For those that live in a grill-unfriendly environment (weather or apartment-wise) this is also delicious as a broiling recipe. (Do all the things Wil says (I don't blanche first, out of laziness) and then put your asparagus on a cookie sheet. Place in oven on broil for five minutes. Stir, another two minutes, done.

Like many, it was my first PAX. It was a very different experience, as I was 'just an attendee' (I've been running other conventions for eleven years, so showing up and just wandering the exhibit hall and getting to watch panels and stand in line for guests was odd) but it was great. Seeing the Cape of Dicks presentation was a highlight, as was not critically failing my 'resist fangirl squee drooling' when I met you and gave you a pipe cleaner die (my fiance gave you the game store fire survivor die). Played some games, met some people, did a lot of walking and gawking at cosplay and enjoyed the HECK out of the D&D podcast.

Belatedly, Happy Blog Birthday. Also, thank you for not giving up. If you hadn't gotten past the gap, I wouldn't be enjoying the heck out of TeamParrish this season, nor would I have made good on a 25 year old promise to 'get a picture taken with that awesome dreamy wil wheaton guy' and inflict you with game science dice and skittish fangirldom. :) More importantly, so many of us would not be inspired to get excited and make things of our own, knowing that success can be achieved through perseverance and skill. Mostly, of course, skill.

I did the same thing a month ago - I'd been avoiding Pokemon for years, even though innumerable adult friends play it and have extolled its RPG virtues to me for years. I tried the card game for the first time during a break in my shift at Origins last year, too. Felt a little silly at 37 sitting around a bunch of 12 year olds and throwing cards down, but it gave me an idea of how cool the mechanics are in both that version and the video game. It turns out after a few hours of play it /is/ a fun RPG, and reminds me of all the old great Phantasy Stars and Final Fantasy serieses of my youth. Hope you enjoy it!

I have been a 'parallel reader' since college - as a liberal arts major it was somewhat of a necessity. At the moment, I am re-reading Watchmen, reading Neil Gaiman's 'The Graveyard Book', and plodding very slowly through the 'Kushiel's Dart' series, and my plane book is 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being. On CD in the car I just finished 'Shadow of the Giant', one of the Ender's Game series books (Go go library full of 1disc mp3 books). It has made me go back and pick up Ender's Game again.