Mashed Potato Birthday Cake

…with yummies inside

Today is Winker’s 6th Birthday! She will be getting the above mentioned cake for dinner, plus lots of love and bellyrubs.

Thanks to everyone who took the last poll. I’m shooting for the end of January as a launch date for the E-zine.

Grace is off to Oakland to do mystery shops today. I’ll be off to the UVB Barbecue for Middle Aged Gamers later, then to work.

I’m halfway through watching Season One of Sanctuary. It’s a pretty good show, for s Sci Fi Channel series. (note that I do not call it Syfy, mostly because that is an idiotic name)

I’m also within 10 pages of finishing The Two Towers. I’m glad I decided to re-read LOTR.

Ok…time for the Mug O’ Tea. More bloggage later.

Big Fun With The Five Blue Budgies

…at a cat show

So, how cool was it that on last night’s season opener of “Fringe” that they gave a nod to “X Files”? If you missed it, watch it again and listen carefully to the senators during the questioning of Broyles.

It was a pretty good season premiere, with only a couple of predictable moments and one glaring logic flaw. I’m looking forward to seeing how things go this year.

The Highly Improbable, Yet Totally True, Story Of Mostly Purple Patty And The Parrot Who Played D&D

…featuring her favorite cousin, Sunflower

Stuff!

1: Our poor little Winker is in heat and it is pretty stressful for her. I wish we could get her spayed, but her heart murmur precludes putting her under sedation. During her next check up, I’m gonna ask the vet if there are any drugs that can at least alleviate the worst of her heat symptoms.

2: Grace and I are on the verge of starting another Mystery Shopping Death March. This one will, thankfully, only last 3 weeks. Of course, that’s on top of our regular jobs.

3: I’ve been watching Defying Gravity and it has been holding my attention pretty well, despite a few rather goofy points.

4: Speaking of science fiction on tv, this season looks like it may have a couple of interesting offerings. Fast Forward might be kinda cool and what I’ve seen of the V reboot doesn’t seem to suck. Both of them, however, will have to go a long way to beat Fringe.

5: Dear Flying Spaghetti Monster,

Please let my wife and I win the Mega Millions lottery. We aren’t greedy, we’ll gladly take just a few hundred thousand. Of course, if you wanna give us the whole shebang, we won’t bitch.

Thank you,

Doc

6: Damn! Almost time to head off to work. Gotta eat my yogurt, then walk The Girls. More blogola later.

Apocalypse Cow

…I love the smell of milk in the morning.

Our girl Daisy is still sick, so I’ve set up a vet appointment for Friday morning. Couldn’t do it sooner…no money in the bank. I hope she doesn’t get worse in the next day and a half.

So, no David Tennant on Doctor Who after the 2009 specials. On the one hand, that sucks. On the other hand, it’s probably time for a new Doctor anyway.

Saw my doctor today, now that she’s back from maternity leave. Was given a tetanus shot because I’m high risk for infection, got a the annual referral to my dermatologist, got a physical scheduled and, just as icing on the cake, there’s a colonoscopy in my future. Oh, and when I revisit the urologist on the 17th, I’ll be finding out what’s the next step in dealing with an enlarged prostate gland. Lucky me, eh?

And now…dish washing. More blogging later.

Under The Onion Tree

…and other stories

Stuff: The Next Generation

1: Hey, you wacky gamers out there! Dundracon is 108 days away and pre-reg goes up to $40.00 in 4 days. If you are going and haven’t pre-regged, go do it. If you aren’t sure if you are going, just let me say: Have you lost your mind? Of course you should go!

2: One week until the election! One week until no more fucking political ads for at least several months! ONE MORE WEEK UNTIL I CAN LAUGH MANIACALLY AT EVERY REPUBLICAN I MEET!

3: My veggie garden is going along nicely, now that the spinach is cooperating and finally sprouting up. The lettuce (at least 5 varieties) is kicking into high gear and I foresee some yummy baby greens on the dinner table about Saturday.

4: The latest Brewerton Village Poll is now closed. I shall post one more poll in a day or two, then sometime next week I’ll write up our little village here for all to see.

5: Although the new television season has, by and large, failed to excite me, I must say that Heroes is getting more interesting by the episode. Despite that, I sincerely hope the series writers/directors/producers will do things differently next season. and by differently, I mean No More Save The World, No More New Characters, No More Deaths That Don’t Stick and No More Goddamn Time Travelling (and yes, that includes Hiro).

6: As I have stated previously, the odds of my going to GenCon in 2009 are somewhat worse than my winning the lottery. On the other hand, since GenCon 2010 will be the 20th anniversary of my first GenCon, I will be there. Filled with such certainty, and being a fellow renowned for his advance planning (as well as his wildass spur of the moment non-planning), I have been considering some amusing pastimes for myself and my gaming pals that year. More on this as the months roll by.

7: There is no #7, because I’m going to go have a snack.

Sparky The Tubeworm

…way down under the sea

Stuff

Blindness: Well done and well acted, but rather predictable. Not a bad movie, but not one I would pay money to see.

The VP Debate: Despite the spinning of the Republican talking heads, it was Biden for the win. Palin was a spokesperson/pimp who dodged really answering most questions in favor of repeating the same old shit.

The Garden: Spinach…carrots…radishes…lettuce…mesclun mix…peas! All in the soil, most sprouting in a week or so. And all in just about 3 square feet, with 3 more square feet to be planted in a few days.

Television: Fringe has not yet lost me, but it’s barely hanging on. Heroes is picking up steam. Supernatural is starting to bore me. Bones continues to be fun and I’d happily hop in the sack with any or all of the three female leads.

The Search For Employment: Continues…and yes, I’ve applied at pretty much every sort of place y’all have suggested.

And now, I’m outta here. More blogathonics later.

Blue Goats

…but not clinically depressed goats

Stuff

1: So, walking meltdown John McCain decided to “suspend” his presidential campaign to rush back to Washington and help stave off our imminent economic collapse. That is, if by “rush” you mean stay in New York long enough to do an interview with Katie Couric and then appear at the Clinton Initiative thing today. Come on, McBush, just fucking admit that you are A: afraid to debate Mr. Obama B: REALLY afraid to have that skank Palin debate Joe Biden C: unable to do two things at once D: melting down.

2: I got the October issue of Alarums & Excursions yesterday and it is issue #397. That means the January issue will be #400. I really need to get a zine into that one.

3: I’ve been watching the new series Fringe and I’m finding it rather boring. It’s like X-Files with a more coherent (and more predictable) conspiracy, much less interesting protagonists (except the crazy scientist dude, who is a hoot) and no cool mutants/supernatural shit. Maybe I’d like it better if I worshipped at the Church of J.J. Abrams, but I don’t. I may or may not watch any more episodes.

4: The bigass 2 hour premiere of Heroes was good, but seemed in many ways like a retread of season 1. I mean, saving the world from destruction is all well and good, but how about just having a good old superhero vs supervillain slugfest for a few episodes? And the time travel thing? Officially over done. Oh, and how about having just one person, good or evil, die and FUCKING STAY DEAD? I will watch this season all the way thru, but unless things get really interesting and fresh, I may nor return for season 4.

The Sweetly Terrifying Story Of Mostly Purple Patty And The Haunted Toilet Seat

…co-starring her Aunt Hortense

Damn…August already! The time, she is flying by!

I’m nearly finished reading most of the Solar Pons mystery series. I don’t have book #7 or #9, but I do have the rest and am halfway through book 10. I shall post an overview when I’m finished.

Waiting in the wings to be read are The Chinese Parrot (a Charlie Chan story), The Bishop Murder Case (a Philo Vance mystery) and a couple of Fu Manchu novels.

As for television viewing, it sucks. This is mostly due to the Recent Financial Troubles, which has us getting only the most basic Dish Network service. So, no Shark Week, no Eureka, no Mythbusters, no Middleman…not much of anything good. However, this will change rapidly once I get the jop at Round Table.

In gaming news, things are coming together quite smoothly for the Fall Fantasy series. I’ll be creating the groups PC’s (based upon input and die rolls made by the players) this weekend and the map of their home region is coming along nicely. The rather short spell list is nearly done, too.

One fun thing about deconstructing a typical fantasy world is that you get to redo monsters and fantasy creatures. For example, at this point in time, dragons are seldom more than 10 feet long and have no breath weapons. Their intelligence is on a par with a smart dog and they are more gliders than flyers. However, each new generation is a bit larger and a bit more dangerous. In a couple of centuries or so, dragons will look more like what we expect them to.

As for fantasy races, well, I’m having fun there, too. The Dwarves that live 400 miles north of Cantapor (the PC’s home base) are modeled after the Spanish colonists here in California, minus the heavy hand of the Catholic church. These Dwarves live above ground and are ranchers, farmers, traders, sailors, scholars and adventurers. They are quite sophisticated and well mannered. Oh, and they create some truly great wines.

And now, I’m off to run errands and take dogs to parks.

The Last Lap Dance Of Candy The Cat

…no, she wasn’t a real feline

Television Note

Next Monday, the History Channel is going to show a 2 hour program called “Life After Us”. The basic premise is what would happen to all of the human artifacts if we all disappeared from the planet. It looks to be a pretty fascinating show. I’m not sure, but I think the Discovery Channel might also show it.

Violet Note

Hopefully, I’ll have a rather lengthy Violet post up tonight. It’s looking to be 99% exposition and appears to be getting longer as I write it. Oh, and you’ll get to vote at the end of it, I promise.

Movie Note

Cloverfield hits movie screens this Friday and you can bet I’ll have my ass in a movie seat watching it on Saturday afternoon. I love giant monster movies.

Gaming Question

Every so often, when discussing D&D, someone says that if WOTC/D&D were to fold, the gaming hobby would be in huge trouble (and, often, it is implied that the whole adventure gaming industry would just dry up and blow away).

My question is: Why would anyone think this?

Did rock & roll implode after the Beatles broke up/Buddy Holly died/Elvis Died/The Ramones began dying? Nope. Did television collapse after (insert name of hugely popular series of your choice) went off the air? Nope. Did the deaths of any number of great actors and directors kill off motion pictures. Nope.

So why would the collapse of WOTC or the disappearence of D&D kill off adventure gaming? There would still be older versions of D&D, as well as the hundreds of other RPG’s out there. Gaming life would go on…and possibly for the better, tho that’s a topic for another day.

You may let fly your thoughts on this.

A Tender Nibble To The Inner Thigh

…CHA-CHING!

Doc’s new tv season review: Part 2

The Bionic Woman: Despite following an old tv series formula, (person must work for shadowy organization to save the world every week) this show’s first episode did not suck. In fact, it was pretty good. I’ll give it a few more episodes looksee.

CSI: Answered the cliffhanger question from last year in a very well made episode that kept you guessing. Still has a place in our PVR’s recoerding schedule.

Criminal Minds: Good episode that leads to Mandy Patinkin’s exit from the series. How the show will fare without him remains to be seen.