1. What type of food do you most like to eat?
Mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy.

2. What type of food do you most like to cook?
I really enjoy making chili.

3. What ingredient could you not live without?
Salt. Ok, so it's not really an ingredient per se, but it's oh so necessary.

4. What do you never let in your kitchen?
Anchovies

5. What is your favorite drink?
Strawberry lemonaid

6. Other than the official start of spring on the calender, what really signifies the start of spring for you?
Seeing the first blush of that bright green you only see in the spring

7. How severe is your spring cleaning bug this year?
HAHAHAHAHA!

8. What one thing says "spring" to you more than any other?
The smell of everything coming alive after the winter.

9. What are your springtime traditions?
Open up all the windows in the house and get as much fresh air into the house as possible. Also go hiking!

10. When do you break out your spring and summer wardrobe? Do you follow the "no white before Easter" rule?
As soon as the temperature hits around 50 I start putting away the winter stuff.

11. If you became ruler of the world, what three things would you do first?
I would fix education, cut military spending and redirect it to humanitarian and scientific uses, and vastly increase the use and development of green energy

12. If you were a superhero, what would be your name and what powers would you have?
If I were a superhero I'd want to be a Green Lantern.

13. You can ask one question to someone who knows EVERYTHING. What is it?
What's the winning number to the next $10,000,000 (or more) lotto?

14. If you were invisible for a day, what would you do?
If invisible means being undetectable, then I would probably get cash, from a variety of sources.

15. If you saw a mythical/religious deity walking down the street, what would you do?
That really depends on which one it was! There are some gods you just don't want to get in the way of!

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This past weekend was the tracking trial for the dog club. This meant getting up at 5(ish) to drive up to the Maryland/Delaware boarder, and spend a lot of time cold and wet with a little bit of time spent watching dogs actually tracking. I brought my accounting books with me, but never even pulled them out. Saturday I was too tired, and Sunday it was too cold and wet (and I was still tired).

Saturday, after spending the morning at the trial we packed up, headed home for a change, and then pressed on to Frederic for First Saturday. This time however Gaer joined us! Lucy did pretty well considering how long a day she had.

Sunday we again spent the morning at the tracking trial, a cold, wet, muddy day. We then went home, took some hot showers (Lucy too) and then headed over to the house to do some more work. We managed to put in a couple of hours before heading back to the townhouse drained of all energy.

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Things are progressing at the house. It's almost ready for us to really start moving things in. At this point we've only brought over stuff we've needed, or stuff that can go straight to the basement. The next couple of weeks or so is going to be a bit of a pain as we transfer everything to the house, and then, invariably we'll need or want something that's at the other place.

I keep thinking about terrain, and building a table. I think when I finally do get to work on it that the trick to it, along with almost any other project, is to just devote myself to it from start to finish, just like I did with my original Amon Hen. 12 days start to finish on that one.

Actually my plan is to build another Amon Hen out of Hirst Arts blocks as one of my first projects. Seeing as I'll be using cast blocks (complete with texture) it should take significantly less time to finish it. Plus it works well on a grassy field.

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I need a home improvement icon...

Happy Birthday ywingempress!!

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What a weekend! First off there was Ground Zero Games East Coast Convention up in Lancaster, just about 10 minutes from where my aunt lives. One of the big things that I was most interested in was a Full Thrust (starship combat) tournament.

At the same time there was the Dungeons and Dragons Experience (where D&D4e is being previewed) down in Richmond. D&D 4th Edition!! And from the little I've managed to read about it (Wizards has been keeping it really under wraps) I'm actually getting excited about it. It seems to address a number of core issues that D&D has always suffered from. When the Players Handbook is released I may just have to pick it up.

It would have been nice to go to either. My cousin Cory and I are making plans to go to GZG ECC next year though!

Friday night after work was an agility practice at the building. We've been working on jumps and weave poles. We're working on jumps because Lucy jumps kind of flat, and tends to knock the bar with her back legs. This is due to a combination of factors. She's a little lazy and doesn't care if she knocks down the bars (more noise & action!), and she isn't as aware of her hind end as she should be. And she should be very aware, given the amount of farting she does.

Saturday morning was tracking for Tigs and Lucy, while I wrapped up all the stuff I sold on e-bay and went to the post office, and then went to work to pull some overtime. Then once we regrouped at the townhouse we headed off to Frederick for the first time in months. First stop was Brainstorm Comics. I picked up our box, flipped through the last 4 or 5 issues of White Dwarf (of which I only decided to buy one) checked out some of the preview D&D4e stuff. Then we headed down to Two Paws Up where we picked up a 6' leash for rally along with more poop bags and some more dog food. From there we walked over to Ten Thousand Joys where we picked up some incense and a candle designed to cleanse and renew, which we plan to burn in the new house. Something about a nasty divorce that kinda needs to be burned away.

We then continued on to The Trail House. Tigs got another pair of the socks that she has fallen in love with. Out front of the store was a troop of Girl Scouts selling cookies. $7 for 2 boxes of cookies was enough to get by them unscathed. We then headed back up Market street passing by the pizza shop that has some of the best pizza I've ever had. They're a pizza and pretzel shop, which may seem like an odd combination, but let me tell you that when pretzel dough is used for pizzas it's wonderful! Delicious! And it was impossible not to get a small pizza to share. Lucy didn't get any. We then walked back toward 2 Paws Up (because that's where we were parked) and stopped back in. I've mentioned before that Frederick does a first Saturday event every month. This month was "around the world in 15 blocks." 2 Paws Up was celebrating Italy, and so had wine, cheese & crackers, grapes, and puff pastry. We sampled and then headed home.

Sunday there was a rally show n' go down in Beltsville, which started around 10, and went for several hours. Novice dogs were last, so we got to hang out till around 2. Luckily a number of our friends from our dog club were also there, and I got some reading in during all that waiting. On the other side, the judge for the show n' go was rude to just about everyone from our club. The judge said that Lucy was too slow.
...
What?!?!

Monday morning… I was about 7 or 8 minutes away from work when I got a call on my cell phone from Tigs. Her check engine light had started flashing, and the car started running extremely rough. She pulled over and shut off the car. I arrived about 30 minutes later, and we called AAA for a tow to the (new) local Kia dealership. We then walked next door to Enterprise to secure some transportation for Tigs. They gave her a Ford Edge. For those unfamiliar with this model, it is a massive SUV designed to carry a couple head of cattle from the field to the vets a single rich person short distances on paved roads with no concern about gas mileage. That evening she swapped it out for a Jetta.

The car itself broke because one of the coil packs (the thing that makes the spark plugs fire in the proper pattern) failed. Thankfully the car is still completely covered under warranty, and this is a relatively simple replacement. So they ordered the part with overnight delivery. Unfortunately it turns out that the part is on back order. It would have been nice if when the order was placed that the warehouse let the dealership know that!! So now the Kia regional manager is involved, and it's going to be at least 1 more day before it gets fixed.

Monday night brought rally class, which Lucy felt was not nearly interesting or fast enough. Then agility class in which she did very well, though she still needs to work on jumps. There was even a minimum of herding activity (nipping)!

Tonight… well, we were going to go get the car, but clearly that isn't happening.

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Gary Gygax, the father of role playing games has ended his adventure on this plane of existence. A sad day for geeks everywhere. Next time you roll a d20, think of him.