Art, Coin, Garden Miscellany News

Art: A few days ago I created a lame sketch of Kim. It's nothing at all to brag about. I can, however, brag about Erin, who creates wonderful page-filling watercolors and encourages her sister to do the same.

Coin: I received a gift certificate for the Louisville Numismatic Exchange. The horrible thing about that is that it's so finite. I look at it and think, "I can spend this, and then it's all over. I'll be able to get nothing else." It makes it very hard to decide what to get. Over the past month or so, though, my coin-collecting obsession has ebbed, as it does from time to time. Now spare me-time goes to a few other Web sites, reading, and brushing up on various game rules. Numismatics will come back with a vengeance soon enough.

Garden: It's only January 11, but the warm mooshy weather gets me in the mood for diggin'. Due to said weather, my hollyhocks are sprouting, and the daffodils and crocuses (and perhaps some tulips) are coming up. That could be trouble. I'd sure like some bitterly cold weather to kill off both garden vermin and whatever is making me sneeze (besides my head cold). I've been talking big to Erin about my garden plans this year, but I need to remember that I tend to bite off more than I can chew. My big new plan for this year's garden: Watermelons.

Skepticism: The poinsettia didn't kill me, nor did I retch, hallucinate, or get the vile squelchies. I sat by my phone for hours and hours awaiting a call from those "Mythbusters" guys, but they must not read this blog.

Dreams: I couple of nights ago, I dreamed I was on the Moon with two other astronauts. I was collecting soil samples, and found a bunch of mud at the bottom of a crater. Inside the mud were greenish spots that looked like algae. It was amazing. We were very excited that we might have found both water and life on the Moon.

Games: 1) I got the board game "Puerto Rico" for Christmas, but I'm not up on the rules yet. Looks pretty cool, though, and maybe I'll get a chance to play it soon. 2) Also, after a three-year absence, I'm working on getting back into my Dungeons & Dragons campaign. We'd pick up right where we left off. I've mentioned it to my fellow gamers, and it was met with a very positive reaction, and now that I've brought it up I'm sure it's expected so I guess I better get cracking. 3) Kim and I played "Seafarers of Catan" for the first time last weekend. We played with Brooke and David. It was fun, and I'm looking forward to playing it again with some of the game board variations. David won. Kim had a remarkable showing. I performed very poorly, which has happened with alarming frequency in recent "Catan" games.

Movies: Brian, Kevin, and I saw "Children of Men" last Friday, and it was very good. Though I found the story engaging, I was equally impressed by how the movie was put together technically. It was a finely crafted film. Some of the sequences were very clever. And if you ever wanted to see a tense action/thriller movie in which most of the good guys never so much as touch a gun, this is it. (Spoiler: Actually, none of the good guys touch a gun, I think. But you don't realize this until half way into the movie. That's when you find out some of the good guys are bad guys.)