This blog is about the world of gaming miniatures, as seen from my perspective. I've been collecting and painting for over 30 years now, and while my primary focus is miniatures for D&D, I also enjoy many other games that use minis, so we'll be covering those as well. Thanks for stopping by!
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts

Monday, July 16, 2012

No Country For Old Lead



Things have been pretty quiet both here on the blog and on the painting front. That changed a little bit in the past week when I actually picked up a brush and slapped some paint on some partially finished giants and a Heritage LOTR troll. Of course once I did that, it was time to pack up the Family Truckster and head to Lake Wenatchee State Park for a weekend of tent camping.


A good time was had by all. Many a wild s'more were made over the campfire and consumed by ravenous small people. Note to self: if you use the giant campfire marshmallows (the ones that look about three times the size of a reglar marshmallow), you WILL make a mess. No saving thow, do not pass go, do not collect $200.



Our campsite was frequented by the smallest chipmunks I've ever seen - even smaller than the garden variety fellas usually seen in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. Note the glowing eyes. I think this was a Dire Chipmunk. That, or the flash from my camera. I'll go with Dire Chipmunk.


When he wasn't busy hiking, eating s'mores, or tending the fire, Lukas did his best Two-Face imitation. He sat on the ground and covered the right side of his body with dirt. This was followed by a dunking in the lake to clean off the offending dirt. He could have showered, but he chose the frigid waters instead.


At the end of the trip, everyone was dead dog tired, dogs included. It didn't help that our friends who camped next to us accidentally set off their car alarm at 3AM, and didn't get it off for at least a full minute (an eternity in the wee hours).


So now that we're safely home again and all the camping gear has been cleaned and stowed, it's time to start blogging and painting again.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Vacation is Over; Back to Painting & Collecting


Detective John Kimble poses in front of John Jacob Astor Elementary School with his pet ferrets.

"Stop whining! You kids are soft. You lack discipline. Well, I've got news for you. You are mine now. You belong to me."

OK, so that's me and my dogs in the pic, but it is John Jacob Astor Elementary in Astoria, OR where parts of 1990's Kindergarten Cop were filmed. I'm not big on doing touristy type stuff, but every year when we pass through Astoria on our way to Seaside, I always think to myself "we should stop and take a look." This was the year. On our way back home, we stopped at the school, sat in the shade of a large tree out front, ate lunch and took some pictures.

We also hiked to Indian Beach at Ecola State Park, which was a 3-mile roundtrip and was quite beautiful, with some really nice vantage points looking out to the Pacific Ocean. According to IMDB, some scenes for Kindergarten Cop were filmed at Ecola, as were some scenes from Point Break ("I am an EFF...BEE...EYE agent!") subbing for Bells Beach, Australia.

What I'd really like to do is take a nice, long vacation in New Zealand and geek out on all the LOTR filming locations. Do you think they sell any "I got hammered at the Prancing Pony" t-shirts?

Now that summer is all but over, it's time to get back to business and resume painting. Too many projects are cluttering my workbench of shame, so let's see if I can hammer some of those out. I'll also be listing some old lead for sale on eBay soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that.