Dear God, the Salt and Pepper shakers are -armed-.

What was supposed to be a semi-quiet weekend really wasn't, and I am thankful. :D

It started with invitations from yukon_jack to attend the Guinness Toast at Fado on Friday, where he was installed as this year's official Toastmaster. (Which I can't remember if I actually congratulated you on? So congratulations!) He has achieved fame, power, and risen to the level of an Olympic Barfly. Someone get this man an endorsement deal! Somewhere in there we also linked up with Mssrs. Rood, Holman, and dklegman, but the details are...sketchy. Yes. Sketchy. All I can remember for sure is buying about $50 worth of beer, and not all of it was mine.

Then, demeterschild was running up through town, and wanted to hang for the evening. We ended up hooking up with her, going to a wild romp through Easton, attending the toast, and then swinging out to Surly Girl so she could see the wonder of a VERY crowded pirate and cowgirl bar. Sadly, it was also a bit too crowded to actually enjoy it, so we decanted yukon_jack and dklegman into their respective journeys homeward, and then hit Steak and Shake for some cooldown.

Then, for purposes of rather silly legal requirements to renew my license, we rose from the grave around 8am, and promptly crashed in the living room until demeterschild needed to get on her way at 10 because we didn't feel like moving at all.

So, Alex, Lisa, and I set her on the road to Victory (or at least to Akron) and headed over to the Town and Country DMV. One look at the line said "Come back in a little bit", so we boogied down to Starliner Diner for a fantastic breakfast (mmm, chorizo) and then Lisa and I headed to the DMV and Alex headed over to OSU to study.

This would be the one sour part of the weekend.

After seeing the line at the DMV only get worse, we stood in line dutifully for 10 minutes before one of the DMV staff announced "The computers are still down." That's when we figured out why the line hadn't -moved-, so we left and attempted to hit another DMV office, only to find out that their computers were also FUBARED, and pretty much all of the DMV offices will be closed until Tuesday.

If you think about when my birthday is, you might assume this would require me to drive on an expired license and plates for 24 hours because of this, and you'd be right. However, I'll just be safe and careful, and get it done first opporuntity on Tuesday.

So, after that misadventure, Lisa and I hit World Market to look for interesting things, and I happily restocked the house supply of Curry and Jelly Beans, as well as found a really neat English (I believe? It was in the UK section) candy bar called an "Aero". You bite through the chocolate and then let the foamed peppermint inside dissolve on your tongue. Very tasty, and a neat sensation.

Following this, we crashed a bit, I did some fig priming on the Zoanthropes dklegman got me for my birthday, and the mail arrived.

In the mail, among other things, were our new Vonage phone and kit for the house (yay!) and birthday cards from my grandparents and uncle containing ze monies. (Yay!) So, I called my grandparents and talked with them for about an hour, thanking them and catching up on how things are going up there, and Alex arrived back from studying somewhere in that time.

After a bit more painting and Men's Olympic Hockey (Rutuu, what the hell? You cheap-hitting bastard.) We linked up once again with Dave and Sanford, this time going out for Dinner at Mac's Cafe downtown. While I totally parked too far away in a public lot because I misremembered how far of a walk it was from the convention center, the food, spirits, and atmosphere more than made up for it. (Mmm, pie an chips.) We also heavily reccomend the sauerkraut balls and soft pretzels, particularly if you dip one of each in the sauce meant for the other. It is a delightful heresy.

We braved the cold once again to trundle down to Guardtower, where I spent my birthday money, Dave spent some spare money, and Rich spent himself in the most terrible ways you can imagine. I ended up with the Xenology book from the Black Libary, some basing materials, and the 'nid battleforce, Dave ended up with Flames of War (Arise, Arise ye Russian People...) and Rich came away with the most hilarious card game since Beer Money. But more on that in a moment.

Returning home, we had some well needed hydration, and Alex yanked a bag of presents out of the closet for me, which was both surprising and awesome at the same time. I ended up with Dawn of War and Halo 2 strategy guides, the first DVD of the new Tetsujin-28 series (GIGANTOR!) and the first DVD of the new(er?) Galaxy Railway series - looks like a Matsumoto follow up to Express 999, but I'd not heard of it before, and that makes it awesome. He'd also earlier given me the first disc of Hellsing in UMD format, so I mention this here merely because the PSP really is the perfect device to watch Anime on if your housemates aren't in the mood.

Rich, Dave, Lisa, and I cracked open the card game at this point, and Alex...disappeared. (SPOOOKY.) Fortunately, we were too caught up in the game to notice.

And that game?

Gloom.

Made by Atlas Games (which explains at least 2/3 of why it is awesome), the game is a really fun, really morbid attempt to destroy your family's self-worth before you kill every last one of them. I'll let the official site explain the mechanics, and simply say it was one hell of a good time, even if everyone stole my corpses.

Necrophiles.

As the game reached it's rather grisly climax, Alex returned! And to our horror (well, not really horror), he brought Birthday Cake! And ice cream!

It was the best day ever. The end.

The weekly battle report in pictures, courtesy of dklegman!

Featuring...

-The Brave Marines of Detachment Latinate!
-A new commander for the foul Blueskins!
-A death defying fight for control of a vital bunker!
-My now painted tank traps!
-Color commentary.

Plus, Dave's pictures are almost as good as the paintjobs on his new Tau guys. Definently worth a look. We spent about 2 hours on the 6 turn battle, and another hour just making up captions as we uploaded pictures. :D

Even though I originally really didn't like the paint I put on my tank traps, the more I look at it, the more I realize "Hey, these really look like someone is shooting the hell out of them as part of a war."

I am therefore quite pleased. :D

...after almost 5 months of not getting Dawn of War's online system to work, I finally thought to check McAfee to see if it was blocking the port.

Yep. It was.

Dumbass!

YAY!

Finished my Razorbacks. I now have 2 squads that can work as cavalry, and a 3rd "Foot" Squad which I want to fill out with a Plasma Cannon for the heavy weapon, and a Meltagun marine for the in-close gunner.

...which leads the next question: Anyone have meltagun or Plasma bitz? :D I'll probably end up ordering some or seeing if Chris can get me some while he's at the Games Day, but...

Edit: And while I was at it, I decided to take the non-legal Predator I got as part of my original DA army (main armament was fine, but having a Heavy Flamer on one sponson and an Autocannon on the other = BAD) and turned it into a Predator Baal with 2 heavy flamers, at the cost of a plastic Termie I wasn't using anyhow. :> Whee! My first "conversion" so to speak.

The more I think, "Hey, I should write something about how the weekend went", I find myself at a loss for what to say. Given that, I'm going to try leaving this window up for awhile, and writing in it as I go today.
( Brainspatter )

The last of those figs that didn't want to strip are finally done, or as done as I can get them.

(Kids, don't use enamel paints on plastic. And no matter what paint you're using, PLEASE use primer, don't paint the bare metal. It makes it much easier for the schmuck you might decide to sell them to. One of the plastic guys I was trying to strip ended up just being tossed because he'd become a lost cause.)

This does leave me with 2 figs I'm not quite sure what to do with, though.

One's a fairly normal tactical. I just don't know if I really have a burning need for an extra tactical at the moment. I could even keep the body and then order some bitz to make him into a devastator or something.

The other is an extra Azrael w/ his helmet bearer. But he's missing his backpack.

Keep him for a rainy day? Use him for paint practice? Give him to someone else for the hell of it? Not really sure.

I am looking forward to painting my new D.A. hero, Apothecary, Techmarine, and Librarian, though. Plus, I just got some termies off eBay, but unfortunately I'm not sure how much I'll be able to use them until I can make a 2nd squad - my first squad is maxed out on "alternative" weapons, and all of them appear to have heavy flamers and chainfists.

I hate the "only 2 alternative weapons in a terminator squad" rule. If I could just swap them in and not worry about it, I'd love to paint these guys and go to town.

Oh, well.