Wii Bowling Party: An Abby Gabs Tutorial

A little friendly advice, from me to you: when your husband/wife/significant other/roommate/little sister/self-built android comes to you and says, "Let's have a Wii bowling tournament party!" ----->just say yes. 

Because we did one this past weekend, and it was SO. MUCH. FUN.

Here are my tips to creating the world's awesomest Bowling Party, all from the comforts of your living room.

You Can Do It, Too: Wii Bowling Tournament Tutorial

Tip #1: Let Your Husband/Wife/Significant Other/Roommate/Little Sister/Self-Built Android Come Up With The Name Of The League AND The Event.

Because then, you wind up with a name like:

While it makes some decorations a little more difficult to create (YOU try putting that many letters on a banner), it makes everyone laugh when you step into the room to announce that the Inaugural Tournament of the Incredibly Excellent Bowling League of Awesomeness is about to begin. 

Don't worry. If you say it enough, you won't have to look it up every time. Promise.

Tip #2: If you have someone with minor OCD in your life, allow them to take over the planning, decorations, and food for the party.

In this little scenario, that person would be me. And I had an absolute blast planning bowling alley themed foods, bowling pin cards to identify said themed foods, meticulously wrapping the white plastic eating utensils with red electrical tape to look like bowling pins, and coming up with the most complicated bracket known to man.

Cheesy Bowling Ball

It only took four hours...ish.

OK, I lied. The bracket was too complicated for me. Brian made it up, I just wrote it all pretty.

Tip #3: Re-stock your printer with paper before you allow the OCD person in the scenario to begin creating decorations.

I made banners, lane markers, food cards, and more, just using my printer, some scissors, tape and string. I'm the MacGeyver of crafts, y'all.

Tip #4: Take pictures.

And once you've had a few beers, feel free to give the camera to your friends so they can capture some candids as well. Otherwise, you'll miss out on all of this:

Seriously, the best shots are often the ones taken after you bust out the booze. As long as they're in focus. Which brings me to my last tip...

Tip #5: Don't take so many pictures that you aren't allowed a little creative room to groove when it's time to blog about your party.

Because after three beers and a rum-and-coke, my camera was left in a corner somewhere, and I forgot all about a hundred different shots I wanted to take, including a group shot of the 11 bowlers that came to our party.

But never fear, Photoshop and our Nintendo Miis are here!

Back row, from left to right: Zach, Kristie, Arielle, Steven, Jenn, Ashley, Fred, Ray, and Sam
Front row: Abby and Brian

Seriously. That's one epically awesome team portrait--which is perfectly fitting for the Incredibly Excellent Bowling League of Awesomeness. (See, I told you remembering the name gets a little easier the more times you say it.)

Munchkin Quest--Our Newest Obsession

This post is going to read a little like an advertisement. But that's ok. Because Brian and I have a new nerdy obsession, and I absolutely must share it with you. 

Raise your hand if you've ever heard of Munchkin Quest!

***crickets***

Yeah, that's ok. I'd never heard of it either. But in our eternal quest to reach "Nerdvana," we stumbled upon this little board game in the vast reaches of the world wide web. And since it arrived at our door step a few days ago, we have been playing it non-stop.

Munchkin Quest is a dungeon-crawler board game, much like Dungeons and Dragons (so I've heard.) (Dungeon Crawler=Role-playing game where players explore a labyrinth, fighting monsters and using magic along the way.) (Still with me? Ok, good.)

Anywhoo, the purpose of this little game is to wander from room to room, defeating scary monsters, and leveling up your player. Sounds pretty simple, right?

WRONG.

This game has eleventy-billion rules. Seriously. It comes with a rule book 20-pages thick. There are numerous dice to be rolled, a mountain of cards to figure out, and rules upon rules to be memorized. 

But don't let that information daunt you. There are SO many things I love about this game. 

*It is cutthroat. It is way too easy to pull the rug out from beneath your opponent's feet. All it takes is the luck of the draw, and the guts to actually play the card when the time arises.

*It has a sense of humor. What other game do you know of that allows you to curse your opponent by tossing a chicken on his head, rendering him unable to fight with 100% accuracy?

*It is about luck, not skill. It doesn't matter how awesome you think you are at this game, if the cards and the dice aren't with you, then you will not win. (Unless the cards and the dice decide to join your team about halfway through---then it is entirely possible to win, even if you've been down by 5 or 6 levels the entire game.)

But my FAVORITE thing about Munchkin Quest are the cartoons on the cards. They are HILARIOUS, people. You'll draw a weapon that is a Sword That Kills Everything (Except Squid.) You'll fight monsters like the Leperchaun (a leprechaun with leprosy) or the Zombees (undead bumble bees). 

Just to give you a small taste of the Munchkin realm, here are a couple of illustrations depicting how Brian and I ended our most recent game.

Brian as an Elf Warrior, sporting Butt-Kicking Boots,
carrying a Step-Ladder (for those hard-to-reach monsters)
and cursed with an Evil Chicken.

Me as a Halfling Wizard,
wearing the Amulet of Fire-Breath,
with a Fire-Breathing Shoulder Dragon as my pet.

 The hairy toes are my favorite part.

So if you're looking for a board game to while away the hours while you slowly become the nerdiest person in your social group, I suggest you pick up Munchkin Quest. It's a little on the pricey side, but it's definitely worth the gold pieces you'll throw down for it. Because I promise you--you'll be speaking the lingo and tossing around the insults like a true Munchkin in no time.

Summer of Dreams

I feel like I should probably issue an apology to those of you who follow my Twitter feed. Normally, I'm all like "Hey, go read this blog!" and "You guys are awesome!" and "This totally made me laugh!" 

But this past Tuesday, an announcement was made that was so big, so MONUMENTAL, that it changed the course of my Tweeting in a nano-second.

If you were reading along, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If not, here's a quick refresher course:

For those who don't speak hashtag, let me explain a little further. The New Kids on the Block---the band I've been obsessed with since I was 9 years old, dancing around my room in a tutu and tennis shoes---made an appearance on The View. 

That, in an of itself, is reason enough to get me all giddy. But the reality is that they'd been tweeting since before Christmas that there was a BIG announcement coming in 2013. And they did not disappoint. Not only did the group announce a brand new album, hitting stores in April, but they also announced a brand new North American tour!!

And they're not going alone.

OH no, friends and neighbors, they're making this the Biggest Boy Band Lollapalooza in All the Land.

They're taking Boyz 2 Men AND 98 Degrees with them!!!

(Pause for a moment of silence while you peruse the following photo:)

The insanity can be found HERE.

(Children of the 90s, rejoice!)

When I realized I was going to have another opportunity to see the group perform, I sort of lost my mind. Which created an even bigger Twitter monster:

That little snippet was only the tip of the ice berg, people. 

And if you'll notice the second tweet...

Then you'll understand why THIS is the face I've been making since Tuesday:

(I tried making this photo black and white in order to make it less scary. I don't think it worked, though.)

My gal pal, Jenn, jumped on the concert band wagon as soon as I started going berserk on my personal Facebook page. She's been gung-ho to go to a concert with me since we met a few years ago. And she's the perfect New Kids friend, because SHE'S a Joey girl, and I'm a Donnie girl.

So it will work out well when we meet the guys. There will be no competition for our favorite Kid's affections. Right, Jenn?

Anyway, Jenn and I both have birthdays in June, and as it happens, the concert is making a stop in Charlotte on June 19. And guess who's going?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

(If you didn't guess Jenn and me, then you're not very good at this game.)

Now for the kismet part of this whole thing. I've only been to one New Kids concert in my whole life. It was in 1990, not too long after my 9th birthday, at the Charlotte Coliseum. I'll finally get to see them again, in 2013, 6 days after my 32nd birthday, at the same coliseum.

GOOSE BUMPS!!!!

With all that excitement in June, I don't know how I'm going to handle the added excitement of attending my very first Comic-Con in July!!!?!?

Oh, yes. Brian and I have been planning a trip to San Diego for 2013 since he started nursing school. It's our big "Hooray for Life Changes" vacation, and we are totally pumped. While they haven't started making formal announcements of all the nerdy-type fun there will be at this year's event, we are hoping for a Big Bang Theory panel, something involving Joss Whedon, and most importantly, Doctor Who and Transformer stuff. 

But there will be a whole separate post about that. Because c'mon. It's COMIC-CON.

I just don't know what to do with myself, readers. All this excitement, jam-packed into one season? It really will be the summer of dreams.