Lazy, Lazy, Lazy

Seth and I picked up Chris Thursday evening. We spent some of the weekend entertaining him and hanging out, but a lot of that consisted of playing City of Heroes at work. Apart from that we went for a walk, had some dinner, and picked up comics. I had the lofty goal of seeing a movie over the weekend, but that never happened because nothing really scream "watch me" at the moment.

Actually, it was a pretty relaxing weekend. I did a little bit of work, but it was mostly brainstorming since I've tried to have most things wrapped up before the trip to GenCon. Tuesday will be different because I'll be getting some feedback in the morning and I have to have it all taken into account for the project on working on by the end of the day so it can go back out to testing by the end of the week. Busy day.

Tuesday night I'm sure I'll have to do laundry and pack for my trip. That's really about all.

Gifts and that "Blah" Feeling

I arrived home from work tonight to find a package on the front step from Becca and Doug. She'd called yesterday to tell me to expect it because there had been some issue about delivering it. I was happy to scoop it up, take it inside, and open it up. I was surprised to see a book that I'd looked at a couple of weeks ago and considered picking up. I should trust Becca to have good taste -- and to know my tastes. The book is Mark Haddon's the curious incident of the dog in the night-time. It looks like it will be an interesting read.

I could have stuck around at work tonight and done some things, but really, none of it needs to be done tomorrow, so there was no reason to stay. Unfortunately, that left me with nothing to do for the evening so I was feeling kind of "blah" -- y'know, just nothing that I really had to do, nothing that I felt particularly interested in doing for the night. I thought about seeing a movie, or reading, but I decided to go get a haircut and then do some shopping so I could make some dinner at home. So, that's what I did. Dinner was actually pretty darn good. It was a mish-mash of browned beef with spices, salsa, and cheese.

I feel like the last paragraph is some of the worst writing I've ever done. Just so you know.

Tuesday evening I and a couple of others at work played in a game of Savage Worlds that Jim ran. It was fun, but I was sharply aware that one of the players was simply just not interested in playing. That made it hard to really have fun. The game itself actually reminded me of some of the games I've run in the past, so it was fun to be on the other side of the table for it.

Now I'm going to go to bed, I have a ton of work to do tomorrow.

Working at Relaxing

I just finished typing in a list of the books and games I have to sell (one way or another). Most of it's d20 stuff, but there are a number of other roleplaying games and books on there too. If you're interested in seeing a copy of the list, drop me a line (link at right) and I'll send it off.

The game I was working on a while ago is now a non-issue. Not necessarily a bad thing because now I have a game completed if we ever need one.

I have to make some characters for a game Jim's going to run tomorrow. Unfortunately, I'm really tired, so I don't think I'll be up much longer.

I ate at home tonight. Yes, that's noteworthy. I think too much of my money gets spent on eating out. I will be reining that in. Money has been too much of a stressor for me lately and I don't like it. That'll teach me to owe a lot of money.

It's warm tonight and the fan isn't helping much. This apartment doesn't move air well.

I like Jason's (link at right) idea for the one-sentence story. I may give it a shot when I'm feeling a bit more creative.

Not-So-Strange Visitors

Rob and Jen arrived on Friday after a hard day of meetings and a game of Risk: Godstorm at the office.

First, the game: it was slow and not as large-scale as a normal Risk game is. None of us were able to build up big armies and none of us felt like we could win. I really liked being able to bring the different gods into play and especially the effects they granted, but the game was slow and ultimatley not very satisfying. Perhaps if I play again it will be different. The best game they've done in the Risk line (other than the original) is the Lord of the Rings Risk. It's an excellent game.

Anyway, Rob and Jen. Friday night was pretty low-key. Seth, Rob, Jen, and I met up, had some dinner at Cafe Bizzarro in Wallingford. It's a great place; lots of personality and good food (but the service was a little slow for us). After dinner we went to Seth's and talked for a while.

Saturday we met up, showed them the offices, then went down to Pike Place Market. We explored a bit, picked up some produce, walked over to the piers/waterfront for no particular reason, then grabbed a light lunch at the Pike Place Pub & Brewery. Oh, and we picked up our comics. We headed back home for a while, then hopped back in the car to go to Sunset Bowl in Ballard for my birthday party thing. It was a great turnout (about 15 or so) and I hope everyone had fun. I did.

A few hours of bowling later and a handful of us went to Hattie's Hat, but it didn't offer anyplace for the five of us to sit, so we walked over to the Locks & Anchor (or some such) and talked a while. Seth came back after taking Rob and Jen home, Shana left, the rest of us went to the girls' hair stylist's place for her going away party (let that sink in a bit. Yeah, it's weird. It's okay to think that. I do.) . We were there all of four minutes, then we parked at the girls' house and walked down to the De Luxe for some late-night snacks and drinks until about two o'clock. A very good night.

Sunday I slept in to recover from the late night and to make up for lost sleep from some late nights earlier in the week. After noon I went into work to proof some files while Seth, Rob, and Jen drove up to Snoqualmie Falls and to visit North Bend (where they filmed Twin Peaks). I really wanted to go, but with work and, more importantly, the problems I've been having with my foot, I didn't go. Instead I worked, then tried to play some City of Heroes, but that went nowhere.

I met up with Seth and the others for a quick dinner then we watched The Bourne Identity over at Seth's. Now I can go see the new movie in that line this week. And get a haircut. And get my oil changed. None of those things are really related, I just remembered I have to do them this week.

After the movie tonight I said goodbye to Rob and Jen. Tomorrow they head up into Canada for some exploring, then back to Portland later in the week before they fly home. It was good to see them out here. Rob certainly seems to like the area. I'm looking forward to my trip home in a couple of weeks. This was a nice preview.

Time to get to bed.

Prep Time

I've been keeping busy at work because I have a couple of projects going on right now -- as well as all the management stuff. I really wish I could concentrate and excell and just one of them instead of having to spread myself so thin. I can feel myself falling behind on things and I don't like it.

One of the things falling by the wayside are bills, errands, and my personal life. F'rinstance; my car's oil has needed changing for about a month now and even though the JiffyLube if right on the way to work I haven't "had time" to get in there and get it done. I must do that this week. On the personal life side of things, I'd been planning to get people together for a night out (bowling maybe?) this weekend as a birthday party thing, but I've been too busy at work in investigate setting up a time at the alley and sending out invites. I will have to do that tomorrow or not at all.

Tuesday night a bunch of us met online to play a taskforce mission on City of Heroes, most of us hadn't done one before, so it was fun. However, we started at about 7:30 and expected to be done around 11:oo or so, but we didn't finish until 3:00. Yikes. That was a bit late on a work night.

Wednesday night I had the evening free, so I picked up around the house in preparation for Rob and Jen's arrival this weekend. I don't know if they're staying with me, but if they are my place is ready for guests, and if they aren't it was a handy excuse to clean.

In the course of cleaning I went through my gaming books and picked out a stack about four feet high of books that I'm going to sell. I should go through the shelves again and see what I can get rid of, but as a first pass-through, that seemed pretty good.

I'm tired and I'm going to sleep now.

Weekend Madness

Earlier last week I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get away from work for the weekend because I wanted to finish something up by the end of the month -- and by the end of the week I'd learned that the deadline had moved. And so, I was able to drive down to Portland with some friends from work to watch another co-worker pilot one of the entrys in this year's Flugtag.

Flugtag is an event in which teams build human-powered "flying machines" and then launch/push them off a pier. It's very much style over substance because I don't think anyone is actually trying to get their contraption to get very far, but it's a whole heck of a lot of fun.

Anyway, I spent Saturday driving down there, sitting around at the "hanger" (really just a patch of grass where they kept the craft until launch, and going out for dinner and drinks with people. The event itself was a lot of fun. Everyone loved Hair Force One and it won the People's Choice award. I think they got a little ripped off on the final scores, but whadayagonnado?

Sunday I had to figure out how to get my car out of a parking lot that was locked (long boring story skipped for your benefit) and driving back to Bellevue. This trip further confirmed that people in Washington don't know how to drive properly. Even though they drive slowly, they all want to be in the left-hand lane, like it's an insult to be the right-hand lane because no one wants to be regarded as "slow". They also can't merge, which came up a couple of times, but really I just thought I needed to mention it again.

Sunday night I did laundry and played more City of Heroes.

Monday was/is my birthday and I didn't really have anything planned. I received a number of calls and cards from friends and family (thank you!) and at lunch I was genuinely surprised when I walked up front to go to lunch with some people and found about half the office there to wish me a surprise "Happy Birthday" and then have a potluck lunch. They rule. I think every day should be like that. Thanks to all of you. Mom and Dad sent a big bouquet of balloons, too, so they decorated my desk for the afternoon. Fun.

Tonight I'm going to relax and clean up a bit in preparation for Rob and Jen coming to town this weekend. That should be fun. I have to reach him and ask when he'll be staying. I also have to figure out if/when I'm going to have a party this weekend. Should be fun.