Stephieface

I’ve talked a bit about World of Warcraft and Hellgate London which are two videogames I play. I like them well enough, while they aren’t my thing… they can be fun.

One of the issues of why they aren’t my thing stems from the fact that I am too uptight to play most videogames. For a week or two at the start of WoW, I was a nervous wreck… partly because I had no clue of what I was doing, and partly because I didn’t want to disappoint the Mister. However, there are other games which you would never ever ever ever ever see me do because of the high embarassment factor- for example Dance Dance Revoloution.

Now, the Mister has been seduced by the game Rockstar. If you have no idea what Rock Star is, its a game like Guitar Hero….

The difference being that you don’t have one guitar…. you have two guitars, a drum set, and a microphone so that you could have up to 4 players at once playing as a Rock Band (which you get to name and design the characters for). Its Co-op rock. If I screwup on drums (which I did, several times) and I “fail” (basically the game kicks you off and you on are the sidelines) the guitarist can do some sweet combos and get me back in the game. So you actually do have to rely on each other to play the game….

The guitar is on the far left, the drums are in the middle I believe (its hard to say since we usually don’t have a second guitar and play without a bassist), the bassist is on the far right (without a bassist, guitar is left and drums are right) and at the very top is for the singer.The first time we ever experienced this game was at a friend’s house when we went to watch a Steeler game, and after the horrifying loss the guys decided to bolster their moods with some Rock Star. After a few tries from everyone who don’t live with the game with assorted instruments, I was forced to be on vocals. I was terrible, not singing wise, I was just quiet and embarassed and angry because I felt I was bullied into doing soemthing I wasn’t quite comfortable with at the time. The Mister was bitten by the Rock Star bug that night.

So a week or so later, the Mister learned that my FIL had bought Rock Star and we were all dragged over there in a flash. This time it was just Ben, the Mister, and me… slightly more comfortable settings. Still, I feel weird doing the singing bit as I only really sing for my kids. So we started out with Ben on guitar, me on drums, and the Mister singing. After discovering that I apparently have no rythym (which is bad for the, you know, Rythym Section) and that the Mister has no tone (which is bad, since that what the singing microphone thingy grades you on), we were forced to switch.

You see, when you play an instrument in the game you have to hit the right colored dot as it lowers into the slot. It was never explained to me exactly at what point the “note” is “lowering into the slot” and I was getting distracted by looking over the “slot” at what notes where coming instead of worrying about what notes were there. The Mister has a tendency to warble when he sings. When you sing in the game, the words (at the start) are not so much important as the timing and tone, you have to keep the little arrow thingy in the middle of the lines you see floating above the lyrics.

So thus, with our new adjustments, we restarted the game with our new band… Rabid Chupacabras… and I have to say its pretty fun… now all I need to know is if you can save your band on to a memory card or something and travel with it to another machine so we don’t always have to start over. Anyone?

So, as reported in the last post we were supposed to go back and look at the one house we had our eyes on. However, like every Stephieface outing I have ever undertaken, something went awry…… Five minutes after picking the Flying Diaperini Brothers up from school, TJ exploded all over the back seat of our van… multiple times… insuring that we returned home straightaway rather than going to see the house.

Oh well.

So, while still a little shaky myself, I cleaned the van (you would never know a child exploded back there) cleaned his clothes, cleaned up after the baby who is still sick, cleaned up after the Mister who was still sick, cleaned up the couch after TJ exploded there as well, distributed rounds of applesauce/toast/and water, and took care of all the little ooky sick volcanoes I have in my house. The Mister, feeling better yesterday, went to work and on his way home stopped to get me something Shiny.

Its a joke between us that whenever he goes out he asks if I want anything to be brought back. I answer “Yeah, bring back something shiny” and I usually get anything from bubblegum machine jewelry to $2 miniature army men.

For my enduring service of puke cleaning upping and general all around butt wiping while still sick myself, The Mister’s shiny for me last night was….. season 1 of House MD. Nice.

I like that the Mister ran with the sickness theme.

This weekend is dedicated looking at houses weekend, and if I hear the weather people right it will be nasty weather wise….. of course it will be.

I am looking forward to Moonlight tonight… darn you Alex O’Loughlin for being such a darn vampire cutie!

…each other the stomach flu. I’ve been out of commission for the last few days to an evil bout with the stomach flu. Danny caught it first we think, then me, now the Mister has it… hopefully the FDs can avoid catching it, I’m really through with cleaning up ickyness at the moment.

So, I went on Sunday to find the Letterbox in Dormont. I started out okay but when I got to the top of the hill it appears that one of the markers was knocked over, I found it underneath a pile a leaves. So this made me unsure if the marker was in the directions or not since I have no idea when it was knocked over. So I proceded as though it was, and when I didn’t find the box I then went back and proceded as though it wasn’t. I still didn’t find the box. I have a sneaking suspicion that the box is gone, as I looked at the base of every tree there. However, it was last found in November- so next time I’m going back with the Mister (who practically grew up in that park) and try again.

We may have a lead on a house. I went and checked it out real quick today after I dropped the Flying Diaperinis off at school. Its in a nice quiet neighborhood, which is nice. There is some space between the house and its neighbors which would be lovely since my neighbors and I can practically shake hands out of our windows if we wanted to. It had no front yard, the entire front yard being basically the driveway/parking area. The back yard was a bit on the teensy side and had a shed that took up a good bit of it… I don’t know if maybe they put it close to the house for ease or because the land its on is actually that small- its something I have to look into. Otherwise, it looks nice on the inside when I could peek through the windows (which was only one window in the back of the house- I must have looked as though I were casing the joint). We’re going back later today to take a second look.

Wish us luck!

We are still looking, and still packing. At this point I’m starting to get disheartened, if for nothing more than no one in any stinking listing I call ever calls me back. Ever. Although, I did get one call back, but that callback was from Moon… Moon is slightly out of the area we were looking to move to (by… oh… 10 miles or so and a whole cardinal direction), but on the whole- out of the 30 or so places I’ve called and left a message with he is the only one to return it.

To take a break from the moving/not moving/are we moving/is this house moving stress I’ve been experiencing, I was inspired by this post by David over at Sweater Project. I thought a bit about if I really wanted to get involved with the whole letterboxing thing. I was looking at it for more the exercise than anything. Thing is, regular ole exercise is work….. I do not like work….. I avoid work….. because well work is boring and well, work. However, whenever the Mister and I have walked anywhere (which is a few places because the man is insane and totally thinks walking from my house near Mt Oliver to CCAC over in Northside is a jaunty little stroll…. a jaunty stroll that’s about three and a half miles) I’ve never really noticed the distance or the time because we were BSing and whatnot. Give me a fun goal, like… let’s say… finding a hidden treasure…. and I’ll walk all over.

So in the effort to defeat myself to ultimately make me a winner, I have to fool myself into exercise. Enter letterboxing. Now I could probably go into a long explaination here, which I shouldn’t since those linky links above explain it so much better, but the gist of letterboxing is thus:

I have a stamp and ink for said stamp (I can purchase or make the stamp)

I have a blank book

I have a clue to box that is hidden somewhere (some clues are very exact and others are riddles… this is very much like geocaching… but lower tech)

I go on a walk/hike (making sure to take my stamp, ink, and book with me [and a pen])

I find the box (eventually)

Opening the box reveals another stamp inside the box, along with another ink pad (sometimes not) and a blank book.

I stamp my stamp in the box’s book (Stephieface was here! with the date), and stamp the box’s stamp in my book (Stephieface you were here! and the date).

I then return everything to its rightful places (ie, putting the box’s stamp and book and whatever back in the box and reinserting it back into its hiding place… and me cleaning up my stuff).

I then go on my merry way to either another box or home… depending.

In addition to the walk and the collecting of stamps (alot of which were made by people from pink rubber erasers [tutorial on the letterboxing.org site on how to do this]) you are also encouraged to leave the area better than you found it by picking up the odd piece of litter here and there if there is any (how green!) which makes the world a better place overall. You can also make and hide boxes of your own, they have directions on how to do that as well.

Now, half my crafting stuff is packed up (this means my exact-o knives), so I went the purchased stamp route. I went to Walmart in Bridgeville (which still has its craft section by God!) and bought a wee little two pack of stamps. They had a nice selection of them…. a dragonfly and a butterfly…. a bee and a ladybug…. a dog and a dog paw print…. etc etc etc. When I saw one pack though, I was sort of inspired. The pack I purchased was the “baby” pack, which are stamps of baby feet and baby hands. I also bought purple ink. The inspiration was that I liked the two stamps together, as if they were one whole stamp…. and with the purple ink looked as if a jam covered fairy had landed in the letterboxing book…..

So far, I’ve only spent $2.48 total for the stamps and $1.97 for the ink, the book I already had. However, if I had opted to go the make your own stamp route I could have had a stamp or two for a dollar.

You’re supposed to pick a “trail name” and I toyed with a few (including The Purple Pixie) but ultimately I just figured I’d go with Stephieface… why mess with tradition?… and what if I couldn’t find more purple ink? I may try my hand at making my own… but I really like the hands and feet image. I’ve talked to the boys and Sam and TJ are in. Sam will be Sambone, and TJ will be T-rex (or T-wrecks… depending on my mood and his behavior the day I make his stamp)…. and when Danny is old enough (and if we are still doing it) he will be ‘The Danimal’. We could do a family stamp, but I’d rather that we all have our own… you know?

Curious? Take a look at the Letterboxing.org site and click on the North America map, then your state, then your region…. there may very well be some boxes hidden near you. This weekend we’re aiming for the box in Dormont Park… baby steps people… baby steps.

I didn’t write a post yesterday because I couldn’t think of anything to write. Well, that’s not wholly true, I had lots of things I thought up- just nothing to write about them. By the way, the word “wholly” looks … I don’t know… off when you write it.

We’re still packing here at Chez Stephieface…. now, I’ve said that over the last few posts and it must seem like we have a crap ton of stuff. The actuality is that we’re just really slow packers. We still have yet to find a place to move to. We’re still looking, and right now it seems that the most likely place is somewhere we were trying to avoid. We were trying to avoid it, not because of crime or the general area, but because of two reasons…. people we used to (but no longer hang out with for many reasons) know live there… and the schools are vicious with vicious children being vicious to my children (or rather so far, one child in particular) which bothers me to no end. It would also be nice, we’d be closer to the Mister’s family, to the FD’s preschool (they could bus instead of me having to drive them in, and my MIL having to drive them home), and to Zach. However, even with all those pluses…. I still have no desire to live there.

Le Sigh.

Last night, the Mister and I watched Superbad. The movie is nutty and funny…. just don’t even think of watching it anywhere near where your kids may even have a notion of existing… it is extremely inappropriate in so many ways. My favorite character was, by far, Mclovin. It was funny because he looked and acted so very much like someone the Mister and I used to hang out with. Were you to put hiking/work boots on Mclovin and have it so when he sat down his pants would ride up like clam diggers showing off extremely skinny ankles, and also add some more general hand gesticulation in coversation…. it would have been exactly that person. Which, in turn, made anything Mclovin did all the more funny.

I know I’ve been prtetty lame with the posting since the start of the holidays. I have a whole lot of packing going on right now, and house hunting, and house looking, but as of yet… no house finding.

Wish me luck!