It looks like my gall bladder will join my spleen, two lymph nodes, part of my liver, and whatever that bit of tissue Dr. Gregg cut out of my groin (while Kirsten watched) in the Plane of Bits Removed From Doug on January 29th. This may change, they'll call me tomorrow to confirm. The delay is caused by my surgeon trying to contact my alleged oncologist to see if he wants any souvenirs while she's poking about.

Yes, this is my sense of humor going into overdrive. Weep for kshandra, she gets to live with this kind of commentary. For the rest of the month.

The good news is the hospital stay should be short, no more than a day or two if all goes well. If it doesn't go as planned, and more general surgery is needed, I could be in hospital for several days. And the recovery period? 2-3 weeks at the least. California Disability, hello!

Which means we are going to accelerate the eBay auctions. Please, repost the link to your journals or to any gaming-related mailing lists or pages you feel appropriate. Money is already tight, this makes it worse. We're going to be adding stuff every few days. Some real rarities, like GURPS: Callahan's Crosstime Saloon and GURPS Illuminati (an early printing).

We're starting to sell my old RPG stuff on eBay

Starting with some classic Traveller stuff from FASA.

Very necessary, but still very hard to do.

Yngwie Malmsteen is a Swedish guitarist, composer, multi-instrumentalist and bandleader. Malmsteen became notable in the mid-1980s for his technical fluency and neo-classical metal compositions, often incorporating high speed picking with harmonic minor scales, diminished scales and sweep picked arpeggios. Four of his albums, from 1984 to 1988, Rising Force, Marching Out, Trilogy, and Odyssey, ranked in the top 100 for sales.

Today, we feature his interpretation of another Swedish musical legend. With Mark Boals on vocals, please enjoy Yngwie Malmsteen playing Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (Your Love after Midnight)



Next week, Coppelius ups the Irons!

I've taken a few "Before" photos of the living room



We've picked up a new garbage can just for junk mail, and that's going to live right next to the door. We also got It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff and the associated workbook by Peter Walsh. When we looked at the personal inventory in the workbook, it was us right down the line.

I'm not planing on getting this done in a week, or even a month. This is going to be a year-long effort to really reduce and simplify.

We are going to clean up, de-clutter, and organize.

I am sick and tired of living amid mountains of stuff. We're both gatherers, and that's the problem. I have gaming materials I haven't read in twenty years. In the Fibber McGee room there sits our old Win 3.1 box. We have too much crap. So the purge begins today. Expect to see a lot of stuff on eBay.

A little later I'm going to take some "before" shots of the living room. I want to document the process.

We're not slovenly; aside from dust we stay pretty clean. Dishes get done, laundry gets done, counters are cleaned, etc. It's just the sheer mass of our possessions and our inability to throw anything away that frustrates all our attempts to streamline our lives.

I will admit an ulterior motive. I am so freaking sick of this apartment and my charming little barrio. So along with just making the apartment safe for the nieces and making it look like adults live here, I want to set us up for a move in early 2011. Hopefully, Kirsten will be making good money with Earth Baby and we'll be able to afford a place that meets all our requirements.

Right now, our wish list for a new place. Things with a * would be nice, but not necessary:

• Ground floor apartment or duplex


• Dishwasher


• Washer/Dryer in unit*


• Our own water heater


• Pool/Jacuzzi


• Walking distance to shopping*

So, wish us luck.

Happy New Year, y'all!

You want to watch this. The on-air commentary about the float is from Ken Kesey and Fr. Guido Sarducci. For those of you not familiar with the Dead and New Year's Eve, Father Time is played by Bill Graham, and was the one night a year he stopped being a Type A promoter and enjoyed himself. Known to Deadheads as "Uncle Bobo," it was an accepted fact that Graham never stopped working soon enough for the midnight countdown to go off on time. Who cared? It's not midnight until Uncle Bobo says it is!

Dammit, I want cupcakes.

Seriously craving chocolate cupcakes with white frosting and sprinkles. Because sprinkles make everything frosted taste better.

Everyone needs to read what Nate Silver has to say on the reality of terrorism and flight.

But the best? Boducia is a real hottlie. Seriously.

Tornado Rider is... well, it's hard to describe. Bluegrass, metal, Psychobilly, they all apply. But you got to love them. Enjoy Bison Land!



Next week, grab the comforter, your Snugglie, and that old Army blanket, because Covers Month begins! We'll start with an ABBA tune.

Nope, not kidding. ABBA.

I installed Beyond the Sword this morning. Followed all the instructions, the computer seems happy, but when I start CivIV I'm not getting the BtS content.

Anyone care to tell me what I need to tweak?

The couple of decent pictures I got are here.

Happy Holiday, Headbangers! Three videos for this special day.

( Unwrap your presents! )

I really don't watch that much TV anymore. But yesterday I turned on the tube to see what was on, and struck gold. After watching The West Wing episode Abu el Banat, I switched over to BBC America and got Dr. Who: The Christmas Invasion. Dr. Who: The Next Doctor and Blackadder's Christmas Carol. Four hours of Christmas programming with almost no heavy-handed emotional appeals.

Great stuff.

At the hospital, we discovered Pawn Stars on the History Channel. Fun show.

We exchanged gifts last night (before dinner, thankfully.)

She got me Civilization IV: Warlords and Beyond the Sword.

I may never leave the computer.

murphymom is no slouch either. she gifted us with a nice heated mattress pad.

Well, after a not too sucky evening in the ER, we know why I'm having problems this time around. I have gall stones. The treatment of choice is surgery to remove the gall bladder. I've got medications for pain and nausea and need to avoid high-fat and greasy foods. A consult has been put in to the surgical department; they're supposed to call me Monday.

Once again I'm just happy that this thing has a name. If it has a name we can fight it. The adjustments in my diet are going to take some work. I may well have had my last pizza orgy, and Fake Mexican Food has gone from a staple to an occasional treat. A lot more poultry in place of beef. We'll make it work.

I'm really pleased with Kaiser's ER. They are efficient, caring, and work with you to establish your problem and make sure that you know what's going on at any given point. They're also fun. While being rolled back from X-ray the orderly and I were singing Christmas carols at the top of our lungs. I was on morphine, I don't know what his excuse was.

More surgery. Most likely after the 1st of the year. Hopefully I can schedule it for a Friday to minimize the amount of work I miss.

For the last week or two I've been experiencing acute indigestion whenever I ate. This has increased to massive stomach pain just from swallowing food. Tonight, I couldn't eat more than a bite or two without nausea and a stabbing pain right below my sternum. So, off to the ER we go, seeing as the odds of finding my primary care tonight are close to zero.

Since I can drink things with no problem, I'm beginning to suspect there is some sort of blockage at the entrance to my stomach. This thrills me no end.

http://www.reformation.org/

This guy is nuts.

Have fun.