Tuesday check in

Nothing like dropping a load of crazy off at the dry cleaners, and then abandoning it for a couple of weeks. I've found myself with a few minutes of quiet, and wanted to give a more normal update to the blogosphere.....

Mundane stuff:
1. Work - my "high profile, no one else could ship this game" game went live on May 27. It's doing very well, with over a week at #1, and staying strong in sales. It's a beautiful game, and I'm really proud of it. It's nominally a hidden object game, but the real gameplay is deductive reasoning, set in the CLUE world. In many ways, it was a perfect project for me - my favorite developer, my favorite artist, my favorite audio resource. It's nice to know that having the stars align ends up in good result. Mac version goes live 6/10, for my mac-using friends. If you're interested, you can get the game here - http://www.gamehouse.com/download-games/clue-accusations-and-alibis If you fall in love, let me know and I'll send you a coupon code to unlock the full game.

2. Wedding - We're getting married in 102 days. ONE HUNDRED AND TWO DAYS. How is it possible that's all the time that is left? How is it possible that when I look at my calendar in Outlook, July 4th is the next holiday! This year is flying by. Of recent note: Bridal hair and makeup trial is scheduled, and the appointments for me, Jen, and the mom's is set for the day of the wedding. We booked a block of rooms for out of town friends, and got a suite booked at Pike Place Market for Jen & I on Friday night, and Mark & I on Saturday night. I've also got a light continental breakfast setup for the wedding party on wedding morning so we don't have to worry about 8:00 hair and makeup AND breakfast. We've confirmed details for the rehearsal dinner, Jen's working on invitations, and I've had the first fitting on my dress (It's so freakin' beautiful!). Left to do: Rings, Cupcakes, Wedding License, setup pre-wedding meeting with the preacher to practice, and figure out if/where to have brunch with family on Sunday post-wedding. And figure out a bridal shower date. More is done than is not done, which is very, very rewarding. Whenever I feel like I might be losing it, I watch on-demand episodes of Bridezillas. It makes me feel so well adjusted.

3. Games - I think I had a revelation this week. I'm not the same gamer I used to be. I don't have the same attention span, I don't even have the same interests. This past weekend, I played Kitten Sanctuary (AGAIN). I didn't get all perfect on the previous play through, so I had to fix that. And the kittens are cute. I also return to World Mosaic on a regular basis as my "mental comfort food". The Wedding Dash and Dream Day Wedding Games help me feel like I'm "doing something" even though we're in a planning lull. I can't wait for the new Build a Lot game. I feel like I'm a well rounded gamer..... I'm still pretty anal about how I play - If I stick with a game past about 15 minutes, I play it to completion. More often than not, I play it to PERFECTION.

Last week, I spent $55 to download the Sims 3. The Sims family of games is something that I've logged weeks of my life against. Building them, tweaking them, meeting their every need. When they get too whiny, I just put them in a room, build a wall, and wait for them to drown in a puddle of their own whiny piss. I played this new game for less than an hour, and I feel like I've seen enough. It's just not that much fun to me anymore - it looks beautiful, but things just take so long. My Tanya-Sim woke up at 7 am, it took over 2 hours to make waffles. It was noon before I got the sim-dishes done, sim-showered, and sim-cab called. Even with the time fast forward, I had no sense of accomplishment, and I didn't get to anything good. I wonder if it's me? Or the game that changed?

4. Health - 5 weeks ago, I fell off the back deck while taking out the garbage and damaged myself. I sprained my right ankle and broke my left. That's one way to get out of taking out the garbage! It's also been a crazy-making experience for me. You can't drive a stick shift with a broken left ankle (heh. I guess you can't drive an automatic with a broken right ankle, either) It's really hard to get up and down stairs that don't have handrails (like 3 of 5 staircases at the house) with a broken ankle. And the arhthritis treatments are keeping the arthritis under control, but suppressing your immune system means you suppress your healing, too. I am trying not to think about x-rays on June 17, because then I start thinking "what if he says another 6 weeks in the boot?"

Other interesting news:
I've signed up for several adult writing workshops at Seattle 826. The first one is June 23, and is called "How to Grill a Star", and will be taught by Warren Etheridge. I'm stoked!

So, there you go. NORMAL (boring) update! ;-) More crazy soon, I promise!