More Dangerous Food
Skyline Chili! has opened in Lansing (107 W. Allegan - no parking to speak of). Oh, yum... but very, very bad for the BG. 151 at bedtime (but 108 this am so all is well), so I guess Skyline Chili will be a "once in a while" thing for me.

What I'm reading...
Killer Pancake, by Diane Mott Davidson. Entertaining (if light) mysteries featuring a caterer and centered around food. I've been borrowing the books as audiobooks from East Lansing Public Library, and missing one of the nifty features of the books -- recipes!

Of course, they're full of sugar and butter and cream, stuff that's off my diabetic diet, but at least I can enjoy them vicariously.

I had enough difficulty finding a chronological list that I reproduce it here for convenience:
1. Catering to Nobody
2. Dying for Chocolate
3. The Cereal Murders
4. The Last Suppers
5. Killer Pancake
6. The Main Corpse
7. The Grilling Season
8. Prime Cut
9. Tough Cookie
10. Sticks & Scones
11. Chopping Spree

Neil Gaiman has a weblog, and (not surprisingly) it's very entertaining.

Krispy Kreme Update
Okay, I'm weak. Very weak. The good news is that despite succumbing to the evil Krispy Kreme (and dang - they really are that good!) I had a healthy lunch and got a little exercise, and at 3pm BG was 86. Whew. As with all things, moderation.

Jae Viewed as Chocolate...
Results...: "
Nice and Sweet and not too overbearing, you are
Milk Chocolate. Everyone likes you to some
extent, and a lot of people love you more than
they love their cat.


What Kind of Chocolate are You?
brought to you by Quizilla"

Doomed. I am doomed.
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Coffee has opened less than a mile from my house. The only saving grace is that it's west, and I rarely head that way.

BG was 122 this am, even after having taken a glucovance 2.5/500 at bedtime (suggesting that my bedtime BG might have been a tad high -- I didn't check). There are Krispy Kreme donuts in the break room (courtesy of the boss) and I don't know how much longer I can resist them... Some days diabetes is hell.

Every so often one finds a 404 page with a sense of humor.
Cannot find server appears to originate in HP Lovecraft's universe.

Saturday I stopped in to visit Colleen (friend of many years and mother to two of the most adorable children I've ever known) and she loaned me the first four episodes of
Nip/Tuck. Drat. Now I'm hooked on this somewhat perverse soap opera about two plastic surgeons. Julian McMahon is a joy to watch (.Profiler, Charmed), and his character is spectacularly amoral. Add sex (lots of it) and surgical scenes graphic enough to make me flinch and it's a fascinating mix.

Like I need more TV to watch!

This is not where I meant to be at this point in my life. The clock is inexorably ticking toward 50, and instead of planning for early retirement and the little bookstore/game store of my dreams. Instead, I am scratching away at barely above minimum wage, scrambling from one temporary job to the next. Long sentence, sad, short story. If I think about it too much, it's depressing.

Eric the singing cashier.
I stopped into the Meijer's across the street from my condo to pick up sushi for dinner yestereve. Meijer's is one of those huge discount stores where waits in line are commonly 15-20 minutes. You don't just "run in" to Meijer's, and when you add my lousy line karma (any line I get into is guaranteed to stop or slow down, especially if I have something frozen) I was resigned to a miserable wait.

The cashier, whose name (I think) was Eric, serenaded the line as we trudged through, in a quite pleasant voice. From "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" through "Stop In the Name of Love", he warbled cheerily and generally brightened the atmosphere around him. Good work Eric on Lane 7! (or whatever his name is -- I am also terrible with names)

Who knew that Meijer's would have a floor show?

Well, that was exciting! The great blackout of 2003 -- and I skated through it relatively unscathed. My power went out, but it came back fairly quickly and I was able to finish the current LF scenario (due today, of course). No cable, and that drove me nuts because I'm a news junkie when there's a crisis. The radio wasn't very helpful -- pretty much mostly music, alas -- and the CNN streaming web feed (via dialup -- no cable, no cable modem) just kept repeating the same clip over and over.

But hey, I was able to work on what I needed, and my house was comfortable in the heat. I looked out my study window on a blacked out neighborhood behind me. I count myself fortunate.

So... I finished Incursion (thanks, Morrie, for the hand-holding!), but it was 4:30 am. Right now I'm fine... according to sleep experts you can function on a 2 hour nap... but maaaaan... I'm dreading when the time comes to pay the sleep debt.

2 more scenarios and various miscellaneous paperwork to crunch through this weekend.

Onward and upward!

Just snatching a few minutes from work to update -- I've never been good at keeping diaries!

Paying off bills, especially those of such long duration, has been a good feeling. It's depressing how quickly the money disappears, especially since a number of them have grown a bit even since I put in for funds from the Trust. Still, I'll be coming out of it much better off than I began, so I guess I can't complain. Okay, I can complain, but don't really feel like I have the right. A lot of folks faced with my medical and tax bills don't have any resources to fall back to, and would end up out on the street.

I haven't made any progress on the scenario I have to rewrite, and time is now growing short. If I don't get the bulk of it done this weekend, I'm in deep doodoo... so I just have to. Fortunately there aren't any other claims on my time till Sunday evening, so if I can refrain from my usual procrastination I may be okay. Writing is hard work -- I've had times in my life where the words just forced their way out, but this isn't one of them. On t'other hand, the penalty for procrastinating too long will be removal as Living Force Campaign director... I suppose there's a part of me that wants that. It would certainly free up my time! I've made a commitment, though, and when I talk to the players -- the majority who do appreciate and enjoy the campaign -- it's worth it.

I'm gaming a fair bit -- if I were truly committed, I'd quit those games. I guess I'm not, though, because I really look forward to them. They're my social life now.

The Games
Daggerford -- we've got a shared blog at http://daggerford.blogspot.com/, though none of us really update it all that frequently. I'm really enjoying the game -- we started as first level characters together, and have developed from nobodies to people of some influence in their adopted home town (Daggerford, in the Forgotten Realms).

Back to work... more later perhaps...

I never did get my own Gencon badge, but having Ed Greenwood's made it a subject of amusement rather than irritation. Living Force went well; the trilogy was well received, and the interactive was a huge hit. I have to credit the volunteers with the success of the interactive -- I gave over control to Maryrita Steinhour, handed everyone their parts and voila! Instant interactive. August Hahn was amazing (as always) as Thurm Loogg, and thanks to Rick Bruner, I was able to capture it on video. Rick is sending me a CD & videotape, and, since he actually does this video thing for a living, is doing some editing. I hope to be able to make it available at cost to anyone who wants a copy.

My personal life continues to be the same old grind -- every spare moment is devoted to getting scenarios out for Living Force, when it's not other campaign materials. I'm having some trouble "finding the fun" these days. I haven't seen a movie since May; I'd really like to see Pirates of the Carribean while it's still on the big screen, but need to have a scenario rewritten by the 15th. *sigh*

I paid my back property taxes yesterday; that was a great relief. Now, on to the medical bills, since I'm being sued for the Sparrow Hospital bills.

AM BG: 124 -- yesterday it was 150. Low point yesterday was 83, just before I went over to Curves to exercise. Oddly, it was 95 before I ate at 7:30, though I hadn't had anything to eat. I did do some grocery shopping -- I wonder if being hungry/getting food cues induces the body to put out sugar? Certainly my BG seems to rise when I'm fasting, and I can't help but wonder if there's something additional wrong that I should be treating. There's so much about diabetes I don't know yet. I just really need to find a job with health insurance so that I can see an endocrinologist.