Ok folks, I'm back on GS, day off of work today, which is rare in its own right. But, I just LOVE the timing in my life. The A/C is down, and there's some sort of "heat wave" going on, meaning it's probably hotter in this house than outside. I have every fan we own going at full blast right now, and I have one aimed at myself and my computer as I type this. We called about getting it fixed, but it seems like everyone in the county has theirs broken as well...so there's a very long wait. I don't do well in this heat, so when I went out to mail birthday cards to my mom and sister (whose birthdays are 4 days apart), I realized it could...or, excuse me, would be worse. My car was an oven. My house is situated between 3 different towns, so I debated over which one I should go to. Umm...how about the one to the south? Which, oddly enough, was the furthest town...which had a Wal-Mart. I got to Wally Worldto get the cards, then to the post office, to pay $.88 to get the stamps, mail it out, then decided I really didn't want to go back home, so I went to Zaxby's and waited 30 minutes for my food. Then I sat there for an hour trying to figure out how to beat the heat. My solution: go back home. So I drove back home, and, of course, no one is home, they all went shopping in the largest town in this part of my wonderfully steamin' hot home state of Georgia with my mother-in-law. So, as I sweat bullets in the summer heat (technically not summer for another 8 days), I sit here, dreaming about my A/C working and me taking on Super Mario Galaxy 2. Which I wish I had. That money I had reserved for that will go to this month's power bill...Gotta love it, people!!

I think I had a few solutions if anyone else is suffering along with me (who would wanna do that??):

I don't own this game but go play the first Lost Planet, knowing there is ice EVERYWHERE.

Go play any level on NSMB Wii World 3--you know, the ice world? Just looking at that cools me off...

I'm sure there are more games with ice (Mega Man, Adventure Island, any snowboarding game--my favorite was SSX Tricky) but I'm too hot to think straight...

Now, where'd that bag of ice run off to?

Wow...I just got back after a week away from home and from GS. We went to the beach for Spring Break since the kids are out of school for the week, so I took a week off work and we all went to Myrtle Beach for the week. Wow, I don't remember in the 10 years we've been going there that it has ever been that crowded. O-well, in spite of the people wearing things I didn't want my girls seeing for a few more years (which, meaning, they were not wearing much of anything, like there was a battle of who could legally dress to being naked without being arrested for indecent exposure), we did have a good time, and got to see some sights, and got to see my mom, her husband, and my oldest and youngest sisters, and my 8-year-old nephew. Anyway, they fed us most of the time I was there, so there wasn't much eating out to be done. Fine with me, save me a dollar. The aggravating leg of the trip, after we had discussed whether we should try to stay another night there, we decided to go back home. When we did, we encountered a nasty set of storms heading back up to our corner of the world. Not only that, but when we cleared that, we find out the highway that takes us to our shortcut is CLOSED for 5 months, and the detour took us another hour out of our way! Unbelievable! I should also take time to mention that I do NOT do well with detours of ANY kind. I was driving back this time, and I was NOT happy by this change of events. Since I know I was being tested (why, God?), I tried to keep my mouth shut. At least we had good ole Garmin helping us out with turn-by-turn directions, we eventually made it back to home sweet home, and were in our driveway by 11:55 pm. So, it only took us 1 1/2 hours more than it would normally take us...I've learned that...well, what did I learn?

1) Take what you're given, and work with it.

2) Not all plans (or most plans for the most part) work, as they will be changed for whatever reason, only the good Lord knows why.

3) Sitting and waiting for your family to shop (which I don't care much for) to do is a good excuse to complete that obnoxiously difficult game you have been trying to clear...and that in those times, the DS is your friend.

4) I am already ready for another vacation.

Back to the real world, people. Am I truly ready to go back, though?

Have you had any crazy/nutty/frustrating/maddening experiences while on vacation? I'd LOVE to hear them!

e

I love to play games, and lately it seems I've been so busy trying to make ends meet that I can't get online to blog, or review, or anything. I normally am here on GameSpot on weekends, and some weekends I end up having to work, or something comes up, and I don't have time to play like I used to years ago. Don't get me wrong; I am thankful for my job, God knows we all need one. I also play keyboards at our home church (and, yes, Sundays are out of the question most of the time), and am a guest musician playing the piano for other churches in our area (for revivals, mainly. If I need to explain that, please email me and I'll be glad to). When I'm not doing that, well...I'm working.

I don't know how anyone gets the time to play endless games and beat them in a week, or all this time to level up their GameSpot page, or any of that--notice, I'm a pitiful Level 5 as I type this. Even when I'm not playing piano, keyboards, or singing, I'm doing something (or it won't get done). I don't work too hard, but sometimes I wonder...

Am I just doing too much?

e