Airport!

Funny thing is I remember drawing pictures like this. Right down to the ISO-9000-compliant sign that says "AIRPORT," just in case somebody forgot where they were.

The Traditional House

I've got to get this one posted before the artist becomes a teenager -- I've had this one hanging about for a very long time.

Yes, a traditional house. Four-paned windows. Chimney and such. And a goon looking out the window.

Weenie Dog

Yes, we still miss our little Moki, our weenie dog who died, well, it's two and a half years ago now. We'd like to get a new dog, but can't exactly afford what the little puppies are selling for. Don't tell us to go to the local animal shelters, because unless you want a cat (I'd love one, Michelle would file divorce proceedings) or a pit bull or a Labrador, we're just out of luck. Too bad.

Hypno-Eyes

Harry Potter, as of late, has become a theme in our oldest's drawings. Witness this bit of hapless Professor Lockhart with the hypno-eyes and poor Ron getting panicky as usual.

He's fresh into the books, and it's been a few years since I've read them. He knows them better than I do. I vaguely remember Prof. Lockhart, and vaguely remember this bit from the book. But my memories are, well, vague.

A Big Bundle of Church Doodles

It's been rough, these past few months.

Rough in that we have to head to church at 1 pm, which makes it a lot of trouble getting out the door and to church in a happy mood. You'd think with time to wake up, eat breakfast, play around and then get dressed, the kids would be happy happy.

Not so, especially for the oldest. It's been a rough few months.

So I've taken to desperation: Drawing a few doodles to try to encourage our oldest to crack a smile at church. Most of the times, I succeeded, and got him doodling on his own. Here's the fruit from the past two Sundays:

Calvin-Inspired

Now our oldest is into the Calvin and Hobbes comics.

You know, while we're on the subject: I don't much care for C&H these days. Part of it might be that I'm growing more into a grumpy old man, but the more I read Calvin the more I see that he's just a kid spouting adult ideas. I know Charles Schulz' kids did that as well, but it was from more of a realistic, childlike position. Calvin's all adult, all the time.

I'm much more in love with Sparky's creations, and Richard Thompson's Cul de Sac.

End of soapbox.

Sparky Understood

Just another comic strip reminder -- from one of my favorite comic strip artists -- of why I keep this blog. Great art should never be mushed up.

This is the final panel from this Charles Schulz comic strip, showing Lucy doing one of her extremely Spartan housecleanings:

Used under the fair use doctrine for commentary purposes.

I know the few times my kids caught me "mushing up" their art before I created this blog -- and the idea of preserving their bales of keepsake papers via computer rather than in original format -- I hear about it for days. And days. And given that I have only two or three bits of art that I produced as a kid, here's to hoping I'm doing them a service with this. Cloud, just don't blow up.

The 12 Days of Christmas

I probably should have used this one a while ago, but so it goes. I do like that poor Ryan gets underwear for Christmas.

Snake House

Uh-oh. Looks like the oldest has been in the Gary Larson comics again.

He just bought three new Gary Larson books at the thrift store this past weekend, so I expect to see more like this.

Ah, Nostalgia

You know, this really, really made me want to go up to Meadow Lake. Not in the hundreds of feet of snow they've got there at the moment, but sometime soon after all the snow melts.

How DO They Keep the Hats On?

Obviously, our oldest child has also pondered that life-long question: In the movies, how do they keep their hats on during the action scenes? He's come up with a logical scenario:

Teaching Ninjas

Right there with the advice of "Never pet a burning cat" is the old axiom: "Never try to teach [missionary discussions] to a ninja."

What's For Breakfast?

It's been a while since I featured our daughter here on the blog, so she's due. And in her own odd little way, she's bringing her personality through on this one -- always trying to be the little passive-aggressive peacemaker.

New Uses for White-Out

With the advent of computers, you don't think of the poor souls whose industries and products are lost -- like typewriter correction fluid. Thankfully, our youngest's teacher is singlehandedly helping the industry come on a rebound.