August 2, 2011: Back from Vacation

I took July off . . . at least, that was the theory. I was sure ready for it. As it worked out, there were a couple days when I was officially in the office, and several more where I ended up being "at work" most of the day on the computer, even if I was at home. But it still went better than I expected . . . ! A bit of sanity has been recovered.

Accomplished:

• Some Lego kits built. Some small original creations built. Organization of loose parts improved, though not enough.
• Back yard and garden made about as nice as they can be in Texas' third worst drought ever (closing in fast on second).
• Filled in some holes in my SF/fantasy book collection, at least one of which will almost surely lead to a game supplement. And tagged a few as "Will never read this again; get it off the shelf." And read some unanticipated new good stuff; that will be a separate Illuminator.
• Inbox reduced below 150, from a high of 650. Yeah, most of that was work, but it was still making me crazy.
• Dusted off my totally-not-elite Age of Mythology skills.
• Nudged a Seekrit Projekt along. Yeah, that was work, but I really want to see it happen, and it's looking good. More on that once the contract is signed.
• Completed draft for The Good, The Bad, and the Munchkin 2. Wait, is that supposed to be work, too? But it was FUN!
• Improved my sleep cycle a little bit; got back to regular walking and exercising.
• Got some seriously neglected personal business and house maintenance done. Replaced my failing home backup drive before it actually died, and you'd better believe that I sleep better now that that is taken care of.
• Traveled a little bit. Visited a museum. With dinosaurs and butterflies. Saw Fourth of July fireworks over Galveston Bay.

Not accomplished:

• I didn't go ride a train. In fact, I only left town a couple of times. Didn't visit out-of-state friends. Didn't get out of the state at all.
• Never booted up Starcraft (the original, of course) or Caesar III even once. Darn.
• Didn't lose any weight.
• Didn't take over the world. As far as you know, anyway.

Anyway, I'm back now. Today was a full, full office day. I get one more of those (with added bonus meetings!) . . . and Wednesday I go to GenCon. August will be almost solid conventions: after GenCon there's a short break, then Worldcon and PAX come back to back. This is going to be huge fun, and I have to try hard not to die. But it's good to be back in the saddle, at least for a while. Come see me at the conventions!

-- Steve Jackson