Fondue Dinner at Home

"Double Cheese" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/125 sec, ISO5000
“Double Cheese” Cedar Park, 2019

こんばんは。How’s it going?

Tonight we had a wonderful fondue dinner at home. We have a family Valentine’s tradition to eat fondue, but because of Mariko’s schedule yesterday, we had to delay it for a night. But we definitely can’t miss our annual fondue dinner!

As always, we have two pots of cheese, one with wine for Mariko and I, and the other with no alcohol for the kiddos. Every year they try the “adult” fondue, and scrunch up their faces at the taste. “Horrible” was heard this time around. But eventually, I think they will prefer the wine and cheese fondue. Until that day, it’s all for Mariko and me!

The ingredients for dipping were simple this year, with a yummy chicken/spinach sausage, potato, broccoli, carrots, and homemade baguette cubes. It was a yummy dinner!

"Bread and Broccoli" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/105 sec, ISO6400
“Bread and Broccoli” Cedar Park, 2019

I hope you had a nice Friday!

またね~

This Year’s Valentines Gifts

"Valentine's Snoopy" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/90 sec, ISO6400
“Valentine’s Snoopy” Cedar Park, 2019

こんばんは。How’s it going?

Today’s photos are of the gifts that Mariko bought for the boys today for Valentine’s Day. Bay received the sloth, and Koa received the Snoopy. I’m not sure the origin, but Bay’s favorite animal, or at least the one associated with him, is the sloth. But it suits him because he tends to sleep a lot. And Koa has had a few Snoopys over the years, including t-shirts and other stuffed animals. I think they both liked their gifts since after dinner, they took them up to their rooms. 😄

"Valentine's Sloth" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO6400
“Valentine’s Sloth” Cedar Park, 2019

This year, I bought Mariko a box of Godiva chocolates, which is pretty much what I do every year. Godiva is the one brand readily available here in the States that I know she likes. Although she said we have too much chocolate in the house (we do have a lot!), her and Bay spent some time choosing which candy from the box to eat tonight.

As for myself, well… no gifts, but that’s okay. I think I have everything I need. ☺

I hope you had a nice day!

またね~

Line Drawings with Procreate on the iPad

"Drawing Tool" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO3200
“Drawing Tool” Cedar Park, 2019

こんばんは。How’s it going?

My daily drawings have shifted over to about 90% digital with Procreate and 10% on paper in the 2 weeks that I’ve had my iPad. I guess that’s to be expected with a new drawing tool. It’s so fun to see what is possible using Procreate, but even though it is a different way to sketch, I still find myself on the same path of learning, and right now I am concentrating on line-drawing. I make progress little by little each time which is really encouraging, and using the iPad has sped up the process. Just the convenience of undo and multiple undo is game-changing – it’s like having a magical eraser. I love it.

I can see farther down the path of my learning journey now, which was kind of muddled before. It’s becoming clearer that I need to keep practicing line drawings (still a ways to go), and start expanding from just faces to more poses, and then maybe larger compositions, and finally, work on color. Not sure if color will work its way into the process earlier or not, but I am thinking it won’t be detrimental to dabble in it. At any rate, it’s exciting to think about all the things that can be created while learning, and that is good motivation to keep going.

I have some thoughts forming about digital vs analog art, and it kind of interconnects with decluttering, but I’m not quite there yet to put it down on “paper”.

In the meantime, here’s my latest practice sketch, and the timelapse drawing process. For the hand, I looked at a reference photo, but I didn’t like how it was turning out so I traced the photo. But looking back at the timelapse video, I think the non-traced version would have been fine.

I’ll keep this drawing as-is and move on to a new one, but in the future, I’ll probably come back to it to work on color.

I hope you had a nice day!

またね~

"2019-02-13 Drawing"
“2019-02-13 Drawing”

Thinking About Where to Travel Next

"Heading West" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: SONY NEX-6, 50mm, f/7.1, 1/125 sec, ISO100
“Heading West” Cedar Park, 2019

こんばんは。How’s it going?

This morning I saw this amazing contrail from a plane zooming across the sky, and since it is heading west, I am imagining that the passengers are traveling to the west coast of the US, and perhaps connecting to a flight to Asia.

Speaking of traveling, my next trip that is planned is a cruise with my immediate and extended family in July. I’m really looking forward to it, but I am also thinking about a solo trip somewhere. Mariko went on a solo trip to Europe last year, and she is going to Japan next month as well. She said I should go traveling solo sometime, but I’m not sure where I would like to go. I love exploring new places solo, and I would like to take my sketchbook and iPad with me to do some on-location sketching. It seems so fun! So a bit more thinking and research will be needed to figure out a nice destination for that activity.

I’d love to travel to Vietnam, Thailand, or Singapore, so those destinations are high on my list. Honestly, I’m not too interested in other regions at this point in my life, but I know that can change, so we’ll see. But just thinking about the possibilities for solo travel gets me excited!

"Morning Light" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: SONY NEX-6, 16mm, f/9, 1/200 sec, ISO100
“Morning Light” Cedar Park, 2019

I hope you had a nice day!

またね~

Two-Dollar Bills are Still Special

"Money" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/105 sec, ISO6400
“Money” Cedar Park, 2019

こんばんは。How’s it going?

At Saturday’s Lunar New Year celebration, our kids each received a stack of red envelopes from the married people at the party. It’s a tradition that those who are married give red envelopes, which contain money, to the single people, and so our kids, who are still in their teens, still have several years of red envelopes coming up (we hope)!

Anyway, these days our kids prefer to use their debit cards, so they’ll give me all the cash that they collect at the party and I will transfer that amount to their cards. And usually, a couple two-dollar bills are in the stack of cash for exchanging.

So, this is the time of year that I see the two-dollar bill more often, which is cool because these bills are special to me. The two-dollar bill went out of print in 1966, but was re-issued in 1976 which was the bi-centennial year of the United States. According to Wikipedia, the bill reissue wasn’t specifically to celebrate the bi-centennial, but with all the hoopla surrounding the year, it sure seemed like it was part the celebration. Since I was a little kid at the time, it made a big impression on me!

Even today, I still get a small thrill when I see a two-dollar bill out in the wild. Not only that, but I feel a little bad about spending them or depositing them at the bank –.it seems like I should be collecting them, just like when I was a kid! But I realize that one nice, crisp two-dollar bill safe and sound in the drawer is enough. 😊

I hope you had a great day!

またね~