I love this man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af1OxkFOK18

SB 20 Robot 3

Here is an unfinished robot. You like? Yeah, he's okay.

So Jen is off to Vegas next week, and I have the house and the boy all to myself, and a babysitter, and maybe Jen's dad at some point. That will be fun after not seeing him for four days while in D-Town. Jen will have fun, and win us enough money to buy a pony.

Not much to report. A boring week, other than getting the now Flash at work, and messing about with that. It does many neat-o things. I'm having a good time with it.

Seriously, all I have for you is a silly robot.

-JP

SB 19 - Squid

Well, I haven't posted a Sketchbook in a while, so here you go. It is a squid. I didn't have much to work on today so I drew a squid. And there you have it.

So I'm back from Denver. I finally got my driveway free of ice yesterday after much scraping with a nasty looking scraper thingy, and now we're supposed to get dumped on again. Another 6-10 inches heading our way. To tell the truth, I am relieved. Other than my lack of an actual snow shovel, I have no reservations about the coming storm. I could use a weekend in, after the holidays and the cruise and the Denver. I caught a cold in the three days since I've been back as well, so I could use the rest. Next weekend, Jen goes off on her own trip, so the boy and I will be batchin' it. That will be fun. Sometimes I really like having him all to myself.

The big news in Stilly is that the new, up-to-date Wal-Mart opened today. Whoopty-fuckin'-do. It is a lot closer to my house, but my bank is still in the other one, so good and bad I guess. I hate that I have to shop there, but they don't give much choice. Albertson's is hella expensive, and the IGA is a friggin' joke. Stupid Wal-Mart.

Not much else going on. I miss my Denver friends, but I am glad to be home. If any of you in Denver can get me a really good paying job, so we could all come back, go ahead and do so. You have my number.

-JP

Denvah in '07!

Oh.

My.

Gawd.

Did we have a good time. (click me)

We set forth on a chilly Thursday evening that was going to get way chillier. Like chilling out with the children of Chile while eating a chili-dog with green chili and a bev from the chiller while watching a chilly-willy cartoon, awaiting the start of The Big Chill. Cody and I did not care. We were on a mission. And we were in a heated, 4WD truck with some good music. Cody is good company. The road trip is a good test of friendship. If you don't want to jab an ice-pick into someone's eye after hours and hours trapped in a tin can with them, then you never will.*
We did well, with Arctic Monkeys and Eddie Izzard, and peeing on a gas station in the freezing cold keeping us awake. That is until about 4:00 am, when we both started to crash. But like that famous line from the Gambler, we were both too tired to sleep.
We made it to the Breakfast King and all was well. The King has changed a bit. The smoking ban has forced a bunch of dives and greasy-spoons to smarten up a bit in order to appeal to those who would otherwise not want to fight thick grey fog for a plate of biscuits covered in thick grey sauce. No yellow windows with my fluorescent yellow eggs, please. It also means that your clothes don't stink after a night at the bar.
A visit to Cain at the Pablo's to get some keys and we got settled into my mom's mostly empty condo, feeling a bit like squatters. At least I did. I was on a mat on the floor, whereas Cody had a King-sized bed. It may not have hit him as hard. Funny thing is that I got to sleep right away on my little mat, and Cody fussy-butted around in his king-sized pile of cousin's until he gave up and went to the mall.
I met up with him a bit later for sammies and coffee and shuffleboard and Newcastle. Then we tried to take naps, but I couldn't sleep this time. Cody had a craving for a Gabor's hamburger, so off we went. People slowly trickled in, and we chatted and drank and ate. I took off for a bit to visit with Amy, and while at The Thin Man, Eric the owner bought me a beer. This was a bit weird. I've seen him charge his own mother. Off to Sputnik, and a fantaboulous time. This was a great night. I met a lot of really cool people and had a lot of fun in the photo booth (see above). We closed the place down, and went home to sleep it off.
Saturday we slept in. After a kick ass if way too expensive breakfast buritto from watercourse, Cody went off to visit his sister, and I tooled around town with Aaron and Jeremy until it was time to hit LeCentral with my mom. I saw the new Tattered Cover, the new Twist and Shout, and some galleries and toy stores along Broadway. It was cold and icy. I bought a little toy from a very cute girl. LeCentral was delicious. I had beef tips on a bed of pasta and the French onion soup that has an inch of provalone on top. Yummy. We called the whole world and told them to meet us at the condo.
Then the real fun started. See, in the condo, you need a phone to buzz in somebody from the lobby. Being squatters, we had no phone. But I remembered that if you have a TV hooked into the antenna for the building, you get a channel that shows all of the security cameras. At first, we were just watching to see when someone showed up so we could go down and let them in. Each time somebody got there, we would make them do something goofy, not knowing that the rest of the group was upstairs watching. We speculated on what would be amusing to see on a camera pointed at a lobby, like putting Jeremy in there in a recliner with a reading lamp, or Cain spilling a box of baby chicks. Once everybody got there, we spent a while doing other weird things, like little plays, pretending to strip, or a hockey fight that spanned two floors. Then Cain put a dollar in the lobby to see if anybody would grab it. After a while we thought it would be fun to put a sign by the elevators, telling them to put it back. This we did to hilarious results. After two people came through the garage instead of the front door, and with a large group of malcontents getting steadily more drunk while staring at a bunch of security camera images with growing anticipation, we hit pay dirt. A young couple came into the lobby. The man noticed the dollar, picked it up, and did that thing where you hold it with two hands in front of someone and sort of snap it like "look what I got". She nodded in that unimpressed way every girl nods, as if to say "great," but not really mean it. As they round the corner, they see the sign. They look at each other and look back at the floor where the dollar used to be, and to our complete astonishment, the guy fishes the dollar out of his pocket and puts the fucker back! Then he peels the tapped up sign we put on the wall, and re-tapes it to the floor by the dollar. Then he and the girl, giggling, enter the elevator and go out of sight. Hoo Boy did we have a good laugh at that one. A while later, another guy, who's honesty really amazed us, picked up the dollar, and left it on the coffee table ling before he ever saw the sign. When he did see it, he went back and put the dollar back on the floor. By that point, it was late, and fewer people were coming in, so we decided to go to Streets of London Pub, where we spent the rest of the night throwing darts(not always at the dartboard), giving each other fake knuckle tattoos, drinking whiskey, and generally having a great time. We went our separate ways, Cody and I got some Taco Bell, and watched the last part of a weird as fuck animated movie about giant fish-faced people oppressing tiny humans, and the first part of a Hercules movie before crashing out.
Sunday I had lunch with my Dad, ironically just 45 minutes after I woke up. I spent the later part of the afternoon with my mom, having coffee at the shop, and then we all decided we wanted Indian food, so we went to Lisa's house. We drew on the wall, and listened to Cody play the guitar, and soon realized that not only was there no Indian food in her house, there was no Indian food in out bellies either, so we went to an Indian restaurant. Called India's. The mightiest vindaloo in the land, I tell you. I needed Lager**. I was informed that not only did Cody once piss off the lead singer of Live for no reason, but the movie we saw was called "Fantastic Planet" and was the product of a Czeck and French team-up intended to freak out really inebriated people in the future. We headed back to Sputnik, and met even more cool people, and had an awesome time. I had a few too many whiskeys, which was fun because I was a lot more mellow after having vodka redbulls the previous two nights. Cody and I had a wonderful conversation with Vanya and Katie, that I don't remember much of. After being forcibly defenestrated at about 2:30, we went home and slept the sleep of the dead.
Monday we packed up and headed home. All we did on the way back was text all the people we just saw, talk about how wonderful the weekend was, and how much I wanted to get home to see my wife and kid. We made it back despite a massive series of snow and ice storms that made the whole state look as though it had been covered in vanilla icing.
Today I went to work. Yes, the fuckers made me go to work.

I can't even begin to explain how much fun I had. Thank you to all who made it so. Despite all that, I was Jonesing to see my family. As much as I love you all, I love them more. I am happy to be home with them, though missing all of you. I feel so torn.



*maybe
**The only thing that will kill a vindaloo.

So we went on a Cruise...

It was relaxing in that whatever we wanted was right there, the food, shows, the bar, the swimming pool, all right there, and we didn't have to pack up a bunch of crap or find a babysitter or anything, we just went upstairs. So that was cool. It was exactly like being trapped in a LasVegas Hotel. Sure there is plenty to do, play the slots, go to the buffet, see a musical... But you can't leave. You have to stay put and give your money to them.
It rained on us from when we got to Galveston the night before until a well into the Cruise.
We had a fun night in the Super 8, frequenting the Waffle House out front a little too much.
We packed the whole family into 2 cabs, and headed for the pier, which looked like a really run down bus terminal made for giants back in the time of talking animals. We stood in line for a while, then got on the massive ship, which was made in the late '80s and the decor has never been updated. A lot of neon and busy carpet patterns. The halls are lined with plastic New York New York sky-line buildings that shimmer in Black and green and gold. If you have epilepsy, I caution you to not take a cruise on this boat. We spent the first night and part of the morning hiding from the rain and trying to keep our food down, as the swells knocked us around a little.
After that, the sun came out, and the upper deck was soon flooded with an enormous amount of scantily-clad Americans of all ages and weight classes.
We all spent most of our time in the restaurants. Not like we ate continuously (I actually lost weight), but there were 13 of us and we tended to linger. We took Jack swimming, and to a kid's dance party, and saw some shows, and Jen and I got some awesome spa treatment massages. Mostly we just sat on the deck and chatted with the fam. Jackson was a hit with just about everybody, because he's super-cute. We got a lot of compliments.
All the meals were included, but none of the drinks were. Any soda or alcohol we had to pay for, and they were not cheap. I think I spent most of my time drinking the fruit punch from the kid's buffet. You could buy stuff from the duty free shop, but after you buy something, they kindly wrap it up, and tell you where you can pick it up once the cruise is over. Bastards. You could get this drink card worth unlimited sodas for like $25.00, so we got one and smudged out the name enough so a bunch of us could use it if we were crafty. Tim and Lonny both brought Whiskey in their luggage, so we mixed that with our ill gotten Mr.Pibbs. Fuck the man!
Cozumel was really cool, but we were only docked from 8 till 5, and two hours. Either side of that was spent ferrying people from the ship to the island because a hurricane knocked out the pier last year, and they aren't too busy fixing it. So really we only had 4 or 5 hours on shore, which wasn't enough to see the whole island. We ended up renting a van, dropping off the girls at the plaza to do some shopping(after I got us lost and we ended up in the ghetto), while Tim, Lonny and I went to see the Mayan ruins. The ruins were neat, but small, and I hear the ones on the mainland are a lot bigger and more impressive. I'll hit those next time.
We were originally going to rent some scooters, but I'm actually glad we didn't. Cosumel is the scooter wreck capital of Mexico, and I now know why. Scooters are everywhere, and they don't give a shit. At one point we saw a woman driving with her 4 year old standing on the running boards, while the 8 year old sat behind her carrying a large cardboard box, just whipping in and out of traffic. We saw one scooter that had 5 people on it, mostly kids.
I had to buy some diapers for Jack in Mexico, and let me tell you, those things were sub-par. They held very little even though they came up to his nipples.
So after getting on the very last ferry back, we did the whole boat thing back to America.
We were barely looked at during customs, but the airport security was awful. They took away a bunch of our stuff, including a small bottle of Mexican Vanilla Jen had bought that I had mistakenly put in the carry-on, and were complete dicks about it. Due to some bad scheduling, we had to sit in the airport for a few hours, and that didn't impress Jack one little bit. He got pretty cranky, and told us so by smashing cheese crackers into Jen's purse. Once on the plane, though, he passed out, and slept the whole way home.
We all had a good time, there were few family clashes, it was relaxing. But I was very happy to be home, as was Jackson. He was way off his schedule, and it was starting to wear on him. When we finally got home, he started laughing hysterically while getting all of his toys out of the bin. He slept for 14 hours.
Now, after Jen spent the last two days doing a shit-ton of laundry, and we hurriedly celebrated her birthday, I am off to Denver with Cody tonight. We were going to leave on Friday, but since there is yet another giant snow storm heading there that will hit Friday afternoon, we thought it best to drive all night rather than get stuck somewhere in Eastern Kansas.

See you when I get there.

2006 year in review

Everybody seemed to love this last year, so I'll do it again.
In 2006, I:

(in no particular order)
-Was relieved that a good portion of the country came to their senses and realized that allowing any one political party do whatever they want is a bad idea.
-Switched from a mac to a PC. (there are very valid reasons)
-Downloaded more music and movies than I bought.
-Saw Jack turn one.
-Welcomed home my brother-in-law, safe and sound, from Iraq.
-Watched my son grow from a baby to a boy.
-bought a car, sold a car, couldn't afford that car, sold that car, bought a $300 car.
-Visited DC and met a bunch of politicians. (I had more fun meeting Ann's family)
-Really got crackin on my comic website.
-Got one comic published in a mag and one posted on a website that wasn't mine.
-Really got crackin' on comics and art.
-Worked on my house a lot. It is finally starting to feel like our house, and not one that we are house-sitting.
-Got so comfy in my job, that I think I can do something more now.
-Realized that I am a better parent than I thought I was.
-Realized that Jen is a way better parent than me.
-Drank a lot of coffee.
-Was excited at the news that Jack will have a new cousin to play with in the coming year.
-Didn't loose the weight I wanted to loose, but didn't gain any either.
-Never did get a decent haircut.
-Made it through the most God-awful fuckhot summer ever. If that shit happens again this year, I'm moving back to Denver. I can deal with cold. And they never give you a day off because it's too hot.
-Watched a crack in the foundation of my house inch upward in pace with all the fuckhot. As soon as it started raining, the crack stopped.
-Was visited by many a friend and family, which was surprising, because Oklahoma isn't on most people's "gotta visit before I die" lists.
-Went to a fabulous wedding for two people who honestly care about each other, and got to be a groomsman, which was a distinct honor.
-I made a friend. One of the best ever. He drives a lot to see us, and that makes him cooler.
-Turned 31, but I got to throw a really cool party for Jen's 30th. Robin helped. I'm lying. Robin did most of it.
-Taught myself Flash. It's actually fairly easy, if time-consuming.
-Did lots of sketches. More than usual.
-Realized that the 3 hours I spend with Jack in the evening after work and before he goes to bed isn't enough.
-Was mostly disappointed with all the over-hyped summer movies I was looking forward to. The pirate movie was the only one that really delivered.
-Was really happy that the new crop of nerdy shows on TV were so good. Heroes, Doctor Who, Torchwood... All awesome.
-Was amazed to see a great many people move out of Denver, my brother and his wife included. There are still many reasons to return, but they get fewer every year.
-I now have a good reason to visit Portland.
-Realized how a good family support system really helps out when one has a kid. Those guys are super!
-Realized that Jeremy is really good with kids. (keep that in mind, ladies.)
-Noticed that Thom Yorke doesn't "have it" anymore.
-Got into some new bands. There is good music out there, you just have to dig.
-Saw several friend's bands got fairly popular, proving that it does not have to be a "young man's game" to break into music.
-Didn't visit nearly enough people.
-Saw Jack start pre-school, start using words and sign language, have a really awesome Christmas, figure out how the use the vacuum, and generally watched him grow up a little. He's exceedingly smart and slightly impish. He'll be a maniacal genius. I'll have to keep my guard up.
-Realized that Jen deserves a medal for what she does. Working and being a mommy has at times run her thin, but has strengthened her resolve and character to degrees she is completely unaware of. She is tougher, more resilient, more loving and sweeter every day. I'm so glad I married her.
-I think I really became an adult this year. Having a kid really skews one's perspective if they do it right. We had a few financial bumps here and there, and the fact that my kid and my wife came before everything without me even thinking about it or even realizing it was a bit of an eye-opener. I see a bunch of people who were never ready to be parents or never will be, who try to cling desperately to their old lives instead of embracing their new one, or who look at kids as a burden and not a blessing, and I want to smack them. Not that people's lives need to stop, far from it. It just needs some skewing. I don't want to tell anybody how to live but when a plasma TV is more important that putting food on the table, you got some thinking to do. (I'm pointing at you, crazy couple in wal-mart the other day)

2006 was fun. We will miss James Brown, Jack Palance, Dave Cockrum, Gene Pitney, and all the others, including troops, who died. We will have fond memories of the good, that hopefully outweighed the bad.

2007 is set to be another fun one. I have a few secret and evil plans, but I'll keep those to myself. I do intend to make a road trip to see Jeff, and to move my comics to a real website, but those are "at my leisure" tasks. Jack will turn 2, I'll turn 32. (or freezing if I was Celsius)
Grace will have her kid, and the fam will grow. Congress may or may not get anything done, but let's hope they do. Maybe then the stupid polarity of the nation will ease a bit, and the power-hungry folks at the top won't be able to gorge themselves on our liberties as often. I have a few more rooms to paint, I have to get a new garage door, get my foundation fixed, have the transmission on the truck looked at, and we need to find Jen a better car. We need to pay down some more debt, but last year we got rid of a good chunk, and if we stick to our guns, we should be sitting pretty by this time next year. I'll have to teach Jack to pee standing up. I'll try harder to loose the 20 lbs I still need to. I'll try to get a decent haircut. I have a few art projects to tackle, and some prints to frame, and a stack of books to read. I have a kid to look after, and wife to help to not go crazy. It should be a blast!