Saturday, January 17, 2009

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!

11 comments:

morninglight mama said...

My lovely husband is off seeing Metallica tonight-- finally living the dream that he's had for over 15 years! :) I don't think guys ever completely leave adolescence... there's always a teeny tiny part still in there. :)

The Courteous Chihuahua said...

Hmmm....must be some sort of secret husband weekend. Mine's in Michigan on a snowmobile trip with his geezer friends from high school. They were supposed to have six guys attend, but one had a heart attack, one had hernia surgery, and one died. It would be funny if it weren't so sad.

Mrs4444 said...

Glad you got a break :) You deserve it!

Eternal Lizdom said...

Sounds like it is geezer weekend... I mean... Manly Men Weekend.

Chihuahua... OMG. Seriously. Totally would be hilarious if it wasn't so depressing.

Morninglight... Metallica? Geez, that takes ME back! I had a love affair with one album my senior year. Never any inclination to go see them, though. But I was pretty bad ass cranking them up full blast in my mom's station wagon.

Eternal Lizdom said...

Mrs444- Don't we all?? I've been feeling complainy lately... wanting a real break... a weekend away... kids aren't ready for that yet... but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and am eager for it...

Rachel Cotterill said...

Goodness, twice in once day I've needed to leave a comment about how fab my childhood birthday parties were! The first was in response to Beth's Wall.E cake. Your husband's dungeon game totally reminds me of when my parents did a 'Crystal Maze' (a British tv series) party for me, with different puzzles in each room of the house. The older I get the more I realise what amazing parents I have!!

Garret said...

Hmmmmm, I'm still stuck on the other role playing game you were in that you can't post about.....

Garret

Eternal Lizdom said...

Rachel- Welcome! Always nice to have a new commenter. I inherited my lack of cake decorating ability from my mom. Again- she can bake but not so much on the fancy decorating. Once she was a stay at home mom with my brothers, she was able to do some really cool cakes and desserts... but never much on the cake decorating with icing thing.

Garret- You silly boy. You really want to hear about the intimate games of a couple of breeders??

yodaobi said...

WOW Rollplayers everywhere... James and I try to play as much as we can. We are inventing a game at the moment but will have to be put asside when I return to study (good thing it's only for a couple of weeks)
Is he a fan of Munchkin? we had some awesome epic games over Christmas when friends were here from Oz.
Yay for geekiness

Garret said...

Good point Liz.... forget it.

Joanie said...

John plays Dungeons and Dragons on Friday nights. He wanted me to learn... uh no... looks like a boring meeting. I'll just do fun girly things with Tina and Kathy on Friday nights.