a christmas treat: jim starlin and terry austin!

okay...

so my hope today was to have a few childhood christmas or hannukah pictures from all of you in our little perhapa-family and share some memories--but the only people who have sent in any photos so far are just alison, brian, and...me.
so i'll give it another couple of days and make a second plea--anybody got a great picture of themselves crying on santas lap? or still half-asleep and in their jammies on christmas morning? or enjoying a cool prresent out in the snow? send 'em in! come on--you know you want to...!

which leaves me a bit high and dry this morning--but wait...

i DID say the other day that we were gonna try to give you some cool perhapanauts news and treats this holiday season, didn't i...? well, some of that news could be that craig and i are already well into the next series and we've got some great friends/artists also working very hard on some back-up stories for the run so that every issue is jam-packed with perhapanaut-y goodness! matt wieringo, christian leaf, lauren monardo, matthew dow smith, are all hard at work and turning in some simply gorgeous pages! (thanks, guys! i can't wait to be able to show everyone else the wonderful work you're all doing...!)

i hate it when people name-drop--and yet i also know that i must sound like i'm doing it from time to time. i know! truth is, i am a comic book fan first and someone who actually gets to work in that field second. so when, in the course of my career, or at a show or convention, i get to meet a favorite artist or writer, i will very easily--and certainly very embarrassingly--slip into fanboy mode without ever looking back! i've made a total ass of myself in front of some of my absolute favorites--but i'm getting better. that i am friends now with some of them and get to hang out with them and exchange christmas cards is cool. and, in moments of clarity and retrospect, incredibly surreal.

i play volleyball with jim starlin every week. we've known each other for about 15 years and i consider him a friend. we exchange comic books and he's even been kind enough to put me in the loop of people that get a preview of his work as he goes along. i am thrilled to be there!
i try not to ask friends to do any artwork for us if we don't have any money. and we NEVER have any money. so when jim told me he'd be happy to do a perhapanauts cover for us if i could get terry (austin--also a good friend) to ink it, i almost fell over. feeling close enough to terry that i felt i could speak for him at that moment, i said he'd do it. (and he did too, later on...) and that was it.
well, not all of it.
jim said, "so what should it be? where will they be? what will they be doing?"
i said, "well, they're going to be down under--in australia."
he said, "got it." and was gone.
the few days later he sent me this...











terry took it and did this...







and then jim took it back and put some color to it and there's your flip cover for perhapanauts no.7--out sometime next spring...!


how's that for a holiday treat?

gotta go!
'tis the season!
smell ya later!
todd

vintage christmas

okay...

thanks to our pal, warren newsom, for his great guest post on friday with his creepy story of the slenderman! if you missed it, go back and catch it--you'll be glad you did!

so, i said last week that we'd have some cool news and updates for you, and hopefully a couple christmas goodies along the way. not that it's a treat or anything, but i will be posting my 2009 christmas card here on friday. i posted almost 20 years of my christmas cards here throughout the month of december last year and have gotten many requests to post this year's model. (for those of you who didn't see the christmas card gallery last year, you can find them easily enough by going to the ARCHIVES over ---> there and selecting the month of December 2008...)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

is it just me? do photos of christmases past get you in the spirit too? dude--they don't even have to be MY christmases!! i just see these old pictures or classic footage and it gets me all sentimental and nostalgic for some reason. and i wasn't even THERE! i mean, i've ALWAYS been a sensitive, sentimental sap--i admit that right up front and will fight anyone who wants to challenge that--but do you find these old photos inspiring...? heartwarming...? do they get you in the spirit...?
and is it just because i'm older now and have more to look back on...? who knows.









i'll admit that i didn't find a lot. and i was actually kinda surprised that i couldn't find more --i googled the word christmas with the words vintage and classic and photos and memories...
i have gotten out a big box of family pictures from my mom's house (my dad's house) and will try to find some of our family christmases to post here over the next week or so. how 'bout you? any great christmas pictures from days gone by? a photo with santa? christmas morning? playing with new toys in the snow?


to really get the gist of what i'm talking about, check out the great nostalgic christmas footage in this video from the 80's--leon redbone and dr. john singing frosty the snowman

(thanks to roger ash for sending this over and for getting me all hooked on leon redbone again...)


leon redbone and dr.john

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAtZBE5XXFo



and though this one has it's own wacky weird al twist to it, check out this one from the master...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGdrMOttV_s


that's all i got today!
send in those christmas pics--or hannukah--or kwanza--or festivus--or whatever!--and let's share these holidays together!
smell ya later~!
todd

warren newsom's guest blog--the slenderman

When I was young, I went to a rural North Carolina elementary school that set far off the main road on a back road that turned from asphalt to red dirt just past the school. Piney woods surrounded the school with old growth hardwoods taking over the deeper you went into them. At recess, all of us boys and girls would run past the playgrounds straight for the woods.

This was the early 60’s. I was in third grade and my teacher didn’t seem to think twice about letting a bunch of children go unattended to play in the woods. We’d climb on low branches, build forts out of fallen limbs, or just find a good shade tree to sit under to cool off. After all, it was a rural school full of farmers’ and mill hands’ children – salt of the earth type people who inhabited a safe community where everyone knew everyone else. We – adults and children alike – were used to unlocked doors and kids running free through forest and field.

That changed suddenly one day in the early winter.

It was almost Christmas and us third-graders were buzzing in anticipation of two weeks off and Santa Claus. The weather was mild, as it has almost always been here in December (I don’t remember ever having a “white Christmas” – usually, it’s sunny and clear around here) but there was still enough of a chilling breeze to keep most of us kids close to the school building when we went out to play. Even so, there were a few who were willing to brave a biting breeze to go out into the woods.

On this particular day, as we all filed back into our classroom after recess, we noticed one chair was empty. It belonged to a girl named Marie. We students noticed her absence before the teacher did, but it didn’t take long for Mrs. Taylor to miss her also. But before we could all react and wonder where she could be, we heard sobbing and shuffling feet out in the hallway.

Marie came shambling into the room, her sweater picked with holes and her face, arms, and legs scratched and bleeding. Tears had left red chapped streaks on her cheeks. She didn’t wait for someone to ask her, she simply volunteered:

“Something was watching me in the woods. Something was following me.”

After that, we were restricted to the playground at recess, and that was still the school policy through my remaining years there.

It’s always haunted me: Exactly what frightened Marie so badly in the woods that day?

Probably everyone who has ever played in the woods as a child – or in a cornfield, or sandlot, or anywhere else outside of the safe surroundings of your parents’ home – has felt that sensation. That something was watching you. That something just on the periphery of your vision – or maybe on the periphery of reality – was stalking you, always within a step of catching you. You know it’s there, but you dare not turn around to look, because then it will get you…

That creepy thing that waits among the bare winter trees or down the alley beside the vacant building near your apartment now has a name: The Slender Man.

I was first introduced to the Slender Man by my son, a teacher of writing and communication. We were chatting on AIM in the wee hours one night when he sent me a link to some of the material he had covered in his class concerning interactive fiction creation on the internet. One of the examples he used was the Slender Man. I’d never heard of it. When I asked him about it, he sent me a few links about, after which he said, “I hate looking at this stuff this late at night.”

The myth began on the forums of the Something Awful website, in a thread devoted to the creation of fake paranormal images. (Here is the link if you wish to go look at the original thread. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3150591&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=3#post361861415 )

Most of the doctored photos were obvious, far too fake to be the least bit scary, but there were a pair of photos that got it just right: Innocent children. Captions that hinted at a fatal catastrophe. And there, lurking menacingly in the background, a figure that you almost – almost – overlook.




And the myth of the Slender Man was born. A faceless figure in a black suit with – wait… are those… tentacles? Extra arms? What are they…?

Prophetically, the post immediately following the original photos in that thread contained this statement: “You just know a couple of the good ones are going to eventually make it to paranormal websites and be used as genuine.”

Which is exactly what happened.

The result is the birth of not one, but two phenomena – the creation and promotion of a collective fictional creation, and the belief in that fictional creation as real. References to the Slender Man can be found all over internet forums and websites with many people claiming that he’s real, explaining him as some sort of psychic/physical manifestation of our primal fears. He has his own entry in the Mythical Creatures Guide.

http://www.mythicalcreaturesguide.com/page/Slender+Man

And there is a blog dedicated to the investigation of the Slender Man “phenomenon”.

http://slendermanchronicles.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html

Maybe the most famous Slender Man-related material is the movie, “Marble Hornets,” posted in installments on You Tube. It’s a creepy little amateur film that reminds me of Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity, yet is somehow both cooler and scarier than either of those (though maybe that’s because I watched it alone in my living room at 3:00 am). The movie purports to be the raw footage shot during the making of a student film a few years ago. The student making the film seems to slowly lose his mind as a mysterious being keeps showing up in the backgrounds of his shots.

So, a new monster has come along to stoke our nightmares, one that may be entirely made up or maybe not. As the author of the Slender Man Chronicles blog says:

He only exists because you think of him. Try not to think of him.





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

snow delay

okay...

a little late with the post today...
i just got back in from shoveling off the walk and digging out the cars. we got about 5 inches here, which is usually an easy chore, but it had turned to freezing rain for a little while in there and we were left with a kind of layered, parfait kinda thing--only heavy.

but i'm back now.

so as christmas draws near, i am hoping to have some "gifts" to drop on you over the next couple weeks, some really cool posts, pictures, and perhapanauts announcements to get some momentum going here as the year winds down! 2K9 was great!!--2010 is gonna be even better!!

one of the early christmas "gifts" will be here on friday and don't you miss it! guest blogger warren newsom will be here to give his report on a curious--and creepy--new phenomenon in the paranormal community! be here!

today, i've relied again on our pal, alison, who continues to uncover all sorts of cool photos and occurrences from out there in the ether! i'm pretty sure i posted a photo or two of this sting ray migration down in mexico last year at some point, but i don't think i published all of them. alison was keen to point out that these look a lot like something m.c. escher would have drawn. (love the escher!!)
enjoy!















also from alison was a link to this awesome song, which, being a huge monty python fan, i knew it word for word--i actually went to see the meaning of life three times just to learn the words to this clever little ditty. if you've never heard it before, check this out--

http://dingo.care2.com/cards/flash/5409/galaxy.swf


thanks, alison!
see you all on friday!
smell ya later!
todd

christmas tunes--misconscrewed carols!

okay...

as christmas season approaches (is HERE is more like it...!) and my nephew continues to be 13, we've been listening to christmas carols on the radio and belting out all of the classics at the top of our lungs! you know the ones i'm talking about--the classics...

"jingle bells, batman smells
robin laid an egg!
the batmobile lost it's wheel
and the joker got away--hey!"


and, of course, there's...

"rudolph the red-nosed reindeer,
had a very shiny nose
and if you ever saw it,
you would even say it glows (like a lightbulb)
all of the other reindeer,
used to laugh and call him names
they never let poor rudolph
join in any reindeer games (like monopoly)"


i know there's more to these added
background voccals--i can't remember it all.
anybody...


here are a couple more i remember from when i was 13...


"sleigh bells rings, are ya listenin'
in the lane, snow is glistenin'
a beautiful sight, we're happy tonight
walkin' 'round in women's underwear!"



"we three kings of orient are
tried to smoke a rubber cigar,
it was loaded and exploded,
we three kings are none."

and this one i wrote myself, sometime back in the 80s...


"away in the manger no crib for his bed,
no disneyland mobile hung over his head,
no snug-fitting pampers for our little lord,
no sign on mom's car that says 'baby on board'."


so, did i miss any? anybody got more to add? i know there are a few of you out there with something i've never heard. lay it on me! 'tis the season! : )





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

over at jazma online, richard vasseur treated me to a really fun casper interview that i think maybe i was too tired and shouldn't have done at the time (ie; i seem to be a little slow on the uptake...) it's always nice to get some questions that aren't the same old, same old and i appreciate richard thaking things to the next level!
check it out;

http://www.jazmaonline.com/interviews/interviews2009.asp?intID=533


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the answers to the
"five for friday!"
name the actor

here are three roles that they've portrayed--
name the actor or actress


1. wes mantooth, norman bates, peter le fleur

vince vaughn

2. catherine deane, mary fiore, karen sisco

jennifer lopez

3. pvt. pyle, edgar, carl stargher

vincent d'onofrio

4. tina carlyle, natalie cook, princess fiona

cameron diaz

5. terrence 'terry' mann, king jaffe, joffer, barney hill

james earl jones


happy monday!
smell ya later!
todd

for friday

okay...

i'm not very good at self-promotion--although i'm sure you'll recall my perennial shout-outs of "why not give the gift of adventure?" around this time of year, reminding folks that they probably have at least one person on their christmas list that would dig a copy of the perhapanauts:triangle trade this year...!

and i don't really know if i'm that good at promoting other people and their work either...but here's where i'm coming from.

as an imaginative young lad i, naturally, gravitated toward other imaginative young lads (and ladies) and so had a wonderful childhood filled with lots of exciting adventures and what some might call 'dangerous' experiments...
my best friend when i was 11, 12, 13 was a kid named garth green. like me, garth was into drawing and all manner of artwork, music--we both played guitar, but while i was learning the basics of the three chord blues progressions for what was definitely going to be an awesome career in rock and/or roll, garth was going so much deeper, studying classical guitar from the great vladimir bobri. as kids of that age we went on some amazingly great adventures, did a whole bunch of really stupid things, and mostly had a fantastic time. also, garth had an older brother who was a great resource when we had questions about girls and sex.
around when we were 14, garth moved away and we lost touch, but a few years back our paths crossed again and we've been friends again ever since, having some new adventures and doing stupid things (although, apparently now we've gotta be careful 'cause they arrest you now for stuff they'd letcha get away with as kids...)
so while my rock and roll career did have it's high points in the 80s and early 90s, garth has gone on to prove just what a truly talented musician and composer he is, creating several cd's of his imaginative and stylized pieces.



check out some of garth's stuff here...

http://www.myspace.com/garthgreen

and if you or someone you know on your christmas list would appreciate a cd of music by my gifted pal, you can order one or two (or three) at

http://www.cdbaby.com/Search/Z2FydGggZ3JlZW4%3d/0





or, if you're looking for some other ideas for that hard to buy for friend or relative, go here

http://www.27bslash6.com/p2p.html


matt sent us a link to this guy's blog and book the other day and we can't stop laughing about it. if nothing else, make sure you bookmark this site and visit it anytime you're job starts sucking the soul out of you...



hilarious!



i think i'm buying everybody marvel super hero squad action figures, so i'm done.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and here are some cool pictures of ufos and cows and tractor beams. i always loved the concept of tractor beams. we gotta put more tractor beams in the perhapanauts. (also, maybe we should redesign the skipper to look like a smaller version of that awesome spaceship mike grell put on the cover of green lantern 93--that thing is cool like a donut!)
(mmm--donuts...!)





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"five for friday!"
name the actor

here are three roles that they've portrayed--
name the actor or actress


1. wes mantooth, norman bates, peter le fleur

2. catherine deane, mary fiore, karen sisco

3. pvt. pyle, edgar, carl stargher

4. tina carlyle, natalie cook, princess fiona

5. terrence 'terry' mann, king jaffe, joffer, barney hill

have a great weekend!
find the spirit of the season!
smell ya later~!
todd

birth of an island

okay...

so, personally, i think this is pretty awesome.
again, alison comes through with an incredible email and photos.
the story that went along with them was actually a bit confusing, and left out some important elements-- so i am paraphrasing it the way i understood it.

so these guys are traveling around the south pacific on their yacht, the maiken, when they spot what they think is an island or beach out in the middle of nowhere, just a sandy expanse that's level with the ocean water--



but when they get up close...it's actually sand that's floating on the top of the water...


as it turns out, not really sand, but volcanic stones...


they sail through...




...leaving a wake behind them...





an hour or so later, and many miles away, they turn to see, rising into the sky above the spot they just sailed through...


a column of steam--



a pillar of smoke--



and upon their return the next day--





a new island, freshly risen from the ocean floor.
A-freakin'-MAZING.

i'm working on my christmas card--making lists--getting some shopping done...and finally letting the christmas music in.
are you all getting ready?

have a great day!
smell ya later!
todd

staying in the dream...

okay...

i've been trying to get up each morning and get right to work. or maybe that's 'write to work.' they say that the best time for a writer to get into it, to lose themselves in their own little worlds they create, is right when they wake up, when their minds are still fresh and fuzzy, and as yet untainted by the news or activities of the day. the brain is still coming out of that sleep period, that dream-state, and the imagination is still poised and ready to go...
i find this to be true. for me, anyway...
so i've been trying my best to skip checking my email first thing in the a.m., skip reading the news, the blogs, the facebook posts. but it's hard--we're all information junkies now, aren't we? we don't feel that we've started our day until we've 'checked in' with the internet, our lightning-fast link to the world. okay, maybe you need to do it, for your work or 'cause that's part of your job, but i'm fighting it. i'm going to start a new habit of not logging on until the end of the day, so that i can keep my mind in that 'creative phase' for as long as i can. i did it over this long weekend; got right up, went to work on some perhapanauts and mon5ter 5 stories and didn't let the world in until way after noon. and it was incredible! fantastic! i felt more imaginative, creative, productive...
it was cool.
and so, the reason i'm really writing this--or you might think 'wasting your time with this' (i hope not)--is that our little family here is full of talented and creative people, and i'm suggesting you do a little experiment of your own. take a few hours each morning on some upcoming weekend (maybe this will have to wait until after the holidays for some...) and try writing or drawing or painting or whatever you do to express yourself before you let the world in, before you open yourself up to the news of the day, before you're even really awake. try it and see what happens.

i think you'll be amazed...


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and the roll continues...
alison sent me this the other day.



amazing! can you guess what this picture is made from?




Artist assistants stand next to 3,604 cups of coffee which have been made into a giant Mona Lisa in Sydney , Australia . The 3,604 cups of coffee were each filled with different amounts of milk to create the different shades!



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and the
answers
to your
"five for friday!"
three-fers

1. name three robins.

dick grayson, jason todd, tim drake, carrie kelly, stephanie brown, damian wayne

2. name three of the original defenders.

dr.strange, the hulk, silver surfer, prince namor, the sub-mariner

3. name three of the justice league's headquarters.

the cave at happy harbor, rhode island, the justice league satellite, the detroit bunker, the un, the watchtower

4. name three of hank pym's various alter-egos.

ant man, giant man, goliath, yellow jacket

5. name three of the traditional (over-sized) souvenirs that are usually depicted in batman's batcave.

giant penny, giant joker card, jason todd's robin costume, dinosaur

that's it for now!
have a great monday!
smell ya later!
todd

stuffed.

okay--

quick one today. hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving and that you all enjoy the rest of the relaxing weekend!

i'm actually going to spend the day working--but it's FUN work--i have more marvel super hero squad to write--which, i must say, i am having a BALL with!! hope they're as funny in print as they are here in my office! i can't wait to show you some of the sweet art that goes with it! FUN!
asdly, this has also made me a collector of super hero squad characters. no, i'm not playing with them!--they're for research. seriously. though sometimes it's cool to take the hulk and have everyone else try to pile on him and then he gets angry and throws them all across the desk and then thor comes up and he swings his hammer and...

anyway, they're fun.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

well, alison is indeed on a roll. and i guess maybe, with all of the dog-related posts i've put up recently, she must have felt that the cats deserved some equal time...




(oops. sorry--i don't know how to make this appear larger...)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

just became facebook friends with my old friend, elisa, and she had this up as her icon or avatar or whatever you call it...i laughed out loud when i saw the sign and then harder when i read the dedication. it's true.




"five for friday!"
three-fers

1. name three robins.

2. name three of the original defenders.

3. name three of the justice league's headquarters.

4. name three of hank pym's various alter-egos.

5. name three of the traditional (over-sized) souvenirs that are usually depicted in batman's batcave.

that's it!
have a great weekend!
smell ya later!
todd

HAPPY THANKSGIVING~!

i was up late last night counting my blessings...
...and i think i got you all~!





a day to give thanks!

happy thanksgiving, everybody~!
todd

thanksgiving

okay...

as a kid, i would go hunting with my father.
i know. i can hear you all now saying, "you?! a hunter?! but todd, you love animals so much?!
i know.
but as a sensitive adolescent male in the seventies with a traditional, emotionally distant, non-demonstrative dad, i was literally desperate to do anything to bond with my father and to make him proud.
and i grew up in a time and an area and a family where fishing, hunting, and trapping were the tradition. many of the stories i grew up with were hunting and fishing stories told by my uncle and my father and the men they hung around with. and some of those guys really knew how to tell a story...
plus, it was exciting. shooting guns is exciting. i was, not to brag, a fairly good shot on the range and brought home a buncha trophies for skeet and trap shooting--those are the ones with the clay pigeons--i was a dead-eye.
and hunting is exciting too. not the shooting part so much--i'll get to that--but the looking for something part. any kid who ever played hide and seek knows that feeling. tracking and sneaking, all your senses honed to one task, the anticipation of discovery...
we all need to play more hide and seek.

but this isn't a hunting story--it's a story about the experience. the experience of getting up at 4 in the morning, the kitchen light seemed so much brighter in that dark hour, my father making us a couple of bowls of oatmeal--something warm--and him having his cup of coffee. not a coffee drinker, i had hot chocolate. something warm. clean up the kitchen, lights out, down into the basement. put on the big, red, wool coat that used to be dads and out into the dark, into the truck, down the road to meet the other men. all of them excited but hiding their eagerness, cracking jokes, cracking on each other. the team would be split; sitters and drivers. i'd be a sitter these first couple of times, "give the kid a chance." my dad walked me out into the still-dark woods--we couldn't see more than ten feet all around us--and sat me at the base of a twisted cedar tree. "you'll get a good shot here. you'll be able to see everything down in the gully. i'll be just over the ridge." and then he disappeared in to the dark.

and i sat there in the dark.
dark.
i could here sounds, little sounds, leaves crunching, twigs snapping, animals calling or hooting or crying in the distance.
but it was black.


so the other night i was reminiscing with a stranger. not a stranger--i've known joe for years and we play volleyball together--but he didn't grow up here, in this small town where, in high school, all the boys would be absent those first two days of deer season. he grew up in a small town in southern new jersey where all the boys were absent the first two days of deer season. and we were talking about that time. of being boys, sitting in the woods, in the dark--pitch dark, it seemed. stygian blackness--with a gun in your hands, on your lap, your back against a tree, shivering despite the layers of warm clothes you had on, watching the world around you slowly fade from that impenetrable black to a very dim gray. watching your field of vision slowly expand. watching the woods gradually reveal itself to you.
and then...

joe used this phrase and i love it, i haven't stopped thinking about it since he said it, it just stuck with me.

"...to be in the woods when they turn the color on."

suddenly you perceive a soft, faded yellow over there. then a dim orange over there. so slowly, so random, so graceful. colors that were imperceptible, undetectable mere moments before seem to blossom with your gaze.

maybe you've seen this, maybe you've been there. maybe on a camping trip. or maybe you just stayed up all night. not the sunrise or that pre-dawn light, that band of silver that brightens the horizon in the early morning. this is starting in the middle of the dark and watching it slowly recede around you. yeah? it's magical. it's beautiful. god--it's one of the most wonderful memories i have.



along with the turkeys and the family gatherings and watching the parade on tv with my mom, that is one of my memories of thanksgiving. being with my dad and "the men" and being out in the woods. being part of the woods.

be thankful.

have a great thanksgiving!



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



mickey mouse--1934






felix the cat--1932




kermit's debut-1977

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

our good friend and perhapa-pal, mike estelle, called me the other night to say hi, catch up...and tell me he got married!
i had know that mike had proposed to his girlfriend, karen, last year on halloween--how cool is that?--but wasn't sure when exactly they have planned on making it for-real. well, apparently all of the prep and planning--and the waiting--was driving them nuts too, so they threw it all down and justice-of-the-peaced it about a week and a half ago! (the 15th, right, mike...?)
i wanted to congratulate them here on the blog, but i also wanted to wait until they got back from their impromptu honeymoon so that we could ALL say--

CONGRATUALTIONS, MIKE AND KAREN!

best wishes for a wonderful ride together!


and with that i will say
happy thanksgiving!
smell ya later!
todd