Date Night: Roller-skating

Last Saturday Stephanie and I went roller-skating for a date night. There is a roller-skating rink a few miles from us. We went rented our skates and headed out to the rink. It was a little shaky at first but we quickly got our groove and started doing laps. There was Lots of cheesy 80s music and after awhile they turned off the lights and turned on the disco and Thriller. We continued for about an hour but our legs and feet just couldn’t handle the punishment that the skates were dishing out.

For dinner we headed to California Cuisine in Hillcrest which was recommended to us by a friend in a cooking club. I enjoyed a tasty scallop dish and Stephanie got the linguini. We finished with a cup of coffee and an adult milkshake.

Stephanie wanted to try a couple different dessert places in Hillcrest but one had shut down and the other was closed so we ended up having a nice walk and heading home.

The next day we headed up to Orange County to hang out with member of the Straight Dope Message board which Stephanie is a member. We met some interesting people and had a good time. I also got to drink some good beer as the place had around 100 beers on tap.

Parents and GameX 09

Last week my parents came to town. I took half days off work from Tuesday to Friday and got to hang out with them in the afternoon. They also brought their friends Ruth and Rob who I have known since I was a kid. Ruth is head of the theater department at NMSU and runs a children's theater workshop. I was in both (not at the same time) so it was good seeing them, too.

On Tuesday we went to Point Loma and got some seafood and then hung around Cabrillo Nat Mon. Later we got dinner at the Linkery and then went to see the play Cornelia (about the politician George Wallace who ran for President in 72 and his wife) at the Old Globe. On Wednesday we went to the Hotel Del Coronado and got some lunch and then bummed around the beach. After we stopped at Extraordinary Desserts and then Old Town to have dinner with Stephanie. On Thursday I played tennis with my dad and then we went wine tasting in Temecula. Finally, on Friday we went and saw the Padres whoop the Cubs 4 to 0.

I didn't get any rest because Saturday morning was the GameX gaming convention up in LA. We headed up at 7 but arrived late and ended up playing a bad OD&D game that took 2 hours of prep. I tried to run Hunter the Vigil after lunch but only had two players and one left in the middle which ended the game. I was upset by this time and luckily the third game, a John Carter of Mars style game using Fate, was a lot of fun.

On Sunday I ran Monsters and Other Childish Things which was fun but wouldn't have had any players if my friend Sam hadn't wrangled some up. The final game was a demo of White Wolf's new game Geist, which I can't say anything about since I signed a NDA other than it was a lot of fun and has the potential to be White Wolf's best ghost game yet. We also got free dice and books. Overall, I give the con a C and probably won't be running any games at the con since I have more fun playing.

Annivarsary and Death Cab

On Sunday the 26th was our 1 year anniversary. We didn't do anything special that day because Stephanie was sick. We did eventually make it out for a nice dinner at The Linkary who had catered our wedding. Pretty typical of us to keep things super simple.

Last Wednesday Stephanie and I went to see "Death Cab for Cutie." It was a great concert. The venue, Rimac Stadium at SDSU, was small and it was all general admission. I didn't push my way to front like when I was in college but picked out some close seats where we could easily see the band.

Hyphen-Con and Wedding

Last few weekends have been a lot of fun. A few weeks ago was the fifth rpg-sandiego meet (hyphen-con). This is our local game day where a bunch of us get together and play rpgs all day. We had some great games going and our biggest turnout around 23 people. I got to play in an original D&D (1974 White Box) game where we were sent out to hunt some dark elves but in classic D&D style everyone died. Later I played Transhuman Space, a game set about 100 years in the future where AI and uplifted creatures are fairly common.

The weekend after Hyphen-Con Stephanie and I went to go see the Padres beat the Giant which was fun. We got free Adrien Gonzales t-shirts.


Last weekend was Joe's wedding. I flew out to Ft. Lauderdale on Thursday and Joe stayed at my hotel so he wouldn't see the bride, Kelly. We stayed up late a drank beer so he would be ready to go the next day. Luckily we woke up without too much trouble and got some breakfast. The rest of the day was all wedding which was fun. The Friday after we went on the water taxi and looked at the swank houses and yahts and then ate at a nice restaurant in down town. We finished off the evening drinking in their suite.

Baseball and Teeth

A couple weekends ago Stephanie and I went to the World Baseball Classic semi-finals and final. Actually, we started off watching the WBC in San Diego with Cuba vs Japan. Not the most exciting game but things would heat up when we went up to Los Angeles for the finals.

It was a lot of fun. We actually stayed in a Marriot Suites in Anaheim do to one of our friends working at the same hotel chain and able to get a great rate. Since we were down there we went to Disneyland and ate at the Blue Bayou, the restaurant in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
The two semi-finals were blowouts as Korea beat Venezuela and Japan beat the USA. However, the final was amazing and possibly the most exciting baseball game I’ve ever been to. It was Japan vs Korea and the Korean fans were crazy making noise at every pitch. They ended up coming back in the 9th pushing the game into extra innings but Japan won in the 10th.

In other news I have finished getting a root canal and have started getting a crown. The crazy thing about this is both of these require two trips and I had a cleaning in the middle for a total of five trips to the dentist in two months.

Condor : Helping with RPGs

A few weeks back I went to a Dungeons and Dragons meetup. While there I met a woman who was the chair for a local scifi convention called Condor. I suddenly became interested because I've been trying to consolidate and grow the San Diego RPG community. We currently don't have a local gaming convention. We have a couple small things like game days at Game Town and our own game day but nothing large.

This was my chance to help grow a gaming convention. Condor is supposed to have gaming but hasn't been able to bring in people and grow interest. I decided to go and meet the people who run gaming at Condor and see if I could help grow it over the next year.

I went and was successful. I even got to run some D&D4 for some people. I am now in contact with the heads of Condor and I hope to be able to work with them and grow the rpg/gaming and eventually turn it into a respectable gaming convention.