Classic Games

Cousins can teach you all sorts of things. Movies your parents will never let you see, a new set of video games, and how much fun you can have with a simple stick...i mean magic powerful staff of awesomeness.

My cousins lived on the side of a large hill, surrounded by forests, coyotes, free roaming deer, and it was almost a mile from the main road to their house. Their "driveway" was where i first learned to drive despite the constant jostling of potholes in their gravel road as we announced our arrival with a glaring "ARRROOOOOOGAAAA" horn my dad had salvaged from an old car. Later, I learned how to drive their manual transmission tractor when trying to pave down some of those potholes when they got "Really bad".....which means our car got high centered.

We usually stayed over a weekend, so our adventures as kids were as follows: Daytime - outside, each of us with some kind of "weapon" fending off the valley from dragons, trolls, our brothers, bears, harpies, and the dog who would get a little rambunctious in our fort. Dusk - rush inside and snag what food we could before retreating downstairs to play video games, or watch forbidden movies while the adults remained blissfully ignorant and left us to our own devices. The next day would repeat until we went home, while the dog chased us down the driveway.

It was here that i was introduced to things like Kings Quest, Sims, Myst, Super Smash Brothers, Mario kart, and a variety of other games. But mostly, in this post i want to talk about Kings Quest.

Thanks to Influence Bad (also introduced to me by these cousins) for introducing me to DOS emulators, and reminding me how many hours i wasted on this game.

Yeah, by wasted, i mean downloaded again and am playing again and wasting more hours following around Prince Alexander, in his garish costume and dainty yellow scarf which he somehow managed to retain despite a SHIP WRECK as he searches for Princess Cassima, who's being driven so crazy locked in her tower that she's talking to birds.

Man i love this game!

Even now, more than a decade later, i'm still remembering little quirks about this game: Like if you keep touching the rotten tomato in your pack, it insults you.

Other news:

Back to the saw dust. I ended up adding the coffee table to the project list with the pair of end tables. Since they're made the same, and have all the same cuts, just at different lengths, it made sense to do it at the same time. Dad agreed and we're going over the cut list tonight to get everything in order. With any amount of luck, these will be BUILT this week or next. Then i can get onto finishing, sanding, staining and varnishing which i don't need a second set of hands for.

The value of Gal Pals

Having grown up in a neighborhood brimming with only boys, I've never had many Gal Pals. My female friends always tend to be less silly delicate girly and more sassy geeky smart.

Don't get me wrong, i love my guy buddies and always appreciate the "let's blow shit up or play with something dirty" as opposed to the "let's go shopping". I've had some great times and they've been great friends. But there were always problems they weren't very good at helping with. Like relationships problems, body image issues (not everything is solved with "tell her she's pretty"), and those occasional times when you just need to freak out about a guy.

My early attempts to be feminine were hilarious, now that i'm looking back. I didn't have the Cosmo-approved friends to steer me until relatively recently unless you count my girly-girl sister...and we still disagree on the value of pink. So i took the Tough Girl road from grade school through college. Leather jackets, tank tops, jeans and ever single item of make up that i own can fit into a pouch inside my reasonably sized purse. I was....am tough. Tough on myself, tough on others. At times...way too tough. Needless to say, this made getting some of those feminine friends difficult. But, in time, i found a few and for some reasons that are beyond me, they've stuck around.

To clarify, by feminine, i don't mean the girls that always wear dresses, know the latest trends, or have $300.00 purses which...let's face it....are ugly and only go with one outfit.

I mean the girl friends who are there for you on days when you have a doubt about how beautiful you are, who are there to give you a second opinion for necessary shopping trips and who aren't afraid to throw around the word "cute!", who's honesty is refreshingly anti-BS but not mean, and who remind you to be thankful for the blessings in your life.

Gal Pals are the girls that you band together with when gloom threatens to enter your head. You can laugh over the ridiculousness of price tags, wardrobe malfunctions, surprises your body throws your way, and Men are from Mars moments.

I pretended like i was strong enough to not need these kinds of friends for far too long in my youth. I pretended like these things were irrelevant and worthless knowledge for far too long.

Something happened in the last day that really brought me down. Something that would be difficult for guys to understand the profound effect it had on me. Something that can't be fixed with the "but you are so beautiful" response Boyfriend Jon . It wasn't PMS. It wasn't just insecurities cropping up. It was so much more than that; deeper and more complicated. And i was able to turn to some of my Gal Pals for help with the untangling.

So, after a few hours, some emails, some texts, and some time talking.... i got my reassurance, honesty, laughs, second opinions, scoffs, and ultimately, relief from what was going on in my head. Together we formed a plan that doesn't force me to go this alone nor feel like i have to be carried.

I have Gal Pal support and it means so much to me. They're there to help me when my toughness runs out and i need a booster shot of some attitude and sass.

Jump start on spring cleaning

Given that there is a light dusting of snow on the ground right now, "spring cleaning" is just a euphemism for "My apartment is messy again and i need to clean it by Friday".

Molly, the Wallet Thief/Poop machine dog, will be returning to my apartment starting this weekend. Although it will just be for half of a day before she goes back to my sister's place, i still need to dog proof it again so she doesn't go all insane on me again. I was of the opinion that she will love anyone who gives her food and pays her the slightest attention. But Miss Molly had other plans. My mom, or family dog whisperer, thinks that because Molly is a rescue, that she has some anxieties about being in strange places and she shows those anxieties by....removing food from her system ASAP. But, since my parents and my sister will be out on overlapping vacations in a couple months, it's important that we get her used to coming over to my apartment minus the anxieties.

Taking care of Rusty on the other hand is simple. He's like a cat. Feed him on time, pet him and otherwise let him sleep and he's golden. So we're starting Molly on a weekly scale and trying some old tricks like blankets that smell like my sister to see if we can curb some of the less pleasant results.

On the plus side, since she's only coming over after work until my sister gets home...if she does decide to have 3 am diarrhea...i won't be the one cleaning it up. This is a GOOD plan :)

This will be a weekly deal though, starting one day, maybe going over night, so i need to keep my place tidy or within a few minutes of cleaning up. So I decided to start doing some purging. I already Craigslist-ed a multitude of other things that were just taking up room and letting me stack papers on top of it.

The only problem with this plan is that now i have no where to put the stuff that was on top of/inside of/carefully balanced by these things. Now, it's all just in a heap on the floor...mostly in my bedroom. When i can't walk around my bed to the other side...that's a problem. As in, why, for instance, do i still have the unbroken down box that the most beautiful red kitchen aid in the world came in......IN MY BEDROOM?

Tonight is cleaning up the remains of my staining/varnish project and putting away my tools. Then i'll give the kitchen a good wipe down and check the floor for things Molly might think are treats. When that's done, i'll probably clean out my fridge. I know of two science experiments in my freezer that I've been pretending don't exist.

After that will be the bedroom tackle project where i will strive to whip my possessions back into an orderly fashion. Also part of this plan is purging my clothing of things that done fit or are ripped...which i haven't done in about 2 years. So i called in my girly girl sister to not only give me a second opinion, but to fold the "keep" pile for me...cause she's got that awesome quirk of loving to fold clothes.

Also, I bought a summer themed bed in a bag kit. Cause while i LOVE my gorgeous red Ikea duvet cover, with all the dark furniture in my room, it makes things feel depressing in summer. But with Target's "Jasmine" kit...it'll be light and soothing for summer months. Except i ordered a full size and after reading the reviews, i'm thinking i should have ordered a queen size. I'll see when it gets here.

Weather in my valley

There are some things that never fail to amaze me. Like when a weather report is reasonably close to what actually happens in Seattle.

Today, they predicted snow. And as the day was drawing to a close, I received a text from Boyfriend Jon that simply stated "Snow!" . Since his work isn't too far from mine, i went and snuck into one of the few offices that was both empty and had a window.

And this was what i saw:

Unfortunately, taking the picture through tinted windows really diminishes the vibrance of the colors. It was like BAM rainbow, akin to an episode of Emeril Lagasse when he's really getting into the meal.

I think i'll be digging for gold in the valley. :)

Carpentry plans and haircuts

My carpentry skills, were there still guilds to establish standards today, would probably be at or near a journeyman level. I have long graduated beyond birdhouses, and jewelry boxes to designing and building furniture.

Heres the DVD stand made in early 2010:

And the TV stand made later the same year.

I can easily figure out how to make sturdy, functional, but still "delicate looking" and light weight (when compared to my father's thick and heavy style that takes two people to lift always). Not to mention, mine break down so they're lighter to move.

Dad and I have fought some over my style. He was convinced that it wouldn't be strong enough without using thicker wood, or different joints. Indeed it took a lot of "My design, dad, I want it this way". And once he got used to the idea (also known as me sitting on top of the finished product to show how strong it was) he usually starts his smug strut to his friends about "look what my daughter can do." In some ways his being difficult is a tactic in order to make me think about why I want it a certain way and if it will actually be the best way to do it. And more than once, it has helped me catch flaws in my design.

My pieces are beautiful, and I'm not abashed to say so because I took so much care in making them. But they're still very simple. Straight lines, simple joinery, and up till this point, the most complicated thing i had taken on was drawers. The two pieces above were always planned to be a part of a complete set, which eventually will include a pair of end tables and a new coffee table.

Well, I'm starting to get the itch to play in some sawdust again and the wheels in my head are a turning. I whipped up some design sketches over the last few days, slowly refining it from scribbles on napkins and post it notes, down to this design for the end tables:

This will be one of two end tables to go on the side of my couch and armchair. The dimensions are completely non-standard, but they will work much better than my current (hand me downs from my sister's college years) tables or anything i can afford to buy. The Red Couch of Awesomeness should be around for as long as possible so I designed these end tables to be taller than average to work with the high arm rests. I freaking can't WAIT to be able to reach over to put a drink on the table without thinking about where the edge is.

Best part of all: the legs will be detachable! My current end tables and coffee table are designed that way, and it's made moving from apartment to apartment so simple. I had to do some serious brainstorming on how to be able to reach the wing nuts while still having a drawer though. I finally came up with this (the table as seen from above with the top removed):

What i'm most proud of is the design of how to reach the wing nuts without loosing stability for the drawer skirt. The thing on the left is an example of how the bottom shelf will be affixed to the legs. I've also considered bolting it through a hole, to make it more stable but there's still time to refine.

In other news:

If you read waaayyyy back to 2009, or look at my Rants and Raves tab, I got a haircut from "Just a Trim" that set off a tirade. Just to remind you, my hair was falling past the middle of my back or below my breasts, but since it had started showing some serious split ends, i decided to get a few inches max taken off. I told the lady i wanted it to fall just at the top of my breasts. What i got was a collar bone cut and she took off about six or seven inches. I was furious and upset.

Yesterday, my hair was back to the same length and bad condition and i decided to save some money and ask my mother to cut my hair and gave her the same parameters as before. Hair should fall at the top of my breasts and do a straight cut, no layers.

My hair is EXACTLY where i asked for, looks and feels healthier, and it was very cheap. I just treated my mom to sushi by way of thanks.

What I want to know is how my mother, with no professional training, can give me a better hair cut than the woman who claims to have been doing this for several decades?