An Overdue Update

It has been a while, hasn't it. Neglecting my blog I have been, yes. Well, let's see...

My brother-in-law and my sister are back home now, after their ordeal in NYC. His leg is mangled from the surgery. They didn't put it in a cast, oddly enough. Instead they cut him open and permanently bolted a steel rod to his leg bones. An "internal cast" if you will. He will now set off metal detectors for the rest of his life. He was very glad to finally get home and is now most likely playing World of Warcraft until his brains ooze out his ears. His most profound statement regarding his misfortune? "This fuckin' sucks! I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy!" Tell us how you really feel, mon frère...

Last weekend was the Pre-Release Tournament for the latest Magic the Gathering set. You non-Card Floppers can skip to the next paragraph, as I am about to engage in some serious Magic Geek Talk. The format of the tourney was sealed deck and my card pool wasn't particularly amazing. No Planeswalkers or real game enders (also known as bombs). The best card I pulled was a Mutavault, which is handy, but hardly game breaking. Not in sealed deck, anyway. I have a wicked cool idea for a constructed deck built around it, though. Have to try that when time permits. Anyway, I ended up winning the first match 2-1 with an aggressive black/red build full of Goblin and Fairie Rogues. I ended up with a surprising amount of creature removal spells that way, so I was able to decimate my opponent's forces quite effectively. This allowed me to crush him under a horde of my sneaky minions. Unfortunately, we had to leave after the first round to go watch my step-son play in a basketball game. At least we got to keep the new cards. My wife didn't do as well in her match, but she wound up with a couple of really nice new cards (a legendary elf for her elf deck that's just freakin' scary and a big-ass Elemental for another deck of hers). All in all, a good day.

And speaking of basketball, I'm not a huge fan of it, or any other modern team sport for that matter. I consider most athletes, especially high school athletes, to be nothing more than arrogant, abusive bullies. I suffered their "loving" attentions all through school and could watch those people be torn apart by wild dogs with a happy smile on my face. Am I bitter? Hell, yes, and with good reason. I will admit, however, that my step-son shows a lot of promise in the athletic arena. He's a sixth-grader that occasionally gets to play on the middle school varsity basketball team (7th and 8th graders). And he holds his own, usually. But during the game we went to on Saturday, he made a 3-point shot that was nothing less than amazing. Even I was impressed and that is saying something. Way to go, Kid! Now don't get cocky...

We have a regional rapier practice coming up tomorrow. It's about 4 hours away, though, so we'll have to leave out way too damn early in the morning to get there at a decent time. The things we do for our art... But, we do need to hone our skills. With Gulf Wars coming up soon, we need all the honing we can get. "Gulf Wars?", says you. "The biggest SCA event in the Southeast," says I. It's an official Big Deal to us, especially since I'm the current General of my Kingdom's rapier forces and my wife, Ysabel, is one of my sub-commanders. I'm of the belief that fortune favors the prepared and so off to the Regional Practice we go. Of course, fortune also favors those who get enough sleep, but you can't have everything I suppose.

And that is what is going on in my wonderful life at the moment. Exciting, huh?