I had done my best to formulate a workable plan. My mother-in-law's insistence that she had to go to the bank to deposit her social security check had been answered by scheduling it for today, on the way to pick up my son from school, my wife being off from work and able to handle getting others where they need to be. I would even get to eat in that wonderful dining hall at the campus.

Then my wife announced that she was going with me, and that she had told the boy that he could stay past ten at night to work on a project for his girlfriend. That meant that instead of doing one four hour trip to take my mother-in-law to the bank and pick up my son, I had to make a two hour trip to take my mother-in-law to the bank plus a four hour trip in the middle of the night to pick up my son.

I find this particularly annoying because it has now cost me that extra two hours so he can make this gift for his girlfriend, but I still don't have the cover for the book he started almost a year ago. I realize that girlfriends have priority over parents, but I would think that if I can be so inconvenienced for her sake, at some point he could be inconvenienced for mine.

On the bright side, my eldest, creator of one of the legendary Multiverser characters, is going to be joining the forum game, dusting off an old and long-neglected character sheet. Also, the e-zine Places to Go, People to Be has just re-released one of my old Game Ideas Unlimited articles, the one about invisible dice, in translation in its French edition. It's encouraging to have the respect of the international gaming community, whether or not they buy any books.

I'm pressed for time, though, so I'd better press on.

--M. J. Young