Happy Monday!

Monday. I feel thick-headed and slightly nauseous today. Hoping that'll clear up as the day goes on. Didn't sleep well last night, but that's nothing new; I rarely sleep well Sunday nights.

Let's get the negative out of the way first. Today is the day of The Big Meeting (DUN DUN DUNNNNN) to deal with this purchasing crap. Plan is simple and straightforward: let them air out their grievances, be contrite, and try to address what we can do to help them feel better about things. Arguing and trying to demonstrate the facts of the situation will not be constructive or productive, and certainly not conducive to ending the meeting quickly. Other than that, things are okay.

This was a very good weekend. Friday night hung out at home with Julie--lazy night, which we needed. Saturday we went to lunch at the Waterfront (Red Robin..mmmm) with her mom, then to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I. In short: the movie is awesome. Very epic in scope. Wasn't pleased with the abruptness of the ending, but loved the movie overall. After the movie, Julie took her mom home, then went to hang out with some friends, one of whom is going through the disollution of his marriage right now and is in a bad way. I couldn't go because I had to get the resubmission of that website done for school...which I did. It's complete and in and I had a friend look at it and she thinks it looks good, so it's off my plate now. Fingers crossed. It's very frustrating and nerve-wracking that neither of my classes have posted grades for the vast majority of our assignments thus far. I don't like having no benchmark for how well or poorly I am doing. But the point is, it's turned in, I did my best on it, and it's out of my hands.

Sunday I woke up at 6:00 AM and couldn't get back to sleep, so I rolled out of bed, made coffee, and watched the morning news and a few episodes of Witchblade while checking e-mail and message boards. As much as I like staying up late and sleeping in on weekends, it's also really nice to be up early. The pre-dawn hours of Sunday are very tranquil and calm. It's really nice. Peaceful, especially when you have nothing you have to do. Late Sunday morning I finished cutting down the three trees that have been an eyesore on our back yard since we moved in. Now I just need to get them cut up, bound, and taken out to my folks' place for disposal in the woods or the fire pit.

At 1:00 I put on the Steelers game and really enjoyed watching them slaughter the Raiders in what was both the most chippy game I've seen in a long time, and the worst officiated game I have ever seen in my life. But knowing that the Steelers are capable of roundly beating a pretty good team in spite of referees entirely bent on the Steelers losing. They played like champs yesterday. It's just a shame they refused to come at Brady the way they came at Oakland yesterday. Let's hope this was the turning point for the team, and they're getting the fire back that they had the first couple games this season.

After the game, more Witchblade, though I didn't get to pay attention much because people started to arrive for gaming, so I'll have to go back and re-watch those eps. Gaming was fun, though a bit more research and investigation and stealth that it probably should've been, as a couple characters got a bit left out. It was only second session; I'm sure things will pick up as the GM gets more of a feel for the group. Overall the game's a lot of fun. I've never actually played in a Cinematic Unisystem game outside of a con, only run them. So that's cool.

Short week this week at work due to Thanksgiving. It should (knock on wood) be a pretty quiet one, too, once I get through The Big Meeting today. I took Monday off so I have a 5-day weekend. Monday is opening day of Buck season, but I'm not sure I'll get out to hunt as I need to make sure I'm caught up on school. I'm looking forward to the days off (even though only 4 of the 5 are actually OFF, since Thanksgiving is a lot of running around and high-activity). I really need some time to recollect myself away from reality. I wonder if I can write 35,000 words plus schoolwork in one weekend?

The nice thing: after Thanksgiving there's only 3 1/2 weeks before I get 11 days off, which is kicked off (no pun intended) by taking Julie to her first Steelers game. That should be awesome. She is very excited, and I'm feeling no small amount of anticipation myself.

The first three early reader reports on Charlie Morning and Mr. Night came in--all ravingly positive. That's always nice. Unfortunately, the lack of criticism means I'm not sure exactly how to tackle the rewrites next month, but I'll dive in and just do it, see what happens. Couple reports are yet to come in, from people who are more likely to blast it, so we'll see what they say. Dare I hope I can actually find a market for this? Send me prayers and vibes. It would be really awesome if this one was my ticket.

Okay, I guess that's all for today, folks. I'm out, and remember: That was the year that will go down as the year we were all introduced to Chinese Turkey.