Muskrat Ramblings

I’m home again. And in a very weird emotional kind of quiet place. I’m amazingly glad to be back with the Lovely and Talented Judith, who is, indeed, the love of my life – to say nothing of being the other half of me. Still, I’m very sad to be away from the rest of […]

One thing I’m enjoying about my time in London, apart from how well my dad is doing, is getting to engage in a bit of foodie geekdom while helping the family out. My mom’s letting me cook (for once), and yesterday I made some Black Bean and Jalapeno soup for everyone, served with a great […]

Is anybody else a Music Geek here? I mean, the sort of person who watched (or read — or most likely did both) “High Fidelity,” and thought “yeah…that’s me…” In a previous incarnation (about ten years ago), I used to write music reviews for the local Madison morning newspaper. One of these days, I’ll come […]

London calling. It’s been a GREAT day, so I’m not sure why REM’s “Bad Day” keeps running through my mind… My Dad’s operation is over, and he made it through spectacularly. The triple bypass went so well, in fact, that they didn’t even put him in intensive care, afterwards. He looks great (everyone was prepping […]

It’s finally hitting me: I’m missing GENCON. I haven’t been keeping exact count, but this is, like, the first GenCon I’ll be missing in decades. Of course, where my mind’s at right now, that’s a minor, minor thing. I’m leaving for London tomorrow, to be with family for my dad’s heart operation and recuperation. I’m […]

And you may find yourself in Espoo, Finland. And you may find yourself naked, surrounded by dozens of similarly naked Finnish con-goers, in a sauna,with beer and vodka flowing freely, having the time of your life. And you may ask yourself, “how did I get here?” In five easy pieces. PIECE THE FIRST: FRIDAY – […]

Why are there no new cartoons up this week? Let me relate to you the Last 72 hours of an 18-hour trip: WEDNESDAY MORNING THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING Greetings from HELSINKI! Uh…I mean Toronto. I should be at Ropecon by now. Instead, Judith and I were lucky to find an open Tim Horton’s next to the […]

Lotsa work to do before flying to Finland this Wednesday. With connections and layovers and everything, Judith and I have almost 24 hours of travel ahead of us, but we’re both amazingly excited about going to RopeCon. My only regret is that we didn’t have more time there. I’d have loved to arrange a trip […]

James Doohan is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s ‘Star Trek’s’ Scotty Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actor James Doohan, best known as Scotty, the feisty, Scottish-accented chief engineer on television’s original “Star Trek” series, has been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, his agent said on Wednesday. I once had the extreme pleasure […]

I’m just not good at post-Convention reports. In part this is probably because cons are like unto a whirlwind of activity for me. Another reason may be that I possess not the Ken Hite-ish brainpower needed to remember minutia to its fullest extent. A third reason is that I’m usually too busy jumping directly into […]