That’s right, you guessed it! I’ve made a long-overdue update to my portfolio page, with…

1 | A T-shirt design for my broseph Dan’s band, BGosh. I drew this back in November, and I just got word that after many delays, it’s being printed.
2 | The cover to an anthology published by Foreign Affairs featuring essays from the magazine.
3 | Another banner for another adventure in the History of Deeds done beyond the Sea by Joseph Kopta.

On another note, a particularly astute reader/father pointed out that I have a certain penchant for the word “bittersweet.” Some research in the Frog Blog archives located in the basement of the Pat Barrett Center for Introspection at Solipsist University has revealed that, yes, I might have exhausted the term. The study revealed five instances of the contraction, three of them in the past summer alone. All efforts will be made to expand the Frog Blog vocabulary and find another way to express the joy and sadness felt especially at parties and events marking departures.

Oh glory, has it been more than two weeks since I broke my tooth? I’m almost used to it, although I think I’m a bit shyer with strangers. In the meantime, I’ve been to my ancestral home, where my parents are grieving their approaching empty nest life when my baby brother, Jack, goes to college today. What was meant to be a long-weekend visit turned into an extended stay when my significant other’s new-old car got itself stuck at the mechanic with problem appearing after problem. We got back Wednesday night and I’ve been trying to squeeze a week’s worth of work (both paying and personal) into these last couple of days. Waaaah wah wah. Anyhow, I’m back, and tomorrow is my sister’s birthday, and a week from today I’ll go back to school.

Another lapse! Excuse me while I flagellate myself. August has kicked off with a bang, in both my professional and  my social non-virtual lives. And it seems like things are just gonna keep heating up through September!

First in both importance and chronology, my better and hotter half has rejoined me. And she brought along our fat little cat of a buddy. What I’m saying is my eternal girlfriend, Caitlin, and our cat, Sheba, have moved to Vermont so that we can once more form like a Voltron of Love and conquer a whole Universe of Haytahz!

Then my TA work at the CCS Summer Workshops started at the exact same time that we began unpacking in our new apartment. The days and the nights have been full. I’m behind on freelance work, on comics, on replying to emails, on the blog, on everything. But! If Doc Brown pulled up in a DeLorean and gave me a chance to take back my decision to help out, I would stand proudly, pointing to my left, and tell him, “Go back! Back to from whence you came!” Working with the students who came for this program, and with the faculty I’ve come to adore over the past year, has been a dream. I can’t believe how many truly talented and enthusiastic people showed up, and how much quality comics work has been produced in just one week. Today marked the end of our Extended Studio option, and ended with a bittersweet tube ride down the White River.*

I also gotta give a shoutout to a couple of my besties that crawled their ways back to the Junction last weekend, by red eye planes and all day trains, Ben and Kevin. The party’s back! And speaking of BFFs, one of my oldest and dearest is going to be visiting starting this Friday. In the meantime I’m trying to get my house in order and catch up on (at least) my actual paying work. And the following weekend I’ll be going to Maine with my fambly. So what I’m saying is, there might be another lull. I’m sorry. So it goes. But don’t feel bad, Internet, I still LYLAS.

*A tube ride that I actually wasn’t on. This is what happens when you try to write about the future as if it’s the past. I had some spare time this morning and was trying to crank out a post, so’s my imaginary horde of fans could stop complaining in my head that I hadn’t posted for a while. And I thought that that tube ride would be a great, happy/sad way to end this session for the summer, which I’m sure it was. But, alas and alack, before I could go on said ride, I broke my front tooth. Combined with my red beard of summer laziness, I am the spitting image of a pirate. Not unlike this LEGO self-portrait. Needless to say, I wound up at a dentist and wondering how I’ll pay for a root canal and a crown. And thinking that Yoda would be very disappointed in me.