Tomorrow I need to be up at 5 because my shift starts at 6. It’s pretty much just me and Oscar, because (apparently) Theo doesn’t do shit. I will be half way through my shift before the morning games come on. Then I will watch the bulk of my fantasy football fate be decided. Will I win a third consecutive week in the family league and advance to the championship? That’s at least a 2nd place finish, because it would take a miracle to get past the 1 seed. Even if I do advance, I’m doomed in two weeks., I reckon. But however it shakes out, I’ve had a great year. 20-8 combined both teams. And 7 of the 8 were one team. And I won first place in the division WITH A LOSING RECORD! I’m like the 2014 Atlanta Falcons in first place with a 5-8 record (my mark was one better, I finished 6-7) Just crazy this NFL season.

I’ve been thinking about my situation and I can’t help but be grateful. I have a stable job that I enjoy, plenty of opportunity for advancement, and a well balanced neurochemestry. I’m doing a good job keeping myself afloat. I was over at the RV hanging with my parents after we changed the grit in the tumblers. The stones are really shaping up nicely. Some of the colors of those agates and jaspers were quite breathtaking. The jasper has quartz inclusions and they look very striking. And of the yellow and green variety. Truly remarkable specimens. Anyway, my mom accidentally got the tumbler wet and it wouldn’t start at the storage unit so we took it to the RV to do surgery on. Turns out the tumbler is fine. So I left special instructions with my mom on how to set them back up and get them going tomorrow. Then we will have to check back in a week and see how they did finishing the shaping process under the 120/220 grit. Then all that’s really left to do is polish them for two weeks. They come out glassy, and flamboyant with colors, unique with inclusions. They represent combinations of minerals, and are a truly diverse set of original samples. No one can reproduce them; they are as random as chaos itself. And these ones had already been rounded to cabochons before we ever had a chance to polish them. What nature started, we finished, by peeling back the outmost layer of the stones and shining up a brand new surface revealed for the first time, and preserved in all its luster and clarity. So this most recent batch looked just awesome. A great collection of fire agate, moonstone, pink chalcedony, agate, brown, yellow and green jasper. I could go on. The jadeite she found is clear and green. Some of the moss agates in there are amazing, and not just white but orange and pink ones too. So I called over there just now and verified my instructions and confirmed that they will be fired up tomorrow. So then one week Sunday I’ll be checking in on them again and admiring their newest transformation.

You can tell I really like rocks, right? And not just rocks, but the minerals that comprise them.

Nerd.

Anyway. I had some more soup. I hope I beat this bug soon. I’d like my diet to be something a tad more interesting. Other than that, I’m in great spirits. I’m looking forward to double time tomorrow, making for one nice fat paycheck in a couple of weeks. I’m thinking that one will set a new high water mark. With a whole bunch of overtime this pay period, I’m thinking yeah. Oscar offered me his shift today, which is why I was in there for five hours. It’s all fine by me. Besides, I have nothing to lose. My weekends are usually spent waiting until kickoff during the winter. And playing Age Of Empires III.

Speaking of: I just had a sensational game as the Ottomans. On Large Carolina: I started off with the early lead, but maybe only because I used 200 of my starting 400 wood on houses. The rest on a market. I figured: I’m making villagers whether I want to or not, so I might as well have a hefty supply of them on hand come age 2 and the next chance to raise the population ceiling. Soon after age 2 I had a second town center closer to the gold supply on the map. I actually kept the population pretty low. For whatever reason, I was moving along well enough to get through to age 4 before really making a push. I had a 260 population cap, and just cranked on abus guns and janissaries. They were surely the bulk of my army. Next I sprinkled in some spahi and native troops (Cherokee Rifleman and Seminole Sharktooth Bowmen) to put the icing on the cake. I took them in several waves, sending the infantry first which did quite a number on the villagers. In the post game I saw their population reduced by 85% as the first troops entered their base. They surrendered shortly after I had decimated the main base, having then located a second town center and started in with the artillery. I out resourced him, even though he collected about 2000 more wood than I did. I believe my final resource line was around 19000 food, 17000 coin and 13000 wood for a 38 minute game. I razed 49 buildings to his 3. I killed over 250 units and lost under 150. I was out villagered, but I guess that’s ok. I also lost a lot of fame because I failed to recruit a second envoy as I built that extra town center. Eventually I figured it out, but I could have had so much more. the post game summary doesn’t keep track of fame. Only export. If you have it. But I don’t know why you would want to keep track of it. I collects at the same rate no matter what faction you play and only ever changes if you build another town center and task an envoy to it. Then it’s just x2 instead of X1 trickle. It’s fun though, and brings more units into play. I like it. Anyway, that was a one-sided affair from early on. I took 2 of 4 trading posts right from the get go and had him under duress on the 3rd. I destroyed it more than once while just massing troops in the area. From there I just sent clusters to the south and northeast to guard agains edge rushers and to protect the native settlement trading posts. But ultimately there was no need for this. Their small army snuck between my troops and managed to destroy 3 houses before 5 jaeger mercenaries took out the halberdiers and culverins that were causing the problem, and I didn’t lose one of them, even though they were hit repeatedly with cannon fire. I was never threatened again after that. The score must have been over 800 to under 300 by the time it was over.

Goodnight blog. Pleasant dreams.