Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Warcraft Movie: A Geek Wife's Thoughts

Possible Warcraft Movie **spoilers**. Enter at your own risk.


For the Hoarde


Before Breaky went to Thailand, we all went to see the Warcraft movie, knowing there were already some pretty divided reviews.

Having only played a little bit, and only started relatively recently, it was really interesting for me. I recognized names and places from either playing World of Warcraft or Hearthstone, and overall, I thought it was beautiful in it's visual execution. Many times throughout the movie, Nick would whisper to me about names that were dropped that were important to the story moving forward. After the movie, I had tons of questions about when certain characters show up and how they fit in. I was told there were books about the lore, which I may have to check out.

If I had not had the knowledge that the entire story-line continues due to years and years worth of story from the game, I think I would have been disappointed in the ending. It ended abruptly and without the main "bad guy" being "stopped." I do have to say, the final fight scene between Lothar and Blackhand at the end was really, really short. But by that time, I was ready for the movie to be over anyway. Not because I didn't enjoy it, but I have a short attention span and fight/war scenes for me can be monotonous.

I also found Lothar's inability to stand up straight a little frustrating. Someone needs a chiropractor. Stop leaning on things for heaven's sake. You can be cool and still have good posture. Honestly though, I am probably the only one who noticed.







Overall, we both really enjoyed it. With context about the ending, I was very much satisfied. The cinematics were absolutely amazing and it was a fun ride. Oscar worthy? Nah. But most of my favorite movies to actually watch aren't. I would watch this again. It even prompted me to look in to getting the books on the lore to read.

Monday, June 20, 2016

Happy Anniversary



In 2015,  BreakyCPK married DuchessCPK and they lived *happily ever after.*

*Disclaimer: Happily ever after does include fighting, making up, laughing at each other, crying, missing each other, pain, joy and many other things that have or will probably end up in this blog. End of the day "happily ever after" means we loved each other and we still and will forever love each other.*

To celebrate our one-year anniversary, I am going to highlight the "geeky," "sporty" and unique things that we had at our wedding!



We had a Portal Cube ring box. Handmade by the best man!



All of the cupcake names came from Heroes of Newerth heroes. Shout out to the very talented and lovely Hollicakes!




Yes, that is the two of us in bobble-head form!



One of my bridesmaids worked at Journeys and hooked the girls up with some pretty sweet kicks. Mine is the blingy white one, if you couldn't tell.



These awesome people are from Overneath in Kalamazoo. They performed the the theme song from Halo as the wedding party headed down the aisle. They also DJed the reception and included Space Jam as Breaky and my entrance song. Huge shout out to this company!




To make it a little more fun and appealing to the single guys, we attached the garter to a football. Both the garter and the bouquet that were tossed had a gift card attached. More incentive to catch! AceJR, who was in the wedding, caught the "garter."



We also had a photo booth, full of a multitude of unique props, such as a Phantom of the Opera mask, Raptor hats (which resulted in replicated the iconic scene from the new Jurassic Park movie) and of course the standard big glasses, silly hats and boas.


Other things included references to Game of Thrones; I made reference in my vows and we had a chest with replica dragon eggs to hold the cards.

We also set out board games so people who either didn't want to dance or needed to take a break could still be entertained. I know I saw a picture of this, but heaven only knows where that ended up.(Edit-I found the picture! Just, you know, two years later.)





Happy anniversary to my love and a huge thank you again to all those who attended and made our special day even more special.


Tuesday, June 14, 2016

A Day in the Life of an E-Sports Wife

So every so often, the life of an E-Sports Caster will take you to places all over the world.  I have to admit, that is a pretty awesome thing. This is something I knew about Breaky when I started dating him. On our first date, he was talking about how he just got back from Sweden and how he has been to several countries around the world. I also knew that these were work trips, not for fun. That means that I will probably not be going with next time he goes overseas, unless we plan to go together for fun.

I admit, the first time he had to miss Thanksgiving was hard, but we got through it and I was ok. But being "ok with it" and "being happy about it" are two very different things. Having your significant other overseas for a few weeks at a time doesn't get any easier. I know this is a universal truth across all professions, which, I suppose humanizes the gaming industry, which sometimes people forget to do. Often times for events that only last one or two days means a few weeks worth of being away from home.

Every time he leaves, I seem to have forgotten what it is like to have him gone like this. Right now he is on his way to Thailand for the HoN Tour World Finals 2016.

Having my Breaky overseas means many things for me that I keep forgetting until he leaves:

- Late night or early morning Skype dates
- Tuning in to the broadcast at ungodly hours of the morning to see if everything is running smoothly
- Figuring out what time it is for him. I never seem to get the math right
- Worrying about things going well in general
- Worrying that they are getting enough rest and water in between matches
- Never EVER watching chat while Breaky is casting (people are mean on the internet)
- Forgetting how many responsibilities we shared that I am now in charge of completely
- A crap-ton of cleaning gets done. Mostly out of boredom
- Realizing how much louder little noises in the middle of the night are
- Secretly making a honey-do list of things to have him do when he gets home




Unfortunately, this year, I have to add that we will not be spending our first wedding anniversary together.

Disclaimer: I know that many others miss their significant others for a longer period of time for different reasons. I don't know how they do it. Bless their hearts.

Friday, June 10, 2016

Food Friday: Fruit Salsa

So close to alliteration with the title. Oh well.....



Last week for Memorial Day I made my summer favorite: Fruit Salsa. Super easy, but very, very good. One of those that is a huge hit at BBQs and family get-togethers that happen oh-so often during the summer. So when you take a break from all that Overwatch to go to that cookout hosted by IRL friends, you can pretend you spent a lot of time concocting a masterpiece, when in reality you just cut up fruit and threw it together ;)

On to instructions.

Note: This is how I made it for this get-together, but you are more than welcome to mix it up depending on what fruit is available. I would NOT recommend making it with bananas however. Will not keep and the consistency would be a little off.




- 2 Apples
- 1 container of blueberries
- 1 container of raspberries
- 2 Mangoes
- 1 container of strawberries
- 1 container of blueberry jam (I have diabetics in my family so I use sugar free)
- Cinnamon tortilla chips (I use Stacy's, but I have also made homemade tortilla chips in the past)

Cut up fruit. Mix together. Add jam. Mix together. Serve in pretty colorful bowl. Serve with Cinnamon Chips.

Bask in awesome complements. Seriously though, it is a very simple, but very effective recipe to impress real-life people at outside events.


Tuesday, June 7, 2016

A Happiness Hangover




I will admit it, I am used to planning things and being in control  Putting it out there, not the best at letting the reins go. So this weekend when my husband, sister and friends planned a birthday shindig, I was going nuts. I wanted to know what was going on and have a hand in planning things. I am glad I did not. It was absolutely fantastic and I was genuinely surprised and touched by the effort that they put in to making me feel special for my 30th birthday. 

Long story short, they planned a cabin weekend (my family has a cabin up in northern Michigan) and about 11 people total were able to make it! Well, 11 people and like, 4 dogs. :)




DogCPK chillin on the couch up north



So as a result, I have a happiness hangover.

Similar to if you did some drinking (which we may or may not have done a lot of too.....), you have a great time, and then when it is over, you are sad it is over and that you didn't enjoy it more when it was happening. In this case, instead of a headache and an upset stomach after, I am exhausted, covered in bug bites, a small sun burn and a weird dread and sadness of having to go back to the real world. Too bad a happiness hangover doesn't have a "hair of the dog" equivalent to it. 

Upnorth, we didn't have internet or cell phone service. For a bunch of gamers, that was a little difficult, but the dogs and board games were a great distraction.That being said though, I am sure everyone is just as excited as I am to jump back in to Overwatch! 

Thank you to everyone who helped make my 30th birthday one of the best ever! Love you all!

Have some cake. It is not a lie. (but no, really, I had a ton of cake this weekend. Loved it)

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

It's My Birthday!

I am taking the week off from delightful insight into the geek-wife blog life (well kinda... obviously I'm posting this!) to celebrate my birthday. The big 3-0!

I have in the works a great Food Friday next week and tons of Overwatch PoTG and highlights by none other than yours truly. Who knows, maybe soon we will have a guest blog post.

But all that will have to wait. My delightful husband and I are going out to eat tonight and have a weekend full of plans (I asked that I not be kept in the loop as I would just end up taking over the planning...) Plus, this is halfway in to the second week of my employment at my new position.