Autumn Solstice

Or not far off it.
Hope your Samhain celebrations were good - and your Halloween, as well.

I dressed up as a witch and answered the door, as is beginning to be normal - and saw three kids.
*sigh* Well, at least Andi liked my costume. ^^
(no, sorry, no pics. It only occured to me /after/ I'd wiped off the paint...)

I'm going through the /traditional/ costumes - a year or so back I was a black cat. Last year.. . last year was an exception - I wore black and painted myself a mask. This year I was a witch. I think next year I'll either find a cape or talk Mom into finishing my cloak and answer the door as a vampire queen. (No. Not Akasha. We're not doing Anne Rice here.)

Now of course, I'm typing with black talons. Clipped - they're of a more managable length now than they were when I first applied them. And I /still/ managed to be functional! HAh!
I'm debating leaving them on and painting them a different colour........

We got Andi 'printed. Apparently, they no longer do the ink-pad thing - instead, they do something mysterious with a mac-lookalike comp and some purplish liquid and a hunk of white stuff that might have been lint-free toweling... I wasn't permitted to watch, so I couldn't tell you what exactly they did except that he told me after that the ink-pad probably would have been easier.
If you think /that's/ bad, you should try getting a cat to track inked pawprints on a sheet of white paper....

Ahhh...

This is what they call inspiration.

Anyway - And Furthermore, Just a little Headgame and pics of Sharne, Inarra and Elani have been uploaded and added to the galleries. Just a Little Headgame is in the Miscellanious Gallery - everything else is in the Peanut Gallery.

(At last count, I had some three /dozen/ characters. Probably more. I think I'm going to have to do that group pic in ... well, groups. ^.~)

Tomorrow, we go to get Andi fingerprinted. Next week, we go to get him his work permit. (THANK GOD! - the poor man is bored stupid just sitting around..) After that? We wait who knows how long until they get around to sending him his green (pink?) card and make it official. Or they decide they wanna interview us. Personally, past the paperwork, that's the point I'm looking forward to least - I /hate/ interviews. Never know what to say...


Pinched from the Onna's blog:




Which File Extension are You?

Heh. Am I the only one surprised?

Whow. What a day....

In the end, we wound up going all the way out to Aloha because the shop in Newberg was - are you ready for this? - closed for renovations.
Apparently, the place switched hands on me, and the guys who are now managing it are remodeling. Can we say 'Aaaargh!'? I thought you could. Should have seen the look on /my/ face..
Anyway, we went to Aloha and into a little shop called 'Rainy Day Games' - and had a blast. We were a little late, but my experience with gamers being what it is, it was okay. We got there at about one, but the actual gaming didn't start until nearly two. I've yet to meet the gamer who did anything on time.. ^.~

We /did/ have fun. I played my own character - whom I had to rebuild, 'cause they were doing 28 point buy and I'd rolled stats with 4d6 drop lowest (And got one of my /best/ score spreads /ever/ ... *sigh*) of course, Andi'd done the same - and he wound up with a pregen. (The mere /idea/ of a halfling barbarian still sends me into hysterics, but it worked.) He was a badass, and my character got to kick much ass.. (Shifter monk - we were playing Eberron.) and it was all good. There were /eight/ of us playing - poor GM - but it went pretty well all told, with a couple of War-forged, a gnome sorceress, a human? cleric, a half-orc druid (Who /really/ got the bad end of the deal - he nearly died once and didn't get to kill /anything/ until later..) and what I think was a halfling rogue. It wasn't an /official/ game - so no experience. Was still fun, and we got goodies! We are now the proud owners of a pair of nifty little minatures. ^^ (Warforged fighter - Eberron specific, my pull, and a Dalelands fighter - various realities apply. Andi's pull. I got a good look at it and - it was Keil. Heh.)
Anyway - that was the day. Too damn much driving, but way worth it in the end. ^^

Ooo.. *splat*

International Game Day, today - anyone and everyone and anyone else who's interested in the RPGA is probably going to be found at your local game/comic book shop.
Including me, if your local comic book shop is in Newberg OR. ^^

Everything else has been about like that. We finally got a note back from the INS - we go in the 30th to have Andi fingerprinted. They might want mine, too - if they do, so be it...

Nothing else been happenin'. Updates are scarce 'cause I haven't been thinking about 'em much - probably got time, just ain't been thinkin' on it.

That figures, ne? I've got what feels like no time at all, and yet every once in a while I just /stop/ - and it feels like there's nothing at all going on. Somehow, I ain't surprised...

Ahhh... Another day, another week gone by.

I think.

As it turned out, we didn't need to go into Portland after all - the need for that was removed with a simple phone call and some more notarized copies going into the mail.
Glad? Oh, hell yes. 'course, we /still/ ain't heard from the INS ... *sigh*

On the other hand, I got my passport - wasn't expecting that to show up so soon...

And, I got my bike back from the repair shop, with new gearing cable, a new seat and the brakes gone over. (I'm debating going on the hunt for a new set of brake cables - the ones on that bike have been on it ever since I got it - and I've had that bike ... /well/ over ten years. Hm. Probably better get some new brake cables.)
I also got them to replace the handle-bar wraps - which means no more hard pink plastic! Yay! (I object to pink - it's a nice enough colour, in soft, pale shades - but /bright/ pink is enough to make me wanna puke.) Now it's black cork, which is both softer and less hard on the paws. Ah, and I've got a rack for it now.

That don't leave much. Bike lock (key, not combo - last combo lock I had literally rusted shut, and had to be /cut/ off.. >.<), light system (I /really/ want a dynamo/battery combo - do they /make/ such a system? Not that I've found.. yet.), some bungie cords and new rear reflector and some reflector-tape. Oh. Tool kit, tube repairs, and probably a new set of tires and tubes. That's the 'Need' list. The 'want' list includes frills like a bell, fenders (front /and/ rear - I'm not into getting mud up my arse..) maybe even a new set of pedals. Well, I said /frills/, didn't I?
Actually, the ultimate frill would be to repaint the frame - just take the whole thing apart and paint it black. Then slap some reflector tape on some of the parts to make it harder to miss. With lights and reflectors on the front, back and wheels - not to mention on /me/ - I should be /really/ hard to miss at night.
.... um. Well, in theory, if I'm hard to miss, I /might/ not get /hit/ by some automotoring dingbat with a cell phone implanted in hir ear, a hamburger in hir free hand and hir coffee in hir other hand.. (uses gender neutral term to indicate the chances of being hit by either gender being about equal these days..)
Until I get some of that stuff, I ain't ridin' at night if I can help it. But I /will/ be able to bike over to the bank during the day, no problem. And with the rack on the back, in theory I can do nifty things like pick up odd groceries. ^^

Yes. I'm planning ahead, on the theory that there may be a time when a spare car is /not/ available. Actually, that would be fine - cars are ruddy expensive to own and maintain.... although, after the article in the Oregonian about the guy who converted his Jetta to run on vegetable oil... maybe the fuel issue wouldn't be a big deal to get around..... which still leaves insurance, maintainance, license and anything else I forgot...
Ah, hell. Got to find a bicycle-safety thing, to get my hand signals sorted out. S'always something.......

... Need to read the bloody Eberron book again - there's a National Game Day coming up, and they're running one near enough that Andi and I can get to it! Eeee!
Roleplaying in person is totally different from online - you don't have as much time to /think/ about what you're doing, so it's a lot more off the cuff and unpredictable.
Heck, last time I got to do it, the group wound up helping to sort out a modron issue, and we found ourselves filling out (actually, the paladin in the group found himself filling out) a number of umpteen page forms. When we /finally/ got done, some wiseass suggested something that would have required /more/ form filling - and my character whacked him over the head with her pack. We all thought that was pretty funny - including he who was whopped - and it went on from there. That was fun. I /live/ for gaming moments like that one.

Yes. I'm still finding time to draw. And scan. There're be an update soon. I think.
'course, I'm way the hell behind again ... ^.~