My wife wrote a nice entry on our Halloween weekend. I don't have much to add. We spent the holiday evening with her sister's family. I ate candy and drank a couple of beers. We played through the entire Left 4 Dead campaign and it was a lot of fun; I was the only survivor.
It's a busy time for me; we moved to a new office at my "real" job and I'm trying to plan three events for 2010. One (comic expo) is brand new, one (Swap-o-Rama-Rama) is recycled, and then there's the good ol' Craftstravaganza which turns five next year. We tried to drum up interest for an internship to help out, but so far nobody has applied. Well, if you want something done right...
Over the past few weeks, I've been meeting with people who are interested in the comic expo idea. There's another group planning a new webcomic event for next year, but their concept is almost a philosophically opposite approach from what I have in mind, so it will be interesting to see what happens. Hopefully they'll both be fun shows and then Minneapolis will have two new comic festivals to attend instead of just one!
Muno-lantern
Bazan
Dave Bazan, originally uploaded by patchenphotography
I won free admission from the Current to last week's David Bazan show at the Turf Club. Micah was my plus one. First thing we did was make our way up to the bar for refreshments. I had a pint of Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat beer. I didn't know what it was, but I ordered because the tap handle was a rotary phone handset.
Nothing drives home the fact that I am an old man like staying out past midnight at a rock-n-roll concert. I was asleep on my feet halfway through, and I got my second wind around 11:45. It was a great show. Their tour diary said, "In terms of audience quality tonight was one of, if not the best, and the Turf Club is an amazing place to play."
Dragons
Drago (Detalle), originally uploaded by Gisela Bohórquez
Natalie is walking a lot now. We got her to toddle back and forth between us for a while and it was fun for everybody, until she went face-first into the coffee table. At least we captured that precious moment on video!
Both my brothers were in town on Sunday. This is a rare occasion since Kevin started college and Jim moved to Montana. We celebrated with a game of Dungeons & Dragons. Jenna asked who won. I told her that when we play Dungeons & Dragons, everyone's a winner (it's true).
After they left, we looked at some houses with our agent. They were all terrible. It's slim pickin's right now in the local real estate market. We're hunkering down for one more winter in St. Paul.
Snow
I've reached the end of the world, originally uploaded by Stuck in Customs
We got some early October snow this week. I walked through the garden the night before and harvested the remaining vegetables. I pulled some monster carrots out of the ground, and a good number of green bell peppers. Some of the carrots were made into soup and my coworkers took the rest.
Natalie still doesn't walk more than a few steps at a time, and then only rarely, but she is very communicative. She signs for "water" and "more" (in addition to "milk" and "all done"). Her new words are "no," "yeah," and "Lola," which enhance her repertoire of "dog, mama, dada." Then there's the never-ending stream of babble with the occasional noise that sounds like a word, but only to her parents.
Secret Identity
My Name Is Not Clark Kent!, originally uploaded by Carlos Noboro
On Saturday I went to FallCon, Minnesota's biggest comics convention, to share my concept for the new show and ask for feedback. Everyone was incredibly gracious, friendly, and helpful.
One of the highlights for me was meeting Lucy Knisley. She is one of my favorite web comic artists and a total sweetheart in person. I spoke with several members of the Comic Conspiracy, a very cool group, plus a bunch of other talented artists.
I also ran into Sarah Morean, who organizes the awesome Twin Cities Zinefest. She has been thinking about starting an Indie comic expo for a while and I hope she will be involved. And a couple of CONvergence directors offered their assistance as well. I'm inspired! The time is now!
Grand
Grand Avenue Foot Bridge, originally uploaded by chefranden
On Saturday I took Natalie to Minneapolis. We visited the Minnesota Center for Book Arts to see all the local artists doing the 24-Hour Comic Day. Next door at Big Brain I quizzed the guy behind the desk about what he'd like to see in a new convention (thanks Rhett!). Then we drove to [REDACTED] to buy Jenna's birthday present.
Our friends Laurie and Ryan drove up from Texas to Eau Claire this weekend, so we met them there on Sunday. Their son Sebastian is only 4 days younger than Natalie. We went to Davies Center on campus, where we used to congregate between classes, and the kids played together for a while.
We had lunch at Mancinos. Their grinders are so delicious. Then we got dessert delivered on rollerblades at the new Sonic. Natalie slept on the way there and back. It was a great weekend.
Apples
Apple Picking, originally uploaded by Arvind Balaraman (Catching up :)
We got together with Jenna's family for photos on Saturday, and afterward we took Natalie and one of her cousins to a nearby orchard. The apples were delicious. The wine they made (with California/Washington grapes) was not good.
There were some animals off to the side of the barn. Natalie usually enjoys meeting new creatures. We saw a pair of cute pygmy goats and some sleeping bunnies. It was the first time she got up close to a horse, I think, and she reached out and petted it on the nose.
After football on Sunday we had to clear out for a showing. We went to the mall and I spent too much money on a jacket at Macy's; but then I always think clothes are too expensive. It's a nice fake leather jacket for fall weather. I like it. Maybe I'll keep it.
