Wow. I've been SLACK here. A lot has happened since my last post, good and bad, plus a big decision was made... One that I really never wanted to make. Checking, my last post was... November. Huh. At least it was shorter than the break before that!

Anyway... For Chrismas, I sold most of my comics for the money for gifts. This isn't a bad thing at all- I wasn't reading them, and they were just taking up space in the closet. So, they're gone. I've been culling my possessions slowly but surely in general too, for more space and less clutter. Christmas this year, despite being the lowest-budget one so far for me was really good. The gathering with family was on Christmas Day, and the friend's party was on January 6th. I got some VERY cool stuff- Big Band music, a set of 50 Martial Arts and bad '70's flicks, the restored Metropolis (Fritz Lang's version- I have the anime), and the Lacakdaisy collection of online strips, Volume 1 were the prizes- bit ALL of what I got was cool!

Now... To the other stuff. I've for the last year been wrestling with finances. Not anyone's fault but my own, but there you go. Thus... In November I finally decided. I'm selling the house this year. I'm not sure exactly when, but the current aim is probably early Summer. I'll be cleaning and painting inside, and continuing the disposal of crap that I no longer want or need. I've already donated some furniture and stuff to Savers.

The work inside the house isn't TOO bad, but its daunting for someone who slacks like I do, and more daunting as I'm likely to have to do it all myself. The goal is to get a good price- which in this market could be dicey. I should be able to get enough to kill the mortgage and the credit card, which will be good enough.

I'm actually planning on getting a double-wide trailer in a park to live in. This SOUNDS bad, but the newer trailers are effing palaces. I've run the numbers, and I CAN afford a nice, if not new one for a total monthly payout of $950. That includes EVERYTHING billwise, excluding groceries, gas for the car, and the insurance on the car. I won't be living high-on-the-hog, but I'll be able to afford it MYSELF. Which is the goal.

So, that's where things are now. I'll try to start keeping this updated again, so people know what's up at Plague House.

Oh! Spaz and Lady are just fine, and are pretty much as they always are.

I missed yesterday's daily! O well, it was an uneventful one anyway.

Today though... It started drizzling while I was at work. Being as this adds to the problem of ice and snow on the roof (and oddly also helps with that situation), I went up there this morning and dug a trench in the snow and much around the periphery of the flat roof, then salted the hell out of that area. Hopefully, the roof will drain better now, and the section where the flat roof abuts the peak won't flood, freeze and get inside. By the time I was done my back was screaming- shoveling wet snow sucks.

Before next Friday I need to clean the house some- nothing real hard, just a general picking-up-of-things and the usual sweeping and vacuuming. The party approacheth! I'll be going out today and ordering the subs from Cousins in a bit- four of them. There will be a LOT of food, and more than likely a lot of leftovers! I definitely don't mind that. As usual I'm gonna recruit people to help get the munchies (chips, pop, cheese and such), and I should make those calls tonight too.

Lastly, in an odd twist of fate I'm back on City of Heroes- Going Rogue was on sale on Steam for $10, and given that the price includes a month of play, I couldn't pass on it. I'm having fun in Pretoria with my new Energy Melee / Willpower Brute. :)

Oh- the New Years plans aren't fixed as of yet, but I should know whats up tonight, and we may be gaming in the Sunday Group this weekend. Woot!

I'm back from the folks. It was kinda fun, and people seemed to like the gifts I brought. In return I got a little money, wool socks for wearing in my boots when shoveling, a pair of gloves, a scarf, a set of cheap little LED flashlights and the movies Kick Ass and Zombieland. The weird gift this year was a set of old Saturday morning series discs- Jason of Star Command, Ark II and Space Academy. I remember watching these when I was MUCH MUCH younger, but I can't remember the details. Maybe there's a reason for that... ;)

Dinner was beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, with dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole and some kinda creamed corn thing that Mom now insists on making every holiday... God knows why. All in all a good evening.

Okay. joshuwain stopped by after he got done with work and wanted to go out for food. We ended up going to Stanleys, a small bar/restaurant south of me on University Avenue. It used to be Stasius, and was relatively famous in the area as a local hangout. Well, Stanleys has been open for about two months, and while its a nice place, its obvious that they've only been around for a short time. I think they'll get better with time. In other news, I shipped my one 'off-site' gift this morning, and during the day the FINAL gift arrived in the mail. Its now wrapped and under the tree. :)

Its been otherwise a quiet day, though I could have slept better.

Recently I've been thinking about Christmas. Yeah, Duh, its the season, but I mean I've been thinking about the meaning of the season- what it means to me, that is. Traditionally, Christmas-the-Christian-Holiday means for most people of the faith the celebration of the birth of Christ and His teachings. Its meant to be a season of joy and love, a moment in the year where we all try to be giving in one way or another.

The secular Christmas has an odd double nature- on one hand its supposed to be a time where family comes together and celebrates, whether or not its for a Christian reason or not. Gifts are exchanged, and you see friends and family that you generally don't see during the rest of the year. It also has a much heavier focus on children.

On the other hand, it can be a crass, commercial endeavour where the market and media try to convince you to buy as much as possible for as many as possible as happiness somehow is oddly linked to materialism.

Each of these is valid in their own way, of course, although the latter portion of the secular definition is kinda disturbing and dark-ish. But... My definition is a little different.

My Christmas is a time when I can try a bit harder to make people happy. I make a little sacrifice of time and money, and I get to gather all the people I care about together for a nice evening and an exchange of gifts. Its not the getting that's really important, its the giving. Whether its the time or just the getting together, being able to get people to smile and feel good, even for a little while is what Christmas is to me.

So I guess this is my Christmas letter to people; its not fantastic, but it is what it is. I hope you all have a wonderful season, finding time to be with those you care about and finding happiness.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We've gotten about 5 inches so far, IF Northeast Minneapolis has gotten the same as southern Hennepin. I suspect we've gotten more than that. We're supposed to get between 9 and 16 inches before midnight, and its also supposed to go negative temp before 8 PM tonight I'll be digging ups out later this morning, even though I'll prolly have to do it again tomorrow morning. Bleah.

They've NOT declared a snow emergency (which triggers parking restrictions for plowing that vary from day to day over three days), but there is NO way that they won't before midnight. So likely tomorrow will be parkways and alleys, Monday will be Even sides of streets, and Tuesday will be odd side.

I'm awake now because the carbos and booze coma'd me out after I got home from the restaurant, kinda as was easily predictable. It was worth it though. :)

I just hope my remaining deliveries can get here, if they're due today. At least I get my white Christmas!

In an attempt to address every possible reason why I might not be sleeping well, I remade my bed with clean sheets, coverlet and quilts, and put clean, doubled and de-linted cases on the pillows. Hopefully it'll help, but it leaves me with a stack of laundry that I have to go to a laundromat with. Bleah.

I have three presents to get left- one is the re-do of the card and gift-card that got lost inside another gift, and two I simply have no idea what to get. I'll try to get ideas from both people tonight, as I REALLY wanna be done with the shopping before the end of the 10th. All the stuff that's here at this point is wrapped and under the tree, and as soon as the rest arrives it'll be done too. Woot.

So later today and probably tomorrow morning early will be laundry and general cleaning about the house. The quilts and such are the morning job. Once that's done, who knows- I might even work on getting my room excavated! It really needs it.

Also on the agenda for tonight is working some on the novel. I need to determine just what area the Great Desert covers- I'm thinking it actually covers all of Israel, the Red Sea, the Dead Sea and merges with the other deserts of the area. I also think that the seas are still there, WAY down under the sands and locked away from mankind. I think an inkling of a future story could be there. :)

Oh, and lastly, the menu for the party- Several party subs from cousins- Italian, Turkey, Beef and one other will be the main course, with some kind of chicken soup from joshuwain and maybe my chili as sides. Of course the usual munchies will be there as well, and if people wanna volunteer to bring stuff like the pop, chips, cheeses and such that would be VERY cool, And firecatmn is bringing cookies. There may be other cookies as well! Once again, the date is Friday, January 7, 2011 for the party. Until then, Happy Holidays!

FOUR left. Two I know what to get, two I don't. Aagh. I'll pick the two I can get tomorrow after work, and cogitate on the possibilities for the other two. And consider a baseball bat or crowbar to pry loose some suggestions!

I woke after two hours again today, but I'm not real sure why. I might be just restless. Or all this shopping has my head spinning. ;)

I've decided something about the editing- I'm keeping a copy of the first draft untouched; that way, if I totally eff it up, I have something to fall back to and restart. I've this terror that I'll over-write it... Not in the write-over-the-file-and-lose-it sense, but in the overdo it sense. Bleh. But I do have to learn how to do this.

And seeing as the gifts are starting to pile up, I think I'll start wrapping tomorrow. In the evening, or during the day if I wake up early again. It'll be nice to get stuff under the tree. Even if the tree looks kinda evil.

Maybe I should kinda plan the tree for next year early- get the lights right after Xmas when they're cheap, and the new decorations I want too. I've got a lot, but some of the ornaments I have are starting to look kinda scrungy. And GOD I want a tree-star that lights, that DOESN'T look like cheesy crap. :P

Bleah. I got about 2 hours and woke up. Oh well. In any case, all my orders have started showing up, and I kinda feel sorry for the mailman, who is gonna have a TON of books to get to me this coming week. My brother FINALLY got me a thin-and-pathetic list, but it'll help me with him and Sam- she wants a tea strainer for loose tea, so I'm gonna get her that, and a teapot, and a selection of loose teas. Hah! For Maggie I'll get the one thing he listed for her, and bug the hell out of him til he gives me more so I can keep the gifts even- they're sisters after all.

With those three dealt with, I have four left. One is a stop tomorrow and quick, and the other three... Yeesh. I've no idea really. I'll figure it out though. I hope.

As I think I mentioned before, the Xmas party is going to be on the 7th of January. I'm currently thinking some sub sandwiches from Cousins as the food- prolly a beef, italian combo and turkey for the selection. I may bother someone to bring soup, and I may also make chili to round things out. Of course the usual snackage will be available, and firecatmn has offered cookies. Who am I to refuse? ;)

In other matters, I've seriously started on the editing process of the novel. Simply put, this is gonna be a pain, and I'm going to have to do some pride-swallowing (like sword-swallowing, but it hurts more), to get things right. I have a final target of 100,000 words or more, and I'm currently at 67,400. A ways to go, I know. Especially since there's one entire chapter that has to be rewritten.

I've already got about 3 or 4 new paragraphs for the first chapter, so woot there. Later today I have gaming, and as far as I know its the Desert World AD&D game- Of course, given that what I got done for the writeups was for the Western game, and even THAT isn't done. It'll be a fun night either way.

I've got the lights, polished off two more gifts and now I have the stuff for wrapping the gifts. I think I've figgered out something for the second gift for my dad, too- he and my mom have birthdays that bracket Xmas. That leaves my brother, my two nieces and eight friends left. Woo! Its really going quick this year! And now, Food. :)

I may get the tree up today as well; I got a spray that may dissuade Spaz, but we'll see. So one way or another that damned old desk is gonna go away tonight!

Edit- I forgot! I got the novel printed out to start the editing process. It looks so PUNY like this. O.o