I told my wife, who's interested in dreams, about an article in the Bulletin on narcolepsy.

"Yeah, I know," she says. "I tried reading it, but I kept falling asleep."


My ongoing solitaire game was wiped out by a power surge yesterday. I'd played 340 games, and I was ahead $2489. Time before that, it was 110 games, behind $1485. Good thing I spend my time so productively.


Meanwhile I've all but stopped drinking beer or wine -- not for all the many and varied reasons that one might think -- but because I grind my teeth. You'd think it would relax me, but instead I apparently really crack down. My teeth are just too brittle to risk anymore. Especially without dental insurance.


Have started rereading the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I think I'd read about 3 or 4 of them years ago, before I gave up waiting for him to finish. Turns out, it's not much of a chore. It's all still pretty fresh.

Speaking of Dark Tower, the hardcover graphic novel is coming in tomorrow (a day late.) Sold the hell out of the monthlies, which just goes to show how much bigger pop culture and Stephen King are than comics. We're also getting the Heroes (the T.V. show) hardcover graphic novel, which was only available online until now. Also tomorrow, (a day late).

And before Christmas, we're getting Alan Moore's last League of Extraordinary Gentleman graphic novel, Black Dossier. (Alan Moore, genius, of V for Vendetta, LOEG, and From Hell fame, and soon -- as you will all become very aware, even you non comic readers -- the WATCHMEN movie!)

The first Buffy paperback , by Joss Whedon, showed up last week, as well as the hardcover Serenity graphic novel which bridges the Firefly T.V. show with the movie. Everyone is expecting these to be the big items for the holidays.


Apparently, our Euro-style board games will be featured in the article on family games in the next BEND LIVING, and hopefully Pegasus will be mentioned, and possibly this blog. I've been diligently trying to stock up. This will be my first Christmas with boardgames, so I really don't know what to expect. I'm worried about selling out, but as my games rep said, I am a two-day ship. (On the other hand, he didn't mention how often the damn game distributors seem to be 'out of stock.')



Meanwhile, I'm finding that I can stick to budget if I just order the stuff I really need. Which means passing up on all the sales and bargains. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Fine, in the short run, but I've always counted on boosting my profit margin by getting sale items. But it's even more important to have the evergreens. I also need to stock up for the holidays on the quarterly product, the stand-ups, the Stikfas, the funky toys, and Peanuts type cartoon books.

I just know I need to stick to budget if I'm going to clear the decks for next year.



There is such a concentrated dose of bad news in the financials. The sky really does seem to be falling. And yet, there is such a lack of awareness or concern on the part of my customers, that I'm suffering from cognitive dissonance. I'm just laying off commenting on the situation for now, because I want to see how it develops.