It would be really neat if . . .

. . . there were an RPG for Pern, don't you think?

End thought.

On with the updates:

Kayla and I didn't actually get to see the new Batman movie the day after my last post, but we did see it eventually. It was awesome. Of course, with my little knowledge of the Batman universe, I was kind of spoiled--I just knew that Gordon couldn't really be dead, 'cause he had to become Commissioner first.

Heath Ledger was awesome as the Joker; if I didn't know it was him, I wouldn't have recognized him--his voice was completely different from usual, and the makeup was (necessarily) heavy, of course.

A few Sundays ago (I don't remember exactly how many), Anna found O'Malley (one of her orange tabby cats) on the staircase, struggling to breathe. She rushed him to the animal hospital, where they found that he had fluid in his lungs.

There were four things that could have caused that, and various solutions to those problems which could have been implemented. But each solution had its down-side, and none of them would have guaranteed that he wouldn't have fluid in his lungs later on, so he had to be put down. He was five years old.

Anna was devastated. We had a little funeral for him out back that same night, and Anna painted a cinder block brick with his name on it for a headstone.

A few days later, someone stole the power adapter for the camper. I came home from work that Wednesday (or maybe it was Thursday?) to find that there was no power going to my TV, my alarm clock, my VCR/DVD-R, or my computer. I tried resetting the breakers both in the house and in the camper, but nothing worked. So I looked at where the extension cord got plugged into the camper, and there was a piece missing, which allowed the extension cord to have the camper plugged into it. It still hasn't been found.

So, the day after that, Anna and Kayla cleaned out Anna's old room (Kayla had already moved out of it into Kimba's old room, since she moved into a house downtown), and I slept in the empty room on Anna's "nook" pillows for a night with a few "essentials." The day after that, Jason got his room cleaned, and moved into the empty room. That Saturday, I was able to move
all of my stuff into Jason's old room, and slept on Anna's pillows until last weekend, when I setup my old daybed.

After Anna gets married in February, I'm going to move all of my stuff (except the daybed and my books) into my old room (currently Anna's), and we're going to use the room I'm currently in as a guest room which will double as my library.

Or that's the plan, anyway.

A few days after I moved into the house, Tim (Anna's fiancé) got a new puppy. She's a shepherd mix, and he named her Brian, after the dog from Family Guy. She's so tiny, and cute--too bad she'll have to grow up and get all annoyingly big and everything.

Yesterday, Anna, Kayla and I went shopping for various things, including lingerie and new pillows for me and groceries for all three of us. We also picked up the dress I bought at RennFest a few years back, since we're going there tomorrow--both Anna and I have Labor Day off, and Kayla has agreed to come, as long as we don't make her wear any garb. I said that was okay, as long as she at least tried Anna's dresses on yesterday and looked in a mirror; she did, and then promptly took them off and got in her regular clothes again.

My Friday night D&D game is no more. Actually it was technically a "new to RPGs" game, so since at least two of us had gotten GM memberships at the Haven, we don't really need "instruction" anymore--not for playing, anyway. Instead, Gene started up a new game, based in the World of Darkness. He's doing a GMs-only, mostly one-on-one Changeling game.

Pretty much, the concept is, he'll work with each of us players individually on certain days of the week (my day's going to be Friday), and we'll have to post on the message boards within 48 hours about what our character did during the latest session. We'll also be able to have one-on-one sessions with the other players, I'm thinking as well. The world itself seems interesting, and I'm looking forward to playing it. I created my character two nights ago, but I forgot to give her a name.

My D&D 4.0 character went into the "Old Characters" section of my RPG player's binder. I've also got a GM binder for my Serenity game, as well as for a series I'm writing for the Buffy RPG.

Twenty-Five

Okay, so this post is two days late . . . so what?

I am now officially a quarter-century old. *cue the confetti* Had a pretty quiet birthday, all told, which is good. I meant to go to the Haven that day, but before I could leave the house (read: camper) I had to 1) pay my bills and figure my finances, 2) do my laundry, and 3) take a shower. I also wanted to go put gas in the bug and buy a new umbrella (my old black one is finally broken beyond the ability to work around), but I didn't get that far either.

It was nearly five in the evening before I got out of the shower, and it rained off and on, so I didn't feel like going anywhere after that. Not to mention, most of the Haven people I'd hang out with would have been too busy preparing for Pennsic War (they left today, and the shop won't be open for a couple weeks while they're there) for me to be much interested in going after all.

So I stayed home and had a lazy day. It helped, because last Saturday I stayed up until 7 a.m. Sunday, and had yet to catch up on the missed sleep at the time, despite getting regular amounts of sleep on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights. But when I went back to work yesterday, I felt refreshed.

Last Saturday, I saw Hancock with Kayla--it was funny, and I liked the story a lot. Great special effects and fight scenes as well. We were originally going to see the new Batman movie, but the show we wanted to see was sold out and we didn't want to have to leave and come back for another show, so we saw Hancock instead.

Tomorrow, we're seeing Batman, so it's all good.

For my birthday, I got a new purse, a wallet, a new watch, and an electronic Sudoku game. I'd never cared much about having a wallet or not, 'cause I just kept my cash in my pocket (or on the cup on my nightstand) and my most-used cards in my checkbook, but it's nice to have it all in one place and not need the pocket or the cup.

I was kind of leery about using a new watch while the old one still works just fine, but the new one is just so pretty (the old one was gold finish, and I prefer silver, which the new one is) that I couldn't resist. So I stopped the old watch (pulled out the knob) so the battery wouldn't die, and buckled it to my old purse.

Brother B. also sent me a telegram for my birthday--he's a ham radio operator, so he sent the message through that to another operator, who called my cell phone and left it on my voice mail. That was pretty cool. He also called to follow up a little while later.

I was going to say something about the last day or two or something, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was now. Oh well, if I remember, I can always make another entry.

Where did that come from? . . . It was kinda fun!

No, this is not a post about my Christmas. I haven't really figured out what to say about that--there really isn't that much to say anyway.

What this post is about, however, is a dream I had last night.

When it started, I was in this building. I think it was a combination of all the schools I'd ever gone to or something, 'cause it looked a lot like a school, only bigger. Then, when I went outside, I found myself at this really swanky outdoor party. There was a fountain and everything.

But the weird part is, there was also this huge parking lot with lots of expensive cars in it. Now that I think on it, that was weird too--I mean, why would anyone keep such expensive cars outside, instead of in a garage?

Anyway, this kid started bugging me, then ran away, so I was looking for him. Then all of a sudden this guy starts talking to me out of nowhere. I turn around, and the guy looks like Michael Keaton for some reason. And he's got this kid with him (different from the one I'd been looking for), around late teens, early twenties.

I gasp, and say something like, "Um, uh . . . Mr. Wayne!" because, apparently I was at Wayne Manor. The kid was probably one of the Robins, and I don't know why, but he called Bruce "Dad" in my presence, which was even weirder.

So Wayne says something about my car being towed (I had apparently left it sitting in the streets of Gotham), and asks if I want to drive to get it back, handing me this ring full of keys as he gets into one of the cars on the lot, a Porsche, or that's what he said. I don't know one expensive car from the other, so the cars in my dreams probably really weren't Porsches.

Then, he points to a car that goes with the key he'd stuck up for me in the ring . . . only I'd accidentally dropped the key ring and didn't see which car he'd pointed at. I did hear him and Robin saying something about "the 100" though, which didn't make any sense at all, but I guess it had something to do with the car he'd pointed out.

Anyway, "Robin" leads me to this car. It was supposed to be green, but looked more cream-colored to me, and I try the key which is the one I think Bruce handed to me. No dice.

I try another one, and the doors unlock. So me and the Robin guy get in the car, and follow Bruce Wayne in the red "Porsche" he'd gotten into around the parking lot a few times. I remember chuckling to myself and saying to the Robin guy (either in my head or out loud, I don't remember) that it would be funner if one of the cars was the Batmobile. We finally made our way to this really messed-up alley way with bricks laying around and the manhole open in the middle of the street and such.

There's this weird-lookin' bike there, and a couple of cars, but mine isn't there. So I get on the bike thing, and thank Mr. Wayne before . . . I wake up.

I don't know where that dream came from. The last time I had anything to do with anything even remotely Batman-related was a few days ago, when I read a couple of stories from LaraMoon's Lois & Clark fanfic series called, "Clark Kent is Batman . . . NOT!" And a week or two before that, I'd dubbed the original Batman movie from a home-recorded VHS to a DVD. But anything I'd been doing the past few days had been pretty much strictly Lois & Clark.

Strange.