Category: Cartoon

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Oh yeah, this really did happen. Weekend before this, I took Princess’ Brownie troop camping. And do you want to talk about whining and fighting and complaining! I made bacon and eggs with the girls to feed everybody Saturday morning and all those girls wanted was cold cereal! And they were the ones who voted for bacon and eggs in the first place!!  Heathens!

So the Brownies were driving me nuts, when out of the blue, Pixie shows up with her Daisy troop to tell me she lit a real fire!!!!!!  YES!! Just what every mother wants to hear her 5–year-old say!  Fortunately, I knew this was one of the scheduled activities for the girls, and I knew the woman running that class, so I only had a minor heart attack before I recalled that yes, it was in fact okay for my youngest child to light a fire in this particular instance.

Anyway, most of my Girl Scout obligations have been met for the year.  I’ve got a few meetings to attend, a few training classes to take, and a picnic to help with, but that’s about it. Summer is almost here, and with it comes blessed relief from the non-stop Girl Scout activity I’ve been doing since December.  My family and I will be attending a few Girl Scout events this summer, including Rock the Mall in DC and Thrill Builders at Busch Gardens, but I’m only responsible for getting the four of us there for those events, and no one else!

I spent all weekend camping with the Girl Scouts, and spent all today trying to recover. So no webcomic. Instead, I sing you the traditional song of my people!  Sung to the tune of “Camptown Ladies.”

The house is a wreck and I don’t care!

Doo-dah! Doo-dah!

Gonna dance around in my underwear!

Oh de-doo-dah-day!

I clean the place last night!

And the kids destroyed it today!

So the house is a wreck and I don’t care!

Oh de-doo-dah-day!

Thank you. There will be comics, or artwork, or feverish scribblings, sometime later this week.

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We’re running a little late today. Sorry! The kids have spring break, so my schedule is a little out of whack.

Anyway, it’s been a while since I’ve done a “Move It Mama! Monday” post, and thought I’m no longer writing those as a regular feature here, I did recently come across something fitness-wise that would be perfect for that topic.  Last week I bought a Wii jOG. The jOG is a little device that clips to the waist and counts steps like an ordinary step counter would, but this one hooks into the Wii-mote and the nunchuk as well. The idea is that you have to keep moving (I jog in place) in order to power the nunchuk, so if you’re playing an RPG that requires you to use the nunchuk to move your character around on screen, this thing is IDEAL!

I’ve been playing Rune Factory: Frontier for ages, and I love it. It’s a very lengthy game that involves farming, dungeon crawling, character interaction (my character has to woo and marry one of the village girls), etc. There’s a pretty interesting story line, and so I enjoy playing it. But I could never find the time to just sit on the couch and play, so the game has just sort of been languishing on my bookshelf.  Now that I have the Wii jOG, though, I have an excuse to play video games. I’m not just killing time, I’m exercising!

This gets back to what I love about Wii Fitness games, which is that they are games, and the good ones don’t just run you through the standard exercises, they also entertain.  The Wii jOG transforms just about any RPG into an exercise game, ala Walk It Out (another favorite of mine). Unlike Walk It Out, though, the Wii jOG and Rune Factory now give me a story to explore as well as a landscape to run around in. I’m loving it!

The only downside is that the company that made the Wii jOG went out of business last year. I don’t know what the problem was, because the product is terrific, but they’re no longer around. However, you can still find the Wii jOG for sale on Amazon.com for a very reasonable (i.e. liquidation) price. I got mine for $5, and that included the shipping.  And another company has come out with the UMove, which combines both the pedometer and the nunchuk into one device. The cost is more (this company hasn’t gone out of business yet), but the idea is the same and I’d recommend giving it a try.

So that’s my fitness update, which I know you’ve all be longing for all these months.  On a few last notes, I just wanted to let Rebecca know her husband did exactly what she asked him to do at the InterventionCon meet up on Saturday, and he also made my day by telling me how much he enjoyed the webcomic. Moments like that are gold to a webcomicker. And to a writer. And to a podcaster. And to anybody who produces creative content for the masses. Seriously, we live for feedback.  And cheese. Cheese is very important. But complements and feedback are even better

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Just when I thought I was done busting my butt with Girl Scouts for the year…

Actually, I knew this camping trip was coming up and I knew I was “the adult in charge” for our troop (thankfully, I do have two other moms helping me out this weekend, but I’m the sucker who’s staying for the full trip).  I also knew getting ready for this weekend was going to be a lot of work.  I have to pack not just my stuff but also Princess’ stuff and Pixie’s too, plus I have to pack all the food the entire troop will be eating that weekend, plus all the equipment we’re going to need. And I have to figure out how to feed everyone!

Fortunately, my years in the Army Reserves come in handy in such situations. I was a Food Service Officer. I know quite a bit about what’s involved in feeding large groups out in the field. However, I was only the fool who signed off on the paperwork. I never actually had to cook anything.

In preparation for this trip, I had Hubster buy me a charcoal grill on Saturday. Saturday evening, I tried grilling burgers for the first time ever. It took me a ridiculous amount of time to get the fire going and the coals heated up, but I got it done.  Sunday morning, I got up early with both girls and spent even more time trying to cook breakfast on the grill. We did “Breakfast-In-A-Bag” –  bacon and eggs in cooked paper bags over the grill (you lay down a few sheets of foil first so the bags don’t catch on fire). That experiment was… edible.  Then Sunday afternoon I had the Brownie troop come over so we could inspect packs, make swaps to exchange with other troops, and try more cooking. This time, I had to have someone with Outdoor Cooking 2 training on hand. I’ve only got Outdoor 1 training, which means I can cook, but I’m not allowed to light a fire on my own without supervision.  So while our Outdoor 2 person watched, I somehow miraculously got the fire going quickly this time and we had hot coals ready very soon after.  We made kabobs with the girls and I am amazed at how smoothly it all went.  And once everyone finished cleaning up and left, I went and collapsed on the couch for a few hours because I was DEAD TIRED.

Anyway, the camping trip is in two weeks. Be prepared for an interruption in the comic then. I’ll try to have one done ahead of time, but I’ve got a lot to do between now and the trip, including more cooking practice (which I can do on my own so long as the troop isn’t around). If you’re interested in how these experiments go, follow me on Twitter or on Facebook. I’ll be posting the results of these experiments there. Even the ones that go up in flames!

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I keep telling myself I’m going to take a day off soon, but it hasn’t happened yet. I spent all day yesterday working on taxes.  I spent all day Saturday in Manteo, NC, attending a Girl Scout training class on Techbridge. And I spent the entire week before that catching up on work and cleaning the house. I’ve accomplished quite a bit, but I can’t wait until I get a day off. Unfortunately, it’s looking like that won’t happen until some time in late April.

Anyhoo, I somehow managed to find time to crank out today’s comic. Sorry about the spottiness of the background color on this one. I thought I had covered it pretty well, but once I got it into the computer, I saw I had not done so at all! I’ll work on fixing that in future eps. For now though, enjoy!