Excowsions: Torvald Has Been Bullied!

Fellow blogger Laura (aka Tegan) has already done most of the heavy lifting in recounting the tale of our momentous meeting in their Seattle suburban home last Friday (in a post and photos she put up while I was still bouncin' around Seatac Airport on Friday night!), but out of synergy and also in synchronicity with a very special day both Friday and today (more on the latter at the end of this post), here's my post and photos about meeting one of my favorite pair of bloggers, Laura (Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog) and her husband Eric (The Wonderful Blog of Oz). I'm a big fan of both blogs and I'm definitely a big fan of the Gjovaags.

It was very wonderful to meet them and have them shake my hoof. They invited me into the home, and yes, I saw the amazing Aquaman collection. Of course there were photo opportunities for me as I met the incredible Torvald, Laura's troll who has been more places and met more celebrities of the SF and comics world than you have had hot dinners. Really, Torvald's travels make mine look like wandering down to the corner to pick up a loaf of bread and a can of condensed milk for a teatime snack...check 'em out here! (He's even met Two-Face!) But for all that world-trotting, he's a pleasant and placid personality and we soon became close friends. Maybe it's our similar stature but I think we saw eye-to-eye on a lot of things:
John and Laura snapped away merrily like paparazzi—funnily enough, they both managed to take almost exactly the same photos every time!—as I met another member of the Gjovaag household: Monty the television-top penguin:


Monty even let me try on his beautiful Fourth Doctor scarf. Thanks, Monty! And check out the Gjovaags's ultra-cool comic book spinner in the background...man, I'm jealous!:

We had a lovely dinner at the award-winning Italian restaurant down the hill (early for Laura and Eric, late for me still on New York time, but it all balanced out.) Pay no attention to Laura's scurrilous comments about my table manners and eating habits, though: I do not chew with my mouth open. (My best pal and traveling companion John on the other hand sometimes has to be reminded of that and to keep his elbows off the table). I did fall in the ravioli at one point but thanks to the wonder of the Shout Stainstick, no harm done. We had a lovely chat about our lives, respective towns, travels, blogging, Aquaman, Doctor Who, and Oz, until full of pasta and garlic bread, we all waddled back up the hill where I got a chance to meet another member of the household: Scraps the Patchwork Girl of Oz, the star of my very favorite L. Frank Baum Oz book. Oh, Scraps, you are so colorful and lovely with your patchwork dress and button eyes!


Together we giggled and danced and sang:

Kizzle-kazzle-kore;
The wolf is at the door,
There's nothing to eat but a bone without meat,
And a bill from the grocery store.

Which brings me to that momentous occasion of today that I mentioned earlier: today, Tuesday May 15, is the birthday of L. Frank Baum, the First Royal Historian of Oz. Although it's not as an amazing confluence of events as last year when it fell on the same day as Miracle Monday, celebrate today and Baum's life and work by reading an Oz book or comic book (I'm especially fond of this one myself!). Oh okay, you can watch "The Film" too if you want! But especially today's a great day to check out Eric's Wonderful Blog of Oz...fun any day of the year, but especially on May 15!

Back to Friday: we all exchanged some fun 'getting to know you' gifts (thank you for the books and DVDs, Laura and Eric!) and then John and I had to hop back into the rental car and zip down Route 5 for our red-eye flight back to New York. We were both beaming all the way. It's a wonderful thing to be part of the blogosphere and I love reading other blogs and when people email or comment on my little puppet-town cow-blog here, but it's fantastic when you finally get to meet and shake hooves with the people behind your favorite blogs. I'm especially looking forward to this year's San Diego Comic-Con to meet some more of y'all, because, blogs are fun. But people are funner! 'Specially good folks like the Gjovaags. Thanks for welcoming little stuffed me into your home, and hope to see you again soon!