I have all my holiday shopping done except for a few gifts for my clients/bosses (I know they’re clients, they think that they’re the boss). Most of my shopping was done online at Oxfam Unwrapped. The way I figure, most of the folks I know have way too much stuff anyway, so giving to others in their names seems to be the way to go this year. I mean, where else can you purchase a portable toilet or a can of worms in someone’s name and make that honoree feel good about it?

You probably thought that old “no-eyes” above was a stuffed animal, too, didn’t you? Not - Fluffy’s on loan from Pup City (where dogs live the Second Life with attitude).

Have a great weekend! I’ll not be smoking. Ha!

No, Freddy wasn’t a croc’s dinner - this was his Halloween costume, and he hated it. That’s right, his two rear legs were the croc’s front legs.

Haven’t heard from winners in a long time, so it was refreshing to get a note from Nate at designboom about the winners in the “Love Your Earth” design contest. 3871 designers from 98 different countries participated in this competition, and the win went to “Savio Alphonso + instructors for my mfa thesis: theron moore + john t. drew + sergio lizarraga from usa” for “sprout: symbols to cultivate change.” The image is rather genius in its simplicity. YAY for Savio!

This is my third week without cigarettes, compadres. I’ve gained two pounds, but I can’t help it - food tastes SO much better!

Freddy was on a visit from funnyphotos.net.au.

Need I say more? Other than the fact that I didn’t give them one piece of candy. Not one.

If you haven’t read Russell Ossendryver’s open letter to the Gnome Foundation, you might find it interesting.

Other than this, it’s been a fairly quiet week. Have a good time this weekend, and don’t forget to mess with your clocks on Saturday night for the end to Daylight Savings Time (DST) on Sunday. DST is not observed in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Arizona, with the exception of the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona. Betcha didn’t know THAT.

I’ve been without cigarettes for five days now. That thought is just beginning to dawn on me. I’ve been so focused on NOT having a cigarette that I forgot to pat myself on the back for succeeding thus far. This task has been easier to accomplish since I’ve been working out and since I moved into a place where I established a “no smoking inside” rule.

Within three months I should be perfect.

When you all have a chance, head to print magazine to vote for one of three finalists for the 44th annual Student Cover Design Competition.

The image above was created by Pam Davol, and I’m quite taken with many of her images. If you visit her site you’ll need to be patient and scroll down to view the art, as the design is so broken that it’s pathetic (at least in Firefox). The site is begging for a trade-art-for-design opportunity.

Hey folks - The dog was hit by lightning this past week, and now he can see cats in the dark. As for myself, I haven’t been hit by anything, but my brain feels like jello. I think my problem all boils down to the fact that my parents are coming through town next week and I have to finally clean the place. Yeah, that’s it.

For those of you who keep up with this blog though Google, make note that I’m changing publishing days to Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. For those of you who get information from this site through email, you’ll receive the notices on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

This past February I introduced you all to my sis-in-law’s new Labradoodle, My Guy. Well, My Guy and my brother’s retriever, Gypsy, had pups this past week. Eight of them. That’s my brother’s hand in the photo at right. They’re so cute you could just spit. But, I need to say “congrats” to my brother and his partner…and to the dogs, of course.

On to other news…Ema Design has announced the completion and installation of an interpretive display for the Denver Art Museum. The four-panel display highlights the restoration, conservation and preservation of Bernardo Zenale’s Renaissance painting, “Madonna and Child with Saints,” which is part of the museum’s permanent collection. Ema’s panels incorporate step-by-step photos detailing the restoration process, as well as a cutaway of the painting’s climate-controlling frame showing how the painting is preserved while on display. The panels, which took approximately five weeks to complete, are now hanging with “Madonna and Child with Saints” in the European painting department on the sixth floor of the museum.

I’ll have to send you all to Fanatic Attack to read about my recent trip to Natchez, Mississippi. While there, I met Marbeth Schon, owner of M. Schon Gallery and author of Modernist Jewelry 1930-1960: The Wearable Art Movement (Schiffer Book for Collectors). I didn’t purchase her book at the gallery, as I didn’t want to fly back with it - it was darn heavy. But, I ordered it when I arrived home, and it’s a fabulous book that’s filled with great images and important information about the top jewelers of the twentieth century. Marbeth knows her ’stuff’ - and I intend to visit her again this spring (and probably purchase another piece of jewelry!).