Yet Another Weekend Report
In spite of waiting around all day Sunday, no maintenance repair guy for my dish washer yet. Hopefully they aren't barging in today, or any other day this week, because I tried to call to change to a Friday appointment (so I could be there), and the guy who answered didn't sound like he really knew what he was doing :( I don't like unknowns in my home, and I'd really like to not have any more surprises waiting for me at home -_-
On the crazy dreams front, Friday night I dreamed that I went to the doctor and they told my earache was not, as a matter of fact, an ear infection, but was some really rare and incurable disease. The "good" news was that it wasn't terminal, but they told me I'd have "continuing side effects" from being infected. The ache spread to my jaw and then, while I'm talking to someone (possibly Kerry), one of my teeth falls out. I mean, just falls out. I'm horrified and look in the mirror to try to sort out what's wrong and my gums have turned a frightening dark purple around my teeth and the hole left by the tooth is bleeding... and more teeth just start falling out. The person I was speaking with went and got ice to put my teeth on as we figured (after some difficult discussion because I was missing teeth and the rest were busy falling out) maybe my dentist could reattach them--that's kind of why I think maybe I was talking to Kerry, because she's one of the few people I could imagine being that rational in the face of such a bizarre and scary occurrence. Turns out this is one of the "side effects" and they can't be re-attached, nor can I be fitted with dentures because of what is happening to my gums. My nails all fall out and my eyes start looking like Zimmy's (of Gunnerkrigg Court), except you can still see my irises (purple?!), and I'm basically starting to really freak myself out when I look in the mirror. At some point I make a joke about having a really killer zombie costume... some time before my voice cuts out to an unintelligible, gravelly shriek. Light starts to hurt my eyes and I end up cloistered in the dark with my puffy, nail-less zombie fingers and the last thing I'm doing before I wake up is I'm playing some kind of stone game like Mancala (which I do not know how to play) with my lost teeth :( Needless to say, I'm not sleeping so well.
I also have to wonder if I am perhaps doing things to myself in my sleep. Randomly, on Sunday when I woke up, my butt hurt. A lot. As in, it is still quite sore. At first it felt like a muscle pain (from what exertion, I do not know), and I tried stretching and such, and that fixed my calves (also achey), but not my butt. A butt is a hard thing to stretch, it should go without saying. At the moment, I think maybe it feels more like I fell hard on my butt with nothing to break my fall, except my tailbone feels fine. It's another disturbing mystery, I suppose.
Got the stupid lease renewed (finally) on Saturday, even though it meant I could not go on the Tahoe hike with Val and the MiKerry entity and the subsequent Shakespeare performances :( The (abridged) complete works of Shakespeare! D: And I couldn't go because of my dumb lease, which needed to be signed by Saturday T_T
But I got a few things done on Saturday to compensate for my inability to do anything while waiting for the Repair Man Who Never Comes (tm). I hit up a new craft/sewing/knitting shop in the area, which I'd been introduced to through Groupon and bought a knitting book I'd been trying to sort out a way to get my hands on as well as a really REALLY cute mini-pattern for a pear-shaped pincushion that I couldn't put down (so cute it almost hurts, and it definitely wounded the wallet since it may be the most expensive pattern I've ever bought at like $13). I want to scale the pattern down, though, before I try making myself a pear pincushion, and I should try and hunt down any of my yellow polka dot scraps from making my Mom's Mother's Day apron. I think there's a scale function on the copiers at work, so I may try using that to scale the pattern pieces consistently (maybe reduce to 75% of original? The pear is really BIG for a pincushion).
Also stopped by a comic book shop I had a Groupon for and after much deliberation (and the staff asking me a couple of times if I needed help), I decided I'd pick up the first three volumes of Fable to see if I'd like it. Kerry!Mike has been introducing me a bit to American (ie. non-manga) comics lately, so I kind of want to explore that, but it's daunting o_0 How to know what is good? What I will like? I made the choice on Fable based on my liking of both mythology and fairy tales, which I believe is part of what made me love Hellboy (borrowed from Mike), even if I'm not super keen on the art style (although I can't and would not deny that said art is very well executed). I had actually been hoping to pick up something Batman. Mike gave me Batman: Year One at some Christmas, and I'd liked it as well as Batman: Hush, which he'd lent me some time ago as well. The problem with this, however, is there are loads of Batman comics out there, and I have no idea what would be good for me :/ (Probably should have consulted Mike before going, since I seem to like what he's lent me thus far.) So, Fable it is for now, and hopefully I will like it.
I also managed to put some work in on the tomatoes--the marigolds are now planted in with them, although because I never did plant the basil seeds I was hoping to put in one planter, I regretted not buying a second box of marigolds :/ The stakes are in as well, which will hopefully help support them and maybe encourage them to grow upwards rather than outwards? I must have the most squat tomato plants in existence, especially since this breed is supposed to be an indeterminate vine! :( By now, I would have thought I'd be worried about them getting too long...
Finally, here's to hoping I'll be able to cook up reasonable maps for what I have in my head for my old Dungeons & Dragons world (pardon the awful site & art... also, my website and art skills have not improved). At first, I thought I'd want a realistic map, but there's something about the charm of the hand-drawn fantasy map that appeals to me and, even if it means drawing the same map a couple of times to get the maps I want (geological feature map, country/city map, and maybe a resource map), I think in the end that is what will satisfy me the most. I think I need to put a desert in somewhere and perhaps some jungles, because I have a lot of forests/woods so far and a couple of lakes... and that's about it. The plan is to get all my ideas down somewhere so they're not floating loosely in my head, because if I can, it would be lovely to maybe corral the MiKerry entity and Max into a game. I've never DM'd before, really, and have barely played, so this could be a bit difficult for me to do, but all the same I would rather to make the attempt than not. I have a Player's Handbook (v3.5), a Dungeon Master's Guide (v3.0, I think), a Monster Manual (v3.0?), and a Forgotten Realms book, the latter three being bequeathed to me by Andrew who still has my goddamn original dice. I've skimmed all of them so far, and there is some advice, but I guess I like advice from real people better. (Also, I am sorely tempted to put a Skullcrusher Mountain on my map, but that might be a little too much.)
Thus, let it be known that I am looking for D&D Dungeon Mastery tips (because I know some of my fList has played or plays now, and I'm hoping you'll notice this proclamation). If you've DM'd, what has and hasn't worked? For players, what's worked well that your DMs have done? What's been absolutely awful? Etc., etc., etc. (a la The King and I)?
On the crazy dreams front, Friday night I dreamed that I went to the doctor and they told my earache was not, as a matter of fact, an ear infection, but was some really rare and incurable disease. The "good" news was that it wasn't terminal, but they told me I'd have "continuing side effects" from being infected. The ache spread to my jaw and then, while I'm talking to someone (possibly Kerry), one of my teeth falls out. I mean, just falls out. I'm horrified and look in the mirror to try to sort out what's wrong and my gums have turned a frightening dark purple around my teeth and the hole left by the tooth is bleeding... and more teeth just start falling out. The person I was speaking with went and got ice to put my teeth on as we figured (after some difficult discussion because I was missing teeth and the rest were busy falling out) maybe my dentist could reattach them--that's kind of why I think maybe I was talking to Kerry, because she's one of the few people I could imagine being that rational in the face of such a bizarre and scary occurrence. Turns out this is one of the "side effects" and they can't be re-attached, nor can I be fitted with dentures because of what is happening to my gums. My nails all fall out and my eyes start looking like Zimmy's (of Gunnerkrigg Court), except you can still see my irises (purple?!), and I'm basically starting to really freak myself out when I look in the mirror. At some point I make a joke about having a really killer zombie costume... some time before my voice cuts out to an unintelligible, gravelly shriek. Light starts to hurt my eyes and I end up cloistered in the dark with my puffy, nail-less zombie fingers and the last thing I'm doing before I wake up is I'm playing some kind of stone game like Mancala (which I do not know how to play) with my lost teeth :( Needless to say, I'm not sleeping so well.
I also have to wonder if I am perhaps doing things to myself in my sleep. Randomly, on Sunday when I woke up, my butt hurt. A lot. As in, it is still quite sore. At first it felt like a muscle pain (from what exertion, I do not know), and I tried stretching and such, and that fixed my calves (also achey), but not my butt. A butt is a hard thing to stretch, it should go without saying. At the moment, I think maybe it feels more like I fell hard on my butt with nothing to break my fall, except my tailbone feels fine. It's another disturbing mystery, I suppose.
Got the stupid lease renewed (finally) on Saturday, even though it meant I could not go on the Tahoe hike with Val and the MiKerry entity and the subsequent Shakespeare performances :( The (abridged) complete works of Shakespeare! D: And I couldn't go because of my dumb lease, which needed to be signed by Saturday T_T
But I got a few things done on Saturday to compensate for my inability to do anything while waiting for the Repair Man Who Never Comes (tm). I hit up a new craft/sewing/knitting shop in the area, which I'd been introduced to through Groupon and bought a knitting book I'd been trying to sort out a way to get my hands on as well as a really REALLY cute mini-pattern for a pear-shaped pincushion that I couldn't put down (so cute it almost hurts, and it definitely wounded the wallet since it may be the most expensive pattern I've ever bought at like $13). I want to scale the pattern down, though, before I try making myself a pear pincushion, and I should try and hunt down any of my yellow polka dot scraps from making my Mom's Mother's Day apron. I think there's a scale function on the copiers at work, so I may try using that to scale the pattern pieces consistently (maybe reduce to 75% of original? The pear is really BIG for a pincushion).
Also stopped by a comic book shop I had a Groupon for and after much deliberation (and the staff asking me a couple of times if I needed help), I decided I'd pick up the first three volumes of Fable to see if I'd like it. Kerry!Mike has been introducing me a bit to American (ie. non-manga) comics lately, so I kind of want to explore that, but it's daunting o_0 How to know what is good? What I will like? I made the choice on Fable based on my liking of both mythology and fairy tales, which I believe is part of what made me love Hellboy (borrowed from Mike), even if I'm not super keen on the art style (although I can't and would not deny that said art is very well executed). I had actually been hoping to pick up something Batman. Mike gave me Batman: Year One at some Christmas, and I'd liked it as well as Batman: Hush, which he'd lent me some time ago as well. The problem with this, however, is there are loads of Batman comics out there, and I have no idea what would be good for me :/ (Probably should have consulted Mike before going, since I seem to like what he's lent me thus far.) So, Fable it is for now, and hopefully I will like it.
I also managed to put some work in on the tomatoes--the marigolds are now planted in with them, although because I never did plant the basil seeds I was hoping to put in one planter, I regretted not buying a second box of marigolds :/ The stakes are in as well, which will hopefully help support them and maybe encourage them to grow upwards rather than outwards? I must have the most squat tomato plants in existence, especially since this breed is supposed to be an indeterminate vine! :( By now, I would have thought I'd be worried about them getting too long...
Finally, here's to hoping I'll be able to cook up reasonable maps for what I have in my head for my old Dungeons & Dragons world (pardon the awful site & art... also, my website and art skills have not improved). At first, I thought I'd want a realistic map, but there's something about the charm of the hand-drawn fantasy map that appeals to me and, even if it means drawing the same map a couple of times to get the maps I want (geological feature map, country/city map, and maybe a resource map), I think in the end that is what will satisfy me the most. I think I need to put a desert in somewhere and perhaps some jungles, because I have a lot of forests/woods so far and a couple of lakes... and that's about it. The plan is to get all my ideas down somewhere so they're not floating loosely in my head, because if I can, it would be lovely to maybe corral the MiKerry entity and Max into a game. I've never DM'd before, really, and have barely played, so this could be a bit difficult for me to do, but all the same I would rather to make the attempt than not. I have a Player's Handbook (v3.5), a Dungeon Master's Guide (v3.0, I think), a Monster Manual (v3.0?), and a Forgotten Realms book, the latter three being bequeathed to me by Andrew who still has my goddamn original dice. I've skimmed all of them so far, and there is some advice, but I guess I like advice from real people better. (Also, I am sorely tempted to put a Skullcrusher Mountain on my map, but that might be a little too much.)
Thus, let it be known that I am looking for D&D Dungeon Mastery tips (because I know some of my fList has played or plays now, and I'm hoping you'll notice this proclamation). If you've DM'd, what has and hasn't worked? For players, what's worked well that your DMs have done? What's been absolutely awful? Etc., etc., etc. (a la The King and I)?