A Terrifying Story (about a doughnut)

So last night I was out and about – usually whenever I leave the house I tend to go “out and about” – or if I am feeling particularly Canadian then I may sometimes also go “oot and aboot” – but that is besides the point – so let’s ignore all of that and get back to that that that there point.

It was around a quarter after ten in the evening when I found myself at one of the local “doughnutaterias” – what a treat it is to watch the big machine make the little doughnuts – but more on that some other day – for right now one important thing to point out is that I noticed that the doughnuts seemed to be a bit “cakey” on the line (or maybe a tad overcooked?!) – they just looked a bit off . . .

Anyway – I ended up with a plain doughnut with chocolate frosting and multi-colored sprinkles and a “quick-slam” jug of milk – or something like that. Once in the car – I pulled out the doughnut and started to eat it – and that was when it hit me . . .

As much as I would love to think that there was something intrinsically weird or wrong with my “cakey” doughnut . . . I had to ask the question – am I past the point of doughnut goodness?? And don’t get me wrong about it being too “sweet” or anything – I drank 1 1/2 gallons of serious sweet tea yesterday – but maybe it was too sweet or something . . . Is this just a bump in the road – or something more final?

Tonight – I think that I’ll take a bath in simple syrup to find out – or maybe the dog will . . . maybe – just maybe . . .

Last night I ate some rice . . .

But seriously – it wasn’t just any old rice – it was fairly-super-great rice . . . it needs a bit of tweaking – but I think that it’ll get there. I dropped some cilantro, garlic, scallions, salt, pepper, butter, lemons and limes into the rice cooker – and let it go go go . . . I need to figure out how to get all of the flavors to like each other and then how much of which and what to put in there – but it’s just a start . . . a tasty treat of a start.

And that was just the “entree.”

On the side we had a mixed greens spring salad mix thing – which could have been anything – the real excitement came from the Makoto Ginger dressing. So so so so so so so good – it’s almost like being at one of those Japanese steak houses – which are some of the best places in the world . . . except without all of the steak, shrimp and fun . . .

The fun came from watching Cannonball run . . .

Rice – Ginger – and Sammy Davis Jr. as a priest in a red Ferrari oh what a treat!!

Now my dog needs a license . . .


So evidently the Decatur dog parks are getting to be too big for their puppy britches . . . and now my innocent little angel of a dog [Irving Brown Socks] has to go in and get some sort of license.

Will he need to take some sort of eye test, or study from a book of rules and symbols, or have his height/weight/eye color scrutinized by some humorless by the books toady?!

I’m not even sure – go to this link and read everything and let me know . . . for right now – we are going to be too busy working on parallel parking and stuff . . .

This thing that I did . . .

For three seriously strenuous days this week I got to put on the hat of “Art Handler” for the Madison Morgan Cultural Center, located in the bucolic town of Madison, Georgia.

According to the Morgan County Citizen the show [“Neat Pieces”] was “An exhibit of “plain style” furniture made and used by Georgians in the 1800s.” So basically it was a bunch of old old wonderfully crafted sometimes very very heavy furniture that needed to be taken home after an extended exhibition. And what an adventure in driving a 16 foot truck around all kinds of parts of Atlanta and then carrying scarily expensive pieces of furniture into really nice houses (that often smelled like my Grandparent’s old house – ah the boxwood) it was.

I had great fun getting to put on a different work hat for part of the week. I enjoyed pretending that we were playing an odd version of “Smokey & the Bandit” except we the only cops that we saw were looking out into the woods, the “blocker” car was a Toyota with nary a “Firebird” symbol to be found, we were carrying furniture and not beer, I never remembered to wear a cowboy hat – okay – to buy and then wear a cowboy hat, and instead of a basset hound named “Fred” I had Ronald. But other than all of that – seriously – a lot like the movie . . .

Maybe next week I’ll put on some other different type of hat . . . perhaps something along the lines of a stovepipe?!

A Place that I went . . .

Last Monday and Tuesday I had the terror and pleasure of being the guest artist of the week for two days at a little school by the name of Smith-Barnes Elementary to talk about drawing, painting and a wee bit of animation. Terror, of course, stemming from doing something that I had never done before (going and talking to a bunch of people about the little world in my head) and pleasure when everything was received as well as it was (more on that in a second).

I was brought in by the actual art teacher who goes by the name “Mister C” – I had a nametag on that read my actual name – but the kids took to calling me “Mister Harris” or sometimes “Mister H” – I was equally thrown off when I heard either one. I had bunches of paintings (the largest 10′ x 5′) on canvas, some on wood, some on paper and then the “doodle poodle” cartoon that I had finished the night before (which allowed me to say “And here is a cartoon that I made just for you . . .” which seemed nifty).

I wish that I would have taken photos or any kind of video because the room was full of stuff and they really seemed to like it – of course when you are the guy who comes into a classroom of 4th/5th graders that says “Does anyone here like cartoons?” you are almost guaranteed to go over pretty well . . . But when kids rush up to you in the hallway and demand autographs (as silly as it sounds) and your website gets more hits than in most months it sure does feel . . . uhm . . . what would be a good word here . . . hmmmmmm . . . like some serious great-itudey-ness – yeah – there I said it without even a hint of tongue in cheek whateverness . . . serious great-itudey-ness.