I suppose it’s appropriate that, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of my coronation as Homecoming King at Newington High, the Albuquerque Journal reporter who interviewed me for a Lord of the Rings article yesterday says that I will be “a star of the story” and wants a photo of me with some of my LOTR paraphernalia. That’s right: once again, I’m a popular nerd. :)

I will probably send her a photo of me wearing my brand new Nazgul costume. Hee hee. I expect to get good use out of that thing: on Halloween, of course, and then again on Dec. 16, Trilogy Tuesday. Woohoo!

I’ll post a full gallery of photos from my Notre Dame-Chicago trip eventually (hopefully this weekend), but for now, here are a handful of pics:


All decked out in USC gear on gameday morning are, from right, Chris, Adrienne, and me.

Barb and her boyfriend Weston were randomly on the same train as me!

Like I said, more photos will be forthcoming eventually. For now, you can peruse my Moblog, which has many lower-quality images — and some audio posts — from the trip.

Here are some more pictures (in addition to the previous batch) of Becky’s extremely cute kittens. I took these two weeks ago, but hadn’t gotten a chance to upload them till now.


Butter looks at the camera.

Becky dances with Butter. :)

(more…)

Shire… Baggins…

I bought the Nazgul costume. Hehe.

Now here’s something you don’t see every day. :)

Hmmm… now this should elicit some comments. (Seen in Union Square, NYC.) Ain’t free speech grand?

I was interviewed by phone this evening by a reporter from the Albuquerque Journal who found, via Google, my New Mexico Madness blog post, detailing my plan to go with Becky to Albuquerque for the Lord of the Rings Tuesday Trilogy marathon on Dec. 16 (because everywhere else remotely near Phoenix was sold out). I was the ideal LOTR dork for her story. :) She said it will probably run this weekend.

UPDATE: Hmm…

ANOTHER UPDATE: Or… (And…)

The Yankees just lost, which is, of course, good for humanity. The World Series is now tied, 2-2. Way to go, Marlins!

Meanwhile, West Virginia’s enormous upset over Virginia Tech sets up what I see as a perfect scenario: the stunned Hokies now have nine days to recover, regroup, and get psyched for their home game on Nov. 1 against Miami. The Hurricanes, meanwhile, have an off week, so they’ve got nothing to do but get rusty and contemplate their next opponent’s apparent sudden weakness. The setup is perfect for Miami to get complacent, Virginia Tech to get angry, the Blacksburg failthful to get pumped for a huge back-from-the-dead win… and voila, the Hokies knock off the Hurricanes, and another undefeated bites the dust — opening at least one Sugar Bowl spot for a one-loss team like USC!

Woohoo! It’s going to be a crazy night in Morgantown, West Virginia!

My computer has decided it needs to do a surface scan, so non-mobile blogging is on hold for a while. :(

I’m back home, watching West Virginia work on a HUGE upset of undefeated Virginia Tech that could potentially be hugely helpful to USC. Go Mountaineers!

We’re in Philadelphia.

We crossed some sort of river earlier. (Detailed, I know.) Now we’re in Lancaster, PA. Ten minutes ahead of schedule!

I’m being treated to more colorful fall foliage as the train travels through Pennsylvania.