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iwantitiwriteit · 5 years ago

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Slow Burn: Act 1 - Part 4

The Game Night

Pairing: Chris Evans x Famous!Reader

Summary: Game night with your cast and crew turns into a silent game of cat and mouse between you and Chris.

Warnings: Profanity, Sexual connotations, drunken silliness

Notes: This one was a fun challenge for me. Wanted to make sure there was a decent amount of conflict, but it was hard cos I am the queen of avoiding drama IRL; literally don’t know how that shit starts lol. Enjoy! Read the previous part here and check out the moodboard + music here.

Lush, autumnal trees that have yet to drop their leaves become more abundant and houses fit for large families grow farther apart as your Uber takes you from the bustling Boston city into the neighboring suburbs. Over the last few weeks, between staying with your sister in her Boston brownstone and filming on location on Harvard’s campus, you’ve become familiar with the urban terrain. You’re looking forward to the slowness of the suburbs, even if it’s just for an evening. It’s an experience you missed since being on tour non-stop. Always in an airport, then some large city, then on stage, in front of thousands. The quiet of the suburbs had evaded you the past few years, so you welcomed it with open arms.

“Whatcha got back there?” You had hoped having your earbuds in would keep talking at bay, but Charlie, the older gentleman driving your Uber, had other plans. The stress of his vowels lets you know he’s Boston born and bred. “I won’t say it smells bad, just… interesting!”

In the backseat with you are a ton of old, dusty games you borrowed from your sister, but no matter how musky, you know he’s talking about the aromatic platters of food. “Oh, it’s um, samosas.”

“Orange juice and bubbly got the cah smelling like that?!”

You giggle slightly at his misunderstanding, “Not MImosa; SAmosa. Here, try one.” You hand Charlie a fried savory pastry.

He screws his face at it, the sight obviously foreign to him. “What is it?”

“It’s a fried pastry with some really flavorful potatoes and peas on the inside. Go on! You’ll love it!”

Charlie takes a tentative bite, then widens his eyes as the food hits his palate. You both begin to nod at each other slowly, knowingly.

“Good right?”

“So good! Where’d you get this?”

“From the Indian place on Columbia.”

“Oh I know that place! Pass it all the time, never go in. Smells weird.”

“It doesn’t smell weird; it’s just different to you. But now that I’ve introduced you to something on the menu, it won’t be so foreign to you, now will it?”

“You know what, you’re right! Next time I pass by, I’ll order me some, um, what’s this called again?”

“Samosa.”

“Yeah, samosa. Thanks miss!”

“No problem.” You love introducing others as well as yourself to new cultures, part of the reason you don’t mind being on the road so much.

“Wanna know something? My Ma has a restaurant on Columbia, too.”

“Oh yeah? What’s it called?” You ready your phone to look it up, but Charlie is already handing you a takeout menu. “Thanks. ‘L'amore Della Madre’. Mother’s Love?”

“Sì! Puoi parlare Italiano?”

“No, at all. I can read a little if I go slow and the words are short, but that’s just about it.”

“Well if you come by, tell ‘em Charlie sent you, and you’ll get free Italian lessons!”

“Really?”

“No, but they’ll treat you like family and you’ll learn all the bad words you’ll ever need to know.” You both laugh as you pull up to a gate with a call box. You tell Charlie the passcode to let you through —‘Harvard Hottie’, to which he quirks his brow at you through the rear view mirror.

“My friend thinks very highly of himself,” you laugh as you think about how excited Scott was to make that the passcode. He’s been highly excited in general about having some of cast and crew over for game night, insisting it was a great way to bond and team build.

“Your friend has got some money, huh?” Charlie remarks as he drives the stretch of winding road along a sizable amount of land before there’s a grand but understated farmhouse in view. Yeah, I guess so. Scott is living well. Good for him.

The car parks in front of the house, and you bid farewell to Charlie, gifting him another samosa for the road. “Thanks sweetheart, and I’ll see you at Ma’s sometime soon, yeah? We’ll get you set up with a nice Italian boy, ok?”

What is with everyone and setting me up?? “Least of my worries, Charlie. Least of my worries.” You collect your cumbersome party offerings and head for the door, then ring the doorbell with your pinky, as it’s the only appendage you can get free. As you struggle to balance the things in your hand, the door opens. You have a nervous smile ready to greet whatever familiar face that will be on the other side of the door, but it fades into a nervous confused expression as you take in the unexpected, but familiar face opposite yours.

There you are: dumbfounded and face to face with the one person you dutifully have not thought about or seen in the last few weeks since New York. Chris stands across the threshold looking widely at you, just as you are at him. You stare at each other for a few more seconds before you fumble with the stuff in your hands, Chris catching them effortlessly.

“Woah there, I’ll get those for you.”

“No, it’s ok.” The two of you do an awkward little dance trying to keep the things from falling. Just then, Scott comes from another room to greet you, but is met with the sight of you and Chris, each holding a little bit of everything, and one another, in order to keep the things between your bodies from hitting the floor. Scott can’t help but smirk at the two of you before coming over to help some of the things out of your hands. He’s quick to leave you alone with Chris, disappearing around a corner.

“Um… it’s good to see you again…”

“Uh-huh, that’s nice. SCOTT! Can I talk to you a moment?” you say as you go in the direction Scott disappeared in. You’re brought to a large, homey kitchen. You take in the simplistic decor, modern but rustic design and clean state of it. Scott was at the counter, already digging into the samosas and looking through your tattered game selection.

“I thought you said this was a cast and crew get together. What’s your brother doing here?”

“Well, I'm staying with him while we’re filming; couldn’t just kick him out of his own house! Besides, he hosts a WICKED game night and offered to help.”

“What’s with y’all Bostonians and ‘wicked’? Like, who the hell actually says that?”

“Plus I figured you guys hit off ‘cos he only asked me about a million times if you were coming…”

You resist the urge to roll your eyes. Yeah, yeah, whatever. Knowing you couldn’t badmouth your costar and new friend’s brother, even if he had done so about you, you were careful with your answer.

“Look, I know what you and Mackie are up to and you gotta stop.”

“What EVER do you mean?”

You clench your teeth at his faux ignorance. “You know what I mean! Stop trying to set me up with your brother, or anyone for that matter. I need to focus on our film, ok?”

“Hey, is everything ok?” Chris comes to check on you and Scott.

“Yep, everything’s everything!” Scott turns to you, “I’m gonna go let everyone know you're here and that we’ll be starting in a few.” Scott excuses himself with a wink at you.You and Chris stand a few apart, stiff as rods. This literally couldn’t get more uncomfortable.

Thinking that if you gave Jimi the coffee and flowers, and focused on your work, you could magically disappear Chris from existence. You let yourself believe that you’d *unrealistically* never see him again, while Chris made sure that wouldn’t be the case. When he didn’t get a response for his green room gift, he knew he’d have to apologize in person, but he didn’t think too much about what he'd say.

Chris breaks the silence. “Soo, how’s filming going?”

You look at him, head tilted, eyes squinted, nose scrunched. Really? That’s what you’ve got to say to me right now?

“Right… that was— listen, I—“

“Where’s your bathroom?” you interrupt him.

“Uh, down that hall to the left.”

“Thanks.” You briskly make your way there and whip out your phone. Glancing over your shoulder, you see Chris face palming himself. As soon as you’re in the bathroom, you FaceTime Jimi.

“Hey hun! What’s up?”

“Girl, he’s here!” Your voice is panicked.

“Use more descriptive words honey. Who is where?”

“Chris is here at the game night!”

“Ooookay… and that’s a problem because...”

“Because he’s gonna ask me why I didn’t respond to his apology gift and I’m gonna say what? ‘Cos it was lame attempt after you grossly offended me after playing nice in my face all night. Like dude, I thought we vibed!’” You catch your breath before you start again. “Jimi, I may act like I want the smoke, but I really don’t! What do I do?”

“First off, take a chill pill. Secondly, just steer clear, and be neutral. Play nice, but don’t get too friendly. No need to make this bigger than it is.”

You exhale at your friend’s rationality. “Ok. Ok, I can do that!”

“Yeah you can! I have faith in you! Now, leave me alone until tomorrow, I’m catching up on Insecure and this ice cream is NOT gonna finish itself. Love you, bye!” You hang up with Jimi, and repeat “steer clear, be neutral, play nice, not friendly” as a mantra, while opening your messages. You text your sister to remind her to pick you up at 10pm. She offered since she knew you’d be drinking and said she didn’t want her “drunk, famous little sister in an Uber at night. They might hold you for ransom!” Simultaneously annoyed and endeared by her concern, you accepted her offer. She replies affirmatively.

Slowly opening the bathroom door, you poke your head out, checking to see that the coast is clear of Chris. When you find that it is, you step out and exhale.

“Hey.”

“OH SHIT!” You jump at the sound of Chris’ voice behind you, clutching your imaginary pearls.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you.” He chuckles a bit, but stops as you side eye him. She's not gonna make this easy. He clears his throat. “Um, I was hoping I could talk to you for a few—“

“Hey Kid! Scott said you were here!” Mackie pulls you in for a hug. You hadn’t seen each other all week because you hadn’t shared scenes with him. “What’s up with ya?”

“Oh ya know… same old, same old,” you say with a shrug. You look over to Chris who's rubbing his neck.

“Hey!! Party in the hallway!” Ansel joins the three of you in the hallway already a little tipsy. “What are parlaying about?”

“Not how you use that word.” Ansel boops your nose as the hallway fills with a couple more people, and you were never more grateful for your overly personable, slightly invasive film family. You squeeze out of the “hallway party” towards the living room, relieved to have escaped interaction with Chris, but unsure of if you would be so lucky the rest of the night.

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The group of about 30 cast and crew members congragate in the living room and are split into 2 teams: Team 1 In A Million and Team A-fucking-mazing. Team 1 In A Million includes you, Scott, and Jaden while Team A-fucking-mazing has Mackie, Ansel and your director, Sonya.

“Wait, we only have 14, they have 15!” Mackie complains.

“No need to whine, Mackie. Chris, I know you were gonna hang back some tonight, but you mind joining their team?” Scott gestures to the opposite team and Chris reluctantly joins them. He sits with his team on the end of the sofa across from you. He’s dressed like the big brother of a fraternity: cap on backwards that pulls his hair away from his crystal blue eyes, too tight t-shirt that show off his bulging biceps, basic jeans that accentuate his long legs, and a plain pair of color coordinated Nike’s, a size who knows, you just notice how big they are, and quite frankly, you find it all… mouth-watering. He offers you a shy smile and shrug, but you look away before you could melt and forget why you’re icing him in the first place. Chris just sighs to himself.

The games get under way, drinks and conversation are flowing, while both teams compete in a series of minute-to-win-it games. You forget about Chris long enough to have some real fun. Not really one for smack talk, though you love healthy competition, on-the-spot made-up cheers to hype up your teammates is your specialty. Every once in a while, you’ll look up mid-smile or laughter and catch Chris looking and smiling at you. Your expression immediately resolves into a neutral one, and Chris’ heart sinks every time.

“This next one is called ‘Blow Ball’.” Scott announces.

“That’s what she said,” Jaden jokes, and you just shake your head, barely laughing.

“Thank you for that, Jaden. When the timer starts, each player must use only their breath to blow the 73 blue ping pong balls off the pizza tray, while at the same time keep the 3 yellow ping pong balls on the tray. Any questions?”

Jaden raises his hand. “So you’re saying the players have to blow on the blue balls until they get off?” Chris does his classic, boisterous belly laugh, and you’re inclined to smile and sigh to yourself. I forgot how good that sounds.

“You’re exhausting, Jaden. Ok teams, pick your representatives!” After some deliberation, you’re chosen to go for your team, insisting you had the best breath control. You turn from your huddle to see who your opponent is. Of. Fucking. Course.

“May the best player win,” Chris offers his hand to you to shake.

“I intend to,” you reply, slapping his hand away and the group erupts in instigating chorus of “ooo’s”. There’s even a “you gone take that Cap?!” from Mackie. Under normal circumstances, Chris would’ve found your cockiness cute, attractive even. But seeing as you snubbed his apology, have been avoiding him all night, and consistently let your face fall at the sight of him, he couldn’t help but take it personally.

“Alright, alright,” Scott calms everyone down. “On your mark, get set, go!”

The two of you set to work on your trays. Chris struggles to get strong enough breaths out to move the balls thanks to the amount of beers he’s already thrown back and his distracting thoughts. What’s up with this girl? Why won’t she accept my apology? Is she really that full of herself?

Meanwhile, you breezed through your ping pong balls, moving them off the tray with your controlled breath with ease. A couple minutes pass of you going at your trays, your team ridiculously rowdy thanks to the copious amount of alcohol consumed at this point. You’re down to the last few blue ping pong balls on your tray, careful not to blow the yellow ones off.

You look up slightly at Chris who has a little ways to go before catching up to you. You lock eyes with him. He then flicks his eyes down to your tray and notices there’s just a single blue ball between you and victory. He brings his eyes back up to yours, then to your Fenty-glossed lips that are serving him a cocky grin, which turns into a soft ‘O’ as you puff out just enough air to skid the last blue ball off your tray and onto the floor. You win.

You both rise slowly, maintaining strong eye contact, but it’s broken as your team crowds and rough houses you like you’ve just won the Super Bowl. Jaden puts a beer bottle to his mouth like a microphone. “So here we are with the most badass, bodacious Blow Ball player in the land. Tell us, how does it feel to bring your team to victory?” he asks you in his best broadcaster voice.

You patronize him because you’re having fun. “Well, you know, I couldn’t have done it without their support… and my Grammy-award winning singer’s lungs baby!” There’s another round of rowdiness from your team, but looking over at Chris, your smile falters for a different reason. He seems unamused by your antics. What’s his deal? You don’t stay looking at Chris for long, as your team turns you around for more drunken celebration.

“I want to challenge you to a game of beer pong.” Chris pipes at you amongst the loud chatter.

Your back is to him, as you were talking to one of your teammates. You only look over your shoulder as you reply. “Challenge all you want, but I don’t wanna. We won. That’s it. Move on.”

“What, you’re scared cos it’s not in your element you won’t win?” The group quiets down as you turn to face Chris. Studying his face, you come up with nothing, unable to read him. He’s joking, right?

Your mantra about steering clear and playing nice are gone from your tipsy brain. “No, but I’m sure your confidence is coming from the fact that it’s well in your element.” You approach him, sizing him up as he looks down at you.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Despite your best efforts, you had been watching him tonight. The more drinks he threw back, the more bro-ish he became. Hella loud, overly competitive, with unsolicited coaching. It gave you a headache, but you brushed it off until now.

“Nothing, just that some of us,” motioning to yourself, “spent our college days studying, while others,” poking his chest, “got their frat on. Hence why beer pong is right up your alley.”

“Jokes on you: I didn’t go to college.”

“That explains why you think ‘brown’ and ‘mouth’ rhyme,” you say low enough for only him to hear. So she got the gift... There’s a pang in his chest and it’s evident to you in his eyes. The look he gives pains you and causes you to soften your features.

“So are we gonna do this or what?” says Ansel, mouth full of samosa, cutting the heady moment.

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The next 30 minutes are a complete blur. There’s yelling, cheering, sneering, and shit talking. Cup after cup of beer is thrown back on your end as Chris whoops your ass at this game, just like you knew he would. By the end of it you are thoroughly drunk, having reached tipsy quite a few games back. His team swamps him in congratulations, but his eyes stay on you, his face still unreadable.

You’re not a sore loser, you swear it, you just couldn’t take the unsaid tension with Chris any longer, and excused yourself. You find a quiet corner to take a breather and an opportunity to text your sister to remind her to pick you up at 10. She says she’ll be there.

“Hey, cute doggie!” You notice the pooch perched on an oversized ottoman and sit next to, not bothering to make it to a chair. You read his tag. Dodger.

“Aaahhh. Chris’ best boy and dysfunctional codependent,” you recall from when the night you met in New York a few weeks ago. “Tell me, is he always this, this… frustrating?” You drawl out. Dodger just responds with a light bark as you scratch behind his ears to his delight.

You enjoy the dog’s company for a few minutes longer until he gives an alerting bark, causing you to look in the direction of the patio that you’d just left. You look up and can see double the Chris approaching. Not even thinking twice, you crawl out of the sitting area and into the next room where most everyone is now sobering up and playing low energy board and card games. You, however, are frantically looking for somewhere to avoid Chris.

Once Chris reaches, he only finds a happily panting Dodger, that he crouches down next to. “She’s seriously avoiding me, huh Bubba?” Dodger barks then licks Chris’ face, as if to say, “Yeah dude, give it up.” How childish.

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9:55 pm rolls around and you are waiting at the front door for your ride like a kid on the curb of their school. All night has been an exhausting game of cat and mouse between you and Chris, and you appreciate the moment of solace in his foyer. The ringtone for your sister fills the room, and you put your phone to your ear.

“But Lynn, you offered!” Chris hears an anxious voice from his spot in the kitchen and walks in its direction to investigate.

“You didn’t just find that out! Why didn’t you tell me earlier?!” As he gets closer, he identifies it as your voice. There you are, at his front door, coat and purse, ready to leave the festivities, and scoffs. Last to arrive, first to leave.

“Are you kidding me right now? I don’t need you to send me money! I’ve got money! Money is not the issue here!” Chris raises his brows to your statement. He has no idea who you’re yelling at like that, but it’s not helping your case in his mind.

“Yeah, whatever. Just don’t even breathe in my direction tomorrow.” Stupid sister, and her stupid bowling league. You continue to mumble to yourself as you assess your options. Seeing as you didn’t want to interrupt anyone’s good time, and want to get the hell out of there ASAP, you decide to just take an Uber anyway.

One last try. “Everything ok?” You look up to see Chris, eyes glossy from drunkenness, red from tiredness, nursing a water bottle and leaning on the archway.

“Yeah,” you say, not meeting his eyes, hoping he’d go away. When he didn’t, you moved closer to the door, hoping he’d get the picture then. Steer clear.

“Leaving already?”

“Uh-huh.” Be neutral.

“We were just about to cue up some karaoke. I’d love to hear what those singer’s lungs could do.” You loved karaoke. But not tonight. Not with him.

“You all enjoy; I’m not in the mood.” Play nice, not friendly.

That’s it, I’ve had it with her cold shoulder! “Wanna know something? I was wrong about you.”

“Is that so?” You brace for another cringey apology.

“Yeah… You’re not an airheaded, wannabe popstar. You’re an arrogant, childish diva.”

You’re taken aback, but not entirely surprised. You can see how he got to this conclusion. What with you icing him all night, taking digs at him, and if he was in that archway long enough, that conversation with your undependable sister could have sounded diva-ish out of context. It’s a complete misjudgment of you, but you can’t help but think you started it. “Oh yeah?”

“Hell yeah.” The two of you meet in the middle of the foyer for your second stand off tonight.

“You wanna know what you are?”

“I get the feeling you’re about to tell me.”

“You’re a fickle, judgmental bro dude.”

“Bro dude?”

“Yeah! A bro dude! You're good at beer pong, you flirt relentlessly, try to get in my head, and get pissed and start calling names the second you realize you’re not getting the time of day.”

“Oh honey you wish I was flirting!”

“Is everything alright in here?” Scott appears in the archway his brother was in just moments before.

“Yeah, I was just going; my Uber’s here.” Your ride share arrived just in time to save you from any further wanton ridicule.

“Uber? I— or someone can drive you home.” Chris says as he grasps your elbow.

“More of your mixed signals. Save the fake concern for someone who’s got the time, cos it ain’t me.” Taking back your arm in a huff, you leave for your waiting ride.

“Woah... what was that about?”

“I… I’m gonna call it a night. I’ll help cleanup in the morning.” Chris kisses his brother goodnight, one last drunken act before retiring for the night. Scott is left in the foyer stunned, as Mackie comes to see what’s holding him up.

“Hey man, where’s Chris and— are they… ya’know?” Mackie gives a suggestive look, bumping Scott with his elbow. “I know you felt that tension, that sexual tension!”

“No, they’re not— They just had some intense words, and she left and he went to bed— alone.”

“What?! What happened?”

“I don’t know but we gotta think of something. They can’t hate each other!”

“Yeah, we’ll think of something… after we sing some karaoke. I’ll be Diana if you’ll be Lionel.”

“No, I’m definitely more Diana, you be Lionel!”

“Fine.”

Part 5

#chris evans imagine #chris evans x reader #chris evans fluff #chris evans x y/n #chris evans x female reader #chris evans fanfiction #chris evans one shot #chris evans x poc!reader #chris evans x woc #Slow Burn Series #chris evans series

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brewskis-dnd-homebrewery · 6 years ago

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Running Your First Game: Part II

Hi again! Welcome back to “Running Your First Game” where I chronicle the lessons I’ve learned having set out to play the role of Dungeon Master for the very first time.

Last night we played session 3 of a campaign that I originally expected to be a one-shot experiment. And let me just start off by saying I think my players have a super power that allows them to completely sidestep the obvious right thing to do in every situation and instead waste a ton of time every session doing completely random stuff instead.

...At least, that’s a tempting feeling to have. But actually, it’s probably the worst way I could view the situation. So let me go back and correct a few things about what I just said while adding a little context.

The Frustration

I don’t know about you, but when I prepare for a session, or even for a larger campaign, I’ve found myself trying really hard to put together material I think my players will really enjoy. And when I don’t get a chance to present that material because their choices have taken the story in a different direction, it can be a little frustrating.

For example, I have one player who is an actor by trade and his favorite thing to do is role play. But I also have another player whose favorite part of the game is the good old hack-’n-slash. She’s fine with the role play aspect, but it’s in the combat encounters when her eyes really light up.

I came away from our session a week ago feeling like I hadn’t fully delivered because, whereas there was a lot of role play happening, it turned out to be so well done (and so well rolled), that my players were able to talk their way around all of the encounters I had prepared for the session and not a single hack was slashed.

So this week I decided we’d be starting with some combat right off the bat. The basic context of the story at this point was: “The passenger ship you were on just ran aground a couple miles from a large city and, since it’ll be night in a couple of hours, the captain suggests you head on over to that city while she and the crew camp here to guard the ship’s cargo until morning.”

Simple, right? Just head on over to the city, right? And as DM, I’ve just substantially reduced their options for time wasting and can throw some encounters with wolves or whatever at them as they travel. Now I just sit back and wait for them to say, “sounds good, we head toward the city,” RIGHT?

Wrong!

As it turns out, the players didn’t want to leave this crew of 25 well-seasoned sailors “all alone” to fend for themselves, feeling some obligation to protect them overnight. So what happens? One player starts chatting up the NPCs. One player goes back on board the ship to explore more places. One player decides to help the crew build a fire. And for the first 30-45 minutes, there is still no combat!

Keep in mind that, personally, I’m totally fine with a lack of combat. But I’m worried about my player who loves combat and didn’t get any combat the previous session! Is she getting bored? Does she think I’m a bad DM? WHAT IF SOMEBODY AT THE TABLE ISN’T HAVING AN AMAZING TIME?? Not to mention the fact that I have a really cool description of the nearby city at evening time ready to go and if the players wait until morning to go there, it’ll lose all the dramatic effect.

So at this point I realize I have 3 options. I can either let things play out, get a little more heavy handed in pushing my players toward another decision, or try my best at introducing a subtle, quick-thinking, guiding hand. I go with option 3.

First, I reward my investigation enthusiast with a cool find on the ship. They weren’t supposed to find this item until later but, what the heck, it doesn’t hurt anything to let them find it now and it adds an air of mystery.

Next, I have some of the crew invite my combat enthusiast with them to fetch water from a stream in the woods, which she consents to do, and almost immediately gets her fight.

After drinking from what turns out to be a corrupted stream, the crew members go nuts and fly into a murderous rampage. She’s the only one there from the party and gets to take them out all on her own. After she rejoins the party and explains what happened, the ship’s captain decides that it’s not safe to camp in this area and that a few sailors will be left aboard the ship to guard the cargo while everybody else heads toward the city in order to make it there by nightfall.

“What?” my players respond, “a group of 20 capable, well-seasoned sailors traveling together in a group before nightfall? This is far too dangerous. Let us run ahead to gather some carts and supplies and we’ll bring it back to you.”

This works for the captain (and it really works for me), and finally my party sets off toward the city where the real meat of the session awaits.

Lessons Learned

Looking back on the session as a whole, it occurs to me that my players behaved exactly the same way while they were in the city as they did while they were at the campsite by the ship. In the moment, their meanderings through the city felt purposed while their meanderings at the campsite felt tedious. The only real difference was me, and where I had spent my time preparing.

I think, in an ideal world, I’d be able to plan out every inch of this 400 square mile campaign map. But that’s not realistic. So what I’m trying to get better at is adapting to suit all my players when I end up having to improvise.

In general, my players are respectful people so it’s hard for me to say they’re ever actually doing anything wrong. But there’s a temptation to think that anything outside of what I expected for a session is “off course” or wrong in some other way.

Is it really true that they are frustrating the narrative when they don’t take the bait that I hand them on a silver platter? So far the answer for our game has been a pretty solid no. In fact, the improvisation I had to do presented a few opportunities for world-building I hadn’t previously considered. Overall, the story is more rich because of it.

From a narrative perspective, what is more compelling? A) You fight some random wolves on the road, or B) you fight some of the people who just completed a journey with you, whose names you know, who have played roles in the story up to this point?

I think the answer is pretty obviously B. And it’s much more likely that, though I had to improvise my way through this bit, my players actually had a much better experience than they would have had if they’d done what I expected from the beginning.

All this re-affirms once again that this isn’t my story. It’s our story. That’s how the game is played and the story is better for it.

- Brewski

#dnd #d&d #5e #running your first game #first time dm #dm resources #for reference #dungeons and dragons #dungeons & dragons #dungeon master #dm

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htxcrew-blog · 6 years ago

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Sunday Night and We All Got Crabs 7/8/18

An oldie but a goodie- we’ll definitely be back to Trulucks. Sat in the bar at a high table.

Had another May/December romance to ogle but this one was a ménage a trois- eww.

Ordered a modest round of crab claws - four medium, one for each. Before we finished we determined another round was absolutely necessary, this time we were going for the jumbo claws. They did not disappoint. The fresh squeeze of lemon juice and oh so delicious mustard pushed these buttery bad boys over the top.

The wine- a red blend - was a highlight.

I’ll let Wesley talk about the oysters, but I will say the atomic horseradish and cocktail sauce on crackers did a fantastic job of opening the sinuses (perfect when consuming those snotty creatures I’d venture.)

As mentioned, the meatballs were a savory bit of heaven - brisket, short rib and chuck in a worcestershire-chili sauce gravy. Hello. Party in your mouth as Lisa would say.

The dessert plate, a trifecta of carrot cake, creme brûlée and some kind of chocolate cake was passable after consuming enough alcohol to be sufficiently buzzed, but smacked a wee bit of ‘I was meant to be eaten four hours ago’. Just my take.

As always, we were the last to leave. The waitstaff was sufficiently amenable - the bald one even calling out the artist to each new song that came on from the bar once he knew we were playing that game #howdidthehellheknowwhodaftpunkis? And this after dumping a drink on the questionable guests at the next table. What a good sport. ~amd

Well, this was unexpected with Lisa’s dad’s birthday that afternoon I was sure I’d be filled on hot dogs and birthday cake. The main course was Lasagna and salad and while I had a plate full of roughage, the Lasagna seemed a bit sweet so, I had just a taste.

Seems, there were plans going on about a meeting in the background but I didn’t know exactly what was to be going on and figured if it was to eat, Lisa and I would just eat appetizers and “perhaps”have a cocktail. It’s her summer after all and I’m off on Monday’s.

Truluck’s has been in Houston for quite some time I remember it arrived with much fanfare at a spot further down Westheimer. Maybe I was not interested in crab claws or figured I’d have to eat a metric ton to get full, it’s just not one of the places I’d ever been to. I wish I had gotten here sooner!

Place has the ambiance of a high end steak house with the appropriate lighting, lots of booths for together seating which is where we were initially escorted. This put us a long way from the piano man and I think we made the right move by asking to move to the lounge. Even with him playing we were easily able to converse with one another, granted we got there late on a Sunday and the crowd was sparse but it seemed perfect.

Anna has done a great job above covering most everything so, no need for me to rehash it all but lets talk about those crab claws, I added a picture below. I’m not sure where to begin but it was easily one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. I was raised on gulf coast crab which honestly is almost not worth eating as you need dental tools to get the meat out. I’ve of course had all you can eat king crab dipped in butter but this is another level. Our waiter ( actually the bartender, not sure where the bald guy who showed up later was) described them as “fresh, luxurious and buttery” and well, that about sums it up. I don’t think we were finished with the first order when Jorge proclaimed “we have to get more of these”. No one objected.

The good news as explained by the bartender again ( i hope he got the tip, where was the bald guy?) is they grow these claws back, so while they might not be able to write a check or have to defend themselves with 1 or no claws for a while they do regenerate.

The oyster choices were from Maine or Rhode Island, being Gulf Coast kids Lisa and I compare everything to our oysters. Work has paid for our oysters on the West Coast back in the day and they were always... different, not bad but just not what we liked. The same bartender ( note the pattern? where was baldy?) told us the Maine oysters were similar in size and consistency to Gulf Coast just a bit more “fresh” due to being cold water and a bit more salty as the saline content off the Atlantic was more than the Gulf ( who knew) and he was again spot on! Really enjoyed them and would certainly order again.

Somewhere in here, the bald guy spills a drink on one of the two “hired hands” who were entertaining the older gentleman in the booth near us and scurries to clean it up, the manager comes out to check on the patrons, while the dry ice from the seafood platter they had was smoking up the place, it was quite the show.

The meatballs were as described, awesome and I believe, finally delivered by the bald guy, who introduced himself as our waiter?

From ambience ( wish we could have heard more piano man), to service ( the bartender), to just the appetizers we ate, this would be close to getting our top tier CREW rating, which we need to decide if its 5 wine bottles or what. Judee and Danny would have only added to the shennanigans had they been there.

A real pleasant surprise and one that needs to be visited again. - wrj

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arplis · 5 years ago

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Arplis - News: My 22 Goals for 2019

Goal #1 — Spend More Time Doing What I Love I think we only have about 60% of the boxes unpacked, but the best part is all nervous energy is gone and I don’t even care that we’re sleeping on a mattress on the floor or that our stuff is strewn all over the house. In another week or so things will be in their place, we’ll have a proper bed to sleep in and I’ll have found the hairdryer. Moving is super stressful, but all the hard stuff is over now {well, the HH does still have to put the treadmill together but that’s his problem, not mine}. 😉 Goal #2 — Garden, Garden, Garden The color pallet for the front garden at the new place is going to be blue, pink, white and green. I’ve already ordered 200 white, and 200 pink tulip bulbs as well as 500 tiny grape hyacinth {muscari} to plant in the front flower bed. {Don’t you think that’s a dreamy color combination?} Now all I need to do is hunt down 9 blue hydrangea plants and about 36 baby gem boxwoods and I’ll be good to go. Oh, and maybe one or two pink common hibiscus for the tall corner in the front. And then HEY… I can settle in for winter and worry about the rest later. 😉 Also, I thought I’d mention that Botanical Interests is offering 30% off seeds right now in case you wanted to do a little late fall/winter sowing. {I’ll be planting a bunch of poppy seeds just before the first hard freeze}. Goal #3 — Plant an Orchard {Calling it Quits on this one.} I never did get around to planting an orchard, but Lemon and all but 2 of her babies survived the journey and the new place has a plum tree so that part is good. And, I think there might be room for an espalier tree or two at the back of the new house so I may get an orchard after all. But, it wouldn’t be planted until next spring. Goal #4 — Gussy Up the Potting Shed Done! I left the potting bench but took the party lights with me. Goal #5 — Grow Enough Extra Vegetables, Eggs and Flowers to Earn $1500 at my little roadside vegetable stand. It was totally my intention to grow a ton of fruits and vegetables to sell at the farm-stand when I made my list of goals for 2019 last winter, but then we moved. So, that whole goal was sort of a bust. The new peeps wanted the vegetable stand, and we were happy to leave it for them since it was made specifically to match the front of the house, so hopefully the tradition will continue. Goal #6 — Finish Every Single Unfinished Rug Hooking Project in My Pattern Bin + 10 Things from back Issues of Magazines/Books I’ve Been Meaning to Make. I finally finished the turkey rug I’ve been working on the past few weeks along with a few other things and I was able to upload them to my Etsy shop this weekend. I also hooked another pumpkin and a cat head and will try to get those listed along with some new wool bundles later this week. I still have a ton of things to hook if I’m going to meet my goal of clearing out my pattern bin, but I think once November and December roll around, the HH won’t be able to pry me off the couch because I’ll be in full on hooking mode and I’ll be able to finish all my rugs by the end of the year. 73 rugs in my pattern bin {now down to 34} 183 hooked flowers {finished 133, now down to 51} 10 “things” from back issues of magazines {finished 0} Goal #7 — Create 12 New Rug Hooking Patterns {with at least half of them being large ones} DONE! So far this year I’ve added 12 new rug hooking patterns and 13 beginner rug hooking kits to my Etsy shop. New rug hooking patterns I’ve created and added to My Etsy Shop this year: Tullia and Thomas Turkey Double Nantucket Whale Runner Miss Henny and Penny Miss Penny Simple Kitty Primitive Flowers 2 Fat Cats Annabell’s Big Day Old Fashioned Double Tulip Fat Brown Hen Busy Little Bee Queen Bee Rug Hooking Kits Busy Little Bee {in 2 different colors} Folk Art Heart Small Nantucket Whale Primitive Crow Miss Robin {in 2 different colors} Simple Kitty Primitive Flowers Sunflowers A Basket of Spring Posies Fat Brown Hen Chicky’s Garden Goal #8 — Split and Stack 2 Cords of Wood for Next Winter All that firewood! We sold it. 😉 Goal #9 — Do Something with the 5,002 Photos on My Phone Current number of photos on phone is 10 million. Goal #10 –Lose the Muffin Top I went out for a walk yesterday and guess what I spotted… A little hello from Mrs. HB. Hahaha! I still think it’s weird there are people walking the streets and picking their teeth. Why can’t they do this in the privacy of their own homes? WHY!? WHY!? I just don’t understand. *The shoes are made by DuckFeet style: Jylland {you can get a $30 off coupon HERE}. Someone always asks. Goal #11 — Run, Walk or Crawl a 5k, 10k, Half Marathon and Marathon Hey! I have picked out not only a 5k Turkey Trot but a half marathon as well. Looks like this goal will be wrapped on Thanksgiving. Saaaweet! Goal #12 — Read or Listen to 26 New Books {17 down, 8 to go} I finished Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and highly recommend it. And also requested a few more audiobooks. Currently on Request: I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley Books I’ve Read or Listened to So Far This Year: Marilla of Green Gables #1 Still my favorite The Great Alone #2 The Aviator’s Wife #3 Before We Were Yours #4 Secrets of a Charmed Life #5 Where’d You Go, Bernadette #6 Carnegie’s Maid #7 The Gown #8 Unbroken #9 The Alice Network #10 The Shape of Mercy #11 Will’s Red Coat #12 Big Little Lies #13 Bunny Mellon {Doesn’t count because it was my second time} On Writing {Doesn’t count because it was my third time} Walden Finder’s Keepers Delicious! Following Atticus Goal #13 — Try 52 New Recipes. 24 down, 30 recipes to go. OCTOBER. October is going to be my month for cooking! Goal #14 — Clean Up 52 Old Recipes on the Blog 9 down, 44 to go. I’ll get crackin’ once fall {and cooler temps} come around. Goal #15 — Fill 100 Canning Jars 48 down, 52 to go. I won’t be able to get any canning done in the next few weeks but I am planning on getting some jam on the shelves for us to use on toast as well as to give away this Christmas. I’ll probably need at least another month to get settled in though. Oh! And get this. The new house has a root cellar… AND the perfect spot for storing canned goods. 😉 I’ll have to show you the space when I get some time. So far this year I’ve I canned: 7 jars Peach Jam 7 jars of Strawberry Jam 15 jars of Carrot Cake Jam 15 jars of Spiced Pear Jam 4 jars of Almond Pears. Goal #16 — Finish Furnishing Our House So here’s the funny thing…. Even though we sold the old house and a boatload of furniture, I am still keeping this goal. I already have my eye on some pieces for the family room and then all I need is a new bed and we’re good to go. The new place is much smaller than the old one and so getting the entire house furnished by the end of the year, is going to be a snap. High five for downsizing. Goal #17 – 52 Dates with the HH {28 down, 24 to go} We went to a fancy-schmancy restaurant to celebrate. 😉 Goal #18 — Take One Adult Education Class Done {I’ve taken 3!} I’m keeping the first class I took with my neighbor top secret for now {Mel know’s what it is though} 😉 Spoon Carving Class with Heather. Mini pottery lesson {I loved it! and now I want to sign up for a full class} Goal #19 — Secret {for now} Holiday Project The big reveal will be on Friday, November 1st. So now you know why I had to push back the date on the big reveal. I have all the supplies on hand to get started and my practice piece done, but I still have boxes to unpack and the need to get the majority of the house in order before I start on the main holiday project as its going to need it’s own little assembly line set up. Goal #20 — Create 12 Wowie Zowie Party Platters 5 down, 7 to go. Finally! I made some pickety bits. 😉 Goal #21 — Visit 12 General Stores 8 down 4 to go. So far this year we’ve visited: Chase’s Daily {I think it should count} Squam Lake Marketplace Harrisville General Store Dodge’s Store in New Boston, New Hampshire Zeb’s General Store in North Conway, New Hampshire Dan and Whit’s in Norwich, Vermont Hussey’s General Store in Windsor, Maine Goal #22 — Compete with Carole….. Get on My Front Door Game On I can still compete with Carole from afar, right? Once we get closer to Halloween I’ll hang Mrs. HB’s spectacular Halloween wreath she sent me. But for now, I’ll settle for a few pumpkins and a swag of Indian corn on the door. Front Door Bling I’ve Made So Far This Year to Compete with Carole: Late January : Valentine Heart Late February : Shamrock Late March : Giant Carrot May: White wave petunia hanging basket June/July: Tin Star and Flag Bunting August : Sunflower September: Indian corn and pumpkins ************** How about YOU? What are your goals for 2019? If you told us about them HERE, check in! We want to know how you are doing. Because seriously, it’s so much easier to get those goals checked off your list when you have people rooting for you! 🙂 Have a great day everyone, Mavis You can read more about my 22 goals for 2019 HERE. Have a Great Day! The post – Week 38 of 52 appeared first on One Hundred Dollars a Month. This content was original published at One Hundred Dollars a Month and is copyrighted material. If you are reading this on another website it is being published without consent. Comments So many questions…. *did Girl go with you? *oh no! Like ... by tia in boise A series on HOW you got rid of stuff would be helpful -garage ... by Anne The grape hyacinth image is lovely and reminds me of the ... by Mel Me too. I have been busy but somehow I must have missed that ... by Ginger Ha-ha! Yes, will HH be firing up the grill. by Ginger Plus 5 more... Related Stories – Week 39 of 52 – Week 37 of 52 – Week 36 of 52 #12GoalsForTheNewYear

Arplis - News source https://arplis.com/blogs/news/my-22-goals-for-2020

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fitnesshealthyoga-blog · 5 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://fitnesshealthyoga.com/disney-wonder-alaska-cruise-recap/

Disney Wonder Alaska Cruise recap

Sharing our thoughts on our Disney cruise experience to Alaska! We took the Disney Wonder from Vancouver to Glacier Bay, Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan. I’ll share our full packing list in an upcoming post if you’re planning an Alaskan cruise!

Hi friends! Happy Monday. Hope your week is off to a great start! I’m finally sitting down and taking the time to write out our thoughts on the cruise. I have so much to say! I hope you’re ok with a super long post, but the TLDR version is that we absolutely loved our Disney cruise… and already booked another one. 😉

When we initially booked our cruise, I have to admit that Alaska wasn’t my #1 choice. I’ve never been on a cruise before, and I figured that my first one should be somewhere tropical or European. We booked our trip with my friend Betsy and her family, and she mentioned that so many people say Alaska is breathtaking and we should give it a try. Plus, it would give us the chance to be a little cold since Tucson would likely be scorching hot. So, we went for it!

We traveled to Vancouver and arrived a couple of days early just in case we got stuck on the way. (I highly recommend doing this, so you don’t miss the boat!) We had a blast in Vancouver, and then Monday afternoon, we boarded the ship to spend seven incredible days sightseeing, relaxing, enjoying family activities and eating so many delicious foods. We traveled with Betsy and her family, and had the best time with them! While the boat was sailing away from the dock, they had a party on the top deck with frozen cocktails, live performers and ice cream for the kiddos.

In pure Disney fashion, everything was over the top: the dining, the performances, the activities, excursions, etc. I know Disney does it right and many people have told us once they did a Disney cruise, they never wanted to cruise with any other cruise lines. After experiencing it ourselves, I can completely see how that happens.

I tried to segment this post into blocks, so it wasn’t just one rambling Disney cruise rave, so here are some of the things that stood out:

Alaskan scenery:

The scenery was absolutely stunning. On either side of the boat, we could see vast forests, glaciers, bald eagles flying (!), whales, and icebergs. Titanic taught me that icebergs are bad, but we sailed through an entire garden of them, so there ya go. We had the opportunity to see landscape and wildlife that we’d otherwise never experience. Now that I’ve been able to experience the true beauty of Alaska, I’d love to visit again some day.

One of my favorite stops was the Mendenhall Glacier. It lightly drizzled as we hiked down to a beach, and the girls played with sticks and splashed in puddles while we watched herons fly overhead.

(P refused to be in this photo because she was very busy gathering rocks)

The Disney Cruise dining experience:

For Disney cruises, here’s how the dining works: you have reservations (either first seating at 5:45 or second seating, closer to 8) at the main restaurants each night. We sailed on the Wonder, so the main restaurants are Tiana’s, Triton’s, and Animator’s Palace. They have you on a rotation, so you can experience each of the restaurants, and you have the same server the entire time. We really got to know our main server, Pipa (the girls LOVED her) and she always knew what we wanted to drink and got the kiddos’ food served extremely fast. (I could always count on her for dinner recommendations, too, so many times I asked her what I should order and she chose the best stuff for me!)

At each restaurant, they had a different theme each night (a Mardi Gras night, Frozen-inspired menu, lobster night, etc.) and you could choose from various appetizers, salads, soups, entrees, and desserts. I was blown away by the variety they offered! On our specific cruise, they served over 10,000 meals per day, and the quality was outstanding.

(Smoked salmon in some form in every single meal. YOLO)

You also don’t have to eat at the sit-down restaurants if you don’t want to! You can dine at one of the quick spots (Daisy’s De-lites serves salads, sandwiches, build-your-own bowls, fresh chopped fruit, and soups), Boiler Bites (hot dogs, mac n’ cheese, chicken tenders, fries, etc.), and Pinocchio’s (different types of pizza!), eat at the buffet (Cabana’s is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and they have EVERYTHING) or you can get room service. All of this is included. They also had a “fancy” coffee shop on board for specialty drinks, called Cove Coffee, and a quick coffee shop where you could also get super healthy smoothies. A couple of times, I ordered a smoothie with almond milk, vegan chocolate protein, kale, spinach, cinnamon, and ice. The specialty drinks and coffees are extra (so is alcohol), but I didn’t find it to be super overpriced. My smoothies were $5 when they’d usually be around $9 at Whole Foods.

(Yes they totally put a Donald Duck on my decaf almond milk latte)

(Living the Mickey bar life)

For most of the days we were there, we did breakfast at Cabana’s – it was so nice to wake up and eat without having to order anything or wait for food to be cooked – lunch at Daisy’s (the girls would usually get sandwiches, or pizza from Pinocchio’s, and a giant fruit platter) and dinner at the sit-down restaurant.

Each of the sit-down restaurants had something magical about them. At Tiana’s, Tiana herself was actually there walking around (and the girl spoke exactly like her! She was wonderful) and live music, complete with a Louis crocodile playing the saxophone. Triton’s felt like the fanciest among the three (but you could still go in leggings and a Disney tee), and Animator’s Palace had Sorcerer Mickey one of the nights. They also gave us special placemats that we could draw people on, and they took the placemats from the entire restaurant and ANIMATED our drawings and had them dancing to a song on one of the many screens in the restaurant. It was so incredibly cool!

Entertainment on board:

They have full Broadway-style shows on board, including musicals, comedians, and musicians. We saw three live Disney shows on the ship, including the Golden Mickeys (my personal fave), Frozen, and Disney Dreams.

They also have two movie theaters playing different movies (including new releases!) all day. The Pilot and Liv saw Captain Marvel, the Pilot saw a late show of Avengers: Endgame one evening, and we all saw the new Aladdin movie as a family. They also have a movie screen on the top deck, where you can lounge on chairs with blankets and eat soft serve ice cream while you watch a show. The ice cream machine was a HUGE hit with the girls. You can literally walk up and make yourself a cone at any point during the day.

We may or may not have played every single Bingo round on the ship. We didn’t get the 7k prize but did win a Disney cruise picnic blanket in one of the raffles. 😉

We went to the gym pretty much every day! It was such a treat to work out together since that can rarely happen at home. We waited until after breakfast, so it wasn’t crowded, dropped the kiddos off at Kids Club, and got in a workout.

Kids’ Club:

Kids Club was a game-changing experience. The girls absolutely loved it, and many nights after dinner, Liv was begging to go back! I felt like it was a perfect balance. The Pilot and I had a couple of hours together each day, and we still spent a ton of time together as a family. The girls usually went to Kids Club after breakfast while we worked out, and again in the late afternoon for an hour or so before dinner (usually while we played Bingo haha).

They have three Kids Clubs on the Wonder: the nursery (for babies and toddlers who aren’t potty trained), and for older kids + potty trained over 3: the Oceaneer Lab, and the Oceaneer Club (which has a play structure inside). They also have a special area for teenagers (I think it’s called Edge). The kids can go from the Lab to the Club via a hallway, and they wear GPS Disney bands the entire trip. When they scanned our card to pick them up (you use one card for everything: to get into your room, to pay, to pick kids up), they can see on their screen exactly where your kids are. “Olivia and Penelope are in the Animator’s room on my left playing with hula hoops.” It was brilliant.

Characters often visited the Kids Club to play games and do activities with the kids. The girls saw Anna, Elsa, Stitch, the GI Joe guy from Toy Story, Captain Hook, and Belle, all in Kids Club. They baked cookies, did a Friendship Rocks show with Minnie and Mickey, had a luau party, and played so many fun games. We didn’t take advantage of this, but they’ll also feed your kids if they’re there during a meal!

Room:

We went with the Deluxe Oceanview room, but for our next cruise, we’re getting a verandah since the difference is only a couple hundred dollars. This way, we can sit on the patio and drink wine after the girls are asleep.

We thought the couch was a regular pull-out bed for the girls to share, but turns out, it’s a bunk bed! Our Stateroom Host, Anissa, would transform it from couch to bunk beds every single day.

Extra Disney touches:

There were definitely special Disney touches during the trip. Each night, we’d come back to the room, and during turndown service, Anissa would create towel animals and leave chocolates. One night, she completely changed the girls’ bedding to princess bedding, and they were STOKED.

The app was also fantastic. You can only connect to it when you’re on the ship’s Wifi, and it enables you to see exactly what’s going on all day, receive messages and updates (like your child can asked to be picked up from Kid’s Club and they’ll send you a message), and texting with others on the ship, complete with Disney emojis. It was extremely helpful, especially as first-timers. I always knew what shows and entertainment were available and could scope out dinner menus in advance. They also had full deck layouts and the weather in each of our stops available in the app.

One night, I lost a diamond earring. I was getting dressed and dropped it, and heard it clank around the room. I spent about 20 minutes searching but couldn’t find it. I let guest services know, just so they would make sure no one went in and vacuumed. When we went back to the room after dinner, I saw Anissa in the hallway and she said, “Your earring is on the glass tray by the closet.” She totally went in and found it for me!

One of the guest service team members chose us as their “special family” during the trip. (I’m not quite sure how this works but I think they each randomly select a family to surprise with goodies). Each afternoon, we’d come into the room from the day’s adventures or excursions and treats would be waiting for us. There were muffins, cheese boards, and cupcakes. It was amazing.

I was blown away by how many character greetings and events they had on the ship. The girls got to see maybe 4x the characters we see at the parks, with way shorter lines.

They also had dance parties (like the Pixar Pals party) in the atrium that were a blast.

Gratuities:

This was something I didn’t know a lot about, so I’m posting it here in case anyone is taking a Disney cruise! While you’re on the ship, you don’t pay many gratuities. (I would just pay an extra couple bucks here and there for specialty drinks.) At the end of your trip, they charge your account around $13.50 per person per day. They split this amount between the different people who take care of you and scale it accordingly. (Like our head server got more of this amount that the assistant server who only got our drinks.) They also leave little envelopes if you want to tip extra. This way, you can be sure to tip an additional amount to the people who went above and beyond (and found earrings for you, etc.).

I’ll do another post with the excursions we chose + my packing list in case anyone is planning a similar cruise!

So, tell me friends: have you been on a cruise? What’s the #1 spot on your travel list?

xoxo

Gina

*This post isn’t sponsored in any way and we paid for all travel and accommodations. We used Costco Travel and highly recommend it! <3

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jonasmaurer · 5 years ago

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Disney Wonder Alaska Cruise recap

I tried to segment this post into blocks, so it wasn’t just one rambling Disney cruise rave, so here are some of the things that stood out:

Alaskan scenery:

One of my favorite stops was the Mendenhall Glacier. It lightly drizzled as we hiked down to a beach, and the girls played with sticks and splashed in puddles while we watched herons fly overhead.

(P refused to be in this photo because she was very busy gathering rocks)

The Disney Cruise dining experience:

(Smoked salmon in some form in every single meal. YOLO)

(Yes they totally put a Donald Duck on my decaf almond milk latte)

(Living the Mickey bar life)

Entertainment on board:

We may or may not have played every single Bingo round on the ship. We didn’t get the 7k prize but did win a Disney cruise picnic blanket in one of the raffles.

Kids’ Club:

Room:

We thought the couch was a regular pull-out bed for the girls to share, but turns out, it’s a bunk bed! Our Stateroom Host, Anissa, would transform it from couch to bunk beds every single day.

Extra Disney touches:

I was blown away by how many character greetings and events they had on the ship. The girls got to see maybe 4x the characters we see at the parks, with way shorter lines.

They also had dance parties (like the Pixar Pals party) in the atrium that were a blast.

Gratuities:

I’ll do another post with the excursions we chose + my packing list in case anyone is planning a similar cruise!

So, tell me friends: have you been on a cruise? What’s the #1 spot on your travel list?

xoxo

Gina

*This post isn’t sponsored in any way and we paid for all travel and accommodations. We used Costco Travel and highly recommend it! <3

The post Disney Wonder Alaska Cruise recap appeared first on The Fitnessista.

Disney Wonder Alaska Cruise recap published first on https://olimpsportnutritionde.tumblr.com/

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losttimelord · 7 years ago

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The Blacklist: Music from Seasons 1-4

Approx. 95-97% of the songs from The Blacklist (in the order that they appear, through the end of Season 4)

The Devil Within by Digital Daggers State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U.) by Jim James Didn't I by Darondo 99 Problems by Hugo Sinnerman (Felix Da Housecat's Heavenly House Mix) by Nina Simone & Felix Da Housecat Sympathy for the Devil by The Rolling Stones Here with Me by Susie Suh & Robot Koch Bird 1 by Underworld Made of Stone by Matt Corby Up Past the Nursery by Suuns Wicked Game by Emika Very Cruel by POLIÇA I Awake by Sarah Blasko Welcome Home by Radical Face Pendulum by Pearl Jam Line of Fire by Junip The Man Comes Around by Johnny Cash Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second by STRFKR Slow Ass Jolene (The Blacklist) by Show Tones Co-Education by Officers Cello Song (feat. Jose Gonzalez) by The Books Jungle by X Ambassadors & Jamie N Commons "Swan Lake Suite by Op. 20: Scéne (moderato)" by Slovenian Radio Symphony Orchestra & Marko Munih "I'm Sorry by But I'm Beginning To Hate Your Face" by Eagle Seagull Can't Pretend by Tom Odell "Who Are You by Really?" by Mikky Ekko Change of Time by Josh Ritter Soothe My Soul by Depeche Mode Just Breathe by Pearl Jam No Sugar In My Coffee by Caught a Ghost Divisionary (Do the Right Thing) by Ages and Ages Long Way Down by Tom Odell Pilgrim by Fink Tide by Junip You Were Born by Cloud Cult Go It Alone by Beck Run from Me by Timber Timbre Great Sky by Other Lives Magic Bus by The Who Blood On My Name by The Brothers Bright Baptisms by Radical Face Every Step by Mavis Staples Happy Together by The Turtles Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene by Hozier Dream a Little Dream of Me by The Mamas & The Papas Spring (Among the Living) by My Morning Jacket Major Tom (Voellig Losgeloest) by Peter Schilling Von dr Alb ra (feat. Moggi) by Rock und Rollinger Dancing In the Moonlight (Original Recording) by King Harvest Always Gold by Radical Face Baby That's Not All by Josh Ritter Drink You Sober by Bitter:Sweet Exxus by Glass Animals Save Me by Hanni El Khatib How Are You Supposed to Know by Don Brownrigg Hello Stranger by Barbara Lewis Black Eunuch by Algiers Rocket Man by Elton John Peace Frog by The Doors No Harm by Editors Our House by "Crosby by Stills by Nash & Young" Wicked Campaign by Modest Mouse Can't Leave the Night by BADBADNOTGOOD Can You Get to That by Funkadelic Trouble by TV on the Radio Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing by Chris Isaak Trouble by Robots Don't Sleep Radar Love by Golden Earring Without You (feat. Kerry Leatham) by Lapalux Blame It on Me by George Ezra Sour Cherry by The Kills The Lamb by Little Scream Gamble Everything for Love by Ben Lee God's Gonna Cut You Down by Johnny Cash The Payback by James Brown Rise Up by Andra Day Right Back Where We Started From (Re-Recording) by Maxine Nightingale Pays to Know by MyPet It Works Itself Out by Half Moon Run No Comprende by Low Demon Days by Robert Forster Just Breathe by Don Brownrigg The Killing Season (UNKLE Remix) by Mark Lanegan Band Dear Trouble by Correatown Sixteen Tons by The Platters Part Two - In My Own Way by Ray LaMontagne Someone You Love by Tina Dico Safe and Sound by Electric President (You're) Having My Baby (feat. Odia Coates) by Paul Anka Lighthouse by Patrick Watson Theme From Blinking Lights by Eels Part One - Homecoming by Ray LaMontagne Ooh La La by Faces Suitcase Full of Sparks by Gregory Alan Isakov "Crime of Passion (Piano Solo Version) [From ""Preston Tylk""]" by Kurt Kuenne Fire by The Last Internationale Dangerous by Royal Deluxe Hustle and Cuss by The Dead Weather Papa Was a Rolling Stone (Single Version) by The Temptations Lullaby by Dixie Chicks King's Crown by Junkie XL Dodged a Bullet by Greg Laswell Legendary by Welshly Arms Evil Ways (Justice Mix) by Blues Saraceno Predator (feat. Elenna Canlas) by Gadi Sassoon This Is a War by Losers Where You Are (feat. Jono McCleery) by Portico Bongo Fury by Shawn Lee Yadnus by !!! Fill Your Brains by Harrison Brome Writing on the Wall by Bob Moses Fire on the Mountain (I-II-III) by Wand Dead Man's Party by Oingo Boingo Treehouse by Oquoa He Haunts Me by Extreme Music One by Harry Nilsson The Road to Nowhere by Radical Face Voodoo in My Blood by Massive Attack & Young Fathers Between the Bars by Elliott Smith Say Goodbye by Beck Vanishing Act by Early Winters All Your Secrets by Yo La Tengo What I Like About You by The Romantics Alone by Dark Horses All Sewn Up by David Holmes Twisted by Aron Wright Heartbeats by José González Before I Sleep by Marika Hackman Barracuda by Hayley Ross No Salt on Her Tail by The Mamas & The Papas All Along the Watchtower by Bob Dylan I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor I Will Survive by Cake Damn Wish I Was Your Lover by Sophie B. Hawkins These Boots Were Made for Walking by Miss Behavin' Dear Mr. President by Fitz & The Tantrums Dreamer by Supertramp Dream On by Aerosmith One Man No City by Parquet Courts On Fire On a Tightrope by JBM Fever by The Black Keys Belgrade by Battle Tapes Vicious by Lou Reed Drowning by Kevin Morby Bloodstream by Stateless

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graceflanders72-blog · 7 years ago

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Getting The Nine Days Inappropriate

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opepin · 7 years ago

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june: week one

29: we had lunch reservations at legal harborside so i woke up at like 9:45 am and exercised, kevin got up after that, i showered, and then we ate leftover fried rice (omg the buttered fried rice from osaka <3) and then we headed out. we were gonna be late so we let the fam know and then we took the train to south station. we stopped by the tea party museum shop and got his mom a tea set and his dad the tie. then we rushed to the restaurant. i think we were 10 to 15 minutes late, but everything was fine and our server was great! he was an oyster geek and gave us like a lesson oysters haha. he also gave great drink recommendations. jess and i got red sangrias and kevin got the white sangria. we got poppa chen a white wine to pair with the seafood. jess did most of the ordering. we got a dozen local and maine oysters, lobster mac and cheese, shrimp scampi, two clam chowders, and a lobster bisque. everything was delicious and i ate everything even though most things contained dairy because it was too good to not eat. lol. our server gave us chocolate espresso cheesecake on the house because he saw that we were having a reunion and he was was best server ever <33333 shout out to chad at legal harborside! oh, their bread was hot and fresh and was delicious.

after lunch, we chilled at the hotel and i watched some pbs kids with jess while kevin read fanfic and the parents listened in and read stuff on their phone. after everyone used the bathroom, we took the train back to the apartment and had another meal LOL. we cooked all of the food momma chen brought and i made banana bread. we had family tea and some chicken nuggets as well. :P yum. we ate, talked, and then the chen fam did their tradition of playing card games with each other haha. i just waited for the banana bread to bake and then everyone ate it and enjoyed it, which made me happy :D then we drove jess to south station. her train was leaving at 6:45 pm so we dropped her off and said our goodbyes. then we drove the parents to the hotel and said goodbye to them too. they’re so sweet. wait, did i mention that they got us electronic toothbrushes?! LOL i’m crying. then we drove back. i think kevin and i napped for a bit, talked to hillary for a bit, exercised after, kevin washed all of the dishes and got the suitcases from storage (thank youuuu so muchhh!) and then i wrote down what to pack before hitting the hay at like 11:45 pm... this week will be super long ahha. i miss the fam already though...

30: i was really tired when i woke up today... lol. i didn’t do my best doing my hiit workout in the morning but i got through it. i gave myself a bit too much cereal and had to throw some out because it was too sweet x_x then i trained to work and booked a conference room. i had some time to myself in the morning before mathew came in so i just did some internet errands. vivian was going to sleep over today because both of us were flying back to chicago :O LOL what a coincidence? haha. it was a full on brainstorming day so we went into the conference room and talked and then took a short break for lunch before hopping on stand up. we got dave to join in for a bit and got a pretty good foundation. then mathew and i finished up some things and called it a day at around 4 pm. i messaged vivian and she couldn’t drop off the uhaul in quincy so she decided to stay at the airport until her flight. lol kevin and i were so confused. so then i said goodbye to everyone until monday and then i took the train home. i ate a ton of my banana bread and the few speculoos cookies left. then i waited for kevin to get home. i watched some youtube videos. we cuddled and was thankful for the rest we were getting for a bit before eating leftovers and packing. i exercised and then showered and kevin ate dinner while i packed. then we did a bit of apartment cleaning and then kevin packed and it was like 11:30 pm or something when i slept. kevin played a bit of games before he went to sleep. zzzz. we had to get up at 4 am for the flight.

31: waking up at 4 am wasn’t too bad. we changed, brushed, and got everything we needed and took an uber to the airport. the airport wasn’t packed but it wasn’t empty either. we got past tsa about 15-20 minutes before boarding time so i got an interesting “ombre pink drink” (made with a bit of lime?) and kevin got a breakfast burrito from currito. we made it just in time to eat and line up for group ‘b.’ i tried looking for vivian but i couldn’t find her. when we were all boarded, i messaged her and she told me she was at gate a22 LOLOL. we were so close! i dozed in and out on the flight and i kept twitching every time i fell asleep -__-” kevin was out like a light bulb. he played some pokemon too. we got off, my dad was waiting at the baggage claim for us, we got our bags, and my dad drove us through about 1 to 1 hour and 30 minutes of morning traffic back home. me and kevin ko’d in the car. well, kevin ko’d and i dozed in and out again. we took a small nap and then ate whatever was in the fridge. then my uncle tony and my grandma came (to meet kevin LOL) and drop off food. hehe. i also talked to my uncle prior to this to make sure what time he was getting here. good times with my uncle tony~

i did some testing for work and then hopped on the stand up. after the stand up, i talked with phil about another thing we had to address. then i worked on that for the rest of the evening. i got on another call with him after and we figured something out. then kevin and i headed to 527 cafe to get dinner with nluu, ashley, and ryan. i got the popcorn chicken salad (didn’t taste as good as before hmm) and kevin got pork with rice. it was nice catching up with all of them. we shared shaved ice at the end of the meal and we were so full. i also got a really random milk tea with coconut, jasmine tea, mango, and lychee? lololol it tasted good to me tbh. then nluu, kevin, and i went to first ascent. they climbed while i waited for the yoga class to end and digest my food. when the class cleared out, i went in and used the studio. my video kept pausing and buffering so i did an extra long leg workout. my legs were jelly after. we left right when they closed at 11 pm and then we got back home and got ready for bed. i was so tired. i showered and then ko’d even before kevin finished showering LOL.

jun01: i got up early to work out, shower, and eat a banana before kevin drove us to chinatown so i could get my teeth cleaned. he went to an asian bakery to wait for me. i thought it would take forever but i actually was done at like 11:40 am or something (i got there at 11 am). then we drove to cafe orient 33 to pick up lunch. we got popcorn chicken and bibimbap. we ate and then i got on stand up and he got on another meeting. my stomach didn’t feel too good again so i ended up doing a bit of work before i just laid on the couch on took a nap. my stomach still felt a bit unsettled when hillary came over. my mom cut us some fruit and my stomach felt fine then. i got to catch up and talk with hillary and then kevin went to visit ryan’s apartment before we headed to sumi for dinner! we got a ton of appetizers and only a bit of meat but it’s okay haha. we were so full by the end of dinner. we noticed that the service hasn’t been as A+ as before but the chef is always great. we got our orders mixed up this time but the food was still amazing. they had orange vanilla kakigori again -- we’ll come back in july if they have the pineapple flavored one. i have so much respect and admiration for chef gene kato at sumi. this will always be a special place for me and kevin :) we drove back with super full bellies and then took a walk around my neighborhood at like 10 pm LOL. then we got ready for bed and i felt jkfnsdkjfnsd again in my stomach so i was a bit grumpy. we went to sleep at like 1 am. i think i’ve been eating way too much so i need to cut back so i don’t feel this way.

jun02: i had my alarm set to 8:45 am but i woke up at 8 am to do my workout, shower, and then hop on a 9 am call. that call didn’t happen so i just got my stuff together to go to daniel’s to wfh but actually work from daniel’s... kevin and i ate leftovers for breakfast real quick and then kevin dropped me off and he went to go climbing with ryan and nluu. i had to go in through the back while daniel was on a call so i felt like i was like a robber or something x_x his house is so nice! the renovations look real good :) we both worked a bit and actually got on calls at the same time. mathew gave me the option of taking it easy today and/or working on the new stuff he planned out. daniel and i split a combo platter from shawarma inn and i ate while on my stand up. my stand up went on for a bit too long so i had to ask kevin to pick me up so that daniel could work. it was nice spending time with this one in his newly renovated house LOL. but in general, it was nice to hang out with daniel one on one. he looks like he’s doing good for himself right now.

kevin picked me up, he quickly showered, and we headed to northwestern. we parked and then hurriedly walked to the garage. it was a bit awkward when we entered and then haoqi introduced kevin to his students and then we talked to sarah and got her to demo her project for us. haoqi came back and we had a sumi moment together (excluding sarah LOL -- i’m sorry). apparently, haoqi was at sumi yesterday when we were and he was sitting outside! we saw their food being sent out! it was crazy. if we chose to sit outside, we would have seen him! lol, haoqi kept interrupting sarah to say “omg, i can’t believe it.” good times. we got there too late to see any other demos but kevin caught up with people and we ended up talking to haoqi and others after. there is a peeled in the garage so then kevin and i split that and then drove back home. haoqi invited me to their dinner at the pecking pig but i wanted to stay behind to exercise and spend time with hillary. i think kevin and i ko’d for a bit and then we went downstairs to cool down (a/c in my house was not on yet). i exercised and then kevin headed out to dinner. i rushed to shower because hillary was outside of my house and then i chilled with her for the rest of the evening.

i sorted through old clothes and stuff while hillary was there and then she offered to drive me to yeowoosai. i was the first one there and it was late so it was a bit shady. thank god daniel got there a few minutes later. we got a table and ordered the seafood pancake and waited for everyone to come. ryan stopped by with ashley, peter came with friends and his friends left to go to the bar, and then nluu and honglin came. we ordered mango soju and it was awesome. i would get that again. then we ordered popcorn chicken and kimchi fried rice. the fried rice was so spicy. kevin came after his dinner stuff and ordered yogurt makkoli and ate some food too. then ryan, ashley, and daniel left before we headed over to karaoke. it was nice catching up with all of the guys and spending time with them <3 so i was the only girl in this group and honglin is still the best at karaoke. we sang until our throats hurt and left at around 2 am. nluu kindly drove us all home. thank you! lol my stomach didn’t feel so good and i felt grouchy. i didn’t want to sleep in my hot room so i just went downstairs and slept there. kevin was ko’d on my bed. i think we went to sleep at around 3 am @_@;

jun03: my stomach was still killing me in the morning, but i got up from the basement and into the bedroom just as my parents were waking up. i apologized to kevin for my mood last night and then we drove over to firecakes so i could see hen and get doughnuts! hen didn’t see me until i got to the head of the line and she gasped ahahha. i asked her to give me the best half dozen doughnuts and kevin got a rhubarb fritter, which was delicious. the shop was busy so i could only say hi and give her a big hug before leaving. i’ll definitely see her in july because she was one of the people i couldn’t see this time. she’s so precious <3 oh, while in line, we had a weird saic reunion with another alum LOL. he recognized me and i kind of recognized him and then all three of us were like, “woah” haha. the thing is that he was also visiting from boston for the weekend?! he lives in cambridge and works at harvard. that’s crazy!!!

then kevin and i went to peeled to get another acai bowl! haha. we were feeling grody from eating so much food. the line was kind of long but we waited. he dropped me off at victoria’s and then drove over to ryan’s after taking a few bites of my bowl. i chilled with victoria and did some pokemon things with her while waiting for ashley. oh, it was a christmas miracle because the asian snack package was delivered today! i got it on my way out the door in the morning~ so victoria and i did a sort of unboxing and then ashley came and we tried some snacks all together. lol, we ate so much sugar in one sitting. then we walked over to patissiere coralie and ashley and i split macarons and a salmon and avocado sandwich. i also got their herbal berry iced tea! it was tart but refreshing. we went back to victoria’s, ate more, talked, and sugar coma’d on her couch. victoria told us her funny cheesecake story and then basically kicked us out for laughing at her (LOL, jk. she had to leave a buy dessert though). ashley and i called an uber and got stuck in pretty bad traffic. we both dozed off though. ugh, chicago has endless and large amounts of construction going on right now. x__x;

we got to ryan’s and then called all three of the guys (kevin, ryan, and nluu). nluu was the last and only person to pick up before kevin got us at the door, LOL. they were playing hanabi and they didn’t want to forget their cards. ashley and i chilled while they finished their game. ryan and terence’s place is super nice. i love the view and i really love their kitchen stove floor cushion and the empty space in front of the kitchen that they have right now. i did a good amount of walking around and then we all decided to go get dinner at pho 888. i went with nluu to re-park his car and then we all hopped in my car and went to argyle. i got my bun thit nuong cha gio as usual and kevin ate some of my food because mine was better than his egg noodles, lulz. i also got tofu spring rolls because i needed veggies... kevin and i boxed our meals and then found parking in ryan’s neighborhood. then we got back, used the bathroom, and took a while for kevin and nluu to give into taking a walk around montrose park.

it was a nice and fun walk! we got kevin to third wheel ashley and ryan LOL and then we started copying what ryan does when he walks ahahaha. we also mistook a child for a dog... we walked around the water and saw ducks on a date and the guys threw around a frisbee. it was pretty much summer feels all over again. if only we still played pokemon go, it would have been exactly like last summer haha. lol we also watched and stared at a chauffeur who was trying to park his gigantic car in front of ryan’s... he parked on the curb and left i think. then we saw a soccer player fall after throwing the ball back on to the field. lol we were the peanut gallery this evening. we walked back, the guys played hanabi to redeem themselves from last round, and ashley and i chileld and appreciated the view and the weather and the calming hip hop instrumentals we were streaming on youtube. it was a very nice setting to end the day. kevin and i left at around 10 pm, hugged everyone, dropped nluu off at his car, and then drove back home. i got pretty grr at packing and just all of the stress from this trip devoured me in that instance so i got mad at kevin too. we ended the night on a pretty sour note but i slept in the bed as well because i was too tired and we were getting up in a few hours as well.

jun04: i was dead when we woke up at 5:30 am. kevin was still mad at me but i was really tired (i mean both of us were) so we just dealt with it. my parents drove us to the airport and then we waited in a long ass long to check in our bags x__x; tsa was really quick though and we had enough time for kevin to get a breakfast croissant and then we waited to board. we both ko’d during the flight and kevin woke me up so i could get my complimentary free drink LOL. i got my red tea and they gave us belvita oat cookies again. i ate a few and then went back to sleep. the flight was less than 2 hours and we landed about 20-30 minutes earlier than expected, woot! we got our bags from baggage claim and then took the bus and train home. i apologized when we got back and kinda broke down. i think i was bottling up a lot of stress during my trip, which i felt wasn’t too fun honestly. kevin also apologized and we just spent some time cuddling in bed to recover from our trip. then we ate the leftovers from dinner for lunch and ate some zong zi. then we unpacked everything and i started doing laundry. kevin did the meal planning and i got to relax and catch up on youtube videos.

then we headed to kam man, good fortune, roche bros, and bj’s for groceries. kevin was so happy to drive bb again and he had to get used to the easy steering ;P good fortune was selling 18 boxes of raspberries for $3?! or something crazy like that. we ended up getting like 3 for $1 but i was tempted to get an entire box... we stopped by bj’s to get detergent and fabric softener because we’re finally out :O we got back, unpacked, and we snacked a little. ooo we also got life cereal and ate a bit of that. kevin went to game and i watched more videos and looked at everlane’s modern point flats. i got my size 7.5 rothy’s in the mail and tried them on only to find out that they’re too wide :( i tested my 7′s again during grocery shopping time and they didn’t cut me like last time. maybe i’ll keep these? or should i invest in real leather flats? hmm. i could get both if i saved up too. idk, i fell asleep reading everlane reviews LOL. i was supposed to fold clothes... i woke up an hour later and i remember kevin teasing me about falling asleep because i said that i didn’t need to nap earlier.

i woke up and then put the sheets in the dryer (i might have left them in the washer too long) and folded clothes. then i exercised because i wanted to test new exercise videos and i also felt pretty bad for eating junk food and fried foods during my trip. blech Dx i don’t know if i’ll ever casually drink again...it always ends up hurting my stomach, sigh. i’ll try to stick to that but if me and kevin go to a new restaurant or something, i’ll definitely try a drink or sip from his. anyway, i did a kickboxing video, full body workout, and an intense cardio video while kevin made us a quick dinner. we ate and then had raspberries for dessert. then it was shower time and i got to wash my hair~ it was late but i felt so nasty from the hot chicago weather, the airport, etc. i stayed up until 12:30 am or something looking at stuff on my phone and then fell asleep. back to work tomorrow :)

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mcp-ethnography-blog · 8 years ago

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Field Notes for Final Essay

Kuma Ani

We pulled up to the restaurant a little before 6PM. My friends had told me we should make a reservation, because it gets busy. We parked on the street, because there was no parking lot for Kuma Ani. When we approached I hardly noticed the place, and I could tell that it was one of those hole-in-the-wall places that gets around by word of mouth. We walked in and stated that we had a reservation for 4, and we were led to a table within 5 minutes. The booth we sat in was all wooden (seatbacks and benches), with some decorative pillows on the seats. It was fit to seat maybe 8-10 people, and very comfortably fit the 4 of us.

Ambient music was playing, it was a sort of easy listening with a soft volume. The sushi chefs behind the bar were constantly busy. Each had their own area, equipped with a couple sushi rolling mats and knives to work with. There is a chalkboard mural on the blackboard wall behind the sushi bar, with the name of the restaurant along with some detailed fish. Glass separates the prepared food from the people sitting at the bar, so if you wanted you could look through and watch your food being made.

There aren’t a whole lot of tables in the restaurant, which is why it is so hard to get a seat without a reservation. As I look around I see a couple other groups in the restaurant, one group of six Asian girls in their mid-20’s and group of college-aged students. I could safely assume they were in college because one of the guys had a sweatshirt with Greek letters. There were about six or seven in this group as well.

The waitress came over and asked us what we wanted to drink. Here you don’t get menus, it’s more like a checklist where you tally how much of each item you want. The waitress left us 3 sheets to order from. We began filling out the first order, each picking a few types of sushi or sashimi that we enjoy. Because it’s all-you-can-eat, it costs $20.99 + $1 per piece of sushi left on the table. I can see how this might lead to competitiveness, especially among the college crowd. Not only can you eat as much as you want, but you have to finish everything you order.

The restaurant is looking pretty full now, and we finally receive the sushi platter on a wooden boat that is pretty grandiose. It looked to be that not everyone got boats, they were just for the bigger parties that ordered a lot of sushi. We have chopsticks with which to eat, and we cruise through the first round with relative ease. About three-quarters of the way through my friend suggests we put in our next order. I notice that the waitress hasn’t really come around much to check in on us, but I figure this is probably because it’s all-you-can-eat and she’s waiting to see a mostly empty sushi platter.

We eventually put in our next order and it comes time again to wait and watch as they prepare our next round. The restaurant is pretty full now, and at one point a toddler walks by and the young family he’s with has to run and get him. Every time we see a boat being loaded up we get our hopes up only to watch it go out to another table. Meanwhile we are trying to determine whether or not we ordered enough to justify another boat. Eventually our food comes out; we mostly ordered different sushi than on the first round, with some more elaborate rolls with different sauces on them. It’s all very good but one thing is clear, at this point I’m becoming quite full. My friend Josh hints at a round 3 and although everyone is half serious, the mutual uncertainty kind of feeds into everyone convincing each other and themselves to get a third round. Mostly out of pride, I’d argue. As we wait for our third and smallest serving, we see a couple walk in and sit up by the bar, a fraternity brother of my friends I’m with and his girlfriend. I find it odd that they’d come to a place where they might not be able to do as much damage to the food as a group of the four of us could, but the sushi was good so maybe it didn’t matter.

After fighting over who was the least full and distributing the last agonizing pieces of sushi, we asked for the check and headed out. There was not as much pressure to tip as the waitress played a smaller role in the process.

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que

When I get to the restaurant, I head inside and realize my friend has not arrived yet. The hostess, however, asks me if I would like to be seated anyway. I notice there are tons of flyers for various live performances both at the dino and around the capital region posted up in the lobby area. I figure why not have a seat, so I follow her to be seated at a table that can accommodate six people. This table we’re set to eat at has a pretty nice view of the restaurant overall, because it’s located in what is basically the center. The waitress comes over pretty quickly with menus, and asks me how many more are arriving. I order water for both of us because I figured it was a safe call and she could at least take care of something in the meantime. Seated here I felt pretty exposed because like I said, it was out in the open in the middle of the restaurant. A big table, with just me at it. Brought me back to the days of analyzing eating alone.

My friend eventually arrived, and the waitress quickly came over to ask if there was anything else she could get us to drink. She was clearly watching and waiting to come over to take care of the whole party. I order a beer and my friend sticks with water, and while we wait to order we shoot the breeze about how each of us are doing. I notice there are a couple groups of college kids (with RPI clothing) sitting nearby at the booths. The way the seating is set up, the bigger tables mainly were in the area we were sitting in. The bar area was home to some two to four person booths and tables. Additionally, there were a bunch of what seemed to be young professionals (male) hanging out together and chatting while standing up by the bar. There was a TV some were watching, too. Behind me were a bunch more booths and tables for two or four people. Some older groups were hanging there, some adults and some elderly folks, two groups of three and two groups of two. The tables for two were farther to the back, and I thought this could be to keep it quiet, because it was on the far opposite side to the bar (where the TV was, where a more casual experience is). I was thinking the fewer distractions, the more intimate the dining experience, and Dino wants to cater to both user groups.

We order our meal and have some banter with the waitress, mostly about how good the mac n cheese here is. The waitress also asks me later if I want another beer, clearly trying to get that upsell. Beers aren’t cheap here. After some time passes, we get our food. I’ve been watching some people enter and leave, and it’s about an even mix of older folk and college kids. What’s interesting is that I don’t see any groups of girls coming here - only guys. My best guess is because girls, in general, have a tendency to eat healthier when going out. Obviously barbeque is not the best choice when there are other options around Troy that might be more beneficial to the waistline. This is a generalization, however, just based on my personal experience.

We finish up and Jonah wants some more mac n cheese and cornbread to bring home. We ask for separate checks to split up the order accordingly, and I could get my 10% student discount for flashing my RPI ID. I found it interesting that she didn’t ask if we wanted dessert, but she may have overheard us talking about how full we were. When the check comes, there is a section that has a survey code, where they promise a free bottle of sauce on your next visit if you fill out the survey. This is clearly a way to invite you back in while making you feel good by giving you something to reward customer loyalty. We sign our checks and head out, this time I feel more obligated to leave a decent tip because the waitress took care of us with water refills and always had some banter to share when she visited our table.

Smokey Bones

As we arrive at the restaurant I note that it does not look like a place that would be a barbeque restaurant. The outside looks more like a japanese restaurant that’s by my home. It’s got some interesting trim and the shape of the building just really doesn’t scream barbeque. The only giveaway is the sign that says “Smokey Bones”. We walk in and the best description I can give is that it’s a combination of Hooters, Recovery, and Dino. My friend described it as a “less congested recovery room” because it has fewer TVs and higher ceiling It’s very clean, however, and the branding is more modern than traditional. Classy, but somewhat irreverent with “Bone-isms” all over the wall. Sayings like “Only girls with nice racks” (in reference to a rack ribs) and the one seen below “Hate to break it to you vegetarians, but plants are living things too”.

We sit down at a wooden booth with cushioned seats. It is a warm environment with classic rock on. Plenty of seats are available - it is a big restaurant - but regardless the service is fast and within minutes of sitting down a waitress is asking us what we want to drink. We ordered waters and I observe that since there are a decent amount of TVs, the place probably gets busier for big sports games. While waiting to order, I observe that there are a bunch of other groups in the restaurant, and most of them are younger to middle aged adults. Some of them are wearing business casual, as to indicate that they may have come straight from work to the happy hour deals here. The other demographic here is college students, and once again (similarly to the Dino) there are not nearly as many girls as there are guys. This location is not too close to any college in particular, so college students need to go out of the way to visit this place. This could be another reason why there are more young professionals and middle aged adults here than college students.

When we order, there are plenty of options and ways to customize the meals. My friends got a custom combo and I ordered the wings. The prices were moderate, as I would expect decent barbeque to be. Averages were around $15, and this might explain the middle-class demographic in here. Eventually we get our food, it came out pretty fast (~20 mins for the three of us, not too bad). Maybe the kitchen didn’t have a whole lot of orders at that time?

It really seems like humor was a big sell for Smokey Bones, as they had clever names on the boys and girls rooms and their sauces had different names such as “Carolina Mop Sauce”. This, along with the bone-isms on the walls with the hints at innuendo, create a lighthearted environment. The waitress was well humored too, cracking some jokes with us and generally engaging in banter, knowing she had an audience of college students.

Once we finished our meals, we got our check split and the waitress asked if we were members of the Bones club. Apparently it’s a club you can join for free and get emails for deals and rewards for spending money at Smokey Bones. Clearly a loyalty program to invite return customers, but we declined although it was free to join, simply because we didn’t know when the next time we were going to come back. When we signed our checks, I made sure to give the waitress a good tip because she treated us well and also improved our experience with her wit and charm.

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arplis · 5 years ago

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Arplis - News: My 22 Goals for 2019

Goal #1 — Spend More Time Doing What I Love Just look at that forecast! Fall has finally arrived and before you know it I’ll be wearing my beloved puffy coat and snow will be on the way! I couldn’t be more excited. And those nighttime temps! I’ll need to bring Miss Lemon in. Goal #2 — Garden, Garden, Garden The HH broke out Manny yesterday after he dug up a beautiful 18″ planting space for my baby gem boxwoods and muscari border. We added a few bags of compost to the spot to help the plants get established. We will probably need to expand the planting space in a few years once the boxwoods get a little bigger, for now, scale wise, everything looks as it should. I’ll do a proper post later in the week and show you the new boxwood border. If you haven’t ordered your spring bulbs yet, I ordered 400 tulip bulbs and 500 muscari bulbs from Van Engelen Wholesale Bulb Company and the bulbs were fantastic. The bulbs arrived in about a week and were packaged very well. I highly recommend them. Goal #3 — Plant an Orchard {Calling it Quits on this one.} Lemon is about ready to have babies!!! Two of the Meyer lemons have gone from a dark green to a pale lime green color over the past few weeks and I don’t know for sure, but I think we have another week or two to go until it’s time to harvest our first two Meyer lemons of the year. HOW EXCITING! It will have to be a home birth though {as opposed to an outdoor one} because temps are dropping below 50 tonight {and for 6 of the 7 days in the upcoming forecast} and the lady at the nursery told me when outdoor overnight temps are consistently below 50 degrees at night, that’s when you know it’s time to bring your citrus trees in for the winter. Luckily we have the perfect sunny indoor spot plants, so all is well. Goal #4 — Gussy Up the Potting Shed Done! Goal #5 — Grow Enough Extra Vegetables, Eggs and Flowers to Earn $1500 at my little roadside vegetable stand. It was totally my intention to grow a ton of fruits and vegetables to sell at the farm-stand when I made my list of goals for 2019 last winter, but then we moved. So, that whole goal was sort of a bust. The new peeps wanted the vegetable stand, and we were happy to leave it for them since it was made specifically to match the front of the house, so hopefully the tradition will continue. Goal #6 — Finish Every Single Unfinished Rug Hooking Project in My Pattern Bin + 10 Things from back Issues of Magazines/Books I’ve Been Meaning to Make. I was able to hook 3 small pieces last week {2 from my pattern stash} and once I get the backing on the make dos and finish the back of the rug I’ll add them to my Etsy shop {hopefully in the next two days}. 73 rugs in my pattern bin {now down to 32} 183 hooked flowers {finished 133, now down to 51} 10 “things” from back issues of magazines {finished 0} Goal #7 — Create 12 New Rug Hooking Patterns {with at least half of them being large ones} DONE! So far this year I’ve added 12 new rug hooking patterns and 13 beginner rug hooking kits to my Etsy shop. New rug hooking patterns I’ve created and added to My Etsy Shop this year: Tullia and Thomas Turkey Double Nantucket Whale Runner Miss Henny and Penny Miss Penny Simple Kitty Primitive Flowers 2 Fat Cats Annabell’s Big Day Old Fashioned Double Tulip Fat Brown Hen Busy Little Bee Queen Bee Rug Hooking Kits Busy Little Bee {in 2 different colors} Folk Art Heart Small Nantucket Whale Primitive Crow Miss Robin {in 2 different colors} Simple Kitty Primitive Flowers Sunflowers A Basket of Spring Posies Fat Brown Hen Chicky’s Garden Goal #8 — Split and Stack 2 Cords of Wood for Next Winter All that firewood! We sold it. 😉 Goal #9 — Do Something with the 5,002 Photos on My Phone Current number of photos on phone is 11 million. Goal #10 –Lose the Muffin Top Actually doing well on this goal and fully expect to fit into my pants by the end of the year. Apparently living in the city and walking for pastries is an excellent workout regimen. Who knew? Goal #11 — Run, Walk or Crawl a 5k, 10k, Half Marathon and Marathon I have signed up for both a half marathon and a 5k! 🙂 Looks like this baby will be checked off around Thanksgiving. Goal #12 — Read or Listen to 26 New Books {17 down, 8 to go} This past week I listened to I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron. It was okay. The first half was basically a {funny} list of complaints, but the second half was much better in my opinion. The audio version was short {around 3 hours I think} and so it passed the time as I painted a closet. If it was in paper form would I sit down and read it all the way through? Probably not. I did enjoy her book, I Remember Nothing much, much more. Currently on Request: Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley Books I’ve Read or Listened to So Far This Year: Marilla of Green Gables #1 Still my favorite The Great Alone #2 The Aviator’s Wife #3 Before We Were Yours #4 Secrets of a Charmed Life #5 Where’d You Go, Bernadette #6 Carnegie’s Maid #7 The Gown #8 Unbroken #9 The Alice Network #10 The Shape of Mercy #11 Will’s Red Coat #12 Big Little Lies #13 I Feel Bad About My Neck Bunny Mellon {Doesn’t count because it was my second time} On Writing {Doesn’t count because it was my third time} Walden Finder’s Keepers Delicious! Following Atticus Goal #13 — Try 52 New Recipes. 24 down, 30 recipes to go. OCTOBER. October is going to be my month for cooking! Goal #14 — Clean Up 52 Old Recipes on the Blog 9 down, 44 to go. I’ll get crackin’ once fall {and cooler temps} come around. Goal #15 — Fill 100 Canning Jars 48 down, 52 to go. Anyone ever canned quince jam before? Using quince from an ornamental bush rather than a tree? Gaaaa. These suckers are ROCK hard and tiny {1″ – 2″} and I’m not even sure I’d have enough to make the effort worthwhile. {I’d need about 2 pounds of quince for a batch of jam}. I mean I like jam and all, but I’m not sure I want to go through all the trouble. Any advice would be AWESOME. So far this year I’ve I canned: 7 jars Peach Jam 7 jars of Strawberry Jam 15 jars of Carrot Cake Jam 15 jars of Spiced Pear Jam 4 jars of Almond Pears. Goal #16 — Finish Furnishing Our House A couch and two chairs have been ordered! Once we get those in place I’ll order a rug {I’m not 100% sure on the size we need yet} and then I’ll paint the walls and create some artwork to hang up and we’ll be good to go. I am SO looking forward to getting the family room all done up in a beachy, nautical theme. Classic New England, that’s what I’ll be going for. Weeeeee. Goal #17 – 52 Dates with the HH {29 down, 23 to go} Bakery dates are the best! Goal #18 — Take One Adult Education Class Done {I’ve taken 3!} I’m keeping the first class I took with my neighbor top secret for now {Mel know’s what it is though} 😉 Spoon Carving Class with Heather. Mini pottery lesson {I loved it! and now I want to sign up for a full class} Goal #19 — Secret {for now} Holiday Project The big reveal will be on Friday, November 1st. Goal #20 — Create 12 Wowie Zowie Party Platters 5 down, 7 to go. Cooler temps mean CHEESE. Right? 😉 I’m looking forward to making up another platter this week. Goal #21 — Visit 12 General Stores 8 down 4 to go. So far this year we’ve visited: Chase’s Daily {I think it should count} Squam Lake Marketplace Harrisville General Store Dodge’s Store in New Boston, New Hampshire Zeb’s General Store in North Conway, New Hampshire Dan and Whit’s in Norwich, Vermont Hussey’s General Store in Windsor, Maine Goal #22 — Compete with Carole….. Get on My Front Door Game On While I currently have a bundle of Indian corn hanging on the front door, once we get closer to Halloween I’ll hang Mrs. HB’s beautiful wreath she made me up on the door. Have you ever seen the movie You’ve Got Mail? You know the part where Meg Ryan is walking through the downtown area in the fall with her pumpkin and just soaking up the city? Well that’s how I feel right now. I still cannot believe we bought a home in a walking downtown area. I’ve think we’ve met at lest 75% of our immediate neighbors already. The house is much smaller than we’re used to, the lot is small too, but I can walk to the bakery, to the farmer’s market to buy a pumpkin and get an entire garden section planted in a day. And you know what… I kind of like it. I don’t even mind all the people walking their dogs past my door {probably because there is no HOA}. Man oh man, what a difference that makes. Change is good. Front Door Bling I’ve Made So Far This Year to Compete with Carole: Late January : Valentine Heart Late February : Shamrock Late March : Giant Carrot May: White wave petunia hanging basket June/July: Tin Star and Flag Bunting August : Sunflower September: Indian corn and pumpkins ************** How about YOU? What are your goals for 2019? If you told us about them HERE, check in! We want to know how you are doing. Because seriously, it’s so much easier to get those goals checked off your list when you have people rooting for you! 🙂 Have a great day everyone, Mavis You can read more about my 22 goals for 2019 HERE. Have a Great Day! The post – Week 39 of 52 appeared first on One Hundred Dollars a Month. This content was original published at One Hundred Dollars a Month and is copyrighted material. If you are reading this on another website it is being published without consent. Comments Mavis Congrats on the move! I've always thought that your's and ... by Judy You can get a pair of over-the-ear style wireless headphone, so ... by Crystal We had a beautiful quince bush in the front of a previous ... by E in Upstate NY I listen to audio books and podcasts while washing dishes. I ... by Mrs. M Thanks! That answers that…I may need to wait until some ... by Mama Cook Plus 5 more... Related Stories – Week 40 of 52 – Week 38 of 52 – Week 37 of 52 #12GoalsForTheNewYear

Arplis - News source https://arplis.com/blogs/news/my-22-goals-for-2019

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