Well today is full of exciting events. I got up late, as I have been recently since I have been working so late at the hospital, and packed up my hotel room (which turned out to be very fortuitous indeed) and went out to lunch at the Double T Diner in Annapolis with John. We had a nice lunch and talked about work and then I headed into the office in DC. I got to the office to find that the new signature pad that I have been waiting for had arrived and so had the new truck mounting system for the laptop. So now we are really ready to dig into our new hardware down here.
While I was down here we realized that our lease for 13 Observatory Cirlce was due to expire tomorrow (Saturday) and that we had to deal with all of the moving out stuff or arrangements of some sort by tomorrow (or more realistically, tonight.) Since this involved coordinating with an awful lot of people, it became quite the undertaking. So we talked to Lifestyle Properties and they agreed to rent us the house at a reduced rate for part of the month. However, once you add in the water, electric and gas costs into that equation, quite quickly it became more expensive than staying in a hotel by more than $1000 just in a two week period. So that didn’t set well with our wallets and so we are looking into alternatives. The final decision is that we are moving out as quickly as possible and figuring out what to do after the fact. So this will be an adventure. I plan to be staying in Washington for the next two weeks and getting a ton of work completed down here. Min will stay at a hotel in Ithaca or Cortland. I am not sure what Andy is going to do yet. Bob is trying to find a place to keep all of his stuff until the fifth when he can move into his new apartment.
Ok, another change of plans. Lifestyles lowered our rent until it was practical for us to keep renting from them. So we will be renting in Ithaca for another two weeks. Wow, what an adventure that turned out to be. What a mess. But at least life will be more convenient now.
Andy found some really exciting news today! Earthbound, or Mother 2 as some of you know it, is releasing soon as a double cart (along with the elusive Mother 1) on the Game Boy Advance. This is very exciting for those of you who are familiar with the SNES version of Earthbound. Josh and I originally bought the game when it first released and I remember the two of us playing it for two straight days and calling each other every couple of hours to see who was ahead of the other and where they had gotten stuck. We had the best time. The game even game with a scratch and sniff pad to add some realism to the other-worldly locations that you travel to in the game. Andy and Dominica have since played the game. Earthbound is the best console game that I have ever played, the only one to ever hold my attention like that. I am totally excited that it is coming out for the GBA. It might worth owning a GBA just to be able to play this game. There is also a rumor that a new sequel, Mother 3, will be coming shortly there after as well. That may be the most exciting news, because many of us in the Earthbound/Mother fan community have long awaited a sequel that Nintendo has teased us with for years but has never actually released. Mother 64 / Earthbound 64 was one of the original games that they hyped with the Nintendo 64 and many of us bought the console eagerly awaiting that game and it never came to fruition. Everyone should run out and buy both of these great titles for the GBA and show Nintendo that there is still a strong community committed to the Mother / Earthbound games. Maybe if there are enough sales, Nintendo will finally decide to continue the series like they have with Mario and Zelda. From the fanatical following that the game has generated, it would appear to have the opportunity to become the King’s Quest of its time. To really be a strong, cult, franchise.
Since I am not really moving tonight, I have to spend a long evening, again, at the hospital center getting things working more and more smoothly. One little baby step at a time.
I got dinner at the hospital. Veggie Pizza and Mac-n-Cheese (or Mac-n-Salt as would be more appropriate.) Food is really cheap at the hospital, though, as long as you have ID. I can’t imagine spending more that $7 and $4 will often feed you easy. While eating dinner, I listened to some of “Life, the Universe and Everything” on my laptop. I love Douglas Adams’ books.
When the truck finally got back from Providence Hospital, I found out that our laptop had been stolen. This is the second time that the laptop has been stolen out of the cab of the truck. What a great evening I am having now. So I had to spend a great deal of time dealing with that disaster and now I have to get up early in the morning to go and get another computer and configure it so that they can use it on the truck! Then, it turns out, we are missing some vital code that we need down here in DC so Andy and I had to stay up late working on that as well. It has been a really long night. I did get to take Brainbench exam, though, so at least the evening was not entirely wasted.