Oh Merky Cricky, you’ve come and gone leaving me in a post-holiday daze. Don’t get me wrong; contrary to what’s being propagated by my lovely wife, I’m NOT a Christmas curmudgeon. I happen to love(s) me some Christmas. It’s just exhausting. The travel, the weather, the inevitable guilt over spending that time with people whom while they are “family” they aren’t my family. It makes you feel a wee bit o’ traitor when you can’t actually give the gifts you’ve gotten to the actual people.
Not to mention the United States Postal Service isn’t exactly the most reliable mode of transportation. When you pay for Two Day delivery that isn’t a “promise” that’s a binding business agreement. I paid for that, it wasn’t as if a guy looked across the counter and solemnly said, and “I swear on my mother’s life that it’ll get there by Christmas!” No, he didn’t have to, I PAID for it to be there, so when it doesn’t get there I feel cheated. Stupid USPS.
But I digress, it’s just difficult to know that you’re family really would like you to be there, but you know that it’s just not going to happen. It’s not as if it was a bad time in “The Cloud”. The food was stellar, I was able to give and receive some brilliant gifts, it was just a decent time all the way around. That being said, it wasn’t “home”, and sometimes I miss “home”. I’ve always tried to downplay Christmas to some degree since I’ve moved so far from my family. I figured if I made it less important to me it wouldn’t be such a bummer to not be able to share it with my family. Well since the ‘rents divorce it’s been even less of a family. I think I have some type of delusion of grandeur that if only I was there, things would be different. I could be the glue that could bring everyone back together, if for just a cordial holiday. It’s an asinine idea, I know it, but it doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t want it to happen.
On a side note, I think Gawd and I now have a personal beef. I mean WTF was with the weather? Thursday morning I shoveled my ass off; only to go out and have to finish with Cassandra while the snow blower we have repeatedly died. After finishing it, we went in to get ready to go to “The Cloud” and it began again. Oh you “tricksey” snow! At least I had the opportunity to watch a documentary on HBO, “Michigan Vs. Ohio State” (***** out of 5 Stars). It was about the history of the college football rivalry and it was fascinating. It mainly touched upon Woody Hayes & Bo Schembeckler’s aptly named “Ten Year War”, but it did go all the way through Jim Tressel’s national championship. It was a nice distraction. Until we thought we’d be super smart and give it one more once over before we left. You know to get the driveway clean before leaving. Only to return to an ice rink that had been plowed in, and then turned to some sort of unholy ice wall of death. So Saturday night we busted our ass and cleared the opening so we could drive in, then cleared as much as we could to the steps, because as per usual the snow blower wouldn’t work. Luckily my father-in-law, who might qualify as a saint, drove down yesterday and fixed the snow blower while my mother-in-law, who is a saint, and I scraped and shoveled the “drive way that wouldn’t end”. The good news is the driveway is done & the snow blower finally works the way it was always supposed to. The bad news I can’t raise my arms above my shoulders and my back feels like an angry group of dwarves is taking turns hitting me with wee shovels. I knew what I was getting into weather wise in Minnesota, but once in awhile I guess I forget.
Stupid Merky Cricky weather…
Anywho since I’m tired, sore, and just a tad bitter how I ‘bout I just give you some
RANDOM CRAP!
- We finally watched Doctor Who “The Waters Of Mars” (**** out of 5 Stars) on Saturday night. It reminded me quiet a lot of “The Impossible Planet/Satan’s Pit” two-parter. You know, creepy threat on an isolated planetary base, the threat itself consumes or overtakes crewmembers and the situation lends itself to hopelessness without the presence of The Doctor. The difference is NO companion, and we finally see the consequences of the Doctor having no one to center him, or as Donna Noble said, “…your frightening, and you NEED someone to tell you ‘No’ once in awhile”. The Doctor also learns that those fixed points in time are indeed unchangeable, but he learns it in horrendous fashion. We then get the build up to the last two Tennent episodes. Part one is on the DVR as we speak!
- I have now watched the Nintendo Wii up close and personal. I wouldn’t be against having one in the basement once we get a t.v. down there. I think it would be pretty cool in fact.
- We’re trying to put together the New Year battle plan for events. Of course D&D will be back next month, but now that I FINALLY have a Bingo set, I desperately want to hold an old school Bingo Night in January, a Movie-A-Thon in Feb. at the latest, and in March it should be the return of The BUZZ! Trivia Challenge! As you can see it’s a packed schedule, I’m just hoping we can hammer it all out soon.
- As I lounged, in what is the most comfortable chair ever crafted by human hands, at the In-Laws in “The Cloud” we watched three Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes flicks (Overall *** ½ out of 5 Stars). They were HIGHLY entertaining. I’m not sure I’d want to watch ALL of them again, but I thoroughly enjoyed Rathbone as Holmes, with “Sherlock Holmes & The Spider Woman” being the standout. I might eventually have to track down all twelve of these flicks.
- I REALLY have to get my hands on the Doctor Who RPG. Everything I’ve read about it makes me desperately want to peruse the book and see if it’s worth playing.
- My sisters-in-law hit it out of the park gift wise. Carla hooked me up with the Marvel version of “Guess Who”, which is one of my all time favorite classic games. I had been searching for it for some time. Char hit me up with a gift that hasn’t arrived just yet, but it is MAMMOTH in its awesomeness. It is a Hawkman hoodie! That’s right I now have three comic book hoodies, and one of them is HAWKMAN! Suck it world my life is complete!
- I’m starving for some really good stuffed green olives. S-T-A-R-V-I-N-G-!
- I’ve decided to build World Works Games CaveWorks as my next big project that doesn’t involve painting tiny dudes. It’s an easy print job, as well as cutting out, and even the gluing looks pretty simple. I think it would be a great addition to my terrain as well as being VERY functional for D&D. On a side note I think I’m going to also do the trenches from SiegeWorks as well. They are really neat and could be multi-functional.
- I only have one group of minis left to glue, the Zulus. It’ll be nice to be done, as I’m not sure the skin on my finger tips can take much more of scraping off skin with poorly placed superglue on it.
- All I want for Christmas next year is WAVES OF MERCURY!
- I received a crap ton of books for Christmas and that folks is awesome. This included the third volume of Robert E. Howard’s “The Conquering Sword Of Conan” (***** out of 5 Stars) from my lovely wife. I devoured it like a starving man! Just an amazing read, I had forgotten just how wonderful Howard’s Conan is. Not just that, but I had forgotten just how much Howard tinkers with his own style. I can’t wait to get my hands on the other two volumes.
- FINALLY, I have minis for Loki Angerbrow, Flamebeard Megakeys, & Ponce Knutcracker. I really want to integrate them into the D&D campaign and now I have the tools necessary to do so.
GAH! I think I’m done for today…
“Is that a fat dig?”
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