Bounce

Greetings. So unfortunately we saw a return of the bitterly cold temps again (great). Which meant frigid walks with my dog, Remi. Nothing more motivating to get out of bed, then to think "gee, I wonder how many layers I can get on?" Still not as bad as what Atlanta and the rest of the coast got. My friend is stuck at the ATL airport and has been there for over 24 hours, waiting to fly to Chile.  A few days ago, my friend, her kid and myself with Mia went to the trampoline park and had a blast :) Mia started out not really into it, but explored the ball pit, and had a lot of fun. Soon, my friend showed up. Her little boy mostly liked rolling around, and didn't really get into jumping. Mia even showed him how to. While playing in the foam pit, Mia decided it would be more fun to build an igloo outside of the pit. Hilarious AND practical too. She loved it when I would try to bounce her from a sitting postiion up in the air. So if you've got a kid under 5, take then to tot time thursday and tuesday mornings. Only 6 dollars for an HOUR :)
Yesterday, I grabbed lunch with my friend Micaela and Mia at a coffee shop down the road from my parents. It was good catching up, since I haven't seen her since Christmas eve when she stopped in the store for a minute. Mia (whom I'm quite proud of) even played nicely with Micaela and could chat comfortably with her. Normally around people she doesn't see that often, she's shy. It's understandable. Kids are all shy. Most of them, so I get it, but instantly, she was very good. Same with my friend Nicole, she sees her every so often and is totally cool with her.

After lunch, watched the Chelsea Vs West Ham game. Not a good one, but the point will have to do with the 0-0 draw. Lots of shots, but they packed their attacking third with defenders. Goalie was solid, and had a ton of help. Lampard had a good shot at the end, but it went straight at the goalie. Shoulda went far right.

Stopped at US Cellular on the way home. My phone battery hasn't been lasting as long ( I was told its because it's been cold) but I wanted to take advantage of their "battery swap" program, that allows you to swap out up to 4 batteries in 2 years. Well guess who doesn't do that program anymore?? Bah..Guess I'll have to deal with it for now. I'll have to wait till the fall when I'm up for an upgrade and get either the s4, the NEW s5 when it comes out, or suck it up and get an iPhone (which I have doubts of doing).
Got my copy of Metropole from the Lawrence Arms plus shirt and beer coozy. 4 or so days ago, I got the confirmation for the digital download.  I haven't been able to get a solid listen in. I put it in the car but Mia prefers the music either really low, or off when we drive. It's punk rock, so thats not a surprise. When I have listened to it twice, I'll give you a review. It's been 8 years since their last full length and a good 4 or so years since their EP Buttsweat and Tears came out. I've waited a long time for this.

Last before I go, I posted on Instagram a photo of Mia doing her best impression of defender David Luiz from Chelsea last weekend, and within 24 hours it had picked up a TON of likes including the man himself David LUIZ. I was stoked he saw it and found it funny.

Okay that's all for now, thanks for reading

In Vein

Evening folks. Going to make this one as quick as possible. I gotta get up at 5:30am to take my faithful buddy Remi out for a walk before working the zombie shift at 7am.  Afterwards, it's Thanksgiving dinner with my family (super excited by the way), plus celebrating my parent's birthdays. Speaking of which,  successfully completed my Dad's Stamkos picture. My final thoughts on it, is that it's an acceptable attempt at a rather tricky picture. I'd post it here, but had issues with the Nikon D70 shooting a picture. This was my third hockey picture. The previous two were of my two brothers. Both turned out pretty good. So this one, I had some tough issues getting the sizing just right. It still feels a bit compacted on paper but I hope my Dad likes it. The detail is defiantly there and overall, it's passable.  Should be fun seeing everyone Thursday after work. May even get to kick the ball around with my bro's if the weather is decent.

In other news, my brand new Samsung Galaxy sII came in the mail the other day. Activated it with Mia  at US Cellular. Nice people working there. Mia was extra awesome and behaved quite well. Lately she's been letting her shy guard down some. Been saying "hi" more often to new people. Anyways, the phone is pretty great. Taking time to get used to a full-touch Android smart phone since I've used real basic stuff for 10 years. My first phone played "oh Canada" for it's ring tone and I thought THAT was real cool. Haven't put a lot of apps on it yet. Just in the experimental stages with the awesome device. The camera is real great too.

Heading to Illinois this weekend for the Thanksgiving holiday. Hopefully the following weekend I can hit up the indoor soccer place and play a game. Speaking of soccer, totally bummed Robbie, De Mateo was axed from Chelsea FC today and replaced with a douche from Liverpool. The team lost a fantastic manager and I surely hope this new temporary manager can get the team's act together and win some games!!

Okay that's all for now. Short and sweet. Off to bed. Have a great holiday everyone.

This Is Only A Test

Hello friends and loyal readers. Or... casual readers. Taking a break from drawing at the moment. Really kicking the Steve Stamkos portrait for my dad into high gear. Also, did a little work on the soccer home jersey. It's going be interesting. It's good to being able to put some creative energy into some art. Sometimes I feel like my days at work only destroy the already numb creative brain sells in the ol' noggin. Hence, why I need art in every way. I need to be doing something creative as often as possible. And that's a fact. Would be great if I could do it for a living. You know, actually be excited to go to work for once. Wonder what that's like. We carved pumpkins with my family over the weekend. As you can tell from the picture, Jill and myself carved Elmo and Cookie Monster. My sister with the help of Jill carved Big Bird. I'm quite happy with how they turned out.

Mia had a doc appt today. Would love to tell you what he weight/height is, but frankly, she was incredibly upset the whole time that I could barely hear the measurements. It started with the scale. She's much too big for the small one they used to be able to lay her on. I stood her up on the "big girl" one and she pretty much lost it. She used to be able to handle the head measurements and such, but she just freaked the HELL out. She's at the age where she remembered what the doctor and assistant do when we come in for the visit. Her next visit is at 2 years old, so hopefully we will be able to explain to her the situation and she'll handle it better, but it doesn't sound like it'll be that easy. Her and I kicked the ball around earlier today. Weather was perfect for some soccer. Couldn't have been better. She even did some dribbling around with her ball.

Other then that, nothing else to talk about. I defiantly would like to get the Samsung Galaxy S2. It's on sale currently online at the US Cellular site, but I need to go into the actual store to use my discount so hopefully we can work around or with the online deal for the phone. If I have to order it, then fine, I just want to get the phone and use my discount :)

That's all for now. Thanks for reading