Go On, Take The Money And Run

A New Zealand couple withdraw money and fled after the bank accidently deposits $10,000,000 NZ ($6.1 Mil U.S.) into their account.

They are believed to have left the country and Intrpol has been contacted to help in an International search for the two people.

They might also want to call Billy Mack. He's a detective down in Texas and he knows just exactly what the facts is.

He won't let those two escape justice.

He also makes his living off of the people's taxes.

I would think that both of them headed down South and are still running today.

If he hurries, he might catch 'em!

Calgary Expo & Banff

Alright, I'll try to wrap this up 'cause it's really gone on longer than I had planned on.
Besides, I'm going to see "Star Trek" this Saturday and I want to be able to talk about that after I watch it.

Sooo....
Not much sleep on Saturday night so on Sunday I was running on fumes.
Thankfully the day was less crowded and therefore less busy.
I grabbed a few people who were volunteering and they were absolutely the best help I could've asked for!
They helped get the lunches out and on time without any problems. YAY!

Palindrome hooked me up and got me a chance to have my picture taken with Jewel Staite.
Thanks man! You're awesome!

I know I look like a dork... but hey, I got my picture with her. I'm a happy camper now.

I also got a few new self-portrait sketches at the show. You can check 'em out here, but here are the artists that drew them:
Sergio Aragones

Dave Johnson

Darwyn Cooke

Bryan Lee O'Malley

Heck! You can go check out all the new sketches I got here.

I went to the auction for the pieces that were in this year's Calgary Expo Artbook to bid on a couple of pieces I had my eyes on. One of them being the Terry Moore piece.
I lost the bid on the second picture I wanted, but after a brief and heated bidding war I won the piece that I really wanted by Terry!
here he is holding it after I won it

It's currently being framed at the moment and will be hanging on my wall soon!

The show wrapped up and everybody went out to a post-show dinner before making the trek out to Banff.

On the way to the lodge, I rode with the Seattle crew (minus Technogreek) and we told some of the most awful, tasteless jokes we could think of. It was good times.

After we got to the lobby to check into our rooms, the kid behind the counter noticed that Josh Ortega was wearing a "Gears of War" T-shirt and commented about it.
When Josh told him, "I'm the guy who wrote the story for that game", that kid practically lost control of all bodily functions.
Then Josh told him who everybody was and the kid geeked out hardcore.
He came up after his shift and hung out with the group that evening and was amazed that he was surrounded by a bunch of comic book professionals. He just kept saying "WOW!".

We went to Canmore on Monday and visited an Ammolite jewelry factory.


Then we had lunch at an incredible beer brewery, the Grizzly Paw. I didn't have any beer, but I did have their hand-crafted root beer which was super-duper!

Above the door of the pub was a warning sign to watch out for bears in town.

It wasn't a joke. The bears have started to get used to seeing people so they aren't afraid to wander around downtown looking for food. In fact ALL of the garbage cans were even bear-proofed to help deter them.
We didn't see any bears on our trip, though.

That evening I watched "Machine Girl" with a few of the guests and laughed our heads off with all the ultra-violent nonsense!

On Tuesday, we went into the town of Banff (for reals, this time).
Technogreek is badass!



It comes in cans?!?



I got dropped off to do some gift buying while others went on to ride the famous gondola.

It was snowing practically the whole time we were in Canmore / Banff and on Tuesday it was not safe to run the gondolas so nobody got to experience it that day.
Instead, they texted me and we met up at another pub for a bite to eat.

Then on to the candy store for... what else? CANDY!!!!

We walked around town some more and I bought a few things for Hotness, my mom, and my niece & nephew that day and then we all headed back to the lodge for a rest.

That evening EVERYBODY headed back into Canmore for dinner at the Grizzly Paw Brewery one more time.

I had an Alberta beef dip with a side of poutine. YUM YUM!
Don't be hatin' the cheesy, gravy goodness!

I also picked up some tasty BBQ sauce that they make there.

Back at the lodge afterwards, everybody was having a good time.
It was the last evening together, and nobody wanted to go to bed.

I played "Rock Band" and "Street Fighter" on the PS3 with a few of the guests.
At one point during a game, Frank Cho walked in wearing a bathrobe (from the room) and watched everybody play for a bit.
Then suddenly, and very non-descriptly, he pulled out a package from his robe pocket and asked "Smoked salmon, anyone?".
Everybody erupted in laughter at the weirdness of it, but Frank just stood there and said, "It's really good. Try some".

After that I went back to my room where a few of the guests were drawing in each other's sketchbooks. Also, Josh Ortega and Liana K. we debating just about ANYTHING that could be debated.
They talked (and drank and talked.....) ALL through the night and into the next day.
It was fun listening to them, but man was I pooped. And I had to catch a plane home that afternoon.

We stayed at the lodge for a while that day packing up.
Some of the folks who hadn't gotten to ride the gondola the day before went back into Banff one more time since it stopped snowing.

Finally we all headed back to Calgary to go to the airport and catch our flights back home.
I remembered to take Dramamine this time, so my airplane ride was just peachy.

We got into Seattle around 6:30 p.m. (local time).
Hotness picked me and couple of other guys up and then dropped me off at my car while she continued on to drop them off where they needed.

I got home. Unpacked most of my bags. Sat down to eat with Hotness.
During dinner, I started slumping over and could barely keep my eyes open.
I finished dinner and went right to bed. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow and I slept for 12 hours straight!

I took the remaining couple of days of the week off from work to so that I didn't have to "jump into the fray" as soon as I got back.
I paid some bills, ran errands and stuff like that.

It was an awesome time but I'm glad to be back home.
I'm already looking forward to going again next year (hopefully), though.




Well, I hope I didn't bore you to death and I'm sorry it took so long to post about the trip (and that it took so MANY posts to do it).

I'm Back, But Not 100% Quite Yet

The trip up to Calgary was great fun.
Got a few new sketches, some books, met a lot of cool people, and ate a lot of good food.

I'm still trying to get in the 'swing of things', and I haven't been able to sit and type up my adventurous 8 days in the Great White North just yet.
I promise that I will (complete with pictures) soon. So please bear with me if you've been waiting patiently to hear about it.

In the meantime, please notice that I added a new link over to your right.
It's the one called "Literary works of art".
A friend from Calgary has a collection of artwork that he has been accumulating over the years from different artists of their interpretations of famous literary authors, characters, or books.
It's quite a big collection and very much worth taking a look at if you have a moment.

In the meantime, I'll try to catch up on sleep and get my pictures uploaded so they'll be ready to post on here.

Be back soon.....

Greetings From The "Other" West

Just a brief post to fill you all in on what's been happening.

Tuesday: flew out in the late afternoon with Technogreek from Sea-Tac headed for Calgary.
The flight went fine until closer to the Calgary airport. We hit some turbulence and I started getting queasy.
Made it off the plane and after a few hours of feeling nauseous, I started to feel better. Slept well and woke up the next day feeling much better.

Wednesday: A whole lot of nothin', really.
There were incidental things to do, but not a lot. Ate breakfast around noon. Ran some errands.
Looked over the convention schedule and made changes. That kind of stuff.

Thursday: Busier day. The rest of the Seattle crew came into Calgary around 1:30 p.m.
We all started stuffing badges, mounting signs, organizing exhibitor packets, framing art (for the art auction), etc....
That night we all went out to dinner at a steak restaurant. Yummy meat! I also had a pomegranate mojito. Woo!
Got back to the house (not staying at the hotel yet) around 2:00 a.m. Yikes!
Oh! Did I mention we had dinner with James Kyson Lee? Yeah. We did. He's a nice guy. Kind of "struts" as he walks. It's funny to watch.

Today: packed up my stuff as I am actually checking into the hotel today.
I'm also spending the day in the hotel lobby greeting guests (Oh.. like Jewel Staite, Terry Moore, Margot Kidder, Bruce Timm..... expecting to meet about 100 different guests as they check in)
I've got to give them their badges and program guide for the show.
I also have to get to a bank before they show up, as I'm starting to run out of my Canadian money I brought with me. I need to exchange the rest of my American cash.
On a side note; also hoping to hit a Tim Horton's this morning as well.

Anyway, I gotta wrap this up. Heading out to the hotel in a few minutes and I gotta give this laptop back to it's rightful owner.
I'll update again if time permits.

Outta Here

Hotness and I are on vacation to visit her family in Montana, so no posts for a while until we get back.

Lots of pictures to enjoy when we return so stay good until then.

Banff

After the dinner was over, we all loaded onto a chartered bus that was taking us up to Banff.

There were two guys who were the bus drivers. One who actually drove the bus and another who was sort of the 'back-up' driver if needed.

We all got on and found a seat to claim as our own. I sat near the back across from Palindrome and settled in for the long ride (approx. 90 mins) north to Banff.

My chance for a bit of solitude and some sleep was short-lived however.

The second driver introduced himself to everyone and worked his way to the back of the bus until he got to me. Then he sat in the seat behind me and we talked (well, mostly HE talked) all the way during the trip. It was fine really, I figured better me than to try and bother everyone else during the drive and it did seem to make the time by quickly.

It was late when we started on the trip, so it was already dark and not much to see along the drive. We did see the ski jumps from the Calgary Olympics which were lit up at night, and he told me about how they are currently being used today as a training center.

We got to Canmore (just outside of Banff) and stayed at the Banff Gate Mountain Lodge & Spa.

Being past midnight when we arrived, it was pitch black outside with no idea what type of view awaited us in the morning.

We were all assigned to our rooms and then broke up to settle in and get some sleep.

I stayed up a little while longer and talked with Laurie (the wife of the promoter who brought us up to Calgary) and we discussed breakfast plans for the next morning. It got to be well after 2 a.m., and finally we could not keep our eyes open any longer so we all crashed in our seperate beds until the sun rose to a beautiful morning.

When I got up, I thought I'd take a quick peek outside the window and... WHAT A VIEW!

The Canadian Rockies were staring right back at us from across the highway.

After taking pictures I came back inside and by that time Laurie had woke up so she & I and another person headed into town to get food for breakfast for everyone.

We picked up all types of 'breakfast-y' foods to try and accomodate everyone.

We even picked up pre-cooked bacon... in Canada.

Get it? True Canadian bacon? Har har!

Yeah, anyway....

We got back to our room and everyone started milling about, so we began the great breakfast migration towards our room so we could start feeding everyone.

I took it upon myself to work kitchen duty and began making scrambled eggs and French toast, while Laurie prepared hashbrowns and another girl began microwaving the bacon.

We had two pots brewing coffee and that didn't seem to be quite enough, but everyone was having a good time so it didn't seem to matter too much.

Here's me in the kitchen:

I had made a plate for myself, but since I was still cooking I didn't get to eat it right away.

Filip (the publisher of Top Cow) asked if he could take over so I could eat, so I left the kitchen duties to him and another fellow by the name of Terry. They wrapped up feeding everyone, and then we all made plans for the rest of the day.

A cookout / BBQ was decided on so we all made seperate trips in to Canmore to pick up supplies.

Note to anyone reading this: ALWAYS have a list!

Everyone bought enough food to feed everyone else, and we ended up having W-A-Y too much food to finish during our stay there.

Filip and I saw what everyone was buying so we cut way back on getting food, and opted to buy alcohol instead, so we went to the liquor store to load up.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful.

People mostly broke into groups to talk shop or get to know one another, while others played Nintendo Wii.

I spent a good portion of the day hanging out wit Stjepan and his wife. We talked about his work in the comics field, exchanged recipes, how he and his wife have enjoyed visiting Canada and the U.S.

Just having a nice relaxing time.

As evening approached, we started getting all the food ready for grilling.

Filip and myself moved all the booze into Stuart Immonen's room and set the bar up there.

Burgers, hotdogs, steaks, chicken, etc. were being grilled out in the 'common area'.

All the fixin's were in the room the the left of the bar. The gaming was taking place to the right.

It was party central!

That eveing was really laid back, and I found myself getting involved in a game called "Mafia".

Which was fun, but after a few drinks I found it difficult to keep up with and just let myself get killed.

Bedtime ended up being somewhere around 2:00 a.m. again.

------------------------------------------

Tuesday morning, there was plenty of leftovers from the night before plus breakfast food from the previous morning so everyone just got what suited their needs and we planned our rides into Banff to do some sightseeing and shopping.

Our Seattle group stuck together, along with Filip and Lynda and we all rode into town together.

First stop was the famous Banff gondola ride.

I tried to steel myself for it, but knew that I just would end up being a basket case before the ride was over, so I opted to stay at the gift shop and wait for everyone to return.

This picture was taken by Palindrome for me. What a view from up there. Thanks P!

Afterwards, we went to lunch.... at a Mexican restaraunt with British waitresses in French Canada. Who says were can't be International?

I also had a shot of Scorpion Mezcal, which I might add was quite good.

I wish I could find it locally in the States.

Then we walked around downtown and went to a candy shop. (No, we didn't lick the lollipop. Whoa!)

We also bought some exotic, handcrafted teas in a local shop.

Or at least, Filip and myself did.

Everyone else waited outside for us.

Some of the people were heading back to the airport today, so we went back to the lodge for them to pack and get their rides back to Calgary.

I spent the late afternoon hanging out with Stjepan and his wife again. He had come down with an upset stomache earlier, so he wasn't able to join us in Banff, but was feeling much better later in the day.

We sat around and watched "Karate Kid" pts. 1 & 2, and I got a nifty sketch from each of them.

(I'll have to post them later, as they are bigger than my scanner. But they are COOL!)

Another cookout dinner with everyone and I even played Wii bowling with Whilce Portacio's daughters.

-----------------------------------

The following morning, everyone that was left was heading back to the airport to go home.

We cleaned up our respective rooms and all grouped together into one room to wait for our rides back to Calgary.

Our Seattle group played a round of Magic while we waited.

Then our ride showed up and we were whisked off to the airport.

The flight home was thankfully uneventful and brief.

While we were waiting for our ride to pick us up, G-rod was coming back from Mexico that same day and met us in the baggage pick-up area.

We got to our respective vehicles and by the time I got home, it was after 9:00 p.m. but I didn't get to sleep until after 11:00p.m.

I got up for work the next day and made it until about 3:00 when my body finally said to me "Dude. Enough is enough. I'm shutting down now", and I went home early and crashed. Hard.

I've also come down with a nasty cold, but I'm hoping I can get through the worst of it before next Friday when the ECCC begins. Then I can stay home and recouperate at my leisure.

There was a lot more that happened and it was an incredibly fun week, but I'm glad to be home finally.

I look forward to doing again next year (hopefully).

Chow For Now

Okay, I know it's really spelled 'Ciao' but I wanted I just wanted... aw fugedaboutit.

Anyway, I am on my way up to Calgary tomorrow morning, so this will be my last post until I get back in another week.

I'm hoping to have lots of nifty keen pictures (read: embarrassing. probably of me.) and if I'm lucky maybe even some cool videos.
I'm hoping to interview some of the guests while I'm at the show so we'll see what happens.
At the very least, I'll have some new artwork to show off.

So while I'm gone be sure to eat your veggies, respect your parents, get to bed early and treat each other with kindness.
Oh who am I kidding? Have fun!

Winter Precautions

Well, I know we're about halfway through winter, but with the mountain passes getting closed on a constant basis lately and my own recent snow-related incident, I thought it might be a good idea remind you all to be prepared.

There's a great winter driving emergency car kit you can put together located on the WA State Dept. of Transportation site.

In hindsight, I wish I'd had some sand or kitty litter the day I slid of the road.
I had everything else, fortunately.

Passport

To paraphrase Steve Martin:
"My new passport is here! My new passport is here!"



I got home last night to find out that my passport was in the mail waiting for me.
It's the first one I've ever had, so I'm actually really excited about it.
I can travel outside the U.S. now without alot of hassle.

I had planned on a trip to Mexico about 7 years ago, but that was right before the 9/11 attacks.
All my plans went down the toilet as I didn't have a passport and everyone was a bit weird about travelling soon afterwards anyway.

So I put it off since I didn't really need one for my day-to-day business, and only recently applied for it. I needed to have one so I can go up to Calgary to volunteer at the Calgary Expo.
Now I can, and I can plan my trip for Mexico again. (Hopefully in October for Dia de los Muertos)

On the flip-side though;
It's one of the RFID-chipped passports.
I'm not a big conspiracy nut, but even I get freaked out by the use of those in our daily lives.
That is too much information accessible to whoever thinks they need it.
Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot I can do. It's here and it's going to stay.

I guess shouldn't worry too much, after all Big Brother only has my best interests in mind. Right?