Quote by redwriter
I have had my heart broken many times by my local football (soccer) team, since I was 8 years old and that was a long, long time ago.

OMG, a sports team that's even more of a heartbreaker than the Toronto Maple Leafs (Hockey). They last won the Stanley Cup, and made a final, when I was 2. But I'm younger than you so that translates to fewer heartbreaks, I would imagine.

Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood morning!!

How's everyone doing?

There's some nice dark roast in the coffee pot, Earl Grey and English Breakfast in the tea pots. Iced tea is freshly made for those in need of something chilly, and the soda stock is inventoried and replenished.

Writing requires time and imagination.

Avantasia has been coming up in my Youtube recommendations for a while since the project is on Nuclear Blast, the same label as a lot of European bands I listen to (including Nightwish). I finally started listening and am quite hooked. It's the pet project of Tobias Sammet, a German guitarist and singer. The albums are generally concept albums (i.e. have a story) and are often in pairs or even trilogies. He regularly pulls in a list of other metal vocalists to join him on the albums. His latest single, for an album due out this fall, features Nightwish's Floor Jansen joining him on vocals. It is one of two songs she is featured on apparently. Previous vocalists have included Alice Cooper, Klaus Meine (Scorpions), Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation) and Floor's former Nightwish colleague Marko Hietala, as well as a stable of "regulars" who seem to be on all of the Avantasia projects.

Salman Rushdie. Hope his injuries aren't too serious.

Author Salman Rushdie attacked on lecture stage in New York | AP News

Unfortunately, her whims sometimes involve becoming Queen of more than just dragons

5717 (yeast goes in the bread to leaven)

Quote by DenimAngel

Got a nasty stomach bug and it turns out It's h.pylori which is a bacterial infection It's nasty and the antibiotics are yuck .

Gotta watch that one, eh. Can lead to ulcers and other wonderful stomach issues. Take your meds like a good girl. 😋

Takes a mailbox and a screendoor along with some Cream of Earl Grey.

Working on the deck today (as in, using the deck as an office, not actually fixing or renovating the deck, much as it needs some TLC). Lovely weather. Supposed to start going downhill (chance of showers) later in the day tomorrow.

Winds keep sailboats moving forward.

Sash - Dash (in a hurry)

Quote by elizabethblack
I went for a kidney and bladder sonogram today.

Speaking of drainage. 🤣

Ape is kind of getting back into the swing of things. COVID plus vacation has been a bit disorienting. Coffee is a dark roast from Ethiopia. Teas are Cream of Earl Grey and Red Rose. Fresh iced tea is in the fridge and the sodas are stocked.

So let us gather here in the home of coffee, tea, and chit chat and enjoy the end of another fine working week.

5711 (off to heaven)

Piss - Pass (only in the left lane, please)

Ringing in ears is bad.

Quote by gillianleeza
Boring here, hot and humid with wild thunderstorms that brought flash flooding in places and flooded part of the beltway; that never happens.

Ouch. We have regular city streets around here that are prone to flooding but a beltway? Someone needs to look into the drainage, me thinks.

Our weather is cooler now, with the humid stuff ending this past weekend. Nice today.

Quote by Survivor
Every member's profile I have checked shows them as a Platinum member.

On here? Interesting. Haven't looked. Wonder if they had to do that because of some of the changes they've been making around limiting access to messaging for non-members over there. Instead of having a different code base for this site, just make everyone Platinum by default to override the limitations. Just employing my IT guy logic here. 😉

Quote by verbal
I might take a break and enter the noir contest on another site. I actually have a plot!

I have an idea but not sure I actually want to enter that one yet. I also have a new sff idea that I'm itching to work on that might engage me better than a noir would. Basically, I'll start writing and see which one takes off.

Sorry I'm not around much. Life is being life.

Later, alligators.

5704 (now you get to hear me roar)

I have a story that I am trying to write. Should it be straight romance or over the top s-f/fantasy (Yeah, right, this is me. We know where that one is going to land)? Should she be just the lady from down the lake or a cosmic level superhero (ditto)? Is she from these here parts or light years away (Still meditating on this one)? So much to think about just to set a story at my cottage (well, I did that once before but in a rather different genre).

Coffee is brewed and there's English Breakfast and Wakoucha in the teapots. Iced tea is fresh and soda supply looks good.

Off to a cousin's place for the afternoon. Have a good one folks!

Okay, so I was up at my cottage with crappy Internet (just the LTE on my phone and even that was so-so) but I am back. Steamy weather here right now. High twenties and humid. Had some storms roll through last night.

Coffee is a fine Jamaican Blue Mountain, teas are Red Rose and Earl Grey. Restocked the sodas in the fridge and made a pot of iced tea.

scarfs two cookies and ducks out

And there's power metal greats Blind Guardian, still going strong after nearly 40 years with lead singer Hansi Kursch in front for the whole time. Their new album is still pending, but the early releases have been terrific.

Ghost's Impera may be my favorite album so far this year.

Quote by gillianleeza
You must show up for three days every month at the federal courthouse for a year. They can extend that another six months if they want.

Yee-ouch. We don't use grand juries up here so not a problem for me but holy hell. I didn't get picked when I finally got summoned and I am not sure what even ended up happening with that trial. It was starting just before the pandemic hit. Ontario largely did away with juried trials during the pandemic and trials by judge only were on Zoom (or similar).

Buddha's Blend (see above)

Quote by verbal
It's kinda boring, kinda exciting when things are working.

I have always found that editing just ... drags ... on but then I will find a way to seriously improve something or even find a plot hole or hook that I can work on and suddenly it's interesting again.

Hi there! Sorry I missed your b-day, Jeff. I am at my family's cottage and the Internet sucks so I haven't been online much.

No writing going on, but getting some reading done that might prove inspirational down the road.

Alarm

Dove - Dive (into the pool)

Central

Writer fires up his typewriter.