He is huge now, almost as tall as Dell and maybe as heavy.  What happened to my sweet little guy who was afraid to go down the stairs.  Here he is at about 8 weeks old, he is a little bloated as I was already starting to beef him up.

He is a little canine Cartman, if he could talk, I know he would shout “Beefcake!”

Now for something completely different.  The winner of the Andrea Spinoff title contest is Nichole who came up with Gun Metal, among others.  This is the closest anyone came to the title chosen by the publisher which is …Gunmetal Magic. We were told, Magic would not be in the title, but apparently it is.  Nichole, please contact us via email to let us know how you wish to be rewarded.  eBook, beta read, Amazon gift card, etc.

The Fate’s Edge ARC winners, chosen by Random Number Generator, are: April V-page 3, comment 7;   Joon -page 7, comment 4; and Rebecca- page 9, comment 16.  Please email us with word WINNER in the subject of the email.  Please include your mailing address and also let us know if you would like us to simply sign the ARC or to make it out to a particular person.

SILVER SHARK has returned from the copy editor and we are now in the process of creating an E-ARC for it.  If you have a reviewer blog and would like an e- copy of SILVER SHARK for review, please email us with words Silver Shark ARC Request in the subject of the email. Please include a link to your blog and your preferred format: prc, ePub, or PDF.  Due to the anticipated volume of requests, please understand that preference will be given to blogs with larger readership.

Anyway, I took the question seriously and thought about it before answering.  Finally I told her that no, I did not think her generation is lazy or lacks work ethic.  I explained to her that when her teacher and I were her age, there were older people who thought we, as Generation X, were spoiled and lazy, what with our MTV, Sony Walkmen’s , Atari Gaming Systems and high-speed Commodore computers.  I tried to convey to her that each generation views the younger as sort of having it easy.  It is a common generalization older people often make.

I further elaborated by admitting  that while kids now do seem heavier then we were, but there are also a lot of fat adults.  I pointed out the she and her sister are not fat, the kids next door are not and neither is the boy across the street, who is only a few years older.  We played outside as children, but we were often up to no good.  The biggest difference maybe is that to me younger folks seem to have different ideas of boundaries and what is acceptable behavior.  As an example I will use an email we got recently from a young person in GA.  Her English 1102 class, so I am assuming college, has been assigned a number of books to read, Magic Bites among them.  To me it is amazing that our first book would be included in any sort of academic class like that, so of course when she wrote to ask some questions, I agreed to help with her paper.

Soon, however it became clear that she had not read the book and just wanted it explained to her.  When I pointed this out, her reply was almost indignant.  Of course she has not read it yet.  They are not scheduled to do so until October, and the assignment is to ask questions about books they are reading.  So I fussed a little bit about how it is up to her to read and that nobody, not even the author, is supposed to tell her what the book is about.  It is her responsibility.  I mean we had Cliff’s Notes but I can not imagine emailing an author and expecting them to explain their book to me.

Even Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School, when asked to write a paper on Kurt Vonnegut, could only afford to hire Kurt Vonnegut Jr. to write his paper because he was a very rich business man.  He got a bad grade on it, by the way.   His teacher gave it back, accompanied by, “Whoever did write this doesn’t know the first thing about Kurt Vonnegut.”  To quote another film favorite, you kids “didn’t really think it would be that easy, did you?”

Also, while we never did a signing at one, we have been the poor sad bastards standing or sitting before a “half empty row of folding chairs.”  I love that part.

On Wednesday we got the new dishwasher and above the oven microwave.  These were literally the last appliances that could be replaced.  Already having bought a fridge, stove and washer and dryer.  This time we put it on the new Home Depot card.  They gave us a crazy limit, like seven grand, so I guess we figured we better use it.

Two very nice guys delivered the new goodies, and as the older of the two examines the old dishwasher he asks us about it.  We tell him that it just stopped working.  Why should it be any different?  He pokes it a little than flips a switch my the sink and it comes on.  Seriously.  So we look pretty stupid, but fortunately we are use to that and it barely fazes us.  They already brought the new one out and the old one is well.. old, so we were like yeah just go ahead and install the new one.

The new microwave is great, the old one did not have the rotating thing and for some reason Ilona was convinced it was leaking radiation like a mini Chernobyl.

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Angus

Thursday morning about seven I took Angus to the new vet to get clipped and chipped.  He is about eight months old now, and when we got him I promised Ilona I would have him neutered.  He has been pretty good about not humping everything, but Miss Sophie is very small and we don’t want him to break her back in a fit of young lust.  When Samson got fixed some ten years ago they kept him overnight and it was not a big deal.  Maybe cause it’s Ang, but this was more complicated.

I picked him up and met with the vet at about four and was presented with a laundry list of “do nots.”  We can’t bathe him or let him get wet for ten days, which is bad for two reasons.  First, he stinks.  He peed on himself and me within five minuets of being discharged. Then he peed in the car while we were on the way to PetCo to get a gate.  He has to be segregated from the girl dogs.  They might mess with his stitches.  Secondly, he loves the pool and sets in it probably more than I do.  So now we can’t let him in the back unsupervised.

The best thing though, was the huge clear plastic “cone of shame” that they stuck on the poor bastard’s head.  Between the pain meds and the new headgear, he could barely walk.  At one point he was slamming it into the front door.  Later  that night after he had removed it for the second time (while not bright, he is bloody determined) I decided to stop torturing him with it.  He is doing much better now.  Just gotta make sure he does not play too rough with Del.

Action Figures

A friend of ours sent me some action figures.  They have been put in a place of honor. Thank you, Cathy!

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Movies

Yesterday we went to see Harry Potter and Captain America.  We sometimes do a double feature of what the kids want to see and what we would more like.  Kid 2 is a crazy big Harry Potter fan.  Personally, I was underwhelmed by the last one.  I would sum it up like this:  Everything sucks, we got our asses kicked.  Lets go camping.  This still sucks, and it’s cold.  Now we are sad.  Seriously, for me that was pretty much the whole film.  And, mind you I had quite liked the one before.

However, I have to say Part 2 totally rocked!  It was a very satisfying conclusion to a fantastic series.  I like that they did not dumb it down for kids.  Really bad stuff happened and a lot of people died.  Kid 1, who for some reason is fascinated with WWII, and I were totally looking forward to Captain America, and it did not disappoint.   If I had to say, it was almost as good as Thor, but not as good as X Men First Class.  There were action bits, funny bits, and Tommy Lee Jones, who was great.  Unless they do another Hulk movie, all the pieces should now be in place for the Avengers movie.

Today I think we will just stay home and take it easy.  Ilona found a site with old games, and I am crazy addicted to playing Might and Magic VII.

The new house is great, I think.  I was a little worried because Ilona and Kid 2 had not seen it.  It’s honestly nicer than any house we have ever lived in.  It is two stories and has a real in-ground pool which has always been a dream of mine.

We even have an honest to God guest room, maybe Ilona’s dad will visit.  The first house we lived in cost us $200 a month and was most likely unsafe, but it was all we could afford.  The next was small but very old and we believe haunted.  Scoff if you like but there would be music playing and odd footsteps at night.  It was not until I was in the Army that we were able to afford a decent apartment right outside Fort Gordon, GA.  I am so thankful that the girls were either not born yet or too young to remember the terrible old places.  Sometimes I wake up and can’t believe that we live here; seems like we’re not cool enough, but then I remember how hard we worked for it.

Old deck, now a pile of wood.

We have been making a lot of trips to Home Depot and soon they will know us by name.  We had to have a fridge put in before we arrived.  The downstairs AC motor had burned out before we got here and had to be replaced.   And shortly after we learned that the old stove did not open. So far new stove, new fridge, and yesterday we purchased a new washer and dryer to replace the ones we bought from the PX at Fort Sill.  They lasted for at least ten years and moved with us from OK to GA and then OR, that ain’t bad.  All that is left is to replace the old unsafe microwave mounted above the stove, which will wait, since we are afraid to look at the bank account.  That is why we will do what Steve Perry did and start putting out a series of eBooks titled Kate the Groceries, or Curran and the New Kid Clothes for School.

Concrete patio that was under the wood

We took up the nasty wooden deck outside the back porch and found nice clean concrete underneath.  Now all we have to do is put down brick or that nice soft brick looking substance tile on top of it.  Well, that and the damn pergola has to go.  I don’t get it, it’s not a proper roof, it does not keep out the sun or rain, but almost every house we looked at here has one.  Also, for some odd reason the girls have carpet in their bathrooms, who does that?  I will have to cut it out and maybe tile or laminate it.  I have never laid floor before but Ilona assures me that I “can do it.”  I hope she’s right.

The neighborhood is nice and quiet.  We have met the couple across the street and the girls have made friends with the kids next door.  Kid 2 is still gone having spent the night at another friend’s house.  Kids have been over to swim and I am hoping that since our stuff is here now, the girls can have some friends over to hang out.  We still have some stuff to unpack and put up.  Ilona says the move is not over until the last box is unpacked.  It might be a while.

I give you evidence of my secret trip to the south.  The kids and I have had just about enough of the cold and rain.  We like the people here, and we love Powell’s but enough is too much already.  It was cold and rainy on Memorial Day.  So I took Kid 1 and covertly boarded a plane.  We spent two days visiting and filming nice houses.  I must warn you that Kid 1 is a little shaky with the camera but more than makes up for it with her flawless song styling.  Ultimately, Oregon was great but I am at heart a Southern boy and miss the sun and water.  Plus the food.  Oh man the bbq was the bomb! If you listen closely you can hear Kid 1 and I conspiring.   I know Angus will probably hate the heat but I will buy him a kiddie pool to hang out in.  He loves water.

“I think you guys may have set a new record with regard to how many pre-orders were done… It went from 7 copies of “Magic Slays” on Monday, to 50 pre-orders by Thursday. By Saturday, that number climbed to 75, and “Hexed” was up to 17 copies.  As of last Tuesday, “Magic Slays” climbed to 84, with “Hexed” at 20.  Today’s numbers- “Magic Slays” is at 100, and “Hexed” at 24.”

This was last week, so the numbers are probably higher now.  You guys are amazing.

To show our appreciation, we asked our publisher to make Magic Mourns available  at Amazon and B&N as a stand alone eBook.  Special thanks go to our awesome Editor of Doom, Anne Sowards for making sure this happened.  Finally, because we are so thankful to our fans, we want to give away a couple of copies of the Magic Mourns eBook (not Magic Slays, we don’t have any) to you.  All you have to do is comment and we will order one for you from either Amazon or B&N.  One each I suppose, please tell us which you prefer and two winners will be chosen using the random number generator or the classic Magic “8″ ball, cause I tend to kick it old school, ya’ll.  Or do I keep it real, I can never recall.

Giveaway ends Wed at five p.m. Pacific time, winners will be picked and announced Thursday morning.

Thanks again and take care.

Me: I really like Sims Medieval.  But I might restart again.

Gordon: Why?

Me: I hate my knight.  When I made her, I thought she would be this cool older chic with grey hair and she would kick butt.  So I made her bloodthirsty.  You have daily tasks, which give you higher focus, which lets you perform quests with better efficiency, so one of her tasks is to deal this idiot in the pub, which it took me forever to find and she was hungry, and when I got there, he beat her ass.”

Gordon: Aha.

Me: And the other task is to practice on a practice dummy and I didn’t buy one for her, I bought her a tub instead, because I figured she wouldn’t want to be filthy.  Also, I had to feed the beast.  They have this giant pit in town and there is some sort of monstrosity in the pit and I have to feed it.  It’s like Star Wars, except he has tentacles.

Gordon: Aha.

Dame Kalendra, the stupid idiot

Me: So I went to hunt to get some meat and the first time I hunted, my knight got gored and didn’t get any meat.  So I thought, fine, and sent her out to hunt again, because I have a freaking timer.  She comes back and now she is majorly gored.  Okay, my idiot king went hunting like eight times, and got gored only once.  This knight I made, who is supposed to be good at this sort of thing, got gored twice, and now she is all wrapped up in bandages and limping, and again, we have the no meat issue.

Gordon: Aha.

Me: So then the next quest was to stop people from hunting the Giant Boar – which I don’t know why I would stop anybody from killing it, since my moron got gored by boars twice – and she had to get into a fistfight with some hunters.  So I figured I had to get her a salve, because she is gored.  So I got her a salve, applied it, and she changed from majorly gored to moderately gored.  I mean, what the hell.  I can’t buy another salve, because I have no money and I don’t dare to send her into the woods again to hunt and sell the meat, because she might get gored again and come back with her severed foot stuck into her mouth or something.  So now I had to get her to sleep it off and the quest timer is running out and now I have a negative buff because I am goofing off on a quest.”

Gordon: Hmhhm.  (He was under water at the time, so probably wasn’t able to say aha.)

Me: So I finally get her to sleep the damage off and get into a fistfight with the hunters and she loses the fist fight!  And she gets punched in the face!  Which is another negative buff.  What kind of a knight is she exactly that some hunter buffoon wins a fistfight with her and punches her in the face?

Gordon: I think you should restart.

Me: If I can’t figure out how to fire her ass, I will. I just hired a wizard and he ran all over town casting spells on people and making magic doohickies to free a geenie out of her bottle and he didn’t have near the same kind of problems.

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I bought him a couple of nice black knives in the mall.  I just hope he doesn’t stab me with them.