Quote by JamesPBear
It's always been my favourite flavour, ever since I was a kid.

Coffee-flavoured ice creams or other desserts are about the only way I like coffee. Can't stand to actually drink the stuff for whatever reason (though I've made the odd exception for some of the flavoured ones).

Good day. Off shortly to pick up my new computer. With us tightening up management of work laptops, I've decided that it is time to curtail my personal use of my work machine. Have also been rejigging our home offices and network. Plus regular housecleaning (I wash and vacuum floors, wife dusts).

Cute note on the new computer: About 24 years ago this week, I started in my current role. Since I was the first ever IT person at the company, my first task was to actually order and setup my own laptop. At the time, we were buying Acer Travelmates, a good, basic workhorse business box from the Taiwanese company. My new computer that I ordered almost 24 years to the day later? An Acer Travelmate. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.

Quote by Meagananne1986

Been to every state except,Alaska and it's a definite bucket list item (Denali National Park and Mount Denali, highest peak in North America)

I've only been to the panhandle on a cruise and even that is gorgeous. Denali is still a "maybe someday" item.

In North America, car. In Europe, train.

AC or just move to a cooler part of the house (e.g. basement)?

Commercial. With my lousy eyesight and poor coordination, I couldn't even play Flight Simulator on a PC, let alone fly the real thing. Only an idiot would let me have a pilot's license. And I'm not rich enough to do the private aircraft rental thing (where they supply the pilot).

First/business class or economy?

Quote by Meagananne1986

No. Northern Virginia is more or less immune to deadly storms. Rarely lose power but last year had,a Generac generator (running on natural gas) installed.

My aunt and uncle lived in their winterized cottage for a couple decades and had a Generac generator. Their generator burned propane from the huge tank at the back of the property that also supplied gas for stoves, heating, etc. in both their building and my family's summer place on the same property. They were mostly concerned about winter storms given where that place is in Central Ontario but back when I was going as a kid with my family, we were generally good for at least one outage every summer due to storms or trees coming down on lines.

Giant killer hawks, then. Though that's probably been done.

Ah, dey is so cuuuuuuuuuuute.

Thanks, Writergirl.

(wonders if a story about giant killer doves would have worked in the comp)😳🙄😀

There's monsters abroad in these here parts. At least that's what the local myths say. So be watchful. And write a story about it if you see any.

Good morning!

Coffee is McDonald's dark roast (hey, I got lazy). Teas are Red Rose and English Breakfast. Unsweet iced tea and lemonade are in the fridge.

And with summer looming (4 days to Solstice) I have restocked the ice cream supply in the freezer.

Any chance we'll ever have social media-style @ mentions here? You know, where you type "@username" and it alerts the user with that username that they have been mentioned (and allows people reading the post to click through to their profile). Most other forum software I use has them now. Just a thought that occurred to me in a thread just now.

Quote by verbal
I think that Magnificent Bastard Ping is still entering. Sir Ping?

Must mention once again that it would be nice to have @ mentions in this software. Great use case right here. @ Ping to see if he responds. Oh well, maybe it's on their list for 2027 or something.

Canoe. I've never felt comfortable in kayaks for some reason, even if I like them in principle.

Motorboat or something unpowered (canoe, sailboat)?

An idea I am thinking of. I have written several stories about weird happenings in Ontario cottage country. I don't always specify that it is in Ontario, but they are definitely inspired by the time I have spent there. So what would people think of linking them as a "thematic" series to create a kind of anthology? "Strange Summers" or something like that. We have:

The Berry Girl - woman at cottage meets mysterious girl (third place in a comp a few years back)

Lady in the Lake - artist rescues a drowning woman, only to have things turn supernatural

The Summer Beast - lake monster wreaks havoc in cottage country (current comp entry)

Not sure I get what makes the difference between swing and "electro-swing". Electro- uses modern electric/electronic instruments instead of just an acoustic band?? Still sounds like classic swing to me, anyhow.

Nightwish are playing on home turf tonight. In a baseball stadium. But they are not playing baseball. Kitee, Finland is where the original members of the band came from and where things got started. Today, while the band is now multinational (with Dutch and English members as well as Finns), two of those originals are still in the band: keyboardist/songwriter Tuomas Holopainen and guitarist Emppu Vuorinen. Tonight Finland time, they are going to rock their home town.

One of my favorite Nightwish songs from a performance in Gelsenkirchen, Germany four days ago.

And Floor Jansen is holding up very well given how far along her pregnancy is. She is even still doing her signature "windmill" style headbanging which requires her to bend over.

No baseball or monsters in here (I think), but there is coffee (Nicaraguan dark roast), tea (Irish Breakfast and Duke of Earl), and cold beverages (unsweet iced tea and lemonade) ready for your consumption.

Only seven comp entries so I hope we get some more rolling in over the weekend. It's such a good theme with so many possible stories. As it is, we have everything from a saga in the world of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf to modern cryptid/kaiju tales. Keep 'em rolling in!

Stat - that

Ouch. 6 games over .500 only gets 4th? AL East must be playing all their games against the Mets. 🤣

Quote by JamesPBear

You're really into this, aren't you, Mendalla!

One wonders what you're like once the sun goes down…

😲

Either that or you're REALLY into The Count from Sesame Street…

Well, he is a vampire and for a long time, vampire fiction was my favorite sub-genre of horror so...🧛

Quote by verbal
Didja catch that "Yankees scored twice without a hit?" Damn near impossible.

🤣This is starting to sound like one of those baseball comedies about a hapless team. Of course, those usually end with the hapless team turning things around.

Cuddly, I would say, though zoomy can be fun.

Camping in tents or stay at a cottage/cabin?

Quote by verbal
they looked awful last night. But...they won!

Ah, the bittersweetness of a victory that you know you would have lost absent the other guy f-ing up or some stroke of luck.

Skim - Swim

Decades ago, in my childhood and youth, my family spent two or three weeks every summer at the family cottage, then owned by my paternal grandfather. And a big feature was that it was on a decent-sized lake in Central Ontario where we could swim, fish, boat, etc.

During that same era, I was interested in what are now called "cryptids". Things like the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot. So, naturally, we started jokingly talking about the "xx Lake Monster" living in our lake.

Since cryptids are a common and fairly significant modern mythology, I thought a story that ran with that idea could be fun for the comp. I went dark (hey, it's me) and mixed a bit of kaiju (i.e. Japanese monster movies like Godzilla, another significant modern mythology) in just for added fun and darkness.

So, I give you ... The Summer Beast

Aaaaaaaand the ape is in! Here it is! There will be some background later.

https://www.storiesspace.com/stories/horror/the-summer-beast

Seven! Seven strange and wonderful tales! Mwahahaha! lightning flashes, thunder crashes

Good morning! Started reading entries last night. Some nice takes on the theme. Hope some more get in between now and Monday. Field is a bit slim at the moment.

Coffee is Jamaican Blue Mountain. Teas du jour are English Breakfast and Sunday Tea. There's fresh iced tea and lemonade in the fridge.

Welp, I gone done it. Hit "Publish". My comp entry is in the queue. Watch for it. Going to have some Kittie Zoomies and a cookie while I wait. Patiently. Really, I'm being patient. 😇

Quote by verbal
And I think Ape's as well.

Let's see. I've been through four different story ideas BEFORE the one I'm using. This one, which should be ready soon, is going remarkably smoothly. I wrestled a bit with some framing elements that I finally got worked out to my satisfaction (I think).

Hmm. Boisterous Beagle sounds interesting. I'm guessing it is loaded with caffeine if it makes one boisterous as a beagle (my family had a beagle when I was in my teens and early twenties so I know how boisterous they can be).

pours a cup and takes a chair

Nightwish are burning through their final concerts before an indefinite break. Here's a performance of one of my all-time favorite NW songs from their recent festival gig in Athens, Greece. And take note of the unofficial seventh member tucked away in the tummy of lead singer Floor Jansen. If this kid isn't born singing (or at least headbanging), I'll be shocked. Even before they're born, they've been on two Nightwish tours and their mother's solo tour.

We're getting rain but not large amounts of it. Probably need more for the grass.

Kittie Zoomies and a couple random cookies should do.

Just ended 5 1/2 hours of basically non-stop meetings. Ugh. At least they all seemed to go well and were mostly productive.

Comp entry goes up tonight I hope, unless the change I keep wanting to make comes around again in a form that works.

To eat?😲 Or as a pet? 😉 I think hamsters are cute (anyone else remember Hammy Hamster)

Lake or pool for a swim?