Perhaps I need to get sis one of my recent toys for 2010, so she can be as on-the-ball as me in getting my weird references. Thanks to this, I’m on-the-ball every day, and it beats the hell out of my uber-squeaky old desk chair.

James asked me last night how I’d enjoyed getting back into gaming again, and I had to say I enjoyed it, even if I did remember how much I hated Cthulhu. I figured I ought to clarify a little. In D&D for example, you’re going to make some kind of adventurer whose life it likely is to seek fortune and glory, so getting you into a story isn’t too hard. But why are we going to sneak into wherever or fight this so-and-so? Because of the treasure/fame/reward/whatever. There you go. 

 In Cthulhu, you make pretty much regular people, who are supposed to start the game with zero knowledge of the existence of any supernatural mumbo-jumbo in their world. Thus, when the gamemaster conspires to put you in a situation where something is amiss, you’re probably pretty likely to accept reasonable explanations for things that you run across. That is to say, why should we go investigate why the train is stopped when the nice man just explained it’s only a temporary delay and they have it under control instead of going to wait in our cabins as instructed? 

Most of our party are just ordinary passengers, no special train expertise to be helpful to the effort, no reason to distrust the nice train employee, so why wouldn’t we go back to the cabin and wait the 20 minutes like we were told? Simple, because we’re all people who know we’re playing characters in the messed up world of Cthulhu and in all likelikhood something is about to eat/appear on/or dimensionally shift the train we’re on if we don’t check it out NOW! In 20 minutes, their “evil scheme” could be done, and since we don’t like to have to roll up new characters everytime we sit down to play, we take our “ordinary people” and make them do things that are really out of character.

You solve this problem, I think, by making only characters that have inherent reason to be curious/insane/paranoid/distrustful anyway, so even as ordinary Joe’s who may not think something cosmically bad is about to happen, are still curious enough to be wary when the nice train official says “nothing to see here! Move along!” so at least it makes sense why they might try to get their own look at the problem instead of taking somebody’s word for it.

Breaking in new characters is always the worst, though. Pretty much anybody, if you slap them in the face with some Cthulhu horror and they manage to not go completely insane or be eaten by it, will likely rethink their current course in life and start to be a little paranoid and curious, and thus become a perfectly good investigator type. More likely, though, your character will blindly go headfirst into the gaping maw of the beast because they simply don’t know yet that such a beast exists and might be hungry, because you as a player have to keep making your character rationalize things into the normal instead of the paranormal you know it is.

Thus, unless you are just danged lucky, despite your own personal knowledge of the world of the weird, your newbie is going to accept the drink from the stranger/let the weird doctor give them the injection/gladly hold the big ugly book for the nice man/go back to their sleeper cabin and relax like they were told, and next thing you know you’re rolling up another character.

My solution this time? A character based loosely on the eccentric Robert Ripley of Ripley’s Believe it or Not fame. An explorer/writer type in search of the weird, quick to want to investigate things that might seem out of the norm… which can be good to get us into adventures, but will likely result in me lingering too long to take photos of the weird tracks until the thing that made them comes back to eat me. Either way, I expect he’ll be fun once we get into it. I think I’m going to have to add “shrunken head” and “petrified monkey” to my inventory, though, just to add to the quirkiness of my guy. The actual Robert Ripley had the largest car collection of his day, but never learned how to drive, had a collection of weird pets, and enjoyed wearing outfits from other countries, so I think he may actually have been more insane than I can play for my character at this point. Dunno, though. If I survive this and get a few more sanity points down, we’ll see.

Had a lot of fun today personally just taking pictures of everyone, the wacky packages of consumer product, and the crazy pyro shirts. Scary mustachioed old-lady from Texas was wearing a “Warning: Hot Flashes! Instant Ignite!” shirt. Will just have to post pics of the fireworks packages, because words cannot do them justice… lets just say, apparently sex sells everything, including consumer fireworks. Also found some “pops” labelled not for children. Never seen such things before, but hear they are fun to attach to car tires, bottoms of toilet seats, etc. etc. Spent rest of day checking under every toilet seat before I sat down.

Have to say, temps in the 70s by day and 40s by night sucks when you’re at an event that takes place on a remote farm in the middle of nowhere and you’re outside all day and night. Was an interesting day, though. Joyce made a rocket, and we watched tons of cool things being built – and helped where we could. Watched the competition this evening, then sat in the cars to warm up while we watched most of the open shoot. Tomorrow the boys have to be in class at 8AM to be shooter certified, then hopefully they find out if we get admitted to FPAG officially, learn the secret handshakes and all that. Then they get to go to another class to build a shell to fire that evening, and then dinner, awards and the “really big show” goes down … where they expect all 350 or so registered folks to attend.

Lastly, it’s not all over yet, but if ever I thought Pete and James were crazy with some pyro notion… this crowd makes them look safe, sound, sane, clean and sober. We’ve learned a lot this first time attending, so next year… IF next year… for us, should be more fun. Layers. Flashlights. Cooler. Camp chairs. Blankets! Firewood! The bus Pete is bidding on… etc. etc. etc.

Okay… past time to pass out. Just wanted to get all this down in case I get impaled by a falling stick from a rocket tomorrow.

But anyway… I do babble. Shot at 7pm, cleaned up site and home by 8:30pm. Thus, it just felt like we’d done something wrong because there was still so much evening left to burn. At least we had Joyce & Pete’s newly lightning-replaced big screen to watch.

This morning we did a final disposal of our three carved pumpkins, with a couple of entertainingly dramatic quarter-sticks of dynamite for two of them. The lids seemed to fly sky-high with a slow rotation, while the rest of the pumpkins just chunked and blew in all directions.

The third pumpkin had a leftover titanium salute placed inside, which James proceeded to attempt to shoot. It was my favorite, carved with a smirky smile which we originally thought just looked like he was oblivious to the fact that he was about to go boom! After emptying a couple clips trying to find the salute shell inside the pumpkin, however, he just seemed to be mocking the shooters. After having shot enough to put us all off guard, and leaving the pumpkin looking more like swiss cheese, James finally hits his mark with a rifle. EVER so much more efficient than a quarter-stick, instead of flying chunks you could see, the salute exploding simply caused the pumpkin to cease to be, replaced by a huge puff of smoke. Almost looked like a magic trick… now you see it, now you don’t.

Anywho… trapped now in Winfield with the Talladega race crowd between us and home, we’re still hanging out. We’ve already gotten to go through a huge collection of Barbie’s and Ken’s today, and I have a couple pictures to post of their fabulousness. Unfortunately, only camera phone pics this weekend. James and I both neglected to pack a camera, and Joyce’s seems to have died. This was the first paid show we’ve done that I haven’t filmed. =\

Last funny note: When Joyce told Angela by phone that we were blowing up pumpkins this morning, Angela said we were retarded. Dennis, however, thinks we are the coolest people ever.

I can see the way out of this hole… it’s not an oubliette after all.

In other matters:
10K Classic went well. Yes, I actually did it. Wow, I did not expect them to take photos of the participants as they approach the finish line. Who’d want to buy that? Not me. Egads!

Light the Night walk approaches, and so far so good that mom is still interested in joining me. The notion of us doing this together, maybe even with sis and aunt G, well, just makes me really happy. Cannot believe how generous everyone has been with donations.

I’m sure the recent “100-year record” rain and flooding have reminding many folks of the many hidden joys of homeownership, and we haven’t been spared. Turns out our house is deep in need of some maintenance now… some water leaks in unexpected places, likely need a roof soon and gutter work, and our front retaining wall seems to be sagging. Nothing catastrophic from the rain, thank goodness, but there is a healthy list of things to do building up for sure.

I’m wondering if todays lovely cool weather and sunshine might be contributing to my overall good mood. Probably. Don’t tell JamesT, but I do love fall best of all! Whoops! =)

I should probalby also make a note not to barely eat all day then dive into a bottle of wine with dinner. *the spinning is fun!* In fact, all that sugar plus wine: uber spinny-fun.

Meanwhile… in the downstairs, right now, JamesT is using a borrowed carpet cleaner to try to suck up the water from the carpet in the den around the bathroom door. Wow do we need to fix/finish that half-bath. I had cheaper home projects in mind first, but… we’ll see.

Max and A.J. are the official cat names, I guess. Maximilian had just stuck in my head after Inglorious Basterds – the German soldiers new baby boy, and A.J. sort of evolved. Technically he’s our “almond joy” cat, since he still has nuts, and well, myself and Kitty confined ourselves to the den and watched Armageddon the first day we decided to let the new cats explore the upstairs, so A.J. just seemed to work out. And perhaps I was just a bit creeped out at naming both cats after Stephen King story cats.

Max – the tabby – is working on being my buddy, though we haven’t quite figured each other out. He has taken to meowing a lot at times when I can’t work out what he wants. A.J. is still too shy to hang out with people, so its probably just a little lonliness for him not being around, too.

Kitty has done outstanding with the new arrivals. No fighting at all. She’s curious about them, enjoying the placement of food and litter box in an alternate location, and all the new toys. So far she’s only really gotten pissed at each new cat when they tried the same move on her independently — tried to come up and groom her. She’s not having any snuggle-time with these guys yet. Not really sure she knows what its all about, as it seems to REALLY freak her out.

A.J. needs a vet appointment in the next couple weeks, so I hope he gets a little more comfortable with people soon. I wonder if afterwards we’ll need to change his name to “Mounds”.

Oh well. Bed now. Up at 4:30 is hard, but I haven’t turned on the tv tonight and all that wine seems to be doing the trick to knock me out.

I have an appointment Wednesday at lunch to test drive a potential new vehicle, which I’m strangely excited about. I really think Spyhunter has gone on it’s last mission. Changing the air filter did nothing to stop the running very hot it’s been doing since the wedding, it’s sputtering even more, and as of the last leg of this weekend’s trip we can add in intermittent A/C. I’m just SO glad that I’m already driving a car with an average mpg of 22 so I don’t qualify for this clunker credit, though, let me tell you.

The reunion went so well, though there were still a lot of faces missing that I’d like to see again. There’s always next year… so yeah, the suggestion was thrown out that we try this simple, inexpensive picnic notion every year and maybe work on something “special” for the 25, which we can plan together in the upcoming picnics. It’ll give us time to gather more faces and figure out what we’d enjoy doing together… maybe even a group trip someplace. I’m genuinely excited at the notion of it all!

Kitty was once again pretty freaked out when we got home. Second time we’ve left her alone, and she’s going right back to the pre-Smudge crazy behavior. I guess she just misses us, but she really did seem less desperate for attention when she’d had company while we were gone. Though, talked to sis and they left three cats home while they vacationed and all three were attention-whores when they got home, each one jealously vying for lap time.

It may or may not be apparent that we stayed in a hotel for this trip up for the reunion, and certainly enjoyed some pool time while we were there. We did, however, have to stop by mom’s, and I’m sad to say things were no better. Worse, actually, though I don’t think I have the inclination to spell it all out here right now — must be the TheraFlu kicking in, as I’m getting sleepy finally, though I still can’t really breathe through my nose. I’m attempting to be kind to JamesT tonight by sleeping in the guest bed instead of keeping him up all night like last night.

There are actually a couple things from this weekend I need to set down someplace, but I’ll wait for a clearer head. Just hope this sinus funk doesn’t get in the way of dinner with Maggie and her folks when they get to town. Still haven’t really processed that by Friday she won’t be living here anymore, but heck we’ve been so busy it seems we rarely chat other than via the internets anyway. Can’t see as Texas or Oklahoma or wherever will make much difference, other than perhaps a little more planning involved for when we DO want to get together in person. Anything’s doable, though, and with a new car on the horizon, I’m sure I’ll be itching to hit the road and start putting the miles on…

So, James had a dream, where he opened the patio door to go water and Kitty ran out. He stepped back in to grab her harness, and when he came out he found her just sitting up by Smudge’s grave. I think it was a sweet dream, and probably us projecting that Kitty misses him, too.  It’s one of those things that is weighing on us as to whether to get another cat right now or not. We have to go out of town again to do two fireworks shows for the 4th, so I guess whether or not she’s all crazy again after our absense will help us decide. I don’t think we really want another kitten though, and –speak of the devil, I’ve sat still here for 5 minutes so it’s time for Kitty to be crawling on me — instead I have been looking for 2-3 year old cats on craigslist, hopefully as grown as they’ll be and already used to people and other pets. James, I’m sure, is looking for Savannah cats again.

So, mom called yesterday. She hadn’t gotten my letter yet, but had talked to Joyce and heard about Smudge. She could hear me making dinner over the phone, so she wouldn’t talk long. Nothing was resolved. She told me she was sorry about Smudge, sorry she hadn’t called sooner, and sorry she had to lie to Dennis about driving down to Alabama for the 4th. We hung up with our “usual” I love yous, but I’m still not going to be calling her. We probably will just stay there for my reunion, but I’m not sure I’ll even call until we’re in town.

So, this is week 3 out of bootcamp. I was going to start back today, which is probably why my sinuses went nuts. Instead, I’ll do next week. I have to get back in the habit. Two weeks of crappy sleep, crappy food, too many desserts, forgetting vitamins, booze instead of water, and of course the fabulous emotional roller-coaster, well, they’ve left me pretty vulnerable.

So, we’ve recently watched Road House, Top Gun and Independence Day with rifftrax, and I watched Crossroads, which needs a rifftrax. I’ve also had a desire to watch Beastmaster, Krull, and Ice Pirates. This leads me to believe I must have an incurable brain fever which is causing me to crave and enjoy crappy 80s movies. Oooh… yes, maybe even a little Pirate Movie would be good. I clearly need help.

I’m not even IN this wedding and I have just picked up yet ANOTHER possible dress I want to wear to it. I’ve got quite the array, and should be able to cover whatever mood I’m in day of the event. I even have them narrowed down so James only has to bring two ties to match any and everything I have. So, I know at least WE will be dressed…

24 days. This weekend, Alabama trip. Staining/finishing the floor in the pavilion. Joyce has picked up our “big-ass roll” of fabric, and it’s time for the final assessment of what we still might need to order or buy while we still have the time to do it.

Next weekend, “Girl’s weekend” for James’ mom’s birthday, where hopefully I can manage to relax and maybe even borrow some nice jewelry to wear with my array of dresses. We’ll likely get a mani & pedi and I’ll see if there’s a chance in heck I can maintain it for two weeks. Shyeah. Need to color my hair, too.

Then the following weekend, June 13 I leave for “week of wedding”, which I have mostly off work, with the promise to check on things daily a couple times, and will attempt to keep sis and myself sane as we finalize things and set up the event. Most of the rest of the family will be arriving on Wednesday, so we should have a lot of help.

James is downstairs soldering cables for the new fireworks firing system which will debut at this show. Actually, sis talked to the caterers today to confirm and see if they’d leave us some items to return the next day and they’ve said that if we’re doing fireworks and having an open bar, that they might just stick around for the whole party.

Mmmm… open bar. Which reminds me… must go liquor shopping. Wonder where I can find a site to help me scale up a drink recipe to mass quantities so I can mix up a gallon or so of things. So much work to be done still.

But now, time for tv and a workout.