Gala

(I've fallen woefully behind on my LJ-posting goal.)

On Saturday, November 11, we went to a fundraising gala for Lori's school. It was a nice party, with good food and lots of dressed-up people.

We came home with quite a lot of stuff:

In the silent auction, we won (in the sense of "demonstrated a willingness to pay more than anyone else") the third-graders' collection:
- an autumn-colored quilted table runner with squares done by Lori's pupils
- an autumnal centerpiece
- a gift basket with a couple of bottles of wine and some chocolate treats
- another basket of breads from Oakmont Bakery (both the baskets were very nice in themselves, as well as their contents).

Then, in the Chinese auction, we got very lucky:

- A massage pack with two massage gift certificates and a basket of body lotions and so forth. I knew that Lori would like it (and she put in several tickets), so I put in a single ticket and got lucky.

- A certificate for two hours of "personal services" from a local company that does such things. I wasn't sure what I'd do with two hours of personal services, so I put in a ticket on a whim and figured that I'd engage the question if it came up--and I got lucky. I still haven't figured out what I'll use it for, but I'm taking a fair bit of pleasure in saying, "minions! I have two hours of MINIONS!"

- Gift certificates for a local restaurant and gift shop, won by Lori.

(And earlier Lori had won a drawing among the teachers for a free pass to the gala, but had declined it because we're so much better off than most of the teachers. Our luck was really hot for this gala.)

I had a lot of stuff to carry out to the car. At one point, one of the teachers who was acting as security at the door said to me, "Every time I see you, you're walking out with something different!" My snappy rejoinder: "Well, there'd be no point in walking out with the same thing each time!"

Off

Apple gave us the whole week of Thanksgiving off--and unlike previous years, my group doesn't have deadlines pressing us to keep working this week anyway.

So I've had a few days at home in the house alone.

It's really nice. Spending time with Lori is pleasant too, of course, but it's been very nice to hang out with nothing in particular to do.

To no one's surprise, I've been playing a lot of World of Warcraft.

RPG Player Type Meme

The top result of 'Character Player' isn't quite accurate. I'll let "what the character would do" override "what's tactically sensible" when the character action is really strong--but in most cases, I pay more attention to what's tactically advantageous. And I wouldn't say that my characters have particularly rich personalities.

The result that I would consider particularly apt, though, is the near-equivalence of several different styles: Storyteller, Tactician, and Weekend Warrior are all strong within me. If "Character Player" had been at 55% along with "Power Gamer", I would consider this an extremely good summary of my many roleplaying styles (and my difficulty with identifying with a single type in Robin Laws' book).

You scored as Character Player. The Character Player enjoys creating in-depth characters with distinct and rich personalities. He identifies closely with his characters, feeling detached from the game if he doesn�t. He takes creative pride in exploring different characters, often making each new one radically different than others he�s played. The Character Player bases his decisions on his character's psychology first and foremost. He may view rules as a necessary evil at best, preferring sessions in which the dice never come out of their bags. For the Character Player, the greatest reward comes from experiencing the game from the emotional perspective of an interesting character. </td> Character Player 65% Storyteller 60% Weekend Warrior 60% Tactician 60% Power Gamer 50% Casual Gamer 45% Specialist 25% What RPG Player (Not Character) Type Are You? created with QuizFarm.com