The morning of my planned fishing expedition, I had my catch in mind: compliments -- as many as I could muster with my native talent and such attire and tackle as I could gird and equip myself with. But how to go about this task? I had not yet decided on a final course of action.

Would I cook? Would I dance? Would I display sparkling wit? dazzling charm? sizzling sex appeal? Would I go out? Would I stay a-home? Would I, instead of actively casting toward compliments, engage in the more passive approach of merely standing around looking decorative? So many things to consider.

I wandered, muzzy-headed, into the kitchen in order to make a pot of coffee, the better to clear the night's cobwebs from my mind. I had intended to take a cup out onto the back porch and spend a leisurely moment reading the day's weather and finalizing the plans for my day's expedition, when, interrupting my planned activities, a fishing expedition came to *me*.

Clattering and banging in a great, noisy rush through the back porch and straight through the great room,

dragging an honest-to-goodness miniature fishing rod and reel



in whose line he was hopelessly tangled, came my resident preschooler.




I grabbed the pole from the wooden floorboards and struggled with the line, spending the better part of a good quarter hour reeling in and untangling the smallfry



Instead of throwing him back, I made him breakfast while regaling Sr. Federico Smartypants with tales of my epic, yet inadvertant catch, and all of the fish uncaught on the expedition I had planned but abandoned when this opportunity arose. (He would have learned about it here as I'd originally planned for him to be one of my main targets of compliment acquisition.) Fishing, being fished and being regaled with fish tales are all hungry work.

So here's my catch! and what a catch, indeed. The 'mandus is large enough, and amusing enough, to not throw back. I think I'll keep him.

After breakfast, a great deal more time was spent in returning the reel to usable condition.





This is the view from *my* everyday life.

... and a large reason why I don't post more often, much to the chagrin of at least one player and fellow adventuress. While there is much everyday adventure here, not much seems to fall into taskable bits, at least ones I stop to think of taking pictures of while it's occurring. The game of my life is fairly resource-heavy at the moment, and requires most of my time.