...your ordinary, less-exciting life.

Not that I'm not somewhat glad for the return to normalcy. The last couple of weeks have been pretty hectic. In a good way, but hectic none the less.

My parents came in for a visit last wednesday night and hung out here until yesterday afternoon - making this the longest span of time they've ever been able to stay. It was a lot of fun - my parents are great. :-)

I think I got them a little hooked on the Wii. They're *really* good at the bowling game. We also had a lot of fun with Mario Kart together.

My dad also fixed a few things around the house - something he's compelled to do whenever he's here. We spent most of saturday trying to get sheri's car working. We fixed a few problems with it, but found out that it has a more major issue with the oil pressure that we can't do much for. I think i'm gonna have to take it to the shop.

On thursday we went & played golf out at Buffalo Valley. I only played so-so, but it was still lots of fun. I'm hoping I can go out again soon.

On friday (the 4th), we went to Rucht & McKenna's house to hang out and watch the fireworks. We had a terrific view from the top of the hill across from the field they set them off in. Next year i'm bringing my camera.

Oh, and I learned how to make Lemon Cheese Bars from my mom. Yum.

...

So... ...after all the preparation and the Oots meetup and then a couple days of complex development at work and then several days of fun with my parents, things are settling down now. We did have a game session last night which was great. It was the first one in 2 and a half months for that group. We're planning to have another game this week as well, but other than that, not much on the calendar.

It's ok, I can use the rest.

~PS

I seem to have been pretty busy the last couple-few weeks, but not with anything important or exciting to talk about. Basically, this whole post is something like a "here's why i haven't blogged in a while" excuse...

What i've been up to:

• Work's been really busy, but I've done some cool things. Sadly, this means my own projects get neglected because I don't even want to look at most web sites after 5.

• Been gearing up for the GitP meetup (t minus 8 days), working on a time-consuming illustrator project for it too.

• Mowed the yard again yesterday. Lawn looks good, hopefully I can keep it that way for the meetup and when my parents come down the weekend of July 4th. Means i'll probably have to mow it again before then though...ugh...

• Finally continued one of our current d&d games, though it might be a while before we get to play again.

• Been trying to work on a new roleplaying system and setting. Still in the 'vague' phases, mostly because i have so many ideas that narrowing it down is proving to be difficult.

• Been playing Twilight Princess; just finished the desert temple.

• Played golf a couple of times. That was fun. I did ok. Got a couple of pars even.

• Sheri & I got a wardrobe that we need to stain.


So yeah, the blog, etc, has been neglected lately. The gallery has been updated with a few new pics. Mostly sheri's plants. I really want to go somewhere fun to take pictures. That's on the list....somewhere.

~PS

EDIT: Oh yeah, i forgot another big one - the Spare Room has been cleaned, painted and given window coverings. Also, i changed out several light switches and added a bunch of decorative switch/outlet covers.

So i guess when my dad points out that i haven't put up a blog post in about two weeks, I must be slacking a little. We were talking on the phone last night about another possible web project, but I'll talk more on that later when/if it pans out.

We've been fairly busy the last couple of weeks, but there's really not much to talk about.

We did go to our church's 'Trunk or Treat' thing on halloween (think: give candy out from trunks of cars in the church parking lot), which was pretty amusing. I think the best costume I saw was this little girl dressed up as Raggedy Anne. Followed closely by this boy as a pirate - complete with mustache the hung down to his chest. Those two were very well done outfits amongst the majority of walmart suits. Alas that I was unable to get pictures of them - partly because i felt a little odd taking pictures of other people's kids, and partly due to the limitations of our camera (recycle time & low-light capability (I hate flash). Talking of which, I've been looking at a lot of digital SLR's and lenses lately and reading a lot about what's good and what's not and learning a bit more about photography in general. Pretty fascinating. But, I digress...). After that, we went over to Ginger's place an hung out with some friends there for a while - which is always fun.

Apart from that, we've done some gaming (though not on "world-wide d&d day" - which was last saturday. a friend of mine was running some stuff at a local comic shop, but i didn't make it out. Other things going on. It was coolest a few years ago on the 30th anniversary anyway... but i digress again...), hung out a little at Ginger's church's coffeehouse, managed to remember the time change from DST and went to our church thanksgiving dinner. I think that pretty much brings us up to speed.

As far as upcoming events, I have 2-3(!) games this weekend (running 2, maybe playing 1), possibly swinging by Edie's birthday party, church's oh-so-exciting committee & board meetings on monday, planning to (finally) have Bart & Sarah Price (youth minister & his wife) over for dinner on tuesday, celebrating Ginger's birthday (a bit early) on wednesday and probably running another game on thursday. Keeping busy.

Don't think i've given any update/info on this point either: Ally has so far been inside for a little over two weeks. Thus far, there have been only one two "accidents" (that were probably my fault) and one case of negligible property damage (when she accidentally pulled my trackball off my desk and one of the buttons cracked. Still works though.). She seems a lot happier and less frantic (except at breakfast time) in here. Plus she keeps me company while Sheri's at work.

~PS