Babyless, Swordsmaster and Radiators
Mar. 6th, 2003 01:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lathanyAnyone who has been within five miles of my LJ recently will know that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bateleur and I are currently twinless. This has resulted in a week off.
<Sound of trumpets>
Theoretically.
In practice I have been working on The Big Household Project - the repainting of the lounge radiator.
What does this involve ? Well, sanding the radiator, priming the radiator and then painting the radiator. Sound easy ? Well, no, actually. But it got harder. After the cunning purchase of a circular wire brush for the electric drill, I was all prepared to sand the radiator. After all, Ryan had been peeling it by hand for weeks, so it should prove possible. What I had failed to take into account was that my mess-making son had been peeling the bottom of the radiator where the paint was mostly detached from the metal (probably a heat distribution thing - I bet there is some clever physics theory explaining this) and not peeling the top bit where the paint needed five minutes of wire brushing to look slightly paler.
To cut a boring story shorter, I spent two days on it. There was still paint left on it, but I reckoned that if I couldn't remove it with the drill, then it was likely to stay put. One side effect of this process is that most of the wire brush disintegrated. I have been picking little wire threads out of the carpet, my socks, and even out from under my ring fingernail (which really hurt). Another side effect was the iron and paint dust. I had a bath. I then had to give the bath a bath. However, the sanding was over.
Next came the priming. At this pointbateleur took pity on me and did it himself. There was a nasty moment, when he realised that we needed white spirit urgently, but mostly it went smoothly. Also, because I was going out to lunch (to see my friend Ruth), I got to escape the smell. bateleur took refuge from it upstairs (to his FastRam programming and Magic playing).
Finally the painting could happen. "Three coats" said the tin. After we opened it, we could see why. Heat-proof paint is very runny.bateleur did the first coat (last night), I did the second (this morning) and he has promised to do the last one this afternoon. We had hoped to get away with two coats (being still slightly optimistic at this point), but this has proved to be an unachievable dream. However, it looks like I will get my shiny white radiator out of this. So it was worth it.
Also, the work was not as bad as I am making out. OK, maybe it was pretty bad. However, it still felt better than doing twins-care for those two days. Plus every time I took a break I went back to my paladin in Baldur's Gate II - Throne of Bhaal which I finally finished last night. Take it from me, a paladin is easier to complete than a mage. The only sad thing is that playing a female character only provides one possible "romance" plotline. Male characters get three. Consequently, there is less interest in replays (although I have still managed several Baldur's Gate II ones and even a couple Throne of Bhaal - but then, I have completed Final Fantasy VII five times... OK, forget I mentioned that again).
The Athory session had a full complement of players from start to finish. Pluschrestomancy has promised to come back in May (this attracted much applause from venta, bateleur, ao_lai, quisalan and chrisvenus) so he will be just in time for the fun at Chir Shrine. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Going back to the start of the session, the party had reached Haven and stayed the night at the Fort where they had dinner with the Keeper and the Haven nobility. This included Lady Felicity (the Infinity mage), Lord Illiac and his daughter Kathrine (they had met the Lord in Lower Port) and Lord Barathan (in charge of the Snake's navy, which was sunk during the Lathany civil war - the players insisted on calling him The Pirate).
Having got through the meal without an assassin popping up, the party had a peaceful night's sleep before setting out for Leonides castle. For once, they were not attacked by Lirrisorn and reached the central island safely. They found the castle (more of a mansion, really) in the centre of the island and were greeted in person by Leonides (their favourite demi-god). He gave them tea and explained his problem - that he found Athory a violent place where the ruthlessness of the politics was preventing the land and the people from prospering. Plus he was worried by the increased Lirrisorn activity. Then there was the not-so-small matter of declaring an heir. The party plot-dumped on him. Lady Bryanna told him of her dream naming "one of the Old Blood", the stealing of the "Royal Jewels" and the "Ninth Path". And everyone worried.
Leonides eventually decided to name the Keeper his heir and sent invitations out to all ten Duchys asking for representatives to attend the announcement. The party began to prepare for the arrival of all the important people. Lady Bryanna and Danaeus travelled to Haven for help from the priesthood (including the all-important hiring of a cook) whilst Heleth, Lord Roland and Taronus began making security arrangements. They found that the Keeper had recently sent a group to investigate the island (it was obvious from the dead bodies - including that of the Giant Lirrisorn that Leonides had left to guard the library) and had claimed a large proportion of Leonides' book collection. Heleth received the job of directing the newly-imported Ordiriss into creating a path from the beach to the house.
As the arrival time neared, Leonides revealed his reasons for building his residence on the central island - a large Letizia cave network connected with the surface of the land at that point and he had built the library on top of it. He explained that passages lead out from underneath the Snake to the Athory mainland and to the sunken island of Zair. Lord Roland's eyes brightened at this news and even the comment that it would be several weeks walk did not seem to put him off the idea of going to take a look. Taronus was also delighted with this new discovery and used the magical natural of the Letizia to finally contact his grandfather. Telepathically. They arranged to meet in Chir Shrine as Leonides felt that the ancient capital was the best place to begin searching for information about Bryanna's dream and the Lirrisorn attacks.
The representatives arrived. Only Keeper Herris and Duchess Louise arrived in person. The latter was a huge surprise to the party, being younger than they were. Duchess Louise also added to the party's growing interest in Chir Shrine by asking them to come to the Dry Duchy as she believed that something had been stolen from the capital.
The evening meal, which included all ten representatives from the warring Duchys, was a tense affair. Taronus found a piece of information to amuse himself with (the Lady Vanessa had recently been dumped by the Lord Haverel and her captain feared an order to end the Lord's life) but it was mostly a great relief to everyone when the evening finally ended.
The morning was devoted to Leonides' announcement. The big matter of appointing Herris his heir and the small matter of declaring the island a future haven for mages. Except that the party feared the small matter almost certain to cause more trouble than anything had in Athory since the fall of the throne. After all, would any Duke or Duchess agree to release their mages - a vital part of their armies ? But who could argue with Leonides, Duke-Mage of the Snake ? But would they have to - after all Leonides had few years left...
The other main events of the week involved food. To start with,bateleur and I went over to Swans our semi-local Chinese for dinner on Tuesday night. We had their "Szechuan Feast" which was mixed starters, Duck, main course (including honey beef, garlic chicken and sweet chili prawns) followed by icecream and fritters. Plus Swans do liqueur coffees properly. I hate the whipped cream efforts that so many places provide.
Then there was meeting Ruth for lunch yesterday. The company was enjoyable (the food was OK pub stuff). Not least because she commented on how dark my hair now is. The only downside was that she is working very hard, so we only managed an hour. She asked after the twins, enthused about her forthcoming skiing holiday and we talked of old friends. It was nice.
After several days of (mainly) enjoyment (in part due to the consumption of many, many thousands of calories),bateleur and I rang the grannies to find out how they were coping. Fortunately, both appeared to be surviving although Ryan was proving a little too fast a crawler for their liking (Granny Jo took the pushchair out and came back to find him in the garden). Much to my surprise, I actually missed the twins a bit. Not enough to want them back early. But enough that I should escape instant depression when they return at the weekend.
What else have I planned for the rest of the week ? Well, even more food on Friday evening (yummy Thai stuff this time - plus great company), preceded by a shopping trip in the afternoon. Also, possibly a cinema visit either tonight or Saturday to see Solaris. Then there is the Buffy and Angel double bill (and the inevitable LJ write up). Plus, I have this hope that I will suddenly be hit with some wonderful game ideas for May (one-off stuff wished for).
But, best of all, a couple more twin-free days !
<Sound of trumpets>
OK. Done now.
bateleur and I are currently twinless. This has resulted in a week off.<Sound of trumpets>
Theoretically.
In practice I have been working on The Big Household Project - the repainting of the lounge radiator.
What does this involve ? Well, sanding the radiator, priming the radiator and then painting the radiator. Sound easy ? Well, no, actually. But it got harder. After the cunning purchase of a circular wire brush for the electric drill, I was all prepared to sand the radiator. After all, Ryan had been peeling it by hand for weeks, so it should prove possible. What I had failed to take into account was that my mess-making son had been peeling the bottom of the radiator where the paint was mostly detached from the metal (probably a heat distribution thing - I bet there is some clever physics theory explaining this) and not peeling the top bit where the paint needed five minutes of wire brushing to look slightly paler.
To cut a boring story shorter, I spent two days on it. There was still paint left on it, but I reckoned that if I couldn't remove it with the drill, then it was likely to stay put. One side effect of this process is that most of the wire brush disintegrated. I have been picking little wire threads out of the carpet, my socks, and even out from under my ring fingernail (which really hurt). Another side effect was the iron and paint dust. I had a bath. I then had to give the bath a bath. However, the sanding was over.
Next came the priming. At this point
bateleur took pity on me and did it himself. There was a nasty moment, when he realised that we needed white spirit urgently, but mostly it went smoothly. Also, because I was going out to lunch (to see my friend Ruth), I got to escape the smell. bateleur took refuge from it upstairs (to his FastRam programming and Magic playing).Finally the painting could happen. "Three coats" said the tin. After we opened it, we could see why. Heat-proof paint is very runny.
bateleur did the first coat (last night), I did the second (this morning) and he has promised to do the last one this afternoon. We had hoped to get away with two coats (being still slightly optimistic at this point), but this has proved to be an unachievable dream. However, it looks like I will get my shiny white radiator out of this. So it was worth it.Also, the work was not as bad as I am making out. OK, maybe it was pretty bad. However, it still felt better than doing twins-care for those two days. Plus every time I took a break I went back to my paladin in Baldur's Gate II - Throne of Bhaal which I finally finished last night. Take it from me, a paladin is easier to complete than a mage. The only sad thing is that playing a female character only provides one possible "romance" plotline. Male characters get three. Consequently, there is less interest in replays (although I have still managed several Baldur's Gate II ones and even a couple Throne of Bhaal - but then, I have completed Final Fantasy VII five times... OK, forget I mentioned that again).
The Athory session had a full complement of players from start to finish. Plus
chrestomancy has promised to come back in May (this attracted much applause from venta, bateleur, ao_lai, quisalan and chrisvenus) so he will be just in time for the fun at Chir Shrine. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Going back to the start of the session, the party had reached Haven and stayed the night at the Fort where they had dinner with the Keeper and the Haven nobility. This included Lady Felicity (the Infinity mage), Lord Illiac and his daughter Kathrine (they had met the Lord in Lower Port) and Lord Barathan (in charge of the Snake's navy, which was sunk during the Lathany civil war - the players insisted on calling him The Pirate).
Having got through the meal without an assassin popping up, the party had a peaceful night's sleep before setting out for Leonides castle. For once, they were not attacked by Lirrisorn and reached the central island safely. They found the castle (more of a mansion, really) in the centre of the island and were greeted in person by Leonides (their favourite demi-god). He gave them tea and explained his problem - that he found Athory a violent place where the ruthlessness of the politics was preventing the land and the people from prospering. Plus he was worried by the increased Lirrisorn activity. Then there was the not-so-small matter of declaring an heir. The party plot-dumped on him. Lady Bryanna told him of her dream naming "one of the Old Blood", the stealing of the "Royal Jewels" and the "Ninth Path". And everyone worried.
Leonides eventually decided to name the Keeper his heir and sent invitations out to all ten Duchys asking for representatives to attend the announcement. The party began to prepare for the arrival of all the important people. Lady Bryanna and Danaeus travelled to Haven for help from the priesthood (including the all-important hiring of a cook) whilst Heleth, Lord Roland and Taronus began making security arrangements. They found that the Keeper had recently sent a group to investigate the island (it was obvious from the dead bodies - including that of the Giant Lirrisorn that Leonides had left to guard the library) and had claimed a large proportion of Leonides' book collection. Heleth received the job of directing the newly-imported Ordiriss into creating a path from the beach to the house.
As the arrival time neared, Leonides revealed his reasons for building his residence on the central island - a large Letizia cave network connected with the surface of the land at that point and he had built the library on top of it. He explained that passages lead out from underneath the Snake to the Athory mainland and to the sunken island of Zair. Lord Roland's eyes brightened at this news and even the comment that it would be several weeks walk did not seem to put him off the idea of going to take a look. Taronus was also delighted with this new discovery and used the magical natural of the Letizia to finally contact his grandfather. Telepathically. They arranged to meet in Chir Shrine as Leonides felt that the ancient capital was the best place to begin searching for information about Bryanna's dream and the Lirrisorn attacks.
The representatives arrived. Only Keeper Herris and Duchess Louise arrived in person. The latter was a huge surprise to the party, being younger than they were. Duchess Louise also added to the party's growing interest in Chir Shrine by asking them to come to the Dry Duchy as she believed that something had been stolen from the capital.
The evening meal, which included all ten representatives from the warring Duchys, was a tense affair. Taronus found a piece of information to amuse himself with (the Lady Vanessa had recently been dumped by the Lord Haverel and her captain feared an order to end the Lord's life) but it was mostly a great relief to everyone when the evening finally ended.
The morning was devoted to Leonides' announcement. The big matter of appointing Herris his heir and the small matter of declaring the island a future haven for mages. Except that the party feared the small matter almost certain to cause more trouble than anything had in Athory since the fall of the throne. After all, would any Duke or Duchess agree to release their mages - a vital part of their armies ? But who could argue with Leonides, Duke-Mage of the Snake ? But would they have to - after all Leonides had few years left...
The other main events of the week involved food. To start with,
bateleur and I went over to Swans our semi-local Chinese for dinner on Tuesday night. We had their "Szechuan Feast" which was mixed starters, Duck, main course (including honey beef, garlic chicken and sweet chili prawns) followed by icecream and fritters. Plus Swans do liqueur coffees properly. I hate the whipped cream efforts that so many places provide.Then there was meeting Ruth for lunch yesterday. The company was enjoyable (the food was OK pub stuff). Not least because she commented on how dark my hair now is. The only downside was that she is working very hard, so we only managed an hour. She asked after the twins, enthused about her forthcoming skiing holiday and we talked of old friends. It was nice.
After several days of (mainly) enjoyment (in part due to the consumption of many, many thousands of calories),
bateleur and I rang the grannies to find out how they were coping. Fortunately, both appeared to be surviving although Ryan was proving a little too fast a crawler for their liking (Granny Jo took the pushchair out and came back to find him in the garden). Much to my surprise, I actually missed the twins a bit. Not enough to want them back early. But enough that I should escape instant depression when they return at the weekend. What else have I planned for the rest of the week ? Well, even more food on Friday evening (yummy Thai stuff this time - plus great company), preceded by a shopping trip in the afternoon. Also, possibly a cinema visit either tonight or Saturday to see Solaris. Then there is the Buffy and Angel double bill (and the inevitable LJ write up). Plus, I have this hope that I will suddenly be hit with some wonderful game ideas for May (one-off stuff wished for).
But, best of all, a couple more twin-free days !
<Sound of trumpets>
OK. Done now.
