Laura

The Friday Five: Near

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 17:29:46 GMT

https://thefridayfive.dreamwidth.org/144788.html

1. What do you see when you are looking out of the window closest to you?

Rain, hedges, neighbor's house, our car, sidewalk, street, vans from some construction group or other (neighbor next to us, not the house I can see across the way, is remodeling something-or-other).

2. Who was the last person coming into your room?

My oldest, on break from online school, to hang with me and the cats for a bit.

3. What is the most predominant colour around you?

If I count the generic walls and blinds and such, white. Otherwise, brown - a fair amount of natural wood and similar colorway art in the office.

4. What is right behind you?

Scott's personal computer and desk and all. Wait, no, RIGHT behind me is the air conditioner which helps keep a small room with many computers from overheating them (or us) in the summer. It's off for the season but I haven't put it away yet.

5. What is on today's calendar sheet?

NOTHING. Today is entirely routine. (Which means it includes school for the boys, housework for me, errands to run, and joy of joys - gaming night tonight with the gaming group. But none of those are a calendar entry. They're just life's routine.)

comments

Things I wonder....

Sun, 03 Jul 2016 00:14:32 GMT

How Deliria: Miracle Season would have ended. We played parts 1-4, and then I think we were at the con once when the man running it wasn't, and - we haven't made it to GenCon since. I suspect he's long since stopped running them, but I do wish I'd found out how sections 5-6 played.

comments

I miss those days, and so I wander back to them.

Fri, 11 Jul 2014 23:55:57 GMT

I was re-reading early 2002 (January-April) tracking down when we started the move into our first house (April, we got the keys on the 23rd).

I used to post A LOT back then. And I'm wistful for some of the exchanges and fun then.

I have two kids now, and I don't have as much time to post, but I am going to try not to be radio silent for weeks or months at a go. *nods*

Yesterday, we had our "regular" Thursday night gaming session. I put regular in quotes because we now only have one of those a month starting this month - the other three moved to Fridays!

That's awesome because Drew is five and starts kindergarten in the fall, Ian is two and will move up to preschool sometime in the next year (probably in about six months when he turns three, I'm guessing, but he's VERY verbal, so maybe sooner), and the "Friday morning meltdown after a late Thursday" symptom, which hits about 25% of the time, bites. So reducing it to once a month instead of four times a month for a potential trigger? HUGE.

Anyway, last night we were playing the Pathfinder Kingmaker game Scott runs (the one that is staying on Thursdays) and I posted a couple Facebook statuses that I think my friends here will also be amused by:

( And now I cut because some of you are both places, and it's probably not so funny you want to read it twice. )

And a random bit of silly from Tuesday, involving picking on a 5-year-old a bit.

( ALSO already posted on FB. )

comments

February and March gratitudes

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 18:08:26 GMT

Thank goodness for doing this; reading back over these reminds me of many, many little good things that can otherwise be forgotten. And as I write them it helps me really look at, and find the positives in, my days.

So, here's February and March. (Well, except the first couple days of February were on the last one.)

( That's a lot of lines.... )

comments

That. Was. BEAUTIFUL.

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 04:21:31 GMT

So, we played Deadlands Reloaded tonight.

Scott's character has an enemy, a Chinese woman - very important, leading a big gang. (He didn't start with this enemy. He earned her in play, the hard way.)

So we're all in a hotel when we wake up and notice it's on fire. And we're now the only ones in it. And no one told us.

So we blow out the front door, ready to run out...and realize she's out there, waiting, with her men. Crap. Retreat back inside. Back door also watched. Head to the roof. (No stairs to the roof, nor doors, but we "fixed" that.)

Now...how to get off the roof without being spotted?

Have our Huckster cast a darkness spell, of course...around the front door, not us or where we're gonna go. And as the guys out front start shooting the heck out of the hapless building, we cross a couple rooftops and drop down to the street.

One member BLOWS (not critically, but 1 point off it) his stealth roll...but the guns are still firing, which helps.

We scuttle out into the street by ones and twos and take off.

Scott's character glances back over his shoulder, and sees that of everyone, only his enemy actually heard our noise. She is staring straight at him, and she's pissed. But she's smart enough to know she can't catch us. She can lose face by losing control, or she can wait and try again.

They stare at each other a long moment, and then Scott tips his hat to her.

GM: "Make a taunt roll." Scott doesn't HAVE taunt, so he's rolling at a d4 minus 2 (plus you always get a d6, also at -2 for this roll however, but you take the better roll, you don't add them). He rolls...a 4 and a 6. Max value on a die rerolls and adds. He ends up with a 7 and 10 after the rerolls, 5 and 8 after penalty. Which means, even without the situational modifiers in his favor (we got away, she already hates him and has been thwarted by him and frustrated in the past, and etc.), he got a success-with-a-raise from the 8.

She actually broke enough to take a step or two in his direction, and she was blindingly, visibly furious - so mad she was shaking as she held herself back from a pointless chase, scream of rage, or other disastrous action.

And we took off into the night.

...that. Was. BEAUTIFUL. Not wise, but then, Scott's character in this game is not known for wisdom, so.

comments

My son is a pretty neat little guy.

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 04:49:48 GMT

Even allowing that he took all the couch cushions off the couch this evening; as mischief goes, that's minor.

See, we had friends over for board games. One of those friends, D, also plays in Scott's Friday-night Kingmaker game. So as they were leaving, we told Drew to say good bye to them.

What he said, sung out in stretched-out-words toddler enthusiasm: "Good bye! Thank you for coming over to my house!"

A little later he tried to tell D "See you tomorrow!" and D said no, but maybe Friday (that game should be Friday, but it's never wise to tell 2-year-olds something is for sure if it could change), and Drew replied, "When you come over to play games!"

Of course, D usually comes over to play games (roleplaying as Friday is, or board games like tonight) so that is not a huge stretch. But still very cool.

But seriously, "Thank you for coming over to my house!"

We do say that, but I was surprised to hear him use it so well. :)

comments

Gaming mode: ways to shorten combat, killer dice edition.

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 05:08:25 GMT

Anyone out there play Deadlands Reloaded, or at least Savage Worlds?

If I tell you that our Huckster said "This ends now!" used an Arcane Surge card, and tossed his max Blast (3 bolts) at the big bad in the fight...

...and hit with only one bolt, but that bolt hit with a raise...

...and rolled his 4d6 damage and got 6 6 6 5 and then, with the rerolls for the 6's (don't remember the exact three numbers) added 11 to it, for a total of 34 damage from one bolt...

...and the Arcane Surge card DOUBLES your DAMAGE, thus 68 damage total from one bolt...

...then would you agree that the big bad was toast, even with his astonishing toughness of 9? Yeah. *FOURTEEN* wounds. One point shy of 15. He soaked...one, I think?

Splat. Actually, FWOOSH! more accurately.

That was, by the way, the second full round of combat. Big bad had already lost his surprise round to another card requiring him to soliloquize, so we only really had to face him for a couple rounds. He summoned a swarm one round (magical: it disabled when he went down) and three rattlesnakes the next round (we actually had to clean them up after he went down, but they weren't that difficult on their own).

GM: sort of flabbergasted, really.

Players: ALSO sort of flabbergasted, actually. Gleefully so, but still.

'Twas fun. Session ended early, for some reason...like having enough time allowance for an actual major combat that failed to happen.... We had time to hang out and chat and everyone still got to head home early. Which, I'd be disappointed about, except it was frankly SO MUCH FUN that it felt like a good session, regardless of length.

comments

Ways not to endear yourself to me in a game.

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 03:43:01 GMT

I play Words With Friends from my iPhone with random partners. It's a word game with letter tiles not unlike Scrabble. It has a chat feature, which I try my best to ignore.

A recent game with a bozo:

I get the first move and play PARCHED, hitting a double word and scoring 63 points (including 35 for using all my letters). I feel slightly bad for my opponent, as that's one heck of a start to a game.

My opponent plays FAKE (using the A in parched) for 11 points, but when I see the move in the game I also see that he has sent a chat. The chat reads: "do u mind me askin u ur asl please?"

I reply "Yep." And feel no guilt and a certain amount of glee as I play ADDRESS across fake for FAKED, use all my letters again, and score another 63 points.

The score is now 126 to 11, and my opponent resigns.

Normally I am sad when an imbalanced game causes an opponent to resign before it's done. Not in this case.

comments

A good weekend+.

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 03:54:41 GMT

A long long weekend is a good thing. we flew to Minneapolis for a reunion/gaming convention with friends from a gaming club at college. (Well, friends and strangers; it spans all the years of the club and some of them were unknown to us before the gathering, plus some friends and spouses/partners were brought.)

( Over-detailed description of weekend, with lots of baby-related babble, yo! )

There were many many photos. None of them are presently online. I'll fix that some other time, later this week I hope.

comments

Celestial Steed.... (World of Warcraft)

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 02:02:18 GMT

Okay, I admit it: I bought the celestial steed in World of Warcraft.

It amuses me to see the number of people who criticize the number of people who have. (Judging from the number of people I see riding one, it was obviously a pretty good business decision on Blizzard's part.) Who are we, some of them ask, to think we're so special for having a mount that just cost real world money, not hard game work?

Anyone who is talking about how they are super-special for it deserves that response.

But most of those of us running around with it aren't claiming to be cool. (I restricted my saying even "isn't this cool" to Scott, until this post, actually. And I think a couple people in my guild. And that was claiming the mount was cool, which it is, IMO.) We're just running around playing the game, and enjoying the mount (hopefully, anyway; I feel bad for anyone who bought it and isn't enjoying it).

Here's why I bought the mount and why I love it:

1. It's pretty. Really, really pretty. This is my number one reason: watching it makes me happy, so having one I can ride and therefore see lots makes me happy.

2. Never again having to buy a mount with in-game gold for any alt, as you level up. You have to buy the riding training, but not the mount since you'll always have a celestial steed (every character on that account gets one).

3. I didn't realize this when I bought it, but not having to keep two mounts on action bars, since the celestial steed acts as a ground mount when appropriate, even if you can fly. (This is not as big a deal as it would have been back when mounts took up inventory slots, though.) It doesn't do one thing I wish it did - when you're in Dalaran and move into or out of the flight area, it doesn't switch between flying and ground modes. It stays ground going in; coming out it dismounts you. You can remount in either case to switch modes, but it isn't seamless.

There are a number of mounts that are very cool to have and make you look super-cool and special because you did that - that being whatever is needed to get them. The celestial steed isn't one, considering that buying stuff isn't real difficult. But it's pretty, and it has some minor game advantages, and I like it anyway.

I feel pretty good about buying it, until someone goes off about how stupid/silly/full of ourselves the people who bought it are. Even then I just feel a little self-conscious...and then I go back to watching the pretty, and playing the game.

comments

We are such geeks.

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 20:01:13 GMT

So, last night from 5-10, Drew's daycare did a special session the kids could go to for an extra fee - a "pajama party" while parents had a nice night out for Valentine's weekend.

We took Drew. And then we came home and played World of Warcraft, cooked beans, and did laundry. LOL. The date part was WoW - we hardly ever dare to do anything like an instance any more, even a short one, as they're all too likely to be interrupted. It was fun! Silly, but fun.

Also yesterday we got Drew new shoes - he does need them for if he's outside as he does stand and cruise and will presumably toddle soon - which went surprisingly well. He likes his new shoes. Alas, he shut a thumb in a toy at the shoe store. No damage done except that he was VERY unhappy for a little bit.

I let him have a bit of my (unsalted) soft pretzel. He promptly leaned over and tore off a section about 2 inches long. LOL! I guess he likes pretzel, and I guess I should be better prepared to protect mine. ;)

Then we went to the YMCA swimming pool. We skipped the lesson this morning and will for the rest of this session. He is getting too upset at them. Instead we'll go during open/family swims. Early in the baby lesson they put them on their back. He hates it. And he hates being forced at their pace. And the lessons are pretty much ON his morning nap time. He was starting to dislike water and not trust us. So we took him in the afternoon - he slept in the car and when he woke we took him in and swam. He was VERY wary for a minute or so until he realized he wasn't having to do anything he didn't want to, and there wasn't a circle of parents-and-babies, and hey look the water bubblers and splashers are running and there are bigger kids and things to watch....

We stayed in for about 45 minutes and you could just see him unwind over the first 15 until he was having a total blast. And we still practiced lots of swimming stuff (kicks, splashes, blowing bubbles, climbing out) - we just didn't force, we coaxed, and we didn't flip him on his back. That'll come in time. For now, I'm glad to have his trust back in us in the water.

comments