Walt-Country

Tiring but good weekend. Had the kids all weekend, along with my mom and stepdad. I took Friday off, so it really was a lot of time with them, and I fear they'll be a little the worse for wear this week at preschool, as they didn't get their regular naps. We hit Belmont Park on Friday, a small amusement park near Mission Beach in San Diego, which was a ripoff and hot and not the most fun for them, as they were too small for several of the rides. They had fun, don't get me wrong, but it was a long drive for it. Aside from breakfast, lunch and dinner, we didn't do too much Saturday or today but hit the pool, though we did walk on the beach after brunch today. Saturday after the pool, I fell asleep in my parents' hotel room with a kid on either arm, about 4:00, and we all woke up about 7:00, my parents already having left as they had dinner that night with old friends who live here. Well, Bob is an old friend, and this is his wife, whom we've met a few times. My greatest memory of Bob is when I was little, maybe seven or eight, he got drunk at our old house, passed out on the couch, and then woke up in the night and pissed on the water heater in the closet, so close and yet so far from the bathroom.

Anyway, I didn't completely fall asleep in the hotel room, in fact, but it was so nice to have the kids falling asleep in my arms I didn't want to disturb them, and just kind of entered a half-sleep state.

Oh, on Friday night we had a weird episode. My stepdad is a good guy but socially rather unpredictable. After a fine Italian dinner, we went (in the same shopping center) to ColdStone, an ice cream place where they mix in various ingredients of your choice into the ice cream with metal mallets, on a...cold stone...There's about four guys working there, and one guy will mix the orders for one group/family, as I assume it's easier to get the bill right that way when they're all done. The drawback is of course that the ice cream is all finished at different times, but, you know, you live with it. Not my stepdad, though. He didn't like this system, practically shoved my mom getting out of there, and went and got some fancy candy bars at some chocolatier a couple doors down, and when we all sat to eat outside, he said "I don't want any of that shit" in front of the kids. Oh, and then he offerent me a bite of one of his candy bars, and my two year old daughter as well, which was nice, but this candy bar said "picante" on the outside, and was filled with a chili-infused caramel, and just as I was reading this my daughter is biting the thing and coughing like her mouth is on fire. He said it wasn't hot, and it wasn't, for adults. I realize it's hard to know all the rules when you haven't been around little kids for a long time, but still, this was pretty bad or thoughtless behavior all around. The rest of the time was fun, though, and he does really love the kids.

I actually fell asleep at 9:00 on Friday, and not real late any other night. Wrote three pages of IJ #4 tonight, so I have just four left, pp. 16-19, having done 20-22 tonight. I'll at least have this issue done before SDCC, so I can hand the scripts off to my partner in case he wants to read them on the plane. Slightly annoyed to learn there's a Speakeasy drink-up on Saturday and I wasn't told. I hope it's not indicative of anything but the usual not-so-hot communication. Been reading and really loving WALT & SKEEZIX, the Gasoline Alley strips by Frank O. King, covering 1921-22. I'm sure I'll review it pretty soon, probably not this week.

Oh, and for my hard work at the day job, putting in the long hours, my boss called me Friday to tell me I, and three others, were getting this coming Friday off, paid, which was very nice. I may just hit SDCC all day, then, rather than just showing up for the drink-ups.