I haven't played any of the Dragon Quest games, except for the weird little spin-off game/toy, Kenshin Dragon Quest, which features a sword controller that you wave around in front of your TV*. The first enemy you encounter in that game, and I'm guessing in many of the other Dragon Quest games, is a happy little blue slime ball. Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime is an adventure game for the Nintendo DS that is entirely from the perspective of one of these blue slimes. Now, this is no bold deconstruction of the fantasy game genre, ala Mary Gentle's Grunts. Rather it's a quick, fun adventure game pitting your plucky blue slime against a gang of punk platypuses who have kidnapped the other 100 residents of your slime village. The game play is fun and the recurring "tank battle" mini-game is one of the most original battle mechanisms I've ever encountered. And there are plenty terrible puns on elements from other Square/Enix games.

FuzzyCo grade: A.

* Which now has a sequel for the Wii.

Thanks to everyone who offered help finding a new place. I'm happy to announce that we've signed a lease on an apartment. It's another of our Big Crazy Moves, as we'll be moving about half-a-mile northwest of our current place. (Our last move, you'll recall, was one-half-block south on the same street.) We'll be living on Magnolia Street, which is apropos as Mississippi is the Magnolia State. We've even got a two-week overlap between the leases, so we'll be moving between September 15 and 30. We're getting a lot of things on our wish list, including spaciousness, in-unit washer-and-dryer, and the peace and quiet of living west of Broadway. Look for a house-warming party when we're all unpacked in, say, April or so.

Marathon - The Ultimate Training Guide by Hal Higdon

This is kind of the book when it comes to Marathon information, and it is indeed a smorgasbord of advice, tips, anecdotes, and inspirational stories. I'm glad I wasn't relying solely on this book for my marathon plan, but it's a great resource.

First off, thanks so much to all the audience members who braved the redonkulous storms to come and see some puppet shows.

Anyway, over seven minutes? Really? Dang, I thought I was running a tight four minutes there. Oops. Also an oops (and here's your little behind the scenes insight) -- Bindlestick Joe was supposed to have the high squeaky voice and Can O'Beans Joe the low voice. So when I made Can O'Beans Joe have the squeaky voice, I knew I was sunk. And, indeed, I messed them up all through the piece. And I really want to publicly apologize to Garrett for fussing at him at the end of the piece -- frankly I was panicking a little as I was out of material and I didn't want to drag it on any longer. Why I didn't just break character and say "that's my piece" I'm not sure.

This week's Apes challenge was to build a puppet and then do a comedy routine with it. (I think the challenge exactly said "a standup routine" which I kind of stretched.) I used to make a lot of puppets with my mom when I was a kid, but I haven't made any in years. But I've had hobos on the mind lately, because of John Hodgman's The Areas of My Expertise and then Apelad's Laugh Out Loud Cats (we own, by the way, the original of this one). And I've certainly played multiple characters plenty of times in both my Sybilization pieces and in Bare shows. So I decided to make the multiple puppets and have them do most of the talking and kinda leave the hobo out of it. You can watch the video above or check out photos Erica took.

In any case, despite all of my kvetching above, the judges were impressed and I came away with a score of 35 (out of 40) which has put me in first place. (And the 35 points tied with Amanda for the high score for the week.) It's still a tight competition, as only 8 points separate me at first from seventh place. (Or fourth, depending on how you look at it, as four people have the same score.)

Our challenge for next week is to simply tell a story. It should be an interesting week, as the contestants include the winner of WNEP's 2007 Acorn SKALD story-telling competition (Jarrad Apperson) and the winner of the 2007 MAELSTROM improvised story-telling competition (humble cough, me).

The other contestants and their puppets:
Amanda and Matilda
Brady and Bear Child
Erin and Marty the Dirty Sock
Jarrad and Anna
Jenny and Gorgamott
Kristen and Ralph
Margaret and Billy

Margaret Lyons, writing on the Time Out Chicago Blog was impressed by Impress These Apes:

Two weeks ago, I saw a woman growl a list of things she enjoys, such as “being on time.” Last week, I saw two guys re-enact a scene from Brokeback Mountain. Tonight…I have no idea. That’s sort of the beauty of the kinetic Impress These Apes. If you haven’t been yet, you’re missing out on one of my favorite activities, and one of the city’s more impressive–and unpredictable–comedy shows.

Nina Metz came to week 3 and reviewed the show for the Chicago Tribune. She seemed to like it:

The show is scripted and improvised. The talents are rehearsed (or with the videos, filmed in advance), and the host, scorekeeper, and judges offer their comments off-the-cuff. The final result is daffy and spot-on. Improvisers are notoriously lazy in preparation, but the participants here actually do the homework, tackling each challenge with a creative spirit and wicked glee.

In related news, my week 2 collaborator Bilal Dardai got a nice shoutout in Chris Jones' review of Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind in the same issue of the Tribune:

Bilal Dardai adds a lot of energy and charm.

He sure does, does he?

Hey, we're looking for a new apartment in the Edgewater area, if you happen to know of any. Now, we're not just looking for any old place -- we're trying not to think of it as running away from this place (although, we are, kinda) but as moving towards a better place (come to the light, Team Gerdes...). So we'd like to stay in this area, probably. The cats are coming with us, of course. Two bedrooms. Spacious would be great. Lots of storage. In-unit laundry and parking would be big pluses. We're leaning towards second floor and up. Sound like somewhere you know?

Update: Thanks, we're set.

Our challenge for this week's Apes is to build a puppet and then perform a comedy routine with it. Above you can behold (as it beholds you) a teaser of what I just finished building. Kids, watch out, hot glue guns are hot, as is the glue that comes out of them. Hence the name.

Yesterday, I mentioned to Kenner that I was having trouble with my Iliotibial Band after Sunday's run and he said that he'd had some success with a foam roller and that I should pick one up at Fleet Feet. I was fretting on the way home that I didn't have time to stop by the store and pick one up, but what was waiting for me but a foam roller (with handy diagram)! Barely moments back from her honeymoon, Andrea Strening (neé Swanson) had read my post about my problem and dropped by with the solution. What wonderful friends I have.

Lots of ice and ibuprofen, and I 'rolled' last night and this morning and felt 200% better today. I'm thinking of going out for at least a shuffle around the block tomorrow, but I'm also pretty sure that's a terrible idea.

This has come up a few times, so I thought I'd stick this up here where I could point my friends at it if it came up again. The table below is the "Preliminary Training Program" from the Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer. It's the exercise regime they suggest for total non-runners before starting the 'official' 16-week marathon training program, which starts with running 3 miles a day. Now, I must heartily disclaim that A) I am not a trainer or coach -- I'm just a guy who started running recently and B) this chart is from a book for Marathoners, and most of my friends who are running are just trying to get to a comfortable 5K. In fact, if you google "couch to 5k" you'll find plenty of great programs, with charts rather similar to the one below. The other thing to note is that you don't have to do all eleven weeks -- jump into the chart at the point you feel comfortable. (Except Dan -- Dan, you are required to do all 11 weeks. Because I said so.)

My sister and her family: what a bunch of cuties.