The Silence of The Tales

So there has been another time of quiet from The Tales despite one's best intentions and all those promises I made to you all.

Personally I blame Judge Mingus for telling me that I was using the internet wrongly and thus paralysing me.

This happened at a stately dinner with the Judge and FridgePower on a hot evening several weekends back. Salsa Girl and I attended dinner and air conditioning at their domicile for a long overdue catch-up.
It was a great time, starting with a nice curry and ending with bowls of icecream.
We had much talking and one was even involved in a lot of educational experiences with their elder spawn Ball Boy as he introduced me to his variant of billiards wherein if you cheat the penalty is that you must take another turn - altogether my kind of game.


The following days full day of gaming may also have contributed to one's lack of blog updating time.


After that the work week becomes a blurry merry-go-round of project juggling punctuated with a sequence of beautifully timed equipment and service crashes. Of course there were the usual number of meetings and, as one has come to unfortunately expect, nary a free lunch to be seen among the lot of them.


And we come to the current weekend where one can say that a culinary trip to Fed Square to catch up with the Double Jays, their recent acquisition, and the menu at Chocolate Bhudda (not necessarily in that order) could be attributed some blame for the lack of updating The Tales.

Then today when some free time loomed was the day when one's internet router decided to push it's recent program of frustrating drop-outs into overdrive. Thankfully it is behaving itself well enough now that I am able to get this missive to you.


Oh and as to the verbal shellacking that Judge Mingus handed out to me about use of the Internet.
Apparently one has been neglecting one of the core functions of the Internetz and shall have to rectify that as of now.

So here you go:

As required by international law this is my cute cat picture for this year.

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Children's Events

Over the past few days one has attended several children's events.

One such event was yesterdays first birthday party for the esteemed progeny of Sir Clive Pitbull.
Salsa Girl and I attended a little late after failing to heed the common sense advice to "never go down Punt Road".

Legion3 also attended along with Madmog and their little one and we all partook of many nibbles, sweets, and lashings of free soft drinks. As the afternoon progressed there was much child play - the pit of small round doom being a baby favourite - and at one stage I was even employed as a horse by The Evil One's offspring.

We left well fed and worn out. As befits such an outing.


The next children's event was the evening musical performance of Days of our Libraries' musical issue.

It was one's first concert attendance for quite some time but one did remember to bring the appropriate accoutrements as one's earplugs were well and truly needed - both from the "metal" music and the direct into the ear conversations with Days.

All in all it was a good to see the up and coming talent. I do have my suspicions that the follow-on act was a parody of death metal given that all their songs sounded the same and the lyrics consisted of constant low pitched growling. Still, each to their own.

Quite good as far as children's events go, and the free beer from Days certainly helped.
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The Strain and The Fall

No the title of this post is not referring to any unfortunate results of the festivities of one's just-passed birthday week.

Instead it relates to the last two books that one recently finished reading - The Strain and The Fall are two books by famed moving picture director Guillermo del Toro. They are the first two parts of his vampire trilogy as recommended to me by Groovy Spirits via Mr Prada. I found them to be a quick and entertaining read that was reminiscent of the very cinematic oeuvre of Matthew Reilly. I await my reserved copy of the final instalment to arrive from the library.


Speaking of the birthday week it has gone rather well - despite Legion2 stealing most of the glory with his 40th.

As it turns out when turning 42 the meaning of life is friends - or rather Facebook Friends as one received bountiful birthday wishes on the actual day. I was also pleased to see that one's birthday twin CC celebrated hard enough for both of us.

The birthday week produced many wishes and a pile of chocolate as cake substitute from Days of our Libraries rightfully shamed for her culinary oversight.

Finally a day of presents arrived on Friday, although one did have to gift many of them to oneself - those being the latest supplements in one's favourite gaming line, the Commands and Colors(sic) series.
Further gifts awaited one's return home with the arrival of an overseas order of gaming cards and the special gifts from Salsa Girl.

Early Saturday morning BestFriendSincePrep did his part in making one's birthday special by thrashing me soundly in Memoir'44 Online all the way from Denver - and whilst preparing dinner.

The birthday week was topped off with drinks and nibbles at a local establishment attended by the likes of Salsa Girl, Freeloading Mum, Handy Dad, Legion2, and Badger.


All in all a good birthday week - although a little light on the feasting side, which one shall correct in only another 51 weeks.
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Sardine Breakfast

So, finally the lifting of one's contribution to the SOPA strike has arrived and I can once again regale you with further Cautionary Tales.

But first, I hope everyone celebrated  yesterday appropriately as it was International Day of FridgePower wherein we should acclaim how great it is to have such a personage amongst us, or something along those lines. Apparently it was also DragonMim day but unless there's cake at tonight's gaming one shall not believe it.

On a similar note today is Legion day (part deux) wherein you all may commiserate with one about having to share the parental spotlight, and lolly jar, with interlopers.


And now, on with the Caution.

Today's concerns the perils of relying on public transport to make it on time to an important meeting.

Suffice to say that the consequences of several delays makes for a quite tightly packed journey. So tightly packed that one would find oneself unable to even answer one's phone when Supervisor Grand Chief K calls to assess one's whereabouts.

However rather than turn back I persevered through all the trials and tribulations, against all the odds and risking life and limb until finally I trudged into the café to make the meeting with free breakfast.
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