Sleep Perchance To Dream...

Dreams are very important to me... they make me laugh... they make me cry... they make me believe that there is far more to myself and the world around me that my waking mind could possibly handle... and sometimes dreams show me the future... often, my dreams are doorways to other worlds, pathways to adventures that I can only wish to ever go on... they bring me to all sorts of places that can only be fathomed by imagination and give me abilities far exceeding my current ones... they let my spirit soar so that I can become someone else and experience other lives and wake up and feel like a piece of me is missing when I wake up here in this life... dreams are like air to me and I cannot live without them...

An end to the year 2005 is closing fast and, as happens every year, my dreams have become more vivid and more real... I consider this a blessing and a curse sometimes since it also means I wake up feeling a bit disoriented and lacking knowledge of who and where I am... it's easy enough to find out... I just look at my cat, who sometimes walks the dreamways with me, and I know where I am... because of the prolific amount of dreams I've had lately, I thought that mayhaps it might be fun to let Blogland know what sorts of places I've been visiting while I've been asleep in the days since December 24th...

--I found out my dad had mutant super-powers that my sister, her daughter, and I all inherited.
--I was a supervillainous female speedster ("fastest being in the universe", they called me) who had a super-secret identity working at a prison full of supervillains who I frequently broke out when the whim suited me.
--I was an abused middle-class wife in a medieval Japanese-style city who had an affair on my wicked husband and was punished to the brink of death for it by him when he found out.
--I was a highly decorated and well-loved officer aboard a huge starship (much like Battlestar Galactica or an Imperial star-destroyers from Star Wars) who had a very Captain Kirk meets female Starbuck meets Firefly sort of attitude, who had a fleet Admiral who wanted her dead, and who had a belt that could allow her to walk outside of time for short periods of time (which helped immensely when she had to escape aliens, the Admiral, guards, and cannibals).
--I participated in a bizarre contest wherein people took turns shooting arrows at each other until one of them admitted that they could no longer stand the pain anymore, whether verbally or because they passed out (to give you an idea of my persona in this one, I ran out of arrows and ended up pulling them out of my own body so that I could fire them back at my opponent and thus not lose the contest).

I wish there was a better way to record dreams so that I could share them with everyone... I think that the stories that are told in them would be greatly enjoyable to many people... I do keep a diary of what I remember when I wake up, having slowly trained myself to recall things since I was just a kid, but it's not as accurate as say having TiVo for my mind...

Ah well, I've borrowed enough of your time for now... I wonder what sorts of dreams await me tonight... maybe I'll be a cartoon character and terrorize a hunter with speech problems... take care, Blogland! Stay warm and have a happy new year! ^_^

The vacuum exploded & all I got was a stinky t-shirt!

Today is the day that our household celebrates Christmahanukwanzakyuletivus or whatever people want to call it these lately... we're not Christians by any means... I believe in many gods and my hubby is a urban druid of sorts... but we celebrate the massively-marketed religious holiday for the kids and because it's nice to enjoy the holiday season with loved ones, no matter what the holiday is called...

The presents were opened early this morning, around 7:30am-ish... I've been up since 6:30am when I woke up from a dream about finding out that my dad had a terrific secret that he wanted to tell me... what was the secret, you ask? That he had mutant super-powers like the X-men do in the comics and that both my sister and I, plus any of our offspring, would/should have them too... it was a marvelous dream and I was sort of sad to wake up from it... of course, now I am waiting for my dad to read this and call me up to tell me that he really HAS been hiding his superheroic powers... *chuckle*

Any, back to presents... money was tight this year so we really didn't get a lot of things... you already know about the digital camera from my parents if you've been reading my blog regularily... my parents-in-law bought most of the mountain of gifts under our festively decorated and highly reusable-plastic-and-metal evergreen tree this year... I got a bunch of clothes that didn't fit me properly, including a pack of underwear that was two sizes too big (I haven't been a slim lady for many years and I do have a good sense of humour about it, but I have to admit that I was a bit insulted by getting them... mostly because when I later joked to my mother-in-law about the size, she pretty much insinuated that I was bigger than both of her sisters' waists and hips combined because one of them wears a size that is bigger than the one that she got me and then belittled my ability to remember what my own underwear size is... feel the love, people... feel the love)... so I am returning pretty much everything that they got me, except for one gorgeous blue and green sweater that actually fits me... *sigh*

In other present news, my grandma sent me a couple of pictures of me when I was 3 years old and one of her and granddad... it's one of the best presents ever I must say! I miss them a lot since I am so far away from back home and seeing a picture of them brings back tons of memories... which is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give to someone... speaking of which, our eldest daughter also got me something that was quite wonderful... the library at her school was getting rid of some of its old books and she snagged a bunch to give as gifts... she knew how much I adore costuming so she got me a book on that subject... what she didn't know at the time is that she got me a book I have read dozens and dozens of times... The Costume Book For Parties and Plays by Joseph Leeming... it is one of the first books I ever looked at when I started to seriously create costumes and this one is in far better condition than the one I had before considering its age... ^_^

My hubby got me the 4th volume of The Walking Dead... it's a graphic novel/comic book about people surviving in a world full of zombies... I highly recommend the series to those of you who don't mind gore and adult situations... it's like a well-made horror movie that you can read! ^_~

Gifts that my hubby and the girls got: video games (Lego Star Wars, Ultimate Spiderman, We Love Katamari); clothes, clothes, and more clothes; books, manga, Dungeons & Dragons d20 books; non-photo blue prismacolor pencils; and a karaoke machine... just to name a few...

We also lost a most valued "friend" today... our vacuum cleaner died while I was trying to tidy... it's been threatening to go for a while now and it decided to go out with a BANG! and green-grey smoke... we thought it was maybe just the belt that had gone, but then my hubby's dad decided to "fix" it and took it apart only to discover fixing it would cost more than getting a new one... farewell, our dirty little devil, you will be sorely missed! -_-

And now I am downloading music (thinking of calling my family that's way far away or mayhaps playing some City of Heroes so I can get my in-game present-collecting badge for the holiday event), while the youngest child plays Baldur's Gate upstairs and my hubby and eldest child play Lego Star Wars on the Nintendo Gamecube... the sleeping cat is nestled on his perch by the window and all will be right with the world until 7-8pm-ish when the kids' birth mother comes to pick them up and take them to her home until December 30th...

Ah well... enough chit-chat... Merry Holidays and Happy 2006 just in case I don't write before then, Blogland... take care and stay warm! ^_^

Sometimes I Detest Being Female...

I apologize in advance to all of the gentlemen who might be reading this... today is the day I hop on my rainbow soapbox and rant about a thing most female - the period! So please, if you are tired of hearing about this, flee! Flee in terror while you still can! for you are about to enter the land of "too much information"! ((insert dramatic lightning effect here))

I don't know about other ladies out there, but for me, my time of the month is commonly known as "Hell Week" although sometimes my mother and hubby refer to it as "the redcoats marching"... I call it my week of hell because for 6-8 days I am in numbing agony as my body purges it's monthy dose of living giving fluid... I am in severe pain for at least 3 days (sometimes more), spend most of the time evacuating my insides up in the bathroom, and my faces pales to the point that someone would think a vampire got to me... I get dizzy, phenomenally cold (so much so that I pile 2-3 blankets on me in the summer time!), can barely think straight enough to do anything productive, and I can hardly bring myself to eat much... I dehydrate quickly, fall asleep easily, and I miss out on important events that mean a lot to me...

Tonight is our youngest's chorus concert... the redcoats aren't marching... they're trampling and salting the earth behind them... and so, I am missing something that means the world to me... it makes me want to cry, but I don't think I have the water left inside me to waste on tears... and so, I am blogging my frustrations out... and now I feel a bit better... *sigh*

Take care, Blogland... I'll be back on in a few days to let you know if I survived... and so much for volunteering on Saturday... -_-

Flaky Thought For A Snowy Day

I'm at the art center again sitting in a cold cold corner of the huge building that used to be a bank many moons ago... and a few minutes ago my mind reminded me of what a very Dickens sort of situation I am in right now... I'm poor, I'm not being paid a penny for the work I'm doing, and I'm sitting in a cold corner toiling away while everyone else chats in the warm office of the boss...

Also, I've been asked to come in on Saturday because everyone else needs to be away that day... now do I, out of the kindness of my soul, volunteer myself knowing that I could stay warm at home instead? Or do I say no politely and stay at home and do house chores instead? Tough dilemma... at least I know that they trust me enough to leave me here by myself... I even finally got the password to the computer I am using... ask and thou shalt receive! Ah well, lunch awaits me... take care, Blogland! ^_^

The Great Lord Computerclock Spake!

A fayre and gentle morning to ye, noble wayfarers!

I, but a humble messenger who has just risen from a most warm and comfortable sleep, do hereby decree unto thee that thou needst to check thy clocks and timepieces and calendars, for, according to the whims of our goode and gracious Lord Computerclock, today hath been decreed to be January the 1st in the year 1601.
Yea, verily, do I say! I speak naught but the truth to thee, for though my humble and most delusioned mind thought it to be December the 4th in the year 2005, I am but a simple womyn and know very littel of the worlde around me. I do knowe that Queen Elizabeth rules England, that the plague is an ever-constant fright, and that there is to be a most extraordynarie hanging at the tryple gallows of Tyburn later this week. Perhaps I can convince my lord husbynd to take our family to see it if I am dutyful and mindful around the house, though I fear that he may well be too busy as the bee in summer. My lord husbynd is a grand artist and hath much work to do, after all! That been said, I shall now take my leave of thee for therre is much worke to do in the kitchen if I am to feed anyone any time soone. (That and I wish to protect myself from the horrible tantrumous cries of the banshee child that wails through the wall next door and stomps up and down the stayrcase there.)

Fare thee well!

It's Been A Super Day...

It all began early this morning....

While attempting to uncover a wicked plot to destroy the world with my wondrous magical powers, I had the happy honour of saving Dick Grayson (aka Robin) from certain death at the hands of a couple of nefarious villains. They were using their wily wits and marvelous mind-control powers to bend his perception ever so slightly so that he wouldn't know that they were stealing his lifeforce energy. I must admit that even I was fooled by these miscreants at first. They claimed to be heroes from a far off galaxy and even had the flying saucer to prove it! However, when I felt a shift in the mystical energies surrounding me and their illusions melted away from my mind's eye, I quickly saw through their subterfuge and discovered that they were really demons sent from another dimension not too far from our own. Using powerful magic spells that I had learned from an ancient wizard who had been tutoring me for a few months, I banished the baddies back to their own dimension... but not before the female demon bound poor Master Grayson with a spell of her own. As the demonic vixen vanished, he fell to the ground as if he were dead and his skin grew cold as a strange-coloured mist began to seep from his body. My first thought after "oh my gosh, Batman's gonna kill me when he finds out what kind of trouble I got his ward into this time!" was to cast a counterspell that sealed the seeping energies. After that, I called every high-powered mage that I knew until I found one who knew a solution to the predicament and voila! I woke up to find out it had all been a dream and that it was time for me to get out of bed...

Later, after checking email and news and such, I hopped onto Google and did a few web-searches. One of my stops was the America's Next Top Model website because I watched an episode of it last night and wanted to snag some pictures for drawing reference. Lo and behold, what should my wander eyes find but a bunch of the models' portfolio pictures from an earlier episode where they all were dressed up as superheroines! Needless to say, I took it as a sign and snagged a bunch for costume/drawing references for later! ^_^

Another stop I made was at Alex Ross's website, where I proceeded to "ooo" and "ahh" and drool a bit over the immense beauty that he puts into his superheroic artwork. If you've never seen any of his work, then you need to!

And then I made a stop at a very funny website that sets out to prove how mean Superman really is by using actual comic book evidence. How many times has Superman threatened to kill people despite the fact he has a code versus killing? Superdickery.com has the answer! I was laughing so hard I scared my cat!

As the title says, it's been quite a "super" day. Now I'm off to make an amazing meal for my super-family before they all get the super-munchies! Take care, Blogland, and away I go! ^_~

Tippety, Tappety, Tippety, Tappety

It's Monday lunch.. I'm at the Art Center again... and brrrrr it's cold in here! I can hardly feel my fingertips and my throat is feeling all raw again! Darn being sick! I turned on the space heater near me and I'm trying to thaw out while I eat... might also take a bit of a break to take some pictures of the building with my new camera... and to get a mug of hot chocolate if there's still some in the kitchen here... mmm... chocolate... I'm not a tea or coffee drinker, but I do occasionally indulge in hot chocolate... I hope it has marshmallows... that would be wonderful!

In other news, while I have this quick moment to say it, yesterday I went on a magical journey through the kingdom that is our youngest's bedroom... we went through all of her clothes... and I do mean ALL of them... when we finished, you could see the floor in her closet and her dresser drawers closed without harsh shoving! I know! It's a miracle! What did we get rid of? Two large garbage bags, a huge box full of clothes nobody's worn since kindergarten, and a really big oversize bag that one might usually use to stuff raked leaves in the fall... every one of them is filled to the brim with clothes, clothing, and garments... it reminds of when my sister used to hoard clothes and then clean things out... wow the clothes she used to have! Massive piles of clothes and a closet stuffed full... but at least she wore them all at least once... some of the stuff my youngest had in her room was worn by neither her nor her sister... ever!

Ah well, back to workie-volunteering... more lunch to eat... yum... take care, Blogland... stay warm! Oh, and just for the record, the Art Center is most definitely haunted... something tried to drain the batteries on my camera earlier this morning... it went from full power to almost nothing... now I'm back at full power again... oooooo.... spooky, non? ^_~

Xmas in November

Depressing stuff first... Pat Morita died yesterday of natural causes, though what those causes are is in dispute... at least on the webpage where I saw this sad news... one source said kidney failure, another source said heart failure... not that it truly matters since it was natural causes and not murder... what does matter is that our world has lost another great actor, one that brought so much joy to so many people...

Okay... now that that's out of the way, I can move onto happier things...

Happy Thing #1: Our kids are coming home early from their mother's house!
Yes, I know that she's technically their mother, but since my hubby and I have them more often and take care of them a thousand times better than she does (at least in my honest opinion) I feel quite safe calling them my kids too... The circumstances surrounding our wee ones arrival are kinda sucky... their mother's hubby needs to be readmitted to the hospital again and our youngest was bitten by her mother's dog, though apparently it was a nip that punctured the skin not an awful bite... this remains to be seen... there's nothing like getting a phone call a little after 9AM from your hubby's ex and she's asking when the youngest child last got a tetanus shot... *sigh*

Happy Thing #2: My parents, who live a great distance away from my current place of habitation, sent some Xmas money my way early so that we could do our proxy-shopping for them before all of the maniacs come out of the wood-work to buy stuff... and in one day, I managed to spend the portion of the money that was intended for me... so here's what my parents got me for Xmas:

- breakfast and lunch during my 5 hours at the mall yesterday... yeah, mom, I know you said no food, but the chinese food there brings me a ton of joy and I get to eat it so very rarely... I can still taste the delightful teriyaki chicken mingling with the green peppered beef and fried rice... yum!
- 1 bag of stringless sugarsnap peas in the pod which I shall be eating shortly... I know, I know... again with the food... but peas in the pod remind me of home and the memories that they bring to mind while I eat them are worth a thousand times more than every penny I spent buying them.
- 1 brown, wide-brim, 100% wool hat... no no.. an awesomely comfortable and completely must have hat that can be worn in the winter or the summer... I love wider brimmed hats and this one reminded me of something that Indiana Jones might wear if he was a she.
- and 1 Vivitar ViviCam 3785, also known as my very first digital camera... I'm seriously thinking about naming it because it chirps in the most adorable way possible when I turn it on and off... it can take pictures, like the one I've posted just now, or it can take little mini-movies... and it could quite possibly be one of the coolest things I get this year!

So, much thanks goes to my loving parents who are, by far, the best parents a gal like me could ever hope to ever have, in this life or the next... be assured, dear mum and dod, that your long-distance daughter will be having a lot of fun with her early Xmas gifts... especially the camera... muwhahahahahahaha! ^_~

So Long And Thanks For The Turkey!

Happy American Thanksgiving, Blogland! Today is the day of days to say "fie on thee, oh bird flu!" so that we may stuff ourselves full of deliciously delectable delights... turkey isn't my favourite bird to eat... I'm more of a chicken-person and I would have preferred to have ham for our meal since a well roasted ham reminds me of being back home again, where I got to have some of the best hams I've ever tasted... one of the benefits of coming from a family in the business of butchering, I wager... still, tradition has been broken this year for my hubby's family since the turkey would not fit into his mother's oven... she had to bring it over last night so that we could cook it up today, complete with instructions and extra foil for the top (just in case we didn't have any)... it smells wonderful, I might add, and since I have a wicked cold brewing inside me right now that smell is driving me ravenous! Having a cold makes me feel like I'm starving all day long! I hope that she'll let us take some home with us... we have to bring it over to her house once it's cooked up so that we can enjoy the rest of the feast that she's making... yum!

Oh, and for a completely useless bit of knowledge... it has been brought to my attention that our toilet is older than my parents... the maker's mark on it says it was born on December 12th, 1952! The silly part of me wants to name it and throw it a party for having survived so long... the maintenance fellow who came over to fix it for us weeks ago says the toilet is original to our apartment and that if anything else goes wrong with it, they'll have to replace the poor thing... other than needing a new seat and having to reattach the water-stopper in the tank every so often (maintenance replaced the old stopper because it broke and this new one doesn't fit quite right, though sometimes jiggling the handle puts it back in place)... as long as nothing horrible happens, the toilet should continue to serve us well for a quite a while yet...

In Rogue Isles news, my City of Villains character, Ravel, is almost at 14th level which means I can get true flight soon instead of using the slow-as-treesap-on-a-wintery-day hover power! Yay! No more hospital trips for her because she flies too slow! ^_~

Ah well... time for me to sign off... my hair isn't going to brush itself, after all... plus there are places to go, things to eat, and stuffing to be thankful for... and I think a rip-roaring game of Heroclix is about to start on our living room floor... take care all! ^_^

Lunch!

I'm at the Art Center where I volunteer and it's lunchtime for me... the yummy egg-salad sammie (to use a Rachel Ray word) has been eaten and I still have an apple and some candy to eat... now I am being left alone for 15-20 minutes on what has been the busiest Monday I've ever seen here... I get to answer phones about things I have no idea about... I get to use my charm and winning smile to tell people I have no clue about the Nutcracker Ballet tickets that are almost sold out and that the person in charge will be back in 15-20 minutes... and my bosslady figures that they'll be all irate... it's been 5 minutes and I have had 4 calls... all for the ballet...LOL... I can hardly wait for 2pm when I am done and can go home and nap... all this hustle-bustle in a cold old building is doing wonders for my sore throat/developing cold... take care until later, Blogland! ^_^

Where Do Weeks Go?!?

Okay, so I blogged on Monday that I was going to get back to blogging tomorrow, but obviously I didn't since it is now a few days later... so here's my week in a bloggy nutshell...

Monday I woke up too early yet again to get ready to do some volunteering at the local Art Center... when I walked into the building, I was put to work by one of the paid ladies who work there as soon as I walked in the door... we rushed around trying to take down an old exhibit to put up the new one because the weekend employees didn't do it and luckily received some help when another couple of volunteers showed up... at least I think they were... one of them mentioned she was getting $20 an hour to work at the center and complained about the work she was having to do... and all I could think of, well it must be freaking nice! When I mentioned that little volunteering me was doing this without pay (jokingly of course because if you can't say something nice don't say it in front of the people you want to say it about unless you want to start a fight) the lady looked like I had slapped her in the face and called her a liar... *sigh* then the lady who usually has stuff for me to do, aka my "boss", comes in a bit late and asks me to ask if the exhibit people are going to need me all day... when I ask, the paid lady who wrangled me into working on the exhibit in the first place says to her, "Oh, no. I suppose not. Thank you for lending her to us." The tone in her voice was like I was a little slave girl being passed off to the next master... I was not amused... treat your volunteers with some respect, lady... sheesh! So then I was put on bulk mail duty, which means sticking address tags on envelopes and sealing them shut and counting them up and pretty much being left to my own thoughts on any other day... but today was special, you see... one of the paid girls who usually answers phones was out sick because she had just had an operation to remove her gall bladder... I know that pain and totally understood that she'd be gone and I would need to answer one of the phone lines when my boss was on the other line or was busy in the meeting... but WOW did it ring and ring and ring! Mondays are never so busy, but people called for this, that, and the next thing or came in looking for tickets to the Nutcracker performance that's coming up soon or to drop off more art for the exhibit that was going up and it was all we could do to keep up... my poor boss needed to have something done for noon and was still working on it when I left at 2pm to go home... she'd been working on it all day because of all the interruptions and I don't think she'd even had lunch yet...
After leaving that place, that the week calmed down a little... Tuesday, we went over to my hubby's parent's place to have supper... it was a delicious repast consisting of melt-in-your-mouth steak, chicken fingers, green peas, scalloped potatoes with carrots in it, cola to drink, fresh green peppers and celery to munch on, and eclairs for dessert... I only had half of an eclair though... the filling of these ones didn't agree with my tummy... so I ended up having a bunch of garlic dill pickles for dessert instead... hehehe... there would be no kissing my hubby after that, especially since he's allergic to garlic... but the pickles were just too yummy not to eat!
Wednesday was report card day at the middle school, so my hubby and I went from class to class doing the whole parent-teacher conference thing with most of the teachers on our elder daughter's list... overall things went well and everyone agrees that she's a wonderful girl... though I don't mind saying that her Social Studies teacher is a bit of a scritch... although normally I would take off the "scr" and replace them with a capital "b"... she's got a bit too much of that "teach the smartest kids first, and the rest should just speed up or fail" sort of attitude... I hate teachers like that and I can totally see why our girl doesn't really like her and is doing poorly in that class... our method to get our darling daughter to work harder? We told her that if she doesn't, that she'll have to repeat the class... which would mean spending another year in that class... needless to say, our girl totally wants out of that class, so I imagine she'll be studying harder now!
Thursday, Ravel formed a supergroup and filled out the paperwork with Arachnos for a evil lair... Ravel is my supervillainess in the game City of Villains and today I plan to decorate it so that I can invite all of my evil allies over to see... they shall join me or perish! Muwhahahahaha! I might even take some silly pictures of Ravel and her zombie minions in the base just for the heckuvait... I'm silly like that... Now if only I could find some minions to do the housework for me in real life... how sweet would that be? ^_~

Speaking of things evil... I found a couple of really awesome songs by a singer called Voltaire... one is about being evil called "When You're Evil" and the other is a lullaby for a child to help make them be not so scared at night called "Goodnight Demon Slayer"... both are incredibly funny and can be found on the internet, though I seem to have misplaced the link at this time... *sigh* Just run a Google search, I'm sure they'll pop up somewhere on there...

Ah well, I've stolen enough of your time... I need food so that my body will have the fuel needed to wash dishes... I hate washing dishes... take care, Blogland! ^_^

Technical Difficulties...?

This is a test of the Spectral Soliloquies Broadcasting system... this is just a test... if this were a real Broadcast, I might be fishing but since I am not, since is only a test... thank you for your patience and we now return you to your regularily unscheduled blog...

What a Monday....!

More on that tomorrow... ^_~

Hellllllooooooo Blogland! I've been a baaaad girl, haven't I? I meant to blog daily or at least weekly and now it's been since September! What's been keeping me away? Lots of things... but mostly downloading updates for City of Heroes/City of Villains (aka COH/COV), my favourite set of massive mulitplayer online roleplaying games or MMORPG... you see, our computer system was under the control of an evil device known as dial-up internet which meant that our downloading took forever to complete... we were supposed to be beta-testers for City of Villains and could not be simply because it took us eons to download the updates and such to participate... then when the game was released, it took us a whole week just to get half of the download needed... it was going to take us another week to finish... it was awful... so we checked into DSL deals and found that we could lock in a deal that gives us DSL for the same price as we were paying for dial-up... needless to say, we snapped that deal up and now we have the miracle of high speed internet! There is much rejoicing in the land! Yay! Now the phone's free to ring and the internet works a thousand times better... which makes playing MMORPGs a lot easier...hehehe...

In other news, I need a shower.... badly... lol... I meant to take one last night but the Wizard of Oz was on tv and I just love watching that musical... plus, I was drawing a lovely picture and I didn't want my muse to jump ship on me and find some other artist to inspire... unless, of course, my muse wanted to inspire my hubby who is an artist... I love him enough to share my muse once in a while when his is on a coffee break. ^_~

Eeep... speaking of my hubby... he just came back from work super early and wow is he ticked off!!! Apparently the dumbasses at his workplace scratched him off the schedule and didn't call him ahead of time... so we both could have slept in and enjoyed the day... *sigh* We really need to find him a different job... an illustrator/graphic designer of his calibre should never be forced to work in what we refer to as "retail hell" -- it's just not sane.

Ah well, chat with you laters... and hopefully sooner rather than later, right? Maybe even tomorrow, since tonight we begin playing our superhero campaign again with our gaming group... and I'm sure that I'll have one heckuva tale to tell about that! ^_^

I Guess It's Better Than Catching a Hot...

I know that cold weather is swiftly on its way... how do I know, you ask? Well, beyond hearing that a friend of mine's hubby actually closed the windows to cut the chill down in their house *insert-shocked-gasp-here*... a naughty little cold has latched itself on me... I keep telling myself, "Self, this season you're going to out run the damn things... you're not going to get all sore throated, sneezy, runny nosed, and slightly-queasy-yet-ironically-ravenously-hungry-all-at-the-same-time," but it never fails... I can never dodge quickly enough to miss catching one... it's not for lack of trying though... it just seems like no matter what I do to try to prevent getting one, they always find a way to creep in and take root... much like a song that just won't be sung out of your skull, they're really very insidious... mind you, everyone gets caught by them at some point in their life, so I don't feel so bad knowing that I am part of a large group of fellow humans that are probably all suffering from the same strain that's been circulating here lately... a strain, no doubt, that's just waiting for its chance to find the right person to mutate inside of so that all the colds of the world can unite into some super-enhanced uber-cold bent on rampaging across humankind and bending us to its evil will... colds are sneaky like that... I'm thinking that it's time to fight back with some irresistible "breakfast" soup (randomly-chosen-flavour ramen noodle soup enhanced with peas, onion, black pepper, cheese, and something from the meat group -- usually an egg, shrimp, ham, or low-fat sausage) since it's very yummy in my tummy first thing in the morning and the warmth is soothing when I'm sicky... mmm... comfort food... ^_^

Auntie Morra!

Happiness and smiles galore! My mother called and let me know that my little sister finally had her very first wee one at 2am their time this morning... a healthy baby girl and both my new niece and my little sister are doing fine, all things considered... not sure about the baby's size yet as my mum didn't know yet herself... I should find out sometime within a couple of days when someone either calls or emails the details to me... I live about 2-3 days travel away from them, as the Greyhound bus flies, so it's not like I can just walk over to the hospital and visit... I can hardly wait to see all the pictures of the lovely new bundle of joy!! I just had to let Blogland know the happy happy news... and the funniest thing of all? Last night I felt quite ill and crampy for no reason and I said to my hubby that it better be sympathy pains for my sister... lo and behold, it was! Woo hoo!!! ^_^

It's my bloggy and I'll rant if I want to...

Apologies to my good friend Cynthia 'cause I know she checks over here and if she read my comments at her blog, she's heard most of this rant already... I just felt that I needed to blow off some more steam so I brought my opinions over here where they belong... ^_~

Hurricane stories abound in the news today... but the thing I found interesting in my daily search for what's happening in the world of news was that many people seemed to be more concerned that Fats Domino might have been found alive, that Lucy Lawless survived with her new movie's film intact... and that other countries seem to care more about what has actually happened than the USA does... o_O

I also hear that the "battle-trained" troops that are being sent into the south have shoot-to-kill orders on anyone who looks hostile... which, in my humble and blatantly honest opinion, could easily be everyone in the region because, let's face it, if you were devastated by a massive natural disaster and had nothing left, you'd be pretty hostile to anyone who isn't helping out...

There's hardly any mention of any sort of aid at all getting to other people who need it (beyond the help already being given by courageous local rescuers who also survived the situation and are getting too worn out to do much anymore)... I heard more about destroyed chicken farms than what anyone is going to do to help the people who live in the south...

Current U.S. President Bush is supposed to tour the devastated areas of the Gulf Coast today, hoping to bring "support and compassion for the victims"... I'm sure George is a really nice guy once you get to know him and I love to think he'll actually do something to aid survivors, but knowing what I know about spin-doctoring I read this statement to mean that he's going to be a tourist... he'll look around at people suffering, make a few speeches about how he'll try to do whatever he can to get the government to agree to get money to the area, shake a few hands, kiss a few dying babies, and then he'll get the hell out as fast as he can... and somehow I doubt anyone can truly blame the man that is George Bush... because humans, as a rule, don't like to be uncomfortable or around the rotting dead and dying... the President that is George Bush, however, will be blamed and thus he'd better do his damndest to make a difference... otherwise he'll be remembered for this failing for a very long time... it's a sad sad truth that historians just love to write about people that make wrong decisions...

As I said over at Cyn's blog, this whole situation is like America's very own Tsunami and, sad to say it, I highly doubt relief from it is going to come any time soon... especially since Asia had theirs first and is still reeling and picking up pieces... and there you have it... ranting's done for now... next time I blog, I think I'll try to find something happier to chat about... -_-

The News According to Morra

Haven't reported in for a wee bit... figured I ought to since I'll be playing City of Heroes for the next few days... they have their new free expansion up and I need to get all of the badges and such.. hehehe...

On the home front, we have some new tiles in our "dining room" which is more of just a corner of the apartment that we have a table in for the kids... it's a major walkway to get to the kitchen though and had been in need of new tiling for quite some time... the cat even got in on the fun when he decided that he needed to walk through the glue on the floor as it was drying, thus getting a nasty sticky mess all over his noble paws... the type of glue that was used is not terribly washable from cat fur and since I didn't have soap for him to give him a bathing and didn't want the little fluffball to lick it off and get sick, I locked us in the bathroom with my small pair of folding embroidery scissors and proceeded to give him a bit of a pedicure... clippety snippety meow meow zippety... I tried to clip off all of the fur that had gotten sticky, as well as wash the pads of his feet so he wouldn't end up attaching to anything else... but as it was one woman versus a cat (everyone else was gone from the house at the time, go figure), I'd say that the battle came to a draw and Shady ended up having to lick his toes anyway... he was a very warm and tired kitty for the rest of the day and kept me worried worried worried that he might have poisoned himself in his moment of being a posterkitten for "Curiosity Killed the Cat"... but he's alright now and there seems to be no harm done, unless you count the nicknames Stickyfeet and Taternuts which have arisen from the incident (thanks to That 70's Show and my wacky hubby)...

I just found out today that Michael Sheard died of cancer on August 31st at his home on the Isle of Wight... he was a great actor who played in a great many things... he was Admiral Ozzel in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, played Hitler 5 times (once in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), was Mr. Bronson in the long running children's drama Grange Hill, played several roles in the Doctor Who series, and even acted along with Roger Moore in Escape to Athena (Sheard's favourite role ever to play), just to name a few... he will be missed by the many adoring fans and family he's left behind but left us with this final message (that his son was asked to post to his website for all of his friends): "Thank you my Very Dear Chums - See ya."

Hurricane Katrina has finally finished her blow out and I am glad for it... the world has plenty of suffering already without the natural disasters beating people down... I think we caught the very tiny tail of Kat as she pushed through our area in the form of an all day rain storm... my heart goes out to the survivors of her wrath (for all that that's worth, that is, since heart-felt feelings won't help them rebuild homes or recover lost loved ones) and I pray to the gods that care about such matters that those people be kept safe and well...

Several countdowns have begun... the kids go back to school on September 7th... Survivor: Guatemala starts on the 15th, the new season of Justice League Unlimited begins on the 17th, and The Amazing Race is starting its new run on the 27th... I also might get to go to a day event held by the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) on the 24th... and that new niece or nephew I've been waiting for should be coming into the world this month since my little sister hasn't had her baby yet as far as I know... September is going to be full of happenings...

Where have I been?!?

Yes, yes, yes... I know what you're thinking... I haven't blogged for so long people were getting bored of coming here... I'm sorry and apologize... it's been a busy month for everyone in the house and my computer time has been mostly spent on emails and research... bad me... won't happen again for a little while hopefully... ^_~

For anyone who is interested, my birthday is tomorrow... I have already gotten one of the best gifts I could ever get from someone... I got to chat with my mom who lives very far away from me and find out that all is well there... I might get a little niece or nephew depending on when my sister has her first baby (I hear she's ready to pop at any time now... I think it would be more ironic and funny if the baby holds out for Labour Day... but it would also be awfully cool to have a birthday buddy ^_^)... I also found out that I had birthday money to spend, which is always appreciated and promptly went out to spend most of it yesterday...

Here's a list of the fun stuff I got so far:

• 1 Mega-millions Lottery Ticket for the $84 Million jackpot (I haven't checked to see if I won yet at the time I wrote this so I'm not sure if I even got anything out of this... I'll get another ticket on my birthday for tradition's sake)
• 1 happy tummy filled up with a delicious steak dinner (an experienced that was shared with my handsome hubby)
  
• 2 packages of stringless sugar-nap peas in the pod because they're so yummy and I haven't got the yard space to plant a garden full of them myself...
  
• 1 ball of rainbow nylon ribbon/wide string to be used on a costume or crocheting or just batting around like a cat... I might even just keep it whole and marvel at it from time to time or re-wrap it into a ball... I just love the colours found within it... great job to who/whatever dyed it for me!
• 1 chinese dragon/medallion set (got it in a crafts/beads section of a giant store I hate dearly but shop at anyway because I can't really afford to shop anywhere else right now... it shall be strung into something wearable when I figure out whether I want it to be a necklace or a hat or what-have-you)
• 1 copy of How to Draw Manga Costume Encyclopedia Vol. 1 (because it has tons of uses in both drawing and costuming... so many detailed options, so little cloth on hand.. plus the book store here didn't have the Japanese costuming book I wanted... no tabi-making for me! LOL ^_~)
• 1 copy of The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves, and Other Little People (since folklore is fun and you can never have too many books about feyfolk... the poor little thing was in a bargain bin at a major bookstore in town and it is slightly damaged in places that don't matter much... I just had to rescue it... after all, good books like this one are as elusive as their subject!)
  
• 1 pre-order downpayment at a local video game boutique in an effort to make sure we don't miss out on the City of Villains Collector's Edition... must... have... supervillainous fix
  
• a few pads of graph paper (because we never seem to have any around when I need it)
  
• 1 "backpack files" organizer with removeable files (for all of my tabletop RPG characters so that I can find them all!)

All in all, I'd say I got a pretty nice haul that will be enjoyed for many moons to come... as far as I know, I'm probably also getting some clothes from my hubby's parents and might be going to lunch and then to see The Brothers Grimm on Friday... yay! Fun all around... oh! I almost forgot! I also got the complete anime DVD set of Final Fantasy Unlimited, a letter from my grandma, and a card from my aunt & cousin... life is grand... keep smiling, Blogland... I know I will be for quite a while... ^_^

Knot From a Jedi...

My cat, who goes by many many names (Kitten, Shadow, Shady, Fuzzy, and Darth Kittious, just to name a few), has had a very long week... he lost a back tooth to decay, got his beautiful long fur run over by the massive computer chair (which left a huge welt on his backside when he panicked and the fur was pulled out in an enormous clump), had the tip of his tail stepped on a couple of times, and it's been stupidly hot and humid here, thus hindering his desire to do anything but sleep and drink lots of water... some good things happened too, mind you... he enjoyed the ceremony of opening a new bag of kitty food, went on a few walks outside on his leash, had plenty of people in the house to play with him, and he drank out of my water cup (that I set on the floor by the couch when I sit there) at least 4 times... he loves to drink from my cup even though he has his own water cup that sits right next to mine... I'm beginning to think it's the novelty of the coloured water (the cups I use are colourful see-throughy plastic and when light hits them it makes the water inside look like the colour of the cup) that makes him drink...

Yes, my kittycat had a rough week...but he also proved to me this week, that he might have been a ship's cat in a past life... yesterday, as we were playing together with his favourite bit of rope (it's a chewy, non-fraying, drawstring from my hubby's joggers/shorts if I remember correctly), he managed to tie a figure-of-eight knot into it! I used to be in the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets before I got married and I used to teach kids how to tie that very knot since it's very useful in sailing and such... it was not always an easy task to get them to learn it, let me tell you... but my cat, who has no training whatsoever, tied it all on his own! He did a flippity flop and tossed the rope to me and voila! Perfect stopper knot! Needless to say, he was well rewarded for his wonderful trick... any cat can tie an overhand knot... but mine kicked his up a notch... Go super-kitty go! ^_~

North-northwest of Reality

It was going to be a sunny day, the sky proclaimed though the sun was still not fully overhead yet... and I was at the beach with the Munsters and I was commenting on how much pollution had upset the lake this year, so much so that it had dried up some of the water and left other parts full of algae so that people couldn't swim very well... The Munsters hadn't really noticed because they were too busy picking dead fish off the shore line... they were going to be having the Addams family over later and they wanted to make sure they felt at home... Then Herman, the dad, found a large stretch of clay and decided to build a gazebo out of it right next to a public bathroom that was near the shore... It actually turned out to be quite gorgeous, full of latticed celtic knotwork and tiles of intricate medieval gothic design... but he never fired the clay, so that when he went to show us what he had created, his big franken-head knocked through the ornate ceiling he had made and then he got a bit frustrated and punched through a wall or two clumsily... the man who played Vizzini in the movie The Princess Bride (Wallace Shawn) was there when this happened and he starting berating the Munsters for everything that they had done since they set foot on the beach... I wandered away from them a bit because something in the dappled shadows of some shrubbery (junipers, ferns, and some Labrador tea plants) caught my eye... it was a card that looked like one from a Collectible Card Game like Magic: the Gathering or the one that's currently out for Marvel comics... but this was not a normal game card though... this one was a CCG of the gods, something that I knew instantly upon seeing it, as though I was on a mission and had to 'catch them all,' to borrow a term from Pokemon... this card had the picture of a divine brown cow who had recently declared to the realms that no other cow may be sent to market except for herself for she was a goddess now and would spring back to life after dying, thus solving all the issues that mankind had with diseased beef and world hunger... she offered the choicest cuts at the most divine prices and would offer discounts to poorer populations... the noble mortal cow should be sacred to all and milked by hand as needed... she further threatened that any farmer/butcher/whomever who disobeyed her decree (such as by slaying one of these "chosen moo" or by milking them with those terrible mass-milk harvesting machines) would face her wrath and promised it wouldn't be pretty... I picked up the card then and it radiated softly with magical power...

And that's when I woke up and thought I would share what I just saw... I'm good like that... ^_~

Riots and Tacos and Magic... oh my!

Last night was our regular gaming night wherein we play tabletop roleplaying games and hang out as friends... I look forward to Saturday nights every week because I adore the socialization and it's just plain fun to pretend that you are someone you can never be...

This week we played our superhero campaign, "filmed in HERO-vision" as I wrote in my game notes... which basically means we're using the HERO system to play rather than Mutants & Masterminds (aka M&M)... this will mean nothing to non-gamers I am sure and really makes no nevermind anyways since if you are a good roleplayer you can play any system and still have a lot of fun... I just think saying our game was "filmed in HERO-vision" is funny... it's like we're making an old serialized TV show wherein we are all stars... and just like a good TV show, this week's episode was jam packed with fun, excitement, and suspense... we started and ended a huge gang riot in the oldest part of town, my mage-girl had a tussle with our mentalist which ended with my mage thrown into a wall and the mentalist thrown through a table full of Mexican food, and then we were all attacked by some shadowy girl who bore some resemblances to my character and ended up being teleported to another dimension by my mage-girl's magical flying panther... only to be left in a cliffhanger after finding my character's long lost daddy standing right there amidst the perfect scenery of the magical realm.... mega-kudos to my hubby for making it all happen... my man is a genius... no, no... super-genius when it comes to running a game! I can hardly wait until we play again so I can find out what's going to happen next!! ^_^

Oh, and for the record, if you soak small shrimp bits in soya sauce and some spices, and then cook them in some butter, the resulting colour is very much like the beans in a can of pork-n-beans... or at least it was when I did it... but the shrimp tastes a lot better mixed with onions, broccoli, and rice than the pork-n-beans mixed into the same concoction would I wager... ^_~

Something Is Missing... YAY!

I was just about to start some housework that I missed out on because of a severe thunderstorm that ripped through town yesterday... I went upstairs to change out of the skirt I was wearing as a muu muu (any skirt I own needs to be versatile like that since it's often more comfy to wear skirts as a muu muu than as skirts, plus this skirt has a really neato tribal motif that reminds me of tropical places)... I wanted to wear shorts (not the underwear shorts, the overwear ones) since it is warm out and I am going to be doing housework which makes me feel even warmer... just one problem... I only own one pair of shorts that fit me right now and that pair needs laundering badly... sadly, my other shorts have all met timely/untimely ends such as zippers skipping their tracks and just plain wearing out... but then I had a wacky idea... my mother in law got me a pair of dark blue denim shorts at a garage sale a while back but they were too small for me and I had had to put them in my box of "things I want to wear someday"... in my wackiness I dug them out, thinking if anything the cat would get a good laugh at how chubby I am... to my shock and surprise, they actually cleared my hips without me sucking anything in! A miracle of miracles!! Now if only I could maybe get them zippered up... I thought, no way... they'll be too tight to even bother... but then I remembered the cat laughing and went for it anyway... and lo! they zippered up... sure, I had to suck my belly in and it was a very tight fit... I could barely sit down in them and still breathe when I tried... but it gave me a newfound knowledge that I am actually losing weigh for sure... proper portion sizes and drinking a lot of water has actually been paying off... it truly boggles the mind!... just think of what would happen if I exercised regularily... wow!... I might be able to fit in some of my clothes from high school... okay, so that's not so much of an incentive but you get the picture... and to top it all off, when I reached this epiphany of weightloss, what should pop onto my mp3 playlist but good ol' Louis Armstrong singing What a Wonderful World... I've got a musical playlist that's responding to how I'm feeling today... how cool is that?!

So for the rest of the day, as I continue to listen to my mp3 playlist very loudly and do housework, I think I might sing and dance a little bit more than usual and I'm sure I'll be a much lighter spirit because of it! ^_^

Beamed To A Better Place...

I was going to write about how my mood had improved drasticly and that my clothes actually matched my purse but I came home to find this out...

James Doohan died today at 5:30am at his home in Redmond, Washington... the great Canadian actor was best known for his role as the loveable chief engineer of the starship Enterprise, Montgomery Scott... millions of Trek fans globally mourn the loss, as do I... but I'd like to think that he's been beamed to a better place where he no longer has to worry about the Alzheimer's disease that was plaguing him... for someone who brought such joy to millions, he deserves nothing less.

Grumble Grumble Grumble

Okay... just so you know, my mood has improved somewhat... not much, but somewhat... I am trying to focus on completely happy thoughts, like emails from my sister and the fact that I now have a Roman coin from AD 337-350... I even decided to create-and-nuture four new towns in my Sim City rather than build-and-destroy them all... I don't know how long that will last, but for now they can rest easy knowing that this Sim deity isn't going to blast them into oblivion...

I wish I knew what was making me so snippy-snappy... I'd say that it's the phase of the moon and would probably be partly correctly, especially since last night, when I threw the garbage out, the moon was quite ominously rust-coloured... maybe it's the compounding of years of homesickness... maybe it's envy of people who can have family vacations and see the world with people they love... maybe it's lack of a decent sleep or the fact that I have a gnawing craving for a kind of food that we don't have in the house and never ever will... maybe I'm just driving myself mad for something to break up the monotony... nah... I went crazy once, didn't like it...

I actually almost wonder if I just need to get outside and become one with the earth again... don't freak out... my idea of 'becoming one with the earth' is getting my drawing gear, a snack & a drink, and a soft tapestry rug to sit on, then heading out into some peopleless part of nature for a while to clear my soul by listening to nature's soundtrack while I make some hobby art... usually this involves sitting near water or a great many trees... historical places also help me out a lot... I used to love going to Fort Walsh and Batoche... still would if the option existed... but alas, I am far away from the places that I used to go to... and I haven't a clue where to find a good where I am now... this needs more pondering methinks... *sigh*

The Panda-fly Effect

I woke up later than I thought I was going to... I rushed around trying to make up for the lost time and missed out on having a shower to feel fresh and clean so that I could eat breakie and fix things so that my wonderfluff feline would be happy while everyone was away... my clothes felt all wet and sticky from the smothering humidity, which only added to the ickiness I felt at not having had a shower... I was away from my hubby (who broke his toe recently and has me all worried and such)... I was away from my stepgirls... I was away from my wonderfluff feline... all so that I could do some forced volunteering at a very nice art gallery run by very nice people - I normally quite enjoy being there, just not today... I kept messing up my alphabeticals... had to read and re-read the projects that I was given to work on because I kept messing up and making more work for myself... I couldn't type today to save my lief... I had an arguement with someone who thought Patrick Swayze was the main character in the movie White Noise when I know for a fact that this isn't so... I've had to repeat and repeat myself over and over and over and over so that someone actually hears my voice... and then I have to say it one more time so that they understand me... I smell like skunkweed... my personal headphones for the computer are all tangly-twistered into my hubby's set which turned my anger button from MILDLY-ANNOYED to URGE-TO-KILL-RISING... the hot dogs that we had for supper are making me feel like I am going to have an alien from Alien rip out of my belly button... and I think I'd like to crawl into a dark sunless corner to be alone for a while and cry my heart out through my skull... but I know I can't since as soon as I even try it, my ever-loving wonderfluff cat will become my shadow and try to cheer me up... and failing, he'll stalk off and I'll feel even more upset and sad... *sigh*... and a link that was sent to me by a good friend didn't work and I really really really wanted to see Suzaku, Seiryuu, Byakko, and Genbu playing poker!!! So I am a living bundle of emotions... I should just give up for the day... but then I see something that brings me a ray of happiness...

"Panda Leads Chinese City on Pursuit

BEIJING (AP) - A wild panda that strayed into a southwestern Chinese city over the weekend scaled a fence, hopped from roof to roof, swam in a river and napped in a tree before it was caught, a news agency reported. The panda led residents of Dujiangyan in Sichuan province on a chase after wandering into the town and spending the day there, the Xinhua News Agency said.

The saga began Saturday when three men drinking beer spotted a figure 'nimbly' climbing over a fence surrounding a housing estate, Xinhua said. The men and residents gave chase, thinking it was a thief trying to break in, but changed tactics when they realized it was a panda. Some people blocked entrances to the housing estate, while others searched for the animal and found it calmly sitting on the roof of a bungalow, Xinhua said. Efforts to reach the animal failed as it began running from roof to roof before hopping off 20 minutes later, climbing another gate and disappearing.

'The panda was amazingly agile and totally different from those at zoos,' Xinhua quoted one woman as saying. Police found the panda again a few hours later after receiving a report that it was taking a dip at a nearby river. It later hunkered down for the night in a tree. Xinhua said the animal was tranquilized the next morning.

Li Desen, a zoologist at the province's Wolong giant panda research center, said the panda suffers from liver and kidney disease and hurt her paws during her escapade. The animal hasn't eaten anything, although the center has prepared fresh bamboo leaves and glucose for her, Li said. The panda is now under 24-hour intensive care..."

Somehow it makes me feel better to know that I might be part of a butterfly effect with a panda... she's having a bad day but will hopefully get better *fingers crossed*... I am having a bad day but will hopefully get better *more fingers crosssed*... now I am going to take a few breaths, try to untangle the headphones for playing computer games, then cheat at Sim City 4... life will improve. -_-

Vacation With The Stars

So I was wandering around on the news sites, as I am wont to do early in the morning and I found an interesting tidbit of information hiding in plain sight...

"CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - In a scenario out of "Star Wars," astronomers have detected a planet outside our solar system with not one, but three suns, a finding that challenges astronomers' theories of planetary formation.
The planet, a gas giant slightly larger than Jupiter, orbits the main star of a triple-star system known as HD 188753 in the constellation Cygnus ("The Swan"). The stellar trio and its planet are about 149 light-years from Earth and about as close to each other as our sun is to Saturn, U.S. scientists reported on Thursday in the current edition of the journal Nature. A light-year is about 6 trillion miles, the distance light travels in a year.
If you stood on the planet's surface, you would see three suns in sky, although its orbit centers around the main yellow star among the trio. The larger of the other two suns would be orange and the smaller would be red, astronomers at California Institute of Technology said in a statement..."

Now this is an awesome thing to find and I'd love to see it with my own eyes... but I pose to you, the intelligent reader, how in all creation would a person stand on the surface of a gas giant planet? Last time I checked, they aren't exactly the most stable sort of place to be hanging out on, what with all that super-heated poisonous gas floating about... plus if I weighed 136 lbs on Earth, I'd weigh around 344.4 lbs on a Jupiter-like planet... I'd be too busy suffering from death or moving my gravity-fattened behind to get out of the fury of a gas storm to admire the pretty colours of the triad of suns!

~O~ ~o~ ~O~

Oh and on a slightly less silly note, I'd like to thank my good friend for the honour of collecting her mail and accidently killing one of her plants while she was in the UK only blocks away from one of the recent terrorist attacks there... I got a sew-on badge/patch with the adorable Welsh dragon on it and might perhaps get a Roman coin out of the deal... and since I didn't really expect to get much more than a postcard and a story about what happened while she was away anyhow, there is much happiness in myself today... I'm just uber-glad that she and her man made it back safely! ^_^

Lawnmowing Man

The fiend from apartment-C across the way from our place decided to mow his lawn at the ungodly hour of 7:30am... I think he actually started earlier than this, but that's what time it was when I shut the window and checked the clock, hoping against hope that I might be able to crawl back into the land of dreams... but alas, it was not to be so... with the loudest mower that was ever summoned from the volcanic pits of the underrealm, the fiend cut down the grass and innocent clover blossoms not only on his yard, but the adjoining yard as well...

*sigh* Being awake before my alarm-cat may make for a long, grumpy day... I might just have to vent my frustrations on a video game or a random Google search for 'happiness'... either that or I'll do laundry...

simple pleasures for a not-so-simple mind

After reading some that my friends and hubby did and telling myself that I should give it a go, I've finally done it... I've finally snagged myself a little plot of blogland to call my very own! As you can see, it's a nice little place, though a bit of a fixer-upper... it should be great once I sow a few seeds of silliness and drop a bit of drivel around... maybe I'll even hang up a few pictures here and there to add some colour once I figure out where to put them.

Tonight's blog shall be short due to lack of time to continue writing and an intense desire to watch some summer television programming, but expect a lot of silly commentary to show up here among the serious... after all, I'm an eccentric RPGing female with a vivid imagination and I'm not afraid to blue-book! Not afraid one bit... though how does one compress 6-10 pages of notes per gaming session into one little blog? I don't know right now, but I'm sure I'll try it at least once a week... our group plays almost every Saturday night and I'd love to be able to share some of the fun happenings that occur when I can.

But alas, I must sign off now... a night of reality TV awaits my attention... along with my cuddly cat, my handsome hubby, and two wonderful step-daughters who should be coming inside from playing in the summer dusk at any minute... g'night! ^_^