Ivy's Journal

Wow, this is my 15th Mother's Day as a mother
Happy Mother's Day!!!

We are all going out to dinner in just a bit with my brother and his family and our parents to celebrate. It will be the first time that there will be three mothers! Sadly, Scott is, last I heard, trying to make his way from Ohio to Oklahoma (his flight was cancelled and he has been rerouted, I'm not sure where he is at this point..)

Sky did indeed get her braces put on on Thursday, I don't think she or I are quite used to them yet. Any pain or discomfort that she might be having she is dealing with on her own and rather stoically, I've yet to hear her complain.

Winter's exciting news for the week is that they announced the kids who got into drama class, and Winter's name was on the list! So go Winter. She is hoping that she will be able to do costumes as well as some acting next year.

I have such awesome kids.

I have a question, and I'm not sure if anyone reading this can or would want to answer, but I am going to ask anyway. I am thinking of doing a trip to Toronto this summer (in August) and I'm wondering, if I came out by myself, would any of the very cool people that we know there be interested in getting together while I am out? I am not sure if people would be interested in hanging out with just me and not the rest of the family. And I'm equally not sure if any of the people we know actually read this blog (I know a bunch were reading the tour and Scott's blog, just not mine). Anyway, I am thinking of going and I wanted to put out feelers to figure out how much time I should think of spending (if I'm doing it all alone, I probably won't stay as long). Just curious, thanks.

Ok, Winter wants to watch West Side Story (the show they might be doing at her school next year). And then dinner with the gang.

Hope all moms out there had/are having a great day.

A dark day today
We have power! The electric company was working on the lines and shut our power off for most of the day. They told us they were going to do it, so it wasn't a surprise, but it did mean that I was off line and in the dark all day. And it was cloudy out, so there wasn't a lot of natural light either. I am exaggerating (as I do) in that it really wasn't all that dark, we have a rather bright apartment, and except for the bathrooms there really wasn't much need for lights. But, we are back. And it was cloudy, still is in fact.

Winter stayed home today. Supposedly she is sick, but I think she is more stressed than ill. I am not such a great mom, and I decided that it was better to let her have the day off and catch up on school work than go through the pain of trying to get her to go to school. It's after five and she's still not quite caught up. But she will be, and she did get a lot of rest, so I guess it was a good thing.

Scott did it again. This time it wasn't so bad in that he figured out yesterday that he was leaving on Thursday, and not Friday. It means that he has a day less home than he thought, and that I needed to do laundry a day earlier, but all in all it could have been way worse. He has time to pack and get a ride and there won't be any last minute franticness, or at least, no more than usual.

So, he is flying out tomorrow morning to Columbus, Ohio for, I think, an opening of an exhibit of Jeff Smith's work, and then on Saturday Scott is interviewing Jeff on stage (seriously, click on the link and you can toggle between Scott and Jeff's self portraits, this makes me happy). Then, Scott is off to Oklahoma to teach a four or five day thing. As far as I know he will still be getting back on Friday. Last time he thought he was getting back a day later than he was; in other words, he knew the length of the trip, but confused when it was by a day, this time, he just got the day he was leaving wrong, so he is gone longer than he thought. Ok, now I am confused.

This means that anyone hoping to come to Game Night and see Scott should not come this week, but is welcome to come next. And I am far too verbose.

ETA: I forgot to mention that Sky gets her braces on tomorrow. If you think about it, send some positive energy her way.

My world= husband and children
You know that your life has changed direction when your husband gleefully announces that he is home much longer than he thought he was going to be, this time, he will be home for almost a full week. Scott got back home on Friday, and is taking off on this coming Friday. This doesn't mean we actually get to see him, just that he is in town.

I am exaggerating here, we have seen quite a bit of him. He keeps threatening to work and not see us, but then we call him and tell him what we are doing for dinner and he joins us, and then he goes back to work. In fact, on Saturday, though we did not make it to Free Comics Day, Scott and I did get to see Iron Man which, like everyone else on my flist, we really enjoyed (if you haven't seen it, when/if you do, make sure you stay for the end of the credits). Then Scott watched several episodes of Avatar with Winter, and later (going back to work in between) watched Gangs of New York with Sky. While he was doing that, Winter and I went to the carnival that was in town for the weekend as part of Conejo Valley Days. We had missed the parade, so it was important to me that we do something. What we did was get very dizzy, eat some bad food that is also bad for us, and got to see The Grass Roots play. I think I had a better time than Winter, but I think she enjoyed parts of it.

Last Thursday Sky's school, or really one of the classes that she is taking, had a festival. What this meant, is that they had displays of art by the art students, photography by the photography students and a little more than an hour's worth of videos by Sky and her classmates (ok, they didn't bill it that way, that's just me the proud mama talking). There was a lot of talent there, and Sky had worked on about half the things shown. It was lots of fun, and gives me lots of hope for the next generation's media. I know my old age will be an entertaining time.

In Winter news, Winter auditioned for drama class for next year. Everyone has to audition to get in, and since she wasn't around last year, she wasn't able to be in this year. So now they are auditioning for next year's class and Winter is very excited. We won't find out if she is in for a bit, but from what she reports back from the first round, she did pretty well. Winter does not love school. She does really well in the classes that she cares about, and not so well in the ones she doesn't . I really hope that they don't ask the wrong teachers about her when they are trying to decide if she should be in the class. Having a class that she really likes, being taught by a teacher she really likes, and who is trained to work with gifted students, as this teacher is, can only be good for Winter. I have my fingers crossed that she gets in.

Scott's brain, or lack there of, strikes again.
Scott is in Austin, Texas as I write this (I am pretty sure that's where he is), where he is speaking tonight. I just got off the phone with him and he is more prepared for tonight than one would think, if they had all the info. If you go see him tonight, you will probably notice that he is scruffier than usual. He will also be wearing brand new clothes.

You see, Scott thought that he was flying out today, in a few hours from now, in fact. So, about this time yesterday, he called up the shuttle to arrange for them to pick him up, and they told him that yesterday was Wednesday the 30th and that the next day would be too late. This meant that he had about 15 minutes to get to the airport in order to be two hours early. Luckily, two hours are not always necessary. As soon as he realized his mistake he phoned me, and with really no time to spare he was off to the airport, not even stopping home first (he was at his studio when he realized). He drove himself there and left the car in a lot, and he made his flight. The only thing he had with him was his backpack with his laptop. This means that he arrived in Texas with nothing.

So, he has since bought new clothes and toiletries (though I think he is skipping the shaver) and we have a new story that we can laugh about later.

At least he made the flight, and all is well, if you are there, you really should see him, it promises to be lots of fun.

Honestly, I love the fact that he gets so wrapped up in what he's doing that he almost misses flights, and then, at the last minute, manages to work everything out.

Back from Portland
Years and years ago, when Zot! was brand new, Scott went to a comic convention in New York. A bunch of young aspiring creative and cool kids hung out with him (by kids I mean young adultish). I think a bunch of them met that day at Scott's table. After the con, the kids and Scott went to McDonald's for dinner. That was the beginning of The McDonald's Club. Scott is still in touch with them, and in our house they and their descendant's (the kids that they influenced and brought into the fold) are referred to as "Scott's kids".

Scott's kids were running the show in Portland. Literally. And they did an awesome job. Stumptown was a success by any standard one could use to judge it by. And it was lots of fun.

We had a table with nothing to sell, which was a bit sad. I felt bad, I wanted to be able to share stuff with people. Scott did have a panel, which was SRO, and I think, enjoyed by all. Our table was next to Larry Marder's, so I had a blast hanging with him and also Charles Brownstien who was hanging with Larry. On the other side of us was someone who's name I am embarrassed to admit, I never did learn, but he drew the most amazingly horrifying picture of Zombie Scott. (ETA: Thanks to Lori, I now know that that was Stan Yan and if you check out the comments to this post, you will see him, thank you Lori!) Next to us was also Barry Deutsch, whom I adore and did not get to spend nearly enough time with and who's Herville is just beautiful.

Also at the con was one of my kids. Ok, both my actual kids were with me, but see, I have a set of kids as well. I am still in contact with most of the kids that were in the teen improv company I directed at about the same time that Scott was doing the New York thing. One of the few that was in all three of the improv shows that we did was Britta, who is as awesome as an adult as she was as a kid. It was so great to spend time with her and her husband, Kevin. Scott and I know the coolest people.

The other really cool person we got to spend some real time with at the was Kurt Busiek, whom I have known exactly as long as I have known Scott (I met the two of them at the same time, oh so very many years ago). Kurt is on the list of my all time favorite people and it is always great to spend time with him. (Now that I think about it, Larry is on that list, as well, and some of the other people we saw this weekend would make it onto the short list as well).

I missed all the night stuff, because Winter wanted to be back at the room, so I was the one who got hang out there, but the night events sounded awesome from Sky and Scott's description. There were a bunch of people I missed, I know that Winter got to see much more of Raina and Dave than I did (Hopefully she wasn't too much of a nuisance, as she loves them and it was hard to get her away from their booth)

Jenn, Kip and the gang did a wonderful job. I hope we can make it back next year. Hell, the whole weekend was worth it for Larry's panel alone (Yay! Beanworld is coming back!)

If you missed Stumptown this year, I highly recommend you try to get there next year. It's small enough that you get to talk to all the creators that you want, and there are some incredibly talented creators there to talk to.

off to Stumptown
My computer, or the internet, is being awful, so I have almost no access (it took me the last 45 minutes just to get this screen, so that I could write anything). So now that I have run out of the time that I had to write, this will be very short.

In 25 minutes I leave here to pick up Winter. I still need to pack, though everyone else has. After I get Windy, we come home, get Scott and the bags in the car, then go off to get Sky. both girls are leaving school early. Then we get some lunch and it is off to the airport and to Portland and Stumptown!!!

We had our Seder finally on Wednesday night. It was small, but even so, it taxed out cutlery and table setting resources. No where near enough plates to go around.

I went to the doctors as well on Wed. which is why the Seder was a harried event. I lost some weight, so go me!

Last night we went to see Beauty and the Beast at Sky's school. We had lots of fun. They need to work on the mics for the actors or keeping the orchestra softer, but outside of that it was a few hours well spent. I only knew one person in the show, and she turned out to be one of my favorites in the cast (and not because I know her, but because she was really good) so that was cool.

I had more to say, but I am out of time, we will see if this posts. Hopefully access will be better in Portland.

Mostly about New York
boing boing has a link to the interview that Scott and Douglas Rushkoff did before their panel. The interview also has clips from the panel and I think the whole thing on audio. It is lots of fun. The part of my post that gotten eaten in New York included me talking about how great the panel had been. It was SRO and even though the audience didn't get to participate (the con stopped the panel before there had been time for Q&A), I think they all enjoyed it. I know I did. And I even got to talk to Doug some more after the panel. What a very cool guy. I hope I get to see more of him.

More about the trip:

Scott's Zot! panel, was just him and the computer. Lots of slides of the new book (which is really the old books) and talk about the history. We were up against an Avatar panel next door and they was making a lot of noise, which was very distracting. After the panel, Scott did an autograph session at Harper. Lots of people it was fun.

While in New York, we went to the con each day, went to one panel each day (the three being the two that Scott was on, and the queer panel that he was asked to be on, but had declined - he thought there were more important people that should be on it), and got onto the floor for two of the days.

We saw one Broadway show: Cry Baby. Which was not as good as we had hoped it would be, but was still a lot of fun. I liked the movie better. They changed the plot, and not in a way that I thought worked as well. If felt like they were worried about making the hero actually be bad, and instead had to make him only misunderstood. But, the dancing was really great. And although the music wasn't as varied as it could or even should, be; I still liked it.

We got to spend lots of time with Larry Marder, which is always a good thing. Didn't get to spend nearly enough time with anyone else. Many of our conversations consisted of, "see you at Stumptown, we will talk there." I hope we can.

If was fun to see people be in awe of meeting Scott, and hearing what they said as we passed by, when I was a bit behind, so that they didn't know who I was. And it was even weirder the few times people did know who I was when I wasn't with Scott.

The other thing we did while in New York was meet a few people that I had met on line. Doug, in their panel, had been talking about the lack of a local community these days because of the decentralization of the internet, especially the sites governed by industry. But for me, the internet is helping increase community. I had a great time meeting these people that I had only met online before. It felt like renewing friendships with old friends, rather than meeting someone for the first time. Quite awesome really.

So, that was our trip. Well, that, and being dogged by the Pope. He seemed to follow us every where. From our hotel you could here the throngs cheer when he came down the street nearby after his mass at St. Pat.s. We had to walk or cab way out of our way to miss the throngs, and on the way to the airport the driver drove around a jam, just to get in front, and realize that we must have just passed his entourage. In fact our flight was delayed because no one could go up until after the Pope had flown. We were amused.

As a side note, I just have to say, that starting a day with happy, smiling and fed children; Mika playing in the car one way, and Queen on the way back; and getting everyone where they need to be early and prepared, goes a long way to making it a good day.

I so loved This picture

davidd posted, that I had to share.

I hope this posts
We are home, safe and sound. The internet has been very disagreeable today (or my laptop has, not sure which is to blame) so this will have to be short. I had planned to answer peoples comments, and try to get caught up with my flist and blog about the weekend.

But the internet/computer has been so slow, that all I managed to do is get the laundry going. Scott is about to arrive so that we can pick up his car which my mom has been borrowing while he's been out of town. This means that the time I might have had, is going to be spent doing yet more driving.

Hopefully, tomorrow I will be more awake and the internet will be happy, and I can tell you all about the fun times we had. Mostly, though, I will say, that I love New York, I am very lucky because I know an awful lot of really cool people, I love going to conventions, even when they are too crowded, and someday, I will live in New York. It must happen.

Ok, I need to run and change over the laundry before Scott gets here with the car. Lunch at Fudruckers! Something the kids both don't like. Yay! us.

Oooo, wait, one more thing. Today. Scott is sending off Zot! It will be out of his hands and off to Harper. There were awesome Zot! pins at the Harper booth at the con. I. Am. So. Psyched.

Happy Passover to all who celebrate, happy birthday to Lauren, and happy pope to those who care
Ok. I am kinda upset here. I just wrote a very long (too long maybe) post about yesterday. When I went to post it, the stupid hotel gave me a sign in screen (I must have passed some magic time that I needed to resign into their access). I signed in, and then tried to get back to the post I had just spent the last hour and a half writing. It was only half there. It is getting late, and if we don't leave soon we will not get past the pope and make it to Scott's panel. I am not a happy camper right now, but I will have to post this as is. I will try to recreate the rest of what I wrote, along with what happens today, later when I have some time, and something has actually happened today. This post actually cut off in the middle of a sentence, but since the sentence can end there, I am ending it.

I now return you to the regularly scheduled post:

We are in New York. The weather is lovely. We took the red eye Thursday night, and I don't think I slept at all. That means that when I think of yesterday, I am thinking of Thursday and Friday combined. It was quite a day.

Thursday I spent getting frantically ready to leave, I cleaned the house somewhat, did the sheets (yup, more laundry) scrubbed the tub, I was a busy beaver. I also packed.

Scott got back home at about the time time I got home with the girls from school (he had been in San Jose for a few days). He had about five hours at home before we were picked up to go to the airport. Harper had arranged for a car to get us. We are not used to that. It was very nice. Very.

Lauren came over in time to join us for dinner and to help Winter with her homework (thank you thank you thank you Lauren!). Today is Lauren's birthday, so thank you so much for helping us with the girls, and have a wonderful happy birthday and good Passover to you.

The car got us to the airport way early, which meant there was no last minute panic. Unfortunately the plane was overbooked, crowded and due to a communications tech problem, late. We sat on the plane (one in front of the other, not next to each other) for an hour before we started taxiing. That meant that we got to New York an hour late, but at least we had seats, many people had gotten bumped (if we had, Scott would have missed his panel).

We got checked in right away, showered and changed and went off to the Javits center where we got checked in and then we found the room where the panel was going to be. We hung out for a bit talking to people before the panel and then there was the panel.

Ok, I am going to admit it. I really didn't know who Douglas Rushkoff was before the panel, but it turns out he is a very smart, very interesting author who has written books that I have heard of, but hadn't read. He and Scott were interviewed by Marianne Petit.

In case you don't have Scott or the tour friended
Scott just posted with a picture, so if you have all of us friended, then I am so sorry for the spamming, but in case you don't:

The Winterview with Neil (Gaiman) is now up!!! Here's Scott's post.

I am not loving Winter's school. Just wanted that known. Turns out that today is a half day. Did they send us a note? No. Was it listed in any schedule for the year? No. How did I find you, you ask? Well, Winter was told in class yesterday, and remembered to mention it to me late last night. My god. You'd think they'd give us some notice or heads up or something. When Sky's school has a day off or a half day, even when it's been in the books since the beginning of the school year, they still have an automated system call me to tell me. Winter's school? Had to go to their website where the info was added in the last day or so. Am I supposed to check every day? I do not. I will not. I shouldn't have to. Sheesh.

Anyway, I get to pick her up in an hour. It's very funny, cause Scott left last night, and won't be back until tomorrow, in time for our flight to NYC. Sky is filming her school's production of Beauty and the Beast and won't be home until 9 or 10pm, and now, Winter is coming home at 1 instead of 3pm. Nothing is normal.

Oh, well. I have stuff to do to get ready for leaving tomorrow. She will just have to deal.

By the way, for those following my computer woes, with the new battery in, my laptop is working better than it has in months. Even when plugged it. Obviously the battery was affecting the performance of the whole machine. It is soooo nice to be able to type and not have to wait five minutes for the computer to decide whether or not it has caught everything I just typed.

Funny. I am much happier today than I was the other day. Little things can have a big affect.

Not sure if I will have time for a post tomorrow, so if not, see you in New York! (if you're going, don't forget to check out Scott's panels, and if you go, find me and say hi. It makes me feel important)

A very quik post to say Yay! to the Apple Store
So, it turns out that it was not my computer but both of my batteries. Here is a lesson for you. If you have a laptop, you are not doing it any favors by always having it plugged in. Evidently, the batteries get mad if you don't use them.

Thanks to the Apple Store, I now have two new batteries that need to be charged. Once they are charged, I need to regularly use them and let them lose their charge. Hopefully that will keep them long lasting. And even more hopefully, that really was the problem and now that it has been fixed I will be problem free with my nice new batteries, and will be able to enjoy my flights this weekend and next. Yay technology!

Oh, and if you want to see some pics of Sky's Disney trip, check out the comments of my post from the other day. Jon took some great shots and posted them. I would put up a link, but I don't have time, as I need to go pay bills before I go off to pick up kids from school.

(today is a day that I am spending too much time in the car- had to go back to Apple twice, cause I forgot the second battery, and I need to drive Scott to the airport tonight. *arg*)

In case I'm computerless for awhile
In 45 minutes I have an appointment at the Apple Store to get my laptop looked at. It has been turning itself off when I am running on battery power, and, as I am about to go on a long trip, it would be nice to have a laptop.

Don't know if I will though, so, in case I am off line for a few days or so, I just wanted to remind everyone that Scott and I will be celebrating our anniversary in New York at the New York Comic-con. Scott has at least two panels that he is on, one of them, on Saturday, will be a Zot! panel and should be much fun. It will be followed by a signing.

Scott is flying off this evening to go back to Silicone Valley area, and will return just in time to back to the airport for us to leave for NYC. Oy.

Fans of my laundry, will be thrilled to know that I get to do laundry three times this week. First there was Sunday, when I usually do it, then I get to do more today because Scott forgot to give me the stuff in his suitcase after the last trip, then I get to do more on Thursday so that people sleeping on our bed can sleep on nice fresh sheets. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am.

Game Night fans should know that the girls will be hosting Game Night without us this week, and I think Nat is doing the week after when we are in Portland. But, if you are planning on going to that one, you should probably double check.

In case I am not back for a while, I hope everyone has a good, fruitful tax day, and a wonderful Passover for all my fellow Jews out there. We are going to try to squeeze our Passover in between New York and Portland. I really cant wait for the matzo brie (though I have no idea how to spell it), I've been craving it all week.

Not the best of days
Game Night this week was much fun. The age skewed rather young. We had a six year old, a three year old and two babies. This also meant that we had people we don't see as often there which made me very happy. There weren't much in the way of games until after the little ones left and we Wii bowled for a while, but all in all, I think a good time was had.

Saturday, which was Sky's birthday was spent in Disneyland. It was very long and far too hot, but it was mostly fun. It had started out on a not so great note, when we arrived and found out that our passes were blocked out for the day. We had checked the online calendar and been told that our passes were valid that day, but that was months ago, when Sky first started planning the trip, and I guess they had changed the dates, or the site in the interim, so we had quite a surprise. Luckily it didn't affect anyone who was meeting us there.

And people did meet us there, and fun was had, rides were ridden, stuff was bought, birthday songs were sung, and we returned home at around 2am. Needless to say, Sunday was much more quite. Though Sky went off to church in the morning and then on to a six mile hike. It was in the 90's here (though she was hiking closer to the ocean, so it was likely a little cooler for her), and in my opinion too hot for a long hike after a day in Disney. I guess I was right as she decided not to go to school this morning. I need to go now to take her there because she wants to do the second half of the day.

Frustratingly for me, because Sky stayed home, Winter figured she could as well, so both of them are here. I must admit that I am not pleased.

And then my computer has been acting up. I was going to have it looked at today, but with both girls home and the extra trip I need to do to go to Sky's school (her school is about a half hour away, and I had to got this morning because we car pool, and she didn't decide that she was not going in until after her friend was here) it looks like getting my laptop looked at will have to wait.

I am not as happy today as I was yesterday. (don't have time to proof read, as I need to take Sky to school now, so sorry for any mistakes)

Winter inherits her mom's bad taste
Yesterday was our second 20th anniversary. Any of you that were at our Boston wedding, that was 20 years ago yesterday. The wedding was awesome (all three of them were actually) but yesterday was not. It wasn't bad, it wasn't really anything. Scott left for Silicon Valley before dawn, and I spent much of the day driving people places.

I also bought birthday presents for Sky. That was exciting.

We had dinner at Presto Past which was my choice, though the food I had was not as good as usual (happy anniversary me).

Actually, the most exciting thing that happened was that Winter finished her homework, and so we watched her newest Netflix disc. We only watched the first two episodes of the eight that are on the disc, but I am sad to say that Winter very much enjoyed it. So, yup, she is way more like me than Scott in her tastes, and it looks like I will have to sit through a whole lot of I Dream of Jeannie; a show that I loved when I was Winter's age (or whenever it was on) but I find not as entertaining as I once did. Though I must say that I was surprised that Larry Hagman was as attractive as he was back then. I guess in my mind I have turned Tony into JR (though I NEVER watched Dallas) looks wise. Still not my type. I always preferred Roger.

Sky went to bed really early last night and woke up early this morning. It was odd.

The rest of my family's last couple of days have been far more interesting than mine. My dad got into a car accident the other day. He is fine, the car; not so much. Mom is having eye surgery done, again, as I write, and my brother is probably in court.

Scott is due back in time for Game Night again this week and is taking Saturday off to go to Disneyland with the gang for Sky's birthday (he usually works 7 days a week).

Until they happen I think I will end all my posts with a:

See you in Disneyland on Saturday, or New York the next week, or Stumptown in Portland the week after.

It is official!
According to Scott, I do now have tickets and I will be going with him to New York for the New York Comic-Con on April 18th through the 20th. So, if you said you could help with the girls, I will indeed need it, and thank you. If said you could but you can't, that's ok, I understand and it took a long time to find out if we were going to be gone or not, so I won't/don't hold it against you, just let me know so that I know they will be ok while we are gone.

For those of you who don't know, tomorrow is Scott and my second 20th anniversary (sounds confusing, I know, but we got married three times). Scott will be heading up north again very early in the morning, so this will be the second time we are not in the same state for this years anniversary. That is why I am so glad New York is happening, because otherwise, Scott would have been in New York and I would have been home for the final anniversary of our 20th year. But, Yay! we get to be together, same plane even.

We are hoping to see a show (I have Scott trained well, it was even his idea), and if there is time, maybe take in a museum. I doubt that we will get to the museum though, as the convention will be on the whole time we are there, and Scott will be on panels (though they don't have them listed on the correct days on the sight, the Zot! panel will be on Saturday, but the other one will be on Friday (they had scheduled it when Scott was supposed to be doing a signing, so it had to be changed).

Anyway, if you are in New York, come to the con and say hi, we would love to see you...

I blather a bit
Sky's birthday is now less than a week away! She is going to be 15. Wow. Time goes by so quickly.

I think I have mentioned it already, but Saturday, her birthday, will be spent in Disneyland, supposedly from opening until closing. I think it will be a fun trip, but I am a bit bummed by the fact that I will have to miss a curling night. Anyway, if you want to join us, in Disney on Saturday, we will be there. We are only going to one park so that they people who don't have passes don't have to buy the more expensive two park day pass.

Scott made it back in time for Game Night this week, so that was much fun. For me, I mostly had fun Wii bowling. I managed to lose my pro status, then get it back with my best game ever, then lose it again the next day. *sigh*

Yesterday my friend Carol came over and we watched Man from U.N.C.L.E. and played on the Wii (which is how I lost again). It was a good time. In the evening Sky took Winter (and her friend Shara) to see Miss Petigrew Lives for a Day so now she has seen it with each member of the family, one at a time. While they were watching that, Scott and I went to see Leatherheads which has not been getting great reviews, but we really liked it.

Scott and I (well, ok, it's his theory, but I am enjoying it and adding to it) have this theory. Sky has been telling us that "hot" was invented with her generation, now I know that is not true, but she firmly believes it. She thinks that the guys I say are attractive from my youth are just not. Scott noticed that George Clooney is much more adult than most of the male leads these days, and I think he's right. There seems to be a shift in what we idolize. I think that it all started around Star Wars (the one from '77) when you had a traditionally handsome adult looking lead (Harrison Ford) paired with a baby faced very cute male lead (Mark Hamill). This was the beginning of a change, the younger faces were taking over. Now adays most of the idols are very young faced.

It's just a theory, we are working on it.

On a different note, I am really upset at something my mom told me at breakfast this morning; evidently someone has put some of my mom's painting on their web site and claimed that they painted them. They did it a few years ago, I guess, but my dad just found them recently. My Sister-in-law got very upset and wrote them a nasty letter. Now I am all upset. I do not like people claiming that they created something that they did not create. If any of you see work that was done by my mom being passed off as someone else's, if you would let me know I would really appreciate it. If you don't know what Mom's work looks like you can find it here.

Ok, enough of this. I should probably get back to laundry. Maybe I will have more exciting things to say next time.

of cars and teeth and movies not there
I have recently been chastised for not getting enough sleep, so I will try to keep this short (it is now 12:44 as I write this).

Today went as follows:

Woke up at 6am, went into girls rooms and told them it was 6.
At 6:30 I went back into their rooms and turned on lights.
Took a shower.
(the girls finally woke up)
Sky's friend and schoolmate Lily showed up at around 7:20, and I drove her and Sky to school.
Drove home and picked up Winter.
Drove Winter to school.
Drove home, collected my laptop and went back to Sky's school
Took Sky to the dentist. The only cavity she has is in a baby tooth. That was the good news, the bad, is that there is no adult tooth under it. But the other good news is that they might pull it anyway to make room for the other adult teeth that are crowding her mouth. We will find out on Monday when she sees an orthodontist.
Took Sky to lunch. Then back to school.
At that point it seemed silly to go home, so I waited in the car for two hours (this is why I took the laptop, so I was not bored).
Picked up Sky and Lily.
Went to Winter's school and picked her up.
Brought Lily home.
Got Sky and Winter home and doing homework.
To celebrate Winter getting all her work done, we went to dinner and then I took them to the movies so that they could go to a movie together (it's a thing, Sky saw the movie with Scott, then with me, so now she wanted to see it with Winter). We knew it was likely to close tomorrow, so it was important to go today.
It closed a day early, there was a screening going on in the theatre.
We got ice cream instead.
Then back home.
Stupid tv was watched.

That was my day.

When I picked Sky up at school the hall monitor (or whatever you call the adult that is hanging around campus when everything is outdoors and there are no halls), wanted to see her pass to excuse her for not being in class, she showed it, and the woman looked at me like I was doing something wrong, and asked to see mine. I just stared at her. It took a moment to realize that she was serious. I told her that Sky was my daughter and that I am 47 years old. She was a bit embarrassed, admitted that she was 7 years younger than me, and then when she got closer informed me that up close she could see the wrinkles. I have no idea if I should be pleased or insulted.

Ok, it is now 1:01 and I am not even going to proof this, just post and go to sleep like a good girl. Good night.

Scott is off again
I waited until after midnight to write this, because I really wasn't clever enough to think of any April fools jokes today.

So Scott got a call Monday and flew out this afternoon (Tuesday) and is in the San Jose area (I think) as I write. He is off doing some consulting stuff and we have no idea how long he will be. He might be back Thursday night, but he might not be back until Friday night. Since the whole thing is a go, he will probably be doing this a few more times as well. It will make life interesting. As it is, we are not sure if he will be around for Game Night this week.

We rejoined Netflix this week and received our first group of movies today. Scott was already gone, but the girls and I had fun watching things, but now I have too much to watch and I feel like I should watch it quickly. There are still things that we TiVoed that I haven't seen yet, and that's not mentioning the DVDs I recently acquired that I want to see. Too much. I am not sure that this was a good idea, though I did enjoy the movie Winter and I saw, and Sky said she would wait for me to see hers before she sent it back. I think sleep is overrated, I might do better without it.

The on again off again trip to New York might be on again. Scott is going no matter what. The question is whether I am going or not. We put off the deciding until we had money to pay for the ticket, but then the prices are now so high that it didn't seem worth it. The thing is it is still our 20th anniversary and I really think that deserves to be celebrated. We considered going back to the doing Disney together idea, but that would mean more days for Scott not to work, so really having me join him on a trip makes more sense. I am not sure if going to a convention is exactly a romantic event, but it might be what we get. We were hoping to take in a show while we were in town, but the time is so limited I am not sure if we will be able to. I am still hoping.

I still might not be going. Since Harper made the arrangements for Scott, he called them and asked if they could book a companion ticket for me. So we still have to see if there is room on Scott's flight, and find out how much as we have to pay for my ticket. It would be nice. At this point it could still go either way.

I went on my walk to meet Scott for lunch today. It's a mile walk, and it makes me feel good to be able to do it in not too much time (about 20 minutes) and not be tired. At some point I will start walking back as well. Right now, Scott drives, parks, walks out to meet me and walks back with me, we eat, then I get a ride back with him. If I get the energy I really should do it when he is out of town as well, the only thing is, if do it then, I have to walk both ways. Oh, well, soon. Must. Lose. Weight.

Scott wants models for the next book that he is working on. The main female character is sort of inspired by me and I really want to pose for her. But she is more me 20+ years ago, so I really need to get back in shape if I want to hope to pose for her. I have a goal. That's step one, right?

Weekend update
I forgot to post that Larry (the amazing, Marder) posted pics of our gang and him when we all went to see Bryan Lee O'Malley last weekend. When I see us in a group like that, I am struck by just how very short I am.

So, exciting stuff since my last post. Let's see. Game Night was small but lots and lots of fun. I am sure by now you have all hear about Jerry Siegel's family winning back the rights to his share of Superman, which is just so very awesome. When I brought it up on Friday night, Nat had lots more info, and Paul Smith (who's the artist on the new Spirit comics, which look really great) and I both had tears in our eyes. I guess we are both just softies, but, I mean, YAY!

Most exciting thing about yesterday (Saturday) was that it was a curling day. I had a really great time, Carol's son Andy joined us and showed us up by being better than either of us on his first time. Oh well, both of us were getting better, and by the end we were not as embarrassing as we had been at the beginning. I am very bummed by the fact that I won't be able to go curling at all next month. It only meets every other Saturday, and the next one will be on the 12th, which is Sky's 15th (OMG) birthday which we are spending in Disneyland (If there are any friends reading this who didn't get the mass mailing she did, that's probably because she didn't have your email address, you are invited), and the following curling day will be while we are all in Portland doing Stumptown. I was just getting better, and not feeling quite the dork. Not sure what taking a month of is going to do for my game.

The one direct result I am seeing from curling (unless it is a result of the extra walking I am doing and the not drinking soda except for diet) is that when I went to buy pants the other day, I was very close to having to buy the size smaller than I've been wearing. I went with the larger size, thinking that I wasn't really ready for the smaller one yet, but the new pants are actually loose on me, and I am wondering if I made the right choice. If I keep this up, the next time I need new ones, I will definitely have to go smaller. Go me!

Excitement on the docket for today is mostly me going over the very final version of Zot! which, if all goes well, is off and out of our hands this week. Scott wants me looking for problems in the art that he might have missed (like word balloons having breaks in them, or panels where there is no art for some reason). We are so close to the wire. Soon, soon. 'Course, it doesn't actually come out until July, so there's still time yet.

And for those who miss me talking about it, yes. Today is laundry day. Sky has hers up, so when she is done it will be my turn.

And lastly, the news that I am not sure is good or bad; Scott heard a report the other day that says that they (whoever they are) think that there might be a link between one of the drugs that I am taking and depression. I have been taking this drug (for asthma, I think it was the Singulair) for several years now, over four at least, I think. If it is true, it could explain so much. I can't stop taking it though, as I don't do very well when I stop. I take two different drugs everyday, and I don't know if one is better or more important than the other, I just know that if I stop, I get sick, so... Luckily, I see my doctor in a few weeks, and he can tell me what's what.