the last week has been, for the most part, uneventful. we've been enjoying the new games we got last weekend and are planning on taking them with us. We had a good rp session on monday. No one got turned to stone by the basilisk. that was good. Steve finally was able to start his epic game this week. That was fun. Epic druidy goodness. There was some other stuff this week that was rather amusing, but i've forgotten most of it. I do remember something about me inventing a metric time system where the base unit is called a 'faffle'.

So anyway... ...i'll be gone for about a week as sheri and i are taking a trip out to see her family in flippin' arkansas. (Yes, the name of the town is actually Flippin.) Be good while i'm gone.

~PS

Well, last night was certainly...interesting

Here was the evening, as it happened:

Being that it was an off-week for gaming, sheri and i had no real plans for yesterday evening. It also just so happened that this morning at midnight was when Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince was supposed to be released and sheri had reserved a copy at Barnes & Noble a few months earlier. In light of these two coincidental facts, we decided to do pretty much everything we could.

First, we went to walmart because sheri needed to get a perscription before the pharmacy closed. we were in there for a while getting a few other things she wanted, but we tried to hurry. walmart is not all that much fun. I did notice that walmart has started carrying mp3 players like ipods and creative zen's. I have decided this is cool. I want one.

Anyway, by the time we were finished there and got to the entrance we noticed something we had failed to account for: it was raining. hard. i don't mean this sprinkling stuff it tends to do in TN, i mean it was raining. We decided to make a dash for it rather than waiting around for it to stop like the 73 other people standing there. Being that we were parked in tim-buck-seven, we were COMPLETELY drenched by the time we got to the car. There was about an inch of standing water in the sloped parking lot. Once in the car, sheri was trying very hard to be mad at the fact that her shoes were now soaking wet, but couldn't managed to look at me (and the water dripping from my forehead and down my nose) without laughing. I, personally, thought the whole thing was hilarious.

From there we drove over to Dice, our favorite game store. Dice has been having a sale in july with everything (except some ultra-new stuff) being 25% off. We had decided that it had been a while since we'd got a game and, since our anniversary is coming up (hard to believe), we thought it would be ok to use that as an excuse to spend some money on some games. As everyone knows, the First Anniversary is the Board Game Anniversary. We ended up getting the next expansion for Carcassonne and also decided to get another game we had actually played there before: Ticket to Ride (Europe). We also talked to Charlotte (one of the store managers) for a little while...she recognizes us as 'regulars'.

From there, we went to get haircuts. This had the combined advantages of making our very wet and now unruly hair look nicer before going out to eat, and actually getting our hair cut, as we both needed it at least a little. We were the absolute last people there and, as they cut our hair, both of the ladies were remarking to us and to each other about how long and arduous the day had been and how hungry they were. At one point, the lady cutting my hair actually apologized, and told me she had to stop for a second to go get a cracker because she was starving - which she did. This struck me as hilarious.

Once our hair was reasonably shortened and we wished the ladies good luck recovering from their day, we proceeded to Cracker Barrel. We specifically chose to go to Cracker Barrel because we had some gift certificates for it. We had a nice dinner that didn't cost us anything...and, when we were done, there was 11 cents left on the gift card.

We made our way from there, at last, to Barnes & Noble and the release party. Given how horribly small the b&n parking lot is, and how crowded it is EVERY friday, i was only marginally surprised when there was absolutely NO PLACE to park anywhere in that plaza. We ended up parking at another little plaza that was across the street and a bridge from the destination. It was a nice evening though. We actually met, by coincidence, another woman heading to the same place but coming from a slighly different direction. As we all cut through the grass on a median and proceeded through the parking lot, a small white car pulled into an empty parking place right in front of us. "Figures" said the the woman in a somewhat amused yet slightly exasperated voice. We had a brief chat about how it was a nice evening and how there was NO EARTHLY WAY that that parking space would have been there if either of us had been driving by.

The book store was, as was expected, completely packed to the gills (i didn't exactly know book stores had gills - nor a reason to breath underwater, but it's just an expression anyway). It was kind of amusing/annoying in that there were so many fans of the books (on a level that seems obsessive) in such a relatively small place. I.e., people in costumes, carrying wands, talking about 'muggles', etc. There were some games that were going on for the young kids - things about being sorted or catching Sirius Black or some such. Most of the people i saw there, however, were adults or kids at least high school age. I took up my standard place in the d&d aisle and started leafing through a book or two that i haven't wanted to spend the money to buy. I was amused to hear at least 3 people comment, as they walked by, about how 'dorky' things like LOTR, D&D and/or fantasy and science fiction in general were - as they were dressed in full costume. It totally blows my mind how someone could like Harry Potter that much, and yet so strongly dislike things that, in my mind (as i like all of them), are so similar. This further confirms my belief that a good deal of HP is fad based, and a good deal of the dislike for d&d, science fiction and fantasy is based on the similar idea of what is 'cool' or 'uncool'. That, and the fact that i think everyone i heard say that was junior high or high school aged.

While we were there we saw someone we knew from church (she was in line as number #176 - we were #226) and justin (who was #349).

I started reading the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy while i waited for it to be midnight, and then for the first 225 people to go through. Surprisingly, it only took about 40 minutes for us to get checked out.

Having accomplished everything we set out to do, we headed home with our new stuff and some interesting memories.

~PS

so, in the last hour i've nearly had a nervous breakdown.

i was feeling tired this evening - and more than a little bored - so i laid down...and, after a while, fell asleep.

i was awakened around 7pm by a call from my friend steve. he wanted to know if i was up for a game. he told me to grab my book, dice & a character sheet and head over. it sounded like fun, so i did.

i met ginger, we rode over. josh came. samara was playing. we had a good little group. we made some characters as steve described the world.

we were just about to actually start when i noticed something: i didn't have my wedding ring on. I looked down at the table where my dice were. nothing. this led to a rather massive cooperative search - with the help of my very understanding friends. we looked everywhere for it - almost to the point of partially dismantling steve's couch (thinking that it may have fallen down into it).

by this point, i was very, very freaked out. it was suggested (i don't remember by whom) that i go home and look. this sounded like a good idea, so i got (most of) my stuff together and left.

the whole way home i was mentally going from 'yeah, it's probably there' to 'no, it can't possibly be there' to '@#$@#$#@!!!!!' and back again.

after the LONGEST DRIVE I HAVE EVER DONE i arrived at my apartment. frantically, i darted to my desk. nothing. i looked in the drawer o' everything, pretty much dumping its massively disorganized contents on the floor. not there. In one final, desperate attempt, i went into the bedroom - where i found it. It was sitting, quite obviously, on the bed next to my pillow. Apparently, it had come off in my sleep and i had managed not to notice for about 2.5 hours.

words cannot describe the profound sense of relief i am experiencing right now.

i'll probably be very paranoid about it for the next week or so as well...

~PS

well, our trip up to IN / OH went pretty well. it was nice to see some family again...most of whom we haven't seen since christmas.

not much to blog on, but here are some thoughts from the weekend:

1. when in doubt, bring the laptop

2. Noble Roman's is awesome

3. whenever there are many family members together, someone will make everybody do something cheesy

4. driving for too long in one direction will cause you to bake unevenly

5. dude, yoshi's island

~PS

well, well

seems trying to find something to write about is somewhat difficult after the fact. I mean, there are lots of things that i'm like 'hey! i should totally write some blog about that!', but then i either forget them or i'm too lazy or later i'm like 'hey, that's not all that good...'

so anyway

about the most out-of-the-ordinary thing that's happened lately is that i killed a monstrous black widow spider just outside our apartment. (i hope that stays out-of-the-ordinary) It's true i strongly dislike spiders, but it always makes me feel a little...funny...to hurt something just to prevent it from having the opportunity to hurt me. It reminds me a little of Ender Wiggin... ...or maybe US foreign policy...

one of the gaming groups was supposed to start an epic-level game tonight, but it's being delayed due to some people not being ready yet...which sucks...but...what can you do. if you're me, not much.

sheri and i (she'd be so proud of me using 'proper' english there) are going to be going to IN / OH for the weekend to see family. that should be cool... ...and then, a couple weeks later we're gonna turn right around (or rather, turn to the west) and go to arkansas to see sheri's family. too much driving in july.

~PS