Rain, rain, and still more rain. . .

I feel like the A.A. Milne characters above, on that particular blustery day, when they were floating around in an overturned umbrella until they were rescued by Winnie the Pooh and Piglet.

And there’s more rain in the forecast. In fact, we’re under a flash flood watch here in Central Illinois until sometime tomorrow! All of this rain plays havoc with mowing the grass and bicycling needless to say. But the Grand Duchess and I did manage to get in a 30+ mile ride during a couple of hours early yesterday evening before the next front blew in. So, this evening, it’s an hour on training rollers in the basement. Not the most exciting way to ride a bike, but it keeps one in shape and might even help melt away those extra winter pounds.

I’m not quite there with my battalion of imaginary Irish grenzers (sigh). I managed to finish the muskets and drummer for the second company of the battalion yesterday evening, following the bike ride and dinner. All that remains now are the black garters and many tiny buttons up the sides of each white gaiter for the last 15 figures. About a couple of hours of work, which hopefully I’ll get to this evening. An unexpected spike in my consulting work the last week or so has slowed things a bit on the painting front (grumble, grumble).

One bit of exciting news – Thanks to the good graces of Hesse-Seewald, a new draft of troops will be arriving in the Grand Duchy of Stollen in several days. These will consist of 60+ of the brand new Huzzah Miniatures, which apparently did not quite work out with Alte Fritz’s existing collection, so he is passing them along to Stollen’s Irwin-Amadeus II at a very reasonable rate. Can’t wait to examine these lovely figures up close! It was exciting news when I stumbled onto the blog promoting Huzzah! Miniatures early last month. Interested Stollen regulars can check them out by clicking on the following link: http://oozlumgames.wordpress.com/huzzah-miniatures/ .

A last tiny tidbit before I forget. We have finally found our second guitarist for the oldies rock and roll band. I met with him yesterday, and I think he’s just the person we need to fill out the music. So, the band includes two guitars, drums, and yours truly on bass and lead vocals. Our first full band practice is on the evening of June 23^rd. The numbers we’ll work on include: Shakin’ All Over, Hippy Hippy Shake, Lonesome Tears in My Eyes, Be Bop A Lula, Money (That’s What I Want), and Lend Me Your Comb. We’re all eager to begin playing together and developing our chops.

Ok, I’ve got a check to get in the mail, phone calls to make, and a translation to wrap up, so enough chatter for right now. Auf Wiedersehen Männer!