Killer Potatoes

Looks like I missed all of September! Sorry about that. Just when I thought things couldn't get any busier, they did! (Of course.)

I've been doing almost nothing other than work and school. And while school has been busy, it's been rather consistent. My computer organization class is fairly boring, and one of the labs was relatively difficult considering we actually don't learn anything in class. Especially anything that pertains to the lab work. Thankfully, Kevin was able to help me understand the lab topic enough to figure it out and get it to work properly. Our homework questions also don't seem to come from class, or the book. So I'm not sure what the teacher is thinking there.

Calculus has been going really well. It's mostly been like riding a bicycle, except for trigonometry. I don't know how I ever learned trigonometry before, but it is certainly the pain of not only my existence but everyone else in class as well. Apparently, half of the class is failing, which is weird because I really like the teacher and I think he does a great job explaining everything. I guess I might be biased because I've taken calculus before, oh well!

Before I started going to college again, I used to have nightmares about missing exams, forgetting to do homework, all sorts of things related to doing poorly in school. Thankfully, none of that has happened... yet? o.O

Work has also been pretty crazy. We've had a figurative fires popping up across multiple projects, but I think that we've been doing a pretty good job of keeping them tame. I was sent over to the lab for a little while for more ServiceNow work. Hopefully that means that they'll send me to Knowledge 16 in May. I'd love to win the Hack-a-thon... actually, it'd be pretty fun just to participate :)

We had a company wide meeting last week, just to check-in with everybody. This was the one that they give out the Impact Awards. Coworkers write in about other coworkers who do really well at their job. My former officemate had won an honorable mention last year, which upset many of my colleague's stomachs. But this year I was lucky enough to win one of the awards!

(It can definitely double as a stabby-stabby murder weapon.) My wonderful boss had put my name in the pot, and I was selected! It was kind of amusing, because my boss has suggested that neither of us show up to the meeting because we were both very busy at the lab. However, when she received the notification that her submission had won me an award, she quickly changed her mind and noted that we both needed to attend. I was extremely shocked, but very grateful. I'm definitely happy to be there, and enjoying my time figuring out there these challenging projects :D

I think the biggest thing that's happened since I posted last is that I finally bought a house! Well, it wasn't a house at first, just a pile of dirt. Or rather is flattened pile of dirt. Smithbilt was working on a new neighborhood over in the northwest side, and while most of their houses are out of my price range there was one that was not! I put in an offer and it was accepted! The house has been coming together very quickly, so I'm very excited :D I've been watching some of the progress; the exterior appears to be almost finished! So that's pretty exciting. I'm hoping that they will be done before it they said they would be so that we can move in super soon!

Living with Hunter has been going extremely well. I love him very much, and I'm very excited to be moving into a real house with him this year ^^ We finally completed our date jars, and pulled the first one this week. Unfortunately, he pulled "picnic", which is not going to work out very well this weekend. The weather has been predicted to be rain rain rain :/ Oh well, maybe next time. Although, I was really looking forward to going to the Arboretum.

The weekends have been fairly packed, as well. After the LARP, we stopped working on our gear for the most part. We were pretty burned out on tailoring. Saturdays were fairly consistent for a while with Hunter's Savage Worlds campaign. One weekend we had a night of Werewolf. I think I moderated the entire time? Which I totally don't mind at all. I quite enjoy it, in fact!

That reminds me, I finished my spats and corset for my LARP outfit!

The LARP day was okay. Turned out to be entirely comprised of combat training. No roleplay at all :/ I offered to play one of the monsters, because I wasn't at all set up or ready for combat. I was a monster maybe twice before it was decided there were too many monsters, and I was sent to the player side, where I'm sure I was just as much of a burden. I was completely unprepared and had no idea what was going on. Running around outside with nerds was fun, but it ended up becoming kind of repetitive. I think we're going to miss out on the next gathering due to my birthday trip, but that one was also supposed to be combat training. Maybe the following gathering will be more roleplay-heavy and/or fun?

I've assisted Hunter with his pennybrig armour a little bit, and broke my first sewing machine needling doing so! I was kind of surprised when it happened :o

One weekend was Save vs Hunger, which had a really great turnout! I forget exactly who my shot glasses went to. I think it was someone named Mike? I know I've seen him before, but I just couldn't remember. I'm an awful person. Several people have been interested in contracting me to do shot glasses for them, which I would totally be up for :) Actually, wouldn't mind doing anything glass painting related really. I love my enamels, and I've been thinking about doing custom beer steins and whatnot. /Etsy time?

The event went really well though! Hunter and I played a bunch of lower level tables with Dee Goodguy (/pose) and Hunter's Alchemist, Dr. Thrax. We even got to play them in the special! And our table almost won! :) We were winning at the halfway mark, but then it switched from a roleplay-heavy scenario to a combat-based scenario, and that's where we fell behind.

 

Hunter and I played with the Logan family once. I've seen them around but never had the chance to play with them. Had a good time! They were very complementary of how I run my Ultimate Werewolf games, too :) Was nice to hear! 

This past Sunday was the first session for my home game. I'm just running a Pathfinder adventure path, Giantslayer. Nothing too crazy or home brew, but definitely fun so far! My players are Hunter, Balo, Bradd, and Sara. The group has agreed to be voice recorded, so I'll have to edit and throw that up as a podcast. Maybe people will enjoy our randomness! I'm excited to GM for them, and I think they're all pretty excited as well! 

What little time I've had to play video games has been spent playing Diablo 3 with Hunter. We finally got him through Act V, and we completed all of the seasonal quests. I finished up some of my straggling class-related achievements, too!

This past Saturday, I finally started playing Dead Rising 3, which I've only had for almost an entire year now. Hunter had work during most of the afternoon, so after we went out for breakfast I hopped into zombie killing mode. It's pretty fun. I enjoy being able to craft on the fly, but it feels like it's missing some of the silliness I appreciated in Dead Rising 2.

Hunter and I also just started Borderlands a couple of days ago. He's never completed the first or second game, and definitely never played much with other people. I love the franchise, so why wouldn't I want to play through them again with him? :)

My boss' moose!

Hunter and I went into the Spirit of Halloween store that popped up where Food City used to be by our apartment. Didn't find much of anything, unfortunately. But I did make him look like a leprechaun! ^^

Best place ever to take a conference call! :) The weather has been getting cooler around here- I love it!!

The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before.