Seven Days and All's Well

Amy and I hosted a small Thanksgiving celebration this year. We invited my family for a few days so the task of the creating a meal was not insurmountable. Amy handmade an apple pie this year that was truly excellent. I hope she makes one again sometime. Everyone had a fun time and the week went by very quickly.

Also because of the holiday, Evan and I had to forgo our game night, but we'll resume on Thursday as normal. I need to remember to ask him to store my Neverwinter character on the server as I think my hard drive is failing. This happened once in August, but it seemed to be fluke because it hasn't occurred again since then. Every so often it clicks and whirrs on boot in a not so normal way until the BIOS tells me it can't find it, so basically I'm shopping for a new one. I'd like a bigger one anyway. Who wouldn't? (insert your joke here) Ba-dump ching!

In other minor irritation news, I had to stay late at work on the first day back after the vacation. It was only 30 minutes, but that usually means I don't get home until 6:30pm instead of 5:30pm because I miss my bus, which was indeed the case in this instance. But despite the inconvenience, I can rest easily knowing that children in the UK will not be forced to wait any longer than necessary for their Postman Pat book.

Engaged

There's some big news this week that I forgot to mention last time. Adam and Theresa are getting married! From Adam's last update, no dates are set but the engagement is official. Way to go, Adam. I'm very happy for you. Two more singles left. I won't mention any names, but you know who you are. We still love you, too!

I finally finished the Star Wars book I've been working on today. What a relief. Between the removal of that book and the three drum projects I finished recently, my file drawer is a lot more flexible again.

I cannot wait for Thanksgiving vacation. I'm saving the rest of my time off for December so that I can basically take some time off every week for the rest of the year. It will only be a three or four hours a week, but I'll take it nonetheless.

Currently listening to: Bjork, Isobel

License to Ill

It has been slow going for the last 10 days. As of my last post, Amy was sick and as you might expect, I was next in line for the newest version of the flu virus. I actually took a day off of work on Monday, November 8th because I wasn't feeling well. I had been saving that day for sometime next year, but in the end, I made the right decision to stay home. That was the worst day of one of the nastier colds that I've had in the past few years. I'm still recovering actually, but the only symptom left is a nagging cough that enjoys waking me up at 2:30am.

On a better note, I installed my new DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive, performed a full format of my hard drive, and reinstalled the operating system on the computer. Everything is now running very smoothly again. The icing on the cake is that there are no horror stories to report. After the reinstall, I promptly installed the three games that were given to me by Evan and we've already played twice. We've started with a community made module for Neverwinter Nights that's proving to a bit of a challenge. Mysteriously, it also has a tendency to only award experience points for kills to the party leader instead of distributing the points evenly. We keep switching the party leadership back and forth each time one of us levels-up.

In other game news, I finally finished Painkiller as well as Super Mario Sunshine. Since I can't seem to function without playing a game with a long storyline that can easily rack up hours of play time, I started playing Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker which is proving to be almost is fun as Ocarina of Time. I really like the cel shading, too. I don't like it any more or less than the older games' graphic styles, but it's a neat change.

Currently listening to: John Coltrane, Countdown (alt take)

Incredible Christmas Reunion

Last Saturday afternoon, we were leaving the house and as we began to back out of the driveway, I noticed a package on the porch. The postman had not rung the bell, so I was surprised and thankful to have spotted it before we left. I hopped out of the car and retrieved the package. It was from my friend Evan which piqued my interest. I opened the box and my eyes were blinded by the fiercest golden rays of light. No, actually there were three computer games and a CD-R stuffed with mods for all three titles. The games were Neverwinter Nights: Platinum Edition, Unreal Tournament 2004: Editor's Extra-Honking-Special Edition, and Age of Mythology: Gold-(better-than-the-previous)-Edition. It was like Christmas except more dangerous for my social skills. That evening, I promptly ordered a CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive from NewEgg.com (I didn't have a DVD-ROM drive and two of the three titles were DVD-ROM editions) and resigned myself to the fact that I need to get off my butt and reinstall my operating system as it's been running rather shoddily. So, again, "Thank You" to Evan and I'll see you online.

Also, I've neglected to mention that I've been in contact with Vern again after almost four years. I met Vern when we lived in the same apartment building on Forward Avenue in Pittsburgh. Eventually, Vern left Dreamforge Intertainment, got a job with LucasArts in California, got married, and moved away. But a few weeks ago, there was a message on my answering machine from him saying that he was moving to Chicago. As it turns out, he's accepted a position as senior programmer at High Voltage Software in Hoffman Estates. Hopefully, Amy and I will get together with Vern and Wendy for a nice dinner after they get settled into their new home. All of this is further proof that the world is too small.

I've been given a free pass for 4 tickets to an advanced screening of The Incredibles on Thursday night. I'm not sure, but I think this movie might just top most of Pixar's previous films. I usually enjoy their movies, but sometimes the scripts seem to get bogged down in their own sappiness a la Finding Nemo. I can't even begin to describe how much I didn't care after Nemo was presumed to be gone forever for the 27th time. Get on with it. So, the bottom line is that I'm looking forward to seeing The Incredibles.

Currently listening to: Koji Kondo, Lon Lon Ranch - Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time OST