Yikes!

I know... It's been way too long since I last made a post here...

In my defense, I have been swamped with work for Emerald City ComiCon, The Comic Stop, Micro Brew Comics, the newly formed Jet City Comic Show, and more. Still, excuses are excuses. So, let's catch us up, shall we?

Over at The Comic Stop, we are currently working towards our general growth as a company. We now have 3 successful locations, and we are considering opening a 4th shop in the next year or so. On top of this, we now have a "full staff". It is no longer just us owners/managers at the shops, but two full-time employees and two part-time employees.

The 8th Annual Emerald City ComiCon is nearly here, just a couple of months away. We've sold out of space again, our lineup of guests borders on the amazing, and we are well under way to have our best year ever. Expect this show to blow up, Big Time, in the near future.

Speaking of shows... Since I don't have enough work to do, I have created a companion show for ECCC called Jet City Comic Show. This new show is a local 1-day show coming up in the fall, a full 6 months after ECCC. This new show will focus on the creative local talents and publishers and organizations of the Pacific Northwest, and well as spotlighting several out of town Special Guests.

Following that, the comics biz has been busy. From Micro Brew Comics, I am looking to have Steve Lawlis: Zombieville #2 and Adventures of Doctor Zombie #3 ready for ECCC, as well as a couple of prints. From my old stomping grounds of Rorschach Entertainment and Modern Pulp Comics, I have the final issue of Sprecken: Kalabus Rex (issue #4) coming out, and it looks like we might even have Dallas McCoy #0 (a prologue issue) done, too. I'll have more on all of this in the next few weeks...

Over at the homestead, the only big event was the shared birthday (on December 11th) between Jack "Lucky" Meredith and myself. My little man is now 3 years old, and cleaned up with a fat pile of Ben 10 action figures and clothes, and a couple of Batman Brave and the Bold action figures. He's become quite the little super-geek.

Well, that's enough catching up... next time, I'll talk about beer...

-Brian M.

The Fam!

So... it's been a while since my last update, thanks to a very busy life pre-ECCC,which has consumed my time. With that in mind, here's a quick re-cap of what's been going on.

Mackenzie hit the big "9" mark two weeks ago. She's now quickly working her way up from Child to Tween, but not in a bad way, so far. She had a another mellow birthday this year; some fine gifts (including the much-in-demand Easy Bake Oven), dinner out with the family, and cupcakes and cookies for her friends at school and Kempo.

Dana (AKA "The Moose" AKA "Quattro) just hit hit 6 month mark. Needless to say, he's a big boy. He's pushing 20 lbs and is around 2 feet in length. At the rate he's going, he's going to be bigger than his brother Jack in no time.

Speaking of Jack... Lucky is getting so much better with his words and sentences. Of course, most of the words that come out of his mouth theses days are "Batman", "Justice League", "Flash", "Superman", "Doctor Who", etc. The boy is definitely showing his true geek colors.

With Emerald City ComiCon coming up, I'll be making another post soon to fill everyone in on what is going on with Micro Brew Comics, Mackenzie's Doctor Zombie series, and more...

Lucky's Second Time Around

Yikes! This post came a week later than I hoped... that's what I get for being so damn busy...

So, Last Thursday (December 11th) was Jack's 2nd birthday and my 700th birthday, as we share the same date of birth, for those unaware. This is a good thing, as this will mean that I am now GUARANTEED cake for my birthday for the next 10-15 years. This is what we refer to as "wicked awesome".

Jack (AKA Lucky) made out nicely with a few solid gifts, such as a toy laptop (hopefully, he'll leave the home computer alone now...) and a box full of DUPLO Legos (as seen in the picture above), which he loves to play with. The boy is a natural builder.

Oh, and for the record, Jack is nearly naked due to the fact that just had his cake, which got everywhere... besides, he actually likes running around like a jungle boy.

A few days later, we got hit with a ton of snow here in the Seattle area, actually stranding the family and I at our house. As anyone who lives in a quiet residential area knows, these are the worse roads to try and traverse after a snowfall. They are just one giant slab of ice. Still, the kids managed to enjoy some time outside, as Mac took her little brother Jack out for some Winterland Action.

Speaking of little brothers, the littlest addition to the clan has hit the 3 month mark. Dana (AKA Quattro) has earned himself a new nickname -- The Moose. That boy can eat! He has been packing on the weight and size. He is already wearing 6 month clothes... but I'll save that for another post...

Quattro is in the house!

On September 13th at 4:10pm, Dana Benjamin Alan Meredith was born, punching in at a full 8 pounds, 8 ounces and 21 inches in length. He beats out his older brother Lucky by a pound and a couple of inches. Of course, Lucky has almost 2 years on him, so it evens out.

As with Lucky, we gave a nickname to the baby before he was born, due mostly to the fact that we had no idea as to the sex of the baby this time around. So, the baby was dubbed Quattro, as in the number four. I'm actually having a hard time calling him anything else.

Our time in the hospital was record setting; in on Saturday morning, out by Sunday afternoon. Once the actual labor kicked in, it was over in 20 minutes (just like with Lucky) and everything went perfectly. Quattro passed all tests with flying colors, and Amy bounced back like a trooper, so we cruised on out of there in no time.

The last couple of days has been spent trying to get the household into a new working rhythm. We finally got used to there being three kids; now the new baby gums up the works (but in a good way). It's going to take a little time to find a new flow to taking care of Quattro while there is still Lucky, just barely out of babyhood. Still, all in all, it should be a lot of fun!

Lucky Vs The Suicide Girls

Lucky may be outnumbered, but I don't think he minds. See how cool he plays it...

And yes, he is wearing two different colored socks, because that is how he rolls.

Holy Hot Rod!

After almost 9 years of driving the same car (my beloved 2000 Dodge Neon), I have taken the plunge and bought a (nearly) brand new 2007 Chevrolet HHR.

With the arrival of my boy Jack "Lucky" Meredith over a year ago, my small but growing family placed a bit of a strain on our vehicle situation. My Neon and Amy's Hyundai Elantra were just not big enough. Oh, sure, we could get around town easily enough with all five of us packed in to either car, but we were packed in. Not exactly a lot of room left for the little things, like space or comfort.

On top of that, my work at the Comic Stop calls upon me to pick up shipments on a weekly basis, not to mention any trip out of town for family or business.

So, with all of that in mind, Amy and I kept an eye out for a new vehicle, preferably something not too expensive, decent gas mileage, and enough room for everyone and everything we would need it to do. Our list of requirements left us with a very short list of cars. One of these cars was the Chevy HHR.

After about a month or two of looking around, Amy found a sweet deal on a used HHR at a nearby dealership. This HRR had only 1,000 miles on it, and was a lot cheaper than other comparable HHRs we found.

After making an appointment to see and test-drive the car (which handled great), we found out the previous owner had just bought it a couple of months before. It turned that his mother suddenly turned ill and he needed a large mini-van to get her around (I believe he traded it in for a Dodge Grand Caravan). We thought about it overnight, and went back in the next day to see what kind of deal we could make. in the end, we got a new car for about $7-8,000 less than had we just bought it brand new.

Of course, the downside to this great deal is that I have car payments again...

One Lucky Year

Today's the day. One year ago, my son JACK CLIFFORD AVERY MEREDITH was born, giving me the best birthday present I've ever gotten. It even beats out the iPod I got the previous year!

My family and I had a simple birthday party for him; some vanilla cake and a few presents for him to play with. We presented him with a cake with candles, sang to him, and blew them out for him. He had no clue what the hell was going on, but he seemed to enjoy it. Lucky is nothing if not curiously happy. Then, we cut him a chunk of cake and let him at it. He was actually rather subdued, not making too much of a mess, as you all can see from the picture to the left.

Afterwards, we opened up a few presents that he received: a toy dump truck for babies, some cool learning blocks, a super-textured moose, and a couple of other things. All in all, not too bad of a night for the Little Man.

Now, sharing my birthday may not seem like a lot of fun to some, but it's actually pretty neat. I have that little extra connection to the boy. There's no way the rest of the family will forget our birthday. Plus, as I'm old and decrepit, I no longer have cake for just my birthday. This way, I'm guaranteed to get cake for now on! Sugar Coma, here I come!

6 Months Later...

My baby boy Jack (AKA Lucky) is now 6 months old. Damn, I can't believe how fast it has been! It seems like he was just born. Here's a picture of him that I just took a couple of days ago with my cell phone...

As you can see, Lucky is surrounded by his favorite toys: some teething toys (he has two teeth so far!), his stuffed monkey Captain Monkeybeard, and his stuffed bear Rupert.

Oh, and the white spot on his chin (which you'll see once you click on the pic) is just drool. The kid drools a lot!

More Pics of Jack!

I've had a lot more people asking to see more pics of Lucky, so here they are...

Say hi to Jack!

On December 11th at 6:20pm, Jack Clifford Avery Meredith was born, coming in at 7 pounds, 11 ounces and 19 inches in length. Jack (or "Lucky" as we have been calling him for months before we settled on his name) is my second child; Mackenzie (my 6 year old girl) is my first.

Although the actual birth was quick, the time at the hospital was not. We spent nearly a day in the hospital before the actual labor kicked in (which only took about 15-20 minutes). Afterwards, we spent the last couple of days waiting around while the doctor and nurses monitored the baby and ran some various tests. Finally, they gave Amy and Jack a semi-clean bill of health, and we're now home.

The picture on the top left is of Jack as we put him to sleep this evening, just about an hour ago. Notice how the binkie has fallen out of his mouth...?