A Stick Figure Questionnaire!

Aaron suggested I draw some boy/girl stick people The Owl's bathroom doors, which need new signs, and I might have drawn too many. In fact, I might not even be done drawing them.

So far I have 5 stick people to choose from for each door and I need some opinions!

Which option do you like best? Would you prefer to see two options combined? Do you hate them all? Would you like to make some of your own stick suggestions for me to draw?

Please Please Please put your votes and comments on the blog here (you don't need to have your own blogger account to do so!) This will help me out a lot because I'm going to post this in a few different places and I'd like to be able to have all the responses go to one spot :)

These are a little rough, even by stick figure standards, so keep that in mind.

That's the end of what I've drawn today. Here are a few other options from past drawings that I think would make fun bathroom door figures, but they aren't actually up for voting cause Aaron really wants them to be stick people and not cartoons. 

a quickie about a kitty

Sorry it's been so long! I hope someday soon I find more time to doodle funny things for y'all :D

Misadventures in Dental Health

Aaron has needed to go to the dentist for a while. Recently his sore tooth got to the point where he just couldn't ignore it any longer, and to the dentist we went.

It turned out that he needed more than one tooth related procedure so we made an appointment for him to have all his work done at once with something called sleep dentistry. The night before the appointment Aaron took a pill, and then he took another pill the next morning, and then they gave him crushed-up-so-you-don't-choke-on-it pills at the dentist's office. I was in the waiting room so I didn't actually get to see his reaction to the powdered dose but I was informed that he kept everyone entertained while they fixed his mouth.

All this medicine doesn't actually put you to sleep, it's more like it keeps you right on the edge of sleep, awake and aware... but not at the same time. The pills are hypnotics and amnesiacs so even if a little pain slips through you won't actually remember it later. Pretty sweet deal really - I had it done when I got my wisdom teeth pulled.

All this sleepy time medicine has a really odd effect on the body though. While you're on it you think you are just fine. When they wheeled Aaron into the office to go over his aftercare with me he was pretty well convinced that he was behaving normally.

He wasn't.

His speech was hilariously slurred, he couldn't stop hiccuping (although I'm not sure he was actually aware that he was hiccuping), and he kept pulling his lower lip down and out, like he was trying to inspect it for hidden compartments or something. If he did have a hidden pocket in his lip it was leaking drool onto his goatee.

The hygienist explained that he would be this way for a while and that he shouldn't be left alone or allowed to walk around by himself for the rest of the day. He objected to the idea that he couldn't walk, but promptly forgot what he was objecting to in favor of trying to read the aftercare instructions. I told him he probably wouldn't remember reading it but he didn't believe me.

I signed a paper agreeing, among other things, not to let Aaron wander around alone, do any internet shopping, or get into arguments on Facebook.

"You're all dicks," he slurred in an apparent imitation of a fight on the internet.
I assured the hygienist that no one would notice the difference if he did get on Facebook.

I got up and grabbed my bag so we could leave. Aaron remembered what he'd been objecting to earlier and tried to get up from the wheel chair. He got his butt about four inches off the chair before he started wobbling. I eased him back down and the hygienist told him she had to wheel him out, to which he inexplicably replied that he did not like people singing happy birthday to him in restaurants.

We got him loaded into the car and I started to drive us home. A few miles down the road Aaron abruptly shouted

"WE NEED hiccup TO GO TO THE STORE."

He wanted to go to Earth Fare, and in his defense we had discussed going there before all the pills.

I told him "There's no way I'm taking you to Earth Fare."

"Why not?" hiccup.

"Because you have no idea how ridiculous you're acting!"

"But it'll be hiccup funny cause the people will see me all [indiscernible sounds] and they'll be all haha what's wrong hiccup and I'll be all oh I'm all messed up on the pills."

I didn't really know what to say to that.

"We need things! I hiccup don't have the hiccup things that I need at home!"
He pulled his lip out again and pointed out the windshield, "TURN AROUND!"

It was pretty clear he wasn't gonna let this go so I turned around and took him to get his things.

I did my best to keep him steady on the short walk through the parking lot and I gave him a shopping cart to use as a walker once we got inside. Even with the cart-walker he was still pretty wobbly. He was also fast. He kept suddenly rushing off to look at things, forcing me to race after him to keep him from falling over (or knocking a display over). It was the most stressful grocery experience I've ever had.

The things Aaron needed at the store were extra hot ginger ale and fresh peanut butter. Once we were inside the store he must have thought of a few more necessities because he also bought a six pack of beer, a bottle of dessert wine, two packages of goat cheese, a package of cheddar cheese, a frozen pizza, apples, and a salami. On the way out of the store he chatted with the checkout girls about an episode of Hoarders. He picked up one bag while I gathered up the rest, and before I knew it he was out the door and weaving through the parking lot. I hobbled after him as fast as I could (which wasn't very with all that beer and soda). Luckily he made it back to the car without getting run over. Or falling over.

When we got home Aaron took his frozen pizza out of the shopping bag and put it on top of the stove. I unpacked everything else and started putting things away. After a few minutes I realized he'd disappeared, but I figured he'd be right back since he'd left the pizza out.

After a few more minutes I went looking and found him in bed with the covers pulled up over his head, sound asleep and snoring.

He slept all day.

I tried to wake him once at 6pm and again at 7pm. I had, after all, signed a paper agreeing to make sure he had enough to eat and drink. At 6pm I asked him if he was thirsty, and told him he was supposed to drink some water. He just stared blankly at me and then closed his eyes again. When I tried again at 7 he woke up enough to tell me that he wasn't hungry, and that he didn't care if he was supposed to have water.

He finally got up at around 8:40 and had one of his ginger ales.

He was back in ben again before 11:00.

He didn't eat any of his snacks or his pizza.

The next morning he didn't remember anything about his adventure at the grocery store. He didn't remember drinking his ginger ale, or his hiccups, or his fascination with his lower lip.

Two days later he didn't remember not remembering the things he didn't remember.

Food Doodles - Part One

Doing Business on the Internet can be Tricky (Updated)

Over the past month or so we have been purchasing various art and decor items online for The Owl. For the most part our experiences have been great. We've already received some beautiful paintings (if you haven't seen them yet check out We Want Your Arts!). But some of our internet dealings have been a little tricky.

We are trying to purchase an amazing painting from an artist named Sasha Montiljo and he has been VERY kind to us in his emails and we are thrilled to be doing business with him! But we've run into a small roadblock - buying his art requires wiring money to Serbia, where he lives and works. I actually think the fact that this painting is coming from as far away as Serbia makes it even cooler than it already was. 

Trying to figure out how to wire the money to Serbia has been a long and fascinating adventure filled with mysterious XML files and travels to a variety of banking institutions. I wrote a suitably long and detailed description of this adventure, but blogger decided to delete it from my draft so you'll have to make due with the cliffs notes, which go something like this:

File can't be opened by Mac programs X3
--->File displays all crazy when opened X2
--->Remove all the crazy parts of the file with the delete (backspace) key
--->Can read file!!
--->Transfer money from old bank to new bank --->Bring printout to new bank
--->Fill out forms
--->Transfer Accomplished!!!
--->Premature celebration
--->Missing information
--->Old bank may have access to the missing information
--->Must withdraw funds from new bank and return to old bank with printed file
--->

That last arrow is a TBD arrow since we haven't completed the previous arrow's directives yet.

In this situation the delays of funds being sent and paintings being received are all on us. We hope Sasha doesn't hate us for our complete and utter lack of knowledge about standard banking procedures and windows based encrypted files.

In this next situation the seller is the one who has caused the delay. I think we've been pretty reasonable in our requests, but if I'm delusional please let me know.

This one started with our purchase of a $350.00 painting on Etsy. We made the purchase on September 2nd and happily waited a week to hear from the seller. We were excited to get the painting so we checked for messages both on the Etsy site and in our email during that first week. When we hadn't heard anything I visited the seller's Etsy page and saw something alarming - her last customer had left negative feedback and stated that he did not receive his item.

We didn't panic though. We waited another few days, feeling use that we'd hear from the seller. After all, we'd just sent her over $350 via paypal, surely she planned on acknowledging that in some way. Just to be safe Aaron sent a message via the Etsy conversation system. Days passed. He sent a second message.

When we still hadn't heard anything on the 18th we really were getting nervous. I checked the seller's profile page to see if perhaps it said she was out of town, or otherwise unable to complete transactions, but didn't find anything to reassure me. I went back to that negative feedback and checked the dates. That person appeared to have waited a month before he gave up. Knowing there were time limits on opening disputes I decided better safe than sorry and opened a paypal dispute as well as an etsy case.

The next day we finally got an email (I have removed her name):

On Sep 19, 2011, at 1:16 PM, <name of seller> wrote:

First of all, I want to thank you for your kind note and purchase of my painting "Wormfare".  I am so very excited to hear it will be hanging in your restaurant.

It will be in your hands no later than the following week.  It lives in Austin, and I have been working very diligently, trying to get it to you from afar.  My apologies for not notifying you of this sooner, you will get it very, very soon.  

I'm sorry if this has been inconvenient for you.  I didn't imagine this process to be such a headache.  

Thank you for your patience,

We were encouraged that we had finally gotten an email, but still wary. After careful consideration I replied:

On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 6:53 PM, Justi Manter wrote:

We have a paypal claim already open, if the painting arrives and is in good condition we will close it. Has it been sent yet? Do you have tracking information?

I considered telling the seller than we'd just take a refund, but I really did like the painting and she seemed nice. If she could send us a tracking number then we wouldn't have to worry anymore. We waited for the tracking number.

On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 7:32 PM, <> wrote:

Hi Justi,

I'm sorry you felt the need to open a claim.  It should have been sent today.  Again, I moved to Santa Barbara just a few months ago, and getting it shipped from way over here has been a hassle.  It will be in good condition.  If you'd like to send photos of it after, we can arrange this.

My regrets that this transaction has become bitter for you.  I was excited to hear that it was going to such a perfect home.  I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

I'll be in touch.

and then

On Thu, Sep 22, 2011 at 1:01 PM <>wrote:

My mother is shipping it tomorrow.  She has been busy.  I will have the tracking info to you when that happens.

Ok, sounds good at this point. We are a little annoyed at how long this is taking, but her replies at this point were prompt.

Then came this

On Sep 22, 2011, at 8:09 PM, <>wrote:

May I have your phone number for tracking?

Thanks!

I was not into the idea of sending my cell phone number to a stranger. I've already had trouble with telemarketers calling it, and besides that this was a business transaction and we didn't have our business line set up yet. All I wanted was an email with the tracking info. I wrote:

On Sep 22, 2011 at 10:28:13 PM, Justi Manter Wrote:

We don't have a home phone number. Just email us the tracking number from ups/fed ex (whoever you shipped it with).  

Justi Manter

And then we waited again, for 4 more days, without a reply or tracking number. I wanted to make sure etsy was kept up to date with the details so I left comments periodically. I made sure to let them know that the seller had contacted me because she hadn't done that herself. Today I sent an update after seeing that she no longer had anything listed for sale in her etsy shop - which wasn't an encouraging sign.

Today is the 26th, and almost immediately after I wrote that I got an email that wasn't quite as nice as the others. The rest of our conversation went like this:

On Sep 26, 2011, at 2:28 PM, <>wrote:

I don't know how else I can express to you that I am getting your painting over to you right now.  I have been in touch.  I asked for your number because UPS has a shipping option to alert you when and where your shipped item is.  I wasn't trying to do anything else with your phone numbers, my mother asked me if you had one to give the clerk.  That is all.

I am not Walmart.  I am an independent artist who's painting is in another state and who is trying her hardest to get it to you as quickly and efficiently as possible without being there.  I am really trying to work with you here, I have no intention on stealing your money, okay?  I want you to have the painting just as much as you, I promise you.  

The painting has been shipped.  I am trying to get a tracking number.  As I said before, I will be in touch with this information once I get it.  

and then:

Your painting should arrive tomorrow.  I've given pay pal all of the information.  You can view it there.

and then:

Also, I want you to know this is the first time I've done this.  I'm still trying to figure it out, I'm not an expert.

Note:

<--------------

This was my last reply:

On Sep 26, 2011 at 3:36:15 PM, Justi Manter Wrote:

As I was writing this I received your other message and a message from paypal. I'm still going to send this because I really think you should read it even though it probably wont matter for this transaction now. Even for an indie artist who is not, as you said, walmart your priority should still be customer service. We could have avoided all this if you had simply taken a moment  to write to us and explain the situation when we first purchased the painting. After waiting 2 weeks without any acknowledgment of the purchase we were understandably concerned.

You say this is the first time you've done this and you're not an expert. Not sure what you mean by that... selling on Etsy? It shows on your page that you've had 25 sales....

Here's some advice you probably don't want -  posting publicly on your etsy page that your pieces might take longer than usual to ship would let people know what they are getting into before they make a purchase. The general time frame from purchase to delivery on the other art we have bought on Etsy was a week to 10 days tops, and they all sent us emails confirming they received payment, and another email when the item was shipped. I was very excited to be buying your painting and I wish things had gone smoothly from the start so that we weren't left with this bad experience. 

Honestly, if we were buying something less expensive we might have been willing to just give you all the time you needed and not open a claim - but you only have a limited time period on paypal to dispute something and we didn't feel like it would be a good idea to wait without knowing what was going on when there was $350.00 at stake. We've made the mistake of waiting before and have lost money because of it.

As long as the painting arrives tomorrow, as the tracking info shows it should, we will close the paypal/etsy disputes.

~

(Below is what I started writing before I got the tracking email and the 'I'm new at this' email. I sent both halves of this message).

~

The tracking number will be on the receipt. You could probably also request it from the store that you shipped it through if you give them our shipping address (or maybe the return address you used). 

The reason we have been so concerned about all this is because my husband Aaron tried several times to get in touch with you via email and etsy to find out what was going on. If you had responded to those emails we would probably not have felt the need to open the paypal/etsy disputes. We paid for the painting on 9/2 - we didn't open a dispute until 9/18 - I feel that we gave you plenty of time to get in touch with us and explain that there would be a delay. We also saw the negative feedback from your last customer, who also waited a month and claims he didn't get his item - can you really blame us for being worried?

Are you possibly not receiving all the emails we send? I replied immediately when you asked for our phone number and said we'd prefer you email us the tracking number, we didn't hear back from you with or without a tracking number until I left updated comments on the etsy case. 

I'm sorry that you seem upset by this transaction, but we are absolutely not being unreasonable in our requests for timely correspondence and a tracking number. These things are normally provided without question by independent sellers on both etsy and ebay. 

Justi Manter

If you look at the timestamps you'll see that I took nearly an hour writing my reply, trying hard to keep a measured tone - polite but stern. Helpful, but without ignoring the fact that this whole thing was handled poorly. Part of me doesn't even want this painting anymore, all it's gonna do is remind me of this hassle. Here's hoping that fades with time.

Well, this was a very serious blogpost. I started out trying to keep things light. I meant to have a little more humor mixed in too, I swear. Oh well.

Allow me to leave you today with a link to a friend's blog. It coincidentally arrived in my email today, and you'll note how appropriate it really is when you get down to the section entitled Communicate. Customers Rule! by PiXELGRiN

I promise hope to never subject you to such a rant again, but it sure do feel good to vent sometimes ;)

Another reply from the seller in response to that last message:

You're right.  I'm sorry.  I hope we can move forward with this, and I hope my painting brings you lots of happiness when it arrives.


I do feel much better now that I've read that. Hopefully the painting will arrive within the next few days and we can move on to bigger things, like surgery, dentists, building renovation, forbidden forest clearing, and opening The Owl.

My reply, if you're on the edge of your seat wondering how it all ends:

It's ok, this whole thing has been a mess on both ends. We'll let you know when it gets here. If you feel like you need some pointers on the whole etsy thing I have a friend who writes a fantastic blog about it. This was, coincidentally, the post update I received from her today: http://pixelgrin.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/customers-rule/


(Look Jen, I linked you twice!) :D

Regarding Bacon, Overindulgence, and the Essence o...

Thought I'd go ahead and cross post this blog post of Chef Aaron's, I was just reminded of it and if you missed it when he posted it you really should read it!


abandonist: Regarding Bacon, Overindulgence, and the Essence o...: People of America. Stop it with the bacon. You are fucking it up for everyone. Cooking is about balance, even in the instances where a p...

The Stick Figure Collective (update 9/24)

I have a great love of doodling while watching shows I've seen so many times that I don't even need to look at the TV to know what's happening. Today I've been iPad doodling to a soundtrack of Arrested Development. (The TV show that is, not the early 90s rap group*).  Actually I've been doing this for a few days, and I've even been taking requests on Facebook and Google+. Mostly I've drawn stick people. There have also been a few unidentifiable creatures. I've posted most of 'em elsewhere, but I felt like they needed a permanent home here on the blog too. My plan is to continually add random pictures to this post. All the lost little drawings who don't fit in their own blog post will live here together in The Stick Figure Collective.

Side note... I currently have 799 blog views, so if you're reading this right now you might be number 800! This is pretty exciting for me. I mean, it's almost a thousand. One Thousand whole views! Wow! Unfortunately I still only have 4 followers. This means that I am not currently famous, and should probably be less excited at the prospect of an 800th view. (I am still excited though because it is a whole round number and those are cool).

Additions 9/24 - I forgot to include this kitty in the original post, and the party spider is brand new : D

So that's all I've got for now. I think. If I find (or draw!) more I'll add them. These go (more or less) in the order I drew them. You can probably tell that at first I didn't really plan on doing anything with them, but by the end I kinda knew I'd want to put them here so I started adding a little extra detail and bits of color.

The girl photographer was requested by my friend Jen but I was so excited about the picture that I forgot to write her name on it. You should totally visit her blog! Especially if you're a creative person, or just love other creative people.

The bookseller is a tribute to my former co-workers at the 'ole BN.

The tomboy in the tree was requested by a stranger on G+, so if you're a stranger don't be afraid to request your own drawing!!

And the yellow thing is... the yellow thing.

*It turns out that Arrested Development is still together and touring. Learn something new everyday!