October? Already?

It's cold and grey out, must be Fall. We were actually up near the 90s and sunny last week, which was nice, but now things are as they should be, which in turn means I'm sitting under a blanket, feeling under the weather and wishing I was somewhere warm and sunny.

Two months from now, we'll most likely be buried under snow.

Along with the gloomy weather comes the new TV season, so it's not all gloom lately. There aren't many new shows that have grabbed me this year, but I'm really happy with the ones that have. Most people seem iffy on it, but I'm liking the new Bionic Woman and Reaper is pretty cool so far. Chuck is much better than I expected, I'm really enjoying that. Easily my favorite of the new shows is Pushing Daisies. It was created by Bryan Fuller, who was one of the creators of Wonderfalls (an all time favorite of mine), so there's that same quirkiness to it, but with more of a fantasy feel. Here's to hoping it gets more of a chance to thrive than Wonderfalls did and maybe it can even help fill the void left by the recently departed Veronica Mars.

Both animated shorts are still chugging along. I was worried about what I'd do about music for The Girl and the Ghost since the start of the project. A couple weeks ago, Larry suggested I get in touch with an old friend of his about music, so I did. A few emails later, he sent me a sample and I'was blown away. I'm ecstatic to announce Mike Wilkinson is officially doing the music for The Girl and the Ghost.

It's a nice step forward for a project that feels like it's moving so slowly. I'm sure the pace will pick up once the rest of the voice work is finished.

I needed a change of scenery so to speak, so for the last couple weeks, I've had my attention fully focused on The Greatest Fan Film of All Time. I'm trying a bit of a different animation technique at the moment and I'm loving it so far. It's surprisingly strange to be animating these characters again. It's been almost a year and a half since I finished Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face and now I'm back in that world again.

Dad pointed out the other day that when these two projects are finished, their combined length will most likely be more than every one of my previous projects combined. That's a bit of a freak out.

Well, I'm cold. I think I'll go throw a log on the fire. First I need to find a house with a fireplace and residents who won't be alarmed by a strange man in a wheelchair wielding a log outside their door.

Niagara Falls 2005: Day III

We woke up a bit later, since we were so exhausted from Day Two. Again, Mom was awake before Kris and I. She had the camera ready as the day began with what she says was a pretty intense thunderstorm. I slept through the whole thing. She was amazed that they kept the Maid of the Mist going with all of the lightning.

By the time I was up and ready to go, the skies were perfectly clear and you never would've guessed it had rained.

We decided to head for the Maid of the Mist. Kris led us on a "shorter route" which actually turned out to be the long road, but it was scenic. As we walked, we came upon a motel I was pretty sure they used in the first episode of Wonderfalls, so I had to take a picture in front of it. (When we returned home, I checked my Wonderfalls DVD and it was the wrong motel. Oh well.)

Before long, we found ourselves walking down Clifton Hill. I was a bit shocked when I realized it's even steeper than Murray Street. I took my time so I didn't plow through a bunch of tourist, didn't want to scuff my new chair!

Finally at the base of the hill, we neared the Maid of the Mist. After a short elevator ride and many ramps going downward, we donned our stylish ponchos and we were ready to board.

I look like something out of a Missy Elliott video

It's a funny thing, overall, the newness was gone from most of the things we did on last year's trip, but the Maid of the Mist lost none of its magic. It's such a rush getting so close to such a massive natural wonder, you can really feel the power of the Falls.

The Brothers Smurf

There was one thing I could have planned better though. It turns out that the spot I chose to park my chair was directly under the edge of the second level of the boat, so as we pulled away from the Falls, a bunch of water poured down from the upper level onto me. There were puddles forming on my poncho.

We went to the gift shop (got a t-shirt and a little Canadian flag for myself and a t-shirt for Dad), stopped to eat at the little cafeteria area we ate at last year, then we checked out a couple places at the bottom of Clifton Hill. We made a quick pass through the WWE shop and then went into the MGM store. Next, we went into the Marvel building. It really is a cool place with lots of cool stuff, but it baffles me that they don't have any adult sized t-shirts or anything. What's the deal with that?

Chillin' with Spidey again


Me between the Infinity Gauntlet and Thor's hammer, Mjolnir


Me with Dr Doom's mask


Outside the Rainforest Cafe

Next, we stayed on the walkway along the river, heading back towards the top of the Falls so we could go on the Journey Behind the Falls. Another elevator ride down and we were wandering in the tunnels behind Niagara Falls. It was pretty amusing watching Kris, who's 6'8", walk down this tunnel with only about an inch between his head and the ceiling. It's crazy to watch the Falls from behind. The combined sights of massive amounts of water pouring down as huge clouds of mist shoot upwards is tumultuous and incredible.

Under the Falls


Behind the Falls


The tunnel

From there, we stopped in the gift shop and I bought a postcard to send to my good friend, Linda. Then I headed back outside to the top of the Falls for another dose of mist before heading back to our room.

At approximately 7:30 PM, we all lost it. Without warning and without reason, the three of us completely lost it and began laughing uncontrollably. Maybe it was the negative ions, maybe it was us being in vacation mode, or maybe we were just delirious. I'm leaning towards the latter. We laughed so hard at absolutely nothing that we had tears in our eyes. When we eventually regained our composure, it was time to eat again.

This time we went across the street to Tony Roma's. I'm happy to say it was the best and cheapest of the nice places we ate at, though it was still a bit pricey. And I've just got to say, damn...that Romarita I had was excellent.

Finally, on our last night in Niagara Falls, we went to the casino one last time.

Within the first ten minutes on the quarter slots, I hit for $30. I had a good vibe, baby. At the end of the night, I had played with about $50 and won roughly $80. I'd say it was a good night.

I was craving some ice cream, cause, y'know, gambling makes you crave some ice cream. We searched a bit, but anywhere that might have ice cream was already closed for the night. So we tiredly marched back to the hotel.
I wrote out the postcard for Linda while looking at the Falls from our room and then hit the sack to rest up for the drive home in the morning.