Our library. I hear a lot of griping about libraries being turned into strictly realms of multimedia and series books about digestive difficulties, but ours is still awesome. They have the entire Wizard of Oz series in hardcover reprints. They have the Melendys and the Moffats and Freddy the Pig and Tintin and Asterix. When I request a weird, obscure book they usually go right out and buy it. (Like The Servile State by Hillaire Belloc and On Growth and Form by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson. Not that I have actually finished either yet. But now I can.)
Their multimedia isn't shabby either, with lots of retired TV shows (DOB and I never start watching anything until it's had its final season) and old movies and new movies and audio CDs of all kinds of classic children's books.
And they have cool programs (like the one demonstrating the difference between stage and real combat) and cozy chairs and toys in the children's section and a view of the bay and mermaids and pirate ships on the walls of the bathrooms.
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The children's doctor and everybody else in the office. We know all too well how many doctors there are who don't talk; or who don't listen; or who can't tell anything without several hundreds' of dollars worth of tests and then stare blankly at you. The children's pediatrician is none of these. He listens, he respects the knowledge, instincts and decisions of parents, he does a thorough hands-on check and knows what he is looking for. When Dash needed an IV, he came over to check on him multiple times. He has a great sense of humor and the kids love him (when they're well, which is usually the only time we see him). He makes great book and movie recommendations and wants us to study Latin. His nurse is wonderful, too, and the nurses on the needle-poking side of the building and even the people at the pharmacy down the hall all bent over backwards to get a sick little boy home as soon as they could.
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Role-playing games. Where have they been all my life? (Categorized as demonic, that's where.) It's somewhere in between playing for grownups and novel writing for undisciplined people. DOB, Bookworm, Rocketboy and I have just about finished a trial Dungeons and Dragons campaign and are going to try GURPS next. (Something with camels--I think my character will be the daughter of a ruined merchant). I admit, I find combat a bit tedious and keep falling asleep, but I think that will get better as we have more of it figured out.
I noticed that on a list of things to have done in a lifetime that I posted on the blog a very long time ago "Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight" was listed. I still haven't done that, but I think 4 hours should count when you have small children. And always start falling asleep at ten o'clock.
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Pumpkin pie, if you add molasses.
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A quiet rainy Sunday afternoon with a stack of books and a laptop.
7 comments:
I think I might be a bit jealous of your library. The entire Wizard of Oz books? Sweet!
Ours has the advantage of being linked with the entire Central Valley, so it has a huge selection. Unfortunately, we do not have the personal influence over the purchasing. 37 copies of Eat, Pray, [Whine] and only ONE of Listen to This? (Sorry, I still can't figure that one out...)
My group of adventurers is split between those who enjoy combat (the DM, i.e., me) and those who would far rather do diplomatic encounters, exploring oddities, and chasing rabbits down trails that the DM has no idea even existed (all 3 kids and most importantly, the wife :)).
So our adventures tend to be quite heavy on the "let's talk to the creatures" and less on the "bash the creature over the head."
Lovely! About the pies: How much molasses do you use? Do you then reduce the sugar?
I just poured it in--last time it was about 1/3 a cup, I think.
I was using up sweetened condensed milk, so there wasn't separate sugar to remove, but if I were adding sugar I might reduce it just a tad.
Darren--I actually don't mind combat per se, it's the time the mages spend hunting up exactly what their spells mean and the endless "Wait . . . what does THAC0 mean again?" discussions. So I think it will be cured by more experience and/or a simpler gaming system. Our next round is a non-magic world and I'm really looking forward to just hacking away.
Um. You haven't even played for four hours straight yet. Although you've certainly been physically present for that long.
Fortunately, it's not that hard to do combat against a non-boss with one of the party snoring in the background...
Darren - we shall have to play together sometime. Combat is fun. (I do also enjoy the other stuff, tho.)
My favorite role playing system is Feng Shui. It's based on Hong Kong action movies, and is really straightforward and rewards storytelling. (we don't actually use the world as set in the manual, just the archetypes and game mechanics.)
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