Random Access

Sunday – 09 September 2007
I slept rather well last night, getting to bed somewhere around 3:00 AM.

I was up at 10 ’til 8:00.

Even better: I didn’t need to be up until 8:45.

*grblsnrkx*

I laid there/semi-dozed for the next hour.  I finally dragged myself out of bed and prepared to run a few errands.  The errand-running was uneventful, but productive.

On the way home, I treated myself to a large bucket of balls at Murray Parkway.  Today’s results were… mixed, leaning towards poor.  I had a few good drives, but nothing really consistent.  About 2/3 of the way through the bucket, a gentleman from a couple of tees over approached me and gave me a suggestion about my grip.  I adjusted and there was a noticeable difference.  He also asked if I ever made it to Golf in the Round; I told him that I had been there before.  He suggested that I talk with the golf pro there – he said that the pro had helped him more in 30 minutes of instruction than anyone else had in his 30+ years of playing golf.  Might be worth a shot.

Stray Toasters

• Jimmy Buffet’s He Went to Paris is a very good song.
• Harambee
• Sudafed.  Mmm, Sudafed.

I should probably do something along the lines of getting ready for the rest of the day.

Namaste.

Saturday: Coda
I played a couple of hours of CoH this afternoon. As soon as I logged in, I was invited to join a team. Caught me a little off-guard, as I didn’t recognize the person who had asked me to join. Clarity came a few minutes later. And then it was off to adventure.

The Hand of Nefer-Tem is now at Security Level 35. And, with the new level came a new power. I decided to go for Dark Extraction, which basically allows me to extract the (waning) life essence from a defeated enemy, infuse it with energy and turn it into a “pet,” of sorts… kind of like Sparky was for Indigo Bolt.

I was feeling run-down, thanks to this lovely cold, so I decided to leave Paragon City and head to Arkham. I read a bit of Black Seas of Infinity, while chugging yet more orange juice. Reading soon gave way to sleep – I took a two-hour nap (a two-hour naaaaaap!). I felt a bit better, post-nap.

Then, it was on to breakfast.

Stray Toasters

• Velocirobs vs. T-Robs.
  “I’m learning to open doors.”
• The Elevens.
• I may try to squeeze in a trip to the driving range in the morning.
• Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit
• While driving to breakfast, LL Cool J’s The Boomin’ System came on the iPod. What is it about that song that makes it so timeless? And just damn good and fun to listen to? I think that it has secured a place on my list of “Driving Songs.”
• Beefcake! BEEFCAKE!!!
• I can tell that I’ll be making a pilgrimage to the Garden of Sweden soon: I’m looking up the prices for picture frames.
• Tiny Titans…. interesting….
• Behold the inertial-dampening powers of coffee creamer!

Quote of the Day
While talking about travel, we wound up discussing the need to remove one’s shoes at airport security. This led into the best types of shoes to wear and wearing socks. This, in turn, led to talking about removing one’s shoes at various airports. On the subject of McCarran International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas:

: “There’s syphilis on the floor! C’mon… Drippy hookers!”

Namaste.

: I’m not sure if you’ve heard this yet, but…

Official: Jim Shooter returns to DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes

Thought you might want to know.

Saturday – 08 September 2007
First off, Happy Hatching Day to Sib-4, !

Last night’s Clitorati was good. Sara, in town for the weekend, put in a special surprise guest appearance. The conversations were good, but the people-watching was a little lax.

This morning, Perry called to see if I wanted to get together for coffee. Not one to pass up early morning caffeination, I said that I’d be along shortly. I rolled out of bed, came in to check my email….. and the power went off.

*blink blink* Oooookay.

I checked the breakers, they were fine. But still, no power. So I called the power company. No reports of problems in the area, but they could send someone to check it out. The agent also suggested that I check with the apartment management or maintenance. I hadn’t thought of that angle; that’s what I did. I finished getting ready and rolled out. The ladies in the front office said that others had reported outages, throughout the morning, but that they weren’t long-lasting. I asked to have someone from maintenance check, just in case I had missed something.

Coffee with Kate, Perry and the kids was good. After I had thinned the blood in my caffeinestream, they invited me to go with them to Gardner Village. I have been “to” Gardner Village before, but that was usually on Sunday bike rides along the Jordan River Parkway; and the shops are closed on Sundays. It’s a quaint little shopping… village with a couple of restaurants. It was a nice way to spend a couple of hours.

When I got home, the power was back on. I have seen no notifications from Rocky Mountain Power nor from maintenance as to the nature of the problem, though.

And with that: Electricity, Electricity!

• Schoolhouse Rock! version
• Goodness version, from Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks

Enjoy!
Stray Toasters

• I have apparently picked up a cold. Let me add: I am getting seriously tired of the congestion and of having my voice intermittently decide that it doesn’t want to work.
• Wired’s How To Wiki: Write a Perfect Email
• Vikki just jumped up a few spaces on my “Favorite People” list.
• I had two people come up to me at work yesterday to ask me some “getting started” questions about working out.
• The Great Closet Migration is pretty much done. I still need to tweak a few things, here and there, but I am rather satisfied with the way it’s turned out.
• WB Unveils T-Works; free, expansive online animation
• Water, Gatorade or juice…? I should probably go with juice. Orange juice.
• Oran “Juice” Jones. The Rain.
• Juice: Pulp or pulp-free? I prefer pulp-free.
• 
• I feel a pilgrimage to the Garden of Sweden coming up…
• Toilet paper and paper towels: Over the top or under the bottom?
• Tentacle Hentai Birthday Cake
• 
  As if we needed yet another team break-up in the Marvel Universe. Who knows…? Maybe we’ll get “The New X-Men” and “The Mighty X-Men” and “Young X-Men” spin-off series outta the deal.
• Sorry, I just found a new low: Marvel Zombie Dark Phoenix. *shakes head*

I believe that a trip to Paragon City is in order.

Namaste.

: So… is something like this a little more in line with what you were thinking as far as a theme goes?

Friday – 07 September 2007
It’s Friday.
On a short work week.

What say we just bang this thing out and get on to the good stuff?  Namely, the weekend.

Up out.

Thursday: Coda
Post-work, I came home, took care of a few errands and headed to Jitterbug to have coffee – and a light dinner – with and . The food, drink and the company were all good.

After that, I came home to face a project – rearranging a couple of my closets – that I left undone last night. Well… “half-done,” I guess. Either way, there was a good bit left to do. It’s still going to take a bit of tweaking, but I’m happy with the preliminary results.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you come across something – or several things – that offer(s) up a glimpse at how good things are.

I had posted the following as a Toaster a couple nights ago…

I believe in what I see
I believe in what I hear
I believe that what I’m feeling
Changes how the world appears

…and didn’t realize that how fortuitous it was.

Tonight, while going through one of the closets, I found a few things that I had forgotten about. And they made me smile. Every last one of ’em.

Stray Toasters

• I have Black Cherry Kool-Aid…
• …but I think that I want some chocolate milk.
• By way of Dwim: Internet People! – The Meth Minute 39
• Because it pops up every once in a while (and I like it): An American Pantheon
• I’ve been reading Starslip Crisis… and enjoying it.
• William Gibson WashPo interview “one of the best ever”
• Road monkeys. *grblsnrkx* In the… roughly three miles from I-15 to Union Park Avenue, I believe that I hit my Recommended Daily Monthly Annual Allowance for road monkeys.
• This was me, two nights ago.
• “Conundrum.” (They really need to put 7 Days on DVD.)

Namaste.

Thursday – 06 September 2007
Another NBN Thursday is well under way.

Even with last evening’s nap, I slept well last night… despite some rather unusual dreams that included an inordinate number of spiders. Large spiders. And none of them were named “Peter,” “Jessica” or “Julia,” either.

I got back from the gym a little while ago. Eric had another go at benching 300 pounds; it just wasn’t there – he got it off his chest to the point where his upper arms were parallel to the floor, but couldn’t pass that threshold. I gave him a bit of assistance to get past that point. He was able to push a little more, but the bar started sagging. I helped him finish the lift and re-rack the bar.

I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try 300 again. I got on the bench and had Eric assist on the lift-off from the pegs. I brought it down fairly well, got it to and off of my chest and…. stalled a bit at the same point Eric did. He gave a little assistance (two fingers, just enough to keep the upward momentum going) and, with that, I was able to extend through the threshold and finish the lift.

But, I can’t claim the weight. Yet. I should have it within the next week or two, though.

The rest of the workout was good. We’ve been adding pull-ups/chin-ups to the routine. We start with unassisted sets and then finish out with some machine-assisted ones. When we started, I could do one set of ten unassisted pull/chin-ups and two sets of assisted. I’m up to two unassisted sets… and sometimes, I can make it 2½ unassisted sets.

Stray Toasters
Just one, so far… but it’s a doozy.

Someone in the office upstairs, Mentoring of America, has been parking his chopper in the lobby of our building.

Yes, we have a parking lot.
Yes, there are plenty of places to park.
Apparently, the guy is just a dink and his bike just can’t be rained on.

So, this afternoon, Coworker Matt (not Dwim)… which is kind of like Was (not Was), if you think about it… decided to have a little fun: He put a box and some entry forms out there, next to the bike. The entry form reads:

Enter To Win!!!

We’re giving away a CUSTOM West Coast Chopper

Enter Below And You May* Be Our Lucky Winner

Name:____________________________

Email Address: ____________________________

Why Motorcycles Shouldn’t Be Parked Inside: ____________________________

 

*Employess of Mentoring of America NOT eligible. Odds of winning are 0/100000000 since we don’t own the bike. However, raffle will continue until bike is removed.

The beauty of this is that people have been filling out forms and stuffing them in the box. Including people from Mentoring of America. In fact, one of them filled out an entry while I was out there. Classic.

I put an entry in. My reason for Why motorcycles shouldn’t be parked inside:

Motorcycles are free-range creatures. They weren’t meant to be cooped-up inside office lobbies. FREE THE BIKES!

Namaste.

Wednesday: Coda
I drove home from work with grand designs of taking a nap. After a restless night’s sleep, it seemed like a good way to go. I even planned it out so that I would start dinner (baked chicken breasts) and doze while they cooked.

Naturally, when I got home, I remembered a couple of things that I wanted to accomplish this evening and thus… pushed dinner and my nap onto the back-burner.

About an hour later than I had planned, dinner was under way and I prepared myself to visit Morpheus and the other denizens of The Dreaming. I was apparently more wiped-out than I had thought: My planned 30-minute nap stretched into an hour. I did wake up and turn off the chicken, but I stretched out on the couch again afterwards. When I roused myself, it was time to eat: chicken breasts, angel hair pasta and what would have been “stir-fry vegetables,” had I not put them in the oven alongside the chicken… and a glass of Gewürztraminer.

Four Color Coverage
There is an article on Broken Frontier about the 50th issue of (the current run of) Teen Titans. In it, it mentions how a number of writers and artists collaborated on the issue and how long-time fans would appreciate the four pages of work by George Perez, who pencilled the Titans’ adventures for many years in the 80s. In fact, many would say that he was the definitive Titans artist.

That got me thinking: Who are my “definitive” artists for given books? Whose style stands out when you picture a given title?

For me, the list includes:

• John Byrne – Uncanny X-Men and Fantastic Four
• John Cassady – Astonishing X-Men
• Alan Davis – Excalibur (I’m sorry… no one drew/draws that book like Alan Davis.)
• Keith Giffen – Justice League International
• Ethan Van Sciver – Green Lantern

I’m a little torn about the Legion: I grew up with Keith Giffen’s art, but I really liked Barry Kitson’s Threeboot run.

I’m sure that if I were to go through my collection, I’d come up with dozens more artists, but for now, this is a good start.

For those of you who read comics, who are some of your definitives?

Stray Toasters

• From the Broken Arrow file: Commander dismissed for nuclear mistake
• X-babies! (1,2)
• And, yet another addition to the Covet List: Phoenix
• , do I even want to ask about this: Nepal’s airline sacrifices goat to fix jet !?
• “A Wynn-Wynn situation”
• Psychological “torture bible” published in 1961 resurfaces online
• tried to kill me once again. This time, she tried with this. The even more odd thing: I had seen it, at behest, a couple of years ago.
• Thus, for Ms. Lightning: This.
• Or maybe…. this:

  

  (Yes, I did hear about Friday’s “Batman got beat up by a girl” conversation. Many thanks to for taking up the role of The Voice of Reason in my absence.)

• Dear Angie and John, a columnist’s introduction of a couple of friends to the world of comics.
• Partial Face Transplants – An advanced Photoshop pictures gallery
• I like Elton John’s Rocket Man; I also appreciate a good joke or comic that references it.
• COMIC URBAN LEGEND: Terra was created as a sort of parody of Kitty Pryde.
• Tyranist: It Came From the Quarter Bin: Star Brand #1
• The power just blipped out. Followed by a lovely reboot – my UPS needs a new battery or to be replaced. I thought that I had lost this post, as I hadn’t used “Save and Continue Editing.” Fortunately, Firefox somehow managed to save it. All.
• : Journey into Comics: Legion Season 2

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Tuesday: Coda / Wednesday – 05 September 2007
The post-work day has been… a bit… interesting.

I went to dinner with and a few of his friends and family. In and of itself, that’s not a bad thing. The problem was the storm that rolled in just as we were getting to the restaurant: Lightning. Thunder. Rain. Wind. Mayhem.

The mayhem came in the form of a blown transformer that took out power on 33rd South from just shy of 7th East almost all the way to State Street. So… dark restaurant. No food. Yay! We regrouped at one of the local Lone Star Restaurants. I haven’t eaten in a Lone Star in a couple of years – something about my aversion to what refers to as “cat in a dryer” (i.e.: “country”) music tends to keep me at bay. But, in the company of friends, what the Hell?! Why not? The food was good, as was the company.

From there, and I headed to Casa de for Game Night. Well, not really Game Night, per se, but we talked about where we’d like to go from this point (since we kind of, sort of killed/dispersed the major antagonist of the campaign). Nox has some ideas and we’re going to venture forth in two weeks.

Four-Color Coverage: Animated Edition
I borrowed the new Doctor Strange DVD (IMDb page) from Perry the other day. The good doctor has never been one of my A-list favorites, but I haven’t turned a title or story down just because he’s in it. I know the basics of his back story and that he’s Marvel’s Sorceror Supreme (read: “He’s the Grand Poobah of Magical Mojo in the Marvel Universe”). He’s been a part of the latest incarnation of The New Avengers, The Defenders… and he’s also part of Marvel’s Illuminati.

With that knowledge in mind, I sat down to watch the new release from Lionsgate and Marvel Entertainment.

The Stephen Strange to whom viewers are introduced is a brilliant neurosurgeon… who just happens to be aloof, arrogant and an all-around ass, quite frankly. He doesn’t have time to be “bothered” with things that aren’t going to bring a healthy fee and/or notoriety. He’s the walking epitome of hubris.Soon, he has a horrible automobile accident and loses the fine motor control of his hands, spelling the end to his career as a surgeon. From there, viewers see his descent into a broken man with no hope.

Enter: Wong, a disciple of a mystic known only as “The Ancient One.” With him, Wong brings the promise of healing for the former doctor. And hope.

And, from that point, the journey of Doctor Strange begins.

I have to admit that I was rather impressed. This movie, though given a PG-13 rating, wasn’t dumbed down. It was well-written, well-voiced and (with a couple of brief exceptions) well-animated. With the exception of young children, I’d say that this feature is something that the entire family could enjoy.

Stray Toasters

• I believe that I want to see Across the Universe.
• The word of the day, heard on Tuesday morning’s commute, is: “Superfunkycalifragisexy.”
• One of the ‘Little Rock Nine’ Looks Back
• When worlds collide, by way of Real Life Comics:

  

• Meat and greet – all the president’s lunch, by way of lj user=”dmmaus”
• “Mischief managed” and “Danger averted.”
• I believe in what I see
  I believe in what I hear
  I believe that what I’m feeling
  Changes how the world appears
• “Nucular toonami!”
• 
• Not one to avoid controversy, Whoopi Goldberg defends Vick’s dog-fighting role
• I noticed that the calendar in the… hmm, I can’t call it the HALO Command Center, as my Xbox is in the living room… “office” – a Marvel 2007 calendar, chock full o’ superhero goodness and given to me by Acolyte Derek – has September 11, 2007 noted as “Patriot Day.” I’m not going to go into my usual “Why the day shouldn’t be called that” rant here… but I thought about it.
• One of my KVMs is acting up; I can’t find all of the cords for the other one. *sigh*

It’s early and I have to get up later.

Namaste.

Mid-day Toasters

• The lunchtime workout was good, despite a week-long absence from the gym. I increased my bench press weight up to 215 pounds for the second and third sets.
  • Set 1: 205 / 10 reps
  • Set 2: 215 / 10 reps
  • Set 3: 215 / 8 reps and 205 / 2 reps

  We’ll call it a “work in progress,” but I’m shooting for 215 to be my base bench press weight.

• Steampunk stormtroopers and Alien spotted in Dubai
• What do you get when you cross YouTube, Weird Al and World of Warcraft? This. Thanks to for pointing this out.
• I have bacon-cheese popcorn, once again.
• Woman visits own heart

Back to it.

Namaste.

Monday: Coda / Tuesday – 04 September 2007
And so, the day (and the holiday AND the long weekend) comes to a close.

I found a few things to do that, while not “labor,” per se, were nevertheless good and fun:

• I had a craving for sushi for lunch, so I met at Tsunami. Today’s fare included: a Steak and Chicken Teriyaki lunch combination, with Ika nigiri and a Bonsai roll. All of it was quite tasty.
• From there, I visited Kate, Perry and the kids. (Who needs a workout when you have adopted nieces and nephews?!)
• Perry and I snuck out to check out a few stores. Okay, we didn’t “sneak,” but saying “…and we heading to a few stores” doesn’t have the same ring to it.
• I went to Murray Parkway Golf Course, to swat a bucket o’ balls on the driving range. They had closed a little before I got there…
• …so, I headed to Golf in the Round. They were still open! I got a large bucket and was on my way. I mixed my use of the irons, rather than just the 2, 4, 5 and 7. I need some work with the 9-iron, but on the whole, I think things went well. The 2- and 5-irons did well. And, I had a few really decent drives with the 5-wood and my driver. I tried to incorporate the things that told me (which helped quite a bit) and I tried to be more aware of how I was positioning myself relative to the tee and how I was swinging the clubs. Still not perfect, but getting better.

Now, I’m about to put in a little time on (what will hopefully be) the actual lyric-to-drawing piece for Ed’s Song, as opposed to the dry runs and fly-bys that I’ve been practicing on.

Stray Toasters

• I may make a decaf and Irish cream nightcap, to cap off the long weekend with a (minor) flourish.
• leucism vs. albinism
• I’ve added everydave.com to the blogroll on Random Access; I don’t know why I hadn’t done it before.
• laughter is infectious
  excitement goes to my head
  winds are stirred by planets in rotation
  sparks ignite and spread new information
• Nepal’s gadget-loving, 10-year-old Living Goddess: Interview
• I need to find a copy of The Prophet of Akhran, the third book in The Rose of the Prophet series. A trip to Mecca might be in order.
• Huh. Mentioning a possible trip to Mecca made me consider the following:
  • I refer to Utah as “The Land Behind the Zion Curtain.”
  • I refer to The Bookshelf as “Mecca”
  • IKEA (*genuflect*) is affectionately referred to as “The Garden of Sweden.” (Maybe I’ll start writing that as “SwEden.”)

  The only thing missing is Totem (click “Totem” for lyrics) playing in the background.

• From NPR: Dad Finds Answers to Kids’ Darndest Questions
• For some reason, The Who’s The Seeker just popped into my head. It was immediately followed by a random Harry Potter thought (as Harry was a Seeker on his Quidditch team). Then the two, like some horrible Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup accident, combined to form the following question: I wonder if any aspect of the song played a part in the outline that became the story of Harry Potter?

And, that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Monday – 03 September 2007
Happy/Good/Merry/Whatever Labor Day to those of you in the U.S.

Labor Day.
Summer’s last hoorah.
The last day to wear white, in some fashion circles.
Or the day spend it at the mall/shopping center, hunting down the latest bargains.
The day we sit at home, on our collective recta, not working… unless you happen to work in the service industry.

Labor Day Related Songs
This is by no means an exhaustive or comprehensive list; these are just the first few songs that popped into my head:

• Working Man – Rush
• Working for the Weekend – Loverboy
• A Job Ain’t Nuthin’ but Work – Big Daddy Kane
• I Get the Job Done – Big Daddy Kane
• I Go to Work – Kool Moe Dee
• She Works Hard for the Money – Donna Summer
• Money for Nothing – Dire Straits
• Opportunities – Pet Shop Boys

It reminds me of Memorial Day, in the way that many people oxymoronically don’t – or possibly choose not to – remember the reason for the day… other than, once again, great sales.

Playing ‘Clix last night was fun. Chris handily handed me my plastic crack-playing ass. But, it was fun. I got to try out some new figures and get a better feel for some of the game’s dynamics.

Stray Toasters

• This morning, around 3:30 AM, the word “pericardium” popped into my head for no apparent reason.
• Papers, Please: Arrested at Circuit City for refusing to show ID, receipt
• 
• Spirit and Opportunity Are Back Online
• After a week away, tomorrow’s workout should be… fun (read: “painful”).
• When I First Kissed You, by Extreme, just came up on iTunes.  I haven’t heard this in many months of Sundays.  I guess that this is yet another reminder/reason that I’m going to finally have to integrate my home and work iTunes libraries.

Time to find some trouble to get into.  And lunch, too!

Namaste.

Sunday – 02 September 2007
I don’t know what it means, but I had a dream with the following people in it:

• Rick James
• Eddie Murphy
• Bob Barker – in a blue-and-white seersucker suit… telling jokes (Whiskey Tango…?!)
• Will Smith

There were a other people in the dream, but I can’t remember whom nor can I remember the details of the dream beyond the fact that it was some kind of party. Bizarre.

, Chris and Perry are coming over in a bit to play dolls HeroClix. I’m finally getting a chance to test out my new Legionnaires. Or maybe I’ll just use Phoenix and call it a day. I do, however, need to figure out who I want to use, given the number of points we’re playing with.

Stray Toasters

• I neglected to get Rana’s opinion on something for Dad’s birthday. I didnt’ realize it until close to midnight. *sigh*
• “Did you just say ‘nut rolling?’ “
• Last night, Shelley, Kris, Jon (all former VI workers) and Gary (Shelley’s husband) popped in to VI while we were having breakfast. It took me a few moments to recognize who was who until I saw Jon – he reminds us of Tom Welling; in fact we nicknamed him “Clark,” due to the resemblance.
• By way of Tyranist: Why superheroes always win
• I have Nomad on Shuffle. Ezekiel 25:17 just played. It’s Sunday and it is derived from a couple of actual scriptures, but for some reason that verse, as done in Pulp Fiction, just seems a little… “not right”… especially with the punctuating gunfire at the end. But it did put a smile on my face. Yeah, yeah… I know: Hell. Handbasket. Gasoline drawers.
• I want to go to the Garden of Sweden. I don’t really need anything. But, I still want to go.
• Top 100 Undiscovered Sites

Errand-running, a frozen mocha and some cleaning are in my not-too-distant future. I should probably get a move on… or something that approximates it.

Namaste.

Back.

And, because of some delay, I even beat the family-unit home.

It was a good trip. Though short, it was well worth it on all accounts.

Stray Toasters

• Thanks to Rana, I am now (once again) in possession of one of the last items I wanted from my grandmother’s house; I believe that there is only one more thing that I want.
• I found out a couple of things that are going to require some deliberation.
• “Not a star,” along the same lines as a “not-sheep.”
• I caught a couple of commercials/previews for the upcoming seasons of Legion of Super-Heroes and The Batman. They both look interesting.
• I had sushi last night. Naturally, I ordered Ika. This recipe was a bit different than others: It had a bit of lettuce between the squid and the rice… and a bit of wasabi.
• Great. As soon as I typed “wasabi”, this popped into my head:
  

  Hot like wasabi when I bust rhymes
  Big like LeAnn Rimes
  Because I’m all about value

• I decided to hang with the sibko rather than see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy last night. It’s a lot easier – and generally far less expensive – to see BBVD on tour than it is to fly to Nepal. And I had fun.
• Heading out of St. George, I passed a Highway Patrol officer who had stopped to assist a motorist. As he was waiting for traffic to pass, so that he could get out of his vehicle, he rolled down his window and flicked ashes off his cigarette. Seeing that, a line popped into my head:
  

  He reached out the window and flicked ashes off the end of his cigarette. The motion looked almost angry or disdainful, as if the mere presence of the ashes somehow offended him.

• Last year, Rana developed an… affinity… for I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas, by Shirley Temple. If I remember correctly, and I derived a bit of amusement from that.

  A week or so ago, I found a small toy hippo.

  2 + 2 = evil

  I gave it to Rana, before they left this afternoon. , when he saw what it was and as I explained why I was giving it to her, turned away to grin/laugh without being seen and possibly hit for it. Fortunately (for both of us), Rana laughed, too. Although, it may have been more of a smirk. But, I’ll take what I can get.

• People-watching is fun, as borne out by this image from Indexed:
  
  People-watching at the MGM and pretty much anywhere in Vegas probably falls somewhere between “airport” and “shopping mall” AND it adds new dimensions and twists to things.
  People-watching with Rana and : Priceless.
• By way of : Who watches wears the Watchmen?
• The Knight Shift. This is in the same system in which my mother and ‘s husband work. I have to ask one of them if they’ve heard any of the hullaballoo about it and/or the outcome of the election.

And I believe that’s that.

Namaste.