Update

Well, it seems my luck in the Magic league has run out--I've been stuck at 3½ points for the last two weeks. Either I make a silly mistake in the last game of a match which makes me lose, or I just get a bad draw. It also doesn't help that I didn't play against a lot of people for most of the last couple weeks. But I'll do better this week--I hope.

I started working on a pair of scissors on the forge the Saturday after my last post. I was right about the hammer and gloves thing, plus the metal kept sliding out of the pliers I was using to hold it. But, with help from Gene and Andy (another Havenite), I got a good part of the way through the project. The unfinished scissors are even now sitting on my shelf in the Haven's back room.

I found last time that the weight of the hammer, plus the thickness of the handle, the vibrations from hitting the metal, and the extra bulk of the poorly-fit gloves made my hand cramp up extremely fast. I can't stop the vibrations, and may not be able to find a lighter hammer which will actually work, but I do have a plan to (hopefully) help with the other two problems. Before I do more work on the forge, I'm going to buy my own gloves (so that they'll fit), and a hammer. I will cut a portion of the handle off from around it, so that there's less to get my hand around when I'm swinging it.

I've missed my allergy shots the last couple times--last week, I simply forgot to take the exit onto 15-North before I passed it on my way home, and didn't feel like fighting through traffic to get back to the exit, much less to the allergist's office. Yesterday, I stayed home because of stomach issues, and had an appointment at my regular doctor's office at 4pm. I'll go next week though.

The mortgage loan approval process is slightly frustrating. We managed to get all of the information that the Wells Fargo people asked for together, and Anna faxed it to them. Only, it got faxed to a machine which was on the fritz, so they're missing pages. They figured out which pages it was, and Anna sent them along. Now, they're asking for paperwork that we're all pretty sure was already sent to them. I hope this process doesn't go on too much longer.

I can now officially say that I have seen every single episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The last "book" especially was totally awesome! The last (four-part) episode was mind boggling, and the perfect ending. I also bought the DVDs. I didn't know until I saw the listing on Amazon that Avatar had been nominated for an Emmy. It wasn't surprising though--the show rocks!

Exciting Prospects for Future Enjoyment and Employment

Turns out, I was right about my points in the Magic League--3½ as of Friday evening.

Saturday's forge safety class was cool. It's going to be difficult to handle the hammer with the gloves on (or even without), since it's a two-pound sledge I'll only be using one hand for, but I'll get used to it. And the work will not only be work, but it will be fun work, so I don't mind the heavy hammer.

I looked up some beginner forge projects online, and found a neat site called iForge. I printed out a few projects and put them in order of what I think their difficulty is. There were some that I knew I wouldn't be ready to do for a long while yet, but still want to do when I am ready, so I didn't print them out yet. Eventually, I want to be able to make at least simple locks, if not the more complex ones demonstrated at iForge as well.

Yesterday, I downloaded a program called DM Genie, which will help me to organize D&D 3.0 or 3.5 campaigns that I plan to write. I don't really like 4th edition D&D, so I won't be making any campaigns for it anytime soon, and didn't want to download any DM's tools for that edition.

The company also has a more limited version of the program called Player Genie, which is basically just a character generator/updater.

I've already started writing a campaign based on the one I played in a year ago at the Haven (my character was a human ranger named Laina). I just needed to get a few things from the Haven before I could go much further than the first encounter or two.

I'm taking my Haven bag home today (it's been sitting on my GM shelf at the Haven for months now), since I need some of the information in it to make my campaign.

This evening, I had to get my allergy shots and go grocery shopping, so I wasn't able to do any forge or campaign work just yet. I also had to get some charcoal at Home Depot before I could use the forge anyway, so I'd only have been able to work on the campaign (or play Magic, of course) if I went tonight.

Tomorrow's a different story though.

Interesting Quote and More

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." - Albert
Einstein

I'm not going to discuss this quote here; I just thought it was a cool quote and decided to yoink it from Heather's LJ.

This morning, I was woken up by someone playing the piano--at 7:15 in the morning!--that's a very rude time to be playing the piano, especially since most of the rest of the household is still trying to sleep at that time (my dad just in the very next room from the piano, and Mom just down the hall on the same floor). There is also a keyboard in the house which is able to have headphones connected to it, so there is no excuse to be playing the actual piano so early. Not to mention, that was only 15 minutes until my alarm was going to go off, and being awakened by the piano did not translate into a good last 15 minutes of sleep--I'm a light sleeper nowadays.

The past week has been pretty normal. I joined the Magic: The Gathering league at the Haven, and I've been playing against everyone I could all week. So far, if I remember correctly, I won one "official" game, and three "unofficial" games.

The "official" games are against two other players chosen at random from the list. Winner gets two points, and a card is ante'd from each deck before the game starts. Whoever wins chooses to either keep both ante'd cards, or let the other person keep the card they ante'd.

The "unofficial" games also have ante'd cards, but winner only gets ½ of a point. I've either got 3 or 3½ points; I can't remember who all I won against for the half-point games, but I'm sure I won at least two, if not three.

I also purchased a Bretonnian Warhammer army from one of the guys at the Haven, and have played the game with them twice. The first time was a couple weeks ago, against Jason, who was playing high elves. We stopped that game at the end of the second turn, because we both really wanted to go home.

The second time was just last night, against a Havenite's dwarf army; it was an NPC game I was playing for the Warhammer Fantasy campaign going on at the Haven. I would've done better, if he hadn't gotten lucky with his guess-range canon in the very first turn and not only destroyed my trebuchet (causing the crew to flee off the board), but also causing my pegasus knights to flee off the board as well. Basically, the dwarves slaughtered the Bretonnians. It was fun though. And after that, I beat him in a Magic league game, though that was a close one.

Today is payday--yay!

Tomorrow, I'm going to take the forge safety class at the Haven, so that I can possibly upgrade my membership so that it's GM/crafting, instead of just GM and be allowed to use the forge whenever I want (if it's not already in use). That way, I can make metal stuff and sell it to get some extra money. Gene actually gave me the idea; when I asked what I would make to sell, he said something like, "All kinds of things," and then as an example mentioned door handles.

Wouldn't you know, I had an idea right then for a unique door handle design? I actually designed it with the door at the Haven in mind as a good place to put it. I'm not going to say what the design was here, but I may post a picture when/if I ever get one made.

I'm thinking that, if I do decide to do this side-business thing (Gene said he'd sell the stuff I make at the Haven, like he does for other crafting members), I'll not only make my own designs, but also take commissions for other designs. I'll have to ask Gene to help me decide on fair prices though, since I've never sold anything like that before.

Sandwich Run

Friday, nothing much happened that doesn't happen every week, except I decided to participate in the Magic: The Gathering League at the Haven.

Yesterday, I took Jason to the Haven and he watched the Living Forgotten Realms D&D game while I did some more Magic League stuff.

After we got back, I watched three episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which I've NetFlix'd disc-by-disc. I was on the fourth disc. After the last of those three episodes, Tim was home, so Kayla, Anna, Tim and I all piled into Anna's car to make the 2½ hour trip to Johnstown, PA where Cashaw lives. Once there, we got into Cashaw's car, made the hour-long drive to Pittsburgh, picked up Cashaw's friend Dave, and then went to Primanti Brothers for sandwiches.

I had pastrami and cheese and a Coke with no ice. The sandwich was better than I remembered Primanti Brothers sandwiches being--but I think the fries on the two sandwiches I'd had before were stale. This time, everything was fresh, and warmed to perfection (except for the cole slaw, which would've been gross warm). I added hot sauce to my sandwich, and it was even better.

By the time we got back to Cashaw's, it was about 7:30 in the morning, so we crashed there for a couple hours. The three of us (Kayla's staying until Thursday to watch Cashaw's kids) woke up around 9:30 and headed home, since Tim had to be at work by noon.

We got home around 11:30, and I watched the fourth episode of Avatar on that disc before going to sleep until around 7:30 or 7:45 pm. I've been awake now for a little over two hours, and I'm going to have to go back to sleep around 12:30 or 1 at the latest, so that I'll be able to get enough sleep (without waking up way too early) for work tomorrow.

A Possible New Place to Live

Anna, Tim, Kayla, Mom, Dad and I all went to look at townhouses for the four of us "kids" last night after I got off of work. We looked at five townhouses in the Discovery area of Walkersville.

The first one was listed for $105,000, and was pretty crappy. We decided it was a definite "No."

The next one, on the same street as the first, was listed at $115,000, and was refurbished to perfection.

The third was another crappy house. I can't remember the listing price.

The fourth one was a possibility, and the fifth was as well. The fifth was listed for $119,500 or something close to it. I don't remember the listing price for the fourth.

Out of those five, we decided that our first choice was the $115,000 house, then the fourth house, and finally the fifth house.

We decided to pursue the second house, and Anna's real estate agent (the father of the flower girl at her wedding) said he would start by looking at how much comparable houses in the same court had gone for, so that we could make a similar offer to those.

After we get a good idea of the money we'll offer, we need to have the mortgage go through. If it does, we'll then get a formal offer together, and about a month (possibly less, possibly more) after settlement, we'll be able to move in.

I don't remember the exact address of the house we're going after, but it's on Foresight Drive.