A Big-ass long weekend.

Three day weekend!
Friday I tried to take Jackson to see WALL-E. What I saw of it was phenomenal. Unfortunately, Jackson being almost three and all, couldn't deal with it. We cooked out at our place with the whole family and then tried to go see an air show/fireworks display at the Jenks airport that we read about in the paper I work for that didn't actually exist. Nobody seems to know where the reporter got his info, including the security guard that turned us away at the gate. So we went to a park for a while and waited for the Jenks show to start. It was pretty good, but the little ones(We had Grace and little Zane in tow) once again couldn't deal, so once again we left early. Those of you out there that don't have kids don't realize the full severity of this, but parents are constantly late for things and have to leave early. It's just part of the package.
Saturday, I took Jackson in the morning to see the actual event at the airport, which was a 50th anniversary thing with a bunch of vintage aircraft on display. Some of which you could go in and look around. Jackson had a gfeat time, given the extreme heat.
It was then on to little Zane's 1st birthday party. Zane is an awesome little kid who belongs to Jennifer's sister. He dove into his little cake like crazy. He also got a shit-ton of presents. Everybody had a really good time. During clean-up, I broke a dish. That in itself wouldn't be bad, but I put the broken bits of glass into a trash bag, and while taking out that trash bag, I somehow stabbed myself in the leg. I'm going to guess that the glass bit went about a half and inch to an inch into my calf. There was a bunch of blood that didn't feel like stopping for like an hour. yummy.
Jackson stayed the night at the grandparent's place. Mostly because he fell asleep on the couch about 7:00, and we just left him there to sleep it off.
Sunday we did chores, ate leftovers and hung out at the Mall.
Fun, relaxing and painful.

How was yours?

-

Some clarifications.

I guess I was mistaken on a few points in my last post.
The Hotel Scarlett is staying in is an Extended Stay hotel, so they do have a fridge and a sink and what not. That was my bad. It still doesn't explain very much.
Also, we thought the cousins were going to be here much later in the summer than they were.
Hence, we thought Grace might possibly be here, and it would have been awesome if she were, but we weren't counting on it by any means. Sorry, Grace.


None of this means anything, as the cousins are now gone. They decided that staying in the Ronald McDonald house with their mom would be more fun than hanging out with us.
So be it.


Scarlett is still back east with her mom, and will be until at least another week. So things are a lot calmer now. All sudden-like.


I think we are going to sit tight on the whole Scarlett thing. Only because we do think her mom isn't actively trying to neglect her child, she just doesn't really know how to be a parent. We're hoping she slowly figures it out. Maybe we can help her with that.

-JP

A nice week-end and some crazy drama.

So we had a lovely weekend. Joe and Laura were and still are and always have been the coolest of people and the dearest of friends. We had fun times. Ate a boat load of food, and drank some beers. We actually did not make it to Momentum Tulsa because of all the food and beers we consumed Saturday night. In fact, except for a walking tour of Tulsa Saturday afternoon after stuffing ourselves at the Blue Dome Diner, we pretty much stuck close to home. Friday night we ordered pizza and made margaritas, and Sunday we just grabbed some Brunch before they headed back to Austin. Though afterwards, Jen and I took the boys to a birthday party for a two-years-old girl. Kellon is the daughter of a work buddy, and we had fun at the party. There was a pool and a pinãta and strawberry cake.


Joe and Laura did accompany us to Jackson's first soccer practice. He's two, so it wasn't really a practice so much as a bunch of little kids running around in circles. He had a blast. His one greatest love in life is running, so this may just be the sport for him. He also loves trains and puzzles, just so you know come birthday time.*


On to the drama. Remember the "massage therapist" who's kid Jenn watches during the day?
Well she and her roommate had a falling out while on a trip to Vegas or some shit. The roommate, who is also the receptionist at the Parlor, kicked them out. Now they are living in an extended stay hotel in the totally awesome part of town. She only recently got a car, but still doesn't have a valid license because of warrants out on her in like 4 states. So Jenn has to drive to the complete opposite side of town and hang out around a seedy hotel to pick up and drop off the kid now. This was not the Original deal. Originally, Jenn picked up Scarlett from a much closer and safer location, and They picked her up. The mom isn't really paying anything extra for gas, either. In addition to having to drive longer, Jen also keeps the kid longer. The OD (original deal) was to pick up Scarlett around 2pm, sometimes noon, and they would come get her around 9:30. Oh, no. It's more like 9am to 11pm now.
So let's talk about living in a hotel with a toddler for a sec, shall we? First, there is no kitchen. This means no fridge. Scarlett seems to subsist completely on food from the McDonalds across from the hotel. Last week, Jen picked her up at 9:45am. Scarlett had just woken up( which means she must have been up all night), and hadn't been changed(she was in the same diaper we sent her home in) or fed. Her mom handed Jenn $5.00, and suggested she get her some chicken nuggets on our way out. classy. 2) No sink. This means her bottles never get clean, and we have to wash spoiled milk out of them ourselves. yum. 3) While there are laundry facilities on site, The mom does not use them. The place is filled with dirty laundry, and after Jenn had gone through a bunch of winter clothing that didn't fit any more, she devised a plan. She bought a bunch of clothes Scarlett's size at a garage sale for like five bucks(after she told the nice soccer mom why she was buying a bunch of girl clothes when she obviously had two boys, the lady gave Jenn everything she had in that size for free), and she changes her when she gets her, then changes her back right before she takes her back. So sad that she has to do that. 3) No yard/place to play outside. A yard in not necessary to raise a kid, but it sure does help. The hotel has no amenities, not that Scarlett's mom would use them if it did. That kid barely sees sunshine unless she's with us. Jen has gathered that Scarlett just wanders around the hotel room while her mom watches TV and talks on the phone. She certainly doesn't do anything like feed her, that's for sure. Whenever Jenn gets her she's filthy.


There is more. A lot more. Ask Jenn about that.


So what is to be done? Scarlett had a different babysitter on the weekends up until recently(she was with us for up to 12 hours most weekdays, and with these other people on the weekends).
The other Babysitter works at the health department, and called to ask a few questions of DHS.
They said that when they get a call, they usually take the kid for a period of two weeks while they do an investigation. And int this situation, unless they found drugs or drug paraphernalia on site, she's not actually doing anything illegal. There is no law against being a shitty mother, just an abusive one, and nothing here technically qualifies as abuse. Jen is going to sit tight for the moment. We both feel like Scarlett's time with Jenn is the healthiest time she spends with anyone. If we put her into the system, there is no guarantee that they would put her somewhere decent. At least this way, we know she's taken care of. And we get paid as well.


However, new variables have arisen. Jackson has two cousins that live in Grove. Their mother just had a new baby(a story unto itself that could rival this one). Jenn suggested a few months ago that when the baby comes, the older kids could come to Tulsa, stay with their grand parents at night, and stay with Jenn during the day. This was also suggested at a time when we all thought Jennifer's sister would be living in Tulsa by this point. Well, the cousin's mom and the baby had some complications, and the baby was born early, and they were both life-flighted to St.Francis Hospital in Tulsa a few days ago. Depending on the health of mother and child, we may have the cousins for the entire summer. Also because of various reasons, Jenn's sister isn't here yet.


Scarlett and her mother are currently on a trip back east to see family. When they get back, it may shake out that Jen would be responsible up to five kids all by herself every day. That's way too much for her, especially since Joseph is still nursing. Jen's parents were going to pay her for keeping the cousins, and I think she feels like if that money is good enough, she'll let Scarlett go.
Personally, I'm hoping they just stay out east and start mooching off family there.


Suggestions? Comments? What do you guys think?



-JP

I think they should have started at the other end.

Been a while, eh? But I start almost every post these days with some form of that.

So what I'm really excited about is that my friends Joey and Laura are coming here for the weekend! This is extra cool, because I have a lot of friends that I'd like to see, but with the kids and all it's a little hard to pace everybody up and take off, even for a weekend. So when friends come to me, I think that's extra cool.*

I'm not sure what all we are going to do, but it will be fun regardless. I do have some press comps for Momentum Tulsa tomorrow night, so we may do that. I don't think I have seen Joey since he and I went to Denver last April. Far too long in my opinion. Joey is also who we named our second son after. He rocks.

Also Jackson starts soccer this weekend. That's exciting. That boy loves to run, and soccer just might be the sport for him. At this age, it is more like magnet ball, where they all just clump up where the ball is and kick at it until it squirts out, and then they all converge on it again, but what are you gonna do?

Looks like we're going to need a new roof, thanks to all the severe weather we've been having.

Other than that, not much going on.

-JP


*Take the hint, people I'd really like to see.

Memes LOL

Count the memes!

All hail! All Weekend

So we sat through two separate and intense hail storms over the weekend, both about 11:00 am, both fierce. As you ca see above, the bulk of the hail was about the size of a quarter. It looked like it had snowed, and we had a drift in front of our door about 4 inches deep.

More pics here.

-JP

A lot of time...

Has passed since my last entry. At least for me. What have I been doing?
Well, last week-end, Jen's family had their Family Reunion. It was small this year, as the younger generations tend to not go very often. It usually a pain in the ass is why. This year was no exception, but I had a lot of fun despite myself. The Reunion is usually held at beautiful Lake Murray, near Ardmore, OK. The reason is because half of us live in Oklahoma, and the rest in Texas, so we just meet in the middle. Lake Murray is very beautiful. There is camping, a Marina, and a Resort on site. It was one of Roosevelt's public works projects during the New Deal. It has not been updated since, and the maintenance has been lackluster. It is what I fondly refer to as "Jank City." We asked them on the phone if they had a couple of cribs they could throw in our room, which they did, and tried to charge us $10 a night for, which would have been $60. I let them know as nicely as possible that that was a crock of shit, and they waved the fee. This was a good thing, because both cribs were of the old fold-up variety from the '50s and didn't have any of their hardware attached any longer, and would completely collapse once more than a half a pound of pressure was applied. The first time it happened, all I did was put a pillow in it. Classy.
The wonderful thing is that children don't care about shit like that, and there were a lot of kids in attendance. Jackson's time was monopolized by his cousin Jaezie, who at almost 4 years old, is like a swarm of bees. It is as though she was raised by wolves. He sister Lenzie is awesome. At 9, she's smart and witty and wise beyond her years, which makes Jaezie that much harder to figure out. Jackson seemed to start to have a good time as soon as we implemented the "Hands to Yourself" rule, which made everybody happy.
Anyway, the weekend was filled with swimming and Grilled food and Smores and running around and tired kids and fits and evil breakfast buffets* and was actually quite relaxing even though Jen and I really didn't sleep much.


The best part was our trip to Arbuckle Farms. This is a place where old (and I do mean OLD) zoo and circus animals go to live out their days eating food out of wax cups held out of car windows by timid housewives and scared children. What a magical place! It was more fun than I thought it would be, and a lot less pathetic. The animals were friendly and only the ostriches were dicks, but in my experience, most birds are dicks. Since we rarely went over 10mph the whole time, we let Jackson sit in the front seat, so he could see everything. He had a BLAST.
Flickr set here.

The rest of the weekend was anti-climactic, to tell you the truth. We left Monday morning, but next time I'm leaving Sunday night, and sleep in my own bed.

Tuesday and Wednesday, we kept Gavin, the son of our dear friends Brandon and Gretchen, as his usual babysitter had a death in the family. They are about 6 months apart in age, and entertained each other better than any adult ever could. Wednesday night, Scarlett stayed the night so her mom could go clubbing, to mixed results. She's a sweet kid but has some problems. Mainly due to having little or no supervision most of the time. She kept us up all night screaming because apparently sleep is where the clowns eat you. That was fun. Jen had her up and dressed and out the door as soon as the call came, at 7:00am.

So that's about it. That's what I've been doing.

Go away now.

-JP





*
"Is the oatmeal instant, or do you make it?"
(blank expression)
"It's instant but we make it."

In which I tell you about my week-end.

So it is all sudden-like summertime here in the south west. We hit 91 degrees a little while ago.
The good news is that we didn't get the hot until after the weekend. The weekend barely cracked 80, and was awesome because of it.
Friday Jackson had been asking Jen all day to go to the play area in the mall. He loves that place. I think it smells like feet. While in the area of town dedicated entirely to commerce, we decided to get me clothes. I was going to wait until I lost a little more weight (26 lbs so far!), but the fat clothes weren't cutting it, and I seem to have hit a wall in my weight loss for some reason. It may be that since Joey goes down at 9:00 now, I wasn't able to use the exercise machine while I watch the Daily Show like I was before. More on that later. So we got me some clothes that would be good for work, but also light enough for summertime. Rock. We also went on a fruitless search for a Sit and Stand stroller which allows two kids in one contraption. Everyone was out, which was a bummer.*
We were going to watch The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford when we got the boys to sleep, but when we realized it was 2 hrs, 40 min long, we decided against it.
Saturday was a big day. I put together a crib we procured for Joey, as he is out-growing the bassinet. This has the added advantage of being in his room rather than ours, so I get to exercise during the Daily show again. We then split up for a while, Jen taking Joey to do some grocery shopping, and I took Jackson to the bank. His piggy bank was over flowing and he got to put it into the big machine, and he thought that was awesome. All the cash went into his savings account, except for a few bucks for him to pick out a toy with. All he wanted was a hot wheels car, so he got a little bag of candy as well. You know what that is? That's bonding, mofo.
After naps and what-not, we started gearing up for the post-mother's-day-barbecue. Jen's sister came down from the City with her little boy, and Cousin Ryan came down from Stilly accompanied by his new girlfriend. Prior to the meal, Jen's mom found us the stroller we wanted at a place that sells baby stuff that we totally forgot about. yay! We ate a bunch of meat and pasta salad then decided to go to Mayfest. We had a grand time eat Mayfest, except that the Lemonade guy we went to first was a total dick. We wandered around, watched Larkin for a while and went home. All the kids fell asleep fast. I think a lot of the adults did as well.
Sunday Jen made an awesome brunch. Pappa B and Nana came over,and we all visited and played with the kids. We spent the after noon lounging around Jen's parent's house, and I fell asleep watching Temple of Doom on the sci-fi channel. We made a pizza, and Jackson almost fell asleep at the table, as he had no nap and had just gotten out of the hot tub all relaxed.
We went home, and I mowed the lawn while Jen got the kids in bed. We then watched The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford , which was really good, if a bit long. A stellar cast in that one.
Then sleep. Well, a little sleep. Jackson has been waking up a lot lately. I don't know what that's about.

-Powers out.






*I am so old.

A shopping spree, houshold projects, and a death.

Okay, so been a while. I had to play a lot of catch-up at work after the Denver trip. In the meantime, spring finally showed up, the Avs got their asses handed to them by the Redwings, The new season of Doctor Who started, and a new Portishead album came out. One of these things is very good.
So this week-end, we took Jackson on a shopping spree. He shot up a few inches over the last two months, and everything he owned magically didn't fit any more. So we went to the Mall, and to Target, and made him try on a bunch of stuff, when he just wanted to look at the toys. It took all day, but I think we have sufficiently clothed him for the remainder of the summer. He got a Hunk and and Iron man shirt, so that's cool. I'm glad I'm allowed to pick things out every so often. ( I bought him his first comic book while in Denver, a Spider-Man one-off meant for a younger age group. I read it three times on the plane ride home.)
We also attended a graduation party for our friend Craig. It took him 6 years and three schools, but he finally did it. He got a degree in History, which he will now use to be a Carpenter. Go, Craig!
Sunday, we did a whole mess of projects around the house that have been building up since we moved in. We painted the living room, replaced the sink sprayer which was leaking, fixed the bedroom toilet, which had broken in the dead of night about two weeks ago, causing it to refill loudly, and take forever when it did. I also put up some shelves in the living room, which still need to be stained, and I fixed the two holes on our fence that we obtained during the last big storm. It is actually, technically our neighbor's fence. I would have just waited for him to fix it, but he's in a rental, so he doesn't give a shit. But since the dog from two houses down was getting into our yard through various holes in fences and picking fights with our dogs, I decided to just hop the fence and repair the holes with whatever that guy had lying around.
Also on Sunday, my ex-step dad David died. For those of you who know me well, you know that he was the reason I moved out when I was 15, and the source of most of my bad self-esteem and neurotic behaviour. I am having a hard time trying to figure out how I feel about that. He had been sick for quite some time. A fact that I was unaware of until my mom told me while I was in Denver. And now he's dead. I don't know if I really needed to talk to him about anything, or if going to the funeral will bring me any kind of closure. I'm pretty sure I made my peace with all that a long time ago. What I do know is that there is some sort of emotion there, I just can't lock it down. For good or ill, and even though I haven't had any contact with him for 17 years, he had a strong impact on my life. The funeral is on Friday, and I don't know if I'll go yet.
Okay, Debbie Downer. Lay off.

Everybody have a good week!

-JP

D-Town Goodies.

Well, that was fun.

We are back from Denver, and we had a really nice time. We got to see the family, and we got to show off the newbie. It was stressful at times, but fun over all. What family visit isn't?

We started off Thursday night with a massive pile of luggage and two car seats that needed to come with us. The boys behaved very well on the airplane, and Jackson was very excited. He's still talking about it. Joey just fell asleep. Jen and I are a good match, sometimes in ways that I never imagined. Case in point: Neither of us get sick to the point of throwing up on airplanes or boats, but we both get mildly nauseated. For some reason known only to airplane people, if you are travelling with an infant, you have to sit on the right side of the plane. So the way the tickets shook out on out teeny tiny little plane, Jen was in the window seat on the right side, then there was a big fat guy next to her, then the isle, then Jackson and I were on the other side. The Dude in the isle seat was eating this massive sandwich that he brought from home. He kept adding packet after packet of mayo and mustard the whole time he was eating it, and it was making our collective nausea that much worse. Blegh. We were happy to get off.

Friday, we just bummed around town visiting various people, mainly to show off the kids. We had some lunch at Angelo's after hanging out at Pablo's most of the morning. We did get to meet Jeremy's new girlfriend, who is awesome, and he should hang onto that one. :) Then we had to go back to the house in the sky, as Jackson calls it, for a nap. Travelling with children is very very different than being on your own. Basically, you have the morning to get anything done. Children wake up at ungodly hours in the morning, but they need a nap in the afternoon. So our little schedule usually requires everything to stop around 1:00 so we can get Jackson fed and down for a nap, which lasts at least an hour and a half, giving us just enough time before we have to start dinner to not get anything done.

We went to the White Fence Farm for Dinner with Jackson's pseudo-cousin Emily and her family. They make farm food there, meaning that if anything is remotely healthy, they either deep-fry it, or add mayonnaise, nipping that shit right in the bud. Yummy. The kids got to feed sheep and get that "farm experience" That we could get 50 feet from our house. It did have a playground out front, though. So they basically ignored the food and played. Friday night we went to Sputnik, and had a lot of fun. We left fairly early because we were both tired, so it you didn't show up, there is your out next time I see you.

Saturday we collected my dad and his wife, and went to the Children's Museum. Holy cow, did Jackson have a fun time there! If you didn't know, one of Jackson's great loves in life is trains. Making complicated track systems, then making the trains go along them are some of the most fun he has, as it feeds his OCD* the equivalent of comfort food. He just zones out on it for hours. Well, The Children's Museum has a whole room dedicated to this purpose. He had such a good time, that when we tried to show him other parts of the facility, he would duck out when we weren't looking, and run back to the train room. We had a lovely lunch, and some naps. We shopped a bit on the 16th Street Mall.

Saturday night, Tim took me and Aaron Taylor to the Hockey game. I can't even say how cool this was. I'll try in increasing levels of coolness: Hockey - Avs on TV - Avs in playoffs on tv- Avs in person - Avs in playoffs in person - Avs in playoffs in person in club level box - Avs in playoffs in person in fully catered club level box - Avs in playoffs in person in fully catered, including booze, club level box - Avs in playoffs in person in fully catered including booze club level box with a TV showing the Avs game!!!! They won. They advanced to the second round. I won. Everybody won. Except Jen, who had to stay at home with my Mon and not eat a real dinner because my mom's on some diet. Jen didn't win. Sorry, sweetie.
Sunday, Tim and I took Jackson over to Millennium park and to the kiddie Park on Speer. Jen went and had a lovely breakfast with Turner.

Sunday afternoon, we hung out with my Dad, who has a train set in his basement. Yay for Jackson. We then went to a Pizza place off Leetsdale for dinner, where there was a train set. Yay for Jackson, who refused to eat in lew of there being a train set there.

Monday we basically packed and went home. The trip home was a bit more of an ordeal. After the crew was delayed on an earlier flight, we sat on the tarmac for a while while they looked at a mechanical problem, which didn't go away. We had to de-plane(just as Jackson fell asleep), wait an hour, and get on another plane. We got home 2 hours late. oh well. at least we are home.

A good trip, but I wish I had more free time to hang with friends. Whenever we bring the boys, I feel obligated to let the grandparents spend as much time as possible with them, and I don't yet feel comfortable leaving the boys with them without one of us there too. As they get older, that will ease a bit. I hope.

So, yeah. Pics here.



Enjoy.



-JP



*Jackson does not actually have OCD.

Kibbles 'n' bits

1)The entire Oklahoma Powers Klan will be in Denver this weekend. Those of you who live there and want to see me should give me a call. You know who you are. Since we will have bits kiddies and time is short, a lot of our time will be spent with family, since the Oregon Powers will be in town as well(I have a hankering to make "Powers Family Reunion" T-shirts). We all usually hang out at the coffeeshop more than is healthy when we visit, so chances are about 70-30 that one of us will be there at any given moment. Jen and I plan to "whoop it up" at least one night. I think Friday. I don't know when. Depends on the wee folk. Maybe Sputnik? Anybody have a better idea?


2) This made me laugh out loud at work: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/77275


3) As some of you know(or more accurately, will think: oh, yeah...), Jen quit her job with the Cancer People in order to take care of the wee folk. She could do this because we have a cheap mortgage and virtually zero debt. We still just about break even. So in order to have some extra scratch and maybe help fund our kid's college careers, Jen was looking for a party-timey, makey-money type of thing. She has plans to make and sell some children's products, maybe do some bookkeeping for her mom-the-CPA, you know. Things where one can make money without actually having a job. So then a post came along on Craig's List for someone wanting a baby-sitter/nanny for the late afternoons and evenings, times when daycares don't often operate. Jen looked into it, and after a few emails and a visit, it looked pretty good. She'd be getting paid (a lot) to do what we do anyway: Play with kids in the afternoon, feed them and get them ready for bed. The little girl is a total sweetheart named Scarlet, and is 15 months old, right between Jack and Joey. Pretty perfect, right?

Well... What is weird about it, is what we have come to find out about the mom. She just moved here from California, with basically just the kid and the clothes on her back to get away from some sort of abusive relationship. She's working as a massage therapist and is roommates with the receptionist. They seem to have known each other for a long time and seem to be sharing the child-rearing responsibilities. Okay. Sure.


Turns out that it is the kind of massage parlor that has theme rooms and throws around words like "discreet". When describing the staff, all of whom are pictured on their website in the masseuse version of Hooter's gear, they say things like: "An brunette beauty with a winning smile who can take you to new levels of blissful relaxation". Yep.


And the mom pays us in cash. Nightly. So there's that. Think what you will.


4) There is no fourth thing.



-JP

Drama on a Saturday, or: My wife is a hero....

Because she saved a little girl's life last night.

Jackson went to his grand parent's house tonight, so we were free to pal around a bit. We went to the natural food market, stopped to get some coffee, and then were heading to a big box store to get some paint for the living room. As we were driving along, we spotted a 5 year old little girl running barefoot in the middle of the street, with a bunch of traffic backed up behind her.

"Is that a little girl?!" she asks.

"I think so," I say.


Before I could even get the car stopped, she was out the door. I stopped the car in such a way that I was blocking both lanes, and started to call 911 on my cell phone. Luckily, a few people on the other end of this started doing the same, and a few more people had their cells out as well. Jenn managed to get the girl stopped and sitting down between her legs, and she had a death grip around the little girl's waist. There was obviously something, I don't want to say wrong with the little girl, but you know what I mean.

I was still on hold with the cops. Actually, after being transferred to the police, the phone was still ringing. Jen had one of the other people who stopped to help get a big white teddy bear that Jackson swiped from his grandmother's office a few weeks ago out of our car. They gave it to the girl and that seemed to be calming her down a bit. About this time, in a weird twist of fate, a lady came up saying she knew the girl, because she taught at the local elementary school, and the girl's brother was in her class. Turns out the girl's name is Willow and she is autistic, and a runner. Teacher Lady calls home, and has her husband look up the parents phone number in the school directory.


I finally get hold of the cops, and give them the run down. I tell them we're between Yale and Sheridan on 101st, but that's not good enough. I have to get out, leaving Joseph in the car which is parked across the only two lanes of traffic. The lady finally gets hold of the parents. Then we wait. In the middle of the road. With an autistic kid with a giant teddy bear in Jennifer's lap, and me trying to direct traffic on one side of the road, and teacher lady on the other. With asshole drivers speeding by and honking and giving us dirty looks, which was freaking out Jen and the little autistic girl who wouldn't budge from her spot. The fact that she was even letting Jen touch her, let alone have a death grip on her, was a freaking miracle according to the teacher lady. Jen tried to calm her down as best she could. She would struggle to get up from time to time, but Jen just talked to her, and sang songs (which the girl didn't like very much, and lightly hit Jen on the head to make her stop) and rocked her, and let her play with the bear. We waited for what seemed like 20 minutes. And guess what? The parents showed up before the cops did. In fact, the cops didn't show up at all.

The mom shows up and explains that they were all eating dinner, and Willow was calmly playing with some dolls on the patio, right outside, where they could all see her from the dinner table. She was there one second, gone the next. Usually she goes out the gate into the neighborhood, but this time she scaled an 8 foot privacy fence, on the other side of which was 101st Street. They noticed pretty quick, but were coming their neighborhood, not outside it. We all have hugs and thank yous and what not, and I call 911 back to tell them not to bother, but can't get through, so I hang up. Some EMTs in an ambulance showed up right as we were leaving, and get the low-down from the mom. We go on our way, full of adrenaline.

Over the next hour, as we wander the isles of the big box store, The police department calls my cell three times. Twice to get directions to where the problem was, and the other to see if I had an emergency.

"I did," I tell this last one, "almost two hours ago."

"Yeah, were really busy tonight," she says.

Good thing I wasn't bleeding.
I can't tell you people how proud I am of Jennifer. She ran out into Saturday night traffic to help this poor little girl without batting an eyelash, while I stayed in the car, on the fucking phone. She's so good with children, and was the absolute perfect person to happen to be driving by, because she knew exactly what to do, or figured it out pretty damn quick. The second best person to happen to be driving by would have to be a teacher at the girl's school. How freaking awesome was that? But still. Jen did a fantastic job and I truly believe she saved that little girl's life.

I totally married the right person.

-JP

Fold-ins, Dions and Women of Ill repute.

Okay, this is about the coolest thing I've seen in a long while. I keep going back to it.

Every even slightly nerdy boy in America went through a phase where Mad Magazine was about the coolest thing ever. I actually started reading Groo: The Wanderer specifically because Sergio Aragones did the little doodles in the margins. I think he still does, actually.

This is Jackson with a Dinosaur. Over Easter, he kept making his Nana take picture of him holding each of the .99¢ Dinos that he got in his bucket.

This is Joey throwin' gang signs

His flow be fresh.

Oh, yeah. So they finally put a lock on the gate they put up to block the bridge I used to use to go over the train tracks to get from the parking lot to work. You get all that? Too bad. The bridge has been unsound for car traffic for about ten years, and is now unsuitable for foot traffic as well. Instead of repairing it or knocking it down, they just blocked it off. All that doesn't matter. What matters is that my route to work is now two blocks and 7 minutes longer. Actually, that doesn't even matter for this story either. What matters is that when walking to work now, I go over a new bridge. This morning, just before I got to the base of the bridge, about a block away from the parking lot, a car pulls up. A woman gets out and the car speeds off. No bid deal, she's just getting dropped off, even though it's a really weird place to be dropped off because it's not really near anything. Why didn't they just go ahead and go over the bridge and drop her off on the other side. But then she doesn't go over the bridge. She goes under the bridge, where there is only a small space before the fenced-off train tracks start. And I thought to myself: Ha Ha! Crack Whore!

That is all.

-JP

Family weekends...

... are generally more hassle than reward, thought the reward part usually makes up for it. If that makes any sense. This weekend, we're taking 5 kids under 10 to see Sesame Street Live.
Being a parent is weird in that, as I would never in a million freakin' years have any desire to see Sesame Street Live, I do have a huge desire to watch Jackson see Sesame Street Live. Him getting a kick out of it will make it totally worth it, and I now have a massive amount of respect and understanding for my step-mother who took me and a friend to see Weird Al back in 1985 when I was 10.
There are 5 kids because cousins who live in Grove are coming in for it, and since Jen's mom, a CPA, is neck-deep in tax returns, she had to give up her ticket, and we are taking the child of a family friend. So my two kids, two cousins, and a family friend. Everybody got that? The cousins being in town means we pretty much spend the whole weekend at the In-laws, wrangling various children and preparing meals.
We may all go to the Air and Space Museum on Sunday as well. I hope that isn't too much stimuli for one weekend. Or too little.
Wish me luck.

In other news:

One of my favorite comic artists, James Jean, has done some work for Prada. Now that's big time.

Another Fav, Adrian Tomine, who hit the big time with Illustrations for The New Yorker and Weezer, has a comic up on NPR's site to coincide with their story about Long Duk Dong's cultural impact. The fact that a story about Long Duk Dong's cultural impact even exists makes me love NPR that much more.

I think because of Veronica Mars, Heroes and Fanboys, Kristen Bell has now replaced Sarah Michelle Geller as geekdom's favorite hottie. Because of this. And this. Nerds are going ape-shit.

South Park Studios has launched. Every episode of South Park. Free. No shit. My favorite is Mecha-Strisand, because of Robert Smith.

I think that's all I have.


-JP

In which I show you another baby pic

Joey has decided that he enjoys waiving his hands in the air. Waving them like he just doesn't care. He also has this crooked smile that just kills me.


Bow down to the cuteness*--->


Um... I don't have much going on right now. Just humming along.
No new geek news, nothing too exciting happening at work...
Jackson is gearing up to go see Sesame Street Live in a few weeks with his cousins.
He's getting crazy good at jigsaw puzzles.


So, um... yeah.


-JP




* You are not worthy.

Holy Crap!

Lost military rocket crashes into Tulsa apartment building




Watch the skies, people!




-JP

Another weird dream

This is really weird. I never remember my dreams, but this is the third in a week or so that I have vivid recall of. It also features famous people.

In my dream, I was chosen to participate in a new reality show hosted by Steve Carrel, called Celerity Scavenger Hunt. Each participant is teamed up with a celebrity and then they go on a scavenger hunt , hence the title. Each week, someone would get voted off. It's like The amazing race meets Dancing with the Stars. And just like DWTS, the celebrities are decidedly D-list. I was pared with Kari Byron, the hottie from Mythbusters. Steve Carrell does the whole Intro, and off we go. Kari and I have to look for a envelope hidden in a park somewhere. We figure out that it is in Central Park, NY, which is near where we already were. So we went and got the envelope, but were instructed not to open it. The first part of the contest was to take 12 hours, and we did it in like 20 minutes. So we went and got a coffee. Then in real life, I knocked over the cup of water sitting on the night stand, waking me up and spilling water everywhere that I then had to go clean up.

Like I said: Weird. And I'm just the kind of nerd who has a dream about Kari Byron that is completely non-sexual. That's even weirder.

In Other news:

Jackson is adjusting well to being at home. In fact, I think he's a lot more relaxed. The teachers at his school kept telling us little stories here and there about how quiet he was. We were always a little mystified by that, because he's a little blabbermouth at home. We fugue he was weirded out about something. He also was kind of solitary at school. He's either just watch, or play by himself, which is fine. I'm still like that, but since he's been home, it seems like his vocabulary has doubled, and his sentences are more complex. Could be that we were just not paying attention, but still. This week he went to story time at the library and participated just fine. Who knows?

Joseph is rockin' along. He's looking around real good and smiles when he sees me. That'll melt your heart a little.


Other than that, not much going on.

-JP




Side note about Kari Byron: She's a pretty cool artist.

I'm a Nerd.

But I never really realized how much until the other day.

I was watching the Made-for TV, backdoor Pilot for Knight Rider. This should have been enough, I know. The only reason I wanted to watch it, is because originally Will Arnett was going to be the voice of the car. They replaced him with Val Kilmer, which seemed an odd choice, and it made me curious about the whole show, so I downloaded it completely legally, of course. Just so you know, the movie sucked egg rolls. It was basically a two-hour car commercial. Lame.

But I digress.

Here is why I'm a Nerd: The main dude driving KITT, was supposed to be The Hoff's illegitimate son. The Dude looks a lot like The Hoff, and even wore a maroon t-shirt and leather jacket, much like The Hoff did back in the day. Now, in the original series, Michael Knight was actually officer Michael Arthur Long, a cop who was betrayed and nearly killed do to some kind of industrial espionage. He was saved by the Knight foundation and given facial reconstruction and a new name for some reason. Then he went out with his kick-ass car and kicked some ass. My point is that the kid shouldn't look anything like The Hoff, but like Officer Long.


Soon after I realized this, I realized that for some reason Knight Rider trivia is in my brain instead of actual useful information and I wanted to kill myself. When I told Jen about it, she inquired as to why I can't remember the most mundane things like taking out the trash, but I remember God-Damn officer Michael Arthur Long.
Why can't history tests and things like that stay in me head instead?



I feel shame.



-JP

Star Wars by Saul Bass and McSpaced

Do you guys know who Saul Bass is? He Invented the opening title sequence as we know it.
I borrow* from him all the time.
Click here.
Or here.

Then watch this:



Awesome work, random YouTube guy!

In other news:

They are making an American version of Spaced, one of my all time favorite British sit-coms. As far as American remakes of British shows go, I have mixed feelings. While most of the reality based ones like What not to Wear and Antiques Roadshow seem to do quite well (Just look at American Idol or Trading Spaces), Most of the imported sitcoms do not. There are notable exceptions, like The Office, All in the Family and Sanford and Son, but for every Three's Company, we seem to get six or seven Couplings or the horrible Red Dwarf remakes.
I think the reason is not so much that Americans don't get British humor, it's just that they can't translate it very well when you have studio executives pulling the strings. It seems the less they mess with the premise the better, as with The Office. This has a lot to do with the creative team as well. If the makers "get it" and have respect for the source material, then the outcome can be really good. This is not the case for Spaced. The creative team attached is led by McG (McSpaced?) of Charlies Angels: Full Throttle fame(WTF!?!?) Simon Pegg has made his feelings very well known, and is not happy about it. His main problem is that while they do intend on giving them a small payment, meant basically to shut them up, they are in no way otherwise connected to the project, other that having their names mentioned in the press releases and marketing materials. Even there, they oddly omit the series co-creator Jessica Hynes, probably because she isn't as famous in America as Pegg is. Weather or not the remake is any good, Pegg says wh would have at least liked a phone call. Bastards.
Let's hope they don't fuck up the remake of Life on Mars, either. This one I really don't get, because the original would do just fine on Network TV with no changes at all. It is a fantastic show.


That is all

-JP






*read: Steal

In Traffic...

So this morning I got cut off rather forcefully during my commute. So forcefully, if fact, that I had to swerve a bit onto the shoulder, coming dangerously close to the ditch. I had Jackson in the car with me. Jackson's reaction was: "Woah, Daddy!"

The guy who almost hit me was driving a Hummer. He was on the phone, not paying attention to what he was doing. He was severely overweight. He had a "W: STILL The President" sticker affixed to the back of his gas-guzzling monstrosity. He was arrogant and Rude, and I thought to myself: You are everything that is wrong with this country.

-JP

Okay, so...

I had a dream last night where near the end, I had to punch out Walter Mathau.

That is all.

Look how cute my kid is!

I mean, seriously.

More here.

-JP

What I will be saying next year...

If I haven't jinxed just now, is that 2008 was a pretty rockin year. I have high hopes for the coming presidential election, though I had high hopes for the last two, and was severely disappointed. "They won't vote for Bush," I thought. "They're smart people.
D'oh!
Well, this time people will get it right. At least I will. They are already turning.

So in addition to having two boys running around, an awesome wife, Settling into a great job, and being debt-free(as in no student loans, credit cards or car payments*), I will be very well entertained this year.
I thought Cloverfield was awesome. I know a lot of people did not, but I did. You all know of my love for Godzilla, and this was the first decent giant monster movie out of the states in a long time. Maybe ever. That kicked off what might be the geekiest year ever for movies. The sad fact that Star Trek has been moved from December to May of next year is the only blemmish on the year of the Nerd. This is our time.

Iron Man gives me little tingly feelings in my nether regions. This looks to be one of the best and most faithful comic adaptation since the first Spiderman. (the obvious exception being Persepolis**) Robert Downy Jr. seems to embody Tony Stark completely and with much gusto.

The Dark Knight will be equally cool, and as Heath Ledger's swan song, I hope his talent shows through, and lets everybody know that he truely was one fearless motherfucker.

And then there is the new Indiana Jones movie. Looks like the bad guys are no longer the Nazis, but The U.S. Army and maybe the Roswell aliens. Giggidy.

More Comic Book/Super Hero/Nerd Movies:
The Incredible Hulk: Ed Norton should do a bit better. The last one looked like it was made out of silly putty.
Speed Racer Why does Christina Ricci still get to play teenagers? She almost 30. Oh, right. She's a cutie.
Hancock Even though Will Smith is slipping down the Scientology slope, I will give him the benifit of the doubt on this one.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army Yay!
X-Files 2 Wait, what?
The Clone Wars Hopefully this won't be a crapfest. The animation looks cool, but that means squat.
Wanted This movie has veered really far away from the comic, but for some reason looks cool anyway. Others:
Choke We finally get another movie based on a novel by Chuck Papahniuk, of Fight Club fame. This one looks just as weird.

It looks like George Romero is borrowing a page from Cloverfield with Diary of the Dead. I love Zombie movies, and Romero is the King.
Be Kind Rewind I am getting to be a big fan of Mos Def.
Semi Pro If you don't know about this movie then you have been living in a fisherman's boot.
10,000 B.C. This just looks so wonderfully innaccurate and weird. Wooly Mammoths in Egypt? Do tell.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Run, Fat Boy, Run
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
And those are just the ones I really wanna see, and have the patience to post links to. We also get: Get Smart, Mongol, In Bruges, Death Race 3000, Quantum of Solace, The remake of the Day the Earth Stood Still, Harry Potter, and the second Narnia movie.

Pony up yer sawbuck! We're going to the movies.


*You have no idea how little stress there is when you have no payments other than the house. :)

** Go read this book RIGHT NOW, then see the movie.

In which I update my loyal fans...

First off, let's get the baby pic out of the way--->

Aaawwww!

The boys are doing fine, and Jen is doing awesome. Good things all around.

I don't know if you guys are following any of this Anonymous vs. Scientology stuff that's been going on, but I have because I am totally fascinated by it. For one thing, the Tom Cruise Video is friggin' hilarious, and I truly believe that these idiots deserve to be put out of business. It is after all, a cultish scam based entirely on a dare. Last weekend, across the world, a bunch of protests were held at the behest of a group of internet nerds calling themselves Anonymous. That's fine and all, good for them. Won't do a bit of good, but A for effort. What I don't get is that the protestors took to wearing masks, probably because of Scientology's habit of photographing, identifying, and suing the pants off of anybody who doesn't like them. Okay. I get that. But what you don't realize is that putting on masks, gathering in large nimbers and acting like weirdos makes you look like a cult. That being said, I think this picture is oddly arousing.

So I guess there is an election coming up? I think I eard that somewhere. I think I have finally decided who I want to back. Although I am firmly in the "ANYBODY else!" camp, and think either democrat would do a good job, I really like Obama, and here's why:

“When I am this party's nominee, my opponent will not be able to say that I voted for the war in Iraq; or that I gave George Bush the benefit of the doubt on Iran; or that I supported Bush-Cheney policies of not talking to leaders that we don't like. And he will not be able to say that I wavered on something as fundamental as whether or not it is ok for America to torture — because it is never ok… I will end the war in Iraq… I will close Guantanamo. I will restore habeas corpus. I will finish the fight against Al Qaeda. And I will lead the world to combat the common threats of the 21st century: nuclear weapons and terrorism; climate change and poverty; genocide and disease. And I will send once more a message to those yearning faces beyond our shores that says, "You matter to us. Your future is our future. And our moment is now.”

Or as Patrick Neilson Hayden puts it*:

"I’m for Obama knowing perfectly well that, as Bill Clinton suggested, it’s a “roll of the dice”. A roll of the dice for Democrats, for progressives, for those of us who’ve fought so hard against the right-wing frames that Obama sometimes (sometimes craftily, sometimes naively) deploys. Because I think a Hillary Clinton candidacy will be another game of inches, yielding—at best—another four or eight years of knifework in the dark. Because I think an Obama candidacy might actually shake up the whole gameboard, energize good people, create room and space for real change.
Because he seems to know something extraordinarily important, something so frequently missing from progressive politics in this country, in this time: how to hearten people. Because when I watch him speak, I see fearful people becoming brave."

Can't beat that. I hope.

That is all.

-JP

*WAY better than I ever could.

In which I show you some Art I like....

Well, as far as babies and what not go, there is little to report. Joey is just concentrating on growing, so that keeps him pretty busy. Jackson is a spitfire these days. His imagination is taking off like Yuri Gagarin. You can always see pics of the boys here, here, and of course here.



So in lew of anything interesting happening, I give you some really cool art I have found lately:


This is Mark Khaisman, and he makes art out of tape. I remember in college, we had an assignment where we were to create a piece using what the professor called "non-traditional" materials. I wish to God I had thought of this back then. I don't really remember what I did for that assignment. I remember all the other's projects a lot clearer than my own.
One guy found a maniquin in the dumpster by his house, and did a lovely landscape painting on it. The resident pretentious, femi-nazi, I'm-only-a-lesbian-for-political-reasons(and only for the duration of college), dread lock having, over-alls and green Doc. Martins wearing chick* got all up in his shit for "objectifying the female form". Whatever. I'm glad Ani DeFranco isn't popular anymore.


This is Andrew Bell, and he draws a different monster every single day, and has for over 6 years now.



I wish I had that kind of determination.



This is a poster by Shepard Fairey of Obey Giant fame. He has formally endorsed Obama, but would like everyone to vote regardless.

I love this guy's poster and street art. Right up there with Banksy.


And let me tell you this: I love street art when it is doene properly.
I cannot stand tagging and that kind of shit. Don't get me wrong, I think a lot of graffiti artists are very talented. I just wish they would put more effort into "going legit", like Banksy, Basquiat, Keith Herring, and the like, instead of just writing the equalivant of "Johnny was here" over and over again.

Could be it's a tough guy thing. I guess I could see that if you came from a rough and tumble neighborhood, and were interested in art, but knew you would get your ass kicked if you persued it, you would have few options other than Street Art or Tattooing. No tough guys use oils, I guess.

Another rememberance from college: In one art class, there was this tough looking straight-edge skinhead guy (which blows my above theory ). I don't remember his first name, but his last name was Flower. This was ironic enough, him being a skin with a name like Flower and all, but he would make these art pieces that were really dark, violent and usually politically motavated. Lots of skulls and blood and whatnot. So you'd get these greusome pieces that could be used as cover art for Skinny Puppy, but in the corner would be the word Flower. Kind of Magrite, if you think about it.



I think that's all I got.



-JP




*Through out the '90s, there was one of these in every single art class I ever had.

Poor Heath.

I'm actually pretty sad about Mr. Ledger's passing, I have to tell you. He seemed like he had a great future ahead of him. Mysteriously, Britney Speares is alive and well.

Here is a new pic of Joey. He has changed a lot in the last 4 weeks, don't you think?

In other news:

-Charbucks is getting desperate.

-Now that the aliens have added a few plants and throw rugs, the whole place seems a lot more homey.

-I doubt a cheese whiz filled, bacon wrapped, deep fried hot dog is in any way good for me or my diet, but it sure does sound intriguing.

That is all.

I love this picture

This is my new favorite pic of Jackson. I don't know why, I just love it. This is the basic look of curiosity and mischief that he usually has. I'm betting he's thinking about tackling his little brother.

My mom is here to help out with new baby for a week, so she's missing out on the 25º weather up in Denver for the much warmer 26º weather we have here in Tulsa today.

In other news:

I think that if I ever get a space ship, I'm just going be a Teaser like in Hitchhiker's Guide:

Teasers are usually rich kids with nothing to do. They cruise around looking for planets that haven't made interstellar contact yet and buzz them (ie: they find some isolated spot with very few people around, then land right by some poor unsuspecting soul whom no one's ever going to believe and then strut up and down in front of him wearing silly antennas on their head and making "beep beep" noises) Rather childish, really.

Obviously, that's what happened in Texas thin week.

-JP

Two weeks in...

And I have to say it has been great.

The new kid is awesome, and if you still don't believe me that he looks just like his brother did, then I offer these to photos as evidence:

Is that not creepy? I don't mean creepy like the guy on the corner with his hands a little too far in his overcoat, but more like: Didn't I have this kid already?
The answer to that question is in fact, no. Joey already has is own personality. For one thing, he sleeps. All day. He eats a lot and is awake for that, but then sleeps. Only occasionally does he wake up to look around. Jackson never slept. Shit, Jackson still doesn't sleep. We went a whole year without more than a few hours on average each night with Jackson. Joseph does keep us up (well, Jen), but not like Jackson did.
He has other quirks and what not of his own as well, and I think it will be exceedingly interesting to see how different he is.
Thanks to everyone who wished us well and brought us food. you guys rock.

-JP

2007...

Was a very strange year.

In it, I:



-Had a second child .
-Went to Denver three times, to make up for the previous few years of nuthin'.
-Went on a cruise.
-Sold a house.
-Rented a house for a few weeks.
-Stayed with the in laws for a few months.
-Bought a house.
-Moved three times, once to a new city.
-Dealt with more roaches than I care to think about.
-Got a new job.
-Quit a job.
-Dealt with two major ice storms, one in January, one in December.
-Sold a car I bought for $300 to someone for $500
-Got a fairly decent car. For cheap. Finally.
-Tried like hell to support my wife in all aspects of her pregnancy.
-Probably failed to do so.
-Made some new good friends.
-Sat through the wettest spring and summer EVER.
-Bought and $80 watch. Maybe not a big deal to you, but it was to me.
-With the help of my wife, we wiped out 99% of our debt, and cancelled all of our credit cards. We live cash-only now and life is awesome.
-Hosted my dad at our house for a visit. For the first time.
-Turned 32.
-Jack turned 2, and asserted his two-ness like when the bosses kid is put in charge.
-Was severely disappointed with all the new shows this year and most of the movies. The exceptions being Hot Fuzz, Robin Hood and Torchwood, but those are English.
-Was happy that Radiohead pulled their heads out of their asses finally.
-Quit smoking for good this time.
-Went on a weight loss program.
-Lost a total of 16lbs over the summer/fall.
-Gained 5lbs back over the holidays.
-I was happy to welcome Zane (Jack and Joey's cousin) into the family. All three of them have their grandmother's eyes.
-Saw the democrat controlled congress fold like deck chairs every time the lame duck idiot of a president threatened a veto. I didn't vote for you to go up there and be wussies.
-Realized that politically, there is no center anymore. And that sucks.
-Killed a pet fish on accident.
-Realized how important the whole "bread winner" thing is. Let me tell you: It is VERY important.
-Thought the whole mooninite scare was the stupidest thing ever. EVER!
-Settled into my new job just nicely, I think.
-Spent most of the year gearing up for new baby.
-Did some higher-profile Illustration jobs, which was nice.
-Listened to my friend's new radio show a lot.

I did not:
-Attend a wedding. The first time in years.
-Update my comics blog enough.
-Call my friends with kids enough.
-Call my other friends enough either.
-Call my family really at all.
-loose as much weight as I'd hoped.
-Get a good haircut. Three years running!
-See the third Pirate movie.
-Go to any concerts for the first year since I was 10.
-Do that painting for Jen's mom like I was supposed to.


All in all, 2007 was mostly awesome. New cool job. New cool house. New cool kid. Debt free.
Can't get much better.


2008, will for one, be a totally awesome movie year. I am anxiously awaiting Ironman and The Dark Knight. Also, a new president, which will ease tensions no matter who it is. Well, maybe not Huckabee. Otherwise any change is good. Some better than others, but still. I will unleash a new generation of Powers Brothers onto the world! Mua-ha-HA! We also get Olympics.


In other news:
As you know, I doodle in my calendar constantly. I used to scan them and post them, but my new job does not require a scanner, so they would sit in the day-planner amusing no one but themselves. Well I couldn't have that, so below is a mash-up of some of my favs over the past 6 months or so. The theme seems to be "Chicks and Robots".

Enjoy.

-Happy New Year, everybody.

-JP

We are home!

And we have a new baby!

Joseph Edward was born Dec 28th at 9:11am. He was 8lbs, 8oz, and 20 and a half inches long.

You can look at pics here.

All in all this experience was way better than the last, what with the 22 hours of labor and the emergency C-section at the end and all the blood and what not.

This was a lot smoother and scream-free. The birth was better, the recovery was better, and the nursing staff was better. Even the free shit the hospital gave out was better.

So. We are home. You can call if you want. We will be chillin' for a week or so, just getting to know that baby.

-J.

Tomorrow

I will be a dad for the second time. Having a planned c-section is awesome for the planning stage of the pregnancy, but shitty for everything else.

It is supposed to happen, barring any emergencies that may push us back, at 9:00am. I hope by the end of the day to post some pics or something. I'm trying not to freak out, and the only thing I'm really worried about is Jackson's reaction. I know he'll get over it eventually, but I still worry.

In other news:

Our christmas was a lot of fun. We had a good time. Jackson got so much Thomas the Tank Engine stuff, one could choke a rhino with it. Jen and I got both a new video camera and a new digital camera. Lots of filming will be done. yay. My favorite thing I got was my "Tulsa Peeps Unite" shirt. It has a robot on it.

Um... That's it more soon.

-JP

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everybody!

awwww....YEAH!

How many times can I say that I am excited? One more won't hurt.

I am excited. Click here.

See what I mean. That slow blink at :57 is driving me nuts.

I have an ear infection.

As well as a sinus infection. Here is the story:

On the plane trip home from Denver after Thanksgiving, I felt a little under the weather, but chalked it up to travel yuck. Then I got really sick, and spent two days in bed with the lights off, wishing for sweet slumber to shroud me in his purple cloak, or death. Or some shit. I wanted to feel better. So I did what any man would do, and exceeded the recommended dosage of several over the counter drugs and floated back to work. After a while, I felt better but had lingering stuffies and a chest mucous that was being expelled at an alarming rate. I was missing my healthy smoker's cough anyway (I more or less quit back in April), so I didn't mind.

About a week ago, my ears were all plugged up, so I went to town with the off-brand Q-tipTM or cotton swab. My right ear felt line, but my left was a little poppy after a day, so thinking I missed something I went back at it. I went a little too far, and lost hearing in my left ear. I frantically searched google, and found that this happens all the time and that there is even a warning on the box. I guess only the name brand does that, because I checked, and it wasn't there. Based on what Internet said, I assumed that I either pushed a heap of wax way far back, or ruptured my eardrum. I decided to wait it out. A week later, I had developed a distinct ringing, reminiscent of the few days after seeing Skinny Puppy or Ministry live. I decided it was time to see the doctor.

Once there, The Doc looked me over, and when she got to my ears, she couldn't even see in there. We have to irrigate, she says. A while later, the nurse shows up with a giant plastic syringe and a bucket full of a mixture of Hydrogen peroxide and hot water. I hold this smaller bucket with a notch cut out for the ear up to the side of my head, and he proceeds to squirt the stuff into my ear with the strength of a fire hose. On the third or fourth try, I can suddenly hear again!
"Whoa! That did it!" I say.
"um.... Yeah." He says, and shows me what's in the little bucket. It is not pretty.
The Doc comes back and looks in my ear.
"Oh, yeah," she says. "You have an ear infection.
Well duh.

I am now on antibiotics. And some kickin decongestants, that may have been half-way made into meth already. I'm happy about my ear. Don't let those things go, kids. Oscar Wilde died from an ear infection, you know. And you don't want to be like Oscar Wilde do you?

-JP

ICE STORM!!!

So, um, yeah. There is an inch of ice covering the city. A quarter of a million people don't have power, and I would say 85% of the businesses and all of the schools are closed. Airport has no power. Bush declared us a disaster. The first time he's been right about something. Good times.

Check this out. Kinda cool.

I work for a 24/7 news organization, so I still have to come in. Yesterday I totally spun out on the highway and went off the road and down the embankment, luckily landing facing the correct way on an on-ramp, so I could just get back on the road, which is what I did. No harm done.

Jen and the boy are at home and going a but stir crazy, so they may go to the mall play area because of course the mall still has power. She and the rest of the city. They might make the grandparent rounds today, just for a change of scenery.

Jen's Dad has no power, so he may be staying with us tonight. It will be our luck that as soon as everybody gets to our house, the power will blow.

-JP

So, um

These photos have been making the rounds lately. I don't know what they are for, but they are kind of awesome. Maybe as part of Lindsey's sentance, she has to hang with comic nerds as a community service.

There is also this. Iron Man looks pretty good. I'm actually excited about that movie. Also this. Fun.

In other news: Jackson is very excited about Christmas. I'm not sure he really knows why, but he knows that the world is building to something and that it involves flashing lights and shiny things.

I think that's all I have right now.

-JP

I have to say...

...That the poster for the new Harold & Kumar movie is pretty damn awesome:

Traveling with a 2 year old..

Is not as difficult as you'd think. I had him on a little tether, so that helped.

Anyway, I went to Denver for the Thanksgiving holiday. I had a good time. I didn't get to see nearly anybody that I wanted to see, but I had a boy in tow, which meant that the family hogged me a bit.
The trip out was nerve wracking, just because it was the first time me and the boy had to deal with travelling on our own. Security went smoothly, though I don't know why I was forced to take his shoes off as well. It went so smoothly, in fact, that we were left with a long time to wait, and yes, the plain got delayed by about 45 min. Jackson was excited to get on the plane, but once we were on it, he didn't realize that we had to stay on it, and after about 5 minutes, he started saying: All done. Wanna go now! When the plane finally took off, he conked right out. whew! We stayed at my mom's new condo downtown, which had an awesome view. We settled in with the fam. Thursday we ate turkey. I chased Jackson around all day while Tim's kids talked about home theaters and motorcycles. Jack heard them talking and said: "Motorcycle go Vroom! Vroom! Crash!" which is surprisingly accurate. I went out that night and saw Jeremy, Cain, Kindra and a few other random people and had a really good time. We even saw a fight that spilled out og the bar across the street. Fun.
Friday was spent primarily at my Dad's house, and was also very pleasant. We ate at Carmine's and played with my Dad's model train set. Jackson took a giant sploogy dump and we had to wash all of his clothes. Fatherhood is awesome. I had dinner that night with Aaron and Amy, and they are wonderful people, I tell you.
Saturday I went to Pablo's and hung out all morning.




We ate Lunch, and were on our way. This time, the plane was delayed 2 hours, and Jackson was so friggin' bored by the end of it, he was happy to crash out in the canned air. Now, I ask you this: Why in the hell do airports not have a children's play area like the mall does? Do you know how many marriages that would save? Airports suck.
We made it home, and I spent two whole days sick in bed. I don't know if I caught it on the trip or when I got back but it was a doozy. Hence the late holiday posting. Sorry about that.

-JP

I watched a lot of movies this weekend

And I don't know why.

Jackson stayed at PaPa B's house Saturday night, but I'm not sure that made any difference. What was weird was the scope of movies I watched this weekend. First off was Pan's Labyrinth,
a movie about a young girl who is immersed in a world of faeries, sprites, and other woodland creatures, and should definitely not, under any circumstances, be viewed by children. NOT a kid's movie. That being said, it is a wonderful, dark, disturbing movie and I loved it. I like that the whole thing could very well be a construct of the little girl's mind, and just a coping mechanism. Or it could be real. What I didn't get was the title, though. The 'Pan' character is actually called The Faun, and the Spanish title translates to The Labyrinth of The Faun, and there is no character anywhere called Pan. So why Pan? Are Americans just more familiar with Pan? Is Greek mythology more widely read than Shakespeare? Does it just sound better? That last one is my guess, because it does. Trailer here.
Next was The Misfits starring Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Eli Wallach. An oldie but a goodie. More interesting because of what was going on off screen. Monroe was in the middle of both a mental break down, and a divorce from the movie's writer, Arthur Miller, and was spiraling down her path of drink and pills. She had to attend the premiere on a day-pass from a psychiatric center. She was dead within a year. Clark Gable had a heart attack three days after filming ended, and died 11 days later. It was the last movie for both. John Houston spent most nights drinking and gambling in Reno, where the film was shot. Montgomery Clift was his usual pill popping self. It seems the title could refer to the characters or the cast & crew.

Next up was The Black Hole, a movie I haven't seen since I was a little kid, but I remember loving it back then. If you forget that this was put into production solely because of the success of Star Wars, and the obvious scientific shortcomings, then the movie still holds up. It is slightly fragmented, as the writers were obviously unsure of how to merge the epic, sweeping, slow pacing of standard sci-fi up to that time, ie 2001 and the like, with the obvious appeal of fast paced action ala Star wars. The mix is clunky, but the movie is still interesting on many levels. My most vivid memories from seeing it many times in my youth, are the scenes where Anthony Perkins gets killed, which is way less disturbing than I remembered, and battle in the greenhouse, which was actually cooler that I remember. I still love the double barrel guns they use.

While doing chores and whatnot, we watched (on cable) The Devil's Advocate, one of the more stomachable of Keanu's pre-Matrix roles, and Pretty Woman, (wife's choice, natch.) a movie I realized would never work if made today. Or if they did make it today, it would have to be Julia Robert's first day as a prostitute rather than having been one for some time. You can't have a hooker as a likable character any more. Actually, now that I think about it, it didn't really work then either.

Then I finally watched Transformers. Way better than I thought it was going to be. This is due to a number of things. First, Shia LaBeouf is a much better actor than anybody, especially Michael Bay, realized. Second, Optimus Prime having the same voice was brilliant. Third, the way the bots transformed was just friggin' awesome. Also, the show-stealing cameos made the movie. John Turturro and Bernie Mack were both awesome. And before you say or think it: Plot, Schmot! These are Transformers, fer cryin' out loud. Now where's my Go-Bots movie?

I also watched Dawn of the Dead again. Crap-ola I love that movie. Snyder is a genious in his own little way. He will do great things with Watchmen.

In other news, this guy ---->

and I are going to Denver this week. He is very excited to go on a plane, even though he has done so twice already in his short life. And a cruise ship. He keeps telling anyone who will listen that he's going on an airplane on Wednesday.

I am... anxious to say the least. Jen can't come because she's too pregnant, so it will just be the two of us in the thick of holiday travel season. Wish me luck.

-JP

Holee Molee it's windy.

This must be how Chicago feels when it's really windy. Or anywhere else where it is really windy. It doesn't have to be Chicago, I guess.
Is Thanksgiving really next week? How did that happen? For all you Denverites, I will be in the bid D Wednesday night until Saturday afternoon of said Thanksgiving week.
We should hang. Maybe Friday night, we could get some Chinese because I'll be sick to death of American food by then. Then the drinking. A trip to Denver is not complete until you enter a plane or car to go home, and you are completely hung-over, sleep deprived, and cranky.
Anything fun going on these days? I am anxiously awaiting the Winter season. I realize that it has been winter for some time for a lot of you, but dammit, I haven't seen hide nor hair of Mr. Frost. It was 73° yesterday and sunny and I had to take my hoodie off during my walk with Jackson around our new neighborhood. This is not winter.
We are all moved in, and warm and happy in the new house. Jack loves it and the dogs don't give a shit unless you have food.
Unfortunately, being moved in means I will soon have to turn my attention to a bunch of projects that I have been putting off due to either my homelessness or my using my homelessness as an excuse to procrastinate.
These include:
-The Boxing poster of Eloi vs Morlocks I've had in my head forever
-The caricature of of a famous news pundit and his daughter I said I would do months ago
-The DVD cover and inserts for The Evildoers press packet that is way over due
-Updates to NGV5, six months late (and zombies are out of style now)
-A painting/assemblage for my in-laws foyer
-Framing a bunch of original art I've collected over the years
-Finishing the design of the tattoo I want, and then actually going to get it (maybe I'll do that in Denver hmmm...)

There is probably a lot more that I have forgotten about, or cannot recall at the moment. Work work work. I need to start using my down time at work to advance some of these causes.

Any help would be appreciated.

-JP

Happy Halloween from...

Mua HA HA!

I got my cat back.

And a big thanks to Leslie for cat-sitting for the last month or so. She seems to not really give a shit about the house, which is fine. It's the mark of a well-adjusted cat. I heard a great quote somewhere once: A house can be a home if there is no cat, but how would it know?
Most of our stuff is moved in except for us. We just had to go and move right close to a holiday, and our favorite one at that. Lots to do around Halloween when you have a kiddie.
Last night we went to the Zoo, with B&G, who brought Gavin, and Carissa & Brianna (sp?). We had a great time, an more importantly, the kiddos had a great time. The Zoo is fun. It marked the first time Jackson has had a large amount of candy all at once. It also marked the first time he crashed and fell into a sleep that could rival some comas out there. I expected him to have a long white beard when he woke up. But alas, he woke up at 6:00, rearin' to go. Next week will be better. Daylight savings will have taken effect, and he will appear to wake up at a proper hour.

In other news:
I really don't have any other news.

-JP

Homo(ner) Again!

We closed on our new house today! It is a bit far out into the 'burbs for my taste but it is also a bit big and new and still under warranty for in-town, so whatcha gonna do? The guy who owned it before us was a contractor which worked to our extreme advantage in two ways. 1) He did a massive amount of updates to the house, and he did them WELL. 2) We got way more bang for our buck, as it were, when they agreed to pay up to a thousand dollars worth of repairs needed per the home inspection, because he did them himself, and saved on labor, meaning more repairs. Rawk for us.
So we will finally be out of the In-laws house. They are great, wonderful, giving people but I am ready to leave. I am ready to have my own space.
I will miss Norm and his weird OCD quirks, though. Like how the trash gets picked up on Tuesday morning around 9am, yet we have to gather up all our trash on Sunday because he places the trash out at 7am Monday. Or how he believes that our dog's urine contains miracle plant-growth properties, because there are random spots in the back yard that grow a little greener than the rest of the lawn. Miracle dog urine is the ONLY explanation, he says. I suggested aliens, but he said I was full of shit. Or how he's on that awesome drug that makes everybody quit smoking, and readily admits that the actual craving to smoke is long gone, but he still smokes about a pack a day. And takes the extremely expensive drugs to quit smoking at exactly 7:00pm every day, because "They don't work otherwise". Or how even though he goes through a $10.00 "mega-pack" of beef jerky each and every day, he'll drive to a completely different wal-mart if the one in Sapulpa only has the smaller, and thus somehow gayer, "mighty-pack", which he won't buy because "That's just throwin' your money away".
What I won't miss is the uncanny ability he has to magically be standing where ever I happen to need to be. Or how he'll eat more of Jackson's food off of Jackson's plate than Jackson does, causing me to make a second batch of whatever it was that I made. This after I, not 15 minutes ago, offered to make extra so he could have some, to which he always answers no. When he says yes, it's actually worse because he'll stand over me, telling me how to cook microwave bacon properly, which I can't do because he's standing in front of the microwave. And, of course, how he's always up in my shit.
The good FAR outweighs the bad, however, and given some of the relationships I've seen with in-laws over the years, I have one of the very best. They have given me and my family a roof over our heads rent-free for several months, and their hospitality is more generous than I would have ever guessed.
Now I have to get the fuck out.


That is all.