Man, lost track of time once again.  Worked on a major project this month, and
managed to get the qualification completed on Thur. of last week, right before
the Easter holiday break.  Not too bad, took us four final builds to get to
the final product with only about a week of schedule slip from our best
schedule guess.  We were able to actually move up our development and release
by 3 months, so a week slip is no big deal.  Spent the last three prior
weekends in town to be available to work on the project.  Some weekends there
was work, some there wasn't.  Otherwise, I hit the gym a lot, cleaned around
the house, ground a bit more on Xenosaga 2, etc.

Been really happy with my weight loss progress.  Gave up 10 pounds during the
Lent season, and I'm really happy.  Too bad, Sat. and today I've ate very well
at the folks and then over at my brother's today for Easter dinner with the
family.  Guess I'll pick up a pound or 2 from the over-indulgence.  Not to
worry, I'm in the groove right now and should be able to get those back off
and then continue on my loss program.  Trying to lose those last couple of
inches around the waistline finally.  Weighed in at 164 on Thur., which is a
milestone low for me since I joined the gym 4+ years ago.  Too bad my weight
lifting prowess is greatly diminished, but that's the way it goes when you
drop weight.

Mom and sis were giving me a bit of a hard time about looking too thin.  8) 
Oh yeah, had a "blast" last weekend as I decided it was time to do the damien
quest (Ackbar).  When I had done it a few years ago prior to it awarding a
quest, I was clocking in about 3-5 hours.  This time around, luck was not on
my side.  12 hours, 7 deaths, and staying up till almost 4am my time to get it
completed was the cost for that quest, but totally worth it.  I was worried I
was going to lose to armageddon on that quest.  I got the key early on Friday
to ensure I could get the quest.  Then, after work, I mapped the first maze
after the portal.  Cruised through the 2nd maze.  Third maze took me a few
hours due to finding over 70 rooms and a couple mobs picked up some markers
too.  Died once in a "trap" room with a couple mobs that blocked me out. 
Final maze, ran into the captain draconian early, so he spawned and hunted me
a lot, died 5 times to him as I wandered the 70+ citadel maze.  Found 9 mist
warriors and then died and lost track of where they were at.  Found the cave
and 9 more mist warrior, but apparently 9 wasn't enough so I had to find the
other group I had lost earlier.  Died another time to a trap room searching
for those warriors.  Eventually turned them up after an hour of retracing
rooms.  Took under an hour to whack the commander, and the quest was mine! 
Learned I needed to take in more regen potions, and a shelter scroll or potion
would've helped in the citadel.  Raztax invis ring rocks mazes 2 and 3, but
useless in maze 4 as everything saw invis.  Gotta love the adrenaline rush as
running against the clock and exhaustion.  Managed to get 4 hours of sleep
that morning, and then hit the gym to lift.  Killer.

Still grinding away on special explore rooms for 2lvl wanderers.  Now
currently 10 short of the 39 necessary.  Ewige has been a big help in getting
rooms, and Crawe's list is uber.  I've also been lucky to get behind a couple
of eq parties to reloc in for free rooms now and again.  I can't wait to get
the requirements out of the way for my next reinc.  Speaking of which, put off
reincing a while by using my hoarded youth scroll to get me back down to
middle aged.  Was getting far into old after my deaths in ackbars.  Also, I
want to get the dodge staff quest completed before I reinc.  So, a couple of
goals yet.  Well, I also want to pass Mithrand on the blade plaque, but one
step at a time.  Still #5 on loc blade plaque.  Running against the clock
until this loc guild goes poof.  When all 4 new loc guilds come into game, it
is game over for current loc guild.  1 is in game, 1 is in player testing now
with the other two in development.

Back to Easter, was supposed to go home Thur., but weathermen predicted a
major snow storm for Friday.  So, I stayed in town partly to avoid the storm,
partly to keep myself entertained by staying home.  Turns out, storm was a dud
as its path stayed far to the north and hammered Wisconsin and Illinois
instead.  So, I went to church for Holy Thursday mass, and then hit the gym on
Friday morning.  Came home and played hard on Xenosaga 2 until Good Friday
mass.  Mass ran extra, extra long, like 1 hr 45 min. long (longest ever in my
book!) due to singing of the passion.  Came back to the house, ground on
Xenosaga 2 until bed time.  Got up yesterday morning, drove back to the farm. 
Helped Dad innoculate the cattle, unloaded my truck of the branches and free
snow thrower that Don didn't want any longer.  Ate a home cooked meal with the
folks, a nap, lots of reading, quality time with the folks, etc was what I did
on Saturday.  Then today, church in the Basillica in Dyersville.  Packed
house, and just my luck, had a sick kid hacking away next to me the entire
mass and a new born in front of me that created a "stinky" during mass.  I was
happy to get out and off to my brother's for Easter dinner.  Family was in a
good mood this year and my brother cooked a feast with lots of snacks with ham
as the main course with taters and green bean cassarole, baked beans, and
biscuits. mmmm...ate far, far too much.  Still not hungry yet.

So, that's about it for my month away from the blog.  Otherwise, still waiting
for spring to get here.  Robins have been around for a few weeks, but still a
ton of snow still on the ground up around the farm.  The cow yard was just
starting to get soft as I was sinking in several inches into the manure as I
chased the cattle around to get them into holding pen.  Looks like a sloppy
spring coming up.  I can't wait till it gets here so I can get cracking on
wood again.  Dad burned through a ton this winter due to it starting early,
staying cold, and hanging on late now.  Ah well, better than paying for gas
like me!  Tonight's blog brought to you by Europe - Rock the Night.