Good Morning February

The final weekend in January was nice, with one or two exceptions.

I flew up to Seattle and only thought I was going to die once. Seriously. The plane did something scary that I've never experienced. It was sort of like hitting turbulence, only slower and the plane basically just went from being low at the back and high in the front to low in the front and high in the back. It was like we were suddenly and unexpectedly descending. It's probable that we simply hit a pocket of warmer (and less dense air) and so lost some lift or something. That being said, the flight crew was unexpectedly switching planes once they got to Sea-Tac. Whatever it was, I had enough time to think, "Oh my god, I'm going to die" and get my adrenaline really going. After that, the flight was pretty uneventful, though the landing in Seattle seemed odd in a way I can't describe. Sort of like the problem was over-correcting during maneuvers. *shrug* I was probably just paranoid.

Friday's episode of BSG was pretty good, although I didn't like how the handled some of the flashback stuff. Also, it's hard to imagine that there is that much of a demand for children in a "town" of 50,000. Baltar is apparently having his final break with reality. I wonder if he'll end up in charge of the Cylons like in the original tv show. Maybe it was just because Jamie Bamber was looking extra butch and muscle bound this episode, but it seems like his acting is improving. Either that or he just had better writing and more of a purpose.

Ryan came over and watched BSG with us and then we got in a spirited discussion regarding some D&D stuff. I think we're in agreement that spells that have the potential do lots of damage that do not require a saving throw and are immune to spell resistance are a real problem. I'm looking at you, Crystal Shard and Orb of Force. Maybe there are some exceptions where high damage spells that only require a touch attack are okay, but I'm not sure what they are. Also, it appears that we were using the "Earthen Grasp" Warlock invocation incorrectly. In the Complete Arcane version of the spell, the hands don't have improved grapple and so any attack of opportunity that deals any damage negates the grapple attempt that round. The hands have hardness 4 and so it should be pretty easy for some creatures to negate the grapple. This has been fixed in the Spell Compendium, as the hand does not provoke an attack of opportunity now.

On Saturday, we went to Morton's Steakhouse to celebrate Dana's birthday. Dana is one of Scottland's friends, though she is now my friend as well. Oh Lord. Morton's was good. My gut (haha) instinct is that El Gaucho's is better than Morton's, but not by a whole heck of a lot. I had a nice porterhouse steak and my only regret is that I foolishly ate potato and broccoli while eating the steak and thus could not consume it entirely.

Sunday morning, Scottland, Suzanne and I went to a local cafe (Circa) for breakfast. I highly recommend it. In my opinion, it's at least as good as Jitterbug without the ridiculous lines and the miniscule menu. Marty Durham was going to join us, but on the way over the spaghetti sauce he had made for his D&D group spilled all over the back seat of his car. After breakfast we went back to Scottland's and played three rounds of Puerto Rico. Have I mentioned how much fun this game is?

After that, it was back to Davis for me. Returning after this weekend was harder than usual. Davis always seems kind of blah after being in Seattle. The weather down here is pretty gray and dismal and I'm looking forward to the dry summer heat.

Also, I'm completely in love with Mr. Scottland Jacobsen. Just so we're all clear on that. :)