I've had a good week of settling into my new office and organizing my desk. It still needs a little bit of work, but everything is fitting nicely and I think I have more room than before -- plus my work area is a lot more private. I even have enough space in my cube to keep an extra chair for people to sit in. Woohoo!

Work has been mostly filled with trying to get motivated (which is similar to "fixin' to get ready" as the Texans say) to actually do some work. I thought I'd dive right back into work, but it's very hard. Luckily, today and yesterday I managed to build up a good head of steam and I managed to get a lot done. I'll even make all the deadlines I set for myself this week, which is a very good thing.

Jumping back in time; most of you back in Wisconsin already know this, but it bears repeating. While I was home I contacted Dr. Chris and he took me, my mom and dad, may older sister, her husband and their three sons over to The Valley of the Kings.

It was very cool.

All that separates you from these wonderful cats is a normal chain-link fence in most cases. And, as Chris liked to point out, they're all really sweet animals that would kill you if the fence wasn't there. The visit was very cold after a while, but it was so cool to see these critters close up that I really didn't mind at all. If you love animals, especially large cats that have been mistreated by stupid humans, please donate some money. If you do, you can visit the shelter, otherwise you can't get in. The highlights of our trip were feeding the cats (including Nook, a 1,600 lb. liger (a nine or ten foot-long lion-tiger mix who'd been bred to be skinned. Nice.)) and when one of the lions decided we didn't smell quite right and decided to pee on us -- my youngest nephew caught the worst of it, but how many people can say they've been peed on by a lion? So it all worked out.

Our new location at work is good. I haven't walked to work yet because I've been bringing boxes back from home as well as taking my Christmas boxes home from work (lots of boxes in my life lately), but I will soon. I noticed today that the route I took to work is 1.4 miles. If I get up at a reasonable time I should be able to be here at a respectable hour if I walk. I really want to start that, it'll save on time at the gym as well as save gas money. I'll update you on this when I start.

I returned to the gym on Wednesday, which is the first time in about three weeks. Yikes! I'd gained a couple of pounds but I'm not too concerned. I know I can take them off and I've varied my workout a bit. Hopefully that change plus the break in my workout schedule will help to kick my body back into weight-loss mode. Every now and then it's good to make a change. I received a mailing from the gym yesterday that offers a two-time visit with a personal trainer for $99. I may take them up on it just to get a new workout plan.

Okay, I'm out of here. I spent this evening cleaning my mailbox, reading some things Seth wrote for an upcoming project, and coming up with new game ideas for work and for fun. Next Tuesday I start a Mutants & Masterminds game and I have to come up with some good ideas to kick the game off right.

Tired now. Going to bed.