Another Sunday, another weblog recap of the week.

I've been listening to a lot of Tom Petty this week, both with and without the Heartbreakers.  I'm so happy that I can at least play music CDs again, even if I can't play music cassettes yet. 

Monday, Rusty picked my computer and I up and took us to his place.  There he and Kitty tried figuring out what the problem was with Windows 98.  They treated to Long John Silvers' for dinner.  Eventually, we just saved what I needed onto his spare external hard drive, formated this computer, and tried loading Windows 98 on it again.  It still was having the same problem.  They eventually gave up and upgraded this to XP Home Edition, but using their copy.  It worked.  So the computer is up and running again, at least for another twenty-five days.  Then I'll have to pay Microsoft for this copy or try reinstalling my Windows 98 on top of it.  They offered to find a "crack" for me, but it sounded a little too illegal for me.

Tuesday night after work I loaded the Corel Suite 8, Yahoo! IM, & Zone Alarm.  I also explained my possition on Bishop O'Brien to Ben.  Then, while chatting with Jess, I loaded AIM and Trillian for the first time.  She became my test subject.  They seemed to work OK.  Trillian is nice because its one program running instead of several.  However, it doesn't have an Appear Offline or Invisible mode.  I like to set my IMS to that when I have work to do on my computer.  It limits the number of people I'm chatting with so that I can get that work done. 

Wednesday I had planned to finish loading programs on my computer, but Wayne invited me over to his house for dinner.  We had a homemade pizza with pepperoni and his Dragon Bowl Restaurant left overs.  It was fairly good.  Not as good as his barbeque chicken pizza, but fairly good nonetheless. 

Thursday we met at Jay's house for his D&D one-shot.  He gave us a little more freedom, stating that we could make characters randomly using Dai's charts or not.  He also allowed us to roll 4d6 and arrange as we wished.  So all in all, it was straight Players' Handbook.  I chose to avoid the tables and make an elven monk.  I had not had the chance to play either yet in third edition.  I wanted a chance before 3.5 comes out next month.  Sam played a human druid, Bill played a human conjurer, and Dai played a halfling rouge.  We started out drawing straws.  Because Sam and I drew the two short straws, we ended up waking in a separate cells just as we were sent into a gladitorial arena against each other, a dwarf, and a minotaur.  The druid and monk chose to not follow the wills of the crowd and jumped out of the arena (thanks to the monk's increased movement of 40' and a maxed out Jump skill and the druid's Boots of Leaping and Stridding).  The minotaur killed the dwarf while we tried to escape.  Meanwhile, the other two characters were in the stands watching the event.  The druid knocked the rouge into the arena during the first escape attempt, but he escaped into the gladitorial tunnel system.  Suddenly, the entrance to the tunnel system closed behind him as did the stadium seat exits.  They became flush stone.  Then the shade tarps at the top of the stadium irised close and the floor of the stadium opened up.  This swallowed the minotaur and the various summoned monsters of the human conjurer.  The monk and druid fought the animate tarps and eventually succeeded in cutting them into long strips and fashioning a rope down to the feather token created oak tree the druid placed below us.  Meanwhile, the conjurer started a mage duel with another magic user of some sort who wanted to sacrifice the conjurer to the devil with in pit.  And thus we cliffhangered, with the possibility of continuing at some future point.

Friday we played Jackson's D&D campaign again.  We successfully faught off the gnolls which had ambushed us in the cliffhanging ending last April.  A well placed sound burst from Squigbarm among the archers and spellcasters stunned enough of them to let the magic missiles and thrown daggers finish them off fairly quickly.  Meanwhile, the gnoll barbarian was successfully felled by the harper scout and half-dragon.  That was a good thing, because Squig had his back to him while casting.  Unfortunately, we missed out on catching an invisible gnoll spellcaster who fled rather than die with the others. 

Afterwards we found a lame gnoll expert who was probably the cohort of the escaped gnoll working in the alchemist lab atop the Ice Spire.  He didn't flee us (due to his lameness), so Ethan cast lesser geas upin him and interogated him.  We then dragged him )and the masterwork alchemist lab) along with us on our way back to Silverymoon.  On the way we saw the remnants of a gnoll/human battle outside Caldron.  We flew down where Deloan and Squigbarm healed the worst wounded while Ethan spoke with the cleric of Kelmvor who was with them.  They thanked us for the assistance, as now they could be home the same night rather than having to camp out on the glacer for a night.  So we headed to the Shackled City instead, as it was closer and might have someone to assist us earlier than the trip the Silverymoon would leave us.

Saturday we went to Chili's before playing in Jackson's D&D campaign again.  In the Shackled City, Zed and Squigbarm explored the public hot baths.  The city it turns out is in the cone of a dormant volcano, so the city remains warm even during winter.  The baths are in a place where the pumice naturally created three different pools of different water warmths.  Meanwhile, Ethan, Deloam, and Syrus bartered with a wyvern rider to get his master to cast discern location using what we looted from the Great White Death's lair.  In exchange for the spell Syrus had to skin the white dragon carcass outside the Ice Spire and provide a 10' x 20' piece and Squig had to turn over 1200gp.  Ethan promised that Squigbarm'd be recompensated by party funds, even though we don't currently have any. 

Delome, Ethan, and Squig also watched a funeral that the church of Kelmvor had for one of the recently fallen.  Afterwards, the took a tunnel which curved around the inside of the crater to the catacombs.  None of us had stonecunning, so we had no idea how far deep or to the side we had gone. 

We cliffhangered when the wyvern rider returned the next morning with his master's results.  Then they announced that we would begin at noon next Friday.  That's when I realized that Friday was the holiday.  The holiday I had planned to go to Master's party.  Oops!  I always honor my first commitment, but which one counts as my first?  Jackson has always stated that his D&D campaign is held on Fridays unless stated otherwise.  But I agreed to the PFF party weeks ago when I thought I had no holiday plans.  How foolish of me to not connect the holiday with Friday.  I guess I should cancel the PFF party, even though I haven't seen the folks since IMAX.  I'd feel less bad if I hadn't missed out on the Cine Capri Star Wars event.

Sunday I attended mass, where Father Milt had a great homily on the solemnity.  He made sure to emphasize that it was the power of the community's prayer which brought the angel to Peter and helped him escape the prison.  I guess that's something with which I've struggled these past years.  Why would God listen more to the needy for whom prayers are made than the needy for whom prayers are not made?  Maybe something's just not sinking in right. 

Speaking of which, I noticed this week that I have better conversations with Jess, the Thursday gang, and even the Saturday gang than I ever seem to on any of the message boards, groups, or listservs I'm a member of.  What happened?  During college I could always get stimulating conversation from people online.  Where'd all the stimulating conversationalists go?  Now it seems like a majority of the online conversation places are either elitists who want nothing to do with newbies or popularity contest centers.  It's rather disillusioning. 

Speaking of disillusioning (as I tangentalize all over), I've been having weird thoughts over the past couple of weeks.  First, last week I was talking with a friend who was commenting about how weird it was to have so many of her friends getting married.  It totally reminded me of when I was her age.  As we were talking about it, I asked her why she wasn't married yet.  She had been dating a friend of ours for some time, but they recently broke up.  I hadn't heard her side of the story, and rather than pry I figured I'd give her the opportunity to tell me if she wanted.  However, I was surprised when she said she was single, then proceeded to ask me why I wasn't married.  So obviously she didn't want to discuss her new status, but I was surprised.  I never really think about such things.  I never even date, much less think about getting married.  Oh, I thought about marriage when I was dating Sheila was back when, but we didn't date long enough for it to become a serious enough issue that any plans were made. 

Then, the weird part came.  I thought, well, why not ask her out?  Isn't that incredibly odd?  I have no idea where that came from.  I squelched that thought quickly, but its haunted me since. 

Then, this week while reading another friend's weblog I suddenly thought, you should ask her to marry you.  Woah!  We've never even dated!  Was this some implanted suggested by the first friend the week before?  Am I just attracted to my younger female friends?  Is there a part of me that I've been ignoring that I shouldn't, or am I not ignoring a part of me enough?  I don't know, so I keep praying for guidance. 

Luckily, when she asked me about my thoughts when I read her journal I avoided telling her about that particular one.  What friend would want to hear such bizzarre thoughts anyway?  I doubt I would, unless she knew for certain what those thoughts really meant.  Which, obviously, I don't. 

Well, the Hogwarts Live Action Meeting has just ended, the church down the street has stopped launching its fireworks, and SG-1 will be on soon, so I guess I'll bid you all good night.  Until next time...

It's been a busy, busy week.

Monday morning the news was focused on Bishop O'Brien's fatal hit and run of a local construction worker. By Tuesday morning he had resigned and Archbishop Sheehan had become our temporary Apostilic Administrator for the Diocese of Phoenix. I'll never know if he was under so much stress already with the molestation cover-up allegations by County Attourney Romley that he truely never registered the fact that he killed a man. Regardless, I am relieved that he is no longer in charge. He may have done many possitive things in his life, but he is more politician than holy man. I lost my respect for him when he supported the illegal revocation of our rights guaranteed by the Arizona constitution and county charter. Should he ever appologise he'd regain my respect, perhaps even gain more than he lost. I won't hold my breath.

Monday afternoon was Linda's wake. The guest book signing was held at Camelback Sunset Chapel. The dinner was held at her youngest son's house. I kept hearing that I've lost weight. I guess being broke will do that for you. Our old D&D group that used to meet at her house made plans to play on Thursday. But I had to leave early due to my third Monday commitments.

So after that I rushed over to the CopperCon XXIII Program Team meeting. We have less than three months to go, but I'm encouraged. I've got a lot of support.

Thursday Dai ran a D&D one-shot. We had to roll randomly for our race, class, and alignment. I ended up with a lawful good human wizard. Jay had a dwarvn sorcerer, Sam a dwarven druid, and Bill an elven rouge. We were all prisoners in Irontown, working the mines and smelters. Hense the random alignments working together. The scenario was simple: breakout. Only the neutral evil dwarven druid and lawful good human wizard escaped alive. I doubt they'll remain teammates, but as a one-shot it probably won't ever come up. I guess in two weeks Jay will be running a random-character generation one-shot as well. This could prove interesting.

Friday and Saturday I had some important database training from Kitty, who has been a Program Director for several local conventions. I think I'll be able to crunch all the data that scheduling the convention program will require.

Sunday I saw Hulk with Jim. An excellent movie to be sure. Afterwards he treated to 5 & Diner before we stopped by Costco to pick up HPY5.

I returned my Mother's phone call afterwards, and we talked until it was time for me to head off to mass. Father Milt had a good homily for the solemnity. At the end of the mass, Father read our first letter from Archbishop Sheehan. I think we'll see a lot of healing go on within the diocese, now.

We planned our in-person Hogwats Live Action meeting during our online conference this evening.

Then I watched SG-1 and X-Files while I typed this up until I was too tired to continue and went to bed. Night!

Once there was a kind and generous woman who graced the Earth with her presence. I can't claim to have known her very well, but she did touch me in her time here. I'll never know whether she knew how much I appreciated her kindness, but I'll assume that she's with God now and that she's earned her reward.

Everytime we visited her house she was always the gracious host, trying to meet and/or exceed our needs. She loved to talk, and was a great conversationalist. She loved to serve, and was most famous for her taco dinners. It was always obvious that she loved her family, and I think her family loved her, too.

When she became ill, I tried getting the gang together to go see her. I thought that she deserved that. I never could get the others together. Maybe I should have went by myself, despite the fact that I would have felt awkward. It's too late now.

Thank you Lord for letting me know this woman.

Rest in Peace Linda Peters.

Dear Diary,

Thank you for letting me vent last night. Sometimes, no matter how irrational the thought, it seems as if I have no one else to vent my frustrations to. I close out my close friends, family, and Lord. A good vent with you and a good night's sleep can make all the difference.

So, today I wake up and call Night Rider. They tell me to exchange it at REI unless they ae out of stock, in which case I should call back. Then I called Compass Bank, they claim I had insufient funds when my records show I still should have had $10.16 after paying my rent. They're going to send me a record in the mail because I don't have a fax line and they won't E-mail it to me. Then I called Wachovia and canceled my pre-tax and post-tax retirement accounts. They only held a couple years of contributions, but now is a bad time to be pulling money out of my future retirement. Yet, realistically I can't afford these fees that the bank and my landlord will assess for the bounced check. They only way to avoid spiriling into worse debt now is to steal from my future.

Then, on the way to work, my mom leaves a v-mail telling me that she found a set of two flyswatters at the Fry's in Casa Grande. She said she picked me up a pair. Yay! Finally, all that searching is over. Just like Jinnetics said, its the smaller towns that still carry the things that the big city won't. Weird but true. Weird but true.

So after work, I went to REI PV where Thomas helped me get a new headlight lickety-split. He was extra-friendly and helpful. Then I went into the mall proper to go to the Hallmak store to spend my Gold Crown Point Rewards on Father's Day cards. I stopped into Game Daze and chatted games with the clerk. It's nice to see that they're emloying gamers again, not people who show distain toward the gamers who walk in. I don't remember his name, but he was very talkative and knowledgeable, and was willing (and eagar!) to look up release dates for stuff. Not that I can afford it, but like comic books I like to keep my pulse on the market so that I don't get fully left behind. I plugged Shadowfist and Rolld Bones to him while he plugged the Dragonlance relaunch and Z-Cards to me. Then I rushed to Hallmark, bought the cards, and went to leave. Yet, as I smile and nodded to the [company name omitted to protect the generous] employee, she secretly motioned me over and gave me some free cookies so she wouldn't have to throw them out for the night. Now I don't usualy buy cookies from mall cookie vendors, so I had no idea how good they were. Maybe I should start when I'm solvent again some day.

Then on the way home I cycled the multi-purpose path along the SR51 (Piestawa Freeway). I promised the cartographer working on the Phoenix Bicycle Maps that I would see what it looked like above Bell Road since the freeway connected with the SR101 (Pima Freeway) the other month. As suspected, it connects to the trail system in Reach 21.

When I got home I checked the mail again. You'd think I'd learn. My bank tells me that it bounced my house insurance payment, too. Thank goodness I canceled the retirement fund. The bouncing fees alone will kill me. It looks like I'm just going to start using money orders again for awhile until I get this stupid thing settled. I'm also thinking that maybe I should get a second job or allow myself to get a roommate. Most of the people who want to be my roommate would be bad roommates. The people who would robably make good roommates usually don't need one or don't want to live on my side of town. C'est la vie. C'est ma vie

Then, when I walked in the house I saw two brand new flyswatters sitting on my counter. Way to go Mom. She didn't even wait a few weeks until I saw her next. If that isn't love I don't know what is. It's not exactly like my place is conviently located between her work in north Scottsdale and her house between Maricopa and Pete's Corner.

So anyway, today was a good day. A day worthy of thanking the Lord for. I'm alive. I met good, helpful, and friendly people today. And my finances haven't defeated me yet.

Thanks again for being there to listen.

Sincerely,
Paul

Firk-Ding-Blast!

That pretty much sums up my life about now. I went to plug in my bicycle lights this evening and only the taillight came on. This is especially annoying in that I just bought it last month to replace my old system. The nickle metal-hydride battery of the old system had died, and it is no longer produced. This left me highly frustrated. I like to be in control, and when I am not I become aggitated. Eventually I realized I should be praying for God's support, but I found myself strangely resistant. After a while I realised that this was because in some way I was enjoying the feeling of being frustrated. It was a minor form of control over the situation, controling my emotions about the situation. Once that sunk in, I was able to open myself up to prayer. I havn't fully given the situation over to God as I know I should, but at least I'm praying that he guide my emotions in this matter. It's a start.

Then I get home and check the mail. Big mistake. The bank informs me that it bounced my rent check! Damn it! My checkbook said I had the money. Who knows what my credit will look like now. I'm going to have to try to settle this either before work or during my break/lunch time. I do not look forward to this at all.

I'm just so angry. I mean, it's easy to say, "let go, let God," but it's much harder to do it. Control has always been the issue which has most harmed my relationship with God. All I can do is continue to pray for a change.

And Xanga's humor keeps rolling:
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Well, over the past few weeks I've tried finding a flyswatter to no avail. First I tried the Fry's Marketplace and Albertson's near me. Neither carry flyswatters anymore. Next I tried the local Walgreens, Osco, and 99 Cents Only stores. No avail. Fry's Marketplace, Fry's Food and Drugs, $.99 Store, Basha's, Home Depot, and Seven Eleven, and several Circle Ks have also proven useless. Has American society become so politically correct that flyswatters are now a thing of the past? Does no one sell flyswatters any more?

Anyway, back to a more orderly recap starting with Friday the 23rd of May 2003. Our kids and adults finished the battle at the Three Goose Inn and fled together into the forest during Tom's D&D campaign. Once again, there were so many characters that the combat took most of the night.

Saturday Rusty ran his Blue Planet campaign again. The deputy marshall shot down a stick monkey that was throwing fruit at him during construction. When we finally convinced him to clean up his mess before carrior feeders showed up, he went out to it and arrived at the remains at the same time as a land lizard. Hobbs talked him into killing the land lizard without the benefit of any weapons. He took the challenge, and Adam started taking bets against the deputy. Neopolina, Igawa, and Slam all bet against the lizard and ended up aying out big time. This despite the fact that the deputy is a transhuman with the ability to increase his physical attributes to Strength 3 and Thoughness 5. Once he was unconscience and being fed upon by the lizard, Hobbs came ove and capped it. We all ended up having land lizard for dinner.

Rusty had run a Blue Planet game at LepreCon XXIX which featured a team of dolphins doing a sidebar adventure within our campaign world. Our characters met these dolphins the next day when they swam into our harbour during contruction of the island's jumpcraft landing pad. They made a comment about about the nearby glass coral reef. We, having done many recons of the area over the months, knew of no such reefs. So we had them lead us to it. It turns out that the reef was atop the once-cave where we "liberated" the longjohn. The oddest thing was that there was an anomalous patch within the glass coral that the dolphins hadn't noticed earlier. We broke off a piece of regular and anomalous coral and went back to our base cam to furthe investigate. We found out that the anomalous coral was oppositely polarized, a unique phenomina never seen before in the history of Poseidon. Luckily, the dolphins agreed with us that such a discovery need not be made public, otherwise the area would be flooded with visitors.

Sunday, Mom stopped by to go to mass with me and treated me to the new In and Out Burger at Desert Ridge Mall. Afterward, I attended the Hogwart's Live Action meeting, watched SG-1 and X-Files, and had a good long chat with Jess.

On Memorial Day Bill and Dai came up with Angie and Meen(sp?) so we could have dinner and a movie. Bill treated us all to Outback Steakhouse, before we went to see Reloaded at the AMC Desert Ridge. $8.50 for a movie these days! How do people afford it? I kind of felt like Bill and Angie were trying to set me up with Meen(sp?), which was weird, but at least it was less weird with Dai around. I mean, she's attractive in some ways, but totally uncompatible with me in others. I'd be fine with developing a friendship, but nothing else. Afterwards, I went home and chatted online some more.

Tuesday I had the day off (because of the holiday being on my usual Monday off), so Wayne and I went to Arby's, Fry's Marketplace (still looking for that elusive flyswatter), and watched the HP:CS DVD.

Friday the 30th was Tom's D&D campaign again. He pulled all the players with a magic casting character outside, which left Rusty and I by ourselves inside. This seemed odd to us, considering how Tom's campaign is currently set within an anti-magic land ruled by the priests of Garagos. We eventually were able to rejoin the other players where we started the next morning with the magic characters going into the nearby stream and retreiving a statue from under the silt. They kept talking about some dream which had led them to the statue, and how they needed to open it up. Meanwhile, the elven cleric finished up healing people from the previous night's fight and the human bard detected magic on all the items looted in the battle. Denton also tied identifying the items, but he failed his consentration check (required of all spells within this land) and had no other pearls to destroy. Suddenly, the group with the statue lost it. They claimed that the statue had transorted them to the southern border, which then collapsed. The collapse brought the undead trapped inside into the land and across the countryside. Then they returned sans statue. This made no sense, as they never left our eyesight, only the statue which disappeared. But we decided that it was necessary to ignore the current invasion army of Garagos and focus on rescuing the innocents from the undead plague sweeping through the land. Can we say cliffhanger?

Saturday was another Blue Planet camaign session from Rusty. This time the deputy marshall buried himself vertically in the beach sand up to his head for the night (to watch for dangers). Adam took bets on what would attack him first. He was pelted with fruit by the stick monkeys, had a land lizard come close, and eventually was physically attacked by a stick monkey. Luckily, Adam shot the critter off of him (who was monitoring his cash cow). In the morning we returned to the reef for more investigation only to discover that the anomaly was gone, and weirder still, that the whole reef had shifted to the southwest. That was when Ophelia was contacted by a humanoid shaped water eddy asking for help. One team followed it into an opening which it created in the coral, while a back up team stayed atop. The team walked through a constantly shifting labyrinth until they came upon a room of columns which resembled prototypes of them. Then they got into a battle between the water entity which asked for help and another which was shaping the terrain into weapons against it and them. Eventually the topside team noticed some rays glidding on an intercept course at unnatural speed. First the dolphins fled, then the rest (as they lost their will saves). When the spelunkers returned to the surface after their victory, they found the boats desolving in the ocean, and their teammates missing. On the way back home they found the topside team swimming for shore and stripping themselves of all gear and clothing. They spoke irrationally of their desparate need to reach the safety of the island as soon as possible. They didn't even seem interested in the safety of themselves or others. Thus, Adam submitted himself to Neopolina as no longer fit for duty. That's when the game devolved. Kitty and Tom didn't want to let me roleplay an emotionally shattered Adam, while both Mikes seemed interested in the rp opportunities. If its an rpg, I'd expect to have the opportunity to rp. But the computer gamers don't like to have their "rp" to have negative effects. I swear computer games will be the death of gamers yet. That was the end of the session, and it left me very dissatisfied. I wonder if the others all felt the same, as we're not going to be gaming at all this month (June 2003).

Sunday the 1st was mass, another Hogwarts Live Action Development Team meeting, and more SG-1 and X-Files.

Monday I had a lot of yardwork to do. Cassidy stopped by to help me diagnos my computer. Plus I stopped by the TFN boards.

Tuesday, a lot of my coworkers were asking me about the Romley versus O'Brien thing which was all over the front page both days that week. I predicted a letter from the bishop would be read at all masses the next Sunday.

On Friday, Tom, Lori, Kitty, Rusty, Steve, Jackson, and I went to Applebee's where Steve insisted on treating me. Afterward, Steve, Jackson, Tom, Lori, their roommate Russel, and I watched The Animatrix DVD at their place.

Last night the Mikes, Trollgod, and I played thirteen games of Shadowfist (only six for Ken).

Today, Mom came by to help her compose a letter. I'm sure she'd like the specifics left private, so I'll respect that.

We had the foretold letter from the bishop at mass. Father Milt followed that up with an excellent homily. He totally summed up the whole situation and related it to the solemnity of Pentecost.

Afterward, Mom and I went grocery shopping and had dinner from the Albertson's deli. Once she went home I joined the Hogwarts Live Avtion meeting in progress. Then I watched SG-1 and X-Files and typed up this entry. This left me tired so I went to bed. Night!

Well, I've been so busy it's not even funny. I've wanted to post here, but to do so would have meant sacrificing something I'd already committed to do. I doubt I'll catch up all in one entry, but at least I'm making a start.

When I signed in, I got the following ad:
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Anyway, I guess I have to recap most of May. Friday the 9th was Tom's D&D campaign. Our Cormyrian group carefully proceded towards the castle which had had the two black lightning bolts stike. As we got closer the whole valley was dotted with campfires, implying that an invading army was laying siege to the castle. In an effort to avoid the army, we hid in the wine cellar of the Three Goose Inn (thanks to a hefty bribe to the owner).

Unfortunately, our scouting party had failed to mention that they had skirmished with some of the army's scouts before leading us to the inn. Thus, we were tracked there. We then switchd roles over to our kid characters, who were taking baths upstairs in the Three Goose Inn when members of the army came in and tried to arrest them. Combat ensued, which summoned our Cormyrian team from the cellar. So the combat lasted a long time while everyone was playing two characters. Long enough that the combat cliffhangered when reinforcements arrived.

Saturday the 10th I was on PTO from work while Trollgod and I went to the Faerieworlds Festival in Sedona. There were lots of booths selling various Fae and/or New Age merchandise, a main stage and children's stage with acts all day long, food vendors, and traveling performers in fae- or clown-related costumes. A small number of the vendors and stage acts I recognised from the Arizona Renaissance Festival and Artisans' Marketplace. The majority were all new to me. Surprisingly, I had saved money for the event, but I didn't leave with anything other than a small $1 top.

The Sedona Cultural Park is beautiful. The large, open amphitheatre is nestled down inbetween two hills. Parking was located atop the one hill, and a sculpture garden was located on the slopes beneath it. On the opposite hill was the seating, with the merchant stals above.

It was fun hanging out with Ken, who stayed a lot longer than I expected. Of course, the completist in me would have stayed from 10:00-22:00, but we stayed for the majority of the festival. We definately got our money's worth before we left.

On the way back, we stopped by his mother's place so he could wish her happy Mother's Day. She was a very nice and polite woman who offered us beverages and cookies while we chatted for an hour or so. His nephews and one of their friends were playing in the yard, having fashioned "daggers" from bamboo shoots. They took turns being pushed on the tire swing from me while I gave Ken and his mom some private time. Then it was back to Phoenix.

We got back early enough that we went over to Jackson's place and played some Shadowfist before Ken had to go and Steve started his D&D game. I think Ken helped me win the game, but its been so long I don't remember how.

In Steve's game we decided that it would be dangerous to continue the way we had been, for the Zhents were sure to retaliate. So we cut through Cormanthor to Shadowdale. Along the way we ran into some wood elves who monitored us for a while before questioning us and letting us pass.

In Shadowdale, we stayed in the Old Skull Inn befoe pressing on to Dagger Falls. Once there, we were ushered in to meet with Randal Morn, the lord of Daggedale. He was thankful that we heeded his call for aid, and promised to deploy us where we were needed most.

Sunday the 11th they didn't give out flowers to all the parish mothers as is their usual Mothers' Day custom. After mass, TFLAS worked on developing the classwork and homework student player characters will have for Hogwarts Live Action.

I worked a short week, Tuesday and Wednesday, before my next PTO for LepreCon XXIX. Wednesday night after work I went and saw the 22:00 showing of Matrix: Reloaded at Harkins AZ Mills. I'll review it later.

Thursday the 15th I took care of some chores during the day, and then Thursday night at the con we watched the lunar eclipse with telescope and digital camera shots.

Friday I was on the Things of Science panel for ages six to twelve. We didn't get any kids, but we did get an elderly gentleman who participated in the activities with us. Afterwards I found the gang and played Shadowfist in the game room. Then I had to play chaparone to the Doctor Seuss readings of Geofrey Lu, but like the last panel, no kids showed up. So Geofrey, a lady left over from the previous panel, and I discussed what Doctor Seuss. The conversation morphed to cover what had started us reading as kids, and then devolved into a Star Trek discussion. It was all quite fun. After that there was more Shadowfist in the game room. When I was ready to go to the Chill Room (as sponsoed by ConFusion), I was dragged into the really incredibly lame Vampire LARP (which had started hours earlier) because they were desparately short on players. What I won't do fo my friends. That was like the equivalent of taking a bullet for someone, the LARP "plot" was so painful. Plus I missed out on the Chill Room, so that was double the wound.

Saturday morning my parents dropped off their kitten, Smokey, on the way to Oklahoma for my stepfather's brother's wake and funeral. They arrived late, making me late to open program ops. Luckily, Kitty was running Green Room and she let my assistant Jenn in to do hr work (and let her know I was running late). After that I entered the Shadowfist closed deck tournament. I nearly won, but Trav won instead. Oh well, its cool to have been the second best rather than third, even if that wins we nothing. After that there was more Shadowfist until the Urban Legends roundtable discussion I moderated. It was well attended, with two rows of chairs around the oval table, and another row of standing people behind them. The discussion was lively enough that a few times I dircted a couple of separate threads happening at once. I know not all moderators would allow something so chaotic, but the ideas seemed to flow better when the group is allowed to diverge into groups and recombine organically. After that was the first meeting for LepreCon XXXI. Larry (our chair) doesn't want meetings done business as usual. The meeting ran over two hours, but a lot of ideas were created. I think XXXI will be a totally new local con expeience. After that I went to the modern dance, which was nearly empty by that time of night as usual.

Sunday I rushed to mass, ran program ops, missed out on the open deck Shadowfist tournament (which Trav won), and went to Sizzler with the gang after the con.

Monday the 19th Steve and Jackson wanted to see M:R again at AZ Mills, so we went and saw it. Because they advertised a free comic book with your ticket stub during the slide ads before the movie, we went to the Atomic Comics and nearby Bookmans. My free comic was Powers #25. I'd heard a lot of buzz about Powers, but I had no idea it was so purposefully-offensive. Despite the lack of taste and judgement, the story's plot did draw me in. The art is very stylized, much like the Paul Dini Batman Animated Series. I guess it was a good comic, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it to kids or anyone easily offended.

Afterwards I went to our Third Monday meeting. Lea forgot about it, so we didn't do much in the way of Lep29 recap. We mostly focused on what I needed for Cop23. We had a small group, so I guess most people forgot about it while they were rcovering from the weekend.

Wednesday the 21st my parents came home early and retrieved their kitten. This made Spunky and Christmas happy. They didn't get along with him, and hid from him wherever they could. He played too rough for them, as he's used to playing with a puppy much bigger than him.

And we'll pick up from there next time. I'm too tired to continue. Night, Xangaland!