There should be a new Set to Sea panel up tomorrow.
Eleanor and I have had a good couple of days. I've been trying my hand at some cooking - I made some quasi-enchiladas the other day with homemade red sauce, and yesterday I made a citrusy "caribbean style" chili, which came out so incredibly spicy that it scared us both. We went out and saw a concert on Friday, too - the headliner was Architecture in Helsinki, but I think Eleanor and I were most impressed by an opening act called The Blow, which consisted solely of a small mousy girl doing wild twitchy dances all over the stage and singing embarrassingly personal songs that sounded sort of like Suzanne Vega backed by breakbeats. Eleanor was so infatuated she bought their CD from the merch booth, and has now played it at least 11 times, according to iTunes.
So yeah, we found a kitten. On Saturday we were walking back from downtown, and as we were passing a big parking lot, we heard some distinctly mew-like sounds coming from under a bush by the street. Luckily I had a little led light on me (it came with the Swiss Army knife Eleanor got me for my birthday!) so we shined it under the bush and saw some tiny eyes looking back at us. After about twenty minutes of wrangling we caught the little thing and put it in a bag, and took it home. He's a tiny little grey boy kitten - very friendly, though a bit shy. We've pretty much decided to keep him - but this is the last one!
He's living on our screened-in back porch now, since we have to get him some tests, shots, and flea treatment before he mingles with our cats.
Momo and the kitten are staring at each other through the window. Hopefully they'll get along when they meet in person.
We put a lot of toys on the back porch for him to play with. He's a little afraid of most of them though! He's very tiny.
Here the kitten emerges from the kitten hideout we built! Some previous tenants made a little cat door into the workshop out on the back porch. Since the workshop is a little too dangerous for the kitten to run around in unchecked, we duct-taped a cardboard box on the other side, and filled it with towels. Presto, instant kitten fort! He spends a lot of time in there - he's scared to come out when we're not out on the porch with him. Again, he's very tiny.
Here's a little video of him running around and playing with a broom.
I met a certain baby last night. I think he was still a little cranky about the whole "being born" thing, but I'm sure he's going to get over that soon, cause he's got pretty awesome parents.
One thing Eleanor and I were a little sad about leaving behind all of the awesome Asian stores and restaurants when we left Savannah, but Athens almost makes up for it with its strong Mexican presence. There's a great little market hidden away just a few blocks from our house, so we have to start figuring out how to make Mexican food. We tried making chilaquiles last night, which is basically fried up tortillas, eggs and salsa... it was pretty excellent. We had prickly pear fruit on the side. Anybody have any beginner-level type Mexican recipes that you recommend?
Oh yeah, vegetarian or seafood-based recipes would be awesome.
Heh, the other day Eleanor pointed out the similarity between certain scenes in her "Beast Mother" comic, and the most recent "Set to Sea" panels. We got a sort of nervous chuckle out of this, and then Eleanor made up this "business card." I'm thinking we should use it as our official logo, because it totally sends the right message about our comics.
For the record, I've had my "injury to eye" scene planned since at least panel 10 or so, so fie to your accusations, Eleanor!
In less destructive and more creative news, our friends Mary Jessica and Robert are the proud owners of a brand new, factory fresh baby, who they've named Tommy. I've yet to see him in person, but I've seen the photos, and he's a baby to be reckoned with! I hope they are carefully monitoring him for any manifestations of superpowers. Best wishes to all three.
I don't know how appropriate it is to juxtapose newborn babies and injuries to eyes, but oh well.
No Set to Sea today. I have a good excuse - yesterday was my birthday! So I spent a good chunk of the day with Eleanor visiting at least 4 different Athens bars.
Now for the big present Eleanor made for me... Remember the flip doll Eleanor made of herself like a year ago? Well, now it has a partner!
Yes, that is a purple paisley bathrobe that is quite similar to one I actually have.
And the other side?
My friend Robert always did say I had the sleeping schedule of a dracula.
And now we present a small flip doll melodrama for your entertainment.
1. The happy young couple, with not a care in the world.
2. Little did the girl realize that her boyfriend was secretly a very dorky vampire!
3. Though filled with inner torment, she was forever trapped in his dark, geeky embrace.
Three updates in short succession? Will wonders never cease.
And now on an unrelated note, I will wax eloquent about "The Three Investigators." Have you heard of this series? It was a line of kids' mystery novels about three kid detectives, that were mostly written in the late 60s and early 70s. One of the kids was a chubby genius-type, one was athletic, and one was a bookwormish researcher. Lots of the mysteries they solved were of the occult varietiy - whispering mummies, talking skulls, etc. - although the solutions were usually mundane. It might just be nostalgia, but I remember the Three Investigators as a pretty sterling example of the kid detective novel, not least of all because the kids had a secret hideout hidden in a junkyard. It was an old trailer hidden deep inside a pile of old cars and machinery, and they had secret disguised entrances, like a big pipe, to get down to it. Dudes, I don't know about you, but when I was kid this was about my ultimate fantasy.
Anyway, the series actually started as "Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators." I'm not sure what Alfred Hitchcock has to do with kid detectives, but this was only one of about ten billion books that Hitchcock's name showed up on in the sixties and seventies. The kids would go to old Alfred to get his advice about particularly difficult clues. Later on they phased out Hitchcock (probably after kids forgot who he even was) and replaced him with a new mentor, a very fat genius fellow (in the vein of Mycroft Holmes or Nero Wolfe) who would never leave his house (which was a converted restaurant.)
Anyway, the other day I was organizing the few books I have (I mostly checked them out from the library as a kid) and noticed something that had escaped me previously - the Three Investigators books originally had a little logo on the spine with Hitchcock's famous silhouette:
But later on after they phased out Hitchcock, they sneakily replaced him with a keyhole logo:
If you're just skimming the bookshelf, you don't even notice the difference! Very sneaky, guys. Good save.
Anyway, I think the series is pretty much dead now, but if you see one of these books kicking around in a used bookstore or yardsale, I would advise you to pick it up... but then there'd be less out there for me to find!
It's been so long since I updated I almost forgot how!
I think Eleanor and I are now officially "settled" in Athens, though we still need a last bit of furniture and have a few "home improvement" type things to do. I'll hopefully have some pictures of the new house up soon for those that are interested. We've been getting to know the town and our neighborhood - and I've already seen two concerts! (The Mountain Goats and Of Montreal.) This is a pretty "happening" town, I just hope we can keep up.
Our friend Patrick Dean just wrapped up the comic he's been running for the last nine years in Athen's alt-weekly, the Flagpole. This makes me a little sad (especially since we just got here!) but I know he'll be doing bigger things very soon!
