Unexpected Fulfillment

Last week, I came home from work to find a pink slip from the post office in my mailbox. I needed to swing by the main building in downtown Wheaton and pick up something. The sender was listed as "Dreamscape". Um...yes. That's very informative.

It took me a couple days to have time to get there. All the while I went through my head trying to remember who "Dreamscape" was and what could they possibly have sent me which would require a signature upon delivery. I needed stamps so picking this up was a good thing. Maybe it was a scam. I can refuse it, right? I was nervous, you need to know, because I simply could not remember anything from a "Dreamscape". The post lady came to the window with a small parcel. Here's the package.

I looked it over. It still didn't register as anything I might have ordered. The return address was rather smudged so I couldn't quite tell from where this had come, but I signed for it, thinking it might be something from my friend in Australia. I sat in the car, squinting to read any identifying marks. Finally, the words listing the contents of the package became clear. "Dice," it read. DICE! I know what these are!

Occasionally, I'll see a Kickstarter listed on some news site I read. For a time, I must have seen a half-dozen Kickstarters for dice. I like dice. As a former weekly Dungeons and Dragons person, dice are cool and a necessary part of gaming. This particular Kickstarter was years ago, I'm thinking at least 2. The designer of the dice has been very diligent about keeping people informed of the process but he vastly underestimated the time it would take to get his idea from concept to finished product. I supported another dice Kickstarter like that and am wondering if I'll ever get my dice although the creator of those dice has become better about answering emails.

These dice came from Taiwan.

I couldn't get a good photo of the box. They are called "Space Roller" dice. I liked the simple, other-worldly look of the boxes. Very clean design. The dice?

He billed these a "Tron dice", taking their design cue from the Disney movie Tron. I very much enjoyed that movie. It was ahead of its time and wasn't a huge success. Because the Kickstarter was filled beyond what was anticipated, everyone got purple dice. Specific tiers of support, which included me, could pick an extra color. I added the black to the gold and silver. In black light or UV light, the swirls glow, according to the video and photos I saw. I just think they are visually arresting.

I liked the little thank you card enclosed with each box. The guy doing this is looking to get into bigger dice production and he thanked us for allowing him to do his first real production. I haven't actually used these to see how true they roll, but no matter. I just think they are cool.

Beverage:  LaCroix Berry Seltzer

Deb

Mom's Cake

I play Dungeons and Dragons with a couple of groups. One group meets online. The other actually plays the way the game started, with pencils and paper and dice and maps. For the latter group, we get together roughly every 2-3 weeks. Part of that involves food. We've had theme food night and last week, it was breakfast.

Originally, I was going to make a chocolate walnut bread, but chose to sink my time into sewing shirt number 2. But I still had to bring something. I wasn't interested in dashing to the store for anything. I wanted to bake. What could I make that was quick but symbolic of breakfast? I know. Mom's coffee cake.

It's ridiculously simple and I've probably blogged about this before. Mix dry ingredients together with vegetable oil.

Set aside a cup of this crumbly mixture and add egg and buttermilk to the rest.

Pour into a 9x13 greased and floured pan and sprinkle the saved crumb over the top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes and inhale the fragrance of cinnamon and nutmeg and brown sugar.

Cut in pieces and serve warm, with ice cream or cooled for breakfast or as a snack. This cake freezes very well. I've made it, cut it into pieces and stuck the pieces in the freezer. Even defrosting them at 3-4 months out, they were still moist.

This was a staple of family meals when I was growing up. I don't know if mom remembers where she found the recipe but she's been making this for at least 55 years, maybe longer. It's pretty much foolproof and would be a great cake to get kids cooking. I took what was left to the office and then finished off what was left after everyone at work had a piece.

Here's the recipe:

Salad Oil Coffee Cake

3 cups flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1)  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2)  Grease and flour a 9 x 13 inch pan.
3)  Mix flour, sugars and spices together.
4)  Add oil to dry ingredients, stirring until blended and mixture is lumpy.
5)  Reserve 1 cup of the flour/sugar mixture. Set aside.
6)  Add egg, buttermilk, soda and salt to the remaining mixture. Beat until well blended and creamy.
7)  Sprinkle reserved mixture over the top of the batter.
8)  Bake in preheated oven 45 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
9)  Remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes before cutting and serving. May be frozen for later servings.

Enjoy.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Gaming

Can't go to Carole's without playing games.

It started with the creation of a "Corn Hole". I looked at Larry. "A what?" I asked. "A Corn Hole," he replied, as if telling me again would make me understand it better. Out to the garage we went.

Once I saw these, I knew what they were for. We would call the whole thing a "Bean Bag Toss" set up. The object of the game is to toss a bag full of beans or, in this area of the country, dried corn kernels, into the hole from a distance. You get 3 points for getting the bag through the hole, 2 points for getting the bag on the top quarter, near the hole, and 1 point for getting the bag on the bottom of the ramp.

Larry had seen these at a store but they wanted an exorbitant amount of money for them. So he and his dad built their own.

The rectangle has two feet at the top which fold out to give the piece its slant.

This one was a little wobbly on the driveway, but once in the back yard, it was fine. My job was to paint chalkboard paint onto the top so topical items can be drawn or written on the face. It was warm on Friday morning when I did this.

Larry didn't want the sides or the interior of the hole to be be painted so there was blue painter's tape to edge those areas. I could not get the blue tape to stick to the sides. It worked for a bit with the interior of the hole, but I gave up on the one and just did my best to not have it drip. This was the first coat. It took a bit of mixing to get the paint to come out evenly.

Ultimately, it took three coats to get an even surface. I brought sidewalk chalk along but that was too hard for the surface and I had to paint over the markings. You need to use chalkboard chalk on this paint. The can recommends a drying time of 24-hours so I painted this on Friday as we were going to use them at the 3rd Annual Spectacular Death Guild Meet-up, held on Saturday. By Saturday, they were ready to go.

In this blurry photo of Larry and Luke, we had a great time playing "Corn Hole".

It was hot and humid so we wound up not using these as much as I think we would have had the humidity not been so oppressive. The chalk markings erased very easily. When the bean bags would land on the ramp, they would erase the chalk.

Late Saturday night, we played Cards Against Humanity.

On Monday evening, we blocked off the whole evening and played three games. First up was Star Trek Catan.

It took me a little bit to remember how to play Settlers of Catan, but once I remembered, this plays exactly like Settlers. Your pieces are the Enterprise space ship and Federation space stations. Carole won this.

Next up, we played Ascension.

I'm not one to enjoy card games where you have strategies utilizing various cards. Magic: The Gathering and Blizzard's Hearthstone card game are like that. Ascension is similar but it's easier for people like me to figure out. It was fun. It might be something I'd enjoy doing on a regular basis. Larry and I played Pirate Munchkin on Sunday afternoon. I do like that game, mainly because the cards are hilarious. I believe Larry won this round of Ascension.

Carole said there is an Ascension app for smart phones. She spends a lot of time playing the game on her phone. I looked at my smart phone and shook my head. I use my phone to make and receive calls, occasionally check the weather and find mapping routes, and as an alarm clock when one is not available. Play games on it? I don't think so.

We ended the night with my favorite game, Trivial Pursuit.

This was the newest version, the one Larry gave Carole for Christmas. Mom joined us and we played the fast way where you got a pie piece when you answered a question correctly. I won. I'd been stumped by the green Science and Nature category so they thought that was a good one to give me at the end. My question? "What kind of dog was Lassie?" I thought, at first, Larry, who was giving me questions, was joking. I was really expecting something along the lines of "Name one of the nobel gasses." I'd have had to actually think about that. It was kind of disappointing to win on what, to me, was a hugely easy question. Oh well, it was still fun.

I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons online with a group of friends since May. I just added a table top Dungeons and Dragons event which may play as much as twice a month, but right now, we're looking at just once a month. Years ago, bi-monthly gaming dates with friends was a part of my life. Games are a way to connect and have fun. It's slowly coming back into my life and I couldn't be happier.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Noshing News

When I'm playing World of Warcraft, that's when I want to nosh. I don't do it when I sit in front of the TV. My hands are usually otherwise occupied. I'm cross-stitching, crocheting or petting a cat. Something about sitting down at the front of my computer with a beverage brings out the nosh monster. For one's health, however, this is not the best thing. That's why I tend not to have a lot of noshing foods in the house. I will eat them, all of them, in a couple sittings. Not good.

I sent a friend some candy goodies for her birthday. She should be receiving the parcel today. I filled a rather silly container with her favorite and some other silly things, but I overestimated just how big the container was. The Runts I bought wouldn't fit.

They have turned up next to the computer. Added to them were the rest of the Reese's Pieces that didn't fit in the container. The nice thing about Runts is that I can't eat a lot of them in a sitting. The Reese's Pieces look a lot like the Runts so I'm not eating them by the handfuls. This is a satisfying mix to nosh on while playing the game.

I saw these on the ThinkGeek.com web site, some time ago.

I can get lost in those pages for hours. This probably doesn't look like anything spectacular but here these are out of the foil liners.

If you know gaming, you will recognize these shapes as being the dice commonly used in Dungeons and Dragons or other tabletop pen and paper fantasy games. I got Carole a set and, well, had to have one for myself, naturally. They are made out of dark chocolate, 60% dark Ghirardelli Chocolate, no less. This is the ultimate in noshing.

The problem is that, as much of a chocoholic as I am, 60% dark chocolate, while good for me, is rich and I don't sit down and consume that wantonly. I've eaten the 4 sided die and it took me a couple sittings to do it. It's good, oh it's good, but these really aren't the "pop in your mouth" kind of dark chocolate one consumes when one is playing a game.

I discovered something else I would nosh a whole bag of, which also isn't a good thing.

Oh my gosh are these good. They are expensive; notice the package contains only 8 rolls. But fresh from the oven with a teaspoon of butter, they are heavenly. I can't keep these in the house. I'd make the whole package and that's all I'd eat some weekend. If you have more restraint than I, they get a huge thumbs up. I need to try them hot from the oven with jam, although that's not something I can eat in front of the computer. I did eat the last 3 rolls in the package while playing the game. I'm also willing to bet that they will be in scarce supply on Wednesday night next week.

Yesterday, noshers of the world rejoiced, just a little. There was a report, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which stated that people eating a handful of nuts daily had a 20% reduction in heart disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes. That's a significant reduction. It didn't matter the kind of nuts, either. One handful, once a day, was enough to lower risk. Nuts are almost the perfect noshing food, but they are high in calories so must be consumed in a small amount. A "handful" translates into an ounce or 1/4 cup. If you actually measure 1/4 cup of peanuts, it looks like a lot and if you eat them one at a time, you can make them last a long time.

My friends know me quite well. Several of them sent me a link to the news reports of the study along with the comment, "The nuts you eat should be plain, not contained in the middle of M&M's."

Dang. There's always a catch, isn't there?

Beverage:  Huckleberry tea

Deb

Jessie and Deb go to IKEA

Subtitled: FIELD TRIP!!

There it is, IKEA in suburban Schaumburg, Illinois. For the few readers who might not know, IKEA is a Swedish company, started right after WWII by a guy who tried to put a chair into his car and couldn't because of the legs. Don't believe me? Check out this blog post. It's one of Jessie's favorite stores. I'm okay with it. I find some of their furniture to be cheap in construction, but there is no doubt that it is transportable. Plus, as you can see from where we had to walk to get to the store, and no, I didn't make Jess drive to the far reaches of the parking lot just so I could get a photo; this is where we parked. IKEA is popular. The easily transportable concept means that college students or others who have to rely on public transportation can come to IKEA and get a table and chairs and carry it home on the bus.

Jessie was looking at all kinds of things. She needed a chest of drawers. She needed a new computer desk. She wants a slim table for her front hallway on which to drop mail, keys, her purse, the contents of her pockets when she gets home. We hadn't spent time together in ages so I just wanted to go along to chat. But I would like a new chair for my home office...

I got to meet Momo, her new kitten. It's been 12 years since I played with a kitten. They have a lot of energy. Betsy would not be amused. I won't get Betsy a kitten. It was hot, too. It got up to 93 last Sunday. My Jeep has air conditioning, really, it does. See the photo below. But Jess was not amused by my AC and said, "We are NOT taking your car" so we went in her car.

IKEA is three floors of schtuff (the technical term). You take escalators to the top floor and work your way down. We looked at dressers. We looked at computer desks. We looked at tables. She needed place mats. Oh look! Spoons! For some reason, I'm losing my teaspoons. I bought a package of 6 teaspoons for $4.95. They aren't the greatest and I'll be putting teaspoons on my Christmas list, but they are okay. (Not iced tea spoons with the long handles, regular teaspoons and I'd like a package of 6 or 8 please and thank you.)

We wandered about and Jessie got a thingee (again, technical term) that tilts your lap top up to help keep it cool. And then we found the office chairs. I almost got the one

I'm sitting in here. This one was leather and had arms. It was $50. Actually, it was that fake leather. Then I sat in this one.

It was a hard choice. The left one does not have arms. But the chair I currently use does not have arms. The armless chair was $79.99. The fake leather is $30 cheaper. The fake leather came in white and black. The armless comes only in black. The armless has a taller back and that back fabric is mesh so it will breathe. The leather will be sticky in the summer. The armless chair's seat is covered in fabric which can be removed to wash. If I wanted arms, I could get arms for another $20. Both were very comfortable and could be raised to the height I need to keep my feet more or less flat on the floor, which is where your office chair should be for good posture. It was hard to choose because I don't have a lot of money, but I went with the armless chair.

After making that very important decision, we headed to the cafe to have lunch. Yes, IKEA has a cafe serving a limited amount of food. I got a turkey and swiss cheese flatbread wrap and chocolate cake. Jessie got their "mashed potatoes to die for" and chocolate cake.

Jessie decided to buy a small circular table to go on the patio to her apartment. After eating, it was time to get our purchases. You go down to the first floor and wander about this massive warehouse looking for the aisle number and bin number where your item is stored. We found my chair and found her table and went to check out. They have self-service check outs which do make things faster although, if you're paying by credit card, it was a bit confusing.

Now comes the really hard part, getting it to the car. There is a loading dock area but it's always full with cars waiting. My chair wasn't that heavy so I picked it up and we walked to the car. RAWR! I can carry this.

Now we have to get it in the car. But that's the beauty, if you will, of IKEA furniture. It's supposed to fit in pretty much any conveyance you can bring to their store. Now, granted, if you're coming by bus and there are busses that have IKEA on their route, you can't take home a table top the size Jessie wants for her new desk. You could very easily carry this chair on the bus with you.

See? It fit. My chair side ways with Jessie's new table on top. We were airing out the car, as much as you can when it's 93 with a very hot wind blowing from the south. We hopped in the car and drove back to Jessie's apartment. I had to leave right away as I had promised Carole I'd be home to play Dungeons and Dragons with her and the group. I did wind up being 15 minutes late because I had to get gas.

Currently, the chair sits, still in its box, in my kitchen. I will assemble it this weekend. Yes, that is a blog post.

This is the long post I promised, complete with photos. It was a fun time. Now where did I put the screwdriver?

Beverage: Blackberry tea

Deb