Fun, full, fabulous Fourth of July weekend.

On Friday all four of us packed ourselves into ramonarjona's minivan and schlepped on down to Tacoma for the Tall Ships Festival. Our girls were faaaaaairly well-behaved, but their stamina cannot compare to that of Ramon's daughter, who is five, so we all left a bit earlier than they might have liked if left to themselves. But on the bright side, there were pictures of the two older girls standing inside a cedar canoe.


Awesome.

My good friend, fellow gamer, neighbor, and coworker tatterdamelion is also a novelist. (I know, I know, how talented can one guy be?? Ladies! Pay attention here!)

His novels Greetings from Buena Rosa and Ride Like the Devil are available at Lulu.com, and he has several others that aren't currently posted.

One of his ongoing projects is a series of novels inspired by a Mutants & Masterminds game he used to run for our group of friends.

In that game I played "Worm Queen," a sardonic scientist by day, costumed crime-fighter by night, who has the mysterious ability to summon all kinds of paranormal worms to do her bidding. (dimensional worms, force worms, heat worms, teleporting worms, etc.)

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In any case! A Worm Queen-centered story arc is the focus of tatterdamelion's most recent novel, and he's thinking of asking dendacien to photograph a real live model for the cover, and he asked me to pose!

Let me tell you, even 10 years ago no one was asking me to pose for the cover of his novel.

Any more of this and a girl could get too full of herself. :-)

Yesterday I stepped away from my desk downtown to walk to Pike Place Market and buy Dark Chocolate-Maple-Bacon Truffles at Rose's Chocolate Treasures. A big thanks to dendacien for alerting me to their existence!

I bought 6 truffles to take to Nikki's "Castle Falkenstein" game. So during game, as we sat around the fire (it's been so gloomy here recently that a fire seemed like a great idea), we each had one.

Consensus: Good, but not overwhelmingly good; not addictively good; not even so good that I would buy them again, considering all the other tempting-looking confections in Rose's chocolates case.

Overall, the maple flavor was too strong; the bacon taste was almost an afterthought. It tasted like maple syrup on your bacon. juniperjournal proclaimed it "breakfast in one bite." The chewy bacon inside was a bit weird, too. I think a dark chocolate - bacon flavor combination could be done much better than these.

They were yummy, and I'm going back to Rose's again... and maybe the next time, dendacien can share some of the deliciousness. :-)

Andrew took off at 7:35 this morning (!!!) to attend the release party for D&D 4.0 downtown at Neumo's. While I'm bummed to have missed out on breakfast with friends beforehand, and on viewing a 13-foot tall Beholder statue, it just wasn't practical to take both girls downtown for this. Maybe for the release of D&D 5.0 in a few years! :-)

Grocery shopping for the week with the two of them along for the ride was a bit of a challenge. Even though I timed it for after the wren's morning nap and lunchtime, she still started crying partway through and needed to be held. Try steering one of those giant blue 2-kid combination cart / racecar contraptions -- bigger and longer than a regular grocery cart by far -- while holding a 20-lb.+ baby. Go on, try it. I'll wait.

But we survived, and she was fine, and now there is food for the week, and they are both napping. Hooray!

Was frustrated with myself because it seems that no matter how hard I try to keep the grocery and household spending to under $100 a week, I just cannot manage to do it.

Our whole family packed up mid-day today and schlepped on down to Seattle's Folklife Festival, in the company of aawhitewood. There we rendezvoused with ramonarjona and daughter, and spent a fun yet exhausting few hours rediscovering what music is all about.

Apparently it is about battling HORDES OF PEOPLE just to walk ten feet. Seriously, there were so many people there. I didn't even know Seattle has that many people.

The hypermuffin kept trying to run, but there was no room. All the vast, wide open swards of green, and the walkways and the fountains and the boulevards and the verges, were covered, every inch, with people. She and aawhitewood headed off on their own for an hour or so, and he later reported that by the end, she just looked so beaten down by her inability to vent off steam the way she needed to. (But she did home in on cotton candy and demand that he buy her some. Where did she hear about cotton candy? We've never given it to her before. Did she get this from one of her children's books? See, this is the problem with reading! :-)

So then ramonarjona brought us into the Seattle Children's Museum (thanks!), and all of a sudden, the hypermuffin could RUN. She proceeded to work herself up into an absolute froth of activity: activity the likes of which I have never really seen from her, and if you know her, you will know that is saying something. She was bright red from exertion and sticky with sweat, even in the air conditioning, as she karoomed back and forth from wall to wall like an electron excited beyond the bounds of the laws of physics. I caught her a few times and tried to hold her still and calm her down, but she was vibrating too fast to even hear me, I think -- like in old episodes of "Star Trek" where half the cast is out of phase with the others and so they can't even communicate. That's how far gone she was. It was truly amazing and not a little scary.

I saw her go down a slide face-first so quickly that she almost flipped herself forward and vaulted over her own chin. That's one of the times I grabbed her to try to slow her down.

While all this was going on, the wren, loosed at last from the prison of the stroller, was happily (and peacefully!) exploring all the fun educational toys. I can't wait until she's old enough to help me look after her older sister. :-|

There was something of a meltdown when it came time to leave, but finally we managed to get everyone home. (Except Andrew, of course, who had walked to work from the Seattle Center for his usual Saturday night shift.) Amazingly, neither girl napped for me -- they both bulled straight through to bedtime. This kind of thing is why I have gray hairs now.

After they were both finally down for the night, I headed down to the basement to take part in tatterdamelion's "Valeland" game. This session had only three players: me, aawhitewood, and limbsmith. I almost fell asleep, but large amounts of coffee -- and a climactic battle -- kept me (mostly) awake. The shots of Kahlua and Bailey's in my coffee, however, have now helped me decide that yes, it really is time to sleep. Past time.

I look forward to future years when I will be able to attend festivals to actually listen to music.

I did get introduced to a new band, however: "Bad Mitten." I even have a cute little CD of theirs in a smooth cardboard sleeve with a pretty picture on the front, so I can keep the Folklife feeling going for the next few weeks.

And if I want to really remember what Folklife was like this year, I can always rev the hypermuffin up on cotton candy, crack, speed, meth, and ecstacy all at once, then put her between the tines of a giant tuning fork and hit it repeatedly until she is quivering with such rapidity that she heats up the air around her, and then let her loose inside a frictionless room, and see if she can actually break the sound barrier all by herself. 

Andrew wants to rent out the entire Space Needle restaurant on the night of December 24, 2011 -- the night of the Awakening in the fictional "Shadowrun" RPG timeline.

Hosting a game of Shadowrun in the Space Needle on that momentous night is apparently on his list of Things To Do Before He Dies.

Anyone reading this want in? :-)

So last night Andrew used his regular every-other-week D&D campaign slot to run a one-shot First Edition adventure, in honor of Gary Gygax, who passed away recently.

The tone of the evening was set when, realizing there were only four gamers present, gkp79 asked, "What would we have done in 6th grade?" The answer, of course, was "Play two characters each." So that is what they did.

Last night was the every-other-week session of "Castle Falkenstein" that Nikki runs downstairs from us in tatterdamelion's apartment.

I really enjoy this game and I really enjoy the people in it. It's the only time I get to see dendacien, whom things are going quite well for right now (congrats again!) and who looked super-cute last night with new hair that I forgot to comment on at the time.

But I just can't stay awake for this game. Something about Friday nights is just deadly. Session after session, I sit down with my character sheet and the best of intentions, and then fall down a deep black well of unconsciousness. And then I wake up on the couch several hours later with a crick in my neck, very very grumpy that I have to go back upstairs and get ready for bed, and of course by the time I do all that and get into bed, finally, I'm wide awake and can't sleep for half an hour.

Bleh. Last night I even had a cup of coffee to try to stay awake -- something I try to avoid after noon or 1:00 or so. It did no good whatsoever.

Beyond having the person on the couch next to me stick pins into the soles of my feet at intervals, is there anything I can do to stay awake for these games? I'd rather keep the "needles in the soles of my feet" thing as a last resort.

Tomorrow, February 29th, is Leap Day. It's also one of Andrew's every-other-week sessions of "Harmonium."

It'd be nice to do something a little bit special. After all, this is a night that only happens once every four years.

I'm definitely going to pick up ingredients for Grasshoppers. (Creme de Menthe plus either vanilla ice cream -- which is how my mom made it for me when I was a wee girl, and yes, my mom occasionally served me a dribble of alcohol over ice cream, and I turned out just fine, thankyouverymuch! -- or plus white Creme de Cacao and light cream.)

What else should I do? Hit Archie McPhee's for those silly little hopping frog party favors? Or maybe Andrew can make them fight frog monsters. I'm sure he can gracefully work that into the plot of the game with no trouble whatsoever.

Last night Nikki GM-ed her "Castle Falkenstein" game downstairs at tatterdamelion's place. It's at times like these that I'm so grateful to have a friend living in the basement, especially a gaming friend. The commute down that staircase certainly beats bundling up myself and the girls and driving somewhere for a game... late at night, that just wouldn't happen.

As usual, though, I fell asleep partway through. Friday night is a tough time to have a game.

Nikki said she would bring baklava, and I should not have been surprised -- although, unreasonably, I was -- to show up after putting the girls to bed and find that instead of buying it, she had made it herself. She sprinkled orange blossom water on it, giving it a lovely sweet, citrus-y quality.

The baby woke up hungry at 6:30, so I'm up for the day. So much for sleeping in... :-)

I Am A: Neutral Good Elf Wizard (4th Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-10

Dexterity-10

Constitution-12

Intelligence-17

Wisdom-13

Charisma-12


( Read more... )

Lots and lots of fun the past two nights at various par-tays.

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This morning so far: Baked French Toast, bacon and eggs and coffee.

And now I hear the girls waking up, so it's time to put on my mom hat.

First, McSweeney's takes apart Guns 'n' Roses' "Sweet Child of Mine," line by line. I have thought these same thoughts while listening to this song.

(BTW, don't ever get me started on what's wrong with "Every Little Thing You Do Is Magic" by The Police...)

And, from The Onion, Underfunded Schools Forced To Cut Past Tense From Language Programs.

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The party last night was a great success. 17 people attended (plus Rachel, plus Andrew and me and the girls) -- tying Andrew's "Cat People" LARP of 2003 for number of guests. No one canceled because of the snow or the fear of crazy drivers out on the Seattle streets, even the people who had to come all the way up from Federal Way! We had the right amount of (yummy) food. Someone brought eggnog, and HOO boy, it was STRONG eggnog (too much nog?), so everyone was in a great mood by about an hour in.



And if you followed all that, and it even sounded like fun to you, then we'll be happy to invite you to the next one of these that gets thrown. Me, I'm just happy that (1) it went well, (2) it's over, (3) I met some fun new people, and (4) now I can spell "Vestenmannavnjar" without blinking twice. ;-)

Was sifting through an old box in the back of my closet and found two folded-up sheets of notebook paper with a couple of old gaming characters of mine on them. These were from 2000, I think... so, it's been awhile.

The first was a character I made for a short-lived "modern" game (sorry, I forget the system -- D&D modern, maybe?), held at the Wizards of the Coast gaming center on University Avenue back before they got bought, and then closed, by Hasbro (boo! hiss!).

This character's one wish in life was to blow stuff up. It's not that much to ask in a modern game, where you have access to plastique, bombs, etc. But what was the one thing she never got to do? If you guessed "blow stuff up," you'd be right. Most of the evening was spent sitting around cooling our heels. (dendacien got to do some neat stuff, though.) I think we played in one session, maybe two, and never went back.

Here she is. Notes in italics are from the present day Catherine.


I believe that game was quickly supplanted -- for polytrypos and me, anyway -- by a superhero-centric campaign run by Neal. It was in this game that I played one of my most fondly-remembered characters -- well, fondly-remembered by me, anyway. I'm pretty sure she was about a session away from being killed by the rest of her party for being an insufferable know-it-all.

In my own defense, "The Schoolmarm" was meant to be a humorous character. Still, my stick-to-the-rules ways were seriously trying the nerves of the other party members. Everyone else got royally sick of me following all the traffic laws while in the midst of a car chase, for instance.

Read and behold the glory of --

Wow. The memories... 

More this'n'that.

My $99 stand mixer came last week. So much for Amazon's shipping estimate of October 5 -21! I'm going to move the cake stand up to a high cupboard -- I seldom use it -- so I can have this semi-accessible on the counter.


Tonight's Tanga puzzles were fun, especially the Hypercross. Great stuff! Only 21 more "tanga points" before I "level up" from Lemon to Strawberry. Oh, the suspense... ;-)

Have been playing Kingdom of Loathing for a few weeks now...

Things to enjoy this fall day, here at the office and then when I get home FINALLY.

• First and foremost, coffee. Because when you're running on three hours of sleep or so, coffee will save you. All hail caffeine!
• Baked sweet potato, with melted sharp cheddar, sour cream, fresh chives and peppered turkey.
• Lavender tea. Really, it's just tea made out of dried lavender -- nothing else. With a bit of honey. Mmmm!
• Sweet kisses from my daughters and/or husband (even though they will be sleep-deprived, cranky, and covered with spitup)
• Pulled pork, waiting for me in the crockpot at home
• Maybe if I'm really really extra super lucky I'll get to nap
• And then tonight, Nikki's "Castle Falkenstein" game downstairs at tatterdamelion's place with him and my other good friends who make me laugh and laugh until I'm lightheaded.
• tatterdamelion is going to make a big hearty Italian soup with fresh produce and beans AND pasta
• I expect to have at least one drink of the alcoholic variety, because it has been that kind of week,
• and I expect to make my "famous" Ginger Apple Crisp, loaded with yummy crystallized ginger.
• and then... the pinnacle of my desires... BED.

tatterdamelion is my good friend, coworker, and gamemaster (GM). He has a penchant for framing all his campaigns in terms of TV episodes, giving each session a name, describing various characters by saying that so-and-so is playing them,  and planning season-long story arcs. He talks about "season finales" and "season openers" and "Sweeps week."

And this is all for our Dungeons & Dragons games,which are strictly pencil-and-paper, no actual television equipment involved (needless to say!).

The fun (and yet oh-so-sad) part is that the TV shows he envisions are a lot better than most of the stuff on TV today.

Here's his write-up of the revised introductory theme for the "new season" of a game I just joined, "Valeland." It's set in the  "Anwat" world of his own creation. I know this won't mean much to anyone but us, but oh well -- it's my LiveJournal account! ;-)

Nikki came over last night to run her "Castle Falkenstein" game downstairs at tatterdamelion's place, and she brought me fresh fruit!!!

And despite all the jokes, it was not "the Fru-it of the De-vil." Instead, it's a bunch of beautifully ripe and sweet and tasty plums, pluots, and a whole pineapple.

Because good fruit (you heard this here first) starts with the letter P. 

Mmmmmmm, fruit.

tatterdamelion fired up his excessively large propane grill and made brats and some fancy spiced onion burgers (also from Nikki), and Jen made some lovely-looking wasabi mayonnaise cole slaw -- I avoided it because of the cabbage. There were also cheap, greasy Lay's potato chips. hypermuffin ran around the yard like crazy and said "goodnight!" to the sun as it went down.

It was a good evening. :-)

Tonight, Andrew is going off to tatterdamelion's "Valeland" game, which is held at John and Lupa's. If this seems like a lot of games, you're right... but we'll have Sunday night "off." :-)

(Update) Andrew is sick, so no game for him. I'm also not doing all that great; I feel like the Thumb of God reached down from the sky and smushed me into the ground. So aawhitewood graciously  agreed to come over and help us wrangle the grrlz... because, of course, just because her two parents are exhausted and weary doesn't mean the hypermuffin will be.

The weather here in Seattle today is cooler, while the sky remains sunny and blue. My brother reminded me of a Chinese saying to describe this time of year: "Tian gao, qi shuang" (heaven is high, the air is crisp) (天高気爽).

Andrew is going off to attend Rachel's "Seventh Sea" game this afternoon, leaving me and the girls home. After putting the hypermuffin to bed, I'll be taking the baby and heading downstairs to tatterdamelion's "Valeland" game. I hope my character can get into a combat this week; that's her strength, not all this diplomacy stuff. ;-)

Tomorrow night Andrew is GMing his "Harmonium" game; we'll get to see aawhitewood, freshly returned from GenCon.

Andrew actually has Labor Day off -- unusual for him! We have no plans whatsoever, and that's fine.

So, here's what's going on with us.

The baby and I attended Nikki's "Castle Falkenstein" game last night, held downstairs at tatterdamelion's place; much fun was had, and the baby was snuggled by pretty much everyone there. (Well, maybe not by dendacien.) I had a double White Russian, because it's been quite a week. :-P

So as not to be the most terrible mom ever, I plugged the baby monitor in downstairs and kept one ear on it the whole evening. It allowed me to hear hypermuffin upstairs Freaking Out for no valid reason. Hurray! I went upstairs twice to attempt to comfort and soothe her to sleep. No dice. So, after the game was over and I headed back up, around 10:45, she was still awake. I let her cry herself to sleep without going in there again; there was nothing else I could do, since any attempt to soothe her to sleep would only have riled her up even more. :-(

Did she sleep in this morning? Does she appear even slightly tired this morning? HAHAHAHAHA! Of course not.

I, on the other hand, could have happily slept in until 8 or even 9. *sigh*

But, Duty (in Toddler Form) calls! The two of us are now fed, showered, and dressed... well, mostly. I need to change my sweater because of a Baby Fluid Incident and Vivian looks a little bit strange in the leggings and sleeveless corduroy jumper she picked out for herself. :-)

Duty in Baby Form calls as well, of course; just fed the wren, who is adorable and sweet and Hungry.

And Duty in Household Tasks form calls, too. (Can I get caller ID on this thing??) Now it's off to the grocery store with hypermuffin and a very extensive list of groceries to be acquired. I have a $12 off $120 coupon to use up...