I ate an OSTRICH BURGER for dinner. Seriously. With caramelized onions and feta cheese, on a ciabatta bun. I forgot to take a picture (sorry).

We saw Tim & Eric Awesome Tour. It was very entertaining. It's one thing for them to dress up in skintight outfits and act like asses on youtube or whatever, and it's quite another thing to see them do it in front of 300 people! The venue made it a bit hard to see (really low stage + tall people in front), but it was good overall.

Oddly enough, we observed that it was the same types of people at Tim & Eric as we would ordinarily see at an indie comics-type show, like MoCCA or this weekend's Stumptown (note: we won't be there). Hip nerds and nerdy hipsters. Someone even recognized me and said something about Scott Pilgrim, or else I was hallucinating.

Edgar is in Toronto right now. If you see him, say hello. Maintain a respectful distance. Holster all firearms. What is he doing there? I have no idea! I can't be there because I'm immigrating and if I leave the U.S. right now they'd never let me back in.

I also bought a bicycle last night. It was only 300 bucks, and it's the nicest bike I've ever owned. (Actually, that's not strictly true... I had this awesome neon-orange mountain bike in high school. I think my brother took it out and got it stolen while I was in California in 2001. It was the purple replacement bike my parents picked up that was the only crappy bike I've ever owned, I guess.) I am looking forward to riding it everywhere!

Here are some photos.

Here is a transcript of my "spotlight" panel (thanks Doug and Kiel and everyone who came). Note: it was not really depressing - it was supposed to be funny.

Food diary:

Day 1, Thursday, Lunch: After 12 hours of travel it was only 11 AM, so we went to Sears Fine Food on Powell street in San Francisco. I ate 18 tiny pancakes with bacon and coffee. I feel okay about that.

Day 1, Thursday, Dinner: a veggie burrito at a Del Taco on Market St. I, uh, yeah. I don't know. I was wandering around by myself (Hope was visiting with a friend) and I was tired and not that hungry, and it's hard to get "good" Mexican food where we live. This was remedied the next day, thankfully.

Day 2, Friday, Lunch: a very nice savoury crepe with potatoes and salad. Crepevine, in the Castro, on Church street I think. Jen Wang lives nearby and we ate with her, Vera Brosgol and Dylan Meconis.


Day 2, Friday, After Lunch: I got some home-made ice cream from a nearby place. Cookies and cream. It was good.

Day 2, Friday, Late Afternoon: A dessert crepe this time, from Sophie's Crepes in Japantown Center. I used to always want one, but was poor. This time I could afford it! I got a crepe with Nutella and kiwi, and a ton of whipped cream. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Day 2, Friday, Dinner: After our signing, Graeme McMillan's lovely wife (Kate?) recommended an area with lots of taquerias, and we went there and had a wonderfully bloated time. My dinner plate took twenty minutes longer than anyone else's food and was about four times the size. I was very pleased.

Day 3, Saturday, Lunch: Graeme McMillan and his lovely wife offered to get us burgers, onion rings and garlic fries from a certain heavenly place they knew nearby. I had a seared tuna sandwich that was one of the greatest things I've ever eaten. I'm sure I reeked of garlic the rest of the day and I'm sure I didn't care.

Day 3, Saturday, Dinner: Hope and I went back to Japantown with James and Randy from Oni Press and ate the most amazing sushi I've ever had. As I said in my panel the next day, I truly realize that I've never had "good" sushi until this dinner. What I had in particular was a salmon skin roll, a toro & green onion roll (toromachi?), and an eel/avocado roll - this one was kind of fancy and had a special name (edit: caterpillar roll). For round two I got some toro nigiri (this was to die for) and also split some spicy tuna roll with James, which was also to die for.


Day 4, Sunday, Daytime: There wasn't really a meal. I bought snacks in the morning because I was worried about that, so I spent the day eating Combos and Pepperidge Farms cookies. Thankfully our friend Jenne also brought some excellent pastries from the bakery where she works, in the north bay.

Day 4, Sunday, Dinner: We capped off the trip in style with a trip up to the aforementioned north bay with the aforementioned Jenne and her mate George, and we had a totally sweet Italian meal where we were all trying each other's stuff, downing a carafe of local wine, and sharing three desserts. Hope had gnocchi that were like little puffs of air. I had this rolled chicken-mozzarella-prosciutto thing that was ridiculously great.

Who's going to APE next week, in San Francisco?

I am!

I've never been.

(To APE. I've been to San Francisco, although not since... 2001?)

I am involved with two panels on Sunday (the 22nd of April): "Graphic Novels Now" at 12:30, and a "spotlight" on "me" at 3:45. (that seems like it's pretty late.) Hope has a spotlight panel at 2:45 the same day.

For my spotlight thing, I'll have Douglas Sherwood on stage to help me chat about stuff (he's that hot young editor at Oni Press), and I'm going to try to put together a short preview / reading from the new book. Probably the same stuff I did in North York in February, plus more. And a Q&A session. Are those ever any good?

Are any of my friends going? Or... or any of my... fans?

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While in San Francisco we also have a signing at Comix Experience:



Friday, April 20th
5-7 PM
305 Divisadero St
415-863-9258

Kevin Huizenga, Gene Yang, Hope Larson and myself.

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In other news, today I baked bread, from scratch, for the first time in my life. It was very exciting. So exciting that I forgot to take a picture before eating approximately 2/3rds of the loaf. *sigh* It was from my new favourite book, Baking Illustrated.

The Sapporo Ichiban instant Yaki Soba noodles () are so good. The seasoning is kind of vinegary / worcestershirey. They come with the little package of seaweed flakes. And I remember eating them before. It feels like there was a time in my life when I ate these frequently. But I can't remember when it was! I thought I just picked it off the shelf at random the other day, but then I started having weird memories. I'm so out of touch with my mind!!!

Anyway, I want to learn how to make actual, non-instant, vegetarian Yaki Soba for Hope, so if anybody has experience with this, please enlighten me.

Also, Stacey has my digital camera!!! Grr!!!

Canned tuna (chunk white albacore in water) with plain white rice (calrose) is so good, I want to extoll its virtues. I want to create a fansite for tuna with rice. It also creates a treat for the cat, who loves the water that comes with the tuna. It tastes so good! And its fat content is negligible! And... that's about all I know about it! But I would totally read a book on the subject if there was one.

I hereby renounce tuna salad sandwiches, which are gross and fattening.