Bob the Barber

Question: What is the most refreshing drink in the world?

It's hot out, you're parched. You finally get to sit down with a drink. You can have any drink in the world.

What do you choose?

Adro said "water." That's obviously hard to argue. I love water. I drink a ton while I'm at work everyday.

Other super-refreshing drinks, in my opinion: root beer float (sans the ice cream) and a well-made Route 44 cherry limeade from Sonic. (the limeade is always a risk, though, because those always vary in flavor)

What do you find most refreshing? I'm interested. Post your choice in the comments section!

Quick story about Bob the Barber:

Adro, Judy and Evey are at Kohl's on Sunday. Adro is trying on clothes while Evey and Judy wait. Outside the dressing room, an older gent by the name of Bob strikes up a conversation with Judy and Evey.

Turns out that Bob is a barber. "I cut lots of kids' hair," he told Judy. Judy told Bob that her son-in-law cut Evey's hair. "He did a great job!" he told her, surprised that an amateur hooked it up. (This photo is pre-haircut, btw.)

Bob tries to guess Evey's age. He guesses age 4. Judy tells him 2-and-a-half. He's shocked. Bob's wife comes out of the dressing room. "How old do you think this little girl is?" he asks her. "I'd say she's Tyler's age -- about 4?" "She's only 2!"

Evey and Judy say goodbye to Bob and his wife as they go on.

After Adro finishes with the dressing room, the girls leave to pay. On the way to the cashier, they run into Bob, his wife, and their friends. Bob stops the girls, and asks his friends how old they think Evey is.

"About 4?" The woman guesses. "She's only 2!" Bob exclaims.

Of course, Evey was just eating all this attention up, I'm told.

Between all the attention she got at Kohl's, and all the attention she got at the Fiesta... it's going to get easier cutting her hair, because her head is going to get big!

(Groan...)

Hmm?

You probably knew my art project was loosely based on Michael Jackson, didn't you?

Didn't you?

Hmmm...

Is this good or bad for my project? (All due respect to Michael Jackson....)

More stuff this week.... stay tuned... seriously, something good... coming your way...!

Art project

So, I have another creative project going on right now... besides the blog. And writing for Pulp Legacy. And CBR. And making short films. And the Play-doh sculptures. And freestyle rap.

I'm drawing a comic book.

Well, I draw many comic books. But this is my most, uh, ambitious project yet. Because it's a 22-pager. And because I'm actually sorta trying to make the art look decent. And because I really, really like this story.

I'm 9 pages into the project right now. My goal is to have the comic done in the next 28 days. Why? Because I want to have it done in time to take it to San Diego Comic-Con. And show it to people who will surely laugh at me and crush my spirits.

The story, in a nutshell: The comic is about a pop singer who decides it's time to escape the country and his fame. He hires his bodyguard, Gator, to help him get across the Mexican border unnoticed. Back home, in his place, he leaves a high-tech robot clone of himself to fill in for him. And, hopefully, hilarity ensues in both places.

Oh, also, there's a drunken, gun-toting gambling addict chimpanzee in the story.

So, I've been trying to dedicate the late evening hours, after the girls have gone to bed, to my comic. But I only hit the drawing board a few times a week, but I really try to get busy on weekends. I didn't get anything done last week or weekend since I was travelling most of the time.

These next few weeks, I need to put the pedal to the metal, so, if you want to, you can encourage me and tell me you're looking forward to reading my comic in four weeks, when I complete it. And I'll try to live up to my expectation of getting this thing done in that much time.

Photo is of me and Evey working on our respective art projects -- me on my comic, Evey on her coloring book. (About five minutes after this photo was taken, Evey reached over with her yellow crayon and put a nice mark on top of Gator's head, making her dad about pass out.)

Bee girl

Happy Father's Day!

I had a great one. Got a new grill and a string-trimmer from Adro and Evey. Also, Judy got me a Best Buy gift card. Thank you girls!

Finally getting back into the swing of things after a few days on the road. I might have to tell the story of getting stuck in Chicago sometime, but not right now -- I don't want to relive that day so soon.

Cute things Evey did recently:

I tell Evey stories every once in a while before bedtime. Well, the other day, as I was drying her off after her bath, she told me a story. It went like this...

Once upon a time, far far away. Girl, Evey Jones, and her name was Daddy. Live in a castle. The end!

Not bad for her first story, I'd say!

Evey can reach the light switches now, so she likes showing off that talent.

Adro tried to teach Evey a "happy father's day!" song today. It involved the tambourine and some singing. They practiced it, and then it was time for the performance. But when they sang it for me, Evey made a last-second lyrics change... she sang "I love papa!" rather than "I love daddy!" Papa is my dad, Boyd. So Adro tried to get Evey to sing "I love daddy!" but she was happy with the "I love papa!" song. After she got done with it, I told her I'm sure Papa would have enjoyed it. Oh well!

Photo is of Evey showing off her bee tattoo...

Finally home after three days in Minneapolis. Bad weather in Chicago on friday so i got stuck there for a night. Got to eat some Gino's East pizza, though!

Site of JFK assassinatin

Me and Evey in Dallas at the site where JFK was assassinated. The "X" on the pavement behind us represents the spot.

We were going to go up to the 6th Floor Museum, but it was something like $15 per person, kids were $10, and the museum was about to close in 30 minutes, so we decided to just walk around a little bit. Our hotel was the downtown Dallas Hyatt (the one with the giant illuminated golf ball) so we were within walking distance of all this.

We ended up saving our money, going back to the Hyatt bar, and splitting a quesadilla three ways while Evey ran around the empty Hyatt bar. And we had a good time doing that, actually.

Anyway, me and Adro want to watch "JFK" now that we were down there. Try to figure out where the grassy knoll was, exactly, etc.

(Note: Not trying to trivialize the tragedy that was the JFK assassination -- just sharing a photo of a historic site we visited.)

WHATABURGER!!!

If you read any of my text-message blogs from Texas, you know we hit Whataburger ALOT. It's a tradition, though.

Me and Adro -- and now Evey Jones -- all love Whataburger. But we don't have one in Kansas. The nearest one is in Oklahoma City. So when we go south, we hit a few Whataburgers. And it is good.

Random thoughts

There's a thunderstorm rolling our way. Under a tornado watch. I definitely prefer the daytime tornado watches over the nighttime tornado watches. But all tornado watches suck.

Life is like my Brita -- you only get out what you put in.

Most listened to song on my computer? Radiohead's "All I need." Playcount: 78

Band I've saved on my computer, but have hardly listened to any of it: Badly Drawn Boy

Days I've not had keg beer on my kegerator: 11. Why have you forsaken me, 23rd Street Brewery?

I just inadvertently erased all the ratings on every Pearl Jam song on my computer. Oh well. At least I still have all the songs. Why rate my music? I don't know, it's just sort of fun. I like to judge things.

Song I want played at my funeral? Pearl Jam's "Light Years," off their album Binaural. Oh, and War's "Cisco Kid." Humor me, I'm dead.

Do you know what a Brita is? It's the thing you pour water into and it filters it, you leave it in your fridge and you've got cold, clean water. My editor-in-chief got us one for our wedding, and it is quite possibly the best wedding gift we got. (Well, with the exception of what you got us, of course.)

What happens on Aug. 1st? The fortune cookie told me to be ready.

Both those photos are from Texas, the first is outside Boerne, Texas, at a friend-of-the-family's, the second at our hotel room outside San Antonio. Evey's eating a peanut butter sandwich, I'm just lookin' old.

Things I wonder when someone dies too young: Did he eat a good last meal? If he knew what his expiration date was, would he have handled yesterday differently? Did he leave behind a good book unfinished?

Thing John Wake was looking forward to that he didn't live long enough to see: Spider-Man 2. Seriously.

Just like the "born on" date on your beer, we also have expiration dates, like milk.

That was a good time. Hopefully I'm not so obtuse that I didn't realize it at the time. I think I knew.

Here in a few weeks, I'm going to go back to my hometown and help my dad take down my old basketball goal. That's like buying some chloroform and soaking an old rag with it, then hiding in a closet and waiting for your inner child to wander by.

That last one was probably a complete miss, but I liked it.

My friend Parker came by on Sunday. He's a Jehova's Witness. We're on a first-name basis. He asks me about my golf magazine, I ask him about the conversions. I don't know what the hell he's talking about, but he's a friendly guy. Next time he comes by, I'm going to invite him to the Laugh Olympics.

I read somewhere that "No" was the most commonly heard word to a child. So I try to avoid using it. If I don't like something Evey is doing, I use the more friendly, "nope-a-dope." It's sing-songy, it's not real harsh. Yesterday, I gave Evey a "nope-a-dope," and she responded with "yup-a-dup."

My daughter knows that the incredible Hulk is green. I did not teach her this.

I don't know that life is really like a Brita. But I'd like to think it is.

Cheers to Bob Frederick

He was a class act. Good to KU, good to Lawrence.

This photo is from... 1998? The year we lost to Kentucky at the Superdome in New Orleans. That's Dave Harris with me and Frederick, an old Willie C's pal. I would have been almost 21 in this photo.

http://www2.ljworld.com/obits/2009/jun/14/robert/

More capitol pics

Like I said earlier, the state building in Austin was a pretty fun place to wander around... these photos show a little more of what we found in there.

It was also good because there were lots of stairs. "Stretch our legs!" became a regular event on the two-day trip to Mission, Texas. We wanted Evey to have a few breaks in-between all the miles we were putting on the Tucson.

Total mile count for the trip? We put 2,300 miles on our car. And we managed to stop at a Whataburger approximately every 500 miles!

(Good news -- I just knocked out page six of Jacko tonight! Only 16 pages to go. I'll give you the skinny on that project soon, too...)

Everyone... is so near

Man, I'm in a good mood. Consider:

• It's overcast outside
• I just took this photo with my beautiful bride 20 minutes ago
• Radiohead is playing on my Pandora station "The National Anthem" (hence, the title of this post)
• I got a funny voicemail from my best friend
• I'm making spagehtti tonight
• I feel like I wrote something good today (July's "Inside GCM")

Oh, man... you know what I just thought of? I had a good workout over my lunch hour. My first time in the gym in a long time. I wonder if I'm on a high from that workout still? You know, the blood pumping faster through your body, brain-actually-working feeling you get after a workout? That might be a part of it.

Radiohead too, surely.

I'll try to blog again tonight with some more photos of Evey in Texas. I've got a lot of them.

Oh, hey -- I've got a new story up on http://www.comicbookresources.com/ -- it's about Radioactive Man and the Simpsons. It's an interview with writer Batton Lash. Check it out here: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=21525

Now Muse is on my http://www.pandora.com/ station. "City of Delusion" gets a THUMB'S UP. There. Email me if you want me to email you any of my Pandora stations. I'd be happy to share.

YEAH! Now Kenna is on. "Out of Control."

Oh, you gotta check this out: Solo is sharing some of our ancient secret recipes on his blog: http://solospace5.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!8F50C65AFB33E4B9!1937.entry

OK, I'm shutting down soon... ready to get outta here.

A capital capitol

OK, first of all, Solo, Lerv, Hendren or anyone who likes cool music/videos, check out this new Depeche Mode video for "Wrong." The song is awesome, and the video is pretty cool. If you're Jason Arnett, I assume you already have the CD and can give me a quick review. I saw it's $13.99 at Best Buy -- I need to be guaranteed awesomness at that price!

I'll be at Best Buy tomorrow for the new Dredg CD anyway, so...

OK, on to the photos... we took Evey to the capitol building in Austin. We actually had a pretty good time -- not bad for free! The building was beautiful, and there were plenty of photo ops, including this series.

Of course, Evey thought we were going inside a "castle." I can see how she could be confused, though.

More from Texas tomorrow...

No hands!

Great weekend here, how about you? We went to Sadie's 2nd b-day party, which was a blast... also took Evey to the library and the park...

Did you catch game 2 of the finals? Too bad the rookie missed the alley-oop that would have won the game, I hope he isn't taking it too hard.

Also, did you see Stewart Cink bean that fan at the Memorial on Saturday? The camera zoomed in just in time for the guy to pull his hand off his head and see all the blood. Ouch!

More to come this week... I'm tired. Time to stop rambling and go to bed...

Two cool links, one cool girl

Check out these two links:

1. My pal Jason Arnett started a fiction website. He'll be releasing his short stories in weekly chapters every Wednesday. A story will begin and end within a month. I've read his first story, "TELLER," and it's a good one for anyone who likes creepy supernatural stuff. In fact, when I read it on his blog, I couldn't wait for each new chapter to come out. Check it out here, http://www.jasonarnett.com/

2. I have a fun blog post up over at my work blog, From the Desk of GCM -- an interview with sports columnist Rick Reilly. Check it out (as well as a story about our new COO) here: http://gcm.typepad.com/gcm/

The graduate