ship | February 14, 2007 09:20 AM

this is the best kind of valentine's day gift, from the heart

John Scalzi | February 14, 2007 09:23 AM

And made with crayons!

Chang, father of pangolins | February 14, 2007 09:30 AM

Aww, that's sweet. Did she make you anything? Besides Athena?

Congrats HEather! marriage is wonderful! Vegas is awesome!

Steve Buchheit | February 14, 2007 09:34 AM

Crayons make everything better.

Was too busy with the snow to finish writing my wife's card. Need to accomplish that before going home.

Dan | February 14, 2007 09:35 AM

That just cracks me up.

When you were drawing this, you had your tongue sticking out of the corner of your mouth, didn't you?

Wickedpinto | February 14, 2007 09:38 AM

why isn't there any bacon on the cat?

John Scalzi | February 14, 2007 09:52 AM

You know, you don't have to ask about bacon every time there's a cat on the site.

Chang, father of pangolins | February 14, 2007 10:09 AM

Where there are cats on the Whatever... there must be Bacon.

It is the way.

Nathan | February 14, 2007 10:15 AM

I agree with John. The bacon has been done and while that glorious moment should be remembered fondly, it would be cheapened to repeat it. We should all move on to the new and untried.

Having said that, I challenge any of you regular readers to honor Washington's Birthday (next Monday) by dressing up like this and posting pictures.

BTW, while your card is truly lovely, I suspect my girlfriend would knock me into last Wednesday if I gave her one like it.

Nathan | February 14, 2007 10:17 AM

There was supposed to be a link to:

http://www.halloweenx.com/costume/halloweencostumes/rev.html

but, I'm a moron and it didn't work.

Steve Buchheit | February 14, 2007 10:19 AM

Chang, "Did she make you anything? Besides Athena?"

After such a gift like that, does she need to? Plus, it's the gift that keeps on giving.

Do kids in school still give out hundreds of Valentines these days?

Steve Buchheit | February 14, 2007 10:59 AM

Nathan, isn't that a joke from Gaiman's Anansi Boys?

Nathan | February 14, 2007 11:21 AM

Steve.

Huh? If it is, I was being subconsciously witty, since I don't remember anything like that in the book.

Steve Buchheit | February 14, 2007 11:25 AM

Fat Charlie's dad, Mr. Nancy, gets him to dress up as his favorite president on President's Day.

Wickedpinto | February 14, 2007 11:38 AM

I think that is the first time _I_ made a comment about that. I think the only other time that I mentioned it was when someone else made it months ago, and I asked "whats with the bacon?"

Criminy.

Zeynep | February 14, 2007 11:42 AM

I like the way you blended the colors on the ground. That's sweet.

Nathan | February 14, 2007 12:03 PM

Well, now that you mention it,Steve, I do remember that. My subconscious is witty, indeed. (More so than my conscious, apparently.)

Jim Wright who's feeling a little snark coming on | February 14, 2007 12:26 PM

"You know, you don't have to ask about bacon every time there's a cat on the site."

Hey, you started it. If you don't want people bringing it up, every damned time, you shouldn't have seared the image of baconcat into the optical cortex of every user on teh interweebs. Hell, I suspect that at this point there is an image of baconcat uploaded into non-volitile RAM on Spirit and Opportunity. It's the butterfly effect, John, small seemly inconsequential actions can and do change the world. Your single moment of frivolous work-avoidance slackerdom has consequences. The trick, is to USE this power to become the secret Emperor of the Universe, you know, just in case I eventually need a replacement...

To be truthful though, the first thing I noticed about your drawing is not the lack of cured pork products on the feline, but that you seem to have drawn yourself with more hair than you actually have. What happened, Athena not have enough "Flesh" colored crayons?

Dan | February 14, 2007 12:43 PM

Something new and untried, huh?

I got it. How about this: Instead of putting bacon on the cat, let's put the cat ON the bacon. How freaky is that?

Cassie | February 14, 2007 12:44 PM

Jim Wright,

How politically incorrect you are - or you don't have enough preschoolers in your life. It's not "flesh" any more, since most of the people in the world don't have that color of skin. It's now "peach."

But you're right about the hair. I didn't even notice the cat until someone else pointed it out.

Jim Wright | February 14, 2007 01:05 PM

Cassie: heh, I used "Flesh" with malice afore thought.

A while back a friend of mind, who is folically challanged, put "Flesh" on his driver's license application where it asked for Hair Color. And that's what ended up on his license. Plus, I detest peaches, can't stand them, can barely stand to type the word.

Cassie | February 14, 2007 01:13 PM

LOL, Jim.

Good thing you're in Alaska then. Not too many p**** trees up there.

Carl V. | February 14, 2007 01:27 PM

Congratulations to your sister, I hope the day is magical for her.

Jim Wright | February 14, 2007 01:38 PM

Cassie: that's THE primary reason I live in Alaska, no damned peaches.

Wickedpinto | February 14, 2007 02:05 PM

My first instinct was to say how you unabashedly note your height in comparison to your wifes. Personaly of course I noticed the deliberate childish adoration every boy has for his sweetheart, and channeling that into your art.

As for bacon cat, pretty much every link if you "google: bacon taped to a cat" you find you. Really (and I just remembered first time I noticed it) I didn't know about the baconcat thing until you posted a picture of another author buddy who had bacon taped to a cat.

Why am I defensive about the baconcat thing?

I'm gonna go read a self help book now. Happy valentines day, thing I like most about the site is how much you obviously love your family, and love spending time with them. That is an enviable situation for anyone.

MWT | February 14, 2007 03:40 PM

WickedPinto - it's not you. (Or at least not just you.) I've noticed that John has seemed a bit on edge in general over a lot of things in the past few days. Since the cereal essay, more or less. Maybe less pokey all-round would be good for the next few days too...

Cool Valentine's Day card, by the way - I've always thought handmade things were way better than storebought. I hope she tacked it up on the fridge.

Congrats to Heather! :)

Karen Burnham | February 14, 2007 05:51 PM

That's a great card, but I have to ask: are your and Krissy's eyes really orange and camera flashes make them look normal? Or have both of you recently been possessed by demonic forces? If so, do you see that having any impact on your creative work? Just so we know.

John Scalzi | February 14, 2007 05:56 PM

Hey, I work with the crayons I have.

Steve Buchheit | February 14, 2007 11:05 PM

These are not the crayons you're looking for.

Dean | February 14, 2007 11:10 PM

I must say, in an I'm-not-hitting-on-your-wife way, that Krissy is hot even as an incompetently-drawn cartoon.

Dean | February 14, 2007 11:12 PM

By the way, I can't draw any better, and anybody with eyes can see that that isn't a cat, it's a possum wearing very small rubber boots.

Wickedpinto | February 15, 2007 04:18 PM

MWT, I'm kinda cautious/defensive here, cuz I once accidently insinuated that I thought Johns wife wasn't attractrive, when actually I meant that he took an unflattering picture of a lovely woman.

YES she has a prominent nose (spelling?) but it works VERY well with her phenomal cheeks, so it's all cool, but about 5 or so months ago, I came off as bashing the bosses wife, which I WAS NOT DOING!!! I was actually intending to make a playful joke at the bosses expense about the camera angle.

So ever since I tried to explain and repetatively ate my own shoe leather, I've been kinda "bajigitty" here.

I love this site, fore exactly why I said, but also like I just explained, I wondered if I would be tollerated.

Being crazy has it's advantages, and it has it's MAJOR FAILURES as well.

Heather Doan | February 15, 2007 07:35 PM

Thanks for mentioning us on your blog John. We had a GREAT time here in Vegas & the wedding was BEAUTIFUL!!! I love you very much brother!!!