Doodlebot

Students taking German as a second language in school competed in Sprachfest this weekend in San Antonio. Alex came in 2nd place having recited a poem in German before judges. He said he missed the accent by THAT much!

In two weeks, he will be competing in the State competition here in Austin. Will let you know how that goes!

Midwest Click Posted 3 of the songs that the Forbes Middle School Band played.

Legends of the Yucutan

Silent Night in Gotham

and

Rivers.

You can see Hannah clearly in all three. She is 2nd chair French Horn. Don’t they sound great?

Click the thumbnails below for GIANT, un-resized pics.

Rain, Deer Video

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• Check out my version of John Singer Sargent’s “Madame X” among other comic-ized artworks in the feature article “Webcomics Imitating Art” on the Dallas Art News website.  What a fun way to bring together comics and fine art!
• I co-Hosted the TGT Webcomic podcast interviewing Irma Erikkson of Imy to kick off their month of “Influential Women of Webcomics” series. This is the 2nd time I’ve been asked to co-Host and it’s such a fun experience. I do need to work on getting my mic to sound properly, though, darn it.

We had a very nice and quiet Thanksgiving. So quiet that, for the 2nd year in a row, I didn’t take any pictures. To make up for it, here are the latest school pics of the dynamic duo (click for close ups):

We enjoyed chatting with you all over the telephone, text and email over the weekend. You all are among the many many things we are thankful for each year.

As we reported, the weather here was glorious for the holiday weekend. I would have loved to have taken all our goodies to the park and had an outdoor feast!

The weather turned cloudy and chilly on Sunday, though… which was perfect for me!  Hannah and I decided to take a stroll in downtown Georgetown. We did not get any of our Christmas shopping done, but came back with lots of ideas. Sunday strolls downtown should be a more regular thing. We had a great time.

Temperatures are dropping this week, though! Just saw a weather report that there is a very very slim chance of *snow* on Tuesday night! Whoo hoo!

That’s all for now!  For those that asked about the “Mystery Recipe” this year, it’s called “Zucchini with Green Chilies.” You can see the entire recipe by “reading more” (or viewing original post if you’re seeing this on facebook).

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KHAN! ...er... CON!!

Oh, the fun we had at the cons.  Millennium Con was on the 7th and Dallas Webcomic Expo was the 14th.

Mike ran games at MilleniumCon this year.  Here is an album with the pictures! If you choose “slideshow” view, you can see my comments under each one which may give you an idea of what is depicted. If you’re a hardcore wargamer who just wants to see the games/pieces/set up, go check out Mike’s wargaming blog, The Redoubt.

All the gory details of Dallas Webcomic Expo are here on the comic’s site!  Mike was such wonderful support staff, I don’t know how people who don’t bring their spouses do these things.  I know most of you are unfamiliar with webcomics in general, but a couple of newspaper strippers came by whose work you WILL recognize (especially those of you who read the comics in the Orlando Sentinel).

For me, I’ve got my eye on the Staple Independent Publisher’s Expo in March (here in Austin). I’m not sure when the next gaming convention is, but you know we’ll keep everyone posted.

Hannah will be playing Mrs. Thatcher !! Now we must work play rehearsals into our schedules! Hooray!

Hannah waits for her cue

Forbes Middle School Honors Band performed for us in a Pre-Midwest Concert to let the parents hear how wonderful the band is sounding. I heard someone say they are going to put a fine point on their performance in the next month, but they sound pretty GREAT to me!

My favorite tune in the program is called “Legends of the Yucatan” because it filled the auditorium with such rich sounds. Unfortunately, I didn’t get my video camera ready in time to get that one. But I got something else wonderful.  Here they are playing Arabian Dances:

The site was down for the last week, so any mail sent to a “doodlebot” address was not received. Please re-send! (That will teach me to wait to renew my domain name, by golly!) Here’s what’s been going on while I was “out:”

• This weekend was MillenniumCon for Michael and Alex. This is a table top gaming convention put on by Lone Star Historical Miniatures, a wargame club of which Michael is a member. While they do several historical wargames, sci-fi and fantasy games have become staples of the cons as well.  Michael and Alex look forward to this convention every year.  This year, Michael ran a space combat game.  Judging from the enthusiasm of the players, sales of that game are going to go WAY up this month! Mike will post pictures on his gaming blog, but here’s a couple to show you:  Michael and Alex.
• Hannah was cute going out with her friends on Halloween.
• Hannah tried out for District Band this weekend, but she didn’t make it. Competition was FIERCE…6 slots available out of nearly 40 french horns.  ACK! She said she was a bit disappointed, but also a bit relieved. That’s my girl!
• My grandmother is doing great! She’s back at home, which seemed to help a LOT, and the family has seen to it that she has nearly round-the-clock care. My mom and her siblings, plus my cousins, keep checking on her and continue to remind her how amazingly wonderful we think she is. The world’s just a better place with her in it, and that’s the truth.
• My SIL is doing great also! She seems understandably frustrated that she still has medicines and the feeding tube, but she’s getting around pretty well.  She knew in advance that recovery would be slow going, but that doesn’t make it any less irritating when you’re the one experiencing the slowness!  Her CaringBridge site is still being updated and you’re welcome to read about her journey. A few encouraging words in the guestbook are always welcome, too! (Also, do you know any squirrel jokes?)
• FIL is recovering as expected from his hernia surgery.  I believe that this was the last surgery/repair related to his aneurysm. (Right, Grampa?)
• I strongly suspect my MIL needs to go on a month-long spa retreat at a tropical resort.
• My family is gathering at Myrtle Beach during Thanksgiving break, but we won’t be able to go. So someone had BETTER take pictures for us (I’m looking at YOU , Chelsea).
• The following are facebook repeats, so I’m addressing them to the non-facebookers who might be interested:

1. Mom and Grampa Wikan might like to see this deer video taken in the yard Nov. 6.  Two yearling deer butting heads. I film until a large doe gets irritated at me, snorting and stamping her hoof to make me leave.
2. Aunt Kathy might be interested to see these recent pics of Gladys and Dosh, taken last week in my yet-to-be-organized office space. Gladys and her blanket are on a little exercise trampoline next to my computer chair and Dosh and his bed are in a tray on an ottoman behind me.

If any of you would like to try facebook, you can add me to your friend’s list here and become a facebook fan of the comic here.

If you are trying twitter:  my twitter username is “@swikan” and if you want to follow comic updates through twitter, follow “@lifes_a_witch” comic account.

That’s all I’ve got. What’s new with you?