I got a pretty good "haul" for Christmas. I haven't posted about it, so this is a good time.

First, Randy surprised me with one of these little darlings. Yes, it's green! I've already moved some of my favorite music to it (Disturbed, Tool, Blue October, Black Sabbath, Nirvana...) and started a membership over at audible.com. The first book I bought is called "The Travellers" by John Twelve Hawks. It's been really good.

But the goodies didn't stop there. Randy also bought me Ptolus. This is a full campaign set within one city. Monte Cook and his team wrote this campaign as a "play test" of the 3rd Edition rules for D&D. The book comes with an envelope full of full-color handouts and a CD with another 400+ pages of material. The book itself is a hefty 640 pages! Talk about a little "light reading"!

I wanted this because I really like DMing, but as a writer, I have a hard time letting go of the story and giving the players the chance to write it. Role-playing is a collective story-telling experience and my need to control the direction of the story was hampering game play. I'm hoping having someone else create the campaign will free me up and let me relax into the game-play more.

Continuing in the role-playing category, I got a bunch of Reaper mini-figs as well:

He bought me another half-dozen of Ed Bourelle's Skeleton Key Games tile sets over at RPGNow.com.

I got so many books for Christmas...and after Christmas! Look at all these books:

I told you it was a lot of books!

Mom bought me these. *grin* And she got me some excellent pajamas. Her gentleman-friend bought me some of the cookie sheets I love. Mmmm....cookies!

As if all this wasn't enough, I was pricing computer parts, planning on building me a "game computer" (I just built one for Randy using spare parts we had). I found a Gigabyte motherboard and an AMD Sempron CPU combo for only $90! That was too good to pass up. I started spec'ing out a full system and had it pretty close to finished at under $600... Randy continued his Christmas giving by saying that my getting another computer was a justifiable household expense and told me to order it. I managed to talk him into letting me add on that motherboard combo for him and an upgraded video card for him as well.

So Thursday and Friday were "geek nights" here at the Kaelber household. I built my new system, then raped it by installing Windows XP. *sigh* I upgraded Randy's WinBlows system, helped Nick install an additional hard drive in his computer and Randy installed a hard drive in his Linux box. Right now, in my living room, there are a total of seven computers (two of them servers)! Randy's got the "little" 17 inch monitor Mom traded us for some hardware and tech knowledge. He's running dual monitors now. We're both running our systems with a KVM switch (his for 4 computers, mine for 2) which saves having to have multiple keyboards, mice, monitors and so forth.

I've got my computers set up so I only have to move one cable to get sound on one system or the other. And the last little gift for Christmas was "Lego Star Wars II" for PC....which is absolutely a blast to play! I'd recommend getting a PC game controller for it because it's obviously focused towards the console-style movements and instructions. Still, the game itself is not just a kid's game.

Whew. That's a big list. I've got to get going so I can play with some of it!

If you're a sock yarn lover---or know one---mosey on over to Susie's blog to check out "Stormbow" and the auction to raise money for Miss Violet of Lime and Violet. Go on, I dare you to top my bid and take this beautiful skein from me. (No, seriously, if you can/want to bid more, it's in a good cause and I'll totally understand.)

It's Christmas Day, elsewheres, but here in the Kaelber Household, we're holding at "day before day before Christmas" until New Years weekend. Although... "Santa Claus" did make an early stop when he dropped off 2 iPod Nanos here... Mine's green! (Are you green now?)

And Randy gave me my "big" gift early, so I could start reading it: Ptolus, City by the Spire. He's already a little envious, I think...

Now if I can just keep my own secrets for a few more days!

Having selected over half of my topic tags, it looks like this is going to be a general round-up post on a bunch of topics. I'll take them alphabetically.

Christmas I'm just not getting in the mood this year. It sorta makes sense in the "it's an even year" way. It seems I've got this weird tradition that even years just don't go well. I keep trying to break the tradition... We're not putting up a tree this year for a number of reasons: 1 we sold our so-so fiber-optic tree before we moved from Arizona last year, 2 we really have no good place to put a tree and 3 with a tree comes the desire to put presents under the tree (being the material girl that I am!) and that doesn't blend well with free-range ferrets --- or cats!

It also doesn't help that I keep trying to capture the feeling of Christmas in Arizona. There's a certain smell, a certain feel to the air and the holiday that I can't find here. Color me incredibly homesick (and why isn't there any advice for adults on homesickness?).

Computers Mom's computer is up and running again with a new power supply. Don't know why the last one croaked, but I suspect it's the crappy electric quality she's getting and we've got her a new surge protector. Last weekend, we stopped at Fry's Electronics (all hail Fry's!). Unfortunately "Grand Opening" means "we haven't got all our stock in yet, try the other store". I was able to get Mom's UPS but not the keyboard and mouse extension cables. I still need to order those, but I keep forgetting to ask her to look at her plugs and verify their dongle type.

I wasn't able to find cool bling lights for Felix because of the lack of products on the new store's shelves. Despite the aisles of computer games to drool over, I saw nothing I wanted. *sigh* I need Starcraft 2 to come out! I picked up another hard drive. *yum* Randy got an antenna for his wireless router and Nick got a Nerf gun for his birthday. I get to swap Arcadia's parts for Beacon's parts sometime soon and someone is getting more hardrive space---about 400 GB!

Ferrets The worst part of our trip to Atlanta was the "axe-murderer" feeling I had for leaving our fur-babies behind. We cleaned the large cage and all the hammocks and set it up for them. We gathered all seven of them and tucked them into the cage. It seemed like Ukiah and Maxwell were looking at me in disappointment. "Mother, how could you?" But we did. We latched the cage doors and said good-bye. When I opened the front door Monday evening, Ukiah was right there to greet me. From the clean look of their cage (and the not-so-clean look of a couple of their favorite corners), I think they were out of the cage before we arrived in Atlanta!

But we brought them gifts! IKEA is great for ferret presents, by the way. They've got a line of soft toys with embroidered eyes! I brought home a baby-style giraffe for them, a huge "belephant" for me, a mama-and-baby "belephant for me, a giraffe for me, a toy box for them---which is adorable and they love it! I really need to get pictures of these things, they're so cute!

Knitting I finished "Vlad: the Anklet" over the weekend. I think I finished them Saturday night and wore them Sunday! I've got enough leftover to either make a matching tie or try to eke out another pair of anklets! I've started Randy's socks in Lion's Magic Stripe. I'm a little worried about getting 2 whole socks out of it for him. Eeek. I love knitting socks. It may be hard to get me to knit anything else. *grin* They are so complex and yet, so simple. They're wearable, so I can wear something I knitted. They're small so they can go everywhere with me. I love to daydream about the trip back to Arizona one day, with me knitting up socks by the dozen (ha!).

I really want to start my "Drapatic Ponchawl" again and see if I can make sense of my own design. *grin* I've wanted a poncho for forever but I want one that is flattering and fun to wear as well.

I owe Randy a blanket from *mumble*mumble* years ago. I've had the yarn but I couldn't find a basic pattern I liked. The yarn is variegated and I don't really like that kind of yarn. Most people try to avoid the "pooling" effect---I wish for it! Or a striping effect. So, I think I've found a pattern that will break up the annoyance of the variegation and bring it to a new level. I'm going to use the stitch in the DW Darrell Waltrip dishcloth. What do you think?

Reading I'm bored. I've got some books that I haven't read yet, but most of them just aren't grabbing my attention. *sigh* Anybody got any recommendations?

Roleplaying I just added Ptolus: City by the Spire to my Christmas wishlist. I don't feel bad in the least, since I've taken the spinning wheel off my list (hopefully waiting until we move). Being a writer, I have a hard time creating an adventure and letting the players cooperatively tell the story. I'm hoping that having a fully realized city/world to work from, I can DM more often and Randy can finally be a player again.

Secret Pal I don't think there's any "new" news here. I've got my December package ready to go...I just need to get to the post office! (Isn't that always the kink?) I think my Secret Pal is going to love her spoilage. I've had a lot of fun seeking out ideas for her.

Weight If you're paying attention, I've not updated my Weight Loss progress in a while. I have Thanksgiving to blame for that (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!). I need to get back on the Gazelle and do my 10 minutes a day (minimum). I don't mind it when I do, so I don't know why I don't do it more often. It probably isn't going to help that my local SnB is having the Christmas Secret Swap this week and I'm making truffles to take. *sigh* I will not give up. I will not give up.

Writing I've been wanting to write a werewolf "piece" (short? novel? I don't know) for some time now. The idea is starting to come together but I still only have a "backdrop", not an actual plot. *sigh*

I love that I have so much support for my writing around me. Mom loves my writing, saying it's better than some of the authors I've shown her (some of my favorites!). Randy thinks I've got talent and that I should keep working to get published. Nicky echoes his Dad and believes in me with the innocence of a child.

Meanwhile, I read a book like Minion and wonder what I've got to do to get published. The story hiding under poor editing here is potentially good. The problem I have is that the first book isn't complete by itself. The pacing during action scenes isn't well-done. There's weak writing, especially in the early parts of the book. Why can I recognize this and not write a piece that will be accepted?

I'm still waiting for news on the piece I've submitted to Analog. Randy has encouraged me to try the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction for this piece, if Analog doesn't take it. Meanwhile, I really want to write more, but I feel like my well of inspiration is dry. *sigh* (And somehow, I'm sure that feeds back into my feelings on Christmas this year...)

Wow. That's a lot of catch-up. Hope you weren't too bored. Where's all the entries for the Denise Needles? The deadline looms, knitters (or friends/family of knitters)!

Time to make the truffles.

I found a great online store the other night that sells Reaper miniatures at really great prices. I ordered early on the 5th of October---enough to get free shipping! (I'm such a sucker. But really, I was planning on buying all of the figs and dice that I did at some point, so why not do it now and not pay for the shipping. Make sense?)

Anyway, the package arrived this afternoon! That was fast. And everything was exactly right. If you're looking for a good place to get some miniatures, check out Miniature Market. I'm saying this only as a satisfied customer, YMMV.

In this shipment, I got 9 dice sets (GM bribe) and 10 mini-figs. I'm the only one in the house that likes to purchase figs that aren't "planned" for a character of mine. Based on the way Reaper discontinues older models, I want to get the good ones while I can. This means we have a surplus of townsfolk and various other people to use, but not a whole lot of the "monsters" we encounter on adventures. I guess I just buy the good-looking mini-figs. Of these, Werner Klocke has my vote as an outstanding sculptor.

That's all for now.

I've been kinda focused on gaming lately. (No kidding! Really, Anne? Huh. I never would've guessed.) It didn't help that today I got (another) email from Ed Bourelle of Skeleton Key Games with a coupon in it. *sigh* Fortunately for me, Randy stood over my shoulder when I asked for help whittling my order down to something reasonable. *grin* I love RPGNow.com; there's nothing like instant gratification.

If you're thinking about buying any SKG products, drop a comment here and ask me about it. I probably have it and I can comment on its value or answer any specific questions. Ed's got good demos of his products up on the RPGNow site as well.

I'd love to turn the small-size tiles that come in each pack into a fridge magnet set. I think it'd be kinda cool.

I messed around with several of the character sheet pages today. I got tired of writing out the class and level of a character on each page, so I'm removing it on as many of the pages as I think I can get away with. The character name still has to be there, in case the sheets get mixed up or come free from their disc-binding.

The one thing I haven't figured out how to do gracefully is to put a copyright notice on the sheets so I can sell them. When I began to design them, I used every bit of space---from margin to margin---that I could. Now, I'd like to up the stakes a little and I'm stumped on how to do it. I've debated making them all into one large PDF file, with an introductory page that has an explanation, some sample page sets and the copyright. I'll need to test that first.

I think that's all for now.

(I wrote this whole thing out earlier and thought I'd clicked "Submit"... I guess not. *sigh*)

I've finished designing all the individual sheets for the new character sheet system I came up with. I'm pretty tickled with the result. Two nights ago, we all tried them out with a character. Randy filled in a set with a favorite character of mine: Detrick De Roejnahir, cleric. Nick used his paladin, Joemvu. I tried my monk, Jhul Mar Rhian. With a couple small tweaks and a new page suggestion, everyone was really excited about the new system.

Our Rollabind discs and punch came Monday, so we were able to punch the half sheets and bind the characters. That worked out really well. We bought 625 small black discs and 50 each of red, yellow, white, green, blue, and purple. Why the colors? Ah, that's where the real geek in us comes in: code!

We decided that of the 8 discs on each binding, the first two would be a "global code" to designate the owner of the sheets. The third disc is an on/off code: red means DM sheets (therefore if the first two discs aren't your code, keep your mitts off!) and black means not DM sheets. The remaining 5 discs are for coding however individuals wish.

I sat down last night and looked at the classes and came up with a strategy for showing them in the binding.

• Fighter: red-red
• Cleric: yellow-yellow
• Druid: green-green
• Rogue: black-black
• Sorcerer: purple-purple
• Wizard: blue-blue
• Ranger: red-green
• Paladin: red-yellow
• Monk: red-white
• Barbarian: red-black

I went a bit further, since I have only 5 discs to use and that means I can code (only) 2 classes and still have one disc leftover. I decided that the last disc could designate how many classes a character has.

• Red: 1
• Yellow: 2
• White: 3
• Green: 4
• Blue: 5
• Purple: 6
• Black: 7

We're hoping to play-test these sheets this weekend. So, I grabbed the group that I'm running through the current campaign and printed up enough sheets to get them moved to the new pages. I had hoped (prior to creating my "brilliant' coding system) to keep each group that adventures together in one set of discs.

This group is made up of four people. Lanara is a 3/4 Wizard Cleric. Stormhawk is a 5 Ranger, Kelza is a 7 Rogue and Namirra is a 7 Sorcerer. The four of them were already pushing the limits of the small discs. Eventually, I separated them out into their own individual books and that's working better.

I spent some time today working on moving these four characters into the new sheets. A couple of the sheets could use some tweaks. And I'm thinking there's at least one more sheet that may be required for clerics.

That's all for now.