Catching Up

Sooo... been a while since we've posted here and just wanted to make a quick update with a few things:

• Our New Years was fun. Had some friends over and actually had two "New Years" - one on New Years Eve proper and one the previous weekend due to work schedule conflicts. Good times.

• Then, just post New Years, we had some oh-so-fun issues with the shower leaking and the drain in the basement backing up... Thankfully the owner of the house we're renting got that taken care of relatively quickly. Just not fun while it lasted.

• Around the same time we both got super-sick - first Jenny and then me. There's been a couple of nasty bugs circulating the area, and undoubtedly she picked up what we had from work. Took some time to fully recover, and greatly diminished productivity for a while, but at least we didn't get the actual flu that was also going around...

• The Emerald City ComiCon is very soon (March 1-3) and we'll be headed there for a mini-vacation. We haven't been the last 2 years, and the last time we were there I was tabling in Artist Alley and barely saw the rest of the show. So this time we're looking forward to just being free to be fans and see as much as possible, and also catch up with a lot of people we haven't seen in a long time. While I'm not exhibiting this year, a lot of my friends from this area are - check out the list over on the Comicsmiths' Guild site: CSG at ECCC!

• However we will be exhibiting at the Spokane ComiCon, which this year falls on June 1st (my birthday!). We're splitting an Artist Alley table, so I can show off my art and comic stuff and Jenny can sell her crafty stuff. We've even got some ideas for collaborating on a project, but we'll keep mum on the specifics 'til we're a bit further along with that...

• Recently I did a guest strip for my buddy Matt Nelson's webcomic Catbeard the Pirate, while he was taking a short break after finishing up a long storyline. Catbeard's a great all-ages comic that's a mix of comedy and adventure - it's been going for nearly 2 years now, with one collected book out so far. You can see my contribution here: Catbeard Guest Strip!

• I'm starting to post more on my Tumblr blog, as it's a good place to quickly throw up sketches and works-in-progress along side finished works and other things. I'd recommend following me there for more frequent updates for now: Peter on Tumblr

• This site probably won't see a lot of updating, as it was originally meant more for personal blogging and updates, and a lot of that is covered by things like Facebook and Twitter now. But we'll try to post when anything relevant or important comes up... I'm planning on sprucing up my personal site relatively soon, as well as get a proper site set up for Jenny, but I don't know how quickly that will actually happen...

• And finally, for any local artist types, this coming Saturday (the 23rd) is the first Spokane Drink & Draw of 2013. It'll be at the Saranac Public House downtown, from 6-10, and is an all-ages event. It's being organized by Nathan O'Brien, who runs the Spokane ComiCon, and he's hoping to make them a regular thing. You can RSVP for the event here: Drink & Draw Social Club February Spectacular!

Thanks for visiting our somewhat neglected blog - hopefully we'll have some more to share with you soon!

Arachnacide

Settling into our new place has been a rather slow affair. We're "moved in", but we're still compiling our "move-in" list of all the various issues in the house, and there's still work that needs to be done before we can finish unpacking and really get situated.

We've been taking copious amounts of photos as we go, as we keep finding things that need to be fixed. This weekend we went through the basement and looked for problems and "pre-existing conditions". The basement is also a haven for (in some cases, very large) spiders, and we spent some time trying to clean out as many 8 legged inhabitants and cobwebs as possible.

Here's an example of one that appeared in the kitchen, next to the back door, that Jenny nearly walked into. I know that spiders are supposed to be beneficial since they eat other insects, but the ones in our house seem unusually industrious. And fearless, feeling quite content to drop down directly into our faces as we're walking. This will not stand...

We're going to get out and pick up some spider glue traps, on the recommendation of one of Jenny's co-workers. We were at Fred Meyer the other night grocery shopping, and looked there, but they were completely sold out of (just) spider traps. So apparently we're not the only ones dealing with an infestation.

Status - House: Achieved!

We've been in this apartment for almost 7 years, which seems insane now that I really think about it. Not sure how we've lasted this long, considering some of the things (and neighbors) we've put up with...

But that will all soon be in the past, as we're finally moving!

We found a 2 bedroom house to rent, in what seems to be a nice neighborhood, that's going to cost us about what we're paying now (the rent is actually less than this apartment, but we're expecting our utilities to be higher there). It's also got a full basement with a lot of storage space, and an actual back yard. :)

It's a little farther west from where we're at now, over into what is Spokane proper, but Jenny's work is still about the same distance from the new place as from here. And she's got some friends/co-workers who live in the same area - one only a block away.

It is an older house, which hasn't ever been remodeled as far as we (or the landlord) know, so we won't be surprised if we run into some issues later on... But since neither of us has rented a house before, and we would eventually like to own our own place, we're looking at this as a learning experience of sorts.

But the property manager/landlord also lives just around the corner, so if anything does come up she'll be easy enough to get a hold of. She's getting the place cleaned/fixed up right now (as the previous tenants didn't seem to do any move-out cleaning...) so we won't be able to start moving in till closer to the end of the month. But at least we should have a few days to move instead of it being a mad rush over a day or two.

Still, super excited! More updates, and eventually photos, are sure to follow.