black-eyed pumpkin pie

i haven't been around a whole lot lately because i wasn't in the office yesterday and i haven't been motivated to take a whole lot of photos. i did happen to get a couple of shots of my favorite pumpkin in the world. the gift i mentioned a couple of posts back from my snl. it's tiny and cute and i should make a pumpkin tree to hang it on. i'll be out of town tomorrow, off from the old rx this weekend. to enjoy saturday with my friend jen, while working the fest, playing with lavendar, soaking up the autumm air, please be nice! sunday is my day to relax and remember.

i have almost finished the third and final red paper quilt collage, i finally drew the best little robot in the world and i can't wait to show you all. your just going to have to wait until monday or tuesday. have a wonderful weekend. peace and love you all.

a peace of the green

late last week i finished up the second drawing, in my paper quilt collage series. i really labored the idea of drawing a fish once again. afterall it feels like all i've drawn in the last years are birds and fish and fish well, they're a bit more complicated. i ended up feeling fairly content with this little guy and the outcome.

i have had one bit of critisism toward my next drawing on the red paper quilt collage. my tentative idea is to draw a robot, but i'm stuck stuck stuck on things like round head, square head, round mouth, square mouth, neck or no neck. it's a hassle right now drawing stupid dribbly drawings. i so rarely practice before starting a drawing, i hate warming up and would much rather jump into the drawing project than deliberate the impending doom. i have thought about doing a butterfly/dragonfly or a mushroom, but i'm not as 100% behind these ideas, so...

i made it through my seven day straight. work to the brink. i still have my soul and a good attitude. nothing more or less. very happy to be on the other side of a dull moment. switching gears, and having a pile to give away is nice. i've got a pit growing in my stomach, a sort of exciting seed, saying that i might should prepare to move but that is all. no word of resigning a lease. so strange...

pastures of afterglow

yesterday or the day before, i am not so sure, i was on my way to the rx, stuck in terrible bridge traffic and desperately wishing bad drivers would disappear. in these crazy moments i have also become keenly aware of my dissatisfaction with the radio station selections in my city. they aren't distracting me as much from the day to day and so i settle in with the national public. on this particular day, possibly monday i found myself in the middle of a conversation with the infamous ryan adams. this was exciting for me because i just recently saw ryan at the tabernacle in atlanta and thought the show was great, just great! i also had no idea that things were the way they are for him. 3 albums in 7 months, my goodness the man is a songwriting machine. and all the attitude and controversy, i couldn't believe my naive (i'm not naive though) little ears. i mean who knew he was such a freakin' rebel?

beyond these minor things i must say the weather has been of the utmost-beautiful. i just went outside for the break and found a cloudless blue sky, a blue so warm and comfortable it called out to me, to seek happiness, friendship, autumn leaves, orange cream pumpkins, and the daily 3 mile hike around the hospital campus. unga bunga. my sister in law took a trip down to frazier avenue, to blueskies and brought me back a baby glass pumpkin, so cute, i died. jumping and squeeling, because i'd seen it last week and forewent the temptation to buy and thought 'oh god would bless me with even the smaller things if i might just let go of this one thing so tiny and wonderful, this time.' i really think that because i let it go, it came back to me in such a perfect little way. i also decided to go ahead a sign up for amy's incredible mailorder. i'm all set to go on the halloween garland and i'm ready to pitch the clothes, shoes and boxes i've got piled up in my apt. it's time for fall cleaning, i'm not up on the spring time ways of cleaning. and well let's see i'm bored here at work, fairly caught up and thinking i should purge charts! yikes. i'm outta here, enjoy the weather, cool nights, bugless days, imagine the brown leaf scents and back to school butterflies. i've not been in school for ten years and i still get the tiniest turn overs in my tummy in the morning. geez. and who has experience with fake eyelashes? just curious. i'm back and happier can you tell? i've gotten the best of encouragement. love and heart going out to all of you.

blur quandary, close finish, & bitter water

over the weekend i was able to get a fair amount of painting done to the posturing/pretending tree aka bitter water. i keep making these amendments to the title, fearing the worst that only a paragraph will be the chance explaination. i completely disappointed with the photo quality and won't complain about it again until after i am finished and then maybe a critique.

i am gaining on the finish line, slowly but surely, waiting for the canvas, paint and color to speak a final word of 'it is done.' i went ahead, filled in with the bronze/white twists of the tree. even though i love the tree, i'm reminded of tootsie rolls when i look at the bark. my intention was to make the painting look flat, yet in each smaller plane, a variation and shade of contrast. i have still got the bitter water to work on. i purposely poisoned the water with a red permanent maker and so the pink will continue to pinch at the seams. i'm eager to find warmth and background but feel so drawn into the stark white, simple symbols and refresh represented. this go around i decided i would try my hand at creating this level of work. as mentioned i'm inspired by some of the greats:

1. aaron kraten

2. blaine fontana

3. aaron jasinski

4. sam flores

as mentioned before my other inspiration and thoughts have come directly from the bible. never before have i experienced a thought or idea that coincided with a image or story from a bible teaching. it is such a strange feeling. i want to see my art in print and the painting really seems like it could be the first step. i am also thinking of doing a 2007 calendar. wouldn't that be a blast. here's the scripture i've taken the idea from. sometimes i feel like some bitter water. really. sorry in advance for the creepy numbers. and i have to admit my enjoyment of the king james. it's the old school vintage version of things i really think cuts.

22So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.
23And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.
24And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?
25And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,
26And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.
27And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.

that's all for the day. i had a good weekend, busy, bustling and bursting over with all kinds of times. picnic llama's, slip and slids, treasured conversations with carolyn. and geez a confrontation. i bought a new pair of new balance 992. and hit greenlife up for some yummy bites.

i am in my way

lately the weather has been less about blue and more about grey, i am more about my blue tommy fleece, just like last year. i cannot wait to show you what i have been working on. your welcome to come and see, i'm warning you it's just the beginning. i don't know, you might be surprised that i had guts to paint right over my paper quilts, don't worry, it was my thought to do so all along. i just had to collect the right supplies to do this sort of thing. my plans are to paint a fish on the green paper quilt and a robot on the red paper quilt.

even though i started the pretending tree i really must finish this series of small mixed media collages first. i will keep you updated as things progress.

i splurged last week and bought myself these special little earrings. i haven't been out shopping and wanted to celebrate myself in someway. sounds cheesy i know but i've been so down down down on myself lately and yes yes yes buying these inexpensive earrings were a way to spruce up the spirit a bit. check em out, woot if you like em!

i have this way about me, introverting and stumbling over my thoughts and rewinding/replaying scenerio's over and over again in my mind. i know talking about god on the internet isn't cool because it expresses too much of what is in my head and heart. i know writing about the ins and outs of my life isn't really the best way to improve or better the creative things i try and share. i keep saying that without the ability to create i'd go insane. i know it's true for others and that i'm not alone in saying so.

listen though, i am struggling with my identity, am i weak or am i strong? am i a friend or not? all that i see in myself is fight. people always say..."follow gods will, he'll show you the way. he's got a plan for your life, relinquish control, freedom comes in faith and taking risks." yet i specifically want a couple of my relationships to be completely blessed. i'm not sure if i see god in it. i mean he's in it because he's my father and he's soverign and full of practical real life grace stuff but...i have been changing and opening myself up a whole lot more to things like bible study and church and people and all of this time i'm thinking that god is leading me, i'm feeling fine, right? like even if there are butterflies in my stomach i can swallow harder, blink past-thru tears and follow. but hell i don't want to, what i want more is for a relationship to be redeemed, what i want is for this person to be blessed completely and forever. what i want is to be at peace with god's desire. my hang up is the mere fact of loosing out of friendship, companionship. there's not one ounce of me that thinks i've compromised in this relationship or that i'm even about to. i'm not throwing up my hands in anger toward god, i'm throwing them up at myself, thinking-yelling, to get out of my own way! so i'm immersing myself with words and friendly interventions from carolyn in the city. i'm crying and asking god to fight for me, fight these conflicted feelings. i'm stubborn enough to continue to ask him for his blessings in this decaying relationship. i told carolyn i honestly believed that god was in everything going on here. and that the debate is pointless. i am overwhelmed with his love, it's keeping me safe and free from making really really stupid decisions, ya know like i used to when i was much younger. i just can't wait until it's the weekend, and kate moving up to chatt., and the picnic on sunday. that's going to have to fill me up. i'm filled. this is the plan. you may ask

why work so much? paying father back for tax help. and saving for the nicest laptop ever!

fresh memories

surfing

i've been surfing the www all morning long.
i found two pair of blue and green owl earrings and bought
them for nine dollars and fifty cents.
last night i went to bible study.
i came home and worked on the pretending/posturing
tree. i am changing it's direction for the better.
i am following exodus, bitter water, so on and
so forth. i'm going to go home early today.

with august over

i can't tell you how happy i am that august is now behind me. the beginning of the month was quite treachorous, the middle of the month things really started to pick up but now that it is september i'm back into the swing of things. i have not felt as productive, as i do at this point. on friday night i called kate and we caught up on a whole lot. while on the phone she reminded me that several years ago i decided that when making my art, especially collage, that i would utilize my drawing and painting skills. it is a challenge in collage to incorporate one's own ideas. in the beginning i spent a whole lot of my time cutting up magazines and things. now a piece isn't complete until i've added a larger element of my own. so over the weekend i began the second phase of the process with the paper quilt series, pushing myself to overcome and reflect my own drawing ability. i planned on the push in the first place, but it's hard. to have what looks to be a complete work, having to begin again, drawing...yikes! so far so good, although the first (blue paper quilt) has not been completed, it's got a blue bird!

i also began the largest painting i've ever worked on before. i'm excited because i initially bought the canvas to paint a commisson for my brother and sister n law. but they have decided on a triptych cityscape, so i won't be using this over 3 foot by over 2 foot canvas for them, i get to use it for the pretending/posturing tree. i really haven't got the gumption to show it all because it's all rather crude in the beginning but i like how the shapes and colors are coming together. kate was saying how she's incorporated a "jack rabbit" into her paintings because her backyard is full of early morning bunnies. i have strange trees around me the city and often times they are the only green things, catching light and rain. plus, and this is big. this past sunday frank taught from exodus, moses and his people come across a bitter water river, and desperately need their thirst quenched, god shows moses the tree and tells him to push it into the river. the imagery has caught up with me! i've never had this type of experience before, what shall i do?

tonight i've got b.s. and judges. and jesus christ, whether you believe or not, has raised me up in my job. he has made a way and i have found financial victory! praise him! my time at cvs maybe coming to an end. not before christmas though. i'm not sure there's anything else going on. the week is short and i've got to concentrate. i'm looking forward to the weekend with grand friends, gallery hop and all.

dream of the day: laptop by next summer

owl for an owl

i'm moving on, by inverting the colors, modpodging, thinking more about painting upon my paper quilt series. thoughts of white on collage, robots, birds, and trees. how? ugh the biggest and hardest question though. i started another painting, a very large painting. i am trying to keep up the pace. i'm not working this weekend so hopefully i'll have some shots of wip. it's of a tree, yes another tree, but you've got to remember my concentration, my spirit of concept must not sway. i do not like the tree that i've painted at all so there is much work to follow. saturday morning i'll be heading out to brunch with my mom and dad. i'm thinking of pool time with jen. and church on sunday. fajatas up on the mountain and working at the rx on monday, time in half holiday pay.

i am not sure we are to speak of financial victories or not, but two weeks ago the docs i work for here at uoha agreed upon a four percent yearly household income raise, i have asked for a little bit more than that, and i think i may be getting it. so far i've gotten really good feed back from the o.m. it isn't as though i'll be able to quit the rx, but last year i happened to owe the irs a grand, my dear father helped me out, but i am still indebted. there is grace in all of this.

i've gotten the most incredible feedback on the paper quilt series things. i really appreciate your looking, encouraging words and thoughts. have a great weekend.

storm out storm in

i pleased to announce productiveness! there is a hint of autumn in the air this morning. i came home on friday afternoon, last week and found a special sort of thing in my box. it was the late summer 2006 paper source catalog. woohoo! boy do i ever get excited about catalog's. it might be considedered cheating but but i'm all about the free beautiful stuff inside, plus couldn't it be considered recycling. catalogs pile up on top of one another never to be leafed through again. i'm using what i have, i mean hasn't that been a concern of collage artists since the beginning of time. the expense can be so overwhelming. don't get me wrong i have purchased before.

so over the weekend i found the gumption to put my hands to work and i was able to produce three small monochromatic collage quilts. i'll be uploading the green and blue pieces to my flickr immediately after i'm finished posting. i worked this past weekend so i'm excited i got anything done at all. on the other hand my apartment has been neglected for weeks. so before i start any new projects, i am going to have to clean beyond measure.

i finally feel like the amount of art i have to show is growing back it's leaves again. after a florishing spring and a scorching summer i didn't think i had much to offer. things may finally be flowing once again.

reality away

i just got finished eating less than half a soggy blackbean burger and i'm not certain it isn't going to haunt me. i have got a pile of projects to accomplish this afternoon before heading out for the weekend, to work at the pharmacy. i desperately need a power nap right about now, a soymilk iced mocha or s.m.o.k.e. i have had a different week a much much better week, less work more fun!

tuesday: rembrandt's with m.c. and laurie
wednesday: b.s. @ calvary, 6 mile walk with carolyn and blisters
thursday: much much needed evening with jen and lavender, sweet starfish aloe too, veggie pizza umm.
friday: work
saturday: work
sunday: work

i am almost finished with till we have faces by c.s. lewis, next it's onto wendell berry. i am working on a essay, might enter it into an essay contest but i really need my genius writing brother aaron's help. my other brother's a genius too but he's a builder. i'm the red dot in the middle of everything. do you have a grasp of your reality? i am working on it. sunday my electricity went out for three hours, boy was that a sign i needed to be quiet, reflect, acknowledge and well pray just a little. next week i should be back to posting consistently. i'm off. thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

confession of hope

tweet tweet!

have a wonderful weekend, take care my friends:)

circles and cycles

last night things in my mind took a turn, a bend in the road, so i'm in the clear. i have managed to circle back and recycle the negative things, walk six miles, from the boathouse to the aquarium and all is well within the mental health of this nation of cat. will i finish anything? stay tuned.

can you believe it? the sheer creative madness behind w.w. has revealed herself. i am a very proud owner of one of her super dooper wee's. mae (aka moe) has brightened many a day for me! man it's been so long ago, the pics i have are when i only had the dino-cam. although i do have recent fam photo (closeup of mae) of the crew that resides under my lamp.

and besides i heart these round cyclical sort of shapes both in nature and in things like geometry, who wouldn't love a round home-like a silo.

outstretched beneath the tree

even though poison tree is now complete and riding it's wave on etsy. i am absolutely disappointed with my photo quality. there is no justice in florescent midnight apartment light, even the martha stewart sheer curtain morning pale is dull. i fear that i may take 'reel' film photos just to get the perfect shot. it's not a fear of taking manual shots as much as a fear of suffocating the audience with a thousand photos of the tree. i'm ready, more willing to lie outstretched beneath the tree and drown myself in the "hit me of over the head" color blobs. unfortunately, meager if no attempts have been made on my part in the last couple of evenings to move forward with new projects. i started three new pieces, last week, that are a good deal smaller. but i'm stumbling over the tiny tree-bush concept. i believe the color pallette choices are throwing me for a loop as well. i wanted to do dark...purple, silver and such, yuck you maynaysay, reminds me of prom vomit. like the plastic faux champagne glass filled with purple and silver sequin dust, etched forever "a night to remember."

reflection is sincerely beside the point. my prayers, haphazardly speaking, are for a collector and wealth to absorb some of this effort. realistically i have little to moan about considering my greatest art success with the mojo show. my crazed feelings emerge with the mulitude of opportunity though. it is choosing and motivating and breathing before showing, framing and hanging all of my work. i have mentioned legacy and wish i had the work it took to show-do a festival but i feel a gap, a lack and therefore i'll let the event pass, probably. i'm less interested or something and cannot exactly put my finger on the blahblah. may be it is the money, the funds it would take to enter...i mostly just want to make art all of the time.

i mostly am encouraged by thoughts from you guys on flickr. there's nothing like it in all of the world, i like it most of all. it's my addiction. but did you read about the non-selling rules on flickr. i did. i think it's good, just remember not to price things or try and sell things via flickr. just link up your stuff to your blog/etsy, whatever the case may be.

bside: i haven't said much about my time in atlanta...still thinking on it all. wondering and letting reflection sooth any discomfort i feel. i took a stock of pics that came out and the botanical gardens were delightful! the time was unbearably short and sweet. it was a race and i hate races. but it was all my fault. dynamics are different and i'm isolated in a few ways, not by choice but by circumstance. i (feelings aren't always an indication of the truth) have very little to offer, except boring single life behavior and selfishness. i love my dear best friends, each distinct, unique and inspiritational. i am angry, not knowing why, and so my eyes find pessimistic corners and jaded edges to rest on. i'm not angry at them no, not at all, honestly. just frustrated with my own issues. oh and this is not a bemoan me session, that would be disgusting. i cannot change my life and rearrange past details. but when truth hits, it's like a baseball bat to my senses, painful. i am challenged to get involved. and will be asked about it soon-thankfully i have a mom picking up between the lines to balance out the ditch digging. i had better start acting before being alone is all i am. unhappiness is not where i'm at. because i love curling up in bed to read before i sleep, really. and going out with carolyn to get coffee after work is well yummy. and driving wherever. and buying nothing or something when i go to target. i really like solo-living, but right now there are more questions than answers. so...yeah my chin is up. there is not negativity just wonder. and word-e ness that i'm embarassed by, but mostly hope for a better next hour and day or night.

runaway

i ran away. look what i found while i was gone.

no waste wednesday

i have been meaning to bring no waste wednesday back, though i'm not certain it means a grand amount or that other's would designate a day. many of you don't have the time to explore links provided but it is such great fun to promote and acknowledge other work and product.

1. hypehopewonderland just found via beautiful decay

2. in new issue of domino there's an article i've not read yet but one that looks of interest-succulents, ironically here's my pic version.

3. can you say aaron kraten? this work excites my like no other. it's this style that i'm crazy for and about-behind my freezing tree pieces that aren't anywhere near the quality/depth. honestly i couldn't have told you who this guy was until today but heck it is beyond worth sharing, shout about it! every single piece of his is color rich, line savvy, simply sick art is out of this world! KATE!!! (i will buy his work someday: dream of the day)

4. and friend chris @ chrimmons

in re: to above photo. this one could go with the wire of my ledge photo really. the attraction is to line and the barren tecture. what do you all think, i mean who knew the wire below my office desk could, look at least through my eyes, so swankyswell! i'll be out for the next couple of days, heading down to the atlanta and probably won't be back until monday or tuesday next week.

full time pull of war

by now we may all be sick of seeing the poison tree progress but here we go again. over the weekend i attempted to add what you might call a sunburst-like area in the top right hand corner of the piece. by doing so the piece balanced itself out a little, because the tree was weighing the right side down so. in addition i began adding a little bit of paint at a time. first it was blue to accentuate the tree and then i had to go back over it a little with some white. then i had to splatter some yellow and some green which you can't see from the photos because as you can tell there are not green and yellow splatters. and then some more white, even now it looks different. but i've almost had enough. the learning experience has been a vivid, quite wonderful this go around and i've started four new smaller pieces, using the same techniques. the ideas have finally become concrete and poison tree seems now more like an encaustic and less like a collage. i am so very fond of layering, i want my audience to really be fooled by what they are looking at, fooled by how it was actually created. i have always enjoyed making my paper art look and feel like it has been created using computer programming tools, now i feel more than ever that i'm showing these sorts of thoughts off. i have found the right medium-paper, paint and mod podge-i know that this piece is full of color and yet in the last week i have felt extremely dark. often i find that my deepest feelings, my darkest thoughts are not reflected in my work at all. it's odd but so very true. i'll be putting the poison tree up on etsy within the week. a couple of peeps have inquired, so...

sunday was full of family times at my aunt's home. i spent the last hour walking around her home taking photos of her land, her gardens, her flowers, her moss and my family members. i have got a whole slew, not stew, of new pics creeping onto my flickr. i usually cannot stand a nature shot, love flowers and things like that but can't stand my pics of those sorts of things. i'm looking forward to getting through the first part of this week to thursday. planning a day and overnight to the onethousands for s.c. reunion of sorts. our plans: botanical gardens. our conversation: catch up, art, kids, and such. our faces: all smiles.

i should beable to find some emotional peace soon.

when to the gyn this past friday. in two thousand two i weighed in at his office at 153. two thousand three: 161. two thousand four 168. two thousand five: 151. two thousand six: 142. dr. a. jones congratulated me, told me now i have to work on my smoking...eeeKKK! i'm thankful for my youth and my health. god is still at work in my hear-blah and i am more free than i used to be. the chains are slowly falling away from the burdens i have chosen to carry for oh so long. i do see light, rarely but yes. the light fades and then reappears. i fight the simultaneous nature of being. my motto seems stale and stretched out like a crusty rubberband. SCREW- "your greatess weakness=your greatess strength!!!" well okay so i'm better at least i think i'm better at preaching it, than i am taking it all to heart-proactivally taking charge. i'm trying to be bold and less emotionally clingy. or something. and i'm not feeling that terribly bad about things it's just...well you know. just looking forward to an uplifting time with good very best friends.

aunt to be

so far in my life i am a daughter, a sister, a sister in law, a niece, even a friend or best friend but i am not yet an aunt. at least not yet! on sunday my brother and his wife announced that they were starting the grand process of adopting a little baby boy from kazakstan! this is only the best news a girl like me could get on a day full of work and weariness. i was exhausted but felt beyond uplifted by the exciting news! i feel so fortunate to have a growing family. a family willing to go to great length's and miles to grow itself. we are so happy, so inpatient, so wishing, so eager to see the little boy that god brings into our lives. do i look like i could be an aunt? it's kinda of a new phase of life, you know? my best friends have had children and so these feelings of attachment aren't new ones but it's a little different knowing there is going to be another "collier" in our midst. yikes!

i had such a good time at the ryan adams show, he played sylvia plath and lucy, lucy my gal, you know that song? a bunch of new music i hadn't heard exactly but what about this great rock n roll? kate and joel were so thoughtful to ask me to come along, and well we just wished for others to be around with us. the last time we saw ryan was at rhythm and brews (ugh! probably about 8 or nine years ago maybe less) and there was only about 20 or so people there. we were yelling out all kinds of songs and he played the ones he could, later the boys caught up with him and talked for awhile. at the time i was too shy or bewildered, always around these semi-hot musicians. i felt the same way when i saw conner oberst from bright eyes.

my friends and i are on track for a day trip slash reunion of sorts and i have all of that to look forward to. i'm also excited about a small new york adventure i will be taking in early november with my two snl's. i don't know yet if i'll be visiting with friends or not, but i'll have 4 days to do whatever, and the flights have been booked and bought. so nyc here i come! my mom's brother from new jersey is down for the week and i'm not working this weekend, maybe i'll clean. i've got an vaccum cleaner that i cannot find new bags for. unga bunga!

cleaning is the last thing i want to do but i'm living in a jungle of neglect right now, much like i think most bachelor's live (question).

dream today: a mac5

when you rock

i know that i have not completely recovered from saturday july 29 because every day has been a hard day since. it may actually have more to do with working saturday from 8:30am until 4:40pm then driving to atlanta to see ryan adams, staying out until 3am and then driving back to chatt to work from 12-6pm. it may have to do with the fact that yesterday was august one and the day before that was july thirty one and the ends and beginnings of months are the most difficult time for me at uoha. money and charges must all be complete. you know accounting type things that can be stressful. i love my job the majority of time but precertifications have changed with some of patients and i'm just a boggle-minded person right now.

the concert was really nice. at the tabernacle and loud. i took like two hundred shots and deleted one hundred and fifty shots i think. i mostly love all kinds of music, except for well um country. ryan is down right rock n roll though.

i took a whole lot of photos using that continuous shot feature and came up with some decent pics. i cannot remember the last show i went out of town for...saw jairus's farewell show at lamar's several months ago, but the drinking scene is a little too...well there's a local down in atlanta and we met up with chris and ann. fairly nice and well loud again. nothing is new. just wanted to pop in. i'll post more when i've got more time and betta spirits.