Happiness is...

Finally getting dead center!

Over the last four years Ian and I have gone to the PNE and every year I've lain down a few bucks to take my chance at the crossbow shoot on the midway. I've come really close to winning in the past, usually off by just a few centimeters. Tonight I got it in three. That stuffed poochie is all mine baby!

A really wonderful day.

Having a bugger of time trying to get to sleep, freaking out over these pages and then I hear a familiar tittering outside. Racoon family turns up as usual, notices the lumber has been moved and sure enough, they make a b-line for for the new fort. They sniff about and right before they disappear into the bushes, grandpa racoon staddles a beam by the fort's entrance.

Scoot scoot.

And of course my camera decides to jam up right then.

So today we notice all the lumber has been moved. It seems the kids used it to build a fort.

In our parking space.

Today Ian and I went to the beach to watch the sun go down. It had already gone by the time we got there but we stayed for about an hour watching all the colours disolve into stars. Behind us a group of french girls were playing frisbee... badly. One girl was trying to smoke while playing. We kept flinching with every pass expecting to get hit by their awful aim.

Later we walked up Davie and stopped at a McDonalds. While Ian ordered I grabbed a table. At the table behind me sat an older guy, drunk and sleepy singing with his gravelly voice:

"Just between you and me
Baby I know our love will be,
Just between you and me
Always I know our love will be,
Just between you...just between you and me..."

Afterwards we went to the Safeway to pick up some cat food and dish soap. There were two very long line ups due to their only being two cashiers on duty. We waited a good twenty plus minutes for our turn. Behind us another group of girls (not french) were debating whether they should just go to McDonalds.

"Oh god, I've eaten there every day this week, nu-uh."
"But this is taking so long and I'm so hungry!"

The girl at the checkout was deft at disarmament, asking us right away in a gentle, tired voice if we had waited long. We politely told her that we had but it was okay. She then said that six people had quit that day so they were a little understaffed.

On the way out I scanned their message board and saw an index card advertising past life exploration sessions.

Monday, I'm making an appointment to get this damn headache sorted out.

I am so hooked on Cowboy Bebop. I saw the movie a few months ago on cable and loved it. You can imagine how happy I was to hear there was a series. And another one in the works! Yeah, I'm a hermit living in a cave on the dark side of the moon.

It looks like our trip to Spain is a go. We'll be in Gijon for the convention from October 12 through the 16th and after that we'll be heading over to London to toodle about for a few days. I'll have to figure out the paperwork for selling pages there. Hope it's not too nuts.

Word Under the Street is coming up on Sunday September 25th. I'll be doing a portfolio review with a few other creators so if anyone wants some pointers/advice then please stop by. Oh crap, I think the Garbage Can Art Contest is on the same day! I need a better calendar. Maybe I can swing both events.

The heat has returned and I'm back working in the living room. The cooler weather was nice while it was here.

This morning I woke to the sounds of neighbourhood kids crunching on the stone covered alley under our window. No biggie, they usually like to scramble through there but then I heard the sounds of wood clunking around and being hammered on. I slowly got up to have a look. In the past they've played with this small pile of fence wood that's been sitting there unused for ages, once I asked them not to for reasons I didn't want to come right out and say (I'll get to into that in a moment), but there was an adult present this time just hammering away on some project with kids hovering about being helpful. Not sure what they plan on making with this old wood but man did I really want to tell them that the local racoons regularly scooch on it. Maybe masturbation is too strong a word, maybe grandpa racoon just likes the feel of pressure treated wood on his furry nether regions and that's why he stretches out across the boards every morning and does this odd little rocking motion... hey, I'm no animal expert, I just happen to be up when they start with the racket.

I'm such a misanthrope.

RAIN!

The heavens have opened up and disgourged its magnificent bounty! I'm sorely tempted to rip off all my clothes and go running through it but I have to work tomorrow so I'll just have to be content to let the hypnotic rythyms lull me to sleep.

Life is nice.

Christ, the last two weeks have been a sweltering nightmare punctuated by more chainsaws (this time from the building management) and children on some Screaming Marathon of Hope in their backyard pool.

I do like warm weather, it certainly beats the finger numbing cold of winter but it would be really nice to have all this heat accompanied by things like the odd cloud, a refreshing rain or heck, even a BREEZE. The office has been impossible to work in. Three fans going, the windows full open and nothing but dried out eyes. The warm air just gets moved around.

So I've set up shop in the living room at home where the trees have been providing some lovely shade (or at least until this morning when the forementioned chainsaws came out). It's not the best for my back but it's getting work done.

This past weekend was broken up by lots of last minute errands with my sister Vicky to get her ready for her trip to Finland (one of our cousins is getting married). I pulled a couple of all nighters on Sunday and Monday night to catch up but still was left with six pages in various stages of completion (I tend to bounce instead of going page by page) which just made me cranky as hell. By the time for Vic's departure on Tuesday evening I'd had about two hours sleep in as many days. We went to the airport together and had a teary goodbye. She was bouncing off the walls with excitement over her stopovers in London and I was so damn happy for her. She's been studying art and art history in a dull suburban hell for years and finally she gets to see some real civilization. It's so inspiring and I can't wait to go with Ian in the fall for a quick walk about.

So after seeing her off I returned home and jumped into bed at around ten, slept a bit fitfully, then waking up at 3 am, a couple of hours before I'd hoped to get up, I decided to just get back to work. Kissed Ian goodnight as he retired and got out my lapboard. The chainsaws and woodchippers started up at around 9am. I'm guessing insurance companies have changed their policies again because it seems everyone is now freaking out over liability issues regarding overhanging branches damaging cars. Here's an idea, maybe give car thieves longer sentences instead of constantly turfing them over and over again like they do in this province? Maybe?

Anyway, at the wire by 2pm and there's still two pages to go! I hate not having a complete pack for Fed Ex. I hand off what's done to Ian who has just gotten up for his appointment with his agent and I get ready to hit the sack. But then landscapers appear right outside our windows on tall ladders armed with various cutting tools. I decide to wait them out because no way can I sleep through this. I am so damn tired. Not just the physical kind either but that intense, deep kind of tired that makes you anxious about everything. Anxious about guys with chainsaws looking into your windows to see if there's anything worth stealing and why the hell haven't you gotten content insurance yet what with the annoying smells of pot floating from neighbour's apartments at night making you wonder if some stoner will fall asleep with a pan left on the stove and how the hell are you going to get the cat from under the bed when the fire alarms go off? Anxious about that weird headache in your right temple that's been going on for the last four days and is it stress or wisdom tooth related and how long will an extraction take out of the schedule and can it wait until your next vacation? What if it's a tumour? It feels kind of weird and squishy in there. And of course you can't say that without hearing Ahnold reply "id's naht a toomah!" And why the hell did you watch Kindergarten Cop anyway? What a terrible movie!

I didn't get into the anxiety over being alive and the existential angst that usually pops up at these times because fortunately for me the phone rang and it was Vic: "I only have a minute of time on this thing but I'm in a big red phone booth right outside of Westminster Abbey! I'm here!" We both do the girly squeal of delight. "I got in fine and needed to get some air and I just walked by Big Ben and every corner is something old and historical! It's amazing! I'm going to see Platform Nine and Three Quarters tomorrow morning on my way to the airport!"

Well that just made everything all right.

I did manage to get a few hours sleep in. I woke up at around eleven to hang out with Ian who I have missed dearly over the last few days. We had a fabulous dinner and a nice 3 am walk through the hood. Picked up a copy of Scientific American and another bridal mag at Shopper's Drug Mart (addictive little buggers!). For no reason I also picked up a cup noodle that was on sale. Sometimes you just have to get one of those things. Maybe I'll eat it tomorrow and quickly regret the teeth buzzing from the MSG. What the hell.

Now for some real sleep...