SUNDAY January 4, 2009

I did some cute things for the kids’ teachers and the school they go to. I’ve taken out the bells and whistles–the glitter backgrounds and 3-d snowflakes ‘n stuff, but it’s all good.

Group shot of most of the teachers and the assistants. I couldn’t get reference for everybody and I know there are tons of folks I left out. But everyone seemed super happy.

What did I get for Christmas:

I WANTED this:

oh yea, the Stienway Sound System $150,000 of pure acoustic bliss. Able to make the fat lady give up singin’ and run away in tears. This puppy give the highest trebles and the basses of bass. Truly the awesomest of awesomest sound systems there is.

What we GOT this:

The Roku player.
What it is:

Streams Netflix Watch Now titles to your TV; affordable $100 price tag; unlimited viewing with no additional charge beyond standard ($8.95 or higher) monthly Netflix fee; PC-free movie watching; simple setup; includes built-in wired and 802.11g Wi-Fi networking; works with all TVs; upgradeable firmware allows for new features, interface improvements, and bug fixes.

From a design standpoint, there isn’t much to critique. Measuring 1.75 inches tall by 5.25 inches wide by 5.25 inches deep, the box is slightly smaller than your typical cable modem, but instead having just an Ethernet port on the back, it’s equipped with all manner of audio and video outputs: HDMI, component video, S-Video, and composite video ports, as well as digital optical or the standard red/white analog stereo outputs.

“The Renaissance is the name of an important artistic and scientific period that began about 1400 and went on for 200 years in Italy and, eventually, all of Europe. Renaissance means rebirth and this period was a time when scholars revived interest in learning and the arts of ancient Greece and Rome.

People began to think of new ideas and develop art techniques, the sciences, architecture, and inventions. They looked for new lands and trade routes — and their ideas and thirst for learning spread, especially through the new technology of printing. Important artists of the Renaissance were Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci, Cellini, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Important scientists were Copernicus and Galileo and philosophers were Machiavelli and Erasmus. Important writers were Montaigne, Shakespeare, and Cervantes. Columbus made his famous discoveries during this time.

The most important philosophy developed was called humanism — a new way of thinking that challenged the authority of the church and allowed scientists, artists, and scholars to produce their own ideas. The people of the Renaissance looked for new explanations, new ways of doing things, new interpretations of writings, new ways of building their homes and public buildings.”

THE TOOTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TOOTH
(Or you can’t handle the Tooth!)

The end of September beginning of October had me spending most of the time running back and forth between my dentist (truly she is a demon) and her pal, an oral surgeon (truly he is hell-spawn–but I do THINK he tried to help).

See, I had this really bum tooth and it needed a root canal–or so she said. She has diploma’s on the wall and a “Dr.” before her name so I would think that she could handle pretty much anything related to teeth.
No.

She sends me to another dentist for this root canal.

See, I cracked my tooth because I have a nasty habit of trying to open paint tubes with my back teeth–DON’T DO IT! E.V.E.R!!! Opening tubes up like this made me have multiple cracks in my molar. How it hadn’t cracked open she wasn’t sure.

So it ended up that I had to keep running back and forth to this other doctors office which was about 30 miles from where I live, 5 times–twice I needed to have additional root canals done–I hadn’t seen a dentist in 10+ years due to this overwhelming fear I have of them. It wasn’t fun. I guess they never really got the nerve dead because I kept feeling discomfort–ok, mild pain.

The surgeon asked if I wanted additional medication–I being stupid, didn’t understand what he was offering. I couldda had some good stuff!

Next time I know–always answer Yes, Please!!! to this question.

I did tell him I wasn’t a hero and I would rather not feel anything. Drilling and grinding out the root is the worst. Gah! The stuff nightmares are made of.

Anyway, I think I have my tooth fixed now. It feels weird to have a fake tooth in my mouth. But better then the gaping hole, and throbbing, mindless pain.
I kept wondering how people did dental work without all the niceties we have today–even WITH those nice little shots that are supposed to make it so you don’t feel anything, I still felt lots and lots of stuff.

GOOD GOLLY MISS MOLLY!!

ANY LAST WORDS???

Do you know what your last words are gonna be?

I know.

They are gonna be:

OH SHIT!!

See, I got to say that quite a bit last month. I had a family reunion in WY. It was a wonderful trip. Best time I’ve had in a long time. The part that kinda sucked big time–was that Barry and the kiddies stayed in Florida due to work, school, commitments, etc. So I went it solo–which was weird! And left me feeling majorly guilty. Do you know how hard it is to have fun when you are feeling guilty?? I did an ok job of it…but it really was hard : O )
Anyway, the whole family (I am the most favored among 6 brothers and sisters) met at my brothers huge home in Wyoming. It was totally the awesomest of awesome times.
I got to be with one of my brothers that I hadn’t seen since my dad died in ’92. I really enjoyed being with my family. They are pretty darn cool. We have distance, major philosophical differences and years that separate us–be we all fit together.

This is a t-shirt I had made up for everyone. I didn’t put in 2 of my brothers-in-laws an one of my sisters couldn’t make it to the reunion, so I have to work on another version real soon. I think I’m going to make my brothers-in-law and Barry Injuns! That would be a hoot!

This is the view from their back porch. I wanted to never leave this spot.

This is the back of their house:

Indescribable.

I took showers in a shower stall that dwarfed my master bedroom. I soooo wanted to slip into the jacuzzi bath, but I never had the chance.

The kitchen was gourmet all the way. Barry would have gone nuts in there. My sister-in-law Marsha made us Jambalaya–she and my brother live in New Orleans area.

They KNOW Cajun cookin’. Her was to die for!

My family warned me multiple times that it was going to be really cold in WY while we were going to be there. Stupid me in all my Floridian bravado scoffed at their warnings. I can handle a little cold. I’m tough–what a bunch of wusses I kept thinking as I packed my luggage smugly. Wrong!!!

If Jeff and Candy hadn’t been so use to entertaining and having multiple coats and active wear for each of those guests, I’d be toast. My idea of dressing warm was a pair of cropped jeans–they hit right about mid-calf, I did bring a couple of sweaters–like that helped a lot.

I would be frozen solid on some mountain side but for them generously raiding their closets for my wussy ass. While there I got to go four wheeling!

t even had pockets with these little holders to put bullets in! It was weird. For all I know I still have things I left in that coat and no one will ever find it because of all the damn pockets. Man, I loved that coat!!

So yep, I was perfectly happy on my sissy yet easy to ride four wheeler.

She was awesome. She cheesed my off when we stopped at one overlook and she takes off her helmet and shakes out her blond tresses looking like a super model and here’s me taking off my helmet and resembling a porcupine–hair all sticking up and over the place. Make up all over the place…but it was the funnest time!

Yep, I saw death all over that hill.

It was wonderfully cold, the color of fall trees all around us…

We rested at this place they call a “warming shack”.

The in-law out-laws–Marsha, Dave and Candy.

We went back to the cabin and just chilled out for a couple hours. Walking around, chatting, and my favorite past time-eating : O )

Jo freshens up the kitchen.

Later that evening my brother Ken took me out again on the four wheelers. We went deeper into the mountains. We must have stayed out for 3 hours or more.

I even saw a moose! Ok, it was dead–some hunter was skinning it, but I did see a moose. I think I saw more dead/ hunted animals out in Ut, WY, and ID then living ones.

And I thought our traffic here was hard to navigate. As we drove we started to see flurries!!

My kids have never seen real snow–just the fake stuff they have at Disney…also known as soap bubbles. Jackson was a lot different then I remembered–of course I’d been their about 20 or so years ago.

The center of town was still the same–dead deer antlers all over the place.

Jeff and Candy pointed out what I thought was a ski run–and part of it was–but another part is used in some world snow mobile race.

Folks get these really powerful Snow mobiles and race them up this HUGE mountain (a bazillion times higher then the one I saw while four wheeling). The object is to see who can go the fastest, longest distance UP this crazy mountain without sliding down the mountain run and/or NOT dying while doing it. It looked neat!

It had snowed quite a bit and it was gratifying to hear it crunch under my borrowed boots. A couple times I just sat and watched people pass. Lots of tourists.

But then I got to thinking snow–driving in mountain passes–hills–metal vehicles–my bad karma=probably not good. This is how my family thinks: Jeff drove his Toyota mega cruiser with shields, torpedo launch, and snow tires.

He did great and just to jump ahead we DID make it out alive.

But we filed into the vehicles. I pulled my seat belt around me extra tight and thought that I could use my Mom as my air bag as she’s small. I AM her favorite after all so I knew she wouldn’t mind.

Group shot. Aren’t we all smashin?!?

Damn, had I forgotten how high mountains are!! Here we are driving in a blizzard (which was beautiful, btw!!) and going up and down these 2 lane roads with no guard rails most of the time.

I got extremely close to one.

They smell.

Real bad.

And big. They are REAL big.

People were freakin’ NUTS about the animals and getting their photos. Here we are sliding down mountains and idiots would be standing in the middle of the roads trying to photograph buffalo and such.

Couple times we almost took out a couple tourists. A couple times *I* almost got taken out. But I got some damn good shots!!

So we turned around and headed UP the snowy, icy mountain we had just careened DOWN. After we get to the end of one treacherously icy road, we see a park ranger just about to close the road we were on! The snowy, icy. Just to let you know…parts of Yellowstone are an elevation of 12,000 feet.

Orlando, FL? Maybe an elevation of 3 feet. I bruise easily at that elevation.

Anyway, the ranger lets us thru with a look of either pure disgust or amazement–it was hard to tell thru my squinted with fear eyes.

Even Mom? We finally make it into the West Yellowstone area and find out hotel.

West Yellowstone is a really cute little area. It’s a winter town–in the season everyone rides their snowmobiles here–I kinda got this mental image of everyone dressed up in some weirdly modified snow/cowboy gear and riding into town on their snow mobiles. Weird images I had.

The hotel was ok. Nothing special. They did have a pool (indoor) and it was at the center of this little town.

I would love to see this place in full-on winter with all the snowmobiles. This place is where people come to rent their snow gear and then they go snow mobiling thru Yellowstone when it’s closed to all other traffic.

We unloaded and caught our breath after our , took a little nap, then met for dinner and…woohoo…shopping. Lot’s of little junky tourist shops that I spent too much money in. Kinda reminded me of here and Disney only everything was deer and moose themed rather then Mickey themed.

We went to this family restaurant that was fun. I can’ remember the name. But we caught it on it’s last night. They were closing down until snow mobile season–which meant they would reopen in January.

So luckily I had my MP3 Player and watched a few episodes of t.v. shows I’d missed with my headphones on. Kinda a buzz kill, but…

It was fun to see Old Faithful go off. I hadn’t been to see if since University. There has been a lot of building around that area. Lots of snow blowing and it was C.O.L.D!!!! We’d had a family reunion about 20 years ago in Yellowstone and stayed at the lodge. That was good times!

We drove the long way around to get back to my brothers house. We went thru Idaho (gah! Never going back there–although I went to a rockin’ place called Craters of the Moon–absolutely one of the coolest places on earth).

Saw one of my old College and the dorm I stayed in (BYU-Rexburg) One of the most hellish times I’ve ever been thru and the main reason I had though I’d never go back to Rexburg.

I just got back to Florida when we had to drive up to Mississippi to attend Barry’s brothers wedding.

It was a mighty long drive–13+ hours with 3 kids in the car. But at least we’d installed a DVD player before we left. That was indeed a god send!! The kids loved it. I love going up to Mississippi.

But Fox wanted NOTHING to do with it. I was thinking since he was so into cars, he’d love to ride this. Boy, was I wrong!

We met Barry’s brother Shane on Friday at a Chinese Restaurant (sucked). He seemed ok–not like I would have thought someone getting married the next day would be…but whatever.

That night Barry and his parents went to a wedding rehearsal dinner. I stayed home and watched Tina and my kids. That all went well. And then they came home. Something was wrong. Barry helped me finish bathing the kids and I could tell he was mighty upset. But he wouldn’t talk about it.

He said he and I needed to go talk. I was thinking the wedding might be off. He said it might be…but we needed some place to talk.

We got the kids down to bed, and then his folks said they’d watch the kids while we went to talk. Yep. Something was in the air.

Many a book has been plotted and laid out at Taco Bell. But it’s 10:00 on a Friday night in Mississippi–which is almost like a Sunday in Salt Lake City–everything is closed. So our big discussion takes place in our car.

I’ve only met this girl twice and those were very brief meetings that didn’t go over very well.

Even the Preacher and his wife where both bitches to Barry, and his Mom and dad. The brides parents didn’t even have the balls to introduce themselves to Barry’s family or to Barry.

I think most of all he wanted to dance with his daughters. But then we found out Baptists don’t dance so…

The wedding did go thru, but Barry refused to stay around for the reception. I had to try and explain to Chloe who had been so excited about the wedding that she couldn’t go and then try to explain that she didn’t do anything wrong–that was hard.

I was pissed. Barry missed time at the office, I missed work, the kids missed school, I was out money for day-care–I was in a dark place. If we had been informed before had that kids weren’t welcome, it would have been one thing, but to have come all this way and not been able to participate was a pretty shitty thing–especially in the manner it was done. And yes, of course, there were kids on the brides side.

YOU SAY IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY… Yep, I turned another year older this week. I had a really fun one.

Initially, I had been thinking that Barry had forgotten my birthday. I had it all planned out–if he forgot my birthday I’d get the mini-laptop computer I’ve been wanting to add to my gadget collection.

However, when I got home from work, Barry had put streamers all over the kitchen, baked me a Shoo-fly pie (to die for!!!). had a dozen roses on the counter and had a present for me.

The only things I’d really wanted for my birthday were: Daniel Craig delivered nekkid and bathed to me
A mini-laptop and this:

• He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics
• He was known as “O’Bomber” at high school for his skill at basketball
• His name means “one who is blessed” in Swahili
• His favourite meal is wife Michelle’s shrimp linguini
• He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father
• He is left-handed – the sixth post-war president to be left-handed
• He has read every Harry Potter book
• He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali
• He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can’t stand ice cream
• His favourite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars
• He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia
• He can speak Spanish
• While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead
• His favourite drink is black forest berry iced tea
• He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president – he didn’t
• He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia
• He can bench press an impressive 200lbs
• He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed by his full name
• His favourite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
• He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister’s fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived
• His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy
• He and Michelle made $4.2 million (£2.7 million) last year, with much coming from sales of his books
• His favourite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
• He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck
• He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.
• His favourite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees
• He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date
• He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker
• He doesn’t drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol

• He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician
• As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine
• His daughters’ ambitions are to go to Yale before becoming an actress (Malia, 10) and to sing and dance (Sasha, 7)
• He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside
• He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal
• His house in Chicago has four fire places
• Daughter Malia’s godmother is Jesse Jackson’s daughter Santita
• He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry
• He uses an Apple Mac laptop
• He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300
• He wears $1,500 (£952) Hart Schaffner Marx suits
• He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes
• He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Zariff, who charges $21 (£13)
• His favourite fictional television programmes are Mash and The Wire
• He was given the code name “Renegade” by his Secret Service handlers
• He was nicknamed “Bear” by his late grandmother
• He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds
• His favourite artist is Pablo Picasso
• His speciality as a cook is chilli
• He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were “street urchins”
• He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life
• His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government

New terms have been coined from this election.

From Urbandictionary.com:

*NOTE: This condition has been observed in people whether their chosen candidate won or not.

Wife, to her Doctor: “I’m worried about my husband. Ever since the 4th, he’s just been sitting at home wandering the New York Times and CNN for hours on end.” Doctor: “I wouldn’t worry about it. He probably just has an acute case of PEWS. He should be back on his feet by the end of the week.”

-noun

1. the general euphoria experienced when your candidate of choice wins by a landslide.

2. the sexual arousal and excitement caused by same.
“Dude, when I saw the final tally of votes on Nov. 4, I got a total election erection!”

A great post also at the same site:

vote
The best way you have of voicing your opinion in a way that can matter. Nothing’s perfect, and there’s always going to be mistakes, but there is simply no excuse for not casting a ballot for what you believe in. Take the time to understand the issues and then take the time to vote. Don’t let people who aren’t going to be around four years from now decide your future. Complaining without voting is worse than any hanging chad.
My conscience is clear because I took the time to vote.

Fact of the Day: popcorn

Moisture, it turns out, is extremely important to a popcorn kernel. Unless the percentage of moisture in the kernel is just right, the kernel won’t pop. When the pressure inside the hard shell gets high enough, the kernel explodes.

Okay, okay, okay!  That’s not true.

I love it beyond measure!  Every once in a while you come across books and you become so tunnel visioned that you can’t do anything but read, read and then read some more!

I’ve spent far more money in the last month then I even want to think about with my local crack dealers (aka bookstores).

Okay,  yes, I get it–you’re a “legitimate” writer and therefore this book can by no means be considered science fiction.

But it is.

Post apocalyptic sci-fi.

Is it the best post-apocalyptic book out there?  Hell no.  Not even. But damn good.  Even Oprah said so.

But would it have killed you to use quotation marks just once in a damn while?!?

I look forward to the movie.  Will it be as bleak as the book?  I think everyone was pretty much gutted after watching “Children of Men”, so bring it on.

Other BETTER post apocalyptic books to try:

* Lucifers Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (one of my top 10 books and probably THE best post apocalyptic book out there)
* Swan Song by Robert McCammon
* I am Legend by Richard Matheson

* Wolf and Iron by Gordon Dickson  A man befriends a wolf and head west.  Damn this was a good book!

* Folk of the Fringe by Orson Scott Card  I am begrudgingly including this book even though I’m pissed as hell at what a blowhard Card has become.  He use to be one of the most character driven writers out there.  Now he’s just a scary hardcore nut job.

* The Postman by David Brin (soooo much better then the crap fest movie that Kevin Costner made)
Ok, ok, ok!  I’ll do it…

* The Stand by Stephen King.  The Deus Machina ending kinda cheesed me off, but hey, it’s Vegas baby.

COOL THINGS I HAPPENED UPON WHILE IN THE BOOKSTORE THAT I HAD TO JUST BUY:

Dracula and Tom Sawyer illustrated by Ben Caldwell.  I loved these books and had to buy them.  I stumbled across them hidden in an obscure corner in the kids section at Barnes and Nobles.  Chloe was looking around with me and “the creepy vampire guy” on the cover caught her eye.  The art caught mine as well!  I ended up buying both and am so impressed by his figure designs and color schemes.

Bastard.

I had his Cartooning book from a few years ago.  Talented guy this Caldwell fellow.

creepy vampire guy” on the cover caught her

eye.  The art caught mine as well!  I ended up

buying both and am so impressed by his

figure designs and color schemes.

ago.  Talented guy this Caldwell fellow.

want to, STOP HERE.

SPOILER ALERT!!

You HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

I joined a 24 hour access gym and it works perfect for me.  I usually go late at night after I get off work from caricaturing.  There are few people there and most of the time I have the whole gym to myself. 

I like messing with people and I like to play games with myself while I draw people to keep myself going.  When you’ve been doing this for as long as I have and met as many people as I have, asked the same damn questions I have over and over again, you start to compartmentalize people and categorize people.  Last week I drew a couple.  She was great and cute and we got a long fine.  Then her boyfriend sits down.  He’s big.  Very quiet.  Crew cut flat top thing going on with the hair, and obviously worked out–he was bulky in a gym rat kinda way.  He sits down and I do the regular chatty stuff with him for a couple seconds.  Then I asked him if he was a cop.  He blinked then looked at his girlfriend and asked if she’d told me.  She went wide eyed and told him no.  I was proud of myself.   Then in the next breath I realized I’ve been doing this far too long.

One of my favorite things to do is occasionally I will get kids (usually boys) that they only reply in “yes, Ma’m, no Ma’m” utterences.  So I love to frame questions in my mind that in no way require a yes or no answer.  Kinda a fun mind game.  Ya gotta try it.

Every once in a while you come across things that make you shake/pound your head–mean clients, kids that won’t stop chomping their gum in your ear, people standing far too close to me (yes, I have serious issues about personl space).

The other night I’m drawing at The Caribbean Resort.  And this old guy–seriously he was 80 if he was a day–walks up to me wanted me to draw his girlfriend.  I’m kinda waiting for someone his approximate age and thinking this guy is an older man who has found his lost love and this is gonna be sooo fun and cute to draw…

And speaking of old creepy dudes…what the hell is up with John McCain?!?

He’s 72 she’s 44.  They’ve met once, talked on the phone once and she’s the best he could find???  Man or woman???  I’m trying to figure out who is more pissed, Mrs McCain, Leiberman, or Romney.  Or women in general.

This is the best ya got?  A first-term Governor, a former mayor of a town of 6,000-9,000 people depending on what source you use.  Who’s foreign policy experience amounts to “Alaska is close to Russia?!?!” (Fox News Channel’s Steve Doocy actually said that.  Granted it Fox news…but WTF??!?)

And McCain made a big deal out my man Obama’s lack of experience?

Vanity, John.  Power hungry vanity made you make a stupid move.

SCHOOL DAYS

It has officially started.  Chloe is now officially in school and forever marked to be in the system.

Ok, it’s Pre-K, but everyday she has to go to school from 9-12.  She loves it.  I don’t know if she is learning a lot, but I love to watch her interact with her teachers and other kids.

Fox and Molly go to school 2 days a week at the same place.  They have really blossomed.   I feel bad about the other kids.  On the days that Barry and I drop off all three of the kids, all the other children in the room run up to us like they were starved for attention.  We had to becareful not to trip as we tried to retreat towards the door. 

http://www.womblees.com/

is now alive!  I’m not sure how often I am going to update it.  Mostly weekly I’m thinking and I’ve not set an official start date.  Maybe end of September.  I want to be good and caught up.

Another character design and future cover

We waited 15 years to have kids–not really planned on it happening that way–we just…well…kinda forgot. We were meaning to…

But, thanks to Mr Potency and my overly fertile womb, we’ve had 3 kids in 4 years. Good thing we didn’t forget to have kids after all.

Okay, so it’s been a while. Back in May we had Barry’s folks here for a short visit. We took them, Barry’s sister Tina, and our nephews Storm (who is staying the summer with us) and Dylan over to Daytona Beach to watch the Space Shuttle lift off.

We can see if from our backyard, but I thought it would be really cool to do something we’ve never done before and drive over to watch liftoff.

Traffic was a mess! I think every single person in central Florida had the same idea. It took forever to get there. A trip that should have taken about an hour, took almost 2.5 hours!

However, we finally arrived to the coast. Traffic, cars, thongs of people EVERY damn where! People where charging $20 -$30 to park on the side of the road, in store parking lots… I never in my wildest dreams thought traffic would have been like that. We were about to turn around and head to Coco beach when we came upon this little kids play park. Hardly anyone was there!

So we wheeled in, parked (for FREE!!!) got out our picnic lunch that Barry’s Mom had thought to make (me? I just charge off half-assed not thinking about snacks n’ stuff). We all sat under a beautiful shade tree and just chilled for an hour or so until launch.

Molly plays with Grandaddy.

The kids dive into Skittles.

Fox sneaks up on Daddy.

The crowd started really growing about half an hour until launch. We got up and moved over to this bridge to get a good view of the shuttle. From where we were at Cape Canaveral was about 8 miles away.

I guess I was expecting HUGE sound, loud booms, the roar of the engines—but nah. There was a little bit of sound, but not what I was expecting at all.

It really was amazing to see and I’m glad we did it. I’d always wanted to. I have to admit that it wasn’t quite what I expected. I expected A LOT more noise. I didn’t expect the ba-zillion people.

I didn’t expect the cities of Daytona and Coco to be soooooo racist! I swear if I saw one more Confederate flag stuck on a t-shirt, a truck or flying outside someones trailer, I was gonna scream.

I wasn’t expecting the trip back to take 3 friggin’ hours!

Really.

IF you go, the only thing I can say is traffic will be horrible. I’d heard stories, but I didn’t think they could possibly be right.

Believe. Believe and be warned. You won’t get out from the shuttle launch for 4 hours. And it’s slow. Painfully, painfully. slow.

THE FIRST CUT IS THE DEEPEST

The kids all went and got hair cuts. Chloe went first. She’s been asking for a spa day for a long time. Which is funny. I’m not the kind. Really. And here is my 4 year old asking for a friggin’ spa day. She is the ultimate girly girl.

Then Fox decided he wanted to try it. Sooo…the lady had extra time and up he went.

He did awesomely. I thought for sure he’d start crying and thrashing once he got in the chair, but he was fantastic.

I admit it. I kinda freaked when she brought out the shaver. I wasn’t envisioning anything too short. Fox has the most gorgeous blond locks.

It’s a bit too prep boy with all the gel in it. But the kid cleans up right nice.

MOLLY UPDATE
Molly’s latest PKU blood work came back really high for her–10.8!!

Of course, I flipped out and took it really hard. But we don’t have to change anything major really, just cut her proteins back in half again. So I went and loaded up on veggies and fruit. She can still have protein, but we are cutting waaaaaaay back again. We have to retest in a week.

GO TOWARDS THE LIGHT

Coloring in Photoshop is tough. For the life of me I just can’t get lighting. I can do it FINE when I watercolor, but sit me in front of the computer and…blank.

So I’ve started laying out little roughs of how I want back lighting, mood lighting, etc before I start computer coloring.
Guess I’m just old school. I still find writing easier on paper first, then tying it into the computer and editing it from there.

Some costume designs

It has neither buttons nor ties, being lapped left over right across the chest and secured at the waist by a broad sash known as an obi. The short-sleeved kimono (kosode), worn by women as an outer garment, was introduced in the Muromachi period (Ashikaga shogunate; 1338-1573). The contemporary wide obi dates only from the 18th century. Although the kimono is not of Japanese origin, as is often supposed, its great beauty is attributable to 17th- and 18th-century Japanese designers.

The kids love to eat Chinese food. So as a lark we got Fox dress up in his Chinese outfit our friend picked up on his latest jaunt to Shanghi.

Chloe has a darling purple one and for the life of me I can’t figure out why I didn’t think to put her in it before we left.

Anyway, Fox enjoyed mugging in his outfit. I guess he liked the feel of the silk because now he always asks to wear it. He’s one good lookin’ kid. Someday I’ll figure out who his parents are.

It’s been a kinda crappy stressful time. At present all of us are sick in ways that nobody in polite society would dare mention. The kids have been sick with minor colds before but this time they all had high fevers, sever coughs, and just laid around. My kids DON’T lay around. I don’t think they are still even when they sleep.

I’ve been sick at the same time and now Barry’s caught it. It ain’t pretty, it ain’t fun and I’ll sure be glad to see the back end of this thing.

On the good side, all the kids want to do is snuggle–en masse. Sometimes they have fights for lap space, but pretty much all we’ve been doing is laying on the couch and watching Cartoon Network. Never thought I’d get tired of that, but I’m due for a break.

Because things have been going so well at Ka-blam, we’ve put the kids in Day Care twice a week. I’ve had a really hard time with that. Barry and I have always worked shifts–I watch the kids during then day then do my drawing at Disney at night and he…well…he watches the kids at night and works all night as well ; o )

OHMYHEAVENS is day care expensive! I don’t know how people do it. And I don’t know for how long we can do it. For 3 kids 2 times a week it’s $230.

Molly watches Daddy come in the room. I love how she lit up.

Getting ready for first day of school. Yep. I do need to finish my laundry. I think it’s still in the same spot from a few weeks ago.

Fox checks out the toy cars.

I certainly grown to respect the work that Thomas an Barry do at the offices. I don’t know how they get all the printing, coding, shipping, cutting, binding done that they do. They totally have my respect. They do this 7 days a week–I work occasionally from home doing the hand holding on the forum posts, and then twice a week in the office before going to work at Disney and I’m exhausted.

The kids seem to be adapting well to the Day Care thing. The first little while was really hard. One of us has always been there for the kids. Then they were rapidly put into a new environment. Molly has been having the toughest time.

I’m pretty sure that the crud we’ve all got now is a direct result of the germ factory that is Day Care. They kids had to miss Thursday because they were all sick and STILL the day care charged us for them. $230 down the drain. It hurt something fierce.

On top of that I got a crappy tooth and had to have a root canal done. That set us back another $2100! Yep, sucks not having insurance.

For a little while there we’d come into a little bit of extra money…not enough to turn me Republican by any means, but it gave us a little cushion and we got to get a Toyota mini van (henceforth referred to as “The Mystery Machine”–Daddy and Fox’s idea, natch).

Molly has already made the Captains seat hers.

Chloe wears her IronMan shades.

So we now have 2 vehicles. But after my tooth episode, the sicknesses, car, various paying off of bills…back to middle class for us.

BOOK ‘EM, DANNO

Went to visit my local crack house–a.k.a. Books-A-Million. I picked up a really cook book…Buffy the Vampire Hunter: Panel to Panel

Of course Mystery Science Theater 3000 is my all time favorite t.v. show, but Buffy is a top 3 or 4 pick for sure.

It’s a really cool collection of comic book art, pin-ups and various and sundry. I’ve really enjoyed it. It’ll help me a lot when I start coloring Womblees again.
I spent far too much time and money at BaM. They had quite a few costume books from the Victorian period that somehow kept getting into my hands. I felt it my personal duty to go ahead and buy them. Haven’t had a chance to really look at them yet.

UNDER THE BOARDWALK..DOWN BY THE SEA…

We took the kids to Aquatica…a new waterpark that opened here.

Chloe is fascinated by the Commersons Dolphins. They have a water slide where a tube goes thru their habitat…but she was an inch or two too short. She took it like a champ. Maybe next time.

Fox catching a breath.

Chloe wanted to just watch the dolphins.

These Egrets are one pissed off species. I guess it’s their molting season, but MAN! where they cranky. If you came anywhere close to them they bristled up and hissed. Which they usually don’t do.

They are lovely and I want to try and paint this picture.

Went over to Seaworld for a bit and watched the Walrus.

More of the pissed off bird.

The green Moray eels are always fun to watch.

Molly is one smart cookie. Here she commands the dolphins with her mind.

JUST TAKE A PICTURE ALREADY

Got me a new camera. This is the first pict I took with it.

I’ve grown pretty weary of Kodak stuff–for me they’ve been pretty unreliable, and subject to frequent breakage that isn’t kid related. I didn’t want a “big boy” camera (big lens), just one that I could keep in my purse. Yet I also wanted one with a good optical zoom and good mega pixels. So I arrived at the Panasonic DMC-TZ5K

I LOVE this camera! It’s got 9.1 megapixels, 10x optical zoom, face recognition, image stabilizer, and one bitchin’ LEICA DC Vario-Elmar lens. Schweet! The shutter speed is very fast, no lag, great view screen (3 inches!!!), and does great movies. Extremely easy to use with it’s Intelligent Auto or you can play around with your own settings. I couldn’t be happier with this camera.

WOULDN’T CHA LIKE TO BE A PEPPER TO?

I LOVE hot sauces. The hotter the better. BUT…they gotta have flavor. Any sauce can take the roof off your mouth thru the burn, but it’s gotta taste good.

Came across this Habenero sauce called Iguana Radioactive Atomic Pepper Sauce. Cool label, too. It’s by Half Moon Bay Trading. It rocks! Lots of flavor and ooooooohhhh what delightfully painful burn is in store.

BEST OF LUCK TO YA!

INDIANA JONES ALERT!!

Ok, I’ve not seen the movie, I’ve heard weeping and wailing from various friends about the movie, but I got a spoiler just from watching a stupid commercial.

IT’S ALIENS???

WTF???

Ok, I bought and loved the archaic Jewish Mysticism, I enjoyed the South America spookiness…but…ALIENS????

Damn.

If you’ve never listend to him before, give my pal Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds a listen.
Dig! Lazarus Dig is one of his best albums in forever–and this cats been around a long time.

Also, listen to “Red Right Hand”.

When the tube is squeezed, the white toothpaste would run through the special inner tube and the pressure of the squeeze simultaneously forces the colored toothpaste through the tiny orifices at the end. The toothpaste emerges perfectly striped.

The first toothpaste mentioned in recorded history was devised by Egyptian physicians about 4000 years ago. It was made from powdered pumice stone and strong wine vinegar and brushed on with a chew stick.

I love the feeling of freshly bushed teeth, but I’ll be damned if I can stand to have the stuff on my skin. Can’t stand the smell, can’t stand the feel…but give me good ol’ freshly scrubbed teeth anyday!

I got to do one of the funnest gig’s I’ve gotten to do in a while. We got booked to draw at the Outback Stakehouse convention for 2 nights. It was awesome!!! There were a bazillion people (no, really) from all over the world.

I got to meet 2 of the three founders AND the guy who designed the recipe for the Bloomin’ Onion.

I’m peekin’ out behind Michael McElroy who’s leaning back. One of the most talented artists you’ll ever meet. Kenny Durkin is center. He’s supposed to be workin’ on his comic book for Chicago…so if you go to his web page or myspace…ask him how it’s goin’. Tell ‘em Jenni sent cha.

The last night the party was held at Flights of Fantasy in Lakeland, FL.

http://www.fantasyofflight.com

An absolutely incredible place. The design of the place was amazing. Very themed. The collection of aircraft is breathtaking.

If you get the chance you HAVE to go and walk amongst the ghosts and relics of days long past.

I wish I knew about aviation history. I find it fascinating. My biggest thrill was getting to see a Flying Fortress up close.

There’s huge, there’s BIG and then there’s a Flying Fortress.

Yeah, so I was all a twitter and my camera shook.

Here’s that Michael guy again.

A storm is a brewin’.

I have to say how incredible this catering staff was. This huge thunderstorm was coming in fast. I’d say within 15 minutes they had all the tables that WERE outside BACK inside and fully dressed to receive guests. They were truly amazing.

Just before the guests started to arrive, the storm started and it didn’t let up for a mighty long time. It was pretty violent.

Another cool craft.

The stands were supposed to hold the audience to see the Dave Matthews Concert.

Very few things make me squeal with utter girlish delight…but that nights entertainment sure did. The Dave Matthews Band was the entertainment and MAN! Did they sound awesome!

It doesn’t hurt that Dave Matthews is one tasty lookin’ fella.

I’ve taken up gardening. Me. Yep. Go figure. There was a reason Barry use to call me Plant Killer/ Herb Slayer.

I had NO green thumb.

Nada.

I sucked.

Maybe it’s the fact that I now have kids and am more…nurturing. Bwahahahaha!

I think it’s just ‘cuz I’m watering the damn things more.

It’s very rewarding to watch your plants grow. I’m growing quite a few herbs again (and doing VERY nicely I might add). As well as tomatoes, cucumbers, Sunflowers, and 2 lemon and 1 lime tree. The trees are very small, but I’ve got fruit on ‘em!! Woohooo!

My main thrill is peppers. I’ve been growing a lot of variety of peppers. We got to eat some of the peppers last night that I grew AND cooked. And I didn’t burn the kitchen down this time!

I still need to get better at weeding. The weeds are a tad strong in these parts.