Random Access

Monday – 19 November 2012
Yeah, it’s been a while. But, I’m back. And this is a post.

The girls are growing in leaps and bounds.  They surprised me the other day, while watching a Baby Einstein video, by (more or less) repeating some of the words used in the video. Just to be sure that I wasn’t hallucinating it, I replayed the video for Sara! and the girls did it again. They are also getting very good at using a few more signs, particularly “water,” “more,” and “please.”

Diana (l) and Vanessa

We kept this storage unit under Diana’s crib as a corral for the girls’ stuffed animals. Well, the animals have wound up just about everywhere but the bin. And, the girls discovered the joy of crawling into it. We have since taken the bin from under the crib and filled it with pillows… and the girls love playing in the improvised pillow pit. Although, I’m still toying with the idea of buying some ball pit balls and using them to replace the pillows, for a mini version of this:

I went to a train show this past weekend. It wasn’t awesome – no major manufacturer presence at all – and only handful of vendors wit items I was interested in, but it was a train show. I did see one of the vendors from whom I bought something at the train show last month, though. He even remembered me and we chatted for a few minutes.

For me, the most memorable thing from the show was meeting and talking with Blanche Keller. My friend, Dave, showed me this article last week, detailing Blanche and her husband, Norman’s, ordeal after having their merchandise and trailer stolen while on their way to a train show in Denver. I asked Blanche about what happened and she talked very candidly about the whole experience. The article gave a good 10,000 foot view, but listening to her recount their last couple of weeks was pretty heartbreaking. Not only did they lose their merchandise (for a while), but they had to close bank and merchant accounts, none of which can be reopened or replaced until they get back home.

Before we finished talking, Blanche mentioned that they had a number of invitations from friends for Thanksgiving when they get back home. She smiled and said that she appreciated the outpouring of support, but that she’s not sure that she even wants to leave the house when she gets back, aside from picking up her dogs from boarding.

I wish Blanche and Norman all the best.

Instant Replay: Football
Last night was the only game that I was really concerned with this week:

Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers
13 – 10
The Ravens headed up to Steel Town to take on the Steelers in their house. The Ravens were in white jersey and black pants, while the Steelers were in black-and-yellow striped jerseys (and socks) with beige pants. They seriously looked like bumblebees. So, I kept referring to it as “The Birds and the Bees Game.” This always a good – and somewhat bitter – match up. There was some question as to how it would go, as both teams were missing key players. The Steelers scored – in the first 43 seconds – thanks to a defensive pass interference call and some quick plays. The Ravens came back, thanks to WR Jacoby Jones, who ran back (another!) punt for a TD. Jacoby Jones on his way to the house… (c) NFL.com The rest of the Ravens’ scoring came from K Justin Tucker. I haven’t been CB Corey Graham’s biggest advocate this season, but he had an AMAZING night last night. He was All. Over. The. Field. Blocking passes. Intercepting passes. He definitely stepped up his game last night. I look forward to seeing what he does in the rest of the season. On the down side, Ed Reed was suspended for one game – the Chargers – thanks to a helmet-to-helmet hit, but he’ll be back for Week 13, when the Ravens host the Steelers. That’s right: two games in three weeks against the Steelers. Sorry, Bonne, Bret and Uncle Ronnie.

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New Orleans Saints at Oakland Raiders
38 – 17
Since Sara! forbade me from talking about last week’s game, I’ll talk about this week’s game, instead!The Raiders hosted the Saints……and the Saints came away with a win. Sorry, Sara! and Rob.

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Cincinnati Bengals at Kansas City Chiefs
28 – 6
The Bengals went to Arrowhead and beat the Chiefs.Congrats, Janie and Becky.

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Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Carolina Panthers
27 – 21
The Bucs took down the Cats.Congrats, Dana and Sean.

Stray Toasters

• There’s a not-too-small part of me that hopes that either or both of the Team DiVa girls are this creative when they grow up: Kindergartener Confesses to Plans of World Domination
• Since I finished Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, I’ve been listening to Stone of Tears, by Terry Goodkind. I read/listened to Wizard’s First Rule, the first book in the series a few years ago. I am enjoying revisiting some familiar characters.
• [REDACTED]
• I haven’t picked up either COD: Black Ops 2 or HALO 4 yet. If nothing else, I’ll ask Santa for one or the other for Christmas.
• Up, up and away…!
  
• I’ve never been a fan of the crack of dawn Black Friday shopping sales. I’m even less enthused about the new “Black Thursday” concept. Besides every Friday is Black Friday as far as I’m concerned. (And, during football season, it does double duty as Purple Friday, too.)
• Märklin! *shakes fist*

Saturday – 10 November 2012
This is a short post that I’m going to link to a long(er) post by someone else.

Namely, this post.

Why?

Well, because I can. And because I really like what the other poster had to say, especially in light of the way that so many users of various social media sites have polarized into “This is the Best/This is the Worst Thing to Happen in/to/for America” camps since the election.

So, read the post – or don’t; that’s your prerogative – although I’d seriously recommend reading it.

And consider what she has to say…

…and consider your reactions, positive and/or negative, since Tuesday’s results were announced.

…and consider what’s better: Finding a way to work together for the betterment of our nation or finding a way to point fingers at what “the other guys” are doing or have done wrong in the past.

Namaste.

Saturday – 27 October 2012
First off, I’d like to thank everyone for the well-wishes on my birthday. It was nice to have so many people take a little time out of their day to say “Hi” and “We’re glad you survived another year.”

The day was very good. Sara! took the day off, so I was able to sleep in while she watched Team DiVa for a while. Later in the day, I made a trip to Dr. Volt’s to indulge my four-color print and ‘Clix habits. We went out for an early dinner at Outback Steakhouse (It’s tradition!); the girls were great the whole time we were there and Diana made friends with a little girl at the next table. Next, it was back home for cake and ice cream with a few friends:

Another fine homemade cake by Sara!

The day’s birthday gifts included:

…as well as a couple of very thoughtful gift certificates.

The evening wound down with us watching Fringe and me playing a little MW3 and reading the day’s four-color haul before bed.

I couldn’t have asked for a better day.

This morning, Team DiVa slept in a little… which means that Sara! and I got to sleep in a bit. After breakfast, we headed to the State Fair Park to check out the Wasatch Rails Train Show. There seem to be fewer vendors this year, but the girls had a good time watching the trains on the various layouts. I may just have to head back tomorrow and see if there’s anything that I just can’t live without…

Namaste.

Friday – 26 October 2012
Not only is it Friday…

…nor is it just…

…but, as of 7:00 AM Eastern, I turn(ed) 42.

I’m not panicking and I know where my towel is. And I’d like to think that I’m a (at least somewhat) hoopy frood. Now, if I could just figure out what the Ultimate Question to which 42 is the answer is, I’d be set.

It’s been a good year. To paraphrase last year’s comment: I have a great family and friends, as well as met some new great people.

Sidenote: In case I haven’t said it recently – or enough – I’m grateful for the people in my life. Yes, this means you.

I’ve been fortunate enough to do some fun things. So, I’m ready for forty-two to bring it on.

Stray Toasters

• One of the things that I want to do this year is write a book. I’ve had the idea and a rough story for a children’s book for more than “a few” years.
• For those who don’t know, I started a new blog a couple of months ago: Pinstripes and Polos. Please check it out, if you have a few minutes. Comments and questions are welcome.
• HALO 4, meet The Covet List. It comes out on Sara!’s birthday. But, as she doesn’t play, I don’t think she’d  appreciate it as a present. Pity.
• Coulson lives!
• This is the cover of Green Lantern #80, which has a cover date of my birth month:
  
• There’s a train show in town this weekend. I shall attend!
• Download a FREE unpublished Halloween scary short story written & read by [Neil Gaiman], and raise money for education and literacy!
• Oh, by the way: Thanks, Apple, for introducing a new iPad six months after I bought mine…. although, the new iMacs do look damn sexy. We’ll call it a draw.
• We have the technology to look for life on Mars
• Last Resort. Watch it. Love it.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

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Tuesday – 23 October 2012
Team DiVa: Relaxing…

Diana: Just a little light reading…

Vanessa, playing with LEGO

Team DiVa LEGO Tag-Team Action

Namaste.

Test

Ping

Friday – 19 October 2012
“Leg godt” is Danish for “play well.” It is also the root for the LEGO brand name.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been letting Team DiVa play with LEGO magnets that we have on our front door. Always with supervision and, thankfully, when someone decides to investigate how a LEGO brick tastes, I just have to tell them “Not for eating…” or “Put it back on the door,” and they will put it back. I don’t think that the ladies are quite ready for unsupervised LEGO play, but I think they’re pretty close to being ready for LEGO Duplo. Just saying.

Meanwhile, on another facet…

City of Heroes is shutting down at the end of next month. I’ve been trying to sort out how I feel about this for a while. Long-time readers know that I was a CoH fiend when I first started playing. So much so that my characters even had little sections of the blog dedicated to them. Yeah. It was like that.

After playing Everquest, I had worked the fantasy MMO bug out of my system. (Yes, I’ve played Diablo III, but I’ve never played – nor really had an interest in – WoW.) But, City of Heroes… that was something different. It was a game that was right up my alley: You get to create a hero – or villain, once City of Villains came out – and  set out to save (or take over) the world. Brilliant!

I created my first character, Indigo Bolt…

…and hit the ground running. Literally. Because you didn’t get “travel powers” until Level 6. That made getting across zones a bit of a pain, especially when it was big zone and full of NPCs that were many levels above you. When I hit Level 6, I got “Hover,” the flying equivalent of crawling. But, it got me out of harm’s way more than once… despite me calling it “the second-most stupid superpower ever.” Needless to say, when Level 14 came and I could select “Flight,” I did it with the quickness. And kept flying all the way up to Level 50, the game’s cap.

And through it all, I had a blast playing.

Then I started other characters. And I had fun playing them, too.

Over time…
…and as I started playing HALO and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 more…
…and as other games – like LEGO Universe and DC Universe Online came out for the PC…
…and as we had kids…

…I started playing City less. But it retained a warm, fuzzy spot in my gaming heart. Still does.

Hearing the news that it was shutting down was a little bit of a blow. Not as much as it was to some people, but it was still there: The sense that all too soon, Paragon City and The Rogue Isles were being removed from the map. Permanently.

Since the announcement, I have logged in a few times and played for nostalgia’s sake. And it’s been fun. And a little funny, as the controls for flying are reversed. So… just maybe… I’ve flown full-speed into the ground once or twice. Maybe. But, it made me laugh.

I’ll be sad to see to the sun set over Peregrine Island for the last time, but I’ve enjoyed my time in the game.

Thanks to NCSoft and Paragon Studios for many hours of fun.

And, on yet another facet…

My train room has not been used as a train room for a little over six months at this point. The lack of ability to run my railroad has begun to wear on me. Last night, I gave in and put together a little oval of the Marklin set that I got from Monica and Alessandro. And it was good. It started out as a “I should see if this runs,” as they weren’t 100% sure when they gave it to me, and turned into “I should stop. Now. So I’m not down here all night setting up a layout that has to be torn down when I paint.” And I did.

But then, I wound up looking at Marklin stuff on eBay. Go figure. Far longer – and later – than I should have.

But, I ran a train. Yes, it was a short train. But it was a train, nonetheless.

Namaste.

Thursday – 18 October 2012
Here’s some Team DiVa cuteness to start your day:

Vanessa, sporting my House of Blues cap

Diana, in my Ravens cap

Last night was Movie Date Night with Sara!. We started out watching a Danish film called The Substitute, that I’d ordered from Netflix. It was… slow. And, while it wasn’t a necessarily “bad” movie, neither of us thought that it was a “good” movie, either. At least, not in the 20 or so minutes of the movie that we made it through. And I can’t figure out “why” I chose that movie… unless it was recommended, based on something else I’d seen.

So, I called an audible.

We watched 28 Weeks Later. (And, yes, we made it all the way through that.)

• Bonus: It fulfilled Sara!’s wish to watch horror/horroresque films in October.
• Bonus: I had completely forgotten that Idris Elba and Jeremy Renner were in the film.
• Geek Bonus: Rose Byrne, who played ‘Scarlett’ in the film, was also Moira McTaggart in X-Men: First Class… meaning that three of the leads have been in Marvel films:

1. Idris Elba was Heimdall in Thor
2. Jeremy Renner was Hawkeye in Thor and Marvel’s The Avengers

I also had a crossover revelation during the film: If someone had borrowed the “Stay in the house, Carl” line from The Walking Dead TV series and told it to Andy in 28WL, there would have been two big points:

1. It would have been a VERY short movie, because…
2. No one would have died because of Don (Robert Carlyle’s character)…
   …because the kids would have never gone to the house to get that picture…
   …which means that they would have never found their mom…
   …who wouldn’t have kissed Don, turning him into a rage-infected monster…
   …who, in turn, infected most of the civilians (and soldiers) in the newly-reopened London.

Q.E.D.

All-in-all, it was a good flick for a date night.

And it was a good day.

Stray Toasters

• As of Tuesday afternoon, the train room has primer on the walls. Now, I just need to figure what color I want to paint them.
• I even managed to get some sushi – for the first time in months – yesterday.
• Revolution – Map of North America, 15 Years After the Blackout
• I need to remember to turn off the sprinklers this weekend.

Namaste.

Monday – 15 October 2012
I need to convince Sara! that these would make excellent family Hallowe’en costumes:

Sisko and Dax in TOS uniforms

…and either:

…and/or…

(minus the ears and hairpiece)

…for Team DiVa.  (Not in red, though, because… well, you know… the whole “non-senior staff Redshirt don’t often come back from an away mission” thing.

*ping*

Hopefully, the eleventy-seventh time is the charm.

*ping*

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