elanya

I just wanted to quickly write this down before I go to bed, because I had a really nice day, all in all.

Nary and co. were here overnight, and it is always nice to have some time with her and her family. We had a mix of Chinese leftovers and McDonalds foods for lunch, then just hug around talking until it was time for them to go.

After they left, I went and played with my nephews downstairs - they'd both gotten a wooden shield and sword for Christmas, so I brought out my practice sword (from Hollow Earth Swordworks, though I got mine at the Texas Renaissance Fair several years ago now), and we did some sparring games. Then we had a chat about how playing with swords could be dangerous even if you are trying really really hard to be safe careful (and they were so good about light hits! But not always as good about always knowing where their blade is. Spatial awareness is an ongoing battle; there is a reasons the swords are downstairs or outside toys!). Then we transitioned into story time! In which all three of us took turns telling stories, mostly about pirates. I told a few true pirate stories, then Bubby insisted they had to be pretend stories. So I told one about Captain Garrett and the Magic Treasure. After which he told one about Captain Garackle who stole the magic treasure from Captain Garrett. After which I told one about Garrett's crew saving their skeleton friend and swearing revenge. It was a nice little story building exercise, anyway! Nugsy was less confident in his stories, but he did tell a few, including one about a fighter who was friends with a Creeper, and a Creeper family, and some other ones. And then he made me read him one of their pirate books instead.

Anyway, it was really nice! I hope they had as nice a time as I did, but they certainly seemed to.

I've just been away for about 10 days on a road trip down to visit friends from Texas... We used to do our friend-con in March, but the reasons for that timing are no longer pertinent and it took a while to reorganize. But it was great, on the whole. There was some social weirdness going on from some corners, but whatever. I am really glad and grateful that I got to see those folks again! And the games and gaming were really fun!

I'll write up some drabbles for the ones I played in, as is tradition, but I'm only home in the sense of being back in my own country. I have a French test - step one in a potentially lengthy interview process - to go to on Thursday, so I'm staying in Windsor, since it is closer to the testing facility. I might work on some tomorrow between bouts of studying.

I have some scattered thoughts for stories of various lengths, the most recent inspired by the slew of paranormal story podcasts we were listening to for part of the drive. We'll see if anything comes of those.

Reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's Edward Randolph's Portrait does *not* count as legitimate research for my pirate paper, no matter that you like 19th c horror tales and that you think ER was an interesting person. It will not help you determine what his position was in 1700 :p

(Surveyor General of Customs - I knew his job just not the precise title)