And the dummy's name was Sven...

Here it is folks, larger than life... Mr. C's new car! (Just imagine it with two doors instead of four)

I have not managed to sleep in at all this week. Or for that matter, go to the gym. But what I have accomplished is pretty marvelous. (A quick re-cap for our audience at home: New car, new x-mas tree, car tow yard, and do-dads for my Dickens dress.) And for this morning? We had an oil change and a car wash along with some serious sewing and driving a friend of mine to school. Whew! And all before 9am. I must say though, I am getting tired of all the car dealerships. It seems like I am spending quite a lot of time at the Honda dealer... Oh wait. That's because I am there every other month for oil changes.

By now you are probably wondering just what the title has to do with anything. Well, nosy. It's all about the CPR class I took today. Yes, I am once again certified. Or certifiable as the case may be. It was fun. The class has changed a lot since the last time I took one. The basics are the same except they don't expect you to look for a pulse anymore... Just jump right on in with the compressions and the breathing. We also learned how to use a face shield and one of those defibrillator thingies. (Which I heard they have at the Cow Palace and now will be looking for on Saturday.) And I got to practice on a cute little blue and gray dummy. I named him Sven. Poor thing never had a chance. (Being as he was a victim of a maniac with a chainsaw who cut him off at the hips.) Alas, they didn't say my favorite part: Do not attempt CPR is the victim is decapitated or decomposing.

One, two, three... breath!

Tah

PS Are you up to date Ms. B?

More fun for half the money

Ok, so yesterday was eventful. I got a phone call from Mr. C saying that he totalled his car. Yup. A big mess of smashed up metal and plastic. (He is fine, by the way. He has messed up his shoulder a little from the seat belt but other than that, OK) So this morning we went to the auto yard and got all of his stuff from the now defunct car and had them dispose of the hulking mess properly. Then we drove over to the Volkswagen dealer and proceeded to buy a brand new 07 Rabbit. Yah!!! Upward (and around town) mobility is good.

I have also almost completely lost my voice. Which is going to be very interesting this weekend when I will be expected to sing. (The losing of my voice has to do with a cold that I am valiantly trying to convince myself doesn't exist.) So there. And so, to bring it back I am guzzling tea and soup. Go heat go, work your wonder tonic on my poor vocal chords.

This afternoon I received an email from a guy who takes pictures at faire. He is sending me two that he took of me this year (in hard copy) and sent Internet versions too. (yes, I know I promised no more... but here you go anyway)
And so there you go. I'm not quite sure how I feel about these yet. I haven't really seen them up close and personal. But well... I guess artsy is good...right?

Anything else going on? Isn't that enough for you?

Good night!

I've made a friend

Today was the third day of the first weekend of Dickens, and I made a friend. Well, technically, I made a friend yesterday, but who is counting.

Here is the set up... Ms. B and I are playing upper class sisters and we were 'slumming it' down by the docks where we were accosted by a vile man. Now for reality... We had a lot of fun playing innocent and looking upset by a guy who was dressed like a 'ruffian'. So I decided to talk to him out of character (plus I made him be my escort as Ms. B had a wardrobe malfunction and needed to see to it). It turns out he is something of a side show freak. This man actually puts sharp pointy things up his nose and walks across broken glass and most distressingly, lights himself on fire for fun... Many people might want to know how he does all of this stuff... I just want to know...why? Who in the world thinks to themselves... I think I will try to walk across a floor of broken glass today. I mean really.

Singing is great! All of the pretty dresses are wonderful. I'm having a blast with Ms. B. Everyone should come to Dicken's.

Oh, you thought I was done?

Yes, yes, I know. But this is the last one for this season. I promise. Aren't we cute little camp frau?
Any plan where you can get a guy to wear a girl's hat... is a great plan!
Any plan where you can steal your friend's hat... is a good plan!
For those of you wondering just how many spoons I ended up with...
Ms. B loitering. Isn't she the cutest little law breaker?

Pictures are worth...

Well, I'm not sure what they are worth. But here are some of the best ones that Gen con had to offer (from my camera anyway). (BTW mom, this is the same camera you got me for the England trip in high school... Long live costco cameras!!)
We were going to Vampire. I can give no better reason.

This is the sock that was made at the LARP that was played at the con that the kids went to down in Anaheim.
You too can look up my nose... and Ms. B helped.
This is stormtrooper lovin at it's best...remember the whole story and look at us being shy...

In my purse

For over a year I have been carrying a peice of Banana Laffy Taffy in my purse. Most people probably want to know why I haven't eaten it yet... although I can saftly bet almost everyone is thinking 'why?'. Well it's because it has a joke I can't figure out. Now it's your turn.
Which garden has the most vegetables?

Give up?


Flash garden

Can anyone explaine this to me? Please!!!

The other very important news of the day is... this is my 200th post. Go me.

I'm going back to work now... and possibly to eat a banana flavored laffy taffy...

Tah.

To start the photos off

To start off on the photo foot... Here are the pictures Disney was kind enough to take for us. While Ms. B and I look a little too much like we don't know how to shoot a fake gun...

Mr. C is shooting like a pro.

More pictures to come...

Tah.

GEN-CON!!!!

We're ba-ack! Oh my goodness!!!!!

Ok, so I got off from work and drove home, picked up the kids and left. As the song goes... "I drove all night...". We arrived in Anaheim (with only a few minor issues... including a semi that plowed over a white car and jack-knifed across the freeway...)at about 3:30am. I made an executive decision that I wanted to go to bed then and we attempted to check in. Unfortunately the computers were busy doing their end of days stuff and we had to wait for about twenty min. Which turned out to be just fine as we were making friends with the night security guard. He is a budding animator and was showing us some of his animation on his computer. Then we checked in, and slept for a little while before being the second group in line to buy passes and tickets for the con!

After a quick stop to write down the games we bought tickets and were off... to bed again. (It was only 7am and we had only been asleep for about 2 hours that night!) Around 10am we made it awake again and walked ourselves over to Disneyland!!! Yahoo! We rode the rides (sadly the Matterhorn is still not open) and ate the food. It was wonderful. Some moments of fun... When getting on the Jungle Boat the guy who was helping us on recognized me as a faire person because of the necklace I was wearing. Humm, busted! And my favorite moment was when Ms. B and I both wanted to get our pictures taken with a stormtrooper and then both had inexplicable attacks of shy. While I was holding Mr. C's mouth shut so he didn't call him over the storm trooper walked over and put his hand on my shoulder and ended that conversation. So, as soon as I get the pictures developed (and I did finish the roll so it should be soon) I will post the infamous stormtrooper picture...

Then we went back to the dealer room of the con and I got a big old bucket of dice!!! I now offically have more dice than I know what to do with.

Because we were exhausted, we when back to our swanky hotel and went to bed...
Friday started with a LARP. (For those of you who don't know, that would be Live action roll playing.) We played Mage with the guys who created it (not the authors but the guys who work for the company.) Ms. B and I so impressed them that we were given player nods (which basically means the other people thought we were really cool) and given coupons for stuff at White Wolf. While we were there we had a very fun conversation about how we normally play and I told them I like to take my problems (in game) and make them everyone else's problems. Which they referred to as 'hijacking the plot bus'. They seemed to think it was funny, and I told them I would try my best to mess with the next game of theirs I played in... (remember this part, it comes back later). But sillier than that, they people running the booth thought I looked just like one of the characters in their rules book. (This one, right here)

The it was off to Buffy. *sigh* Buffy love. Every gamer has their true game loves and his is one of mine. We went home and slept until the next morning then...poor tired kids.

Saturday was awesome too. I fell to my base instincts and played a Star Trek game... no jokes please, especially you Ms. B. It was so much fun. But not as much fun as the Vampire LARP we crashed later that night. (OK, clarification here... we were signed up for a Vampire LARP. But the stupid people in charge lost the game (don't ask) and we ended up in another vampire LARP, just not the one we signed up for.) And this one was headed by the White Wolf people. They happily let us in and I happily played all over their plot. I apparently did it so well that they gave me another set of props that night. (To which I blushed furiously as one of them explained that I told them I would do it several hours before I actually did.) See, making friends!

Sunday was great too. We were invited to play a new game by a GM (gamemaster) and we showed up. It looked like it was going to be an awesome game, but it ended too quickly because he had to catch a plane. So with promises of future games, he left... and so did we.

The drive home was nothing exciting... except for the Arby's (which is always exciting).

Now kids what did we learn from gen con 06? That I now need to go to the bigger that is in the Midwest to get the Changeling book that is being premiered there... *sigh* Lots of gameing. So much to do. So much fun. I love this.

And now, I smartly took tomorrow off work so I can get myself all rested up for Thanksgiving.

Happy gaming everyone.

Tah.

Promises promises

The much spoken about pie fight is finally coming out in pictures. These were taken by a poor bystander who happened along the way. (This was possibly the most fun I had at faire gigging this year)
This here is Ms. R looking stunning in her fall collection of colors.
The euphoria of pie fighting makes people totally happy.
Best friends should always stick together.
The lovely ladies of pie. Couldn't you just eat us up?

Sweet!

For all of you who were living my delusion of not having a passing Dicken's costume... You can rest your weary minds. I passed approval yesterday with no problems. Everyone thought we were very pretty. Lots of compliments and such. The bonnet that I am having a friend make is beautiful. *Sigh* Everything is coming together nicely. **If you want to see pictures of these dresses then check out Kalandars Knitting blog (there is a link on the right). Although, I should have pictures of my own up soon.**

We are also four days away from Gen-con. The geek in me is crying to get out. She wants dice, she wants games, and she definitely wants non-period costuming. Oh, great gods of gaming, help me through theses next few days. :)

Speaking of totally weird (OK, no one was, but I'm changing the subject) I had this dream about spiders. I was in a bedroom (which in the dream I identified as mine) and there was a line of spiders walking across the floor (in the way that ants usually do). I knew they were poisonous. But I wasn't worried about them. I was more annoyed. (By the way, theses spiders were about the size of my fist and black and round with red markings.) So, I took out a bottle of insect killer and was spraying them. That would be when Arnold Schwarzenegger shows up and tells me I can't kill the spiders. OK, so that's a little weird. The stranger part was that he was not a giant spider. He was dressed like the terminator and just standing there being all scary with the sunglasses and such. That would be the point when I woke up. So odd...And now I will leave you all.

Tah.

Filling up space

I have started a photo project. I know it's kinda wierd as I don't really take photos... But just bear with me. I have often noticed when I was driving that the view in the rear view mirror was pretty wonderful. So I have started taking pictures of the world around me from the drivers seat through the rear view. I have taken several (including on in traffic this morning)and will post them as soon as I have actual copies of them. (yes, I am using a 'real' camera and not digital. Don't ask why, and I won't go into the big long story of how I keep breaking digital cameras) You know you are in trouble when you start thinking it might be nice to get pulled over do you can take a picture of the cop walking up to give you a ticket. I think that one might be wonderful. (OK, not the getting the ticket, but the picture of the flashing lights and everything)

Much grosser than that... My office is infested with ants. I just sprayed the crap out of the ant train and they just came back a few min later. Which means that they are coming out of the faucet. (eeewww) And, of course, I now feel like there are ants crawling all over my hands. Gross little things. But it could be worse, they could be at my house.

Moving on... my hubby made me a mix CD of songs. It's so sweet. All the love songs by Kid Rock, The Offspring, The Prodigy and many more. I got to drive to work to the dulcet tones of "Smack my B*tch up". What a good morning!

And just because I can... Oh, do I want it....

Hoops of joy

** A note for non-costume wearing readers: Hoops are fun. They swing, they hit things, and most of all they make you feel like you have just stepped out of Gone With The Wind. They change your whole way of speaking and make you say things like "rahlly" instead of "really". I highly recommend hoops to anyone who needs to feel special for a while (and not the special in the head, the special on the outside). Thank you **

My hoop came in the mail yesterday. I danced around the room in it for quite a while before I realized I need to finish sewing on the trim for my bodice before this upcoming weekend. I can't believe how quickly it came too... I ordered it on Friday last week. (The more amusing part is the tracking number the post office gave them still says something along the lines of "the package info has been received and we'll tell you more later") But as you can see, I am delighted. Truly delighted to own a hoop. **Warning, Costume geek moment** Another thing I am amused with is the re-occurrence of fashions. Some of you might not know but hoop skirts were around in the time of queen Elizabeth and then moved to the sides (those things that made women look like they had huge hips in the 18th century) and finally went (mostly) away only to make a come back with Victoria. Now, I don't even pretend to follow fashion, but I know that it is always cyclical... Does that mean the kids will be wearing hoops again in 100 years? What a faboo image! Space hoops! *grin* (Or, if you watch Firefly... Apparently they do exist)

But, enough about hoops. Now it's time to talk about voting. Or my lack of voting and how I should really be going so I can go and do that. Look, I'm being a good citizen. I'm voting for people who won't win in order to show the government who is boss. Yah, that'll show 'em.

Tah.

Again with the workshops

It's funny to walk into workshops for faires. For one thing, all of the people look the same (and many were the same) and for another I can't tell you haw many times I heard something along the lines of "Oh, you're that girl who..." or, "Wait, I know who you are...". It's kind of disconcerting. And totally famillar. And very nice.

Next week I have to go through costume approval, which shouldn't seem like that big of a thing for those of you who know me (and if you don't know me, why are you reading this?). But I am scared. I'm pretty sure I did everything right. But until I have a 'yes' from the costume person, I'm kinda feeling out of it. It's been a long time since I haven't know exactily what I can and can't do with a costume. I don't think I like it. Perhaps it's time to study up a litle more on victorian costuming...

Anything else (because I know I promised the world yesterday)... No, not really. But I will leave you with some pictures from Northern... just in case. (what case, I'm not sure, but some case.)


This is the love of my life... making off with someone's child...

Ms. B, getting an education on the man catcher...

And it wouldn't be faire pictures, if there wasn't one of my hat. *hat love*

I'm going back to workshops now.

Tah.

The weekend

I wanted to post something witty, amusing, and full of fun... But I realized that I have about ten min until I have to leave and don't have time to be inspired. So just let me tell you all I haven't forgotten about you and I will come up with something glorious for tomorrow, or possibly Monday. But it will be here. Promise.

Bleck

Halloween is one of the best holidays ever!!! I dressed up in my awesome Alice in Wonderland costume and went to work. (Yahoo!) It's unfortunate that I couldn't rent a little white Rabbit convertible to drive to work in. How cute would that have been? The party was a huge success. The kids came, they took all of my candy, toys, and pencils and left. It was a whirl wind of activity for half an hour. It was kinda like locusts... Then I happily changed clothing and went to the Winchester Mystery House. We had a flashlight tour in the middle of the night. It was great. A huge, creepy old house on Halloween. Wonderful!!! Looking at stained glass windows in the middle of the night seems a bit odd. But then so is the history behind the house. I am sad, however, to report that no ghosts or ghoulies came out to get us last night. The house was just a fun creepy place to be on Halloween.

You may be wondering then, why the title of this post. And it's there for a very good reason. I'm sick now. I have been sick since around three this morning (which leads me to believe it's food poisoning and not some other disease, since I ate around 8:30 last night) I called into work and they know I'm sick. I hate this. My tummy is angry, my head hurts, and everything else is chiming in to tell me it's mad too. Suck. Hopefully it will pass as quickly as it came.

Nothing else to report and I'm going back to bed.

Tah.