Party Like You’re 827!

This summer, Jason and I successfully completed another trip around the sun. Hallelujah and mazel tov! Some celebrating of the Sabin variety was in order, by which I mean costumes, cake, armaments, quests, grub, and ancient sorcery. You know, all the usual birthday stuff.

Snuggling mountains was my primary objective on my birthday. Jason and I spent most of the day in one canyon or another and went to the Foundry Grill at Sundance Resort for dinner accompanied by a few extra familial nibblers.

celebrating with a Shire
You only turn 827 once!

Now, some people parade around on their birthdays in pointy hats; I prefer to parade around in pointy ears. A small entourage of questers joined Jason and me at Evermore, an interactive park, a few days after my birthday for an evening amongst fairies, ogres, and trolls… oh wait, we only had trolls and ogres in our group. We danced, joined guilds, and gobbled all of Bag End. By the way, I’d highly recommend Evermore to anyone that’s ever rolled a 20-sided dice or just relished being a drama queen. The park is exceptional!

peculiar seekers
FBI agents, pirates, elves, and aliens all came together for one unconventional quest.

For Jason’s birthday, some easy-going entertainment was in order. I made breakfast. We went to a matinee and ate dinner at Log Haven, my favorite spot to sniff summer and fine foods simultaneously.

a boy's birthday breakfast
Buttermilk pancakes with smoked salmon and horseradish cream may sound odd, but they were scrumptious.

In observance of Jason’s slow ascension to elderliness, we invited a few friends to go axe throwing with us. My skills oscillated between fairly good and fairly horrible that evening. How can two arms be so inconsistent?

patchy blades
Jason’s axe skills were as erratic as my own.

One of my birthday gifts to Jason was an escape room adventure, an undertaking we like to puzzle over regularly. Yes, we found ourselves questing again with a handful of chums, this time with magical relics our aim and Excalibur ours to claim. With 12 seconds to spare, Camelot was liberated and our egos left undamaged. Phew!

puzzling over Camelot
We escaped with Excalibur in hand and just a few grains left in the hourglass.

Birthdays are a special time when you dress like it’s Halloween, toss weapons around like soccer balls, pull swords from obstinate rocks, and chow down in the crannies of mountains.

Fans and Their Xs

What kind of nerds would we be if we didn’t attend our homegrown geek fest? Embarrassingly shameful ones, and that’s saying a lot because, as non-apologetic nerds, not much shames us. Hence, Jason and I went to FanX again this spring and avoided that unimaginable disgrace.

John Cleese
John Cleese is every bit as crabby and comical as you’d expect.

While this FanX was smaller than some of its predecessors, it still had more panels and hall space than we had time to experience. So, no complaints here about size.

Shazam!
We got a picture with both Bastons.

We attended the John Cleese panel as our first order of business. John was hilarious and not at all PC. He dropped five F bombs, despite the instructions he received not to… or maybe because of them. He brought up politics frequently, another no-no. John was controversial, cantankerous, and enormously entertaining. What would you expect from a cofounder of Monty Python?

Garrett Wang
I’ll never skip an opportunity to meet a star star.

Next, we went to the Warwick Davis panel. Warwick Davis has been in a number of iconic fantasy and sci-fi franchises including Star Wars, Willow, and Harry Potter. He had a rich diversity of stories to share about his time on these film series.

Warwick Davis
Warwick’s career has encompassed many quintessential films.

Our last panel of the day featured the accountants of The Office. Brian Baumgartner, Angela Kinsey, and Oscar Nunez were all quirky and lovable. Surprisingly, they displayed characteristics contrary to their screen personalities. Go figure.

the accountants
Accountants don’t usually have this effect on me.

The second day, we dressed in our Fantastic Beasts getups. These were popular with the assembled fans, and we ended up stopping for pictures frequently. We were okay with that. We brought balance to the universe by getting our own photos with the stars of Shazam and the accountants of The Office. In between some exhibit hall wandering, we also went to the Evermore panel and learned about Mythos enchantments. There be dragons!

princesses of power
If you haven’t seen the new She-Ra series, I would highly recommend you do so.

Jason and I were cool with this smaller FanX affair. The only thing this con was missing was a meetup with friends over a meal. Conflicting schedules and MIA associates made our usual dinner with recaps a no-go. We’ll get you next time Gadget!

Christmas: Epitome or Excrement?

No holiday elicits polarized feelings like Christmas. To some, it is the epitome of what a holiday should be. To others, it is a piece of crap wrapped in pine-scented wrapping paper. I find it amusing, genial, and nostalgic when handled appropriately. This year, it fell mostly into the non-poo category for Jason and me.

crunch in the mouth
We ordered this giant croquembouche from our favorite bakery. We struggled to eat all 60+ creampuffs but mostly succeeded.

I remember those unencumbered days when I’d have Christmas presents wrapped for Jason before Thanksgiving; I didn’t want the tree to be up for a moment without gifts underneath it. I’ve remedied that issue in recent years by not erecting our tree until embarrassingly late. Now, when I don’t wrap any presents until right before Christmas, no one is the wiser… except the whole world since I just tattled on myself.

a Christmas candid
I don’t think our family members adequately appreciate the perks of having a photographer among them.

Don’t let the lateness of my presenting mislead you though, I don’t believe in just throwing random present at people. I generally put thought and time into what I give. Amongst my gift projects this Christmas, I made a nerdy tree skirt for my sister-in-law even though Jason technically had her name. I also went through hundreds of pages of archived Nintendo Power Magazine searching for the article that featured Jason and his grandma years ago. This proved futile as he was never actually highlighted in this publication. The myths that become part of our childhood memories are many. Don’t revisit yours with the realities of adulthood or you will only be disappointed.

dessert edifices
We made gingerbread structures with my sister’s family on Christmas Eve.

Jason did not fail Father Christmas with his gifting. For me, he tied seven handwritten poems to seven presents with connected themes and recited these rhymes as I opened the gifts. He read me everything from Lord Byron to Data’s “Ode to Spot” and even an original composition. I think I’ll keep that boy.

a peace of the puzzle
This puzzle occupied the kids while the adults unwrapped in peace.
for trees with taste
I customized this tree skirt to fit my sister-in-law’s fan tastes.

For all the nieces and nephews on my side, we created a puzzle collage highlighting the outing options they could choose between as their present from us. They had to put together this 252-piece puzzle before we would discuss any plans with them. It proved, as expected, the perfect undertaking to keep them busy and focused while the adults unwrapped gifts from each other. They picked the Labyrinth for their activity, and we challenged ourselves in its corridors a week later.

I love you!
I gave Jason gifts of love in all five languages.

The Labyrinth wasn’t our only family-fed excursion in the days following Christmas. We took one nephew to the Museum of Ancient Life and played laser tag at Boondocks with a couple others. These happenings were made easier by our lack of regular obligations. Over the holidays, Jason and I didn’t work for more than a week. What was not made easier by our lack of obligations was our sleep schedule. We quickly started staying up between 2:00 and 4:30 AM every night. My body managed this sleep shift until the last couple days of it… and then it went batty. My eyeballs hurt for a week. That’s what you get Rachel for making bad slumber choices.

presenting poems
Jason’s present poems were touching. I laughed a lot and cried a little.

Christmas, you may be misunderstood and overstated, but you are definitely not a piece of dung decked in lights and topped with a candy cane.