Warewolves, Vampires & Six-Foot Tall Rabbits

It's been almost a month since I made my last post, and wouldn't you know that another holiday is upon us. Growing up I always used to really like Easter, though I remember never having the desire to see the Easter Bunny quite like I did to see Santa Claus. For some odd reason the thought of a large magical rabbit seemed more frightening to me than a jolly old fat man, even though both were delivering presents. It's even more odd to me to think of being scared of the Easter Bunny, considering that I was a Disneyland child who loved (to my recollection) going and seeing the characters.

I still remember my brothers and I dying the Eggs, something that I still enjoy doing and look forward to teaching to my own children soemday. Always the artist it wasn't enough for me to dye eggs the standard colors that came in the kit, I always felt the need to try and color the eggs in shades that I personally preferred. I would try and experiment with the crayon that came in the kit to create teal and earth-tone eggs because I thought it was pretty awesome that I could mix and match to create those colors. If I were possible I probably would've tried to create a black egg... doesn't that sound appealing?

Sadly, this year it feels like Easter completely snuck up on us. We didn't even start thinking about it until last weekend, and even after that we forgot about it on and off. No egg dying this year, no stuffed rabbits invading the house, nothing. Mrs. Nutz and I determined that we will have to get better about that when we have a family of little Nutz running around.

Last Monday night we decided to do a family activity, baking cookies. We'd both been craving chocolate chip cookies, and decided that it would be a fun thing to do together. I gathered the ingredients for Mrs. Nutz while she carefully placed them into the Kitchenaid and delicately added the flour to keep from covering the kitchen in a fine mist of fluffy whiteness. Because we doubled the batch, it soon became too thick for the mixer to do it's job, at which point my wife batted her eyes and asked that I saddle up to the bowl with a wooden spoon and start mixing.

I was a little less careful about my mixing strategy, allowing flour to escape from the bowl on more than one occasion. At one point in my vigourous attempt to mix the dough, I even broke one of our wooden spoons. Mrs. Nutz laughed in disbelief at that one. Finally after moving the bowl from one side of the sink to the other, Mrs. Nutz took over and demanded that I clean up the mess that I had made. I told her I was giving her practice, allowing her to see what it would be like baking with a child. She didn't argue that point with me...

That evening we finally got around to renting Disney's Bolt. I had wanted to see this movie, as I'd known quite a bit of the production behind the feature, and I'd heard some great things about it. We'd had several options to watch it on the Cruise ship, but circumstances had made us not able to do so. I have to say that of the big 3 animated films from last year (Bolt, Wall-E, and Kung Fu Panda) I thought this was by far the best of them. It was especially fun to watch with Iola laying on us in the couch, obviously jealous that we were paying so much attention to a dog that was not her.

Not this last Friday, but the week prior, we were determined to finally watch the movie adaptation of Twilight. We had been trying to find it in RedBox for the past while, and were never able. Having read the books, I was initially hesitant to see the movie, but friends and family kept telling me that they had done a great job with it, so I had developed a desire to see it. My more senisible better half had not caught the fever yet, and I figured she would eventually get to the books, but I knew that she would want to see the movie before she would be willing to crack open the novel. We had stopped at Walmart to check their redbox, and do some light shopping (I swear if we leave that store and haven't spent $100 we consider that a good errand.) While there I noticed that they were selling the single disc version of the movie for a reasonable price, so I convinced Mrs. Nutz that we should buy it anyway, and then we could always sell it off if we didn't like it.

We watched the movie Friday night, then again Saturday night. Sunday Mrs. Nutz watched the movie, then started reading the book that night. Monday night we made cookies and watched Bolt, then read in the books (I thought that reading with her would be fun, so I grabbed the second book in the series and figured I would keep a step ahead of her.) for a while. Tuesday she wasn't feeling that good, so she stayed home while I went to work and school. When I got home I found out that she was a little over half-way in the book, and had watched the movie a couple more times. Wednesday she watched the movie while I did my homework, and I'm assuming that she watched the movie again Thursday night.

By Friday we had both finished our books, so I thought it would be fun when we got back from our errands to have a quiet evening reading. During our errands we went to the store and bought Twilight themed candy hearts, and both the movie soundtrack, and the movie score. That night we read from 7 pm until 2:30 am. The next morning I got up late and went downstairs where my wife had been since Iola woke her at 9, and she was reading again. Since we had borrowed the books, I reasoned that we should go and buy copies of the last two books so that I could continue reading and still not hinder her progress. We went to the store yesterday and bought the last two books, came home and watched the movie AGAIN while we ate, then stayed up until 1 again reading the books. She's nearing the halfway mark in the 3rd tome, and I am just breaking the surface of the final novel. As I type this, she's in the other room reading.

I remember when I read through the books the first time thinking that she would like them as well, but figuring that she would in no way become as fixated on them as I had... I'm happy to say that I grossly underestimated the power of those books!

Well, I think that catches us up on the events of our recent weeks. My artwork for the Disney World trip recap is coming slower than I would like, but that's the rub when life (and apparently Twilight) intervenes. I'm still planning on it though, better late than never.

Happy Easter everyone!

Deflated Mouse: Happy St. Paddy's to You!

When we first got married and were living in an apartment, I would love to sped our Saturdays getting up a little bit later, maybe run an errand or two, do some light cleaning in the home, and overall spend the day relaxing. Now that I'm a home owner and have responsibilities, I prefer to spend Saturdays in springtime working in the yard; at least that's what my wife tells me. I admit it, I am at heart a lazy person. After a long week of work I would love to take the day off and lounge around on the couch with the TV and possibly a sketch book. This is not the case with Mrs. Nutz, who I often feel would be the best spokesperson for the Energizer corporation.

This past Saturday really was the first weekend that it really felt like springtime, and it was beautiful outside. Thanks to events throughout the week, we got to enjoy the whole day! It actually started Friday morning on our way to work. Mr. Nutz and I noticed a peculiar sound as we were getting on the ramp to go to work. At first we thought that it was something we drove over and were dragging along the ground, though Mrs. Nutz soon thought that it could be a belt. As we built up speed on the freeway the sound went away and we didn't give it any further thought until we got off the freeway by our work and started hearing it again. Mrs. Nutz pulled off the side of the road and had me check to see if it was the muffler dragging, and to our dismay we discovered that it was a completely flat tire. We were very fortunate to make the 45 minute drive all the way south without damaging the rim. This was also our first reminder that Friday was the 13th.

Saturday morning we got up early so that we could take the car to our local Les Schwab and get a new tire, at which point we dropped off the car and plowed through our list of errands. About 3 hours later we completed our marathon of shopping and returned to fetch the car, then made our way back home. We got back with enough time to do some mild yard work (with the heavy stuff coming this Saturday) and decided that it was time to finally finish taking down the Christmas decorations that had previously been covered under a foot of snow.

It wasn't until I was rolling up the large deflated Mickey that I realized how long it had been since I was able to get to this blog. I have really wanted to update this since we got back from the trip, and to my loyal readers I had promised a detailed listing (actually a 3 part tome) of our vacation, but time just isn't in our favor. The biggest hurdle is that there are some images that I want to create for those posts, and it's just going to have to wait until that time.

Then there was another issue: I had been so excited about getting to this blog when I got back, because I would finally be allowed to tell anyone following this that we were officially going to add another Nutz to the family tree. Mrs. Nutz and I had been trying to start a family for the better part of a year, and we were finally able to get pregnant; but unfortunately during our 8th week, we lost the baby, and became one of the 25% of first pregnancies that end this way. When this happened we were devistated, but now we have been able to move on and have set our sights ahead to try again. Mrs. Nutz was actually getting excited that I would be able to use this blog as a means of keeping a record of her pregnancy. I guess this means that I still have time to practice updating this blog in the meantime.

Saturday night we finally decided to relax and watch a movie, then proceeded to go through our backlog of TV shows recorded during the last couple of weeks. With life intervening, we hadn't been able to keep current with our CSI, CSI: Miami, and CSI: NY, so now was a good time to go through our episodes. It finally was about 2:30 am when we finally decided we had enough and went to bed. Our loving dog Iola, who spends most of the day sleeping on the floor, was most excited that we were going to finally go to bed as she was exhausted from all the sleeping that she did that day.

The next morning Iola decided that she was ready to get up and have breakfast around 8:00, so she started nosing Mrs. Nutz in the arm and was repeatedly shooed away. Not one to become discouraged when food is involved, she decided to leap onto the bed and proceeded to lick me all over the back of the head. Thrilled as I was to be roused in such a way, I curtly sent the dog outside and got her food ready. The sound of me getting into the food/treat cupboard apparently has the same affect to our cat Emma, as winding the key on a toy has. Suddenly she was awake and bouncing off the walls literally. We woundn't mind so much if it weren't for the mischevious streak that accompanies this energy burst.

The saddest part of all is that despite the amount of energy she possesses, Emma only lets us see it. If we have any company over, she will be a perfect little angel. Our families only hear the stories, but seldom get to see the wild side of that cat.

Well I'm sure that I've rambled on for long enough. It feels good to add another entry to this blog though. I think that this marks the first entry that I've done on an actual holiday, though because we don't drink, and neither of us are Irish, it doesn't mean very much to us except that we wear green so that no one feels the need to pinch us.

Anyway, Happy St. Patricks Day everyone! Here's praying that I manage to get another entry added before Easter!

M - I - C, See you real soon!!

I presume that this will be a rather short post. Time has not been our friends as of late, and with a definate deadline things just always seem to get pushed back as far as possible. Another school semester has started, and combined with work and personal life, things just get too busy for words. Fortunately the big deadline I wrote of is un upcoming vacation, and it feels like it's long overdue.

The Nutz clan is taking a major vacation to the great state of Florida, where we will play to our hearts content alongside Mickey and the gang at Walt Disney World resort. Those readers who know me personally know that my passion for all things Disney probably would be better qualified as an obsession. I developed a love for the Mouse house as a very young child, and today it easily embodies at least 25% of my daily thoughts. Mrs. Nutz would no doubt argue that the percentage is higher, but that's my story and I'm sticking with it!

On top of our 7 days at Disney World, we will also be taking a voyage on the Disney Wonder, which is one of their cruise ships to the Bahamas. This will personally mark my first venture outside of the United States, and I can't think of a better way to have that first experience. We are getting our stuff together, as we will be leaving in a matter of days, but I knew that if I didn't update this blog tonight, it would never get done.

After we return, I will allow the Disneyphile in me to take control for at least a couple of longer entries, and I hope that it won't be too boring for those readers who are not as fond of the mouse as I am.

Until then, there should be some HUGE posts coming when I get back. There is much to write about, so please hang on.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas and all Round the House, Not a Creature was Stirring, 'cept One Big A** Mouse!

It seems like just the other day my sister in law was asking me if I was going to update my blog anytime soon. I told her that I really wanted to get one done for the upcoming holiday, especially since I had already missed the previous one. The problem is: the holiday I was referring to was Thanksgiving. How the time flies!

A lot has happened since I last updated this blog. We've had two major holidays, elected the first African-American president, and my oldest brother (Big Nutz) and his wife (Lady Nutz) just gave birth to a bouncing baby boy (Little Nutz.) The whole Nutz clan has been very excited for this occasion, and I'm very happy to report that everything went great. Little Nutz is now home with his parents and big sister (a loveable ball of energy I'm choosing to call Lotta Nutz.)

I'm currently writing this on the evening of Dec 23, and I'm anxiously anticipating tomorrow, which is possibly my favorite day of the year. I have loved Christmas Eve for as long as I can remember. Every year we go to my Grandparents (on my mothers side, so they are not Nutz I'm afraid,) and enjoy an evening of dinner and merryment with all the cousins.

Growing up there was the adults table in the dining room, while us kids were reserved a smaller table in the kitchen. My older brothers would share stories with the older cousins about their high jinks during the course of the year, which usually resulting in the younger cousins lauging until our sides hurt. Every year we would use red and green plastic cups that my grandparents had bought, and at the end of the meal they would wash the cups and put them back into the cupboard until the next Christmas.

After dinner, the adults would go to the family room and visit while us kids would go downstairs into the basement to play pool. Grandpa and Grandma would always tell us not to look around down there, as they would have the family Christmas presents down there all around the room. They were already wrapped, put in boxes separated by family, and covered with sheets, but it was still fun to pretend that we didn't see them.

Pool was always interesting at their house. The ceilings are short and there's cabinets that are within close proximity to the table, so much that you would usually have to open the doors to aim at the ball from that angle (or use the short stick affectionately referred to as "stumpy.") My grandparents basement has older carpet in it that conducts static electrticity at an alarming rate. I'm convinced that you could power a small city just by walking around in that room. We soon discoverd that the metal pool cues we played with made great lightning rods, and before too long the game would take a shocking turn.

Before too long, the adults would call us kids to come upstairs so that we could do the gift exchange. We'd all try to race out of the basement first, knowing that the last person up would have to shut off the lights, usually getting an arc of electricity that would knock a moose off it's feet. Upstairs we would exchange our gifts, then Grandpa would let talk for a few minutes to tell the family how greatful they were for us. Visiting would commence for a little longer, and then we would get ready to leave for the night.

As we were going home, my parents would drive through the neighborhood to see all the Christmas lights that the neighbors had put up. Grandpas always raved about a couple of his neighbors that put on an impressive display, usually the result of one-upsmanship, and we were the beneficiaries. Then we would drive home, with my parents encouraging us to look out the window for Santa. I would swear that I could see Rudolphs nose as we were driving, but I know now that I was seeing a reflection.

When we got home, my parents made us wait at the landing while my Dad poked his head over the railing to make sure that Santa hadn't come yet. When it was safe, we would go to bed and try to fall asleep, anticipating the following morning.

Things have changed a little over the years. We still go to my grandparents house for Christmas Eve, but now that the kids are mostly married (and a few even have kids of their own) the adults table has grown. Now we have two large tables and all of is visit together. The games of pool have all but disappeared, though the table is still there. Now when we go downstairs, we don't close our eyes and try not to look at the presents, but rather we bring the boxes up for my grandpa, who is now in his ninties. Perhaps the most noticable change though, is that my Grandma isn't there anymore. She passed away a couple of years ago, but there still is a part of her when we gather together for the holidays.

I still love to drive through "the meadow" to look at the Christmas lights after we're done, a tradition that my lovely wife has enjoyed as well.

When I was younger, I always looked forward to the next morning. Christmas morning meant that Santa had come, and we would be leaping into a mound of presents; but now that I'm older, I realize that I look more forward to the night before. In the end, I think that memories are the real treasure, but once Mrs. Nutz and I start raising children of our own, we'll be able to start new traditions and build new memories.

We have received one Christmas present already. My other brother and his wife gave us an 8 foot tall inflatable Mickey Mouse which now graces our yard every night. Unfortunately I've never owned an inflatable rodent, and didn't realize that I had to tie him down in several places to make his stand up properly, so each night he inflates at a tilt until I get home and straighten him out.

I'll get it right for next year though.

Merry Christmas!

It was a Dark and Scary Night...

The other night, Mrs Nutz and I jumped at a chance to save some money doing some of our mandatory shopping. My Mother-in-law is a bargain shopper, and a pretty darn good one at that. Since this is the first time I've mentioned my in-laws, I would like to say that there are MANY horror stories out there about Mother-in-laws; however my wife and I were both fortunate to marry into great families. Anyway, mine is a bargain shopping whiz, and she likes to make sure that we are made aware of the deals. She informed us that our local Dan's Grocery Store was going to be having a moonlight madness sale. Basically from 8 PM to 11 PM they would have bargains on potatoes, steaks, and a few other things, plus a discount at the register. She invited us to go shopping with her, even though this store was a little out of the way for us. Considering that we just got paid, and it was time to go grocery shopping anyway, we accepted her invitation.

Somewhere back in the deep recesses of my mind, I knew that it wasn't a good idea; but I just shrugged it off. I worked in retail during the holiday season for several years, and I have very vivid memories of how crazy things were, but that was always from an employee's perspective. This was my first real experience at seeing how crazy things were from the shoppers perspective, and shoppers are INSANE!!!

The night started off for us at 7:30, when we arrived at the store and started shopping for the bargains. A rational person would think that the managers of the store would realize that this advertised sale was coming, and would try to have all the items in stock. Not this manager. One of the sale items that we were looking forward to was a 5 lb sack of potatoes for $1, and we were fortunate to get there just as the clerk was bringing them out... all 12 bags of them. I felt sorry for the clerk, it was like bringing a pizza into a weight-watchers convention. We got ours and ran before we could attract attention.

Our next shock came when we got to the Coke 2-liters. They had them stacked in plastic crates, and this one idiot was literally dumping them into his cart. At this point, I am NOT exaggerating. He was picking up an entire crate, holding them over his cart, and then dumping them. His cart was overflowing with bottles and he still kept going. As we were trying to grab a bottle or two before he could get to them, a couple of them fell to the ground and almost hit Mrs. Nutz. She gave him a nasty glare, which seemed to confuse him. I was just anxious to get away from him before one of those bottles exploded all over.

Another sale item was New York steaks for $2 per lb. My Mother-in-Law was waiting with the rest of the crowd to grab some, and the store was limiting them to 3 packages per customer. She was grabbing them off the shelf, and people were literally trying to grab them out of her hands.

By about 8:15, we'd had our fill of the whole experience, so we waited in the check-out lane that stretched all the way back to Hawaii, and told ourselves that we would never EVER again bargain shop like this. It made me shudder to think of what stores are like the day after Thanksgiving. I know that the economy sucks right now, but I'll spend the extra $30 we saved if that means that we can go grocery shopping without wearing safety gear.

Life as I Know it has Changed.

There is no turning back for me now.

When I was growing up, vampires and werewolves were nothing more than evil monsters that appeared in old black and white movies starring Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney, Jr. They were mindless monsters who caused a ruckus wherever they went, whether that be in merry-olde England, or chasing Abbot and Costello around with Frankenstein.

Dracula was always my favorite bad guy. He was the epitome of the monsters that you love to hate, and usually I would root for him to win (which still generally happens whenever I play the Castlevania video games.) There was just something awesome about him.

Now though, my entire view of vampires has been changed, and there will be no coming back for Mr. Nutz!

Recently, I decided to borrow copies of the books in the Twilight series, just to see what all the hoopla was about. I'd seen a trailer for the upcoming movie, and I thought that with a fourth novel coming out, I should really see why everyone on the Nutz side of the ol' family tree was going gaga over these books. I figured that they would be fast reads, but I never expected them to be so darn addicting. No sooner could I finish one, then I had to bury myself into the next one.

For the sake of anyone reading this blog who may not have read the books yet (like Mrs. Nutz) I won't go into any detail about the books, but man alive I can't stop thinking about how incredible I thought they really were.

About a week ago, I just finished off the fourth installment, Breaking Dawn, and already I'm going through withdrawls. While I would venture to say that I thought the series ended on a great note (indeed I think that the fourth installment is my favorite of them all) I can't believe that there are no more books about Bella and the Cullen Family. Yesterday morning, as I was getting in the shower to go to work, I even found myself wondering what it would be like to be a vampire like in the stories (sadly, the reality that vampires don't exist wasn't what pulled me out of my daydream; rather it was the realization that being said vampire would make it difficult to ever enjoy being in Disneyland again. I guess my old obsession still trumps my new one...)

On the plus side, Mrs. Nutz is thrilled that I have finished reading the books. She sees it as a plus that now I can concentrate on some more important things, like school work and helping her design product for her side business. I hope that she will soon pick up the books for herself and see why they're so engrossing, but knowing my wife as I do, I know she won't share in my obsessive enthusiasm for them. She tends to be more grounded in reality than I am, and that's why I love her.

Ironically, it was the trailer for the movie that got me interested in reading the books in the first place, and now that I have read them, I can honestly say that I think I will HATE the movie! I guess my sister-in-law is right, you really shouldn't read a book before seeing the movie.

Greetings From the Nut House.

I have a suspicion that my family and closest friends would find the name of this article to be more accurate than I would like to admit. Mrs. Nutz and I live in Utah with our dog and our cat. We've been married for almost two years now, and the animals are our only kids; so yeah, they're a little spoiled.

I'm an aspiring animator, and Mrs. Nutz is an administrative assistant. Actually we both work at the same place, and Mrs. Nutz is an assistant to our boss while I am a new peon... so now she has authority over me at work, and at home.

All kidding aside, my wife is wonderful, and with me she has to put up with a lot that makes her roll her eyes (such as this blog,) which she does with quite a bit of grace.

I admit that this is my first venture into the world of blogging, but I think that this will be a fun way for me to keep in touch with family and friends, as well as give my opinions and thoughts about random crap, and post drawings and possibly a web comic. My personal life tends to revolve around movies and all things Disney, so I'm sure that those things will be mentioned too. All in all, I just plan to have fun with this, and I hope that anyone who reads it, whether they be family and friends, or someone who stumbled along to it while googleing something crazy (like yack-butter and goat cheese flavored Pringles, or something silly like that.) will enjoy it for what it is.

So why make my webID a squirrel? Once a few years ago, I was doodling in my sketchbook, and I drew this picture of a goofy looking squirrel holdinga sign that asked "have you seen my nuts?" and I fell in love with that drawing immediately. My wife and I were dating at the time, and even she liked it, despite the innuendo joke. She liked it enough to let me cut it out in vinyl and put it on the window of HER car, and it still sits there to this day. In fact, my wife has a side-business selling vinyl home-decor, and I plan to start selling a line of vehicle decals that I create, and this squirrel will be one of them.

I guess that's all for my first post. I hope to add an update here soon, but first I should probably publish this one and welcome the world to my blog.