Let's see how far we've come...

One of the local shops had LCD TVs on clearance and so on impulse I picked up a 26" flatscreen for the basement room. I'm planning on mounting it over one of the windows (which is sealed and thus not used).... who knows, maybe I'll actually get to use the used X-Box 360 I bought last spring someday soon.

I spent most of my free time at work prepping for the grade 9 field trip to Les Collons, Switzerland. The amount of planning and prep work that goes into the trip is pretty massive, although the fact that I've done it before makes things easier.

On Thursday I had to sub for a 6th grade English class which was a really interesting experience:  All of the kids (boys & girls) were really excited about reading (each of them had an actual novel with them) which is something we don't see very much in the high school. It's a shame so many kids lose their enthusiasm for reading sometime around the same time they hit puberty.

I've got three books I'm currently "reading."

I've been reading Summer Knight by Jim Butcher (#4 in the Dresden Files series) as my "before bedtime" read. So far I like the book although it's still not really knocked me out. It's a very intriguing setting and idea though and one which does have a lot of potential as a RPG setting.

I've been listening, via my Audible subscription, to Hidden Empire by Kevin J. Andersen, which I really like. It took a bit of time to get into (probably the first third of the book, which is about 5 hours of listening time) but I really like where the story is going and the mystery of who the alien antagonists are has gotten my attention.

Finally, Niklas and I have been listening to The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman on our way to and from school each day. With both really like it, although I think some of the story has clearly gone over Niklas's head (obviously); that said, he understands the basic story and really likes the characters. The audio book's quality is phenomenal and includes different voice actors for each character, with Pullman himself narrating the book.

Woo-hoo. Not.  I'll be in a cast for a week and then a brace for another week, during which I won't be able to do much of anything with my right hand.  I guess it's a small price to pay if I can finally start using my right hand normally again.

After a couple months lay-off from painting, I've started up again in the past couple weeks.  I've been working on finishing up the Warmachine and Hordes figures that have been sitting on my bench since May. Last week I finished up a few Cryx models, and this week I'm working on a couple of mercs along with an Everblight warbeast.  Once I finish up the rest of the Warmachine/Hordes figures that are assembled (just a couple of trollblood solos and Captain Rengrave), I'm going to finally focus on the Infinity figures I've been wanting to paint but haven't gotten around to.

Today I had an appointment with a neurologist who did a nerve conductivity test on both wrists, along with evaluating my sensory fields in both hands. The verdict?  Textbook carpal tunnel syndrome: It's severe in the right hand, bad enough that surgery is the only option and recommended to avoid long term muscle strength. So it's off to the surgeon tomorrow.  Yuck.

I stumbled upon a couple of really interesting "series" of videos related to roleplaying games on YouTube and I thought I'd pass them along:

Game Geeks - Each episode gives a review of a RPG or supplement. 

John Wick - he has a seminar on game design as well as the video version of his 'Play Dirty' GM series.

Bully Pulpit Games - includes a video demo of Grey Ranks.

Summer vacation is now over (7 glorious weeks!), so here's a quick recap of what we did this summer:

A couple of days after school finished up we headed to the island of Texel which is along the coast of the Netherlands. We were there for 2 weeks last year and really enjoyed it, despite absolutely lousy weather. This year I'm happy to report that the weather was much better and hence our vacation was a lot more enjoyable. We spent 2 weeks on the island this year too; the first week one of my colleagues from work & her family were also staying on the island and then we had some other friends visit on a long weekend which was also really nice.

The island is really nice because it's small, it's covered in bike paths (which means you can get almost anywhere via bike if you're willing to pedal), and it's relatively uncrowded. They have a nice local market once a week where you can get fresh fish, local vegetables, and other goodies.

Some of the highlights of the vacation:

• Niklas and I went on a bike trek - by the end of the day he rode nearly 20 km on his little bike, most of it after a crash in which he took most of the skin off one knee.
• Watching Timothy trying to eat a handful of sand on the beach, promptly spit it out, and then just as quickly grab another handful and try it again.
• Seeing a movie in English - I watched Indiana Jones 4 which was okay but a disappointment compared to the "originals."  George Lucas should stay far away from anything he originally helped create because nowadays everything he touches turns to crap.
• Niklas loves waterslides and is absolutely fearless in the water now that he can swim - I only wish I could be as calm & collected when he jumps in...
• I got to read the first two Dresden Files books, catch up on some podcasts, and even got to work on the Kidz RPG I've been writing.
• Just relaxing.

The only real low point was the fact that I started waking up at night with both hands feeling like they were on fire - I have a feeling my carpal tunnel syndrome is reaching a new stage....

Once we returned from Texel, I spent a couple of days laying some more tiles in the basement (nearly half the floor was finished at that point) and then we headed off for 2 weeks in the USA. I'll talk about that in my next post.

I've had a mild case of it for years but it's gone nuts this summer, probably due to all the writing I do while grading IB Psychology exams for the IBO, followed by all the work on the basement.  While I've been putting up with tingling hands and having them fall asleep on occasion, this is something entirely different:  I wake up with my arms from my hands to my elbows on fire every night and have jolts of pain like lightning bolts shooting from the tip of my finger up through my elbow when I reach or pick up objects. I'm going to start wearing a wrist/thumb splint but probably will need to see a doctor because this is way beyond annoying.