Brad Sondahl's blog


Books read this month
Frek and the Elixir Set far enough in the future to seem more fantasy than sci fi, and seemingly written for young adults, this book's author shows he knows more than he's telling, including societal satire, and a strong math/science background... The Boulevard of Broken Dreams A fairly incoherent (to me) riffing on early movie days, early theme park, and messed up lives, done comic book style. Interworld Multiple versions of reality, a staple from the Hitchhiker's Guide onwards, in a clearly juvenile novel setting. Although it had some nice touches, the denouement was along the lines of The Wizard of Oz, too simpleminded. Neil Gaiman's Stardust (recent movie) and American Gods are much better, and Good Omens written with Terry Pratchett is my favorite of his. Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister This is a kind of comic book Cliff'sNotes version of the classic Chandler murder mystery. It's a little complicated to condense a novel into a comic book, but it was enjoyable in spite of occasionally being confusing. Judas Unchained 800 page sequel to Pandora's Star--together really one long novel divided into two books. If you can ignore his sometimes too detailed description of life in the distant future (he never talks of concrete, always enzyme bonded concrete, for instance), this is a great welding of several great science fiction themes. Robert Heinlein wrote The Puppetmasters about aliens taking over our brains, and Starship Troopers about fighting a hive mind intent on our destruction. Both of these themes and a fairy story are combined in this series.. Inspite of the violence inherent in interstellar warfare, the author Hamilton is always trying to establish a moral highground. His British Isle background is apparent in the setting of some of his novels, and use of Scottish highlanders as 25th C. resistance fighters. He also shows after 1500 pages a personal attachment to the main characters, detailing their various happy-ever-afters at the end...	Rudy Rucker Kim Deitch Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves Graphic novel illustrated by Michael Lark Peter F. Hamilton

   Dec. 1
      Serious winter seems setting in, with snow starting this afternoon to make the roads slippery. My son went off the freeway when having to brake for an accident ahead, did a 180, and required winching to get back on again. But at least the car and he seem to be fine... That was just a shaky coda to an otherwise great day. Again today all the musicians and potters were upbeat, and the whole sale was a party that works (I imagine like a Tupperware party is supposed to, only better). I'll probably post some pictures on the group's website soon, and link to it from here...
        I woke up at 3 this morning, and didn't get back to sleep, inspite of reading the Frek book, which has plenty of irrational twists which would normally help free my brain for slumber. I guess between adrenaline and caffeine I'm still good for a while yet (he wrote and then yawned).

    Dec. 2
    We got a foot of snow in the last 24 hours, with more predicted, so winter is kicking off full force. I did a fair piece of shoveling today.
I've added photos to the clay arts guild website, of the sale this weekend (photo link is in upper right corner). It was a predictably slow day otherwise...

    Dec. 3
    Yesterday's foot of snow morphed into 3 inches of slush, as it's been raining for the last 24 hours. There were flood warnings in the forecast for today, which I didn't worry about (being 200 feet above the lake here) until I went down to do some shoveling at our other house. The garage/shop was built at a low spot on the street (in fact I was told they filled a gully to put it in). We decided to use one part of it to park one of our cars in, and shoveling yesterday made a thoroughfare for the street water to drain right towards the garage. So when I came today there was about an inch of water in the shop. I immediately remembered skills I'd garnered as a child playing in the gutter and building snow dams, and redirected the flow to the side of the garage with a snow dam. I could see the floating debris reverse direction at once. I also added another outlet for the water further down, and when I came back later, in spite of the constant rain, the water was at least an inch below reentering the garage. An ironic outcome is that it seems the garage is only good for housing a car in good weather, when you don't need it...
    This was still much more fun than working in the pottery all morning. My son and I also watched Vertigo, which is among the best of the Hitchcock suspense movies. The movie itself evokes vertigo as what you think it's about keeps shifting to something else. Even the ending is a moral retribution, a love tragedy, and a bit of slapstick combined.

    Dec. 4
    I went to a new jam in Spokane tonight, billed as an Old Time Jam. I think of myself as an Old Time musician (in part), so I decided to try it, even though the notice went on to specify that Old Time is fiddle music of the Appalachian mountains, which I view as a bit restrictive. Anyway, it turned out to be all fiddle tunes, mostly chosen by the fiddler, with tunes like "Stick the pork leg deeper in the fire," none of which I'd ever heard before. I tried gamely to follow along, but the song would generally end about when I was getting a handle on it.
    I guess defining Old Time music is a bit like the old joke about the blind guys describing an elephant from the parts they felt--what part of the elephant did you get? Most of the old time music I like does indeed come from Appalachia, and tends to be led by fiddlers, but I think I prefer the songs with lyrics (no songs tonight). I was also playing a suspect instrument (6 string banjo) in a suspect style (not frailing), so I suspected it wasn't the place for me.
    I had a few other reasons to come to Spokane, so it really wasn't a bad trip over all.
    The area where we live, best defined as "near Spokane," seldom makes the national press. So I was amused to click on a link on the Google news homepage that was headlined, "Killer storm heads for Midwest," only to discover it was really a story all about the gale winds and record rain afflicting the Northwest, which was expected to continue eastward.

    Dec. 5
    With all the rain and snow, a leak developed, so the day was suitable for climbing on the roof and smearing black gunk on all the likely suspects. This system hasn't worked before, but there's always a chance that it will the next time...
    Meanwhile it was back to trimming pots and glazing pots, and seeing to it the orders get done for Christmas. First reports from the sale last weekend had the total sales down about 20% from last year, in spite of excellent publicity and a good turn-out. I suspect $3.00 gas and consumer skittishness are taking their tolls. Individual reports are not yet forthcoming.
    I watched "Good Night and Good Luck" today--Edward Murrow taking on Joe McCarthy. Besides the quaintness of doing it in period black and white, it also managed to be riveting without a single car chase or blowing up--just actors doing a good job with dialog. I think George Clooney (who also wrote and directed it) is my favorite modern actor--like Cary Grant he is able to carry off both dramatic and comedic roles with great aplomb. TV journalism in particular, and journalism in general, have taken great hits since the days when there were 3 networks, and the American public hung on their every word. I don't watch TV news, but I think the closest thing left to Murrow is Daniel Shorr with NPR, who was pretty much Murrow's contemporary, but is still a great pundit at 90.

Dec. 6
    This was one of those days where everything's coming up roses (except they're down for winter). It started with my figures for the Christmas sale mentioned yesterday being up (which is mixed news, as others clearly did worse). Then the local Orvis Flyfishing Shop called to come and make a moderately big wholesale purchase, which helped me figure out which pots still need making. My son went off for the first official day of skiing (even though only the bunny hill was open, due to icy conditions.
    Then, feeling caught up, I spent the afternoon putting together my recording studio with my videos, resulting in 3 sort of new ones:

Greensleeves 2

Improved sound inst. guitar

The trouble is...

Original country song with guitar

Alabama Jubilee

Oldtime banjo song, second verse original

The song called "The Trouble Is..." is autobiographical to the extent that my memory is much poorer than my wife's, and it resulted in my thinking up the rather clever refrain, and the rest grew from that...
These all feature improved sound and some double tracking. I've got wires, lights, and tripods all over the living area, and it took several computer programs and some clever work arounds to get it all together. In order to add the improved recordings, I had to pretend with the video program I was adding a narration, then I would steal the filename of the narration track and put it on the improved recording, finally wiggling it around so the sound was as synchronized as I could get it. 6 minutes of video isn't much to show for an afternoon, but it was a great way to waste time...

Dec. 7

Bethlehem's Journey

Original Christmas song with guitar

Oh Come all Ye Faithful

Instrumental guitar hymn

    While I have the recording stuff set up, I added a couple more seasonal songs today.
    I also ordered clay to be delivered, since I'm down to a couple weeks supply. Currently the roads and pathway are clear--it's likely that there might be a lot of snow by the time it arrives, but this time it couldn't be avoided, since I didn't want to risk buying a large lot of new clay that might not work out. I really enjoyed visiting Seattle to pick it up in October, and the trip's gas was paid for by what would have been the freight cost, but I don't think I'd enjoy driving icy roads with a ton of clay in the van, so the die is cast...

Dec. 8
        I had a visit from Frank Delaney and his friend Maddy today. Frank's a well known local blues guitarist, and manages Mississippi John Hurt's website, but we sat around and picked and sang a few gospel and folk tunes instead of blues. That was a very nice way to enjoy a clear but cold December afternoon...
    Here's one more song, written when I had been playing guitar only a year or two. It's pretty short, and I considered adding another verse, but the story's all told in one verse. Winter Winds Song Minnesota winters probably inspire a lot of depressed young poets and songwriters.

Dec. 9
    I woke in the night with a touch of stomach flu, but after napping midday I was ready to peel apples most of the afternoon for drying, and make fresh bread with baked salmon for supper. It was the annual area church Christmas concert tonight, and I've become an annual participant, but I don't like repeating, and don't want to play the usual Christmas hymns that get overexposed (and even worn out by Christmas, since the whole church culture is moving to celebrating Christmas through Advent), so I picked a semiobscure hymn that appeared in the green Lutheran hymnal, "The Hills are Bare at Bethlehem," which fuses 20th Century poetry with a 19th Century American folk hymn tune. I always play banjo for this affair because the woman in charge likes the different sound...
    Speaking of early celebration of Christmas, the town had its downtown celebration Friday, and afterwards a member of the garden club offered me a tree decorated by the elementary students for display out by the pottery. This was coincidental, as I'd been thinking it would be fun to stick a tree there for a change.
    Before the topic of dried apples fades entirely, when I was cleaning up after the flooding in the garage, I found a couple of aluminum framed screens that didn't seem to go with any windows, so I brought them down to use drying the apples above the kilns. Unfortunately they were too wide to get through doorways without tipping, so the first batch I tried, I lost about half of the apples by the time I got them through 3 doors to the kiln room. There's no shortage of apples, so it wasn't a great loss. But I figured I could still use them, by loading the apples on the screens right in the kiln room. So that's what finally worked.

Dec. 10

I walked down on the Mill Pond today. There was still an open spot under the bridge, where a Goldeneye that looked just like this one was keeping solitary observance. I took some pictures, but they looked about the same as this one from years past... What was interesting was after seeing that duck, I walked along the main part of the lake to where it was open, and there were at least a hundred ducks there, too far off to identify, but I think some were Goldeneyes. You think about how the "birds of a feather flock together," but some birds don't.
But here's a fresh photo, where water seeped up through holes in the ice and spread through the light coating of snow (there's a picnic table in the background which helps give a sense of proportion:

Dec. 11
    For me, Christmas is a bit like jury duty. I think I've only had jury duty once, and didn't actually serve on a jury (only got not selected), but I got the sense that no one starts as a juror, but the process turns people into jurors. It's the same way with Christmas. I'm pretty resistant to the whole thing, but betweem random Christmas songs on the radio, rampant decorations, buying a few presents, I guess it's going to happen again, whether I say Bah humbug or not... It's always a close thing, though.

Dec. 12
    I went and picked up a ton of clay today in Sandpoint, which is one form of security to a potter (so is a fat bank account, but that's harder to come by). The cost, with transportation, is roughly 25 cents per pound (a small mug sized lump). So rather than valuable materials, it's mostly the potter's skill turning the dross into gold, although the new clay I'm using is a better quality of dross. Just about the time I had to leave to get to the hauler before quitting time, a slow customer showed up, and I was there alone so I couldn't just leave. After the customer left I had to bicycle down to where the car was parked in our garage, and I found my keys were missing. I'm hoping they're at the Post Office, where I think I left them at the service window. Anyway I squeaked into Sandpoint just as the transportation person was standing up to leave. Since the trailer I regularly employ for hauling is still hobbled (see July 2007 blog for that story), I met my skier son at the pickup place and we put the clay in two vehicles for transport, which seems a lot less dicey on winter roads than having a trailer... We only have about an inch of snow currently, so it was easy to back in to the studio to unload, as opposed to using a wheel barrow for 50 feet or more which sometimes happens. I guess the associated hassles make the clay worth slightly more than 25 cents per pound...

Dec. 13
    The keys were waiting for me in our post office box, so that's one less thing to worry about. Living in a small town, you have little choice as to how to get your mail, unless you're disabled. You can rent a PO box, or get it General Delivery. When we first moved here, it seemed so unfair that one is forced to rent a box that you have to go and get your mail from, whereas if you live deep in the country or anywhere in a larger town they deliver for free, that we decided to get our mail General Delivery, meaning you pick it up at the window. This is, of course, more work for the postal employees, as they have to sort through their General Delivery mail for you, and eventually we broke down and rented a box, which is maybe $12/year. It was the principle of the thing. But I guess the real principle is that life isn't fair, so get over it.

Dec. 15

    We were busy yesterday attending our son's rail jam competition, where skiers and boarders slide along steel rails, as my son is pictured. Spinney is the guy who builds the rails. In this competition there were 3 sets of rails spaced out down a sledding hill, which allowed enough speed to slide along the rails, doing tricks entering, while on, and leaving the rails. He got third place in the advanced skier's section, which repayed his entry fee and got him a helmet, which he's giving away to an aspiring young contender.
    My son and his bride arrived today for a 12 day stay. We had 3 inches of snow this morning, so genuine winter seems settling in.

Dec. 17
    I got a few extra minutes today, so I recorded my version of The Night Before Christmas song (my tune).
We're getting snow almost daily, but it compacts so it's only about 6 inches deep. Lots of shoveling.
Although we all have our own computers, family gatherings still go back to the old days, so we played Scrabble and Euchre last night, in person instead of online.. I managed to win at Scrabble, in spite of baking Spritz cookies while playing, and in spite of talented young ones that actually get Bingos (use all their letters on one word) sometimes (I never have in my life). Euchre, on the other hand, is new to my experience, and defies sensibility, with jacks taking aces, and sometimes changing suits.
    Yesterday we walked down to the Mill Pond, and the only ice free spot is near the bridge. While there, a muskrat swam under the bridge, and headed off under the ice. They must both have a great ability to hold their breath, and a great sense of direction, as there are few places they might be able to breathe. I saw a muskrat swimming under the ice earlier this month when I walked on the barely thick enough ice (in shallow enough water that if it broke I'd just get wet and cold). These muskrats are beginning to fell trees in numbers along the shore. I imagine their population is a boom and bust cycle based on food supplies...

Dec. 18
    With relatives visiting, food becomes a more conscious focus, although the 4 inches of snow that fell today made a proper holiday backdrop for cooking So for lunch Susa showed us how to make deep fried won ton dealies with cream cheese inside (not for the faint of calories). The Spritz cookies disappeared, so I made some oatmeal cookies that came as frozen dough resulting from a contribution to a local high school band. I tried to explain to my daughter-in-law that only extreme acts of charity make me use mixes for anything, but her reaction seemed clearly to respond, "like mixes are an issue?" I also made some banana bread, which is not necessarily a holiday food, but always a comforting one.
    Then a blog reader named Tom emailed to question whether muskrats fell trees (see yesterday), and he was correct to do this. So from this I deduce there are beavers as well as muskrats in the lake, though not seen so frequently by me. While checking my muskrat facts on Wikipedia, it mentioned they can hold their breaths for up to 20 minutes, so I guess they don't need to have such a great sense of direction, just a strong desire to live...

Dec. 19
    Blog feedback is running rampant--Frank Delaney wrote to tell me that, having experienced the PO Box rental blues himself, "if you live within a certain distance in town of the post office - you're supposed to get a po box for free." This jogged my memory, that for the last couple years, since buying a house 3 blocks farther away from the Post Office, I've just had to sign something attesting to my residence to get it free. So apparently if you live farther from the Post Office, the rule is there to make up for how far you have to go to get your mail, or something.
    A deputation of us went shopping in Spokane today. As is typical for this time of year, we went from sloppy 4 inches of slush (threatening to reflood our garage), to Spokane with light sprinkles on bare ground with high overcast clouds, in other words, better weather. But I'm not a good shopper. As soon as I enter a modern department style store, I regret my part in the over-production of material goods, which is apparent everywhere. In my own locale, there are no stacked shelves and packed parking lots, so making pottery makes a sort of sense. Hand made pots and malls are a bit of a stretch.
    But the local Gaisler Conservatory was included (by me) in the itinerary, and the Spokane Parks Department does a wonderful job of lighting the whole thing with Christmas lights, often using clusters of lights to simulate blossoms on some of the plants, or colors that make the natural foliage even prettier. If only I'd remembered my camera...

Dec. 20
   I have musician friends that have over 10 of what is basically the same instrument. They aren't all the same to them--the tones and playability vary. And yes, they're probably crazy--after all they're musicians... But I bring up the point because the new clay I've been using has been a real boon to enourage my working--the results are that much better. There are fewer surface defects, and the colors are brighter, the bottoms smoother. I'm able to make chicken cookers with a high percentage of survival rate... I've previously mostly stuck to the old clay under the theory that it's best to control variables, but the clay itself changed with time, which is only logical as it's dug out of the ground, and any deposit of clay is not uniform.
    Beyond clay work, the sun shone briefly today, and at this time of year, that can be encouraging. Everyone here is working on Christmas letters.
You can see our online card (with some familiar blog photos) at this link...

Dec. 21
    The most exciting thing to happen today was getting a new bank account at the new local bank. Previous to this week, the nearest bank was 11 miles away, so this promises new heights of convenience, especially since it's less than two blocks from our house. Our town had a bank for the first 30 years or so, but it was long gone by the time we moved here in the 1980's.
    It wasn't a very exciting day... But the bank served home made toffee.
    Whoops, I forgot about the 1100 dollar dinnerset that got picked up. That's the biggest sale to an individual ever...

Dec. 22
    It was pffefferneusse day (see the cooking day if you want to know how to make these cookies). So while I was making them a neighbor brought in 3 plates of goodies. Christmas feasting is in full swing...
    Today everyone else went to a ski mountain to either ski or inner tube, but I chose to stay here and fix the waffle iron. Well there were a few other things I did too, but fixing the waffle iron was great. We have two, both basically antiques, probably from the 1950's. We use them both to hasten waffle making. The round one started heating up where the wire goes from the top to the bottom the last time I used it, and as soon as I plugged it in today it was clear a short was developing. I was ready to toss it, but I knew I couldn't get as good a one to replace it. (Modern appliances are unserviceable and quickly obsolent, like two of the cell phones we got 3 months ago). So I decided to take it apart and see if I could fix it with some kiln wire. It's really a lot like a two part kiln, with heat elements in the top and bottom. After an hour or so, I reassembled it, and it works, so the mission was accomplished.

Dec. 23
    I joined the throngs shopping at the malls with some of my family today. It made me appreciate the customers that brave the local icy roads to think outside the big boxes and shop at my pottery. And after an hour or so, I was ready to return to our peaceful location. I spent most of my time in a bookstore--I prefer the nice local one in Spokane, but given the needs of the others, went to a chain store, since we were shopping in Coeur D'Alene. Bookstores are full of ideas, which makes them more interesting to me than "stuff," but they still manage to make the ideas expensive...
    My blog writing got interrupted by some neighbors coming to sing carols. I sang along with them, and we gave them some cookies our other neighbors gave us. So it must be Christmas...

Dec. 24
    We usually rely on grace to provide us our Christmas tree. But we have a clump of trees on our lot that will be too crowded, so we've talked of cutting one for a Christmas tree. We were also given a tree after the local school kids decorated them for the town celebration. It's interesting, in that it's really 3 scrawny trees, crammed together to make a full appearing tree. After waffling a bit, and finding that the school tree (which had been outside in front) was frozen to the ground, we set off to our other house to cut a tree for inside. My ski nut son brought his skis and set about practicing jumps off the small ski jump he built in the yard last summer. My new daughter-in-law made a "Woodsman, spare that tree," styled speech. So we went back, loosened the other tree, and brought in inside and decorated it last night. We're running about a day behind on Christmas preparations. While most people put their tree up shortly after Thanksgiving, my wife's family tradition is to put it up around Christmas Eve. They also would open presents Christmas Eve, and attend 2 or 3 church services. We attended one, and put off the present opening till Christmas day afternoon, so my ski nut son could go skiing for 4 hours or so. So I guess every Christmas experience is unique...

Dec. 25
    Allowing for individual needs (or compulsions, such as skiing), we opened packages around 3 in the afternoon, and snacked enough that no one wanted supper. I got and gave mostly books, videos, music, and clothing. We've got about a foot of snow on the ground, including 3 inches Christmas night, so our Christmas is dreamily white. I hope yours worked for you...

Dec. 26-7
    A friend gave us a food processor for Christmas (chops, slices, and grates), so I made a carrot cake on the 26th. There's still a goodly supply of goodies. I also got a digital scale for Christmas, that tells to the nearest 10th pound whether I've been bad or good. From trying it quite a few times, I've noticed its accuracy is more like 1 pound than 1/10th. about the same as the old analog scale.
    This is a good time for the post Christmas blues. My son and his wife left today, and I had the house to myself, with other family members doing other things. Christmas is clearly an over hyped holiday. Not only are the national sales figures reported as though the fate of the world depended on them (which is probably does), but some of us are celebrating the birth of the Messiah. So it's hard to live up to the hype.
    In the after Christmas blues, there's nowhere to put the new food processor, and I'm not sure how frequently I might use it. A manual cheese grater works pretty well, and cleans up a lot quicker... Also the instructions for grating cheese include "put the cheese in the freezer for half an hour before grating," like I'm likely to have the prep time to do that...
    Holidays are also always times that people who have lost loved ones can have a hard time remembering, or not remembering...
    Then there are all those Winter Wonderland songs that are hard to live up to... My daughter-in-law likes roasted chestnuts, so we roasted some. They were sort of bland and mushy, not nearly as good as the song represented.
    I'm still puttering about in the pottery. One of the kilns, when its power button is pushed in, pops right out again, instead of staying on, which aging kiln sitters tend to do. It may be the cold had the wire spring that makes it return frosted in place. By a process similar to which small fortunes are won from slot machines, the button finally stuck. I'd rather dissect a kiln in May than December in its unheated kiln room, so I'm hoping I can get by for a while.

Dec. 28
    I got jolted out my complacency by an email from Steven (not the writer) King at www.stevenkingmusic.com. He's just moved to the Chattaroy area north of Spokane, and is starting a series of concerts and workshops from his home. He's a national champion fingerpicker, whereas I'm an amateur (even though I was happy to pass 500,000 views on Youtube on Christmas day, which bolsters my always fragile ego). Anyway, I can't pick nearly as well as he does, but I sent him a link to a couple of my tunes and volunteered to play for the open mic segment of his first house concert (which he agreed to), so I expect I'll go to it, next Thursday.
    Other than that, the snow keeps on snowing, to the point that the piles along the sidewalk are about 3 feet deep. This is good authentic winter--none of that global warming stuff for us...

Dec. 29
I watched a lot of college football bowl games today, but also practiced guitar while doing so. The upcoming guitar performance on Thursday promises a higher standard of listener than average, so I can use the practice...
    We got another 3 inches of snow last night, then had some blue skies today. The snow has started again this evening. I went for a walk, amazed at the wildlife footprints that have to be less than 12 hours old. I did see 3 deer outside our house last night. It also looks like a raccoon was under our porch. I hiked down to view the lake with some knee high boots, and that was about the depth of the snow. The animal trails are the easiest way to get down, and the recent deer tracks made it clear where the trails are. It is also true in the summer, that the animal trails provide the easiest ways through the woods. The deer seem to come up in both seasons for easy forage. It's apparent they like the plowed streets for walking as well. Both the animals and I aren't particularly fond of snowmobiles, except they do provide walkable trails through the snow for us.

Dec. 30
    The weather was below freezing today, so I was surprised to see a honey bee fly by and land on the snow. We have a bee tree nearby, and I soon wondered if this happens regularly with bee colonies, or if I was witnessing the dreaded "colony collapse disorder." I was busy celebrating my 30th wedding anniversary, or I might have gotten more involved with investigating it, but by flashlight tonight I counted 36 dead bees fanning out from the bee tree. The counting was made easy on the white snow, with no fresh snow since the 2 inches last night. I'll keep watch in coming days to see if it's a steady attrition. The tree was emptied last winter, perhaps by the same process.
    In reviewing this entry, I sound alarmingly like the newt fancier Augustus Fink-Nottle of P.G. Wodehouse's writing, or the character of Henry Fonda, the noted herpetologist reading 'Are Snakes Necessary' while on a cruise with Barbara Stanwyk in the classic Sturges comedy, "The Lady Eve." That's good--I'm in good company...

Dec.31
    I noticed about 50 frozen bees this evening, including the 36 from yesterday. I assume there are hundreds in the tree, so it's looking more like slow attrition than a lemming march. Choosing that last phrase reminded me to look up lemmings, since the proverbial wisdom is they have mass suicides into the sea, but as this page at Snopes.com indicates, reports of their mass demise are greatly exagerated.
    I took the day off, except for unloading one kiln, so besides a few bowl games, I have nothing more to report. Happy new year!