Today is the usual run for our biweekly campaign, currently Sylvan's Skylands campaign.What's unusual is that instead of starting at noon, we're starting around 5 PM. It'll thus be a 'short' run, but I get to get some sleep beforehand! Woo! Also, we're having tacos for dinner, so I'm bringing the lettuce, diced tomatoes and sour cream. As snacky-stuff, I'm bringing canteloupe (cut into bites) and watermelon.

Looking forward to it, and now to bed. :)

To taking Greyhound to Furfest. I'll leave EARLY Wednesday the 16th, about 5:55 AM and I'll get back home early Tuesday morning, about 1 AM. Woot! I'm looking forward. Its a no-stop trip, and on one of the NEW buses, with the internet and power hookups. So I'll be able to futz on the computer all the way there and back.

I'm gonna try (HA!) to control my spending- as the big commission I was considering is lacking an artist (I was planning on commissioning DarkNatasha, but she can't attend), I think I'll try to get just two commissions, with the rest of my spending being food.

Also- we're about 2 weeks off my annual Halloween party! I'm doing it more potluck, so all I have to deal with is the bird, mashed potatoes and the cranberry sauce. I'm farming the rest out to other people. If you were invited in past years, you're invited this year. :)

Tonight, foeclan and feezlekahn stopped over, looking to go out for food; no plan was in hand as of yet, other than the suggestion of pizza. We (me, them, zxizaraxii, khirsahdrgn and phineus) ended up going to Black Sheep Pizza (http://www.blacksheeppizza.com/). Wow. VERY good, and they have Surly's beer! The booth was a little cramped for six, but oh well. I definitely wanna go back, especially since its in the Warehouse District, where I need to do scouting for locations in one of the stories I'm writing. :)

Oh- I had a 12" cheese and sauce pizza with white mushrooms and fennel sausage.

Okay. Yesterday was my birthday, and a bunch of people were nice enough to throw me a nice little party. We had sirloin steak on the grill, baked potatoes and steamed broccoli for the meal, and I got some beer for myself because dammit, its my birthday and I wanted a beer or two. :)

joshuwain was the prime mover behind the party, with foeclan, phineus and our friend Todd supplying food and labor. khirsahdrgn and feezlekahn were also in attendance. Thanks to you all!

A few more details about my campaign were hammered out, and the creation of characters has begun. Some of the players and I will be getting together on Friday, and whomever is left I'll work with on (probably) Monday to get things squared. Mostly it will be me approving builds and back-stories. Once I have all that information, I'll go back into the adventure and tailor some of the bits, and I'll also distribute the goodies to the characters- additional cash and the ever-popular magic items.

As once again I didn't sleep well yesterday, I've taken a couple of cold-caps to make certain I get at least some sleep today. I'll finish covering my windows later this week, when I can get together with the folks and get the black foamboard and brads (teeny nails) to put it up with. The lack of light will definitely help. I'm also stripping my bed and remaking it before I crash this morning with fresh bedding and such. That sometimes helps as well.

Okay, so my weekend actually is Friday and Saturday nights, but still. On Thursday I had a CEU class for work instead of my normal shift, so I was up all day at that instead of asleep. I crashed when I got home, getting up about four hours later. I ended up crashing early again that night (for me), around 4 AM or so. Friday was quiet, til the evening when I, joshuwain, foeclan and feezlekahn all did a little shopping run to two of the Half Price Books stores, Best Buy and a little used DVD place. I struck out on what I was after (the True Blood first two seasons sets), but I did get 'Cronkite Remembers', which is a autobiographical series by Unka Walt himself. It was ten bucks, so hey. I already have my folks wanting to borrow it! Oh- I DID find what I wanted online after, for the price I was limiting myself to- woot.

Also that night we ate at a little hole in the wall called 'Jimbos'. Its an ancient little dive restaurant off highway 10 in Blaine, that I always saw while I grew up. Never ate there before now, but I liked it- good, if not five-star food. The marinera was too sweet for me, but it was cheap and filling.

After all that, groceries were purchased and people headed for home. I once again crashed early, forgetting to make the Swedish meatballs for the game on Saturday. Fortunately, I woke with plenty of time to get 'em done. three pounds of meatballs went over well and were gone save for two!

The game, a Dresden Files short (test?) run, was a blast, It was the last run of the limited run, so the Saturday group is now going back to the Skylands campaign, which I'm not in.

Sunday was for the most part quiet, save that whilst I was holding Spaz, he freaked out for some reason and ripped my face pretty nastily. Its not actually that bad, but it looks like I was in a fight. I think he's gonna go to the vet to see about kitty-Ritalin or something else- he's WAY too strung, all the time, and I'm tired of his chasing Lady.

And now, I'm off to work. Bleah.

Went pretty well. I had a good turnout, and only a few of the invited didn't show up. The Cousin's subs went over well, and were decimated- I really was kinda afraid I'd have half of each or more left! Instead, I don't think there's even enough to make up one remaining. The emergency replacement soup (tm) was two packets of Shore Lunch Traditional Chicken Soup, with the required water and two pounds of cooked chicken added in- not bad, though I should have doctored it a bit- the flavor was a little bland.

What I got for gifts was absolutely not what I was expecting.

It was better!

The Dresden Files game Players book, The Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two, the Ray Harryhausen Legendary Monsters collection, a novel, 'The Native Star', which is a 'Supernatural Old West' novel which I'll read sometime in the next week likely (still re-reading the Otherworld books!) and a gift card for Barnes And Noble.

Oh- there was ONE more thing... Probably the most surprising: A bottle of scotch! Its a 12 year called The Balvenie, and its excellent.

The cheese went fast this year, and I think I'm figuring out which to NOT get- Swiss isn't all that popular, but the colby, muenster, monterey jack (and variations) and cheddar go fast. So I'll try to keep that in mind for the next party.

Now, its the day after of course. All but one serving bowl are clean, the long table is put away and the trash is out- I should probably vacuum at least in front- a lot of salt got tromped in. I need a bigger entryway!

As to the past few days where I have utterly failed to make daily posts, its been pretty quiet. Mostly it was a bit of cleaning and getting ready for the party. Last Sunday we played in the Wild West game again, and I've a pretty good chunk of notes from which to get the writeup done from. While there, I did get a gift from Scotty G. who couldn't attend the party- an electronic dartboard, which will probably go up in the front room where my pegasus pic is now. That'll get cleaned and relocated when I start some of the 'little' home improvement projects, like painting and the long-promised new carpet.

And that's about it. Happy Holidays to all one last time for 2010!

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.

Okay. Today I kinda slept poorly, maybe because I went to bed too early- around 5 AM. For me, that's early! I was planning on going to pick something up at Barnes & Noble, but by the time I received a call to go to a mive around 1 PM, I'd totally forgotten. O well, I'll get it after work in the morning.

The movie I went to was 'Tangled', the new Disney take on Rapunzel. What people said to me beforehand is true- the horse steals it. I won't post spoilers at all, but I will say I liked it save for the soundtrack- I was hoping for something more traditional 'old school' Disney. But its a very good film. :)

In the middle of all this I played Diablo II, and got the stupid scroll to open the gate to Tristram on Hell difficulty.

Lastly, and in very odd order I was at joshuwain's for dinner- a very good and tasty beef roast with carrots and onions. It was he who called about the movie, originally asking if I wanted to see two with him today- Tangled was the second- before that he went to 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'. He said it was good, but I've no opinion as I wasn't there!

However, he DID have feezlekahn at both films.

Rambly as hell, but that's the Daily for today.

These days I'm trying to post at least something here daily... Not that I'll always succeed, but I'm making the attempt. I now have a funky rack in my front room in which iatro's snakes are in. It's effin' HUGE, but... It for some reason works out. Maybe because it isn't bearing all of the resentment I'd built up for that damn desk. ;)

I may have to go at the roof with the snow-rake. There's a LOT up there. Its not a safety issue, but with that much up there I WILL get ice dams. Maybe I'll get it when dad stops out this week and I can have a bit of help with it.

Sunday, after I got back from the 11 hour shift I went out for food at Keys Cafe with joshuwain, mirrdae and feezlekahn; I pigged out, as usual, and I think a good time was had by all in general. After that, I actually slept- fitfully, but I DID get some actual rest. Today I woke after about 4 hours... So I'll probably nap later.

The street is FINALLY clear. Mostly. At least safely navagable. This is one of the most piss-poor snow-clearance jobs I've ever seen in Minnesota. I know the management of the buildings I work at will have words for the city- our loading docks and garage were plowed in... And they're not supposed to EVER cut off building access. Its a safety issue as well as a business issue, after all.

I may be making some pretty hefty changes in 'Bear False Witness'- I may totally ditch the 'Great Desert' idea. Given the location, I just can't make it work in my head. But I've a rather more spectacular idea to replace it that could work, and would be a far more obvious example of a deific temper tantrum. ;) In other writing, I'm playing with a short story to explain just that event, and another idea is sitting on my laptop screen waiting to be played with.

Stopping, cos I'm rambling all over.