Accountability

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Monte Moore, Boston Rob, Rupert’s Kids, & Stella

     So I’m back to blogging. Not as often as I used to, but at least I’m back. Stuff that prevents me from tapping away on WordPress is stuff like…work.

     Last week I got to interview Monte M. Moore, an illustrator who specializes in sci-fi and fantasy, gaming, pin-up and entertainment illustration. As a commercial illustrator, he is an officially licensed Star Wars artist for Lucasfilm Ltd., Sony Online, Playboy, Topps Cards, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and more. He’s a cool guy, easy to talk to, and it’s always motivating to meet somebody who is actually making a living at their art. He’s also done some awesome paint jobs on custom motorcycles and won lots of awards. You can check out my article and the cool bike Bombshell here, if you’re so inclined. You can also check out Monte’s work at his own website, Maverick Arts, by clicking on Luke and Princess Lea.

 Thursdays are just sick now that Survivor is back and Heroes vs. Villains! I’ve missed these people I call “my old friends” and can’t contain my crazy excitement at seeing them, while Buck sits back and tells me to stop yelling before the neighbors think he’s killing me. Because yes! During last week’s premier I was screaming and shouting at the TV like there was a  hockey game going on. The problem is I’m torn between cheering on Boston Rob, who’s on the Villain tribe, and Rupert Boneham, who’s on the Heroes tribe. Ugh. It makes me scream. On the bright side of this quandary, I have the chance to once again post a photo of me and Rupert at the Cincinnati V-Twin Expo.

     Rupert, FYI, is one of those rare people who said if they had a million dollars they’d use it to better the world…AND HE DOES! You can check out Rupert’s Kids by clicking on me and Rupert. Don’t we look happy? Doesn’t it look like we’re dancing?

    And for anyone who only comes to this blog to see Stella, here she is, Buck’s little princess. Hey, does anyone remember when the Interweb snagged Stella and Photoshopped her into a political article? That was hilarious. But here she is in real life. I took this photo last Sunday.

 

Technorati Tags: Monte M. Moore,Maverick Art,Survivor,Boston Rob,Rupert Boneham,Rupert’s Kids,Chihuahua,Buzz Feed,Dogs,Dogs in politics

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Border Patrol

 

Stargail sent us this photo of the “Border Patrol” that we thought was adorable. (I hope no one interprets this as negative or anything, because it was not meant in that vein.) All those little Chihuahuas look like our Stella, and Lily (who belongs to Little Miss), so I couldn’t resist. Thanks, Stargail!

Technorati Tags: dogs, chihuahuas, beagles, Border Patrol

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SydneyCam

Friday I got this seriously-cool “onboard video camera” to write a product review on. It’s one of those video cameras that you strap to the front of a motorcycle, or race car, bicycle, or even a helmet.

Because I don’t drive a motorcycle or race car, and my bicycle tires are flat, I need for Buck to go out and drive around on his motorcycle with it so I can upload the video and make a movie out of it. Unfortunately, Buck is too busy today, and I’m too excited to put this off any longer, so I will be attempting to strap this thing to my dog, Sydney. I’m hoping this will be the start of SydneyCam, a regular feature here at Life With Buck. I just told Syd about it and I think he’s even more excited than I am.

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Dog Nativity

My Dog Nativity Before:

My Dog Nativity After

Every year I tell myself I’m going to photograph my Dog Nativity and use it for our Christmas card. Well this year I have no ink my printer, and no photograph paper, so it will have to wait. And my God, who would have thought photographing little tiny detailed animate objects would prove to be so difficult? Maybe by the time I have the right ink and paper, I will have figured out how to do it correctly.

  This is how the thing came about. When my children were small, I read an article by one of my favorite writers, Joyce Maynard, who was entertaining her children by setting up a nativity scene using all the crazy salt and pepper shakers she’d collected over the years. I didn’t have a salt and pepper shaker collection, but we certainly had plenty of dogs. My kids had plastic dogs, ceramic dogs, Beanie Baby dogs, and even a Transformer dog, in their toy boxes. Okay, there’s always a lot of controversy about the Transformer dog possibly being a wolf, but they’re all related, so it counts as a dog, in my world.So I went around gathering up all the  dogs we had and the Dog Nativity was born.

Like all collections, the Dog Nativity grew over the years. I started picking up little dogs in souvenir shops when we went on vacation, or while combing through the fabulous junk shops on Main Street in Buzzards Bay. I found them at yard sales and flea markets. People started giving me dogs as gifts; a pewter dog from a co-worker, an antique dog-shaped ring holder from my  mother-in-law. Their heads come off to reveal long necks onto which you can keep your rings:

Some of the dogs are are really strange and disturbing, like this one who seems to be witnessing the Rapture. I found him in a parking lot.

  And some of the dogs are really old, found in the bottom of junk boxes at yard sales, like this guy playing the drums over here on the left.

Someone brought Buck a German Shepherd-shaped cologne bottle that’s really cool. There are a lot of German Shepherds in the Nativity, but this one is really unique because he’s a bottle. His head can screw off.

But the feature performers in my Nativity, as in all Nativity scenes, is Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, represented here by our own dogs (who have passed on): Audrey (as Jesus), June (as Mary), and Jimmy (as Joseph).

Some dogs were gifts, like this jester dog:

   

Some dogs I’ve found at TJ Maxx after Christmas when they mark everything down. I think I paid $3 for this dog tree, which Buck thought was still too much money:

 

The Dalmatians I stole from my children’s Happy Meals as soon as they got them. I believe I removed them from the boxes before they even knew they were there.

I got these tiny little colored plastic dogs in a gumball machine:

And that’s it, my Dog Nativity. Aren’t you glad you stopped by to behold it? It took me all day to shoot. At one point it was just a big table of dogs:

 

Have a nice day everybody!

 

Technorati Tags: dogs, dog nativity, dog collections, toy dogs, Christmas decorations, photographing toys

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