remiss, remiss, remiss ,remiss

if you've seen the 'old' movie

hocus-pocus..

picture sarah jessica parker as a sanderson sister

twirling and singing "amuck, amuck, amuck, amuck"

as you read my title for this post.

if you've never seen hocus-pocus

you have totally given up on this blog and moved on.

so, anyway.....

i have been remiss.

it is now april of 2012 and this is my first post of the year.

shame.  

thank you katie for your comment and the kick in the butt that i needed. 

(and happy birthday to you soon!)

let us go back to january....

i went to santa cruz with my long lost friend mo....she's very very very far away in the land of alameda..

we stayed in her son-in-law's family's cabin/'surf shack'

for a wonderful long weekend

now....march

and back to portland we go.

this time just me...on a 17 hour amtrak trek.

boarded the train in martinez, ca. at midnight..arrived in portland, oregon at 5pm the next day.

the day i started my trip it was my baby girl's 27th birthday...

the night of my arrival, jess held a "naked-lady swap" party for her bday celebration.

every women brings a bottle of wine, a bag of old clothes she no longer wants/wears,

everyone gets a drink, and dumps their bag of clothes in the middle of the room, 

then everyone just dives in and grabs clothing, tries everything on right then and then,

and it's a kick in the pants!!!!

my entire weekend with my sweetpotato was magic, as always.  and ended too soon..as always.

also in march....

we acquired a new vehicle.

she is a replacement for my much-loved truck, 'buck'.

even though we did love him very much,  we traded for a mini-van.

i know, a mini-van, crazy? right?!

but there was method to our madness:

conversion to a pop top like we had with our VW. (once we save up the $$$)

so we got a dodge caravan...named: 'gypsy'

(although she already has two nicknames...'short bus' and 's.p.e.d.')

and we went off to bodega bay for a weekend of camping..

and then.....

DOUG PIMPED MY RIDE!

we decided on a roof top tent instead of the pop top

...now doug has a place to sleep/snore to his heart's content, while i blissfully sleep in a separate "room".

here is astrid modelling our new "room" on our latest camping trip...

which brings us up to april,

just this weekend at anthony chabot campground..

*********************************************************

other news:

i had a wonderful day trip into golden gate park in san francisco awhile back

with astrid and joyce.

we visited the de young museum and various other spots.

*******

i haven't done too much artwork, yet, this year...

but i did a sketch of two of my cutie pie little pseudo-grandkids that i 'work for'...

miss addie and miss lucy mcshane.

and i have done a ton of knitting and crocheting projects..

..but i have no proof! i took no pix!

*********

oh and some really BIG NEWS...

my grandchickens : dolly parton and anna nichol smith..are finally now earning their keep.

yup, the two big-breasted gals are producing beautiful, and yummy, blue eggs!

from being babies...

...to making babies!  well, kind of..

whew.....pretty much caught up.

and please, leave comments...say hi...and/or write to me at:

sketch.graham@gmail.com