Busy with family type stuff things.

I mowed the lawn, tossed out our mouldering aged couch (with the help of Shelly's Brian, many thanks), bought a new to us (read "estate sale depot") recliner, borrowing Brian and Shelly's van for delivery (again, many thanks), cleaned the floor, made dinner and taught Maddie religion and geography and probably took care of other stuff that doesn't register right now.

And I lost in fantasy football to a twerp who started Brady Quinn. Mull that for a moment.

Oh, and I'll remove the air conditioner from the bedroom window (we experienced record high temperatures this weekend) and take out the trash today.

Whee.

So, how do you like the health plan now, Mr. and Mrs. Parsons?

The American Academy of Pediatrics: Helping the issue bellyfeel about reporting their parents' doubleplusungood ownlife since 2007.

Just imagine the possibilities when universal health care is instituted.

This means absolutely nothing to most of you.

But I got this for $5.00. Complete and almost pristine:

Yet another in the pile of games to thrash the children in. And, of course, eventually be thrashed. But I'm slowly advancing them up the line. They like Dungeon, where they get to smite monsters for treasure (The Boy™ actually beat all of us in the last game we played, and Maddie came close to winning), but Imperium is a little abstract. Plus, I have to teach the lad that a paper football is not a shuriken.

I didn't see this, so I'm willing to reserve judgment.

That, and it's coming from an advocacy group. Apparently, the most recent episode of Cold Case brought long-overdue attention to the growing problem of Christian abstinence groups stoning the backslid.

Again, I didn't see it. I've never been impressed with Cold Case, being especially irritated by the pat music video-style endings. Frankly, Medium is more believable. And Patricia Arquette has a helluva lot more range than the tousle-haired Keebler elf who fronts CC. Shatner had more gravitas in T.J. Hooker.

If it's as bad as the report indicates, well--so what? It's cheap hackwork by bad scriptwriters. Pick an easy villain, toss in a shock crime (yeah, we all read The Lottery in high school, champ--you're so clever) and titillate the perv segment with a little carrot cuffing and a heaping helping of hypocrisy. Christian hypocrisy, natch.

It's the safest formula in the world. It's common, too--Law & Order does it every season. The folks who do it are risking almost certain applause from their peers.

Shrug it off--remember, this is the sort of "courageous" religion puncturing done by a network that refused to air the Muhammad cartoons. Reward it with the bad ratings it deserves.

Oktoberfest is upon us!

Leave it to the antlered one to find the ideal picture and link to Bavaria's ultimate festival.

Beer--especially Hofbrauhaus Munchen--is Deutschland's greatest cultural gift to the world.

Wagner? Pftthpppt.

Give me a liter fresh from a Bayernische barrel, right outside the HB tent any time.

Enough said:

By the way, I found a case of HB at Costco. Almost as good as I remember it. Like bottled Bavarian joy and sunshine.

With alcohol.

Happy Birthday (belated) !

Steve Stirling turned 54 on Sunday.

This is where I usually would make some clever comment about obsolescence, but, unlike Jay Anderson, he has a grasp of martial arts that can still render me into quivering, sentient goo. Discretion, valour, etc.

Ad multos annos!

Watch out for the Sandmen, Jay.

I'm just sayin'.

Looks like someone's got a case of the Mondays. Remember, you're only as old as you feel.

Went to the Renaissance Festival yesterday.

We enjoyed the joust, soup in a bread bowl, buying expensive bric-a-brac, and our meeting with Philip II of Spain. The girls got to dress like princesses and for some reason I thought it was a great idea to get The Boy a wooden sword with a two foot blade. His shield is pretty cool, though.

Pics will be uploaded upon development.

The Gathering Storm.

The Change destroyed the technological achievements of man, and prevents them from being recreated. In its wake, civilization died in all but a few guarded and lucky enclaves, along with 98% of the population. In the first trilogy, the forces of Free Oregon struggled to grow and survive against the SCA/gangsta fusion centered in Portland around the fearsome sociopath Norman Arminger. The good guys clustered around Wiccan singer and priestess Juniper Mackenzie (Clan Mackenzie), Marine Mike Havel (the Bearkillers), the Faculty Senate of Oregon State University (Corvallis) and the Benedictine Abbot-Bishop Dmwoski (Mount Angel Monastery and town). Free Oregon defeated one massive invasion from Portland, then the second invasion was aborted into a duel between Havel and Arminger, which saw both men kill each other, though the result was worse for the more fractious Protectorate. The armistice which followed left the Protectorate briefly destabilized and weakened by the treaty requirement that any of the serfs who wanted to leave the Protectorate were allowed to do so.

The beginning of The Sunrise Lands finds the Pacific Northwest in CY 21/22, and peace reigns following what is now referred to as the War of the Eye. The Corvallis Meeting defuses most disputes between the growing statelets. Another factor preserving the peace is the friendship between Mathilda Arminger and Rudi Mackenzie. Mathilda is the heir to the Protectorate throne, and Rudi has officially been "hailed" as "tanist," or assistant, to his Chieftain mother.

All is idyllic, and then a stranger from the "Sunrise Lands" east of the Mississippi stumbles into the Clan's largest city, pursued by a team of fanatical assassins.

The stranger, Ingolf Vogeler, has been to Nantucket, and desperately needs to talk to "the Son of the Bear" about a vision featuring a sword...

We don't see all of the familiar characters in this installment. We only hear about the Bearkillers, for instance. Ken Larssen has died in the interim, and Will Hutton no longer heads the Outfit, having relinquished the role to Signe Havel.

We also don't see any of the good guy Corvallans, though a developing reputation for Venetian slipperiness by the city-state's merchants is demonstrated in one scene. The lesson: don't try to pour snake oil on Astrid Loring.

Ah, yes--everyone's favorite bat-guano crazy Tolkien reader has settled into married life with Alleyne Loring rather nicely, though Alleyne and Eilir Hordle can only soften the edges of Astrid's LOTR fundamentalism.

How fundamentalist? The Dunedain Rangers are raising their kids from the cradle to speak Sindarin. Or as much Sindarin as can be cobbled together from "the Histories," as they are called. Little John Hordle remains a massive pillar of sanity and nicely reformulates a Dune aphorism for use by the Rangers. Via broad Hampshire, of course--right down to the "Oy!"

But the main perspective characters are, as can be imagined, Mathilda, Rudi and Ingolf. Also featuring as major perspective characters are Mary and Ritva Havel (Mike and Signe's oldest daughters), now proud and frighteningly effective Rangers; Baron Odard Liu, son of the late unlamented Eddie Liu; Edain Aylward, eldest son of Aylward the Archer; and the Benedictine warrior-priest Fr. Ignatius (born Karl Bergfried).

It is discovered that the assassins are from the Church Universal and Triumphant, a budding technology-hating syncretist theocracy growing in Montana-Wyoming area. Its leader is called The Prophet, and he's ripped right from history. The Church's military arm fights using tactics reminiscent of the Mongols and the Arab Muslims. Vogeler's vision jibes with the ones Juniper has had, so it is quickly decided that they will have to go to Nantucket to try to figure out what it means. Which, of course, means eventually braving one of the worst death zones on Earth, America east of the Mississippi (Excluding Northern Michigan, right? Right?), whose only two-legged survivors have devolved below the level of barbarism.

But they have to get by the CUT, first--and the Prophet knows about the vision, too....

Along the way we meet an Army Ranger bent on restoring the United States of America, right down to the successful collection of a handful of surviving Senators and Representatives, see a battle between the Prophet's forces and two opponents, go on a tiger hunt, experience betrayals, sword fights, Terminator quotes, comic book references, find out what the Ballad of Eskimo Nell sounds like in Sindarin, read a handwritten note from Benedict XVI and learn how to survive in a blizzard in the mountains. Oh, and did I mention possible visions from the future? Toss in nice nods to A Canticle For Leibowitz and the LOTR movie, and you have plenty to keep you busy.

Some of the Amazon reviews have argued that the series is turning into fantasy. I don't read it that way at all. Yes, the protagonists are getting some vivid visions and sendings, but the Alien Space Bats are probably capable of that, don't you think? There are some high stakes at work, and you can read (I'm speaking from speculation, not knowledge) hints of a battle going on beyond the character's perception.

Mild disappointments: The abrupt resolution of the Antipope Leo storyline--there was a creepy vibe that never quite got off the ground. Also, I like the Bearkillers a lot, and they don't show up here. Then again, it's a trilogy, and the way things are shaping up, that will be remedied.

Positives: Pretty much everything else. The plotlines are handled very crisply, and we get good looks at the major players, good and evil. And you can't avoid the nice deliberate nod to the Fellowship of the Ring, with Edain's turn as Sam Gamgee being especially apt. A lethal Samwise, but still our Sam. And the Catholic bits are especially well-handled and I'm not saying that to pat myself on the back. The Faith is handled with a welcome sensitivity, and easy caricatures aren't even on the radar.

It really is the best of the series, with the new post-Change world finally settling down and coming into its own. And, since it ends on a brutal trio of cliffhangers, you'll want the next installment in short order.

Not so BTW--TSL is in its third week on the New York Times Bestseller List. So you might as well start jumping on the bandwagon if you haven't already. There's still plenty of room.

Sorry.

I really thought this new template idea would be a project of a few minutes.

It's not, obviously.

Be patient with the links.

I feel a lot better about the size of our newborns now.

They're both newborns. The one on the left is Nadia Barabanova, weighing in at a tidy 17.1 pounds. Favorite line, as described by Mom:

"What did the father say? He couldn't say a thing -- he just stood there blinking."

Yeah. That's the only sane reaction: Shock. The only reason Mom is coherent is because it was a c-section.

Their twelfth.

[Photo credit]