Cheetara

Sometimes I like to rework super hero costumes (don't we all?)  This is an example of how that sort of thing happens:

I numbered the sketches so you could see how they developed...

First I sketch out the original, and then I start tweaking.  For Cheetara (a childhood idol of mine, if not technically a "super hero") I had a couple of things occur to me.  The first is that I absolutely love her bracer, so I extended it to make it a little more useful as actual armor.  The second is that I am damn tired of heroic women in wedgie-prone leotards, so I decided to put her in a skirt- but she is a runner, so that might be a little restrictive, and thus I made it more like a tunic, with splits up to the hip (she's wearing leggings, so whatever).  Then I changed the boots to be a reflection of the new more armor-like bracer, bringing them up over the knees (but only in the front) to act as a greave.  I was staring at that when the thought occurred to me that it's really stupid to keep her in boots- she's based on a cheetah, the fastest land mammal and the only member of the cat family without fully retractable claws, which is part of how they run so damn fast.  So I killed the boot and left the greave, and turned her leggings into stirrup leggings (hey at least she's still not in a damn leotard).

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the evolution of this particular page in my sketch book.  Now I'm tempted to do a finished piece... but that will have to wait a while, as my schedule for the next two weeks is stupid-busy (but more on that later).

Puppy Power!

I had my annual review today- would you like to know my "key strengths"?  Sure you would.  I got "exceeds expectations" (four out of five stars) on everything except these four areas, which I got "outstanding" (five out of five) on:

-Confidence
-Independence
-Communication
-Attention to Detail

The only one on that list that surprised me (and didn't match my self-evaluation) was "attention to detail".  But hey- I'll take it!  I'll take it independently and with confidence, and then I'll tell you alllllll about it...

Ahem.

This evening we went to our first pit bull puppy romp, and it was fabulous.  There were four dogs there in addition to Isis; a male named Mac that pretty much matched her in age and weight; a smaller male named Wally; his bio sister (not yet adopted) named Maddie; and a more delicate female named Kate.  Mac and Isis immediately became BFFs, because they were able to romp full-force with one another.  Wally and Maddie were more timid, but eventually got in on the action (we were shocked to learn that they are only about two weeks younger than Isis- she is much bigger than them), and little Miss Kate did a lot of running excitedly around the others.  At one point Isis and Mac were wrestling, and suddenly there was a large blossom of blood on Isis's pristine white shoulder.  Mac's mom and Nathan both freaked out a bit (I did not, but then I have more experience with blood than Nathan does), but upon closer investigation it turned out that Mac had just lost a baby tooth and then bled all over Isis- no wound!  So we all had a good laugh about "puppy fight club"...

I added color, which rendered the helpful labels redundant...

One interesting thing that came up during the evening regarding Isis's size- her sire (who was about ten months when she was born) has finally come into his adult weight, and he's up over 80lbs.  So that's pretty darn big for a pit bull, and it may turn out that we have a "large" dog, after all... guess we'll find out!

Lunchtime Be Damned!

Willow Rosenberg is one of my all-time most favorite characters, Buffyverse or otherwise.  More than just liking her as a character, I really identified with her- as I've mentioned on several occasions (although maybe not in this blog, since I can't find the entry I was thinking of...)

Anyway, I was feeling a bit under the weather this Sunday, and as such I turned to Buffy for comfort.  In specific I turned to Willow-centric episodes for comfort, and thus ended up re-watching (for the umpteenth time) one of my all-time favorite episodes, Doppelgangland.  Doppelgangland, as we all know (and by "all" I mean all we Buffy nerds), features VampWillow.

Who is awesome.

"...and I think I'm kinda' gay..."

Love Angel Music Baby

Partially inspired by this song, which is from an album that I pretty much have on non-stop repeat when I lay down colors.

"And although I was burning, you're the only light..."

Saturday Adventures

I have had way too much sugar over the past two weeks (curse you, birthdays/low willpower), and I am seriously paying the price today.  When I woke up this morning (after less than seven hours of sleep- bad O!) the idea of going to Crossfit was a little bit excruciating... but I went anyway.

WOD

Two minutes each station:

Single Arm Whips
Row Cal (basically using the ERG but counting how many calories we burned rather than distance)
Bench Press
Squats
Rope Climb (my goal was about 10 feet up)
Double Unders (no single option- Aubrey was determined that today was the day we learned to do doubles)

Score = Total Reps

Apparently physics played a vital role in today's WOD...

My personal triumphs of the day included getting up the rope a grand total of three times (last time I attempted it was only one) and getting four consecutive double-unders. Yay me!  Also, my score was 317, which is annoying because I honestly feel I have the strength to climb the rope more times than I did, if only I could just get my foot technique right.

This afternoon Nathan and I took Isis on her first Portland Field Trip.  Our first stop was our beloved Seven Corners Cycles, because both of our bikes need some tweaking (and- snow days notwithstanding- it's well past time for me to start commuting again).  Nathan took the pup for a walk around the neighborhood while I proved how much strength I've gained since last June by casually taking both bikes down from the car rack like it ain't no thang.  Seriously you guys- I was so stoked that I was able to do that so easily, because when we first bought those bikes I had to have help getting them on the car, and getting them off the car was a seriously iffy proposition that pretty much only happened if I had a curb to stand on.  So.  There's your real-world fitness application for rock-climbing and Crossfit...

As I was finishing up in the shop, I asked one of the guys if they had any recommendations for a good restaurant with gluten-free options within walking distance.  He rattled off a few grocery stores near by, and then someone else yelled, "Oh!  Papa G's!"...

Why yes, my shirt DOES say, "Bacon is Rad, Gluten is Bad"

Needless to say, we did not eat there.  Instead we went to the further away (but highly-recommended) Edelweiss to get our Nom on.  And let me tell you, I am a bit snobby about Bavarian food (I come by it honestly), but the bratwurst I had there almost brought me to tears.  (Or maybe it was the fact that I really really wanted rye bread and couldn't have it...)

We walked Isis around that neighborhood, too, and then headed over to REI, so a) I could exchange a shirt and b) we could get Nathan his very own harness and climbing shoes.  (Possibly I was even more excited about that than he was)  Once we finished up there we took Isis for yet another walk, this time a very very urban walk, with way more distractions than she's ever had to deal with (traffic, pedestrians, other dogs, etc).  She did pretty dang well, too, and passed the heck out on the drive back.

She perked up little once we got home, however, and played out in the yard while Nathan and I laid on the bench together to watch the clouds scuttle by...

And now Nathan is calling me to come eat the tandoori-spiced pork kabobs he just grilled for me.  Yay life!

Adora-ble

I had a birthday this past week, and I got a lot of very sweet cards.  One such card was from my uncle, who knows just the sort of thing I like, and thus it featured She-Ra.  As a result, today I did this:

Princess-in-Voluntary-Exile Adora

Because let's face it, even without the Sword of Protection turning her into the Princess of Power, Adora was pretty freakin' bad ass.  Force Captain of the Horde under a powerful dictator?  Check.  Ditched that dude to run a rebellion for people who weren't even her own?  Check.  Adora was definitely a woman who knew her own mind, even if she did have questionable fashion sense... (and really, who can be held accountable for what they did in the 80s?)

My Kind of Crazy

The following is an actual event from this morning. The lead-up to this exchange was Nathan getting up at 0400 to let the dog out... and then not coming back to bed. At 0750 he came in to check on me because I hadn't come downstairs, in spite of the fact that I need to be at work by 0800.  I immediately demanded a hug, and here is the conversation that followed...

Hormones, Ladies- amIright?  Let's all go eat some chocolate...

...what I didn't tell him was that I hadn't gotten out of bed because I'd worked myself into a sort of terrified paralysis about exactly what I mention in the fourth panel of this comic- and as long as I didn't go check on him, he couldn't be dead.

And so you see, Nathan does pay for the privilege of being married to this much hotness, because he is also married to this much crazy-pants. I'm not totally sure how he deals with it, I'm really not... But I'm glad someone can.