Prince of the North

Yeah, I'll say it again for, well, what seems for me like literally the 1,000th time: What a titanic waste this all was. And I use the adjective "titanic" intentionally here. It's like the ship Titanic is what this could have and should have been...and these showrunners are the iceberg

Happy birthday!

Relatively new neighbors approached us a few weeks ago about possibly buying our backyard playset? They have an 18 month old and, of course, our 15 and 13 year-olds aren't using it much anymore (they just sit on the swings sometimes these days). We said sure because it saves them money and, of course, what are we gonna do with it? So today we got it moved from our yard to their yard. It was a large job but it went better than I anticipated. We had it moved and reassembled in about 5 hours. Their little guy (and any future children) will have a blast with it for years to come

@Mlle. Zabzie I had the exact same experience with the Moderna vaccine (except the rash). And our two kids are definitely getting vaccinated ASAP, too!

Agreed. But, it's a superhero show so "suspension of disbelief" and all that. I was just joking around a bit

Good question! Also, why does the shield cut a good six inches into a tree while only bouncing off people? Is it +10 vs. wood or something?!

Agreed. Admittedly, I'm completely biased, but I'll be surprised if we hear that this Iron Anniversary marathon, etc. has stellar viewership numbers. I doubt there are great numbers of people who want to watch it again. And are there really a lot of people who didn't see it the first time around who now want to see it? Hmm...

Never felt the need. I've never had a Facebook or Twitter account or anything of the like. I do like lurking around this place, though

My wife and I got the Moderna vaccine, too. We should be getting the second dose in about a week. I usually have some soreness around the injection site for a couple of days after receiving the flu vaccine (I use this as a sort of frame of reference) and I also had soreness around the injection site with the Moderna vaccine. But it was about five times worse and lasted about a week. But that was it so, all in all, not bad at all.

Interesting to think about. My impression of where things left off is that Jaime may now be a middling fighter with his left hand but he certainly would not yet be a match for "good" fighters. Also, just speculating (of course), but I don't think Brienne is headed right back to Stoneheart with Jaime. I think she may have something else in mind. Just spitballin', but what if Brienne and Jaime showed up with one of the surviving Stark children to deliver to Stoneheart (most likely Sansa, obviously)? The question in that case would be whether it buys enough good will from Stoneheart and the BWB or if the "changed" Stoneheart would still want Jaime executed for other things? If this happened, I would strongly suspect the latter. It would be a great indication of just how different Lady Stoneheart may be from Catelyn if Martin wants to demonstrate that some more. Also, if Jaime does end up facing execution by Stoneheart he would almost assuredly choose trial by combat and could, of course, champion himself.. But he could also choose a champion. If this happened, what if both Stoneheart and Jaime want Brienne to be their champion? I honestly don't know how that would turn out but she may have to choose (lookin' at you, Aemon!) and that would be delicious! There are many other ways this could play out, of course, but this is getting pretty far beyond the OP so I'll stop here. However, I do think it likely that whatever Martin does with this it will involve Brienne having to "choose". I think one of things Martin has been doing with Brienne's arc has been to sort of disabuse her of her idealistic notions of honor, knighthood, etc. Come to think of it, I believe many characters are on a bit of a similar "idealism to realism" journey.

By far, the best way to say goodbye

Our house is a pretty simple design, too. It's just a split entry with about 1,250 sq. ft. on each level (a little less in the downstairs because the utility room is not "livable" space, of course). It makes decent use of that footprint, though, with an open design upstairs along with three bedrooms and a bathroom. Most of the downstairs is a family room with another bedroom, bathroom, laundry room, and utility room. All rooms have at least one exterior wall and all but the bathrooms, laundry room, and utility room have at least one full-size window. There are sliding patio doors upstairs and downstairs, too. Tornadoes are certainly not unheard of here in North Dakota but they aren't as common as further south, of course. Since our lower level is approximately four feet below grade (mostly), I suppose the downstairs bathroom is our best sheltering place if a tornado hit.

I like it! I don't know why Mike "MyPillow" Lindell didn't immediately come to mind for me, too? I mean, that guy is Machiavelli come again!

I don't feel any need to go outside ASoIaF itself on this question. If I were Ned and I could choose, I'd go with the best Master of Whispers there ever was: Brynden "Bloodraven" Rivers

Well, of course, "dragons" in this sense could also be alluding to Targaryens themselves (both contenders and pretenders)