A Plague Upon Our Home

...Or at least that's how it feels. My wife and nearly 9-month old twins have all come down with colds, and I'm the only healthy one left. Boy are they in trouble! Trusting their care to me is like trusting the care of a china shop to an angry bull; it's bound to end badly. Right now, it almost feels like we could recreate the scene from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," featuring the cart being pulled through town and a crier announcing, "Bring out your dead!" Well, it's really not that bad, but let's pretend it is, for literary purposes anyway. If I weren't their father and love them more than life itself, I would probably say my children look pretty nasty right now, with their runny noses and their tired, expressionless stares. Since I'm their father, I think they're the best babies ever and wouldn't trade them for the world, even when they're sick!

This drastic turn of events limited my free time this weekend, so I wasn't able to finish Half Life 2 (for the second straight weekend). However, I did make some progress, in the hour or so I was able to sneak away while everyone was napping. I'm now at the beginning of the Entanglements sections of the game, trying to help Alyx save her father. Hopefully it won't be too difficult to keep her alive through this stage, but since I've already gotten her killed once, I'm not optimistic. This feels like a glorified escort mission, one of my least favorite mission types in any game. Valve does have a way of surprising me, though, so I haven't completely given up hope yet. My wife is on the gaming rig downstairs, while I type this on the communal laptop up in the kitchen, so there's no chance of advancement this evening. Maybe tomorrow evening some game time will avail itself of me, but I'm not holding my breath.

The Red Sox season ended last night with a loss to the Rays in Game 7 of the ALCS. I'm proud of both teams, but sad that the Sox won't be vying for the World Series crown this year. They can't win them all, and if they had to lose, I guess I'm glad it was to the Rays. Of course I'm rooting for the upstart Rays to take home the title, from the perspective of the perennial doormat making good on a phenomenal season. It would be a great feel-good story for sports in general.

Well, that's all for now. I'll be back soon with an update on my HL2 progress. My new goal, which is a bit more conservative and attainable, is to have the game completed before Fallout 3 arrives in stores next Tuesday. I refuse to buy another game until finishing this one. Wish me luck!