Christmas Presents I Picked Myself
Dec. 25th, 2008 12:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aWe seem to have moved beyond exchanged presents this year. Other than a concert that Katherine & Michael took us to a couple of weeks ago and a Race for the Galaxy game from Christopher, the only physical presents this year will be exchanged between Kimberly and myself in the morning.
From others, we received checks, I think in large part due to Kimberly's mom moving to Florida and my dad & Mary moving to Hawaii.
Of course, checks are a fine thing, as they allow me to get stuff that I've been really wanting and haven't been able to afford. My dad and Mary were extremely generous this year, because they knew we were spending money to come out to visit them, so I've been able to pick up quite a bit of stuff:
Games
I'm way back from my game purchasing of a couple of years ago, mainly because a game really has to enthuse me to pick it up, but there were two games I got right away:
Dominion. This has been enough of a hit that I wanted to get a copy for myself. Much to my surprise, Kimberly likes it too, so we've been playing some 2-player games.
Strozzi. I'm a sucker for Knizia's more serious games and I'll also a sucker for matching boxes (and matching games in general), so there was no way I wasn't picking this up. After one play, I'm pretty pleased. It's not Medici, but it's similar enough to be interesting.
Comics
I splurged on comics. I've got an Amazon order that arrived today, but sadly my mailbox store shut down early before I could pick it up. In any case, on Saturday I'll have a box of four TPBs waiting for me.
Endangered Species, Messiah Complex. I've been drawn back to the X-Men by a combination of a crossover with X-Factor (which I've been reading all along) and the presence of Mike Carey and Ed Brubaker as the two main X-writers. I read Carey's first volume a bit ago, and thought it was only OK, but Brubaker has never disappointed (and I'm willing to give Carey another chance, thanks to his excellence elsewhere). I think I've decided to pick up both of their runs in TPB in any case, to sit happily next to my Morrison run. (I'm also thinking about trying to put together an original-run Claremont collection, but sadly very little of that is available in color TPBs.)
Countdown to Final Crisis Vol. 4. Everyone certainly said terrible things about this DC event, but it's been fine. No 52 surely, but fun to read nonetheless. I'm looking forward to the conclusion.
The Family Man. I've read 50-75% of Jamie Delano's Hellblazer, and this was the one story that I unreservedly liked. I'm sure I didn't read all the issues, so I'm looking forward to reading this in totality, now that it's finally out in TPB.
I also chanced upon a New Mutants Classic Vol. 2 at Pegasus Books, which I was very happy to buy, as it's some of Chris Claremont's best work.
Computer Games
I like to have a "new" computer game to play over the winter holiday. This time I picked up Port Royale, a real-time strategy c. 2003. I played through the tutorial last night, and it has yet to grab me, but if I end up not loving it, I won't begrudge the $5 I spent, and I'll just dig into my archives of games from past years, as they rarely get played for more than a couple of weeks.
Clothes
An abundance of money has allowed me to pick up some new clothes too.
At Ross the other day I got two attractive Hawaiian shirts. They're mainly intended for my vacation next month, but I like Hawaiian shirts in general, because they're colorful and light. I also picked up a belt (required because my pants have been getting loose) and some shoes (as I'd worn through the soles of yet another pair).
I also placed an order online for some shorts (because my ones I bought when we went to Hawaii in 2001 have gotten too tight).
(And I should go get some bike gloves before I spend all of my money, both to spare my hands blisters on the long rides and to spare them the cold in this wretched weather we've had the last few weeks.)
Household
We also ordered some lamp shades for our house. We've had bare ceiling bulbs all over since we bought the house, but because we're now placing brighter fluorescent bulbs in all of our interior lights, shades have become more important.
So, some fun stuff for Christmas, though thus far just the things I bought myself with kind gifts of money.
From others, we received checks, I think in large part due to Kimberly's mom moving to Florida and my dad & Mary moving to Hawaii.
Of course, checks are a fine thing, as they allow me to get stuff that I've been really wanting and haven't been able to afford. My dad and Mary were extremely generous this year, because they knew we were spending money to come out to visit them, so I've been able to pick up quite a bit of stuff:
Games
I'm way back from my game purchasing of a couple of years ago, mainly because a game really has to enthuse me to pick it up, but there were two games I got right away:
Dominion. This has been enough of a hit that I wanted to get a copy for myself. Much to my surprise, Kimberly likes it too, so we've been playing some 2-player games.
Strozzi. I'm a sucker for Knizia's more serious games and I'll also a sucker for matching boxes (and matching games in general), so there was no way I wasn't picking this up. After one play, I'm pretty pleased. It's not Medici, but it's similar enough to be interesting.
Comics
I splurged on comics. I've got an Amazon order that arrived today, but sadly my mailbox store shut down early before I could pick it up. In any case, on Saturday I'll have a box of four TPBs waiting for me.
Endangered Species, Messiah Complex. I've been drawn back to the X-Men by a combination of a crossover with X-Factor (which I've been reading all along) and the presence of Mike Carey and Ed Brubaker as the two main X-writers. I read Carey's first volume a bit ago, and thought it was only OK, but Brubaker has never disappointed (and I'm willing to give Carey another chance, thanks to his excellence elsewhere). I think I've decided to pick up both of their runs in TPB in any case, to sit happily next to my Morrison run. (I'm also thinking about trying to put together an original-run Claremont collection, but sadly very little of that is available in color TPBs.)
Countdown to Final Crisis Vol. 4. Everyone certainly said terrible things about this DC event, but it's been fine. No 52 surely, but fun to read nonetheless. I'm looking forward to the conclusion.
The Family Man. I've read 50-75% of Jamie Delano's Hellblazer, and this was the one story that I unreservedly liked. I'm sure I didn't read all the issues, so I'm looking forward to reading this in totality, now that it's finally out in TPB.
I also chanced upon a New Mutants Classic Vol. 2 at Pegasus Books, which I was very happy to buy, as it's some of Chris Claremont's best work.
Computer Games
I like to have a "new" computer game to play over the winter holiday. This time I picked up Port Royale, a real-time strategy c. 2003. I played through the tutorial last night, and it has yet to grab me, but if I end up not loving it, I won't begrudge the $5 I spent, and I'll just dig into my archives of games from past years, as they rarely get played for more than a couple of weeks.
Clothes
An abundance of money has allowed me to pick up some new clothes too.
At Ross the other day I got two attractive Hawaiian shirts. They're mainly intended for my vacation next month, but I like Hawaiian shirts in general, because they're colorful and light. I also picked up a belt (required because my pants have been getting loose) and some shoes (as I'd worn through the soles of yet another pair).
I also placed an order online for some shorts (because my ones I bought when we went to Hawaii in 2001 have gotten too tight).
(And I should go get some bike gloves before I spend all of my money, both to spare my hands blisters on the long rides and to spare them the cold in this wretched weather we've had the last few weeks.)
Household
We also ordered some lamp shades for our house. We've had bare ceiling bulbs all over since we bought the house, but because we're now placing brighter fluorescent bulbs in all of our interior lights, shades have become more important.
So, some fun stuff for Christmas, though thus far just the things I bought myself with kind gifts of money.