Category: exploration

  • Blog Move

    Blog Move

    Hey all! I’m announcing exciting news! The blog, in all it’s randomness, is moving solely to Substack. The website will still be here, but the look will change in the next week or so, and the blog archive will be behind a static page for me the author and artist. I hope you join me…

  • Booze Review

    Booze Review

    A little review of a couple of fun drinks. I was amusing myself…  I went to look for a bottle of something highly recommended, which the local liquor store (nice big one with good selection, relevant later) tells me has been discontinued. Since I was there, and we don’t actually drink nor shop for booze…

  • Tea and the Garden

    Tea and the Garden

      I went on a little adventure today. Purely indulgent, and I enjoyed every minute of it! I had a nice long ramble through the Botanical Gardens in Fort Worth, and then I popped around the corner to have tea in the Secret Garden.  I very, very rarely do stuff by myself. I mean, yes,…

  • Ten Minute Sketches

    Ten Minute Sketches

    That’s what I’ve been doing for my daily art recently. I want to take the time to pencil, use references, then carefully ink, but I don’t have it. I don’t have the time, I don’t have the coordination, and I don’t have the inclination. Right now? Rough and ready sketches. Cartoons, really.  I can cartoon.…

  • Weekend Report

    Weekend Report

      I took a couple of days away from the blog – although I did put up a post at the Mad Genius Club – because there just isn’t enough time in the two days off of my work schedule to complete all the work I need to do. I darn well tried, though!  The…

  • I Could Lend you My Ears

    I Could Lend you My Ears

    Sitting here in a dark room, lit only by the screens. I look at my beloved and think, I wish I could lend you my ears. Listening to love songs and I know you can’t hear all the notes.  I can’t sing you a love song. I can only write, but I wish I could…

  • A controversial discussion with tongue firmly in cheek

    A controversial discussion with tongue firmly in cheek

    So my dearly beloved husband and I were having a discussion. It centered partly around the upcoming trip, as I’m packing and listing everything I needed. Since I was working long shifts Monday and Tuesday, the plan was to be all packed by Sunday rather than run around at the last minute and get even…

  • Fallen Ruin

    Fallen Ruin

    I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive,…

  • Photo Safari

    Photo Safari

    My friend, fellow author, and fellow photographer Mark Alger invited me to join him on a photo safari through Cincinnati, and the First Reader and I were with him yesterday. I had a marvelous time shooting everything in sight (over 1000 images!) and listening to Mark talk about the history of each area. I’ve only…

  • Material Excitement

    Material Excitement

    This one’s for my kids, specifically the Junior Mad Scientist and the Little Man. Remember how I told you that they are looking for people to specialize in Materials Sciences, and you both looked at me funny? Well, these might help you understand just how cool, and diverse, that field is. Also, there are scholarships…

  • Captivity, the Butterfly, and the Stars

    Captivity, the Butterfly, and the Stars

    Rapid adaptation to captivity affects wild animals, and humans, too.

  • Experimentum Periculosum

    Experimentum Periculosum

    Continuing with Hippocrates’ pithy philosophical statement, we find that experiment is dangerous. As I am working in a chemistry lab, I have to say that indeed, it is. Even tried and true methods will occasionally fail, and many use dangerous chemicals in the course of carrying out an assay. But yet, we continue. Safety is…