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A chocolate bar partially inserted into a smooth, glossy layer of chocolate spread against a black background.

Speedy Chocolate!

Endangered Species - Coexist All-Natural Dark Chocolate Covered Hazelnut Toffee 72% Cocoa
Endangered Species – Coexist All-Natural Dark Chocolate Covered Hazelnut Toffee 72% Cocoa

This post will have to go live a few days later, since I ordered some gifts I don’t want to telegraph, but here’s the deal: I ordered from Endangered Species Chocolate and found my order at my driveway about 24 hours later.

Let us count the ways this went right:

A red twenty-sided die with white numbers, commonly used in tabletop role-playing games, is shown with the numbers 20, 14, 2, 4, 6, 8, 11, 13, and 16 visible.

D&D Gone Off the Rails

English: A twenty-sided die (d20) as used in w...
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s no secret that I’m a nerd and a geek, but I’m pretty new to the gamer scene. In fact, my first Dungeons & Dragons experience was at Gen Con a few years ago. And it was a lousy experience, to tell the truth. The scenario was written so badly that even the GM (assigned to run it, not his choice) realized that it wasn’t possible to save it.

Bert knows this is wrong.

You’re Doing It Wrong.

Bert knows this is wrong.
Bert knows this is wrong.

You know when you hit upon something that’s just so jaw-droppingly, amazingly awful that you just have to inflict it on someone else?

(That was your only warning.)

A male angel with dark wings sits nude on rocky ground, partially covering his face with his arm. In the background, numerous winged figures fly across a cloudy sky.

Teaser Tuesday — Shard & Shield

Oil on Canvas
The Fallen Angel, by Alexandre Cabanel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Another short excerpt for #TeaserTuesday! This one’s from Shard & Shield, which is today’s project anyway.

Ariana sipped at her drink and traced a finger through the condensation on the table, drawing loose geometric designs. Idly she asked, “Did you know some ancient art includes winged men as icons of beauty? Not quite Ryuven, but wings, anyway.”

Prince Hanzoku terrorized by the nine-tailed fox Kyūbi no Kitsune. Print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 19th century.

Teaser Tuesday — Kitsune-Mochi

Prince Hanzoku terrorized by the nine-tailed fox Kyūbi no Kitsune. Print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 19th century.

Prince Hanzoku terrorized by the nine-tailed fox Kyūbi no Kitsune. Print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 19th century.

Another short excerpt for #TeaserTuesday!

Tall green grass blades photographed from a low angle with a clear blue sky in the background. The image emphasizes the height and linear shapes of the grass against the sky.

Earth Day, and I’m off to the Northern Colorado Writers Conference

Grass
(Photo credit: DBduo Photography)

So for Earth Day today, I didn’t mow my grass.

Okay, so I probably wasn’t going to mow today, anyway. I have real grass, the grass that was here when the bison were still eating it, and it don’t need no stinking fertilizer and it don’t need no stinking water — during last year’s record-setting drought, it stayed green long past the time when most grass and many trees in central Indiana were dead or dying — and it’s tougher than most mowers. So it takes a bit of mental gearing up to challenge this grass.

International Justice Mission charity run

I Ran for Freedom. And I Didn’t Collapse.

So this morning was the 5K run to benefit International Justice Mission, combating modern slavery. (Yes, real slavery still exists today. In higher numbers than ever, in fact, but thankfully also as a smaller percentage than ever.)

International Justice Mission charity run
Yes, that’s a six-year-old. Ahead of me. Shuddup.

What you have to know is that I don’t run. Really. So this was a really good cause for me to even sign up. I had planned to do at least a bit of training beforehand, but a rotated pelvis nixed that. And that’s my best excuse for why I was able to take a photo of a six-year-old in front of me in the pack.

A rectangular road sign with a large white arrow pointing right and the word "BOSTON" in bold black letters inside the arrow on a black background.

Thoughts on the Boston Marathon Disaster

I didn’t hear about the explosions at the Boston Marathon right away. It wasn’t until my sister and I were on our way home from a library, where we’d been running a simple jewelry workshop for kids, that she checked Twitter and asked, “What happened at the Boston Marathon? Why would they need blood drives?”

And she read back, and she told me. And my first words were, “Why? What is WRONG with people?!?!”