Jamie says hello to her fishy friend.

Well, we're back.

Our trip to Muskego Point was a smashing success. I even caught a fish. Jamie, pictured above, caught several more fish than I did.

On the whole, it was my kind of vacation. We flew into Duluth, then drove two hours towards Canada, and then took a boat across to the cabin. From then on, it was all about fishing, reading and then more fishing.

Keep in mind, The League is 1) a lousy angler, and 2) a vegetarian. So when I did catch a fish worth eating, I never got to eat it. Luckily, because of point 1, point 2 wasn't really a problem.

I'm about 1/2 way done now with The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. It's a good read, and thus far avoids the usual trappings of just becoming a laundry list of historical details, a fact of a lot of non-fiction which usually keep me away from biographies. TR always makes for good reading, but it's been years since someone handed me my diploma (BA in Liberal Arts for History) and I quit reading biographies/ non-fiction in my spare time. Fortunately, this volume is just volume 1, and volume 2 is already out. So when I finish this book, I know what I'll be reading next. Supposedly a 3rd volume is in the works covering the Bull Moose era, etc... we'll see. Anyway, The League can safely recommend the first half otf the book.

I like fishing. I really do. I feel like I've just scratched the top 2% of what there is to know about how to catch a fish and all that, so I feel like there's a lot for me to learn in future trips. We'll see. My father-in-law may lack the necessary patience to ensure I do much more than learn proper casting methods. I can barely get a fish off the hook once on, so you can see my dilemma.

Now that I'm back, over the weekend I'll be reviewing the 2004 Mellie Noms and be compiling a list.

And Randy. You're wrong. Whatever your argument, you're wrong. Just send in your noms, already.

I'm back. There's a lot for me to catch up on. Looks like a lot of chatter on the League comments section. And a lot of stuff going on in the world. Wowsers. My mind is swimming.

That, and I'm really, really tired.

Okay, Leaguers. This is it. Last post for about a week. When you click here, but all you see is this picture yet again, you'll know I have not yet returned. Rest easy, Loyal Leaguers. You may feel content in the knowledge that while I am not blogging, I'm still looking out for you.



Couple of notes:

1) You can keep sending in Mellie nominations until I return. Send them to the e-mail address associated with this site.

2) If I die on my trip, this is the last, haunting entry I'll ever make.

3) In which case, we'll never know who won the Mellies. If this happens, Jim gets to just make some junk up.

4) In the meantime, check out my other links over there on the left. There's a blogroll and some other good stuff. See the place where I learned and embraced the phrase "abso-ludicrous".

5) It's summertime. Try and go out there and get some sunshine. Play a little frisbee. Meet a girl. Fall in love.

6) I doubt you've read everything. See what I said just before I said this. If that doesn't work, try the archives.

7) I'll be back well before July 4th. See you then.

And an Official Melbotis Medal of Commendation for Valor in the Face of Stupidity, goes to Maxwell, for raising the alarm and trying quite valiantly to get me a signed Geoff Johns comic.
Even if it didn't happen, it's the amazing thought that counts.

And I forgot to mention...

Ryan Valdez and Michael Scaljon have both submitted very good entries to the League's 2004 "So far, so what?" awards (AKA: The Mellies).

Thanks to Valdez and Scaljon for their participation. Thanks to Jim for actually pointing me to their sites so I was aware of the nominations.

No thanks to Randy for his utter failure to participate. Even on his 28th birthday, I don't know how he manages to muster the will to draw even a single breath.

And check out the pictures of Jim's movie in the making! It's funny. I read the screenplay in various drafts, and I know exactly which scene it is where "Wyatt" here is drinking his aqua.

Happy Birthday to Randy! Randy is 28 today.

I have written Randy this haiku

bright eyes wondering
so happy to eat jell-o
no nominations

Happy Birthday, Randolph!

the Lynda Carter 1970's television series Wonder Woman comes to DVD next week.

As Loyal Leaguers might imagine, The League is in no small way intrigued by Wonder Woman. Here's something that might probably get me beaten up over by the bike racks after school: I read Wonder Woman. I do. I really like Wonder Woman. She's got an invisible jet, she's into tying people up, and she wears next to nothing while saving the world. Seriously, given those qualifications, what's not to like?

Some of my earliest memories include Wonder Woman twirling her way into different outfits. I always wished she'd do the same on Superfriends, but it never happened. Superfriends Wonder Woman couldn't twirl, so great was the weight of the Aquanet. Not so with the beautiful Lynda Carter.


Lynda Carter suddenly makes me interested in computer technology of the late 70's...

The series isn't great by any standard, but dammit, I'm hard pressed to think of a better collection of videos than Lynda Carter solving crimes. Incidentally, Lynda Carter graduated from my employing university. Little trivia for you.

I don't recommend folks new to comics necessarily pick up Wonder Woman, but I do find it to be a good read. And if girls are looking for an action hero, my friends, here she is.



These days, Wonder Woman is more or less portrayed as a Warrior Princess sort of person... but not in the Xena mode, and almost never tongue-in-cheek. She's a bad-ass to be reckoned with, just about as tough as Superman, but with a worse temper. Anyway, it's always a fun read for me (Greg Rucka is currently writing...) and while I miss Phil Jiminez's Perez inspired take, this run ain't so bad.