999 and Counting

Time flies. This week, in particular, has flown by. I thought time would drag once I retired and started staying home all the time, and it seems odd to me that the days pass so quickly now. Especially since one day is pretty much like the next. At the end of most of them it's hard to see what I've done to fritter away the hours. Anyway, here are a few of the ways I've spent my time this week.

Zoo Things
I've already told you about our trip to the zoo on Monday. Mentally, I was still at the zoo on Tuesday, which I spent sorting and editing zoo photos, blogging about our day there, and resting up (reading) after all that walking. I was a little stiff and sore on Tuesday, a clear reminder that I need to resume walking for daily exercise.

Art Stuff
On Wednesday I finished the fourth assignment for the Acrylic Exploration class, which was to paint a copy a Manet painting. Here's the end result:

I'm happier with this one than with the first three, but it seemed to me that the painted tablecloth under these painted roses grew darker and darker (and greener) every time I worked at it. Maybe one day I'll go back and lighten it up. Then again, maybe I won't; it's a pretty good color to go with my bedroom walls right now.

At this week's class we started a new painting, the first one that isn't a copy of someone else's work. We were each given a brightly-colored cloth, a stemmed silver cup, and two pieces of plastic fruit to arrange any way we chose. My stepsister (an interior decorator and watercolor artist) won't be shocked to know that after multiple attempts at placing the objects on the cloth in a pleasing way, mine ended up more or less in a row. I wish I'd done a better job of it, but now, having drawn the whole arrangement in preparation for painting it, it doesn't much matter. I don't like my apple (it's honking BIG), I'm not crazy about the colors I'm working with, and I'm struggling with proportions and perspective, so my expectations for this painting aren't very high. That being said, I love this class and the people in it, so the process is more important to me than the finished product. Plus, I do understand that I'll learn more by working outside my comfort zone.

People at Walmart
I've been doing my weekly grocery shopping right after art class, which is working out well for me. For one thing I'm already dressed and wearing makeup, which eliminates the need to go to that trouble just for shopping. For another, shopping after class means I finish up just about the same time the afternoon batch of rotisserie chickens are ready, so the timing is good. This little change in routine has me going to a store that's close to the art class instead of the one where I usually shop, which is closer (but on the other side of) home. None of that is important except to explain where I was in relation to where I normally would have been yesterday. It turns out that right when I was shopping at art-class-Walmart, some guy was arrested at closer-to-home-Walmart while walking the aisles and simultaneously (um, how shall I word this?) "displaying his merchandise."

I'm never around when anything exciting happens. That's probably a good thing.

Today--and Then Tomorrow
Today started out like most days: reading blogs, answering email, working the crossword puzzle at Dictionary.com. I enjoyed both breakfast and lunch outside, using my left hand to carry food from the table to my mouth, my right hand to throw a slobbery tennis ball, and my lap to hold the mystery novel I was attempting to  read on my Kindle. While I was out there, I took four pictures of a mockingbird and one of a hawk, all of which I've uploaded and since deleted (too blurry to take up hard-drive space).  Also today, I've scheduled a week's worth of photos for A One-Pic Pony and posted another of my grandmother's stories at Audrey's Ambition. After that I went over my iTunes list, played a few bars of quite a few different songs before settling on one, then scouted out a YouTube video of it to post tomorrow. Tomorrow's Saturday Song Selection piece will be my one-thousandth post here at Velvet Sacks.

As I said at the beginning of this one, time flies.