Nope, I didn't fall off the face of the earth...

Just been even busier than normal, and out off the office. I don't foresee my schedule improving much in the near future, of course, because that's just how I am. But I am about to go on vacation for 6 glorious days (counting the weekend), so that will be sort of a break. :)

I honestly haven't even been doing a whole lot aside from work. I squeezed in about half an hour of Rock Band one night last week, got caught up on a few things at the writer's group, and have otherwise been filling my spare moments with gaming and a tiny bit of crocheting. I made my new character for the Exalted game (though ended up not getting it done quite in time to actually play on Saturday), and yesterday we got to make our characters for the Dragon-Blooded Exalted game.

That was seriously some of the most fun I've ever had with character creation. There were 8 players, and we started out paired up with a family member--in my case, we defined ourself as cousins, though a couple of the pairs chose to be siblings (and then because of cross-breeding, more or less, we are almost all cousins to one another). We then had to come up with some defining event that had happened before the older sibling turned 9. And that's when we discovered that really and truly, my character was meant to be a pirate her whole life. :)

Throughout the course of the afternoon, we then paired up with 4 more players, and worked out events that had occured between our two characters at other stages in our lives, up until the point where we were all hovering between the ages of 31 and 29. By that point, my character had stolen a boat, cut off another character's hand, created a makeshift hot air balloon, witnessed an assassination that she had paid for, and stolen an airship (losing an eye in the process). So yeah, all sorts of pirate-y stuff. :)

The really cool thing about this is that my character now has a strong reason to be hanging out with 5 of the other 7 PCs. And as it turns out, the two PCs that I didn't have an in-depth scene with are the siblings of two of the PCs that I did have great scenes with. So we basically know each other, just indirectly. It also really helps to flesh out my character's personality to know that even when she was 7, all she really wanted was to go where she wasn't, and that she's never grown out of that tendency.

So I'm really looking forward to the continuation of this game, when we actually start playing. Of course my hope is that everyone will end up on my airship, and we'll maraud and pillage across the Threshhold, but even if I end up having to leave my ship in storage for a bit to help out my cousins and friends, it'll still be a blast! :)

Fall is here! :)

As I was zipping up my ever present black hoodie (which really has seen better days) this morning, I had the wise thought to take a look at the computer and see what the outside temperature was. It's been chillier in the mornings lately, so I thought it couldn't hurt to check. As it turns out, it was a good thing I did. It hadn't broken 50 degrees yet!

So the hoodie came off, and the best. coat. EVER. got to come back into circulation. This year, it's topped off by the new flight helmet that I got from Abney Park at their show a couple of weeks ago. (Which is not the same as the flight helmet I bought from them earlier this year.) Of course, I have no picture of the new hat yet, but suffice it to say that it has fuzziness on the inside, and yet is all synthetic. Faux leather and faux fur. :)

I think I need a pair of brown leather (or faux leather) gloves to finish off the outfit, but I know they'd have to be a third color of brown, so that I completely don't match. Oh, maybe suede instead, to give it a third texture as well. ;)

"Cooking" with Dawn

So last night, for some reason, I had this crazy craving for Big Mac sauce, a.k.a. Thousand Island dressing. However, as we don't eat a lot of salad, and Jerome hates Thousand Island, I had to improvise. I mixed together approximately equal parts of ketchup and mayonnaise, and then tossed in a bit of pickle relish. Voila, nearly perfect on my first try! And surprisingly good on hot dogs. :)

Now the next one I have to try is the dressing that they put on the salad at the cafe downstairs. I have no idea what it is, but it's a sort of thin, watery, coleslaw-like dressing on regular lettuce, rather than minced up cabbage. Oh, and I think it's sweeter than coleslaw dressing... but I haven't eaten coleslaw in years. I wonder if it's some sort of Asian slaw, as it comes with all of the Asian dishes... however, it also comes with the lasagna...

Sadly, I don't even know where to start on trying to make it. It would probably help if I could identify it better. :)

In other news, the injured fingers from last night now have pirate bandaids, and that makes them feel 10 times better. :)

Yay movies! :)

So our belated Christmas movies arrived yesterday, though Jerome insisted on telling me it was a surprise, even when I guessed correctly.

I say belated Christmas movies because it used to be that every Christmas, I came home with a stack of movies. We all know that summer movies are generally marketed for a DVD release just in time for Christmas anyway, so it always made sense. At any rate, even though I was fairly sure that I wouldn't be getting movies for Christmas this year, I still held off and waited to buy until after the holidays. There was also a hope that there would be an Amazon gift certificate somewhere in our Christmas haul. (There was, though Jerome used it for books instead. We used my Border's gift card to knock the price down a bit on the movies.) :)

So we got Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, 28 Weeks Later, Transformers, and Stardust. I watched the last of these last night, and it was still as wonderful and magical as it was in the theater. Jerome watched Transformers as soon as he opened the box, and 28 Weeks Later around the time I went to bed last night. I'm watching Pirates when I get home from work today. :) I also took a bit of time last night to rearrange our movies, so that the stack of new movies (which went back several months) could be added to the collection, which is, of course, in alphabetical order. Cuz I'm OCD like that. :)

One of these days, I need to go on IMDB and look through the movies scheduled to come out this year, so that I can plan my movie viewing schedule. I saw a preview for the Spiderwick Chronicles movie on the Stardust DVD last night, and it looks neat. And the boy from the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (and like 12 other movies, I think) is in it. :)

Another day of random...

1) I have a new pirate coat, and could not resist doing a silly pose for this picture of it. (I always do silly poses when I wear steampunk clothes.) This coat is amazing. It's leather (and I think they must have used the better part of an entire cow to make it), nice and worn to the point where it is soft and comfortable. I found it a couple of weeks ago, but didn't buy it till last night. As soon as Jerome saw it on me, he told me that I had to buy it. Who am I to argue? ;)

I'm planning to replace all 20 buttons with something a bit more Victorian and/or military inspired, though I do want to keep them in the gold/bronze/brass color scheme. I just need to find buttons for much cheaper than you can buy them at JoAnn's. I do not want to have to spend $20 to get the buttons I need. :(

I'm also plotting on a way to make myself a hat and scarf that will go with this, without detracting too much from the awesome that is this coat. I have had the recommendation to go with a tartan scarf and a red bucket-style hat. I can make the hat, but I can't crochet plaid. :( (Gloves will be black stretch gloves or fleece gloves, because I have approximately five pairs of those two styles of gloves already.)

2) Anandi, who I have not met yet (but might tonight) had already captured my attention with her blog, but this post on riding the bus in Seattle is perfection. I know EXACTLY what she is talking about. :) (She also has an Etsy shop, and makes super neat jewelry with excellent names.)

3) Two new CDs last night: another Dropkick Murphys, and H.I.M. Jerome really tried to dissuade me from buying the H.I.M. CD, but I can't help it! I love Ville Valo's voice! (He suggested Ministry or Korn as possible alternates. I stuck with H.I.M.) Not much to say on either yet, as I haven't finished listening to them, other than to say that they sound about the same as they always sound. In both cases, this is a good thing.

(I have a much longer rant in store about why it is perfectly acceptable for some bands to always sound the same, while I expect other bands to continually morph their style. Cuz yes, this is a bit of a paradox.)

Okay, I suppose that's enough random for today. :)

So we went and saw "Stardust" last night. For those who don't know, this movie is based off of a book by Neil Gaiman. I'm a huge Neil Gaiman fan, but this book is definitely one of my favorites, because it's a fairy tale. In fact, when Neil Gaiman was describing this movie at Comic Con, he compared it to "The Princess Bride." If anyone is still surprised that I like it, they should probably reexamine what it is they think they know about me. :)

Unsurprisingly, I loved the movie. True, there were a few parts that bothered me a little bit, but that's because they weren't completely true to the book. If, however, I had not read the book before, I know I would have completely and utterly loved this movie. Sadly, most of my disappointment stemmed from the fact that they left out my favorite line in the entire book, and that it really seemed like they rushed through a lot of bits to get to the "good parts." And one of those "good parts" was something that totally was NOT in the book.

But I can't complain, because I loved the steampunk pirates with their airship SOOOO much! (I looked it up last night, and the pirates are in the actual book for all of 5 pages, and they're nothing like they are in the movie.) I really can't wait for this movie to come out on DVD, because I will then watch the pirate part frame by frame to find all of the beautiful details that I missed the first time.

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In other news, I get to go see Abney Park tonight, which will be awesome. Sadly, Jerome does not get to come with me (both because he works late and can't get into the place where they're playing), but I think I'll have a pretty good time anyhow. I will probably end up working the merch booth with their new merch boy/cabin boy, Qais (that's pronounced "case," if you were wondering).
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Two new articles today, one by Cindy, and one by me. :)

Cindy's: Is Doctor Envy Hampering Your Diagnosis?

Mine: So, You Want to be a Pirate for Halloween?

Eventually, I will have articles that aren't about costuming... really... :)
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I think that Fridays actually have more hours in them than any other day of the week. Someone should fund a study to find out if this is true. Not it! :)

I don't really have any real EotWWW this week, because I'm feeling a bit lazy and not particularly wise. I dreamed about sleeping last night, which sounds very weird, and I assure you, it was. It seems to have ended up leaving me feeling a bit fuzzy headed, which is annoying. Specially cuz I've got some Settlers to kick ass at tonight! :)

I suppose the EotWWW could be that ninjas totally flip out and kill people, a fact which has been proven twice in as many weeks. But that's blatantly ripped off from a website, and, well, what are you really gonna learn by that statement?

I have to find something that pirates are the best at, other than being sexy, to turn into a poll.

This incredibly random post is brought to you by Friday, dreams of sleep, "Serenity" (my iPod), and the letter Q.
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