A late birthday surprise

We had another great day for protesting Petland. The weather wasn't too bad for this time of year, and we had tons of community support and positive feedback again. The ever-ridiculous owner, Sardina, showed us today how much of an effect we're having on him. It gave us a renewed burst of energy for the battle. He had to have gone out to the Internet and Google himself and his animal exploiting business (which is pretty pathetic...get a real life, dude) to find out that we were protesting today. He had put a new 'sign' (black ink, printed out on his computer) taped to his door, offering $100 off the purchase of any puppy as a "Protest Sale". We already were aware that we've had quite a negative affect on his bottom line and he's having a hard time 'moving' his puppies. Additionally, we had enough power to cause him to lose $100 profit off any puppies he managed to sell today. How cool is that?!!! Oh, and he's balding and sporting a 70's porn moustache. Thanks to our group, he's not going to be buying any more gold chains to nestle in his glorious chest hair. I find joy in the little things. ;P

Allegrea and I have been very busy lately and haven't time to hang for a couple of weeks. She was able to come over today after the protest, and it was very nice to have time to vent, relax, and catch up on everything! It was very restorative.

She brought me a birthday present, and she shouldn't have, but now that I have it, I'm really glad she did. It's one of the nicest gifts I've ever received! It's kind of too nice for my house, but I have it up already and love it! She's a fantastic artist---that's her career. She does a lot of multi-media work and often incorporates text into her art. Even if I didn't know her, I would LOVE her art. It is totally my style and my very favorite artistic genre. This piece, in particular, is gorgeous and the theme is perfect for me. It's one of her animal pieces. It, like all of her work, is multi-colored, multi-layered, and multi-textured. You can look at it for months, and still notice new details.

I had a terrible time getting decent pictures of it. The flash reflects off some of the shiny surfaces on it, especially the mirror in the center of the spoked circle. I couldn't get a good shot without the flash, because it was dark by the time I got it. It was a frustrating endeaver, and I didn't really get one great picture of it.