Howefitz Blog

G’Day, Mates! This Fatherhood Friday, I wanted to give you the update on Kat’s Australian adventures!

We’ve been communicating through text and the leader has been emailing us, so unfortunately, there are no pictures yet. They are in and out of phone service, and don’t have access to email very often, but here’s what I know so far:

They have repelled off of the Blue Mountains, swam at the Olympic Park, toured the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Aquarium, visited the Opal Museum, took a cruise of Sydney Harbor, visited the Parliament House, swam at Edith Falls, visited Aborigines, and Kat wrestled a sheep.

Phone booth, glasses, last of his kind... OMG! The Doctor is Superman!

It truly is amazing how a silly T.V. show can get you to thinking about life.

I am currently in mourning. I’m mourning the loss of a fictional character. What makes this behavior on my part even worse, is that said fictional character has the ability to ‘regenerate’, causing him to live, albeit in varying forms, possibly forever.

Yesterday, I lost the Doctor.

It wasn’t a surprise. I knew it was the end. The rest of the world has already mourned and moved on. They’re enjoying Matt Smith, I’ve seen the tweets.

Fired up and ready to go!

So. I had the pleasure of taking Kat to the Denver airport yesterday, where she began her trek to Australia! She was pretty nervous, though if she knew I told you my life would be over, so keep it on the DL, OK?

In honor of this great opportunity for her, and a flimsy attempt at saying I’m doing ‘research’ for my upcoming webcomic, Howefitz Sequential, here is a list of the top five Australian cartoon characters:

5. Felix the Cat

Felix, Inky, and Winky in 'April Maze'. image via Wikipedia Commons

Last minute packing, planning the route to the airport through Mapquest, Google, and the GPS, (because that’s how good my sense of direction is…) I’m almost ready to get in the car and take Kat to the airport for an excursion that she will never forget.

Today’s the day that Kat leaves for Australia.

I’m so jealous I could burst…

Popularity: 3% [?]

Yesterday, because only really important things are put off until the last minute, I called a Travelex in Denver in a panic, ‘Yes, ma’am, do you always have Australian dollars on hand?’ I blurted right after the nice young lady’s spiel about Travelex being the greatest company ever or something.

‘Of course, sir. But it is available on a first come, first serve basis, and sometimes we do run out…’

Oh my God, there had been a run on Australian currency! Poor Kat will be wandering around The Land Down Under without legal tender paying exorbitant ATM fees!!! The horror! The unadulterated horror!!!!

After much deliberation, it has been decided that Joanne Owens (@hangglided on twitter) is the winner of my Sweet As Sugar Milk contest. She’ll be receiving her copy of Sugar Milk in the mail soon, I’m shipping it today! Congrats, and thank you so much Joanne!

With that, I am pleased to announce that through the generosity of my blog readers, friends, family, and a few impromptu garage sales (not to mention most of my tax return), Kat’s trip to Australia with People to People is now reality! She flies out on the 16th for 17 days in the Land Down Under. I can’t believe that it’s that soon! Incidentally, on the graphic above, I found a font on Artweaver called ‘Australian Sunrise’. What else would I use? Here’s a glance at Kat’s itinerary while she’s down there:

Image via Wikipedia

At the time of this writing, I have yet to sit down and watch the season finale of Glee. I could say it’s because I’ve been soooo incredibly busy… But in reflection, I may be putting it off just because right now, I have the finale to look forward to.

Once I watch it, then what?

And why do I like that stupid show so much?

I can’t really answer that question. When I watch with my wife, it never fails. One of us turns to the other and says ‘You know, this show really is stupid.’

Warning: This post begins with a brief Geek Out, than I wax romantic about my wife. Hang in there reader, there something in this post for everybody! (I hope…)

Begin Geek Out

Waaaaay back on May 7, comics theoretician Scott McCloud posted a blog entitled ‘I Love My Wife’ that detailed how excited his wife was to see Iron Man 2, and how pleased he was that she was so excited.

I’m sure their relationship runs deeper than Robert Downey-helmed super-hero flicks, and my wife and I would have seen the flick too if we could afford the cash and time away from the kiddos. As it is, work takes up all the time from the kiddos that I can stand.

In my quest to develop a webcomic based on my family, I have found myself exploring what it is about the webcomics that I read that keep me coming back. A lot of that has to do with what’s below the comic: many creators blog underneath their comic updates. These blogs, like any blog, contain everything from helpful insight to what the artist ate for dinner.

One creator that includes helpful content is Travis Hanson over at his webcomic The Bean. Recently, he posted a blog entry titled Your Adventure: Creating Your Story. The entire post is well worth the read, but this passage caught my eye:

Good morning and Happy Fatherhood Friday to everyone! I am very excited to have my good friend, Ron Mattocks, author of the wildly popular fatherhood memoir, Sugar Milk, here for a guest post. Ron’s alias is also Clark Kent of Clark Kent’s Lunchbox, and since you never tug on Superman’s cape, I am going to quickly step aside and let him explain why he’s here:

An Idiot’s Guide To Australia