drew this on Saturday when I took t he metro down to the ceramics studio. inside the train car.

more of the same from yesterday. I don't have the original of this one b/c it sucked so bad, lol

So, tried to draw Benedict as the green guy from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.


I think I need to bulk up his clothes more. And possibly his chest. And reposition the axe.

His body in back and breast was strong, his belly and waist were very small, and all his features full clean.[...]fitting close to his sides was a straight coat with a simple mantle above it and well lined with gay and bright furs, as was also his hood hanging about his locks and round his shoulders; and he had hosen of that same green on his calves, and bright spurs of gold, that hung down his legs upon silk borders, richly striped... </i.

Shout those magic words in Philly, and you will make friends almost instantly. The World Series had ended at that point, though. It was also during the SEPTA strike, and despite all of the suck that the city had endured that week, they were nice. (If no one spoke "cheesesteak talk," we could've been in a lot more trouble.)

"You know, this is either America ten years ago or Canada today."

I got a comment about my last comic saying that it condoned smoking, but I don't, that is nonsense! You should also not lasso cats out of trees, if that doesn't go without saying. Historical smoking is another matter, go ahead and have a smoke in the trench, but I advise against lighting three cigarettes at night.

Remembrance Day always makes me ruminative about the place of history in our current consciences, because it is one of the few holidays where we are explicitly told listen you have to remember this thing that happened ok and, one, people pay attention, two, there is nothing jamming the line like bbq's or parties or football games or chocolate eggs or presents. History: You should give a shit, who knew.

Just so we are clear though, I don't really care about Queen Victoria's birthday either so go ahead and slam it back on May 24 weekend, fireworks and the whole bit. Honestly we should all get free corgis on Victoria Day.

Nothing interesting to post today, so here are the boys giving their thoughts on the Shake Weight For Men.

I've always hated November and never really knew why, but yesterday it was scientifically proven that November just sucks. So Monday on a whim I decided to come home to surprise my mom as she'd just gotten back from a trip to Argentina. I set up a swish looking table with flowers and everything and sat my ass in front of a computer and enjoyed the joys of a fullscreen TV and made time for my mom to come home from work before I put out delicious food.

Imagine my surprise when my mom shows up three hours early. Looking absolutely distraught.

Her cat had a stroke while she was away.

My mom was absolutely shaken. I freeze up. I don't really know how to be comforting. So I try to be there for my mom as much as I can and she was broken over this. Both the fact that her cat had a stroke and that she "wasn't here for it" really weighed on her. She was in really, really bad shape and all I could do was try and be reassuring without really knowing how. She takes me to the vet and it's clear the kitty was not in a good shape. They had all sorts of tubes coming out of her, and when they so much as opened her penn she started seizing. It sucked to try and tell my mom her cat was obviously going to pull through just fine when she obviously was not, but at the time I don't think that's what my mom was wanting to hear.

Yesterday my mom came in early again, absolutely ashen. I thought she was going to tell me her cat had died but in a way, it was worse.

They were going to have to put her to sleep.

I went straight for the 'second opinion' but my mom had beaten me to it and already gotten one. So yesterday we, for the first time ever, put an animal to sleep. Well, once we put a guinea pig to sleep but that wasn't really the same. It was grizzly. My mom holding her cat which immediately began to seize after it was taken out of the oxygen, her body going limp in my mom's arms as she cried and cried. I think I lost it when my mom said 'I can feel her purring! She's purring!' This cat, Duchess, was one of those cats that you so much as had to sneeze in her direction and she'd start purring. She loved being held and loved everyone. So hearing my mom say she was purring when the vet just finished filling the syringe with the thing that would kill her was too much, even for me, and I lost it too. She spazzed one last time and that was that. The vet was smart. Immediately afterwards when they took Duchess' body away they led my mom into the room where they keep all the animals. She played with some of the dogs and the cats and the puppies and the kittens and cheered up some. Then something very strange happened. We went for dinner and talked about everything but what had just happened. For me this is okay, for me this is normal. But I wasn't the one holding the cat, it wasn't my cat that had just died, and my mom's a lot more open about her emotions than I am.

To those of you who have had to put animals to sleep, what did you need afterwards? What did you most want for people to do? I'm at a loss. I don't know if she wants to talk about it, doesn't want to talk about it, if she really wants another cat, if she doesn't. I'm torn up over her dying, but it's not the same thing. I try to ask myself what would I want if one of my dogs died but I honestly can't imagine that. So can I do for her right now? What does she need right now?

This weekend Stiv, Isa and I were meant to go to visit Lizzie in VA but I just don't know how I feel about leaving my mom alone right now.

So Krista's friend saw that 'inspired by the Sonic costume' pic I did and demanded him with his super friend Zac Efron. Durrr.