In my previous Goml post I wrote about Kings Quest 3, and how it was one of my first games. I always got stuck at one point in the game where it came time to cast some of the spells. You see, some of the guidebooks had the spells written down incorrectly, and if you type the spell in the game incorrectly, you die. Anyway, it's been out of print for a long while now, and unless you had a really old computer you couldn't play it even if you found a copy.

Last night Tigs and I went to Target to get a couple of odds and ends, and as we passed an end rack with a couple of clearance computer games Virginia paused and pointed and my eyes were immediately drawn to a very pretty box. It was a compilation of all of the Warhammer 40K Dawn of War games! (Ha! You thought I was going to say Kings Quest!) And right next to it was a compilation of the first 7 Kings Quest Games (which was what she was actually pointing at)!!!!

No, I didn't get both. Wanted to, but I realized that I barely have any time to play games as it is, and the Kings Quest set comes with 7 games!!

After we got home, I loaded it all up, and then clicked KQ3. The screen went black… and then popped back to the deck top after about 20 seconds. It turns out it needed a couple of patches to make it work, so I downloaded them, and restarted the game. I played for about 12 minutes before I died. It's amazing how much I remember. I spent way more time obsessing about this game when I was 10 then I needed to, probably because I got stuck. I'm so thrilled I can finally beat that damn wizard!

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1. What's your favourite TV network?
Netflix

2. If you could create your own channel, what would it be?
A mix of scifi, history/documentary, foreign and independent films, and home improvement shows.

3. What TV show did you watch as a child, that you wish they would bring back?
Star Trek The Next Generation

4. What show have you always hated, and wonder why they ever made such a dumb show?
Soap Operas

5. What TV show's seasons would you buy on DVD?
Heh. Lots of them!!

6. Are you a good worker?
I can be.

7. What do you carry?
Years of experience, less hair, my wallet, cell phone, and keys

8. Do you know your neighbors?
Not yet.

9. Where do you like to go for a day trip?
Hiking.

10. What is at your feet?
My backpack

11. What makes you feel old?
Everyone telling me I'm old.

12. What makes you feel young?
Sticking my tongue out at them!

13. What was better when you were allowed to do it the old way?
Summers (when it actually meant time off)

14. What's better now that you do it the new way?
Driving to work, I don't use the beltway anymore!

15. What's something you are old school about?
Video/computer games

So you know I have a miniature habit. It's a pewter monkey that get's heavier with every new release by every company that looks cool. Every once in a while, when its claws dig in a little deep, I give it a small sacrifice to ease it up a bit. The most recent sacrifice was the new Chaos Codex for Warhammer 40K. Mind you, when I say "new" what I really mean is it came out 8 months ago, and I was both annoyed at the reported changes, and gearing up to buy a house plus taking classes so kinda busy.

I'm still not thrilled with the changes. My very characterful (though often not that successful) army is going to need some tweaking to make playable again. Some of these tweaks will require converting some figures, which is kind of ok, as I wanted to make some changes anyway, and some will just require refiguring how my guys are organized within the army.

Of course this is all rather theoretical, as all of the painting and converting I'm doing right now is on the house. I'm hoping that by the time I finish my summer class (July 10) that all the painting in the house will be done, and that I can do some gaming stuff over the following 7 weeks before I start my fall classes. Is it doable? Maybe. We'll see.

Now I'm off to go take a final.

I heard back from that finance job I applied for. No go. There have been a number of applicants who have years worth of experience in that position already, so I was basically told to try again later, when I have more experience. *sigh*

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I've noticed online and on the radio people talking about the Democratic primary, and how die-hard Obama supporters feel that Clinton should just get out of the race, and stop hurting the party. I don't get that. How is the party hurt by her running in a primary that has not yet been decided? Was North Carolina hurt by the election? How about Indiana? Are the people of West Virginia hurt by her running? I don't think they are. States that usually have no say in the primaries, which get no campaign attention or money, are getting it now! Sure it's only for a week or two, but for that time states are getting visited by busloads of reporters, campaign helpers, security details, all who buy food, rent hotel rooms, and bring an infusion of cash and excitement to what is usually by this point a wrapped up primary.

Oh, and have you noticed how McCain isn't getting all that much attention right now? Tell me how that's a bad thing!

Is Hilary going to win? No, not unless something really drastic happens. Does that mean she should quit? No. If Obama is going to be president, then he needs to earn it, and according to the delegate count, he hasn't done that yet. When he does the Democratic Party will rally around him, and in January we'll swear him in as the new President of the United States. Until then he has to keep working on earning it.

So stop whining, and let the rest of the country have their say.

When you move from 900 square feet of living space into almost 1300 square feet of living space, you would presume that everything would fit, and then some. When you add over 600 square feet of basement storage space, you figure there isn't any way that all your stuff doesn't fit. My friend, you would be wrong. But then all of our stuff has been in boxes, and boxed items always take up more space.

Sunday afternoon, since it was raining and I couldn't paint, I went up into the blue room (which is being used for storage) to reorganize everything. Actually, that's a lie. It was never organized, but it was structured so that you could at least walk around the stuff. Over the last week or so we've been unpacking it, and in the process it had gotten to the point where you really couldn't walk into or around the room. I spent about an hour in there, sorting boxes into piles, and freeing up space in the middle so we can access all the piles. You might not believe it, but we've actually made progress!

Prior to that tigergladys and I went to the Farmers Market in Baltimore, then to Ikea, where we had to wait an extra hour because their flyer lied about what time they opened. So while we waited we read the Sunday paper (having thoughtfully decided to bring it with us). After returning home, when Tigs and Lucy went off to track I mowed the front lawn, and prepped the garden for 2 more plants. While it wasn't the most productive day, it was pretty relaxing.

Plans for this week include painting the trim in the dining room (we're supposed to get a couple of warm sunny days in a row) finals for my accounting classes, and then there's the USDAA trial this weekend. Lucy isn't entered this time, so I am just going to help out.

I received the first 2 seasons of Enterprise for my birthday from Tigs. We also got season 3 of Stargate from DVDswap still in it's shrink-wrap. It even had a Wal-Mart sticker on it. The swapper said they just didn't have time to watch it. I'm wondering if it was acquired illegally? However I can't seem to drum up any indignation that someone may have stolen it from Wal-Mart.

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1. What's one of the nicest things a friend has ever done for you?

Probably the going away party that Eric set up for me was the nicest.

2. What's one of the nicest things a stranger has ever done for you?

There have been so many little things.... :-)

3. What is a trait in another person that you instantly admire, and that draws you to them?

If they're big readers it usually gives me something to talk about with them.

4. What is a trait in another person that instantly repels you, and prevents you from forming a close relationship with them?

Being a smoker tends to repel me pretty quickly.

5. Time to vent: tell us about something rotten someone has done to you.

When our ex-neighbors urinated on my car... twice.

6. Describe where you grew up:

I grew up in Lancaster City PA, right next to F&M College.

7. Do you wear any jewelry?

Not currently, but I've worn rings in the past.

8. What do you have too much of?

Things to do, I have way too much of that.

9. Who is a fool?

Everyone sometimes.

10. What's your nickname?

DM – for either Dungeon Master or DavidMonster

11. How do you feel about spicy food?

I think spicy food is yummy.

12. What kinds of condiments do you add to food in order to spice things up a bit?

Mustards

13. Not counting salt and pepper, what's your favorite flavor enhancer when cooking?

Mustard

14. What's the spiciest food you've ever eaten?

Thai I think…

15. In what way might some other aspect of your daily life be spiced up, and what's keeping that from happening right now?

For the moment I actually like my spice pretty well confined to my food. Right now I've got enough other things going on that spice in my life would just give me heart burn.

16. If you knew that you had only one day left to live, what would you do for the 24 hours?

I’d start the day by making breakfast (everyone’s favorites) then I’d go for a hike with Tigs and Lucy, and have a picnic lunch with them. Then take Virginia out to dinner, something nice and romantic, maybe on a sail boat in the Chesapeake.

17. Do you think that life has meaning?

It has all the meaning that you bring to it.

18. What was your favourite childhood toy/object, or some of your favourites?
(Remember childhood according to the United Nations is anywhere from 0-18 years, so this is a fairly broad span of time).

Joggy Lion

19. When you clasp your hands, do you put your right thumb over your left thumb, or your left thumb over your right thumb?

Left thumb over right

20. If you had to teach the most ignorant person on earth the most difficult thing you have ever learned, how would you go about doing it?

Slowly! I’d start with the basics and take it step by step, breaking it down into its smallest components.

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So a new dishwasher installed will cost about $500. Well we don't have that right now, so we searched the internet for a cheaper solution.

( The solution )

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I've found a game board that has just about everything I'm looking for. This looks more like a museum piece then a game board.

( I want it... )
More then that, I want to build it!! And then game on it!

Sunday night while Virginia took a shower I was in the kitchen cooking bacon when I heard this strange noise, like a bit of grease splattering from a great height. This seemed odd as the bacon was in the oven. I didn't see anything odd with the bacon, or in the rest of the kitchen. So I didn't worry about it.

Then I heard it again, and again, and then I noticed a small puddle in the middle of the kitchen floor. Lucy was asleep in the living room, so I knew it wasn't her. As I watched, the puddle got hit by another drop of water. I looked up, and with increasing speed the water continued to drip down the side of the light on the kitchen fan. Fun hua?

I ran upstairs and got Virginia to wrap things up, and then pried off the access panel to the bathtub plumbing. It's not a big leak, but steady. It looks like it's not too hard to access, so hopefully it wont be too hard (or expensive) to fix. While we're at it we'll probably get the dishwasher taken care of too (I'm not sure I mentioned, but the dishwasher leaks into the basement).

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Good news everybody!

It seems not so much a leak in the pipes as a leak where the fixtures come through the tiles. He said some caulking should do the trick. As for the dishwasher, it needs to be replaced. Ahh well. Win some, lose some.

We officially moved into the house this past weekend. It took 2 trips with a 12' Penske truck, but it was done by about 2:30/3pm. We never would have gotten it all done if it wasn't for all the help we got, so a huge THANK YOU to Terence, raven296, Kim, Cory, and Alex. You've provided help, support, and friendship that's really made so much more possible then would otherwise be the case. So again, thank you!

Ok, so Wednesday the electrical work was taken care of. *thumbs up* We can now plug things in without having to use the 3-to-2 prong adaptors! Plus the service cable was replaced out back, so that worry is gone, and it's amazing how those 2 things have made such a big difference. Right now I need to continue to see significant progress being made, if only for my own sanity.

I painted the first coat on the trim in the library, and it's going to need a second coat. Even kilz primer couldn't cover that shade of pink! After that's done, there will be a little bit of touch up work, and then we can bring all the bookshelves in from the dining room. Conveniently that's the next painting project, and it should go quickly, since the walls and trim were already (4 shades of) white, and I've already done the ceiling. I don't have anything else pressing to do, so my goal is to get that all done. Two thing that might slow me down a bit are the taping, and waiting for paint to dry, but we'll see.

Last night I picked up my car from the shop. It actually drives noticeably better then it did when I dropped it off, though it is still doing that weird noise thing from the back tires sometimes when I first start driving.

I heard back about the job I applied for up at the central business office. I wasn't qualified for it, based on their experience requirement. However they had an other (lower level) job that they wanted to get me into which would have been fine just to get my foot in the door. Unfortunately it wouldn't have fulfilled the experience requirement for the CPA, and while I'm willing to make a lateral move, it needs to either pay me significantly more, or it needs to give me that experience.

There is a job at another hospital in the system in the finance department that would in theory both pay more and offer the experience I need. I've already submitted my resume for that.

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1. How often do you listen to music?

Almost constantly.

2. Do you ever listen to the radio? What is your favorite station?

I generally listen to NPR news radio, NPR's local music station, and the local classic rock station.

3. How do you find new songs, albums, or artists to listen to?

Generally it'll be something that Tigs will turn me onto.

4. When was the last time you bought a CD? A digital music file?

I think the last time I bought a CD was when Tigs and I were scouting places to live in MD. I think it was a comedy CD… And I've never bought a digital music file.

5. Do you think any of the technologies and distribution methods mentioned above will still be around in ten years? Why or why not?

Yes. People have spent a lot of money of the technology, and while there will be new stuff, the stuff from today will still be around.

I'm posting from home today with the electrician working upstairs. We're getting all of the outlets replaced with new fixtures. Some are being replaced with GFI outlets and some are just getting updated 2 prong outlets. If we find any that have a ground (none on the second floor) then they will get a grounded outlet.

As soon as he finishes with the library I'm going to go paint the trim, and then I'm going to spend some time doing my accounting homework.

I am posting this from the new house, where we now have internet access, and the rooms are looking fuller as we shuttle boxes of stuff that can fit in our cars (rather then in the truck we're getting tomorrow).

In fun car news, my check engine light came on and I brought it into the shop this morning. It's going to cost about $1600 once all is said and done. However they have to order parts, so we'll get that all taken care of on Wednesday-Thursday.

In less depressing news all seasons of Star Trek are selling for $35 each. (Sorry silentrequiem, but I had to) Seasons 1 & 2 of Enterprise will be shipped out to me shortly.

My plan for tonight was to go to the house to study. There are fewer things to distract me there.

That was the theory anyway.

While I was there I sanded down the plaster I put on the walls, I installed the fence latch, I removed all the hardware from all the doors we've removed, I moved all the doors down to the basement, and I brought in all the boxes I put in the car last night.

Then I did some studying.

Peace, Love, & Hope

After work today I primed the library walls, and taped along the floor so I can move onto the trim next. I still need to pick up the paint for the walls.

We're ready to start painting the dining room walls, and we have the paint for that.

I have put half of the boxes we packed onto our cars to be dropped off tomorrow.I need to remember to pack my intermediate accounting book so I can study tomorrow. The test is on Wednesday.

I've picked up the internal bid form and will be dropping it off tomorrow.

Tonight we packed 50 small diamond boxes (14"x10"x7") with books. You'd think with that many boxes, packed full of books, that our shelves would be empty. You would be wrong. Very wrong. There are 17 shelves of books still to be packed up on the second floor, and we haven't even hit the 2 book shelves in the dining room, or the cook books in the kitchen...

Moving day is Saturday. At least for the big stuff. Glad I'm taking Friday off to make sure it's all ready...

Peace, Love, & Hope

tigergladys is out tracking with Lucy, and I am home working on taxes.

And it figures. I owe between state and federal taxes about $200.

There is a job opening up at the central business office that looks really tempting. I should decide whether I'm going to go for it by Monday, that way I can turn in a bid form for it first thing.

Bother... GW also posted a position I could apply for, and a year ago I probably would have. But it's in HR rather then in accounting... Ah well.

1. What type of food do you most like to eat?
Mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy.

2. What type of food do you most like to cook?
I really enjoy making chili.

3. What ingredient could you not live without?
Salt. Ok, so it's not really an ingredient per se, but it's oh so necessary.

4. What do you never let in your kitchen?
Anchovies

5. What is your favorite drink?
Strawberry lemonaid

6. Other than the official start of spring on the calender, what really signifies the start of spring for you?
Seeing the first blush of that bright green you only see in the spring

7. How severe is your spring cleaning bug this year?
HAHAHAHAHA!

8. What one thing says "spring" to you more than any other?
The smell of everything coming alive after the winter.

9. What are your springtime traditions?
Open up all the windows in the house and get as much fresh air into the house as possible. Also go hiking!

10. When do you break out your spring and summer wardrobe? Do you follow the "no white before Easter" rule?
As soon as the temperature hits around 50 I start putting away the winter stuff.

11. If you became ruler of the world, what three things would you do first?
I would fix education, cut military spending and redirect it to humanitarian and scientific uses, and vastly increase the use and development of green energy

12. If you were a superhero, what would be your name and what powers would you have?
If I were a superhero I'd want to be a Green Lantern.

13. You can ask one question to someone who knows EVERYTHING. What is it?
What's the winning number to the next $10,000,000 (or more) lotto?

14. If you were invisible for a day, what would you do?
If invisible means being undetectable, then I would probably get cash, from a variety of sources.

15. If you saw a mythical/religious deity walking down the street, what would you do?
That really depends on which one it was! There are some gods you just don't want to get in the way of!

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This past weekend was the tracking trial for the dog club. This meant getting up at 5(ish) to drive up to the Maryland/Delaware boarder, and spend a lot of time cold and wet with a little bit of time spent watching dogs actually tracking. I brought my accounting books with me, but never even pulled them out. Saturday I was too tired, and Sunday it was too cold and wet (and I was still tired).

Saturday, after spending the morning at the trial we packed up, headed home for a change, and then pressed on to Frederic for First Saturday. This time however Gaer joined us! Lucy did pretty well considering how long a day she had.

Sunday we again spent the morning at the tracking trial, a cold, wet, muddy day. We then went home, took some hot showers (Lucy too) and then headed over to the house to do some more work. We managed to put in a couple of hours before heading back to the townhouse drained of all energy.

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Things are progressing at the house. It's almost ready for us to really start moving things in. At this point we've only brought over stuff we've needed, or stuff that can go straight to the basement. The next couple of weeks or so is going to be a bit of a pain as we transfer everything to the house, and then, invariably we'll need or want something that's at the other place.

I keep thinking about terrain, and building a table. I think when I finally do get to work on it that the trick to it, along with almost any other project, is to just devote myself to it from start to finish, just like I did with my original Amon Hen. 12 days start to finish on that one.

Actually my plan is to build another Amon Hen out of Hirst Arts blocks as one of my first projects. Seeing as I'll be using cast blocks (complete with texture) it should take significantly less time to finish it. Plus it works well on a grassy field.

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I need a home improvement icon...

In all the excitement of buying a house I neglected to write about the agility trial the weekend of 3/22.

The trial was held at CISC in Westminster MD and it was a Canine Performance Events (CPE) trial. It’s a group kind of like the American Kennel Club, but a bit more relaxed, and with some different agility games and rules.

Saturday dawned mostly gray and proceeded throughout the day with occasional snow showers, sleet, rain, and sun. We arrived at CISC a little before 7 am so that Lucy could be measured officially. The judge called everyone who needed to be measured over to the side and had us put the smaller dogs up on a table, at which point he would put a measuring wicket over their backs. It took a couple of seconds. It wasn’t long after that the games started.

The first game of the day was Jackpot which requires you to do a number of different types of equipment, and for each successful completion you gain points. There isn’t a set course in the beginning but when the whistle sounds you have to do the “gamble” which is a series of obstacles in order with the handler standing behind a line. You need to complete the gamble and earn a set number of points in order to qualify (Q). From the start line there was a tunnel and the dog walk. My plan was to get Lucy into the tunnel twice before I sent her to the walk. She had other ideas, and took the dog walk twice. I went with it, and kept running. When the whistle blew I sent Lucy for the gamble, making sure to keep behind the line. Because I was trying to work from a distance, she hesitated a little bit before the first obstacle (a tunnel) but once into it, the rest of the gamble went like a breeze, and Lucy finished perfectly by hitting the table.

After jackpot was Standard, which is the basic form of agility including just about everything in a set order. It wasn’t a particularly difficult course, but I screwed up how I handled her, and we ended up not qualifying (NQ).

Next was Wildcard. This is like standard, except there are a couple of spots where you have a choice on which obstacles you want to take, and once you commit to a certain set of choices you have to stick with it. Since Lucy loves the A Frame, I knew we would have to do that, rather then try to run past it. This run went pretty much as planned, and Lucy took the A Frame like a champ! Q!!

Snooker followed Wildcard. This game requires you to take a jump prior to taking any other obstacle, and then taking another jump (not the same one) and then another obstacle, and then a third jump, and another obstacle(it can be the same obstacle each time), and then doing a series in order, ending with a table. You accumulate points for each obstacle, but if you take a wrong obstacle or take an obstacle without taking a jump first you’re done. Things went pretty well on this one, until Lucy took a wrong obstacle and we got whistled off. NQ.

Jumpers was the last game of the day, and with the issues that Lucy has been having in class with knocking down bars I wasn’t expecting anything great. Now, maybe I should have been more encouraged, as by this point in the day she had only knocked down a single bar, but seeing as the entire course was jumps (with a couple of tunnels) and no contacts (Lucy’s favorite type) I just wanted to go out and have fun. And so we did, and amazingly ended the day with a Q!!

You’ll notice that I ran all the runs on Saturday. This is because the unique architecture of CISC lends itself to very poor lighting. The entire ceiling is covered with nets to protect the lights above, but this causes the light to be very diffused and greenish. There are only a couple of spots where any natural light can come in, and seeing as the weather was rather crappy there wasn’t much light to be had. This all resulted in Tigs getting a headache.

The other fun event of the day was the fact that in total Lucy peed 32 times on Saturday. Now we know that Lucy can pee with sometimes annoying frequency, but I don’t think she’s ever peed that much before. We were a little concerned, but thought that maybe it was the stress of the day, and we’d keep an eye on it.

Sunday was a little brighter then Saturday, and a little warmer too. Since Tigs didn’t get to do any of the runs on Saturday, she opted to run all of Sunday. I must admit, part of me wanted to do it, but fair is fair. Plus my knee was bothering me a little, and a day of watching agility sounded great.

The first run of the day was Jumpers, and Lucy was a little bit of a snot. NQ

Then came another Standard run. Lucy decided that she'd done enough jumps in Jumpers and decided to skip a bunch. Needless to say it was a NQ

Next up was colors, which is like standard, except there are 2 courses (with overlap) and you have to pick 1 and stick to it. Now this was a tough course, as it was laid out jump, jump, turn away from the A Frame toward something that didn’t interest Lucy as much. As you can guess, Lucy went toward the A Frame not once, but twice. The first time she even got a couple of paws on it. However Tigs got Lucy to come back to her both times, and completed the course and got a Q!!

Following Colors was Full House. This is a game similar to Jackpot, but without the gamble. In it you have a set amount of time in which to accumulate points until a buzzer sounds, at which point you have 5 seconds to get your dog to put at least 1 paw on the table to stop the clock. Any time over the 5 seconds is subtracted from your score. There are also requirements that you have to do at least x number of jumps, y number of circles, etc. At the beginning of the course was the dog walk, which Lucy flew across, and Tigs kept pace and then over a jump, and back to the walk, then through a couple of tunnels, over the A Frame, another jump, and then to the table. It was fun to watch! Q!!

All that running was putting a similar strain on Tigs’ knees as it had on mine, so she offered the final run of the day to me. The game was again snooker but this time the layout of the run was significantly more difficult. I spent some time planning my strategy for this one, knowing that it would be the most difficult simply because Lucy would want to go and do stuff as she came to it. The plan worked out, practically perfectly! Lucy listened, and I kept her in tight with me right up till the end so she wouldn’t go flying over any jumps that she wasn’t supposed to. The only thing that she didn’t do was a final tire jump at the very end, however we had already accumulated more then enough points for a Q so we kept right on past it and finished at the table. Q!!

All totaled we got 6 Q’s, and earned 3 level 1 titles in Strategy Games, Handler Games, and Fun Games!!

It's slow going, all this cleaning. Some of the grime is so thick you have to wash whatever it coats multiple times. The hood over the oven is probably the worst. It's still not clean. Cleaner, but not clean.

We're trying to hit each project to completion before moving on to the next one, but sometimes you're washing something and you just keep moving. For instance I was washing the outside of the fridge (Tigs did the inside) and while I was doing the top I also washed some of the wall next to it, which lead to washing the door frame to the living room, which continued to the trim along the back wall of the living room. It wasn't till I reached the far corner when I realized I had strayed far from my original task.

Tonight's project is going to be cleaning the dining room. The library was the other option, but since we're going to need to prime it, and the dining room is already (4 shades of) white, we're going with the easier optionOur order of attack is rooms that we've settled on the paint color for first, and then doing the rest. The living room and the craft room are the ones that we're not sure about color wise, so they're last.

We've owned the house since Friday afternoon, and mostly we've just cleaned, and today we did a little bit of painting. So far the master bedroom is the only one that's close to habitable. The kitchen and bathroom have been started, but there's still so much to do. Seriously hours spent scrubbing the walls, the trim, the ceiling, the floor, the windows, the doors... everything is gross. We think they burned lots of candles, which is nice.... but then they never washed anything, so it's all sooty. Plus I think the guy was mad at us and so made things a little extra special unpleasant for us.

Remind me to get more gloves from work...

Plus it was kind of cold today, which really slowed us down some.

Thursday is trash day. I'm not sure if there is a limit on how many bags we can put out. I hope not.

We've done the final walk through, and closing is in an hour and a half. We have a box of cleaning supplies sitting by the door.

Now there isn't a whole lot to do but wait...

As a coping mechanism I've been thinking a whole lot about building a gaming table. This is fuelled in no small part by the fact that I'm going to have a basement to keep it in. Some of the features I've been thinking about include making the surface modular, and maybe even designing it so that the main area is slightly raised in order to allow lower levels. I've seen this done on one gaming table, and I really liked how it worked. The main use for it was to allow a canal to run across the table, which can create some interesting tactical situations.

Some of the different surfaces I want to create are:
Ruined city – Mordheim/Osgiliath
Grassy fields with a spot to put a central terrain piece such as Amon Hen or Weathertop.
Modern/Ultramodern urban/industrial – Star Wars/40K style
Dungeon
Star field

The easiest to make will be the grass and star fields. Once those are done, I'll probably more onto the ruined city because it'll give me a real chance to make use of my hirst arts molds. I'll probably work on a dungeon concurrently with the ruined city. Then, eventually I'll get to the urban/industrial board. I may also do a board that's flat and reversible with one side having a desert color and the other having a snow color. Or maybe a dark grey that could serve double duty as a pre-industrial & pre-dungeon board.

So many ideas!

And the good news is that there is only 1 class I can take over the summer, so I may even have a little free time to do some terrain making!!

We're in the final stretch now, and I thought that you all might enjoy a recap of the last couple of weeks, since I haven't really posted. Last week, every day, I was faxing something to the lender. EVERY DAY. And every time I faxed something, I would ask "Is that it? Do you need anything else? Are we all set?" and he would inevitably reply "All set, no problem, that should be everything." By the end of the day he's e-mailing me or calling saying "I need this one more thing." By Friday he had everything he needed, and he sent it off to the underwriters.

For those who don't know getting a home loan is a multi stage process. First there is pre-approval. This is a lot like being pre-approved for a credit card. The company is pretty sure that you can have it, but you aren't really approved. Then there is approved for a loan. This is the bank saying, yeah, looking at your pay stub, and credit history, we'll give you $X, but you don't actually get to have it. So then you find a house that costs < $X and you tell the bank. Then they say "Great, send me your life's history in paper format and then maybe we'll give you money." So you do. And then you send more. Then, eventually, they say, "Ok, we're all set." You say "Great!" But then they continue with "Now were going to send it to the underwriters, and we should hear back later today. Sometime early next week at the most. The week after at the absolute latest!!"

This is pretty much where we're at. There isn't anything left to do. Just be stressed. I kinda wish I had class this week. Not that I'd be any good, but at least it would be something to focus on besides all this.

Last night after work Tigs and I decided to do a little pre-home-buying shopping. We started at Wal-mart to deposit a refund check at the bank, and picked up some killz coat ceiling paint. ( We will need a lot of this.) Then on to Roots to pick up a few grocery items, back around to Target to return some pants that didn't fit me, and lastly to Home Depot to get painting supplies.