Wednesday, 12-30-2009

1.  Mom took the kids from about 9:30 until about 3:00...  So...

2.  Susan and I went to Borders for a couple hours (I worked, she read), popped into a few shops in the mall by mom's house, and ate lunch at Houlihans (Susan scribed a recipe for blueberry martinis).

3.  Susan took a nap.

4.  Played Team Fortress 2 and tried to become a master of the Pyro.

5.  Played Dragon Age:  Origins.

6.  Susan bought ingredients for blueberry martinis.  We had a couple and ended the night pretty drunkenly.

7. Sophia has begun calling herself "grandpa John" and refuses to answer to Sophia. She even woke up in the middle of the night and insisted that she was "grandpa John"

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Tuesday, 12-29-2009

1.   Susan went to the gym in the morning before I went to work.

2.  I worked at the book store for a couple hours and bought a 100-CD case for the remaining, loose CDs in my collection.

3.  Played in the snow with the kids.  Rainer tried to shovel the driveway with his new shovel.

4.  Played some Trine.

5.  Watched some Desperate Housewives.

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Monday, 12-28-2009

1.  Reorganized (i.e., purged) my video game / CD / DVD area...  Threw away approximately 20 lbs of:  CDs, DVDs, jewel cases, and old video game boxes.

2.  Jessica went to Target with Susan and the kids and then came back to the house to hang out for the day.

3.  Susan and the kids went over to Susan's parents' house because some of her family from Kentucky was in town.  I worked... Until 5:00, that is.  Then, it was Dragon Age:  Origins.

4.  Took a bath and read another story out of the Elric book.

5.  Watched a couple episodes of Desperate Housewives.

6.  Played a level of Trine.

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Sunday, 12-27-2009

1.  Post-christmas cleaning occurred for most of the day...  Make that almost all of the day.

2.  In the evening, we bottled (and corked with the new corker) Hard Cider Batch 3.  It's hard to explain how it tastes because it's not like any cider I've had.  Batch 1 was like woodchuck, batch 2 was like Strongbow, but this one is... Different.  It apple-y and sweet, it's clear with a rich, orange-ish-gold color.  I think it's the best of the three.

3.  Watched Desperate Housewives.

4.  Played some Trine.

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Saturday, 12-26-2009

1.  Post-christmas cleaning occurred most of the day.  

2.  We took the kids to the bookstore.  They played with trains and read books.  Renee (friend Renee, not grandma Renee) introduced us to Pirate's Night Before Christmas.  It was good (and half off) so we bought it.

3.  Drove down to Glendale (the former mall turned shopping district) so Susan could return some stuff.

4.  Picked Jessica up on the way home, she ate dinner with us.

5.  Jessica sat the house (is that proper?) so Susan and I could go out on a date.

6.  Date included book store (at which Susan bought several books and I read Elric) followed by drinking at Applebees.  

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Friday, 12-25-2009

1.  Woke up and unwrapped presents promptly at  7:30.  Rainer received a Susan-made doll.  Sophia got play silks.  They both received the Train Table 2.0, it was a pretty major hit. 

2.  Susan and I frantically cooked and cleaned, respectively.

3.  Susan's parents, mom, Jessica, Christopher, Halie, and Cooper came over around 9:30 for a Susan-prepared brunch. 

4.  Susan and her parents had a heated, emotional argument/discussion about memories of Susan as a kid.  It was awkward, so Rainer and I played with cashews he had ground in his new hand blender.  They became:  mulch, logs for a cabin, rocks, and finally compost.

5.  Everyone left and we had some time to relax.  

6.  Sophia claimed that she was going to get a motorcycle and a nose ring.  I'll have to keep an eye on her.

7.  We took the long (i.e., 2 minute) drive to Christopher and Halie's house for homemade pizza, beer, and cookies.  Spent the afternoon over there hanging out.  

8.  After we put the kids to bed, Susan and I spaced out for about two hours and went to bed at 8:45.

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Thursday, 12-24-2009

1.  Susan and I spent a bunch of time in the morning cleaning and otherwise preparing for Christmas.

2.  After Sophia's nap, we went over to Susan's parents' house for Christmas Eve celebrations.  There was eating, drinking (homemade mead), and opening presents.  Sophie got butterfly wings, which she wore around for the evening.  Rainer got a hand blender in which he made a rather pungent combination of items:  carrots, almonds, and pickles.  I received an orange bathrobe that I have not dared to try on yet.

3.  We got the kids to bed an hour late and they passed out.

4.  We spent the evening gluing Rainer and Sophia's new and improved train track to the newly painted and redesigned train table.  

5.  Susan finished Rainer's doll, I wrapped presents, and we managed to sneak an episode of Desperate Housewives in.

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Wednesday, 12-23-2009

1.  Jennifer was over for the morning, hanging out, playing with the kids, etc..

2.  My boss made me stop working early so I could go enjoy Christmas.  So, we went over to mom and Jessica's house to hang out.

3.  Since mom was going out with David for the evening, Jessica came back to our house for a homemade chili dinner.

4.  Jessica, Susan, and I watched Desperate Housewives.

5.  I passed out on the couch.

6.  Jessica and Susan watched some Adam Sandler movie, Bedtime Stories, and mom picked Jessica up around midnight.

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Tuesday, 12-22-2009

1.  Jennifer Canada and her parents came over in the afternoon.  Her parents left after 20 minutes or so.  Jennifer spent the night.  

2.  Had a tasting of Cider batch 3.  It's hard to describe, but it's yummy.  Between the three of us, we drank 1/3 gallon of it.  

3.  Susan and Jennifer went over to my mom's house to pick up a knitted circle for a doll Susan was making.  They stayed until 11-ish.  I played Dragon Age:  Origins.

4.  I went to bed, Susan and Jennifer stayed up chatting until after midnight.

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Monday, 12-21-2009

1.  Played in the snow with the kids before work.  Rainer shoveled the driveway with his new shovel from grandma Renee.

2.  Susan and Rainer made gingerbread cookies.  We took some over to Bonnie.

3.  Nathan came over in the afternoon.  We sat around, drank mead, played in the snow for a while, and talked about video games (some other stuff, too, but mostly video games).  

4.  Watched Desperate Housewives with Susan after the kids were in bed.

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Sunday - 12-20-2009

1.  It snowed about an inch.  We went out and had an extended snowball fight and built snowmen.   Sophia destroyed snowmen mercilessly.  Dad and Jessica came over to join the fray after a while.

2.  Jessica ended up hanging out at our house for the morning and early afternoon because Rainer didn't want her to leave.  She and Rainer watched Bob the Builder on the couch.

3.  Susan wasn't feeling so hot, so she had some vodka and rum and passed out on the couch.

4.  After Sophia's nap, we had Christmas (more like solstice since it was 12-20) at grandma Renee's house.  Lots of food and lots of presents.  Susan had a mild hangover and Christopher was impressed.

5.  I played Dragon Age most of the evening.  

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Saturday, 12-19-2009

1.  Had Santa's White Christmas coffee (Susan picked 5 packs of it up at Office Depot the day before)...  It's coconut-y, somewhat vanilla-y, and pretty tasty overall.  It's somewhat murky, though, and I'm not sure about the white residue it leaves on the filter.

2.  Dad and Sheila came over in the morning to hang out / play with the kids.

3.  Dad, Sheila, Jessica, Christopher, Halie, and Cooper trekked down to Conner Prairie for a free, christmas-y celebration.  We ate at Cici's pizza afterward.

4.  Susan, the kids, and I hurried home after pizza because...

5.  Clarence came over to watch the kids from 1:30 - 6:00.  Susan and I actually got out while the kids were awake for the first time in I'm not sure I remember how long.

6.  Susan and I did some shopping, went to Broad Ripple for coffee & culture, and stopped by Barnes & Noble in Clearwater to sate our nerdiness.

7.  Watched some Desperate Housewives.

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Friday, 12-19-2009

1.  Another rough day at work.  A white Russian almost made it better, but not quite.

2.  Feeling stretched too thin (especially since most of the people I know become extra demanding around the holidays and think I'm mentally unstable for not wanting to be involved), I started abandoning obligations.  Freelance work and an extra D&D campaign were first to go...  

3.  Went Yule / Christmas / Festivus shopping for a while with Susan and the kids.

4.  Fortunately, Susan's dad came over to house sit so Susan and I could go out to the book store for a couple hours.  

5. Rainer slept through the night without a diaper for the first time.

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Thursday, 12-17-2009

1.  Had a rough morning at work, so I treated myself to Penn Station for lunch.

2.  Worked at the bookstore for a while.

3.  Bought Susan's Christmas presents (can't list them here, she reads this thing).

4.  Played D&D with the Studio 301 crew.  Notable occurrences:  Lucan Varis was visited by the Spirit of Economics itself!  The spirit came to Lucan during a wine, scented candle, and bubble filled bath and sent him on a spirit quest:  kill the monsters in their lair to uphold the financial stability of the kingdom...  Unfortunately, Lucan didn't ask which monsters or where the lair was so the quest has become more difficult than was probably anticipated.  

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Wednesday, 12-16-2009

1.  Spent the afternoon at Susan's parent's house and ate dinner with them.  

2.  Was going to play D&D, but it was cancelled (DM got sick).  Played Dragon Age:  Origins for a while instead.

3.  Went to bed early.

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Tuesday, 12-15-2009

1.  Watched The Guild:  Season 2.

2.  Played Dragon Age:  Origins.

3.  Finished creating Sludgeworth, a halfling druid for a D&D game.

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Monday, 12-14-2009

1.  Watched Legend of the Seeker.

2.  Played Dragon Age:  Origins.

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Sunday, 12-13-2009

1.  Went to a Unitarian Universalist church to attend "service" and watch a retelling of the Christmas Story.  I still feel dirty inside, but I got out of paying $160 to attend the Yuletide Celebration downtown.  I think it's the first time I have "willingly" gone to anything resembling mass in... Um...  8 or 9 years.  I honestly can't say I have missed the experience, but $160 is a big savings, so it's a financial win at least.

2.  Christopher put a new battery in the Saturn so we could finally get the van in the garage for the winter.

3.  Took the kids to Uncle Bill's pet shop to check out the fish, birds, dogs, and cats...  I might file a report to my colleagues at the Humane Society regarding my findings.

4.  Ate lunch at Deep Indian Cuisine with mom and Jessica.

5.  Jessica hung out at our house for the afternoon.

6.  Drove the Saturn over to Christopher's so he can work on it, make it better, and sell it for some major cash (hopefully).

7.  Played Gyromancer.

8.  Watched "The Answer Man" with Susan.  It was a Netflix recommendation.  I thought it sucked, although I might have just been in a bad mood about #1.

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Saturday, 12-12-2009

1.  Spent the morning cleaning, buying groceries, etc.

2.  Played at Susan's parent's house for the afternoon...  Were actually able to go inside for the first time in two months.

3.  Ate dinner at Bd's Mongolian BBQ in Clearwater.  The kids enjoyed watching the guys cook on the hot stone slab with sticks.

4.  Played Gyromancer.  Initial impressions:  lots of fun, but not as good as Puzzle Quest...  It really needs more non-combat minigame type activities (like item creation, spell research, mount training, etc.) like there were in Puzzle Quest.

5.  Played Dragon Age:  Origins.  Initial impressions:  incredible!  I think it's the best RPG of non-Bethesda type I've played in ages...

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Friday, 12-11-2009

1.  Bought Gyromancer and Dragon Age:  Origins with birthday money.

2.  Couldn't play Gyromancer or Dragon Age:  Origins all day because I had meetings and couldn't play all night because...

3.  Susan threw me a surprise* birthday party!  We ate, drank, talked about gaming a lot, and were merry.

*Surprise = it was scheduled to be a surprise, but Susan wanted to invite some of my friends she didn't know how to contact so she had to let me in on the surprise early.

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Thursday, 12-10-2009

End of Quarantine Edition!

27th Birthday Edition.

1.  With the end of quarantine and quarantine-induced depression, I have resumed the ADD Hesch Blog.  

2.  Took the day off work since it's my birthday.

3.  Went out to Kohl's (with the kids) and bought some new shoes (first time in 3 years).

4.  Ate lunch with mom at Deep Indian Cuisine.

5.  Mom came back and watched the kids for a couple hours so Susan and I could go to the bookstore. 

6.  Christopher came over and tried to jump the Saturn (he's taking it, fixing it, and hoping to sell it eventually).

7.  After the kids were in bed, I played D&D with the Studio 301 crew until midnight-ish.

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous

Thursday, 12-03-2009

Quarantine Edition (10 days left)

Made hard cider, batch 3 using the following:

4.5 gallons of Mott's apple juice

40 oz. brown sugar

5 tsp yeast nutrient

1 pack dry white wine yeast (blue pack)

Posted via email from adhdhesch's posterous