Yes, I'm still alive... (Redux)

... and aware that I used that title for a post just a few weeks ago. However, since I hadn't posted in a couple of weeks I wanted to make it clear that I didn't just collapse and die of sheer joy when I found out that Star Blazers is coming out as a live-action Japanese movie. It's just been a really busy couple of weeks. Plus, my desk at home has been put out of commission for a few weeks while we tear up carpet in our living room and figure out what to do for flooring afterwards.

So, here's a quick summary of the past couple of weeks for those who care. All of these items would've merited full posts if I weren't overcome with joy at the upcoming release of Space Battleship Yamato ... er, I mean "if I weren't so busy":

Tiki Night -- We had a good time and a much-smaller than usual party. This was in great part due to a really busy schedule for me and Monique, the (sadly usual) lateness of the invite going out, and the fact that lots and lots of folks had plans because Tiki Night was on a Saturday this year.

Nonetheless, the fireworks were first-rate, the company was lovely, and a good time was had by all.

A Wedding -- Congratulations to my sister Jamie and my new brother-in-law Greg! Susan, Rich, Monique, and I assure you that some of the smallest weddings lead to the best marriages.

The Floor -- Monique imported an ally from Minnesota, her friend Patricia, and thanks to their combined efforts the stinkiest 3/4ths of our nasty old carpet is now long gone. The under-flooring will probably have to serve us for the summer while we figure out what to do over the top of it. It's accumulating an interesting variety of left-over and surplus paints to protect it for the time being. Keep a sharp eye out in Summertime pictures to come.

Bread -- A nice bonus from a few cleanup efforts in the garage. I rescued my old bread machine and started making bread again. Most of the efforts to date have been rye breads or pizza dough, which has led to yummy sandwiches and delicious margherita pizzas. There'll be more tastiness to come.

The Stainless Steel Rat for President (1982) and The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus (1999) -- The last two Stainless Steel Rat books in my Stainless Steel Rat re-reading binge in anticipation of the upcoming release of The Return of the Stainless Steel Rat this August.

In The Stainless Steel Rat for President Slippery Jim DiGriz runs a shifty and slick campaign to depose the corrupt president of a banana-republic planet. The galaxy's greatest criminal and electoral politics are a frighteningly good fit for one another. Good stuff.

The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus was the only one of these that I hadn't read before. Somehow its release slipped by me, so I was very happy to discover it when I was setting up my re-reading list. That means that by the end of this Summer I will have read two new (to me) Stainless Steel Rat books by Harry Harrison, when I had thought he was done writing them 15 years ago. JOY!

The plot itself meanders through a series of incidents as Slippery Jim and Angelina are hired to track down a bank robbery ring, go undercover at a circus, and find themselves on the Rube end of a con. I got the feeling that Harry Harrison was having fun with a favorite old character in this one, and in fact it ends at a good retirement point for the Rat. It's a fun read with a heavy varnish of nostalgia, so newcomers to the series would do better to jump in at the start.