Great Weekend

I drove down to White Oak Friday night. I left a little later than I'd planned but on the bright side, I didn't get lost this time. This is despite my TomTom telling me that no route existed to get to my destination. Liz gave me good directions and I wrote them out with a magic marker on notebook paper in really big letters. I knew it was going to be dark by the time I needed to look at the directions so I wanted something that I could see by streetlight.

The Living History weekend started earlier than the Heritage Day, so we got ready earlier. I washed my hair and immediately put it up. The water weight did make a difference but I managed to get it all to fit in the bun cover anyway.


There were more people and vendors at Harmony Hall this year. There was even one fellow who was a stonecarver.

I didn't get as many pictures as I'd planned. I completely missed, again, getting a picture of Liz's mom in her outfit. I barely caught Squirrel and Liz. Once again, no picture of me. I only got “Capt James Robeson” from the back. The gent in question is a descendant of the real Jim Robeson and was presenting a picture from the era, to Harmony Hall. He based his outfit on that same picture.

I got a lot of tatting done, but it didn't amount to much. I made a few butterflies and tried to some pieces from Beetons Book of Needlework. Translating from 1870 to modern tatting lingo is not as easy in some ways, and not as hard in others, as you'd expect. For example, on one motif, there's bare thread between flowers but modern tatters are more likely to tat a chain there.

I had planned to come home Saturday but I stayed a little to help Squirrel with the book of embroidery that I gave her. She took her first stitches. By the time that she was finished, I was suddenly exhausted. I left early Sunday morning.

I spotted a wild turkey alongside the road about the time that I got to I95. There wasn't much traffic until then, either. Despite TomTom not being able to find a route to Liz's parents' house, it could find the route home. It started raining when I hit I95 but it didn't get bad until I hit Raleigh. Then someone opened the floodgates. I was doing 50 in a 65 zone, with my hazard lights flashing. The flash ended by the time I got off the highway to go to David's.

I met the others at David's house. Richard was running chapter 5 of the Embers series (Living Forgotten Realms). I played my bladeling druid again. It's the last chapter until the level 11 special at Origins. Or maybe it's at Gencon.

After the game, Richard got out Maya's unicorn and, per a contest, I took a picture of the shirt that I'd won, with the unicorn wearing it. It's a large unicorn. It had a chain shirt, but that's disappeared.

Rainy Morning Monday

The day started out very windy & wet. What I didn't know is that there had been high wind & tornado warnings overnight. There had even been about 2 inches of rain in 12 hours. It was lightly raining while we were at supper and it rained on the way back from the game, but it must have intensified after we got home. It was windy enough that some of our recyclables blew out of the bin. I hope that they dry out before pickup tomorrow. One oddity, I swear I could smell the sea sometimes, in the morning. I'm about 300 miles inland, so that seems a little unlikely.

My friend & I got lost on the way to meeting Chris for the movie Friday night. We got there before the movie started, but not with enough time to eat. Instead, we went out for a nice supper, not fast food. We left the restaurant at about the same time the movie would have been letting out. We're going to try again next Friday.

The next day, we went to Joe M's place for LFR (Living Forgotten Realms). Chris ran a game & a guy named Alex ran a game. We had a quick supper in between. We finally finished at about 1 am. It was a great time with some great roleplayers, but I was so tired. I played Black Raspberry Chocolate Tracks, of House Tracks for both games. She's 8th level now. She is just so entertaining to play when there're some good roleplayers at the table.

Needless to say, I was just a leeeeetle tired on Sunday. Pizza Inn, our usual pre-game lunch spot has changed. We need to go by to see if they still open at 11 am on Sunday, if not, then we aren't likely to go back there. We have time constraints, after all.

Poor R, she was running the game on about 5 hours of sleep. Plus, the incoming storms were giving her headache. We still got through some important stuff in the game. We didn't have a combat but we made progress. Joe J wasn't there, he was sick, and we didn't get so far that his character won't be able to catch up.

I didn't do much tatting. I made some white & silver butterflies. Day 9 of the TIAS came out, but I haven't started it yet.

TIAS, the weather and gaming

I just missed the bus last night, so I was working on day 6 of Jane's TIAS by streetlight. Or I tried. Both threads broke, not just the chain thread. I was disgusted by that point, so I tied in a knot and kept tatting. It won't be pretty, but it will be done. I got the point where I needed to add the bead and realized that I could not do that in the poor light. I finally finished day 6 at lunch today. I almost shredded the thread getting the bead onto the ring.

I managed to get day 7 done and was working on day 8. At one point, I was trying to make a join on ring 12 & realized I had lost a picot. It was a very small picot. Why, oh why did I choose black for my 2nd color? What was I thinking?








I finally finished day 7, but as you can see it's not pretty.

Here's part 8, done. Sort of. Sorry about the loose threads. Remember what I said about threads breaking? Here's proof.

The weather was really, really rainy last night. I had my wipers on full a few times, from the rain. There were also a couple instances in which tire spray played a role. There was a stretch of road where the lane markers pretty much disappeared. The only saving grace is that there's a median separating the two directions.

I made it to, and from, gaming last night safely. But my legs, arms and lower back ached with tension. At least my character was able to thoroughly whomp some bad guys. They were hard light constructs (ie no one alive in them) so no punch pulling, just slice, dice & whack.

Tonight a couple of us are going out to a quick supper and then on to see Avatar. It's not a 3D theater but from what I've heard you really don't want to wait for the DVD on this one. Unless you have a really big screen at home, of course.

Tomorrow, it's more LFR. I hope that I remember how. I ended up canceling the last time I had planned to play. Luckily, it's a really simple game.

Sunday, it's R's game. I've decided to enter the notes that I have as an adventure log on Obsidian Portal. That will make it easier for me to track NPCs etc.

It's Friday? Finally!

It's been a long week. The symptoms of my cold changed; not unusual for me. My sinuses started draining. I took a day off to rest, again, hoping to kick the cold. Didn't work. Now I have the sniffles and a sore throat. Can I just say 'oh. yay.'

Gaelic: I lost my flash cards earlier this week. I was up to about 50. I have now started over. On the bright side, with what I learned from the 1st start, they'll be better organized this time. Plus, it will help the memorization.

Gaming: Ran an LFR (Living Forgotten Realms adventure at Sci Fi Genre last night. I hope that it went well. I did not manage to bloody anyone at all in the final fight. Of course, they did have 3 leaders (healing out the whazoo). I did manage to bloody the paladin a couple times in the 1st fight. I also managed to run the adventure in 4 hours, so I got home at a semi-regular hour last night, despite the late start. The adventure has a really great roleplay scene and I had to skim it. That's a pity. I gave them a taste, at least.

I think I'm going to try this \/ Wish me luck
 

Tonight I'm driving to Mom's. I'll be spending the weekend with her, taking her presents with me. The only worry I have is about giving her my cold. But I haven't seen her since September, when we went to the family reunion. I canceled my last weekend with her, when my cough started. That's right. That means that my cough started the first full week of October. It has varied from two deep coughs about 5 pm, to coughing so much that sucking on cough drops rubbed my mouth sore.

Looking Forward to Supper

Does that sound odd? My stepmom has an appointment this afternoon, here in town. She and Dad plan to stick around afterwords to have supper with me. Not dinner. Dinner is eaten at midday, at least by locals. We don't know where we'll be eating yet, Dad made some joke about me cooking.

Friday, I'll be driving down to spend the weekend with my mom. It's going to be a family filled week. I'll take Mom's Christmas presents and give them to her early. Don't tell her, but I found a plain, white ironing board pad. You think that's a mundane present? Believe me, she'll be glad to have it. Have you ever ironed something white on a printed ironing board cover? It always looks like you've gotten a stain on the garment. I also found a polka music cd. I'm not sure if she'll like that as much, but I hope so. She enjoys fast-paced dancing music, of almost any stripe.

I buffed my nails this past weekend. They're all pretty and smooth, except for the length of course. Naturally one has chipped and one tore down to the quick; not into the quick, at least.

It's gotten dark enough on the way home that I'm using my lights again. The one on my bag is still working fine, but the other one is almost dead. I need a new battery in it. At the moment, it kind of, sort of lights up.

I'm gotten through most of the exercises in Chapter 4 of Teach Yourself Gaelic, but I only have my flash cards up to Chapter 1. The main purpose of the flash cards is to fix the vocabulary and rules in my mind. So far, I have not really read through them. I've used more than half the pack of cards already. I am definitely going to have to buy more.

Gaming: Thursday night I'll be running an LFR game at Sci Fi Genre. I guess I should read the module soon. I have played it once, that helps. I'm not exactly stressing about it.

TV: We're almost caught up on Sanctuary, only 1 more episode. The Big Bang Theory last night was hilarious. We're down to only 39% memory of the DVR. We had a problem last week in which it was randomly eating memory. It was up to 95% for no discernible reason. We reset it and it dropped to the 60's.

Books: I'm still having trouble settling to a book. Normally, I'm a book a day person. Recently, I manage half a book, maybe, and then I put it down. This includes books by some of my favorite authors. Except for a couple manga, I only finished one book last week. That's just sad.

I'm Baaaaaack, Did Ya Miss Me?
Or yes, my home internet has gone wonky and unreliable. That means that I am only online while at or near work. Since my employers have expectations, that really cuts down on the amount of time that I can work on my blog or read the blogs of others. I feel dreadfully, dreadfully out of touch.

I have finished tatting two more of Rebecca/Tatmom03's crosses; one burgundy & one off-white. I think I will tat a blue one next. It's my version of having a casserole (it's a Southern thing) in the freezer.

I was hoping to join Anitra at a local park for their heritage day last week. Alas, I spent the time cleaning and making trips to the thrift shops, donating not buying this time.

Gaming has been going pretty well. Met a couple people new to RPGA last night. I hope that we provided a fun game for them. I got to play my very old drow again.

I'm supposed to go see Mom again tomorrow. That is in jeopardy because I really started coughing this morning. It's gotten worse & I feel like three kinds of um, [mild expletive deleted].

Maybe Monday I can post pictures of the crosses that I've made. I want to also take a picture of my cleavage (what there is of it) as part of Breast Cancer Awareness month. Don't worry, I'll put a warning in the header.

Great Weekend
On Saturday, I was driving down to see Felicia *wave hi* and I was about 15 minutes away when I got hit by rain. Not just any rain; this was a frog strangler.

Ever been in a summer Southern (US) storm? People do pull off to the side of the road to wait for it to weaken or pass. Some just slow down and turn on their hazard lights.

If you've never been in one, you may think, 'how silly, it's just a little rain.' Which just goes to show, you've never experienced one.

The road is a 65mph highway, 4 lanes on my side at the point where I got hit by the rain. Of course, that means that many people drive 75 mph, although you could occasionally find some doing 60 mph in the slow lane.

The sky darkened as the clouds rolled in. You could see the haze of the rain as it advanced toward us.

Then it hit. Soon, I had my wipers going full speed and I had slowed down to 30 mph; felt like I was speeding. I was profoundly thankful for the car in front of me. By following its hazard lights, I was probably still on the road, and in my lane. The sheets of rain on my windshield kept the lights blurry, despite my wipers whipping back and forth.

Sometimes the rain would let up, just a bit, enough to see the highway signs or for the wipers to actually clear my windshield. Then another wall of rain would hit and I'd be hoping that the car in front of me wasn't going to take an exit ramp any time soon. Luckily, those downpours don't last for long. It only seemed like forever.

Visit: Felicia & I had a nice time, talking over lunch. I certainly hope it's not another 23 years before we do it again. I'd forgotten how much I like her.

In the evening, Chris, Rosemary & I went to meet with Irene, et al. She lives on the West Coast, too. She emailed a bunch of people, whom she'd met at different times in her life (1st grade friend to me whom she met in college), to all get together for supper. We ended up going to an Ethiopian restaurant. It's been years since I've been to one. The food was great, although much of it was too spicy for my palate. Of course, that's why the injera (sourdough flatbread - kind of like a cross between a pancake & bread) is so important. You need it to ease the burn of the capsaicin.

Gaming: Sunday was Rosemary's game. We didn't have the technical difficulties this time; that made things a lot smoother. She also felt better about challenging us. She made the arcane in the patrols a warmage, instead of a wizard. That made the fire shields (spell that hurts the attacker who lands a blow on whomever it is cast upon) really, really dangerous for our characters. A wizard's version does X amount of damage, call it an average of 8 pts of damage (vs characters who can take 60 - 100 points). The warmage's version was doing a minimum of 23.

Thursday I'll be in an LFR game. I know which character I'll be playing & where I'll be playing & that's it.

Family: I'm going to see Mom this weekend. The local tatters are getting together on Sunday, so I'll do the Friday/Saturday thing. My dad leaves tomorrow, with his closest cousin, to go 'home' to visit graveyards. I finally found grandmother(his mother)'s grandmother's grave, Henrietta Marshall Sentiff. She's not buried with her husband so she was a little hard to find. I would like to thank the Illinois Genealogy Society for the material that they have posted. I would not have found her without them.

I'm trying to write my letters (to aunts, et al). I've only done 2.5. I just need to sit down & do it.

I hope this is not menopause
It's a little early, but not too early for me to be starting menopause. But frankly, I feel like I am having PMS 28 days a month. I expect menopause may be *ahem* less than fun; but if this is a preview, then it will be hell. For me & for everyone around me.

Tatting: I've been working on my edging, from Big Book of Tatting. I'm only on the 2nd side, with the 1st side being incomplete. At least, with Carol's help, I managed that [expletive deleted] corner. It's the green & white edging on p 10. Except I'm doing it in variegated brown to go with my handkerchief.

I've been hoping & wishing but it's official. I won't be going to Palmetto Tat Days this year. Maybe next year. I even had a potential ride lined up.

Gaming: Sunday's game was delayed due to internet problems. Actually, it was due to laptop problems. Richard got them straightened out enough for Mike to tele-game as usual. We managed to get through one fight & dropped straight into the next one, overlapping a little. Ooops.

Thursday's Mutants & Masterminds went pretty well. We were a little miffed, cause we were defending the mob from an evil, okay amoral, super. I think that we did get some evidence to prosecute the mob guys, at least.

Tonight I'll be playing LFR at Sci Fi Genre. I had almost forgotten that I had signed up. It's my 3rd time playing this adventure. It's okay, I have at least one, maybe 2 characters of the right level who haven't played it.

I bought a new game book on Sunday, Starblazers Adventures. It has no connection to the anime, originally called Battleship Yamato. It's actually based on a British comic. The game book is huge, think biology textbook-sized.

I'm hoping that my copy of Victoriana & Shadowrun 20th anniversary edition both come in soon. Yes, I'm antsy, why do you ask?

Weather was so hot Monday & Tuesday that I wore a skirt. Yes, that is unusual for me.

Weekend with Mom
I'm off to see Mom this weekend. I'll drive down tonight & come back on Sunday. I need to make certain that I have the things for her; chopsticks, video tape, etc.


I started this on Friday...you see how far I got.

Anyway, the visit would have gone pretty well; the traffic wasn't too icky and although I got there later than I planned, I made it before full dark. Saturday morning, over breakfast, I was bragging that I hardly ever get migraines anymore. Yeah, I know, mistake. Guess what hit me that afternoon. There went 4 hours, asleep, with something over my eyes as even the light coming through my eyelids was too much. At least I didn't reach the sound sensitive stage too.

Neat family stories: my mom's oldest sister went to lots of dances, with two dates every time. She had one date for the slow dances & another one for the fast ones. She taught Mom how to jitterbug.

Mom grew up in Havelock, NC; near Cherry Point. Somehow they got hold of a defective parachute and they (grandmother et al) made a skirt for that aunt from it. It had so many yards of fabric that they had to cover a leather belt to hold the fullness.

The first gift the man who would become her husband gave her was a rifle. He also taught her to shoot.

Mom loved her in-laws. Both families got along great. Dad's older sister is eerily similar to Mom's oldest sister & Dad's step-sister eerily reminiscent of the sister immediately older than mom (I mean, both married pharmacists, who both owned drugstores; both women helped their husband in the store on occasion, and both never left the house without looking like they'd just come out of a salon).

Had to start back too early on Sunday but I had a cushion of time to get gas. That turned out to only take half as long as I thought it would. So I had plenty of time to wash my hair before Sunday's activities (love my mom, hate the smell of cigarette smoke).

Gaming: We had a great time playing Shadowrun. Too bad Mike couldn't make it. He was suffering, both from illness and from massive guilt (for not making it). It was kind of funny, none of us really knew what we were doing. I was the only one who had even played 4th edition Shadowrun. I think the gm & I were the only ones who had read the rules. I found a great character dossier thing; too bad it looks like it's for 3rd edition. I may be able to use it anyway. I'm going to try.

The conversations were great, during & after. I love geek convo's. Where else can the talk range from the direct to DVD Wonderwoman cartoon to the casting of the Green Hornet movie, the success/failure of modern Pulp era movies, & the history of Charlie Chan. And that's just a sampling.

I did see the oddest tanline on Sunday. Older gent who obviously usually wears socks; from mid-calf down he was about as white as I am. Then toasty brown until just about his knees, then variable brown up to the hem of his shorts. It was kind of like a tan-line trainwreck. It was hard to pull your eyes away from the horror.

More Gaming: They were short of GM's at the local gamestore for Thursday's Living Forgotten Realms. So I volunteered to run. That gives me 2 days to read, research & know what I'm doing. Frankly, I'm okay with missing playing a game. LFR just doesn't grab me like LG or some of the other "living" campaigns have.

Tatting: I've been working a little on that new edging for my hankie. I should take a picture and post it. It's variegated brown & the pattern is from the same tatting book that I got the last edging from. If I get stuff done, I'll edit this post with the exact pattern & maybe a picture.

I also added the button for TattingChic's 50,000 visitor giveaway. I wasn't going to enter but I have a friend who'd like to learn and this would help her.

Gaming This Weekend
I'll be playing quite a bit of Living Forgotten Realms and one session of Shadowrun Missions. The Witch Hunter game was cancelled because everybody (but me & one other guy) had already played what was being offered (not a lot of selection right now).

Problem: I haven't finished writing my Shadowrun character. I still need gear, cyberware & contacts. Making these decisions is hard; I'm not certain what to expect or what to prepare for.

We played on Sunday and it ran a little late. Even though it took 'just a little long', it was fun. My "drow" is now 5th level. I need to do the progression on her, since I'll be playing her this weekend.

Tatting: Did I mention that I missed a picot join on Your Grape Big Heart and had to start over? I have started over and fortunately tatting over threads really doesn't show in size 80 thread. Now I only have 5 more rings until the next stage. At least it's looking good.

I did the finishing work on the bookmark for Melinda. She seemed to really like it.

Good Deeds & Tea
Chris & Rosemary took me to use the gift certificate for tea that she gave me for my birthday. First, we stopped by Natural Neighbors & I bought some lavender pump soap. She also gave me a sliver of soap in a small baggie, to try as an alternative to using commercial handsoaps. It does work, sort of. But I still want to try soap powder or flakes.

On our way to Tea-rific Spices, I stopped to finally get my glasses fixed. The nose pads have been slowly disintegrating, exposing the hard plastic skeleton, so they really needed to be replaced.

Once we got to the tea shop, I ordered some iced herbal tea while Rosemary had a cold fruity tea, raspberry I think, and Chris had some other iced tea. I bought a tea strainer and three teas with my gift certificate. They were out of the Peach white tea that I wanted, so I got some Pai-mu-tan, another white tea instead. I also got a nice vanilla chai for a wake up tea and something called mango mate.

I had some of the Pai-mu-tan last night & this morning. It's great iced, too. I brewed some and chilled it in the fridge to drink this morning.

After shopping and lunch yesterday we went went to see Monsters Vs. Aliens. It was an entertaining movie. I definitely liked Susan, and even Bob was kind of cute, in a brainless kind of way.

GAMING:
Saturday's game went well. At least I made it a little challenging for the players. I took one person down to negative hit points and had at least a couple people bloody every fight. I haven't reported it yet, but I will as soon as I find my notes.

after gaming cookout/holiday party:
Rosemary's house got a little crowded with everyone but we had fun, talking and eating. Since I only had one burger, I had enough room for watermelon & ice cream afterwards. It would have been a shame to miss anything. Mya had a hot dog. She's 2 and a half now and I had fun occasionally confusing her by asking her if she could say 'no.' Or not say 'no'.

Me Love AC
Yesterday's game got cut short when Rosemary's AC froze up. It was still cool, but it was dripping water into her closet. Those who could, stuck around 'til it got repaired. Luckily, it was under warranty so she didn't have a huge bill.

It's really good that she got it fixed. It's supposed to hit mid-90's again today.

Unfortunately, it took long enough that it meant that supper was at 9 pm and we did not get back until almost 11 pm. No stop off at B&N to pick up my ordered book. Ah well, these things happen.

The game was going okay. We stopped right before another fight started. It's going to be an ugly fight. They know that we are coming and they include a very ugly looking undead.

Saturday night I went to Quail Ridge Books. Jaye Wells was there, giving a talk on being published. I had mentioned it to Toni on Thursday so she & Rick were there, too. It was a good talk, very interesting. It was also nice to meet Jaye and I got her to sign a copy of her book for me.

Afterwards, Chris & tried a new restaurant, The Flying Biscuit. If Jaye was still in Raleigh, I would have recommended that she try it (assuming that she had not already).

I've gotten the letters written to my aunts, niece & namesake. Now to get them mailed. I used a pack of notecards with quilts on them.

I picked up two new manga on Sunday (before gaming). Since they're doing all that roadwork in front of FE (the road was completely blocked one day), Rick (different one) has had a a bad week. The one doesn't have anything to do with other but it made me glad that I paid for everything in my bag.

Plans are underway for the weekend. LFR and cook-out at Rosemary's on Saturday. I'm running so I need to finish reading the mod. It's low-level and D&D 4e is really easy to run, so I'm not really stressing about it.

Poor Snead's Ferry (small Onslow Co town at the coast). They don't have enough money in their budget to pay for a fireworks show this Independence Day.

Been Very Busy
Animazement (manga & anime convention), ConCarolinas (sci fi/fantasy/speculative fiction/media/gaming convention), weekend with mom, and everything in between.

Animazement went pretty well. I ran three games of Jadeclaw, played one and played Qin. Chris bought me a skirt as a slightly early birthday present. It's a great skirt; floor length, double ruffle, fully lined, high-waisted, zipper closure on the side, cinch lacing in the back & double drawstring in the back for a faux-bustle. I now have the right skirt to make my Susan Sto Helit costume. I just need blouse, vest, lock of black hair & to make an omega cameo pin.

Memorial Day we went to see the Star Trek movie and then to Red Lobster for my birthday. It was a nice time.

It was a short week as I took Friday off to go to ConCarolinas. I played Witch Hunter & Living Forgotten Realms all weekend. I started a variegated purple scruncy, perfect for sleep-deprived tatters. I got to see Nina & Gwen again (saw them at Animazement). Mitra made it to the convention, too and we got a little time to talk.

It was a beautiful hotel and while it was expensive, they treated us like we were paying a lot of money, too. Rosemary needed foam pillow and mentioned it as we were checking in. When we reached the room, there was someone arriving with the pillow at the same time. That's good service.

I was so tired when we came home that I went directly to sleep. Alas, that means that I missed a phone call that I was expecting.

I spent the evenings looking at laptops online. Thursday I checked the options locally and Friday I bought a new laptop. It was more expensive that I expected, but I bought the insurance and a couple software programs. Alas, I caved, I bought MS Office. *weep*

Saturday I drove down to see Mom but she decided to put off doing the laptop thing. She wouldn't even go with me to look at ISP options. I left her with the assignment to look up her options and get one before I go back in July.

Last night was our Mutants & Masterminds game. We continued with the 2 new players. They will be an interesting addition to the game.

I have been tatting the brown edging that I started at the Harmony Hall Heritage Day. I'm almost out of thread. What I have left is on a thread winder. So I need to unwind it and add more to the shuttle. I decided to put that off and returned to the scrunchy.

I've had three meetings this week at work. Now here's the scary part. All three have been productive &/or useful. Frightening, huh?

Yesterday, we had a celebratory lunch for Angela. She turned 50 on Sunday. I gave her some coffee from Boca Java and Tommy baked her a black icing cake. It was nummy.

I Saw Deer
Friday I got a few things done but not all the things that I wanted to do. I failed to get anything to the thrift shop like I had planned. I did add a few things to that collection, though.

Friday night we had what I think of as a summer shower; short, intense, and with lots of thunder & lightning. We needed the rain.

Saturday, we went to David's house to play Living Forgotten Realms, the special. On the way, in Raleigh, I spotted a deer in a clearing not far from the road. As I looked at it, I saw a second one. There may even have been more under the trees. Not bad for an area that is at least surburban, although not what I would consider really urban.

The game went pretty well. Rosemary had her usual lousy dice luck. Nonetheless, no one died and my 'drow' rogue is now 4th level. We didn't have a full table, either but it was okay. We had fun, that's the important part.

Sunday was quiet. We watched taped shows and played games. We went from about 80% full to only about 45%. Some of it was learning that both of us had watched a particular show & it could be deleted.

Kord Mandoon is pretty funny. It's not exactly intellectually stimulating but it's funny. The only problem is that the first episode seemed like it was a few episodes into the show, not the pilot. I guess that means it feels more 'real' in that it has a past. Theoretically that means that it also has a future.

I'm still trying to read the gamebook The Secret of Zir'An. The setting is interesting but the system is driving me nuts.

Gaming News
My wizard finally hit with her new daily power. Finally, finally, finally. And she critically hit even (a 20 on a 20-sided die). Whoot!

We made good time driving down yesterday. At least until we got off the highway. Between the traffic, the lights, the rain and the unmarked roads, the last 12 miles took an hour.

I read two more issues of ShojoBeat and did a lot on my wizard during the drive. She jumped from 4th to 6th pretty much, thanks to Scepter Tower of Spellguard. I went 'shopping' for magic items that she'd like.

I thought that I would sleep more but I barely napped for 10 minutes. Chris and Rosemary started muttering about pod people and alien replacement (I always sleep during car trips).

I managed to slam my fingers with the car door this morning. I had a cold drink to put on them, but no ice. They are still tender but haven't bruised, yet.

My current tatting project is the butterfly bookmark for Melinda. Size 80 pink & yellow, using single shuttle split ring.

Gaming Weekend and other stuff
I'll be near Atlanta this weekend, playing Living Forgotten Realms. It's not a con, but it was supposed to be. The con dates got changed, too late to change vacation dates. But the locals stepped up and offered to run a couple games, since we were going to be in town.

We were going to leave this afternoon, and I would have worked a half-day. Instead we leave in the morning & I worked all day. That was good 'cause I was in a training class all morning and I had other stuff to do today, too.

The class was interesting. It's called "not from 'round here, are ya?" It's all about regional communication styles and stereotypes (positive & negative). It verbalized some things that I already knew.

I'm on the 2nd wing of AnneB's dragon. And I just ran out of thread on one shuttle. Oh dear.

Rosemary's game finally wrapped up the Time of Troubles storyline. Yay! Now it's time for the adventure that she started running for. The characters needed to be at least 8th to start it, so everything has been leading up to her running this module.

I read another good book recently, Amber Benson's. It's urban fantasy type & really good. I can't recommend it enough,.

First, go look at this video on YouTube. Go on, I'll wait. Thank you, Jane E for pointing it out. I'm still giggling.

Which should I do, an excerpt a day, or an excerpt a week? Poll going up.

Living Forgotten Realms Game tomorrow. I need to update my character. And do my taxes. Which one do you think is harder?

TV Shows I'm Taping (& Watching)
Ashes to Ashes. BBC drama about a police inspector who is shot and finds herself in 1981. This is sort of a sequel to Life on Mars. The other inspectors are there, including the infamous Gene Hunt. Inspector Alex has been reading Sam Tyler's file (thinking he's a complete nutball) when it happens to her.

Eleventh Hour: American crime drama. Dr. Jacob Hood is an FBI consultant who investigates scientific crimes. Okay, it's not a great but it's decent.

Bones: another procedural crime drama, this one focused on forensic anthropology, etc. Luckily, thanks to my upbringing, I have no problem watching it, even while eating spaghetti. Thanks, Mom!

The Big Bang Theory: Another success by Chuck Lorre. Per Chuck's formula, he contrasts two social types, in this case highly intelligent geeks with a wannabe actress who's making her living as a waitress. I have trouble watching sitcoms because they are just so predictable. Not anything by Chuck Lorre.

Hogan's Heroes: Okay, so it's been off the air almost as long as I've been alive (almost), I still enjoy the show.

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy: Chris started taping this and I'm enjoying it immensely. A wonderful part of it is the bit at the end when the guy is on his own.

Diner, Drive-ins, & Dives: I enjoy this show but it really makes me want to take a road trip. Or five. I want to visit those places Guy F 'reviews.'

Adventures in English: BBC show about the history of the English language. Why yes, I am a word geek, why do you ask?

Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares: again, one that Chris started watching & now I watch, too. You have to be careful about watching, though, or you will never, ever, eat out again.

CSI, CSI:NY & CSI: Miami: yeah, three shows; more or less the same premise but the flavor is very different. Funny note, the city of Miami has no CSI unit.

And that's enough for one blog. Ye gods, I watch a lot of telly. That's not even glancing at stuff that's not in season.

tatting: I finished the Celtic Cross in Rozella Linden's Celtic Tatting Knots & Patterns. I should have done it with 2 different threads, though. Even with variegated, switching off so that the colors contrasted where I could, it just didn't contrast enough.

Now it's back to the burgundy dragon. I want to have it done by next weekend. I started the 1st wing.

Gaming: this weekend it's back to Scepter Tower of Spellguard. This weekend will finish it. If need be, on Sunday.

The weather's turned cold. After almost a week of unseasonable high temperatures, it's plunged down to the mid-40's. The high today was only in the 50's. Tomorrow will be even lower. And it will be raining. Um, what season is this again? I've lost track.

I Found Black Ice
Luckily I was on foot and there were no cars coming when I did. For those who don't know where I live & haven't noticed the weather there, it snowed on Sunday night. I came home early last night to avoid black ice but I had a focus group to go to tonight. I got home long after dark; and what I thought was wet cobblestones was slick with ice. There were more ice patches but I manage to navigate around those. My knee & hand hurt but they don't look bruised.


Tatting: The other tatters gave me enough bookmarks for this literacy class and enough to get a good start on the next class. Carolyn has been taking crochet classes so all of hers are crocheted. There's a nice variety, thank goodness. Katie took a picture.

Bad news, though. Really bad news. The man who taught me how to tat died yesterday. Chris had to go down to see if he has anything that he has to do; arrangements, etc. His health has been bad for years but it was still a shock to hear that he had a heart attack.

As part of a local history project, I had a heart that I had tatted scanned and added, plus a little bit about how I learned & the connection to UNC. I also did an oral history interview. I got started on a writing project but had to go back to work. The others seemed to find it interesting. It needs some polishing, though.

Gaming: Sunday's LFR game went well. It didn't even run very late. Black Raspberry Chocolate Tracks is now 3rd level. Whee. I need to do her level up stuff, now.

Something is wrong with my office temperature setting
It should not be 78F in my office in the middle of winter. Meanwhile, a co-worker down the hall opens his door to a freezing office every morning. He has to run a heater half the morning just to get it comfortable.

The tree by my front door has relieved my mind. I saw buds on it this evening. I was getting worried because my neighbor's tree has blooms and there was nothing on mine. Since a large branch broke off last year, it was a possibility that something had killed the tree.

My knees really hurt today. I have no idea why. My knees have hurt before, so this is nothing new. Usually though I can blame conditions like, driving for hours, walking in bad shoes, etc.

I've started typing my game notes for my LFR blog. Whenever possible, I type my notes into my laptop but sometimes that is not, so I'm left trying to translate my scrawl. I'm trying to keep them in order. Yesterday, I started the blog by introducing my characters.

The days have really gotten longer. I can walk home without turning on my safety lights.

I am going to look for my Lindsay Rogers book. I think it will really help with my wreath.