Bulls at Magic – January 6th

First thought, why did Boston get rid of Glen Davis? And with getting rid of Perkins last season, it’s almost like they don’t value that a big body, who clogs the lanes, sets vicious screens, bumps opposing players out of position. Boston has scorers with Ray Allen, Paul Pierce & Garnett, they need big bodies to do the little things. Oh well. But, did you notice Glen Davis set that wicked screen in the 4th quarter, I forget who, but a Bull ran  straight into BigBaby, and went flat to the ground. That’s gotta hurt. And that’s the value Glen Davis.

Chicago, I’m trying to figure out who their #2 option is. And, well, they don’t seem to have a #2, but they have about four people tied for #3.

And, hats off to Derrick Rose for picking up a lifetime endorsement deal from Adidias worth $250 million.

 

model train spotting

We finally made it to the model train show at Seattle Center today. MrGrunty, could’ve stayed the night, watching the trains on the tracks. In case you’re curious, they were “N” trains, meaning, the tracks were 9mm apart…or about 1:148 scale. Meaning, tiny.

MyBetterHalf and I took turns staying with MrG whilst the other parent took the other two around other exhibits. MsSqueaky really liked the dinosaurs, they were moving around, and MsSqueaky was talking back and waving to them. (When MrG first saw the dinosaurs, he stopped in his tracks and was a bit nervous. But MsS waved him to come along and see.)  When a boy a few years older than MrG went by, MrG talked with the big kid about the trains. MrG was trying to convert MrCuddles to be as interested in the trains, MrCuddles was having fun just looking down from the balcony and staring at the cute-boy in the corner-mirror.

At the end, we went to the planetarium, and watched short presentation about stars and the moon. We had to keep MrG moving along, or he would have only stared at one part for the entire time.  When we were leaving, after five hours, he was protesting, “But we didn’t look at trains for a long time.”

today

Today, started, around 3AM, with MrGrunty crawling into our bed. Around 5AM, MsSqueaky wanted to crawl in too, but that’s too crowded. So she and I went to the living room  for the couch. When I tried to quietly get extra blankets from their room, that woke MrCuddles, and I took him too. He fell back asleep quickly on the sofa. MsSqueaky, was watching the snow. Telling me about it ever few minutes.

We finally got to church. And I was the teacher… for, my childrens, an 11 year old, and 16 year old. Needless to say, they didn’t pay attention. I tried to teach them “Siyahamba“. Luckily Leena was there to sing along.

We got home, and me, MrGrunty, MsSqueaky played in the front yard. MsSqueaky climbed to top of a mound, MrG quickly followed, and she announced, “I am the King and Grunty is the queen.”  We made a snow man. After, MrG wanted to have a snow-fight, so we threw snowballs at each other until the second time he got hit in the face. We did have lots of fun, lots of laughing. He laughed the loudest when he would get hit by a snowball on the back of his coat while running away.

Hanging out. Parents, reading. MrG & MrCuddles got babies in strollers, and walked around the house. MrC calls his babies, all of them, “Charney”.  Later, MsSqueaky would dress up MrCuddles with her bike-helmet, and sandals. Later, MrG and MsS were drawing pictures for their school friends, and MrC was just playing with his “Charneys”.

They did get in trouble for taking two complete packages of wipes, and hanging the wipes all around their bedroom. They knew they were in trouble, because MsS and MrG went right away and didn’t even protest when they were sent to time out.

Saturday

well…I conned MyBetterHalf to take the childrens their school-friend’s birthday-party solo. I did help walk them there in the snow, uphill. And by snow, I mean slush. Because that’s what was fallin’ from the sky.

I’m working on learning on learning “Siyahamba” for teaching Bible class in the morning. Ow, barre-chords hurt.

I did some reading. Sophie-kitty crawled up on my lap.

And now, I bloggeth, for my loyal readers.

Thanxies!

Among Madmen

Among Madmen by Jim Starlin & Daina Graziunas

End of the world, post-apocalyptic novel with monsters. So, my cup of tea. The first page grabbed me, “I wasn’t there when Keith died, but I’ve got a pretty good idea how it went down.” And the narrator tells of his wife’s morning routines.

Spoilers will follow.

In this future, there’s a plague, that strikes without warning, and some folks become brain dead, and other folks become rage-infested murderers. So, kinda like two kinds of zombies, one you have to take care of, the other suddenly are trying to kill you. I liked that idea. This has been going on for at least three years, and so, the population has dwindled, and the survivors in the story are in a remote town.

So far so good. On three occasions we see a normal person become berserkers. And seems the normal ties of society would be broken if you can’t trust your loved ones from going berserk at any moment.

The Bad – granted, I don’t know much about tactics and strategy…but still, the authors made some fatal flaws that I would suspect their characters would have avoided, since their characters were smart, survivors, cops, war-veterans,…

• First, if you have oil, and it is dangerous to drive it around, and when you deliver there is the threat the customer will rob you, instead of you transporting a valuable commodity. Set up a fortified shop, and they come and get it.
• Second, the town seems too spread out. Hey, if there are roving band of marauders, maybe you should castle up, keep the herd together, stick close to each other.
• The Narrator’s wife, has a case of  berserker. And has killed eleven people, and yet, she still lives in town. Really, your spouse kills multiple people, and “oh, well, every relationship has challenges.” Whatever.
• I never understood why the marauders would sneak in to attack the town…when a less fortified gas well is down the street. Unless, the marauders needed women. That angle of an apocalypse was never looked into, the “we need to breed to survive” point of view. (As Larry Niven wrote, “As soon as the meteor hit, women’s lib was a thing of the past” – Lucifer’s Hammer.)
• The narrator never sees the irony of “we took the oil for our survival …and we had more guns” and the marauders attacking for supplies.
• The authors spoil a couple of surprises by narrator saying, “I should have known…”
• Bullets wasted when trying to wake someone. This bothered me in WalkingDead, too. The world has ended. Bullets are becoming more rare, and thus more valuable with every shot fired.
• The whole night ambush…So, all I know, I read from Tom Clancey’s classic, Clear & Present Danger. As soon as you fire your gun, you lose your night vision. I would recommend using flares tossed at the enemy, or a Molotov cocktail would be better. I would recommend fortifying your position a bit, to slow them down if they charge at you.

The Ugly -

• If you are attacking a town, and you want to get the stuff they have, WHY bring a flame thrower?
• The final fight scene, I could have believe had it been in a fantasy novel with necromancers and paladins. As it was, a bit too much.
• Would have been better twist if wife had been the big bad monster.
• the dream sequence was bad

And remember kids,…ALWAYS confirm the kill.

I enjoyed it, but I enjoyed the beginning more than the end. To my brother, “Sorry if I didn’t like it as much as you did.”

MrGrunty quotes

This evening, MrGrunty was inspecting my chin, closely examining, poking & prodding & pinching. I asked if he was looking at my whiskers. “No papa, it’s splinters….I don’t want splinters when I grow up.”

Christmas Eve,  we took the childrens to “down-the-town” for a surprise. As me & the boys were riding the elevator up, MrG, with big smile and excited eyes, exclaimed, “It’s a carousel! “  When it was time to go home, he protested, “We didn’t get to see the surprise…we didn’t see a lot of trains.”

Speaking of trains. MrG when trying to describe something will give a very specific detail, hoping that his parents will know exactly what he’s talking about. Unfortunately, we often don’t. He gets very frustrated when we say we don’t know. But, we’ve been trying to calm him down, and ask for a few more details to help us remember. “I want to go to the place with the three trains and one you can ride….We went there with Finn & James.”  So, we went to Country Village in Bothell.

One night, because of cooking, the smoke alarm went off. We took this opportunity to practice a fire drill with the childrens. When he had his boots on, MrG with a very concerned look on his face, “Papa, we have to get the kitties.”

2012 resolutions

I am proud of BitterKat and her running, and how she’s building upon last year’s victories for more running fun in 2012.I’m proud of SnarkyKat and her new Master’s degree. I’m proud of Laurgs and setting up an studio for The Arts.

Always afraid to say them out loud…but…here’s goes.

Goals for the Year 2012

• Write novel, “The Draft”. There will be no orcs in this, though it will be about a high-school, so probably just as much profanity as an orc based story. I will write first draft, and revise it, then send it off to fools that volunteer…I mean friends that don’t know any better, to see what they have to say.
• Write “A Short History of Agriculture before Columbus”, a non-fiction. Because, I like biting off more than I can chew. I’ve thought about what needs to be done just to do the research, I figure I need to read about 50 books, a couple hundred articles/chapters, dozens of interviews, scores of videos, a couple of field trips… This project is impossible, and will be horribly done. But, in the spirit NaNoWriMo…Go. Write. WIN!
• Read 28 books, which would be two more than 2011.
• Blog three times a week for my ultra-cool readers.
• Watch a game of every NBA team.
• Enroll in school.

Goals for January – because sometimes, goals need to be bite sized

• write 300 words per day

Goals for the week – or, there are always little tiny baby steps to take

• Less than 70 minutes of TV/Facebook/web-surfing a day. Srsly, how pathetic is that?
• Go to bed, on average, before 11:30pm
• pushups – five days, for a total of 14
• guitar – five days, for a total of 40 minutes

Wow, those goals for the week are pretty embarrassing, huh? Well, step aside pride, and off to something slightly better, yes?

MrCuddles sayings

So, for Christmas, we purchased an Advent Calendar for each of the childrens. You know, teach them “count down”, patience, keep your chocolates away from your brother…important life lessons. MrGrunty & MsSqueaky, got it. They liked finding the day, and guessing what it would be, and then showing off the chocolate. MrCuddles liked that too, but then, when we went to put the calendar away, he would always throw a fit, wanting more chocolate. (Yes, we were giving him chocolate before bedtime. Yes, he has been having difficult getting to go to sleep. No, there’s no connection.)  Every now and then, he would sneak an extra chocolate, so by the time the 20th was around, he had eaten his last chocolate. He was a little upset, and sadly said, “Somebody ate my advent calendar.” When I asked who did it, he blamed Squeaky.

Christmas Day, we got a small pack of mixed nuts for my dad. (Yeah, big spenders we are, huh?) MrCuddles knew right away something was gonna be good in that present, so he sat next to his grandpa, and excitedly asked, “What is it? What-is-it?!? WhatIsIt???”  My dad offered him one, MrCuddles swiped the container, and continued to eat them, with a cute little grin. When we told him not to eat them, he innocently said, “I not.”

today

This morning, MyBetterHalf took the childrens to the church for “drop-in-play-time”. I stayed home, and enjoyed the silence.

They got back for lunch, and after, we took the x-mas tree to the back yard. For some crazy reason, I really wanted to show the childrens how easy it is for dry needles to be pulled off a pine. So, I did. They seemed to enjoy it, and when I threw the needles on the grass and said, “Merry Christmas worms!”  they followed suite, and soon were grabbing a handful of needles, marching across the deck, chanting, “Merry Christmas worms!” and tossing the needles into the garden patch.

They also pulled a few green onions that are still in the dirt.

Then, I took the childrens to the park, and MyBetterHalf stayed home to watch the Rose Bowl. We got soaked and cold in the rain.

Last year’s resolutions

well… not so good for accomplishing my goals in 2011.

I wanted to read 30 books, but only read 26. Which is a personal best, and two more than the year before. Hat’s  off to MyBetterHalf who read a personal best of 75 books last year.  We tried to have our own little book club of reading a “classic” a month. Well, the stoopid “Tale of Two Cities” is what I blame for getting me behind. And “20,000 leagues” sure was slow too. We have discussed reading a couple of history books this year. I look forward to that.

I wanted to write 303 words per day average. Did so in Winter, and then slowly slacked off.

I wanted to blog in GBAtT 3 times a week for my half-dozen loyal readers. Sorry I let y’all down. …uh…I blame…yeah, the NBA owners and their stoopid lockout. That emotional stress demotivated me to write brilliant prose about sports.

I wanted to go back to school. Well, two things, we’re broke, I’m lazy, I don’t feel I have the stability to study. Yes, those are all lame excuses, I know. Yes, I know people who work harder than me at work, and still manage to get a degree in their spare time from fighting crime.

…I know…it all comes down to a Nike slogan, doesn’t it, “just do it”