The Castle Wall

Something of a whine I guess, which you don't often here from me. Well, you don't often get much from me period, but que sara sara.

I'd really like to play in a Star Wars game, specifically Saga Edition, but I'm not overly picky. My local gaming groups are already all set for games and since I've already made a special request for one of the game's I'm playing in, I don't want to derail it.

But I have this love affair with Star Wars that I just can't quite get over. And I've had several gaming false starts on Star Wars in recent memory, so I'm jonesing a little bit. Oh well, enough whining for now.

So last night, my wife and I pulled out some of my old Warhammer minis and started painting. I'd been wanting to get her to paint and model with me for quite a while because I figured she would enjoy it. We decided to go with a High Elf WHFB army just because they're one of the brighter armies and also not incredibly numerous. And they have lions pulling chariots, how can you go wrong?

I had an old box of Silver Helms (which are still in the army list and haven't really changed too much, so they're still usuable) and I already had them primed, so we could start painting them. We managed to get several of them painted. We're painting them in a purple and gold color scheme like a test paint I did on one of the horses. Unfortunately, my Liche Purple was completely defunct, so I have to stop by my FLGS on the way home tonight to pick up some more.

I had forgotten just how much I enjoyed the hobby and my wife seemed to enjoy herself as well. Eventually I'll put pictures up here once we get closer to done.

I'd consider apologizing for the lol-cat-ism in the title except it's precisely how I feel. I've been coughing since Monday and it only started improving yesterday. I felt a lot better when I woke up this morning, so I decided to try to go to work. Well, I'm at work and feeling like death warmed over. Not nearly as bad as the past couple of days, but still definitely hampering. Oh well. I just have to make it until 5:00. 3 hours and counting... 

Just got word that our mortgage pre-approval went through, so we're on track to get our own house!

*does the happy happy happy dance* 

They fixed my car yesterday, to the tune of $193 and some change. Luckily I had the money available, but I would rather have spent it on something else. Oh well, such is life. 

The driver's door window on my car has been a little froggy in the past year, but it's always righted itself... until now. It looks like the thing has decided to finally give up. Unfortunately, it's done so in the down position. Now I have to run it to the garage this afternoon to get them to raise the window. Hooray. 

So it's looking like I may be becoming allergic to shellfish.  Another member of my family has an allergy. I've been GI sick a couple of times in the past two weeks and the common theme has been shrimp/seafood eaten not too long before the illness set in. So now I need to call my doctor and see about getting an allergy test to confirm.

It's a crying shame really. I love shrimp.

Last night I was chilling in WoW with a friend of mine and suddenly my wife and I are both disconnected from our internet connection. Attempting to connect to our router proves useless, so I reboot the router. It seems to work again for a bit and then fails again. Reboot. Less time before failing. Now even a reboot doesn't fix the problem.

I look at it. It's behaving as though it's functioning, but it's not letting any traffic out and I couldn't connect to it. Well, it's several years old, so off I go to Best Buy in the snow to find a replacement. Thankfully I managed to find a Linksys Wireless/Wired router that wasn't too expensive, so now we have a wireless connection for when friends come over with their laptops. 

But that was my adventures of last night. At least I finally had an excuse to add wireless to my home network. Now my Wii can use the connection as well. 

GenCon registration is upon us once again. I'm looking forward to going this year. Maybe I can get my mother-in-law to babysit the little one so that my wife and I can go without trying to wheel her around. It was really surprising how many strollers we saw last year though.

Still have to make the final decision about how many days we're planning to go this year though. And whether or not we're going to try to get involved in events or costumes or anything like that. We'll see.

This is cross-posted from another blog. I wrote this entry last year around this time, but I think it's still a good one, so I'm reposting it here.

I was thinking the other day about how Christmas has changed for me over the years. I remember the days when I was a kid and would be up all night on Christmas Eve, unable to sleep because I was so excited about presents the next day. I have pictures of some of my first Christmases and I remember those toys. They were awesome.

Then came high school age and the wonder never really went away, but I was finally able to start buying presents for my family and I learned the joy that giving could bring. Still wasn't able to sleep.

Then came college and funds got tighter. Christmas was one of those holidays that I go from school and one of the few times during the year that I went home. Sleeping was no longer a problem. My siblings had to get me up on Christmas morning.

After college, Christmas began to lose some of its luster. The grind of everyday life really wears a person out. I still went home for Christmas, bought presents and everything, but it just wasn't the same. Maybe the modern world makes us jaded. The joy of the season lost in the rush and the normal day-to-day that preceeds Christmas itself. Or maybe it's just the abject wrongness of the world that kills the ability to feel joy. I'm not sure I know where to lay the blame. Maybe it resides with me personally.

After my daughter went to bed last night, my wife and I pulled out our pitiful fake tree and set it up. The balls that I bought when I bought the tree and the ornaments that she and I purchased last year were placed upon the tree and joining them was a cat ballerina with "2006" on it that we bought for our daughter's first Christmas. Once everything was in place, we plugged the tree lights up, set the to blink, turned off the room lights and TV and sat in the dark watching the lights blink. They cast colors on the wall, an alternating glow of red, green, and yellow, reminding me of everything that had been good about Christmas "once upon a time." And it was then that some thoughts that I had been having over the past week or so cemented for me. Here is what Christmas was about for me. My wife, my little girl, my family both immediate and extended, both in-laws and out-laws. As long as they're happy and have what they need, then I have what I need. It really is just as simple as that.

So have a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, find someone you love, tell them you love them and give them a hug. Whether you believe in the holiday's namesake or you believe it's just a festive time, the ones we love are still important. Make sure they know they're important to you.