1. Walter the cat. This handsome dude is fifteen and a half years young! My husband adopted him from the New York Animal Care & Control when he was a wee eight weeks old. He is the biggest mush EVER. You look at him and he purrs. You touch him and he purrs. He simply cannot get enough of human hands on him. If you pull your hand away, he’ll reach out with a paw and pull your hand back toward him. Everyone loves him and he loves everyone. Walter likes to sit on my lap while I’m at my desk, typing away. He is the best furry assistant in the world! Look at those big kitty eyes:

Walter2. Pandemic, a game my husband and I were introduced to when we visited his family a couple weeks ago. The object of the game is to save the world from a viral outbreak that just keeps spreading. We liked the game so much that we bought ourselves a copy and have already played it three times! What we like about this game is that you actually play as a group rather than each person playing against the others. And the game is for two to four players, so we can have a fun game night in by ourselves. So far we’ve lost the game 75% of the time, but we’re determined to keep trying to save the world!

Pandemic3. Funko Mystery Minis: Game of Thrones series. This one’s in honor of the Game of Thrones season five premiere this Sunday, April12th! I discovered these awesome little figures at New York Comic-Con last fall. They’re super fun—each series has a number of potential figures that could be inside the box, with certain figures being more common than others. Last time I bought one of these, I got one of the most rare figures: a tiny Drogon, which is going for $99 on Amazon (each mystery box costs $6)!! While we were at Barnes & Noble buying Pandemic, I decided to pick up another GoT Mystery Mini. Before we open these, my husband and I like to play What’s in the Box?! and try to guess what we’ll get. Then we open the box and try to guess which figure it is by feel (it’s packaged in a black baggie). Okay, we’re major dorks. But it’s fun! This time around, my husband guessed that we would get the white dire wolf, and I guessed that we’d get Joffrey (ew). Then once we started feeling the figure in the baggie, he guessed Tyrion and I guessed Jon Snow…and I was right! This lil guy is so sad looking, but I would be too if I was a bastard and had to live at The Wall. Jon Snow is one of the more common figures—he’s in two out of every 24 boxes, whereas Drogon is only in one out of 144!

JonSnow4. While we’re on the topic of GoT, how about a Brewery Ommegang Valar Morghulis  Dubbel Ale? This limited edition brew was released last October and we opened ours up awhile back, but if you can still find it I highly recommend picking up a few bottles to celebrate the season five premiere. I can’t claim to be a beer connoisseur, so here’s what the back of the label says: “When confronted with the most feared saying in High Valyrian, take a sip and choose your words wisely, for all men must die, and all men must serve. Enjoy rich aromas of caramel and ripe fruit with deep flavors of malty sweetness and fruity esters.”

GoT_beer5. Also related to GoT? The brand new standalone streaming service from HBO called HBO Now. FINALLY! I’ve been waiting for something like this for what feels like an eternity! We don’t have cable because it’s so expensive in NYC, but I’ve always said that I would pay for certain channels like HBO, Showtime, and AMC. It’s about damn time that a network in the stodgy old cable industry (and I would know, I’ve worked at a couple non-premium cable networks) stepped up and released a service like this! I signed us up for the free 30-day trial, and once that’s over we’ll pay $14.99/month for access to all the HBO content available on HBO Go (which is only for HBO subscribers…plus all the folks with whom they shared their login.). Note that you do have to have an iTunes account in order to subscribe. Guys, HBO NOW is a huge step forward for the cable industry. I expect other networks to get with the program (pun intended) and follow suit.

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