Finally, robotic beings rule the world...

This is dedicated to KV, without whom, t'would not have been.

JG, and his army. Also, he's holding a story he wrote about them.

They didn't use poisonous gases, but these little robotic dudes have taken over our house. They're Bionicles, and my son has a fillion of them. They're really cool, and fun to play with...even if you're thirtyish. When we lived in MD, a friend from work gave McBlackson an entire collection of them. We played with them a bit after that, but they were a bit beyond my man. But now he has friends who are into them, and he can follow the directions to put them together. So last weekend we set out to assemble all of them and it was a feat of strength. At least now I can say that I've assembled nearly 30 Bionicles in one weekend. Not everyone has that merit badge.

We decided to do a little photo shoot before they started losing limbs and projectiles in battles. So we set up this scene.

Here are the pictures. All the captions in quotes are battle cries, and should be read in a warful manner. Please pronounce them in a roboty voice.

"Steady boys...Steeaaaady"

"Grroooooolllllloowwwwlllsrrrssssrrrr"

"You...shall not....pass!"

"You guys look like ants from here..."

"I just noticed that my gun is backwards. My bad."

"My hand is laaaaame."

The army poised.

"Attaaaaacck"

"Bring it. "

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Castle DJT...

People say I'm crazy.

Over the Christmas break from work and school (the entire HP corp. closes for the week of Christmas) we had a couple of really nice storms. We have a good drift in our yard too. So when we get 6 inches of snow, my yard has 12 and the guy across the street has 1. Awesome.

So, Jackal and I shoveled the first storm worth into a pile and made a little fort. We immediately realized it wasn't big enough, and when the next storm hit, we had a plan. We shoveled the entire driveway and half of the yard on top of the old fort. We then let it freeze for a few days, and added snow to reinforce it in places.

We needed it to be strong, so we built four steps into the side, and Jack spent several hours setting world sledding records from the top.

In the excavation stage we used several shovels, a few sticks and a dump truck of jacks. We ended up with a nice little cave/sledding hill. Because of our structural planning, we were still able to sled from the top after the cave was finished. I was even able to stand on it with my substantial girth, and it made no signs of failing.

So, with such a good cave, there was only one thing for it. I had to sleep in it. So, a few nights after Christmas I took the little pad out, and my ex-army ECW sleeping bag and went for it. The news guy said it was 15 degrees that night. I slept well until a bit of show came down upon me from the ceiling and melted and made a wet spot. At this point, I agreed with the people who said I was crazy. But A bit of tricky shifting got me out of that dangerous situation. Phew.

It's been a few weeks now, and it's been very warm. But the cave is intact, and going strong.

Here are some shots:

Getting ready to sled.

Workin on the Castle.

King of he hill.