What can I say? How about, I'm really psyched about my trip to EC and MN this weekend--it'll be such a nice change of pace AND I'll have time to just chill in my car driving AND I get to hang out with some good friends :) On a literary note, I'm almost done with X-Wing: Rogue Squadron--so far I'm actually really liking the X-wing series. Maybe it just took getting to know the characters better or something. At the time in the series a few years ago, when I would have read them to be in the right sequence, I didn't feel like it cuz I wanted to know more about Han, Leia, and most of all, Luke. I really wasn't interested in some guy Micahel Stackpole made up (aka Corran Horn) and not even that much in Wedge, even though he is a cool guy. The funny thing is though, that the books I just read that come 20 some years later in the series are very much related to the X-Wing series in plot and characters, so I guess I'm doing it backwards--getting the jokes and allusions the opposite way I should have. But it's alright, I don't mind doing it the hard way. I tell you one thing though, there's nothing more frustratingly difficult than trying to explain to a 9 year old what X-Wing: Rogue Squadron has to do with the movies:

kid: Oh Star Wars! I saw the movies!
me: Oh, did you? cool--the old ones and the new ones too?
kid: yep, I saw the one with Jar Jar. He's in that book, right? (pointing to X-Wing: Rogue Squadron)
me: oh, no, this book happens waaay after that movie--called Episode 1--that you saw. It takes place a couple years after the laaast movie, you know, the old ones made about 25 years ago, that you can see on tape.
kid: so it has Jar Jar in it right?
me: no, this book is yeeeeears after that movie, so Jar Jar would probably be dead at this time
kid: is he in that book? (she points to the other book in my hand--I had both X-Wing: Rogue Squadron which I just finished today and X-Wing: Wedge's Gamble (since I just started it) in my hands)
me: no, this is the next book in the same series--it takes place right after the other book. See? (points to the label "Book 1 of the X-Wing Series" on the top of one and the label "Book 2 of the X-Wing Series" on the other book
kid: Yeah--see? it says 1 right there, so Episode 1, and then Episode 2, right?
me: no, these books aren't based on those movies, they just have some of the characters from the movies--like Princess Leia, Wedge--
kid: and Jar Jar Binks, right?
me: ::sigh::