Monday night went perfectly. Plenty of pasta, yummy meatballs, ginger ale, cherry cordial ice cream, and marble cake with yummy icing. After desert we even indulged in the last bottle of Chaucer’s mead that Russ and Naomi had brought us. (and it was really good!)

Everyone was happy to be over a our place, to not have to cook or clean, and just enjoy themselves. I had really worried for nothing. The table held up, as well as our other furniture, and I had time to mop before everyone came so the house smelled really nice. It was nice to have my grandparents, parents and brother all over for dinner. Sounds like we’re going to start inviting other parental units to come visit as well.

My dad started laughing when he unwrapped Monty Python’s Holy grail, mimicking the wizard smiting scene, and talking about air laden swallows. He might have to come over to our place to watch it, but he’d never get the movie from mom, or even for himself, likely, so I’m glad I got it for him. My brother got him a borders certificate card and… A big box of ‘Bernie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans’, with flavors like ear wax, grass, and vomit, as well as tastier ones. My brother convinced my father to read the Harry Potter series, which he did, all four books in the span of a week, and enjoyed. This makes it the first set of books the three of us have all read. Dad seemed surprised to get Bernie Bott’s beans, very cool. My grandparents got him a cd of patriotic marches, and Mom got him some nice shirts, all in all a decent haul. I love my family.

I’ve been playing a good deal of Mech Assault lately, having joined a female battalion(4 lances, 16 players) of really awesome gamerchicks from Xbox Live! Our battalion is in the House of Tyr and is full of really talented, fun, amazing women! My husband joke’s that we’re boyhunters, but the truth really is that it’s always more fun to play in a game with other women as passionate about video games as I am, and we all work really well together too! The House of Tyr is an organization of gamers who like to have a good time (men and women) and they tend to police within pretty well, they have a code of conduct that basically asks everyone to be pleasant, and they remove people who fail that code. It means that we can easily find lots of great people to play with and against.

Wednesday marked my first ever figure drawing class! It’s a mini-course down at the union, taken with Maciek (we took an art course last semester too). It was really cool, though I have lots to learn. Our teacher is a bit quirky, but nice, and the model was a college student, very cute, very nice, with good poses. I kinda feel like my 1 mins were better than my 20min sketches, though some of my 10min ones were ok. So much fun, and I just know it’s going to improve my overall drawings, helping to know how bodies look, and what’s possible in a pose. (I was at a very strange angle for one, foreshortening city! where did that foot come from!) Maciek was buzzing along happily, it’s good to be in a class with him again. And nice to be forced to draw each week again. I used charcoal the whole time, it looks like I’ve loosened up my sketching style since last year, which is nice. I’m so glad I’m able to take this course, I had a patron. My father made sure I could take it. I feel so loved, and blessed to have a father who cares for me to help pay for my interests, my skills.

Last night, after having some connection problems on XBL, I went down to Emerson Elementary for the second week in a row to juggle with the http://www.madjugglers.com . Last week I came too early and had to leave before anything really got started, their webpage notes they start at 6:30, which is a fallacy, they tend to come in around 7:30. I arrived about 7:14, and got to meet Mark, Axel, Sam, Melonhead (Again) and I think I met a Mike, and a Gray?. Mark was really nice and gave me some tips on learning to juggle three clubs, I got to 6 catches which he said was ‘Success right there, you only need 6 catches to be official’!!

During the night I think I made it past 6 catches several times, it’s only a matter of practice before everything lands in the right place. The secret to juggling for me is to find the peace inside and deny the panic. The panic exhibits in all sorts of twitchy movements and jerky throws, the peace allows things to land, even on the ground without seizing up, or over exerting. I can find that peace when I juggle balls, things just settle into place. Talking with Mark later, he says that yo-yo’ers call that the ‘State of Yo’ or others might call it the Zone. It’s nice to know it’s close, I’ll find it, and soon be juggling clubs! I’m a long way from learning how to juggle knives, and even further from the insane club passing they were doing on the other side of the gym, two rows of people facing each other, and then moving like a slow square dance, moving inside and out, still passing clubs to each other. Amazing!

Later Melonhead showed me a few more tricks for 3 balls, and then did some steal’s from my basic cascade, taking from the side and dropping it over on the other side, or throwing it under one of my arms, lots of fun! I’ll have to practice columns this week.

Juggling is tough to get started on, I’m sore all over, my quads and glutes did a lot of bending and crouching to pick up errant clubs. I juggled from 7:45 to 9:30 when we stopped. This is much more juggling than I’m used to, even though I’ve been trying to practice a little everyday. My new rule is, if it feels like exercise, it is. My arms are sore from the work, and from the bruises, if things are thrown correctly, you get no bruises. I’m sure I have less bruises than when I was trying to learn clubs a few years ago.

I knocked myself pretty hard on the left temple last night, I have a nasty bruise forming there. Flipped the pin the wrong way and the handle rapped me hard, I was zonked for a few moments, but obviously not enough for any kind of concussion, or stars.

The end of the night was a game of escalation endurance, everyone stands around the edges, and starts juggling their second hardest or newest skill on balls or clubs, if you drop you’re out. The last person standing has to start the next round on a harder trick, while everyone else can stay with their second hardest. I even won one round doing tennis with 3 balls, remember the one I learned from Vlad at Bardic! Then I started the next with a reverse cascade, but dropped pretty quickly. We went four or five round, it was very cool.

Ah, tonight is book reading and *new* Buffy over at the smuga-otto’s place! I thought I was going to miss out, but my weekend plans shifted, yah! I missed last week, had a lovely dinner over at his Moms. And! I have a half day today. What a weekend!

Lest you think I only post quizzes, let me relate the last week here. How did I fit so much in?!

Monday night went perfectly. Plenty of pasta, yummy meatballs, ginger ale, cherry cordial ice cream, and marble cake with yummy icing. After desert we even indulged in the last bottle of Chaucer’s mead that Russ and Naomi had brought us. (and it was really good!)

Everyone was happy to be over a our place, to not have to cook or clean, and just enjoy themselves. I had really worried for nothing. The table held up, as well as our other furniture, and I had time to mop before everyone came so the house smelled really nice. It was nice to have my grandparents, parents and brother all over for dinner. Sounds like we’re going to start inviting other parental units to come visit as well.

My dad started laughing when he unwrapped Monty Python’s Holy grail, mimicking the wizard smiting scene, and talking about air laden swallows. He might have to come over to our place to watch it, but he’d never get the movie from mom, or even for himself, likely, so I’m glad I got it for him. My brother got him a borders certificate card and… A big box of ‘Bernie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans’, with flavors like ear wax, grass, and vomit, as well as tastier ones. My brother convinced my father to read the Harry Potter series, which he did, all four books in the span of a week, and enjoyed. This makes it the first set of books the three of us have all read. Dad seemed surprised to get Bernie Bott’s beans, very cool. My grandparents got him a cd of patriotic marches, and Mom got him some nice shirts, all in all a decent haul. I love my family.

I’ve been playing a good deal of Mech Assault lately, having joined a female battalion(4 lances, 16 players) of really awesome gamerchicks from Xbox Live! Our battalion is in the House of Tyr and is full of really talented, fun, amazing women! My husband joke’s that we’re boyhunters, but the truth really is that it’s always more fun to play in a game with other women as passionate about video games as I am, and we all work really well together too! The House of Tyr is an organization of gamers who like to have a good time (men and women) and they tend to police within pretty well, they have a code of conduct that basically asks everyone to be pleasant, and they remove people who fail that code. It means that we can easily find lots of great people to play with and against.

Wednesday marked my first ever figure drawing class! It’s a mini-course down at the union, taken with Maciek (we took an art course last semester too). It was really cool, though I have lots to learn. Our teacher is a bit quirky, but nice, and the model was a college student, very cute, very nice, with good poses. I kinda feel like my 1 mins were better than my 20min sketches, though some of my 10min ones were ok. So much fun, and I just know it’s going to improve my overall drawings, helping to know how bodies look, and what’s possible in a pose. (I was at a very strange angle for one, foreshortening city! where did that foot come from!) Maciek was buzzing along happily, it’s good to be in a class with him again. And nice to be forced to draw each week again. I used charcoal the whole time, it looks like I’ve loosened up my sketching style since last year, which is nice. I’m so glad I’m able to take this course, I had a patron. My father made sure I could take it. I feel so loved, and blessed to have a father who cares for me to help pay for my interests, my skills.

Last night, after having some connection problems on XBL, I went down to Emerson Elementary for the second week in a row to juggle with the http://www.madjugglers.com . Last week I came too early and had to leave before anything really got started, their webpage notes they start at 6:30, which is a fallacy, they tend to come in around 7:30. I arrived about 7:14, and got to meet Mark, Axel, Sam, Melonhead (Again) and I think I met a Mike, and a Gray?. Mark was really nice and gave me some tips on learning to juggle three clubs, I got to 6 catches which he said was ‘Success right there, you only need 6 catches to be official’!!

During the night I think I made it past 6 catches several times, it’s only a matter of practice before everything lands in the right place. The secret to juggling for me is to find the peace inside and deny the panic. The panic exhibits in all sorts of twitchy movements and jerky throws, the peace allows things to land, even on the ground without seizing up, or over exerting. I can find that peace when I juggle balls, things just settle into place. Talking with Mark later, he says that yo-yo’ers call that the ‘State of Yo’ or others might call it the Zone. It’s nice to know it’s close, I’ll find it, and soon be juggling clubs! I’m a long way from learning how to juggle knives, and even further from the insane club passing they were doing on the other side of the gym, two rows of people facing each other, and then moving like a slow square dance, moving inside and out, still passing clubs to each other. Amazing!

Later Melonhead showed me a few more tricks for 3 balls, and then did some steal’s from my basic cascade, taking from the side and dropping it over on the other side, or throwing it under one of my arms, lots of fun!

Juggling is tough to get started on, I’m sore all over, my quads and glutes did a lot of bending and crouching to pick up errant clubs. I juggled from 7:45 to 9:30 when we stopped. This is much more juggling than I’m used to, even though I’ve been trying to practice a little everyday. My new rule is, if it feels like exercise, it is. My arms are sore from the work, and from the bruises, if things are thrown correctly, you get no bruises. I’m sure I have less bruises than when I was trying to learn clubs a few years ago.

I knocked myself pretty hard on the left temple last night, I have a nasty bruise forming there. Flipped the pin the wrong way and the handle rapped me hard, I was zonked for a few moments, but obviously not enough for any kind of concussion, or stars.

The end of the night was a game of escalation endurance, everyone stands around the edges, and starts juggling their second hardest or newest skill on balls or clubs, if you drop you’re out. The last person standing has to start the next round on a harder trick, while everyone else can stay with their second hardest. I even won one round doing tennis with 3 balls, remember the one I learned from Vlad at Bardic! Then I started the next with a reverse cascade, but dropped pretty quickly. We went four or five round, it was very cool.

Ah, tonight is book reading and *new* Buffy over at the ‘s place! I thought I was going to miss out, but my weekend plans shifted, yah! I missed last week, had a lovely dinner over at his Moms. And! I have a half day today. What a weekend!

It’s possible I’ve done this quiz before…

Hubby swung by work in the Barracuda, first day out, went to get registration for it.

What Farscape Character are you?

(which I missed because I no longer have cable. )

(Chiana’s my fav)

Today is my Dad’s birthday.

We’re having my parents, grandparents and brother over for dinner and desert.

Ack! Just a bit nervous, haven’t ever had the parents over specifically for dinner. Hope the wobbly table holds up.

Even so, should be a good time. I got Dad a gift mom would never get him. Monty Python’s Holy grail!

My husband is the bestest. He’s spearheading the dinner. Sometimes when I get nervous, I forget vital things in even basic recipes. Somehow I feel this will continue until I either a) start cooking a whole lot more, practice which will work out most kinks in my cooking fiasco’s, or b) have children and end up cooking a whole lot more with same result as a).

I’m not a terror in the kitchen all the time, sometimes I can cook really great stuff. I just tend to go for new recipes sometimes, when I should be going with basic ones, and try the new ones out when time isn’t an issue.

I think the menu tonight is spaghetti and meatballs(my husband loves to make meatballs) and garlic bread. Should be easy enough to make enough for everyone.

Today is my Dad’s birthday.

We’re having my parents, grandparents and brother over for dinner and desert.

Ack! Just a bit nervous, haven’t ever had the parents over specifically for dinner. Hope the wobbly table holds up.

Even so, should be a good time. I got Dad a gift mom would never get him. Monty Python’s Holy grail!

My husband is the bestest. He’s spearheading the dinner. Sometimes when I get nervous, I forget vital things in even basic recipes. Somehow I feel this will continue until I either a) start cooking a whole lot more, practice which will work out most kinks in my cooking fiasco’s, or b) have children and end up cooking a whole lot more with same result as a).

I’m not a terror in the kitchen all the time, sometimes I can cook really great stuff. I just tend to go for new recipes sometimes, when I should be going with basic ones, and try the new ones out when time isn’t an issue.

I think the menu tonight is spaghetti and meatballs(my husband loves to make meatballs) and garlic bread. Should be easy enough to make enough for everyone

Hey! Dad shares a Birthday with William Shatner!

I didn’t eat my orange at lunch…. it’s a big orange, now might be the time to tear into it’s juicy flesh.

speaking of juicy flesh…
Last night I got to play more with Mohna, my tiefling assassin. She’s 17, and basically a slave to a red wizard in Thay, who’s had her trained Nikita style…

She’s done pretty well, her first day out of the tower on assignment, did in 5 young boy/thugs and 4 large as dogs rats.

I think she’s in shock… no doubt all this killing will cause her nightmares of vats of blood and remorse.

She has little choice though, she’s been trained for 4 years in the tower for this, all her skills honed, and been threatened with death or worse should she run away or not complete her tasks.

poor little thing. poor little death.

Oh, I’m working on a kick butt illustration of her, I’m pretty jazzed about how it’s shaping up, slightly strange proportions aside. Even though I started in red verithin pencil and not colorase, ack! I can use Photoshop to knock out the red right?

ooh these are pretty!

http://www.collagecatalog.com/c/shopping/prod_detail/main.asp?productID=563&MainCatID=91&catID=92&AID=5685298&PID=1181904

Post dating.

I finished my Bardic Madness description from a couple weekends ago
http://www.livejournal.com/users/dreamling/day/2003/02/25

Still need to write up the weekend before that, ack! falling behind.