I think I mentioned before that I've decided to split up my remaining vacation time this year into several little mini-vacations.

In the past, I've pretty much just used it all for this pool tournament in January. This year I'm only going to use up two days for the tournament, and the remaining (5 days currently) I'll use to create or extend some 3-day weekends and take short trips. Like I did with Omaha last Spring, Portland this past March or with Cincinnati this past weekend.

I have fun on these trips, and I've decided that I need to take more of them.

So I've put a form on my where I've been page for you readers to suggest places for me to go.

All reasonable suggestions will be considered.

Telling me to go to Hell, while both predictable and humorless, is unfortunately not something I'll be able to consider. I've already been there. Didn't like it much.

(response to message)

Yeah, I know. I don't really like it either. The ending sucks, and so does the writing.

I just couldn't leave the poor guy in pain forever, so I had to end it somehow.

A happy ending was not an option. Never was, really.

I could have done a better job of wrapping things up, but I decided that it would be better to just get it over with.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

His reawakening complete, his body restored, his pain faded, he begins kicking furiously, driving himself upward. His head breaks the surface, followed by his torso, his legs, and finally his feet.

He continues to rise.

Looking in wonder at the waters below him, he realizes that he is finally free of their grip. He soars, free and safe.

But only for a moment.

For he died in the depths, and he was reborn in the depths. Without their cold embrace he cannot exist.

He is smiling when he evaporates.

It was so worth it.

The end.

I tan fast, and I fade even faster. Kind of like some other things that I can't think of right now.

Today I welcomed two old friends back into my life.

First, out of the blue, I got a text message from RealTrainGirl. She is apparently finished being pissed at me, though she denies having ever been, and wanted to see if I was going to Rich O's after work. I was, and she did too.

The second reunion of the day was in the form of NABC's Cone Smoker, back after being gone for over a year. Of course I had some.

New Albanian Cone Smoker (Second Coming)

(draft) The second brewing of this beer, this time from NABC's new brewer, has a slightly tweaked recipe. Or so I hear. Pretty good. To compare to the rauchbiers that I've had the most of lately: Slightly less bite than Spezial, slightly less smoke than NABC Noble Smoker, but could probably pass for either one. Very minimal carbonation though - a trait that's pretty common with all NABC beers.

To tell the truth, I'm not enough of a beer guru to understand the difference between this and the NABC Noble Smoker that ran in the Spring. I'm also not sure I understand the need for two such similar brews in the NABC stable. Buy hey, when it comes to rauchbiers, the more the merrier.

Also, this near-total lack of carbonation has become something of a trademark for this little brewery. I find it to be something that I just put up with, like the broken springs on the sofa and the fruit flies that surround me whenever I have a Belgian beer.

So one of my female readers helped clarify the I saw him first rule that I described the other day.

According to her, the whole female loyalty thing only affects whether a woman is going to make the first move or not. When the right guy makes the first move, all sisterhood is out the window.

This make perfect sense to me, and it also explains several of the exceptions to the rule that I've seen over the years.

Now I have to ask MixedSignalGirl why she didn't fill me in about this nuance of the rule.

Just some alternative, and better, endings to the 2005 comic from Monday.

Just working on a new archive page.

(update: Okay, well that was fun I guess. It had better have been fun because it's the only thing I did all day Tuesday. Besides work and sleep I mean.)

Which Revenge of the Sith Character are you?