Well, the LAST time I posted I mentioned that I'd gone to the ER and such. To update that situation, everything is now coming out all right. And that's enough of that.

Sunday the 31st we played the 7th Seas campaign, and a good time was had by all. We played off by a week due to the GM not being available on the regular day, and we play next on the 21st. I have all these points to spend, and can't decide on what...

Monday night (February 1st) I realized that I had to take the trash and recycling out. Rather than rattle-and-bang my way down the stairs and out the garage, waking khirsahdrgn and mirrdae, I decided to go down the back steps. This was a mistake, as I've not shoveled them out for some time, and they're a mass of snow and ice. The inevitable happened, and I now have a bruise and nasty scrape on my shoulder. I'll dig them out sometime this week so that this doesn't happen again.

Thursday we did the Furry Night Dinner thing, eating at the Blue Fox Inn. Philly cheese steak and onion rings and bheer. Yay!

On last Friday, I made a big batch of chili and had joshuwain, foeclan and feezlekahn over. It was a good night, and we gabbed about various things while watching "Varan the Unbelievable", one of the poorer Toho Kaiju entries from the late fifties.

Saturday had me chiseling out the snow and near-ice on the front walk. Yick.

Monday, I got two of the three movies I ordered- War of the Gargantuas and The African Queen. The first of these was a 'prestige' package, including Rodan and a documentary on Godzilla- very cool. The copy of The African Queen I got... Well, it seems to be a Japanese-language edition, at least from the packaging. It DOES have the English vocal track, so I don't care- but it IS a little weird. That wasn't mentioned when I ordered it! Remaining to arrive is Frankenstein Conquers The World, of which War of the Gargantuas is actually the sequel.

We had yet another big snowstorm too- I think here in the Cities we got about 6-8 inches, but I know that other areas got 11 inches or more. I spent the morning digging out the front, doing the bak with the assistance of mirrdae. As an additional bonus, Mirr let me know that the drain in the washroom was backing up some- fortunately this time we caught it before it flooded to the hallway! I'd scheduled Roto-Rooter to come out and clear the thing, but as the driver couldn't get into the alley (and barely understood English- I tried to have him bring the drain-snake in through the upstairs, but he seemed to think I was continually talking about bringing the VAN around) that's been rescheduled for tomorrow morning.

That brings us to now. I've a trio of pictures of out front, and here they are:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4495325/

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4495339/

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4495347/


I think that this Friday I'll do another bad-movie gathering, showing Frankenstein Conquers the World and the documentary. Just have to decide on the food!

The cookies, 24 chocolate chip and 24 peanut butter, were sold in the charity auction for $60. I did good. :)

Decided to try a modification I thought about (No WAY is it original to me!)- half Rice Krispies, half Fruity Pebbles. Seems pretty good!

For those who DON'T know the recipe:

8 1/2 cups Rice Krispies (or Fruity Pebbles or half-and-half or whatever)
1/2 Stick Unsalted Butter
1 Bag (10 ounce) Marshmallows- I used Kraft brand.

Melt the butter over medium to low heat, then add the marshmallows and heat, stirring til thoroughly melted. Add the Rice Krispies to the mix, with the heat off. Mix til the cereal is thoroughly coated with the marshmallow goo, then spoon, scoop or shovel (whatever works) the resultant mess into a buttered 9" x 12" baking pan and press down lightly with a sheet of waxed paper. Don't mash the cereal, just press it into the pan. Serve when cooled enough to not come apart. The package says 24 servings, but those are TEENY little bars. I'd say maybe 12-16 servings.

Next time I might try using Special K. Or Rice Krispies and Cocoa Pebbles. :)

Also- they don't seem to use the stovetop version of the recipe on the packages anymore. I guess people have devolved to the point that if its more than pushing a button, they're screwed. :P

No chance on the new laptop from extra cash from previous year's returns. My old preparer apparently left such a cluster-fuck that my new preparer considers it a challenge to try and figure out exactly WHAT he did. O.o

So, unless the property refund gets me something for last year, what I've got is what I get. No biggie. At least next year'll be better.

On other topics, I've screwed up my sleep schedule, so I'm going to have to try and get straightened out again. Its partly my fault this time, and partly just circumstance- I had to stay up late for the tax-preparation, then stayed up later playing City of Heroes while I waited for him to give me a call. Once again, no biggie. This isn't insomnia, as I AM sleeping- just not when I SHOULD.

Today I got groceries, and I may get some people together for home-made malts here this evening. I have chocolate syrup and strawberries, so I'd need someone to bring vanilla ice cream and maybe malt powder... And any other flavorings/toppings needed. :)

Okay, I did two types of cookies... Kinda two-and-a-half. Peanut butter, with a third or so of the batch having chocolate chips, and the cinnamon cookies. I HAVE to remember to double that recipe in the future- I only got 20! O well. House is mostly cleaned up, though I'm cheating and skipping a few things like mopping the kitchen. I'll prolly ask someone to help out and vacuum the front and back rooms while I do my final runs out of the house. I should be up at the crack of noon.

What's left to do:
Finish the laundry, specifically wash the throws that I put on the couches.

Get buttermilk, the cheeses, AA batteries for my camera and cookie trays (cheap disposable aluminum ones) from the grocery store.

Get rum, beer and maybe something special from the liquor store.

Get MY NEW CHAIR!!!

Move my old chair into my (now mostly clean) bedroom, and replace it with the new one

Clean the catboxes and the bathroom, take out the trash.

Clean MYSELF.

Prep the snackage like the cheese and the carrots and celery, and get the cooking setup laid out for the chicken and mashed potatoes- maybe recruit someone to wash and peel the 10# or potatoes, and dice them.

Rest a bit, then its showtime!

Well, the cinnamon cookies and the russian teacakes (yeah, I said I wasn't going to, but I had a craving!) are done. The peanut butter, chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies, the three biggest batches, get done tomorrow. I need to get to the Tea Source tomorrow to restock, pick up the makeup check from base (from their screwing up my vacation pay AGAIN) and do laundry, then pack. Its a fair bit, but I'll kinda be doing baking/laundry/packing all at once. ;)

I'll start baking right after I get home in the morning, and I'll prolly crash around 8 PM or so. The train leaves the station at 7:50 AM, and bluedeer is picking me up at Union Station in Chicago. Whomever is going, see you at Midwest Furfest!

Is 1:00 PM Friday. I'll get up around 10:30, and head out an hour later, thus giving me an hour to get lost and then locate the place. ;)

Actually, it should be easy. But better safe than sorry.

Then, LATE Friday night, after the Strike Force, I'll be baking cookies. Somewhere after the closing I'll get groceries, make the last payment of the current mortgage, and maybe sell my class ring.

Oh! Earlier tonight (Thursday) I went out to eat with foeclan, joshuwain and feezlekahn as a sort-of mini-celebration of the retirement of debt. :)

I'm writing a REAL short 'story' thing for Vanguard, which should go live in the next few days. I'll post it here and on the vanguard_x site for people to read. I'm also putting up a long-delayed post from Goblin on 'her' Livejournal; that will only be on the Vanguard journal. That I dunno as to when it'll be done. Its kind-of an overview of everything that's happened and some of her thoughts. From the game perspective, it will appear in her journal just before the fight with Stormlord starts.

Other than that, I'm at work. On Friday evening the Halloween party went well, and on Saturday the Vanguard campaign run, while it had some rough spots went pretty good as well. The story thing addresses some of the stuff from that- its kind-of a fragment. The Sunday Buffy Horror run was cancelled, unfortunately, due to two players being unable to attend.

... Thats it for now. :)

Okay. I'm at work right now and I've mostly finished the work-related duty I was putting all month. I've also gotten a start on the 7th Sea writeup, and I'll definitely have it done by the weekend, likely by Thursday. Projectwise, here's what's left:

Clean, vacuum and organize my bedroom and the back room.

Paint the garage doors.

Prime and paint the windowframes (delayed til I know what the hell we're doing exactly).

Clean the kitchen, sweep and mop the floor and organize things a bit better.

Mow the lawn and deal with the yardwaste (cut branches and such that need to be bagged for the city to take 'em).

Anything else that pops up.

Once I get going on them the garage doors will only be a few hours work at most. The windows will be a bit more, but only because we'll have to mask around the areas to be painted. The kitchen will probably be the last thing on the list done, and I will probably do the mowing and yardwork this week sometime, I just don't know when. This could change if the ambition burns out again.

As to the car... It turns out that the back brakes had a problem, and the front tie-rods were shot- the tie rods are fixed, and the brakes may also be done by now. If they are I'll have my car back tomorrow. If not, Wednesday or later in the week.

This evening I'll be making fried chicken thighs and mashed potatoes. joshuwain? I don't need you to get chicken or buttermilk (I'll be getting those in the morning), but if you could pick up a couple packets of knorr chicken gravy and some french or italian bread that would be cool, if you and feezlekahn are planning to be over for the food. I know that foeclan won't be there, and mirrdae will also be absent for his martial arts class. Maybe see you then!

On Tuesday joshuwain, foeclan and I took feezlekahn out for his birthday; we hit Old Chicago for dinner (marred only by the table of screeching harridans by the door), then went to Best Buy and Half Price Books. It was a nice night, and aside from his gift I went and got myself something- 'Godzilla Raids Again' which is also known as 'Gigantis the Fire Monster'. Whee!

In other news, yesterday I picked up one of those rubber grooming brushes for Lady, to help her with the shedding issue- she's been having hairballs, so the more loose fur I get off of her the better. She likes it, and I should be able to build a third cat soon. O.o I also got them a new water bowl, one of those with the flanged bottom so Spaz can't dump it anymore!

Work is work, and I've decided to stay at Baker. It could be a LOT worse after all, and the walking isn't too terrible compared to the walking hells that Ive been on. Saturday is the return of the Vanguard game, which is slowly winding down to its conclusion, and Sunday is the second run of Ben's 7th Sea campaign! I'm looking forward to both, especially since I now can get actual sleep before the Saturday game!

Oh, and on Monday I made a roast REALLY late, inviting foeclan and feezlekahn to share in it. The roomies went out for food, and joshuwain was at a Fringe Fest play, else they would have been invited too. There was also chocolate cake. ;)