Let me share with you a thoroughly silly event held every year in the Cotswolds…

(The Cotswolds, by the way, are where the Cottles hail from…)

This excerpt is from Soglos.com, the online magazine for Gloucestershire. Visit their site for news of other silly (and serious) things:

Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling

Five thousands spectators turned out for Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling 2009.

The Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling attracted huge crowds in 2009, with local racer Chris Anderson taking two of the cheeses.

What do you get if you cross Borat in a florescent mankini, a host of cape-wearing German superheros, a cow, a 1:1 gradient, and an 8lb Double Gloucester cheese? The Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling and Wake 2009, of course – which brought huge crowds of 5,000 spectators from all over the globe to Gloucester once again this bank holiday Monday.

The perilous 2009 event, which was forced to a halt on three occasions while the ambulance carted off injured racers to the hospital, may have taken significantly longer to complete the five official downhill races this year – but the head-over-heels falls, slides, somersaults, and a fair few face-plants – gave the crowd more than enough sideline excitement to make up for the delays.

I love the costumes (it’s not every day you get to see a guy dressed as a cow, chasing cheese down a hill), although the Borat guy in the bright green outfit kind of left me speechless.

When I finally get to visit the Cotswolds, which I hope to do some day soon, I’ll have to time my visit so that I can witness this crazy event…

Tonight was Samwise’s college graduation. Fun was had by all, as is evidenced by the photos below.

Sam with his grandparents, who came down from Canada for the graduation.

Samwise and his friend Shelby (she’s cute, isn’t she?)

Samwise and Craig

Sam with J’Neil…

Another with Shelby

And finally, as one would expect, here are Samwise and I at the graduation, performing the sacred ceremonial protocol:  “Poy“

(We could also have done the powerful “Yop” movement, but Sam prefers “Poy” for events such as this.)

Wish you all could have been there!

Yes, I am completely behind. It’s been weeks since I posted anything of value and even that was barely passable. Samwise graduated from high school, and I failed to post. Even Snowman hasn’t gone anywhere exciting in the past month!! But Friday will be Samwise’s college graduation, and I’m almost done with preparations for this murder mystery, and when those two things are done, I’ll even have pictures to post!  For now, here’s Samwise’s graduation announcement (for those of you who have not yet seen it).

Happy Birthday to my beautiful step-daughter, Jamie.  She’s lovely both on the inside and out.  Have a great day!

I need some help.  I am writing the mystery for the kid’s annual murder mystery party that is coming up in a month or so and I am stuck.  Funny that what I’m hung up on is names for characters, but I can’t seem to decide on their names, and that prevents me from writing their stories.   And it looks like it is going to be a big party this year — probably over 20 kids ages 15 to 20.   So, please help.   If you are someone who’s going to be participating in this year’s mystery, better stop reading now…

Last year the kids were on a riverboat in Gambia in the 1930’s and there were spies disguised as priests, thieves stealing rubies, archeological relics with special powers, scientists trying to hide their secret formula, doctors making strange alliances with suspicious widows, secret service agents searching for code books, and natives doing Juju love rituals so they could force innocent (or not…) women into marriage.

This year’s mystery will be set in 1940’s Hawaii at a resort where a movie crew is filming what promises to be a big Hollywood hit, though admittedly that might be easier if props weren’t being stolen, the movie set hadn’t been set on fire, and people were not disappearing.  Involved in this mystery are the cast & crew for the movie, employees at the hotel/resort, and general local characters.

Allison has given me a number of very entertaining character ideas, and I have several of the characters done (thankfully) but this is what I still need:

• Name, nationality and reason for living for the costume designer on a movie set
• Background, dark secrets and motivations for movie director
• Name, nationality and reason for living for a maid at a resort in Hawaii
• Name and background ideas for a waitress at said Hawaiian resort
• Background trivia and tidbits for botanist studying on Hawaii
• Reasons for living for a local Hawaiian law enforcement officer
• Name, nationality, background and sad details of the castaway who finally washed ashore on his life raft last night…

I can’t list much here about what I already have, because I need to keep as many details secret as I can.  But if any of you receive inspiration on this important matter, or are simply willing to offer suggestions, please do so.  I seem to have a mental block this evening and I am running low on time.

In addition to the things above, I could benefit from some interesting  “deep dark secrets” I could apply to existing characters, or even ideas for new characters I haven’t thought of yet, since it sounds like the guest list may be growing longer each day.

Of course, if any of you want to come volunteer to serve as Hotel Director or some other such powerful figure and help me run the game, I wouldn’t say no!  Craig is always a huge help, but this year he will be working fevorishly in the hotel kitchens, providing the food for the big luau feast.