Looking forward to summer!

I just realize today how much I look forward to Summer. There is so much going on and so many things to be excited about. The biggest of which is the arrival of our nephew "Peanut" next month.

It is a glorious day outside today and I have my window open with the sounds of the street serenading me as I pound away at my keys.

Peanut will join his big sister Lily who is probably just as excited as Uncle Mr. and I are.

Other things we are excited about:

• We purchased tickets to enjoy the July 4th Extravaganza at the MOS. They have activities, allow for picnics, and pipe in the Pops concert. The Boston Fireworks are right there. Mr. told me he has been wanting to take me to the Boston Fireworks since we began dating.

• We have a couple of House Conventions coming up. The first one: PegCon has a great many games, and all of them are pretty much from different systems. This excites me. Variety is indeed the spice of life. I am also possibly running twice. Once with my Dragon Age game and once with Danger Patrol. I will have an ICON's game at the ready for any last minute cancellations. The second is BisbeeCon, where the list of games have not been finalized, but I am running Danger Patrol. The games that are listed sound fun. I can't wait to see a finalized list!

• My M&M monthly game is thriving, and I am very tempted to write the last story arc. Mr. joined us as a guest during this story arc, playing Mockingbird. I may have to post a character story here from last nights game. It. was. awesome. I was really happy to see everyone around the table and our friend Piratecat was able to play this session.

• The Cape House and Maine~ Hopefully we will be there soon!

CONGRATS LIL' SIS!!!

My younger sister has grown into an incredible woman. She is smart, witty and not afraid to be silly every once in a while.

Sunday, Mr. and I had the honor of attending her graduation at Lasell. And in her never ending quest to take absolutely beautiful photos, I present the following!

Crossing the Stage!

She did it! And with a 3.7 GPA she graduated Magna Cum Laude from the honors program!

Here she is getting her Alumni Rose and joining me as a distinguished alumni!

Jess, I don't think it is possible to be any more proud of you. You are an amazing person and we are lucky to have you as our sister. Now you are in the real world. It is exciting to watch you thrive. I can not wait to see what you do with the journey before you.

Congrats Kiddo!!!

Wednesday- The Journey Home

This is the only picture from Wednesday. The trip home was long, but worth it because of this picture. This is the d20 Blonde and The Universe and their adorable child who have been mentioned here before. It was a great visit, and we wish we could have stayed longer but we needed to get home.

Our rude awakening came on I90 in MA: Mr. said he wasn't feeling well and proceeded to get worse. By the time we got home, he was really sick.

Not the ending to the glorious vacation we hoped for...

Tuesday - Oh say can you see...DC?

Unfortunately our morning began with Yarngeek's truck stalling and not starting back up. Her day off that was supposed to be playing with us at the Smithsonian was instead spent dealing with her broken car. :(

She encouraged us to go, making sure to tell us that she would be fine and we headed toward the platform.


















The Metro was far more comfortable than the T, mainly because the chairs were cushioned! So it was a comfortable ride in to the Smithsonian.

The Smithsonian consists of a ton of museums, but we were only going to focus on two: Air and Space and American History.


Our first stop was the Air and Space Museum. We got to see the Spirit of St Louis, the Apollo capsule, the original Wright Brothers plane and lots of WW II planes. Here is Mr. in that exhibit.


















We even learned about all the effort it takes for the astronauts to get into their suits! Did you know that Kevlar was actually invented for the space program?

After a quick lunch, we went over to the American History Museum. They had lots of really neat stuff. The coolest by far was seeing the Star Spangled Banner Flag. It was huge and very well kept. The only parts that were missing were the portions that the flag maker's family cut to sell when they couldn't make ends meet.

We also saw the First Ladies exhibit, where only a few days prior, the current First Lady donated her inauguration dress. It was stunning.





















But we were not done! We also saw some amazing artifacts from the Apollo Theater, Julia Child's kitchen, Kermit the frog, the ruby slippers... and something about lasers!



















(Mr. was super excited about that!)


We picked up a copy of the White House Cookbook and the Presidential cookie cookbook. (The macaroons looked incredible!)


After the museum, we headed over to the memorials. Our goal was to see the WW II memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial.

We passed by the Washington Monument, which was breathtaking. While we were over there we saw the White House in the distance, and I managed to get a photo of Mr.


















The WWII memorial was gorgeous, and a beautiful tribute to all the men and women who served our country durring that tough time and those who died for the cause.

The Lincoln Memorial was just as impressive as the last time, but more so... the view from there is spectacular!




























Post Vietnam Memorial, we grabbed a cab and went to the nearest Metro. A short hop back and we were in Crystal City to meet our hosts for Tapas. It was my first time trying this, and it was delicious and tons of fun. Also: The best sangria I have ever tasted!

Then it was back to our hosts house where we got to just relax and chat. When it got a little late, we turned in... we had a long journey home in the morning.

Monday... Time to Visit DC!

Monday only has one picture to it, as we were traveling all day. We got up early in the morning and repacked the car. After checking out of the hotel, we met some of the stragglers for breakfast and farewells. I was so sad I actually teared up in the car. But we were not heading home, but rather heading towards Washington D.C. where we were going to be staying with our friends Yarngeek and Madwabbit and their adorable daughter Plum.

On our way out of town, and before we reached Church on Fire! (Please note: that is the actual name of the church.) We got a picture of this beautiful car:

The ride took the morning and into the afternoon. We arrived safely, spent the afternoon getting settled in, and caught a viewing of Empire Records. (Damn the man, Save the Empire!!) When we got hungry, we went out and grabbed some Thai food in Old Alexandria.

Old Alexandria was awesome! It had the older houses pushed together and made me think of what the old colonial city looked like at the beginning. The street we were on had tons of fun store fronts, and after dinner we strolled down and got ice cream from a great home made place. (I got one... Stomach be damned!)

Afterwards we went back to the Yarnwabbits house, and hung out and chatted for a bit until it was time to go to bed. We were all worn out because it was a travel day. I fell asleep dreaming of the sight seeing that was to come!

Sunday.... Time for Farewells and the Official End of gameday...

Sunday, we woke up exhausted but happy. We quickly got ready and headed off to NCSU for the last day of gaming. We stopped at Dunkin's for the worst coffee and bagels we have ever had.

Our first game was Danger Patrol with our friend 'Wabbit (Name is changed to protect the innocent... or semi innocent, depends on who you talk to. ;D ) and I fell in love with the system. To me it was a perfect game to play if you are a GM, because you help write the plot hooks as players. Danger Patrol is modeled after an old 50's Sci-Fi Saturday morning show, like Flash Gordon. You even shill for companies in the middle of the game. (Exact Quote: "The one thing I miss about being alive is the taste of Maxwell house Coffee"- Jenny Jones, Ghost Detective) We also got to do our own commercials. Mine was teaching kids about stranger danger with the second part of our "power hour" Batman and Robin.... It was awesome, and our GM, 'Wabbit, was awesome. Here Mr. explains his next move!

Mr. played Zachary "Frak" Balsac, Two Fisted Pounder, Man of Manly Action. I played the Ghost Detective Jenny Jones. I loved the system so much, I am running it at the summer conventions.

Then it was time to do my thing. I ran my Dragon Age game. It was awesome, and I enjoyed having the players I had at my table. (Honestly it is a shame they don't live closer. I am running it a few more times, and I notice I still have a pretty good knack at writing decent dialogue. The players responded to it really well, and a couple of people (including Mr.) told me it was really well done.

Post game, it was time to celebrate a game day well done and well received. We went to Jack Astors and sat down to a filling meal with the greatest drink EVER... the Twister. (Strawberry Daiquiri and Lemonade Daiquiri with a shot of raspberry vodka. Soooo Good!) I loved it and could probably have drunk more, but I didn't.

Then we headed back to our Host's house, where we just sat around and chatted until we couldn't chat anymore. We arrived back at the hotel... where we still had packing to do.

NCGD Washington DC trip

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