’s ideas before voicing your own ideas. By speaking your idea first, it could make people feel less involved and it could limit possible creative solutions.

If a meeting participant wants to discuss an unrelated topic, in many cases (not all) it is best to discuss the option at the end of the meeting or in a separate conversation after the meeting is over.

Let's Talk Tattoos

2008-06-06T11:40:00.007-07:00

I have a tattoo of this flag patch on my right arm. I've had it for some time now and it's the only tattoo on that arm. I have been looking for something new to add. The flag is not as high as this soldier is wearing it. Mine is low enough to be just covered by my shirt sleeve when I wear short sleeves.

I want to add something either beside it our above it sometime in the near future. Anyone have any good ideas? I'm thinking about keeping with the patriotic theme on that side. I don't l ike the cartoonish type tattoos, preferring photo realism as it has much more detail.

I like animals and was thinking about getting a lion or a leopard there but I'm not sure it really fits with the flag. My wife insists it must be a bald eagle along wtih my flag. Does anyone else have an opinion.

Here's a picture of an eagle that I found and I think it looks pretty cool. Does anyone know if a tattoo artist could even do something like this. It's an awful lot of true black and I've also heard white isn't a good color for tattoos when used extensively.

One thing for sure, this eagle looks serious. That's what I like most about it. I'd like to hear thoughts on this if anyone has an opinion or knows much about tattoos.

Miss Me?

2008-06-02T15:32:00.003-07:00

Has anyone missed me? I have not posted in about a week.

I took last Thursday and Friday off from work to stay home with my kids, beginning of Summer Break and all.

Now I'm back at my jolly job. Today I do not have a class to teach so we generally keep busy with all the administrative stuff. Since I teach estimating on damaged vehicles sometimes that means creating damage. Lots of fun. How many of you have jobs where you get to beat up cars? I even have special tools for the task so that the damage doesn't look fake.

Tomorrow I'll be teaching a level 2 property damage class. I enjoy teaching all the levels of PD. I mainly teach PD1 but I also get involved in PD2 and PD3 and I'm the lead administrator for Pre-PD which is an online course.

One of the reasons that I enjoy training so much is that I get to get on my soapbox and rant about things. I've worked hard at developing this skill. It didn't come easy for me at first. I was a little bit shy and introverted. This job has definitely changed that. I no longer have an inside voice and now I always feel the need to be the center of attention. Ask anyone that knows me, I tend to be a little over the top. Ah well, there's worse things.

It's getting late here so I think I'll knock off for the day.
Until next time.............................

Memorial Day

2008-05-26T11:02:00.002-07:00

It's Memorial Day and I'm here at work. Luckily I'm only working until about 2:30 or so.

I have burgers and Nathan's waiting for me to grill when I get home. That's what Memorial Day is all about right?

Well, that is one good thing about it, spending time with the family. I think we generally forget what Memorial Day really means while we're busy with our BBQ grills and having fun.

Memorial Day started as Decoration Day after the Civil War. It was a day to go and decorate the graves of the deceased so that if they were forgotten throughout the year, at least there would be one day set aside to remember them.

Take some time today to remember the fallen. Whether it's someone you've known that has passed away or a soldier you never met who has died fighting for their country. Just take a minute to think about it.

South Africa

2008-05-25T10:41:00.003-07:00

I like reading fiction novels. I usually get hooked on a specific author and read all their titles before moving on to the next.

I've been reading an author named Wilbur Smith over the last year or so.
http://www.wilbursmithbooks.com/home/index.html
He is a native of South Africa and writes what I call Historic Fiction. He uses fictional characters but in correct historical context.

His Egypt novels are what got me started. River God is a book I rank in my all-time top 5. The Taita character in these Egypt books is fabulous.

The Courtney Novels are about English seamen that settled in Colonial South Africa. We follow the family from the 15th century to the 20th century. For some reason there is a gap during the 19th century. Sean Courtney is the main patriarch of the family once they settle in South Africa. His adventures start out in The Lion Feeds.

Through reading Mr. Smith's books I have developed a great appreciation for South African history. There has seldom been a time in S.A. when there wasn't internal strife by rival groups. The most obvious being apartheid.
Recently I ran across several news articles regarding xenophobic attacks .

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
xen·o·pho·bi·a
–noun
an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange.

This just goes to show that the climate in South Africa continues to be arduous and violent even in current times. I found it strange that these riots and attacks were not widely covered here in the U.S. Here are some links to a couple of South African news outlets if you'd like to read for your self:
http://www.sabcnews.com/
http://www.mg.co.za/

Friday

2008-05-23T09:56:00.004-07:00

I'm happy it's Friday.
I work as a trainer teaching insurance adjusters how to appraise property damage on vehicles. It's alot of fun. I really enjoy the work. I get students from all over the country coming here to learn this stuff. The coolest part is all the different personalities. I also have several cool co-workers who are great to work with. It's not often in life that you find a job that you really like. I've spend alot of time working at jobs that were fine but never before have I looked forward to going to work in the morning.

It's raining pretty good today. I live in Phoenix and we don't get alot of rain. For that reason we really love rainy days. Anytime the weather report says something other than sunny and hot we get excited. Earlier this week the highs were close to 110. Today it's only going to be 73. That's more than a 30 degree change in two days. I know 73 sound nice to most of you but today I wore my long sleeve work sheet (I only have one) and a jacket over that because I was down right cold.

If you've ever been to Phoenix you know that traffic is horrible here. Mostly due to bad drivers or rude drivers. Most people here are from somewhere else. For those reasons you don't want to drive on I-10 through downtown at rush hour when it rains. Those drivers that have lived here awhile are terrified of wet roads to they drive 25 mph on the freeway. The other half of the drivers moved here from somewhere where it rains or snows alot. Those are the worst because they drive 85 mph on the freeway at rush hour,
"This aint nothing, I'm used to driving in 2 feet of snow".
The problem becomes, due to lack of rain, when it does rain all the oil in the road floats to the top and the roads get as slick as ice. Avoid driving in Phoenix when it rains if you can.

Honey and Kids

2008-05-22T15:46:00.001-07:00

Goodbye To Honey The Cheetah

2008-05-22T11:06:00.003-07:00

I'm a big fan of the BBC TV show Big Cat Diary on Animal Planet. I'm not sure why but it totally fascinates me. I can't get enough of the Ridge Pride and the Marsh Pride of lions. I also like following the leopards. Most of all I enjoy the cheetahs. Especially when they show the cheetahs with cubs. The cheetah that is the biggest star of the show is Honey. The situations they've shown her involved in and her bravery, resolve, and knowledge make her a supermom. Unfortunately I recently ran across a news article announcing that Honey the cheetah has died, and not of natural causes.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-511955/Honey-star-Big-Cat-Diary-killed-vets-blunder.html
When I watch the show I am always prepared that there will be animals being killed due to the harsh life they lead. I can accept that. What I don't feel good about is these animals surviving all the natural trial of their lives and then succumbing to a death at the hands of a human.
We'll miss you Honey.

The Beginning

2008-05-21T11:40:00.000-07:00

This is my first attempt at blogging. I like to tell people what I think so I should be good at this. In actuallity I started this because I am researching for someone else who is considering starting a blog. How can I give any ideas until I try it myself? So far it's been a piece of cake. I plan to just let this go and see what it turns into. So, until next time....................