Late April in the Frosty North.

Hi there.

I just wanted to share my morning commute with those of you who live at a more temperate latitude.
In case you didn't know, I live at a snowy northernly latitude.
How snowy is it, you may ask?

my snowy street

It's April 23rd...

my snowy neighborhood with its fancy white octagonal signs

and it's just snowed...

my snowy parking space...  approximately.

for three days.

That's all for now.

Thanks for stopping by!  

Talk to you soon.

- Andrew

Time for Bunnies.

Hello.

I haven't posted in a while because very little has been going on.

I think my springtime allergies are starting up...
That's unfortunate, but I've got my goggles and they help a lot!

The Captain and I almost got to meet a wild bunny the other day.
That was pretty excellent.

I don't think he likes the outdoors much.

It seemed to make him grumpy.

The weather has been nicening up, so I think Spring is actually here.
It's raining like mad outside as I write this, but the weekend was beautiful.
Easter was probably the nicest day so far this year.

So – I drew some things for Easter and I thought I'd share them.

I've been working on some theoretical anatomy drawings too.
Maybe I'll post them sometime as well.
I don't know if anyone else is interested in that...

Anyway, the picture at the top is something I did for my mom
and the two below are the front and inside of a card I put together.

Enjoy!

Happy Springtime!

- Andrew

Post-Vacation Roundup

Hello There!

I've been away for a while.
I took a two-week vacation to good ol' relatively-tropical Lancaster, Pa.

That's where I grew up and is also where I keep most of my stuffed animals, sculptures, and old magazines.  I always love staying in my old bedroom.  There's the tiny twin bed that I haven't fit  since I was ten, the old coconut-monkey bank, the lone unopened bottle of Surge, the old Dick Tracy patrol car, the endless tiny drawers full of disorganized do-dads, the lovingly crafted robot-battling mushroom-folk...

That's about as nostalgic I get.

[ PA Roadside ]

The day after Valentine's Day, Amanda and I went to the Hershey Zoo (Zooamerica) and had a wonderful time.  As we entered the zoo, through what was essentially a ridiculous construction zone, I paid our way and had approximately the following exchange with the girl behind the counter.

Girl: ...and here's your map of the zoo, do you have any questions?
Me:  Just, um... did we park in the right place?  There was a guy out there who told us where to park, but no one else is parked there...
Girl:  No, you parked in the right place.
Me:  So...  is there... anyone else... here?
Girl:  What do you mean?
Me:  Like, anyone else visiting the zoo?
Girl:  Well...  there were three people who came in earlier this morning...
Me:  Awesome.

So, we had the Hershey Zoo completely, literally, to ourselves.  We walked around the entire place and didn't see a single other person until we were heading back out to the car.

There were many wonderful owls, lots of sleepy napping cats, a super-fun desert environment with road-runners and tortoises and quails.  At least, I think they were quails.  They appeared to be an appropriate visual inspiration for Quail-Man from "Doug."  That's pretty much all the determination I required.

Also, we went through Hershey Chocolate world and found they've added animatronic singing cows throughout.  That was pretty good.  We bought chocolate.  Double-thick Reeses cups...

[ Roadrunner Mischief ]

I also took a vacational opportunity to purchase a bunch of super-awesome sweet pickles with cauliflower and a container of red-beet eggs.  These things make me happy.

You know what else makes me happy?

Swords.

I came back with a bunch of those too.

Hey!  It got up to 70°F in Lancaster last Thursday!

It was amazing!

You know what else is amazing?

Driving for many hours through highly-hazardous mind-bending snowstorms with about 5% visibility.

That's pretty amazing.  

White-knucklingly, heart-poundingly, fate-contemplatingly amazing.

There were cars off the side of the road about every mile or so.  For hours...

By "amazing," of course I mean traumatic.

Anyway...

I had a great two weeks.  : )

Maybe more vacation stuff later...

Catch-up Blog #2: It's Cold.

Hi there.

I liked it inside my house when I woke up this morning. 
I was cozy.
Things were warm.

Outside... things were not.

You might say, "Andrew, it's January in [my state] too...  It's always cold in January."
I might say, "Is it so cold that they CLOSED THE SCHOOLS?!"

I'm from Pennsylvania.  I've never experienced this phenomenon.

Here's a little clip from the Wikipedia article on the North Pole.
      - "Winter (January) temperatures at the North Pole can range from about −43 °C (−45 °F) to −26 °C (−15 °F), perhaps averaging around −34 °C (−29 °F)."

This morning, the temperature around the twin cities ranged from 3°F to -14°F.

You know what it was a few hours north of here in good ol' Minnesota?  -46°F !
I suggest you take another look at that temperature-range for the North Pole.

Sheesh!  Whose dopey idea was this?!

In other news, I've quite finely developed my skill at disrobing a clementine in a single tidy strip.

Balaclava!