He Does What?

Jeff is out of town this weekend, off playing in a pretend dungeon with his friends. So the kids and I... What? Oh. No. I'm not kidding. Seriously. Stop laughing! Jeff and his adult friends- most of them over the age of 40- are part of a game called True Dungeon. It's Dungeons and Dragons brought to life. Jeff is part of the crew that brings the dungeon to the masses. He is part of the creative team and the building team and the techie team. He even gets a fancy title during the game... Dungeon Director. I think. While I totally don't get it... because I only played a role playing game twice ever in my life (freshman year of college, some vampire game... and another time that I won't go into on the internet)... I do have to admit that what they do is pretty cool. They take a ballroom in a hotel and build a dungeon. And the dungeon has rooms. And each room has puzzles or games or riddles to solve in order to get to the next room. There are wicked special effects- last year's dungeon had a moving giant. And oodles of volunteers who run the game, run the behind the scenes stuff, run the logistics, and so on. And there are tokens that people buy- and I have no clue what they do with them. I snagged this pic off Google. This is the Tavern- I think it's where gaming groups wait prior to starting the game. Note the ballroom carpet- adds to the dungeon ambiance, yes? I think that what he's doing this weekend is going through a preview of the game. Normally the game is part of this huge gaming convention that comes to Indianapolis each summer. This year, I think they are still doing that "Con" but that they are also doing a freestanding game out in Illinois this spring. So my children are fatherless this weekend. My mom was here yesterday to spend the day with the kids. She stayed the night and took Teagan to dance class this morning and made insulation curtains for Teagan's room and baked in Teagan's Easy Bake Oven with her and let me go to the grocery store kid-free. My mom was back to the mom and grandma I am used to. Slight chaos after she left. But then the kids and I got into a project- baking funfetti cookies. It's the Pillsbury cake mix but you only add oil and eggs (no water) and make a thicker dough and make cookies. They are really yummy. I'm craving chocolate chip cookies and trying to talk myself out of (or into) whipping up a batch before bed...

Oh... and all that nice stuff I wrote about my beloved Sassy poodle... I take it all back. She's been an absolute brat. She's mad that Dad's gone and she's mad that Grandma left. She's been getting into trash and even jumped up on the kids table and ate some food that had been left behind after dinner and then peed on the floor! She's lucky it's nasty cold and snowy out or else she'd STILL be outside.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend!