Living Greyhawk game: Played City of Malice (core adventure). Whoof. I now see why Mike made Rosemary take an oath, vowing NOT to play up (for non-gamers that means the adventure difficulty is set by the average level of the characters at the table & your character is below that average level - the average party level, or APL, of 3 1st level characters & 3 3rd level characters is 3 because the formula is (1+1+1+3+3+3/6) +1 [for a full table], which yields 3 so they could choose to play APL 2 or APL 4. Unless they're very stupid they'd choose APL 2). I played Reed, my CatTail, while Chris & Rosemary played her cousins, Grawl & Araby. We also had a halfling wizard/arcane trickster, a human bard/sublime chord & a human cleric. And this time, Grawl proved that Wall of Thorns is a wonderful, nasty spell to throw at someone (especially when you're a druid & can ignore it). Reed proved it last time.
The only problem was that Chris & I didn't leave until 12:30. That's very late for me, especially considering my late night on Wednesday, too. I was so tired, that from one eyeblink to the next I was asleep & didn't wake until the last stoplight before home. Waking up this morning was veeeery difficult.
More Living Greyhawk: Tomorrow we start Red Hand of Doom! We'll be playing most of Saturday and then Sunday afternoon. We hope that will take us halfway through it.
Heh, I forgot that I have a Frappr map. I wonder when I signed up for that.
Weather: There was actually %#$*&^%* frost on the ground this morning. Wednesday it was in the 80'sF. Today there's frost. Okay, it did rain yesterday which was almost a transition but still!
books: I'm still reading Rapture in Death. Next I'll start Held Accountable, it's one of the books that I picked up on Wednesday from the used book sale. It's a mystery set at a mental health center. The setting alone sets it apart.
tatting: I got very little done; just a couple shuttle-clearing butterflies.
clothes: black loafers (I have all the mud off from yesterday I think), black socks, black jeans, black belt (gold-tone & black buckle), black shirt (Origins), and same jewelry. I braided my hair today because it got into such a rats' nest yesterday from the ponytail.
Labels: frappr, Living Greyhawk, Rapture in Death, Red Hand of Doom, Reed, Sleep, weather
Website of the day: want to know a little about Keeshonds? They are a rockin' cool dog breed.
2nd website of the day: work with wood? How about some info before you buy or decide to work.
Dental app't: I screwed up and John didn't give me a ride. So I came into work late. I rescheduled for next month. Maybe by then I'll have my car fixed and I won't need a ride.
Gaming: Looks like we're playing Freaks of Nature tonight at Rosemary's. I'm catching a ride with the gm so there's no way I'll be late. Chris has my gaming stuff.
books: I finished The Cove last night. I stayed up too late doing so, too. Ah well, it was a good suspense/romance. Frankly, the only reason I knew the heroine wasn't nuts was that it was a romance & the genre predicates happy endings. This morning I started re-reading Rapture in Death. It's been a while but I'm starting to remember whodunit.
clothes: black: loafers, socks, jeans & polo (w/ purple embroidery [ 2001 Ren Festival]), black glass bead bracelet, silver hashmark ring, fem-power ring, onyx earrings & pendant on long silver chain. My hair is up in a ponytail for lack of anything better.
Labels: dentist, Living Greyhawk, Rapture in Death, The Cove, website
Today's Excitement: There was a fire alarm in my building this afternoon. That gave me the opportunity to go the library students used book sale. I bought some books while I waited for the alarm to be over. Never did find out what caused it. I started reading one of the books I bought at the sale.
gaming: Looking at playing a slot zero game (pre-con games that get enough gm's to run games at the convention). It depends on whether one guy is sick tomorrow that determines which game we play & where. After all, if he's sick then 1)he won't be up to gaming & 2) he might be contagious.
weather: I'd like to find out if the weather set a record today or just tied it. The record high for today is 86F, set in 1945. If it didn't get that hot today it was gosh-awful close.
books: I also read the 3rd volume of R.O.D.: Read Or Dream. I forgot to pack Creeps Suzette this morning so I didn't read this morning. On the bus home I started The Cove by Coulter.
clothes: white, notched mock-turtleneck shirt, crepe skirt in black, cream & tan, triple hoop silver earrings, ring with circles, fem-power ring, flower fairy pendant & hair up in the ponytail/bun affixed with two black & tan chopsticks.
Labels: fire alarm, Living Greyhawk, ROD Read or Dream, The Cove, weather
Gaming: Chris's game was last night & we (our characters) learned some things. 1) Mimics are nasty beasties, 2) don't hit them with electrical attacks (they spawn) & 3) grappling a dire lioness is bad for mimics.
website of the day: What's that actor's Bacon number? Ask the Bacon Oracle! And funny website of the day: stick figures used to make science jokes (& literature, etc).
Lunch today is leftovers from Sunday. I'll be having a crabcake, glazed carrots, and mashed potatoes. We ate at Red Rock Canyon Grill with Mike. The food was yummy.
books: I read Innocent in Death last night & learned that I'd missed an ..In Death book. So I'll be looking for that today. I brought Creeps Suzette with me to work but I'm very early into it.
clothes: black loafers, black socks & jeans, burgundy tank/plaid blouse set (tank is burgundy embroidered with a band of leaves along the neck, & over/attached to it is a plaid shirt in burgundy, grey, tan and light variants, with the same leaves embroidered randomly in green), feather charm/quartz chip earrings, quartz point feather pendant on long silver chain, ~rope band, silver dome ring, & my hair is loose for lack of anything better to do with it.
Labels: Chris's game, Creeps Suzette, Innocent in Death, Red Rock, website
Raptorcon! It was fun. I played two core LG games & the rest were Geoff mods. Unfortunately, the first mod of Sunday (core) I (& the rest of the table) had to deal with the notorious JC. Gah. And the people at Trinic-con can blame me if he comes. I wore my 2006 shirt & he saw it. *sigh* He may be a very nice man but he's, how should I say this, less than accurate in some of his statements. And he ignores what other people say, interrupts, etc (ie Rosemary said, 'even with the web spell there, can I step to get the cleave?' and JC said, as she stepped into the web that he cast in her way, 'if you had cleave, you could just hit that guy.'). Just a very rude guy.
Zavin, my first level Geoff druid, finally made 2nd level. It took 2 more intro mods to do it. I 'met' Eric's new 1st level PC. His old character is currently plugging some portal, so he got a cert to play a fey. He's playing an ice fey warleader, female. She's been informed that she should go scout (to get her out of the tribe/clan's way).
The roleplay interactive on Saturday night was lots of fun. There were games, mini-missions & some good roleplay. I played one game; smash the candy man. I need to find a copy, maybe 2 or 3. It's a Candyland variant where when you pass the other players you can 'hit' them. When they take 6 hits in one area, (head, limb or torso), they lose that area. If you use gingerbread men & frosting tube to score; you can eat your opponent's limb when you finish it off. Delicious.
As usual, I didn't get enough sleep and napped on the way home. I got to sleep late this morning, too. Unfortunately, the hotel didn't manage to get the number of towels right at any point past the first day. Luckily, I learned that I can dry off with just a hand towel.
tatting: I finally picked up my shuttles this weekend. I made the two apology brooches (all I had was white thread), now I need to work on the primary ones. Here's what I made:
I managed to get them done, starting Friday night and finished Sunday morning. I started another one with more beads but I screwed up on the first round of chains & just put it away. I'm not even going to bother posting a picture of it as it's only going to be cut up.
I started to make a silver/white choker with clear seed beads:
It's from Lyn Morton's book (as is the brooch above). That thread is really pretty but it's a pain to work with; eventually I screwed it up & gave up on it. Can you see what I did?
So I used the rest of the thread on the shuttles to make a couple butterflies & some simple flowers.
books: I finished both books that I took with me. Quelle surprise. My Fair Temptation I finished today on the trip back. So I read more of The Pillow Book.
clothes: Obviously it was jeans & t-shirts this weekend. I wore white tennis shoes all week because my left loafer sole tried to come off. It was half-off by the time I got halfway to Maryland. I couldn't wear those shoes. That left the black tennis shoes that I packed, both left ones. Or the white ones. I wore them with black jeans (red Meepa Con tee), blue jeans (Geoff 'Against the Giants' tee & 2006 trinic-con tee). I finally wore my 'strawberry' with dangles earrings on Saturday.
Today it's blue jeans, black 2003 NF conference Panthers champs, feather charm & quartz chip earrings, quartz point/feather pendant on long chain, ~rope band & fem-power band.
Labels: Living Greyhawk, My Fair Temptation, pictures, Raptorcon, tatting, The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon, Zavin
3 websites with green (ecologically preservative) focus & 3 cleaners that are cheaper & less toxic than storebought:
http://sierraclub.typepad.com/greenlife/
http://lesstoxicguide.ca/index.asp?fetch=household
http://www.glamour.com/news/articles/2007/03/bestecosites
Discount Cleansers There are several ways to cut the expense of manufactured cleaners. Not only are they cheaper, they are also environmentally friendly and child-safe.
For Glass cleaner, mix 2 tbsp alcohol to 16 oz of water.
To clean hardwood floors, mix 1 cup vinegar per gallon of water.
To make furniture polish mix 2 tbsp olive oil, 16oz water and 1 tsp of lemon oil.
Labels: eco-green, website
As Iraq Casualties Mount, So Do the Stories We Must Tell
Four years ago we invaded Iraq and today the occupation continues. A new project is working to tell the stories of the service members whose lives have been lost -- in the words of the people who loved them. A growing, living memorial by those who knew those who fell.
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First day of spring, my Aunt Fanny! While a pretty day, I would not call it spring-like weather yesterday. I did pick a daffodil to put in a vase in my office, though. I love those flowers. They smell nice, they're bright & cheerful after the grey days of winter, and they appear early, like the forsythia; heralding spring's arrival.
books: I read Vampire Doll, #2 and sort of re-read part of Devil's Bride. I haven't gotten very far because I have not been taking lunch; since I'm off Friday & Monday for RaptorCon (in Gaithersburg, MD). That will cut down on the vacation time that I'll be taking.
Interesting book of the day: The author is coming soon to speak at my alma mater, so I looked up her book. It sounds fascinating. The book is Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel & the War on Terror. She grew up in Cairo; the daughter of man who died after leading raids on Israel. She was considered the daughter of a martyr of the jihad & thus was honored.
Con: I finished my laundry last night & packed. Then we packed the car, since Chris will be picking me up from work & we're leaving for Maryland then. We're not going back home, so if I haven't packed it, I'm not taking it. That did mean that I brought my laptop to work with me. It's a heavy sucker, this morning.
Music: I loaded Try This & I'm Not Dead (P!nk) into my iTunes the last couple days. I've sync'ed my iPod & put some of the songs onto playlists. I also loaded a couple more episodes of The Voyage of the Scarlet Queen. I checked the dates on the episodes last night & I'm missing (or rather Radiolovers.com is missing) at least half-a-dozen episodes by #20. Bummer.
clothes: yesterday it was grey 2002 Carolina Ren Festival polo, black slacks, black socks, black half-boots (that really need to have the heels replaced), black belt (gold-tone buckle), & moonstone jewelry. Braided hair yesterday & today.
Today it's forest Geoff polo, black slacks, same belt, black trouser socks, black loafers (I finally found the smaller pair), emerald earrings & necklace, & fem-power ring.
Labels: flowers, gaming, I'm Not Dead, Pink, Raptorcon, spring, Try This, Voyage of the Scarlet Queen, weather
Bruises: Remember that fall on Friday? I do; I have a nice collection of bruises to remind me. There's one about hand-sized on my left hip; it's big & ugly. There's another, about the size of a quarter, on the inside of my right arm & a small, only nickel-sized, one on my right thigh. That's probably from hitting myself with my umbrella.
TV: The Riches was on last night but it started about the time that I needed to be heading to bed, so I didn't watch it.
website of the day: boing boing, a directory of wonderful things
guilty food(s) of the day: milk chocolate covered mint Oreo cookies, Reese's Brownie & Hershey's Brownie (very rich, almost too much so).
books: I finished Hana Kimi #16 & Chibi Vampire #2. I started New Moon by Rebecca York & Punch #3 but just wasn't in the mood.
radio show: I finished listening to episode 15, The Huntsman's Quarry & the Dead Chinese, of the Voyage of the Scarlet Queen this morning. I'm really enjoying that show. Funny thing, according to Old Radio, that's episode 21.
clothes: white turtleneck, black poly-suede shirt, purple slacks, black trouser socks, black sequin/beaded flats, Celtic knot jewelry & ~rope band. My hair is loose because it was falling out of the braid & I forgot my hairbrush.
Labels: bruise, bus, Chibi Vampire, Food, Hana Kimi, manga, New Moon, Punch, Voyage of the Scarlet Queen, website
