Intergalactic House of Paisley

After doing the set-up grunt work for the Sale-o-rama-stravaganza (not in any way, shape or form related to vajazalling, just for clarification), I left Rohanna and Dragonet to separate the shoppers from their quatloos and headed to work. It was another quiet day, and I got a fair amount of Ian MacDonald's Brasyl read. So far, extremely good

After work, dropped by Gomer's for the resumption of the weekly beer tastings. They had products from Left Hand (Colorado) and Founder's (Michigan) available. The interesting part came when the distributor suggested combining the Founder's cherry ale and porter. Quite tasty, actually. Picked up a couple of regional beers. Hoputopia (or something like that; bottle is downstairs) from Nebraska was decent, but I bought it as much for the copy on the bottle (which was quite amusing stuff about the First Church of Beer) as anything. Doodle Brewing's Doodle Dubbel was a very nice Belgian ale I enjoyed while grilling a spatchcocked chicken (nae) on Saturday. They definitely need to work on their web presence and label design, though. After a decent day of sales, the ladies brought in the more valuable items, but left the rest (covered by sheets) on the porch. Fortunately, nothing was taken by the nonexistent hordes of rampaging Negros that the suburbanites are always concerned about in Kansas City, and the storms around midnight also did no damage.

Saturday dawned way too early. We got everything set up, then I ran to do the grocery shopping, including a brief Costco run. When I returned, Ro's grandchildren had joined us. The set up a lemonade/Kool-Aid stand and helped draw in customers. It was also our neighborhood yard sale day, so I took a quick tour of the immediate area. Picked up Elvis Costello's "Brutal Youth" and "Island Life" by Grace Jones at on of the ritzy houses on Janssen Place. After the sale was over, I cooked the chicken mentioned above, and it turned out very well indeed. Ro's grandson Connor watched Dragonet do the discombobulation of the bird, and declared it grotesque. everything that didn't sell went into boxes or bags, and thence to the back of the van, for Ro to drop it off at Goodwill Monday.

Today we had David and Marisa Means and their kids over, along with NPulsifer and Gisele. It was Iain Means' birthday, so we had hot dogs and brats, plus salmon that NPulsifer brought over, and banana splits for dessert. Nommity. The kids picked cherries from the tree out front, and we all had a great time.

Tomorrow is back to the usual work week, which means Monday off. I shall endeavour to catch the laundry up. Two straight weeks of cons was a lot of fun (nae), but a nice quiet weekend at home was nice, too.

While Rohanna went to dance practice this morning, Dragonet and I went over to Costco and got Xmas presnets for her mom and sister. When Ro returned home, we went to the Hollyx3 Days sale. Saw a lot of people we haven't seen in a while, and bought a couple of tie dyed shirts and a couple of pair of socks and a few other things. If you in the KC area, google Holly Holly Holly Days to find the location, and go there. A lot of cool stuff at very good prices. Check it out. Came home, had a nap, been loading a lot of cds onto the iTunes tonight. And a nice conversation with verminousRex. Tomorrow will be devoid of responsibilities. Good.

The news is that Austin will host SmofCon next year. I can only hope to be able to make that one.

Thirty years ago today at this hour, I was on my way to Wellsville, KS, in a ill-fitting silver cordouroy suit (the only one I owned at the time) to Dragonet2's parent's home, where we said our vows, exchanged rings, and became husband and wife. It's been a long, strange trip indeed, and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Happy Anniversary, honey. I can't wait to see what happens in the next 30. Love you lots.

So, those of you who have visited Casa Intergalactique von Paisley are aware of the huge (10' high, 8' diameter) mulberry stump 2/3s of the way up the driveway. Someone tried to put a cap in its ass, but merely made it angry and somewhat shorter, with a number of large branches reaching up from the top and sides. Well, whilst we were taking in a sneak of Stardust (very entertaining; as best I can remember from reading the book a couple-three years ago, it kept to the story reasonably well and did a good job of capturing Neil's unique tone and style; the song over the credits sucked [Neil could have written a better one, or had Stephen Merritt {Magnetic Fields, Future Bible Heroes, the Sixths} do it]), a storm front made its way here. When I headed to bed at 12.30 or so, there was much wind, thunder and lightning, as well as (relative) coolth.

Edit: I forgot to mention my biggest disappointment with the film, which I fully expected: in the book, after Yvane crashes to earth, there is a lovely description of the trail of destruction leading to her landing place, and the reader is treated to her first comment, which is a very quiet (rendered about 3 point sizes smaller than the rest of the text, for emphasis) "Fuck." No so in the film.

When I arose this morning and headed downstairs to get the paper, I was greeted by the sight of a small forest on the deck to the left of the front door. On of the mulberry's woody tentacles had snapped at the base and collaped over the driveway, managing to miss both cars parked there (mine resides on the street, as I leave last in the morning). I cut a few branches off and pulled the van out far enough that Rohanna could get in. The insurance people looked at it, and determined there was no damage to house or cars.


Maybe this weekend I'll post a bit about Archon/Tuckercon/NASFiC/Stills/Nash/Young, but I do want to share one highlight. Back in the day, Nancy Edwards Hathaway held a relaxacon called Czarkon in St. Louis. She instituted the Tucker Awards, named after Wilson Bob Tucker, famed author, editor, fan and raconteur without portfolio. The awards had been mothballed since Nancy threw a Dawn Patrol con in KC in 2002. They were resurrected for one last time for Tuckercon, and by some miscarriage of something I was given the Fan Award. I was truly shocked, and got a tad verklempt, I must admit. It's a great honor, and I am amazed I was considered, much less chosen. My liver would thank the academy, but the award comes with a bottle of Beam's Choice that I had a great deal of help emptying.

So, last but not least, a comment stolen from http://www.sadlyno.com/, which is a great blog you should all be reading. The subject was the violation of the vehicle of one of the bloggers on the site. The "ripped from the headlines" comment:

"some young republican broke into my car and gave me a blowjob."

Couldn't have said it better, myself.