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I will write cotent here again, someday. Anyone want photos from last night?

It was a very good party. There was dancing! There were giant Katamari Damarcy hugs! There was food and much laughter! The guests were...

anidada,

nottheterritory,

sassy_fae and the youngling of the household.

kisekeleia, visiting from Toronto!

mrs_dm and

doc_mystery and their daughter!

kores_rabbit,

j0no and their friend Namiki!

mar2nee, her husband Daniel and their son Adam!

catsarah and Wil!
And last but not least,

commanderteddog!

And now... onto the visual record...
( Lest old acquaintance something something )

One of my resolutions for the New Year will be to provide more textual content for this journally thing. In the mean time...

PHOTOS!

kores_rabbit and

commanderteddog had a sleepover at the Mousehold on Tuesday night. We stayed up to watch Strange Days.

commanderteddog returned to Toronto on the morn, but

kores_rabbit stayed around for the day. We took the kids to see Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel at the Movie Palace. It was about as good as one migh expect.

Last night was

commanderteddog's Great Migration and Sushifest. Her office is closing, so we (

momentrabbit,

seattlemouse,

kores_rabbit and I) infiltrated the empty corridors of the Toronto Star building and removed her desk, chair, computer and other bits she'll have for working at home.

Teddog later took us out all to sushi, where we were joined by

sassy_fae,

catsarah, and

j0no.

This morning was Christmas Eve Brunch at my sister-in-law's place, which was quite laid back with plenty of food. Erin's dad was rather touched by a customized photo album her little sister made for him.

Tonight we have the carol sing, buffet dinner at my mom's, and then home to get the girls to bed, stockings stuffed, and video games set up...

It's been an incredibly busy couple of days. Thursday, I drove into Toronto to visit with

kores_rabbit. She showed me Tenacious D episodes! Later, we hooked up with

commanderteddog for an evening of fish and chips and MST3K.

Teddog brought us to "The Olde Yorke," the best fish and chip place I've been to in ages, despite the silly olde timey name. I helpfully smashed her camera and threw it into pocket dimension.

We then ventured to the Mystery Loblaw's and loaded up on comestibles for the evening. We watched a Robot Chicken Star Wars DVD ("Gentlemen! Good manners are their own reward!"), and Teddog received a phone call from

mbehemoth, who was in the neighbourhood with his wife for her birthday dinner.

Teddog invited them over, and shortly after we were also joined by

kores_rabbit's husband, Jonathan. We all watched the MST3K version of Santa Claus.

kores_rabbit making an extremely obscure MST3K joke, and it's not "I'm your biggest fan."

I finally got home after midnight, and rose early to get

velvetpage and the girls to their respective "last day of school" events. I think I was in the house for all of 45 minutes between 8 AM and 4 PM. Claire and I visited Elizabeth at school for her class party. The evening held Claire's Christmas recital, which took place at my old high school, and

ruiskafleck's birthday party...

( When Delta's hardy boys fall into line... )

kores_rabbit was over this weekend and joined the usual Star Wars game crowd, in a possibly recurring cameo as a GY Data Analysis droid. This meant eight people crowded around the table. Happily, Star Wars is fairly easy to run for large groups, and I don't think any one got bored.

Thus far, the game has inspired pages of character logs and art from

commanderteddog, character art from

catsarah and

sassy_fae, TWO themed desserts (from Teddog and

momentrabbit, and now customized miniatures.

momentrabbit made of his character (which I didn't get a clear shot of) and also constructed the IT-O interrogation droid being held by

kores_rabbit in this shot.

There was a chase and firefight through a shifting asteroid field!

The tools of a prepared Star Wars GM - model Star Destroyer, stack of hematite, Lego spaceship pieces, and netbook bookmarked to Wookiepedia. Wookiepedia is wonderful for quick visual references. "You see an R1 unit - here's a photo."

The wreckage of game night.

Went there today with

melskunk, her girlfriend Madelaine (who was visiting from Germany), and

kores_rabbit!

( Read more... )

I want to make one thing very clear. I was not a time traveller for Halloween. I was not sent from the future to observe. I was dressed as a perfectly normal 21st Era Insurance-Gathererman. Please note the historically accurate flying machines on my perfectly normal necklace cravat. Note also the electric badge, which informs you, in no uncertain terms, that I am not a Time Traveller.

Elizabeth was an Alien Princess. Claire was a Mexican Penguin.

MY parents, and my kids.

nottheterritory,

sassy_fae,

anidada and her daughter Rachel were an Away Team, and came to help our girls go trick or treating.

commanderteddog came over to help hand out candy, and watch movies.

Happy Halloween, from the Mousehold!

So far, quitting my job remains the smartest thing I've done all year. It is amazing how much time I have for friends and family. My insomnia is gone. I've lost weight. My mood is vastly improved. The house is much cleaner.

And, today I got to hang out with

catsarah and

sassy_fae in a relatively leisurely fashion! And we got a free lunch, cause it took more than 15 minutes.

This evening,

wggthegnoll and

ruiskafleck came over to supper and Warhammer. Fondue was made. Children were cute. Elizabeth wrote two original songs that she played for us on the piano. Seriously, she scored them and wrote lyrics and everything.

Warhammer went well, and I ran through my first epic battle of the game. The players are aboard an Elven merchant carrack.

wggthegnoll is running an elven noble, transformed into a horrible monster by Chaos magic, and

ruiskafleck and

velvetpage are playing his wife (a wizard) and sister (a mercenary) respectively. They are seeking a cure, while hiding his transformation from the crew. Check my new battle mat, and hastily drawn deckplans!

In tonight's game, there was much spying and politicking and RP... and then the ship was attacked by a galley of Norsca raiders.

_{"We make! Holes in teeth! We make! Holes in teeth!"}
These are essentially Vikings as depicted on the cover of a Death Metal album, led by a horned and winged mutant. They're represented here by 1:72 scale Pictish warriors. Though I should totally pick up some Vikings before Hamilton Hobby closes forever.

The final score - Death Metal Vikings: 7, Players: 12

After a full day of errands and doctor appointments,

velvetpage gave me permission to run into Toronto for

mwbard's 44th birthday party. I hooked up with

kores_rabbit while downtown and brought her along.

I seem to have a slightly shocked expression, possibly because the late Isaac Asimov is sitting next to me.

mwbard, the birthday horse.

kores_rabbit, wondering who all the weirdos are.

We celebrated

commanderteddog's birthday tonight! We were also playing the first session of my new Star Wars campaign, so

momentrabbit made a themed cake!

Cake!

Also,

velvetpage's horns got a good workout...

( EL DIABLO! )

More photos from yesterday...

kores_rabbit as Cousin It.

Hullo.

Cthulhu's hillbilly cousin? A redneck Mindflayer?

kores_rabbit in the corn.

Christopher Robin, as played by an albino amputee.

Today..

Happier and more content than I've been in a couple of months. It's cold and rainy out, and warm and cozy inside, and the house is quiet. It's been a very productive and interesting 72 hours. Autumn is my favorite season. October is my favorite month.

My first day off work was Thursday. I was very productive, taking care of literally dozens of minor home repairs and chores we'd been putting off, in some cases for years. And cleaning! Thursday night

ruiskafleck and

wggthegnoll were over to make characters for a new Warhammer FRP game I'm running one weeknight a week for them and

velvetpage.

Yesterday was my first solo day as a housedad, responsible for making lunches and getting the girls to and from places.

kores_rabbit came over early in the day and stayed the evening for fondue and movies.

velvetpage can melt my cheese any day. :)

kores_rabbit also joined us today for our jaunt to a Haunted Farm, one of best ways to spend a blustery fall day. We left just as storm rolled in, with powerful winds bending the cornstalks and heavy rain starting to fall.

_Load...

_Aim...

_Fire!

velvetpage fired a Pumpkin Cannon.

( More photos below... )
We all scurried down the Mountain as the rain poured down and lightning flashed, and finished the afternoon with supper at Swiss Chalet.

Tomorrow is the first session of my Star Wars game. Yay!

Some belated photos from a marvellous party we attended a week ago, at the house of a friend of a friend. The Dundas D&D crew were out in force!

A man in a white shirt kept bringing us food!

shadow_maze and

doc_mystery dig in.
( Party! )

Very tired, but it was a good trip. We were only at the con for about 6 hours before heading to dinner reservations and our motel in Bobcaygeon. Photos below because I'm too sleepy for typing.

Exposure to Gygaxian fantasy makes

velvetpage reveal her Tiefling heritage.

And turn black and white! And smile!

velvetpage and

kores_rabbit, the booth bunnies.

Man, they used to have the most awesome wars ever. I did not buy this book, but I did buy Mr. Punch's History of the Great War, which is chockful of icon fodder and game research details.

( Nerds, food, and Bobcaygeon! )

Work continues to be dire. Angry clients, troubling phonecalls half-overheard, sudden closed door meetings, etc.

The weekend was not so dire! Yesterday was the "House Cooling" party for

anidada and

nottheterritory, the last event at their Toronto digs.

I got to meet some very cool people...

... and the kids had a blast.

Today, I had the honour of joining

kores_rabbit's D&D game! She really is quite a good Dungeon Mistress, and the players were all charming fellows. Plus, there were rats.

And licorice!

You know you're getting old when your RPG characters seem impossibly young.

'Twas a good game!

And now... good night.

We went out to

mar2nee and Daniel's suburban home today, for some very old school D&D/homebrew, courtesy of their friend Grant. His variant of the system is marked (I hear) by very slow level progression, book keeping, and attention to small details. It was fun enough, though! I was playing a pre-gen 1st level Dwarf fighter named "Hammerfist," and roared and shouted a fair bit.

THIS! IS! SODAAAAAAAAA!

Battle is joined.

Claire likes dice.

There was heavy rain throughout the afternoon, perplexing the westerners, and the front lawn received a visit from a doe, who wandered off down the street after Elizabeth pointed her out.

Now, we're awaiting the arrival of

anidada,

nottheterritory, and

sassy_fae. Depending on weather, some of all of us are going to see fireworks.

Lots of work, a lunchtime wander with

commanderteddog, rush home to...

Fun fair at Elizabeth's school. She said, "I hope

sassy_fae sees this!"

shadow_maze was there, and told me about his near TPK in his D&D game on Saturday!

And his son was also there!

And my parents walked over to see the girls. I really like this photo.

Slept terribly last night, and we spent the morning cleaning or playing with the girls. I think Erin and I were both tired and in need of cuddles, 'cause I spent a good solid 20 min asleep with my head on her chest, entirely spontaneously.

Though, really, can you blame me?

anidada,

catsarah,

nottheterritory and

sassy_fae were all over this evening, and we completely failed to do any gaming. There was some gardening, and some eating, but mostly folks just lay about comfortably.

nottheterritory decided to test the shutter on my camera.

Jump!

Leap!

Toss!

Gardening!

And an extra shot of the lovely

velvetpage from last night's family birthday event, because a chap should post more than just a photo of his wife's décolletage. Our 10th anniversary is in 2 weeks. She's swell, ain't she?