i took a self portrait of myself in front of the painting my aunt clara gave me, and fedexed it to her in milwaukee. an hour later i decided to fly there to say hi to her in person, arriving well before the envelope did.

i've always said that i wanted to collect more paintings by this fairly unknown artist barbara weber, but now is the time to finally do it. i'm planning on finding these matching ones first:

there's just now finally a
website about the artist, that seems to be made by her husband. it's very odd, with random links and photos of their old and new friends as well as their pets. here's larry, barbara's husband, posing nude for her at age 24:

and here's their cat, in their somewhat current closet:

the internet is awesome! and holy crap, larry has a
blog. it's written exactly the way an elderly person would write it. he talks about the weather, family members, eggs in a nest by his house, financial troubles.
in milwaukee i learned that it's ok to die, especially when you're old. it's not that scary really. unless everyone around you starts chanting the rosary, then things might get weird.
i just realized i look new age or something in my self portrait. grossly modern compared to carmen in the painting. it must be that plant hanging in the corner that's doing it.