Happy Friday, everybody! We made it! There is all sorts of fun things happening in the world, today. For example, my new article is up on the City Wire. It’s pretty rough and you can read it here. Also, there’s a new XKCD today which I laughed at. There is more, but we’ll get to them in a minute.

First, I’ve got to say that I woke up this morning and it was 14.4°C in my house. Granted, it is 1°C outside my house, so I am thankful for the extra 13 degrees, but still cold. I woke up thinking how surprisingly warm I was, then one of my feet escaped the down comforter and hasn’t been seen since. I think it withdrew back inside my leg. Right now, I am rocking the thickest sweater, hoodie, and beanie I could scavenge up in total darkness. What I wouldn’t give for one my pairs of fingerless gloves right now. Or, even better, being able to type in mittens. Either one would be great.

Yesterday, my letterpress boss, K, and I did a three hour printing demo at the Calvert McBride’s 100th Anniversary celebration. Lots of oohing and awing. I think it was mostly jealousy over our hats. Earlier in the day K and I had been discussing the press and looking at a book about those particular presses when we spotted a printer wearing a paper hat. We knew right then and there that we definitely needed paper hats for this printing demo. So, I set to work on making them. By the end of the session, I was making some pretty decent paper hats. Not to brag or anything. If you want to try making one, be my guest. I have a video that will help. I suggest using a Weekly World News if you can find one. Out local paper is not the ideal dimensions for paper hat making. Anyway, here’s the video on “How to make a Printer’s paper hat”. Enjoy:

How did your hat turn out? You should send me photos.

After the printing gig was over, and I walked away with some handsome freebies, Pancake Land and I did a little errand running and then I cooked a Baked Potato Casserole for dinner. Yes, it is as delicious as it sounds. Unfortunately, I did not read the instructions until I started making it and realized that it had to bake for an hour. So, dinner didn’t come out until close to 9pm. I got an episode of Bones in with dinner and then off to bed.

As for the title of the post. A few days ago, Pancake Land bought one of those pop-up cubes for the cats. There’s nothing fancy or special about it, but as soon as it hit the floor they were all over it like it was covered in chicken grease. Jumping on it, climbing in it, rolling around in it, pouncing, running, excitement. It was weird. Granted, as soon as they took a big interest in it, I secretly started referring to any and all cat interaction with this cube as “Gleaming”. Just to give mad props to Christian Slater and obscure 80s movies. After that movie, you have no idea how badly I wanted to start a cop car with an elephant wrench. Anyway, that is what the title is all about.

I am going to leave you with probably the most insane thing I’ve ever seen. Operation B showed it to me. What is so scary about it, is that it is so incredibly well produced that someone out there obviously shelled out serious cash because they thought this idea was brilliant. I couldn’t agree more. With out further ado, Enter the Ninja:

I know. I know. More soon. ~SC