My late father-in-law offers his own candidates for Coffee Mug of the Year, both thrown, glazed, and fired by his grandson.
We miss you, Ba.
Post Meeting Snack
Finishing up a Thursday night meeting around 8:30, we were both starving and I was way short on calories.
The sidewalks roll up early in our little beach town, so we found ourselves at IHOP. Unperturbed, Aaron ordered two full entrees: T-bone steak and eggs, and tri-tip ends and eggs. And yes, he ate it all.
He probably ate five times the calories I did, but I’m 58 and on maintenance, and Aaron is 21 and bulking up for intramural basketball. He can get away with it: I can’t.
As an aside: there is nothing like father-son bonding over late-nite diner food.
What’s Your Sign?
When we get together with a group of friends, often the conversation turns to the Chinese Zodiac and who is what sign. We talk about how Aaron is a Horse, like his grandfather, and how Sunny is a Goat, though also a bit of a Monkey. When it gets to me, I modestly note that I am a Dragon.
The last time we had this discussion, one of Sunny’s friends asked, “what kind of dragon: fire, wood, earth, water…” Sunny felt compelled to look over at me disparagingly and volunteer, “he is a Gas Dragon.”
Given how my digestive tendencies have evolved of late, I find myself unable to contest this.
Later, looking through my Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Monster Manual, I found one. Picture appended.
The good news is that the next time I run a D&D adventure, I have the perfect beast or NPC to drop in at level 12.
Kick-Back Stack
Sunny’s eyes just about came out of her head when the waitress at Kick Back Jack’s set these monster blueberry pancakes down in front of her.
My dear wife had her revenge, though: she made it through about 80% of this massive stack, then jumped back into the car and drove another four hours.
Never underestimate the ability of a thin person to make food just seem to disappear.
The heater on the second floor is working. The heater on the ground floor is kaput. The thermocline halfway down the stairs was brutal this morning.
September Progress Report: De-Amazoning
In our first month of cutting our ties with Amazon, we have taken the following steps.
1. Spouse cancelled her Prime subscription
2. Shifted all book purchases to a trustworthy list of independent booksellers, with Powell’s as our primary go-to.
3. Cancelled all “subscribe-and-save” subscriptions and found new and economical sources or substitutes for those items.
4. Ceased purchase of all Kindle books and began buying used hard copy editions from independent bookstores.
5. Began transcribing my Amazon Prime Music playlists in preparation for terminating Prime and beginning a long term effort to acquire LPs, DVDs, and legitimate digital recordings of my favorites.
The humidity was high, and the winds were low, so this looked and smelled worse than it was. Might have been a homeless encampment, or it might have been the brain-damaged testosteroids setting off illegal fireworks on the beach. Thanks to Oxnard and VC fire for jumping on the hard-to-access flare-up at 10:30pm.
Patch of the Month: National HQ
One of our few “fun” stops on our 2015 trek to Dallas was a stop at the National Headquarters of the Boy Scouts of America, which has been in Texas since moving from New Jersey in 1979.
Mugology: Leading Scouts
Earned it six years ago today.
Watched: The Adam Project
Watched this on a whim with the family Thursday night, not quite knowing what to expect.
It was a fun evening of suspended disbelief, the best part of which was having TWO characters with Ryan Reynolds’s trademark sarcasm squaring off against each other.
Side note: the film was a subliminal advertisement for British Columbia. I know because I woke up the following morning ready to emigrate to Canada. Well played, Mr. Reynolds: well played, indeed.
A Bucket and a Pen 