The other day, I got this huge box. It was large and I was not expecting a box. Now, given the nature of my work, sometimes, getting boxes means that I’m getting a particularly zany submission. So my first reaction was “UH OH.”

But then I looked at it and it was addressed to me directly and not to “submissions editor.” And the “from” label was something about beverages. Beverages! Had I ordered something from Cocktail Kingdom and forgotten about it?

Then I noticed that it was posted from Chicago. And I remembered that karnythia had said something about sending me some mead.

WIN. This stuff is coming to Connecticut with me this weekend. One of them is a bottle of Chocolate mead and one is a bottle of hibiscus.

So then just a little while ago, I get ANOTHER PACKAGE. ANOTHER, IN THE SAME WEEK, YOU ASK.

GOD YES.

I was still not expecting a package but this one was a little easier to put together because the “from” address on the package was “ALEPH AND BETH.”

I opened the box.

GIANT CORNUCOPIA OF SWEDISH CANDIES.

In short, YOU PEOPLE ARE AWESOME AND NOW I HAVE MEAD AND CHOCOLATE.

Seriously, I have the best friends ever from the internet. <3

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katieupsidedown

rainy_day

erato

katieupsidedown picked me up at the airport, and we went back to her apartment where I met her adorable and very paranoid dog, Rufus, and the cat she is fostering, Mishka, who is black and was hiding under the bed, so I didn’t so much meet her as sort of see her eyes reflecting back in the darkness.

Then we got on the bus, which is apparently an unheard of rarity in Austin, and took it down to First Thursday on South Congress, which is like a sort of street fair/craft show outdoors ones a month. We went out to a local restaurant called South Congress Cafe, and got pretty nice salads and beers, and erato caught up with us, and then walked around looking at the stores and craft stalls and a trailer for the animal rescue that Mishka is from.

After the candy store, we headed to a bus stop, where we waited for a very long time before discovering we were waiting for the wrong bus.

While we were doing this, I opened one of the candies I bought, which was called an Idaho Spud:

So, once we realized we were in the wrong place, we called a cab, and erato left us, and we went out to a local bar called the Gibson, which had a pretty nice whiskey selection as well as a pretty nice beer selection, so I had a Manhattan and then some beers, and katieupsidedown and I chatted until closing time, and then went back to her place and chatted some more.

It is always really awesome to meet people I’ve known online for so long and discover that they are just as awesome in person as they are on the internet.

More soon! With more pictures.

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Two

liret is working on a column about ice cream for Nommable, too. We discussed naming her column last night. Here’s how it went:

jess: (10:33:10 PM) I am trying to think of an overarching title for these ice cream posts
tea: (10:33:45 PM) you could do them lemony snicket style and make each of them “i scream for…”
jess: (10:34:05 PM) I could!
jess: (10:39:52 PM) or something like ‘eating new england’ which I could also use for donut and cupcake places
jess: (10:40:07 PM) there needs to be a word specifically for eating dessert.
jess: (10:40:27 PM) I suppose there’s snacking
tea: (10:40:58 PM) devouring?
jess: (10:41:20 PM) I like that because it makes me sound like a dinosaur
tea: (10:41:47 PM) yes
tea: (10:42:02 PM) that’s because you are a dinosaur
jess: (10:42:28 PM) How did you find out my secret identity?
tea: (10:42:46 PM) it’s the very small arms
jess: (10:43:17 PM) and the big head
tea: (10:43:22 PM) yes
tea: (10:43:27 PM) and the scales
tea: (10:43:30 PM) and the eating people
jess: (10:43:36 PM) well, yes
jess: (10:43:44 PM) that last one might have been a bit careless of me
jess: (10:44:09 PM) but it is hard to remember, since my brain is the size of a walnut
tea: (10:44:46 PM) i love you
jess: (10:45:03 PM) I eat you!
jess: (10:45:10 PM) No, wait, love. I meant love.
tea: (10:45:24 PM) BUT I AM SO TASTEY
jess: (10:45:30 PM) nom nom nom
jess: (10:45:56 PM) do not be offended by my cultural dialect that makes me say ‘eat’ when I really mean ‘eat’
tea: (10:46:29 PM) THAT SOUNDS LIKE A CERTAIN ROBOT I KNOW
jess: (10:47:47 PM) Robots are smart! Except for the part where they destroy instead of devour.

That comment about robots at the end is a reference to Skin Horse, btw. The strip that is referencing is hanging on my wall.

So then I was talking to my friend Steve. Remember Steve? If you don’t, you can read about him here. Steve is awesome and he’s in a new band. Here is their rendition of Folsom Prison Blues:

(Steve is on keyboard so you don’t see a lot of him in this but I figured I would post it anyway)

So then we were talking about an original song he played last night at an open mic, and then we wrote the most awesome song ever:

MY ICE CREAM IS MELTING BUT MY ARMS ARE SO SMALL.
I CAN’T SEEM TO MAKE IT REACH MY MOUTH AT ALL
MY NAME STRIKES FEAR INTO EVERY DINOSAUR.
BUT MY CHERRY VANILLA’S DRIPPING ON THE FLOOR.

As you can tell, it is sort of about Jess.

Tea: that is how he became extinct
Steve: Died with a cone in its claw. Alas.
Tea: poor t-rex, we hardly knew ye
Steve: And thanks to that one movie, velociraptors kinda stole their thunder.

I’m not sure what it MEANS, but SOMETHING, SURELY.

Anyway, there has been a dearth of actual ice cream as I went out with my mom for mango sangria and ceviche. YUM. My father says that is not as good as White Castle and he is disappointed I went without him, though :-(

I really, really need to get back into drawing comics. I have half of a one done for joeymichaels and I keep having ideas. So many things I like to do, DAYS WHY DON’T YOU HAVE THIRTY-TEN HOURS?

I think that is all for now! May your dreams be full of ice-cream-eating dinosaurs!

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On many Mondays, I make a very long trek out to Brooklyn to L Nichols’ home for a drawing night with a bunch of cartoonists. I started going because Margo and Darryl invited me to come, and I’ve been really enjoying it! We do drawing and talking and lately some of the group has been beginning to play D&D.

I can’t play D&D, because I have to leave pretty early if I want to get home in time, but I enjoy helping by making completely useless comments.

Yesterday, L was trying to decide on a good monster for a level 1 party. I suggested a lot of helpful things like a pumpkin and a toothbrush and finally I suggested an angry spoon.

Somehow, from angry spoon, Darryl come up with a new comic character: “Judgmental Dad Spoon.”

Then we got to discussing how when cartoonists get together, there are always all these really funny ideas that never get written down, because everyone is too busy working on their own thing. So I decided I would help by drawing Judgmental Dad Spoon.

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So, yesterday, Rina asked me to come over to watch the TV show “Ghost Hunters” with her, because they were featuring a lighthouse where she and Brendan once stayed. We were meaning to draw as well. but mostly we drank wine and watched the pretty thunderstorm and Rina made some kickass soup.

But I did draw Rina looking out the lighthouse window! With part of the impromptu Lighthouse Rap she performed (the part I could remember enough to write down).

I keep having more stuff to post about than I actually get around to posting, boo. More later!

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When I was a little kid, my favorite game would be to sit with my friends and both draw the same thing at the same time.

None of my friends liked this game. They would usually get bored after the first one. I have a sketchbook from when I was a kid, where I used to have “theme pages.” There was a clown page and a cheerleader page and some other pages, but those are the ones I remember. I would ask my friends to add their doodles of clowns or cheerleaders or whatever to the appropriate page. Some of them humored me. Some of them didn’t even go that far.

But tonight, Rina came over and we drew things!

Rina has been doing this neato series of comic versions of tweets, and she worked on some of those. Then I did some, too, but mostly, I drew pictures of Rina drawing! And here I will reveal the secret, centuries-old process by which her comic tweets are made! It has been passed down for generations and protected by a secret order of sworn guardians.

Rina is freaking awesome, y’all. It’s so cool to be able to draw with someone who has so much talent and skill and is willing to talk about her art and pass on advice and knowledge so openly. Plus, she is just generally fabulous. Go check out our comic tweets on her blog!

Here they are!

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Now, there is a story here. I have two longtime internet friends who are both named Mere and both from Washington. One Mere came to New York this week and the two of us went to Carnegie Deli on Thursday night and gorged ourselves on giant meat sandwiches. But before dinner, we went to Kate’s Paperie because I thought Mere would like looking at all the fancy shmancy papers and it was kind of damp out so it was nice to have a dry place to walk around.

While we were in Kate’s, I saw a card that had a little horse and rider woodcut on it, and it said VICTORY in big letters. We talked about how it was a great graduation card– and then I realized that it would be a PERFECT card for the OTHER Mere, the one who was not in New York! Because that Mere loves horsies. (Edit to add: Here is a link to the card that I saw!)

So I went home and I told Mere about the card. And she said it WAS the perfect card for her. Only it would be more perfect if it had Clint Eastwood, a springer spaniel, and Washington Irving and John Adams making out on the front of it.

HAPPY GRADUATION MERE.

Happy Graduation! Click for a big computer wallpaper version!

I am excited for you to be in New York next year!

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