Music Box


Thursday, July 31, 2008

Girls Gone Shopping


Soooo sick. I feel like a walking zombie today. Hot. Cloudy headed. Stuffed nose. In a word: dreadful. Actually it began the day before yesterday, the day of the latest So. Calif. earthquake. At 11:40am I was standing in the dining area of our home thinking a large truck was driving past, not realizing that an earthquake was making the light fixture sway and the dishes rattle and me feel so swoozy.


This miraculously was a far cry from last night. I was more than functional. Met the girls at the Grove for dinner and some shopping. Have been feeling a bit more inspired so brought along my camera hoping for some fun shots. Boy did they deliver.

Shopping was a slow meandering trek all over the Grove, while dinner was at a French restaurant on the Farmers Market side. While the everyone ordered salades I ventured into the unknown with my first taste of coq au vin. It was tres tasty!

After posting my last entry yesterday I sent a short note off to Jackie Huang of shadowbugs.com and he replied with a very nice hello back and included a link to an animated short he made called Birdon. (Thanks Jackie!) It's a very well done piece. Enjoy!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Long Time No Post: San Diego & Beyond


It feels like forever since I've posted anything. I'm constantly reminded of this everytime someone emails me asking 'what's goin' on?!' It's been so long in fact that I don't really even know where to begin. Thankfully I have my handy dandy photos to help jog my memory.

Okay so when last we left off....


Kenny was getting ready for his book signing at the Golden Apple on Melrose. Thanks to everyone {Burrell, Gus, Vel, Nicolette, Mike C, Mike M, Angele, Hilary, Lisa and everyone else I didn't mention cause I forgot your name. Sorry but you know who you are!} who were able to make it. We know it was a tough mid-week engagement, but we really appreciate you coming out for moral support!


We had an exciting time at the signing. That night I left early with Rhys to meet Kenny. I came down with the extra books and to help set up, but what actually happened was Kenny set up and I kept Rhys in line.


Hilary was gracious enough to come up extra early and stay at the house to meet Henry who was coming home early that evening from sports camp before driving down to meet us at the signing. Got all that?


Unfortunately Rhys decided to fall asleep just prior to our leaving and woke up as soon as I tried to move him into the car. He was up and there was no lulling him back to sleep. He was pretty well behaved in the beginning but things quickly went south with the passing of each hour. By the end of the evening he was racing up and down the aisles wired on his poison of choice Coca-Cola.


The subsequent days after the signing involved a lot of thinking on Kenny's part trying to decide whether or not to make the trip down to San Diego for ComicCon. The fact is that the ComicCon has progressively gotten bigger and bigger, and unless you plan well ahead it is next to impossible to get a booth. This time last year Kenny hadn't even anticipated having the book done much less ready in time for the July convention. Boy was he wrong! Anyhow we ended up going down, not once but twice. It was that much fun!

On Saturday we dropped the kids off with Hilary and John, and while they enjoyed a weekend of fun in the sun and delicious meals prepared by Auntie, Kenny and I made a peaceful trip down to San Diego. We got there in record time and with a couple of hours to spare before it officially opened at 9:30. We strolled the streets looking for breakfast



and were in awe at the multitudes that were already roaming around the venue.


Once we got into the main exhibition hall, I was both relieved and sad that the boys were not with us to experience it all. Just think Disneyland on it's busiest day and you'll know exactly what I mean.


It really did feel like Halloween in July most of the time.


On the one hand there was so much eye candy in every aisle {and fun stuff to do as the larger studios and companies spared no expense in erecting the most elaborate booths complete with game and viewing areas promoting their latest products} that you knew would just knock their socks off, and on the other so many people you would have had to handcuff them to you in order not to get lost.




Oh well there always next year. Better get those cuffs ready. I can't wait! Hopefully have a booth, and some rooms, or better yet rent a house for the week!

We bumped into Stephen Silver character designer for Kim Possible, and David Colman character designer for the Cleveland show also a co-worker of Kenny's. Here's a picture of David and Kenny in front of David's booth.


I was completely taken with Jackie Huang's shadowbugs. It was one of the few things I actually purchased during our trip.


They are the most amazing little bug sculptures. The set I finally settled on were of superheros which included Bad Bug (Batman), Huulk (the Hulk), Fe26 (Ironman), Lady Bug (Wonder Woman), and Super (Superman). So Cute! It wasn't until afterwards that I realized I should have had Kenny take a picture of me with the artist at his booth. Jackie also had the most amazing display fixture for his work. Comprised of cardboard from a large Ikea carton, glue and paint it was the most creative example of recycling at it's best. You can view this on Jackie's site which I've linked above.

In the midst of this madness the boys were lucky enough to have a two day swimfest








and we celebrated John's upcoming birthday with a fry-fest put on by chef Hilary. It was a wonderful afternoon spent with friends and family. We even had the pleasure of finally meeting Selena and her fiance Mike!



Finally as of today the website is still in progress. It's been a mad last couple of months for Kenny juggling work, family life and the extra circulars (book, promotionals and squeezing all those summer blockbusters in each week). Here's hoping that the site will be up and running in a few weeks.

And oh yeah, there was a tremendous earthquake yesterday. The biggest since the Northridge quake! We are so thankful that there was limited damage and no one was hurt.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Hands Free, really?

The other day on our way to picking Rhys, up I had the misfortune of driving behind a man who skirted the issue of handsfree by talking through the speaker of his phone. He held the phone up to his lips {Lets pause here for a minute. Pause. How in the world could he justify this manouver as safer than actually holding the phone up to his ear? It would be another issue entirely if he had placed the phone down -thus qualifying for the term "Hands Free"!} with one hand as the other steered the wheel of the car. He was the poster child for people who cannot and should not multi task, much less try to start by trying to drive and talk at the same time. He was weaving so badly and driving so slowly you would have thought he was drunk. I was really upset by this mainly because I was dumb enough to let him cut in front of me. So it's true no good deed goes unpunished!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

a Golden Book Signing


Last week Kenny was invited to participate in a group book signing hosted by Golden Apple. He'll be there to promote his new book 'Stop Making Crap'. The store is located on Melrose and this event is set for next Wed., July 23 from 6-9p, so if you're in the area definitely drop by to say hello. He's been working extra hard, the book is slowly making its way to the light of day. It can be found at at various indpendent stores across town and the website is being pieced together. I will give everyone an update once that is up and running.

Friday, July 11, 2008

happy birthday Kenny


This afternoon after lunch and some shopping with my parents we came home and I broke the key to the front door trying to get the door open! The darn thing has been giving us much grief for the past couple of weeks, making itself more and more difficult to turn the bolt. I guess the stress from turning it so hard finally wore the metal down on my key because it began to contort in the scariest manner until it broke into two. I was left holding onto one end and the other stuck in the key hole! Yikes. Catastrophe! Luckily I was able to devise a plan and Henry carried it out to perfection thus allowing us back into the house. Hip Hip Horray for Henry!

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Happy Fourth









We celebrated the Fourth with a casual BBQ with our extended family at my parents house. It was topped off with some fireworks courtesy of Jamie which ended the day perfectly!

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