A night NOT spent at the Haven

Ryan's been back in town for the last week or so, and asked if I wanted to hang out and catch up. I took him up on that offer, of course. He met me after work, and we walked over to Five Guys to eat.

After that, we stopped off at the Haven for a few minutes, 'cause I'd told him about it and how cool it was--and we were nearby anyway.

He had a bit of an errand to run--picking up his other car from the shop, which wasn't the one he parked in the Church Street parking deck--so we drove there in my car, and I followed him to his house to drop it off. From there, we decided to see a movie.

We managed to get to the 6:45 showing of Knowing, the new Nicholas Cage movie, while the previews were still rolling. I liked it a lot; they packed a lot of stuff into two hours and fifteen minutes, and it felt longer than it actually was. Ryan said he liked it up until the end, because it "couldn't decide what genre it was supposed to be" (if I elaborated, it might spoil the ending), but I think it worked--the mix of genres kind of helped with the character development, actually.

The movie was over at 9:00, so we went back downtown and walked up and down Market Street for an hour before heading back to the parking garage so he could get his car. He gave me a ride back to my car, and then we went to our respective houses.

It'll be nice, having Ryan back in the same time zone again, since that means communication will be quicker.

When I got there, Mom and Jason were in bed, but everyone else was downstairs talking. Anna and Tim were talking to Dad about cutting costs on phone lines--Dad's going to look into VOIP (voice over internet protocol), which sounds like a good thing to have when everyone has their own personal cell phones. It also sounds a lot cheaper than a land-line, and is something the four of us kids would get when we have our own house. There could be issues with power outtages, but as long as everyone has cell phones, there isn't much of a problem there.

Turns out, Anna had forgotten to tell me and Tim that we'd been approved for the mortgage loan up to $130,000 with certain specifications, but we're not going to go for a house which will cost us more than $110,000, except in certain circumstances.

We're not going to pursue the house on Vienna Court either, even though it was really nice. The lack of a basement, or any other "growing out" space is a major minus. So, it's back to the house-hunting.

I bought a one-year subscription to Xbox Live Gold so that I could connect my NetFlix account to it. Then after the phone conversation was over (and shortly before Camille left--she'd been talking to Kayla in the dining room), activated the NetFlix on it. I didn't have anything in my instant queue yet, so I didn't watch anything though.

After that, I downloaded the trial version of Castle Crashers, and played as long as it would let me. I almost beat the first big boss before it stopped me, and I think my little character guy was up to level 5 or 6 by that time. Maybe I'll buy a couple thousand marketplace points tomorrow (gotta pay the bills and go grocery shopping first) and get the full version, or maybe not.

I came up here sometime around 12:45, but I wasn't sleepy, so I decided to do some NetFlix queueing. I put 19 things on my DVD queue, and 22 on my instant queue, starting with Medieval Lives, a series of eight episodes that I'd seen half of at the Haven, but didn't catch the rest of yet. Among the rest of my queues are Quantum Leap, Shark Week, Murder, She Wrote, and SeaQuest: DSV. I've got a few movies and such on there too, but the serieses take up most of the queue lists.

I think I might actually be sleepy now.

More House Hunting, etc.

Anna, Kayla and I went house hunting last Thursday. We took Jason with us, because he wanted to go to the Haven with me afterward. We only found one house that we were even remotely interested in definitely pursuing--all the others were low maybes, at best.

It was on Vienna Ct, and if it had had a basement (not to mention at least one more parking space--we do have three cars between the four of us, after all) it would've almost been perfect. As it is, if we do pursue that house, I'll at least need to sell a good half of my stuff--including my desk--since there will only be room for basic living items (bed, dresser, night stand) in the bedrooms, and only the kitchen, dining room and living room as common areas to put other stuff.

But, oh well. It's not like I've actually been using most of that stuff for the last eight months or so anyway--it's all been in storage. But I have been finding that I need to get things out of storage every once in a while; if I sold the stuff that I wasn't using, then one day I might actually need to use it, and wouldn't have it anymore to use. Though the money from selling the stuff could help in a more immediate manner, I'm sure.

I'm on the 9th Discworld book, Eric, and while I listened to Wyrd Sisters a few books back, I noticed that a lot of the plots so far have parallels in other stories. For instance, Wyrd Sisters is a very definite MacBeth parallel (it would probably be more accurate to say a "perpendicular," I think), and Pyramids is like a mélange of Old Testament stories--with some Greek and/or Roman mythology thrown in (Trojan Horse, anyone?).

On Saturday, there was a DCI-sanctioned Magic draft. I played and got some new cards. I had made three decks the night before with the cards I had, but forgot that I should wait until after the draft, since I was going to get more cards anyway. I'll re-make the decks tonight, hopefully better.

Not Much Going On

The past couple weeks have been pretty routine, with a couple exceptions.Gabe has the entire Discworld series by Terry Pratchett on audio, and let me copy them onto my iPod--or rather, let me copy the first three so far. I've been listening to them as I work, so I haven't caught all of the events in the books, but I've caught enough to be able to get the general gist of the plots. I'm in the middle of The Light Fantastic right now.

In order to catch everything, I went to the library on Saturday and borrowed The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic in novel format. I just finished the first quarter of the first book last night. They didn't have Equal Rites at my local branch, and I didn't feel like going to Thurmont to get it either.

Also on Saturday, I picked up Jason's birthday present at the Haven. The original plan was for him to come with me, so that we could play Warhammer with his new Dragonmage of Caledor (that was the present). I'd bought the model a couple weeks ago, then did the gluing, the filling of the cracks with greenstuff, and the priming myself, but I needed someone else to paint it for me, since I'd never done any model painting before and didn't want it to be awful. Elliot painted it for me, and finished before Saturday. He did a good job, and Jason likes the dragon.

I got him the dragon, because he likes to play High Elves using the Haven's store army, and they don't have a dragon there for store use. So he'd have to proxy in a different model. Now, he doesn't have to.

I went house-hunting a week ago yesterday with Kayla, Anna and Tim. We didn't find any houses that we really liked--the ones we saw that weren't awful were only acceptable. For some reason, we'd only been looking in the Discovery development, so Anna told our realtor that it's okay to be looking in other places.

Yesterday, Anna, Kayla and I got all caught up on Dollhouse. There were seven episodes on the TiVo, and for some reason, it didn't record the March 20th episode, so we watched that one online, for a total of eight episodes in a single day. It was long, but the show is great.

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.

The Art of Culinary Forgetfulness

I packed a lunch yesterday with a sandwich, a soda and an apple, but did not eat the apple, so I put it in the mini-fridge at work overnight.

This morning, I packed a lunch to go with the apple, but forgot it on the kitchen counter, so I was left with only the apple. I decided to go to the Haven on my lunch break again, so I was able to get chips and a Yoohoo to go with the apple.

When I took the apple out of the mini-fridge, it was weird-looking--the skin of the apple had wrinkled up, and it was textured kind of like the tops of the folding tables at church. I thought nothing of it, except that that's probably what happens when an apple is refrigerated, allowed to come to room temperature, and then refrigerated again.

So, I got to the Haven, and bit into the apple--it was frozen! I'd put it on the shelf of the mini-fridge right next to the freezer portion, and I guess it was just too cold there. So, I had a couple bites of frozen apple, a bag of Lays potato chips, and a can of Yoohoo for lunch today.

Hopefully, I'll actually remember my lunch tomorrow--at least I won't have to pack it.

New Computer!

My new computer came yesterday, and when I got home from the Haven around 7:30-ish, Dad was working on Kayla's (he'd bought one each for me, Kayla and Jason). The computer is a Compaq Presario CQ60-211DX Notebook PC.

I brought it to work with me this morning so that I could put some stuff on it from my external hard drive (which I also brought to work) like my iTunes library and a shortcut to my journal file, and later while I'm at the Haven I'm going to get some programs online that I usually use--like Gmail Notifier and Firefox.

Dad also bought an XBox 360 and a Wii. The console we played Anna's Rock Band 2 on the other night was actually Dad's. Last night, we played Wii Sports, and Dad also bought Wii Fit.