06/30/2011:
My stomach has not been feeling very well, overall, for the past month or so. I have good days, but it seems like more bad than good in that timeframe. I brought this up to my doctor when I went for my physical about a month ago, and he referred me to the gastro department, an appointment which I went to on Wednesday. I haven't been to a gastro doctor in quite awhile, so I am ok with trying again. They want to do an endoscopy, which I am also ok with. Not looking forward to, but ok with. I will have it done on 8/15, and we will go from there. With my history of acid reflux, they want to make sure I don't have any damage in the esophogus, or an ulcer. Hopefully while they are down there, they can get a look at what is causing the tightness in my diaphram, which is my main complaint of the past month. It is sometimes difficult to take a deep breath, which leads to dizziness. Also, I feel like I am full more quickly, so I eat less in a sitting, which is the opposite of what my body needs. In the meantime, I am going to try and relax more, because it is definitely worse in times of stress.

Rattie news: Kena and Zinnia are currently living together, in the top 1/2 of the girls' cage, and the other 3 are in the bottom 1/2. We just put them in together last night, and they are doing OK together. Tomorrow, during the day, we may introduce Clover to the top 1/2 and see how that goes. Hopefully, eventually, they can all live together. 1 rat at a time, 1 step at a time...


06/27/2011:
Had a really nice weekend. On Saturday, Sean and I went for a short hike in the morning, up on Mt. Tom. It was damp in the woods, and there were a lot of mosquitos about. I put some badger bug stuff on and it helped a bit, but I still got bitten more than expected. We had a nice little walk, though with less mosquito bites I would have been more inclined to do more. It was a nice test of my new hiking boots, though, and they are very comfortable. I look forward to our next hike, hopefully soon.

I returned home after the hike and had a shower, then Joanna and I went to the Abundant Wellness Center in Chicopee, where they were having a charity event to help those affected by the recent tornados. Joanna bought a pendulum and a new crystal to promote a clearer mind (I think; I can't recall the properties exactly, but it helped her sleep better last night). I donated $15 and received a 15 minute chair massage from Jaqueline, which was very nice and relaxing. We headed home thereafter, and soon Sean arrived and we worked on some new D&D characters for a small campaign that will be starting soon. Later in the evening, we played my D&D campaign (Ranger, Barbarian, Fighter, Gnome), and everyone seemed to have a good time. I found that a Friday night game may be possible for that campaign, which may help us play more often. That would be nice!

Joanna and I journeyed up to Whole Foods in Hadley yesterday, to pick up a few things. Dave's Soda and Pet City is in the same plaza, so we stopped in to look at the animals. They have recently set up a large rodent habitat, which is split into several large sections. They have guinea pigs there, mice, hamsters, and rats! Lots of rats. We spent some time looking at the rats, and chatting with another couple who were sitting and watching them as well. It's nice to see and converse with other rat lovers :) We wandered the store for awhile thereafter, then went to Whole Foods, then journeyed home. I had gotten the lawn all mowed before we left, so I was able to relax for the rest of the day. It was very pleasant.


06/23/2011:
I was feeling pretty tired on Tuesday, but better yesterday. This morning, I feel rested, but my stomach is feeling a little upset. I think part of it is the humidity that is hitting us right now. At least it is not too hot, so that helps keep it more comfortable. I have also been eating more dairy lately than usual; that may be assisting with the stomach upset. I think I'll minimize my dairy intake for a few days, see if that helps.

A guy from Hastie Fence is coming by the house today to give us an estimate on replacing the fence on the left side. Hopefully it is reasonable, and we can look forward to getting that done sometime this summer as planned.

Page Update:
- Added a link to my Creature Conversions on the left menu. These are 2nd Edition D&D creatures that I have converted to edition 3.5. Most of them are only useable by me, currently. I will need to update the descriptive text to make them useable for anyone. That will be phase II. Phase I is just getting all the ones on my list converted (and there are quite a few) :)


06/20/2011:
I felt more rested and awake for most of today than I have felt during a workday in quite awhile. It was nice. I'm not sure what changed; if I got over some sickness that was nagging at me, or I slept better. Not sure. I did get some exercise over the weekend, helping Pete and Jen move, and also did some stretching yesterday. Maybe that made a difference. It certainly didn't hurt. I am going to try and be more active from now on; I have been doing too much sitting and not enough physical work or exercise in the last few months.


06/18/2011:
My feeling of unease faded yesterday, thankfully, as the day went on. After work, Joanna and I had a nice dinner out, then cuddled on the couch for the evening. It was very nice, relaxing.

Today, I drove down to CT to help Pete and Jen move into their new apartment. We had a lot of help, so the move did not take long at all. We started at 11 am and were done around 2:30 pm. Plus, we were only moving boxes and little furniture; they have a moving company that is going to move the big stuff. Good idea, especially since they're moving from 2 apartments into one.

After the moving was done, we all went out for lunch, then I headed home. There, I entertained the girl rats while Joanna cleaned their cage, and then we tried introducing Kena to the others. Zinnia was fine with her, Clover and Iris only seemed bothered a little bit, but Nilla was extremely aggressive, moreso than either of us expected. She was charging and attacking Kena, while the others were merely sniffing and pawing at her a bit. After a short bit of that (and a bite I received from Nilla), we put them all back in their respective cages. Nilla didn't mean to bite me, and she felt bad about it. I petted them all and told them it is OK. We will try again, but just Kena and Zinnia first next time, then we will introduce the others slowly. Nilla may be a problem, but it will be easier if the others have accepted Kena first.


06/17/2011:
Happy 5 year anniversary to us! It has been a good 5 years. Here is hoping to many more :)

I had a miniature vacation this week, Wednesday and Thursday off. I am working today, but from home, so it's not much of an issue. It was nice to have the two mid-week days off to get some things done. We ran errands on Wednesday and worked outside yesterday. We got the mulching all done around the bamboo plants, and it looks great. I also did the mowing and trimming in the front yard; the back yard doesn't have too much growth, so it can wait until next weekend. I accomplished quite a bit during those two days, yet I still feel like I need to do more. I can't pinpoint what, exactly, I feel like I should be doing...but it is still bothering me. Oh well. Lunch break now, then 3 more hours of work, then out to dinner for our anniversary and a nice weekend to follow :)


06/13/2011:
Two nice weekends, with a hell week at work in between. Two weekends ago, I attended a family reunion (Mom's side) in NY state, at my cousin Shawn's house. I got to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in a long time, including my cousin Jon and his daughters Carrie and Cadey, whom I hadn't seen in 6 years. Also, my cousin Peri, her husband Bill and daughter Sara, who I don't think I'd seen for a like amount of time. It was nice to visit, catch up, and relax. The gathering was also to celebrate Shawn's son Patrick's HS graduation. We are all proud of him :)

Last week at work was, as stated, fairly hellish. We adopted a new policy for tracking stats which really hindered our productivity. After a few days of it, management opted to drop the policy, and then we had to play catch-up on our requests. Not very fun, especially since a team member left the company to run his own business a few weeks ago. We are still getting caught up, but are in better shape than we were in the middle of last week.

Last weekend was Summer Slobfest 2011 :) We hosted at our house on Friday night, then Rob & Brittany hosted on Saturday. I DM'd the campaign, a continuation of our Summer Slobfest 2010 game. Mark, Sean, Rob, Brittany, Roland, and Joanna all played, and everyone had a great time. We are looking forward to when we can continue the campaign (maybe in 6 months or so) :)


06/02/2011:
I've been feeling overtired this week, to the point of illness. I didn't play any games Tuesday night because of it; I had a small dinner and went to bed at 9, slept 9 hours. I felt better after that sleep, and went to work in Hartford on Wednesday. I felt OK for the first 1/2 of the day or so, then started feeling sleepy and sick again. I made it through the day and the drive home. We had some wicked storms that night (last night), including some tornadoes in some areas, so I didn't do much on the computer -- just updated my spending spreadsheet, checked email and Facebook, then shut down and watched a movie. I wasn't feel great anyway. Today I am still feeling tired but not as bad as the last two days, so I think I'm getting over whatever I have. It feels like a sleeping sickness, truly. And I haven't been sleeping well, either. Tossing, turning, waking, sleeping. Ugh. The humidity of the last week has dropped finally, and it is cooler, so I'm hoping that will mean better sleep in the coming nights.

Rattie news: we adopted a new white girl rat, and named her Kena. She is about 2 months old, but already as large as our full grown girls. She may turn out to be as large as Flower and Ninlin were when full grown. She is a little scared, but we've been handling her and she is getting less so with each day. We are going to give her another few days to get used to us, then introduce her to the other 4 girls and see how that goes.


5/31/2011:
My brain feels like it's still on vacation. Not much motivation to work, but here I am anyway. Working from home at least, so I'm pretty relaxed. Maybe that's why I'm having trouble getting my brain in gear.

Had a really nice 3-day Memorial Day weekend. Attended a LAN party at Jen's house on Long Island for much of it (went down Friday night, came back Sunday evening). We had a bunch of people there, and had a lot of fun. I played some League of Legends, a little bit of Starcraft II, a lot of Alien Swarm, and a lot of Left 4 Dead 2. I also got to play some of the newest Mortal Kombat game, on the PS3. It is classic MK, and it is brutally fun. I want to play more Left 4 Dead 2...maybe even tonight, in lieu of our usual League night.

It was great to be away, but also great to come home. Yesterday morning, Joanna and I did some mulching in the back, behind the bamboo. We need about 10 more bags of mulch to finish it up, and then we should be done with the major yard work for awhile, and it'll just be maintenance -- a little weeding, trimming of trees and shrubs, and of course mowing. Spent the rest of the day relaxing. It was hot and humid, and neither of us had much energy. I worked on my Slobfest 2011 campaign some more, played some League of Legends with Sean, and watched a couple episodes of Heroes. A very nice, relaxing day to end a very nice weekend.


05/23/2011:
Feeling a little sore today after working in the yard yesterday. It is a good sore, though, for good work done :) Joanna and I got the front cleaned and spruced up -- flower gardens weeded, sod removed and a nice layer of red mulch put down between the flowers and the lawn. It looks pretty damn nice there. Our neighbor Donna even complimented us on it :) Joanna also cut a wire screen for her peas and secured it in one of the planting containers, then planted the peas. I hope they grow well; I do like fresh peas. We still need to mulch the back yard, behind and around the bamboo, but we decided to do that another day, since we were both tired and hungry after working on the front yard. It was a really nice weekend overall. Got that yard work done, also lawn mowed and trimming done. Got to play some games, watch some shows (finished Season 2 of Heroes) and work on my D&D campaign for Summer Slobfest 2011, which is coming up quick on 6/11.


05/18/2011:
Alarm went off at 5:30. Ugh. Had to be in Hartford at 8 am for a mandatory meeting. Slept poorly (woke at 1, tossed and turned until 2). As a result, feeling spaced out and exhausted. Good news is just 2 hours left in my work day. Have to drive home during rush hour, but heading north on 91, that's usually not too bad.

Good rattie news: Cashew is now living with Chestnut and Walnut. We've been introducing them over the past couple of weeks, getting them out to play together. We did that again Monday, put them back in their respective cages afterward, and left the ladder door open between them (top and bottom). There were a few scuffles, but very little squeaking, and everyone seems to be getting along pretty well. I found them all snuggled in the same hammock on Tuesday morning. Awww :) Happy rats, happy us.


05/16/2011:
I greatly enjoyed my weekend in VT. Got to spend time with my parents and sister and see all the animals -- cat and dog, cows, horses, pigs, and Mom's new miniature angus cows (mother and baby). Dad, Meghan and I moved the cow herd from one pasture to another on Saturday morning, which was fun (and easy -- once they got moving, they moved all the way to where they needed to be without any problem). Later in the afternoon, my sister's best high school friend (Megan) came to visit, with her husband Adam and their son (Brayton? I think that's how it's spelled), who is about 1 1/2. We had a nice dinner and some great conversation. They wanted to see the animals too, so we took them on a little tour of the land, in the Jeep and on the ATVs. It was raining pretty hard by the time we got back, and some of us got pretty wet, but it wasn't too cold, so I found it refreshing. We hung out awhile longer inside, then Megan and Adam said their goodbyes and headed out, and we settled down and watched The Butterfly Effect, which my parents and sister had never seen. Everyone enjoyed the film, of which I am glad because I enjoy it too.

Sunday was another rainy day. I slept in, then we went out for breakfast at Perry's. Soon after getting back, I decided to head for home, to have some relax time before work today. It was an uneventful drive home. I got back around 4:30 pm, and had plenty of time to relax on the couch with Joanna for awhile, then play more of The Witcher before bed. Wish I could have had another day in VT, or another weekend day at all, but I made pretty good on the time I had, I think. :)


05/13/2011:
Friday the 13th, and it feels like it. Whatever that means. My sleep was full of heavy, involved dreams, and I woke several times. Not very restful at all. Not really what I needed to wrap up a tiring week, but there it is. Tonight, after work, I'm driving to VT to see my parents and sister Meghan; my sister is home for the first time in 2 years. I'm looking forward to the trip. I'm going alone, and that I'm actually looking forward to as well. I could use some alone time; I don't get much of it at home.


05/10/2011:
Another really nice weekend. The weather was beautiful both days, 70s and sunny. Jesse was at a conference at MIT last week, and came out to visit Friday night. Sean hosted a nice breakfast Saturday morning. It was Sean and the kids, Jesse, myself, Joanna, Rob and Brittany. It was a very nice breakfast, very nice time. After breakfast, Joanna and I went home to work on the yard some more. I raked the dead grass off the front lawn and seeded it, and also dug 6 holes in the back yard for my bamboo plants. The bamboo arrived yesterday while I was at work. It was unhappy after being in a box for 7 days, but is happily in the ground now; I planted them all last night, got some good soil around them, and watered them. I think they will do well here.

After the yard work was done, Sean, Ian and I went down to Enfield CT for free comic book day. We went to Matt's and each picked up some good stuff. For comics, I just picked 5 free, but also bought some cheap DVDs (all 3 Blade movies and all 3 Spiderman movies). It was a good time.

Sunday is a bit of a blur. I know I worked outside for awhile, then came in and played a lot of The Witcher. I also played some last night after planting bamboo. It has been very enjoyable so far, though I seem to have a knack for making people mad at Geralt with my dialogue choices. At least they (usually) get over it.


05/04/2011:
Had a really nice weekend. Mom and Dad came down to visit on Saturday, and we spent the day working in our yard. I rented a rototiller from Home Depot, and Dad and I tilled up the ground along the fence next to the driveway, then went out back and tilled up the area where I will be planting bamboo. We also managed to dig out an old stump, and we were able to fill the hole it left with the sod and weeds Mom and Joanna pulled from out front. We then tilled the whole mess up, and I'm now ready to plant the bamboo...once it arrives (hopefully by this weekend). Mom and Joanna worked on the front gardens, planting pretty purple flowers in front of the yellow ones already there, and planting a flower seed variety along the fence after it had been tilled. Dad and I also installed decorative shutters on our kitchen window. They do look pretty nice :) After all the work was done, we had a nice dinner out at Masse's Ocean Bar and Grill down the street. It was a very pleasant day and evening.

On Sunday, Sean and I helped Kris and Greg move to their new apartment. We had a lot of help, so things went pretty quickly. I had to bail after we loaded the truck with the remaining boxes (it was only about 1/2 full for that trip); I had gotten too much sun between the two days, and was feeling wiped. The remaining folks had it well in hand, though, so I wasn't too worried about it. I went home and relaxed, applied some aloe lotion to my sunburn, and felt better. I'm hoping for nice weather this weekend so I can get more yard work done :)


04/29/2011:
I have not been sleeping well this week. Tossing and turning every night, waking half a dozen times, dreams a mishmash of people and places, crawling out of bed tired each morning. I'm sure the oppressive off-season humidity has been part of it, but my mind has also felt restless.

Last night, thankfully, I slept through the night. As I settled down to sleep, I found myself very relaxed. I let my mind and self wander, and found myself aware of all the connections to my family and friends, spread across the country (and a few outside it). A vast web of interconnections, and I walked this path, reaching out and touching each briefly, moving on, feeling completely relaxed, aware, energetic. It was a fantastic feeling, and I followed it into a good, restful sleep.


04/25/2011:
The last day of my 3-day weekend. I got a decent amount done throughout it. Dug up a lot of roots in the back yard, and now we're ready to till and prepare to plant bamboo. We will need to rent a rototiller (Home Depot has them), and we still need some extra soil and fertilizer, but we're almost there. Hopefully we can till next weekend, and I'll order the bamboo after that is done.

Sad news: Filbert passed away yesterday. He had been getting around less and less well for a few days, and while he would eat some Vite paste, he would no longer chew pellets. He passed peacefully, while asleep. He is missed dearly.


04/21/2011:
It has been a tiring week, but it is drawing to a close now. This week, I started working my new schedule, 9 - 6, instead of the 10 - 7 I have been working for the past several years. It is just an hour difference, but it will take me a couple of weeks to get used to getting up an hour earlier. Getting out an hour earlier is definitely nice, especially with summer coming on. I am already appreciating the sun still being out when I am done for the day, and for awhile thereafter too. As the weather warms, this will mean I can get some outside time after work, which can only improve my health, I think :)

The week probably would have been less tiring overall if Tuesday hadn't been so long. I got up at the usual time, to be at Curry Honda for 8 am, to drop my car off because it has picked up a front-end vibration, but one that came and went instead of being constant. Initial diagnostics showed nothing wrong. It was only after taking the tires off that the cause was apparent: the caliper on the passenger side front was sticking sporadically, and it had worn the hell out of the rotor. The technician and I looked at it, and I thought replacing both was best. He could have ground it down, but I would have been back there eventually when the caliper stuck permanently or the rotor warped. And I might not have been able to afford it as well then. I could afford it now, so I had them do both sides. Back brakes were needed too, so got them done as well. They were able to get a little discount in for me (I've been a customer as long as I've owned my car), so while it was more than I wanted to spend, it could have been worse. It now brakes like new and doesn't vibrate. It does feel nice to have it fixed. The long part of all that for me was I was there until 9:30 while they looked at it to figure out what was wrong, then had to get a ride home, punch in late, work until they called me, take a late lunch...it goes on. End result: I worked 8 hours and my car got fixed, but it was a long day. An upside is I got to play some League of Legends that night, and won 3 out of 4 games. :)


04/17/2011:
Filbert is doing much better. After his concerning condition Wednesday and part of the next day, he is now much improved. He is still skinny, but less weak; a couple of days spent sleeping seem to have worked wonders for him. He is more energetic now, and has been eating a bit of the pellets we give all the rats (for a couple of weeks, he would only eat the Vite paste, no hard food). We had him in a small cage by himself Wednesday night and all Thursday. On Friday night, we put him back with his brother Cashew, and they are both happier. We will keep an eye on him of course, and we hope his strength continues to improve.

It's been a good weekend. Yesterday, I gave the girls' cage a full cleaning and replaced the trays on both levels. Our previous generation of girls had chewed holes in both trays, and as a result addition waste has been falling on the carpet for a couple of years. After replacing the trays, I rolled the cage away from the wall and gave the carpet a good scrubbing. It is still stained, but looks much better than before, and with the new trays in place there won't be as much of a concern about additional staining. We will be getting a new living room carpet eventually, but this one has to last until then :)

Today I have done less, but that was the plan for the weekend. I did get the garage completely swept, as I do every spring, and it was good to get that done. I planned to replace the handle on my axe today, but the epoxy I need to use will not dry well unless it is over 75 degrees, which it certainly is not today. If it is nice next weekend, hopefully I can do it then. I still have a lot of wood to split, though I doubt I'll have time for a couple of weeks at least. Next weekend we'll be tilling some ground and preparing to plant the bamboo that I'll be ordering next week. I'm looking forward to growing bamboo. I think it will be a fun experience, and hopefully the resulting screen will look nice and shield the backyard from the commercial lot behind. That's the plan, anyway :)


04/13/2011:
Filbert, one of our younger boy rats, is not doing well. He has been losing mobility in his back end for awhile now, and losing some weight besides, but he'd been getting along well on vitamin paste and steroids until today. Joanna checked on him recently, and found him cold and unwilling to eat. I was going to attend my Star Wars tabletop game after work tonight, but I am going home instead to spend some cuddle time with him. I fear his spark is dwindling. Joanna is sitting with him now, and he's taking bits of milk from a syringe. At least he is drinking a bit. Now I just want to get home.


04/12/2011:
I had a really fantastic 4-day weekend (Friday through Monday). I spent a few days in NH, visiting Jeff. We did a lot of walking around Portsmouth and talking about all manner of things. I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful friend, and many more too! It was great to visit him, but also great to get home. The weather was beautiful, so we were able to get some work done around the house. I got some more leaves cleaned up in the back yard, to prepare for bamboo planting (still need to order that), and I also replaced two of our three attic screens (the vent screens, that keep bugs and birds out of the attic). It was nice to get that done, before it gets too warm (it was pretty hot in the attic already).


03/21/2011:
I have been feeling increasingly absent-minded lately, and I don't like it. I intend to do things, then forget about them a few minutes later. Later on, I will remember, but keeping current thoughts in my head is difficult. I think I need a vacation from work. Thankfully, I don't have anything too crazy coming up in the next few weeks, so hopefully I can make the most of my nights and weekends. I do have a few days off in April, and I plan to make the most of them. There are some Spring projects we want to do around the house this year, so I'd like to use some of my time off for that. I also need to take some time for myself to just relax; though getting some project work done first helps make the relaxation time that much more relaxing. It keeps me from being antsy about "getting up and doing things".

Had a pretty relaxing weekend last weekend. I didn't feel very well when I got up on Saturday morning; had a sore throat, just felt icky. Got out anyway, got our taxes done, got some other errands done, and felt a little better. Watched some TV and read later in the day; didn't turn on the computer at all, which was a nice change. On Sunday, I was able to get outside in the yard and do some cleaning up: raked up some leaves along the side fence, and in the back. Cut some vines. I like the vines, but they were getting out of hand. I am going to try and manage them better this summer. I also got the garage cleaned up and organized a bit over both days. I feel accomplished, and look forward to doing more next weekend.

Last night, I finally finished Lost. The ending was good; a fitting end, I think, to the series as a whole. It left some questions open, but that is really the only way it could have been done well, and it was.


03/16/2011:
Attended PAX East last Saturday, in Boston, with Jen, Mark, Wills, Sean, and Steve. It was a long, but fun-filled day. Jen, Mark, Wills, Sean, and I left Chicopee around 8 am Saturday morning in my car, and drove out to the convention center. We walked around a lot and saw a lot of games. Some we knew, some we had never heard of, some I still don't know anything about. We saw a lot of cosplayers there, dressed up as their favorite video game or comic characters; most were of the appropriate gender for the character, some were not. Some worked very hard on their costumes, and it showed: we saw some excellent costumes for League of Legends characters (Nidalee and baker Morgana come to mind), several nice Samus Aran costumes (one was zero-suit Samus), the necessary Final Fantasy costumes, and others just as well thought out (and some not so well). Mark, Sean, Steve, and myself got to play the new as-yet unreleased Mortal Kombat game, and it was a lot of fun. It is the only game we stood in line to play. Wills chose to stand in line for League of Legends, and play the new champion, Nocturne. We did a lot of wandering, a lot of looking, some gawking, and had much fun. Mark and I attended a preview of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which included gameplay footage and a Q&A session with two of the developers. Awesome stuff; I'm looking forward to release on 8/23 of this year. We met with Ray and Andy around 6 pm, then wandered Boston for over an hour to find dinner (which we finally did, and it was good). Afterward we returned to the expo for an hour or so, then drove home. We arrived safely a little after midnight, and all promptly crashed into blissful sleep (none of us had gotten a lot the previous night). I hope we get to go back again next year :)


03/08/2011:
We had a really nice weekend. I did a lot of organizing around the house. I went through the boxes I brought back from my parents' house the last few trips and sorted them out. I put a lot of papers in the recycling bin, put some toys in the donation box, and wrapped the others up and put them in the storage room for now, until I determine what I'd like to do with them. Joanna and I also organized our library. She had put all the books on the new shelf a couple of weeks ago, and arranged all the books on the shelves by genre. Last weekend, we went through our pictures, including a box of pictures that had been sitting in there since we moved in. We sorted out the ones we want to get frames for, separating them from the ones that already have frames. We still need to determine where to hang them, but we've moved a bit in the right direction, and the library looks much less cluttered now :) I even organized the closet a bit, and was able to get our extra blankets and pillows in there, easily accessible.

For all I got done on the weekend, I also did a lot of relaxing and playing of video games. On Saturday night, I finally finished Dead Space for the first time. Now, to play through again on "Impossible" difficulty (eventually). I have other games that I want to play first. I have started The Witcher. I am only a few hours in, but am enjoying it a lot. There is a lot to it - combat styles, different weapons, alchemy and its related components, decent story, and lots of good spoken dialogue. I look forward to exploring the world further, and learning more about it.

I also played quite a bit of League of Legends over the weekend. I played some solo queue ranked games, 5v5, and got my elo back up to an almost respectable level. I still need to fix my non-ranked elo; it took a severe beating when we as a group went on a huge losing streak the last couple of weeks. Hopefully I can get a few wins in tonight to help with that...

I am feeling a little irritated today. I haven't been feeling great lately, seems I'm always tired or sick or both, and it is starting to wear on me. My back is still hurting me. I had a chiropractic adjustment this morning that helped a bit; I am going back on Friday morning to do it again, and probably at least once next week too. If my back feels better, I can get back to the gym, get some exercise, and hopefully start feeling better again overall.


03/04/2011:
Had a fun time last weekend, snowmobiling with my Dad in VT. The riding was near perfect; crust below with a fluffy layer on top. No one else was available to go, so it was just the two of us, and I think that was just fine. We could take our time, cut some new trails, enjoy the sights and the ride. I was going to go up again tonight, but I have a lot I want to do at the house, and I haven't been feeling great these last few days, so I am going to stay home instead. I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend. I plan to get a lot of organizing done; I have boxes full of my stuff from my parents' house that I want to go through, find the stuff I want to keep, what I want to donate or give away, and what to toss (I have a bunch of old school papers that I know are going in the recycling bin).

Joanna and I were both sick on Wednesday. Dizzy, cold sweats, upset stomach. I ended up calling out of work and going back to bed; I slept 3 and 1/2 hours before I woke again, feeling slightly better but still not great. Spent most of the day on the couch, reading and watching a little TV. I did get out once, to get Joanna's car inspected. He has his sticker and is all legal to drive again now; hopefully we can get him out this weekend for a bit, stretch his "legs", such as they are.

I felt better yesterday, until later in the evening, then I started feeling dizzy and head-achey again. I went to bed, and woke at 4:30 am with a splitting headache. Two Aleve and an icepack got me back to sleep, but it was very uncomfortable for awhile. Thankfully the headache didn't follow me into waking to work for the day, though my head still feels a little "woozy". Just a couple more hours of work today, then a nice weekend to help the pains go away. I plan to do some neck stretches each day; I think part of my headache was related to neck and shoulder tension.


02/25/2011:
This year is flying by already. Almost March now. Soon winter will be over, and spring will be upon us. I am looking forward to it. It has been a great, snowy winter, and I have enjoyed it. It's not quite over yet, either; I'm not sure if we'll get much more snow here, but my parents' place in VT is supposed to get another 6 to 12 inches overnight tonight. We are heading up there after I'm done with work tonight, to spend the weekend. I want to get some snowmobiling in before the snow's all gone, and this will probably be the last weekend I will be able to do it. I'm hoping the snow doesn't come down too early; I want our drive up to be as safe as possible.

Our last weekend was very relaxing. I only had to go out once; the rest of the time was spent working on my D&D conversions, playing video games, watching TV, or reading. I finished A Storm of Swords and started on A Feast for Crows (it is my 3rd time through the series, but only my 2nd time reading that final book).

This week has been up and down. I felt OK on Monday, but on Tuesday I started feeling "off", mostly in the form of irritation or annoyance, with no particular reason. I felt that way for a few days, but feel better today. While I was feeling that way, little things really pissed me off, so when I clipped the snowbank at the end of our driveway Wednesday night and broke the headlight on my car, I was much more upset than I really needed to be. It is now scheduled to be repaired next Tuesday. The light still works; I just broke the casing. I have some packing tape over it right now to keep the rain and snow out. It should hold out until Tuesday. I did also finally get Joanna's car repaired so it can pass inspection. Nissan fixed the seatbelts under warranty; I only had to pay to replace the neutral switch that was preventing the backup lights from working, and that was the less expensive of the two necessary repairs. I didn't have time to get the inspection done today, but I will have it done next week, probably on Thursday morning. Then it will be street legal again, yay!


02/17/2011:
Another very nice weekend last weekend, and a long one at that. On Friday we drove down to Long Island and spent the weekend there. I played D&D during the weekend, with Chris, Mark, Jen, Wills, Steve, and Serena. Dave was there, too, and Joanna spent a lot of time hanging out with him and having fun. Everyone seemed to have a good enough time. I look forward to the next one.

I also took Monday and Tuesday off (preplanned). On Monday, we went out for awhile for errands and fun, then had an early dinner at Ichiban. We finished the night off with some video games and a few episodes of Futurama (we are watching it on Netflix, in order; currently on Season 2). Tuesday was very relaxing; we had done our errands on Monday, so we spent the day relaxing at home. I got some reading done (almost finished with my 3rd trip through A Storm of Swords), and also worked on my D&D creature conversions for a few hours. It was very nice. Back at work starting yesterday, but only a 3 day week until the next weekend :)


02/10/2011:
Had a very nice weekend, last weekend. Joanna and I went to the Butternut ski area in Great Barrington and enjoyed a great morning and bit of afternoon of skiing. We got up early and got there early, which worked out well, because by the time it started raining, mid-afternoon, we were mostly done anyway. We are hoping to go back soon, probably on a weekday when there are less people (it wasn't too bad even on Saturday) and it is less expensive (about 1/2 the price of weekend lift tickets). I had a nice massage at Abundant Wellness on Sunday, which was a nice followup to my workout the previous day :)

I have been good about getting to the gym 2 or 3 times a week, and I have definitely been feeling better overall, though the last couple of days, my head has felt "woozy". It's almost dizzy, but not quite. It's better now than it was earlier in the week. I have a nice weekend coming up; I'm sure I'll feel better for it :)


02/01/2011:
More snow! The forecast was 3 - 6 inches; I think we got about 10 today. More snow, sleet, and freezing rain is supposed to fall starting tonight and continuing all day tomorrow, leaving us with another 6 to 10 inches of "wintery mix". That is going to be a bitch to shovel. Our neighbor Scott has been coming by with his snowblower each storm and doing the lower half of our driveway; for that, we are very grateful. Shoveling all this by hand could have been back-breaking. I'm hoping we can afford a snowblower ourselves for next season, for ourselves and to return the favor to the neighbors.

Had a long day today. Was up at 7 am, started work (from home) at 8 am. Worked until 10 am, then went out and shoveled a path to my car, cleaned it off, and Joanna and I drove to Northampton for an orthodontist appointment for me. It was a slow drive, in the snow, but not terrible. Only slid a little; pretty standard winter driving. We made it there and back with no trouble, though it took about an hour more than I'd hoped. Back to work for me at 2 pm, until my quitting time of 7 pm. I'll be making up the remaining hour tomorrow, but at least I shouldn't have to go out and drive in the crap weather tomorrow. Now, if League of Legends ever finishes patching, I'll play a few rounds of that before bed..


01/23/2011:
I went back to the gym today; first time in several months. I am tired of feeling out of shape; I guess it was just a matter of it getting to the point where I couldn't stand it anymore. I did well when I first got my gym membership; went 6 months, 2 or 3 times a week, felt good. Then stopped in the summer, when I could do more outside...then never started back up again. I expect to stick with it this time, summer or no. Maybe go less in the summer, but still at least once a week; I think that's a better plan than not at all.

It's been a good weekend. We took Zinnia to the vet yesterday because she has developed a lump, but we think (and the vet thinks the same) that it's a cyst or infection instead of a cancerous growth. She is on antibiotics now, which will hopefully take care of it and there will be no need for surgery. Joanna and I did a few errands thereafter, and were home by early afternoon. The rest of the day was spent relaxing. We played some games, watched some TV. I worked on my D&D stuff a bit, getting more stuff transferred from hand-written notes to more organized, computerized notes (and printed pages, with my new laser printer :) ). I got some additional notes typed up today too.


01/14/2011:
We have snow! It snowed Tuesday night and most of the day Wednesday, leaving us with about 20 inches of accumulation. Scott came over from next door and used his snowblower on the bottom 1/2 of our driveway, which was very helpful (and we are very thankful). Joanna shoveled out 1/2 of the rest, and the walkway, and I did the other 1/2 when I was done with work on Wednesday. My car is now shoveled out and cleaned off, but Joanna's car is currently trapped in the garage. I plan to break out the shovel again this weekend and clean up the area in front of the overhead door so we can open it (and get Joanna's car out if needed).

Not sure what it is about heavy thoughts on Fridays, but here we are again. I didn't sleep well, and I'm sure that is not helping me today. Plus, my dreams were vivid, a mixture of pleasant and not pleasant, and I woke several times in the night.

Motivation motivates, but lack of motivation also brings itself to others. I will attempt to be more motivated in the coming days and weeks.


01/07/2011:
It has been a day of heavy thoughts and irritation. The day started with the heavy thoughts, right from waking as best as I can remember. The irritation came later in the day, after working for 6 hours or so. We were unexpectedly shorthanded today, and I did not get done all I had hoped to do. Around 5, I just wanted to be done for the day, and I still had 2 hours to go, which I slogged through. And now I'm done. About 30 minutes ago, my irritation subsided a bit and now I just feel sad and worn out. We were going to do reintroductions of the girls again tonight, but I don't think I'm a good candidate for watching / guarding them. If they get out of hand tonight, I might just break down. So we're not doing that tonight. I do plan to play some Dead Space later, which I think will help. Single-player shooting of things, without interacting with any people. I've interacted enough today. If I feel a lot better later, maybe some League of Legends...but currently my mood is not one that would go well with that game.


01/05/2011:
We have arrived safely in 2011, and I am looking forward to what this year will bring.

I had a very enjoyable New Year's Eve weekend. Joanna and I spent the 'Eve itself at Rob & Brittany's house, hanging out with them, Jesse, and his sister Annie. We chatted, we laughed, we played some Super Mario on the Wii, we watched some Legend of Neil, we played some Settlers of Catan. It was a great time had by all. On 1/1/11, Sean, Rob, Brittany, Jesse, and I gathered again and played D&D (I ran a session of my World in Peril campaign), and it was a lot of fun. Much was accomplished: knowledge was gained, characters were further developed, enemies were defeated, and even a level was gained. It was a good time had by all, and I look forward to the next one (the next session of World in Peril, and the next Slobfest, which this was).

Yesterday, I woke to extreme neck pain. It is similar to what I experienced about a year ago, but a little less severe and it didn't come on when I was driving like last time. I kept heat pads on it as often as possible yesterday, and it does feel better today. Still stiff and sore, but I will put more heat on it tonight (in Hartford today, so not as convenient to apply heat pads as I can when home), and tomorrow. Hopefully by the weekend it will be better. I do have a massage scheduled for Sunday; I am certain that will help as well.

Our tabletop Star Wars game was planned for tonight, but those plans have changed. That is OK with me; I have been feeling a little ill all day so going home after work sounds nice. I'll spend some time on the couch with a heat pad on my neck, then maybe play some Dead Space later on :)