A Busy Weekend
Sep. 18th, 2013 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aThis weekend was busy, though not surprisingly so. That was mainly due to a very welcome visit from my dad, my sister Melody, and her fiancé Jared.
The busyness started out Saturday morning, because I wanted to get our front yard a bit cleaned up before the visit. So I managed to drain a full battery on our weed wacker and still wasn't finished. I did the same on Sunday morning, at which time I decided things were good enough. It was about an hour of work each day.
The benefit of early morning(ish) yard work is that it's cool and I can shower afterward to get the smell (and itchiness!) of grass and other foliage off of me. The downside is that it really helps to fill the day, as I get up and immediately start working.
Anyway, the front yard wasn't embarrassingly messy when the family visited. Kind of an ironic thing to spend energy on, mind you, because the main reason my dad has been flying out to San Jose these last couple of years ... is to spend time doing yardwork at Jared and Melody's house.
On Monday I was still a little sore from the yardwork, as seems to always be the case. Clearly there are some muscles I need to work on, that I use when working in the yard.
I knew I was going to need downtime for the weekend, so on Saturday I went up to Lake Temescal and spent 2 or 3 hours writing. I first-drafted three DnDClassics articles (which I'd already prepared notes for and outlined), which made it a very productive afternoon.
The sky was a little gray when I got there, but had cleared up by the time I left. Fortunately my favorite picnic at Lake Temescal, which is usually empty even on a medium-busy day (like Saturday) is heavily shaded. So I got some sunshine and some beautiful lake views, while relaxing in the shade and writing.
In the evening, after I got home and had dinner, I worked on Designers & Dragons. I'm currently writing out my fifth new '00s article, on Burning Wheel. Once I'm done with research and get the writing stage, I usually try to write out a section a night (and that's typically 1000 words, plus or minus). Thus on Saturday I wrote about Burning Wheel up through its Classic release and on Sunday I wrote about Crane's joining the indie community and the game's Revised release. Monday night was planned for Burning Empires, and Tuesday night for Crane's work for other publishers; I actually finished my first draft of the article (including the fifth and final section) last night, in advance of my busy part of the week ... and just in time, as I now have a complete layout of the '70s books to look at.
My dad, Melody, and Jared visited on Sunday in the early afternoon. We talked for a while, then we had lunch at the restaurant formerly known as Mario's La Fiesta, then we talked for a while.
This was actually the first time I've eaten at "Remy's" since the ownership change. I was previously driven away by their blaring migraine-inducing sports TVs. This time, Kimberly pointed out that they had a patio where we could sit that was further from the blaring TVs. We discovered they also had a potentially-blaring TV on the patio, but it was turned off. Thus, this was a good compromise, and allowed for pleasant dining.
The downside of the meal was huge stinginess over chips, which was kinda weird. The waitress kept bringing out small wooden bowls that were less than half full. We just kept asking for more. The upside was pleasantly discovering that the quality of the food had gone up (except, apparently for some fish). They also have more and more modern stuff on their menu now -- like that aforementioned fish and portabello mushrooms, for example. I had a great half-a-quesadilla and a good portabello taco.
The talking was nice -- as much quiet shooting the breeze as discussion of anything important. It was kinda weird hearing my dad mention a few things that gone on last time he was out here, a year ago. Apparently our downstairs bathroom was mostly deconstructed at that time, and we hadn't yet put in the new windows. That is so far gone in our lives, before Kimberly got sick and sicker, before we lost our last older cat, and before we Callisto. But it's the weird serialized interaction we now have with my dad, where we visit him once a year and (thus far) he visits us once a year.
In any case, it was a nice day, though a long one. I think they visited for six hours all said and done. Kimberly & I considered dinner afterward, but were still full from Remy's, so just had ice cream for "snack" a bit later.
And proof of continued busyness? It took me days to write this!
In other news: winter is coming. Very sad. I did some finishing work on my "Burning Wheel" article last night, again at Lake Temescal, and found it getting dark way too early. Sad.
The busyness started out Saturday morning, because I wanted to get our front yard a bit cleaned up before the visit. So I managed to drain a full battery on our weed wacker and still wasn't finished. I did the same on Sunday morning, at which time I decided things were good enough. It was about an hour of work each day.
The benefit of early morning(ish) yard work is that it's cool and I can shower afterward to get the smell (and itchiness!) of grass and other foliage off of me. The downside is that it really helps to fill the day, as I get up and immediately start working.
Anyway, the front yard wasn't embarrassingly messy when the family visited. Kind of an ironic thing to spend energy on, mind you, because the main reason my dad has been flying out to San Jose these last couple of years ... is to spend time doing yardwork at Jared and Melody's house.
On Monday I was still a little sore from the yardwork, as seems to always be the case. Clearly there are some muscles I need to work on, that I use when working in the yard.
I knew I was going to need downtime for the weekend, so on Saturday I went up to Lake Temescal and spent 2 or 3 hours writing. I first-drafted three DnDClassics articles (which I'd already prepared notes for and outlined), which made it a very productive afternoon.
The sky was a little gray when I got there, but had cleared up by the time I left. Fortunately my favorite picnic at Lake Temescal, which is usually empty even on a medium-busy day (like Saturday) is heavily shaded. So I got some sunshine and some beautiful lake views, while relaxing in the shade and writing.
In the evening, after I got home and had dinner, I worked on Designers & Dragons. I'm currently writing out my fifth new '00s article, on Burning Wheel. Once I'm done with research and get the writing stage, I usually try to write out a section a night (and that's typically 1000 words, plus or minus). Thus on Saturday I wrote about Burning Wheel up through its Classic release and on Sunday I wrote about Crane's joining the indie community and the game's Revised release. Monday night was planned for Burning Empires, and Tuesday night for Crane's work for other publishers; I actually finished my first draft of the article (including the fifth and final section) last night, in advance of my busy part of the week ... and just in time, as I now have a complete layout of the '70s books to look at.
My dad, Melody, and Jared visited on Sunday in the early afternoon. We talked for a while, then we had lunch at the restaurant formerly known as Mario's La Fiesta, then we talked for a while.
This was actually the first time I've eaten at "Remy's" since the ownership change. I was previously driven away by their blaring migraine-inducing sports TVs. This time, Kimberly pointed out that they had a patio where we could sit that was further from the blaring TVs. We discovered they also had a potentially-blaring TV on the patio, but it was turned off. Thus, this was a good compromise, and allowed for pleasant dining.
The downside of the meal was huge stinginess over chips, which was kinda weird. The waitress kept bringing out small wooden bowls that were less than half full. We just kept asking for more. The upside was pleasantly discovering that the quality of the food had gone up (except, apparently for some fish). They also have more and more modern stuff on their menu now -- like that aforementioned fish and portabello mushrooms, for example. I had a great half-a-quesadilla and a good portabello taco.
The talking was nice -- as much quiet shooting the breeze as discussion of anything important. It was kinda weird hearing my dad mention a few things that gone on last time he was out here, a year ago. Apparently our downstairs bathroom was mostly deconstructed at that time, and we hadn't yet put in the new windows. That is so far gone in our lives, before Kimberly got sick and sicker, before we lost our last older cat, and before we Callisto. But it's the weird serialized interaction we now have with my dad, where we visit him once a year and (thus far) he visits us once a year.
In any case, it was a nice day, though a long one. I think they visited for six hours all said and done. Kimberly & I considered dinner afterward, but were still full from Remy's, so just had ice cream for "snack" a bit later.
And proof of continued busyness? It took me days to write this!
In other news: winter is coming. Very sad. I did some finishing work on my "Burning Wheel" article last night, again at Lake Temescal, and found it getting dark way too early. Sad.
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Date: 2013-09-18 07:13 pm (UTC)