It’s been over a year since I posted here. That doesn’t mean I’ve been quiet, but it does mean that I need to rethink the exact purpose of this blog. At one point, I was going to use this as a modeling and painting diary for my Warhammer collection. I’ve really had little time or energy to work on those projects, though.

A lot has happened since the last time I’ve posted here. After trying for a few years, my wife and I are expecting our first child (at the beginning of March). We’ve taken on a manager at our game store, and right now, he’s doing almost all of the day-to-day running of it.

We’ve replaced the fixtures in one bathroom, and the floors in 3 rooms, so far, with at least 2 more to go. We have a nursery to prepare, and time is running out.

Additionally, various factors have us visting a high-risk OB for the duration of this pregnancy. She’s now going twice a week, which and I’m able to join her on the Monday visits.

With the new year, I’ve committed to writing more often, which has thus far presented itself in shop and gaming related blogging. I’ve started a gaming community site at fortsackville.com , and still maintain a blog for Legends Family and Hobby Games. I’m also developing a couple of board games, one of which is in the prototype stage. I’ll be journaling that journey at Dragon Pro Studios. I’m going to use this space to handle my personal blogging, though I will still maintain another spot for journaling what I consider to be “private” thoughts, as well.

Next post will be about some of the things I’ve changed in my life, recently.

I find that I keep wanting to write about my stressful week. I’ve resolved to do so, once everything is done. Until then, all I can really say is… Wow, I’m stressed.

I’m sitting at Legends right now, waiting for the final round of Friday Night Magic to end. Jamie and I are holding an indoor yard sale here this weekend, which is going for four days. It means being here at 8am, and staying long into the day, possibly late into the night. It is, indeed, contributing to our stress.

We’re trying to keep the shop operational during this, and so far, it’s working ok. I would have preferred a bit more of a turnout for the event, but I’ll take what I can get.

I can’t say much about why we’re stressed, yet. But I can say this: I am unbelievably grateful for the friends and family that I have. A core group of our friends have really rallied around us during these events, and I’m truly blessed by them.

I’m hoping the rest of our shop regulars can get involved as well. We’ve done our best to impress upon them the importance of the situation. I’m not sure they quite understand, though, and I guess the fact that I can’t explain it very well only makes that worse.

The other thing I am grateful is Jamie. She has been amazing through all of this. The situation has been so emotional, and she’s got a lot going on as well. I can’t say enough how much her presence in my life has made me a better person.

I’m sure I’m rambling, I just needed put some of my thoughts down on paper (virtual or otherwise).

It was a pretty good weekend.  The driving is the only thing that sucked.  I’ll admit, I’m not the one that drives when we go on long trips. The road tends to put me to sleep.  So, Jamie gets stuck with the driving duty most of the time.  We arrived at her mom’s house at 12:30 Friday night/Saturday morning and immediately went to bed.  Saturday, we had a light breakfast and went to the city for lunch and shopping.

The lunch was the highlight of the shopping trip.  We went to the FlatTop Grill, which is an amazing stir-fry place.   I ate way too much, but it was wonderful.  Saturday evening, we spent a bit of time teaching her sister to play Magic: The Gathering.  Sunday we had a big family lunch, made by Jamie’s sister, and then gathered around for gift opening.

Jamie’s first surprise from me was a Cthulhu Dice Bag, hidden in a large D&D Miniatures booster pack box.  She was a little disappointed it wasn’t minis, but loved the dice bag.

After an all-too-short weekend, we got back on the road to head home.  We made a pitstop at Fry’s along the way.  I’d never been to a Fry’s before.  Holy Carp!  That place is huge.  We picked up a couple of useful gadgets, the new Photoshop User magazine, and an overwhelmed feeling.  The second surprise came after our long drive home.

First a bit of backstory:  In the fall of 2009, our roommates (a couple) at the time offered to remodel our smaller bathroom.  We tore out the flooring, the upper cabinets, and they took down all the tile.  Then the couple broke up.  She moved out, and he stayed behind.  Over the course of the next year, bits of work got done on the bathroom, but it never quite got finished.  When we left for the weekend, the drywall was up, but not finished or painted, trim wasn’t the light fixtures weren’t up, the tub wasn’t properly sealed.  But we had the new flooring down, the new toilet in, the tub-surround, etc.

When we got home, Jamie found that the bathroom had been painted and the tub had been sealed.  It wasn’t QUITE the finished product I had hoped for, but my friends were only able to come over on Saturday and not Sunday. So we’re closer, and it was a good surprise.  Her other surprises aren’t anything spectacular, but I’m sure I’ll mention them in a future post.

So, I’m spending the weekend out of town with my lovely wife. Her birthday is next weekend, but she has to work, so we’re celebrating with her family now.

There is a bit of sadness involved, though. My wife has an identical twin, who moved pretty far out of state last year, so this is the first year she’s ever had a birthday without having her sister near.

I’ve prepared a few surprises for her, but I won’t detail any of them here, as Jamie is one of the few people who read this blog. I may describe them next week, though.

Many years ago, I played on a few World of Darkness based internet games that were called MUSHes or MUXes.  I was working for a small internet company, and somehow convinced two of my friends from those games to move here and go to work for that company.  While they lived here, we called each other “Bub”, for some reason.  It stuck, and I eventually registered the bub.org domain name for us to goof around with.

They’ve both moved on, but there was something about that familiarity that I liked, and it seemed fitting for my journal to be that informal, that familiar.