My day started off with having to avoid a gaggle of old people who wanted me to accompany them to lunch. The phrase 'Uncle Leon is driving' should never be uttered by anyone. He's 88 and doesn't look when he pulls out into traffic anymore. Then my mom had this 'brilliant' idea and asked to borrow the GPS (or as she calls it, the GSP) so they could find the restaurant they wanted to go to without involving me. Like I'm going to send out my 200+ dollar electronic equipment with three seniors who have no idea how to use it. Yeahhhh... let me get right on that.

After escaping from that, my day removed remarkably. I'm still trying to beat this sinus infection (I have antibiotics on the way, that should help) so I'm mostly just lounging about. Nathan sent me a link to this NPR story about Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie, the Postal Service) and Jay Farrar (Son Volt) coming together and making an album based on Jack Kerouac's Big Sur. You can listen to the whole album there - it came out today supposedly. So I've been listening to it - it's quite good. The album is titled One Fast Move Or I'm Gone: Music From Kerouac's Big Sur.

Today I got kidnapped my mom and Joe to go to the Padre Pio shrine. It's kinda like a mini Catholic Disneyland. There's church music playing through loudspeakers, and this pyramid shaped enclave under which was a bronze statue of Padre Pio. The other statues around were all stone, and they had benches and such so you could sit and reflect or pray.

They had push button candles (no one would let me push the button) and plastic rosaries (was also not allowed to take one of these) . We did however visit the gift shack behind the place (it kinda looks like my shed) where one can purchase everything from holy water, to saint medallions and other such kitsch items. I got a Padre Pio coin for my coin collection.

No one appreciates my plan to sell holy water as blessed by Creepy Jesus (except for maybe Ron, but he suggested questionable ingredients the last time this came up). We have water, a shed and a statue! We could get bottles.

In short:

1) No one ever lets me play with any of the fun things.

2) All my good ideas get shot down.

I rode my bike with Ron today - I am up to being able to go around the long way (which is about two blocks?). Still not as good as I could do before getting sick, and I'm tired now - but it's progress!

When we got back, I noticed a little bit of green under the steps of the porch where we store our pots for plants. It turned out to be a plant, growing all by himself under there. We'd thrown the pot down there with the other pots when the plant died last year. Well, this year he decided to resurrect, apparently - surviving on whatever water and light got through to him down there. I brought the plant out and repotted him nicely, and put him on the porch with our other plants. Welcome back to life, little guy.

Yesterday started off well enough - we went with a friend to Adventure Aquarium and had a good time. It was very tiring, even though I was in a wheelchair for most of the experience. I still don't have the strength back from my prolonged illness, and it was better just to accept defeat ahead of time instead of becoming completely exhausted and collapsing halfway through. For those who are planning on going there - please do yourself a favor and buy your tickets online. The line for buying at the tickets at the window stretched around the block. The Will Call line for picking up tickets purchased online had five people in it. No joke. Fortunately our friend had her work laptop with her, which has one of those aircard thingys - so we were able to use it to order tickets right there in the parking lot. We even got a special deal where we got meal vouchers included. Then we sauntered on up to the Will Call line and got in right away.

The aquarium's nice - I haven't been there since my kids were fairly small. They no longer have a package deal where you can go to the battleship/children's garden/aquarium all at once - now they just offer a package for battleship and aquarium or aquarium and ride the ducks. Not that we wanted to do a package deal right then anyhow, but it's a shame because my kids always liked the children's garden when they were small and now they don't package with the aquarium at all so even though it's right there, it's a separate admission.

They have some beautiful fish at the aquarium- and other animals too. We got to see hippos, penguins, and birds in addition to the sea creatures. You can take a virtual tour on their website if you want to see.

We have some pictures up here - still have to put them in a proper album.

Bad news was that when we got home, we got a call from the police that they had arrested my son. It's an incredibly long and stupid story as to what he was actually doing, but it was definitely not what I needed to come home to deal with. After a very long and annoying station visit, we finally got to go home. Then they called me again not an hour later, saying they had Steve's bike and I had to come and pick that up! I was thoroughly exhausted at that point, and was fortunately able to get them to drop it off at the house instead. So his bike got a police escort home, heh. That's really the only amusing part of that whole story - and now I'm going to have to go to court with him at some point in the future. Hopefully they will give him some community service and 'stop being stupid' advice, and not fine him because since he is a minor guess who that means has to pay the fine for his stupidity? God I can't wait until he's 18. 13 months to go on that, and yes I am looking forward to the day when he, like his sisters, is responsible for his own dumb actions and I no longer have to be.

Today I was still relatively exhausted, but I needed some things from the store. I wound up losing my grip on a gallon of milk, which I dropped onto the floor - very embarrassing. Unsurprisingly, my blood pressure is up again, new medication or no - and my anxiety levels are through the roof as well. Am spending the rest of today resting, and hopefully I will get no phone calls telling me any more bad news.

Oh, and joy - there is some sort of foul smell in my bedroom here (likely a lost stinky sock that didn't make it into the laundry, or some other such) that I can't quite locate. And I'm way too tired to tear the place apart and track it down. Febreze it is.

For those of you who don't know, let me preface this by saying that I am the significantly younger sibling of two older brothers (I'm 39, they're in their mid-fifties). At various times during my life, I have looked up to these guys - wanted to tag along with them, wanted to do the things that they are doing and so on. I still most of the time think they're pretty cool - Joe's a nice guy who's good at fixing all kinds of things , and Ron's really knowledgeable about local history. They're usually there for me when I need them, and they're good brother to have.

And then there's days I'd like to smack one of them.

Yesterday brother Joe called from Virginia and we had a nice conversation about Woodstock's 40th anniversary (we'd both watched the same special), his church, the political state of our country and so forth. It was really nice. We discussed things and no one got all pissy or anything- it was all pleasant conversations. Let's call this - GOOD BROTHER TIME. See, that is how I like to spend time with my brothers - talking about something pleasant, having nice calm conversation and so on.

Then today I spent time with Ron. This time included him giving me the assbackwards directions to get somewhere (No, really, I said turn RIGHT. No. No You didn't, hence why I went the other way) and trying to tell me that he should have a user account on my mom's laptop so he could 'see his computer at home and show her stuff.' IDEK how he thinks that is supposed to work, but let me tell you I was annoyed when he started telling me that I didn't know what I was talking about and that we're 'denying mom access to things' (We have her laptop set up with a limited user account with us having the admin so she can enjoy without having to worry about breaking things). Also? Aus and I BOUGHT mom that laptop for her birthday, to the tune of 500 dollars. Ron kicked in .... nothing. No, he does not get to have a user account, and even if he did ... it wouldn't work for what he was trying to do anyhow!! Argh.

He has a laundry list of things he wants me and Aus to come over and fix on his computer - and there is a reason why! Because he does not KNOW WHAT HE iS DOING when he uses it. This does not mean I am going to let him have unlimited access to do stupid things with mom's laptop. It's bad enough that kids try to hijack it every so often. The laptop is for mom, period. When my laptop broke down, I didn't even BORROW hers, because it's HER LAPTOP. Grrrr. Let's just call today BAD BROTHER TIME.

(Note that the blood pressure being all crazy means I have even-less-patience than I usually do for dealing with this, so I may be more annoyed that I would have otherwise been. But still!)

I have noticed a common denominator in the people I am related to. No, I won't say abject stupidity - though it is tempting at times. It's that they just don't listen. Communication is a foreign concept to them.

My brother called this morning blathering on about the historical society website being 'down and banning him' or some such. As it was morning and I was sleeping, I wasn't particularly inclined to care. My mother took the message and I told her I'd look into it later in the day and email him, but there was a 95% chance that it was something he'd done and not an actual problem.

As the day rolled around, I had about an hour to rest a while before leaving to pick up Aus from work. As I have had a migraine and cramps for like the past four days, I was looking forward to a nice rest. "I don't want to be bothered," I told my mom. "If someone calls - especially Ron - just tell them I'll get back to them later. Okay?" "Okay!" she says, and goes about her merry way cleaning things or reading or whatever it is she does for entertainment. I put on some good music. Stretch out, get comfy. Consider doing some writing. Ahh, comfort. Sounds good, right? Wrong. No more than five minutes later, I hear...

"LAURA! ITS FOR YOU!" followed by banging on my door. Incredulous, I call back "Yeah, well... tell them I'll call back later." I kinda hope she's not getting senile or anything because... didn't I just say something about not wanting to be bothered? Oh maybe I hallucinated that or something. Well whatever, now she has the message for sure right, so I settled back down. About two seconds later...

"ITS RON. HE NEEDS TO TALK TO YOU. ABOUT THE WEBSITE."

Well fuck yeah he thinks he does. We've already been over this too. I still don't feel particularly inclined to care - especially since this is unpaid volunteer work and is in fact COSTING ME MONEY as I am paying for the hosting and domain. This does not imply I also want to answer stupid tech support questions that can be handled over email just as easily, especially when I have about an hour to rest and my head is pounding like a bass drum.

I took the phone, said... "I'll email you." and hung it up.

Then my mom was bitching at me for being unhelpful, AND he called back. Communication. We can has it now?

Being as I am observant enough to now realize that they are not going away until I handle yet another of their 'omg it is such an emergency!' problems, I take the phone and snarl "What can you possibly want that can't wait?" into it.

Ron informs me that 'The website is broken' because he can't get it to 'let him upload a picture.'

I asked for details of what he was trying to do. He was trying to access the gallery... which he's never set up an account for... to put pictures into it. Never mind that we haven't even built the albums yet and it's nowhere near time for that.


He couldn't understand why he couldn't type in 'ron' and some random word for the password and get into the gallery to upload pictures.

I'm like 'That's because you're not registered. Stupid.'

So now we have to register him because he 'doesn't understand' and says he thinks he's banned from the gallery for making too many attempts at stupidly entering an invalid name.

Imagine the internet like a forest. He's the bear lumbering around through the trees trampling saplings and shitting on things.

This is what I deal with here.

Apparently Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett died today. Both were pretty much iconic figures - I remember having Charlie's Angels dolls as a kid, and in the 80s when the Thriller music video was a sensational hit having a Michael Jackson style jacket. Farrah had cancer and died after a long struggle - she made a documentary about it that was supposedly very moving (I haven't seen it). Michael Jackson... well. What can you say about the freakish turn of his life that hasn't already been said? I still don't understand why everyone gets so emotional about the death of celebrities. Three radio stations on the way home were playing Michael Jackson songs, and earlier the Beatles break on another local station was dedicated in part to Farrah. What did Farrah have to do with the Beatles? Nothing, but she died today and they had a show so good enough. What a circus.

I have spent the past couple of days helping my brother, who needed to go to the hospital with bad shoulder and neck pain. They were worried he might be having a heart attack and ran all sorts of tests. Turns out he has bursitis, and he's doing okay today thanks to the magic healing powers of steroids and percoset. The hospital formerly known as Kessler (now Atlanti Care) is at least cleaner then Kessler was and has some new furnishings. They've taken away the depressing beg for money while you are forced to see repetitive stories of children dying horribly while you wait St. Jude commercial tv, which is definitely a bonus. The wait time however, is atrocious. It was bad enough at Kessler, but Atlanti Care suffered from a distinct lack of beds and staff. There was one doctor on duty, and maybe six beds in the emergency room that I could see? People were waiting for upwards of three hours just to get in. The doctor on call was very competent and nice when we did finally get in there though. But the sheer amount of suffering going on, with people moaning and children screaming, was horrific. I felt like I was at a field hospital, surrounded by the broken and bleeding and dying. It was really not a happy night.

With me I had Joe Jackson's book, a A Cure For Gravity. If you do not know who Joe Jackson is (hint: not Michael's father), remedy this fact immediately and have a listen to his newest album Rain. The book is his autobiography (the first twenty-five years or so anyhow) and a witty discourse on the nature of music and our relationship with it. Great book, great musician. Gave me something to think about when I definitely needed that.

Went out to lunch with my aunt and uncle today, and my uncle was listening to conservative talk radio. One of the things that they were going on about was how 2010 is a census year, and how the census is a horrible invasion of our privacy and what the hidden agendas to census data are and so forth.

I also read about PETA being all up in arms about Obama killing a fly. They even sent him a 'humane fly trap' so the flies could be caught and released or some shit.

The things people concern themselves with are amazing to me. What about the situation in Iran? What about the economy? Let's take all this wasted time and energy that people seem to have going on for Things That Don't Matter, and apply it to positive, helpful things.

Like this -

The National Bone Marrow Registry is in the middle of a "Marrowthon" where it's no cost to register. FREE! How cool is that? You get to possibly save a life AND it doesn't cost you anything! Go NOW to http://www.marrow.org and see if you meet the health requirements. Unfortunately I do not so I can't sign up, but YOU might be able to so please check it out. This is a very real need and a positive thing you can do, and it's free. Also please spread the word about this in your journal or on your Facebook to get other folks to register.

Today I am thirty-nine.

So far I went to lunch, played a couple of games of apples to apples with my mom and brother, and lounged on the porch a while doing my jigsaw puzzle. There has also been an ongoing birthday cheesecake, so it's been a pretty good weekend overall.

Haven't felt up to writing much, been kind of depressed and dealing with family drama.

All three kids have currently moved out - which on the one hand is a big relief as they are the cause of so much stress. On the other hand, it is disappointing how much they are pretty much wasting their lives and going nowhere. But they are old enough now that what consequences they face as a result are on their own. I tried as much as I can and now it's up to them to either fix their problems and get on with their lives or continue sliding downward.

My brother is currently visiting from Virginia, which is nice. He'll be here until June 10th.

This Saturday's is my mother's 80th birthday party. My birthday is June 13th and I'll be 39. Time flies!

I've been enjoying playing a game called Kitten Sanctuary. Very cute and fun. Cats get kidnapped by aliens and you have to rescue them and take care of them in a kitten sanctuary.



EDITED TO ADD:
Have spread the Kitten Sanctuary addiction to Aus, Jess, and Nathan. Muaha...

Nathan: Oh, unrelatedly, kitten-stealing aliens are cockbags, and don't let them tell you otherwise.
Aus:Well, yes, they are. They're tentacle monsters and they want pussy. What do you expect?

Expensive week here at the Cushing house - have to pay the balance of the shed on Monday, and just bought a Roomba for mom for mother's day. Also my grill died - so I wound up getting a super George Forman grill thingy with timer and removable plates and adjustable broiler etc. because we use it so often (grilled meat for the win!) that it's really worth paying a bit extra for the features. Still, spending over 2000 dollah in the space of about seven days is a little intimidating, even when you do actually have the money saved for it and it is (with the exception of the grill which died suddenly) all planned for.

Oddly enough, my old laptop sort of resurrected itself (idk either - zombie electronics ftw?) and my new laptop is having some Vista-related dysfunction. So we've gone from one completely functional laptop to two semi-functional ones. So it goes.

I have not yet started reading Geek Love, as I was intending to finish up Widow of the South first - then got re-distracted by some of my German books (which are non-fiction accounts of various WWII topics that I can only read a bit at a time because they're heavy subject matter). So... eventually I will start reading that.

The circus is coming to town - there's Ringling Brothers in Philly at the spectrum and Cole brothers right in Vineland as far as smaller shows go. Both are show dates within the next couple of weeks, so if I want to go to one or both I would have to figure it out soon. Major problems with the one in philly - driving and parking. Major problems with the one in Vineland - probably bad bleacher seating that'll pretty much kill my back. So... worth it, not worth it? I love the circus, and have a character driven interest to see a show up close and personal to boot - but it may be too much trouble logistically speaking.

Speaking of shows, have not heard back from Adam regarding guest listing for B52's / The 88 on Saturday. I may have waited too long to drop him the reminder email - or maybe he'll still get back to me. We shall see. I just hate not knowing until the last minute what to plan for.

The illustrious mister Nathan sent me Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of all time (book) so I am going to make it my new project to listen to all five hundred albums and give my opinions of them. Am considering doing this as a separate blog, vs just putting them here, vs making a community for them. Might also find the albums and host them somewhere for DLs, or link to them streaming from imeem so other people can listen and give their opinions too. Thoughts? Anyone interested in playing along if I make it a separate community?

There has been little I've had to say lately, and part of that I suppose comes from the dullness of the routine - the back and forth a million times a day driving kids and husband and mother to where they need to go. It is very easy now to lose track of individual days, sometimes even weeks go by and I make no tracking of one day as any different from any other.

Today something happened.

Jeanette had a seizure outside her workplace, just as we were pulling up in fact to pick her up for a doctor's appointment (she hadn't been feeling well). She was lying there convulsing on the ground surrounded by her co-workers, and there was a sort of surrealism to it like sound and sight and all just spiraled and distorted. There is just something that happens when you see your child lying there on the ground and you think about when they were born and how this might be the last moment you will see them and all the things you fight about seem petty and insignificant. There are a lot of times when I do not like how the kids are right now, these teenage years and their attitudes of entitlement and how they are often rather belligerent and self-centered. But still, there is the hope that you will have years beyond these times in which things can balance and normalize and at least get back to some semblance of the affection you had for each other in younger years.

And in a moment you wonder if you have lost that chance forever, and then she comes out of it and you release a breath you didn't realize you were holding and you will know that you love this child no matter what shitty things she says to you on a nearly continual basis because that is just the way of things.

My father died as the weather was turning warm, as the flowers were starting to bloom and life was renewing itself. I always thought that a particularly ironic time to die, and at this time of year my thoughts ever turn to death and really I thought I would be more likely to be the one lying on the ground having a near-death because of all the problems I have. You never think it will be your child. Old people sure, you expect it somewhat, and when you are sickly yourself you kind of think about the possibility. But not a kid, not you kid.

It's like that.

Nathan visited us for a few days last week. That was really nice. I went to the Bus Stop Cafe, and my friend Joey was performing there and asked me to come up and read one of my poems during his set and I did with him and his friends providing background music. That was really nice. There have been some good times, some points of light. I am writing a lot. I am still working on my German (plucking away at the new language, word by word). We have purchased our shed and it will be on the way soon and we have a sort of business plan.

Hanging in there, though sometimes it's a lot more 'hang' and a lot less 'in'.

Tomorrow's agenda includes finding a neurologist then figuring out how we're going to pay for one.

Stopped by Goodwill today and picked up some interesting books - primarily WWII/ Holocaust stuff, but also some other things. I might write the list down later when I get home if I feel like it, but I am not so inclined at the moment as I am about to run and eat dinner before going to the history society meeting. The speaker this month is something about vineyards and local farming that I may or may not find interesting. I am more interested in seeing if my brother remembers the pledge of allegiance because he keeps effing it up and it's funny. Now that he's the society president, he has to get up there and lead us. And I tell you, he is leading us into DISASTER! Not that I say the pledge - I have pledged not to say the pledge until my country is again a place I can be proud of, which I do not see occuring for some time yet. Perhaps it is on the way.

I am still ill with this sinus malady, but I am managing.

I may perhaps be in the LJ anthology book - they sent me a kind note about it a while ago, and I gave them my five favorite entries. Found out yesterday they chose one as a finalist - it will either be in the book itself, or receive an 'honorable mention'. I do not know which yet, but I think that is rather nice. Speaking of journal, I have to decorate this one for spring soon.

A little inventory of how my life is going right now...


( Cut for TMI medical crap and bitching )

In short, for those who didn't want to read the TMI section - I'm fucking miserable and I hate everything right now.

Valentine's day was nice, but I was sick so it was a little hard to enjoy as much as I would have liked. I got Aus a nice jacket and some boxer shorts (Family Guy, South Park, Scarface, and Mario, hehe) and some candy. He got me a singing card (it plays My Girl), candy, and a stuffed animal. He also said he is going to get me satellite radio when we can afford it (because I keep complaining about how the radio around here sucks, hah).

Today the sinus problem I have been having got so bad I went to the emergency room - they gave me a cat scan and sure enough, I have sinusitis - they're pretty much all plugged up, too. Like every sinus cavity I have? Not functioning. I have to take three weeks of antibiotics, and they gave me vicodin for the pain. I have an appointment with my doctor on Thursday. They also said my blood pressure was up. I need to drink lots of fluids (overhydrate, they said) and said I should get plenty of rest (hah! around here? Not likely).

Now Aus, being a good husband, called work and asked if he could work from home for the next couple of days so I wouldn't have to drive and so he could look after me. His work agreed to that, so yay.

Jeanette, being the spoiled brat that she is, screamed and bitched about how I wasn't really 'that sick!' and and I 'better be taking her to work in the morning because oh my god who cares what you need!' There are times when I really dislike the people I gave birth to an awful lot. I really hope they grow out of it to be nice people someday - but sadly I am getting less and less sure that will ever happen. They're really not pleasant to live with at all, hardly ever now - the older they get, the more unpleasant they get. The girls are 18 now (as they remind us on a continual basis usually followed by 'so I don't have to listen to you' followed by some expletive), so you think they'd be acting in a more adult manner. When I was 18, I had a job down at the casino and I was working 40 hours plus overtime, and getting myself to work. They.. hang around, mooch, borrow money for cigarettes when they blow through their paychecks, are grateful for nothing and fight with each other and us on a near continual basis. Very stressful and definitely not helpful in the current situation at all.

I have been ravenously hungry and I feel like no matter how much I drink, it isn't enough. Probably from my body trying to fight this off.

It's not even ten o'clock, and already I want to kill at least two three people.

This whole being more patient with humanity resolution? Not really working out.

Of course, if I didn't STILL have an irritating houseguest and if teenagers weren't such obnoxious little shits by nature, maybe I would feel more benevolently inclined.

I have a new laptop - well, a refurbished laptop - but it's a nice one - to replace the one I had that was on its last legs. This laptop is pretty nice- and surprisingly, I'm enjoying Vista. No complaints so far at any rate.

My niece is still staying with us, with no signs of when she might go back to VA. I wouldn't mind this so much if I didn't hear her up half the night in the room right next to ours - which is very difficult when we have to get up for the morning. Also, the room is our daughter Brenda's room and she's getting upset - especially since Jolene has moved all her things into Brenda's drawers where Brenda's things used to be. Visitors are nice... for a day or two. Maybe three? This is entering week two.

I am considering reading poetry again. It's like life is shoving me in that direction - first, my friend Bryan messaged and told me about this open mic night at Bogart's - then the very next day, Joey was telling me about the same exact thing and urging me to try that and some of the other mics he goes to. Granted, he's a singer/songwriter/guitarist - but he knows a lot of poets and some of the mics are for both so... it could work. It seems like he's also willing to give me rides with him from time to time to get to them, which would be nice at least at first so I can learn where they are at. I can't believe I'm even considering opening up this whole can of worms again, but there you go. It was nice to get to catch up with Joey though- to explain a little about who he is for those who havent' been keeping track, I've known him all my life. My brother's best friend since like - third grade or something like that? Basically, he's like family to me. I loves Joey, but I haven't really sat down and talk-talked to him for quite a while. And he played some of his music for me, and wow, is he good these days! So it'll be nice to get to see him perform too. Maybe I'll bring my video camera and do some taping - I need to get back to working on my columns on a regular basis anyhow. I am still wary about the whole business.

Got my 'payment' for the comic scripts today. Let's just leave that at that.

We walked around Batsto a few days ago, when the weather was warm - always been one of my favorite places to think about things. I have put some of my thoughts into order, at least, if nothing else. There is much to be done, if I choose to do it. We shall see.

Aus and I went out for a walk today at Batsto. We have pictures up here on Gather, and I made a new icon from one.




We have to get up at ass o'clock on the morning tomorrow - Aus is returning to work for the dude he's been working for, who finally has more work for him (Longggg holiday break, not that we minded). Who knows how many days this week or next? We shall see.

My brother Joe's coming to visit from VA this weekend (Friday I think?) and my brother Ron wants me and Aus to go over his place this weekend to fix a computer problem and help clip his dog (the three pound terrible terrier). Not much else planned this week, other than needing to finish up and post my column.

Today my brother Joe came down from Virgina - he's only staying through the weekend, but still good to get to see him for a while. Today we had italian buffet at Marcello's and played Scrabble. I also rode my bike with my other brother Ron.

This cold has me pretty run down - have way fallen behind on NaNo. I need to try and make up for lost time over the weekend especially.

I finished Ordinary Heroes - it was very good! Lots of surprises, all the way up to the end. Now I need to re-read The Secret Life of Bees for the next installment of the Gather Book Club.

I need to try and make tomorrow a writing day. I'm still ahead of the game, but the past few days have been non-productive and I don't want to fall behind on things. I am 29% done, so I can't give up now!

Some stressful things with the kids going on that I don't really want to get into right now because thinking about it will only make me upset again.

I also seem to have caught a cold from my brother, which is making me feel all run down.

Tomorrow though, I will find time to write! Los of writing goodness will occur. Or

14266 / 50000 words. 29% done!

I picked up a new game for my DS - Mystery Case Files: Millionheir . Only twenty bucks, not a bad deal. I've played and enjoyed the Mystery Case Files series on the PC, so I was looking forward to trying this one. It's pretty sweet. Makes use of a lot of capacities of the DS, and has some nice touches - like when you use the x-rayer to search for clues and you run it over a cat or dog or some such, you see their skeleton. It's a nice distraction for my stress.

I'm also reading a book called Ordinary Heroes by Scott Turow - about a son who looks into his father's WWII record and finds an amazing story. It's neat as it is told in both the present time from the son's perspective, and in the past when the father was young and in the war. What the geek in me really likes is that they even set a different typeface for the father's sections and the son's. Not glaringly obvious (my mother didn't notice when she read the book) but I noticed, and thought it a good technique.

charloft is going well, I think. Lots of people having lots of fun. I am answering a lot of the prompts for heil_hans my immortal ex-Nazi who is eating my brain at the moment, and so_necromantic my necromancer / Nano main character.