events 9-27 til umm wow 11-9-10

I uhhhh....
Oct 2nd was The last Tragic City Rollers home game of the season and was quite awesome. "Psycho B" injured herself, got annoyed with the refs because they didn't call it after she had laid on the ground for way more than 3 seconds, got up and skated holding her arm and then decided to slam in to someone with it. Even better she was laughing manically as they were popping her arm back in to her socket.
Oct 8th and 9th was The Birmingham Area Board Gamers Mega Meetup,
which I had a ton of fun at.
I also got my hair done that weekend and it looks FABULOUS as always


Oct 15th, 16th, and 17th, was Poctoberfest, a preview event for the local gaming and sci-fi convention, Play on Con. It was so much fun the entire weekend is a blur except that I vaguely remember almost forgetting to come home and let the dog out on Saturday. At some point saturday, i left Poctoberfest for a while and went to the Junior League Market and ended up with the best purse ever thanks to my friend Brandy(sorry, no pics yet).

The next weekend we went to visit family in Huntsville and ate at Mikawa again. Seriously, anyone in the huntsville area needs to eat at Mikawa for every meal they are open for every day.

Halloween weekend was busy. On saturday Christian went to the puzzle party in auburn and my friend Melody and I went to the pumpkin patch! We talked to the goats, and took pictures of pigs, and walked through a corn maze and spent probably an hour poking around the pumpkin patch for just the right pumpkin.
Later that day was Helena's Trick-or-treat. I gave out an ungodly amount of candy.
Sunday was halloween proper and we had a friend over to watch the Rifftrax of "Troll 2" and play Rock Band 3

At some point in all this mess, there was a painting class or two.

The last six weeks has been packed and it won't get any calmer before about january.

events 9-7 to 9-26

Life has been busy and awesome, I can't even remember all of it.
Work is busy right now with AIDS walk today, Crestwood crawl in 2 weeks and a bunch of events for fall and winter coming up.

Tues 9-21-10 Chris and I both went to tye die class at Daniel Day Gallery and made awesome shirts:

Thursday I put up a page on first giving and managed to raise $300 toward AIDS walk in less than 24 hours.

Friday, I baked all day for the cakewalk fundraiser at AIDS walk.

Yesterday was our friend Joe's birthday and we played a ton of rock bank and a board game called homesteaders. He had an EXCELLENT Mocha Caramel Sea Salt cake from Dream Cakes.

Today was AIDS walk and I walked in the drippy, humid weather with my friend, Kat and her two babies and we talked about roller derby and how babies change your life. More importantly, We honored the millions of people who live with, have been affected by or have died from this disease, many of whom I have known personally because of my work at Birmingham AIDS Outreach by being one of the many pairs of feet in the walk.

AIDS Walk is Sunday!

AIDs walk is Sunday and we can use all the help we can get!
here is my fund raising page

Painting from 9-7-10

The inspiration for this was... don't know. Originally, I wanted to cover up something colorful with shades of grey and black, which I did. I made some veiny/nervy looking jaggedy lines all over the blank canvas in bright colors, dried them with the hairdryer and then started putting white, grey, black and a very light grey/blue all over the page so and then scraped it with the ruler like I normally would for the background of the picture. Then, I kapt adding blue and pink and yellow accents by walking my fingers all over the one edge. Then, I tried to create a splotch or a puddle of dark/muddy colors in the middle and it didn't quite look the way I intended--I wanted a void in the middle of the page but it. SO then, I scraped a heart into the cloud and it just evolved from there.
The words on the picture are from this song:



This is probably one of my favorite paintings and it really really wandered waaay away from the original idea, but somehow still has the same essence.

9-1 to 9-8

Um...
Labor Day weekend we played a lot of video games and
Art class was this past Tuesday and.... that's about it.

Events 8-15-10 to 8-31-10

Um, it's all kind of a blur but here's what I can remember:
On Fri 8-20-10 we left for Chattanooga to attend Gamefest South and play lots of games. You can read more about it at Meepletown.com. While we were there, we consumed some of the best food known to man. Of special note is the cake at City Cafe Diner: they have about 70+ different varieties that they make and about 30-40 on hand any given day and they're amazing (we had midnight craving and seven sins). We came back Sun 8-22-10 tired and happy.

Tues 8-24-10 was art class.



Saturday 8-28-10 we got to see our friends Amy and Allen. I knew allen could cook, but the dinner he made was beyond my expctations... soooooo tasty.
Sunday 8-29-10 we played ping pong in the morning and had some of our gaming friends over to play Space Alert in the evening.

Today I was off work for some "me" time and got my hair trimmed and re-colored by my friend Zaque. Still love the haircut, REALLY LOVE the new color!


Other than that, today I ran errands and Chris and I wrapped up the day with board games and TV.

Events of the last... month or so?

Um... lots of things have happened since my last post.

Hubby was without a job for a short period of time due to differences with the management where he worked but he starts a job on monday. The couple of weeks where we weren't sure where we going to get money from was really stressful, but it's all straight now. Now i can stress about other things ;). Hubby seems so much happier not to be at his previous job... YAY!

While all this was going on, my Friend Zaque at Aveda institute cut and colored my hair, did a FABULOUS job and made sure I didn't have to spend too much since the budget was tight at the time.

I keep gushing about my hair and I think Z and hubby are both tired of hearing about it but I really love it! He has a knack for creating styles that work well with my hair's natural tendencies.

I went to art class last week and made a "lovely" painting.

Well, it may not exactly be a masterpiece but it was fun to make and I got to catch up with my former co-worker, Ashley while we painted.

I don't remember if I announced it on here or not but back about mid June, I decided to stop eating and drinking anything sweet to try to get rid of my cravings. The cravings aren't much better, but I've learned that I can ignore them and they will pass like everything else. Also, staying away from sweets altogether for 2-3 weeks was enough for my taste buds to adjust so now most things taste too sweet and I can't stomach more than a few sips of soda or a few bites of cookies/candy/etc.

Last but not least, I have a big super secret project going on that I have done a lot of work on but I am not ready to announce what it is.

Week 7-4-10 to 7-11-10

I don't remember a lot of details at this point because of all the fun stuff I did, but this past weekend, I went to Play on Con 3 in Birmingham, AL. Photos of the shenanigans can be found on the Meepletown flickr feed.

6-20-10 to 7-4-10

Last week we... did a lot of stuff.
Last Saturday was Joe's housewarming during which there were board games and tasty tasty waffles. I played code 777 for the first time and discovered, to my surprise, that I LOVE it.
Last Sunday we watched the entirety of season 3 of Breaking Bad which is, hands down, my favorite TV show.

Monday was board games which is especially notable this week: Most of you know that I have ADHD. Unless you have it, you can never quite know what this means. It affects everything I do, much of it in ways that are considered socially unacceptable and are generally difficult for those whose brains function normally to understand. I don't know why I am incapable of remembering to turn out the lights every day before I leave work or why I make seemingly careless mistakes even if I concentrate 15 times as hard and am 20 times more conscientious or why if you start talking to me about science fiction books my brain will be on the subject of donut toppings within 30 seconds. Like it or not, it just is. It's the way an ADHD brain works.
On Monday I forgot my ADHD meds and intentionally had some caffeine to at least make up for the lack of alertness. When I got to board game group my brain was a meandering, disjointed, slightly wired, easily distractable, but undeniably fun mess.
In walks one of our newer group members with his teenage son, who I very quickly learn is the same way. He had a hard time sitting still long enough for rules to be explained to him, but he very quickly picked up on the games, played them well, and had several brilliant conversations in between turns. The only time it struck me that I was not talking to someone of my own maturity level is when his dad had to redirect him a few times and when we had a brief conversation about medicine. I said that i was un-medicated that day and dad said that his son was too because he liked to take med holidays in the summer. The "boy" noted that he didn't like medications because he wasn't himself on them. When I said that he could talk to his doctor when he got older about finding something that helped him but didn't make him feel unlike himself he said something to this effect: "I'm talkative and impulsive. The meds make me who everyone else wants me to be. Not who I am." This really struck me because I sometimes work so hard on fitting in to the "real world" that I forget that it is okay sometimes to say "you know what, that's who I am, and I'm not ashamed." Yes, he did need to hear my comments about meds making it so i can function in normal life, yes he did need to hear his father's comments about his behavior and yes, he's a teenager and has a ways to go, but apparently I needed to be reminded that all quirks and kinks cannot be flattened out and that they are what makes you who you are.

Other notable events this week: painting class

reprieve

I am giving myself a reprieve from the "week" in review as I am exhausted and have been crazy crazy crazy busy with work and travel and other activities. Instead, I am going to post some cool blogs you should visit.

Meepletown, Hubby's board game blog
Waffles and the world, my friend joe's waffle making blog
The Social Path, My friend David's famous social media blog
Artful unity, my Jewelry Blog
Happy Hippy Happenings, my other Jewelry Blog

the week(ish) in review 6-12-10 to 6-20-10

6-12-10 was saturday and that evening we went to Mt Fuji,
a fabulous Japanese restaurant. Then we went, with our friend Sarah, to watch a roller derby bout.
It was awesome. I love derby and would probably join if it weren't for the fact that they practice three times a week (late at night, no less) and frequently have bouts on gaming convention weekends.
Sundayyyy.... I think we played ping pong, I don't know.
Monday was games and I played mystery express. I also bought up a copy of union pacific from one of the group members which I was thrilled about since it is out of print and hard to find.
Tuesday was painting class during which there were some nasty storms.
Wed was gaming and I played Queen's Necklace and union pacific.
Thursday, Chris made steak for dinner and it was fantabulous. he is a very good cook.
Friday, we were both exhausted and ordered pizza.
Saturday we went up to visit family for father's day. We had lunch at main street cafe in the jail cell. Then I spent some time with mom and dad and all their animals (the big shaggy white dog is mine). We went to dinner at Mikawa, which has long been my favorite japanese restaurant, and probably my favorite asian restaurant overall.
Today we played games with our friends, Bill and Dawn and then made the long trek home. Shortly after getting here we had dinner and I have been blogging on various sites ever since.

week? in review 5-31-10 to 6-12-10

Monday 5-31-10, I played through the ages for a second time and am now absolutely hooked.
Weds We played Race For the galaxy, which i am finally starting to understand
Saturday 6/5/10 I went to Aveda Institute and got my hair done by my good friend, Zaque.
Before:



After:



It's a much more subtle, elegant, cut and color than before and it took my eyes a minute to adjust to not having crazy magic marker technicolors and sharp angles, but I really love it and it works really well with my natural wash-n-go hair with minimal styling (which is good because I never style it anyways).

Saturday we also played arkham horror and won!

I had waffles made by our friend Joe and a donut for lunch that day. Best lunch EVAR!

Sunday we played ping pong.

Monday I had to help with monday night bingo as Karen knew we were going to be packed this week because it's a part of 10 days of pride, our yearly pride celebration here in Birmingham. Even though I was exhausted and left right after I was released, it looked really cool, and check-in apparently went very smoothly, so, mission accomplished!
Okay so I was exhausted, but not so exhausted I couldn't stop for a Nutella and burnt marshmallow milkshake at Flip and then drop by Joe Muggs for a game of Citadels.

Weds We played Agricola at a mall and I was thrilled as this is a personal favorite and it was Christian's first play through.
Friday Chris made tasty tasty steaks for dinner.
It is Saturday 6-12-10 at about 9:30 in the morning and I have no idea what the plan for the day is but there's a roller derby bout tonight, Pride parade downtown tonight, and tons of other events going on in the city.

I'll see you in a week or so and let you know what we did and how it was ;)

Week in review 5-23-2010 to 5-31-2010

Ummm,
Monday: games (dungeon lords?)
Tuesday: ...?
Wed: games in so much noise it's unfathomable
Fri: a long, weird day which we fixed by eating cake and ice cream.
Saturday: we lazed around the house and caught up on TV and then played our new copy of Arkham Horror.
Sunday: through the ages with our friend, Joe. I made regular, chocolate chip and jasmine pancakes for breakfast (recipe follows) and Christian made steak and scalloped potatoes for a late lunch. There were also cookies and ice cream!
Monday (Today): So far, ping pong and avoiding cleaning the tremendous pile of dishes we amassed when cooking yesterday.

Sunday's Pancakes:

1 Cup all-purpose flour
1 Cup bread flour
1/3 Cup white sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp(ish) nutmeg
1/4 tsp(ish) ginger
1/3 tsp(ish) cinnamon
1 egg
2 egg whites
½ cup 2% milk
½ cup natural apple juice
4 tsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp rum


Whisk flour, sugar, salt, spices baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl.
In another bowl lightly beat egg and egg whites, and then add milk, apple juice, oil, rum and vanilla. Make a well in the center of flour mixture and add wet ingredients. Stir with a whisk until smooth.

For each pancake, scoop 1/4 cup of batter on to a hot griddle or nonstick skillet sprayed with cooking spray or covered in melted butter (spray is healthier, but butter helps minimize burning and it tastes yummy). If desire, Add chocolate chips right after putting the pancake batter in the pan.
Turn pancakes when bubbles appear and edges are cooked, after about 1 1/2 minutes. Cook for 1 minute on second side.

In addition to normal and chocolate chip, I made jasmine pancakes. I added some more ginger, some cardamom and some jasmine essence (maybe 1/8 tsp) to the batter and they were lovely. Jasmine essence is a surprisingly tasty and ingredient in things like cupcakes and pancakes,but you have to use it sparingly.

Week in review 5-18 to 5-23-10

Tues - Dinner With a friend and art class at daniel day!
Wed - housecleaning. bleh. Although, the peanut butter and local honey sammich was almost worth coming home instead of gaming.
Thurs through Sunday - ATLANTA GAME FEST! I played so many games, got so little sleep, met so many nice people and had so much fun it's not even fathomable. I played about 21 games (some of them more than once), 13 or so of which were completely new to me. Played so many I couldn't possibly go into details without this being a 15 page post, but my personal favorites of the weekend were Havana, Cyclades, Golden City, Hansa Teutonica, and, of course, Catacombs and Space Alert.
Also, we got to play a couple of prototypes by the creator of Arkham Horror, AND he was so gracious as to sign the copy of Arkham horror that we bought this weekend.
Oh, and I didn't mention the Thai food. It was so good, we went there twice in one weekend! They even gave hubby complimentary ice cream when the food was so hot it burned his mouth.

week 5-11-2010 to 5-17-2010

Ummsss...
-I don't remember how the rest of last Tuesday went, so i guess it was fine.
-Wed was games at new york pizza again. We played lots of dominion alchemy and then decided we were exhausted and came home early
-Thursday um, I don't know. It was a busy week.
-Friday we rested briefly.
-Saturday we helped our friend Joe move and got free Baha Burger out of the deal.
-Sunday was ArtyParty (a fundraiser for the ASO I work at) ! Chris stayed home because he strained his back while moving. I went and did my best to help make sense of the chaos. It was great fun, there was birthday cake and sweet potato fries and even a chocolate fountain! and, oh, art. Including some art made by me! The art was awesome and there were sooo may people! We raised a lot of money.
-Today is monday and i missed a Dr's appt, worked, and played some SPACE ALERT (in a coffee shop with a blender going off periodically)

The week in review 5-2-10 to 5-11-10

Umm.. oh yes, Last monday was gaming at Joe muggs per usual. I played "for sale" and... something else i don't remember.

Tuesday was art class at Daniel Day Gallery

wherein I made a lovely, abstract painting.

Wed was Games at New York Pizza in Homewood. I had the park avenue pizza with extra gorgonzola (don't order that unless you really mean it) and we played chinatown and... something else.

Thursday was interesting but everyone who knows me is tired of hearing me whine about it :).

Friday we actually hung out at the house and I worked on a custom jewelry piece for someone.

Saturday and Sunday we spent with my parents and mother-in-law in huntsville and had a great time. We even squeezed in some gamingwith friends. We played catacombs, dixit and corsari.

Monday again was gaming at Joe muggs. I played agricola and catacombs again. Chrisbroke the shrink wrap on our copy of mystery express. I had a fantabulous caramel brownie.

It's tuesday morning and I have done laundry, played DDR with handweights andam about to finish getting ready for work. See you next week.

The week in review 4-25-10 to 5-2-10

The whole point of this blog is to keep family and friends up on what's going on with me.
so, I'll try to start posting these on a halfway regular basis.

The Week in review:
Sun-Tues I was sick and did nothing but whine about being sick and eat skinny cows to soothe my throat.

For the moment, I have quit pilates and dance (time and money have been issues lately), so I did not attend any movement classes and i was too sick to do more than about 5-10 mins of stretching at home every day.

Thurs was dining out for life, which benefited our sister agency, AIDs AL, but I forgot to go.

Friday, I led a "staff development day" for work at the Botanical Gardens. I brought my Husband and some of my other experienced gamer friends and acquaintances (Joe, tony and Sarah) in to help me teach the staff board games. We played Pandemic and then, after a great lunch provided by Mitch at Medtown, Tony from the Gamealogical Institute came in and led us in the GI Gaming Triathlon followed by a brief discussion of how the games we played relate to our lives at BAO. Feedback from all was very positive, everyone said they had a great time, and we gave away some great prizes including copies of scarabs and scorpions, "fickle finger of fate" spinners donated by Joe and these adorable notebooks from a talented artisan on etsy.

Friday night, I was cranky and stressed because I had spent the better part of the morning lost and because it was my beloved co-worker, Ashley's last day, so I went to the thrift store and bought some new jeans, a dress for arty party, and some other random things and felt much better.


Saturday, I spent crazy amounts of time, and silly amounts of money buying supplies to make rings and work on other jewelry projects. I visited Michael of Cosmic Folklore at his work bench at The Bead Biz in Helena and he showed me some progress on a project he has been working on. Saturday night, Chris and I played Dungeon Lords.

The plan for today is to go get lunch and then play ping pong at bumpernets.

That's all for today. See you next week maybe?

valentines

The fam knows not to expect much communication out of me on valentines, but I usually make a post about it somewhere after the fact.
So here's your post:
we went to lunch at bonefish grill in Hoover and then played ping pong. For dinner, Chris cooked steak and cheesy potatoes. We also had broccoli and cake.
Pretty simple this year. and fun :)

wine party 2010

Games!!!

This weekend, Chris and I went to Atlanta Game Fest and it was an absolute blast. I played 13+ games and really liked them all, but I wanted to highlight a few.

Best game played this weekend:
Vasco Da Gama All I can say is wow.

Most innovative concept:
Tales of the Arabian Nights It's like a choose your own adventure book in board game. The only problem is that it gets a little long after a while.

Prettiest:
GemBlo Yes, it's a knock-off of blockus, but it's more difficult and how can you possibly turn down a chance to play with shiny purple jewels?

Funniest:
Funny Friends This was a little more random than I like, but it truly is a funny concept and created a lot of table talk that made even me blush

Best Time Ever had by anyone:
Playing Space Alert at 2 am in the main convention room with a laptop being used for the audio. The noise from the other games made it even more chaotic because it was harder to hear, the combination of sleep deprivation and massive amounts of caffeine in 2 of the crew members made for some INTERESTING results, and we often had an audience. Oh, and giving new crew members a 15 minute crash course and throwing them into the game is quite possibly the most amazing thing ever.... They might royally screw up the first game, but the second play through, they always get it.