Precious and Fragile Things

That's a genuine smile and not one of his "smile for the camera" fakes. He was trying to dodge the camera and giggling while he told me not to take his picture. Unfortunately for the kiddo, his mother is pretty quick with the clicking. :)

Taken today at the Emerald Mines where Sam's dad's band did an hour-long gig.

So, despite feeling a little tired, I decided to hang out in Vent and WoW for Steadfast's Altruistic Pursuit trivia night. Being that I'm new and haven't even dared to try a dungeon let alone raiding, I didn't answer a single question, but I did happen to learn a few things.

Anyway, the rules of Altruistic Pursuit are that if you win a prize, you have to give that prize to a fellow guild member. Again, being that I'm new, I wasn't expecting anything.

One of the people I've role-played with, Skyspear, won first prize, a Sandbox Tiger, which summons a special Spectral Tiger mount. He tried to give it to Solivar, but it turns out guardians cannot receive the prize, so then he gave it to me for the fun we've had role-playing so far.

And then, as if that wasn't enough, another guildie and occasional role-player, Highwynn, gave his prize of 2500 gold to me as well. Because noobs are poor like whoa. :(

I thanked both of them as well as I could since I was kind of in shock and feeling speechless. Because I was so excited, I stayed up long enough to head to Booty Bay to retrieve my prize and then I just had to take a screenshot of Folami playing with her new toy (which I can only summon 49 more times). Folami even has an appropriate hat for the occasion.



"Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Okay, I had to share this bit of awesome (hehe, pun!) from one of the quests in WoW. In the quest Welcome to the Machine, you hand out three quests on behalf of High Executor Darthalia. It's an easy quest in that all I had to do was sit on her skeletal horse mount and wait for the quest seekers to come to me. The first two were pretty humorous and reminded me of some encounters with other players. But the third one, I laughed so loud the kiddo rushed in to see what was wrong with me. I took a screenshot.

( Cut for size. )

Okay enough playing for now. Gotta go get the boyfriend.

For once a non-cringe-worthy post about Pocket D. I spotted this awesome profile while rp'ing with Sam in the Winter Chalet.

Courtesy of professorwinter, I now know the origin of the WAT gif. This has not made the gif any less magical, and the clip is hilarious. Good old fashioned stupid humor.



What a guy!

December 6, 2010

Today is a snow day for all the schools in our county, and not ten minutes ago, I got another phone call informing me tomorrow will be another snow day. This is an area that's prepared for winter weather, but the problem is that the snow simply hasn't stopped, and when most of the residents (like us) live on windy, narrow mountain roads, it's rather dangerous to attempt going anywhere and nigh impossible to clear certain roadways. If the snow had let up any instead of steadily falling all day long, I suspect we'd be having school tomorrow.

In order to alleviate some cabin fever, we went outside to take some pictures and check out the scenery. Sam also tried to take out the trash to put in the back of my truck for disposal, except he couldn't open my tail gate because it was frozen shut. And let me just say now, Sam is rather strong, so that door is just stuck.

As far as driving anywhere, well, we went shopping yesterday evening to pick up some food because we kind of had an inkling today would be a bit rough. When we got back home, I had to shift into four-wheel drive to park my car in the usual spot. Welcome to life in the Appalachain Mountains.


This is why I'm glad I kept Dad's truck. Without four-wheel drive, I couldn't have made it up my driveway last night.

Even so, this hasn't made me love North Carolina any less. I can tolerate the cold and the snow because this seems like a fine Spring Day compared to how cold it got in Maine during the winter.

Anyway, enjoy some more pictures. ( Kiddo, Sasha, and goats under the cut. )

Oh, Chrome, you so silly. Suggesting I do a google search to find google search. No, really. I have proof.

( BIG image under the cut, sorry! )

For nearly a decade now I've been collecting Buddha statues here and there. I'm not Buddhist, but there's just some sort of spiritual attraction to Buddha and the different aspects of him depicted in statues and figurines. There's just something inside of me that feels calmed by focusing on an image of a meditating Buddha. I can't really explain it. I liken it to the way my grandmother collected owl figurines or my aunt's obsession with collecting roosters (don't ask -- I think it's a University of South Carolina thing), except there is definitely a more spiritual connection for my "collection."

I mention this because Deec, my friend of many years, called me yesterday to verify my new address and told me he had a housewarming gift for me. (He's thrilled I'm out of Barnwell since he grew up there too and knows what it's like for people like us.) Well, I forgot Deec works at a FedEx/Kinko's so my package got here in under 24 hours. And this is what was in it:


My new Buddha statue (with some incense burning in front of it).

I'm hoping to set up a permanent altar soon (I need to hit the thrift stores to look for some new furniture stuff) and I think this Buddha will have a home there simply because the present meant a lot to me and it touched me that he remembered this one little thing about me.

( A picture of the rest of my Buddhas under the cut. )

The kiddo is attending his first day of first grade in a new school. I'm, of course, feeling anxious and hoping he adjusts to a new place relatively quickly. Not sure when I'll meet his new speech therapist -- hopefully within the next couple of weeks. I did meet his teacher this morning and she seemed very nice and a couple of his classmates did too.

Anyway, to distract myself, I spent a little bit of time outside with the camera this morning. As usual, there's fog rolling through and it reminds me of why some of this area is known as the Great Smoky Mountains. We've only been here since Saturday and I still have a lot of work to do on the house in addition to finding a job, but in all honesty, I've never felt more at ease in a new place than I do here. And if nothing else, the view here is worth it.

From my front yard this morning:



( Four more under the cut, including goats, and a baby cow! )

( No, really, they are! (Several pictures under the cut.) )

In case you didn't click on the links, I signed a lease yesterday on a house in the middle of 81 acres of farm land (beef cattle and goats). I'm right there in the mountains, and I honestly can't believe property so beautiful is available for me to rent at such a low, low price. The house needs a little work in the form of a fresh coat of paint, but I'll have plenty of space. The cats will get their own room (which will also be my computer/work room, but most of it will be theirs). The kiddo gets a room that's bigger than the one he has now, and the living room is bigger than the one I have now. The kitchen is small, but there's loads of pantry and cupboard space, so I can make it work. Oh, and my water? Free natural mountain spring water that's gravity fed from higher up some point on the mountain.

Even though I'm in the middle of nowhere, I'll have cable internet (no more dial-up!) and either cable TV or satellite (I haven't decided yet), and while my landlords are literally a few yards over, the wife of the pair is super friendly and very easy to talk to. That's a definite bonus for me. I have another neighbor (whose house you can see from the front yard), a retired gentleman who has been renting from the same landlords for a few years now. The dishwasher doesn't work, but I might be able to work some sort of deal out with them after I get settled in for a new one. That, and it's not like I've had a working dishwasher in the last few years.

Best of all, it's so quiet and peaceful, and did I mention cheap?

If I can find a job relatively soon, I won't have to stress over getting my house in order to sell. I can let them sit a bit longer and even do small repairs to the one I'm selling first. Of course, there's still my taxes on the places that have gone up considerably. Ugh, but I'm gong to tackle the hard parts first.

I'm heading back to SC to start getting some of the house in order over the weekend. I'll have to register the kiddo for school next week up here, and it looks like they start even earlier than SC, which means he might have to miss the first couple of days of school. I hate that, but I really can't move any faster. I'm going to rent a UHaul trailer (Oh man am I ever glad I kept Dad's truck) so we can move the major furniture next week. Sam's coming down Monday and Tuesday to try and get it done.

It's going to be a stressful first month, but things are looking up.

Okay, and in a bit I'll post a bit about what we did today. There was a craft show being held locally and Sam's mom went to sell her pottery. They had some amazing local talent putting on music and loads of amazing craftsmen and artists. This place is so different and amazing compared to what I'm used to.