In a nutshell –

Slept in a little, but we made it for my allergy shots by 10am.

After the obligatory injections, a quit stop at starbucks for a lackluster peppermint latte – we won’t go back there again. The Giant across the street has a starbucks inside, and if I’m going to pay $5 for a coffee, I’ll get one that’s excellent – not that poorly assembled mess I had for breakfast. The sugar cookie was ok… I think the fac tthat it was shaped like a penguin added flavor.

Headed out to Maerten’s – went to look at BHK’s ring lemon quartz in white gold… sort of our own lime-vanilla ice. The staff there was very kind and helpful; Jamie in particular had more than a few good ideas about setting the stone and we’ll be meeting for sketches soon. I’m glad we could find a place that we like and trust so much to do what we want.

went to Aardvark – picked up a few fun little items to fool with in the days and years ahead.

Easter Island (I love the game pieces ) Reminds me more than a little of Laser Battle, but with added nifty bits here and there.

This game speculates that the easter island statues were, in fact, beam weapons created by two very powerful wizards. These wizards used the statues in a giant game, with the island itself as the board. You are now one of those wizards…

Easter Island lets you place your statues and move them into position. Then, when everything is ready, call upon the power of the Sun to topple your opponent’s statues and thus your opponent.

If fishes were wishes – again, the game pieces are cute.

“Players are fishermen, trying to catch the most valuable fish and sell them in the market for the best prices. With limited space for storing caught fish, players must use their wits to get the right fish to market at the right times. This is where the granting of wishes is most helpful. Just catch the fish who will grant the wish you want, throw it back, and you get your wish. Sounds simple, but the game does require a bit of thinking and planning. The wishes can help you increase the value of fish when sold, grant you extra storage space, and several other useful things.”

Spree – Shopping, gunfire and violence. How could I resist a Cheapass Game we didn’t already have?

“Springtime. Midnight. The Mall is beckoning.

Welcome to LeGrand Mall, the oldest and most poorly secured indoor mall in the world. It’s as airtight as the Titanic and as solid as a wet paper bag. This place just begs to be robbed.

Enter you, and your infantile collection of friends. It’s not enough to simply loot this mall. No, you have to do it with a certain amount of flair. Which boils down to an all-night looting race, with shopping carts, flashlights, and guns.

The object? Park your car, dash into the mall, and load your shopping cart with the goodies on your list. You can snitch stuff out of the stores if you like, but it’s even more fun (and easier) to steal it from your friends. And that would explain why you’re carrying a huge gun.”

– includes a variant of “a bunch of extra violence we’ve never tested”, such Running People Over.

In addition to our normal game purchases… BHK convinced me (with very little arm-twisting) to pick up some comics – all miniseries at the moment.

Current story lines about –

• Groo the Wanderer (first learned about Groo with Steve Jacoby, back in the ol’ High School days)
• Lobster Johnson
• After the Cape II – interesting art style, but I was surprised at the mood of the book, so far.
• Howard the Duck (Featuring AIM and MODOT – unfortunately, not MODOK)
• Flash’s Rogues Gallery.

Started getting hungry and went on a quest for a Pizza Hut… Stuffed Crust pie, in particular. When all we could locate were take-out places, we chanced upon the Do Dah Deli. Good find. BHK had a foot-long corn dog and shared pinwheel fries with me – I had a build your own sammich…. I just went with an assortment of cheeses, sprouts and veggies with honey mustard. It was all quite tasty, though there was a mix-up with our order. Easily fixed, and no worries.

Side Track Hobbies – I think we’ve found a place to fill Larry (and my own) Model train needs. The place looks tiny from the outside, but once you’re in there, it’s warehouse-level storage of all sorts of stuff, from z-scale on up to big ol’ yard stuff. The Marklin Selection was really quite nice. I wish I’d had access to this kind of loot when I was tabletop gaming… I bet Danny’d have a field day with dioramas.

Lastly, we hit the Children’s Bookstore next door. We got more than a little bit of Christmas Shopping done there.. not all for kids, either. Bugah and Em were the highlights, however. Once the lady running the place found out that I did computer stuff and having a little discussion of her fondness of Mac over PC (I feel it’s a religious discussion… only seldom to people get converted one way or the other) – I showed her how to upgrade both her MacBook and PC workstation’s software. She was an older lady, maybe in her early 80’s, but was very vital and possessed of strong opinoins and beliefs.

Comments of note from her included commentary on Univeristy of Maryland / Virginia Tech teachers from the 1950s, fairy dolls, and her firm beliefs about Macs vs PCs. However her most memorable comment to me was – “Pomonkey indians are in a terrible state, especially since they started intermarrying with colored folks”.

(In early Colonial days, Pomonkey was known as “Pomonkey Indian Land,” for it was heavily populated by “Pomonceaks” as John Smith called them on his map of 1608. Pomonkey is a plateau of land surrounded by the Great Mattawoman Swamp. The Indians had followed many trails from every point in Southern Maryland for the rich hunting and fishing in Pomonkey. These converging trails became roads for the European settlers. Hence, Pomonkey very early became a site of local commerce.)

A slight Soda-spill later, and we headed on home, with a brief stopover at the in-laws. We caught up with My name is earl, and then hit the sack.

Not a bad day, all in all.

1 year ago – training my replacement, dinner with Dan and BHK

2 years ago – vanity search / publishing, whimsy, COA, fact meme

3 years ago – penguins desalinate, western thoughts, duck butts, rss drama, bro grabs xbox, drama

4 years ago – sagas, dirty food chains

5 years ago – I am Augustine, brain thieves, kazaa gets me mst3k

6 years ago – Scooby-doo freedoms, disease test, new lj client

7 years ago – paperwad fetch, bad breakfast, drugs