Gonzai Gallery

At least, off from the internet, for the most part. I had today off of work (Happy Rosh Hashanah, as applicable) so I took Mom to a Senior Day Center to see what she thought. We were greeted by a dog named Buttercup. I consider that a good sign. Mom thinks it's too expensive, but my brother doesn't, so I'll let him convince her she can afford it. Then lunch at a new sandwich shop, Potbelly's. I think it's a chain. Decent sandwich though, and Mom was happy with hers.

Rest of the day was TV and computer games, as I caught up with nearly everything on the DVR and finally watched last year's 'Whitechapel'. I put that off because series 2 did nothing for me; turns out series 3 was much, much better. I'm taking '2001: A Space Odyssey' a chunk at a time, because I've tried and failed to watch it a few times already. I liked the 'trio' episode of Leverage much more than the rest of this season, and Mom actually liked it, first time in years she's liked the show. Maybe we have our new direction - just let Elliott, Hardison and Parker be the show. Fine with me. I enjoyed Doctor Who, esp. the conversations with the horse. Big surprise, right? We also watched Bill Maher, who I think properly summed up recent events thusly: "Some crazy Christians pretending to be crazy Jews riled up a bunch of crazy Muslims, so Mitt Romney could prove Mormons are even crazier."

Sunday, I was a party host. Can't remember the last time I tried that. But 4 of my gaming friends came over for the 'game', that being Ravens/Eagles, of course. We had an Eagles fan. I seated him near the door and we took turns reminding him we could easily toss him out of it. But he had the last laugh, dammit. But we had a grand time other than the final score, and a couple people stayed after and we played board games until late. I had to let CJ out eventually, but she was nice to the strangers! Total relief, that. The whole thing must have gone well, because the last folks out said we should do this again. My back isn't so sure about that, I'm a hurting pup today (presumably from moving around the furniture) but otherwise, yeah, gamers at the game, why not?

Except for a couple short errands with Mom and Roxie, both of whom needed out of the house, I'm staying put today. Too stiff from driving/sitting yesterday, plus I've had enough sun for the week. Just playing with the computer and watching movies (Inception is making more sense this time) and probably go to bed as soon as it's dark.

After an episode with taking things to the neighborhood dumpster day (like Mom changing her mind every couple days on whether we should dump anything and one item leaking black fluid all over the back seat of my car), I spent the rest of the day at a gaming birthday party. 50+ people in a house not meant for nearly that many people, plus multiple people with social skills issues. The main one being the 10 year old boy, whom I'd never met before, who greeted me at the door by grabbing my boobs. His mother seemed uninterested. Apparently he's autistic on some level, but really, that's not something the parents should be letting the kid do. Then I got into a Ticket to Ride team game with two people who claimed they played TTR and loved it. Turns out they've never played it before, AT ALL, which is not a good thing when playing the team game. A 3 hour game later...fortunately the gaming day improved after that, I got into a few games outside on the deck with people I like to play with. And now I'm home...

...and it's time I got cracking on prepping for tomorrow's entertainment. A charity softball game. The Ravens' offense vs the Ravens' defense. The weather is predicted to be pleasant (although it'll be better if I can find the darn sunblock) and the few comments I found online about previous softball games seem to indicate they're both fun and productive in the getting autographs category. Hopefully Mom can finally meet her beloved Ray Rice and get her jersey signed. Off to find that sunblock...

Just home from Game Days, which I left early because I went to the GCOM meeting that ran more than twice as long as they expected, plus I was in the world's most uncomfortable seat. My back is killing me now. Matches my knees, after I walked across a major road during rush hour to pick up my dinner. Hey, if I can see the place, I see no point in driving to it. Besides dinner, I picked up a couple goodies for myself (a GCOM t-shirt and 'Struggle for Catan'), a huge pile of games for the nephews to be divided between birthdays and Christmas, and I started the day by taking CJ to the vet, which surely wasn't cheap. So I blew bucks today. But CJ has a clean bill of health for at least a year and I'm set for all nephew-related gifts for 2012. Phew.

Back there tomorrow, hopefully for some games for me from the second-hand shop.

After picking up a badge for the internship, I headed out for the final day of New Year's gaming. Getting into and out of games didn't work very well, and I wound up in a cooperative game (I don't like them) that took forever just for me and it kept going for another hour after my character was killed. I tried another game and managed to lose the whole game on the first round. Did eventually land in a game of On The Underground, which I won for the first time ever.

But the real entertainment was yet to come. I had parked two blocks away and walked in with another gamer, Richard, who is disabled and needs crutches and braces to walk. On the wayin , I noticed a lot of trash cans and folding chairs in the street blocking off parking spaces, which is illegal in Maryland. We figured that's why Richard had to park so far away. Well, late in the afternoon one guy goes out to his car to get something and comes back with a letter, purportedly signed by a dozen residents of the street. The letter was rude bordering on nasty, and went on at length about what horrible people guests of this house were for parking on their street and demanding we park on Street B insted of Street A. We all went out & checked our vehicles, all but one had the same nasty letter. (If you guessed I was the oddball, you're right. So I stood in the street and announced that I was insulted and outraged that everyone but me gets a nasty letter. That'll confuse 'em.) The vehicles that had the letters included Richard's handicap-placarded car, a motorcycle, a states attorneys' car with with a universal permit and several cars that were parked on Street B, where we were supposedly supposed to park. Unfortunately for these nitwits, it's a public street; everyone parked in a legal spot; as noted, blocking off parking spots is illegal; and to top it off they claimed we were denying them their 'livelihoods' when there's no zoning or permits for a home business in that neighborhood. And now they've pissed off several attorneys and a disabled guy. Richard is filing an ADA complaint tomorrow. It's war. And gamers know their wars.

[Error: unknown template qotd]I don't really collect anything these days - I still get games, DVDs and CDs from time to time, but I don't get much and I don't really consider them collections.

In the past, I collected baseball and hockey memorabilia (including a lot of autographs), and as a kid I collected glass animals.

I have been far too entertained by  ( this thread from Board Game Geek )  today. So I'm sharing. You need not be familar with board games, just cats. Oh, and have a good sense of humor about cats, a couple folks don't seem to enjoy cat jokes. But if you don't mind some silliness at feline expense, it's been a fun day.

CBS Sunday Morning did a piece on board games, including a bunch of my faves on the show (Settlers, Ticket, Carcassonne). Gaming has gone legit :)

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7361550n&tag=cbsnewsTwoColUpperPromoArea

Just arrived home after a long day of gaming. Took Mom, who wasn't totally into the games but really enjoyed the other people. I'm hoping the time out of the house and new people will help her. She actually won one game, Tsuro, which neither of us had played before, and a game I brought because she could play it, Chronology, was a big hit. Although our hostess Michelle may never quite live down the 'Misery Compromise' - I've heard Missouri pronounced wrong before but not quite that amusingly.

Time to conk out.

Between wish lists and lightning deals, my Christmas shopping is just about done. Some stocking stuffers for the little guys (Thursday at Michael's, 30% everything) and some clothes for Mom (Black Friday) and I'm finished. Good thing, the family is going to Maine for Christmas so we're having the holiday at our house...Dec 18. Yep, early.

But with the limited shopping and inventory creation I need to do, I can be Gamer Girl all weekend. Teaching the kids at Thanksgiving, then daylongs Friday, Saturday and Sunday at various locations. I should exercise my card shuffling muscles.