Looking for the perfect gift?

Here is a free cheap gift idea for you creative people out there looking for that unique something for the woman who has everything and then some. Jess was delighted to find this clad in long johns with stripes waiting for her at the door when she returned from work.

TheCamera is Back

In force the camera has returned with a couple of new lenses on for its days out on the street. I have found the wide angle to be angleic and the autofocus to be perfect for my needs. Now it is just a matter of time before jess and I have some work doing art.

The Keys Family

The reins of the valley have been transferred from the crimmens barn going crowd, me rob, jason lablanc to a new generation. The coolest thing is that the valley is in good hands. With the Keys Family taking over Gardiner and the surrounding towns we are able to extend the cool out and about when everyone thought the valley was lost. Travel safely Milo and dictate benevolently.

Hey everyone, I am obsessed with my son. He is just so perfect. Today at work I was a perfectly horrible employee choosing to give residents a look at the pictures on my cell phone of Eliot along with their pills. Because of this everything was rushed. I came home at eleven and have been scrolling through pictures of the boy ever since. It is an obession rivaled only by my need to sing him songs and talk to him when he is awake.

When Eliot was born he opened up a whole lot of new avenues of conciousness for me. I had previously been close to being a father and had been in a father-like role before but the differences were not ones I could have hoped to describe before having my own little boy.
Eliot also opened up new ways of seeing how things progress in the world and through time. He taught me what it is to be tired. Really tired. He also teaches me about relationships every day. The lens having a child in the world with you provides makes the world you percieved before seem quite distorted.
Even after over three months later I am still wrapping my head around this irrevesible fact that confronts me every waking hour.

There was this one picture...

I was hoping I would get to blog this great photo by tim or someone, I was playing guitard for the boy and he was loving it. someone took a pic of my hand and the guitar and it came out really well I am pretty sure it was the bro. At any rate it is now on my 2007 calender cover and will go in the scrapbook at the years end.

Fab Days In

This day has held nothing but hanging out and fing around with my new cell. It is a sad day to hear a full grown man talk about playing around with his cell phone all morning but hey, I transend maturity. Jess and I have spent the bulk of the day in though I went out for a jog in this crap weather. Being endorphined up for the day has been a plus though I am quite sure I will have to go out later to work off some more of that extra energy.
If any of you readers have any knowledge of how to get free data kits for the pebl motorola please let me know as I woudl rather not spend the 40 bucks on a cd i could problably get free online.
Anywhose. The weather outside is frightful and i will be starting class tomarrow. Let the good times roll. wish me luck on my smartification folks.

Cameralessness finds me more pics from the past

Jess says "I want a tea set." then sighs and suggests we get a chicken and make some soup. As I sit quoting her on my blog I realize I have come to a creative impass. Jess Asks me "Do you like veggie burgers? Fresh ones? They are a good thing to make and freeze."
Yes I do like them, "they are the ones with chick peas right?"
Apparently you can make them with any kind of bean.
We both have creative projects we are working on. I am working on a pet portrait for a former classmate of mine. Jess is working on a quilt and a bunch of mittens on commision. It is time to go shopping. The art will have to wait. Last week I started some portraits of Eliot out and about on the town.
Today we need to shop. Jess ate peanuts and ice cream for supper.

The Day Off!

I had a lovely day today with my boy. He and I went out and about all over the town finding lots of people we knew and I bought that kneadable erasure I have been wanting. Talked to Dave about the Firday open gallery scene and will be there tonight hopefully the boy will attend with the mamma. We had a busy week last first friday but sold very little. I sold the portrait of a sick man original and Tom sold some prints but other than that it was a bust. Art walks this time of year usually are but that does not make the fact you are not selling anything any easier.

The Weather Outside is Frightful

I hope all you are having a lovely day. Maine is being treated to another weird january day complete with near sixty degree weather and rain rather than snow. Jess and I just watched An Inconvenient truth the other day. I should really saty away from that stuff it just makes me want to start revolutions when I really ought to just be doing the dishes.
Our winter here in Maine has been rather effed up with no snow and heat waves. Yesterday was a tee shirt day. Jess, Eliot, and I went scouting for places to tie the knot. It was strange to see OOB deserted in 60 degree weather.
The camera is still broken so we are having to dredge up old pics. My apologies. I will try and keep it interesting, you will just have to imagine Eliot being cute until we get our camera fixed.

So the family VerryGardella has new wheels and new phones we will be informing you as to the details. It is quite exciting though. We are pumped to have these things squared. If you want our phone number just give us a shout out. You can do that by sending me an email with your message and number on it. kgarde61@netscape.net

This is our family picture for the year until the camera gets fixed. It portrays us as we are unified as working class people. So cute is that boy.

What Will One Hundred and Fifty Dollars Buy?

A visit from the one oil Magi. I am sitting here at home fretfully
listening to some excellent blues while worrying about Jess and Eliot
being to cold tonight. An end is in sight for me though. I have the
means to call a repair man. He is one his way now. Others in Maine
haven't got the means. There is no end in sight for their freezing
their cans off in this harsh weather that has taken its sweet time in
arriving. I am feeling lucky.
Very lucky.
There have been many deaths from CO2 poisoning this year. There will be more as people who are desperate struggle
to stay warm here. It is not a forgiving state to go without in. In NZ
and AU you could sleep on beaches and live off free stuff and the good
will of many. Here in Maine the winters isolate people who are in need
more than average. I just hope they find help. It is so scary feeling
that temperature drop.

Well Hung Instruments

Today I did not do much but I did manage to devise a system of hangery for the musical instruments four we have that needed hanging. I think with the help of another day off I will be able to get the rest of them hung. It seems power tools are the only thing that can help keep me warm since the house we are renting in has not heat. Good thing too what with the cold weather coming. I am wondering what the f I am supposed to do when Eliot is supposed to get changed tonight and the house is under sixty degrees. I love our home but I also love heat.

Seven Russers and Their Kin

Christmas Day

Today was Eliot's Verry first christmas. It began with a long night of restlessness punctuated by fits of sleeplessness. He in short was not going to bed easily. My cognitive abilities today are a direct reflection of this. I have been in space all day. Bed will be a good thing but I must post...
We had a fantastic breakfast at Pat's with great grandma Mildred there. The usual list of things for the future son in law to do was comparitively small especially when you consider how much bacon I had recieved that morning. I think The fact I was let off the hook was because I was deleriously tired and needed a day off more than anything.
After we opened our gifts Jess and I took the much needed nap. I guess I needed it more than her for a change and consequently slept through the rest of Christmas proper. It is worth noting here the similarities between my staying up last night and all the other kids who could not sleep becuase of their impending exciting day. I felt a certain synchronicity throught the haze of my delirium.
I went to work after waking up at 2 pm. Hit the floor running with a bunch of christmas medical mericles for everyone to have. If I had not been so tired I would have wrapped every pill but since time was of the essence I had to just crush them in apple sauce. For those of you who were not aware of this, I am a drug dealer to the elderly. A state subsidized drug dealer to the aged. The pill company's Santa.
Twas the evening of Christmas
When all through the Home
Not a creature was continent
Not even P. Gome
We had just medicated
Our residents with pills
Not the fun ones of course
No one got thrills
From Kaopectate or medamucil
Even the colace
Was so boring it sent chills
Down the already cold ladies
And gents in my charge

To turn your poetry into verse mocking your profession just Send me a note.

The Grand Parents are Grand

I usually am a bit more restrained when talking about my family but today I must brag just a little bit.
We had our first christmas meal today with Jess' and my family joined mostly together. It was fantastic. Eliot, Jess, and I are so lucky to have such supportive family.
I have to work for Christmas itself so this year will be celebrated more before and after less during though the Verry-Gardellas will have a christmas breakfast at grand mamas condo on christmas morning. Preparing for this holiday has been a challenge but thankfully our supportive relatives and friends have been so great.
Eliot's great grandmother Mildred was caught here holding the crying baby after a long photo shoot at the muddy rudder.

‘Twas the week before new years, when all through my town
Fun burglars were stirring through furrowed frowns
Their righteousness hung on the end of their pyres
With which they would rouse evil with morality fires.
You see they were mad at the end of their reign
At being trounced by the green’s grassroots campaign.
These children knew nothing of ruling men said,
Why they have nothing but idealistic ideas in their heads;
”And me with my bureaucracy practiced for years,
Identified youths as the sum of all fears.
They drink and they party and make such a clatter
With their fun loving ways they make me mad as a hatter
Away to Neal Dow’s window I flew like a flash,
Calling an anti alcohol research beurau for cash.
I jumped to conclusions I pounced with my truth,
My hypothesis statement: “Get rid of the youth!”
Young voters, green party, teen advocates,
How many minutes do you have? Better not place you bets.
I’ll ban them I’ll trounce them I will taunt you at large.
And it all suits you well you ungrateful charge.”
After fourteen days of mourning and woe
the seeds of gentrification began to sow.

twas three days before christmas

T'was two hours before work when all through the house not a creature was stirring not even on the couch. Jess was passed out on the sofa I dare, say from thinking of nursing and baby talking care. Eliot was rockin' alone in our room dreaming of breasts and better times in the womb. I myself am here busting a rhyme, What you lookin at honkey, Is being a mutha f ah such a crime!?

When up stairs I heard such a clatter, I thought of asking Stampy what was the matter.
On prancing, on marching, on being to loud, one could always look to Stampy: the home elephant-crowd.
Across the floor this Bonny-doon marched, upsetting a center-piece while uprooting a larch.
He was not to quick nor was he to graceful but what talents he lacked he made sounds by the crateful.
He was not embarrassed by his clomping around, he seemed unaware of his massive sound.
I have told him many times his sounds were the worst so this Christmas I am telling him in fair verse.

I am relying on you to forward this missive, It is so much harder to of peers be dismissive. So when you see friends being a touch rude and loud, tell them you run with a quiet polite crowd.

Very Busy Week

This has been a rather full week despite the two days off ploinked right in the middle of it. I have no classes, I have no election, I have shirked all Christmas related responsibilities yet the stress gets to me. My theory is that the card making I have done on previous holidays has the effect of making me feel morally superior. Since this is wrong on so many fronts I am lead to believe the stress is from confusion from having my hours being gradually switched by Eliot.
Credit should be given to Jess who has, up until recent times not mentioned my strange hours and how they are rather inconvenient for the other people existing in the apartment. She has begun to sweetly allude to a need for a gentle yet complete change of ways in regard to my sleep schedule. As much as I would like to resist her on this one I am inclined to acquiesce.
The hunt for appropriate gifts for the the immediate family took up loads of time with all my buy local self imposed restraints in place. It is so hard to spend twice as much to support local vendors when you are making that money the way I make mine. Especially when the holidays have caused my more psychotic charges to do more insane things than even I thought them capable of.

This is the years last supper invite one of my friends made.

I thought it was to good to not send. It is a fitting rendering(said Kevin as if he knew by not saying so he would be in for it later). Call me a doubting Thomas but I think my beard would qualify me for the role in next years reinactment. Perhaps if I can multiply some beer and have endless pitchers of fish.

How to Make a Baby Laugh

This is a trick I have learned that will probably work on anyone but for babies it is especially good. Jess took this fetching photo of me serenading the boy who thinks his dad is a rock star. I guess the Points were not the only ones who saw the glimmer of stardom in my eyes.
This Holiday season is shaping up nicely. I am trying to be a good gift maker and buyer but have found the task of finding the right gifts and shopping locally to be directly at odds with eachother. None the less I have bought only Maine products from Portland stores which waws my goal. I am hoping to make some art as well since that is the gift that most of the family would rather have anyway.
Dexter is running around on the clean floors. I think he likes the new arragemnets. I cleaned the living room and kitchen top to bottom while Jess was chipping away at the bedroom. It was a job and a half. Work was hard yesterday becuase I was just exhausted from two hours of cleaning after five hours of sleep. I am going to by myself a local version of Alice from the Brady bunch for Christmas for at least one day a month.

These days of being tired and working

Winter vacation has started and I have been loving the absence of school in my mornings. Jes and Eliot wake me up with their cries and eventually I get my lazy but out of bed for a day of mini adventures. Today we went to Pats to get some treasures sent up from Beth. The day before that I returned some library books then had coffee with Jess at Aurora. These days are perfect. Every minute of them we are consuming becuase everyone has been telling us how they wish that they had just tried to enjoy their babies being little more. It is hard to really enjoy your day naturally under these high pressure conditions. Whenever Eliot moves I feel slightly guilty if I do not notice it to quite the extent I should .
These crows flew over us at the beach. There were other crows roosting after dark above the apartment. It was beautiful to hear their wings slip over one another. They are such a neat bird

It is still hard to breathe

Today was finals day in anatomy and physiology. Hopefully all is well. I am frazzled. The continuous state excitement going for the last eleven months may have gotten to me. Holidays always see me go over the edge in one way or another whether it be making snowflakes for the elderly or making cards for my family. This year it is being constantly with Eliot. He is getting my full holiday attention and I think it has overwelmed him because he is asleep. Either that or he is trying to calm me down by example.
I love the holiday so heartily but find my own enthusiasm to be exasperating.
The nice thing about having a child when you are childish is that they give you incentive to get over it. Eliot will have a forever grateful father because of this.

art and holiday

Beans as he is called is a cat of a coworker. Brilliant and very paintable he is. I am thinking baout starting this painting after I get through with a couple of christmas commissions. Today I got a load of interest because of my very cool classmate who brought in my painting after having it framed. It is quite amazing how a relatively simple frame can really boost a picture up past the just casual pet portrait. The weiner dog portrait was beautiful as it stood in a large frame. I am going to have to consider this in the future for my paintings. It increases their value by so much I would be a fool not to.

The social baby eliot

So Here they are I have been so busy with school I have had quite the time trying to get them online. One of these days we will even load them to a flickr account but that is in the future. For now Be happy with these meagre offerings of photo happiness. Also try to avert your spelling wrath for I am not rested.
Jess and I have yet to go on our walk but I will. Our family fun is only beginning this most excellent of tuesdays. Take care and I will write more someday when I don't have a final coming up and there are not baby nails to be clipped and baby diapers(i guess i could just say diapers) to be changed.

Pet Portraits

I am doing pet portraits along with all of the other things I usually do for art commisisons. It should keep me out of mischief this winter since Maine weather keeps me indoors for most of the days. Eliot likes hanging out while I draw and paint too so that is a bonus.
If you have a portrait of any kind you would like me to do just let me know. My prices are reasonable and my product is consistently excellent. If you are interested in seeing some more of the art I have done check out the earlier posts on this blog as my art changes constantly.

Ring of Fire

Elliot is my biggest fan. We have quite a concert deal. Ticketmaster eat your heart out. This is Kevin Live!

Daily Constitutional

Most have seen me around the West end. I have even gotten heckeled by the local teens. I am officially the baby guy. This schedual affords me the privalidge of having time to go out and about with the boy before work. It is quite fun indeed. On this occasion in the picture the boy slept while Jess and I had coffee at BNG. Good egg nog lattes there now I highly recommend them to anyone who is a nog fan.
The hateful cold weather is going to challenge the daily nature of these walks but I am sure I will find a way to get out on most days this winter with my son.