On Tuesday, we had a lunch visit from Chris Sickels of Red Nose Studio. His work was insanely cool…he does close to no digital manipulation of his work. All his characters & sets are hand-crafted and painted. He’s all about doing the effects with the camera. That’s something to respect. This was most everyone’s fave image of his, and I agree it’s awesome, but I loved the jewel case houses and colors of the post image. He does work for shorts in LA and imagery for the NY Times. That’s pretty damn cool, especially since he grew up on a family farm in Indiana.

I’ve been told we hope to have a new artist visit at least monthly. We’re now working with Dave Devries of The Monster Engine after his visit a couple months ago. He’s gonna fly in every month from NJ for a few days.

But after visiting with Chris, I got to take off to north Carmel to photograph a $2.2 million Wish Home that was in the process of having the final decorating touches completed. It was really difficult because the photos were for an invitation for the unveiling of it, so my photos could only give brief previews of the awesomeness. That was a pleasant challenge to my skills. The builder guy showed up while I was there, and he’s such a lovely man. If only every client could be like him.

But after that, it was back to the office to this .NET project that’s been looming over my head for months. I’ll admit, quitting my job, establishing a new identity and re-applying to work there has crossed my mind to escape its wrath. It’s gonna take a serious kick in the butt to complete it by Saturday, especially since I won’t be able to work on it today…obviously :)

Well, I have to finish up my second pie, clean the house, and then clean myself and get on the road to head south. Amazing how productive I am when my activities don’t involve programming. I got up at 6am to bake, and my iTunes party shuffle has been rockin’ this fine, freezing morning.

eek and I almost forgot…Tuesday evening, I stopped at Marsh after work for a few ingredients. As I carried up my corn syrup and rice (odd lil pair), this old man stopped me, put his hand on my shoulder and said:

“Are you okay? I see you walking all around this big place, looking a little lost, and I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

And when I was up in line, he said to the checkout girl, “Oh such a long receipt? Take it easy on her.” So, that was weird, and now that I think about it, I think he could have been a preacher and “place” meant earth, not Marsh. hehe. Either way, it’s a bit strange how I get encounters from really old strange men where they tell me something seemingly simple that could mean so much more. Thought for the day: maybe there really are angels, because he was right, I am quite lost.