If you are my age, or close to it, and know even a little about sports, or about the 80's, or both...

THIS: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hruby/090707

will make you laugh out loud. Possibly multiple times.

You can thank me once you've read it...

After letting work take over my evenings for a few nights in a row a week or so ago, I've reclaimed them and am almost done with a major project - a bookstand/bookcase/event-prop. I stained both sides of all the pieces twice and then couldn't stand to wait so tonight I put it together while the stain was probably not quite dry.

It's about 2 feet wide and just under three feet tall. It's got two shelves, a sloped top to hold an opened book (cookbook? dictionary? The Joy of Sex?), and a drawer. The last bookcase I made (years ago) had a drawer - it's in our kitchen right now. I'm into making stuff with drawers apparently.

After putting it together I slopped a little more stain on it but tomorrow morning I won't be touching it at all. Tomorrow night I'll spray it with polyurethane. My hope is for it to be ready to show off at the BBQ (remember, it's an event prop!)

Looking too closely, I can see all the "flaws" but stepping back I have to admit, it looks pretty damn nice. I'm not sure if it'll live in my office in Andover or somewhere at home but either way, it's true purpose is a secret (at least, to the three people I haven't blabbed my ideas to yet).

We went to an event yesterday - Grimloch Grill & Games out in Westfield, MA. It was pretty fun but was mostly a lot of kids activities, carnival style. The guys did a great job and it was a great fit for Dante. He's not at the age where he's into fighting yet but he is a kid so winning tickets and spending them on stuff is always fun for him.

He learned a new spell - Animal Companion - and now has a stuffed hedgehog that can be used to cast Heal Limb. It was good to see folks but overall it was much less fun for me than last weekend. Yesterday I only did one tourney - Turtles - and I made it to the final 3 but really didn't fight that well.

I did get inspired to think about stuff we can make for kids at QH this year...

That's all for now. Today we're going out to see "Up". I'm looking forward to it - it's supposed to be very good. Tonight we watch the season premiere of our latest obsession, "True Blood" on HBO. It's really great - if you get any HBO channels you should check it out...

for anyone out there who knows even a little about hockey...

is this.

In the seventh game of the Stanley Cup playoffs, when you are down by one goal, at what point in the third period do you pull your goalie to gain an extra attacker (assuming you gain possession and have a good opprtunity to do so)?

Penguins are up by two currently (I'm vaguely rooting for them because Detroit's won enough times and Dante likes Penguins) but this could become a question for someone in Detroit tonight...

I just had a "holy cow" moment...

I was looking through an old View (posted online by Brian Johnson at www.valehaven.com)

http://www.valehaven.com/VHPDF/VH-1993-December.pdf

and after finding my TWO favorite poems we ever posted, reading them and getting slight chills from each one, I stumbled across something I posted...

a proposal for 200-blow scalping rules(!)

I had completely forgotten writing that, but apparently *I* am to blame (or credit?) for the Realms' current 200-blow scalping system.

I knew I had made major contributions to the game, the rules and all that, but jumpin' jesus! If someone had told me that I had come up with that 16 years ago I might have called them a liar and told them someone else probably thought of it, like Lance, Lackey or another brilliant mind from the good old days.

Yoiks. Next time I find myself being scalped, I guess I've only got myself to blame. Literally...

Another thought from the weekend - while it was disappointing that Magnus wasn't in our line (at least I don't think he was), it made me feel great seeing his interest and involvement at the QH meeting. I knew I'd forget people and he was the one I forgot in yesterday's post.

So last night I finished up the matched 3'8" pistol-grip sabers.

I'm not sure I'm going to be able to live with them... The swords aren't new light stuff, they're old school, so the weight is hard on the hands. The metal of the pistol grips winds up making your hands feel not so good pretty quickly in a few spots and you really won't be able to do a lot of slashing with them. This isn't surprising, as pistol grips are really meant for point fighting, and I think these swords might be great for that.

The other problem is that the pistol grips are metal and if the sword ever flipped out of the wielder's hand, which it could, the idea of one of the prongs of the grip hitting someone isn't real nice.

The next step would be to build some baskets for the hands to protect people from the metal handles but I'm hesitant to do that as I'm unsure the swords will wind up being that usable.

Another issue could be that my hands are too big for the handles. I can use them but they just feel small in my hands. Maybe that's normal. I haven't fenced before. Probably I should get 'em done just to get 'em done and then I'll move on to other projects, and as always, I have a lot lined up for myself...

• Order & Make KoFN Belts


• Plan Pages tourney


• Sew garb pants


• Build bookshelf for library room


• Build podium for Ouija Board

That's just the short list - there are a ton more in my head...

Have a good one everybody!

Just got back from Star Trek. I'm sure EVERYONE on my flist already knows this, but it was awesome.

It was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. There was really nothing to nitpick about afterwards. For me, it did fall short of Star Wars but that's a lofty mark to reach for any sci fi movie. It may have been the best or maybe second best Star Trek movie to date.

Yay recovery days after eventing!

Now to eat leftover bacon/mushroom pizza and then mow the lawn before Dante gets home from school...

So this was my "I get to go play Realms" weekend and I went to North/South War.

The only disappointment was that our side didn't win, but Rhiassa had a great showing and there were more great moments and memories than I can really list. The biggest and best surprise was seeing Aeston get knighted into the Knights of the Realms, and being able to stand with the other members of the order now that they've changed the order's internal rules so that (if I understand correctly) once a KoR, always a KoR. For a while they were asking KoR to only wear the KoEF belt if they didn't attend enough events in a year.

All in all, I fought well. I'd like to think that I was one of the five best on our side, but I tend to be kind to myself in such matters. I mostly fought sword & shield and had a few wonderful runs defending my pikes and helping our flank roll though grimloch (when they weren't rolling through us, that is). At one point I managed to block two incoming arrows with one shield move for the pikeman on my left and then a few seconds later, blocked two more incoming arrows with a shield block for the pikeman on my right. It was sweet, and I got a few compliments from some very very good pikeman (Eldritch, Wil, Maverick, etc...)

I was incredibly proud to see Aeston get knighted. I was incredibly proud to be able to fight with Aeston and Da'oud on the same line and know that I had a hand (however small) in their training and development. They are both so good and between the three of us we made an awesome combination. I'm not sure many trios on site Saturday would have had an easy time with us, and on Sunday only a few would have given us a run for our money.

I was also so happy to see Sybil there, and hope to see more of her. Some of my best fighting moments of the weekend were fighting shield for Areni, who has not only picked up pike, but was kicking ass and taking names. That was so much fun and I really hope I have lots of chances to shield for her in the future.

Seeing Mohan step up and grow into more of a leadership role was really great and getting a chance to hang out, talk with, and fight alongside Symir was great as well. He's only getting better and I look forward to someday seeing him start moving into the upper ranks of Realms fighters. Last but certainly not least, seeing Kyntella continue to fight with us and help to make Rhiassa a great nation and effective fighting force (when I could easily see her moving on to Grimloch) always makes me happy. She is getting very very good (esp with hand and a half), as are so many of our guys.

It was also a ton of fun being able to fight with Maverick. I have a surprise in mind for him for the next time we hire him (possibly next No/So). It was great to have him with us, and I hope we can manage to keep him in our line for as many years as possible. He's grown into his belt and has become a great leader and one of the best fighters out there. It almost seems greedy to try to snap him up again next year but I really hope we can manage to do so. Maybe he was the extra pop that put our squad over the top this weekend (at least in terms of our ability to so often stand up to Grimloch)...

All in all, while nothing will ever replace my memories of old Rhiassa dominating North/South, this year was a wonderful glimpse of what we have ahead of us if we keep our focus, keep training, keep growing, and keep having fun. This year rocked, but it's only a glimmer of what's to come. A little more skill, a few more members, fewer gaps in my armor (!) and we will be truly sick. As it was, we stood up to the best fighters in the Realms this past weekend and came within a hair's breadth of winning the event.

OK - enough rambling. I'm off today and dantesmom and I are heading off to see Star Trek in Londonderry. I'm betting it's a movie best seen in the theater... I'm also trying to rest and recover - my legs ache like crazy and a day to relax is definitely in order.

Cheers!

So I broke out my armor and managed to fix the only popped-out rivet I could find. My arm bracers aren't in great shape, but should work OK if I don't bother to fix them up. These bracers are maybe 15 years old, and have gone from being strapped & buckled in place to having a strip of elastic band that holds it on. I'd rework them to have straps & buckles if I had matching small buckles, but I might just leave them as-is.

It's looking like we'll be going out for supper on Saturday and then doing Katasha's Kitchen for Sunday breakfast, both of which are fine with me as long as I get to hang out with folks. I figure I'll sleep in the Element. Pillows and sleeping bag should do me fine.

My knee is the big question. I think I'll be skipping Sat. night activities to make sure I'm OK for Sunday - assuming I make it that far of course. I don't know if I'm being overly paranoid or if there's a very real possibility that it will blow out on me with too much activity, but we'll find out I guess. I will bring a knee brace just in case I need it. I wouldn't be concerned if I hadn't just messed it up a few months ago, but it hasn't felt right since then, so it's on my mind.

I'm posting now because I head to Newton early on Wednesdays so I don't have much time in the morning... I'm going to try to post more regularly here. I miss that feeling of connection with other people and posting here helps with that I think.

G'night folks!