Welcome to my faaaaaace. ‘member the solar eclipse last month? It was fairly lackluster at my place, thanks to the overcast April sky, but a nurse at work did give me a pair of “special” glasses and the sun came out for 2 minutes and I saw…something! Not the life-altering moment that lots of people had, but that’s OK. I went to UPS afterwards to mail off a painting and asked everyone in line if they had seen the eclipse. Most looked at me blankly. One lady seemed semi-excited so I gifted her my eclipse glasses.

Here’s Rosie reminding me of Maggie when she’s happy and panting outside. The mud level of our backyard reached extreme heights last month, and the mud-covered animal who needed to be toweled off every time she came back inside the house = stressed out Mommy. Josh has since done some work on the mud, and it is back to tolerable levels. Hooray, for a backyard we can enjoy again!

I have taken 427482374 photos of spring flowers over the past two months, but I won’t post them all here. Few things make me happier than a sunny spring day! NOW MORE THAN EVER, ya know? So many horrible things in the news all the time–who are we supposed to vote for President this year? (I’m learning about Jill Stein, thanks to Lady Bunny). What can we do about the horrible Gaza situation? How stressed do I need to be sending my children to school in the morning, with all the gun violence everywhere? What about Global Warming? La la laaaaaa let’s go outside and breathe in fresh air and look at pretty flowers, PRETTY PLEASE AND THANK YOU.

The boys and I still enjoy a basement dance party to DJ DeLayna, from time to time. This was last month’s. Sometimes they happen during the afternoon! Mama is tired at night!

Kid art is often the best art. Speaking of tired, the little redhead woke me up at 5 this morning and I couldn’t fall back asleep, so here I am, tippity-tapping away. Before I binge melted cheese and “Baby Reindeer”, that is. I need to be more forgiving of myself when I have a day off of work and I’m tired. It’s OK not to paint every day! It’s OK to take er easy once in a while!

Shhhhh, it’s our little secret. Although it ain’t much of a secret anymore because the cost of living here is RIDIC. However, here we are! This Fall it will be 20 years since I’ve lived in Washington. My pale ass feels very at ease here, although when we went to Palm Springs last November I thought: yes, yes I could do this. In air conditioning. With a pool. Mmmm hmmmm. Maybe…just another visit.

How gorgeous is this green chrome manicure I got last month before Josh’s 50th birthday party? I received many, many compliments on it. I was really sad to see it chip. The entire line of chrome polish at the salon is gorgeous; I’ve just learned that I need to let my nails breathe in between gel mani sessions. The nail ladies always compliment me on the health of my nails so I must be doing something right.

Josh’s parents came into town the same day that RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16 had its finale episode. I explained to them that it was very important to me to watch the show, but for some reason Josh’s father decided to sit in the TV room while the show was on (looking at his phone) and Josh acts weird, silent and stifled around his parents (why are all men like this? ARG) so it was just me watching the equivalent of MY Superbowl with two silent lumps and it SUCKED. If only I didn’t have small children! If only I had the ability to stay awake past 11! I could participate in a “viewing party”, surrounded by gay men! A girl can dreeeeeeeam.

But ne’er mind all that, look at this! My Old Man turned 50 last month! Bob and Fleeta helped me with a ton of food prep, which was wonderful. GG and Lew let us host at their beautiful home in Bellevue, which was fantastic! As per usual I was stressed out leading up to the party with all the planning, but everything worked out perfectly. I wish I had more cool about planning events, but it’s just not in my genes.

Wading through 50 years of Josh’s photos was an undertaking I had no time for, so I selected one of his boxes of photos and grabbed a selection on the top to make this poster, as well as a selection of photos from the photo albums I started putting together once the boys were born. Missing: his first marriage, years 2005-2016 of our relationship (except the wedding!). Life before kids? I have some memories of trips and half marathons. Life after kids has been infinitely more colorful.

Trivia for 1974. I chose the theme colors for the party to be black and gold, and Amazon just happened to have this “party pack” for sale, which saved me a lot of time and energy trudging up and down the aisles of the party supply store. I also thought it looked great against GG’s yellow walls.

The birthday boy! His sister made him a fabulous German Chocolate cake (his choice), and brought a vanilla sheet cake with a rainbow on it for the non-chocolate lovers (ie, Goo). I bought Josh a variety of t-shirts, including Sally O’Malley saying “I’m 50 years old, and I can kick, streeeetch, and kick! I’m 50!”. His “big” gift was the tablesaw. I’m looking forward to seeing all the picture frames from that purchase–haw haw haw. Maybe when he’s not gardening obsessively!

Bringing my hostess drag to change into at GG’s was the best decision. I knew I’d get all sweaty and harried setting up, so I got all sweaty and harried early and had plenty of time to sip coffee and change and make myself up! Grandpa Lew passed me as I was putting on mascara and chuckled to Josh, “Look at your wife, putting on makeup. I couldn’t do that.”

Did I blog about this painting already? Well, here it is again, finished: “The Big Floral Painting”. I’d really love to frame this one. It was a lot of fun to work on. I got through the entire series of “Broad City” working on this baby, and it was funnier the second time around! I just can’t watch horror movies in springtime!

I also painted this shiny little dung beetle, inspired by Goo’s love of bugs. He advised me to paint little dung balls on it, which I added glitter to. Of course! How cool is it to have an artist child? VERY.

Little GG! She’s 93, and she can’t see very well anymore and she can’t hear well anymore but her presence is still very much loved and appreciated.

Remember the Lions Mane Grow Kit I purchased? Well, I took it home, placed it under the tchotchke rack in the dining room and promptly forgot about it, and then a couple weeks after that I noticed an explosion of fungi growing out the box. Unfortunately, I harvested it a little too late (it was super bitter). I also cut the bag open the wrong way and the whole shroomy experience was foiled! Good thing I only spent 30$ on it. Whoops. I went to call the mushroom shop to see if I could salvage it, but the website didn’t have a contact number. Or email. Weird!

Along with the change in seasons comes a change in reading material for me. Out with the thrillers and horrors, in with the memoirs and funny stuff. Although this memoir of Britney made me sad. She’s only two years younger than me, so I feel like I grew up with her a little. Although I’m not an obsessive fan, I could listen to “Toxic” all the livelong day and her talent is undeniable. Even though she’s a fully fledged adult, I feel like she has a lot of growing inside to do, and I hope for her sake someday she’ll figure out how to do that.

Alriiiiiight that’s it for now, buddies! My sleep-starved brain is telling me it’s Melted Cheese Time. Join me next month as I discuss the Northern Lights (!!!), art projects, upcoming shows and FASHUN.