Whiners

So NPR did this story this morning about the awful heat wave going across the country. They were making this big deal about how some place was having trouble coping because for 10 days the temperature had been above 90 degrees.
Above 90! That's horrible!
If you click the pic to the right, you will see that Stilly had exactly zero days under 90, and only 5 that were under 95. Oh, and do me a favor and click here.
You see that? Forecast is another week of above 100, and another month of above 90. John on KEXP Seattle's morning show was so happy because the intense heat (88) was finally over and it was back into the 70s for the rest of the week. I wanted to leap through the internets and throttle his throat.
This heat makes me cranky and sick to my stomach. My electric bill may as well be another car payment. It would probably be cheaper to get another car, and just sit in it with the engine idling, blowing the AC all over me. It can't be any more expensive. I wish I had the money to go live in Australia or New Zealand where it is winter right now. We need to make a really cool city somewhere where it is really cold year round, like Siberia or in ANWaR. If millions will flock to Vegas, they'll come to my new city.

Who's with me?

Hella busy

So this was the weekend of Birthday parties. As we celebrated the 1 years old birthday * of the wee Jack, back in Denver Jeremy and Carrie, two of my favorite people of all time celebrated their spiraling decent into their 30s. I wish you both the best, and I am truly sad that I was not there to watch the pair of you defile yourselves. Cookie was not on hand, due to a previous engagement of a family reunion, celebrating his decent into insanity, I imagine.
Our weekend was (as the title suggests) hella busy.
Let's start on Friday. Jen had an event, so she took off early for that, having to drive to Tulsa, drop off the boy at the babysitter, then venture way up North to the event. I, after a full day of work, had to book it home, collect the dogs, and motor to Tulsa myself to pick up my mom at the airport. We then went to The Grandparent's house and hung out for the remainder of the evening. The house was full of guests including Jen's sister and her husband. We ate fajitas. Jen rolled back in about 2:30 am, and Jack woke up at 5:30, giving her a really nice, full night's sleep. So as not to wake up the rest of the house, we went to the coffeeshop, and then to a park for the morning.
Around 11:00, Lonny and I had to go help cousin Preston move. That was treat in the 101 degree heat. We were the first to arrive, and did the bulk of the heavy lifting, Lonny with a bum thumb (a result of a "combat injury" suffered in Iraq during a particularly intense volley ball game). We got them moved, however, and after some wonderfully cold beers and tacos, Lonny and I headed back over to the house to prepare for the festivities.
Streamers, balloons that popped every two seconds, snacks and goodies, extra chairs and tables, the cakes, the splash-pad, and a bunch o' grillin' meat. Done in time to take a quick shower that I was still in when the first guests arrived.
It was a "pool party" of sorts. More like a splash-pad party, but hey, nobody really complained. I think the older kids were a little disappointed, though. The whole thing was vintage cow-boy themed, and I think it went off really well. Jack tore into the strawberry cake after a few test jabs, and had a hell of a time. Then presents. That kid got more stuff on Birthday #1 than I did on all of my childhood birthdays put together. Craig and Heather got him the coolest items by far. They really went the distance with a little boy's cowboy cut button up shirt, and a really cool t-shirt, coupled with a really awesome print of a cowboy for his wall. People really want that kid to read, as he got so many books, we have to go and get a a new bookshelf just to put them all on. The Walkers each got him a copy of their favorites books from their own childhoods, and inscribed each with a personal note, which I thought was really sweet.
After the guests dwindled and we cleaned up both ourselves and the house, and after Jack crashed from the MASSIVE sugar high he was on from the cake, we decided to go to the bar.
The Nelson's and The Powers headed to Caz's, and had to turn around and go back to Sapulpa to get Jen's ID, because she forgot it. When we got back, Craig and Heather had already left, but forgot a half a pack of cigarettes on their table, and we assumed they were a gift, so we happily puffed away the night on their dime (thanks, guys!). The One and Only Andrea was there and we all chatted away till closing. We got home sometime after 2:00, and Jack woke up at 5:30, giving us another night of rest and relaxation. Jen lost it, and went home to sleep. I stayed up with the boy until my mom woke up, and we packed up and left around 11:00. We got back into Stilly and all took naps while doing absolutely nothing** for the rest of the day.
There was an awesome gift waiting in the mailbox, though. This was the new Evildoers CD, and a bunch of other swag that I had designed for them. I've done CD covers and buttons and things before, but there is always something really cool about getting your hands on the final product for the first time. Joey also included a shirt for Jack. All of this enclosed in a pop-corn box.
I think we all went to bed around 10:00, which was good, because Jack woke up at 5:30 again, and we were all a little less likely kill anybody.


* Blogger's picture thingy isn't working for me, so go to Flickr.

**if you conceder watching a bunch of Sealab "nothing"

Nostalgia

So Cookie and I were talking the other day about band names. This got me thinking about all the bands I was in during high school, which was a surprising amount considering I can't play any instruments nor read music. But not very surprising if you take into account that it was usually the same basic group of guys. We rehearsed basically never and only ever played one "show" at Mike's birthday party while his parents were out of town. We went through a plethora of names and corresponding ideologies. My memories of these events are shrouded by a haze of recreational drug use,so if any of you old-schoolers are reading this, please feel free to correct anything that you remember better than I do.

(in no particular order)

The Puritans: It was under this moniker that we played our one and only "show". That night was more important to our group of friends in that it was the first real house party of our youth. We had others, but this one had a band. It was also important for me because it was at this party that I hatched my evil plan to steal Mike's girlfriend as soon as he left town the following month. I dated her for quite some time, but that really had nothing to do with me "stealing" anything. It was all her doing. It usually is. The Puritans played mostly covers of late '80s mopey new wave, although we did do an original written by Isaac, which I believe had something to do with kidnapping. I did this drawing of Hodge Podge from Bloom County for the drum kit.

100 foot limit: This started out as a very fIREHOSE inspired skater band. That was about as far as it went. We got the name from a sign on the flag pole at school that Joey and I stole one day, and resided on his base drum for quite a few years till he sold his kit for rent money. He kept the sign, though. We did this awesome sped-up version of Bela Lugosi's Dead that rocked the house, um basement.

Big Blue Tugboat: Later shortened to just Tugboat. Later shortened to non-existent.

Katharsis: (with a backwards K) This was the industrial band. Very Skinny Puppy, very Thrill Kill Kult, hence the backwards K. This was a band that formed out of us meeting a guy who was really good with a keyboard, and his twin brother who could play guitar. Before that, we just had a weird collection of what we called "insult and injury songs". These, as should be painfully apparent, were either about injuries: phlegm ball (in the corner of my eye), a rock ballad of sorts, and the ever catchy Smoke in the Eye. Or insults: Yo, bitch or Fuck off and Die, which went something like this:

Fuck off and die!
Fuck off and die!
Screw you, bitch!
Fuck off and die!
Blow it out your ass!
Blow it out your ass!
Fuck off and die!

Deep, I tell you. That song, much like the rest, was about one minute long. This was my favorite band to be in, because all we did is hit play on the keyboard, and pound on our instruments, much like Skinny Puppy.

Soon, we all graduated and went our separate ways. Only Joey ever made anything out of his musical ability. Partially because he had more drive, but mostly because the rest of us didn't have any musical ability. I became resigned to designing gig posters for for the few bands that I knew, and still do from time to time.

A break in the heat

Finally! Although usually 97 degrees isn't a break, but it is 10 degrees cooler than what it's been around here. So that's good. I guess.
We got a new car a few weeks ago, and I have to tell you, it wasn't a moment too soon. The crappy black Jeep with the bum door and the shitty air conditioning, would have killed both itself and Jennifer and probably Jackson with all the driving in the 100 degree heat Jen had to do this week. So kudos to the Xterra for being comfy and cool.
Big Jack is loving being a year old. It's a big milestone. He got to turn his carseat around to face front, he can eat nuts and strawberries with no fear of possible future allergies, the next level of Baby Einstein videos are at dis disposal, and we get cheaper rates for mommy's day out babysitting. He doesn't know it, but he's very excited. He tore into his little carrot cake with reckless abandon, and threw the singing candle on the ground for the dogs. I got him a t-shirt that reads: Mommy wants a new president. Fun stuff.
What else? I watched the entire first season of Arrested Development last night. That is some funny shit right there. They got all the right guest stars and everything. David Cross is hawesome, and this is Jeff Tambor's best work since the Larry Sanders Show. Thanks ever so to Cookie for lending it to us. He has a date tonight
Page two: The whole stem cell thing just really pissed me off. Jen too, given who she works for. They now have to send a bunch of that research out of the country, and that means more expense and Americans won't get the credit. And now his horrible foreign policy has come back to bite him in the ass. I really can't figure out why people keep letting him fuck up like that. Over and over.
Butch and Sundance is on. Man I love that movie. That's one of those movies where I'll watch it no matter when it's on, or on what channel. Commercials, edited, I don't care. If I just getting out of the shower, and it happens to be on, I'll sit bare-ass naked on the edge of the bed till its done.
Well, I obviously have nothing to say, so I'll go now.

Hot.

<---- I mean, seriously. What the Fuck?

A letter to my son on his first birthday.

Dear Jackson,
What can I say? It has been a wonderful, terrifying year. You have become such a light in my life, I can't even describe it. A year ago today, as your mother lay in the hospital bed awaiting your arrival, I was nervous. Constantly wringing my hands and drinking massive amounts of Dr. Pepper, smoking like a chimney, and peeing every 3 minutes or so. I didn't eat or sleep. All of this due to my anxiety not about having a kid, because I was resigned to, and actually looking forward to that, but about being a father and about your mom's well being. She was in labor for a long long time, and when the doctor told us that you were just too big to come out, and that struggling to do so was taking it's toll, I got a new level of anxiety added on because now a major surgery was going to be involved. There is a lot that the father can't do during both the pregnancy and the birth. I felt a little helpless. I could not truly sympathize, and I couldn't really help. All I could do was watch. Boy did that change.
After the paper suit, the waiting in the hall for an eternity watching my own hair turn gray, the hot spots, the too much anesthetic, the extra big hole, the massive amounts of blood, the really weird man who kept going on about how he wears a different ball cap every day instead of concentrating on what he was doing, the doctors handed you to me. I didn't know what you were going to look like, but now I can't think of any other way that you could. I felt such amazing joy at seeing you, and such sheer terror at what they had done to my poor wife, that my brain shut down and I just stared at the wall for a while, just to make sure there was something concrete and real in the world. Then Jen asked to see you, and she touched you with such tenderness through the haze of drugs. Then they whisked me with you in my arms to the nursery, where I spent another long while watching them poke and prod you. Then they wrapped you up like a burrito and told me to take you to see your mom, who was sewn up, awake, and anxious to see you. For a few hours, all we really did was stare at you, amazed that you were actually there. We rocked you and fed you and I sung you songs by Belle and Sebastian when I thought nobody was watching.
The next few month were spent watching you sleep, and trying to keep you happy and healthy, and little bits of your personality started to creep out as you sopped up the world with those big blue eyes of yours. We started to find out things like how you love it when mommy dances her bad '80s dances and how you hate peas and how my glasses are still a mystery. You have become a very independent, happy, curious, bright-eyed little boy, and if you would only sleep through the night, so mommy and I could get some rest, you would be perfect + 1.
I used to not fear death. Not in a try anything, Xtreme sports kind of way, but in a way that if it happened, it happened. I wasn't scared to pass from one world to another. I was secure that the world would continue, and that things would eventually even out. I've never really told anybody that. But I'm telling you because now I am. You and your mother have put the fear of death in me in the best possible way. Now I think that if I went, I would truly be missing out on something.
We have changed jobs, moved to a new city, settled into a decidedly more small-town lifestyle, and I am loving every minute of it. My toy buying habit is a little more justified, and I have realized the usefulness of things like the internet, digital cable, drive-through coffee bars and chairs with straps. I live vicariously through you, remembering things that had been pushed aside by life, seeing them anew through your eyes. I am back to college levels of sleep without the drug habit to support it, and I don't care. Anything to keep you happy and healthy.

I love you, little man. Happy Birthday!

-Dad.

"I love you, I've a drowning grip on your adoring face
I love you, my responsibility has found a place..."


Pears

ugh.

Creepy sadness and a lot of thoughts on frugality.
Yesterday, Brian posted this very sweet message to his baby on his first birthday. I got all teared up because my kid turns a year old on Monday. Brian is a much better writer than I, and seemed to sum up a lot of very similar feelings that I had, only more succinctly. Then I find out last night that a girl I knew from the coffeeshop, whose husband went to high school with Jen was in a terrible accident, where her 5 year old kid was killed. Everybody else is okay, but the little brother is already asking about it. How does one deal with their own grief, and explain it to a little kid at the same time? This on the heels of another tragedy where a guy from work's 18 month old son drowned in the tub at the babysitter's.
Normally I wouldn't empathize that much, but having a kid of my own has changed my perspective on a lot of things that I hadn't really realized. I spent the first few months of his life just trying to keep him happy and fed. Now I realize that my main job is to keep him alive. I said before that 90% of parenting is surveillance and containment, the rest is engagement. I've stopped myself many times from making a big deal when he bonks his head or falls over (when minor) because getting knocked around a little bit is part of life. These things happen, and if I don't make a big deal out of it, neither will he. It seems to have worked so far. Jack is a happy, curious, mischievous kid, and seeing him figure out the world has been an awesome thing to watch. But he is indeed a fragile little thing, and there are any number of outside influences that can harm him. What the fuck am I supposed to do about that? I can't put him in a baby sized gerbil ball, or keep him locked up in the house because that's no way to live. I want him to see as much of the world as possible, and I guess I just need to come to terms with the fact that shit happens. That doesn't mean I can't take precautions, but I can't freak out either, like those women you see in the grocery store that dip their kid's toy in bleach every time they drop it on the floor. That just makes the kid scared of the world, and too timid to venture out in it on their own. I guess a balance will naturally reveal itself, and I should just embrace that.
I do love that little weirdo.

It's Like Looking into the Future..

HAHA!---->

Anyhoo... We are about to go eat chili at cousin Ryan's. friday we went out to see a guy Jen went to high school with play some art-school ambient music. I like ambient music, but I prefer it to be ambient. Just sort of in the background. Something you don't have to think about while you are doing more important things. All this I realized while watching a bunch of it being performed live, which can be the musical equivalent of watching paint dry. Maybe these guys (there were 4 bands) just weren't any good. Perhaps it can be entertaining, but this really wasn't. I do have to say that I had a great time anyway, mainly because of the awesome group of people I was with. Jens parents came up to Stilly and stayed the night so we could go to the OKC for the shin dig. About 10 of us showed up, and since the music was so gawd-awful, we just drank and chatted. Then we hit ihop at 2:00am, and I don't need to tell you how entertaining that can be. Especially since all the bands showed up about a half an hour after we did.
In other news, we bought a new car. The old beat up black Jeep Cherokee will be sold tomorrow to a very nice little emo girl named Stormy. She is hella excited, and we are glad that it sold in one day. We have purchased a 2000 Nissan XTerrea, with 48k miles on it for a song. I'm serious. We got a screaming deal.

okay. Time to go eat chili.

Things blowing up in the sky

So it rained like crazy all day Tuesday. We went to Cookie's parent's for 4th celebrating, and had a wonderful time. Turned out that the fireworks display in Stilly was canceled, so they moved it to last night, so we went to that with Cousin Ryan and his very skittish Bassett hound Roscoe. We sat on the bank by the spillway at boomer lake, and were pretty close. Closer than I have ever been to a fireworks display, other that the one in my bedroom when I was 14 that sent me to the emergency room.*
Jackson loved it. Things blowing up in the sky is always a fave among small boys, BTW. He would point up at them, very Lenin-like and go "ooh ooh", like he was giving a speech. Speechifyin' is him new deal for some reason. He does it all the time. Roscoe took the most giantest dump ever. I guess the show literally scared the shit out of him.
Tonight Cousin Ryan and I are going to go see the new Pirate movie. I am actually more excited to see this than I was for Superman or X3. Both of which were vaguely disappointing. The Pirate movie seems a little safer. They should have a pretty hard time screwing it up, since there isn't all the history and expectations that a super-hero movie has. Speaking of which, the new Spider-man trailer is awesome. This one will see a bit of a departure, and I'm worried about that. The first two had plot points that were (however far-fetched) explained by science or nature. This one has the potential to go into either the super-natural, or into space. Both of these are harder to suspend disbelief with. I can believe all day long that Spider-man got his powers from a genetically engineered spider, but Venom getting his from a symbiotic space creature is something else. At least in the movies. It's fine for the comics, but when you put a real human's face to the character, then that reality needs to extend to the rest of the film. The first two X-Men films did this brilliantly, and I hope Spidey doesn't jump the shark with this one.




* I remember having on a Sisters Of Mercy T-shirt, and the ER doc saying: "Hey, I used to work a Mercy Hospital!"

Wacky Weekend Fun

So this is cool. After I entered a contest at Scary Go Round, John Allison posted all of the submissions on his website. I didn't win, but I made the top ten, and he seemed to like it.
I hope I get some hits on my site from it. My big dream is to just do a web comic, and to sell t-shirts and stickers and things to pay the bills. I doubt this will ever happen, but I can dream, dammit!
I went to Craig and Heather's wedding this weekend, and I have to say that it was one of the most enjoyable that I have ever been to. I was honored to stand with Craig as a groomsman. If you ever want to see what true love looks like, spend a little while with these two, because they have it down.
Yesterday, as promised, was Cookie day, and we had a fab time. I made him watch 8 hours of Spaced, deep into the night, and we both felt it was worth it.
Today we went to breakfast, had some coffee, visited a head shop, and sent Cookie packing, so he could feed his rather sizeable cat. I think we may drive up there tomorrow to watch some things explode in the sky.

Sketchbook # 13

New NGV5 page is up. And this---->
Is a weird guy in a haz-mat thingy. He has hard work to do. Or that suit is keeping him alive, I don't know which.
Holy crap am I ready for a long weekend. I have a wedding to participate in, for my buddy Craig. That will use up tonight and tomorrow. Sunday will see Cookie return, perhaps just as triumphantly as Superman did. COOKIE RETURNS now in theaters! That would be awesome.
I took Monday off, so now I don't have to go back till Wednesday. There WILL be whiskey in by belly at some point in the mean time, just to warn you. Weddings are generally great sources of whiskey, and I fully plan to take advantage of that. I don't know what I doing for the 4th, so if anybody has any ideas, let me know. I hope to see several things explode in the sky*, and this year I just might get my wish. That is, if mean ol' Mr. Chinese Dragon God of things exploding in the sky isn't still mad at me about that hooker.

SuperJack

I think Jackson will grow up to be a super man. I saw the movie last night. I liked it. Muy fun. The bits with the kid were a little cheesy, buy could have been a lot worse. Routh seems to have channeled Christopher Reeve from beyond the grave. He was a dead ringer in almost every way. Except the haircut, which kind of bugged me. It looked like Clark Kent had the same stylist as Franz Ferdinand.

Yesterday, a bunch of baby armadillos visited us. There were three of them, and I snapped a few pics, and video taped them romping around in utter cuteness for about two seconds until Sadie dug her way under the fence and tore after them. I think she got one of them on the tail before I could catch up to her in the woods and grab her. They ran under a big brush pile and never came back out. Sadie is a terror terrier. She'll get you. The woods behind our house are nice to look at, but I found a tick on me this morning after I was only out there for a few minutes, adding to the list of reasons to not go out there. I dropped my video camera when I ran after Sadie, and now it doesn't play right.

sad.

Gone to Pot

We had a heckuvah busy weekend, and it is still technically going, as I have not been back yo work yet. Jen had an event, so I did the same thing I always do on relay weekend: I drive to Tulsa, get the boy from the babysitter's, visit the relay for a while, spend the evening with him at the grandparent's house, and fight to get him to sleep. Then the boy and I amuse ourselves on saturday while Jen sleeps it off. We went to the coffeeshop, saw some friends, and poked around Target. Saturday night,we had a lovely meal with B&G, and went back up to Stilly. I had to bag out of Craig's batchelor party because I was too tired. Sunday was an eventful day, sort of. Jen had to prepare for a procedure she had today, which involved taking laxatives and clearing out her bowels. It sucked. If she wasn't asleep, she was in the bathroom, and wee Jack was getting sick, so I had to deal with a cranky baby all day in the midst of mowing and cleaning the house in preperation for Jen's dad coming up to watch the boy while we went to the hospital. whew! Somehow I managed to watch the entire box set of Spaced (I had to order a duped copy from England via ebay), and Shaun of the Dead, as I have recently become a HUGE Simon Pegg fan. His bit in Doctor Who was awesome. Today was the hospital. All that prep, and the thing only lasted like 20 minutes. We've been relaxing and doing chores and taking care of a sick baby all day.
Off to Wally-World!

Sam Houston was a tall man

66 feet tall if you believe the statue. I went to the city named after him this weekend for a family reunion (of Jen's family). We (Us and Jen's sister and her husband) drove a rented mini-van all night Thursday, so that Jack could just sleep the whole time, which he did. We met a very stoned, very butch tweaker-girl at one of the various gas stations along the way. She clamed she was looking for her friend Crystal, and we figured out hours later that this was actually a drug reference, and we all felt really old and out of touch. We continued on our way, arriving around six in the morning. We handed a fully rested baby off to the grand-parents, ate some greasy-spoon breakfast in Baytown, and slept it off at a really shitty hotel. This was after showers and switching rooms due to an undisclosed liquid being on the bedding. Could have been salsa, could have been blood. All we knew was that it was red and that we didn't want to sleep on it.
On to the reunion. Lots of family, lots of catching up, lots of passing Jackson around for people to scream "Isn't he CUTE!" and make loads of snap judgments about his life, pleasent and future. My fav being that he must love all things round like balls and knees because they remind him of boobies. We are a heap of barbecued burgers and hot-dogs and mac and cheese and salad.
The next day was much the same. Sitting around and yapping, although this time the cooked an entire pig on a giant spit. That was cool to watch, but the the meat wasn't very good. Kinda gamey and under cooked, even after being over the coals for most of the day. We checked out the bay, and sat through a series of torrential rain storms. Sunday we drove home, and Jack was a bit more perturbed about it, but slept most of the way, meaning he was fulla energy all night long, so I'm a little sleepy now. On the whole I had a good time but the drive wore on everybody after a while, and we were glad to come home.

Viking

This is a playmobil Viking. Everyone thinks it's lego, but it isn't. Playmobil is cooler. Maybe not cooler, but I like them more. They are a little more inventive. They don't allow the player to be as inventive as legos, but they are different kinds of toys, so that's okay.
Tonight, we are traveling to Houston (actually Baytown) for a family get-together. We are traveling at night so that Jackson can hopefully sleep through the 8+ hour drive. He doesn't ever sleep through the night anyway, so I don't really see why he would this time, but maybe being in the car will help. The Powers and The Nelsons will pile into a rented mini-van and stare at the Texas landscape. I'm really tired from Jack not sleeping last night, so hopefully the Nelsons will do the driving in the wee hours of the morning. Driving through Houston can be a pain, but I have driven in L.A., and Lonny has driven in Iraq, so we should do okay. We have ipods and good company to help out.

In other news, look how friggin' cute my kid is-->
I mean really. This kid is the cutest cutie in Cutesville.

Okay. Enough gushing. I'll post a report of the weekend on Monday.

That is all.

Sketchbook #11

I'll have a new NGV5 page up later today I hope. This is our hero, Steve. He winds his way through the silly futuristic/Old West world that I have put him in. He's fun. I guess he just got shot here. Again. He should have that looked at.

It be Monday. I had a good weekend. Went to Tulsa's RFL for the American Cancer Society. It was nice for both of us to be there to just enjoy it, and not be running around the whole time putting out proverbial fires. We had a good time. Jack's cousin Lindsey was staying the weekend with Jen's parents, so they came to the relay as well. Lindsey dragged Jen into the Jupiter jump, and Jen's body has been telling her what a bad that was ever since.

Saturday it was 107 degrees. We tried to stay places that had air conditioning. We did not succeed. After the heat subsided. We went to Enid America to see Cody "Cookie" Dopps and his family at a pool party. I had a really yummy bratwurst. Jack made friends with Cookie's niece London. Cookie's family is down to earth and really friendly. We had an awesome time.

Yesterday we did nothing*. Grocery shopping, the Pita Pit, and some serious lounging. About 2:00, I got a wild hair up my ass to thin out some of my crap, so I went through all of my books, movies and CD, and took a big pile down to Hastings, and got about $100 worth of trade, that I spent all but ten bucks of right then.

And now it is Monday. Most people hate Monday morning, but I kinda like it. My boss doesn't show up till noon, so I usually surf the whole morning. There is usually a new Homestar, post secret, many a web comic, and the big thing is that somebody has usually posted the new Doctor Who that aired in England over the weekend. Yay!

update - The new page is up now.

Bunny

So yesterday after my dick of an alarm clock woke me up, and after I stumbled into the kitchen and made coffee, and was out on my deck having coffee and a cigarette, I saw a bunny. This in itself is nothing to get excited about. We live in rural OK and our lot backs up to a forest with just a chain-link fence as a separator. The thing is that I was really not awake yet. I was really groggy, and there was fog. Literal fog, mixed with sunlight, making the forest look really cool. And it was really still. Very little sound. Just me in my underwear, the forest and the fog. Then I look down and there is this rabbit. Not out in the woods, but just off my deck, about 2 feet away from me. He seemed to be doing the same thing I was. Just sitting there, enjoying the view. I moved, and he looked up at me as if to say "oh, hey, man." and went back to looking at the forest. I went inside to get Jen and Jack, because I thought he might like to see a woodland creature that wasn't dead on the side of the road, but the bunny had gone on it's way. The sun soon burned off the fog and I got into the shower.
I like bunnies. If I were to have a rodent as a pet, I would choose a rabbit. They are actually kind of cuddly, and don't smell as bad as ferrets do. But I would never have a rodent for a pet. I have two dogs, and a cat, and when I have caged animals, I like fish. So there.

What Groo does best.

Here is the May calendar-->
Flash fans will see Bitey. If you haven's seen that movie, watch it and the rest of Adam Pilllips stuff, as he is really good at flash animation.
The old school nerds will see Groo. Somebody sent me a clip of the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon on you tube, and I saw Mark Evanier's name in the opening credits, and was flooded with memories of Sergio Aragonez's Groo The Wanderer, for which Mr. Evanier was the script editor and answered the letters column. Groo was fun. The same five gags over and over again for close to 20 years, and the part of me that stayed 12 years old never got tired of it.
Also, I really am sick of pirates and ninjas. I see them everywhere these days. Every ironic hipster t-shirt has one or both on there, there is an "ask a ninja" meme going around, and pirate crap is all over the place thanks to Captain Jack Sparrow (I will go see that movie, though. It looks hawesome).
In other news, I crossed over to the dark side this weekend, and bought a PC laptop. The decision was purely an economical one. I just can't afford Mac stuff anymore. I've had macs my whole life, but they have gotten too pricey and too snotty. All the actual technology seems to be equal, just the interfaces that are different, so since I work at a place that uses PC, and I occasionally have to work on stuff at home, and they can provide me with software to do so, $700.00 all together seemed a little more manageable than $2400.00 without software. So there you have it.
I bought it during the first Saturday I've had all to my self in years. The grand-parents took Jackson to the zoo, and Jen had to sleep of a relay, so I was on my own. I went to the coffeeshop, I saw a movie in an actual theater, went to the book store, and generally fucked off. It was fun, but I sort of ran out of things to do, and went back early. I realized that if I'm not with my family or working on a project, I don't really do much. But I'm either with my family or working on a project about 99.00% of the time, so that's okay. I guess I tend to buy expensive things when left on my own anyway, so it's probably for the best.

That is all.

oh, no!

It truly terrifies me that I find this picture so appealing.

Lost time

We had a heckuvah good weekend. Friday was our anniversary, and we drove to Cushing to see about an Italian restaurant we heard about. There are no other Italian joints here besides Joseppi's, which is sub-par, so we thought we'd give it a go. The salad and appetizers were awesome, but the entrees were kinda 'meh'. Not good enough to drive the 45 minutes again.


Saturday was the star of the show. We went to Enid, America to see our good buddy Cody.
He took us to see the farm he's renovating. He told us all about the history of the place and how it was homesteaded during the land run and built up by hand. And how a little girl watched helplessly from the porch of the house as the bank auctioned it off during the depression, and vowed to buy it back some day. It changed hands a few time over the years, sat dormant for years on end, was used as a crack house for a while, and was bought back by the little girl, now all grown up (and whose son was one of the founders of ebay), who is paying to have it renovated to period specifications before she donates it to the Oklahoma Historical Society, who will either make it a tourist destination, sell it, or let it sit for another 100 years or so, going back into disrepair.


The story of the history is as interesting as how they are going about the restoration. They started on the barn, and are re-pouring the foundation in little bits. This means that they had to raise the barn, then dig out the foundation, keeping it in place with this weird system of piers, and jacks and straps and things. So what you get is a floating foundation, and a few feet above that, a floating barn. It is really neat to see, and it is amazing that only Cody and his Dad are accomplishing all this on their own.

The barn was really awesome, but the interior the house was just plain creepy. Trent Reznor would love to shoot a video in there, or you could film the next Blair Witch there. It is riddled with bullet holes and is full of dirt and animal feces. Some stairs are missing where a cow fell through from the top floor. What amazed me was how the people who built the house were either really short or were hunchbacks, because it was really small and the ceilings were really low. The fact that it was a drug-haven at one point was what creeped us all out. I asked Cody if it was even more creepy at night, and he said he didn't know, because they've never tried it.
We tried to find a few ghost towns and only found ghost buildings, so we went back to Casa Del Cody, where he made us some kick-bottom baked ziti, we went for a walk where he told us all about the little emo girl who lives next door and hates her parents (aaah, memories...), and then we got ice cream. It was muy funtastico.

Sunday was a blow off day. We did some yardwork, We had Cody over, we grilled a pork loin, watched some movies and hit the sack. Monday was a Tulsey town day. Jack screamed the whole way down there, putting us all on edge. Though he hammed it up when we got to the mall to have his portrait made. He loves the camera. We ate some Olive Garden (shit, that's a lot of Italian food for one weekend!) and headed home. Cody went to feed his kitty, and we played with Jack till he passed out.

Then I got up and went to stupid work.