Ok, guys. This is seriously exciting.

I love birds. And I love dinosaurs. And the more we find out about how many birdlike traits dinosaurs had, the more I love both of them even more. Seriously – floofy dinosaurs. Or the thought that those things eating out of my trashbin and uttering their bloodcurdling cries of ‘CAW CAW!!” at 6 in the morning are actually highly-evolved black-feathered raptors. How is that not awesome??

HERE is the article in question. Bits of it have been re-posted elsewhere, but as is the case with many newspapers, they’ve taken out the interesting science bits. (Like the most important part – how they arrived at their data, and the mention that they’re still searching to see if dinosaurs feathers possibly had iridescence, which would imply that they also had rich color vision!!!) But this is the most complete version I’ve found, and is definitely worth a read. The fact that melanosomes survived being fossilized is just mind-boggling…

But, anyway. I’ll let the rest of you get back to speculating over what features the iPad will have (wings? anti-leak cores? the mind boggles at that name choice… But I digress.). I’ll be over there, geeking out over THIS news and doodling little red-tailed raptors.

Shopping for jeans wouldn’t be such a chore if there were more styles of jeans available. But no. There is only what is ‘trendy’ right now, and usually, whatever’s trendy now looks good on .00025% of the population, and terrible on everyone else. The low-rise trend was that way – it made scrawny girl’s hips jut out like knife blades, and everyone else’s bunch up in a ‘oh-so-flattering’ muffin top.

The skinny leg thing that seems to be trendy right now is just as bad – either you have no butt, and it makes you look even more like you have no butt, or you do, and it makes it look giant in comparison to your teeny, skinny-jeaned ankles. (And don’t get me started on what it looks like if you’ve already got a butt that’d make Sir Mixalot stand up and salute. “Contrast” is putting it too kindly.)

Oh, I know, I know. I got no right to complain – I’m small enough that I can shop at most chain stores. (And by shop, I mean “try on 30+ pairs of jeans, hoping to find one that’s not too objectionable, and if the stars are aligned and the perfect combination of leg-length, waist-to-butt ratio, and lack-of-rhinestones happens to appear, you have the privilege of shelling out $100+ for something that’ll wear out in the knees in 6 months (or god forbid, is already ‘distressed’ – but that’s another rant for another time.) anyway, starting the whole process again. But I digress.) But it seems that EVERY woman I talk to – from teeny size 0’s all the way to the rockin’ plus size ladies – can’t find a pair of pants that fits.

So really. Who are these pants made for again? Seriously, people. Don’t make pants for 0.00025% of the population. That’s just silly.

My love of stinky fish started in early childhood. Every New Year, my grandma would open a can of smoked oysters and put them out beside the fancy cheeses and wide variety of crackers, and you’d pick them up with toothpicks and eat them on a cracker. How on earth she ever got a six year-old to try eating something that looked like some sort of slimy alien organ, I’ll never know, but for whatever reason, I loved them. Couldn’t get enough of them. Ate whole cans by myself, even.

And so now, every time I walk past the canned fish isle, I’m tempted to buy a nice smoked kipper or sardines in brine or even pickled herring. But I always save the canned oysters for New Years…

But good luck getting Layne to give me a New Year’s kiss after I’ve polished off the can.

What is this, Penny Arcade? When did I start doing video game reviews all of a sudden?

Honestly, though. All of the ‘squee’ I’ve been holding back while playing Dragon Age didn’t have an outlet because I couldn’t decide which of the many, many jokes to make. (Trust me, though – a Dragon Age strip IS coming.) But, with Assassin’s Creed, I finally got one easy, straightforward joke.

Assassin’s Creed II is a pretty, pretty game, if not for those who are easily given to vertigo. (Actually, if you’re given to vertigo at all – stay far, far away from this game… I’ve got a pretty good stomach for heights, but watching Ezio climb some of those towers makes me feel a little queasy.) I’m not very far into the plot yet, because – yes, you guessed it – I went around and climbed all the viewpoints and collected all the feathers first, just so I could see all the architectural details. Mmm, architectural details…

If I ever actually go to Italy, someone will have to put a harness on me like they do with kindergarten kids so that I don’t get lost simply staring up at the buildings for hours on end. So. Pretty.

Well, we’re back, and so is Moosehead Stew!! Happy New Year, everyone!!

I don’t know if I explained this last time I used the joke, but around here, we call it a ‘hedgehog party’ when the hedgies have royally destroyed their pens, because the aftermath looks like two college students got drunk and trashed their very tiny little houses. Food and litter everywhere, wheels tipped, jingly toys thrown completely out of the pens… If there was a hedgehog equivalent of pizza boxes, they would be stacked in the corner, by the tiny little beer bottles.

And, man… What a smell… One week’s worth of condensed catfood smell & hedgehog droppings, all wafting out at once is not a nice smell…

This is me hosing them down afterwards. They were not happy that I was home again.

First off, I’d like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

Secondly, as I’m currently posting this from an unreliable internet connection in a farm house in central Saskatchewan, I’m probably going to be out of touch for a few days. As a result, Moosehead Stew is going to take a break for a few days, until I can a) find a scanner and b) not have to hope that my comic uploads before the internet connection cuts out on me.

I’ll be back as soon as I can manage! Until then, hope you all are having a lovely holiday!