Summer Round Up

Ben & Grace
Originally uploaded by xadrian.

Holy crap it's been three weeks. You'd think something big would have happened.

Well, yes a few things have. For one, the cat's out of the bag about who I've been seeing since Christmas. Miss LA's sister Grace. Facts are, she's much younger than me, it's Ms. A's girlfriend's sister, yes it's weird. It's been weird for a while, but I think without weird, this house would fall apart.

Grace is a Geek, like me. We enjoy all the same things, have a lot of the same beliefs, taste in music and love of science, literature and the online life. A good date night for us is Italian take out, watching Empire Strikes Back and sorting Lego. She knows more about video games and Harry Potter than I do and is probably the only one who could beat me at Star Wars trivia. I care for her a great deal and I'm really glad we found each other. I'm happy.

There was a time when we fretted over who knew about it, but her parents and mine have been told so now we don't have any reason to be secretive other than what would be considered respectful to friends and family. Hence, I probably won't talk about us a lot. Unless of course something bad happens and then I'm milking the angst.

So that's what's been keeping me occupied for the last half year. Along with the regular BGF goodness, it's always an adventure 'round these parts.

Ms. A is doing well with roller derby. She's getting beat to shit with every practice, but her chances of making a team in October are better than average based not just on logistics and available skaters, but also her skating ability and can-do attitude. She may only last one season before suffering a gruesome injury, but she'll be making her little girl want to be like her mommy and that's important.

Both kids start school in about a month. They have as many small adventures each day as Ms. A can find. Sometimes I'll go with them, some times Miss LA will go, but it's always something. Even if it's an unusual craft or baking opportunity at home, she's making their summer memorable. We've been trying to limit their TV and video game time and have completely - and sadly for me - weened G-man off Lego Star Wars (which was his life's blood for a long time.) LMA has her own email now which she uses to ask friends to go to the pool or talk to her old teacher about what she's doing over the break.

Next she'll be writing a thesis paper and I'll wonder why my knees hurt so bad.

Speaking of hurts, I'm all good now. Recently I had that chest pain thing that turned out to be a chest wall injury. It sounds like a hypochondriac diagnosis, but I was told my paternal grandmother had this happen at one point and she also thought it was a heart attack. Weird.

I've watched a little TV, but no reviews for the summer shows. I'll be back to covering regular seasons of Fringe and Dollhouse when they pick back up. If you haven't watched Torchwood and you missed the mini-series, you missed a really well done show. I'll be on Television Zombies, I believe episode 93, which should be next week so stay tuned.

Robot Portrait requests have died off. The 100 Artists Project is dead. I don't even know what to do with the sketchbook that's out there. I'm sure it could be worth something to someone, but I'm tired of pushing that dead horse around. I'm still drawing when I can, writing even less, as evidenced by the gap on this site.

And as for this blog, it really doesn't have a focus, and I apologize; to myself and anyone reading it. It's more a journal, a diary. I never wanted it to be something I'd update every 3 hours with news or political updates or anything. It was supposed to be when I felt like it, or when something happened in my life. I'm just not sure I'm writing for the right reasons. It was for the family, but I always thought it could be more and when that fails to pan out time and again, I get maudlin over the purpose and reason.

Speaking of writing, I've got a little time killer with Grace on Twitter. We made fake IDs for John Adams and his wife Abigail. If you don't know, the two are relatively famous for the letters they exchanged. Considering the number of text messages we've sent to each other, it seemed like it might be fun to read how they did roughly the same thing in late 1700s. So, if you're on Twitter, come find john_adams_jr and Abigail_S_Adams. Their letters are sweet and endearing, and frankly written a little oddly.

And as usual, spread the word about Robot Portraits, the watercolors are working out great. Better get one while I still remotely enjoy doing them.

That's all for now. Carry on.