I'd give Geno a "C"

I said it before and I'll say it again, Geno Malkin deserves the captain's "C" for the Pittsburgh Penguins. He has been carrying the Pens throughout this season.  He is the leader and seems to have the support of the players, coaches, and the fans.  Sidney Crosby has to realize that it is Geno's time.  He needs to step aside and get on-board the Malkin train for the good of the team.  Next stop...hopefully the playoffs!

On the miniatures front I realized that I have been WAY more active this year than I'd ever realized.  Even being down for a bit with an injury to my arm, I still managed to paint around 30  or so miniatures. I'm including some pics.  Hope you enjoy!  Happy 2016 to everyone!!!!

LOTR Witch King on Nazgul

Chaos Daemon Princes

 

VorkaBeast by Kingmaker Miniatures

Beckoners - Malifaux
 

Pseudo- Steel Legion



Gangers - em4 Miniatures

The Entire Crew!

Trick or TREAT!!!!

I'm gonna give it to ya straight....Dino's Restaurant in Greensburg.....EAT THERE!  DO IT!!!!
Went there on Halloween.  Not disappointed in the least!!!

Food - awesome!  Five of us ate and not a bad word to say about any of the meals.

Portions - HUGE!!!!!

Price - decent...for the amount of food....more than acceptable!

Service - A bit slow but still OK.  (It helped that the waitresses were dressed up for Halloween!  Just say'n.)

Atmosphere - typical sports bar

I'd go there again in a heartbeat!  I'd been to the Dino's in Latrobe a few years back and thought it was decent.  The Greensburg location is much better in my humble opinion.  Great food, great time!

Side note:  I didn't see any Bronto Burgers on the menu...Does that seem right to you?

Big thank you to Miniature Market for helping me out with a problem (my fault) with a recent order.

The folks there really went the extra mile.  THANKS ALL!!!!!  I have been ordering from Miniature Market since 2012 and have never had a single issue.  If you are looking to buy miniatures online, I HIGHLY recomend them!!!!!  You'll love their great selection and excellent prices.

Love and Other Things

Been to two weddings in the past month.  It was great to see young couples in love and ready to start the next phase of their lives.  Great time had at each with family and friends joining in the celebrations.

One wedding was held in a cathedral with a reception at the Wydham Grand Hotel in Downtown Pittsburgh.  The other wedding was at a small country church with the reception at the Springdale Veterans Hall.  The difference between the two....food and beverages.

Honestly the food, beverages, and service and the Wyndam were awful.  Nearly everyone complained about what was served and the fact that you couldn't get any kind of top-shelf liqueur.  The only saving grace was the view of The Point from the room the next morning.  In addition trying to park there was murder.

The experience at Springdale Veterans Hall was completely the opposite....great food, plenty of good liqueur, and top notch service.  I have say that the hall itself is pretty darn cool to have a function in.  I REALLY enjoyed all aspects of the reception there.

All things aside I wish both couples nothing but the best as they begin their life journeys together!!!!

On the other fronts that I'm prone to yammer on about on these pages:

Tried a great beer a few weeks back.  Its called Dead Guy Ale.  It's from Rogue Ales out of Oregon.  Good stuff!!!!  I had two with dinner and was good for the rest of the evening.  Grab a six pack or two for Halloween!

I finished one of my two Chaos Daemon Princes for my WH40K Army.  I'm really pretty pleased with it.  The second one I'm doing as a custom piece.  I plan to post some pics when I get them both done.

Went to dinner at Azon Wok this past week.  Gone there many times and the food and service has always been great.  Not this last time however.  Food was really bad....and I mean REALLY BAD!  Service was poor and the portions are WAY smaller than before.  Don't know what happened there but I am in no hurry to go back.

If you're shopping at Pittsburgh Mills and want some Chinese Food you need to head over to TJ's.  Wonderful buffet, awesome service, and everything comes at a great price.  Love this place!!!!

Well the old Buccos were one and done again.   The Pens are off to a rocky start.  The Pitt Panthers look decent so far.  The good old Steelers are plodding along and getting some wins even without Big Ben.  Sports in da 'Burgh!

I'm out.  Live long and Prosper!

Stonewalled in West Virginia

Decided to get away for a few days. Headed down to the Stonewall Jackson Resort in Roanoke,West Virginia.  On the upside the place and grounds are beautiful.  The resort sits next to a small lake.  What could be better?

As it turns out just about anything.  I think that Stonewall Jackson might have actually slept in the beds.  I didn't sleep a full night the entire time.  The room's AC unit sounded like it was a jet aircraft engine. No rest for the wicked???!!!

Food at the hotel was bad...I mean really bad.  They also ran out of things on the menu.  We were told more than once that "it's coming in the next ruck."

There's plenty to do as far as outdoor activities during the day, but everything shuts down  at
7 p.m.except for the bars.  The sight-seeing boat on the lake only goes out once per day...ridiculous!!! There really is nothing close by to drive to.  In a word..BORING!!!!!

I know West Virginia fought for the North during the war.  Perhaps along the way they forgot something about "Southern Hospitality"?!

General Stonewall Jackson

Been a While

Life has a funny way of leading you onto paths that  you thought that you would never take.  My son's girlfriend recently has gone through some tough times.  She could have chose to make bad choices.  Instead had the courage to ask for help.  One step from homeless and with no where else to turn she turned to us.

We now have a beautiful, funny, smart, talented, energetic young lady staying with us.  My wife finally has another female in the home (even our cat is male) and the daughter that she had longed hoped for.  Me, I get to see a young lady get a fresh start at life.  She is wonderful.  It is sad that her own family didn't appreciate the great person that she is....their loss.  Honestly, I feel that she probably saved us as much as we saved her.  With our older son off to college and my younger son (her boyfriend) busy with college and work, my wife and I were feeling a tad out of sorts lately. My wife now has someone to talk and shop with and I have someone to share my love of music and humor.  A"win-win"!

My other son's girlfriend got me to watch Firefly on Netflix.  LOVED IT!!!!  Great cast, fun scripts, and a cool space ship...what more could a long time sci-fi nerd wish for.  Sad that it did't last longer. As Jubal Early would say, "Does that seem right to you?"

Bought a couple of Chaos Daemon Princes for my WH40K Daemon Army.  I am hoping that they will complete it.  You know as well as I do that I'm a miniatures addict and will never truly be done.  I'm pretty sure that there will be more Chaos to come.

I just finished painting a Reaper Bones Ape-X figure.  On a scale of 1 to 10 I'd give it an 8.5.  While not 100% satisfied with it, my attempts to "improve it" have only seemed to make it worse.  Time to quit while I'm ahead.

Nothing new on the brew front.  I've been enjoying a case of Beck's while hanging around the old fire-pit with friends.  We haven't solved all of the world's problems yet but we're working on it.

Summer is nearly over...sad but true.  The leaves will be changing and bright yellow school buses will delay our early morning commutes.  Soon the crispness in the air will give way to dancing snowflakes.  The circle of life continues.  It is the people in our lives that make the circle complete!

No Comfort In Gettysburg

Took the family up to Gettysburg for the Apple Blossom Festival.  The weather was fabulous and perfect for touring the battlefield.  We did the whole 9 yards while we were there:  museum, film, cyclorama, Jennie Wade House, cemetery, and the "Ghosts of Gettysburg" tour.  (May have caught a glimpse of a spook or two!!!)  We had a great time shopping in the quaint shops in downtown Gettysburg.  I was hoping to buy some Civil War Era Miniatures at the Gettysburg Miniatures Soldier Shop  but didn't.  (Note to owner:  You may want to actually speak to customers in the store jacka$$!!!!)  All-in-all a very nice little weekend get-away.

If you get the chance, make sure to eat at Tommy's Pizza when you are in Gettysburg.  I can honestly say that their pizza is among the very best that I have ever eaten.  We also ate at O'Rorke's.   The food there was mediocre at best and the service was about the same.  The whole place smelled like stale beer.  Won't be headed back there any time soon!

The worst part of the trip was our stay at the Comfort Inn Suites near the cemetery.  My first clue that this was not going to be a good choice was the fact that they still had Christmas decorations in the lobby.  The lobby smelled like chlorine which was either coming from a fish pond or from the pool. The halls had the same smell throughout the hotel.  The rooms were OK.  My closet door had a big hole in it and there was a dirty garment left in it by the previous occupant.  The foldout bed was so bad that your dog couldn't have slept on it.  We had to ask for new sheets and blankets because the ones that were on the beds were soiled.  When the staff came to change the sheets they were very rude.

Hoping to salvage something from the stay, we tried the free breakfast offered at the hotel.  If you love cold eggs and sausage then you have found the right place.  Outside of the coffee, nothing was remotely decent.  The best part of our stay at the Comfort Suites in was when we checked out.  I would NEVER stay there again or recommend it to anyone.  PLEASE READ THE ONLINE REVIEWS ABOUT THIS PLACE!!!!!  I wish that I had!

Random Thoughts:

My Penguins blew it big time in the playoffs!  Once again the boys in black and gold couldn't find the back of the net.  SOOOOOOOOOOO  disappointing!!!!!!!!

Ate at a new Chinese Restaurant in Plum Borough called the Golden Palace.  Excellent in every way!!!!! I can't wait to go back!

Drinks last night with friends at Crave Melt and Tap In Murrysville.  Cool atmosphere.  A really great selection of beer.  Food - small portions and pricey.  Excellent service.  A good time had by all!

An injury to my shoulder has kept me from doing too much in the way of miniatures painting.  I have completed several Reaper Bones miniatures which turned out exceptionally well.  I'm looking forward to painting more as soon as I'm up to it.

Ta-ta for now.  Headed outside to enjoy the sunshine!

Wink of an Eye

The world lost two great men this past week: Leonard Nimoy and Boris Nemtsov.

Leonard Nimoy's portrayal of Spock in Star Trek TOS was nothing short of amazing to me. He took a fictional character , an alien (well half), and had him show more humanity than we often see in one another. I held a special place in my heart for Spock ever since the first time I saw him on my parent's old black and white tv back in the Sixties. I was a chubby nerdy little kid that didn't quite fit in. I loved playing with toy soldiers, reading comic books, and dreaming of being an astronaut someday.

To me Spock was a hero. He was what I wanted to be. He was different but at the same time cool. He was smart but at the same time cool. He was peaceful yet powerful. (And the ladies seemed to love him.)

Even after Star Trek went off of the air, I still loved Spock, Bones, and Kirk. I went to all of the movies and am not ashamed to admit that I got a bit teary-eyed when Spock died saving the Enterprise. I feel that way again now. It almost seems like I have lost an old friend. I'd like to thank Leonard Nimoy for making Mr. Spock such an important part of my life as-well-as in the lives of millions around the world. My condolences to his family and friends. Live long and prosper Leonard! Second star to the right and straight on till morning.

I wish that I could have known Boris Nemtsov. It seems like he was a man of peace. It seems that he deeply cared for his country. It seems like he was willing to risk everything to make things right in Russia. These beliefs cost him his life.

I was in Russia in 1993. I met some wonderful people there. I found that they were basically the same as we are. They shared all the same wants, needs, and desires that we have. Back then they thought that we hated them and wanted to destroy them. They were just as shocked to hear me say that we felt the same way about them.

The Russians are just people. People who want a better world and a better life. Boris Nemtsov seemed like that's what he wanted for them. Russia has lost a great leader. My condolences to Mr. Nemtsov's family and friends and to the Russian People. I join with you in the hope that his efforts were not in vain and that his death will help to facilitate a better tomorrow for Russia.

What the Clix?!

I recently purchased a bunch of stuff from Miniature Market.  My mind was blown when I saw the size of some of the newer HeroClix.  Compared with some of the older HeroClix, the new ones are ginormous!  The new Grifter and Spartan figs are WAY bigger!!!!  They look extremely odd when placed with more normal sized figures.  Making the matter worse is the new goofy-a$$ bases that WizKids now uses.  Can someone over @ WizKids do a little scale conformity???  Really, I mean the figure scales are all over the board!

On the other side of the coin, I purchased my first minis made by Reaper Miniatures. In a word...AWESOME!!!  I bought a bunch from the "Bones" line.  Love 'em!  Nice sculpts, cool look, great variety, reasonably priced!!!!  Can't wait to get more!!!!

I also bought a DreamForge Leviathan Crusader.  The sum-beach is da bomb!  With so many other projects in the works, I think that I will hold off on this one until the summer.
*Side-note: DreamForge is putting out a bunch of new models that look way cool!  Check them out on their website.  http://dreamforge-games.com/