On Vacation

So, just a quick post to say I'll be on vacation and most likely not online at all from Monday 9/25 thru Friday 9/29. I'll take lots of pictures and put 'em up somewhere.... meanwhile, no comic this week, I had planned on doing one this weekend but preparations for leaving have taken too much time and work, so I hope you'll all forgive me.

I'll try to post from on board ship if I can, they have an Internet cafe. Have a great week everyone!

Bitter, but also Sweet

Sunday turned into an unhappy day. TGF got a call from a friend who told us that our friend Jeannie died suddenly and unexpectedly this past weekend, and we had the unhappy duty to go find and tell her best friend Tina and several other friends the news. We had a sort of informal memorial for her last night at Ground Control, where she was a regular. I don't really want to type more about it here as there are lots of other people who are saying things much better than I can. Suffice it to say that TGF and I are very sad. Jeannie was Good People and we all miss her a lot already.

So, please excuse the relative terseness of this post since that's kind of putting a shadow over everything today.

The Supernova situation is resolved; I signed the car over to an insurance auction house and they came and towed it away yesterday morning. I should get a check within two weeks. It will be for quite a bit more than I expected, which is pleasant and helps offset the loss of the car.

And last but definitely not least, today is TGF's and my One Year Anniversary. That's a big milestone for me, since I've been, um, relationshiply-challenged? Things are going really well. I know TGF would love it if I were to wax all romantic and gush about how she's the Best Girlfriend EVAR and how we have such a great time together and how we communicate well and work as a team and have an excellent love life and all that, but I'm sort of private and blushy about that sort of thing so... oh wait. Heh. Oops... :)

Since we have the big cruise vacation coming up in a couple of weeks, our celebration tonight will be pretty low key, but perfectly in character for two Nerds In Love... we're going to watch the original, un-messed-with version of Star Wars (no, I will not call it "Episode IV: A New Hope," thanks, when it came out it was called Star Wars, and stayed that way for oh, more than 20 years) on DVD, which I just picked up at Best Buy today, along with Empire and Jedi and Lego Star Wars II for GameCube and DS. Yes. Yes I did. What? Yes, I told you already, I am a Nerd. Pay attention!

I'm happy about it. It's been a good year. How about another one, hunny? :)

Just wish Jeannie was still with us. That kinda brings me back down, y'know? :\

The World Returns to Balance

FOOOOOOOOTTTTBAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL!!!!

FOOHBAW! *URF*

FOOHBAW FOOHBAW! *URF URF*

FOOHBAW FOOHBAW FOOHBAW! *URF URF URF*

Yep. It's football season. Which means I'm happy. And since the Steelers won the season opener last Thursday night, I'm even happier.

So, I'm probably going to be annoying you with football stuff until February. Be forewarned.

Other news: The Supernova problem is coming to its resolution. The insurance company is totaling it and paying me off; an auction house is coming to pick it up Monday morning, and that will be that. I've already made the deal and mailed off the title. I should get the check in about two weeks. It's actually more than I thought I'd get, so it's good. I will miss the car, but I'll be okay without it. Ah well.

Meanwhile, I have other car trouble. The starter on the Camaro, which I knew would be the next thing to go, has burned out and gone. Fortunately I was only a couple blocks from home and got some guys to help me push-start it - one of the wonderful things about manual transmissions - and I got it safely home to the garage. I've ordered a new race-type starter for high-powered engines, so that should solve that problem. I'll install it next Saturday.

TGF is buying me a new motorcycle jacket for an early birthday present, as my old one's lining is rapidly disintegrating because it's 12 years old now. The new one is really, really nice (in black). Full armor, fully adjustable and vented with a removable insulated liner. I oughtta get another 12 years out of it. Thanks hunny! :)

OK, enough typing. FOOOTBAAAAALLLLLL!!!! *URF*!!

Welcome to September

OK, so it's been forever since I blogged. August was a busy month.

Let's see, what's up. Well, I'm done working on Sopranos, so happily I'm back to actually drawing and painting again, which is most welcome. We've got two new games starting up so as you can imagine I've got a lot to do. My drawing skills have bounced back quickly but my painting is pretty damn rusty...

The result of the Supernova Crash is that I'm losing the car no matter what happens. It's just too damaged to dump all that money into fixing it, and by law if insurance "totals" a car it has to be declared "salvage" by the DMV and hauled away by a salvage company, who will probably fix it up and resell it - or dismantle it for parts. Sigh. Poor car...

I did find out exactly what happened, it was a hit-and-run where the offending car hit someone else's car first, which then hit my car. The someone else driver came forward and told me about it, so I'm working out my compensation with their insurance company. Hopefully that won't take too long, but I'm sure they'll drag their feet on a payout... ah well.

In happier vehicular news, I've paid off the Stealth Fighter (my motorcycle), so it's all mine now, no more payments. Nice to have that $175.90 per month back in my pocket. Of course it will now go to paying off other things faster. I just passed halfway through the Camaro loan, so adding maybe $100 to that payment will pay that off several months faster, which drops even more into my pocket. I like paying things off and having more of my cash, yes I do.

Otherwise there's not much else going on. I have a few bits of art left over from Bats Day that I have to finish, but after that I'm giving myself the whole month of September off from doing any "extraneous" artwork. I've just been too busy the last few months! I need to clean my apartment and catch up on my financial planning and change the oil in the Camaro, and other normal life things like that. TGF is studying for an important test over the next couple of weeks so that will give me more alone time to get things done.

I am actually going to PLAY some video games, dammit! Other than Tetris DS and Brain Age.

My boss came to me about two weeks ago and said, "You're going to take a vacation between now and the end of September. We just finished the game, everyone needs to decompress, so let me know which week you're taking. That's an order." Well, all right! So I looked around for my favorite type of vacation, which is one involving three locations in close proximity: a bed, a bar, and a beach. If the bar is at the beach, even better. Y'know, your basic Tropical Paradise Getaway thing. Unfortunately, on such short notice the prices for all the usual locations (Hawai'i, Mexico, Caribbean) are pretty steep; a trip for me and TGF would have blown my budget entirely. But then I saw the little icon that said "Cruise Deals..."

So we're going on a cruise the last week of September. That fits my requirement for bar and bed, with the "beach" being the top deck by the pool. I plan on doing pretty much nothing other than eating, drinking, swimming and sleeping, but of course on a cruise ship there's lots and lots of activities for TGF to indulge in as she is more active than I am, so we'll both be happy I think. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to knuckle under and take a dance class or two, but I'll survive. :)

Hey, it's lunchtime. I gotta go get me some food.