The Trip Up

Okay......

I'll have to break this up, but I'll start with the first few days before the convention.

I worked a full day on Monday. Tidied up everything on my desk and tried to tie-off any loose ends before I left. Got home that evening and packed my bags and then waited until it was time to leave the next day.

My flight wasn't until mid-afternoon on Tuesday, but I'd taken the whole day off so I wouldn't be rushed.

On Tuesday, I loaded my car and headed out to the Comic Stop to meet up with Technogreek, who was also flying up with me that day. I grabbed some lunch and hung out with him while he packed.

Then we took off for the airport.

The flight went well.

I don't "hate" to fly, but taking off and landing always make me a bit uneasy.

Taking off from Sea-Tac wasn't a problem though and the hour-plus flight was pretty smooth.

That is, until we got closer to Calgary.

About 20 minutes before we were to land, the plane hit a lot of turbulence and really made me uncomfortable.

I thought I was just really hot, as I started feeling very warm and was sweating quite a bit, but I was getting motion-sickness.

As it turns out, I had forgotten to take the Dramamine I brought with me before my flight.

So by the time we landed it was all I could to to get through customs without barfing.

I made it okay and our ride picked us up and went out for dinner.

I was feeling quite queasy, so I didn't eat anything. I took the Dramamine (I figured, "What the heck. It couldn't hurt now") and hoped for the best.

Things started to settle in my stomach and I actually ate an ice cream bar later that evening before calling it a night and going to bed.

The next day was pretty calm. I was feeling much better and there wasn't a lot to do for the Expo quite yet.

We sort of lounged around the house and then went for a late breakfast nearby.

I had chocolate sourdough French toast with blueberry syrup.

Oh. My. Goodness. It was sooo yummy!

We then walked over to Redd Skull Comics and met up with Kelly. (a friend and part-promoter for the Calgary Expo)

After that, we went back to the house until it was time to pick up a couple of people from the airport.

It was starting to snow about this time and didn't stop the rest of the day. It didn't accumulate much, but considering it was close to May I thought it very unusual.

That evening we went out for some chicken wings with Froggy and then back to the house to watch the end of a Calgary Flames game on TV.

Like I said not very eventful, but a fun day nevertheless.

Thursday was when the rest of the Seattle crew was to arrive and we actually spent the better part of this day doing prep work for the Calgary Expo.

I was trimming black cardboard for framing the art prints, helped stuff some badges and things like that.

That evening, we went to dinner at a fancy-shmancy restaurant called "Saltlik".

Honestly, for the price I thought it was just okay. My food was good, but my steak was a bit more "rare" than I normally like.

The drinks however were wonderful. I had a tequila, pomegranate and lime concoction and would've been just fine drinking them all by themselves for dinner!

Other than that, not too much else to really talk about. Just lots of little things to do before the show took place that Saturday & Sunday, so we did some more prep work before calling it a night.

Friday was when the shenanigans began in earnest, so I'll return with tales about that in my next post.

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.....

Hanging Out And Staying Up Late

So I'm sitting in my room at 4:00 a. m. and there are 7 other people still hanging out in here with me.
It's the last day of "vacation" in Banff and nobody wants it to end so they aren't wanting to go to bed.

I'm looking forward to coming home (sort of) and blogging about my Calgary trip, but right now I'm just killing time listening to Josh Ortega talk (and talk and talk.....) while some of the artists are drawing in each others sketch books.
There's a Latin guitar CD playing in the background with a cover of the "Spider-Man" cartoon theme on one of the tracks.

I'd like to say to I want to go to bed, but really... I don't.
This is fun.
Hanging out in the room, listening to people in the comics business just be themselves without the typical convention type of conversation.

Well, hopefully I can sneak my sketchbook onto the table and get something while they're drawing.
We'll see........

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.

Leavin' On A Jet Plane

But I do know when I'll be back again.

I'm all packed (early for once, can you believe it?) and just waiting until I have to leave to catch my ride to the airport.
I'm charging up my phone batteries, loading up my iPod, grabbing books and stuff I want to get signed, and just enjoying the extra time off I have from work to do all of it.

This evening Technogreek & I are flying up to Calgary a few days early before the Expo.
We'll be joined by a few other Seattle volunteer alumni in a couple more days.

Last year's trip was hard work but a fun experience.
At least this year I'll be going into it with an idea of what to expect so I don't think it'll be too bad.
Plus I'll have the added bonus of seeing Terry Moore again! (Woo-hoo!)
Hopefully I'll be bringing back some cool new art. (And not just from him)
I'm also hoping to get my picture taken with Jewel Staite, since I wasn't able to at ECCC this year, so if that works out it'll be a nice addition to my wall.

So not really anything to blog about right at the moment.
Just letting you ya'll know that I'll be offline for a few days, but to expect lots of fun pictures and a convention report when I return.
If you read this and want to text me (and have my phone number), feel free.
I won't be answering any phone calls however.

In the meantime, be good to one another and GO OUTSIDE AND ENJOY THIS AWESOME SUNSHINE!!!!

Peace out.

Swan Lake & Spearmint

Yesterday Hotness and I took my aunt out for her (early) birthday present to see "Swan Lake" at the ballet.
It's something she's always wanted to see live and never had the chance until now.
She lives further north from us so pretty much our entire day was involved with getting ready, picking her up, driving to Seattle, and taking her back home.
We typically go in the evenings, but since this was a special treat for my aunt, we exchanged our tickets for a matinee performance.

We had a good time and she really enjoyed getting to go to the ballet.

For those unfamiliar with the story of Swan Lake, here's a brief synopsis:
Boy turns 21 and on his birthday a bunch of friends gather to celebrate. His mom (the Queen) gives him a cross bow, 'cause he like to hunt, and reminds him that he also is old enough to get married and will have to pick a bride soon. She will be holding a ball that next evening and he can pick one then.
The boy reluctantly agrees and then he sees a flock of swans in the sky, so he and his buddies take off to go hunting for them.

It's evening and as the swans land on the ground they turn into beautiful maidens.
The boy sees this and can't believe his eyes. He sends the other hunters home and dances with the most beautiful maiden, whom he finds out is the Queen of the maidens.
They have been cursed to live as swans by day, and only allowed to be human when night falls.
The boy is falling in love with the maiden and she tells him that the only way to break the curse is to pledge his faithfulness to her. About that time the wizard who cursed the maidens shows up and takes the Queen maiden away.

The next evening everybody is at the palace and the eligible brides-to-be are presented to the boy, but he's not interested.
Suddenly the wizard appears and with him is the Swan Queen.
Both she and the wizard are rather cold and rude the the boy and his mother, but the boy dances with her and can't believe that she has shown up to the ball.
Things don't seem right, as a vision of the Swan Queen appears to the boy, but he just passes it off and keeps dancing with her.

Finally they boy can't believe his good fortune and pledges his undying love and faithfulness to the young girl only to discover that she was a fake made to look like the Swan Queen and he has now doomed his true love to live with the curse forever.

The ball ends and the boy rushes out into the woods to find his love.
They dance and he begs for forgiveness but it's no good.
Although she forgives him, she is still cursed.
Finally the wizard appears and takes her away and the boy is left alone in his grief.

It's a classic in the ballet repertoire and full of beauty and tragedy.


We drove back north to take my aunt home and then headed home ourselves.
It was early evening, so we went to our neighbor's place and watched the last episode of "Dollhouse". I kind of like this show and hear it's been picked up for a second season, so it'll be cool to see how it develops further when it comes back.

After we were finished, we went back home and what should see in our yard....?

A horse!

It belonged to our neighbor behind us and had 'escaped' it's pasture and found that the grass in our yard was just yummy for grazing. Obviously Hotness was happy to have a horse to have to 'care for', after calling the neighbors and letting them know we'd horse-sit for the night, I coaxed it into our fenced pasture and she filled up the water container for it.

I went to bed shortly after that, but she stayed up for a bit peeking out the window at it.

This morning we got up and the horse was still there, just eating grass.

Hotness got her brushes out and mixed up some bran mash and went outside to have some "horsey-time".

(Why can't I ever come home and find Dita in my yard?!? I'd stay up all night peeking out the window and in the morning I'd go out and brush her hair. I don't think it's fair, I tell you.)

After brushing and feeding the horse, we went into town to have breakfast.

Then we walked to the local hardware store where I picked up some plants to bring back home and pot up.

I got some cilantro because I'm constantly buying it to use at the house. I figured it would probably cost less to just plant my own and harvest it as needed.

I also picked up some chocolate mint and spearmint.

The chocolate mint just smells good and will be good to make tea with.

The spearmint....? Well, that's for making mojitos later when it FINALLY warms up around here.

And that catches us up with what's been happening.

As soon as I get done bloggin' here, I'm going to start packing up my suitcases for my Calgary trip next week.

I take off Tuesday evening, so that leaves me with one day of work and I don't want to try and pack after I come home tomorrow night. All day Tuesday will be spent running the last few errands I need to take care of before I leave, so I hope to get the packing done today and then relax.

I hope you all took advantage of the nice weather this weekend. Hopefully it'll stay around for a few more days.

Until next time.....

Support Your Local Music Store

Did you know that tomorrow (Apr. 18) is Record Store Day?

It is.

The day was started a couple of years ago to drum up support for the small, independent stores that are disappearing.

I used to have a favorite, locally-owned music store that I'd frequent and pick up my new and used CD's from.

Unfortunately they went out of business a few years back when iTunes had reached their gazillionth customer.

He said he just couldn't compete in a dying industry and sold everything.

I miss that place a lot.

They were friendly, knowledgeable and they had lots of cool hard-to-find music. Plus they were just fun to go in and talk to when I was in the area.

I've since gone to chain stores, like Best Buy, but they just don't have the personality and they only carry "what's popular".

I've also ordered from Amazon.com with okay success, but a I really prefer to buy something I can have my hands on as I'm purchasing it.

Lately I've been trying to order direct from the artist, so they they get as much of my money for their work without having to deal with an intermediary getting a cut.

I still haven't gotten anything from iTunes yet. Not that I dislike them, but I still really enjoy owning my music on 3-dimensional media (i.e. a CD), not just as a download on my computer.

(Not that I don't have plenty of those... if you catch my drift. *wink*)

Anyway, if you find yourself out-and-about tomorrow in the sunshine and happen to be near a local, independent music store. Pop in and wish them a "Happy Record Store Day" and maybe buy something they'd recommend. You might be surprised to find something new you hadn't heard before.

That's how I discovered a bunch of new artists. The store I used to go to would tell me, "You know, since you like 'so-and-so, you might also like 'such-and-such. They have similar roots in their style."

And you know what? 90% of the time they were right.