Hot water back! / Dream of oranges and word searches / improving my gameplay time

YES! I HAVE MY HOT WATER BACK AGAIN! YAY FOR HOT SHOWERS! (not that I ever took any cold ones, but whatever... those would be a shock and no mistake!) My mom emailed me ("rescue!") to say that she had an extra electric kettle that I could have, or that I could come over for a couple of days. I think the kettle would be good anyhow, but perhaps it's not needed since I already have the hot water back. (and here I was thinking that I wouldn't show up to the barbecue tomorrow anyway as a matter of principle, heh)

I dreamed a weird one last night: it involved Daniel, Stanley, and Uncle Peter all dancing around in blue shirts and tan pants with oranges attached to them. Everyone was watching them in the church basement... somehow, the water purification jug got knocked over in the kitchen, causing a mess everywhere. I remember Helen K. outside in the rain waiting for a bus, and my showing a too-complex word search book to little Ian. ("four words at once / three-letter abbreviations") There was also a thank-you card addressed to various church people.. it was written in gold / purple / silver glitter gel pen, and also included a message to Anita consoling her on the parent-controlled disappearance / death of her pet rats! (very weird stuff, to be sure... she doesn't have any in real life!)

I spent last night trying to advance myself in Sam and Max. After much frustration (golfing with alligators, and lacking a magnifying lens for binoculars?), I finally managed to get myself up to the "Frog Rock" stage. I think that after this is done, I'll play it again just to improve my time (and see those cool Easter Eggs!) like I did with MOTAS a couple years back. (hey, I cut my time in half for that one: from 3+ hours to about 90-100 minutes!) I remember that if I want to play old-school games like Dragon Warrior / Earthbound! and Breath of Fire, those will take a long time! (I think my playing time after being sufficiently advanced in the game was 60 hours or something... and Jon's was even more!) Think I finally went to bed at 4:10... good thing I rescheduled my appointment yesterday, haha. (gives me more time to get documentation like bills and such together too!)