you're gonna be huge, kid.

Well, it's official. Clark is a Canine Good Citizen.
He passed his test tonight at Lollypop Farm and by doing so is now able to move on to the next round of class/testing for the Delta Society. I'm super excited about this.

For anyone keeping score, since this is an AKC title, it gets tagged onto his fancy AKC name. You're looking at Clark Mosef Moetallica Kent, CGC.

equal rights for all.

It's incredibly disappointing to me that I live in a state where a majority the legislative body doesn't believe in equal rights for all residents. Four local state senators cowardly and silently, voted against marriage equality today.


Like we chanted in the freezing rain tonight: gay, straight, black, white —marriage is a civil right.


For those interested in "protecting traditional marriage"... what about outlawing divorce?

arts and farts and crafts.

I went to the Second Storie: Indie Market today with Matt D and Adam.
It was such an incredibly cool event. The cash I brought was positively burning a hole in my pocket. Being so close to the holidays, I needed to remind myself to buy for other people —I did (and such purchases shall remain nameless on the internet).

But I also got one lil' thing for myself. I've been admiring this poster since I saw it in the window of Taco John's.
It's by fellow RIT alumni, Pete Lazarski, who is a super talented designer/illustrator/wizard. It's going to look sweet up on the wall over the orange love seat we picked up from Ikea last weekend.

my dog fails at cinema.

As a goof, I stopped on one of the movie channels that had Beverly Hills Chihuahua on to see if Clark would pay attention.


He didn't just pay attention, that little asshole called my bluff —he watched the whole damn movie while I cooked dinner.

a city in the armpit of some mountains.

Pittsburgh was a weird city and yet, a fun trip. There's literally nothing leading up to getting to Pittsburgh. No buildup of suburbs, just boring highway dotted with signs for fireworks warehouses and then, BAM, there's a city.

Priceline landed us in a pretty swank hotel near the river and the convention center, right across from PNC Park.


We started out Saturday by visiting the Andy Warhol museum, across the river. The museum was about 50% Warhol, 40% Shepard Fairey and 10% pulpy old movie posters.

It was fantastic. I got to play with giant, floating, mylar pillows, stand next to a two-story Shepard Fairey paste-up, see 21 fading Elvises (Evli?) and brought home my first real Fairey print (and a sticker too).

After that we went to this crazy old record store. It was like walking into the pages of High Fidelity.


We refueled with a cookie and some mochas at a fun, lil' coffee shop near the record dungeon.


Then we drove through a mountain to go to Ikea.


While at the mall near the Ikea there were some baked goods shenanigans. I found a Christmas Cake Wreck: The Ass-Faced Santa.

And then there was a gingerbread metropolis!


Ikea Time Warp. We got a fold out loveseat (an orange one), new coffee table, end table and some other odds and ends. It's all there on the cart, oddly enough.


The next morning, we headed out in search of a delicious breakfast. We went to one of the incarnations of Pamela's, a Pittsburgh staple. The pancakes are so good, that when the President was on the campaign trail, he had some —then brought the staff in to cook a Memorial Day breakfast for a bunch of troops in DC. God damn, they were some of the best pancakes I've ever had in my entire life. I don't have a picture of the plate, because they put me into a good food coma.


After that, we stopped at Trader Joe's to stock up on TJ goodness before heading home. It's crazy. We bring coolers, cooler bags and seriously do a month or two of grocery shopping. Trader Joe's, Rochester is just as much of a stain on the Rustbelt as Pittsburgh. Please come save us.

on the road.

We're on our way to Pittsburgh for the weekend.



A new city to explore, Ikea stop and Trader Joe's. I am quite excited.

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work it.

I've been sandwiching work in between strength training in the morning and cardio in the evening. I'm also not eating like an idiot. I've stopped drinking soda cold turkey and I've cut artificial sweeteners from my diet as well. That's made a huuuge difference on how I feel day to day. That artificial sugar stuff is garbage.

This has been going on for the better part of two weeks now.

Something I've learned through this whole process? That core exercises suck when you have no core strength to begin with. Also, this has all but solved my going-to-bed-too-late problem, now that I am ready to pass out around 10:30 at night.

I need a real exercise mat for the morning stuff. The yoga mat I picked up at Old Navy does nothing in the way of softening the floor. It's good for the basics like crunches and stuff like that, at least.

werewolf bar mitzvah. spooky scary.

I love Halloween. I was especially excited for a True Blood themed Halloween this year (at least for me and the jack-o-lanterns that graced our front porch).
Sookie.

Bill didn't come out so good. The pattern was a mess after the transfer.

And Eric.. oh, Eric. I think he actually turned out the best. Still, I'm not afraid of Eric.

While the Sookie costume kind of came together quietly over a few weeks, I was bouncing up and down as I got ready for trick-or-treaters and the party. The most startling part of the outfit was the wig. I've never thought about going blonde before and I'll never consider it in the future. It was just odd and the wig was huge. I had to tame it's madness into a side ponytail deal.
It's hard to see in the photo, but I even had a silver chain looped around, circa season one. Oh, the nerdiness.

Matt's moon costume was awesome when he had the sky-board on and eerie when he was just covered in white face paint. I think he scared some kids at the door. :D He made it all by himself too and had a blast doing it.

We hung out at home until about nine, because I love the fact that we get trick-or-treaters. To help with our ongoing efforts to eat right, I ended up buying candy that neither of us would touch: mini tootsie roll pops, lemon heads and the ultimate leper of the candy world, Twilight candy hearts. I unleashed that sparkly awfulness on about 40 or so kids who came to the door and left with necco wafers emblazoned with Twilighty sayings.

After that, we killed the porch lights and headed to the MAMA's house bash.

MAMA's house rocks and throws the BEST Halloween party. I love getting the chance to see the City Newspaper peeps. Among them was a Sam Merlotte. :D


Anna's Dalek costume kicked ass. So did the Doctor Who themed shots that fateful Monday night was filled with. I think I filled my Merlotte's glass twice with Time Rotors and I did a few of the TARDIS shots in the neato test tubes she got.

The boys were Calvin and Hobbes. I think this is them acting out a panel from the comic strip. I'm not sure, I'm kinda stealing the party pics from Matt's flickr.

Sunday, we rejoined MAMA's house for brunch and then headed to Target to sweep up some Halloween clearance deals. It's a great time of year for people who love things with skulls on them. :D I think my favorite is the glittery, black skull that's now on the table near the door.

Then the post-Halloween let down set in Monday morning. Next year seems so far away.

imitation is the highest form of flattery?

Anna and I went on shenanigans tonight. Most of the trip was spent collecting the remaining bits and pieces for her Dalek dress and one or two things for my Sookie outfit. While wandering around JoAnn's in Henrietta, I came across these little gems in the framing section:

Super Weak, by none other than the infamous Nick James.

And who doesn't remember that toe-tappin' tune, You Are My Moonshine, by Jay Charles.

Turn it up to 11 for Diana Boss' big hit, Ain't No Fountain High Enough.

They're so bad, I kind of wanted them. However, I think I might just cut some holes in real 45s and make some neato mirrors for the house. It makes me wish I had kept some of the ones from the wedding centerpieces. Oh well, to the Bop Shop.

there's no way this is a good idea.

In preparation for the MAMA's House Halloween party, Matt and Anna have been concocting a plethora of shots, trying to tie them in via color or any stretch of the imagination to Doctor Who (in honor of Anna's Dalek Dress). So.. drinking ourselves silly on a Monday night. Go team!


And down we go...


My kitchen turned into a bar with Anna at the helm.


What the hell is in this thing?

A winner, maybe? Anna seems to think so.

Oh shit.. we better write this down. That was awesome.

bark to the park.

Okay, I remembered to bring my camera this time. Can I tell you how bummed out I am that it gets so dark so early now?


I love having a dog who I can trust off leash. Clark will toddle ahead, then check back to make sure I'm still with him. Then when he sees another dog, he looks back to see if it's okay to go say hello.


Ellison is absolutely gorgeous this time of year. I can't believe the colors.



So much to do, so much to see.


The moon's already out.



Time to head home.


When we left the dog park area, it looked like this.


When we got to the car, it looked like this. Redonkulous.

fall days, dog days.

Matt and I took the fuzz balls down to the park today. Matt fell in love with the idea of getting an Airedale Terrier as our next dog and was even looking up info on the breed on his iPhone while we were there. I think we have "next dogs" lined up for years —since we're not going to be a three dog household. Also on the waiting list, dog names. I still want to call a dog Spiderman and we are definitely having a dog named ASBO at some point. But Matt pointed out that people names for dogs are pretty awesome and I agree. I see an Airedale named Charlie in our future somewhere.

Maggie stayed on-leash, but did better this time than previous ones while being around a lot of other dogs. Maggie's kind of a work in progress. I don't know what her previous owners did to her, but I can tell you that they didn't work on socializing her AT ALL. So it's been a slow and steady process just getting her to the point where she's not flipping out when she sees another dog she doesn't know. The headcollar helps.

I need to remember to bring my camera the next time I go to Ellison (which might just be tomorrow afternoon). Not only are the trees gorgeous in their fall colors, but I'd love to have some photos of my little social butterfly running around with the other dogs down there.

In other canine news, Clark needs to lose a few pounds: so sayeth the vet as well as the agility instructor. He's not morbidly obese, but on a little dog, two or three pounds can make all the difference. So, that means I just finished cooking dinner for the dog. Hah. It's nothing ornate, I'm just cutting his dog food intake by half and replacing that with cooked veggies. Tonight I learned that cooked carrots, peas and spinach are awesome —a sprinkling of uncooked celery... not so much.

With both Matt and I getting on the eating right and exercise wagon, it's kinda funny/weird to have Clark jumping on board. Maggie... well, Maggie has a goddamn hummingbird metabolism.

nobody knows halloween like MAMA

Thank god for an easy Halloween costume, otherwise I don't know how I'd pull it together this week. The plan started as just going as a generic Merlotte's waitress. Then I saw a blonde wig on sale at JoAnne's... and now I'm going for the full Sookie Stackhouse treatment. The hardest piece of the costume puzzle to track down was black shorts/skirt. The season has passed for that kind of stuff and Merlotte's girls aren't known for wearing sensible slacks. Thank you, Target clearance rack! I bought an official Merlotte's apron from HBO and the boys are letting me borrow an empty bottle of TruBlood for the evening. It's easier to carry that around on a tray as opposed to a pitcher of Mountain Dew (got to love the South).



Things left to do? I have to add the Merlotte's logo to the shirt I bought, track down a waitress tray and put together a little restaurant check/order pad. Oh, and shoes. I have to figure out shoes.



I tried to convince Matt to go as Terry, but he wasn't into it. Haha. The plan now is for him to go as The Moon from The Mighty Boosh. I take back what I said about having it easy on costume making this week —we need to figure out how The Moon is going to work. I mean, the smudgy white make up is easy. We just need to build a giantic circle around his face and have it be seamless.

However it gets put together, I'm sure it's going to be awesome.

I'm so excited for the MAMA's House Halloween extravaganza!

cute overload at home.

We have foofy, long-haired dogs because of Matt's allergies.

I grew up with rough-and-tumble labs and dals and he grew up in a dog-less house. Now we have two dogs, Maggie (who we adopted from Lollypop as an adult) and Clark (who we got from a breeder as a puppy). Matt claims that Maggie is his favorite, because he saw her first -- but now that Clark's settling down out of crazy.. well.. puppy-ness; they're finding more in common with each other.

Clark adores Matt. He'll sneak attack him in the morning by creeping up to wake him up by licking his face, loses his damn mind when Matt gets home and then there are moments like this where I'm glad to have any kind of picture-taking device nearby.

They're just two guys chilling out for an evening at home.

Also, please note the amazing combination of the Black Cross shirt with polar bear PJ pants. Someone is totally punk rock right now.

writer's block prompt ( borrowed from lj )

Even if you're not actively eavesdropping, you can hear some interesting things. What's the best conversation you've ever overheard?


There's a tie and Anna was involved with both.

There was the infamous overheard Target conversation that I think will be quoted forever. We were wandering around the toy/seasonal department as a mother and her tweenage brood passed. I don't know if it counts as overhearing someone when they're shouting at their children but needless to say, we heard her loud and clear.

"Can we get batteries? I need some batteries."

"No! We're not getting batteries today!"

"Oh, what about sunscreen? I need sunscreen, Mom"

"No!! We have sunscreen at home!"

The next awesome conversation I overheard was between two kids, maybe somewhere between the ages of 8-11. They were ahead of Anna and I while we were in line to return something at WalMart. The older kid turns to the younger and...

"What's the most money you've ever found?"

"Like on the ground or in a bush?"

"On the ground.. or in a bush."

"Like... four dollars."

"I found twenty dollars in a bush."

"Really? Wow.."

First off, older kid is totally lying. He asked first so that he could boast a larger amount than the younger kid. Secondly, I love the categories. Money found on the ground.. money found in a bush.

things that might appear in my stand-up one day.

Local news shows are truly intolerable.

auld lang syne.

Of all the New Year's parties we've thrown, I think last night was one of the best. This is probably for a couple of reasons:

• We have the coolest friends in the world, therefore success is guaranteed.

• Tuesday night's trip to Party City yeilded a bounty of decorations, hats, noisemakers and other party-enhancing accessories.
• There was an insane amount of awesome food. From mini burgers for the carnivorous crowd to some spicy vegan chilli, there was something for everyone.
• Sweet, sweet playlist put together by Matt.
  
• There was an equally crazy amount of adult beverages. Anna invented and in the same night perfected her recipe for Peppermint Dickables (frozen peppermint martini mix + vodka + chocolate milk). My drink of choice was Diet Pepsi with UV Cherry Vodka. It was amazing and at the same time it was dangerous because I couldn't taste the alcohol at all.
• Pick up games of party balloon volleyball.
• The start of a brand new challenge: Pass the Hot Dog Toaster. Check your mailbox, it may be headed your way.
• Another year of laughter when the exploited Dick Clark falls off the countdown by at least a second or more.
• Anna's Party Crackers which produced paper hats and weird, small toys that included butterfly balls, a frog and a pink over-sized paperclip.

It was a freakin' fantastic night. We did Oxford University Christmas before the party which includes the annual "Dollar Store Secret Santa Stocking Stuffer Extravaganza" followed by present opening. That's the third Christmas Matt and I have done this year and we still have two more to do this weekend when we go to Kingston to see my folks for the holiday. This was a trip that was supposed to happen the weekend before Christmas but that got snowed out. So we're heading down after work tomorrow for the weekend.

2008 is gone and long live 2009! This past year had it's ups and downs. Getting married and getting laid off seem to be the best examples of each of those respectively and we've enjoyed the good and worked through the bad. It's worked out, more or less.

2009 is going to be packed with awesome:

• Tim & Eric at the Town Ballroom in a few weeks
• Updating the bathroom this winter
  
• Louis CK in Verona in Feb
• Williamsburg with the fam in June
• Three weddings (so far) to come
  
• Everything's booked for Comic Con in SD this July
• All the awesome stuff that's just not plotted out yet

As for resolutions, I just have one. It's kind of all encompassing. I'm calling it my Superman resolution. It isn't based completely on comic nerd-itry. I figure if I have to Clark Kent it for eight hours a day, five days a week I need to really make something out of the rest of the time. My office/studio is coming together and I want to get back into all the fun, creative stuff I used to do on my own but fell out of. My print Gocco is dying (they stopped making the supplies), so I want to learn to screen print. I need to be creatively challenged and I think that and some other things will sate that need. I want to do more things with my friends and family. They keep me sane and the time spent with them are the best times I have. I want to focus on what's truly important to me. Getting healthier, happier and overall enjoying the ride by not forgetting that it is just that.