HOUSE comes on Fox in an hour, so I have to rush in order to get this post finished. (As if that takes long?)

I wouldn't miss an episode of HOUSE if they put me in Gitmo. Somehow, I would see it. I don't answer phone calls, eat, answer the door or even talk to the damn bird when HOUSE is on, except during commercials. But commercials are bathroom time. The commercials during HOUSE are exactly three minutes in duration, except for the one at the halfway point. It usually takes four and a half minutes, and sometimes five.



Satch and Doobie are hungry. Can't you tell? Gotta feed the troops. The bird can wait until bedtime. Last night he slashed my hand with his razor beak and drew blood a couple places. I called him every name in the devil's book and he knows he was bad. When we went up to bed I didn't even speak to him. He got NO music box time, either.

I have to put my hand in the cage when I feed and water him. He will be 8 years old on Valentine's Day. If he bites me again, maybe.



I am painting downstairs because the second floor is not heated. My studio is up there and the door is shut. I don't want another four hundred dollar gas bill to heat this old place. The other rooms on the top floor are always closed off. There are two electric radiators in my bedroom, and one is on all the time now (on low heat) just to keep the hoar frost off the furniture. At night, about 9:00 p.m., I run up and turn both of them on medium. It usually takes a couple hours to get the temp up to about 58 or 60F. The birdcage goes on a stand above a corner of one of the heaters. Then he gets a towel wrap that loops over the heat source.

The painting is not anywhere near finished. So don't freak out. The technique there is dry brush over color underlays. It won't look anything like you see, except for the form and shapes. It is 28" by 22." I like that size and have many second-hand frames that size. Most frames that I find at Goodwill or in garage sales are available for less than five bucks. A frame of equal size an quality in a frame shop would run about eighty dollars ready-made or one-hundred twenty to 150.00 custom made. Gold costs more, especially if it is gold leafed. The custom frames you see on museum walls can cost thousands. The frame around the Mona Lisa cost nearly thirty thousand dollars just to rehabilitate a few decades ago.

See why I shop Goodwill and St. Vincent's?

The cats are crying for chow. I am getting ready for HOUSE. I have Chinese tonight, after HOUSE. Eating late, like the Chinese. Q'ong hay fat choi.