2014: Stress, Rain, Gaming, Partying
Feb. 9th, 2014 07:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aI haven't been writing here lately because life = stress. Most of this is work related, having to do with some problems that we're (hopefully) in the process of fixing, but still it's not very pleasant at the moment.
Part of this has to do with changing over everyone's health insurance to a variety of non-group policies. There's annoying bureaucracy, annoying not-knowing-what's-going-on, and annoying worry about everyone getting policies straight by March 1.
I've been feeling on and off crappy for the last several days, but then I have moments like right now when I'm 100% fine. So I'm guessing stress & undiagnosed allergies. Bleh.
The rain is coming down outside for what's now our fifth consecutive day of rain. It's been fairly constant too. I'm used to getting a couple of hours of rain and that's a rainy day, but it's been raining lots and misting when it's not raining since Wednesday evening, with just a few breaks.
Before the rains we were at about 19% of our expected rain-to-date, which made it one of the worst drought years ev-ar. The latest report I saw says we're at 39% and it doesn't look like it's been updated today ... so that's some pretty significant rain we've seen in five days. And also: yay.
The rain has been mostly pleasant too. I've been out biking in it three times (going to Endgame on Wednesday, getting groceries on Friday, and getting some dinner tonight) and it's warm enough and not-hard-enough that it verges on nice. I wish we got more of these Hawaiian storms and less of those Alaskan storms.
Had an interesting RPG session on Saturday. The players caught me by surprise with their focus on overthrowing the ruler of a nearby country and so the whole session was played by ear ... and came off well, I thought. The best part was that there was no combat the whole time: just politics and roleplaying (and some kingdom building at the end).
Some of the players were surprised when I gave out experience at the end because there hadn't been combat, and I said, "But you got stuff done."
The Wiedlins were all in Berkeley last night for a joint birthday party for Jason & Lisa. I BARTed back from Endgame (after my RPG session) and just met everyone downtown. We ate at Le Regal, which is one of my favorite restaurants in Berkeley. Tasty Vietnamese food. (Jason & Lisa had been favorably impressed by a previous trip there.)
It was good seeing everyone, but oh was I tired by the end (after RPGing + partying + feeling so-so from the start).
I've been preparing for our yearly trip to Hawaii, which is a bright spot in the future (by which time stressful things will hopefully be better). Mostly this means piling up books for the plane and for the time there. I try to save some really great things for the trip so that it feels like a real treat.
Bookwise I have Michael Moorcock's Sailing to Utopia (for a project I'm working on), Ben Aaronovitch's Broken Homes, and Harry Connolly's Twenty Palaces. The last two should both be great — and I'll need to add a few more. Comicwise, I've got The Dresden Files: Ghoul Goblin, Fairest in all the Land, Powers: Bureau, Thor: God of Thunder, X-O Manowar Deluxe, Manhattan Projects Vol. 3, The Unwritten Vol. 8, and Nowhere Men. I might still "trade up" some of those if I come up with stuff that looks more exciting, but 8 books has been a good number in the past.
I am definitely looking forward to that trip. And March.
Part of this has to do with changing over everyone's health insurance to a variety of non-group policies. There's annoying bureaucracy, annoying not-knowing-what's-going-on, and annoying worry about everyone getting policies straight by March 1.
I've been feeling on and off crappy for the last several days, but then I have moments like right now when I'm 100% fine. So I'm guessing stress & undiagnosed allergies. Bleh.
The rain is coming down outside for what's now our fifth consecutive day of rain. It's been fairly constant too. I'm used to getting a couple of hours of rain and that's a rainy day, but it's been raining lots and misting when it's not raining since Wednesday evening, with just a few breaks.
Before the rains we were at about 19% of our expected rain-to-date, which made it one of the worst drought years ev-ar. The latest report I saw says we're at 39% and it doesn't look like it's been updated today ... so that's some pretty significant rain we've seen in five days. And also: yay.
The rain has been mostly pleasant too. I've been out biking in it three times (going to Endgame on Wednesday, getting groceries on Friday, and getting some dinner tonight) and it's warm enough and not-hard-enough that it verges on nice. I wish we got more of these Hawaiian storms and less of those Alaskan storms.
Had an interesting RPG session on Saturday. The players caught me by surprise with their focus on overthrowing the ruler of a nearby country and so the whole session was played by ear ... and came off well, I thought. The best part was that there was no combat the whole time: just politics and roleplaying (and some kingdom building at the end).
Some of the players were surprised when I gave out experience at the end because there hadn't been combat, and I said, "But you got stuff done."
The Wiedlins were all in Berkeley last night for a joint birthday party for Jason & Lisa. I BARTed back from Endgame (after my RPG session) and just met everyone downtown. We ate at Le Regal, which is one of my favorite restaurants in Berkeley. Tasty Vietnamese food. (Jason & Lisa had been favorably impressed by a previous trip there.)
It was good seeing everyone, but oh was I tired by the end (after RPGing + partying + feeling so-so from the start).
I've been preparing for our yearly trip to Hawaii, which is a bright spot in the future (by which time stressful things will hopefully be better). Mostly this means piling up books for the plane and for the time there. I try to save some really great things for the trip so that it feels like a real treat.
Bookwise I have Michael Moorcock's Sailing to Utopia (for a project I'm working on), Ben Aaronovitch's Broken Homes, and Harry Connolly's Twenty Palaces. The last two should both be great — and I'll need to add a few more. Comicwise, I've got The Dresden Files: Ghoul Goblin, Fairest in all the Land, Powers: Bureau, Thor: God of Thunder, X-O Manowar Deluxe, Manhattan Projects Vol. 3, The Unwritten Vol. 8, and Nowhere Men. I might still "trade up" some of those if I come up with stuff that looks more exciting, but 8 books has been a good number in the past.
I am definitely looking forward to that trip. And March.
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Date: 2014-02-10 09:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-11 08:24 pm (UTC)