Getting Kicked on Route 66

 

In the last comic of the year, I reflect on a trip earlier in the year when we had the joy of experiencing Route 66 for a quick getaway to VA. Well, it would have been a quick getaway if there hadn't been multiple construction zones that we needed to pass through. But it was a nice getaway, once we got there. 

Text:
M: Traffic and construction everywhere! This highway is horrible!
L: Are we getting kicked on Route 66?
M: Yes.

Life is a Gridlocked Highway

 

I heard this song on the radio and this comic sprang to mind. I might have even been sitting in traffic. It might have been a Thursday since this is quite a throwback of a song - it was popular like when I was in college which was forever ago. But pre-pandemic seems forever ago as well. Maybe the past just seems a long time ago, whether or not it was a few years or a decade or longer. 

Text:
A: 🎵 Life is a Highway 🎵
B: Gridlocked and going nowhere fast?

Santa Puppy

 

Merry Christmas! I hope you have a wonderful holiday with family and friends, and remember the reason for the season. Christ came as a baby to live a perfect life so He could pay the price for our sins. He came to pay a debt He didn't owe, because we had a debt we couldn't pay.

As for the comic, I really don't like the song parodied here, but I do like the change I made to adapt it to a puppy. And now I know that the original version of that song is sung by the woman who voiced Yzma in The Emperor's New Groove, so that's ... interesting. I'm gonna resist drawing that character singing that song. 

Text:
Title: Santa Puppy
Dog: I left you a present under the tree!
Owner: *facepalm*

Wanted Hippo

Little did you know, that song is a call to the public to find a wanted criminal. I feel like if I think too much about that song, I'll realize how much this comic doesn't work, so I'm not gonna do that. What did the hippo do? What didn't the hippo do. Do you know much about hippos? They are extremely aggressive and quite murderous for being herbivores. Per Wikipedia, "Hippos are among the most dangerous animals in the world due to their aggressive and unpredictable nature." So there's that.

Text:
A "Wanted" poster with a picture of a hippopotamus, subtext "By Dec. 25".

Pear Tree Partridge

It's a package deal, if you have a pear tree then you need to have a partridge. Just one per pear tree. If you have multiple pear trees (and therefore multiple partridges), that means you have multiple true loves and that's something you need to think about. Yes, this applies to everyone, even orchard owners. And now I'm thinking about the Relient K cover of the song - "What's a partridge? And what's a pear tree? Well, I don't know so please don't ask me. But I can bet those are terrible gifts to giiiiiiiiiive." Also, I like their Christmas album names - "Let It Snow, Baby... Let It Reindeer" and "Deck the Halls, Bruise Your Hand." Actually they are quite good at album naming in general. 

Text:
A: Is that a pear tree?
B: Yep.
A: Where is your partridge?
B: Don't have one.
A: *gasp*

Three Kings Misread

 

Traditionally, the Three Kings are named Gaspar (or Caspar), Melchior, and Balthasar. The Bible doesn't give their names, or even their number - just that they (so more than one) brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the newborn Messiah. The item that Melchior is holding is the Hammer of Thor, named Mjölnir, which can only be lifted by those deemed "worthy" - hence the other kings being impressed. 

Explanation: The three kings from Christ's nativity brought three gifts, one of which was myrrh, and the hammer of Thor kind of sounds similar to myrrh so a mix-up happened. 

Text:
B (holding a sack of gold) : We're impressed, Melchior, but I think you misread the gift list.
G (holding a box of frankincense) : *impressed*
M (not holding myrrh) : *holds Mjölnir over his head*

Lidl Drummer Boy

 

Lidl needs to step up their game. Then other grocery stores will step up *their* game. Then shortly we will have full orchestras serenading us as we enter and exit the grocery stores in December! I like this plan. 

Explanation: "Lidl" and "Little" sound similar. and The Little Drummer Boy is a popular Christmas song.

Text:
A: Who is playing percussion outside of the grocery store?
B: The Lidl Drummer Boy. 

About All This Bustle

Drawing a bustle on a dress was an experience, still not sure about the final product. Also, I neglected to draw a reflection in the mirror because that was going to be a challenge and I declined. If you don't know (or don't want to click the link), bustling a dress is how you make a dress with a train look like it doesn't have a train - basically what you need to do with a long fancy dress if you want to socialize (i.e. dance) in it. 

Text:
Song: ♪♪And above all this bustle you hear - ♪♪
B: This wedding dress has quite the train.

Advent is Out There

Oh, why didn't I post this on the first Sunday of Advent? That would be because I drew it that day. I tend to be inspired as a deadline passes, so I can either post it late (I think it works with Advent since it's so many weeks) or I can store it away for next year and hope I don't miss again. Sometimes I file comics all properly then forget to check my files when a holiday approaches then after the holiday I look and am disappointed in myself. But I get over it quickly and .... sometimes repeat the process.

Explanation: The movie Up uses the slogan "Adventure is out there!" in a fancy cursive script, and the main character Carl attaches a bunch of balloons to his house as a major plot point. The fourth Sunday before Christmas marks the start of the season of Advent. "Advent" and "Adventure" are similar words. 

Text:
Advent is out there!

Head Rice

 

When do the Christmas comics start? Next week, so be ... ready? This comic was inspired by another toddler who came to church with rice in his hair and someone proclaimed that he had head rice. That's way easier to handle than head lice. Also way better since yeah. Our toddler often gets food in her hair, especially when she puts her plate on her head. 

Text:
M: What is in our child's hair?
L: Whoops, leftovers from dinner. She has head rice!

Wild Goose vs Moose

 

Geese (especially wild) are quite vicious - I have been scared by them sticking their wings out and hissing while charging at me when I just wanted to check out a local pond for turtles or tadpoles. But I have to say, though I have never met a wild moose, I hear they are quite worse. I am not sure how I would react but probably the same as with a wild goose, which is to say by putting maximum distance between me and the wild critter. I feel like the saying "wild goose chase" is implying that you are chasing the goose, while "wild moose chase" gives the feeling that the moose is chasing you. Maybe it can be a thing - try using it whenever the conversation lends itself to it. For example, "It's been a wild goose chase, trying to find enough people to join my committee" vs "It's been a wild moose chase, trying to avoid getting pressured into joining a committee." 

Text:
A: I mean, what is worse than a wild goose chase?
B: A wild moose chase.
A: True.

Raise a Hallelujah

Happy Birthday to my sister!

There's a song that mentions "raise a hallelujah" and I always struggle with how to spell that word, but now I know that the song is actually named "Raise a Hallelujah" so that made it easy to find since that's the main part of the lyrics that I can remember (to be fair, they mention that phrase a.lot.a.lot). This comic was, unsurprisingly, inspired by the song which was playing in our kitchen off whatever playlist was selected. Back when I was in high school, I had a classmate named Julianna and most people sung her name to the tune of the initial "hallelujah" in the Hallelujah Chorus. I feel like if you named your kid Hallelujah, she would get sung at more than Julianna did. 

Text:
M: Are you ♪♪raising a hallelujah♪♪?
L: No, we are raising a Lucy.
L2: *raising her arms since we're talking about raising*

Alexa, Wrong Song 2

Happy December!
So apparently "Everyday I'm Shuffling" is a line from "Party Rock Anthem" and that could be an explanation for the scenario in the previous comic. Still not sure many times what's going on with Alexa's music selection. There was one time we asked her to play Indian Restaurant music (because we were cooking Indian food for dinner) and she said she couldn't because we have a "no explicate music" filter that blocks said things and I don't know why there was an overlap between the two, but I'm glad we have that filter to stop very wrong selections from automatically happening. 

Text:
L: Alexa, play "Sunday Everyday" on shuffle.
A: Playing "Everyday I'm Shuffling" by -
L: Alexa STOP.

Alexa, Wrong Song 1

 

So I have a playlist called "Sunday Everyday" and I like it - it's songs that we've sung at my church or my parent's church or just nice one from the local Christian radio stations. It does not have any party rock anthems. I tried looking into the Alexa app to see what she thought I had said, but I couldn't find that recording after a quick search and just gave up. 

Text:
L: Alexa, play "Sunday Everyday."
A: Playing "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO.
L: That's not even close!

A Raisin for an Everything Bagel

 I thought this one up when drawing the previous comic about "there's a raisin for everything." I would totally swap a raisin bagel for an everything one - we often have a sleeve of each since my husband likes the one and I like the other and when you get them from Costco, you get two sleeves so you can get two flavors if you so desire. But I'm pretty sure nowhere will let you swap a loose bagel for a different flavor after you've handled it. Maybe Costco would allow it - depends on how you ask them probably. 

Text:
C: Can I exchange my bagel for a different flavor, specifically *that* one?
W: Sure, so that's a raisin for everything?
C: Wow, I guess so.

A Raisin for Everything

 

Happy Thanksgiving! We have so much for which to be grapeful.

I thought this one up a while ago but finally got around to digitalizing it rather than just drawing it on cards (it works for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, and many holidays!). 

Explanation: Raisins are dried grapes, and there's a phrase "there's a reason for everything." 

Text:
W: Are you interested in our selection of dried grapes? We have them packaged for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, and many holidays!
P: Wow, there's a raisin for everything.

Be Gentle

So we've entered the slapping face of toddlerhood, and it's quite frankly annoying. She'll be all cute and happy then decide a slap to the face is the next step and also hilarious. While I know there are times when your kid does something hilarious and you can't laugh because you don't want to encourage that behavior (like when she launches Cheerios out of her mouth and across the kitchen), the slapping is not funny and it takes a lot of self-control not to slap back. 

Explanation: Monat, a MLM company that started out with haircare but has branched out to other areas like skincare, has a moisturizer called "Be Gentle", and we keep telling our little toddler to be gentle when she gets all crazy and wants to slap people and throw things around. 

Text:
L: Much like the Monat skin moisturizer, you need to Be Gentle™.
L2: *trying to slap me*

Crawling and Stairs

We are trying to get our little one to safely traverse the stairs, and it is a struggle. She wants to go fast. She wants to walk down the stairs. That is not a good combo. Seeing how she does all the little things makes me think of how else one could do them incorrectly, hence this comic mentioning crawling feet first up the stairs. I don't even know how or if that would work - gravity would very much be against you. Have fun explaining that one to the paramedic. 

Text:
L: Feet first when crawling down the stairs!
M: Feet first when crawling up the stairs is advanced.

Ivory Tower Living

I was pretty happy to think this one up. Yes, the phrase is "living IN an ivory tower" and I did think about how to comic that literally but I thought this one came out cleaner. Not much more to say about it. 

Text:
A1: I hear you've been traveling with an elephant.
A2: Yep, he lets me ride on his tusks.
A1: Is it all it's cracked up to be?
A2: Basically, living on an ivory tower is pretty sweet.

Grilled Candy

My church had an ice cream fellowship a few weeks ago, and there were boxes of leftover ice cream cones because it was an indoor event and everyone used bowls because cones are for outside with all the dripping and messiness. So we have several boxes of cones and were looking up uses for them since we don't go on ice cream walks anymore with the weather and such. Apparently you can make grilled smores using a waffle cone and stuffing it with marshmallows and chocolate and candies like M&M's. It's super tasty and a great use for waffle ice cream cones when you don't just want to fill them with ice cream. Apparently you can also crumble them and use them for pie crust (think like graham cracker crust but it's ice cream cone). We haven't tried that one yet, but we might. 

Text:
W: Can I help you find anything?
L: A bag of M&M's, for grilling.
L2: *enjoying walking through the store because drawing her in a shopping cart was too difficult*

Flag Search

So my husband works in our church's Awana ministry, and each week they pray for a country. To help visualize, he got a pack of flags so he can wave the little flag and they are keeping all the flags on display to help remind the kids where they've pray over the weeks. It's great but the bag of flags that he purchased seemed to be in no discernable order, so after searching through basically all of them (first I looked up the flag so I knew exactly what the goal was) I then sorted them into various piles (like ones with a star, ones with just horizonal or vertical stripes, ones with a seal of some sort on them, ...). Now I can search in a smaller stack to find the one that is desired, and also we are learning country flags through this so that's kinda cool. 

Text:
M: Help me find the Costa Rica one in this bag of 200 flags.
L: What does it look like?
M: It has red and blue.
L: Gonna need more info.
M: It has stripes!
L: Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?

Quiet Getaway

English is weird - why do we have associations with certain words but not their synonyms? I had to look up that 'synonym' was the term I wanted because I get them and homonyms confused but back in grades school I learned "homonyms - hmmmmm - sound the same." Also, "Cabin in the Woods" is a horror movie and that's why I'd prefer to go to a cottage in the forest, which kind of sounds like the setting of a fairy tale so that could be good or bad depending on the fairy of the story. But our little getaway was nice! We stayed in a little house that had beautiful scenery around it and had an enjoyable time.

Text:
M: For our quiet getaway, I booked us a cabin in the woods.
L: Please call it a cottage in the forest.

Voting Options

 

Sadly, that's not on the ballot. Or is it??? It isn't in so many words, but be sure to research who you are voting for and get out and vote today if you legally can do so! There are many ways to look up what people stand for, although it can be difficult sometimes to get a straight answer on where a politician stands on a given issue (the classic "I was for that before I was against it"). But do your research or have a trusted person do it for you! Also, fill out your specimen ballot (which should have been mailed to you) so you remember what you researched AND remember to take it with you when you go vote (don't do the classic fill out a grocery list then leave it on the counter). 

Other Voting Comics: 1 2 3 4

Text:
A: (holding a ballot) I want to vote for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!
B: That's not an option, sir.

Truly Not A Fan

 

My brother-in-law has been inviting everyone over to watch football on Sunday afternoons, and it's a nice way to pass the afternoon (not nearly as boring as watching cars race in a loop, so that's nice). When I first moved to this state, I was sucked into the football fandom to become a casual fan. I mostly understand the sport, but I feel like it's rather violent and I root for the kicker since he doesn't get hit (at least he shouldn't). Also, Maryland has by far the best kicker so that's a plus. 

Gentle reminder that Tuesday (in two days) is election day in the USA, so please research and vote responsibly!

Text:
A: Ready for the game?
B: (looking at phone) I don't know who or when they are playing.
A: *scoff* How can you call yourself a true fan?!?
B: I don't. 

Can Stop

I don't know why this is/was a phrase, but it was rather popular for a while. I think "let's go" is now popular instead, and that's fine in my opinion. I feel like the phrase "can't stop, won't stop" can be a way to deflect responsibility for one's own actions. But that's just my opinion.

Text:
A: Can't stop, won't stop!
B: More like: could stop, won't stop. 

SWAK the Covenant

Happy almost Birthday to my grandma!
This comic is also spawned by a sermon, one that talked about marriage. Back in the like 90's, SWAK meant to "Seal With A Kiss" and it was used on envelopes to mean you were sending your love, at least that's what I recall about it. I had some stickers and I remember one of them was SWAK. I really liked stickers and would put them all over my pen pal letters. Wow, the 90's were a while ago. Hand-made letters are still a nice thing to do, but I stick with making cards for people which are a type of letter so that still counts I think. 

Explanation: Usually, the minister ends the marriage ceremony by saying "By the power vested in me, you may kiss your bride" or something along those lines. SWAK means to seal with a kiss, usually meaning seal an envelope, but in this case it would be sealing a covenant and I think the slang works. It would just be super informal at an official ceremony. But many weddings are not super formal. So use at your discretion. Wow, I super misspelled that last word but spell checker had my back. 

Extra note: Back in my college days, a pastor mentioned how after he was ordained, a friend asked him to officiate a marriage. Unsure if he could, he called up his dad who was also a minister and asked "Do I have THE POWER?" Upon further inquiry ("son, what in the world are you talking about?"), he specified if he had the power to say "by the power vested in me", and his dad told him that since he was ordained then he did indeed have THE POWER. 

Text:
Minister: By the power vested in me, please SWAK this covenant!
Bride and Groom: *standing there, maybe awkwardly*

Bow-Wow-Ser

 

The cutest version of Bowser. I like his little wig, really completes the outfit. The guy needs to wear a red hat to fit in with the rest. I had to look up what Princess Peach's crown looks like - I was thinking it was more of a tiara but it's actually a standard round crown. Why does she wear pink instead of, I don't know, peach? Tis a mystery. Maybe the wiki page explains but wow that's a lot of info there so you can peruse if you'd like. 

Text:
M: Why is your dog wearing a spiked turtle shell?
P: Bow-Wow-Ser!
B: *silently looking awesome*

Halloween Husbands

Is this a strawman argument? Now that I think about it, Frankenstein's Monster would have had a heartbeat, so maybe a vampire would have worked better in this. Oh well, it was thought up about a week before Halloween and this is what I came up with. Remember to stock up on candy in preparation for Monday! What if you don't usually have kids stopping by? Stock up anyways, it's for yourself! But what if you want to get the discount day-after candy sale? You can do that too! Like the candy which doesn't taste all that great, you can buy both Now and Later. 

Text:
Scarecrow Lady: Why did you leave your husband?
Bride of Frankenstein: He was a deadbeat.
Scarecrow Lady: At least he had a brain.

Not in it to Win it

Was this spawned from family game night? Most certainly. Do I take this attitude into all my games? No, I do like to win but it's not the most important thing. I make an effort to have an enjoyable time, usually by distracting my fellow players with song lyrics and puns. However when I play Ticket to Ride, I'm just trying to complete my tickets and that is my only goal. Sometimes I take a second goal of completing longest track since I don't like taking more tickets than I can definitely finish. Not finishing a ticket kinda stresses me out. Wow, looking at the TtR site shows they have a lot of options! I knew they had USA and Europe, but there's much more. ALSO it was recently added to Board Game Arena, which is an online spot to play board games virtually with friends from anywhere (but there are restrictions if they're on the same wifi as you because the system doesn't want you pretending to be multiple people). 

Text:
A: I'm not in it to win it, I'm in it to not come in last.
B: I'm in it to make someone else not win it.

Cosmetology vs Cosmology

 

So I was pretty sure there is a field in astronomy that sounds similar to the study and application of beauty treatment, and it turns out - rather than looking at a page about all the space sciences - I could have got straight to the cosmetology page and seen the "Not to be confused with Cosmology" link. 

Anyways, this comic is spawned from a sermon where the pastor mentioned that men and women have different makeup and that took me down a path wherein lies another comic to be drawn about where men and women get their makeup products but also on this path is this comic about space. 

The joke is that the lady is talking about cosmetology, which is the study and application of beauty treatment, and the astronaut is talking about cosmology, which is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The words sound similar but the fields are not. 

Text:
W: I'm into cosmetology.
A: Yay stars!
W: Yes, the Hollywood kind.
A: I don't know that galaxy. 

Lovely Tennis Score

 

So I don't know much about tennis but I did hear (in a Valentine's quiz thing) that "love" is what you call it when your score is zero, something about the French word for "egg" sounds like "love" and eggs are round like a zero. At my college, PE was required for most majors and the most popular class was tennis - they had so very many session of it. I did not want to get sweaty so I did ice skating and broom hockey - both took place on the ice rink and were very fun and kept me cool in the Florida humidity. 

Text:
A: How is your tennis score looking?
B: Lovely.
A: How unfortunate. 

Wild King

 

So there's a fun game called Five Crowns and we play it at my parents' and this happened. Honestly, those are all the lyrics that I know of the song. In the game, each round there's a new wild with the lowest card the first round, and working up to the king in the final round. It's a fairly easy-to-learn, fun game that can cause all the drama if you have dramatic people playing. 

Text:
Title: Playing Five Crowns
A: This round, kings are wilds.
M: 🎵 Wild King! 🎵
D: 🎵 You make my heart sing! 🎵 

Pumpkin Guards

 

So I have some little pumpkins on my front step because it's Fall and I started with four little gourds but then my husband asked about the number because he only saw three when he came in the house so I went and checked and there were only two!!! And then later there was only one left, and it had some bites taken out of it. So I have these little terracotta hedgehogs and I put them on either side of the last remaining pumpkin and while several more bites have been taken out of it, it hasn't been carried away! I have gotten more pumpkins to bring the number back to four, but kept the hedgehogs guarding (gourding?) the group and so far they are all still there so yay! 

Text:
L: They need to guard that pumpkin with their lives. *pointing at hedgehog statues*
S: But they aren't alive...
N: Gourd it???

Dry Baby Wipes

 

Why do we have paper towels in the diaper bag? Well, they are useful for drying up messes. Like when your kid drinks too much of your DD frozen hot chocolate and pukes it out on a cramped airplane flight. The flight attendant gave us a whole stack and I stuffed the extras in the bag for next time and thankfully there hasn't been a next time. Also, I'm more careful with what she eats when traveling (especially when traveling).

Text:
M: The wipes in that pocket are dry as a bone.
L: Those are paper towels.
L2: *silently judging*

Bird Watching

I like that they are looking different directions :) Just two people watching different birds. And I like my explanation that blackbirds level up and become red-winged blackbirds. Now to think through how a bird levels up - fighting in Pokémon-style battles? Gathering the right items from a variety of side-quests? Studying hard and acing the test? Who knows. 

Text:
A: Is that a red-winged blackbird?
B: Nope, just a regular blackbird. He hasn't earned his stripes yet. 

Cup of Honey

My Mark says a cup of honey would not be good, and I agree. Having a cup of tea with some honey is a good thing, or putting honey on toast, but just honey as the star is a bit much. Song mashups are fun to do, especially if you are fortunate enough to be flipping through the radio stations and the songs just line up perfectly. This comic was sparked by two songs that I heard near each other, so probably in the same car trip, but not perfectly lined up as portrayed above. But it all clicked together in my head hence this earworm of a comic :)

Text:
A: 𝆕 Fill my cup, Lord! 𝆕
B: 𝆕 With honey from the Rock 𝆕

Note: I now realize the lyrics are "Honey in the Rock" but that doesn't quite fit my comic so I'm claiming artistic liberty. 

Solid Choking Hazard

Unpopular opinion here: I don't like the bubbles in bubble tea (boba). I like getting drinks from bubble tea places and I say "no pearls" because the drinks are tasty and I don't want to chew my drink. Unless it's frozen fruit in the drink, because that's tasty. But I'm really particular about texture, and tapioca pearls do not make my mouth happy. 

I'm quite happy with how my bubble tea drink turned out in this comic. It took a few tries. 

Text:
J: Can Lucy have boba?
L: No! That's a solid choking hazard.
J: It's not a solid, it's a gummy liquid.

Unfiltered

Happy Birthday to my nephew!
Yeah, you're gonna want to filter all your water, and maybe don't choose the sepia filter. That just sounds gross. Surely there's an aquatic filter, I wouldn't know as I don't usually do any primping on my photos other than adding text (I have a folder called "Commentary on Lucy" and it's all the photos of her with text over them to enhance the image with humor). The sepia filter reminds me of those photo booth shops on the beach boardwalk where you can get dressed up in whatever but the theme usually seemed western and the photos were all old-timey yellowed. 

I just realized I drew the characters' heads rather similarly. That was unintentional, or subconsciously intentional but it's hard to know when that happens.

Explanation: Using the "#unfiltered" tag on photos on social media means you didn't do any after-effects or photoshop on it. If you drink unfiltered water, your stomach is gonna have a bad time. 

Text:
A: Why did everyone get sick at that Instagram camp?
B: The water was #unfiltered.

Idea Gathering

If you are going to gather something, it needs to go in a basket. It's where you gather your herbs and mushrooms if you're a forager and where you gather your Easter eggs if you're a hunter. We have a dinosaur basket (looks something like this) and it's excellent and people who know me know that I got it before I had a kid but most people would just assume it's my child's instead of mine but now actually my child's because she has laid claim to it. 

Text:
L: What's with the basket?
D: I'm gathering ideas!
L: ... is that working?
D: Nope.

Foot in Glove

 

Happy almost Birthday to my brother!!! 

Foot in glove - it'd kind of be like toe socks? Foot in mitten would probably be better. But still not good. But that's not what this is about! So the proper phrase is something like "fitting together like hand in glove" and denotes working well together. So this could be how to denote not working well together?

Text:
A: How's your new team at work going?
B: We are working foot in glove together.

Wise Choices

This question is asked many times every day in my household. My darling has started shaking her head 'no' when appropriate and it's kinda cute. So many situations apply - it's too long of a list to even start so I won't.  

Text:
L: Are you making wise choices?
L2: *shakes head no*

Soccer Scoring

 

So I'm not really a sports person but this one was inspired by a dinner we had at a restaurant which had a soccer game playing on one of their screens. I can enjoy watching sports, if they are fast-paced enough to keep my attention and also if I understand said sport. 

Text:
Title: Watching Soccer
A: Is there a non-zero score? 
B: Yes!
A: ooOOooh, exciting.

Surrender to Sleep

So apparently "giving no quarter" is forbidden under international humanitarian law, but I feel like toddlers disregard international (or just basic) humanitarian law. Giving no quarter originally meant that you were not going to house (quarter) any prisoners i.e. means you're going to kill all of your opponents. But there's a modern American take on it which just means you're going to treat someone unkindly and I feel that's the more appropriate meaning for this comic. 

We often request our little one to surrender to sleep as she valiantly fights it off. Little one, you will be in SUCH a better mood if you take a little nap. I feel like that's true for adults as well - sleep helps improve your mood when you're getting cranky, no matter your age.

Text:
L: Please surrender to sleep.
L2: *I give no quarter!*

Grievous Mistake

When titling this one, I realized I misspelled the character's name as "Grevious" but I caught it before publishing but now you all know anyways. It's a hard word. The mistake in question was discovered when I was making waffle batter (WHOOPS I need to make more batter tonight so we have waffles in the morning) and I noticed that the buttermilk I had bought was low-fat instead of regular (I didn't even know they made low-fat buttermilk - it's milk with butter in it, there's lots of fat). BUT in the end it was ok because the waffles were rather tasty. I was worried they'd be too thin but they were not. Probably won't go looking for this in the future, but if it's the only option available I now know that it's viable.

Explanation: In Star Wars, there is a Sith character named General Grievous who is not actually a Sith but a follower of them due to his hatred of the Jedi. He has four arms and uses a lightsaber in each hand, making him a very difficult opponent to battle. The pun is that "a grievous mistake" is a really bad mistake, and there's a character named Grievous in Star Wars who uses four lightsabers.

Text:
L: I made a mistake.
M: How bad is it?
L: Four lightsabers.
M: ... what?!
L: It's a Grievous mistake. 

Ton of Gold

I have been reading through the Bible this year and this comic came to mind when reading in 1 Kings with the temple preparations. Also after looking up 'ton' vs 'tonne' I came to the shocking realization that neither are 2,000 pounds. But that's what I learned back in grade school! Apparently there are short and long tons too - why is this unit used so many different ways? OH American tons are 2,000 pounds per this article here and that explains why I learned it that way since I am American. 

Text:
S: And I want to use a ton of gold!
A: Ok, how much are you thinking?
S: ... a ton.
A: Can you be more specific?
S: 2,000 pounds.

My Romantic Chemicals

 

Above, the generic comic. Below, the one that came to mind after remembering that Batman, in The Batman, listens to My Chemical Romance. 

So this comic was inspired when I saw "MRC" graffitied on a dump truck. Those happen to be the initials of at least two of my family members, so there's that too. In the movie mentioned above, there is a scene where MCR is playing loudly and when something happens to shift the focus, Batman turns down his music and you realize it wasn't just movie magic music, he really was blasting music in his cave. I liked that detail. Also I totally think a young sidekick/partner would refer to music from two decades ago as oldies. Wow, 2001 was when MCR started and that was two decades ago. Bleh. 

Explanation: the band is "My Chemical Romance" and usually abbreviated MCR. The young person flips the words to be "My Romantic Chemicals" which seems like a different sort of band. 

Text:
R: Holy Oldies, Batman! It's that band you like - My Romantic Chemicals!
B: *facepalm*

Too Late for a Miracle

 

This is the only Disney movie my little one has seen, and she has seen it twice (once with each side of the family). I wrote this a while ago but realized I need to post it before everyone forgets about Encanto, which might happen when the next major kid movie drops. I like the estimated restocking time. 

Text:
M: 𝆕𝆕 Am I too late for a miracle? 𝆕𝆕
S: Yep, we just sold out. We should be restocked in five to seven business years.

Donating vs Sampling

 

I had to get blood drawn and this comic came to mind. I did not say it out loud but I was thinking it. Also, it's a little unrealistic that a place would do both donations and samples - usually donations are handled through Red Cross centers or volunteer locations like churches whereas lab orders are filled at places like LabCorp where it's all medical samples there.
The place I went to has a feature where you can check in from your car and just chill there until they are ready for you which is nice because many medical places are still requiring masks so spending less time in the mask is good. But when they sent me the text to say they were ready to see me, I received it 27 times. Thankfully I didn't have the sound on my phone so it was afterwards when I checked my phone that I saw wow, that's a lot of messages. 

Text:
Title: Phlebotomy
N: Are you here to donate?
L: No, I'm here to sample.
N: ... ?
L: Here's my lab order.

Carbonated Protein

Happy Birthday to my mom! Hope your day does not involve carbonated protein. 
Tuna Soda - the drink of the apocalypse when you have to use what you have to survive, and what you have is a SodaStream and a stockpile of tuna. That's kind of a long slogan, might need to condense it somehow. I'm not sure how much protein (or any nutrients) is in the juices from a can of tuna, so the health of this drink is dubious, much like the taste. Now I'm thinking of dubious food from Breath of the Wild. 
Also, did you know that I have mouseovers on my comics? Sometimes they're funny, like the one today! To activate the mouseover, you put your mouse over the image. 

Text:
L: Why are there drained cans of tuna next to the SodaStream?!?
L3: Want a glass of carbonated protein?