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| 5/25/2004 2:07:38 PM Five is the indicator for the yo | Add Comment |
| While trying to sum up a very busy week in my last post I left out the weekend before the house sale! Friday night we made a trip to AC with Chad and some of the Jersey crowd. This was the first time for Kristyn being in a casino while of legal age (mind you she d been to AC and Vegas previously) so this time round she was able to game freely without worrying about expulsion.
After much wandering about and a gloriously gluttonous buffet dinner we settled into a sparsely populated Craps table and I tutored Kristyn on the finer points of the game. She really loved it and within half an hour or so she was comfortably making savy bets like a pro. I really can t stress enough how superior craps is to every other game in the casino. The player camraderie is awesome. There was a slow methodical drain on our coffers for most of the evening till a couple of monster rollers went on an insane tear (including The Bone nailing more 6s and 8s than should ever be possible). When the dice finally settled (and we noticed it was past 2 am) we were up $140. Not a bad take at all!
So the really good news (definitely secondary to the winnings) is that Kristyn is now a craps addict so we ll have cause to make some road trips back to AC along with some of the Hbg crew. Should be awesome.
One other thing... 6 is pure gold.
-bampf | | | Finally I have returned. It s been a damn long time, I know, but I ve been more than a little busy.
First and foremost, we are Shippensburgians. The move was pretty arduous. It seemed like we had moved a lot out in the weeks preceeding the move, but there was still tons to pack and load. Ya just don t realize how much crap you have till you have to transport it all.
Anyway, at the end of last weekend, the van was packed to its absolute maximum capacity, as was the bed of my step-fathers pick-up and we still needed much of his flatbed trailer.
Settlement was quick and painless. We ended up making a little more money than anticipated. It was nice to be the one walking away with a check in hand rather than walking away with decades worth of debt. Once bills are paid and such I ll be more debt-free than I ve ever been since taking on the expensive hobby known as Kristyn.
Unloading of the vehicles spread well into Tuesday, as we tried to cram all of our belongings into limited space. Kristyn and Kathy decided to so some work on the basement this is now our living room and dining room. After a new paint job, carpet and decorating, the once dark and dank space is looking bright and fantastice. We are pleased.
We had a breif respite from moving madness on Thursday when we did a short SCA demonstration at Mechanicsburg Middle School. It was a cool little event. We did some fighting in the auditorium to the delight of the seventh graders. Sounds like they ll have us back next year, so that s cool. I ll also point out that the school itself was incredible. Nicest school I have ever seen. Everything was new. For those of you living in the district take solace that your undoubtedly crippling school taxes are put to good use.
The rest of the day was spent hanging out with Kent and Evan as we had a nice dinner to celebrate our return. We also saw Van Helsing, which, despite being quite enjoyable at times was probably the stupidest film I have ever seen. Shoulda paid heed to the countless warning. It was OK though. We took in Troy the night before and loved it (sweet sweet Brad) so our net movie gain was still positive.
Friday, I did some work from home before we met up with Dan and Karri for another celebratory dinner. As it turns out Dan and I each received job offers within days of each other. Which segues into my next important announcement. The new job.
I ve found a job working for my first boss from my Stoner days. It s with a company in Mechanicsburg specializing in online credit card transactions. It s come to be known as Stoner East, as it has quite a few ex-Stoner employees, including a founder. Seems like it ll be a pretty cool place to work. The big perk though is the dress code: shorts and t-shirts! Yes!
I was giving serious consideration to holding a nice big bonfire to burn all my dockers and khakis (and these damnable new jeans) but Kristyn was quick yo dismiss the idea. Oh well.
In other news, this past weekend was Games Day. My seventh. Had an excellent time with Rich and Rob (and our young padawan, Tom). The highlight was (as is often the case) not Games Day itself but hanging out before and after. Holding fast to tradition, we consumed countless crabs at Phillips Saturday night. Once again, Rob awed the first timers as he consumed, to my best estimation, close to twice his body-weight in crab. Tis no man, tis a remorseless eating machine.
Hoffman and others expressed a serious interest in more get-togethers and social events (as opposed to just getting together to play games) which would be extremely cool. Another reason to be glad to be back.
So anyway. To sum up. Things are great. We re home and loving it. Life is good.
-bampf | | | Won t have internet access again till Kristyn and I are officially Shippensburgians, so toodles till then friends and neighbors.
Our biggest payload of crap will arrive sometime Monday afternoon. So if anyone back in the midstate is not working then and interested in doing some lifting about of heavy things to help us unload give us a call on the cell phone (I m assuming any potentially interested parties already have our cell phone number... it s my old Hbg number for those who have lost track) and we ll give details and directions. It shouldn t be a whole lot of stuff (only three or four big items) so I never sent out an official request for help as I have done in the past... so it s not a real big deal.
Shortly thereafter there shall be much rejoicing as we dance about naked in debauched celebration of our triumphant return.
Soon to be Philly-Boy no more,
-bampf | | | I just wanted to point out the prophetic powers of the BampfBlog. A while back while discussing the Predator->Politics link (Jesse the Body and Ahnuld as guvs) I extoled the possible virtues of Billy the injun as a politician! Sure enough, it has come to pass. Sonny Landham, the guy that played Billy, is running for the Senate in KY. Nice! I just wanna see him, in the midst of a televised debate, tear off his suit, pull out a huge-ass knife and slash himself across the chest. There is no effective rebuttal to that!
-b | | | Five days. Didn t I do this leading up to the wedding as well? Oh well.
The real madness is now just how heavily my time is being booked once we return. Plans for tennis, plans for fair visiting, plans for multiple roleplay groups (at least 5), plans for DVD nights, plans for SCA stuff, plans for Guild activities (Warhammer, BloodBowl, Magic)... I could go on ever further and start listing individual people I ve committed to hanging out with. Friggin crazy. But I m really feeling the central PA love.
Sweet.
In other news I spent my entire lunch hour on the phone with automated account service machines canceling services and changing addresses. The phone company had by far the most advanced system. Completely voice activated with a woman s voice that did it s best to take on a completely conversational tone. The voice recognition was amazing, recanting phrases, addresses etc not just numbers or scripted instructions. It was impressive yet really quite eerie. It would say things like "Gottit" after you said your address aloud, and then "Hold on a sec, while I look up your file". It s hard to convey through a keyboard but the tone was disconcerting... like some harbringer of Skynet/The Matrix. A decided "See, I m a machine, but can more efficiently do anything a human can... remind me again why we still keep you meat sacks around" undertone was definitely apparent.
Or maybe I just watch too many movies. I dunno.
-bampf | | | Seven days. One week and we are outta here. It s madness. Pure madness. Had another house inspection today, as the final details of the house sale are falling nicely into place. Did much organizing, unpacking, and preparing in Ship on Saturday. I think living with the inlaws will work out fine. Kristyn and I will have our own space, our own bathroom. Of course I m not keen on living in Ship... Carlisle/Enola/Camp Hill would be a lot better, but I ll make due. Just means more quality time with 81.
Got to spend Friday at the Guild. Mostly hanging out with Evan. Played a fine one-off of BloodBowl. For lack of a better team on hand I used my Norse and was reminded why they are the laughing stock of races. Makes me wanna try to run them in a league. Would make for a real interesting challenge.
Also got to talk to Rich. We have confirmation that I will be forever immortalized in pewter! That s right, I will have my own miniature. For the store s fifth birthday celebration we are commishioning a Reaper sculptor to make a limited edition miniature... that miniature will be Inquisitor Mongo (Inquisitor SquareHead NoNeck was considered by nixed in the name of brevity)!! So yes, it will be me... in miniature form. How s that for a gamer s wet dream? We re supposed to be getting some photos of the early sculps this week. I ll be sure to pass em along. Pre-orders will begin shortly, cost is $15. So start saving your pennies.
Of course there were also Mother s Day festivities, including taking Kathy to Bangkok Wok in Mechanicsburg. That place is amazing. We have tried exchaustively to find a Thai restaurant in the Philly area that rivals it and have failed miserably (the super high-end 'Asian fusion' places like Morimoto s and Buddakan don t count). There masaman curry may, in all honesty, be the closest thing to a culinary heaven on earth a human can ever encounter.
So, anyway, this is gonna be a crazy week full of house prep, packing and laundry lists of Philly to-dos before we leave. Egad.
-bampf | | | The exodus has begun in earnest. Kristyn s van is weighed down with a fair amount of our worldly posessions. By this weekend, I think we ll have more belongings in Ship than in Ridley Park (by weight if not volume). Settlement is ten days away. It s madness. Things are moving so damn fast.
I m starting to get really eager. I m longing for central PA life. Everytime the Blue Route inexplicably turns into a parking lot for 20 minutes my thoughts drift to the seemless flow of 81. As we fight the traffic from painful redlight to painful redlight, I long for country backroads, devoid of even a center dividing line. Yeah. I think life will be good.
It appears that the powers that be at work are gonna let me do some telecommuting, at least temporarily, if not long term, so job concerns have become secondary (although I still have several good leads). It ll be grand to work in my underwear... like a dream come true.
Plus I can start playing games again soon! Bloodbowl, Warhammer, Magic, Roleplaying... I ve had countless offers from people anticipating my return. Yeah, life will be grand.
So, yeah, what little trepidations there were have pretty much disappeared.
Central PA, your wayward progeny have returned. Please accept us back into your warm embrace and forgive our urban aspiring folly.
God, we re lame.
-bampf | | | So, I m in desperate need of a new list. So to commemorate the release of the Kids in the Hall DVD I m doing a comedy themed list. Two lists in fact. Best comedy troupe and best stand-up comedians. Comedy Central recently did a top 100 all time stand-up list, which isn t awful, but clearly doubles as a marketing device for their own line-up. So anyway. The lists-
Best Comedy Troupe
(SNL is excluded due to the rotating cast and the resulting dramatically disparate quality)
5. SCTV
4. Mr. Show
3. Upright Citizens Brigade
2. The Kids in the Hall
1. Monty Python
Best Stand-up Comedians
12. Norm MacDonald
11. Henry Rollins
10. Dennis Wolfburg
9. Jeffrey Ross
8. Eddie Murphy
7. Sam Kinnison
6. Denis Leary
5. Lewis Black
4. Steven Wright
3. George Carlin
2. Bill Hicks
1. Dennis Miller
So there you go. I thought about adding some annotation but decided that would require too much effort. I will stop to point out that The State is bloody awful and that s why it didn t make the troupe list (my hatred for The State is especially odd, when you consider I really liked Viva Variety and that Micheal Ian Black is a pure genius in everything else he does).
-bampf | | | Presently I am wearing jeans. This may seem like a trivial statement, but until yesterday it had been years (at least five) since last I wore jeans. I hate em. I remember the plebians at Stoner wailing for 'Jeans Days' like a bunch of denim addicted dope-fiends. It was pathetic. Even on designated Jeans Days I stuck with my khakis. Most people here at work wear jeans everyday. Again, I stick with the khakis. I just don t like em. Haven t worn em consistently since college. Feels like I m wearing a burlap bag. Nasty.
Now if I could wear shorts to work, I d jump at that one. But jeans... blah. But now, a new era has been ushered in. The era of forced denim integration. Damn my wife. As should be the case in all sensible marriages she is household fashion guru (or fashion czar in this case) and has thus decreed from on high that I look good in jeans and therefore must wear them.
On the upside I can wear sneakers with jeans, so that s cool. But still... jeans... what s the appeal? I mean the fabric was chosen for it s ability to not break down whilst wranglin dogies... a decision certainly not based on comfort. Jeans should be an anachronistic relic. But alas, my fate is sealed.
Anyway, in non-jeans related events over the weekend, we took in a couple movies. Finally saw Ladykillers. Damn, the Coen brothers are great. The movie lost steam near the end, but only after countless priceless Coen moments. No Lebowski, but still pretty damn funny. Also saw HellBoy again, taking Kristyn this time (she bears grudges when I see a film she wants to see without her... I m still hearing it for Punisher). Really enjoyed the film again. Not unlike Ladykillers, I think the movie is at its best at the beginning. Still, it would be cool if a franchise developed. I could go for a few additional HellBoy movies.
Sunday was a lazy day. Dan and Karri came by as they sought refuge from their own house. And it was even nice enough that Kristyn and I went outside for a while to toss around a baseball. Cool.
Busy week ahead. Job search continues. Kristyn has a going away thing with co-workers. Tentatively we re gonna do another game night with Rick and Chad (had one last week that was a lot of fun). I d like to get down to the new park to see the Phillies (Tues and Wed are the last two evening home games before settlement so the clock is ticking!). Thursday is weekly Da Chen with Dan and Karri. We ll need to take a full van load of stuff back to Ship Friday (we ll need to gauge if a truck and trailer will be sufficient to evacuate whatever is left the following weekend). Wow. It s madness.
-bampf |
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