Dessert and board games night = successful!

I hereby declare "Dessert and board games night" to be an unconditional success. At it's peak, we had 14 adults, 1 baby, and excessive amounts of sugar. I vote "woot!" to the two chocolate fondue pots I bought yesterday. I provided far too much food (the birthday cake never even came out of the freezer; a box of 12 cupcakes was untouched, and another box was only half-eaten; the pie had a single slice eaten), but everyone ate their fill and was sated. More than a few people (including me!) had sugar headaches. But games were played, chocolate was consumed in great quantities, and there was much laughter.

Lines of the night:
- "It tastes like death by joy." (Referring to 2-bite brownies dipped in chocolate fondue.)
- "I think my legs just stopped working."
- "Aggerwator: how a 3-year-old pronounces 'alligator'." (Courtesy of our game of Balderdash.)

There will definitely be another chocolate fondue night at some point in the future.

Thanks to everyone who came out and helped me celebrate my early birthday!

Surprise gifts of chocolate

When I woke up this morning and looked behind my computer screen, lo and behold there was a box of Ferrero Rochers. I didn't see it last night, but I'm not sure if that's because it wasn't actually there last night, or because I was so damned tired I didn't notice.

The problem: I have no idea who left it there for me.

To the best of my knowledge, there were 3-5 people in my room yesterday other than me, and any of them might have left them.

Hm... time for Julie-sleuthing! (And chocolate...)

Realization: Pennsic = need to prepare bardic

I just had a realization: now that I'm actually going to Pennsic this year, I need to prep my bardic!

"But Julie," I hear you saying across the interwebs, "Pennsic is almost 3 months away! Why do you need to start prepping your bardic now?"

The performing bards on my list will understand. *grin*

Seriously, though. After writing out The Tale of Reprobus for last year's Pennsic (and receiving a silver armband from Duke Cariadoc for its performance), I had intended to write more, similar pieces for this year. Between class and general distraction, I never got around to it. As I've written Daily Breadcrumbs, I've been marking interesting stories that might make good bardic pieces, but I've never actually sat down to write them out. Since I remember stories much better when they're written in verse form (as opposed to free-form storytelling), this is something I need to work on in the near future. First, I need to write them. Then, I need to practice them until I'm comfortable performing them.

I want to have at least the following stories ready for Pennsic, each as a poem of 2-5 minutes (for comparison, The Tale of Reprobus is about 152 lines long, and takes 7 minutes to perform):

1. Judah mistakes his daughter-in-law Tamar for a prostitute, and her retaliation -- Gen. 38 (Theme: importance of keeping your word)
2. Ehud kills Eglon, the extremely fat Moabite king -- Judg. 3 (Theme: underdog beats the invader)
3. For victory in battle, Jephthah is forced to sacrifice his daughter -- Judg. 11 (Theme: warning against hasty oaths)

There are more I'd like to have ready, but I'll be happy with these three. It *should* be quite manageable at a poem a month, but we'll see what actually happens.