If you had invoked me before you began this journey,

Yesterday was fun, it involved hanging out with friends, hitting food markets (I've never been to the European Market, but it was great), and gave Roxy a bath. The bath was quite the interesting experience, and rendered a nicely vacuumed living room full of fur. But at least she's clean, and fluffy, and everyone is happy.

The grocery shopping and prep was because we had a household meeting of sorts, which involved fondue and about a dozen people. I helped with some of the prep, and generally had a decent afternoon, leading up to a very good night. It was, quite simply, a blast. The food was good, the company too, and it was a really nice time all around. It's always nice to have friends over, and this was no exception. I had some good conversations, everyone seemed to have fun, and it felt like things ended well.

So, despite getting to bed after 1, I was still up at about 7:30. Once I managed to roll out of bed, I ended up catching up on school work that I've needed to for a little while. I know, I know, it's definitely not a good thing to let it pile up, but I'm glad I finished it completely, because it makes me feel much better. Despite having grand plans for the day, I ended up spending it on the couch curled up relaxing. I threw together mac and cheese with leftover cheese fondue, and then Ryan headed out to the Nightfall preview. Initially, I was thinking that I would spend the night quietly at home, but a call to my dad meant that we decided to get together to watch The Amazing Race. A brief check showed that we're probably without all forms of cable (which really isn't an issue, because we never watch it), and so I ended up going to dad's. Well worth it, as we had a good time snickering over the insanity of some people.

Now, I'm home and happily curled up with a puppy beside me. I've also got the first episode of Boardwalk Empire and am watching that as I type this. I'll probably be crashing soon, but for now, I'm just going to enjoy myself.

Well, I think that we can safely say it was a damned good weekend.

Apart from the fact that I seemed to get a minor form of con-crud that made today miserable enough that I only worked for 3 hours.

Before we get started, let's send you over to my Flickr, where all the photos are. Conveniently, you can find them organized in albums for looking at.


We got into Seattle on Wednesday morning, checked in, and spent the day wandering around the tourist-y areas - namely Pike Place Market. Sadly, the fact that our room had no fridge meant that I was not able to pick up some of the things I wanted, like cheeses and some lox. So I settled on bringing back smoked salmon and coffee from Victrola. Wednesday and Thursday were spent further exploring before the Pre-PAX dinner and Triwizard Drinking Tournament.

The Pre-PAX dinner was the first taste of what we were in for over the weekend. We kind of wandered around a little before finding a seat there, and sort of hoping we wouldn't be alone. Nope, not at all. Seems the Gryffindor attire made it easier to be talked to, and pretty soon, our table was full and everyone was talking about themselves, neat games they'd played lately, and stuff like that. When the dinner started breaking up, a group of us headed to the location of the first bar - using our iPhones and much laughter. There was a brief stop in an art supply store for glue, and eventually we made it there. The crawl itself was 50/50 - people were awesome, the bars... weren't quite prepared for us. But some of the drinks were damned good, and we managed to complete the event, thereby earning a button.

As an aside, we got lots of buttons, and I swear, I'm doing the whole buttoneering thing next year. Because I think it would be really fun.

Friday had the only panel I ended up hitting. The Myth of the Gamer Girl was really good, and I'm glad I went. Other than that, there was lots of wandering. We expected the event to be large and kind of impressive. But that didn't even describe it. There were lots of booths, lots of vendors, and lots of things to see. Early on, we got sidetracked by Flying Frog, and had a good time chatting with their guys. Ended up picking up some Last Night on Earth scenarios for Ryan's birthday later on, which I greatly look forward to playing. We ended up missing Of Dice and Men, and instead ended up in the boardgame free-play room, where we met several very nice guys and had a good time geeking out.

Once more, I was totally surprised with how much was put into everything. Of course, there's always the comparison of PAX to, say E3. The difference being that PAX is for the gamers themselves, whereas E3 is an industry thing. Needless to say, it was really fun to see what was handed out (we mostly ended up with shirts - and you can pry my Fallout: New Vegas and Portal 2 ones out of my cold, dead hands), as well as what was there.

Here, it's probably worth it to explain me and gaming. See, PAX isn't just for video games - there's also a large board and tabletop presence, as well as ccgs and so-forth. I've been a fan of board and card games for years, and it was only when I got to college that I tried tabletop. After that, it's only been in the last month or so that I've gotten into playing video games. Don't get me wrong, I've always been a fan, but more happy to watch then play. Consequently, the video game displays didn't hold quite as much of an interest for me as it is possible that they would have. Of course, I'm really excited for Portal 2, and I admit that watching some demos made me interested in other games.

Definitely really informative, I think. Oh yes, and I discovered that the original model of sumo sac is very comfortable.

Saturday, the highlight was the concert, and during the day, there was more goofing off and exploring the halls and such. Also, met up with Nico and Angie, which was awesome - good dinner and good conversation. We're both big JoCo fans, and Ryan loves Paul and Storm (not that I don't, but I'd consider him a bigger fan). Neither of us knew much on MC Frontalot, but, hey, we'll happily listen to nerdy stuff.

As it turned out, we had a phenomenal time. MC Frontalot was good, Paul and Storm a riot, and JoCo was.... *squeeeee!* Really, I could go on about it for some time, but I'll spare you all. It was great.

Sunday, we had breakfast with Nico and Angie and another wander of the expo hall with them. I was quite sad when the time came to part, and for us to take the light rail back to the airport. We got home late, and Icka was here, which was great because it gave me (at least) a little time to come down from the high by sharing the joy.


Yesterday, though, I spent on the couch, not doing anything of great importance. It felt good, and I was quite pleased to have the day off.

Definitely a good weekend, overall.

Yesterday, we picked up most of the supplies we need for PAX costumes. There are only a few weeks left, and have quite a bit to work on. That said, if things aren't absolutely perfect, I'm not going to have a heart attack. We've got our Hogwarts stuff together for the Tri-Wizard Drinking Tournament, and all the fabric needed for his Dr. Horrible and my vrykul caster. As we were heading home, got an unexpected call from Bill asking if we'd like to come over for dinner - an offer that was happily taken up. As a result, spent a very nice few hours over at their place handing out and chatting with people. It was definitely needed and welcome. Not to mention, made a few plans for other things to occur soon - specifically post-PAX (as it seems that's when everyone's going to end up with more time).

Today has been much quieter - which ties in nicely with the fact that I've been feeling quiet and only semi-social. We mostly cleaned - kitchen/dining room, bedroom, and living room. Next week's probably going to mean lots of the same, but I don't mind. It feels good to look at things and realize they're clean and organized. Certainly makes me happy.


And now, I've got scones being made for breakfast tomorrow (blueberry) and instant Netflix to work through. It's pretty much a perfect way to relax.

Well, I wasn't as good about finishing what I wanted to last night as I intended. So instead, it's being given a final read-over as we speak and I'm curling up with a Nimbus Dirty Guera, which I have decided I really like.

Alright, now it's submitted and I can happily relax completely.


I will not deny that part of the reason I got sidetracked last night was that I spent several hours playing Darksiders. Despite what one may possibly think when looking at our collection - I'm not the gamer of the household, at least not the video gamer. But I liked the premise, and I'm not averse to killing things whole-heartedly, so when it was on sale yesterday, we picked it up for the 360 as well as several PS3 games.

Nope, not happy at all... *beams*


And now, I'm going to curl up, play games for about an hour or so before curling up and crashing.

A nice pasta, salad drenched in balsamic vinegar (red wine vinegar doesn't quite cut it), and beer are all helping my mood. (I'm discovering there are some I like!)

At least a little, because car troubles really aren't a pleasant thing to deal with. Not at all.


Though it's entirely possible the octopi on the plates are making me smile.

The trip to La Encantada was a success - less than 5 minutes for the guy at the Genius Bar to check my laptop cable and declare it was borked. He ran the necessary diagnostic to make sure that was it and grabbed the cord to replace my old one. So, now I have a new power cord and Irulan is happily back at work.

Then I went to AJ's, bought a few bottles of beer and some cultured butter, and headed home. Now I'm on the couch watching Project Runway (don't judge! please! though watching one of the designers mourn his brand new D&G pants is very amusing) and eating Cape Cod chips. They're 5 cheese flavor which is surprisingly tasty.


I've also been downloading stuff for my Kindle. I need to play around with some of the books I've nabbed - the formatting is a teensy bit wonky, it seems - but overall it's pretty cool. I've been getting lots of classic sci-fi, as well as books by authors like Stephenson that I've wanted to read for awhile but haven't actually nabbed. If anything, it's really going to curb my purchases of fiction. At least fiction of the... single read-through variety.

ETS some time later: Have episode 2 of Sherlock and a bottle of Nimbus' Dirty Guerra. Life is rather better at the moment, I think.

A Saturday where I'm not working, not drugged up, and not really thinking about anything much besides relaxing. Yes, I've got a couple thousand words to churn out by the end of the week, but I think I'm going to be alright on that front. So there.

The rain as of late has been wonderful, though I've slept through most of it. Roxy doesn't seem too keen on thunder, but she's more than willing to be cuddled and given treats to prove it's not going to hurt her.


After a mostly lazy morning, we dragged ourselves out of the house and went to look at some furniture. See, the chairs for our dining room table need to be replaced and we've finally decided to do something about it. Well, after some discussion and looking at things, we ended up with a new table, four chairs, and a bench. That we both like and for pretty much the exact amount we were budgeting for just chairs. Woot!

Then, there was some Exchequer-y stuff, and we hit Williams-Sonoma and the LeeLee for groceries. I feel pretty good overall, and am happily stretched out on the couch right now debating playing more Starcraft II. Since you need to tie it in to a Battle.net account, and as with so many things, it's one account per game... I'm shamelessly mooching off the created Guest account. I have no desire for online play right now, and I don't care much about achievements, so it all works out well. I'm enjoying it quite a bit.


In other news, I have a copy of the Codex Seraphinianus sitting on the table in front of me right now. It's just as gloriously bizarre and beautiful as I could have hoped, which is certainly most awesome.

ILL, I would only love you more if I could lug that Hirst catalog out of Special Collections (because I've decided to just embrace my enjoyment of the guy's stuff)...

Well, first off, thank god the week is nearly over.

I say nearly because I'm intending on working tomorrow, for most of the day, because I've got a decent amount of work there and it really wouldn't hurt to have it at least somewhat attacked. Seriously, between the monographs and the Little Bighorn stuff I really need to finish, there's more than enough to get me through the day.

However, I've got another class nearly completed (just need to finish the project in the next two weeks). Utterly fascinating one on preservation, that's been one of the highlights so far. It was very much worth missing a week of work for, if I do say. I ended up getting quite a bit to think about and consider, as well as some practical/hands-on knowledge. And the realization that, all things considered, when it comes to archiving.

Having both read Still Life - Adventures in Taxidermy, dad and I decided that we needed to go to the Wildlife Museum and look at it all to find out what we missed on prior trips that they try to hide. Should be one of the highlights of my weekend, being as it'll occur on Sunday. I'm certainly looking forward to it.

Adventures in wisdom teeth continue. One side of my mouth is pretty content, but the other seems annoyed, with the upper jaw starting to become sore as well. I'm fully expecting the follow-up appointment on Tuesday to be interesting and perhaps frustrating. Of course, this time I'm not going to pass out...