FROM MY FAMILY SCRAPBOOK

Here's a few pictures of family and friends but I can't identify anyone because I don't think they'd want me to. That's me above, together with an acrylic portrait done by a friend I haven't seen in ages. Haw! I had to crop the photo because he gave the painting a gut the size of a wrecking ball.

When my family visits we usually go to an art museum.

BTW: Isn't Photoshop amazing? That yellow face on the left of the museum photo was facing forward when I found it on the net and I used Photoshop to warp it into a profile.

I'm dying to name names, but I'd better not.

My Captain Hook mask feels like family, thus it has a place in the family file. It's sadly decaying now. I had to put on glasses to cover up chipping in the eyes.

Here's (above) me with a friend of a friend. I don't know this person very well but if you're a female in a bikini and your arm is around me then you definitely rate a place in my scrapbook.

Here's (above) an illustration for a book about horses by a namesake. Gee, my namesake wasn't very good at spacing his letters.

When I first met John this (above) was his favorite pizza restaurant. I think he just liked the menu cover, which I have to admit was a work of art. I offered to buy it and the owner gave it to me for nothing. I think I'll frame it.

That restaurant also sticks in my mind because it was filled to the gills with plastic fruit and artificial vines with bar-code labels. All the vines stood straight up because the owner regarded them as so beautiful when new that he couldn't bring himself to bend them.

By the way: congrats to all the graduates out there! You made it!!!!!!! For you I reprise "Gaudeamus Igitor" from YouTube. It's the traditional academic anthem from medieval Europe. Youtube has other translated versions but I think you'll especially appreciate this one. Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!