Lagertha in The Vikings

It is an outstanding season of Vikings this year.  The most recent episode, where Lagertha leaves her son behind and rides off with her shield maidens actually choked me up.  Outstanding work by Kathryn Winnick, the actress who portrays the character.  She can convey such complexity and turmoil in a single glance that it cannot help but to touch you. The character is so foreign to us and yet at the same time so connected to us.  A pretty amazing show all in all.

I slept pretty well last night.  I went to bed early to read for a while and then fell asleep.  I had a strange dream that woke me up in the middle of the night for an OCD moment.  I am not sure what all the dream was about, but I woke up and had to get out of bed and then remake the bed and then climb back in. It is also possible I was getting tangled in the sheets and had to straighten them out.  Either way, it was a strange moment.

We are supposed to have rain intermittently for the next week or so, starting today.  On my weather app it shows the little rain clouds all day, but the radar map puts most of the rainfall in the northern part of the bay for the moment. I hope we get a good rain, California can certainly use it as we slide into the spring and summer with a full blown drought underway. I'm looking forward to some more rain and a chance to open up the windows and let the scent of fresh rain fill the apartment.

My plan today is to meet Tony for breakfast at 8:30 and then meet Don and Tony at the Cupertino Square theatre to see "Noah".  Rotten Tomatoes has given it fairly high marks, so I am looking forward to it. If nothing else for the visual spectacle that comes from IMAX, since the plan is to see it on IMAX.  Other than that, I am going to continue my work around the apartment, cleaning, trashing, donating, and interweave it with watching episodes of "The Americans".  It looks like it is going to shape up to be a good weekend.

Vacation - Day Three - Wondercon

The day started on an inauspicious note.  We went to I-Hop for breakfast and were, ultimately, disappointed. The food was not up to standard, and it certainly was no Hickory Pit.  The service was mediocre. I'd eaten at this particular I-Hop before, so I expected a good experience.  We shook it off and spend some time driving around the area to get acquainted with it, then managed to get stuck in traffic on our way back to Wondercon. Proximity to Disneyland is not necessarily a good thing.

 

But, we arrived safely back at the hotel and headed over to the convention center to start the day.  We started the day in an excellent manner - with the panel for the History Channel's show "The Vikings".  It was great to see them in person and get to see some clips from past and future episodes.  I am a big fan of the show.  The only time I miss it is when I have something else that I must do - and then I promptly watch it on DVR as soon as I can.

 

Once out of the panel, we wandered the floor a bit, then circled back to the same room for a  panel that I was looking forward to nearly as much. This time, it was "Falling Skies".  It was also an excellent panel, again, a chance to see several of the cast members (the young ones) and then watch a few clips of future episodes to come.

Once that panel was finished, we walked back to the Marriott for lunch, those excellent spring rolls and a quesadilla, chased by a small piece of s seven layer chocolate cake.  After that, it was back over the convention center, where we'd hoped to see the Sony presentation over in the arena, but, alas, the arena was mostly full.  There were scattered seats down in the crowds, but I really didn't feel like searching for them, so ultimately we popped over the Capcom panel, where they were presenting one of their new video games - "Remember Me".

Then, a bit more time on the floor and finally I headed back to the hotel to make a couple of family related phone calls, while Tony went off to play Resident Evil: Evolution at the Capcom booth.  Dinner was room service and that brings me right here, right now.  All in all it was an excellent day here at Wondercon.

Two Dreams and Clint Eastwood

I had two dreams last night and I thought I would take the time this morning to write them down.

Dream One: David

It was a pretty simple dream.  I was in the small town near where I grew up (and where many of my cousins live).  I went to what used to be an uncles house, knocked on the door, and my cousin David answered.  He was dressed in a simple blue security guard uniform. He told me that he was on his way to work at the Church, where he was the night watchman.  We had a brief and pleasant conversation and then he set out walking through town toward the church, which is about three blocks from my uncle's house.  (David died of cancer three years ago. He was one year older than me).

Dream Two: Deception

The second dreams was more of a movie style dream. In the dream I was an investigator/agent and I was tracking a criminal of some sort (think James Bond style evil mastermind).  In the dream he thought he'd paralyzed the organization I was working for by killing several of the agents, but what he didn't realize was that one of them had not been killed, so we had a chess piece in motion that he thought was off the board, which I felt gave us a decisive advantage.

It was a beautiful morning when I woke up - there are high broken clouds and the sunlight painted them equal shades of gray and gold.  Breakfast was a bowl of cereal and cup a coffee, then a few texts, then a show on the History Channel as I ate about the real Hatfields and McCoys.  That was pretty interesting.  Right now, as I finish up the last of my coffee, I am watching the first part of Clint Eastwood's "Pale Rider", an excellent old western.