03-23-99 I probably shouldn't type when I'm in a rotten mood, but I've been in a rotten mood for almost a week now so I might as well try and be productive about it. Where to start?  Well, the past week hasn't been TOO horribly sucky.  First on the 14th Scott took me out  on that date that was promised.  We went to my favorite Mongolian BBQ place for dinner and had a nice time.  I actually managed to clean my plate which is a rare occurrence for me.  From there we went to Rocky's Replay, a cool arcade with some of the latest arcade games.  They've brought back Gauntlet it seems.  First Scott and I played a shooter game called 'Carn-Evil'.  The premise is that its some kind of haunted carnival and you get to blow up evil clowns,  giant babies, flaming circus poodles, disgruntled zombie mutant carnies, that sort of thing.  The interestinging thing is that the plastic guns you used to shoot with weren't reloaded by shooting off the screen like most shooter games... instead the barrel had a 'pump' where you pumped in more ammo.  Not that more realistic, admittedly, but it was still fun. From there we went to the air hockey tables  where my husband was polite enough to let me win.  This was not deliberate I'm led to understand, but a good gesture is a good gesture nonetheless.  they also had a Star Wars arcade game which was some sort of advanced version of the older games back from the 80's.  Scott tried it a bit and became rather disgruntled that it cost three tokens for what amounted to thirty seconds of gameplay. We sat and watched some folks play through House of the Dead II.  The animation in it is waycool.  I'm impressed what people can do with polygons these days.  There was one baddie in armor who had light reflecting off the metal plates as he moved.  It looked next to realistic.  Another monster made splashes in the water and the movements of the water were realistic.  Oh yeah... it was also neat how all the zombies melted into puddles of bubbling blood when you killed them too. Scott and I blew our last few tokens on a robot fighting game and then hustled out to get some milkshakes.  We caught up on mail... and then concluded our date in the matter proper to a married couple but improper to describe here for public viewing. That following Monday (the 15th) I had to drive to my main office out  in Umatilla to set up the computers in my boss' office.  I dreaded the trip somewhat but wouldn't mind the extra day's pay and the little bit of cash my boss always gave me for 'gas money'.  Scott let me drive the new Camry since it's roomier and gets better gas mileage... and it has a CD player!  This turned out to be an extra blessing because when I stopped by the post office to check on the mail... ... My Neverhood soundtrack had come in!  Woohoo!!!  The CD seemed to cut the length of my trip in half, or simply made time go by twice as fast because it was such cool music.  I'd thought that it had been sold out but there it was in a nice little envelope.  I'll be getting another one in a few weeks I think from Stunt Records, whom I also ordered the soundtrack from.  When that comes in it'll be my loaner copy. Anyhow.  Two hours later I arrived in Umatilla.  My job was to show my boss how to archive his information off the hard drive and to set it up so that he did not have to use preprinted forms that had to be fed into the printer for his reports... but instead could just print the whole shebang out of Wordperfect.  I was able to do the latter... for the former I told him he'd need to get a tape drive. I didn't get out of the office until 5PM, and didn't get home until 7PM... annoyingly I was going to have to be at work the next day but it turned out that I wasn't needed for my evening roleplay obligations so just relaxed instead.  Work was hectic as usual that week, I managed to get my hands on the Final Fantasy Eight soundtrack on Thursday, and Friday night we were going to meet up with some furries from out of town for dinner and stuff but their plans had gone somewhat awry.  Murphy's law was in full force and we only met up with them after midnight.  We watched some Reboot, teased my cat, and everyone finally crept out around 2AM.  Some ill manners on the part of some of my guests had started grating on my nerves and I ended up staying up until about 4AM until I had wound down enough to sleep again. Saturday morning we met up with John to take his Tacoma (AKA the 'Ammocat') to the car repair place for some routine maintenance.  I'd gone to McDonalds to grab a quickie breakfast and one of John's cats, Zsofi, suddenly became my best friend as I tried to eat my Egg McMuffin.  Zsofi's 'sister', Bombay (they're not really related, they're just similar looking and were purchased together), snuck over to the  kitchen countertop and hid near the microwave until she was discovered by John.  Scott joined us and we went to Action Gator, a chain of car repair shops that do honest and good work.  From there we drove to Cooker and ate lunch... the restaurant was practically abandoned and we had half of it to ourselves. I drew while munching on my oddly seasoned ceaser salad and Scott and John talked about  guns.  Technically I own a gun myself, but I've never fired it and it was given to me as a present -- so I just sat and listened and doodled.  Later John was kind enough to finish my salad for me. We met Tim at the house and dropped John off at his own place (he lives only a few blocks away).  I was thrown back into my sour mood by finding a guestbook entry from my mother on my web page and promptly deleted it.  One of these days she'll get the picture that I don't want to talk to her again until she gets her schitzo problem dealt with, and no amount of pretending or blaming it on other things will change that.  I still think back to the letter she sent me in January where she blamed all her problems on other things and never took a shred of responsibility for herself.  I'd written a letter to respond but decided to hell with it.  She wouldn't listen  anyway.  I just pity my sister and stepdad for having to live near and deal with her all the time... all I have to bother with is sending her packages back or donating the junk she gives me to Goodwill.  My sister and Stepfather have to deal with her tantrums daily... and for Neal it's probably hourly.  Maybe when his heart explodes from the stress she dishes out on the guy she'll realize how good she had it. *sigh* Anyway... the guys left for the range and I was on my own.  I sat and worked up a gallery for my web page and started putting together some other bells and whistles.  I really want to get it completed soon.  Oddly the journal helps because I have to keep it up and maintain it.  the ranting section gives me an outlet to write, and the rest.. well... it's just stuff I wanted to express.  I like to share cool stuff I  find with folks. Speaking of cool stuff, Eric Blumrich loved the copy of Zork: Nemesis I sent him.  I knew he would.  Which reminds me that I should really loan Riven to Greywolf when I get the chance... but first I wanna play with it s'more. Sunday and Monday I housecleaned and added some stuff to the web page.  I  need to draw up some graphics... Scott came home and hoisted a package from mom... argh again.  I plan to get mister sharpie marker and scribble 'return to sender' on it.  I'd like to scribble a few more choice adjectives but the package probably wouldn't get delivered then. I drank some chocolate milk, fed my new computer pet... a fish named Howard, and role-played online until 10:30PM. Zoltan got home  from Abbadon and the plot I was running is over for now.  Maybe I can do something with Fenter next, or Zoltan will continue on.  I won't know that until next week.  Tonight I'm going to start on a new kitbashing project with my minis. That's it for now.  More updates on my pathetically normal life as they come along. -Genesis