Panda's First Smile

Panda's First Smile
PandaPig's First Smile!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

YouTube - Etta James - At Last

YouTube - Etta James - At Last

While mom at the art gallery sittin' in her little chair at her little table
this EPIC iconic jazz standard came on and mom just grooved on it
until the owner looked at the cards in astonishment, asking mom:
"Is that your signature?"
"Yes, is that Etta James?"
And it was Good.

Enjoy the incomparable Etta James.

Weddin Planner's Work to Go in Vain?


Dear ungrateful, Precious Little Darlings,

Our friend, MariFUN, has been working very, very hard on creating special carrot-top wedding items
exclusively for YOU, MacNutPie, and YOU, pretty little CocoNUT, and now you want to throw away
all decorum and stage a PirateKidnapping Wedding full of "Arrrgh's" and body odor, and parrots
screeching: "Grab Thy Wench, Matey, Grab Her and MARRY HER! SQUEEE!" and I just hope you will consider our Wedding Planner's feelings before you make her walk the gangplank if she catches the bouquet. If she not already thrown overboard wid the rest of us so you can hog the buffet
(no pig-hog puns intended.)

Sincerely,
(not really)
mom
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MARIFUN - We Have a Mutiny!



Thank you, Jerry, our bestest friend! Thank you for rendering asunder the best laid (no pun intended) wedding plans for our guinea pig nuptials...yes, best friend in Atlanta, now the guinea pigs (thanks to that picture you sent them yesterday!) have chosen "Pirates!" as their wedding theme after all the hard work our wedding planner, MariFUN, has already put into weaving carrot-top procrastinators for the bride and top hats for the groom...

And Thank You, Raj and Taj Mahal, for gettin' in the mix by complimenting beautiful, portly Coconut this morning by telling her that she more beautiful than Keira Knightley and once MariFun makes her some carrot-top pirate hair extensions, she'll be the talk o' the town in Bellingham, the City of Subdued Excitment, or not so subdued excitement.

And Thank You,  Calvin, for suggesting that they have a Pirate Kidnap theme whereupon MacNutPie growls: "Aaaargh, ya wench, you be MINE NOW!" before taking off her carrot top procrastinator, eating it, then taking her back to his "ship" (i.e. PIGLOO which will need a new pirate paint-job and some anchors and a treasure chest full of golden alfalfa hay pellets!)

Thank you ALL for making our wedding planners VOLUNTEER efforts that much easier...

Sincerely,
YumYum

P.S. and this time NOT MY FAULT! Just some o' it: mu-ah-Ha-HAAAAAAA!
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Wedding Planner, We Have a Problem!

Dear Wedding Planner, MariFUN,

It's not like I'm a snitch or anything - far from it, Aaarh! - but MacNutPie went behind your back for his wedding tuxedo! Now what Coco gonna wear? Chanel #5?

You didn't here it from me!

Sincerely Your,
YumYum
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Monday, June 20, 2011

Mom DROPS THINGS

We hope that mom doesn't really work here because nothing good can come from it...except...droppage.
Every morning we suck her hot coffee up off the floor through the carpet, it's like THAT, y'all...seriously.
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We Inspire Ourselves


What mom looks at to keep working when S.E.A.L. Team Six is blasting her eyes out from inside her head.
Why? Because we're beautiful!
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The Little Table That Could, and Did


This is where the table was...and mom so happy!
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If It's Not Too Much Trouble...

Would you mind signing the cards and naming them before you leave? The nice, PATIENT gallery owner set mom up with her own little table and chair (wonder if he has a kid in kindergarten?) so she could write the words on the back of the cards identifying her as the drawer of the pictures.

She was placed on the Volunteer schedule to work there although once she said, "Oh, um, I need to tell you I DROP THINGS..." so we aren't expecting a call anytime soon. Intricate hand-blown glass
art is a hallmark of Pacific Northwest artists. And Dale Chihuly not the only one!

Can't take her out. Just sit it down at a table with things to play with. Yeah, we think he figured
that out. They gonna do just fine!

Sigh,
YumYum
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could we BE more professional?


It was a purely rhetorical question. Never mind.
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MOM, IT'S NOT ALWAYS ABOUT YOU!

We have all been very good pigges, truly, we have. But enough is enough! Mom spent the entire weekend creating an art studio which began in the bedroom - fine with us - yet slowly flowed like a volcanic lahar (maybe not so slowly) first into her yoga mat space and THEN INTO OUR ESCAPE AREA! No, not onto our Owlie Rug playpen, but into the place we escape to when she has us tucked in a blanket and thinks we are lying there contentedly when really we are DOING VERY BAD THINGS, ESPECIALLY INVOLVING PLUGGED IN ELECTRICAL THINGYS!

NOW COVERED WITH ARTIST DETRITUS. WELL, IT BETTA BE TASTY! CUZ WE GONNA EAT IT INSTEAD OF PLUGGED IN ELECTRICAL CORDS IF SHE LEAVE IT ALL THERE LIKE A DO-DO BIRD!

NOBODY EVER ACCUSED US OF BEING GOOD! and in my case, just "small."

love,
Calvin

p.s. mom now in a coma but things went so well at the art gallery she thinks it all a dream! the owner took 25 pieces!
and is going to invest his own money in framing and printing to promote her work...hmm, something about that
50 cent frame that she actually TAPED TOGETHER ON THE BACK did not appeal to his gallery aesthetic...wonder
WHY? like the time when she was starting out as a wildlife photographer and her mentor from NEWSWEEK was in
Des Moines, IA on assignment so met her as she went to the State Wildlife Whatever to show them her wildlife photography
wrapped in a J.C. Penney bag much to his HORROR! That was the day she learned the meaning of the word: leather
presentation p.o.r.t.f.o.l.i.o. and the tape she used today was different colors! When he asked the story behind the art
she said, "um, i get real bad headaches, go into a trance, draw, and it doesn't hurt while i'm doing it." Yeah, mom,
that's promoting yourself! Boo-YA!

P.S.S. TO THE TWO MODS WITH US ONLINE THIS WEEKEND KEEPING HER FOCUSED: THANK YOU, ANGELS,
YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, ESPECIALLY THE WEDDING PLANNER LADY, SHE KNOW WHO SHE IS! AND Ms. A, too!

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Sunday, June 19, 2011

Dedicated to the Original PandaPig, my first love...

This is PandaPig, who sat on the floor of Hohl Grain and Feed on Railroad Street so many years ago...
someone had just dumped him there, hair matted and filthy, full of mites, neglected, unloved, unwanted.

Nobody would've bought him. He just sat, unmoving, alone in his small cage, a prison, actually -knowing that nobody would've bought him and the people who first did couldn't care less about
him. Maybe never did. His ears were infested with mites, too, he'd been neglected so long.

He caught mom's eye, so pathetic, sad, yet a smile lurked inside somewhere...

Took him home. Chai, the Bengal Cat became his first best friend. When Chai had to move to Seattle,
I came along and PandaPig became my first best friend.

Whatever happens with our art, our attempt to finance the guinea pig sanctuary with it...and to educate
people so they know enough about us guinea pigs to only get us if they are willing to love us forever because we are far more work that might first appear...

It's all for love, for love of PandaPig, mom's first true love. And mine.

We miss you, PandaPig, we miss you every day. You were my first love, too.

love,
YumYum
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Retired Schoolteacher...


...You know who you are.
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