It’s been a busy couple of weeks and it looks to stay that way for awhile…

Dance Dad

My daughter has been in full dance competition mode the past couple of weeks.

Two weeks…two competitions…both in downtown St. Paul, which is about a forty minute drive from my house under good traffic conditions.

One thing I have learned about dance competitions…

There is a lot of down time!

One routine may take a couple of minutes to watch, but it can be a LONG time in between routines! Fortunately, I was able to scout out a nice quiet area to relax, have some coffee and read the newspaper, a magazine and a book!

And of course this doesn’t all happen on the same day! For last week’s competition, my daughter’s solo performance took place on Thursday night and the team portion on Saturday.

Lots of trips to St. Paul.

This week’s event takes place in nearby Bloomington.

Oh, by the way…

She and her team did great!

I don’t think she gets that talent from her dad!

Back In The Nest

It seems like yesterday that I was taking my oldest son to college for his freshman year.

And now, he’s home for summer!

(The piles of stuff in his room prove it!)

I have learned that everything that goes to college, must come home from college…and then some!

All in all, he had a great year and is looking forward to returning in the fall.

Speaking of looking…

He is currently looking for summer employment.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

The Great Outdoors

I spent last weekend with a group of Boy Scouts camping at a Boy Scout Camp just across the St. Croix River in Wisconsin.

Aside from a brief shower we encountered while setting up our tents, it was a beautiful weekend!

There was not a cloud in the sky on Saturday and Sunday and temps were in the seventies!

Great hiking weather during the day and cool temps at night made for good sleeping.

We had a lot of new scouts along, which made it even more exciting watching them work as a team for the first time.

Everything went great except for my son coming down with a stomach bug.

He was feeling better on Sunday and back to school on Monday.

Going Halfsies

I take off later today for Fargo.

Why?

I am running the Fargo Half Marathon early Saturday morning.

Yes, there is also a full marathon that starts about a half hour after the half version gets going, but I decided not to do a spring marathon this year.

Last year it was difficult to train outside for a full marathon, so that’s why the decision to do a half.

Why Fargo?

Last year, I ran the Green Bay Marathon. (Which happens this Sunday in that city.)

They also have a half marathon.

Originally, I was planning on running in it.

But, I found out that due to stadium construction, this year’s route does not include a lap through Lambeau Field.

You see, unlike previous years when I ran the full marathon, I thought it would be fun to do the half and actually enjoy a pain-free lap in the historic stadium!

But not this year!

So the switch to nice, FLAT Fargo was made!

AND…

And the course includes a final lap through the historic (okay, that’s a bit strong), COVERED…

Fargodome!

Not to mention a fabulous post-race concert Saturday night that headlines Journey, Styx & REO Speedwagon!

It would be like a high school reunion!

UNFORTUNATELY…

I did to head back to the Twin Cities shortly after the race for…

You guessed it…

My daughter’s dance competition!

It had been roughly twenty five years since I last played.

Twenty five years since I had taken a swing.

Twenty five years since I dove to catch a fly ball.

Twenty five years since had last played slow pitch softball.

That was until last night!

Yes, at the rip old age of 49 I decided it was time to dig through the storage bins in my garage, find my glove, put on cleats, swing a bat and play right field for one of the two teams from my church!

After a “retirement” of a mere quarter century I was back on the field in church league softball!

You get a bit nervous on “Opening Day” when you realize your last plate appearance was long before your oldest child, who is just finishing his freshman year in college, was born!

No need to worry…

I had attended exactly ONE practice prior to last night!

I was ready to go!

Although, I made sure of a couple of things before I left for the game…

1. I had an ample supply of “Ben Gay” for those aging muscles waiting for me at home.
2. Our ice tray in our fridge was full.
3. My insurance card was safely tucked in my wallet in the event of an unplanned trip to the ER.
4. A copy of my will left in plain sight on my desk!

Just a few precautions!

This was all done in the name of fellowship with a great group of guys from my church. Truth be told, I had agreed to play on one of the teams during a weak moment…while having a post-game beer with a few guys from my church league volleyball team. That was the same volleyball team that won only about three SETS the entire season!

I was so inspired, I decided I should extend my “playing days” by signing up for softball!

Much like my self-imposed rule of no diving for a ball during the volleyball season, I had decided a similar rule should apply to softball. No diving for a line drive hit my way and in addition to that rule, I added an additional one…NO SLIDING!

I don’t care if I was about to score the winning run in the playoffs, (Wait, do we have playoffs in church league softball?) I’m not sliding! Said winning run would have to be scored standing up!

Of course, these rules were established in order to avoid receiving a “lecture” about the dangers of someone “my age” playing a kid’s game from a young doctor working the night shift in the Emergency Room at our local hospital!

Have fun.

Play safe!

That would be my motto!

These rules became even more important during the first inning when one of our players, who was probably about ten years younger than me was running to first on a ball he hit and slightly pulled his hamstring! Then later on, our first baseman nearly had his shoulder dislocated when he had his extended arm hit by a base runner!

I probably should have dropped off some of my Ben Gay at his house!

Gotta feeling that shoulder is a little stiff today!

Aside from the those two incidents, there were no major injuries and no trips to the ER required!

Unfortunately, much like volleyball…

We lost!

8 to 2.

However, on the bright side, my personal line was…

One for three at the plate and no errors in the field, although I did feel a little like Charlie Brown until a ball was finally hit my way!

And most importantly, both hamstrings are working properly today!

Just returned from a spring break trip to the island of Kauai.

It was a great trip with beautiful scenery, at times so-so weather and of course, a few travel headaches!

Train, Planes And A Jeep

Really, could you expect anything different when your travel itinerary includes stops at what seems like most of this country’s major airports west of the Mississippi River?

Well, not exactly all of them…

More like Minneapolis to Dallas to Los Angeles to Lihue (Kauai).

The plan also called for a very long layover in Los Angeles. Something like five hours, which would have been painful enough considering the limited food and entertainment options at the American terminal at LAX!

Our first leg of this travel marathon was to begin with our first flight at 8:20 AM CDT or 3:20 AM in Hawaii. My alarm went off at 4:15 and following a quick shower, getting everyone else in family up and some last minute packing, we were off to the airport.

We were flying on American Airlines, which is located in what they now call “Terminal 1″ at the Minneapolis airport. Cheaper long term parking is offered at “Terminal 2″, which is about a mile or so away from Terminal 1. The nice thing besides paying less to park your car is that you can park and catch a free ride to the other terminal via the light rail train service that connects the two facilities.

So far so good.

We parked at Terminal 2, waited a couple of minutes and caught a train to Terminal 1. It was fast, free and easy!

Within minutes we were at the main terminal and making the walk to the ticket counter to check a couple of bags, get through security and have time to get some breakfast before our flight to Dallas.

I forgot to mention…

Prior to leaving for the airport, I checked my e-mail in which I was notified that there had been a change in our itinerary. We were now going to have a shorter layover in Los Angeles and a much longer one in Dallas, okay, no big deal. I also checked and saw that our flight(s) were still on time.

Until…

We got to the ticket counter and was notified that our flight to Dallas had been delayed FOUR hours! Ouch! Guess we’ll have plenty of time for that breakfast now! (And maybe lunch too!)

We now scheduled to leave MSP at 12:00 PM CDT or 7:00 AM in Hawaii.

Even with that, we could still make all of our connections, thanks to that long layover that was now taking place at the beginning of our day!

We sat at the gate and looked at our plane just sitting there, waiting for a hydraulic replacement part to arrive via another airplane!

Hours went past.

Then shortly before 11:00 AM the gate agent announced that departure time would now be 2:00 PM! Leaving at that time would eliminate any chance we had of making our flight to Kauai later that evening.

We were in trouble!

That was until American gate agent, Robyn went into action!

Typing with the speed of a NASCAR driver, she was determined to find a way to get us to Los Angeles before our scheduled 6:15 PM PDT departure!

There were no options available on American.

She tried U.S. Airways via Phoenix with no success.

Not enough seats on the Delta flight to Los Angeles.

Finally, she said there was a Delta flight leaving in forty minutes to San Francisco and we could then make a Delta connecting flight to L.A. in time to get back on American before 6:15!

But of course, we needed to hurry!

We had only been doing nothing for three hours and now it was time to RUN!!!!!

The Delta gate was at the complete opposite end of the terminal and it would take too long to walk or run it.

No need to worry…

“Super Gate Agent Robyn” called for a golf cart!

Yes, now with the speed of Arnold Palmer riding up number eighteen at Bay Hill Golf Club, we were making our way to Gate 19 on the Gold Concourse!

And I was doing this while riding backwards!

Kind of like going through an airport time machine, only with people staring and no doubt thinking, “that lazy SOB should be walking!”!

Thanks to the nifty driving skills of our driver, we made it to the gate with about ten minutes to spare.

We were finally on our way…

To San Francisco!

Ahh…The Golden Gate City!

We arrived a few minutes ahead of schedule. 1:30 PM PDT or 3:30 PM CDT or 10:30 AM in Kauai!

Just enough time to hop off our Boeing 757, use the restroom, grab a snack and get on a small regional jet for the flight to Los Angeles!

Thankfully, it was on time with its 4:15 PDT departure. Not so thankfully, my son and I were seated in front of a “gentleman” who used the word, “f*#k” or a form of it, in what seemed like every sentenced he uttered the entire hour long flight! He also discussed in great detail how painful it was to have handcuffs on during his most recent arrest!

I didn’t care!

We were on time and winging our way to L.A. and ultimately, Hawaii.

We landed in Los Angeles at 4:15 PM PDT, 6:15 PM CDT or 1:15 PM In Kauai.

We arrived on Delta, was changing to American, which meant we needed to change terminals and go through airport security again.

And it’s like a maze at LAX!

Go outside, walk to the American terminal, go through security and we were finally back on track!

Flight 285 to Kauai was on time and set to leave at 6:15. Time to grab dinner at of all places, Burger King! (Remember what I said about dinning options at LAX!)

At 5:45 PM we boarded the plane.

At 6:15 PM we were ready to leave.

At 6:20 PM the pilot made the announcement that there was a problem with the door!

Of all things…the DOOR!

There was a small, but apparently critical piece that holds the door closed while in flight that was now broken!

We sat on the plane for a half hour awaiting word about the repair. Then the pilot came back on and said it would be at least two more hours before would leave on our five and a half hour flight. Everyone was to get off the plane (and further delay the repair by doing so) and if all went well, which he wasn’t overly optimistic about success, we would leave at approximately 8:30 PM PDT or you guessed it…

10:30 PM CDT or 5:30 PM in Hawaii!

A long day just got longer!

Two more hours in the American terminal at LAX. (In hindsight, a small price to pay if it meant our flight wouldn’t be cancelled, which would have brought a whole new set challenges!)

The good news came at 7:45…we would leave at 8:30!!

Back on the plane and leaving for Kauai!

Needless to say, it was a loooooong flight!

I watched the movie.

I listened to my I-Pod.

I think I read the vomit bag!

Anything to kill time.

I didn’t want to sleep (and couldn’t really) since I thought it would only make me more tired later.

We landed at 11:00 PM, which was 4:00 AM CDT. I had made it 24 hours without sleep. Unfortunately, sleep would have to wait a bit longer. We got our rental jeep and drove about thirty minutes to our resort.

My head hit the pillow shortly after 1:00 AM and I was wired!

At 5:00 AM I learned a fun fact about Kauai.

It has CHICKENS!

They’re everywhere on the island!

And they like to get up early!

So thanks to them we were able to get an early start on seeing the sights that Kauai had to offer!

Kauai

Over the course of a week, we plenty of beach time, kayaked & hiked to a beautiful waterfall, snorkeled and saw the Na Pali Coast, saw dolphins & whales, hiked some more and attended a Luau, which due to the chance of rain needed to be moved indoors. But at the luau we met a very nice family from Sacramento, who helped make the night even more enjoyable, along with a few Mai Tai’s!

Thankfully, the trip home was much less painful. Everything went smooth and we arrived early at every point along the way!

(Other than no sleep.)

Here are a few pictures from our week…

This is usually the time of year when us hearty Minnesotans have had enough of winter and are racing to the airport to catch a flight to anywhere that doesn’t use the word, “windchill” in their daily vocabulary!

We’re usually sick and tired of scraping our car windows, jump starting dead car batteries and of course shoveling piles of snow!

But not this year!

No, this year people are digging through their closets for shorts, bikes are being pulled out of storage, the shovels are being put away!

You might call it, “madness” for a month that begins with the letter “M” and ends in “h”! (Didn’t want to make the NCAA trademark police upset!)

Call it what you want, but I like it!

On Wednesday we set a record with a high temperature of 72 degrees and there is no end in sight! We may even hit the 80 degree mark this weekend, which has never happened this early in a year!

Of course we should have seen it coming. Our first clue came way back on February 2, when good ‘ol “Punxsutawney Phil” emerged from his log home in a “Speedo” and in need of a refill on his margarita! Yes, our usual eight to ten more weeks of winter was cut in half, thanks to El Nino, La Nina or whatever means “fire up the grill” in Spanish!

What some more proof that the Winter (if you want to call it that) of 2012 is history…

The pile of snow at the end of my drive is on “life support”.

I went for my first early morning run outside this week and I did it in shorts!

A friend of mine spotted the advance scout for mosquito nation.

I opened the windows in our house for the first time since they were “hermetically” sealed last October.

My daughter wore “flip flops” to school this week. (No truth to the rumor that she as been doing it all winter due to an inattentive father!)

Son #2 had his first track practice this week.

The girls and boys state high school basketball tournaments are this week and next with no blizzards in sight!

I uncovered the grill on on my deck this week and cooked some steaks!

The ice on our area lakes will be gone soon…well before the norm of the Fourth of July! (Just kidding on the latter.)

Want a stock tip?

Buy Coppertone!

Want a new and warm spring break destination?

Hello Minneapolis!

Take that Orlando!

Last week I met with a group of Cub Scouts to help them with their “Artistry Activity Pin”.

For the better part of an hour we discussed various careers in the field of art.

When we got around to talking about being a cartoonist, I told them about my webcomic and showed them samples of my work.

We then got into how I put together the comic and publish it on the web, along with the materials I use.

I thought it might be fun to give you a “behind the scenes” look at “Dad’s Day” too.

So here we go…

First, I work out of an office in my basement. It has an ample supply of natural light and is also quiet when it is noisy in other parts of the house! For decor, I wound up with, not so much by choice, a classic “dorm room” look. A couple of flags of my favorite college teams, a few framed marathon posters and race numbers from ones that I have ran as well as the original artwork from my first ‘toon. All hung on the walls with very little thought given to why or where!

I do not have a “fancy” drawing table! The “guts” of it I’ve had for about twenty years and when the original table top had seen its better days, I simply went to a local home improvement store and purchased a new piece of wood and trimmed to size and installed it myself. That, along with an inexpensive light from an office supply store, makes for a fine work station.

I use a lot of “Post-It” notes and index cards to keep track of ideas that pop into my head. I also keep a notebook of gags that I have written, which is broken down into various themes. When I’m in a drought in terms of writing, I break out the nerf ball!

I sketch out ‘toons on basic printer paper and also a sketch tablet. I use a pencil during this stage of the process. Once I’ve figured out how I want it to look, I use tracing paper to lay it all out. From there, I will use a light box and Micron pens to transfer it onto Strathmore Bristol paper, which is the final work I do by hand.

My original artwork is drawn to a size of 4″ by 13″.

As of yet, I don’t own a scanner that can handle work that big. Therefore, before I can load onto my computer, I need to reduce it down a bit. I head off to my local FedEx-Kinkos and get copies of my originals reduced down to a size that fits on my scanner, which is a Hewlett-Packard, Model 3054. After scanning onto my computer, which is an I-Mac, I use Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 to get the ‘toon ready for the web. When I launched Dad’s Day way back in 2009, learning how to use all of the Photoshop tools was probably the most challenging part of producing a webcomic. There were no instructions on how to color a cartoon with the software, so it was done with a lot of trial and error (and a few thousand internet searches as well)

Also, a note about my computer…I made the switch to the Apple Mac about four months ago and it has cut the time it takes to prepare a cartoon in half!

Love the mac!

That’s about it!

Well, all except for a couple of small details…

I usually have music playing while I’m at the drawing table. I have various playlists set up with I-Tunes and a selection is made depending upon my mood.

And of course…

I ALWAYS have coffee!!

FYI…

I live five minutes from a Starbucks, in case of an emergency!