Random Access

Saturday – 01 March 2008
Jason and I went to the driving range at Old Mill for lunch yesterday. It was the perfect day for it – not too warm, not too cool; sunny; almost no wind. I had a few good drives and a lot of “Why, yes it has been six months since I did this…” ones, too. It was a lot of fun and a great change of pace. If the weather holds, we’re going to go again next week; we even have a couple of other guys who sound interested in joining us.

Last night’s Clitorati gathering was quite good. Mary and Chris joined us. After last week’s adventures with Wolverine and Colossus, I decided to take my Sentinel a bag of LEGO bricks (and assorted pieces) with me.

Who knew that Sentinels could be left-handed?!

Holy cow! The LEGO pieces were a big hit! got some good-natured ribbing from OnlyAly about how quickly he opened the bag and started the play… until she grabbed some pieces and started build things of her own.

OnlyAly’s LEGO Condo

joined the building party, as did . All-in-all, a good time was had. And no coffee was spilled nor were any cameras dropped in the taking of these pictures.

I’m not sure what’s on tap for today. SaraRules and I have talked about heading to the State Fairgrounds to see the Sixth Annual Bellydance Spring Fest, so that’s a possibility.

But first up: Breakfast, coffee and cartoons.

Stray Toasters

• I found this on MacRumors, while looking up some information: Best Use for Apple Stickers?
• High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas: The Race to Save the Cougar Ace
• 
• From Wired: First Look – New D&D Stats Leak Onto Web
• I was talking with a couple coworkers about Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles the other day. This perfectly sums up part of our conversation:

  

• $31 million worth of lost valuables on the TSA’s watch
• As noted to me by last night: Family Guy spins off Cleveland

And with that… Long Live the Legion!

With Zombie Jesus Day Easter rapidly approaching, children’s thoughts will undoubtedly turn to thoughts of colored eggs, Easter baskets, and lots and lots of candy.

I won’t go into the usual “What do eggs and bunnies have to do with Christ dying on the cross?” line of questions, as we aren’t debating the absorption of “pagan” beliefs/rites into Christianity. Nor is this a plug for Chocolate Jesus Crunchies – A righteous part of your family’s breakfast.

Instead, let’s focus our attention on another staple of Spring: Cadbury Easter Eggs. They’re sweet, chocolatey, creme-filled goodness… in a colorful foil wrapper. Amen. *genuflect* And you can’t have Cadbury Easter Eggs without the Cadbury Bunny, can you?

Of course not.

So, you can imagine how astonished – and covetous – I was to discover that you can now have your very own Cadbury Clucking Bunny Plush Toy!

(click image for more information)

How cool is that?!

Saturday – 23 February 2008
Last night’s Clitorati gathering was fun. It was a very nice way to wind up the week. And, even though I was told “Don’t play with your food” while I was growing up… there are just some things that can’t be passed up:

The second pic nearly did not get taken:

While setting up the shot, I asked to move a bit. He did. Just as I prepared to take the picture, the cup – with coffee still in it – tipped over. I put down the camera and reached for the cup.

And the camera fell off the table.

Fortunately, I was able to catch it between my legs.

As the camera was falling, looked over and saw me catch the camera. After we all shared a “Did that really just happen?!” moment, she reached over to get it…

…just as the camera took a picture.

There was a pregnant pause and then we all broke out in laughing fits.

Today has been a mix of what I planned to do, a few things I didn’t plan on… and completely skipping a couple of things that I planned on. All-in-all, not too bad.

The morning started, as usual, with the Legion and The Batman. Both, however, were repeats… but that didn’t stop me from enjoying both. As I was rounding the clubhouse turn and watching Stargate SG-1, called and asked if I had eaten lunch yet. I hadn’t. So, we went to Macaroni Grill. I had the Chicken Marsala; the pasta was a little dry, but otherwise everything was fine.

After that, I ran a few errands and then went to visit Kate, Perry and the kids. Next up: A stop in the Red Balloon to see if they had anything that I just couldn’t live without for my Rokenbok set. I considered a couple of things, but ultimately walked out empty-handed. There is a set that I am looking for, but they didn’t have it in stock.

I headed up to say “Hi” to SaraRules’ parents. I finally remembered to take over a couple of movies that they hadn’t seen. When I got there, they kindly invited me to stay for dinner; I did. Over dinner, they asked how the trip was; I gave them my side of the story (which was a positive accounting of events). I showed them pictures from the trip, as well.

Back home to chill out and spend some time in Paragon City.

Now, off to breakfast!

Namaste.

Tuesday: Coda
Part of today’s lunch break was spent picking up a new sleeve for Defiant. As I don’t want to (and can’t) have eleventy-seven carry-on bags, I wanted to be able to carry the laptop, as well as books and assorted distractions in my backpack. A sleeve seemed the best way to carry and protect Defiant in the backpack. As CompUSA is going out of business, I decided to see if they had any good deals. They did; I wound up getting a Brenthaven Eclipse Sleeve I.

After work, I came home and relaxed for a bit before heading to Kohl’s in search of a new suitcase. I saw online that they had up to 50% off on luggage; how could I pass that up? I wound up buying a complete set, instead: 5 pieces for $60 USD. Not a bad deal.

I was hungry, but indecisive, on the way home, so I meandered my way from West Jordan back to Fort Union. I finally settled on something, picked it up and headed home. While eating, I killed a little time in Paragon City – four more bubbles to Security Level 43.

Stray Toasters

• I went to the Art Asylum site, to see if I could find any information about upcoming releases of Marvel and/or DC MiniMates. Just like U2, I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. But… I did find a couple of other things:
  • 
  • 

  MiniMates movies! and : You both might want to check out New Times. (Here’s a hint: Mark Hamill as The Joker.) I’m just saying.

• Kyle McLachlan: A new Superman for a New Frontier
• I think that I’ve found my new desktop wallpaper for work: This. Of course, I’m thinking that I’ll have to change it and add this picture, instead… but you get the idea.
• The Randall Scott Gallery presents the art of Lori Nix
• Barack Obama swept the Potomac Primaries. Wow.
  (So, who’s Hillary going to fire now?)
• SaraRules sent me a link to this parody of Will.i.am’s Yes We Can: john.he.is
• and Tyranist: I don’t remember whether I pointed this out to you or not: Ultra Cthulhu Statue
• LEGO Indiana Jones Q&A
• How many of you remember The Electric Company?
  How many of you remember Silent E ?
• By way of : Song Titles that Espouse Bad Ideas
• Spore

Time to finish packing (48 hours from now, I’ll be in Bawl’mer) and call it a night.

Namaste.

Monday: Coda
The work day wasn’t too bad. It was fairly quiet, so aside from dousing a couple of small fires, I got some reading done. I also stayed a little later at work than I had originally planned, but that’s not a bad thing. In fact, I may put in a few extra hours tomorrow and Wednesday so that I can shave a few hours off the PTO I am taking.

Workout

• Chin-ups: 3 sets/10 reps
• Leg Raises: 3 sets/20 reps
• Incline Bench Press: 3 sets/12 reps @ 135 lbs.
• Curls (standing, hammer grip): 3 sets/10 reps @ 30 lbs
• Bench Dips: 3 sets/15 reps (with additional 25 lb plate in the lap)
• Decline Bench Press (wide grip): 3 sets/10 reps (1 set @ 135, 2 sets @ 155)
• Pull-overs: 3 sets/10 reps @ 45 lbs.

Today’s weight: 171.0 lbs

Stray Toasters

• I upgraded the back-end of WordPress to 2.3.3 today. It went much more smoothly than the 2.3.2 upgrade/debacle.
• In a related note: Over the past few weeks, I have been weighing the pros and cons of moving all commenting to my main site, rather than splitting it between LiveJournal and my site. At this point, I’m Ivory Soap sure that I’ll be making that move in the next week or two. Consider this your friendly, neighborhood “warning shot across the bow.”
• Tertiary note: I have been relocating some pictures in the gallery in a manner that (hopefully) makes more sense. If you find that a picture is no longer where you once found it, let me know and I’ll (try to) point you in the right direction.
• sent a couple of new pictures of Grace; click here to see them.
• I took a few new pictures of my new display case and its contents.
• 
• The 20 Worst Foods in America
• Newsarama had a few interesting articles today:
  • Geoff Johns re-ups with DC Comics
  • Sterling Gates on the Alpha Lanterns in GLC
  • The Q: What brought you in?
• By way of BoingBoing: Which Book Should Neil Gaiman Post Online for Free?
• ThunderLOLcats

I should have called it a night long ago. Time to rectify that.

Namaste.

Thursday – 07 February 2008
I talked with briefly this morning; Bot and Bit are both doing well.

I started my morning in the SLC office, but was due to be in the AF office today. The commute was relatively uneventful… except for the snow that I ran into at Point of the Mountain.

Things have been fairly quiet around the office today. I consider this a good thing.

Workout
Today’s workout varied from Tuesday’s workout, with more of a focus on upper back:

• Leg Raises: 3 sets/20 reps
• Pull-ups: 3 sets/10 reps (2 sets unassisted; 1 set assisted @ 80 lbs)
• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 205 lbs (third set broken up into 5-and-5)
• Pull-downs (wide-grip, behind the head): 3 sets/15 reps, 100 lbs
• Reverse Deltoid Fly: 3 sets/10 reps, 75 lbs
• Dips: 3 sets/10 reps

Today’s weight: 172.6 lbs.

Stray Toasters

• I tried a couple of new-to-me tech items yesterday; I think that I like them both:
  • iGoogle
  • Spaces
• Mitt Romney is bowing out of the 2008 Republican race. It will be interesting to see how things shake out.
• New iPhone and iPod Touch Safari exploit discovered
• How much of a toy geek am I? I present Exhibit A: Action Theatre: Colossus vs. Train

  

  

  

  I actually powered up the train… and Piotr did keep it from moving.
  Colossus: 1
  Train: 0

• Speed & Angels: fighter pilot documentary
• I need to go to the Garden of Sweden soon.
• TANSTAAFL… or is there?
  I had one.
  Granted, it was left over from a manager meeting that was held here, but it was free.
• 

Namaste.

Thursday – 31 January 2008
After a few post-work errands, I holed up in the apartment and waited for the MythBusters “Plane on a Conveyor Belt” episode. It was good. They did a couple of other interesting experiments, including a test to see whether cockroaches would truly be able to survive a nuclear war.

After that, I logged into City of Heroes to see if anyone from the SG was on and to try and get closer to Security Level 40. I found one SG member on, but he was helping people with the Katie Hannon task force. I looked around for a while, but didn’t find anything else that looked promising, so I logged out.

I started reading some of yesterday’s four-color goodness. Even the “low priority” reads were good. When reading a week’s comic haul, I usually read books starting with the “little-to-waning interest” group and finishing up with the “warm, happy place” books. After all, why start off big only to work your way down to “Wow… that was completely craptacular,” when you can go the other way and (usually) end on a good note.

Somewhere in the middle of reading Fantastic Four, I konked out.
For the night.
On the sofa.
Again.

I woke up about ten minutes before my alarm was set to go off.

I prepped for work in a fairly leisurely manner, including taking the time to brew a pot of coffee and to enjoy a bowl of Honeycomb before heading off to face the day. And I remembered to bring my coffee to work this morning. Go, me.

The work day hasn’t been too bad. I discovered that I needed to reconfigure one of my MCSE test machines. Oh, well. I’ll probably wind up adding (yet) another machine to that group, so that I don’t have to keep reformating and installing an OS on the secondary box.

Stray Toasters

• I stumbled upon a new webcomic last night: Looking for Group. If you’re a gamer – and if you have an eye/ear for pop culture references – you might enjoy this one.
• VideoJug – Life Explained. On film.
• PHP. I need to get back into that.
• 20×200
• By way of : Election 2008 – Issues
• There is apparently a SWAT stand-off in Utah County. Not terribly far from the south office, as the crow flies, that is.
• 
• In addition to wanting to redo Queen videos with Disney movies, I am having the urge to make a “video” for Red Sector A using my X-Men MiniMates, some LEGO minifigs and my Sentinel.
• From Apple.com: Robert J. Lang – The Art and Science of Paper Folding

And stuff.

Namaste.

As I mentioned last night (and had noted to me this morning by Liz, and ): January 2008 marks the 50th Birthday of the LEGO Brick.

also pointed out the LEGO Brick 50th Anniversary Timeline.

If you can’t run right out and pick up a box of LEGO, you should download the LEGO Digital Designer (Mac and Windows flavors):

And, don’t forget The Mini-mizer, where you can make a LEGO minifigure of yourself.

Play!

Saturday – 26 January 2008
Last night, SaraRules and I went to my company’s “Winter Party.” It was held at Snowbird’s Cliff Lodge. We mostly hung out with with and shockpuppet and a few other coworkers. And, I was finally able to introduce SaraRules to my coworker who plays cello and performs with the Orchestra at Temple Square; they talked about string-y things and whatnot. Our keynote speaker for last night’s party was Richard Marcinko, former commander of Navy SEAL Team Six; he was an interesting person, but he wasn’t exactly a great public speaker. And, at the end of the affair, we got new company jackets and a copy of Mr. Marcinko’s book, Rogue Warrior.

After driving out of the canyon, we met up with the usual suspects – plus Land – at Cheers: North.

This morning started slowly and quietly – i.e.: “Sleeping in!” I don’t know what happened – or who put in the order for it – but it was a very nice, bright and temperate day: Temps were in the 40s! As there were no new ‘toons to watch, SaraRules and I decided to head out for breakfast. We went to the local Paradise Bakery and Cafè, but they stop selling breakfast at 11AM. Curses! So, we opted to go elsewhere… but not before SaraRules made a stop at Simply Mac to pick up a pink Speck case for her MacBook.

We wound up having breakfast in Holladay at a place called Sharon’s. SaraRules’ parents joined us. We sat, ate and chatted for a while. Post-breakfast, we headed up to the parents’ place for a bit to meet Loomis, their recently-adopted cat. Their newly-adopted, large cat. He’s on the order of 21 pounds. Cute cat, though. And rather friendly… as long as you don’t mess with his paws – I saw some of his handiwork in proving to others his dislike for having his paws messed with.

From there, we headed down to visit Kate, Perry and the kids. When we left there, we stopped in the Sandy Red Balloon. I was in a mood to possibly pick up something to add to the Rokenbok collection… but nothing they had caught my eye. So I didn’t.

Pictures of the day… so far.

Now, it’s time to figure out what to do for dinner.

This evening… we may just have to play some miniature golf. Just because we can.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 23 January 2008
Mid-week and all’s well… if grey, gloomy and generally “blah” can be considered “well.”

I got a decent start on the morning… even after someone dialed my number at 5:45 AM. No idea who it was, because no number came up on the Caller ID. Monkeys. I was up and nominally mobile a little after 7:00 this morning and out the door, caffeinated (and bagel-laden) and in the office by 8:30. As an added bonus, the first song on Nomad’s shuffle play was Big Daddy Kane’s A Job Ain’t Nuthin’ But Work. Nice way to kick off the short commute.

Mo’ money, mo’ money, mo’ money got get made
To get paid in this trade
And I believe that I can acheive
To make ends meet like a hair weave

Survivin’ in this economy people in the world wanna be
Stayin’ in the upper class so you’re the path
The rich gets the most and the poor gets so little
And only Monie Love can make it in the middle

The work day wasn’t too chaotic. Fortunately. I was asked to check out a problem with a server… which not only was not having a problem (today), but was also in the middle of running some tests for one of our engineers. So, that got downgraded from “Put this at the top of today’s to-do list” to “Keep an eye on this.” I’m okay with that. I’ve also managed to work in some hardware testing… which means that I have been able to clear stacks of dysfunctional machinery out of my work area. I actually found some work space under all of the dreck!

Sushi Wednesday.
New Comics Day.
‘Nuff said.

Genius that I am, I left the power cord (POWER CHORD!) for Defiant at work. *sigh* This meant that – rather than go buy a (“yet another”) new one – I had to go back to the office to retrieve it. This was good on a couple of counts… as I also forgot that I needed to pick up a few things at the store, too. So, I headed to the office to find…

…neither of my badges worked on the main doors of the building. *grblsnrkx* Fortunately, I had messaged Code Monkey BB to see if he was still at work before leaving home. He was. I called him and he brought my cord down to the lobby. We chatted a bit before I took off to run some more errands and he went back upstairs to sling some more code.

After errand-running, I decided to see if was in. She was. I told her that I had her Trader Joe’s shwag with me and would drop it off, if that was alright. Not only was it alright, she asked if I’d mind lending a hand to , who had been helping her resurrect her PC – at this point they were having a problem getting her mouse to respond and needed to rejoin the PC to the wireless network.

No problem!
Piece of cake!
We’d have it back online and humming in no time!

An hour and a half later, we finally had things up and running again. Just like Tom Tom the Piper’s Son… but without the pigs.

Stray Toasters

• I had many things in the four-color hold today… and I picked up a couple new Stikfas:
  1. Alpha Male Samurai with Stallion
  2. Omega Male Black Knight
• By way of comes Gaslight Justice League, a steampunk/Victorian Era look at the JLA.
• had a few things to say about peoples’ reactions to Heath Ledger’s death.
• Today was also Sushi Wednesday for … who, along with the Sib-1 sister-unit, has been interviewing pediatricians. It sounds like it has been a feast-or-famine kind of thing.
• : has your Trader Joe’s items, as you are more likely to see her on Friday evening.
• Area 51 designated with a new name
• By way of : The Internet Party: What happens when Google’s parents leave town for the weekend?
• By way of : The 5 Most Horrifying Bugs in the World
• SR-71A… made out of LEGO. Win-Win!

I’m sure that there was probably more that I was going to add to this… but all I want to do now is save the world (if I can find a team) and read the rest of this week’s four-color haul.

Namaste.

Sunday – 20 January 2008
This morning, we got up and breakfast at Noah’s Bagels with Meliko, Cat and Adrienne. After that, we headed back to Meliko and Cat’s apartment to get our gear and get on our way. We made a… somewhat… quick stop at the comic shop around the corner from the apartment. I’m glad I did: I found a Time Trapper ‘Clix.

On to LEGOland! Sweet Mary, mother of God… it was fun! The park was bigger than I expected. We got to pretty much all of the sections, but there are still some things that we’d like to go back and check out. We saw the exhibits. Rode a few rides. Walked. Toured. Shopped. Had a good time.

From there, we headed up to Montrose to meet up with the infamous Tom C., his girlfriend Jo and their roommate, Blair. (, both SaraRules and I hugged him for you. His reaction was worth it.) We went to dinner at Jerry’s Famous Deli in Studio City. Our waiter looked like an adult Peter Brady (NOT Christopher Knight… but, rather, what Peter Brady would have looked like had “he” grown up). And he wasn’t exactly the most attentive waiter. *sigh* Oh, well. Back to Tom’s to chill and hang out.

Here are today’s pictures… with a warning: After the pictures of SaraRules and Meliko and of Cat and me, there are over 350 pictures in LEGOland.

Human of the Day
Today’s HotD is SaraRules, for putting up with me being a horribly overgrown kid – with a camera – at LEGOland. (Or, as she put it: “It was fun watching you be so excited about being at LEGOland.”)

Time to relax and unwind.

Namaste.

Monday – 14 January 2008
Back in the proverbial saddle again.

I had a good weekend in Cedar City with one notable exception: The Internet in SaraRules’ complex went tits-up Friday night. In and of itself, this wasn’t a hellish thing… BUT, there was one – exactly one – thing that I was looking forward to doing this weekend that required an Internet connection: Playing City of Heroes with Perry on Saturday morning, while SaraRules was at a seminar.

No Internet = No City
*grblsnrkx*

Instead, I watched Saturday morning toonage. LSH was a rerun, as was The Batman, but it was an episode of The Batman that I hadn’t seen, so I was satisfied with that.

In the afternoon, we headed down to St. George for a bit of shopping. I hit a good sale at the Eddie Bauer outlet and found some movies I wanted at the Best Buy; SaraRules found Mouse Trap – which she hadn’t been able to find in our previous shopping excursions – at the Target. One thing about the Target: It reeked. We walked in the door and were assailed with a stench so foul that we though someone had decided to skip the whole “going to the bathroom” thing and just relieved themselves on the front carpet. It was that rank. (Turns out that it was just REALLY badly burnt popcorn from their snack counter.)

Saturday evening, we went to see Art. It was interesting to see this again… and every bit as enjoyable as the first time. The actors whom we saw perform it in the fall reprised their roles; there were a few subtle changes in their performances – a little more… personalization, if you will – despite it having been three or four months since the play was staged.

Sunday was rather low-key. We watched football and watched a couple of movies. We watched 3:10 to Yuma (the new one) and Fantastic Four (at Ms. SaraRules’ request). I enjoyed 3:10 quite a bit. It was a good, old-fashioned western. I might even be inclined to agree with the tagline that it was “…the best western since Unforgiven,” which I thoroughly enjoyed. I do want to see the original 3:10 to Yuma, for juxtaposition. FF was as fun to watch this time as it was the eleventeen times before. I picked up the “Extended Edition,” with additional footage. While not all of the added footage was “necessary,” there were a couple of parts that I think would have gone well in the U.S. theatrical release.

This morning’s commute was uneventful. The odd/notable thing was the fog that I had to drive through from just south of Scipio to Mills. Pea soup. Visibility was cut down to less than a quarter-mile – it was thick enough that all you could see was white-grey nothingness. When I got down into Scipio, visibility cleared to maybe a half-mile, but there was still thick dense fog hovering about 500 feet above the ground. By the time I got to the Mills exit, the fog had thinned enough to see blue sky… and visibility extended for a few miles.

Stray Toasters

• I plowed through more of I Am Legend (the story) this weekend.
• As I mentioned above, SaraRules picked up a copy of Mouse Trap this weekend. She, Steph and I played it Saturday night. It was rather fun, in a Rube Goldberg contraption kind of way. (And it made me covet the Tower of ROK Mania even more. *sigh*
• Harbin Ice and Snow World 2007
• Wired reports that the highlights of tomorrow’s MacWorld keynote were leaked on WikiPedia. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow how accurate this is/was.
• 
• SimCity goes free software
• For : Gonzo: the Life of Hunter S. Thompson
• US Policy Would Allow Government Access to Any Email
• I had completely spaced off the fact that the Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight DVD goes on sale tomorrow.
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Ford Slaps Brand Enthusiasts, Returns Love with Legal Punch
• Ten Strange Keyboards

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.
Time to get comfortable and relax.

Namaste.

Thursday – 10 January 2008
Today started with me ignoring – not “sleeping through,” just plain old-fashioned “ignoring” – the alarm this morning. The “failsafe” alarm that I program into my cell phone. The cell phone that I keep in another room so that I have to get out of bed to turn it off. The thoughts running through my head were,”It will shut off for a few minutes…” each time it sounded. Besides, the bed was warm and comfortable.

Work was good. Nothing too terrible occurred… after all, it was a Thursday. On an only nominally related note: The Minimates Wolverine that I got yesterday is about to duke it out with my Stikfas ninjas, atop one of my test systems.

After work, I ran a couple of errands and then went to visit Kate, Perry and the kids. As I was driving, called and asked if I had eaten dinner. I hadn’t, but told her of my plans. We compromised: She went and hung out with us; then she and I had dinner afterwards. We went to the newly-remodeled TGI Fridays in Sandy. The internal makeover was nice. A little less “Applebees,” a little more… Bennigan’s I guess would be the best approximation. (But, not as green.) Dinner and conversation with good company are always a good way to cap off the day.

Stray Toasters

• I believe that it is starting to snow. Again.
• Confessions: The Meanest Thing Gizmodo Did at CES
• 
• While I don’t agree with all of their choices: The Webby Awards’ 12 Most Influential Online Videos of All Time.
• Starship Troopers was an excellent book.
  The movie was definitely “check your brain at the door” fare, but it had some amusing dialogue:

  [Ace is having difficulty with throwing knives]
  Ace Levy: Sir, I don’t understand. What goods’ a knife in a nuke fight? All you have to do is press a button, sir.
  Career Sergeant Zim: Put your hand on that wall trooper. PUT YOUR HAND ON THAT WALL!
  [Zim throws a knife and hits Ace’s hand pinning it to the wall]
  Career Sergeant Zim: The enemy can not press a button… if you have disabled his hand. Medic!

• I had an… unusual… random song get stuck in my head, out of the blue: Toni Basil’s Mickey
• The Manzilian.
• I still hurt from Tuesday’s workout.
• 

Quote of the Day
From yesterday’s lunch: To conserve space and maximize the utility of serving plates, two or more orders of sushi are often put on the same plate. This was the case with rolls brought out for Laurie and Kent. Trying to determine what belonged to whom, the following came up:

Laurie: (to Kent, pointing at various rolls): This is me… so this must be you.
Casen: Sounds like my wedding night.

Hilarity ensued.

And with that…

Namaste.

Wednesday – 09 January 2008
This morning started early. 6:15 early. All things considered, that’s good for many reasons, not the least of which was that I was able to chat with Mom for a few minutes before I headed off to work. And when I stepped outside… I saw that it had snowed. And it continued to snow, intermittently, throughout the day.

The work day has been relatively quiet, allowing me to dive back into Win Server 2003 reading – which at this point includes a lot of going back and taking some notes on things I read before our Winter vacation. But, it’s proceeding apace.

Today was also Sushi Wednesday (Oh Sushi, the restaurant formerly known as Go Sushi) and Four-Color Crack Day. Due to the holidays – and some delays from Diamond – shipments for the past two weeks have been a little “off.” So much so that last week, Dr. Volt’s had two shipments: One on Wednesday (the previous week’s shipment) and one on Friday (last week’s intended shipment). Since I worked out of AF – and headed south – on Friday, I missed out on getting the second day’s haul until today. And even with the today’s new arrivals, the haul was fairly light. So, I made up for it by picking up this and this, after all…

1. It’s a John Stewart figure. (If I need to ‘splain beyond this, just stop reading now.)
2. They’re more X-Men Minimates for my “Sentinel Attacks!” scenario. ‘Nuff said.

I neglected to cover yesterday’s workout in yesterday’s post. Let me start off by saying that it hurt. A lot. Something about “not going to the gym for three weeks” comes to mind. The overall workout was light and more of a “getting back into the swing of things” routine:

• Pull-ups: 3 sets/10 reps (on the last set, the last half were done with my feet braced against the back of the Roman Chair)
• Leg raises: 3 sets/20 reps
• Dips: 3 sets/15 reps
• Bench press: 3 sets/10 reps, 135 lbs. (Like I said: “Getting back into it”)
• Nautilus Cable Fly: 3 sets/10 reps, (2 sets at 95 lbs, 1 set at 80 lbs)
• Seated dumbbell curls: 3 sets/10 reps, 25 lbs.

Like I said: It hurt. A lot. Yesterday. Today. And maybe even tomorrow.

Tonight, I think that I shall spend some quality time in Paragon City… or the Rogue Isles. I’m not quite sure “which” locale sounds more appealing.

Stray Toasters

• Rather than going to bed at a nominally reasonable hour last night, I took time to set up my LEGO train alongside the Rokenbok Factory. I’ll have to take some pics of the “new” setup at some point.
• Speaking of LEGO: SaraRules and I are looking at the feasibility of visiting LEGOland: California in a couple of weeks, while in Lost Angles.
• Yes, I know “Los Angeles” is misspelled above.
• My Favorite James Bond portrayers, in descending order:

1. Sean Connery
2. Daniel Craig
3. Pierce Brosnan
4. George Lazenby / Roger Moore (tie)
5. Timothy Dalton

• I went the high-tech route an text messaged (rather than call) my father to tell him it was snowing. Again. He asked that I keep the snow out here and not send it eastward. Again.
• Falafel.  Black Ops.   Back, Crack and Sac Wax.
• From Wired: Best Vintage Tech Commercials
• For an as-yet unexplained reason, I had the chorus from Wake Me Up Before You Go Go stuck in my head this morning.
• I’ve been spending time on the Rokenbok site. Sweet, sweet ‘bok goodness…
• I got a call from this evening; she needed help troubleshooting a computer problem. A little mental “elbow grease” and a short time later, we sussed it out.
• 
• From Reuters: Election 2008 – The Latest on the Leading Candidates
• By way of Craigslist: Halloween Observations
• PokerStars makes a Mac client.
• Yet another item to add to the Covet List.
• It’s a REALLY quiet night in Paragon City.
• Chocolate Jesus Crunchies.

*BAMF*

Sunday – 30 December 2007
An intermittently snowy day in the SL Valley.

Last night, SaraRules and I assembled (and played with) the Rokenbok Monorail that I’ve had, but never assembled, for… four-and-a-half years. We had more fun than should be allowed. I also discovered that my X-Men Minimates are the same size as the Rokenbok figures. (“X-Men Save the Factory” storyboards, here I come!)

This morning started lazily and slowly. As there was not a new shipment of comics this week, I figured that I would not get to partake in the weekly “coffee and comics in bed” ritual.

I was mistaken.

I had forgotten that Meliko had gotten me Ocean for Christmas. And that’s what I read. It was a great story. Science fiction (or “speculative fiction,” if that suits you better). Mystery. Intrigue. And action. All in one story. Correction: All in one well-told story. It made for a great way to start the day. Tyranist: If you haven’t read this, I think that it would be up your alley. While I read Ocean, SaraRules read the Justice mini-series (1, 2, 3).

After we finished reading, it was time for a late breakfast and football. Imagine my surprise to discover that the Steelers-Ravens game was going to air in this market. You could have, happily, bowled me over with the proverbial feather. It was the final game of the season and a division rivalry game… and they broke out the all-black uniforms. The game was good. Really good. “Ravens on top early” good. The team came to play some serious ball. Granted, a lot of starters were out, due to injuries, but their replacements did a great job. Troy Smith looked good in the QB spot. Second-year RB Cory Ross was all over the place. New-to-the-Ravens LB Nick Grieson did a great job of covering the ball on the defensive side of the game. To their credit, with many of the Steelers’ starters out due to injury and/or injury avoidance (as the Steelers made the playoffs), their second-stringers played well. But, in the end, the Ravens came away with the win.

Tonight, SaraRules and I went to visit Chris and Mary for dinner and a couple of movies: Dollman vs. Demonic Toys and The Ice Pirates. Both of these movies were “Cool World-Long Kiss Goodnight” Scale fodder, but they were also fun to watch… especially in the company of friends. A couple of odd bits of IMDb-supported trivia:

1. Tracy Scoggins and Tim Thomerson (both in Dollman vs. Demonic Toys) and Mary Crosby (from The Ice Pirates) were all in episodes of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Scoggins was a regular cast member in the first season; Crosby and Thomerson were guest stars.
2. Crosby and Scoggins were also guest stars on episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

And now, we’re home, sipping hot chocolate and eating biscotti. Huzzah!

Stray Toasters

• I talked with Adam today; all’s well with him and Chelsea.
• My uncle called me in the middle of the second quarter of the Steelers-Ravens game. Just to say “hi” and to commiserate over the fact that the game wasn’t playing in his area.
• Nintendo Wii Hacked
• There’s a new Monorail Metropolis Start Set. *adds to Covet List*
• The Red Balloon has become a dangerous store for me: They carry Rokenbok toys.
• Going to a Go-Go: Hip-Hop repays its debt to Chuck Brown
• 
• What in the Nine Hells has Joe Quesada turned Marvel Comics into!?
• Jon Favreau talks Iron Man
• Three weeks to L.A.

Namaste.