Since I have a moment . . .

It’s been two weeks since my last post, and I’m waiting for Design to locate one of their own files (a rush project, natch), so—time for an update.

Let’s see, what’s gone on in the past two weeks?

We had our annual Wassail! party, which was a lot of fun. We had ten guests this year, the largest group ever, and a ton of food (and of course Wassail—for those unfamiliar with it, that’s a spiced hot apple cider drink, usually alcoholic though we let people spike their own). I ran the game, which involved characters from all over (several different worlds/settings, some original and some pulled from movies, comics, books, or TV shows) being abducted by interdimensional slavers and eventually sold as prey in a Hunt which, if they survived, would grant them freedom and riches. It was a bit less focused than usual because of the sheer number of players but I think everyone had a good time.

Last weekend we went out to Mt. Holly, NJ—I had a work project there (more about that some other day, if things work out) and at the last minute discovered that jendaby and the kids could come with me. It’s less than two hours away so we drove down ourselves (instead of riding in a fifteen-passenger van with some of the others, which would have been fine for me but not so good for/with the kids) on Friday night. We were staying at a Best Western and thought we had a suite but discovered that wasn’t true—instead we had a queen bed and no couch. The hotel provided a cot for our daughter and a crib for our son, though, so that was fine. And we did have a Jacuzzi, which was cool. Oddly enough, when we got into the room it had no lights—every single bulb was burned out. Weird. And the TV had no cable. They fixed that, fortunately, since this was the weekend our son decided he actually liked television. Saturday was the Fire & Ice Festival—chili cook-off and ice carving—which was fun. I was working most of the day, but jendaby got to spend time with our cousin and one of our uncles, so that was cool. Sunday I worked in the morning, then we checked out, went out for lunch (if you ever get the chance to eat at the Vincentown Diner, do so!), and visited jendaby’s grandmother before heading home. It was a fun trip, very educational for me, and could lead to some really good things down the road.

In other news, work sucks. I am currently hating my job. There’s more work than I can handle and of course they won’t hire anyone to help but then they complain about the work not getting done on time. Gee, why would that be? Bleah.

On the plus side, I’ve been confirmed as a guest at I-Con again this year. We’re all going and should have a nice weekend. I’m also a guest at ShoreLeave in July, but no author guest page up yet, so expect a link at a later date.

Freelance work is picking up a bit—I’ve got six projects to do between now and the start of May. Yipes! None of them huge, fortunately, but I’m going to be fairly busy for a while.

Tonight jendaby and I are going out to a fancy restaurant because it’s Restaurant Week! Whee!

I think that’s it for the moment. More some other time.

First post of the new year . . .

. . . and little to say.

It’s been quiet the past two weeks. Well, as quiet as it gets for us, anyway.

The kids are good—a handful, both of them, getting into everything and pushing boundaries and so forth, but still cute and often sweet and still pretty well-behaved, all things considered.

jendaby and I are good—jendaby’s been rocking on her etsy store (http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5448586), doing all kinds of cool craftwork.

Work’s busy but not insane, which is fine. I need to write a project that’s due next month, and to finally sit down and put finishing touches on another one. I’m talking to people about various other possibilities for the year, some in familiar fields and some in new ones.

One thing that’s been a lot of fun this past week has been over at my buddy aaronace’s LJ. He’s been putting up a different original image each day, and inviting people to write flash fiction to accompany them. I’ve done four or five so far, and it’s been a blast—nice and short, very immediate, no quandaries, no licensing issues, no outlines, just short fun fiction.

We had a nice quiet New Year’s—dinner with qadgop and skoobwoman and then home to chill and watch the ball drop. Last weekend we had dinner with them again, and then the next day had lunch with my youngest sister and her boyfriend—I tried not to do too much of the “protective big brother” thing. This coming weekend we have Wassail!, our all-day gaming party. I’m running, and so far I have ten players. Whee! Should be a good time, though—drinks, food, gaming, and good friends.

I may be taking a weekend trip out to New Jersey later this month. More on that some other time, perhaps.

And tonight jendaby and I get to go out on a date! Yay!