Weak Attempt at a Headline

I haven't posted in so long that I won't even attempt to come up with a headline to encapsulate it all. In addition, I'll recap the major events that I can recall from the last month, so you're not going to get too many details.

I was excited to receive an emailed ad from amazon.com touting some of the new Mutants & Masterminds products -- one of which is for Iron Age. Hopefully they'll get the cover art in there soon. And, hopefully, this is the first of many listings with my name attached.

Julia found someone to come and cut down the tree in our backyard that tipped (but didn't fall) over in December. He cut it down with the help of a friend and we removed a bunch of brick from the backyard this past Sunday. It went well, but I honestly thought one of the guys was going to get a chainsaw in the gut at one point. I could see it happening in my head and was ready to grab my phone and dial 911, but it didn't come to pass. The backyard looks much better and we're really happy to have it done.

I love lilacs. I was happy to find out that three or four of the bushes in the yard are, apparently, lilacs. They're not quite in bloom, but they're damn close and I can't wait until they are. I love the look and the smell of them and I'm excited that we have some right outside the door.

I was in Las Vegas for the ill-fated Games Expo about a month ago (see, I said it'd been a while since a real update) and soon, I'll be back there for another show. I have to say, it's not much fun to go to Vegas when you don't have any money to spend. I didn't see any shows, I didn't buy any souvenirs, I didn't go out to eat anyplace fun, and because I behaved myself so well; on the last day I alotted myself $50 for gambling. I'm happy to report that I won $65 playing blackjack in about two hours and then I hopped on the plane and left. Oh, and I went to Vegas with $60 in my pocket and hadn't spent all of it by the time I left. (The company paid for most of the meals.)

I've been freelancing for the Matter Group on their Xeko game, but most of that work has wrapped up now. Then I picked up some work from WizKids, which I'm wrapping up in the next day or two. And finally, I have some editing for Green Ronin and their new Paragons setting for Mutants & Masterminds, which has been really fun so far. I'm not sure how things are going to go when the freelancing dries up.

Speaking of which, my new company is chugging along, but we're in fundraising hell right now, so funds are at a lowpoint, which makes things really. . . uh, challenging. We're still making slow progress and I hope things come through soon. But I've been saying that for months, so it's starting to ring a little hollow for me.

Julia's been having issues with food lately -- in that random things make her really sick -- which hasn't been fun, but she has some appointments coming up which will hopefully give us some answers. It's hard to see her in so much pain and not be able to do anything about it.

Our weekends are often filled with checking out estate sales in the area and we've had some great luck lately. We found a wooden kitchen countertop/shelving unit that's really helped to clear up some counter space for us; we bought a push-powered lawnmower (but I need to get the blades sharpened); and we found a new 27" TV and a wheelbarrow. And they were all so damn inexpensive that they were totally worth it.

Apart from getting the lawnmower blades sharpened, I also need to get an axe sharpened so I can chop up the pieces of the tree that are lying in the backyard, so I can get rid of them.

Okay, that's enough for now. Write if you have a job for me. I need work and money.