Burbank Holidays

Craft fair weekend, y'all.

(I don't sell pottery, but I might buy some.)

Opossum Cam in the Yard

Piggyback possum!

Cat House, Not Opossum House

I turned the game cam at the cat house before I went to my mother's for Thanksgiving. I returned to find out the opossum regularly investigates it! Petunia never stays long, and the cats don't seem fazed by it.

Thanksgiving Treat

I brought my mom's dog Charlie a puppacchino.

He got the zoomies.

Squirrels? Chipmunks? Werewolves?

I think raccoons or rats are trying to get into the JC trash bin.

Probably not bears. NJ is full of bears, but I struggle with the idea of a bear trundling along the Pulaski Skyway. Plus, a bear would have succeeded.

2023 National Bundt Day at the Comics Factory

Today's National Bundt Day was a good one.

We had 7 Bundt cakes, my half Tunnel of Fudge, and a box of mini-Bundts. Everyone who works in the area with DC publishing, or ancillary to DC publishing (including facilities) was invited, but because everyone is hybrid and not all in the office on the same days, just enough people showed up to fill the room.

Here are some before, during, and after photos.

Happy National Bundt Day to you and yours!

Cake Oops

Year two of Tunnel of Fudge disaster.

Keith Tribute

Remembering Keith Giffen.

Who aside from giving us one of the best departing lines of all time, had told his daughter "You should put my ashes in a pepper shaker or mix it into food," and that gave me the opportunity to tell that story last month at my NYCC keynote and say "Did anyone try the tacos?"

Art by Kevin Maguire.

Editor Art

"Will you do a sketch in my book?"

"Oh, I'm an editor, I can't sketch."

"That's okay, some people did stick figures."

"Hmmmm. Okay."

Touring Stockholm Pre-Con

I've been to Stockholm before. In 1982. Surely that makes me an expert.

I have a distinct memory of walking along the main shopping street, and the day was late and we were in a hurry. (I was with the Finnish-Swede host family I was living with for the summer.)

Were we rushing to get to a ferry? To lodging? To the relatives who lived in...I can't remember. Probably Uppsala. 1982 was a long time ago.

I got in around midnight last night, amazed by the efficiency of the airport, the airport train, and how easily I found the hotel I'd booked into. (I worked at that last one, wanting a spot where I could roll off the train and into bed, then easily get to the commuter rail to the convention center the next day.)

Stockholm Morning

I used to go to lengths to avoid hotel breakfast bars. Now I just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and accept them. I even make do with shitty coffee, the latter derived from laziness. The shitty coffee in front of me was preferable to the proper latte by the train station, in the Swedish drizzle.

Life is full of the tiniest compromises. Compulsive buffet grazing with the herd is just a thing we gotta do, the price of being away from home. You’d think I’d be better at it.

But I can happily report that attacking buffets is a human condition, not specifically an American condition.

From Tourist to Comic Con

LAX—>LHR—>Algiers—>Constantine—>Marseille—>Munich—>Stockholm really is the long way around to get to a con, but finally, after a charming day in Marseille and arrival in Sweden in the dark, I was on the Arlanda Express airport train to Stockholm Central Station.

I changed my coat and dug out my scarf and mittens. On arrival at the train station, I followed my phone map out of the station to the closest hotel. Made it.