My week in review...

[fenchurch]

I officially fail at keeping up with my New Year's goals... I know I never posted them (which is actually the first symptom of failing one of them, now that I think about it), but I still hoped to keep them going. So far, I lose at:

1) Updating my LJ on a regular basis (and I don't mean just filling out silly quizzes).
2) Remembering to send something out for the birthdays of friends and families.
3) Read one real book a week.

1) I even compose elaborate entries in my head when I'm away from my computer... it's just that when I do get a chance to sit here and type, I either forget entirely what I wanted to say, or I get sucked into some other time-wasting computer-based endeavor *cough*LordOfTheRingsOnline*cough* (more on that later).

2) I did pretty well for about the first month and then it all fell apart. The worst part is that I even take note of birthdays with enough time to actually do something about them, and then get distracted by something shiny and forget all about it until it's too late. Heck, I'd even planned on sending out some fun little Valentines cards to some of my friends this year... which went absolutely nowhere. There's got to be something I can do to make sure I stay on top of these things... it's not for lack of a desire to do it, that's for sure.

3) Somewhere along the way, I drifted away from books and started reading and rereading way too much fanfic. All I can say is that there are certain things I like to get out of reading that I'm able to get in large doses from quite a few of the fanfic authors I enjoy. As a consequence, my Teetering Pile has gotten fairly stagnant... Heck, I still haven't even read the last Harry Dresden book. I bought that thing the day it was released and I still haven't managed to really get started with it... and the next book is due out in just a few months. I think I'm going to try that 50 books in a year thing (50bookchallenge), if for no other reason than to give myself some deadlines to help keep up with the reading. It's so stupid, because I still LOVE to read and I even still love to read books... I'm not sure what the problem is.

So, my week or so in review: Obviously, I didn't end up going to help out with my aunt... one of my cousins was able to take some time out from his classes to stay with her after my mom left, and by the time he went home, my aunt was capable of handling things herself when my uncle was gone during the day. So, no trip to Utah for me. Yay!

tomte and gidgiddoni were up here for a visit about a week ago... so Gid could go through an interview loop up at the company where rackham works. And the really big, squee-worthy news is that he got the job!! Tomte is coming back up later this week to do some house/apartment hunting... and with any luck they'll be all moved up here again by the first part of March!!! Squee!!!!!! I've mentioned it before, but Tomte is my oldest online friend (or perhaps I should rephrase that as the friend I've known the longest that I first met online). Yep, we first met online nearly 17 years ago. Wow.

I'm so excited to have both of them back in the area! It's been way too long.

It's actually been a busy time for visitors... my mom and step-dad drove up from La Grande this last weekend to visit and to do some shopping. They finally have a house again for the first time in several years, after living in a travel trailer for most of that time, and are finding a number of things they still need to flesh out a household. So, we had an all-day trip to Ikea on Saturday where they attempted to buy everything in the store. Okay, not quite, but they couldn't have fit anything else in the back of their truck without strapping it to the top of the shell!

One of the fun things about having my mom visit is that she always brings Daisy, her miniature Dachshund, with her. Daisy is the cutest dog in the whole world, really smart (she's very good at problem solving), and for some reason she thinks I'm the best person on the face of the planet. It's all a little bit strange considering how rarely she gets to see me, but she'll get all hyper and excited just seeing me standing outside the truck when they pull into the driveway. We actually suspect that she can't tell my mom and me apart... we do have very similar voices and, judging by experiences we've had with previous pets, we apparently have very similar scents... so it's possible that in Daisy's world, my mom occasionally has the ability to split herself in two. It probably also helps that I stayed with my mom for a few weeks right after they got Daisy as a puppy -- it was just a few weeks after my mom's car accident, so I often had to have Daisy sleep with me because my mom was dealing with a bit too much pain. Still, it's almost as though she bonded with both of us. Very weird.

Now, as promised, I'll rave a bit about Lord of the Rings Online, since we've finally been released from the NDA!!! Yay!!! I've been hooked on this game since I first started playing last October, in Beta 1. The graphics are gorgeous, it has a fantastic soundtrack, there are quests, monsters, deeds and wonderful cut-scenes... it's not just all hacking and slashing (not by a long-shot), there are puzzles to solve (as part of larger quests), tasks to accomplish and crafting skills to be learned. Oh! And a fully integrated audio chat system that makes group play so much more fun and interesting! Fair warning: I'll be gushing about it a lot in the next few weeks!

Comments

[sadbhyl.livejournal.com]

I came in that much too late to get to do the level jump. Which is fine on the one hand because I hadn't had much chance to explore the lower levels, but kind of sucks in that I haven't seen any of the higher content yet. Well. I got lost accidentally in Meluinen at level 12, but running for your life screaming hysterically doesn't really count as experiencing the content. I just got Sax to 16 last night, and she's my highest, so it seems like we're about on par.

And I really need a LotRO icon...