I want to stay awake all night and create some great shit!

I must be feeling mighty prolific to start a new Howdygram post so soon after the War and Peace edition I published a few short hours ago. Holy crap, right?

Happy Fourth of July again. It’s a few minutes past 9 p.m. but I haven’t heard any fireworks tonight, not even faint little “kabooms” off in the distance or any neighbors lighting firecrackers. Therefore Sam and I are enjoying our second perfect Fourth of July movie* and there’s even enough peace and quiet right now to compose an evening blog post.

Our favorite Fourth of July movies are: 1) 1776, a musical from 1972 based on the Broadway hit and starring William Daniels, Blythe Danner and Ken Howard; 2) The Music Man (1972) starring Robert Preston and Shirley Jones; and 3) if we manage to stay awake long enough we’d also like to watch Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) starring James Cagney and Joan Leslie … even though most of the songs stink to high heaven..

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Before I forget … I’ve got some excellent free fonts for you tonight, and all of them are adorable and versatile dingbat (i.e., clipart) fonts. I love all of these, but I think my favorites have to be “Bonecas de Pano” and “Kinderkinder.” I’ll include download links after the graphic in case you want any of these for your personal collection.

Orments • Kinderkinder • Bonecas de Pano • Chamaco • Anichka

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I’d also like to show off two wonderful new sets of high-resolution textures … seamless — woo-hoo! — rustic wood backgrounds from Pixel Surplus and gorgeous abstract watercolor ink backgrounds from Creative Market. Shoot me an email if you want either of these collections, okay? I’ll be happy to send them to you.

In case you’re wondering what I do with images like these, I’ll use them in my product designs for The Howdygram Store … specifically, for greeting cards, iPhone cases, all-over print tote bags, playing cards, coasters, nightlights, light switch covers, lumbar pillows, wall clocks and more. I love how it feels to get inspired by a new image collection.

I want to stay awake all night and create some GREAT SHIT!

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It’s 5:30 a.m. Friday morning and I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to share my current aches, pains and kvetches. To begin, here’s the latest Shit-O-Meter readout:

Click here to view a detailed explanation of our Shit-O-Meter numbers.

My complaints this morning include all of the following:

1. A painful, soaking wet yeast rash in various locations all over my body. I’ve used two kinds of medicated powder and two different ointments … but NOTHING WORKS! The rash is exacerbated by #7 below.
2. Achy legs and sharp pain in my knees.
3. Burning neuropathy pain on the soles of my feet and the outside of my ankles, calves and thighs.
4. Numb fingers that also feel like they’re on fire (due to diabetic neuropathy).
5. A runny nose and drippy eyes related to a nasal drip from pollen allergies.
6. Occasional burning bladder spasms from an untreatable urinary tract infection.
7. A low-grade fever (99.0°) that’s enough to make me feel like crap. “Normal” for me is about 96.7°.
8. I can’t think of anything else.

The big project du jour, however, is my BLOOD SUGAR. I’m trying to figure out if I really need to use Lantus Solostar — a very expensive bedtime insulin injection that lasts for 24 hours — in addition to mealtime injections of Humulin R. The point is, I haven’t eaten any carbs yet today so my blood sugar should be perfect, but I just did a fingerstick test a few minutes ago and the result was 340. Holy shit … that’s way too high! (An acceptable number would be anything below 120.)

Frankly, I’d be positively ecstatic if I could quit using Lantus and keep my blood sugar below 150, but I’m not very hopeful. So I’ve decided to allow myself 24 hours to find out what’s what. If I can’t control my blood sugar without Lantus I’ll send Sam to Wal-Mart tomorrow to pick up my prescription. It costs $405, and that’s sickening, but without it the risks to my health — including blindness and kidney failure — are far worse than the expense.

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Thank you for reading this. Seriously.