Union Pacific's Great Excursion Adventure

The Great Date Night Adventure!

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Tuesday – 08 February 2011
It’s a sunny day in the valley. That is in stark contrast to the snow that fell yesterday afternoon and last night. Although, on the “plus” side: The air is clean(er) and you can see across the valley:

Last night, SaraRules! and I had a Date Night Adventure! It was really just supposed to be dinner and a concert, but the first half turned into something of an ordeal. Shortly after last month’s Preservation Hall Jazz Band concert, we learned that Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra was going to be performing.

So, we decided to go and celebrate Valentine’s Day a little early.

This came under the heading of “Good Theory.”
“Practical Application” went a little something like this:

We drove to the University of Utah campus and found parking. We walked down to 13th East, as we had planned to eat at Aristo’s, a restaurant that SaraRules! had heard was good and wanted to try. We walked in to find they had at least a 45-minute wait. No good.

We walked next door to Indochine, a Vietnamese restaurant. The restaurant was fairly packed and there wasn’t anyone at the front counter. Again, no good.

We headed over to Market Street Broiler… and were met with people walking out, saying that they’d lost some power – the block across the street had a complete power outage – and were closing. *sigh*  We were starting to see a pattern and it wasn’t good.

We then walked back down to B&D Burger. We were at the “beggars can’t be choosers” point of the evening and we were also running out of time. It was 6:30 PM when we walked in and the concert started at 7:30. Fortunately, we were only a five-minute walk from the hall. SaraRules!, in her near-infinite wisdom, suggested that we grab what looked like the last available table before we ordered. (Very good call on her part.) We stood in line for about 10 minutes, as the place was full of people – like us – who were unable to get into the other restaurants. We ordered and we sat down and waited.

6:50…

7:00…

7:05…

Around this time, SaraRules! went up “to have words” with the young lady at the counter. Granted, the place was full and the cook – the sole cook – was busy, but apparently the cashier had an “Oh, well…” attitude about the whole affair. And, at no point did anyone call in additional help to cover the rush.

7:15…

SaraRules! went back to the counter to get our order “to go.” Many other patrons had just decided to leave, without getting their orders AND without demanding refunds. (SaraRules! told me later that the cashiers were like “Hey… more money for us!” about those customers.) Contrast that attitude with this, taken from the back of the customer survey card:

We got our food about 7:25 PM. We hurried back to the car – we couldn’t exactly take our dinner into Kingsbury Hall – dropped off the boxes, took our gyros with us and ate them as we headed to the hall.

Fortunately, the performance started a few minutes late. I literally sat down a couple of seconds before the orchestra started playing.

It was a fantastic performance. One expects excellence when listening to Wynton Marsalis play. It was great to see… um, hear…  that he surrounded himself with phenomenal talent, as well. It was an amazing show. There was no band leader/conductor. In fact, Wynton Marsalis wasn’t even front and center; he played on the third row, with the rest of the trumpeters. Mr. Marsalis even explained, between a couple of the pieces, why we saw the band talking amongst themselves during the performance: It was to decide who was going to solo or be featured in some pieces. On the fly. They played for about an hour-and-a-half and came back for an amazing encore. It was a great way to cap off an evening that began less-than-auspiciously.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
Today, let’s take a look at the Harlem Renaissance.

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the “New Negro Movement”, named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke. Though it was centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, many French-speaking black writers from African and Caribbean colonies who lived in Paris were also influenced by the Harlem Renaissance.

The Harlem Renaissance is unofficially recognized to have spanned from about 1919 until the early or mid 1930s. Many of its ideas lived on much longer. The zenith of this “flowering of Negro literature”, as James Weldon Johnson preferred to call the Harlem Renaissance, was placed between 1924 (the year that Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life hosted a party for black writers where many white publishers were in attendance) and 1929 (the year of the stock market crash and the beginning of the Great Depression).

The Harlem Renaissance grew out of the changes that had taken place in the African American community since the abolition of slavery. These accelerated as a consequence of World War I and the great social and cultural changes in early 20th century United States. Industrialization was attracting people to cities from rural areas and gave rise to a new mass culture. Contributing factors leading to the Harlem Renaissance were the Great Migration of African Americans to northern cities, which concentrated ambitious people in places where they could encourage each other, and the First World War, which had created new industrial work opportunities for tens of thousands of people. Factors leading to the decline of this era include the Great Depression.

Characterizing the Harlem Renaissance was an overt racial pride that came to be represented in the idea of the New Negro, who through intellect and production of literature, art, and music could challenge the pervading racism and stereotypes to promote progressive or socialist politics, and racial andsocial integration. The creation of art and literature would serve to “uplift” the race.

There would be no uniting form singularly characterizing the art that emerged out of the Harlem Renaissance. Rather, it encompassed a wide variety of cultural elements and styles, including a Pan-Africanist perspective, “high-culture” and “low-culture” or “low-life,” from the traditional form of music to the blues and jazz, traditional and new experimental forms in literature such as modernism and the new form of jazz poetry. This duality meant that numerous African-American artists came into conflict with conservatives in the black intelligentsia, who took issue with certain depictions of black life.

Some common themes represented during the Harlem Renaissance were the influence of the experience of slavery and emerging African-American folk traditions on black identity, the effects of institutional racism, the dilemmas inherent in performing and writing for elite white audiences, and the question of how to convey the experience of modern black life in the urban North.

The progress—both symbolic and real—during this period, became a point of reference from which the African-American community gained a spirit of self-determination that provided a growing sense of both Black urbanity and Black militancy as well as a foundation for the community to build upon for the Civil Rights struggles in the 1950s and 1960s.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

“Time, time, time, see what’s become of me…”

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Monday – 07 February 2011
It’s Monday.
And the NFL 2010-2011 championship title has returned to Titletown.  But, more on that in a minute.

It was a good weekend. There was a fair bit crammed into the three days. Highlights include:

  1. A trip to Ogden to visit Wonderful World of Trains, The Bookshelf, as well as Almosta Junction on Friday, with .
  2. A trip to Jitterbug Coffee Hop for the first time in a very long while.
  3. A good HeroClix tournament on Saturday.
  4. The Super Bowl yesterday.

Sure, there were other things that happened over the weekend, but those were the big ticket items.

And, tonight, SaraRules! and I are celebrating an early Valentine’s Day by going out to dinner (none of those Feb. 14th dinner crowds for us!) and going to Kingsbury Hall to hear Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra perform.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
Today’s person of note: Althea Gibson

Althea Gibson was a World No. 1 American sportswoman who became the first African-American woman to be a competitor on the world tennis tour and the first to win a Grand Slam title in 1956. She is sometimes referred to as “the Jackie Robinson of tennis” for breaking the color barrier.

Gibson continued to improve her tennis game while pursuing an education. In 1946 she moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, to work on her tennis game with Dr. Hubert A. Eaton and enrolled at Williston High School.

In 1958, Gibson retired from amateur tennis. Before the open era began, there was no prize money, other than an expense allowance, and no endorsement deals. To begin earning prize money, tennis players had to give up their amateur status. As there was no professional tour for women, Gibson was limited to playing in a series of exhibition tours.

According to Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, Gibson was ranked in the world top ten from 1956 through 1958, reaching a career high of No. 1 in those rankings in 1957 and 1958. Gibson was included in the year-end top ten rankings issued by the United States Tennis Association in 1952 and 1953 and from 1955 through 1958. She was the top-ranked U.S. player in 1957 and 1958.

In 1971, Gibson was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and in 1975, she was appointed the New Jersey state commissioner of athletics. After 10 years on the job, she went on to work in other public service positions, including serving on the governor’s council on physical fitness.

On September 28, 2003, at the age of 76, Gibson died in East Orange, New Jersey due to circulatory failure and was interred there in the Rosedale Cemetery.

On the opening night of the 2007 US Open, the 50th anniversary of Gibson’s victory at the US Championships in 1957 (now the US Open), Gibson was inducted into US Open Court of Champions.

Instant Replay: Football
Yesterday, Super Bowl XLV was played in The Temple of Jones Cowboy Stadium…

Pittsburgh Steelers at Green Bay Packers
25 – 31
The Steelers and the Packers, teams from a couple of blue-collar towns, battled for the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

The Packers took advantage of key Pittsburgh turnovers in the first half, establishing a 21 – 10 lead by halftime.
The Steelers returned to form in the second half, scoring 22 points and coming within two minutes of potentially winning the game, but couldn’t pull all of the pieces together to make it work.

Congratulations to the Packers on their win.

Stray Toasters

That’s good for now.

Namaste.

“Do you have an opinion? A mind of your own? I thought you were special… I thought you should know.”

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Friday – 04 February 2011
It’s my 9/80 day off. Amen.

Today is also World Cancer Day.

Last night, Mary and Matt came over for dinner. SaraRules! made breaded pecan chicken strips, scalloped potatoes and a zucchini/squash mix for dinner. Mary and May brought a cake for dessert. Dinner, the company and the conversation were all very good. After our company left, I finished reading this week’s four-color haul and played a little (a very little) DCUO before calling it a day.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
Since it’s the weekend, and it’s going to be “a little” busy, you’re getting THREE entries:

  • Dorothy Jean Dandridge was an American actress and popular singer, and was the first African-American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

    She performed as a vocalist in venues such as the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater. In 1954, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Carmen Jones. By 1956, still under contract to Fox, Dandridge hadn’t made any films since Carmen Jones. Fox still believed that Dorothy was a star, but just didn’t know how to promote her. One of the head chiefs at Fox once said “She’s a star, but we don’t have any films to put her in or leading men to cast her opposite.”

    In 1957 Dorothy’s luck came back when Darryl F. Zanuck cast Dandridge as Margot, a restless young Indian woman, in his controversial film version of, Island in the Sun, co-starring stars such as Joan Fontaine, James Mason, Harry Belafonte, Joan Collins, Michael Rennie, and Stephen Boyd. This film was a success which brought Dandridge back to the public eye. Determined to reinvent her career, she decided to wait on Fox to call for her to make a film.

    In 1959, Columbia Pictures cast Dorothy in the lead role of Bess in Porgy and Bess; Dorothy was again nominated for a award, this time for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Dorothy was again eager to see if she was to win the award, but she once again lost. A few weeks later Dorothy was released from her 20th Century Fox contract.

    Dandridge was married and divorced twice, first to dancer and entertainer Harold Nicholas (the father of her daughter, Harolyn Suzanne) and then to Jack Denison. Dandridge died of an accidental drug overdose, at the age of 42.

  • Ralph Waldo Ellison was a novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer.

    Ralph Ellison, named after Ralph Waldo Emerson, was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Lewis Alfred Ellison and Ida Millsap.In 1933, Ellison entered the Tuskegee Institute on a scholarship to study music. Tuskegee’s music department was perhaps the most renowned department at the school, headed by the conductor William L. Dawson. While he studied music primarily in his classes, he spent increasing amounts of time in the library, reading up on modernist classics.

    During World War II, Ellison joined the Merchant Marine, and in 1946 he married his second wife, Fanny McConnell. She worked as a photographer to help sustain Ellison. From 1947 to 1951 he earned some money writing book reviews, but spent most of his time working on Invisible Man. Fanny also helped type Ellison’s longhand text and assisted her husband in editing the typescript as it progressed.

    Published in 1952, Invisible Man explores the theme of man’s search for his identity and place in society, as seen from the perspective of an unnamed black man in the New York City of the 1930s. In contrast to his contemporaries such as Richard Wright and James Baldwin, Ellison created characters that are dispassionate, educated, articulate and self-aware. Through the protagonist, Ellison explores the contrasts between the Northern and Southern varieties of racism and their alienating effect. The narrator is “invisible” in a figurative sense, in that “people refuse to see” him, and also experiences a kind of dissociation. The novel, with its treatment of taboo issues such as incest, won the National Book Award in 1953.

    In 1964, Ellison published Shadow and Act, a collection of essays, and began to teach at Rutgers University and Yale University, while continuing to work on his novel. The following year, a survey of 200 prominent literary figures was released that proclaimed Invisible Man the most important novel since World War II.

    Ralph Ellison died on April 16, 1994 of pancreatic cancer, and was buried at Trinity Church Cemetery in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City.

  • Ella Jane Fitzgerald, also known as the “First Lady of Song” and “Lady Ella,” was an American jazz and song vocalist.

    Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia. In her youth Fitzgerald wanted to be a dancer, although she loved listening to jazz recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby and The Boswell Sisters. She idolized the lead singer Connee Boswell, later saying, “My mother brought home one of her records, and I fell in love with it….I tried so hard to sound just like her.”

  • She made her singing debut at 17 on November 21, 1934 at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. She pulled in a weekly audience at the Apollo and won the opportunity to compete in one of the earliest of its famous “Amateur Nights”. She had originally intended to go on stage and dance but, intimidated by the Edwards Sisters, a local dance duo, she opted to sing instead in the style of Connee Boswell. She sang Boswell’s “Judy” and “The Object of My Affection,” a song recorded by the Boswell Sisters, and won the first prize of $25.00.

    In January 1935, Fitzgerald won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House. She met drummer and bandleader Chick Webb here. Webb had already hired singer Charlie Linton to work with the band and was, The New York Times later wrote, “reluctant to sign her….because she was gawky and unkempt, a diamond in the rough.” Webb offered her the opportunity to test with his band when they played a dance at Yale University.

    She began singing regularly with Webb’s Orchestra through 1935 at Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom. Fitzgerald recorded several hit songs with them, including “Love and Kisses” and “(If You Can’t Sing It) You’ll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)”. But it was her 1938 version of the nursery rhyme, “A-Tisket, A-Tasket”, a song she co-wrote, that brought her wide public acclaim.

    With Decca’s Milt Gabler as her manager, she began working regularly for the jazz impresario Norman Granz, and appeared regularly in his Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) concerts. Fitzgerald’s relationship with Granz was further cemented when he became her manager, although it would be nearly a decade before he could record her on one of his many record labels. Fitzgerald left Decca and Granz, now her manager, created Verve Records around her. Fitzgerald later described the period as strategically crucial, saying, “I had gotten to the point where I was only singing be-bop. I thought be-bop was ‘it,’ and that all I had to do was go some place and sing bop. But it finally got to the point where I had no place to sing. I realized then that there was more to music than bop. Norman….felt that I should do other things, so he produced The Cole Porter Songbook with me. It was a turning point in my life.” Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook, released in 1956, was the first of eight multi-album Songbook sets Fitzgerald would record for Verve at irregular intervals from 1956 to 1964. The composers and lyricists spotlighted on each set, taken together, represent the greatest part of the cultural canon known as the Great American Songbook. Fitzgerald’s song selections ranged from standards to rarities and represented an attempt by Fitzgerald to cross over into a non-jazz audience.

    Plagued by health problems, Fitzgerald made her last recording in 1991 and her last public performances in 1993. Miss Fitzgerald was generous throughout her career, and in 1993, she established the Charitable Foundation that bears her name: The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, which continues to help the disadvantaged through grants and donation of new books to at-risk children.

Stray Toasters

And, on to the day!

Namaste.

“…and everything will be just fine.”

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Monday – 31 January 2011
Another week begins. And this one starts with Mother Nature’s frozen, mocking laughter blanketing the valley. That’s okay. It’s warm in the office.

Yesterday was a lazy day. SaraRules! and I lounged about the house all day. We filled a little bit of the afternoon catching up on a couple episodes of Young Justice. After that, I tinkered with my new game PC for a bit. DC Universe Online was still locking up at random, making it… difficult (read: “damned near impossible”)… to play. *sigh* I headed to the local Best Buy to put a hypothesis to test: Maybe using an off-board graphics card in the system would help. I picked up an new nVidia card (GeForce 210) to be tested out after dinner.

We went up to the in-laws’ for dinner and to watch the Pro Bowl. I’m not sure if it is because of the new schedule or the changes in rules, but the game just wasn’t “good.” Sure, it was football… kind of… but, the AFC just didn’t seem to have their usual fire or passion. It looked like they were just “there.” It was disappointing. I’m glad that it wasn’t the last game of the season this year. We turned from the game at halftime to watch RED, which the in-laws hadn’t seen; it was also far more entertaining than the game.

Back at home, SaraRules! and I started watching last week’s Fringe. Until the recording just went blank. Laptop to the rescue! I hooked up the BlacBook to the TV, surfed to Fox.com and finished the episode. After that, SaraRules! called it a night, while I installed the new video card…

…and, lo and behold, it worked! I logged into DCUO and played for about an hour. It didn’t cut out once. It’s a beautiful-looking game. The texture maps and environments look really nice. And, I also appreciated the fact that I didn’t have to run everywhere to get around, working my way up to Hover, the second-most useless superower (See: “Adventures of a Novice Hero,” in this post); I picked Flight as a travel power to start and it was immediately available.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

Thank God it’s…

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Friday – 28 January 2011
It’s finally Friday. Granted, it’s my “on” Friday, but that’s okay… I’m cutting out of here a little early and heading to Thanksgiving Point with to check out the Ophir-Tintic &Western Model Railroad Show.

Last night, SaraRules! and I – along with about 18 other people – went to The Bayou to celebrate ‘s completion of coursework for college. It was a fun evening out. I had an Epic Brewing Imperial Stout, along with dinner, a bowl of Gumbo and a bowl of Crawfish Etouffee. The food and the company were both quite good.

Back at home, I called it an early evening. To say that I slept “poorly” would be an understatement. I first woke up – screaming – from a very odd dream around 0100. After managing to get back to sleep, I woke up again, around 0415; this time, it was from a raging heartburn. I set a couple of Tums on the job and drifted off again. When the 0630 alarm went off, I was in the middle of another disturbing dream and was in no mood to get up. 0700 wasn’t much better. At 0725, I decided to drag myself out of bed and start the day.

Here’s a little something to help kick off the morning:

Stray Toasters

And with that…

Namaste.

“The milk of human kindness is distasteful stuff…”

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Wednesday – 26 January 2011
Midweek is upon us once again. Of course, that means that it’s Comics Wednesday. Additionally, it means that SaraRules! and I have another Sundance movie to attend; tonight’s movie is Perfect Sense.

It’s grey and foggy outside. I half expect to see creatures from Stephen King’s The Mist appear at any moment…

Last night, we had a quiet night in. I cooked dinner – chicken over rice (all cooked in cream of mushroom soup) with green beans – and we knocked out another couple of hours’ worth of DVR fare. After TV-watching, I went in to have another go at playing DC Universe Online.

I’d gotten another couple of responses from Sony’s Support Team, so I figured that I’d see what worked. The solutions worked better than before, but I still wound up crashing… but not before I got out of the introduction/tutorial. Finally. There are a couple of other things that I need to try before emailing the Support Team and telling them that their suggestions only partially worked.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

“You know, the nearer your destination, the more you’re slip sliding away…”

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Tuesday – 25 January 2011
We’re almost a full month into the new year, but my fingers still want to type “2010.”

Today is my sister-in-law, Chelsea’s, birthday:

It’s snowing again. It’s not a heavy snowfall, but it is constant.  The snow doesn’t appear to have affected drivers in this part of the valley too much… but we’ll see how it goes as the morning progresses.
UPDATE: It’s gotten a little worse:

With that in mind, the Council for Better Driving: Utah would like to remind drivers to exercise caution when traveling today.

Last night, SaraRules! was kind enough to pick up the engine, tender and boxcar that I was having repaired at The Train Shoppe:

The locomotive now goes like the proverbial “bat out of Hell” — I hitched it up to a nine car consist and opened the throttle… and off it went. With the quickness. I am happy. I am also happy because I now have three (3) fully-functional locomotives.

SaraRules! fixed a very tasty recipe of stuffed peppers for dinner. As we ate, we cleared another couple of episodes of NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles off the DVR. Then, it was time to catch up with a few coworkers for CoD: Black Ops online. It was fun; I even tacked three more levels onto my character. After the group broke up, I tried to play a little more DC Universe Online. Once again, it locked up on me. (I’m going to be Level 30 before I ever get out of the introduction, at this pace…) I have a support ticket logged with Sony. In the past 12 hours, I’ve had two responses on it – one was a request for more information; one was a possible solution to the problem. I’m going to test it out this evening.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
This morning, Marvel’s latest event, “Fantastic Four: 3,” kicked off.

In this event, a member of the Fantastic Four dies. There’s been great speculation as to which character it would/could be. Comics news sites announced, as early as last night, that some mass media sources were spoiling the news of which member died.

*sigh*

It was bound to happen, I know… but I still held out a glimmer of hope that I would be able to make it until tomorrow – when I pick up my books – without hearing who the doomed person was.

Nope.

This morning, on the drive in, an announcer on a local radio station just blurted it out. There was no “Hey, if you’re a fan of the FF, you might want to turn the volume down for a minute” warning or anything.  Just “BAM!

Monkeys.

Ear Candy
I heard this on the way to work this morning…

…which, for some reason, made me think of this:

Stray Toasters

And with that… on to the rest of the day!

Namaste.

“Started with a pow and I’m’a end it with a bang…”

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Friday – 21 January 2011
Hello, Day Off!
I greet you with coffee and Irish cream!

Today is also ‘ birthday:

Last night, UPS finally delivered my copy of DC Universe Online.

Oddly, I didn’t immediately bound downstairs to install it. No, instead I waited until after dinner (I cooked burgers on the grill; SaraRules! fixed Tater Tots and green beans). It was one of the longest game installations I’ve dealt with… well, at least since playing games on my Commodore 64. Yeah, it was that long. But, it installed.

And then it patched.

And then I had to update the .NET Framework on my computer.

And then… it started.  Finally.

For the most part.

There still seem to be “a few” problems with the game. But, I have it. And that’s a start. I… recreated (sort of)… Nefer Tem. This version is a little different than his CoH counterpart. I’ll have to see how his power set progresses and how close/different he winds up.

After I got the game going, SaraRules! and I headed to the gym. Having come to the conclusion that I need more of it in my workout routine, I did… cardio. Well, a little. I spent 15 minutes on the elliptical, maintaining roughly a 5.5 MPH pace.

  • Elliptical: 15 minutes, ~5.5 MPH
  • Bench Press: 3 sets/8 reps, 185 lbs
  • Shoulder Press (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
  • Curls (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
  • Sit-ups (incline): 3 sets/10 reps

Not too big a workout, but it was still a good one.  And I don’t know what I was thinking, but I completely forgot that my last bench press weight was 165 lbs, not 185. Nothing like jumping 20 lbs in weight… after nearly 2 weeks out of the gym! UGH!

:::INTERLUDE:::
Here’s a little something for your Friday morning:

Stray Toasters

Up. Out.

Namaste.

“When I’m strollin’ through the wild, wild west…”

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Thursday – 20 January 2011
I almost typed “Friday,” as today is NBN Technical Friday. Wishful thinking, I guess.

Last night’s D&D 4.0 game was cancelled. That meant that my Wednesday night had a gaping hole in the middle of it. So, after collecting this week’s four-color haul from Dr. Volt’s,  SaraRules! and I capitalized on the free evening and turned it into Date Night! We went to Pawit’s Royale Thai for dinner and then headed down to Jordan Commons to see True Grit. I’ve not seen the original, but this one was a very good movie. I have heard a number of people talk about how good the main actors’ performances were, especially Hailee Steinfeld‘s… and am happy to report that they were correct.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

“Conjunction Junction… What’s your function?”

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Wednesday – 19 January 2011
Midweek is upon us once more.
And it comes to us with a mixture of sun and snow. At the same time.
But, it’s also Comics Wednesday. And also possibly even “Caramel Apple Wednesday,” in lieu of Sushi Wednesday.

Last night was D&D 3.5 game night with and company. I’m not sure what the deal was, but most of the game’s disruptions came from the lot of us behaving like high schoolers. (Let’s just chalk it up to “puerile behavior” and move on.) Last night’s challenge came from our group trying to parley with a group of frost giants for possession of a crown… and not get squished. Things went well: No one died, we have favorable status with the tribe of giants and we may even have new trade partners. Not bad for a night’s work.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

Ah, Sunday…

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Sunday – 16 January 2011
So far, it’s been a quiet and grey morning in the valley.

I slept in a bit and then headed over to Rich’s Bagels. Sunday breakfast with SaraRules!, bagels and Ray Charles in the background… can’t really go wrong there. Later today, I’m heading over to and Jack’s for D&D; we’re playing catch-up, so that our game is back on-schedule. Then, there will be dinner with the in-laws. After that, possibly a movie or a couple episodes of Mad Men.

Yesterday was a busy day. It started with breakfast with SaraRules! and Rachel at Millcreek Cafe and Eggworks. Next, SaraRules!, Jana, and I went to brunch (Market Street Broiler) and the matinee performance of Spring Awakening. I didn’t know what to expect going in, but I quite enjoyed it. It was an interesting play; it was set in the late 1800s, but the music was mostly modern rock. I found that the dichotomy worked well, with the music providing an interesting undertone for the angst and rebellious thoughts/natures of the youths.

After Spring Awakening, we came back home and I watched my recording of the Ravens-Steelers game. (More on that in a moment.) Then, it was time to get ready for Utah Opera’s Hansel and Gretel.

The performance also featured Angela and Kate (two of the Utah Opera’s Resident Artists), as “The Dew Fairy” and “The Sandman,” respectively. It was a… “fun”… opera, and more light-hearted than many/most operas that I’ve seen. There were a couple of special effects that added to the enjoyment of the performance, most notably the “dancing broom.”

Instant Replay: Football
There were some good games over the weekend… even though I missed both of Saturday’s games.

Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers
24 – 31
The Ravens, coming off last week’s big win over the Chiefs, flew into Heinz Field to take on the Steelers for the third time this season.

The first half of the game was fantastic. The Ravens worked rather well on both sides of the ball, while the Steelers had… “some issues.” The Ravens went into halftime with a 21-7 lead.

I don’t know exactly “what” happened in the second half. Complacency? Overconfidence? Whatever it was, the teams seemed to switch playbooks — the Steelers came on like gangbusters, while the Ravens looked more like the Keystone Kops. It was both sad and disappointing.

And with that, the Ravens’ season comes to a 13-5 end. While I’m sad that they didn’t hold on for the win, I am glad that they had such a good season – it speaks well to the commitment of the staff, management and players.

Lewis: “We’ll be back.”

Stray Toasters

  • My new desktop is up and running. Now, all I need is for DCUO to show up…

Time to get ready for gaming.

Namaste.

“We’re all made of stars…”

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Friday – 14 January 2011
Winter: Hazy Shade.
Leaves: Brown.
Sky: Grey.
Dreaming: California (…or just about any place that has temps above 40F).

It’s my 9/80 “on” Friday… which means that it’s pretty quiet in the office. And I’m quite alright with that. I had a meeting this morning, which wasn’t at all painful. I consider that a definite “plus.”

Last night, SaraRules! had a Justice League Junior League meeting, so I fended for myself for dinner (Greek City Grill) and hung out online with and a few of his friends, playing CoD: Black Ops. (MENTAL NOTE: The controls for Black Ops are not the same as the controls for HALO.) I got killed… many times. But, I also had lot of fun playing.

Stray Toasters

And with that…

Namaste.

“I swear I left her by the river… I swear I left her safe and sound…”

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Thursday – 13 January 2011
This NBN Thursday morning finds the sun, visible today, creeping over the mountains. There’s still a bit of inversion haze over parts of the valley, but being able to see the sun – as opposed to a “slightly brighter spot in the sky” – is nice.

Last night was D&D game night with m3lody and company. Our opponents for last night’s encounter laid a good, old-fashioned beat-down on us. It was not pretty. We prevailed, but there was a lot of near-death dealt to our group.

SaraRules! rented, and we watched, The Town last night. It was good. The story, followed Ben Affleck’s character, Doug MacRay, and his heist crew, as they engaged in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with the Boston Police Department and the FBI, following a bank robbery. MacRay complicates things even further due to an attraction to one of the robbery victims. The movie also contained what SaraRules! called one of the best bits of dialogue… ever:

Doug MacRay: I need your help. I can’t tell you what it is, you can never ask me about it later, and we’re gonna hurt some people.
James Coughlin: …Whose car we takin’?

Stray Toasters

And that, as they say, is that.

Namaste.

“Pink… it’s like red, but not quite.”

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Wednesday – 12 January 2011
It’s midweek, which means that it’s Comics Wednesday.
As for returning the “sushi” to Wednesdays, well that’s something that we’ll have to see how it develops… but last night, the missus and I had dinner at Tsunami, so the sushi craving has been abated for the time being.

SaraRules! and I, along with Melissa and her friend, Kate, went to see The King’s Speech after dinner.

We had heard a number of glowing reviews from friends who had seen it, so it seemed like a fairly safe bet. At least in my case, friends’ comments didn’t do it justice. It was a fantastic film. Colin Firth did an excellent job as Albert, Duke of York (and later, King George VI). Geoffrey Rush was equally good in his role as Lionel Logue.  And, this was the first movie in some time in which I’ve seen Helena Bonham Carter act and didn’t just want to shake my head and go, “Really…?!  This again?!” She was… charming… in her role as Queen Elizabeth. This was a wonderful bit of cinema, proving that you don’t need to spend exorbitant amounts of money on special effects in order to tell a compelling story.

Stray Toasters

Quote of the Day
Today’s quote comes from Derek Hunter, a local writer and illustrator:

Nitpick about your looks all you like, but let’s face it ladies, you’re all pretty gorgeous.

Know what?  He’s right.

Namaste.

“There is no safe seat at the feast…”

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Sunday – 09 January 2011
Typing “2011” still feels a little “off” to my fingers.

It started snowing again last night. I haven’t made it to a window to see how deep the snowfall is yet. I’m hoping for the light, powdery snow, as opposed to heavy, wet snow.

Yesterday, I judged another HeroClix tournament at Dr. Volt’s Comic Connection. The turnout was good; there were ten players. The tourney was a “constructed” event, with players having to build a 300-point team, utilizing at least one figure from the new set. Once again, first and second places were separated by only three (3) points. After the tournament, I got into a 6-player game with some of the guys. 1,000 points per player. One map. We split into two teams of three. I played the Black Lantern Corps:

  • Black Hand
  • Kal-L
  • Martian Manhunter
  • Nekron
  • Scar

I also used the Black Lantern object. I was rather pleased with how well the team worked and how useful the figures’ abilities were, despite having my pieces eliminated first. I can’t be too upset about that though: The other team saw my figs as threats… and, quite frankly, I would have done the same, were situations reversed. It was a fun – and very long – game.

After I got home, I watched Resident Evil: Afterlife with SaraRules!, and later introduced her to The Thomas Crown Affair. While somewhat entertaining, Afterlife was not a good movie. It also had more “bullet time” than all three Matrix movies, combined! (“Hey! Our movie’s crap… let’s use lots of slow-motion to make it seem cool!”) Thomas Crown, on the other hand, was both entertaining and good. It had been a long time since I’d seen it and it made me want to see the 1968 original version, with Steve McQueen.

Resident Evil: Afterlife
The Thomas Crown Affair

Instant Replay: Football
In a couple of hours, the Ravens will face the Chiefs in today’s AFC Wild Card Playoff Game.

Stray Toasters

Time to find something to do (hopefully, other than shovel snow) until and get here for the football game…

Namaste.