bloviation extrordinaire
Andrea and I were joking with the girls that when they were born, Mommy pulled something out of her nose, and it was Reiley, who’s really a booger. And Wrenny was throwup. Then we said, “No, you guys know where you really came from”.
To which Reiley replied “Gross, I need a bath.”
I won’t say much about the girls’ creation known to the world only as DiscLand, except that:
Enough said? :P
Yesterday Wrenny turned five! What a crazy day…
The day before her birthday, we had a party at
Sunday morning, we woke up on Wrenny’s birthday to find that the weatherman was only partially right – we got tons of stuff, but it was all lovely SNOW! Yipee!! I trudged off alone to church for my debut singing in the praise band (I blame NO ONE for skipping THAT…), and when I returned, it was sledding and snowball fighting for all. I played the human toboggan, with me lying on the saucers and the neighborhood kids all piling on top, until I could no longer feel my butt. Afterwards, we warmed up with hot chocolate. Awesome!
Today, in true North Carolina fashion, it has all turned to slush and ice, and more sleet is falling as I type. I have to admit that I love to drive on the ubiquitous sheet of ice it creates – there is nothing more pleasant than my little Honda go cart in a powerslide. The only problem is tolerating all the other North Carolina drivers’ ineptitude. They are all either going 2 mph or deeply embedded in the forests adjoining the highway…. cest la vie…
OK, I’ll make this short and sweet… the big V was straightforward, I was told the anaesthesia needle would be “something I would remember”, but it was painless – the only lingering memory I have is of the noxious smell of my cauterized vas…
BYE BYE MY LOVELY SPERM! You served me well. Now don’t anyone ever accuse me of holding back on the details of my personal life. :P
I got Carcasonne for Andrea for Christmas based on three factors: it was one of the “classics” that has several expansion packs available; everyone at Games Galore recommended it; and it claimed to be a ‘great game for two players’. It was a steal, too, even with the Castles and Inns expansion pack.
It’s been a lot of fun. It’s not too complicated, but there are lots of choices as you build out a map of interconnected cities, roads, and farms.
I’m going to score our games as I rate them on several categories, higher always being better:
| Pure strategy (no luck involved): | 7 |
| Player paths intertwined: | 10 |
| Multiple strategies available: | 9 |
| Complexity: | 7 |
All the Johns I know are brewing beer! Well, except John Bruno, but he makes up for that by drinking a lot of it while playing pool… John Carpenter has become quite good at it – I can personally vouch for that. And John Franklin’s leaving town to head to D.C., and on the way out had a home brew bottling party. Things I learned from the “Joys of Homebrewing” manual I found there:
Here’s a pic of Keith, John and Mike from Keith’s recent visit –
they came by to say hi while I sat there gaping back at them with the flu bug…
We had a great time on our whilrwind trip back to Florida.
It was a little rough starting out – Owen graced us with a present no more than a couple miles out the door, and we had nothing to clean it up. We stopped at an old auto parts store and a kind man gave us some old towels. Next, we realized that we didn’t have enough working cigarette lighter outlets for the cooler AND the VCR, both of which were absolutely necessary for survival on the 12-hour trip. So we had to stop at another auto parts store, and pick up a lighter y-adapter. By that time it started pouring out, and I blew a fuse plugging the cooler in in the rain. Back to the parts store! Bought a pack of fuses, figured out the fuse system on the van, and got it all humming – we even got an extra-large pack of shop towels to finish cleaning up after Owen.
Once we got out of town, we drove straightaway to Disneyworld without any more real hitches. We arrived at the Park the next day for beautiful weather and short lines – the week before Thanksgiving is a great time to go. Lunch at Tony’s was fantastic – the vinagrette glaze was to die for. We finished the day with some great fireworks.
The next day we headed deep down south into Florida to see all our kin. It was great to catch up with everybody. Dan, Corey and I stayed up into the night playing Jedi Academy every chance we got.
After the days in Fort Myers flew by, we headed up to see Andrea’s dad in St. Pete. It was good to catch up with him, too.
I’m sure there’s more I’m missing from all the time this site’s been down. I’ll try to add more here as my feeble brain recalls it… after all, that’s why I do this blog thing – write it all down, or it’s lost to me forever! :P
The neighborhood got together for a “How To Host A Murder” party on New Year’s Eve, aka Larry’s birthday. It was a hit! Larry stormed around as the captain, yelling “don’t call it a boat, it’s not a boat, it’s a ship!” and “I don’t remember what I was doing, I was drunk at the time…”. Scott was decked out in a racing jacket and gloves, and Greg played out the accusatory investment banker perfectly. All the ladies were “dressed to kill”, which played out perfectly, as they all ended up running brothels or being romantically linked to the deceased.
| To cap it all off, the role of the murdered host was played by none other than… Michael Jackson. Perfect casting! |
 |
Everybody had a blast, and we hope to do it again some time soon.
Sammy, a good friend of mine from way, way, way back in the salad days of high school, made his fortune, and nearly lost his sanity, producing The Two Towers video game for Electronic Arts (yes, “that” TTT). Hurling himself from the jaws of the corporate grind, he “quit the biz” and decided to pursue a true passion of his, creating his own board game. He’s been working hard on it for a while, and it’s looking great.
He chatted me up the other day to bounce around some ideas for a tagline for the game, which has a theme of superheroes fighting crime whilst simultaneously soliciting the funds needed to keep at it as a full time profession. I immediately thought “let’s extend ‘crime doesn’t pay’ in some way”, but we just couldn’t shorten it up enough.
Sam: Like, “crime doesn’t pay, but Heroes Incorporated does!”, only, not stupid…
Then he hit the nail on the head… check out the Quest Machine website for the answer to the perfect tagline!
Ken wants to set up a blog, I thought maybe I could run it for him. Look at the potential!!
etterman writes “Saddam was captured on December 13 by US Special Forces. The US Intelligence intercepted a cell phone call to the Tikrit Dominos on Tigris Blvd. Saddam ordered a plain chesse pizza (large) under his own name. U.S. forces converged on the crawl space in which Saddam was hiding, reportedly Saddam opended the door in response to a U.S. Military personnel yelling “Dominos”.”