Busy Week. Productive Week. GO ME!

(sorry for lack of updates this week. Been busy! As you will soon see...)

4-21-12

The bots kicks his door at 8:30 and I get up with him. I lay on the couch watching Olivia and Wubzy with him, drifting in and out of sleep. Finally around 10:30 I wake up for good and check online stuff, update blog and toss out some emails. I mess about on the internet till noon and then I check on the wife to see if she’s ever going to get up. She does and I start peeling potatoes while watching Cinemassacre.com movie reviews. I cook potatoes, dumplings and Pork Chop Steaks, which we devour when they are done. After eating like kings, I am feeling tired so I broker a deal for me to take a nap. I sleep from 2:30-6:30. I get up, check online shit and eat some leftovers. As I check online I see that Shane is visiting a local Science museum in his town of Midland and there is a Sci Fi movie/TV costumes and props traveling display there. I research the museum and decide to visit next week. I text with him a bit to see what its like there and toss an email to the museum if I could take pics if I go there to write an article for Bigfanboy.com. Then I head into the den of sin for my 8-4am shift. I’m in a bad mood when I hit the place but Kat my co-worker makes me feel a bit better. I start wearing wigs, playing with the stuffed puppies and slapping Mannaquins to pass the time. Finally at 4am we go home and I curl up to some Netflix’d Star Trek and finally pass out around 5am.

4-22-12

I hear bots kicking my bedroom door at 10:30. Obviously the wife had got up with him earlier and now he wanted in my room while she was letting me sleep. But I ignored the kicks and went back to sleep till around 11:20. I get up, check online shit and grab one of the last slices of the cake I made two days before. Bots and the wife have been devouring it. I ask the wife if she’s into taking the kid out for Mcds, and she agrees. We go there and I eat a small meal, still full from the slice of cake I had earlier. Then we opt to drive to Okemos and head West back home on a Sunday scenic drive. We get into a good discussion about music and bands and I feel a lot better. Curious about the location of a local gay bar in North Lansing, we GPS it to find its location. Once located, we laugh a bit and then head back. We stop off at Kroger to get the cats some food and head back home. I check online shit and muster up the energy to do some Mars cards. I am in the home stretch of completing the set and I have to get them done soon because the DC 52 cards are going to be here next week, as are the Night of the Living Dead cards. Then there’s the Sherlock Holmes set to worry about. Lots to do! The wife falls asleep for a nap and I get to work on Mars Cards and end penciling almost 20 cards. I ink most of them and color a couple. While doing this I watch a Family Guy I missed on Hulu, and a bunch of season 15-16 South Parks that I have never seen on their website. At 6:20, I wake the wife up and I head into work for a 7-2am shift. I listen to Nirvana’s “In Utero” on the way and am blown away by how much it still resonates with me. I love that album!! I work my shift without incident and get into a discussion with my co-worker about everything that is wrong with the place and I end up having to tell her that I don’t care and I don’t want to discuss it because it doesn’t matter to me. I feel bad about it, but life is too short to stress myself with people, places or things that don’t deserve to be an issue in my life. I get out and get home and pass out listening to Joey Diaz’ podcast.

4-23-12

The wife wakes me up around 6:50 getting the bots ready for school. He’s got a fever and sniffles so she decides to keep him home. She calls the bus and the school to cancel him going and we lay down a bit hoping to get more shut-eye that doesn’t come. I get up around 8am, feed fish, check online shit and we all get ready and head to her doctor’s appointment. We get in pretty quickly and I struggle to stay awake as we get about a million pics taken of her uterus. Quickly its confirmed that we are having another boy. So that’s three for three boys for me! We take bots to Mcds  for breakfast and then to the Disc Traders for some discs.  We call the parents to break the news in between all of this. I grab a Hammer Horror collection for myself. The wife and I get into a slight tizzy over me wanting to change the name from James Thomas to James Kirk, which she is sorely against. She doesn’t even like James. I’m for James because it’s a traditional man’s name. I am not a big fan of modern names. They sound too soft for my taste. She assumes I am mad at her for shooting down my proposed name change. I kind of am because we made a deal that if I agreed to have another child, I would get to name it, and thus she’s reneging on the deal. But really I am just moody cause I only got 4 hours of sleep. So once we check out we get home and I head to bed to catch up. I know I got a long day ahead of me of artwork and podcasting.

I wake up at 12:30 and the wife is getting ready for work. She takes off and I catch up with online shit and email Shane. Also check FB and Twitter to read the congratulatory messages from folks after I announced the gender of our baby to be. I decide that I want to sell my Ipad once again. After clearing it with the wife, I email Shane to ask what he thinks I should sell it for. I take pics and prepare the listing. I just think that for now, I don’t use it and it would be best to sell it and do productive things with the cash. Then upgrade later when bills are paid off and we can get the wife a Macbook Air and new Ipad as well. Seems fair to me. Ever since we got Iphones, I don’t use the ipad as much because everything I need is on the iphone. It makes a lot of the use I had for Ipad redundant for now. I confirm a price with Shane and post the listing.

Then I start cooking fries and hot dogs for the bots and I. I check the stats on who downloaded the last episode of the Idiothead.com podcast and its almost at 30 people! I’m instantly flattered and wondering one thing: WHO THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE!!!! (But seriously, thanks. I appreciate the support and that you’d care enough about me to listen to a simple conversation between my wife and I is astounding! Thanks!!) After a few minutes I check the fries to find them burnt to a crisp, as if they were attacked by a horta monster! So dinner ruined I opt to cook the bacon that was to expire on this same day. While eating a sandwich, I watch the newest episode of Game of Thrones. Still angry from some of the characters’ actions and dissatisfaction with certain ones I hate not getting their just desserts yet, I decide to find a “cliff note” version of the books online and skim what is to come. Some surprises and some interesting things that I cannot wait to see!

I take a break and lay with bots cause he’s still not feeling so well. We watch about three episodes of cartoons together before I put him to sleep around 8:40. Then I return and start working on cards. Lee texts me to see if I am down for a show, which I very much am. We start Sabo at 10:40 and talk Game of Thrones. Then everyone joins and we talk for a good long while until some nut job conspiracy loon pops in and Lee keeps them unmuted. BUZZKILL! I cannot take anymore so I drop out and pass out around 3am, with A LOT of Mars Cards done. I got about 5 left to color. Home stretch, bitches!!!!

4-24-12

I get up at 6:55 and get bots ready. My stomach is killing me so I take a bathroom break quickly. The wife takes over waiting for the bus, but I finish and take over for her. I get him on and hit the bed for much more needed sleep. I wake up at 11:30 wanting to hit Michaels for more markers to finish the few Mars cars I have left to do. I get emails about the ipad sale on Craigslist. One wanting to exchange auto repair work for the ipad and another few emails from the same girl who is very cryptic and wants to meet to discuss a potential deal, offering to pay me more if I “work with her.” Instantly I figure she’s gonna want a payment plan or offer me food stamps or even a handie for the ipad. I email her saying she is wasting my time and I want CASH ONLY. No payment plan, no deal. I hear nothing back.

The wife gets the bots off the bus and we head to Michaels. I get markers and bots a STAR WARS coloring book. Then we go to Culvers for lunch. We unfortunately sit in a booth next to two guys who I gather is the Drain Commissioner and a farmer and they are arguing loudly about campaign money, helping on a farm, dirty deeds done planting soil and manure cheap in the farming world. It is back and forth and the one guy sounds like Ross Perot. It is unavoidable to listen to, try as I did to get the wife to talk about something else other than listening in to this conversation. We left and decided that from now on when we argue we’re going to adapt a southern drawl type of tone to keep us stay goofy. Perhaps we won’t take each other seriously. Freaking out about potential Heroes money lost again, I want to look at the budget, which the wife gets defensive about as always. I adapt the southern drawl and it sorta works! However we see that things will indeed be pretty tight and I pretty much have to sell the Ipad now. I relist it on Craigslist with STRICT “No Deals” instructions as she heads to work.

I get to work coloring the last 5-7 cards on MARS and get done in a couple hours. Then I scan each one and make an approval file to send to Topps. Then collect my 300DPI scans to burn to archive for them. Then sign all contracts, make and invoice and seal it up for shipping. I make a quick video of me signing some of the cards and upload it up to Youtube for the fun of it. I send out all emails and email with Shane a bit making half plans for a possible lunch meet in Midland on Thursday if we end up going. I get a serious buyer for the ipad interested but I gotta locate a charger plug for it. I dig through and organize my drawer and find one. I do all of this while catching up with SABOs and BFBs I haven’t archived for a new upcoming clip show. I write down time stamps every now and then for funny sound bites to pull in the future.

After I am done I play with the bots a bit and keep checking online news. At one point I see my fav. Drummer Mike Portnoy tweeting Q&A and toss him some questions. I am one of the lucky few ones to get an answer and I am stoked. He confirmed that a new Transatlantic project is a great possibility for 2013. YAY!  I get a second offer on the Ipad but she wants to paypal me the money, plus an extra $150. She claims it’s a Bday present for her friend who is vacationing. I am COMPLETELY against the idea because 1-Paypal takes out fees. 2-What if it gets lost or damaged in shipping, then its on me! 3-WHY CAN’T ANYONE BUYING THROUGH PAYPAL JUST BE FUCKING NORMAL!??!?!!?!?! (sigh) Cripes!!! After a few more insane emails from her where she’s just not getting the hint, I decide to just ignore her from that point on, rather than replying.

I get bots and I some pizza from Hungry Howies and we sit watching cartoons until he gets tired. He passes out around 9:40 and I sit on the couch catching up with South Park on ON DEMAND. The wife calls and says she’s on the way. I take some pics of the baby fishes, which seem to be forming a school at the top of my tank. She gets home and eats her pizza. We watch South Park until there’s no more new ones to see and then we watch FULL METAL JACKET on Retroplex. She checks out before Private Pile shoots Sgt. Hartman. I say I am gonna follow her shortly after but end up watching the whole thing. It is one of my top 20 favorite movies after all! Around 2am I head to bed and fall asleep watching Trek on Netflix.

4-25-12

I Wake to my alarm at 6:55am and sheepishly ask the wife if she’s getting up with the bots. She replies no as she’s been up with acid reflex for a while. Not fighting it, I get up and get bots ready. He’s incredibly moody and non very cooperative until he sees the bus! We gets on and I get online to check my shit. I decide to take some time of my awake quiet time to pull some reference pics for DC 52 and Sherlock Holmes card sets that I have to get done. I end up staying up and keeping the car just in case I get a potential buyer for the Ipad. I email back a couple leads but no response to either back to me. I drop the wife off at work (as well as getting her breakfast) and then head to Clems Comics downtown. I score a few new DC 52 issues to read for the card set I am starting this week and then head to Preuss Pets. Its their 30^th Anniversary and a sale is in full swing. I grab some Ammonia cleaner and a couple sprays to eliminate and prevent cat pee on furniture! Money well spent I say! I get home, check online shit and update blog before getting the bots off the bus at 12:05. I clean the bathroom and kitchen and organize my file cabinet and bookshelves, as well as do a 20% water change for the fish and give em a shrimp treat. (PRODUCTIVE!) I play with bots in our room for a couple hours playing bounce, tickle fight and then we just lay together listening to Ipod. The wife texts to say that she will be out of work an hour early so we head to get her.

I get across town fighting the 5:00 traffic and pick her up. I’m sorta peeved about the fact that Fed Ex showed that my DC cards were to arrive today and I waited all day to no avail. Also no promising leads on selling the Ipad. The wife assumes that I am mad or moody and we get moody at each other about it. We stop off and get the bots some fries and head home. As we drive in, I pass the Fed Ex truck. I don’t bother to stop them as I am hoping they just dropped it off at the office. I get out and check and they left a tag on my door. I call Fed Ex in vain to see if I can get the truck to come back but I get the heave-ho about it. Defeated and deflated, I decide to break out the Sherlock Holmes cards and get working on those. Before I know it, I’ve quick penciled 25 cards, HALF of what I am contracted to do with the set! I ink and color one, experimenting with what I am going to do with the set. It turns out really cool and I am happy.

I decide to take the rest of the night off and spend it with the family. We sit and watch cartoons with bots until he falls asleep. Then the wife and I watch the new South Park and I wasn’t that impressed with it. So we decide to try another Hammer Horror flick called “The Gorgon.” I end up liking it although it felt it dragged a bit toward the end when the characters were figuring out what the dilly was. I like Hammer Horror flicks! I gotta get em all and check them out! I pass out around 1am.