BAD BAD BAD, JUPE

Posted by jupe

I had this window open yesterday to post the blog post but got distracted by something shiny. Stupid attention span. Here’s the low down on what went down for the last couple days. It kind of works out since yesterday was pretty uneventful.

Tuesday

Did my daily drawing, etc, did some surfing, and found some recipes online; the usual stuff, really. Ravelry got some love, too, as always. The one huge task for the day was getting Nick’s fillings done… or at least, the first half of them. Little bugger had cavities on both sides of his mouth and they won’t do both sides at once because it’s just cruel and unusual punishment to freeze both sides of a person’s mouth.

So, I called Alex about an hour before it was time to get Nick from school and he came home to watch Rusty, as I couldn’t find a babysitter. I stuffed Nick into the car and we went to the dentist, arriving JUST in time.  They had him drink this awful blue gunk and then eat a freezie to get the taste out of his mouth, but the damage had been done. Nick was already complaining and upset about the awful blue stuff. It started the process of him being upset and everything just escalated from there.

I helped him walk to the chair and held him so he wouldn’t fall, as the blue stuff basically kills all your instincts. If Nick had fallen face first, he wouldn’t have had the where-with-all to put his arms out to stop the fall and would’ve just faceplanted. SO, he went into the chair and chose to watch the Spongebob movie. Not that it did a lot of good. Once things started, so did the screaming. The flailing. The fighting. He was dead set on getting out of that chair, no matter how much nitrous they pumped into him.  I had to sit on his legs and hold his arms down — and still, my six year old managed to lift me off of the chair with his legs and nearly ripped his arms out of my arms. In fact, he did rip his arms out of my hands, and at one point, grabbed my fat roll (you’re allowed to laugh at that) and squeezed and twisted to try to get me off of him.

An agonzing 30 minutes later, he was done. Still frozen, crying, generally upset. I brought him home and Alex tried to play some Wii with him to cheer him up but that wasn’t working. I went to get Alex and I some dinner and I made the boys Kraft dinner with chicken nuggets because Nick’s mouth was still sore and kraft dinner was the easiest thing for him to eat for dinner.

He was weepy and agitated all night and we eventually got him to bed. He went out like a light and slept through till morning without incident.

Wednesday

Nick woke up with no memory of what happened the day before at the dentist. Thank freaking goodness. I took care of the boys’ breakfast and Nick’s lunch because Alex wasn’t feeling great in the morning; he had a slow start. Then, off to school. It was an uneventful day, other than the daily drawing and forgetting to blog. I did some cleaning, hung out with Rusty, and mostly chilled.

I have homework to do later and class to go to tonight. Same old routine.

Have a great day.

Being sick is balls.

Posted by jupe

Yep. Still sick. I woke up with barely any voice and extremely congested. Nick woke up before we woke up and decided that it would be a great idea to let his brother out of their room to terrorize my living room. They ate candy, advent calendar chocolate, and THEN some yogurt. Sigh. At least they got SOMETHING healthy to eat.

Anyway, I had a talk with Nick, without freaking at him, and told him that the advent calendar chocolate was something we eat after dinner as a special treat, and that it was something he should do with his brother and with mom and/or dad. He seemed to understand, but the real question is, does he give a shit? Or will he just do what he wants, instead? Guess what I think.

I finally finished up my Daily Drawing colouring. It was pretty fun to colour the city in the picture. Would I do it like that again? Probably. It’s more challenging to do it by hand than to use a gradient tool, but that’s partially why I use SAI. Photoshop was used at the end only to adjust the colour balance to make the viewer feel like the character really is outside.

What happened yesterday? Stuff. Not a whole lot. I was miserably sick all day and freezing cold at the end of the day. Alex worked late again so I had to take care of bringing Nick to scouts. He got a promotion and now has a blue beaver tail on his hat. Good for him. Alex then subjected me to a cut version of Episodes 1 through 3. It was nearly 3 fucking hours long. Good god. He told me it would only be  90 minutes. So, here I am, watching this, wondering why these 90 minutes are taking so goddamn long to pass by.

I ended the night by playing some Civ V. I do enjoy the BNW expansion.

So, for today, I need to do some cleaning and I need to take Nick to a dentist… and if I can find a babysitter for Rusty, Alex won’t have to leave work to watch him. We’ll see if I can find someone.

Today was day 2 of my tea advent calendar. I got to try Organic Vanilla Chai. It was actually quite lovely for a black tea. I didn’t have to add anything to it in order to enjoy it. I usually find black tea fairly bitter and add a bit of sugar to cut that… but there was enough sweetened ingredients in the tea to make up for that. Organic Vanilla Chai gets a thumbs up.

A nice, slow day.

Posted by jupe

Well, our plans fell through for the Santa Claus Parade, and I send my deepest condolences to Lisa for her family’s loss… part of me is a little bit happy that I can relax and do some stuff around the house. Alex and I are going to set up the new bunk beds for the boys! Nick’s been chomping at the bit to get the new bunk beds set up so that he can sleep on the top like a real big boy.

I haven’t started my revisions to the script yet, either. I spent a lot of time knitting yesterday and after Nick pulled a huge bullshit move at school, I will be adding yet another name to the list of things I need to do.  What did he do? He stole the librarian’s personal keys for her car and house on Thursday and she had to call for assistance. $500. Cos of my kid.  Anyway, he owned up to it on Friday and I brought him home to find the keys, which he had stashed away like a little bastard. At least he could find them.

So, because I don’t have $500, I will be knitting the librarian a lovely winter accessory with my own handspun yarn. She never asked for any reimbursement or compensation and she is a very forgiving lady, but I think it would be sort of an asshole move not to do anything for her.

When Nick got home yesterday, he had to clean up a big mess and didn’t get to watch tv. He still has that task today, still with no tv, and he will not be getting any tv until he finishes cleaning up that toy room. It’s his and his brother’s mess and he needs to learn to clean up after himself. He knows how, but just won’t, because kids.

It was my day to sleep in and it wasn’t very restful. The whole morning was a combination of Rusty screaming and Nick tattling on Rusty for stupid shit that doesn’t fucking matter. SO, I got up and brewed some tea and did a daily drawing.

About today’s drawing: consider it a sketch. I’ll refine it tomorrow and eventually colour it. That character holds a special place in my heart and I have always loved drawing her.

Anyway, I have shit to do today, including making lunch for the demonspawn and then getting stuff out of the boys room to set up the new beds. I’m gonna be sore tomorrow.

More work to do.

Posted by jupe

Well, I had class last night, and it looks like this week will be a writing-heavy week. No worries, though; I’ll still do my daily drawings.  I have some more sketches to upload, too. Expect to see a lot of dog drawings, as I’m not that great at drawing animals and I’ll need the practice if this story is going to be about, well, a dog. Ty gave me some amazing feedback on my story, and my friend Nelson gave me some feedback, too. I have some writing to do!

In the meantime, there are the usual chores. Dishes; laundry; sweeping; cooking. Alex had to be at work this morning at 7, so I had the kids by myself this morning. I got Nick all set and ready to go. Today was crazy hat day at school, so I let him wear his dad’s Dwarven Battle Bonnet. I’ll grab a picture later cos I forgot my phone when I went to drop him at school.

This weekend was supposed to be really busy but half of the big plans dropped. Alex’s step sister’s grandmother died and they had to cancel. I hope we can reschedule something with them before we all forget, like always.

So, anyway, today will be spent doing some chores, doing some drawing, and doing a lot of writing. As soon as this blog post is over, the drawing will begin.

I hope all my American friends had a lovely Thanksgiving. Try not to die today on Black Friday. 😛

Yawn.

Posted by jupe

I don’t have a whole lot to report on today. Yesterday was spent mostly drawing. Today’s daily drawing took me awhile to do, too. I sketched out some quick pencils for Taryn’s turnaround yesterday and filled them in online today. I’m pretty happy with the turnaround of her body. I’ll end up doing some turnarounds for her head, eventually, too. Also, I’ll need turnarounds of her parents and her girlfriend. The vet isn’t featured nearly as much; only a page or two. I think that everyone else needs a turnaround, sadly.

On the agenda: photos of downtown Toronto in the areas specified within the story.. I need to photograph some houses, a convenience store, and a place to eat.  Oh, and the park. I also have to do an animal study of geese and Dog. Dog’s going to be a lot of fun to draw in the story, I think. He’s a vibrant and fun character.

Yesterday, we had chicken fried rice for dinner. That’s something I ought to post the recipe for, as my family goes apeshit over it. There are never any leftovers when I make fried rice. I have no idea for today, though. One thing I do know is my daily drawing took so long to do, I won’t be able to hit the gym while getting Rusty watched. It’s tempting to hit the gym in the evening and have the kids watched THEN, instead, but dinner’s always a pill to make and feed the boys in time. It’s hard when Alex works so much.

Ah, well.

I also have to write that tragedy today. I have absolutely no idea what to do for it. My mind has been completely wrapped around Strays.  I should be hearing from Ty about the script tomorrow. I hope he likes it and that he can offer me some suggestions for it, later.

What could be better than Rasta Pasta?

Posted by jupe

Well, as far as jerk is concerned, not much. Rasta Pasta is a hole in the wall in Kensington Market but is well worth the visit. It’s a tiny, well kept space, and your meat is grilled on the barbecue. I was happy with the fresh side of cabbage, carrot, and peppers, as it’s really good winter food. Packed full of vitamins. I came across it when I was walking the area with EK and Brett Weaver back during TCAF and finally went back with Greg before class.

We got downtown fairly early, so after eating we actually had time to sit somewhere and hang out.  We opted for a small tea shop around the corner and sat in warmth and comfort while we did homework and notekeeping from the previous classes. I was hesitant before writing the Rom Com because they can be, well, boring and predictable… but it was the assignment and I didn’t want to go to class emptyhanded. The previous night, I played around with the idea of a person becoming friends with a dog and ran with it yesterday.

It turned out surprisingly well.

It turned out so well that I decided that I’ll make it into a comic. I need to do the writing and scripting still, plus the story bible, and I’ve never drawn dogs before. It’ll be a fun exercise and a good way to keep up the daily drawings. Expect a lot of pictures coming up of dogs and a lesbian teen.

I spent the entire morning working on the picture for today’s daily drawing, but I’m okay with that. I do, however, think that I’ll work on more pictures by hand, as I find digital drawing takes a lot longer than pencil sketching. Plus, I do enjoy using the new scanner. Might be the easier way to go.

I got all my chores and to do list done yesterday, which is nice. I also came downstairs this morning to see that Alex had emptied the dishwasher last night for me. It was a good way to start the day. I immediately filled it up and ran it again; I’m almost caught up with the kitchen chores!

As for today, I think that I’ll spend some more time doing some writing. I do have to go out and get Nick from school, but that shouldn’t be much of a distraction.  It’s barely 1pm and Rusty is napping on the couch. I’m cool with this because it allows me some quiet time to do some writing, browsing, and even chores. I may not be able to watch tv during his nap, but I think that’s okay. I may even bring up some laundry to fold. We’ll see, yes?

Today’s tea was David’s Tea Ceylon Star. It’s a somewhat earthy and yummy black tea with a hint of sweetness. I had a bit of milk in it and some sugar to curb the bitterness that I find black tea gives.  I steeped it at boiling for 3 minutes this time.

Dinner tonight will be something with chicken breast. Maybe a nice noodle and red pepper stir fry. Or, maybe some homemade chicken fingers. I don’t know, yet. We’ll see what happens. In any case, I’ll photograph it later and post the recipe.

Wow, did we ever get it.

Posted by jupe

And by get it, I mean snow. Not nearly as much as Buffalo, mind you, who got a meter dumped on them… but for Toronto? This much snow this early in the year? Yeah.

Driving was fun, yesterday… and by fun, I mean a fucking nightmare. I was fishtailing all over the place and slid off the road at one point — while doing 20kph. Unbelievable. It took me twenty minutes to drive six kilometers. Luckily, I got Nick in time from school and all was well — plus, Rusty had no potty accidents. He even fell asleep in the back seat, blissfully unaware of the chaos on the roads. I wish I were a kid again.

So, because of the weather, I’m deciding to stay in for the majority of the day. Alas, it won’t be for the entire day; I have writing class today and must brave the weather and the traffic to learn amazing things this week.  I still haven’t done my homework, but that’s mostly because I hadn’t thought of anything to write about.  I might actually sit and finish up in a bit because I came up with an idea late last night.

Alex was home late again last night. It took him over an hour to get home in the snow last night. The roads must not have been salted yet. He said this morning’s commute was “only” 45 minutes. (double the regular commute) and that certainly beats last night’s commute. He got home after 10pm. Poor bastard works 12 hour shifts most nights, other than Thursdays. I’ve given up my knit night because his workload is SO intense.

I wish they’d hire more people to help him. It gets lonely in the evenings without a snuggly, warm husband to watch tv with. Cats are nice, but husband is better.

Anyway, here’s today’s checklist:

★ Draw
★ Blog
★ Write the romcom outline
★ Dishes
★ Get Nick from school
★ Class
★ Survive the drive home

I have no idea what I’ll be eating for dinner tonight. Greg hasn’t texted me yet. I should text him about it. In any case, I’ll post again tomorrow. I want to do this everyday. I will do this everyday. I can do this everyday.

Have a great day. 🙂