Little Happies -- The John Strikes Back

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Stephi Programming to bring you some Johnny programming instead.  Prepare for this to be somewhat more video-game-centric than normal.

--one--

Look at those animals!

Memphis Zoo
This one was actually an Unexpected Little Happy, which to my estimation is perhaps the best kind.  You see, we took her youth group to the Zoo this week.  In Memphis.  In July.  For those of you who live in other parts of the country, this means that it should have been Hot.  As in walk-on-burning-coals-while-eating-a-raw-habanero-while-wearing-your-thickest-parka hot.  With a bunch of teenagers. I believe that I can be pardoned for not having this high on my list of things to which I was looking forward.  And then we went, and it was awesome.  It was warm, but not thermonuclear, the teenagers were awesome, and I got to have a heart-to-heart bro moment with a red panda named Justin (we looked at each other, directly in the eyes, for a good 30 seconds - I think Justin and I got each other, we really did).

--two--

All celebration involves food, ever noticed?  There's a Catholic theological point in there, I think

3rd Anniversary Brunch
This upcoming Wednesday marks the beginning of our 4th year of marriage, and, honestly, that's a Big Happy, which is cheating, I know.  Guilty.  I'll pick those low-hanging fruit if you leave them sitting there.  But we decided that we were going to be celebrating for several days, since I would be working on our actual anniversary, and sharing this experience with my Special Somebody provided a memory which will help buoy me through the rest of the week (if not much longer!), so on the list it goes.  It's at an old, converted beauty shop, and they do a killer brunch.  I got pulled pork and plum eggs benedict, she got upscale migas.

--three--

Defy Those Gender Stereotypes

Darkest Dark Chocolate Ice Cream Ever

So, I love chocolate and my wife doesn't much care for it.  True, somewhat sad, slightly gender-stereotype-bending story.  Why does she get up in the morning?  Probably just love in general, I guess, but it's not love for chocolate, like the rest of us.   We had a fun little get-together to go to this past weekend, and we had one job: bring dessert.  I hadn't used the ol' faithful ice cream maker in a little while anyway, so this turned into the perfect excuse to dig it out of the back of the freezer.  So of course I chose the one in the book that was entitled the Darkest Dark Chocolate Ice Cream Ever (or something like that, don't quote me).  I had never made it before, somehow, and it just leaped out, almost challenging me to verify its claim.  I honestly cannot say if it's the darkest ever (I haven't had them all yet, working on it), but I can say it was awesome.  That pic is the ice cream in question, spinning its way to a happy place in my memory and stomach.

--four--

Actually, Go Ahead and Reinforce Those Gender Stereotypes ("Boys Like Games")

This Game (Dungeons of Dredmor)

I did promise you all some video games, after all.  I discovered this little (actually quite deep) gem this week.  It's in a genre that is awkwardly denominated "Rogue-like-likes" (seriously, never have a discussion with anyone on the internet about the etymology of the name, it is a bridge to nowhere) that have a common theme of algorithmically generated levels that are never the same twice as well as usually being very difficult and usually involving perma-death of your character if you lose.  The fun in these kinds of things is not actually in beating the game (which is often exceedingly difficult) but in how you play the game - go in with a sense of adventure, a desire to understand the systems at play and how they interact in a way that pleases and challenges you, and try to get as far as you can with the things with which you're arbitrarily provided, and you'll have fun!  Kind of like life, actually - and that's probably why people like them.  It's a little microcosm.  Anyway, I had picked this up in a bundle of games a while back but never played it yet (go check out humblebundle.com when they have a bundle going on if you never want to run out of things to play, then do that about 8 times, and you'll see what I mean).  I saw it just sitting there, uninstalled this week while I was waiting for my wife to finish something for a few minutes, installed it, and was insta-hooked.  If only it were co-op, and if only Stephi had interest in geeky PC games... work on her, blogosphere!  Also, it endears me that the male character has breathtaking eyebrows, and the female character is a redhead.

Ok, that's all I've got.  Well, it's not really all I've got, but it's all I've got pictures for.  If one of you gets hooked on Dungeons of Dredmor, my job here is complete.

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