My Grandmother came to town about a week ago, and is headed back to DC first thing tomorrow. She looks a lot better (a LOT better) than she did when I saw her in July, and I’m super-glad she got to come out here. She got to get piled on by great-grandkids, plied with food she can no longer really digest, and kept up late by enthusiastic nieces and nephews of three generations.

She was in town for her sister’s 90th birthday, and and accompanying reunion. It was heartwarming to see everybody (or at least a sizeable fraction of “everybody”) together for the assorted events.

This afternoon Grandma came over to our place, went to church with us (so that she could sleep through my Sunday School lesson), and joined us for dinner before heading up to SLC. I’m a little sad because I know she’s got a very limited amount of time left here on Planet Earth*, and I may not have a chance to get back to see her before she’s gone for good. But this was a good time, and we got lots of pictures, so I’m chalking the melancholy up to “things I can’t change” and just focusing on the happiness we’ve shared in the last few days.

–Howard
*Note: If you don’t believe in an afterlife, feel free to believe that my Grandma is a space alien and the mothership will be coming to take her away, thus preserving the truth in my comment about “Planet Earth.”

I’ve just about had it. I can forgive the fact that the stories are wandering around like abandoned children. I can even forgive the disjointed (if well drawn) filler that is “Meanwhile in the Dimension of Pain.” It’s this dearth of regular updates that is doing me in. I’m a creature of habit, and Pete USED to be able to keep my attention by posting something new every day. Lately, though, I have no motivation to click in. Today I clicked in, and was rewarded with filler of Kiki acting like a pirate and telling me to check back “Tamarrrr.”

Hey, Pete: remember back when you did a webcomic every day? Remember how you kept up on it, in spite of the other stuff that was happening? What was that, 1999? At any rate, it was back when I loved your work. Figure out how to get back to that point, and maybe I’ll see you there.

*sigh*

–Howard

I haven’t had much time to sit and write about all the stuff I’m doing due to the fact that there’s been a lot of stuff to do. Mostly it was “get back into the swing of the day-job” stuff, but some of it has been at least marginally more entertaining — like going to a reunion on my Mom’s side of the the family.

Granted, since my Mom is dead she’s not involved in the planning. Right now rest sounds kind of nice.

Anyway, all this reunionification is made all the happier because my Grandmother is out here in Utah getting to participate. She and her two living sisters (the fourth passed away about three years ago, if memory serves) got their pictures taken in wheelchairs doing the “See no, hear no, speak no evil” poses. Only they got it wrong — it was “speak no, see no, hear no” in the order they were posed. The funny part is that my Grandmother is the hardest of hearing of the bunch (she’s 95, the others are 90 and 83, so she’s got an excuse) and she got to be “hear no evil.” I’m still giggling.

They’re using the 90-year-old’s birthday as an excuse for the reunion, and what it really amounts to is a reunion of the descendants of some great-grandparents I never met. Mostly it was dominated by my 2nd-cousins’ kids and their families — she had like nine kids, and all but maybe one are “gainfully” married with offspring of their own.

We’re getting together again this afternoon, right in the middle of what should be prime cartooning time. And then there’s this church swim party in the evening. And I guess the upshot of all this is that Daddy should be cartooning right now rather than writing this stuff for you folks, because although the buffer is at 21 I need it up around 35 come September 10th… I’ve got three weeks of consecutive travel scheduled, and you people will get all antsy and stuff if you don’t get your Schlock fix.

–Howard

If you like mindless action/suspense/SF entertainment, Alien vs. Predator is your kind of movie. If you’re looking for something thoughtful, non-formulaic, and offering insight into the human condition, keep moving people, there’s nothing to see here.

If you’re looking for me to spoil the movie, look no further!

spoil it!