While in Palm Spring we had some nice dinners but didn’t do much else as most of our time was spent at the tennis tournament. I did get to play some tennis with my dad and play Pandemic (boardgame) with my parents.

On Saturday we watched the mens’ semifinals where Ivan Ljubcic defeated Raphael Nadal in three sets and Andy Roddick defeated Robin Soderling in three sets. We then watched a little bit of the women’s doubles final before leaving. The matches were great and close and the area was interesting with lots of places to visit. The one problem was inbetween matches we went down for food at the same time as everyone else which resulted having to wait 45min in line. For some reason this did not occur the next day though we were ready for it.

On Sunday were the women’s and men’s finals. First Jelena Jankovic defeated Caroline Wozniacki in a quick two sets. After that Ivan Ljubcic defeated Andy Roddick in two sets but neither of them broke serve so it was 7-6, 7-6. By the end of that match we were all tired, sun burnt  and ready to leave.

This time around the venue was much more intimate and we got right up to the stage. We stood through the opening band and then Sonic Youth came out. I must have been about ten feet from Thurston Moore (SY front man) and it was amazing. It is always cool to be close at any concert but for Sonic Youth it is a big deal as they do all kinds of crazy things to guitars including using a screwdriver, file, and violin bow.

They are also a fairly old band with most of the members pushing 50. However, I was surprised to find that most of the audience was around 20 making feel a little better about the following generation.

On another note I had a nice Christmas vacation. Stephanie and I didn’t do anything special. We stayed home or went to the movies during Christmas and New Years.

This Thanksgiving I went back to Las Cruces. I had a lot of fun spending the day with my parents and the evening with my estranged friend Adam. By estranged I mean that we were friends from the second grade (as well as being his best man at his first wedding) but when I moved to San Diego (in 2003) I didn’t tell him. The reasons are complicated but involve feeling guilty and the longer I waited the more guilty I became until finally I moved away. I later heard he was angry which made things worse.

We did not communicate for almost five years until I reached out to him through myspace. Things were smoothed over and we were friends on myspace/facebook and this Thanksgiving weekend we finally got to see each other again after six years. At first things were a little uncomfortable as we felt each other out but soon we were reminiscing about the past a lot I had forgotten. I had a lot of fun as we also played some video games and later Vampire the Eternal Struggle with Adam’s brother-in-law.

I also spent the day with my parents and ate a lot of great food from both old and new (to me) restaurants as well as catching a movie, playing some tennis and visiting a new national park on the Rio Grande.

Stephanie came down for two days and on Thanksgiving we hiked Aguirre Springs and then had a nice dinner with my parents and some of their friends. She then flew back on Friday (I stayed until Sunday).

Overall, a great Thanksgiving and I look forward to more great times with Adam. Hopefully I won’t have to wait another six years.

On Tuesday we went to Point Loma and got some seafood and then hung around Cabrillo Nat Mon. Later we got dinner at the Linkery and then went to see the play Cornelia (about the politician George Wallace who ran for President in 72 and his wife) at the Old Globe. On Wednesday we went to the Hotel Del Coronado and got some lunch and then bummed around the beach. After we stopped at Extraordinary Desserts and then Old Town to have dinner with Stephanie. On Thursday I played tennis with my dad and then we went wine tasting in Temecula. Finally, on Friday we went and saw the Padres whoop the Cubs 4 to 0.

I didn’t get any rest because Saturday morning was the GameX gaming convention up in LA. We headed up at 7 but arrived late and ended up playing a bad OD&D game that took 2 hours of prep. I tried to run Hunter the Vigil after lunch but only had two players and one left in the middle which ended the game. I was upset by this time and luckily the third game, a John Carter of Mars style game using Fate, was a lot of fun.

On Sunday I ran Monsters and Other Childish Things which was fun but wouldn’t have had any players if my friend Sam hadn’t wrangled some up. The final game was a demo of White Wolf’s new game Geist, which I can’t say anything about since I signed a NDA other than it was a lot of fun and has the potential to be White Wolf’s best ghost game yet. We also got free dice and books. Overall, I give the con a C and probably won’t be running any games at the con since I have more fun playing.

For thanksgiving I went to Portland to visit my family. My brother and his wife live up there along with an aunt and uncle. It was a good time with dinner at my aunt and uncle’s place on Wednesday night. Thursday we had dinner at a nice restaurant. On Saturday we went to Powell’s, a huge used bookstore that was amazing. We spent 45min there and I probably could have spent another hour at least. Next time I’m bring an extra suitcase.

On Saturday my parents left and we spent the time with just my brother and his wife. My brother and I visited a few game stores and we then picked up Stephanie and had lunch at a nice French place. We then went on a tram in downtown Portland up to Oregon Health Science University.

Overall a fun trip and Portland is a beautiful city. I look forward to going up again and maybe visiting some of the mountains as we only saw Mt St Helens and Horn on the flight.

Throughout the Holiday I say “I am Legend” and “Juno.” Also got a lot of Netflix watching done plus the new Doctor Who season 3.

Stephanie and I also made plans do rearrange the furniture in the condo, get rid of stuff, and buy a bigger TV. Plus clean so it is sort of a cooperative resolution.

I’ve decided this is the year of change. My company is moving into a new building which will change the way we do business (from web only business to showroom. Plus I’m getting married and a good friend is moving away.

Over the last month I did manage to catch a play “The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged)” by The Reduced Shakespeare Company. It was hilarious and during a bit with Noah’s Ark Stephanie and I were volunteered to be two apes while Emily and her friend were two gay ducks.

Gaming has been kind of slow and chaotic but is starting to return to normal. We are on an indy game kick playing Spirit of the Century (with a Fallout setting) and Burning Empires. Both games have been great fun. Plus we also did some oneshots of Star Trek and Serenity/Firefly.

The Library D&D program has gotten large averaging 8 players. I now have to split the game again and have one of the kids run D&D while I run Star Wars (which I been running alternate to D&D for two months). Kids still love it and it seems more popular then ever.

It was a lot of fun having them down with no special occasion like wedding or thanksgiving getting in the way. We got to play some tennis go to restaurants and basically do whatever we wanted.

Not much else is going on. I’m taking a javascript/ajax class that goes until the end of October. I’ve been running a superhero game that has been going well and allowing the kids to GM the library game.

On Christmas we head up to LA (Hollywood area) and spent time with Stephanie’s father, Phil, and her extended family just like we did last year. I had a lot more fun this time as I knew everyone and felt a little more accepted.

New Years was uneventful and we went to bed early.

In other new I’ve been playing in a tennis tournament. It is basically the group I normally play with which is about 20-30 people and we all signed up to compete in a ladder. It cost us each $15 and the winner walks home with a gift certificate. So far I have lost all three of my games. A lot of it is nerves as I become an emotional wreck when playing these matches. After the third match I started to get use to it. The rest of it is just playing poorly and having lot of unforced errors.

The D&D for kids has been crazy as usual. It is fun but their is no consistancy at all. Each time it seems to drastically change. It slowly built up to 8-9 players, more than I could handle and just in time I got some help running the game. Soon after I get the help 3 of the players disappear so my helper has nothing to do.