King's Dominion

First off, let me say that I am planning to start using this again. Yes, I know it is nearly November and any 'writing' I do should be on my novel, but meh. I miss my blog and want to use it again. So...

Yesterday we went to King's Dominion. Neither Jerry or I had been there before, so needless to say, we were very excited. We stayed up far too late Saturday night and 6am came very very early. But rollercoasters were involved, so we dragged ourselves out of bed by 6:30ish to get ready to head out to Mt. Airy and drop off the baby. Our plan at this point was to be there by 8, to ideally get us to the park by 9:30, about an hour before opening, just in case there were a lot of people, so we could get good parking. We did pretty well, made it to Myranda's by 8ish, then got gas, filled the car with gas and spent way too long deciding on breakfast at starbucks and probably left around 8:30. The problem with our plan was in the fact that it isn't 1.5 hours to King's Dominion, it's a little over 2. So, we made it there right at opening, which turned out to be just fine, since there was hardly anyone there and we could park right up front anyway.

It was a perfect day for coastering. It was warm enough that I didn't need a jacket until probably 9pm, but cool enough that at no time was I wanting ice cream or to go into air conditioning. There were hardly any people there until about 3pm, and even then, the longest line we had to wait in was maybe 15 minutes.

We quickly realized in the early morning, that lines actually serve a very useful purpose. Because, after 6 coasters in less than an hour, we found ourselves having to stop and ride the ferris wheel for 10 minutes to not feel queasy and off balance. But yes, we were able to walk on to each ride with maybe only having to wait for the train that was currently loading to head away before we got on the next to pull in.

So....our first coaster was the Dominator... sounds all impressive and scary. But it was really kinda meh. It was a very nice introduction to coastering again though. I haven't been to an amusement park at all this year, and last year I was pregnant, so it's been at least 2 years since I've been on a roller coaster. It wasn't a terrible coaster, had a few loops and twists, the ride was sufficiently long in length, just nothing to write home about. We, naturally, didn't ride it again. Overall I'd give 3/5 stars, entertaining, but not a real rush.

Next, we hit the Volcano... This coaster was one of the ones that we were most looking forward to, as the website promised us a high speed launch, straight up, out of a burning volcano. It also, sadly, did not quite live up to the hype. It was fun, we did ride it twice, but the first time I thought we'd missed the launching because it was really no different from any other aspect of the ride. It did launch you out of the loading area very fast, but the entire ride was very very short and had I waited in a line, I would have been disappointed. 3.5/5 stars. Would have been a 4 star if it had been just a little bit longer.

Then we went to Flight of Fear, which was a space themed indoor roller coaster. We also chose to ride this coaster twice. We probably would have ridden it one or two more times, but they turned it into a really lame haunted house at 6 and closed the rollercoaster part. This ride also uses induction magnets to propel you out of the loading zone at very high speed. And it was very high speed, we'd watched the car ahead of us launch and it still caught us off guard. And then it kept launching. This made it the best induction magnet coaster I've been on, and I've done a few. Usually, one expects about a 1second launch, just to propel you into a turn or drop that will then increase your speed further, this one, on the other hand, lasted at least 2, maybe 3 seconds. It just kept accelerating you. Then, the ride itself, was pitch black (the first time at least) and employed a great variety of drops, twists and loops. It was this ride that made us realize another use of lines....adjusting your eyes. The second time that we rode we waited about 15-20 minutes before getting on the ride. Thus, when I rode not only had my eyes adjusted to waiting in semi-darkness, but my transition glasses had had a chance to become not dark. Hence I could see at least some of the track and turns in the ride. This was not the case with the first ride. I give this coaster a 4.5/5 stars as it was really really awesome, but not quite the Intimidator305.

We then went on the Intimidator305. This is now the bar to which I hold all other coasters against. It starts with a very fast 305' climb, which leads to an 300 foot, 85 degree drop that peaks at 90 miles per hour. It's emphasis is high speed turns and air time and I never actually noticed that it doesn't have any loops. The air time was quite impressive and every time I got off the ride, I wanted to get right back in line. Jerry only let us do this once. This coaster is awesome. I loved it the first time we rode and it only got better the next 4 times. This is because the first time we were in the middle of a train that was not full. Then we rode near the front (2nd car) of a full train, which was much faster. This ride is crazy because there is a whole separate line to queue for the first car, which was often longer than the queue for the rest of the train. We did not choose to stand in it. The last two times that we rode were after dark, which made the twists and turns even better. 5/5 stars.

The next coaster around the loop was the Anaconda. We were looking forward to this coaster, as the website boasted: "Get wrapped in coils of this awesome coaster and prepare for the 144 foot drop into the depths of the Anaconda. The Anaconda was the first looping coaster in the world that showcased an underwater tunnel." Sounds awesome, right? IT WAS LAAAAAAAAAAAME. Very very. This is one coaster that I will never ride again. The 'underwater tunnel' was more like a half second dip into a pit that may have been somewhere near the water. I don't remember any big or cool drop, and even several loops couldn't save it. Add to this the fact that it's an older coaster and thus very rattly and gave me a huge headache from bashing my head into the restraints. 1/5 stars.

We then went to the Backlot Stunt Coaster. We were not expecting a whole lot out of this coaster, it looked small and not that fast and there were more kids than we'd seen on the previous coasters. We were pleasantly surprised. There were a lot of fun drops and spins. It didn't go upside down, but it was very entertaining. We would have ridden this one twice, but when we got back to it later in the afternoon there was a long line and we don't like lines. The one disappointment of the ride was that we were promised explosions and there were none. We stopped at one point, near a bunch of flammable barrels and boxes and there was a helicopter shooting at us, and I was completely braced for an explosion that would propel us down into the rest of the ride and it never happened. There was no fire or anything. The website even says 'Barely escape massive explosions!' ... maybe it was turned off. Anyway, this coaster was really fun anyway. 3.5/5 stars. It was very entertaining, but not particularly scary, would have been a 4 if there'd been an explosion.

At this point, we had to stop for a bit. Went and had a bite of lunch (expensive, but tasted decent for park fare) and then rode the ferris wheel before working out way over to the wooden coasters.

The first of those we hit was Rebel Yell. I actually really enjoyed this coaster. It was rattly, oh boy was it rattly, but it had good speed, didn't knock your head around very much and the air time was impressive. And the rattliness was a fun rattling, in that you could open your mouth and go 'ahh' and it would make you go ah,ah,ah,ah,ah,ah,ah, but didn't make your bones hurt. Normally it has two trains riding simultaneously next to each other, which I think would have made the ride even more fun, but due to the low turnout at the park they only had one running. 4/5 stars

We then moved onto the Ricochet. This was another coaster that we weren't expecting too much of. It was small, there were 4 people to a car and you traveled the track alone as compared to as part of a train, there were no loops or and the drops were small comparitively, but it contained a lot of switchbacks and as we watched from the ferris wheel, it looked like they got the speed up pretty good around the turns though, so we figured, why not? I was quite glad that we gave it a chance, because it was a lot of fun. The switch backs and hairpin turns did get you going pretty fast, and also made the car swing out slightly, so there was always this niggling feeling that you were going to go flying off the track. And the ride was a good length....3 whole minutes. I was pleasantly surprised. 3.5/5 stars.

Next we hit up the last two wooden coasters in quick succession. The first was the Hurler, which was not very hurl inducing. It was also rattly in a not fun way, more in a knock you into the sides until you're black and blue kind of way. And while it was a long track, it wasn't all that exciting. 2/5 stars.

The Grizzly was next. This one was pretty fun, mainly because it was surrounded by trees and took you up to just above them. So for a large part of the ride, you were riding around with treetops spreading out below you. I felt very high off the ground, even though we really weren't, comparatively. This was smoother and a little less rattly, and had a pretty good drop and some airtime, all in all, a solid coaster. 3.5 stars, a 3 star coaster, with an extra .5 for really near scenery.

We then went on the Shockwave, which also had a lot of hype. The website promised: "the ride of your life as the Shockwave takes you through a 360-degree horizontal loop, where you're essentially parallel to the ground. Did we mention you're standing up the whole time?" which wasn't really a lie...we were standing up, we were parallel to the ground at one point, we did go upside down, but the ride as a whole was a pretty big let down. It was really really short and not especially fast. I also discovered the downside of having long legs and a short body, since the ride adjusted itself to your leg length. I had a good 5 inches between my shoulders and the shoulder straps. Jerry, on the other hand, had the shoulders cutting into him. This made for a bit of a disconcerting ride as I kept floating up in the restraints. It was mildly fun though...but way too short. 2.5/3, might have been more if I hadn't been expecting so much.

We then wandered a bit, watched people do the skyflying, which we both really really want to do....when we have an extra $50 to burn and eventually found ourselves on the Flying Eagles. This is a more kid friendly ride, they'd probably let us take Jared on it, but it was fun enough that we did it twice throughout the day. What makes this fun, as well as kid friendly, is that it can be as tame or wild as you want. It's a swing ride, in airplanes made for 2 people (well, an adult and a kid, really....Jerry and I were very squished...I think I was half in his lap) with a metal 'sail' that lets you spin the car in and out. You can hold it still and just have a nice swing ride. Or you can launch it back and forth to each other like we did and feel like you're going to fly off the ride or slam into the ground depending on which way you're spinning. The second time we actually got it spinning enough that it kinda popped and jerked and scared us enough to make us slow down. 3.5/5 stars.

At this point there was only one thrill ride we hadn't taken in....the Drop Tower. I've never been on a drop tower. Well, no. I've been on Tower of Terror, which is technically a drop tower, but is enclosed so doesn't seem quite so scary. This Drop Tower is 305 ft. tower with a 272 ft drop that drops you straight down at 72mph. It's apparently the largest drop ride in North America. So, I guess it's a good choice for my first time, eh? I was very very nervous waiting in line, heading up...I almost talked myself out of it. And when it dropped I actually went "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god"...then the first second was over, my heart was in my chest and I was still falling and it became....fun. REALLY FUN. The last 3 seconds of the drop were really really thrilling. I loved it. 4/5 stars. Only because I can't in good conscience give a ride that only lasts 4 seconds and has no spins or turns 5 stars.

So, that's all the rides we hit... we then had dinner and got ready to enjoy some Halloween Haunt festivities. We first did the Alien Outpost haunted house, which was lame. Although there was a point where a guy swung out on a harness at the woman behind me and she flipped out screaming. That was funny. Because it was so dumb, and because we're not big on haunted houses anyway, we didn't hit any others.

There were, however, two more noteworthy scares of the evening. There was fog and red lights everywhere and it was hard to see where you were going. I will point out that the people just wandering the 'scare areas' of the park, were much scarier than the intentional attractions. One such scare was my own. We had passed through a dark archway and there were ghastly creatures following people as they crossed the bridge to the other side. It was a pretty long bridge. Immediately upon entering, an undead peasant woman began to follow me, hovering right near my right shoulder, and no matter where I moved or how often I put Jerry next to her, she was always right there, whispering things and being generally creepy and scary, she was good. We got most of the way across the bridge and I thought she had moved onto someone else, so I say to Jerry 'She seriously wouldn't stop following me', at which point a voice in my ear goes "I'm still here" I screamed and jumped probably a foot. Jerry thought this was hilarious.

The other noteworthy scare....which was just awesome, occurred as we were waiting near the front of the line for the Intimidator305. The guy that was running our side of the train walked along the car, checked all of the restraints and then started walking back to come up to the podium where he starts the ride. As he passed by the queue for the second car, he jumped at the woman standing there and went 'Rawrr!' I think she jumped 2 feet in the air and screamed. It was fantastic.

We did take in two shows, one of them twice (sort of 3 times) so that we could catch the entire thing and video it. The first was Fangs, which was a pretty decent vampire based show, involving singing and sexy dancing. Two of the dancers and the lead male were awesome. The lead female had some damn good pipes, but couldn't dance to save her soul, and the other 3 dancers and other guy were pretty meh. I liked the music though and it was a fun show.

The second show, Disturbia was awesome. This was a zombie group of 3 girls and 3 guys that danced and 'sang' a lot of metal songs. They were having so much fun and their choreography was fantastic. We saw most of their show the first time we saw it, but didn't know how much of the beginning we missed and wanted to come back and see the rest. The next time they were showing, we made it for the last song, so the third time, we got there really early and were able to see the entire thing. Zeb video'd it on his phone, so I'm sure he'll post that around here sometime.

Then we made the long, long, long drive back to pick up Pickle, who had a good day with Myranda, but got some kind of heat rash and cut his forehead. Then the long (okay, only 45 minutes, but it seemed interminable) drive back home...made it back around 1am, at which point Pickle and I promptly passed out. Jerry stayed up for another hour, though I've no idea how.

So, wow...that was a long, long entry. Hope you all have enjoyed this analysis of King's Dominion. I'll try to post again later this week about my lack of time management and the fact that I never get anything done. =P

Finishing

Writing is hard. I didn't realize this for a very long time. I thought that writing was easy. I thought that I was one of those people who could just dump her thoughts out on a page and after a minimal amount of editing, wahlah! I have something fantastic. Gitp has done nothing to disabuse me of this notion, as everyone there seems to have nothing but positive things to say about everything that I do. I often wonder if this is because I'm a mod and a omg! girl on the internet. I think maybe. I think that this 'writing is easy' mentality has a lot to do with why I haven't finished anything. Things get hard, they get to the point where I don't know what's going to happen next or where I might need to do little bit f research or completely rewrite something to make it make sense to someone other than me and I give up. This is why I have piles of unfinished novels, barely started comic strips, neglected blogs, and no website.

I love my writing group. Even if they weren't awesome people, which they are. I would love them because they make me feel guilty about all of the things I am not doing. And I have things I really really really want to finish. So, with that in mind, I have decided that I am going to turn over a new leaf and am going to get my major projects done.

I am going to finish my website. I am going to put up a gallery and be able to show it to people for potential illustration work. I'm good, I think, I really think I'm a good artist and that I could make money at it. So..... I'm going to. I also plan to have artwork to show/sell at Balticon next year. *reminds self* sketches due for Felix.

I'm also going to finish the Mafia story. You're good with coninuing to work on this, right Helgraf? Cause it's good and it should be told. It needs way more work than I imagined. It's hard to make me redo everything I've already put so much work into though. I'm going to though, really really am.

And I'm going to work out and make meal plans every week and lose weight and declutter my house and read to Jared every day and get him in swimming lessons.

And the webcomic! I'm going to make one. I really really am! Llama said he'd write it and we have the beginnings of a plan/plot sort of thingy and a couple cast members! Okay, we've really barely started, but we're going to!

Well, that was a nice pep talk. Let's see how long this works for me. You should all keep me motivated.

Motivation...

I lack it. Well, actually, I've been more motivated the last couple weeks that I previously had been. I've created an office in the basement (which I haven't actually used) and we reorganized Jared's room, so I suppose that's productive. And I have been working a fair bit. But I have all these projects and ideas and things that I want to work on, but I don't have the energy or willpower to make myself do them. And time...I'm not sure how, but somehow it can get to Sunday afternoon and all we've managed to do is donate blood, sleep and watch tv. I'm sad too, because I had a lot I wanted to get done this weekend. I guess I'll make another to-do list and maybe I'll manage to get more done later this week. I'm a pro at to-do lists, making them that is, not necessarily doing them. And I do have to be a little more motivated because at least some of the things that I want to do have deadlines. I have a large presentation to prepare, and a story about magic to write. Bleh, okay, enough of me whining.

Sorry I haven't written lately. I mean to... just another one of those things that I wish I were more motivated to do. But we're done with that topic. =)

So, have I mentioned lately that I have the cutest kid in the world? Cause I do, and I don't write about him much. But he's really really adorable. He's going through a growth spurt right now, apparently. Insane really, as he's already a monster, but he's been eating 10oz at a time today, which is a full 4 more than he wanted yesterday. *shakes head* We took him to a 5 month study at the University of Maryland the other day, at which he had great fun. Being a psychology person, I fully support doing research into things like children's social development. And this was a pretty fun study, he got to play with bubbles and puppets and do peek-a-boo, nothing remotely stressful.

He can't crawl yet, but he's taken to flipping himself back and forth and is no longer safe alone on a bed, even with walls of pillows around him, and he does scoot himself backwards, which is very funny. He can sit up on his own and can swing himself and spin his bouncy chair around so he's in front of the toy he wants. And, luckily for us, he loves the car and traveling and other people. Perfect meetup companion. We took him to Tennessee over New Years and are planning a trip to Florida next month, so yay.

This post is rather rambly and babbly, I'm sorry. I have a headache and am feeling a bit out of sorts. Perhaps I'll post something more coherent later this week? For now, have a lovely evening!

Childish

Kim is a bitch. Now, I don't normally rant about people on here, and frankly, I rarely get mad at people at all. However, this really really pissed me off. Now, I can see people reading this saying, 'it's just a game...' but it isn't. What it is, is a glimpse into the kind of person that Kim is, and that glimpse shows me that I have no desire to associate with her again. A shame too, since I love her kids and her husband is fun. (For clarification, Kim is Jerry's brother's wife.) I suppose it would be best to explain the story now.

For the past year or so Jerry and I have been very involved in the game, Warhammer Online. When it was released, Jerry, myself, Ken (Jerry's brother) and Kim formed a guild together. Ken was then sent overseas for 9 months, and Kim, being now alone and they having 7 kids, naturally had little gaming time. Jerry and I took over running the guild. Things went as well as any new guild can expect, players came and went, we went through phases of dying and rebuilding, we were shuffled to different servers and joined several different alliances. When Ken returns to the states, the guild is entering a phase of 'dying'. This is due to several factors: 1. the new server we had been shuffled onto was order heavy and rvr had become beyond frustrating (ie. high level players were getting sick of never winning anything and were quitting or moving servers/guilds) and 2. new games (Champions Online and Aion) were being released and players were leaving to go to them.

At this point, Ken and Kim start moving some of their characters out of our guild and into a guild that we are allied with (Unrepentant). They don't mention this to us and we find out from the leader of Unrepentant. When we ask them about it, they say that they are planning to leave WAR for Aion and plan to join Unrepentant when they do. They say they are moving their characters to get to know the people in that guild better. We're fine with this, think it's a good idea actually, although it would have been nice if they'd let us know. We learn later that they told Unrepentant that they were leaving because they were having problems with us.

They never once mention these problems. We go to their house for labor day, and they still don't mention anything. They're playing Aion (beta) while we're there and we look at it. I fall in love with the pretty setting and the tons of character customization you can have and decide that I want to get the game. I even mention that I will join Unrepentant when I do. They don't seem to have any problem with this.

We come home and I do just that. I join Unrepentant, I order the game. I'm really excited about this. I post a bunch on their forums, get to know some new people that I didn't already know from WAR. I make plans to be really active and be in vent all the time and really become an involved, contributing member of the guild. I even skip my writing group to go to the first guild meeting. Kim knows I'm there, knows I'm a member, we attended meetings together and everything.

Two weeks later, my brother (who has decided to play Aion with me) submits an application for Unrepentant. Kim posts: "Due to issues with this person and family members in past games i would like to voice my disaproval of this app. if you need any more info than what i have already given in vent please pm me thanks" WHAT?! Now....Aaron was in our guild in WAR...marginally. He quit the game months ago, spent most of his time when he was playing on the Order side in his own guild, and I would say never once interacted with Kim, apart from possibly the occasional 'hello' in guild chat on the rare occasion that they were playing at the same time. He's also one of the most laid back people I know, never fights with anyone, and is practically allergic to drama. There is no possible reason that she would have to post that.

Then, my brother, and myself both get messages from the guild leader that based on what Kim has had to say they have decided to reject us from the guild. Yes, they retroactively reject me from a guild I've already been in for two weeks. I send Kim a message trying to find out what the hell is going on, which she, naturally, never responds to. And I know she got the message, and read it, because apparently she was talking in Vent about the fact that I was messaging her. We talk with the guild leadership for awhile, never getting any answer regarding what she's saying we did. And apparently when they confront her with the fact that we're saying we have no idea what she's talking about and have no problems with her, she starts backpedaling and can't seem to explain what the problem is. But she's more than capable of bad-mouthing us on Vent.

We still have no idea what she thinks we did wrong, why she's upset, or why she brought whatever misconceived problem she had from WAR over into this new guild and game. We all decided 'screw her' and went to another server and another guild, but it really sucks. I had a lot of friends in that guild and was really looking forward to playing with them. And what hurts even more is that I have no idea what lies she's told to them all and I'm sure they all think horribly of me and I did nothing wrong. Jerry thinks it's because she's pissed at him for some reason. *shrugs* I imagine we'll never know.

And it's too bad too, because I know Jerry really likes to hang out with his brother. So do I, for that matter. But now, we won't be heading to Norfolk to visit them again because neither of us want to associate with someone so childish, mean and spiteful.

Easy

Man...I fail at this whole 'keeping my blog up to date' thing. I won't promise to be better this time, since it seems that I can't keep those promises. Anyway....life has been veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery exciting of late.

Everyone that reads my blog should already know that little Jared has been born. I'm guessing that most of you probably got a text message from us that night. Suffice it to say, we are incredibly happy. I don't think I could have asked for a sweeter, better behaved baby. And really, everything is not nearly as difficult as I imagined. Yeah, it's hard to get up and feed and change him in the middle of the night, but not so bad. And I feel great, so that's a plus.

Dusty is hilarious. He has really taken to his role of 'big brother'. We read articles and the like about the best way to introduce a new baby to your pets and one of the things that they suggested was to have someone bring a blanket that the baby had been wrapped in home while you were still in the hospital to acquaint the pets with his scent. We thought this was a good idea, so mom brought a blanket home the day before we got home. Both dogs sniffed it, Athena was of course very meh. Dusty, however, started carrying the blanket around with him everywhere. I wish I'd been around to see it because apparently he kept tripping over it. Then, once we got home, they were both suitably excited and sniffy for a time, and then Athena became her indifferent self. Dusty, on the other hand, sits next to Jared all the time. If Jared makes the slightest little noise, Dusty runs from wherever he is to make sure he's okay, and should he start to cry, Dusty gets veeeeeeeeeery upset and will come and headbutt us until we get up and see what's the matter. It's the cutest thing. Skylar, I don't think has even noticed that there's a new baby, in spite of our attempts to introduce them. But he's not being mean or anything, so I guess it's good enough.

What has been a bit tiring about the whole thing is the constant stream of people visiting. Not that I mind visitors that is, there just hasn't been a whole lot of 'alone time' for Jerry, Jared and I. We had most of yesterday and today though, and tomorrow. Then friends are coming up on Sunday and it sounds like my family will be here next week, which will be great, if more tiring, especially with Jerry having to go back to work. It's been really nice to have him home at night.

You know, you'd think I would have more to talk about. Ooh...here's pictures of him: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v334/Alarra/Jared/
Well, I guess that's enough for today and I'll try write again after not toooooo long. =P

Sleep

I was concerned about how the SE Gitp Meetup would go. Not that I thought it wouldn't be as fantastic and fun and well-run as every other year, but rather, the concerns were over how I would handle it. Now, I love meetups, and I'm one of those people that hates to miss out on ANYTHING. Most of the time, this results in my staying up nearly all night, getting less than 6 hours of sleep for the entire weekend combined, and basically subsisting on caffeine. Now, this is a fine way to spend an occasional weekend.....when you aren't 8 months pregnant. Before we left, I actually instructed Zeb to make me take a break once in awhile, go to bed by 2, take an occasional nap... he failed at this miserably, and actually, ended up falling asleep before me practically every night. In actuality, it went much the same way as every other meetup... I stayed up stupid late and got little sleep over the course of the weekend. (And mom, if you're reading this...don't lecture and don't worry. I'm just fine and a little missed sleep didn't hurt me one bit...) I did end up going back to the hotel on Sunday and napping for a bit more than an hour, causing me to miss out on Reinholdt's birthday party (le sad), but even that I probably wouldn't have done had I just been tired and not feeling ill as well.

It was a fantastically fun weekend though. Most people showed up Friday afternoon. We missed out on the pre-festivities at the Hippie Hut, because Zeb hadn't slept yet when we got there and I decided to be responsible and make him take a nap first. But then we went to the Thunderdome, which was a rather fun, gaming hang out. There was much Rockband, and a very fun game of Paranoia....in which I DID NOT DIE! See, this is significant, because it's very very hard to not die in this game, everyone else died at least twice, some as many as 4 times. It was a lot of fun though. I was the 'hygiene officer' and got to make everyone wash their hands a lot. We played a lot of other games there too, and they had amazing cheesecake. I can't recall how late we stayed there, probably 3-ish, it was late anyway. We hung out in the room after that for awhile, but probably went to sleep around 4:30, I would guess. Zeb fell asleep far earlier, a combination of little sleep the past couple days and too much beer, I think.

Saturday was the outdoor portion of the weekend. We woke up late and went to get breakfast, which was mildly disappointing. Then we headed over to the ropes course place, arriving fashionably late, as we did to everything, all weekend. There was kubb and grilling and fun conversations, and a few people climbed some. It was also hot and there were a lot of bugs. It was great fun though. We went swimming after that, which was exactly what was needed. Zeb luckily wears swimming trunks as his regular shorts and as such had 3 pairs and could lend some to the llama and nudist. Of course, I'm sure Indy would have prefered to swim without them, but there were kids in the pool. =P

We then went to Mid-City Grill. I don't know that I did too much while we were there. Played a couple rousing games of 'pass the pig', (such a fun, quick, time-waster..I should probably pick it up sometime), Ticket to Ride cards, and one of the 'skippy' b-movie games. Dinner was disappointing, which was sad because I remember it being really good last year. I was rather out of it while we were there though, and if I wasn't actively involved in a game or conversation, found I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. A bunch of people came back to our room after we left there, and somehow I was now wide-awake and happy to play games until 6am. I was rather concerned that the people in the room next to us were going to complain about the noise though, since we did have both Rockband and a poker game going on at the same time. I spent most of the time playing poker, which shouldn't surprise anyone that knows me, poker's kinda my game. We made up a new variant called 'reverse poker' in which you can see everyone's hand but your own...that was actually really fun and called for a complete change in the way that you think. Goof then introduced us to Whiskey poker, which was a ton of fun too, although it involved a bit less strategy and more luck.

Sunday was spent at Jared and Sherri's, which was fun, for the most part. Goof was in pretty bad shape though. Apparently sometime in the early hours of the morning, probably while he was playing poker and drinking very sugary cocktails, his insulin pump stopped working. By the time we got there, he looked pretty much like death, and spent a good chunk of the day sleeping. He did wake up to play Werewolf with us though (Even all ill and exhausted, he managed to play a fantastic game and ended up being the last villager alive), but he then ended up going to the hospital shortly after that game. Which really sucked, although I suppose if it had to happen somewhere, I'm glad it's in JC where there are tons of really wonderful people around to keep him company and take care of him. He's doing muuuuuuuuuuuuuch better now and it looks like he'll be able to head home soon. We went and visited him that evening as well as before we left the next morning and he seemed in good spirits, if rather tired. I'd gone back to the hotel to sleep when they found out that Goof needed to be sent to the hospital (He'd left to go to the pharmacy, not nearly as concerning) so I was a bit late in finding that out. Once Zeb, llama, Thes and Indy came back to get me, they filled me in and we went to visit him.

We made Sunday a bit earlier of a night, although Zeb, Indy and I still stayed up chatting far later than we intended too. Indy finally got to feel Jared kick, shortly before bed, which he had been whining about wanting to do since the weekend started. Apparently it's the 'coolest feeling ever'..he was rather awed. And I have to admit it is pretty darn cool. Except when you're trying to sleep anyway. =P Monday I proceeded to sleep a good chunk of the drive home and passed out not too long after we got back here.

All in all the weekend was a roaring success and a ton of fun. I can't wait to do it again next year. We met a fair number of new people, (Mangosta, Phillistine, Reinholdt, rtg, tyckspoon *thinks* Is that really all? I knew everyone else?...wow..) and they were all tons of fun. And it was great to get to see all the Johnsoncity-ites again, since they're some of my favorite people ever and we don't get down there enough. And also, Indy, cause I've missed him terribly. Anyway, it was great to see everyone else that I already knew again too (Thes, Goof, Krade, Zaragon, the Meyers *knows she's forgetting people*) In any case, we're trying to plan a meetup of our own in October, which seems to be getting a great response, so hopefully it won't be another year before I get to see all these people again. =D

Reading

I have been reading quite a bit lately and figured it might be a good idea to write about some of what I've read over the past month or so.

I am currently reading Watership Down. This is one of Jerry's favorite books and he has been trying to get me to read it for ages. Of course, his convincing was hindered by the fact that he didn't own a copy and I never remembered to pick it up at the bookstore. This has been remedied. Actually, while my mother was visiting, we bought a ton of books. I've read three or so of them since she left. I'm currently a little more than halfway through this book and it's really really good. Far different from what I was expecting, and actually, anything I've ever read. I kind of like reading about books from the point of view of animals, it gives everything a much more novel perspective, and makes you think. Anyway, I realize this is an older book, but if you haven't read it, you should consider it.

The book that I finished last week was Castles by Julie Garwood. This is also an older book, actually, from back in 1993. I really like Garwood and thought I had read everything she'd put out, but somehow I missed this one. Mom and I picked it up while she was here. This is typical Garwood fare. There's a guy and a girl, thrown together through some (usually dangerous) circumstances, they fight falling in love, but eventually succumb, there's some plot going on to kill one or both of the main characters....or, in the case of this book, a couple different dangery type people or groups skulking about. Of course, the hero and heroine save the day and wind up married and happy. I realize that this doesn't make it sound like a good book, rather makes it sound like everything that she writes is the same, but that doesn't mean they aren't still good. Her historical books, of which this is one, all take place in the early 19th century England, and unlike a lot of authors, she doesn't get bogged down in the minutia of making sure that everything is accurate 'societally'. Where she shines is in her characterization, and if her plots are a bit repetitive, the unique and exciting people that she introduces make them seem fresh. Anyway, she's a good author, you should check her out.

The book I finished before that was Dogs and Goddesses by Jennifer Crusie and a couple other women authors who I can't recall and am being too lazy to look at the page I just linked. I find Crusie an interesting author, because unlike a lot of romance writers, she's genuinely funny. I haven't read a book of hers that hasn't at several points throughout caused me to laugh out loud. She's also very good at bringing her characters thoughts and voice to the forefront. This book was a bit absurd and kooky, with a fair bit of mysticism thrown in. I laughed a lot while reading it.

Before that, I read, The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. I don't think I can say that enough. This is Rothfuss's debut novel and I had heard and read a whole lot of fantastic reviews of it. All I can say is every one of them is correct and when people compare him to George RR Martin, Tolkein and Robert Jordan, they're absolutely right. It's a fantastic book and I was soooo sad to finish it and realize that the next one isn't out yet. And don't be concerned with the Martin and Jordan references, while he is writing a series, it is already planned out as a trilogy, and, if I'm not mistaken, all three books are already written. This isn't the type of author where we'll run into the problem of his series never ending or falling off after book 9, or making us wait years and years for the next installment. In any case, it's been a long while since I had read a book that I literally couldn't put down (Since the last Kushiel book, actually). So anyway, if you are a fantasy fan at all....GET THIS BOOK!

And just before that, I finished, Vision in White by Nora Roberts. This was a fun, light diversion for a couple of days. I'm actually a rather big fan of Roberts. I do have every book she's written, well, or I did at one time anyway. They're good, a nice break between deeper fantasy novels. She's excellent at characterization and her books are always full of fascinating details about different careers or lifestyles. This book is the first in a series based around four women that run a wedding planning company. This one focuses on the photographer, and while she's done dozens of books about mildly crazy commitment-phobic women, this one manages to be interesting and amusing. I think it will be a good series.

Anyway, there you go, that's what I have read this month. Enjoy!