An Armada Of Armadillos

Interesting weekend here at Chez Cross. Grace and I spent Saturday down in the Bay Area at Kubla Con. I ran two TOON games as part of Dorkstock West (the John Kovalic/Dork Tower celebratory minicon within a con) and both went very well. I also played in a session of the Dork Tower board game with John & Judith Kovalic and Brian & Lori Ann Curley. Grace bought several things and I picked up 4 GURPS sourcebooks for only 20 bucks at the flea market. We got home about 2:00 AM Sunday and crashed.

Sunday morning, our new clothes dryer was delivered and SURPRISE, it would run but not heat up (which is why we GOT a new dryer, cos the old one stopped heating up). Turns out that our 220 volt outlet is not putting out the full 220. What does that mean? It means we now have to have an electrician come out and fix the problem this week…no doubt with a fee of a few hundred bucks. Once again, the simple solution to a problem is denied me.

Sunday afternoon was Gaming Day for us. The kingdom sim game is still going well as they expand into new lands and discover new things. I’m going to expand the number of players to include play by email players, so if any of you are interested, let me know.

Today, it’s work for me, but My Sweet Little Rainbow Bunting Of Passion has the day off, as does Roscoe the Wonder Dog. Lucky them.

Before I go, let me just say (as a veteran who is married to a veteran) THANK YOU to all of our servicemen and women who are serving now and have served in the past. And take a moment today to give thanks to all of those brave souls who died to keep us free.

I Said I Wouldn’t Break Your Heart. I Never Said I Wouldn’t Steamroller It Flat.

The weekend approacheth and I need to put the finishing touches on my KublaCon Dork TOON games tonight after work. For those of you that attend said con, Grace and I will arrive about 8:00-9:00 AM on Saturday and depart about midnight Saturday. Please feel free to stop by the games and say hello.

I’m thinking of starting an email version of my “Build/Expand A Kingdom” game. It would run right along with and be part of the home version that I run twice a month. It’s NOT a roleplaying game, but much more like a kingdom sim/RTS. You start out with a smallish area that has a burgeoning population and then it’s exploration/expansion time…until you meet another civilization, in which case it becomes trade/diplomacy time. Or wage bloody war time, as the case may be. Anyway, I’d probably take 4-6 email players and turns would be due twice a month. Email me at doccross@aol.com if you are interested.

Powered By Love And Caffiene

Saw “Shrek 2” tonight with My Sweet Little Curried Shrimp of Love. Very funny flick and Puss in Boots pretty much steals the show.

Stole this from iamnikchick…

LAST LONG CAR RIDE: Understanding that “long car ride” means “more than 3 hours long” to a Californian, I’d say the trip to GenCon SoCal in December
LAST KISS: Grace, the Queen of my heart
LAST GOOD CRY: I have no idea
LAST MOVIE SEEN: Shrek 2, not even an hour ago
LAST LIBRARY BOOK CHECKED OUT: Last time I checked out a library book was 1995. I think it was a book on dinosaurs
LAST BEVERAGE DRANK: Milk
LAST FOOD CONSUMED: Tacos
LAST CRUSH: The last crush I’ll EVER have, my sweet angel Grace
LAST PHONE CALL: To my mom
LAST TV SHOW WATCHED: X Play on Tech TV
LAST TIME SHOWERED: This morning
LAST SHOES WORN: Same as always, red Converse high top sneakers
LAST CD PLAYED: Full Moon Fever by Tom Petty
LAST ITEM BOUGHT: Birthday card for my mom
LAST ANNOYANCE: Turned on Fox News Channel by accident
LAST ICE CREAM EATEN: Phish Food
LAST TIME WANTING TO DIE: Never. Now, last time I wanted some other motherfucker to die…:)
LAST TIME SCOLDED: Last night…by Grace…for staying up way too late
LAST WEBSITE VISITED: GameSpy.Com

Put The Blame On VTR

As usual, alot less got done this weekend than we planned. On the other hand, we still managed to do a bunch of stuff. I even cooked up a few finger sized baby zuchinnis for dinner. Didn’t do as much in the garden as I would have liked, but did get things fertilized and tied beans and tomatos and cucumbers to their respective poles.

Cooked up a bunch of meals for us to heat and eat this week and next. Most nights, both Grace and I don’t feel up to cooking, so this will streamline things.

Printed up a bunch of labels for my new CDs, but I still have about 40 to go. I also did some work using Microsoft Streets & Trips to beging planning the routes that we’ll use going to and returning from GenCon in Indy this summer. The plan is to drive partway there via Interstate 50 across Nevada and Utah, then cut up to cross northern Colorado and then cut up to I-80 to Indy. Coming home it’s Route 66, baby! Well, as much of Route 66 as still can be found. THAT leg of the trip should take about 6 days or so.

Time for a snack before going off to read in bed with My Sweet Little Peach Faced Lovebird Of Cuteness. More blogging in the near future.

Roscoe T. Cross And The Case Of The Tasty Hamburger

…but then, they are all tasty to him

Ahhhhh, Saturday! My Sweet Little Grilled Shrimp Taco Of Love and I have pretty good sized lists of things to do today and tomorrow. Her list consists mostly of variations on “study for algebra final”, while mine has such exciting events as “pull up more poppies from garden”, “plant potatoes and peas” and the ever popular “make and print labels for the 50 new music CDs that my friend Sally burned for me”. Woohoo!

Our clothes dryer crapped out a few days ago, so we need to buy a new one. And this just about a week and a half after we got a new washer.

I’ll be cooking up lots of stuff to eat this weekend so that we can freeze dinner sized portions of stuff. Once we do that, getting dinner ready every night will be easier for the next week or two.

Off to do stuff…more bloggage later.

Slapped Hard By True Love

Oh yeah, time once more for this…

READING: The Dying Earth Roleplaying Game

WATCHING: Animal Face Off (Anaconda VS Jaguar)

DRINKING: Green Tea

EATING: Cream of Wheat

LISTENING: Acid Eaters by The Ramones

PLAYING: Runescape

CONTEMPLATING: Buying a digital camcorder

Hot Sex And Cheese Quesadillas

Ok, now THIS, http://www.mutablerealms.com/ looks like the kind of online multiplayer RPG that just might steal players away from tabletop roleplaying. I’m looking forward to checking it out later this year oor early in ’05.

EDIT FROM THE FUTURE (2014): Well, that was a bust. Mutable Realms folded in 2005.

Crouching Chicken, Hidden Wombat

Well, friends and neighbors, Grace and I finally bought a DVD player today. Yeah, I know we are behind the wave on this one, but owning a DVD player was not all that high a priority. I mean, we have DISH network, so movies are readily available. However, the fact that you can also play music CDs, coupled with us having a few spare bucks, was enough to swing us into buying it. I doubt we’ll end up owning many DVDs, but I reckon we’ll rent them on a fairly regular basis. Starting, no doubt, with the first two Harry Potter movies so we can watch them before going to see “Prisoner of Azkaban”.

Burned By The Rays Of A Sunny Disposition

Update on Sunday: Grace put off her Mothers Day dinner until this Friday, cos we were both tired.

Health update: The methotrexate is still whipping the ass of my psoriasis AND it ain’t killing me yet. Unfortunately, the fact that I can’t have alcohol while on this drug means that I’m craving beer like crazy.

Political Update: Conservative Republicans are still Evil, Moderate Republicans are still misguided, Democrats are still semispineless, Far Left Democrats are still mostly detached from harsh reality, Independents still want the best of both worlds but nobody gives a fuck.

Garden Update: The veggies are getting ready to take off like a ruptured duck. Lilies are starting to bloom, sunflowers are a mile high and in bloom, Asters, daylilies and all the daisies are popping out all over. The butterfly bush is already 3 feet tall and in bloom. My blue festuca grass clumps are, for the first time, flowering like crazy. And I STILL haven’t gotten my potatos planted.

Dog Update: Roscoe is still healthy, still spoiled and still convinced that he is just a short human in a fur coat.

Swabajukama

Oh yeah…the title of the post below this one is taken from the fact that I bought a young coconut from a guy selling them ready to drink from. The meat of the coconut, when it is a young one, is very puddinglike and very easy to scrape off the shell. (which I did, with my straw) The Hawaiians call it “spoon meat”. I call it “coconut snot” due to the texture. Grace declined to sample any:)

A Great Day For Coconut Snot

Well, my little porkchops, let’s see what Uncle Doc did today.

I got up early and drove up to my moms house. She gave me some plants and a couple of pieces of garden equipment. I gave her a Mothers Day card and twenty bucks. (because I no longer give actual gifts to family members) We chatted awile and then she also gave me the old reel to reel tape recorder that she bought for my father way back in the mid 1960s. It hasn’t been used in at least 30 years and still has that bigass reel of tape on it. My assignment from her is to attempt to transfer what is on the tape onto CD format. Hopefully, the tape has not degraded over the last 40 years of being in closets, garages, etc.

After I got back home, Grace and I drove out to Davis to that wonderful organic hippyfest known as the Whole Earth Festival. We wandered around looking at the arts, crafts, alternative energy exhibits, food and clothing stalls, political/social issue booths and listened to all kinds of music. I bought two tie dyed bandanas, Grace bought a stainless steel water bottle and we bought some organic veggie dog biscuits for Roscoe. He liked them alot.

After returning from the WEF, Grace took a nap while I planted the plants I got from mom. I also pulled up a shitload more of the poppies and generally tidied up some of the garden.

By the time my gardening was done, I was pretty beat. Still, I summoned enough energy to go grocery shopping. Once that was over, it was recliner time for me. Grace and I decided to go see Van Helsing on Thursday, when only a few other people would be at the theatre.

And that’s it. Tomorrow, another thrilling chapter in “Doc & Grace Meet The Weekend”:)

Put De Lime In De Coconut

Holy Hamsters, what a busy weekend lies ahead for the Good Doctor and his Sweet Little Red Winged Blackbird Of Love!

Starting tonight, we are off to buy a new washing machine to replace the one that died this week. Then, tomorrow, we have…

The Whole Earth Festival at the U.C. Davis campus

A trip to my moms house to take her her Mothers Day gift and to get some plants she is giving me.

Grocery shopping

Planting the above mentioned plants

Going to see “Van Helsing”

Then on Sunday, it’s…

More gardening/housecleaning

Gaming Day (after a few weeks of not being able to get together)

Take Grace out for Mothers Day dinner and gift buying

Summer trip planning

WHEW!!!!!

Crazy Talk In The Wild Moonlight

A personal opinion: I CAN HARDLY WAIT FOR THE FINAL FUCKING EPISODE OF “FRIENDS” TO BE OVER AND DONE WITH!!! Jesus H Christ on a bagel, this nonstop fucking hype about the end of a lameass sitcom that was never good enough to stand in the shadow of, oh, let’s say “MASH” or “CHEERS”, is just bullshit. And that goes for fucking “Frasier”, too.

Robot Sex

Well shit, our washing machine died last night. Not a really big surprise (it had been coughing up blood for a year), but a pain in the ass anyway. I guess my Sweet Little Chili Crab With Rice Of Love and I will have to go washer shopping this week.

Watched the first half of a hilariously bad made for TV miniseries/disaster flick called “10.5” last night. Supposed to be about a bunk of earthquakes hitting the West Coast and culminating in the splitting of California from the continent.

By the way, you non West Coasters, a 10.5 quake is impossible. So is California splitting up the middle and/or falling into the sea. Sorry to disappoint you:)

It Wasn’t Just The Hot Babes, It Was The Dancing Pig Too!

WHEW!!!! Taking a break from the 90 degree heat and…

staking tomatos, beans, zuchinni and cucumbers
pulling weeds
replanting small garlic plants
harvesting and laying out large garlic bulbs to cure
cutting French tarragon and setting it up to dry
watering it all! (Soaker hoses GOOD, sprinklers BAD)
laying out more mulch
mixing compost into crappy soil prior to planting stuff

More High Adventures in Gardening later!

Gimme A Hot Woman And A Cold Beer

Today wasn’t quite as busy as I had figured it would be. Bought a bale of straw to use in mulching the veggies bed, then didn’t actually mulch until 3:00 PM. Grace and I took Roscoe to Launderdog and now he’s a sweet smelling dude. Didn’t go bike shopping cos I was tired from being up all night with stomach cramps, which hit me about every 3-4 months. Anyway, tomorrow should be busier.

News Flash: Alton Brown has new one hour Good Eats special on Food Network tomorrow night. Subject: Salt. Title: Eat This Rock.