Yesterday

Yesterday, we celebrated three things: Valentine's Day, Arizona's Centennial and my husband's 27th birthday.

It was a good day.

He got a pocket watch from me. (Plus a video game and chocolate.)



He got me a CD of Les Miserables, the 25th anniversary performance, live.

We listened to it while we drove to Wildlife World Zoo in Litchfield Park and passed the Centennial highway signs on the way.

We said hello to all of the animals at the zoo. One parrot even said hello back. (But not this gecko, although he was very friendly too.)



We had lunch in Litchfield Park at a Mexican restaurant Yelp steered me to, and Yelp has never steered me wrong.

Then Scotty's mom visited and gave us more chocolate (score), and we had friends over. We beat each other up in Soul Calibur V.

And then sushi thanks to our wonderful friend Dan. And it was all delicious.

And then bed, because it was a long day.

But a great one.

Day in the Life: April 2, 2011

I edited all of the photos below with the "Vintage Film Effect" as part of the FX Foundry collection of scripts for Gimp. As usual when I decide to apply the same filter to all of the photos, it works for some of them, not all of them... just pretend I was going for something artsy with the dichotomy of vintage effects on photos of technology :)




Good morning.


Scotty shows me that he got the antenna working on the bedroom tv so now PBS World comes in! (P.S. I don't think that dog is 82 years old)


Shower. I recently began showering in the mornings rather than the evenings. I like it a lot.


The lizard is already awake!


Morning cuddles! (shirt)


Morning window gazing for the buddies.


Sneakers turns into a meerkat when treats are involved. I love these treats - I can give him a bunch at a time, and they control hairballs really well. They're the Temptations crunchy kind.


Scotty & I look at the schedule for the conference we are going to today and try to figure out what talks we want to see.


I watch a little Golden Girls while we wait for our friend Dan to arrive.


We first head to my dad's to pick up his truck, since we will need it to pick up a server rack we are buying from Craigslist.


The guys selling the server are actually giving a talk at the conference we will be going to. We stop by their office to pick up the huge rack. It was such a good deal, but this thing is massive!


Load it on the truck & begin securing it.


Once it's safely at home, we head to Tempe for ABLEconf.


...with a stop on the way for breakfast.


The boys pose for me as if they are looking over the schedule.


We're in the right place!


Penguins for sale! (I didn't buy one, but I should next time!)


We meet up with a friend & former coworker of Scotty and Dan's, Nathan, and see a talk on Gimp.


On the lunch break we head to Fry's Electronics, just down the street.


The boys argue animatedly about something geeky.


I scarf down a pretzel and juice.


My loot! AWESOME. Up till now, I only had a 2gb card.


Back at the conference, I pick up an Ubuntu sticker for my netbook.


We stop by some of the displays and talk to these nice people from Heat Sync Labs, who have a 3D printer.


They print us our very own d12 (12-sided die)!


On our way home, we stop at Fry's Food & Drug (why did we stop at two places called Fry's today?) for some gaming food.


At home, Loki models our new pillows.


Sneakers keeps a lookout for the last member of our group so we can play some D&D.


Once everyone has arrived, I start my game. Lots of fun!


I'm ready for bed after a few hours. Good night!

Review: Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook by Jason Bulmahn

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm converting my current D&D game from 3.5 to Pathfinder, so I wanted to buy myself a copy of the rulebook rather than mooching off my friend's. Naturally, in the game store, I also had to buy the Bestiary and Bestiary 2. I forgot how expensive gaming books are when you buy them new and not at the used bookstore. Jeez.

I read through this book, skimming some parts I knew well, and reading others more closely. It's very well-written, more accessible, I think, than D&D is. Many of the rules are explained more fully and in a more comprehensible way. I also really like the art, and the emphasis on capable and experienced adventurers no matter their gender or age.

As long as I have some people who are really experts in my group, I will probably never need to read this cover-to-cover, and for that I'm grateful, because my head starts swimming after battle statistics after awhile. But it's definitely a well-done book and worthy of the adulation it gets in my group.

View all my reviews

Giving thanks

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

I am thankful for my husband, Scotty.

I am thankful for my family, and everyone in it. 
You give me strength and support and a healthy dose of anything 
I need at the moment: sarcasm, humor, reality, optimism.

I am thankful for my bearded dragon, Loki. 

I am thankful for bookstores and libraries.

I am thankful to live in such a beautiful place.

I am thankful for smiling babies. (Ohmygosh, look at baby Lorelai!)

I am thankful we have ways to get around. 
Especially since they are pretty ways to get around.

I am thankful for the coming holiday season.

I am thankful for vacations and time to relax.

I am thankful for good food.

I am thankful for the beauty of nature.

And I am thankful for the small moments in life.

30 Day Challenge - Days 25 and 26

(See here for the complete list of days & questions.) 

Day 25- What I would find in your bag
I actually posted earlier in October with a picture of the contents of my bag (minus the camera I used to take the picture). Here's that entry. My bag is pretty ordinary, I think, except for the hearing aid accessories.

Day 26- What you think about your friends
OK, I admit this question is a little confusing to me. For one thing I don't have a ton of friends, but for another I don't know what I would think about them other than "I like them as people and like spending time with them." Maybe overanalyzing simple questions is why I don't have a ton of friends ;)

30 Day Challenge - Day 11

(See here for the complete list of days & questions.)

Day 11- Another picture of you and your friends

That's what I get for answering with multiple pictures at once. I went back a little further in Photobucket for this one.

Me with PJ & Scotty at Pete's Fish & Chips

Me with Alicia, Chris & Virginia

Me with my uncle Ryan and PJ at the AZ Science Center

30 Day Challenge - Day 3

(See here for the complete list of days & questions.)

Day 03- A recent picture of you and your friends

I had to look through my Photobucket album for this one. Here's what I came up with... (yep, more than one picture, I consider my family my friends, and I'm not in all of them)...

Me with Scotty, Alicia, and Chris

TJ, PJ, Ashton

TJ, PJ, Candice

Me & my mom

Me & my grandparents & Uncle Lonnie

My in-laws

Me with my in-laws and Scotty

And finally, me with my coworkers!