A little over 2 years ago I began a hunt, scouring the Baltimore metro area, looking for a new friendly local comic/gaming store (FLCS/FLGS). As you may recall it took a while, and I wrote all about it here. The funny thing is, I don't really read that many comics anymore. I used to, back when I worked at Sarges. Back then I read just about everything to get an idea what it was about, so I could better sell it, but beyond that I just read a lot. Batman, Superman, X-Men, Spiderman, Black Hole, Barry Ween, 30 Days of Night, etc., and everything put out by CrossGen Comics.

CrossGen? Yeah, it's a sad story in the end. They went under right around when I stopped working at Sarges. Since then I'm just not into comics any more. I still read a few titles like Knights of the Dinner Table, PS238 (which wasn't in our box last time I picked up), and Mouse Guard, but it's not like it was when I was buying every CrossGen issue that came out! It's too bad too, because there were some great stories being told.

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Things on the housing front are quiet at the moment. Everyone says things are moving along as they should, except apparently for the appraisal. It was (theoretically) done on Friday afternoon, but the report still hasn't reached the loan officers desk. Supposedly by this evening (5-6pm) the report should have been in, but clearly it isn't.

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The other night Tigs and I finished watching Stargate SG-1 season 1. Can I just say that I am really really impressed with this show so far? It's probably one of the strongest first seasons I've ever seen. I am so thrilled that there are 9 more seasons to go, plus five seasons of Stargate Atlantis!

It was a full weekend once again. Saturday we took Lucy up to visit her doctor in Frederick . We discussed her change in bathroom habits, and they managed to collect a urine sample. It was kind of fun to watch the tech follow Lucy as she walked around the side of the vet's office with a cat food bowl, which she deftly slid under Lucy just as she squatted. They probably called today with the test results from that, but seeing as I left the cell phone at home this morning, I’ll have to wait a bit to find out. While at the vet's, Lucy also got a booster on one of her vaccines.

When we left the vet's office we went back down to downtown Frederick to hit the usual places and walk around a bunch. Frederick does this thing on the first Saturday of every month, a themed event. This Saturday was a celebration of May/Spring and so all the retailers downtown were giving away flowers. You could get a flower in every shop, and if you hit all the shops you would end the day with a huge bouquet. We didn't hit every store, and some seemed to be out, but we still have a vase full of flowers in the living room because of it! Around the 4th time going around downtown Lucy started to show signs of the vaccine hitting her; she slowed down and was walking as if slightly dizzy. So we bundled her back into the car, and drove up the road to Brainstorm Comics.

You might not have known it, but Saturday was the annual Free Comic Book Day. This has always been a pretty big day for me, ever since they started doing it about 5 years ago. Disappointingly FCBD at Brainstorm was only slightly better than Lancaster Comic Shop's showing 2 years ago. It’s especially disappointing considering the events that That’s Entertainment and Sarge’s put on. But we got our books, headed home, and Lucy crashed for the rest of the night! (One of the free comics featured a corgi artist - Christian Slade.)

Sunday felt a bit more like Monday then it usually does - we got up early, put Lucy in the kitchen, and headed to an AKC Agility Trial down in Millersville, to volunteer for the ODTC again. This time was a little different as Kim, Cory, and Alex (aunt, cousin, cousin) came down from PA to see it with us. I felt a little bad about having to work at the event while they were watching, but they all seemed to really enjoy it. Kim was thrilled at all the poodles that were running, and Tigs says she wants a puppy, as Lucy is now old. For the record, Lucy isn’t even a year old at this point. (There were some very cute puppies though. One was named after the tonksmonster.) The boys are going to be pushing to get a dog more often now I think.

When we got home Sunday evening Lucy was thrilled to see us, and all the toys we brought home for her. (Each part of the event you work you get a coupon good for a toy, or $2 off food at the event, or $2 off the cost to register to run a dog at an event during 2007. We aren't going to be running a dog in 2007 and we brought our own food. Between the 2 of us we collected a total of 18 coupons, and brought home 16 toys, with two left over as proof that we were there.) However, Lucy was still worn out from the vaccine, and so we all relaxed on the couch and watched Voyager.

Next weekend is just as booked. Saturday, I’ll be going to a Hirst Arts party up near Harrisburg PA with some people I met on the INTERNET, while Tigs and Lucy will be going back to Frederick to go to the opening day of a new dog park. Sunday we are planning on tackling the BWI trail. Over 12 miles long! It’s the longest we’ve attempted yet! We’re hoping to be up to doing the Maryland portion of the Appalachian Trail this fall (40+ miles).

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White Dwarf is Games Workshop’s monthly publication that is about half advertisement and half content. Of the half of the magazine that contains useful content for GW's various games, only half of it (a quarter of the original) is generally interesting to me, and most of it is more entertaining then useful. However, several years worth of issues were taking up space on one of the bookshelves and in the closet. It’s amazing how it grows to fill all that space… Anyway, I decided that to make my life a little easier I would cut up my magazines, taking out the articles that interested me, and the pictures that inspired me. Last night I finished putting all the ones I wanted to keep into page holders that fit in a 3-ring binder. It’s nice being able to flip open an binder and see all the articles that have interested me since I’ve started this, and none of the fluff. Now the only thing I need to worry about is what to do with the gutted White Dwarf issues. I gave a small stack to my cousins this weekend, and they may want the rest. Otherwise they’ll either end up in the dumpster or I may give them to the pediatric ward.

Taking some time out of my busy workday to write a little bit for good old El-Jay. First off, Happy New Year! So far it’s looking like it’ll continue the trend started last year and be a good one, though that’s really hard to judge from just a couple of days. Anyway, here’s hoping that it’s a good one.

On New Years Eve Tigs and I spent between 10 and 2 working up in the craft room. It had quickly become less of a “craft” room and far more of a “stick stuff in there that we aren’t currently using” room. We sorted through our comic collection, which freed up about a short box worth of space. As we put the books back into their boxes we also labeled the boxes, and put the ones with the inactive titles (all my crossgen titles) at the bottom of the pile.

We also did some other general cleaning and organizing. My craft table actually began to have some space where I could sit at it! In looking at what little actual surface space is available on it, we discussed getting a paint rack to put on it. Something that rotates, and holds all the different colors, or at least all the ones I use regularly. Then I can just take some time, even if it’s just 15 minutes to sit down and do some painting, rather then having to take the time to pull out all my paints and set up a place to work. It’ll already be set up so I can just sit and paint!

Even better then getting all the cleaning and sorting done was the fact that Lucy was so freaked out by the whole thing! You should have seen her when we had the comics all spread out and in piles. She had such worried ears.

Later we were invited to Elspeth’s for a party. It always amazes me how closely rural and urban areas can be to one another. Elspeth’s house definitely falls into the rural category, and was a little hard to find. We eventually made it, and then immediately left to go grab some food at a Mexican restaurant. It was good, if somewhat pricey. Utilizing our mad-powerful money skillz we shared a plate of chicken quesadillas, rice, and beans. Have to say it was really good! After that we returned to Elspeth’s house ate some more yummy food including some of Gaer’s famous apple bread, and then went and played Scene It and Karaoke Revolution. We flipped on Dick Clark at about 3 minutes before the ball dropped, and counted down the last 10 seconds, cheered, toasted I kissed Tigs, and then the game was back on! I sang a decent version of Red Red Wine, and sang backup on a number of other songs. We left around 1, and went straight to bed.

New Years Day itself was spent mostly relaxing on the couch, watching the first disk of Scrubs season 3 and the 4th & 5th disk of season 5 of The West Wing. I (while watching) sorted miniatures. Mostly this was unboxing the minis, bagging them in ziplock bags and putting them all in a box. It’s amazing how much space packaging takes up! This freed up even more space and gave me a good idea of what minis I actually have. Now if only I had somewhere to display the ones I finish! Next house… I found a book an Amazon about sculpting that I want to get. I feel like I need some more direction, I need projects, examples, step by step instructions. I need practice doing simpler things then 28mm Space Marines.

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End of the day. So close to being done with the files it hurts. I ran out of the colored files with the labels that I made. I’m short by 4 sets. I’ll be able to whip those up first thing in the morning though. I already have the labels, and the files, I just need to put them all together.

Tonight is puppy class. Actually tonight is the second to last puppy class. I think we find out what the final exam is. Doesn’t matter too much, she can do just about all of it, she just needs more practice doing it in front of the other puppies. On top of that, we start the basic class on the 16th so there isn’t even a week break between classes!