Daylight Saving Time=Training Session

So Daylight Saving Time is kindof my marker in the spring to saddle up and start riding my bike again. Last Saturday I took my first ride of the season, down to Utah Lake and back. It was around 14 miles, which is encouraging seeing as my commute home is about the same. Friday (tomorrow) I'm having Liz drop me off in the morning at work and I'll ride home. (It is still way too cold for me in the mornings to ride to work.)

So I've got a few goals this year for my riding. First I'm planning on doing two century rides (100+ miles each) in August, the ULCER and the Cache Valley Century. Last year I did a metric (century) on the ULCER (ended up being apx. 73 miles) and I'm hoping to have less distractions from training this year.

Second goal is to 'train' this year. Last year is was mostly commuting to and from work several times a week by bike (12-16 miles each way, depending on the route). This year I want to have a plan to purposefully become a more powerful/effective/ rider (which reminds me where did I put that heart rate monitor? Hmm, well two years ago I saw it...)

Third is to lose between 30 and 50 pounds. speaking of which anyone know of a good reliable scale. We have a generic, bought at Wal-mart, bathroom scale, which gets increasingly inaccurate the higher up you go.
Finally last year I put just over 800 miles on my bike this year I want a solid 1000 (I'd prefer 1200)
Wish me luck!

President's Day

Me and the fam took a walk Presidents' Day. Now when walking with the family I don't get the luxury of stopping to sketch. But Liz was very accommodating to let me poke along and take reference photos every twenty steps or so.

So today during lunch I sketched up one of the photos. It probably isn't strong enough image for a finished piece of art but it was a very peaceful way to spend 40 or so minutes in the middle of the work day, and sketching one's desk is only fun once. For any of you curious types out there the field the trailer was in was flooded, I was trying to capture the reflection of the trailer in the water, you can decided on how well I did.

You'd think with the time for forethought I had that I'd not put the dark foliage behind the top of the dark trailer. I kind of lost the whole upper line of the trailer. Oh well.

Calendar Trivia: President's Day, Presidents' Day and Presidents Day are all correct spellings of the holiday. (even if I can't get a proper apostrophe! I can do it on my Mac, grumble grumble.) The odd tidbits one learns when designing a calendar for publication.








(OK it was fun that once, see the sketch below. My iMac with its "protective" layer of post-its. And no my screen is not lopsided I found myself doodling before I stopped to think about balance or accuracy or negative space or any of that, but I like it anyway.)

Broken Pen

So, I was working at cleaning/restoring some old technical pens I acquired some time back and while testing the 2.5 Ii quickly realized that ink didn't stop flowing when I stopped writing. Well I had just put several drops of ink in this pen and I didn't want to waste it (or try and disassemble/clean a pen gushing with ink), so "Pen to paper, don't stop moving till the ink runs out!"

Here are the results...

(the second page is my favorite)





P.S. this was so fun I didn't chuck the pen. I'm saving it for those times of artist block. (You don't leave your self a choice, you load the pen and either you draw or you clean a gushy ink mess. Trust me I've done both and gushy ink messes are quiet the motivator.)

I will only take notes in church. I will only take notes in church. I will only. . .

Honestly! I usually take notes (OR TRANSCRIBE HYMNS WITH ILLUMINATED LETTERS... AHEM) in my sketch book at church. But I spotted this brother a row or two back, and he had the most wonderful profile, now I've very little skill in doing portraits but I had to at least attempt it. I actually didn't do a very good likeness, he has a much more powerful presence than I was able to capture.

Home in Ink

Home
Ink Feb 2009

The composition is not balanced real well. . . c'est la vie

Camera Magnet

She loves the camera. The camera comes out and she is there! Lucky for her shes so photogenic.

She has taken to wearing my safety glasses any time she can get a hold of them. But I've got to admit she does look kinda hip in them, while I just look kinda dorky.

A Saturday Afternoon Walk

Climbing Down the Snow Bank.

Really Climbing Down the Snow Bank.

Isn't She Glorious?

Really it was a fun walk along the Bonneville Trail. We were at Provo's southern end in, and to get to the trail proper we had to cross a dry gully (I'd call it a river bed but who knows that last time water actually flowed at the mouth of Slate Canyon?)
Liz spotted this view when she turned around and saw ME walking down the embankment. So I had the girls walk up and down it a couple of times just so I could get these shots.

Sad Little Girl (who couldn't watch another movie)

Sad Little Girl
Jan 2009

Jo was very put out when I told her that we were not going to watch another movie tonight.

Pencil Sketch of the House

Here's a preliminary sketch for an ink drawing I hope to work on this weekend. It's my home in the height of summer.

Looking Across the Street

Looking Across the Street
Ink Aug 16, 2008