Canada Goose & Don't Jump LOL

Finally, a Saturday with good weather... today was time to test out my new hybrid hiking/painting day pack.

It works great.

I went back over the GW Bridge into Fort Lee Park, but this time I did not go down those death-stairs.

There were people at the Don't Jump LOL rock, so I hiked further on to see what I could find.

There was another overlook with a single Canada Goose sunning itself on the rocks.  He was there the whole time I was, and I decided to paint him.

6x8 oil

After hanging out with the goose I hiked back to check out the Dont Jump LOL rock.

I did paint it, but I also had to deal with people staying for a while.

6x8 oil

Back over the bridge....

And back to Sharon's to take care of the cats.

Matzo-Stealing Cats!

Tonight I arrived at Sharon's to find my box of matzos on the floor.

Hmmm....

Nala was far away from the situation and was being overly cute, which is definitely a sign of guilt.

I went to pick up the box and discovered..........

Oh my god they got to my whole box!!!

I know it was Nala.

She was trying to steal them last night too, but what kind of cat goes nuts for matzo???

Luckily the grocery store is right across the street so I went and got new matzos.

Harry sniffed a bit but wasn't too interested.

I know he helped Nala in her crime though.

I texted my friends and...THEY ALREADY KNEW THEIR CAT STEALS MATZOS!

They were not surprised at all.

The Theoretical Cleaning Day

Today was a season-prep boathouse cleaning day.

It is cold and rainy and miserable outside.

I got to the boathouse around 11.

Sara was there too.

Sam brings food to the boathouse but he really shouldn't, it's off-off-off brand food (usually in Hebrew) that he gets from stores that can't sell it anymore, usually because it is expired.

Sara and I went through the newest drop-off and threw it all out after finding unmistakable signs of rodent visitors.

I said to Martin, "Martin the rats have been in this food!"

He came over to look and replied, "That's a mouse!"

Like that's any better.

BBQ flavored doritos look gross in any language, whether or not they are expired.

The rats/mice disagree.

Andrew and Frankie are building a jousting platform that fits over 2 singles.

I think this is a fantastic idea.

Andrew asked me if I would be the sponsor, to which I replied "Absolutely yes!"

I'm not really sure what I have to do as the sponsor, aside from proclaiming I am the proud sponsor, which I am glad to do.

Then the water cooler- which is empty and no one is using right now- started beeping so Martin found a probably-20-year-old hair dryer and started drying the water cooler with it.

I said "Martin that old hair dryer is going to overheat and explode..."

Martin replied "... that's ok it has a circuit breaker."

At this point I needed to do a sanity check on myself.

I said to Sara and Boathouse Grace (not NJ Grace), "Can someone please confirm reality?

Because what is happening on this "cleaning day" is that the boys are building a jousting platform and Martin is drying the water cooler with a very old hair dryer."

They both confirmed that summed it up accurately.

Sara found a bunch of safety inspection stickers from last year. I took some and have put them on my Belly River and Blackfoot boxes.

I'll have to find the 2025 ones so I won't be expired, but these will do for now.

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Tonight I start cat sitting for a week for Sharon.

My cats won't like that I will be gone overnights but they will have to deal.

Interrupted

I haven't been out painting after work because it's April and that means the weather is crappy.

My friend Aimee has a foster who is named Velma but I renamed her Princess Nubbytail, which has stuck.

Aimee sent me pictures so I can practice painting fur.

Tonight I laid out the palette and sketched out a drawing, then got texts that Hector needs some help after surgery.

So I had to abandon painting efforts and go to Jamaica... but I'll have to revisit this fairly soon because all my colors are laid out.

This is Jennifer Gennari's palette.

Weird Internet People & How to Avoid Doing Housework

Weird Internet People

I was on Facebook and saw a post in Virgil Elliot's Traditional Oil Painting group.

Some guy posted this swatch of whites, which he said is a few MONTHS old and was kept in the dark.

They are swatches of Lead and Titanium whites from a few different high quality brands.

MONTHS.

Michael Harding paint.

(which is excellent paint, I have their Cremnitz in Walnut oil and never had trouble with yellowing)

I don't know wtf he is doing to his oil paint because I have a white-yellowing swatch test from August 2011 (also kept in the dark) and my whites look way better, even the leads.

Lukas 1862 wins, shockingly.

Look how good it looks!

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How to Avoid Housework

I feel meh and blah today.

I don't want to do the things I should do, like housework.

And it's raining and not nice outside.

Grace said come over! Bring Paint!

So I did.

I went to New Jersey with paint to avoid doing housework.

Grace is tuning her piano so it is partially disassembled.

I painted it because why not?

This little study was actually quite an unexpected challenge in problem solving.

Those knobs......... painting them all individually was definitely not happening.  So it was about the pattern and simplification.

This is not a good painting and that is ok.

I got a lot out of doing it, and I used up all my leftover paint from yesterday!

6x8 oil

Grace also wanted to try oil paint.

She still has these Williamsburg samples from a few years ago when we painted up at Olana.

(I still have mine too)

Spring in Prospect Park

Today I was off work, so I went painting in Prospect Park, then met Janae after for dinner.

It was such a nice day to be out.

This magnolia (I am pretty sure it is a small magnolia) had its flowers out and it was all nice and Spring-y so I painted it. It is near the boathouse and Lullwater Bridge.

8x10 oil

I don't go to Prospect Park very often, but there are a lot of good spots there.

Reign the Pup Jumps in the Hudson River

Tonight I went down to the boathouse because several boathouse people were showing up to hang out.

I miss hanging out at the boathouse, it was nice to be back.

I went a little early to do a painting...first time out with my new tripod.

It's great but needs a counterweight at the bottom.

Skies like this are difficult to do, they change constantly.

Reign the dog jumped into the river to chase ducks, so i put her in the painting.

8x10 oil

Aimee took some pictures of me painting.

Reign is ready to go on a trip!

OH AND ALSO....

My sticker is still stuck here from October!

West Side Highway and N Moore St.

Carbon Fiber

I have a cat siting gig in May, right here in the neighborhood,

It was supposed to be Daya's job, but she cancelled.

I knew about it because it was on the calendar and then it wasn't, and I asked.

She has cat-sat for this person before a couple of times.

He lives 4 blocks away.

I said to her, if you can't do it I probably can, it's so close and I'm around.

She asked, he said YES PLEASE....

And it's a nice bit of unexpected extra dollars so I decided to upgrade my tripod, which I have been wanting to do for a few YEARS now.

My trusty old Dolica from 2016 is still ok but is showing signs of wear and age, like the legs are still loose when tightened. And I want something lighter and more compact, especially for travel.

The carrying case I have been using since 2009 is held together with tape and I dont know how much longer it's going to hold up.....

I went with a Sirui carbon fiber travel video tripod, because it can take over 20lbs.

It was also on spring sale!

It weighs 2lbs, half of what my Dolica weighs.

Although the ball head that comes with the Sirui seems ok, I swapped it out for the one I am currently using.

I like my old one better. It covers more surface area on the box, and the quick release has a ring to unscrew instead of having to get a screwdriver.

ALSO... I want to do more all day hiking and painting, so I made a hybrid paint-hike pack.

The hike last saturday was fine but even with reduced gear I need to streamline for days like that.  

And for hiking you need hiking stuff like first aid gear, water, etc.

So I made a hybrid day pack.  I have the basic hiking essentials, room for food, and a minimal but functional paint set up.  My Belly River box fits but it also takes up most of the space.  That's ok.

It's a 22L pack with a 3 liter water bladder.

I have been testing the pack and it'll work nicely.  

It's not the lightest day pack because of the painting stuff but it's fine, it's still lighter than what I am used to. (The water is actually the heavy part)

Here it is, fully packed:

Just in case......

The Pebble- Update

Today Pebbles had an abdominal ultrasound.

To prepare for the ultrasound, she had to fast from midnight.

I had a hotline shift last night, a particularly brutal one- and got home a little after midnight.

Pebbles would NOT let me sleep.

And then- because she was tired from keeping me up all night, she got to sleep all day while I had to work.

We went to the vet around 5pm.

I was there until almost 7:30.

Pebbles now has a shaved belly.

*******

Pebbles has inflamed bowels, I guess the cat version of IBS.

Vet says she's not in pain but probably has discomfort.

It's treatable but not curable.

The treatment is a pain in the ass for me.....

Basically, she's going on prednisone for a month and I have to bring her back to get her kidneys checked on May 1st.

(Pebble-fact: even for a little cat, Pebbles has tiny mini kidneys)

The prednisone will bring down the inflammation and definitely needs to be short term.

That's not the PITA part of the treatment.

The PITA part of the treatment is that now Pebbles can ONLY eat "novel protein" food.

Meaning she can't eat anything else, like ever, including the prescription kidney diet I have a brand new $60 bag of. Or her favorite thing ever, Temptations Cat Treats, which I have 2 big unopened tubs of.

Of course.

Novel protein food is stuff like duck and rabbit and venison and it's not OTC, it's prescription and it is $6 a can and $90 for a 8.5lb bag of dry.

The reason we are doing this is to introduce a food into her system that is completely unfamiliar to change the immune response.

Here's the other PITA thing: my other 2 cats can't eat any of it ever, because if they have issues in the future the food will no longer be a novel protein for them. (and also because it's stupid expensive)

So now I have to separate cats when I am not home and no one can have food out whenever they want.

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I had to order more plein air linen panels from Jerrys because a couple weeks ago I realized I painted through almost all of my supply. They were on sale, nice surprise!

While I'll work on a white panel if I don't have any toned ones, of course I prefer a toned surface.

I usually tone them in bulk batches.

So I pulled out an assortment of Rublev natural earths and made some nice toned panels...arent they pretty?

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Here are Furball and Isis snuggling.