GenCon Day Four

More exhibit hall, mostly to pick up gifts. Sunday is family fun day at GenCon and the abundance of kids and strollers was apparent. After shopping I played in another Regiment game with Paul, Ben, and Amy before we hit up an early dinner. Then it was back to the Embassy for happy hour, a game of Cthulhu Dark, and conversations and Cards Against Humanity. I can see why folks like that game so much, but much like Apples to Apples (unsurprisingly), it has a time limit before the humor becomes repetitive and less interesting. Got to bed later than I should have but earlier than past years. All in all another great GenCon. Can't wait to get home.

GenCon Day Three

Mostly skipped breakfast and hit the exhibit hall just after opening. Perused for a bit, ran into Epidiah for a brief chat, the headed up to Games on Demand. Ben, Amy, and I played in a Mortal Coil game set in a jazz and voodoo-heavy '20s Louisiana full of ghosts and skinchangers. Pretty good stuff. After, we brought Thai tofu burritos back to the room and knocked out a Burrito Quest episode. Tried for a quick nap, failed, then back to the exhibit hall where I succeeded in finding a gift for Carrie, and made some other small purchases. Just about closed the hall out then made our way back to happy hour. Tried to meet up with the Riddles for dinner with a bunch of folks, but the wait times for a table, even for just a few people, was way too long. Instead we did take out from Weber's and brought it hack to the room. Rounded out the night by running a World of Dungeons game for Ben, Amy, Paul, Shannon, and Gregor. It was a blast and we were probably at it for four or five hours.

GenCon Day Two

Much more refreshed having called it an earlier and less boozy evening, I spent the first bit of the morning watching Amy dye Ben's newly bleached hair blue. We then bagle-d over to the convention center, assembled some very cute paper D&D monsters for a free die, discovered the lines need to get other similarly free dice and bailed on them, wandered the exhibit hall purchasing various gaming whatsits, demo'd some Fantasy Flight Games games, hit up the Ram for lunch, popped into the Rio Grande Games room for a Dan-winning game of Dominion, discovered the huge line for Games on Demand and bailed on it, exhibit hall-ed again with more demo'ing, cruised back to the hotel for free happy hour, then rounded out the night with a play test of Paul's game Undying, more drinks, and general gamey conversation. Purchases: two LotFP modules - The Grinding Gear and Hammers of the Gods, Story Cards, Twenty Four Game Poems, Building an Elder God game, The Monster Alphabet.

GenCon Day One

Had one too many Guinness at the Diana Jones Awards Wednesday night and spent a bit if the morning trying to figure out if feeling mildly hungover while wandering the exhibit hall had positive or negative nostalgia value. Ate noodles twice, the Japanese Pan Noodles being superior to the Truffle Mac. Bought a copy of D&D Expert in awesome condition. Played a brief Red Dawn-inspired game of the Regiment. Much more fun than the longer game of ACKS I played later. I mostly blame the group size and the loudness of the Embassy lobby for that one. Old man Lofton even made it to bed at a reasonable hour.

Summer Wrap-up

We had our first non-busy, non-traveling, non-visitor weekend in what seems like a very long time.  Carrie did an excellent job of keeping herself and the twins occupied for the past two months.  Here are some highlights (aside from what I've already posted).

• Flo-rida: In mid June we took a family trip to Fort Walton Beach.  Carrie bundled Paige and Owen up with Julie, Rocky, Ross, and Jalie and drove cross country.  I flew.  The original plan was that I would drive with them and maybe fly back, depending on leave from work, but by the time my schedule cleared up the van was full.  I know, hardships.  Dad rented a condo for us and brought Derek (fresh out of Space Camp) down with him.  Spent all week hanging out at the beach, eating seafood, and getting sunburned.  The kids didn't like the beach much at first (sand and loud surf and all) but they warmed up to it by the end.  Also, it turned out Carrie's friend (who also has friends) was visiting their beach house in the area so we got to hang out there some too, which was good because the water was much calmer.
• Sage-fest '12: Sage and Sarah got married!  Mom watched the kids and we spent the weekend in Silver City.  Got to see the happy couple tie the knot and hang out with Isaac, Jenni, Ben, Amy, Paul, and Shannon.
• ColoRADo: Drove up to visit Jon round mid July.  Took Ross and Jalie with us and had an all round good time.  Hit up some good breweries and an awesome burger joint for a 60/40 burger, 60% beef, 40% bacon.  100% delicious.
• Aside from all that, we had a slew of visitors and happenings that kept us generally busy pretty much for the past two months.

This post seems especially apt since Paige and Owen started back to daycare today.  They headed into the two-year-old room, which is kind of crazy since they're about 3 months early.  But they've grown a hell of a lot over the summer.  Their vocabulary especially, as they're not only repeating back whatever we ask them too, but using words we don't expect (octopus) and stringing together words as well (apple sauce).

Look at that, I managed one more blog post before July was out.

A Hat-Trick of Kennys

Every dinner I ate this weekend was with Kenny and Gail. Friday we got together with Ben and Amy at De La Vega's, then back to their house for Shadows Over Camelot. Saturday Carrie and I went to see Amazing Spiderman then met Kenny and his family plus Larry at Si Senor's. (Amazing Spiderman was just meh, too much rehashed story.) Sunday, based partly on a rumor that the last Lorenzo's might be closing down, we got take out at our house with Kenny and Gail and Julie and Ross and Jalie and Alex and Nathan. I tend to be pretty bad to keeping in touch with folks who I'm not interacting with regularly, even if they live in the same town. (See: Larry and the guys.) So this weekend was a good chance to catch up with some folks I haven't seen for years. Was especially good to see Lencho, as I've felt bad about not getting in touch with him in so long.  Turns out Ed is running a 1st ed D&D game on Mondays, can't make it regularly, but I may have to try for a cameo.

Pupdate

Piper's been doing pretty good lately. After she lost three or 4 pounds around the end of winter, which is something like 10% of body weight, I think we've got her eating back under control. I'll take her back in the next week or two to get her weighed again and, hopefully, if she hasn't gained any weight, she's at least stabilized. Also, which is good for me too, I've been trying to get her out for walks again two or three times a week. This involves me getting up at 5:30 or so getting out on the levee before I go to work, which, given the heat lately, has been nice and cool. The other thing I've been doing on these walks is using bloggers speech to text function on my phone to get some blogs laid out. Thank you, pocket robot.