Now I'm cold...

The Black Dwarves of Ruskva and the Crown of Pluto

Started working on a bit more world-building for our family's D&D Next game and for the next Sneakatara Boatman story.  The story concept has been brewing in the back of my mind for some time now, but it was only last night that I finally started to realize what was missing.  I think this is it.

The Black Dwarves of Ruskva

The black dwarves of Ruskva live in the great caverns beneath Iron Mountain, the highest part of the Kaukasian mountain range, which runs along the eastern border of the Empire of Holy Sentralia.  A race of underground smiths, the dwarves hold two gods sacred--Vulcan, the Sentralian god of the forge, and Pluto, the god of the underworld, patron of their subterranean lair.  Since the time of Badden Sentra, the legendary founder of the Legion of the Red Lord and unifier of the Empire that today bears his name, the black dwarves have also sworn fealty to the Emperor’s personal deity Mars, the Red Lord, and to the Emperor himself.  Indeed, it was Badden Sentra himself who established the dwarves’ Praetorian Precedent, by which the dwarves provide a company from amongst their number to serve as the Emperor’s personal bodyguard.  The members of this bodyguard are consecrated to Mars as an elite unit amongst the larger body that is today the Legion.

Thanksgiving Pics: 2013

Ten pounds of turkey, raw and in the pan.

Five Things on Thanksgiving

Five things I’m thankful for on Thanksgiving, 2013:

1.  My Wife.  

Sally is a beautiful woman, which is something that I’ve always found amazing.  I don’t think of myself as a particularly good-looking guy, but I am somehow married to this brick house of a woman, and it amazes me.  Every single day.  And, oh by the way, Sally also has a Master’s degree from Columbia University, and she teaches fitness classes at the local L.A. Fitness.  

I mean, seriously… what are the odds?

World-Building: Los Legartos of the Rocas del Sol

The good news is that I finished the first draft of "Sneakatara Boatman and the Priest of Loki" a couple of weeks ago.  In the time since, I've re-written another story, "The Tower of Al-Kafiri" and started thinking a bit about the plot for the last story, which I'm tentatively calling "Sneax and Elaina Emboo in the Fire Islands."  That'll be the final story in the book, the one that ties all of the others together.

So.  I have a few basic ideas about the plot, but I've decided that actually playing through some of the plot-points with my kids is an integral part of the writing process both because my kids feel like that gives them input into the way the story's gonna go and because they occasionally give me ideas for characterization that I couldn't have come up with on my own.  So we're gonna try to play a bit this weekend, but before that, I have to actually set the campaign up.  I don't love world-building--it's probably my least favorite aspect of fantasy writing--but for better or worse, I find it helpful to put together at least some of the world structures that I'm gonna use in any given story ahead of time.  Then when I need them, they're already there.

I don't know why, exactly, I decided to stick a lizardman in this particular story, save that I thought that cold-blooded lizard-dudes made a natural warrior caste to the elves native to the Fire Islands.

A Little Pro-Wrestling to Kick Off Your Thanksgiving Weekend

I think I've mentioned before that my kids have really gotten into pro-wrestling of late.  In particular, my daughter Emma really likes Big "E" Langston, who won the Intercontinental Title at the Survivor Series PPV last weekend.

Anyway, I may well put something else up today, but in the meantime, let's celebrate Langston's elevation by watching his re-watching his match from Monday Night Raw.

On the coldest day of the year...

...one man sits beside his Trusty Steed.

Yes, Little Red Foldie, today is the day that we battle the elements. Today is the day that only the strong survive. 

It's 20-degrees  this morning. The conductor on the train just started bitching at me for riding in.  She said (true story): "Didn't your mother teach you any better than that?"

That made me laugh. Because, bottom line, my mother most certainly did not. 

Sierra Nevada's DevESTATEtion Black IPA

Fall is great for a lot of reasons, but as the season rolls on, things start to cool down in a serious way, and it can become kind of a drag.  Yeah, Thanksgiving is cool, but Christmas is equal parts family day and absolute stress-fest, and living in Coastal Connecticut, both holidays are apt to come with freezing weather--and even the occasional winter storm.  Add in the fact that the sun is now setting at around 4:30 pm, and that college football is nearly over, and bottom line, late fall has a lot less to offer than does the early part of the season.

One of the upsides of the season, though, is the fact that we tend to get some of the year's best beers.  My absolute favorite of these is Sierra Nevada's Estate small-batch, fresh hop seasonal.  I've been wondering for a few weeks now when we'd start seeing it in stores, so you can perhaps imagine my surprise when I saw not "Estate" but "DevESTATEtion," (6.7% ABV) an apparently fresh hop Black IPA seasonal in a bottle that looked like Estate's bottle, but capped with black wax instead of Estate's traditional green.

I step in close and see the following:

Five Things on a Friday: Very Early Christmas Edition

1.  I can’t believe how early the Christmas season is starting this year.  

I mean, it’s no secret that retailers make the lion’s share of their profits during the fourth quarter, and that they therefore want to push the start of their prime selling season back as far as they can, but this is still the first year that I can remember seeing “Black Friday” sales that actually start on Thanksgiving.  Or, in the case of Macy’s, even earlier.  Macy’s “biggest sale of the year” this year is actually onWednesday morning, from 9 am to 1 pm.  

I ask you, who the Hell can get to Macy’s at 9am on a Wednesday?  Don’t people have jobs?

Macy's would like your business this year.

At our house, we’ve dealt with this in two ways:

Friday Hair Metal: Present Tense

I have no idea what this song is actually about, but for me, well, today promises to be one of those days.  A day when I'm struggling to live in the moment and just be...

There were newer versions of the song on YouTube, but this one looked like the best, most professional recording, so there you have it.

Fantastic Run Today

The good news is that the inserts in my shoes worked--really well. I've been struggling with ankle problems on and off for about six months now, and while a friend of mine recommended inserts a while ago, I didn't actually get around to trying them until today. But today was GREAT, I ran a little over four miles--without pain--and I felt fucking terrific afterwards. 

Talk about a Runner's High!  I felt higher than a kite. Partly it was because I ran without pain, but mostly it was because I ran, and it was beautiful outside, and sometimes it just clicks out there. I didn't run particularly hard or fast, but I ran well, and I was pretty damned excited about it. I still am. 

But then I started coming down off that Runner's High maybe an hour later, and it's been like falling off a cliff. I can't ever remember feeling like this--almost hung over--but there it is.  I almost feel sick, and I know it's just the endorphins, or lack thereof.  Strange, right?

Anyway, I totally need to either go run again or else sleep it off somewhere until I can get some real food in me and maybe a beer. What do you say?

Picture Perfect Barbie Family

Hannah took this picture on Sunday of her ideal "picture perfect Barbie family."  Afterwards, Sally and I joked with her that it looked like Ken had two wives, that maybe something freaky was going on, but Hannah said that, no, they just had a teenaged daughter. In which case, mom got married young, that's all I'm gonna say.

Sally's First Post

Last month I asked Dan if I could start a blog on his blog site, and his answer was "Yes, but what are going to write about?"  I looked at him like a monkey lost in a jungle and said, "I don't know.  I guess I will write about what I know best...  Health, fitness, good eats, wine parings, shopping, and pretty much everything you don't write about."

For the past month I have been thinking about what my first post was going to be, and basically, I would love to write about many things. I have even written up articles in my head a few times. And since this is site of lists, I decided to write a list about what I am going to write about.

Here are the first five topics that I'd like to write about: