We have a new hero of the month. He has inspired millions to imagine other worlds.

Our haiku movie review this week is for Better Than Chocolate.

There's a new Tombstoner in our Graveyard. John D'Agnese had an epiphany. He happens to be our 144th body. That's gross.

I (so strange to say "I" after all these web pages) converted three more religions to Hankisms, and threw in a shabby index, too.

We went to several parties this week. Seems like this whole year has been full of them. Two of the parties this week were Jomsviking reunions. I used to hang out with a bunch of friends who were interested in medieval rec (such as it is) and motorcycles. They called themselves Jomsvikings, frequently got into lots of trouble and eventually grew up and/or scattered to other parts of the planet. Every other xmash or so some of us find ourselves back here, so we clot together to remember the good old days. Thoralf was here this year! He's actually living in Norway, north of the Arctic Circle even.

We also went to my old Explorer Post's 25th year reunion. Explorers (at least as I know them) are kind of like the reasonable arm of Scouting: They are generally Co-ed, they don't do uniforms, and they don't particularly care if you're gay. I was hoping to see the usual slide show this year (I like to cringe at how old I've grown), but no such luck. There were very few people who came to the reunion, and fewer still whom I recognized. Andy Looney was there (I met Andy in the Explorers, way back in 1977 or so), and Brian Suddeth, the guy who introduced me to fencing. We had a good time perusing the old newsletters - mostly to read Andy's old comics - and talking with our advisors (who are still advisors today!).

We went to Trog's New Year's Eve Eve party right after the Post's reunion. We missed the xmash wrapping paper hat contest, but saw many of the hats, including Barchan's winning entry. We still had a lot of fun popping balloons by sitting on them quickly, and later held a long bout of ouija dancing, occasionally absorbing other dancers into our heinous steps.

The following night we went to a regularly scheduled New Year's Eve party at Shrike's  place, where there was way too much food and drink. At midnight someone switched on the TV and we watched the big ball descend on Times Square. As soon as that was over someone else switched to, of all things, the Food channel, where we were mesmerized by two episodes of Iron Chef. What a weird show. Beats professional wrestling any day.

My bro' Frank came into town this week, we went to the eve-eve and eve parties with him. I also played the Lord of the Rings game with Frank and Dad. We lost, but it was a good learning session and we're determined to beat Sauron next time. Gives me a healthy respect for Frodo and the Fellowship though; I'm glad they got it right the first time.

New year's day brought yucky news. Our friends Todd and Kristin live in a townhouse, and the unit next to theirs burned down. Their house was ruined by smoke, water, and the firemen who kept it from destruction; repairs are estimated to take six months. On the up side, all of their cats survived (two were missing for a while but were found hiding inside the house). Down side, the dog next door died in the blaze.

As if that weren't enough, last night Gina came down with a stomach illness, so we spent a good part of the evening sitting on the bathroom floor. When she finally felt a little better and we were both dozing in bed, our street became invaded -  five or so fire trucks and even more assorted emergency SUVs. We got dressed and went outside to watch one of the end units of a nearby building burning up. The firemen put out the fire, but it did a lot of damage. Today we walked by and workers were already boarding and repairing the place. They told us that everyone escaped the house alive.

That was this week, now Gina will tell you what we did at her 'rents place last week.

G:  What did we do? John played scrabble with Dad Denn and even won one game. Everybody bought me gifts I picked out for myself, so that worked out well. We got to see and drive brother Grant's new car, a red Honda Insight. It is very cool. Did some Xmas shopping, ate a lot. People kept giving the family cookies. 

We took a jaunt 'bout 2 hours south down to Ft. Laud/ North Miami to see my sister Lori's new digs, her new cat (Mr. Whitey, a beautiful, friendly, playful young kitty), and to meet her boyfriend John. We all (well, not Mr. Whitey) took a ride on the new roller coaster (the Hurricane, fun but nothing to write home about) at what used to be called Grand Prix Race-O-Rama (this website is out of date, it doesn't mention the roller coaster or other things, plus they DID change the name...) 

My siblings and I have been going to Grand Prix in it's various incarnations ever since we were pre- and young teens. At first it was a go-cart track and the area's largest arcade. We'd love to go there and while away the hours playing Pac-Man, Q-bert, Burger Time, Centipede, Galaga, etc. We especially liked to drive the go carts. They had a really great track. The building that housed the arcade looked like a big fake castle from the outside. Well, they had to move and the castle was torn down to put in a cloverleaf for I-95. It was very disappointing.  But they rebuilt the go-cart track and a normal building and have been slowly expanding ever since. 

Grand Prix is the place where Ginohn rode our first Giant Swing of Death, and the Blender last year. The arcade is kept up to date with all the latest games, and they also have a nice selection of the old stuff too (no Centipede though, sniff).  They have miniature golf and batting cages and another local permanent carnival moved right next door, so one might safely say it's the biggest amusement park attraction for SOUTH Florida. 

It probably doesn't compare too well with Orlando, which is about 2 hours north of the Denn parent's house. John and I went that-away to SkyVenture to skydive without a parachute (sounds better than "indoor skydiving" doesn't it?), and noticed some big ol' roller coasters just down the street. Turns out it was Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure, and we almost went there when we had to wait until that evening for our skyventure. But we just went to the entrance, a place called City Walk where they had nightclubs and restaurants and a big movie theater. That's when we saw the two movies - Dude Where's My Car? and What Women Want. 

J:  The skydiving was pretty cool, but we both agreed that watching the expert flyers was more fun and less expensive that actually flying. Too much to learn in too short a time, if you wanted to learn more than how to be a human lotto ball. I'd dive into the room, assume the arched basic position, and then the instructor gave hand signals (you can't hear people shout in 120 MPH wind) to tell you how to adjust your form. Then he'd give a thumbs up, I'd accidentally shift an arm, and bash into the wall. After a minute and a half of clumsy flying, he'd grab me and throw me headfirst through the exit doorway, where I miraculously landed on my feet every time. Twice, that is. Thirty bucks for three minutes total airtime.

Our instructor treated us to a demonstration after our "flights" - he was extremely precise. He could run up one wall, down the other, zoom up into the air and dive, spin, somersault, etc. Each time he performed a maneuver, he could choose to come to a dead stop in the air. He looked like some wizard making hand signs to the wind, and zooming around the room.

[Which goes something like this, in no particular order: Bladerunner, um, Head, and, uh, Hard Day's Night. I'm sure there are seven others in there somewhere, but I can't remember what they are right now. Time Bandits, probably. Not Casablanca, though. Good movie, just doesn't make the cut. Life of Brian - there's a good one. Hmm, maybe I'm just getting stuck on Terry Gilliam's flicks. I wonder what his favorite films are? 
...
Man, what a weird thing the web is. I just found Terry Gilliam's favorite movies in about three seconds.]

This week we didn't do much. Had a crowded party in our little house, with the traditional "stumble through the dark woods with Booda" event at around 3:30 in the morning. Koralleen fell down about five times; Leo ended up walking behind her just to enjoy the show. I'm glad she didn't break her neck, but I felt vindicated after she had spent a good part of the evening punching me for conning her into reading Dhalgren, a very long novel.

[I should probably tell everyone not to read Dhalgren, even though it is my personal bible, and one of my top ten favorite books (along with The Long Ships, The Stars My Destination, and assorted others, never mind). I've gotten into too much trouble recommending Dhalgren, It's just too long and confusing for most readers. Stay away from it, you'll be fine. Also, no need to watch the movie Head.]

A Hard Day's Night has been playing at the Greenbelt theater this week. It's a great film, see it on the big screen if you can.

This Saturday Kory is coming back home from his xmash vacation, and Jon Kruger is visiting from Seattle. We're picking them both up at the airport.

G:  Friday John took off work early to go with me and Izolda to see Miss Congeniality, which gets a yellow in our review. Later that night we went with Rizolda to the Vegetable Garden, yummy as ever. 

Saturday Booda took a trip to the vet, he had another bout with colitis. I'll spare the details, he is doing better.  That evening we picked up two friends at the airport. Their flights were supposed to arrive only an hour apart, but Kory's plane was early, and Jon Kruger's was late, so we had time in between to skip out for dinner. 

We headed to Fell's point in Baltimore, where we were severely cut off by a cab. It was so bad that we followed him to write down his "How's my driving" number, then promptly forgot all about it. We looked for parking for a long time then finally paid just $5 for the privilege. 

John was talking about a good Egyptian restaurant he had been to before in the area, but didn't know where it was. We quickly stumbled upon it and went in with two hours before we had to get Jon. There weren't many patrons but that only seemed to slow the service. (This has happened to me many times before. I guess when a place isn't filled with hungry people, restaurant staff slow down to snail pace.) They forgot our appetizers until we reminded them just before our dishes came out. The food was fantastic, a little bit pricey, but by the time we got out of there we were going to be late. 

It didn't help that we weren't entirely familiar with driving there and the one way streets and lack of street lights on a busy thoroughfare... Well we got to the airport five minutes after Jon's plane was supposed to land. I hurried all the way down to the end of a pier where it looked like the plane hadn't arrived yet, but I wasn't sure. So, after a bit of confusion as to whether or not the plane had arrived and whether Jon was waiting for us at baggage claim or still on his way, a plane arrived at a different gate and Jon got off of it. He came to our place to spend the weekend.

Sunday we (and Jon and Kory) went to the Berwyn Cafe for brunch. The vegan pancakes were pretty good even though they were mostly uncooked - doughy inside. Then we dragged Jon to Cooperdad's for a birthday party for Billy Joe Blob, his first . Happy Day little Blob! 

The pancakes were having their well known sleep inducing effect, and when we were all just about asleep we decided to go home and take a nap, which we did. Later, after we all woke up, Leo and Kory came over and all the guys played the new Lord of the Rings game. They won but only after John sacrificed himself for the good of the other hobbits.  I made a yummy vegetable-lentil soup in the pressure cooker.

Monday was a MLK Day and John was off work, so we took Jon on the metro to D.C. where we met Jenny and went to see the Art Nouveau exhibit at the National Gallery (East). It was fantastic. I was most awed by the intricately carved furniture and the jewelry. I also loved the various Tiffany glass works. 

J:  Jon flew to Ireland Monday night, leaving behind a couple HMRs of his own, both for the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (we haven't seen it yet, but it's on our list):

Chow Yun Fat is much 
slimmer than his name might lead
someone to believe.

Sword of Destiny;
Wind dancing over bamboo;
Filmed in Ginohn's yard?

This week I spent most nights staying up late playing board games with friends.

Friday we went to see Chocolat at the Old Greenbelt Theater. Have a bite of our review, please.

On Sunday we took Booda to Meg & Joe's place to play in the snow (they had seven inches!). We had a lot of fun sledding and crashing down their hill. Booda went for one ride, then amused himself by chasing after us, getting in the way of the sled, running across the street, etc. until we finally had enough (my back was full of ice anyway) and went inside for tea, soup, and Meg's delicious brownies.

A lot of good Boogie Charades (an email list we fiddle with) came by our 'puter this week; here's one I thought was cute. It's from Jim Risner, who used to be King of the University of MD (Student Government Association), as part of the multi-term Monarchist Party.

eschew obfuscation.

back when i was king, we used to send out (monthly) a lot of routine pap to all the student groups.  once i included a rambling dissertation on the penalties incurred if someone received a memo before it was actually sent. the overseeing body was named Mahoutic Ephemerals and Mukellunges of Obfuscation, or MEMO for short.  about a dozen different groups called up to check if it was supposed to be serious.  aah, students.

• "Impeach Bush and we'll call it even."
• "Re-elect Gore 2004"
• A pro-choice one: "Keep your Bush out of mine" 
• "Selected not elected"

• "R.I.P. Democracy July 1776 - January 2001"
• "Heil to the Thief"

We listened to several speeches and then marched down P street toward the parade route. We couldn't see the beginning or end of the march, it was huge. Then, several blocks sooner than where we were planning on marching to, the police blockaded us. There was a helicopter swooshing around overhead and at one point it hovered over us for several minutes. We don't know for sure who it was, but we hoped it was a news-copter. We waited and chanted for a long time before people started looking for other ways to get to the parade route. By the time we decided to do the same, the crowd had thinned out considerably. But to our surprise, we found we were blocked in the back too. Izolda was furious and started questioning officers on what they were doing. Margit had this to say:

When we were trying to leave the parade area that had been stopped by a police line, and we had found out that police had blockaded us in, I started to panic a bit.  I think I would have been o.k. if Sev (Alexandra) wasn't there, but I felt like I had taken her into a dangerous place and wanted her out immediately. 

I went to the area where two policeman were standing farthest apart and walked quickly with Alexandra in tow.  A large policeman stepped sideways to block me and pushed me backward by the chest.  I pretty much started gibbering at that point and don't remember what I said (something like "She's only 12" and "I want to go home").  When he wouldn't let either of us out, I tried to get into the hotel to get a room for Sev, but they weren't allowing anyone in (of course).  By the time we got back to you and Izolda, the blockade was gone.  I've never been arrested before.  I don't think that was a lawful arrest, but I'm not sure.  (Arrest isn't only being taken into a police station for booking, but not allowing you to move about freely. It's only allowed in certain circumstances which I don't think were met.)
Alexandra wasn't frightened at all.  Figures.

When we finally got to the front of the line, we were dismayed at a number of people doing a Boston squeeze, stuffing themselves in at the throng at the entrance. It was very disheartening after waiting so long. The police stopped people to look in their bags. I was wearing a small fanny pack under my coat, which was huge and I could have easily concealed something under, and I barely got looked at. Once inside we milled around. There appeared to be no way to reach the NOW rally, which is where we wanted to end up. So we hung around the corner of 10th and Penn., chanting with others. Someone from channel 7 filmed me and Iz chanting. We waited and waited. Margit became exhausted and left for home about 10 minutes before the parade finally started, leaving Alex in our care.  It started an hour late. We had a terrible view standing behind a scaffolding for a platform that ABC news was on. We booed and chanted. Lots of people did. Bush's car had so much security there was no way you could miss it. He sure musta been skeert. There were 5 guys standing on the runners of his car on both sides, and it went by at a faster-than-parade pace. The news reported that he walked part of the route, but it must have been at a part where you had to pay big bucks to get in because protesters were everywhere, shouting and holding signs. After Cheney went by and got his booings, we left as well, beat from standing in the cold rain for hours. 

This Washington Post article on the day after tells the story pretty well, note the comment about one line taking 23 minutes! Nothing compared to how long we waited. And this Post article two days later is interesting as well.

Our latest Haiku Movie Review is for Practical Magic, available at your local viddy store.

G: I've had another big week with out of town guests and various goings on with people. Thursday Izolda and I did the girl thing, went out to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and shopping at Trader Joe's, Pearl's, and MOM's of Rockville. Jon Kruger, back in town for two weeks after visiting Ireland, came to stay the night and went to the Looneys', and the next day we met John for lunch at the Berwyn Cafe. After that Jon and I went duck pin bowling, where I had a great streak right at the beginning getting two spares and a strike in the first half. I won that game and Jon won the second. We then headed to downtown College Park where we checked out Java Head, a new coffee shop and cafe. They had soy milk so I went a little crazy and had coffee. I hardly ever drink coffee, it gives me a good buzz then leaves me feeling like a nervous wreck. But it was fun while it lasted. Two doors down or so is a new CD exchange place where they had very good prices on some things. I spent $35 but got a huge pile of videos and CDs. They had a whole section of CDs that were only a dime apiece! I bought four, three for the heck of it, but one of them I listened to in the store and is actually pretty good. The band's eponymous album is called Lincoln. 

WARNING: The following paragraph contains descriptions of animal abuse.

I took Jon to the metro so he could go spend the weekend with Michael and Cynthia, and went to the airport to pick up another old college friend, David Hayden, whose nickname from college is D-Dave and I still call him that. He came to town for The National Conference On Organized Resistance. He works for No Compromise and other AnimalRights groups in his spare time and protesting animal abuse in its many forms is a way of life for him. On Saturday I went with him to the conference at American University. We got there in time for a workshop by Compassion Over Killing, a local Animal Rights Activist group. I've been an Animal Rights activist on and off for years, I did a lot in my early twenties (notably interning at Farm Sanctuary for 3 months after college) but the last few years have seen me only at an occasional protest. I've been vegan for 10 years and am pretty well educated in the horrors of animal slavery in this country. But I wasn't prepared when at the workshop a video was shown of animals suffering at the hand of man. I was utterly shocked and devastated to see just some of the things that go on every day.  Animals in leg hold traps, gnawing their legs off, or trapped by their heads or other body parts, struggling to get free. A beautiful fox, looked like a little dog, electrocuted for his fur. Experiments where monkeys' heads were bashed. A conscious pig was burned with a blowtorch until his skin was crusty and black and peeling off in chunks. A trapped cow having her side cut open, no anesthesia, she's bucking and bellowing, while someone puts their entire hand in the incision, for what purpose I'm not sure. The video went on but I couldn't watch anymore. When I peeked there was a cow lying on a floor, struggling as gallons of blood poured out of her neck. It was so very very horrible. I read about these things all the time, but I've learned to protect myself from imagining them. Seeing it had an impact that I won't soon forget, the images are etched on my brain. I don't need to be reminded why I'm a vegan, but seeing these things throws me into a state of disbelief that anyone could let them happen, let alone do them.

I found out when I ran into a friend (Gary Kaplan) that Compassion Over Killing is there every Saturday to protest. Normally they have around 40 people show up, but this was a big one with over 300 protesters. I was there early, and it was neat to watch the picket line growing and growing until it made a circle that stretched from one end of the block to the other. There were also a lot of cops there. We marched and chanted (for example: Stop the insanity! No blood for vanity!) and waved signs for an hour and half. Near the store's closing time, some protesters ran inside, and apparently were thrown out by cops. Then most of  the protesters rushed up to the doors and chanted "SHAME!" I don't know when or how, but some of the glass was broken. As we were about to break up, FOX 5 news showed up so another round of chanting began. When that was over, the cops tackled and arrested somebody who by witnesses' accounts was only running. Another round of "SHAME!" and "LET HIM GO!" started up, and some protesters linked arms to prevent the police from making off with him. They eventually took him into the store to get away. There were one or two other arrests, but I don't know what for. There was nothing on FOX 5 news that night. 

On Sunday I let D-Dave go to the conference without me. John & I slept in that day. Monday D-Dave and I tried to go to Pangea. I hadn't realized they'd moved, and when we finally got to their new location (a warehouse, since they are now almost entirely a web business), we found they only were open for walk-in business on weekends. Bummer, but D-Dave was able to find the vegan donuts he liked at MOM's. We met Jon at the Vegetable Garden for lunch (the three of us went to college together, and it was just coincidence they were both in town. We're also all vegetarians, back at Alfred I influenced them and Jon calls me his vegetarian mom), then walked around White Flint Mall. We had fun in GLOW, a store that sells mainly glow-in-the-dark items and other freaky decorative stuff. When it was time for D-Dave to go back to Santa Cruz, we took him to the airport.  Later, we went out to eat AGAIN (me and John and Kory and Jon) to Meskerem, an Ethiopian restaurant in Adams Morgan. It was darn tasty.
 

OK, really, I'm up against a deadline here (Wednesday night is web night) and I've been dawdling, eating, chatting with Kory and Gina, and watching TV. Real smut too: it's Temptation Island, what Jon Kruger calls "Pretty People Doing Stupid Things" -- of course that's a pretty good description of most TV shows.

Jon stayed the weekend at our place, helped us clean our house (thanks Jon!), and then flew back to Seattle. We hope to visit him someday soon.

We have a new hero of the month!

Our movie review this week is for Snatch.

We have one new tombstoner -- welcome to David Talmage.

Booda and Mango are sleeping on the bed together. They're cute.

G: As an addendum to last week's report on the protest at Neiman Marcus, those who are interested can look at this page for a short report and a video of part of the event.

We both saw a really good movie this week (Oh Brother Where Art Thou?) and I saw a really bad one (Hannibal). Unfortunately, I had only enough time to review the stinky one.

Our HMR this week is for O Brother, Where Art Thou?  We almost gave it a green, but if a film's rating is somewhere between a green and a yellow, we have to give it a yellow. Sorry Thom.

Our Cetera section has a new item: Subcomics. Kory was visiting one day and announced he wanted to draw some comics with us. He figured we could each do a panel or two in turn, and the story line would make itself. We said OK we'd give it a try. Then we had a blast, drawing, laughing, and pulling inane plots out of our collective bad art. We called the activity Subcomics ("sub" meaning subconscious or substandard or subthing like that). Before the week was over Kory had a slew of people venting their psychological problems in funnies form. Gina still giggles whenever she looks at the results of our mad experiments. 

We had a Drum Jam on Sunday, but not in the usual woodsy Blueberry Hill place. This time we pounded things inside the warm New Deal Cafe, which is in our town's square. We only had a few days' notice (Gina got in touch with the New Deal's manager Terri, who said she had a time slot we could fill), so we worried that there wouldn't be enough drummers. Lots of friends showed up though; we had a great time and the patrons (fewer patrons than drummers) seemed to enjoy our noise. We played until closing time and then played some more - some people said we did our best after the "closed" sign was flipped. Terri said she wanted us to come back again, so we're planning to play on March 25th, which is the 3rd Sunday next month. After the jam a bunch of friends came over to our place for some of Gina's delicious soup and a few rounds of Subcomics.

Last night we were invited to Rich's birthday dinner, at an Afghan restaurant in Falls Church. We had a happy time, and the food was tasty. Afghan food names make good Klingon names; we toasted Zardack - a cooked apple and walnut dish - several times. "He was brave in battle," Victor said, as we raised our beers. "To Zardack!" Victor and Terri (Victor's wife Terri, not the manager lady) told us about a new house they've bought - 47 windows! We also had some nice long conversations about our cats (everyone at the table is one of those crazy cat lovers).

G: Monday I started teaching a new pottery class at the University of Maryland Arts Center, and it went well. After the class, two students who had taken classes there before complimented me on my teaching!

Our latest Haiku Movie Review is for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

This week we didn't accomplish much. Fiddled with our taxes a bit, stomped around in zone.com a lot. (That's a game spot. We played Spades and Bejeweled, mostly.)

We also went to Rich's birthday party on Saturday night - featuring Izolda's fabulous display of food, and the bring-your-own secondary talent show. Lots of good and mediocre singing, joking, stunts, etc. We copped out and along with Kory pretended that our secondary talent was drawing Subcomics. Then we attempted to draw a subcomic right there in the middle of the party, but it really didn't even approach the amazing results (ahem) that we've deemed worthy to archive in our Subcomics pages. So we didn't add it to the pages.

On Sunday night we went to see Crouching Tiger with Kory, then afterwards ate at a nearby restaurant called Chef's Secret. Really tasty Thai cuisine, and very close to home. Lately we are trying to limit ourselves to eating out one night a week (we're on a budget), so that blew the rest of our week. Very good food, though. I had a perfectly cooked eggplant and basil dinner. I might order the same dish next time we go there.

Speaking of not eating out much, here's a Salon article that steamed me up a bit. Looks like Subway wants to help society by litigating other restaurants out of business, instead of just trying to make better or cheaper sandwiches. Sheez.

This just in: a Seattle earthquake report by Jon Kruger (via email, of course):

Everything is okay with me.  It's amazing how little damage there was from such a big quake.  Some of the older brick buildings had pieces fall off and squish parked cars.  A couple water mains broke and there are a couple power outages.  Not too many problems with the roads, just traffic lights out.  So far only 12 injuries reported.

I was in my sturdy wood-frame house, so I was pretty safe.  Things rocked quite a bit, the house flexed back and forth and the telephone poles were all shaking but nothing fell.  I had a hard time standing up, it was quite an experience.

Melissa was on the acupuncture table full of needles when it hit. She's said she was all relaxed and it didn't bother her.

Some of the first video footage on TV was of an interview they were taping at the time the quake hit.  This poor guy was an AP photographer who was assaulted during the riots last night in Pioneer Square.  He just opened his mouth to start talking when everything started shaking.  You just heard him say "oh shit!" and run out of frame.  Poor guy!

Bill Gates was demonstrating new software at the time.  Just wait for the jokes to start rolling in...

--Jon

Our HMR this time around is for Erin Brockovich. Gina reviewed it, I haven't seen it yet. I was in Annapolis with my bro' Thom that night watching the Clancys sing their rebel songs. Thanks again, Thom.

We have yet another hero of the month.

This weekend I drank too much. I don't usually drink more than one beer a week on average, and drinking three days in a row is a lot for me. 

On Friday we had our beginning-of-the-month party. Gina test drove a new dreamer's drinking game called Wheel of Intoxication, which, judging from the whoops and laughter I heard from the bedroom, turned out to be a pretty good (and silly) game, even for the non-drinkers in our crowd. I decided to opt out of the playtest to act like I was hosting the rest of our party. That didn't stop me from drinking a few beers though, until about five o'clock in the morning.

On Saturday I attended JohnCon to help the Looneys' with their incredible Pop Tart Cafe. I wasn't much help and left a bit early to go home and take a nap. I didn't take a nap, though. I found myself playing bad games of on-line Spades with a few guys who were pausing now and then to get beers. During one of their beer runs I decided to get a party-leftover beer from my fridge. By the end of the night we had all switched to scotch. Gina had long gone to bed and here I was, toasting strangers on the net. Is that considered "drinking alone" or not?

By Sunday I was pretty tired. I helped Gina lug several boxes of her pottery to the community center to have slides taken by a pro photographer (who did a nice job, I thought). After meeting Kory for a little snack at the New Deal Cafe, we came home where I figured I'd laze around doing nothing in particular. But fate was against me. Thom called - he said he had some tickets to see the Clancys (an Irish group, of all the luck) at what turned out to be a brew pub. So I went, and I had a great time, and I drank too much, way too much, and I actually made it to work the next day.

So I think I'm finished for the rest of the month, thank you.

Most if not all of Dorian and Amethyst's friends at the party live in Greenbelt, and we had a few conversations with strangers who said that they had peeked into our windows on Dorian's prompting, back when they were looking for places to live and we were thinking of moving to a larger place (they were all very nice and it wasn't creepy at all!). 

The food was just fantastic, and my lentil soup and apple cobbler got rave reviews too. Lots of our Greenbelt friends were there; Joyce and John, Rizolda, Daniella, Shaun and Mi Ae, and others. We also met a whole bunch of nice people, funny people, and a dog. The invitation said to bring instruments so after a few hours we broke out the dij and drums and shakers and such; lots of people started playing and it sounded really good. 

Maia, a kid at the nursery school where I work, was there with her parents, Terri (mentioned a few weeks ago as the manager of the New Deal Cafe) and Craig (who made the most delicious dish at the party) and older sister Ursula (who used to attend the nursery school a few years ago). Maia sat on my lap and we drummed together and she was pretty good at it too. Later Terri asked if I would make my lentil soup for the New Deal sometime, so look out!

J: Two new Tombstoners this week -- Justin Hager and William Trost. Welcome to the Graveyard, folks.

This week's Haiku Movie Review is for a movie I shouldn't have recommended to Gina (she's not really into war movies; and I didn't think of Gallipoli as a war movie per se for some reason.

Have a happy and safe St. Patrick's! I'll be at my Dad's, drinking Irish Coffees (hold the coffee, no cream or sugar please).

• Tombstoners - welcome to Kerin Schiesser, Arran Handully, and Chris Patti.
• HMR - Shadow of the Vampire.

On Friday Gina went to Jenny's pad to work on a quilted blanket for our bed. Kory and I invaded later and we all went out, along with Jenny's friend Chris to eat Thai food. Afterwards we visited the Video Vault (an amazing store that guarantees the worst movies in town) and rented a copy of the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. Good stuff.

Saturday we went to Dad's place for his annual St. Patrick's Day party. I had a good time; drank a couple Irish whiskies and ate a bit too much cabbage, mashed potatoes, and Gina's stew. Then I had some more and added a pint of Guinness on top. Dad's house was crawling with uncklings --  cute little buggers.

Following Dad's party we went to Renee's place for after dinner drinks and games (Perudo and Bohnanza). And a good time was had by all. The end.

On Sunday night, after watching Shadow of the Vampire at our local theater, we brought some Chinese carry-out to Christine's place. Christine is a very hospitable friend of some friends. She had More Guinness left over from her own party the night before - Dorian and I learned how to pour cans of Guinness into pint glasses. We only spilled a little. Before long an impromptu party settled into Christine's bedroom. She's taking care of a friend's doggy named Freya, who doesn't like guys with beards, but Freya was fine with me after I gave her a little taste of my ale and scritched behind her ears. Nice doggy.

Can't remember much else of note. Working my butt off, preparing for our lab to be inundated with other labs' folk two weeks from now. Lots of work; I feel a bit overwhelmed.

• Haiku Movie review - Rapa Nui

Couldn't work though, thinking about the poor little puppy (black labrador mix, maybe a year old, cute too), so I called Gina and she agreed to meet me at the dog spot with some food and a leash. We did, and the doggy was still there, still growling. I told Gina to go talk to him, and that I'd hang back because I was the big ugly hairy guy. Gina carefully placed the food on the ground, sat down and waited. 

The doggy approached cautiously, ate a little food, and then suddenly decided Gina was his best friend ever. He wanted to be petted, and his tail wagged so hard he almost fell over. I walked over to them and sat down beside Gina. Doggy ate a little more food and decided that I was his best friend too. We had a good time petting and playing with him, and he didn't seem to mind when we put the collar and leash on him. He didn't want to leave though. He sat down and refused to move from his spot. Gina had to carry him to the car. She sat in the back seat with him - he was very frightened and curled up close to her - while I drove us to the nearest farmhouse. 

They stayed in the car while I knocked on the door (in itself challenging, because the place was peppered with big NO TRESPASSING signs). Finally a very old lady and her not as old daughter answered the door, and Gina and pup approached while I asked about the dog. They didn't know the dog, and didn't think anyone nearby knew him, but suggested we try the USDA offices down the road. We thanked them and left our phone number in case someone came looking for the doggy. Doggy wanted to stay with the nice ladies, so we had to carry him to the car again. At this point I was attempting to fathom having an extra dog in our tiny house, which would be stressful, to say the least.

Off we went to a little group of farmhouses-turned-offices, where our doggy became a big hit. Eventually half a dozen people were outside, admiring and playing with the pretty doggy. He loved the attention, and greeted every new face with the enthusiasm of finding a long lost friend. Nobody knew where he was from, but most of them suspected he'd been dumped by some jerk who didn't want the responsibility any more. One of the guys there, R.J., admitted that he and his wife had been looking for a dog, but they had put it off for the time being. His friend kept egging him on, saying, "Look R.J., he wants you to take him home," and "R.J. is gonna take him, won't you R.J.?"

We had given our phone number to the people there, and I was ready to go when R.J. finally caved in. "Sure, I'll take him, see if my wife likes him," he said. So we left the rest of the food and the leash, and played with the doggy a little more in a fenced yard. Then we left, telling him to call us if he changed his mind.

Happy ending! Happy ending! -- I saw R.J. on Monday. He said his wife loved the puppy. They named him Einstein. R.J. said Einstein stays real close when going for walks.

Friday night we went to the New Deal Cafe to see Big Blow and the Bushwhackers, a sort of folk/shanty/celtic/silly band that features a guy who plays a mean didjeridu, and another guy who plays, among other weird instruments, a very strange contraption called "Mister Thing". They were really a joy to listen to, and I got a chance to speak with Big Blow, the dij puller (his other name is Tim). He showed me some neat dij exercises, and referred me to a couple good dij stores.

G: On Saturday we went to a springtime cookout at Graymael's, but it was pretty cold so we only went outside to check on our bunny dogs (marinated grilled carrots eaten hot dog style, pretty darn good) and veggie burgers on the grill. Barchan was there and I didn't really know anyone else, plus John and I were both really tired, so we didn't do very much and then went home and took a nap.

Sunday we held another drum jam at the New Deal Cafe, which was a lot of fun. "Ras", the drummer from The Bushwhackers showed up and led us in a few actual songs, but I think we sounded good no matter what we were playing.

• Haiku Movie review - Tomcats
• Hero of the Month - Groucho Marx

Ginohn attended only a smidgen of Toastercon this year, so we look forward to Andy's write-up on the event; that way we can catch up on the all night Klunker match, etc.

It took me forever, but I finally added an email from Kerin Schiesser to Gina's Scarfbarf page. Sorry about the delay, Kerin; it was a fine article, thanks!

• Haiku Movie review - Blow

This weekend we went to Six Flags with Jenny and Renee. My company reserved the park for the day and I was able to get four cheap tickets before they sold out. Next year I'm buying a block of ten before I see who can go with me. Weather forecasts for the day claimed high temperatures, so we dressed accordingly, and then froze our buns off on all the rides. The best coaster in the park is Superman -- no loops or barrel rolls, but really fast with lots of air time. My company also gave us free food and return tickets. All in all it was a good deal, so if they do this again next year I'll try to get more friends on board.

That's about it. We had a First Friday party on Friday, and on Sunday we helped the Looneys build Icehouse sets. The visiting scientists that invaded my lab finally went home, so I'm back to normal eight hour work days again. 

Ran out of time; gotta go. Oh! one other little item, sent to us from Sean Eustis:

Dave Choat and Diane Donaldson would like to announce the arrival of their son, Koob Dawson Choat.

Born on April 11th 2001 at 12:11am and weighing in at 9 lbs. and 7 oz., Koob (pronounced K"oH"b, or like cove with a 'b') and his parents are all doing well [...]

• Haiku Movie review - Duck Soup

On Friday night we went to our local theater to see the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, which I'm glad I didn't pass up. It was worth at least twice the ten buck admission. The acts were fantastic and in some cases completely unexpected. During the intermission I purchased a book from their Autonomadic Bookstore, and it's a fine piece of modern literature. I won't say anything more about the book or the cirkus except that no one under 18 was allowed and the cirkus has been banned in some rinky dink place in Illinois. Great stuff.

Saturday Kory and I helped Jenny and Gina with Gina's quilting project (a big Summer quilt). After that we all crashed a housewarming party (using Barchan, who was invited, as our decoy), where we met Jaguar, Mac, and half a score of other very nice folk.

Sunday I went climbing at Carder Rock with Gary Kaplan and his friends Paul and Cory. I have the climbing bug again, it feels just right. Since it was Easter Sunday we didn't have to climb over other people to climb on the rocks, which was pleasant. Carder Rock is usually crowded.

I made it back from the rocks just in time to miss the rest of the drum jam in the woods; it started raining right as I arrived with my dij. No worries though, another jam is scheduled for next Sunday at the New Deal Cafe at 3:30. Come on by and bang on something!

Other than that, I have some sort of weird cold that's making my voice sound like I've spent too many days with a bong. Oh, and I saw Dave's newborn, Koob, through Dave's window the other day (didn't want to give Koob a strange voice, so I quarantined myself).

• Haiku Movie review - Memento
• Tombstone - Cathy B.

I also did a little gardening, mostly yesterday. I went to Behnke's and brought home flowers and vegetable plants. I hope they weren't tricking me by selling both cool weather and hot weather plants, I bought both kinds and planted them all. Spinach next to squash and cucumber, cabbage near the watermelon and eggplant and peppers. I discovered a flower I'd never seen before, called stock. Beautiful looking and smelling. I love scented flowers.

J: Sunday we had another drum jam at the New Deal Cafe. This time we sat in a circle outside the cafe to make noise, and I'm happy to say that no cops came by to break us up. Our next scheduled jam is in the woods (Blueberry Hill) on the first Sunday in May.

We've been taking Booda on some long hikes lately, with the help of Kory, Chris, Leo, Lucy, and others.

• Haiku Movie review - Freddy Got Fingered
• Tombstone - Sean Bradley and Glenyss Rowe
• Hero of the Month - Spike Milligan

This week we're having another First Friday party (if you know us, or know someone who knows us, please feel free to swing by). First Friday this month happens to fall on Star Wars Day -- May the 4th be with you. On Saturday we're going to see the Circus of Wonders, which seems to be a big variety show playing at the Greenbelt Arts Center. Then on Sunday we're jamming in the woods with drums and such on Blueberry Hill; contact us for details.

Some tombstones didn't make it into our graveyard this week, but were still kind of funny, like this one, sent in by Joe Neff, who wrote, "Sorry, it had to be done." --

• Haiku Movie review - You Can Count on Me
• a couple new palindromes

First Friday (also Star Wars Day) was a success. CooperDad gave us buttons that said MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU. Dale lit tiki torches in the back yard around our picnic table, and we put a hurricane lantern on the table for extra light. Some of the guests played games out there in the firelight (reminding me of the Survivor set). Some played games in the bedroom (Wheel of Intoxication), and most (like myself for instance) ate, drank, and yapped. Oh, Wait, I recall playing a couple games of Zendo. I think it was almost 4:00 AM before I went for a walk with Booda and Kory, and around 5:30 by the time Kory went home. The party was also a monetary success for Gina, who sold major amounts of pottery to several supporters. 

Come to think of it, Friday was a spectacular pottery day for Gina. During the day she and some of her Greenbelt Pottery Guild's cohorts displayed their wares at the U of MD's Art Attack (an arts and crafts fair). She sold quite a bit there. I took a long lunch break and visited. Gina and I took a turn in a little abusement ride - a hamster wheel like thing that four can sit in, that spins around until you're ready for it to stop. It made Gina giggle, and it made me happy enough that I could keep my lunch down. (Which was an amazingly tasty and filling lunch for two dollars.) There was a Hare Krishna booth with high-pitched extremely made-up girls in shiny clothing selling all-you-can-eat plates of grub. Gina knew them from her Beautiful Day days. What Hare Krishnas have to do with art, I have no idea, but then again lots of other groups were there too, without any art. I remember back when I was a youngster Art Attack was about art. Whatever. There was a Falun Gong group there as well, demonstrating their trance methods. Performance art, I guess. OK, OK, I'm done with my latest silly rant.

On Saturday I drove Chris Welsh's car to Philadelphia for him <insert your own long strange prologue here> Leo, Kory, and Lucy lent their help, companionship, and a ride home. We met Chris in Philly, had an excellent dinner in a little smoky neighborhood bar, then came home, transported in Leo's extremely fast BMW. Meanwhile Gina, Jenny, and Barchan celebrated Cinco de Mayo (May the 5th be with you) at a nearby Mexican restaurant.

On Sunday we helped the Looneys with some Icehouse assembly work which believe it or not was actually quite fun. Afterwards we visited our neighbor Jennifer's cookout, where much of the delicious food was covered with caterpillar poop, which facilitated lots of humorous quips. After a short stay at Jennifer's place, we excused ourselves to attend the drum jam in the woods. A lot of people showed up; we made loads of noise and Izolda taught the drummers a few new beats. Some guys out for a walk in the woods found us by the sounds, and joined in. So the Jammers are growing!

Tonight we celebrated Kory's birthday. Gina made dinner and some sweet banana bread cupcakes, and Leo, Gina, Kory and I played Carcasonne, a superb territorial game.

This coming Sunday Gina's going to a lecture at the Smithsonian, presented by one of her college teachers. And Izolda's playing her music at the New Deal Cafe.

• Haiku Movie review - A Knight's Tale

G: Last Saturday we went to the Renwick Gallery in DC to see their huge ceramics exhibit, and to attend a slide presentation given by one of my former ceramics teachers and advisors from Alfred, Andrea Gill.  Andrea waved at me from across the room, she recognized me but didn't quite remember why. Once I reminded her she introduced me to another former Alfred student, a woman who was a grad student at the time I was there, who also remembered me though I didn't remember her. We exchanged addresses and such and plan to get together at her studio sometime. Anyway, the exhibit is absolutely fabulous and I recommend it to anyone. It's there until sometime in July. 

J: At the Renwick we also saw some of their regular exhibits, including an amazing sculpture of a grandfather clock wrapped in a sheet that Zarf told me I should see (he was right, it boggles).

G: Sunday I went with Renee and Kevin up to Baltimore to see A Knight's Tale for free.  See, we dressed up all medieval and stood in the lobby with a couple of other of Kev's peeps who were really into the costume thing - I just wore this cool dress from the 1970's that has a renaissance flair that I felt was not all that inappropriate considering that anyone who is into that stuff (not me) at all claims the movie was right off on the costuming.  Plus, it was "rock and roll" 15th(?) century so I bought some purple sunglasses and wore the chainmail head piece that John Marketon made. For pure Hollywood fluff, the movie was a right good time with lots of impressive jousting. But I don't think we impressed anyone. There weren't very many people there to see the movie.

Afterwards we went to Kevin's place, which is also Chort and Paula's place, where after long discussions on whether and how we could all eat together and still get everyone where they needed to go afterwards, Chort made yummy pasta for everyone while Renee and I played Apples to Apples with him and Paula. Paula was having a great time, she was loopy from painkillers and was laughing her head off despite the fact that she can't walk since she stepped into a hole running in a field a couple days before. Ouch! Get better soon Paula!

J: The universe became a little less hoopy this week - Douglas Adams began his own journey into the long dark teatime. My heart goes out to his friends and family.

• Haiku Movie review - Set Me Free

Last Thursday, I went with Kory to Timpanos in Rockville for swing dancing. The class he took with Renée had ended that week and this was a bit of a celebration and an attempt to put that class to use. They had a live band there that was very good but too loud for me. I would often wince from my ears getting blasted while trying to dance.

Saturday, John went to Philly to help Chris move, while I sold pottery on the lawn outside the community center, from around 10 am 'til 3 pm. And I did pretty well, I even sold one of my fountains. My seemingly never ending stockpile of ceramics is actually dwindling, time to make more! 

I went home to get ready to go to a party, but I discovered two baby birds on the ground under the bamboo. They were right next to each other, but one appeared to be a bit older, or maybe just better fed. I was a little hesitant to do anything, I didn't know if the parents would take care of them on the ground, plus I wanted to get to the party, but my cat was hanging around, and I knew the party would last a while. So I got the birdie babies into my little carrier I have for such things, but before I left I thought I better check around to see if there were any more. I didn't want to make the trip to the sanctuary just to come back and find I'd need to go again. Good thinking, because on the other side of the bamboo, there was another baby bird, a size in between the other two. He looked weaker than the others, though, and he didn't seem to open his eyes nearly as wide. I checked around the bamboo thoroughly, then set off for the Chesapeake Wildlife Sanctuary. I feel very fortunate that this place exists, and relatively close, for what else would I do with baby birds? I'm happy to give them ten dollars for every bird I deliver into their care. The lady who took the birds said they seemed fine, that they'd probably be okay, and the weak one was probably just tired.

Got home, walked and fed Booda, and went to Terry and Victor's housewarming party. They just bought this house in College Park, and it's really an incredible place. The people who sold it to them were into renovating, and they did an amazing job. It's very spacious with high ceilings, lots of windows, and beautifully finished. Not to mention the deck out back made with recycled plastic lumber and a hot tub... I had a good time pigging out on their food, drinking fruity rum drinks that Victor made for me, having a little music jam (I shook some small but lovely maracas), hanging out in the hot tub, and drinking beer and smoking a cigar with Victor, Rich, Dorian, and others. I wasn't aware that the party had a closing time, and I wasn't prepared to drive. Luckily Rizolda and Doriamethyst wanted to go to the Silver diner, so I went with them, we had fun, and then Rizolda took me back to my car and I was able to drive home. Just as I was approaching the door, Leo dropped John off, they were just getting back from Philly.

We had to get up very early Sunday so I could take John to the airport. He went to Ames Research Center in San Jose for work and is staying until Monday to visit folks and go to Baycon. When I got back from the airport I took a nap before getting up for a Greenbelt Pottery meeting. I went to take Booda for his walk and noticed there was another baby bird under the bamboo. I didn't have time to take care of him then, so I walked Boo and went to my meeting. When I got back, the bird had made his way to another patch of bamboo about 15 feet away, closer to the woods. I was trying to decide if maybe his parents were still taking care of him, so I sat still in a chair and watched. There were adult birds flying around, squawking and stuff, but none fed him. I called Chesapeake Wildlife Sanctuary and they said to watch him for an hour and if it doesn't seem like he was being taken care of to bring him in. I was going to be late for the drum jam at the New Deal, so I called some people. While I was sitting at my pic-nic table, on the phone telling Rizolda why I'd be late, a fox dashed out of the woods, snatched up the baby bird and ran away. Booda didn't even notice him, but I was quite surprised. 

I went to the jam but I was too sleepy to get into it. I banged a drum for a while but mostly just sat there looking tired. Kory showed up and even though I really wanted to go to sleep, I really wanted to go (ballroom) dancing too, so I told Kory to talk me into it. I didn't have to get up early the next day so I figured it would be all right. We had a good time (at the Westchester Community Center, in Oella, near the Ellicott City Historic District, 1st and 3rd Sundays, 7-10pm).

Next morning a phone call woke me early, and I wasn't able to get back to sleep (rare for me). That night some friends joined me to support me and/or Greenbelt Pottery at a Greenbelt City council work session about the proposals it has for running the ceramics studio at the community center. There is an incredibly long story leading up to this, which I am much too tired to go into now, but suffice it to say that at the next council meeting they will be taking a vote and right now I think there is more than a 50% chance that I'll be teaching there again. Thanks again, so much, to those of you who came to lend your support. Especially since the meeting lasted over four hours! Continuing with the animal rescue theme, that night right before I was going to bed, I found a cute little frog in the kitchen, caked in dog hair. It was difficult to pull off until I ran a little water over him. Then I set him out the dog door. 

• Haiku Movie review - Shrek

I calibrated a radiometric integrating sphere source at Ames Research Center. Isn't that exciting?

I also visited my friend Khaled and his lovely wife Suzette. Khaled and Suzy fed me dinner and let me smoke their  hookah. I in turn let them and their friend Samira watch a video - Girl Interrupted. I borrowed it for free from my hotel. Khaled beat me up. 

Baycon was a hoot. I knew it would be entertaining because the same bird that attacked me when I left last year was waiting for me, and attacked me again as I attempted to enter the hotel. I'm not making that up (well, except that it might not be exactly the same bird, but it sure looked the same).

At Baycon I had three goals: teach Gnostica (it's like Zarcana on speed) to the Berkeley crew, discuss ideas for a game Michelle Lepovic is designing, and play one of her Zendo variants, a drinking game called Drunken Master. I dabbled in all three, which is pretty good considering I didn't seriously expect to get to any of them. 

I also was a guest referee at the West Coast Icehouse Tournament, which grew to 15 competitors this year. The finalists put on a great show of dexterity, speed, and smoothness. I'm glad I witnessed the games. During the second (of three) final ice-off games, I made a major referee faux pas -- I bumped the table and disrupted many of the pieces. The players were extremely cool though; they made a few jokes, repositioned the pieces, and continued to play. Many thanks to Eric Zuckerman for running the tourney. They're only getting better, Eric!

Baycon is a smashing sci fi convention. Much better than Balticon (same time, different coast) in my book. It's definitely a party con, and the themed parties spill out and mingle on the hotel's deck, which is stacked with techno gear, DJs and lightshows all night. They have "drive in movies" that are shown on the hotel wall. This year they showed Hardware Wars and Galaxy Quest. 

About the only bad thing I can think of is the obnoxious presence of Flares. A Flare (which is maybe an acronym for something, but our acronym will not be posted to this "family" site) is a security gnome of some sort, whose sole purpose seems to be to annoy people by asking for badges, at really stupid times and places. For instance, let's say you've put your fangs on for the evening, you've decked yourself out in some really snazzy black rubber clothing, painted your entire body green, and you're now enjoying yourself, dancing in the limelight with your fellow aliens, and not bothering anybody. Do the Flares leave you alone and go look for somebody who's causing trouble? Nope. They waste everybody's time and fun by asking to see your badge. What a bunch of losers. I decided that the best way to handle flares was to ask to see their badges before they asked me. There were some interesting responses ("but, I work here!")

Oops, ranting again. What else did we do? Well, Brick will be happy to know that we conducted an elevator talk show. Ours featured Eric Zuckerman as the host, and was entitled Eric in the Elevator. I was Bob, the camera guy, and Michelle was the cue card chick (she had two cards, one said "APPLAUSE" and the other said "LAUGHTER"). We dragged two chairs and a huge potted hotel plant onto the elevator. Eric sat in one of the chairs. Whenever anyone was brave enough to sit in the empty chair, the video camera would come out and Eric would say, "Hello, and welcome back to..." here he would pause and grin into the camera, "Eric in the Elevator." Then he would interview the guest, and applause and laughter would be cued at various points in the conversation. We had a lot of great reactions, from people who clearly didn't get it, to people who have always wanted to be on an elevator talk show. Funny, we saw two hotel security people and a police officer during our half hour show, and they all left us alone. No Flares showed up, they were all busting people for dancing without badges. Later that evening we were amused to see a full poker game being played on the elevator, complete with table and chairs.

In addition to playing lots of games of Zendo, we playtested several of the drinking game variant, too. Drunken Master Zendo was a fine game, and left the players (Michelle, Eric, Bob Galloway, and myself) literally crawling on the floor with laughter. Despite our inebriation, Eric was able to guess Michelle's horror of a rule: the koan has the Buddha nature if the total pips add up to a fibonacci number. That was one cruel drunken master.

Well, I'm sure I'm missing a lot here, but I must stop. I saw a lot of old friends and met many new ones, and in general had a wonderful time.

G: While John was at Baycon, I was helping out Looney Labs at Balticon. I pretty much stayed at the Pop Tart Cafe, alternating between hanging out, being the pop tart waitress, and sleeping. And I didn't play a single game! Look for a full report at Wunderland. 

On Friday I went to Jenny's to sew, and made a cute little purse. That evening I had dinner with Barchan since I'd missed his birthday outing. We went to The Pepper Pot where they had a sign advertising Vegeterian (sic) food. The curried vegetable dish was pretty good, although it lacked the broccoli the description of the dish listed as the first ingredient.

All weekend was Balticon, and then on Monday I got some bad news. One of my parents' poodles had to be put to sleep. Opie was a great sweetheart who lived a long time and brought a lot of sunshine into my family's life. He was very good natured about getting colored red and green with food coloring every Xmas by my brother Grant. 

On Monday I was visited by Deborah and Eryq and their friends Debra and Steve that I met around a year ago at Deborah's birthday party and who I subsequently had that little adventure with. We took a walk with Booda to the lake and back, then went back to Deb and Eryq's new house (very nice!), and out to dinner at Thyme's Square. We had to wait a long time for seating and for food (which was very good, thanks again Eryq), which would have been all right 'cept it made me late picking John up at the airport. Oops. When John and I got home I made him watch the season finale of Dark Angel that I had taped for him. Anybody else freak about Zack, or just me?

Tuesday night we went to another Greenbelt City council meeting, the one I mentioned last week where they were voting on visual arts and ceramic programming. I thought they would just vote, but the meeting went on for well over two hours of more discussion before they finally did. It was grueling and draining, but in the end the news was good for me and Greenbelt Pottery. I should be back teaching at the community center in July! Woo Hoo! We Greenbelt Pottery members celebrated afterwards at Jessica's  place (she's the woman who made it all happen). Thanks again to everyone!

J: We received some more tombstones this week, and even more emails regarding TPO surgery, but there's not time enough to add them to our pile. Sorry, maybe next week. Speaking of next week, don't forget to invite yourself to our First Friday party this week. Ciao, peeps.

• Haiku Movie review - Buffalo '66
• Hero of the Month - Douglas Adams

Yesterday, I forgot to call my mom for her birthday. I'm sorry Mom. I was thinking of you. I tried to call tonight but the phone was busy, and now it's too late. Happy belated birfdi!

Today was the last day of Nursery School, yea! My only job for the next month is teaching two pottery classes on Mondays, at the U of MD Arts & Learning Center. Then in July I'll be teaching a couple more at the Greenbelt Community Center. Oh, and I'm the new president of Greenbelt Pottery!

J: Our First Friday party this month felt a bit sparse. Our reminders were sent out late, it was raining, and 1st Friday actually fell on the 1st of the month. All of this contributed to a low turnout. Still, the party had its surprises. Khaled just waltzed right in, which made my world feel very small indeed, since I saw him only a week before during my California trip. I found out that Khaled works in the same building (in California) that Kory used to work. I'm beginning to think that I'm in The Thirteenth Floor or some similar virtual reality, where shortcuts are made to save memory space.

On Saturday I helped Andrew Albemonte and his friend Nick move a 400-some pound dry press (which is a gigantic graphics printing machine) up to the second floor of a warehouse, and I wasn't crushed like a bug! That was nice, not being crushed like a bug. I think I have an inkling of the self-pride that the ancient Egyptians maybe had after building something big, say, the second tier of a pyramid. (Unless those aliens were helping, in which case all the Egyptians had to do was stand around and point to where they wanted the giant blocks of stone to be psychically levitated. No pride there.)

Sunday Gina and I went on the GHI House & Garden Tour, which was marginally enjoyable. It wasn't as big or good as last year's, but it did include Doriamethyst's place. Theirs was the best -- beautiful decor and a Japenese-styled garden out back, with a huge backyard fish pond, complete with bridge.

After the house & garden thing, we took Booda and Kory to crash an outdoor picnic birthday party for Elena (I just know I've spelled her name wrong), at nearby Greenbelt National Park. It was a great day for a picnic. Lots of food and good weather, drumming, and frisbee tossing. The doggies had to stay on leashes, but even so, Booda managed to break his leash and run around a field for a few moments of freedom.

That night we went to Victor & Terry's place to watch an Eddie Izzard video that Rizolda had recently purchased. Victerry's house is nothing short of amazing. It has so many windows that even some of the closets have windows. Nice hardwood floors and open rooms with high ceilings. They had an old piano that briefly became an unexpected centerpiece to our get-together. Kory played some ragtime and swing and blues stuff while Gina and I danced a little and Izolda sang. Later Izzard made us laugh. He's a genius.

This Saturday I'm planning to go climbing with Dale and Gary and some other folks. On Sunday there's the monthly Drum Jam on Blueberry Hill; contact us if you want to show up.

No real tombstones this week, but Bill Andel sent in a tribute stone for our hero of the month:

• Haiku Movie review - Moulin Rouge
• New Feature - Ginohn's Agenda
• Tombstone - Collin Copeland & Bruce Sheely

This Saturday I went climbing again, with Gina, Dale, Gary, and Leah. I didn't climb too well, but I came away from the ordeal sore, tired, and happy, so I know I got a nice workout. The weather was amazing, all weekend.

We saw two movies this week. Gina really enjoyed Moulin Rouge, but I wasn't as entertained. On the other hand, both of us liked Bridgit Jones's Diary a lot. Very funny stuff. No HMR for Bridgit yet, maybe later. 

G: Moulin Rouge captured my fancy a lot more than I expected it to. The cinematography and special effects were pretty unique and dare I say wondrous. I really enjoyed the way they incorporated modern songs. And I certainly didn't expect the humor. I was quite pleasantly surprised, and this movie almost gets a green from me. I guess a movie has to be way way high up on my list to get a green, John is a bit more generous (or just loves movies easier) even though this one didn't impress him as much. Then there is the balance. Maybe you recognize that a movie is great, even if you didn't walk away in love with it. That is where a lot of the green ratings come from. But it is hard for me to really want to give a green unless I really loved it. Few movies rank that high. So, while I was probably impressed enough by John's standards to warrant a green, I wasn't by my own, and since John is leaning towards orange from yellow, well, it gets a yellow. But I really really liked it. 

• Haiku Movie review - Tampopo

On Saturday night we went to an art opening at Baltimore Clayworks, the show is called Silicate. Margaret Boozer, who went to Alfred the same time I did (but in the grad program) and who I ran into a few weeks ago at the Renwick (where Margaret also has a piece in the USA Clay show) was one of the artists featured in the show. The show was curated by another old Alfred instructor, Tony Hepburn, who claimed to remember me, even though I never had him as a teacher. When I found out he left Alfred to teach elsewhere the same year I left, it made a little more sense that I could be included in his last memories of the place.

Sunday we had a drum jam at (actually, we've been doing it outside) the New Deal cafe, and again it was what I'd call successful. Deborah showed up in her belly dancing outfit and danced up a storm, then Jag, another belly dancer, showed up, she danced in her shorts and tank top. Another woman joined in some as well. A new fellow came along who could play really well really fast, and everyone had a good time. Afterwards we went over to Victor and Terry's to see Tampopo.

My sister Lori has a lot of news this week, she bought a new car (a Saturn 3 door coupe SC1), and started with a new brokerage firm (she's a commodities broker) that looks a lot more promising than her last firm. Congratulations Lori! 

J: I had to work on Sunday, yuck, and our climbing day was rained out, yuck, so otherwise I've been following my Goddess around, doing the things she's doing (except for the juicing), and of course playing board games.

• Haiku Movie review - 2001: A Space Odyssey

It rained buckets Friday night, and was steamy on Saturday, so we ended up climbing with Gary on Sunday. It turned out to be a beautiful day for climbing, except for the crowd of course, but we found a nice spot with some tricky routes. Good exercise; I'm sore.

On Saturday we went to two parties, both of which were in our neighborhood: a housewarming party for Ronda, who lives half a block away,  and a potluck to celebrate the rebirth of Greenbelt Pottery. We had a nice time at both. At the potluck we played frisbee with Peppy, a little dog who could run, jump incredibly high, and catch almost every time, no matter how far you threw the frisbee! He was quite talented.

Gina borrowed an ice cream maker from Jake. She's made about three different vegan ice-creams and sorbets, and she's looked up about a million and two recipes on the web. The simplest and best tasting so far (IMHO): box of soft silken tofu, cup of sugar, and bag of frozen blueberries, all blended and then mixed in the ice cream maker. YUM!

• Haiku Movie review - The Dish
• Hero of the Month - Augusta Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace
• Tombstone - Donovan Chase

Some other stuff happened, but, my gosh, look at the time, and we haven't even packed yet. Have a good time celebrating taxation with representation, by blowing things up! See you next week.

• Haiku Movie review - Meet the Parents
• Tombstone - welcome to Heidi L. Vanderheiden, Peter Haslehurst, and Adam Kouzmanoff

Here's my nifty (and probably mixed up) story of this year's <fanfare> Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Origins Awards: 

Andy and I were nominated for a couple awards, which I knew would go to some big game company. To me we had as much chance winning as an amateur film maker has of winning an Oscar. At least that's the way it seemed to go two years ago when Andy's Fluxx had a nomination. I knew we had no hope of winning, but it was fun watching the ceremony's pomp and all the other attendees, clad in their tuxedos and ballroom dresses. There was also a free bar waiting for us.

So there we were, sitting in the nominees' section at the awards ceremony - Andy (up for Icehouse and Chrononauts in two categories) next to Kristin next to Alison (nominated for her graphical design work in Chrononauts) next to Dave Choat (nominated for Battleground: WWII in another category) next to me next to Gina. Dave and I joked around, chuckling and generally making nuisances of ourselves, while the Academy inducted various people, past and present, into the "Game Design Hall of Fame," "Milestones in Adventure Gaming," and such -- Gary Gygax (D&D) and H. G. Wells (Little Wars) come to mind. The Academy also started handing out awards - swapping out presenters at the podium while a big projected computer screen showed names of games and people, ala Oscar night. 

The poor lady who started reading the Best Abstract Board Game category couldn't decipher the script, due to nervousness or blindness from the super intense glare of the death-ray spotlight. She mispronounced a couple names, and by the time she said "Lighthouse," I wasn't surprised, but I still couldn't help holding my breath trying not to laugh at Icehouse's new name while Dave quietly cracked some more quick jokes on the side, possibly hoping to make my laugh escape through my reddening face. 

Right after the lady opened the envelope and said, "the winner is..." Dave clenched both of his hands over my ears, rendering me completely deaf and gleefully sputtering. I watched the lady read aloud (to everyone but me) the contents of the envelope, and for one brief moment I imagined that I could read her lips and that they magically said, "Lighthouse" or something with similar phonemes. Then Dave released his deaf-like grip, and I came back to my senses and started applauding with him and everyone around me for whomever had won, while Gina started screaming.

Just when I started wondering why she was screaming, Gina turned to me and yelled, "GO UP THERE!!"  I looked to my left and saw Andy getting up, so I followed him in a daze to the stage, where he actually made up an on-the-spot acceptance speech, and then when he asked me if I wanted to say anything, instead of saying something witty, such as, "I'm currently available for a six figure salaried position in game design," I leaned close to the microphone and said, "Thanks."  I think I got a good round of applause for that one, maybe because it was succinct.

I missed the annual Looney Labs post-convention dinner, but I heard that Andy was asking people what their favorite Origins moments were. For me, most of what happened after Gina screamed was turned into semiconscious memories due to my overwhelming state of shock. But right before that, when my imagination ran wild while the awards presenter mouthed our game's name, I actually experienced a twinge of hope. And when that hope suddenly became real, that was definitely my favorite moment. 

So in closing, here is my other acceptance speech: "I'd like to thank the Academy, and Alison Frane and Dave Chalker, who rallied the voters. Also I'd like to thank Andrew Looney, my friend, fellow game designer and non-stop visionary, and our business czar Kristin Looney, perhaps the hardest worker in the game business and a genius at all that icky business stuff that I hope to never go near. To my wife and personal goddess Gina, thank you for your support, and thanks for putting up with my, ahem, odd geeky behaviors -- I adore you. To the small but indestructible Icehouse fan base out there, many thanks! Lastly, to Dave Choat, thanks for covering my ears and performing a hell of a magic trick. You've all given me a small pewter statue of Calliope -- muse of epic poetry and I guess these days she's also a part-time muse of game design -- a prize that until now meant very little to me. I'm grateful to you all for your approval, and I'm currently available for a six figure salaried position in game design."

G: I had fun at Origins too, so there. I even taught and played a bunch of games of Zendo, and liked it! Congratulations to the Looneys for their Origins awards. And I couldn't be more proud of John. My favorite moment would be the same as John's, although I experienced it differently from him. I was sadly prepared that Icehouse wouldn't win, and when it did, I DID scream. I was pretty darn thrilled when Chrononauts won too. 

Since getting back I've rather enjoyed reading all the Looney Labs lists, where people who were at Origins keep declaring what a wonderful time they had, among other things. It's very cool that The Big Experiment made so many people so happy.

One evening Renée and I managed to have a night out, not at the convention. We went to a dueling piano bar and spent a few hours there. It was most fun right when we got there, we were two of four people in the audience. So the two piano players took lots of our requests and joked with us and stuff.  After a while Renée was making so many suggestions and comments that I yelled out, "She's running the show now!" As it got more crowded they stopped joking around as much and started requiring money with requests. They switched to two other piano players too. We did some swing dancing with each other whenever there was a good enough song to do so. We stayed until the first two came back on and left shortly thereafter. I think the place is called Howl At The Moon and I recommend it if you are ever in Columbus, OH.

Tonight is my first night back teaching at the Greenbelt pottery studio, and my class is filled to capacity!

J: And once again I've run out of time.  We'll have to post rules for Happy Fun Die next week, and I have a bunch of Hankism entries to work on. Next week, next week. Oh, one other thing -- the four:eleven list server just reached 101 members! Woo hoo!

• Haiku Movie review - A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
• Tombstone - welcome to Tim Seiger
• Hankisms - four new converts: Pentecostals, Presbyterians, Brethren, and Episcopal

Saturday night we went to Renée's Bastille day, housewarming, welcome to the kitty, almost Renee's birthday party. I showed Constantia the hustle, and we danced a while in the "disco room" (Renée's bedroom with colored lights) until we noticed we were causing the cd to skip. The most fun I had was playing with Renée's toy crossbow, with marshmallow foam tipped arrows. It was quite fun to shoot people. A fellow named Mark let me shoot an empty beer bottle off of his head. And I let him shoot me in the back as I ran away. I recommended this to everyone but no one else wanted to try it. :(

Tuesday I went to Hersheypark with Andy, Kristin, and Alison. The weather wasn't all that hot, and lines for coasters were pretty short, which made for a really good time.  We mostly rode the Lightning Racer - the dueling coaster. The lines were incredibly short and we were able to get two of us each at the front of each coaster at the same time and "race" each other, over and over again. The first time I was with Andy and it was really fun when our coaster got back to the station first. Throughout the ride, the trains run along side each other and towards each other. It was a blast. Other reasons Hersheypark doesn't suck - you can get some decent food there. They have a place where I ate vegetable/avocado sushi and a seaweed salad (yum!). They had vegetarian fried rice and lo mein there, too. There is also a kosher food place that serves falafel, where I had a soft serve chocolate tofutti. It was a long day and I'm still tired from it, but tomorrow John, Kory, Renée and I are going to King's Dominion for mine and Renée's birthdays! Gotta ride that straight up and down coaster, and Volcano, the Blast Coaster hasn't had my hiney yet either. 

• Haiku Movie review - How to Get Ahead in Advertising
• Tombstone - welcome to Andrew Orr and Travis

This weekend we finally made it to one of Marc Drexler's famous 3-day parties. He lives in a nice, big house with two laundry chutes, a big yard, a fireplace, several housemates, and many reptiles -- including the biggest northern water snake I've ever seen. Marc encouraged me to keep writing; good words to hear from a poet whose work I really respect quite a lot. The party was pretty cool, lots of food and sodas and people -- sort of a miniature sci fi convention (one of those mellow ones like Disclave in the early '80s, but without the drugs and booze).

Gina's brother Grant is staying here tonight, so I'm going to cut this short. Check out our Agenda for upcoming events. 

• Haiku Movie review - Planet of the Apes
• Hero of the Month - Mary Shelley

• I taught Zendo to Meg, Dave, and Eric (and Leo joined in for a few games, but I think he already knew how to play). They all had a good time with Zendo.
• I had a "cork battle" with little Billy Joe (Meg's kid) and Meg. This consisted of throwing corks one at a time at each other across a table. For some reason there was a whole bowl of corks, which I eventually picked up and dumped on Meg and Billy, causing Meg to laugh so hard that Billy got worried and cried. Up till then he was laughing though.

I'll be working for Scott Hyman and we plan on looking at the galactic center, supernovae, galactic transient phenomena, and I'll continue analyzing VLBA data of active galactic nuclei.

• Haiku Movie Review - Dancer in the Dark
• Tombstone - welcome to Ben Woods and Carol Miles
• New Game - Happy Fun Die!

Also we had a little party, went to a family gathering and birthday party for Katarina (Kit and Laura's baby) and crashed a vegan potluck in Takoma Park. And I fell over on my bicycle into a lot of briars and poison ivy, but I'll save the funny details for later. I'm running late because my PDA failed on me tonight and I had to reconstruct its memory from backups. Yuck. Lost some 4:11's that I hadn't posted, too, and had to reconstruct them from my memory, which really doesn't even work half as well as my flaking PDA.

G: I finally decided that Moulin Rouge deserved a green rating in my book.  I went to see it again (with Renée, who was so excited at seeing it for the fourth time that she was bouncing in her seat and clapping before the movie started) and thoroughly enjoyed it again. I caught a lot of things I didn't catch the first time, and it really is dazzling. So we changed the color but not the review.

• Haiku Movie Review - But I'm a Cheerleader
• Tombstone - welcome to Robin Melody and Henrietta Zuckerman

I've been looking at mushrooms again. I'm making a spore print right now of a prime sample of what I think is a bunch of yummy oyster shrooms I found on some dead trees in the woods. I also brought home an orangish-brown shroom that is either some variety of honey mushroom, a deadly galerina, or something else entirely. Gina brought in some stunning (and giant) examples of amanitas, most likely very poisonous. We're talking about getting a microscope to look at spore samples (though if we're talking toys a digital camera might be a better idea...)

Saturday I went to The Days of Knights game store in Delaware with Kory. On the way there Kory maneuvered his car through some torrential storms, big lightening and so much water that it started leaking in under the glove compartment onto my feet. I almost had to start bailing. The Days of Knights is one of those good "old fashioned" game shops, lots of nooks and crannies filled with all sorts of stuff that the owner is interested in, not just games from one corporation. They had a back room filled with tables and chairs, and people playing RPGs and board and card games. We found Chris Welsh there, went out for a great meal at a nearby Indian restaurant, then returned to play a few games. On our way home Kory and I stopped off at what was left of Grey's birthday party, where I ate more ginger spice cake than everyone there combined. I'm a pig. Gina spent more time at Grey's party -- by the time we arrived she was dozing on the couch.

We did some other stuff this week, but I'm too punchy and logy to write about it. I'll try again next week. Yeah, right, like I'll have any time to write when I'm getting ready for Seattle. It's been a while since Ginohn's gone on an honest vacation. Can't wait to fly to an unfamiliar place and dip my cup in the bay for a nice warm cup of coffee!

Tomorrow by 5:00 PM we'll be married four years! Living in love with Gina is the bestest.

• Haiku Movie Review - Nurse Betty

We decided to check out Everlasting Life's juice bar (and the rest of the store), and then if we were still hungry we planned to hike over to Delights of the Garden, a mostly raw restaurant we've visited before.

We rode the Metro to the wrong stop (Shaw-Howard U), found a station that was closer to our destination (Columbia Heights), rode back to that one, then started walking. 

Washington D.C. may be the world's most socially disparate city. The richest and most powerful people on the planet live in DC, alongside some of the most poor and ignored. The look and feel of the city can change from one block to another. You can literally cross a street, passing from a clean, well kept area with million dolllar housing into the ghetto, with boarded up condemned buildings (occupied) and trash everywhere.

Our mile long trek to Everlasting Life took us through a rough part of the 'hood, and it was impossible to look like we belonged there -- instead we looked like the nervous out-of-place tourists that we were. It probably wasn't as bad a situation as my self defense senses signaled, but by the time we found Everlasting Life (also located in a bad part of town) it felt to me as if we entered a sanctuary. 

The inside of the cooperative was old and run-down, but clean with a very friendly atmosphere. There were lots of customers but it wasn't crowded. Most of the clientele appeared to be Rastafari. The juice bar was actually a small cafe, with salads, casseroles, hot pockets, and lots of juicy drinks. We had a huge dinner with yummy milkshake-like juices, and then perused the rest of the store, which seemed to be a typical health food place. They had a nice selection of books; Gina bought a raw food recipe book and I bought a book titled The Man Who Planted Trees, by Jean Giono.

For our return trip we walked to a different Metro station (Georgia Ave - Petworth), farther away and also through paranoia-ville, but I decided a road with more traffic and pedestrians was better than the relatively secluded areas we traversed before. Half of our journey was in the dark -- the power company was trying to fix outages caused by recent underground explosions caused by toxic spills (I'm not making this up). We passed darkened fast food joints with crowds of customers, employees, and assorted gawkers standing on the sidewalk, watching the power company's progress.

So that was how we spent our anniversary together. Adventures are rarely fun while they're happening, but make for fond memories later. Now we're going on vacation, to Seattle! It's eleven o'clock, we have to leave in two hours, and I have yet to pack. Adieu!

• Haiku Movie Review - Monty Python and the Holy Grail

• Haiku Movie Review - Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
• Subcomics - five new strips
• Hero of the Month - Howard Lyman
• Hankisms - a new convert: Deism

This busy week included lots of exercise - walking, biking, climbing, bowling. By Friday I was fairly sore.

Kory's brother Kyle was in town, so we went duckpin bowling with them (and Renee, too). Around midnight the lights went low and the lanes turned into a virtual disco floor - black lights, music, spotlights, etc. We practically bowled ourselves silly.

We saw lots of friends down at the Labor Day festival in town. At the festival I pulled a dij while Dorian and Drake played drums, bells, and gongs, and we were videotaped for public access TV. Many passersby showed interest in the dij; lots of people around here have heard dijeridus in commercials and radio, but few have actually seen them. Gina sold pottery and demonstrated throwing in the community center during the festival.

I found and identified several more mushrooms in our woods and around town. This is becoming quite a hobby.

On Monday we went on a spontaneous climbing trip -- the usual place, Carderock -- with Gary. Nice weather for it. After climbing (for hours) we drove to the Sunflower Restaurant in Virginia, an all vegan place. Good food, but a bit expensive. Skip dessert if you go -- their pie doesn't come close to the Veggie Garden's delicious key lime pie.

After dinner Gina and I stopped in at John Nader's (he's my old high school friend) house. He has a giant deck and a very friendly doggie. We stayed for a while and chatted before coming home to our nice doggie.

• Haiku Movie Review - The Big Blue

• Haiku Movie Review - The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash

This weekend we visited Chris Welsh in Philly, to see his comedy improv group (I've forgotten their name) in action. They were participating in Philadelphia's famous Fringe Festival. After watching two of Chris's entertaining shows we went to the Fringe Cabaret, a smoky warehouse-turned-vaudeville night club. There were some fantastic and weird acts - singing, dancing, and comedy. I'm already planning a return trip next year.

On Sunday Gina, Stacy and I visited the nearby 6 Flags amusement park. Gina needed a coaster fix, and it was the last day they were open in September. They re-open weekends in October. We finally got a taste of the Batwing ride, which I thought was a bit slow, with a limited view -- but it was fun to finally have a ride I can really hang out of. Superman, The Wild One, and Roar remain my favorite rides in that park.

• Haiku Movie Review - The Musketeer
• Tombstone - welcome to Sherrel Mack

When I was young the faire was a smaller affair. There were great stage acts, sure. (I remember seeing many fine Penn & Teller shows there.) But the overriding entertainment could be found on the "street". Many street performers would interact with the patrons, bringing a more festive atmosphere that you won't find today. Often it seemed as if there were almost as many performers as patrons wandering the crowds. I was drawn to the faire back then for different reasons than I am today. I would sneak into the fairgrounds without paying. (Many of the "commoners" did this, we had no contract and little money. The preferred route was through the gypsy encampment -- we'd go in from the woods from one side, meander among the gypsies' tents, and, pretending to be gypsies, wander out into the grounds.) Then I would spend the weekend practicing roguery. I would beg, barter and steal my food and drink; people thought I was acting, but many of the beggars and thieves were, well, beggars and thieves. I would often get quite sloshed with my cohorts and end up sleeping next to a campfire or under the thrones (a prime spot). The nights were spent singing, drinking, and laughing -- often they were more fun than the days. Most of the days were spent entertaining the customers and finding some cheap food. So that was my first faire phase, the Age of Roguery and Romance.

My second turned out to be the Age of Indulgence. As I grew older I gradually stopped sneaking onto the grounds. I still often wore costumes, but I paid my way and bought my food -- lots of food. I found that since I could afford it, food and drink became my personal badges of nobility. It felt wonderful to pay for my meals without antics, to sit and savor a beer while watching a show. To tip the barmaids! I sampled practically everything in the festival, even things most people pass up. Did you know that you can get raw oysters at the faire? 

Meanwhile the faire grew, eventually outgrowing its birthplace. It relocated and continued to grow; more stages and booths were added. More acts were added to fill the stages. I spent more time finding the good acts. I stopped wearing faire garb and became a standard spectator. I hooked up with Gina somewhere along this Age of Entertainment, and drifted into the world of vegetarianism, so most of the faire's food is no longer desirable. I thought I'd continue to want things like Steak-on-a-Stake, but for some reason none of that food sparks any interest. The beer's still good.

Today, we're left with a Ren Faire that is not as personal as it used to be. There are street performers, wandering minstrels, crowd minglers and such, but they are all but subsumed by the ever-growing crowds. Begging and busking are solidly "against the rules" these days. The booths selling costumes, jewelry, weapons, leather, knives, etc. are wall to wall, giving me the feeling of browsing a strip mall in the woods. Unfortunately, the last place I want to see a strip mall is in a perfectly nice forest. The food vendors continue to cheapen their products while increasing their inventory, giving you the feeling of choice, but really "McDonaldizing" the event. The stage acts are still top-notch, most of them, but because the crowds are larger, the stages are often farther away and compete against passing crowd noise. The gypsy camp is gone, replaced by RVs and even more porta-potties. 

I don't know what Age I'm entering now, but I fear it's the Last Age (perhaps the Age of Reason?); I'm not sure how many more years I'll attend the faire. This is all quite poignant, to me -- seeing many of the old familiar people who still work the faire brings on vivid happy memories thick with nostalgia, but sadness too, knowing we'll never return to those days. I'd like to think that the unspoken tradition has lived on, that some young people are still finding the secret ways into their own Age of Roguery.

A  tornado rampaged our area! At the time, Gina was teaching at the University of Maryland. She was completely unaware that the tornado passed through until after it wreaked its damage elsewhere on campus (and right up Route 1 through College Park, Beltsville, and Laurel).

Meanwhile, I was with Booda wandering our woods, trying to get a little hike in before the rain came through. The wind picked up and I worried about getting clocked by a flying branch, so we moved out onto the street. Coming back up our road, I heard a loud cracking crunch as a large branch fell from a tree, about thirty feet away. So much for being safer on the street...

Not too many mushrooms in the woods lately, mostly Turkey Tails  and other shelf-type mushrooms. The others must be hiding. Some nice Lion's Mane mushrooms appeared on a tree, conveniently close to a major walking route in our woods. I ate some -- sweet and yummy! [Editor's note: don't eat wild mushrooms, they could be poisonous. Leave them for me.]

• Haiku Movie Review - Saving Silverman
• Hero of the Month - Kenneth Rexroth

We visited the Mayhews' wrecked yard on Thursday. The tornado somehow missed their house, pulling up trees, sheds and roofs all the way up to their front yard, doing relatively minor damage to the house, and then tossing more trees, car parts, and assorted junk into the back yard. It really looked like an angry giant had stomped through, haphazardly pulling up things, ripping them apart and throwing them down (which is kind of what happened, in a way). It was difficult for us to maneuver through the broken-down branches in the back yard as we approached the trunk of our wedding tree. 

Looking away from the remains we could see the giant's straight path -- large splintered trunks remained where once grew tall stands of trees. The main path of destruction was about 25 feet wide, with smaller twisted paths off to the sides. We gave the old tree one last hug good-bye, then spent a little while talking with the Mayhews. We were hoping to have our tenth anniversary in our wedding tree. Bill and Maren are pretty sad. They lost many other trees too. The cleanup will continue for a while. 

It's been a rather busy, stressful week, especially this weekend during the Icehouse Summit at Wunderland. Check the Wunderland News on Thursday for a summit briefing. Of course, I'm just guessing that Andy will report on the weekend's activities. 

G: Me an' Jenny visited my brother Grant this weekend. Saturday we went to an outdoor vegetarian festival in Charlottesville (Grant bought me a T-shirt that has the Nike swoosh but says VEGAN instead. On the back it says "Just Do It - Go Vegan"), and traversed the ped mall there (the game store carries Looney Lab's and Cheapass' games). Then we went and had bunches of fun at Grant's housewarming party in Shipman. We even played Werewolf which everyone seemed to enjoy. The next day we walked around Grant's neighborhood. We saw a puppy, then another, then another, roaming around in the street. The first two were immediately happy to see us, the third barked for a while at first, then ended up following us around the most. Their mom, an old weathered beagle, soon joined in the fun. Looked to me like she mated with a Corgi. One of the pups looked pure beagle, the other two adorable mixes. I had one of my favorite kind of moments - puppies crawling all over me, licking my face. I wanted to take one or two with me. As we took our walk we worried about them roaming. Someone said they were neighborhood dogs and didn't belong to anyone, but I was pretty sure somebody loved them. They were too friendly. But we discovered that Grant's street, and several offshoots from it, were all dead ends so we worried less. We had to play a trick on the pups to lose them before running for home, which didn't work on the mostly beagle one. We were running down the road, and no pups were in sight, when suddenly he came barreling toward us. (We went in the house and he eventually went back.) 

We went to Sweet Briar College where Grant works and ate in the cafeteria which was pretty nice. Then we took a walk up to the horse pastures and petted some horses. Jenny and I left and went to Lee and Annaliese's place in Charlottesville. They have a wonderful bungalow with a forest view behind their back yard. I got to see Babar again. We also looked at Annaliese's photography portfolio, which didn't include this one from the online version, and I didn't know about until I happened upon it. *Squeal*! Annaliese fed us a scrumptious snack of homemade grilled veggies, hummous, and olive pate, then we drove back to the DC area. By the time I got home I was very tired, but I still went out to eat at Chipolte's with John and Kory before coming home and going to sleep. I was asleep before 11pm, which I usually can't accomplish if I try.

• Haiku Movie Review - The Life of Brian  (HMR number 200!)

J: On Sunday when Gina came home we went to the Mayhew's place to help with tornado cleanup. Plenty of people had been cleaning up before we arrived, but the place was still covered in large piles of tree trunks and limbs. It's going to take another couple weeks at least to clear the yard of debris. I wielded a chainsaw until it ran out of gas. Using a chainsaw for a long period of time is great exercise. I didn't have any sort of cohesive plan, just wandered from one pile to another making branches shorter so they could be moved and stacked by hand. It was a chilly day, but I worked up quite a sweat. We took a small piece of the wedding tree home with us, and discussed maybe getting a cross-section of the trunk (although I don't know how to accomplish such a task), to turn into a table or something. 

Maren showed us their mushroom grove, which was much bigger than I thought and luckily untouched by the tornado. They're growing hand-sized shitake mushrooms on a dozen or more logs. These mushrooms are much larger than shitakes you'll find in stores.

Later that night we returned with Booda to warm ourselves by a big bon fire with some of the other volunteers. I played my dij some, drank some beer, and hauled lots of wood to keep the fire going. 

This week we found a couple chicken mushrooms in the woods, and one of them was bigger than a chicken! They're kind of old - we missed them when they were young and tender - but I fried up a bunch anyway and ate some chicken sammiches for the first time in more than four years. The taste, color, and texture are uncannily like white chicken meat.

• Haiku Movie Review - Greenfingers 
• Tombstone - welcome to Nicky Foster

Then she did it again! On Sunday, three days away from my birthday, which is clearly against all Geneva Convention protocols, she lured me to my Father's house and attacked me with yet more of that hideous Happy Birthday song from a large crowd of familia. Actually, that was much better than I expected. I feared when I entered that all those people were waiting for some family intervention (to deal with which heinous activity, I don't know, but I figured I was certainly the target since I knew nothing about the gathering). Instead, we all sat around arguing, joking, and watching the little unklings beat each other up. I had a good time.

In between surprises I went to Delaware with fellow gamers Kory, Ken, and Bruce on Saturday to visit the Days of Knights game store. We met up with Chris Welsh there, played a few games and playtested Zagami, with good results. Meanwhile Gina spent the day with Jenny. And on Friday we attended a bon voyage party for Marlene at Renee's place. Marlene's moving to California, she promises to keep in touch.

Also this week, we watched too many taped episodes of Mr. Show, one of the funniest comedy shows I've ever witnessed. We're addicted. 

• Haiku Movie Review - Zoolander 

J:  say uh, let’s see . . . jenny’s taking dictation right now from me, comma, john, period.  (laughter) (more laughter) wait.  how do i say stuff without having you type it?  (laughter)  ok, here goes (sniff) on saturday gina  and i went climbing with dale and gary at carderock.  it was a beautiful day and we got some good climbs in.  i guess that’s all i’ll say about that. 

after climbing, oh, i forgot, booda went too.  this was sort of an experiment to see if booda could deal with sitting around while his mommy climbed dangerous cliffs.  it all worked out fine.  booda was very patient.  anyhow, afterwards, gina, gary, and booda and i went to joe and meg’s house where they were having a big family reunion.  complete with bonfire, um, food, um, marshmallows, beer and my dijeridoos.  um (laughter)

i’ll fix it later, anyhow (laughter), uh, my favorite uncle john showed up.  we had a lot of fun talking about various movies we had seen (and hadn’t seen), unfortunately we showed up a little bit too late and most of the people left pretty soon after we arrived. 

paragraph.  i love doing that (laughter).

what did i do sunday?  oh yeah, most of the week has been taken up with play-testing a re-vamped game for the upcoming playing with pyramids icehouse set.  it’s grueling sometimes emotional work but i’m trying to not get too stressed out. 

hm . . .

• Haiku Movie Review - Just Visiting 
• Poetry - Burning Tree and Elegy 
• Pottery - more vases, mugs, bowls, and jars

Gina's still got the spirit, so to speak. She found a few things around the house and cobbled up a costume. We just came back from a little Halloween party at Dorian & Amethyst's place. They really spooked up their house - fog machine, recordings of buddhist throat singers (eerie!), black lights, spider webs, real live ghosts, the works. Nice party.

We've been extremely busy this week, but Gina managed to make it to (sis-in-law) Kathy's Tea Party, which she had instead of a baby shower. We also made it to Todd & Kristin's place, briefly, for a "phoenix party" celebrating their return to their fire-injured house. It's all fixed up as good as new!

I finally posted some images of our poor wrecked wedding tree -- check them out down below (entry for 10/3/1).

And looky - Koralleen had a baby.

• Haiku Movie Review - K-Pax 
• Heroes of the Month - Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez
• Tombstone - Welcome to JeffP

I just returned from a reading given by one of my heroes - Samuel Delany. He's a wonderful person with great stories to tell. Most of what he read was from his autobiographical works. I wanted to ask him various questions (like, "can I see your thumbs?" -- long story); reminisce on my Scorpion days (back in circa 1980 Heavy Metal featured an interview where he mentioned nice things about meeting us at a convention); and ask how his daughter's doing (back then she was five). But I didn't. I was too shy. Instead I bought two books.

We had our First Friday reception party on Friday night. Gina requested costumes or something unusual, and a few people showed up in halloweeny apparel. She was a very sexy evil elf or Klingon (pre-mutant), I was the host of the party -- with bugs crawling on my face. I had a great time and partook a bit too much of the top notch whiskey my brother Bill gave to me for my birfdy. Stayed up too late and walked Booda through the woods with some of the partygoers at about 3 AM. Spent the next day picking spider webs and glue out of my hair and beard.

On Saturday I accidentally woke up at 8:00, and at 3:00 PM hightailed it up to Delaware with Bruce and Kory to play games with Chris and the rest of the Days-o-Knights crowd. Got home very late, very tired.

On Sunday I managed to sleep till 9:00. Gina went off to the community center to sell her wares, and I went over to the cafe to play Go with Mark Gitlis. He trounced me. Twice.

It's been that kind of week - very active with little sleep. More playtesting and tweaking games with the Core Four (Kory, me, Jake, and ToK). Slowly, ever so slowly, we are making progress.

• Haiku Movie Review - Joe Dirt 

Gina's friend and workmate Jessica had a little birthday party for her husband Mark on Saturday, featuring his favorite game -- Go. I managed to win the first game (starting with a three stone handicap, so that's no real accomplishment), and then Mark trounced me in the second game. He told some nice stories about three-day tournaments he used to have with friends when he lived in Colorado. Meanwhile Gina played Fluxx and Aquarius with Jessica and the kids, Zohar and Noah.

On Sunday Gina did a pottery demo at the New Deal Cafe for their Fall Festival Fundraiser. That night she went dancing with Jenny and Gary, then afterwards Kory and I met them at the Silver Diner for a late dinner. After that, we came home (minus Gary) and accidentally played a game of Morton's List. Our late night random activity had something to do with "multimedia art", so we all pitched in and made a big mess on a 30x40 inch piece of cardboard. (Actually it's on the back of one of my paintings I did in high school.) The photo here gives you an idea of what it looks like from far away. We also have a detail from a ~9x7" section. So our first encounter with Morton's List was not disastrous, and we'll probably play it again someday.

On Monday night I went to Mrs. O'Leary's with some of my family to see Clancy O'Connell and Clancy. They played really wonderful Irish folksongs, and Liam Clancy recited several poems - mostly from Yeats. He really lives the poems when he tells them. I was able to speak with Liam briefly after the show, about Yeats, mostly. We were both a bit tipsy on beer and whiskey, which probably made our meeting all the warmer. It looked like the rest of the family had a good time; we all had a lot of fun poking fun at Barchan and his friend Suzy, who were holding hands a lot.

• Haiku Movie Review - Mulholland Drive 
• Tombstone - Welcome to Eric Driscoll and Toni
• Hankisms - our newest convert: Anglicanism

Booda came home on Thursday, exhausted but happy to be back from his enematic [sic] ordeal at the veterinary hospital. He's been doing fine ever since.

On Saturday Kory, Bruce, and I visited Chris again at Days-o-Knights in Delaware. Played a few games there, and won one (through pure luck; I think it was Reiner Knitzia's Africa). We ate at a Mexican restaurant that was so authentic that I felt transported out of the U.S. -- The TV displayed a Spanish station; the waitress couldn't understand us and laughed when we mangled her language; and the place, crowded as it was, contained only tres gringos -- us. The food was so good that Kory and I went back twice, once with Bruce and once with Chris. On the way home from Delaware I saw two meteors streak across the sky -- the beginnings of the Leonid shower.

Bruce and Kory dropped me off and skidaddled homewards, and I took a little nap before waking up at 3:00 am for the Leonids. Gina, Booda, and I were joined by Jenny, Leo, and Lucy. It was very cold out, so we bundled up and took blankets with us, through the woods to BARC's west field at 4:00. There we met a few strangers and our neighbors from upstairs, including Booda's best friend Buster (a cute boxer). We lay down on pads and blankets in the big field (Leo and Lucy chose to stand, mostly) and for a little over an hour we froze our buns off. The meteors were very pretty, coming in at around ten per minute. (There was a low fog over the area and some light pollution, so I'm sure other rural areas counted twenty or more a minute.) Some of the meteors left trails in the sky that lasted for a minute or so. It was nice, except for the cold, which got colder, and then there were two dogs (Booda and Buster) who were chasing each other and wrestling, and practically stepping on our heads. That sort of got in the way. But it was fun. When we returned home I made a little breakfast for our guests, and after eating they left and Gina and I climbed into bed and slept until afternoon.

After we eventually woke up, Gina went off to a pottery show and I walked through the woods again with Booda, and later participated in a drum jam down at the New Deal Cafe. We got some nice rhythms going and some decent dancing too. At one point a small audience gathered and applauded at the end of one of our improvised bits.

This week Ginohn spent a long time watching and analyzing David Lynch's latest film. It's called Mulholland Drive, it's two and a half hours long, and Gina's seen it twice. I've seen it three times. We're nuts. Gina made up for not seeing it the third time by reading all sorts of stuff about it on Salon.com (warning: the Mulholland Drive pages are full of spoilers and nothing but). There's really no way I can recommend this film to anybody (I mean, after all, it's by David Lynch for Gob's sake) but I loved watching it each and every time. 

G:Don't eat too much turkey!

• Haiku Movie Review - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 

This week we finally visited the Mayhews long enough to slice off a section of our wedding tree. We hope that as the maple dries it doesn't crack; meanwhile we'll smooth it out and build a coffee table.

G: Thanksindians was very nice over at Brother Bill's. It was a small gathering for a Cooper affair, since Tom and Kathy just had a baby last week and didn't make it (welcome to the world, Sean Patrick), and Joe and Meg were in Kansas, etc. Everyone said they really liked the food I made - a roasted vegetable pot pie, a winter squash and chard dish, and a vegan pumpkin pie. Later we went to the Looneys' and I ate even more - toast and popcorn.

Friday night we took Kory over to Jenny's with the leftovers and met her friend Dave. We all watched Gummo and Dave left and we watched The Hidden. 

Saturday night we went out to Adams Morgan to meet up with some friends for dinner. Deborah and Eryq's friends, Debra and Steve, from the return to blender incident, were in town (and freshly married a month ago). We met up with them and several other folks at Meskerem (Rizolda and others showed up too) and had fun eating wif our fingas and talking about various weird museums all over the world. Afterwards we went back to Deb and Eryq's in Bethesda for dessert and such. We saw a million wedding photos (Debra was a lovely bride) and played werewolf (which suffered from not quite enough people). 

Bad news of the week - Jenny was supposed to come see Harry Potter with us but found that her new motorcycle was stolen. We are sad for her.

• Haiku Movie Review - The Man Who Wasn't There 
• Hero of the Month - George Harrison

G: This Saturday (10 - 5pm) and Sunday (11 - 4pm) there is a Holiday Craft Fair at the Greenbelt Community Center (15 Crescent Rd.). I'll be there much of the time, selling my pottery along with the Greenbelt potters. If you get a chance, come check it out. Other vendors will be worth visiting, too!

• Haiku Movie Review - Gummo 

Other things that happened this week: 

• Our First Friday party was durn crowded. Anybody have a bigger house for sale?
• Kory, Chris, and I attended another Days-o-Knights game day on Saturday. 
• Sunday night we had fun at Terri's birthday party at Izolda and Rich's place. We all (Ginohn, Dorian, Amethyst, Rich, Kristen, and Terri) decided next time Izolda should play Trivial Pursuit against the rest of us, as a team.
• Monday night I went to Flanagan's with my brother Thom, friend Lindsey, father Dad, and bro-in-law Dave, to see Tommy Makem in concert. Tommy's getting old; he's not hitting the notes but his heart's still there. He might've sounded better if I drank a few beers, but I didn't (I designated myself as driver).
• Last night Gina's brother Grant and his friend Lynn stayed over, after going to a concert at Club 9:30.

• Haiku Movie Review - Life as a House 

THE LORD OF THE RINGS PREVIEW :)
I can hardly wait 
to hear they've finished the script 
for Bored of the Rings!

The very traditional and elegant wedding took place in The Citadel's chapel, where my brother Kit was married a couple years ago. This time I played the part of a groomsman, and therefore had to wear a rented tux and stand on a marble floor for half an hour listening to a minister's mumbo jumbo. I tuned the minister out easily (ask Gina, she'll agree I have certain talents in the Not Listening Department), but just standing still while wearing a tux is torturous. Especially in front of people. I don't wear a tux much, and when I do, I feel silly, very much like I'd feel if I was cross-dressing. Yes, I've tested this theory. No, not in a church.

We spent the rest of our little vacation at Kit and Laura's place, fighting off a horde of unklings. Most of our nieces and nephews are circa two years old. Toddlers, I've found, spend a major part of their waking lives trying to kill themselves. When no one is looking, an unkling will climb the stairs backwards, or try to pick up some precarious piece of furniture, or stick his foot in the dog's mouth while pulling the dog's whiskers. And an unkling's parents are surprisingly adept at leaving you in charge of said unkling's safety. A stressful weekend to be sure, when it came to unkling management. And to top it all off, I now have a sore throat, which I will of course blame on those little walking crawling human beakers of disease. They are cute, though.

I almost forgot to mention that (also on Thursday night) Mango got into a terrible row with some unknown creature, probably another cat, but maybe a fox. She strolled inside and dripped blood from a puncture, all over the house. I took her to an emergency animal hospital where they examined and stitched the wound and prescribed antibiotics. At first Gina didn't know whether she'd stay with Mangle [also sic] or leave her with Stacy for the weekend. The next morning as I unloaded the mushroom dryer, Gina decided to go to the wedding. Mango made a quick recovery.

G: Don't let John fool you. We don't have any good pictures yet, but he looks mighty fine, oh yes, in a tux.

• Haiku Movie Review - Monsters Inc. 
• Games - latest Gnostica and Homeworlds rules