Month: December 2003

About fifteen minutes to go till the end and I’m fading fast… Bleh. I just can’t punch the old vampire time clock like I used to.

I did get some good writing done tonight though and I finished the last ‘03’ illo. I have to remember to put ‘04’ on the next one which should be the character illo for Wolf’s Ki’Rin. Then I have to finish the illo for ZeZe’s “Lynzie” character which was supposed to be a Christmas present but I got derailed in the process of getting something down on paper. Sorry…

My ‘04’ resolutions are to do a sketch per day, a finished ink per week and a full color illo per month regardless of work loads and worldly pressures. I dunno if I can do it, but I’m sure gonna try. I like drawing but it’s just so hard to drag something “out of head” and “onto paper” when the demon Reality is standing behind me and thumping the back of my skull with a large, gnarled finger all the damn time.

Well, I’m about to impale my keyboard and wake up with 45 pages of “g” again if I don’t head to bed so I’ll wish you all out there in ‘net land a happy new year and I’ll see you on the other side of 365.25.

It’s been a fairly productive night so far. I went and removed the foot or so of snow off the hood of the wagoneer, broke all the ice free from the hood, pulled the battery, and brought it into the garage to put it on the charger for the night… Too bad it looks like someone ran over the charger while I was away. (bleh)

(Just got the “if you don’t eat I’m gonna crawl up your spine and strangle your brain” message from my tummy so… Pause for dinner)

(Un-pause from dinner)

I went over to “Fiestas” in Edwards for dinner and had the most excellent chicken enchiladas with their signature white jalapeno sauce; a very good way to warm up on a cold night.

I plugged in the battery charger when I got home and nothing sparked, smoked, or otherwise led me to believe that the unit was dead so I hooked it up to the battery and will check on it throughout the evening… I figure the battery will have a nice charge some time next year.

I think over the next few days here I will box up a lot of the excess junk in my office/bedroom and put it down in the garage. Then I’ll re-arrange things a bit by moving the bed over into a corner rather than the middle of the room, moving my two wardrobes to the west wall, then going and getting myself a much bigger desk.

This will give me some much needed desk space, let me put my speakers on either side of the computer desk rather than off to my right, and let me put my nightstand near the sliding glass door to the deck where I can put the web cam computer and the camera to get a good view of the mountains across the street.

Oh, and I’m gonna take down the goofy 70’s art in here!

I got all this “ok’d” by the resident interior designer, Vivian, who has this –thing- for 70’s era décor which I personally can’t stand. But hey, it’s her thing, and in this day and age people with any sort of “desire” are few and far between so I just go with the flow.

Either that or I’ll just box up the junk and leave well enough alone… We’ll see how I feel about it Monday.

Well, that’s it for this post. A bit over 3 hours to go till the new Gregorian year and as I’m attempting to stay up for it, I’ll probably post again tonight.

The best parts of the holidays are the days off… We closed up the shop early today and won’t be open tomorrow. This lets me spend the evening in front of the fireplace with a glass of fine single malt and enjoy the evening rather than worrying about getting up early tomorrow.

Tomorrow should be fun as Jack and I will be going over to Tina and Rick’s place for a New Year’s dinner at around 3pm. Jack will be making his famous Prime Rib and Bakers dinner and I’ll be supplying the sodas, iced teas, beer (for Rick and Tina), cognac (for Jack), and a small bottle of Laphroaig for me.

Jack and I can’t get too sloshed as we need to both drive home afterwards and get to the shop and be relatively cognizant Friday for a few hours at least… Although that’s never impeded Jack too much. 🙂

Other than that it’s the end of another Gregorian Year… Yeah, so the rest of the world is a week and a half late in the “New Year” department, but it’s still an important demarcation for them so I’ll participate a little. After all, even though life is trying at times and sometimes we get buried under all the problems of the world, there’s always the free annual trip around the sun to look forward too right? That and despite the high cost of living it still remains quite popular…

Let’s see, what else has gone on around here? Oh, I *still* haven’t found a copy of the expansion for “Shadowbane”… I looked all over the place down in Denver to no avail and of course it’s not available up here anywhere. I was really hoping to create a Minotaur cleric for use this coming year…

Bah! Video games are bad for you anyways right? I don’t personally believe that though. I mean, if Pacman affected us as kids, we’d all run around in a darkened room with neon lights, munching pills and listening to repetitive music…

Oh, right… Never mind…

Hmm, what else? Oh, I had an odd thought today at lunch: Jack and I went to a local pasta house and while I was sitting there looking over the menu I wondered what would happen if one were to eat pasta and anti-pasta at the same time? Would you explode violently or just be hungry still? I’ll have to try this experiment some time…

I was also informed by the cook there (a friend of Jack’s) that he finds that spaghetti sauce simmers best when you play opera at it…

This reminded me of Aryntha and his building a repartee with the chicken breasts that he was cooking and led me to believe that all great cooks are completely whacko. 🙂

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this document are not necessarily those of the author. Some may belong to the small hairy man who lives in the moldy shoebox at the bottom of his garden, and who probably uses his vast technical knowledge and uncontrolled access to the author’s digital cable to tap into his Internet account and post all manner of weird things without his knowledge or consent, or at least that would explain a lot of things.

“I must not have fun. Fun is the time-killer. Fun is for inferiors, servants and the help. I will ignore fun. I will work through it. And when the fun is gone only I will remain — I, and my will to win. Damn, I’m good.”

–The litany against fun

(Most often heard spoken by Management and as an opener to high level board meetings)

I’m back on my mountain again and enjoying the really nice snow we are getting up here.

Not a whole lot to report really. Lyon dropped me off Sunday afternoon and I’ve been in meetings with Larry or fixing things around the house ever since.

I took yesterday off from work to set up all of Larry’s new road-warrior gear and while I was at it I hauled the *huge* Christmas tree out and refilled the cannibal special… The problem with the hot tub is that the thermostat is still broken… I really have to call the hot tub company to get it fixed and no more poking around out there seeing if I can do it myself. Well, the tub will stay at about 40 degrees right now, which is fine as it keeps it from freezing, but that’s also just warm enough to make it steam and it looses water due to this… Well, if the level drops below the intake it sucks air and the heat exchanger stops working…

Larry knows the tub is broken so he didn’t pay it much mind while I was gone so this is the state it was in when I got to it Monday. There was about 3 inches of ice covering the water that was left but the water in the piping was still moving so nothing was broken, yet.

This means that it’s time to fill the tub right? Too bad the hose was frozen…

Ok, haul the hose into the 120 degree dry sauna while I run downstairs and cross connect plumbing that isn’t supposed to be cross connected. I hooked the output of the hot water reserve tank to the cold water in the house so I could get 140 degree water out of the spigot out back.

Needless to say I saved the hot tub and all of its plumbing from freezing… Today I will call the hot tub guys and have them fix the darned thing too. 🙂

Wow, the snow is really coming down now…

Jack should be here shortly to give me a ride to/from the shop as the Lincoln is still down in Denver getting fixed and I *still* haven’t gotten a battery for the Wagoneer… I gotta get my act together. Durn Holidays! 🙂

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Disclaimer: Any resemblance between the above views and those of my monitor or the view out my window are purely coincidental. Any resemblance between the above and my own views is non-deterministic. The question of the existence of views in the absence of anyone to hold them is left as an exercise for the reader. The question of the existence of the reader is left as an exercise for the second god coefficient. (A discussion of non-orthogonal, non-integral polytheism is beyond the scope of this article.)

I got to experience “fondue” for the first time last night. It was a multi-course affair that started with raw veggies and cheeses and ended with cubed steak and mushrooms in a nice beef broth. I was personally fonder of the meat/mushroom/broth part but the whole thing was quite good.

What I think is the neatest aspect of the whole “fondue experience” is that the Swiss designed it to be a social affair wherein everyone sits around a simmering pot of stuff with long poky-things and chats (or in our case, games) whilst the food cooks. I can see why the event was quite popular in the 70’s as it was a very social decade.

Today will be my last day here at Lyon and Wolf’s place because I have to be up on my mountain and back at work tomorrow morning. My transportation back up the mountain is a bit of a mystery yet as the USS Lincoln is still in the shop, Larry who was supposed to be here in Denver yesterday never made it, Lynx has offered to drive me back up which will be a religious experience (chuckle), and if all else fails Lyon will take me back up. I’ll make it, just not sure how yet. If Larry postponed for a day and will be here today, that’s the best option as he has to go there anyways and it won’t be a 200 mile round trip for someone just because of me.

All in all this has been the best Yule/Christmas holiday I’ve had since the age of 16 when I left home and never looked back. This holiday season had humor and revelry, new stuff to experience, old friends, and things to remember… It was really a great time and it’s great to have friends like Lyon and Wolf who took me in to their house and shared the holidays with me.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it.

And with that I’m going to pack up my stuff and the holiday loot I received, and see about getting home.

Wolf is out getting some groceries for tonight and tomorrow. Tomorrow night will be a lot of fun as we get to try out Wolf’s new fondue set!

I just finished creating my first AD&D character in, oh, 20 years. I have to say the game rules in general have come a long way since the box set I got in 1976. Now just about anything is possible within the bounds of the rules while keeping everyone on an even playing field.

In general I’m not much of a rule-monger, preferring my games more free form due to the varied and complex natures of the characters I create. But I also enjoy the challenge of working within the bounds of a system and having a physical advancement of the character… So far the 3rd edition AD&D rules seem to fit the bill (hehe) nicely.

We have yet to stress the bounds of the 3rd edition combat system, but it seems pretty straight forward now that AC isn’t how hard you are to hit but it rather how hard you are to damage… After all, as any SCAvian will tell you, someone in plate mail is almost impossible to miss, but just as impossible to seriously damage.

Lets see, what else has gone on… Oh, last night I got deathly ill as a result of spending a few hours over at Wolf’s parents yesterday. They, the parents and the other folks who were there, smoke like chimneys and while I got tight-chested a few times while I was there, I spent some time outside and thought I had a handle on it… Wrong.

Lyon, the med student, tells me that what happened was that I got enough second hand smoke while I was there to stun the cilia in my lungs and I got a king-sized dose of smoke because of it. Well about 5-6 hours later, when all those cilia woke back up and saw the state that my lungs were in, all hell broke loose. I was short of breath, coughing like mad, and eventually wound up with a headache that could split granite.

Fortunately Lyon is also an asthmatic and knows all about shortness of breath and whatnot and had a lot of good advice… Had things gotten out of hand he had this nebulizer gizmo ready to go too. It’s nice to have a friend who’s also a med student. 🙂

I’m fine today though, a few hot showers and some respiratory pill from Lyon and I’m right as rain again.

Well, Lynx is on his way over here to visit and I should sign off. There’ll definitely be another post today though as Lynx causes lots of space-time issues, and things are always interesting whenever he’s around. 😉

Just got back from a holiday get together at Wolf’s parent’s place. Had a lot of fun, ate a lot of good food, and got a really cool African board game from Wolf’s oldest daughter, Antelope… All in all it was a pleasant few hours.

I had to repair one present to Wolf and Lyon that was damaged in shipping (a simple gear train adjustment) and configure one of Antelope’s presents which is a cool NIST time receiving wrist watch that Wolf’s dad gave her.

The funniest moment was when Wolf’s mom asked me if I’d like a slice of pie (Pecan pie, Mmmm!) and of course I said, “Yes, please.” … What I received was a four pound, three inch thick slice of pecan pie that bugged my eyes and caused me to make a distressed version of one of those Unicorn sounds that leak out of me every now and again. This set everyone rolling with laughter.

Seriously, that slice of pie was in danger of overloading the structural integrity of the paper plate it was sitting on.

I eventually came to terms with the slice of pie by agreeing to eat all the pecans and some crust as long as I got to leave most of the filling. We then parted ways, but it was really good… I can see where Wolf gets her culinary skills from.

My other Christmas present today was a Celtic tarot deck from Wolf, which is really neat. I don’t do much divination, but the deck is cool enough that I might give it a whirl a few times.

Right now the family is at round three of the holiday get-togethers only this time it’s with Lyon’s family. I’m here at the house fighting the idea of taking a nap and sleeping off lunch.

Here I am again, sitting at the kitchen table here at Lyon and Wolf’s place watching the world roar by outside the patio door and figuring it’ll be a nice day today.

I love sunrises simply for the wonder of long shadows and subtle highlights. For example; there is a bit of sunlight seeping though the railing on the porch, casting shadows, and rather than being the “dark” and “light” of daytime, it’s a sort of airbrushed affair with softer edges and is very pleasant.

Then there are the squirrels out in the back yard that are ceaseless in their antics and have boundless energy and grace… I put a broken sugar cookie on the porch railing and two of them have been leaping around and chasing one another for the right to stash it somewhere.

Today the family here has to go and visit family elsewhere, which few seem to be all that enthused about. This is especially evident with the Otter who, much to her chagrin as this will be a bruising to her “punk-goth” image, has to get dressed up for the occasion…

Well, that’s assuming she actually gets out of bed today. 😉

I’ll remain behind today so that I am not witness to the plastic smiles and forced happiness on both sides of their family fence… This is an example of what not to do for the holidays; there isn’t any reason for people to feel forced to endure unpleasantness in the name of “holidays” as it turns the whole thing into an exercise in tolerance rather than the festive occasion it should be. I’m not saying this will be the case with the family here, but over the years I’ve heard nothing but horror stories about this particular yearly encounter.

While the family here is out, a friend of Wolf’s will be stopping by to get some pointers on web design and HTML technique from yours truly… I’ve never met this person, and I don’t do new people well without someone I know acting as a buffer, so we’ll see how this goes.

Other than that there isn’t much to report. My stay down here for the holidays has been quite wonderful. I’ve been spending my nights in the alter room which has been very nice… Apparently I’ve been deemed “ok” enough to not mess up the flow in there. The biggest advantage to the alter room, in my view, is that it’s a ritual space and I can very easily blot out the rest of the world for a few hours in there. This lets me get up feeling like I’ve spent the night at home up on my mountain, rather than camped next to a straight away at the Indy 500.

See, normally when I come down to visit for a few days I get frazzled very quickly due to the press of people here. Sure, civilization is encroaching at an alarming rate up there in Eagle-Vail and highway 6 has become a source of noise 24/7, but it’s still pretty much a hermitage. Due to this I’m acutely aware of the crush of human presence down here and it stresses me out.

Here there is a press of “others” that you can actually feel. This house sits pretty much in the geo-center of Aurora, which is where 80% of Denver lives, and due to this there are people on top of people here: “Stacked like cord wood, they are!” as my Grandfather would have said. Alameda runs right next to the other side of the garage and is six lanes of 24/7 traffic which can become so busy of an evening that there will be a 4-5 mile long parking lot out there, a mere 15-20 feet from the house. This is much like I figure it would be to live on the median of an interstate.

Another thing that will get to you here is the abject stupidity out there should you actually leave the safety of the house. Usually before you clear a mile in the car you will have been cut off, honked at, tail gated, nearly hit, and so nervous you’ll have a death-grip on the steering wheel.

Don’t get me wrong though, the house itself is very nice with those unique touches that Wolf and Lyon tend to give a place (those who know them know what I mean). I like it here, but just wish the house was somewhere else. 😉

Ahh, the dead hath risen! The goth-girl has crept out of her crypt to snag a cookie from the tin Wolf’s mom dropped off. Then, as if suddenly realizing the sun was up, she turned and crept back down to the dank safety of her mausoleum…

Well, I guess I’ll sign off and do some writing while it’s relatively quiet here.

Still down here at Wolf and Lyon’s place, which is nice.

We had a great Yule dinner last night, which was proceeded by a nice mini-ritual in celebration of all that was last year and all that will be this year.

Dinner was roasted Cornish hens with stuffing and gravy, a mushroom medley (Mmmm!), a green bean casserole sort of thing, sourdough and sharp cheddar on the side, and a desert dish that was really good and had apples in it, but I’m not sure what it was.

For Yule I got a new fantasy novel, which is a perfect gift for me, and a bag of pretty tasty jellybeans. 🙂

Yesterday I took Wolf to work so that I’d have the “witch wagon” (her van) with which to run a few errands for her. Taking Wolf to work is really cool because she works down in Boulder at NIST/NOAA and there are about a million really cool things going on down there at any time. The problem yesterday was getting into the campus in the first place as we’re at a high level of “threat awareness” and they’re pretty picky down there with who gets to meander around the campus at that level.

Yes, my watch was correct to the second according to the master clock down there.

The remainder of yesterday was spent driving around, running errands and taking Otter to a local game store, which was, as one would expect of a 14-year-old, an adventure in and of itself. 😉

Today I’m helping out around the house by taking care of the kitchen, and then I’ll do some writing if Otter, and her friend who is here for the day, can keep from knocking the house down around me. 😉

Ok, the dishwasher is done so I have to get back to it…

Here I am at Wolf and Lyon’s place in Denver.

Got here Friday evening and everyone decided on having some really good take-out Chinese, then we decided to go see the “Return of the King”. It’s the holidays and they are kind enough to let me play family with them so most of this weekend will be my treat.

So off we went. Wolf, Lyon, their daughter, Otter, and I got over to the theater for the 8pm show and had a little time to spare to get munchies and still be the #2,3,4, and 5 people in the theater… We’re geeks…

Then the movie came on…

Wow…

Seriously, that’s it folks. I really doubt anyone will be able to top that movie for a very long time…I truly expect the next Academy Awards to be nothing more than a Peter Jackson and Company party.

The final installment is about 3.5 hours long so go to the restroom before getting settled as you wont be able to get up till the end of the credits.

The storyline is flawless having everything from tense moments and seat edge action to very touching and poignant moments. The scale of this movie is astounding as well and you’ll definitely have to see it more than once to catch it all. Then there are the effects shots that are brilliant, the music that is brilliant, even the static art behind the closing credits is brilliant…

We got back here to their place so jazzed from the movie that no one got to bed before 1:30 or so.

Saturday morning we headed over to “Sam’s #3” for a prime rib & eggs breakfast. Sam’s is one of the best breakfast places in Denver in my opinion… We then headed over to Attactix, which is a local game store, to do some gift shopping. The folks here are serious gamers so what better way to get things they’ll like?

I got Lyon a new dwarf miniature to paint, a can of primer, a Warhammer magazine, a Warhammer 40k army management program, and this really cool carrying case with which to transport his Warhammer 40k armies in.

Wolf got a few miniatures she wanted, the d20 system rulebook, and the “Oathbound” source book for the d20 system.

Once we got back Lyon had to take off to a meeting so Wolf and I went grocery shopping for the holiday meals…

$150 later we returned home and Wolf fixed cheese stuffed portabella mushrooms (one of my favs) and steamed artichokes (another fav)… We then spent a few hours pouring over the new game stuff before calling it a night.

We’ll see what happens in the morning…

I may be offline here for the holidays. I’ll be down at Wolf and Lyon’s place if anyone needs me as they were kind enough to provide a temporary unicorn shelter down there.

See, Larry and Vivian are nice folks but I don’t really want to spend the holidays with their family as the “kids” all ridiculously rich and aren’t well grounded. Their usual topics of discussion are how the water was in Cancun, how this year’s BMW z3 is doing, which books/movies they’ve produced recently, and how they’re going to take advantage of this year’s rich-get-richer tax laws… Meanwhile I usually hide in my room, wonder where Cancun is, figure out how I’m going to afford to fix the Lincoln, finish a book I’m reading, and try to compute how much money I’m going to have after taxes.

That and they all have yuppie-larva which are all spoilt rotten and have the attention span of a gnat. I don’t mind children, but those aren’t children…

Anyways, I’ll have my laptop with me but I never know if or when I’ll have a moment to post about the day’s events when I’m “Oot and aboot”.

I’ll also have the Sony s707 with me, so expect a few compromising photos. 😉

Well, Aryntha and Rai were up here for a night. We didn’t do much of anything but sit around and shoot the proverbial shit, but it was still fun.

I showed them the “Mormon” episode of South Park on the computer here, and then Aryntha pulled up the web site for Yamaha’s newest piece of electronic wizardry, the Vocaloid (http://www.vocaloid.com/en/index.html).

Aryntha then poked around in Second Life (http://secondlife.com/) for a little while and showed off some of the latest features… I can see that the $200 video card I have in my computer just isn’t good enough for stuff on the horizon and that I’ll be saving my pennies for something better soon. 🙂

That’s about it for new news from here in the thin air. Till the next installment…

Another bit of the banter that goes on in my head:

Flint: “Your reality? You mean that place where the pizza delivery guy comes from?”

Ravik: “… You really are clueless aren’t you? No you fool; it’s not where the pizza delivery guy comes from. I was being facetious about you and the butterflies and rainbows that shoot out of your ass on a continual basis.”

Flint (looking back): “What butterflies?”

Ravik: (sighs)

Flint: “You’re just mad because I’m happy and positive. You’re always killing things and breaking things and just being mean in general…”

Ravik: “At least I have a positive attitude about my destructive habits.”

Flint: “See what I mean? You’re just a bad person and you think that gives you a right to hassle me.”

Ravik: “It’s a thankless job, but I’ve got a lot of Karma to burn off. Besides, if it wasn’t for me being around for you to compare yourself to, you’d be a little island of meaningless “happy”.”

Flint: “No unicorn is an island, but then, no unicorn is a potato salad, either.”

Ravik: “I… What!?”

Flint: “Potato salad… I happen to like potato salad. But I also know that I’m not made of it…”

Ravik: “…”

Ravik: “Someday, I’ll look back on this, laugh nervously and change the subject.”

It looks like it’s going to be a pretty nice day up here today, weather wise. The sun is shining, it’s a brilliant blue sky up there, and thanks to the foot of snow covering everything it is very bright.

Aryntha and Rai didn’t make it up here last night due to a break in the real-world / desire barrier which added hours to things that should have taken minutes. Things have been rescheduled for today though.

Well, the water is boiling for my morning tea so I’ll sign off until something exciting happens…

Aryntha and Rai are on their way up here for a day or so, so I’m busily cleaning the place up and preparing for company. Not that the place is “dirty”, per se, but there were two bowls in the sink and I needed to put towels in the downstairs guest room.

We’ll probably have a bit of an artist’s jam tonight on the board room table. Everyone has been looking for an excuse to “art”, and tonight might just provide it. Yes, Aryntha and Rai are artsy folk too, though none of us have much time to do anything as frivolous as random drawing anymore… Real life and all of its associated stresses and whatnot really puts a damper on a person’s creative output.

We’ll see how it goes.

Wish us luck, eh?

Additionally, it has come to my attention that certain subversives are spreading rumors of the existence of a number between 6 and 8. Needless to say, they are extremely dangerous and should not be approached under any circumstances. Be especially careful with people asking questions such as “What is half of fourteen?” when we all know that fourteen is an odd number.

Needing a break from working on a character illo of a kirin I had a fit of the “mad doodles” and took some sharpies to the blank side of my PC… I think I voided my warranty, or would have if I hadn’t built the thing.

The little black and white unicorn you find everywhere is Ri’Hahn Na’Horain, yet another of my alter egos.

As someone who really enjoyed “Farscape”, I found this to be interesting:

From the SciFi web site:
“SCI FI Wire has learned that production will begin Dec. 15 in Australia on a new four-hour Farscape miniseries, with stars Ben Browder, Claudia Black and others reprising their roles. A source close to the production told the Wire that series creators Rockne O’Bannon and David Kemper are readying a script for the miniseries, which as yet has no air date and no TV distribution deal. The SCI FI Channel, which originally aired four seasons of Farscape, had no comment on the report. A spokesperson for Jim Henson Co., which produced the series, also had no comment.”

“The proposed miniseries will probably wrap up the events of the show, which ended with a cliffhanger. The source added, “I believe it will certainly air on television. At this point, it’s in the early stages of finding that home.”

Again, I’m no huge fan of television, but Farscape was worthwhile in my opinion as it was a definite step in the right direction for the tried and true “space opera” genera. So, I guess some time next year I will have an excuse to turn on the TV for four hours.

Ok, back home now. Moved about 3 tons of display cases from the big pile in the space next to the shop, into the shop, and got the floor plan set up. Jack got all the skis put up for display, all the ski boots sized and out, all the snowboard boots sized and put up, and all the snowboards are now in their rack and sized.

We did what I figure amounts to a full day’s work in 5 hours… Whew!

The thing that really kills me is that Jack is a heavy smoker. Normally I can deal with it by just not being within 20 feet or so of him most of the time, but when I start really working and breathing heavy, the smoke kills me. I spend an hour or two every night when I get home coughing and I smell like I’ve been in a bar all day. Drives me crazy, but I never say anything. I don’t want to make things hard on the guy.

Anyways, I got to looking at the store in general today and decided it needed something. See, the new shop has about 20 foot ceilings and these huge, blank, white walls. Well, I’ve decided the places needs… ART!

I’ll be working up some designs for three murals; the one on the long wall above the snowboards will be a four part, blended, of a guy on a snowboard doing a grab off a jump (winter) flowing into a guy in hang glider (spring), which then goes to someone in a kayak going off a water fall (summer), and ends with a guy landing a dual suspension bike on a trail (fall); kind of a leave ground in winter, hit ground in fall thing. The mural over the ski rack will be a mountain panorama, and the one over the guitars in the music section will be lots of old school and new metal band logos done in high-perspective, high-specularity chrome and gold with some kind of red-midnight blue wash as a background in a flame sort of motif.

It should be pretty cool and a lot of fun. I haven’t broken out an opaque projector or done anything over 11×17 in years, but I have faith in my abilities. I’ll put up the designs, then pictures of the finished products for the folks out there who don’t get up here very often.

Speaking of folks coming up here; the Eagle-Vail exit off of I-70 is finished now; exit 169. What this means is there is a highway g’zinta-g’zouta about 4 blocks east of Château D’Isaster now. You won’t have to deal with round-a-bouts to get here anymore! 😉

Also, on the subject of roads; the road work on highway 6 is finished now. No more road cone mazes to traverse, construction equipment to dodge, or odd ball speed limit changes… Well, till you do the 45 to 20 to 45 at the WalWorld round-a-bout.

In other news I got the USS Lincoln home and it doesn’t seem any worse for the wear of sitting out in the below freezing weather last night. I was worried as the radiator leaks and I hate to leak antifreeze anywhere where animals can get at it, so I’ve been primarily using water and figured I’d have popped freeze plugs today.

I haven’t had a chance to get a battery for the Wagoneer yet… I’ll probably do that tomorrow as I’m tired and am seriously thinking about a hot shower and a nap.

Ok, still waiting for Jack here…

Got an email from a friend and one thing they mentioned was this quiz and said I should take it. Well, with the web address firmly in browser I did so.

Here ya go. Was there any doubt?

Dunno if I agree with some of the observations of character, but it’s not my quiz right?

You are Form 3, Unicorn: The Innocent.

“And The Unicorn knew she wasn’t meant to
go into the Dark Wood. Disregarding the advice
given to her by the spirits, Unicorn went
inside and bled silver blood.. For her
misdeed, the world knew evil.”

Some examples of the Unicorn Form are Eve
(Christian) and Pandora (Greek).
The Unicorn is associated with the concept of
innocence, the number 3, and the element of
water.
Her sign is the twilight sun.

As a member of Form 3, you are a curious
individual. You are drawn to new things and
become fascinated with ideas you’ve never come
in contact with before. Some people may say
you are too nosey, but it’s only because you
like getting to the bottom of things and
solving them. Unicorns are the best friends to
have because they are inquisitive.

Which Mythological Form Are You?
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