The quote above is from Notes From The Underground by Dostoevsky.  The sketch is an illustration I’m working on.  I’m not really sure what my intent is with it, but lately I’m somewhat obsessed with the relation of humans and nature.  It’s undeniable that one affects the other and vice versa. 

On that note, I have somewhat of a dismal story to share.  This past Sunday Tom and I were in the basement moving some stuff around to make room for our newly acquired treadmill.  I picked up a few blankets off the floor to toss aside that our boxer, Bruiser, had been using as a bed when I noticed a hole in one of the old comforters.  I leaned down to look at it and saw that there were bugs inside of it.  Gross.  I jumped back and yelled for Tom to get the blanket out of the house before these little buggers ate their way through anything else.  Tom leaned over to inspect our little invaders.  He stood up a few seconds later with a calm look on his face and said, “You’ll be more upset when I tell you what it really is in there.”  I felt my eyes bulging and my gag reflex kicking in.  I couldn’t even imagine what it would be that was worse than bugs.

“What??”  I gasped not really wanting to know the answer.

“Baby mice.”  Tom grimaced.

“Oh no!  I killed their mother and they starved!”  I cried out.  I realized in an instant that I had been the bane of these sweet little creatures.  They never even had a chance.

We’ve had consistent issues with mice living in our house.  Since we are in the country and there is always an ample supply of dog food, the mice find it easy to habitate there.  We often find their little supplies of the stolen dog food in random places around the house.   For example, inside our snowboarding boots or our christmas decorations.  Once evidence of the mice made its way to our living space upstairs, our hand was forced.  The traps were set and the problem solved. 

I never even considered the possibilty of a little mouse family in our house.  I was reminded of my favorite cartoon as a child… The Littles.  Thinking of that made me even more upset.  It’s been 3 days now and I’m still feeling the guilt.  Unfortunately, there’s no way to avoid this kind of thing. 

The agreement is now that if something of this sort is discovered again, Tom is to lie to me.  He’s to tell me it’s something disgusting  that I would be happy to know is dead… such as spiders, stink bugs, or carpenter bees.  (Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the preservation of Bumble Bees, but Carpenter Bees are something completely different and I don’t want them living inside my walls.)

That’s my horrifying tale. 

I’m in the process of planning a funfilled weekend for Tom and I.  Saturday we are taking my parents and Anthony to Bodies: The Exhibition.

I’ve been hearing about this display for months now and am extremely intrigued.  I’ll probably come back from it with all sorts of inspiration for anatomical drawings and such.  I’m definitely excited.  The fact that out of all the cities in the world, they chose to display this in my wonderful city of Pittsburgh, I’m just thrilled.  It is displayed in 11 cities as of now, three of which are Buenos Aires, Prague, and Lisbon. 

Other attractions that we’re also blessed to have close by are Frank Lloyd Wright’s creations of Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob.  We toured Fallingwater last fall.  I am a huge fan of Wright’s organic influenced structures and the philosophy of his buildings.  However, I wouldn’t want to live in them.  He believes a structure should be formed to push people outside.  Too much time spent indoors is unacceptable.  He constructs each building with low ceilings, narrow hallways and gigantic windows.  The windows, I love.  The ceilings are confining.  I understand his intentions, but I like feeling comfortable in my home. 

Another aspect of his design at Fallingwater that made me uneasy was the fact that he built all of the furniture into the structure.  Nothing could be moved or rearranged.  I have a constant need for change and the simple layout of the room can affect my moods greatly.  Other than all that, he is one of the most imaginative architects I know of.  It reminds me alot of Ayn Rand’s book The Fountainhead.  Like Howard Roark in The Fountainhead, Wright seems to only have to look at the potential site of a structure and is able to let the land design the building itself.  Wright doesn’t fight the layout of the land, but builds with it and around it, shaping things to move with the earth.  It’s incredible to me.  The entire left wing of Fallingwater is built into the boulders that comprise the waterfall which the house hangs over.  The boulders actually serve as sitting areas inside the house.

Anyway, the point is, if you have the opportunity, go visit.  Tom and I are venturing to Kentuck Knob this weekend, (Sunday to be exact) so I’ll let you know my feelings about it on Monday.

(I feel like I just wrote an essay for a history class. **sigh**)

This past weekend my family and I went to Bethany Beach to celebrate my grandmother’s 80th birthday.  Although the weekend was fun, relaxing and invigorating, the beach left me with something to desire.  I’ve never been to a beach farther north than Wilmington, NC.  I was expecting your stereotypical shoreline experience including warming water, seashells and palm trees.  Instead… We got a beach with cold water, rocky sand, pine trees and instead of seashells, the beach was scattered with pine cones.  It was almost surreal to me.  My mind was completely confused the entire weekend.  On top of these weird non-beach things, they were restoring the beach and the entire shore was covered with giant pipes, heavy machinery and warning signs.  Here are some pictures to document it all…

My mom with my aunt and uncle’s dog, Dakota.

This is my 2nd post today.  I have so much I want to put up here that I decided to break it down instead of posting one giant entry.

The other day, Tom and I were feeling isolated from being in the house all day working.  We  leashed up the dog, grabbed my Rebel, and set off for a leisurely stroll down the street.  Our street is rather long and scenic.  Our neighbors (a few of them) have horses, there are grape vines growing everywhere, apple trees, chestnuts falling to the ground and woods surrounding it all.  It was absolutely gorgeous out and here are a few of the pictures to share with you.

This is Bruiser… he was excited, needless to say.

I was having alot of fun with the manual focus!
Some rather enchanting moss…

I’m home again, not feeling so well. I feel like I’ve been stuck in the house entirely too much in the past 3 weeks. And I’ve been neglecting my poor little blog. However, I have been very busy. Tom and I have been diligently working on the house. We’re just a couple hours away from finishing Tommie Rae’s new bedroom. Work has already begun on my “art room”. In between, we’re spending time on our bikes, out in the fresh air. I decided to post some pictures I’ve taken recently on our bike rides. I’m so sick of being inside that I needed to see these on here… it’s refreshing! I hope you all enjoy them as much as me. They put a smile on my face.

I just really love taking pictures!