Vrooooom!

The stripes in toothpaste are created by a special device fitted to the nozzle end of the tube. A colored toothpaste is first filled around the special fitting, the white toothpaste is filled second, which holds the colored toothpaste in place at the top of the tube.



When the tube is squeezed, the white toothpaste would run through the special inner tube and the pressure of the squeeze simultaneously forces the colored toothpaste through the tiny orifices at the end. The toothpaste emerges perfectly striped.

The first toothpaste mentioned in recorded history was devised by Egyptian physicians about 4000 years ago. It was made from powdered pumice stone and strong wine vinegar and brushed on with a chew stick.

I love the feeling of freshly bushed teeth, but I'll be damned if I can stand to have the stuff on my skin. Can't stand the smell, can't stand the feel...but give me good ol' freshly scrubbed teeth anyday!


I got to do one of the funnest gig's I've gotten to do in a while. We got booked to draw at the Outback Stakehouse convention for 2 nights. It was awesome!!! There were a bazillion people (no, really) from all over the world.

I got to meet 2 of the three founders AND the guy who designed the recipe for the Bloomin' Onion.



I'm peekin' out behind Michael McElroy who's leaning back. One of the most talented artists you'll ever meet. Kenny Durkin is center. He's supposed to be workin' on his comic book for Chicago...so if you go to his web page or myspace...ask him how it's goin'. Tell 'em Jenni sent cha.

The last night the party was held at Flights of Fantasy in Lakeland, FL.

http://www.fantasyofflight.com

An absolutely incredible place. The design of the place was amazing. Very themed. The collection of aircraft is breathtaking.

If you get the chance you HAVE to go and walk amongst the ghosts and relics of days long past.





I wish I knew about aviation history. I find it fascinating. My biggest thrill was getting to see a Flying Fortress up close.

There's huge, there's BIG and then there's a Flying Fortress.





Yeah, so I was all a twitter and my camera shook.





Here's that Michael guy again.







A storm is a brewin'.

I have to say how incredible this catering staff was. This huge thunderstorm was coming in fast. I'd say within 15 minutes they had all the tables that WERE outside BACK inside and fully dressed to receive guests. They were truly amazing.




Just before the guests started to arrive, the storm started and it didn't let up for a mighty long time. It was pretty violent.



Another cool craft.

The stands were supposed to hold the audience to see the Dave Matthews Concert.





Very few things make me squeal with utter girlish delight...but that nights entertainment sure did. The Dave Matthews Band was the entertainment and MAN! Did they sound awesome!




It doesn't hurt that Dave Matthews is one tasty lookin' fella.









I've taken up gardening. Me. Yep. Go figure. There was a reason Barry use to call me Plant Killer/ Herb Slayer.

I had NO green thumb.

Nada.

I sucked.

Maybe it's the fact that I now have kids and am more...nurturing. Bwahahahaha!

I think it's just 'cuz I'm watering the damn things more.

It's very rewarding to watch your plants grow. I'm growing quite a few herbs again (and doing VERY nicely I might add). As well as tomatoes, cucumbers, Sunflowers, and 2 lemon and 1 lime tree. The trees are very small, but I've got fruit on 'em!! Woohooo!

My main thrill is peppers. I've been growing a lot of variety of peppers. We got to eat some of the peppers last night that I grew AND cooked. And I didn't burn the kitchen down this time!


I still need to get better at weeding. The weeds are a tad strong in these parts.

Go FISH

On This Day:
Monday April 7, 2008

This is the 98th day of the year, with 268 days remaining in 2008.

Fact of the Day: goldfish

Goldfish have been known to survive freezing into a block of ice, with full recovery when the ice melts; however, the fish themselves may not have been actually frozen, since all animals have natural levels of dissolved substances in their bodies which lower the freezing point of the tissues and body fluids.



Hence, one should not try putting the family fishbowl in the freezer, as that may kill the fish. Almost all fish are cold-blooded, and cold-blooded animals in general do slow down when the temperature is lowered. However, their bodies, senses and brains will operate the same except in terms of speed, and the only behavioral change which is likely would be eating at longer intervals.


Today was one for Molly. We'd got her latest blood test results back last week and luckily the Phe levels had gone back down. Her latest test put her at 4.7. For some reason the previous month her Phe levels had jumped up to 5.9! I was in a panic. Our doctors assistance told us just to cut out one serving of proteins a day and see how things went. That seemed to have helped A LOT! The doctors weren't panicked by her jump in numbers--to them that was still within fine limits for mild hyper-Phe. But I freaked.

We went down to Tampa today and met with Dr Malone. It went wonderfully well. We kinda had other folks popping in and out of the room to meet with Molly. I dunno if they just wanted to show interns that PKU kids look perfectly normal or what. But folks that had no impact on Molly kept stopping by. Nobody was rude by any means it was just more of a point finger, lookie here, oddity check kinda thing.

We don't have to take Molly back to the specialist until her 2nd B'day-- October. We'll still do her monthly blood work. But Dr Malone seems to think that she is doing absolutely fantastically and she has great enzyme function--she's just slightly off. So, looks like Molly is definitely one of us--kinda slightly off.

Working hard on Womblees. Having a total blast.





I've been getting catalog after catalog from Dover publications. Which for me is like giving a junkie unlimited access to crack!

This catalog has every kind of cool book on every kinda cool subject that you could ever imagine. I think I've spent about $200 on books for Victorian reference alone. Last week. And I spent about $170 on Victorian houses and furniture the previous month.

I know, I know I can claim it as a tax deduction--Womblees is set in the Victorian era. But I got this new Dover catalog today in the mail and damn, if I don't want to order everything.

I don't think I really need that book on WWII battle tactics--but ya never know. And I could probably do with out the book on famous hats---but I just might need these things so I probably SHOULD go ahead and order them--just to be safe.

And lookie here--kids clothes in the 1890's--this I definitely need. sigh

We did JUST have a Books-a-Million just open about 3 miles down the road from us. There is absolutely nothing better then a cool used-bookstore, but I'll take a BaM in a pinch.

I got some alone time on Sunday before I had to go into work and that's how I chose to spend my 2 hours. I had to check out the graphic novel section (awesomness!!), Science Fiction (actually pretty damn big much to my relief), fiction (standard stuff), science (kinda crappy only 4 bookshelves when New Age for 6 (!) and Religion got 9 (!?!) bookcases).

I did find Robin McKinnley had a new book out. Almost bought it, then realized the state of my broketitudenss--it's still in hardback.

What I wouldn't give to have some of those cool used bookstores that we stumbled upon in Champaign, Illinois. More libraries and bookstores then anyplace I've ever been.

Got some cool sculpts from some gargoyoles I got to do.

































These were really cool to see sculpted! It went from doing the pencil designs, to coloring them, and finally to sending the designs off to get sculpted.

I dont know who the sculptuers were, but they did a fantastic job. Well--except for the unicorn I did. The horn on his head looks kinda like...well...it just looks funky. We'll put it that way. I need to take a photo of a few more whimsical creatures that got made.

But it was really thrilling and really fun to see drawings come to life in 3-d.