Lisa and I were strolling through a local store recently when a wonderfully peculiar item caught my eye. It was a 9″ inch high ebony carving, made in Kenya, with a simple face etched in one side. We talked briefly about how funny the facial expression was. Despite its simplicity, it seemed to be all at once happy, puzzled, and a bit concerned. We laughed that it reminded us of Wilson the Volleyball.

So you can imagine my delight to discover it sitting on my desk one morning. Apparently Lisa had returned several days later and purchased the carving as surprise gift.

“Wilson” has claimed his rightful place beside my computer, looking back at me…and occasionally fielding my questions with an appropriate look of dismay, as if to say, “You can’t be serious!”

He also inspired the pattern/wallpaper shown here. If you can find some way to use it, please feel free. You can download a vector file of the pattern, and alter it however you wish.