Sept, October, and early November update....

 Holy crap!

First off I need to seriously apologize to everyone here for the delay in posting to this blog for the last TWO freaking months. As September came by and rolled into October, my "busy time" kicked in.

(WARNING: THIS BLOG ENTRY IS PICTURE POST HEAVY. PLEASE CLICK ON PHOTOS TO GET A LARGER VIEW. ALSO, GET COFFEE AND RELAX AS IT LOADS.)

So much has been going on in the last couple of months that my gaming and painting has been literally essentially abandoned. Life, The Universe, and Everything, seems to have taken over. I did end up getting some figures, and I plan to get back into the fray of things next week now that the season is quieting down.

So here we go.

In August I made post #200. I was happy with it. I also planned to do an update to my Bongolesia blog. However, I found out that my password to my Bongolesia blog no longer worked. Sometime in the semi-recent past I had changed it it seems, and yet, I didn't have it written down anywhere. I attempted recovery, but couldn't as now blogspot's login is now connected with Google and good old Google DOES NOT offer password recovery info, (Besides it keeps showing my old non-existent phone # as the recovery verification number, which I DO know I changed.), and thus I am stuck.

Currently until further notice, the Bongolesia blog is hopelessly locked up and I am unable to get into it.

I hate the way sites like this one mesh into larger ones which then have a finicky control over them. In the past I could've emails blogger and said "Hey. Here's the deal. Can you help me out?" And they would've . Now, it's practically requiring an Aztec style sacrifice just to get in touch with someone, and since it's blogger and not Google, good luck with that.

Perhaps there shall be a new Bongolesia blog in the future. We shall see. 

But lets get back to this shall we?

September and Octobers progress was absolutely horrible. 

For the month of September I finished ZERO figures and/or terrain.

My figures/terrain schedule is way off now. 

For the month of September I painted the hat trim on a dozen tricornes for my 18th Century British Artillery Crewmen and that was it. That's all I got done.

For September....AND October.

September came and towards the end of the month, the leaves started changing color to their beautiful autumn colors. The sugar maple in my yard and the one in the neighbors yard went full glory.

Sadly though, these beautiful colors don't last long.

With Fall arriving, for the first time in years, I got out the full reenacting gear and decided to fall in at Hartford City. The last time I was there was for our wedding, and I was wanting to smell the smoke and powder again.

So I took Josette and loaded her up. 

One of the things I like about Josette (a 2018 Chrysler Pacifica), is the amount of cargo space you get with the "stow-n-go" availability. With this van I have more cargo space, than I did with the cargo space in my Ford F-150, (the 90's models didn't have a square/rectangular cargo bed, but due to the wheel wells making the cargo bed an hourglass shape), and its a good thing. I was able to pack a ton of stuff into it and still have room.

(Loading up...)

(Testing out the tent....)

So I packed up and got to the reenactment.

I set up camp and got ready. 

For the first time in my reenacting life, I decided NOT to go as a rifleman, but as the company drummer.  Learning the correct drum calls was an "interesting" series of lessons in itself, but they worked.

Camp was set up, food was cooked, and I ate by the light of a candle lantern.

(Dinner by candlelight...sort of....)

Coffee was on the first the next morning. Fresh beans in the bottom of the pot, boiled hot; the longer you let it cook, the stronger it becomes. 

And then it was off to battle.

After the reenactment weekend was over with, before leaving, I took a moment and stood on the hill and looked out over the field, and remembered all of my friends, those still with us, and those that have "Crossed the river and are resting in the shade of the trees with Jackson", and had a drink of bourbon for them and a pour. I then spent a little bit of time down at the fenceline remembering our wedding from 12 years ago.

(At the end...)

(For all of us...)

(That fenceline holds memories....)

(Here's to them all....)

(Letting the old cap and pipe rest on the fence. Remembering the days and people gone by...)

(" Old times there....are not forgotten....")

 I packed up my gear and headed to the local restaurant. Honestly speaking Hartford City only has one real restaurant, (a place called Richards). It's a local diner type of place, but it serves a pretty decent meal. 

  

(Topped off dinner with a slice of peach pie....)

The season was over with and I came home. 

And I was greeted with a box....from Denton Texas.

My Reaper Bones 6 KS had arrived!

(Oooooh much goodness!)

I opened it and quickly looked through it. It was smaller than my previous Reaper KS's, (4 & 5). TBH, for 6 I was kind of underwhelmed. There really wasn't a lot of stuff I was aching for. I think that 6 came way too early on the heels of 5. 

As October came around, we celebrated our anniversary and my birthday with Mexican food!

And I bought and assembled a shelf for my wonderful wife's (Gawd bless her!), sewing room.

(So much fabric and yarn....)

And then I had a medical appointment.

All you need to know is to take a look at the jug there, and you'll get an idea of what it was. 

All came out okay in the end, (no pun intended). 

As part of our anniversary, I went ahead and got us tickets for the Whitewater Valley Flyer Railroad excursion. This was a 5 hour event that took 1 1/2 hours to go by train from Connersville to the canal town of Metamora. Metamora is one of our favorite towns. Unfortunately the train trip wasn't the best, and there's only a two hour turn around so you barely have time to do anything. We were able to scarf a a small pizza, some drinks and hit two shops before we left. My wife bought some corn meal, and I bought a book and a copper cup.

(My wonderful wife, on the train...)

(Yours truly...)

(A nice little purchase there...)

(One of the trees in Metamora...)

We plan on returning to Metamora in December for their "Christmas on the Canal" event.

And then during the quiet moments, I restocked my office drink fridge...

And cleaned up the liquor table.
I have a liquor cabinet coming in, in the future.
Note to myself. I am also needing to restock, Jameson, Bushmills, and Johnny Walker Black....

And I early voted!

(Remember, "Service GUARANTEES Citizenship!")...

And I also got around to trying out a new deviled egg recipe that was VERY well received (and devoured)....

And I sucked down beer while watching the Texans play and embarrass the Colts.

Halloween was also slowly coming around....

(Looks like the neighbors dog has gotten loose again....sigh....)

Indeed for it was "that time o' year...."

(Bonus points if you know where this image comes from....)

(Indeed...)

So I filled up the candy bowl.

My wife said "Oh how nice! You are filling up the candy bowl for the kids!"

I looked at her and blinked.  "For.....the.....kids....."

And she just sighed.

We also sat down and watched two Halloweeny movies.

(An interesting film to say the least....)

(We hadn't seen this one in a while, and so we watched it. It's hard to believe that this film is already 25 years old. I remember seeing it at the theater.)

While Halloween was going on, I decided to do Jack O' Lanterns.

I got two Pumpkins and decided on templates.

Pumpkin #1 was going to be the typical Halloween Jack O' Lantern. I did it up easy and named him "Bob"....

(To this! Bob looks good and happy in a jack o' lantern kind of way....)

After that, I went with a more "Different Design..."

("Qapla'! All Hail The Empire, and Glory and Honor to The House of Murphy!!!")

And I set "The Old Girl" up for Halloween....

After Halloween was over with, I did some "After Halloween Clearance shopping" where all the good stuff is put on reduced drastic sale.

(Indeed...)

I was able to get this baking mold to make edible pizza skulls and skull muffins.

And I picked up a tablecloth for my table downstairs.

And I picked up a plastic skull bucket to put to use....

And I always try to get extra tea lights....

These little suckers always come in handy.

I played around and did some photography also.

I also got around to trying out some of the recipes from the "Heroe's Feast" D&D cookbook.

First up was "Travelers Stew"....

(This is an awesome book. I highly recommend it.)

(Getting things ready...)

(In da pot....)

(In the bowl, served up with German dark rye bread, cheese, and washed down with a Warsteiner....)

(Annnnnd a close up...)

I then tried my hand at a dinner for my wife and me. I went with the "Elven Greenspear Bundles in Bacon", and the "Tomato Broth with Melted Cheeses".

So I fixed them up....

And they came out AWESOME!

The next day I was working with some leftovers from last nights dinner for lunch, and decided to make the recipe for "Orc Bacon".

The only thing I did differently was I did a little heavy glazing than it called for, and I accidentally used thin bacon instead of thick.

So I went to town on it...

And once again, it was awesome!

Finally, I ended up making Apple Enchiladas and Turkey Bacon for breakfast. The apple enchilada recipe is from the old Mariposa Ranch Bed and Breakfast in Brenham Texas, that I used to go to.

I decided to try a mixed glaze sauce on it, instead of the melted butter and sprinkled sugar and cinnamon and that literally made all the difference.

And now with all the food done, it was back to miniatures!

WHAT'S IN THOSE BOXES?!?!?!

So readers probably don't know but back in the month of July, I made a deal with a fellow TMP'er for a lot of 18th Century figures. He also threw in some painted ones which was a pleasant surprise. 

And to top it off, a friend of mine in Canada sent me a set of painted figures as a gift.

So now I was looking at not one, but THREE boxes of figures!

Gadzooks! What a pleasant problem!!!!

(Three boxes of figures. Coffee mug to scale....)

First up was the Reaper KS Bones 6 box.

I'll admit that this was perhaps the most "underwhelming" Reaper Bones KS I had participated in. I felt it came way too fast after Bones 5 and simple just didn't have the umph there. True there were some nice pieces but still...

But I went ahead and went through it.

(Inventory sheet to make sure.)

(A decent amount of stuff. Not as much as last time, but still. And the inventory showed it all there.)

(The Undead Graveyard/Mausoleum set...)

(Innards for a tavern. Here's hoping that if they do Bones 7 that the actual building can be included....)

And a mystery box???....

(Hmmm...well on the bright side, it's not ticking....)

(Paints!!!! Most excellent! Wait...I don't have rack space....oh dear....)

(You can never have enough orcs to give the PC's a hard time....)

(You can't have enough Gnolls either....)

This is the Reaper 30th anniversary dragon. He's freakin' huge!

(Now that....my friends.....is a DRAGON!)

(The final tally and look at what was in the box. Lots of more stuff to paint....)

Then I took a look at my TMP purchase.

(A nice selection of 18th Century figures. Infantry, civilians, officers, and lots of painted up pretties, (mostly pirates!)....)

And then checking the package from my wonderful Canadian friend, and the painted figures he sent me.

(Oh my...these are really, REALLY nice....I am honored and humbled...)

And so with this dear friends, I am back on track. Back to getting figures and scenics painted, and back to getting terrain built. I have approx. six mos before Little Wars.

So I close this out by wishing everyone a great day, and a big thank you for reading this.

Stay tuned there's more to come!