Valentine Secret Admirer

Yes I know its Pink fluffy and cute! Hey, it's a Valentine!
new on ebay!~

More Valentine Fun

New for Wednesday, a 4 x 6 original watercolor. The scan blew out the lighter tones in the artwork, the brushwork is more soft and subtle in person. Bid on ebay.

Recent Watercolors

One minute its New Years Eve, and then you turn around and Valentine's Day is coming up!

Just listed on Ebay some 4 x 6 original watercolors.





















More to come.

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out Mom!

My Mom was lucky enough to live within driving distance of the famous "A Christmas Story" house and went to visit the home were they filmed the movie. Looks like she gave the tour a thumbs up, be careful around that "Major Award" Mom....Remember its "Frah-jill-aye"!!!















The house is open year round and theres a museum right across the street with props and memorabilia from the Film.

How cool is that!?

Merry Christmas to All!

Mt. St. Helens clears her throat

Mt. St. Helens wakes up in time for the holidays, spewing clouds of ash and steam today.
Will update as needed.

UPDATE: Small steam eruption, nothing to see here folks, move along.

SEATTLE -- Cold weather combined with the ongoing release of vapor generated an impressive plume of steam Tuesday at Mount St. Helens. The mountain vented steam shortly before 1 p.m. The volcano has been undergoing a low-key eruption since September 2004.Vapor has been rising from the volcano since before it rumbled back to life. Cold still air Monday and Tuesday made it visible from farther away.

Track Santa with NORAD

Christmas countdown Begins. On Christmas Eve track Santa as he flies from the North pole to a chimney near you! Visit the "Track Santa" web site.

For more than 50 years, NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa. The tradition began after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. store advertisement for children to call Santa on a special "hotline" included an inadvertently misprinted telephone number. Instead of Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief's operations "hotline." The Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, received the first "Santa" call on Christmas Eve 1955. Realizing what had happened, Colonel Shoup had his staff check radar data to see if there was any indication of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Indeed there were signs of Santa and children who called were given an update on Santa's position. Thus, the tradition was born.

Christmas ACEOs

Now listed on Ebay ! Search Cleverpup for more artwork.

And now the cleanup

Cleverpup Studios made it through the storm ok, we were a lot luckier then most people here in the storm area. We lost power Thursday night to early Friday morning, some people may not get power back for days. Friday morning the yard was full of fir tree branches and boughs, branches everywhere on the roof, yard and drive. Some people ended up with trees crashing though their roofs so I was glad we were spared this time. This was a record storm and the most powerful winds I have ever been through.

For more storm aftermath read this news report.

Record Wind Storm Claims 6 Lives in Pacific Northwest

Saturday , December 16, 2006

SEATTLE — Residents of the Pacific Northwest struggled to stay warm Saturday after the worst windstorm in more than a decade knocked out power to more than 1.5 million homes and businesses and killed at least six people.

About 950,000 customers in Washington and Oregon remained without power Friday night. Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire declared a state of emergency, and with temperatures expected to drop over the weekend, officials warned people not to use outdoor grills, propane heaters or other carbon monoxide-producing equipment indoors.

Firefighters in Kent found 33 people from four families suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning Friday night, fire Capt. Kyle Ohashi said. They had taken their barbecues inside to cook or heat their apartments as temperatures dipped into the 30s.

They were taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, and all were expected to survive, Ohashi said.

In Oregon, a family of six was sickened by carbon monoxide from a generator set up in a garage in Gresham after the storm knocked out power, police said. Three children were hospitalized in critical condition late Friday, while one child and both parents were listed in good condition.

Winds gusted to a record 69 mph early Friday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, breaking the old mark of 65 mph set in 1993. Winds were clocked at 113 mph near Mount Rainier.

Power was knocked out at one of the airport's concourses, canceling dozens of flights. Flights were also canceled at Portland International Airport in Oregon, and Amtrak canceled service between Seattle and Portland after downed trees and mudslides blocked the tracks.

Two people were killed in Washington in traffic accidents involving windblown trees, while one died after getting trapped in her basement by rising floodwaters. A fourth person was killed while he slept when the top of a tree snapped off and crashed into his home.

On the Oregon coast, an elderly couple died in a house fire caused by candles they were using during a power outage.

Puget Sound Energy, Washington's largest private utility, had 625,000 customers without power on Friday night. Some won't have their lights back on for days, spokeswoman Martha Monfried said.

Seattle City Light reported 107,000 outages Friday evening, while Snohomish County Public Utility District said 20,000 of its customers were still in the dark.

In Oregon, Portland General Electric said it had about 130,000 customers without power Friday evening, while Pacific Power said it was down to 64,000. Some of those customers are in Washington state.

The storm was the most intense to hit the region since the Inauguration Day storm of Jan. 20, 1993, which killed five people and caused about $130 million in damage, said Clifford F. Mass, a University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor.

Batten down the Hatches!

How do you spell Seattle? M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E!

Local weather:

SEATTLE -- Damaging winds from a storm roaring in from the ocean are likely this afternoon, the KIRO 7 Pinpoint Severe Weather Center warned.A high wind warning is in effect from 2 p.m. until 10 a.m. Friday in Western Washington for predicted winds of 40 mph with gusts to 65 mph.Forecasters expect 50- to 60-mile per hour winds on the coast with gusts to 80 or 90, strong enough to bring down trees.Ted Beuhner of the National Weather Service told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News the storm will be stronger than the one last February, when 250,000 homes lost power just before the Super Bowl.Some meteorologists are predicting it could be the most severe windstorm since the Inauguration Day Storm of 1993. Forecasters said winds will peak overnight and ease later Friday. The National Weather Service said the winds will likely bring down trees and electrical lines causing power outages. Winds also could cause some damage to buildings.Officials said residents to find their flashlights and prepare for power outages. People should secure garbage cans or other things in their yards that could blow away. Boat owners should make sure their vessels are secure -- and batten down the hatches.

Indeed! First Mother Nature tried to drown us in November (15 plus inches of rain), then she used the old snow freeze technique, and now shes going to try and blow us away!

I suspect the Seahawk game tonight at Qwest field will be very interesting! And I bet some Seahawk fans as they sit in the driving rain and wind will be secretly wishing to have the Kingdome back!

Good Grief Charlie Brown!

Still looking for the perfect Christmas tree? Why not go retro with a replica of the sorry little tree from the 1960s Charlie Brown Christmas? You too can have a pathetic scrawny little tree just like Charlie Brown!

Product Description

Good Grief. Learn the true meaning of Christmas with Charlie Brown's classic pathetic Christmas tree. Leave it bare or dress it up all fancy. The tree is an exact replica of the tree from the famous cartoon, made of wire branches and plastic needles with a criss cross wooden base. The bendable branches allow you to make it look just how you want, super pathetic or just kind of pathetic. The tree comes with one red Christmas ball ornament. Plus the bendable branches make it possible to fold the tree entirely flat for easy storage during the non-yuletide times of the year.
* Wire / plastic / wood base
* Base: 91/2"l, 27/8"w; Tree: 21"h; glass ball: 3"w
* Take care with rough wood base, as it tends to splinter
* Imported

PEANUTS copyright UFS, Inc.

UrbanOutfitters.com - $24.00

"Begging Around the Christmas Tree"

Yoshi "the Original CleverPup" loves to beg in front of our Christmas tree.




















Yoshi can hold this position for a long time. Hopefully Santa will be bringing lots of cookies and doggie toys for Yoshi's stocking this year!

The 2006 Outdoor Lighting Extravaganza

Behold the wonder of twinkling merriment as Cleverpup Studio puts on a very festive display for the Holidays!

Yes, 'tis the season for lights and displays of good will towards men. Just DON'T OFFEND ANYONE WITH ONE OF THOSE DAMN CHRISTMAS TREES!

And you wonder why "The Absolutely Worst Places to Live in America" ranks Seattle among the 50 most awful places to live in the country.


Hey, I know ....I know.

November Rain Record for Seattle

Well, with a little help from Mother nature, November went out with a bang. We set the record for the all time wettest month ever, with a whopping 15.63 inches of rain by Thursday morning. The old record was 15.33 set in December 1933.
I think this place is a little too damp for me, some where nice and dry is appealing right now, say maybe like the Arizona Dessert!

Here we go Again!

Oh what fun, it is to ride, in a two wheel drive Frozen Sleigh!

More snow or icy rain?, heck lets go for the rainfall record too while we are at it!

WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM WEDNESDAY EVENING THROUGH

THURSDAY MORNING...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SEATTLE HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM

WATCH FOR MOST OF WESTERN WASHINGTON...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM

WEDNESDAY EVENING THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING. THE WATCH INCLUDES THE

URBAN CORRIDOR FROM CHEHALIS NORTH THROUGH THE SEATTLE METRO

AREA...EVERETT...AND BELLINGHAM.

First the Rain, then the Snow, and now the Ice

Yesterday the greater Seattle area got walloped by a snow squall that moved through during the evening commute. Here at Cleverpup Studios we picked up an additional 2 inches of snow as it came down fast and heavy for an hour. Ian went outside for 10 minutes with his friends and came back in covered with snow. We stayed warm and cozy inside as the snow turned our neighborhood into a real winter wonderland.

The rest of Seattle didnt fare as well...The storm turned the main freeways into a icy skating rink and the people who were downtown at the Seahawks/ Greenbay Packers game (Seattle won!) found an icy gridlock on the way home.

Heres some of the more frigid stories gleamed from the local news:

SEATTLE - After a day of snow and a miserable Monday evening commute, Tuesday is already much worse. In fact for some, the Tuesday morning commute was an extension of a futile attempt to finish the Monday evening commute, and the State Patrol is advising everyone in the region to just stay off the roads.

More than 350,000 students in the central Puget Sound area alone got snow holidays Tuesday, including roughly 76,000 in Seattle and Tacoma, following traffic nightmares for tens of thousands of commuters Monday evening. In schools that were open, classes were delayed for tens of thousands of students.

Snow and slush that fell yesterday has frozen on many roads throughout the Puget Sound area as temperatures plummeted into the teens and 20s overnight, and dozens of spinouts and crashes overnight kept troopers and transportation crews very busy.

Transportation officials said many of the people on the roads early Tuesday were those who had been trying to get home since Monday night. Many of those stranded were those trying to get home from the Seattle Seahawks game that ended around 9:30. With traffic at nearly a standstill in many areas some commuters reported being on the road for nearly eight hours. DOT cameras showing freeways at 2 a.m. looked jammed just like what they typically would show at 5 p.m.

Parking lots near major interstates were full of people who couldn't make it home Monday night and decided to get off the roads and sleep in their cars.

Dozens of tractor-trailer rigs were off Interstate 5 Tuesday morning on a hill beside the Southcenter shopping mall south of Seattle.

Police and towtruck operators couldn't keep up with cars sliding off Interstate 405 Monday evening in the suburbs east of Lake Washington.

"It's unbelievable. It's like I'm driving in Alaska out here," said Trooper Jeff Merrill of the Washington State Patrol, from directing drivers near I-405 and State Route 527 in Bothell.

Temperatures dropped as low as 25 in Seattle, 20 in Everett, and into the low teens in Whatcom and Skagit County. And temperatures Tuesday night were expected to be another 2-6 degrees colder as more arctic air pours into the region.

Meanwhile, the snow and ice in the Puget Sound area have left thousands of utility customers without electricity.


Stay home...I think thats a very good idea!

Snowy November

Yesterday we had 3 inches of snow, we were lucky as most areas north of us got between six and seventeen inches of snow! Right now it is snowing hard and the temperature is dropping into the low 20s tonight as a blast of arctic air comes our way. My little resident Anna's Hummingbird is still hanging around the humming bird feed and I took her portrait as she waited in a snow covered tree for me to leave the area. I brought my feeder in tonight as I don't want the water to freeze solid overnight. The little hummer will need all the food it can get in this frigid weather just to keep warm!

Looks like our snow will stick around for a few days as the highs are only going to get to freezing.


Brrrrrrr!

Too Much Turkey!

Well, Thanksgiving was a success!

Plenty of good food and drink and family, Yoshi, the original Clever Pup, had a big plate of tender Turkey and gravy and zonked out on the floor with everyone else. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

"As God as my witness I thought turkeys could fly"

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out Kid!

CLEVELAND - Ralphie Parker and Brian Jones know what it's like to want something.

For Ralphie, the object of desire was an official Red Ryder, carbine-action, 200-shot, range model air rifle. (Go ahead, say it, "You'll shoot your eye out, kid.") For Jones, the gotta-have-it item was Ralphie's house the one in "A Christmas Story," the quirky film that's found a niche alongside holiday classics like "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 34th Street."

Jones has restored the three-story, wood-frame house to its appearance in the movie and will open it for tours beginning Saturday. His hope is that it will become a tourist stop alongside the city's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and other destinations.

He's unsure whether he'll make enough money to cover his $500,000 investment, but as sure as a kid's tongue will stick to a frozen flag pole, he's committed to the project.

"I just want people to come and enjoy it as I have," said Jones, a 30-year-old former Navy lieutenant.

"A Christmas Story" wasn't a big hit when released in 1983 but repeat TV airings and, in recent years, a 24-hour run on TBS starting Christmas Eve have made its story of boy's quest to get a BB gun for Christmas as infectious as the bespectacled Ralphie's eager grin.

"It just kind of sets the mood. In the Jones household, it's on all day once the marathon comes on," said Jones, who's married with an 8-month-old daughter.

Jones first saw the movie in the late 1980s and he and his parents became fans.

When the San Diego resident's dream of a becoming a Navy pilot like his father was denied because of his eyesight, his parents sent him a package to lift his spirits. Marked "FRAGILE" on the outside, it contained a leg lamp his parents built to look just like the one received by Ralphie's father, who proudly displayed it in the living room window, boasting, "It's a major award!"

Jones' mom noted that he could probably make a business out of selling them. In 2003, he started doing just that.

"I tooled together 500 lamps in my 1,000-square-foot condo in San Diego and sold them all in the first year," Jones said.

And he's still making and selling them $129.99 for the 45-inch model, $159.99 for the 53-inch "deluxe full size" leg lamp.

When the house from the film was put up for sale on eBay in December 2004, it seemed like destiny to Jones.

"I said, `Ooh, I gotta have that.'"

The auction price got up to $115,000. Jones, who shares Ralphie's unflinching enthusiasm, less than 20/20 eyesight and ability to speak at a breakneck pace, said he'd pay $150,000 if the owner stopped the bidding.

"It was mine. I sent him a deposit and flew out two days after Christmas just to make sure it wasn't a falling-down shack," Jones said.

He put in new windows and replaced the 111-year-old house's gray aluminum siding with mustard yellow painted wood and green trim that perfectly matches Ralphie's house.

Although only a couple interior shots were filmed there, Jones has recreated the '40s feel of Ralphie's home with a brown-and-white tile kitchen floor, a wide cast-iron sink in the kitchen, a claw-foot bathtub and, of course, a leg lamp in the window.

He also bought the house across the street Ralphie runs past it in the film's opening scene-to serve as a museum and gift shop. Several original items from the film are on display, including the infamous snowsuit ("I can't put my arms down!") worn by Ralphie's brother, Randy.

The house is located in Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood, just a few minutes from downtown where the exterior department store shots were filmed at the former Higbee's.

The cooperation of the department store is what brought the filmmakers to Cleveland for the film based on author Jean Shepherd's stories of his upbringing in Hammond, Ind.

The house is well known in the neighborhood and neighbors like Marlene Childers have watched the house change owners and go through ups and downs over the years. She's excited about Jones' tribute "I love that story," she said.

Jones knows the feeling. And he says stepping onto Ralphie's old street makes him feel like he's in the movie.

Standing in front of the house holding a replica Red Ryder rifle, he discusses his future plans which could include a nearby bed and breakfast -when, seemingly on a director's cue, a motorist passes, stops his car, rolls down the window and shouts, "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!"