Mike is off to Colorado for a fortnight (the lucky swine), which means I have no one to argue with at work.

It also means that our WoW guild is more or less a ghost-town, with Josh gallantly leveling up his Orc Warrior (his Wariorc) as we try to get a reasonable 5-man instance group together once again. If it weren't for Battlegrounds -- which I love, the blood-thirsty little harpy that I am -- I probably wouldn't log in at all.

But still, we like to socialize here in Mooville, and so I'm back to thinking about starting up a Ptolus campaign, because I am easily manipulated by needy players.

Since finding out who the director is, I have no desire to see Live Free or Die Hard. Sorry, for me if it ain't John McTiernan, it ain't Die Hard.

Dinner tonight: I made an almost completely fat-free banana-lemon-raisin cake and a big ol' casserole of brown-and-wild-rice chicken with porcini mushrooms and butternut squash. I went to the gym and got through sixty modified push-ups before my arm muscles threatened to go all Fletcher Christian on my ass.

I discovered that the mall closes at 6. I got there at 5:55. I flung myself through the closing doors of the Lush shop and bought some shampoo and conditioner for future gym trips. $tarbucks, on the outside of the mall, had different hours -- they were open till 8, and since I had a gift card, I saw no better way to close out my afternoon than with an iced soy latte and a slice of coffee cake.

My stepdad and I are conspiring via email. He's currently deployed to a Certain Body of Water that is near a Very Sandy Unfriendly Place, courtesy of the Leader of the Free World. Thus, when I mention "camping", he thinks "Yosemite", and "April 2008". This idea is a very good one. We will probably have to drug my mother, but she'll be fine with it once the tranquilizers leave her system and she sees the Sierra Nevadas.

Reportedly, there is a place there with soft beds, excellent steaks, and fine martinis. It may not be sleeping under the stars, but Pa is not exactly a spring chicken anymore, and if I really want ticks and pine needles I know where to find them here. Hiking is really what matters. And I wouldn't mind one of those martinis, a little dirty, plz.