Games

Between having two jobs, a volunteer commitment, and a kid I don't have a lot of free time. When I'm not using that free time for something else, I play two games obsessively. Kingdom of Loathing is one, and Desktop Tower Defense is another. Both are free.

The first, Kingdom of Loathing, is a very silly but very fun and comprehensive role playing game. You create your character, and choose one of six classes: Disco Bandit, Accordion Thief, Turtle Tamer, Seal Clubber, Pastamancer, or Sauceror. Depending on your class, you'll have certain abilities and skills which you can use to fight monsters and create interesting food, booze, weapons and outfits. Thanks to something called Ascension, once you have defeated the Naughty Sorceress - the pinnacle of the game - you can reincarnate as a completely different class. I've been playing for three years with the same character, gizpotato.

Desktop Tower Defense is a puzzle-maze type game. You have a board, and on that board you construct a maze for "creeps" to go through. The maze consists of towers which shoot the creeps, (hopefully) killing them before they reach the other end. No account creation needed, just choose your language and difficulty (start on easy, and work your way to Medium) and start playing. It'll take a while before you can survive to the end on Medium, and once you do that, it's a matter of getting the highest score possible. The group of scores I've been contributing to is "monkeyfilter" (the online message board I found the game on). My current highest score of 5700 ranks 22nd.

Now that I have passed on my addictions, my job here is done.

Conversation

Me: Maybe I should go into the Navy
Him: You wouldn't like it.
Me: Yeah, the people probably wouldn't quite be my type.
Him: No, that's not it. It's because you don't like taking orders.
Me: Yeah, that's a good point. But I think I could adjust.
Him: No, I doubt it. You hate taking orders. Actually, you get kind of combative about it.
Me: Sure, when it's you giving the orders!

The more the merrier

Back in October of last year, we put Abigail in daycare. The only thing that kept my anxiety level below lethal was that this person was highly, and personally, recommended. Abigail was Liliya's first baby in her brand-new daycare, which also helped. Between October and November, she added two more kids: one about two months younger than she and one about six months older. Thus it has been. Until Monday, that is.

On Monday, three rambunctious boys joined Liliya's daycare. The reaction from the existing daycare kids has been quite interesting. Abigail loves it. She loves the noise, the added action, the company. She's in her element, and it really shows. Donovan, the younger one, is just about where Abigail is, but not as excitedly. Max, the older one, is a totally different story.

Max is now nearly two years old, and had been the biggest and oldest until now, which does make a difference even if he's not the favorite (that would be Abigail, for obvious reasons). He had actually started bullying Abigail, something that made me even more excited about these new kids. If they hadn't been about to start, we might have had to start our daycare search all over again. Thankfully it didn't come to that, the kids are here, and things have changed: Max is not the biggest and baddest, and he doesn't have the freedom he did when it was just the three of them. He hates it. He's jealous. He's miserable. But he doesn't pick on Abigail anymore!

Not so-humble pie and giant bouncy balls

This morning Jason discovered that he had a nail in his tire. Armed with his trusty tire-patching tool, he went out to fix it right up (he's used to this, being a construction worker and all). In the process of fixing the flat, after he'd already removed the nail, the tool broke. Without the nail in to hold some of the air in the tire, it went completely flat. Within two hours, our neighbor, he of the ridiculous bass, came over to let us know we had a flat. This is the neighbor who has been driving us crazy for months with said ridiculous bass, the neighbor who for the last few weeks has had no friendly "please turn it down" calls, instead being subjected to our banging on the walls when the volume was turned up to insane. I'm sure he doesn't like us just as much as we don't like him, and for him to come over and tell us about the flat we might not be aware of, well all I could think of was that it was a mighty Christian thing to do (they are regular church-goers). I was feeling all warm and fuzzy, and was even eating a bit of humble pie, but tonight the volume has gone right back up, our apartment is again filled with the bumping of the bass, and I am again cursing the asshole who made such powerful stereo systems cheap enough to be owned by apartment-dwellers.

In other, more happy news, Abigail got her first giant bouncy ball tonight. It was like we injected her with pure happiness, the way she reacted to that ball. All night she was carrying it around, running into things, and falling down. And cackling like a crazed witch. Can't forget that part. Did I mention she speaks in tongues, with a strange voice that would fit very well on an ancient spell-caster? We have one weird, and possibly possessed, little girl on our hands here.

Enough for an RX400h

My car is in the shop again, this time for the alternator. Curious as to how much this car is costing us, I did a bit of digging. Our costs, only dating back to May because that's all the info I have at hand, have been:
May: $437.05
June: $419.41
July: $808.45
That's a total of $1,664.91 we've spent on that car in the last three months. That averages out to $550 per month. Just for the shame of it, I'm going to say it: I'm paying $550 per month for a 1991 Honda Accord with 197,000 miles.

We'll be having squirrel for dinner tonight.

One down, hundreds of thousands to go

For about three years, I have been volunteering for Happy Tails. My duties have changed as my personal time requirements have changed, and right now I'm returning voicemail messages twice a week. Most of what I do is putting cats on our waiting list, and since I have all the contact info & such, I also add cats that appear on the Sacramento Freecycle list I subscribe to. Today, because of that, a kitten is going to get a highly-coveted spot at Happy Tails. My day has been made.

A day in the City

Yesterday Abigail, Jason and I packed up and headed to the City for the day. (For those of you outside our immediate geographical location, our "The City" is San Francisco.)

We didn't get out until ridiculously late because Jason, who hadn't gotten to sleep in on any of his proceeding four days off, slept in. We nearly called it off and stayed home to clean (which really, really needs to happen), but at the last moment decided to throw caution to the wind and go. Jason's got County Summit Fever, and if I didn't get out of the valley & have some fun I was going to go postal.

The first thing we did was go to the mall. Seriously. I had forgotten to bring a jacket, and since to San Franciscans 65 degrees is hot, a jacket is always needed. We went to American Eagle and got me a ridiculously priced hoodie with AEs logo plastered all over it. Yes, we're going to return it (or try, at least). Then we went to McDonald's. We were starting to think we should have stayed home. But then we went up the San Francisco County summit, Mt. Davidson, and started to have fun. We drove up & down what must be the steepest hill in the City. Seriously. Jason had to stomp on the gas halfway up because the car was about to stall. I didn't even think it was possible for an automatic to stall! Everything was okay, though, and we drove around for a bit deciding what to do. We wound up parking at Fisherman's Wharf and eating at Bubba Gump's at Pier 39. For some reason, we can NOT avoid doing totally touristy stuff when we go in. Abigail was happy, though. Lots going on, lots to see, but still safe & snug in her (gigantic!) stroller. At Bubba Gump's, she stuffed her face (literally) with mac & cheese, and was the delight of the entire restaurant.

Though we didn't get home until 10:30, Abigail had to have a bath. Dirt from the summit plus mac & cheese had combined to form a film of grit that only soap and water could remove. While I was getting the bath ready, Jason did the usual and played with Abigail. Poor kid couldn't even stand up! She was still happy, though. In fact, she was positively giddy. If you've ever seen her when she's extra extra tired, you know what I mean. Our kid doesn't get cranky when she's tired, she gets happy. Have I mentioned what a great kid we have?

Anyway, after we put Abigail to bed we sat down on our ridiculously uncomfortable couch & watched some t.v. We reflected on the day, on how nice it was, and how happy we were that we'd gone. We decided we'd do this once a month or so, because it really is good for the soul. However, next time we'll do a few things differently. I'll take my jacket if we're going someplace cold. We'll leave earlier, even if Jason hasn't gotten to sleep in yet. But the most important change we'll make is not leaving the house in a state of disaster. Nope, not doing that again. Next time, we'll hire Merry Maids to take care of it while we're gone!

Simple Solution

About mid-week, we ran out of birdseed. That would be thanks to the squirrels, who eat and eat and eat and... well, you get the idea.

Anyway, I rummaged around to see what we had and it turns out we had one birdfeeder's worth of safflower left. We used it - the finches at the old place liked it just fine. Apparently the squirrels are above eating such simple fare - I haven't seen one since the "good stuff" ran out. The best part? Safflower is cheaper.

Squirrels: 2
Minda: 3

Another Fourth

It's that time of year again, the time when people spend unholy amounts of money on fireworks and try to set themselves and their property on fire. Living in a somewhat questionable neighborhood, I'm a bit nervous about what this fourth will bring.

Speaking of nervous, the Honda's new trick is to flash odd lights from the dashboard and have a non-functioning speedometer and odometers. The guys at the shop tell me that the speed sensor is bad, and while it's okay to drive till they have time for it on Friday, the gas mileage will be crap. Yep, we're not going anywhere for a while. Which is okay, because it's 247 degrees outside. I'm not sure where our family will ultimately end up, but it is NOT going to be somewhere that gets this hot. Nor will it be where there's lots of humidity. You might as well rename all those humid states "Hell". I have tons of respect for people who can handle that weather well, because I sure can't.

Oddly enough, I have no updates on either baby or birds/squirrels/small black & white cats. Abigail is still walking, still not talking, and still insisting on eating everything with her hands (yeah, dinner time is very messy). The squirrels haven't been by lately, and that cat hasn't been around in ages. All in all, things are pretty boring. I promise to try harder next week.