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!) :-)