November 2017 – Mom's Guide to the Galaxy

Thankful

This has been a whirlwind years, with plenty of ups and downs to keep things interesting. I am grateful that the ups far outweigh the downs. Here are some of the things I’m grateful for this Thanksgiving:

The Oregonian Cookbook my grandmother sent me a few years ago. It renewed my interest in poached eggs – I ate an egg poached in homemade broccoli tomato soup this morning – and filled my house with the wonderful scent of cranberry streusel to take to our Thanksgiving meal. (And amused that spellcheck thinks I should replace “streusel” with “stressful”.)
Diane looking up at Arwen without hissing or growling.

I’m delighted by the kitten we adopted earlier this week, it’s probably not what my parents expected me to spend my holiday money on…
and relieved that Arwen’s introduction into the house has been mostly painless. Well, at least among the cats… I have scratches that prove there’s a kitten in the house.
I am immensely grateful for coffee, since kittens don’t seem to sleep through the entire night.
The lovely sounds of Peter Hollens’s Christmas album that I listened to while cooking, and that Cassandra (mostly) has good taste in music.
That I have friends and family who appreciate my sense of humor, which explains why I included a note about Dobby when I mailed a sock back to a friend.

I hope everybody had a fabulous Thanksgiving!

I made a thing: a Welcome Blanket

Just after our trip to the Galápagos, I read about the Welcome Blanket project; a couple of my friends had shared the link on Facebook. I like crocheting, and as the daughter of an immigrant, it seemed like an appropriate thing to do. It was rather impromptu, I had to go yarn shopping and everything. (And I seem to have yarn left from the project….) Other people took up the challenge – the website boasts 2,088 blankets received.

My Welcome Blanket, in red, white, and blue.

I downloaded one of the blanket patterns from the project website. I decided our flag colors would be a good choice to welcome a new immigrant to our country; I honestly couldn’t think of a more appropriate color choice. I found a lovely yarn for it, soft and fuzzy, and not too inclined to tangle. I was a little delayed in my project, but lucky for me, the deadline was extended, and I mailed my contribution in mid-October.

It appears not all of the blankets are up on the website yet (I couldn’t find mine), though the ones that are show a lovely selection of craft choices and talent. I can sit back and ponder what my next crafting project will be.

Following the crowd

Choose One, a game from Looney Labs — “Follow the crowd” or “Buck the trend”… not much of a choice when you’re a geek.

Last weekend, at DorkStock, which is a mini-gaming convention inside Gamehole Con, I played a Looney Labs game called Choose One. In Choose One, the current player picks a card and one of the two answers, and the other players try to guess which answer you picked. Depending on the players, some are more straightforward than others such as pancakes vs. waffles or baseball vs. football. Others were harder, like cauliflower vs. broccoli. (I like both.) And some we didn’t even want to play because they were deemed too obvious. Follow the crowd vs. Buck the trend was one of those; everybody at the table would pick buck the trend.

It occurred to me since then that occasionally, following the crowd can turn out well. At least, if it’s the right crowd. Once upon a time at DragonCon, I crowded around a booth in the dealer’s hall with my friends. I don’t recall who decided to stop there, but we were wandering as a group, so we all stopped and looked at a comic book that was being sold. I don’t recall really noting what it was about at the time, it was a #1, and the author/artist was signing them. I think we had just tried the board game there, a cute little game called Bosworth, which adds an element of luck to chess. Since I’m terrible at chess, I liked adding luck to it. And the characters in the game were from the comic. It wasn’t until I got home and read the first issue of Dork Tower that I was hooked.

I had an advantage my friends didn’t… the genius behind Dork Tower lives a state away from me, so I’m more likely to bump into him at conventions in the area. Like at a Wizard World ComicCon the following year. And I joined some online groups related to the comic and started chatting with other fans. Then I found out he drew other games and started buying those.

Eventually, this lead to some of us suggesting hosting a convention related to his work and that of the other artists that published under Dork Storm Press, such as Aaron Williams, creator of Nodwick. We realized that would be a significant amount of work, and determined that it would be better to hold a mini-convention within a convention that John Kovalic was already attending. This worked so well, we held it repeatedly at one convention for several years, along with two DorkStock UKs and a DorkStock West. (I didn’t get to go to those.)

Real life interfered for a couple years, but now DorkStock is back, two years in a row, at a new convention in Madison, Wisconsin. Several people are already planning their Igor Bar contributions for next year. And my involvement is all because I followed the crowd that year at DragonCon.

The Little Things

It doesn’t happen often, but I ran out of spoons today. After arriving home, I realized that my energy levels were too low and my aches from the accident were too many to go back out, and I rescheduled my dentist appointment. It’s not a huge deal, they were accommodating about it, it’s just not something I would usually do.

I’ve spent a lot of the last week and a half, since the accident, thinking about little things, some good, some bad… the fact that my blog just deleted the whole list is on the bad side.

I have amazing friends, family, and co-workers who have been entirely supportive throughout this accident mess.
My work laptop, which was in my trunk, survived the accident, even though my trunk did not.
Lego C3-PO, on my keychain, lost a leg. This is amazingly appropriate. (Lego Darth Maul survived intact.)
My new car is unquestionably the perfect color for me…
and is sadly lacking in bumper stickers. I hope to remedy this soon.
Every time I look at the accident photos, I’m amazed that I walked away.
At the same time, I’m bummed that I missed my first opportunity at a black belt test. I did watch it, and I would have tested with an incredible group of candidates.
As I was loading the washing machine this evening, I looked out the window and noticed that my maple tree is now convinced that it’s fall.

I miss karate. Switching from up to 5 times a week to 0 is hard. I want my elbow and shoulder to heal quickly, so I can get back on the mat.
I’m impressed with how efficiently my insurance company has handled their side of things.
Did I mention my amazing friends? Yes? Well, they’re worth mentioning again.