Action Gordon (with lance-fu grip)

Who needs ESPN when I can just look out my kitchen window? Here's some actual footage of the man doing what he loves to do, courtesy Guillaume de Garrigues.

Miyazaki Rules

What are you doing sitting in front of the computer? Go see this movie immediately!!! (more unashamed blathering here...)

Tilbury Camp

They came, they played, they're pooped. So...where were you this last weekend? We were at Tilbury Camp...
...and we had such a good time we're going to do it again: October 8-9! All the cool people will be there, and this means YOU!

Stay up late & duck meteors

The annual Perseid Meteor Shower peaks tomorrow night (08-12-05). The perfect way to spend an August night! Detailed info at Space.com

Despite my attempt at a catchy title, the only thing you should expect to duck are fireflies (depending on your location), because the odds against being struck by a meteor are (ahem) astronomical.

Goats Across the Water

I've heard of "sister cities" but never sister goats, but I think I've just found the spiritual dopplegangers of the pair that live catty-corner across the road from us in a blog called "Momentary lapses of insanity... ":

"...I returned from a day off to find that during my short absence, a brace of goats had been installed in a pen in the garden.They were large, had horns, were brother and sister, and had been named Homer and Marge. ...I didn't know a lot about goats, but I soon found out that they are (or at least these two were) very friendly, permanantly hungry, omnivorous - vegetable and mineral, they will eat it - bloody minded, and could teach Houdini a thing or two about escapology."

Our neighbor's goats are constantly getting out of what passes for fencing around their yard. They are really sweet, but the blackberry vines are always sweeter on the other side of the fence...also the magnolia bushes and apple trees, as our other neighbors have discovered to their chagrin. The goat lady is kind of non-proactive so I doubt she's offered to pay for the damage. Luckily, a friend of hers has been helping her make improvements to her place, so the escapes have gone way down. Perhaps she noticed me installing rhododendrons in my front yard (deadly poisonous to goats).

Hey, at least the goats won't kill my chickens, like the local dog population seems hell-bent on doing. The coyotes, bears, cougars, eagles and hawks? No problem! The only predators that have bothered us have all been wearing collars (that means YOU, goat lady's stupid tomcat with the baaaad attitude and the flying pebble heading for your backside...)

Serenity is coming...

...and in honor of said film I am temporarily going over to a color scheme to coordinate with this COOL countdown banner I just plopped in the header. Do I get some sort of nerd fan geek prize for this?

Backyard Bashing

Gordon was inspired by our trip to the fair yesterday, so he made Woody work on a Sunday! The horror! (Woody just hates to play, you see... not). The cute part is Taxi cantering along behind and ducking under the spinning quintain after Gordon & Woody have whacked it...

Chicks with Sticks

Today we visited the Washington (state of) Renaissance Fantasy Faire in Gig Harbor. As per the curve that we've been experiencing since moving up here, this one is several degrees better than the last fair thing we've attended. As an extra bonus, a friend of ours is riding with the jousting contractors this year, so we thought we'd go show our support. That's her in the picture (the blonde on the right, the other person with cascades of hair is a guy, believe it or not). She's no stranger to the sport, and has her own outfit for doing shows and demos, the Warhorse Guild. The head honcho of this particular outfit was shy riders and enlisted her help for this gig, so she thought she'd give it a go, despite rumours that the arena on site is somewhat less than ideal (which is indeed the case). So far, so good. This guy likes to use really heavy shields and lances, so she had some trouble "steering" the darn pig-sticker, but she's hanging tough. For more thoughts on our day, visit Gordon's blog.
(and there she goes again...!)

Serenity? It depends...

The new trailer is up! Along with the new one-sheet and the new downloads and.... No, I'm not very serene, I guess. I'm just excited about this movie, which is blowing all the other sci-fi offerings out of the water (including the latest Lucas epic) ...and it hasn't even been released yet! I'm such a geek...

I'll post the one-sheet as soon as "Hello" starts working again. Grrrrr....

Ahhh: that's better...