Volume 4

Flight Volume 4 is in stores now. I do not have a story in this volume, but after reading it I think it is the strongest book the Flight crew has produced yet.

Also, a big thanks to Wonderous Pilgrim who is, as always, one of the finest houseguests of all time. She never fails to come bearing gifts (usually books and food), and she spends a huge amount of time reading to the kids. This time she brought us a book called Rallying the Really Human Things from ISI Books.

Finally, Angelica's been filling every bit of scrap paper I've been able to scrounge up with animals. Here are some ducks hatching their chicks. She's much better than I was at 4.

Sunday Sketching

I've been doing a lot of work lately, which doesn't leave much time for fun-sketching, and this is the odd quandry about doing something you love for a living.

But on Sunday, when I rescued a mouse from the clutches of the cat, I actually took the time to do a few quick sketches. I'm always amazed at how much you can learn about a thing by drawing it. I've seen mice, but never before appreciated just how far their little eyes bulge out. Or how long their tails are in relation to their bodies. Or the odd downward turn of their nose.

Anyway, these were quick, but fun. The other challenge in drawing a mouse in a bucket is constantly having to keep the four-year-old and two-year-old (who are both intensely interested) from picking the little guy up. I was actually admonished by our two-year-old when I started sketching.

"Dada," she said, "don't draw in books!"

Action Figure Action

This weekend Anna had me go through several boxes of my old things -letters, photos, notes from school and ACTION FIGURES. It was an interesting trip down memory lane.

On thing that struck me, upon reading a note from highschool about my "miserable" grades in chemistry was how much of my young life was spent in the mad pursuit of "points." (Also, I'm left wondering what masochistic element im my personality prompted me to keep the note in the first place). We need so many points for this and so many points for that. It's a little surreal when you think about it.

On the other hand, i enjoyed going through my old action figures. And since I've brought up the subject of points, I WILL AWARD ONE HUNDRED MILLION POINTS TO WHOEVER CAN IDENTIFY THE NAME AND TOYLINE OF THE FIGURE BELOW:



That's a heck of a lot of points. You could even pass a highschool chemistry course with that many points!

Hot Vacation!

I've been back from our summer trip to Indiana for over a week now, but while I was there I did a little firebreathing for my growing crowd of nieces and nephews. The funny thing is that I had their rapt attention, but for my own kids the firebreathing hardly registered.

The worst part is that when they are teenagers they'll actually be embarrassed by it.

Observant readers may notice that I am wearing the same dirty sleeveless shirt as in the last picture. I've had that bad boy since college and over the years it has faded from black to a rich patina of gray. Every time Anna makes a pile of clothes to throw away I manage to save this gem, this true treasure of the t-shirt drawer.

Bernini Begins

There is a really fantastic post about Bernini, my favorite sculptor, over at Lines and Colors.

It's worth checking out.

Oh, and Floaty has posted some kind of Weeposaurus.