Alien Romance, the daily comic strip
Mar. 11th, 2026 09:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gs_silvaA filler comic I patched together by reusing some art.
Ren and Maurice sitting on the futon in their flat, remembering Jon's birthday party from two years previous. Jon, newly disabled and in a lot of pain of various sorts, blew up in the middle of his party and ended up throwing his cake at the door as his family and friends hastily fled. Maurice was the only one who stayed. He was employed as Jon's home health aide at the time, so Ella made him stay. But he managed to talk Jon down from his rage.
Anyway, that's not why Maurice remembers the date.
"No," he explains, "I remember 'cause 'March' means 'to walk'... and the number 11 looks like little crutches."
"He'd be so mad if you told him that," Ren remarks.
"But it works, right?" Maurice insists.
I'll continue the Halloween plotline momentarily. I've been having trouble drawing Ella, and it's her party, so she's in every panel. I'm still doing it; it's just taking me longer.
***
Today is supposed to be another warm day! The front lawn is starting to show through the snow. The backyard is still completely covered. My next door neighbors were out in their backyard yesterday in shorts, but apparently they'd cleared out some of their snow from the patio to the playset. I think I can open the shed, but maybe I'll wait a while longer. I found more seed starter flats on my catio. I swept in there and planted more lettuce seeds, simply because the packet was already open and I didn't want to risk losing the rest of the seeds.
I also have containers of turtlehead seeds and one other native species I forget the name of and the label faded... or maybe I forgot to write on the label. Anyway, two containers of saved seeds. But I'll plant them directly into the ground. They're both low-growing spreaders so maybe I'll plant them in the side after I rip out more of the pachysandra. You really have to replace pachysandra right away after removing it or else it comes right back. I was trying to do it in strips but it grew back so fast that now I've made negative progress. And I can't get rid of it entirely, because half of it is on the neighbors' property, and they like it. They hate the ferns and want me to rip out my half of the ferns, but I won't do it. So we're at an impasse. Both the ferns and the pachysandra will stay, and nobody's completely happy.
They've done a ton of work removing bittersweet, though, so I'm grateful for that. I won't have to argue with them over the importance of eradicating bittersweet! And they had a patch of Japanese knotweed that they spent serious money eradicating before it ever crept over to my land. Thank goodness!
***
I had my mind set on going to Sturbridge Coffee House to have a coffee date with my sister, but we'll have to do it next week instead, and anyway my mother has made herself busy with things around the house. As long as she doesn't try to rearrange my kitchen, I'm fine. She's been obsessed with trying to rearrange my kitchen lately, and it's been exhausting having to redirect her over and over and over and over.
Now my brother might want to meet us in Sturbridge too, but he wants to go to a brewery that he claims is the best in the area. That's fine! I don't drink beer very much, but I'll go to Sturbridge anytime. Just give me an excuse, no matter how flimsy.
Ren and Maurice sitting on the futon in their flat, remembering Jon's birthday party from two years previous. Jon, newly disabled and in a lot of pain of various sorts, blew up in the middle of his party and ended up throwing his cake at the door as his family and friends hastily fled. Maurice was the only one who stayed. He was employed as Jon's home health aide at the time, so Ella made him stay. But he managed to talk Jon down from his rage.
Anyway, that's not why Maurice remembers the date.
"No," he explains, "I remember 'cause 'March' means 'to walk'... and the number 11 looks like little crutches."
"He'd be so mad if you told him that," Ren remarks.
"But it works, right?" Maurice insists.
I'll continue the Halloween plotline momentarily. I've been having trouble drawing Ella, and it's her party, so she's in every panel. I'm still doing it; it's just taking me longer.
***
Today is supposed to be another warm day! The front lawn is starting to show through the snow. The backyard is still completely covered. My next door neighbors were out in their backyard yesterday in shorts, but apparently they'd cleared out some of their snow from the patio to the playset. I think I can open the shed, but maybe I'll wait a while longer. I found more seed starter flats on my catio. I swept in there and planted more lettuce seeds, simply because the packet was already open and I didn't want to risk losing the rest of the seeds.
I also have containers of turtlehead seeds and one other native species I forget the name of and the label faded... or maybe I forgot to write on the label. Anyway, two containers of saved seeds. But I'll plant them directly into the ground. They're both low-growing spreaders so maybe I'll plant them in the side after I rip out more of the pachysandra. You really have to replace pachysandra right away after removing it or else it comes right back. I was trying to do it in strips but it grew back so fast that now I've made negative progress. And I can't get rid of it entirely, because half of it is on the neighbors' property, and they like it. They hate the ferns and want me to rip out my half of the ferns, but I won't do it. So we're at an impasse. Both the ferns and the pachysandra will stay, and nobody's completely happy.
They've done a ton of work removing bittersweet, though, so I'm grateful for that. I won't have to argue with them over the importance of eradicating bittersweet! And they had a patch of Japanese knotweed that they spent serious money eradicating before it ever crept over to my land. Thank goodness!
***
I had my mind set on going to Sturbridge Coffee House to have a coffee date with my sister, but we'll have to do it next week instead, and anyway my mother has made herself busy with things around the house. As long as she doesn't try to rearrange my kitchen, I'm fine. She's been obsessed with trying to rearrange my kitchen lately, and it's been exhausting having to redirect her over and over and over and over.
Now my brother might want to meet us in Sturbridge too, but he wants to go to a brewery that he claims is the best in the area. That's fine! I don't drink beer very much, but I'll go to Sturbridge anytime. Just give me an excuse, no matter how flimsy.