Target

I enjoy my work, I really do. But there are times I just want to rest my creative mind, and do something else, instead. Thankfully, there's almost always something else that needs to be done.

And then, there are the days I just don't want to do much of anything. Today was one of those days.

I've been looking for a specific item, an action figure (if you must know!), one that can be found only at Target. I've been checking, off and on, over the past few months, waiting for it to appear. I think I just missed it last week (based on having seen other items from the same assortment) at the store that's closest to me, about a half-hour away. I checked again today, but without success.

I decided, though, if I was going to spend this day accomplishing nothing, I might as well find a way to make it interesting. So I decided I'd check every Target store within reasonable driving distance to see if I could find what I was looking for. It wasn't all that difficult, really — each store was no more than a half-hour away from the last. (That is, except for when I missed an exit in New Jersey and wound up in the Lincoln Tunnel, and then midtown Manhattan. First time I'd been back since I left my job in late 2002.) Several hours later, I'd been to seven different Target stores (three in New York, four in New Jersey), and found — and accomplished — absolutely nothing.

But I am content to have wasted this productive day in a most ridiculous way.

Tax

I haven't done this in ten years, perhaps longer, but I was all set to try to prepare my own Income Tax return this year, instead of taking it to the accountant — I really was. I'll admit, though, this measure was driven in part by desperation — it is now, as I write this, the fourth week in March, and I was embarrassed to be bringing everything to the accounting firm so late. (This happened last year, as well, but two weeks earlier.) That, and the $400 it will cost would be far better spent elsewhere.

"I'll just use last year's return as a guide," I thought to myself, naively. "I know it won't be easy, but how difficult can it be, really?"

One look at the amortization schedules from 2007 put a swift end to that idea. (I couldn't even find a copy of my 2008 return, which had been filed electronically.) I have equipment that was purchased last year, and perhaps the year before — I'm not sure I'd even know where to begin to sort all that out.

Instead, I spent the rest of the day gathering the paperwork to leave with the accounting firm. Let this be their headache.

Sketches: Blondie Goes To Hollywood

I'm not paid nearly enough for some of the work I do. Believe me, this isn't a display of hubris — it's an objective assessment! (This is a small publisher.) So it's in my best interests to limit the time I invest in these projects to a minimum. That said, though, I don't mind putting a bit more effort into the covers, where the work will show.

And so it was I came to spend most of the day working on this (which took more time than I had to spare).

Since this is a book about a long-running comic strip (sort of), that seemed like a good direction to go. I did a sketch to work out the basic idea, a page of comics, but that seemed a bit — dull. So I tilted it a bit, just to give it some tension and energy. I was concerned about straying too far from what would still be recognizable as a comics page, but I thought I could get away with it, given the subject of the book.

I've used primary colors — actually, process colors — to bring to mind the appearance of a comic strip. All I had to work with were photographs (I'm precluded from using any art from the comic strip) and only black-and-white photographs at that, so I've tinted them. I couldn't use the actual logo, either, so I put one together that is, shall we say, a reasonable facsimile.

Rose

I was genuinely surprised by the reactions of dismay — mind you, this was from other people in a pet store! — when they discovered I was bringing home a Tarantula as a pet. There was never any hesitation here, particularly not from my seven-year-old, who was very excited by the prospect. (The Hermit Crabs, sadly, did not survive the cold, and I suggested we might use the tank for something else.)

Say hello to Rose (named for that brilliant iridescent color on her abdomen).

Sublimated

Had you not been here, you might never have known that only a week ago we were covered in a thick, deep blanket of snow.

Happy Birthday!

It's Guy Kibbee's birthday today!

Impenetrable

I've just spent over an hour — over an hour! — trying to sort out my cell phone bill. I had been telling my wife that she needed to pay closer attention to how much she's been using the phone, but that warning was much too late — she's completely exhausted whatever rollover minutes we had accrued, and used more than twice the amount we were allotted last month (which means next month we'll have to pay more than twice what we usually do). Even making that determination was a confusing, bewildering process.

I've quietly increased our plan (an additional $20 per month), and with some research I was able to decrease our Text Messaging charges (by $10 per month). So it all evens out, almost.

Cold

The electricity was out here for the weekend — it went out on Friday morning, came back on Sunday afternoon. (As of yesterday, there were people in the region who were still waiting for power to be restored.) And you know, it might not have been so bad, if not for the fact that keeping an aquarium full of fish becomes an especially difficult proposition when the temperature in the house drops to just over 40 degrees.

A Few Days Ago

Sketches: Fifties Blondes (Again)

You know, I've forgotten where I left off with this project — it all seems so long ago. (It has been a difficult few days. More on that shortly.) But since I last wrote (and before the snow fell), I selected and placed the photos, and obsessed compulsively over the fine details. And here we are.