diana and I

i havent posted a picture of just diana and i in a while, so i thought i should fix that! she is just sooo cute!

sister's pad

for the weekend we stayed over at diana's sisters place. she is currently living in her grandma's house. her grandma is not able to live on her own anymore, but they still have her house with everything in it. since the place was just sitting there empty, barbara asked if she could watch the place and live there for now. it was kind of strange- the place was still decorated with all their grandma's stuff! we brought poco along with us and he did a pretty good job of behaving himself (except for the midnight kitchen escape he somehow pulled off).
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catching up with dad

recently we spent a weekend in diana's old stomping grounds visiting her family and friends. we have gone up and visited my family and friends often enough, now it was time to see hers!
we spent our weekend at her sister's place but went out to see everyone else most of the time we were there. we met up with miranda at home depot and went out for dinner with her (to my favorite: hacienda!). diana was really excited to see her- it had been a long time since they were able to catch up face to face. miranda was really excited about the upcoming trip to seattle and the alaskan cruise she and her family were going on, so we got to hear all about the plans and fun in store for them!
the next day we met up with her dad at the art studio he runs. we checked out some of the new art he is exhibiting, and then went to olive garden to sit, eat, and talk. it was really good to see him again, we had only seen him once since the wedding. he was doing well, and sporting a beard! that night we went back to barbara's place and i crashed in bed super early. i must have been more worn out than i thought cause i went straight to bed around 9:00pm when we got back!
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comic con: the aftermath

the day after a comic con is always the worst. we had a really fun day at the con, but the next morning the place always looks like it was ravaged by bears! the guys got up and didn't feel terribly motivated (diana and i werent either...) so we took our time getting ready. jeffry lee even decided to take a break and do some light reading before he bothered to put a shirt on...
eventually we all got rolling and the guys even helped with tidying up the place a bit before they left, which is very thoughtful of them. well, another successful visit and another successful comic con!
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a mid summer night's walk

it was one of those really humid days, which of course turn into a really humid night. the house was actually hotter and stickier than it was outside, so we all filed out to at least enjoy the breeze!
we were just standing around the front of the house when i mentioned that we should instead enjoy the night and go for a little walk. everyone was game for it, so off we went down the street. we must have been quite a site- jeffry lee didn't even bother to put any shoes on!
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gino's west

when we got home from the comic con diana was there already back from school. we came in and hung out for a while. soon after, though, the hunger set in. we decided to go to gino's east. they recently put one in just a couple miles away, it is a new location of the famous gino's east downtown chicago. they have really really thick chicago style deep dish pizza, and we were all really excited to check it out! the food was delicious and the guys were in top form- very funny! brains even had an 'incident' with a flying knife...
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comic con: homeward bound

after filling our little bags with loads of comic books and toys, we reluctantly left the con craziness and headed back home. before we could go, though, we needed to go up to the car on the 4th floor, grab the parking ticket, go back to the first floor, pay for parking, then go back to the car on the fourth floor and head out. yeesh, it sure would have helped if they had told us about the ticket when we came in...
anyway, we all pulled out our favorite purchases in the car and paged through them and enjoyed what prizes we had gotten!
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neil jammin' it

the way the convention floor is set up is that it is broken down into three sections: the first section has booths for comic book companies (which was actually missing this year and was instead replaced by a section for celebrities at tables talking to and signing things for fans), the second section is where they have all the retail booths, where different retailers from around the area come and sell their comic books and other related merch. the third section, and my new favorite, is what's affectionately called 'artist's alley'. its a bunch of people who actually work in the comic book field making comics for the big publishers or independent ones from their own homes.
one guy who makes comics on his own is neil fitzpatrick. he makes his own book called 'neil jam'. now, rex and i have a little history with this book. at one of the very first conventions we ever went to we picked up a free copy of this 'neil jam' comic, it was just sitting on the 'free' table on the way out, so we grabbed it. on the way home we pulled it out and read it through and fell in love! the style is totally cartoony with funky blacked out eyes. the strip itself was a lot of fun, but rex and i soon discovered was that the best way to enjoy 'neil jam' is frame by frame! if you take one frame at a time and look at it out of context it becomes so much funnier!!!
well, ever since then, rex and i have always loved that book ever since. we still, ten years later, reference it often. and this year at the comic con we were innocently wandering through the artist's alley and out of the corner of my eye i see it: neal jam!!! i literally shrieked with excitement, grabbed rex and feverishly pointed to the booth! we were both in excited shock to see it that we ran over to the both and gushed our story to the book's creator. he was a bit surprised by the whole thing, but happy to see us too. we both frantically pulled out our wallets and bought everything he had published since then. looking through he new stuff on the way home rex and i were not disappointed at all, the new stuff is just as fun out of context!
thank you neil, you made our day- definitely the high light of the comic con for me!
check out these out of context panels of 'neil jam' (which i am now calling and officially coining the term 'neil jammers') and you will agree with us about how much fun it is to enjoy the comic frame by frame!

nerds galore!

we had a great time at the convention this year, as always. i think this is my ninth time going and each year it is a different experience. the first time i went was back in high school, my mom and dad actually let me drive all the way to the convention from grand rapids all by myself! since then every visit has been a different group of friends coming along with me. it almost always includes rex, and the rest of the ever changing roster has grown to include aaron, jeffry lee, sara, sara's brother, stephenie, and now brains. its always fun to have someone new come along, that way we get to see it each time with new eyes. this year i didn't really get that much, just a couple books, but the experience is always the best part. it was a bit disappointing to have a complete section of the con missing (comic company booths), but the artist's alley is slowly becoming my favorite part.
i'm sure we will be back again for the fun of it next year!
(more pics: check out the fun with the guys, the toys, and of course the costumes!)

dont i know you?

in place of all the comic book company booths they had isles of tables with celebrities signing autographs. many of them were pretty minor celebrities, but there were some recognizable names there too!
brains, who is a big fan of 'battlestar galactica' almost wet himself when he realized that edward james almos and michael hogan were there! (they are both from that show). after much deliberation, he finally decided to get michael hogan's autograph. we was really excited because he got to shake his hand (twice!!!) and talk with him for a couple minutes. after the second handshake brains was a comic book convention convert! he had never been to one before and wasnt that big a comic book reader, but was just up for the experience. after his encounter with the guys from 'battlestar galactica' brains immediately said he wanted to come again next year!
(more famous people we saw there: 1, 2)

con again

the con is on! we got there only about an hour after they opened, got in line, and got our tickets. it was a bit of a contrast from the year before. last year there was an excess of people there- they even had huge lines got get in set up in an overflow room with several hundred people waiting to buy tickets. this year we walked up and were next in line.
there was definitely a change in the convention from last year to this year. i'm not sure if that was due to the economy, or if that was due to the change over from the event being run by wizard to it just being a generic comic book convention. one of the biggest differences was the fact that there was no comic book company prescience. every year in the past we would walk into the convention floor and see huge booths for marvel, dc, image, dark horse, and dozens more. at each booth there would be free posters, upcoming comic books, previews of new superhero models and toys, sometimes even people dressed as the company's heroes for photo ops with the fans. this year there was absolutely none of that! there were no booths at all for any of the comic book companies- quite a shock!
at least there were still crazy attendees dressed up in costumes!
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a quick pit stop

comic con day was upon us! surprising all of us, we actually got up on time! diana had school, so she was up and gone by 7:30am. the rest of us got up and showered and were actually out the door by 9:00am! that was about the time that we had hoped to be out and on our way. we were all really hungry though, so we stopped for a little breakfast. brains was kind enough to drive us to the convention, but he didn't want anyone eating in his car, so we went in and enjoyed some food. well, except rex. he had gotten some donuts earlier, so he decided to stay in the car while we ate inside. yes, its weird, but we just went with it...

the boys are back in town

its that time of year again, folks. that most nerdy time of year when the guys come down and visit me and we attend the chicago comic con and spend a day among the unwashed comic book nerd masses! this year jeffry lee, rex, and brains (he told me his real name, but no one ever used it, so i quickly forgot it...) came down. i had never met brains before, but rex and jeffry lee went to college with him and said we would get along great. they were right. the guys arrived around 9:00pm or so, just in time to bring in their stuff, say hi to diana, and then race off to see a movie! i guess the already nerdy plans of going to a comic book convention werent enough, i guess we also had to go and see 'g i joe' friday night to prove that we are lame. i sat next to jeffry lee and brains, so even though the movie royally sucked, at least the three of us got to make jokes and laugh about it!
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hairy goodbyes

at the end of the night diana and i packed up. it was time for us to head back home. we stopped by tim and jill's again to say goodbye. the kids had finished their showers and were getting ready for bed. bubba grabbed a comb and started styling his hair in as many ways as he could think of- all up, all down, a mohawk, even a reverse mohawk! it was really funny- jill says he does this with his hair in front of a mirror almost every night. i'm not sure of she should be worried or not...
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dessert isle

after dinner at tim and jill's, we went off to the ice cream shop. every sunday night the kids get a yummy frozen treat. i dropped off diana and poco, we figured poco would not do very well at all with all the people at the ice cream shop...
here is a picture of aves starting to make a mess!

corn huskers

after our walk with poco we walked over to tim and jill's place. when we got there we saw this adorable scene: aves and tweets busy husking corn! how cute! soon the food was ready and we had a great meal- thanks girls!
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love and fear of poco

here's the thing: my nieces and nephew love our dog. they talk about him constantly, they are always asking questions about him, asking us when they get to see him next. they even always add him to the list when when do their prayers. there's just one problem: they are all deathly afraid of him! every time diana and i bring them around, they get totally freaked out! they aways refuse to touch him, and are rarely willing to get within five feet of him! during this visit we brought poco out to sandy pines, we even had him around during sunday dinner. the kids still refused to get anywhere near him. finally we had calmed them down enough to give it a try and actually touch him. it took about twenty minutes, but all three of them eventually petted poco. their bravery didn't last long because soon after they were right back to being scared of him!
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the other birthday dinner

though my birthday was the weekend before, diana and i headed up to grand rapids to see my family and celebrate it a week late. we me up with mom and dad at sandy pines, then we rode with them into wayland to have dinner for my birthday! tim, jill, and the kids came along as well and we had a fun time talking, playing, eating, and being silly with the kids!
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a stockers life for me

this summer i went back to work at the grocery store i worked in last summer. i wasn't real excited about it, but knew we could use the extra money. i was a bit behind in getting an application out there, so i had to settle for going back to the same place i was at last year- and boy did i regret it! i guess i forgot just how mind numbing and annoying this job is. i really dont like stocking shelves at all, but its ok, because at least the pay is crappy...
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the sushi challenge

recently diana and i have been trying to eat a little better. this involves trying to eat more fresh fruit and veggies, along with other meals that are a bit better for us. one idea that we had was to make some sushi! we both love sushi and were willing to give it a try. the only problem is that neither of us knew exactly what goes in sushi... so we decided to wing it! we got some ingredients together and tried our hand at making our own thing. they turned out pretty good, check it all out here!