Is my 11 year old allowed to go to dances? I’m not sure if I’m allowed to allow my 11 year old to go to dances! They have dances for 11 year olds? Did I go to dances when I was 11? Why do I hear my sister’s laughter reverberating in my hollowed out skull?

Kristen is attending a dance at the local community center tomorrow. She was asked by a girlfriend of hers, but apparently this prompted the need to go shopping. Michelle and Kristen packed up the car and left me to handle all the dinner dishes. Honestly! I had to load the dishwasher all by myself; I even unloaded it first! As proved by science, guys don’t know where all the dishes go, so there is currently a single cupboard that I don’t want to be around when Michelle opens it purely for safety reasons…My own!

Yeah! They went shopping, and once they came back, Kristen disappeared for a moment to change into her choice of dance wear to model it for me. I wish I would have taken a picture because, oh my gosh, did she ever look beautiful. For some odd reason, the first thing I though of when she showed it to me was Amy Lee, but not as goth. Whatever! Maybe it was a poor first thought, but Kristen pulled it off.

Strange, though, as she has no interest in dancing with boys. I look forward to hearing how the evening went.

Something occurred to me while watching an almost-great episode of Jericho last night; I haven't drawn Dan leaning against a building corner seeming disheveled while looking impatiently at his watch for such a long time, so I picked up my pencil, and a couple of minutes later:



Once again, it’s just a quick and dirty sketch, but it just kind of drew itself. Y’know! Using my hands and coordination. It also occurred to me that tomorrow means one month till the premiere of Take It Like A Husband. Hmmm! I don’t really feel panicky, but I do have this shooting pain running up and down my left arm…

Ever have a Samara moment? I don’t advise them because I believe they shorten the life span by quite a sever factor. Samara is the result of the Japanese believing, and proving by the way, that little girls in night gowns with long, stringy, messed up hair covering their faces are scary. Samara is the little girl antagonist who scares people to death in the American remake of Ringu (Japanese) called The Ring. Samara is the reason my sister hates sleeping in her basement.

I love horror movies, but this morning as I was making a cup of tea and having breakfast, I turned to the opening of the dining room to head towards the fridge and saw an empty doorway. When I turned back to my cereal bowl after getting the milk, my heart was beating regular beats. However, when I turned once again to return the milk to its rightful place in the refrigerator, a little girl in a nightgown with long, stringy, messed up hair covering her face filled the doorway. Samara’s hair was black, but this little girl’s hair was dirty blond. Oh, and the face behind it was smiling broadly, and even broader when she saw that she had scared the living, er, poop out of me.

Rylee joined me for breakfast at 5:45 am.

I would like to thank the mouth-breather for standing directly above me as I sat on the train this morning. Tall, rather handsome gentleman who decided to run for the train like a track and field star. The panting made the smell of your Tim Horton’s breath all that much more enjoyable and at a much higher frequency of whiffs. I’m thankful that I pulled out the ski jacket this morning of -29 C so I could burry my face in my collar as I read Florida Roadkill by Tim Dorsey. I hope you get your breath back eventually, as you hadn’t stopped panting after five stops.

As I pulled my car out of the driveway after saying a short prayer of thanks that it actually started in this sub-arctic temperature, I reflected on why I didn’t have a block heater installed. It’s because I’m lazy! I already told you that! Those last two sentences were actually part of my reflection because not only do I talk to myself, but I occasionally yell at myself for stupid decisions.

As I rounded the first corner, my headlights hit two jack rabbits racing across the street. Being the person who I am, my initial thoughts, of course, were, “C’mon, guys! It’s freezing out here! Get a room!” This thought was in no way the result of listening to “Let’s Have A Drug Free Christmas This Year” on CJAY 92. However, after a moments pause I thought, “Actually, what a great way to keep warm, eh?”

Just a quick and dirty ink job to show that I’m still working on the comic:


I’m really digging the style and totally think it’s an improvement over my first attempt:



The new one is just a quick ink, and I have to redo some areas to remain consistent with line thicknesses, but I just hadn't put anything drawing-wise on the blog for a while and was eager to share. I like the new style better, but what matters my opinion? It’s yours that I’m after!

Anyway! It’s freezing in Calgary, there’s snow on the ground and gravel trucks running around the city. The pea gravel that they spread on the street actually becomes quite useless once the passing vehicles have fully forced the small stones into the snow covering the roads. Andrew and I actually saw a gravel truck running around the city doing nothing; it was just going for a stroll around downtown. Now, one could argue that it was going for a pickup, but unless the gravel yard is right downtown, I doubt it. My theory is that the truck is coin operated like those rip-off gum ball machines you find in malls. Unfortunately, the union employees driving the trucks ran out of quarters…

I appreciate your suggestion of directly asking my neighbor what his problem with me is, but there are a few obstacles in the way of this endeavor:

1. I am not allowed on his property! I’m not sure what the repercussions of actually stepping on his property are, but I’m a little afraid of what they might be. Since the snowfall he may be hiding a laser security system under all that white stuff, and I like my feet a lot. I may consider tunneling under his property since according to law, we only own the first six feet of depth of our property, and Canada owns the rest. But this leaves the question, “Am I trespassing on Canada’s property if I tunnel below six feet?" Also, if I do manage to make it to his property, there is still a barrier consisting of six feet of rock, dirt and concrete. If I yell loud enough, maybe…But my neighbor may think it’s a ghost or something. He has exhibited paranoid qualities. I’m so confused!
   
2. Before I was banished from his property, we had attempted to knock on his door to apologize for the earlier mentioned dog trespass. On four occasions (maybe five, actually), either Michelle or I went up to his front door, knocked or rang the bell and were left waiting outside to no answer. On more than one occasion Michelle swears she heard noises coming from inside, too. It is very apparent that he doesn’t want to talk to us. I have seen him barbequing every once in a while (not since the temp dropped to -25, though), and I can only hope that my nude sunbathing hasn’t put him off his dinner. Also, I have considered standing in front of his house and screaming his name alla Marlin Brando style, but I thought he may get the wrong impression from the bouquet of roses and champagne I was carrying.
   
3. I have already introduced myself to him, and unless he has a very bad short term memory, I’m pretty sure he knows I’m approachable. Lot’s of people approach me all the time. Many people of different size, race and smell. Just the other day an individual approached me and said, “Gimme your wallet!” I had to remind him of the magic word, so he scuffed the ground with the toe of his shoe, looked all shy and bashful when he corrected himself by saying, “Please gimme your wallet!” (Note: I have never been mugged, so mom, quit worrying! I was only kidding.)

If I do happen to see him out of his fortress of solitude, I will approach my neighbor and say, “Wassup?!” Until I do see him, I will also be looking for the mythical sasquatch and maybe the Lochness monster swimming down the Bow River, as well.

Michelle made me see the new Bond flick on Saturday. Contrary to what you might think, I’ve never really like the Pierce Brosnan Bond flicks. I’ve found them too, what’s the word, over the top. That’s actually words not word, but you know what I mean. One of the Brosnan Bond flicks featured a drill bit missile that went slowly through ships and was able to change direction, as well. Another featured an invisible car. I know I’m supposed to suspend belief, but, “Come on!” So after seeing Casino Royale, all I have to say is:

…The fuzzy Mogwai blogger turns into a very tired, grumpy, green gremlin blogger. Let’s pray that I can control myself.

The road of my Alberta adventure has been a twisty, windy one. There have been ups and downs and there have been lights at the ends of tunnels that actually turned out to be natural light and not the LRT waiting for me with retribution in mind because of the stories that I’ve included it in. And, unfortunately, there have been potholes. I’ve asked the city to do something about them, but, alas, labor is in great need nowadays, and there doesn’t seem to be enough hands to fulfill the positions.

One of those potholes lives next door to me. He doesn’t get in my way, but he certainly doesn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling, and I have to admit that his latest action has bothered me more than I really should allow it to, but what can I say? I’m an emotional guy.

Let me clear up the fact that my other neighbors are wonderful. They are chatty folks, well, the wife more so, but they are both interesting and will give the time of day to us when and if asked. Lilly even got into their yard a few times, and the husband said not to worry about it even after I told him to just call me to come over and clean up whatever, er, leavings she, um, left.

However, Lilly also got into my other neighbor’s yard, and this resulted in my neighbor, Mark, writing letters to the lawyer(s) of my landlord. My landlord didn’t care as there really wasn’t anything he could do, but he thought I should see the letters as I and my family were mentioned in them. Believe it or not, Mark never even approached me once about my dog before writing the letters. We’ve tried to find all the holes that Lilly can get through, but she’s a little dog, and she’s a good finder of holes. We believe that problem’s been curtailed now.

I believe I’ve made mention before the strife between my landlord and my neighbor. My landlord has asked me not to discuss the legal matters between him and my neighbor, and I believe I’m honoring that by not giving out any details on the matter. I have told my landlord that I’m to be in no way, shape or form involved in such matters, and if I knew of the visits from police or the unpleasantness from across the fence that was to follow my moving in to this place, I would never have subjected my family to this part of the neighborhood. I must stress again that no one else in the neighborhood seems to act like Mark, and I’m about to give an example of what happened to make me feel the need to write about it.

My readers know about Kristen’s flyer route, right? She’s determined to be the little entrepreneur, and she’s got her sites set on a PSP, specifically for LocoRoco (this all sounds familiar for some reason). Anyway, Mark is on her route. Michelle was at work, so it was up to me, Kristen and Rylee, with Lilly in tow, to deliver these flyers on Friday afternoon.

Kristen delivered the flyers to Mark’s house and came back to the cart that I was towing across the street. Mark came out of his house, collected his flyers and called to me across the street.

“Are you from next door?” he asked.

I smiled and said, “Yes! Yes I am!”

Without a beat he replied, “Stay off my property!”

I was taken aback and kind of stammered, “Wh…what?”

“Just stay off my property!” It wasn’t a mean voice. There was a trace of an English accent, I believe. But he matter of factly told me to stay off his property.

I called out, “Whatever suits you!” as he went back inside.

I don’t even know if he heard me, but I didn’t think it mattered. I’m left wondering if he’s upset with me because of something I did to him, or if it’s just because of the neighbor-landlord strife I mentioned earlier. I’m pretty sure that I’ve done nothing to make him act like a jerk to me or my family, and I don’t believe he is a jerk because I haven’t really gotten a chance to know him. When I first moved in, and it was just me and Roger with my landlord’s father living in the basement, I went over and shook Mark’s hand and introduced myself. He seemed friendly enough, but also mentioned the legal stuff that was going on between him and (geeze, I’m tired of saying it) my landlord. But that was it! He hasn’t said “Boo!” to me since except for that little exchange above.

I’m a curious individual, so one day at work close to when I just started there, I did a little search on Google to see if I could find out anything about what was really going on between my, argh, lord of the land (hah!) and Mark. A couple of Boolean searches lead me to find out that Mark is an aurora chaser and that he has his own website where he invites other aurora chasers to share photos and comments on the subject.

Just seems weird that he’d be so social to perfect strangers around the globe, but wants nothing to do with the guy over the fence. If I’ve wronged him somehow, especially if it’s about the dog getting into his yard when we first moved in, I apologize, but if this has to do with my landlord then, buddy, your fight’s with him not me. Do you still want your flyers?

Just a quick update since I haven’t done so in more than my allowable laps, but my excuse is that I’ve been struck with an extreme case of “the lazies.” Actually, the real truth (as opposed to the fake truth which, I guess, would make it a lie) is that I’ve been busy. Busy with work, family and side projects that I wish were my work. Usually I have time to post a novel to my blog first thing in the morning, but that hasn’t been the case for the past week (obviously). It’s good and bad: good that I’m actually earning my paycheck, but bad because I like to write. Oh well, best not to waste time.

I have two small stories about Michelle; one is rather humorous and one proves that she’s clairvoyant.

Cable Schmable

We got a cable bill for over $370 in the mail the other day. I knew this immediately because Michelle loves to phone me at work with things like this. It is not uncommon that I’ll get a phone call asking for a suggestions of a side dish for tonight’s meal, requests to tell the children to listen to their mother or, and I actually like these ones, just to say hi because she misses me. However, this time she phoned me to tell me that the cable bill was over $370.

I have mentioned in previous posts that Michelle and I have put all our eggs in one basket where internet service, cable and phone are concerned. Shaw has me by the short and curlies with all three, so if anything goes wrong on their end there isn’t anything I can do except phone them on my Rogers cell phone. They’ll probably figure out how to get that service too, however.

We both went through our online bank statement, and Michelle phoned them up. It was very apparent that she had made a payment to Shaw a month ago when the bill, for some reason, was over $240. We had just assumed that a bill had slipped past us somehow, but now it was getting ridiculous. She phoned them up and said that our bank showed the payment being made, but the friendly person on the other end informed her that we hadn’t made a payment in 4 months.

A warning went off in my head.

I mentioned before that I’ve been lazy in a jesting manner, but the truth is that I have been lazy with piddly little things…Like correcting our online bank billing to include our new Calgary bills. I told Michelle that until I did that we’d have to pay the bills at the bank machiene. This little tidbit of information slipped her mind, and she had been paying out old cancelled account in Victoria She told me she’d make a call.

Five minutes later, after she had dug out an old bill and called a Victoria Shaw office, she phoned me up at work to let me know that we had almost $500 in credit on our old account. Easily resolved with another phone call, and we won’t have to be paying next month’s bill either. So have I set up the bills online yet? Ha! I put the “PRO” in procrastinate, my friends.

Pizza Sauce Clairvoyance

I made pizza (from scratch) for Kristen’s birthday party which was smaller than the previous ones since she’s older and most of her friends were brand new (really nice, though…Kristen has a wonderful habit of surrounding herself with wonderful people). So while Kristen, Michelle, Rylee and the guests all went to the wave pool, I set about the task of making my specialty. I had asked Michelle to pick up the ingredients on my recipe, so when I went to look for the 8 oz can of tomato sauce, I was surprised to find a can that could only have equated to a small bucket. Why would I need so much sauce? It’s not like I’m making six pizza’s for a hockey team, for crying out loud. Kristen’s appetite suggested that she may get through two pieces and that’s it. So made up the sauce (seasoning and all) and put it in the fridge for an hour, and I put the leftover unnecessary sauce in a plastic container in the fridge, as well.

An hour later, when I pulled out the ingredients for the toppings of the pizza, I knocked the bowl out of the fridge onto the floor where it smashed into an infinite amount of pieces and sprayed pizza sauce all over the under side of the fridge and floor. I was devastated!

But I didn’t have time to be devastated for long! I cleaned it up, quietly thanked Michelle for seeing my clumsiness using whatever psychic abilities she has and made up another batch of sauce. I really would have hated to order pizza after missing out on the swimming to fulfill Kristen’s request, so once again I have to say, “Thank you , Michelle! Now use your powers to predict the winning lottery combination.”

That’s it for now! I have to go on a trip up to Redwater overnight, so no drawing for me tonight (maybe writing). I have been doing strips for our upcoming launch, but I’m not posting those here. You all have to wait! Shame on you for begging!

Edit: And since I owe you all at least something viewable, I just noticed that the new Harry Potter trailer went up last night:



I'm really looking forward to this, but I also have to nitpick. When Potter's flying towards the screen in the final shot, it's reminiscent of the special effects used in Superman 4. In other words, it looks terrible! C'mon, WB! This is the age of special effects where anything is possible. So, possibly, redo that shot! Ugh!

…that Kristen and I are reading the same book, and that after reading it for a few minutes the evening I bought it and on a to and from ride to work on the LRT, Kristen reads Wintersmith for, like, a little over half an hour and she passes my book mark. On one hand, I’m proud that she’s reading and reading books that I enjoy, but on the other hand, wow! She’s…She’s…Aw, screw it! I’m just proud of her.

She was a little disappointed when I told her there probably isn’t a werewolf in this particular Discworld novel. You see, Terry Pratchett has written this series in two styles: one geared for (hah!) adults and one geared for younger readers. The current book fits in the latter category, and the age group it’s intended for is the same age that the Harry Potter books are geared for. I have no doubt, however, that Kristen is mature enough to enjoy the rest of the series (there are 30 books as of last count).

I had told her about the main characters of the books; some are written about Rincewind, the wizard who knows no spells, has the word “WIZZARD” embroidered across his pointy hat and has a talent for running away from danger. Some are written about the witches, of which mostly include Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick. And still, some are written about characters that only appear once or are sporadically mentioned throughout the entire series. My favorite books in the series are written about the personification of Death and his granddaughter, Susan Sto Helit (that’s a very, er, complicated story that I’m not about to explain). But, and this is besides Terry’s Wee Free Men books as of late, Mr Pratchett seems to favor writing about The Watch which is the police force of the city that seems to be mentioned in every Discworld novel, Ankh Morpork.


That introduction, which is very brief as I could go on and on and on about the characters and the descriptiveness and the wonderful, wonderful comfort the series brings to me, was to mention the fact that in The Watch there are very many humans and creatures of the biped variety, and among them is a woman, Angua, who is Captain Carrot’s girlfriend, who just happens to be a werewolf. Kristen was fascinated by this fact and wanted to read about her, and in my excitement for the latest Discworld release may have misled her into believing that Angua was in Wintersmith…my apologies to my beautiful daughter who now shares my love of all things Discworld.

Yesterday, I got an idea for the TILAH Myspace page. When you are added to another person’s friends list, you are allowed access to their comments field, and usually people (I can only assume they’re people as cats aren’t all that adept with the typing) use this area to thank the page owner for adding them to their friends list. I got a comment from another webcomic author, who does a very funny strip called Taking the Bi-Pass, in the form of a comic or panel of a comic. So I thought, what better way to introduce people to the artwork and humor that TILAH will incorporate. So I took a couple of hours to do this:


That’s all of us behind glass, and usually I include the message “Thank you for inviting us into your space!” above the image. I’m thinking I need to add another nipple on Dan, there. What is it with my nipple fascination lately? Speaking of which, Cry Baby Mason took second place in the CD challenge over at the animation forum.

It was my birthday yesterday, and I find that the older I get the more I want to only mention that it was my birthday the day after my birthday. It’s fun to watch the guilty expression fleet across the face of the person with faulty memory.

Nah! Just kidding! The only one around the office to even know that it was my birthday was the HR department, and they actually sent me a card. It was surprisingly lax in any form of monetary bonus, but the thought was appreciated, nonetheless.

I got to see some of my favorite people over the weekend, even if it was only for a short period of time. My sister had a stop off at the Calgary airport, and I made sure I was outside of the gate waiting for her to pass through. She truly misses Victoria (even more so than myself, which is very hard, but her story, which should be told by her and not me, has resulted in such a cavity in her soul that could only be filled by the loving friends she has gathered around her), and her weekend pass, er, visit there has probably made her miss it more. Be that as it may, it was really nice to see her for the two hours she was in Calgary.

My mom flew in less than an hour after Wendy arrived, so the three of us got to have a short visit. While Wendy and I were waiting for our dear mother to de-plane, a group from Frankfurt came through security with about a million skis. I guessed that they were part of a ski team, not because they were tall, in good shape and had a million skis, but the back of their jackets said “SKI TEAM.” It was a wild guess, but I have a good feeling about it.

My sister remarked to me as a response to something I said to her but can’t quite recall right now, but I’m pretty sure it had something to do with me saying she “had” to do something. She remarked that she didn’t “have” to do anything, and the emphasis was on the “have” as she is in complete and utter control of herself and doesn’t “have” to do what she’s told because that’s what life is all about: choice!

It only took a moment for me to come up with what I can only assume was a very annoying response to her, but now that I’ve had longer to think about it, I came up with the top 3 things she “has” to do:

1. She can’t punch any old person in the face on any old street in any old town, etc. She can’t turn her car into the oncoming lane against the flow of traffic just because she feels like it. She can’t change her diet to include a side order of razor blades and a tall glass of hydrochloric acid to wash it down with. Why? Because she “has” to RESTRAIN herself.
   
2. Does my sister want to be rich? Probably! Does she want to rob a bank, risking imprisonment with no visitation from her two handsome sons just to fast track her way to wealth? I doubt it! Why? Because she “has” to COMPLY with the law.
   
3. And last, but not least, and since it is such an obvious one, and I feel like copping out: I believe none of our ancestors were fairies or pigeons, so since flying without mechanical means is out of the question, Wendy “has” to OBEY all gravitational forces.…

That last one could probably be stretched out to include all of Newton’s laws, but my sister would probably just ask if he was the guy who did all that wonderful stuff with figs, and I’d be left wondering if she was being serious or not.

Regardless, it was nice to see her. She departed, and I brought mom back to my place for a few minutes before she took us all out for my birthday dinner. We went to the Cheesecake Café, where some of us had mediocre, cold meals, some BEvERages and a healthy (hah!) portion of cheesecake. I used to love the Cheesecake Café, but now I’m very selective about what I order there for dessert. For some very, very stupid reason that I can only assume is for esthetics, they have decided to put icing on most of their cheesecakes. If there were ever a cake, besides rum cake (mmmmm!) and others, I’m sure, that didn’t need icing because it was sweet enough, it’s cheesecake. However, under the icing is one heck of a good sized, great tasting piece of cheesecake, and no crumb went unconsumed. Michelle and Rylee had a piece of Cheesequake Cheesecake (everything but the kitchen sink), Mom and Brendan shared a piece of After Eight Cheesecake, and my favorite 10 (soon to be 11) year old, Kristen, picked a piece of Oreo Cheesecake for her and I to share. You’d think beer and cheesecake wouldn’t go together, but you’d be surprisingly wrong. Too much beer and cheesecake? Yeah, that’d probably be bad.

Mom left the next morning for Creston, but not before leaving me a birthday card. When I got home from work, I opened up to find Monopoly money in it. Further inspection proved that it was actually American currency, and she had left a not in the card to get those books I wanted. So I did! My two most favorite authors decided to come out with books at the same time, to my delight, and the money mom left and the $10 discount coupon I got when Michelle and I saw The Departed (gooooooood movie!) last week was enough to get both in hardcover.

I’ve mentioned the first one before, maybe on more than one occasion. It’s Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett, the definitive author combining humor and fantasy:


This is the third book about a certain character named Tiffany who is training to be a witch (better than Harry Potter, in my opinion, but I still like J K Rowling’s books, as well), and Kristen and I care for this character very much. When I told her that I had purchased it she was already making plans to use separate bookmarks to indicate where she and I had left off. I’m sure her bookmark will reach the end of the book in a few short days.

The second one came as a surprise because I hadn’t read his website in quite awhile, so when Neil Gaiman’s collection of short stories called Fragile Things came to my attention at the airport bookstore while waiting for Wendy, I was pleasantly surprised.


I bought both books while Rylee was at her karate lesson last night, and when I brought both books up the the counter, the guy operating the register was very excited to see that I was reading Gaiman. He told me what an awesome book it was, and he appeared to be a full grown adult. He had read it and enjoyed it immensely. When I queried him as to how the short stories were, he paused, took off the tissue like book cover and pointed out the cover art. “Look! A snowflake, a butterfly, a heart with a map on it! That’s totally Gaiman!” With the smallest of pauses, and resisting the urge to tell him that Gaiman probably didn’t do the art himself, I agreed and took my purchases out of the store.

Another animation challenge has been issued, but this time I’m not going to wait till the last minute to finish it up. I’ll post a link when I have something, but right now I’m only going to work on it little by little. I have many strips to draw, ink and color, and those take priority over any extra fun I want to have (besides family fun, that is). Be that as it may, I did do another Character Design last night. Here is the criteria:

You will have to design a character, a musician.
Rock star, rapper, pop singer... your choice. Add a little description or explanation with the picture, though.

And, as a result, I quickly did this little design:


Not as detailed as I'd like, and the shading is off a lot, but I wanted to submit something. The gentleman above goes by the moniker "Cry Baby Mason." His mission, as bestowed to him by a Saturday night haze party hallucination, is to bridge the tremendous gap between children's music and death metal. You can go to the thread and see what others have come up with...there's a vast array of different talent there!

Actually, come to think of it, maybe cheesecake and beer wasn’t such a good idea

If you use Firefox chances are the page looked just a tad, well, cruddy. That was my fault. I tried scouring Blogger for some solution to the way my page looked in Firefox, but as it turns out, Firefox is perfect and I'm not. It was my eagerness to bring you my Fifty Bucks cartoon that did it. The problem is fixed; you may carry on. Good luck!

I have to wait two months to find out what happens next on Lost? And their replacing it for 13 weeks with some sort of show that seems to be a cross between Groundhog Day and Man on Fire but with no humour whatsoever…Guess I’ll have more time to draw and stuff! Hmph!

I quickly sketched this up while half watching Jericho last night:



I wasn’t going for realistic, but I was inspired by Kristen’s and Rylee’s total blatant passion for all things involving pencil and paint. If I get off my duff this weekend, I’ll take a few pictures of Kristen’s rock paintings and post them here. Once we get a water proof lacquer and seal those puppies up, we’re going to have the busiest garden in our neighborhood.

Good news…for me, that is. My company loves to turn every three day weekend into a four day, so I should have time to finish up a few strips this weekend. Shannon and I want a comfortable stockpile before launch, and however many we can come up with determines the frequency of putting them online. I’d love to imagine a three day per week publishing, but I have to be realistic with my time. For all I know, the amount it takes to make a strip could mean a one day a week rate, but let’s hope I can handle more than that without neglecting the family.

Remembered my music today, so everyone on the train could have been sniffly, sneezey, grumpy, purpy, farty or Doc for all I cared. I just cruised listening to Blue October’s Overweight…I love that song, for some odd reason.

I forgot my music this morning…

I was saddened by this realization when I arrived at the C-train Park n’ Ride, but it was a little too late to turn back just so I’d have something to do on the LRT. You see, I finished the book I had been reading several days ago, and I’m finding that, even though the train is packed lightly during the summer months, in the winter it is shoulder to shoulder human sardines, and no matter where you are, be it sitting or standing, someone is always looking over your shoulder. Thus, if I don’t have a book and I don’t have music, I still feel too uncomfortable to write.

During the summer I had gotten a lot written, but as people started coming back from their brief reality breaks, too many people are interested in what you do on the C-train. I have considered being gassy to get some privacy, but I don’t think I’d be able to stand myself.

So, I thought I’d be bored. I was wrong! What I was, in no uncertain terms, was “annoyed!”

I have prided myself with growing up in a matter that has afflicted me with no, in my opinion, odd fears or anxieties. I am afraid of falling to my death from a very high altitude, but I’m certain that no unnatural force is going to propel me through my fifth story office window. I am afraid that some lunatic might run me over in the streets for no good reason but to test the traction on his truck, but I’m not going to fear the outdoors because of it. I can let an object such as a tree or a light post come between me and the ones I love without fearing the karmic repercussions. When I eat my Smarties and I eat the red ones last, it’s out of choice and not some sort of obsessive compulsion.

However, that being said, I have a particular aversion to disgusting noises. This is a trait that I share with my sister. I have risked losing marks on a test to tell a friend, acquaintance or stranger to chew his gum with his mouth closed. Practically every day I have to inform Rylee that the food will stay in her mouth better if she would stop smacking her lips. While being oriented at the Naval base after my basic training had completed, I told a new recruit to go get a Kleenex because he kept clearing his nose backwards into his throat. Yes! It’s a compulsion, but I feel it makes the world a better place when people are aware of the others occupying their surroundings and act accordingly. I’m not saying “pinkies out” with every glass of punch, but just thinking “is what I’m doing annoying anyone?” would suffice.

I managed to get a seat on the train before it filled up completely. This makes the ride to work a little more pleasant because standing on the C-train in the morning isn’t quite as nice as standing on the way home. On the way home I want to stand…I’ve been sitting in my office for most of the day prior to that. Yes! I got a seat. There are seven stops on the way to downtown, and on the very next stop a gentleman got on the train, stood right beside me and, due to a lack of room, directly over me.

He started to sniff. He sniffed again! And again! He sniffed in an almost rhythmic beat, and he didn’t sound plugged up which sent my imagination into overdrive. I could picture a watery droplet clinging to the rim of his nostril, threatening to drop. He sniffs and pulls the droplet partially inside his nasal cavity where it pauses temporarily and begins to slide back out. This man was playing games with the top of my toque, and there was nothing I could do about it. I would have offered him a tissue, but I had none. I didn’t feel right about getting on someone’s case before 7:00am. I toughed it out, and when I say “I toughed it out,” I mean it was tough to ride it out.

One stop before mine, another gentleman who knew Mr. Sniffy engaged him in conversation. Instead of joining him in a nostril snorting duet like I was afraid of (okay, maybe one or two unnatural fears), Mr. Sniffy stopped sniffing or, at least, just stopped sniffing over my head. The throbbing in my neck ceased, and I stopped grinding my teeth. I’m pretty sure Mr. Sniffy shortened my lifespan a little.

Sticking with my daily artistic (hah!) contribution, I sketched two character sheets from our upcoming webcomic. I didn’t ink them, but I will. I wanted to try a watercolour feel because, first, I wanted to see what it would look like, and second, it took like 5 or 10 minutes:





The facial expressions will become avatars for Shannon and I upon his approval. I didn’t really pay attention to proportion or, in fact, realism, since I’m pretty sure we want to go in a more cartoonie direction, but I just wanted to quickly sketch out some funny facial expressions and body positions.

And something came to mind while sketching these out: being the artist, I can put my friends in any situation or position I want. Thus, Shannon is swooning!

I’m changing offices today so that instead of wallowing in my own self pity, I’ll be too busy wallowing in everyone else’s. Just kidding! It’s actually a good move to get me into, as we call it around here, “the loop!” Seems like days could go by without a visit from a co-worker. That’s not true, either, seeing as my job requires that I get up to fetch my own coffee. I’m working on that one, though.

So goodbye to my view of the Christmas tree and decorations that fill the only supply closet I’ve ever seen to have a window. No longer will the employees in our sister building be able to look from the fifth floor across the alley and catch me picking my nose. That’s everyone on the northern side of building’s job now. I will have more natural light filtering through my window, and I have a lovely view of the Bow River and the people who get to enjoy it while I’m indoors soaking up the fluorescent radiation that accompanies my filtered window light. No, really, I am happy about the move, but I have to make it seem like I’m put upon so you all don’t get really, really jealous of me. Mwah!

To continue my artistic muscle flexing, I tried my hand at a little lip syncing last night. Nothing fancy as I did it in about half an hour, and the longest thing to figure out was how to get that “ANSWER” button in there. So check it out, click the word “ANSWER” and enjoy:Hmmm! I'm moved now. Had to hit save as the IT guy came in to move the computer. What will this foreign land be like? Will I fit in? Can I learn the native language in time before I'm devoured by the hungry canibals that reside here in the north?

I guess if I update later you'll know the answer to that last one.

I got to help out with Kristen’s flier delivery today for the first time since she acquired the route, and we had a little trouble establishing that she has to do the (bulk of the) work since it’s her earning the paycheck. We had memorable moments along the walk where she thought that her 8 year old sister wasn’t doing enough, and she whined that her arms were sore after carrying five bundles of fliers that wouldn’t fit in the cart that I was lugging around that contained the bazillion other fliers she wasn’t carrying, so at one point I had had enough. I said, “here!” and passed her the route addresses and pen, released the cart from my burden and told Kristen she could do the whole darned thing herself.

We went two houses before she started appreciating her family again. Amazing, don’t you think?

It’s a wonder though seeing as a lot has occurred to her to go to her head in such a short period of time. I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t made a huge bundle of money yet. Yet! But still, we have offered Kristen and Rylee a two dollar a week allowance for a few years now so they could learn the responsibilities of handling even their own meager finances.

So it took one day to screw up the fact that they thought they were getting a good deal!

Rylee’s friend Hailey’s mom offered Kristen five dollars a week to walk Hailey home, and immediately after that another mother asked her the same thing for the same price. Now Kristen makes 10 dollars a week walking home from the bus, so to speak. Then she gets this flier route the same day! Pretty soon she’s going to be making more than me! She probably gets to keep more, anyway…

I entered another challenge at the Animation Forum, but thankfully this one isn’t an animation as I’m not swimming in free time at the moment. This is just a simple character design, or CD. Basically, a moderator of the forum puts out a little character description write up, and members who are willing to participate draw up their envisioning of the character. This is the description from the CD Weekly thread:

John has a problem with drugs and gambling lately... He hasn't left the children any money for three months now. He's keeping it all to himself. Still, John loves his work more than anything, so that's why he keeps visiting them. Dedicated to his job, he's willing to take radical actions to get things done. And he even has a bad habit of pulling out teeth that shouldn't be pulled out just yet...

Yes, John is a tooth fairy.

I had to come up with something that reflected everything said above, so this is what I came up with:



Disturbing? Just a little…Some of the comments I’ve gotten have been pretty positive in a shiver-down-my-spine kind of way, but I’m taking what I can get. It’s been a while since I’ve drawn seriously, so I thought these weekly exercises would be an excellent way to flex those atrophied muscles again and learn all this wonderful software.

Until then, I’m locking my kids’ windows so they don’t lose anymore teeth than necessary to this guy…

…and boy are my arms tired.

Didn’t really eat all that much candy, actually. Although my respect for junk food is ever present, I’ve found that my tastes for sugary treats has been edged out by my aforementioned favourite food stuff, chips and salsa. I will have a chocolate bar every now and then, but, honestly, once you get a little old you start to worry about cavities. Darn you age! Darn you all to heck! Poop!

Yup! Got a little Tourettes Syndrome there, but had to keep it clean because of the all ages blog thing.

I promised pictures of the pumpkins and now I will deliver pictures of the pumpkins. Just know that they suck! The pictures, not the pumpkins. I accidentally took my camera, which is super spectacular, as I’ve mention before, off of the setting that automatically senses all the surroundings light, temperature and smells while enacting an impenetrable force field around the viewing area so as not to allow any disturbances to interfere with my shot. Oh, it also makes me coffee and rubs my shoulders when I ask it to (don’t tell Michelle). Somehow I put the camera on some sort of setting called “The Operator Knows What He’s Doing!” Why would I do that? I wouldn’t do that! It even came with a DVD that explains in simple, one syllable words how to do everything with this camera, and I haven’t watched it! No way! It’s instructions! I’m a man! Sorta! Exclamation mark!

Yeah, pictures. Here they are:



This one was Rylee’s, but I hesitate to say that either pumpkin belongs to either daughter because it is I who ultimately carves the stupid things. Rylee had a small mishap with the tiny saw that she broke from our carving kit. It involved blood but not a lot of it. I had to dig the broken piece of the saw out of the pumpkin.



This design was chosen by Kristen (there, that’s a better way of saying it). Can you see what it is? Probably not because of my craptacular picture. It’s a wolf! Kristen picked this design after we had destroyed the pumpkin carving kit, and I seriously tried to talk her out of it. My suggestion of a pumpkin with a near perfect circular hole for a face was met by a blank stare. Thankfully (hah!) we were able to rustle up the borrowed kit (see last post). Kristen thinks it looks like the Husky symbol.

And finally, here are some blurry pictures of the girl’s costumes:



Rylee is a Geisha, not a zombie at an oriental restaurant. Some people mistake “Geisha” for prostitute, but if you think I’d let my daughter be one of those for Halloween, you've greatly mistaken my powers as a father. Prostitutes have bows in the front, Geisha’s do not. She bought that dress herself with the birthday money her GG gave her.



Kristen is recycled, meaning that she wore some costume we had lying around and wasn’t really into Halloween other than the fact that she’d collect humongous sacks of sugar. I believe this costume was called “The Medieval Princess.”

I packaged up my animation for the challenge, but I didn’t get to finish it due to coming up with the idea really late in the game. For what I pulled off in the last six days, I’m really rather proud. Let it play through once before you really watch it as the file starts to play before it’s completely loaded. I needed to put in a preloader which allows the file to completely load and gives the viewer a chance to start it when they want to, but, alas, time was not on my side.

Yup! I had two whole months to do this but pretty well did the entire thing in the last six days. Why? Am I lazy? Nope! I had an awesome idea at first, but like I said in the forum, it grew into something more than I could contain in this challenge. It will escape from my brain onto the computer one day. Also, I have a metric tonne of false start .fla files on my computer for the dry spell that came after I gave up my first idea. They all sucked...

...until last week when I came up with this idea. I thought it was doable, and I was right. It's not done, but hopefully done enough for the challenge. I know it has a non-ending, but look for that in the future. This is literally my first animation!

I will continue to work on it, but not at the pace I’ve been keeping the last 6 days. I need to clean it up, put in some sound and add the ending I intended. Then maybe I’ll submit it on some of those Flash sites I go to every now and then. Until then, enjoy The Pixie, The Cyclops And The Golden Apple!