Eventful weekend, installment 1: Jenn on Friday

Goodness, but I have been a busy girl these last several days. Since my last post was on Friday, I will pick up from there. Cut into three installments to keep the number of tags for the entry from getting too absurd. I do love my tags, you know.

Friday night was a wonderful evening spent in the company of the lovely in_water_writ, in which she came over to Elsinore and we cooked a delicious dinner together. I made a pork roast, something I've been wanting to try for ages and finally could without my kosher boys around, and she made these fantastic stuffed mushrooms that I'm going to have to recreate myself sometime. I also made some mini apple pies in the new tiny pie plates my mom sent me, but they came out strangely-- I wasn't sure on the cooking time, and they came out with the apples not soft enough but also kind of dry, so I couldn't tell if they were overcooked or undercooked. Ah, well. I'll have to play around with it until I find a recipe that works. Having the time with Jenn was really wonderful; I loved cooking the meal with her and we talked so long we lost track of time. It's tough for me to open up to most people, but I really do feel comfortable confiding things in her. I'm lucky to have her around, aren't I? :-) We were talking about having a standing dinner date once or twice a month where she and I, or the two of us plus John and Jared, get together at each other's places to cook. Given how much I enjoyed that evening, I think that would be a lovely idea.

Eventful weekend, installment 2: Shopping on Saturday

Saturday I finished writing my personal statement for graduate school, sent it in to the teachers I asked for recommendations, and celebrated having that weight off my mind. Then I made the perilous journey out to the Natick Mall to do Christmas shopping for my family before I go home. Even the place hadn't been wall-to-wall packed with people-- I had to creepily follow patrons who were leaving in my car in order to find a parking space --this job would have been hard enough to get done, since my family except for Casey is so hard to buy for. My dislike of stuff is mirrored to varying degrees in my parents; if it's not nice stuff my mom can do without it, and if you quit looking at stuff too long in our house my dad will throw it out to escape the burden of its stuffy imposition. For Mom I got beautiful black leather gloves with cashmere lining, which are attractive and functional and I actually wouldn't mine owning a pair myself, so I'm pleased there. My brother will get this fantastically ugly hipsterish plaid flannel that apparently is his style these days. As for my dad, well, picking something for him was hell, and none of the ideas I had panned out. He wants nothing, needs nothing, prefers nothing, and on the rare occasion he does want something he will immediately get it for himself in precisely the style and variety he finds optimal for his needs to a degree that no outside gift-giver could ever possibly equal. I settled on nice beer glasses, since he's taken to brewing his own beer, but chances are he's already found himself exactly the beer glasses he wants and I will just throw up my hands at trying to honor the Christmas generosity ritual with him at all. 

On Wednesday I collect my bags, my gifts, and my brother and head on home to Allentown for the end of the week. I won't be gone long, just until early next Sunday, which I'm glad for, but it'll be nice to spend the holiday with the family. Alas when I return I will no longer have the house to myself. *sigh* Ah, well. It was heavenly while it lasted.

Eventful weekend, installment 3: Burn Notice on Sunday

Sunday Bernie was supposed to come home and I was going to pick him up at the airport, which I was excited for because I've missed him like crazy. But we got snow on Sunday, so he was forced to reschedule his flight for Monday evening. I was pretty disappointed, not only because I wanted to see him, but also because I was planning on running Burn Notice that night and he wasn't going to be able to be there. But I really wanted to go, so after some ideas from Bernie I decided to throw together an interstitial adventure for just Matt and Kindness's characters and sent Bernie's guy out of town on a family obligation. It activated a subplot for Kindness's character Gwen, which pleased me, and given I only had a day to put it together I think it turned out decently. Bernie videoconferenced in on Matt's computer, which worked well enough to have Donovan reachably only by phone, but unfortunately he couldn't hear us quite well enough to totally follow the action. Ah, well, it was nice to have him around at least. Now we have two threads of the story going at the same time; I'll have to decide what to do about that. Could lead to some interesting conflict. :-) That reminds me, I'll have to talk to Jared about building a particular NPC that will be needed in the near future. Given my shakiness with mechanics, the dear has kindly offered to help me construct a character that could give our PCs a run for their money!

Bernie gets in tonight, so here's going to get him take two. We're going to hang out this evening, and I think we're on for dinner tomorrow night too, since I'll be leaving Wednesday. It'll be nice to have him back, if only for a bit until I get back myself.