"Hell, no! I just chuck 'em!"

Last night, I had my first ever honest-to-God Alice-style dream.

Somebody (not me - I never play 'em) was playing some sort of super-hero CCG, and I fell into it. Well okay, no big, different folks showing up (Vampirella, the Mystery Men, various Marvelites), the game's in play with all the expected flyin' and punchin' and sudden arrivals.

Until some moron in the real world starts shuffling and even tearing up the cards, then trying to fix them with sticky tape, and the universe goes all Amalgam on my ass. Marvel mixes with DC. Folks swap genders and costumes and faces. Mysterio is not only a hero, but when unmasked has the face of Colm Wossname from Star Trek. I met the evil mirror universe Mystery Men, with their pin-striped suits and surly glares. Vampirella is suddenly played by Ben Stiller, and he's not happy. Much chasing, falling through mirrors, etc. Eventually everything is mostly cleaned up...except the First Family (see Astro City) are nowhere in sight, and nobody remembers them but me. Now it's my mission to go back and restore them to their proper place in the continuum. Great. I'm the Psycho Pirate.

I also had a tragic, doomed liaison with one of the Blue Rajahs.

I know I liked my hero costume. I wish I could remember what it was.

the horror...the horror...

...so I was lurking around the Salvation Army store Saturday on my never-ending question for Fisher-Price Little People, and came across a pile of abandoned framed pictures. On the very top...that same damn brown owl picture that's in Dr C's office.

I left. Quickly.