"To Mordor we will take you!"

Yes, after a mere two days with Shadows of Angmar I'm now thoroughly addicted. The game feels like a slightly more polished WoW clone as it obviously borrows quite a few design elements from the 800lb gorilla of online games. The graphics are very appealing from what I've seen so far, though the day/night cycles are a bit too slow for my liking and there are a few bugs, such as anisotropic filtering resetting itself back to its lowest setting every time the game is launched. But aside from these niggles, I'm very happy with the game's appearance. Daytripping through the Shire has been quite a lot of fun, though telling your mother that you're standing at Bag End while talking to her on the phone isn't the best conversation topic when she's 70 and has no idea what you're carrying on about.

Melissa and I took Megan to the mall after dinner tonight to let her burn off some spare energy at the kid's play area they have by the food court. We tag-teamed shopping our favorite stores (EBs and Walden's books for me, Hallmark, Victoria's Secret for her) while the other watched her play. I saw Megan do something I've never noticed before tonight, which appeared to be striking at another child. She was on top of a tunnel and another little girl was trying to climb up next to her, while Megan was kicking at her to knock her back off. And I thought only little boys played King of the Hill. So I ran over and pulled her off the tunnel and talked to her about playing nicely with other children, speaking to a little face that screwed itself up and had tears running out of her eyes. The fun of dealing with a sensitive, emotional 4yo little girl. But a quick trip to the Disney store afterwards put the smile back on her face. It's amazing watching her try to work her parents for stuff she sees and just has to have (which is pretty much everything in the store). Apparently I'm the easy mark since the ratio of approaching me compared to Mommy is about 3-to-1. Though I have to confess it's *very* hard resisting that little face when it hands you something and says, "Here daddy, thanks!," in a sweet voice. Fortunately we were able to get her out of the store, hands emptied, without too much of a meltdown.

Jerry's doctor appointment went well (I can only hope to be as healthy and active at age 79 as my step-father) so they should be back in Ohio by Saturday. Mom's 70th is Tuesday and I asked her if she'd like just the immediate family (me, my sister, and our families) to take her out for dinner that night. Now I just need to find a decent gift for her, though nothing too expensive since the full-blown party with its rented hall, food, decorations, drinks, cake, etc., is costing all of us enough as it is. Hopefully my brother is able to make it up from Florida again so all of her children can be there; I'd love to be able to get a picture of just the four of us. I have a framed picture I keep in my study of us four taken in 1977 or 1978. I sport a head full of hair and dental braces and my mom was still taller than me at that point; it's sometimes really hard to grasp how fast the years roll by, especially since it seems my mom's 50th birthday party was held just a few months ago.