Anonymous Game Developers (AGDInteractive) have finally, after several years, released their remake of Sierra’s classic Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire.  AGDI has, in the past, created remakes of King’s Quest I and King’s Quest II.  However, these two titles have mysteriously vanished from their website along with any information or mention of them along with the links that used to allow you to download the games.  I no longer know how to get copies of these classics which is extremely sad.

Quest for Glory II can be downloaded, for free, from AGDI’s web site.  I downloaded a copy, since you never know when they are going to abandon their work and forget about it, but do not anticipate having an opportunity to play it for quite some time.  I really hope to have a chance to play it though.  AGDI’s version of the games are generally far superior to Sierra’s ancient originals.

Both KQ1 and KQ2 I played through several times from Sierra back in the day along with other Sierra titles like KQ3 and The Black Cauldron.  But I have never actually played any of the Quest for Glory series so having an opportunity to play one remade by AGDI should prove to be a real treat.  I am confused, though, that they chose to begin with the second title in the series and not to begin with the first.

I did some digging around on the AGDI website and in the forums someone asks what has happened to the original KQ1 and KQ2 downloads and the answer was that they have temporarily been suspended from downloading until an update of some sort can be made available.  If you have never played them, keep an eye open on the web site as the games are truly classics in the strictest sense.  In the mean time, join me in trying out Quest for Glory II.  I know that my old college roomate, Jamie Quaderer, will be excited.  He was playing Quest for Glory IV on his Intel 80486 based PC when we first started college in Flint, Michigan in 1994.

I was completely exhausted this morning and forgot to set my alarm.  Dominica woke me up and asked if I was going to Warren today.  I jumped out of bed and got ready with blinding speed.  I actually did alright this morning, as far as getting ready for work goes, and it probably worked out for the best that I got an extra fourty minutes of sleep.  It was necessary.

Nothing special to report about work today.  Very much “the usual”.  For lunch three of us went out to Baja Fresh on NJ22 near the office.  As we were leaving we discovered a new Georgian restaurant that had just opened next door.  We stopped in and checked out the menu.  The place looks really nice and I am very curious to try out the cuisine.  The plan is for us to go there for lunch next Wednesday.

I left work at five and just barely made it to the shuttle that takes me from the office to the Summit Train Station.  I actually had to run a little bit to catch the shuttle.  Then, when the shuttle got us to the train station, there were huge lines for the ticket machines as well as the human-manned window.  So I gave up and ran for the train which was on the platform.  I just made it!

It is nearly impossible for me to catch the express train to Broad Street Station but on rare occassions it actually works out.  The timing has to be perfect and there is no way for me to buy a ticket.  The really annoying bit is that there is no way for me to buy a round trip ticket in the morning so that this wouldn’t be a problem!  Argh.

The express gets me to Newark very quickly as there are no stops whatsoever between Summit and Newark.  The timing of the train was perfect so that I stepped off of the platform and saw Dominica pulling up in front of the train station.  I had to run to catch her as well, it was just that kind of day, but I did catch her and got a lift home to Eleven80.  It was a very convenient day from that respect.  Almost no walking at all.

On the ride home I completed reading John Man’s 2006 title “Attila“.  Before starting another book I will be catching myself up on podcasts from IT Conversations.

We ordered in some dinner quite early from Golden City and watched a little bit of the sixth season of Frasier.  Dominica has been watching Frasier without me so I have actually missed about half of the episodes thus far.

My PacSafe Metro 200 bag arrived today from Amazon even though Dominica had only ordered it yesterday.  I will not have any call to use it tomorrow but on Friday I will be stuffing everything into it that I need for a day in the city and trying it out.  I look forward to being able to bring everything with me that I might want or need while out in the city without having to pick and choose based on weight, plans and weather.  Because I will be able to carry my digicam into the city on a regular basis hopefully I will be producing many more pictures of life in the New York Metro area.

I am hoping that when I get a NetBook that that will fit into this bag as well although there is every chance that it will not.  This is not a particularly large bag and the books that I often carry only barely fit into it.  A NetBook is very small but it would have to be quite small to have any hope of fitting in.  It sure would be great if it did.  That would do wonders for my soon-to-be very long commute from Peekskill to Manhattan.

The Acer Aspire One, which I am interested in, is 9.8″ x 6.7″ which just might fit.  The book that I tried putting into the bag this evening, “Presentation Zen”, is 9.1″ tall and does fit well, but there is not very much room to spare.

While we are on the topic of Peekskill I should also mention that yesterday we received confirmation that the sellers had signed the paperwork for the house and that it was on its way back over to our lawyer so that the house buying process could continue.  By late this afternoon the paperwork had been received by our attorney’s office and was on its way to our bank in Rochester who should have received it before the end of the day.  So hopefully we will have more status information very soon.  The next major step is the bank’s assesment of the house.

After Dominica went to bed, I had some work that needed to be done this evening so I stayed up late working on that.  No rest for the weary, I guess.

Dominica discovered that the rental’s front right tire was flat this morning on her way into work.  It had been a little soft when we got the car yesterday and the Nissan’s flat tire warning was on but it wasn’t very soft and it was a short drive home so we didn’t worry about it.  It was making some rattling in the front right corner, though, as if there was a suspension problem.  So we are pretty suspicious that someone had a minor accident with it and didn’t tell anyone.  So she had to deal with another flat tire this morning while our car is in the shop with its flat tire being fixed.

My morning was incredibly busy.  I started just after seven and was caught doing deployments as quickly as I could until well after noon!  What a day.

I had plans to have lunch with Ronak today but I was stuck for so long that we had to cancel those.  I was really disappointed as we were planning to go out for rava dosa which I haven’t had in months and then I was going out for coffee and gelatto with Katie for afternoon tea.  I was looking forward to being on Wall today and getting some different food but instead was so busy that I never got to leave home.

I also had to deal with the DL145 G3 today.  It came sans hard drive and power cable and some screws.  The harddrive wasn’t too big of a deal as I was planning to upgrade to larger drives anyway and the screws… are just screws.  The power cable, though, was $115.61 to get replaced from HP!  Wow, was not expecting that.  So that was rather a pain with which to deal this morning in addition to everything else.  It also keeps me from being able to work on that server for another several days.

I got scheduled to work tomorrow morning.  Originally I had some work to do tomorrow but it was on my own schedule.  Most of it I managed to complete ahead of time anyway so it was not a big deal.  The plan was that I would work late tonight and then sleep and then drive up to Frankfort in the morning.  Now I have to work at eight in the morning so we have to drive up tonight and get almost no sleep.  There is every possibility that I won’t be done until after eight tonight.  The constant requirement of one group to make me work very, very late and another to simply expect me to work very, very early even on weekends without any warning is getting to be a bit much.  I am just exhausted.

I did finally work out the issues with the server and we are getting reimbursed by the company that sold it to us.  It took lots of emails and phone calls to make that happen.  I didn’t need more stuff going on today.  I also had to pay some bills and send out the mail.

It was around one o’clock when I finally made it out to look for some lunch.  I decided that I needed to try something different so I went to Nicki’s on Mulberry.  Still just one block away.  I got a fried flounder sandwich and some hummus and pita bread and sat there alone reading “Attila”.

My afternoon wasn’t quite as bad as the morning but it was still very busy.  No time to relax.

Originally we had hoped that we could have gotten our tired taken care of last evening while we waited.  Dominica had called the shop and they had told her that it would take about an hour.  Then, when we got there, it couldn’t be done yesterday evening and we had to wait about an hour just to get a ride back home.

Today, Dominica spent the whole day just trying to figure out when the car would be done.  She had been hoping to have been able to have picked the car up on her lunch break because there was no good way for her to get the car after work because she had to pick up Oreo from daycare.  I called early this morning and they were going to “look into it”.  Then later Dominica called and they didn’t even remember that they had our car.  She waited an extra hour before taking lunch but they did not get to her car by that point.

Then, Dominica was unable to get an answer at a quarter after five, after she stayed late in the office to get a hold of the shop, as to whether or not the car was going to be done for the weekend.  So she had to leave work late and drive to the dealer just to find out if she could pick up the car or not.  So even if she doesn’t manage to get the car she is stuck in rush hour traffic on a Friday night when we need to pack and get onto the road to Frankfort before it gets too late.

I did a little packing before Dominica got home.  Mostly just getting my CPAP ready.  Not much but it helps.  We are only gone for two days.  There is only so much to pack.  I put all of my electronic “stuff” into my laptop backpack to get that ready as well.  My BlackBerry is out of power so no Twitter updates from the road this evening.

Dominica and Oreo got home around a quarter until seven.  Then Dominica set to getting us ready to travel.  After getting us packed she and Oreo took a nap to wait for me to wrap up for the evening.

I wrapped up my work around eight.  I am going to post before we leave Newark this evening so that you get an update before morning.  I will not be getting online when we reach Frankfort tonight – just going straight to bed.

I am hoping to discover that the load noise being produced by our car recently was caused by the horribly degraded tires.  It is quite possible that the car will be quiet again.  That would be nice.  We are sad that we had to get new tires before moving to Westchester as the New Jersey road are just terrible for our tires and really rip them apart quickly.

WordPress freaked out on me just as I was posting tonight.  I hope that I did not lose too much of the post that I worked on today.    Once in a while it logs me out but does not tell me and lets me keep working on my post. Then when I click “publish” it does not publish but goes to the log in screen instead and my work is lost.

Tomorrow is Dominica’s 30th Birthday.

Happy Birthday Joe Tocco!  He is 23 today.

Dominica could not sleep very much last night as she was very upset about Sadie’s passing yesterday.  She was awake much of the night and she accidentally woke up Oreo at four o’clock this morning when then proceeded to wake me up as well.  Being awake that close to when my alarm would go off, at five thirty, made me unable to go back to sleep.  So I have been awake since shortly after four in the morning.

Today is my working in Warren day.  I took the train out to Summit, New Jersey, but today it was the “big” double-decker train and not the normal train that I ride.  Because of this, or at least that is my story, Summit’s train station appeared from a different angle and I was unable to find the Summit Train Station sign until it was too late and the doors were closing and I missed my stop!  Argh.

I rode the train one extra stop to Chatham, New Jersey, bought a ticket to return to Summit and took the next train back.  Missing the station was not really a very big deal as I lost no more than fifteen minutes, but it did cause a minor panic and cost me $1.75.

On the train this morning I finished reading “The Sex Lives of Cannibals” and began reading “Attila: The Barbarian King Who Challenged Rome” by John Man.  Sex Lives was very interesting; I really enjoyed it.  Looking forward to Attila.

Today was quite a busy day.  The morning just flew by – I barely noticed.  Lunch time came and three of us went out to Chipotle in Bridgewater.  I got a little car sick on the ride from a combination of being tired, being way too warm and riding in the back seat.  I felt a little ill all afternoon.

Today Jeremy and Tim were at Castile Christian Academy working on the electrical wiring that needs to be installed so that we can get the new computers installed for the new school year.

Michael has a new “photography” blog: CongoBoy.

I got to leave the office by car with a friend driving me to Newark just after five so I was actually home well ahead of Dominica.  I ordered in dinner from Nino’s so that it would arrive shortly after Dominica and Oreo would get home.  Dominica is really looking forward to trying the rigatoni in vodka sauce that I got on Monday and I am looking forward to having it again.  It is really delicious.

Dinner arrived and we settled in to watch some of The Love Boat.  We made it through one episode then I had to go work for the rest of the evening.

Ryan stopped by a little before ten and hung out for half an hour or less during which time I continued to work as there was much to do.  I worked until midnight.  It was a long day, but I got a ton of work done that otherwise would have been left until this weekend.  This weekend we are going to Frankfort to see Dominica’s family for her birthday.

For Dominica’s birthday I attempted to get her an Acer Aspire One laptop in pink but that color has not yet released (only sapphire blue and seashell white are available at the moment.)  So, rather than settling for something that she would like less than that we decided that it would be more prudent to order one the moment that they are available.