Nobody died, so I'd say it was a successful weekend
This weekend had quite a lot of awesome, and several awful hours of sick. Friday was astridsdream's birthday, and she wanted to go contra dancing, so doctorconquest found us a local dance and off we went. Well, the three of us went. Everyone else in our gaming group is apparently deathly terrified of the very idea of dancing. I find it vastly amusing that a group of professional geeks is so freaked out by the possibility of looking a little silly while dancing. I had enormous amounts of fun, and never lacked for a partner. I felt like I was hopelessly lost most of the time, but several people expressed surprise that it was my first time contra dancing (seriously, Hobbit Country Dancing at Norwescon doesn't count), so I must have been doing something right. Some of my partners were better than others, and only one was a little creepy. Most of the crowd was either under thirty, or old enough to have been doing this since it was what one did on a Friday night. Contra dancing is a way better mixer than modern dances, because you end up dancing with nearly everyone in the room at some point in the evening. I remembered to bring a staff this time, and by the end of the evening had figured out how to best use it. It actually makes the most sense to keep it in my right hand and work around it than to try to switch hands every time I would normally take my partner's hand with my right, because almost all of the moves in which my staff would get in the way if it were in the wrong hand are left-hand moves. I need to make sure to put a cane tip on the end before next time, because I did almost fall and die a couple times. I also discovered that wrapping a ribbon around my foot and ankle works really well to keep my cute little tweed flats from falling off my feet.
Saturday was the birthday party. I ended up making the non-alcoholic punch with lemonade, pomegranate juice, and ginger ale. It was pretty good. The sangria went untouched, and the cosmos were a wee bit stronger than people were expecting, but went over very well. There was some Rock Band, and Alexis is crazy good at drums. And yes, it is totally showing off for me to put Boston's More Than a Feeling into a set list, but I feel entirely justified in doing so. There are some high notes that go on forever, and I can both hit them and hold them. Fortunately, everyone else loves that song and no one objects to me singing it. Quite a few people made it to the party, including astridsdream's parents and younger sister and brother. astridsdream's dad even joined in the rock, which was awesome. Nik grilled some chicken and veggies, which made everyone happy, and I heard he was briefly on fire. We sang happy birthday and had birthday brownies.
Then Nik pulled out the Vodka Trick. He loves telling the story of how he went to St. Petersburg, Vlad ditched him for two days, and then taught him to drink vodka as the Russians do. Exhale completely, throw the shot down your throat, then chase it immediately with fizzy water. This makes the vodka go down more smoothly, and delays you getting drunk from it by preventing any absorption of the alcohol through the soft oral tissues. This is when things started to go downhill. See, astridsdream is a tiny person. My height, and I outweigh her by a good 25 pounds. She also rarely drinks more than a single glass of wine, which she doesn't always finish. She had already had two cosmopolitans before the Vodka Trick. About ten minutes after the Vodka Trick, she was throwing up into my big blue stoneware bowl. So doctorconquest and I spent the next hour or so comforting her, emptying the bowl, and trying to get her to take the Pepto-Bismal I brought her. She eventually fell asleep on my couch. Meanwhile, Nik was discovering the dangers of getting involved in a trash-talk battle with amandathegreat, astridsdream's little sister. Somehow, the two of them got into a drinking contest, which she details here. It ended poorly for Nik. amandathegreat drank him under the table, and considered her sister avenged.
Sunday was mostly recovery. I was a little woogy in the morning, between having had a bit more booze than is my custom and only having gotten a few hours of sleep, but astridsdream and Nik were still wishing they were dead for most of the morning. Sunday evening, we went over to Andrea's for her daughter's first RPG (she's five). She designed a fantastic, kid-friendly, think-on-your-feet sort of game. So much fun.
After the game was BSG. Holy frak. That gets its own entry later.
Saturday was the birthday party. I ended up making the non-alcoholic punch with lemonade, pomegranate juice, and ginger ale. It was pretty good. The sangria went untouched, and the cosmos were a wee bit stronger than people were expecting, but went over very well. There was some Rock Band, and Alexis is crazy good at drums. And yes, it is totally showing off for me to put Boston's More Than a Feeling into a set list, but I feel entirely justified in doing so. There are some high notes that go on forever, and I can both hit them and hold them. Fortunately, everyone else loves that song and no one objects to me singing it. Quite a few people made it to the party, including astridsdream's parents and younger sister and brother. astridsdream's dad even joined in the rock, which was awesome. Nik grilled some chicken and veggies, which made everyone happy, and I heard he was briefly on fire. We sang happy birthday and had birthday brownies.
Then Nik pulled out the Vodka Trick. He loves telling the story of how he went to St. Petersburg, Vlad ditched him for two days, and then taught him to drink vodka as the Russians do. Exhale completely, throw the shot down your throat, then chase it immediately with fizzy water. This makes the vodka go down more smoothly, and delays you getting drunk from it by preventing any absorption of the alcohol through the soft oral tissues. This is when things started to go downhill. See, astridsdream is a tiny person. My height, and I outweigh her by a good 25 pounds. She also rarely drinks more than a single glass of wine, which she doesn't always finish. She had already had two cosmopolitans before the Vodka Trick. About ten minutes after the Vodka Trick, she was throwing up into my big blue stoneware bowl. So doctorconquest and I spent the next hour or so comforting her, emptying the bowl, and trying to get her to take the Pepto-Bismal I brought her. She eventually fell asleep on my couch. Meanwhile, Nik was discovering the dangers of getting involved in a trash-talk battle with amandathegreat, astridsdream's little sister. Somehow, the two of them got into a drinking contest, which she details here. It ended poorly for Nik. amandathegreat drank him under the table, and considered her sister avenged.
Sunday was mostly recovery. I was a little woogy in the morning, between having had a bit more booze than is my custom and only having gotten a few hours of sleep, but astridsdream and Nik were still wishing they were dead for most of the morning. Sunday evening, we went over to Andrea's for her daughter's first RPG (she's five). She designed a fantastic, kid-friendly, think-on-your-feet sort of game. So much fun.
After the game was BSG. Holy frak. That gets its own entry later.