Elitecember Day 27 - Giant Gas Marshmallows

Hello everyone,

Back home again after the Xmas festivities. Tired, so no drawing from me for Elitecember today but I'll have some pics in a bit including some sketches that happened while I was away.

I had an oops when I left and realised when I was about an hour up the motorway. Realising when I'm an hour away seems like a standard thing for me. I forgot the advent calendar ! This could only mean ...

Marshmallows today !

The advent calendar had 2 doors remaining. On the 24th, we had a Mint Choc Best Chip marshmallow and for the 25th, a hot chocolate with marshmallow thing. The spoon remains and will be consumed imminently.

I've picked up some more goodies ...

Tasty.

Good little Xmas break. Tired now though. It was good to see the sister and blokes again and definitely good to see the mum. Many tasty munchies were consumed.

Items were procured, in some cases built and exchanged :

Tiny papercraft frog from the Jigzle people (of last year's Squirrel). This one went together much better than the squirrel. The shop had more stuff there from a place called Ugears and I'll be ordering something from them imminently too. More when it arrives and gets put together !

Good to see the dogs again too. Here we see my arm being a hostage to a rather tarty Murph who was definitely enjoying belly rubs. Let's see that from another angle :

Same rubs different day.

Icey was much more chilled out this time around.

Perhaps compensating for the Slurp Monster :-D.

I thought I'd try a little sketching again ...

Could have done with more light shading around the eye.

And the Icey one enjoying a little snooze.

Back home now, looking forward to some determined chill out time to recharge the batteries before going back in to work. I'll need to head out again at some point due to :

Cooker
Need new shoes
Glasses
And because it's not good for me to stay indoors for that long.

Elite pics ? 25th was missing because it was Covas, or voice assistant and I had no idea what to do for that one. For the 27th, the theme is Gas Giant and I've run in to a few of those ...

A ring around a gas giant on the way to the Rosette Nebula.

That's from when I restarted the character and found myself outside a station orbiting a planet in eclipse. Pretty.

Last one for today is where I found a moon on the verge of a gas giant's rings ... with a wonderful canyon to park by.

Christmassy away time ... and a little loot

Hello again. It's been almost a week ...

I've been away visiting people and I'm now back into chilling out mode. I'm needing to recuperate after what feels like a very long year, although that year also whooshed by again. I may well be doing a review of the year type post on Monday (31st) ....

Christmas saw me making the trip up to see the mum, sister, sister's bloke and the dogs. A good trip. With bonus horse :

That's Temp, who was in very friendly mood and graciously accepting all head rubs that were being offered.

Although I suspect he was much more interested in his Christmas dinner.

It was good to see the dogs (and the family !) again. This is the first Xmas since we lost my dad, so certainly very different. (I'll miss him for a long time). He wasn't very well this time last year (mum was suffering from a heavy cold too), so we spent last Xmas up at their place but this year, I did transport and we all met up at my sister's place.

And the dogs. That's Icey, who will always be an anxious one although even when the initial excitement of NEW PEOPLE settled down into a more chill acceptance into the local pack, I think she was still a bit perturbed by what was is the other side of this picture. (Selfie cam). You have to treat Icey very gently and always remember that you're the guest in her home. If she needs space, she really needs that space. And she's also a big ball of white floof.

And that's the Murphster, who is always very keen to show how much he loves people. A very affectionate pooch who I suspect would be quite happy curling up in anyone's lap. He's a bit big for that though but I don't think he understands. (PS The hand is in that position to push against his upper chest, to stop him jumping up ... it's not a choke)

Oh and they're both massive fans of bacon.

And they very definitely took up their station under the dining table with an attitude of "This is our domain, any meatscraps that enter are ours now." :-D.

We were all suffering from colds (I'm still getting rid of one even now) but it was a good few days away with all of the family.

Some of them gave the impression that they'd fade away though without meatscraps.

Yep. We know what you're after !

I've been back for a few days and I'm looking to chill out and recuperate as much as I can before work starts again but so far :
Lots of Motorsport Manager, my team are now welded into the top league but we're still about 5th to 6th fastest with lots of catching up to do.
Little bit of Skyrim, with purple windows (a clash or a missing graphic asset) and enjoying a rather weird Cthulhu inspired mod. I'll be doing more random bimbling around in Skyrim over the next week.
Curiosity at the Steam sale, haven't actually bought anything yet.
Amazement at Amazon and iTunes. I get reward vouchers from my credit card and usually cash them in now to spend on iTunes or Amazon vouchers yet ... the e-vouchers are out of stock.

Yes. E-vouchers. Out of stock. That translates to "We aren't going to honour new ones of these at sales time". The sales offers at both Amazon and iTunes look particularly awful though, so I can wait a little bit.

I am not completely without loot though. As well as the fella in the first pic ... (and here's a better look at him on a tree just about able to hold his weight)

... There were sweet things :

The lemon sherbets have already disappeared (lush), I have the bonbons and the kola kubes, not started on the fudge yet and as that brownie wasn't packaged up, that disappears quickly too.

I thought I'd missed out on the gertlush marshmallows that are on sale around Lincoln (Naked Marshmallow Co, highly recommended) as they only had the burner kits on sale at the farm shop. But ....

Mums are the best and come through with unexpected marshmallow loot. Mums are also resistant to doggie hypnosis, despite this fella's best efforts :

(He got some of the leftovers later with the other bit going to Icey)

A good time away, great to see the family again. Lots of slurping by Murph and I think I'm accepted by the Icey one now.

But was the slurping a sign of affection or was it taste testing ? I still have all my fingers.

Here, there, not quite eaten by dogs

Wow, is it really 11 days since I posted last ?

That's a little too long. I like to keep in the habit of making posts and one of the aims for this year is to easily make 100 posts. I've done that for the past few years, although 2017 was mostly by the virtue of going nuts with the Advent calendar in December.

I did like the pattern of writing less but more often. Hopefully you liked that from the point of view of the reader.

What have I been up to ?

Burying myself in work as per usual;
It's coming up to Easter and I'll want to get everything in a good state before I disappear for a week. There's a combination of not wanting to worry about stuff while I'm away plus not wanting to leave work for others. Cos it's bad if other people have to do my work for me. I don't like that.

The way my system sets itself up is that I'll dip into the hyperactivity while at work and then the cost of that is to crash in the evening and weekends. And I can only do it for so long. The Xmas to Easter run seems to be a particularly tough one probably as a combination of the duration of the period and the lack of daylight. People are partly solar powered I think.

Especially as the sunnier times of the year are when the cricket can be watched (in sensible hours, I probably won't watch much of the NZ vs England tour).

What else ... games ...

I've been quietly addicted to the Idle Champions game again. It's playing at the moment while I tap this post out and watch a stream and video while the music is on. That's probably a bit too much going on to be honest but you can leave the idle clicker game to do its business in the background while you do other things. They've gone as far as they can go in the present run, so they're picking up money. I could even run it overnight. I don't think I will though.

I was thinking about doing another Planetbase run and recording it .... probably too late now, it would have had to be a weekend because a full base run is about 20 hours. I'd compress that for a video. Anyway, Planetbase is due to thinking of another game coming soon called Surviving Mars, which could well be an exceptional game and right up my alley for building a colony on Mars. It's a bit contrived in places though, like in its highly accelerated time for people living. It's not a game over years, it's a game over days ... or Sols.

There has been more Lego and the pictures will come in a later post. I have a 4th Millennium Falcon ... no not that one, a smaller one. It was a quick build but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

That arrived as part of being a vulture with Toys R Us and Maplin. Both stores are in closing down procedures, basically they charged too much for what they sell, didn't keep up with changing trends (or consciously went against them!) and people went elsewhere with the consequence that both big chains will disappear or shrink into a more commercially viable form.

But that means that now there are discounts and potential shinies to be had. Except even with the discounts, they were more expensive than the shops down the road. Oh well.

It was also a Mothers Day weekend here and a bit more involved than usual ... Instead of going to the parents place, I drove to where mum lives on Friday, over to the sister's on Saturday, Mothers Day things on Sunday, back to mum's place on Sunday night and back to Bristol on Monday. And visiting :

That's Murph the Slurp. He's very friendly. Bit more scared of things than he should be maybe but quickly went into full on slurp mode. He has a sister/not-sister called Ice who is a big ball of fluff.

Very interested in my toes for some reason. My knees got checked out as well.

(I think both of them were investigating how I might taste. I may yet get eaten by dogs ....)

Just kidding on that. Icey seems to have a lot of anxiety along with the big ball of floofiness, which means they have to keep her isolated away from other people and visitors. She defaults into a perceive threat -> attack response. Normally I'd be reasonably rough with dogs. Not hitting them of course but definitely giving the fur a good bit of ruffling. Playing with them. But only up to the point where the dog is still having fun. If the dog is not having fun then it's abuse and you don't want to subject pets to that.

Dogs like interaction with people. They enjoy you playing with them (or they wouldn't come back for more!). You can't do that with Icey as a stranger but I suspect with more visits, Icey will end up favouring me with as many slurps as Murph does. It was getting close at the weekend :

Some animals you can be a bit rougher with. Vigorous belly rubs and things like that. Other animals you need to give a bit more time with. Dogs are naturally curious. If you approach them when they're not ready, it'll scare them and you'll get that perceive threat -> attack response. We're bigger than they are and they understand body language differently. If you let them approach you, let them give a gentle investigative sniff, that will open the way to the trust for the stroking and the belly rubs.

Unless it is a badly trained dog and then you want to be ready with the crossed arms over the chest to ward them off and definitely more wariness with that outstretched hand for them to sniff. But that's not Ice and Murph.

Looking forward to meeting the doggypair again at some point. I don't often find myself in that area though.

One last pic ?

Yes Murph that is your best side and you are definitely a handsome fellow.

(His gave may or may not have been drawn to CAKE in this picture. I can neither confirm nor deny any rumours about that).

It's good to be around dogs who are part of the family again. I do miss the old fellas.

Scruff looking forwards to a good bit of ruffling. He did like a good throat and belly rub.

And Ben loving life like he loved people. And like how he loved treats.

(Also Goldie the athlete dog but I don't have any pictures of the golden one)

Last bit - still aiming for the 52 books, although I've kind of stalled lately with Revelation Space. It seems to be taking its time to really get going.

Valiant Protector

Been off to see my mum and dad this weekend.

All told, easy trip, traffic had the occasional idiot but on the whole, no holdups, no hassle. And a relaxing weekend with the mum and dad.

They're still shaking down their new place, putting things where they need them and all that. But it's quite cosy and well arranged. Not as big but that was the whole point of moving. It's also closer to where their friends are.

Win win.

And they still have :

Ben, the Valiant Protector.

He's a Staffy Bull Terrier who's actually getting quite old now. His coat's good but the grey has taken over his whole muzzle now. Makes him look rather distinguished.

He's a lovely dog, typical Staffy. He looks after his people, loves to be around them (and is perfectly well behaved when they're out) and gives us huge amounts of fuss.

Ben's amazing.

And that's the little fella at play. You can really see that poorly paw there. Both have had trouble :

Both paws have a genetic defect that makes them turn in, putting huge stress on the lower joint. It causes Ben a lot of pain when he forgets and goes jumpy.
The right paw was broken as a puppy, which paradoxically made it the stronger. It healed straight, which sorted out that genetic defect.

Pub run ! Yep. Dad's birthday next week. I couldn't make that though (car is in for service), so we gathered at a fairly equidistant pub for a decent meal (steak was edible but on the raw side of Medium Rare). Which meant I got to drive on possibly my favourite road. Twice.

It has lots of corners which can be taken at nice high speed (nothing above 60 - promise - cough). It has one little complex which is especially challenging. It's in a dip, with the sharp corner at the bottom of the dip. And then there's a hill after. You can take the sharp corner in perfect conditions at 70mph, if the car is cooperative.

What makes a well handling car ?

Reactions. It has to settle back to neutral very quickly after finishing one corner. Some cars are still settling 50 yards (or more!) after the corner. They're still wobbling around as you enter the next corner.

The IS ? Ate up the corner with relish and I actually laughed. I like that corner.

Back home and tired now though. I'll watch a few videos, maybe game a bit and then :

Poor fella. All tuckered out.

I'm going to hope to get as many pictures as I can old Old Ben. He may not be with us for many more years. I hope he'll keep hobbling on but I have that feeling that it's getting closer to his Time.

But not just yet. There's life in the old dog yet. And he definitely showed that when he had his ruff up defending us from unexpected visitors today :-). (Before heading outside with the mum & dad to give said visitors a good slurping in true Staffy style).

(PS If anyone's wondering, the reason the tail isn't visible except in that last photo, is that it's disappeared into a wagging blur of happy dog wag. The family doesn't believe in tail docking !)

Furry Friends

I've been enjoying watching a series by Kim of the Yogscast that's covering the game Valiant Hearts. (Bear with me non-gamers !)

Perhaps "enjoy" isn't quite the right word though. The game is a commemoration of World War 1 and in its own style, it's gritty and doesn't hide the horrors of what was a terrible war fought in horrific conditions. One of the central characters is the pooch :

He adds a lot of character to the game. He's a smart pooch, resourceful and always with that tail wag, tongue out cheerfulness of a contented muttley. I'd recommend watching the Kim playthrough (now linked!). It's not really a game, it's history coming to life on screen. And presented by someone who continues to be one of the best Youtube people I have the pleasure to watch. That's the strength of Youtube, the people on there can be themselves, with little editorial control. It means the best ones can truly be themselves and our Kim is a little bundle of awesome.

Having a dog in this house hasn't really been an option. I live on my own, so muttley would be on his own all day. Dogs like their people, it's a bit cruel (I think) to leave them on their own all day every day you work. So no dog here. Plus I'd have a lot of work to secure the house up although it may mean I could open my downstairs windows again. I can't at the moment because the neighbourhood cats jump in looking for food.

I've been lucky enough to have had 4 dogs in the family over the years. I can't remember much of the first. She was a Beagle called Tufty and I was a bit young when she was around. She was a good dog for a little while but went a little crazy and started biting people (unprovoked) and had to be put down. Very sad. We think it's because Beagles are pack dogs and Tufty was on her own.

After Tufty, a grand old man called Scruff arrived.

He followed my sister home after coming across her while she was riding. He plonked his starving bones down by the back door and was preparing to die. We weren't going to let that happen and so Scruff became a loving and incredibly loyal member of the family for the next 10 years. It wasn't long before his Irish Wolfhound / Setter cross frame filled out but his fur was always long, black and incredibly scruffy.

Scruff was a very smart dog. He'd do things like figure out his walkies would come after the end of the News but his highlight was finding his way home after losing my dad on a walk. And this was to a house he'd barely seen. We found him outside the front door.

Here's a bit more about Scruff in a tribute post I wrote a couple of years ago. Warning - have your hankie at the ready, there may be tears. I'm choking up here as I re-read it.

Scruff was awesome - and here he is :

Best dog ever. But very old when those pics were taken.

After Scruff came Goldie. He was a short haired golden lab who must have had a bit of greyhound in there too. I'm FAST. Goldie could easily stay with me when I hit the afterburners. We'd stretch each other's legs while on walks. Goldie was a very affectionate pooch too :

Yep. I got too close and I got slurped. Crikey, that must be from near 20 years ago. It's not that old because the new patio is in and that was after I broke my shoulder aged may 21. I don't remember that much about Goldie, he was part of the family when I was away a lot at uni or at work. There came a time though when this supreme athlete of a dog was let down by his strength as his legs hurt him more and more.

If a dog that adores his walks, turns and looks at you with a "help?hurtzzz" expression when you mention walkies then you know it's time to allow them to pass. And Goldie was in so much pain he could barely get into his bed or his chair.

Over to Ben - I mentioned Ben a few weeks ago. Ben's still with us :

But he's also approaching that point where it may be too cruel to have him keep enduring the pain from his paw and increasing trouble with his heart.

That'll be a shame because Ben is a typical Staffy - affectionate, loyal, smart, loving.

We've been blessed with our dogs. They've all been awesome members of the family.

Mr Ben

Was off visiting the mum and dad this weekend again.

My dad is a lifelong supporter of the Millers, aka Rotherham United Football Club. While I do follow a lot of sport, football isn't one of them. It's a fun game when played among mates but at the professional level, it takes on all the worst aspects possible in sport. There's ineptness, thuggishness and blatant cheating. And it's all excused because of the tribalism involved in supporting the team. We've even seen that this week with the sexist trash leading the Football Association being excused from the horrible things he's been saying behind closed doors.

But.

It's Rotherham. And a Wembley trip. And my dad asking if I want to go. Second thoughts ? Hell no.

What was it ? The game was the play off for the League One. That's the third tier of football here. Whoever won would be promoted to the Championship, which is the tier below the top tier.

It was a pretty decent game. Rotherham were doing a great job of controlling it but weren't doing much in terms of turning that control into threats for goals. Leyton Orient were being very physical with the referee showing a blind eye to their tough tackling. He also turned a blind eye to a blatant penalty that Rotherham should have been awarded in the opening minute. Meh.

We went down 2-0 in the first half but came out fighting in the second to draw level. The match then went to penalties and everyone was biting their nails. Rotherham win ! Hurrah.

But I don't really want to talk football that much. I do want to talk about this fella :

That's Ben the Staffy.

It's always good to see the old dog when I go to the parents place. He's getting on a bit and starting to struggle but he's still the same : affectionate, loyal, loving puppy he's always been. He's in great condition in general now too. He's been on a bit of a diet and that coat of his is shining and the muscles are well defined. He has been a bit of a barrel in the past but he's back to about the right shape for him.

He's a typical Staffy in temperament. They're very gentle dogs. When confronted with a naughty child who was taunting him and Murph with food (we were in a pub beer garden and the child was running loose), Ben comes back to his people.

But when treated right, he'll slurp anyone. It's great to have a Staffy Dog type welcome when you get there and there's genuine Unhappy Pooch moping when he knows you're going away for a bit again. He loves his people.

I don't think he likes Murph (Sister's dog) that much. Murph's very definitely just at puppy mentality and that gets very wearing on Ben. But at the same time, Ben doesn't want to be left out of play, even though his body isn't letting him keep up. There's a bit of "Oh Dear Bone, that obnoxious other dog will be here too soon" neurosis coming in with poor old Ben.

Old ? You can probably tell from that grey muzzle that Ben's getting on a bit. We think he's thirteen years old now, which is doing pretty well for a Staffy. He's on heart pills, plus his natural paw is bending in even more now. He's really struggling there :

Right paw - broken by car accident before we had him. Sister looked after him while he recovered. This paw mended straight and is still in great condition.
Left paw - is subject to a genetic defect where the paw turns in towards the right paw. It puts a lot of stress on the lower joint, more stress than poor Ben can take at times. He can still put a fair bit of weight on it but I doubt whether he'd be running on it given choice.

That's where Murph can be a strain for him, because Ben will want the agility to avoid him which isn't there due to the bad left paw. Sadly, the only way to fix it would be to surgically break it and have it mend properly. But - would you want to inflict that on a thirteen year old dog ? It's that conflict between :

Consistent lower level pain through inaction
Acute high level pain through action

You know that the surgical option would relieve the pain in the long term but you don't want to inflict that pain on a beloved member of the family.

And such a character too. Here's the last pic :

There's never a more adoring or desperate sight than a dog awaiting his dinner. I think there's a little limp on here too from that paw, conflicting with the urge to BOUNCE in anticipation of his munchies.

And there's Ben ! I wanted to share a bit about Ben. We don't know how long he has last. Between his paw and his heart, we don't know how long he's got left. But, he'll be missed. He's a typical Staffy :

Loyal
Affectionate
Gentle

And a true friend.

Weekend mayhem

Last weekend saw me taking a run up to the parents place for the birthdays.

It wasn't just my birthday last week, it's the sister's too. Our birthdays are 2 days apart (and a classified* number of years)

*(If I told you, you'd be ok but she'd hunt me down and kill me. Slowly.)

They're ok up there. The Family is full of people with active brains. We have to be doing Stuff all the time. Mum and Dad have been struggling a bit there since they retired but they're still finding things to keep them busy. (It's a big house with a bigger veggie garden than most people's allotments). Mum's doing better recently too, she's injured her arm quite badly and it's a difficult fix (bad muscles, bad tendons and both ganging up on the other).

Enter the Puppy.

The Family's always had dogs. We had a cat for a while too. Not sure what happened to Patch, it's been a few decades. The latest family pooch is Ben, who's been with us for a few years now. He's a Staffy with as good a temperament as you'd ever want in a dog. Possibly too chill because he won't do what Scruff did once - bark so loudly (think there was some foaming in there too) at the doorstoppers that "Go away or my dog will eat you" would have been very believable. Ben is a lot more placid than that.

I don't have a dog, there's not enough room here and I'd need to dog proof the back yard. Besides, the poor fella would be on his own all day and that's no way for a muttley to live.

New Puppy ? He's called Murph (short for Murphy 2) and he'll be a massive labrador when he grows up. He's only 21 weeks at the moment. Here he is :

That's a really sweet face isn't it ? There happened to be meat scraps involved ...

He's got massive paws, you can see how long that tail is and the legs are pretty long too. His body hasn't caught up yet, so he seems scrawny. When he gets his adult size, he'll be able to pull carts. Fast too. I'm wondering if his nickname should be Little Monster (for the size he'll grow to) or Missile.

Lovely dog, although Ben was having issues. Didn't know how to deal with the puppy. Hopefully when Murph comes next time, Ben will assert himself a bit more as Alpha Dog. Pooches need to do that, they need to establish their pecking order or the younger dogs will take too many liberties with the older dogs.

But yeah, I reckon he'll turn into a very sweet affectionate dog who keeps an eye on his people.

Weekends like that wipe me out though. I'm just about regaining enough energy to count as "Very Tired", so I'm looking forward to Xmas when I'll get a good chance to have a rest. Not just that, I've twisted my knee and I'm also nursing a minor ankle sprain. Add to that the usual stuff where my body dislikes the cold (fine when I'm moving, warming up is the issue !) and I'm looking for quiet time.

Not that long to go until Xmas.

Nothing's been mentioned yet but there will be another Crazie meet up where we can chill out in company. I'll head back to the parents for a few days too (likely to have a few visitors too). Wonder if something extraordinary will happen and I get to treat someone ? No likelihood of that at the moment sadly.

It's a chill out evening tonight too. Plan A was to head off to the Mall but traffic was bad (there will be other nights and I can pick and choose when I face that traffic).

There's a Bright Yellow See Me From Space Hat that's calling me. I need it.

It be damp in them thar hills ...

Weekend at mum's and dad's for me this one, I just got back and am settling in front of the telly for the superbowl. And I'm trying to reconcile having no clock under the telly. My "clock" has been pressed back into service as a video for my nan as she broke hers and the replacement my mum & dad had was too smart and wouldn't work. So my nan has mine, which is a nice and stupid £99 one that I've had for years. It got its redundancy notice when I got me a Sky Plus box.

Was surprised by the roads this weekend, apart from one or two road closures, the roads were nearly empty. I do tend to travel in the evening though, so all the nutters tend to be clear before I hit the road. And road closures don't affect you too much if you have a satnav to babysit you. Weather was clear over in Lincolnshire but went very damp down the M5. Nothing dangerous but damp.

Friday night - got mugged by the dog. My parents only have one dog now, we had to say farewell to Charlie last year because old age was making his life a misery. If a dog can't even get in and out of his chair because his legs don't work right and goes "do I have to?" when it's walk time, then it's time to think about letting them pass on. Charlie's hunting wabbits and cats now and has willing slaves throwing balls for him to run after and bring back, he's in a happier place. We definitely miss him though.

Ben's seeming to gather neuroses though. He didn't have a very good christmas due to being stressed out. We had Xmas at my sister's place this year, which is definitely out of Ben the Staffy's comfort zone. He's a lovely dog is Ben, he just stresses when he doesn't need to.

New toys this weekend - my sister got one of the FM transmitter things that let you connect an iPod or MP3 player up to a car radio. I've had one for around a year now, sister's had to catch up there because her car cd player is bust.

Had a case of deja vu last night, the head waitress at the pub we had dinner at was very much like our IT Girl. Just rather larger than our pixie. Same bounce and good humour though. (Must not stare at waitresses!)

PS 598 tracks, 1.6 days music listened to over past fortnight.
PS2 England let the Welsh win. Been a while since I've seen a worse case of a game being thrown.