Food, exercise, and crack.
This week marked the acceptance of a new food by the Bunker. Gnocchi has apparently found fans in all of the people living here, including the more hard-to-please individuals. The first night we made it with some leftover red sauce and meatballs, as well as some garlic-butter sauce. It was so filling, and so popular, that we are considering taking it where gnocchi has never gone before. Specifically, gnocchi curry. Stock out a big chicken, freeze the stock, using a little bit of it to make a curry, add the chicken meat, and the gnocchi for something filling and cheap.
For Kat's birthday on Tuesday, we made ricotta, parmesan, and spinach-filled ravioli in a sage-butter sauce, some breadsticks, and lots of cake. The sage-butter sauce turned out pretty good with a little bit of tweaking. 1/2 stick butter, 1/4 of a minced shallot, a teaspoon or two of lemon juice, and a chiffonade of sage. Added in that order, then slide in the boiled ravioli, let them simmer in sauce for a few seconds, then plate up and grate on the parmesan. It worked out quite well.
I'm falling behind on my exercise. I've used up all 3 of my rest days in a row getting projects done and a test studied for. That means at least 3 days of straight lifting, because I have two left this week, and no desire to use up a rest day at the beginning of the next one. Thankfully, I should have plenty of recovery time.
On the subject of working out, I am glad to report that Kat has noted a decrease in the size and "squishiness" of the "pasta pillow" aka, my gut. I've also noted that my arms have become noticably larger, even since last week. I will declare a minor victory when the worn spot on my belt becomes visable to all when I am wearing it, but current indications are good.
In other news, DaveClone, SteveClone, and Steve Horn are now playing Planetside. DaveClone has a subscription. I believe that the Steves are currently playing on limited trial subscriptions. I am somewhat opposed to subscription games. This is for two reasons. Firstly, most of them are MMORPGs. This stands for massively-multiplayer-online-role-playing-games. MMORPGs generally put you in a large fantasy world where you kill rats for a while before levelling. MMORPGs are basically a license to print money. They are socially addictive, and with their player level and item-based status, can become rather competitive. This leads to addiction, which is why you find groups like Everquest Widows online.
The second reason, and the one that actually applies to Planetside (as it is not an RPG, all equipment is available to anyone, and levels are not determiners of might), is that I object to paying monthly for a game. I'm busy more often than not. There are weeks and sometimes more than a month that go by, when I don't play a game. It seems wrong to be paying for a game that I'm not playing during that time.
So, that's the question. To play the subscription game or not? Hmmmmm...
At the same time however, Planetside costs 13$ a month. About the same as going out to eat twice (which I don't do as often as I used to), or as much as a 40$ game 4 times a year. If I play Planetside, this is actually rather economical gameplay.