Current mood:	tired
Current music:	"Blame It On Your Heart", Patty Loveless

Checking back in (or, "where the hell have *you* been?)

Yes, I know, I've been quiet for several months.  Well, the past few months haven't been quiet.

Back in May, the stepmother of my Lovely Bride passed away, after a multi-year battle with cancer.  She had not been doing well for some time, and so it wasn't a surprise, but it was still a crushing blow.

At about the same time, my own mother learned that her breast cancer, which had been in remission for over a decade, had recurred.  She had surgery, and is now on a short chemo course, but the doctors are confident that they caught it early, and her prognosis is good.

Then, just a couple of weeks ago, the wife of one of the players in our Friday night D&D group passed away.  She'd been sick for a couple of months, and we knew that it was serious, but it was still quite sudden.

And, the Client From Hell continues to make my life interesting here at the office.  My boss has promised that they're going to get me moved off of this account, but it hasn't happened yet.  Waiting with bated breath...

In more upbeat news...

I went to Origins last weekend.  It's the annual chance for our online gaming group to get together face-to-face, to visit and play together.  I mostly played Living Arcanis (my poor Beltinian empathic healer is really messed up in the head after the weekend's events), and Witch Hunter (a new game, by the folks who do Arcanis, set in 17th-century Colonial America, and sort of like Living Death in theme).  Between Origins, and the Last Weekend in Verbobonc Livign Greyhawk convention the previous weekend, I think I played in 17 games, and DMed 6, over the course of 21 days.  

The Lovely Bride and I went to a concert last night -- Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, and Steve Winwood.  I like both of them quite a bit, though I'd never been a huge fan of either...but the concert was great.  Powerful energy, they played almost all of the songs I really wanted to hear, and they both sounded great.

Our office closes any minute now, for the long weekend, but I've got two more projects to finish, so I may be stuck here for a little while. :-(