When bricks attack...

(Sent by email)

I know, I haven't exactly been doing regular updates. But we're busy!
So far this month, we've been into the city twice, hosted or played 8
rounds of D&D, including two rounds up in Conneticut last Sunday for
Brian, I've stitched up a storm (I promise photos once I get them
downloaded from the camera) and quilted a whole lot. In stitching,
the surprise piece is past half way, as is Fantasy Triptych! I
finished the quilt top for the quilt for our bed and pulled out the
lap quilt top I made the first year we were married. Brian found
great fabrics for the back and binding, so I figured to finish it off
first and then finish off the big quilt! The blocks were joined so
very unevenly that I didn't think I dared quilt it properly, so it's
become a tied quilt. I used bias tape (made by me, no less) to do the
binding on the quilt. I love that I got the thicker border I wanted,
but I think I'll have to try another small quilt to try doing it the
way listed in my books (and taught by the very helpful Marilyn at my
no-so-LQS). I'm nervous doing something I've never tried on a full
king sized quilt! So the frog quilt was finished last Sunday and I
was good and waited for Brian to get home from CT to have a first
snuggle under it.

We've been to see Ronan, my friends Deirdre and Tom's new baby again.
He's so adorable! And a great snuggle. Yumm, baby toes! Deirdre's
mom arrives from Ireland this week and she's so excited. I don't
blame her one bit!

The BBQ at Ben and Lynn's was awesome, and we had a great time. Brian
even enjoyed trying some of their homebrew! (And the fact it was him
trying the homebrew not me matters...) We gabbed a lot about gaming
and getting adapted to NYC. And played my new Ticket to Ride (Europe)
board game, which I love. Big thanks to Morley and Elizabeth who
introduced us to it! And ate fabulous desserts, and I came away with
an new recipe. Yummy! All in all a great evening. We finally headed
out at last, with me driving home. And I promptly got attacked by a
brick hiding in the bushes outside Ben and Lynn's place... and broke
three toes!!! It certainly made for an interesting drive home. We
stopped at a pharmacy on the way past (yea Queens, didn't even have to
think twice about if it would be open!) and cleaned up my toes and got
the bleeding areas at least covered. (I was wearing open toed shoes
when the brick attacked!)

Our company picnic was the following Tuesday, and I did okay for most
of the day. But by about 1:30-2pm, my foot was killing me. I did
have fun though playing bocce ball with my department. Leyi and I
were cleaning up at first, but were eventually routed by the guys
who've played before... It wasn't meltingly hot for a change, and we
had a good time. I spent most of the day in the shade, so I didn't
even get too much of a sunburn!

September is fast approaching, and we're insanely busy. All 5
weekends of September are now booked with stuff, as are two of
October, and a tentative event on a third weekend in October. Lots of
gaming, some visiting, and a trip to Disney will do that though! And
we have tickets to see a show done of a Neil Gaiman story that sounds
really interesting. Thanks Kari for the link, and I hope you enjoy it
too!

I have a whole big post brewing on gaming, and the upcoming change to
4th edition, but it's not quite ready yet... I'll post it once it's
done. In very quick summary, I'm neither surprised, nor upset about
4th ed. I'm excited about it. I spent two hours last night debating
which options to take/use for an arcane caster for Red Hand of Doom.
It took looking through 4-5 books just to see what my options were for
a straight base classed character! The complexity level needs to come
down some, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm sad to see LG go, but
having been in on it since year one when we were told it would be a
five year campaign, I'm happy to have had *eight* years of playing in
it.

On a final blog-related note, I finally sat down last night and did my
blogroll. If I've left you out, or you read this and don't comment,
leave me a comment and I'll be happy to add you! Or just leave me a
comment so I know you are reading! (Jay, Chris, Derek, I'm looking at
you!) :-)

One month from today

We'll be heading out to Disney!!!
I'm starting to get really excited about this trip, but I'm also trying not to so that I don't get over excited and then feel let down once we do get there. All the preplanning is going well with one exception. I still can't get reservations for the one restaurant I really want to go to. And I'm not trying to be picky. I'll take a reservation for *any* time I can get it. Apparently it gets fully booked within two days of reservations opening up most of the time. Even in low season. :(
But otherwise I'm really excited! We'll be seeing Mikey and Jan and their girls (and extended family) since they're going to be there the same time as we are. Shh... Jan had better leave a little extra room in her suitcase, I've got a surprise for them :)

I'm much happier with this answer...

Stolen from Nikki's blog...

You Were a Horse

You can't be fenced in - you long to run free. You are good at overcoming obstacles and realizing your potential.

What Animal Were You In a Past Life?

She's really not happy with hers... :)

A quick word...

The trick is to answer all the questions with one word. I admit to cheating in two places. Stolen from Suz and Belinda's blogs, feel free to tag yourself.



1. Where is your Cellphone? Non-existant
2. Relationship? Awesome
3. Your Hair? Brown
4. Work? Boring
5. Your sister? Younger
6. Your favorite thing? Laughter
7. Your dream last night? Unknown
8. Your favorite drink? DietPepsi
9. Your dream car? Ferrari
10. The room you’re in? Cubicleland
11. Your shoes? No-nonsense
12. Your fears? Worry
13. What do you want to be in 10 years? Parent
14. Who did you hang out with this weekend? Gamers
15. What are you not good at? Controllessness
16. Muffin? Chocolate Chip
17. One of your wish list items? Books
18. Where you grew up? Toronto
19. Last thing you did? Reports
20. What are you wearing? Sweater
21. What aren’t you wearing? Perfume
22. Your pet? Percy!
23. Your computer? Mac
24. Your life? Happy
25. Your mood? Exhausted
26. Missing? Friends
27. What are you thinking about right now? Lunch
28. Your car? Xvart!
29. Your kitchen? Bakery
30. Your summer? Humid!
31. Your favorite color? Blue
32. Last time you laughed? Morning
33. Last time you cried? Sunday
34. School? Always!
35. Love? Critical

And Brian is:

You're the United Nations!

Most people think you're ineffective, but you are trying to
completely save the world from itself, so there's always going to be a long
way to go.  You're always the one trying to get friends to talk to each
other, enemies to talk to each other, anyone who can to just talk instead of
beating each other about the head and torso.  Sometimes it works and sometimes
it doesn't, and you get very schizophrenic as a result.  But your heart
is in the right place, and sometimes also in New York.


Take the Country Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid

At least we make a good pair and match the descriptions :)

Okay, one more...

Since it came out right :)

You're Canada!

People make fun of you a lot, but they're stupid because you've
got a much better life than they do.  In fact, they're probably just jealous.
 You believe in crazy things like human rights and health care and not
dying in the streets, and you end up securing these rights for yourself and
others.  If it weren't for your weird affection for ice hockey, you'd be
the perfect person.


Take the Country Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid

Book Quiz

Sent by email... fingers crossed it'll work!

You're The Mists of Avalon!

by Marion Zimmer Bradley

You're obsessed with Camelot in all its forms, from Arthurian legend
to the Kennedy administration. Your favorite movie from childhood was "The Sword in
the Stone". But more than tales of wizardry and Cuban missiles, you've focused on
women. You know that they truly hold all the power. You always wished you could meet
Jackie Kennedy.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Edited to fix... I don't think emailing it was the problem, I think I must not have copy and pasted the whole thing...

12 Years ago today....

Brian and I were married on a scorcher of an August afternoon. We have both been so blessed. He's my rock, my comfort, and my joy. Happy Anniversary Brian!


PS: I know the photo's a little dark, but it was scanned from the negative. If anyone knows of a good way to lighten such scans, leave me a comment! I've got all the negatives and would like to touch them up somewhat.

Hufflepuff!

Sort me!

I can live with that :)

It's Friday afternoon and I've got nothing...

Not a lot happening for us right now that's blogworthy. I've been
busy with trying to keep the apartment and chores in check. I'm
trying to pull more of my own weight on the chores since Brian's
(hopefully, fingers crossed) going to finally be able to work by the
end of the year. There's no news, no news expected anytime soon, and
no receipt yet to start the countdown clock.
I've been doing some stitching, but not a lot. I'll try to post a
photo by Monday. I'm trying to be really good and keep with my
exercise plan, and by the time I've worked a full day, come home, had
dinner, caught up on chores and spent an hour on the treadmill, I
haven't got much energy left.
My garden is pathetic. I don't think I can really even call it a
garden. There's just the lilys, which are done flowering, the
columbine, also done flowering, and the catnip, which is now
flowering. Catnip flowers. Who knew? But let me tell you, my cat
sure does!
This weekend will be busy, but in a good way. Saturday we're going to
see Deirdre, Tom and their new son Ronan. Then off to Lynn & Ben's
for BBQ and games. Sunday Becky is coming over for dinner and more
board games. She moved to LI this Monday. Wohoo for that! Sunday is
also our wedding anniversary and we're choosing to spend it doing what
we love most. Having good friends over, good food, and fun times.
Then, Brian doesn't know it yet, but I've booked Monday off work,
using the last vacation day I was holding in reserve. We definately
will NOT be able to get home for the anniversary party for Brian's
parents, so I thought I'd use the day like this. No specific plans,
other than to relax. I think I'd really like to pull out my completed
quilt squares and see if I can finish the quilt top this weekend, but
I'm not sure if I'll bother. The heat and, more importantly, the
humidity are sucking all desire to do things out of me.

Have a great weekend everyone!

--
Heather Eberhardt
blog.xvart.com

Poulet vous couchez avec moi? - Brad Sherwood