Sighhhh. My wife got an email, misspelled name, garbled address, indicating payment for a small vacation. Thinking the email itself was the scam I was cautious but it looks like the vacation spot is likely legit but the 3rd party booking and reservation fraudulent. As far as we can tell, no charges to us on our cards have occurred. But I'm following up with the booking agents to get further clarity.
Life is complicated when it might be a phishing attempt, might be a scam, might be fraudulent charge, might be identity theft, the originating party might be the baddie or they might be the innocent victim, etc, etc.

Looks like more teaching fun for your humble cartoonist. Having spread the joys of cartooning in our local adult ed venue, I'm scheduled to uncover the mysteries of paint and pixels this coming quarter. But wait, there's more! Like a drawing class, portraits and still life. The regular teacher had to handle some personal matters and so guess who got the call to save the day and bring a new perspective to, well, perspective! Yup, that's right - moi.
And next up is covering for another teacher who needs to be elsewhere, this time in an intermediate watercolor class. Looks like I'll finally be able to discuss the dirty secrets of pigment binders and maybe even MORE exciting stuff! Maybe I'll discuss the difference between watercolor and watercolour ...

Warning - unrepentant bragging ahead. A brazen display of self-back patting. You've been warned!

And what is the bragging about? Well, during our self-imposed evacuation from our burning surroundings, in the verdant glades of San Francisco, my lovely wife, dog and meself staggered into a fancy shmancy coffee boutique and ordered a couple of cappuccinos. And a lovely pair they were, with some very credible foam art atop of them.

I drank mine. I pondered. And then I got up and engaged the friendly barista in conversation. I asked "What do you set your machine's temperature at? I'm thinking perhaps 200 degrees? Or a touch less?"

She didn't know. And asked her coffee-brewer in crime. And he answered "Between 197 and 199 degrees". 

Ah ha, I said to myself. And maybe to him as well. Just as I suspected. Even through the milk, I could detect a sharp note, kind of like the citrus of a Sauvignon Blanc (assuming it's erring on the citrus side) but the coffee version. And that's something that comes through with cooler temperatures.

Heady with success, I then shot my second bolt. "The flavor profile really says to me - medium roast, not dark. Is it?"

And ... yuppers again. They roast light to medium for their pour overs and only up to medium for their espresso.

AH HA! Am I a top flight coffee nerd or WHAT?! I then debated enquiring as to whether the beans were Central American (pretty sure they were) but decided to not be greedy (and not to tempt the gods too much) and so left well enough alone with two for two. 

I may not know much, but I know my coffee!
​

After getting back home from our evacuation adventure we were alarmed to realize that Buzz had disappeared. OH NO! WHERE IS HE?!

We looked in his bed and it seemed to be empty. Or ... was it?

That brown stuff in the sky? It’s not fog.

Soooooo. Mandatory evac from the town next to mine. Ten minute drive. Yeahhhhh. I think maybe I’ll be moseying to somewhere else ...

Having almost finished one version of the fountain water color, I decided it was time to do a second version. And here is where I am at currently. Note that only the sky is done with actual watercolor. The rest is purely my imagining on an iPad. Trying to determine what I want to do with this one before I start painting it.

Our local power outage refugee camp.

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Look what I woke up to this morning. Looks like my wife was busy last night. PG&E may switch the power off out but at least we'll have something yummy to eat in the darkness!

As I keep hacking at it, it has begun to look less terrible to me. A bit.