When Plans Go Awry

So my casual week off of work has pretty much been a bust. My kids (Kyle, 2 and Anastasia, 4) both got hit with ear infections last Friday. No problem. Got 'em some antibiotics and all was well. My plan was to leave the kids in daycare Mon, Wed, and Fri and have one each home on Tues and Thurs to help me with some leisurely Christmas shopping. (Seemed like fun that way. Plus, I'm keeping 'em home all next week.)

All went according to plan at first. I got a lot of quality Rock Band time in, got some College Hoops 2k8 in, watched Superbad (McLuvin!!!), which was some good fare if you liked 40-year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. And then came Tuesday night as my daughter spiked a 102 degree fever. Thanks to that I ended up keeping the kids home both Wednesday and Thursday and not doing any Christmas shopping at all, plus very little gaming (a cornerstone goal of the week).

Today, of course, the fever was still in full force (despite this, Ana's been acting mostly normal) so I broke down and scheduled a dr. appointment. I had a plan. Drop Kyle off at daycare, finish Christmas shopping and get Ana checked out. Have a lazy afternoon. It started out okay (Kyle got dropped off), but then I got yanked into tech supporting an acquaintance's computer. Apparently her husband got sucked into downloading all manner of those fake virus/spyware programs that actually install all that crap onto the computer rather than remove it. This is what happens when you follow security warnings that come up while looking for free Internet porn. There goes an hour and a half, but I press on with the shopping. It's only about 10:30 and I have until 1:15 for the dr. appt. It seemed like plenty of time... until I hit mall traffic.

Long story slightly shorter, I get to cut short the shopping trip for the dr. appt. then go back to the mall (30 mins. from the mall to the dr. and 30 back to the mall, thanks to traffic). Ana's ear infections are in full-on assault mode, so I've gotta get a new antibiotic, which means adding another stop. Plus, I've completely forgotten about Christmas stocking stuffers, something I forgot about last year too and caught a lot of grief for. The stores are all, of course, nightmarish. Ana's sick of being dragged around everywhere (and I don't blame her). She only threw one fit, but naturally, that was in the middle of a women's lingerie department. By the time all is said and done it's 5:00 and I've got to get right back up to daycare to pick up Kyle. So much for leisurely shopping and a lazy afternoon.

As for the aforementioned gaming, Rock Band remains a AAA++ title. I got to play some World Tour mode finally and that's just gravy. Your mileage will vary with College Hoops. I'm really tired of this game. And despite claims to the contrary in the pre-release conference call, if you just want to pick it up and play a fun game of hoops it's a complete and utter nightmare. This game is for those that want a basketball sim that forces you to do pretty much *everything* both on and off the court. I'll elaborate on this in another post.

Anyway, my posting will probably continue to be sporadic through the holidays, but I promise to get back on track come January.