Gonzai Gallery

Took me over an hour just to get home, so many roads were closed or should have been. Turned around twice. And that's supposed to keep up another couple of hours, so I passed on gaming tonight. Which figures, because I got almost no sleep last night, had a headache all day, had nothing to do at work half the day, and oh yeah, CJ totalled a lot more stuff upstairs, including a leather art portfolio that cost me a mint some years ago. Fortunately I came home before she started in on the art inside. I paid a new mint for a heavy duty crate, it's a bit too big for my room and I'll have to figure out a way to keep her from getting at thing outside of it, but she shouldn't be able to get out of it or break off any of the bars. Obviously I've given up on the jerk with the cage.

Well, worked my tailfeathers off in the art show yesterday, hanging all of the mail-in art and half the print shop and I have the raw knees, sore quads and achy back to prove it. It was all I did at the con yesterday other than a (very good) dinner. Today was the 'easy' day, with nothing to go up or come down. However, most of the day was either hectic (at one point 5 different people wanted my help at the same time) or completely dead. Thus, I called it a day at 7, helped a friend get registered, and then went up to gaming and squeezed in a couple of games, both of which I won easily. I wasn't surprised I won Ticket to Ride, the other players were not playing wisely, but I was surprised I won Carcassonne over 3 of the local Carc sharks. While I was playing that game, firesign10 happened to pass us in the hallway and by some miracle I recognized her, 'cause we've never met before. We didn't get to talk, though, because one of the Carc players was in a hurry to finish the game. Hopefully tomorrow.

But the big thing today was that before Balticon, I returned the Kindle to the person I bought it from. I did that not because I didn't like it, or because Mom didn't like it, but because...I couldn't register the danged thing with Amazon, which would kind of help for buying books and such. Amazon gave me a 'call customer service' alert, so I did. End result - seems the Kindle had been reported 'lost or stolen' back in December and accordingly, Amazon would not register it unless the person who made that report withdrew it. The person who sold it to me responded in 10 minutes to my e-mail and offered to return my money, so I really lucked out in that regard. We did like what we'd seen of it, so I'll probably wind up getting one somewhere along the line. Just not using Craigslist.

Just home from Game Days, which I left early because I went to the GCOM meeting that ran more than twice as long as they expected, plus I was in the world's most uncomfortable seat. My back is killing me now. Matches my knees, after I walked across a major road during rush hour to pick up my dinner. Hey, if I can see the place, I see no point in driving to it. Besides dinner, I picked up a couple goodies for myself (a GCOM t-shirt and 'Struggle for Catan'), a huge pile of games for the nephews to be divided between birthdays and Christmas, and I started the day by taking CJ to the vet, which surely wasn't cheap. So I blew bucks today. But CJ has a clean bill of health for at least a year and I'm set for all nephew-related gifts for 2012. Phew.

Back there tomorrow, hopefully for some games for me from the second-hand shop.

What should I do on Saturday?[Poll #1827746]

So far I have:

1 Gaming tonight
2 A meetup of an internet group in Alexandria, VA tomorrow. Bear in mind it's supposed to snow tomorrow morning
3 Gaming Sunday afternoon
4 Mom wants to look at houses Sunday afternoon and there's at least one I'd like to see
5 Last class of the program is Monday night
6 Mom is hosting bridge club Tuesday

Things with no particular time attached include: review/prep for last class, cleaning the house for bridge club, grocery shopping for same, grocery shopping for me (I have nothing to eat at the office), a full DVR and a lot of laundry, going to the gym and oh yeah, some sleep would be nice. And that's just what all I know about.

Meep. Something's gotta give here.

And I'm home. Went out in search of scrubs earlier in the day (found a set in purple, of course, not too expensive, and also found some comfy shoes), then went gaming for a while. Somehow I managed to win all three games I played, even though 2 were new to me. Ticket to Ride: Asia was particularly amusing, as it's a partnership game, and as things happened, there was a lot of partner-swapping and at least one gender switch. We're weird. Learned another new one and won it, then won at Carcassonne. I managed to avoid the annoying players, and picked up a dogsitting gig along the way. I left early so as to avoid annoying drivers - didn't work. I even called 911 to report a really sloshed jackass who was driving 40 on I-95 but 70 on an offramp.

But now home, safe, probably bedding down early. Lots of stuff to do around the house and lots of football tomorrow, heh heh.

Went to Soup today, only played 3 games but finished with 2 wins and a 2nd (out of 5 players). Even the rest of the gang is wondering who took my place for the day. Beats me...

Gaming did not go well today (main road to gaming was closed, no parking anywhere nearby and then there was the very bossy person problem), which in turn forced me on an unsuccessful quest for edible food in a dubious neighborhood filled with trash, then we couldn't get the TV to work so we could see the Ravens game, then we wished it still didn't work so we didn't have to watch the Ravens game (really guys? Seattle? really?) and meanwhile I managed to get waxed at all games and then fell asleep trying to study for tomorrow's final. I give up. I go to bed. Maybe I stay awake for the final.

Home now from Euroquest, four days of games and serious humbling and social graces or not, as the case sometimes was. Besides the Can't Stop and Lost Cities wins Friday, I won exactly one game - a Stone Age match Friday afternoon. That was it for me and winning. After Thursday, I couldn't win a Wild Card game for anything and after Friday I couldn't win, period. I somehow squeaked into the Stone Age semi-final (I was ranked 16th and they took 16 players) and finished 3rd in that, for a 12th place finish overall. I didn't beat 25th or so in anything else, and that finish was in Ra, which I played solely to kill time. I was absolutely destroyed in Ticket to Ride & Dominion. Good thing there were no crows around and my ego isn't invested in winning.

Meanwhile, I met up with old friends and made many new friends, including one who came to EQ from Romania. Yes, Romania. Of course, she also wiped the walls with me at every game, but we had fun. (There was also an attendee who came from Israel to play. I'm not sure but they're crazy...) Taught a few games to people, including some of the younger set, and hopefully convinced some folks to join in with the GCOM fun. Of course, had to deal with one obnoxious yo-yo all weekend including consecutive games on Friday, which left me unsuccessfully begging the GameMaster to please put this jerk at another table, I already spent two hours trying not to strangle him. Apparently there was a lot of 'please don't make me play with Jason' going around the whole room. I behaved financially, eating economically (Subway/McDs/7-11) and buying a whopping two items, a Christmas present for Jack and one item for myself. Shouldn't have done that, but darn it, I need some level of treat.

Tomorrow I get to work on the expensive requirements the class just dropped on me (background check I have to pay them for, a tetanus shot and a copy of my high school diploma) plus an MRI on the much-pained shoulder and the class itself. But tonight, yes, it is: Sunday Night Football, Ravens at Steeler. Oh yes.

LET'S GO RAVENS!!!!!!

Managed to get caught up on the DVR recordings, but not on downloads. Lots'o'British shows to go. Didn't study for tomorrow's final quite the way I should have, but my notes are in order and my take home work is finished. It's an open final (for some odd reason) so I'm not sure really need to do anything past organizing the notes. Went gaming Friday and this afternoon, and won a game Friday (Mom also won one.) Went 20 for 20 on my college football pick 'em ballot but doing lousy on the pros. And...that's about it. I have GOT to do laundry and vacuuming and Mom's bills. Maybe post test. No homework this week and no gaming this weekend, so maybe I really will get the everyday stuff caught up.

Now off to enjoy the last day of reading the Sun online. Bastards decided that, effective tomorrow, you have to pay to read the paper online. Even if you're a print subscriber (which I have been for 40 years) you have to buy a whole new subscription if you want to look at the website. I think they'll be getting a very rude surprise tomorrow when no one looks at the site again.