Monday... Monday... meh...

[pfloyd]

The Life of Pink

So here we are, back to Monday once more. Fortunately, it was a decent weekend.

Saturday, we met up with my parents at the Blackstone Valley Shops (or whatever that place is called). We ate lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse, and apart from the waitress being a complete and utter ditz, the experience was good. The food was tasty, and we'd go there again, provided that our particular waitress isn't serving us again. She made several mistakes with the order (like bringing my dad a water with lemon when he asked for a Diet Coke, and my mom's chicken sandwich arrived about five minutes after everyone else's food. Dad gave her a lower tip than he usually gives - I would have given her maybe five percent because she tried to make up for it all, but closer to naught if I had my way.) We bought our car seat at Babies R Us, and the bassinet at Target. A few other sundry items here and there, and we went back home. C went to her play (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat put on by some of her former students), and I stayed home to do some cleaning up.

Sunday was a typical day - church for C, off to the market for me. C had a baby shower in the afternoon, so I went and did a little gaming. I helped her with moving some heavier stuff around after I got back.

So now it's Monday.


One thing that's still a Holy Shit Factor with me is the fact that yes, a baby is on the way. I'm going to be someone's parent. That parasite that's wiggling about in C's tummy is going to be making his world premiere in just under a calendar month (give or take). Am I 100% ready? Of course not. Will I feel that immediate connection? Damned well hope so. Do I know what I'm doing? Not entirely, but that's part of the fun, innit?


No birth class Tuesday night. The only nights I won't be cooking are Wednesday (Aikido) and Thursday (Child Safety and CPR, I think...). This also means that I'll be spending my time this week making room in the bedroom for the bassinet, and getting the bassinet assembled and in place. I will have that done by week's end for sure. I'm hoping to have it done by Tuesday night. I think there's a good shot at it, keeping in mind that the only breaks I'll take will be to prep dinner and to eat said dinner. I'll have the TV on in the room, but only watching it if something really interesting happens. Two things at once? No worries there.

I was just thinking... it can't truly be Spring. I haven't seen my first robin. Aren't they one of the harbingers of the season? That and Opening Day at Fenway?
Speaking of which... I would love to be home this afternoon... feet up, cold Sam Adams Double Bock in one hand, cold leftover beef and cheddar smoked sausage in a bun in the other (with good mustard, of course)... Sox game on the TV... watching the Yankees just sit there as the Sox get their World Series rings and have to suffer through it all... then get trounced by our boys. That's an afternoon. :)
Somehow, I'll try to get the audio feed from the game going here at work. Maybe there's a place online, I don't know...

Lunch today is a couple of the aforementioned sausages, salad that I got yesterday but never ate, and some rotini in a cheese sauce. Sounds like a nice, satisfying lunch.
I did manage to pick up some nice stuff at the store for lunches, either this week or the coming weeks... all depends on the day and all.

Saturday evening, while C was at her play, I dragged out my paintball gear bag for a quick looksee. I know I'll have to get rid of the balls that are in there, but maybe I'll just shoot 'em off somewhere. I need to get my tanks filled for any equipment checks, that's for sure. I also want to test out my newest barrel for the ProCarbine. It's nice and long with rifling, so it should shoot further and straighter. For that test, I'll want to get some new balls, just to sight it in. I checked the length on it with the tank attached -- damn thing is like a hunting rifle in length! I feel like I should have a 4x scope on it to do some sniping... well, maybe...
I'd love to get in a game or two this summer. I'd need to get some BDU pants that fit me though... I don't think I can get any MARPAT (MARine PATtern, the USMC's new camouflage patterns) outfits as yet. Alpenflage maybe?
I'm also hoping that the field I used to go to in Upton (Friendly Fire) is still open. They had some good scenario games. I don't want to do arena or speedball style, and I don't want to have to use field paint. FF was great about that -- use your own marker, you can bring your own paint.

Lunch update: the salad turned out to be meh, so I didn't eat all of it. The macaroni bowl didn't cook right, either. Those were pretty much binned. Good thing they didn't cost much more than a couple of bucks total.

The whole day seems to be progessing along at a decent pace. Not too slowly, but also not too quickly. It would appear that it's in the low 50s outside. A month ago, we were straining to hit the low 50s. At least it's a beautiful day outside otherwise... However, it looks like we won't get out of the low 50s all week...



Gamer's Den
So this Sunday, I worked with Hackmaster for the first time since I bought the books. We generated characters for the upcoming run, and did a mock combat to see how things would work out. I was pleased to see that there were a few critical hits, and a few fumbles.
One thing that didn't work out so well was that one of the characters -- the one with the fewest hit points -- had the flaw of being a hemophiliac. Every wound he takes, he has to make a CON check afterwards. Failure means that he takes a point of bleeding damage for every wound he fails the check on. It also means he takes, effectively, double damage from an attack. He was dead before the end of the combat, basically, by bleeding to death. So, we're going to work on a new guy for him.
I also plan to work on a few campaign things each night as I wind down before bed -- party sheets, module conversions, segues between modules, and the like... I'm also thinking on changing a few of the rules here and there to make it more suitable for these folks. And again, I'm thinking on ways of bringing some of the HM feel into D&D 3.5e...
One of the other Sunday guys mentioned that he was picking up something called Iron Kingdoms, or something to that effect. Could be interesting to check out at some point.
I'm still thinking about my "Real American HERO" campaign setting... want to do something that's like a slightly more serious GI Joe crossed with SHIELD and super-soldiers or maybe even very low-level supers. Not sure how that's going to go as yet.


Enough of this rambling...
That's all I have for now
Nothing more to report
Carry on
-- pf
The Floydian Slip