Settling in, almost.

I'm happily settling into Berwyn. My only problem is that I don't have enough time (or, alternatively, enough Genes to do all the work).

I was hoping to get my studio ready in the last few weeks but I had deadlines that need to get done NOW. So I'm working out of my living room, set up with my computer on drafting table and drawing at my dining table. Every now and then I pass by my future studio and eye it lustfully.

I spent the last hour or two tearing up the temp studio looking for my Wacom pen. I can't lose the tablet because its connected to the computer with a cable. I've lost the pen at my old place, but it was always on the computer desk. The computer desk is in pieces in the basement and my drafting table isn't that big.

It wasn't in my drafting table's pen catcher. Or in any of my baggies full of drawing implements. Not under the furniture. Not in the pen cup in the kitchen.

I did learn that there's a Microcenter location a few minutes drive from my new home (on Route 66, ie Ogden Ave). While on hold for a stock check I sat at my computer. As I puttered about it rolled out from under the Wacom tablet.

I'm really looking forward to having a studio. Hoping it happens by November.

In closing, congrats to Mike and Lynn on their new house! Thanks to Dave for the toffee coated chocolate coated macadamias, they're what malted milk balls should taste like. Thanks to Cole for the skull holding. Recommend everyone check out Sevilla's Tapas for Chicagoland's best tapas. With dance music! And looking forward to seeing Berwyn's Gin Palace Jesters soon.

The new home

This weekend Lisa and I just finished moving into the home. We're still selling our old condo so the nicer (heavier) furniture stays there till it sells. Some of our best friends pitched in to help move my endless boxes of reference books to our Berwyn brick bungalow. Much thanks to those who helped: Andrew Pepoy, John, Lynn, Mike, and Tim!


I've still got to repaint some rooms in the old Oak Park condo and the basement studio and Pepto Bismol pink bedroom in the bungalow before I can get back to drawing. I really couldn't draw now anyway. My hands are covered in swollen red welts, especially my fingertips. My reference library is hugantic.

After that I'll get around to my new Top 10 series, something very special after that, and taking off the sale prices from my webstore. If he's still interested I'll be bugging Bryan Galatis about an article we're supposed to work on together.

Berwyn is very different from Oak Park. The OP has spectacular public and private schools befitting its liberal and artsy passions. It's the home of Ernest Hemingway and Frank Lloyd Wright's first studio. Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote here early in his career. Wikipedia lists Jim Peterik of Survivor as Berwyn's most famous former resident. And let's just say that Berwyn's schools helped us afford a brick home in a low crime neighborhood. Eye of the Tiger, baby!

I have a little down time right now because I'm waiting for AT&T to come by and start up my ground line. I haven't had a normal wired phone for years. I want it mostly for faxes and 1-800 operators who put me on hold for two hours. They're supposed to arrive sometime between 8am and 8pm. When I told the cable installers the size of the window they were floored. I don't have any groceries and I can't leave!

I leave you now with a picture of my girls, the real reason we had to get a house: