Geek Heaven

Three new/newish series I gotta tell you about.

First two are web-based. Check out Trenches, coming to a computer near you in "fall 2007," which is not anywhere specific enough for me. It looks to me like a Battlestar Galactica/Starship Troopers/Aliens kind of thing to me. I so can't wait. They are not even charging for this one, which I find amazing.

Next is Sanctuary. I've been waiting for this one for a long time. Six webisodes available now, each about two bucks. Dark urban landscapes, Trinity-esque warrior maidens, scary CGI monsters. Not quite as formulaic as it sounds.

And finally is NBC's Chuck, premiering officially in September but sneak previewed at ComicCon this past weekend. My link is to a torrent site that posted it a few days earlier than that, even. Now that it's official, I'll see if I can find a better source. Absolutely hilarious. Great dialogue. Best of all, Adam Baldwin. Will they EVER let that man be funny again? He's a thug, AGAIN, but there's a sparkle in his eye that I hope bodes well for character development. Anyway, story synopsis is Chuck is a single guy working for a big box electronics store in technical support (the "Nerd Herd" booth). A long-out-of-touch college buddy sends him a fateful email with a mysterious attachment and boom, he finds himself the target of international intrigue. Some folk badly want him dead, others want him kept alive just as badly. Which is which? I cannot rave enough about this pilot episode. At least with NBC, it has a slight chance of staying on the air, unlike with some networks I could mention.

More Fun with SiteMeter

A hit from earlier today came from someone searching, "Llamas for rent in IOWA."

I am perplexed.

Why would one wish to rent a llama? Are there tax advantages to renting one's llama, as opposed to buying outright? Or llama-lleasing?

Perhaps it's a try-before-you-buy sort of thing. You rent a nice llittle llama, see how things go, decide if you are a llama-friendly family and then you make your decision to go ahead and buy one. Or maybe you're attempting to choose between a llama and some other sort of pet, say, a wildebeest. You rent a llama for a month, then switch it out for a rental wildebeest, and then you decide which you prefer.

Or maybe it's a matter of transportation. We just went through a situation where our car was in the shop, and we got a loaner for a few days. Perhaps someone's camel is indisposed, and so she needs a lloaner llama for the duration.

But why is the IOWA significant? Perhaps this person is traveling. (Yes, lots of tourists come to Iowa every year, and not all of them by accident, either.) Perhaps this person is staying in Iowa and had to lleave his belloved llama at home with the llamasitter. Arriving at his destination, say, Mason City, he finds himself really missing his pet, so he does a quick Google search, finds a llama rental agency and voila, a llama is delivered to his motel room within the hour.

E2A: Mister Practicality, otherwise known as Barry, said flatly, "It's probably for some kid's birthday party." Booooorrrriiiinnnngggg. Although I can sort of see that. "Billy, are you SURE you won't just settle for a nice pony at your birthday party?" "NoooOOOOOooooo! I wanna LLAMAAAAAAA!" "Okay, sweetheart, just calm down, I'll try to find you one."

Photos from Lil Miss A's Last Softball Game

This was actually a very exciting game. The visitng team, Harper's Ferry, had enough to field two teams, so the girls played one another. We were now the ones barely able to put 9 kids on the field. Our girls played well.

Episode 578: In Which I Hit a Deer

New Albin Days is over and done with for the year, and I know I need to blog it here and also update the New Albin Days blog, but I am still processing. I would call it a wild success, especially considering how it had been 12 years since anyone had put one on and we had a core group of about 12 volunteers to start with. Mama and Papa came down Sunday and watched the parade. It was fun seeing them out there in the crowd.




Anyway, Sunday night at dusk, it had just started to rain, and I was driving to Lansing to get Miss B from work, when I hit a smallish deer. The things travel in packs, and I saw the first one and missed it, but then I hit the second one who could not wait to catch up with its brother or sister and made a dash for it. Amazingly enough, I'm fine, and the car is still driveable; the front left quarter-panel is pushed in and the headlight is off kilter. I think the deer even walked away from the accident, because I couldn't find it.

The Concorde is now up at our favorite body shop, Kious Kountry, and we have a rental replacement - a 2007 Dodge Charger. Ooh, but it's fun! Ugly as sin, but fast, and with great pickup. It WANTS to go fast. Barry says the engine is the same size as the Concorde's, but the car itself is smaller and lighter, the suspension is very tight and the steering is stiff, so you feel like you're at 55 when you're pushing 80. I'm going to make Barry drive it to work to keep me out of trouble.

Pee-Wee Softball Season Ending

Little Miss A's game last night was once again against Brownsville, Minnesota. The pee-wee boys baseball team and the pee-wee girls softball team combined for a total of about 40 kids to play against Brownsville, which was barely able to field 9 players. It would have been depressing for the Brownsville kids, because ALL the kids play the field ALL the time, and thus it was wall-to-wall New Albin kids out there, except that none of ours can catch, so somehow the ball would find a gap between two kids, squeeze through, and roll out of the infield, allowing the Brownsville kids time to run the baseline. Then when the NA kids were up to bat, the poor little Brownsville kids stood out there for what seemed like HOURS as all 40 NA kids got to swing, and swing, and swing until they finally hit something, usually foul but who cares at that point, all the parents scream RUN!RUN!RUN! because as parents of pee-wee players we take what we can get.

Adding to the general confusion was that Brownsville and New Albin both have red as the team color, so what we saw was a crowd of about 50 little people in red shirts, running around chasing balls, or, as frequently was the case, talking to each other, building sand castles in the dirt, tossing their mitts into the air and generally just counting on the odds against the ball ever making it through the gauntlet of other little people dressed in red.

The neat thing about the pee-wee league is that the parents cheer for EVERYBODY. Doesn't matter what team. It doesn't last very long, but it's very sweet while it does.

She has one more game tonight, then the season is over. The Shooky Fink Little League Tournament wraps up the season.

Cannot... Resist... LOLcats.

Miss B is Home Safely

Miss B is safely home from a short-term mission trip to Matamoros, Mexico. She is exhausted, but is staying awake to tell us some of her news. It was an exciting week for her.

More from New Albin Savings Bank

The decorating continues at New Albin Savings Bank. They brought some old office machines and a wonderful document file cabinet out of storage and arranged them on and around the big old desk.




Look at this wonderful old Burroughs adding machine.


Update: Read about the bank's open house here.

From a siggy over at FireflyFans.net

No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater, than central air.

So true.

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