a monumental weekend

Our new DM survived the monumental D&D 4th edition conversion, but with 9 players I'm sure his head was about to explode at any minute. At the last minute I switched my character idea from half-elf to gnoll. She's a refugee from Thay with infernal warlock powers and a dash of shaman spirit summoning ability. Her name?

Bayoncé Giselle Gnoll

From Boobob: here's the real reason why Terminators transport naked.

From Phil in the U.K. - Why David Tennant and Russell T. Davies are leaving Doctor Who.

This weekend I toured the furry varmint Sean around town and was finally able to locate the space age architecture at the George Jetson Memorial Picnic Area outside the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. I had been looking for it for years and finally stumbled across it last week while trying to find my meeting place for work.

Then we headed over to the Tidal Basin near the Thomas Jefferson Memorial for some Cherry Blossom Festival scenery. Since it was Friday during the day the crowds weren't so bad, but with the weather as glorious as it was the crowds thickened over the weekend.

I'd never actually spent much time in TJ's Memorial, but was struck by the potent words found inside:

"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."

So like, was he saying that our laws, like for marriage and recognition of gays, should change with the times and that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and all that? Crazy talk!

Then after a bite to eat we headed over to the Smithsonian Institution's Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery where we learned about the Tale of Shuten Doji, a wicked flesh-eating oni (ogre) who enslaved maidens but was ultimately slain by a crew of brave samurai.

On Saturday the team played the Gotham Knights at Cardozo, followed by good times at Stoney's on P Street. I wanted to drag Sean out to Madonnarama at Town but was too burnt out by then to get into the groove. Staging at Nellie's wore me out as there were crowds of people watching something having to do with the Final Five or something like that. Didn't they see the BSG finale a few weeks earlier like everyone else?

Some silly fun to look forward to from Comedy Central: Krod Mandoon And The Flaming Sword of Fire, starring a woofy Sean Maguire (Meet The Spartans, Dangerfield, EastEnders) and Matt Lucas from Little Britain.