How much time???

Part of becoming my own parent through WoW's parental controls was being able to request a copy of the amount of time played/signed in to my WoW account.

I know I play a lot, especially when I have days off/weekends and I don't need to do any Dailies (Weeklies?) to grind Spousal Rep. Today I got confirmation of how much I play, being a record of the amount of time I'd played on my account last week, the number of minutes logged in, and what time I'd logged out.

On the 4th of July (the first day of my report) we joined friends for barbecue dinner and fireworks so I logged off at 3:50pm after playing for just 85 minutes. After we got home I logged in again and played for 160 minutes before calling it a night/morning at 1:50am. Because the 4th was a Sunday and I get all the Federal Holidays I was off on Monday the 5th, so logging off at ten-to-two on this particular Sunday night/Monday morning is not that big of a deal.

What's funny about my play time on Monday is I had 3 session that each lasted almost exactly 100 minutes. Two at 99 and one at 98. Combined with the evening's play session I racked up a little over 7 hours for the day.

Tuesday I played a much more moderate 2 hours (literally. The report says 121 minutes. Ok, 2 hours and 1 minute. Happy now?), logging out at 11:25pm. Wednesday I played just 1 hour (or 61 minutes for you nit-pickers) and logged off at 10:43pm.

But Thursday?

The wife called me on my way home and said the boy had basketball practice, the bunny had gymnastics, and afterward she was going to the Gym and wouldn't be home until after 6pm. She confirmed that the kids would be staying with her parents (no need to make dinner) so I rode the bus all the way home (instead of her picking me up at the Bus Station) where I emptied the dish washer then reloaded it, picked up dog poop (from the backyard!), took out the trash, vacuumed the stairs, then sat down to play at approx. 4:30, logging out 110 mins later at 6:20 (probably when the wife got home). I wouldn't log in again for another 3 hours, but when I did I racked up another 200 minutes between 9:30pm and 1am when I called it a night (or the wife called me to bed ;) So between 4:30pm and 1am, a period of 8 1/2 hours, I played for 310 minutes, being 5 hours, 10 minutes (for the mathematically challenged).

Friday was another day off (yes, I worked just 3 days last week, flanked by two 3-day weekends) but the kids stayed with their grandparents while Liz and I spent a lazy day at home. I actually only played twice this day. I logged off at 7:07pm after playing for just 572 minutes, (a little over 9 1/2 hours :P), but it was clearly an idle-out while grabbing something to eat because I logged in again just minutes later and would stay logged in until quarter-to-one, Saturday morning. Two sessions, one at 572 minutes, one at 333 minutes, for fifteen fucking hours.

I got up Saturday and despite attending my son's basketball game, among other activities (such as shopping with the wife), racked up another 7 hours in-game.

Total time played for the week (thanks in no small part to Friday's 15-hour marathon session)? 2,498 minutes, or 41 hours, 38 minutes.

With the extra days off and the kids spending much of their time with their grandparents this was not a typical week, but I'd still expect to play for at least 20 hours in any given week. Let's see what this week brings. Will I let this inordinate amount of in-game time affect this week's play time? Or will I still play for 20 hours, if not more?