A New Member of the Family. . . Meet Gunnlaug-Elvis!

Exciting times are upon us here at Stollen Central! We have decided that we are ready to adopt a new kitten and have found Gunnlaug-Elvis at a local pet shelter. She will come home with us in about ten days after she reaches the eight-week mark, but the lady I've spoken with on the telephone e-mailed us a few photographs this morning. Look at that face! Can you believe that the shelter has a hard time finding homes for black cats? As I remarked to my wife, "Is it still the Middle Ages??!!"

As to our kitten's name, well, Gunnlaug is an old Norwegian female name that you just don't come across too much these days, and the Elvis part comes from the police officer character "Geir-Elvis" in the wonderful Norwegian-American television dramedy collaboration called Lillyhammer, which stars Little Steven Van Zandt (yep, Bruce Springsteen's guitarist), who is the show's star and one of its creators.

The program defies easy description, but basically it involves a member of the Sicilian mafia, who becomes an informer to the police. Put into a witness protection program, he is relocated from New York City to Lillehammer, Norway where problems and comedic misadventures ensue as the Italian-American mobster attempts to fit into Norwegian society. The first season of the program is available on Netflix, and I urge you to check it out if it sounds appealing.

Anyway, that's an extremely round-about way of explaining how our new cat has the name Gunnlaug-Elvis. We'll simply call her "Gunn."

The Eventual Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. . .

The Anhalt-Zerbst regiment musters in the drill square to sort themselves into platoons and companies during the coming weeks Fall maneuvers if you will. A large dose of real life the last few days with the start of classes next Monday, various preparatory meetings, and finishing up a few other things this week. But, I managed to sort out 60 or so Minden Austrian infantry from the pile and get 'em stuck to temporary painting bases. Must carefully drill out the hands of several NCOs for flagpoles and pole arms this weekend before the usual basecoat. I'm thinking of mixing the usual white gesso with the usual light gray to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Applying both base- and undercoat in one fell swoop as my grandmother used to say. In the meantime, the recently finished squadron of Saxon cuirassiers has been placed carefully in one of the clear acrylic boxes on my shelves until I have the suitable flag to affix. -- Sto...

Presenting the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere!!!

Here they are, with the rearmost nine figures still drying, three squadrons of the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere, now in the service of the Grand Duchy of Stollen. And now, it's onto that artillery!

Continued Regional Map Revisions. . .

F ooled around a bit more with the revised map just before and after dinner this evening, using the Fotor app to reinsert missing text . I also removed a few other things using the 'Magic Eraser' function, which works surprisingly well. Now, we're getting somewhere. I just have to figure out how to ensure that the text is all a uniform font style and maybe figure out a way to add a few bunches of trees to suggest forested areas, Ninja AI is not always entirely cooperative to the tune of "I'm sorry Dave. I can't do that." -- Stokes

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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