Time?

So… I am still alive. (yay!)

And I have a blog. (yay!)

And I have a baby. (double-yay!)

What I don’t have, apparently, is time. It’s not that I don’t want to post. It’s not even really that I have nothing to say (though y’alls opinions on nothing to say may not match mine. Poop is a valid conversational topic, I assure you.) But snagging time for a post around baby (who loves me and never wants me to put him down EVER) is more difficult than anticipated.

But that’s okay, and totally worth it.

Ian is just over 5 months now, and I wouldn’t trade that time for anything. Not even for more sleep. 😉

Ian and Daddy

Oh hey, I have a blog…

No I didn’t really forget. I mean, I kinda forgot. I forgot in that “never think about it when I have the opportunity to do something about it” kinda way that’s like forgetting, but really a whole lot more like laziness.

I never said I wasn’t lazy.  At least I can reasonably argue that I was distracted.

1) We moved. We’re actually settled in. There are a few unpacked boxes, but they’re “these boxes are boxes and will remain packed because the stuff in them needs to be in boxes” kinda way. The only real unpacking we need to do is finally getting around to getting rid of several years worth of old CPUs that are sitting in the corner over there staring at me.

2) Dragon Age 2 came out. There was also a big deal on ME/ME2 to celebrate. I invested quite a few game hours on the former, and quite a few watching-hours on the latter, since my evening of ME was full of frustration and death. (Yes, I was playing on casual)

3) OMG we’re having a fucking baby. Lots of trips to the Dr. Lots of classes. Lots of time spent on Amazon.  Lots of wrangling of parental units. Lots of laundry (oh god, baby socks are so adorable, but they are completely overwhelming with their tininess. And folding onesies make me cry because there’s going to be a BABY in them in a month.)

I do have a hate-on for my Dr at the moment, however. I’ve gone from frustrated to sad to angry over the course of the past couple weeks… but please bear in mind that I’m about to explode with baby, so I’m considered mentally unstable under any court of law.

So, a week and a half ago, I get a nice little form letter from my Dr, saying she’s going to be retiring from her practice as of June 31. For those boys and girls keeping track at home, that’s less than 2 weeks before my due date. So the Dr who’s seen/bullied me through these months of pregnancy is suddenly disappearing. I don’t like change. This upsets me. I mean, you gotta do what you gotta do, but why could she have not announced this sooner? Or stopped accepting new OB patients and seen her current batch through to delivery first?

So I’m feeling kinda RAR!

Monday, I go in for my final ultrasound.  Due to the results of my 22-week ultrasound (back in March), I’ve had to go in several times to monitor baby’s health/size. (For the record, Super-Psychic-Kung-Fu-Ninja-Baby is a two-vessel cord baby. Which can lead to baby being small/not developing on schedule. Scary for the announcement, but has developed perfectly normally since. In fact, baby is estimated to be a ~8lb’er, and 7.5lb is considered statistical average) Everything looks good, and the Dr doing the ultrasound tells me that I don’t need to come back for any more monitoring. Yay!

Tuesday, I have my appointment. I go in, planning on talking to my Dr about the letter she sent out, as well as ping her for advice as to the Drs she recommends seeing me through the last week or two of pregnancy. She drops the bomb.

You know, the bomb related to me having a two-vessel cord pregnancy? The bomb related to the thing she’s known since EARLY MARCH?

The bomb where she says “Oh, and because you’re a two-vessel, you’re probably going to have a C-Section or at the least be induced.”

Excuse me? What? Where is this coming from?

“First time pregnancies almost always run long.  And since you’re a two-vessel pregnancy, they don’t want growth-restricted babies staying past the 40-week mark.”

Growth restricted? You just told me baby was doing great. The other Dr told me baby was doing great. Baby’s head is at 95% (whatever the hell that means, I’m assuming it means head’s almost fully developed) and is estimated to be an 8lb’er.  Where’s the growth restriction?

I mean, I’m all for induction and caesarian as a good back-up plan. Sometimes baby just doesn’t want to come, or can’t get out, or any number of reasons where they are medical necessities. I mean, I wouldn’t be terribly happy had you told me 3 months ago that you felt it was likely, but I would have been able to deal with it at a time when I’m not already stressed, super pregnant, can barely walk and can’t sleep.

But no, out of the blue. Fuck you.

Post potentially full of too much TMI

I’ve been waffling a bit in a should-I-shouldn’t-I kinda way about making a post about this whole pregnancy thing, and the baby thing, and all those things. Usually, I try to stay away from anything *too* personal, I mean this is a personal blog, so everything in it is personal by definition… But it’s also public and the public doesn’t need to really know about every time I clip my toenails.

But pregnancy makes people chatty (or maybe it’s just me; I’m not too social, twitter notwithstanding, so I’m not on any of the “mommy-boards” or anything like that) and it’s come up tangentially in a few conversations, so I figure what the hell.

This may be TMI, it may be boring, it may be something y’all want to skip because hey, way more of me than you want. And that’s totally cool, I don’t blame you a bit.

Shit people don’t tell you about before you get pregnant

1.  Everyone knows about morning sickness. I think most people probably think that morning sickness is the way people first discover they’re pregnant. And for some, that may be true– but there’s a whole load of other potential symptoms that they don’t mention.  First, morning sickness is a misnomer. It’s not some magical thing where you wake up with a hangover every morning, and are fine by lunchtime. It hits everyone different and doesn’t hit everyone at all. Just as likely are the “post meal sickness” the “wake up in the middle of the night sickness” and “the all day sickness” And joy of joys, you can shuffle through all the above during the first trimester! Second, you know your old buddy PMS? Sore breasts, crampy belly, irritability? Yeah, those are symptoms too. So are exhaustion, and weird taste changes. Related:

2.  It’s not just cravings for pickles and icecream. I mean, you may be craving that combination, I don’t know. Supposedly, icecream is the #1 craving among pregnant women (I don’t know how they figure that, Ben and Jerry were two of my best buds before I got pregnant.) The part the don’t mention is your sense of taste actually changes. Foods you used to love taste like shit (grilled asparagus turned to burnt peat moss to me, not that I know how that tastes, but it tastes like burning peat smells) and foods you used to dislike suddenly are the best things ever (I could write epic poetry to my current love of red bell pepper.) You can also taste things stronger; I’ve become hyper aware of the amount of salt and sugar in foods, too much and it’s completely overpowering, also my love of spicy foods has been thwarted by my super-sensitive mouth and lips. Little bit of heat, and boy do I feel it.

3.  Keeping with the food theme, you’re not always going to be more-hungry. You’ve got a baby in there, stuff is being rearranged. The amount you can actually eat in any given meal shrinks dramatically as the pregnancy progresses.  All those jokes about pregnant ladies eating four servings of everything? I call shenanigans. My average portion size has shrunk (though portion control was always a problem for me to begin with.) What I do notice is I’m hungry more often. If we’re in the middle of something and whatever meal is late, I know it. My stomach reminds me constantly, to the point where all I can think about is food and how hungry I am.

4.  Speaking of shuffling, your insides shuffle. Specifically, everything in your abdomen gets pushed UP by baby. Your belly starts feeling like it’s getting big way before you’d expect it to. Like, month 2-3, you’ll start getting bigger between the belly button and the ribs. Baby goes up before baby goes out.

5.  Your boobs don’t stop growing, like, ever. Don’t be dumb like me and try to put off buying bras until they’ve stabilized. They don’t. Go to the store, go up the cup size, grow into them. (Or, if you live in Charlottesville, get talked into the balconette bra, cause if you’re gonna be overflowing anyway, you might as well overflow up with shelf/wench boobs and killer cleavage and take advantage of it while it lasts.) Seriously, you’re going to gain ~1 lb. in each.

6.  Also, you can start producing in the second trimester. Yes, 4-6 months before anyone’s gonna be turning to your boobs as a source of nourishment, you can start needing to worry about the big wet spots on the front of your shirts. (Related– Dear boobs, I hate you so much. You suck. No love, me.)

7.  Stretch marks itch. And you’re going to get them. Your belly button is going to itch. And it’s not ever ever ever going to stop. (More specifically, it’s not gonna stop until you stop growing.)

8.  Every part of your body is going to be working overtime. Your nails will grow like crazy, and get super-stronger. Your hair will do the same. This is awesome if you want to grow your hair out, less good if you like getting manicures (well, less good for the pocket book as you’ll constantly need retouches). Also, all your mucus membranes are going CRAZY doing dress rehearsals to… er… grease the way. Unfortunately, your body doesn’t recognize the difference between the mucus membranes that NEED the extra greasing and the ones that don’t…  Like… your sinuses. It’s like the worst nasal congestion/allergies of your life, and like everything else, it doesn’t stop until baby comes.

9.  You know that feeling when your eyelid starts twitching like crazy, and it’s aggravating and completely in-your-focus noticeable but you can’t do anything with it? That’s what your belly feels like once the baby starts really moving. My mom and mother-in-law talked about flutterings and butterflies and bubbles… maybe that’s what they got, I got elbows and kung fu.

10.  Baby shit’s expensive. No, no, no, I know that’s obvious, but hear me out… Baby needs shit you wouldn’t normally even think of, especially cause you need such a variety of it. Find a guide. Check out consumer reports and factory/governmental recalls, and buy everything used that you can. Babies grow so fast, you can usually count on SOMEONE you or a close family member knows (or hell, a close family member) that you can inherit clothes from.

11.  You need to make a lot of decisions early. Who’s your pediatrician going to be? Set up a pre-birth appointment so you can meet each other, and they’ll have your expected delivery date so they won’t be surprised going “who’s this” when the hospital calls them and says they have a patient once you’ve given birth. Are you going to learn the gender? Are you going to circumsize? Are you going to breast- or bottle-feed? What are you going to do about schooling? Church? Sports? The arts?

12.  Baby likes to sit on your hips. And when baby sits on your hips, baby sits on the veins and nerve bundles going to your hip and leg. And when baby sits on those veins and nerve bundles, you lose all control of your hip and some control of your leg, meaning you can very easily end up on the ground. You’ve got a LOT of blood in your body, it’s not the “get up too fast and fall because all the blood rushed out of my head” it’s “get up too fast and fall because my leg doesn’t work”  It’s about as fun as it sounds.

13.  I would think of a 13 but I’m hungry and distracted.

RL post

So, tomorrow is the busy day of busy days. We have our 22-week ultrasound at 9, which for those following along from home is the “big one.” You know, the one where they tell you “oh it’s a {fill in the blank here}” if you want. Well, to be specific, it’s the one where we hope kung-fu baby is modest and doesn’t go flashing it’s crotch at the camera cause we don’t want to know.

I’m not entirely counting on it. Baby has proven itself quite adept at doing exactly what is not wanted at that moment. (I swear, it’s gonna be a boy.)

But, gender issues aside, I’ll hopefully be able to fend off ravening future-grandmas with new pictures. Since every time I talk to my mom, she only wants to talk about the baby.

Though, that’s somewhat understandable her wanting good/happy news. Stuff in California isn’t going so great. My grandfather, who is in his mid-80s, was just diagnosed with prostate cancer. It’s aggressive, which is bad, but it hasn’t spread, it was caught early, and he’s totally healthy otherwise, which is all good. He’s expected to make a full recovery, but he’s going to be in the middle of his radiation treatment when the baby is born. And I’d just convinced them to come out this summer, too.

I know it’s selfish, but once I heard he WAS expected to make a full recovery, that’s the part that gets me worst.

Also, my uncle has just been admitted into the hospital. He finally let my grandparents call an ambulance for him to deal with the slow suicide he’s been committing over the past two years since his wife died. He may weigh 80lb.

I’m really really worried for my grandmother, with all these things happening almost at once.

So, I don’t really mind my mom only wanting to talk about the baby. I hope tomorrow there are new picture(s) I can show her.

The rest of tomorrow, we’ll be at the new house doing all the final inspections. Not much to say there, really, just that we’ll totally be running around like crazy trying to get everything together. That and I hate moving..

More on MMOs

(OHAI GUYZ. I MADE A POST.)

So, as mentioned MUCH earlier (like… nearly a year ago-earlier) two of the big MMOs in our sights were GW2 and SWTOR.  Oh, I suppose to be more specific, the fact that GW2 and SWTOR had been in our sights, but GW2 was quickly falling off the radar, as far as personal preferences go.  GW2 was just sounding more and more like not the kind of game I wanted to play.  SWTOR won by default, with David’s devotion to everything Bioware and Star Wars (except the prequels… we don’t talk about those) overwhelming the more distant “that seems kinda interesting” feelings I had toward GW.  GW appearing to become more and more the type of game neither of us wanted to play was really the nail in the coffin.

SWTOR became our new hope.  (u c wut i did thar?)  Both Bioware and LucasArts were stingy with information, close mouthed and doling it out in minute drops.  We even ended up resubscribing to WoW, since we’d been goofing off on some other F2P games, but finding them less-fun than the Blizzard Behemoth. We even had high hopes for Cataclysm, dropping the money and getting about a months worth of playtime in it before (re-)discovering that WoW just doesn’t do it for us anymore.

As is also probably obvious from another recent post of mine, I discovered Rift. I didn’t go into it with any real expectations… Over the summer, David and I had gotten into the habit of signing up for any betas/F2Ps that looked even remotely interesting. And the soul system of Rift was definitely interesting enough to get a beta key and spend some quality time with the downloader. I certainly didn’t intend to enjoy it as much as I did. And suddenly, my Rift-raves started to sound a lot like David’s devotion to SWTOR.  There was once again two games on our potential horizon.

Granted, the likelihood of being able to start Rift much before SWTOR’s release (since they’re aiming for sometime this year) is a bit iffy due to a total MMO hiatus until end of summer due to baby.  It just puts them on more even footing. And while Rift appeals to me for the aspects of it, it also appeals because it’s a known quantity, which due to the secrecy surrounding SWTOR, you can’t say about the Other Game.

But I’ve still been keeping track. I watch MMO news/blog sites, and SWTOR is still in the running for Next Big Thing, with all the supposition and commentary you’d expect to find when people are left to their own devices to interpret vague developer comments.

Well, I’ve been watching those vague developer comments, and…  I’m not really liking where it SEEMS like it’s going.

First off, I may not share David’s love for them, but I have a lot of respect for Bioware. They make some great games. I also grew up on Star Wars, though my devotion to the franchise is… not terribly devoted.  David loves both, with a love matched only by his love of good chocolate and weird beers.

Just to get that out there before I start.  Ahem.

Okay, so.  Bioware has stated that they want to use SWTOR to put the RPG back in MMORPGs. But I’m worried that they’re going to make an awesome subscription-based RPG, that misses the whole MMO boat.  There’s not a lot of detail as to what they actually mean by their comment, beyond some mentions of the class quests. Well, this sets me to worrying… What is the primary function of the RPG? You, playing a pivotal character. A hero. When you think of RPGs, you think of heroes. MMOs lend themselves much more to adventurers than heroes. The bar is lower. The club is more open. It’s more “reasonable” to see multiple high-level characters running around.  To poke at the RPG aspect, it doesn’t ruin your immersion, which seeing a 100 other people who are heroes Just Like You would do in a traditional RPG. Playing a hero works in a single player game. You’re the only one awesome enough to be controlled by someone NOT the computer, after all.  MMOs require it to work in a setting surrounded by other people.

Also, Bioware wants to focus more on the class quest lines. Now, I have NO IDEA how important these will be, or how much time they’ll take up. But it’s pretty likely that all the real pivotal moments of gameplay for your character, the real character development, will come from these class quests. Well, guess what? Unless you want to create a party of all Jedi Knights, you’re going to be looking at a lot of time soloing, or potentially helping your buddy through run around and kill stuff quests that you can’t actually participate in yourself.  (Have I mentioned recently that I don’t solo? Cause I don’t.)

I’m also REALLY worried about the crews. I mean, think about it. You have minions. These minions do all your crafting/gathering/professioning, leaving you to be awesome. They also interact with you, have deep and meaningful quests and storylines, and can even be romanced.

Why would you want to play with other players? I mean really… You could have SnarkyRobotDPS backing you up and providing witty commentary tailored to your current progress on his storyline… or you could have IMAJEDILOL and his endless piles of leetspeek.

Is SWTOR a MMO? I’ve forgotten.

(Special thanks to Larry Everett at Massively, who made a post summing up/sharing all my concerns.  He probably does a MUCH better job putting them together than I do, and you all should read it.)

So, Rift…

Okay, I’ll fully admit I’m totally ready to eat my words. I’ve seen a lot of hype about Rift, enough to get myself into beta, but… I wasn’t sold on the prospect. I had tried a few characters in the last beta (screenshots at the bottom) and I was torn. The game itself ran well, was polished, and pretty fun… But I was having issues with the characters I made. Each I was dissatisfied with (for stupid Marianne-specific that-makes-no-sense reasons) so each one hit approximately level 7 before I decided it wasn’t for me and tried something else. That was how things stood two weeks ago in Beta 5.

The problems I mentioned above were stupid, I’ll admit. My first attempt at a character was a cleric (of course) in the Defiant faction, and I went for Druid/Shaman/Justicar. Essentially a melee-dps “I hit things with a giant hammer and they FEEL IT” ret pally playstyle with a little fairy to follow me around and play healbot to me and anyone else in my party. We’ve already established that Marianne doesn’t play games alone, and so shit DIED. Shit died so fast David and I didn’t even have time to blink. Listening to chat over the course of her 1-7 grind, I seemed to have stumbled upon the best cleric leveling build, one of the better leveling builds in the game as it stands, purely by accident.  I picked things that seemed to go together and, um, it totally went together.

So, yeah, I stopped playing a character because it was OP and I was bored. Go me.

Attempt number two went somewhat like the first. I made another character, this time a rogue and Guardian faction, because I wanted to try it (both class and other faction’s quests) out. Now, I’d done melee last time, so I decided I wanted to be ranged, and there is a bard soul for rogue as well, so I knew I had to pick that up. So I decided to go Ranger/Marksman/Bard. Ranger gave me a pet and some ranged shots, Marksman gives MOAR RANGED DAMAGE, and bard gives general group buffs, as well as the ability to channel music at enemies and smite them down with it.  Bard was pretty awesome, and it made me giggle. However, there was a slight problem: shit died. Shit died WAY TOO EASILY. Where was the challenge in this game? All I’d seen so far was stuff dies almost as soon as I look at it. Sure enough, I’ve picked the “best” solo rogue leveling build and one of the best in the game once again. Once again, I’m not leveling solo. Once again, I’m bored out of my mind. I want games that can actually be a challenge, damnit!

Fast forward to last Friday, the start of Beta 6. I’m somewhat hesitant to play, even though I’ve only tried half the classes, and a VERY SMALL FRACTION of the potential soul combinations. (thank you firefox, combinations IS a word. :P) There are also a couple things that I still really WANT to try, more than just “I should try this cause I haven’t.” I’ve also seen a lot of RAVE reviews, mostly from people and sources I trust, all saying the game is awesome and implying it takes a bit to get going. So I decide to go for it. So the plan was hatched: Find a character I want to play and get past level 7, aim for 10 or 15, and see when the game starts getting good and how good it is.

First step is resetting to my default. I look for characters and classes who are purely support and go from there. First try was a mage, specifically a Chloromancer/Dominator/Archon. I have buffs, I have CC, and I have healing debuffs. We’re back Defiant because mad science > religious zealotry. I’m trying Chloromancer because it’s a very interesting and different type of class from any I’ve seen before. I attack my target with debuffs which have a chance to cause healing to anyone hitting that target. Unfortunately, I’m somewhat flailing because my damage is shit, we totally don’t need CC, and the chance to heal is pretty low until you get a chunk of points invested in the class. I seem to have bypassed “support” and gone straight to “useless” so alas, she gets set aside as well.

By now, I’m beginning to flail. Doing the dishes Friday night, I’m whining at David about the game, the fact it’s either too easy or too useless, that Trion needs to be able to sell a game in the first 5 levels, not wait until it gets fun at some unspecified “later” and generally being a ranty mess. David, since this beta and game was my idea anyway, reasonably suggests quitting if it’s not being fun.  I decide no, I’m gonna push forward a bit. There’s one more thing that’s on my list to try, and I want to try it before I was my hands of the game entirely.

You guessed it, I rolled another cleric. This one a Sentinel/Purifier/Cabalist, basically as close as Rift comes to WoW’s holy priest. Sentinel gives me a variety of heals, including smart-AOE, a Nature’s Swiftness equivalent , and a binding-heal clone at later levels. Purifier gives me some pally-like single-target nuke heals. Cabalist I took because I felt I needed to have SOME DPS ability, but I haven’t actually invested any points in it to speak of.  It just gives me a small boost to spell power and a single 3-target AOE damage spell.

Maybe it’s because we’d just done the Defiant noob zone 2 hours earlier, but we zoom through with nary a pause. I do fail!dps and healing as needed, David does most of the killing. It’s like Vanilla WoW all over again (back when my idea of MMOs was “follow David and heal him”) in some ways, because the DPS of the healbot in Rift is very much less the DPS of a healbot in Cata. But for the first time, we cracked the lv 7 barrier. At lv 8, we were in the first “main zone” of the game, outside of the safe noob areas, and experiencing what Rift was supposed to be about. We learned about questing and Rifts.

By the end of Friday night, Rift was in the category of “more fun” but I was still somewhat skeptical. Sure it’s pretty, sure the classes are *really* interesting, sure I’ve finally found something I’m having a blast with… But those rifts… I’m trying to quest, and I just want to turn this stupid quest in, and I can’t because there’s a rift with elite mobs pouring out of it and oh-god and they’ve killed the quest mob… damnit. We’d participated in a few Rift closings, and they were kinda fun… But when you’re trying to quest it’s kinda a hassle. Sure, it’s fun now, but how will it feel after the 100th? 200th?

By Saturday, I realized I was looking at the game from the wrong perspective. Rift is about it’s name. It’s about closing rifts. THAT’S what you’re supposed to do. Questing is just something you do to kill time while you’re waiting for rifts to pop. The lightbulb went off and I dragged David back into the game with renewed fervor. We spent several hours questing as we went, but spending most of our focus running toward any rifts we happened to see falling out of the sky.  Major invasion? Oh, well we have a quest to turn in to the south, so let’s go for the more southerly rifts first. By the time it came to turn off the computers Sunday for D&D, we’d both reached lv 16, had cleared enough rifts (thanks to a major death invasion) to get the tokens for epic pants, and accumulated the money (after raiding the above-mentioned alts) to snag mounts.

And now, we wait. Beta 6 closes this morning, and there’s one more week-long beta planned for next week leading up to the game’s release. I know I’m going to be playing it. It’s the best thing since sliced bread, and the most fun I’ve had in a game since…  about forever. Therein lies our problem.

Our MMO funds are completely tied up in WoW at the moment. We don’t have the money to play two MMOs, with two monthly fees and two accounts. Right now is also REALLY not the time to purchase the start-up funds for two new MMOs either, not with the house set to close next month and the baby due in July. I’m also WAY more into Rift than David is. David is focused almost entirely on SWTOR, which he’s much more into than I am. About the only thing we do agree on right now is WoW isn’t really doing it for us. What WoW does have is our weekly game night with friends.

Currently the plan is to cancel our account to WoW in late-June/early-July, to end as close to just before the baby is due as possible (since we won’t be playing ANYTHING with a brand newborn), and then reassess or MMO time/desires in August/September, when we’re at the point where we can start thinking about doing things for ourselves again. Maybe then I’ll be able to play Rift. Maybe SWTOR will be released and David’ll snag us into that. Maybe WoW will be the shiznit and we’ll be back there. Or maybe we’ll decide that we don’t want to do any MMOs at all.

So yeah, Rift is awesome, I love it, and I’d totally rate it worth the price of admission. Also, sooper-seekrit message to past-self: When does Rift really get fun? The answer is lv 8-10, when you first get to the open world and can start participating in rift closures. And if any of you are also participating in the beta, feel free to friend Basmajini (me) or Thalis (David) on the Shardfallen server.

Side project

One of the biggest problems David and I have when it comes to cooking is getting stuck in seasonal ruts.  I mean, we’ve a large pile of cookbooks, recipe magazines, printouts and recipe cards, but it’s really too much a pile to dig through when it comes time to do the weekly grocery list.

So we get stuck.  Same half-dozen recipes over and over and over again, just because of the out-of-sight-out-of-mind issue.  If we haven’t made something in a few months, we’re much less likely to remember TO make it than we are pasta bake (which due to ease, appears very regularly on your weekly menu year-round).

So, we’ve decided to take advantage of blogging (and more specifically tagging) to try and organize a virtual recipe box.  One that’s searchable, and more importantly, tagged to reflect our grocery list habits (namely, checking the store to see what’s on sale, and then planning meals around that).

And since people have been interested in our recipes in the past, I’m just gonna drop a quickie link here.  http://dmrecipes.wordpress.com/ (real original URL, I know!)

As mentioned, there’s some pretty aggressive (probably superfluous) tagging going on (for example, shepherd’s pie is tagged both lamb and ground lamb), and it’s still very much a work in progress.  Many of the recipes have already been featured on this blog (copy/paste is a *wonderful* thing) and..  I may keep posting some of the more “keeper” recipes here, or I may just put them all over there.  I haven’t decided yet.

So, yeah, I wanted to throw that out there.  🙂

Children’s Books

David and I are book people.  We read books, collect books, hoard books… and we have for pretty much all our lives.  Books play a big part of our baby registry (and no, that’s not just an excuse).  I’ll admit, it’s a lot of fun going through the Amazon Recommends and reminiscing about reading those books when I was little.

So I thought to myself, “Self?  The people who read your blog like books, several of them like children’s books specifically.  Why don’t you ping them to see if they can add suggestions?”

I have awesome ideas.  So, I beg you:  What books do you recommend for reading to/learning to read with small children?  What books do you remember loving?  What makes them awesome?

(Gonna put our current list behind a fold…)

So, yeah… Now with added tangents…

So the elephant in the room is out of the proverbial bag (and yes, I can mix metaphors with the best of ’em) and I’m left totally out of habit with the keeping up of this thing.

It’s not that nothing has been happening (it has, oh lordy it has), it’s just that the things happening were either 1) related to the BIG THING I couldn’t talk about or 2) completely overshadowed by the BIG THING I couldn’t talk about.  (Speaking of, tangentally, I remember reading a book way-back-when about someone who lost the ability to speak because the words got stuck behind some BIG IMPORTANT WORDS in their throat, and the magic healer kinda waved her wand and said “nothing wrong, they’re just blocked” but the main character couldn’t remember what the BIG IMPORTANT WORDS were to say them and be able to talk again.  I also remember liking the book, but I have no idea what it is or when I read it now..  Familiar to anyone?  It’s how I’ve felt for the past few months…)

But with the coming of Christmas, I could talk about it, but didn’t because Christmas Eve through New Years Day is super busy for us and I barely sat down and READ anything most days.

But yeah, as we announced on twitter (easy to do with smartphones from David’s Parent’s House (the one place we spent time where we WEREN’T actually busy during that weekish) we’re having a baby.  Yes, yes, you can now insert all your “OH GOD JOV’S BREEDING” jokes here.

Cause I am.

And you’re not supposed to say anything for the first 3 months, cause that’s when things are most iffy and likely to go toe-up, and then you’re stuck not only super depressed because you lost the baby, but super depressed because you lost the baby and having to explain it to everyone you told who’s excited that you’re having a baby.

So I can totally understand.

But we’re out of the worst of the danger zone.  I mean there’s risk up until the end, but I’m out of the biggest risk time.

Going to the doctor makes me feel I’m having a lolcat instead of a baby, however.  Camera shy.  Good at hiding from the ultrasound.

Dr:  Now, let’s see if we can get the heartbeat…

Baby:  YOU NO CAN HAS HARTBEET.  HAS MY FEET INSTEAD.

Dr: *moving the thingie*  Let’s try from another angle…

Baby:  HAHA I CAN MOVES TOO!  I HAS FEET!  YOU CAN HAS FEET!

(Just in case David’s wondering why I’m giggling like a loon through the ultrasound to where the dr wants to smack me, that’s what’s going on in my head.)

But yeah, 2011 is going to be a stupid busy year.

Late March :  Moving.  Ugh, moving.  Moving at 5-6 mos pregnant = double-ugh.

Mid-July : Baby.  My Dr says first pregnancies always run long, so she’s not actually expecting it to be born until August, but I’m due two days before my birthday, 3 before David’s.  Murphy’s Law dictates I’m not gonna run long if I can hit one of our birthdays instead…

 

And hilight (or lowlight, depending on your perspective) of the trip to visit the inlaws for Christmas…  We’d told David’s parents, but neither of his two sisters.  David’s the eldest, Julie the middle, and Sarah the baby.  Julie is at Harvard finishing her PHD in South Asian Studies, and Sarah just started her 2nd year of med school, going into pediatrics.  We were at a *very* nice restaurant for Christmas Eve Dinner, which was where David decided to break the news to them.  So he holds up his wine glass, and says something along the lines of “And I’d like to congratulate Julie and Sarah..  you’re going to be Aunts.”

And there’s silence for a few seconds as it processes, Julie gets a “huh, that’s nice” expression on her face (she’s super reserved) and Sarah starts screaming, bouncing in her chair and clapping, then *LAUNCHES HERSELF OVER THE TABLE AT US,* knocking shit over on the way.  (Sarah is the opposite of reserved.)  (She’s also going into Pediatrics.)  (She’s also volunteered for free babysitting.)  (I’m totally gonna take her up on that, btw.)

It was great that she was so excited (though she yelled at her parents for keeping it a secret since before Thanksgiving) but like I told David after dinner… had I known she would be *that* excited (and destructive with it) I would have probably voted to tell her before dinner.  >.>

Earthdawn is Awesome

So here is my complete and un-biased review of one of the lesser-known tabletop RP systems: Earthdawn.  I say it’s complete, though it only references the original FASA 1st ed and the LRG 2nd ed.  I know 3rd ed and the “redbox” also exist, but I’m a cheap gamer and suffer (willingly) from “this game works just fine the way it is, I don’t need a new version” syndrome.  Also, I say it’s unbiased because it’s me and my biases don’t count, do they?  Besides, they should be obvious from the title.

So, to reiterate for the masses….  I’m a tabletop gamer.  D&D, Vampire, you’ll-pry-my-dice-out-of-my-cold-dead-hands type.  I’m not the most knowledgeable gamer out there…  my “have played” pile is much shorter than my haven’t.  But the big ones, and a couple of the more minor ones, I’ve poked my way through well enough to figure out a character sheet.  All that being said, Earthdawn really is one of the best.

First off, it’s a Fantasy game.  If Scifi/Cyberpunk/wargames are your thing, you’re going to disagree with me.  That’s fine.  I’m just more unbiased than you.

Okay, as for how it’s awesome:

1. Customization
2. Party Balance
3. XP Explained!
4. You Don’t Suck
5. Bucket of (Exploding) Dice

Okay, customization.  How is it NOT customizable?  First off, it uses a hybrid level/non-level system.  Which doesn’t make sense saying it like that, so lemme explain.  There are levels in Earthdawn.  They’re called circles, are tied to your class, and each circle gives you new class abilities to play with.  That being said, you don’t need to go up in circle EVER.  You get the option to go up in circle when you’ve accumulated enough XP to progress your class abilities to a certain set point.  You get the option.  So you can be the fighter who is 5th circle with a few points in a half-dozen different abilites to throw into a combat situation….  or you could be the fighter with the same XP total, 1st circle, and just a massive amount of melee weapon skill.  You’re just as effective, you’re just DIFFERENTLY effective.  1st circle Fighter is better at swords, maces, axes, etc. than 5th circle fighter, 5th circle just has more tricks (like “I go first” or “I take less damage”)

Secondly, you’ve a lot of freedom with the type of game you play with Earthdawn.  Sky Pirates?  Easy.  Survival Horror?  Built in.  Buckling swashes?  Done.  Good guys?  Of course.  Bad guys?  Simple.  Pick your class, pick your setting, pick your focus, you’ve got a game.

Related, party balance is a non-issue.  No, no, hear me out.  Everyone’s familiar with the holy trinity in gaming.  It applies to RPGs of both the tabletop and console/computer variety.  You’ve got the one who tanks it with face, the healer, and the one who does damage but is kinda squishy.  Earthdawn doesn’t have that.  There is no healing, or more specifically, everyone heals themselves.  If everyone in the party wants to play a fighter, or a spellcaster, or an archer…  you’re not screwed!

Most interestingly, is the legend system.  Most games don’t ever actually explain why killing a few dozen rats at lv 1 makes you better at…  picking locks.  You kill shit, get your XP, and level.  With Earthdawn, XP, Magic, and your character are all tied to one thing: word of mouth, aka Legend.  You’re not just some schmuck who killed some rats, you’re So-and-so The Rat Killer  The more you do, the more you’re talked about, the wider your fame grows.  The more you’re talked about, the more the fabric of the world takes notice, and the more important you get.  The more important you get to reality (the higher your XP total), the more powerful you become.  Want to level more quickly?  Get a Troubador into the party, or spend some of your loots on a freelancer to make certain a good tale is told.

Not that you’d expect to kill rats in Earthdawn…  Starting characters in Earthdawn are special, because they’re someone already a bit more closely tied to Legend…  a prodigy if you will.  You don’t face the D&D lv 1 wizard conundrum…  You know, “Why am I adventuring when I can cast 1 spell a day, and if an acorn falls on my head, it’ll kill me?”  You’re adventuring because you’re GOOD at something.  You’re the kid who can hit the target as often as people who’ve been using a bow for as long as you’ve been alive.  You’re quicker with a sword than people with double your experience.  You can do magic.  You’re a hero, and you’re off to save the world (or bend it to your will…)

Finally, dice.  Gamers love their dice, and Earthdawn uses all of them.  And they’re smart about it too, because every gamer loves the feeling of rolling more dice than they can comfortably  hold in their hand…  and rolling max means explosions…  Each gets to roll again.  D4s have a 25% chance to explode, which is why those little caltrops are known as the gift that keeps on giving.  You roll, count, reroll any die that’s on it’s max number, reroll again and again and again…  It appeals to the big numbers junkie we all have inside us.

 

If none of that is enough to tempt you, I can quickly mention that Earthdawn, being originally a FASA game, is a prehistory of Shadow Run, one of the big boys in the market.  Not that it really matters; very little was done to tie the two together, but you’ll find most of the races/racial bonuses familiar.  Earthdawn just has a few extra.  Also, armor makes sense… it reduces the amount of damage you take from being hit, it doesn’t make you harder to hit.  I dunno about you, bit it’s pretty easy to hit that guy wearing full plate, he moves slow!  But it’s hard to actually make him feel it.  Screw you, D&D.

Repetitiveness

I don’t have much I feel I can say at this point other than “I’m alive” (again– still?)  Stuff is happening, some expected, some un-.  Nothing bad, just not really anything I feel like I can discuss right now.

I’m alive, I’m well, I’m reading, and I promise I’ll not be so secretive forever.  It’s really not my intention.

Just most of what I can talk about is more repetitive (househousehouse) or mean-spirited (can’t wait to be rid of the roommie) or boring (I had a broccoli and cheese baked potato for lunchy).

My life is an exciting place, just the way I like it.

Lissandra Millay D’Orien

This is NOT good writing.  It’s kinda stream-of consiousnessy and bulletpointy in parts.  It also assumes a working knowledge of D&D’s Eberron campaign setting.  If you don’t have any of the above, feel free to skip (but check out David’s write-up, for his characters’ list of titles if nothing else— He cracks me up.)

Lissandra Millay D’Orien
Emeric Millay — Father = Member of House — Dragonmarked
Gisella Renard — Mother = Magesmith — not dragonmarked

Raised by Grandparents, member of the Patriarch’s Council — Transportation Guild
Bayard Millay– Grandfather — Dragonmark Heir.  Authoritarian type
Amelinna Millay — Grandmother.  current primary mother figure.

Trained by Wizard– Unmarked member of House.  Roland Millay — Trained all magic-using cousins

Cousin Rosamond — best friend

Helena — Rival.

——————–

Result of father’s sowing of “wild oats” – affair with a pretty magesmith who works the Lightning Rail in Passage.  He was ~17.  Acknowledged by fathers’ family, though not claimed until Dragonmark manifested.  Father has since married, she has several half-siblings.  Father spends most of his time away, remains a bit wild and chaotic; family thinks it best if he directs his excess energy to work and not at home causing trouble (like using his good looks to father more surprises).  Mother still works as a magesmith, stubbornly independent.

Dragonmark manifested 6-8ish.  Almost run over by a cart in the market.  Also about the time she started exhibiting magic.  Was brought quickly into the household and training in use of dragonmark, magic, and house business/etiquette/politics.  Raised by her grandparents (views Grandfather as a father-figure; whereas she views her father as more a distant uncle) amidst her cousins.  Has grown somewhat distant from her mother.

Did not react well to suddenly being moved to Grandfather’s house.  Transition smoothed by Rosamond, she was the same age as Liss and took it upon herself to comfort and help her.  Have remained very close since, exchanging frequent letters when apart, or spending quiet time together when both are home in Passage.

Liss doesn’t view her abilities with magic as anything particularly special.  In much the same way some people are left-handed, or short, or have brown eyes, magic is just something that happens.  She thinks she has magic ability due to blood, as her mother is a magesmith, and her father’s family is Dragonmarked, closely tied with the Council.  While she doesn’t find her abilities with magic particularly noteworthy, she feels magic in general is, and will often spend free time with her nose buried in a book on the nature of magic, or magical theory.

As for personality and beliefs, Liss considers herself to be religious (she follows the Sovereign Host — pantheon not specific) and has been trained by her grandfather to view her responsibilities to the House as the most important thing.  She is, at heart, a people pleaser, striving to actively do good and seek responsibilities, and one of the first things she learned living with her grandparents was the way to gain approval was to follow directions, and strive for excellence in anything which will bring honor/respect/profit to the house.  As such, it has never really occurred to her that she has any options other than hard work and following the rules.

Liss knows that politics are a fact of life, and as such, there are many (potential) rivals to her family’s purposes within the house.  She does not view any of them as being really personal with a single exception.  Helena was originally a rival purely on a familial basis.  Her uncle is also a member of the Patriarch’s Council and is often in disagreement with Liss’ grandfather.  However, years of (external) comparison between the two (both being of roughly the same age, rank, and both being magic users of equal power), as well as a general difference in personality, have led to both feeling a strong sense of personal dislike toward the other.

Lissandra is currently adventuring as a means of improving herself.  She has traveled to {wherever the game is starting} as part of a one-way caravan.  She has found she prefers this sort of travel as it allows her to gain a bit of distance from the largest portion of her grandfathers’ influence.  (She wants to be treated equally, with equal responsibility, which she always second guesses on jobs gained through her family’s influence.)

Appearance and details:
Liss is 17 years old, and just on the small side of average in size.  She shares her mothers’ general appearance: blue eyes, black hair, fair skin.  Her time with her grandparents has left her keenly aware of the importance of appearance, and as such she pays careful attention to her fashion and dress, appearing in whatever is most appropriate.  Left to her own devices, however, she prefers comfort and simplicity, gravitating to loose dresses and robes in neutral colors.
At present, she wears a set of excruciatingly well-made, though otherwise simple and unadorned, travelers gear.  She keeps her hair bound back, either in a low ponytail, or with several long hairsticks.
Liss’ dragonmark spreads across the back of her neck and shoulder, mostly hidden beneath her clothes and hair.

Alive

But not much to say.  Reactivated the WoW subscription, but spending 99.999% of my time playing with long-forgotten lowbies (Oh baby shammy, how I love you) and being a hermit.

Which doesn’t leave much to write about.

So I’m not gonna write about that.  I’m gonna write about gaming.

As my longtime readers know, I’m what could probably be considered an active gamer.  Pen and paper, specifically.  Our weekend Planescape game is still going strong (one year, 17 levels, finally approaching The End Of The Story; the only question is will we finish before some of our group dings epic levels) and we have an additional Wednesday night game that works on a bit of a different basis.

See, Sunday is full of epic.  David is the GM, he’s all about the epic story arcs, filled with interesting characters and more plot hooks than you can shake a stick at.  He’s also very experienced, and prefers games in long formats.  Long-running, both in the “this game takes a year to tell the story” and in the “we sit down and play for 6-10 hours at a stretch.”  Needless to say, this also takes quite a bit of work and planning on his part, as well as effectively cutting him off from actually PLAYING in anything.  That’s why there’s Wednesday.

If Sunday is the epic movie trilogy (like LotR), Wednesday is Who’s Line is it Anyway.  It’s short (2 hours; 3 tops if we don’t do much chatting), experimental (try out new systems, new GMs, new characters), and small in scope  (games run 2-3 weeks on the short end, 6 on the long).  It’s a risk with all those factors, but it’s also a good exercise, at least for me.  I’m a creature of habit, I want to settle into a system, or a character, and explore the heck out of it over a long period of time.  Wednesday is way outside of my comfort zone.  For all that I whined about it (“But I was JUST GETTING INTO my last character!”) I’m looking forward to the game starting tonight.  I’ll probably follow this post up with backstory, just to fluff my post count.  >.>

Breakfast Tacos

I’ll admit, I was skeptical.  Lori and I had…  discussions on this topic for about a year before David and I finally visited in Austin.  And, while I didn’t really get what the big deal was, then or now, we made them for *cough*breakfast*cough* today.

Breakfast Tacos (serves 3-4)

• 12 Corn Tortillas (3-4 per)
• 3 Eggs (4 – 5)
• 5 strips bacon, cut into 1-inch bits  (6 – 8 )
• 3 small russet potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (2)
• 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded  (1 1/2)
• salsa, guac, tomato, onion, bell pepper, olives, sour cream, anything else you like to taste

Directions

In a medium or large skillet, fry the bacon pieces until they are your preferred level of done-ness.  Once that is done, remove them to a plate and drain on a paper towel.

Add chopped potato to skillet and fry in bacon grease.  Toss them to get them well-coated.  Cover and cook ~15 minutes, stirring every 5, or until done.  Season as needed and toss before removing them to a bowl.

Before starting the eggs, wrap the tortillas in a damp paper towel and microwave for ~15-30 seconds, just to soften them up.

Scramble the eggs in the remaining bacon grease in the skillet.  Go for a dry scramble.

Notes

In the actual recipe above, I made some notes that we’ll use in the future.  Number of tacos should depend entirely on how hungry people are and how large the tortillas are.  I ate 3, and prefer my tacos kinda skinny as far as filling amount goes.  David ate 3 full ones, Judy ate 4 full ones.  Bear that in mind with my notes and amounts 😉

Most importantly: we ran out of egg before anything else. This was in part due to the fact we only had 3 eggs in the fridge.  There was just barely enough for everyone, and only then because only 10 tacos were made.  Basically, everyone got 1-2 tacos with enough egg, then 1-2 tacos with barely any.

Second most important, we had probably 1 or 1/2 potato worth of leftovers there.  If you like home fries, and don’t mind potato on the side, you’re in good shape with the amount quoted above.

We were okay for amounts on both bacon and cheese, but really… everyone loves bacon and cheese, so more would have been better.  Another couple slices of bacon, another few gratings of cheese, everyone would have been pleased and they still would have disappeared.

Finally, I really wish we’d had some more stuff.  An onion to chop fine and fry with the potato would have been great.  I’m not a specific fan of sour cream, but that would have gone really well also.  Veg would have cut down a bit on the “gut bomb” aspects of this meal.

However, it was tasty, and the food went fast.

Madeline just wanted to know why we didn’t save her any…

Once again, the Sims

My Sims life continues.  Yesterday we had an appointment to pick out our flooring in the future house.  It was actually quite a bit of fun, and we snagged some stuff we weren’t expecting going into it.

First off, breaking from the pure-floor theme (before even establishing it!  Oh noes!) we have our kitchen.  Ignore the carpet there…  That’s from the show room.  The pictures are kinda bad, flash + fluorescent lighting means stuff got a bit washed out.  But it’s a good idea.  Up top, that’s our hardwood.  Nice, dark, cherry.  Directly below that, the lighter panel is our cabinetry.  That Maple appears in both the kitchen and bathrooms.  Beside the panel, the faux granite is actually a laminate countertop.  It’s actually green…  >.>

Here we have an overview of all our flooring.  The cherry hardwood floor from the main level appears at the right.  Center is the carpet which will cover both sets of stairs, as well as the upper floor and basement.  To the left, also in green, is our master bathroom floor.  Yes, yes, vinyl.  So what?  We like vinyl, it’s SOOO much cheaper than tile/stone.  Again, the colors are a bit washed out, it’s really stunning.  Which is why it’s only in the master bath…  >.>  Above and below the carpet are the vinyls that appear in the other bathrooms of the house.  The lighter vinyl at the top will be in the upstairs full bath.  The lower more beigy vinyl will be in the main floor powder room.  I…  don’t actually remember which will be in the basement bath >.>  Guess we’ll find out when we either get the form back, or get the house built.  *cough*