Battle is joined. . . . again.

We're well into summer, and I've discovered something new and fun about our lawn.

It's apparently infested with dallisgrass.

Dallisgrass is a lot like crabgrass, except more so. It doesn't respond well to preemergent treatments, or to postemergent treatments. Add to this the facts that it is a perennial, and can be transmitted through mowing, walking across it, or just because the wind blew, and that it grows and spreads rapidly.

Several months ago, in the spring, I was trying to get several different weeds in the backyard under control. Well, they're mostly gone - but they appear to have been keeping the dallisgrass in check.

So, tonight I took my brand new sprayer, loaded it up with a nasty chemical mix, and started spraying. Tomorrow, we'll see what, if anything, has died (besides the grass).

The only consolation is that dallisgrass takes a couple years to mature and start seeding - and I'm seeing those seed structures. So, it was here when we moved in - I've just made it worse.

Oh well. If all else fails, I can recall the how, it is said, Scipio Aemilianus dealt with Carthage.

We need a new domain name

There are already plenty of Domain Names out there, but I think we need a new one. Why? The notion hit me this morning as I was reading the local paper, and came across this. You might have to hunt for the letter, but it exhorts people to check out this website.

You don't have to read through the website, because I have thoughtfully provided a synopsis for you:


Everything you know about 9/11 is wrong. It's all a giant government conspiracy, far more so than the faked moon landings or the gunman on the grassy knoll. The government did this, and, what's more, they're continuing to fake terrorist incidents by planting the explosives themselves and blaming Muslims.

So, I'm thinking that, in addition to the .com, .net, .org, .gov, and so forth, we need a .nut domain.

Sometimes I feel like a vulture, and not because they taste like chicken. . .

Yesterday was kind of a sad day. One of the local F(Ns)LGS (aka Friendly Not-so Local Game Stores) began it's massive, store-closing sale. Sure, they have locations open in other cities, but nothing this close (ie, within 45 minutes of where I live).

I got there almost half an hour before they opened, and already a crowd was gathering, hoping to swoop in and pick over the bargains before they were all gone. And sure, I was in that colony of vultures, circling the locked doors. When they opened, we all swooped in.

The store carries (carried, really) RC models, model train stuff, GW figs, FoW stuff, Reaper, model kits, rockets, Thomas the Train Engine, etc. I was there with a shopping list in hand and certainly did well in my frenzied pickings.

But I left just as I arrived - sad and more than a little depressed. I almost always feel bad when a game store closes down. It's one less place to run demos, one less place to meet new friends, one less place for me to roll 23 critical failures in a row.

Oh yeah. And lots more minis for me to paint. I'd take the store staying open any day.

S'mores

So, Hershey has been running a series of commercials lately. On one of them, some gal talks about how she and her boyfriend have contests to see who can make the best Smore. She concludes by saying "I totally win."

Now, I'd like to know how she "totally wins". These are Smores. The recipe is simple: toasted marshmellow, graham cracker, and chocolate bar. There are no secret herbs and spices. There is no secret family recipe. There's not a lot that you can really do to it.

I'm baack. . .

Okay, I feel like I should offer some vague explanation for the extreme dearth of posts lately. If you are a regular reader (all 2.34347 of you, on a good day), you might have noticed that I have said nothing new in several weeks. Astute readers will note that I have said nothing important or witty in. . . well, ever.

Anyway, the explanation for my lack of random wordiness is simple: I've been on vacation or travelling almost every weekend for the past few weeks. I know that my profile is quite scant, and that I have never posted my address on this forum or anything, but I just don't feel comfortable saying "Bye everyone! The house is empty, and will be so for a week. Be honest if you stop by, and the spare key is under the welcome mat." (For the record - we don't have a spare key, or a welcome mat.)

I'm busy catching up on all my spam, plus all the blogs I read on a routine basis, but I will leave one random brain dribble:

Last Friday, I was running on a trail with my sister-in-law. The trail is a nice, multi-purpose trail, and is used by people on bikes, joggers, walking pets, blades (in some areas) and for horseback riders. Every so often, on the side of the trail, is a notice asking you to pick up after your dog. So, I thought, as I ran along the trail, you have to pick up after your dog (as opposed to taking it off to the side, in the mowed grass), whereas a horse is allowed to dump wherever, and the rider has no responsibility to the other people using the path. There were sections of the path where a bike could no longer go (easily, anyway) without plowing through the steaming piles of horse manure, but dog poop is the big problem here?