VIII. Unremarkable

The last couple of months have been very busy and yet remarkably, well, remarkably unremarkable. Or at least is seems that way right now as I wrack my brain for interesting tidbits. :)

I posted awhile back on Martin Miscellany about T.J.'s game. It has been fun to hear him talk about the game from conception and see it come together into a soon-to-be-published game. I've played versions along the way but I'm eager to play the completed version!

Last week marked one of the more successful meetings of Pemberley Library, a book group I started earlier this year. This was really exciting because our numbers had dramatically fallen over the summer and I was beginning to wonder if the group wasn't going to work out. We've been reading all of Jane Austen's books in order of publication and our October gathering will be our last Jane Austen discussion. I'm looking forward to choosing new books and to accomplishing my personal goal of reading all of Jane Austen's books this year. Thank you everyone for making our September gathering a success!

I've been playing more World of Warcraft with T.J. lately and my second character finally reached the level cap! This is very exciting because Blizzard just announced the release date of the next WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, so now I can feel prepared. (Ha! That last statement is sort of WoW humorous on its own. You'd have to watch the cinematic intro for the last WoW expansion, Burning Crusade, to understand.) For me, WoW is a social event. I very rarely play on my own. It is a way for T.J. and I to keep in touch with friends that we wouldn't otherwise get to frequently hang out with (Hannah!) and we've met some pretty cool people online too. Playing WoW has netted a number of online friends and a few have even turned into real life friends (it also got us a very memorable private tour of the USS Nebraska, a Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine). You hear a lot of negative feedback about World of Warcraft and that does make sense in some respects. People overdo it. And WoW does have an addictive element. But, in our situation it has just led to a lot of fun. We're not neglecting kids or spouse so it works for us!

Last Friday I took half the day off (well, kinda, unfortunately I still put in more than 40 hours last week) to hang out with a friend on her birthday. We've both been so busy that we hadn't hung out in awhile so it was great to get together and talk and go to a movie and just spend some time together. Happy birthday again Tressa!

I've been looking for something to challenge me and restart my creative talents. In an effort to kick start this I've signed up for a couple of night classes at BCC this fall. I'll be taking a class on using Adobe Photoshop (yay! photo editing!) and a class on "Composition and Typography" (this class has a delicious list of required supplies...I love an excuse to buy office supplies). I'm taking the latter class with my friend Laura so it'll be a great way to spend some time with her--don't get to see her enough since she and her husband and baby moved out-of-town! I'm also planning to attend a writer's retreat with the wifes of two of my cousins. I'm hoping it'll inspire me to get back into creative writing.

I really need to find my SD card reader. Or just go buy a new one. Posts without pictures aren't nearly as fun as posts with pictures!

P.S. My sister, Kimberly, has started her own blog! Hooray!