Random Access

Saturday – 18 June 2011
I’m in Denver, Colorado.  More or less. Actually, I’m in Parker. But, it’s part of the Denver Metro Area… so, like I said: “I’m in Denver.”

We’re here for the wedding of one of SaraRules!’ cousins. We drove in yesterday, with her folks. After we got to town and settled into the hotel, we found a place to eat – Johnny’s Asian Bistro – which wasn’t half bad. Then, we headed up to the Hannah’s (the bride-to-be) and hung out with the family for a while. I got in some kid-time, as a couple of the hatchlings decided to hang out and play with me.

We got made it back to the hotel and pretty much crashed. Nine-plus hours in a car makes for a LONG day.

Today, we’re off to gallivant a bit before the reception; it’s a temple wedding (1, 2, 3) , so we’re just going to the ‘after-party,’ so to speak. I think that today’s excursion will include a trip to the Denver Botanic Gardens, the Black American West Museum, and maybe (HOPEFULLY) a trip to Caboose Hobbies, if time permits.

Stray Toasters

• My review of Green Lantern will most likely have to wait until I get back home. As a tide-me-over, here’s this from my very early Friday morning Facebook post:
  

  Just got home from seeing Green Lantern and REALLY should be putting more effort into getting to bed.

  I enjoyed the movie, not just as a GL fan, but as a comics-based movie fan. I would say that it leaned more towards “Fantastic Four” than “Superman: the Movie” or “Batman Begins/The Dark Knight,” but it was still fun.

  Would I pay to see it in a theatre again? Sure.
  Will I buy the DVD when it comes out? Yep.

• Chalk Art Festival brings artists together for a good cause
  If you’re in the Salt Lake City area and looking for a fun family event, go check it out!
• American Star Shines in House of Mirrors

Short and sweet… but we’re about to go attack the day.

Namaste.

Saturday – 11 June 2011
Yesterday was my youngest sister’s birthday:

Yesterday was also my 9/80 day off. And it was a good day. I started with a short trip to the gym. (This is almost getting to be a habit…)

• Elliptical: 15 minutes, ~5.75 MPH pace
• Bench press: 3 sets/8 reps — 2 sets @ 135, 1 set @ 155
• Curls (dumbbells, seated): 3 sets/10 reps, 25 lbs
• Shoulder Press (dumbbells, seated): 3 sets/10 reps, 35 lbs
• Compound Row: 3 sets/10 reps, 125 lbs.

Back home to get cleaned up and then I was off to Porcupine Pub and Grille for lunch with my friend, Emily. We’d not seen each other in a couple of years, so there was a fair bit of catching up to do. Next I popped in to say “Hi” to and .

Then… it was off to meet SaraRules! for another appointment with her doctor. Only, the doctor was “out,” as she got called to the hospital to deliver a baby. So, we met with a nurse instead. She checked on the babies and gave us a thumbs-up on their progress.

I made it back home (by way of The Train Shoppe) and played a bit of Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters before we went out to meet the usual suspects for Clitorati.

This morning, following a series of disturbing dreams and fitful sleep, I found myself awake at 0630. Rather than toss and turn in bed, I made my way to the couch and watched TV. I actually got to see The Rifleman (1, 2) for the first time in ages. Then, the TV started watching me, as I nodded in and out of sleep for the next hour-and-a-half.

Stray Toasters

• Gail, Jill and Babs: A Conversation about Oracle and Batgirl
• iCloud’s legal complaint
• Leonard B. Stern, Creator of Mad Libs, Dies at 88
• An A-Z of incredible uses for everyday things
• 
• Legends of the Joystick
• “Vampire” Stars Found in Heart of Our Galaxy
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Contortionist Hides in Suitcase to Steal from Bus Passengers
• Buried in Anonymity, and Ignominy, Too
• Borders tries to avoid closing 51 more stores
• 
• Citi Data Theft Points Up a Nagging Problem

Namaste.

Tuesday – 31 May 2011
I don’t know if this is Mother Nature’s parting gift or the setup for an incredibly cruel joke, but it’s a lovely morning. It’s sunny and clear, temps are in the 50s, on their way to the mid-70s. Everything about it says “Today’s going to be a great day.” Yet, my inner cynic is still waiting for the other metaphorical meteorological shoe to drop.

Yesterday was a fairly quiet, low-key day. SaraRules! and I did get a little productivity in, though. We added some new items to the baby registry. We looked at tile for the new bathroom. And, we discovered a new place to eat. Well, it’s not really “new,” as much as it’s “new to us:” Mama’s Plantation Restaurant, in the Midvale Family Center (near the Wal-Mart). had mentioned it a while back, but SaraRules! and I never got to visit it at its old location in Taylorsville. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that it wound up in our extended neighborhood. The food and the service were good. The pricing may be a little on the steep side, but it was a nice change of pace and someplace we will revisit.

…and tonight: Guys Night Out.

Stray Toasters

• Today is apparently World No Tobacco Day (1, 2)
  • World No Tobacco Day: Does it really help people quit smoking?
• Arts-Funding Site Gets ‘Kickstart’ from Business Bids
• Sheryl Sandberg: Why We Have Too Few Female Leaders
• 
• Suspended in Space, 103 Stories Above Chicago
• By way of SaraRules! and the “I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane train!” file: Vietnam on alert for smugglers after deadly snakes found on train
• Retailers Offer Apps With a Catalog Feel
• 
• Who’s to blame when gas costs $1 than last year?
• Housing Index Is Expected to Show New Low in Prices

On with the show…

Namaste.

Monday – 30 May 2011
Today is Memorial Day.

Please take time to remember those who have fallen in the line of duty to protect the freedoms that we hold dear.

This has been a good weekend. Saturday, I took Ron up to Clearfield to see the O-Gauge layout at Almosta Junction. My friend, Dee, met us there. One of the guys from Almosta offered to fire up a train and let it run. We took him up on it. After hanging around for a while, Ron and I headed back to SLC and over to shockpuppet and ‘s place for their summer kickoff barbecue. Mother Nature, however, had other ideas. The party wound up moving inside… but it was just as much fun. (And far less wet.)

Sunday was a sleeping-in day. I made it to 9:30. It was also a fairly lazy day, which came under the heading of “not a bad thing.” SaraRules! and I picked up Ron and headed up to the in-laws’ for dinner. After we ate, we watched a movie called Wild Target. It was a funny romp about a hit man who’s not-s0-sure he wants to stay in the business… and the problems he has completing his last assignment. While my FIL and MIL had seen it before, none of the rest of us had. It was quite worth a viewing.

Stray Toasters

• How to Observe Memorial Day Weekend
  • Forgetting Why We Remember, courtesy of
• microkosmic, by way of

  

• Painful workarounds from computer novices
• Review: ‘Wonder Woman’ Pilot
• 100,000 People (Including Princess Leia) Still Recieve Electoshock Therapy Each Year?
• Cleaning Up Japan’s Radioactive Mess with Blue Goo

Namaste.

Friday – 27 May 2011
It’s my 9/80 day off… and it’s the start of a four-day weekend. I’m good with that. I’m looking forward to a bit of downtime this weekend.

Last night, SaraRules! and I hit the local Noodles & Company for dinner, ran a few errands and then came home for a quiet evening in. I fired up the 360 and tried my hand at the CoD: Black Ops mission that’s been kicking my ass for the past little while. I finally had to look up some hints online. Same result, but I think I finally figured out what I need to do differently. (Aside from the general “not get killed” concept.)

This morning, I slept in… until 8:15. Hey, it’s later than my normal mornings, so it counts as “sleeping in.” After seeing SaraRules! off to work – and puttering around the house for a bit – I dragged my sorry carcass out of the house and into the gym for the first time in [REDACTED]! I have witnesses to prove it — I ran into ‘s dad and former coworker/current co-gamer Josh. Today’s workout consisted of:

• Elliptical: 20 mintues/Level 3/Random, pacing between 5.0 and 5.5 MPH
• Bench Press: 3 sets/8 reps, 135 lbs.  (Gotta start somewhere…)
• Curls (dumbbell, seated): 3 sets/10 reps, 20 lbs
• Lateral Raises (with Flys): 2 sets/10 reps, 10 lbs
• Shoulder Press (dumbbell): 3 sets/8 reps, 30 lbs
• Flys: 3 sets/8 reps, 100 lbs

Not too bad for the first workout in a while. It’s my One Little Victory of the morning.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules! found – and sent – a link to an alternate version of Starfish and Coffee. I like it.
• Union Pacific’s Great Excursion Adventure is under way!
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Tiki Barber under fire for outrageous Anne Frank comparison
• 
• 2011 Twilight Concert Series Announced
• I caught this item, Christopher Meloni responds to my SVU comic, by way of Comics Alliance yesterday. What cracked me up was the following:
  

  I got the email at work, and as soon as I read it, I said “HOLY SHIT” pretty loudly (and I then had to explain the whole thing to my boss, because you don’t get to say something like that and then say, “Oh, nothing”). First, I was excited because Christopher Meloni is totally rad (if you somehow have not seen Wet Hot American Summer, what is wrong with you?). Second, I was even more excited that Ice T had seen my comic and apparently liked it; I had assumed that if he ever saw my comic, he’d tell me to eat a hot bowl of dicks. (Thanks, Ice T, for not telling me to do that! Because I would have done it, out of respect. Respect and fear.)

  What made it curious was that the “…eat a hot bowl of dicks” part had a link attached to it. That bore investigation. The link led to was: Ice-T to Aimee Mann: ‘Eat a Hot Bowl of Dicks’, which was apparently the Twitter equivalent of a drive-by. And the account was hilarious. It almost made me want to sign up for a Twitter account. Almost.

• 
• Shore Things: 12 Essentials for Every Man’s Beach Bag
• Passenger coached to fly plane after pilot incapacitated
• When Children’s Scribbles Hide a Prison Drug
• 
• Study Questions Treatment Used in Heart Disease
• Mahna Mahna…
  (do-DO-do-do-do)

Time to find some lunch and get on with the day.

Wednesday – 25 May 2011
It’s not just midweek. Nor is it just new comics day or D&D 4.0 game night…

Today is also Towel Day. (1, 2)

For those who don’t grok why a towel should have it’s own day, perhaps this will help explain it:

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)¹

That pretty much sums it up.

Last night, SaraRules! and I ran a few errands – including setting up a baby registry at the local Babies ‘R’ Us – and then capped the evening with cups of ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. We also (finally) got around to watching last season’s finale of NCIS… which, not so oddly, explained a few things about this past season. Go figure.

Stray Toasters

• Given that the sun was out for about seven hours before I got home, I mowed the lawn yesterday. I may have cut it a little shorter than I had originally planned… but it’s cut. And it looks much better. Now, I just need to find some time to do the edging.
• What Will Come After
• The Facts (and Fiction) of Tornadoes
• A New Approach to Railroad Switching
• USA comes up a bit short in global Better Life Index
• 
• Oh, the Stuff Those Lions Guard
• Secret Origins: Firestorm
• Google Expected to Introduce a Wireless Payment System
• This is what happens when we don’t vaccinate
• 
• The Stanford Prison Experiment
• Chrysler Pays Back Rescue Loan

Quote of the Day
“Rebar is not forgiving…”

So long and thanks for all the fish.

¹ — Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Friday – 20 May 2011
It’s my working Friday. We’ll see just how much monkeydom there is to deal with today. Hopefully, it won’t be too much.

Last night, SaraRules! and I went out for dinner at Pawit’s Royale Thai. As usual, the food was delicious. Pawit came out and chatted with us for a few. After that – and a quick trip to say “Hi” to the in-laws – we headed to one of the local Home Depot stores to look at bathtubs. That’s right, we’re about to kick “Project: Renovate” into gear.

Tonight, I get to hang out with a friend of mine from home whom I haven’t seen in roughly ten years.

Stray Toasters

• After talking about the Edmund Fitzgerald yesterday, Corey sent me this link about Odyssey Marine Exploration: A Bountiful Undersea Find, Sure to Invite Debate
• Make My Bed? But You Say the World’s Ending
• Gas prices could plummet for summer driving
• 
• The Real and Fascinating Origin of the Bikini
• America’s First Monorail
  • 1943 color photo of a Topeka, Kansas train yard
• Implant Allows Paralyzed Man to Move
• I’m getting tired of all of the “event” comics series coming out.  When it was one every few years, that was fine. You had an event and it meant something. Now, it’s just “Hey! You!  Buy this mini-series… and while you’re at it, buy all of these tie-ins!” Blah.
• Deal Reached on Extension of Patriot Act
• 
• Playboy puts all 57 years of its magazines online
  But, you’ll probably just click on it for the articles…
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Yes, a Cat-Food Brand Has Created Three iPad Games for Cats
• I think that I’m going to try and fix my 360’s RRoD.  God help us both.

Namaste.

Thursday – 19 May 2011
It’s another grey and rainy day here. I’m beginning to wonder if someone switched Seattle and Salt Lake City’s locations in the middle of the night.

Yesterday was not only new comics day, but also D&D 4.0 game night. We broke in a “new” venue: Dr. Volt’s Comic Connection, as we had become… disenchanted, shall we say… with Hastur Hobbies. It was a good change of pace — we could actually hear each other and the store wasn’t all asses-and-elbows. Thanks again to Dave and Jeremiah for letting us use the store to geek out.

Long Train Running
As I’ve been working on my home layout, thoughts of running multiple trains has been part of the nominal planning process. One of the ideas I’ve had included a three-level design, with a subway, a main/freight line and an el/commuter line. This put me right on… umm, track… for that, although I may no longer do a three-level design, with the current layout.

As I’ve noted before, my mother got me the MTH Bantam J Steam Freight Set for Christmas. For my birthday last year, my father got me a copy of The Illustrated Dictionary of Trains of the World. Inside was a note:

Rob,
The Powhatan Arrow (1, 2) came through Keystone, WV (and stopped at Northfork) en route from Norfolk, VA to Cincinnati during my childhood.

When you and I traveled from Baltimore to Bluefield, train (passenger) service had been curtailed greatly…

While I wanted a passenger train line, I didn’t really have much in mind as to which road name I wanted. The Bantam J was the engine that pulled the ‘Arrow. That started wheels turning in my head. I started looking at Norfolk & Western passenger cars.

Earlier this week, I received my first passenger cars in the mail, three cars from Lionel (#16062, #16063, and #16064). These were good. I put them on the rails and ran them. And, I was pleased.

Yesterday I received another package… another package with train cars. They were three of the four cars from MTH-67418. And these were even better. The detailing on the cars – especially since these were “just” from MTH’s Rail-King (their lower price point) line – was fantastic.

And, of course, I took pictures of the new cars on the layout.

There’s something fun – and somewhat special to me – about having a train on my layout that’s representative of something that my parents would have seen in their youth.

Stray Toasters

• How to Choose a Tie
• By way of SaraRules!: The Cosby Sweater Project
• An Artist’s Performance: A Year as a Poor Immigrant
• 
• Starbucks is/are everywhere.
  Lady Gaga seems to be everywhere.
  So, this sounds pretty much like a match made in Heaven.
• Raiders allow employees to sell season tickets in lieu of furlough
• Corey and I just (re-)introduced a couple of coworkers to two songs that were (for some reason) hits in the 70s:
  • Escape, by Rupert Holmes and
  • The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, by Gordon Lightfoot… which I contend is one of the – if not THE – most depressing song ever.
• In Florida, the Natives Are Restless
• Olive Garden lasagna!
• New tax deal may speed Cottonwood Mall revival

Namaste.

Monday – 16 May 2011
A new week begins.  My week, however, will begin a little later than some others’, as I started the day with a trip to the doctor’s office. It was another appointment to make sure that Babies A & B are progressing as they should. (They are.)

This weekend was a good one:  Saturday, I stopped in at Dr. Volt’s Comic Connection to say “Hi” to Valerie Finnigan. She was there for a book signing and to promote her horror book, which is due this fall. After that, I traipsed up to Clearfield. (Hey… I had air and opportunity.) I picked up a few track pieces. I also stopped at The Train Shoppe when I got back to SLC, but left empty-handed.

Back home to clean up and get presentable for Utah Opera’s opening of Falstaff (1, 2), adapted from Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. The cast and crew of the production put on a delightful show. Although it’s a comedic opera, it didn’t suffer from being “too” over-the-top; director Christopher Mattaliano did an excellent job of balancing the opera’s humor with just the right amounts of (semi-)seriousness. It was quite a fun way to spend the evening.

Sunday, SaraRules!, Angy, and I went up to Millcreek Eggworks and Cafe for brunch. Mmm, coffee cake…  After a very satisfying meal, came back and helped me get the sprinklers online. (No busted sprinkler heads! Hoo-AH!) Later in the afternoon, SaraRules! and I made a pilgrimage to The Garden of Sweden. We didn’t buy anything, but we did come out with a couple of ideas. In the evening, we headed up to John’s (one of UO’s resident artists) for a birthday cookout. That was a LOT of fun. And we capped the evening with a visit to the in-laws… for yet more dessert!

Stray Toasters

• Space Shuttle Endeavour Is Readied, Once Again, for Its Final Launching
  • Farewell, my space shuttle
• An Explorer of Black History’s Uncharted Terrain
  • Entry from January 2010 I wrote about seeing Freedom Riders
• 14 Ways to Make Yourself Better Right Now
• 
• Rhode Island’s Medicaid Experiment Becomes a Talking Point for Budget Cutters
  • The real reasons why our health care costs are so high
  • Nursing Homes Seek Exemptions From Health Law
• I finally remembered to get some pictures and video of the new train layout.
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car up for auction
• Renaissance at Salt Lake Art Center
• The 43 best obnoxious responses to misspellings on Facebook
• Welcome back, Sony Online Entertainment and Playstation Network.
  • 
• I discovered something while reading a blog entry from . I didn’t realize that William Marshall (1, 2) the actor who played Dr. Richard Daystrom on the Star Trek: TOS episode “The Ultimate Computer,” also played Blacula in two movies AND was the King of Cartoons on Pee-wee’s Playhouse.  For some reason, I just never connected the dots.
• Foods With Benefits, or So They Say
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Australian dies after ‘planking’ on balcony, police say
• War Machines (with Gymnasts)

Namaste.

Saturday – 14 May 2011
I apparently am not as good as I’d like to be at the whole “sleeping in” thing. Yesterday, I was up at 7:15. Today, I was up at 8:15. Oh, well. It gives me time to do things. Exactly “what” those things are, I’m not sure yet.

Yesterday, SaraRules!, her mother and I went up to Park City. The weather was perfect — 70F and sunny, with light breezes. Perfect shopping weather.

Veni. Sumi. Vroomi.
We came. We shopped. We left.

After we got back to town, and dropped of the MIL, SaraRules! and I headed to Downtown Philly Cheesesteaks to get lunch. Cheesesteaks. Birch beer. Tastykakes. I’d definitely call that a lunchtime “win.” Back home for a bit and then off to coffee and dinner.

Today, I’m going to head up to Dr. Volt’s and see Valerie Finnigan at her book signing.  There’s a barbecue at Pin-up Girl Espresso, as they are temporarily closing their Cottonwood Heights location while IHC builds a medical center on the 6200 block of Highland… so we’re definitely stopping there. And, I’m also trying to decide whether or not a trip to Almosta Junction is in my plans.

And, tonight: Falstaff.

Stray Toasters

• Testimony of Mike Rowe
• Life-sized HALO Master Chief costume made out of LEGO
• Confessions of a Hollywood Stuntman
  And, of course, that reminded me of this:

• Just a thought: Since a couple of studios are trying to shop superhero-/comic book-related properties, why not change their target stations?  Instead of going for NBC/ABC/CBS, why not see about stations who might have a better demographic/target audience?  To me, it seems as though USA Networks (“Characters welcome”) and/or SyFy (I still think that was about the most inane “name change” possible…) or even Warner Brothers’ own CW would have been ideal choices for some of the new programming.  But that’s just my 2¢ worth.
  • 
• Sizzle at Cannes Film Festival
• Dropbox Lied to Users About Data Security, FCC Complaint Alleges
• Cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt’s useful advice for living

  

• How to Stock Your Home Toolkit
• Zero Charisma – An indie comedy about the greatest Dungeon Master ever.
  This trailer was pretty funny.
• Building the Empire Strikes Bike
• Access Denied! 18 Places Google Maps Won’t Let You See

Namaste.

Friday – 13 May 2011
It’s Friday, the 13th.
It’s also my 9/80 day off.
That can’t be a bad thing… can it?!

I just thought of something:

• Friday the 13th has a negative connotation, thanks to superstitious beliefs.
• Olivia Wilde’s character on House is nicknamed “Thirteen.”

Why not just take the “best of both worlds” and just start referring to Friday the 13th as “Olivia Wilde Day?”

It could work…

Last night, SaraRules! and I had dinner at Dask’s. Mmm, tasty greek food. From there, we headed up to visit the in-laws. While there, I discovered that I might have inadvertently caused a… misunderstanding… with my sister-in-law-to-be: Apparently, when she read Tuesday’s post (about going over to the in-laws’ for banana rum cake), she thought that there was some dinner that I and had been invited to… and to which she and Logan hadn’t been. Nope.  He just happened to show up on the same night that my MIL and FIL were having me over, in an effort to keep me from being home alone while SaraRules! was in Beantown.

No conspiracy.

No big secret.

But, hilariously funny in the retelling by my father-in-law.

Sorry, Swiz.

After we got home, I headed down into the train room and finished work on the new layout, based on Michael Fritschie’s 8×12 layout. It doesn’t have the sidings or the wye reversing loop – and I changed the far right curve to O48 – but it looks and runs well.  And… it allows for two trains to run at the same time!  Win.  I still have a bit of clean-up to do, but I really like the way it turned out. Now, all I need to do is wait for my passenger cars to show up, so I can run both a freight and a passenger line at the same time.

I tried sleeping in this morning. It worked… sort of.  I slept until 7:15. At that point, I just got up and decided to watch a bit of TV. It was mostly DVR fare, but it kept me out of trouble.

I’m not sure what’s on tap for today. I think that we are heading up to Park City to do some shopping. I wouldn’t mind making a run to Clearfield, but I may put that off until tomorrow.

Stray Toasters

• If you’re in the area of 33rd South and 20th East tomorrow, drop into Dr. Volt’s Comic Connection. Valerie Finnigan, one of the authors of Untold Stories from Iraq and Afghanistan, will be doing a book signing from 12 to 3.
• Despite White House Report Advocating Arts Education, Budgets Face Cuts
• NBC Passes on Wonder Woman
  • NBC Turns Down David E. Kelley’s ‘Wonder Woman’ TV Pilot
• 
• White House Wants Tougher Penalties for Computer Breaches
• Smallville ends its ten-year run tonight. My friend, Jake Black, worked on the show for a while.
  • 5 Smallville Spinoffs We Would Actually Watch
    A ‘Legion: Lost’ show?  I’d be there.  And, I’d watch good Booster Gold show, too.  Just saying.
• Disaster Plan Problems Found at U.S. Nuclear Plants
• Classical Music Never Goes Out of Style

Up. Out.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 10 May 2011
Another grey day in the valley. The forecast says we have a 60% chance of rain. With as much rain as we’ve had lately, it’s hard to remember that we live on a high desert plain… where the streets have no name.  (No, the song wasn’t written about Salt Lake City, but it was a reference that I couldn’t pass up. And, besides, it has a fun video…)

Today is also my friend, Justin’s, birthday:

Yesterday afternoon, I received a message from my mother-in-law, inviting me over for homemade banana rum cake. Not being completely foolish, I told her that I’d be there. After work, I stopped at Pin-up Girl Espresso and chatted with Jim on the way home. I remembered that I needed to pick up a few track pieces for the new layout idea, so I jetted up to West Valley Hobbies before heading to the in-laws’.  When I got there, my MIL asked if I had eaten dinner – I hadn’t – so she fed me, as well: She’d made an amazing chicken curry dish whose exact name eludes me. After I’d finished, we – MIL, FIL and lj user=”djviking” – had cake and chatted the rest of the evening away. As if feeding me and giving me dessert wasn’t enough, I was even sent home with leftovers for lunch. Win! (In case I haven’t said it before/recently: I totally hit the jackpot in the In-Laws Lottery.

When I finally made it home, I decided to mess around with my train layout. This came under the heading of “Good Idea/Bad Idea,” as it was slightly more of an undertaking that I had planned on. I was up until [REDACTED] working on it. Yes, I know… I’m going to have to tear the whole thing down (again) when we start framing the room, but I was in the mood for something different. The trackwork is almost finished and I need to figure out where buildings will go and in which areas I’ll be able to add the SuperStreets track.

It probably goes without saying, but I made this morning’s coffee extra-strong. Thank God.

Today is also a suit day. (Added bonus: It was clean and required no prep work.) Today’s option: Navy suit, white spread-collar shirt, pink-and-blue tie, pink pocket square, maroon loafers.

Stray Toasters

• Navy chaplains cleared to perform same-sex marriages
• A Brewery Is Recreating George Washington’s Personal Beer Recipe
• Flight Attendant Fashion Through the Years

  

  Hmm, that looks vaguely familiar.  I can’t remember where I’ve seen something like that before…

  

  Oh… right.

• Microsoft in Talks to Acquire Skype for $8.5 Billion
• For Journalists, a Call to Rethink Online Models
• More Familiar ‘Spider-Man’ Hopes to Bury the Dark
• Star Wars PSAs

  

• Amtrak, 15 states get Florida’s $2B in high-speed rail money
• The Town That Banned Pac-Man
• 30 Geeky Weddings
  I have actually been to Metropolis, IL and stood in front of that Superman statue (7th pic from the bottom)
• Exonerated Inmates Fight Lawyer’s Lobbying Fees

And…. that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Monday – 09 May 2011
It’s a rainy night in Georgia day here in the Land Behind the Zion Curtain. (But, at least it isn’t snowing, like it is in the southern part of the state.)

Yesterday was a long day. Not because I had so many things to do. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I had so much free time that I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.

I started by sleeping in. That was followed by mowing the lawn (before it started raining). After a quick shower, I was hit with the first bout of indecision over what to do. I passed the time by surfing the Internet. When I finally got it in mind to get something to eat, it was early afternoon. I decided to head up to MacCool’s Public House. I had Finn’s Skins, along with the Buffalo Shepherd’s Pie… and a pint o’ Guinness. After lunch, I stopped in to wish

Back home for Round 2 of “What Do I Do Now?” (That, again, translated into some more surfing.) I also started looking at a couple of books that contained some ideas that I want to incorporate into my train layout. Yes, I believe that the layout – or at least half of it – might get a bit of an overhaul in the next few days. Around 6:15, I decided to have some more limited human interaction by heading over to the local Barnes & Noble and doing some drawing. Fortunately, I decided to look up the store’s hours before driving there: The store closed at 7:00. Feh. More surfing. I remembered that I still needed to do some grocery shopping, so I did that.

After I returned home, I put away the goods, ran a load of dishes and treated myself to a snack and some TV time. I caught up on a little more Human Target – and cleared a bit more space on the DVR – before calling it a night.

Stray Toasters

• Comic Books as Education
• I picked up three new cars for my railroad. Passenger cars. If I go with the layout scheme that I’m thinking of, I’ll be able to run two trains – one freight, one passenger – concurrently.
• 
• Obama Has a Bridge He Wants to Sell You
• The Utah Museum of Fine Arts is presenting: The Smithson Effect
• 8 False Tea Party-Republican Memes to Talk About Before You Go to the Polls
• Blogger announces own death after battle with cancer
• 
• Video: Bionic legs helping people walk
• Sci-Fi Ikea Manuals
• “Thor Loser”
• Hillary Clinton Photoshopped Out of Situation Room Photo

And now… Lunch from the Chow Truck!

Namaste.

Saturday – 07 May 2011
It’s the weekend. Amen.

Last night, SaraRules! and I – along with a few friends and family – went to see Thor. Kenneth Branagh did a great job of tackling 40+ years of comics history, adapting it and making it accessible to fans and non-fans alike. Chris Hemsworth was good in the title role, and Natalie Portman was a fun Jane Foster — who made the transition from nurse (in the 60s comics) to scientist. Clark Gregg also had a nice turn, reprising his role as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Colson. I managed to catch all five of the Easter Eggs, as noted in this MTV article… and saw – and completely glossed over – this one, until a friend noted it after the movie. It was a fun movie and a good start to the summer movie season.

This morning, I was up early-ish, to take SaraRules! to the airport. She’s got a conference on Beantown next week, meaning that I’m a bachelor for the next four-and-a-half days. After that, I met Nyx and Jeff at the Wasatch Community Gardens Plant Sale — SaraRules! wanted some plants, but that whole “leaving on a jet plane” thing kind of precluded her from going. I picked up the plants, brought them home and got them in the ground.

I’m trying to figure out the day’s next evil plot. I need to run up to Dr. Volt’s for Free Comic Book Day. Then probably lunch… or a trip to a train shop… or both. Then, it’s back to Dr. Volt’s this evening to run a tournament. No rest for the wicked, I guess.

Stray Toasters

• Today is also National Train Day.
  
• Yesterday came with two bits of news for HeroClix fans:
  • WizKids previewed two figuresfrom their upcoming Green Lantern movie tie-in set.
  • HeroClix World sneaked a look at this Autumn’s Superman set… including new Legion of Super-Heroes figures!
• From the “Sometimes, people suck…” file: Muslim group: Two imams pulled from plane bound for North Carolina

Yeah, I’m sure there’s more that I could add, but I’m going to go play in the sunshine!

Namaste.

Tuesday – 03 May 2011
After the spectacular day we had yesterday, Tuesday greets us with dull, grey clouds. The forecast says nothing about rain, but we’ll have to see what Mother Nature has planned.

Perhaps I typed too soon. Looking across the valley, I see sunlight on the tops of the Oquirrh Mountains.

Last night, SaraRules! fixed a magnificent pan-fried steak – along with a broccoli/potato/cheese dish and salad – for dinner. After dinner, we decided to do some walking. We took a stroll through the local Babies ‘R’ Us. I hadn’t been to a BRU in years; and the last time was to pick up a gift for friends who either were having or just had a new kid. The experience is “a little” different when you’re shopping for own household. It’s literally amazing how many things there are for your baby (to toddler) there.

Back at home, I surfed the Interwebs for a bit. I stopped for a while when I hit Marvel.com’s coverage of the U.S. premiere of Thor, hosted by Isaiah Mustafa. It. Was. HILARIOUS. It was him and a cameraman interviewing the cast and Kenneth Branagh as they walked down the red carpet. While I’ve seen the What The–?! with Mr. Mustafa as Luke Cage…

…I didn’t know just how much of a comic book fan he was. (Apparently, he’s quite the fan.) It was fun to watch/listen to him geek out on different comics-related items between – and during – the interviews. It’s two hours long, but it’s worth it for his interview with Jaimie Alexander (Sif) alone. (That’s roughly 1:45:00 into the stream.) The part where Josh Dallas (Fandral) riffs on Mustafa’s Old Spice Guy is also worth a watch.

After that, we watched a bit of Top Gear before calling it a night. It was a rerun of the episode in which James May drove up the side of a volcano.

Stray Toasters

• I apparently neglected to note that this week is Teacher Appreciation Week.
• Superman made his first appearance on May 3, 1938.

• Moss, Black Hat founder, named CSO of ICANN
• Army Corps Blows Up Missouri Levee
• By way of Nyx: Vintage bombers in air and on display in Salt Lake City
• Other upcoming events include:
  • Free Comic Book Day – 07 May 2011
  • National Train Day – 07 May 2011
    • There will be an event for this at Ogden Union Station, from 10 – 5
• 20 Insanely Creative Bookshelves
• 
• Is the Southwest-Air Tran merger a good deal for fliers?
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Mummified body of former Playboy playmate Yvette Vickers found in her Benedict Canyon home
• Bam! Healing war wounds through comic books
  • At this point, I’ll take a moment to mention Untold Stories from Iraq & Afghanistan, once again.
• Free Speech Zone Runs Afoul of SLC Sign Ordinance
• Also from Nyx: Mouse Study Suggests Why Addictions Are Hard to Forget
• Tradition vs. Progress: The Art of the American Fire Helmet

Namaste.