sofiaviolet | (no subject)

I have been so busy having a face-to-face life that I haven't had any time to post. :( I miss you guys!

Shadowrun continues to be really enjoyable, although I have a bad feeling Sayuri's going to be the first PC to die. I got shot in the back the session before last (failed a lot of Perception rolls), and then this Monday I was down to two overflow boxes of damage and my medkit auto-activated to save me. Then again I suppose it's only fair, since I'm the one who kills most of the NPCs that need killing. (Our group consists of Cid's middle-aged family-man hacker, Dave's hermetic mage, and Nathaniel's shaman. My character is the one with the most combat skills.)

I've been figuring out when I will go home over my winter break - I have a lot of flexibility. Simmons has much longer breaks than Northeastern did. I will need to communicate with my workplace about when we're closed and how many days I can reasonably take off without inconveniencing everyone else. Then I'll need to book my flight (or possibly train, for the sake of adventure).

The holidays are going to be kind of nuts this year. In a good way! But still nuts. Ellen and Greg are moving in with my parents during the spring and will be there by Christmas. Cory's visiting for a few days. We currently have one functioning shower/bathtub, and one shower that needs to be tiled before it can be used. I hope Dad can get that done before there are 7 people in the house. (I would just do it myself when I get there, but a. I don't know how to tile, and b. even if I did, it wouldn't be up to Dad's standards.)

The start of family holiday planning also means the start of the

"What do you want for Christmas?"
*shrug* "What do you want for Christmas?"

dance. I figured I was getting a new computer (mine is 4 years old, and starting to slow down obnoxiously, and I've talked about it with my parents), but there was this accidental student loan refund and now apparently I get other stuff too. IDEK.

I actually really like buying holiday gifts for people, and I always have. (I remember once trying to decide on and acquire presents for all my cousins, with a detailed list and maybe even a budget. I was in elementary school.) So of course I'm already plotting for this year. :)

While my mother isn't hard to shop for, it is very difficult to get any kind of "I'd like an X" out of her. My father, on the other hand, is very difficult. Many years, his Christmas present has been that the rest of us convince him to buy whatever power tool he's been wanting and researching (and usually actually needing). But at this point he seems to have all the big tools he needs, and he's not forthcoming about other stuff. Last year I bought him bench cookies, which were a hit (let me recommend this to all as a gift for DIY types), so of course I need to come up with another good one this year. Fortunately, Mom gave me a really good suggestion. \o/ Ellie is sometimes easy to shop for, sometimes difficult. This is going to be a difficult year unless she has very specific requests, because most of the things I think she'd use are also things I can't intelligently purchase, as our creative interests and skills have minimal overlap. I also need to think of gifts for Ellen and Greg (I am wary of saddling them with Stuff that they will just have to shuttle back and forth twice a year). Mom gave me a great idea for Nan Tee (her cousin, who we'll be visiting for a couple of days), but actually making it happen will take some doing. She would probably love a nicely framed, recent photo of me and Ellie - but we kinda fail at photos.

And I already have Cory's gift. Dice, as always - really awesome metal dice that will be the envy of his D&D groups (three of them now!). One of our Silly Relationship Things is that, whatever else we may exchange on major gift occasions, there must also be dice (for him) and something with Hello Kitty on it (for me). But he has recently upset the balance by sending me dice because I started playing Shadowrun (he's got this belief that everyone should have their own dice and not share them, which is not at all how my group functions but whatever). So, for my amusement and to right the balance of the universe, I must of course give him a Hello Kitty object. Suggestions welcome!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

For your dad: maybe a really nice work apron? Or something from http://www.saddlebackleather.com/?icc=adwords0904&gclid=CPWPoNmuiqwCFcEBQAodwHadpA

For Cory: Hello Kitty dice is the only reasonable response.

Or a Hello Kitty dice bag.

And then I could put the fancy new dice inside the bag!

Ooo.

It ensures that he gets the funny gift first, without having to wrap two things and be sure I hand them over in the correct order.

I shall run those by him! (Since only one person can get him the-thing-Mom-suggested, after all.)

I am sure those exist somewhere (there's Hello Kitty Yahtzee, which I own). Now to find them!

If you can find/make plain cubes and get Hello Kitty nail decals, you could make your own!

If you take the train, I recommend the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago and the City of New Orleans down. It's a slightly longer, slightly more expensive route...but it's nicer and has checked baggage the whole way. (Also, your layover in Chicago is long enough that you can walk down to the Art Institute and see some things or meet some friends in the area!) If you must go the cheaper and more terrible route, take a regional train to NYC and catch the Crescent. I do not in any way recommend this route, especially for a first-time or newish train rider. (I'm sure you already know all of this, but it is my duty to dispense this information.)

Over Christmas, would you like to meet my Sid? Because she'll be here and in jolly (read: really f'ing cynical) spirits because of the hotel holidays.

I absolutely would like to meet Sid!

I was considering the train because of your recommendation. :) I've never been to Chicago (just through O'Hare, once. We descended such that it looked like we were going to land on top of the very full long-term parking lot). Whether I do that depends on whether I leave significantly before Ellie does (since if we're leaving on the same day-ish, it makes sense to travel together for company). I will see if she'd like to take the train but I kind of doubt it.

I am a firm believer in everyone having their own full set of dice and then there being a big bowl of communal dice for things like sorcerer's roll 12 d8 spells.

I suppose it is good if everyone has their own, so that there's no shortage and you aren't always having to pass dice around so everyone can roll.