Sorry I've been gone so long, but to keep the story short and simple, both Jatina and I have been pretty sick since the middle of last year. We're doing better, but neither of us figure we'll be well enough to say we're better for a little while yet.  But we are getting there, so that's what matters in the long run, eh?

We aren't positive what did this to us, but on the upside, it wasn't gluten.  I've been carefully gluten free for years now, and I wasn't eating anything gluten containing when I got sick.  Even if I had, it wouldn't explain Jatina's similar illness.  But hey, on the bright side, I no longer have to worry about being gluten free.  I had cake for my birthday this year for the first time in half a decade.  Which was a treat, and digested just fine.  I just need to find my old hand mixer so I can make Boiled Frosting again, and I'm all set.

And ... since we're going to stay in Forks til we're well again, we now have internet here too.  It's slow.  1.5mps.  But it's still very nice to be online again.

Though on Facebook ... that dog videio I posted ... took a LONG LONG TIME to post.  I may not do that again.  Sheesh.

I hope you've all been dong well.  Survived the winter weather that's now passed us all by.  And are having a great 2013.  Ours is improving each day.  Soon, I hope, to be back doing more artwork.  I'm tired of lazing around the house.  :)

Best wishes all round --

Resa

Hidy --

I’m in Port Angeles til tomorrow, so I thought I’d post a quick entry before going back to my black hole of internet doom.

Really.  No joking.  Since we’re staying there til we’re feeling better, I looked into internet services.

Unlimited dialup is available for $20 a month.  $2 more for Bluestreak Accelerator -- makes dialup 5 times faster!!!  (egads...)

There’s also dsl speeds of 1.5 mbps.  I hear if I lived closer to town 7 mbps might also be available.

Thrilling, isn’t it?

Me think’th, I’ll just stay with the occasional checking of the email at the library or when I’m in Port Angeles for a few days.

I also have a small horror story to tell you.  You like scary stories, don’t you?  Well, it has to do with the Port Angeles house, and it’s continuing problem of the tiny, tiny black ants.

These guys are about the size of a fine pen dot on a piece of paper.  And they are basically impossible to get rid of.  You can manage them, but they never fully go away.  And while we were living here previously, we’d gotten them down to a very manageable level by keeping out baits of Terro in the few spots they seem to like traveling best.

But I wondered if that couldn’t be done one step better.  I looked up home-made ant baits and found out about Mule Team Borax powder.  It seems that if you mix this with a sugar syrup or jelly (1 to 3-4 parts sweetener), you supposedly have something very close to Terro, but without the cost.

And I thought, “I know!  I’ll use the old jelly in the Fridge.  Mix up tons of the borax bait, and put it out all over the house.  In every room!  And that might finally get rid of these dang ants.  We won’t be here, there won’t be anything else to eat, and there’s enough to go through several ant hives.  Bwah hahahah!”

And so ... I did.  But I was wrong.  Terribly, horribly wrong.

What we came home to, when we returned to Port Angeles for Jatina’s second dental appointment, was not one or two ant trails ... but ants ... everywhere.  They were all over the walls and the floors.  On furniture and beds They got into opened, but sealed, containers in the cabinets.  And they were drowned, by the hundreds, and still in the process of drowning themselves, in the blue water of our toilet.

People say borax works, so all I can think of is that my mix wasn’t strong enough to kill them.  But it was quite tasty and delicious, and the news got out through the ant new services, and many new hives came to dine on the bounty.  It also apparently made them incredibly stupid, and suicidal -- I’m thinking of the toilet here.   And there’s even some frozen on the inside edges of the freezer compartment door.

So.

We swept up as many as we could, and moped the floors and surfaces.  Tossed out most of the leftover food in the cabinets, and returned to more traditional ant control products.

With luck ... things will look better when we return later this month for Jatina’s third dental appointment.  Stay tuned!

((shivers))

And, with that, I wish you all a merry Saint Paddy’s Day, and I’ll talk to you soon!

Hidy --

Just thought I’d post a little update.  I’ve been in Forks lately, resting and checking on the house out there, and not up to much.  Jatina and I been a bit under the weather a while, as I’m sure some of you have suspected, but we’re improving.  It’ll be a while yet before we’re fully on our feet, but at least we’re getting there.

I should have some art to post soon.  I have one on the computer, and one on the traditional drawing board.  Both are “Sailor Moon” related.  One serious, for a friend.  And one that’s just plain silly.  Heh.  I’m even tempted to do another that’s even sillier, and includes a Team Fortrus character, but I’ll resist.

In other news, while I’m here at the Forks’ Library posting this and checking my email, I’m also going to see how my Cell Phone/Facebook App experiment went.  I tried to post a photo, and have no idea if it worked, or if it simply disappeared into some Internet black hole.  

See, though I have a cell phone, I’ve only ever used it for making phone calls.  I know it can go online, have apps, text, and share photos, but I’ve never tried any of that stuff really.  And I expected the Facebook App that came with my phone to ask for logon info.  But it didn’t.  So ... hm.  We’ll see.

For you App Using Folk -- is there a good weather App that’ll include Forks - 98331 area?
 
When I was poking at the Facebook button, I also decided  to try the Weatherbug App, but it, sadly, does not have the Forks area.  Just La Push.  And La Push is on the coast, so it’s weather can be different.  

And ... I better get going.  Talk to you soon!

Hidy --

I had LiveJournal set to an old, defunct email, so sorry about the delay in responding to comments on the other entry.  When I heard nothing, I thought maybe I'd been gone long enough that this journal had up and died.  But Yay, it was just me.

And there has been more artwork. 

I've had several small strips on snowbuni.com.  They start HERE.
In the mix is one other artist, but the rest of the pages I did.

And one or two new ones on Deviant Art, starting HERE.  Just click the "next" button at top.  Though the most current ones are clips of the pages featured on Snowbuni.

And here's to a much more prolific 2013.

HAPPY BELATED NEW YEAR!

Been a while.  Had a few ups and downs.  Been sick.  I'm still sick, but getting better.

And I got Manga Studio EX 4 for an early Christmas Gift, and I've been taking care of my bordom by drawing many little comic strips.

You can find them either on my website ResaFantasyArts on the YetUntitled Page.  Or on my Deviant Art Page. 

And, I hope you're all feeling fine this Winter Season.  All my best wishes to you and yours!

I just put up an announcement on my main WANDERING STAR page.  Suffice to say, things have not gone as I'd planned. 

Because of this, I probably won't be online that much in the future.  The entire WANDERING STAR series is now online ... hopefully with only a handful of webpage'ish mistakes.   And DARKLIGHT -- though I haven't given up on it -- may take longer than originally planned for.

One thing I do want to say before I go offline again is that I'd like to change the function of my BANNER ADS. 

If you want to push a book -- yours or someone else's -- send me a banner and a link and I'll put it on a page FOR FREE.  No strings.  I just ask that you create the banner yourself, and email it to me.  It may take me a few weeks to place it, but I will put it up.  Just make sure it's mostly family friendly, eh?  I've been cranky lately, and ya don't wanna have me coming after you with a big stick.  Really.  Heh.

Email
resafantasyarts
at
resafantasyarts.com