badpaintingsofbarackobama.com (i'm not kidding, it's an actual website)

carol just sent me this link, which brought me to maybe the funniest gallery i've ever seen--if you choose to go, keep on clicking (trust me), sometimes it repeats. if i hadn't kept going, i would never have seen this gem:



so, y'know. you're welcome.

...thank you carol.

True story: she plays fetch.

Rainy Monday.

...awesome.

Lunch at whole foods; spring has arrived.

Listening to Mmm Bop on the walk home. This just in from 1997: life is good.

OMG spring!

also from today's google reader...

i'm on some serious glee overload at the sight of some of the pictures posted in this article about crayola crayons, so i figured i'd post the article and the pictures here:

(article, in case you missed it)








doesn't it just make you want to color? actually, it kind of makes me long for the smell of a brand new box of 64 colors. remember that?

this came up on my google reader today, and i had to post it because i have no idea what to think of it. i mean, sure, it's brilliant--of course milk cartons full of water are more eco-friendly than uhh, plastic bottles--but realistically, who is going to trade in this for this?

anyway, read more here.

Hermione...eats...coconut.

The verdict: No. Ew. God.

Am I going to like you, Fage? We are about to find out...

Former roomie hangz/rock outz

"He’s always asking: Is that new? I haven’t seen that before. It’s like, Why don’t you mind your own business? Solve world hunger. Get out of my closet."
— Michelle Obama, on dodging her husband’s inquiries about her shopping.

...awesome. more here.

Forgot to mention, we decorated our old dining room table, too--spray paint, and stickers from ikea. Kyle was super excited about this one (me, too!).

white house kitchen garden

i absolutely love this:


(click for a larger image)

in her quest to serve her husband and children (and self) fresh, locally grown veggies, michelle obama has broken ground on a kitchen garden--the first veggies to be grown on the white house lawn since elanor roosevelt's victory garden back during world war II.

is it any surprise that one of the most iconic first ladies in history is the only other one to do this, alongside a woman who is sure to fall under the same title in future years? i heart michelle obama. it makes me extremely sad that we will never meet, because i am sure that, if we did, we would absolutely be best friends.

two articles on this one: here and here.

Returning Kyle

hermione discovers a new toy...kyle's hair.

decorating

the fianz's brother came to visit for the weekend, and, knowing he's an artsy guy, i put him to work helping me decorate our kitchen with the vinyl wall stickers i got online from blik. here are the results...



finished product



kyle, working on his vision



this is where we got really inspired



the fianz insisted we put one up in homage to the X Men. ...i gave in.

Business time!

She is a model. (sorry for the over abundance of kitten pictures. No promises on when this will let up.)

Spring.

via josh madden's twitter account.

a brief history of calvin and hobbes?...

my friend aaron turned me onto google reader a month or so ago, and after some initial confusion (and subscribing--and then unsubscribing--to way too many blogs), i started to get the hang of it. next, he shared kottke.org with me (check it out), and that's how i found myself reading about grown-up calvin and hobbes.

here are a few of the posted drawings:



(the girl, of course, being susie)



(the fianz wants this for our apartment)



this one, the fianz found particularly sad. i thought the next one was worse--it's supposedly the final calvin and hobbes strip--although, of course, it isn't authentic:




and, in response to that, someone else posted here:




the real final strip is as follows:


(sorry it's so tiny, i think if you click on it it'll appear bigger)

This, from Wikipedia (article here):

Watterson took two extended breaks from writing new strips: from May 1991 to February 1992, and from April through December 1994. In 1995, Watterson sent a letter via his syndicate to all editors whose newspapers carried his strip. It contained the following:

I will be stopping Calvin and Hobbes at the end of the year. This was not a recent or an easy decision, and I leave with some sadness. My interests have shifted however, and I believe I've done what I can do within the constraints of daily deadlines and small panels. I am eager to work at a more thoughtful pace, with fewer artistic compromises. I have not yet decided on future projects, but my relationship with Universal Press Syndicate will continue. That so many newspapers would carry Calvin and Hobbes is an honor I'll long be proud of, and I've greatly appreciated your support and indulgence over the last decade. Drawing this comic strip has been a privilege and a pleasure, and I thank you for giving me the opportunity.

The 3,160th and final strip ran on Sunday, December 31, 1995. It depicted Calvin and Hobbes outside in freshly-fallen snow, reveling in the wonder and excitement of the winter scene. "It's a magical world, Hobbes, ol' buddy… Let's go exploring!" Calvin exclaims as they zoom off on their sled leaving, according to one critic ten years later, "a hole in the comics page that no strip has been able to fill.

...when i was a sophomore in college, my friend kristen and i went to a party at her boyfriend's house for halloween, and while there, i told michael (the bf) about my roommate and how i really didn't like her and when i was done telling my story, he said "so, i was going to reply to that by telling a really long and pointless story and then i was going to get up and run into the other room and get a present for you, but i'm really ADD, so--" he got up, ran into the other room, and came back with the tenth anniversary calvin and hobbes book. "read it whenever you're sad," he said. "calvin and hobbes make everything better."

and they did.

:::edit::: i found an archive of every printed comic from 1985-1995 (or, so it claims), here.

Love.

My roommate is so cute.

Internal monologue: "I cannot believe I have to live with these idiots."

Blue steel kitty?

One of my coworkers decorates for every holiday, and I totally love it