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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The Towers of Midnight by "Brian"* Sanderson

Firstly before I get to today's agenda let me apologise for the recent lack of posting.
I have suffered through a small bought of man-cold (not after all, it turns out, the Swan Flu that Big J is grappling with) and have been occupied for the rest of my time alternating between Baby Whispering and Cat Shouting - possibly getting it mixed up at inappropriate times much to Hulk and The Tiger's chagrin.

Now onto today's agenda. Let me apologise for once again mentioning the Wheel o' Tedium books but breathe easy in knowing that we are almost there with this being the penultimate volume. It does appear that Mr Sanderson has been true to his word and is wrapping up the story in three books rather than the 14 or so that Robert Jordan's outline would have lead him to write.

So well done Brian* in writing a volume that moves the story on upon multiple fronts and finally feels like it will actually all come to a head in the next volume. I award it 6 Dune prequels.


* name changed to protect the innocent and not at all to annoy nit-picking Nurse Nige who I have no need of annoying especially since the great "Feargal Sharkey's Best Song" debate of '01 - "You Little Thief" indeed!
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A Grand Day

So this weekend has seen a grand day that shall go down in the annuls of history. Why it shall be spoken of in conversations for decades to come and shouted from the rafters for all eternities!
Well it will at least be noted as: "Oh yeah, that's good".

It was the occasion of oneself and Hulk's first expedition sans Salsa Girl which would allow her some relief from our annoying antics. It was a major undertaking as one left the house, festooned with all of the various paraphernalia that is required for the happy keeping of Hulk.

The choice of excursion was the regular collection of one's 2000AD comics (the home of Judge Dredd) from the newsagent that has been gracious enough to keep putting them aside for one for the past several decades and can endure a bi-monthly collection schedule as opposed to the rather stringent fortnightly that most establishments demand.

So there I was with nappy bag, carry harness, emergency bottle and finally one's own modest excursion bag for the holding of one's newly acquired comics hitting the road on a great trek North and learning much about automobile travel and small humans. It seems that direct sunlight can be quite distressing for the little ones, especially when it is in their eyes directly - as one discovered upon turning into a more exposed street and finding ones aural capabilities under sudden cacophonous assault.
In any case one short stop and adjustment of light blocking gauze later we were on our way again and one of us returned to snoozeville.

After that drama collection was no great hassle, although Hulk does have a no stopping rule when being carried which makes awaiting service at a counter a tad difficult.

Soon enough we were back in our vehicle and bound for a quick visit to Legion3, Madmog, and their little one. Some awesome daddy-led feeding and snoozing ensued and the stay stretched out until we returned home to Salsa Girl who had found out that she may have missed our annoying antics after all.
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Oh, there was another Grand part to the weekend as the Big J mandate had Hulk and myself supporting the Swans in juxtaposition to The Great Sandro who was following his childhood team.
Justice and good prevailed on the day and both Hulk and I were quite chuffed in our red and white.
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Stephen King's Wind Through the Keyhole

I finished this one the other day on one of my innumerable train sojourns now that I am well and truly back at the coal-face.

The Wind Through the Keyhole is a return to the story of King's Dark Tower. The Dark Tower series being one of one's favourite things in the world. Therefore I looked upon this with a lot of anticipation and a little trepidation.
It turns out that I had nothing to be worried about. I found it a welcome return to the world of the Dark Tower - as book four and a half - and thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in the story - or should I say stories. With this novel I think Steve has hit upon a good way to express his past decades fascination with formats and structures of writing. The story within a story within a story format works a treat here and my only disappointment is that it all ended too soon.

I give it four and a half stars and now worry that I am sorely tempted to re-read the final 3 books of the series.
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