London, Part 5

Today was a short if not very fun day. Since we both were sick, we stayed in bed until like 1 in the afternoon. We really needed it, since living in the midwest we don't walk enough, and our colds really kicked us in the ass. I still have mine, dammit. But since we had set aside a lot more time than we actually used for shopping, we were able to see more than we had planned in the days prior so getting a late start was no real tragedy. It was actually necessary-like I said, ass-kicking colds.

Our hotel was very near Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, which are adjacent. London has such beautiful parks and gardens. We walked to the other side of the park and came upon another very gaudy statue, this one of Prince Albert. And across from his statue was the Royal Albert Hall. It was quite neat, but nothing was going on at the time so we didn't go inside. There were no posted facts about how many holes fill it, so that is still a mystery. That's me in the photo below, outside of the Royal Albert Hall trying to keep the evil "Keep Left" sign at bay. I think every American nerd's first trip to London is full of Monty Python references. As geeky as that is, I'd rather listen to bad Python jokes and references than listen to one more person sing the Spam song.

After we saw the Hall, we walked to Harrods. My goodness, Harrods-what an experience. Imagine what you remember from your childhood about being taken to that one upscale department store. The one where your mom bought you that special occasion dress or where your cool aunt took you for lunch during a trip into the big city. Imagine that feeling, and multiply it by like a thousand. It is huge, and has everything. I think half of the first floor just sells Harrods trinkets and souvenir bags and bears. They have a food floor that not only has tea and chocolates like all department stores, but a huge deli, cheese shop, sushi bar, meats and fish, and just about everything else you can think of, from small bottles of sparkling water (Harrods brand, of course) to prepared samosas. Their displays are more than eye catching, and their toy department is nothing short of fantastical. It is quite a place. A little gaudy, but it works for Harrods. You will pay for the experience. Lunch at the Bar Fromage (macaroni cheese, a ham and gruyere sandwich, lemonade and sparkling water) was 35 pounds, and to get a gift in a Harrods gift box starts at 3 pounds based on size. But, we ate at Harrods. And this was a vacation after all.

After Harrods, we took the tube to the Aldgate station to meet up with Paul, our tour guide for a walking tour of Whitechapel. The tour started at 7pm, so it was not so late that we were walking on deserted streets, but dark enough for the spook factor. He was quite the sarcastic jerk, so he was of course, fantastic. He was very funny and gave us not only facts about Jack the Ripper, but historical info about the area and the time period. While a lot of the murder sites are no longer the original facades (the murder site of final victim Mary Kelley is now a parking garage) there were some original buildings and alleyways. The Ten Bells pub where the victims drank still stands next to Christ Church, which is what puts the white chapel in Whitechapel. I will say as guided tours go, this one was great. Everyone just met at the tube station at the advertised time, and everyone kept up the pace. We did find it rather ironic that Paul made terrible fun of the movie From Hell, but then presented what he considered to be the most plausible theory of who Jack the Ripper was and why he killed those specific women-the exact theory from the book, From Hell. Not that the movie was at all faithful to the book (or a particulary good movie for that matter), but we still found it spitefully amusing. Especially considering he didn't even mention the book. Maybe there are some people out there who don't read everything Alan Moore writes. Just with Chris' job, we don't meet many of those people.

The tour ended a few minutes after 9, and as usual we took the tube back to the hotel on the Circle line. The Circle line trains were never all that crowded. I just assumed that this was because the Circle line is a lot like 270-just a circle that never really goes anywhere except towards where you really want to go. It could be this, or it could be that were were never on it during the major rush hours. Either way, at half past nine on a Friday our train was empty except for the two of us, so we were able to set the timer on the camera and snap that smooching photo. I think we were alone on the train the entire ride.

Dinner that night was more British Cheese selection and crackers. Really good idea for people with colds, huh? Again, vacation. I think I also ate like 4 bags of crisps, including prawn cocktail flavored. Not bad, actually. More cocktail sauce than prawn flavor, actually. We also tried to get as much packing done as possible, so our last day could be all fun and no frantic suitcase stuffing.

From top:
1) Stop! The sketch is getting silly!
2) Harrods, the emporium of excess
3) Check out the stained-glass ceiling!
4) Christ Church in Whitechapel--ooh--pretty scary, eh, kids?
5) Aww...maybe this was my favorite part of the trip...

London, Part 4

Today was our excursion to the country-A trip to Oxford, then onto Stratford-upon-Avon by way of the Cottswolds. We met the tour group at Victoria station, waited too long for I'm still not sure what, then boarded a bus and we were on our way.

As it is all over the world, the countryside is a much different atmosphere than the city. But the English countryside was very lovely. It is very green (well it was this time of year) and it really is rolling-it is very hilly. It is similar to the American countryside, with quaint farmhouses on large farms with lots of livestock, but while here you see cows, the English countryside is full of sheep. And the farmhouses are much older in some places. You really get a deeper sense of history there than here in the States. In America, the country seems more like what you read about in novels of childhood or the dust bowl days, but it always seems very 20th century. In England, the country feels positively medieval. All the beauty and none of the plague-it's just fabulous.

Our first stop was Oxford, and just being on the campus makes you feel smart and learned. It is very gothic and a bit imposing-I'm sure it can be quite a fright for the average freshman. It also gives off an incredible sense of history. It has many beautiful libraries, and there is a rule of absolute silence when you are there. Something I truly miss about American libraries, or should I say American free-video-store-and-bratty-kid-dropoffs. Sorry, that is a rant for another blog.

I did get the impression that it could be frustrating to go be a student at Oxford. Imagine running to class or pounding the hell out of your bicycle pedals to get to an exam and you get blocked by tourists on a guided tour. We saw about 8 other tours walking through the campus while we were there. I used to get annoyed by high schoolers touring for a college visit-imagine having to get around people who can't see you for the camera glued to their eye.

Strangely, even Oxford has stupid college crap you can buy. Mugs, hats, sweatshirts that say Oxford XXL...this surprised me. I'm sure it was all for the tourists, but still, it struck me as odd. We thought about buying an Oxford dictionary from one of the Oxford school bookstores, but the idea of carrying it back was more unappealing than the idea of owning such a thing. I'm over the thrill of owning something just because it was purchased someplace cool.

We then boarded our bus and drove to Stratford-upon-Avon. We passed through several small villages and saw some beautiful thatch roof cottages (Trogdor was nowhere to be found, sadly). Stratford is, of course, right on the Avon river, and is just lovely. It is a cute little small town that just happens to have a major tourist destination like the birthplace of Shakespeare. It was a neat place, just a cottage (it is pictured below) but very neat inside. Only outdoor photos were allowed, sadly. But being the theatre geek that I am it was nice to see. I would have liked to check out the Royal Shakespeare Company, but there was not a current production and it was not on the tour.

I learned something about people when we were touring Shakespeare's home-kids on field trips are bratty little hellions, no matter where you happen to be in the world. They run around when they are supposed to be with the group, they shuffle their feet and don't look where they are going, they talk out of turn, and they hate everything-it's all stupid to them. I just wanted to hug some of the teachers and tell them it would all be over soon. I so hate bratty jaded children!

The town itself is full of small shops and businesses with Shakespeare-inspired names. There is the Food of Love cafe, Iago Jewelers, and Much Ado About Toys to name a few. We ate lunch at a little cafe called Munchies for Lunches, where we ate some of the best sandwiches of our lives! Chris had a warm bacon, chicken and cheese sandwich on a baguette, and I had warm cheese and onion on baguette and a bag of roast chicken crisps. Double yum. I could easily get addicted to grilled cheese and onion sandwiches. On our way back to the bus I stopped at a sweet shop and got a bag of jelly babies, another English addiction of mine.

We then drove to the village of Shottery to see the home of Anne Hathaway. Her family home was sold to the Shakespeare's Birthplace Trust in 1911 and is now a museum, just like Shakespeare's home. Apparently, her family was quite wealthy, which was good because there was a 40 pound fee that needed to be paid in order for the 26 year old Anne to be wed to the only 18 year old William. And out in the country centuries ago, that was quite the chunk of change.

Her family home was beautiful. A gorgeous thatch roof cottage surrounded by tranquil gardens and an apple orchard. You could almost hear Beethoven's 6th playing through the clouds as the setting was pastoral defined. The Shakespeare's Birthplace Trust built a little hut with a bench inside, and you can sit in there and listen to recordings of readings of Shakepeare's love sonnets. That's me in the hut in the photo below. That bright orange thing on me was a sticker given by the tour to indicate that I had paid for the scrumpey tea portion of the tour, which included cider and cheese tarts, a traditional tea menu from the time period. Quite good, but on a stomach full of cheese and onion sandwich, I think it was wasted on me.

The drive back to London was on the freeway, which was a lot like...driving on the freeway. Some things are universal. But it did take us on a little impromptu music roots tour, as we drove past White City, Acton and Ealing, all of which figure into the musical legacy of Pete Townshend and The Who, as well as Swindon, the hometown of band members from both XTC and Supertramp. We didn't find ourselves, although we were on our way back home.

We'll admit it, we like Supertramp.

One thing I realized about myself while taking this guided tour is that I have a love/hate relationship with guided tours. A guided tour is great because you have a guide that handles all the money, tells you lots of neat facts about where you are, and you have a driver so you don't have to deal with driving or worse, parking. But then on the flip side, a guided tour can be hell because you always want to stay longer at the places you visit for a short time and vice versa. You also have to deal with the other people on the tour, and there is always someone who didn't listen and then gets lost or forgets when we leave or something stupid like that, or isn't listening and gets the facts wrong and sounds like an idiot recounting the day on the busride back. And of course, there is always someone who has to pee at the worst possible time.

The tour was able to drop us off 2 tube stations away from our hotel, and again, we were tired and really not in the mood for people, so it was another night of Tesco microwaveables in the room. Nothing fancy, but I swear it was the best microwaveable macaroni cheese I've ever eaten. Let me tell you, the Tesco does good work. We also had some crackers and a pre-sliced selection of British cheeses, as the label said. Cheddar (yum), Red Leicester (yum yum), double Gloucester with onion and chives (mega-omni yum), British brie (quite good), and Stilton. Not a big fan of Stilton by itself. It is better in salad.

By this night our colds that were hinting around the night before were in full gear. Along with the food from the Tesco I bought a box of Kleenex, and they were half gone by morning. Chris also was nursing some pretty bad blisters on his feet. He was able to get some foot pads at the Boots on the corner, but finding scissors to cut them to size was an oddly difficult task. We had to go to the office supply store down the street (Ryman Stationers) and when we found them they were under lock and key and an employee needed to unlock them for us. I was surprised that we couldn't find any non-first aid scissors at the Boots. Granted, it is a drugstore, but it sells wrapping paper! If you can buy wrapping paper, you should be able to buy tape and scissors. If anyone knows where Boots keeps scissors, let me know.

I suppose that is unfair. You can't buy scissors and tape at Hallmark, and they have wrapping paper. I guess when you have a bad cold and a blistered husband, you just want everything you need to be right in front of you.























From top:
1) Oxford
2) Stratford-upon-Avon--this is the Avon, with the Royal Shakespeare Company just to the right of center in the background
3) Shakespeare's Birthplace
4) Xan listening to sonnets, with tent for scrumpy tea in background

London, Part 3

Hey kids-Big Ben, Parliament!

These photos are from Wednesday, our most touristy day yet. Again, we took our time getting out of bed, but that was fine because that morning was quite rainy. And besides, this was a vacation, not a field trip. We had decided Tuesday night to ride the London Eye today, but we wanted to do that at night anyway, so we spent the day soaking up London history and politics.

Since the Eye is on the opposite side of Westminster Bridge from Big Ben, Parliament (this joke never gets old for me!) we decided to check them out before riding the Eye. To get there you take the tube to the Westminster station, which is very huge and futuristic-like taking a train into a Fritz Lang universe. After coming up the stairs back onto the street, we stupidly asked each other, "So where is Big Ben?" Let me tell you, Big Ben is no misnomer-it is huge! You think, hmm, where is it, then you crane your neck as far back as it can go and realize that you are under it. It and the Houses of Parliament have fantastic architecture, and look very pretty on the water, especially at night. I think it is always good to dress up your government.

Westminster Bridge, as we found out later, is the bridge that Cillian Murphy walks across with his collection of Pepsi as he searches for signs of life after leaving the hospital where he had been comatose in 28 Days Later. I keep meaning to look up if the hospital was St. Thomas Hospital which is right there, but I keep forgetting.

After making several European Vacation jokes, we walked around the corner to St. Margaret's Church and Westminster Abbey. The Abbey was so beautiful-again, from the outside-10 pounds apiece to get in!! It is ginormous as well. Chris had to back up like 500 feet to get a photo of me and the Abbey. We decided to skip 10 Downing Street, as this was right after Mrs. Blair made that nasty comment about the new Labour Party candidate, so we made our way through St. James Park towards Buckingham Palace.

St. James park was beautiful. Very tranquil, and lots of very large birds. It was approaching dusk while we walked, so it was cool and breezy and just wonderful. Once we got to the Palace, we nearly, (well, I nearly-Chris was smart enough to use a sidewalk) were mowed down by a taxi while trying to cross the street at the roundabout. These things are crazy-British drivers are very aggressive, and I think it is mainly because of the roundabout. Driving on the left and having to merge all the way to your right to get out of it when there are like 5 rings of traffic is no easy task.

Not much was going on at the Palace-no changing of the guard, no queen coming out in her coach, just us and other tourists taking photos of it and the very large (and a bit gaudy in my opinion) statue of Queen Victoria across from it. We tried and tried to take our photo in front of the Palace gates, but they all came out blurry. Oh well, we know we were there.

After Buckingham, we walked along the opposite side of the park back to the Westminster Bridge to get to the Eye. The London Eye is right on the bank of the Thames and is near the London Aquarium and the Dali Universe, as well as Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, so there was a lot of activity, but we only spent about 30 minutes in line to get tickets and board. By the time we got in line to board, it was nighttime, and the city was all lit up and beautiful. And since the line was fairly short, we rode in a pod with only 3 other people, so we had plenty of room to look around at all angles.

The London Eye is absolutely amazing. It was my favorite part of the trip. It really is just a giant Ferris wheel built by British Airways (when you get in there is a pre-recorded announcement that says "Thank you for flying British Airways London Eye"-hilarious!), but each pod is totally enclosed, and the glass even curves down at the bottom of the pod so you can see below you. The pods can hold up to 25 people, but our small crew was much nicer. And if you start to get a little vertigo-y (a likely scenario as it's highest point is 135m) there is a wooden bench in the middle. The nighttime photo below of Big Ben, Parliament (Chevy, you rule!) was taken when our pod was at the topmost point of the wheel. It was beautiful, if not a bit scary, as Chris' expression illustrates so well in the photo of him in the pod. I took really slow steps to the edge of the pod, then held on quite tightly to the handrail, but I was fine, I think because we were completely enclosed. You can't really see my white knuckles in the photo!

The ride takes about 30 minutes, and it is just wonderful-I highly recommend it. And even though there were other people with us, it was still romantic for Chris and I. We got to kiss each other on top of London, which I think is pretty damn cool.

As exhilarating as the ride was, we were pretty tired by the end of the night and we needed to get up at around 6am the next morning for our trip to the country. We stopped at the Tesco to find something we could eat in the room, and their pre-made microwave meals were quite good. Chris had a chicken tikka masala, and I had a yummy Cumberland pie. I also ate an entire box of white chocolate Magnums-oh my. In my defense, there were only 3 in the box (and Chris did eat one) but they are huge, and oh so dreamy. Vanilla bean ice cream covered in white chocolate. I really hope I can find them here somewhere. I miss them already.

I think we fell asleep watching Wire in the Blood, which oddly enough we had already seen back home. Go figure-one of the few times we were able to catch British TV, it was a rerun.

Oh, and that photo below? Big Ben, Parliament!
















From top:
1) Ahem...
2) Buckingham Palace
3) The London Eye
4) Xan aboard the London Eye at the start of our ascent
5) You-know-what, from the top of the Eye
6) Me on the Eye, somewhere near the top, overlooking Victoria Station

London, Part 2

These are photos from Tuesday, our second full day in London. We were remarkably jetlagged (well, at least I was) so we weren't leaving the hotel until at least noon most days, and Tuesday was no exception. Yet suprisingly, we were still able to get a lot done.

This was our first really touristy day. We didn't take any guided tours or anything, but we did see a lot of famous and historic places. Our first stop was Piccadilly Circus, which was a lot smaller than I had expected based on what I had seen in the movies. That's me along with a million other tourists (you don't see a lot of British people in certain areas-I suppose you don't see a lot of New Yorkers in the gift shop of the Empire State Building, either) sitting on the steps by the statue of Eros.

You can't see it in the photo, but off to the left (my right) at 1 Piccadilly is a huge flagship Virgin Megastore. Oh, how I miss it. Ours in Columbus was taken over by a Crate and Barrel-whatever. Anyway, we found some good only-get-it-in-England stuff, like the Kirsty MacColl video collection DVD. And off to the right (my left) and down the street being blocked by the City of Westminster truck is the Trocadero mall, which not only has a great sweet shop and arcade (with games like those casino games at Dave and Busters but you use tuppence instead of tokens) but also had a stocked to the gills HMV record store. I got the Simple Minds Silver Box set-woo hoo!

The blue bag I am holding is from the chocolate counter of Fortnum and Mason, 81 Piccadilly. We just had to come here and see the inspiration for the names of everyone's favorite geek twins Fortnum and Mason Funt from the Tom Strong universe! That's Chris gazing up at the sign, possibly thinking "Those little Funt brats don't deserve to be named after a store this wonderful!" Actually, he probably wasn't thinking that, but I sure was! I swear I'd punch those kids if I met them for real. Anyway, Funts aside, Fortnum and Mason is a very classic department store, with classic designs and fun foods. All kinds of confectionery, fruits, condiments and teas. They sell a fabulous champagne and white chocolate truffle.

We assumed we would spend countless hours shopping, but we really only spent about 3, so we decided to take the tube to the Tower of London and just see what we could see while we still had sunlight. Again, we didn't pay admission to tour the inside, but we saw the outside and took our own photo in front of the Tower Bridge. That's one of the better attempts at self photography below. Not the original, of course, as the original is in Arizona for some reason. We then decided to take a walk along the Thames path, and just see how far we could get.

We walked for a while-I wasn't really measuring-and then we started seeing signs for St. Paul's Cathedral. When I saw that I said "Oh, sweetie, we have to go there and feed some pigeons!" So we followed the path (being such a huge and historic city, London does a really good job of keeping points of interest well marked-very nice for the traveler) until we got to the Millennium Bridge which was a very neat yet scary structure-I am afraid of bridges. Hang a right from the bridge from the Thames path and you will go right to the Cathedral. It is amazing. Huge and gothic, but expensive to get in without attending a service so we just stuck to the outside steps. That's me on the steps of the Cathedral with alas, no pigeons to feed. But that was okay, because I had no tuppence anyway. And it is probably for the best, since as the photo below clearly illustrates, London is home to some fat freakin' pigeons! The must have been well fed by all of the Mary Poppins fans who visited before me.

As we walked along the Thames, we could see in the distance the London Eye, and we thought it looked like fun so we decided to go check it out. But the London Eye is really big, and it looks closer than it really is, so we decided to save that for another day as it was already dusk by the time we left the Cathedral. After a quick stop into Marks and Spencer for a drink (Florida orange sparkling water-yum!) we hopped back on the tube and went back to the hotel.

By the end of the night we were tired and our feet hurt, so we bought Indian takeaway from the Curry Palace in Bayswater and headed back for the hotel. Our super cool hotel provided our room with a DVD player, so we watched the Brian Blessed commentary on the Flash Gordon DVD we bought at Virgin. Hilarious-you've never heard a man so proud of his bare legs!

All of the other nights we had just watched TV at the end of the day, and we were shocked by the amount of American programs we saw. A lot of it was good sci fi like Star Trek and the Logan's Run TV show, but some of it was just really bad. It struck me as odd, since geeks here in America have always placed British television (specifically comedy like Monty Python and sci fi like Dr. Who) in a higher echelon than American shows, but the TV we send over there are shows like Ally McBeal and Everybody Loves Raymond. Not a fair trade, in my opinion.














































From top:
1) Holy socks--loyal Tom Strong readers should recognize the name of this department store
2) Xan at Piccadilly Circus on yet another beautiful sunny day in London
3) Fat Picadilly pigeons
4) My favorite part of the trip--a walk along the Thames, with stops at the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, London Bridge, and St. Paul's Cathedral
5) Xan on the steps of St. Paul's, trying to recreate a scene from Mary Poppins--the local pigeons weren't cooperating on this afternoon (I swear this is my last Mary Poppins reference)

London, Part 1
These photos were taken on Monday, 25 September, basically our first day in London. We arrived the previous day, but after flying out of Columbus around 3 on Saturday and finally arriving at the hotel at 10:30 Sunday, that first day was pretty much a wash. We dropped off the luggage (check-in was not until 2!) then went walking around Notting Hill and bought some records. When we finally got to our room, we both were just filthy and wanted a shower, and then we just crashed.

Monday we did some shopping. Chris found a lot of stuff (an English version of a book he only has in Spanish in addition to the Tintin, Milou and Capt. Haddock figurines in the photo) at the Tintin shop, and we both spent a lot of time in Forbidden Planet, a geek paradise. I felt totally at home there-looking around at sci-fi books and the music playing was the soundtrack from Twilight Zone-The Movie.

We ate dinner at a pub called the Bayswater Arms and ate fish and chips-excellent. Something was up with the ketchup. It is bottled here in England, and it tasted a little different. It was thicker and not as sweet-it was much better than the American ketchup, and we are not sure why. We did notice after we ate it that the expiration date had passed, so maybe it was just fermentation. And if that is the case, I'm going to leave my ketchup out in the sun for a month when we get home.

We also had our first ride on the London Underground. Chris was a lot better at finding his way than I was-I was really glad he was with me. Having lived my whole life in a city with really crappy public transportation (you know I love you, COTA, but you just aren't enough!) I have never been good at figuring out what train to take and when. Chris spent a lot of time on the DC Metro, so he was ready for the tube. We never got lost, but I'm sure I would have had I been alone. But, after a few transfers I finally got the hang of it. I really wish we had something similar in Ohio-it is so fast and really helps with congestion. If everyone on the tube had driven into the city it would have been jammed. They even have an 8 pound congestion fee.

Our hotel is very nice. It is small, but has a sofa in addition to the bed, a kitchen area with sink, microwave, fridge, and 2 burner range, and a dvd player. We've been stocking the fridge with snacks and drinks from the Tesco down the street. Some of my new favorite things are cheese and onion crisps, and the Magnum strawberry secret. We will say that Irn-Bru is not our new favorite thing.

















From Top:
1) Chim-Chimney, Chim-Chim, Cheroo--the view from our hotel at night
2) The view on our first day in London, uncharacteristically hot and sunny
3) Ah! This is more like it! Xan on her way down a rainy Carnaby Street to browse the selection of Dr. Marten's Boots
4) Forbidden Planet
5) The Tintin Shop UK
6) "I can assure you this is not the least bit amusing" says Xan as she rides the escalator in the Tottenham Court Tube Station, site of much Lycanthropic scariness in An American Werewolf In London
7) Examining the day's spoils back in the hotel room

We're on our way to the UK!
More later!
--C

Comics News

Here's the pencil art for the cover of The Midnighter #3...


















...and you can click HERE to see a 3-page preview of The Midnighter #1 over at the comics news website Newsarama.com. They've posted the pages out of order, but you can get a sense of what the color work on the book will look like. You can also download a PDF version of the preview, complete with the cover(which they appear to have switched back to the original one I drew) by clicking HERE.

If you care, and frequent comic book shops, here's a tentative release schedule for upcoming projects of mine:

-Tom Strong Hardcover Collection #6 - Sept. 27

-Worldstorm - Oct. 11 (contains a Midnighter pinup)

-Justice League Of America #3 - Nov. 1 (did a Superman cover for this)

-The Midnighter #1 - Nov. 1

-The Midnighter #2 - Dec. 6

--C

Hey, the lamp's running away!

Well I suppose Jess-Belle in her little space helmet needs some 'splainin'. The story beings with her getting spayed, nothing out of the ordinary. Spay and neuter procedures are some of the most common animal surgeries. She was spayed on a Tuesday, and all was well until Saturday night.

She had been doing just fine. Her first day she was weary, which was to be expected, but after that she was pretty much back to normal, which was good and bad. She was feeling better so she was back to normal activity, but she needed to be taking it easy-not playing so rough, not jumping as much or as high, that sort of thing. We tried to keep her activity down, but she is a kitten still and quite the pistol so it was difficult.

So Saturday evening comes along, and around bedtime (after midnight is all I remember) Chris noticed an egg-sized bulge under her incision. It was hard to the touch, but it didn't seem to be hurting her all that much. Yet we felt it would be best to take her to the emergency room just to be sure.

Taking her in was probably the smartest thing we have ever done, because a few hours and some x-rays later the er doctor told us that the bulge was in fact her intestines pushing through the internal sutures which somehow Jess-Belle had managed to break. There is no way to be sure how this happened-maybe her jumping, maybe loose sutures, who knows? Her external sutures were still intact so this wasn't some Evil Dead moment or anything, but it was dangerous. When this happens to cats they run the risk of the intestines pushing through the sutures which stresses the tissue, requiring removal of such tissue. It is the same concept as wrapping a string around the tip of your finger until it turns purple and leaving it that way for a few days. Ouch.

We decided that emergency surgery was the best idea, since there was no way to know if and when the intestines would push through further. By this time it was 5am Saturday night/Sunday morning, so the surgery team had to be called in for this. So, a few more hours and a few hundred dollars later, Jess-Belle was healing from being re-opened, tucked back in, and re-sutured, this time with a much longer incision and staples instead of stiches. Again I say ouch.

So now, to make sure this does not happen again, she is on cat bed rest. She is confined to our bedroom which we have basically stripped down to a bed on the floor as she is not supposed to be jumping or climbing stairs for the next 10 days after surgery. She has to wear that lampshade until the staples come out so she does not pick at them. The vet suggested a cage until they noticed she was trying to climb the cage in the hospital, so we decided an empty bedroom was the best way to go. She takes pain pills 3-4 times a day, and is basically pitiful.

We can remove the lampshade for her to eat, but it has to go right back on because those staples are the first thing she goes for when it comes off. And she hates it so much that she attacks it while it is off and on the bed. It cannot come off soon enough for her and us. We have been spending as much time with her as we can. Today has been better than other days, since the original theatrical versions of Star Wars came out on DVD and there was an ipod/itunes update that allows for Tetris to be installed on the ipod, both of which ensure we have plenty to keep us occupied while she is sleeping.

The vet says this is not a rare thing, but also not common, yet also completely fixable. If she stays rested, she can have her staples out next week and be back to a normal crazy kitten. We are all anxious for her to heal. Especially since she keeps hitting the wall and losing her balance with that lampshade, resulting in moments where you don't know wether to laugh or cry.

No matter how difficult this ordeal has been for all of us, this is no reason for anyone not to heed the words of Bob Barker-always have your pets spayed or neutered.

My Very Elegant Mother Just Served Us Nachos-get used to it!

Chris came up with this as a replacemet to My Very Elegant Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles. I suppose it could be what the next generation of budding astronomers will learn in their 1st grade science unit about the solar system. My Very Elegant Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles was of course, until recently, the mnemonic device to help remember the planets. Each letter at the beginning of each word is also the first letter of each planet in our solar system in their order from the Sun-Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. But this won't work anymore, because Pluto has been demoted.

According to the new criteria for being a planet, Pluto no longer makes the grade. Oh, Pluto is still out there-it didn't pull a Krypton or anything, it's just no longer considered a planet. According to the International Astronomical Union, being a planet by definition requires that a planet "has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."

So what the hell does this mean? Pluto isn't conjoined to what had been it's moon, Charon, so isn't it then in a clear neighborhood? Whatever. I'm not going to sit here and pretend I am any sort of expert-the experts are already hotly debating this issue. Only 424 out of 10,000 astronomers around the world voted on this decision, so the validity of this vote and it's severe lack of majority are being questioned.

People are not happy about this demotion from Pluto the Planet to Pluto the Dwarf Planet. Dwarf Planet being a silly title in itself, because a dwarf planet isn't even a planet. It comes as no surprise that the September 1st protest at New Mexico State University was joined by the wife and son of Clyde Tombaugh, the man who first discovered Pluto in 1930. I'm sure I would join the picket line if less than 5% of the world's astronomers decided that my dad had actually discovered a dwarf something or other.

I too am unhappy about this demotion. I liked Pluto. I liked being served nine pickles. It seems like now, this little planet who was way out there, trying to hang on and be part of the group has just been kicked out of the treehouse like some annoying little brother. Granted, our solar system is a very exclusive clique with some very cool members (like who isn't intimidated by Saturn's coolness? And you squares can just forget about being invited to Jupiters kegger!), but is going down from 9 planets to 8 really going to make our lives better? And what message does this send to the little guy? "Sorry little dude, 5% of us decided that you just aren't good enough so scram and don't let the stars hit your ass on the way out!" Real nice attitude, International Astronomical Union. Or should I say, International Couple of Guys who Hate Pluto!

But then again, I suppose we do need rules and definitions for celestial bodies. Otherwise all of those filty asteroids would want to be planets too, stupid mynock-filled wankers that they are.

It's official now...















...we're a houseful of geeks!

Working at Home

So I finally achieved my lifetime goal of working at home, and I didn't even have to gain 62 pounds to do it!

Medco has set me up with a remote workstation upstairs in the house. So now I do the same thing I did at the office, just in my music room. It is so wonderful I cannot even describe it. It is so much quieter and the day goes by quite quickly.

The system is in a locking cabinet that takes up about as much space as a computer desk. The photo is of the cat trying to get used to it. I unlock it, do my thing, then lock it at the end of the night. And being upstairs means Chris never has to walk by me, making me HIPAA compliant.

To celebrate, I considered buying a mumu, a fat guy hat and a reaching broom, but Chris begged me not to buy a mumu. Maybe I will get a drinking bird, though.

At this time, I have no plans to begin washing myself with a rag on a stick.

More Comics Stuff
Here are two of the final three Tom Strong drawings I'll be doing. These are the front and back covers for the 6th Tom Strong Hardcover collection. The front cover may look a little bare, but it'll be composited with a psychedelic photographic background and serve as the basis for a color painting by another artist. The final drawing, which I haven't done yet, will be a new front cover for the 6th and final softcover collection.
--C




(Remember--you can click on almost any photo or piece of art on this blog and you'll be taken to a larger image than you see here. Roll your mouse over the lower right corner of the new image and a little square icon with arrows will appear. Click on that icon and you'll usually get an even larger version to look at or download!)

The Midnighter

Here's a look at the inked version of the cover for the first issue of The Midnighter. Allow me to explain for those of you who aren't familiar with what actually goes into making a comic book: I draw a page or a cover with pencil on an 11X17 piece of Bristol Board art paper(about as thick as poster board). In most cases, the pencil artwork is sent to an inker who goes over the artwork with black india ink using various brushes and pens, thereby making the artwork suitable for printing. Some inkers have such a unique style of their own that they can change the look of the finished piece dramatically, sometimes making the artwork better, sometimes not. For several years, I've been lucky enough to work with the inker Karl Story, who is one of the guys who makes the art better! You can compare the inked cover to the pencilled cover and see for yourself.
--C

The Ohio State Fair
The Sights, Sounds, and Smells of the Ohio State Fair

Ah, yes, the Fair. A long standing Central Ohio institution that let's face it, is mainly attended by people looking to eat something that just might kill them.

But Chris and I really dig the Fair. Well, we dig parts of the Fair. We avoid the animals and the midway, as neither one of us is fond of smelly animals facing either a blue ribbon or their doom, nor are we big fans of carnival rides or games. If I really wanted an inflateable Spider-Man, I would just buy one. But the prizes at the Fair are a really good way to get an idea of what the kids were into 2 years ago.

We dig the food, the collectibles pavillion, and the Marketplace. This year I was so hungry when I got there that I filled up immediately on a calzone and was too full to indulge in fried cheese on a stick or mini donuts. I think I am probably better off for skipping those, anyway. Chris had his traditional bratwurst, and grabbed a calzone for the way home. An interesting thing about Chris is that he has experienced very little in the way of fair/carnival/festival food. Until he met me, he had never experienced the glory of a lemon shake up. Our first year together was also shockingly the first time he ate a funnel cake. True, he hasn't much of a sweet tooth, but a funnel cake is a must. He still to this day has never eaten a corn dog.

The collectibles pavillion is a weird and wonderful place. There are 2 outdoor pavillions near the 11th Ave. entrance to the fairgrounds, and each year one is chickens and the other is collectibles. There you can find tin signs, movie posters, sports crap, Star Wars figures, trading card sets, and Pez. There is also a dealer who sells nothing but old metal enameled pins. You can find old concert pins, car logos, or Kermit the Frog.

Then there is the Marketplace. Politics, sunrooms, hot tubs, and every product you have ever seen on TV all under one roof. Where else can you enter to win a free sunroom, read anti-death penalty literature, get your signature analyzed and purchase an Oxy Clean Laundry Ball all in the same building? Nowhere but the Fair! While the Marketplace has some dumb stuff (cheap leather purses and anti-choice rhetoric) it also has fun stuff like the latest in massager technology, and it is where I purchased my first pair of Crocs. It also has one of those bulk candy dealers, where you mix and match crazy candy and pay by the pound. I love them because they have a good selection of non-chocolate candies, and they usually have Pez. The Marketplace is also air conditioned, which I swear, saves lives. The only other air conditioned place at the Fair is the dairy display, and it is usually packed with ice cream buyers and people checking out the butter sculpture. Which come to think of it, we missed this year, dammit!

By the way, we just photographed the BatCopter, we didn't ride in it. No way in hell were we paying $30 a person to ride a helicopter at the Fair. No way in hell.

The family visit continued with some fun in
a couple of local parks...

... followed by a kids' movie festival(lots of
Jim Henson and George Lucas)...

...then the grand finale--a day at the
Columbus Zoo!

On Sunday, we all went to the Star Wars exhibit at COSI. The Millennium Falcon cockpit mini-planetarium was a hit with the younger set (and Xan), while I enjoyed seeing Luke's landspeeder, the lightsabers and the 6ft. Millennium Falcon filming miniature up close.

Xan's parents met us later for Italian food, and while we went back home exhausted and full, Xan headed to OSU Hospital to spend the night in the sleep study wing...

Nephew & Nieces

Last week my parents packed the grandkids into a minivan and made the trip up to Columbus. Saturday night we had an India slideshow again for the first time in years(this time on TV via my laptop instead of a rickety old screen). The kids had never seen the pictures before, and seemed to enjoy the horrible late 60's/early 70's clothes and hairstyles the most. The girls loved this photo of their dad reading to Aunt Megan:


Jess-Belle surprised us that night by not being
terrified by a houseful of strangers. She really
took to Shannon (and vice-versa).