October 10, 2004
A great day and a half in the north country. Deena, Kathy and I got up to Flag at two yesterday. Checked into the Quality Inn, just off I-40 and behind NAU ($80 for two twins). Nice and cool out. Went bike riding over onto the NAU campus with Tomcat (he has two bikes and stashes one on campus for the off chance that he'll meet someone and "go riding"). We came back across campus at about 4:30 and got to stop and check out a "Quadfest" where they were playing volleyball, with the usual tents and vendors and the obligatory punk band. Looked like high school kids, but they were quite good and we checked out the drummer who was way good. Depressing to see someone who I could have fathered when I was 40, and who is already twice as good a drummer as I will ever be.

Put up Tom's new Strokes poster in his apartment. Looks really solid and it fills out the room to reflect more of his style. Tomcat told about girls coming to his apartment and seeing the motif of all the other BBB artwork (which we brought up a month ago) and they all say, "Oh, are you into the Old West, Thomas?"

This really excited his publisher father: "The girls you bring here really like the cowboy stuff?"

T. Bell:"Oh yeh. It’s a total turnon."

Thrilled father: "Really?"

Bastard son:"No."

Last night we met Tom, his roommate Ryan and his girlfriend Jessica, who's visiting from New York, plus Jake at The Beaver Street Brewery but there was a one hour wait, so we walked across Beaver Street to Altitudes for dinner. The bar-restaurant is right next to the railroad tracks and the house rule is every time a train rolls through you get a shot of tequila for two bucks. Kathy and I bought drinks and dinner for the starving college kids and we ran up quite a bill ($125 cash) but it was fun to talk and listen to them. Lots of laughs.

This morning we met at Martan's for breakfast. Place packed on a cool northwoods morning. Fall is definitely in the air and the leaves are changing which puts a nice look on everything. We all had huevos rancheros and coffee ($40 cash, includes tip).

The kids wanted to go shopping so we ended up at Buffalo Exchange where I bought a ball and chain ($20 cash) for art reference. It was actually a bowling ball with a leg chain attached, but I'll use it for sure with my many jail illustration needs.

The Phoenix Suns were in town and T-Bell and Jake saw them at a local coffee shop. Marbury and Stoudenire came rolling up in a Cadillac Escalante. Later several "rookies" showed up in a Ford Expedition and the vets didn’t even acknowledge them, much to the enjoyment of Tomcat and Jake.

Speaking of great, bigtime posters, here's the big Spanish rodeo posters we hung a week ago in our house. That's Len and Scott from Creative framing in the bottom photo, just finishing up the framing. Quite nice, eh?

"Schizophrenia beats dining alone."
—Old Vaquero Sayingg