Rainy Evening Downtown

This is the Warehouse, the SU campus in Downtown Syracuse. They have art and design classes there. I had never looked at the building from this angle before, it looks like it's balanced over the water!

New Painting - Spring Discovery

This is a new watercolor and acrylic painting. I'm finding that I like painting watercolor backgrounds and then using acrylic to paint the main elements.

One great thing about watercolor is it doesn't dry on the brush the way acrylic does. So if Iam painting and get a phone call I don't need to worry about ruining my brush if it dries.

This is an 8x10 watercolor and acrylic on paper.

I'm going to start selling my art again soon.

Cat and Fish Resist

This painting is a new technique I'm trying out. It's done with resist. First the foreground images are painted, then they are covered with the resist. It's a rubbery substance a little like rubber cement. Then the background is painted. When the whole thing is dry, the resist is rubbed off and the details are painted on with acrylic.

I like the way it turned out, I think it has a different feel to it than the paintings I've done with the main images painted over an existing background. I left a white border around the images, partially because I like that look but also because it's very hard to get the resist exactly over the picture!

This is an 8x10 watercolor, pencil and acrylic on paper.

I'm planning to start selling my art again soon. Some of it will be for cat charities and then some of it for myself! I just haven't worked out the details of what and where yet.

New Painting Tiger Lily Cat

This is a new painting I just finished yesterday. It's 8x10 watercolor and ink on watercolor paper. I have an art studio in my house, which is also where I keep all my plants. It's a cat free zone, because my cats were always getting into everything, and one of them really loves to dig in plants. Now my cat free room has four cats in it! The kittens are all too small to be interested in the plants or art stuff and the mother cat doesn't seem to care. So far so good!

10 day old kittens

A few weeks ago I got a call from one of the people who cleans out the apartments after move outs. Someone had left a pregnant cat with no food or water in the apartment! Luckily she had not been there long. I went and got her and put her in my art studio. She had her kittens about 10 days ago, and they are adorable! There's a dark grey tabby girl and two orange boys. Mom's name is Lilly. Kittens don't have names yet. They have just got to the point where they all have their eyes open and are learning to crawl.

I ate at the Dosa Grill and it was great

This restaurant is getting a lot of positive attention, and it is well deserved. This is an Indian Restaurant at Erie and Genesee in Dewitt in the small plaza across the street from the new fire station.

I've eaten there twice. The first time we went for dinner and ordered off the menu, and the second time I went with a group and we ate at the Sunday Brunch Buffet.

If you are not familiar with Indian food, start with the buffet so you can see all the dishes and try some smaller samples of the various foods.

The buffet setup is a little awkward, having the condiments first, then the main dishes!

Raita is a yoghurt sauce, and it helps tone down the richness and spiciness of the sauces. I also like tamarind sauce, a somewhat sweet sauce that goes well on pakoras (vegetable fritters).

After the condiments/salad area there is the main dishes area. It has naan bread and basmati rice, and then a selection of curries and other sauce type dishes which change from week to week. Dishes when I went included butter chicken, chana masala (vegetarian chick peas in sauce), mutter paneer (cubed cheese and peas in a red sauce), a spinach dish, and the previously mentioned pakoras.

There is also an area with tandoori chicken, which is marinated chicken cooked in a special clay oven, and biryani, a rice dish with vegetables. Deserts were rice pudding, which seems to be manditory in Indian buffets, and this one was decent but nothing special. They also had an orange colored "fruit pudding" which I tried. One of my dining companions asked me what flavor it was and I was unable to answer - it was incredibly bland with very little flavor.

At the end of the buffet is an actual dosa grill. Dosas are very much like a crepe, and come with a filling of thick curry. They are dipped in a coconut chutney or a red sauce that is hotter and I'm not sure what it is. I consulted the menu to find out what it was, but oddly enough they do not mention the sauces or even dosas on the menu at all!

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Here comes the snow!

It's snowing this morning, and we are seeing some accumulation. I'm sick with a sinus infection and I am not leaving the house today! I'm resting all weekend and hope to be better by Monday. I'm lighting a fire and relaxing in my new recliner.