The Littlest Penguin

Do you take this penguin. . . ?

Thursday, June 18th, 2009 | family, friends, fun stuff, penguins, pictures, travel | 3 Comments

Last weekend William and I embarked on our second ever road trip together – 4 hours south to Chapel Hill, NC for Kevin and Stephanie’s wedding. We got in late Thursday night (technically it was Friday, but just barely) and checked in to a nice suite. (He spoiled us and got the suite because it wasn’t that much more and we could have friends over that way.) On Friday our job was to go pick up the food for the rehearsal dinner from Chipolte, but we ran into some issues when about 10 burritos and other tasty dinner items seeped through the bag and fell to the ground when lifted. Add to that delay about 45 minutes of running around wondering where in Durham we were, and you have dinner on the table approximately. . . 2 hours late. Everyone was good natured about it, but we did feel bad. Kevin was super stressed trying to get us there and William and I both get a little jumpy when we’re lost. But we did get there, the food was still yummy, and Kevin and Steph said if that was the worst thing to happen they’d be happy.

And I think it was the worst thing that happened. At least that I’m aware of. Saturday’s ceremony was lovely. I had my typical trouble singing (since getting pregnant singing and standing has been a challenge to my ability to stay conscious), but I listened to William and Sheri sing next to me and that was a good substitute. I helped guide folks through the digital guest book interface, which was kind of fun and easy. Then there was a really nice spread of light lunch foods – salads and bree and crackers and some little sandwiches. The bride’s cake was beautiful and had fruit preserves in it, and the groom’s cake was . . . well, look for youself. It is a brownie penguin. Very Kevin.

After the wedding, Jared, Sheri, and Tony came over to the hotel to play some Carcassone and some Gloom before we went out in search for some supper. William’s only other experience with Carcassone involved “the City” version, which we played with Jared, Sheri, and Tony several years ago. It was terrible and I’ve never exponged the guilt of telling him he’d enjoy it. (I thought it was like normal Carcassone!) But this game redeemed Carcassone for William, and Tony taught us how to play Gloom. We’re taking it with us to visit his family for 4th of July weekend – his mom loves silly games like this.

Sunday morning we had breakfast with some of my family on our way home. Uncle Ben took pictures, so I’m sure I’ll have something to link here eventually. It was fun to see everyone. I actually hadn’t seen my cousin Aaron in years; I’d never met his kids! They’re darned cute, by the way. I think William charmed Hannah out of some shyness, too. Hopefully I can do a better job of keeping in touch with everyone, especially now that we’re all on Facebook.

This weekend’s a “break” from trips and visits, but next weekend. . . Southeast Meetup!

Tags: Kevin's wedding

new niece!

Saturday, April 4th, 2009 | family, niece, pictures | 2 Comments

Alyce, Amy and Jared

My niece arrived on March 27. Meet Alyce!

Cupcakes man was not meant to eat

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 | food, friends, pictures | 3 Comments

I’m weeks behind on blogging, but I also have a cold and am exhausted. May I appease you with the cupcakes Rucht made for Llama’s birthday party a couple weeks ago?

Ia! Ia! Cupcake pthagn!

Tags: cupcakes

Steam-powered birthday

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 | birthdays, costumes, friends, fun stuff, pictures, steampunk | 7 Comments

It is 1896 in the Year of Our Lord. It has been seventy-four years since Charles Babbage has developed the Difference Engine – a clockwork device capable of making advanced calculations in the blink of an eye. Since that time, the Difference Engine has shrunk from a clockwork tool that filled an entire room to Desktop Counters and Hand-Held Butlers.

It is a world driven by steam and iron. Zeppelins sail the skies. Machines of all manners and sorts are propelled by the power of the piston and pneumatics. It is a world where the Information Revolution took place in the year 1822, instead of the year 1946.

You all are former graduates from Bethlehem University, meeting on the eve of your 10th graduation anniversary. The invitation reads as follows:

Dear Friends,

It has been too long since I have seen all of you. You may not know that dear old Uncle Henry passed on last March. Though his passage from this world has proved untimely, I find that his magnanimity find me even now, after his absence. He has bequeathed to me the estate of Misty Island.

I am most eager to see each of you and discover what great adventures you have undertaken since our departure from University. Can you believe that we have reached the ten year mark? Just a scant decade ago, I watched you all grow into your own and become some of the finest students I have ever known. Though I have no children of my own, I need not say that I see you as my own kin and have such fondness for you that surely only a mother could know.

After the settling all affairs of estate, I found an annuity of sufficient funds that provides me to become a Gentlewoman of Leisure. I have been here at the island since August of last year. I shall count it an honor and privilege if you found it in your hearts to arrange your holidays this year and spend them with me on Misty Island. Should you find it convenient, the week of June 23rd shall be an excellent time in which to convene and reflect upon our fortunes – the very week your graduated from the esteemed Bethlehem University.

Since I am the only one on this three-mile isle, you will need to take the dirigible which arrives twice a week. I suggest taking the one from Vancouver B.C. Be sure to arrive early enough to get to Pier 6 at 8:30 in the morning on the 23rd.

I have a full-fledged staff of caretakers on the island as well, so you need not fret with bringing your own manservants, nannies, or chaperones.

I’ll be expecting all of you.

Eagerly Yours,

Gertrud “Mother” Hesseldorf

Ladies and gentlemen, this was the invitation to my 29th birthday party, the awesomeness of which may never be surpassed. I mean, really. How could I not be impressed that my friends dressed up in steampunk gear and acted as players in a murder mystery for me? And to top it off, they managed to keep the whole thing secret until two days before the party. And even then I was only told what was going on so I could choose what character I was assigned and get a costume ready. And aren’t their costumes wonderful?! Jared’s pictures are online here, and many of mine can be viewed here.

Among the presents they gave me were a steampunk style necklace (watch gears artfully repurposed), Nerf guns, a new camera bag, and an iPod interface for my ancient car. But my favorite gift by far was the goat my dad bought in my name for a family in Africa. William visited me for a long weekend, and Kevin for a short one. Ah, and for the curious . . . William (Choryt in the comments section) and I are dating. *glow*

Hey look! A blog post!

Thursday, November 6th, 2008 | costumes, family, friends, fun stuff, pictures | 2 Comments

Oh, um, hello. What’s that? You say I should blog? Right then.

Wow, has it really been three weeks since I blogged? I’m boring. But also maybe unsure of what to blog about. On October 17 I was the dinner guest of the college’s Navy V-12 alumni reunion. I was one of the youngest people there if you count the college’s Heritage singing team and someone’s 12-year-old grandson. It reminded me a lot of when Grandpa used to take Amy and I to the Shriners’ dinners and show us off to his friends. But the V-12 men and their wives are very nice folks and were really glad to tell me about their time on campus in the 1940’s. Being as familiar with the campus during that period made me able to join in the conversations easily. They even made me get in their group photo. I received a copy in the mail the other day. Really nice people.

Mom’s birthday was the day after the dinner. I called her to say Happy Birthday and caught them setting up beach chairs and fetching cold beers so they could watch the sun set over the water outside their hotel at Myrtle Beach. The next day they went for an airboat in the Everglades. Sounds like they had a great time. But a few days later dad went into the hospital after a stress test. They found some significant blockage in his blood vessels. The doctors put in four stints and had to repair some damage they did to one of his vessels before he was allowed to go home. He’s in some pain still, but he’s doing better now.That was a weird week for me. On the one hand I had dad going in the hospital after a stress test they didn’t tell me he was having, and on the other I had a really unexpected, happy development that kept my mind occupied.

This past Saturday, McKenna had a costume party for her birthday. I went in a little bit of steampunk, which was fun. Jared pulled together a pretty rockin’ Vash the Stampede getup, and Tony went as Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer, from Girl Genius. William came to visit me for a long weekend, so he came, too. But he didn’t play Rock Band because I was too nice to tell the others he can sing. Next time, Gadget. You have been warned. More pics here and I’ll post some of my own photos soon.

I came down with a cold on Sunday and spent the rest of the weekend playing video games and watching movies with William. Which was nice, but would have been nicer if I had been able to breathe. Feeling better, but still recovering. Oh well. If that was my one cold for the season I’ll take it.

Edit 11/8/2008: My photos are posted here.

Captian’s log, 25 August 2008

Monday, August 25th, 2008 | pictures, pranks | 2 Comments

While unrolling my sleeping bag to wash it for DragonCon. . .

Avast, I've forgotten what number this would have been.

*edit: the last coin from Pink Pirate I found was #139. We uncovered a handfull more when I left that apartment, so we’re somewhere in the 140’s.

Tags: Project Pink Pirate

Photos and some reflections on food

Sunday, July 20th, 2008 | Playgrounders, food, friends, pictures, site odds and ends | 6 Comments

My scooter, Meg.

Well, most everyone who’s commented here lately has blogging habits that put mine to shame. Especially Trog and his almost-daily insights into Life, the Universe, and Everything. But hey, it’s good to get to know you guys in a non-forums environment.

I still don’t quite know what’s going on with the gallery proper, but the latest upgrade in WordPress has at least corrected an issue I was having with the photo uploader. Here are some of the pics I promised to deliver in previous posts.

Yes, I name almost everything. The scooter is Meg. Meg, bloggy friends. Bloggy friends, Meg. Yesterday I did a little maintenance and fixed the loose handlebars. I still need to replace the rearview mirrors, but she’s in good shape. I drove Meg to church today and got some fun reactions from folks. My congregation is so cool. I think Sue wanted to test drive, and Bob and Lois stood giggling when they saw me driving off after lunch. Tanya and Reece chalked it up to me trying to be green. (Which I am, with very mixed success.)

Tanya gave a presentation today about whole foods and eating habits as a dimension of faith. It was really interesting, and I learned some things. (Did you know that ‘whole wheat’ doesn’t actually use everything the wheat kernel produces? I didn’t.) But at a time where I’m doing my best to reduce the grocery budget, hearing how bad processed foods are for you puts me into a quandary. The Angel Food program is great, and I think cut my grocery bill by about 25% last month, but it’s full of processed foods. The best happy medium I can come up with so far is to supplement the program’s groceries with farmer’s market produce and grocery store foods that are as minimally processed as possible. A reduction more than an elimination. At least at this point. Whole foods as a complete diet is a lifestyle for people with a little more disposable income than I have. Just a little bit more, though. I’ve cut back on eating out during the week and that also helps ye olde budget a bit. (And Sue notes, perhaps ye olde waistline too. Though I haven’t weighed myself in ages.)

Angel Food, for those of you who came to the Meet-up, was one of the ways we fed you all without breaking the bank. The organization is basically a food co-op that you can choose to participate in every month. For $30 you buy one “basic box” which they say has about enough food for one person for a month. Pretty accurate, too, though what they give you is primarily protiens and starches (lots of meat, eggs, and some pasta-ish stuff). I supplement it with some side dish kinds of things and fresh veggies. You have to buy a basic box to participate, but there are additional boxes you can add on if you want. In the case of the meet-up, we bought some extra bbq-themed boxes and had enough to feed 40.

A couple of projects on the burners, some moving from the back to the front under unfortunate and annoying circumstances. Though, really, I saw it all coming. On a happier note, William called me today for the first time in probably 2 years. We talked for over an hour just catching up, which was really wonderful. He’s grown a moustache. I think that’s going to take some getting used to on my part. Hopefully we can work out some kind of visit, even if we meet somewhere half way between us. I also need to figure out if I have enough money and vacation time to go visit Season in Baltimore in a couple of weeks. Good grief, that’s coming up really soon.

Anyway, it’s time for all little penguins to go to bed so they can get up for work in the morning. Peace.

Tags: Angel Food, meet-up, scooter, whole foods

the new glasses

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 | Just Coffee, books, friends, games, pictures | 7 Comments

Here are the new glasses. They were ready by Friday – woot!

Friday night there was a lot going on at Just Coffee. Beth had asked some of her friends to come play a set, and Andrew read some poetry. I intended to only be there for a little bit because Tony was on a date and Jared and Sheri were spending time with his mom, but Dusty and Robin came and we spent the rest of the evening chatting.

Saturday we exposed Tony to gratuitous amounts of Muppet movie joy. (Apparently his mom wasn’t cool with Muppets when he was a kid.) There was Muppet Classic Theater, Muppet Treasure Island, and the classic Muppet Movie. We broke the movies up with pizza, Kubb, and a dinner break. Half the people we know were invited (and showed up) and much fun seemed to be had by all.

Today I went to Sahib for lunch with Tony, Robin and Dusty. And it was really tasty. Then I took a nap and cleaned the apartment before Nick invited me over for lamb meatballs… also really tasty. And now I’m updating Ye Olde Blogg before bed. There’s a Session meeting tomorrow, so I guess I’ve got to be rested and ready for that. Also, coffee should be made ready.

fat kitty

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 | cat, pictures | 3 Comments

So I’ve posted photos of my cat Paddington before, and I’m pretty sure I’ve made reference to the fact that he’s a rather chunky creature, but I thought I’d post this to give a point of reference.

Granted,the fact that I’m sitting cross-legged makes him look bigger than he would normally, but he’s still an awfully big kitty.

Happy Halloween!

Thursday, November 1st, 2007 | friends, fun stuff, pictures | No Comments