Got got or not?

 So over the past several years one has not got got - unless one has a legendarily robust immune system, which given one's valiant, but ultimately futile, struggles against the many waves of  man-cold encountered in ones lifespan, seems extremely unlikely.

However in recent weeks a “relatively” close acquaintance that one spent some significant face to face gaming time with was got got.

Hearing of this may have caused One to spontaneously suffer psycho-somatic got symptoms for a day or so, skipping in-person gaming and, much to the disappointment of The Great Sandro, the first planned footy expedition of the year. 

In the end One is not sure of One's got got status as, throughout one's period of convalescence, nigh on a half dozen got tests all came back not got, so who really knows if One was got got or not got got.

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The Fall of Troy

 So One has just completed the reading of Troy by Stephen Fry.  The tome was a birthday gifting from Grandma J that one had finally commenced a few weeks back and then completed a few weeks back. Of course in these times we are in, One glances at the calendar and espies that a few weeks is in fact nigh two whole months!

In any case the read was quite interesting... and informative, and flowed fairly well after the initial 50 odd pages of getting up to speed on past history bombardment of peoples and events.

My reading of it also fell at the right time for the regular Tuesday Knights gaming group had only recently commenced playing AGON the game where you play heroes of legend in an ancient Greece inspired setting.

I give it a solid 3 star rating as the end with the wooden horse seemed a little unbelievable.

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Traditional Easter

So, this Easter break was another traditional Easter with all the traditional Easter holiday activities and holiday day names.

Starting with the traditional Evening-Before-Good-Friday footy watching, wherein it was good to see the pies back on track.

Continuing with the traditional Saturday-After-Good-Friday-and-Before-Easter-Sunday gaming day of Magic playing with Sneaky Pete, Gavman, ElfBoy, and Commander Fry, all partaking in some traditional Magic card playing (absent were BestFriendSincePrep and MatrixMan, both partaking in non-traditional going away for Easter).

Next was the traditional Easter-Sunday-Two-Days-After-Good-Friday-and-One-Day-Before-The-Monday-After-Easter-Sunday early wakeup and hunt for fluffy little chickens and eggs with Salsa Girl and Hulk. One will be discovering the things in odd places for weeks to come.

And finally today on the Monday-After-Easter-Sunday holiday it is time for the traditional what do we do with an extra day of holidays day. Incorporating all of the traditional too much chocolate events.
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The Birthday Month

It seems that having a birthday in a month is not conducive to regular blogging - it's a proven fact.

Well many days and nights of gaming were had along with a return to work - which is the best birthday present ever. Even better when one's birthday coincides with a Strategy Team Meeting. Oh the giddy heights of excitement.

The return to work also heralded the return of regular public transport irregularities and exercises in sardine imitation.

The return of footy also happened in the form of one's women's team, although having been heavily pillaged by other teams it is hard for it not to feel like starting over again.

The return of Hulk to school brought some welcome relief all round as we all missed school.

And to finish off the birthday month the return of stinking hot weather has served to make one slow down to a standstill at the end of the month of partying.
Which is all well and good for, as Salsa Girl and a plethora of one's work supervisors can confirm, without external factors one was likely to keep moving forever.
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The Holiday Break

And so it seems that one of the first things to break on the holiday is one's determination to keep posting to The Tales.


One of the next is the peace and quiet at home as Hulk's first year of school ends and she is home with Salsa Girl and I, as a raucous bundle of energy with nigh insatiable play demands.

The Xmas days in sweltering Bendigo conditions along with Grandma J caused a break in one's mental faculties.

The trip away was a break the family was looking forward too and one managed to survive despite no break in the frequency and variety of insectile creatures determined to feast upon one's delicate flesh.
Time with Doctor David, and Grannie A, and also as a family in a tent in a storm helped provide a break from the ongoing itching and scratching.

Next to break was one's belief that BestFriendSincePrep had not played in the previous Tuesday Knights game of Judge Dredd. The sight of a well used character sheet began the breaking of one's mind.

And now, with the return to work just a scant few days away, one is looking forward to the break from holidays.

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Deliver Me

So yesterday one had the interesting situation of a package delivery experience - or perhaps one should say non-delivery experience.

Said package was one of those packages that Salsa Girl does not need to know about because expansions don't count for the "no new board games until the existing ones have been played a lot" rule.

An anonymous Amazonian deliverer sent an email saying the package would arrive today and be  delivered by 8pm in the evening. The email was sent at 4:35pm.

At precisely  4:36pm a second email was sent with the message stating that they had tried to deliver but nobody was home and sorry we missed you.

Looking around my place of work which doubles as my delivery address I found it quite hard to imagine how a half dozen people working at desks could appear to not be home to take delivery.

Still I believe I'll give the deliverers the benefit of the doubt as most of us were not really mentally still at work by that time of the afternoon.
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Fungi Friends and Freezing Footy

So this Friday last was another regular catch up organised by The Fungi Lady.

Also in attendance were:

• the regular Doom and Non-Gamin' Megan
• the slightly irregular Amoeba
• the highly irregular The Bastard.
• and, apparently, the completely non-regular MatrixMan conveniently gone before ones stunning entrance

It being nigh on a score of years since one had conversed with The Bastard a large part of the evening was spent on discussing topics various - work, current gaming undertakings, the gamers we both guided through our adventures, the very dad topic of our gifted children.
We both agreed that dealing with the tantrums, smart phone addictions, fussy eating, and stinky body smells made looking after our little girls a pleasure compared with all that gamer stuff.

All in all a great night that was over too soon and one looks forward to honoring the fungi ladies next organising effort.



Speaking of outings that could have ended earlier... one spent Sunday twilight attending the footy with The Great Sandro in 10 degree temperatures (plus a wind chill factor that lowered the temp to sub-zero by one’s reckoning).

To make matters worse the pies provided few opportunities for vigorous, joyful, and warming, leaping to one's feet.

Still, as they say, a win is a win, even if one does have to be chiseled free from the ice at the end.
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Mother's Days

So the past month has been keeping one busy with events various and also lovely IT events various.

The main event was, of course, the elegant significant birthday of Grandma J. Held at a lovely country estate in the outskirts of Kyneton. Salsa Girl, Hulk and oneself made the journey out and arrived for much exploring, conversation, and digesting, amongst a slew of relatives.

Event the second was the, now traditional, mums head off to enjoy a kid and dad free lunch together. A (brilliant?) idea of Salsa Girl's which was apparently enjoyed by all - even though they did miss out on the 30 minute drum-based concert performance of the kid's well known hit "Get out of the Garage!!"


Of course One did manage to squeeze in the second gaming Sunday for the year in the midst of this hive of activity, along with some fervent footy watching, heapings of frustrating IT troubleshooting, and a smidgen of progressing projects.

One hopes now that a rest period can commence and One can catch up on one's much neglected lazing around.
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The Exercise of ANZAC Traditions

A week ago now one took the opportunity to exercise one's ANZAC traditions.

These commenced with a long sleep in.

Things then proceeded on to Salsa Girl, Hulk and I hosting the traditional footy watching with The Great Sandro, Sneaky Pete, ElfBoy and family all in attendance. Much fun was had by all since the correct team won this year, or, in Lil' Trucker's case, trains went past out the back every 10 minutes causing much excitement.

Traditions continued into the evening with the weekly gaming night ending with the traditional post-midnight finish.
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Moving and Shaking

With Supervisor Grand Chief K being reliably informed at VALA conference drinks that One is a Mover and Shaker in libraryland, it is obvious that the recent lack of regular posting to The Tales can only be due to the amount of shakey moves One has been undertaking.


Moves of prep prep for Hulk - which lead to an in-shakey start to school.

Moves of returning to work - which had the usual level of shakiness.

Moves of birthday gaming - which lead to a shakey return to the old favourite On the Edge card game on Sneaky Pete's behest.

Moves of study and Gaming Garage combining - leading to some shakey computer monitor setup.

Moves of women's footy watching with The Great Sandro and Sneaky Pete - which was a shakey start to the season for the 'pies.

And finally moves of attending said conference to make a shakey impression on several of One's contacts in the industry.


Of course there is also the alternate theory that the conference drinks Supervisor Grand Chief K was attending when informed of One's reputation may well have just included an astonishing amount of drinks...
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The Paradox of Holiday Freetime

It would seem, on the face of it, that One having ample holiday time at home should enable the copious posting to The Tales which is the stuff of legends from the dim dark ages of 2008.

However, as it transpires, there is a distinct lack of posting about the few happenings of this restful time.
Happenings such as:

• The annual Star Wars pilgrimage with Sidekick

• Providing several days of nurturing care at home for Hulk who's illness was extended mysteriously
  
• Commencement of the Tuesday Knights new game - Blades in The Dark. Now with added Miasmakat. Including the group deciding to choose the gang type One advised against, *twitch*, sigh.
  
• Hulk's last day of kinder including concert in which she was one of the loudest voices. One was surprised to see a graduation cap being employed.
  
• Xmas day filled with Mousetrap and Botanical picnics.
  
• Boxing day lunch at Freeloading Mum and Handy Dad's. Replete with cousins and uncles and aunts and the touch of sadness that is an aunts early Alzheimers.
  
• A 50th birthday dinner for The Great Sandro with yours truly, Sneaky Pete, Salsa Girl, and Hulk as the requested guests of honour.
  
• Several rushed last days of work before the big holiday break - everyone loves stats.
  
• New Years' Eve beach birthday parties then early evening Rummy contests - with One being the year's humble awesome champion.
  
• A four day visit from Doctor David.
  
• Building inspections for the repair of the great dripping roof saga.
  
• Backyard camping at Nana's, wherein' Hulk had her longest staying up ever due to the excitement of Midnight Feast and the unexpectedly high light levels of a suburban camping sky.

One wonders when the pace of the year is going to pick up a little...

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What One did on One's Holidays

So One has spent most of the previous fortnight on holidays, during which time period many and sundry activities have been partaken.

Farming Out the Kids

At Sneaky Pete's suggestion Hulk and I joined him, Uncle Niece, and BuildItBoy on an expeditious rainy-day expedition to Collingwood Children's Farm.
One found it quite educational and was particularly surprised to learn that Feeding the Goats was not merely a euphemism - which is probably all well and good as it went on for nigh an hour.

Ex-Presidential Duties

A morning of phone calls and remote work on one's user group commitments.

Library Day Trips

One spent most of a day traipsing across the public transport system with Hulk to show of the genius level of one's progeny to one's work colleagues, who must all now be convinced that she is very advanced for her age.

A Magical Gaming Experience

To mark the occasion of having a day off due to footy one's demesne was host to the likes of Sneaky Pete, Pirate Dave, Gavman, and ElfBoy for many hours of card gaming fun.

Footy in Black and Yellow

Swinging the blokeyness pendulum the other way one had Sneaky Pete back the next day for some Grand Final viewing.

Baby's First Bee Sting

After a morning of intensive gardening - of the kind required to make a clear path from the front door to the street using only a small pair of scissors after Hulk has traded you for the big snippers - one's afternoon relaxation time was cut short by Hulk inadvertently squashing a bee against a watering can and suffering the resulting suicidal self defence that bees are known for.
Of course after the bee's fate was explained to her Hulk decided to go out to the scene and tell the bee "sorry I made you dead bee, goodbye"

Inescapable Work and further gaming delights

Nothing can describe the joy of having one's day for oneself interrupted by a minor work crisis.
Following up the relatively easily solved issue with an afternoon of gaming with Badger was definitely enough to balance the scales.

Unmissable Training Day at Work

Under orders from Supervisor Grand Chief K one had to curtail one's holiday plans to attend this day.
I begrudgingly took part in having my unfair share of the pizza and cake lunch - which was barely enough to fuel me through the afternoon "clean up your work area" activity.

Male Privilege Training

Which brings us to today and the final half day off work before attending an afternoon session of training on Male Privilege in which I was horrified to find that no-one had catered for my afternoon tea! Such hardship thus proving that one has no privilege in life.
I believe I will receive an A+ grade.

A Holiday from Holidays

And now one is back to the regular schedule and able to relax and recover from such an intensive holiday break.

One is almost looking forwards to the morrow's Performance Planning meeting.

Almost.
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The 76 Year Old Feline

So yesterday was the grandiose occasion of the most esteemed anniversary of the day of birth of The Tiger. Yes, she of the most voluminous fluff, has deigned to allow us to recognise her fifteenth year with appropriate celebrations.

There were extra servings of food and less yellings of "be though quiet" in the morning.

The evening included the traditional second dinner of premium food - thus setting up the traditional six month expectation of second dinner.

And as it was a gaming evening it was The Tiger's choice of game for the evening.
Thus many games of Inside/Outside the door were played, as well as a rousing round of Grab, Lick, Lick, Lick, Bite, after which one shall be seeing the appropriate medical professionals today.

All in all we believe she had a most enjoyable day and looks forward to terrorising all and sundry as year 16 uncurls and stretches out.
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Too Much

So, one was thinking about the whole "too much" realm of theory recently and the supposed impact such as other regular things dropping by the wayside.

Of course, one hasn't had much time to theorise lately as one's time has been taken up with too much going on.

In the month since ones last missive to the The Tales there has been:

• Too much of the post flu lurgy hanging around
• Too much of the intermittent network failures at work
• Too much of the weekend activities with Hulk - expeditions to far off locales for junior footy watching of the SpawnOfBestFriendSincePrep related kind being a prime example, but also sundry birthday parties (I mean, really, does every child have a birthday?)
• Too much footy to keep up with, including the aforementioned day-trip and an expedition with The Great Sandro
• Too much gaming - wait, no that one doesn't make any sense, regular Wednesday plus a couple of fortnightly Thursdays and a Sunday, and preparing a new game all in a month sounds about right.
• Too much new Twin Peaks to try and catch up on

In any case as I return to posting on The Tales I can say that one's "too much" activity schedule is having none of the dropping by the wayside impacts theorised to go along with it.

See you all next month.
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The Month of Things

So suddenly, it is a month since The Tales have graced screens nation wide and it is time once more to fill that void in all your souls.

So what has been happening, you may ponder?


Well a long outstanding computational device problem at work was finally solved and the backlog of work that rushed forth to fill the now available time was of a high dauntingness level.
But that is not the excuse for the delay of this posting.


One commenced catch up watching of a half dozen episodes of the new Twin Peaks and experienced the resulting brain melt caused by the 80% or so of it that was Lynchian weirdness for, apparently, it's own sake.
But that is not the excuse for the delay of this posting.

Salsa Girl and Hulk headed north for a weekend which became extended and thus resulted in a blur of gaming activity in The Gaming Garage. The Magical Gathering of the regular crew of ElfBoy, Gavman, Legion2, Pirate Dave, and even BestFriendSincePrep making a return after a decade, overtook the Friday evening. The Saturday saw the boardgames commence with Badger and FridgePower subbing in for ElfBoy and Gavman, for a gentle run through 5 hours - and half of - the Game of Thrones boardgame. During these proceedings FridgePower played true to Queen of Thorns character by talking one's favourite tea mug into self destructive cracking.

The third day of extended absence almost saw gaming again as BestFriendSincePrep was pressing for it but wisdom and the weight of chores held out and a day of pottering about the house was enjoyed by one.

But that is not the excuse for the delay of this posting.

One's return to mountains of work was brief as a rescue mission to retrieve Salsa Girl and Hulk  had to be undertook resulting in an hours long drive through tumultuous rain and trucks along the Calder, and a clandestine handover with Grandma J in the vicinity of the halfway point.

But that is not the excuse for the delay of this posting.

In amongst all of this Pirate Dave has taken the reigns of the Tuesday Knights roleplaying sessions (now regularly scheduled on Wednesdays but what can you do about a name?). Thus requiring one to actually read the background for a game for once rather than wing it and hope the players don't notice.

But that is not the excuse for the delay of this posting.

Which more or less brings us up to today and finally a posting.

With no real reason for the delay - unless you wish to count one's legendary laconical approach to getting things done?

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Gaming the Band Back Together

Sunday last was another of one's regular board gaming sessions.

This one however was pre-advertised longer than usual and thus attracted both FridgePower and Judge Mingus. It was therefore a mini band reunion of sorts. Although, in the words of that great philosophical treatise from back in nineteen hundred and eighty four - Revenge of the Nerds - "Sh*t, we forgot to practice!"

With most, nay, all of the regulars also attending we struggled to find a game that could also accomodate Legion2, Pirate Dave, Badger, Miasmakat, and BestFriendSincePrep, given that Legion2 vetoed Block Mania and I no longer have the second set of blocks required to take it up to an 8 player monstrosity. 

We settled on The Great Dalmuti in which the  decidedly left-leaning Judge Mingus orchestrated a rather hypocritically rapid rise into the privileged aristocracy.

Other highlights included my finally winning another game of Samurai Battles thanks to my general in crime FridgePower who's "I don't know what I'm doing" tactics helped win the day; a return to Dominion basic and simple cards; and Pirate Dave's Epic 8 minute final turn in Eight Minute Empire.

If this level of attendance continues we may have to resort to multiple games running at the same time - or I could return to my usual last minute flash-mob style of alerting people it is on.
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Achievements Unlocked

So it has been a long summer break - some may even have thought it to be endless - but The Tales is back with a handy list of the achievements one has, umm, achieved in the break.


Achievement
Around the World in 18 days - well, around South Eastern Australia in 13 days, so almost the same thing.
Salsa Girl, Hulk, and oneself survived our round trip to "collect 'em all" in regards to Salsa Girl's family, who have deigned to scatter themselves all over this vast nation of ours.


Achievement
Making it back to work on the correct day. On paper this may seem easy but mistakes have been made. Also the sheer willpower required to end one's holidays is not to be underestimated.

Achievement

Commenced, on request, bedtime reading of volumes of the Cursed Earth saga to Hulk. Judge Dredd being as good a ethical and law abiding role model as the majority of the fairy tales one is apparently supposed to be reading to one's spawn.

Achievement
Convincing Pirate Dave to once again play his Orleans game more than a year since the last time. This time Legion2 was introduced to the pleasure of creating civilisation in medieval France.
One still likes the game after a second showing and it has nothing to do with one's winning.


Achievement
Continuing to avoid seeing Frozen. However one had to do it this time by watching Star Wars The Phantom Menace with Hulk so it might be best to call it a draw.



Whew, that's my achievement quota for the year done then.
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The Miasmakat's Partay

Saturday last Hulk, Salsa Girl, and I attended the city venue birthday celebrations of one's gaming associate Miasmakat and her non-associated (well except via The Viking Hat GM's Geektogethers) gaming husband.

This party was sensibly held in the afternoon.

One had a proud father moment on the train journey in when metro announced "The next station will be Collingwood" and Hulk responded with "Collingwood? Good old Collingwood forever, ..." and sang the whole song replete with mid verse corr-blimey. I've definitely brunged her up right.

One will only be prouder when she destroys one in a board game some time in our future.

The party was a fun affair in an indoor tent room that involved a couple of hours of catch up chit chat, playing who is that person from 20 years ago, and also playing keep Hulk away from the cup cakes.


The party continued the next day with Sunday gaming wherein Miasmakat, BestFriendSincePrep and I proceeded to doom the world by failing to save it from a deadly bout of swine flu in Pandemic.
We were joined by Legion2 for the chaos of Stellar Conflict - aka the rubber band game - wherein BestFriendSincePrep snapped one of the said rubber bands thereby ruining an irreplaceable game component.

When Pirate Dave arrived we decided to save the world for a change by stopping the infected leaving the Dark Moon in my cooperative variant of the The Thing in Space game.

We rounded out the night by being caught attempting a pet store heist in Burgle Bros.

After so much fun failure Miasmakat's party weekend was called to close and we all* went to bed early for a good nights sleep.

*Nobody can prove that one played Magic with Legion2 until late!!

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Scything through Productivity

So, one's new board game Scythe arrived the other week and is this month's choice reason for reduced posting.

It began with a late night unboxing, but not the sort of unboxing it is popular to film and provide on the you tubes. No, this one was a private affair with oneself revelling in the sights, sounds, smells and textures of the fresh cardboard, plastic and even resin in the privacy of The Gaming Garage.

The following night was absorbed by the sleeving of the cards for protection and the organising of the storage so all the gorgeous bits could go back into the box safely.

The third night was rudely interrupted by having to go to the footy with The Great Sandro and Legion2 to see the pies triumph over the ancient enemy.

The very next gaming night was consumed by the initial play of the game with BestFriendSincePrep taking the victory narrowly from Badger and Gavman and Legion2 somewhat behind and yours truly ending on a dismal score.

Despite thinking that I would have to return such an obviously defective game I decided to give it another go Sunday last, with the same crew sans Gavman. And Lo and Behold it turns out it is an excellent game as I magnificently triumphed over all opponents.

One was rather relieved that the game was worth keeping now.

Although when I mentioned this relief Salsa Girl did give me one of those "as if any game would ever leave your collection" looks.
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Daddy-Daughter Weekend

With Salsa Girl away for a few days this weekend past naturally became a four day Daddy-Daughter weekend for Hulk and I.

Of course once he got wind of this BestFriendSincePrep naturally decreed it would be Daddy-Daughter-BestFriendSincePrep weekend with three nights of visits for gaming and other suchlike debauchery.

So, on the one night he did turn up, much gaming and bourbon fun was had - although one may have enhanced the other (as bourbon isn't usually such fun).

It was also Daddy-Daughter-Zoo weekend as we once more attended said institution to enjoy the attractions such as: chasing seagulls, stomping in the gazebo, climbing the frog statues, and accidentally seeing the odd animal or two.

All in all an excellent weekend that one wished would never end... or was that thought would never end
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