Vegoose - October 2006, Halloween Weekend

Vegoose is Las Vegas' version of Woodstock.

Drugs? Oh yeah. I walked by some chick asking another couple if they had drugs. There was even a woman who had taken drugs Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m., had no recollection of what happened between 2 and 6 p.m., then around 8 she comes looking for someone to help her. And, there was a group of about six people smoking pot behind the stand I was working in.

Smoking? Yes.

Alcohol? What concert doesn't have alcohol?

Three stages, music from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Audio overload. It was funny to see people younger than me try to act like they're hippies. Who knew dreadlocks were part of the hippy wardrobe? I certainly don't remember seeing any dreadlocks in the pictures my parents have, or any of the other pictures I've seen about the Flower Age.

Missed Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Miss The Killers. Got to hear Phil and Trey, good music, not sure who they were. And I was inundated with the sounds of Widespread Panic for three hours.

Besides some personal issues and being on my feet most of the day and allergies wrecking havoc on me, it was a good day. Very cool to see.

Character Update: Shayanna Silvermist

(Borrowing Lela's format, cause she said I could :) )

Villain Name: Shayanna Silvermist
AKA: Nightdove
Server: Virtue
Level: 14
Archetype: Sonic/Sonic Corruptor
VG: Order of the Bloody Rose
Personality: Calculating, blood thirsty
Currently: Shayanna thought she had found two men she could trust, besides Kaleb Lucian and Thorn of Hate. She has recently learned that because she has shut herself off to every man, getting her into bed has become a conquest in the eyes of the men she had wanted to trust. Lyria and Rose have approached her with the chance to help her heal psychicological wounds or block her emotions behind walls that could not be guaranteed to hold the flood back.

Character List

Champion
Sister Vixen (50 mind/storm controller)
Solitaire Wolf (41 DM/DA scrapper)
Sweet Revenge (23 MA/Regen scrapper)
Rylanna (16 Storm/Rad defender)
Midnight Cross (15 Eng/SR stalker)
Fire Scorpion (12 Fire/Kin controller)

Virtue
Amira Dynasty (20 DM/Regen scrapper)
Shayanna Silvermist (14 Sonic/Sonic corrupter)
Darkest Angel (9 Warshade)

"Mrs. Campbell... This is the school nurse"

*sigh* Ok, who doesn't dread that call from the school? You always think the worst, to find out it was something small, like they fell and the school has to notify you verbally that they treated your child with ice and let him/her rest for a few minutes before sending them back to class.

Derek tripped today coming out of his Orchestra class. Landed on his left wrist, ball of the wrist, wrist bent, probably jammed it, but nothing is broken. We went to the Quick Care, had it x-ray'd and they put a sling on it. He gets out of P.E. for a week and Orchestra, because he plays the Cello and can't do it now. Doesn't matter what instrument he plays, he would have had to gone a week with no playing anyway.

Update On The School Shooting

The police found the kid who shot the girl. It was a 16-year-old boy. Not sure the reason still, but they arrested him Tuesday. Fortunately some of the students on the bus came forward and ID'd the kid. Guess we'll find out eventually why he did it.

School Violence Hits Home

In the past few weeks, Las Vegas has seen an increase in children taking weapons to school. This is not in addition to everything else that has been seen in the country itself. This is purely in Las Vegas.

Last week, as I was driving to the airport for my trip to Alaska, I drive right by an elementary school that was on lockdown. I found this out as I was driving past it. There is a high school not too far from the elementary school and both schools were on lockdown because a former student of the high school had returned to the school with a gun. The most frightening part? I was within a two mile range for the schools my children attend. What was to keep the guy from going to my daughter's elementary school or my son's middle school? Not a damn thing. Violence is not restricted to certain streets just because the police do a lockdown.

And then, when I arrive in Alaska, and get to my hotel room and watch the news, I hear the story about the school house back east where the girls were held hostage and shot in the Amish community. If an Amish community is affected by all this violence, what's to protect my own children? No matter how hard I try, I can't be with them 24 hours a day.

Boy, that was definitely a lesson that hit home hard on Monday. Derek had been home for about 30 minutes, having walked home from school. As I leave the house to pick up Micaela, I notice the loud helicopter sounds and the police copter flying over the area of her school. "That doesn't make me feel good," I said as I got into the car and began the less than 5 minute drive to her school. Yes, I remember exactly what I said. In this kind of situation, I would be surprised if any parent forgot exactly what was said and exactly what they did.

I drove to the school, and as I got closer, the huge cluster of vehicles I had noticed immediately upon turning onto the street became clear. There was yellow crime scene tape across the street. The road was blocked by police cars; metro, highway patrol and school district. A group of students was walking in my direction as I slowly inched my van closer to the yellow tape, a knot forming in my stomach. Micaela waved her hand at me and though the knot didn't go away, a wave of relief swept over me.

She gets into the van and I immediately begin crying, trying to hold her close to me. She kept saying, "Mom, I'm ok. No one was hurt." She didn't know what had happened, only that there were lots of police and her school was put on lockdown because of it. Even the note that came home with her from the principle only said 'police activity'. The police escorted the children across the street instead of the crossing guards.

So, after I finally stopped bawling, I drove us home and began the search through the channels for some news. My mother-in-law, who teaches at the school, didn't even call me to tell me what she knew.

Turns out, a high school student was walking home after getting off her bus and she was shot in the leg by an unknown assailant. No one knew why, or at least they weren't saying and they didn't know who had done it. And they didn't know where he/she had gone.

So here I am today, sitting at home, trying to work and pay attention to conference calls while my daughter goes to a school that had a shooting within 100 feet of school property. Terry is out of town and doesn't truly understand how upset I was yesterday and I can't make him understand, not right now. He has a lot of stress to deal with at his hotel.

I watched my daughter walk away from me, into the school yard and it scared me. I haven't been this scared since I took my son to his school on September 11, 2001. I don't know what I would do if something happened to either of them.

D&D Campaign Over

Well, if you've gone to My Writing, you'll see that our characters died this past gaming session. Not exactly thrilled about it. What makes me unhappy is that we were not given a chance to try to escape. We were told, "you're captured, you're tortured, you're killed. Next game, what do you want to do?"

I understand Rob probably had it planned like that already and I will admit, the situation we were in was not a good one, so the chances of us escaping were pretty slim. But still, even the slightest chance would have been nice.

So, now we are starting a new campaign. Terry is going to play a monk. I am either going to play a ranger that is half high elf and half drow, or a moonknight. A moonknight is a prestige class Rob created. I have played one previously and she was pretty powerful. Rob has toned the class down some, which is actually pretty good in some aspects. I will be test playing the class for him, which means there will be things changed at the drop of a hat.

Terry and I had an idea of playing elves based on a couple I read about in the latest R.A. Salvatore trilogy about Drizzt Do'Urden. The elves fight in unison and in need of each other, completely dependent of each other. But, after the trouble we seemed to have in the last campaign playing a couple that were starting out, I decided against playing another couple. He asked if we were going to have our new characters together, even if we didn't play the elves, but I'm undecided. We are going to have to talk about it.

My Turn

Your Superhero Profile

Your Superhero Name is The Terra Demon Your Superpower is Electrocution Your Weakness is Salt Your Weapon is Your Secret Decoder Thorns Your Mode of Transportation is Phone Booth

What's your Superhero Name?

via Lela and Steve

To Continue What Mike Started

There never seems to be enough time to say it as many times as people deserve to hear it.

Friends -
I love you, Lela, Mike, Steve, Vinnie, Mark, J.D., Kelly who lives so far away and though our lives always seem to keep us from talking enough, Rob who deserves it even when he irritates the hell out of me.

Family -
I love you, Paul, Crystal, Jack, Diane, Dad, Junebug and Mom, even if we haven't spoken but three times in the past three years.

Loved Ones -
I love you, Micaela, beautiful girl that you are, joy that you bring me, stress you create.
I love you, Derek, handsome boy, maturing every day into a handsome man. God, I wish you would turn in your homework.
I love you, Sweetie, Bubba, the man who has stood by me through everything, who makes me feel better even in the worst of situations, who accepts me for my faults and praises the good.

Because Lela Needed It

I sent Lela the song a few weeks back and as she says in her blog, it's been on her mind lately. So here are the lyrics, cause I personally love the song as well. And for the ones who just can't leave her alone and expect her to keep being nice, despite the fact you treat her like shit, SHOVE OFF!

And here's a reminder --- THIS IS MY BLOG, NOT LELA'S. YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH WHAT I JUST SAID, COME TO ME. OTHERWISE, STUFF IT. Leave Lela alone. She deserves better than the crap you're dishing out to her.

Not Ready To Make Nice - Dixie Chicks

Forgive, sounds good
Forget, I’m not sure I could
They say time heals everything
But I’m still waiting

I’m through with doubt
There’s nothing left for me to figure out
I’ve paid a price
And I’ll keep paying

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

I know you said
Can’t you just get over it
It turned my whole world around
And I kind of like it

I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’
It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

Forgive, sounds good
Forget, I’m not sure I could
They say time heals everything
But I’m still waiting

I Knew It

You Are Rogue

You're reluctantly special. In fact, you long to be normal. You consider your powers to be a curse, and something you can't control. Powers: absorbing other people's memories and abilities, weakening and killing people with your touch

Which of the X-Men Are You?

Via Lela

NANOWRIMO - 50,000 Words in November

It's that time of year again. Time to sign up for National Novel Writing Month, 50,000 words in 30 days. This takes place in November. Not a single word can be written before 12:00 a.m. November 1. Outlines can be done, notes can be created, but not a single word within the body of the novel. Works out to be about 1667 words per day. And, guess what? That also means on Thanksgiving.

If you are interested, the website is www.nanowrimo.org. I will be cross-posting this to my writing blog and keeping track of my progress there as well. Also, if you go to the website, you can pull up the authors that are registered and follow their progress through their profiles. If you do decide to give it a try, let me know. I'd be happy to follow your progress as well and maybe we can exchange a little moral support in this very stressful 30 day period.

My Time, My Dime

Lately, I've been spending my time in World of Warcraft. I love the bubbly, cartoonish look the characters and landscape have. I like how the quests are so much easier to find than any of the quests available in EverQuest ever were. And I like how there is no drama of any kind there. Tuesdays are a lot of fun. Mark joins Terry and I, and the three of us run the land as Taurens. This is my first Horde character and I think it's hysterical my character actually moos, cause... she's a cow. Terry and I usually play our Night Elves. He has a rogue and I have a hunter. Or we play our paladin and mage. The mage is a lot of fun, even at a low level.

I play CoH now when I plan things with Lela, Steve or Mike. Sometimes I want to log on, cause I haven't played with any of them for awhile, but things happen. Like tonight, Terry and I spent a lot of time with the kids. We taught them how to play a card game Terry and I have enjoyed ever since we married. Derek was reluctant at first, but after the first game, he really got into it. We had a lot of fun.

And I didn't miss CoH or WoW.

Basically, the point of this is, for those of you who think I'm avoiding CoH because of you or something that was said, or boards being opened up for the world to see... Well, sorry to disappoint. I just don't care. I play with who I want, when we have something planned and I'm not working or spending time with my family or playing tabletop.

Star Chasers is fun. Honestly I'd like see how my Warshade will progress. Blood Nights are hysterical. Shayanna cracks me up with her lust for blood. I'm surprised I haven't macroed something to say "Runs her hands through the blood and then over her face." Probably wouldn't surprise anyone if I did. Mavericks are fun. Sweet Revenge so needs to find something to distract her from shopping for clothes that irritate her brother. And getting Solitaire closer to 50 gives me a satisfaction only a few understand.

Yep, having fun doing what I want.

The Dogs

Licorice - half bassett hound, half labrador, all pain in the ass. Despite how Terry tries to tell me that Licorice is everyone's dog, this dog definitely belongs to him. He's about the only one who can bet the dog when he wants to, play with him and keep him in place. This dog has a bedtime that is more strict than the one we have for the kids. By 10 p.m., Licorice becomes the biggest jerk ever created. He growls at everyone. If I go near Terry and Licorice is laying near his chair, he growls. If we even talk to him while we're going to bed, he growls. My favorite quote for the dog is "he's an asshole." It's definitely a love/hate relationship. There are days I absolutely love to hate the dog.
Amira - About 75% wolf, 25% siberian husky. Amira is Anceint Egyptian for Princess and she is definitely a princess. She is very lovable, talks to us all the time, hardly barks, but loves to destroy things if allowed to. She will sit at her bowl of food, fill her mouth, then drop all the pieces on the floor, picking through them one at a time until she eats them all. Then she does it all again. She goes into the kids' rooms, checks on them, then sits either at the top of the stairs or at the bottom, waiting until I go to bed. Her neck is soft and she's absolutely gorgeous when she has a full coat of fur. She sleeps on the porch in the middle of winter and on the kitchen floor during the summer.
Coco - part golden retriever, chocolate labrador, australian shepherd and pig. Pig? Yes, pig. Her tail curls up like a pig's. We love her, but she has the most annoying bark. And she barks... all the freaking time. I can't take a shower without her barking at the shower door shutting. She barks at the garage door as it opens. She barks at Derek and Micaela when they go outside to play. She barks when we come home, for who knows what reason. She and Amira have an ongoing struggle for dominance in the pack, which varies on who feels like chewing on the other the most that day. The good thing about Coco, she loves the kids, she loves the family and she plays with both Licorice and Amira equally.

Winchester Mystery House

The room where Mrs. Winchester died. Outside the window, there is a crescent moon shaped hedge, with the tip pointing at the window. There are those who believe it has some supernatural meaning, with the tip pointing to the room. It's just coincidence, right?
One of the unfinished rooms on the ??? floor of the house. We walked up and down so many stairs, it was hard to tell where we were. This room was in the front of the house, which was closed off and not worked on again after the earthquake of 1906.
The front of the house. The house was painted in the 70's, thus the horrible yellow color. Currently, though the state of California has it registered in the state historic locations, it is privately owned and has been for quite awhile. Even if you ask the employees who signs their checks, the only answer they can give you is "Winchester Mystery House". I would love to own this house. The history behind it, being able to walk through it whenever I wanted, not to mention the money it brings in during October and on Friday, the 13th.
One of the two basements in the house. This one had the coal chute and when it was unlocked, there was coal still covering the floor. This basement is considered the most haunted of the two basements. With all the fireplaces (47), Mrs. Winchester had grates built into the floors of each one, which the servants would use to send the ashes from each fireplace down a chute into this basement. Instead of 47 fireplaces to clean and carry the ash from the house, the servants would only have to clean 7 chutes, which was supposed to be easier.

There are so many amazing facts about this house, so much history and information. Mrs. Winchester had the modern of all conveniences, including elevators. For further information, you can visit the official website, www.winchestermysteryhouse.com, or do a Google/Yahoo/MSN search, whichever you prefer to find out more.

Will These Photos Never End?

The family at the Redwood Forest at the top of the mountain near Brookdale Lodge. Not exactly the place I had intended to take the kids. When I was living in California with my mother and stepfather, we used to go to the Redwood Forest that had some of the largest, oldest trees on the North American continent. There was one tree in the forest that had grown so large that by the time it had been discovered, it had already fallen over and died. It was old when America was discovered. The bottom of the trunk, with the roots still in the ground, was smoothed over and finished and was once used as a place for square dancers. A portion of it, still standing next to the trunk, was used to show the rings and distinguish the age of the tree. There was also a tree that grew in such a way, cars used to be driven through it. You know, the small Model T's.

Nevertheless, this was not where we went. Needless to say, I was extremly disappointed and after we made the journey through the trail and discovered the Mother of All Trees, over 400 ft tall and the Father of All Trees, almost 400 ft tall, we left and made our way to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. The drive through the forest was beautiful, if a bit curvey. The small towns we came across were beautiful. And the house was worth the trip.

Despite everything....

No matter how hard it gets or how upset I get, I know that true friends know the truth. And my father will always send me an email that makes me smile, just like he knew I needed it.

Today was one of those days.

THE ROAD IS NEVER LONG BETWEEN FRIENDS

Sometimes in life, you find a special friend;
Someone who changes your life, just by being part of it.
Someone who makes you laugh until you can't stop;
Someone who makes you believe that there really is good in the world.
Someone who convinces you that there really is an unlocked door just waiting for you to open it.

LIFE IS SHORT

They say it takes a minute to find a special person,
an hour to appreciate them,
a day to love them,
but then an entire life,
to forget them.

Continuing Up The Coast

About noon, the clouds started coming in. At first it looked like there was a fire, but then we realized it was the clouds and we stopped a few times to look at the sight. It was amazing.
At one point, we stopped and we were above the cloud line. It was like looking at a bed of cotton balls. Again, Micaela was afraid if we got too close to the edge, we would fall.
We stopped at a small motel, restaurant and gift shop. There was a nature trail that led down the mountain, but it was blocked off. We were able to walk down partway though and get into the clouds.
And of course, the sunset. I've heard people say Las Vegas has the most beautiful sunsets, because of the heat, the pollution sadly and the way the sun lights up the mountains. But this sunset put every single one to shame. As we wound our way through the mountains, and drove to Santa Cruz, we had to stop several times, just to take the pictures. It was as if the sun melted into the ocean. Breathtaking, beautiful, amazing.

Vacation Pictures Continue - Drive Up Highway 1

Terry and Nick climbed down to the water from the road to touch the water. They had to stand on the rocks, because there wasn't a dry place anywhere for them stand. And the water was cold! Or so they said.
Micaela got very scared because the second time we stopped, the rocks down to the water were just a little steep and she was afraid everyone would fall down and hurt themselves. It was a beautiful sight to see though; the waves pounding against the rocks, sending up sprays of water.

Guitar Hero

So, since Vinnie took his with him, which is to be expected, it was his and he paid for it, I went out yesterday and bought the family Guitar Hero and placed a reservation for Guitar Hero 2, which is due out on Nov. 7. We are getting a second guitar with the second game, so the kids can duel each other.

As for me, I have completed the first set of songs on easy, cause I suck at video games. I have 3 of the second set done. No 5 stars yet, but a few 4 stars.

Yes, Vinnie, we were up until 3:30 playing with Paul and Crystal first, then just ourselves. It was fun.