Category Archives: Family

A (very) little Burning Wheel

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Last night, I got together with couple of friends to play Burning Wheel. I’ve been meeting one of them since January or February, developing a character, running through examples of the conflict resolution systems, and then playing other games like Lunch Money, the game of schoolyard violence. We even played a one-on-one session with my character.

However, my friend finally recruited another player, and he’s developed a character very different from mine (yay conflict!). Last night we finished the final tweaks to his character, and then he was getting an introductory scene. My character ws going to get involved a little later.

Then my pager went off; Beloved Wife needed me to come home. She was in tears when I called because her cheek hurt so much. I raced (carefully) home, passing a red fox on my way. When I got home, she was readying to take half a Vicodin. Now BW hadn’t needed Vicodin right after she had her wisdom teeth out, just ibuprofen. But I’m glad we had them. After we all got to bed, and I started to rub BW’s back, she felt extra warm. I grabbed a thermometer, and she had a temp just over 100. Poor girl!

Fortunately, she got decent sleep and isn’t in so much pain this morning. She’s got her one week follow-up appointment with the oral surgeon today, and asked me to go with her. Hopefully we’ll get her fixed-up. This has been more of an ordeal than we were anticipating.

And I’m looking forward to getting together with my friends in a couple weeks for another session of Burning Wheel.

In other news

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Since we’ve been anchored here at home while BW is recovering, NatureBoy and I have had some time to play together. And we’ve had time to ourselves. NB has been banging through some Super Mario Sunshine, and I finally finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. 🙂

NatureBoy had known that BW was going to be out of commission for a while, and that I would be home on Friday. So he spent time during the week developing a D&D session for us to play. When we got back from the surgery, he had the dining table all ready. We got to play for several hours in between attending to BW’s needs.

I had planned on gaming on Sunday afternoon, but my friend’s daughter had a stomach bug. Instead, NatureBoy pulled out RoboRally, which we hadn’t played in months. He decided we should play a deathmatch with each of us running two robots. It was fun, indeed, and NB pulled out a victory in the end. Here’s the game laid out..
Roborally on the dining table

and here’s a close-up of the robots we were using.
Roborally pieces

What else… we got in a little boffer sword fun on Sunday evening, and today we played another game of Settlers of Catan.

We’re just sorry BW wasn’t up to joining any of the fun. Get well soon!

BW’s wisdom teeth

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Beloved Wife had her four wisdom teeth extracted on Friday morning. I read a bit more of HP7 in the waiting room, but I didn’t get very far. We arrived at 7 am and we were home around 9. I owe a big thanks to BW’s parents, who watched NatureBoy while we were out, and they went and got her meds after we got home and I tucked her into bed.

BW decided she didn’t need the heavy-duty pain meds in the end. She iced her cheeks faithfully, and has been taking lots of advil. But today, she still felt pretty ill, so I decided to take the extra day to keep NB out of her hair and keep her from overdoing it. She rallied a bit this afternoon, but is fading as the day wears on.

This morning, at 72 hours, was supposed to be the peak of the swelling. She’s eating food that’s more substantial, too. I hope these are signs of recovery, because she’s been pretty miserable. Hang in there, honey.

On the bright side, we got to finish season 2.5 of BattleStar Galactica. 🙂 It was ok right up until the time shift ahead a year. Whose idea was that?!

Wisdom Teeth and D&D

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Beloved Wife is having all her wisdom teeth extracted this morning. She’s been pretty anxious, but she’s resigned to her fate. I’m off from work today to tend to her.

Of course, NatureBoy has his own designs on today and tomorrow. Since BW will be out of commission for a while, he’s been hard at work on a D&D campaign, complete with props. I expect we’ll be playing this afternoon, and probably some tomorrow.

We had a very subdued Lammas; we had some freshly-picked grape tomatoes with supper, and I played several hands of cards with NatureBoy. Lately, I just haven’t had the inspiration to do elaborate ritual.

Well, gotta get ready to go to the oral surgeon.

Vacation – Last Day

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I go back to work tomorrow. I’ve really enjoyed this time off. We’ve done a bunch of stuff as a family, and I’ve had one-on-one time with both BW and NatureBoy. We’ve spent time outdoors, enjoying the fleetingly short but beautiful Vermont summer. I’ve gotten in a respectable amount of gaming. And I’ve spent time with friends. Can’t ask for much more than that. 🙂

Yesterday morning, NB and I played another round of Settlers of Catan. We learned a few more things and had a good time (NB won). In the evening, we had a barbecue with a gaming friend and his wife. When he was visiting a couple weeks ago, he had expressed appreciation for the boffer swords that NB and I had made. I offered for him to come over and participate in a little swordtag sparring and for us to get a chance to meet his spouse.

We had a great time! My friend, whom I now dub TheaterGeek (TG) sparred with me and NatureBoy. We adults had a nice post-dinner chat while NB spent some quality time with his GameCube. Then TG and I did a little grup boffer sword sparring. It was great fun — and a good work-out. The GeekWive’s were making noises about kitting together; this can only be good. We’ll have to have have them over again, soon.

Today, we played a game of Settlers of Catan as a family. I finally won a game 😎 and, more importantly, BW said she really enjoyed the game. We ran a couple errands after lunch, and BW and I watched a few more Battlestar Galactica episodes — the Pegasus episodes were very harsh.

Now, as we prep for the week, I realize that I’m looking forward to going back to work. But I’m really greatful for the wonderful time off I’ve had with family and friends. Now, we are going to go roast some marshmallows on the night of the Full Moon.

Blessed Be.

Vacation – Paddling, BG, and Settlers of Catan

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Yesterday, we packed-up the kayaks and headed to Waterbury Center State Park. It’s a bit of a chore, packing three kayaks on our Focus sedan, but we’re getting it down to a system. The three of us paddled out onto the very smooth water and it was gorgeous!

In fact, almost immediately we saw a Blue Heron in the brush along shore. Then we watched a loon as it dove under the surfaceand wated for it to reappear. They stay under for a long time. On the way back, we saw a dear in the distance come down to the water’s edge to drink and then scamper back to the forest.

We swam for a bit, then had a nice picnic lunch. Then BW and NatureBoy went to swim more, and I took a kayak out to explore a bit further. It was really beautiful.

During the hot weather we’ve been having, BW and I have been slipping in episodes of Battlestar Galactica Season 2. It was her birthday present to me, but she really loves the show, too. 😀 NatureBoy has been occupied with Mario Sunshine on the GameCube — in the air conditioned upstairs — during our viewings. It takes us a while to get through “grown-up shows,” though so we’ll be enjoying this for weeks. She got me (us) series 2.5, too!

Today, we were planning to have our usual Friday night beach cookout, but the thunderstorm warning and radar images changed our minds. Instead, I took NatureBoy to a local coffee shop where a friend and parent of GeekKids had offered to facilitate some games of Settlers of Cattan. We and one other boy showed up. We had never played before, and my friend and the other boy helped us get going. I found it quite enjoyable and full of possibilities. In the end, my friend offered to lend her game (and a copy of Start of Darkness!) to us. Thanks so much, C!

Sword tag

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This post is very overdue.

Several weeks ago, Beloved Wife headed off for a weekend of Grrrl Power, leaving NatureBoy and me to our own devices (buwa-ha-ha-ha!). We dropped into the friendly neighborbood gaming store to see what was going on for Free RPG Day. We were a little disappointed because no one was running any games. Of course, I didn’t step up and volunteer to run anything either. We did pick up some of the free modules and demo give-aways, however, and a friend ran a game of Munchkin for us. That was fun; thankers Tyler!

On the way home we decided that this was the weekend we would make Boffer Swords. Now, I have looked at boffer sword construction sites on and off for over a year, but I hadn’t found any that looked sturdy enough. Then we found the Sword Tag site on the list of links at the wikipedia boffer site. We had been studying these instructions for about a week, and I knew what materials we would need.

So we stopped at the friendly neighborhood hardware store and picked up 1/2-inch CPVC pipe, pipe insulation, fiberglass rods, duct tape (in several colors!), spray adhesive, and a couple other things. We then spent about four hours on Saturday afternoon and evening, and four or more on Sunday afternoon putting the swords together.

The most of the following pictures were taken with the crappy camera in my Treo 700w. But they serve to document the process…

We set up my laptop nearby for easy reference, and got to work. NB carefully measured his materials and cut the PVC himself.

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Vacation – Stowe Pinnacle

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Yesterday, we hiked up the Stowe Pinnacle trail. We’ve been taking hikes out of Vermont Hiking, which is generally a good resource. However, we found the hike yesterday to be much longer and more demanding than the text suggested. The views from the top, however, were spectacular.

Here’s DW at the top…

…and NatureBoy recovering from the climb.

The climb down was fun; it took about the same amount of time, but we talked a lot more and did silly things (I liked hopping down the stone steps).

Vacation – Harry Potter and Birthdays

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Cover of Deathly Hallows

My father, my father-in-law and I all have birthdays within a week of each other. This weekend, we had a July Birthday Boys barbeque to celebrate. It was nice to have a big family gathering.

NatureBoy spent much of the time with his nose buried in my birthday present, the last Harry Potter book. My SiL pre-ordered it so it arrived on Saturday, and I settled in to read after dinner. I had only read one chapter before NB was reading over my shoulder and whimpering. DW pointed out that he had spent the last month rereading the previous books. So we made an agreement; I would let him read it first, but he couldn’t say anything about the story and plot.

He agreed, of course, and spent most of the evening Saturday, most of Sunday (except for a kayaking outing to the Sandbar) devouring the book. Have I mentioned that he reads faster than I do? In a couple hours this morning, he finished the book, and a couple hours later, muttered comments about the story have started to bubble out of him like Ron’s slugs. I promised to get reading ASAP. 🙂

Vacation – Great Escape

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I’m well into my summer vacation. My sister-in-law is visiting from Maine, too, and on Friday, we took a trip to the Great Escape. DW, Goddess of planning and logistics, had acquired discounted tickets via AAA, and packed lunch, water, and enough snacks for an arctic expedition (No, no! I’m not complaining!). It took about 2:50 to get there, but we really wanted to have fun in the water park and enjoy a few rides.

A couple colleagues had mentioned that the park had been advertising a new ride, called the Tornado, which was very cool. NatureBoy, though, decided that he wasn’t interested in any “scary rides,” which ended-up including pretty-much everything the we grown-ups wanted to try. So we ended-up taking turns supervising him at the long floaty river, the wave pool and the Paul Bunyan Bucket Brigade.

I got to go on the Tornado twice, once with SiL and once with DW. With SiL, I went down the first drop backwards, but I got to see how steep it is when I went with DW. It was a lot of fun, but pretty short. At least the line moved really quickly. I went with SiL to a couple of the tube rides (skip the black cobra; yawn), and then went with NatureBoy to the wave pool. DW and her sister took the opportunity to go try the the Comet. After a while, the wave pool closed for a break, and NB headed to the Bucket Brigade. He stood on the structure during the first bucket dump, and we stood under the cascade for the next one. 🙂

DW and SiL came back from their ride beaming, and DW asked me to go on it with her. It started raining while I was changing, but it was a brief shower. We took the ride, and I have to admit that I really don’t care for the old-fashioned roller coasters. The drops and rises were fun, but we were heaved and bumped and banged around so much that I too worried about keeping from getting hurt to enjoy the ride. Now, I did enjoy the Dueling Dragons at Universal’s Islands of Adventure that I went on during Microsoft Tech*Ed 2007 with a friend from BSAD.

We were hoping that we’d get a chance to go on the Alpine Bobsled, but it was closed because of the rain. NB wanted to ride the gondola, so I went with him. Then we headed home, exhausted.

All-in-all, I think I prefer the Whale’s Tale Water Park in Lincoln, NH. It’s just a water park (i.e., no roller coasters), but we got to do the rides many more times, there weren’t lines waiting for tubes, and the place was just friendlier and at a more reasonable scale.