All right. So the night before the invasion, I told Yoss Mike that we should invade the Settlement at 2 in the afternoon. Like I’d mentioned in the previous post, I was half serious. I was well aware of the fact that we keep saying things like “we should meet earlier in the day” and nothing ever comes of it.
Hence, I was a little surprised to receive a text from Yoss Mike saying we could invade any time after 3. Some part of me (the jack ass part, me thinks) totally wanted to write back and tell him I didn’t say 3, I said 2 dammit! But I refrained. I wasn’t exactly out the door when I got the text, after all. (My mom had taken Addison so really, how was I to get there?)
I got a text from Rich eventually. After I declared invasion, I told him that I would probably need a ride. I generally dislike asking people for rides and stuff, but in sooth, we are all going to the same place and if I’m on the way, it only makes sense. That and having use of a car is never a guarantee with me so…yeah. It makes sense, right?
Anyway, Rich was gonna pick me up quite a bit of time after Yoss Mike initially sent out his text surrendering the Settlement for invasion. So much in fact that eventually Yoss Mike hadda call me to make sure I was still invading. That and he wanted to know if I was in on pizza.
Truth be told, I wasn’t even hungry. I’d had pansit soup with my parents and that was strangely filling — I blame it on the shou mai and laga that my dad put in the soup. I passed on the pizza but suggested to him that he call Rich and find out if he wanted any type of food. Some part of me thought it was a foolish thing to pass, knowing that later in the evening (not quite “Late in the Evening”…Al would get it!) I would more than likely be hungry. But as I’d mentioned before, still trying to hold onto the “if I’m not hungry I won’t eat” deal.
Rich arrived not ten minutes after talking to Yoss Mike (or so it seemed to me). I told him that we needed to stop by the Halfway House to pick up some comics VoW had left for Mike and asked him if he had agreed to pizza. Turned out that Rich’s phone was in his pocket and he hadn’t even realized it had rung. I ended up calling back Mike and telling him to go ahead and get a pizza, but then Mike explained that the plan changed and that VoW was picking up Wendy’s instead. Rich and I therefore decided to forage on our own.
While we were on our way to the Halfway House, I mentioned the case of the missing bookmarks to Rich. He said that he’d be able to fix that for me, and it was decided that after making our stop at the Halfway House, we’d stop back at mine.
Greetings were made to the Ordonii, petting was given to Dixie, comic books were collected, as was John, and we were finally on our way to invade the Settlement. I didn’t really have a strategy for the invasion, I just kinda figured run in recklessly and hope I make it through.
Wait. No, it wasn’t a battle invasion. More like invite ourselves over to Yoss Mike’s pad ‘cuz we can. He didn’t put up much of a fight, so I guess it all worked out rather well in the end.
Fun thing about Rich, he likes grammar. He exposed me to a podcast called “Grammar Girl” and as soon as I figure out how podcasts work and if I really want to bother with them, I’ll probably give the girl a listen. When we’re in the car, we somehow end up talking about grammar and usage. He’s also prone to agreeing with me when I make crack suggestions like “Let’s get Starbuck’s” and then he weaves over three lanes of traffic to get to the one neither of us have ever been to on Higgins and Golf.
It was so worth it ‘cuz I ended up getting a free mocha out of it. The guy who made my drink wasn’t sure if he made it correctly the first time, so he made another one and was then like, “May as well take ‘em both. Do me a favor will you? Can you taste the first one to make sure it tastes all right?”
“‘Cuz it will drive you crazy all day if you don’t know?” Rich asked.
“Exactly.”
Truth be told, the both drinks were hot. I generally don’t take a sip right away, but I did so for the coffee guy’s sanity. I honestly couldn’t tell the difference in either of them, and that seemed to satisfy coffee guy’s curiosity, but really, I don’t know if that meant he made the first mocha correctly.
But hey, free coffee! Whee!
The only minor detail to the free coffee was the fact that I can’t finish that much coffee and no one at the Settlement drinks the stuff. I brought it along anyway ‘cuz I thought perhaps I would drink it later and it probably wouldn’t be that bad warmed up in the microwave, right?
The last time Rich and I spoke about grammar, I believe our conversation revolved around American and British usage, such as “alternate” and “alternative”. I had been telling him about some articles in a book I was trying to read titled The Alternative Histories of English. He had found it amusing that at first I started to say “the alternate…” then paused and corrected myself. We also spoke of the proper use of “ain’t”.
Our conversation this time around seemed to be about accents. Oh what fun it is to talk about language! 
Now if only I were smarter about such things, then I could talk about them like I knew something!
We arrived at the Settlement before VoW, which surprised me a bit considering we had three unexpected stops to make. Later, I remembered that she was coming all the way from Wau-con-da, and probably had to fight her way past Mountain Men to get to the Wendy’s, wherever that may be in her neck of the woods.
Wow, the settlers of the Settlement did some fighting or their own it seemed, only their opponents were absolutely no match for them while armed with blue cleaning spray (the exact name of the magical concoction I know not). Place looked super spiffy.
Not too much happened upon our arrival. Yoss Mike and Bert were strumming away on their guitars, and Toni was storming a castle or some such. It made no matter, Rich and I seemed content to chill out and drink coffee. VoW was not long after us anyway, and soon all were seated round the table eating and the like.
I couldn’t rightly tell you how we got to where we did, but the next thing I know, we’re playing Boggle. I’ve decided that I really like Boggle. I’ve also decided that no one is a match for VoW when playing the game. I think in our tenth round, and after VoW was like 100 points ahead, I learned that she gives herself a handicap AND cuts her score in half. DUDE. I lost focus after that, and it seemed like a decent stopping point. I think the final score was something like a bajillion and a half to 3.
Yeah, you read that right. A bajillion and a half to 3. You know, when you unhalf things and stuffs. If we take VoW out of the equation, I think Toni totally won.
The hour suddenly became 8 o’clock without any of us really realizing it. ‘Twas deemed a good time for Rich and I to get food while Bert raided something or another in Warcraft 3 (thanks Toni!) and Mike rocked more on Rock Band. This left VoW and Toni to set up Settlers Expansion and Rich and I were off to Jimmy John’s.
It’s been a really long time since I’ve had Jimmy John’s. I have a vague memory of going there with Mark and Brad back in 2005, but I can’t actually remember if I ate anything. Anyway, I’ve decided that I still like Jimmy John’s. Even if the sammich is ginormous.
I lost pretty badly at Settlers, although, much to the surprise of Bert, I snatched Longest Road from him. Truth be told, I wasn’t expecting that, but I felt kinda cool all the same. When playing with folk like Bert and Yoss, they play strategically. I play ‘cuz I like playing the game. When I mess up their strategy, I call it a good game even if it was unintentional, and I lost, and even though Bert still won. (What is it with BerToni and winning Settlers?)
Brad had arrived by the time. He was playing Guitar Hero while we were finishing up Settlers and I think as we finished up completely Grant and Al made an appearance. There was some time between games as we tried to suss out what to play that either included everyone or just break off into two groups entirely. It seems to me that generally when Rich, Brad, Bert, and Yoss Mike are in the same room a game of Trivial Pursuit is played. Personally, I’m not a fan of the game, mostly ‘cuz I don’t have anything to contribute unless it’s a specialized edition like Harry Potter or something of that ilk. While folk debated, Toni made dark chocolate brownies. I kinda hung out on the island with her while the others tried to decide what to do, and I was shortly joined by VoW and me Da.
Finally, a decision came down the mountain and not to anyone’s surprise, Rich, Brad and Bert were to play Trivial Pursuit (Yoss Mike probably would have joined in if he hadn’t gone up to his room to try and sleep) while those left behind (<– totally on purpose but perhaps should be technically written “those of us left behind”) were left to our own devices.
We debated amongst ourselves briefly until someone proposed a game of Ticket to Ride. It was deemed worthy of our cause and thus, VoW, Toni, Grant and Al, and I set off to lay down the iron road across America. I found it an interesting game, one in which I yelled at me Da for inadvertently screwing me over in a route. Technically, it was Al who laid down the tracks, but she did so only because she knew Grant was up to something so really, when you look at it that way it was all Grant’s fault. The jerk.
When the game was said and done, Grant ended up the victor, but I was not far behind him in that I think I came in second. Every single one of us accomplished our destination card and every single one of us broke a hundred. ‘Twas quite an impressive game.
Some time during our game(s), Yoss Mike returned from the upper dwelling place where few dare to venture (except for me but only ‘cuz I like the map bathroom). He was unsuccessful in his attempts to sleep and thence decided to see what was going on with us. After VoW took her leave, we broke out a game of Munchkin and offered Yoss a chance to join our campaign. He declined, however, and thence GrAl, Toni, and I engaged in the most laid-back game of Munchkin we’ve ever played. Seriously. There was like no trickery at all. I ain’t saying that’s ‘cuz Mike wasn’t playing with us, it was just an unusual game. We were playing with just about every single expansion for the regular Munchkin and the cards were stacked the highest I’d ever seen ‘em. In the end, Al defeated her Level “not-even-close-to-Al’s-level” Monster (even with the cards I threw in to try and thwart her) and her high halfling warrior emerged victorious from the dungeons and was thence crowned Muchkin Monarch.
Alas, there was no ice cream. But we had awesome dark chocolate brownie. And Al did not take the Munchkin Monarch title ‘cuz I don’t think we have a Munchkin Monarch title. Although, now that I think of it, we totally should. It could be like “King of the Lab” only without the creepy Gormagon apprentice association. (Still way annoyed by that move, but whatever.)
We pretty much called it a night thereafter. The game of Trivial Pursuit had finished, and the hour fast approached 1 AM. Wait, no, I’m wrong, there was a little bit of Rock Band played. In any case, we all took off as the hour approached and started to pass 1 AM.
‘Twas a good and successful day for an invasion.