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 On 12/01/2014 at 02:19 PM by Ranger1 See More From This User » |
Thanksgiving was good, we went to Jason's aunt's house. There were about 17 of us for dinner. I hate turkey, so Jason baked me a ham. Everyone loved the ham, so no leftovers. Sad face. We had five dessert options, but alas, I only had room for two - the German chocolate mousse cake and a slice of Jason's step-mom's homemade apple pie. Talked gaming with Jason's little brother Ben, was entertained by the nieces, aged 10 and 12 (will have to tell the coffee story sometime, but not right now), and just plain had a great time. Jason and I had to leave early, he dogsat for his landlords' dogs, and I needed to get home and let Bandit out myself.
Friday, I had to get up at 4:45 AM to pick Jason up in Portland by 5:30 and drive him back to Freeport to work by 6:00 AM. I loathe black Friday. Who the hell buys suits and men's formal wear at 6:00AM? I never got back to sleep and ended up being zombie girl for the rest of the day.
Saturday started out not so good with the heater in the cottage failing big time. Of course it was the Saturday of a holiday weekend with temps in the low 20s (up from the low teens during the night). My landlady was able to get the heater guy to come out pretty quickly, but weekend service calls aren't cheap, and it was an expensive part that went. The heater is ancient, but it's a reliable model. Unfortunately, the company has discontinued making the parts, so we have to hope that nothing goes wrong that Ken (the heater guy) doesn't have parts stockpiled for. The burner that he installed was the last one he had in stock. But the previous one lasted around 30 years, give or take.
Anyway, that kind of messed up my plans for a productive Saturday, as I had errands to run, but had to wait for Ken to arrive and do the work. I gave up on being productive and took the dog for a ramble in the woods in the snow instead. We had a great time on our three mile hike. This is my favorite time of the year to be in the woods, especially with new snow. There wasn't enough snow for snowshoeing, but it was deep enough to be an extra good workout, and the tracking conditions were excellent. Within 100 yards of the cottage, I came across fisher, deer, and crow tracks. The crows like to pick through our compost pile in the back field, and it's fun to follow their tracks and see what they pick out. This time, I got a treat: sometimes when birds land and take off, they leave the feather/wing marks in the snow. It looked like a crow snow angel where one had landed. A bit further out in the woods, we came across coyote and fox tracks. Also found where some of the red squirrels had been digging into their caches of pine cones and eating on the spot. The woods were also still incredibly beautiful from the storm on Wednesday. The snow was still heavy on the trees, and many of them were bent over making arches over the trail. The hardwoods have lost their leaves, and the snow-covered branches and twigs in many places looked like lace, or the paper snowflakes you make when you're a little kid. And coming back as the sun was setting, the clouds were all pink and gold behind the snow-covered trees.
Later that evening, my friend Michael came over for some couch co-op. I let him pick the game, and we ended up playing Dungeon Hunter: Alliance for a couple of hours. It's not the best game in the world, but it's fun to play with a friend, and it's the only hack and slash co-op game I have at the moment. Fun was had, and the decision to try to game on a weekly basis was made.
Yesterday, I had a cleaning and organizing fit and got rid of a large chunk of the huge pile o' stuff that's been sitting in the middle of the floor since I moved in. I made room for a stand that's been riding around in the back of my car for the past couple of months and set that up as another bookcase, clearing off the top of the long bookcase and making room for a reading lamp. Yay! Good light at night for reading finally! The other plus to clearing off the top of the long bookcase is that it made room for me to set up the old CRT TV if and when I want to use my older systems. I don't want it set up there permanently, but it'll be good for now, until I can get the corner cleared out and maybe make a more permanent home for the older systems there. I also got rid of a dust bunny under the futon big enough to star in a Japanese giant monster movie.
Football didn't quite turn out the way I'd hoped, but it was an excellent game none the less. I'd rather see a good game between two good opponents and my team lose than a boring one-sided game, even if it's an easy win for my team. Shh - don't tell Jason that!
Well, happy Monday Pixlbit Nation!
We had ham too. I also hate turkey and we didn't have an oven, so Crock Pot it was. Actually tasted really good. Everything did.
As for footbal, the Thanksgiving game I saw was a one-sided affair my team lost, so I was glad too see a competition with my team winning on Sunday.
Obviously, i would have preferred a Patriots win, but hey, best record in the AFC East is also ok by me.
Yeah, the records are tied, Packers just move up in power rankings for now. Still plenty of time left for both teams.
Here's what I did on the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Thursday I watched the Macy's parade on TV so I could see the Skylanders balloon. Then we ate food.
Friday we got up early and did some Black Friday stuff. We mostly buy toys at a good deal and then donate them to Toys for Tots.
Saturday I watched the Penguins of Madagascar movie in the morning. Then I visited my dad's side of the family in the afternoon, and in the evening I played board games at a friend's house.
Sunday I slept in, and then I put up Christmas decorations outside.
And when I wasn't doing any of that, I played games and wrote reviews. The end.
Sounds like you kept yourself busy, Cary. But was it fun?
Worked Thursday and Friday (not retail, medical), worked on a paper Saturday and Sunday. That's it.
Hopefully you'll get Christmas off. Growing up, my best friend's mom was a nurse and she would get one or the other, and she usually swapped off every year. My dad worked town road crew, and if the weather was stormy, he was on call and might have to leave in the middle of everything to go out and plow. That rarely impacted me, as I lived with my mom, but it did my step-mom and step-brother.
I've worked a lot of holidays in my life. It's not that I enjoy doing so (it sucks, frankly), it's just how it ends up shaking out. On the other hand, there is either time-and-a-half or double pay for working holidays in general, which takes a bit of the sting out. I also get paid extra for working Black Friday.
Yeah, me, too. I work for the state park system, and someone has to work so others can play. Christmas was the worst - had people who just wouldn't go home until I went out, found them and told them that I couldn't go home and have Christmas with my family until they left. Ah, well. The world wouldn't survive without us service personnel.
Dungeon Hunter Alliance looks so much like old Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance. I'm going to have to play it for sure.
It is fun, but be aware that although you can play by yourself, you won't survive very long. Read Chessa's review before you buy it. I didn't think it was as bad as she did, but she does cover the issues the game has very well. When I bought it, it was so I could play something that wasn't an FPS with my now 18 year old cousin. We had fun with it, but both quickly realized that it was not a game meant for a single player campaign.
It'll be co-op all the way if I get the game. . . reading review. . . Darn it about the online lag. That's a deal breaker for me. That's the only way I play co-op these days and I don't want to play this kind of game single player. Thanks for the review link.
Yeah, it's pretty much a couch co-op game.
17 people?! That's a big thanksgiving! It was just the four of us here, my parents and my brother (and the dogs). When I was younger we would go to my grandma's and have big thanksgivings, but that was a long time ago. I remember sitting at the kid's table.
My mom cooked a ham too for lunch the day after. It was yummy.
I kind of miss winter, a little. I don't like cold weather, but it's sometimes nice when the air is crisp and there's snow. Haven't experienced that for a while now.
Seventeen was the biggest I've been at for a while, but when I was a kid, we averaged in the 30s, with the record being 43. My grampa was one of eleven siblings, and several of his sibs and their spouses would come over, as well many of their kids and grandkids. My mom's three brothers would be there, and their significant others, and usually several friends, and we'd also have friends who didn't have nearby come, too. And my grampa would put up a notice at the college nearby inviting students with nowhere else to go to dinner. My gramma and my adopted gramma would have both of their ovens going for days, we'd have two huge turkeys and a ham, and people would be assigned something to bring. There were usually five or six kinds of pies, fresh home-made rolls, all kinds of veggies, and snacks beforehand. And we'd play games and take turns helping with the dishes, and usually a bunch of us would go for a walk afterwards. And when I was a little kid, it seemed like the first snowfall was always on Thanksgiving Day.
Ham rules, by the way.
It's good you're the one in AZ and not me. I thrive in the cold weather and feel miserable in the heat.
I hate cold weather, and one of the biggest worries about the move I'm getting ready to make is getting through an East Coast winter.
Baltimore isn't exactly what I'd consider a cold weather climate, Andrew. I think you're safe :)
I didn't think Baltimore would have winter weather as relentlessly cold as, say, Buffalo or North Dakota, which are both a good ways' away from the ocean, but cold weather means something very different in the Southwest than it does in the Northeast, and my frame of reference is the Southwest. :)
I have a cousin from Arizona who goes up to work in the ND oil fields every six months or so. He regularly reports two-digit negative temperatures up there.
Black Friday is the worst. I work in retail and I hate how the retailers make such a big deal about it and go so far as opening on Thanksgiving. They make it hard to maintain a work/life balance. And the jerks making the decisions are not working on the holiday or getting up early on Friday.
Black Friday is consumerism at its worst. I now refuse to buy anything at all on Black Friday. Not that I usually shop for gifts at the retailers who take part, anyway. I'm a huge supporter of the "buy local" movement, so most gifts are bought at small, locally owned stores where any profits stay in the community. I do make the exception for gift cards, especially since I have teen nieces and nephews and anything that most adults buy them is generally just lame. I remember those days, lol.
The odd thing is that I won't touch Ham on Thanksgiving, but I do like Ham Sandwiches. I'm odd. Good to read you had a good Thanksgiving, spending it with the family, and friends, and exploring around your house.
I'm equally as odd: I loathe almost all traditional Thanksgiving foods. We can be odd together.
We should start a Pixlbit odd ball holiday eaters club
Or support group, lol. "Hi. My name's Tami and I'm an oddball holiday eater."
Nice to hear when people make the effort to see about setting up their retro game setups for future old skool gaming goodness!
The only issue with that spot for the old TV is that it happens to be the cat's new favorite spot. I guess I'll just have to work harder on getting the corner cleared out so I don't annoy the cat.
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