I worked on some more goblins tonight. I should have finished them, but got sidetracked by message boards. My new goal is to have these seven figures painted by the end of next week, and possibly to have the Cave Troll assembled and primed so I can start work on him the following week. After that I may work on some Mordheim figures or the box of Easterlings I picked up last week. Warhammer figures have kind of taken a back seat right now with the nerd drama that caused the Boise Warhammer group to implode. I don't really have any opponents to play these other games with either, but the projects are small enough that I can bounce around without getting bored. Whenever I get a real job I hope there is a nice group of gamers nearby, as this lone gamer stuff is awfully boring. I like the painting and planning, but sometimes I think I would like to play a game with some people who can carry on a conversation and have fun.

I am considering a ceramic heat emitter bulb for the tortoise. The UVB lamp gives him the UV rays he needs to process his vitamins and the other bulb puts off some heat, but I don't think it's enough. And he's supposed to have night cycles with the lights off. The ceramic heat bulbs are supposedly good for 5 years, and the fixture and hardware to hang it are $10 at Home Depot, so I'll probably need to make that happen next week some time.

I've been writing up 500-point army lists for several of the Lord of the Rings factions with the objective of having several forces ready for the map-based campaign I mentioned a couple of posts ago. Most of the lists can be made using the army boxes that are available and one or two blister packs. Once I'm done with the Moria force I want to go after the Dwarf box set that Hobbytown has had on their shelf for a long time. They are traditional enemies anyway, so it seems like a good army to build next.

My wife has some secret present that she wants to get me for Christmas. I have promised not to guess out loud what it is, but that hasn't stopped me from postulating in secret. My real dilemma is deciding what to get for her. Her main hobbies (knitting and crocheting) are similar to my own hobbies in that there is too much variety and specialization for someone outside the hobby to accurately guess what to buy. I don't know what sort of needles she needs, what kind of yarn is the best, how much yarn it takes to make an item, what color of yarn to get, or even if she wants hobby-related items. And she has remained absolutely silent on the issue, leaving me to my own devices. So if anyone who knows her has a suggestion, please send it my way.