...couldn't keep up with the dog.

I'm a runner, and so is Pepper, our sheepadoodle. Yesterday, she tried to murder me with speed. She was literally at the far end of the leash, dragging me along, until the very end.  

...made a zoodle the length of my kitchen.

 We got a vegetable cutter a few weeks ago, and one of its blades turns zucchini into noodles.  For reference, the rug is 8 feet long.

The boy ate a single zoodle for his entre. So far, this bit of magic has only happened the one time.

...built some LEGO waffles.

This was, without doubt, one of my best Kickstarter backs ever!

Leggo my LEGO!

...traveled back in time.

Well, not literally, of course. We are all time travelers--just in the forward direction, at a rate of one second per second. But "with the 'rona going around", as one of our many VRBO's visitor journal's put it, we did a lot of in-state travel this summer. We found amazing views, and even took a stroll through our childhood.

...wrote a novel.

This is the story of how I wrote a book. 

...suffered a home invasion by honey bees.

I was sitting at my computer, and caught movement out of the corner of my eye. No big deal, this happens all the time. It's the American flag on the neighbor's house across the street. It furls in the wind.

This time though, the thing furling was a swarm of tens of thousands of bees. 

...got a poofy haircut that matched my dog.

This was part of our summer series entitled "Covid Activity #1352: mimic the dog." 

You may notice that our chins match as well.

...I ran a long way in the woods.

My first trail race was the Music City Trail Ultra by Hardwin Adventures. It's got a 50k for the hardcore folks. Heather signed up for the 27k, and I signed up for the wimpy 12k version.

...didn't infect anyone with Covid. Promise.

It was just as people in the United States were only starting to realize that Covid was a thing, and I helped gather almost 800 people together to basically talk to each other in close quarters for hours at a time and pass small items back and forth. Oh, and we had a buffet too. Sounds irresponsible as hell by today's standards, but O! the heady times of early March. (Though I'm posting on the date this event happened, like everything else in the blog, I'm writing this post in October of 2020.)

...was king of Nissan Stadium.

When I started writing my novel, I only had three scenes in my head: the opening temptation scene, the jailbreak, and the big finale. I wrote them all in a few days, then had to fill in the massive blanks that connected them. 

...almost didn't Escape!

 I love me some Escape games. I mean, I just really love them. So when a behind the scenes tour got added to our silent auction roster for TN Game Days Fall, a board game convention I help organize that raises money for Extra Gaming for Extra Life, I bid that sucker up. 

...though up a good gift.

I'm a terrible gift giver. Full stop. I wouldn't want to receive one of my gifts. It's simply the grace of God that I found a woman loves me despite the fact that I once gave her a 3-hole punch as a gift.

Yes, I said that matter of factly, not for comedic effect or any form of hyperbole, but because well, here it is.

...butted heads with a celeb lookalike computer.

Don't mess with me because I'm either Rocky, Felix (007's CIA buddy), Iron Man, Riddick, or Luis from Ant Man. Ok maybe Luis isn't that much of a BA, but still.

...took Carson to ride roller coasters in 30 degree weather.

 Heather and Ryan were busy one weekend, so Carson and I jetted over to Dollywood. 

...went to a Warehouse to get some Warehouse to slay a Dragon.

Warehouse 13: The Board Game is my most recent board game project. We had a successful kickstarter and then got Whammied! by delay after delay. We wanted to sell some at Eddie McClintock's table at Dragon*Con 2019. Eddie has been very supportive of the project all along. 

...watched the sun rise over the Lost Fantasy Island volcano.

We went to Hawaii, which, Honolulu excluded, really is the paradise you think it is. Honolulu is just another crappy big American city, except with smaller roads and parking spaces. It still should be visited once, to see Pearl Harbor and, of course, to run Waikiki beach.

...climbed the warped wall.

I've been getting in increasingly better shape over the past few years, but let me tell you something: getting over a warped wall that is sized to challenge you feels amazing. 

...became a minimalist runner.

In a bout of stupid machismo, I agreed to run a half marathon with my crazy runner wife. Then I got the running bug and became crazy myself. The problem was that my knees hurt like hell once I started running more than 5 miles at a time on a regular basis.

I bought knee braces and a couple different types of Brooks and Hokas and some Advil. Lots of Advil.

...I did half of something awesome!

I think it was back in early twenty-teens when, in a moment of false bravado, I said to my wife, "I'll run exactly one half-marathon with you: The Maui Half." I'd been athletic in high school and college, but never much of a runner for its own sake. Then I got old and my health plan was simple: "Save room for dessert." It worked, and I was still thin because I have the food-related will power to actually save the room.

...photoshopped my wife into every awesome Star Wars scene.

Yeah, I sorta did that. I honestly can't remember why she put on the ear muff things and asked me to do it, but I ran with it. Maybe it had something to do with the clear thing she's holding...a speculum, maybe? A bit of obstetrics and genecology has myotises'd its way into my brain over the years. She's a real life OB/GYN. But sadly, she's not the blogger that goes by OB/GYN Kenobi. Well, I say sadly, but that dude's a dude, and I'm pretty happy with my wife.