So this is Christmas...

... and Emily takes a break from making her delicious Christmas cookies to dress up her little dog Henry in Yuletide finery, while a few stray snowflakes drift past our kitchen windows.

Have a great day, everyone! -- PL

Flight, part 2

I'm back home after my SECOND cross-country airplane trip of the year (this could get to be a habit!). Jeannine and I were planning to attend a memorial service for one of her relatives in California, and decided that it might make sense, given that we were traveling all that way, to extend our stay a few days and see some sights.

So we flew off to San Diego, a place I'd not been to for nineteen years, I think. It certainly has changed -- I barely recognized the downtown area, though Seaport VIllage still looks about the same. And the San Diego Zoo is still a cool place to visit -- literally, the day we were there, it was in the low 60's, I think, and the animals were pretty active. Like most of the tourists there, I took a bunch of photos -- here's one of a peccary…

... a koala...

… and a monkey (sorry, don't know the type) on a rope…

… and two beautiful ladies posing with a chrome polar bear.

Emily was going to attend the memorial service as well, so she met us in San Diego, and we had some extra time with her, which is rare these days. (We actually didn't stay in San Diego -- we had a nice room at the Hotel Del Coronado, a place I'd wanted to get a closer look at since my last trip out there.) Here's a shot I took of Jeannine (wearing her "Organically Grown" cap) posing with some dramatic cloud lighting on one of our walks on the beach.

A few days later, following the memorial service, we continued on to Los Angeles, where we spent some more time with Em (including going out to dinner with her employers, whom we'd not met until then -- very nice folks). Em also took us to Griffith Park, a place I'd wanted to see on our visit in July. I was amazed at the number of people there -- I'd thought we would drive to the top and see maybe a handful of sightseers, but we were lucky to find a parking space about a half mile down from the observatory. But what a view! We got there just as the sun was setting, so we had some dramatic views of LA all lit up as the sky darkened.

I spent a good part of the time on the flights out and back peering out the window (Jeannine let me take the window seat)…

…and snapping shots of landscapes with my pocket camera.

They're not as cool as the photos from Stan Sakai's trip to Croatia, but I like them. A lot of the images from our flight over the desert and the mountains out west reminded me of the landscape-building stuff I used to do with the 3D program "Bryce"… maybe I should dig that program out and play around with it some more.

I did try to do some drawing during the trip… and this last photo, taken as the sun was setting on our last leg of the return trip back to Connecticut, shows my sketchbook reflected in the window of the airplane. -- PL

Think Pink

At the request of my daughter Emily, I post this message:

This October marks the 25th anniversary of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In honor of this milestone, Organically Grown has created an 100% organic cotton baseball cap embroidered with the color of the month...Pink!



This month reminds us all of the importance of searching for a cure, and doing what we can to support this effort. For every purchase of our Pink Leaf hat, 20% of the proceeds will go to Stand Up to Cancer...Look stylish while making a difference!

According to the Organic Trade Association, over 450 million pounds of pesticides are applied on conventional cotton each year. Seven of the ten pesticides most commonly used on cotton are on the EPA’s list of known, likely, or probable human carcinogens. At Organically Grown, we offer affordable products that are made from 100% organic cotton..grown free of harmful pesticides.

The cure is within our reach. Think Pink with Organically Grown as we join in the fight against breast cancer.

Link: http://organicallygrowngroup.com/promotions/think-pink

UPDATE 10-08-10: Em posted this in the Comments section, but I thought it should probably go here, too:

"We also have our first men's hat up on our website! Use code OGSS20 for 20% off your order!

http://shop.organicallygrowngroup.com/men/mens-headwear.html"

Organically Grown

During our recent two-week vacation in Maine, our daughter Emily got enough time off from her current job as Director of New Media at "Organically Grown" (http://shop.organicallygrowngroup.com) to fly across the country to join us for a few all-too-short days.

She brought with her a gift for me, a t-shirt -- one of Organically Grown's products for men. Here's a photo Jeannine took of me today, wearing the shirt:



And here's another view from the back:



I like the shirt a lot -- it's very comfortable, and the graphics on it are well done and subtle (especially the very light grays). It's 100% organically grown cotton.

I told Emily that it would have to be a really good, comfortable t-shirt to get me to wear it, as I have been devoted to my plain bamboo t-shirts since I discovered them a couple of years ago.

And it is! I think this is the third time I've worn it.

Thanks, Em! -- Dad

P.S. A few days after I posted this, Emily left the following comment, which I thought merited inclusion in the post itself:

"If you're interested in buying a t-shirt, use code ogss20 for 20% off on www.shoporganicallygrown.com!"

Balance

I suspect that from time immemorial, human beings have been stacking rocks one atop the other, particularly when they are near the seashore and find an abundance of convenient stones to stack. I did this pile during the second week of our two weeks in Maine…



… and it actually stayed up for about a day until a big storm blew through and knocked half of it down.

The following day, Jeannine and I walked the Marginal Way in Ogunquit prior to having a wonderful dinner at a place called "Five-O" in that little coastal town with Emily and her friends Jenelle and Lindsay. The Marginal Way is a very cool 1.5 mile paved path which follows the coastal rocks between Perkins Cove and Ogunquit Beach. It's quite a beautiful walk, with some great vistas of the ocean and the shore rock formations. The day we did the walk, the winds were blowing quite hard and the waves were quite spectacular. Here's a shot I took of Jeannine and me along the way…



Further on down the path, we were startled and amused to find more evidence of what I postulated in the first line of this blog entry -- dozens and dozens of small piles of beach rocks stacked on some of the larger rock formations near the path. Someone (or a group of someones) had been quite busy doing a lot of balancing of stones. This photo represents about a tenth of the total number of these things that we saw that day in this area.



And balance is one theme with which I come away from this two-week vacation. It's the first time I can remember that I have really fully enjoyed a vacation, and the first time I can remember that I was sad to leave and come home. I feel as though I have made significant strides towards moving to a more balanced, healthy life, one in which worries and concerns take their true proportionate place alongside the joys and pleasures of life. I'm not completely there yet -- that's going to take a while still -- but this was a big step. -- PL

Flight

I'm back… from the west coast.

Yes, I finally took the plunge and after twenty-one years of not flying, I got on an airplane with my wife, flew out to Los Angeles a little over a week ago and came back this Tuesday.

As some of you may know, years ago -- twenty-one years, to be exact -- I decided to stop flying. The reason I had at that time was that my daughter had recently been born, and I started to imagine the thoughts that might go through my head if I was in a airplane which was about to crash… namely, that in those least few seconds I would have the horrible thought that I would never see my daughter grow up. The thought was so obnoxious to me that then and there I decided that I would not fly again.

It was a decision which, for many years, I could pretty easily live with. Business didn't require that I fly, and most of our Turtle business partners were willing to come to Northampton for important meetings (and my thanks go out to all of them). I did manage to get to the San Diego Comic Con when my daughter was two, but that was because Jim Lawson was going to ride his motorcycle across the country, and I joined him and several friends for that journey.

But as the years passed, I started to feel how that decision had circumscribed my life to a great degree. I'd missed out on a lot of traveling with Jeannine and Emily. And that initial decision transmogrified over the years into a fear of flying. No, that's not really true -- it really became a fear of the fear of flying.

What, then, happened to bring me to take the flights to and from California this past week? Well, a big part of it was the "epiphany" from a few months back that I've discussed in past posts here. I am still feeling the reverberations of that event, and one major part was that I had decided to ease my way back into flying, beginning with a few short-range flights of an hour or two duration, accompanied by Jeannine. But then something unexpected happened…

Jeannine had gone away for three nights on a long-planned writers' retreat in upstate New York, and -- as I'd expected -- I was missing her terribly. As the days wore on, I started thinking about the fact that when she returned, she'd only be home for three days, then off again, this time to California to visit our daughter, for a week. I realized that I was dreading this absence even more than I had been in the previous weeks -- probably because the reality of her writers' retreat trip had finally arrived, and I wasn't dealing with it too well.

I recall that I was sitting on the swing we have on our front porch, not too long after noon on the third day of Jeannine's sojourn at her writers' retreat, moodily contemplating the day and pondering some of the questionable things I'd done in my life. One of those was the decision to stop flying, and as I sat there thinking about it, something started to shift inside me. Something clicked inside my head as I suddenly realized that I could do it… that I could get on an airplane with Jeannine and fly to the west coast. Part of it was simply realizing that millions of people do this daily as a matter of course… that it is (as the old saying goes) a statistically safe mode of travel.

But the biggest part of it was something that I think I knew but wasn't able to consciously articulate until I got back and yesterday was chatting with Gary Richardson, who summed it up quite pithily. "You know, Pete, for years you've had this fear of dying in a plane crash", he said (I'm paraphrasing here), "and even though you know it is realistically unlikely, that fear has held you back from flying. But with the stuff you've been going through recently, the self-realizations and revelations about what is really important in life and so on, it's suddenly become clear to you that if Jeannine flies by herself to California (or anywhere), she runs the same risk of perishing in a plane crash as you would… and if that ever happened, you would lose her for the rest of your life. And that thought is now scarier to you than the idea of your dying in a plane crash."

And he was right. Somewhere in the back of my mind, sitting on our front porch swing that day, I had realized this, even though I was not yet fully conscious of it.

I leaped out of the swing and ran to my computer, dashing off an email to Jeannine, laying out my thoughts and asking her opinion as to whether or not I could be added to her trip at this late date. I decided to go swimming while I waited for her reply, but I was too excited and anxious to hear what she had to say that when I got home from the lake and didn't find an email from her yet, I decided to call her (something I was very hesitant to do, as this was a RETREAT she was on, not to be interrupted lightly… and while I felt a great urgency to get her answer, it was not a true emergency per se). I did manage to reach her, and we had a short conversation. She was cautiously optimistic, but certain details still needed to be worked out, among them whether Emily -- who had only been expecting her mother to visit -- could deal with the addition of her father as well.

I managed to contact Em within minutes, and although she was very surprised to hear of my decision, she seemed open to having me join her mom for this visit.

When Jeannine got home the following day, we talked some more and started the process of changing the flight arrangements. For various reasons, this wasn't completed until the following day. I went out and bought a real suitcase (up 'til this point I'd always traveled with a kind of floppy duffel bag thing) and an accompanying backpack to serve as my carry-on luggage.

Through all this, my excitement hadn't flagged -- if anything, now that I'd made the decision, I found it hard to wait until Tuesday, the day of our departure. My brother Bruce agreed to house-sit and take care of the pets while we were away, which was a big load off my mind. I checked with my doctor to see if he could prescribe me anything stronger than my current anti-anxiety medication for the flight, but he said I could just take two instead of the one I usually take.

So I was ready.

When Tuesday rolled around, we packed up our stuff and headed off to Bradley International Airport in Hartford, CT. We got through security with no problems, found our gate, and sat down to wait to board. It was at this moment that I realized I'd left my iPad at home, which was a drag as I had specifically charged it up and left it out so I could pack it in my carry-on. For some reason, I spaced it out. But while that was kind of a bummer, it still didn't dent my level of excitement.

We boarded the plane shortly thereafter, and found our first-class seats. I was a little surprised by them -- I was expecting something really cushy, not just a slightly wider seat in the front rows of the passenger compartment. But at least Jeannine and I were sitting next to each other in our own row.

The one thing that I had been most anxious about -- that I would get on the airplane, realize that I was in a confined space and would be there for the next six hours with no chance of getting out, and my claustrophobia would kick in big time -- never happened. I didn't even experience a touch of it, as I recall. And the flight was pretty much as I'd remembered from my last one over twenty-one years ago -- mostly boring.

(Here's a view of some cool clouds from Jeannine's window seat.)



I slept part of the way, very often holding on to Jeannine's hand. And then it was over, and we were landing at LAX and trying to find a shuttle to the rental car agency.

The next seven days were a lot of fun. Among other things, I got to see Emily at her workplace as well as her apartment. Jeannine and I visited the La Brea tarpits, a place I'd wanted to see since I was a kid. I served as designated driver for Em, her roommate Colleen, and Jeannine on a wine-tasting expedition to vineyards around Santa Barbara. (Here's a photo of them at the first wine tasting we went to.)



We visited the beautiful Huntington Library museum and gardens in Pasadena. Em booked us on a tour of the Warner Brothers studio lot, and we came away from that with some fun photos, including one of the three of us on the "Central Perk" couch from the "Friends" tv series. And we capped our visit with a three-day stay at a lovely oceanside resort near Santa Barbara (truth be told, I wouldn't have minded another few days there).

Then it was time to say our goodbyes and head home. And the flight back was essentially a replay of the flight out, although we took a "red-eye" and got back to Massachusetts early in the morning, and had to go through the typical day or so of disorientation as we readjusted to a normal schedule.

But the most salient fact was this -- that I had broken the hold of the fear that had kept me literally grounded for twenty-one years. I look forward now to further adventures, traveling with Jeannine. We're talking about another trip to California, perhaps to San Francisco, and then maybe even to Hawaii. But not right away. -- PL

P.S. Yes, I know the San Diego Con was happening while I was out in California (although I didn't know it until I'd told the guys at Mirage about my unexpected upcoming trip and Mike Dooney had mentioned SDCC, which he would be attending), but except for wanting to see some old friends, particularly Stan Sakai, I had no interest in dealing with con madness on this trip. Maybe next year… maybe not.

Profile of Emily

I was out in the old studio for a little while today, continuing the long and hopefully not-too-arduous process of clearing out all unnecessary and unwanted stuff -- in today's case, a big stack of "Cycle News" that I had saved for some reason (said reason not being at all clear to me now), and which are now a step closer to the local recycling center.

While walking into the old studio, I saw something which made me smile. It always does, when I notice it. Here's a photo I snapped of the cap on the newel post on the stairs leading up to the studio proper.



Back when this studio space was being built, I asked the carpenters to take a silhouette I'd made of my young (I think she was about two at the time) daughter Emily's profile and use it as the template when they created the newel post caps on a lathe. I think it worked well -- glanced at, the cap looks simply like a pleasing abstract design, but when closely examined you can see the profile on either side. -- PL

Bunnies and rainbows

A couple of days ago, our area got hit pretty hard, once again, by a series of quick, powerful wind and rain storms.Our power got knocked out for about twenty hours, and some towns in the region just got their power back hours ago. Lots of trees, big ones, came down. In Hadley the bike path was closed by about ten different tree falls, and I suspect the same was true elsewhere on the path.

But today is lovely. Jeannine and I have been sitting on our back porch, enjoying the temperate breeze wafting through the screened-in windows. A few hours ago, I saw a cute little rabbit hop by on our patio -- I don't think I've ever seen one that close to the house. Alas, I was not quick enough with my camera to get a shot of it.

However, about five days ago I was ready with the camera to catch an unexpected rainbow after a quick shower. Here's a panoramic view...



... and a closeup view, probably the clearest I've ever taken of any part of a rainbow.



It was quite something -- it looked like a special effect, not something real.

But even better than a bunny, lovelier than a rainbow...




... is our daughter Emily, home for a brief visit, and seen here bonding with her little dog Louis. -- PL

Happy Hallowe'en!

I was planning on digging up some old drawing I had done for a Hallowe'en card or some such, but while scanning some old photographs for my mother today, I came upon one of my favorite photos of Emily when she was tiny, and thought it appropriate for the occasion.



Jeannine made the little pumpkin "belly" part, and the hat/cap was a store-bought item. It all came together quite nicely for her first Hallowe'en. (And I still call her "Pumpkin" from time to time.) -- PL

Emily's musings on her first San Diego Comic-Con

Well, my daughter survived her first Comic-Con experience -- in fact, I think it's safe to say she really enjoyed herself, and so did her roommate Colleen, who attended Comic-Con with Em. I asked Em to write up something about their trip, and this is what she sent me, along with all of the photos. -- PL

The Wrath of Con

After months of planning and anticipation, our journey to our very first Comic-Con began very early Thursday morning. We left LA around 2 am, and with hardly anyone on the road, made it to San Diego a little after 4. Since we had been following Twitter updates about the Con, we were not totally shocked to see a line wrapping around Hall H when we arrived at the Convention Hall around quarter to 5 in the morning.



Almost a thousand people were already in line for the Friday New Moon panel: Some were sleeping on air mattresses, some had miniature flashlights and copies of the Twilight books...we even saw one party that had brought their own hookah to the line.



Three Starbucks trips later, we got into another line to get our Thursday badges. This one wrapped around the convention center and extended down the edge of the marina.

Finally, around 11 am, we were herded into Hall H and found seats around the middle of the hall, although there were still two more panels to watch before the New Moon panel began at 1:45. The Disney 3-D20panel showed clips from A Christmas Carol and Tron, but of course the most exciting moment was when Tim Burton surprised the audience by bringing Johnny Depp onstage during the Alice in Wonderland panel. When the Summit Entertainment panel brought the cast and director of New Moon onstage around 2, the screams were deafening.








Even though we were sleep deprived and had been waiting for almost ten hours, I have to say, the clips they showed definitely made it more than worth the wait! It was fun seeing the cast, and listening to their thoughts on the movies, but the clips were really the amazing part. Instead of just showing a trailer or some random part, they showed full clips of two pivotal scenes from the movie. Can't wait to see the movie in November!

After the panel, we checked into our hotel and had dinner with the Mirage team before getting some much-needed rest.

On Friday afternoon, we headed back to the convention center for the TMNT Panel. Thankfully we didn't have to camp out for hours to get in this time, but it really put things in perspective for me to see so many fans lined up for the panel, much like we had the day before. The energy and enthusiasm of the crowd was amazing, and all of the panelists (Gary Richardson, Kevin Eastman, Steve Barron, Scott Mednick, Galen Walker, Matt Leunig, and Llyod Goldfine) did a great job! I even got a little teary-eyed when they first started playing the music and the interview clips came on screen.



Of course, Friday night was the big TMNT 25 party and debut screening of "Turtles Forever". I have to echo everything my dad wrote about the movie in his previous entry... it really was amazing!



Saturday and Sunday were spent mostly wandering around the Exhibit hall...I still don't think we saw everything! We were tempted to buy the Twilight dolls, but resisted in favor of two old school TMNT posters which we will frame for our apartment ("Leonardo Leads" and "Raphael: Cool but Crude") and two t-shirts, a TMNT "Drug Free is the Way to Be" and a "It's Clobberin' Time" with the Thing.

Overall, it was a great, crazy weekend. San Diego is beautiful, and the Convention was ridiculous and so much fun... hopefully we will be back next year, now that we are officially Con veterans. It was great to see the Mirage crew, and to meet all of the many other people who have worked on the Ninja Turtles in all their various forms. And of course, it was a pleasure to meet some of the fans as well!

Cowabunga!
-Emily & Colleen


Here are some more photos from Em and Colleen's first Comic-Con:

Em with the "Turtle Documentary" crew



Em with Stan Sakai



Colleen and Em with Ernie Reyes, Jr.



Mirage dudes with Turtles



Em and Colleen with Turtles

Emily "Shellebrates"!

My daughter, who is planning to attend the San Diego Comicon this year, also had the opportunity to go to one of the "Shellebration" TMNT tour bus 25th anniversary events with some of her friends this past weekend. Here's her report from the scene, taken from an email to me:

"On Saturday afternoon, Golden Apple Comics on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles hosted one of the final stops of the TMNT tour bus for the 25th anniversary "Shell-abration." We figured it was a must see event. I arrived with Nell, Steph, and Lainy around 6PM, when the event seemed to be winding down a bit. The bus was parked outside, where we posed with Leonardo. Inside, fans were lined up to meet with Kevin, and the store had free pizza and Turtle green Kool-Aid.

In these pictures I'm posing with Kevin Eastman...



...and Stephan from GoGreenMachine.org.



I also met Michael Hill, the former creative director of Mirage, who said he had met me when I was little. Inside the bus, there was various memorabilia from the comic books, tv show, and movies. This picture is me at the entrance of the bus, with your photo and biography, as well as what I think are covers from the first comic book.


Overall, it was a fun afternoon, and I got to get my first picture with Leonardo (my favorite turtle) since I was a few months old, when he held me on the set of the first movie.



It was fun to experience the Turtles through the eyes of a "fan" and also to be around so many fans for whom the Turtles mean so much. Looking forward to Comic Con!

-Em"

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

Happy Birthday, Em!

A few years ago, I used Photoshop to put together the elements of this image as a card for my daughter's sixteenth birthday. I used the "official" photo taken of her in the hospital a day or so after she was born, and added two of her (then, at sixteen) favorite things -- Red Bull and a cell phone.



I don't think she drinks as much Red Bull any more, but the cell phone is definitely still a big deal (although she's gone through several since that one!).

We didn't get to see Em on her birthday this week (sob!), but she had fun taking her two roommates with her to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, to celebrate -- at least in part -- her fond farewell to her teenage years. Hard to believe my little girl is entering her third decade.

Love ya, Emmer! -- Dad