Spreading Smiles

Hello everyone. Absolutely exhausted after a long night at work, so we'll get through this quickly. The week was mostly good. Tuesday, we had a Spidey visit in Milwaukee. The kid was super cute and in total shock his favorite super hero arrived for his birthday. His family was very sweet and were so glad to see me. On our drive back, a woman was near us in the neighboring lane and looked over...I waved and she rolled down her window and yelled something at and finished it off with giving me the middle finger. WHAT?! WHY?? I couldn't figure out her issue. Sorta through me off the rest of the day.

Throughout the week, we've been excitingly preparing for our 7th annual lemonade and rummage sale. I love the thought of getting rid of a lot of stuff and Mia loves that we donate it to HAWS. Jill made macarons today and the other day, cat and dog treats. We're hoping for great weather and lots of people, because Spidey may make an appearance.

Friday, Mia decided it would be a great day to get up very early and go to the beach. Sure enough, we were up by 7:00am and hit up the Idle Isle in Muskego. The only ones there were people launching boats or a few kids playing at the playground. Mia literally had the entire beach to herself minus the gaggle of geese watching from a far. It was in the mid 50's so she certainly didn't swim, but she definitely enjoyed building sand castles, skipping stones and having fun.

Over the weekend, we had several Spidey visits booked for West Allis, Germantown, Sussex, Menomonee Falls and New Berlin.  Started with a car parade for a young lad. Swung by another little birthday boy who was just so shocked to see me, he just kept giving me high fives and hugs. He even wanted to throw a football :P He was so tiny and cute. We made our way to visit some twins in a car parade before taking a little break then later hitting up another young kiddo. His smile never left his face. So happy to meet me. We had a few other kids at his party want to take some photos and before long, we were off to our last stop visiting a shy little 4 year old girl. All in all, great Saturday meeting so many kids. We ended the night with sushi and a movie. Somewhere in there, Mia got to hang out with her friend Vida for an hour or so. Something she really needed to do. Haven't played with her buddy since March.

Sunday, we just relaxed and the girls continued making cookies, dog treats and cat treats for Mia's upcoming sale. I finally got a football kit design in for Elmbrook United. Turned out pretty good and I'll probably do an away kit one. Last night, we heard some horrible sounds from a baby deer crying out for help as a coyote trying to attack it, so I scared the jerk face away and the deer got away.

This week, more art, another interview and everything else leading up to the sale. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Web Crawling On the Web

Greetings everyone. Things have been pretty busy over here so I'm going to try and get this out quickly. Throughout the week, I've had some websites such as Yahoo, CinemaBlend.com, SyFiWired.com do some stories on this whole Spider-Man thing. It still shocks me when another outlet discovers me and decides to put together something on us. Yahoo! really surprised me, but I had nothing to do with CinemaBlend.com finding me on Twitter. SyFy contacted me over the weekend but still surprised me that they wanted to write up something.

With all the great things happening, my art is suffering majorly. I haven't been able to spend much time drawing or working on kit designs. With Mia completely finished with school, I should be able to get some more time in to work on commission pieces. The school year concluded I guess Friday? Who really knows. She didn't have a lot to do and by today, she turned in her books, picked up what's left of her school supplies, year book and art projects and said so long for the year. What a weird school year she had. A lot of parents who were sort of oblivious to the amount of work that goes into teaching didn't expect home schooling to be so difficult. I've always understood and appreciated them. They really do deal with a lot so if anything good could come from the Covid-19 pandemic, it truly is that people started showing respect towards educators. Here's to hoping for a better 4th grade come Fall. Till then, we'll try to make the most out of the Summer.

Over the weekend, we had a handful of Spidey visits throughout Saturday. Participating in a 90 year old's birthday car parade was pretty incredible. The car parade was huge and he was just super thrilled so see so many people and was definitely surprised to see Spider-Man. We had a few other visits that day and caught up with some friends we haven't seen in over a year before calling it a night. One of my favorite visits from Saturday was meeting this little boy wearing a super hero shirt with a picture of me on it, and he kept looking at it repeatedly to see if I am the real Spider-Man. He was super cute. It still surprises me how many people still want a Spidey visit, but we definitely try to make as many as we can. We watched Onward before ending our Saturday.

Today, I've got a visit in Milwaukee for a little boy who's going to be super excited to meet his favorite super-hero. Hoping to get some work going on art. Mia's hanging with friends later this week as well and we hope to attempt to get to this beach this week if A-the weather allows and B-it's not as busy.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

BLM

As much as I want this to be a fun little recap of the week (and we'll get to that) I have a lot to address that you may or may not agree with. Things are getting tense in the country following the murder by George Floyd by a cop. He was unarmed and never had a chance to live with a knee to the back of the head for 7 minutes cutting off his air supply. He had two children that he'll never see again. This came only recent after a jogger was gunned down by two civilians claiming an African American "could" have been stealing. Racism is absolutely disgusting and it's hard to believe it's still an issue in this country. Everything is an absolute mess with a dictator for a President that doesn't seem to see the real issues that are going on. Yes, there are looters who are using this platform to destroy property (that he cares most about) but the bigger issue is cops/police not being held accountable for their actions. Today, Trump had peaceful protestors pepper sprayed in DC so he could stand in front of St John's church holding a Bible upside down for a photo op. Not even his own but a borrowed Bible from the church. Even the archbishop didn't appreciate the move. Today in Waukesha, there were peaceful protestors close to Jill's studio as well as not too far from my work. Our management was a little concerned but we were safe. You know, mostly because they were PEACEFULLY protesting.

Racism has always been something that disgusted me. Educating Mia on the issue is tricky but very important. She said "why would anyone have a problem with someone over the color of their skin. Makes no sense. Can't everyone just get along?" Pretty much, kid. Cities all over have seen some pretty ugly things over this major issue and I hope things can improve before it continues to divide people and communities. Alright, enough of that for now.

Over the week, we continued our home schooling. Now on our last week of school. We had some Spidey visits and got to see the Fox6 piece they did on Spider-Man. For the short time they were with us including the Zoom meeting, it turned out pretty awesome. Thursday, Mia got a quick visit with Cecilia before she goes to Florida for a month. The two haven't hung out since this whole thing started. Hopefully when she returns, things improve and they can see each other again. Thursday night, Mia and I watched the last Star Wars. It was weird but shouldn't be hated as much as it is.

We had some Spidey stops Saturday, a little pre-anniversary sushi and we watched Spies in Disguise. Not a bad movie. Sunday, we cleaned the entire basement. A project we've been putting off for years. We're preparing to sell a bunch of Mia's stuff and other things in a Summer garage sale.

This week, more art, Spider-Man visits and hopefully more justice for those seeking it in these dark times following the recent racist murder. That's all for now, thanks for reading!