We’re back in comparatively balmy Vancouver (it’s a positively tropical -5 degrees celsius/23 fahrenheit) and I just got through unpacking. I’m exhausted and nursing a wicked headache that I roughly equate to the feeling of having the sudden expansion of your brain rudely checked by your skullcap. Also, my left eye hurts. Could this be the mythic “migraine”, the neurological disorder that has afflicted my mother these oh so many years? Or was I right the first time and has my brain tripled in size? It seems that, lately, my complaint of the most minor ailment will send Akemi into an anxiety-fueled tizzy, culminating in her insistence I go back to the doctor and get checked out immediately. That pain in my shoulder could be a silent heart attack! The ache in my legs a blood clot! And the headache, of course, could be anything from diabetes to an impending stroke! So, I’ve got a choice: make that appointment with my family doctor or just ignore it – in which case a simple headache will be the least of my problems once Akemi gets through with me. Yep, I guess I’ll make that appointment.
Check it out. Akemi’s new duck slippers didn’t even last their first night back. More like an hour – which is how long it took Akemi and I to pop out and grab dinner before returning home to discover the damage our frenchie, Lulu, had wrought.
It wasn’t all bad news however. We arrived home during doggy dinner time and Akemi was positively thrilled by the fact that her boy, Bubba, actually stopped eating to trot over and greet her. This is a pug who LOVES his food. But one who clearly LOVES Akemi even more!
Hey, I received my 2012 Year in Blogging review from wordpress. Some interesting insights into this blog. For example…
My Top 5 Most Viewed Entries in 2012:
5) September 30, 2008: An AU Season 6! In which I discuss the stories we were considering developing for Atlantis’s sixth season.
4) August 15, 2010: MY Top 10 Favorite Stargate Episodes Self-explanatory.
2) June 12, 2010: Actress Julia Benson Answers Your Questions! Even more popular!
1) May 12, 2011: Stargate: Universe, Beyond Season 2! What Might Have Been! In which I discuss some of the ideas we were considering for Universe’s third season.
On the one hand, this demonstrates the strength of some of these past entries which obviously continue to resonate with fandom. On the other hand, this demonstrates I need to up my blogging game. Not one entry from 2012 cracked the top five!
For what it’s worth, my busiest day in 2012 was this entry: Q&A Tonight!. A simple Q&A. I guess I should consider doing these more often.
And now let’s give it up for the Top 5 Most Active Commenters on this blog in 2012:
5 
4 
3 
2 
1 
You five have been almost as busy as I have on this blog! Thanks for staying active and, just to show my appreciation, I’m going to send you a little something.
As for the rest of you slackers, 2013 is a new year. Start our commenting!
Yes sir, more commenting. Welcome home. Hope you had a fantastic time. Bad Lulu, good Bubba and hi Jelly.
How do you know it was Lulu? It could have been your ghost or your burglar. Was your gate left open or your back door? Did she have yellow fur hanging from her chin again?
Bubba looks like a momma’s boy!
Welcome home. Thanks for the trip to your mom’s house. We had a lovely time!
Awwww, poor Akemi’s slippers…..reminded me of my brother’s dog. He has a Queenlands Heeler mix. I keep a box of old stuffed toys just for her.
I doggie sit her every year when my brother goes on vacation. Learned my lesson the first year.
I went out for only an hour and she, April is her name, apparently does not like any toy to stare at her because every toy my doggies had that had eyes, plastic or cloth, had them excised and left in tiny pieces on the floor.
And April was sitting right next to them with a grin on her face as if to say, “They were planning their attack, I stopped them. You’re welcome.”
Anyway, welcome home. I may not always agree with your food choices, but you are an entertaining nightly read.
I should comment more, hmmm, blind duck slipper…..
I’m number 2 again! 😀
“Thanks for staying active and, just to show my appreciation, I’m going to send you a little something.”
Hot damn!! What is it??!! I immediately rushed off and checked my email. “No new email…”
Is it one of those Stargate security badges?
A signed script?
Homemade doggie cookies by Akemi?
A box of chocolates?
A date with Carl Binder?
Yellow, slightly damaged, duck slippers?
A load of cash? 🙂
@ Das – Oooooohhh Daaaaasssss. I’m coming to get you!! 😈
Welcome home!
On the headache, perhaps it’s a dehydration headache? With the lower pressure airplane cabin air, I find I need to drink a lot more water to stay hydrated, otherwise I get headaches.
I’m curious; did Lulu display any guilt for her anasicide?
When our dog Lucy does something wrong, she drops her ears and head and can barely look us in the eye. That’s our cue to go look for whatever she’s gotten in to.
*crawls out from under rock*
Whoa…I’ve been a busy gal. *glares at Ponytail* Day-am. I better get my act together! Just not tonight. 😛
@ Deni – Congrats, grannymom! 😀
*crawls back under rock*
das
good thing lulu (or whoever the guilty party was) didn’t swallow those button eyes.
not sure where i rank among the commenter. my guess: somewhere in the low triple digits.
I have been saying much this year due to some physical difficulties, the most difficult being a broken arm. It has been some year, but i am finally on the mend. The arm has healed, and my other difficulties are getting better slowly. i too get headaches, Joe, and I would say it could be the change in weather, something you got from the plane ride, or even dry weather can dry out the sinus passages. i put hot towel on my forehead to see if that will ease it some. Usually it does in my case.
G’day Joe
Poor duckie slippers. Welcome home. Bubba sure is a Mumma boy and good on him.
Sorry about my non posting. I am just quiet.
MMMMMMMMMMm…just noticed I have beetroot on my shirt, I am a messy eater.
Does
commenting
like
this
count? 🙂
What JEFFW said! — And take some real aspirin! Start with a full one, then a half one every few hours if the headache persists. Along with the water, some salted crackers and some dark chocolate too… Your electrolytes could be unbalanced a bit… Oh, & this might be a tad “TMI”, but make sure you’re “regular”… Between “internal” pressure and “aircraft” pressure, one can get “gas” that goes straight to your head! Sort of the Poorman’s version of “The Bends”.
Whatever, just don’t go gulping down the water either, so slow… eat, take an aspirin, pee, then get some sleep, and see your doctor. — BTW, hope you got your Flu Shot, cause apparently that’s been going around a lot here in the East… Best load up on the Vitamin-C. Make some nice Onion soup…
Congrats, Das! And clearly, I need to step up my game.
Poor duckie slippers. “My eyes, my beautiful eyes!!”
It IS supposed to warm up here today and tomorrow (to -5C!) but then drop down again toward the end of the weekend. Next week though, it looks like we may hit the plus side!
Wow, who knew? As my daughter is fond of saying about me, “She has a lot to say…”. 🙂 Anyway, very cool!
@Das: Thank you! Glad you’re ok/back!
After spending the entire morning (and part of the afternoon) yesterday cleaning, cooking, paying bills and taking care of dogs and cats, I finally made it to the hospital at 4 p.m. to see Lauren and Michael. Mr. Deni joined us at 7 p.m. and we got takeout because Lauren had not eaten the hospital lunch or dinner (guys, I’ve never been to prison, but this is what I imagine they feed prisoners). Got home around 8:30 to find that Riley and Cody had been
“busy”. So much for cooking and cleaning. 🙂
Woo-hoo on comments! I hope your headache feels better soon. It might be a migraine but like JeffW said, it might be dehydration. Migraines can be triggered by change (eating times, weather, etc. ). Welcome to my world.
i can so relate to Akemi, except I direct most of my attention lately to my own aches and pains. i eventually took myself for an annual physical, and all is … fine. Now i can get back to obsessing over my spouse’s health! I know he’ll be thrilled to hear that 🙂
“Lulu makes short work of Akemi’s Christmas slippers.”
How do you know it was Lulu? 🙁 Sounds like a set up to me: Bubba hears you both coming up the sidewalk while he’s munching on the ducky slipper’s beak in his mouth, quickly drops it…, says to Lulu “Hey Lulu, come here and check this cute slipper out!”. Lulu trots over to investigate Bubba’s claim of cuteness…, then Bubba shoves the slipper in Lulu’s mouth (to plant DNA evidence) and slides the ducky eyeballs in front of Lulu’s for good measure, Then Bubba takes off like the Road Runner and slides over to his food bowl, pretending to be innocent.
“Bubba, actually stopped eating to trot over and greet her” = all part of Bubba’s master plan. See? Bubba had you eating out of the palm of his paw… 🙂
So next time aim your webcam at the new cute items and have your computer recording the video when you go out. Can then post the results here please, so we know for sure who it “really” was. Remember, even taking some swabs of all the dogs’ saliva for DNA testing and comparing it to the saliva on the soaked slipper is only circumstantial evidence, if Bubba is actually as clever as I think he is. That’s why we need video proof. 🙂
Let’s see . I have to redeem my slacker status. Like the picture of Bubba. Too bad about the duck slippers though. Are you sure it was Lulu? Starting out cold here this morning–27 degrees. Ugh! Winter is not my favorite time of the year, and I’ve been sick to boot. My sons are excited though–especially the younger one. He’s starting a baseball camp on Sunday to prep for the upcoming season. Yes, starting in the middle of February, you will probably only be able to find me at the ball park since both of the boys are playing this spring.
Have a great day!!
All the top five were Stargate related. Nuf said.
Sniff.
I had animal slippers once. My cat hated them and attacked my feet constantly. They went to the thrift shop.
But, but … I AM a slacker!
Congratulations, you glib folk! Nice to see you back, das.
@Joe: could be a sinus headache, common after air travel. Hope you feel better soon.
@LineNoise: You stole my idea! 😉
Just because I don’t comment everyday, doesn’t mean I don’t read everyday, Joe. Your blog continues to be a great source of entertainment and a window into the mind of a successful writer, a profession I truly admire. Granted, I started coming here years ago for the many morsels of Stargate goodness, but I’ve stayed because of the dogs and food, which are literally two of my top five favorite things in life. Okay, well, there’s other good stuff, too, but these are the big ones. 🙂
I may have less than 100 posts this last year(I don’t know what the actual number may be), but I know I’ve got at least 365 views!
Well, hot darn. I didn’t know there was a competition for commenting! And I am not at all surprised to know all the top 5 viewed entries were Stargate related. TPTB ought to still be checking out this blog because ALL of us want Stargate back in one form or another.
Am I right fellow bloggers?
Congratulations to the winning commentors: Das, Ponytail, Tam, DP and Deni. All very worthy and excellent commentors with interesting things to say.
Welcome home Joe & Akemi. Hugs to your furry kids!
I am at work now and hoping my IT dept isn’t monitoring this… (slinks off to get back to work)
2cats
Oh, noes! NOT the ducky slippers! 😯 Quick, super-glue the eyes back on. They’re too cute to toss. Yes, please, set up a web cam. (Don’t know why one of us hasn’t asked earlier.) Then you can nab the guilty party. Although Lulu has been photographed often enough with stuffies (stuffed toys) hanging out of her mouth. 🙂
DAS! Please come out from under the rock. We miss ya! Somebody needs to mess with Joe, and Tara doesn’t comment very often. Tara, we miss you, too.
I don’t comment as often, cause I’m wordy. 🙄 Also, am not as quick with the witty one-liners. I love them; they are an art form. Mine end up sounding mean, which wasn’t the intent! 😳 So I’ll just chime in when I can. 🙂
Jennifer, whose daughter goes to Riley Hospital in Indianapolis — Hey, if you ever need someone to sit & wait with you during a test or procedure, call me. I’m from Indy and familiar with the downtown area. You can find me on Twitter, @4loveofBeckett.
Those five people who won something (no doubt, something very cool) because they were the most active on the blog – it’s because they have no life. Yeah, that’s it. I’m not jealous. No, not a bit…no life…I never get anything…mumble…mumble…
Oh, I did win 2 nights accommodation in a hotel in Jasper from Jasper Tourism. Looking forward to the Maligne Gorge, Emerald Lake, skiing, snow boarding, dog sledding, helicoptering, breaking bones, faceplants in the snow, helicoptering to Edmonton hospital…it will be a couple of nights to remember. I suppose you want pictures….
@for the love of Beckett: You’re really one of the nicest people I know, just wanted you tell you that. 🙂 xoxo Yeah, you too, Das. 🙂 🙂
*crawls out from under rock…skulks back to December 31st…*
Just one word, Joey – Viagra. 😈 (That was for Tam Dixon 😉 )
*crawls back under rock*
das
I prefer quality over quantity. 😛
Das: You’re the best! 😆
@das – Glad to see you peeking out.
I listened to the second appearance of the podcast with BTR Talk TV Live and I really enjoyed listening to it. I think the second one was much better then the first.
After listening to the first podcast I went to Amazon and looked to see if SGU was available in blu ray and, oh happy day, the first season was at Amazon.ca for only $18.49. I immediately ordered it, to add it to my SGA blu ray collection.
Sadly, I didn’t see the second season on blu ray which seems strange. Why haven’t they released the second season? I’d also like to see SG-1 on blu ray. Anyways, I learned a lot that I hadn’t read before on the podcasts and it was nice putting a voice to your writing.
I did think it was a bit tacky of the caller to push his own reviews of an unrelated show. I wanted to ask some questions, but naturally by the time I got home from walking my dog I’d forgotten all of them.
Aches and pains, and a brain that is out growing its shell? Have you been sleeping well, have any disjointed dreams? Have you seen attractive women dressed in black leather but have a strange sounding voices? Have you experienced any temporal shifts? Or, are all the periodicals seemingly out of date? An eye that seems painful for no apparent reason, do your recall ever hearing the term Namtar? (no wait, spurious reference) Perhaps you may need to see someone other than a General Practitioner.
Oh, little Lulu. Perhaps the little french girl was experiencing the self produced feeling of competition? And those dark eyes, perhaps kept looking at her.
If you want to confuse Akemi more explain to her that Montreal is colder because it is south of Vancouver. It is like Anchorage is warmer than Minneapolis in the winter.
I guess people are waiting for that next pilot. Hope your next interview is not too far away. It was fun to listen to you talk about the series. I never have been able to make it to those conventions where you, Rob and Brad could talk and explain what was on your minds. Beside I am not such a “fanatic” that I would need to call such programs because there are more passionate people out there. Glad to hear you and your family are doing well. Sorry to hear about Aspen. Happy New Year
Deni — 😳 You should include Paloosa (short for appaloosa?) on that list.
Paloosa, bless your heart for caring for and celebrating the holidays with your elderly neighbors! Teared up when I saw that. *hugs Paloosa* That’s near and dear to my heart, as one of mine recently passed. We had “adopted” each other as mother/daughter, and were really close. P, let us know how your neighbors are doing from time to time?
Das — 😀
Joe, have you ever considered a massage? They can be ever so relaxing and work out trouble spots in our body. How are your feet? I mean, even reflexology, a massage of the feet might help out. We walk on and abuse them every day….Just a thought. And the dehydrated thing is very possible. So drink up!
~~Congrats to the posting winners, whooee!! Hope you get some terrific goodies!
Ok. For some reason my posts are not going through, but I want it known I am trying to keep up with my resolution. Not surprised at the posting results, though I am impressed that you have time to accumulate such data mr. m. Well done by all and look forward to a 2013 where I get my share of posts in, if not at the levels of the leaders.
Glad the trip home was uneventful and that everyone was happy to see you (and the duckies). I’d send you a few degrees of warmth but it was only 60F here today and I really can’t spare any. ::shivers::
Joe, do you theme to clench your jaw or grind you teeth? Your headache could be TMJ related. I get the same thing, including the eye pain. The headache usually feels like an ice pick going through for short periods of time. Ouch.
I’m crushed….
…that I did not….
…make your….
…top 5 (my attempt at rigging the system for 2013).
That is so sweet about Bubba though. Shame on Lulu. I was so mad at Maddie doing something similar after I got back from my trip to NY. I had bought a Search and Rescue golden retriever stuffed toy from the 9/11 Memorial. I put it on top of my computer. I guess it got knocked off (or she figured out how to knock it off) and took out its eyes.
Ugh. That’s “tend to” not “theme to”. Stupid autocorrect!
@Mike from Canada
Re: “I did think it was a bit tacky of the caller to push his own reviews of an unrelated show. I wanted to ask some questions, but naturally by the time I got home from walking my dog I’d forgotten all of them.”
I listened to the first part of the second radio show. My own take on that first caller was that he has an autism spectrum disorder. My son is an Aspie, and we see that kind of conversation all the time. Plus, the caller’s admission that he didn’t like the comedic episodes was kind of a giveaway. So yes, the behavior is annoying, but yet I was very impressed that said individual is putting himself out in public and doing what he enjoys. And Joe, I thought you were very polite and handled the situation well.
I realize it is also impolite of my to give an armchair diagnosis of someone else based on one phone call to an interview show. And yet, if we don’t start talking about these kinds of things in public forums, then how do we combat the negative attitudes? Should the person with autism simply state so at the beginning of a conversation, rather than saying nothing and giving the impression he meant to be rude? I really don’t know, but I would be interested in what others on this blog think.
Just letting you know I responded to your request, in case you need to check your spam… You’re so sweet!
I think I made it into the top 5 before here right? That said I’ve only really been giving opinions on some of the stuff you post about, anime, Japan and random other stuff. I prefer to be more casual in my replies lol
Beats speaking about how depressing it is that SGU was unfairly discarded by MGM 🙂
Hahaha…it has never been a goal to comment every day. There have been many times that WP has delivered my long….well thought out comments to the nearest black hole.
I do not want to know the number of times I have written you. Twitter sent me an email with a comment that I had tweeted enough to fill a book. I am close to 50,000 tweets now. Twitter let’s you see your numbers every time you log on. I fear I would “just read” without comment here…if I knew the numbers.
When I first joined your merry band…I was hoping for pictures of Patrick Gilmore, Mark Savela and Carl Binder. It is still my favorite when you post new candid shots of them.
I can’t say that Stargate is why I have stayed. I fell in love with your little family…and enjoy hearing what is going on. I actually hear much more about you than my own children. I have to read my daughter in-law’s blog to keep up with my son. 😕
So I am easily entertained…but you are well worth reading. Hugs for you and your sweet family.
I guess we will all have to do better- do I hear a New Years resolution in the making? Lov your blog
Haha, why am I not surprised das is top commenter?