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Do I have a perverse fondness for lard, or is tallow just inherently nasty? Either way, when recipes advise me to drain the fat, I had best heed them if I'm cooking beef.
(5 servings later) Do you know, I think I may be allergic to beef tallow. Great.
I wolfed down a pile of Mexican-style marinated beef, pork cutlets, pork chops, a hot dog, and innumerable crackers, chips, and dollops of guacamole. After the meat, ML's wife L arrived with the birthday cake, complete with letter candles spelling out "happy birthday" and a big "7" candle. This magnificent display was a little overambitious with a strong wind blowing, and I ended up being effectively responsible for blowing out the number candle by taking my hands away from it after we'd finished singing the song.
After that there were toasted marshmallows, s'mores, and conversations ranging over a variety of subjects, including debugging audiovisual installations, cars, jets, Easter eggs in Google Maps and Excel, bars, strip clubs, and the crime rate in Redwood City as compared to Sunnyvale. Then I went home and noodled on the computer until I recovered the feeling in my hands. The night-time chill kind of sneaks up on you in northern California.
"When you read this, quote The Princess Bride in your journal."
"As you wish."
Alien Dice, Tiffany Ross, Shivae Studios:
I believe this is the first colour print edition of the comic, at least in a reasonable format. If you've seen the first 4 dozen comics online, you know the story. I haven't been following the online version for a good long time, but this is a reminder of why it caught my attention. The back cover is by Amber M. Panyko, which I recognized by the particular mouth lines that many of her original characters have.
Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 #2, David Petersen, Archaia Studios:
The party of guardsmice gets split up on their way back to Lockhaven with some elixir or other, with Kenzie, Sadie, and Saxon in an abandoned weasel tunnel. On the surface are Lieam and Celanawe, the legendary "Black Axe" from the first book. Celanawe lectures Lieam on self-sufficiency while Kenzie et al play off each other on their way through Darkheather, which turns out to be not entirely abandoned after all.
And I see that I had missed this issue entirely when I read #3, and didn't notice. Figures.
Tiffany and Charlotte #3-4, Fred Perry and J.L. Anderson, Antarctic:
Charlotte's more-or-less stepmother Penny Pincer (if this name bothers you, you're reading the wrong series) takes her out on a driving lesson, using a hovercraft because Penny's car is nervous about someone as flaky as Charlotte driving it. (Why "Kit" can't just ignore a driver who does something suicidal, I don't know.) Penny sets the controls to run a simulation and takes a nap, which is a complete and utter brain-fart given the fact that Tiffany and her host of nano-robots are on board. Hilarity ensues. Also sea monsters.
Issue #4 opens with the certifiable Ms. Giggle putting everyone through a a practical mid-term exam on nerve gas. Pojo and Tiffany aren't instantly killed, but their vocal cords are paralyzed for a day, leaving them utterly at the mercy of Charlotte's schoolgirl fantasies about their future together, which reach near-creepy levels of embarrassment when it becomes clear that she has no idea where babies actually come from. Cringe-inducing in the extreme, but not without a certain oblique charm.
Gold Digger: Peebo Tales #1 and #3, Fred Perry, Antarctic:
A reprise in colour of the Peebo Manga stories. I may not keep them around, but I don't regret picking them up.
Perhapanauts #4, Todd Dezago, Craig Rousseau, and Jason Armstrong, Image:
The Perhapanauts' base of Bedlam is evacuated, but things are not as they seem. Suddenly, bees! Or moth-men, whichever.
Madame Xanadu #1-4, Matt Wagner and Amy Reeder Hadley,
Warner Bros:
I was sort of curious as to what Matt Wagner would make of a character I'd
only seen briefly in Gaiman & co.'s The Books of Magic,
so I picked these up. Ms. Xanadu has an intimidating magical
resumé indeed, including Merlin, Marco Polo, and another TBoM
character, the Stranger, who directs her in ensuring that various legends
work out on schedule. It's not clear how much choice she has in things,
but I guess that's one of the hazards of prophecy.
Castle Waiting #12, Linda Medley, Fantagraphics:
A game of ninepins dovetails into a discussion of the somewhat, OK, severely
disturbed Dr. Fell, and how he got that way. If you guessed the Black Death,
you win a no-prize; what else is it going to be? The specific circumstances
are more interesting, involving a quarantine island outside of Venice.
Burn #6, Camilla d'Errico, Scott Sanders, and Chenoa Ryks,
Arcana Studio:
Apparently a half-human, half-machine hybrid is going to tend toward the
human side, because robots just can't get mad the way humans can.
The supporting characters are as interesting as Burn and his sort-of
sister Aeya, or even more so,
but of course this doesn't prevent some of them from getting killed off.
