Stuff I bizarradore, Volume 2

Hey Blog, now that bizarradore is on its way to becoming a household word, let’s revisit the concept. Raindrops on roses, it’s some more random little things that I love!

Cat paw pads

What’s not to love about paw pads? They are cute and come in many colors. Some time ago I made up an annoying little song that I sing to Cody about his paw pads, to the tune of “99 Bottles of Beer.” It goes like this:

Some your paws are black,
some of your paws are pink!

How many paws are black,
and how many paws are pink?
Ten of your paws are black,
ten of your paws are pink!
That’s how many paws are black,
and how many paws are pink!

Yeah, I’m that way. Cody truly does have twenty paw pads, and ten of them are predominantly black, while ten are predominantly pink. Which pretty much exhausts this topic.

Mini-tours of my own house

Sometimes at night after Davie’s a-bed, I just walk around the house and look at stuff. You know, the furniture, the art on the walls, the knick-knacks and collectibles. When you live in a place, you tend to stop seeing the cool things you own. When you picked them out and bought them, you thought they were awesome, but after awhile forget to appreciate them. So I’ll admire the box frame with the leaves in it that Davie snuck back to Cedarburg to buy me as a surprise, or the polymer clay faux geode heart I made, or how nice the paint in the studio looks.

Rocks

Ask anyone who knows me or has been to my house. I’m obsessed. I have collected rocks since I was five years old and would go beachcombing at Point Beach (Lake Michigan) every summer. The volume of rocks that accumulated in my room was rather annoying to my mom. Whenever I’m walking around rocks I can’t help but stare down at them, looking for free treasures.

I have one word for heaven on earth: lapidaries.

One of the very cool things about polymer clay is that you can make rocks out of it. They look just as cool as real rocks but are lighter and easier to use for stuff. Like you can make holes in them for jewelry or stick them on things like switchplate covers. Awesome.

Books published by my friends

I love how people I know personally are taking advantage of all the new ways a person can get books published these days. My friend Cherie Burbach was here recently to talk about her book; she has her own publishing company just like I do, called Bonjour Publishing. My friend Bob Le Normand, who lives in Wales, had his fantasy novel Kendulla published by a small independent press called Willow Bank Publishers. The husband of my friend Connie, Ron Pappalardo, published his book Reconciled by the Light via Lulu, a “self-publishing” service. My daughter Katie’s boyfriend Chris produced his photography book Fading Nostalgia: Polaroid Adventures on Route 66 using Blurb.com, another very nifty way to self-publish. I guess you could say I collect books written by my friends!

Bizarradore shorties

• Beer chasers with bloody marys
• Steel drums
• Seeing what new outfits Kurt Hummel will sport on each episode of “Glee”
• The typeface used for the titles of the Austin Powers movies
• The word “fox”

Any bizarradores to share, readers? Or, if you like any of mine, click the “right on” box!