Greetings Traveller!

As you might have recently seen on my fb wall, I've lost my husband, yet again, to Borderlands 2.  I remember losing him to the first Borderlands but I also remember being a bit intrigued by the game, that doesn't happen very often.

The world created in the game, Pandora, was unique, the characters were intriguing, and I wasn't completely pissed off when it was on my tv.  So far, A++.  In Borderlands 2, Pandora seems more alive.  There are more people, more places and it isn't do desolate.

Per the Borderlands 2 website, Borderlands 2 follows the story of four new Vault Hunters as they fight to free Pandora from the clutches of Handsome Jack, the brilliant, charismatic, and utterly despicable CEO of the Hyperion Corporation.   Players will fight across the whole of Pandora to stop Jack from awakening an ancient alien evil known only as "the Warrior." Their quest will bring them into contact with some familiar faces from the old game – most notably, the original four Vault Hunters: Roland, Lilith, Brick and Mordecai. They, along with some brand new characters, will help players defeat Jack, destroy the Warrior, and save Pandora.

Borderlands 2 doesn't appear to recreate the original game but make the weak parts better.  How would I know this, you ask?  Well, my husband doesn't appear to run his commando off cliffs or into mountains as much.  I've also noticed he's not running through the game as he normally would.  He's taking the time to stop and explore....which means my tv is occupied for longer by this game, unfortunately.

The multi-player seems to be the best part of the game though.  My husband and his friends seem to get sucked in for hours riding in their nuke launching commandos and heading into battle with ridiculous weapons.   I also hear and (somehow) laugh at a lot of what Claptrap has to say.

All in all, I don't hate it and it makes my husband laugh like a little girl... so it's awesome!

You should check out their web-site here.

What Makes Me Go Awwww...

Last night, before I headed off to my Advil induced sleep I was stumbling on Firefox and I came across the cutest pictures of a joey and wombat sharing a pouch. 

 Now, if you know me well, you know I LOVE wombats...I think they're just so freakin' adorable!  Well, this morning I did some digging and I found out these two were rescued by an organization called Wild About Wildlife.  They were formed after the horrible Black Saturday bushfires that burned across Victoria, Australia in 2009.  Over 2,000 houses were lost and 173 people died as a result of these fires. 

But not only human beings were affected by that fire, scores of animals lost their "homes" that day as well.  Many of us in the US remember this picture that ran in our news.  It still breaks my heart but, at the same time, gives me hope that there are people out there who want to protect and help animals.

The great people at Wild About Wildlife took in those orphaned or injured animals and worked to rehabilitate them so they could be released back into the wild.  Though the fires were back in 2009, their journey has not stopped as they continue to care for injured roos who have been caught in fences or hit by cars and other orphaned/injured wombats, birds and bats.

My favorite has to be Peggy the wombat.  She's got a new playpen as she's becoming more active at night. You can check out a video of her antics on their Facebook page.

There are also some great pictures of wombats DJ and JoJo, which can't help but make you smile. I mean, don't you think Monty would love these two as play mates?

They've got quite the number of residents at the sanctuary and could absolutely use our help.  Please check out their Facebook page and you'll see all these wonderful photos there as they absolutely do not belong to me, though I wish they did.

What speaks to me the most about these pictures and about the work Wild for Wildlife does is that this type of work is the one thing I could do in life that would be absolutely perfect for me.  I think I'm a good lawyer but really I would LOVE to do animal rescue as I think it would make me the happiest in life.  But, I've got student loans and other bills to pay, so I guess I'll have to do it on the side!

Renaissance Faire

Last Saturday Paul and I got to watch Luke and Cecelia and we decided to head to the NY Renaissance Faire. My sister and Brother-in-Law introduced me to the Faire when I was in high school and I loved it.  I even dressed up!  The people were great, the shows were fun, and who doesn't like snacking on a turkey leg!

So, even though the kids had already been we decided to go back as Paul had never been the Faire in NY.  We had gone to King Richard's Faire a number of years ago and honestly, I wan't too impressed.  Having been to the NY one, my expectations were set fairly high.  Needless to say, I was disappointed.  The shops weren't great, the entertainment seemed kinda dull and the food was meh.  With that in mind, I just knew Paul would have a blast.  He wasn't disappointed.

We ladies started out by getting new head garlands as the boys had already donned their kilts and capes.

We walked around and saw all the wears for sale, we even tried on some hats.

Meet Samurai Jack

Finally, we started getting to the interesting and truly renaissance faire - St. George's Dragon Orphanage.  Although Luke and Celia wanted one, our rule was they could get anything that wouldn't hurt/maim people and wasn't alive.  They were not please by this limitation.

There was awesome photobombing to be had at the knife throwers show:

All in all we had a really great day.  We walked around for over 5 hours and not once were we bored.  Then it was off to Bartaco for a ridiculous dinner and then finally, we all got to collapse at home with Monty and Sparky.  There may have even been some magic played. Huzzah!

What Do You Do With It?

The other day, I thought to myself....I haven't written anything in awhile.  How sad it that?  I enjoy writing.  I think when you're not enjoying life, it's really hard to find something good to write about.  Things have changed, however.  

I'm coming off a two week hiatus where I saw my family, relaxed, cleaned my house, and tried to get my life back in order.  But as I've told a few of you, I'm struggling with what to do with the feelings I hated feeling but can't seem to get rid of.   I wasn't sure if I'd make it through each day without exploding and now all of a sudden I'm completely fine.

My first reaction was that it hasn't been long enough and I don't have enough distance.  But is that really the case?  Can you truly forget those feelings of pain, hate, and self doubt?  I'm not sure you can.  I've still got those feels from bad break ups in college, the pain of losing friends along the road, and I remember the self doubt I felt every single day of law school.  So what to do?

Honestly, I want to scream at the top of my lungs at those who made me feel that way.  I don't think I want them to feel like how I felt as I don't wish that on anyone.  I just want them to know once and for all how they made me feel.  As a person. As a human being.  As someone's daughter.

What I'll take away from this and maybe this is what I'm going to do with it is never EVER make anyone feel how I felt.  Everyday I will try to make someone smile.  I will try to help and I will teach.  I won't let anyone struggle.  Cause that's who I am.  Well, that's who I was and who I hope to be again. I found the following on Pinterest and I hope to follow them:

If this how I put those feelings to rest, I'm better for it.  For once, something good will come out of anger and self doubt.

JCCC3: Gettin' my flippy-floppies ready

The first thing that popped into my head today was this: I cannot wait to go on vacation. In February. on JCCC3. Nerds rejoice!

We will be sailing on the Freedom of the Seas to the Bahamas, St. Thomas and St. Maarten.  

Last year's cruise was phenomenal and we met the greatest people.  So excited to see them on JCCC3!! Table for 6, anyone??

Our shipboard activities include the following:

• Q&A session with Jonathan and the other performers
• Dedicated, 24-hour tabletop gaming space and info center for competing, scrabbling, delving, magicking and gathering, Analog Tweeting, and a central hub for information/planning (with wipeboards and pens and stuff!) What’s more, this year’s shipboard Conference Center is more than twice as large as last year’s!
• The return of JoCo Karaoke and NoCo Karaoke (a.k.a. Karaoke Regular)
• Movie Night Strikes Back: Movie Harder
• 3rd Annual Paul F. Tompkins Memorial Moustache Formal and Fezstravaganza: an evening of formal wear (optional but recommended), fezzes (optional but recommended) and moustaches (optional; provided)
• A Dance with Daquiris: A Song of Ice and Alcohol shove-off complimentary cocktail hour for EVERYONE
• Trilogies Always End Poorly farewell complimentary cocktail hour for EVERYONE

The entertainment that has been booked so far includes:

Jonathan Coulton

The Doubleclicks

John Hodgman

Zoë Keating

Randall Munroe

Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett (from Rifftrax)

Paul and Storm

Mike Phirman

David Rees

Wil Wheaton 

Personally, I can't wait till we get to the Bahamas and I can get off the boat, get handed a towel, and relax on the beach. :o) 

I'd also like to at least get on one excursion this trip.  I've picked this one:

Castaway Shipwreck and Snorkel

If this looks interesting to you, you should come! It's really the best time, especially for the Geek- Adjacent Wife.  Maybe I'll get to fist bump Wil Wheaton again! 

That reminds me: I've got to get to work on my fez....

 

 

Shoes make me happy. I'm superficial. Whatever

What's one of my biggest vices? Shoes.  

I <3 shoes.  

I don't discriminate either.  I love heels and flip flops and sandals and platforms.  It is hard for me to walk out of DSW with fewer than 2 pair.  I've always had a collection of shoes under my desk at work, in my car, and then the pile at home.  For quite sometime now we've had a rule in our house that if I bring a pair of shoes into the house, I have to get rid of a pair.  If I don't choose said garbage pair before I wear the new ones, Paul gets to decide what pair get's trashed.  Slightly ridiculous if you ask me.....I just find other places to hide them hehe

This is only part of the collection :o) I figure what else do I have to spend my money on?  They make me happy, I get compliments when I where them...so yea, whatever :o) If you are going to be my friend, you have to like shoes.

I've also got some of my dream shoes below...someday, when I make my first million- I will buy these and they will be mine. The avenger shoes I will get before the cruise...mark my words!

My 30th

I'm 30.  I turned the BIG 3-0 at home with my husband....it was just what I wanted.  He got me beautiful hydrogen atom earrings (as seen in the Watchmen) and made a delicious strawberry cake with butter cream frosting, from scratch! It was perfect!

I also wanted to celebrate turning 30 surrounded by my Marist friends and family. So a party was thrown!  I spent the night talking with people I hadn't seen in months and it was lovely.  I <3 my Maristers+.

I haven't had a birthday party since I turned 16 as I dislike the attention and also, something always seems to go wrong.  I thought, however, I needed some *celebration* in my life.  I needed laughter and smiles and good friends.  That's exactly what I got.

Caption:

"Joey: Okay, buddy-boy. Here it is: You hide my clothes, I'm wearing everything you own.
Chandler: Oh my God! That is so not the opposite of taking somebody's underwear!
Joey: Look at me - I'm Chandler! Could I *be* wearing any more clothes? Maybe if I wasn't going commando!
Chandler: Ugh UGH!
Joey: Phew! I tell you, it's hot with all this stuff on. I better not do any - you know - lunges!"

 I also got a great surprise: my sister, my brother-in-law, my niece and nephew all surprised me by making an appearance.  They weren't supposed to be back from their vacation from Florida, but they came back and surprised the crap out of me.  It was amazing!

and of course there were shenanigans!

So, a HUGE thanks to my Mom & Dad for throwing the bash!! A HUGE thank you to the friends and family there!

Now to plan the next celebration with my work and law school crew!