diary

munchkins

2012-01-30T20:07:00.000-08:00

talking to natalia on the phone, i imagined munchkins singing and dancing in the land of oz.

moving

2012-01-29T20:29:00.001-08:00

some neighbors are moving, and i thought, "should i say good bye?"

treadmill

2012-01-28T19:42:00.000-08:00

the kids on our block were playing "treadmill".
you grab hold of a tree branch and run in place on the slippery mud.

painted

2012-01-27T20:08:00.000-08:00

zander said the frost outside looked like some one painted the tops of the cars white.

chews

2012-01-26T20:50:00.001-08:00

kirby chews the top of his squeaky carrot like he's devouring an ice cream cone.

forks

2012-01-25T20:41:00.001-08:00

aleli tosses some forks onto the table.

avocados

2012-01-24T17:22:00.001-08:00

the avocados from grandma's garden have turned purple.

saying

2012-01-23T22:51:00.000-08:00

aleli says, "i find myself saying to stefano, 'do this, do this, do this', and i find myself staying to alexander, 'don't do this, don't do this.'"

monsters

2012-01-22T21:19:00.000-08:00

i read an old horror comic with the kids, and whenever the monsters started talking, i sang their lines, so the comic turned into a musical comedy.

clown

2012-01-21T20:35:00.001-08:00

staring at aleli's lasagne, i saw a clown face staring back at me.

important

2012-01-20T16:57:00.000-08:00

drawing my comic, i thought, "this is the most important thing i'll ever do in my life."

unexpected

2012-01-19T19:43:00.000-08:00

i laughed when some of the characters i was drawing in my comic made unexpected facial expressions.

suit

2012-01-18T18:08:00.001-08:00

aleli tells me i should buy a suit for my next job interview.

talking

2012-01-17T20:22:00.000-08:00

i smiled as i was drawing the talking hats in my dead souls comic.

103

2012-01-16T19:37:00.000-08:00

zander's song:

happy birthday to me.
i'm a hundred and three.
i still go to preschool.
and i miss my daddy.

throw

2012-01-15T20:36:00.001-08:00

i said, "zander, seize this moment and throw it into the future."

speaking

2012-01-14T20:35:00.001-08:00

aleli talks about moving the foosball table upstairs.
zander says, "speaking of foosball, can we play a game after dinner?"

over

2012-01-13T19:03:00.000-08:00

stefano jumps over the coffee table.

flying

2012-01-12T20:39:00.000-08:00

kirby's wagging tail sent lego man parts flying off the coffee table.

make

2012-01-11T22:44:00.001-08:00

stefano ran into the house and said, "i want to make a peacock."

sang

2012-01-10T20:45:00.001-08:00

we sang 'hava nagila' at the dinner table.

on

2012-01-09T20:45:00.000-08:00

zander balanced on one leg on a wobbly rock.

show

2012-01-08T20:48:00.000-08:00

sometimes when the kids are goofing around i feel like i'm in a nature show with little monkeys.

found

2012-01-07T23:19:00.000-08:00

i found the kids reading comic books and sucking on candy canes.

stepped

2012-01-06T22:24:00.001-08:00

kirby stepped on my face, and i yelled, "OWWWW!"

past

2012-01-05T19:30:00.000-08:00

"what's this place, place, place?" says zander as his lego ship sails past my arm.

dark

2012-01-04T13:09:00.001-08:00

i thought i saw a little person in the dark last night.
it was a scarecrow taped to stefano's door.

r

2012-01-03T10:51:00.000-08:00

aleli found a sunflower seed stuck under the "r" of the keyboard.

stepped

2012-01-02T18:28:00.001-08:00

kirby stepped on aleli's foot yesterday.
he stepped on my foot twice today.

draw

2012-01-01T16:20:00.001-08:00

zander asks aleli if he can draw on her foot.

avatars

2011-12-31T17:55:00.001-08:00

stefano and zander made avatars of all their cousins.

leash

2011-12-30T18:45:00.000-08:00

kirby pulled on his leash like a wild horse.

flight

2011-12-29T21:52:00.000-08:00

the flight attendants compliment alexander on his pretzel-straw sculpture.

driving

2011-12-28T21:11:00.000-08:00

jen is driving us all around san francisco and i'm thinking, "how can she be driving? she's a little girl."
in my mind, she's still a 5-year-old kid.

cemetery

2011-12-27T17:29:00.000-08:00

every one laughs at the cemetery when jeremy points down and says, "is that where you're going to go, grandma?"

cut

2011-12-26T23:12:00.000-08:00

scott described how to use a wire-saw to cut off the head of a 400 pound elk.

bossing

2011-12-25T12:23:00.000-08:00

zander is cranky because he wants to be the leader, and "every one's bossing me around."

ish

2011-12-24T09:23:00.001-08:00

ella says, "i like red liquor."

purple

2011-12-22T23:02:00.000-08:00

4 different kinds of purple yam desserts from a filipino bakery.

paper

2011-12-21T08:54:00.000-08:00

today may be the day that i go to a comic book store and lose myself in a sea of smelly old paper.

get

2011-12-20T09:32:00.001-08:00

stefano said, "what did you get me for christmas?"
i said, "nothing. i'm the grinch."

6

2011-12-18T11:08:00.000-08:00

i said, "zander, you're going to be 6 o'clock soon."
i meant to say 6 years old.

84

2011-12-17T13:54:00.000-08:00

zander said, "did you draw this?"
i said, "no, an old man drew it."
"how old was he?"
"84."
"when did he draw it?"
"last year."
i was reading a steve ditko mini-comic.

cleaners

2011-12-16T20:39:00.000-08:00

one of the mothers said, "what do you call these?"
aleli said, "pipe cleaners."

chasing

2011-12-15T17:52:00.000-08:00

chasing kirby around the house, stefano said, "he's fast."

time

2011-12-14T19:53:00.000-08:00

i finished drawing chapter 3 of dead souls, and i thought, "all right, time to vacuum the house!"

ducks

2011-12-13T18:01:00.001-08:00

some one wrote "ducks" on the back of stefano's hand.

extra

2011-12-12T23:53:00.000-08:00

i had an idea of how i can add an extra layer of sadness into my dead souls comic.

3

2011-12-11T18:25:00.001-08:00

so far, 3 people like my war and peace comic:
aleli, chris, and natalia.

4:59

2011-12-10T17:30:00.001-08:00

the kids look at the clock waiting for it to change from 4:59 to 5:00.

button

2011-12-09T22:01:00.001-08:00

stefano laughed as i struggled to button his pants.

old

2011-12-08T20:58:00.001-08:00

an old man looked like he was crying.

going

2011-12-07T19:47:00.001-08:00

i went to the bedroom and thought, "where am i going?"

stats

2011-12-06T20:41:00.001-08:00

looking at the stats for my war and peace comic, i saw that a bunch of people stopped reading after chapter 2.
i thought, "ok, i guess my comic is not for every one."

accidents

2011-12-05T19:40:00.001-08:00

i had some happy accidents while drawing dead souls.
i thought, hmm, i didn't mean to draw that, but i like the way it turned out, so i'll keep it.

sock

2011-12-04T18:26:00.001-08:00

"i only have one big sock", says zander.
instead of matching socks in pairs, he stuffs all the socks into one sock.

talking

2011-12-03T20:08:00.001-08:00

i was talking about dead souls at the dinner table, and then i realized i should go back and revise what i did last week.

lizanka

2011-12-02T22:21:00.001-08:00

i was drawing dead souls and thought, "hmmm, that lizanka is looking maybe too much like natasha."

find

2011-12-01T19:38:00.001-08:00

i said, "find stefano, kirby."
kirby sniffed him out.
stefano was face down, hiding in the bathtub.

hear

2011-11-30T20:24:00.001-08:00

suddenly, i can't hear out of my right ear.
every one seems to be mumbling.

watched

2011-11-29T20:44:00.001-08:00

we watched a soccer ball go straight towards zander's head before it was caught in the net.

pages

2011-11-27T20:45:00.001-08:00

i can hear the kids upstairs quietly turning the pages of comic books.

finished

2011-11-26T20:02:00.001-08:00

i finished posting my war and peace comic online, and here it is:

warandpeacecomic.blogspot.com

quit

2011-11-25T20:53:00.001-08:00

aleli tells me she wants to quit her job in two years.

touched

2011-11-24T19:24:00.001-08:00

stefano touched all the flowers and said he was pollinating them.

leave

2011-11-23T19:47:00.001-08:00

"if we tell you, will you leave?
"yes."
"do you promise?"
"no."

special

2011-11-22T08:26:00.001-08:00

i dreamt i was in a school providing special services to a minotaur.

looked

2011-11-21T21:28:00.001-08:00

kirby looked to the right, looked to the left.
where's my squeaky toy?

showed

2011-11-20T09:32:00.001-08:00

zander showed me and aleli how he can wiggle his ears while he's cross-eyed.

hats

2011-11-19T20:11:00.001-08:00

i was rereading passages from gogol's dead souls and i thought, "ah! talking hats! i want to draw that as a comic book."

yellow

2011-11-18T22:27:00.001-08:00

one of the women in yellow vests seems to be giving me nasty looks when i'm late picking up the kids from school.

online

2011-11-17T22:34:00.001-08:00

as i continue to put my war and peace comic online, i start to think, "good, i like it. will other people like it? why wouldn't they like it? i think it's good. will other people think it's good?"

quiet

2011-11-16T18:37:00.001-08:00

i was thinking it's quiet in the house without aleli.
less laughter.

crouched

2011-11-15T22:50:00.001-08:00

zander crouched down and said, "i used to be this tall."

rotten

2011-11-14T20:24:00.001-08:00

i asked stefano why his lunch bag was in a tree.
he said he put it there because he didn't want to smell it.
some one spilled rotten milk all over it.
zander held his breath and got it for me.

presentable

2011-11-13T19:58:00.001-08:00

so far, the war and peace comic looks pretty awful online, so i'm going to have to fiddle with the format in order to make it more presentable.

showed

2011-11-12T20:41:00.001-08:00

aleli showed me how to scan and post comic pages online.

get

2011-11-11T20:48:00.001-08:00

i woke up at 2:30 am thinking, "why didn't i get that job?"

check

2011-11-10T20:10:00.001-08:00

i went outside to check on the kids.
they were in the trees.

communicate

2011-11-09T21:34:00.000-08:00

i tried to communicate by making sounds with my mouth closed.

hid

2011-11-08T20:49:00.000-08:00

zander hid for 15 minutes behind boxes of wine and chocolate milk.

game

2011-11-07T16:45:00.000-08:00

stefano taught us how to play "chopsticks".

birthday

2011-11-06T18:40:00.000-08:00

i wrapped presents for aleli's birthday in the dining room as she prepared her cake in the kitchen.

knock

2011-11-05T21:03:00.001-07:00

zander's joke:

knock knock.
who's there?
knock knock.
knock knock who?
knock knock who's there.

stack

2011-11-04T20:53:00.000-07:00

aleli saw the huge stack of comic books i brought back from the library, and she said, "WHAT THE-?"

oatmeal

2011-11-03T21:09:00.000-07:00

stefano and a girl from his class competed with each other to fill my plastic bag with scoops of oatmeal.

whole

2011-11-02T20:47:00.001-07:00

i read the whole comic from beginning to end and decided to redraw a few pages here and there.

done

2011-11-01T21:47:00.000-07:00

250 pages.
took about a month to draw.
takes about 15 minutes to read.

ninja?

2011-10-31T22:05:00.000-07:00

assassin.

last

2011-10-30T20:36:00.000-07:00

i woke up at 5 am and spent 2 hours imagining how i'm going to draw the last scene of war and peace.

kid

2011-10-29T15:28:00.000-07:00

i told aleli that i haven't had this much fun drawing comics since i was a kid.

rain

2011-10-28T22:29:00.000-07:00

i was walking the kids home from school in the rain.
getting wet, i thought, this is ok.

romance

2011-10-27T23:31:00.000-07:00

as i finished drawing a scene tonight, i thought, "i love it, i think it's great, but will i still love it in the morning?"

tackle

2011-10-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

during the past few days, i've been drawing some scenes from war and peace that were extremely challenging to stage properly.
i'd go to bed at night thinking, "how am i going to draw that?"
i'd figure it out in my head, and then i'd wake up in the morning ready to tackle it.
i feel like i'm on top of the world.

gigantic

2011-10-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

the kids on our block played 4-square with a gigantic ball.

unfair

2011-10-24T21:14:00.000-07:00

zander says, "daddy, i'll tell you 3 ways you're unfair."
1. i put him to bed, and then i get to stay up late.
2. i don't let him watch videos when he wants.
3. (i can't remember.)

barking

2011-10-23T23:03:00.000-07:00

i asked zander if he woke up because of kirby's barking, and he said, "i didn't even know i was sleeping."

sculpture

2011-10-22T14:45:00.000-07:00

zander used corks, plastic clips, rubber bands and a wine bottle to make a slingshot sculpture.

fault

2011-10-21T20:06:00.000-07:00

i feel like a guy standing on a fault line, and the earth is rumbling.

billions

2011-10-20T20:52:00.001-07:00

i told aleli that out of all the billions of people in the world, i'm the only one who's making a war and peace comic book.