|
| | I m definitely feeling a fantasy theme settling in on my life. Tonight we head to the midstate with a viewing of Two Towers on the slate for when we arrive. Sunday is my Hbg D&D group. We haven t had a session since early June I think... so I ll be happy to get back together with those guys. Hopefully they still remember the storyline. Monday evening I have a fantasy football draft back in Jersey. Somewhere in there I also need to finish another adventure for my first Hyborean campaign adventure with our local group back here on Tuesday. Madness I tell ya madness.
I m not sure what Saturday has in store for us... probably multiple family events. We will get to see our wedding proofs for the first time so we ll probably take them around and let parents and grandparents see.
Should be a good long weekend... save maybe for all the driving.
-b | | | I have a finally wrestled a few moments of respite from a frantic week so maybe you ll get a decent post outta me... read on to find out.
This past weekend was pretty good. Our house was going to be host to a Girls Night Out (Girls Night In? I dunno) with Kristyn, Carrie, Amanda and Mena (four sevenths of our roleplaying group for those scoring at home) so I was left to fend for myself that night. The evening started with an arduous commute... I spent 30 minutes in line at the turnpike tollbooth only to find that the Westbound lane was closed and all traffic was being diverted Eastboud... you had no choice... go East. So, I had to re-route myself from the northern suburbs of Philly to the Southwest suburbs without using the Turnpike and obviously avoiding going through the city (certain death on a Friday evening)... so I took the long way... Turnpike nearly all the way into Jersey and then down the backside of the city on 95. Nearly 2 hours for a commute that takes little as 25 minutes at optimal times. It was almost worth it as I got to drive by the new Lincoln Financial Field lit up and packed full of Philly die-hards (aka rabid surly cretins) for the first ever Eagles game there. There was also an incredibly violent thunderstorm taking place just to the south which made for an impressive show.
Not long after getting home the Girls Night thing was starting to gear up so I abandoned the house as quickly as possible out of fear of asphixiating in the clouds of estrogen.
I took refuse at Dan and Carrie s, where Dan s ban was practicing. So I got a cool personal performance and then Dan and I headed to Denny s. Over many a coffee we discussed a wide range of topics... from relationships to roleplaying to religion... we pretty much covered all the R s. We also discovered another in a long series of coincidences... Dan used to hang out religously at the Devon Denny s. The same Denny s we used to frequent during our college days with Chucko and his pals, Tim and Dennis. As it turns out he knew Tim and Dennis (apparently fairly well), and one of his bandmates knew Chucko well. Bizarre. We re thinking we probably were at the Denny s at the same time on at least one occasion. Then 10 years later we d meet via an RPG Player Locator website. Strange.
Anyway, we eventually decided it would be safe to visit the womenfolk at around 3:00 or so. I think it was maybe 5:00 before everyone went home (or just crashed). Good times.
Saturday we went back over to Dan and Carrie s for a Birthday BBQ and an encore performance by Dan s band. Another good time, although we retired early, as we were still reeling from the lack of sleep and Kristyn had papers to write.
Sunday was lazy and relaxing, the way Sundays were meant to be. A don t-shower-and-spend-the-day-in-yer-underwear kinda proper Sunday. The only thing that was missing was football... can t wait till the season starts. Soon...
Anyway. That was my weekend. Last weekend at home for a while, glad we were able to take advantage of it.
-bampf | | | Been in training all day, so no Blogging... not even over the lunch break. Maybe tonight or tomorrow. Training was decent though... stuff I ll actually use so that s cool. Adobe s PDF API was the topic for those very few who may be interested.
-b | | | Last night I got to watch the Steelers for the first time this season. Damn, I love football. We looked good. We barely beat the hapless Cowboys, but they also had their starters playing against our second team for almost two quarters.
Still, it provided an exciting ending. I m excited about the season. If things come together in the secondary and the offensive line can stay healthy we ll make a solid SuperBowl run.
Did I mention I really love football?
-b | | | I try to steer clear of poltical grandstanding here on the bampfblog just to avoid all the rehashed rhetoric, but I was amused by some of today s headlines.
The Palestinian Hamas leaders declared their months long cease fire dead after Isreal rocketed one of their political leaders... claiming Israel is destroying any chances of peace.
Now here s the rub... twice during that months long truce Hamas orchestrated suicide bombings of civilian targets. Somehow it is reasoned that these attacks did not invalidate the 'cease fire' and it was the missile attack that derailed peace plans.
What the fuck? What is wrong with these people?
Israel was withdrawing. Concessions were being made. The formation of an independent Palestinian state was assured... so they needed to celebrate by strapping plastique to their bodies and hopping on a bus? Yeah.
So here is what I m wondering. Leiberman is one of the leading Democratic presidential hopefulls. A jew. So if Leiberman were to win would the entire arab world just go ape shit and declare that the last straw in the Great American Zionist conspiracy? Right now I m thinking that wouldn t be such a bad thing. It would once and for all delineate the good guys from the bad guys and we d be free to bomb any country led by crazed muslim clerics. Sure there d be some more attacks at home, but it could be worth it to declare open season on islamic whackos.
Hmmm... I may have to consider voting for a democrat for the first time ever.
Just a thought.
-bampf | | | We ve returned from Sin City largely intact. Twas a very fun and tiring couple of days. First off, I love being so close to the airport... a five minute taxi ride and we re in the US Air terminal. Things went downhill a bit from there as Kristyn was nearly carted off to Guantanimo for violations under the Patriot Act. She had forgotten all about an old switchblade knife given to her by her dad a few weeks ago (a WWII bringback from Germany passed down from her grandfather). It had rested benignly in the bottom of her purse since then... until it came under the watchful eye of a baggage checker. It was nice to see that airport security was doing its job and all, but it took some quick explaining from Kristyn to get past the checkpoint. I think that the knife was old, broken and rusted led some credence to her story. We ll see what comes of the whole ordeal... maybe a fine? I dunno. Not sure if she ll ever get it back either.
Things went pretty smoothly after that incident. I strongly recommend E-tickets for anyone flying, we did curbside checkins on flights to and fro-- we spent a grand total of maybe five minutes waiting in lines at both airports combined.
On the plane Kristyn was able to coerce some passenger shifting to get us side by side, and we ended up getting three seats by ourselves. The scenery from the plane was amazing as we approached Vegas.
Once in Vegas we took a taxi to the Excalibur. Room was decent, although I was put off that it was a smoking room. I had tried to prepare Kristyn for the glitz and complete lack of substance that is Vegas, but no amount of explaining can prepare one for the actual experience. Kristyn was pretty amazed by the whole thing... just as I was on my first visit.
Famished, we hit the FatBurgers across the way (one of Chad s favorite stops). I won t give details about the gluttony displayed there, as my mind is still recovering from the ghastly spectacle as over a pound and a half of meat was consumed by the two of us.
Eager to work off the countless calories consumed at FatBurgers, we made a long trek down the strip trying to take in as much as possible before exhaustion overwelmed us. Kristyn was extremely amused by the Mexican porn gauntlets at every street corner. We ended the night back at the Excalibur with some Cold Stone ice cream... mmmm... more gluttony.
Friday we had the whole day to explore. After a buffet lunch in our hotel, we did some gambling at the Luxor where we made a couple hundred dollars on the slots. We then embarked on a whirlwind hotel tour down the strip all the way to Treasure Island with hopes of seeing the Pirate Show, which alas, was closed for renovation. We wanted to hit the Rio for dinner at their legendary buffet and tried to cut through Ceasar s to get there. That was a mistake, as we were quickly swallowed by the labyrinth that is Ceasar s. We ended up trying to find our way out a back exit, leading us into a construction site and several scary employee only areas and access roads... none of which offered any egress towards the Rio despite being able to see it right across the way.
Eventually we were forced to head back into the hotel through the pool area (which I m pretty sure is supposed to be off limits to non-hotel guests). From there we were finally able to escape the hotel albeit further from the Rio than when we started an hour plus earlier. The walk to the Rio turned out be be considerably further than it looked (as is just about everything in Vegas... as all sense of scale and proper proportions are meaningless in such a place). However our trek was rewarded with the amazing Rio buffet, supposedly the largest in the hemisphere. Wanton gluttony was a recurring theme of the whole trip.
We took a taxi back to the Excalibur to rest our weary feet. Later that night we met up with Chad, Rob, Colleen, Bone and Mike Flynn. We chatted for a while and attempted to come up with a vague plan for the next day.
After sleeping in Saturday we met up with the whole crew at the Aladdin for a wonderful buffet lunch... their Spice Market Buffet was voted the best one and I was inclined to agree. Afterward everyone split up again with plans to reconvene that night at Rick s suite in the Venetian for a pre-wedding gathering. Kristyn and I did some more random exploring and then returned to our room to relax and visit the pool.
Another arduous walk (much further than it seemed) took us to the Venetian where everyone hung out in Rick s suite for while. We got to watch a rare Vegas thunderstorm from the 25th floor window, so that was cool. After much socializing we set out to find a cheap craps table to commandeer as a group. I think we under-estimated the Saturday night crowds (even in the crappy dirt casinos) but eventually found a $5 table at the Imperial Palace. We played for a while, but alas the dice were not in our favor and everyone walked away lighter in cash than they started.
Afterward we returned to the strip club we visited as a group four years ago for Chad s bachelor send off. I ll spare everyone the lecherous details on that foray.
Sunday morning came very early. We blearily dressed for the wedding and stowed our crap in Rob s room so we could check out. Chad s wedding was nice. It was very quick though, very quick. Definitely an excercise in contrasts when compared to ours. Rather than 18 months of planning, they had closer to 18 minutes. Chad (and the rest of us groomsmen) met the minister maybe 5 minutes before the ceremony started... we received about 30 seconds worth of instructions as far as our role in the wedding. Wow. The layout of the chapel left a little to be desired as Bone and I nearly obscured the whole ceremony from Chad s parents. It seemed like a considerable number of friends and family made the trip for both Chad and Daria so that was cool. I wish em the best.
Afterward was a quick photo session as the next wedding party was being ushered into the chapel (I assume they had a wedding scheduled for every half hour... talk about effeciency).
An attempt to get everyone together for a post-wedding meal was abandoned due to logistics and we ended up splitting into groups. Kristyn and I ended up with Bone and Mike at the MGM Grand Buffet where Bone had a Vanilla Steak as an homage to Chad (that s a steak topped with vanilla ice cream for those wondering).
The group eventually reconvened and took a tram to Mandalay Bay, where we hung out in a lounge for a while and chatted. As the evening grew late Kristyn and I said our goodbyes and made our way back to the Excalibur to grab our lugguge and a taxi to the airport.
We breezed through checkin and security this time and killed time in the airport with a crappy dinner at an airport Cheers themed bar. I figured a late flight would work out great (leaving Vegas around 10 PM Pacific, arriving in Philly around 5 AM EST) assuming we d just sleep through the whole flight. Didn t work out that way, as I was horribly uncomfortable the whole trip and continually drifted in and out of a weary zombie-like sleep. The only nice thing about it was we were home and in bed within half an hour of touch down. And we pretty much stayed there all day, recovering, leaving only once for a couple hours for one of Kristyn s classes (which ended up being cancelled) and a trip to the ghetto to the social security office where Kristyn finalized her transformation into Mrs. Smith.
Well, that s our Vegas weekend in it s entirity. All in all a very good time. Not nearly as long as my last Vegas trip but it was great having Kristyn there with me to share in the experience. Sorry for the ridiculously long post, but I wanted to recant everything while it was fresh on my brain.
-bampf | | | We ll be heading to Vegas in less than 8 hours. I m excited. Should be a real good time. Gonna be busy though. There s a long list of must sees, since this is Kristyn s first time there. And we won t have a whole lotta time to do stuff. We ll essentially have two full days to explore.
Things will be tight. No R&R on this trip... but that s OK. Jamaica is less than a month away and that should be a very lazy and relaxing vacation.
Wish me luck on the craps tables.
-bampf | | | Ever feel like you re continuously waiting for things to settle down? Know what I mean? Where you find yourself saying, "Well I have x and z going on this month, but things will be back to normal next month" and then the following month, its "I have q and r coming up fast, but things will settle down in a couple weeks."
I find myself constantly in that situation. It s like I have some vague diluted image of normalcy that never actually occurs. This has been more and more evident lately to me.
We d been saying for months that things will settle down after the wedding... Right now my schedule for the next couple is as follows:
This weekend 4 day trip to Vegas.
Next weekend was supposed to be a pool party at TGM, looks like it may be a marathon RPG session around here instead.
Labor Day weekend drive to central PA for Labor Day goings on, Roleplay session with my Hbg rpg crew, Fantasy football draft.
Two Weekends after that is honeymoon in Jamaica...
It never ends. And I m convinced that things will be that way forever...
I guess that s a good thing. I mean we re constantly doing stuff. Stuff we like... however I ve always been a big proponent of doing nothing at least once in a while... I need more nothing time.
What a bizarre quandry eh?
-b | | | Wow, it has been a week since I blogged. I feel like I ve let everyone down. The comments sections were busy all last week so it seemed like I was doing stuff on the BampfBlog... jus not posting.
Well, I ll try to remedy that.
Had a pretty good weekend. Got to spend some time at the Guild. Got to play some BloodBowl against JKarr and KBN (who is now officially excited about BB after swearing the game off years ago). Had a late night Monte Cristo at Angies Friday night... good stuff, and generally got to hang out with a lot of gaming buddies I don t get to see anymore. A lot of regulars were off to Otakon or Pennsic so it was unfortunate that I missed those guys but it was good to be back in the Guild none the less.
Most of saturday was spent on top of my parent s porch roof as we repaired and replaced the old roof. I had all day long to become re-acquainted with my fear of ladders and heights (although in retrospect I think I m not so much afraid of heights as I am of falling from them). I was working alongside my brother, who works on peoples roofs for a living, so I felt pretty inept in comparison as he gracefully lept from stud to stud with power tools and hammers in hand.
One other note that I just wanted to throw out: on Saturday Scheaf tried to make the ridiculous claim that The State was a superior comedy troupe to The Kids in the Hall. Laughable really, but I wanted to see if any other philistines out there upheld this opinion.
-b | | | Had a nice weekend entertaining the in-laws. Didn t do anything uber exciting. Saturday the father-in-law (handyman extraordinaire) and I installed an AC unit into the wall of the Man Hole, so now I ll be able to spend long hours in front of my PC in a nice climate controled environ. We watched Fellowship of the Ring Saturday night in preparation for the Two Towers eminent release on DVD. Chris seemed to really enjoy it and Kathy liked it much more than she expected so that was cool. On Sunday we braved the near crippling humidity to take in the sights and sounds of South Street for a bit.
Kristyn made a fantastic dinner Saturday (four excellent courses finishing up with apple pie made from scratch for dessert) and an equally amazing breakfast Sunday (banana walnut French toast... err Freedom Toast). Mmmmm.
Kristyn s aunt also tagged along to check out our place. In a nice bit of kizmet she agreed to take Aggie off our hands, as we were planning on getting rid of her next weekend (she had some disciplinary issues). So we re now down to one cat... one that doesn t claw the furniture or pee in my gym bag so that a good thing.
Also of note, as I watched LotR I got to thinking about a conversation with Dan (from my new roleplay group) last Thursday. We were trying to think of a movie that managed to be better than the book that inspired it. We were hard pressed to come up with a valid example till Dan posited LotR. After much thought I m agreeing. Especially for Fellowship of the Rings, I think the movie is considerably better. The pace is better, the characters are nearly as well fleshed out (especially when viewing the extended DVD versions of the film) and in some cases more interesting in the movie (Baromir being the classic example). So, in light of this I think even more accolades need to be heaped on Peter Jackson for improving on the works of one of the most beloved writers of all time. Can t wait till later this month to see the extended version of Two Towers.
Well, enough rambling for now.
-bampf | | | I knew there was something I wanted to mention. I wanted to declare Monday V-C Day... Victory in Cartoons! As Futurama has now been axed on both Fox and Adult Swim. Good riddance to that garbage. And even better is the return of daily Home Movies, a most excellent cartoon (as purported in my top Cartoons list).
Had a nice roleplay session last night. I m trying to develop my latest character... the naive and courtly fancy lad Stolten trying to be heroic in the classical romantic knight tradition. Just trying to mix it up.
Looks like I m gonna start running another campaign as well, reconstituting my Hyborian (age of Conan) Adventures for a new crowd. It will be interesting to see how the storylines diverge this time compared to what Svengar, Bastius and the gang did.
I had plans to head to Hbg this weekend to help my mom do some house repairs and hang at the Guild, but they got canceled as Kristyn s folks are coming to visit. Should be a fun weekend, we have a South Street trip planned amongst other diversions. Should be fun.
-b |
|