Brand New Day — Brand New Look

For those of you who might still be feeling New Year’s Eve, yeah, this is Earful of Cider—I decided to freshen the place up a little.

After two and a half years, I just wasn’t feeling the Greyzed barbwire grunge thing any more.   Though I think I’ll keep my Avatar—I’m still partial to my playing card.

This theme is called Bold Life—I’m hoping it’ll work as a sort of foreshadowing for the rest of the year.

To that end, I have a couple plans that I’ve been putting into place the last couple of weeks.

I have a budget in place and have taken a pledge to use only my debit card except at the gas station.

I’ve also made up a list of steps I’m taking to improve my general health—my weekday curfew was the first and that’s gone pretty well so far.  Regularizing my treadmill usage is next—to that end, the first thing I did this morning * was take a walk.  For now, every other day seems like a possible minimal goal.**

I’m planning on spending more time with the kids doing non-electronic stuff, too.  We started this weekend, with a small, local comic book convention.  The kids weren’t sure they wanted to go, but they ended up wanted to stay.  And, I might add, shatter my budget into oblivion.  Can’t say I blame them—I had to leave a whole box of Tank Girl behind, which was tough enough without finding a motherload of Maxx the next row over.^

We also started what could become a new family hobby, courtesy of Lyra, who is smart enough to use pre-colored baking clay instead of white clay and acrylic paint,  so she doesn’t have to scrub purple streaks out of her kids’ new pants.

But we all had a good time anyway, and I ended up with a little dragon*** named Grinkie, whose color scheme was the only option or full coverage of the beastie. Still, she has a kind of amateur middle-school fingerprinted rustic charm:

     

The writing goes without saying, though I’m planning to put some of the lessons I learned from Pigeon to use on the next project.  I’m keeping a Project Bible for one thing, and making chapter goals for another.  I’m trying something new in the way of genre, as well—we’ll see if it’s just a palate-cleanser or something good.  Either way, my imagination is sparking—so many possibilities!

So . . . What do you think of the new theme?  And how late did your day start?

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* Okay, the third thing, because I can’t tolerate more than five minutes of awake time without brushing my teeth—and the first thing I did should go, forgive the pun, without saying.

**Note to self:  budget socks.  And a heavier sweatshirt hoodie—the garage is flippin’ freezing.

***Not a camel, an alligator, an afghan hound, or a dinosaur, which should have been obvious before her horns went on.  I’m just saying.

^Yes, I discovered comics in the early ’90s.  Why do you ask?

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