Another good, lazy day today, at least so far. Jim and I slept until about noon, and were already slowly coming awake when Mike called and invited us (via the answering machine) to come over and game. I got immediately stressed at the thought, since I'd been looking forward to not having anything to do today, but I took it slowly and thought it through and decided I'd really be much happier staying home and reading while Jim went and gamed. Jim was a bit surprised, since I've been mentioning lately that I don't get to play enough board games, but it was pretty clear to me that I really needed the downtime. So I laid in bed while he got up and showered, and then hugged him goodbye and went to the living room, where I sprawled on the couch and read The Phoenix Guards for a few hours. I haven't finished it yet, but I'm most of the way through at this point and it's just beautiful. Not for everyone; it's a Dumas pastiche, and I think you have to appreciate the style and language for its own sake to really enjoy the book. I tried reading it when it first came out, ages ago, and didn't like it, but since then (starting with Jane Austen) I've grown to enjoy more complex prose.

After about an hour of reading I started getting stir-crazy, so I came in here -- my incredibly messy but well-loved computer room -- and played Migh and Magic VII for a while. Usually I love the game, but it was really, really frustrating, so much so that I've given up on it for today and decided to write here instead. I think what's going on is that the area I'm in is too difficult for the level my characters are at, but after all the work it took to get there I don't want to give up and go back to an easier part of the game. Then again... getting killed every few minutes is pretty boring. How on earth did Dave and John manage to deal with this when their characters were my level? Did I badly misunderstand them?

Sailor Moon last night was fun, although it didn't start until an hour after we'd meant to. Initially this was due to my desire for broccoli/cheese soup from Jamba Juice, but when Marith and I got back from the soup run Chrisber still hadn't shown up -- so in the end it wasn't my fault that we were late. It turned out that he'd gotten stuck at a company dinner thing. Nobody seemed to mind too much, anyway, since there'd been entertaining conversation while waiting. People seemed to have forgotten some of the story arc, but they caught up again quickly and everyone seemed to enjoy the episodes. I didn't freak out, happily, but was a little restless; I was still in conversation mode and could have easily spent the rest of the night chatting instead of watching television.

Tonight I'm plotting dinner at Clarke's, which is a very whole-hearted burger place. They have the only corndogs I've found made with beef, so I can safely eat them within my somewhat relaxed set of Kosher rules. Afterwards I want to take Jim to a movie, either Shakespeare in Love or A Midsummer Night's Dream, depending on which he wants to see and what times are convenient. We haven't done a date-thing in ages, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Hmn. Time to go finish The Phoenix Guards. Jim should be getting home soon.