I didn't do much yesterday, not really. Today it was my very first game of D&D 4e and Living Forgotten Realms. It was interesting. It is very, very different than 3e or 3.5e. In its favor, it is very team-oriented. Which is great, unless you have 6 individuals playing.

I played a half-elf fey-pact Warlock, from Aglarond. That improved misty step was incredibly useful, especially at getting out of the way of foes and traps. The adventure was a definite challenge. It was 6 hours of playing time and 840 experience (it's usually 3 adventures to level, and it's 1000 experience to 2^nd level).

Tomorrow, I'm running my first game of Living Forgotten Realms. I haven't even read the DMG yet, much less the Monster Manual. Tomorrow morning, I'll read the adventure and then run it in the afternoon.

I bought The Runner's Companion supplement book for Shadowrun. Mostly, I bought it for the character quiz. I'd really like to play Shadowrun again.

And next weekend I'm going to Palmetto Tat Days. Let the panicking begin. I haven't done anything to prepare. Eeeeeeeek!

TV: watched Adventure of English. I am such a geek, but it's soooo good.

Light supper last night, just me. Chris was over at his parents helping them move something & of course they fed him. I watched the first episode of Primeval. It looks like a pretty good show.

A few nights ago, I caught part of a later episode, which Chris was watching, while cleaning up the kitchen after supper. (for anyone who’s thinking ‘sexist, the man’s watching tv while the woman works in the kitchen,’ it’s not. It’s whoever didn’t cook, cleans up the kitchen).

Today’s my supervisor’s birthday. We went out to eat at a local eatery. It was a very good burger (I’m donating blood today & need the extra iron) and the sweet potato fries….yum. He doesn’t know that he’s getting a cake, too. It’s surprisingly hard to find birthday cake candles. I found some very colorful ones. Since we don’t have one for every year, we’re doing one color for the number of decades & another color for the single years.

Today, they had a fresh market thing here. I got some locally grown produce, some bean sprouts, a lemon, and a very small apple pie. I also got a reusable bag to carry it. I also will be getting a recipe for a collard dip. I don’t like collards. It’s very un-Southern of me but I just can’t stand them. This dip, very like a spinach dip, I liked.

I finished making the 3^rd 4e character this morning. I need to go back and decide what region to make her home region. I don’t want to make all my characters from the same area. My 1^st two are already from Aglarond.

I’ll be playing a game, maybe 2, of 4e this weekend. So I will finally get to try out the game. I missed the sample game that Chris ran; I think that I was still in Colorado. Or at least in Illinois.

Someone really startled me this morning. It’s raining a bit and I was crossing a side street when I saw, out from under the umbrella, a car swerve, almost like it was about to hit me and pulled aside. It turned out, it was just someone trying to get directions. Luckily, I knew where to find his destination and could point him the right way. And as he drove off, he apologized for scaring me.

Health: I have not been getting enough sleep. I keep going to bed way too late for me. Of course, then I’m exhausted on the weekend. Big surprise, huh.

Gaming: I'’ve created 2 characters in 4e D&D. One’s a half-elf fey-pact warlock & the other is a
dragonborn cleric, both from Aglarond. Rosemary found out something though, so I had to
correct the cleric’s deity. I had her worshipping Bahamut but the dragonborn don'’t really believe that Bahamut is good, they don’t trust him. So one, even one raised by elves, probably wouldn'’t worship him either.

After reading the rituals section (final chapter), I have decided the cleric’s 2nd feat (2nd level). It will have to be skill training. Because as it stands, there’s only one ritual that she can cast at 1st level. There are not any others that she can cast but there is only one 1st level spell that uses Heal, none that use Religion; of the rest, one uses Nature & the rest use Arcane. Guess what skill she’ll get training in at 2nd level. Did you guess Arcane? I knew you would. And you’'d be right.

I think I'’ll make up one character of each ‘type’; defender, leader, striker &
controller. I already have 1 leader & 1 striker. That way, if/when I play Living
Forgotten Realms, I can bring whatever type is needed to the table.

Weather: It's RAINING! Actually it's storming off & on. So far, I've managed to avoid getting soaked. I know at least two people who haven't, avoided getting soaked that is. Hopefully it will soak into the ground and start restoring some of the water table.

tatting: My watch chain broke. I tried to tat a new fob but the thread broke. It's an older thread, that plus my tight tatting and the very large ring was a recipe for disaster.

Gaming: The game on Sunday was entertaining. My character finally met her goddess, or at least her goddess's avatar; that's a thrill. There was a lot of humor found, between her teaching the little drow orphans to pray (much to the dismay of the Torm paladin, who couldn't find a reason why he should a object, just felt vaguely that he should) to the tiefling's appreciation of the Drow dancig..aaaaaand the revelation that some god had already marked the agnostic/atheist tiefling. Rosemary is still chortling about that; she won't tell him who.

Tonight we're still invading the giant's keep. We've found the artifact, sort of. We just need to fight/trick our way through several giants and some scorpion-worshiping drow. Yeah, that'll be easy.

Work: the end is in sight. I've managed to shrug off the easier part, and the data entry, onto my assistant. Now I just need to do the other stuff that's been on the backburner & get it done.

Work: spreadsheets, spreadsheets, spreadsheets. I am so sick of spreadsheets.

I got very little done today. That's no real surprise. I was so tired, just no energy.

My amazon order came early. It's the stuff that I ordered to get free delivery on Mom's present. I wasn't expecting it 'til Tuesday. That's kind of nice.

I finished creating one 4e character, a half-elf warlock. She might even done correctly. Maybe.

Have you ever cheered someone else just with a sentence or two? I did that this morning with a local police officer. I said the usual greetings and ended with, 'hey, it's Friday, TGIF.' One of the cops remarked that that reminder brightened his day. Wasn't that nice.

The sun is rising later. This morning I could look east, to see if my bus was coming, without risking damage to my eyes.

My stomach has settled down. I think. We'll see what happens in a half-hour or so when my breakfast starts really digesting.

Sometimes I hate my digestive system. It woke me up at 3 am and it's been gurgling ever since. I almost missed the bus because I just wasn't sure if I could make it to work. I drove down to the park and ride barely ahead of the bus.

My supervisor bought our lunch today. Wasn't that nice? Shame about how my system handled it. At least I got to enjoy it.

R's bedroom ceiling tried to fall in. Apparently there was some kind of leak and it was dripping. The question of Sunday's game was in doubt. Tonight's game was cancelled. I'm not sure who called in but I'm guessing that R was one.

site of the day: new variety of specialty contacts; anime eyes.

Went on a History & Mystery tour around campus yesterday. That was fun. The conditions were hot and humid, but at least we walked a lot. Seriously, the sponsors provided lots of bottled water and the three speakers were interesting. One focused on the role of African-Americans, especially slaves, in the history of the campus; one talked more about some of the myths; and the third talked about the buildings, etc.

I arranged a ride before I went. I'm glad that I did, because I so missed the last bus. I was still half the north campus away from the bus stop when the bus was scheduled to stop.

TV: I've almost caught up on the Connor Chronicles. I have only the season finale yet to watch. Maybe I'll watch that tonight. Maybe.

Work: Gaaaaah! The e-timesheet system has been driving me nuts today. It kept giving me 'cannot connect to server' errors. Logging off & back on didn't fix it. Restarting the computer didn't fix. Deleting the browser history does seem to fix it. We'll see if the fix lasts.

My student assistant is back. I immediately dropped a stack of invoices to be mailed into his lap and a notebook of old paperwork to shred into his lap. He does get a couple days without the daily reports because I need to revamp them.

Reading: I finally read a short story in Alyssa Day's Poseidon warriors series. It was in an anthology that I've had for months. I think I'm going to have to go find the first book and read it. Oh. Woe is me. Alas and alack. *snerk*

I've almost finished reading the D&D 4e PHB (for the non-gamer that equals Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition Players Handbook). I'm in the combat section. I really do need to play a game before I can truly judge the system.

I pulled out the calligraphy pen to to work on the rest of Mom's present. And realized that I hadn't washed the nib yet so it won't write. I gave Mom a recycled silk yarn scarf for the first part of her present. It's a very long, rectangle scarf of bright fuschia with bands of other colors at the ends. And one of the stripes matches an outfit that she's wearing to a wedding, so it's perfect timing, too.

I'm sitting in a corner of the student stores, in the bookshop (not textbook) section. It's got a patch of carpet surrounded by comfortable chairs and couches. Everyone is reading or working on their laptop (moi & one other person) and being careful to be quiet. Conversation is in low tones, leave to talk on the cellphone, that sort of thing. It's very pleasant.

Weekend: Saturday was a visit to a lovely bead store that regrettably is going out of business. Anitra & I stocked up. I was good though, I stayed in my budget. I also got the oil in my car changed. The mechanic was quite disapproving as my car was almost dry. ooops *blush*

Sunday, Mom came by for a visit. Too bad that it was so late that I couldn't get anything else done. I did have a nice time showing her some of my pictures.

But we did not go see movies as we had planned. 8-{

tatting: I screwed up the checkerboard doily. I am so sick of that thing. I am more than half-tempted to just simply stop. I might sew it onto something, someday, once I no longer want to throw it across the room.

Chris is so sweet. I was in a pissy mood on Saturday so he bought me an art book. It's drawing samurai & ninja manga/anime style.

It's late & I'm off to bed.

Computer games: I have a guilty secret. I bought another one (or 4) yesterday. It was one of those, buy 4 get 45% off on all of them. They are all ones that I have played the trial download & liked. I am playing them one at a time, to extend the playing pleasure I guess. Right now I'm playing Jojo's Fashion Show. It's a strategy game; put together 'looks', like Western or Surf, from the offered garments. Get points for garments that match the 'look' better, there are key words involved.

Today I'm supposed to get my new computer at work. And it's one that tracks internet usage. So I'll have to limit how much time I spend posting, etc. *sigh*

Aaaand here he is. I guess I'll just post this. I planned to write more. Oh well.

Gaming: Tough fight last night in Chris's game. The giants were pretty stock, a couple hill giants and a trio of frost giants. But they were supported by a couple Drow arcane casters. Kelis went negative (-6 hit points) but autostabilized. Then the scout and the warmage poured enough healing potions down her throat to get her to positive. By that time, the giants were dead and our group was hunting the two casters who were under the effects of a greater invisibility spell. Our cleric was sick so my druid and potions or wands was all the healing that we had. Since our cleric was gone last session, Kelis had some healing spells prep'ed. Good thing, too. She used at least one & maybe two of them, plus a mass lesser vigor. No one else went to negative hit points, but at least two others were in single digits.

Next time, we continue our search for the missing Elf relic and kill more evil giants.

Weather: it was pleasantly cool this morning. How refreshing.

TV: I found the remote last night, so we're going to put off buying a new tv, at least for a couple months. We taped the Olympic equestrian events last nigh; and I'm going to check the online schedule to record some other things, too.

site of the day: Angry Chicken, eco/hippy/treehugger but practical

Chris's game tonight. So we have to move the old tv, it's still in the middle of the living room floor. The TV died the second Wednesday that I was out of town. It was death by fire (there were flames involved).

TV: We went TV shopping this weekend. We're looking at 30" to 42" and no larger. That's the biggest that will fit the space that we have. We know what we're looking for, just shopping around for price.

Movies: Went to see Dark Knight & the 3rd Mummy movie yesterday. Dark Knight is a very good movie. It's going to be interesting to see what they do for the next one. It's going to be hard to top. They set a very high bar. Mummy was about what I expected. It's not quite as good as the first but it was a good movie.

Greyhawk Ruins: We did another two adventures on Saturday. They went pretty fast. Part of that was that we got lucky. A couple of well-placed spells really shut down the opposition.

My sunburn has finally stopped peeling. Yay?

Tatting: I worked a little more on the Checkerboard doily, from Tatters Treasure Chest. I don't think that I really like it though, pity that. I really want to work on AnneB's dragon. I just need to finish at least one project.

Doily that I gave Louise:


I've almost caught up at work. Now I'm starting the actual, current work. Again, yay?

One picture from Vacation (one of the few that looks good enough to share)

Journal: I wrote in my journal everyday on the trip. I almost finished the journal. I wrote everything from 'time & temperature when we stopped for food' to my impressions of the scenery. I'll try to add selections later. We'll see.

Work has not been a lot of fun. I had 18 voice mail messages waiting for me. One dated from the Sunday after I left. Apparently no one had the password. Of the 18, two were for the same call (got interrupted), two were for Derek, one for Mike, one in response to a call that I'd made before I left and the rest of them were for vending. Then there's all the data entry for the reports. I'm almost caught up on those. Almost.

I had my dentist appointment yesterday. And it's official. I cannot face the dentist chair without drugs. I had to delay my appointment until I got a prescription filled and had a chance to take it.

Gaming: Tonight is Mutants & Masterminds, I still don't know if Diana will be giving me a ride or not.

My stomach's been upset all day. I think it's the aftereffects from the migraine (tension induced).

Back from vacation. Lots of pictures. No time. Tired. Wrote in journal whole trip. Whee!