Better late than dead in a ditch.

Emma and Gavin had Katie, Linda and I over for dinner. Next Week For Sure lost netball to the basketballers, again (however the referee was better than usual). Emma, Gavin and I set out to go rock climbing but ended up eating pancakes. Carlos, Emma, Gavin, James, Katie, Scarecrow and I went to CanCon where we met Dave, Drew and Simon; many people spent much money before most of us went on to Dickson Asian Noodle House for lunch and O’Niells for drinks; later Linda joined Katie, Simon and I at Dave and Fiona’s to watch Martian Successor Nadesico and Ghost in the Shell: Innocence. Emma and I had breakfast at Dobinson’s, saw Somersault at Electric Shadows, and had dinner at Kingsland Vegetarian Restaurant. Ian, James, Simon and I joined Katie (for her first) and Emma (for her last) installment of Dave’s Dungeons and Dragons game which also saw the introduction of my poorly rolled and incompletely equipped replacement for the late Dexy Footfall: Sparky the Half-Orc Cleric of Saint Ruthergrade. Emma and I drove to the coast to visit Mystery Bay (we still don’t know why it is called Mystery Bay, but there were some pesky kids loitering about) and stayed overnight at Bateman’s Bay, which was nice. Australia Day was celebrated at Dave and Fiona’s with Brenda, Cath, Emma, Gavin, Hector, Ian, James, Katie, Linda, Simon and Suzie watching cricket while listening to the JJJ Hottest 100 countdown and later making karaoke.

Uncomfortably numb.

This morning Emma moved to Bulahdelah.
  ¶ 13:26 1 comments

  Your tax dollars at work, rest and play.

Last Wednesday Emma and I went out for dinner (Vietnamese: vegetarian bird’s nest; roast duck and rice) and a movie (Ocean’s 12), which was nice.

I was sleepy on Thursday morning until Statler and Waldorf tried to veto the audience participation sketch. Their reason was the stage curtain had to be manually operated; even though the curtain isn’t involved in the sketch any more than it is involved in numbering the dressing rooms or selling tickets. They posted their unilateral cancellation notice, worded to imply an audience was no longer required for the show, in the foyer and went to lunch. That was an exciting few hours. Also, the mystery of how the money for the unwritten spring season could be spent already has been solved: it wasn’t spent on the spring season.

Next Week For Sure won a game of volleyball, but it was a close thing. Up eighteen to six after one quarter our opponents came back and we lost the second quarter five to eighteen, so we were one point down at half time. Then we rallied in the third quarter (a new tactic for us) scoring eighteen to seven and managed to hold on in the last quarter to win by forty-eight to forty-five. Simon played for the first time, and Emma and Fiona each had a three point run on their service. Go team! Also, Katie came along to cheer, she will be back next week to play netball.

Heroclix on Friday saw Trudi catch up after missing last week’s game courtesy of an early start on the second leg of The Great Race and clever use of the extra time to set a trap for those who followed. James and I tried to maintain our lead but with Jeremy and Little Simon repeatedly moving their characters into range of Trudi’s mind controllers it was just a bloody shambles.

On Saturday I ran my Dungeons and Dragons game with veterans Dave, Gavin and James and new bloods Drew, Emma and Katie. It took all morning to generate the new players’ characters and assemble the party, possibly because they all had negative modifiers on their charisma (possibly not). Anyway, they made it to the code puzzle shortly after six which was a good place to stop because now everyone has three weeks to decode it.

Emma, Katie and I spent most of Sunday at my mum’s. Jon cancelled the Sunday game so I could stay all day and it rained a little so no gardening was done, which was nice. Sunday night watching Lost slid in to Monday watching Firefly (I had a flex day) and on Monday night we played Ticket to Ride and Yahtzee instead of Dave’s Dungeons and Dragons game. What an extra splendid long weekend that was.

Emma and I saw Kinsey yesterday evening. Now I am at work but I want to go to sleep.

Ishikawa Kaito
  ¶ 07:46 0 comments

  What I did. Me, me, me.

I saw I Heart Huckabee’s with Emma. We stayed up late, some people might say "too late" but what do they know? Emma is way cool.

I played Heroclix with Greg, James, Jeremy and Little Simon; this month’s theme is The Great Race. James’s "Sexy Girls with Sexy Guns" and my "Perplexplosion" (three Judges Fire, three Judges Fear, and two Rasputins) allied to win the first leg in New York. We were behind for much of the game but the tide turned when Greg’s tyrannosaurus was arrested for trespassing in Central Park.

I went to the Roleplayers’ Meetup with Emma and Katie where we met Alex, Carlos, Dave 2, Dave 3, Drew, Gavin, James, Martin and Travis at the Pancake Parlour. Emma handed over the position of organizer to Martin (who is just a figurehead for James). Everyone talked about why which games were running when and how who was playing what. Then we played Emma’s Dice Game and ate pancakes. Later, Emma, Gavin, Katie and I failed to watch Princess Mononoke with Alex and Carlos at Drew’s.

I played Jon’s Tunnels & Trolls game with Greg, Matt and Little Simon. We were sent to pay off five collaborators for the Duke. Little Simon’s character, Spiderlad, killed the first one. Fortunately there were copies of him around so we could contract his services anyway. Now we don’t know how to get out of the dungeon they were trapped in.

I played Dave’s Dungeons and Dragons game with Alastair, Emma, Ian, James and Simon. It was Alastair’s last game before he leaves for Adelaide so you might think Dave would kill off his thieving little rogue character. Instead, Ian’s barbarian sorcerer was cut in two; my halfling monk died piledriving a lich off a third floor mezzanine; and Emma’s fire-toting palladin was ironized by a cone of cold.

I went to "Pagans in the Pub" with Emma and Katie where we met Balen, Bob, Brooke, Holly, Ian, Lizzy, Sarah, Tammy and Travis. Then we went to Goodberry’s for dessert. Then we went to the National Museum of Australia, but it was closed. Then we went home.
  ¶ 08:10 2 comments

  Meanwhile, in 2005...

I wasn’t in transit at midnight on New Year’s Eve this year, but a lot of people were asleep. This year I resolve to write a book (not what you may think), make a space in the garage for creative work, and have a computer at home connected to the internet.

Meanwhile, at the dance...

Next week The Muppet Show will be selling tickets for the new season which hasn’t been written yet. There are a bunch of scripts from last season with notes scribbled in the margins but nobody is claiming responsibility for them. Despite this lack of substance the money for the whole thing has apparently been spent already.
  ¶ 09:01 0 comments