Blackmoor Vituperative

I am going to post a photo of a coffee mug every day in August, and talk a little bit about where we got it and why I like it.

We spent the night in Virginia Beach because we were going to our niece’s “graduation” that evening. While at a gift shop, we saw some pirate shirts. Susan bought a really cool pirate shirt in Savannah, GA years before, but it was in storage. We found the exact same pirate shirt, and some similar pirate shirts, so we each got a new pirate shirt. Then we purchased a couple of pirate mugs, because we did not have any, and we thought that would be a cool thing to have. This is one of those mugs.

The girl at the counter said, “Y’all must really like pirates,” which still makes us chuckle.

I also got a half-pound of fudge, which I am pretty sure I ate all of before be made it back home.

I am going to post a photo of a coffee mug every day in August, and talk a little bit about where we got it and why I like it.

This is another mug from Disneyland in 2009, the 40th anniversary of the Haunted Mansion.

I love this mug. It’s black with white non-water-soluble paint, so it’s dishwasher safe, and the design is Edward Gorey-esque. It’s also large enough to dunk a large cookie in, which is important.

When Susan gets old, she wants to move to Florida and get a job working at Disneyworld, so she could go to the Haunted Mansion any time she likes. Doing what, I don’t know. Perhaps seating people in the rides, or working at the gift shop.

I am going to post a photo of a coffee mug every day in August, and talk a little bit about where we got it and why I like it.

From 2007 until 2009, I played World Of Warcraft (although I was pretty inactive for the last year of that span). I met some interesting people through WOW. Some of them, sadly, I no longer talk to. Of the handful I still am able to keep in touch with, one or two make an effort to meet up at the Maryland Renaissance Festival in September.

The first year I went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival was in 2008, and that’s when I got this mug. It’s not technically a coffee mug, but it’s one of only two steins I own, and it has sentimental value in addition to being really pretty. It’s numbered 159/300, but really, that should be 159/299, because the first one I bought had a crack in it, and I swapped it for this one. So there are, at most, 298 more of these out there.

I hope the weather is better this year. So far, it has rained every year I have gone. A wool cloak gets really heavy when it’s wet.

I am going to post a photo of a coffee mug every day in August, and talk a little bit about where we got it and why I like it.

In the early to mid 1990s, when Military Circle Mall was more well known for the muggings in the parking lot than the upscale shopping (it’s called “The Gallery at Military Circle” now: ooh, aah), Susan and I would go there from time to time to see movies. What can I say: we are fearless. It was on one such occasion that we were roaming the mall, killing some time before the movie started.

We stopped at a dollar store (not “the” Dollar Store — Military Circle was circling the drain at that point, and all it had was a store run by an Indian or Pakistani family that sold pretty much the same things as the Dollar Store) to get some snacks to take into the movie theatre (yes, we do that). Susan saw this mug, and she immediately fell in love with it. It says, “Don’t piss me off! I’m running out of places to hide the bodies.” It’s one of a handful of mugs that we consider “hers”.

I am going to post a photo of a coffee mug every day in August, and talk a little bit about where we got it and why I like it.

In August of 2006, Susan and I went on a road trip up to Cedar Point amusement park, “the roller coaster capital of the world”. On the way up, we stopped at Fallingwater, one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs. It’s nicer from the outside than from the inside, honestly. On the way back, we visited Harpers Ferry, which was fascinating. I had no inkling of any of Harpers Ferry’s history. We spent an entire day just wandering around, touring buildings, and reading signs.

This mug came from Cedar Point, obviously. Susan and I both love cobalt blue glass.

I have two distinct memories of Cedar Point. One is being on a stairwell leading up to some attraction, looking out over the crowd at the park, and thinking how very, very white everyone was. It was kind of eerie and unsettling, like if you walked into a huge crowd of redheads all of a sudden. It doesn’t matter if you are a redhead: to see only redheads in a huge crowd is still pretty freaking weird.

My other distinct memory is riding the Top Thrill Dragster, which was billed as the tallest and fastest coaster in the world at that time. Like every roller coaster, they give you the standard warnings about securing loose articles and so on. I put my sunglasses in my pocket, assuming they would be safe there (they always had been in the past). The ride was very fast, and very short (well, duh — I guess that’s what “fastest in the world” gives you). As we left the ride, I went to put my sunglasses back on, and discovered they were no longer in my pocket. They were gone. I never even felt them leave my pocket. I hope they didn’t kill anyone in the cars behind us.

I am going to post a photo of a coffee mug every day in August, and talk a little bit about where we got it and why I like it.

Susan and I were married on October 31, 1991. The best man gave us engraved gifts: a lighter for her, and this pewter mug for me. The inscription says,

“Goodbye and hello, as always” is the last line of The Courts Of Chaos, the last book in the (first) Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny. I loved the (first) Chronicles of Amber, and if I can be said to be a fan of any author, I am a fan of Roger Zelazny.

I am going to post a photo of a coffee mug every day in August, and talk a little bit about where we got it and why I like it.

I got this mug in 1995 from McDonald’s. It was one of a series of mugs they were selling to advertise Batman Forever. On the one hand, I did not think Batman Forever was very good. It was entirely too cartoony, Chris O’Donnell was about ten years too old to play Robin, and of course it’s the film that gave the world bat nipples. On the other hand, it’s got a great soundtrack, and it’s better than Batman & Robin.

At the time, I did not like the rest of the mugs in this series, but I did rather like this one, so I bought four. However, we tossed out a lot of junk when we moved to Richmond back in 2005, including three of those four. I kept this one because I think it’s a neat mug. If you want one like it, you can get them on Ebay for 99 cents, plus shipping.

I am going to post a photo of a coffee mug every day in August, and talk a little bit about where we got it and why I like it.

I bought this mug for a friend who is a photographer. He’s been in IT for years and years, and we have shared some of the same anxieties and frustration that can cause. He got a new job about a month ago, and I was so happy for him, so I bought this for him as a gift. I haven’t seen him since then, which is why I still have it.

When I bought it, I thought it was a travel mug, but it’s not. The lid closes tightly: it’s not something you can drink through. Ah, well. I don’t think my friend drinks coffee, so this is just a novelty for him anyway. I hope he likes it.

I am going to post a photo of a coffee mug every day in August, and talk a little bit about where we got it and why I like it.

Back in 2009, my mother lived in California, and as far as I knew, always would. Susan and I went out to visit her and do the touristy thing in Hollywood. That was, I think, the most stressful trip we have ever had. It was my fault, really. I was seriously considering buying a Play-N-Trade franchise, and it was the only thing I wanted to talk about, and Susan was not too keen on the idea. I eventually decided it was a bad idea, too.

One of the places we visited was Universal Studios Hollywood (Pasadena, actually). That’s where this mug came from. It’s one of the Egyptian warrior mummies from the Brendan Frasier Mummy movies.

I actually don’t like this mug very much. I think it’s ugly. But it is distinctive, which is why I keep it around.

I am going to post a photo of a coffee mug every day in August, and talk a little bit about where we got it and why I like it.

Susan had this mugs before we were married, and I have always liked it. It was the first black coffee mug we owned, and the picture of it is so quirky. It reminds of psychelic pop art from the late 1960s and early 1970s, of the sort pioneered by Heinz Edelmann and Milton Glaser (and later popularized my Peter Max). And yet the color scheme is subdued, which I like. So it’s quirky without being outlandish.

Susan says she bought it at the Williamsburg Pottery back in the 1980s, but she doesn’t remember the specific circumstances.