Feeds:Tuesday, first week after the Epiphany
So on my way home from work I rode past a three-foot-tall tumbleweed. I almost rode into it, actually, since I really wasn't expecting a tumbleweed, much less one of such girth, to be in the southbound bike lane on Archer. But there it was.
Other notable things: Dr. Google (she has a doctorate in geneological studies) recently informed me that I was born in Honolulu in anno Domini 1906. Naturally, this came as a surprise to me, since a) that name is pretty much made up and b) also a sort of pun -though as neither was something I myself did, perhaps I should not be so surprised. I just made both (the name, the pun) a bit more coherent (only a bit). Combined with the fact that Arson Daily appears to have been a real man... well, I'm starting to suspect that either the world is even more awesome than I'd ever imagined, or someone is feeding fake census data into an Internet. Interesting, either way.
I've been meaning to post since at least the tenth day of Christmas, but I am lazy? Also busy, or I was. I went to my parents' for a solid two weeks, pulling in Christmas Day and New Years. I say my parents', but I really mean my mom's, since, well, my dad moved out, more or less voluntarily. But he came over every day while we were there to see us, which was nice, but crazy awkward. This is the result of an unfortunate string of events that I've already processed quite thoughoughly some time ago, but have not previously been at liberty to discuss in a public manner. Since I deplore keeping secrets almost as much as I love learning them, getting this matter out in the open is a relief to me, as I was certian to mention it casually at some time in the future or very recent past. Other than awkward parental issues, my time in the Dakotas went swimmingly. H.S. and I played through Halo 3 on co-op, Shaina and I harassed at work pretty much everyone she knows with a menial job, I actually got along with my brothers (especially Drew, which, for the record, has not typically been the case these past... oh, six years), and I got to kick back and play some of the recently released video games to which I'd been looking forward. Those did not live up to my expectations, sadly. And, phoneless, carless, and cash-strapped as I was, there were a few people I could not get in touch with, a few events I was unable to attend, and a few gifts I was unable to purchase. But I was satisfied nonetheless.
More recently, and more locally, I have had some things to do as well. Not to say I've done them all -the grand re-reading campaign of the holiday season has continued only somewhat abated through my return, as it happens- but I spend a lot of time meaning to do them. Lauren had covered the kitchen in gold foil while I was gone, and the living room with suitcases and bags of various sorts. I spent the first week mostly frowning at these two rooms, being early to work, and trying to defrost the potato stew I made before leaving town. In the former two I was quite successful. Then Lauren came home all in rush, chided me for heating the apartment above sixty degrees, failed to really explain the kitchen by trying to distract me with lamps and mirrors, and at my request cleaned the living room. The space afforded by this cleaning she promptly took advantage of by -suspect me of exaggeration if you must, but I warn you that if so you will be in error- covering most of the living room furniture in aluminum foil. She then covered all of the foil in homemade egg-noodles (at which point a lot of things made a lot more sense to me, such as statements along the lines of "Look out, I'm going to cover the whole apartment in egg-noodles!") As the noodles dried, she used the one square foot of un-noodled counterspace in the kitchen to chop vegetables and fungi and chicken bits and throw them in a giant pot. At about this point I went to bed, since there was nowhere to sit, nowhere to set anything, nowhere to shuffle around looking confused, and therefore I knew all I was going to do for the rest of the night anyway was read Tolkein in my bedroom. And I figured I might as well do it beneath several blankets, even if it was only seven or so in the evening. But lo! Within the hour Lauren had freed the living room and kitchen from noodles, suspending them with chicken and veggies in a large (we're talkin volume = surface area of living room, here) pot of what could be called a thick soup, but might more succinctly be described as "gravy". Thus was I awoken to Lauren calling me out of bed to eat chicken noodle soup with herself and a recently-arrived, polo-wearied Joe. It was some of the best soup I'd ever had.
And that was just one day. I've also been... well, that was pretty much it. No, lies. I spend twenty-four straight hours partying in clothes I'd gotten over Christmas. It went something like train, masquerade party, Jimmy's, masquerade party, Moomers' couch, bus, check e-mail, Stanko, bangers and mash with same, six-way Settlers with same, home. It's times like this I sort of wished I still lived with Brian, so when I came back from such an event, I'd have someone to cluck "And where have you been? Aren't those the same clothes you left in yesterday night?" and so forth at me when I finally stumbled in. Also, an adorable kitten. But enough of the past!
As if I haven't gone on enough already, I'd like to mention the present briefly. Though my scanner is giving Asbestos the silent treatment at present and I can thusly offer no proof of such, I've been trying to do Hourly Comics Month, which has proved, in many ways, somewhat harder than No Shave November. If the reader is not familiar with the former, well, there is a day, February the second as it happens, when many webcomic artists, gifted amateurs, and schmucks like me try to draw a comic every hour of the waking day on the subject of what we were doing in the past hour. Some, such as the Day's founder, Chicago resident and comedic genius John Campbell, choose to do this for the whole month leading up to the Day. I have attempted, and generally failed, to do so as well, but I have scratched out a few scenes from my hectic life, and I mean to share them. Just as soon as I finish coding up a fancy-pants way to display them. And maybe finish coding up the fancy-pants poetry section, which I've been tapping at on and off for over two months now.
I'm not really a new-year's resolution kind of guy, you see.