I got to do the tourist thing in DC today. I went with my sister and brother in law for a day of sight seeing and to help them get their National Park passport book stamped. They also offered to take me to The Washington Doll's House and Toy Museum, which will be closing on May 1. We spent a very nice time there (although I'm sure Andrew was more than a little bored!) There was a LOT of things to look at, and nearly everything on the second floor was for sale. Houses of all shapes, sizes and materials, dolls of every size imaginable, and soo many pieces of furniture and accessories. And this wasn't even half of the owner's collection!

We had pizza at Armands (a must!) and then decided to walk to . . .um, actually, I just followed. I wasn't sure WHERE Andrew was going! We ended up at the National Archive Museum, where we joined the long line and went to see the original Constitution and Declaration of Independence were on display. Of course, I preferred the architecture. I love DC buildings, they're so much fun to look at. In fact, all of the pictures I took were of buildings I thought were interesting.

I prefer walking through DC to driving through it. There's so many strange intersections, and the stoplights are on the sides of the road, not hanging across the middle of the street. I would cause major problems driving through that town! And it's an easy town to walk through. Wide sidewalks (when there's no construction!) lots of maps, lots of crosswalks, very accessible. I suppose my favorite part of the trip was riding the silly Metro. Even today, with part of the system out of order (they were working on the tracks between about four stops, so the trains were forced to share a rail in both directions.) There's a lot of people watching you can do, and I suppose I don't get out enough, but I enjoyed the ride!

For the past 10(?) years, my bathroom has been sky blue. I had once planned to have a garden theme in there, starting with a shower curtain that had a white picket fence, flowers and all sorts of gardeny things all over it. I had even copied the fence onto the one big wall in the bathroom, painted grass, and a basket. Then I realized I couldn't paint flowers, and lost interest. Eventually I painted a picture of our cat asleep in the basket. Before that, the bathroom was pink. An orangy kind of pink, but most definitely bright, deep pink, with hearts on a paper trim.
The bathroom is now . . . lavendar. (just look at the back of the toilet to see the history of paint colors!) I had half hoped to advance farther in my interior design courses, but got tired of staring at the walls. It NEEDED painting. The cat and fence are now gone. I've bought a new light fixture (hopefully will go up soon). I also need to replace the floor and the sink, and I'd like to have the bathtub resurfaced. I'd love to have one of those above counter bowl sinks, but just can't quite justify it. The light fixture has cobalt discs on it for decoration, and I plan to use more cobalt pieces in the rest of the room. I want it to have a cold, cool, sleek feel. Kinda modern. The shower curtain is clear with blue squares scattered all across it, different sizes and shades. The cabinet will be painted white with just a hint of purple. I plan to hang glass shelves (if I can find them) and try to use a lot of silver and chrome to keep the cold look. I'd also like to install a light above the tub. It's just not bright enough there!
The purple has turned out to be a very warm color in there, but I'm so used to the old color that I still 'see' it when I'm in there. Painting the wall's was a big step, but it's a minor one compared to what still needs to be done. I can't install sinks or resurface tubs, and I have no desire to do the floor myself. I bet I could wire the light, though . . .

A side effect of the braces has been that my lips have a tendency to dry out. Maybe I'm breathing funny? I don't know. All's I do know is that it's a pain, and it looks awful.

In desperation I went out and bought different kinds of lip relief products to test.

The cheap stuff obviously did nothing except to give you different flavors to taste.

Chapstick was ok, but didn't do a lot.

Blistex, about the same results. The Blistex Medex in the little blue tub did very well, but it's in a little blue tub, and is a bit awkward to apply. Besides that, I think after a few hours it kind of cakes up, and your lips look like they're peeling.

Carmex did better than chapstick, but I don't think it's for chapped lips. I remembered my sister using it during band camp, so I thought I'd try it.

My grandfather's physical therapist recommended vaseline. Plain old ordinary vaseline. They sell it in a squeezeable tube as "Lip Therapy" and its only ingredient is petroleum. (and flavoring - no comments!) It WORKS. I've been using it the past few days, and my lips are no longer cracked looking or appear to be peeling. It also lasts a long time, I've only had to apply it a few times. It even lasts overnight! The only problem is that it comes out of the tube rather thickly and is a bit hard to apply. My sister (turns out she uses it, too) recommended keeping it in your pocket and letting the heat thin it down. But it works! Now I need to go out and buy more to replace all these tubes of stuff I have lying around . . .

Only 26 and a half more months!

Part of our adventurous trek on Saturday took us to the Art Gallery and studio in Reston. I had wanted to see Pat MacIntyre's work - was hoping to maybe even buy a piece for my room. Her paintings weren't there, but she was! I got to talk to her for quite a bit, as well as a few other ladies in the studio.

They all asked the same question: "Are you an artist, too?"

How does one answer that question? What do artists consider artists to be? I don't try to make a living being an artist, and I don't sell my work. The stuff I draw, build or sculpt is for my own interest. Would my video editing be considered art? Is computer graphics considered art? Is this an age old question that has no answer? I eventually answered that I wasn't, but that I did create computer graphics and was a video editor. I didn't even think about my miniatures, and I don't feel my comic drawing is good enough yet. (of course, I'm having a ball learning how!)

Have I mentioned how much I like my new drawing tablet?
I bought an Artcad ArtCat Flair off of eBay. It's USB, with a wireless pen and even a clear sheet for tracing. I had a near panic attack when it wouldn't work yesterday, but finally determined it was the USB ports and not the tablet. I think some drywall dust must have gotten in the machine.
I don't like the fact that I had to reinstall the tablet drivers a second time, though. I need to look into that.

Ran around the area with Dad today. We went to the Gateway store in Fairfax and oogled at some of the designs of the PCs they have in there. They also had a lot of flat panel TVs and monitors. I passed a display of wall mounts and thought, "I really need to hang my monitor."
Now, I bought a wall mount several months ago. I went cheap - it was probably under 20 dollars. Ugly, awkward, I couldn't bend the joints, and we could NOT figure out how to hang it on the wall. Instructions were minimal. The screws and such that came with it were unlike any we had seen before, and we could only make guesses as to how they were installed. (mind you, we come from a long line of carpenters! tools and such are familiar friends!) So I've been kicking this awkward metal THING around my room for some time.

In the Gateway store was a nice, streamlined wall mount made by Sanus. A bit pricey, but suddenly I no longer cared. It looked NICE. Easy to hang, easy to adjust. I bought it. Brought it home. Dad helped me to attach it to the wall. It looks wonderful!
Before, I had a stack of stuff in the very corner of my room. On the bottom, was a piece of fake wood left over from a computer desk. (a shelf I never installed). Then came the PC case. Then came 3 (yes, three) cardboard boxes. On top of that sat my flat panel monitor. And the monitor still wasn't high enough for me! So now I have only my speakers sitting on top of the case. (Previously, they were on the floor and constantly kicked.) The monitor itself looks like it's floating. It's bizarre and wonderful. I can readjust it if I need to. I can even move it so that I can watch movies from my bed. (or stretch out and type!) I'm quite pleased with it.

I am such a geek.