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I invited people over to play intrigue on Saturday, but only one person showed up. Dave and I had a pretty good time - two games that took less than 2 hours. The new cards are pretty interesting. I look forward to our next family dinner where I can bring it out and we can play some more. On Saturday we also cleaned out the baby room and got it to the point where we can start to put baby things into it. Perhaps we will build the crib again this week. We also rearranged the food storage. It is amazing how much you can fit into your house if you want to. A little while back Alison got me an old barbecue. We are planning on getting it fixed up and trying it out this weekend. We will have to buy some meat and some watermelon and have a lunch or dinner outside. I have not gotten much done in terms of the card game recently. I have played a game here and there, but I have mostly been doing other things. The new version of Unnethack has proven to be harder than the old o...

We have been building a set of monkey bars for Andrea recently. In this lovely weather it has been a treat to spend time outside doing manual labor. We have the ladder portion done, and the mounting hardware. All that remains is to attach the two of them together and lacquer it. Andrea has been feeling sick for the last little bit. She has a congested sound to her cough. Hopefully she gets better soon. I have been reading The Last Unicorn recently. It is funny (and quite quotable), but the writing style is not the best (in my opinion). Also, it feels like it is a huge allegory, but of what I cannot figure out. Additionally, the characters are not very deeply written. Why is it that I can't put it down? We had another game of 42 Earths on Saturday. They finally started building up the X-Com type organization (Department 7), and traveled out to the alien home-world to talk with a neuro-programmer alien and attempt to convince him to be on their side, make th...

This weekend we had another session of 42 Earths. A new guy named Steve showed up and played as an accountant that had been assigned to Department 7 by the league. The team was called on a mission to deal with some aliens that were in a warehouse. Though Zhengi was not originally using lethal force, the aliens shot him - nearly killing him - and after that he started throwing grenades. Speaking of near death experiences - I had a guy try to kill me this morning. He turned left in front of me. I am mostly fine - I was able to hit the pavement instead of his car, and I just scratched up my hand instead of breaking bones. Bike riding can be dangerous.  On Monday we made whole wheat pizza with home grown tomato sauce and locally produced pepperoni. It was tasty. We also made a cauliflower, chickpea and curry pizza which was very good as well. Andrea is getting into everything recently. She has been quite humorous at times. She decided to kiss our chicken picture the other day (...

We had another session of 42 Earths this weekend. They got on the bad side of Osiron (a interplanetary criminal syndicate similar to the mafia). They also decided to go to the seat of power of the LoW and talk to the senate about the alien menace. Perhaps the two events were connected somehow :). Xander is planning on building a space ship with a dimension hopping device it seems. I have a 10 player vassal module for Polynesia posted  here . The rules are posted here . If anyone wants to download it and test it out, I would appreciate it. I hope that the rules are written well enough that anyone can just read them and play the game. Andrea has started to like playing ring around the rosie. The only words she sings are "ashes, ashes" and "ashes, ashes" is her name for the game. She loves the falling down part the best. I have a character in UnNethack that is doing pretty well. She is a female vampire wizard who has raided fort ludios and is currently trying to ...

We ate the other half of the maitake mushroom sauteed with butter and salt as a side dish. Is had an excellent flavor when sauteed - hearty and bold, with a slight fish taste. I would highly recommend these mushrooms to anyone who likes mushrooms. On Friday I did not write any for NaNo, so I am not 2,500 words behind (and I still have to write my words for today). I am afeared for thanksgiving. It might spell the death of me. We had another game of 42 Earths this weekend. They met their first brain suckers, anthropoids, shot down some small alien crafts, and got a small vehicle mounted plasma cannon. Things are going well. Everyone leveled up. I have not made too much progress on the motorized bike. Things have been busy, but I guess that I really don't need to finish it until spring anyway As I don't like to ride bike on days that have precipitation, or days where the ground is still wet or icy. We made tomato Nadna on Saturday out of the tomatoes...

Poor baby Andrea has caught a virus. The doctor says that she is no longer contagious, and should be getting better, but she had a temperature of 103 and has a rash. She slept almost all of Saturday, and was fussier than usual Sunday. Hopefully the worst is over. Role playing this Saturday went pretty good. they talked to an alien for the first time (in the aftermath of a huge alien attack). The alien's biting friend was returned, and the alien said that he would return later. I didn't plan on having the alien conversation so early, but it seemed like the right time, so it happened. I have started to work on images for the card game. Here are some small versions of them:

I have updated Polynesia (my card game's working name). It is now available for all to download online. I am going to be bringing it to the family dinner this weekend, so hopefully everyone will have read the new rules before then (it is just a 4 page read, and a lot of it is the strategy and god description). Here are the links: Rules ,  Card Descriptions ,  Printout . Feel free to share them around - I am fine with anyone seeing everything in them. Our microwave oven recently died. I don't really know why, but perhaps it is because I bought it at the DI 3+ years ago. We also ate about 10 lbs of cherries in about a week. Perhaps this weekend we will make another cheese. If so, I will report on its progress. Since my MSV release, I have been mostly reading. I have started 'I shall wear midnight' by Pratchett. It is not really as good as his books usually are. If this had been the first book that I read of his I would likely not have read any more. I realize that ...

Over the three day weekend, I have play tested the new card game. We rewrote the rules almost entirely, and rewrote most of the cards. The notes that I have posted can be found  here  and  here . You can download a docx file that contains the newest version of the cards in a printable state here  Google Docs fails to render it correctly, so don't print from Google docs. Also, My parmesan cracked since I did not turn it over enough. :( This means that I will have to watch it carefully to make sure that it doesn't develop mold. The other cheeses look good (and I am in fact overdue for opening up a cheese - so perhaps I will report on that soon.) The feta came out pretty good. It has a nice flavor. Only one more change needs to happen for me to declare my MSV to be out of alpha: I have to make real time updates. I have put it off for so long, but I know that the user wants it. :/ We gathered apes over the weekend from an old couple's tree. Amy talked with t...

Apparently the new fuse that I put in to my cheese cooler couldn't handle the hot temperatures recently. It blew out. I am now planning on getting a bigger fuse, and putting the cheese cooler into a better ventilated place. Fortunately, Alison saved all the cheese :). I am also thinking of making a card game. As of yet it is not anywhere near ready for publication, but it seems to be moving along. I keep hitting snags in my MSV. The final alpha release might be farther off that I would hope. I made three cheeses over the past week: parmesan, feta, and ricotta. The ricotta split into three cheeses of its own, cheese with fine herbs, ricotta, and dessert ricotta. I plan on ageing the parmesan 9 months, the feta 30 days, and the ricotta will be eaten on crackers and in ravioli. I also turned an old sock into a new seat cover for my bike. I am riding in style now :) Finally, this Saturday is our next play session of 42 Earths, and this Sunday is Danie...

On Friday we went to the DI and found a wine cooler for $10. It didn't work, but a quick google search revealed that that model of wine cooler has a known issue with a fuse blowing out. We got it to store our cheeses as they age (it can control the temperature pretty exactly, and should not be too expensive to run since it is fairly small). After borrowing Loren's soldering iron I was able to replace the fuse, and for just about $11 we have a working cheese cooler. I also have been working on the MSV fairly heavily recently. I just posted a new version here . The last 42 Earths play session went well (I was hoping to get farther, but they were not quite sure what they wanted to do, so they took a while deciding where to go after the firefight in the train). They ended up going to the government and reporting Diablo's recent activities. They got hired on as information gatherers, and offered equipment and funds to try to figure out what alien information/equipment Di...

Mason quit playing our role playing game (not too surprising, but sad nonetheless.) Our third session went well. They went to visit The gang Diablo to try to sell info (in the form of 3d computer models of the interior of the dimension ship) to them. Xander was offered a scientist position at Diablo by Blaire (the representative of Diablo ). Xander stalled for time again, and said that he would think about it, and then come back later. As he walked out, Zhengi noticed that he was being tailed. Quickly Xander was notified via text, and then he tried to lose the gang member by hopping onto a train. Zhengi snuck up behind the gang member, and as they entered the train, he attacked. Talk about a cliff-hanger ;) My MSV is going along nicely. The Atlas is cranking away, and the derivative finding was successful. I now have user input fractals fully available, and I am working on user input Newton fractals next. If that all works out, I will try to figure out a better system for decl...

We found a $4 tent at the DI. Opening it up revealed it to be in pretty good condition, and not missing any parts. It is pretty small (Alison and I could both fit in it, but a few bonus children would not fit). We decided to buy it after a little consideration. The 5 lb cheese is starting to smell pretty good - perhaps the yeast thing is over (hopefully). We have gotten some peas, and a few more strawberries from the garden, but I suspect that some birds have gotten most of the strawberries. We do have a good head of broccoli coming (and we will be eating it soon I would assume) There has been a new Twilight Imperium expansion made. I would really like it, but can't really justify getting it (as I never get to play the game anyway). It is a fun game, but my friends don't like long games any more. We have another session of our RPG coming up tomorrow. Mason is not going to be there. His wife is sick, so it makes sense, but I have seen players lose interest in a game after miss...

Session 0 summation: They are all riding on the Trax going north to SLC. The train crashes into a giant organic thing that fell out of the sky. They discover a creature on top of it and help some people off the train (and attend to their injuries). The creature enters an opening into the large object, and they attempt to follow it. The large object begins to dimension shift, and they are all left on the ground. They talk to a representitive of walmart, who invites them to meet with them and discuss the events with him. 0.5 The interlude: Zhengi is approached by a member of the Diablo gang and told that the gang leader (Mr. Blaire) would like to talk to him, and anyone else who was at the 'event' earlier that night. Zhengi agrees, and calls everyone in the middle of the night. The next morning they go to walmart headquarters. On the way, Mara gets a call from the secretary of her apartment saying that two government men came and were looking for her. They arrive at walmart and d...

On friday Alison mentioned how she wanted to make a 5 lb cheese with the new slow roaster that we just found at the di. Powdered milk doesn't have fat in it cause that would cause it to spoil quicker. We bought some whipping cream to try to add in a little fat to the milk (all of our long term cheeses have been pretty hard, and it seems to me that we need to add some fat to them to soften them.) On Saturday morning we started to make the cheese. We made a quadruple recipe (the slow cooker only holds 4 and a half gallons, not actually five). It came out well. Now we have about ten pounds of cheese stored away (five from various other cheese making exploits.) As you can see, our old cheeses are much smaller. The four that are red were waxed with ordinary cheese wax. The yellow one was waxed with 'cream' cheese wax. The big one is not yet dried, so I have not yet waxed it (though I think I will go with the red wax on this one.) On saturday, we had the first salad from our (rea...

I have just had to reinstall my operating system. They wanted everyone at work on the standard desktop, and I had installed everything myself. Fortunately it took a minimum of time so far. The first role playing session went well. Jae (as was expected) ended up as a homeless bum with multiple guns. They met the aliens, and got caught up in some corporate intrigue. It was pretty fun. We are meeting again next Thursday. Perhaps I will feel more ready this time (though that cannot be guaranteed, life as it is). I am considering making a page on my website that allows the user to connect to google talk, and uses only html and ajax. If I did this, then I could be on google talk while using the kindle. I have not yet finished my preliminary preparations, but I will report on it as I move forward. I also made another triple batch of granola. Since the grocery store was out of bulk raisins, we used golden raisins instead. They are more sour than the normal ones. It ended up a slightly differen...

Baby Andrea woke up a lot last night. I am tired. This last week we made a cheese, and we actually cheddared it. This is the first time that I have cheddared a cheese. Hopefully it ends up tasty. It has been being pressed for about four days now. I will wax it tonight if I remember to (and if it is dry enough). This saturday we will start playing 42 Earths (weather we are ready for it or not). I have done more work on the SRD, and continue to work on it daily. Baby Andrea has also decided to start playing pat-a-cake. She has learned so many new things to do in the last few weeks. She has gone from barely crawling to crawling across the entire house. Standing only with help to pulling to standing. Watching rusty walk around to chasing rusty around. She has started 'singing' on command, and who knows how many other things. It is really amazing to see her progress. Alison's birthday went well. I made her a treasure hunt birthday game, and she had to find her presents. She said...

The vacation is over. We made it back safely, and in a timely manner (although we had some concerns about the latter - our flight got cancelled, and we had to quickly get onto an earlier flight to make it home before church). I have made great strides in my SRD you can download it here , if you want to (Unless you like table top RPGs, I wouldn't really recommend that). I am now feeling ready to start the game. Our dog was watched by my younger brother Daniel during our vacation. We also let him use our car as a form of payment. He didn't know that you have to turn off the radio in between uses or the batteries will die, so it was apparently less useful than it could have been. Alison's garden is doing well. The plants are growing quickly. Additionally, I re-waxed the cheese that was made right before the vacation. It is looking pretty good.

As of yet the vacation has been swell. We have spent a lot of time on the beach - boogie boarding, walking, and collecting shells. We also went to the Mormon Battalion Historic Site, Balboa Park, and the Poulson's old house. Baby Andrea has started to pull to standing, and climb up stairs. We played some games (including a modified Baron Munchhausen, five crowns, and a dice stacking game.) Swee and I caught up reading Girl Genius as well as Darths and Droids. I am continuing to work on my plans for the new role playing game. I have the SRD practically completed, and am working on the world generation. I should start talking about making characters to people.

Tomorrow we leave for CA. We are going to get everything packed tonight. We will be gone all next week (seeing Becky's mission, as well as other things.) My SRD is moving along nicely. I have made a lot of psionic items, and am nearly ready to make a second release. I think that I will make some teaser pages (to hint that I will be delivering some pages in the future) I am looking for a new manga to read on the airplane. Perhaps Swee and I will read Nausicaa (as she has never read that), but we might just read separately. If so, I want to find something like Yotsubato, Cromartie High, or Azumanga Daiho. My last cheese is pretty dry. I have to remember to wax it tonight before we go on our date. Oh, also, our dog doesn't yet have a sitter... that will be important to get.

This morning I went to the SLC Library book sale. We got 3 bags of books for $11. That is a pretty good deal. This weekend we made another lb of cheese, and a double batch of granola. The granola is so good with Swee's yogurt, and 'ape jelly'. I eat it pretty much every day. We made faux curry pizza last night. The ingredients are: garlic bread, red sauce, cheddar, bacon, pork sausage, anaheim peppers, and curry powder. layer them like a pizza, and bake it (250 for a half hour, 'just like every thing else'). My secret gift for Swee's birthday is complete. Also, my D20 Modern SRD modifications for 42 Earths are sort of done. I need to add new psychic items, and search for errors. Here is the link to it. This weekend, we are going to be leaving for Becky's homecoming in California. It will be a week long trip, and will use up a lot of my vacation. Also, there are boxes of ~300 comic books at the local DI for $50 each. There are about 12 of them. I think that ...