Day 337 - Yet Another Arcade Eve!!

Abby and I are doing the "Holy cats, it's Arcade Eve" dance!




The family is doing a YARD SALE again for our extras, so if you're like me and you basically just shop the yard sales for current Arcade items, stop on by! Unfortunately, we had to turn off public rezzing because last round, strangers came by and started eating up all the prims with their items to sell and none of us knew them at all! I don't mind policing the sale, but man, how rude is that? We're only going to have it up for maybe a couple of weeks because afterwards, the spot is going to be used for something else.

I love Arcade Eve, though. The family stays up late and we have the best time dancing and trying to get into the event and everything. I'm sad that I can't stay up super late this time because I have to get up early tomorrow, and sad because Aldwyn is not in town this weekend, but happy about everything else!

We're getting our ride to come and hang with the family so we're off!! Happy shopping if you make it in tonight!!

Day 336 - The Bookworm

Miss Berry has an awesome [to me!] meme this Monday, all about books! I just absolutely couldn't resist this one! Let's get to it! And of course since it's me, this is all rambly and long.





1. Are you a bookworm?

I really am. I started reading a few days shy of my 3rd birthday, surprising my parents my reading billboards while on a family vacation. They had no idea I could read! Since then, I have been surrounded by books. My family had a hard time keeping me supplied in books because I would race through everything so quickly and I'll admit, they totally let me read things FAR above my maturity level as a kid. But I don't think that's a bad thing, really.

2. Which do you prefer: hardcover, paperback or electronic?

God, there is NOTHING like cracking open a new hardcover book. But I love paperbacks because I don't have to be as careful with them and I can read in tubs or outside. I held out on getting a Kindle for a longggg time because for me, part of the whole reading experience is the feel of the book in my hand. But I have to admit, it's pretty awesome to be able to tote around my Kindle and have access to my current library...about 560 books! I use my Kindle Paperwhite for most of my reading, since my Kindle Fire is really more for Netflix and games, although I do read on it on occasion, too.

3. Which book is your favorite?

Berry. Really??? LOL! I just don't know what I could possibly choose. I guess I'd have to say Gone With The Wind because it's the one that has a place in my heart as my first real "grown up" book. I read it when I was 9. I totally didn't understand everything in it, and it took me a while, but I did it. Since then, I've re-read it pretty much yearly. I'd have to also say that The Color Purple, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Maggie-Now are jostling for position as second favorite, although really, Maggie-Now is more of a guilty pleasure book.

4. Which children’s book is your favorite?

Oh my goodness. So hard! I think I'd have to pick Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, All Of A Kind Family, and Sideway Stories From Wayside School. But there really are just SO FREAKIN' MANY.

5. What’s the last book you’ve read?

I'm currently reading Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin but it's been slow for me for some reason. I re-read The Girlfriend by Abigail Barnette this past weekend because I was in the mood for a little smut. LOL! Whaaat????

6. Name your top five favorite writers:

Hmmmm. JK Rowling, John Steinbeck, Jen Lancaster, Alice Walker, and.... probably Shakespeare, just because I truly believe he told some wonderful stories, not because I'm trying to be pretentious. *laughs* It's hard to think of your favorite favorites when you love so many books, you know? Whoever I'm reading at the time, that's my favorite.

7. Name a book that had a strong impact on you:

This actually wasn't a book, but a short story in a high school literature book that belonged to my sister and is now in my possession. The story was called Waiting For Her Train and it was about an older woman who was quite ladylike, but didn't have a home, and she learned how to basically survive on her own just taking things day by day.

8. Favorite & least favorite book genres?

I am not a huge fan of science fiction or fantasy. I find it very hard to read for some reason. Some fantasy I can do, such as the Harry Potter books [huge Potterhead here!] because it seems like regular fiction to me even with magic. But I've been attempting to read Game of Thrones and I just can't. Same with all those Anne McCaffery and Robert Jordan novels that a lot of people in my circle go nuts for. I love Young Adult novels, contemporary fiction, historical fiction/romance, biographies, memoirs, comedy, chick lit, etc. But really, anything with a good story and semi-normal named characters can draw me in.

9. Favorite & least favorite book-to-movie adaptions?

I loved the movie adaptation of Memoirs of a Geisha! I thought it was so beautifully done, even though I know people were all "Wah! Geisha are nothing like these fashionistas!" I didn't care, I thought it was awesome. I really loved The Hunger Games and all of the Harry Potter movies as well, although I do think they left out a little much in the HP movies. I thought the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic was wayyyy less fun than the book.

10. Have you ever bought a book based on the cover alone?

Not that I can remember, but I'm sure it's happened. I've picked up a lot of books just because the cover was interesting.

11. Where do you usually buy your books?

Amazon, these days. LOL But I love going to Half Price Books and browsing sometimes, too, because I still buy regular paper books. I like the smell. I have a paperback copy of Beverly Cleary's Fifteen from the early 60s and it smells divine.

12. Do you go to the library?

Definitely not as often as I used to, I'm sorry to say. I used to go all the time, but convenience has trumped everything and it's so much more convenient now for me to just find what I want to read online.

13. If you were to write a book about Second Life, which topic would you focus on?

I always thought it would be fun to write a Second Life based fiction book. I read one [and did a review of it] a couple of years ago and it was pretty silly, but I enjoyed that SL was the main part of the story. I'd love to do a Second Life story like that sometime.

You know...if I ever finish reading the 560 books in my Kindle first.

Day 335 - Every kiss is a cursive line

In my offline life, everyone I meet tells me that just being around me makes them feel better. My bestie is a bundle of anxieties and nerves but tells me that I'm like her own personal Xanax and often, I'm the only one who can calm her down. Last year when my mom was in the hospital overnight, I was trying to sleep when the nurse came in around 3am to check on my mom and she whispered to my mom that my being there just seemed to bring a peace to the room. When I sit in waiting rooms, people sit near me even if there are many chairs available. Even in grocery stores [as I was complaining about on plurk the other day!], people seem to always be in my personal space. It's odd to me, given how dang anxious and crazy I feel more than half the time! But I guess everyone has a gift and if mine is to get people to relax, then that's a pretty cool gift to have.

After rushing around all day, it was awesome to end the day quietly with Aldywn. I don't know how many of you have ever actually met him, but he's a really calming person. In fact, he is - to me - what other people tell me I am to them.





Sometimes I wonder what he'd say about me if he blogged regularly. He used to, way back when I first first met him. And of course he's done a couple of posts in this blog, but they were themed. I'm sure he could tell you all stories about how silly I am, or how much I ramble about nothing sometimes [well, I guess you guys already know I can do that!], or how I will rant about the most NOT serious topics. [For real. Ask me about A-Ha's "Take On Me" video sometime.]

You know...now that I think about it, it's really probably better for ME that he doesn't blog regularly!!

Day 334 - Sunday Yawns

I'm yawning up a storm, so this post will be brief today. Maybe. We'll see how it goes. :)

It was a super busy weekend for me. Lots of things to do and very little sleep was had. Luckily this week should be pretty calm so yay for that.

A long time ago, a friend of mine said that sometimes those of us in SL have issues sleeping because we have our screens set to a bright daylight setting almost constantly and, as silly as it may sound, it screws us up a bit. So on the nights when I really want to get some sleep, for a while before I log off, I'll set it to sunset or even a night setting. Tonight I chose sunset and I stood out on our bedroom balcony for a while to just be quiet and breathe.





Believe it or not, I really did start to get sleepy just staring out at the sunset. But I'm obviously pretty tired anyway because earlier tonight while attempting to take the closet doors off, I unlinked the entire house. I attempted to re-link but it was a lost cause. So I had to delete the house, and hunt down every piece of it that I wasn't able to link and...well, it was a mess. I think I got the new one put back down in the right spot, but I'm sure it's a 10th of a degree off here and there. But it was definitely close enough and we can move furniture if we need to. I locked that sucker down. Forget taking the doors off of things!!

I hope all of you had a fantastic weekend! I'm exhausted beyond belief now so it's definitely time to crawl into bed.

Day 333 - Baby, I still believe in you and me.

Happy Valentine's Day, loves! I spent my day doing good deeds and being loved and having fun!

Tonight most of the family went out to Mingle! Have you done this yet? You really really should if you haven't. It's SO fun! When you arrive, you get a cell phone HUD to wear, and then the fun begins! You have to complete a series of tasks guided by your "text messages" and you NEED at least one other person with you to complete the tasks, but sometimes you need as many as FIVE other people!! We helped people complete tasks and ran around and laughed and laughed and laughed. I wish I could have gotten pictures but unfortunately I was laggy laggy laggy. It really wasn't the fault of the place, it was, again, my craptastic computer. It is a family friendly area, but some of the tasks are not really well suited for the kids. That's kind of what made it funnier, to be honest. We had poor Abby and Payton getting tattoos and going through a Tunnel of Love together! But it is family friendly enough and we ran into several kids out there.

The BEST part about Mingle? After you complete the very last task, you are teleported up to an area with PRIZES. Really amazing, fantastic prizes!! We were SO excited!! I got one of everything without even letting the vendors rez fully because I just loved all the stores participating! Mingle lasts until the 28th so you all really do need to check it out.

After we said goodnight to the Oleanders, and after Abby was put to bed, I got some time to just sit with my own SL valentine and chat.




[Excuse our bedroom, I haven't really had a chance to decorate yet so it looks pretty plain.]

No matter what happens in my SLife, he is my one constant, my rock. It's still amazing to me that after so many years, he's still willing to let me do what I want and he joins me with, if not enthusiasm, then at least an open mind. We're both really happy right now. We love our family, we love being SL parents to the best kid on the grid, and we love each other.

You kinda can't ask for more than that, huh? :)

Day 332 - Gotta Make A Mess First!

Earlier tonight I left Abby in her room to start putting it together while I worked on a post for the style blog. Like most kids, though, she got pretty distracted! [Well, both of us are easily distracted by stuff, so it's not just a kid thing.] So when I was finished with my post, she asked if I could pretty please help her because I had done so well with her last room. Awwww. :)

Of course, to get started decorating, you have to make a mess.




In the family community, it's more common for the kid to do their own room in their homes, from my understanding. At least, when Abby came to live with us, she said she'd always had to do her own rooms before and it made her feel good to have one done for her with the big stuff so she could just add her own personal touches. And I certainly don't mind doing it because I love decorating for kids! It's different than decorating an adult's room even though I'm actually using a lot of the same things I'd use elsewhere in the house. Some things I just scale down to make more kid friendly, or I just combine it with something else or tint it a different color and suddenly it's for a kid!

I worked on her room pretty much all the rest of the night, even though she went to sleep. It's not finished, but I'll let her decide what she wants to keep in there or move around or whatever. Then of course she'll add her things to it, too. I really am loving this house and how easy it is to make it cute. Thank God so many furniture makers do little cluttery decor stuff, and oh my gosh, thank God that Aldwyn has always been so willing to hit up The Arcade for me because so many little decor things are finally being used!!

My eyes are totally glazing over and my computer is dying for a rest, so it's off to bed for me.

Day 331 - That was unexpected.

I've spent a great deal of the day decorating our new home. Slowly but surely, it's coming together. More slowly than I'd like, but well, my computer has limitations. *laughs* If I work with mesh items too much, eventually I get the dreaded "Textures discarded" message. If I'm lucky, I can quit what I'm doing and log out before I crash. But once in a while, I just up and crash. And then it takes almost 10 minutes for my computer to unfreeze fully and blah blah. If you have a crappy computer, you know the drill. I truly want a new one, but it's not in the budget right now, so I'll just make do with what I have. I am blessed that I have a computer that can still do almost everything I want, even if I do crash and freeze up sometimes.

After one of my crashes, I decided to just hang out on the front porch while I went AFK. Just innocently sitting on my own front porch.




When I came back, I came back to an IM.

Random Guy: Bonsoir.
Random Guy: Hello.
Me: Hello :)
Random Guy: how are you?
Me: Good. And yourself?
Random Guy: you were alone i have not dared to disturb.
Me: oh, yeah. lol sorry, i was afk.
Random Guy: no problem I'm a vampire and search for soul in limbo.
Me: oh. yeah, my soul is good.
Random Vampire: yes never been bitten very good soul I am not of savage attack I always ask before :)


Really? What is this life? How does Bloodlines even still exist? The guy was new, just about a month old, and I REALLY wish I had not been afk when he showed up because I would have loved to have seen his avatar.

At least I know my soul is good. So there's that.

Day 330 - A New Home!

New house! New house! We went out tonight and picked up our new house! I'm more than a little overly excited about this. :) But looooook. It's so pretty!




It's from Roost and it's the first time I've had a house where I asked other people first before using it. Honestly! Aldwyn and I have lived in probably a dozen different houses in the almost 2 and a half years we've been married and not once have I asked him what he thought before picking up the old house and plopping a new one down. He's never seemed to mind, though, and would probably be just as happy with me if we just lived on a platform. And while we had a different house when we met Abby, she's only ever lived with us in the old house. So while that house had many good memories, I'm still me, and oh man, was I ready for a change.

While this house is spacious, it's not as OPEN as some of our previous homes have been, and I like that a lot because it means I can clutter it up in the way that I like and make it cozy for us.

We worked a bit around the pond area today, too. Abby asked me if we could make the pond more enchanted, and of course I said yes! She went and bought herself a tree house [well, it's more of a look out since it doesn't actually go in a tree] and she wants to put it near the pond so we need to find just the right spot for that. But we have some butterflies and fairy lights out there now, and I'm going to add some more flowers and other things. My little nature girl loves to be outside so I want to make it as awesome as I can for her!

But I'm exhausted now, and freezing cold, so it's time to crawl into bed and sleep!

Day 329 - Back Together!

End of camp! End of camp! Starting around 4pm, people started asking in the parents' group, "WHEN CAN WE GET OUR KIDS?!" But they had a long long talent show, and awards to give out, and ugh! It seemed like camp would never end!

To distract myself, I hopped over to Ulaa's new home to look around. It's very cute so far, but it was missing one thing... A picture of me!!





She came home just as I was hanging up my picture. I tried to run, but she caught me anyway.

Then it was after 7 and camp STILL wasn't over when I went on a ninja mission and broke Abby out. I needed my little one back!!





[And sorry, that's a crappy picture. It was a screencap.]

[Also, it wasn't so much of a ninja mission as it was me teleporting her home since she'd packed all of her things. But ninja mission sounds way better.]

She was so happy to be home and I was so happy to have her home! Of course, within 5 minutes of her being home, I dunked her in the pond, but well, the kids don't really shower much at camp.

We spent the rest of the night hanging out with Ulaa, and Aldwyn came home a little while before Abby had to go to bed, so he got to see her, too.

My little family is back together and I could not be happier. And soon we'll have a family night with the Oleanders, and Abby wants to have a sleepover with her new camp friends, and we'll be getting our new house soon so there will be lots to decorate and landscape around. My SLife is so busy and full. I am in love with it!

Day 328 - To The Top!

Every so often, I get the urge to do some "big" landscaping on our parcel. I use quotes around the word big because my BIG landscaping is rarely that big. I suck at terraforming and mostly I throw out a lot of trees and call it a day.

But I was looking around on marketplace the other day and I saw a big mesh hill with a path and a bridge. I loved it! I thought "Oh my god, I want that and the bridge can go across the pond! It'll be perfect!" So I took Aldwyn out to see it and immediately he told me that the bridge on the hill would not be long enough to cross the pond. I'm really really bad at sizes and usually think things are a lot bigger than they are. [Which has kind of served me well in my social life, but let's not talk about that.]

The more I kept looking at the mesh hill, the more I thought, "But you know? I can just terraform that." Years ago, we had a haunted house up on a hill and I terraformed a path up to the house. I figured I could do it again.

I spent most of last night working and working on the land. It wasn't particularly easy because, again, I suck at terraforming. But I did it! And then I went to the other side of the pond and made another hill that was flat on top because I wanted to put something there. The big problem was finding a bridge that was big enough and not in 2389 pieces like so many of them are. I needed one that was 43 meters across! Luckily for me, I FINALLY found one that was 44 meters long! PERFECT!!

I am so so so in love with what's going on now.




The parcel isn't done. Not by a long shot. And soon we'll be getting our new house so more terraforming and landscaping will need to happen. But for now I'm happy.

I'm off to get ready to head out to dinner and shopping. Tonight when I get home, I'm making a path from Ulaa's new house to our parcel. She put a bridge down to connect our parcels, but a path must be laid so it's not a bridge to nowhere. And tomorrow? Abby comes home! This is a great weekend! ♥

Day 327 - Spring Comes There, Too.

You guys might remember that after our friend Renee passed away, I decided that it wouldn't be right to rent out her parcel again, and so we made it into a memorial garden for her. Throughout the year, I changed the trees, the flowers, etc, for the seasons.

It was time for spring to come there, too.




Okay, I just tried to ride my bike back to the house and I got lost in our trees. I REALLY need to landscape better.

Or...you know...not be direction-impaired. *laughs*

Day 326 - Parents' Night!

Tonight was Parents' Night at Camp Hardknock!! Oh, it was so good to see my girl again! And we were lucky that Aldwyn was able to join us, too! He doesn't always get to join us for anything that's earlier in the evening because of his schedule, but he definitely wanted to be there to see Abby and have fun.

It was SUPER laggy for me, so my sister Lolita was nice enough to take pictures and make some gifs for us!







After Abby had a sweet dedication read to us and one of "our" songs played, she wanted to show us around camp. We got to see her cabin, meet some of her cabinmates and other camp friends, and she even took us down into the super secret room at camp. We had to walk a long long way to get there, and take flashlights, too! It's so secret, I couldn't even take pictures!

We also went sledding and oh my GOSH, I wish I had gotten more than one little screencap because it was hysterical! I had tears streaming down my face from laughing so hard! We chose the family sit on the sled and we didn't know we were supposed to jump off when we got to a certain point. Abby did, but we just kept on sliding! Eventually, Aldwyn and I crashed into a wall and Abby ran to find us. I got up but he didn't, and then the sled just kept on going! It was trying to get back to the starting point! Aldwyn got stuck in a crevice and I ran to push him out. And oh yes, HE got out, but when I ran to push, I fell down and Abby tumbled after me and we got stuck in a rock! She managed to teleport us back to the starting point and who should we see coming over the hill in the crazy possessed sled? Aldwyn! OMG, I couldn't stop laughing! It was awesome!

But just as we somehow all made it back to the start, the sim crashed. It was okay, though, because they were sending all the parents home anyway and the kids were getting ready for tuck in. So we had a few minutes to say goodbye to Abby, and then we headed on home.

I think it was really awesome that we got to hang out together, and I think it'll be enough to get us through the next few days. She only has 3 more full days at camp, and then she'll be home!

After we got home, we headed to a landscaping store because I'm determined to do more landscaping than just having 42380 trees around. But ol' Daddy Z was exhausted from his wild sled ride, so he went to bed in the middle of our browsing. I can't really do anything until we get our new house, anyway, so there's still a lot more stuff to look at.

I hope everyone had as nice of a day as I did!

Day 325 - On The Moooooove!

So you may remember that a bit ago, Abby decided that the cows were very cold out in the snow and she needed to get them inside. Since the snow has melted and it's warmed up outside, and since we really needed to be able to use our bathroom again, I decided to get the cows out of the house.

The little cow was easy to pull out, but the mama cow... That was some WORK.




I really miss Abby this week. Oh, we've been chatting and there have been letters and care packages, but it's not the same. :( Luckily, tomorrow is Parents' Day!! There is a dance and everything, so I need to find a dress to wear. I think I already know which one I'm wearing, but I have to try a few on. I'm just so excited to see my little one again! Part of me thinks maybe we weren't ready to leave our bubble yet. *laughs*

Day 324 - Much Too Much

I haven't done one of Berry's Monday Memes in a while because... well, because I get lazy. :) But the meme today was to do a black and white photo, and I couldn't pass that up.




I love black and white photos. Black and white movies, too, actually. But I don't take a lot of black and white photos in SL because people like to see the colors of things, especially in fashion blogging. I could do it more here in this blog, but I'm also lazy and sometimes it can be harder to make a B&W photo look decent. Unless you're just hitting the B&W photoshop option and leaving it alone. Then it's a piece of cake!

Of course, I didn't do that, and maybe I should have. I think I might have gone too far.

I really need a new monitor. Well, actually, I NEED a whole new computer. But my monitor seems to make things darker to me than what they actually are. So for a lot of photos, I'll do them and then when I look at them on my phone or Kindle, it's like....oh. Hey, brightness. LOL!

I'm having a Doritos craving, so I think it's off to the store for me!

Day 323 - Just A Little Free Shopping!

Can you keep a secret? Sometimes I sneak over to the Oleanders' house and do some grocery shopping. They never seem to notice. I mean, look. They weren't even going to be home for a week and my sister left out a whole cake!! That cake couldn't POSSIBLY be good in a week!




As I was filling my shopping cart, I was looking for Takeo's Twinkie stash. Usually he has Twinkies in the kitchen, but I looked all over and there were NO Twinkies!! Ohhh, he thought he'd be HIDE them from me?! How rude.

I searched high and low and finally... FINALLY... I found them.




I told the cat to look the other way.

So I'm quite lucky that my sister is a lot better at grocery shopping than I am. Once we get our new house, I'll have to try to remember to keep the kitchen stocked. After all, I have a child to feed and we don't really know anyone who is getting married so we can make a plate at the reception to bring home.

But remember, all this is between you and me!

Day 322 - And you let her go...

Camp day! Unfortunately, Aldwyn has a cold and I sure didn't want him to give Abby germs before camp, so we were on our own. Abby and I loaded up the car with all of her camp necessities, and like her momma, she's NOT a light packer! But we got everything to fit and had time for hugs and mushy stuff before we headed to camp.




I wasn't able to get any photos once we got to the camp entrance because with all the kids and the families that were there to say goodbye, it was super hectic and, of course, very laggy! Ms. Jill and some of the other counselors were there to make the welcome to camp very special and as easy as possible for our little campers. In fact, just as Abby was about to go through the doors, I crashed! Luckily we had gotten to say goodbye about 50 times, so it was okay, and I don't think I would have liked to see her disappear through the doors anyway.

I think that was the thing I wasn't expecting...to be sad. Abby told me a while back that camp can be very emotional for those who go because it is a week of lots of roleplay, and to be a kid in SL can sometimes leave you quite vulnerable. But I didn't realize that it would be emotional for the parents, too! I was chatting on plurk and some of the other parents feel down like I do. We will talk to them while they're at camp, through IMs and plurk and whatever other communication things we use. But it's not the same as having them home and that is just....really unexpected to me! I didn't expect to feel this way.

So after I left my little camper, I came home and went to her room to keep her cats company.




That's one thing you can always count on - Cats ain't got time for sad.

I keep hearing rumbles from the Grand Bluebonnet Mountains. I have a feeling they're sinking back into the ground tonight. The snow seems to be melting and spring will be here soon.