Well, let's see how many of my summer game scenarios I can write out entirely while I'm in the hospital Monday. Or while I'm recuperating Tuesday and Wednesday.

I've got piles of Sindbad games to write up...

AH,Christmas is past (and New Yers now) so I have started on my annual first fury of conventioneering.

Nudge letters have gone to the entire Hex Staff and the Knomes and a few of our friends that aren't knomish (yet) asking what people's plans are, what games they're running, and what the game descriptions are (for Origins and Gencon games). Whee!

Then I made my submissions to Marcon (they bounced, and allegedly the bug is fixed, so I need to submit again) and asked Indie Games Explosion about getting about their registration wagon for Dexcon in '10.

Now to get BASHcon squared away.

So, I decided my Sindbad game for the 2010 season, and decided to make it more Hollywood Arabian Nights fantasy. So I needed this and that, and the caliphate is in danger, and the enemy should be--?

Hmm. So I started looking for just who Harun's big enemies were. The biggest threat to his tenure of the throne was his nephew, Ja'far ibn Musa al-Hadi, son of his elder brother. Their father, al-Mahdi, had decided to fiddle with the succession long after he was dead though (arguably to get Harun's mother off his back.) So, his will said that al-Hadi got the throne, and when he died Harun got the throne--even if al-Hadi had a son, which he did.

Well, when al-Hadi conveniently expired, the Barmicid viziers and the imperial bureaucracy favored Harun, and the army favored Ja'far.

And to find the real story, I need to get v. 30 of SUNY's translation of Tabari's history. Gah!

So now you know what I want for Christmas :-)

Sigh.

So, there are some people I follow (athletes, actors, musicians etc.) and when I don't see them for a while I go looking for news.

Yesterday I read that one of the professional wrestlers I've always enjoyed watching, Jamie Noble, retired, at the age of 32. Back, neck and shoulder issues--imagine that.

Damn. There weren't many of the "Not hulking brute" school left in the big leagues, and I'll miss his style.

Well, if nothing else this past weekend gave me the time to decide what my core games will be for 2010.

Edison Force vs. the Martians
Sindbad and the Sword of Kingship
M-Town Vice: A Funkadelic Frankenstein Adventure
It's the End of the World, Charlie Brown!

And for my kids in St. Louis, Spellsinger part 3 is entitled "Support Your Local Shire Reeve."

I finally broke down last week.

Monday I visited friends with cat, dog and rabbit, and got shunted into the seat by the rabbit. I lasted a half hour before I had to either leave or have an asthma attack.

Tuesday I called the allergist and made an appointment to get myself tested so I can restart allergy shots. My life is getting too restricted by avoiding places where the allergens dwell (and since all animal danders and dust are high on the allergen list, you can see where that might be a problem--especially given that every SCAdian seems to have at least one cat.)

Keep your fingers crossed. I might be able to live like a real person again eventually.

Somewhere towards the end of last weekend, some plant of terror began to pollenate and like a good boy I did what my doctor prefers me to do, take antihistamines rather than a antihstamine-decongestant combo. Result, I still reacted to the pollen and did not drain the sinuses, resulting in a sinus infecion.

Wednesday is an entirely blur to me. I slept almost all the way through it, and broke the fever that way. But there was still draining to do, and the rest of the week my body was going "Just let me sleep!"

So, it you talked to me this week and I was less communiative than usual, that's why.

So, this is the synopsis of the books I'm cataloguing:

"It is an argument over pineapple pizza that finally prompts jewelry-maker Suzannah to leave her stale marriage for a ramshackle cabin in the foothills of Wyoming's majestic Teton Range. As she strings necklaces, she untangles her complicated relationships with the mother she's losing to Alzheimer's, and with the adopted son who's spent his life chasing after his birth mother. But it's her new home's previous owner, easygoing "Marlboro Man" Bo Garrett, who threatens the satisfying life Suzannah is building for herself-and inspires her to explore more fully what it means to truly stand on her own."

That's odd, last time I saw the name Bo Garrett he was not precisely standing and he was definitely not with a woman. Suffice it to say it is not safe to google him from work. :-)

I was directed towards a blog:

http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com

And when I was done laughing my butt off, I bookmarked it so I can read it religiously. It matches my politics rather nicely, and, oh, the turns of phrase touch my heart.

Well, I can say that while I pity the folks out setting up for Pennsic, I was very productive today. I have basic notes written on all the Gencon games that I'd been brick-walled by all summer. No idea what it was about lightning and pour rain that set the gates of creativity open.

I'm most plesed by the background for my "serious" game "Human Resources". All tied up with the political fallout of the first war between the Elohim--no, not the Lucifer one. Gosh how I love messing about with Canaanite religon.

I'll see if I can use down time at Pennsic to finish the details. Yes, I know, gaming's not period, so sue me.