I've Been Sleeping Hard Lately

I've been sleeping hard lately. Like, wake up with shoulder pain because you haven't moved hard. Like, ALL THE SUDDEN it's morning hard. Like, waking up not knowing where you are hard.

The other night, I woke up in the very early hours. It was still dark out, and I had no idea where I was.

I quickly determined that I was in my apartment. Then I realized there was someone sleeping next to me. That's my husband, I thought, and then, Oh, right, I got married.

Who did I marry? I couldn't remember. I sat up and stared at the man sleeping with his mouth open next to me. It was dark, and it took me a moment to realize it was Jason, at which point I thought, Jason! OH GOOD I married Jason!

It was like a part of me had been sleeping for five years and had just then woken. It was weird. And funny.

On the Way Back from Cincinnati

Spent a lovely weekend with the Pershings. Stopped at Steak 'n Shake on the way home, where this was created:

Twenty minutes later, this happened:

We have, essentially, the smallest amount of self-control you can have without having NO self-control. More on that, and other things, soon!

We Have Been Remiss.

Hi there. Happy Valentine's Day! I just wanted to pop in to apologize. The onus is on me now. I have been trying to compose a new comic, and it's just not working. I tried to make one about a funny thing that happened (fitting, right?), and I made the comic, and it's, like, extra bad.

The story ITSELF is cute. Jason and I were laying in bed one night. I was watching Wuthering Heights on This (a hilarious channel we get -- ah, yes, antenna TV!), and J was playing on his phone.

At some point, I leaned my head on his shoulder and looked at his phone. On it, I saw that he was playing a card game. The player sitting opposite him he had named Amy. The other team was populated by Some Jerk and His Dumb Friend. "What are you doing?" I asked, and he replied, "Oh, just playing euchre with you."

I know I am biased, because I married him, but that is CUTE, don't you think? Not a great comic, as it turns out.

In other news, Jason surprised me this morning with a cartoon of foxes doing it (and the caption "Let's make some foxy babies") and a gorgeous necklace, despite the fact that we agreed we would not get each other Valentine's Day presents.

In other OTHER news, he lost the master list of everyone we sent a wedding-present thank-you card to.* So I guess you take the good with the bad, the better with the worse, n'est pas?

Okay. So. Comics. Coming soon. We have two little things I'll post soon. Also, we're going to Florida for four days next week, right during Jason's birthday (and me ovulating) to spend time with my parents and watch the Oscars with my mom. Should make for great fodder!

* If you haven't gotten a thank-you card yet, and you did get us a gift, feel free to send me an email and let me know!

Mittenfest V: The "Our Married Life" Wrap-Up, AKA I SUPER LOVE Kim Deal, I Really Do (ESPECIALLY Pixies-era).

A few things happened to the Sumersquales at Mittenfest V. We were better behaved than we've been in the past. We suffered no mystery bruises, no hangovers. We were also reminded, often, of how old and out of touch we are. Oh, and how pretty my hair is. (But mostly how out of touch we are. Sixty bands later, it's all still a blur.)



I can't post this next comic without a few caveats. For starters, I LOVE chick drummers. I mean, I LOVE them. I get excited when I see one. My heart fills with admiration. (Picture me, then, at the Weezer show on Saturday night, when kids from the Chicago School of Rock sang two Weezer songs for the 3,000+ in attendance -- oh! my heart! wept! SO COOL! -- and there was a middle-school aged chick drummer. I wanted to travel back in time to be her BFF.)

Furthermore, I appreciate women musicians in every form. That is all.



I think at this point Jason's caught up to me with comics. Better get to work on a new one! Hmmm...

Marriage = Compromise

Another showing by my favorite artist, Jason DePasquale! Jason started student teaching this week (hooray!) at Ann Arbor Open (hooray!), and, so far, his days have looked like this:

- Coffee starts up via robot at 6:30am
- Up, showered, and out the door by 7:40am
- Student teaching all day
- Straight to Dawn Treader to work
- Home around 9pm

On Sundays, he works at Acme. Saturdays, I imagine, will become the day for sleeping. At any rate, his appearances on this blog for the next few months might be few and far between, and rightfully so. Enjoy him while you can get him, is what I'm saying. We've got a couple of Mittenfest posts in the wings. (Honestly, I thought we'd do a ton of comics behind the 826 booth, but we wound up talking to a lot of people and coloring all the awesome robot pictures people were drawing. Coming soon to the window of the Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair!)

Ready? Here goes:


Furthermore, for those of you interested in DIY poetry wall hangings, you can still find a few in Press 34's shop. All the books sold out, within twenty-four hours, no less! (Press 34, for anyone I haven't told about it, is a new small publishing house I've started. Small runs, thirty-four, to be exact, of handmade books. The first one, The Lion by Catherine Calabro, is currently for sale. It's half books and half wall hangings. A book of photography triptychs and another poetry collection coming soon!)

Good Grief.

Those of you who know us know that I often give Jason good-natured and/or well-deserved grief. This happened yesterday:


He started a bullet-pointed list of other things I would give him grief about. They included: driving to work (It's less than a mile from where we live! It's good exercise!), staring at the fish tank and/or driving around to fish stores for too long (He does this for, like, HOURS every day!), and not cleaning out his closet.

Did ALL of his predictions come true? You betcha! What can I say? I'm a monster.

10 Reasons I Got Married.

Good morning, and happy shortest day of the year! After waiting, erm, exactly a month for Jason to post the infamous (at least around our apartment, anyway) comic that we are now cryptically referring to as "Food Emailed," I have decided to just go ahead and post my comic. Sorry to all of y'all who were hoping to see ACTUAL talent (aka Jason) in comics on this blog. Looks like you're stuck with me.

I'll present this with one comment: We need to get more gray markers. The three we have are not enough.


Perhaps if we start chanting his name, we can motivate Jason? C'mon, now, all together: JASON! JASON! JASON! JASON!

You May Not Be Surprised to Find Out...

...we are just waiting on Jason to post a comic he's already drawn.

Today Has Actually Been Productive...

...despite what this comic seems to imply. (Although, today aside, I do tend to be full of big ideas and a lot of hot air.)


(Both related and unrelatedly, it was a pretty big day for Press 34, and we'll likely have something in our shop in December!)

It's Hard to be Married to Someone So Talented.

Hello! Those of you who know or have worked with my husband Jason know how difficult it is to get him to produce, and how frustrating that is -- because he's so ridiculously talented. His random, unconscious doodles are works of art. (I'm biased, but I'm also pretty sure this is true.)

Anyway, one way to get him to do something is to do it myself, and to keep doing it. (Case in point: 5Ks.) At any rate, I am proud to present his first offering to this blog, hopefully the first of many: