Excitement....

I am in eager anticipation of our vacation. A trip to North Carolina for gaming and visiting friends, and then a couple days in DC on our drive home.

Now, I have been to DC and I love it. Hell, I almost moved there. But Mr. Nacho has never been. I keep thinking back to my first visit. It was so awe inspiring. The monuments were breathtaking, and spending 30 minutes in quiet contemplation at Arlington Cemetery was time well spent. I'll have to find some old pictures, but just thinking about it makes me excited for the less than a day and a half that we will be there, with the promise of a longer span of time to come. (We are planning to go and game and visit friends there in October with a few days more to sight see)

Mr. Nacho wants to see the Lincoln Memorial and the Smithsonian. We are going to do 2 of the Smithsonian museums (we hope... it is a try it and see). I told him that the two we have to do this time are Air and Space and American History. I am looking forward to seeing these museums again too, mainly because the cool stuff that they contain.

So our game plan is we leave on a Thursday night after work and drive until we canst drive no more, stay in a hotel, get up and drive to NC. (We should reach sometime Friday afternoon!) Check in to our hotel, grab grub and meet up with friends! Party Friday night, gaming and party Saturday, gaming and goodbye dinner Sunday. We will linger for Monday breakfast and then get on the road to DC. Reach DC in the afternoon, go to wherever we are staying, freshen up, and then get out and see more friends and explore DC. More DC Sightseeing on Tuesday and leaving on Wednesday, getting home in about 8 hours give or take.

Now I just have to get my game together. I am running Dragon Age the RPG, which seems like a boat ton of fun! I still have to come up with a game idea, but I am playing the computer game now for inspiration and it is starting to come to me.

I am so very excited. We have been looking forward to this trip since we left last year!

Girl Gamers....

I am a geek.

There I said it.

Now that that is said, we are a growing number so keep an eye out.

Actually, this topic came from my desire to run an all girl's game. Even if it is just a one shot for some friends.

I am at a loss of what to run. These are people who have never played before, so it needs to be simple. And I am instantly thinking of Savage Worlds... but I would love to run a superheroes which I think is not a good match with Savage Worlds. I have played it and I really hoped it would be a good match. I want to stick to M&M and maybe give ICONS a try when that comes out for my superhero needs.

I think, in the end I am going to run a pirate's game.... cause who doesn't like pirates? I have a very able bodied crew all together... a few changes and they are all women. Savage Worlds and Pirates fit really well together. It is like peanut butter and chocolate.....


MMMMMMM.... Peanut Butter and Chocolate....

I just have to decide on an idea for the game. I need something light and fun but piratey!

I was 27 going on 28.... but now I am here... what's next?

This week was the big 28... which means next year I will be 29 for the first time next year.

Not quite sure how I feel about that.

27 was a good year for me. Sure, I was stressed out because of the wedding, but I ended up learning a lot about who I am. I married my best friend. We took a dream trip to Italy. We spent time with friends and family. We found out we were going to be an aunty and uncle again and we welcomed a new cousin to the mix. We reconnected family and enjoyed our first married holiday season!

Now on to 28. I am sure that 28 will be great too. We are happily married, enjoying friends company more, having a lot more down time and learning a lot. Mr is turning the big 40 and I am in the process of getting things ready for it!

It will also be a time for getting used to the rapid deterioration of my remaining grandparents. This birthday showcased what was going on so perfectly that even those around me who know them were thinking about how sad it is. Alzheimers is a really horrible disease and it is taking memories, and mental health away from my grandmother, to the point where at times, she is a different person. It is a lot to get used to especially since I spent my college years living on their third floor. (Which now I wouldn't trade for the world.) It is a topic confided to only a few people and now the blog, as I think it is going to be an outlet for me to get out how I am feeling about what is going on with my grandmother and my grandfather, who is also noticably changed due to my grandmother's state. I am feeling more and more grown up every day, and thanks to the support of my husband, family and friends, I know our family is going to get through this, we now just have to get through it. How do I know this is the year for it? Well, for the first time.... every one of them forgot it was my birthday. No big deal, but when you are used to seeing the first three phone calls be Parents, Grandparents 1 and grandparents 2 for the last 10 years... it takes a little getting used to.

It is a year of new and newly rediscovered hobbies! I am coming along on my knitting,mostly due to our friend Orchid and her husband AO picking me out an awesome knitting book for my birthday. I am currently working on a scarf that looks great so far! After that I may pick up my crochet hook for a bit and try to make a blanket. Then it will be back to scarves for Christmas gifts.

Mr. is going to pick up painting again. I am very excited about this, especially after the art room/ office is finished. Then we can work together. This. This right here is made of win!

Also we have picked up our nightly ritual of comic book/regular book reading before bed. It has been good to get through a bunch of comics in the reading cue. And I am now caught up on the Caped Crusader trade paperbacks! All I need to do now is catch up on the past year in comics and I will be ready to rock!

So all in all, a good forcast for 28!

If only the rain would go away!

Riveting Rosie

Below is the character background for my new Mutants and Masterminds character Riveting Rosie:

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Roslyn always lived the quiet life. She was, after all, a Midwestern girl and lived a very simple life on a farm in Ohio. One hot summer day, she met Victor Trench selling his latest invention at the county fair. The two fell in love and were married before the following summer. Not too long after they were married, Victor started talking about fearing that he was being followed on the way to work. He didn't want to overly worry Roslyn, so he chuckled it off. Then one afternoon, Victor's lab was raided and Victor was killed. Roslyn was heartbroken. When the government came to question her, they asked her if she knew if he was being followed by anyone. She mentioned what he had said, but didn't understand why his technology would be hunted. The agency officials told her that he was developing top secret weaponry to have on hand in the event of another world war. They were jet packs. Something that some comic book artist dreamed up, but the government thought could be really effective for a new kind of soldier. He was getting funds from the governments new grant program based to stimulate the economy. They mentioned some missing notes, and she showed them up to his study. They searched the room. The notes were hidden in an old album.

"This is what they must have been looking for. My God. He made it work" One said to the other.

"Who is they? I have a right to know. " She snapped.

"These Germans. We call them the Fifth Column . We believe that they could be sending Germans over here to learn about our technology and someday invade our country using the knowledge of our weaponry to defeat us." He said and then snorted. "Why am I telling you this? You are just a woman. You have no understanding of this."

"Is that all gentlemen? I have to begin making arrangements and looking for work."

"Yes Miss. Thank you for your assistance. We will bring these men to justice."

When she shut the door, she locked it and went into the basement. Victor had set up a lab and she turned on the light. She saw it sitting in a cubby. It was the working prototype of the rocket pack. She quickly covered it and went upstairs. No one was going to get that Jet pack.

Lacking typing skills, she found work ship building. She became an able worker, and made enough to get by. She found that her favorite thing to do was use the rivet gun. Her accuracy earned her much praise. And for a while she was happy. One morning, while working in the ship yard with a group of other women, a series of explosions began going off on the opposite side of the yard and the explosions kept going getting closer and closer. Instinctively she dove under water just as the explosion went off above her and she stayed under until she absolutely had to come up for air. As she came up for air, she felt this surge flow through her body. Soon after, she came to realize that crime was not best left to the men in blue. She vowed to the women that she came to know at the ship yard as "her sisters" that she would fight crime in their name. She decided that would be the perfect job for her husband's jet pack. She began practicing with it under cover of darkness. Frustrated at her lack of progress, she said "With the power of my sisters, I will learn how to use this!" As she said this, her body felt stronger. She discovered she was stronger. She could easily lift things. She began tinkering in the basement lab and created a smaller more versatile rivet gun, belt holster, and pouch to hold extra rivets. She also redesigned her shipyard overalls into a sleeker more skintight version so that the pant legs wouldn't be singed. A mask to hide her identity and she was all set. Now for a name: She decided on Riveting Rosie, cause it sounded better than any other idea that she had. She has been fighting crime for a year or so and has now relocated to a new city: Rocket City.

Name: Roslyn Trench/ Riveting Rosie

Age: 30

Daytime Occupation: Shipbuilder

Hair/eye color: Brown

Catchphrase: "Uncle Sam doesn't want me in the kitchen, he wants me to kick evil's ass."

Power: Strength, a jet pack, a rivet gun, and lots of moxie

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I get a chance to play her tonight when I join up with a couple of friends for a game!

While researching this character, I read many stories about Rosie the Riveters, and every one of them were as facinating as the next.

Somehow I am inspired to post an old favorite:

Love: Nacho way

I like Valentine's Day. Sure, it has become totally commercial, but if you choose to celebrate it that way... that's cool.

We do things a bit differently around here. We choose to do something unique, something we have never done before. Or we stay at home, shut off our cell phones and computers and spend the time together. This usually involves cooking dinner together and the exchange of our gifts.

Last year, we did dinner and dancing and a night away. But this year, with Valentine's day being on a Sunday, we had the rare opportunity to do both. But what to do?

I had heard rumblings of Beauty and the Beast being released in 3D! Mr.'s favorite and a movie I love. But then it was pushed off indefinitely. We were sad. We were really looking forward to it.

Then I saw it on Boston.com. The Brattle Theater, a small non-profit theater in Harvard Square, was hosting showings of one of my favorite classics, Casablanca. I tell Mr. and he is excited about seeing it on the big screen too. We get tickets, and make our plan. Saturday "date night" and Sunday relax at home and make dinner together.

Let me tell you, seeing a movie like Casablanca on the big screen was awesome, but it was really the atmosphere that makes it. They even showed a Loony Tunes short before the movie. I felt like I was back in the 40's or 50's.

We went to dinner and even the comic book store beforehand.

Our gifts are not the traditional either. I gave Mr. two game adventures, a funny shirt, a book of pulp adventures from the 1930's and a book of photos for his desk at work.

He gave me two Batman trade paperbacks, the Inglorious Basterds score and the Dragon's Age Video game book.

While it may not be romantic to anyone but us, each gift is extremely romantic.... to just us two.

I love my husband more and more every day, and no one day of the year is going to change that, but for one day every year. It is just about us, and our inside jokes, and reconnecting and slowing down time just to be together.

Today, well today is a different holiday. Today is Half Priced candy day!

Happy day everyone!

Scrapbooking a year...

Lately, I have been thinking about getting back to scrapbooking. I have all the honeymoon photos and the wedding stuff. But I actually also have a couple of fun projects in the pipeline. (Post Homemade thank yous from the wedding. )



First, there is our nephew's Baby Book scrapbook. I just got in the supplies for it and I am super excited about working on it. It is going to be a more personalized version of a baby book. I am excited about starting this... Especially since everything came in the other day.

The second project I would like to do is a scrapbook following a year in the life. Specifically 2010. I have been keeping notes on the events we have gone to and the things we have done, and I will put them all together at the end of the year to show everything we have done.

The last project is an ABC book for our future offspring. I found these cool flashcards on scrapbook.com and bought a set. I would love to do a poem ABC book that my future kids can share, and eventually pass on to their kids.

A Letter to NBC

Dear NBC,

Before we break up with your network all together, just a couple of things.

It is totally not us, the viewing public, who are the problem here. It is your lack of better judgement and your inability to run a network that is a problem.

I have to ask: Did you really think it was a good idea to put Leno on five nights a week? Seriously? At an hour you would be up against decent dramas... Even I could see that this was going to be a train wreck... Cost effective train wreck, but train wreck none the less.

But your mistake with Leno actually began with the Leno/Letterman fiasco. You promise Letterman the Tonight Show after Johnny Carson retires and then takes the rug out from underneath him by giving it to Leno. What did you think Letterman was going to do? Stay where he was?

Leno is not funny. He was never funny. Honestly, I avoided his show like the plague in college when I was pulling all nighters, because the one time I did have it on and was listening to it, I fell asleep. I would watch Letterman and switch on to Conan, who I thought was leagues funnier then Leno.

So imagine if you will how excited I was to hear Conan was going to take over the Tonight Show in 2009. 2009 came and I heard the bad news. Leno gets a five night a week show that airs before the news, causing the news ratings to go down, making Conan's lead in to be weaker.

Seven months goes by, and Conan's ratings are slowly improving (just as Jay's did when he first started) and Jay's experiment is failing. So you decide to put Conan on at 12:05 am and give Leno the 11:35 p.m. spot. See even I can tell you that this will damage the ratings of the Tonight Show. The Tonight Show is an institution. It was started by men who were good at what they do and it was turned into unwatchable garbage by Leno. Conan brought integrity back to the interview desk. He also brought comedy back to the Tonight Show.

Another point I would like to make. It is not technically the Tonight Show at 12:05. This would make it the Morning Show. Conan was right with everything he said about the show in his letter. He was more class act than you will ever be about the situation.

I will follow Conan where ever he ends up, because he is talented. I will stop watching your network because you fail to see talent and keep it.

Also, can't you tell that a show is becoming unwatchable. Heroes has become predictable and boring, causing people to jump of the Heroes bandwagon in droves. Even my husband, a die hard Heroes fan is done. I think it is time to put it out of its misery.

But you do have some watchable content with The Office and possibly Chuck. But I think I will just catch those on reruns on basic cable that you don't own. I in no way want to give you any ratings. Although I am afraid I just jinxed those shows, because people like them and you may need to cancel them to put Jay Leno on there too.

So in closing, you have made unbelievable group of mistakes. Mistakes that are causing people to jump the sinking ship that is NBC. People like me. Soon advertisers are going to jump ship. Then you will be the husk of what was once a great network.

Good luck to you.

Mrs. Nacho