Summer

So it's been... a whole season since I last updated here. I am clearly a terrible blogger, but I've been fairly busy and haven't felt a need to update lately (regular comic updates and constantly spewing nonsense on Twitter have me pretty tapped out, Internet-wise). Summer managed to blast by even quicker than usual, but it was a pretty good one overall. And just for the hell of it, here are 25,000 words' worth of pictures that pretty well sum it up.

Maya

If you know me, you probably know Maya. She was my dog. My little sister. She joined my family when I was 13, a very impulsive decision on our part. We happened upon a new litter of puppies while having a day out at the lake and fell in love with her instantly - she introduced herself by attacking my dad's shoelaces, and that was it. She was not for sale. I am not ashamed to say I pleaded dramatically, and with very little dignity, until I convinced the breeders to change their minds. From that moment on, it was the four of us.

She brought more love into our lives than I can really describe. She was sweet, loving, bossy, and feisty. She always lit up the room. She was perfect. We loved her totally. She made us better people, and a stronger family.

About two months ago, I discovered a small growth underneath Maya's chin. Soon after, she went in to the vet for tests. Eventually they confirmed that Maya had developed Lymphoma. There was nothing they could do. She was prescribed some medicine to help stop the pain and to give her a little more time.

Early yesterday morning, it stopped working.

Just before 3:00 yesterday afternoon, Maya was euthanized. We said our goodbyes, held her, kissed her, and helped comfort her as much as we could. Feisty as ever, she put up a little fight when her catheter was adjusted. But after that, she lied down for the last time, each of us holding her, and went peacefully.

We haven't stopped crying for long since. I'm trying to hold it together and I'm mostly failing. It's damn hard - I knew it would be, but it's somehow even harder than I could have foreseen. But I keep reminding myself that the only reason it hurts so much is because she made us so happy for so long.

She lived 15 years. They were good ones. She had some health issues earlier in her life, and she bounced back from all of them. She took care of us, and we took care of her. The last thing we did was take care of her.

I'll love her and miss her forever. She made my life better, and I can never thank her enough for that.

Video: An Invocation for Beginnings

Randomly ran across a video today that's been bouncing around the Internet for a month or so. I'm late to the party, but whatever - it's pretty great. A lot of important truths here.



Damn well said, I think.

Photos: Logan at the Park

For the sake of a quick update, here are some recent photos of my best buddy Logan at his favourite place: the park down the street. It's getting downright summery out there, and the nicer it gets, the more often he asks to go for walks - which usually means the two of us running around the park like maniacs for a while.









More updates as soon as I have time! Life's good, though. Hope all is well with you too, Internet Friends!

Sushi (Avocado/Cucumber Rolls)

It's been a while since I've done one of these. Like last time, I've been holding onto the pictures for weeks now, but I've been busy with other things and couldn't justify sitting down long enough to write up the post to go with them. I find myself with a little extra time this morning, so here we go.

Earlier this month, my girlfriend and I had a little date night in, and decided to try our hands and making sushi. One of our first dates was going out for sushi (which she'd never had before), and that triggered a bit of an addiction, so making our own seemed like a great idea. Nothing particularly challenging -- I made cucumber/avocado rolls and I believe she made ones with salmon. But it was also something I'd never tried before, and didn't know what to expect.

First up, we cooked the rice. Simple enough. After it was done, we added rice vinegar and put it in the fridge for a while to cool down.

As the rice cooled, I got to work cutting my vegetables into roll-able strips and preparing the Nori sheets.

Once the rice was ready, I spread it evenly...ish across the Nori, then made a line of cucumber and avocado near the end. This one didn't turn out as well as future attempts - I was being a bit too cautious, I think?

I neglected to add sesame seeds to this batch, but y'know, that's a good idea too.

Next up, I carefully rolled from the edge with the vegetables, "sealing" the end with the rice. Then I just had to chop them up into smaller pieces and they were ready to eat.

And that's that! Easy and delicious.

We've been doing this pretty regularly since, and have gotten a bit better at it. Keep in mind these rolls are about as easy as it gets, but for a first attempt I think I did pretty well here. If you like sushi, these are pretty simple to do, so there's no reason not to try.

(Next time perhaps I'll try making rolls with the rice on the outside!?)

Tumbl On

Just a quick note today:

Because I feel the need to join every social networking site in existence for some reason, I've signed on with Tumblr recently. It's in no way replacing this blog - I'll mainly be using it to post new and old comics and sketches, as well as follow and share stuff from the comics/art community there.

So if you tumbl, tumbl on over to http://bryesque.tumblr.com!

Brysketch: Logan

Annnd just a quick one before bed, this time of my best buddy in the universe, Logan:



(Okay, really quick one, but whatever, just for fun!)