Numine.com

Some News...

2009-01-30T15:17:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, I received a several DVDs with all of our beautiful professional wedding photos. They are amazing! You can see for yourself in this flickr collection that I set up. If you'd like a particular photo for print, I can send you the large resolution. Or, I can invite you to our Pictage site where you can order prints from your home computer.

Share your favorites with us!

Right now we're not sure which we'll be printing, but I imagine that it'll be a lot. There are so many good ones. All credit goes to Nicole Tavenner of Piknik Studios out of Polson, MT.

In other news, I am transferring web hosts this weekend, which may mean some down time for this site. Nothing you aren't used to with my complete lapse in blogging of late. But I'll be back soon.

Don't Poison My Drink

2009-01-07T14:17:00.000-08:00

Some disturbing news via The Stranger's Slog:

Eleven gay bars in Seattle received letters today addressed to the "Owner/Manager" from someone claiming to be in the possession of ricin, a deadly poison. "Your establishment has been targeted," the letter begins. "I have in my possession approximately 67 grams of ricin with which I will indiscriminately target at least five of your clients."

[...]

A letter also arrived in The Stranger's offices, addressed to the attention of "Obituaries." The letter's author said the paper should "be prepared to announce the deaths of approximately 55 individuals all of whom were patrons of the following establishments on a Saturday in January." The listed bars are: the Elite, Neighbours, Wild Rose, the Cuff, Purr, the Eagle, R Place, Re-bar, CC's, Madison Pub, and the Crescent. "I could take this moment to launch into a diatribe about my indignation towards the gay community," the letter concludes, "however, I think the deaths will speak for themselves."

A bunch of us girls have plans for a "lesbian dance night" at R Place this Saturday. Don't think this is going to stop us. Seriously, if I catch you poisoning my drink with ricin, I will fucking murder you. That is, before the vomiting and diarrhea.

I'm sure it's an empty threat, but still. People actually think this sort of shit will curry them favor with their God? It makes me sick.

EDIT: In a post titled "Who Wrote the Ricin Letters," Dan Savage makes a good counterpoint... nobody SAID anything about God. These letters read more like they were written by a closeted homophobe or a gay person who came out and had a bad experience. Or just an angry, insecure, straight male.

The letters mention nothing about a higher power, or about sin. In fact, one letter even plagiarizes from a gay poet. The author writes, "no antidote, no salve for their unimaginable pain. [Referring to Ricin] All I can say is that the targets won't care much that they'll be dead and nearly frozen, just as, presumably, they didn't care that they were living..."

One of the readers of the Slog commented that this is a line from the poem "A Display of Mackerel," from a collection by poet Mark Doty.

Says, the Slog: "The poem appeared in Atlantis, a 1996 collection of poems that Doty wrote after the HIV-related death of his partner in 1994."

The poem reads:

They don’t care they’re dead
and nearly frozen,

just as, presumably,
they didn’t care that they were livin:

CREEPY.

And despite everyone's advice to "watch your drink" and "don't let anyone buy you a drink," I tend to agree with those who theorize that IF anyone tries to poison bar patrons or clubgoers, it won't be by "slipping a mickey," but probably by staging a drug sale (meth? coke?) laced with ricin.

Child's Play

2008-12-11T16:39:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday night, Justin and I attended the Child's Play charity auction and dinner on the skybridge of the Seattle Convention Center. Child's Play is a charity that donates toys and games to Children's Hospitals all over the United States -- it was founded by the author and artist of the Penny Arcade webcomic to encourage giving by geeks and combat the stereotype of gamers as non-involved in community and charitable causes. The charity has been WILDLY successful, raising over Four MILLION dollars in the last six years.

The charity auction on Tuesday raised over two-hundred thousand dollars ALONE - not counting independent giving and other fundraisers (such as the Guitar Hero Funde Razor, which just raised ~$10k, and this year's Desert Bus for Hope, which raised $70k(!!). It just goes to show you that, though once-reviled, geeks are now a powerful, unstoppable force that cannot be rivaled!

Or maybe only the rich ones. This was parked near us in the lot. It's a Lotus with the license plate "PWNED":

We only pretended to be rich while schmoozing with internet celebrities. I embarrassed myself in front of Wil Wheaton. He wanted to talk to his pals about D&D and I wanted a photo. Bad Kat, bad...

We also witnessed some guy bid $10k easy to be featured in a Penny Arcade strip, and then another $4300 for drinks with the guys and Scott Kurtz from PVP. Makes me think we got a damn good deal. Hm, perhaps we should donate one of those comics we have signed by Scott and all the Deadliest Catch captains for auction next year.

All of the live-auction goodies were quickly bid out of our budget, but we had a fun time bidding them up with everyone else. This "mystery microwave" from the Harmonix kitchen was stuffed full of sweet goodies:

And the Harmonix folks donated 30 grand!

I scored Rock Band for the Wii for only slightly over retail (and it's tax-deductible). Now all I need is a Wii. Hrrm...

Also, head crabs and Herve Leger? I think this will be very fashionable next season...

[ More Photos from Child's Play 2008 Auction & Dinner ]

Last Week @ The Wedding Blog

2008-12-08T11:30:00.000-08:00

Married in Montana: Informals of the Formals - Guest photos of our "formal" portraits
Married in Montana: Dinner Time! - Delicious Polebridge-made buffalo, trout, salad, bread, and cakes!
Post-Wedding CHOP, CHOP, CHOP - My hair is all gone... hurrah!
Married in Montana: The Little Things - Guest photos of all the details from the big day
Married in Montana: Music and Dancing - We get down to Montana bluegrass from Good Wood

A Sign of the Times

2008-12-08T11:06:00.000-08:00

This sign was hanging on one of the many streetside booths selling merch and snacks in Washington, DC.

Ironically, I don't think the subtext was intentionally. Most of the people who run these booths are non-native English speaking immigrants who I imagine don't have the knowledge of US cultural history required to make a "joke" like this.

More Photos from this year's DC Turkey Trip are in the gallery. Most pics are of the monuments.

I'm (not) Pregnant

2008-11-25T22:36:00.000-08:00

I'm not pregnant. But I had to take a test this month for the first time ever. Then, I took two more.

I started taking Yaz a few months before the wedding because I wanted to see if it would fix my monthly breakouts. After 2 years with the copper IUD I was tired of nasty cycles and bad skin - feeling gross and self-conscious took up the better part of my month and I definitely didn't want bad skin at the wedding.

But I didn't want to take out the IUD without being sure I had an alternate solution that worked for me, so I doubled up for a while. And the Yaz did work, so after about three months, I had the IUD removed.

The following month, I had one negligible period and then completely missed the next one. I'd always been regular with all the other pills I'd taken (Lo-Ovral, Ortho-Cyclen) for years. I hadn't missed any of the Yaz to my knowledge, but we were still freaking out.

We aren't trying to conceive, despite all of our good friends' ribbing that I'll be pregnant within 6 months of the wedding. It's just not a good time - Justin starts his new job in the new year, we're paying off some accrued debt, and we just want to focus on our LIVES for a while.

So when I missed my period, we were forced to acknowledge that there never really IS a good time, and now is as good a time as any. To be honest, my greatest fear was not that I was pregnant, it was that we weren't TRYING to conceive and so I'd been drinking/drunk quite recently.

But, two weeks and three evenly spaced tests later, there was no positive result and no period. So I guess this is just my lot while on Yaz. I can't really complain... it's a welcome reprieve after two hellish years with that IUD, but it will take some getting used to.

I'm not pregnant. But after thinking I might be, it's not such a scary concept any more.

***

Tomorrow morning we leave on an early flight to spend Thanksgiving with Justin's family. Back Monday!

Back Monday.

Look at my new head!

2008-11-24T15:54:00.001-08:00

Had my hair (re)done on Saturday after the previous week's unsuccessful "mom bob."

It's short and I love it.

This Week @ the Wedding Blog

2008-11-21T13:13:00.000-08:00

Married in Montana: Ceremoniously Wed - Photos from our lovely Polebridge Ceremony
Married in Montana: Bonus Pics from Before & During the Ceremony - More fun details from pictures our guests took!
Married in Montana: Lost & Found - Rehearsal Photos! - I found a cache of pics from the whirlwind rehearsal and pizza dinner
Married in Montana: A Cocktail Celebration - A collection of illustrations, anecdotes, and hors d'ouevres

How Would You Feel?

2008-11-20T14:02:00.000-08:00

After you watch this video, tell me... how would you feel?

Last Saturday, the husband and I, along with a few good friends of ours, marched for marriage equality in Seattle. The march started at Volunteer Park in Seattle's famously "gay" Capitol Hill neighborhood and wound its way downtown to Westlake Center. The estimated turnout was a whopping 6,000+ people!

Many protesters were carrying signs they made themselves. Some were protesting the passing of California's Prop 8, others the notion of "separate but equal" civil unions, and many more were simply statements of love and support. Some signs were quite humorous and clever. We carried signs that we made ourselves the night before.

I took a lot of photos, which you can see in the Seattle Marriage Equality March & Rally Photo Gallery. Here are a few of my favorites...

Musical Declinations

2008-11-17T22:43:00.000-08:00

All those years of playing the clarinet and I still felt empty inside. It turns out I should have been playing the carrot instead:

And I wouldn't object to having this endearingly charismatic, yet disturbing man as my instructor.

Hiking: Ingalls Lake

2008-11-17T16:07:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago, dad and I spent another perfect fall day hiking up to Ingalls Lake. We got a bit of a late start, considering that the trailhead is near Cle Elum and about 2 hours from Seattle. But the low light made for lovely photographs, even if it meant hiking down in the dark.

The trail to Ingalls Lake is 9 miles round-trip, with 2,600 feet of elevation gain. You can find more information about the hike, including directions, on the Seattle PI website.

It took us longer than expected to reach the lake, due to some icy snow on the trail near Ingalls Pass. We made a bumbling trip around the Lake to the outlet as well, which I wouldn't really recommend. The best views were along the trail between Ingalls Pass and the crest before the lake... many stunning panoramas of Mount Stuart and lovely Larch glades. Below are a few choice photos from the trip. Many more can be found in my Ingalls Lake Gallery.

[ Dad hiking near the Long's Pass Fork ]

[ The perfect mountain spot - after Ingalls Pass]

[ Gold larch needles & a blue sky ]

[ Wicked Larch & Mt. Stuart]

[Lake Ingalls and Mt. Stuart]

[Sunset]

Join the Impact: Protest Prop 8 & Support Marriage Equality!

2008-11-14T21:33:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow's events to Protest California's Proposition 8 and support marriage equality will turn out over ONE MILLION people organizing across 300 cities in all 50 states and 10 countries world-wide! Please get the word out to all of your friends.

JOIN THE IMPACT!! Find your protest site right now.

This Week @ the Wedding Blog

2008-11-13T22:45:00.000-08:00

Married in Montana: The Second Wedding - Our secret pre-wedding ceremony at Swiftcurrent Lake in Many Glacier
Married in Montana: Chaos at Cracker Lake - What happened on the scenic 3-day, 2-night backpacking trip to Cracker Lake
The Secret Life of Pi(e) - Things you probably already know about me if you read this blog... or maybe not
Bringin' Sexy Back: Boudoir Photos with Kate McElwee - What to get the man who has everything
Married in Montana: Rehearsal Stresstravaganza - AAAAH! A marriage license! AAAH! My hair! AAAAH! Punk Rock! AAAAAAH!
Married in Montana: Waiting to Exhale - The calm be fore the ceremony

Disclaimer: I am not continuing to write about the wedding because I am: a) obsessed and can't stop thinking about it (believe me, I can and will), b) empty inside now that it's over (thank God it's over), or c) narcissistic (I am, but that's not why I'm wedding blogging).

As a writer for WeddingBee I am somewhat obliged to "recap" the wedding after blogging about all our plans, crafts, and details. This helps all the brides-to-be who are reading see how everything comes together. Plus, it's a great way to cleanse the last two year's worth of wedding goo from my system. Really, it's like plaque in the arteries.

And there you have it... the latest edition of "This Week @ The Wedding Blog"

Meet My New Best Friend

2008-11-13T19:42:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, my wallet and cell phone were stolen from Capitol Hill. Admittedly, I left my purse somewhere stupid for 5 minutes to move a piece of furniture, and when I came back my bag had moved and they were missing. Oddly, the thieves didn’t see fit to take my iPod shuffle or the forty-five dollars in cash that were in the bag. I guess they were hoping I wouldn’t notice that my things were gone so they could get away with a spending spree.

Except that I noticed right away. We called the police, my credit card companies, my bank, and the credit agencies. And that was that.

But I really loved that wallet, dammit! And I was planning to use my $40 American Apparel gift card to buy a t-shirt sexy dress, GRR.

I mean, as far as robberies go, it wasn’t that bad, and I didn't lose THAT much money. I had JUST replaced my drivers license (and I liked the picture!!), but I hadn’t yet called to get new credit cards for my new last name. Having my wallet stolen at least inspired me to get THAT out of the way. How convenient!

[AN IMPORTANT NOTE: If you have to call your bank to put a stop on a lost or stolen card and you suspect you are talking to someone from overseas who doesn’t really know what they are doing or understand what you are saying, CALL BACK and call back SEVERAL TIMES to make sure that they have actually done what you need them to do. We had to talk to WSECU cardmember services three times and they still didn’t properly cancel Justin’s Visa Gold Card (they instead canceled his debit card for the associated account #), leading us to receive $800 in fraudulent charges that we had to contest. All is well, but it was a freaking pain.]

Anyhow, I also lost my phone: a Motorola Razr. God DAMN I hated that thing. I was just waiting for the day that it would die so I could get a new, 3G iPhone. I hated it so much I considered going “Office Space” on it’s ass on several occasions.

So, convenient side effect of having thugs steal your shitty phone? (Aside from getting to yell at them when the pick it up and say nothing.) Brand new iPhone!

Definitely NOT free but I loooooove it. I loooove it. I loooove it soooo much.

World, meet my new best friend:

In fact, we might just be more than friends.

OM NOM NOM.

I’ve already used it to do things that not only could my old phone never do, but that I never could have done without a laptop network and a wi-fi connection on a downtown street.

This Three Panel Soul comic pretty much sums up how I feel about my phone:

This phone is what phones are supposed to be, and so much more. So I manage to crash my iPhone apps a couple times a day. No big deal. They’ll fix that eventually. I can check Gmail and Microsoft Exchange accounts. I can get meeting notifications. I can listen to Internet Radio on the go. I can track myself on Google Maps. I can automatically identify the song I’m hearing played at the Gap. I can read restaurant reviews, update Facebook, change my Netflix queue, buy movie tickets, find the nearest bus stop and pick a bus route, play games, buy things, twitter, chat, and talk. Holllly crap, it is amazing. And for once, my expectations are EXCEEDED.

Thank you, Apple.

Signed,

Your humble slave

Fall at Jones Creek Farm

2008-11-12T22:31:00.000-08:00

I love Fall – it’s my favorite season. I love the cool air, the falling leaves, the shortening days. I loved Fall when we lived in Michigan and I love it here in Seattle. Despite the rain that follows them, days in September and October are some of the best we have.

It’s started raining now, and I don’t know when it’ll stop. But for a while we were in the full throes of a gorgeous Autumn. I told Justin I was nostalgic for apple orchards and pumpkin patches. So, to celebrate my birthday weekend, we went to Jones Creek Farms, way out the North Cascades Highway.

Right out of the car, they served us fresh-pressed hot cider.

Then, one of the owners walked us through the orchards to find the kind of apples we wanted – just one of over 200 varieties they grow.

They even had a "haunted greenhouse" (purely for the kids - it was really lame) and some photogenic scarecrows:

To cap off the afternoon, we took a tractor ride around the orchard with the cutest, sleepiest puppy...

and to the pumpkin patch, where we picked up some gourds to carve into Barak-o-Lanterns for Halloween:

It was a beautiful day on a classic farm. Visit the Jones Creek Farm gallery for many more photos.

Repo! Reviewed

2008-11-12T16:32:00.000-08:00

Sadly, Repo! The Genetic Opera didn't live up to my high expectations. The preview just looked SO kickass... but it fell somewhat short of my hopes.Hearing Anthony Stewart Head's voice in the preview involuntarily brought to mind the unparalleled excellence of the musical episode of Buffy. But "Once More, With Feeling," Repo! was not.

It was an amusing story and interesting cinema with striking visuals, but the plot was weak and the musical numbers clunky and disjointed. It lacked development or exposition in any way that would give it real "life" beyond a one-time viewing. I certainly don't think it's the "travesty" that some critics are calling it and definitely not "the worst movie ever," but it lacked even the legs I hoped it would have to deserve cult classic status.

One thing that really bothered me was that although the movie was only released the 7th of this month, about a quarter of the theatre showed up in costume and a third seemed to know the songs (they sang before the movie opened but thankfully NOT during it). Look, I understand jubilance at alternative theatre as much as the next guy... BUT! THIS. WAS. NOT. THE. EFFING. ROCKY. HORROR. PICTURE. SHOW.

Cult status has to be EARNED, not given! Showing up to a movie three days after opening in full regalia seems a little pre-emptive, and singing the musical numbers before the show is a bit discourteous to everyone who is there to actually SEE IT the ONE NIGHT it is in town. Personal pet peeve? Maybe. I won't even listen to the RENT soundtrack until I see it on stage.

Somehow(!) a large number of people in the theater had seen the movie already. Did they torrent it? Are they roadies? Were they just excited because we got to meet the director?! (Ok, that WAS cool.) I don't know! The irritation I felt was somewhat akin to what I imagine it would be like going to see Twilight with a bunch of randy, vampire-groupie teenagers on opening night, not having read the book(s) beforehand. Shudder.

Anyway, back to the film itself. Interesting concept. Had potential. Could have been the most awesome Sci-fi rock opera. And fell flat.

Why?

Inconsistent archetyping. Are our characters caricatures or are they complicated? On one hand, you have the Repo man, who pretty much carried the movie, and on the other, you've got the two retarded sons of Rotti and Paris Hilton in a bit part. Oh...kay...
Weak music. Some of the songs had really strong potential, but they were either over too fast or didn't pick up when they should have. The result was a less-than memorable soundtrack. Very, very regrettable.
Unimpressive plot. Fighting over a woman? Really? Boohoo boohoo my girlfriend left me, my wife is dead. You've got a really unique setting here. DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT WITH IT.

Look, Repo! was a really good idea. And the gothlings seem to looooove it. So apparently it did some things right. But in my journalistic opinion, it still seemed like a rough draft. Frankly, I think Repo! owes its success to two things... its unique cinematography and the voices of a few stellar singers. Without the creative, stylistic visuals, it would have been completely terrible. Without Anthony Stewart Head, Sarah Brightman, and Terrance Zdunich to carry the less-than-fabulous "show tunes," it would have died a wretched death.

There was some talent, and some creativity, but just not enough to make this film worthy of cult status. Repo! still has five cities left in it's seven-city tour, so I guess it remains to be seen if will live on in "B" Fests everywhere. I can't say "I hope so," and I can't say "I hope not," so I'll just say the one thing I'm left feeling about this movie that could have been so much more:

MEH.

Flying High

2008-11-11T15:05:00.000-08:00

Saturday night, about 10:30pm ...

... I was at the Burning Man Seacompression 2008 playing with Suspension Camp. That's me in the photo on their site and (2-colored) in their logo:

In the pic from Saturday, I'm in the middle of being rigged for the same suspension: about to be lifted off the ground, hoisted to 8 feet, swung in a pendulum over the crowd, and spun like a top while screaming my head off.

Yeah... it was a good weekend.

(See more photos from Seacompression on Flickr.)

Don't Fear the Repo!

2008-11-11T14:15:00.000-08:00

I cannot tell you how excited I am that we have tickets to see Repo! The Genetic Opera tonight. You may be wondering why we'd want to see a movie with so freakish a name. I'll let the preview speak for itself:

INSTANT. CULT. CLASSIC.

Anthony Head Stewart (Giles from Buffy) as a crazy organ repo man?! Paris Hilton?! Can you say AWESOME!? ...OK, so Paris Hilton isn't really awesome... House of Wax completely sucked a fat one. But! The rest of the package looks FAB-U-LOUS.

So, super excited. Too bad the only showing is at 10PM in West Seattle. At least all my friends will be there!

Well, then...

2008-11-10T23:27:00.000-08:00

... It looks like we're about up and rolling. Let's get back up to speed, shall we?

Wedding recap and summary of our trip to Glacier and Zihuatanejo are in process over at Speyerwedding.com. We're still waiting on our pro pics (but have a few to preview).

Right now, you can read about our secret ceremony and pre-wedding backpacking trip, complete with photo-narration. The full Glacier Gallery is also online. Long story short, I'm a "Mrs." with a new last name, and life is grand.

We have a new bed, courtesy of Justin's mom, and handmade by Bob Spangler of Northwest Fine Woodworking. It's fully equipped with wool/latex mattresses from the soaring heart natural bedding company in Fremont.

(That's it! That's our bed!)

We also got a new living room set from Crate and Barrel, subsidized by gift cards: a queen sleeper sofa, large chaise, and ottoman. Rupert loves them.

Ee! Squishy! Ah, domesticity.

I am both pleased and disappointed with the outcome of the election. I believe that Obama is the right choice for America and I look forward to seeing what he can do. Even so, I was getting tired of his rhetoric by the end of the election.

I am heartbroken to see gay marriage banned (again) in several (more) states. I know that it's a frustrating issue, and many people are afraid of seeing their value system disturbed. I know many people are simply adhering to the Bible, citing what they believe to be "right" to also be "true." Nevertheless, I can't help but imagine that when these people think of gay marriage, they are simply afraid of legitimizing scary, icky buttsex. Forget LOVE! Forget equal rights for ALL FAMILIES! We just can't deal with those FREAKY homos!

Sigh.

Work is nuts, but Fall has been beautiful and provided me with many gorgeous outings. I'll be sharing photos from some over the next few days. Until all the wedding recaps are finished, look for this blog to be light on text and heavy on images.

I've also set up a Twitter feed here, in case I can only manage single sentences.

It's good to be back.

Wedding Madness

2008-08-03T10:21:00.003-07:00

Nothing to see here... everything's going on over at our wedding blog. We'll be back to regularly scheduled business here as soon as the wedding's over.

Photos from Montana

2008-05-27T23:13:00.000-07:00

I've finally posted photos from my Super Wedding Weekend in my gallery. I haven't been able to blog about the trip over at the wedding blog or Wedding Bee but I am planning to get around to writing a detailed rundown... Unfortunately, work and home life is particularly overwhelming at the moment. Sufficed to say, it was a very productive and enjoyable, if exhausting trip. It was beautiful to see Montana in the Springtime. Everything was so GREEN!

For now, please enjoy the Montana Spring 2008 gallery and these trip highlights:

Trialing wedding vendors! (Page 1 and 2)

Enjoying a massive tire blowout! (Page 3)

Exploring Polebridge and Bowman Lake! (Page 3, 4, 5, and 6)

Cycling Going to the Sun Highway! (Page 6 and 7)

Photographing an awesome barn! (Page 8)

That's all for now. More tomorrow and thereafter. :)

What's up?

2008-05-13T23:58:00.000-07:00

I neglected to mention that I was down in Eugene, Oregon two weekends ago to run the Half-marathon with my coworker, Craig. It was a FABULOUS day for a run and we made good time: 2:10:58, with a pretty impressive pickup pace given that we ran 11:30+ minute miles for the first few and sub 8:00 minute miles for the last!

We had a great time hanging out with the llamas, feasting and beer-ing, until we had to make the long drive home.

Speaking of long drives, I'm going out to Montana for wedding stuff this weekend. I was planning to take the train, but that was sort of nixed due to unforeseen circumstances. More on that later.

Last weekend, we visited a Whidbey Island beachhouse with some good friends. It was just a bunch of girls on Saturday night, so we spent 5+ hours in the hot tub and ate/drank waaaaay too much. I didn't take any photos of the "debauchery," but I did take a few of our trip to the farmer's market and down to the 1-foot deep "Useless Bay."

Enjoy!

( Whidbey Island Photo Gallery)

Crab & Comics

2008-05-06T12:54:00.000-07:00

What happened yesterday was this:

I'd planned to spend the evening crashed on the couch watching reruns of House. We've had an extremely eventful few weeks and with the Eugene 1/2 marathon and 5-hr drive home on Sunday, I just wanted a rest.

So when Justin pulled up the Seattle PI website and told me the crew of The Deadliest Catch was signing books at Barnes & Noble, I said we could probably skip it. Too much standing and too many crowds.

But when he wondered aloud whether the captains would sign the Deadliest Catch-punchline PVP comic my interest was a little piqued. That WOULD make an interesting (and frameable!) souvenir.

Before we decided whether or not to drive over to the U. Village, Justin emailed Scott Kurtz, the artist of PVP, ostensibly to ask if he'd like a signed copy too, but to also inquire about a high-res version of the image.

Scott's hilarious reply came back in minutes. I don't have it on hand, but it said something like, "Oh my God yes, I would love that. I'm in Seattle right now. Where are they?" We sent him the info and he shot back, "I'm on my way. Find me when you get there."

He was in Seattle? Wh.. what? And on his way? What the hell were chances of that!

As it turns out, he'd just flown in for the Emerald City ComiCon (this weekend) and was staying in the U District near the Penny Arcade office.

So we met up at B&N and Scott seemed happily refreshed that we were normal and not freaky stalker types. I told him I'd try harder next time.

We brought several printed copies of the comic and picked up some books for ourselves and friends. After an hour and a half in line, we met the DC captains, who loved the comic.

The Cap'ns were happy to sign stuff and pose for photos, though obviously glad that the line was almost finished.

Really, the best part wasn't meeting the crew face-to-face, but watching them just do their thing and interact with fans over the course of the evening.

During a break, Captains John and Andy came over to mingle with the folks in the line and answered some of our (stupid) questions. Yes, they do like crab. Yes, they do eat crab on the boats. And Opilio crab is actually more commonly known as "Snow Crab."

After the signing, we had a few drinks with Scott, who kindly drew us some purty pictures.

(Yeah... That IS the Penny Arcade "fruit fucker.")

Want to see more photos? Check out the Deadliest Catch Captain & Comic Signing photo gallery!

Well, that was random.

2008-05-05T23:11:00.000-07:00

Tonight, tonight was... special. Different. I feel like I just woke up from some crack dream.

Let's just say it involved me, Justin, most of the cast of The Deadliest Catch and the comic artist who draws PVP.

I know it sounds like there should be some kind of punchline to follow but I'm serious.

Dead serious. DEADLIEST SERIOUS.

CRAAAAAAAAAAAABBBB!!!

Shave This

2008-04-14T23:15:00.001-07:00

I got Justin this shave set from Acca Kappa for our eight-year anniversary:

Shave set made with African Ovangkol Wood. Razor comes with Mach III blade and Shave Brush is made with Pure Badger bristles. Chrome plated stand and White Moss shave soap included.

Now he's gone shave crazy and has bought a DE safety razor and wants a straight razor as well. Hurrah for male grooming!