The day Family Game Night was born

For some time I've been pestering Kevin for a dinning room set and this year for Christmas I got exactly what I wanted.  I helped pick it out and it arrived earlier this week.  It's really lovely, dark wood retro design, and fits in well with the house.

On the day it arrived Em and I came home and she spotted it first thing.
"Mommy you got one of those?"
"Yep, pretty cool huh?"
"We play cards?"
And just like that family game night was born.  We ate pizza and salad at the table like a family, played  Yoohoo Can You Moo, and didn't turn on the TV until well after Em had gone to bed.

Love is a many splendored thing

Not everyone is lucky enough to find that one person who makes their world a brighter place.  For those of us who do, it can be incredibly hard to put into words "why" you love someone.  I think the reason is because it's all the little things that add up to a really great relationship.  I am very lucky to have one of those great relationships where we are exactly alike and very different all at the same time.  Our differences compliment each other and our similarities bring us closer together. 

For many years now I have been a self proclaimed Harry Potter fanatic.  Somewhere along the line I got Kevin to read  the first book.  Soon he had caught up to me and we started having great conversations about who did what and what was going to happen next.  As the movies came out Kevin got use to me always going to them dressed up in my Hogwarts best.  Usually I sported a Hermione costume but for The Half Blood Prince I went as a dark witch. 

One thing that Kevin learned early on is that I, like so many other women, have a huge crush on Severus Snape (as portrayed by Alan Rickman.)  And while I've never really gotten into fan fic it's always been our little joke that he is my Professor Snape and I am his Hermione (detention is usually part of the story.)  I have tried for years to get Kevin to dress as Snape for me for Halloween or for a trip to the movies but he's never been up for it.  He's just not much of a costume kind of guy.  Well last week when we decided that we would see Deathly Hallows part 1 the day after Thanksgiving Kevin actually suggested that we dress as Professor Snape and a very pregnant Hermione (a not uncommon story line in fan fic.)  So I hit my favorite Goodwill store and picked up some supplies.


I got a couple of black coats to piece together for Kevin along with a pair of skinny jeans.  I got myself a stretchy gray skirt and a new sweater-vest.  A couple of hours with a sewing machine and a pair of scissors and this is what we ended up with.  Just one more little reason why I love my guy and why we are so perfect together.  Because even though he doesn't do costumes he couldn't pass up the opportunity to be the dirty professor that got Hermione into this condition.

Hello Severus

The happy couple

Kiss me Severus

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

I just finished watching Glee's RHPS episode.  It was a lot of fun and, in my humble opinon, an excellent tribute to the show.  The cameos by Barry Bostwick and Meatloaf were an unexpected treat and the performances by all involved were excellent.  But the best part of the show was sitting there yelling "slut" and "asshole" at my TV and remembering just how much fun I had going to those shows and dancing the time warp.  For those that didn't see the Glee episode there was a comment at the end (don't worry not much of a spoiler) that really rings true.  "The Rocky Horror Picture Show (and I'm paraphrasing) was a place you could go if you didn't fit in anywhere else."  Everyone was accepted for who they are at Rocky.  And if you're really lucky you might just get asked up on stage to be part of the pre-show (pics below.)

Fetish night

This is one of my favorite outfits from my RHPS days

Horror night (I'm a bridesmaid that killed herself b/c of her horrendous dress)

Sci-fi night

Let the gaming begin!!

Well it's been a busy week around the geeky mom home. Last week I had jury duty. Then over the weekend we had a birthday party for Emily.

Jury duty pretty much entailed calling the courthouse repeatedly to see if I had to go in. The big up side of this is that I couldn't go into work and run the risk of being more than an hour away from the courthouse. I got a lot done around the house that day but more importantly once I was fully cleared from jury duty I could go off and do whatever I liked. So that afternoon Kevin and I went into the city to visit Gamescape before picking up Em from daycare. Gamescape is an awesome store and just what we needed to get the basics for D&D. We got the 4^th edition core rulebook collection and some figurines (Kevin already had dice.) Kevin got a set of figurines (Nualia and Eyrium aka chick and little demon dude) and I got this really cool black knight. 

I fell in love with mine b/c he rides a skeleton horse and has a helmet with bat wings on it (for some reason he reminded me of the Evil Genius from Time Bandits, I need to watch that movie again.) 

So every chance I get I've been reading my D&D Player's Handbook. Thursdays are going to be our official game night and this Thursday we're going to start working on making our characters. I'm leaning toward some sort of elf (possibly an elf wizard) since they are natural archers. Kevin's been working on creating a campaign for the game. He said it's going to involve some sort of zombie attack in a small town. As luck would have it I read Max Brooks Zombie Survival guide a few months back so I'm well prepared for anything Kevin can dish out.

A few days after my jury duty/D&D adventure we had Em's 3^rd birthday party. It was your typical kids party extravaganza; cake, balloons, pin the tail on the donkey and lots of gifts. Two of the gifts she got were the classic board games Candy Land and Shoots and Ladders. Today when we got home she wanted to play a game. We set up Shoots and Ladders and started to play. This was very cool for mommy. Em really seemed to like playing and was starting to “get it” after a while. This makes three games now that we can play together (the others are dominoes and Yoo-Hoo Can You Moo) and I must admit I'm really looking forward to the day that Kevin and I can take her to Gamescape and get her her very own figurine to paint and play D&D with.

w00tstock 2.5.1

This past Friday I attended my first ever w00tstock. Now for those of you who don't know what w00tstock is, you could just check out their web site but I think it may be better to use the words of Wil Wheaton (sadly I didn't record it so I'll have to paraphrase.)  "Picture a venn diagram.  In one circle you have technology, in another science, then gaming, comics, music, Sci-Fi and  LOL cats.  Now surrounding all those is an even bigger circle labeled nerds.  In the center of this diagram is w00tstock."  By the way if anyone from w00tstock is reading this you should really post Wil's monologue (or the actual diagram he describes) to your front page - it would make it a lot easier for some of us to explain w00tstock to our friends.

The show was, in a word, awesome. There were lots of highlights and I couldn't possibly tell you about everything, nor would I want to because it really is something that should be experienced for yourself. I will share with you some of my highlights from the show (though the best part of the evening for me can be found in my 9/18/10 post.)

I am a huge Mythbusters fan (the original water heater rocket has to be one of the greatest pieces of television ever) so the fact that 3 of the 5 Mythbusters were there that evening was a wonderful treat.  Obviously we all new Adam would be there, and after all the talk about Beerbot on Twitter I figured that Grant might make an appearance Kari however was a nice surprise even if it meant that one of the members of my group started pouting when she didn't stay to sign autographs after the show.  Now if you watch Mythbusters you know that Adam does a pretty funny (and surprisingly good) impression of Jamie.  What you may not know is that Grant does a unique impression of Jamie as well.  Without further ado I present Jamie's mustache!





There was one other moment during the show that was not only great fun but it gave me that sort of nostalgic warm fuzzy feeling all over.  Molly Lewis (accompanied by Paul and Storm - with a brief appearance by Wil) sang Conjunction Junction.  I loved School House Rock growing up.  And while most  of my friends preferred I'm Just a Bill or Three is a Magic Number, Conjunction Junction was always my favorite. Sitting in the balcony of The Great American Music Hall, hearing a packed house sing along to this classic from my youth filled me with a level of joy that could only be surpassed by getting my picture taken with the object of my youthful pre-teen affections ( something that would occur later in the evening.)  So here you have it Conjunction Junction  performed by Molly Lewis, Paul & Storm, Wil Wheaton and a couple hundered geeks.  Enjoy and have a good evening everyone.

Clash of the Geeks

I haven't read my copy yet but this seemed too fun to pass up and it's for a really good cause.

Clash of the Geeks a collection of Fan Fic based on this image has arrived.


You can download the Chapbook and get the back story to the project at http://unicornpegasuskitten.com/. The book is free and in exchange the authors are asking that all readers donate $5 to the Lupus Alliance of America. A worthy cause for sure.

Arrrr Matey

It be international talk like a pirate day.  The most glorious day of the year where even land lubbers like you can celebrate the joys of swashbuckling.  So hoist a tankard of grog or a bottle of rum and get ye to pillaging. 

Me (with Em) and Kevin in Lake Tahoe  - Summer 2007

Me and Alissa Halloween 2006

Getting my Geek on

In Jr. High I was a geek.  I loved Star Trek TNG. Science and math were my favorite classes and I really wanted to learn to play D&D.  I also wanted to be liked and be popular.  Sadly by the time I got to High School that last one started to take over.  I was denying who I really was to try and gain acceptance from my peers.  I hid away my Klingon dictionary and my tarot cards, I stopped hanging out with the drama geeks (big mistake) and I generally started being a little poser. I think this is a mistake that a lot of girls make during their teen years.

But that's over now.  I'm embracing my long lost geek.  I'm doing this for two reasons. First and foremost I want to be true to myself.  Also I want to set a good example for my daughter (and the baby on the way).  I know we all make mistakes in our lives and there's nothing I can do to keep my kids from making their own but hopefully I can help them so that they doesn't look back on their teen years and think "what an fucking waste".

So here I am.  33 years old.  I still love science and math. My favorite shows are Big Bang Theory, House and Mythbusters and I still really want to learn to play D&D (something my darling manfriend has promised to help me with.)  But my inner 12 year old geek did get a special treat recently.  Last night at w00tstock 2.5.1 I met Wil Wheaton.  I made a Wesley Crushers bowling shirt (back story here) which I gave him before the show.  The look on his face when I gave him the shirt was pure joy and the best "thank you" I could have gotten. I'll write more about the show later but for right now I must share these great pics of me and Wil with our bowling shirts.

Wil in his shirt during the intermission

A couple of bad asses in their new shirts
A note about this picture.  I had to look at Wil's shoulder when we took this to keep from laughing my ass off.  I would never want to get into a staring contest with him that's for damn sure.

w00t!!

The introduction to the last song of the night featuring a shout-out by Wil to a "fellow redditor"

My autographed pic of Wil