Taking A Tumble

Today at work, I had just finished getting the info I needed to make the editor assignments, and I was heading back to my desk. I came around the corner at a pretty high rate of speed and plopped down into my chair. Little did I know, my chair was on the verge of going to the big office in the sky, so when I plopped into it, it crumpled and I went with it in a gloriously buffoonish pratfall in front of all my co-workers nearby.

Here's the chair:

The part where the base attaches to the stand snapped, and the top just fell off with me in it. Everyone at work had a good time calling me fat, including one of our photographers who is much heavier than me. He said he was really happy to have a chance to call someone else a fat pig for once.

The sad thing is that this is not the first time I've taken a buffoonish pratfall at work when trying to sit on my chair. Back in 2004, on my very first day on the job as senior editor, I inspired a great deal of confidence in the editors I was brought in to supervise by falling over the back of a chair that I sat down on too heavily.

You know how they have that lever on office chairs that make back of the chair remain firm and upright? If you switch it, you can lean back really far, right? But usually, when you're at a place of work, you don't lounge back super low in your chair. Well, whoever had sat in that chair before me did, so when I plopped down into the chair and leaned against the backrest, expecting it to support me, instead leaned away from my weight. I had plopped down too forcefully and couldn't stop my momentum, and I went all the way over the back, like a chump.

I think that all the people who worked with me back then and saw my buffoonery have since moved on to other pursuits. I suppose it was time to remind them of just how clumsy I can be, right? Wouldn't want them respecting me too much.

Shipping

Rish and I take a minute to talk about the folks out there who really want to see Poe and Finn get together, and also want to see Elsa with a girlfriend too.

To check it out, follow the link to the episode page. Or you can right click here to download it. Then there's the simplest way, just hit the play button below.

First Concert

In 2014, my wife and I went to a Mike Doughty concert. He has long been one of my favorite music artists, since all the way back in the nineties when he was the front man for Soul Coughing. my daughter really wanted to go to that concert with us, because she also loves Mike Doughty. I guess all the times that I've played his music while she was growing up made it rub off on her. Unfortunately, the show was not an all ages show. It was 21 and up. We got a shirt as a souvenir for her, but it was all she got.

Then, last winter, there was a band that my daughter and I both like called Courage My Love coming to play a local dive. We were planning on going to that show together, but sadly I got busy, and forgot about the show. It came and went, and then I remembered it, and looked to find that I was too late to attend it with her.

My daughter and I have a lot of similar tastes in music, so there's always another chance. When Blink-182 came out with a new album, I knew that they had to come on tour soon, so I watched for it, and when I found out that they would be playing the Usana Amphitheater, I made sure to get us tickets. And I got them way ahead of time so I couldn't forget it. At last, she would have her first concert.

Notice on the ticket that it says "rain or shine?" That turned out to be important.

When the day came, I groaned. It's been such a pattern with everything that I try to do with the kids this year. The day dawned cloudy, and the heavens opened and dumped rain all day long. When we headed toward the show, it was looking up. The rain thinned out, and it seemed like it wouldn't be that bad.

But no, it was not to be. Instead, the rain started back up as we arrived at the gate. When we got inside, it was pouring. And it never let up. We spent the whole show in rain ponchos. We still had a lot of fun, but we also got really, really wet.

An interesting thing about the show was that Blink-182 recently changed their line-up. They made themselves famous with Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus, and Travis Barker, but over the last ten years or so, the band has broken up, reformed, and then broken up again.

They have now replaced Tom DeLonge with a guy named Matt Skiba. Matt sounded all right on their new album, which I really enjoyed, but I have to say that he did not sound very good live. I wasn't very impressed by any of his vocals. I might be biased. Tom DeLonge was my favorite part of Blink 182, so they really aren't nearly as special to me without him. I think, unless the band reforms with their original line-up again, this will be my last Blink 182 concert.

Anklecast 30: Bumps In The Night

That's right, I'm back with another cast. With thanks to and help from Justin Charles, there appears a story in today's episode titled "Bumps In The Night." I read the story, and discuss how I'd like the Anklecast fans to pitch in and help out. Please do. Please. Seriously, you complete me. Without you, there is nothing.

Oh, and enjoy the story?

Right click HERE to download.

Music was "Crossing The Divide." Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech.com.

The Pergola

We finally finished the pergola that we've been working on at our house since October of 2014. That was when I dug the holes for the posts the pergola rests on. I think...if I can remember right from so long ago...that they were two and a half to three feet deep. We had to keep the holes covered until we got the posts in, because Little wouldn't stop trying to get in.

We put the posts in that long ago because we were doing our flagstone patio at the time, and we didn't want to have to go back in and dig it back up to put them in later.

The next spring, we finished up the patio, but the posts sat like monuments to failure for more than a year, looking like this:

It took so long that I've lost the timeline of when we did the rest of the work, but sometime in early summer or maybe even late spring, we put the header piece on the wall. Then we waited another two months until July 30th before preparing to put the header pieces on the posts. We weren't sure what the best way to go about it would be, but eventually we decided to put some boards up on the posts that the header pieces could rest on. The pergola looked like this for about a month:

Oh yeah. I also totally pounded my middle finger on my left had while trying to attach those pieces. It hurt so bad. I think my wife probably thought was was going to break something, or at least let out some choice swear words that would make the kids ears curl, but I was careful not to. I did however look for an open spot, and hurled the hammer as hard as I could across the backyard. It landed harmlessly on the lawn, but it made things feel a little better inside. The thumb throbbed, but my anger was a little assuaged.

Anyway, we were starting to pick up steam now. It only took about a month to get around to adding the header pieces, and removing the cross look.

This was September 10th, and we got the whole front on that day.

That was looking good, but we didn't stop there.

We worked until late into the evening, and managed to get the crossbeam supports installed as well.

My wife immediately wanted to put on the lights that she'd bought at the end of last summer for the pergola, so she could see how it would look, so we spent a bunch more time installing those. It was way more difficult than expected, but once we finished, we were pretty happy with the effect.

We sat around on our lawn chairs in the backyard for a while that night, just enjoying the way it looked. I got this picture the next morning to demonstrate where we were at:

I told you we were picking up steam, at this point, there was no more waiting allowed. The very next weekend we were back at it. We had the whole frame up, now it was time to put the slats on and make it look like a real pergola. I went to Home Depot, and spent a long time standing in front of a wall of metal fasteners, trying to figure out which one I actually needed. I texted my wife a couple of pictures, and we finally settled on this one:

Which I realized was the right one. I came home and we started putting the slats in place. While I was out getting fasteners, however, my wife had taken each slat, and cut the fancy design into the end of the boards, and then started staining the wood the color we had picked. With the stain, it was really starting to look cool. It was like going from seeing a prototype to seeing the real final product.

My wife and I climbed up on ladders, and screwed each and every slat into place. It went up surprisingly quick. Once again, we finished pretty late into the evening. The next morning, I took pictures of the final completed project.

Well, except it wasn't quite complete. There were a few spots that hadn't been stained quite yet. Later in the week, my wife went in and stained those places. Then, at last, we reattached the lights. This is the actual finished product:

I think it turned out pretty darn good. And now our house looks a lot more interesting. The back of our house up until now had been one giant flat box. Super boring, nothing to it. Now, it looks really good.

My wife even went up to the other end of the yard and stained the hammock stand that she made me for my birthday a year ago. Our backyard is looking really good now. Not all that much left to be done on it, although I'm sure we'll think of something. I suppose a fence is the next order of business.

Upcoming Show

I recorded a new Anklecast the other day, but I couldn't stop yawning throughout it. That's gonna require a lot of editing. 

I usually try to skip the editing with Anklecast and get it out the very day that I record it, but I won't leave coughs or yawns in there. Belches and farts can stay, but coughs aren't funny, they're just loud and annoying. 

Anyway, coming soon, an Anklecast with a story called "Bumps in the Night"...at least, I think that's what it's called...I can't remember for sure. I was pretty sleepy.

Dishwasher

Our dishwasher broke a while back. We need a new one, but so far we've just been washing them by hand.

I know this makes me super weird, but I kind of like washing the dishes by hand. It feels nostalgic or something. I can't explain it, but it's kind of soothing. My wife's saying it's time to get a new dishwasher, but I actually would be happy if we held off for a while still.

I bet this blows my brothers and sisters' minds. Then again, maybe they understand the feeling too.

Veggie

My daughter went vegetarian on us a while back. Today, my daughter and I made this nice vegetarian meal for the family. It looks really nice, right?

 

It's vegetarian, not vegan. There's still cheese on it. My wife will appreciate it, but I think the rest are gonna turn their noses up to it. My kids don't tend to eat with their eyes like the chef shows say we do.

Netflix Serieses

Rish and I got together to talk about Daredevil season 2, which we have both finished now, and we went ahead and talked about Luke Cage as well...and Rish's Comic-Con experience while we were at it.

Head over to the page for the podcast episode, or right click here to download, or take the easy route and just click the play button below.

Merch

 Justin Charles posted this picture of himself wearing his Dunesteef shirt at Disneyworld today.

I love it when people do this. It makes me smile to consider that there are people out their sporting our logo as they walk around...and they're not me, because in my mind, I'm the only one who would be willing to wear that thing.

I designed that logo, and put an awful lot of blood, sweat, and tears into making the Dunesteef what it is, and it's so cool to see that it's got real fans.

Keep those cards and letters coming folks.

Conned

I got a bunch of free tickets in 2014 to a convention called Fantasy Con from my work. I took my kids to experience it, and ever since then, my younger daughter has been desperate to go to another one like it.

My daughter has only become more entrenched in the geek culture since those days. She's become a hardcore artist, spending hour after hour drawing away in her room. She's become a giant fan of anime, watching series after series in great gulping binges on Netflix and Hulu. And she's always been into the geek culture that the rest of us are exposed to, like the Marvel movies that hit theaters each year, and the various television shows out there that feature superheroes or paranormal investigators, or time lords.

Fantasy Con turned out to be a one off. It never came back. But the year before Fantasy Con, they started up a Comic Con here in town, and that one has come back every year. Last year, my daugter tried to use her allowance to get Comic Con tickets that a kid in school was trying to unload at a discount, but I wasn't going to be able to take her. She was really depressed, so I promised her that I'd take her the next year instead.

Well, this weekend, the next year rolled around, and it was time to make good on my promise. I know that parents promise a lot of things to their kids to make them feel better without ever actually intending to make good on those promises, but I really hate that. I try to live up to any promise that I make, even if it's hard. Of course I love going to something like Comic Con, so on the whole, it was a pleasure.

I got us tickets, rearranged my work schedule so there would be no conflicts, and we headed out to the Saturday session of Comic Con.

Out front, they had these giant statues of the trolls from the Hobbit, feet raised, ready to stomp on a pesky halfling. Rish and I had to get a picture...not with the statues, though, but with the sign that was posted beside them.

We're sad, not because we can't touch the trolls but because we are the trolls and no on will touch...I guess if you have to explain it, then it wasn't very good to begin with. Sorry

Once inside, the very first thing inside the door was Artist Alley. Immediately, she'd found her place, and didn't want to leave. dozens of amazing artists were displaying their wares, and my daughter moved from booth to booth, deciding to spend the $40 of allowance she'd brought with her at each one. I forbid her from buying anything until she'd seen it all, because I'd been to enough cons to know the buyers remorse you will feel when you've spent all your money and then come across that thing that is better than anything you've seen so far. She was irritated with me, but complied.

I forced her to leave Artist Alley for a while, to attend the Famke Janssen panel.

She played Jean Grey in all but the most recent X-Men movies. It was neat to see her, but her panel was actually really boring. The moderator, and the audience kept asking her questions, to which she would respond with answers like, "Oh, wow, that's a really good question. I'm not sure if I could choose just one experience to tell you about. It was really great to be in the movie, and I'm grateful that I was cast as Jean Grey. Thanks." Absolutely no information, no funny stories, no interesting gossip, no insights into what it was like to make five different X-Men films with Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, James Marsden, Halle Berry, and Brian Singer.

I was feeling pretty let down. I wanted my daughter to see that there was a lot more than just Artist Alley to enjoy at Comic Con, and Famke Janssen was apparently not the one to show that to her.

When the panel let out, we went back out to the convention floor, and wandered around looking at what the artists had to display. That's when she found the thing that got her the most excited. Since becoming a big fan of anime, she has also become a big fan of manga, the comic book form of anime. Apparently, there's a special type of markers that are used to create these manga books. These markers are called Copic markers. She has been asking for Copics for a while now, but they're really expensive. Copic had a booth in Artist Alley, and she was immediately calculating what her allowance money could buy her. Spoiler alert: it wasn't very much.

I forced her not to spend her money immediately, but to think about it first, and I dragged her to another panel. This time, it was two of the main actors from the TV show Arrow.

She is a big fan of the show Arrow, having binge-watched the entire series (again) this summer, so she was excited to see the stars from the show, even if they turned out to be as boring as Famke Janssen. In fact, on our drive in to the comic con, she got a good laugh out of the tweet that came in from the Comic Con app. "Stephen Amell has arrived!" it said. Then moments later, it was followed with this message: "And he brought his abs!"

These guys put on a much better show. They were funny, and engaging. They told some really great stories from the set, never shying away from saying silly stuff, or sharing embarrassing things about the guy sitting next to them. It was exactly the kind of thing that you paid your money to see at a comic con, so at least we got one good experience in at the panels.

We went back out to the convention floor, and I made my daughter look at some of the booths beyond Artist Alley. While we wandered, I took a few pictures of her with people in costumes. Then I found a woman in a costume that I just couldn't pass up getting a picture of:

What was crazy was that this woman even smelled like an '80s toy. I remember my sisters had little Strawberry Shortcake dolls that puffed out a whiff of strawberry scented perfume when you squeezed their stomachs, and this Rainbow Brite smelled exactly like that stuff. Now that's taking your costume to the next level.

Soon, however, my daugher had me back at the Copic booth, which is where one of her best friends from school found her. The two of them are both artists, and he had already blown his money on some Copics. Quickly, the two were picking out which colors would be best for my daughter to buy. They were planning on pooling their markers together to be able to create the best art.

And so passed her allowance money, may it rest in peace.

Her friend wasn't too interested in attending panels. He said he'd gone to one, but it had been so boring that he'd fallen asleep, so I didn't try to push them into any. Instead we just looked for fun things to do. They had a giant action figure box in the lobby that you could go inside of and get a picture. And they also had a replica of the Iron Throne from the TV show, Game of Thrones. So, we all posed on that.

I always wear my Dunesteef shirt to conventions if I can. I'm always hoping that someone will see it and say, "Oh, wow, Dunesteef. I listen to that show." Hasn't happened yet, but maybe someday.

I let the kids wander by themselves for a bit, while I attended an absolutely horrible panel about toy collecting. These people showed up with nothing whatsoever to talk about. They opened it up to questions from the audience immediately after introducing themselves. Which was pretty ridiculous, when you consider it. "Hi, I'm Joe Blow you've never heard of. Now, ask me questions." Why would anyone want to ask them questions? People actually asked questions like, "What is your favorite toy you've ever collected?" Who cares? Why would I care what toy a complete stranger with no credentials that mean anything to me thinks is neat?

Let me just say that the panels I attended at this comic con left a little bit to be desired. There were tons of panels on writing, and had I been there on my own, instead of trying to show my daughter a good time, I might have been attending those instead. Professional writers tend to be the ones putting those panels on, so I might have gotten something worthwhile out of them. But professional toy collectors? I'm pretty sure that's not a thing. This panel would probably only have been cool if someone that I respected for some other achievement, like being a writer or an actor, was on it talking about how they also have a toy collecting habit. One guy, Kerry Jackson, who is a local DJ and Podcaster, was supposed to be on the panel, but he never showed. He might have had something to say worth hearing. Instead, I could have been on the panel and offered as much of worth as these folks did.

I came out of that panel and found the kids in...you guessed it, Artist Alley. They'd spent the hour wandering through and looking at all the art on display. We hurried to the grand ballroom where the YouTube sensation Studio C was supposed to be giving a panel. Instead, the Vampire Diaries actors were still going. Someone at the door told us that Studio C had cancelled at the last minute. Another panel let down. It was a good thing that Stephen Amell and David Ramsey were so good, because I wouldn't want to ever come back to a comic con at this point, I think.

We went back to the convention floor, and I forced the kids to come away from the art for a while and look at the other booths around the floor. They were using more of the building this year than I'd ever seen before. The booths went for miles. My daughter was on her last legs though. We'd been mostly standing and walking the entire day, and, like me, her feet were killing her. We looked at a bunch of toy booths, but I didn't find anything I'd be willing to blow money on. Then finally, we decided it was time to go home. We said goodbye to her friend, and hit the road.

I think she really enjoyed it, and I think the other kids would enjoy it too. I think next year I need to find a way to bring everyone. It'll be a lot of fun.

Fountain

I've always despised diet soda. I used to say that I would rather drink nothing at all than drink diet soda, but since being diagnosed with diabetes and that becoming the actual deal, I gave in and changed my mind. Instead, I've become a sort of connoisseur of diet soda. I've got my favorites, those that I can handle if I must, and then there's Diet Pepsi.

Diet Pepsi is one of the only diet sodas that I don't like at all ever in any way...at least I thought so.

However, if all Diet Pepsi tasted like what they had at the pizza place I ate lunch at with my wife, then I'd be a huge fan, drinking that stuff every day.

Isn't it funny how sometimes soda fountains can do that? I guess the ratio gets off a little, and all of a sudden you've got super sweet stuff. I fell in love with Mr. Pibb Extra that same way, and I still prefer it to Dr. Pepper...though I can't drink any of them anymore.

Damn diabetes. We hates it.

Gastropods

Pulled into my parking spot today, and this was going on in the flower bed right in front of it.

I think that's two snails mating in slow motion, but I don't really know. Do gastropods mate?

Bounty Or Bust?

Today was the first day this year that we got to enjoy the bounty of our garden. Both my wife and I were home from work this morning, so we went out to harvest a few things. We started with the raspberries, which have produced way more than we expected.

That many berries would cost five bucks at the store, and I think there's something like ten more baskets like that to come in the future judging by what still remains on the plants. Everyone in the family is crazy for berries, so we need these to keep us from going broke.

Next we were headed for the peach tree, where we knew there was a lot of work to be done, but my wife noticed that the grapes we were ready. We changed course, and picked all the grapes off our vine. We got a lot more than we'd expected.

These grapes are pretty much only good for juice, and I don't think we'll get more than a cup out of them, but still, that's cool, right?

On to the peaches. My wife said it was a bumper crop this year, because of the favorable weather this spring and summer. Our tree is only two years old, and yet it's already producing like this.

I can't imagine what it'll be like when it's full-grown. Look at how many peaches we pulled of the tree:

And that's just one tree. There's still some more on the other tree.

Our tomatoes were getting ripe, so we went to pick those. For some reason our cherry tomatoes always produce much more prolifically than our regular ones.

When we were done, there were only a few big ones, but the bowl was overflowing with the little ones. Not all of them could even fit in the bowl.

My wife was all set to get canning on the peaches. She took in the one smaller container we'd put peaches in, and I grabbed the big one. It was super heavy, and so overflowing that the peaches on the top kept falling off onto the ground as I walked. I had to stop and retrieve at least three of them the basket was so overloaded. That should have set off warning signals in my head, and I'll make sure that it does in the future, because tragedy struck when I reached the second level of our rock wall.

Yeah, the handle on the basket snapped off, and all the peaches tumbled out onto the rocks. They were perfectly ripe and ready to eat, so taking a tumble like that was disastrous. I'd say at least a third, and possibly a half of the peaches sustained some serious damage, like this one:

I was so frustrated. Our bounty had become a bust. When I told my wife, she was ashen with grief...or maybe that was just because she was feeling sick. I had a hard time knowing. She didn't want to hear my report of the carnage, though. It made her too sad. But look at the carnage! It's like the asphalt after a serious car accident.

That little white plastic piece on the ground is the broken basket handle. I sure wish I'd realized it couldn't take that kind of weight. My wife figured that there was enough undamaged peaches to still can a bunch. The mushy stuff could be used for jam. All was not lost. I went off to work not feeling quite so bad about my disaster.

When I got home, I saw that she had been hard at work all day.

She'd canned dozens of bottles of sliced peaches already, and they looked great. I think she'd frozen some other slices too. Don't know if she made it to the jam or not though. She was sleeping when I got home, so I couldn't ask. Needless to say, we're going to be all set for peaches this year, and possibly some other stuff too, like tomato sauce and whatever you make with tomatillos...that creamy salad dressing that my wife always orders at the Mexican place, maybe? We've got a lot of those tomatillos as well.