The Days and Nights Before Christmas

Twas the days and nights before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring. Except for 6 guys doing a new roof, 3 guys doing house wrap and new siding, and 2 more installing new windows on three sides of the house. I think there was also something about "a clatter", which would be appropriate. Clatter. Clatter. Clatter all day. Clatter every day. Clatter during every daylight hour. And beyond.

A new roof

This is hopefully the last major project (and by far the largest and most expensive) to remove the Pulte stain from our Pulte house. Piece by piece over the years we have fixed, removed and replaced the multitude of shoddy materials, shortcuts and incompetent workmanship that has been a thorn in the side of our otherwise wonderful family home.

18 new windows

It's been almost twenty years, and we were due for a new roof. Compared to many others in our neighborhood, we have been lucky with ours, but we knew there was at least one bad spot causing issues with leaking into a back bedroom window, and it was time to deal with replacing the roof.

House wrap and siding

Which turned into a larger discussion on the desire to replace windows which were junk from day one. We've grown used to the fact that the windows are all drafty, poorly installed and hard to open, but it shouldn't be that way. And the proper way to replace windows is to do a full flanged replacement which requires the siding to be off the house. And we needed new siding anyway, and we also knew that the house hadn't been house wrapped. Which explains why it is as drafty as it is.

More windows, wrap and siding

So, as is often the case, a few small stones rolling down hill turns into an avalanche, and "we should do something about a new roof" turns into "oh what the hell, let's just replace the entire outside of the house".

Timing has been inconvenient in a way, with things all occurring around the holidays, but in some ways that is better because I am home more to be able to watch what they are doing. It's been an interesting process, and I am very happy with what I am seeing so far. The uncovering of hidden issues and damage has been minimal to this point (there were a few places where I was expecting worse), and things have been going pretty much according to plan.

As is generally the case when we have any kind of contractor in to do work, they are amused (but not surprised) by the things they uncover, and it's been no different this time around. Big gaps between panels. No flashing in spots. An apparent lack of caulking anywhere. Pretty much what I would expect from Pulte.

It will be nice when this is done. I will not dread a heavy rain. The kids will be able to open and close windows without a hydraulic jack. On a windy winter day there shouldn't be a cold breeze coming through every window and out of every electrical switch and socket. It'll be strange... Nice, but strange.

Gettysburg Day 1

Scheduling sessions has been difficult, so there has been a bit of a hiatus in our D&D campaign. In the meantime, I've been anxious to do something, so I figured I could set up a quick Fire and Fury game (American Civil War) and sucker at least a couple people into that.

The original thought was to throw together a generic scenario just to do something simple. Then I decided to use existing stuff to do a passable version of the first day of Gettysburg. Then that turned into a full custom battlefield. Things often go this way for me...

I started by cutting a 6 by 7 foot piece of tan craft felt as a ground cloth, and then sketched out the roads and hill contours using a brown sharpie pen. I love tan craft felt. It comes with color mottling so it is not a solid color, and comes in 6 foot wide bolts which gives it great flexibility. It is only $6.99 per yard at the local Joann's fabric store, and there are always sales or 50% off an item coupons (this piece was cut from a full 10 yard bolt which I got for $30).

I marked the lines of streams and woodlots with rows of beads, and then painted the outlines of the woods green, and the streams a medium-dark blue (cheap craft paints). The battlefield was way too tan at this point, so I took the cloth outside and spray painted it with a combination of medium-light green and light green to give it a mottled green look.

Gettysburg - Day 1, at start, from the West

For additional detail, the roads were painted brown between the sharpie border lines, and the smaller streams were simply drawn in using a wide point blue marker. Then, rather than using drawn in "quickie" contour lines, I decided to carve the elevations out of styrofoam insulation board and cover them with additional tan felt. These were then spray painted like the ground cloth. Seams between the hills and the groundcloth hide very nicely.

Heth's Divison of Hill's corps deploys for battle

The insides of the outlines of the woods were stippled and dry-brushed with a dark green, then a medium green, then a light yellow-green for a little pop.

Woods Detail - Herbst's Woods

Various detailed map references were used to place cosmetic outlines of orchards in the proper locations. Roads were dry-brushed with a lighter tan color, and the wider streams were highlighted with a light turquoise-blue. The major roads then got a heavy dry brush of a light gray to distinguish them.

Road detail, fur fields, simple orchard markers

Lastly, labels were printed for the main terrain features and then glued down.

Buford defends East McPherson's Ridge (Seminary behind)

All buildings, fences, trees and figures are from existing stock, and I already had base labels for F&F Gettysburg from years ago.

I'm very happy with how things turned out. Doing a project this way also has the advantage of being easier to store than a full styrofoam board battlefield (which would be two 6 foot by 4 foot sheets). This is four pieces of hill elevation each no more than about 1 by 4 feet, and a rolled up ground cloth. What started as a "throw something together for a quick game" turned into a full custom battlefield for the northern half of Gettysburg. In total, it took maybe 6 hours over the course of a week's worth of evenings. I got on a roll. And a little obsessed. Oh well, the end result is nice.

Now I guess I have to make the southern half of the field as well...

Thing 1 Comes of Voting Age

Another hard-to-believe milestone came and went recently. Julia turned 18.

Leading up to the most contentious election in my lifetime, we have another registered voter in the house.

Happy Birthday!

No matter how big she gets, she'll always be my baby.

Walk Along the Brandywine

It's getting toward Fall, and that means getting out and hiking (or walking in this case) whenever able. Amp and Julia had meetings to get ready for the Fall musical for school (Bye Bye Birdy), so Grace and I took the opportunity to get out and spend a couple of hours walking along the Brandywine near home.

It was a perfect day, about 75 degrees with no humidity, and we hiked a well-known trail from the Thompson's Bridge parking lot north along the creek (river) and back again.

Brandywine looking north

Water level over the gravelly bottom was low, and we saw a pair of kayakers attempt to run a shallow riffle and get hung up on the rocks in the few inches of water.

Brandywine looking south

Many others were out, including kayakers, walkers, bikers, and dog walkers. Grace found a nice tree at one point and needed to climb it (I would have if I were her), and she took a bunch of nice pictures with her camera from last Christmas.

Thing 2 up a tree (good place for a geocache...)

The highlight of the day's walk (other than the fact that my daughter suggested going for a hike in the woods with Dad!) was the sighting of a big bird swooping from tree to tree over the creek. The first time I saw it, my thought was "did I just see a bald eagle?". The second and third times, paying close attention, there was no doubt that this was what we saw. From a distance of maybe 60 to 70 yards, it was clearly a smallish bald eagle. I have seen many of these flying over the Sassafras River over the years, but I had never seen one so close to home. Thrilling. And a great highlight to a great day.

First Day of School - Senior Year

It's hard to believe, but the first day of school at this bus stop this year is for Julia's senior year. It just doesn't seem possible that my little girl is entering her last year of high school. Or for that matter that her little sister is on the same bus halfway through middle school.

First day of school - Julia's senior year

Some of these kids are newer to the neighborhood, but some I have known since they were little kids, and a few since they were born. We moved into the neighborhood when it was newly built 19+ years ago, as did a few other of these families. Time flies.

Julia's Room

I realized in looking back over posts from this year that I never took a picture of Julia's finished room - just the work in progress.

So here it is. Bright and bold accent wall with two of Julia's favorite musical posters.

Julia's Accent Wall

Next comes the master bedroom repaint.

Avalon 2016

For the fourth (I think) year in a row, we have spent the better part of a week at the shore for our summer vacation. We went many years without spending much (if any) time at the beach, but the kids really love it and now ask for it again every year.

Once again, we stayed at the Windrift, right on the beach on the border between Avalon and Stone Harbor. Can't beat the convenience, with ocean and pool within a stone's throw. Having been to the Windrift now several times, we are learning more and more about what is where in terms of places to eat, and things to do, which is helpful.

One of the highlights for the kids is always the trip (or two) to the boardwalk in Wildwood, a ten minute drive away.

Money's Pier, Wildwood, at sunset

The Wildwood boardwalk is a semi-junky money-leech of a tourist trap, but I can certainly see the appeal for kids. After all, I was once, and can (mostly) remember back that far.

Spinning rides...ugh...

Our inlaws took their vacation at the same time as us again this year, and it was great that the kids got to hang out with their cousins.

Henna tattoo for Grace

Grace and Ines especially liked the rides at Morey's Pier, and are getting braver every year with what they choose to go on.

Hair wrap for Julia

Having spent time getting rid of extra stuffed animals out of the house, we of course had to play some carnival games and win more of them. There's nothing quite like spending ten or twenty dollars in tickets to win a stuffed animal you could buy for three dollars (yeah, yeah, I get it).

Ferris wheel at night

We had great weather in general. It stormed one night, but that was after dark when we weren't doing anything outside and it didn't matter. Grace and I were strolling the beach in the dark when the storm rolled in, and it was really cool to watch the lightning over the ocean in the distance.

Rope pull tower

A good time was had by all, and I suspect we will be doing it again next summer. There has been discussion of our two families renting a house for a week, but it's hard to beat the convenience of the Windrift. We shall see.

Australian Pink Floyd

I had an interesting concert experience yesterday. Anthony and I saw Australian Pink Floyd at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby.

This is my second experience with a tribute band (the first being The Musical Box doing a Genesis show), and to be honest, I went into it with modest expectations. I like Pink Floyd music quite a bit, but will admit to not knowing too much of their less famous stuff. I don't own any of their albums, and never have (which I think makes me one of the few rock music fans in the world that never owned Dark Side of the Moon).

All in all, it was a great show. They had drummer and keyboards in the back. Three backing vocalists (some of whom tour with real Pink Floyd). A lead guitarist on each side, a bass player who sang a lot of the David Gilmour parts, and a vocalist who played some guitar and sang a lot of the Roger Waters parts.

Aussie Pink Floyd

These guys are famous for a reason (having been doing this for a long time). Musicianship was fantastic. Vocals were good. Stage show, video screens and lighting were elaborate and terrific. The lead guitarists in specific were unbelievably good.

Aussie Pink Floyd again

A few links from the show I was at:

• Comfortably Numb
• Wish You Were Here

Thanks to Anthony and a couple of good shows, I think I might be getting over my inherent aversion to tribute bands. I got to see a great concert, hear the Pink Floyd greatest hits catalog performed live, saw a great stage show, and only paid a modest ticket price. Sure, it was't Pink Floyd, but it was a very enjoyable evening in its own right. Take it for what it is.

Repainting Thing 1's Room, part 1...

Time flies. It seems we have been in our house for 19 years (!). Hard to believe. That being said, we have repainted various rooms at various times over the years, but we are at the point where we feel like most of the rooms have been in their current colors for a while now. So...time to go on a painting binge.

Julia's room has had yellowish white walls for a bunch of years. She and mom decided that her room could use crown molding and a repaint. The yellowish walls would be replaced with three walls of a neutral beige color and one accent wall of a bright dark pink (behind her headboard). After I installed crown molding, of course.

Step 1 was to install the crown molding, spackle and sand, and then caulk everything. All moldings and trim were then painted in a bright white semi-gloss (two coats).

Step 1 - Crown molding and trim

Step 2 was lots of cutting in (in two coats). Beige on the walls. Brighter white ceiling paint. And dark hot pink ("Exuberant Pink") on the one wall. This is the tedious and time consuming stage, but the prep work and careful cutting in will make the final steps of rolling out the wall colors (and the end result) much better.

Step 2 - Cutting in everything

Step 3 - Two coats of brighter white ceiling paint. The original was a gray-tinged white (an MAB paint called "Arctic White" if I recall). The new paint is a Behr "ceiling paint". The difference is noticeable.

Step 3 - Painting the ceiling

Step 4 (shorthand version) - Two coats of "Casa Blanca" Sherwin Williams color on three walls, and a first coat of Sherwin Williams "Exuberant Pink" on the one wall. The dark pink is going to take several coats to go over the old light colored wall, as can be seen by the roller marks.

Step 4 - one coat on the walls, one coat on the accent wall

To be continued...

Fourth of July Weekend, Poconos

Amp has made some really good friends in her years on the costume crew for the Performing Arts Association, and two of the families have houses up in the Poconos, one on Crystal Lake and one on Lake Naomi.

With no other particular plans for the holiday weekend, and a pair of invites to stop by and join in on some holiday parties, we decided to book a room at the new Kalahari water park resort hotel nearby and spend the weekend.

Crystal Lake at Sunset

The water park at the Kalahari is already huge, and there are additional sections still under construction. When complete in 2017 it will be double the size it is now, and will be the largest indoor water park in the world. Needless to say, the kids loved that part of the weekend.

Equally enjoyable were the two evenings at the two different lakes for barbecues, in the company of 4 or 5 families from the Drama crew.

Sky on Fire at Crystal Lake

The food was good, as was the company, the conversation and the scenery. There is always something about water...

Having started with a day off on Friday, we left for home at around 10pm on Sunday, and were home and in bed by 12:30am. The Fourth of July holiday itself will be in the comfort of our own home (and there is a large pot of short ribs braising in the oven as I type - barbecuing is the typical meal of the day of course, but we are barbecued out).

The Carl Palmer Band at World Cafe Live

I had the tremendous good fortune to have been gifted with a ticket to see the Carl Palmer Band with a friend last night at the World Cafe Live at the Queen in Wilmington (6/6/16). Carl Palmer (wikipedia entry here) is one of the legendary rock drummers, having been a part of the progressive art rock band Emerson Lake and Palmer, and later the drummer for the supergroup Asia.

This particular show was the third (?, started June 2 in NY) in a 25 show tour called "Carl Palmer's ELP Legacy Tour 2016". The shows would be an entire set of instrumental music, almost entirely of ELP classics.

The Carl Palmer Band (picture by me)

Our seats were in the fourth row, just left of center stage, and the view of Palmer and his two band mates from that close was amazing. Band members were guitarist Paul Bielatowicz and bassist Simon Fitzpatrick, both of who were also terrific. Palmer's energy at age 66 is astounding, and being as close as we were you could clearly see how physically demanding 2 hours of drumming is.

Carl Palmer... (picture by me)

The music was phenomenal, but would admittedly not be everyone's cup of tea. Prog rock/art rock isn't to everyone's taste, and listening to hard rock versions of classical music like Pictures at an Exhibition and Carmina Burana might be more akin to torture to some. But I thought it was great.

This tour is, in part, a tribute to Keith Emerson, the keyboard player from ELP, who committed suicide in March of this year at the age of 71. He suffered from depression, brought on at least in part by nerve damage that affected his ability to play. A very sad story, and a reminder that rich and famous people who would seem to have it all have their burdens as well.

Anyway, Emerson's keyboards were the foundation of much of ELP's music, and upon arriving at the venue, I couldn't understand how they were going to do ELP music without any keyboards (which it was obvious they didn't have). It turns out that the guitarist played pretty much all of what would have been the keyboard parts. I was a bit skeptical at first, and it was different (no question), but it worked.

A few tidbits from YouTube:

• Hoedown (Aaron Copeland), ELP 1973 and the brilliance that was Keith Emerson.
• Hoedown played by the Carl Palmer Band (same lineup we saw) in November 2015.
• The Nutrocker (apologies to Tchaikovsky) - this is the show I saw. My head is probably in this shot somewhere on the left, 4th row, directly in front of the guitarist.

Live music of any kind is terrific, and as I have said many times before, you can't beat a venue this size (capacity is maybe 500-600 if I had to guess).

Autographed promo shot

After the show, the band had tables in the lobby to greet fans and sign things, so I got to fist-bump Carl Palmer and get him to sign a famous (reprinted) ELP promo picture from the early 1970s. Pretty cool.

Reflections on 18 months of Dungeons and Dragons

I can honestly say that I thought my days of this sort of diversion were decades in the past. Happily, that is not the case. We are 18 months or so into what could best be described as a leisurely D&D campaign, and it has been a lot of fun. A few random reflections follow.

When preparing to be the Dungeon Master for a campaign for the first time in oh...25 years or more...I thought it wise to do a little research. With the plethora of YouTube videos and other resources available, this was an easy enough thing to do. The results were both a positive and a negative.

I'm old school. Most of my players are. When younger folks speak of the "OSR" or the "old school revolution" in roleplaying games, this is a return to that which I/we never left. When we played back in the late '70s and early '80s, there was only old school. It was the only school, because we were on the leading edge of a whole new thing. Then we didn't play for 25 years or more. Old school to the newer generations of gamers means maps with every location detailed, "boxed text" to be read to players when they enter a certain room or a certain event takes place. It is a somewhat disparaging term in many circles. It was just D&D (or AD&D) back then. It was how it was done. Period. By Gygax himself, and all the others of the original generation. The pioneers. (Despite the fact that some of those early classic and groundbreaking modules are just awful in many ways...but that is a different post altogether).

The kinds of games we always played back in the day are now called "railroad games" where the DM decided what the group was going to do, and the group was essentially along for the ride. Now it is all about "sandbox games", where some background is laid out for the players and the players then decided what they were going to do, having a huge hand in determining the course of the campaign.

With all this buzzing in my head, we began our new campaign in October of 2014. If I knew then what I know now, I would have done things very differently. I think we have ended up OK, and we are still playing after 18 months, which is a great thing. But I can look back and see a few very basic things that I approached one way and would now approach in another.

Fighting gnolls in the Underdark

#1 - Starting Preparation. On this one, new school perhaps wins out over old school. When building a world for our new campaign, I spent too much time sketching out and detailing things that the players have never (and likely will never have) seen. In some ways, I think the extra work that I did has flavored the world despite the fact that it has no direct bearing on our gaming sessions. And I enjoyed doing it, so there is something to be said for that. But it wasn't necessary by any means. Given the ability to re-do, I would approach prep differently than I did for the first 12 months or so of our campaign.

#2 - Railroad versus Sandbox. The answer to this one will differ depending on the group, but for our particular group, and our particular approach to the game sessions, there is a lot to be said for railroads. If you had a group of die hard players totally immersed in the game and the rules, ready to involve themselves in story creation and the guiding of the direction of the campaign, then a sandbox would be great. We don't have this. It's not a criticism of the players by any means, just a simple reality. We have 4 players roughly my age, all successful businessmen in various pursuits. We have two 20-somethings, and a high school student. Knowledge of the rules varies widely. What people want out of the game varies as well. We play every 2-4 weeks on average, so there is a significant time gap between sessions. The players are all engaged and into the sessions, but if there is a categorization to be made between "I'm here to drive the story" and "I'm here to play whatever you've got for me", then we clearly have a group that is more suited to a railroad than a sandbox. Falling into the trap of "I need to be new school" and thus run a sandbox for my players, I tried to plan for that. I spent a lot of time laying out different plot lines, possible story arcs, and creating a bunch of choices for the players. The result, I think it is fair to say, was just to confuse the players. I put enough choices in front of them that they had no idea what to choose. There absolutely have been moments when I could feel the players looking at me like "ok, what do you want us to do?" So given the fact that we play every 2-4 weeks, and that providing too many choices has been perhaps just confusing, I have begun moving back toward railroading play to a certain degree. Preparation for me has been easier, and I think this will provide for better sessions - detail in the right place at the right time. Ultimately, our gang wants to show up, have some snacks and a drink or two, and spend 3 or 4 hours in the company of friends laughing and having a good time. Old school. Which is great.

#3 - World building. If I had it to do over again, I would start smaller and let the campaign itself shape the direction of how I would build the bigger picture. In the old school Gygaxian desire to know all ahead of time, I saddled myself with a world background that a little experience has shown me to be less optimal than I would want if I had it to do over again. Not a big deal; just an observation. Those of us formed in the primordial ooze of the Gygax days still carry the burden of how we were trained to think. I think a little differently now.

Lastly, a note on 5th edition D&D. For our purposes, this edition of the rules is (sort of) perfect. The subject is more fitting for a longer post by itself, but the short version is this: 5th edition is easy, and it works. There are some things about it that don't make much sense to me, some things I have changed, and some things we ignore. But in general, it works. Again, this might be a reflection of our particular group, but we play the game from my version of the character sheet, spell cards, and monster manual entries. We follow the combat rules and magic rules, and pretty much everything else is done by making d20 rolls against skills and abilities. It's easy and fluid. A different group might want more detail in certain areas, but for our group it is terrific. We are rules-lite. We play a recreational/social game, and a Pathfinder level of detail would kill us and the campaign.

But enough rambling for now. We have a game coming up next weekend, and I need to figure out what the Tombs of the Alberneth actually are...

Dungeons and Dragons Terrain

The first simple "I wonder if I can build something cool" did turn into a good solid 8 or 9 months of building this and that. Unanimous feedback from my players has been that adding the miniatures and terrain dimension to our games has elevated things, and made it easier to immerse in the experience. I'll post more on our game experiences later, but for now I just wanted to lay out some stuff in the basement and take pictures of some of the different terrain sets I have worked on. Some I like more than others...

The first set is what I now call my "negative space" set. A four foot by three foot "rock" base board is used in conjunction with geomorphic cavern and passage wall pieces to allow for the definition of what part of the overall area isn't solid rock. In the picture below, the party comes to a passage junction, but their course of action will soon be determined for them by the encroaching bad guys. There are a couple of mushroom patches thrown in for good measure.

"Negative space" Underdark terrain

The next picture shows the opposite of the "negative space" set, and thus could be termed the "positive space" set. In this setup, a black felt base serves as the background for putting down caverns and passages defining the spaces that aren't the void.

"Positive space" Underdark or cave terrain

The closeup of the central cavern shows a couple of detail pieces (of which there are a great many...). The pools are made by applying nail polish to the bare foam, letting the chemicals in the polish eat away the foam into a nicely textured depression. These have been painted a basic bluish green color and then coated with a few layers of gloss decoupage. The four huge mushrooms and the weird green fungus growth are made from different applications of Great Stuff expanding spray foam. Photos, as always, give a different effect than what we see on the table.

Cavern with pools and fungus growths

The next picture shows the same three foot by four foot "rock" base board as shown earlier covered with a variety of 2-inch foam "big walls" and an abundance of scatter terrain, including a few pieces of rock crystals. This is the setup that I use for big cavern layouts in the Underdark (although I also now have a four foot by five foot "rock" base board...sometimes bigger is better).

Cavern with "big walls" and scatter terrain

The next geomorphic set up my sleeve is a number of 2 foot by 2 foot base boards painted in a number of different patterns. I have water (shown below), lava, rift (black) and swamp. All of the geomorphic pieces layered onto these base boards can be used in any combination. Picture, for example, the scene above (in the prior picture) on a "water" base board. It works.

2 foot by 2 foot "water board"

The geomorphic nature of all these pieces is the beauty of the whole thing. All of the walls, scatter and detail pieces can be used interchangeably, and complement each other very well. I've gotten to the point that if I feel like doing some crafting, I can make a few pieces that I know can be used in any number of different configurations, which is great. Or I can know that I have enough modular stuff to be able to spend some time making a one-off piece that would be cool but has limited utility. Either is fine at this point. I have enough stuff to get by with whatever (and then some).

Beyond the above, I took a few more pictures today that I can't show you yet. Our party has chosen to once again descend into the depths of the Deep Realms, searching for the Tombs of the Alberneth. I can't show you what they will find until they find them...

Underdark Terrain...Circling Back

Way back in August of last year, I did a post on the beginnings of some Underdark terrain, with an eye towards replicating the type of terrain seen in the Bridge of Khazad-Dum scene of the Lord of the Rings movies. At least in terms of epic scale and sense of height.

I never showed any pictures of the end result, but I can rectify that now.

Finished Product - Massive scale bridge works

The pieces were finished (probably within days of the August post) and were used in one of our first Underdark game sessions (they were too cool not to...). Our group came down the high stairs and saw a troop of goblins moving parallel to them, but on another level well below them, and oblivious to the presence of the party.

Side view

There was ensuing arrow fire and the raining of much fiery (spell) death upon the goblins, who quite literally never knew what hit them.

A few of our characters on the causeway

The terrain pieces were actually quite simple to carve and paint, but this was one of the first "ooh and ah" moments we had in our game from a miniatures perspective, in terms of feedback from the players, and thus in a sense is partly responsible for all that came after. As is typical of human nature and the desire to replicate an ego/adrenaline boost, "that was awesome" quickly turns into "ok, how can I invoke that response again?"

And so is born the basement full of extruded polystyrene insulation board. But more on that soon. Probably in a few minutes actually...

Fantasy Maps

Back in a January post, I wrote about a couple of cool books that Brother Dave gave me for Christmas, one of which was on drawing fantasy maps. I showed a poor quality, badly lit picture or two of a map in process (something from our D&D campaign). I never showed the finished product(s).

The first is a map of a portion of the world; the portion that our campaign has taken place in thus far (a small portion of this map, actually). This is not a fine piece of art by any means, but was nice to be able to give to our players and say "this is your map of the world." It has enough of an old-ish style feel to it to seem like something that a band of adventurers could have in hand.

Our campaign area - larger scale (~400 x 300 miles)

The second is a smaller scale map of the immediate area that has been the base of operations for our group during pretty much all of the campaign to date. Again, simple but hopefully evocative.

The Shearingvale (~30 x 25 miles)

Lastly, here is a picture of a map of the largest city within easy traveling distance of the Shearingvale, Turil, about 50 miles west of Linden. The city center (the walled section) is a photocopy of the first version of the city that I sketched out while half watching a Flyer's hockey game on TV. Realizing that this area wouldn't be large enough to be a city of 5-6,000 people, I added the other two sheets of map on which the citadel has been placed (probably during another hockey game or two). These are simple black ink line drawings with some colored pencil shading on streets, marketplaces, corrals and stockyards. Even less of an attempt at "art" was made here, but the overall effect is pretty cool, I think. In a geeky sort of way...

The Free City of Turil

I must say that there are limits to my insanity, so no, I don't have a key that details each of these hundreds of buildings. But yes, I do have a simple key that names 4 or 5 locations in each of the 8 or 9 areas of the city. No detail to speak of, but some inns, taverns, and special locations. The players have been to the city once, interacted with maybe a half dozen of the locations, and the simple storyline prep for these was adequate.

I have always had a fascination with maps of any and all kinds, and I find it therapeutic to sketch out things like this. Whether we ever have use of them in a game is almost irrelevant. Almost.

Junior Prom

While I'm catching up on stuff I should have blogged about, I did mention proms, right?

Julia attended her junior prom on April 22, in a group with a bunch of her friends from the Drama Club.

All of my girls and Julia's best friend and guardian angel

One senior friend, Emily, came over just to do her hair and makeup.

Julia and her senior buddies

Another senior friend, Carly, drove her and went with her.

Some of the Drama Club gang

Of all places, her junior prom was at Springfield Country Club, in the town where I grew up. Go figure...

And again...

She had an absolute blast, and I will be forever grateful to the seniors who took the time to participate in her special day, and make it one that she will always remember.

Time goes by much too fast.

Skater Girl

It's been too long. Anyway...

Things have been busy, which is great, and I have done a lot of writing. Unfortunately from a blog perspective, most of my writing has either been related to our D&D campaign or some fiction I have been dabbling with, and nothing to speak of here in a dog's age. I hope to rectify that, as I do enjoy the blog, and have neglected it over the past bunch of months.

More on D&D, crafting, prom season, end of school concerts, etc, to follow. The topic of the day is skateboards. Specifically, a new board from the Girl Skateboard Company. Several of the older girls in the neighborhood have been into skateboarding for a while now, and Grace has been trying to keep up on a hand-me-down junker of a starter board and a penny board picked up recently.

New Board - Bottom

However, when you make distinguished honor roll for your first year in middle school, good things happen (at least from dads who like to spoil their little girls). So I took Grace to Kinetic Skateboards in north Wilmington this afternoon "just to look". The guy there was extremely helpful in addressing what we were looking for: a standard board, outfitted for cruising and not trick riding. Because of Grace's small size and the intended use, he suggested softer wheels, moderately fast bearings and softer bushings. After listening to him explain everything, all that made sense.

Top (with clear grip tape)

So we came home and had dinner. After dinner, I suggested we go back and get her a board. I got no objections, so off we all went. An hour or so later, we had a brand new completely custom-built board, outfitted for just what Grace needs. She picked the board, the trucks, the wheels, the bearings (all based on recommendations) and they put everything together while we waited. She even got a proper helmet (in purple of course, to match her newly re-dyed purple hair).

Fortunately, there was some daylight left when we got home, and she was able to try out the board.

It works!

She pronounced it "perfect". And that's a good day.