My Guitarist Joins the Club

Well, it's been a long time between drinks and it's also been a long time between drinks.

Both of these shortfalls shall be rectified by this report on One's recent attendance at My Guitarist's "joining the club" soiree (or, as Hulk predicted it, "Boring, just Adults standing around talking and drinking").

Of course, in true tradition of The Tales, "recent" in this case means nigh on a week.

There are those that may claim it would take one that long to recover from one's imbibing a single high strength honeycomb stout, but they have no proof.

Anyway, after a quickish zoom Southwards (that's zoom in the old-fashioned speed sense) one arrived at said event to have a great catch up and natter with the assorted cast. My Guitarist of course, Redneck Ben, Duff (with The Tumbling Trio in tow) and other assorted uni guitarists and associates. Fridgepower, Judge Mingus, and The Keyboardist showed up shortly after oneself as well for a real getting the band back together feel.

One cannot fault an event with friends, free food and crumbiliscious honeycomb stout, other than for not happening on a weekly schedule.

Whilst literally zooming home one's thoughts - other than those on the miraculous performance of one's sportsball team one was listening to on the radio - were on one's hopes to not have to wait quite so long for the next catch-up with My Guitarist et al.
As it turns out One had forgotten about the curse of halfway parties.

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Further great benefits

It seems that the achieving of a half century commences an accruing of special benefits upon oneself.

The most recent of which is long awaited, and much desired by oneself and also the likes of FridgePower, yes it is the much coveted, government-given right to send poo through the mail.

After much careful planning, One took to the task with glee and forthwith dispatched the first missive.

However, one of the travesties of government is that they can take away one's rights as a trifling matter.

This was the sad case for me as I soon found myself in receipt of an official government letter that summarises thusly:

Dear sir,

There is no need for you to continue sending poo in the mail. 

Please discontinue the practice immediately.

Sincerely, some cruel government official

Of course One was enraged by such a broach of basic human rights and began contacting rights organisations to commence action.

Perplexingly none of them seem to be interested in one's case...
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The Big Birthdays

So the weekend previous was a bonanza of birthday bashes!!

Birthday the first was the Saturday evening celebration of Judge Mingus's matriarch's conversion to septuagenarianism.

One had been called out of retirement several months ago to drum for the band for the evening. Much practice, rehearsal, and aching body parts later it all came to fruition in a rocking set of a half dozen classic songs.

On the night in question Salsa Girl and I took ourselves to the event with Salsa Girl acting in the capacity of One's roadie. As one had decided to use the digital drum kit said roadying involved carrying a single medium-sized bag instead of the usual plethora of heavy drum equipment - so it was more of a freeloading activity - of which I heartily approve.

The night went well and none of One's dozen playing mistakes were catastrophic - in fact they were actually playing flair. One managed to catch up a little with FridgePower which was pleasant despite her nigh constant refrain of "needs more cowbell" despite one having swamped one song entirely with that most tasteful of instruments.

Drinks and nibbles were in overabundance, as is the nature of the Mingus clan, and the unexpected performance payment (thankfully with no minimum performance standard requirement) made the night into One's highest paid gig.
The trajectory of One's career is definitely upwards, so one shall have to inform ex-Supervisor Grand Chief K and LibraryBFF of one's impending resignation to concentrate on stardom.



Birthday the second was to celebrate Hulk's becoming the big 6.

She had requested a surprise party this year (and also fish themed to match her new goldfish) so we had to inform her all weekend that Doctor David and Grannie A's visiting, and our clearing floor space, making a cake, and hanging decorations, were all for the sheer fun of it and for no other reason.

I choose to believe she was completely surprised when returning from lunch with Salsa Girl to a house full of party invitees.

After that it was the usual birthday chaos of noisy children and chatting adults, immaculate Salsa Girl fish tank cake, present opening chaos and overexcited Hulk resisting bedtime.

Hulk explained at great length that the parsley does not have to be eaten.

All in all a most fun and exhausting birthday themed weekend.
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The Month of Things

So suddenly, it is a month since The Tales have graced screens nation wide and it is time once more to fill that void in all your souls.

So what has been happening, you may ponder?


Well a long outstanding computational device problem at work was finally solved and the backlog of work that rushed forth to fill the now available time was of a high dauntingness level.
But that is not the excuse for the delay of this posting.


One commenced catch up watching of a half dozen episodes of the new Twin Peaks and experienced the resulting brain melt caused by the 80% or so of it that was Lynchian weirdness for, apparently, it's own sake.
But that is not the excuse for the delay of this posting.

Salsa Girl and Hulk headed north for a weekend which became extended and thus resulted in a blur of gaming activity in The Gaming Garage. The Magical Gathering of the regular crew of ElfBoy, Gavman, Legion2, Pirate Dave, and even BestFriendSincePrep making a return after a decade, overtook the Friday evening. The Saturday saw the boardgames commence with Badger and FridgePower subbing in for ElfBoy and Gavman, for a gentle run through 5 hours - and half of - the Game of Thrones boardgame. During these proceedings FridgePower played true to Queen of Thorns character by talking one's favourite tea mug into self destructive cracking.

The third day of extended absence almost saw gaming again as BestFriendSincePrep was pressing for it but wisdom and the weight of chores held out and a day of pottering about the house was enjoyed by one.

But that is not the excuse for the delay of this posting.

One's return to mountains of work was brief as a rescue mission to retrieve Salsa Girl and Hulk  had to be undertook resulting in an hours long drive through tumultuous rain and trucks along the Calder, and a clandestine handover with Grandma J in the vicinity of the halfway point.

But that is not the excuse for the delay of this posting.

In amongst all of this Pirate Dave has taken the reigns of the Tuesday Knights roleplaying sessions (now regularly scheduled on Wednesdays but what can you do about a name?). Thus requiring one to actually read the background for a game for once rather than wing it and hope the players don't notice.

But that is not the excuse for the delay of this posting.

Which more or less brings us up to today and finally a posting.

With no real reason for the delay - unless you wish to count one's legendary laconical approach to getting things done?

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Gaming the Band Back Together

Sunday last was another of one's regular board gaming sessions.

This one however was pre-advertised longer than usual and thus attracted both FridgePower and Judge Mingus. It was therefore a mini band reunion of sorts. Although, in the words of that great philosophical treatise from back in nineteen hundred and eighty four - Revenge of the Nerds - "Sh*t, we forgot to practice!"

With most, nay, all of the regulars also attending we struggled to find a game that could also accomodate Legion2, Pirate Dave, Badger, Miasmakat, and BestFriendSincePrep, given that Legion2 vetoed Block Mania and I no longer have the second set of blocks required to take it up to an 8 player monstrosity. 

We settled on The Great Dalmuti in which the  decidedly left-leaning Judge Mingus orchestrated a rather hypocritically rapid rise into the privileged aristocracy.

Other highlights included my finally winning another game of Samurai Battles thanks to my general in crime FridgePower who's "I don't know what I'm doing" tactics helped win the day; a return to Dominion basic and simple cards; and Pirate Dave's Epic 8 minute final turn in Eight Minute Empire.

If this level of attendance continues we may have to resort to multiple games running at the same time - or I could return to my usual last minute flash-mob style of alerting people it is on.
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The End of Footy Parties

So the end of the footy season saw all the usual partying happening.

The first party was the traditional celebration of Salsa Girl's birthday. This year in the form of a Dinner and a Murder mystery. Our participants had a lot of fun - even with BestFriendSincePrep going on a murder spree - although one suspects that Baroness Badger was behind it all.
Salsa Girl herself won best costume, while Pirate Dave's inspector was a crowd favourite as he helped himself to the riches of body looting. FridgePower and Judge Mingus made a great effort to attend despite suffering from some sort of plague and FridgePower made a brave face of being murdered twice. In fact only Legion2 escaped being murderised - probably thanks to the protection of BestFriendSincePrep's real world wife the Lovely Lea.
All in all a great night and even Hulk's murderous upstairs screams about not going to bed enhanced the theme.


The second tradition of Footy's End was the Magic the Gathering night at Gavman's. Legion2, ElfBoy, Pirate Dave and oneself all made the pilgrimage to participate.


The main event itself was the traditional Grand Final Party hosted in inimitable style once more by The Wiggs. We were all excited for the match - Hulk made a flag to wave and even waived it twice before becoming bored and going off to explore the house. BestFriendSincePrep, MrRogers, and StumpyRudolph were all in attendance and concerned with the sweep results until we all became swept up in the Bulldogs victory and bet-winning margins lost all significance.
It was a wonderful emotional ride only tinged slightly for one by knowing that The Hellenic Hoofer would have been rejoicing ten times as much as any of us.
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It was 20 years ago today...

That sergeant Tuck and the band had their final play...

Yes that's right dear readers - the Malaclypse III final gig was a score of years ago.

Mal 3 was one's 7 piece ensemble from uni days that after several glorious years was broke asunder by musical differences.

One's co-conspirators in the band were: Tuck, Leader Robin, Judge Mingus, FridgePower, My Guitarist, and Saxxy J.


So enjoy a small pictorial return to those heady days of alternative funk rock n jazz fusion punk.

Not the Final Gig, but close.

One powering through the Final Gig.

The Final Crowd.

The Final Set List

And remember:

We're bicycle bad guys, we've got blood on our minds.....

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Three Years in the Reading...

Well today one finally finished one's reading of Tolstoy's War & Peace.

Or as I believe it should be called:
War & Peace & Peace & War & War & Peace & Peace & Peace & Peace & Peace & Peace & Peace & Peace & War & War & Peace & Long and Rambling Meta-Physical Second Epilogue.
In Summary: I tend to agree with  FridgePower's assessment of Tolstoy's work - needs more explosions and less Neighbours.

It has been one's in-between ebook reading - usually on one's phone - for occasions when one is without one's main read of the moment.

Still, despite the reading being a bit piecemeal, it did scratch one's Napoleonic itch somewhat.

It also gives an excellent feeling of what it would really have been like being involved in the Napoleonic Wars for the common upper-class aristocrat.
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Spin me Right Round...

... Like a Record baby

So last weekend was one's 45 birthday.

I had a smallish gathering with the minor theme of "Bring a 45".

There was some excellent catering by Salsa Girl assisted by Freeloading Mum - although I do have to take issue with the idea that I had to give everyone a piece of MY cheesecake birthday cake!

Being the theme instigator I dutifully hauled my pristine collection of 45s from the late 80s downstairs - about 50 of them in all. Amongst their number where such gems as Samantha Fox - Touch Me, of which, with my newly acquired mature status, one is not ashamed (although probably 15 year old Phill should be).

Several others provided their own input including ElfBoy with an extensive compilation collection; Legion2 with his hauntingly familiar collection (in that shared bedroom growing up kind of way); and Badger with some prime Brit Punk. I was, however, disappointed to see no Smith & Wessons brought along.

Badger's standout contribution was providing the whole audio and phonographic equipment, without which we would have been unable to hear these gems of the songwriters craft. Impressively the turntable was a vintage 80s Marantz still in perfect working order.

Dropping the ball on the theme front were BestFriendSincePrep and StumpyRudolph, representing one's school friends neither of them had any knowledge of their 45s, or indeed of which number drink they were up to.

Representing the creative side of music were past (and future??) band mates FridgePower and Judge Mingus, along with their own personal creations.

Most parts of the party went well, although Hulk did insist on being sensitive to strangers and require alternating bouts of individual care from Salsa Girl and oneself which was the sole reason there are parts of the party that one cannot recall.

After most had taken leave Legion2 and Pirate Dave (returning from DragonMim's overshadowing 50th event which kept many others away) stayed long into the evening playing the Magic card game and helping one with ones overabundance of whisky. In fact I believe I may have been playing the game on muscle memory at one point and events and my thinking became decidedly fuzzy around the 1:00 am mark.

All in all a most excellent occasion.
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The LEGO Party

Last weekend Hulk and I gave Salsa Girl some respite by attending a brick-based soirée.

Our inimitable host was Zombie Monkey and the occasion was the launching of his escape vessel for the escaping from our morally sinking country.

To this end he had created the crew as striking likenesses of many of the attendees.

I'm sure you will all marvel at the artistry he used to capture one’s visage as the ship's superhero in one's guise as Testosterone Man.

Zombie Monkey was also most generous with his Lego spare parts tubs allowing many who had not yet signed on to the crew to create their own likeness - although the sheer number of options was quite daunting.
Hulk herself had the dilemma of her natural blonde hair or a stormtrooper helmet.
FridgePower and Judge Mingus were busy sculpting their likeness while BallBoy created a masterful Darth Vader with pie-shooting canon, on a skateboard, holding a banana.

All in all a great afternoon, even if one's Sunday was filled with Hulk’s playful cries of "What happened to Tosterone Man’s head!"
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A Moving Time, Parte the Seconde

Further grand adventures that occurred include.

• 3 innumerable quests to IKEA in search of critical components for a new household
• finally finding time to watch my Xmas dvd of Dredd and pronouncing it a 4 star experience
• the successful procurement of Young Jim into the Tuesday Knights
• finishing the grand epic Wheel of Tedium with A Memory of Light which turned out to be quite a good read and wrap up of the story line with minimal braid tugging, earning itself a 4 star rating
• a mammoth Sunday's gaming recommencement with Badger, Pirate Dave, Young Jim, Legion, FridgePower, Judge Mingus, Ball Boy, Amoeba, ElfBoy, Gavman, lot's of boardgames and fun for all in The Gaming Garage
• what can only be described as a devouring of the first season of Game of Thrones
• much attendance at various supervisor training from which Sidekick will benefit - particularly the revelations about bullying
• extreme computer rollout busyness - you all know how much one loves that
• Pirate Dave's emergence as Mister Boardgames
• the return of footy watching
• a quite enjoyable read of Accellerando by Charles Stross
• finally finding time to watch my Xmas dvd of Prometheus and pronouncing it a 3 star experience
• a return to footy excursions with The Great Sandro and one's first ever Queen's Birthday match attendance
• a good catchup with The Viking Hat GM, Exploding Ninja Pony, The Mad Magyar, and Frenchy, as TVHGM and progeny celebrated their co-located birthdays with abundant cake
• a second Gaming Sunday, thus proving that there will be an ongoing pattern

And that catches us all up to an incredibly detailed level sothat you all know what has been going on in the wonderful world of The Tales.

See you all next week.

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A Moving Time

So we have mostly* finished the move into our new demesne.
         (* for values of mostly that include dozens of boxes still unpacked)

And I have finally unpacked the box that contained The Tales and so I am able to blow the dust off and recommence my commitment to regularly Blog once more.

Obviously it may take a little time to establish one's posting rhythm again - hmm, unless one chooses bimonthly as ones new frequency.


Some of the plethora of things that have whizzed by in these short two months of silence include, in sort of chronological order (imagine long and witty posts about each of these, if you will):

• many many hours of box packing activities and fending off repeated suggestions from Salsa Girl along the lines of "you could just throw out that bottle top" when it obviously has sentimental value.
• many hours of unpacking The Tiger from said packing boxes
• a gaming session at Gavman's new demesne
• the horror and panic of finding that Google had decided to close Google reader. Luckily Fantomas was on the case and things are happily humming along on Feedly these days.
• Hulk making the transition to her new cot
• a gadget upgrade and modernisation courtesy of work - the downside being the expectation that work will be done on work devices
• a mostly regular return to gaming at the hands of Badger with Fantomas, Pirate Dave, and Legion2 rounding out the party.
• the scary issues of mortgage documents going missing in the mail and much scrambling to create a replacement set in time
• news that Fantomas would forsake gaming for romance in a move to far distant realms of the city - pod person replacement is suspected - however the formulation of wresting back the hosting began at this moment
• inspections of the new place including obligatory revealing of heretofore unseen marks and stains
• drop by attacks on FridgePower, Judge Mingus, and their cohort
• a settlement day free of problems
• 2 dad's and a moving day both Handy Frank and Doctor David proving their worth
• the debut of The Gaming Garage as a venue for, well, gaming actually
• patching up the old place in preparation for becoming a bloody landlord
• introducing The Tiger to her new courtyard lifestyle
• quite a few hard settling nights as Hulk put her newly learned resistance skills into practise
• bidding a happy farewell to Supervisor Grand Chief K and Big J as they head OS (separately) leaving the rest of us to run amuck with the library service

to be continued . . .

A Legion of Parties

And a legion of excuses for lack of posting...

Shall one just briefly enumerate them: the endless work at work, the heat, a cranky and slightly under the weather Hulk, house hunting escapades, and a return to gaming.


So several weekends past saw myself, along with Salsa Girl and Hulk, attend a trio of swell soirees.

The first was Legion2's birthday bash for the gamer crowd, although disappointingly with no gaming occurring.
Despite that on us flaw a great time was had by all.
ElfBoy was there with Lil' Trucker running amok, as was Mr Magpie (no relation) with his little barrackers. Badger and Gavman were absent any spawn and Pirate Dave was at an inconvenient family do across town.

Salsa Girl and I ended the event by rushing off to inspect some potential property - our leaving causing the whole shindig to wrap up as it obviously couldn't sustain itself without our overwhelming presence.


From our inspection we made our way to FridgePower's self-organised surprise party. I think she fooled herself right up until the party began.
Hulk did not allow us to linger to long but one did manage to catch up with fridge herself as well as Judge Mingus and an unanticipated Zombie Monkey.


The next day was the traditional family party in honour of oneself and Legion2. The event was rather more niece and grand child focused than one really deserves for ones day of honour, but they are all so cute one can't really compete.


Well once again you are all updated on the happenings of the tales and once again I promise to keep to my weekly-ish publishing schedule so keep watching the skies for my next posting...
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Getting the Band Back Together

So this deferred Australia Day Holiday saw My Guitarist host a barbecue at his Southerly residence to which much of the band was invited. Of course FridgePower and Judge Mingus come as a package deal these days so it was a tad easier to get the band members various on site, however, sadly, illness (and not musical differences as reported in the papers) prevented the appearance of LittleBigGirl.

In typical drumming fashion oneself - with Salsa Girl and Hulk in tow - did not arrive until the second verse but then immediately guided the rhythm of the remainder of the afternoon as the rest of the band followed my lead and gathered around my anchoring presence - it had nothing to do with my entrancing them all with Hulk's bountiful cuteness, I swear.

Typically most of the younger generation ignored my rock star presence, not to the Scary Uncle Phill levels of the past mind you, but you would think that  I would warrant more than a cursory hello from Thumper and Ball Boy seeing as I was apparently their second-favourite person in the world.

Still as they say, in the world of rock and roll, fame is fleeting.
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New Year, New Publishing Schedule

So I've finally managed to fulfil that promise to myself and change my publishing schedule.
The problem seems to be that I have moved it the wrong way. Sigh - three weeks.

Still it was the feast-ive season and one did have an awful lot of feast-iveness to attend to.
The work side of things was quite the herculean task, given that one has four workplaces at which to put in a good showing and the overall council soiree.

On the home front I did have help from Salsa Girl and Hulk although I did buckle up (buckle down?) and shoulder the majority of the consummative workload - not one, nor two, but three Xmas's''''!!
And all of them part of Hulk's first Xmas, and therefore requiring extra levels of celebration.


Amongst all that was the traditional migration northward for the seeing in of the New Year. This year was seen in from bed, counting down the last seconds then promptly off with the lights and giving in to the fatigue. Thank you Hulk for that change to our partying style - one may never be the last to leave again.


Speaking of traditions, one normally does some sort of roundup of the year in gaming and the general quality of The Tales. However as one has been on gaming hiatus for several quarters now (baring some Internet ancients sparing with Young Jim) and one also failed to out post FridgePower or even pass the half-century and the fact that it has become quite late and Hulk threatens to cut short ones slumber yet again (if The Tiger does not beat her to it) one had better get to bed rather than wallow in trifling statistics.

See you all in another regularly scheduled three weeks.
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The Sidekick Search

Those who have known me for a while will be aware of my alter ego spawned during the heady days of Malaclypse III in the company of the likes of FridgePower, Judge Mingus, My Guitarist, Tuck, and other assorted musos - Testosterone Man - possibly related to fervent pounding of drums and other rugged and manly pursuits.

In any case the lack of a sidekick has held me/him back in all endeavours for many a decade.

I have tried many avenues to protégée procurement:

• trials of Rhythm Section equals - Judge Mingus did not last long before soloing off on his own
• grow your own - knocked on the head by Salsa Girl as Hulk is apparently too young to be cruising the streets fighting crime
• recruitment - alas, while an awesome gaming addition, Young Jim, has proven rather reluctant on the whole smashing things to bits front. (and what's more he has a tendency to betrayal as evidenced by a 3 nil thrashing he once handed out to me while in league with Badger)
• pleading with Supervisor Grand Chief K for the necessary help in getting all my work demons defeated - repeatedly scoffed at and uncomprehendingly disbelieved about the amount of effort required to make librarians happy on the IT front

However recently the stars seem to have aligned. Not only have I managed to finally rid the library of the scourge of marketing for once and all, but the resulting employment gap has been deigned to be filled with an IT Sidekick!

Supervisor Grand Chief K did, however, make sure it was not all puppies and roses for me as she dropped the responsibility for the "Recruitment Process" into my lap. Hence I have been up to my neck in SeekSpam and resume reading for weeks now. Culminating in a day of interviews in which I had to suffer through Devil's Advocate always offering the other point of view, and other various moments of me not getting my whim. Honestly I don't know what I was thinking putting together that interview panel.

Still we are very close now and it shouldn't be long before I can strut out at work with a sidekick by my side (and slightly behind).

Of course we are local government so not long is probably next Autumn.
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A Dream of Longhorn the Minotaur

So I had this dream the other night.

Or rather, fragment of a dream, as these things tend to not have nice clean beginnings and endings.

I was visiting FridgePower, Judge Mingus, Ball Boy, and Thumper. As is the way of dreams, stuff that one can't remember had already happened and my awareness and memory begins with Judge Mingus and I talking together in a room.

The good Judge was quite excited and bursting to contain himself and then looking around said:

"oh, you have to see my Longhorn The Minotaur costume. Ball Boy and Thumper love it and FridgePower won't be back for a while."

With that he grabbed a towel and began spinning it into a solid tube locker-room jape style, before turning around and ripping his shirt off. I was confronted with a broad-shouldered muscular back, covered in scars and tufts of ginger.

He spun back around suddenly and the first thing I noticed was that his missing eye - which had been a poorly healed scar earlier while still being completely normal - was now covered with a rather large piratical eye-patch.

And then, mercifully, I awoke.

Being the rugged and manly personage one is, I did not awake screaming.

But it was close.
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Hulk - The Early Weeks

When one began composing this post it was rather naively entitles - Hulk, the Early Days.

Well since then the piecemeal nature at which one was able to add ones brilliant thoughts to the draft had made me believe that I was looking at having to re title it as - Hulk. Year One. While one would surely have enjoyed basking in the kudos this would have brought from such graphical story telling literati as Zombie Monkey and The Real Greg Dean, it has eventuated that my deadline has stretched out to mere weeks.

In any case many are the things that have occurred during the early days weeks of the time of Hulk.

One has been head down in reading materials wide and sundry - finishing long bookmark-laden tomes and making visible progress on one's to-be-read stacks, various. In fact all but the nigh insurmountable penultimate Wheel of Tedium volume have fallen beneath the scythe of my reading gaze.

One has had occasion to watch many a late night movie and has begun filling in may of the glaring holes in ones experience of the past few decades cinema. For example one now knows that Tom Hanks gets off the island.

One has even managed to make some small steps of progress in ones gaming projects in a way that may even make Fantomas believe that they could become real when one next attends the Tuesday Knights.

One has had several meetings in passing with Salsa Girl and even shared several meals.

Of course there has been some time spent with young Hulk. Why we've had special daddy-daughter time watching the mighty pies (and another team that looks similar but seems to have lost the mighty bit).

Hulk unable to bear the skill errors.

We also tried our hand at bonding over some solo gaming - managing to see off those pesky Persians at Thermopylae and winning the Battle of the Five Armies for the Orcs.

There have been visit from relatives various, a handful of friends, and late night hallucinations of the interesting kind.

As predicted by FridgePower one has been able to indulge in the ancient art of poo smearing - although much of the training I undertook cleaning up after The Tiger has gone to waste as there has been a suspicious lack of any positing (the nice word for baby vomiting) particularly of the furball kind.

In amongst all this Legion2 and the BrotherStealer have seen fit to try and steal my hard-earned spotlight by delivering their second a full six weeks early. One can only be glad that Freeloading Mum and Handy Dad have been away all this time so there would be no unseemly squabbling for the favour that is rightfully mine.

In any case this disjointed report has brought you up to date with the trials and tribulations we have been undergoing for the past few days weeks.

It only gets easier from here they tell me.

And then they snigger.
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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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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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