The latest in our collective familial odyssey is up on the home page now. Go read, enjoy, and buy the action figures.

Ok, I’ve been taking pains to avoid the weblog format here, and to try to generate intresting, original content, but this is far too good to pass up: the Large Hot Pipe Organ is an enormous MIDI-controlled instrument that makes its sounds by detonating propane/air mixtures in large, iron pipes of varying lengths. I want one.

After a couple weeks of ramping up to it, I’ve finally hit the point in my swimming where the endorphins are kicking in, and I can do my 20 minutes of lap-swimming enjoyably. It’s a great feeling to have pushed through the difficult part of the process and have the discomfort level off and recede. Now I’ll hopefully begin to drop a bit of that pizza-generated personal insulation.

Having never read any of the Midnight Louie mysteries, Cat in a Jeweled Jumpsuit was a pleasant surprise for me. I was initially rather wary of any series that relied upon cute furry critters for its charm, but once Louie’s sardonic commentary began, I was roped in. This volume centered around murders and mysterious goings-on at an Elvis impersonator contest in Las Vegas, and though the actual details of the mystery weren’t as engaging as in the case of Holmes or Father Brown, its characters and writing are quite enough to pick up the slack. The Jewish “Today Elvis” is especially enjoyable.

Attached to the end of one of the spams I got today (sic on the whole thing in advance): We are sorry if this contact we have made with you has upset you in any way. We believe in freedom of speech: electronically, written or spoken. It is our God given write to be able to express our self’s. We are all created equal. Should not we be able to write/make contact to another humans? Think about what is being said about bulk mailing, who do you think would really be trying to stop it? These days’ people seem to blindly accept what is put before them if it comes from a so-called trusted source. Bulk mailing is not bad when it is carried out in a responsible way. It only takes seconds to delete if you are not interested, mail in your letter box is wasting the earths resources and creating physical pollution, Through media we are bombarded with advertisements weather we like it or not. Please think about this, lets be fair. Stand up for what is good and true. Do not ban or prohibit the greatest method of mass communication by such an environmentally friendly and cost eff!
ective medium. Perhaps if they’d promise to spell check all future spam, I’d go along with it…

I had looked forward to The Talented Mr. Ripley since seeing the trailer at the theater many months ago. And I liked it nearly as much as I had hoped to. The characters are well-done, their interaction compelling, and having dealt with a step-father who was a pathological liar, watching Ripley’s character develop was especially intriguing for me. The only thing that disappointed, and which may brand me as a melodrama-loving churl, is that there was no catharsis. Ripley’s lies didn’t catch up with him, and he was left free to continue to ply his trade. There was some closure to the story, but none to the character with whom we’d become so involved.

Yesterday we spent several hours at the lake with the extended family. Among the usual holiday suspects were the surprise treat of the Missouri contingent of the McMains clan — my uncle Rick, his two daughters Audra and Liz, and one of his sons-in-law, Steve. (His son and other son-in-law couldn’t make it.) They’ve never met my wife or kids, and it’s been many years since I’ve seen any of them, so it was a great treat to get to visit with them.

We have been invited to dine with friends we haven’t seen for a couple years tomorrow. I told them we’d bring homemade salsa for the occassion, which excited them greatly. But when I go out to the Internet to find my favorite recipes, they’ve vanished! AAAARGH! There ought to be a law. So, I’m off to search for new recipes, and to save a copy on my hard drive this time.

Last night Kathy and I went to see Fools in Love at the park here in San Marcos. One of the local houses for people who weren’t able to function fully on their own was there for an outing. There was one of their number, a moderately overweight man wearing shorts, an unmatched shirt, and a brightly colored ball cap, who went and stood in front of the stage and danced by himself for the full 90 minutes we watched the concert. His movements were awkward and had little to do with the beat of the music, but his face exuded such churubic joy that it was impossible not to smile along with him, reveling in his childlike immersion in the moment. He was simply having fun, regardless of what others might think, and was completely engaging to watch.

Back when computer games were still pretty much for the geeky set, there was a nifty game called (I think) Robot Wars. The premise was that you could outfit a robot with various weapons and drop it into an arena to do battle with other people’s bots. The catch was that you had to program the robot’s logic yourself, and couldn’t control it directly during the match — it would just run the program you created. I’ve had the idea of doing an updated version of this game for modern game players, with realistic 3D environments, more flexible robot design, etc. But these guys apparently are in the process of beating me to it, more power to them. Now if they’ll just commit to a Mac version, I’ll be the happiest of campers.