Which Member of the Justice League Are You?

I have to admit, I like doing little quizzes. Sure, it's narcissistic, but it's also fun and all-connecting.

My childhood friend posted this quiz on Facebook. She was all disappointed that she didn't get Batman. She was labeled as Green Lantern, which isn't a terrible thing. I mean. . . she could have been Aquaman (teehee). I joked with her about how, well. . . you can read it for yourself and remember. . . friends since 1988.

Me: well... I mean... Batman is Badass...

Her: are you saying I'm not?!

Me: ::crickets::

Her: hahaha idk what you're talking about. I'm so gangster

Me: Thug Life Forever, what, what, yo!

There you have it. It's, I guess, funnier when you know the two of us. The point, though, is that we don't always end up as the super hero we love the most, because we love them for all the things we're not. They're all the things we wish we could be.

With that being said, I had to know which Justice League member I would end up as. So I took the quiz and was pretty surprised by who I got.

What I thought was so interesting about this is that teachers really do embody super heroes, with the realization that we can't save the whole world, but by banding together we can try to make a brighter future for as many children as possible. I thought this description was well-suited towards teachers, even though I'm not a huge Superman fan. Granted, I'm not very charismatic, but I felt good about what it said. Oh. . . did I mention I am so not uptight and boring?

Now, does your result match who you are? If not, were you being honest with yourself? My husband also scored The Green Lantern. While it fits, some things are a little different, but maybe it's more about how he sees himself and not how others see him.

Am I over-analyzing an online quiz? You bet your sweet muffins I am. Try it for yourself.

Game of Thrones Warrior Name

In a moment of silliness, I was curious what my Game of Thrones Warrior Name would be. So I had to put in my first and last name and then pick a weapon. Here is what I got. . .

I feel it is a little cliche being House Targaryen, but hey. . . dragons are cool! I just love that I'm disgraced and the breaker of summer. haha!

Find out your name!

Rainbow Dash Perler Design

My daughter LOVES My Little Pony. Her favorite is Rainbow Dash, but her answers vary depending on the week, day, hour, minute, and second that you ask her. So I found a perler design for Rainbow Dash on Pinterest and went to work sorting out the beads and making it happen!

Materials

• 48 Toothpaste (the light aqua looking ones)
• 75 Light Blue
• 14 Red
• 14 Orange
• 11 Black
• 10 Yellow
• 5 White
• 4 Magenta
• 5-3/4 x 5-3/4 inch Perler Board

Template

In-Process

Final

Star Trek Insignia Perler Craft

I've been dabbling in crafts, especially now that I have a daughter at home who is also into crafts. One of the crafts we love to do, because it teaches my daughter shapes and dexterity++, are perler beads. I used to do these as a kid all the time!

My first perler creation was a turtle using a turtle shaped perler board, but I wanted to branch out and do some others. As I prepared to send my first International Geek Girl Pen Pal a letter, I wanted to send along something special. So I looked up a pattern for a Star Trek Insignia and created one on my perler board. Here are the pictures and the directions.

Materials

• Black Beans = 100
• Gray Beads = 60
• Clear Beads = 118
• Yellow Beads = 43
• Cheddar = 29
• 5-3/4 x 5-3/4 inch Perler Board

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In-Process

Final

Happy Father's Day

 

It's Father's Day and my daughter and I had some special stuff planned for dad. Sure my husband would have preferred for us to vacate and he have a day alone, relaxing. But our plans were WAY more fun.

First, there was breakfast. Scrambled eggs with shredded havarti over naan. Then, we gave him his awesome gifts. He had already gotten one of them two weeks ago. . . a cotton candy maker. My daughter thought it was a great idea and because the two of them love cotton candy, I thought they could have fun with it. Did I mention you can put any hard candy in it and it'll make cotton candy out of it? Oh yeah. Plus, we can make cotton candy whenever we want! Which, quite honestly, saves on the running out to purchase some and turns into a family activity of fun and laughs. 

Next, we got him a Sherlock Holmes book pillow from Think Geek. Ray and I have been talking a lot about Sherlock Holmes lately, because I'm taking a renewed visit through the compendium of Sherlock texts that I own. All in preparation for watching the BBC Sherlock. Plus, well. . . we've got some Scottish connections. Trust me, it's a super thoughtful gift idea.

And finally, from me to him, I got him the most recent Pathfinder (ACG) adventure pack: Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Rise of the Runelords Deck 5 - Sins of the Saviors Adventure Deck. After we finish binge watching Eureka, we're going to continue on our campaign. Probably around Wednesday, it looks like. We get to spend time together, just the two of us, which is always hard to do with all our other obligations. So it was supposed to be special to remind him that we still have time for each other through everything.

Since we had two hours before we had to go, Ray wanted to watch an episode of Eureka. We're making our way through and he is just OBSESSED with it! I really like the show, but he just can't not have it playing at every opportunity. So he put on an episode while we ate breakfast and I baked him a Heart-centered cake. 

As fate would have it, the episode was the perfect Father's Day episode. The episode was "Reprise," also known as the episode where Felicia Day makes her first appearance. So that was bonus #1. Ray's been watching and watching for her first episode. We'd already seen Wil Wheaton, so he was super excited to see her. Next, the episode has Allison Blake leaving Carter with her two kids, so he got to be all fatherly to them. Again, another big point of awesome and perfect for Father's Day.  Finally, it dealt with the suggestive nature of music. Playlists are something my husband was totally into. He even made seventh playlists for our daughter before she was born. We'd play them for her while I was pregnant and play them for her constantly now (in the car, in the house, etc.). So that was a super awesome moment, as well. It was just the perfect Father's Day episode for my husband and it was totally by chance that it happened.

Then, we all loaded up and went to Green Bay to spend a Day Out with Thomas at the National Railroad Museum! We shared in our daughter's first major geek love and her and daddy had so much fun geeking together. He knows ALL the trains and together they share in that love! I got to do all the craft stuff with her and then we all rode on the train. This was fun for Ray and I, because we used to always travel by train when we lived in Scotland and we miss train travel a good deal now. Isabelle hadn't been on a big train before, so this was super fun for her, too.

My daughter and I had our own little geek moment. As we left the museum, we went over to the crosswalk and I said "hey, Thomas hasn't left the station yet. Let's run down and say goodbye!" So my daughter and I ran to the end where Thomas was. We wanted to see his face, which was hard to do at the place, because you have to do the whole pay-for-pictures thing and we didn't have the money or the patient toddler for that. So as my daughter yelled GOODBYE! The eyes on Thomas moved to my daughter and Thomas smiled! We squealed with girly delight and cheered. Then I noticed the conductor of Thomas. He had seen us and made Thomas look at us. That really made the day and we ran off back to Ray.

On our way home from Green Bay, we went for dinner at Outback. This restaraunt dates back to our early dating years and is always a fun little stop. We even ordered the Thunder from Down Under and I shared the memory of when he first took me to Outback and I first had one of these. It was super cute.

We went home. Watched a little more Eureka and called it a night. We had to resolve the Bev mini-arch that started in "Reprise." It was a really nice day for daddy. My husband is such an awesome dad. I put the Gru picture up top, because he reminds me of my husband and how he really is a wonderful house-dad. He is so great with our daughter and really takes care of the whole family.

So Happy Father's Day to all those dads out there of all sorts.

Hobbiton to Rivendell

Oh Thursday, June 12, 2014. . . I made it from Hobbiton to Rivendell.

I would have made it sooner if I hadn't spent the first two months of the year having all sorts of pedometer glitches on my cell phone. Really it was the phones fault and I had a not-stellar phone.

I was totaling up past points in the wee early hours this morning and realized. . . I had made it last night!

WOOOOO!!!!

Now. . . 462 miles from Rivendell, through Moria, to Lothlorien. I've got my troll battling gear ready!!!!

Richard Parker Poop Balls

In a previous post, I shared how I made Life Saver Doughnuts for my students who were reading Life of Pi. Well, I also made another treat for the kids who did their homework over the last weekend we had to finish the book. See, I had to have the kids read the last five chapters bringing us up to Part III in the book, but it was also over the last weekend in the school year. So to reward the kids who really put in the effort to finish it, I made them this really simple and awesome treat. I, of course, had to tie it into the book and make it gross, because that's how I roll!

I got the recipe from a co-worker a few months back on how to make Oreo Truffles. Since we had read the wonderful chapter that week on Pi trying to eat Richard Parker's poop, I had a EUREKA moment and decided to make Oreo Truffles, also known as Richard Parker Poop Balls. I then served them in a plastic cup, that the students could then fill with water from the bubbler to wash the rich chocolatey taste out of their mouth. It was quite a success and great fun. I heard, through the halls, about the Richard Parker Poop Balls and it was a memorable connection for my seventh graders.

Oreo Truffles
(AKA Richard Parker Poop Balls)

Ingredients
36 OREO Cookies, finely crushed, divided
1 pkg.  (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
4 pkg.  (4 oz. each) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, broken into pieces, melted
OR
Any kind of chocolate you want. (I used mini chips, melted in the microwave for 1 minute, then 15 second intervals until melted.)

Directions

1. Use food processor to break up Oreo’s until fine pieces.

2. Mix soft cream cheese and cookie crumbs in a bowl until fully mixed. (Clean hands work best.)

3. Shape into 48 (1-inch) balls. Place on wax paper-covered cookie sheet and refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm.

4. While the balls are being refrigerated, melt the chocolate until smooth.

5. Take out the Oreo cookie balls and dip them in melted chocolate; place them back on waxed paper.

6. REFRIGERATE 1 hour or until firm. Overnight for best results.

Geek Love for My Students

I couldn't end the school year without doing something geeky for my seventh graders. We're whole-class reading The Life of Pi. So we're listening to the audiobook and working on worksheets while we read (and look at the ebook on the screen so we can highlight words and google things we don't understand). After we finish reading the book, we're going to watch the movie and do a compare and contrast. That will end our year.

I wanted to bring in a treat for them, because they have been doing so well with the book, reading it, paying attention, asking questions, and all that jazz. So I found a way to make easy homemade doughnuts that look like LIFE SAVERS!!! Err... life buoys? Errrmm... life preservers? OH! Life Tubes? Anyways. . . those rings that save people that they have on boats and around docks and stuff.

Since it's Friday. . . it's treat day. I woke up at 4:30AM to make my students Life Saver Doughnuts to enjoy while they listen to the book today. Here is my journey. The recipe is at the bottom.

Life Saver Doughnuts

Ingredients

• 3 packages of Grands Jr. Biscuits
• 1 whole bottle of vegetable oil
• 1 container of preferred non-whipped frosting (I used white)
• 2 cups sugar (for the doughnut holes)
• 1 squeezable package of Red Cake Decorating Frosting

Equipment

• 1 small round or hexagon cookie cutter
• 1 large pot (not too high on the sides)
• 1 plate
• 1 large flat plate or a cutting board
• 1 medium to large bowl (for the dough middles)
• 1 paper towel lined cookie sheet or plate
• 1 small-medium bowl (for the sugar)
• Metal or Silicon tongs.
• Butter Knife or Frosting Knife

Directions:
1. Put the oil into the pot and put it on the stove on medium heat. Let heat up.

2. On a large plate or cutting board, open the Grands Jr. containers and lay out the biscuits.

3. Press the biscuits to be a little flat, then place the cookie cutter as close to the middle as possible and cut out the middle. Put the middles aside in a bowl.

4. Finish 1 whole package (or all three) and arrange the cut out doughnuts on a plate.

5. Using a doughnut hole, test the oil. The oil should start to bubble when the dough is placed in. Drop and let cook on each side (these will need to cook longer than the doughnuts, because they are thicker).

6. Once the oil is ready, you can drop 4-5 doughnut rings in at a time. Just note in the order you dropped them. Flip them with a tongs as soon as they are light golden brown (not dark golden brown) on one side.

7. Once both sides look similar, take them out and place them on the paper towel to soak up excess oil.

8. Do this for all the doughnuts and doughnut holes.

9. In a bowl, put half of the frosting from the container and put it in the microwave for about 25-30 seconds.

10. Take a doughnut and dip it in the melted frosting and let the excess drip off. You'll have to do this 3-4 times to get a thick white coat. OR you can spread a little of the unmelted frosting on first and then dip it in the melted frosting. Put aside so the white frosting firms up just a bit.

11. Take the red bag of frosting and, on four parallel sides, put little red dollops.  Let firm, then use a knife or frosting knife to tape it down into neat little red markers (see above pictures).

12. While you are waiting for the frosting to firm, you can toss the holes in the sugar you've placed in a bowl.

13. Serve with a napkin. Does not do well overnight, because the frosting is so moist.

The D20 Cookie

For an incredibly long time I've wanted to make D20 cookies. I thought they would be perfect for my students in my gaming club as a treat or to make when I'm hanging out with my gamer friends. I put it off and put it off and finally I watched Rosanna Pasino's Nerdy Nummy video for D20 cookies. I was surprised to see Felicia Day was in the video, not because I think she can't bake or something, but because I didn't know she was on that episode.

Also, I've been more of a cupcake girl, but even then. . . not at any pro-level. So desserts aren't my strong point. I'm learning and it's something that I'm trying out on the side. So far, having lots of fun doing it.

After watching it, I was super psyched to make the cookies. I had my hexagon cookie cutters and, well. . . I sadly did not make my own cookie dough.  Not because I can't, but because I wanted to just test out using pre-made dough with the process. The other problem I ran into was that I didn't have the colors of frosting I wanted to use for icing the cookies. Regardless, I was going to make this work.

So my daughter and I rolled out the pre-made cookie dough. Cut the cookies and put them on the cookie sheet. Baked them. We made big and mini-cookies.

Error #1: The pre-made dough did not  hold the edges of the hexagon, so they looked more like strangely formed round cookies. Some of them had some defined shape, but most started to blob out.

Error #2: The frosting tips were too wide, so I wasn't getting the fine lines to draw that I needed.

With these lessons learned, I know what I need to do for the future! I am definitely going to follow Rosanna's recipe for the future attempt, but these are my attempts at a D20 cookie. I feel more confident now that I've tried it at least once.

Large Cookie

Mini-Cookie

 

Success #1: They tasted DELISH!

Success #2: I have a plan for the future.

Blast from the Past - HeroQuest

I was cleaning out some old e-mails today and I found my very first e-mail that I sent to my yahoo e-mail address. It was an apology story I wrote for my HeroQuest character Niran. It was called "Niran's Last Stand." It brought to life so many memories and also felt linked into what I'm playing right now with my husband.

I talk about HeroQuest all the time in my gaming circles. It was really one of the first games that made me fall in love with adventure-based-campaign-style "RPG" games. We started this every-Sunday campaign back in 2004. Our Friend Jim (Rook - Barbarian), his brother (Stoli - Dwarf), my husband (Zephyr - Elf), and myself (Niran - Wizard) would be the merry band of adventurers who would travel on a custom mod created by my husband. I had never played something like this before and I was excited for several reasons: 1) I was learning about creating your own dice off of blank dice. 2) I was learning about developing characters through a game. 3) I would get to play something my husband was excited about and created. Clearly this was a win for everyone!

We planned this all in advance. We picked a neutral and consistent location to play at. In-between all of our places of residence was Jim and his brother's parents house. They also had a HUGE dining room table. We could also then have a family dinner night with Jim's parent's each Sunday. We even cooked one of the nights. We'd get snacks and spend all afternoon on a campaign. This was so exciting for me and it was time being spent with people we loved being with and we had so much fun!

Playing HeroQuest was also a huge learning curve for me. I think I was still fostering some rather naive attitudes towards gaming. Granted, I was surrounded by three very strong personalities who had grown up with gaming and were rather arrogant about how things like this should be. I was a non-traditional-girl-non-traditional-geek-non-traditional-gamer. I didn't fit into anything other than wanting to be open-minded about the interests of the people I enjoyed being around more than anything. So I had some problems gaming that bothered the boys I was playing with. To not spend forever explaining, I had some spoiled-brat tendencies. When the random non-success would happen, I'd get kind of whinny.

So halfway through our questing, we hit a quest where, by the walking through a door, I was stripped of all my powers. I was a fire wizard and didn't really have weapons or healing or would function in any way as a benefit to my comrades. I thought this was so unfair and I was so upset. So when it came my turn to battle the creatures, I was out of things to do it and the "dungeon master" (AKA my HUSBAND) rolled for rocks to fall and bury me.  I was out.

The dangers of playing with, well,. . . your husband. . . is that if things go wrong you don't get to walk away from the issue. The whole car ride home and that evening and the next day. . .the issue was huge. My character was dead. I wasn't going to be involved anymore. The questing could not go on without me. I was so upset and so frustrated. In that one instance there were so many accusations flying between the two of us and, by day 2 of not talking, I spent the evening writing an apology of sorts. It was called. . . "Niran's Last Stand."

Niran's Last Stand

In the dark labyrinth of the dungeon, Niran lay lifeless under a pile of rubble, thrown onto him during his battle with an armored centipede. Slowly, something stirred beneath the rocks. A hand emerged from the pile and Niran pushed himself from his grave. Upon him are several bandages, acquired during a previous quest. As he stands up, he summons a small ball of light to help him see and he notices his equipment is missing. He wonders if his comrades had thought he was dead and salvaged his equipment as they left. Somewhat taken aback by his companion's actions, he is not upset, as he understands why.

His tiny light shows him all that has happened. Dead bodies of centipedes and orcs, and those pesky femirs are scattered everywhere. Niran notices falling rubble blocks off his path to the stairs. Everything starts coming back to him; His anger at being stripped of his spells and his self-consciousness about his abilities as a fighter that forced him to abandon his own comrades. His heart swells with anger at the realization of his actions and he makes an oath to find his friends and make things right again.

Niran started to fumble through the dark corridors and over the bodies of dead monsters. He arrived at the secret door that stripped him of his power and slowly enters the room. He passes through the small empty hole and through another door. He senses a great battle has occurred somewhere nearby and decides to carefully explore the dungeon to possibly find answers and to see if maybe his friends are still somewhere nearby.

Several hours later, Niran emerged from the lair of the fire mage. As he did so, he felt a rush of warmth run over his body as his spells returned to him and he once again could perform his most primary actions. Niran started to make his way up to Fysmahluh in the Black Crags. As he entered the town, he tried to think of where his friends may have gone. He checks the smithies and the pubs, but no sign of his friends. Then he sees a Dwarf with a familiar insignia and begs his assistance in locating his friends. This Dwarf's name is Cogha and says that he is a member of Stoli's tribe, having just helped him to improve upon one of his special skills. Cogha mentions that he saw the group making their way towards a pub at the back of the town where gambling typically takes place. Niran, understanding his comrades' obsession with odds and financial gain, tracks them down.

As he enters the establishment, he sees Stoli and Rook at a table playing Black Jack, not wanting to disrupt any luck they may have been having, Niran looks around for Zephyr. He sees Zephyr sitting by the fire in the back corner of the pub sipping something warm. Niran remembers how Zephyr was injured by the earwig and guesses he has been cured and has decided to rest before their long journey back to the Imperial City.

Niran approached Zephyr and sat down across from him. A flash of anger passed through Zephyr's eyes and he readjusted himself.

"So you lived. Rook said he found you dead," Zephyr said coldly. "Maybe it would have been better for you to stay there."

"Maybe. But that is not what was intended."

"Why are you here? You probably want your weapons."

"The weapons are not what has brought me here. I came to find the three of you and to make amends."

"And what amends would that be? For breaking the very essence of that which binds us?" Zephyr started to become agitated.

"I understand the full implications of what I have done, punishable by the fate which was robbed from me, but I wanted the three of you to tell me what it is that you want. I am full of contempt for my actions and am far from ever entertaining thoughts of that type again. If I do, let me be struck down by your own hand, if not by the hand of our enemies."

Zephyr thought over the wizard's sincere words before responding, "I know you are young, Niran, and full of angst, quick to action, and quite irrational at times, but you have served us well until this point. Let us wait for Stoli and Rook before we agree to anything."

We did talk and I submitted my story at the next meeting and they allowed for me to be part of the quest again. With, of course, the understanding that I will NEVER question the dungeon master again. I was not allowed ALL my equipment back and had to buy some new stuff. This was a story I always kept close to my heart, because it was my first RPG experience where I could understand what this part of the geek world was all about.

I also just have to say, this feels so very geeky thinking back on it all. This reflection conjured up all those images of D&D gamers on TV shows and in cartoons and it kind of makes me giggle. I've always been a geek. . . or a nerd. . . and I just never connected it to anything. I never had a term for it or I was in denial or that being what I was, because of certain mindsets I was raised with. Kind of a nice moment.

How did the whole adventure end? That is for another day. . . and was a huge lesson in getting involved in games that demand a commitment from other people.