Tuesday April 13th

Hello Gentle Readers!

In honor of my birthday, I'm doing a quick catch-up post! When we drew another wildcard (the seven of diamonds) last week, I - with the GRE of Damocles hanging over my head - was only too happy to accept. But we have a Real Card this week: the Three of Clubs, "Make something useful for the house." Since we have an abundance of seeds sprouting or preparing to sprout, and a disused window behind our house, we're going to try to make a coldframe! Stay tuned for pictures and possibly me driving a nail through my hand.

April 3 2010

April 3, 2010

A month since I updated, eh?
And what a busy month it’s been! At the point of our last update, we had just drawn the card for “Garden!” to occupy the week of February 28^th-March 5^th. We did some research about seed starting, but it wasn’t until this past weekend that we actually planted our first round of seeds. Soon—we hope—our buttercup squash, basil, kale, spinach, strawberries and eggplants will sprout!

So then we took two weeks off (sevens and deuces wild!) while we went to Belgium and England for a week. While we were there, we saw: spectral monks

 a circular rainbow

a lot of my relatives

a cathedral

an art museum

a fantastic art nouveau exterior

an extremely weird monument

 and The Gothiest Pillar!*

Yay vacation!

We came back to a new mandate, which was not carried out quite on time. But, as per required, we Made a Toy for the Rats (Ten of Clubs). It was a beautifully crafted device consisting of an egg carton and two crabapple stick suspended from strings. There would be pictures, but they promptly destroyed it, which we believe to be a sign of a good rat toy.

Our next card was the Four of Spades: buy and play a new board game. Fortunately this was an easy one—we’ve been meaning to get Die Sterne Stehen Richtig for, oh, close to a year. 

For those not familiar with it, it’s a game based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos; each player plays as a cultist trying to arrange the constellations to summon her particular horrible ancient god and bring about the end of the world. It was illustrated by the author of the webcomic "Unspeakable Vault (of Doom)." Cultic joy awaits!

Tomorrow, we draw a new card and, hopefully, return to a more normal schedule of updates and activities. As soon as the Biology GRE passes on April 10^th (possibly to return in October, but that’s another story …), I at least will have a little more time. So stay tuned, and happy Easter if you celebrate it!

*"So, Joanna, why are there many many more photos of Matt than of you?"
"Come on, gentle reader, we've been over this. I look like this in pictures."

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!!"

"Exactly."