Happy Holidays

This is the image I (and Abe, I guess) sent out as a Xmas card. (Abe still will need to send it to his own friends since I only sent it to people I have email addresses for.) I drew it with a technical pen or two and colored it with watercolor pencils. I don't want to waste those, so I recently went and bought a set of Crayola colored pencils and they are really fun to work with. Plus there are about twice as many colors, including silver and gold, which can be useful.

So Happy Holidays one and all! It is the second day of winter and it is getting colder. It got warmer first, though.

Today is my last day of work for the year. I was going to work tomorrow, but my coworker Lucas and Abe convinced me to take my last day of PTO instead of the payout. So here I am working my last day of the year from home. It was a successful day too because I finally figured out the example of Oregon state tax withholding. Buh. Doesn't my job sound exciting?

Well, I hope it gets colder over the next two days because I want snow on Xmas day again.

Last Saturday, Abe's last day off before Xmas day, we went to my cousin's for a Xmas movie party. We were the first to show up and I think we were early. Good times though. They bought a house this year and it is nice and big. We got to see Tony's dad, who I haven't seen in a while. (Tony, or Anton as he likes to be called now, is my cousin). He brought Frango's over, which is a real treat since I used to get to eat them every year for Xmas, but now we rarely see him, so we don't get them. Yummy. He even brought lasagna, but I didn't get any of that. We watch A Muppet's Christmas Carol, which was awesome. On Monday, I still had the Ghost of Christmas Present's song stuck in my head. Which isn't so bad.

Also, I am knitting (poorly) the hat penny wore on the last Big Bang Theory of the year. I needed to use size 9s. I might make another one tomorrow... I used 7s, so I would use 9s tomorrow. I am pretty excited. Maybe I will post my final pattern here. I am just using some leftover Red Heart acrylic yarn from the first blanket I ever knit (which was for Xmas and looks terrible - dropped stitches, poor finishing, I never even weaved in the ends). Hopefully I can finish it to wear to Abe's mom, who he still hasn't called to make plans for Xmas Eve. Jerkface.

You know who is not a jerkface? My coworker Lucas, who kindly recycled my can of Diet Coke and washed my cups since I thought I was coming in on Wednesday, but since I am not, they would have sat there dirty for almost 2 weeks. I think the dirtiness grosses him out enough that he would have washed it even if he didn't like me. Haha.

Anyways, in other art news, I also recently went through my box of "art" stuff. I found an embroidery project I want to finish but may not be able to. I will give it a shot, I guess. I also found my ink and nibs. So last night I started practicing drawing with that. Well, I did one a few days ago too. So have more pictures to scan and post. It is just so annoying to try scanning. It only works half the time. We have a new set up that we have not tried yet, though, so it might work better now. The other problem is that I draw on paper that is larger than the scanner, so I have to scan each picture in two parts and then put them together in Photoshop. Anyways, I will stop complaining and just try to do it. I have at least 5 pictures to scan and post. I am not behind in any way. What are you talking about?

Happy Birthday Abe! (and a picture)

Abe, my big sweetie, is another year older. Can't really tell though. Looks the same, acts the same. He makes me happy and I make him happy, so what else could you really ask for?

I got him pants for his birthday, yes pants. A pair of jeans and some pj pants. And, simple as he is, he loves them. Works well for me. I also got him some yarn so I can make him some mittens. My goal is to have them done before the end of January. We also went to Texas Style BBQ for lunch. It was good, but has made me a little sick. Abe is in love though. (He also got himself some games for his birthday - two of them were under $10 each...)

I also sent him to this. He laughed a lot, which I suppose is what you should do on your birthday.

And finally, here is the pic I intended to put up for Thanksgiving and forgot. Now we are off to Thai for dinner with Abe's mom and then to play EQ2 for the rest of the night. Should be a blast.

Comic tuesday

This comic is strangely recursive.

I'm going to be 35 in a few days. I feel old.

I can't decide what to get myself as a present. I'm considering Borderlands, Dragon Age or just pre-paying for a 3 or 6 month subscription to EQ2 and pre-order its next expansion. On the other hand I might just buy a few comics and make a big credit card payment with the rest. You know you're getting old when making credit card payments with your birthday money ranks up with buying video games and comics.

Well, I need to run to catch the bus to work. Hope everyone is well :-)

--Abe

My thoughts on New Moon and the comic

So I thought New Moon was good enough. It let me see the parts I had a hard time picturing, like the horse-sized wolves. But that was about it. I was disappointed with the whining in the book, but in the movie I was disappointed. It was barely good enough. I was glad that the annoying internal monologue of Bella was gone, but then they also left out the acting. It was a different director and I think that was part of the problem. I liked the direction of the first movie better. In this one it seemed like everyone could care less. They just went through the motions they thought they were supposed to without putting real thought or heart into it. But since the previous one was a bit better in regards to the acting, I would have to put it on the director.

When I read the book, I pictured Jane and her brother as pre-teens, like 9, but I guess she is might have supposed to be mid to late teens, so I guess Dakota Fanning was good. She looked beautiful. She was just older than I had pictured and I can't find any accurate information about Jane's age online. I am seeing 9 to 16 years old. Whatever.

I think in the end, if they don't keep getting worse, we will probably end up buying all four movies because it would be fun to watch them all in a row.

I think my least favorite thing about the whole series (though I haven't read the last book yet) is how pitiful Bella is. She drives me nuts. If my boyfriend all of a sudden changed his mind and told me he didn't want to be with me and I would never see him again, I would be pissed, even if I thought he was too good for me, because no matter how little I thought of myself, no one deserves to be treated like a toy that can be set aside and forgotten without regard. Let this be a note for you, Abe... :) Just joking. Sure, there would be some self doubt, but New Moon is like an exercise in self doubt. And she sure keeps with that theme throughout the everything, Bella thinking she is not good enough. Which can only mean to me that she also has trust issues since Edward tells her all the time that she is everything to him, blah, blah, blah.

Uh, but no kidding, I really enjoy the stories. I know that I have a lot of negative to say about it. I just think the books needed better editing and the movies needed better acting and directing (hand in hand).

Anyways, I just wanted to point out that I totally used a ruler to draw the lines in the last comic, so the crooked lie drives me nuts. Ah well. I did another one using the ruler and I think it looks awesome. At least the lines around the panels do... It is a Xmas one, so it won't be posted for a bit. I have at least three Xmas drawings to post. We don't decorate or anything until after the 11th to respect Abe's birthday, so we won't post the pics until then either.

Also, in the 4th panel, I forgot to draw in Georgie's fingers! And get ready. I think the next comic is pretty darn funny. :)

This was a bit more negative post than I had intended. The Twilight series just really frustrates me because it seems like such a great idea with poor execution. Especially for the books, being a technical writer, they can get hard to read. I just try to remind my self it is a teen book, though I think that is an even better reason to write well.

Oh, I also have a Thanksgiving illustration that we need to post. So get ready! I have been trying to draw and ink and color a lot, so I hope I can keep it up.

OMFG A COMIC?!?

Yep, its a comic. And there's a second one that I can post in a few days too. They're sort of unintentionally related. This is part of an actual conversation that Angela and I had. I hope that this insight into the deepest workings of our minds doesn't leave you scarred for life.

New Moon was enjoyable but not very good, like a twinkie. It just felt very uninspired. The acting was meh, the music was meh, the cinematography was meh, the movie was meh. The book is so much better.

Bellas constant running internal monologue doesn't really bother me since she pretty much narrates the whole story and she *is* a teenage girl. My favorite characters are Jacob and Alice though and, while Jacob was decently portrayed in the movie, Alice was not the character that I read in the book. She was dressed like a frumpy 30-something housewife and the acting just seemed phoned in. A lot of the acting was like that actually. And the spinning and spinning camera. I think the cinematographer had just finished taking "Spinning camera for dramatic effect 101" and he/she really wanted to show off.

It's WTF cold here today. I'm wearing a wool hat, wool sweater, fleece hoodie, thermal socks, and a blanket and I'm Fuh-Fuh-Fuh-Fuh-Reeezing!

--Abe

My electronic entertainment enjoyment

Things I have enjoyed through electronic entertainment the past week or so:

1. Professor Layton and the Curious Village - Abe got this for me for my DS and I LOVE it. Bunch of brain teasers and puzzles. I have been able to figure out almost all of them (except 2 I think). I have solved over 30 puzzles in the game. It is a little weird because the characters facial expressions never change regardless of the information they are relaying - I found a cat! That man was murdered! Yeah. But still fun. I got it and played it for 2.5 hours straight. Very fun.
2. Monk! I love Monk. Friday was the second to last episode of the series and next Friday is the series finale. Sad. But Sunday I watched a Monk marathon almost all day! Great show. I am bummed it is over, but I am sure they will continue showing all the old episodes. (I don't know if this is sad or not, but when you Google "Monk," the tv show comes up before things on monks.)
   
3. Boondock Saints II - I didn't even hear this was coming out until I think it was already out. Or a week or so before. So I went on Monday night to see it by myself since Abe hates the first movie. Freak. I loved it. I laughed out loud. It was gratuitously violent, wonderfully chummy, and used amazingly colorful language. I wish I could swear like that. I will be buying this on DVD or whatever for sure. I also finished watched the first one right before I left to catch the bus to see the second one. Awesome. The volume was up to loud, but it had basically everything I was hoping for. I laughed. I was sad. I jumped in my seat even when I knew it was coming. :)
   
4. Xmas music Time! I have checked all the xmas music in my iTunes so it plays in rotation with everything else now. Awesome.

Well, that is all. I finished up a five-day weekend of knitting and watching TV. Good times. Lost my keys, too, so I couldn't leave the house, but it turns out they were in a side pocket of my bag. Dork.

Tonight, Abe and I are going to see New Moon. I am really excited, but I am totally expecting to come out completely underwhelmed. I hope it is good though. I like the movie better than the first book because I didn't have to listen to as much of Bella's inane whining. And I hope that is more so the case in the second movie because I almost couldn't finish the second book because of it. I mean, I was physically unable to stop reading that book, which must be made of literary crack; otherwise I might have stopped reading it.

Also, we are almost done with Xmas shopping. A few things left to get for each other and a couple gifts for a couple other people and we are basically done. I am about halfway done with Abe's gifts.

For Thanksgiving, we had a wonderful chicken thigh dinner (which was supposed to be chicken breasts) with my mom the Sunday before because she was coming down to see Where the Wild Things are anyways and we had a yummy dinner. Then on The Day, we went to Abe's aunt and uncle's and that was fun. Played Trivial Pursuit on the Wii. Weird. And then I cooked a nice dinner with a yummy cornish game hen and yummy gravy on Friday while Abe was at work and we had that when he got home. Yummy. For thanks, we are both thankful Nisa is doing so well after being diagnosed with Addison's a year or so ago. (She also got a new harness from Annie's Sweatshop. I ripped it already, but I think I can fix it. It is sure darn cute.) We are also thankful that Ernie has lost so much weight and is a lot healthier now.

-Angela

Very tired

Working a lot. Want you to see this. Be sure to press play. The darker the color the higher unemployment is in that area. It's divided by county.

Scary stuff.

--Abe

Post

God, I'm beat. Been getting up around 5 am all week for work. And now it looks like my next day off is going to be wednesday!

I don't really have anything to say other than I wish I did lol

That's my new pet in WoW. Isn't he cute? Like OMFG squeal like a teenage girl cute.

Have I mentioned how tired I am?

--Abe

Pics for Art by Committee

James Gurney, the guy who did Dinotopia, has a blog. And on that blog, he hosts "Art by committee" where once a month he posts a quote from a sci-fi or fantasy story and people send in pictures drawn from the quote. This month the quote is "He is shorter than I remember, and thin. His fur is grayed to white in a fringe around his head, just below his ears. His coat is dull, thinning, and coarse. His eyes, so bright I…" It was due on the 12th and I just got it in last night. This first one is the pencil I sent him. I think he liked it, which is so awesome. Made my day.

The pencil was really fun. Google is a nice help for reference pics. I had to scan it and such to do that and it was amazingly difficult. I think it shut the power down three times and we had to flip the breakers. Then it freaked out the scanner to be shut down like that so it took a good 20 minutes to get the scan done. I think the "power drain" from changing the size of the image in Photoshop killed the power again.

So then after I had that scanned and sent, I decided to try inking it. This first one I used a few different size technical pens from Faber-Castell. I only have three sizes: S, F, and M. I got them as a set for less than $15 from Fred Meyer's. Not quite sure what the equivalents are, but I think it is like 3, 5, and 8 or 10. I did the outline of the character in F, the inside lines with S, and the shading with M. It was fun. I wish I hadn't colored in his eyes with the hatching, but whatever.

This next one I did with a (slightly blunt) brush pen that came in the same little kit as the three technical pens. I really like the set. They are easy to use and a nice solid black color. I don't know which of the two I like better. I think parts of each. So I will probably use the brush for skin outlines and the technical pens for everything else. I had trouble with the shoes. Also had help from Google.

This was really fun. My favorite of the three is the pencil drawing. But I can't wait to find out the next quote on the 15th. This also inspired another image that I will draw. It is a more sarcastic version because the character is still quite rotund even though the quote is about the character being thinner than remembered. Maybe I will do that tonight.

Also, in the mail I have a drawing board with a translucent center on the way from DickBlick.com. So now I will have a better (and more ergonomic) place to draw. That will be nice. My current place is curled up on the couch, but I am having some problems with my right shoulder because of my posture (I think). I actually started physical therapy for it a few weeks ago and I was right, my right shoulder is...was...really tight. It is already a lot better. Speaking of, I better go do my exercises. Hooray. They are actually really easy and take probably 20 minutes.

Wormwood Good

This weekend, Abe and I went to the library and got some comic books. I read the first Wormwood book by Ben Templesmith and I really like it. Funny, dark, weird, and pretty in a gross way. I like the art style. The main character is a magic maggot or something in a reanimated corpse. They don't come right out and say that until probably half way through that book, but you get the gist. Abe got that quicker than I did. I found it in another section of the library that has graphic novels. We thought it was just the one section in the Teens books, but those are mostly superheroes and other lighter stuff, so I was very pleased to find this other section. We also got a Conan one for Abe, and Harley Quinn and Pigeons from Hell for both of us. I am not interested in Conan at all.

Now I am reading Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (which I keep spelling Bathman...). I am liking it more and more. My favorite Batman, I think, will always be Michael Keaton. He was just everything I thought Batman should be. I think that I would never have picked Michael Keaton to play Batman and that is what makes him so perfect. He is an unassuming height, but not too short. He is polite and quite and refined in his tux but not boring looking. He has a twinkle in his eye that shows his intelligence and wit. But in his suit, he is powerful and serious. Strong and purposeful. This is what I think of Batman, not Michael Keaton, who I would guess is a bit of a weirdo but cool. Anyways, I am still enjoying this comic. Not quite my favorite art style, but OK. I did a tracing of a one page comic and I think it turned out well.

I also listened to Animal Farm on my commute last week. That book is a bit of a downer. Not what I was expecting. I think I was thinking of another book of his when I got the audio book. And now I am listening to Dubliners. I can get a complete short story or two in each way. I am not enjoying it as a car ride listen as much as I enjoyed Eragon. I actually really liked that one and need to put the next one on hold. The weird thing is that the last four or five books on CD I have gotten have been read by someone with a British accent.

Anyways, after the library we went to a cafe. (I almost wrote cage. Wouldn't it have been weird if we had gone to a cage?) They had a little bucket for donating to the businesses that were burned down in Greenwood a few weeks ago. Since then (Oct 23) and including then there have been a total of 10 fires in the area, most if not all apparently arson. Crazy! I don't know what is going on in Greenwood. The businesses that were destroyed in the first fire (which was so huge that the sirens woke Abe and me and it smelled of smoke at our place a 20-30 minute walk away (5 or less in the car) - well, none of them had insurance. They were all small, so not shocking. But the Greenwood area seems to be really pulling together to get the Green Bean Coffeehouse back going again. I think they help women in need get jobs there as jumping off points.

Uh, anyways, the cafe we went to was nice, though very small. I have no idea what the name is. I had a glass of milk. :) Abe and I sat there and read the comics we had just got at the library. Fun stuff.

Sweater!

My cardigan is done (a while ago, but I have been busy)! I messed up a little, but I learned a lot. (That was my new haircut, but I have since had it cut again. And yes my hair is black instead of reddish now, thanks for noticing...)

1. The sleeves are a little too tight, but not so bad. They have loosened with use and are quite comfortable, now.


2. I forgot I would need to make the two front panels a little longer than the back. Oh well. Perhaps blocking can save me. (It didn't really.)


3. I learned how to sew a shoulder seam. It looks alright. I think it could look better. Perhaps I need to pull the yarn a bit tighter.


4. I learned how to sew a side seam! I love it. You can't even see there is a seam. Though I now know why you need the two spare stitches at each sewn edge.


5. I also successfully picked up the collar. Looks pretty snazzy.

From this, I learned that the Knitting Book of Answers is completely AWESOME. That is where I learned all the new techniques from. Dumb me, I have had it forever. It was already my go-to book for cast ons and bind offs. Now it is just getting better since I have actually started using it. Strange how that happens.

I also learned, that when Ernie is content, he makes a wonderful pattern holder...

Now I have also started the striped gloves from Knitting and Tea. They are a bit fiddly with 16+ stripes of vertical intarsia, but I think they will look great in the end. I have a method down. Here is how I started. That did not work.

So I put them on cards (Addi Turbo packaging cardboard), and that is working a lot better.

I also had to rip out Abe's Ganomy hat because the rat bastard just wasn't working. It ended up too small. So I wrote down the changes I need to make and hope to have it done before the middle of December. We'll see.

I actually also finished a knit pickle that was part of the Holiday Joy kit I got from Knit Picks. I am not kidding, I filled it with dill! Well, maybe a teaspoon of old dill and a bunch of stuffing. It is so awesome. Abe was going to take it to work today (but I think he forgot) and I will take it to work tomorrow (if I remember).

A few weekends ago now, I met my mom and aunt Carol at my grandma's. They played some domino like game with numbers while Abe and I watched because we were late and missed out. (Jim was there too.) But while we were there, I got back the Phat Fiber kit!! Phew. I love it. Since then, I have spun up this: the Munchkin Punchkin "Briar Rose" colorway in a 3ply lace weight. I think it looks really nice. This was a pleasure to spin. Soft wool and lovely colors.

I also spun this: My Fair Yarn "Ogre" colorway. (I think this is it - I have two greens, so I might have grabbed the wrong picture...) Actually, this might be wicked. I think I spun Ogre in a single ply lace weight and this is a three ply. Yeah. That's it. Shoot.

Finally, I have to show the world this picture of what happens to Abe's hair when he wears his headphones. We recently cut his hair and this had me laughing for a good five minutes before I thought to go get the camera.

No joke.

Belated Halloween

Happy Halloween just a few days late. We spent the weekend doing the Halloween events in EQ2 and watching movies.

In one of the events you get turned in to a werewolf!

In another, the last boss is a giant version of yourself!

The goblins were giving out a buff that changed your appearance every time you zoned.

We had a great time.

--Abe

Thursday

We're all over the map now as far as when we post goes. My schedule changes on a weekly basis and that makes it really hard to do anything with any sort of regularity.

So, it seems like we are having a sort of Cthulu week here. This drawing just cracks me up every time I think about it. It really shows Angelas twisted sense of humor at its finest.

Well, off to work for me. It's my personal Monday today.

--Abe

Tuesday Surprise

I got sent home early today so I've been getting things done so I can slack really hard tomorrow. One of those things was to scan this awesome picture that Angela drew of Snow White having a little trouble with an apple in her old age.

As usual, Angelas twisted sense of humor shines through her art like a beacon of depravity.

I upgraded my computer to Windows 7 last weekend and, it feels weird to say this but, I'm actually enjoying using it. The install was fast and painless. Microsoft has a great deal on a family pack of licenses which basically gives you three licenses for about 20 bucks more than a single license. The system starts up fast, shuts down fast, opens windows fast, its just fast and responsive. And, all of the games I've played so far run as well or better than they did in vista.

My favorite part is the changes to the task bar though. They took it out. It's gone. Well, actually its more like they merged the task bar and the quick launch bar into a beast thats similar to the Dock in MacOS. In any case, it makes managing windows, especially with applications that open a lot of different windows, really simple.

That's about all for now.

--Abe

Wednesday

So, turns out I'm a jerk. I know, big surprise. I did not get us the dvr bundle and Angela is now very sad.

I'm continuing to look for a job too, because my sense of the one I have now is that it is seasonal and that all the "there's a great chance that you'll be hired as a permanent employee" stuff they told me during the interview and hiring process was absolute bullshit. When I started training, probably 90% of the cubicles in the office were empty. Now its down to probably 60%. I bet by thanksgiving they will almost all be full. And my intuition tells me that by the middle of January or so they'll be 90% empty again.

Of course, unemployment is still rising and, just this morning, the news was reporting the "good news" that just 500 some thousand *new* applications were made last week in comparison to the 500 some thousand + a few thousand more new applications were made last week. Slightly less-bad news is good news! Up is down. Poverty is prosperity.

We haven't made a lot of progress on our debt since I started either because unexpected and unavoidable expenses keep coming up. Like Angela was sick and had to go to the doctor. I've had this weird pain in my side for like 6 months and it finally got so bad that I went to the doctor and it turns out I have some sort of lump that needs to be removed. My doctor told me that it was nothing to worry about "unless it's black and nasty looking when I cut it out of you". I actually really appreciate how direct my doctor is about stuff like that.

A rock hit our windshield last weekend when I was driving to work and now we have a dime sized star-shaped crack on the drivers side. It's directly in the middle of my field of vision but I think it's too far up to really bother Angela. We're going to fill it with one of those window repair kits but we need 15 minutes of direct sunlight to do it and it's been cloudy and raining for like 3 days now.

I have a half day of work today so I don't leave till 12:30 or so. The EQ2 guys are upgrading the hardware that my server runs on so I can't play. I've done a bunch of stuff around the house, read an entire web comic, posted here, looked for jobs, played with the dogs, done laundry and dishes. I'm bored and the future looks bleak to me right now.

--Abe

Cable TV. It's back.

So today, we got cable TV again. It was getting really frustrating to have the TV cut out at the punchline of every joke. Abe even got us Showtime for $1 a month for the first 6 months. I kind of hope I don't like it so I won't be tempted to spend $18 a month on it after that. We also spent the $7 to get HD TV just because it looks so amazing as I have been seeing on the air. And I think we got a DVR so I can watch shows later and pause them when Abe comes out of the computer room and won't stop talking to me.

I am pretty excited. I have to have something to do while I knit and I have a lot of knitting to do. I went a little nuts the last while on yarn. I have to finish my cardigan, though I just have to finish the second half of the second sleeve, the right front, and then the front and neck hem part. I also have to finish the Ganomy hat for Abe, which I think is turning out pretty awesome. The pattern is pretty simple, though I think I might fuss with it a couple of stitches here and there when I make my own hat. Then I have a Xmas present to knit for someone. It looks like a really fun pattern and the yarn is really nice, so that should be a good one. I will start that when I am done with the cardigan.

This weekend, I bought some yarn at Village Yarn and Tea. I bought the book Knitting and Tea, which I actually like a lot, and some yarn to make the striped gloves. I also got another Dong Boa ball of 1500 yards of Cashmere lace weight for $10. That makes three balls all in different colors. Not sure what I plan to do with them. The newest is brown and I think I will make the featherweight cardigan with it.

I also got some fleece tweed to make a cowl. I am not sure which pattern to use though. I really want to make the Ice Queen pattern and the Pretty Things pattern (the pattern is finally for sale on Ravelry). I think I will make the stockinette version of the Ice Queen with the orange Fleeced Tweed and the Pretty Things with the gray cashmere.

Anyways, now I will actually have things to watch while I knit. I think that is only 30% of the reason I am excited to have cable again. Another 30% is to have it not cut out on every punch line. Or big break through in the case. And another 30% is Marathons! Like Monk marathon weekends or Law and Order: Criminal Intent marathons. I freakin' love watching the same TV show all day. I am not sure why, but it just feels like the ultimate in luxury. I forgot what the other 10% was, but I guess that is why it was only 10%.

In other news, I have been working on drawing up a story. It is only 9 pages, but I like it so far. Written, it is barely a page and a half. As much as I like anything I draw. Perhaps I should stop reading all these wonderfully drawn comics like The Abominable Charles Christopher and The Port because they give me a complex about my own drawing skills. But I think these are professionals who are actually making a living drawing comics as it is. And I only have time to draw about an hour a day (since I can't stop knitting). Anyways, since it is only 9 pages, I don't know what to do with it. I don't know if I should even bother sending it out to publishers since it is so short. Perhaps some compilation like Flight. Anyways, if I can't find anyone who wants it, I might just put it up here. It is from a story I wrote in 9th grade for a vocabulary extra credit assignment in October. I guess it is pretty appropriate that I am drawing it in October many years after originally writing it. Perhaps I can even get the whole thing finished by the end of October. We'll see. There is only about 5 words of dialog in the whole thing.

Friday pre-work quick post

Eating my breakfast and reading my favorite blogs this morning and I found this over at nakedcapitalism.com. I'm talking about the series of pictures of the sled dogs and polar bear.

My new pally is level 26 already with only about 11 hours /played.

I'm off to play her for a few minutes before I have to get ready for my multi-hours long bus ride. I actually enjoy riding across the floating bridge every morning. It can be really beautiful out there.

Abe

Wednesday

Hey! It's my first day off in a long time. We have been working on comics but none of them are ready to post yet. There'll be some new ones in the near future. No, really. I promise.

Last night we were talking about knitting and stuff. This happens a lot when your girl friend is as obsessed as mine is. Angela was telling me about the knitting apparatus that she wants to get and she came to something in her mental list that's name she had forgotten. She stumbled and sputtered for a second and then said "You know, its the thing where you lay something out and pin it down." and I said "Blocking." She stopped mid-word and stared at me for a second and then burst in to laughter. After about a half a minute of laughter she finally manages to sputter out "So you have been listening!"

Ah man it was funny.

I played EQ2 all day today. It was my day off. I made a new paladin and she is already level 18.

Comics coming soon. For real.

--Abe

Cooking has begun!

It has been a tiring week because our schedule is all out of wack. We will try to get the comics for next week done this week. But we have been having some delicious food. Yummy yummy. This first one is our chicken dinner from last night (Wednesday). I chopped up some green onions (or scallions if you are Abe) and mixed it with some garlic powder and some olive oil. Maybe a table spoon or two of oil. At the grocery store, Abe swore up and down that we had garlic at home. I told him I got to beat him up if he was wrong. And of course when we get home, no garlic. Well, there was some garlic that Abe had forgotten about but it was so old it had nearly turned to dust. Anyways, I washed and dried the chicken. Then I covered the chicken in the oil mix and set it on a broiling rack and sprinkled a little bit of salt over them (two chicken thighs with skin and bone). Then broiled it for 15 minutes. Flipped it and put more oil (and green onions) on top and a little salt and broiled for another 15 minutes. Delish. Plus some mashed baby red potatoes with sour cream and butter and salt and green onions. And broccoli. I want to try this recipe again with chicken breast and fresh garlic instead of powdered.

Then tonight (Thursday), we had hamburgers. I mixed fresh garlic and green onions and a little salt in just under a pound of hamburger and made giant patties. But we used 9% fat hamburger and they turned out too dry (to me). The Joy of Cooking suggests about 20% to be juicy but not too fatty. And I think broiling will help get rid of the fat (let it drip out). We also broiled some tater tots with the burgers. And had some delicious avocado. Abe had tomato, too, but I don't like tomatoes.

So here is the china cabinet we got from my aunt. Not bad, yeah? So we are painting it black and yellow and green. I think it will look pretty sweet. It is already full of tea and yarn dyeing supplies and some water color supplies. And a few random kitchen things. Once the shelf is in, it will hold the stuff across all the cook books, which is bowls and I think some cups. Seriously, all those books are cook books. And on the right are some cooking magazines. A couple years worth of Bon Appetite from the late 90s. I read somewhere that the average person has 7 -8 cookbooks. Abe and I blow that out of the water. Really, I blow that out of the water because most of those are mine.

It was missing the shelf, which Abe thinks was glass. So we got this board at Home Depot and had it cut to size. It is a skitch too short, but it will still work. We will make it safe by adding some dowels on either side to keep it from slipping and falling. They were really nice. We also got a drop cloth, the paint, and paint brushes. We already had the necessary sand paper, so we are good to go and now the weather just needs to cooperate.

Last Saturday is when we bought it and the temp was fine to start painting the bottom black. Essentially, our guideline is that vertical surfaces will be black, horizontal surfaces will be yellow, and the trim will be green. Eventually we will get a tiny bit of a reddish color to add to the trim in tiny doses. I think I might also paint some ferns or creatures on it, but I will get the whole thing painted first. So here it is with the first couple coats of black paint, then sanded and waiting to put on the last coat of black.

Last week I also finally finished my slippers! The pattern is from Knit 2 Together. I totally forgot what the yarn is. They are quite comfy and quite covered in dog hair in this picture because I have been wearing them all over the unvaccumed carpet. Neither of us wants to clean in our little bit of free time. I really like the colors, but I messed up when grabbing the stitches. I grabbed to far over on one. The one with more grey on the side looks better to me. And I really like the "argyle" look. I was considering putting a button or two on, but I haven't seen any I like.

Next up, New Shirts!! We went to Jinx! because they were having a sale. A bunch of shirts were $10 each. So I got these two. Terror Bot, which I will wear to the big corporate meeting tomorrow. Don't worry, I think it is pre-recorded. :) And the other is a great green shirt that say Math is FUNctional! Yea! That one fits great. I like the neck line actually, which is a lot loser than a regular crewneck. It is an actual ladies T.

And here is Abe's shirt. He only got one. Loser. Actually the ones he liked were sold out in his size, so I guess I lot of people liked the same ones as him. I wanted him to get one that said "Stop laughing! Computers are cool now." Anyways, this one "African or European" from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which I watched when I went home early because I was sick the other Friday. So this is the swallow carrying the coconut. Very funny. I like it.

--Angela

stupid blogger

I posted, but I started it a long time ago so it is down a couple post - before the Phat Fiber one. Here is link. In case you are too lazy to scroll. It is just about plants.

no comic friday

Sorry, no comic today. We've both been feeling crappy most of the week. I'm going to draw a bunch this weekend though. So we have a backlog for circumstances like this.

I do have some nice screenshots from eq2 though. First one is Denaso and her pet raven. Denaso's in her tier one shard armor.

Then we have Dennika brandishing her fabled class weapon. The armor is an appearance set that I bought on the marketplace.

And, lastly, Eunika, contemplating her life philosophy which is best summed up as "Getting punched in the face, so you don't have to." Based on her hair style I'm guessing that she's a DBZ fan.

Blogger is really a bitch when you post multiple images in a post.

Happy friday.

--Abe

Yea! Phat Fiber is here!

I had a sort of rough day at work. I think it was just because I was a bit sick. But when I got home, my Phat Fiber box was here!! So that was nice. So I spent dinner filtering through it. Well, I guess I filtered through most of it, taking pictures, before dinner. So first, here is the box that was waiting for me on the couch. This was the Folklore and Fairytales box. Very cute.

And here is the lovely view when I opened the box. Such a sweet little book thing and lovely tissue. It was all very exciting. Add to that the intoxicating smell of fiber that wafted out and I got a little dizzy. Or it is being sick.

When I opened the book there was a folded page of tissue and a book page - from the Hobbit. So cute.

And here is what I saw when I opened the little tissue package. Goodies!!

First is this cute little pumpkin stitch marker from Vickie's Knitted Things. This looks like a pretty nice one that shouldn't catch on the yarn.

The back of the pumpkin card had this cute little quote (I think) from Cinderella.

Then I have an adorable teeny tiny black stitch marker from Designs by Tami. Very cute, but I am wondering if the marker part will catch on the yarn. It wasn't closed well, though that could have been from all the shipping. But I think I have fixed it now.

I think this next one is just scratch paper from Munchkin Punchkin. Handy to keep with your knitting to make little notes where you are and stuff. Good size for that.

And finally, but certainly not least in the little package, a cute little knitting greeting card from Winemaker's Sister.

That was it for the top part. There was a whole second half to sift through! So exciting. This was just like Xmas!

Agh! Look at all the stuff!

First up, some wool yarn in Hansel and Gretel color by Coolclimates Handspun Yarns. It is pretty cute. I don't know what I would make if I had an entire skein. Actually, I think this could make a really cute tea cozy for Xmas. Ooh. Now I might have to get more... It has little beads in it, like candy and everything.

Here is cotton yarn in Enchanted Castle colorway by Goodness Gracious. I think I will make this the center part of a wash cloth.

This is the craziest yarn in the bunch. Wool, firestarter (which I think is just shiny stuff), metallic thread, angelina glitz (more shiny stuff?), superwash wool, novelty yarn, more merino, and some alpaca in the Fairy Godmother colorway by Blue Mountain Handcrafts. Not really my thing. I have no idea what I will end up doing with this. Not really my colors.

This is one of my favorite yarns in the bunch, at least colorwise. It is wool and a pinch of nylon in the Sleeping Beauty colorway by Knit It Up. It is pink and olive green with a bit of apricot, silver, and purple. Very pretty colors. Well done.

This is some sweet alpaca yarn in Unicorn colorway by Fiber Diversions. I love alpaca, so what can I say. The colors are lovely and subtle. I am curious how it will work up.

Here is Abe's favorite from the box. This is superwash merino in the Dragonskin colorway by Knitty and Color. It really is a good one. Superwash, but very soft and squooshy. No idea what I want to make with it yet. Maybe some wrist warmers. That would be funny.

I love tihs one. I think I might end up getting more of it because it is so pretty. Organic merino in the Princess Bride colorway by Xtreme Spinning. (The website I have isn't working...XtremeSpinning.com So pretty - blues and nice purples. This is a fair chunk of roving, too.

This is another one of my favorites. What?! I can have more than one. This is organic merino in the Brownie colorway by Natchwoolie. Say it like Naturally. Haha. I like this colorway even though it is all brown. It is subtle and interesting. Natural plant dyes, too. Nice and squooshy.

I missed a yarn when I had been sifting earlier. This is superwash wool in Graymatter colorway by Serendipitous Ewe. I love the name of the color and I actually like the color a lot. Fingering weight.

This is a mohair blend from Lord of the Skeins in the Grandelf the White colorway by Dragonmaille Designs. Its alright. I am not a big mohair fan. Itchy. But the color is nice and I think it could look nice with the Unicorn skein. Or even the Fairy Godmother skein.

More roving! This is alpaca/silk/merino/angelina in the Snow White colorway by Plum Crazy Ranch and Fiber Art. I am not a big fan of the sparkly stuff, but this one looks kind of festive.

I love this ogre roving by My Fair Yarn. What a great color. Not the soft but the color is subtly variegated. Very pretty. I would totally wear a sweater or something in this. An outer sweater, not a to-skin sweater.

This is a lovely mix of wool, mohair, and carbonized bamboo. I am not sure what that last one means exactly, but this is some of the softest roving. Absolutely lovely. The color is night elf from the Myth and Magic Fiber club by Serendipity Fiber Arts. It also has a stitch marker from Paige's Beaded Creations. The club looks like fun, but it appears to only be a one month subscription. Which seems to me that it isn't a club.

This is superwash merino and nylon in the Briar Rose colorway by Munchkin Punchkin. Great light blues. Briar rose is apparently the Brother Grimm name for sleeping beauty. A brief overview of the entire tale is on the back of the package and is pretty funny.The roving is pretty soft too.

This is roving of wool, firestarter, and angelina (why do so many fiber artists include this in their roving and stuff?) in the Wicked colorway, which is awesome, by Crystal City Fibers. I actually can't wait to see how this spins up.

There is also this pattern for a heart by Michelle Miller of Fickle Knitter Design. So sweet. I need to pick a yarn. I could spin up some yarn! Dye some and spin it (or the other way around) and knit away!

And then at the bottom, was this roving by Sheepy Kitty. I have no idea what it is made of or what colorway it is, but it is pretty nice. Lovely shades of dusty purple. Perhaps I will make something for Abe from it. Or me. We'll see.

And so the first thing I did was spin up the Snow White roving by Plum Crazy Rang and Fiber Art. I actually like it. It was annoying to spin up the Angelina (the shiny bits) because it kept coming out and falling in my lap. And it kept coming up in big chunks, but oh well. I think the yarn turned out quite nice. I decided to try a two-ply yarn, which I never do, and I actually like it. I made a bad 2-ply once and hadn't tried since. When I knit with it, it kept coming undone, untwisted. Very frustrating. But that was a pretty bad one. And I think I spun it the opposite directions this time. S then z instead of z then s. But it only took about an hour to spin up the whole thing.

Wow. What a blast. I think next time I will get the spinning only box because so many of the yarns are a chunky weight and only 15 yards or meters, which is hardly enough for anything! I will have to see if ravelry has any patterns for these little bits...