TGIF!

I cried about not having enough Spider-Man in my child's life the other day... and then, look what arrives in the mail! Huge thanks to Uncle Marlan for mailing us this awesome retro Spidey-Iron Man-Hulk jacket. Evey loves it!

She knows Spidey, we're working on the other two.

Evey's a singer. And a dancer.

After watching a few others try out their singing chops, Evey got in a few songs. Her and the mic got along well together. She's a singer. And a dancer!

Adro's advice, episode 3

It's now a Tuesday tradition...

It's always a good idea, when performing, to add back-up dancers.

LOST! REWARD!

Well, my Mom gave Evey this adorable hat/scarf combo, which Evey just LOVED. But it didn't even last 12 hours.... until Evey lost it at Target on Sunday morning.

So we're calling on all Lawrencians to keep an eye out for this scarf and hat. If you see it on a similarly sized child, you're allowed to TAKE THE KID OUT. This was hand-made by my mom, so it was one-of-a-kind!

Evey rewrote the lyrics to "Rock-a-bye baby" last night. The new lyrics:

Rock-a-bye baby,

On the tree top,

Evey goes shopping!

Evey goes shopping at Target!

I'm not making this up.

Thank you Mr. President

Guantanamo to close within a year.

Dolls, coupons, princesses

I might be starting to crack a little bit.

For the last few nights, Evey has really wanted my attention. Adro and Judy can be sitting right there doing nothing, and I can be obviously busy doing something, and Evey will be saying, "Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad."

And then there's the, "What, Evey?"

And she'll point to this bubble bath bottle she has. It has Snow White (or Cinderella, whoever), Sleeping Beauty (I think) and the Little Mermaid on it.

"Who's that?" she'll ask.

"The Little Mermaid."

"Who's that?" she'll ask, pointing to the next character.

"Snow White."

"Who's that?"

"Sleeping Beauty," I'll say, finishing the trio. She'll look at me for a full beat, and then,

"Daddy! Who's that?"

"THE LITTLE MERMAID."

Do you know how I occupied Evey for about 30 minutes the other day? She saw her mom cutting coupons. Then Adro gave her some coupons which she didn't want. So I told Evey to go get her grocery store cash register. It's got pictures of food on it where there would be numbers; a little gun that does the scanning; even a little microphone that you can grab and say, "I got a price check -- Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch. PRICE CHECK!" (the microphone doesn't technically work, though I use it anyway... we have to do a lot of price checks in my house.)

So I hand Evey a coupon, tell her I want to save 55 cents on bean dip. She grabs the coupon, then scans it. About twenty times. Then I hand her the next coupon, and tell her I want to save $1 on Chex Mix. She then scans that coupon thirty times.

We did this for thirty minutes. Coupon, coupon, coupon. Scan, scan, scan.

I can't help but think, somewhere, a father just like me is playing with Matchbox cars. Or G.I. Joe. Or worse, Spider-Man.

You know how close I get to playing Spider-Man? Two ways:
1. Evey loves the itsy bitsy spider. Oh, great, I can sing the itsy bitsy spider.
2. The other day, she walked up to the Spider-Man chair my sister got her, and she said, "Here, Spider-Man... take your medicine!"

SPIDER-MAN DOES NOT TAKE MEDICINE.

He was bitten by a $&%^$#&* radioactive spider, and he does not need medicine. What he needs is to kick some ass, villains like Sandman, Mysterio, Hobgoblin, Electro. He needs to WEB-SWING!

But, nooooo. My kid is giving Spider-Man medicine.

Medicine.

Vacation's over

Had the last two days off. Back to work today... time to get back on the zebra?

Adro's Advice episode 2

Because you've been clamoring for more...

Are you sick of doing household chores on your own? Well, adding a helpful pair of little hands will not only get the task done quicker, it will also make it a lot more fun!

All the kids are right

Best commercial today:

"How can you watch nine hours of football?!?"

"Skip the afternoon game!"

Photo of Evey and her cousins, Marina and Jett, in her tent. Uncle Seth was kicked out of the tent for what the kids claimed were "stinky feet."

Ahh, the kids. So youthful, so innocent.

So unable to tell the difference between feet smell and fart smell.

I started a new art project today. I'm going to try to draw a 22-page comic book. I got the pencils done on the first two pages today. A pretty good start. I'm giving myself all year to complete this project. If it goes amazingly well early, I'll try to draw all three issues, for 66 pages total. That's a stretch goal, for sure. Twenty-two, that's the goal, for now. (I drew a 12-page comic in two months last year.)

Had things gone differently, I'd be in England right now. I was bummed for a little bit, but then I had the BEST WEEKEND EVER, and felt much better.

My wife bought me a liquor cabinet. I didn't know I needed one. But now that I have one, I wonder: How did I ever make it without one? Someday I'll post a photo of it, it's pretty awesome. (Thanks, Neuty, for helping me pick it up and get it in the house!)

A couple birthdays came this week/end: Marlan, Travis, Greg (30!). Happy birthday to all.

I could start working on a project right now -- it's only 9:45 and I have tomorrow off. But I'm feeling a little lazy.

Have a great Monday. I plan on working on my comic tomorrow, and having my first beer by about 12:45 p.m. I'd like to draw... 4 pages tomorrow. We'll see.

I hope your week goes swimmingly.

Cheers.

I can't drive 55

TGIF everyone. What a long, bruising week.

More on Monday. I'm taking a few days at home next week to start a new art project. Details later.

Grip the wheel and GO.

That Gabe sure can party

Think I'll take the night off and let John and Gabe (center, with his mom, Stacey) do the work.

Click here to see their report on Evey's birthday party, and a lot of really nice photos.

Evey's inbox

I got this email from my friend Carrie the other day, regarding her son Leo and his reaction to our Christmas card:

"I just sent you a Facebook invite, and that reminded me -- I still haven't written to tell you the story of Leo's reaction to your Christmas card! We hang up all our Christmas cards, and we had a stack to hang up one afternoon. Leo was holding them for me and handing them to me one by one. Yours was just about the last one he handed over, and when he looked at it, he said, "That girl sad." I said, "Yes, she is. That's your friend Evey." And Leo picked up the card and kissed the picture of little Evey. "Feel better!" he said.

"Two-year-olds just kill me, man. They're awesome.

"Hope all is well with you and your girls. Things here in Wichita are great. Take care and happy new year!"

Adro's Advice, episode 1

As promised, the very fist episode of... Adro's Advice!

I'll turn it over to Adro:

"Are you sick of battling with potatoes? Want to make healthy, tasty curly-q french fries in mere SECONDS?!? Then watch, friends, watch and learn!"

Madagascar 2

It was a pretty fun weekend for the Jones family. It started off with a few beers with my old pal Jack and some GCSAA friends, then off to see a friend's band play at Granada... then Saturday we uh, went to JCPenney's (great fun!)... but on Sunday, we took Evey to see her first movie in the theater... Madagascar 2!

OK, technically it wasn't her first movie in the theater. That honor goes to Ghost Rider. Yeah, daddy took her to a matinee when she was a tiny three-month-old. She slept through the whole thing.

So this was the first movie... Evey watched in a theater.

She loved it. She was a bit shocked at first -- we walked in when a commercial was playing on-screen. The booming sound, the giant screen... she didn't want to enter the theater at first.

But then a preview for that new movie with the mouse in it came on, and she was hooked.

There were only 15 people in the theater, and they all had kids. But none of their kids shouted, "Zee-ba! Zee-ba! Zee-ba!" when Marty the Zebra made his first on-screen appearance. Similarly, those kids didn't shout, "Moment! Moment!" during the opening credits.

Those kids obviously don't know how to enjoy a good movie.

Evey watched pretty much the whole movie. She cracked us up. She'd talk to the screen every once in a while. When there was a dancing scene at the end, Evey wanted to dance along, so she stood up on my lap, held both of my hands, and started jumping up and down, dancing.

When the movie ended, she clapped. Then she looked at me and signed for "more."

Good times. Evey will sleep well tonight. (I ran her around the mall after the movie while Adro shopped.)

• Just finished a decent book, World War Z. It's a first-person account of the events (before, during and after) of the world zombie war. There are dozens of people telling their stories. I picked it up on a whim from the library on Monday (the author, Max Brooks, was in Chicago for the comic convention, so I had one of our reporters interview him). It was a pretty good read! I'm not into serious horror, so I was a bit hesitant. But it's light on the gory stuff, more a matter-of-fact report on how the humans WON the zombie war. Pretty clever stuff. I'll write a full review for the next issue of Pulp Legacy (and spare you the details).


• What did I think of Madagascar 2? Not as good as the first one. This one has more anxiety in it... we've got a son taken from his family, a family cast out, a suicidal giraffe and a gun-wielding grandma. The first one didn't have nearly as much stress. Well, besides Alex trying not to eat his friend. Still, I laughed a few times. I've seen worse (Bee Movie).


• Our next movie for Evey? Probably Watchmen on 3/6/9.


• I've got lots of cool photos for the blog this week, including a video, if I can just take the time to upload it. It's the first of a new series called "Adro's Advice" (working title) where my lovely wife solves all our reader's problems. You don't want to miss it!

Lervy don't go!

Tomorrow is Lervy's last night in town, for a while.

He's been in Kansas for the last several weeks and it's been nice seeing his friendly face more often than normally. Evey loves "J.J." (he's her Godfather). He's good friends with my wife (for some reason she thinks he's funny). And he's one of my best friends.

So we're sad to see him head back to Charlotte, but understand that home is home. Hope to see you back here again soon, Lerv. Or maybe I'll catch you out there on another work trip. Regardless, always good having you in town. Thanks for your help with the Christmas lights... for bringing me the fantasy football trophy... for not being as good at pool as I remember... and for being so good to my family.

Giant Elmo!

Evey got a TON of gifts in December, not just from her amazing Christmas but also from a couple of awesome birthday parties -- and thanks to everyone who got her a gift, sent her a card, or just wished her a happy day (and we're trying to get thank-you cards out in the mail too, I swear).

Check out this gift from Noni (my mom): a GIANT ELMO.

This was like the coup de grace from my mom at my sister's house, where we celebrated Christmas on the Saturday before the 25th. Both Evey and her cousin Marina got a GIANT ELMO. I'm serious, GIANT ELMO is so big, I have to declare another dependent on my taxes. GIANT ELMO recently asked to borrow the car. GIANT ELMO would aready have his Ph.D., except he can't get through the damn dissertation.

GIANT ELMO is about 5 feet tall. He could easily swallow Evey's head if he ever became animated and turned into EVIL GIANT ELMO. In fact, I believe an attempt on swallowing Evey's head has already been made, as demonstrated by the first photo in this post.

Anyway, accompanying this post are some photos of Evey opening GIANT ELMO, and her subsequent freak-out. Evey loves GIANT ELMO, and it's pretty funny to see her wrestling with the giant furball.

• Tough game for the 'Hawks tonight. We knew that Siena team was going to be tough. Like the Richmond game a few seasons ago. A good win for the 'Hawks, I think they could have let that lead slip away, but they held on.


• Time is flying by. I can't believe that we're one game away from Big 12 conference play. I'm still reveling in my 2008 championship glory; I can't think about 2009 conference play yet.


• Elvira is back from Mexico, and she brought back a few gifts for Evey... primarily, matching uni and shorts of both Chivas and America soccer clubs. The Torres family likes to chide me because I'm an America fan, while they're Chivas fanatics... so they got Evey both teams. I'll post photos once it gets warm enough for her to wear them.

Some Christmas pics

Trying to get back into the swing of things slowly here... Evey is still a little sick. At least she quit throwing up; she was on a streak of five nights in a row before finally breaking the cycle a few nights ago. The doc said she had an ear infection, so Evey's been on antibiotics. But no drugs for Dad... yet.