Author: Laura

Pen of the Day: Aurora Optima Blue Auroloide

Laura4 Comments

Aurora Optima fountain pen blue and gold

Aurora Optima Blue/Gold with broad nib. We’re having a strange spring here. The weather seems like it’s been either cold and snowy or 68 degrees and sunny.  Except when it’s been both over the course of a single day.  Which, okay, I totally enjoy.

Yesterday, however, was just gray, with a few snowflakes. I’m not usually a fan of blue pens with gold trim, but on a boring day I found this beautifully warm and inviting.

Aurora Optima fountain pen blue and gold with KWZ Azure #1 ink

And I’m not a big user of broad nibs.  But this one gives blue ink extra pizzazz.

KWZ Azure #1 ink

For comparison, I used the same pen a few weeks ago with Aurora Blue.

Another Example of Iron Gall Ink, This One Just a Bit Older

Laura4 Comments

Pen and iron gall ink copy drawing by unknown Italian artist

Here’s something ink-related I found at the Art Institute of Chicago last week.

It’s a copy drawing from the late 17th Century of a print based on a Van Dyck print.  The unknown artist drew this with iron gall ink, more than 300 years ago.

Here’s a closer look, just because I think this part is so well done.  Also because it shows that the ink is now brown.

IMG_3227 detail

I’m going to admit that my fourth or fifth thought upon looking at this was: I hope KWZ makes an iron gall ink in this color.  I think I have ink on the brain.

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

Laura2 Comments

My blogger friend Diane and I met in WordPress Blogging 101. She blogs at the fantastic LadiesWhoLunchReviews.  We have a lot in common, including geography.  I live north of Chicago, and she lives southwest of Chicago, but we’re both proud Chicagoans.  In fact, we are both so proud of the news around our fair city that we wanted to share two of these stories with you.

Not that we are in favor of impaired driving, at all. These stories are only funny because luckily no one got hurt.  I look at these as cautionary tales.  The lesson of mine would be: if you think, “let’s blow this popsicle stand” is the appropriate response to “you are under arrest,” you might have had a few too many.  Or perhaps: remember that many restaurants deliver.

Diane has a companion piece here, and be sure to click on that, because it’s equally head-shaking.  Driving in the Chicago area is not for the meek.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times and Fox News, reporting here, a 60-year-old woman was arrested Easter Sunday evening at a McDonald’s in suburban Chicago, after she allegedly was found passed out in her car in the drive-through lane just after 9 at night.

Witnesses reported that the car had been blocking the drive-through lane for at least 20 minutes by the time the police arrived.  And I know Chicago drivers, so I bet some of the folks stuck behind her might have been laying on their horns just a bit during that 20 minutes.

But, heck, some good might have come of this.  Blocking a fast food drive-through might have saved a few people’s arteries that night.  Maybe a few people decided to just go home and eat celery sticks, or turn in early.  I mean, it was after 9 at night; that’s bedtime for many of us suburbanites.

Anyway, when the police arrived and found the drive-through sleeper, they decided to charge her with allegedly being under the influence of alcohol.

But this is where the story takes another twist.  Once they arrested her, the police brought her into the station to book her.  At which point she allegedly attempted to “flee” the booking area and leave the station.  Except, of course, that she was at a police station. Meaning that there were lots of police there to stop her.  And I’m thinking that they probably had taken away her keys in the first place.

So, yes, the phrase “Darwin Awards” comes to mind.

But then again, she was probably still hungry.

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By Victorgrigas (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Fountain Pen Favorites for March 2016

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Okay, we’re already into April, but just because March is in the rear view mirror, metaphorically, doesn’t mean we can’t pump the brakes and look back for a few seconds. Here were my fountain pen favorites for March.

1. KWZ Red #1. This is going to be a favorite for a long time.

2. Spring inks. The weather is warmer, and I’ve brought out the lighter, brighter inks once more.  I love them. Especially Caran d’Ache Delicate Green. Also fun: Pink Week.

3. Pelikan M205 Transparent Blue. Faithful readers know how strong my resolve is and how firmly I resist temptation. So there’s absolutely no reason ever to think that I’d order this pen.  But, hey, is that a cute kitten over there?  We should all look at that cute kitten.

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Photo by Dafne Cholet, Flickr, used under Creative Commons license.

Things That Are Purple

Laura5 Comments

KWZ Brown-Pink ink

I’ve just starting testing KWZ Brown-Pink ink.  It’s a really fun color.  Mostly because even though it’s called Brown-Pink, to me it’s purple in disguise.

Just look at it.  Purple, right?

I think KWZ must make the most surprising brown inks ever.  The other KWZ brown ink I’ve tested is KWZ Dark Brown.  Which to me is basically black.

I love it. Just like the proverbial box of chocolates, you never know what you’ll get.

Things I Don’t Want to Do

Laura1 Comment

Pelikan M600 Ruby Red and Pelikan M400 White Tortoise fountain pens

The pen cup runneth over.  I have way too many pens inked.

The truth is, I’ve finished my review of KWZ Red #1 ink, which is in the Pelikan M600 Ruby Red.  And I’ve finished deciding whether I should buy a full bottle of the Pelikan Edelstein Amber in the M400 White Tortoise.  (Yes.)

So I pulled these two from the overstuffed pen cup Monday, to make room. But they’ve been sitting there ever since.

You know you like a pen and ink when you can’t make yourself empty them.

Pen of the Day: Pelikan M600 Pink

Laura4 Comments

Pelikan M600 Pink fountain pen

Pelikan M600 Pink with fine nib. What could be more springy than the Pink Pelikan?  Probably only filling the Pink Pelikan with pink ink. Now that’s turning spring up to 11.

Pelikan M600 Pink fountain pen and Diamine Carnation ink

I think Diamine Carnation is a perfect spring pink.

Pelikan M600 Pink fountain pen

The pen is really a raspberry sort of pink. But not an actual raspberry:  it’s like a raspberry pink dye. Raspberry-colored shiny plastic product. Raspberry-flavored hard candy.

And let’s not forget the Pink Pelikan comes in the Box of Bad Taste.

So I think the Pink Pelikan goes to 11 all by itself, really.

Outstanding.