Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something "Blu"

With the wedding coming up shortly, things are beginning to take shape.
I made Hotness's bridal bouquet and I'm taking care of the music.
I also need to get some appetizers whipped up (I have the stuff for one, but still trying to decide on what the other will be), and I'm working on the decorations... although we aren't going crazy with that. Just something to make the place look more "wedding-like".

I have my suit all ready and Hotness picked up her dress last weekend, so those are out of the way.

This is our last weekend to "take it easy", as next weekend will begin the final hours to the event.
Friday night we have a wedding shower to go to. Saturday night is the ballet. Sunday I will be getting the chairs and dropping off the decorations. Monday I'll be getting the appetizers made and setting up the chairs and decorations I dropped off earlier. Tuesday will be... let's see... um....
Oh yeah! The actual wedding.

As the day approaches, we have been asked by different people, "What would we like to have as a wedding gift?"
Hotness and I have different opinions about this.
I feel that we really don't need anything, as we've been together for so long and already have the things we need. Plus, with the economy the way it is, I don't want people to feel they HAVE to spend money on us.
Hotness feels that if people would like to get presents, we should let them. Some people really want to express their happiness for us by getting us a gift, so we shouldn't stop them and make them feel unappreciated.
So we're basically leaving it up to the individual as to whether they want to buy a gift, but it's certainly not necessary.

Now, having said that, we received our first wedding gift in the mail on Friday.
It was from my good friend Imperfect and his wife.
They got us a Blu-ray disc player!

I've been on the fence about getting one.
I was perfectly happy with the DVD player we currently had and didn't see the need for spending more money to upgrade just yet. But on the other hand, I did have a nice, new HDTV that wasn't living up to it's full potential and with Blu-ray discs being released at lower prices than standard DVDs, it was beginning to sway me over.

I would've been happy to wait until our wedding day to open their present, but due to some packaging SNAFUs, we decided to open it early.
We opened the box and... TAA-DAA!!! A beautiful, Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-ray player was inside!
So yesterday, I made a trip down south to Fry's to pick up the HDMI cable (and a Blu-ray disc, 'cause... Heck! Why not?) as well as some LAN cable to connect it to the interwebs.

I got back home and proceeded to hook it all up.
There was an update for the firmware, so I took care of that right away and then afterwards I went about setting up the adjustments (i.e. video output, audio, brightness, on screen language, etc...).

Unfortunately, my surround sound DVD player did not have an HDMI input.
That would have been the best option. So instead, I had to use regular co-axial plugs.
But to be totally honest, I can't see that it makes a bunch of difference to my ears. My "home theater" isn't that big and my ears aren't that discerning when it comes to sound. So I'm happy it works.
I did have HDMI inputs on the TV, so I plugged the Blu-ray player directly into it.

Then I went and tried out a few standard DVDs to see if the picture quality was any better.
I noticed it was a bit sharper, but almost a bit "over compensating", so I'll have to tweak the settings a bit more (or just use the regular DVD player).

Then I put in the new disc I bought. I got "The Blue Man Group: How To Be A Megastar Live!"
This had special significance on a couple of levels.
First: Being our first "Blu-ray" disc, why not get the "Blue Man Group"?
And Second: This was the same concert tour I went to see with Imperfect a few years back, and since he got us the player it seemed appropriate.
This was by far a H-U-G-E difference in visual quality. I really didn't expect it to be, but I was amazed. Even Hotness said "Wow, that's really clear and what an amazing picture!".
So I'm totally glad to have it have it and especially happy that they got us such a nice gift.
Thank you both again!

In other news....
Nothing new to report in the job-search, although I hope to have something exciting to say in the not-to-distant future.

The Emerald City Comic Con is only a few weeks away. I'm excited and nervous at the same time for it to happen. There are so many cool new guests (Stan Lee, Leonard Nimoy) and awesome returning guests (Terry Moore, Whilce Portacio). It's also expected to be the BIGGEST show yet, which means there's going to be a LOT of hard work to do while it's happening.
Last year was a tough one, so hopefully this year we'll be better prepared. Hotness and I are sharing a hotel room for three nights (instead of two, like in previous years), so that'll help in not having to travel back right away after the second day of the show. We can relax one evening and take our time leaving on Monday.

Babysitting is still happening quite a bit and despite catching the occasional "bug" from the kids, has been a lot of fun. Being "Uncle Ferretnick" is a blast.

Well, that catches us up again for now.
I apologize for the sparse postings, but until something happens that's worth "blogging" about, I tend to just let things slide on here.
With the wedding and conventions coming up I should have more to talk about.

Ya'll be good now!

Livin' Large

Yeesh!
Almost a whole has gone by without any new posts.
I'd like to say I've just been too busy, but the reality is only partially true.
I have been busy but not enough to prevent me from blogging.

What's been happening?

Well, I'm still searching for a job. Lots of resumes sent out but nobody has called back.

I did have an interview, but it turned out to not be for a job directly. It was a 'job placement service' and they called me in to get more information regarding my work history. I think the interview went well, but I haven't heard anything from them since.

Been doing a lot of babysitting and I just recently house-sat for our neighbor last weekend.

Other than that....? Not much.

So see, really nothing exciting to blog about.
------------------------------------------------

I did make a major upgrade in our house a few days ago.

I was out shopping with G-rod the other day and noticed a flat screen LCD TV on sale for the holidays.
I've been wanting to upgrade from our old 29" clunker for a while, but I've been waiting for a good price drop on the new flat screen HDTVs before I made the switch.

This one was marked down $200 from the original price and seemed to have everything I was looking for in a new TV.

I asked G his opinion and he thought it was a great deal as well, especially the price.

So I came home and talked it over with Hotness and did some research online to get reviews and price comparisons before making a purchase.

Almost all the reviews I read were positive (and the few negative ones were really petty complaints) and the prices I found online for it were about the same as the non-sale price I'd seen, so overall it looked to be a good buy.
I decided... "This is it".

It's a SONY Bravia 40" LCD HDTV.

To make a very long story short, there were a few mishaps in trying to locate a store that still had stock on this TV while it was on sale but after some dogged perseverance I managed to succeed in my goal of finding one.
I even manged to get it for LESS than the advertised sale price so... BONUS!!!

I loaded it into my car (which was a feat unto itself... take a look at the pictures)


and brought it home to hook it up.

One of the reasons I liked this TV was it had a lot of different types of inputs for various cables.
My DVD player used an S-cable and this TV was one of the few styles I found that had an input for that.
So after I got home and took it out of the box, it was plugged in and I was watching movies on it within 20 minutes.

I'm loving this new TV and do not regret buying it at all.
I've been going over scenes from different movies just to watch how they look on the new screen.

With the surround sound system I acquired not long ago, I feel like I'm starting to catch up with the 21st Century finally.

As for my older 29" television, I gave it to my aunt to replace her tiny, little 13" TV.
(Yeah, people still have some of those!)
So everybody's happy and watching programs on bigger screens now.

I recently bought the "Ultimate Cut of Watchmen", and I'm looking forward to spending the better part of 4 hours watching it on hi-def and surround sound. Probably today since I don't have any other plans to speak of.

The rest of this week will be filled with playing Heroclix with a friend's kids, more babysitting and... something else I forget. (Aw c'mon! I know it Christmas this Friday!)

I don't know when I'll get back to this blog, so in the meantime have a great Christmas and hopefully you have your shopping finished.

Be talking again (hopefully) soon.....

Post T-Day Food Report

OoOoOoOo..... finally recovered from my turkey-induced coma and can tell you about how the day went.
Ah, scratch that. I just want to tell you about how my recipes turned out.
In a word... Awesome!

I stuck to the list of ingredients, but I have to admit they leave a lot of room to play around with.
You can add or subtract as much sausage, celery, etc... to get it the way you want it.

I did make a couple of modifcations to it while I was mixing it up:
I added 1 small clove of garlic to the butter that I cooked the celery, onions and mushrooms in.
I also added a little bit of rosemary to the stuffing (I didn't measure, but if I had to guess it was about 1/4 teaspoon).
Otherwise I stuck to my original plan and made it the way I wrote it out and planned on doing.

I will definitely make this stuffing from scratch again. It was totally worth it.

As for the potatoes....
The only thing I did that wasn't on the recipe earlier was I added fresh ground pepper and salt to them before cooking them.
I cut up the potatoes, crumbled the bacon, (coarsely) chopped the rosemary and then put it all in a big mixing bowl. Then I poured the olive oil over it and ground some pepper and shook a little salt over it before mixing it up and dumping it into the baking dish.

They both turned out great and everybody like them.

Today Hotness and I braved a couple of stores to do some holiday shopping.
We weren't looking for any of the "Black Friday" specials, but there were certainly enough people out-and-about that it was difficult to find parking and get through the check-out lines.
Luckily we didn't have much to do so we weren't stuck in any of it for too long.

Tomorrow, I have some errands to run early in the day and then my afternoon will be filled with more babysitting. (I'm thinking of having business cards made up with "Professional Babysitter" on them. Hmmm.... what do you think?)

That's all for now.
More to come soon, I promise.

Learning Korean.... The Hard Way!

The other day I was killing some time and found myself shopping around Hmart in Lynnwood.

I wasn't looking for anything in particular. Just browsing around at all the funky packages and taking in the smells of the seafood dept. (which seems to be found throughout the entire store) when I happened along a sale of a particular product.

The sign said they were "stuffed pancakes", but as there were two very different looking pictures on similar-looking packages, I figured that one of them (the one that actually DIDN'T look like a sort of pancake) had to be something else.
Ironically enough, it was this other item that looked more enticing to me. Unfortuantely both the packages were in Korean, so there was no way to tell for sure.

I looked the package over, thinking "Well, they gotta have English directions on here", only to find:

that it didn't.

I studied it for a while and figured that according to the picture, all I needed was;
a package of the mix (250 g)
one egg (approx. 50 g)
and liquid, presumably water (70 ml) with a little extra to spritz on the rolls(?).

"Okay. Good enough for me", I thought. After all, I'm no dummy around the kitchen, so I could probably figure it out. Besides, maybe they had English directions inside the package. (One could hope, anyway)

I opened it at home and discovered that was sadly not the case.
I decided to hold off until the weekend to make them so I could spend some time on them instead of trying to figure it all out after coming home from work.

The next day, I went online and looked for the product via Google.
Keep in mind... the package was all in Korean (except for "Enjoy Home Baking" on the front), so I really didn't have a lot to go on.

I muddled around online for a bit when I came across a blog that described making this very product. YAY!
Of course, it was all in Japanese so NOW I was trying to decipher how to make a Korean biscuit(?) using Korean to Japanese directions.
It wasn't looking good.

One of my coworkers suggested I translate the page using Babel Fish.
Good idea! .... sort of.
It translated the page, but I think it actually made it worse.

There was a lot of references to "Military officer" and "empress" but not a whole heck of a lot of info about how to actually make the darn things.
I did see that it's called 'Kaechal bread', but whether that's the Korean name or a Japanese term for it isn't clear.

I'll try to attempt making them soon and let you know how they come out, but don't expect great results.
I'm going to be working blind.

So... I guess I don't really have a point to this story except to say this:
If you are in a foreign foods market and buy something "cool", you'd best be prepared to know what you're getting into if the directions aren't clear to you.
Lesson learned? Probably not. I'll most likely do it again.

Old Skool

You may not know it to look at me, but I actually do have a sense of style and can coordinate an outfit pretty well.
On a day-to-day basis, I tend to just wear whatever's at hand, though.

I've mentioned before that I buy Hotness's clothes for her.
I have a good idea of what looks good on her (colors and prints that she wouldn't normally pick out herself) and she doesn't like to go clothes shopping.
Since I know her sizes, I just do it for her so she can try them on at home.
I've had about a 97% success rate with the clothes I've gotten her. Not too bad.

Anyway, all that aside.
I also get clothes for my niece and my nephew.
Afterall, you can never be too young to be a fashionista.
I'm looking forward to school starting for both of them, so that maybe I can take them 'back-to-school' clothes shopping.

In the meantime, I picked up a nifty new T-shirt for my nephew.
I gotta point him in the right direction of geekology, and nothing says it better than some Old Skool sci-fi.


He's going to be a hit with ladies, I just know it.

(A special thanks goes out to the Maimed Man for his help. That coupon saved me a bundle on my order, dude!)

Laid Up On A Holiday Weekend

For once I actually had plans to accomplish, but they got shelved in a matter of moments.

I got today off, as well as Friday, from work for a nice 4-day weekend.

Today I was going to sleep in and then run one errand and be home for the rest of the day to do things in the yard (like weed-whack, etc....)

I took off to go run said errand around 10:00 am and found out when I got there, that they weren't open until 1:00 pm. Great.

So now I had some time to kill. I decided to go get some groceries and off I went to the store.

Got back when they were open and got things taken care of and then I made a quick stop to pick up some more birdseed (I was starting to run out).

By now it was after 2:00 p.m., and much later than I wanted to be out, but whatever. I still had the rest of the afternoon.

I got the groceries out of the car and was walking up to the front door when my right foot slipped.

I overcompensated and lurched with my left foot to balance myself, but was carrying all the groceries so my balance was off.

I twisted my left ankle, dropped the bags of groceries, and fell on the ground.

PAIN!!!!

I know I'd screwed something up, so I hobbled into the house and then brought the bags in.

I took off my shoes and socks and.... yup. My ankle was already swollen.

I'd sprained it pretty bad.

So now instead of all the things I had planned to do, I had to park on the couch with a bag of ice on my ankle and the bottle of ibuprofen next to me.

My whole day got shot full of holes and I got nothing accomplished.

Tomorrow, Hotness and I are going to Seattle to meet up with my mom and her husband.

We'd planned this for a couple of weeks now and I'll be darned if I'm going to cancel it because of a sprained ankle.

I'll dose up on Ibuprofen and Tylenol tonight. And tomorrow... I still have the Vicoden from when I busted my toe.

I'm going to hobble around the city and enjoy myself if it kills me.

So if you see a bald guy limping around downtown Seattle on Friday, it's not a random homeless guy.

It's just gimpy old me.

Hallmark Has A Card For Everything

I'm a bachelor again this weekend.
Hotness took off this morning to spend time with her mother one more time.

I used to call her mom every week or so (more often when the cancer started taking over) to just talk and make her laugh and to catch up on things that she wasn't sure she should tell her daughter. I'd filter the information and relay it to Hotness. (Her mom could be a bit dramatic, so it was always best to 'temper' what she had to say)
I haven't been able to do that in a while. In fact, the last time I got to talk to her was the weekend that Hotness and I got engaged (over a couple of months ago now). After that, her health got worse and she moved out of her house and into a nursing home for 24-hour care.

I'd been meaning to send her a card to cheer her up and let her know I was still thinking about her, but things would side-track me and I'd never take time to do it.
So last night, before Hotness was going to leave for her trip, I went to the local Hallmark shop to get a couple of cards for her to deliver for me when she got there.

I looked and looked until I found what I thought expressed the feelings I wanted to convey.
One was a humorous card about surrounding yourself with friends. The other was a sympathy card, which is kind of weird to buy BEFORE someone is dead let alone give it to the person who is the subject of the sympathy... but whatever.

I went up to the counter to pay and the cashier asked if I'd found everything I was looking for.
Instead of just saying "Yes I did. Thank you", I said "Well actually not quite, but these will do".
"Oh. Well can I help you find something more appropriate?" she asked.
"I don't know. It's kind of complicated. I was trying to find a card for my future mother-in-law who has terminal cancer. I don't think you have a card for anything like that" I replied.
She said, "As a matter fact, we do have a few cards that deal with sensitive subjects, including a few that relate to cancer. They're over here", and she directed me to an end cap with a few topical cards of diverse subjects.

I didn't find quite what I was hoping to, so I stuck with the original two I had picked out.
But I'll be dipped in cheese fondue. They really DO have a card for every situation.
I think I'm going to have to make it a personal goal to come up with topics that Hallmark hasn't got a card for now.


In the meantime, I've got stuff to do while Hotness is away.
I have some planting to do at the old homestead, so that'll get me outside in the sunshine during the day.
On Saturday late morning I'm going to watch my niece perform in her first ballet dance recital. And that evening I have plans to go to the ballet in Seattle (our last one for this season) with a couple of friends since Hotness won't be here to make it this time.
I'm also expecting a couple of DVD's to arrive in the mail: Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus and Fanboys. If I'm lucky, they'll be waiting in my mailbox for me when I get home this afternoon.

Some tacos, mojitos and two huge sea-beasties beating the crap outta each other. It's gonna be a good evening.....

Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus Update

On a whim I checked to see if Amazon.com had gotten more copies of the movie in.

They now list it as available for pre-order, instead of sold-out.

So I pre-ordered it.

It should be released on next Tuesday (05/26/09) and I should have it in my stinky, sweaty hands about a week later. (I opted for free shipping, so they'll take their time getting it out to me).

Whenever ya'll are ready for a triple-feature weekend of:

Machine Girl

Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus

and

Calamari Wrestler

... you just let me know, okay?

What's All The Hubub, Bub?

I went to see "Star Trek" this morning. It is teh awesome!
No need to give a review. If you haven't seen it yet, you must. It's the law.
'Nuff said.

To start the day, I had breakfast with some good friends and then we all headed to the theater to watch it.
Afterwards, I stopped at the hardware store before coming home.
It was a BEAUTIFUL day today, and the lawn is in much need of taming.
I picked up some motor oil for the mower and a few plants to put in my flower bed right in front of the entry door.
Then Hotness took off and mowed like crazy while I mixed up some Miracle-Gro and watered the outdoor plants. It's been such a late spring that I figured a little extra boost of "food" would probably help 'em out.

Things are coming up good... slowly, but good. The dang slugs have been munching on all the tender shoots that are poking up out of the ground, so I sprinkled slug bait around everything.
I expect to fine lots of dead, slimy carcasses in the morning. Bwa-ha-ha!
But at least the plants will have a fighting chance to grow now.

I planted some tomato seeds. I'm kind late actually getting to it in May, but we'll see. If I get some, great. If not, no harm done.
I'm planning on planting some salad greens in pots on my deck, as well. My hope is that I can pick what I need for a salad anytime I want without buying a whole head of lettuce or a bag of it and then have what I didn't need go bad in my fridge.

I FINALLY got the front tires on my car changed last night after I got home from work.
I still had my snow tires on. Every time I wanted to switch them, something would come up and I wouldn't have time or it was pouring rain when I'd get home.
Last night nothing was preventing me, so I jacked up the front end and did the ol' switcheroo on them.
Then I made a margarita and played some Guitar Hero until Hotness got home.

Hmmm.. let's see....
Oh! I bought an electric weed trimmer today. (On my second trip to the hardware store in town)
I have a big, heavy-duty, gas-powered Stihl trimmer but it's a little too powerful to use right next to the house.
On more than one occasion I've whacked the siding and made a mess. Now I have something that won't cause as much damage and Hotness can even use it if she wants.

Other than that, my week hasn't been that eventful.

I did come across a link I'll share with you though.
Do you like to see people looking ridiculous? Do you like to make fun of them?
Then check out: Look at this F#&*^%G Hipster

That's all for now.
Nothing terribly exciting, I'm afraid.
But aren't you glad I didn't have another boring post about the convention?

Calgary Expo & Banff

Alright, I'll try to wrap this up 'cause it's really gone on longer than I had planned on.
Besides, I'm going to see "Star Trek" this Saturday and I want to be able to talk about that after I watch it.

Sooo....
Not much sleep on Saturday night so on Sunday I was running on fumes.
Thankfully the day was less crowded and therefore less busy.
I grabbed a few people who were volunteering and they were absolutely the best help I could've asked for!
They helped get the lunches out and on time without any problems. YAY!

Palindrome hooked me up and got me a chance to have my picture taken with Jewel Staite.
Thanks man! You're awesome!

I know I look like a dork... but hey, I got my picture with her. I'm a happy camper now.

I also got a few new self-portrait sketches at the show. You can check 'em out here, but here are the artists that drew them:
Sergio Aragones

Dave Johnson

Darwyn Cooke

Bryan Lee O'Malley

Heck! You can go check out all the new sketches I got here.

I went to the auction for the pieces that were in this year's Calgary Expo Artbook to bid on a couple of pieces I had my eyes on. One of them being the Terry Moore piece.
I lost the bid on the second picture I wanted, but after a brief and heated bidding war I won the piece that I really wanted by Terry!
here he is holding it after I won it

It's currently being framed at the moment and will be hanging on my wall soon!

The show wrapped up and everybody went out to a post-show dinner before making the trek out to Banff.

On the way to the lodge, I rode with the Seattle crew (minus Technogreek) and we told some of the most awful, tasteless jokes we could think of. It was good times.

After we got to the lobby to check into our rooms, the kid behind the counter noticed that Josh Ortega was wearing a "Gears of War" T-shirt and commented about it.
When Josh told him, "I'm the guy who wrote the story for that game", that kid practically lost control of all bodily functions.
Then Josh told him who everybody was and the kid geeked out hardcore.
He came up after his shift and hung out with the group that evening and was amazed that he was surrounded by a bunch of comic book professionals. He just kept saying "WOW!".

We went to Canmore on Monday and visited an Ammolite jewelry factory.


Then we had lunch at an incredible beer brewery, the Grizzly Paw. I didn't have any beer, but I did have their hand-crafted root beer which was super-duper!

Above the door of the pub was a warning sign to watch out for bears in town.

It wasn't a joke. The bears have started to get used to seeing people so they aren't afraid to wander around downtown looking for food. In fact ALL of the garbage cans were even bear-proofed to help deter them.
We didn't see any bears on our trip, though.

That evening I watched "Machine Girl" with a few of the guests and laughed our heads off with all the ultra-violent nonsense!

On Tuesday, we went into the town of Banff (for reals, this time).
Technogreek is badass!



It comes in cans?!?



I got dropped off to do some gift buying while others went on to ride the famous gondola.

It was snowing practically the whole time we were in Canmore / Banff and on Tuesday it was not safe to run the gondolas so nobody got to experience it that day.
Instead, they texted me and we met up at another pub for a bite to eat.

Then on to the candy store for... what else? CANDY!!!!

We walked around town some more and I bought a few things for Hotness, my mom, and my niece & nephew that day and then we all headed back to the lodge for a rest.

That evening EVERYBODY headed back into Canmore for dinner at the Grizzly Paw Brewery one more time.

I had an Alberta beef dip with a side of poutine. YUM YUM!
Don't be hatin' the cheesy, gravy goodness!

I also picked up some tasty BBQ sauce that they make there.

Back at the lodge afterwards, everybody was having a good time.
It was the last evening together, and nobody wanted to go to bed.

I played "Rock Band" and "Street Fighter" on the PS3 with a few of the guests.
At one point during a game, Frank Cho walked in wearing a bathrobe (from the room) and watched everybody play for a bit.
Then suddenly, and very non-descriptly, he pulled out a package from his robe pocket and asked "Smoked salmon, anyone?".
Everybody erupted in laughter at the weirdness of it, but Frank just stood there and said, "It's really good. Try some".

After that I went back to my room where a few of the guests were drawing in each other's sketchbooks. Also, Josh Ortega and Liana K. we debating just about ANYTHING that could be debated.
They talked (and drank and talked.....) ALL through the night and into the next day.
It was fun listening to them, but man was I pooped. And I had to catch a plane home that afternoon.

We stayed at the lodge for a while that day packing up.
Some of the folks who hadn't gotten to ride the gondola the day before went back into Banff one more time since it stopped snowing.

Finally we all headed back to Calgary to go to the airport and catch our flights back home.
I remembered to take Dramamine this time, so my airplane ride was just peachy.

We got into Seattle around 6:30 p.m. (local time).
Hotness picked me and couple of other guys up and then dropped me off at my car while she continued on to drop them off where they needed.

I got home. Unpacked most of my bags. Sat down to eat with Hotness.
During dinner, I started slumping over and could barely keep my eyes open.
I finished dinner and went right to bed. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow and I slept for 12 hours straight!

I took the remaining couple of days of the week off from work to so that I didn't have to "jump into the fray" as soon as I got back.
I paid some bills, ran errands and stuff like that.

It was an awesome time but I'm glad to be back home.
I'm already looking forward to going again next year (hopefully), though.




Well, I hope I didn't bore you to death and I'm sorry it took so long to post about the trip (and that it took so MANY posts to do it).

Tidbits & Oddbits

Well what do you know?
Blog post entry # 500.
That's a lot of posts. Some with something important to say (to me, anyway), most with nothing to say really.
But that's a lot of posts.

So I wanted to have something really spectacular to talk about for this milestone, but to be honest I don't think there's anything that really qualifies as being "milestone-worthy".
So instead you get lots of little micro-posts to make up one nice big post.
Grab a mug or glass of your favorite beverage and celebrate #500 with me, won't you?

-------------------------

Hotness and I have been re-watching "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" series again.
(Mmmm.... Alyson Hannigan. Oh! Sorry. Got distracted for a moment)

We never really caught them on TV or in chronological order when it used to be on, so with the magic of the DVD's we are catching them in order and remembering how campy and fun they were.

While watching an episode from season two I got to flex some NERD KNOWLEDGE and my geek prowess for Hotness when they made a reference to Locutus of Borg.
Hotness heard it and gave one of those laughs like "I'll laugh, but I don't know why". You know what I'm talking about.
So I got to educate her on who and what Locutus was.
She didn't run away laughing, but instead put her head on my shoulder.
I'm so lucky she loves me for being a dork.

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My birthday was just over a week ago.
I didn't make a big thing out of it on here 'cause it really wasn't. We didn't go out to celebrate or anything.
I did get myself a nice present, though.
I bought some new T-shirts on Thinkgeek.com that I can wear to impress my fellow geek friends.
Including a kick-ass "personal soundtrack" T-shirt. When I saw this, it screamed out P-O-T-E-N-T-I-A-L and I'm so looking forward to wearing it to one of our ECCC volunteer meetings. Up in Calgary. Out to dinner. Just about anywhere.
This thing is just frickin' awesome. I love it.

For future reference though.... next year is the big 4-0.
I've told Hotness I want to have a "pirate-themed" birthday party at the Comic Stop to celebrate. I was listening to Jimmy Buffet and thought that seemed like a good way to ring in my 40th year.

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Speaking of birthdays, last night we went out with friends for dinner and live comedy in Seattle.
Dinner was great, but then what isn't when it's accompanied by a margarita?

The comedy was okay, though. The emcee was a nervous guy with a thick European accent who made the typical "the difference in America compared to (insert country of origin here)" jokes. Followed by a couple of mediocre comedians before the headliner came on.
One of whom did his routine about dating and being a guy. The other did a bunch of Wal-mart joke references and even had to quote another comedian's joke to get his punchline across. Lame.

The headliner, however was very good. Or at least, he started off good.
His name was Daz Reed and he was actually very funny. That is until some stupid fat bitch in the front row started talking and would NOT. SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP.
His rehearsed routine quickly turned into an improv session and totally threw off his timing.
His jokes were still funny, but the scene became nothing more than partial jokes interjected with comments and insults to the heckler.
More than once he commented about it to the staff during his act, but nobody stepped in to put an end to her and ask her to leave.
He still managed to get some laughs and everybody in our group had a good time, but next time we go I will leave and ask for my money back if I have to have my show detracted by some idiot who wants to share in the limelight after more than a few drinks.

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Last night I dreamed about the comic book convention. Again.
Not a very involved dream, but memorable nonetheless.

In it, I was at the convention center before the attendees were allowed in.
Jewel Staite is one of the media guests this year. (what a second. Mmmm.... Jewel Staite. Sorry. Got distracted again.)

Anyway, she and a couple other people working at the show were at her table getting ready before the crowds came in.
I made my way over to let her know I was a fan and that I'd like to get her autograph at some point, but that I was working elsewhere on the floor and might not make it to see her during the day.
But when I opened my mouth, I just kind of stammered and totally forgot everything I wanted to say. I also dropped a book I wanted to get signed. So basically I just looked like a total doofus.
She smiled and then went to her table to get ready.

Hopefully I'll do better in real life and I actually get to meet her.

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Here's something from the "Things to Ponder" file:


That's pretty impressive and sobering.

You can buy this as a poster from here.


I found out about it via the Presurfer.

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Well, it snowed again last night.
Nothing compared to what we had during Christmas, though.
At least.... not yet.

I have to admit that is very pretty to wake up and see a big blanket of white over everything.
It's just when I actually have to go out in it and try and drive that I wish it was happening somewhere else.

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There's a case of eHerpes going around.
Normally I steer clear of such things, as to me they are more or less a blog version of chain letters.
But this one has actually been mulling around in what substitutes for my cranium and I think I'll succumb to it for the sake of anybody who's interested.

I'm supposed to link to the person who gave it to me, but technically I didn't have direct contact with anybody to "catch" it. So I'll just blame the first reported case I heard about it from.

1) I enjoy feeding birds. A lot.
That may seem like an "old person" thing to do, but I really look forward to filling up my feeders and watching the birds come and visit them. That is, when the damn squirrels and raccoons aren't tearing them down and breaking the feeders.

2) I wanted to become an artist who made record covers for rock bands after watching Xanadu way back in the day, just like Sonny Malone.
(I make personalized covers on CD's that I've burned, so I guess in a way I sort of got to live that dream)

3) I get teary-eyed watching sappy movies.
I'm not ashamed to say that I've leaked eye moisture at Pete's Dragon, E.T., Steel Magnolias (yes, I admit I liked it), Nell, and Big Fish among others
I even used to get a little misty over a particular commercial quite a few years ago.
And if you make fun of me, I'll punch you in the neck.

4) When I was very young, I used to think that even inanimate objects had feelings.
I used to feel bad for my left shoe if I put my right shoe on and tied it first. So I would try to alternate in order to not hurt it's "feelings".

5) I hate lists. Absolutely hate them.
"The top 10 sandwiches of all time"
"100 of the best rock songs"
"The 50 most popular movies"
"25 of the most beautiful photos ever taken"
....... blah blah blah
They are all matters of opinion with no basis in actual fact and it pisses me off when magazines or news sites post them as 'articles'.

6) Although I haven't done it in quite a few years, I like to tie fishing flies.
I've never actually gone fly-fishing, but I taught myself how to tie them when I was young and to this day can still name a few of them and what's used in making them.

7) I've never broken a bone in my body.
When I was younger I wanted to break something so I could wear a cast and have it signed by friends, but never did.
Now, I'm hoping that I can continue my "no-broken-bones" streak as I get older.

Bonus!
8) On road trips, I like to play a personal game by matching a mile-marker with a significant comic book issue number.
i.e. Mile-marker 181 = Incredible Hulk #181 (first appearance of Wolverine), mile-marker 4 = Avengers # 4 (first appearance of Captain America in the Silver-age), etc....

Yes, I am a geek.

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Well, that's it for post 500.
Please return your seats to the upright position.
I hope you enjoyed your stay and will continue to be back for at least another 500 or more.

Linkdump! Things To Buy Edition

I'm feeling lazy and yet I want to blog.
What to do... what to do......
Ah! I'll just post a bunch of links for things you can buy (but probably don't need).


Like gummy bears?
How about a ginormous one?

Make everyday a 'stress-free day' with a bubble calendar.
(Or heck! With a little spare time you could make one yourself)


Need some stealth Duct tape?


Brighten up your day with some flowers or a lamp.
Why, you could get a flower that IS a lamp!



Add a smile to your favorite drink!


Show 'em that you still like to "kick it Old School".







Well... that ought to do for now until something post-worthy comes along.

Woof! Woof! Woof!

You know what I love about Halloween?

Half-price decorations the day after!

I picked up some stuff this afternoon, including this sweet Cerberus decoration:

It's about 3 feet long and about a foot tall.

Maybe I should park him at my desk at work .

When people ask me where I work, I sometimes tell them "In Hell as a janitor". Since Cerberus was the guardian at the gates of Hell I think it'd be appropriate, don't you think?

Nice doggy!

Worm Wranglin', Three Stooges... Etc.

It's been a while since I mentioned how it's coming along but I thought I'd update ya'll on my worm composting bin and how the little critters are doing.

I've been adding our leftover food scraps (banana peels, used tea leaves, and so forth...), making sure to bury it under the bedding with each new addition.
At first, the few worms I had were kind of scawny and not very plentiful.
Now that the weather has gotten colder recently, I wanted to see if the container was keeping them insulated enough or if they were dying off from the cold.
I opened the lid, pulled some if the bedding aside and lo and behold, there were many fat little worms wriggling around in the bin!
It looks like the cold hasn't affected them in the least and they seem to be loving the food, so things are going just great in the old composting bin. Huzzah!

At this rate, after Winter gets past I should have plenty of worms to spare if anybody is looking for some to start their own composting bin once Spring rolls around. (Ha ha! 'Spring rolls'!)
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I recently saw on Amazon.com that you can now get all the Three Stooges shorts on DVD in four separate volumes.
Previously all I could ever find were a few of their most-played shorts repackaged on different DVD or VHS versions for around $15 to $20 a pop.
These new DVD releases not only have ALL the shorts, but they have them in chronological order which is kind of cool, I think.
So I was planning to order them (as they aren't expensive considering how many of the different Stooges shorts there are) after the next couple of paydays.

Then, on Friday night after work, I had to stop as Costco to pick up some incidentals and I was checking out the DVD's for sale and they had the same four volumes available. They were about the same price (AND I didn't have to pay for shipping, so really they were cheaper).
I got volume one, and later next week I'm going back to pick up the other 3 volumes.
So if you're a Stooges fan and you've been waiting to find them on DVD, well guess what? Now you can and pretty cheaply to boot!

I mention this because it's been my experience that only guys really like The Three Stooges. Girls just don't get into them that much. That's not to say I haven't met any women who did like them, but they've just been very few and far between.
So if you'll notice over to your right, near the top of the page, I've posted an informal survey.
It's been a while since I last did one of these, and I thought this would be a good excuse for another one.
I'd like to know.... do you like the Three Stooges or do you think they're lame?

Please notice that there are different responses based on whether or not you're a guy or a gal.
It's not to be sexist or anything, I'm just trying to see if it's true that guys get more of a kick out them or if I've been mistaken all these years.
Take a moment to do the survey and support unscientific research, won't you?
__________________________________

Well, other than that, I'm feeling much better.

I wasn't able to find a 'date' for the Joan Osborne concert until just yesterday, and then after I did... both shows were already sold out.
Oh well. Maybe I can catch her next time she's in town.

Not much else to say, so enjoy the end of your weekend and hopefully I'll have more interesting stuff to post soon.

Sure-fire Way To Give The Neighbors Nightmares

Just in time for Halloween, you can hang a 'cocooned man' on your porch, complete with giant spiders. ICK!

Heh! You could put it in the closet and when the guests put their coats away.... imagine the screaming!

.... And Then We All Had Cake

First, I'd like to apologize for the lackluster choice for Music Madness Monday.

I wanted to post something by Weird Al, but all the live clips were pretty crappy and the really good ones were not allowing me to embed them into the post. So we got Bohemian Polka. I wanted to pick something that wasn't familiar but still unique.

Yeah. Kind of left a bad taste in my mouth.

I'll try to do better, I promise.

Well, with that said here's how the weekend shook down;

On Friday after work, I met up with G-rod at the Comic Stop to pick up my weekly dose of four-color crack then he and I went and saw 'The Dark Knight' next door. I'd seen it on opening weekend but he hadn't yet. It was just as good the second time around I thought.

Saturday I slept in a little then got up and made a potato salad. After that I had to meet Hotness downtown at the coffee shop. We were going to the Farmer's Market in Redmond that morning and the day looked to be a great one.

We meandered around and picked up a couple of tiny little cherry pies and a loaf of cheesy corn bread and a yummy smelling candle.

It was getting closer to noon and I began to get a hankering for a pita sandwich so I stopped at Fred Meyer on the way home and picked up stuff to make one.

I had planned on taking advantage of the weather and digging the holes for my clothesline poles and finally get them up and installed, but gravity called me to the couch and I was stuck there.

I decided to watch a movie I picked up at the library, "Grizzly Man". A really good movie about Timothy Treadwell, who lived among grizzlies in Alaska for 13 years until his death by one of them in 2003. Recommended.

Then Hotness and I drove to the Lynnwood Comic Stop to watch Kyle Stevens do a set of his music and some songs from the Kirby Krackle collaboration with Technogreek.

Good stuff!

There was food and drinks

and after the music a few of us stayed around to play ZOMBIES! until about 4:00 in the morning. Ugh!

It was fun (long, but fun) and I look forward to picking up the game to play when we go camping next time. (Playing ZOMBIES! in the woods after dark and drinking mojitos... there's more to life than that?!?)

On Sunday, Hotness and slept in until after 10:00 a.m.

Any plans to get the clothesline poles up were scrappped when it started raining and just got ugly outside.

We had plans for later that afternoon so I stayed in the kitchen and made smoked salmon deviled eggs to take with us. I also made some rice crispie treats, but due to many errors (I blame sleep deprivation) they came out more like rice crispie ROCKS and I had to scrap the batch. Sorry guys, I'll make more again soon.

It was getting closer to time for us to leave, so we got everything in the car and headed up north for Qtilla's (belated) birthday party.

What had planned to be a BBQ turned into a pizza fest since the rain didn't allow for much merriment to be partaken of outside.

Ah well, it still was fun.

We had pizza, ice cream cake and a few of us had shots of some mighty fine tequila.

Then Q opened her presents and realizing it was getting on to around 10:00 p.m. we all started to say goodbye and head our separate ways home.

A fun weekend filled with late nights and hanging out with friends.

More stuff coming up this week and especially Labor Day weekend. Posting may be sparse bewteen now and then though but I'll be back.

Hey Mr. DJ Put Some Records On

Many of us remember the old Fisher-Price record player. (and by "us", I mean anyone 25 years and older)

This was a great toy and it looks like they are bringing it back so we can play with it again when no one is looking... er, get it for our kids (or our friend's kids, etc..).

But as cool as it was back in the day, THIS is way cooler!
New School DJ Mixer w/ 2 Scratch Discs
Just let the little ones get a microphone and they can start mixin' it up as soon as they can start walking.
Imagine having a house party and your four-year-old is laying down beat after beat like John Digweed!

You gotta start 'em out young if they're ever going to develop their skillz.
Fo' shizzle!

Dark Knight, Grilled Tomatoes, and Yard Work

So not a whole heck of a lot has been happening lately... that is, until this weekend.

On Friday night I went and got advance tickets for "The Dark Knight" and my buddy Dug & I went bright and early (like 10:00 a.m.) to see it on Saturday morning.

A lot has been said about this movie and how great it is, so I won't go into that.

If you haven't seen it yet... you should. 'nuff said.

At 2-1/2 hours long though, you'd better bring a "bladder buddy" so you don't miss anything.

The rest of Saturday was kind of uneventful although Hotness started washing the house to make it look all nice and bright.

On Sunday, we got up and went to Home Depot to get some things needed to finish a couple of projects we were doing.

I was rebuilding a planter box in front of the porch and Hotness finished washing the siding on the house.

I had gotten some retaining wall bricks to make the planter, but seriously underestimated how many I needed. We picked up just 14 (yeah, that ought to do it) and brought them home only to figure out I needed to get 30 more!

Back to Home Depot in my car to pick them up. (If you know me, you know what kind of car I have so you can imagine how 'fun' it was to try and fit 30 of these things into my car!)

Made it home and then discovered I didn't have enough dirt for the planter. *sigh*

I'll get it tonight on my way home.

I moved on to a different project and washed the outside windows. It's amazing how good everything looks when you can see!

Getting close to dinner time now, so I lit up the BBQ and grilled some tomatoes and also some zucchini (which I basted with some lemon herb marinade).

The tomato idea came from this recipe but I embellished a bit and instead of just salt and pepper, I used Mrs. Dash and a little Cajun spice seasoning. I also dropped a little bit of feta cheese in the cut side of them. Yum-yum!

Add to this some garlic bread (toasted on the grill, no less) and it was a filling and low-fat meal!

Here's what the tomatoes looked like after they cooked:

I also picked up a toaster oven this weekend.

Taking a cue from Qtilla, I'm trying to use less energy at the house and thought that a smaller (toaster) oven would make more sense to use for just the two of us, rather than heating up a big, ol' regular-sized oven every time.

I'm still trying to get used to it, so I can't say whether I like it a lot or if it's more of a pain in the butt than I need. I'll keep you posted.

(It's got a rotisserie feature, so I'm looking forward to trying that out soon)

Bought some stuff online, but that's going to be the subject of another post.

Hope everybody had a good time this weekend and was able to enjoy this nice weather we're having.

Pre-Convention Friday

Elwood has a great report about how the show opened over on his blog, so I won't bore you with repetative details.
I'll just re-cap what I was involved in and how it all went down.

On Friday, Hotness and I took the day off from work. She had a hair appointment early in the day so we did that before heading to Seattle and checking into our hotel room we shared with Dr. Zoltar and his wife for the weekend.
I did some shopping at Bellevue Square Mall while I waited.
Pretty soon she was ready to go, so we left and went straight into Seattle with my car all loaded with luggage and crap to get signed at the show.

Upon arriving at the hotel and going inside, I noticed a cart with several boxes that appeared to be for the convention. They were marked CS MOORE Studios. I stopped and asked if they were part of the convention and found out that it was Clayburn Moore and his wife.

Later, as the four of chose which bed we'd take, Dr. Zoltar was looking outside and saw what appeared to be a drug deal taking place in the intersection across from our window. A car stopped at a GREEN light, blocking traffic. Another guy walked from the sidewalk and got into the stopped car. A few seconds later he exited and went back to the sidewalk and the car drove off.
I love the big city.

The better part of the day was spent stuffing badges into the plastic holders that attendees would be wearing at the show. Nothing real exciting, but hey... it's gotta be done.
I also wandered around the floor briefly to familiarize myself with the layout. I'd be running around and I needed to know who was going to be where so I didn't get lost.

Along the way, I got reaquainted with some of the vendors I've seen before and introduced myself to some new ones.

That evening, the four of us (Dr. Zoltar, his wife, Hotness and myself) had dinner at the restaraunt next to the hotel. It was dee-lish-ous! And after two martinis each, we headed back to our room to sleep before the big day coming up.

I had to make a quick run back to the desk to get more pillows (we were going to build a fort... NOT!) and when I stepped out of the elevator I ran into (quite literally) Dan DiDio from DC Comics.

That was pretty much all that happened Friday.

... and I'm out of time for lunch, so I'll get back to the show report soon!

Banff

After the dinner was over, we all loaded onto a chartered bus that was taking us up to Banff.

There were two guys who were the bus drivers. One who actually drove the bus and another who was sort of the 'back-up' driver if needed.

We all got on and found a seat to claim as our own. I sat near the back across from Palindrome and settled in for the long ride (approx. 90 mins) north to Banff.

My chance for a bit of solitude and some sleep was short-lived however.

The second driver introduced himself to everyone and worked his way to the back of the bus until he got to me. Then he sat in the seat behind me and we talked (well, mostly HE talked) all the way during the trip. It was fine really, I figured better me than to try and bother everyone else during the drive and it did seem to make the time by quickly.

It was late when we started on the trip, so it was already dark and not much to see along the drive. We did see the ski jumps from the Calgary Olympics which were lit up at night, and he told me about how they are currently being used today as a training center.

We got to Canmore (just outside of Banff) and stayed at the Banff Gate Mountain Lodge & Spa.

Being past midnight when we arrived, it was pitch black outside with no idea what type of view awaited us in the morning.

We were all assigned to our rooms and then broke up to settle in and get some sleep.

I stayed up a little while longer and talked with Laurie (the wife of the promoter who brought us up to Calgary) and we discussed breakfast plans for the next morning. It got to be well after 2 a.m., and finally we could not keep our eyes open any longer so we all crashed in our seperate beds until the sun rose to a beautiful morning.

When I got up, I thought I'd take a quick peek outside the window and... WHAT A VIEW!

The Canadian Rockies were staring right back at us from across the highway.

After taking pictures I came back inside and by that time Laurie had woke up so she & I and another person headed into town to get food for breakfast for everyone.

We picked up all types of 'breakfast-y' foods to try and accomodate everyone.

We even picked up pre-cooked bacon... in Canada.

Get it? True Canadian bacon? Har har!

Yeah, anyway....

We got back to our room and everyone started milling about, so we began the great breakfast migration towards our room so we could start feeding everyone.

I took it upon myself to work kitchen duty and began making scrambled eggs and French toast, while Laurie prepared hashbrowns and another girl began microwaving the bacon.

We had two pots brewing coffee and that didn't seem to be quite enough, but everyone was having a good time so it didn't seem to matter too much.

Here's me in the kitchen:

I had made a plate for myself, but since I was still cooking I didn't get to eat it right away.

Filip (the publisher of Top Cow) asked if he could take over so I could eat, so I left the kitchen duties to him and another fellow by the name of Terry. They wrapped up feeding everyone, and then we all made plans for the rest of the day.

A cookout / BBQ was decided on so we all made seperate trips in to Canmore to pick up supplies.

Note to anyone reading this: ALWAYS have a list!

Everyone bought enough food to feed everyone else, and we ended up having W-A-Y too much food to finish during our stay there.

Filip and I saw what everyone was buying so we cut way back on getting food, and opted to buy alcohol instead, so we went to the liquor store to load up.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful.

People mostly broke into groups to talk shop or get to know one another, while others played Nintendo Wii.

I spent a good portion of the day hanging out wit Stjepan and his wife. We talked about his work in the comics field, exchanged recipes, how he and his wife have enjoyed visiting Canada and the U.S.

Just having a nice relaxing time.

As evening approached, we started getting all the food ready for grilling.

Filip and myself moved all the booze into Stuart Immonen's room and set the bar up there.

Burgers, hotdogs, steaks, chicken, etc. were being grilled out in the 'common area'.

All the fixin's were in the room the the left of the bar. The gaming was taking place to the right.

It was party central!

That eveing was really laid back, and I found myself getting involved in a game called "Mafia".

Which was fun, but after a few drinks I found it difficult to keep up with and just let myself get killed.

Bedtime ended up being somewhere around 2:00 a.m. again.

------------------------------------------

Tuesday morning, there was plenty of leftovers from the night before plus breakfast food from the previous morning so everyone just got what suited their needs and we planned our rides into Banff to do some sightseeing and shopping.

Our Seattle group stuck together, along with Filip and Lynda and we all rode into town together.

First stop was the famous Banff gondola ride.

I tried to steel myself for it, but knew that I just would end up being a basket case before the ride was over, so I opted to stay at the gift shop and wait for everyone to return.

This picture was taken by Palindrome for me. What a view from up there. Thanks P!

Afterwards, we went to lunch.... at a Mexican restaraunt with British waitresses in French Canada. Who says were can't be International?

I also had a shot of Scorpion Mezcal, which I might add was quite good.

I wish I could find it locally in the States.

Then we walked around downtown and went to a candy shop. (No, we didn't lick the lollipop. Whoa!)

We also bought some exotic, handcrafted teas in a local shop.

Or at least, Filip and myself did.

Everyone else waited outside for us.

Some of the people were heading back to the airport today, so we went back to the lodge for them to pack and get their rides back to Calgary.

I spent the late afternoon hanging out with Stjepan and his wife again. He had come down with an upset stomache earlier, so he wasn't able to join us in Banff, but was feeling much better later in the day.

We sat around and watched "Karate Kid" pts. 1 & 2, and I got a nifty sketch from each of them.

(I'll have to post them later, as they are bigger than my scanner. But they are COOL!)

Another cookout dinner with everyone and I even played Wii bowling with Whilce Portacio's daughters.

-----------------------------------

The following morning, everyone that was left was heading back to the airport to go home.

We cleaned up our respective rooms and all grouped together into one room to wait for our rides back to Calgary.

Our Seattle group played a round of Magic while we waited.

Then our ride showed up and we were whisked off to the airport.

The flight home was thankfully uneventful and brief.

While we were waiting for our ride to pick us up, G-rod was coming back from Mexico that same day and met us in the baggage pick-up area.

We got to our respective vehicles and by the time I got home, it was after 9:00 p.m. but I didn't get to sleep until after 11:00p.m.

I got up for work the next day and made it until about 3:00 when my body finally said to me "Dude. Enough is enough. I'm shutting down now", and I went home early and crashed. Hard.

I've also come down with a nasty cold, but I'm hoping I can get through the worst of it before next Friday when the ECCC begins. Then I can stay home and recouperate at my leisure.

There was a lot more that happened and it was an incredibly fun week, but I'm glad to be home finally.

I look forward to doing again next year (hopefully).