Happy birthday, my love!

The best guy in the world (sorry ladies, I got him) is turning 27 today.
I love you, baby!

Almost here!

Don't forget! Next weekend is the first night of Crammed Organisms. We ended up having to give up on going, but if you're in the St. Louis area - you really should go. Looks like a blast!

"Let's agree on one thing first, ok? We're not buying a new car today" (Ant, 1PM today)

So how did we end up driving home in this?


He he, yeah, I guess you can't really walk into a dealership and just look at a car nowadays, can you? They badly want you to actually buy one.
Truth is, we were planning on buying a new car for a while now. Our old clunker (a 1991 Honda Accord) was not going to pass the upcoming smog test, had a dead AC and a passenger side window that won't roll down, it leaked oil, the transmission was dying and the breaks could use a break - you get the picture. Luckily, Mr. President was quite fond of us this tax year, so we didn't have to replace cluncker A with clunker B. I think the deal was officially sealed when they offered to take good old "Enterprise" (yep, that's what we called it) off our hands for a fair amount. We were contemplating this purchase for a long time, but to say that we were actually mentally ready for it - not really...
So what's the new Ward-mobile? It's a gunmetal grey Honda Civic LX, brand new (oh, the new car smell!) with extra warranty up the wazoo. I can't believe I'm saying this on a such a "family car", and considering the impractical sporty/manly/concept cars Ant kept finding (how? I'll never know) but we actually love it!
We were pretty set on a Toyota Yaris and were just going to take it around the block before we sign on the dotted line, but honestly - cute and affordable as it is - it handles like a cow (the car "sohevet ba'alia" if you have any Hebrew in you). Not a good feature when you live in LA. besides, the Civic was only about 2K more with a slightly larger engine, almost the same gas mileage and much much higher safety ratings, and it's smooth as butter.
I guess that you reach a certain stage in life, when you realize you've worked hard enough for long enough and you can afford to upgrade when it's worth it. From one bedroom to two bedrooms, from Ikea to West Elm and from a compact "youngster" car to something that can handle more than two people and their groceries. But man, I didn't realize we got there already.

Now, for the really important stuff - any geeky Sci-Fi name suggestions?

I love...

... How a scribble...


... Turns to this...

... Which turns to this...

... and then to this...

... and finally to these:
Yorick

Stella

Igor

and Olaf

(more pictures here)
These are the monsters of "Monstrously Nice", my submission to Crammed Organisms.
I love how they came out, but I swear - never again will I commit to something I so blatantly have no time to do. I had a month to create a portfolio and these guys, and for someone with a day job, well... not quite possible I'm afraid. Don't get me wrong, I'm super excited, super thankful and happy to have been accepted to the show, but I really finally need to learn how much I can do at any given time. I seem to always think I can cram more work into the time I have, and the end result is usually a massive lack of sleep, a filthy house and a very neglected husband. You'd really think that in twenty eight years (yeah, I almost forgot - it was my birthday last week) I'd learn my time-space limits. I need a Tardis, I really do...
And how are you? how are your creative juices doing these days?