Spring cleaning 2011

For the past few weekends, Janice and I have been busy with spring cleaning. We started going through our books, videos, and appliances partly because our annual lease-renewal letter was late, and we feared that we might have to scramble to move. Although Janice’s commute by train is long, we didn’t relish the idea of looking for another affordable, spacious, and conveniently located apartment closer to Boston on relatively short notice.

Fortunately, we were able to renew our duplex‘s lease for another year in Needham, Mass., despite some nagging problems such overflowing gutters, needed repainting, and poor insulation. At least we finally have hot water! We then shifted our attention to cleaning for an upcoming visit by my brother.

So far, we’ve recycled or donated our desktop computer and an obsolete printer, old bicycles, a vacuum cleaner, VHS tapes, and numerous books and DVD cases. I’ve also been selling some of my role-playing games, including much of my Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 and Fourth Edition collections. I’ve been running Pathfinder and FATE 3e Starblazer Adventures anyway, and am even considering the rules-light FATE 3e Legends of Anglerre for my “Vanished Lands” fantasy campaign.

Of course, nature abhors a vacuum, so I have to restrain myself when visiting comic and game shops. I’ve also been trading HeroClix miniatures with people in the local groups, so I have a lot of cataloging to do. Even after thinning out our shelves and the much-heralded advent of gaming PDFs and e-readers, I’m still attached to bookcases full of science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, science, history, and classic literature.

If I had to move, I’d want space equivalent to the full basement that I’ve used for hosting sessions and storing boxes of comics and magazines. Janice isn’t a pack rat like me, balancing my obsessive-compulsiveness with asceticism. We still have to deal with our CRT television and bulky entertainment unit, a computer desk, and other odds and ends. My department at work is also shifting cubicles.

The belated arrival of spring weather has allowed us to clear up the yard and try restaurants such as Jake & Joe’s, a new sports bar in Norwood, and Crazy Dough’s, a pizzeria in Harvard Square’s Garage. I also had a home-cooked Chinese dinner with Thomas K.Y. and Kai Yin last week, and we watched the Sita Sings the Blues, a fun combination of Hindu mythology, 1920s music, Flash animation, and modern feminism.

Coming soon: More about retro-clone games, comics and genre TV reassessment, movies, and houseguests!