Welcome Back~

(Before I continue, I'd like to apologize- I'm trying to get into the hang of the coding here, and am struggling with break tags. Heh.)

Well, it's been a while since I've been on here....and by a while, dang, it's been a long time. Last night, I remembered this old blog, and, being too lazy to create a new blog, decided to continue this blog, and post my new artwork (that has improved greatly since a few years ago), my new cats (The five kittens have all grown up, and I have updates on them!), and any other information or random things I have to say.

Now, well, for me. I'll be going to a new school next year, and in the last two-three years I've taken up several different hobbies. For starters, I started Judo shortly before my last post. Today, I come to you all as a proud orange belt. Last Saturday I competed in my first tournament, and out of all the women, I managed to snag third place, much to my own and my sensei's own surprises. Heh.

I still continue to read. (Oh, boy, that's an understatement.) I still follow the Warriors series, by Erin Hunter, despite the series growing a tad....predictable. I'll write more about it in a later post. Since then, I've also grown fond of the Artemis Fowl line, All of Rick Riordan's books, and several classics, like Gone With the Wind and Moby Dick.

I still try to play the guitar...but to no avail. Every now and then, I'll get this urge and crack open all of my lesson books, and I'll teach myself a chord or two, but don't find the motivation to continue the next day, and soon forget everything. Despite my attempts, I can still remember how to play "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star". No matter how hard I may try to forget.

Artwork-wise, I've discovered a method of posting drawing that aren't made in crappy paint programs online, so there will be more pencil sketches, which, honestly, I feel I am better at. If you anticipate color, feel free to be disappointed. I prefer black-and-white, pencil with paper. b:

As for the cats...where do I begin? Chaplin, my dear, sweet, beloved friend, passed away. The dear was eighteen when she moved on, her death caused by a bought of hyper thyroid disease. The poor thing had lost a bunch of weight and was rather scrappy... I'll admit that I miss the old cat. She was my first furry friend, ha, and will never be forgotten.

Second, I have gotten a new cat, or, well, not-so-new. Macy, our neighbor's cat, decided to move in with us, and she is now officially ours. She's frisky for a seven-year-old, and her favorite toy is a shoelace. She often antagonizes my fish, (updates on my betta activity, too, later) and occasionally sleeps on my bed at night. She's taken a habit to chewing up her scratching post, and I hope there's nothing wrong with that. She's an indoor-outdoor cat, so she still has a chance to antagonize the "kittens", and enjoy the luxuries of the indoor life.

Third, the kittens. We ended up renaming the kittens as we discovered their genders- Little Black was our lovely dark tortoiseshell girl, Tangerine was an outgoing, spunky, overweight ginger-and-white tabby tom, Bubbles is our much more timid, rather jumpy, ginger-and-white tabby boy with fairly large eyes, Tiger is our aggressive, pushy, yet still rather affectionate ginger-and-white tabby boy, and, finally, Socks is our more calm, quiet, and reserved dark ginger-and-white tabby tom.

Little Black grew to be a very pretty girl. She had an adorable chirp for a meow, and she loved to be scratched behind the ear. However, shortly after Sunshine, her mother, left our neighborhood, Little Black vanished, as well. She vanished...probably early Spring of 2011.

Tangerine was my bubba. He would lounge on our deck all day, and was unfazed by Macy hissing at him or trying to chase him off. The boy was lazy, but was built like his father- I had no idea a cat could get quite as large as he. (I think I have a picture of him, I'll post later) He was the friendliest of the strays yet, and would sit on our lap, rub against our legs, and basically act like a house cat. When we set out to capture all four of the boys and take them in to be fixed, so no more "surprises" popped up, we managed to catch all of the boys except for him- Tangerine outsmarted our traps. The bugger would stretch a leg out of the cage, and would eat food until the trap went off. When it snapped, he would let it shut on his leg, and would manage to wriggle his way out of it. Unfortunately, he left our deck roughly a year ago, and we all miss my little buddy dearly.

Tiger, Socks, and Bubbles are still with us, however. These three are the only members of the litter who we managed to get "fixed", and the only three who have remained with us. Bubbles, who looks nearly identical to Tangerines except for his eyes, has a completely different personality- he has only recently allowed us to be on the deck at the same time as him, despite being with us for three years. Tiger and Socks are more friendly, however, and let us pet them.

Their mother, Sunshine, vanished shortly before Little Black, and we haven't seen her since.

Okay, this wraps up my first post in a long time. I'll be spending the next few weeks trying to catch you all up. Cheerio!

--EB