I could post about why I've not posted any artwork, I could moan about my job, or I could post a picture of my little girl in a Cat in the Hat outfit I made*. Easy choice.

*ok, just the bow tie, hat and make up, my wife bought the cat outfit when she couldn't find black leggings and top.

I'm not 2, my blog's not 2, so who was 2?

It was my daughter's second birthday a few weeks ago, and it was a fine old day, helping unwrap presents and generating the required vomit inducing level of excitement for such an occurance. Then it was off to Old Holly Farm, where calves, goats, chicks (they're the vaguely yellowish blur sunning themselves under a lightbulb), piglets, rabbits and a pot bellied pig had no privacy but did provide an awful lot of entertainment before we went to the 'play barn', which would have made Pat Sharpe jealous with it's amazing Fun House proportions.

Life, lots of it

Well, it's been a sucky time of late with the day job getting strange and unhelpful, so yesterday's drama was wonderfully timed. My little girl took a tumble and managed to bit through her lip, which was bad enough, but having to hold her down whilst she got stitches was just horrible, being the 'having to deal with it' parent is not pleasant. Luckily it was only a couple of stitches and my daughter's Wolverine like resilience and recuperative powers apart from a bit of a trout pout every thing's back to normal, and the sedative kids get also means they don't remember things like needles and thread in their lips.
On the more pleasant side of things I got my advance copy of Best New Manga 3, and it's a cracking looking book, the best volume by far, and gets a big thumbs up for it's beautiful colour reprint of a Skeleton Key one off. It's weird seeing a piece of work I did almost a year ago, luckily the other work in the book makes up my short comings, so you've all got no excuse, go out and buy a copy!

Farmer John

It was my wife's birthday today and I think it was one of those days you know you'll look back upon fondly over the years. We went to Old Holly Farm designed with kids in mind. Olivia petted baby goats, saw a Vietnamese Pot Bellied Pig, lots of calves and hens and some ponies. Then she went into the 'Play Barn', which was a thoughtfully designed fun house, but without Pat Sharpe. She absolutely loved it, particular the big bumpy slid which cracked her up, particular when her mam and dad slid down it. I got a little choked up at how much Olivia enjoyed her day out, it was the best present Rebecca got.
One of my favourite comic creators, Lewis Trondheim, is interviewed here. If any one person will get me to learn French it'll be Trondheim, until them I'll just have to put up with the slow drip feed of translations.
Mark Millar (no link, I don't want to contribute in even the smallest way to helping sell his comics) seems to have a new comic out, and honestly, I had absolutely no idea it existed. I found a preview of is online and didn't like it in the slightest - apart from the art. What I particularly disliked was Millar's insistence that he was creating something of utter genius and originality. The biggest Millar fan is not as big a fan of Millar than Millar himself. I'm very proud not to have heard about the comic until reasonable late, I'm a bit upset that I heard about it at all, and I'm not even going to mention the name of, if you haven't seen it, I don't want to be responsible for bringing it to your attention. I'm not writing this just to be negative, I just never realised I was so out the loop.

Happy 1st Birthday Olivia!

Pic 1 answers the question of time 'Daddy, or chips?' prettty conclusively. Olivia get chips on her party frock, quickly followed by her first taste of cake. Pic 2 is from this morning, officially one year old and a career in construction a dead cert. Pic 3 is tired and happy parents.
Today iswas Olivia's first birthday and it was spent mostly sleeping, all three of us, toddler, mam and dad. It was nice, and needed after having her naming ceremony on Saturday.
The naming ceremony was great, seems there's not been many of them here but the woman at the register office was relaxed and confident and the whole thing is elastic enough to fit to people's needs.
We tried to keep it quiet, much like our wedding (ridiculously small, and wonderful), but it got a touch bigger and involved, but only a touch. Initially Olivia was not terrribly impressed, a group of strangers staring and clapping is a touch unnerving it seems. By the time we got to the reception she'd relaxed considerably and apart from a little upset here and there, she was fine.

Meanwhile, back at home

Rebecca had her last chemotherapy yesterday. Sadly it's not the end of the treatment as there's radiotherapy next. This is to minimise chances of the cancer coming back and to sort of 'mop up' what's left - which seems to be very little after the examination, pretty good as one of the masses was 8cm.
Radiotherapy won't be any where near as long as chemotherapy, but will still have some side effects, particularly in Rebecca's case. Finger's x-ed that she deals with this as well as she has with everything else. Not long now and it'll all be over...... *big sigh*

Update

And another big gap between posts. Been a rough old time lately, Rebecca's found the time since her last treatment a bit harder than the last ones, culminating in some serious fatigue. Next treatment may be delayed which isn't serious it just means the whole process will be longer which is a pain.
Olivia's got two little teeth poking through and is handling it very well, although she's had her moments.
I've not done much worth posting about. I used my birthday cash to buy a little Wacom tablet that came with a Coral Painter package which I'm messing with. Don't think it's the right package for me but it's much better than what I was using and should make colouring more interesting. I've got a little check list of some things I want to draw and I've even been writing a few things, nothing major but I'm going out of my mind with stress and boredom so I have to do something!

Did I make you think?

Here’s a packed post as I fit in all sorts of nonsense that’s been on my mind in an effort to satisfy Katy’s thinks post.
Big news is that Rebecca finally got the results of her scan after a irritatingly pointless delay, and the news is good. The doctor says that the cancer is showing very encouraging signs of shrinkage. Had no idea how heavy the weight on our shoulders was until it lifted, which leads neatly onto the next point.
We went to a Cancersupport centre last week and Rebecca insisted that I stop telling people I’m fine. The truth is Rebecca has been taking things well and I’ve been having a tougher time. The woman who spoke to us told us this is no where near unique, in fact it’s pretty typical as in a lot of cases those closest to the person with cancer have a harder time coping. The problem is that when Bec is so positive I don’t want to bring her down, and it feels wrong to harp on about what’s bothering me when something so major is happening to her. It turns out those feeling aren’t unique either.
Over the last 2 months I’ve slowly felt like my own sense of self has been slipping away between looking after my wife and child has left me with less time for myself, made worse when one of our parents comes to help out and I find even more expectations put on me (not to undermine how much help they give, which has been fantastic).
As I’ve drawn less, read less, written less and so on I’ve become a little more withdrawn and miserable. Oddly this doesn’t effect me all the time and has had no impact on the fantastic opportunity this horrible thing has given us to be a family with no work commitments for a while.
Writing this I feel like I’m whining about nothing, but rebecca doesn’t think so, and if she’s concerned then I want to sort it out. I do have the sneaking suspicion that she’s using this to get me to deal with the fact that I can pretty miserable without the aid of an ill wife. Anyway, the upshot is that Cancersupport offer a free bunch of services to the sufferer and those close to them, Rebecca's scored some massages and I get to see a counsellor.
On the up side the woman we spoke to was incredible impressed with Rebecca’s attitude, and thought I was doing much better than I thought I was, and it was reassuring to hear that I’m not feeling any different to a lot of people in this position.
No doubt due to my gloomy mood I’ve rediscovered my love of Henry Roliins thanks to Youtube. I don’t have a tape deck any more and my Rollins is on tape so it’s been a while, and I sort of thought he was a bit to, um, teenage, for me. Guess I’m still an angst riddled teenager at heart:)
Here’s one of my favourite Rollins songs (my fave is ‘Low Self Opinion’, but the ‘Liar’ video is better!)

Okay, part of the thinking bloggers bit is this -
I gots to nominate 5 bloggers who I want to join in, sorry if I don't name you, I enjoy all the blogs I link to I'm just a jerk

Danny
Okay, he doesn't post that often, and sometimes tries to past of quickie posts as real ones, but when he does post I always remember what a thoroughly lovey bloke he is and want to give the charming chap a big hug.

Andrew
A very talented artist with a blog with brilliant work here, but what I really love is his other one, the one where he fills my geek head with insightful geek tomfoolery.

INJ
I dream that I could cut my arm off and replace it with his thereby being the fabulous artist he is. Sadly this is but a dream (although I have been know to visit Nottingham so be warned INJ), so I just look at his artwork in awe.

Mewsings
I'd love to put Garen on this list, but he's pretty much dropped out of blogging and sticks to updates about hsi excellent comic Rainbow Orchid, luckily his brother Murray's blog is always interesting and either offers whole new stuff for me to find or tells me something I didn't know about something I already liked.

Curtis Jobling
The guy created the look of Bob the Builder, he's working on his very own Frankenstein's Cat cartoon adapted from his fine book and Biteneck Beatniks absolutely rocks.

For the above writers, this is your mission should you choose to accept it:
1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
3. Proudly display your TBA award with a link to the post that you wrote.

And back again

It's been a rough week so still no artwork - there is some coming.
Rebecca had her third chemotherapy today and it seems to be taking a little more out of her each time, she also found out that she has to get a series of injections to stimulate her bone marrow into producing my white blood cells. More injections is a pain, but they seem pretty easy, the important thing is they allow her to get her chemo on time and they aren't there because of anything bad.
My grandad went into hospital last week because of his stomach cancer and it looked bad for a day or so, luckily he's come out of hospital better than when he went in.
To top all this off Olivia's teething! This probably seems the most minor, but as Rebecca need to relax, particularly a few days after her treatment, the timing could be better. Also, it's not nice to see the poor little thing in pain. Luckily for everyone so far Olivia is sleeping through the night just like always, it's just during the day that she's grumpy or in discomfort - taking her for a walk seems to help, so I think there'll be a lot of that.
Is this the best time to decide to start exercising again to undue 2 months comfort eating? Not really, but I'm doing it anyway.
On the nice side of things as well as struggling with teeth Olivia is coming on really well. For some reason she's been fascinated with cups, and as I drink a lot of coffee she's had plenty of opportunity to see how it's done, often reaching for the cup if she's sat on my lap at the time. In a moment of parental amusement I et her go for my (empty) cup and was choked up with happiness when she reached round to grab the handle and brought the cup to her mouth! Just think what I'll be like when she takes her first step or says her first word! Anyway, a baby cup's been purchased and she's getting more practice in. She's also enjoying eating baby rice from a spoon, and trying to hold the spoon herself. Honestly, I'm such a sap for this stuff!
As usual I attempt to counter and miserableness of these posts with photos, guess which one is Olivias' failed attempt at using a spoon:)

A real Powergirl

Another 3 weeks another day of chemotherapy for Rebecca. Everything went as it should from the last treatment and she's dog tired again from this one. Sadly there's hair everywhere in the house, worse because she still had the excess of hair from being pregnant. It's not noticable to anyone else that it's going, but it is. A bit of retail therapy, including a couple of cool summer hats has helped, but, well, who wants to lose their hair.
Luckily health wise everything's going well and a few other problems we had have been sorted.

Life

It's been nearly a week since my wife had her first chemotherapy treatment, and thankfully so far it's gone fine. The first couple of days Rebecca was sick but this settled down when we found out it was not directly because of the treatment, but because her stomach was now more sensitive, a little change in eating habits and it's under control. Tiredness has been the main problem, it's important that Rebecca sleeps when she needs it to help keep fatigue at bay as this can be really tough.
Unfortunately as positive as this is, it's still early days. Rebecca is now entering into what is scarily called the 'nadir', this is the point where her white blood cells, which provide immunity, pretty much disappear. The worry of catching something, and everything can be life threatening in this stage, is what's been at the back of my mind. We've been getting into the habit of regular, and frequent, hand cleaning, being careful about food preparation and being careful with Olivia's contact with her mam. The trick has been to get into the habit of doing this without it feeling overbearing, Rebecca's kept such a positive outlook that we don't want to make a big deal about doing things differently.
Anyway, to counterbalance the 'dark' bit of the post, here's a cute as a button picture!

Sigh

It's possible posts might be pretty erratic here for the next few months. A couple of weeks ago my wife, Rebecca, was diagnosed with a form of cancer called lymphoma and will be going in for her first treatment of chemotherapy any day now.
It's been a weird couple weeks, not least because Rebecca has shown no symptoms of cancer at all and so it hasn't felt real, in fact if not for Olivia's birth it wouldn't have been spotted yet, which makes her something a double miracle for us.
Rebecca has been amazing, strong and positive, I only mention her occasionally here (she's internet shy) but I hope my love and respect for her is apparent for all to see, and those of you who know her will probably not be surprised in the slightest at how well she's dealing with something so hard.
I'm not going to turn this into a 'health watch', and it's likely that I'll still post the usual artwork and waffle here as I intend to honour Rebecca's commitment to getting on with things as normal, so please keep dropping by, just don't be surprised if the usual amount of posting or obsessive comment replying dips.

The week that was

Slow week at BlahBlahBlah. Seeing as I had a week of work I thought I'd have a week off blogging, a whole week, honestly I'm shaking as I type this.
So what did I do on my week off? Ah, just stuff, y'know. Dismantled a wardrobe and desk, took some books and other stuff to a charity shop, moved a bookcase downstairs took two upstairs (there was method in this madness), went to Manchester and met up with my sister and her chap and basked in the gloriousness of spending time with my wife and daughter.
Going to Manchester meant I got to pick up a few comics I might not have noticed otherwise, which is always appreciated, best of them was Brian Ralph's 'Daybreak', well worth a look for his brilliant artwork. 'The Mighty Skullboy Army' collection was a lot of fun too. Talking of comics I see 'Fluffy' by Simone Lia was reviewed in the Guardian, I read a few issues of this and adored it, Lia's artwork is lovely and lovely, I'll be buying the collection.
For my own stuff I didn't try too hard to do anything but I rough scripted a story I'll call 'Robot' for now and hope when I draw it I'll have come up with a better title. I'll post up the design for robot in a couple of days, I might even start drawing the comic in week or so, as long as the shock of going back to work tomorrow does send me mad.

Visiting

This weekend goes to the top of my weird family visiting charts. Nothing odd happened, but having Olivia stay at her grandparent's and seeing her great granda was another of those 'you have a daughter, idiot!' moments. Olivia had to be prized from her grandma's fingers like a gun from Charleton Heston's cold dead hands and she was a hit with her great granda, which I must admit brought a manly tear to my eye. My granda was diagnosed with stomach cancer and the decision's been taken not operate. He's fine at the moment and would rather have less time of better quality than a little longer and in no position to appreciate it. It did give seeing my baby girl smiling and gurgling on my granda's lap an extra jolt it probably didn't need and I'm so glad to have had it.
Back in Lancaster the house is a tip and feels very small after stopping at mam and dad's, there's a zombie script to finish drawing (it's about 80% pencilled, so it might be finished this time next week) and I'll be back at work tomorrow after a nice three day weekend.
Once the zombie comic is done I'm hoping to getting back to posting regular drawings, probably one a week. I like trying to regularly get something done and it being nice and self contained, I have been so inspired by noticing Eric Canete is posting artwork again, it's great stuff, but I'm just blown away by the fact how prolific he is, if I do four pix a month I'm patting myself on the back between catching my breath.
I sneaked a go on my dad's broadband and had a look at the ace Grindhouse trailer as well as this fabulous pic, which is compulsory viewing but may drive you insane