Since no one is reading...

Last weekend with Marshall was uneventful - we went to Waffle House (yes, with Marshall) on Friday night (7/3) and he slept pretty good into Saturday morning - up around 8am...he made himself some eggs (YAY! I got to lounge in bed until like 11am). We got up and went swimming for just under an hour, there were some nice kids there for Marshall to play with, I never even made it into the pool. Jason went into work at 2pm and we chilled at the house until I brought Marshall back home so he could go to a fabulous 4th of July display...I got to hear all about it the next morning when I picked him up at 10am. We did a whole bunch of nothing on Sunday either, trying to save up some $ for the upcoming trip to MN - the end of July.

Tuesday, July 7th: Today is my youngest ex-brother-in-laws 19th birthday! Happy birthday Zach =) Tonight is also game night. Again very few of us but we did get to battle. But before that we met another new character (he's a human rogue/thief, named Reggie). We traveled for almost three weeks when we finally reached our destination - no one in the town would talk to us, very strange... Jason decided to go be the curious kitty and wandered off by himself (without telling any of us where he was going) - Jason's character was watching a farmer work the soil with a hoe, when the farmer all of the sudden turned around with his arms stretched out in front of him, "Brains......." Now we all burst out into laughter - 1). it was funny to watch our DM do a zombie impersonation, 2). we all know Jason doesn't like zombies (at all), and 3). Jason responding with a resounding expletive - that I won't put into print here =) We all got out of the encounter fairly unscathed (a few points lost to psychic damage), except for me - our biggest, baddest guy got possessed and swung at me, hit me and I lost 16 of my 54 HP (hit points)! I made sure as I walked by him on my way to go kill a zombie that he got a friendly, but forceful reminder that I am his ally not his enemy. So, we killed the four zombies and one other thing (they described it as a dementor - like from Harry Potter) and now we are on our way to the crypt at the end of the grave yard. We don't wanna, but that is where some really old cleric 100's of years ago hid the cleric's relic (why a holy guy would hide a holy symbol in a grave yard is beyond us at this point in time). We also don't know why the entire town is full of zombies either - more to learn about next week....

D'n'D night (last day of June)...

Very few of us tonight - nothing exciting happened...we got introduced to Blake's new character (a Deva/Avenger). My character (Hilda) got to meet the leader of her order (Artemis, head of all clerics dealing with Avandra) - we have been told to go out and search for three different runes all in different directions. We are going to search for the holy rune first, as it will help stave off the annihilation facing my order (the bad guys found out we were helping the resistance and are coming for us strong)...then we will decide if we go east for the Elven rune or west for the Druid rune. Like I said, nothing real exciting - divided up the spoils from our last encounter, and then at 11pm called game, as it was too late to start a fight.

NC Zoo (2009)...

Saturday, June 27th, 2009:

Jason woke up early to go meet his mechanic and Dan for breakfast at...Waffle House. First person to get his vehicle inspected today - while Jason and Dan were waiting for the Jeep to be finished, Jason realized that they were next door to "MJ Donuts" in downtown Pineville, NC! Being a good boyfriend Jason went in to get me one for breakfast, and then realized that he had no idea what kind of donut I would like (he called me and I told him an apple fritter). Jeep was done and it was time to come home, change clothes and head over to pick up his kids so we could go to the zoo...


Got to Jason's moms' house (Jan) and waited for the hair to be pulled up into a ponytail, and the last of the sunscreen to be applied - and we're off (wait, no we need to look for sunglasses - now we're off). Jason drove the whole way there, which was good as we ended up detouring around some accident on Hwy. 49 - finally got to the zoo in Asheboro =) We went through the North America part of the zoo first, and then on to Africa - hard to see a lot of the animals, difficult exhibits to view the animals in (lots of hills, and deep exhibits too). Took a bunch of photos and burned out my batteries completely...

I drove the entire way home with the sound system turned up - a little rock for the drive home, singing out loud to keep myself awake (I really wanted a nap). Jason caught a little shut eye and so did Connor - Ana stayed awake the entire time (the females persevered). Got home and got Thor adjusted to the two children (not really, but he knows that we smack his butt when he gets to close to their faces) - fed, watered and played with the dog. Dinner was Ramen, sliced cheddar cheese, and sliced up dill pickles - YUMMY! The kids watched "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" and then it was off to bed. I'm finishing this and it's off to bed for myself too...

June 23rd - D'n'D game night...

Tonight everyone showed up for game (there were 8 of us huddled around a coffee table) at Tim and Dan's house! We started late (what else is new), at 10pm and got right into kicking some serious butt. We were fighting 8 different characters (some devilish looking, a shape shifter, and a couple of real uglies)...the first part of the night we were doing good, hitting our attackers and dealing out some decent damage - then our first party member had to go home (it was Angela's bedtime - she's only 15)...it went downhill from there pretty quick. Next to go was Mike (not our roommate) - his character's name is "Shamash" (well, his character was named that - we killed him off right before he left for the night)! He had been getting pummelled all night by one guy and he never took a healing potion or a second wind - so he died...The rest of our group was not fairing much better, but we were healing ourselves or being healed by other members of the group. This is typical of our rolls tonight - I rolled two 20's back to back (unheard of in our group), the next turn I rolled a 1- luckily, I did not kill myself or anyone else in our group with a miss thrown, automatic returning fire throwing hammer :-) Blake was not so lucky - his tiefling character was felled by an opponent and he could not roll higher than a 10 (your die is numbered 1 to 20) in three tries...so, we lost another one of our own to our dice not being friendly to us. All told it could have been much worse, since our elf rolled four 1's during the game and everyone else rolled a couple of them too (except for Jason and Tim who managed to escape the dice craziness)! Game wrapped up very late (after 1:00am) and I crashed into bed just before 2am - tomorrow will be rough :-(

Weekend of 6-21-09:

Got Marshall my usual 4pm on Friday, we just hung out all evening - nothing too exciting (Jason was closing). Dinner was at "CiCi's" - good pizza buffet was had by Mike (roommate), Marshall and myself - I dumped my drink into my lap, and Marshall broke a beaded bracelet less than 2 minutes after he got it out of the vending machine (Mike was thoroughly entertained)... Got Marshall to bed by midnight and Jason arrived home close to 12:30am (we closed at 10pm) - fixed him some ramen for dinner and off to bed.

Jason was up and heading out the door when Mike got home this morning (late night/early morning at Waffle House) - Marshall and I made eggs, hash browns, and sausage for breakfast. Out around noon to do some grocery shopping at Target and Harris Teeter - quickly as it was really hot outside and we wanted to go swimming :-) Swimming was next on the list of things to do, it felt really nice - little sun, little swim - all good! Dinner Saturday night was T-Bone steaks from my mom...they were huge and fabulous (I only had three, so I bought Marshall a steak from the store) - boiled red potatoes and green beans (tasty)!!! Marshall and Jason watched "Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events" - cute movie - and time for bed again...

Jason was up really early this morning - Marshall let me sleep in until 7am or so - fried the leftover red potatoes, warmed up the sausage, and dropped some eggs on top of it all in one skillet, topped it off with a little cheese and Ta-Da! breakfast... Next we were off to shop one of our competitor's as Marshall had seen a hat he liked there (we of course couldn't find the hat) - we did find a hat and I bought some fabric for my quilt as well. Home for a quick lunch and then back into the pool - no one was there for almost the first hour (Father's day wishes of not wanting to go I suppose) - I got a little pink, but it doesn't hurt :-) Jason and I brought Marshall home around 5pm on Sunday and chatted with Tammy for a bit - Jason couldn't wait to get out of the house as they have pet rats everywhere (Jason doesn't do rodents, of any kind - even hamsters)...went to Waffle House later in the evening, just the two of us for a bit and then Mike and Dan joined us... Home to bed before midnight! Yay!

Mid-Week excitement!

Wednesday the 17th was an odd day for me, I went to work (and even though I did not know Jason's grandfather, I still felt weird being at work) - my team was pretty sympathetic to my issues of not being able to focus. We got all of Wednesday's work done by lunchtime and had a good jump on Thursday's work when we went home around 2pm (in other words, we rocked it out)! Jason and I went to Waffle House by ourselves (we never go on Wednesday's as it is his closing night for the week, but since he was off for bereavement...), we got coffee and ordered some food - we played my new game - "Scrabble SLAM!" Fun was had by all, especially since we took turns, can't really be yelling four letter words at the top of your lungs at Waffle House (even though we're regulars). It is a fun game, and I recommend it to everyone!

Thursday the 18th was a really good day for me - work went well, we all got along - no bickering, or B.S. going on (at least that I was aware of). At about 1pm my team was talking about how hot and muggy it was in the building and how a swim would be just what the doctor ordered...as I was getting out of work, I checked my cell phone, and strangely enough I had a missed call (it was Tammy - Philip's girlfriend). She had left me a voicemail, so I checked it - Can me and the boys come up to go swimming around 4pm? I couldn't believe my good fortune, that I would now have someone to go to the pool with me and I would get to see Marshall for a little bit too - and it was Tammy's birthday :-) Wins all the way around! Finished in the pool around 6pm and came back to my house to change - Jason grabbed Thor and got him in the crate just in time to see me, Marshall, Tammy, Ray and Anthony all come barging in... Dinner came out of the grocery fund (my pocket) and Jason, Mike and myself went to Waffle House for some good conversation, food and decent but cheap coffee. Dan joined up with us almost an hour after we got there, and he spent most of the night talking to two other people - our table spent the majority of the night telling tales of stupidity and youth (ours, of course). Jason and I left right at midnight as I have an early morning tomorrow...

D-n-D game night...

June 16th was a long day that included a funeral for Jason's grandfather (he passed exactly one month before his 88th birthday), and an extended lunch with the family at "Quincy's" in Monroe. We came home and relaxed a bit, Jason played video games for a while and I took a short nap. Chicken nuggets and pasta with alfredo sauce for dinner - quick and filling, off to Tim and Dan's for game night. We almost started on time (supposed to start by 8:30, we did by 9pm) - jumped right into working our way through thick brush and heavily wooded areas...we happened upon a brier looking wall with a hole in it and all of us successfully made it through the hole, except for the last guy [our Paladin "Shamash" played by Mike (not our roommate, a different one)] - he was immediately picked up by 4 imps who flew him into the center of their compound and secured him to a gigantic bear trap. The rest of our group was soon forced into the compound by the blazing fire - needless to say, we kicked butt fairly quickly and made short work of the imps in our way. No one person stood out tonight, except for "Shamash" for failing his "stealth check" and getting his butt caught :-) Home and to bed, no surprise there either...

Impromptu Birthday party...

Saturday, June 13th was a very nice day...
I got up at 7am feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world, went and cleaned some of the bathroom, grabbed a shower, ran the dishwasher and did a load of clothes all before 9am! Sent in Thor to wake up Jason - and then an hour later Jason sent Thor to wake up Mike, Jason and Mike left to go see the kids for awhile and I had the entire house to myself for a change. Tammy, Marshall and her two boys showed up to go swimming around 3pm and we had a real nice time, lots of splashing by the boys - but not too much towards me (I really didn't want to lose a contact this early on). Once 5pm hit it was time to go back to the apartment and let them all change into dry clothing - definitely want to do that again, lots of fun...
Jason and Mike got home shortly after Tammy and the boys had left. Jason had an idea, we should call up some people and get together to celebrate my birthday - or at the very least the three of us go out. First suggestion was putt-putt, and while I enjoy that, I wanted more people than the three of us - second suggestion was shooting pool at Bailey's, I went for that one. So, Jason made a few calls and here's who was there: Jason, Mike, Anna (me), Josh (Jason's boss), Katie (Thor's former owner) and Amanda (Katie's friend from FL)! Katie and Amanda didn't shoot at all and Josh did only two games the rest of the time on the table was split between the three of us. Left there and on to Waffle House to get some food into Mike and I was hungry as well - Dan joined us once we got to Waffle House. Home by 1am (Jason isn't feeling well, got to get him home to recoup), let Thor out for a bit and then to bed at 2am...

The day of my 35th Birthday!!!

June 10th, 1974 was the day I was born - 35 years later, I am still here on this planet! I had a pretty good day at work - my team brought egg mcmuffins for breakfast and gave me a pretty bracelet made out of khaki and light green beads with some silver bead accents too (will not be wearing to work, don't want to break it). Got home early as I called the day over with by 1pm (perks of being the boss, plus we were done with todays work and some of Thursday's as well). Napped a little, got on FB, sent out some emails (relaxed)...roommate (Mike) got home and he relaxed for a bit too and then came out of his room all clean and nice-looking saying that we should go out for dinner since it was my birthday and he didn't think I wanted to cook on my day (he was right). I got changed into something more appropriate, and off we went to "Lonestar" for dinner - Mike got a burger and I ordered the "half-size Steakhouse Salad" with no tomato, no onion. Sat around and talked for a bit while we waited for our food to arrive - Yay! it's here and the server even remembered Mike's side of ranch! Crap!! My salad has tomato, and onion on it - wait a few minutes so I can flag down our guy - tell him what's wrong (see crest fallen look on dudes face) - wait a few more minutes to get my new and very tasty salad (could have used a little something else on it - lettuce, tortilla strips and steak isn't a salad). The guy took forever to come and get the check so we should leave (sorry, to say that he didn't get quite a 20% tip). Off to the mall to wander around and let food settle a bit - Mike bought a titanium band, black and silver alternating rings (nice looking, but still masculine). Time to go home and walk Thor (the dog), walk him and pet him, play with him for a little while - Mike's phone rings and it's ....Dan (of course). Dan wants to go to Bailey's and shoot some pool, had a bad day at work - wants to relax with friends and a beer in a social setting thing. Mike asks if I want to go or not, of course I do - go change clothes again and off we go...Mike and I arrived first so we start playing, Dan arrives a couple minutes later and has "next" against the winner. Both of the guys were not playing well (we blamed it on my pink sweater - must've sucked all the testosterone out of the room, or something). Jason calls and arrives just after 11pm to shoot a game with me and then he shot against each Mike and Dan (definitely not pretty, definitely the sweater)! Home and in bed by 1am.

Dungeons and Dragons (game night)...

Another Tuesday (6-9-09) night has come and gone, we all gathered at Tim and Dan's house for game night around 8pm and were finally playing by 9pm or so. Tonight we were attacked while on the road - Hilda (me) got shot by a crossbow but in the end I was the biggest butt kicker for the evening - I scored double max damage + a modifier for 53 points of damage to the guy I was attacking (that is awesome for a level 5 dwarven cleric, for those of you who don't know). Normally we run around in a world created by Mike, our DM (dungeon master) and roommate, but tonight our entire scenario was set up by Jason (boyfriend to me)...during the course of the game we had three "nat 20's" and three "nat 1's" rolled - a 20 is the highest you can roll on any given die without adding any character modifiers to the die roll, and a 1 is the lowest (so, since we had three of each, it was a pretty mellow game). Game took a little longer than it should have, but we had one guy leave the game in the middle of it and then Dan joined in shortly thereafter. Home and in bed by one...

Sunday with Marshall...

Today Marshall and I got up by 9am and headed out the door for a breakfast at McDonald's on our way to the movie theater (AMC 22 in Pineville)! We caught the 10am showing of "Up!" - so cute, sad at times - it was great though less than 15 people in the theater total (one crying toddler though). Home to go swimming (first time this season) - at the pool for almost 2 hours. Once back inside we had a light lunch and Marshall continued playing "Guitar Hero" on the Xbox360. I spent this time catching up on my Facebook, emails and loading Jason's iPod shuffle with new music all while doing a few loads of laundry too. All of the sudden it was 5pm and time to take Marshall home, off we go to Indian Land - stood around and chatted with Philip (ex) and Tammy (his girlfriend) for a few before heading to Target to pick up a few household items (mostly "Method" cleaners for my bathroom). Made about 4 dozen peanut butter cookies with Reese pieces in them (from Pillsbury, not scratch), and then realized it was time to start using "My Plate" on the "Livestrong" website again to track my food and exercise (going the wrong direction again)...

Saturday with Marshall...

Today we got a late start - 9am! We made eggs, sausage and hash browns for breakfast - yummy... Marshall received a Nerf Rapid Fire dart gun (from a survey group I am part of), he proceeded to put it together with out reading the instructions :-) I spent the next 45 minutes unscrewing it and putting back together so the dart loader could be installed properly and fire correctly too! What fun I had - the dart gun is rally awesome though, and considering I get it for free (fill out two surveys) and on top of that supposedly get a $20 gift card too - totally worth it! The rest of the day was spent lounging around, doing nothing until 5pm when we went out in search of a swim suit for me (I found one at one of our competitors) and some flip-flops for Jason. Home again to have Jason come home early from work (his lower back was tightening up and he needed to come home)...we decided to eat some dinner around 8pm (TLC wings and Grill). Jason got the buffalo shrimp (too much breading, some still had tails, and even needed deveining), Marshall got the chicken strips and I got teriyaki wings and onion rings (the wings were awesome)! Marshall got a shower and now we are sitting around watching True Lies on cable...

Friday night with Marshall...

So, Marshall got here around 4pm and we hung out for a bit...then off to pay the electric bill :-) We then went to the "Great Wall of China" for dinner - Jason had Chicken and Broccoli, Marshall ordered the Sesame Beef and I decided to go for something I haven't had in ages with the Sweet and Sour Chicken (tasty, I had totally forgotten)... Next stop was Carolina Place mall, we paid the cable bill while we were there and wandered around for a bit ending up at Game Stop (Jason got a game and we got one for Marshall too). Last stop at the mall was Barnes & Noble (we looked for a long time, but to no avail)... Home to watch "Nothing But Trouble" I haven't seen this movie since I was a senior in high school - an all-star cast, but totally cheeserific! It stars Chevy Chase, Dan Akroyd, John Candy, Demi Moore, a Baldwin makes an appearance and so does "Digital Underground" (complete with Tupac Shakur), the movie as a whole is a comedy but it takes a "weird left turn and falls down the rabbit hole while looking in a mirror" (quote from Jason)... Once the movie was over we decided to head for Waffle House where we did a little drawing (all of us) and had a little snack too - Marshall had hot chocolate to drink while Jason and myself stuck with the coffee :-)

Game Night!

Tuesday night is game night - Yay! Jason, Mike (roommate), Dan, Tim, Blake, another Mike and myself all got together to continue our DnD "adventuring." When we left off last session we had just defeated a bunch of "Trog's," so we continued tonight by interrogating the foul-smelling head chieftain "Trog." Once we were done finding out information our biggest brute killed the "Trog," since we couldn't have him running around telling on us (we are the "resistance"). We properly introduced ourselves to the newest member of our group, "Shamash," also a dragon-born and told him how we all met (in the game) and our basic background as well. We called game night early as our DM (dungeon master) was really tired and we were all having problems concentrating.

So, here's the break down of our group:
We have one deceased, a half-elf Ranger (Jason's first character) - "Jacob," one shifter Druid (Jason's second character) - "Tor," a tiefling Warlock (Blake's guy) - "Morthos," a half-orc Ranger (Mark's character) - aptly named "Mark," an elven Ranger (Dan's character) - "Parin," our big brute is a dragon born (Tim's guy) - "Slarid," a Deva has recently joined our group as well (Dan's sister) - "Chana," and our newest member is a dragon born Paladin (Mike's character) - "Shamash," my character is a dwarf Cleric (a healer) - "Hilda" and last but definitely not least is our wonderful DM - Mike W. (he plays multiple characters coming in and out of our groups lives)...hopefully, I will have more adventures with this group as it is quite fun and enjoyable too.

Pressley's birthday and Katie's going away...

Well, it's Sunday today and Jason and I went to his mom's house to help celebrate his step-dad Pressley's birthday. We arrived around 11am and everyone else filtered in by 1pm (we were there early to wrangle Jason's kids and the dog)! We had a lovely lunch of marinated grilled turkey breast, a light salad and green beans too (very tasty, wouldn't expect anything less from Jason's mom though). After lunch Jason and his kids (Connor and Ana) sat down on the couch with me and we watched some TV - then time for gifts and cake...Jason got Pressley a "Doors" CD (it was what he had asked for). On to the cake, it was an old-fashioned yellow cake with chocolate fudge frosting from Harris Teeter (local grocery store) - very good, very fresh and moist! Time for a nap for most of the adults, and Jason was a great daddy and took the kids out to play some dodge ball/keep away for almost an hour (we all appreciated it very much)... Tonight at 10pm a bunch of us went to IHOP for Katie's going away party (she is moving to FL) and will be transferring to a Target down there. We wish her all the best of luck :-) I got the fruit crepes with the strawberry topping (nummy!) We had a really nice server named Darlene, poor thing was the only server for the whole restaurant, but she did a good job. I have to say though that the prices are much higher than we are used to paying at Waffle House (kind of a bummer in that department). We stood around the parking lot for a few minutes after we were all done paying and socialized. Only two more shifts at our store for Katie to work, and since I work days and she will be closing, I may not see her at work again (though I will see her when she drops off "Thor" - the dog)...

Saturday was "Date Night"

So, tonight at about 7:30pm Jason and I went to "Zuma's" for a round of putt-putt. I was totally kicking his butt after the second hole, but he managed to come back on the last three holes and beat me by 1 stroke (what kind of boyfriend is he anyway)! We had a good time even though there was a family of five in front of us, that wouldn't let us play thru - and thankfully, they treat the pools of water, so no mosquitoes!!!! After golf was over we called up our roommate Mike and we all went out for dinner, Mexican was what he was hungry for so we went to "Salsa's". We got seated just fine and were brought a nice warm basket of tortillas (we went through 2 baskets of them before we got our food)...Mike ordered 2 tacos and a burrito, Jason had 2 enchiladas and a taco and I got the taco salad (no tomato). Food came out of the kitchen really fast and the basketball game was on (a little loud for my taste, but whatever). Jason wolfed his done (because according to him, it wasn't all that good), Mike finished his in near record time (starving to death) and I only ate half of mine (it was okay, but not much flavor to it, and very little meat - lots of lettuce). We were offered dessert, but politely declined (of course). Payed less than $30 for Jason's and my meal - not really worth it since neither of us really enjoyed it, but it was food... On to the house for a short interlude (less than 30 minutes) of Guitar Hero on the the Xbox 360 - brought to us by our roommate Mike. Then we got a call from another one of our friends - Dan, who just wanted to hang out and catch up with us at (wait for it) Waffle House. We got there just after 10pm and as luck would have it our server tonight was Doyle - Doyle is a real cool guy and we chatted it up with him when he wasn't busy with his other tables. Dan finally managed to break away from one of the other regulars, but by then Jason and I were ready to go :-( Mike stayed awhile longer with Dan to catch up on the days activities, etc. while Jason and I headed home - a little video game, a little FB and blogging then off to bed.

Dinner Friday night...

Tonight Jason and I went to "The Great Wall of China" for dinner. We arrived about 7pm (when Charlotte goes out to eat) and were greeted immediately and seated promptly. Our server came over right away and took our drink order (sweet T and a Diet Coke), they gave us plenty of time to decide what we wanted from the fairly extensive menu. Jason decided to order the Seafood Lo Mein and I decided on the Orange Beef (a little spice in life is good). In what seemed like no time we received our food and were asked if we were going to share our meals - we laughed and exchanged a quick look at each other and said, "No." at exactly the same time. Dinner was really good and our drinks were kept full through the entire meal - we declined any dessert and settled in on our fortune cookies :-) Dinner was done with in just over an hour and it only cost us about $40 (including tip) - pretty standard for Charlotte, NC. We went home and relaxed for a little bit and then we went over to our local Waffle House (Pineville on 51) for coffee and conversation. Most of the regulars were there and we had Miss Pat as our waitress - we all love Miss Pat as she is very attentive to all of her tables. She kept us filled with coffee which helped wash down the chocolate pie that Jason had ordered, and it went really well with my raisin toast too. Jason worked on a character for his DnD world that he is building and I tried to come up with ideas for my birthday party (who to invite, where we are going to go, etc.). Needless to say it was well after 2am when we finally got out of there, even after running into some of our friends in the parking lot... Finally was able to crawl into bed - what a night!