Cthulhu, neck pain and many purchases

Well, over the long weekend (longer for me thanks to a Scheduled Day Off on Tuesday, man I love working for the Uni) Suzy and I were determined to get off our bums and actually do something. Saturdays are a bit of a write-off thanks to having to have an open house, but on Sunday we went into the city for a bit of shopping.

It was nice and cold (I'm told some people prefer the heat, but I just don't get it) and we headed up to pitt street to start our trek at Myer. They are having a "huge stocktake sale" at the moment, and while Suzy managed to pick up a few tops, I found that the savin's didn't extend to Myer's underloved computer section, where full price reigned supreme.

Moving on, we headed up to DJs where I insisted that Suzy spend some time roaming the aisles looking for makeup. Eventually (it seemed like years later) she finally convinced me that it was time to leave, and while I protested she insisted that we head directly over to Galaxy Bookshop. Ahh, Nerd Heaven, I love this shop. More nerd-books than you can shake a stick at, lots of wierd expensive action figures that noone is ever going to buy (I hope, anyway!) and it is even below ground to get that parents-basement feel! I was hunting for the fourth and final book in Ian Irvines the View from the Mirror series. He is an Australian author that I recently started reading, and this first series is exceptional. The world he has created is rich and complex, the story has been gripping throughout and he has a refreshingly different narrative style which I have found very enjoyable. If you are looking for some quality fantasy, give him a try (the first book is called A Shadow on the Glass).

Next stop was JB HiFi, where Suzy and I picked up some new series on sale. We grabbed the third series of Northen Exposure, the first series of American Dad (we love Family Guy, and this is essentially more of the same which is definitely a good thing) and since it was going very cheaply I grabbed the first series of Smallville. I have heard a lot of good things about the show, but I've been waiting until I could get it cheaply on DVD before watching it. I'm a few episodes in and so far, so good (especially since I know from what I've heard about it that it picks up the pace about half way through series 1 as the writers begin to develop the characters and story more confidently).

And last but not least, we stopped off at Games Paradise to see if we could find an interesting board game for 2 players that Suzy would enjoy. We considered Monsters Menace America (who DOESN'T want to rampage across the states as a giant lobster?) but settled on Arkham Horror, a co-operative game based on Lovecraft Mythos. We have played three games so far, and while the rules are fairly complex and take a while to get the hang of, it has been a lot of fun and best of all Suzy has really been enjoying it. It is refreshing to play something with more depth than Risk or Monopoly, and there are even some expansions on the horizon which will introduce new aspects to the game. One includes a whole new board, while the other is a smaller pack with extra cards etc.

So apart from cheerleading movies (which Suzy and I watched again on Saturday), shopping and open houses, there was one thing that dominated my weekend. My neck! On Friday at work I was getting twinges in my neck, and by Saturday morning I was in serious pain. I have no idea what I did, but I woke up on Saturday barely able to move my head, and even after it had been stretched out a bit I was still in quite a lot of pain that never really went away. The same story on Sunday, and thankfully by Monday it was starting to show some improvement. Now it's thursday and I am almost back to normal, but it is still not completely better.

I also got some Blood Bowl in on Tuesday with Geoff Kerr, where we basically swapped humiliating defeats (I thrashed him then he turned around and thrashed me). He brought along Betrayal at the House on the Hill which is another boardgame where you are adventurers exploring the house (which is built up randomly while you explore). At a random point in time, one of the players is chosen as the traitor, and one of the 50ish scenarios commences. At that point, you go from everyone exploring the house to one person vs the rest. We played two games (both fairly quick) before breaking for dinner. Suzy ended up being the tratior in both, first off commanding a zombie legion and the second being a cannibal freak, and both times she proceeded to whup us in very short order.

Tomorrow I am going to see Stick It! with Nick (same writer as Bring It On and the reason why we were prompted to have a mini-marathon last weekend). I am expecting it to be craptastically good, but I'll settle for being so bad that it's funny. My mini-review shall follow.