Stripping as I go

This weekend was good—a bit more laidback than the last two, which involved a birthday party and an apple-picking, respectively..
Friday night we finished our Amber game. Much fun, and a good conclusion, peppered with many entertaining moments. We played this one for ten months, all told, and it was very good—kudos to my lovely wife, who ran it. Now we just need to figure out what to play next and who will run it. Might be me, might be qadgop, might be someone else—we’ve got a week or two to figure it out.
Our friend heliograph came out to visit on Saturday afternoon, bringing with him some of my Clockworks books. Anyone need a copy of Chosen? I’d already cleaned out the garage for them and done a little more work stripping the sideboard. We moved the boxes into the corner, then spent the rest of the day and night hanging out. He took off the next morning and I did more on the sideboard.
That’s taking forever—this is one of the pieces covered in latex house paint, which is proving to be more of a pain than I expected because it doesn’t come off in strips but instead turns to glop. I actually dragged out my dresser and started working on that because I was so frustrated with the sideboard and wanted to see if stripping a properly painted piece was easier. Boy, is it! I’ve already got the dresser almost finished and it looks great. My goal now is to have both the sideboard and the dresser done by the time my dad comes up later this week so he can help me carry them in. I’d originally hoped to have the hutch done as well but it’s got the same paint as the sideboard and that one’s going to take me a while.
In other news I turned in the rest of my first Warhammer novel last Monday, right on schedule. Now I’m starting to outline the second one. I’m also working on a new RPG, details to be announced but it’s not for Clockworks, and revising some pieces for a supplement, and waiting for some final details on a few other things. I have a big project that I need to be writing right now but it looks like I’m going to have to start it before getting a contract, which I hate. Still, it’s a reputable company so it should be okay. Busy busy.
My dad will be up this week, and my younger sisters this weekend, for our daughter’s second birthday party. We figured we’d do a whole family thing because it’s the last time she’ll be an only child on her birthday. Should be fun. My older sister has declined to attend—more on that some day when I feel I need to rant.
We’ve also been hanging up more pictures, which is cool. Only took us 10+ months. Now we’re discovering that we don’t really have much art and several of the pieces we do have need to be framed. That’s what happens when you decide thumbtacking posters to the wall isn’t good enough anymore.