Brains......

Ever felt the need to know what you would look like as a zombie? Well, I did.

I seem to be sporting a decidedly creepy grin. Must be all those tasty brain I'm eating... If you want to zombify yourself you can do so at ZombieMe.com by clicking here to go to their free generator. Then go watch Shaun of the Dead. A romantic comedy. With zombies.

FigurePrint Contest Results

I am sad to say that neither my friend Amy nor I was the winner of The Instance's FigurePrint contest back on the 9th of Oct. While this fact makes me sad since we both worked very hard on our respective entries, the person who won, Gonz, really deserved first prize.

I feel very good knowing that someone that has as much talent as he, was the winner. So, now that I've declared his artistic genius, here is a link to his entry. I'm only posting a link as I don't want to hijack his picture, since I don't know how he would feel on the subject.

If you want to listen to the podcast revealing the finalists (in the first 5-10 minutes) and Gonz as the winner (towards the end) you can find the links to the iTunes subscription, rss feed and mp3 download here.

If you want to see some of the best figureprints made for the contest you can view them on The Instance's site in four different blog entries: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4-Finalists and Winner.

6 Hour Greenaway Mitts for the Faire

This is a neat air of mitts I started last night when I realized that being at King Richard's Faire today was going to mean being in garb in 46 degree weather. They came out really well and only took 6 hours to make the pair. So, I started last night around 8 and then finished them up on the car ride to Carver this morning. you can find the free pattern on Ravelry under Greenaway Gloves or you can go to the pattern maker's blog.


The second image is me wearing them under a really cool set of bracers my friend Amy made for me for my costume. Thanks Amy! We had a great day at the faire despite the cold, however, further faire discussion and pics will be in a post coming soon to a blog near you!

Super Secret Project Revealed: Knitted World of Warcraft Figureprint

Everyone, meet Thayolin, my level 80 Horde Paladin on the Durotan server of World of Warcraft. Why, you ask, did I knit a rendition of her? Well there's a bit of a story there.


The backstory:

My husband and I have been playing World of Warcraft together for about 3-4 years now. Recently I got an iPhone and started listening to podcasts on my way to and from work to entertain myself. My favorite is The Instance, a podcast by Scott (@ExtraLife) and Randy (@RandyDeluxe), that gives WoW players the news, rumors, and general discussion of all things World of Warcraft on a weekly basis with heavily douse of hilarity. In their most recent episode (#164) they announced a contest they are running to give away a free FigurePrint of a character from Figureprints.com Now, the concept getting a free FigurePrint is damn near irresistible to me.

Brian and I each have on of these and they are very cool. They are a 3-D rendering of your character wearing their armor and weapons and run you about $150 a piece. Brian got me one of Thayolin for Valentines Day this past year. I was so excited!

But I digress. To enter the contest I had one week to make my own figureprint out of anything I chose: whatever I wanted! Hmmm, what do I do for fun all the time? KNIT! And what do I have a metric ton of just sitting around our apartment? YARN! So, given this wonderful idea, I decided to give knitting up a Thayolin doll a go. I mean why not? how hard could it be?

The process:

Ok, it was pretty darn hard!!!! The podcast came out on Oct. 1 and the due date for submitting a photo of your figureprint was Oct. 7. That is not much time. Especially since I'm not a fast knitter, I have never made anything like this before AND I'm making up the pattern as I go along. So, 20+ hours later Thayolin's knitted persona was born. Below are some pictures of the process of making her. I have some notes on the pattern, but I generally just improvised it, so if you are interested in making one for yourself, I could give some tips, but that's about it.

Ahhh, the early stages... It's always fun to see a disembodied knitted head sitting on your desk.



Working down to the hip area. I even tried to make a basic skeletal system so I could bend her at the waist and legs. She bends a little but not too much, so I obviously have to work on this more next time.


For awhile she just looked like a voodoo doll because of all the needles sticking out everywhere. A certain member of my family who shall remain nameless was a bit concerned of what others might think if they saw me working on her at this point. Hehe...


A little bit of intarsia for the Wyrmrest Accord tabard. Not too bad for exactly zero planning beforehand.


Getting close, just the gauntlets, shoulders and helm (shudder) to go!


Here's a closeup of her helm. That is the piece that took the longest to make because I had to embroider the detail on it in order to make look even remotely ok. I probably put 3-4 good hours into this alone. But I am very proud of it. It even kind of looks like the original :P


So, wish me luck on the contest. My friend Amy also made a figureprint and hers is awesome. You can see it on her blog here. I know I have some good competition. Hopefully we will find out soon. My fingers are crossed and I'll post the results once I find out.

10 Reasons why having your car towed when in the North End could be much, MUCH worse

1) It could be much colder than 50 degrees when I don't have a coat.

2) It could have been 11:30pm when I discovered the missing car instead of 7:30pm.

3) I could have had no one to come rescue me and had to have taken a taxi to go to the bank, get cash out and then take another taxi to pick up the car, which would have had a lovely price tag.

4) Despite the car setback, I have managed to eat really good salami, bread, and champagne this evening.

5) I have an iPod, Twitter and a blog to keep me amused.

6) My car COULD have been stolen.

7) I could be stuck in some nasty backalley rather than this nicely lit section of the north end

8) I can go home and take a nice hot shower (now that our tub has been fixed). If this happened yesterday before the tub was fixed, I would have cried much more, believe me.

9) I might not be dining on my favorite candy right now (gummi frogs).

10) And finally, I'm going to get a big warm hug when I get home.

Must Have Video Game: Tales of Monkey Island

Now, I am not the avid gamer that my husband is... I wouldn't even try to compare us on this subject. He has quite a long history with games going all the way back to the age of 5 when he sat down at his parents' TI99/4a (aka old freaking computer) to play Alpiner. Since, he has tried out so many console systems and computer games, that I can't even begin to list them here. However, I will state for the record that there are no fewer than 7 consoles in our apt. at the moment in addition to our computers.

That being said, I want you to know that I too was exposed to video game-age at a relatively young age. While I never had consoles growing up, I instead fulfilled my healthy need for entertainment via computer based video games. While, there were many over the years, one of the most memorable games that I played growing up was The Secret of Monkey Island which came out in 1990 when I was about 12. The story begins with the main character, Guybrush Threepwood, and his desire to become a "mighty pirate." This game was great and while some would consider it being on easy-mode, you had to solve problems interestingly and use your head rather than your sword (as it were). I won't wax poetic about this first game anymore, but if you know me at all, you will understand the allure of the plot and the game design.

The first game was followed by multiple sequels such as Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, The Curse of Money Island, and Escape from Monkey Island. Back in college, before we were even officially dating, my husband ordered a copy of Curse for us to play together. Awww.... his first gift was a game. Are you shocked? Cause I'm not. And I loved it!


So, now to the point of my lengthy blog post. Back on International Talk Like a Pirate Day, Telltale games had a special promotion to download the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island for free. I jumped at the chance and got episode 1, knowing it would be awesome. Until the past few days I hadn't had much time to get into the episode, but now that I have it all wrapped up I feel the need to stand on my soapbox and shout of its excellence!

Check out the trailer below to get a sense of the Tales series:

If you've played any of the previous games, Tales offers the same bumbling Guybrush, the same type of insane solutions to problems (rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle of it), and the same great character voices (since there were characters voices anyway). If you haven't played them, then check them out. I believe you can still purchase them all, although it might take a little digging.

As for Tales, you can purchase the episodes for your computer individually (for $10) or as a complete season here. Three of the five episodes are ready for download and if you buy a season pass for $29.95 (promo at the moment, reg is $34.95) you get a free dvd when the series is complete. They also offer the game for the Wii (clicky for more info on how to download for the Wii). If you want to try it out first click here and select a download option under download the FREE demo.

So, go over to the Telltale games website, download an episode and GAME LIKE A PIRATE!

Edit: As an added note for all you iPhone addicts out there, you can also get the special addition of The Secret of Monkey Island for your iPhone for just $7.99 off of iTunes or App Store. Three guesses as to who downloaded that this evening...

If you are a fan of watersports.... beware!

Darth Coco called me up on Saturday morning with a clear plan in mind. We would meet behind the Concord Visitor Center at 1pm, rent a canoe and paddle our way from the south bridge to the north bridge about 1.5 miles down the river. After that, we would head to Cambridge for a late lunch at a trattoria named Gran Gusto (which has phenomenal food by the way). The plan had merit and it was good, so we set off with high hopes for our perfectly planned day.


After the slathering on sun screen, bathroom break and asking the local patriot in the visitor's center for directions, we walked down Main St. to the South Bridge Boat House. They rent canoes, kayaks (both single and double) and even off river cruises. However, traveling by canoe was not meant to be. All the canoes were taken by a group of boy scouts who arrived just before us (grrr). Rather than admit defeat, we decided to wait for one...


That didn't last long. We caved after about 15 minutes and rented two single kayaks instead. Patience is not exactly one of our best traits when we're together. We started down the river, trying to get used to the rhythm of paddling which neither of us had done probably in years. I believe we started off on the Sudbury river although I'm sure it turned into the Concord River at some point and maybe even the Assabet depending on how far we went. I know we went under several bridges, both for traffic and foot only.


The river, while busy with other small watercraft, was serene and we both felt we could have easily settled in and taken a nap. The other great thing was that despite how much we paddled and how far we went from the boathouse, we set the pace and I honestly could have continued on for quite a bit before feeling I needed to turn around. talk about a nice way to enjoy a beautiful day and get some good exercise!


So, Darth Coco and I have decided that we really enjoy kayaking. I probably drove her insane by constantly saying how awesome the trip was and how we so need to go again and SOON! So, consider yourselves warned! We will be on the waterways of Concord again. Will you be prepared if you happen to meet us there?