Canada, Page 2

 We did a lot of walking on our trip, but that's how we like to do things. Lots of nature walks, grossly lots of banana slugs *bleh they look like a moving dog turd* but the scenery in the temperate rain forest was just amazing. We revisiting Butchart Gardens and Victoria Butterfly Gardens, we had previously visited them on our honeymoon a decade before. 

Text:
Panel 1:
M: We walked five miles today.
L: No, we were walking kilometers!

Panel 2: 
L: Unsweet iced tea is unheard of here. [found this out after asking for it at several restaurants]

Panel 3: Butchart Gardens
L: Flowers again!

Panel 4: Victoria Butterfly Gardens
M: Butterflies again!
L: Spike :( [Spike was a bird who liked to peck shoes - we met him on our honeymoon a decade ago, and they had a little memorial to him when we visited this time]

Panel 5:
M: Favorite day of trip?
L: The one where we didn't see any banana slugs!

Panel 6:
L: This bridge is see-through - this is awesome!
M: That is terrifying.

Canada, Page 1

 

So when I did my Nebraska comics, I was looking through the other comics I've done and I realized I hadn't posted my ones from some previous vacations! So here's the start of a two-day comic from a few years ago, when Mark and I did our ten-year anniversary by revisiting where we went for our honeymoon! We went to British Columbia, but not the same exact place as before as we wanted to explore more of this beautiful area. I highly recommend visiting BC! We got to soak in a natural hot spring, which was awesome. We took a sea plane to get to another leg of our adventure and that was exciting! The nature tour on a boat was cold but so worth it to see all the wildlife. And of course, seeing a fossil on display makes every vacation even better! 

Also, Happy Birthday to my grandma! She is amazing, and she is my namesake, and she taught me how to crochet! I love her lots. 

Text:
Title: CANADA August 31 - September 7, 2019
Panel 1: Hot Springs [two people soaking in a hot spring]
Panel 2: Sea Plane! [a sea plane either in the air or floating on water, either could work]
Panel 3: bald eagle! sea lions! humpback! seals! orcas! [three rows of people in an inflatable boat, floating in the water]
Panel 4: M: What's that over there? L: Dinosaur footprints!

Three out of Three Adults Agree

And yet...

You might recognize this one from my Nebraska comics! I will be posting some individual ones that I broke out of the main pages, the ones that can stand more on their own rather than needing the context of the whole trip. I feel like this comic works for really any trip or interaction with a small child. Just stop. Why the whine. And yet....

I realize that Lucy's crown is all black instead of being its usual gold. I was drawing this from my full page reference, which was done in all black ink, and I just forgot to change the color when digitally drawing it. Oh well. Let's call it a stylistic choice. 

Also, Happy Graduation to my little brother! Wow, college. Done. That's weird, he will be forever 5 years old in my mind (that's how old he was when I left for college). 

Text:
N: Three out of three adults agree - the baby needs to stop whining.
M: And yet...
L2: WHINEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
L1: *covers ears*

Punny Papers

Due to my Mark working from home (which is awesome - having help with our little one, getting to have lunch together, just not having a commute), I can see his page-a-day punderdome calendar and it is excellent. Usually. Sometimes the pun just doesn't land, but that shouldn't stop you from making more puns! You have to persevere. 

Text:
M: Why were you in my office?
L: I was reading your important papers.
M: You mean my pun calendar?
L: Yep. 

Shot the Heart

 

I don't recall what sparked this one, but it's what I think of now when I hear that classic Bon Jovi song. Guess that lady is giving love a bad, bad name. Oh, I have the lyrics wrong - it's "Shot through the heart" not "Shot to the heart." I'm deciding that's intentional, and that's why the lady is saying it's a miss. Because he messed up the lyrics. 

Text:
A: 🎵 Shot to the Heart - 🎵
B: Miss.

Nebraska Page 4

Happy Mother's Day!
In the first panel, we never found out (i.e. looked up) what was in those BTC tankers, and I don't know how to look that up since all the top hits for BTC are Bitcoin. Maybe they really were full of virtual currency.... Panel 2 is referencing a massive tourist trap known as Wall Drug and my husband really disliked the place, but there were so.many.signs for it. I thought it was interesting to wander through - we were not interested in the free ice water as it was a bitterly cold day. Panel 3 is referencing a real sign and the sign that came to mind when I saw the afore mentioned real sign. Panel 4 is just a fancy word for being in debt, which I'm not, but you do need to be careful with souvenirs because there are just so many cool things to get. I'm holding a buffalo wearing a Mt Rushmore t-shirt and a wooly mammoth in said panel. And the final panel is a great summary for how the wedding did not go - it was a totally normal wedding, with delicious Middle Eastern food for the reception since both of them are working over there. That panel is also a reminder that we saw so.very.many Oregon Trail markers and landmarks - it was a real thing, not just a weirdly popular while education computer game!

Text:
P1 - 
 M: What is in those BTC tankers?
 L: Sand?
 N: Bitcoin. Filled to the brim.
P2 - 
 M: Anywhere you want to stop on our way out of Nebraska? 
 L: WALL DRUG!
 M: NO!
P3 - 
 Sign 1: PASS WITH CARE
 Sign 2: PASS WITH WILD ABANDON
P4 - Getting Souvenirs
 N: This is why you're insolvent.
 L: What's insolvent?
 N: That's also why you're insolvent.
P5 -
 A: What's a wedding in Nebraska like?
 L: Thankfully, no dysentery.
 M: Ten gallon hats.
 L: The bride had a flannel veil.
 M: Banjo processional.
 L: They left in a covered wagon. 

Nebraska Page 3

 The first panel is a reference to the phrase "no rest for the wicked." And now I know, that phrase is referring to eternal punishment of evildoers. Panel 2 is referencing a psychological manipulation term but also was the actual name of a motel we passed somewhere out in the Midwest. Here it is! Panel 3 is another actual place we saw (B&H Storage) whereas the joke is B&E (which means Breaking and Entering) and that would not be a great storage plan. Panel 4 is referencing that famous song, and Panel 7 is referencing Rushmore. And yes, Panel 8 has more butte humor (and is a reference to the famous line from Finding Nemo!). 

Text:
P1 - 
 M: The rest area is closed.
 L: I guess we all must be wicked.
P2 - 
 L: We could stay at the Gas Lite Motel.
 M: You've always wanted to go there.
P3 - 
 X: We use B&H Storage.
 Y: Better than B&E Storage!
P4 - 
 M: Look, antelope!
 L: Are they playing with the deer?
 M: No, but in the song -
 L: I still feel misled.
P5 - 
 N: 3 out of 3 adults agree - the baby needs to stop whining.
 M: And yet...
 L: *covering ears*
 L2: WHINEEEEE
P6 -
 M: There are horses in blankets over there.
 N: I prefer pigs in blankets.
P7 - 
 L: That mountain needs a face carved on it.
 N: Why not ours?
P8 -
 S: What's there to do in the Badlands?
 L: ... I'm gonna touch the butte.

Nebraska Page 2

Happy Birthday to my amazing husband! He did basically all the planning for our jaunt out to the Midwest and the trip went very smoothly. 
 For the first panel, we did indeed wear our ski jackets out to the Midwest and it was a good thing we did! It got bitterly cold at times. But as you can see in Panel 5, it also got warm! That panel's dialog was taken from a short hike we did to see eagles - we saw deer and cacti instead and possibly eagles but might have been a hawk or vulture. We did not pack binoculars, can you tell? Panel 3 is a throwback to our trip to Germany when a huge statue was described as "Texas" and now I think that whenever I see a massive statue. We did actually see some tumbleweeds, don't let Panel 4 fool you. And per Panel 7, we did have some juvenile humor surrounding the many buttes we saw. 

Text:
P1-
 M: We're gonna look like tourists in Laramie, Wyoming.
 N: Why, the ski jackes?
 M: No, we'll be in Laramie.
P2 - 
 L: How much longer?
 M: 30 minutes.
 L: I feel like you said 45 minutes an hour ago.
 L2: WHINEEE
P3 - *Denver Airport's massive horse statue*
 L: That statue is Texas.
P4 -
 L: We really are out West - a tumbleweed just crossed the highway!
 M: Pretty sure that was a plastic bad.
 L: Close enough!
P5 -
 M: The sun is hot - I am roasting.
 L: Like a red pepper?
P6 -
 M: That's a large eagle.
 L: Or maybe it's a drone!
 N: Birds aren't real.
P7 - 
 M: To your left, the Rocky Mountains!
 N: To your right, a red butte.
 L: *snicker*

 

Nebraska, Page 1

 The week before Easter, we went out to the Midwest for my brother-in-law Peter's wedding. We took a roundabout path to get there - flying into Denver, driving up to Wyoming, over to South Dakota, then finally to Nebraska for the wedding, and finishing by driving back to Colorado to fly out. It was a great week! It was our first major trip with out almost-one-year-old (she's one at time of posting, but you can see this trip was a few weeks ago). We had my brother-in-law Noah with us for the trip which was great - having three adults and one baby is a good ratio :) 

The conversation in this comic didn't quite happen - the waitress was looking at my driver's license because my credit card says to verify ID, and when she asked why we were out there we just gave the short version of "brother marrying a local."

Text:
So much text. This is the title page for my Nebraska travel comic blog so it says "Nebraska" in block letters then specifies "also: Denver CO, Laramie WY, Rapid City SD, and Chadron for Nebraska" with the dates April 11-17, 2022.

Waitress, examining driver's license: What brings someone from Maryland to Nebraska?
M: My brother, who's living in the Middle East, is marrying his fiancée, who's living in Africa, and she's from North Dakota.
W: ?
W: Well, have a nice day!
L: Thanks!

Pencil in Plans redo

 Have I done this one already? YES. Did I forget and recreate it? Also YES. To be fair, it was almost 4 years ago, and sometimes I get ideas and forget to write them down but then later remember but I still forget if I've logged it or not so yeah. Here it is again! And last time, it was a rough sketch on a page-a-day that didn't get digitalized, so this counts as a refresh and a recreation. 

The joke is that we say 'pencil in plans' when we are tentatively going to do something but it's not settled yet, which makes sense since pencil marks can be erased and changed and such. 

Text:
Pen: You never make permanent plans!
Pencil: *silent*

Two Heads

Happy almost birthday to my little one! Wow, it's been a year. 

This comic came to me when a speaker mentioned the phrase about "looking at me like I had two heads." I'm trying to find the phrase but I'll I'm seeing is the phrase about "two heads are better than one" which is kind of the opposite meaning to the phrase for which I am looking. 

To explain, in Greek mythology there is a three-headed dog (named Cerberus). This comic is a play on the phrase "looked at me like I had two heads" which means "looked at me like I was weird" since most people only have one head. The joke is that this dog has three heads, so while "two heads" is still wrong, it's too few rather than too many. 

Text:
Fairy: *staring*
Cerberus 1: That guy's looking at us like we have two heads or something.
Cerberus 2: *judgmentally/silently staring back*
Cerberus 3: Weirdo.

Nervous Tick

 

Not sure why I made the butterfly monochromatic, but she is what she is. Also, I just learned that the nervous issue is a "tic" not a "tick." AND I just learned that ticks are arachnids, so we're just gonna say that Frank has eight legs, but two of them are hiding behind the six visible legs. Whoops. Also, yet another reason to dislike ticks. DID YOU KNOW that opossums eat loads of ticks and are impervious to Lyme's Disease? That's like, the one good thing about them. (I don't like them - too many scares when taking out the trash at night and seeing those beady eyes staring at me from the darkness.)

Text:
Ladybug: Why is Frank freaking out?
Butterfly: Oh, he's just a nervous tick.
Tick: AAAAAAA

Department Store Names

 Back in the day, the slogan for J.C. Penny was "We love your style!" I have not been in a department store in a very long time. I have not done much shopping other than just Target/groceries/Hobby Lobby in a while either, so those two go hand in hand. I feel like there's been a big shift away from department stores, but I do like being able to handle, feel, see, etc. the item before buying it, which is a big selling point for physical stores over online. 

Text:
A: These are my kids - Penny, Macy, and Talbot. 
B: ... I love your style. 

Hand Pie vs Knuckle Sandwich

Hand pies are so tasty and easy to make. A batch of six can be made by just dividing a batch of pie dough into 6 portions, shaping to desired shape (usually circular), putting pie filling in each, wetting the edges and folding over and crimping closed with a fork, then pop the tray into the 400℉ oven for 30 minutes. If you want super easy, you can buy frozen pie dough and a can of filling! It's still home made since you assemble it and bake it in your kitchen. Pretty sure that's how that works. 

Also, the pie shop name is a shoutout to an excellent show that sadly got cancelled after only two seasons. 

Explanation: a knuckle sandwich is another term for a punch to the face. A single-serving pie that has crust all around and can be eaten by hand (rather than a slice needing a fork and such) is called a hand pie.

Text:
P: Why did you punch me?!
S: We are all out of hand pies so I substituted with a knuckle sandwich.

Greatest Grace

Happy Easter! He is risen indeed. I hope you are able to take time today to focus on the gift of Jesus' resurrection, and what that means for you individually.  If you want to learn more, click any of those links in the previous sentence!

Text:
A: How did you pick the name for your church?
B: "Grace" and "Greater Grace" were already in use.
Sign: "Greatest Grace Church"