A Birthday Card For Susan

It's been a while since I've posted any artwork, and I thought this piece turned out pretty well, so... why not? Susan had just returned from Italy, hence the tower. Enjoy!

Now I Am 42

I celebrated my birthday today! Most of it was a work day, but I got an apple pie, a card, and a song from my co-workers - very cute! Soon after, we mailed a check to the two little old ladies who own the rights to Happy Birthday (are they still alive? Who will inheirit the song?).

After work, Anita, Karen Prell & I drove up to Claim Jumper in Concord and had a yummy dinner. What is Claim Jumper, you ask? Well, it's a chain of restaurants that specialize in comfort food: fried chicken, ribs, mashed potatoes, chocolate cake - things like that, and in enormous quantities. For most folks, it's like being Jerry the mouse in a giant refrigerator (they sell huge slices of six-layer cake for $10 each). I had the beef ribs, a cornbread muffin, and part of an eclair for dessert. Delicious!

I had a hard morning, so Anita got me some extra presents to help cheer me up - (the new) Casino Royale and Borat on DVD, and two super-cute books - Don't Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late! and Just Like Heaven.

How do I feel about 42? Well, I'm not as unnerved as I was when I turned forty. I'm still getting used to my middle-age physique - I've gained a lot of weight in the last few years, which I never thought would happen. I've been really thin for most of my life, so my eating and exercise habits basically suck. My doctor thinks it might be a thyroid problem, so I'll have that looked at when I have my next physical. Fortunately, Anita's only concerned with my health, bless her heart!

On that topic, I'm getting my bike out of the shop this week - I had it fitted with tubes with standard-style valves (that meant drilling different holes in the rims) so I can re-inflate my tires at a gas station, rather than having a special pump with me all the time. Some time ago, one of my tires got soft, and I flattened it trying to re-inflate it on the road. Thanks to work and procrastination, the bike sat in the cellar for over a year! No more of that, hopefully - it's turning into biking weather again - I should be able to bike back and forth to work, at the very least.

The good side of aging is that I feel more centered and confident than I ever have before. I still have tons of issues, but the keel's been a lot more even in the last several years. Some of that is experience, some of it therapy, some of it medication. And of course, Anita's the biggest reason.

Thanks, babies!

Happy Birthday, Victoria!

Anita and I decided to attend our friend Victoria's birthday party last weekend (I think her birthday was actually on the third, but never mind). The only trouble was, we were short on money and Victoria lives in southern California. So we decided to drive.

We left home at 8 AM on Sunday morning, and arrived at the party at about 1:30 PM. We haven't tried driving to LA since before Anita got her license, so this time we took turns - I drove for two and a half hours, then she took the wheel while I slept. Time passes a lot differently when you sleep in the car! I had no perception of time - it would seem like I would nap for fifteen minutes, except that an hour had actually passed.

The party took place at the original site for the LA Zoo, now a park. Some of the animal enclosures are still there, just without the cages. We had a picnic barbecue (meat and veggie burgers) in one of them, looking now like an old set from Planet Of The Apes.

I guess I wasn't the only one to think so, as there was a low-budget film shoot was going on right next to our party. I'm assuming they weren't recording any production sound, since we frequently got loud without bothering them. I have no idea what it was about, but it looked like it should have been called Goths With Super Soakers Vs. The Ragged Trash Clowns.

We chatted and chowed down until about 4 PM or so - most of the guests I had met before, with maybe one or two new acquaintances. At that point, the group dispersed - Anita went to see the Puppet Up! show again in Anaheim, and I went to meet up with some old friends in Pasadena. We had dinner at a cook-it-yourself fondue restaurant called The Melting Pot.

Eating there is pretty involved - there's four courses, with lots of dipping in cheese and chocolate, as well as boiling-wine cooking and hot-oil frying. I liked the food - I wound up cooking mostly in the wine pot, and it really made seasoning unnecessary, as far as I was concerned. I probably overcooked things because I was worried about getting food poisoning, but everything tasted good to me!

It was terrific to see everyone, and I had a great chat, but I don't know if I'd recommend the place, aside for the multi-course social value. My part of the check (even after the wine bill was allotted to the people who drank it) was $100. Whew! It was good, but I don't know if it was $100 a plate good!

I got back to Sean & Victoria's house in Glendale around midnight, and we had to start driving back to Berkeley right away. I know it sounds insane, but I was on a tight deadline at work, so I couldn't miss a day. I was pretty tired, so I slept first (and soundly) while Anita got us three hours into the trip. It's the longest she's ever driven without a break, and she did a great job! I took over and drove the second half of the trip. We got home safely at about 5:30 AM, but it was pretty grueling - I wouldn't want to do that drive very often!

Bruce Timm Drawing

Here's a close-up of the Bruce Timm piece, the central drawing of a birthday card. He did this for me when we worked together on Tiny Toon Adventures. We were all a little creatively frustrated then, hence the lavishness of the art! This is my favorite of the drawings that he did for me, and since his work goes for big bucks at conventions now, I thought I'd frame this and hang it up.

I collected even more soundtracks and movie T-shirts than I do now, so Bruce ragged on me for being excited about the Dick Tracy movie. I'll bet he even put my face on the watch - fifteen years and I never thought to check!

Yes, I did have a mullet and a mustache for a short time. Even with my cluelessness, I quickly came to my senses.