Come to the meat--!

Interesting weekend to say the least. It started off fun, then sucked, then became fun again. While you can get the short version at April's LJ, hearts_blood, I'll present the detailed version. On Saturday, Mary, James, and Erin arrived for a weekend of fun...well, a day, anyway, they had planned to leave Sunday because of that whole class and work thing. Poo. Regardless, after some early gaming, we headed to April's parents for birthday dinner. There, at dinner, we had some excellent one-liners by Aunt Tre. Being an ex-nun, you never know what's gonna come out of her mouth. She asked James if he was a dominatrix, and he turned a shade of tomato red that is reserved for big flubs. Don't worry--he'd get that way a few more times before the weekend was out. After, we Wii'd (yes, Wiiing in unison, much fun!) and had some birfday cake before heading back here for more fun. And the Doctor.

Around midnight (now into Sunday), the fun stopped as Mary had been feeling some abdominal pains of moderate severity. After realizing that she'd been out of the country some weeks ago and thinking it was attributed to that (combined with the increase in pain), we took her to the hospital just down the road (literally). There, the gang would stay for 9 hours while they determined what was wrong. April took me home around 5 AM after I lost all sense of coherency and was barely conscious. The rest of them came back between 9 and 10 AM with a diagnosis--nothing too serious, thank god--an ovarian cyst, curable via Motrin, heating pad, chamomile tea, and time. Also, due to the fact that we got walloped with a nor'easter, there was no way our party would go back to Boston (Erin) and New Paltz (Mary/James) in the snow/slush/rain/eww. With all our internal clocks thrown off, we gamed, ate (I made a home cooked meal for 5 people, I'm so proud of myself!) and made up for lost fun.

Monday (April's birthday) afternoon rolled around, I made breakfast for the assembled, and Erin left in mid-afternoon, James and Mary stayed and watched the horror that is "Manos: The Hands of Fate," and had shephard's pie plus more Doctor. They left, and that was that.

April and I will be in NP this weekend for James' birthday, but chances are that I'll get to see Ben, Brie, Wyatt and everyone else. Then the following weekend, the gang comes back up here (plus one Red Mage, Nick) for Bill Engvall and fun.

In other news, a happy (belated) birthday to the Titanic Duo, Dan D and Carolyn!

Overtime at work continues through to the next month, which means a new cycle of beating ourselves into the ground. I gripe now, but the pay is nice. They're also doing voluntary Saturday overtime, a joy that I'm gonna pass up. I like my weekends. And very soon, Saturdays will become my driving lesson days--I much rather be awake than dead behind the wheel.

Now, completely unrelated:

NOW TAKING CHARACTER SUGGESTIONS FOR THE NEXT CONTEST!

Even though the next Character Battle contest is some months away, I am now starting to take suggestions for characters to enter in the upcoming contest! The theme is old school vs. new school, which means Nintendo vs. Sega vs. Sony vs. Microsoft. A valid character suggestion is one that comes from any Nintendo, Sega, PlayStation, or Xbox game. No PC game characters will be entered. Send me as many suggestions as you can--be sure to tell me the character's game and original console it debuted on. I encourage people to send them to me via IM (AIM: Xcbrian2; YIM: LLoire01; MSN: LLoire1119@hotmail.com), Fantasy World private message (to username SRoth), or email me at LLoire1119@hotmail.com with subject line "contest suggestions." If you do submit suggestions via LJ comment, please do it anonymously. Why? I am encouraging repeat suggestions, for I am using the seeded bracket. It's worked well these last 2 contests. The more suggestions I get for the same characters, the higher seeded they will be.

Characters that are not competing in this contest:
Laguna Loire (FF8, PS1)
Nemesis (Resident Evil 3, PS1)
Scorpion (Mortal Kombat, multi-platform)
Samus Aran (Metroid, NES)
Jessica (Dragon Quest 8, PS2)
Link (Legend of Zelda, NES)

Why? Because after the 8th contest (this will be the 7th), I plan a Tournament of Champions with the 8 winners. Therefore, I don't want these characters to have a chance of winning again.

I'd like to get a completed bracket and signups beginning in late May, so bring on the suggestions! If there aren't enough, I will begin mining for characters as cannon fodder. That means digging into obscurity.

Now go! Pile on the character suggestions!

And now, back to gaming.

Nighty night, all.