Hmmm....

I'm not entirely sure one of my neighbors hasn't fallen off the face of the earth. The grass in his yard is really tall, the gravel driveway is nearly invisible in the grass, and the two cars in the driveway haven't moved in at least a week and a half. Curiouser and curiouser...

The chicken salsa enchiladas turned out to be quite smashing. I sent Carrie home with two servings and still have enough for at least two more meals after today's lunch. I used almost the whole batch so there won't be days and days of lingering leftovers. I still have to chisel the remnants of rice, beans, and corn encrusted around the perimeter of the crock pot though.

Today would be a good day to mow. Too bad I'm already penciled in for some lying around.

...and now the whole fridge smells like curry

I love hearing odd bits of other people's conversations and then imagining the part of the story I missed.

NaNoWriMo 2010 is months away but I'm already working on ideas. I think having Sailors on the Sea of Dead Gods making the rounds at work as something to do with it. I'm going to shoot for 100,000 words this year. I figure I hit 88,000 last year pretty easily. 100,000 shouldn't be that much harder.

So a picture from the 8th grade trip has surfaced on Facebook. I can't get over how young we all looked. I can't speak for everyone but I know I was already thinking of myself as an adult at 13. Which is funny considering I feel perpetually 22 and realize how little I know even now.

Salsa chicken is simmering in the crockpot as we speak. I'm making enchiladas with it right off the bat. I like the salsa chicken a lot but it makes too damn much. I'll probably make chimichangas with it later in the week.

While the coffee brews...

I'm awaiting my morning jolt of caffeine. Something needs to save me from zombiedom, after all.

Sailors on the Sea of Dead Gods arrived yesterday. Every time I pass the kitchen table, it beckons me. I feel like sitting down and reading it as if I didn't spend six weeks writing it. Getting Sailors in the mail is making me think about whatever I'm going to write next. I'm thinking about dusting off The Warp Weaver and making it more of a fantasy story.

Not many plans today other than getting my oil changed. I hope today's as nice as yesterday.

Heat Wave

Yap, it's really hot outside. I took the dog outside for five minutes and wound up drenched.

Does the oil spill disgust anyone else? I think of how different the world was when the spill started. Carrie and I had yet to go on vacation. George was still alive. I had yet to read The Warded Man and The Desert Spear, nor had I test drove Joe's peach cobbler recipe. 64 days is ridiculous.

I'm drinking a bottle of Honey Moon at the moment. It's Blue Moon's seasonal brew. It's good but I'm not in love with it. Maybe I should take a stab at brewing my own beer again. This time last year, I was uncorking the first of my lovingly crafted beers. They were gone by July 7th. The 6th was hard to get through considering my neighbor died on the morning of my birthday. Hard to believe Wayne's been gone almost a whole year already. It seems like just yesterday we were talking shit on the other neighbors.

Sailors on the Sea of Dead Gods has shipped. I'm actually looking forward to reading it. Now that the November-December ordeal is so far removed I think I can enjoy it without being reminded of the toil. Once again, I'm thinking about releasing a couple books through CreateSpace.

I guess I should do the dishes so I can go about dirtying them again. I've got some turkey marinating that I want to cook.

Busy Sunday

I thought I was celebrating Father's Day yesterday. Belle informed me differently this morning. She was pestering the hell out of me so I took her over to the parents' for the second day in a row. She's tired now and will hopefully not be too big of a pain in the ass tomorrow when I take her to get her rabies shot.

This morning, I went outside at the crack of 7:30 and mowed my lawn. It really needed it. It's been at least two weeks since last mow. I was amazed at the amount of fungus and toads in my yard.

I combed through Sailors on the Sea of Dead Gods a few minutes ago and submitted it to CreateSpace for my free copy. While it feels great to have a copy of something I've written in my hands, it's also a reminder to how unproductive I've been so far in 2010. At least my reading rate is up...

Heat

Not to sound like a complainer but it's really hot outside.

It's been over a week and no sign of the squirrel. I did, however, figure out how he must have gotten in. I'm assuming he left the same way, under the siding behind the chimney. Cheeky bastard.

I'm going to have to mow tomorrow. Just as thrilling as it sounds. I'm almost sure it's been more than two weeks since the last time I mowed. I keep finding other things to do. Like not mowing.

Postcard from the Space Museum

It sounds like a line from a David Bowie song but I got a postcard from the space museum today. It was telling me about some space museum shindig in a couple weeks. I'm not sure I could stand the excitement...

The Rock Swap yesterday was pretty interesting. Carrie and her mom both had a good time. I bought a trilobite fossil for 8 bucks. It was amazing how much people were gouging each other over rocks. I've thrown rocks into the creek that some people were charging 20 bucks for. Needless to say, I didn't cough up the 70 bucks for a piece of bismuth, no matter how super cool it was. Here's the link to my Rock Swap pics on Facebook.

In other news, I think the squirrel in my basement left on his own accord. The bait in my live traps has been unmolested for the past two days.

Infested

A couple days ago, I came home to find the pipe connecting my dryer to the dryer vent askew. I thought it was the result of vibrations from six years of drying. The next day, Belle was in the basement when I got home. Things were a little off; a soda can that had been on the window sill for years was on the floor; there was a discoloration on the floor that looked like a dried urine stain; things like that. Last night, I was reading in bed when I heard a crunching noise coming from Belle's dog food bowl. Since she was snoring away at my feet, I knew it wasn't her. I crept down the hallway to find...
















...a squirrel! It was eating Belle's dog food and oblivious to my presence. I took a look at it. It was a young squirrel, barely larger than a chipmunk. I shouted and Belle came to my aid. She chased the squirrel downstairs. It stumbled about halfway and rolled down the stairs. Once it got to the basement, it ran under the accursed couch with the hide-a-bed and took refuge. I heard it chewing on something in its lair. After a few futile attempts to get it out, I gave up. I closed the door to the basement and brooded for sixteen hours or so.

My first impulse was lethal force. After some soul searching, I decided I'd rather not send a young squirrel down oblivion's maw. Live traps were the answer. I bought a couple at Bucheits on the way home. I'm hoping they'll do the job and I won't have to buy a couple rat traps.

In other news, my parents have an armadillo tearing up their yard...

Monday again?

Wow, that weekend went by in a hurry. Carrie and I ate with her family at The Anvil, went to Dave & Busters, had Gyros, and went to a small child's birthday party. It was a busy couple of days.

Moving right along in the second Gotrek and Felix omnibus. I'll have to track down Giantslayer when I'm finished. I don't think I'll be giving Nathan Long a chance.

Joe gave me his dad's peach cobbler recipe today. I'll probably bring that over to Chris and Abby's this weekend, assuming it turns out edible.

I'm contemplating taking Friday off and going to the rock swap at Missouri Mines. The depths of my geekitude know no bounds.

Geek Thoughts

The last few days, I've been getting the urge to run a D&D game for old times' sake. There are several problems with this situation:

• My old group has scattered to the four winds. I'd have to assemble a new group, which introduces a whole new set of headaches, like which setting or edition to use, compatibility, etc.
• Time. When would we play the hypothetical adventure? Would we every play more than once? When would I find the time to craft an adventure up to my standards?
• The hassle factor. This goes hand in hand with the time problem. Running a game is a huge hassle, from scheduling to refreshments.

Hmm. Looking at this list makes me what to run less already. I think I like the creative process of putting a game together more than actually running the game. Oh well. We'll see how this week plays out. If I still feel like running a game next weekend, I may have to start putting wheels in motion.

Dreaming of the Dark Tower

For the fifth time this year, I dreamed of the Dark Tower last night. This time, my brother and I, armed with a stout club and a couple six-shooters we weren't too sure about firing, encountered Stephen King in the middle of a desert, who tried to get us to turn back and forget about the Tower. My brother gunned him down and we continued on our way.

I think The Dark Tower books have held my interest for so long is because it took me forever to read them all. The last three weren't out until I was already a Tower junkie. I mus have read the first four five or six time apiece. I was a wee lad of 21 when I first read The Gunslinger. Now I'm a wee lad just over a month from his 33rd birthday.

These days, I hate re-reading but I might have to give The Dark Tower another go, especially the last three books. I tried a re-reading a few years ago and quit after the fourth book.

I'd better get back to my coffee. I don't want another headache like last night. As they say in Mid-World, Long Days and Pleasant Nights.

Nostalgia

The following elicit strong feelings of nostalgia from me:

• Issues of the Fantastic Four published during the 1980's
• The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Question the Answers
  
• Advanced Dungeons and Dragons - 2nd Edition (especially Spelljammer)
  
• Beef cubes and rice
• old episodes of Seinfeld
• Big Trouble in Little China
• The Legend of Zelda for the NES
• plaid shorts
• super hero tshirts, preferably just the logo