I feel like I haven't had much use for the internet lately.  I haven't had much of a desire to just sit and surf like I used to.  Other than compulsively checking news sites, which I do more frequently from my blackberry than my computer, I just haven't been on the web a lot.   Outside of spending time with my family and friends my main distractions have been reading and video games.

Reading
I discovered a book series called The Song of Ice and Fire which I have been avidly reading.  I have always heard the posters on RPG.net constantly talking up the series as one of the best in low-magic medieval fantasy.  Then it was announced that HBO was going to be making the first book in the series, A Game of Thrones, into a miniseries.  So I decided that this must be the real thing and picked up the first book.  I was not disappointed.  A Game of Thrones is a tragedy of fools in an epic style.  A story of how one noble house tries to stage a clandestine coup for the throne of the Seven Kingdoms of Westros, the man that tries to stop them, and the civil war that results.  This book defines the phrase "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" as we see several of the central characters compromise their values for some greater reward or greater good.  I have already started on the second book, A Clash of Kings, which is off to a great start.

Video Games
Between reading I have been fixated on the Xbox game Fables 2.  Its a pretty great RPG that has a kind of SIMS element to it.  You can go on quests to defeat the big bad evil and at the same time you can buy business and real estate, conduct trade, find and work jobs, and date and get married and have kids.  I don't quite understand the last part as my current character who has a Purity of almost 100% has been married and divorced twice and in both cases the divorced woman killed herself.   Very weird.

I was also rather addicted to a couple of Facebook games for about two weeks, but now that has worn off.

Birthdays
My birthday is Friday and I have the day off.  I plan on having birthday dinner with the family that night.

On May 23 we celebrated Hailey's 8th birthday.  Many of Hailey's family and friends where there, including Hailey's paternal grandmother Debbie who came all the way down from Ohio with her sister and mother.  We had a great time and nobody got sick on the hamburgers and hot dogs I grilled.  Everyone got Hailey some sort of Littlest Pet Shop toy or some clothes, so I decided to get her a couple of fun little experiment kits that we could do together.  We have only gotten to scratch the surface of them so far, but hope to do more soon.

Job Hunting
I'm looking for a part-time job again.  So far I have applied at 2 Barnes & Nobles, 3 Game Stops, 2 Targets, 2 Krogers and 3 Walmarts.  No luck so far.  Even part time jobs are competitive right now.  The B&N in Las Colinas received around 250 applications for one available part-time position.

Love and Apartment Hunting
Christine and I have been looking at apartments.  My lease is up at beginning of September and we decided to move in together.  We have looked at what seems like about a dozen different places, mostly in Euless, and have found one we really like.  We have applied for it and hope to here some good news soon.  The quandary I have is telling my old fashion mother about this development.  She won't approve of us "living in sin", but ultimately she doesn't really have a say so in it.  I hate to hurt her feelings but we have to do what we think is best for us and if we don't move in together now it would be over a year before we would have the chance to again.

I did the whole christian, wait till your married to have sex and move in together thing the first time and that didn't work out well at all.   This time as I consider the future with the woman I love I am trying to be more practical about it, but still preserve some of the romance and idealism.  I love Christine very much and hope to propose to her and marry her in the very near future.  I'm very excited.

Plants
The plant my grandmother gave me about 5 years ago isn't doing so well.  We thought the problem might be that it needed to be repotted but since repotting the plant it has started to look worse.  But in anticipation of its impending death C & I went out and got several more plants.   I like plants.