http://www.wpinstitute.org/

My online galleries are here

I will say that I have a vested  interest in the work of the WPI as I have been diagnosed with ME/CFS and have tested positive for the recently discovered XMRV retro virus that the WPI is diligently researching .     This is why I’ve not been posting very much.    I have been too ill to keep up on this blog and to add my voice in some small way to activism efforts.   The activism wins when I decide how I’m going to spend what energy I have.

Hopefully, with continuation of the research, treatments and perhaps even a cure will be available to the approximately 17 million people worldwide that suffer, often with  woefully insufficient medical care and without  help for even day to day needs.

More information about what ME/CFS  REALLY IS here

I consider myself fortunate to have done as well as I  have in the past with periods of remission and a relatively gradual onset, but unfortunately there are millions, including children,  that don’t share in my good fortune.

Let’s Help ‘em out by funding the research!!   C’mon…you know you want to…..

Folks who already volunteered: we now have a fabulous volunteer coordinator!

Help coordinate him? Put VOLUNTEER in subject line to :  sockit2MEcfs@gmail.com   so he will have your contact info.

One problem with playing such a specialized instrument as the didgeridoo is that the gigs available are pretty thin on the ground.

I really believe that that is mostly due to the fact that most didge players out there (at least in America) aren’t very good and so the general consensus is that all a didge can do is a pulsed drone.

NOT SO!!!!!

Didge can be as rhythmically interesting as any drum…perhaps even more so due to the addition on growls, barks,harmonics and other vocalizations.

In the 20 years that I’ve been playing I’ve personally wound didge, both live and recorded, around : Trip-Hop, Flamenco, Celtic,country, standard rock, folk, electronica, dance,  hip hop,  Balkan ,   Bellydance  and jazz.   On the menu to the left there’s a link to my music…check the samples.  The influences are as eclectic as I am.

I’m finding that I’m missing playing live with other musicians. I needs a gig!

Have didge, will travel.

There is a big difference as to how I’m approaching this however, in contrast to the tutorials I’ve seen on the subject. I do NOT use bucket fills. I’m using Corel Painter in watercolor mode, thin ‘wash’ over thin ‘wash’, just as I would in analog. As a result the , well, results are looser and more complex in color.

Time consumptive but great fun none the less.

Recycling Rhapsody

Flotsom and Jetsam 5

Omega

As always I welcome your input and prints are available at my

Imagekind site.

It’s amazing just how much more time I have to produce.

As I had mentioned in a previous blog, I am now writing down all of my GFCF recipes as well as devising new ones. My goal is for dishes that aren’t just “good for what it is” good but rather “OH MY GAWD that’s good” good.  I did a ‘cheese’ sauce based Potatoes Au Gratin with Ham that fit the bill this last week.  It made my gluten and casein consuming husband very very happy.

I’m not only transcribing existing recipes but devising new ones as well. The idea in my little brain is that since I cook all the time anyway, I might as well put it all together into a cookbook. If any of you have leads on publishers that would take such a manuscript I’d gladly accept any information.

My mom seems to think that I could do this with one frying pan tied behind my back. I’m not so sure.

My big issue so far has been which things to leave out. Only a bit over a week in and I’ve got 10 pages just on sauces, and I’ve only covered 2 of the French mother sauces and a few variations.

Iwillnotobsessiwillnotobsessiwillnotobsess

She has been foolish, er, KIND enough to let us paint the place in whatever colors we choose so long as we put it back to white when we leave. This is a very nifty thing for me as the place has very high ceilings and architecture of this sort tends to look a bit institutional if left all white, IMO. Well that and with my previous 6 winters in Alaska , I’ve seen about as much white as I care to , thanks very much.

I decided I wanted a deep red kitchen. Now deep red is a problematic color even with the best of paints, but more than a royal pain in the butt with Home Depots supposedly premium paint, Behr.

After the first coat my kitchen looked like the inside of an autopsy. I sort of expected this considering the walls are textured. Disturbing visually, yes. Unexpected, no.

After the second coat the walls looked like the floor of an abattoir. Wasn’t expecting this one

3 coats in and it started looking as I wanted it to, barring the need for a few bits of touch up even after that 3rd coat.

I’ll never buy Behr Paint again. It ran, lifted, sagged and streaked and is hard to clean up.  So much for premium paint.

On the good paint side of things, the new VOC free FreshAire paints are awesome even if they take some getting used to in the handling. It’s sort of like painting with Elmers glue. BUT, no smell and awesome coverage even with extreme color changes. Cleans up super easy too.

Valspar from Lowes is absolutely phenomenal in coverage and handling. It’s not VOC-less unfortunately.

Can’t beat the price though!

Our furniture finally comes tomorrow (keep in mind we’ve been in state since the 28th of May) and I can then stop painting walls and get back to painting for real.