Heads-up to machiavelli_f: there's a post at book_future_if titled "play the city" about this weekend's Come Out & Play street games festival in New York City.

I thought of you when I saw the mention that among the feature games will be one by the creators of I Love Bees.

Vogon mentioned a few nights ago that he wants to make tofu Parmesan sometime soon.

Him: It's just like chicken Parmesan, only with tofu instead of chicken.
Me: Okay. I've never had chicken Parmesan.

[silence; he boggles]

Him: Are you kidding?
Me: No. The last time I told you that, you decided to make it, but you overcooked it and threw it out.

[more silence]

Me: What?
Him: Okay... have you ever had scrambled eggs?
Me: Yeah, but they had chorizo in them until I started making my own.

---

open_loops' recent post "Seven Reasons Managers Should Play Chess" could easily be titled "Seven Reasons Any Reasonably Intelligent Person Should Play Chess". I should assemble a portable set and teach random kids how to play chess.

Make: Blog's Lego archives has a few things I hadn't already seen. Mostly the pinball machine. *lust lust lust* After that, I went over and boggled at the things that won the Tin Million Uses, One Metal Box competition. I've got to get braver about cutting into the stash of mint tins I have here.

WebMD blogger Dr. Steven Parker (Healthy Children, available on LJ at healthychildren) posted an article yesterday about a study that used Cetaphil cleanser to get rid of head lice with an overall long-term cure rate of 94-96%: Got Lice?. I plan to try it if the kiddo gets head lice in the future.

Laurel was very happy when she returned home today -- the UPS guy was relieved too, after carrying two heavy boxes (33 lb and 18 lb, respectively) up to our door. My Tattered Cover haul, many of her Christmas gifts, a bunch of sewing patterns and some other stuff is in them. (:

My new phone is following those packages by a few days so I have that to look forward to as well. (In order to replace my brother's phone Dad had to migrate his line to Cingular from AT&T Wireless, so he went ahead and migrated all the lines on the family plan to Cingular.)

Hooray for packages!

...

Moving on to interesting tidbits in reading and cataloging, because if I had to pick just one hobby, it would be Cataloging Everything:

• today's post in dewey_blog enlightened me that sudoku should be filed in the DDC classification "793.73 Puzzles and puzzle games, not 793.74 Mathematical games and recreations."


• catalogablog turned me onto LibraryThing, though I'll be buying a lifetime membership if I start using the site since free accounts are capped at 200 books. Are there people who own that few books? Do I know these people?


• Do you think I should do the 50bookchallenge or something similar this year? I enjoyed reading several of you as you kept track of the books you read last year and I don't archive the "currently reading" bit in my userinfo so you can only see what I'm reading right now.

And on that note, do any of you have an opinion on whether I link books mentioned here to Amazon.com or to Open WorldCat, which would let you see the book's availability at nearby libraries? Unlike catalogablog, I've never done the Amazon associate program so I don't get any financial incentive for linking to Amazon; I just do it out of habit because I've had their URL syntax memorized for a couple of years.

Vogon bought a set of clay poker chips, cards &c. awhile back with plans to teach me how to be a better poker player. (Any improvement would help.) We played rummy on Saturday night after refreshing ourselves on the rules; he did much better than me pointswise, but said I must have gotten some luck from my abuela the card shark. I'm trying to get into it although I'd rather be playing Fluxx or 1000 Blank White Cards.

He also made me an offer to do the Landmark Forum course this spring that would be silly of me to refuse -- he'd pay the tuition and watch Laurel if I promise to really listen and participate and decline future courses. I did a Forum Introduction in spring 2002 but didn't do the Forum that summer after a snafu with on-base tax preparation caused our return to not be filed and I'd budgeted for the tuition cost to come out of the expected refund, so this is a generous offer from Vogon and a good opportunity for me.

Laurel and I picked out a bungee toy for Biko during our foray to Petsmart over the weekend. I installed it on the closet door between my desk and the door to the study and frequently find myself reaching over and playing with it. At one point I let the mouse go and it shot up over the bracket and wound around it, so I had to get up and untangle it lest Biko find it missing and 'scold' me for making her toy inaccessible! The highlight of the trip for me was making another customer laugh when I told Laurel to put down a ball-and-track toy with the admonition "Put that down, you got stuck in one of those the last time you played with it!".

While I was sorting the junk mail out at the trashcan by the mailboxes this afternoon, Laurel was looking for shiny things around the package mailboxes and found a key! It wasn't a package mailbox key and it wasn't ours, so we took it over to the complex office where Laurel proudly handed it to a surprised-looking staffer. She offered the shiny rock she also found to the grounds maintenance worker we passed outside, but he said no thanks. We thanked him for his work before heading back up to open our mail (I gave her a Harry & David catalog) and return to tidying the patio. It's cloudy and dark so I don't think I'll photograph the plants today, but I washed her water table toys, repotted a lemon thyme we picked up yesterday in a hanging basket and smiled the whole time I used the new hose with my Sunny Patch sprayer. If you like David Kirk's Miss Spider books, the product line is as cute as a button. Laurel has the rain boots, garden apron and gloves, and the flashlight from the line, but the sprayer is mine! *cue evil laughter*

Interesting recent media:
- Penguins going through security at Denver International Airport (thanks to RQE for the heads-up).
- In the May 2005 Scientific American: His Brain, Her Brain, How to Listen to Birds, and When Medicine Meets Literature. And one I missed from the April issue, because I love Edward Tufte: The Feynman-Tufte Principle.
- "Time has stopped in Okinawa's jazz clubs", 20 April 2005 Christian Science Monitor.

The weekend (so far) has been much better than the past week.

We went to the Steak Barn (on Grantham/70 Bypass heading toward Raleigh, 919-734-3544) last night since Himself was craving steak. It was surprisingly quiet for a Friday night, but they had certified Angus beef. The interior was a bit dark and vinyl-feeling for my taste, but the food was decent and Laurel behaved very well after she fell for the bread with cinnamon butter.

Since we were in that end of town, we stopped by Big Lots after dinner and picked up a few fun little things: Games Magazine Interative (original and sequel for $6 each!), the entire Zork series on CD-ROM, and a LEGO Duplo set with Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet figurines to feed Laurel's fledgling LEGO fascination. (Several bins of LEGO bricks from Himself's childhood are at his mother's house. My old LEGOs are still being played with by my little sister.)

Saturday was quiet with me saving cross-stitch patterns to PDF format to share (Sunchild and Siannan, I'll be mailing the promised patterns to you sometime this week) and Himself playing with the aforementioned Games Magazine discs, where we found we're best at completely opposite categories of games. If it's still around, I'd love to subscribe again. Also made a run out to Lowe's and the guts of both toilets have been replaced, ending the interminable wait since I asked the landlord about it (he told us to call him for repairs, but I've been waiting since September on the two broken windows). Things are about as good as they can get here.

Laurel's conversational skills are awfully piecemeal even with all the conversation she hears. As I was brushing my hair so I could put it up before we went out, she came running up to me shouting "Oh my dosh! Oh my dosh!" I asked her what was going on and she replied, "Meatballs!" I still don't get it. (:

Short versions...

Friday: made honey baked chicken for lunch (only meal Himself's home for right now), nearly finished the last of the cross-stitch plant markers, loved Law & Order: SVU although I missed details due to Laurel being awake.

Saturday: received package from parents (thanks for all the fun things, will apply the CO native bumper sticker to the car when it stops raining). Acquired Sam's Club card of my own and a swank toaster with wider slots for my bagels ($12 out-of-box on the clearance rack, w00t) from Wal-Mart.

Retrieved Jake and had a very nice smoke-free dinner at Texas Steakhouse where Laurel tried to eat crayons and many details of the Big Game Project were hammered out with such excitedness on the boys' part normal diners were giving us curious looks. Had an interesting exchange with small Mexican boy in Michael's while the boys were in The Christian Soldier next door, then parted ways with Jake. After washing dishes and getting Laurel to bed, Jake and Adrienne came by. They worked on Big Game Project while I did more unpacking (two less boxes, ooh rah) and watched parts of Saturday Night Live.

Sunday: Woke up briefly at 0800 to find the Big Game Project work winding down and J. and A. leaving. Went back to sleep and let Himself deal with Laurel, getting out of house just in time for 1300 appointment for pictures at Wal-Mart. Waited forever, amused the photo girl by only doing 2 poses as she suggested picture of Laurel alone (she started wailing the minute I put her on the table prop) and we said no. Went home and all napped. Called off gaming, all too tired.

Later picked up Jose and his laundry, dropped me off at Lowe's, everyone came back for me and to pick pizza up. Watched Spiderman on DVD while Jose's laundry washed and (mostly) dried and Himself's uniform was pressed, boots polished. Sent them off, put Laurel to bed during the news.

Next day off, we are going to have mini sit-in at Tricare office on base to figure out why Himself's paperwork is being filed with the wrong region (central/TriWest) causing snafus in things being paid by them. Also making me an appointment at the clinic so I can renew the fight for non-hormonal birth control and more phenergan without a repeat of having to be IV'd three times.

Why you haven't seen me around lately, in roughly chronological order...

( Midweek, the fridge gave up the ghost. )

( Saturday was... interesting. )

( On Sunday, we gamed. )

( Monday was wet and tiring. )

And there you go. If I had the energy, I'd start writing up our game's storyline to amuse those of you that are interested, but that'll have to wait until later this week. If I get really inspired, I'll do some character sketches so you can giggle at what a motley group we are.

Himself's arm is healing nicely and he's nearly back to 100%, although he has occasional twinges and I have to remind him to take it easy on his arm. Thank goodness most of the fracture was in the cartilage cap.

Gaming this weekend was great although Adrienne wasn't able to make it. It was interesting to go forward without her -- an Assamite with drug connections (Jose), a Gangrel college professor (Jake), and a Nos contracted to the Camarilla for architectural work (me) make a decent working team but we have little charisma and no Subterfuge between us so we are now in deep sh*t with the local Prince. As for my food... the carnitas and refritos were great, but my ability to make tortillas from scratch is lacking. (Got the dough right, but not the thickness.)

Today we failed at finding a driver's side mirror for the car (of the two junkyards in town with an Isuzu Stylus in the yard, one already had its doors off and the other was MIA), got pulled over and given a warning for speeding (we think the state bear liked our pro-gun bumper stickers), I voted (Dole, because she's better-looking and the lesser of two evils), and the one-hour tire installation at Sam's Club took two and a half.

That said, Harvey Rosa deserves massive props for finding three salvaged side mirrors for us within a reasonable drive (two in Middlesex, one in Durham) within half an hour of my calling Dad asking for advice. With that and new tires, we'll pass inspection by Friday and the car will be clear and legal once again.

And Laurel says (when awake): "Commercial!", "Mikey Mikey Mikey," and "Wiggles?".

Public Service Announcement: kenwestervelt will arrive back here a day later than expected. He'll be sleeping afterward, so give him a few days to get back on his regular schedule. Yes, that means I'm making him blueberry muffins sometime this week. (:

( Gaming on Sunday and Jose, I'm making carnitas )

Since we don't mind doing groceries on payday, we did our monthly major grocery shopping yesterday. During the course of the day (trying to ignore the fact that Himself decided we should kill two hours in the mall while the car was being worked on), we picked up the strategy guide to GTA: Vice City (we redeemed the end of our trade-in credit at Phatboy's for the game), found shaving soap at Home Bazaar, and picked up a second modem at Sam's Club.

Laurel got her little legs walked off since she eschews using a stroller, but now thinks she's hot stuff because we bought a bag of neat mutant superballs at the dollar store. I'll take a pic of one once I find the old digital camera -- they look like clusters of smaller balls and go off all over when you bounce them off something.

( With all the smokers out here, I need a bubble )

( Being as concise as my painfully sleep-deprived self can be, and probably failing. )

That said, I'll be doing my best to catch up on reading all of you since Thursday... really. And before I forget: happy belated birthday, judecorp! I'm sorry I couldn't have said that on the day proper, but the short person and I thought of you. She had cookies (well, frosted shredded mini-wheats) in your honor.

You know I've been playing too much Grand Theft Auto 3 when I finally got one of the kid-friendly carts at the local Wal-Mart (regular carts with a plastic overlay bit including a kiddie cab on the front with seatbelts and steering wheels for 2 -- see picture) and every time we take a corner Laurel yells "BEEP BEEP! MOVE! RUN OVER!".

I'd like to think I don't run over that many cars and people in GTA (I'm still getting used to the directional stick thing on the analog controller), but yesterday I was playing while Himself made dinner and I _was_ driving the tank over things. As long as she learns that it's bad to run over other people and their property, I think we'll be okay.

Good, today: Laurel made it through her 18-month well-baby checkup with nary a hitch. She fussed a little at being undressed for weighing and measuring, fussed again when the nurse left and when the doctor looked in her ears. We have to visit again when their stock of Prevnar (pnemonucoccal/strep vaccine) comes in, but unless she gets sick, that's the last time we'll see them until her 24-month checkup. Beta: height 33 1/3" (84.6cm), weight 23 lb 4 oz (10.5 kg), head circumference 17 3/4" (45 cm).

After her checkup my dad (Pop-Pop to her) treated us to lunch at Coney Island after asking mom if we wanted to eat lunch out and Laurel very clearly said "fries!". They are the best thing there since their shakes have declined in recent years... her other new word today was crow,which she said while pointing at a few in the parking lot. That was even more of a surprise, but we shouldn't be that she's such a verbal kid. (:

Good, yesterday: got mad work done on TODCRA setting up MovableType templates and importing content from the old site... but the bulk of the work was formatting and nit-picking. I'm a bit over half done...you can see what I've got if you'd like. (For the uninitiated, TODCRA is an acronym for The Official Dead Cat Revolutionary Army. I'm their minister of propaganda.)

The biggest surprise of the day was a package in the mail... until after dinner. The front doorbell rang and I let my brother get it because it was most likely someone wanting to see him. Much to my surprise , it was two of my fellow D'Evelyn alumni -- Cam Cross and James Ballard. Cam mentioned a few weeks back that he might stop by while he was home on break (he lives a few minutes away, most of them vertical), but I hadn't seen James since summer '99. James is working up in Evergreen now, so I'll have to stop by and say hi to him sometime. Good convo, moderate caffeine consumption, and they were --as always -- polite enough to not mention that I probably looked like hell since I'd pulled an all-nighter working on TODCRA. Heh. James is growing facial hair and it suits him, which I hadn't expected. Hooray for gamers! If they want their old chara sheets from when I ran RPG Club at D'Evelyn, someone's going to have to voluntarily move boxes. I know my GM notebook is in one of the boxes of books...