... the IT man in LibraryLand
This weekend past Salsa Girl and I decided to provide Hulk with her first experience of the Zoological Gardens.
So we loaded ourselves up for the excursion - ironically sans excursion bag - and trekked out for the Google determined 17 minute trip.
35 minutes later we had arrived and made our way in for an afternoon of viewing exotic animals the like of which Hulk had never before seen. The two biggest and most exciting moments were seeing the seagulls gathered around the food stall, and seeing the ducks on the elephant pond.
We were joined by the Double Jays and progeny for the last part of our visit before it was time to transport a tired and overstimulated Hulk homewards.
Speaking of zoos, the weekend was rounded out with a Gaming Sunday and a houseful of gamers.
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Showing posts with label Double Jays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Double Jays. Show all posts
The Silence of The Tales
So there has been another time of quiet from The Tales despite one's best intentions and all those promises I made to you all.
Personally I blame Judge Mingus for telling me that I was using the internet wrongly and thus paralysing me.
This happened at a stately dinner with the Judge and FridgePower on a hot evening several weekends back. Salsa Girl and I attended dinner and air conditioning at their domicile for a long overdue catch-up.
It was a great time, starting with a nice curry and ending with bowls of icecream.
We had much talking and one was even involved in a lot of educational experiences with their elder spawn Ball Boy as he introduced me to his variant of billiards wherein if you cheat the penalty is that you must take another turn - altogether my kind of game.
The following days full day of gaming may also have contributed to one's lack of blog updating time.
After that the work week becomes a blurry merry-go-round of project juggling punctuated with a sequence of beautifully timed equipment and service crashes. Of course there were the usual number of meetings and, as one has come to unfortunately expect, nary a free lunch to be seen among the lot of them.
And we come to the current weekend where one can say that a culinary trip to Fed Square to catch up with the Double Jays, their recent acquisition, and the menu at Chocolate Bhudda (not necessarily in that order) could be attributed some blame for the lack of updating The Tales.
Then today when some free time loomed was the day when one's internet router decided to push it's recent program of frustrating drop-outs into overdrive. Thankfully it is behaving itself well enough now that I am able to get this missive to you.
Oh and as to the verbal shellacking that Judge Mingus handed out to me about use of the Internet.
Apparently one has been neglecting one of the core functions of the Internetz and shall have to rectify that as of now.
Personally I blame Judge Mingus for telling me that I was using the internet wrongly and thus paralysing me.
This happened at a stately dinner with the Judge and FridgePower on a hot evening several weekends back. Salsa Girl and I attended dinner and air conditioning at their domicile for a long overdue catch-up.
It was a great time, starting with a nice curry and ending with bowls of icecream.
We had much talking and one was even involved in a lot of educational experiences with their elder spawn Ball Boy as he introduced me to his variant of billiards wherein if you cheat the penalty is that you must take another turn - altogether my kind of game.
The following days full day of gaming may also have contributed to one's lack of blog updating time.
After that the work week becomes a blurry merry-go-round of project juggling punctuated with a sequence of beautifully timed equipment and service crashes. Of course there were the usual number of meetings and, as one has come to unfortunately expect, nary a free lunch to be seen among the lot of them.
And we come to the current weekend where one can say that a culinary trip to Fed Square to catch up with the Double Jays, their recent acquisition, and the menu at Chocolate Bhudda (not necessarily in that order) could be attributed some blame for the lack of updating The Tales.
Then today when some free time loomed was the day when one's internet router decided to push it's recent program of frustrating drop-outs into overdrive. Thankfully it is behaving itself well enough now that I am able to get this missive to you.
Oh and as to the verbal shellacking that Judge Mingus handed out to me about use of the Internet.
Apparently one has been neglecting one of the core functions of the Internetz and shall have to rectify that as of now.
So here you go:
As required by international law this is my cute cat picture for this year.
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2011 A Year of (Gaming) Wonders
As one hasn't produced one of these for a good couple of years - 2008 was the last in fact - I thought it was about time I subjected you all to another run down of a year's gaming.
So here is the summary of my years gaming for 2011.
All up I had 111 gaming events for the year!
98 may be a more accurate number taking out the ones that were traditional cards played along with a dinner catch up.
That is down by 10 to 20 on 2008 but I have gladly traded some gaming time to spend more in the esteemed company of Salsa Girl.
The occasions break down like thus:
46 sessions with my Tuesday Knights group
- 2 playing Magic as the main event (there are usually some games each week)
- 31 playing or running roleplaying.
- 22 running the Traveller Diplomatic Action game.
- 4 playing Fighting Fantasy Role-play under Legion2's control,
- 5 playing ElfBoy's Terra Australis game.
- 13 playing board and card games
21 sessions with the Black Guild on Thursdays
- 7 running my Phudge fantasy game Mundus Scenecit
- 3 just chatting - as happens sometimes (as opposed to the 50% chatting that gaming usually is)
- 7 playing The Bastard's D&D 4th edition Dark Sun game.
- 4 playing the ever awesome Tribe8 under the guiding hands of Fantomas.
1 of The Viking Hat GM's old school AD&D days
3 afternoons playing The Bastard's bimonthly Pathfinder fantasy game.
10 Sundays gaming group days playing board, war and card games
6 Spontaneous boardgaming get togethers
3 Spontaneous Magic playing sessions
3 Magic Tournaments amongst our group of players - missing only one new set for the year
1 poker night
13 sessions of Rummy 500 with the Double Jays and Salsa Girl
1 visits to LURG my old uni games club - although no games were played!! (I'm looking at you Camo Spice)
2 evenings playing Werewolf with librarians - run by Gamer Phil while at conference
1 attendance at International Day of Gaming @ the Library - as organised by Gamer Phil at the State Library
All up I played with about 40 different gamers (and about 28 non-gamers).
- 8 players on Tuesdays
- 8 on Thursdays (4 shared with Tuesday)
- 10 at Sundays gaming, 5 from Tuesdays, 1 from Thursdays, 4 not. Multiple attendees: 5 from Tuesdays, 1 from Thursdays, 2 others.
- Spontaneous Magic was only with Tuesday night gamers.
- Poker was with 4 non-gamers.
- Rummy was with 4 non-gamers
- Magic tournaments brought 5 from the Tuesday group, 1 from Thursdays and 2 others
- The old school AD&D was with about 8 gamers and no crossover with other groups.
- The Pathfinder game was with 5 Tuesday/Thursday gamers and 1 other.
- The Werewolf with librarians was with about 20 non-gamers.
- Gaming in the library added another 13 gamers
One thinks that's a reasonable return for a hobby for which one has an obviously mild passion.
I expect to up the ante in the coming year and push on for the magic 150 and I'm sure nothing will hold me back from fulfilling such a humble ambition.
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Xmas Parties, Various
One has spent the past several days getting well and truly into the Xmas spirit - well the feasting side of it at least, the rest shall have to come later.
It all began on Friday with the very important end of year Xmas lunch for the user group at our suppliers headquarters. Once again the user group insisted on holding a meeting beforehand, but finally after several hours drawn-out with productivity we were treated in the manner to which we have become accustomed over the years. Many were in attendance - Supervisor Grand Chief K even put in an appearance to make sure that I received my just desserts.
After waddling home I was soon off to another evening of food and cards at the Double Jays with Salsa Girl by my side. The feasting was not too excessive there as I had an unexpected feeling of fullness part-way through the meal. Sigh, there's always next time I guess.
Saturday was the big event. The Library Xmas Party.
This years soiree was being hosted by Kiwichick (who's husband lucked out on not being able to use the get out of party card he earned by attending last years event). The catering was done by many with Days of our Libraries having many a hand in the comestibles.
The night did include a rather embarrassing tribute to the recent Facebook relationship-status change of the good Salsa Girl and oneself, replete with gifts unasked for but appreciated greatly - especially by The Tiger who commenced sleeping on our new serving dish the moment it was revealed to her.
The latest Xmas partying occurred when Salsa Girl and I made the trek to the family demesne to celebrate Freeloading Mum's birthday. There was a dash of Xmas thrown in due to known Xmas day absences. A magnificent feast was on offer, including 5 desserts (which only count as 3 as one mixed several into the same bowl).
There was rather a lot of post feast tiredness to be dealt with on return home before getting the evening meal squared away.
In unrelated news, one's past month of increased exercise regime appears to be having no effect at all.
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It all began on Friday with the very important end of year Xmas lunch for the user group at our suppliers headquarters. Once again the user group insisted on holding a meeting beforehand, but finally after several hours drawn-out with productivity we were treated in the manner to which we have become accustomed over the years. Many were in attendance - Supervisor Grand Chief K even put in an appearance to make sure that I received my just desserts.
After waddling home I was soon off to another evening of food and cards at the Double Jays with Salsa Girl by my side. The feasting was not too excessive there as I had an unexpected feeling of fullness part-way through the meal. Sigh, there's always next time I guess.
Saturday was the big event. The Library Xmas Party.
This years soiree was being hosted by Kiwichick (who's husband lucked out on not being able to use the get out of party card he earned by attending last years event). The catering was done by many with Days of our Libraries having many a hand in the comestibles.
The night did include a rather embarrassing tribute to the recent Facebook relationship-status change of the good Salsa Girl and oneself, replete with gifts unasked for but appreciated greatly - especially by The Tiger who commenced sleeping on our new serving dish the moment it was revealed to her.
The latest Xmas partying occurred when Salsa Girl and I made the trek to the family demesne to celebrate Freeloading Mum's birthday. There was a dash of Xmas thrown in due to known Xmas day absences. A magnificent feast was on offer, including 5 desserts (which only count as 3 as one mixed several into the same bowl).
There was rather a lot of post feast tiredness to be dealt with on return home before getting the evening meal squared away.
In unrelated news, one's past month of increased exercise regime appears to be having no effect at all.
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Local Warming
This weekend past was a busy one indeed.
Friday night was consumed by one of those pre-event shopping trips where you just keep adding things to the trolley because they will make the event better. Finally you arrive at the checkout with a huge mound of foodstuffs most of which will still be lurking in your fridge the day after the event.
Saturday afternoon was the occasion of the main event itself - a drop by housewarming to welcome Salsa Girl into the place and celebrate this latest stage in our grand experiment.
Having not much space in our residence we invited only those that were known well to both of us (lest the legendary horde of Phill-friends cause a major sardine effect).
I think it all went off quite well with a rotating cast of about a dozen including:
After such a hectic and fun-filled afternoon Salsa Girl and I headed off to spend the evening at the birthday celebrations for BestFriendSincePrep's bester half. With a tended cocktail bar and eighties music galore it really was quite a delightful way to end the day. And there was chocolate cake!
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Friday night was consumed by one of those pre-event shopping trips where you just keep adding things to the trolley because they will make the event better. Finally you arrive at the checkout with a huge mound of foodstuffs most of which will still be lurking in your fridge the day after the event.
Saturday afternoon was the occasion of the main event itself - a drop by housewarming to welcome Salsa Girl into the place and celebrate this latest stage in our grand experiment.
Having not much space in our residence we invited only those that were known well to both of us (lest the legendary horde of Phill-friends cause a major sardine effect).
I think it all went off quite well with a rotating cast of about a dozen including:
- Legion2 sadly flying solo due to family illness, well other family than yours truly
- The Great Sandro who planted himself on the couch ne'er to move
- MatrixMan and Vengeful Vic with young Couch Killer in tow and solidifying his blog name with a delightful splash of red on our new couch
- The Double Jays turning up WITHOUT their trademark chocolate cake!!!!!!
- ElfBoy and Elfboylet making a big mess and being scared off by The Tiger.
After such a hectic and fun-filled afternoon Salsa Girl and I headed off to spend the evening at the birthday celebrations for BestFriendSincePrep's bester half. With a tended cocktail bar and eighties music galore it really was quite a delightful way to end the day. And there was chocolate cake!
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The Return of The Bastard
No, the title of this post does not refer to one's return to posting after this most recent hiatus from keeping you all updated.
It instead refers to the reappearance at Sunday Games, after a four or more year absence, of the one and only The Bastard.
As befits his usual modus operandi he lugged along a large selection of new games of which we barely managed to scratch the surface by playing only two out of the teetering pile.
Also in attendance was Doom, although his new several-times-a-year frequency hardly makes an appearance worth mentioning. In the same vein I shan't even bother to mention the attendance of Pirate Dave, Legion2, or Badger.
The long weekend was rounded out by a trip to the residence of the Double Jays with Salsa Girl where one was able to easily take possession of the Rummy 500 Perpetual Trophy* for the first time ever after many months of playing with the group.
[* said trophy may exist only in my own mind]
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It instead refers to the reappearance at Sunday Games, after a four or more year absence, of the one and only The Bastard.
As befits his usual modus operandi he lugged along a large selection of new games of which we barely managed to scratch the surface by playing only two out of the teetering pile.
Also in attendance was Doom, although his new several-times-a-year frequency hardly makes an appearance worth mentioning. In the same vein I shan't even bother to mention the attendance of Pirate Dave, Legion2, or Badger.
The long weekend was rounded out by a trip to the residence of the Double Jays with Salsa Girl where one was able to easily take possession of the Rummy 500 Perpetual Trophy* for the first time ever after many months of playing with the group.
[* said trophy may exist only in my own mind]
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