I feel bad and beautiful

In other words I'm awake and bored.

We went to Kobe for dinner (again) tonight. The lovely Stephenie was our waitress once more - are you getting a clue that perhaps we eat there a bit often since I'm learning the names of the staff? We were seated at the same table as a party of four and an older gentleman on his own and Stephenie went around the table asking for drink orders, got to cptn_oblivious and I and told us what we were having with a grin. She also knew our dinner and sushi order. Did I mention we're very predictable? Thomas, our chef, came to the table and knew how I wanted my steak cooked and gave me an extra portion of fried rice and extra cream sauce since he knew I always take half my dinner home for later.

We likes them, on yes we do, preciousss.

That reminds me of a story, last month at some point we were eating there and the couple next to us (which we did not know) and I were talking about chefs when my togo box came out and I was loading up my dinner, carefully picking out the steamed zucchini to leave because... eww. The lady had just given me a piece of eel to try from her appetizer because her guy was having none of that and it was pretty good, a little gooey but good. The guy goes "You'll eat raw eel but you won't eat zucchini?"

Anywho, get home and notice the transformer on the light pole on the corner is sparking big blue shinies and making a lovely hissy noise. Call the emergency line for the power company and then Captain and I bundle up in our coats and stood out in the driveway gawking like Kansans in a tornado warning. It turns out only the guy across the street's power was effected and it had been going wonky since noon. We called the power company at 8:15, they didn't show up until nearly nine. If his power had been flickering constantly since noon either he was very unconcerned or the power people were really slow.

What else? Oh, just started a new story arc for Daphne on __lightning__. Really looking forward to that. Had a bit of fun with a certain thread from last week. *Kisses to Draco* Snerk.

Let me leave you with this thought: Lego Deatheaters are so damn cute.

I admit it. I geeked out totally.

I own The World's Largest Dungeon.

You may ask yourself why? That's a very good question and the answer is - I haven't a clue. I don't DM. My semi-regular four hour block of gaming on Sundays consists of cptn_oblivious sitting behind his DM screen plotting and another army couple and I. The man is very gung ho about his ranger/druid. His wife has a warlock that he "helped" with and she and I are more of the "let's enjoy ourselves" kind of gamers. In other words we giggle and plot and try to have fun with our characters and make an effort to break up the monotony of hack N' slash/wander for an hour and a half checking doors for traps and moving on.

No offense to my Hubby, but with Nature Boy pushing us forward it can become a little... yeah, you know. Three people do not a party into the WLD make, trust me on this.

I personally haven't been behind a Game Master screen since my Star Wars D20 game broke up (I loved that game, didn't have a clue about physics and made up my own SW crap most of the time, but I loved that game). So I have no idea why I bought an 800+ page WLD module.

In other news - Lego!Hogwarts is taking shape nicely. Second table has been set up and I've begun interconnecting random sets to maximize space. I'm considering putting Lego!Lockhart and Lego! Trewlaney in a compromising position.

At six am yesterday I decided the dog needed a bath. As I do.

( Bath time and the Afterbath: Or why do the big spiders always come to my house? )

After that I went by the PXtra to look for some furniture because there was a "sale" and we need something besides the emergency back-up loveseat we bought off rewil oh those many years ago (Loki the cat ate my couch before the move out here, I'm still bitter). Found a denim sofa/loveseat/chair/ottoman set for what will probably be huge amounts of money I don't have. I know we could swing the sofa ($699, no tax, free shipping) and I'd like at least a chair to go with it. However, it's denim. Light blue denim. I'd really like to know what the husband would think of that before I just go ahead and max out the Star card, you know? Sale ends tomorrow.

Then it was off to Volde-Mart because I was literally out of food. ( Adventures in Grocery Shopping )

So - yes, not going back to THAT particular Volde-Mart for awhile.

And the drama just keeps rolling in. Perhaps a week when I'm having some depression issues of my own wasn't the best time in the world to get involved in some rather emotional RP threads... yet I did anyway. And yes, I cried. Hormones are ebil things.

Let's start with ( Afterglow )

Then there's ( Lightning )

Seriously, I ate one of those jumbo Fudge Round things around ten pm last night and was on a sugar fueled rush until well after seven am.

I did a lot last night. Most of it was technical behind the scenes stuff getting ready for __lightning__ to launch on Monday, so I won't bore you with the details. I was running three characters in four different threads, working on backdated history posts for Daphne's past on Lightning (still so far behind there), made eleven Katie Bell icons for perkygothess, wrote the summary for quibbling, and put the Quibbler on-line.

And then - sometime between four and six am - I did these. I'll put them behind a cut cause I'm nice that way.

( Photoshop Experiment #27 - Lightning Strikes )

They're meant to work as Pimp banners for Lightning, but when one is very tired the animated one becomes hypnotic. Seriously.

Heard my husband's voice for the first time since June. It was only three minutes, but it was nice to hear him. Of course, he woke me out of my drop-dead-in-exhaustion moment so I wasn't very much with the coherent and there seemed to be a large angry duck on the phone line squawking every few seconds, but it was still nice.

Am in KS. Was a very long drive and I listened to the audio book of Philosopher's Stone most of the way North.

Staying with Alex since Tuesday. Spent most of the week working on AG stuff and burning CDs (52 of them on Wednesday *headdesk*).

( Brief Afterglow update )

Saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I loved it. And the Willy Wonka Song is stuck in my head. I wasn't going to buy the soundtrack because I really didn't need to spend $20 on brain cell killing songs sung by Danny Elfman as the Oompa Lumpas... but now I want it. I almost think I neeeeddd it.

"Everything here is eatable. I'm eatable, but that, my children, is called cannibalism and it is frowned upon in most societies."

Went to the midnight book party to pick up my copy(copies) of HBP. Yes, I dressed up. Hush. Yes I was one of only a handful of adults in costume (J and rewil being the other two. And J was working. But that's okay. I had my picture taken and you know how I'm such an attention whore (that's sarcasm, I know it doesn't translate well in the written word). beeform and sigma7 were there as our pet Muggles.

Since we were in line with the books for nearly an hour waiting to be allowed to purchase them, rewil decided to start at the back of the book and point out things of interest. So, having only ready the first chapter myself, I already know who died, who did it, who the HBP is, have confirmed several spoilers and threatened to beat at least two people about the head with the heavy book.

I've already posted a disclaimer on Afterglow's info page reminding readers that we are based on canon through book 5.

( Let's see what's happened this last week. )

For the second time, Myrtle stumbled across a wet and naked Gregory.

Gilderoy discovers Millicent's new mirror when he spends the weekend at her flat, and barely remembers to let her know he'll be leaving town for a few weeks.

True to her word, Fleur arranged for an escort to take make sure that Myrtle returned safely from her visit to Avalon.

---

I want to make special mention of a particular thread. It was an emotional one for me to write (yes, I'm a ginormous baby, deal with it) and it wouldn't have turned out nearly as wonderful without ellensmithee's Dung and andrian1's Delacour sisters, Fleur and Gabrielle. I especially want to thank andrian1 because all of the beautiful imagery and our use of the mythos of Avalon came from her.

Myrtle's visit to the isle of Avalon on her quest to become human again.

I have a plan. Which, I'm sure, will have to be modified several times before it comes to fruition. But the point is - I have a plan. And that makes me less cranky.

( The Plan )

This is the plan. Of course, as every gamer knows, the first step towards horrific failure is always to make a plan.

And since I haven't done it since the 16th of April (so it's going to be a long one) - Afterglow Highlights.

More specifically , the bits that pertain to my characters and the great things that really jumped out at me, and if I miss something... well, it's been a rough week and I've got pudding for a brain at the moment. Mmmm... chocolate pudding.
( Read more... )

As always, you can leave comments or questions for Rita Skeeter on each new edition of quibbling.

And if you're interested in what Severus Snape has been doing since he left Hogwarts, you can find read his personal journal at dark_occlumens.

First, the non-Afterglow thing. I have a mouse. Or, more specifically, I have at least one mouse. Which explains Roswell's sudden interest these last few weeks with the kitchen cabinets. Am I the only person who sees her cat scrabbling at the upper cabinet doors and just opens them up and lifts her into it? It's not like there is more than cup of soup in there and if she can catch the little bastards, more power to her.

And on to my bw_afterglow news. We have a Ron again and guess who plays our new wizrdchessmastr? Jane't. w00t! She officially joined today.

Because I promised rewil:

( More Afterglow Links )

My current campaign to have a happier life by simply ignoring everyone and thing that annoys me is now on day five. It's not working as well as I had hoped. I keep having to take breaks to be irritated about things like my missing internet order that was supposed to be here on the 8th, and then was supposed to be here on the 14th, and then will definitely be here on Monday. My Arse.

And finally... Since introducing my Afterglow pimping icon I have had some requests to make a couple for a few of the other Afterglow players. Which makes me giggle happily and then scamper off to make iconsess. So, any of the Ladies of Afterglow who are interested... I would be more than willing to hook you up with your very own personalized Afterglow pimpicon.

( A Chance For Afterglow Reader Interaction )

Behold quibbling! Not a community, and people can't start their own threads, but you are more than welcome to leave comments. The Quibbler updates every Sunday with an RP summary and a character interview. So feel free to friend quibbling and let us know what you think of the RP. Unless, you know, you think Myrtle and Gildy suck, because then I really don't want to know. I'm very *sniff* sensitive about these things.

Or not. Also, some of the characters do occasional make personal IC posts in their journals that do explain some of the motivations of why they do the crazy things they do. just_myrtle made one just today, as a matter of fact. These posts don't show up on bw_afterglow so if you want to read them, you have to go to the source.

In other news - I talked to another Army guy today. Not the one I had been talking to because somehow I managed to oopsy get him in trouble. I'm not giggling right now. I swear. Just FYI, it seems that telling a worried spouse that she's not supposed to bother her hard working soldier boy husband about lil' old problems like the house being repossessed... is a NO NO.

( Read more... )

And then... the head of my husband's unit's FRG (and do not ask what that stands for because I haven't a clue) called to say she's been out of town for six weeks and "Damn, I don't know how we missed that no one had spoken to you. I came back to find all sorts of shit like this and heads are gonna roll, let me tell you." I like her. She's very blunt. Also, I doubt she's ever met a stranger, you know the kind of person. We talked for 45 minutes. She made me laugh.