The Baron's Ball-Also known as the Monsoon of the Desert.

I was sitting on a couch with a tye-dye throw over afghan-you know, the type that grandma makes in her spare time, that somehow manages to stay in one piece all through out high school, and you come to consider it a fond antique, and dare anyone to say something badly about it as it drapes on your futon. (Not that this afghan was-I'm just sayin)

I sat there, holding on tightly to my Brian, wishing upon all the yarn and bits of fabric that flew across my vision that he was coming with me. But he wasn't. He was working. And I was nervous. As I gripped him with a tenacity that might make a squid proud, Cler, my friend, turned to me as she stuffed large bolts of fabric into a trunk and said, "Did you happen to bring food gear?" Um. Yeah. I was beginning to feel under-prepared.

Let me back up so you can be aware of the situation.

My friend from a gaming group of nerdiness, Cler, (pronounced Claire, for those of us who aren't geologists with an affinity of snappy names) had been sitting in front of her computer, showing me pictures from her latest digs (did I mention she's a geologist) and SCA events. Intrigued, as pictures of people wearing what I perceived were renaissance clothing, (by the way, that's....probably the vaguest term one could ever use, and most people get annoyed when you say that) (and by most people, I mean the die-hardiests) (and by that, I mean, of the SCA) (Yeah) I flipped through some interesting photos, and happened to see her 6 month calendar taped up on her wall. I, innocently, said, "Baron's Ball?" (It was soooo tempting to make the latter word plural, for hijinks and unwholesome snickering, and believe me, the restraint was forceable, but I was proud)

This prompted my motherly, knowledgable, enthusiastic Cler to advise me of the SCA's events, and in a breathless twist of events, invited me to go with her, and her good friend Vicky. (Who is also a geologist, and fond of rum) And of course, me being the terrific romantic that I am, I was thinking of women in corsets, wearing beautiful silk dresses, their hair long, luxurious, like spun gold, and handsome men winning tournaments in their honor. And of course, in my Harlequinn mooning, I immediately agreed. How bad would it be to dress all prettily and flounce about tossing handkerchiefs at men wearing armor?






So there I was, with my overnight bag, my pillows, my mummy bag, a fully charged Kindle and iPhone, (duh) and a generous allowance for food, gas, and maybe some souvenirs, and already pining for my Brian when we hit the road. I was with Cler, Vicky had to take a seperate vehicle. (Someone had to be responsible for the tents) In the car, on the way, Cler took it upon herself, and upon myself, to teach me the mysterious ways of the SCA.

I should pause here, and insert a personal observation about Cler-when she rambles on and on about the interworkings of Court, Retinues, Sergeantry, and Spinning, she gets so caught up in the explanation that she doesn't realize I am, in fact, a noob. Therefore, I must be consistent with my requests for her to back up, and explain this and that, and she will. Pause end.

We arrived much later than usual, and the first thing I saw was, as Cler called it, a gate. A very thin man with extremely poofy hair stepped out of his authentic tent, and peered at us. And then came right to my window. He smiled at me, but in the dark, he might have been passing gas-I try not to judge, either way. He advised us the "Gate" (which, for all you non-knowers, is where the "Toll" to be at the event is paid) was actually in the center for the night, and would be migrated the next day. I looked off into the distance, and saw men fighting around a campfire, an artificial castle, (hand painted, turns out...I want someone to paint my room like that) and several older women huddled around lanters and papers. Now I'm gonna make an observation here, and I shall make it well: The women of An Tir (my kingdom...and yes, you're *probably* in a kingdom too-and we say we don't believe in secret organizations...pshaw) are well-endowed. In all aspects. As in....pleasantly plump...or, if you wanna go old school, peasantly plump...amiright? (AM I RIGHT?) But they are the HAPPY sort. You know, the type that has crows feet at age 19 because of such permanent smiles? Them. They have the type of attractiveness that's hard to beat: personality hotness. There were some babes there too. Anyways.

We paid, we set up our tent, (I held a lantern out for that entire ordeal, and watched the more qualified set up a huge tent, (for Cler and Vicky) and a tiny tent, (for me) and a pavilion, (where we might retire during the day) and then I went into my tent...and screamed. I should tell you I didn't quite think this through. I forgot that camping included bugs. I forgot bugs included spiders. I was swiftly reminded when one floated down in front of my nose, a huge one hung out a few feet away, and a green one was debating whether to hide in a window or in my bed roll. Being the big baby I am, Cler had to come in and slay them, and remove their revolting carcasses. I didn't sleep well that night.





Imagine my surprise to find several of those on EVERYTHING. After I spotted this one, I flicked it across the top of the tent while I contemplated the days activities. I'll admit-I was excited about wearing the garb.

After I was dressed, I met quite possibly the most fascinating, engaging 13-year old on the planet. She was spirited, straight-forward, and had the exact same sense of humor as me. Granted, I have the mentality of a 13 year old anyways, but handicaps aside.

Plus, she had the coolest name ever:







Firen.

Turns out, she is the daughter of the Baron and Baroness of the Tri-Cities area! She's pretty awesome.

So there's a ton more to say, but I think it's best to do this in installments. But I'll give you a sneak peek of next posty goodness:













And much more. Until then. Also-I am aware of the side plaques and users being not so much on the showing side. Aware, and being coded. Gimme some time peeps.

Sticky Note Thieves, All-Caps Updates, and Selective Amnesia...

These are a few of my most fervent pet-peeves.

My desk is an explosion of gregarious colorful sticky notes in the shape of stars, speech bubbles, and 80's inspired squares. Unfortunately, because this is an office, some unknown klepto has felt the empty hole in their life too much to handle. Thus, my annoyance at stepping into my cubicle and noting the stickies gone, gone away....skyrocketed. A glare swept my other colleagues, the simple, vengeful warning clear: Next time, someone dies. In the face.




MMS is finally a reality with my iPhone. I spent several hours on Saturday sending adorable pictures of my cats to anyone who had the capability, sealing my fate as a desperate cat lady forever.




Went to Manito Park with my own man this week, in a blatant attempt to get some exercise. It did me no good: we got hamburgers on the way. *facepalm* but I did get some awesome pictures. ^.^
















Yep. I was on a roll. Granted, I doubt I'd ever be a photographer because 1) there are 3 in my building alone, 2) it's expensive, 3) it's not an exact science. However, I feel good about my iPhone pictures because there's no pressure with a camera phone. Someone might look at the resolution and say, "this picture could be made better by..." and I just have to say "dude, chill, camera phone." raise a meaningful eyebrow, and suddenly the moist wall of the sea of critics melts away, and I'm free to splash around in my ignorance. Hot damn if that wasn't the most poetic thing I've written all day.




Can't end without showing off my babies. Who were only staring at the camera because of a shaking can of kitty treats behind the lense. No, that's not adoration, that's greed. But it worked.

All Caps Dude, your keyboard will be broken swiftly if you don't turn off the Caps Lock Key.

Almost.

It's coming.




And it's awesome. I can honestly say this is my first double decker bus experience, and I liked it.




I got to see my best friend Trina this week. She is the rock for my crazy emotions, and sets things right when I'm going through a rough time. You know-typical best friend stuff. She's also got the smoothest skin ever. It's rediculous.




Hai Joey! Nice hat! Did I mention my family's retarded? My sister Ashley popped a diaper on Joeys head as he was running around, and maaan. He is one happy baby.




Yep. Happy.




In no way should this EVER be comfortable. EVER.

I'm ready for the weekend. Seriously.

Babies Don't Grow On Trees

But it sure seems like they do. So many people I know are pregnant right now! Heavy winters always seem to be followed by a mini baby boom- I imagine you'll reach your conclusions.

My baby sister, Michelle, (well...younger sister, Paiten's the baby) is having a girl, a simply unprecedented event, due to the fact that out of my blood brothers and sisters, we have no girls in the family. Not only that, but she's decided to name my neice Emma, which is probably the BEST girl name ever. EVER.

So, after being laid off (so to speak) by Starbucks, she was worried about a crib.

Before we go any further, I want to point out that my sister can be clueless sometimes, maybe a little rash or forward, but she is *always* funny. Always. And so, when I offered to buy the crib, she thought about what she wanted, shopped around, and called to tell me she had found an exciting crib! So, in my excitement to see what it was, I asked her what it was:




Talk about a mouthful. We made several jokes about how long the name was, and flirted with the idea of shortening it to a code word, like BJ, but that didn't exactly jive with baby room happiness. *cough*

I'm excited to help her out.




I'm thinking of also getting her this bed set since she is adamant that we not get pink and brown. She so hated the combo that I think she gave herself a contraction thinking about it.

Little Emma will be bought and sold to me in the form of bribery. Bwahahaha. Just kidding.




As you can tell, Lilo and Stitch are thick as thieves (and they are thieves) and pretty much ignore the existence of poor Brian and I. Alas, what shall we do? I've also noticed attacks on the toe regions have risen sharply-we've invested in reinforcements (in the form of squirt guns) to keep the enemies at bay, but they are wily, and know the under-the-bed region better than we can ever hope to.




Finally, the best thing about working where I do, is I'm across the way from Starbucks. Yessssssss.

Photo Apps FTW!

I'm currently in the throes of a battle royale with a coworker. We're having a clip art war. And yours truly is WINNING.

Also, very recently, I found an epic new app for my iPhone. Not only did this app make my non-Makeup'd face look downright pro, but my kitten went from cutie in a tub to the poster child for Kill Bill's next adventure. And more!

The name of the app is CinemaFx. Also, it's on sale. FYI. Lemme show you some of the EPIC this app can do.




I may or may NOT have put this cute li'l squishy on here already. In any case, this is the original picture.

Now, let's see what CinemaFX does!




Screen one has a few options at the bottom. It's kinda obvious what they all are- except the first one (at least for me). It makes the pic go black n white. A nice touch, all on it's own. Truly.




I really like some of these, like English Tea and Mars Poster.




I like Japanese Memories. Makes everything very fan-girlesque.

Now that you've seen my options, here's some interesting tidbits:




Notice the little slide bar at the bottom? That shows how much you can saturate the image. The app automatically saturated it to a default level, but I moved it to 100%.




Now, in order to get it darker, I chose Vampire World (but obviously, there's tons of options) but I didn't saturate it fully. You'll see why: to saturate fully makes it barely definable, so you have to scroll back until it's to your liking.




Check it OUT, fools! Cute little Podunk pup turned into Cujo in 3 steps!

As an added flair, I took it to TypeDrawing, (another delightful app) and added a caption:





Yeaaaaah baby. Here's a few others I did too:















Epic. Wrapped in win.

Happy Labor Day!

Aaaaand I'm Back!

Typing a blog entry on an iPhone is harder than it looks, I'll have you know. And since my
slothfulness knows no bounds, I've been putting it off.

Anyways, my camera has been reborn, a Phoenix in the ashes of the reload my poor baby endured. She now takes pictures quickly, efficiently, and lovingly. I have a great email from Ismael ( he insisted on Zee) that gives me all the tips and tools needed for a successful Reload and Back up. Yours truly has supplied the information below in case the same dreadful thing ever happens to you:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414?viewlocale=en_US

(if link doesn't transport you to the magical land of Steve Jobs and Apple goodness, copy and paste into the Address bar)

If you got to the right place, it *should* look like this:




As you select each hyperlink, it magically unfolds into a simple, easy to understand step by step guide on how to reload your phone.

The biggest thing Zee advised me was BACK UP. if you don't want to lose apps, music, photos, contacts, etc, sync, back up, back up again, then reload. I can't stress that enough!

In other news: I promised Lilo goodness, and here she beee!!!!!












She's fiesty.




Couldn't forget Stitch love. <3

Oh, and a shout out to skyrog-thanks for the shameless plug on radar.net. <3333

Lilo and Stitch

Did I mention that I was bored? I am, so I thought it might be nice for all of you to hear about my latest addition to the family, Lilo. I don't have a pic at this very moment, so don't ask. I'll post one from my phone presently, promise. In the meantime though, lemme tell you how we came to be.

Brian and I have been talking about getting a kitten/companion for Stitch for a while. We wanted to get one that was young so that they had time to grow up together. Lilo is 3 months old, and as best as I can tell, a "silver tipped tabby." Isn't that nice? It's nice.

I should also mention she's made of air and nothing more. And I feel that she might have a leak, because everytime she saw us those first few days, she emitted a tiny scathing "hiss" that sounded like a balloon releasing air. Nevermind her tiny, very high pitched musings about computer cords and bed spreads. Whenever she saw Stitch, the musings turned into loud mumblings of anger, and he learned quickly that she could teleport from one side of the house to the other at will, and bite his tail. He's become wary of little Lilo, but he enjoys her. I can tell by his twitching tail and the fact that he hasn't hissed at her at all yet.

So now that she's gotten more comfortable, I face a few issues:
1: Can they successfully share a litter box? We haven't tried yet. I wanted to give her a sense of familiarity and privacy, so I let her keep a tiny one in our room. But I already grow weary of flinching as I hear tiny pebbles of litter-ary goodness fleck my hardwood floors, so I feel her moving to the cats room will be sooner, rather than later.

2. Secondly, can they *eat* together? As far as Stitch is concerned, what food is his is his, and whats hers...well...thats also his and she should find another way to eat because he hates his cat food, and likes hers more. The hating of his catfood is my fault-we finally transitioned the behemoth from kitten food to adult food, and he's not exactly overjoyed. It took a few days of him not eating to finally start eating fervently, and even then, I get the stink eye at every meal. And now I've brought a baby in here, and she eats like...gormet...because thats what she came with, and the bitterness has given way to ninja-ness. He has somehow managed to infiltrate her food every time, and disguise himself as a Hoover vaccuum, and suck her plate dry. No wonder she bites his tail. I've had to seperate them into different rooms in order to feed her, and on payday, I plan on getting a mixture of kitten and adult food so that they both get the same thing, and no one complains. And by no one, I mean Stitch. The glutton.

3. She's loud. And by loud, I mean she talks to us whenever she sees us, thinks about us, hears us, hears someone else, see's Stitch, string, a mouse toy, food, water, the kitchen, the bathroom, my laptop, the remote, and the popcorn bowl. She's also timed using me as a claw post when I've just relaxed all my muscles as I sink into the couch. She then sinks into me.

4. She's energetic. I'm exhausted from learning all about my new job, and I try to just sit back, chillax, and enjoy the moment of peace before making dinner, doing laundry, cleaning the house, and doing some chores. She just wants to climb all around and meow at me incessantly until I snuggle her and she demands I set her free. By pain of death. Her energy exhausts me sometimes.

But I love both of my cats, and so does Brian, and it's fun to watch them interact with each other. You can see Stitch has forgotten we exist and only wants to chill with Lilo now, which is fine by me. The only bad news is, she tends to start playing rough with him, and then when he finally retaliates, you would think he had dealt her a fatal blow. The YOWLING. THE AGONY. The Paiiiiiiiin.

We've learned to ignore it, but I cringe to think of what guests will think when she does it while they are there.

Okay, now that my musings have covered all that I know of my newest furry child, in addition to my humans and fat cat one, we'll see how my family operates. Wish me luck!