I’m back.
We’re all back.
It’s good to be home.
My favorite utterance, taken out of its context (conversation with Sandra during our 12 hours together in the van): “If you put monkey-snot on the end of the stick, stuff might stick to it. That’s why they call it a ’stick’.”
We were supposed to drive home today — at least we were in the original plan, which did not take into account the storm that we decided not to try to race.
Long story short, we got an extra day here at the in-laws’ place. That gave us time to finish the D&D campaign (“The Burning Plague,” which is a great little adventure for low-level characters), have a little more family time, and rest up just a little more for the drive.
I’ll be home laaate tomorrow with more extensive blogging on Friday. Oh, and napping. Lots of napping.
I got this one in my mailbox this morning.
Nice work, Jakub! I love it!
I’m here at my in-laws in Livermore, California. My kids have a pile of cousins, and the kids and cousins have a pile of presents. There are video games, books, tubs of fart putty, snack food, and much more… and we haven’t even gotten to the BIG pile under the tree.
There’s also a Wii. Sandra entered Amazon’s “lottery,” and won the opportunity to buy the new Nintendo console. Yes, Daddy (me) set it up last night and “made sure it worked” for a good 90 minutes with the help of assorted uncles and one outnumbered aunt. Short review — it’s hugely fun, and disturbingly intuitive.
So… there’s lots of loot this year. But it’s not about the loot. This is the first year we’ve been able to have Christmas on the road with a pile of cousins, and I’m really, really enjoying it. I played D&D with the older cousins (ages 12, 11, 9, and 8) and two uncles (35-ish and 20) on the afternoon of Christmas eve, and we all had a blast. (It helped that when their party of six barged in on a band of kobolds, every party member AND every kobold was represented by a miniature on the battle-mat. This hobby of mine is paying off nicely.) Four of the players had never played D&D 3.5 before, and two had never played D&D at all. Breaking for dinner and Christmas-eve type activities was difficult, and might not have happened at all had we not agreed to let the kids open one gift early.
I hope your holiday is joyous, and I sincerely thank all of you for reading and “schlocking” enough that I can continue to do this full-time. Merry Christmas, everyone.
Sandra and I had a great time last night at TGI Friday’s. We never did get an accurate head-count, but as far as we were able to recall there were about 25 Schlockers in attendance. I sketched in books and on comic-book backer boards for a couple of hours straight, we sold a few books and pins, and everybody talked and laughed and ate.
For the most part everything wound down by 10:30pm, but about half a dozen of us stuck around until almost midnight.
A hearty “thank you” goes out to everybody who came. Sandra and I are glad we did this, and we are definitely going to be doing something like this again.
We’ve arrived safely in Livermore, California. Discussion is ongoing at schlockmercenary@yahoogroups.com about where to meet on Friday night, but mostly I’m relaxing.
I painted a couple of miniatures last night. Today I’m sending the ladies out for Pine-Sol so I can dip said miniatures and never have to look at those awful paint-jobs again.
Computer access here is spotty — there are lots of computers, but there are also lots of people, and lots of these people are hard-core computer geeks who spend lots and lots and LOTS of time in front of said computers. So you might not hear much from me.
Or rather, you might ONLY hear from me. I’ve been playing with voice-posting over on my Live Journal account, and it has been amusing. Wondering what I sound like? Wonder no more.
I’m on the road all day Wednesday. You might get an update from me late Wednesday night, but then again, I’m on vacation.
The strip is colored and uploaded through the eve of the New Year. I probably ought to come home in time to start coloring 2007 before the ball drops.
If you live near Livermore, California, you may be interested to know that my in-laws do too. Not that they’re an especially entertaining bit of night life, mind you — it’s just that I’ll be staying with them over the Christmas holiday.
Sometime during the stay (right now it looks like this coming Friday the 22nd) Sandra and I would like to get together with local Schlockers for food, conversation, and me whipping out sketches. If you’re interested (and we have half a dozen takers already) then subscribe to the Yahoo Group I created just for the occasion.
I gotta go pack my bags now.
Here’s another miniature for your viewing pleasure.
Yeah, he looks kind of Christmassy in red and green, but he’ll nail your jolly old blighted elves to the wall.
Ho, ho, ho.
The Tayler family will be spending Christmas in and around Livermore, California for the first time in… well, ever. It’s going to be nice to get an actual family vacation over the holiday.
It also means a zero chance (or as close as makes no difference) of having a white Christmas.
Fortunately, here in Utah, five days before our departure, it snowed. Here’s the christmas-lit pom-pom tree in my front yard.
(Yes, I took this picture at 6am in my underwear. That’s why there’s just one picture, from a bad angle with poor light. Snow is cold.)
If you want to get a Schlock book in time for Christmas… well, you probably should have already ordered it, but you might be able to get it priority-mailed to you by then if you order now. We’ll stop shipping things Tuesday morning the 19th and won’t ship again until Thursday the 28th — this is what happens to a cottage-industry when the whole cottage takes a holiday.
One more thing — if you’re in the Livermore area, we might do a meet, greet, and eat someplace this coming Thursday or Friday night. Email me (howard.tayler) or Sandra (sandra.tayler) at our gmail accounts and we’ll put something together. Or comment below… that works too.