Tipa recently posted up about her acquisition of a PS3, and compared the system to the X-Box that was holding sway over the living room. As I began to respond to the post, I realized what I was typing was turning into a blog post of its own, so here we go.

I have had very little exposure to the X-Box, so I can't really compare the two systems, but I can say that I am VERY happy with my PS3 purchase. I waited quite a while before going "next gen" myself, mostly because my gaming habit is PC geared with EQ2 leading the charge. First I got the PSP for traveling - UMDs and games! Yay! Perfect combination for spending 2+ weeks on the road, with a lot of that time in airports or taxis. Then I got the Wii from Jason as a present last year. My Wii ownership was a foregone conclusion as I HAD to have Super Mario Galaxy and Zelda, it coming as a gift was a pleasant surprise. Then I got the DS for myself, and bought one for Jason. Again, because a Zelda game was released. AND New Super Mario Brothers, AND Super Princess Peach, AND ... You get the picture. Finally I got myself the PS3 as a birthday present this year. I'd been eyeing for a long time, and it was finally Ratchet & Clank and Assassins' Creed that tipped me into buying it. (And now I contemplate the X-Box 360 also, due to the online offering and the library of games I never had access to, but that's a different story...)

I ended up buying the 80 Gig SKU, and I LOVE it. For all the media points that Tipa illustrates, and also for the games. My library has grown considerably compared to, say, my GameCube library within four months of purchase. Folklore is a GREAT game! Gorgeous to look at, interesting story and presentation, and really a LOT of fun. I've already burned the midnight oil a few nights, hunting down ID in the Netherworld. Assassin's Creed is nothing really special on the PS3, as it came out on all the consoles, but it is a GORGEOUS game! I get vertigo when I climb the towers of the ancient world and gaze down upon my victims. Ratchet & Clank is one of the exclusives that makes the system worth having. Jason has already played through all of it, and he hadn't seen a R&C game before. It holds true to the entire series, right from game one, and really showcases what the PS3 hardware can do. The Eye of Judgment I picked up to get the camera. The game itself is also fun, and a great idea, but I'd rather spend my dollars on REAL cards I get to hold in my hand. If they could take the concept, figure out how to make software recognize all the existing M:TG cards in my collection, and provide software for me to act out these battles with someone across the world, I would be in heaven! Of course, it would put the current M:TG online offering out of business, but I think it would be an amazing product. Finally Motorstorm, which I haven't even taken out of the box yet, came with my system. I'm not into racing games, but I hear it is supposed to be good.

I find it interesting that Tipa was only offered the 40 Gig version. I still see the 80 Gig available in Best Buy around Boston, so it may be dependent on your area as to what you will find. I haven't heard of the SKU being discontinued. Also, every PS2 game I've stuck into my version works just fine. In my opinion, the 40 Gig SKU was a mistake. An intentional money grab by Sony, as it came out just before Christmas.

Scenario - Cool Aunt Linda buys the 40 Gig for Little Johnny, with one game, because the other SKUs are too expensive and she wants to maintain her title as THE Cool Aunt. Nobody bothers to tell her that it isn't backwards compatible, and she never thinks to ask. Little Johnny gets hooked on the machine and his cool new game. However, three months after Christmas, he's worn out. He tries to plug in his old PS2 library and nothing works. Little Johnny is upset. He throws a temper tantrum. In the middle of Wal-Mart. Now Little Johnny's has to figure out what to do with the 862 PS2 games that Little Johnny can't play anymore. She is no longer speaking to (Not So) Cool Aunt Linda. Eventually she ends up scrapping this PS3 entirely, and coughs up the cash for one of the systems that will run all of Little Johnny's games. What a neat marketing idea!

I haven't had much experience with the online capability yet. Most of what I have seen is game specific. So you load up your game and THEN get into the online portion of it. There is no unified (as of yet) online offering ala X-Box Live. They are working on something called Home, kind of a Sims/Blog/MySpace thingy, but that hasn't gone live yet. I tried Eye of Judgment online once, got my ass handed to me, and haven't gone back. I've read complaints that matching is not the best, but again, my online gaming is mostly in MMOs on PC. The Playstation Store, however, is EXCELLENT! It has a lot of fun games and widgets to download, including PSP and PS1 games in their entirety. A few PS3 games I have picked up which are original (as far as I know) to the PS Store are Echochrome and Pixel Junk Monsters. Fun, quick time wasters. Plus they crank out add-ons to games on a fairly regular basis. You can also go in there to download demos and test drive both retail box and online games before spending your dollars. And you can download trailers of BD and theatrical releases.

The other thing to point out is the integration of the PSP with the PS3 (only useful if you have a PSP of course). You can set up your PS3 to allow access, via the internet, with your PSP from a remote location. From there you can browse your media files, play games, shop the store, etc. etc. There are a TON of features that you can remote into, from just about anywhere. The two systems are so closely integrated they make the Wii/DS effort look like the ineffectual fumblings of a blind monkey. Additionally, a number of the PS1 games you buy from the store can be ported over to the PSP and played on the run.

So overall, I am very happy with my PS3. I see this as THE machine for my console gaming for the next five to six plus years. Though is has had a slow start, Sony has said from day one that their intention was to build a platform and hardware that will LAST. I think X-Box has already seen its peak, while the PS3 is just starting to gather steam. It will be very interesting to see what the console environment looks like a year from now. I foresee the Wii continuing to hold it's niche own, the PS3 to be leading the pack, and the X-Box to be left in the dirt.

With regard to some of the comments on Tipa's blog, I completely agree that Little Big Planet is something to watch out for. It looks AMAZING and is going to take the concept of sandbox games to the Nth degree. There is a video demo on the store, I'm not sure if a playable demo has been released yet. Also, I hadn't heard that Square-Enix was going solo to the X-Box. That is news to me. As far as I knew, FFXIII is coming to the PS3 and every other console that they can make it run on. Even the Wii. Which makes sense, since the recent handheld releases have come out for both the DS and the PSP, speaking to the intent of Square Enix to continue publishing on multiple platforms.

This conversation just happened over work IM:

Malfi: I finally caved in....
Malfi: I went to my dark place....
Malfi: I swore I would NEVER do it...
Malfi: But yesterday I finally did...
Malfi: I'm shamed, but excited at the same time...
Malfi: A little scared... Not sure where this is going to take me...
Gaming Coworker: ... you have a girlfriend?
Malfi: No....
Malfi: WORSE!
Malfi: I bought a Pokemon game.....

I'm sure my manager will have a field day reviewing that particular conversation. It further devolved into how, with the purchase of Pokemon Diamond on the DS, my life will now be consumed with Pokemon. The fact is, I will HAVE to catch them all. When she passed the story along to her boyfriend, who also works with us, his response was:

Gaming Coworker2: well i'll miss him, he was pretty cool, too bad we won't see him ever again

And this is EXACTLY why I haven't taken the plunge before. I can feel it taking hold already, and I haven't even put the damn cartridge into the system! I've just read the instruction manual. Lately I've been playing Folklore on PS3, and the mechanics of the game (which I absolutely LOVE!) remind me a lot of the various things I've read about the Pokemon series of games. Catch critters, train them up, use them to beat the snot out of other people. WHERE can you go wrong??

I have an extensive history of collecting things. Just ask anyone who knows me. I still posess every single Lego brick I've received or bought since I was eight years old. 22 years of Lego has moved with me all over the place, and is currently residing in a closet at home. Next to them you'll find the dusty boxes filled with my 500,000+ MTG card collection, at least 50,00 Garbage Pail Kids, and (recent additions) all six expansions of the original Munchkin, every Carcassonne expansion (Except the Cathars b/c I don't know anybody in Germany, yet....) and space for all the Killer Bunnies expansions (if the nine I bought off Ebay two weeks go ever show up). My point is, I collect things. All sorts of things. I've had other collections over the years (mundane stuff like stamps, coins, ex-boyfriends) and each have had their grip on me for a time but they usually passed. My fear is that Pokemon will not be one of those passing fancies...
 
I'm going to blame TAGN for finally pushing me over the edge, and starting my plunge into the darkness. I've been truly enjoying his blogs about playing Pokemon with his daughter, and his rave reviews (piled on top of Tycho and Gabe's reactions to the games) were enough to get me to give it a try. Since I bought my nephew a DS and Diamond for Christmas last year, I figure I'll be able to play with him when I go home for a visit. I foresee a Pokemon Pearl in his birthday future as well, which may or may not be sanctioned by his mother.

So expect a few blogs in the next week or three about my adventures in Sinnoh. I'll be sure to keep everyone updated on the status of my Pokedex! Now, to head to Ebay and see if there are any good deals on Ruby, Sapphire, FireRed, LeafGreen and Emerald...

Last night Jason and I decided to fire up our City Of... accounts and do some villain bashing in Paragon city. We'd been playing fairly consistently a number of months back but, in my typical ADD, "SHINY!", "EQ2 stuffs to do like Epics!" way I burned out before we hit level 20. So heroism went on the back burner and Jason stopped playing online games. He wasn't into EQ2, and I didn't dare attempt to drag him into EQ1. He ventured into Ratchet & Clank on PS3 and Super Paper Mario on Wii for a bit and I returned to Norrath.

But recently I've had a hankering for something other than faction grinding in Jarsath Wastes. The return to EQ1 with Nostalgia has been a blast, but I needed something out of the fantasy oeuvre. (Yes, it is spelled right. And yes, it does, approximately, mean what I'm trying to say. I think. I looked it up on dictionary.com). I truly miss a quality sci-fi game and really wish Earth and Beyond was still around. I’ve even contemplated looking into Eve Online, after reading TAGN’s stories of adventure over there.

But after a lot of discussion, we decided to return to Paragon together with a standing Monday night villain bashing date. Jason really wanted to play again, and I figure once a week will be enough to keep me interested but not burn out. I tend to be less of a candle and more of a firecracker when it comes to things I am interested in (ergo this blog that hasn't been updated in two weeks). I'm not a slow burner, but an all out explosion all at once. With lots of shiny lights, loud noise, smoke, mirrors, an amazing score, dancing girls, feathers, glitter, sparklers... etc. You get the idea. It actually amazes me that Norrath has been able to keep a nearly eight year sway over my life the way it has. Raise a glass to SOE for curing my ADD! Sort of...

And then there is City Of... When the game first came out I took to it with gusto. Superheroes! Capes! WHEEE!!! I played ALL the time. But I burned out on it very quickly, after about a month or two. Other than running missions, there just wasn't anything else to do. It was get mission, fight bad guys, go back and get another mission. Over and over and over and over.... Instance after instance after instance after... I had more fun with the costume generator (and trying to get my characters to look naked) than actually playing the game.

Lordy! I spent HOURS in that costume generator..... *ahem*

Don't get me wrong, it is a great game overall! The action is fast paced and amazing. There are few of the detriments you find in other games for running in, guns blazing, and to hell with the consequences. No corpse runs or equipment to repair (there is no equipment). No serious XP debt (it wears off while you are not in game). AND you get to be a Super Hero (or Villain). The frantic gameplay makes every encounter a BLAST! It is as close to a console experience I've ever had on my computer. And I think that was the issue for me. I could get the same experience playing one of my console games, there was no depth. Nothing to really hook me. So my first round with it ended fairly quickly. I went back to Norrath (pre-cataclysm).

I've played since off and on, and the game has progressed a great deal with the addition of City of Villains (I love my Zombie/Dark Miasma Mastermind Ahbra Khadaver), the new crafting systems, story arcs that have been fleshed out and such. But it isn't a game that can be my one and only. It's nice for a change of pace. A place to visit when I get tired of dungeons and dragons.

The most recent return has been just as much fun as I remember from the early days. Jason is playing a Natural Earth/Earth Tanker – Slayte Spirit. I’m playing a Science Empathy/Electric Defender - Cloudwalker. This is quite a change for me. Most of my on-line experience has been with pet classes. While I started EQ1 with a Rogue, I really found myself in the game when I took over the Mage character of a friend who swapped to Bard. Ever since, I’ve played pet classes - Warlock in WoW, Conjuror in EQ2, Creature Handler in SWG, Code Shaper in MXO - and really enjoyed them. But I wanted to play something different this time around, and a Defender (i.e. Healer) was a perfect compliment to Jason’s Tank character. I’ve also turned to healing with my Nostalgia Druid, so I’ve been getting a lot of practical experience lately in being a healer in general, and I find that I enjoy it. Healing has a complexity all its own, no matter which universe you are playing in, and there is a lot of thought that has to go into it. Don’t over heal, hold back power to make sure you can get in that emergency heal, watch your agro, and, oh yeah, don’t let anyone die!

My Defender build is focused on augmenting other’s abilities and being an all around group support character. My travel power is Flight, which I am loving! I originally was a big proponent of Super Jump, but flight is better for my character. Hover works great as a defense buff in dungeons, and I can float around scouting things out. I’ve also picked up Teleport Friend so I can quickly fly to wherever our next mission is and then drag Slayte there (being as this is his first MMO he is still learning the ways of online gaming and getting around). Last night I chose the Leadership Power Pool, with the Manuevers ability to improve our defenses. I’m not sure what my final power pool will be, but probably Fitness so I can get the Endurance Recharge ability for myself.

Our evening consisted of running missions in Faultline. I started out at 15 and Slayte was 16, so we were working on Jim Temblor’s mission series. This brought us up against the Lost for the most part, and we tore through them like a hot knife through melted butter. As a duo we are quite effective. Slayte taunts like crazy and keeps everything focused on him, and I heal us and nuke away. They drop like flies, literally when we moved on in the series and came up against the Vahzilok. Zombies and creepy doctor looking dudes. We were indifferent and kille- err I mean “arrested” them all. (Since we are super heroes, we don’t kill, we arrest. We’re the good guys!!) By the end of our five mission run, one we repeated because we ended up failing as our escort target wandered off and got killed by a bunch of zombies, we were both 17, with Slayte about a quarter of a level from 18.

I’m definitely looking forward to next week and continuing the story arc we are currently working on. After Jim’s finished up, we moved on to Amy Phin who has us looking for her kidnapped father. Hopefully we can get to 20 by next week and be able to get our capes! Cloudwalker would look great with a shiny cape.

It has been a busy week for me in EQ2!

Last Sunday I finally dinged 80 with my Conjuror. What did I do? Immediately set out to get my epic! Within two hours I'd gathered the first four components. This included sneaking through Skyfire to the Temple of the White Lady, where I was faced with a room full of level 83 solo golems I methodically tore through. Picked up a little iceball pet, and dragged him back to Teren's Grasp (Thanks Corssair for the Porting Ale mug!!) and interrogated the gnome apprentice who sent me on my path. I had to traipse all around Kunark and rip the still beating hearts out of four "wounded" druids who represented that four elements - air, earth, fire and water. What a family friendly epic! These were all fairly simple to kill. Though Level 80^^^ Heroics, they were severe overcons (or is it undercons?) and Trompy and I ripped right through them. Then back to Teren's Grasp (I'll have another sip of ale please!) to get on to the next step.

It turns out that the earth druid gave me an item that completes the first step AND this step. So now I'm off to find only THREE bits - air, fire and water. By this time it was late Sunday night, so I gave it a pass for the evening and came back to it on Monday. With the help of some guildies (Thanks Ranadin and Hallee!!) we tore through Karnor's Castle and beat the snot out of a golem monster in the Scrying Pool and ripped Chel'dok's Fiery Cinch out of his clutching grasp. Then we scooted over to Chelsith where we beat up an octopus and I gained a mini water elemental temporary pet. I clicked him on and sat for ten minutes until he turned up with Moonglow. Two out of three bits done! Yay!! Now for the third...

Well, the third piece is the Orb of Containment. Everyone's favorite undead mistress - Drusella Sathir - has this little bauble. In the bottom of Maiden's Chamber. Seeing as it was again fairly late on Monday night when we wrapped up the two steps we were working on, we called it an evening. Tuesday was raiding of Throne of New Tunaria, so I didn't have time to get an instance run in. So that brings us to Wednesday night.

Oh Wednesday night...

I haven't done much instance running in RoK yet. Being the Conjuror I am, once the Expansion came out I tore into the overland zones with a gusto. My pets and I destroyed all opposition in Kylong Plains, Fens of Nathsar, and Kunzar Jungle. While guildies and League members were tearing apart COA and Chelsith, I was happily plodding through quest lines in these zones. I love quests. And, about two weeks after release, when I dinged 78 I hit EQ2 burnout. I was ready for a change. So I slipped off to LotRO when the Ancient Gaming Newb was giving out some passes, and was infatuated with that game... for about a month.

So, my experience in the instances has thus far been quite limited. I think I'd done one COA run, a bit of a Chelsith run, and the one in Howling Stones that ISN'T Maiden's Chamber. Needless to say, I was not quite prepared for a Maiden's run.

With the guild looking fairly empty that night, and everyone in the League getting together a raid on Tomb of Thuuga, I decided to turn to our good friend the LFG tool to pull together a pick up group. How hard could it be, right? I mean, this IS just an instance. The expansion has been out for AGES! I'm sure there are plenty of people, who know what they are doing, willing to take a poor, defenseless little conjuror through this zone and get him his bit. Right? RIGHT?

I managed to cobble together a group and into the zone we went. We did fairly well at first, taking out the first named or two. And then we came up against this REALLY annoying wall of sand and it all started to go down hill. One wipe, two wipe, three wipe, four. Five wipe, six wipe, seven wipe? Lord! At this point, some of the people in the group started mentioning other things they needed to get done. Like eyebrow waxing. Cat shaving. Washing of hair. That sort of thing. 

I ask if we HAVE to do this mob to get to Drusella. The answer is, "No, we don't." "Then WHY ARE WE?" I'm screaming to myself, "the whole point is to get me my bit, right? Let's skip him and come back later." Ok, they agree, so on we plod. Now we come up against the sisters. Eww... I did not like these mobs. We had a coercer, paladin, two healers, brigand and myself in the group. We should have been able to make it work. It didn't. Not sure why. But it didn't. Over, and over, and over, and over, and over..... You get the point. By now people are dropping like flies. The tank leaves. One healer bounces for America's Top Model. The brigand heads over to the League raid. The other healer leaves, soon it is just me and the coercer. And I'm scrambling to find more people to join. While we put up a valiant effort, it was all for naught. The group dissolved and I didn't get my bit.

Ah well. Se la vie. 

Afterward, when asking around about the zone and people's experience, I found that it is actually one of the most difficult group instance zones in RoK and not something you can typically drag a pick up group together to complete. So I've posted up an instance run event on the League Calendar for this afternoon, and hopefully we will have enough together to put a few different runs together. Get instance progress for a number of members, and maybe finish Fabled epics off for some some people.

With the epic effectively on the shelf until then, I turned my beady little eyes to crafting. It was a GOOD week for crafting. I took Friday off from work for some mental health time, and cranked through a number of levels on my crafting alt army. And even got two guild levels, to level 9, in my crafting guild - Autumnmist Enterprises.

Maellendy the Alchemist from 35 to 40. Now out of Vitality.
Trincket the Jeweler from 30 to 35. Now out of Vitality. PLUS Adventure Level 14 - 17 on Collection turn ins. :-)
Xharel the Woodworker from 35 to 39. Now out of Vitality.
Yrkin the Carpenter from 34 to 36, and still working.

Plus I dragged Malfi through Zek harvesting everything not nailed down, earning him an ornate fork and ornate plate from Duggin on the Thundering Steppes docks. On top of that, I finished off about 12 more grey quests in Zek that have been in my journal for ages. 

So it was a good week overall. The GU 45 changes are excellent! I originally created my alt guild in order to take advantage of the extra storage space in the guild bank and facilitate money and item movement between Qeynos and Freeport, and my two accounts. With the changes to the personal bank space that went in this week, that may not be necessary any more. But I'll probably keep it up just to have somewhere for my alts to live.

Also, who DOESN'T love the new quest markers for out leveled quests? I am so glad they put this in! It may end up being the death of me, as I treat quests like your average 7 year old treats Pokemon, but I'm really happy they added this feature into the game. Now I can troll through those zones I've out leveled and be sure to pick up everything I ever missed. Yay!!!

Wow I suck at this. So, obviously, I've been trying out Live Journal. Well, trying out being a relative phrase... I had the idea and figured I'd give it a shot. We can all see how amazingly that is working out.

The thing is, I do have a phenomenal amount to say about EVERYTHING! Really amazing, witty, cogent stuff that will change your life. Or at least burn through 10 minutes of downtime waiting for your next conference call to begin. This desire, unfortunately, is at war with my natural tendency to be lazy. Which usually wins. The need to communicate is bolstered by the fact that LiveJournal is one of the few sites of fun out there on the interwebs that can sneak past the office fire wall, but looking at my update history, we see that the forces of apathy are winning.

Go Apathy!

No! No, that's not the team to root for! Booooo Apathy! 

What to do? What to do?

I've recently hooked up with a group of gamers, and we're all playing through the original Ever Quest (EQ1 or EQLive) in a Nostalgia guild (http://www.nostalgiatheguild.org) on the Veeshan server. We're going back through the old content and trying to recapture the essence of our original journeys and the experiences that made online gaming so great for us. Not the two hours of medding with a spellbook blocking our entire view after each kill, but the relationships and the fun and the wacky conversations that ensue when six over caffeinated individuals are sitting around Orc Camp 1 in the Desert of Ro, waiting on the named mob to spawn so the gnome enchanter can finish their epic quest for the Pokey Stick of Sharpness +1.

EQ1, for the uninformed, is the granddaddy of MMORPGS (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games). It was the first graphical one and most of us spent 4-5 *cough*seven*cough* years playing it while all of our other gaming habits fell to the wayside. *blows the dust off his N64* It's the one that was around (LONG) before you kids found WoW.

Anyway, most of the gamers in the Nostalgia group are also bloggers. They are a true inspiration. They've been doing the blogging thing for a while and really know how to turn a phrase. Tipa, our fearless leader, blogs on West Karana (http://www.WestKarana.com) taken from the name of an EQ1 zone and  StarGrace has MMOQuests.com (http://mmoQuests.com). Both of them make it look so easy and fun! Outside of the Nostalgia group there is The Ancient Gaming Noob (http://tagn.wordpress.com) who I find particularly fun to read, and a host of others I wander through on a daily basis for the latest in their adventures. This all makes me want to write! 

So I'm going to do it! It is now my goal to post at least three times a week. Even if it is utter crap and I come back in four years and hide all the posts, I just need to get into a habit and get words down on page... err... screen... whatever.

So this is my promise to you constant reader - Who am I kidding? Nobody even knows this page exists. - updates thrice weekly about whatever is going on with me, with an intended focus on the gaming bits of my life. You might also find some interesting things about the other hobbies I occupy my time with, of which there are many. I put my ADD to good use! And my hope is, along the way, you'll get a laugh or two out of it.

So for the past couple of months I have been battling near constant headaches. Real humdinger migraines of NOT funness. On Monday I went in for a CAT Scan to see if something was in my brain that there shouldn't be. Luckily there isn't. But now we get to figure out why I have the headaches... Joy.

Birthday celebrations were a lot of fun. There was cake. And singing. The celebrations continued into the week, and following weekend, at the Gotham City Bowling tournament. Another chance for me to prove how craptastic I can be at bowling. 

It didn't start out too bad. I hit my average in the singles event, but in doubles I bottomed out. I rolled a 98 in the third game (my sixth for the day) and earned myself a 40 under average pin. HOORAY! My first tournament award. If I'm going to keep up the tournament thing (this was my second) then I need to build up my endurance. My left knee can't handle six games in a row too well... For team I got my groove back, and helped our team earn some money! We ended up in the final placing for cash, which means we each take home about $20.00. We's rich!

Jason is off to London for the weekend today, so I'm home alone over a weekend for the first time in months. I'm going to work on homework, and I may fire up the PS2 for some quality time with Kratos in God of War I. Or maybe it will be off to Middle Earth for some Orc slaying. I've got an EQ2 raid into the Lyceum of Abhorrence on Sunday, which will be fun. It's been ages since I raided in Norrath. We'll see where else the weekend takes us.

So here I sit at work. It is 9:36 AM. Friday, March 28, 2008. In approximately 26 hours I turn 30. I think I was born around 8:30 AM (Pacific time) on March 29, 1978.

30.

Hrm, doesn't feel like all that much of a mile stone. Another day, another year on the planet. Five years ago I set some goals I wanted to reach by the time I was thirty and I've already accomplished all of those. Travel to Europe. Check. Move to the East Coast. Check. Get back into school for an advanced degree. Check. Continue living. Check. Now what?

Birthday celebrations have been minimal. Jason and I went on a cruise around the Caribbean as a joint birthday thing (he's March 11th). It was hot. Humid. I got sick. Flu on vacation sucks. Tanned a bit. Saw ruins in Mexico. Saw lots of animals in Cost Rica (MONKEY!). Saw lots of trash in Panama. Saw lots of hotties out for Spring Break on the cruise ship. 

Home again to chilly (but trying to warm up) Boston. It's raining here now, but snowing about 20 miles away. Oye, seasons.... I'd only heard about them as a child and now I'm experiencing them. Yay?

We went out to weekly trivia last night at Cagney's in Quincy. Kicked ARSE! Only got three questions wrong. Gameshow hosts? Really? This is your category? Still, Stump! trivia is fun. Then we hit up a new place in Quincy Center (Blue 22) for Karaoke. I fought the cough and belted out three numbers. It felt good. Singing is fun. Will brought along a few friends to trivia, so that was fun. I will call them the Miserable Bitches. We got along amazingly. 

Tonight is a fundraiser for Boston Cares. Bowling, woohoo! Then out and about in Southey to do some drinking. Mid-term tomorrow, a proposed pub crawl, and then more bowling with Jason's family on the South Shore. All in all, a mellow and laid back birthday weekend. There may even be cake.