[1] Hobby time is the subset of time that is not playing with Von & Jade, sleep, work, or chores. It occurs mostly at the expense of sleep, and is about an hour a day.

My guess for what it’s going to be:

Jar of Eyeballs
Artifact
Mana Cost: 2
2, exile a creature card from your graveyard: put two Eyeball counters on Jar of Eyeballs.
1, Remove an Eyeball counter from Jar of Eyeballs, T: Gain 2 life.

We’re at the last day of our three week holiday. We seem to have settled into nine hour sleeps with naps during the day, so it, um, might be a bit of an adjustment tomorrow. It’s been a busy holiday. Mum & Dad came over for xmas, and a merry time was had by all, except that I caught yet another cold and was out on the 25th and 26th.

Then we took off for Canberra for three days and caught up with Sydney (!) friends who were also visiting Canberra: Iain & Llyn, and PJ and Lisa. Von’s BFF Nandi lives in Canberra now, so Jade and I gave them some quality GF time while we caught up with Simon & Jimbo (sadly missing Dave & Fi). More excellent restaurants and a resolution to come to Canberra at least once a year.

Last week we spent pottering around at home doing long-neglected chores: unpacking boxes of books, making up extra posts for the balcony to stop Jade falling through, upgrading our TV. Quite a few more restaurants, a lovely extravagance prompted by our five year anniversary (since our first date). Then, the inevitable weigh-in and oh dear it appears I have put on about six kilos since I last weighed myself, so no sweets for about three months.

Of course, I had projects running. I didn’t manage any work on the game at all, but I did play a decent amount of guitar, including the beginning of Fantasia Para Un Gentilhombre, by Rodrigo. I got an xmas present of the piece – which is a concerto for guitar and orchestra – containing a “minus one” CD with the orchestra playing the piece minus the solo guitar. And another version with them playing 20% slower. Very exciting for me; I’ve loved this piece since I was in primary school. Dad played Julian Bream and John Williams cassettes on loop.

Anyway, back to the Rodrigo – I’ve worked out the fingering for the 28 bars, which I estimate is 8% or so of the whole concerto… tricky but doable; a great “stretch” piece.

Also, I’ve finally finished my Magic: The Gathering expansion based on Darths & Droids (my entry in the “nerdiest activity of all time” competition I hold in my head), printed out and cut out all the cards, and packaged them into home-made boosters (well, envelopes). We’re drafting it tonight.