This is my 200th post since I started mysterycycles three years ago next month. You know what that means, don't you?

It means I do the 200-Post Dance!

Whew. That was pretty good. I'm winded.

I sat up reading jPod last night. 300+ pages later, I finished at about 3 AM (which is usually heralded in our household by Marilyn waking up and yelling my name from the bedroom. You can practically set your watch by it). It was an entertaining read, though as you go through the book you're basically accompanying this clutch of idiosyncratic, possibly autistic, amoral geeks in their slow, spiraling descent into Dante's Inferno. It remains the only novel I've ever read that included a character whose addiction to heroin made his life better and more fulfilling. Yes, it's pretty dark humor. It didn't end so much as it came to a resolution of most of the plot threads, and though it's technically a happy ending, you've been well-trained through most of the book to recognize irony when you see it, and the ending lays it on about as thickly as it can get.

Nonetheless, it put me in the proper headspace to work on my "AdCreep" comic, so jPod fulfilled the purpose for which I picked it up.

Marilyn found the coolest thing yesterday: the Catholic Church maintains a number of hermitages and monastic retreats up here in Minnesota which are open to anyone (of any faith, apparently) to rent for a weekend and spend time in prayer and meditation with God. Michael, you would love this. Marilyn suggested that we might try to convince our parents to buy us a weekend as a Christmas present (though I might prefer not to do it in the winter, myself). We also agreed that we'd like to take these retreats by ourselves, not with each other. Having our spouse there would be a distraction for either of us in this case.

What else do I have to say right now? I keep adding to this post... We watched the movie Millions, which was directed by the same guy who did "28 Days Later" and "Trainspotting." Similar visual quirks, completely different content. This one's about a boy who can see saints, and who comes into a huge bag of money twelve days before the UK converts from Pounds Sterling to Euros. It's a great movie, and oddly enough, it touched on (again) many of the issues I've been thinking of lately, namely what we First-World types do with our money - you should definitely see it (though I'm contractually obligated to mention that there is One Female Nipple).

I'm going to the Renaissance Festival on Sunday with some friends from work, including a trucker friend of mine (Trucker Frank) who used to be active in the SCA. He's hooking me up with some sweet Viking costume stuff to complement my Viking shirt that Laura made for me. Should be lots of fun. Hwaet lo!