About the only bad news today was (surprise, surprise) technological in nature. My new laptop was delayed until tomorrow and it turns out that Mum’s new PC was just completely screwed and a replacement is due to arrive sometime this week.

On to the good parts! I actually managed to feel productive doing work today, even though it was mostly emails and phone calls. This is somewhat novel, I feel. Probably one of the coolest things to happen today is that my Heroes of Might and Magic Collection arrived in the mail. Now, a while ago I had tried to get this particular product only to find that I was unable to, as it had been sold out. When I inquired as to when they would be getting any more in, the response was not particularly good. So, after a while and some internal debate, I ended up buying Heroes of Might and Magic V: Gold Edition (HoMM V + 2 expansions) instead. Now, it didn’t have any of the cool stuff that the Collection did (art book, t-shirt, all 5 games plus expansions, tarot deck, soundtracks and bonus DVD) but it would at least let me play the latest. Naturally after I had ordered and paid for this, I received a note in my email saying that the collection was back in stock. I hate it when that happens. However, after contacting Gameplanet, they said it wouldn’t be a problem and they would just credit it once I returned it, and that they’d send out a return package for me (which they did, with the Collection, and I sent Gold back today). Turns out this meant I had to pay for the full price of the Collection anyway and ended up with store credit to the value of the Gold game, rather than crediting it towards the Collection purchase. Ah well, more games and so on for me, I guess! Anyway, after all was said and done, I ended up with the Heroes Collection in my hot little hands today, which pleased me greatly. I haven’t opened it yet, as I know I’m going to want to spend a very long time poring over all the artwork and so on, so I’m going to wait a little while and then open it. In the mean time I’m going to just have it sitting next to me and admire it in its box. ^^

Other good things! This afternoon I had golf practice with Grandad, which felt a whole lot better than the rubbish golf I was playing on Thursday. I have found it interesting how quickly I have become critical of myself over very small details in playing… I know I’ve made great strides with the basics, at least. I am very happy about that. ^^

On my way to go to golf I dropped Nik and Ian off at Ian’s place (after having a good chat with Ian about various things this morning), then after golf I went and picked up Ruby, got gas, groceries then back to Ian’s to pick up Ian and Nik, then back to Dad’s. As it is Monday, it was time to have Martini Monday, however I was out of Plymouth gin, which was more than a little bit of a problem. Turns out all the places I stopped at didn’t stock it, so after I dropped Nik and Ian off at Dad’s so they could get started on dinner, Ruby and I continued on our mission to find some gin. Luckily we managed to find some at a place in town, then returned triumphant.

Turns out that when Nik said he was going to cook, he really didn’t have any idea about how to cook what he wanted to cook (nachos and burritos), so I ended up making a big batch of Nachos for everyone. Meat nachos mind you, which I don’t usually prefer to have, but they were still pretty tasty. Later on in the evening Nik did make the burritos (Mexican food kits are pretty awesome, huh?), and hopefully next time he wants to make nachos he was paying attention. ^^

All of mucked about while the kitchen became a culinary warzone (us vs. food), then we sat around and ate while watching the first part of Tin Man, SciFi’s re-imagining of the Wizard of Oz. I really enjoyed the mini-series while I was in the US and hopefully when it comes out on DVD I’ll get a copy. We all sat around talking about all kinds of things for quite a while, drinking and laughing and generally having a great time. I ended up having three martinis over the course of the evening, which is more than I was planning on having, but I had a blast so that was ok. The evening also included all of us singing songs from Aladdin and The Lion King at the top of our lungs… I blame Nik.

I have a sneaking suspicion there may be some highly embarrassing video footage thanks to Ian. I’m just hoping it doesn’t end up on YouTube or I am never going to hear the end of it. Then again, if I get my hands on the video I might just post it up there anyway, just for the hell of it.