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The Website of Christopher Grant Harris

All those who chose to oppose his shield must yield!

Here is a film with exciting action, interesting & sympathetic characters, and moments of real humor. It is in no way a bad film. It is also not really a great film. Captain America: The First Avenger is the epitome of a three-star film. [Full Review]

Here are all the photos I took of the half-inch ice coating that was on… everything yesterday and this morning.

So the snow is still here, but it’s developed a new trick: the top layer of the snow has melted, fused, and then re-frozen, forming an incredibly thick crust of ice on top of the seven inches of snow.

In places this crust is up to a full inch thick

In a few spots it is actually thick enough to support my weight so that I am actually standing on TOP of the snow.

This is a new experience for me.

Proof!

This was all about a month ago, but durn-it-all I’ve been kinda busy what with Skyward Sword and all, so I never got around to posting about it. But this was a fun day.

Some time before Chrissymiss, we were babysitting our friend who in 2011 was one of those little girls who comes out of that lady’s giant dress during Act II of Tacoma City Ballet’s Nutcracker. Part of our babysitting gig was delivering her to Nutcracker practice. So we decided to make an evening of it by going to some local Downtown Tacoma businesses.

Stop 1: Füdie’s Open House

Although Füdie had been open for about a month already, this evening just happened to be their official open house. Füdie has a really nice selection of not-commonly-seen wines and beers. The graphic designer in me also really adores their logo. They were doing some beer and wine tasting and it was all festive and nice. I’d link to their website but they don’t have one. I know, right? Here’s their Facebook page, though.

Just last night Carrie & I stopped by Füdie again because they were doing a wine tasting of all South American wines. It was good! We got a nice inexpensive bottle of red.

Anyhoo, after we were done at Füdie we walked through a hole in their wall. Yes, that’s right: Füdie is right next door to and connected to Stink Cheese & Meat:

Stop 2: Stink Cheese & Meat

Füdie & Stink are two complimentary and associated businesses, which is why you can walk from one right into the other. Stink is one of those little tiny places that specializes yummy unusual cheeses and salumi. They have a weekly Macaroni & Cheese and a weekly Grilled Cheese Sandwich, as well as other, more-stable menu items.

The three of us had their Antipasti platter for dinner, which has all sorts of yummy pickled things and paper-thin meats and fragrant cheeses. Very good! Unlike Füdie, Stink DOES have a website.

From Stink we walked down to:

Stop 3: The Pantages Theater

Where we dropped off our little ballerina. Carrie helped her change into her costume while I awkwardly waited in the hallway and tried not to seem too much like some creepy guy trying to catch a glimpse of ballerinas in their dressing rooms.

The Pantages is also a notable Tacoma Landmark because that’s where Carrie & I got married.

Anyhoo, then we walked down the hill a couple of blocks to:

Stop 4: Dorky’s Bar Arcade

Dorky’s is one of the best places in Tacoma. A massive, seemingly ever-expanding cavern of classic arcade games and pinball machines. Plus foods and drinks.

Much to my delight I discovered that Dorky’s acquired a standup of Raiden Fighters:

Lemme explain: back many, many years ago when the post-Fools Play ritual included going to an Olympia Red Robin, there was a Raiden Fighters in the little arcade room in said Red Robin. Geoff & I used to drop many a quarter into that machine in 2-player simultaneous action! It’s a pretty crazy SHMUP, with crap flying all over the screen to the point that it often gets nigh-impossible to tell what the eff is going on. Fun! Dorky’s copy had a bit of a wonky joystick, though, and the screen was a li’l washed out. Still, nice to see.

Carrie & I also played quite a bit of the Evel Knievel pinball machine while we were there. 2-Player competitive action! Carrie is quite good at that machine.

Dorky’s is also where they filmed this T-Mobile commercial:

They also don’t have a website! Whatsupwitdat? They only gots da Facebookin’ page, yo.

Stop 5: The Pantages Theater

After Dorky’s we swung back by the Pantages and picked up our li’l ballerina and then headed back to our car to drive up 6th Avenue to:

Stop 6: Metronome Coffee

You might remember Metronome Coffee from an earlier post on this blog wherein it served as the venue for Julia Massey, the Jesus Rehab, and Neighbor Gary. This time it served as a meeting place where we handed off our li’l ballerina to her mother, and were purchased some hot cocoa for our troubles.

Metronome Coffee does have a website!

By the way, the graphic designer in me absolutely adores Metronome’s logo, too.

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Yesterday I finally took down the exterior Chrissymiss lights, the last vestiges of the holidays. It was a bit sad to see them colorful lights go back into the garage.

Fortunately, the sky had its own colorful lights yesterday to make up for it:

Now that’s a sunset.

About ten years ago artist Cliff Chiang whipped up, just for fun, a bunch of pastiches of DC superheroes and classic Anime.

The results are pretty durned awexome:

I love Science Ninja Hero Batman, Superman as a Gaiking-style Giant Robot piloted by a young boy’s wristwatch (with Clark Kent as the scientist who invented the robot), and the crazy Wonder Woman/Captain Harlock mashup.

DC actually briefly considered greenlighting this, but eventually passed. It’s too bad.
I would absolutely read this comic.

via Project Rooftop