October 04, 2007

A little bit more than expected

Okay, so I ended up taking an extra weekend out for Faire. These things happen. The bad thing - I missed the hubby's birfcake (which he prefers actually, but I wanted to give him a little of the same torture I tend to get on mine), the good thing - getting to sit and soak in the extra goodness that is Faire.

But there's more...

The first half of the trip was down South, of course, where I got to do the giant going away party for the Tornado. Huge event, as usual, and with only minimal planning. In fact, it was pretty much a pot luck event, more or less, and the only real work I had to help out with was some of the pre packing packing. I ended up getting so loaded that I was passing out, so I just grabbed a blanket and found some place to crash around midnite-ish. I think. I was too fuctup to really know what the time was. Which was the plan, actually.

After that there was a quick family trip in, which was quite nice, but nothing really remarkable to write about. I only managed the one day, since everything got all crammed into such a small time, but I'm glad I got the one day at least.

Then I made the huge mistake of not getting a flight up North. For some idiotic reason I was under the impression that Greyhounding up would be a good idea. It wasn't. I ended up getting stranded in LA due to their horrible incompetence and the hubby had to get me a flight out of the Bob Hope airport up to San Jose. Should have just gone and done that in the first place, but I'm stupid. We won't be making that mistake ever again. Greyhound can go fuck themselves.

Nevermind that noise though. Faire was a blast. Camping out next to the crew, waking up and crawling out of the Winnebago every morning to say good morning to trees and hills and the whole Faire experience. So awesome. I could see living there for a couple months doing the Faire thing. Met a few new and tremendously cool people, got to drink and smoke myself silly, and had the fun, but frustrating experience of being among quite a good many woofy men. Gotsta love the vice action.

Of course it couldn't be that simple though. The first weekend, which was supposed to be the only one, got rained out on Saturday. It was a bit of a bummer at first, but then all the Faire folk, about half of whom had gotten into costume before the rain killed it, decided to do what comes naturally. Drinking, carousing, running amok. Some of those poor people started drinking hard quite a bit earlier than they usually do and some ended up regretting it a bit when Faire opened on Sunday. Me, I'm just glad I didn't have to work.

So by the time Wednesday rolls around, Lazlo decides to say exactly what was on my mind - why not stay for another weekend? That was the straw, actually, cuz I was at that point right at the balance between stay or go. So a second weekend just had to happen, which means more drinking, smoking, carousing, running amok, and all that good stuff. Hell, even worked a couple hours at Cannonade. Now that's a complete Faire experience.

But that's all done with, I'm home now. I have yet to actually decide whether or not I want to jump ship from Southern to Northern for my Faire needs. Irwindale is just taking way too long to make Faire into what it was meant to be, and I just don't have the patience for it when what I want is just a couple months later and higher up the coast. Really, the only thing that keeps me hanging on to Southern Faire so tightly is being able to visit family and friends in Rialto while I do it. That is something I don't want to lose.

Filed under "Places other than Texas" by damyano at 02:01 AM | Comments (0)

September 12, 2007

Happy landing

And now being officially at the Tornado's joint in riverside. Not on my machine though, because I didn't feel like dragging it along with me this time. The ebox will be full and blocked by the time I get home, it always happens. It's only a two week trek, and that's a small amount of space to pack a lot of chaos into. It's roughly 8 and it's nearly time to...

Have naptime. At least it feels that way. I just can't see crashing so early though, because that would be sad. It's amazing how these machines can keep me awake an extra two or three hours.

Filed under "Places other than Texas" by damyano at 09:59 PM | Comments (0)

May 24, 2007

It just gets gayer

It's a commercial break for the Shear Genius reunion ep, so I figured I'd try and fill the dreadful gap here.

Got back from the Tornado's joint a little bit back after a marathon model build on her final project. I got to play Sims with balsa wood and superglue - wheee!

It was all about the curse of the glue. Because you know what every glue in the universe is keyed to stick to, right? Things to your fingers, not each other. I don't know who told her that superglue was the adhesive of choice with balsa wood, but I'm nearly certain that it was some sort of prank. It says right on the bottle that it works best on nonporous surfaces. And we all know how nonporous balsa wood is. I am so glad that I got off the superglue team quick.

This all started a couple weeks ago for me, but she's had 12 of 'em to get this thing built. Well, her and her team. Now when she called me in to help her out on it I knew that she was serious about this project. Cuz when she and I get together to get something done, that shit gets done up right. After failing the initial glue test I ended up doing fabrication mainly - cutting little planks to size, marking up beams for stud placement, that sort of thing. But the thing was due today, so I had to help her get on it starting Monday.

We started at the craft store so she could get the last round of supplies. She needed a landscape kit so there would be a nice lawn with trees. We had to get carpet and something to look like padding for the cutaway, and the whole thing needed flooring because we ended up glueing the thing down to the floorplan (which we didn't want showing), and she wanted to have the cut away foam board for a foundation anyway. She needed paint for that foam to make it look like cement, plus some gravel for the driveway. Basically, she went nuts in the craft store.

Then construction, fabrication, staying up til nearly sunrise making and fitting all sorts of last minute pieces. The first night was mostly her and her SO getting the roof made. There's this annoying little chunk of drama regarding the roof and it having to be made at the last minute, but it's not worth blogging. Yesterday's construction was the better part of it. Lots of fitting pieces of carpet into the rooms by shaving off little bits at a time. I even was up at noon today and right on it with her getting the lawn in shape before we had to do the exchange at her school and she could turn it in.

I'll tell you what - I don't believe I'll be constructing any dollhouses out of craft crap in my life. That was pretty damn grueling work for a marathon build. I told her that it was so hot all the other models would be trying to hump it in the classroom, and it was too. And her grade? 100 baby! You had to know it.

Filed under "Places other than Texas" by damyano at 12:14 AM | Comments (0)

April 10, 2007

Family stuff, but not bitching

Okay, so this requires a little setup. My niece is hyperactive and quite a handful. Her father is no longer with her mother, who is my sister. Instead, she and my sister have been living in the crowded insanity of my mom's house for most of her life. My sister just recently moved. That's your setup. I may have told you this already, but today I got more of the story, so click on if you're interested.

See, the situation of my niece living in the house of crowdage wasn't good because she needed attention, and she wasn't getting the right brand of it there. I'm not saying it's a bad environment, but it wasn't one that was working for her. So when I found out that her mom had moved without her, and that she would be living with her father,that sort of set up a conundrum. It was great that she was getting out of a situation that wasn't working for her, and her dad treated her like a princess (long story short with that description, you'll see) so for the short term this was a good thing. Only he's a dumbass, so this is not good long term.

The hubby wasn't at all happy about this when I told him, but it's out of our control and not our life, so we just sit back and watch as things develop. But whenever the subject would come up he would just bemoan how hard things would be for her and how it hurt him to know she wasn't doing well. I just take it in stride, because I know and understand from personal experience how the notion of family in this modern era is nowhere near what it was when he was young. Dysfunction is a given now. Instead, I just try to be nice. So I made up a couple of cute Easter purses to bring with me on my trip out. (I have a niece from each of my sister, BTW. This is only tangentially important.)

Now of course I have to make a call out to the fam to let them know I'm flying into town. I talk to my other sister, the usual chatty-chatty shit, and finally get around to asking her how often said niece comes around for a visit. It turns out that it's never. Not because her father is being a shit or anything, but that she's moved out of state to be with her mother. Well now, isn't that an interesting turn of events? This means I have to break into the box I was sending to Cali and take her version of the Easter purse out so I can send it separate to South Carolina. No address though, and like a bad little procrastinator I didn't call to get it until the day of my flight out. We'll skip the mildly amusing middle part of the story (except I must relate that my nephew - being the niece in question's older half-brother - sounds like a full on bubba now - it's hilarious!) and cut to my sister calling me while we're driving to the airport. It turns out that she loves it out there. Loves her job, loves her house, loves the area - just perfectly pleased to be where she is. Wonderful. I'm ecstatic. But still nothing about the niece situation. (Although it's not like I can have a lengthy conversation while I'm driving.)

Cut to me, at my mom's house, earlier this day. I'm telling her bits and pieces of the above, and she fills me in on the finer details. It turns out that the only reason my niece stayed back in Cali with her daddy is because he put a guilt trip on her about how he would be all alone if she left. The situation she ended up in with him was as bad as - no in fact it was most certainly worse than where she was before. And now he's being all pissy about the fact that she doesn't call him (he can't call her, cuz he has no long distance) when all he ever does when they do talk is put more guilt bullshit on her. Damn! The girl ain't even in her teens yet. So fuck that guy.

It turns out that she's doing well now with her mother. She's getting good grades in school. She's getting attention and dogs to play with. I have a feeling if she can get past some of the troubling inconveniences of her childhood she might find some of those inconveniences amusing in the long run. In any case, I'm just glad to hear that she is happy.

Filed under "Places other than Texas" by damyano at 03:54 AM | Comments (0)

March 30, 2007

Hurtling through open space in a big metal tube

Tomorrow is travel day. I hate flying. As soon as I get done goofing off online tonight I have to pack up this machine and cram it in one of my roll bags. I hate flying. Tomorrow night will apparently be a whirlwind of drinking, random driving and potential bear encounters. I hate flying. Two months of random activities, bits of gamage, talking in a bad accent at strange people, and more smoke than I'll know what to do with (though I can come up with a few ideas...).

I hate flying.

Filed under "Places other than Texas" by damyano at 11:55 PM | Comments (1)

March 24, 2007

Weather of DOOM

The hubby comes home yesterday and lets me know that we're under a tornado watch. Gee, big surprise that I get a little tense about this. Now a tornado watch only means that the conditions appropriate to forming a tornado are happening, not that a tornado has actually happened or anything - hardly something to get alarmed about, now is it?

The stupid Weather Channel needs to be punished. Somehow they've decided that they need to be a weather oriented entertainment source instead of actually showing me what the fucking weather looks like right now. See, they have this Local on the 8's thing that shows you a map with the last 3 hours of radar weather on it, only if they're showing one of their amazing entertainment programs, the locals are entirely optional. They're always playing one of these fucking shows when there is death weather going on.

Cut to this morning, when the hubby wakes me up on the phone to let me know that Clovis was hit by a tornado. Yeah, that's a little bit close to home. We're going into Clovis today (the part nowhere near the destruction) to do some last minute shopping before I plane out to Cali, so knowing that the smiting funnel of doom was that close is just a tad unnerving. The wet weather is nice and all, but I don't think our crop is going to net us much if it's been sucked away to Oz.

Filed under "Places other than Texas" by damyano at 01:18 PM | Comments (0)