Sewicked

Chris & Rosemary enjoyed the R.E.M. Concert (anyone know what those letters stand for?) Friday night. Or so Chris told me on Saturday.

I bought Chris's Xbox at Electronic Boutique in Southpoint mall on Friday night, a manufacturer's refurbished one, & a year's warranty for it. Then I stopped by home to put on warmer clothes (change to skirt, slip, leggings & thigh-high boots) & went to PNO. I took a bottle of soda, the remains of the snack food from the Dining Board meeting (there are only so many rice krispy squares I can & should eat), and a tarot deck.

Some good friends whom I haven't seen in a while were there. Garrett showed, Chris H. was there, ditto Don. Of course, Anitra & Steve were there. I met Laura & Scott, newcomers who brought an absolutely faboo vegetable pot pie made with filo dough. There were a couple other newcomers, but I can't remember their names, or if I ever heard them. Mitzi was there for a short time and one girl I know, whose name I cannot remember. Ben & his wife...whose name also escapes me...came by. We stood around on the porch, ate & talked. It was lighter outside, streetlights you know, than inside, plus it was cooler without being cold. Although, that may simply be my impression since I kept fairly warm thanks to my layers. I headed home at 10 pm but read until about 1 am.

This weekend, by skimming, I have read The Honor of the Queen, The Short, Victorious War, Field of Dishonor, 1633, & part of On a Wicked Dawn. Plus I read a little of Call of the 1st Rider.

Saturday errands:
Find character for Richard's game
Adjust character for Rosemary's game (add 5 points of skills)
Wrap Chris's present
Buy paper to wrap Chris's present
Buy supplies to make display for baby booties
Make display
Enter tatted baby booties at State Fairgrounds

I found my character for Richard's game, which we play 2nd Saturday of the month in Morrisville usually at 1pm. He's running a Kalamar, AD&D 3.0 campaign. I just looked in my Kalamar book & there it was. I put the character sheet in a top loading sheet protector & put it in my home games notebook. Easier to find that way.

I figured out that there was one errand I did not have to do. I needed paper to wrap Chris's present, however when I checked the wrapping paper, etc supplies I found a gift bag that was just the right size.

I went to Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft Stores (they asked me to change it to the longer name) to get the supplies to properly display my State Fair entry, tatted baby booties. I bought felt, a circle of plastic canvas, invisible thread & ribbon. Turns out the white ribbon made the booties look dingy so I checked my supplies & found some pastel lavender ribbon that worked fine. I sewed circles of black felt over the plastic canvas using the invisible thread. That was a bigger pain that I expected. I cut one circle the exact size of the canvas & then realized that it would work better if the felt was a little larger than the canvas. I cut the next circle a little larger but went ahead & used the smaller circle. It worked out. I stuffed the booties with scraps of felt, sewed them to the circle with the invisible thread. They can be lifted to be examined but they won't fall off. Then I threaded the ribbon & tied little bows. Chris came home a little late, so we didn't leave home until 12:30.

Guess what! There was a State Game Saturday (fyi if you are not from NC & don't know, the State Fairgrounds are just down the road from the NC State campus). Fortunately we were early enough that the cops were out but the traffic signals were still applicable. Here's another funny thing. There was one other person submitting entries, bears that she had made, in the entire building at the time that I entered. There were at least a half-dozen volunteers, each one handles different categories. What are the odds that the only other person there to submit needs the same volunteer? Pretty good apparently. Our entries are in neighboring categories, so I had to wait for her to be done for the volunteer to take my entry.

Chris & I made it to the game at 1:30. All told, not bad. I did call Kathy, Richard's wife, to tell her that we were going to be late. We played until 4:30, then broke off before the next stage in the game.

Chris had to show Rosemary something at work so we drove to Misys. I waited in the car while they went up to her computer. I sat & duh, read. Then it was off to home, where I took a nap. Chris cooked spaghetti. We watched tv, I read & then cleaned up the dining room table so that we could play there Sunday. I stayed up too late reading, again.

Sunday: Chris & I went grocery shopping then went to eat lunch at Firebird Grill at Southpoint. We almost went to Rockfish but I persuaded Chris that what I wanted was a cheeseburger & I'd get that at Firebird. Home in time to pick up the living room a little. I was wearing a skirt over leggings & my thigh boots. That was a little warm, so I took off the boots & skirt while gaming.

Rosemary is starting a Forgotten Realms, AD&D 3.5, campaign. Sunday was the 1st game session. One theme: Rejanon the aasimar cleric of Torm vouches for the Drow (my character) fighter, again. The players are: Chris (Darvin Museviney human 'priest' of Mystra), Richard (Rejanon), Mike (Dratsab Ykaens, tiefling rogue), Joe (Phaedral, elf ranger) & me (Amber Nightblade, 1/2 Drow). We had a lot of fun, laughed a lot & killed a few goblins. For the jokes in the game: Chris's character is a monk but he prays for spells every morning. Won't he be surprised if he actually gets some. Museviney,or however it's spelled, is an Andromeda joke. He's going to name his son 'Drago', even though he's not Nitzchian. Another one, look at Mike's character's name backwards. Very apropos.

Joe let slip about supper at Rockfish, so that wasn't a surprise. David, from our Monday D&D game & high school bud of Rosemary's, showed & we ended the game at that point. I left with Richard & Mike to go to the restaurant & check on our table. Rosemary, David & Chris left later. That was lucky because I'd forgotten that John expected to meet us at Firebird at 6:30 pm. So they met him when he didn't see us & went to the house. Richard found Kathy at the Barnes & Noble and rejoined us at Rockfish. We sat down about 7:30. Joe couldn't come with us, he had to go have supper with his brother who's leaving town today. Chris opened his presents while we waited for our table. Despite the fact that his presents from Rosemary, Richard, Kathy & I were not on his list, he claims that he is not disappointed. Apparently the Xbox, extra controller, Halo game & Buffy game (the 1st one) make satisfactory gifts. John's present was in his car; back at the house. John bought him Disney's Sleeping Beauty DVD, which was on Chris's list.

The food at Rockfish is incredible. We had calamari (yum!) & barbecue shrimp (I didn't have any myself) for appetizers. Chris had a drink. a peach Rockarita; he wasn't driving so he could. I had talipia (sp?), Chris had catfish, Rosemary had scallops, John had trout, Richard had salmon, & I can't remember what Kathy, Mike, & David had. But it was all good. Then we ordered key lime pie & bread pudding. They use croissants for their bread pudding. Oh wow, that key lime pie & that bread pudding are absolutely fantastic. Too bad I overate. We tried to split the check but Adam, our waiter had made a mistake & as a result it took him like half-an hour to split our checks. We left the restaurant at 10 pm. Later than I'd like the day before I have to go to work.

Rosemary's contacts were bothering her so she took them out. She knew that might happen so she had brought her glasses with her. Which she left at the house. So I drover her car back to our place. When we got there I ran to the bathroom. I will not go into details on what I did there but I left at close to midnight. That's how/why I managed to finish 1633, even with skimming.

Third night in a row, I have not have had enough sleep. I may take this afternoon off just to go home, recover from my over-eating (my stomach is still bothering me) and sleep.

I brought Flag in Exile to work with me. We'll see if I get very far reading it.

I ran into an old colleague as I disembarked the bus this morning. Ginny & I used to work at Peace Goods together. Now she works in Bynum Hall in Graduate Admissions. I told her that we should have lunch together this week & gave her directions to my office.

Wow, this is a long post.