I don't talk as much about my daughter as I do my son. I don't know why other than I'm constantly amazed by his accomplishments. Sofia's amazing, too, but her "magic" is so much less demonstrative. I have a feeling that she will probably have the "bigger impact" on the world when all is said and done: she'll either end up some scientist that invents something brilliant or else she's going to wind up being some sort of famous film or music-related celebrity. But none of that is anything happening right now (other than she can astound people when she sits down at a piano in a hotel lobby)...right now she is this incredibly sweet, funny, friendly kid who just likes to smile and snicker and play. Since we brought my mom's piano home, not a day goes by without the sounds of music filling the house at some point. Right now it's a big Christmas piece she's working on. Delightful.
Yes, you heard me...delightful. I'm one of those curmudgeonly types that gets annoyed with people who start their Christmas-ing before Thanksgiving. Usually. This year has been...different. The "yacht rock" radio station that has long been on our satellite car radio...since at least 2019 as it helped soothe our nerves through the entire pandemic...disappeared a couple weeks ago to be replaced by the "Hallmark" channel which plays nothing but holiday music. And Sofia, of course, LOVES holiday music and so we've been listening to it, whenever we're out driving to one of her various things: school, church, soccer, basketball, piano, guitar. Whatever. And darned if I haven't gotten in to it, too. Like the yacht rock, it's soothing on the nerves.
Well, most of it (I'm not really into the "hip hop Christmas" stuff...give me Andy Williams or Nat King Cole any day of the week).
So, yeah. I've started the holidays early. I think we got our first thing of eggnog the week after Halloween? That went fast, and I haven't replaced it yet. Still have our "Autumnal" wreath on the door, but evergreen one is coming. We've got tickets to Mexico for Christmas...took us a while because they're so damn expensive (you can fly to Japan for half the price!). Not sure if that's just because the current administration is only interested in people taking one-way trips south of the border or what (*sigh*), but since they've made damn sure that's my in-laws can't renew their visas till 2027 (*sigh*) we must purchase four tix if we want to see our family, rather than just flying mis suegros up here. Too bad for the local economy, of course, as we'll be doing all our shopping down there...but then Trump has been nothing if not hard on the local economy.
But enough of that...I've been in the holiday spirit, as I said, and I've been focusing on other things. My son, who I gush about far too much, has his first national volleyball tournament for his club in Los Angeles in a couple weeks, and he and I will be flying down there with the team. The last couple days we were at a local "exhibition" tournament...it was pretty wild. He's a U15, but his team was playing in the U16 division...four matches in the group stage on Saturday with two matches on Sunday in the playoff bracket; when not playing or warming up he and his teammates acted as line judges and scorekeepers for the various games going on non-stop on four courts in an airplane hangar-like gymnasium (they were running U14, U16, and U18 divisions...all men's volleyball). Holy smoke...what an event! And the L.A. one is supposed to be a LOT bigger...I can hardly imagine.
Anyway, their team is great and pretty talented. They ended up winning their division, winning in straight sets for both of their playoff games. They were rotating liberos between Diego and another, more experienced kid (except for D and Jesus, all the other kids have been together for two or three seasons), but by Sunday's championship game it was just Diego, clearly in command, exhibiting presence and leadership on the court, making spectacular saves, picking up his teammates...all the usual "Diego" stuff. When they were down 18-9 in th second set of their first playoff match, Diego came in as a DS to serve 15 straight points and put them up 24-18...he didn't come out after that. Just great stuff from the kid. We had been contemplating trying to get to his soccer game Sunday afternoon and said we'd think about it after we saw how the morning match went...he came of the court and just said "I'm staying for the volleyball."
[fortunately the club was playing the no-win bottom of their division and got a 4-2 result even without their captain]
But it was an exhausting weekend. Diego had a hard time getting up this morning (he still has a couple days of school before break)...though he's excited because "cousin Spencer" is picking him up from school today! Yes, my 27-year old "nephew" is back in town...all 6'1", 205# of baby-faced kid. He just finished up a year long stint of chefing at some fancy restaurant across the street from the Opera House, and now he's back in the PNW before doing another jaunt, this time in Japan (his dad's originally from Canada so he has joint citizenship and can do a work exchange on the maple leaf passport). Anyway, hanging with us all weekend at the volleyball stuff, he's taking Diego rock-climbing this afternoon (just what my kid needs...to be introduced to another recreational hobby...). Fingers-crossed that Diego doesn't fall asleep in class or on the boulder....
Hopefully, I'll get a chance to run some D&D for Spence while he's in town...I know he digs that. He's heading out to Spokane on Wednesday (Thanksgiving with his mom's mom), so our window is tight, especially with the kids' soccer practice on Tuesday. Wait, wait...just checking and it looks like they might have the night off!. All right, maybe Tuesday evening then. If we DO get our game on, I've already decided I'll be breaking out C1: The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan...a perfect little scenario for Diego, Sofia, and Spencer.
Mmm...looking through Ye Old Blog archives, I don't see I've ever written much of anything abou Tamoachan. It's a decent enough tournament adventure...probably my favorite of all the old TSR tournament modules (looking at both the A- and C- series). I've run it at least two or three times in the past, usually with the three pre-gens designed for the scenario. It's pretty tight, design-wise, and even though it's a fairly linear gauntlet (much like the tournament portion of S1) it has a ton of flavor and a lot of interesting bits and bobs. Though, man...I don't think I've run it since the early 90s (maybe the early 2000s...?). I should probably give it a quick re-read. I have no idea how the thing holds up in my current "paradigm" of game play, but Philippe ran it at Cauldron for some folks who had a good time...it should still work for a one-off.
Other than that....
I'm working on the book. It's slow going. I started writing the section on running combat...turns out this could probably be a whole book, in and of itself. Which is not really what I want, so I probably need to rethink the section.
It's tough. I'm trying to condense and consolidate decades of knowledge and essays into a practical guidebook that IDEALLY would have a smaller page count than any of the existing (AD&D) rulebooks. It's a rather daunting prospect. This is far less about writing "AD&D for Dummies" and more like a Strunk & White's Elements of Style. Lord, how I wish I'd studied technical writing in college. Maybe I should go back and re-read my Strunk & White...it's still on the book shelf somewhere.
Yeah. Probably going to end up bigger than S&W.
But I am writing. A little bit óvery day. Except when I'm at all day volleyball tournaments. But OTHERwise...one brick at a time. Just laying one brick at a time.
*sigh*
I should be publishing a couple adventures soon, too, depending on my illustrator's time schedule. Hopefully I'll have a couple PDFs out by year's end. We'll see. December tends to fly by when you're in the midst of holiday cheer with friends and family. And now that my brother's hash is finally settled (he was evicted on the 12th...a day before my birthday)...I need to put the sale of my mother's house into overdrive. Sofia and I might be working on that a bit the next couple days, depending on when I can borrow my buddy's junk hauler. A lot to do but it is finally getting done. Finally.
Mm.
My apologies...did not mean for this post to slide into a downer note. It's the gosh darn holiday season! And I'm excited about all the stuff I've got on my plate right now. Yes, the busy-ness is off the charts. Yes, finding time to take a breath is a challenge. BUT:
- volleyball tournaments
- guitar recitals
- holiday feasts and get-togethers
- trips to see family and friends in Mexico
- school Christmas concerts
- running D&D
- publishing adventures
- writing books
- closing my deceased mom's estate
And just listening to cheerful music as I drive around town on my various errands...man, that is all GOOD STUFF. I am enjoying myself. I am really, thoroughly enjoying myself.
And I'll admit, part of it is that I'm home in Seattle for Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday of the year) and that I get to eat some God-honest turkey for a change. I seem to be the only person in my family that craves a drumstick and a pile of apple-sausage stuffing drenched in gravy. My goodness! I am SO looking forward to Thursday!
Hope ALL of you have a happy one...I pray that all of you find some joy in season, and find a way to share that joy with others. Even a smile goes a long way this time of year.
Cheers.
: )
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