Hello, pretentious Euro-tour 2013

 Uh-oh! You know what this means! Probably not many posts for the next few weeks, but then you will be delighted with a dozen or more of my best travel sketches! 

Don't believe me? Can't remember? Simply click on the "travel" tag and revisit Scandanavia, India, Poland, and France France France with me.

About 18 months ago poor Xavier was struck by a car on his bicycle and had to have his ankle rebuilt. I really wanted to go and help out during this recovery, but my French is so bad, I'd have been more of a drain.

But he said, "let's travel in the fall, it will be my physical therapy goal." So we compared lists of places we'd be happy to go and threw in a comic con and ended up with Lille, Brussels, Bruges, Edinburgh last fall. Seriously, re-read the posts!

This time around, we compared lists, threw in the wildcard of where I could actually fly in and out of using frequent flyer miles and came up with our odd-ball itinerary. 

I failed in lining up an event in Munich, but not in super-gay Vienna! If you're nearby, shout out and join us for drinks, on you! 

NYCC commissions

Here's Thor taking a selfie for Edward from Toronto:

and here's a Superman/Batman coffee date for my new fan from Quincy!:

I forgot to snap the punk Storm I did but here's a failed commission of "Asian Calvin" with Hobbes:

New York Comic Con artist alley #I7

My teeth are rubbish

Extra thanks to my mom for insisting on thorough oral hygene and a low-in-sweets diet as a kid. These practices were burned into my brain and all seemed well for the first 43 years.

Apparently, in one's 40s, one's mouth stops producing certain enzymes, which makes it difficult for teeth to fend decay.

Long story short, I just had my first cavity and first filling!

It seems the sealants on my teeth are finally wearing away at the edges and decay is beginning...which means I have several more teeth to look forward to drilling in the upcoming years. 

Never facing the drill before, I was naturally nervous! It wasn't bad though. The exit from novacane wasn't fun, and my jaw a bit sore all day.

On the plus side, I got to relax and refinish the top of a cabinet on my dental day.

My foot is rubbish

I love fall! The weather is definitely my favorite, plus I get to mull my cider—yum. 

But, it's also a sad time of year, as I'm now halfway to being another year older. That's ok I guess, it definitely has its advantages. I have my act together better than ever, I'm more financial sound. 

It struck me a while back that I can no longer count the lines on my face. I've had the dang crow's feet since I was in university (Robert was horrified to hear that I made a conscious decision just out of school to show as little emotion as possible to minimize the lines...self-control botox ;) but the last few years haven't been good to me. Most particularly, the cry-fest of 2012. The bloom is most decidedly gone.

Far more importantly, I'm not rebounding from life's embarrassing displays as easily or quickly. Hence, my foot. The ball sprained, and the baby toe fractured. Yeow. After a few weeks of Advil, keeping it wrapped, elevated, I can walk pretty easily again. Not very far though, and not of great duration, without stabbing pain returning. 

Sure, this planted me on my folks' sofa for the better part of a long weekend, re-watching the 9th Doctor episodes of Doctor Who (lazy fun!) and reading a novel on my long to-read list (intellectual lazy fun!), it's also been a bit of a nightmare owning a big dog who looooves his walks. 

Fortunately, I can still be pretty active albeit relatively stationary. The foot didn't stop me from refinishing a single-drawer McCobb box, nor did it prevent the dog's bath. UNfortunately, I can also bike more easily than I can walk...which means my commute to work is no problem at all. 

Countdown.

Hair today

This young man caught my fancy, with his slutty-preppy look and really nice hair. I did not catch his fancy, sadly.

Truly, truly, truly outrageous coloring results

You'll recall mid-summer I posted my long-overdue take on Jem and the Holograms. Taking the easy way out of coloring, I invited my dear followers to submit their renditions for prizes!

I selected Ariel's for the top prize for making this really sparkly and sureal. I feel like this is what a real Jem concert must have been like! Well done, you'll get the original art piece of your choice...which I understand to be a bearish guy gazing romantically out the window at the starry skies. Dreamy!

I selected Matt's for the runner up and he impresses with his use of actual colored pencils. That's right, IRL pencil on paper. Looks like he spent the bulk of his time on Jem's hair (rightfully so!) which is stunning. Well done, you'll get the Tim Fish T of your choice, which I understand to be the underrated "Hippy Daisy" T.