Everybody's working for the weekend

Once again, another weekend is swallowed by the coils of inescapable entropy. This one went spinning on by in a mad frenzy of visitors, Apples to Apples, Scene-It, pizza from two different local restaurants, inflatable mattresses, geek shops, Magic cards, comic books, HeroClix, wonderfully prepared hors d'oeuvres and Boston Market food. A fabulous time was had, as always when the Colletts and Gibsons visit. Shining moments that stand out in my memory --

* My constant pride at SuperFiancee's amazing facility as a hostess. She's fabulously adept at so many things, but where she really excels is in making visitors feel at home. Her charm, her wit, her graciousness, and her astonishing skills as a cook and a decorator all combine to make her the sort of person you'd really expect to see doing this sort of thing in the White House for foreign dignitaries. A surly curmudgeon like myself generally just wants to hide in the closet and read comic books by flashlight when the house is full of folks, even folks I like as much as the Gibsons and Colletts. But in this, as in everything else, SuperFiancee is truly my better half, and I am the luckiest guy in the world to have her willingly taking on that odious duty.

* Opening the sealed carry bag Tony C had brought in with him and finding it chock full of Boston Market food, which Tony and SuperFiancee had conspired together to bring to me. SuperFiancee knows that Boston Market and the swimming pool at my former apartment complex were the only things I missed from Florida, and thanks to her and Tony, I got a big hit of some much mourned rotisserie chicken, mac n' cheese, mashed potatoes, and stuffing on Saturday. Tony was even nice enough to pick the carrots out of the stuffing for me. And, the fridge is still full of leftovers, so I get Boston Market for lunch all week long!

* Conversation at Fat Jimmy's Saturday night. It emerged, somehow, that not only am I the only person in our group who 'really knows how to order a pizza', but, apparently, I cannot be killed or butchered, either! You have no idea how relieved I am to hear both items stated aloud.

* Tony C. presenting me with another couple of nice little presents upon his arrival -- a Golden Age Wonder Woman HeroClix figure, the New Guy Night giveaway for the upcoming ORIGINS expansion. I hadn't anticipated being able to get one other than buying her off the secondary market, and it really is a nice looking sculpt. The graphics, including the dial, are from Mike Norton's fine website.

The other present Tony gave me was a miniature bust of Clark Kent turning into Superman, modeled on the most recent Superman movie. While that particular version of Superman is far from a favorite here, nonetheless, the bust is beautifully sculpted, and I'm very happy to have it. So thanks for that, Tony. You are officially dubbed a Knight Errant of Castle Anthrax. No, you may not have any peril.

* Hearing Lisa G mention how much her husband Mark likes HeroClix... not the game, but just the little figures. This gave me the opportunity to throw together a box of my spare figures for him, something I always enjoy doing.

* GHOST RIDER -- a memorable movie, if not for anything anyone sane would really want to remember. Predictable plot twists, terrible dialogue, relentlessly bad acting, and massive internal stupidities so abounded that my only real option was to either turn off my brain and just look at the pretty special effects, or poke my eyes out and rupture my eardrums with my soda straw so I wouldn't have to perceive any more of it. To the extent I'm capable of doing so, I chose the former, but still, it was a painful experience. Having said that, though, it's worth pointing out that whoever was in charge of the visuals for the film was a true dyed in the wool GHOST RIDER fan, as everywhere you turned, there was something taken straight out of some panel of a GHOST RIDER comic book. Peter Fonda's Mephistopheles looked like he'd stepped directly from a Frank Robbins panel onto the celluloid.

And I'm sure I'm badly, badly shortchanging the weekend, but time and TARC wait for no man. I'm off into my Monday. I hope all of you who aren't trying to get some stranger attacked in public have a wonderful day.