Yesterday, I was struck down with a mighty migraine. How mighty was it? Well, I spent a lot of time over a plastic trash can, if you know what I mean, and I hardly climbed out of bed from about 2:30pm until 10pm. Then I sort of wandered around like a zombie and watched the news. Gosh, what a nasty day.

The house is a bit of a mess. Stew had the flu for about five days and now he's frolicking at Torcon. Good thing my mom gave me a birthday Swiffer Wet-jet ! Yeaaaah ! I'm going to clean today before heading to Campaign HQ. Tomorrow, I'm doing a bunch of constituency work and then seeing Rick. I was supposed to see him yesterday, but my plans were thwarted. On Sunday, I'm going to the Petes to pick up Scarlette because I don't like not having a car. I know, it suggests that I'm lazy, but I'm not. I just like having the OPTION of a car.

Now, back to cottage stories.

Emma's a Beautiful Little Girl.
She really is. She was an adorable baby, fat and munchkinlike and full of smiley goodness and now she's a wonderful toddler. And she's starting to speak. Of course, words are not quite like we know them, for instance, Hello comes out as "Lo-lo" and thank you is "Dahn-do". Kristina and Derek have been doing an amazing job of raising Emma to be a bright and polite little girl. She has one unfortunate habit, however; screeching. At seventeen months, Emma is experimenting with language and sound and screeching is filling some void she was obviously feeling in her life. She screeches happily, questioningly, angrily, and always irritatingly. She's easily forgiven, mind you, as she's such a sweet and friendly kid.

Otters !
Yes, that's right, we have otters ! I went out in the canoe one evening and was paddling about in the back bay, seeing how far in to shore I could get, what with the water being as high as it is this year, when I saw ripples in the water from behind a fallen tree. My initial thought was that the beaver were being unusually splashy, but as I approached and caught sight of the animal responsible, I was surprised to see no flat beaver tail. Too big to be a muscrat, I paddled in a little closer before it dawned on me what it was. "Eeeee ! An otter," I squealed outloud. Immediately following that, a head popped up, followed by three more ! "Four otters !" Indeed, two adults and two young, all playing together. We circled each other and they followed me about at a bit of a distance, all the while snorting and grunting.

On the morning of my birthday, they came into the bay our cottage overlooks and Mom woke up me and Tracy up to come see them. They were climbing about on a deadhead and splashing and swimming about before they receded into the rear where we could no longer see them. What a wonderful gift to have otters in our lake. In my mother's 35 years of owning the cottage, never before have we seen otters. How very exciting !

I turned 26.
There's not too much to say about my birthday. It passed without too much fanfare, at least as compared to years previous. I got new glasses, so I can strike them off my wish list, as well as a truly fantastic tome of world mythology. As well, Tracy gave me a pair of Muppet figures, Rizzo as seen in Muppets from Space and, Sam the Eagle from Muppet Treasure Island. I LOVE Sam ! he's absolutely one of my favourite Muppet characters. Now I'm faced with the problem of figuring out where to put them. I'm running out of room for toys AND books on my shelves. I should note that Mom bought the Swiffer AFTER the presents were given so that it wouldn't be a gift. She hates the idea that I wanted a Swiffer for my birthday.

Jean and Michael came up the hill to join us for birthday cake after dinner and that was a great visit. Michael is so funny, he had us in stitches at a couple of occasions and we were filled in on much of the local gossip. Lots of cake was eaten and coffee/tea was drunk. Prior to that, Tracy and I went crab apple picking down the road. Both of us climbed about in the trees, less successfully than we would have liked, but fun, nonetheless. We followed a groomed trail that meandered into the forest, I suspect, for the purposes of the hunting club. We also hiked along the lovely logging road across from the hunt club enjoying the view of the beaver stream and the land as a whole. Unfortunately, I also had to pack up my stuff on my birthday, too, because Tracy and I would be leaving the cottage on the following day.

Okay, that's enough news for now. It's time for breakfast (I've been up for a couple of hours, but haven't gotten around to eating yet) and then vaccuuming and Swiffing !

Today, I have learned a valuable lesson. When brewing coffee in a stove-top coffee maker, and someone calls you and talks for some time so that the coffee boils off leaving only a thick, bubbling sludge... Adding water to that sludge will dilute it and make for you a drinkable cup of coffee. Who was this person that phoned? My sister, Gina. I wasn't about to kick her off the phone for a cup of coffee, though for an instant it did cross my mind. *wink*

So. Let's start with a summary of some of the events listed in my previous post.

Curd Cheese and Franco-Ontarians.
While Tracy was still doing work at the vet clinic in Embrun, she came up for the first weekend I was there. (She also came up when her work was completed, too, but that doesn't relate to this story.) She suggested that we go to the St. Albert Curd Cheese festival taking place in St. Albert, which was fairly close to my cottage and quite close to Embrun. Always up for an adventure, I agreed. And were we disappointed? Heck no ! Two dollars got us a plate full of cheese samples from the St. Albert Dairy, a bun, and grapes. A further two dollars bought me a glass of Pelee Island Winery Chardonay. There was a whole stage and seating set up beneath a massive tent where people watched as others sang karaoke (there were a few truly talented participants). We also got to watch a special costume play about the history of the Franco-Ontarians of the Ottawa Valley, which was a lot of fun. We finished off our day at the festival before the live band came on, but we had promised to be home for dinner. Snow-cones in hand, we went on our merry way.

Tracy won a game of Scrabble !
Holy crap, she did, she really did win. And no, she wasn't playing by herself, either. Never before has she beaten both myself and my mother at a game of Scrabble. Cards? Yes, of course at cards, she's an evil card sharp, she is, but Scrabble? Unbelievable. Naturally, this situation was rectified in other games, especially the final night where Mom trounced myself by eighty points and Tracy by that and a further thirty. Brutal. Anyway, I got my own back at a game of Wizard, too, when I apparently tapped into Tracy's victory-magic causing her to lose horribly while I won amazingly, and without ever pulling a wizard from the deck ! Haha.

Okay, I have some calls to make so I suppose I'll leave further updates on my adventures in Quebec for another time. First on my list is to call Tracy as today it's her birthday. Happy Birthday, Tracy !

I'm back.

Much fun was had by all.

News in brief:
I turned 26. Go me.
Emma's a beautiful little girl. Go Kristina !
Hummingbirds are evil little birds.
Curd cheese and Franco-Ontarians.
Cats, cats, everywhere are cats.
Otters !
Bogmen !
Tracy won a game of Scrabble. Go Tracy.
Mom had projects. Go Mom !

And, finally, Electrical outages. Or rather, us not having one.

More when I'm no longer exhausted.

What Is Your Battle Cry?

Hark! Who is that, skulking along the mini-mall parking lot! It is Mambolica, hands clutching a meaty axe! She grunts thunderously: "I'm seriously going to contort you until you turn inside-out!"

Find out! Enter username: Are you a girl, or a guy ?

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I'm leaving for my cottage in about an hour's time, I think. I probably shouldn't even be writing as there's much to do, but I felt a bit of explanation as to my future absense might be required.

Okay, I'd like to say I am sorry to the woman who paints on feathers because I offended her. You see, I don't like painted feathers. I don't like that they sell well whereas other artists working on board and canvas that create intellectually demanding work do not. And I'm not just talking about me. I'm talking about a whole lot of amazing artists (especially at Philcon) that don't sell when painted feathers do. Anyway, so I offended her. I'm not going to appologise for disliking her work, or for my opinions - this is my weblog, afterall. She is an able artist with talent, and just like how I dislike Renoir because he sold out and painted big-eyed girls and puppies when he could have been so much more, I don't like the feathers. Anyway, artists need to develop thicker skins because art is subjective. So, as for the feather painter, her name is Theresa Mather and she got her start in the awesome field of carousel figure painting. That's cool. You can check out her webpage here. Also, here's an example (one of her better pieces, I think, though again, I wish it were on canvas) of her work.

Anyway, I'm going to go now. Don't get into trouble while I'm gone. Or do, if it's worth it. :)

It was a fairly quiet day at the ROM today, so much so that the majority of my shift was spent discussing personality types according to this weird booklet that Joane brought in. It was eerily accurate. Anyway, we managed to analyse every person working in the office upstairs plus ourselves. How... enlightening. Actually, I shouldn't be sarcastic, it was pretty interesting. Joane explained that some of the stuff it talked about actually mirrored the thesis she wrote for her Masters.

Following work, I changed my shirt and then headed over to A___'s parents' house where we had a snack (popcicles and yogurt - how very kindergarden) before heading out to do some canvassing. I've been canvassing once before but hadn't the courage at the time to go to doors by myself. Today, despite, or maybe due to, the rain, I had a lot of fun going it alone. I talked to a lot of people, some very responsive and interested. There was a tiny misadventure, though. A____ made the suggestion that I leave my purse in the car rather than drag it along, which was a perfectly reasonable suggestion. I stashed it beneath my seat and covered it with some crap I had in the back seat before getting out of the car. I walked A____ through the "how to lock an old Japanese car's front door" several times before he got it right and then we headed out, umbrellas in hand. When the rain let up, I started to take them back to the car when it dawned (or is it donned) on me that my keys were in my purse, which was, of course, cleverly stashed away in my locked car. Oh, bravo.

Needless to say, I called CAA and in short order my car was unlocked. The CAA guy was like something out of a cartoon or movie, with his cigarette hanging off his bottom lip as he talked to me, kind of rough and tumble looking, and just a bit inappropriate with his comments. In a good way. Hehehe. Anyway, I have now learned just how ridiculously easy it is to break into my car. Honestly, it took him under ten seconds and that includes conversation. So, CAA saved the day and after that, my keys remained in A____'s pocket for safe keeping.

As a change in subject matter, the crickets have started to sing - that age-old indicator of the summer's mid-way point. Oh sad. I love ths sound of crickets but they do serve to remind me that in a month the leaves will just be starting to turn and that in only a couple months we'll be remarking how short the days are getting. Of course, today you would not have believed it possible that we could ever have an autumn in Toronto. It's been hot and muggy, especially muggy, over the last few days. Today, canvassing in the rain was just gross. I could feel the sweat running down my skin and when it wasn't sweat it was rain; big, warm, splatters of rain.

One more unrelated thing: Last night, I bought myself my birthday present. I had a tiny bit of disposable income and there was this nifty little hat shop on the Danforth... Let's just say that after much deliberation, the lush green pith helmet found a home on my head. A childhood desire has been fulfiled with this purchase, even if it's not a -real- safari hat, it's close enough. I'm such a nerd.

D&D went off pretty well last night. I planned little in the way of encounters trusting that the players would get themselves involved nicely, which they did. I did not expect Carrie's character, Kitten, to -start- the brawl by kicking the Zhent, but she did and I think I'm going to have to give some extra points for that. Tanya added excellent insanity by playing a ranger with very low scores in animal empathy and handle animal. So, when she managed to quiet a stampeding cow, rope it, mount it and manage to ride it back toward the battle, we were all VERY impressed. Too bad Kitten thought it would be a good idea to hitch a ride on the cow too ultimately causing Krishena (the ranger) to take a header. Klarn, Al's dwarf managed to miss a lot until I finally gave up and rolled him a critical. My dice were rolling nicely. Rick's ranger, Gasbar (nice name, eh?), nearly killed a Zhent with a pair of chair legs and then went on to fell three orcs in battle. Wacky. I've promised a picture of the cow-wrangling ranger, too.

Today was a nice day but very humid. I'm not a fan of humidity, it makes me kind of nauseous and lethargic. I spent the first part of my day at the ROM in the lovely air-conditioning, however; so as I became Super Map Girl (and in the case of a family from Quebec La Fille Formidable des Cartes (ever notice it always takes longer in French?)) I was at least comfortable while I helped. It was a big day for customer service as still many people aren't coming for a visit. I enjoy taking the time to talk to people about things not necessarily related to the museum, it gives them a pleasant feeling and thwarts my boredom.

After work I went home to change and, as it turned out, take a nap before heading over to Rick's for A Taste of the Danforth. The humidity was making me feel terribly wonky and I just had to pass out for a while. I had one of those epic dreams that, among other things, involved me telling a mother off for letting her children go horse-back-riding without helmets ("Not only is it irresponsible of you as a parent, but it's illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to ride without a helmet !"). It's nice to know I have a strong conscience even in my dream world. Following that, I then dreamt about a girl I used to go to school with - we're talking junior high and at least some of highschool - Teya Greenberg. In the dream she was giving an interview about fashion, which seemed weird since she was always pretty athletic and down-to-earth. But it was nice, because I always liked her and she recognised me in my dream and waved me over with a smile.

A Taste of the Danforth was ridiculously busy. Out of control busy. I did enjoy eating bbq'd corn and Rick and I enjoyed some octopus and dip in a restaurant in order to escape the crowd. There were some trampolinists doing a demo and lots of Canadian olympians promoting the team for Athens in 2004 as well as signing autographs. We watched a bit of traditional Greek dancing, too, and I couldn't help but notice how very similar it was to the Turkish (Kurdish) dancing I saw at the Artists Against War rally/concert back in the spring. Interesting stuff. It was a fun way to spend a couple of hours. We walked back from the Danforth to his house which is a nice down-hill walk and I insisted we take the less-frequented streets for scenery and whatnot. We picked up some Drumstick icecream cones and enjoyed them back at his place. It was a nice evening, I must say.

Well, I just had an adventure. First, let me set the stage. I was working on, well, work, and I went to check my email and once again the Internet had collapsed. At least according to Primus. So, what's a freelancer to do? I decided to go out on the porch to work on the mini-campaign I'm doing tonight at A&C's. It is only a mini because I don't have a lot of time to think about the next installment in the one we played ages ago, so instead, this is to be a "how we all met" game taking place in the past. Of course, this time Tanya's joining in, but otherwise it's everyone's characters already in existence.

Now, when I go on the porch, Willi can come out too. Mostly she eats the grass or the herbs, sits on my knee and generally stays out of trouble. Today, however; she thought it was a good idea to leap up on the wall. Rather than come down when I called her and attempted to retrieve her, she leapt without thinking onto the neighbours' roof. Oh, brava, cat, truly. So now she's on the roof and suddenly it's not as exciting as she thought, or more to the point, exciting in all the wrong ways. There are construction vehicles roaring and suped up civics exploding down the street with stereos blaring. This ain't the cottage.

Her investigations proved that there was no way down and the open window that she sat in had a screen that kept her outside. Now she looks at me and yells. "Oh, you want to come in now?" I say. This after I've been down on the lawn, on the neighbours' lawn, on the lower porch trying to coax her down (she can make it, I know, but it's tricky and she's getting scared at this point). So, back on the upstairs porch, Stew now awake and aware of my cat's plight, comes to help. She's pacing up and down the side of the neighbouring roof yelling at me as Stew and I look for something we can stretch across the gap. Finally, as I've wrestled the recliner over the side and have it straddling the gap between the eaves, a dump truck growls loudly in the street and Willi hits panic mode.

Back and forth she paces, ears back and yelling at me, with a look on her face like, "Stupid humans, get the fuck out of the way !" she hurls herself across the gap, well over the recliner and hits the wall with only a bit of scrabbling and balance catching. Immediately, Stew scooped her up and took her in. I now wrestled the recliner back over the ledge and fold it up before following. Willi was so frightened that she growled and yelled even while we gave her a cat treat for coming back into the house.

Maybe this will put a stop to her clawing the screen door and yelling to get outside. There's nothing quite like a wicked fright to make a person or cat hesitant about doing something again. Anyway, she's not allowed on the porch anymore, with or without supervision.

Wow, I'd like to add these to my list, too. They put the WISH into my list. I figure, in a few years I'll have enough money to buy the 72 marker set. Check this and this and this and this out to see what things you can achieve with them. Yummy. However, I think I'll stick with my current favourite markers, though they're starting to run low on ink, some of them, my greyscale (they do colour, too) Prismacolors.

I'll go clean up my drool now. Goodnight.


You're A Hero!
You live to save the world! You are honest, true,
and always victorious! You may not always get
the girls/boys, but all you really want to do
is battle the bad guys.


What Type Of Anime Character Are You?
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What Is Your Animal Personality?
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Same day, a little later...

I just arrived home from dinner with Eric. I met him at his work and was introduced to his co-workers. I think I made good impressions, especially on the CEO. Go me ! It seems that everyone had a pretty keen sense of humour and one fellow even gave me candy. Mmmmm. I had to wait a bit since Eric had to attend a performance review, or something, but I'm pretty used to him keeping me waiting. He once made me wait outside the SkyDome when he worked for the Jays on a frigid, rainy November day... for over 45 minutes.

After waiting for sometime for the bus to come, before I met Eric, I got thirsty so I hopped into the convenience store. The bus finally arrived and the bus driver watched me leap out of the store, hand up to say 'wait' and just as I got to it, she let the doors close on me. I banged the door before she pulled away, thinking maybe she'd been spaced out and her response, after glancing at me again, was to pull away. My response, "Thanks a lot, bitch !" Then to the women standing talking outside the door, "Did you see that?" They nodded, as surprised by it as I was. Happily, there was another bus just after that one, so I was able to get it's number and I'm going to lodge a complaint. I've been riding the TTC a long time and I'm sick to death of the rude drivers. Sadly, they out number the nice ones, at least in my experience.

There's a storm rolling in and if it crosses over us as it looks like it will, it will probably be a good one. There are nice arcs of lightning and low threatening thunder. Since they called for rain all week, and we've had next to none, hopefully this will actually happen. I LOVE summer storms. I'm glad it has held off until now, mind you, as I walked from Eric's work down at Yonge and Front almost up to Bloor, then back down to Sushi Garden, the little sushi place I liked to go to after the gym, when I had the money.

On the subway back from dinner, I got on with this suited man who looked like a cross between Hugh Grant and Rob Lowe (leaning more to the latter). That in itself was worth mentioning because he was attractive, but he got big points when a blind man got on the subway and "Hugh Lowe" got up first to give his seat and then when then when the man didn't want to take a seat with an owner he guided him to an empty place. Everyone else just stared. I couldn't get out anyway, since I was pinned by a woman in an exotic silk shirt.

Anyway, it's time to get back to work.

Alright, it's time to update my Wish List seeing as my birthday is in 18 days. Wow. Time flies, doesn't it? I've replaced the things that are unattainable (like Scarlette's air-conditioning and a 27% reduction to my auto insurance) with things that are. I ask for so little...

01. New drinking glasses.
02. The White Stripes’ “Elephant” cd
03. New, eight inch, double size futon for my couch.
04. Enough money to finally get all my film developed.
05. Kenna’s “New Sacred Cow” cd, available from Sony Music. It might not be available in Canada, in which case it can be ordered from kennaonline.com.
06. Argyle socks - and I mean FUNKY. You can’t have too many pairs.
07. More freelance contracts - yes, I know, what I really mean is for some of my networking to pay off...
08. A haircut.
09. The Dears’ “No Cities Left” cd
10. People to buy stuff from my store before Cafeshops absorbs what meagre profit I've made.
11. Delibes’ “Lakme” cd, because the Flower Duet is so beautiful.
12. A Swiffer Wetjet. Oh baby, I hate mopping this floor.
13. A size medium Blue Screen of Death shirt from Errorwear.
14. A print of Donato's "The Hobbit: Expulsion" available at his site.
15. A nice, preferably illustrated version, of Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" in it's original text. There's this movement to dumb down books for kids, and I don't want one of those.

There were some other books I wanted, too, but I can't think of them. I wrote them down, but have no idea where.

Last night, we had a bunch of guests over for a video pizza party. Rick and Stew were the only boys, though as Stew seems to collect females. We started with the not very good, but highly amusing Dungeons and Dragons Movie and then followed it up with the delicious Sleepy Hollow. Yes, that is the reason the book is on my list. I downloaded an electronic version of the text, but that's a whole lot less fun. Besides, it's a classic. We had tasty pizza from Cora and they weren't going to deliver because we're about two blocks out of their area, but considering they've been delivering here for over a year, they eventually agreed.

So, I'm thinking about bringing Natasha to my cottage. I'll be up there for about two weeks and I really will have work to do, I suspect. I think there's an internet cafe in Hawkesbury, if I remember correctly, and that way, I actually send stuff off and whatnot. I don't know. Natasha's heavy and I have no idea where I'd put her, but since I don't have a laptop, she's all I've got. I suppose I could take Mom's computer which is smaller, but I hate working on a small monitor. I don't know, I need to discuss it with her. Also, there's a possibility that I will have a temporary job upon my return from the cottage. Yes, that's right. Details have to be hammered out, but it would be something that could ease my burden for at least a couple of months.

Today I woke up with "Estranged", by Guns N Roses, in my head. It's not that unusual if you consider that last night I went on a nostalgia trip and downloaded all sorts of GnR. It's Stew's fault. He started it by trying to download "Paradise City". The MP3 was corrupt so I set about trying to get it for him. It was all down hill from there. I bet many of you would never have suspected me of being a GnR fan, but in fact, they were the very first concert I ever attended (the Nylons when I was eleven do not count) back when I was fifteen. They played in Hamilton and it was a big adventure. I thought it was great at the time, but I had nothing to compare it to. Now, looking back at all the concerts I've attended, that one ranks pretty low. Anyway, there are worse songs to wake up to.

I finally moved almost all of the glow-in-the-dark stars left from Nick's life in this room to new locations, namely, the ceiling. I don't know why he put them all over the walls, but now they're on the ceiling and I've hung the lovely print I bought in Detroit as well as my Mayan Wisdom plaque. I'm much happier about the walls, now. They're not quite so frenetic. I like a little empty wall to look at, you know? It draws attention to the stuff that is there. One day, I'm going to have a house of my own and I will have fantastically decorated walls, but for now, my room is a little nicer than it was and I'm happy about that.

I spent most of yesterday not doing the work I was supposed to do. I thought about it, but I ended up creating a new piece of artwork. Some of you know that I'm not the biggest practitioner of computer generated artwork, 3D work doesn't count and I'm not doing much of it these days. Well, I was flipping through The Story of Painting by Sister Wendy (a fabulous art book that Mom bought me for my birthday a couple of years ago) looking for a bit of inspiration for a commission I've undertaken, when I caught sight of Oscar Wilde's photograph in one of the margins. I had this sudden thought, what if he were an elf? Then, "I could turn him into one !" And so began my little project. I used six seperate photographs (including one of some armour) and photoshopped Oscar's face to be a little more slender and angular... View my "Wilde Fey" here !

Today, before people come over for food and fun later, I have to get some work done. I'll probably have to do work after everyone has gone, too. What is it they say? If you play, you pay. *sigh* There's the truth of it.

Which of Henry VIII's wives are you?

this quiz was made by the proper Victorian ladies at Spookbot

I finished the first drawing in the new project I've started working on. I don't know if I've talked about it yet, or not, but I'm developing a series of pictures that will be turned into cards, calendars, and colouring books. All of them will be colourable. People like to colour things, even adults. Come on, how many times have you been in a class and have doodled in the margin, or put mustaches on the people in the TV Guide, or at a meeting and coloured in the title? We all do it. Anyway, ya. I'm keyed up. I'm planning the first few drawing to become a colouring book for Stew's goddaughter. Her birthday is coming early in September.

Rick pointed out that it was HE who bought me the mug, so credit goes to him, though I handled every mug to see which one fit best. My selection, his money. Thanks, Rick.

I should also mention exactly what I ate at the barbeque on Sunday because it was a massive marathon of food. Specifically, of meat. I ate beef, chicken, lamb (lots of lamb), quail, and lapin (also known as rabbit). I also enjoyed greek and bean salads, watermelon, corn, and strange "yogurt style snack" food. The last one was much like a yogurty jello shot minus the vodka. In between eating, there was questing, including a pkill, which stands for player killing on the MUD. While no one was killed, there were several people very bruised by the exploding water balloons and greenish from sliding across the grass. I still have a slight bruise from where Hoerkin nailed me in the arm. I'm glad I didn't dodge the way I had intended, because he'd have gotten me in the temple or ear.

I was supposed to go to the Petes for a brief visit to help my mom with her computer. It seems that it's wigging out in a very bad way. It no longer recognises the mouse and it skews all the colours. She's helpless without a mouse, whereas I can generally get around without one if necessary. I'd intended to bring out some programs that might require reloading should everything go kaput, but I can't find the cds. Stupid house cleaning. I've found a number of other things that I'd thought I'd lost, however; so that's kind of handy. It's just not so useful for Mom. I don't know how much point there is to going out, either. Not really. I ought to call her. I have a bit of work to do here in the city, as well, and the sooner it gets done, the better.

The Weather Network is predicting rain for every damn day this week. Well, dang. Today it's really sticky and blah. On a sidenote, did you know that the USA counterpart to the TWN is ripe with advertising? In Canada, current conditions scroll on the bottom, in the States it's advertising. It's pretty strange. I spent a significant amount of this afternoon asleep. It seems that after this past weekend I was tired. Who'd have thought it? Minimal sleep, maximum activity... I feel kind of cruddy now, though, and I can't tell if it's because I'm still tired, or what. I'm kind of queasy, and again, I can't tell if it's because I need to eat something, or because I'm tired, or what. I should probably risk eating in order to rule one of them out.

Willi is currently sleeping on the top of Natasha's monitor where it is nice and warm and she can have a fairly unrestricted view of my room and the hallway. It isn't a bad place to snooze, I suppose, but she does have a tendency to dangle a paw or her tail over the edge, naturally getting in the way of my work. It's like her need to sit directly on whatever section of the newspaper I'm reading. Typical. Anyway, on the Kitty Front, things have been going very well. Tobe has become more playful in her attacks and Willi, while not actually answering the former's calls to come play, does go and look. The peeing in my chair has pretty much stopped, though once in a while my little Stink forgets and assumes the position, but all I have to do is clear my throat and she hops down and into the litter. Yay !

So, I should talk a little about my fun weekend. The Rennaisance Faire was good fun, as it always is, and I bought a mug from a lovely potter there to replace the one that Willi threw to the floor a few weeks back. It was meant to be my new second favourite mug, but I think it's usurped the previous favourite to appropriate the number one spot. It's pretty nice, a little reminiscent (in my mind, anyway) of Dykman pottery, but with a lovely earthy blue and brown glazing. Hurray for stoneware. Of course, it pissed with rain on Saturday, but rather than letting it thwart our enthusiasm, we, mostly, braved the weather and participated in games and theatrical events. I did some knife tossing, something that is MUCH harder than it looks, and I played some bacci ball and skittles. Let me explain skittles for the uninformed. It's like bowling, sort of, in that there are pins and a ball, but the ball is tied by a tether to a poll. You swing the ball and aim to take out all nine pins. There's a referree that catches the ball so that more are not knocked down on the return swing. You get two swings and then the ball is passed to the opponent. The object is to take out as many pins as possible. I am a much better skittle player than I am a bowler and I succeeded in taking down all my opponents, including Ben and Rick. Apparently, it was a favourite sport of Queen Elizabeth I, or something.

Speaking of bowling, because of the nonesense of the pub's strictness about being of age (despite our fifty+ patrons who were dropping a LOT of money), we went to the neighbouring bowling alley and had a couple of games. Rick took the first against Ben and myself, and had our time not run out right in the middle of the last turn of our second game, I think I'd have won that one. Unfortunately, following that, we went back to the pub where some nasty strange guy thought I might like it if he ground his cock against my butt as I tried to get to the bar. From the expression on his face as I turned around, I suspect he gathered, quite correctly, that it had NOT been a good idea. Another member of our group, known on the game as Darshanin, apparently had an even nastier experience when someone actually whipped his little wiggly out to show her. God damn, that is VILE. Needless to say, the Reunion committee is now scouting for new locations for next year. Ideally, we'd love to rent some private land and camp there, etc. Next summer will be the tenth anniversary of the game and it's going to be a big event. Anyway, if you know anyone in the environs of southern Ontario with a few acres of field, who'd be willing to rent to some well behaved gamer geeks for about four days, let me know !

Anyway, I still need to eat, so I'm going to do that now. I'll write more soon.

Test Results

You think of yourself as being hot, strong, beautiful, and alive.

Others think of you as being independent, funny, weird, and snuggly.

Your relationships can be described as surprising, refreshing, dark, and invigourating.

When stressed, you feel trapped.

Take this test here.

Well, another year has passed since the last Realms of Despair Reunion. It's amazing that RoD has been around for nine years and it seems really incredible to me that I've been a part of its broad community for something like five years now. And to think that some 'geeky' text-based role-playing game has expanded my social life, and life in general, the way it has is almost mind-boggling. Think about it. After the original Depeche Mode dot com chatbox, this is where my oldest online friends met me. Certainly, it's where Rick and I met (though we didn't have one of those mildly creepy internet relationships). I have met many wonderful people in real life at these reunions, have visited them abroad, attended their weddings... I mean, really, it's pretty amazing, especially when you consider that I only really got online a year and a half before I started playing. Heck, it even upped my typing time from something like 35wpm to 65wpm AND taught me how to type without looking at the keyboard ! That's no small feat.

Anyway, this year I got to know a couple other people better than I had before and that's a good thing. It was fun, though there were some downers to it, namely our traditional pub seems to have become a bump-n-grind meat market. That, and the very inclemant weather. More details to come, but I'm going to join Rick (who caught himself a cold and is now knocked out on medication) in bed.

I'm finally beginning to get over my post-Gahan euphoria, which is a bit of a shame, but as it's slowly passing, I can still hold to what I previously wrote. Really, it was that good. And yes, I was, naturally, completely sober. I can also manage to type a little more coherently, now, as well, so I will write a little more about the adventures of yesterday.

Tracy came over at about 11am. She was supposed to CALL me around 12:30 or so, but as it turned out, since people were coming to see the house, I was awake. Shock of shocks. We sat outside as the people to see the house attempted to come in, but it seems the real estate agent was an utter dolt as he couldn't make the key work. Bully for us. Tracy and I went for sushi and then walked around for a bit. We discovered, after the fact, that Dave Gahan had been signing at The Edge while we were wandering about. Had I just checked their website, I would have known and we'd have met him and had things signed. Shit.

We came back to my place and got changed and made up. Damn, Tracy looks good in my pleather pants. I do NOT look good in them, currently, as I'm wider than I was three years ago. We walked from Queen's Quay to the Kool Haus and found the line was quite alright. We were later arriving than we had intended, but it made no difference since we still got right close to the stage. Naturally, we chatted with a guy in the line - The Devoted talk to each other all the time. Tracy avoided drinking water so that she would not need to pee. I didn't worry about it because mine is a bladder of steel. Also, I knew from experience that the water sold by the hotdog guy would be much cheaper than that sold inside the venue.

When we went through the gate, the security girl tried to confiscate my bottle of water and I had to stop her before she threw it out. "Hey, can't I drink that here?!" "Oh, yes, sorry about that." So, I chugged my water and tossed the bottle out. As I passed through the turnstile I said something along the lines of, "Yeesh, you'd think she was a customs officer or something." The Kool Haus does this thing where they scan the ticket, rather than rip it, so you get to keep the ticket intact. It's too long to fit in my wallet with my DM tix from their last two shows, but I'm sure I'll find somewhere to put it.

Tracy and I both bought the ridiculously expensive shirts, taking turns so as not to lose our spot near the stage. While she was buying, I met Christine, a lovely woman who promises to send me the photos she took. After bonding with her, we met and introduced ourselves to Ross and Lindsay, another pair of Devotees. We all stuck together and discussed our levels of devotion, etc. Ross got asked if he was Dave Gahan's son, who was apparently there filming, and apparently, very similar in appearance to Ross. "If I say yes, will you buy me a beer?" Hee.

Following the show, Christine, Tracy and I walked back to Queen's Quay, which was a MUCH longer walk than it had been before we'd stood around, danced and freaked out on concrete in heels. Oh my poor feet. They are still aching today. Actually, ALL of me is still aching. We rode the subway north with her and then parted ways with promises to keep in touch. When we got off the streetcar and turned down my street, I decided I was familiar enough with the sidewalk to risk taking my boots off. It wasn't much of an improvement. Honestly, cutting off my feet last night might have been the only improvement available, though not terribly rational.

Right now, I'm listening to Paper Monsters and reliving some of it in my head. And, since I called myself from the concert last night, I can listen to Dave and the audience for as long as I continue to save the message.

Today, I woke up at 11 again - the hell? - and set about my day. My head was hurting and my whole body hurt, even, or maybe especially, my toes and calves. I did drag myself out of the house to join Rick at the Cafe Diplomatico back in my old neighbourhood. It was a fine, tasty, late lunch. I had the spicy (which they weren't, but that is okay) mussels and a strawberry daquiri. Rick had the calamari and shrimp plate. Both were tasty. We had ice cream at the parlour down the street from my old house, something I certainly do miss, and then headed over to his place to watch The Two Towers. We had dinner at the Chinese place by his house and it was better than the last time, but still, not that great, though the shrimp rolls were very tasty.

Tomorrow, I am accompanying He Who Shall Not Be Named to a lunch function. I get to be an arm charm ! Whee ! Then, Ben, my friend in Philly, is coming up for the Realms of Despair Reunion and we'll be heading to the Fox for reunion fun in Mississauga. Whoowee ! It's going to be a fun and busy weekend. Too bad I'm still poor. As I said, I spent money on an overpriced shirt, so that is all the fun money I've got. Had. Rick's covering my food this weekend. I've got enough to pay to get into the Renn Faire and for gas, etc., but that's about it. However, I can pay my rent, and I've got a bit more money owed me. I'm feeling positive tonight - things are okay !