Snow Days

We were planning on doing a lot of running around and chore-type stuff this weekend, and visit Jenny's parents as well, but those plans were scuttled when we woke up Saturday morning to the stormfront that moved in and dumped a few inches of snow on us. Roads were a mess, and we were in no hurry to go outside, so we ended up staying in all weekend and catching up on the copious amounts of TV shows we had to watch from the last couple of weeks. Not too exciting, but fun and relaxing nonetheless.

We also watched the first episode of a new show, Awake, which doesn't premiere until this Thursday, but the first episode is already available on Hulu. It's a drama about a police detective who's in a car accident, and afterwards keeps switching between two realities - one where his wife died in the crash and his son survived, and one that's the opposite. Every time he falls asleep, he "wakes up" in the other reality, so it seems like one of them is real and one is a dream - but he doesn't know which one, and they seem to be connected somehow.

Jenny and I really enjoyed the pilot, so we'll keep watching it; hopefully it won't get cancelled like most of our favorite shows seem to. Speaking of which, we're hoping that PanAm gets picked up for a second season, since we're really hooked on it now, but what I've read on-line hasn't been very encouraging....

Winter-ish

It's feeling a bit more like winter around here, if not necessarily looking like it. Temperatures have been dipping down, and we've had a few days with snow on the ground. Nothing that's stuck around, and just as much days of rain as snow, but the city's already bracing for another potential dumping of snow like the last couple of years. Hopefully the road clearing plans will actually be sufficient this time around...

We went ahead and pulled all our Christmas decorations and tree out of the garage the other day, but haven't put anything up yet. That'll probably wait 'till after Thanksgiving.

Also saw on-line the other day that Fairbanks was in the mid -40s, and was the current coldest spot on Earth (at least of the places being monitored by that weather service). We still miss Alaska from time to time, but then we remember days like that.

It must really be Summer...

...since I broke down and turned on the air-conditioning today. It's supposedly only in the low 80s outside, but feels a lot warmer in the apartment.

Yesterday was the Summer solstice, and also Jenny's birthday. We spent the day over in Coeur d'Alene - her parents took us out for Mexican, and also got her one of the new Nook Touch eReaders! It's pretty awesome, and now she's looking for e-books to fill it up with and a cool looking case to protect it.

We've both been hit pretty hard by allergies this year. The pollen count around here has been really high and we've definitely been feeling it.

Oh, and I spent the morning at the dentist today for my yearly check-up. How fun... But at least everything's still in great shape, amazingly (especially considering the excessive amount of soda we drink).

Not too exciting, I know, but just wanted to post a quick update since it'd been a while...

A Winter Wonderland

Well, obviously the Pacific Northwest won't be left out of the current "snow-pocalypse" that's been hitting the eastern states. Spokane is currently under a "winter storm warning" with high winds and 7-12 inches expected to fall today. Below is an example of what it looks like outside our windows and the snow's still steadily coming down.




Our Christmas was more wet than white, but still fun, though I came down with a monster of a head cold late last week which I'm only now shaking off. I was down & out and pretty miserable for the past few days, with the whole sneezing/coughing/aching thing. But last night I actually got a decent night's sleep without NyQuil, so I think I'm mostly over it.

Regardless, with the weather the way it is, I'm planning on staying inside and warm unless I absolutely have to, until I'm 100%. Hence me taking these pictures from inside the apartment...

I Suppose It's Officially Winter...

... since we just got our first snow last night. It's all gone now, melted away, but it was an inch or two this morning. The weathermen had been threatening snow for the last couple of weeks; it was still a bit surprising, and there should be more in the next few days. It's also been really windy lately - with some power outages and damage from downed trees - both here, and over in Coeur d'Alene.

We were supposed to have our carpets cleaned today, but that didn't happen. When we last signed our lease (about 3 months ago), they had a "get a random bonus for renewing for a year" deal going. We would've been happier with the free month of storage or $100 off our rent for a month, but we'll take what we can get, I guess. But of course, the cleaner apparently had some sort of technical difficulties with his equipment and had to cancel - he's supposed to be here tomorrow morning but, like most things involving this complex, I'll believe it when I see it.

They also scheduled a "preventative maintenance inspection" for our block of apartments, sometime today or tomorrow, so we had to move stuff for that too (so they can get to the hot water heater, under the sink, etc.). I was really hoping they and the cleaners would both be done today so we could move everything back to normal, but of course it was not to be. Hopefully tomorrow.

We were actually planning on putting up our Christmas tree and decorations early, and pulled all the stuff out of the garage a few days ago. But, not surprisingly, we're holding off until the carpets are cleaned. So for now, we're just listening to our Christmas music playlist on the computer and trying to get ourselves into the holiday spirit.

What's Happening....

Lately, I've been doing some lettering work for a couple of comic pitches, and also working on an original comic short for an anthology the Spokane Comicsmiths Guild is putting together. It'll be a collection of several stories, most around 4 pages long, showcasing the skills and diverse styles of our little group. We're hoping to have it printed up and ready to distribute by the end of September, in time for the Jet City Comic Show in Seattle (which a few Guild members will be attending) and the next 24 Hour Comic Book Challenge at the start of October.

Last month we had another fun event - members of the Guild taught a class on making comics at a week long day camp for kids. It was a superhero themed camp, and over the course of the week the kids created their own characters and made a comic featuring them. They also had classes in costuming, pop art, and even culinary arts. It wrapped up with them putting on a stage presentation, with the kids dressed up as their characters. It was an awesome experience, a lot of fun, and hopefully we'll get to do something similar in the future. You can see more about it on the Guild's website, including video of the presentation and pics of the comics the kids made.

Jenny's been crocheting a whole bunch - she's made a few larger tote bags and just made me a new hat. She also recently got back to work on her superhero novel she started writing some time ago. Otherwise she's mostly been working - while her job at the law firm ended a few weeks ago, she has been able to pick up a few extra hours here and there at the library. But she's still happy to have two actual days off per week again.

It's also been ridiculously hot here recently. It's still about 80 today, but there's a tiny bit of a breeze and it's overcast with a slight chance of rain, so it's relatively comfortable. We'll take what we can get, I guess.

Today is Pleasant

In fact, it's the first time in weeks that we've had both the A/C and the fan turned off and it's still comfortable. We had an awesome thunder shower last night that dumped buckets of rain, and there's actually a nice breeze today. Very pleasant, indeed.

Saw on-line that Fairbanks finally got some much needed rain as well. Hopefully it'll keep up and help squelch all the smoke they've had to deal with from the fires up there. Of course, the timing of the rain is not too surprising for those of us who are from Fairbanks, as the fair starts today... ;)

Speaking of the fair, our friend Tigger (aka AlX Hurlbut) has a booth this year and will be selling prints of her photography. Any locals who are going, be sure to stop by and check out her photos & say Hi (and buy something!).

Also, this will be my friend Ellen's (of Ellen Million Graphics) last year selling at the fair. She's closing down the Gift Shop portion of her website, and expanding her business in other directions. So drop by her booth as well, to find out what's happening in the wide world of EMG and grab some of the cool Gift Shop merchandise that might be gone soon!

Today was Hot

It's been unseasonably hot up here in the Pacific Northwest, with the Seattle area already hitting record breaking temperatures. It's been in the steady 90's over on our side of the state, which is still hotter than normal, but today was rediculous. According to Google it hit 104 and I know the one time I looked at the thermometer outside the apartment it said it was 100 here.

Needless to say, we're hiding inside as much as possible. The A/C is on and our fridge is stocked with lots of iced tea and cold beer. We had a delicious grilled chicken salad for dinner tonight, and are trying to keep from cooking or eating anything hot, although we did turn on the oven to bake cookies. Of course, it was worth it. :)

Otherwise, I spent the day working on commissions and will probably be up late tonight writing, hopefully getting some more of the plot of my superhero comic figured out. The plan is to start serializing it as a webcomic, and eventually collect it in print. I'm still not sure when I'll actually get it on-line (since I'm still writing and haven't started drawing it yet), but I'd like to have the first collection ready by next March to sell at the Emerald City Comic-Con. Something to shoot for, at least...

A Few Things...

...since I haven't blogged in a while:

The 4th of July was good - we just headed over to Jenny's folks' place and relaxed and had lots of barbeque. Jenny also went to a beading exhibit at the fairgrounds with her mom, and picked up a bunch of cool stuff she can use in her jewelry making. We didn't stick around for the fireworks spectacular, since we got stuck in the traffic trying to get out of CdA last year and didn't want a repeat experience. Instead we got out early and still heard plenty of illegal fireworks going off around here.

It's cooled off a bit over the past few days, and even rained some. We were over in CdA on Sunday and got to see an awesome lightning storm, but all we got here was a tiny bit of thunder off in the distance.

There's still some cold/flu type bug going around, and we think Jenny brought it home from work and gave it to me. I'm sure it's nothing major, but it's still annoying. The heat saps enough energy from me as it is, and this certainly doesn't help. 

Jenny's taking the day off from work this Wednesday, as it's our 2 year wedding anniversary. We don't have anything big planned, although we're thinking of walking around downtown and going to Riverfront Park. The new Harry Potter film also comes out that day, so we'll be seeing that if nothing else. :)

I've been attempting to write more than draw lately, as I want to get to work on these 2 different comic ideas I've got and figure it'd help to actually have a story to draw before I dive in.

For the past couple of weeks I have been doing daily sketches of The Avengers and posting them on my deviantArt page. I started with Ant-Man and am working my way through the alphabet, drawing one character per letter. Here's the first 9, and the rest can be seen here: http://piotrov.deviantart.com

Weekend Update + Comic Stuff

Things have been going well enough, if not particularly exciting. But then, I guess that's nothing to complain about.

Jenny had her dentist appointment on Friday; she hadn't gone quite as long as I since her last check up, but it'd still been about 10 years. But she had nothing to worry about, as her teeth were in fine shape - no cavities or problems.

It's back to feeling like summer, with temperatures in the 80's and up to 90. Looks like more of the same this week, so I'm thinking we'll be breaking down soon and turning on the A/C. Which means higher electric bills. Yay.

Sunday was our monthly meeting of the Spokane Comicsmiths Guild, the group of local artists and writers that was formed after last year's 24 Hour Comicbook Day. We've begun planning for the next 24HCBD, which this year falls on October 3rd and will again be hosted by local shop Merlyns. We also discussed some other possible plans for this coming year which unfortunately are only in the discussion stage, so I won't go into details yet.

And, of course, we also sat around and drew. I began sketching out designs for another character in my Fight City superhero comic - a super-genius crime boss known as "Brains" McBannon. I think these are the closest so far to what I want:

Weekend Update

I think I've ingested enough cake to last me for a while...

Jenny had her Crafty Club Friday evening, and since Sunday was her birthday, one of the people brought a cake, which she had leftovers to take home. Then on Saturday we went over to Tigger and Lincoln's for a barbeque and birthday celebration for Jenny & I and Lincoln's daughter Elizabeth. There was more cake there, and since Elizabeth was turning 15, the house was quite a madhouse of sugar-crazed teenagers. But the food was good and it was still a lot of fun, even while dodging crazy kids.

Sunday we headed over to CdA and Jenny's mom had made a cake for us as well. They also surprised us with presents and took us out for Mexican for dinner. All in all, a good (and fattening) weekend!

Weather's been pretty nice (in our opinion) the past couple of days, which means grey, cool and wet. We even got quite the show the other night from the lightning storm that rolled in. Hopefully we won't have as dry of summer as last year - no need for more wildfires.

Blogging Catch Up

I haven't blogged (or even Twittered) in a while, so just wanted to start remedying that:

Jenny and I have both been sick off and on the past few days - sinus stuff and head aches, but thankfully no real flu. I also did something to my back last week which I'm still slowly working out. Probably wouldn't have seemed as bad if I hadn't got sick at the same time.

It seems Summer has arrived. It's been blue skies and sunny, and in the 70s the past few days. Still pleasant and not horribly hot yet. Just a matter of time, though...

I might have some temp work lined up at Borders next month. They're apparently doing a big re-organization of the store and will need some people to do overnight work for a while, moving stuff around, which would be perfect. I'd love to get back on with them, if even part-time, but they haven't had any regular hours to spare. I'm friends with the store manager, though, so if something opens up I'm sure I'll hear about it (which is how the temp job came up).

In the meantime, I've been trying to throw myself into art and also starting to write again. I want to get my superhero comic back on track soon, so I can start it up as a web-comic. I'm also working on a second, completely separate, project which I'm hoping to do something similar with.

We're still way behind on TV shows from this season, with the last few episodes of a few of our favorite shows still taped and waiting to be watched. We have been watching a lot more movies than normal, as Jenny's dad has been taking us out to see some of the big summer blockbusters he also wants to see. Besides Wolverine and Star Trek, we saw Angels & Demons last wednesday and are looking forward to the new Terminator movie this week. I wasn't really impressed by The Da Vinci Code, and mainly just wanted to see Angels & Demons for all the art and architecture that's shown, but I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. It was incredibly rediculous, but entertaining.

Also, both of our birthdays are coming up relatively soon, although we don't really have any plans or ideas for what to do. Probably nothing too exciting, due to lack of money, but I'm sure there will be cake involved. :)

Updating

It definately seemed like Spring today - it was in the 60s, the sun was shining, and I opened up some windows to let the fresh air in. Felt great. We've been getting back to taking regular walks in the evening (easing back into some much needed exercise), and the nice weather is a great incentive.

Job hunting continues. Another spot opened up at the library which I applied for, as well as some other jobs I found online. Guess we'll see how that goes.

Other than lacking in money, things are going alright, I guess. Besides job hunting, mostly just trying to work on art inbetween keeping the apartment clean. Can't really complain, considering the state of the economy and how hard it's hit some people.

Oh, and our new neighbors seem OK so far. They're an older couple with a teenage daughter, and they seem fairly normal. Hopefully normal = quiet.

Hooray for Insurance!

Called the dentist this morning to set up an appointment for the cracked tooth, and we were lucky - they got me in this afternoon! But they weren't able to get all of the tooth out (something to do with the root being too long) so they referred me to an oral surgeon - who was also able to get me in today!

Sooo, after a couple hours of poking, prodding and drilling, I got the cracked wisdom tooth out. The oral surgeon confirmed that the other three should probably come out as well, but I figure I'll wait until my mouth is completely healed up before scheduling the next appointment.

For now, I've just got to take care of the sutured up hole in my mouth, but thankfully they prescribed me some painkillers to help out with that....

Anyway, I'm really glad that we've got decent insurance through Jenny's work. I don't even want to think how much that would've cost if we hadn't (as it was, we only paid $30, plus $9 for the prescription).

Oh, and we also got hit with another big snow storm today. There's been a whole bunch of accidents and injuries reported already, and apparently the snow's suppsed to be sticking around for a while. Yay.

Update

Well, my interview on Monday went as well as possible, I guess. But I still didn't get the job... though they did call me to tell me, instead of sending out the normal library form letter, so I suppose that's a sign they still liked me. I had a lot of experience from very closely related jobs, but apparently it went to another guy who had 2 years of experience in exactly this one. Oh well....

Patty's been doing OK so far, the past couple of days, with no more seizures or anything. But I think they're still waiting to get the results back from the EEG on Wednesday, so we'll see if that says something new.

It's been fairly warm here, although I see that it's actually warmer in Fairbanks right now than in Spokane. Crazy!

And I'll leave you with something from my sketchbook - I've got an idea for a kind of funny animal / superhero comic, and this is a Golden Age vigilante type of character named.... Awesome Possum!

One Week In

Well, we're a few days into the New Year, and things seem to be going OK so far. Nothing too exciting, but no catastrophes either.

The snow has slowed down here - it's warmed up some, and along with the melting snow we've even got some rain the past couple of days. No major flooding here like over on the western side of the state, and I expect we'll most likely get some more snow before too long.

Still don't have a big list of resolutions for the year, but I've never really been one to do that sort of thing. I mainly want to start following through on more things that I start, or just have ideas/plans for but never get done. More art, obviously - just more work in general, and a couple of web-comics I'd like to get off the ground.

The other thing is just to be more social, both in real life and on-line. I've become a bit too much of a hermit, and even too much of my time on-line is wasted reading useless stuff and not actually interacting with people. So I guess some time-management improvements should also be part of that goal as well, though I think I might be getting slightly better there....

And I do have an interview on Monday for a part-time job at the library which looks promising. Hopefully that'll go well - so wish me luck!

Snow

After teasing us by warming up substantially yesterday, we got another ton of snow dumped on us this morning. Hooray.

Just figured I'd share with anyone who missed out on a White Christmas. :)

Happy Christmas Eve!

Well, it's still snowing.... I'm beginning to see a pattern here. :)

Maintenance has begun clearing the snow off all the car ports in our apartment complex, which is definately good news. They've also finally started plowing today, although I don't think they've quite figured out where to put all the snow, so it's still a mess, what with all the plowing, shoveling and snowblowing going on. So really they're just spreading the snow around...

We signed our lease this morning, so we'll be here for another 9 months, for better or worse.

We also finally got our Christmas cards in the mail today. We probably could have got them out, oh, say a month ago if we'd gotten on the ball. That was the intention at least. But at the last minute I decided I was going to try my hand at adding some "creative personalization" to all the cards. But since I waited till the last minute to start, and really didn't know what I was doing, I got what I wanted done on less than half the cards we sent out (a lot of friends, and unfortunately no family). If I'd known how many I could get finished, I would have just sent the "standard" cards out first, but I was making this up as I went along. Our apologies  for the lateness - just think of them as New Years Cards. :)

And I figure I'd wait to say what the "personalizations" were until I can be pretty sure most people have got them (y'know, just to stretch the wait out even longer). But I'd like to keep doing this, make it a tradition of sorts, and next year will be more organized (well, couldn't be much less....) and hopefully better implemented. I'll explain more later....

Jenny and I will be heading over to her parent's place tomorrow morning, and plan to spend most of the day there. Our thanks to everyone we've already recieved cards and packages from. I hope everybody has a Merry Christmas and a great time spending the holidays with family and loved ones!

We Need to Get Out of Here

I went to make our appointment to sign our new lease today, and was reminded exactly why we keep saying we want to move. I'll refrain from going into details - just to say that they keep exceeding their previous record levels of stupidity....

So, instead of a year lease, we're going to try to go for a 9 month one - because we have to move, and we realize that we won't want to move at New Years (with a year lease) and there's no way we'll have the money to move in only 6 months. We figure the end of September will be as good a time to move as any. We're hoping we'll have the money in 9 months, but I guess we'll just have to find a way.

We've been saying we need/want to move out of the apartments for years now - we just need to do it.

Otherwise - the snow has halted temporarily, but there's several more inches on the way in the next day or so, and then again around New Years. Road crews are working 24/7 trying to clear everything, but I'm more worried about the snow building up and caving in our car ports. Yet another thing I'll need to harass the office about on Monday....

It's Still Snowing...

...and it's just getting kind of rediculous now.

It's been going non-stop for at least 36 hours - we've got about a foot or more accumulation, and it's a mess pretty much everywhere. We ventured out last night to pick up some much needed groceries, and while we didn't see any accidents, there were plenty of vehicles stuck along the way.

Jenny was just out walking around and even saw a semi truck get stuck trying to get around the nearby traffic pretzel.

She was supposed to work at the library today, but they closed them all. Her boss called her this morning and told her to stay home. :)

So, here's a look at what our apartment's like right now: