Rafe's 9 Month Birthday
Another month has passed and now the boy is 9 months old!
* Mouse over the pictures for captions
Westward RPG Creature Wallpaper
And here is the latest batch of creatures that inhabit not just the deserts, but the lesser illustrated jungle and tundra of Westward... presented in the form of a 1280px by 800px wallpaper!
Tentative names from left to right: Ice Fish, Entracter Crab Spider, Death Ogler, Snow Globber.
Watch for the Westward RPG core rule book to be released by year's end!
Yaya's First Dentist Visit
So, now that Yaya is a big girl, it is time to ensure that she has good dental health! Yaya had her first dental checkup ever on 25 September! Wheeee!
According to the dental hygienist, George Washington's teeth were set in lead (!!!!). Poor man probably died of lead poisoning. And can you imagine how heavy that must be in one's jaw? Ouch.
50 Months
50 months! 50 months of Yaya! 
This month's activities included our first work-related trip (to Chicago), seeing Becky and Phil in Elkhart for Labor Day weekend, Yaya's first ever haircut (given by me!) as well as the usual stuff that we do at home.
* Mouse over the pictures for captions
A Decade of Irfan
Once upon a time, this baby thought it'd be a good idea to come live with us.
Ten years later to the day - last night, he's celebrating his birthday with his parents and aunt by having dinner at a restaurant.
He's been wanting spaghetti and meatballs for some time now.
We thought we'd put a candle on a slice of cake. The restaurant provided the cake, but no one had a match or a functioning lighter. To tell you the truth, I could do without lighted candles on cake.
Many thanks to Cik Emma for treating us all at Secret Recipe. I had the chicken salad and Ain had the black pepper chicken with corn by the way.
After reaching home, Irfan opened up his presents. He now has a microscope set - along with prepared and empty slides - because SCIENCE! Thanks to Atok and Opah Irfan for a great educational present.
We love you Irfan Shafiq. The decade has been an odyssey and we wouldn't have it any other way.
Mecha RPG
Heroic Journey Publishing commissioned a series of artwork for the Mecha Mercenaries supplement for their Mecha RPG. Here are some, but not all, of the mecha arrayed together to form a 1280px by 800px black and white wallpaper for your widescreen monitor.
Check out their fantastic Mecha RPG at DriveThruRPG, which is fun, simple to play and very true to its source!
Westward RPG Critters - Part 4
Some more bizarre alien creatures were commissioned by Wicked North Games for their space steampunk western role-playing game Westward!
While you're riding a shieldhorse or piloting a steam-powered mech, you might come across these guys in the Badlands of Westward.
Ursidon
Slurdge
Longstride
Tusker
Remember the tusker?
Quattroptryx
Battleship
Recently I've been teaching Irfan how we played Battleship back in school, using a grid paper and pencils. And soon after, in addition to yelling "You sanked my battleship!" his cruise missiles being launched and flying it toward my ships were also being dramatised using hands and voice.
Later, he used his duit raya to purchase Battleship: Hidden Threat card game where the traditional game is ported to cards where you randomly array your battleships with your Missed cards in a grid, and you have a hand of different cards that you can play either to reveal your opponents' cards, attack your opponents' ships, repair your damaged ships, implement shields on your ships and even allow you to play more than one card per round.
It doesn't take a lot of time to play, perhaps 30 minutes at the most, but we can easily bring it about with us anywhere and set it up for a quick game when we have the time to play it.
