Don’t ask me what got into my head, but I’ve spent most of the afternoon so far in a minor frenzy of cleaning my room. I’ve rearranged, sorted, junked and tidied. I also found something I totally forgot I still had. (Granted, with my faculties, that just means it’s been a few months since I re-re-re-discovered it, but anyway.)

I found the old Mille Bornes game box that has been in my possession since Mom and I parted ways. Seriously. The box even has the old scoresheet that my sister and I recorded a few games on, way back when we were youngsters. Along with cribbage and Easy Money (a Monopoly knock-off that Sis loved and I feared, mainly because she won almost every game), Mille Bornes is one of those games that defined “play time” in our house.

Parker Bros. released the “French Card Game,” Mille Bornes, back in the 1950s. The premise is fairly straightforward: Each player starts with a hand of cards, including milestones, hazards, safeties and repairs. The goal is to reach 1000 miles, while preventing other players from doing the same. It’s playable by 2, 3, 4 or 6 people, in partnerships if they so choose.

I think I’ll see if the Sunday evening crowd is interested… hmmm…

I’ve figured out one cost-cutting method that Tri-Met is, apparently, putting into action. They’re eliminating one bus at random from the morning commute schedule. Clever!

I got out to the bus stop this morning a full five minutes before the bus I wanted was due to pass a stop five blocks back up the line. My network-synchronized timepiece read twenty two minutes past the hour. I figured I had it made, with enough time to stop for breakfast downtown and get to work pretty darned close to “on time.”

Twenty eight minutes later, during a time of morning in which a bus is scheduled to come along about every twelve minutes, a bus finally arrived: a bus that was too full to accept more passengers! Three minutes after that came a nearly empty bus, precisely on time… for the third bus I should have seen that morning. Wait-a-minute. A bus seems to have gone missing!

This would just be an infuriating start to an otherwise infuriating day but for the fact that this has happened to me not just once, not even twice, but three times in the last month and a half. TriMet? You’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do…

The better part of five days later, and I’m still out of sorts. Why does one hour’s difference in the schedule of things throw me off so badly? It’s not like I have all that regular of a sleep schedule to begin with.

I intend to spend a lot of my weekend resting up so I’m good for next week, ‘cause this week? Shot to hell. At close range. With a large-caliber weapon. Then kicked around for a bit, just for good measure.

Bleah.

So some of us are getting together at Backspace, downtown, Friday evening. You want in? Cool.

Be there, or be somewhere else (much less cool, thus missing out on the cool company we’ll be keeping).

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No NaNoWriMo for me. I’m sorry, folks, but I refuse to get sucked in for a fourth year. If I’ve learned nothing in the last two years (an arguable position, unfortunately) I’ve learned that writing a novel isn’t something I have any business doing.

However, I’m more than happy to cheerlead for those hardy souls who’re trying it out themselves. Innowen (her online name), who I met during my first (and only successful) NaNo experience, is going for her fourth win. Wendi’s taking a stab at 50,000 words as well. Go encourage them, won’t you?

Write on!