So it's nearly the middle of July and I'd been noticing two things.  First, I'd been becoming completely irritable at work, and just reaching rapid burnout.  Second, I had only taken a little over three days off this year, and none of those were for my own reasons.  (Installation of cable at the new house, daughter's graduation, and a nasty illness which I couldn't quite fight all the way through.)  I figured with the obscene heat in Utah, it was time to take a playcation and just get out of work and relax for a bit.  So here's Day 1. 
 
Demon's Souls:  So I beat Demon's Souls, but I'm looking at trying to get the rest of the trophies on the game.  I'd really like to figure out the whole world tendency thing, but I focused on the weapons first.  The New Game+ is much harder than the first playthrough, and that was brutal enough.  I finally killed Flamelurker, getting the Red Hot Demon's Soul to Ed, so now I can start forging forward more advanced weapons.  I pulled my White Bow up to +3, forged the Regalia, and pushed my Scimitar up to +4.  The problem is finding some Pure Moonstones to finish the upgrade path, pull the trophy, and take my weapon of choice up another level.  I keep trying out other weapons, but keep falling back to the scimitar, as I like it's attack speed.  The biggest problem has been figuring out how to kill the Crystal Lizards, which a change out of Gloom Armor and into Black Assassin's gear has helped out with a lot.  The problem came in Shrine of Storms 2 (Adjudicator's Archstone) where I killed the duel wielding katana knight (after dancing around a pillar and playing peek-a-boo with him for a bit) and snuck up on one of the Crystal Lizards that drops the Pure Moonstone.  I nailed it with a bow, missed the follow up shot, and gave chase, only to hit it OFF THE LEDGE and watch the potential for the item I needed going off into the sky.  Blargh.  Still leveled my thief to Soul Level 106, and I'm preparing to take on the Old Hero in order to open up more opportunities to pick up some Pure Moonstones. 
 
Persona 3 Portable:  So, about five hours into the game, it's the best version of P3 yet.  As much as I miss the gorgeous cutscenes in the PS2 version, I love the point and click gameplay during the social times more than I miss the animation.  The voice acting is still great, as is the combat since having Persona 4's combat system is making this a pretty awesome journey.  Playing through as a female also gives some really odd interactions, as it's interesting to see your confidants turn into your suitors, and vice versa.  I'm going to be interested in seeing how they do the Iori/Chidori storyline if my character is romantically linked to him, or if it's a possibility.  (Junpei is my FAVORITE character in Persona 3 and 4, and dude needs some love.)  Seriously, if you have a PSP and you watched the Endurance Run for Persona 4 but haven't played one of those games, this is a must get.  It's super fast as well, as it took me about 12 hours to make the progress that I have in 5 as the streamlined social settings make for a great time saver.   
 
Time to rest, and prepare for Day 2.  Still not sure what I'm pulling off the shelf, but I think that either Bayonetta or Disgaea is calling to me.