Taking the long way home...
Post fail for March. -_-; So... catch-up time again. My life has pretty much been revolving around the horse lately. Not that this is a bad thing! I feel like I've been rewinding my life a bit. The last ten years have been rather steady, but I guess some upheaval was eventually going to be inevitable. =P Moving last year made for a big change. Now I've moved Mr. Bob too. He'd been at the Abington Farm for around ten years; half his life. I took the job at CRO a little over eight years ago, just so that I'd at least be working near him. Well, I had some time off in February that I spent searching for someplace that would be closer to the new house, and found something! And it's only three and a half miles down the road! The owner was a large-animal vet; not practicing atm though because she's just had her third baby and is home-schooling her other two kids. So, I took some time off in March to move him and all his stuff there (OMG all his stuff -_-;) It is partially self-care though, so I do need to be out there every day. I thought it would be difficult, but I feel like I'm falling back into that old pattern of farm-work quickly. And I love it. =)
There is a possibility I'll be moving my job (maybe by July) as well. One of the staff at the LIN branch is retiring, and I let HR know that having my commute cut down to a third of what it is now would be something I'm interested in (understatement.) I had let them know last May when I found out where I'd be moving to that I'd like something further north if the opportunity arose, and LIN is *the* closest location to me now. Of course, this doesn't mean they've said yes, or said anything other than that they've noted my request, so I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch and all. But I'm hopeful. It is nice that I've heard nothing but supporting and encouraging comments from the other staff there at LIN. I do have some mixed emotions, since I so love the beautiful building at CRO. I watched it being built, and was part of moving everything into it and setting it up. I have been here for quite a while now and many of my coworkers here and even some of the patrons, are dear to me. I have watched some of the children here grow up, and a few patrons I've known since before I started working there. -_-; I guess it is a good time for changes though. As it is, I left all of my personal stuff from my desk packed up, and took it all home after we had the flood in the back room. My desk is all cluttered back up with work stuff right now, but all the personality is gone. It just seemed counter-productive to re-decorate my cubicle if I was going to be packing it all up again soon anyway. It's sad though. At least almost all the electronics ended up surviving the water damage, which is good, and most everything is back to normal (there are still the cosmetic repairs to be done, but it could be a long time before they get around to that.)
Anyway, here is some pic-spam of the new barn, with lots of commentary (so I don't end up writing a book about it yet.): http://www.flickr.com/photos/37969581@N00/sets/72157616406828340/detail/
My fav pic so far:
I have also fallen head-over-heels into a new fandom for a manga. Okay, new for me. It has been around for 30 years, so it's like saying I just discovered this thing call "Star Wars" or something, but I'll do another post on that later for thems that don't mind. lol
Still addicted to Dragon Cave (though had a bit of a break from that while it was having server issues) but I love the community I found for it on IJ. Scroll: http://dragcave.net/user/Destertale
On the social side of things, Romandave and I got together with Firesongkvala, Kristy, Druidman, Dragonfancy and Flowithego back in February for a belated Holiday get-together. It was a really nice evening at The Melting Pot http://www.meltingpot.com/ that was dampened slightly only because poor Kristy wasn't feeling great that weekend. =( It did also mark two years now since the kidney transplant, and it makes me almost giddy sometimes that both Firesong and I are still doing fine. ^_^ I love seeing him and Kristy together, they are adorable (though he will probably grump at me for saying so! =P) and he got a surprise visit from her again last night for his birthday (she flew in from Georgia without telling him this time.) Druidman, Dragonfancy, Shoggoth1, Flowithego, Romandave and I took Firesongkvala out to Lonestar http://www.lonestarsteakhouse.com/files/home.aspx to be a distraction while his sister and brother-in-law went to the airport to pick her up (her plane didn't get in until 11, so we had to kill some time. lol) It was totally worth it for the look on his face. ^_^
Gaming has suffered a little from having to take care of Bob now, but I'm trying to squeeze it in when I can. I'm still running a 4th Edition D&D game every other Saturday for Romandave, Dkanna, Blu_harvest, Gootc_me, Wingedferret and Dorian. The Friday group kinda tanked since our GM for that game has a new baby, but another 4th Ed D&D game has been set up by Sterling (and Jas is back from his back surgery, Yay!) so I'm trying to make it to those when I can. I miss my Half-Elf Ranger, but since I picked up the Player's Handbook 2, I've rolled up a Goliath Warden for this game. Unfortunately, even with both games only being every-other week, I'm only going to be making it to one of each this month. /sigh
Romandave and I also finally got to meet another WoW guildy in person last month. =) Cleo *finally* flew over from Montana to visit Dkanna, so most of the Saturday gaming group (plus some people from Blu_harvest's other gaming group) got to hang out with him one evening at DuClaw http://www.duclaw.com/ and then we all went to go see the opening night of Watchmen together. For the record, I loved the movie, but I was a fan of the comic already, and I think that makes a huge difference. The evening was slightly dampened because *I* wasn't feeling good, but it was still a very enjoyable evening. I'm hoping we can convince him to come back some time, maybe for longer even. There are so many things to do and see in Maryland. =) At least he got to see the ocean while he was here since they went down to Ocean City with her parents so he could get to meet them too.
The other big event last month was Orangerful and Jimithingy's Dr. Horrible Sing-Along party. We watched the DVD http://www.drhorrible.com/ and sang along with various "audience participation". lolz There was also a lot of other general geeking out and nerdiness that can only accompany such a group.
Pictures from Orangerful:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/orangerful/sets/72157615773628130/detail/
And more from Cheshire_c:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cheshire_c/tags/drhorrible/
Some of the YouTube videos we were watching and cracking up over (this started because Orangerful said she'd never heard the song "Dick In A Box" and it went down-hill from there.) These are so very not Work-safe btw, you have been warned!
Dick In A Box:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgXvR97Wk6g
Jizz In My Pants:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pXfHLUlZf4&feature=related
I'm On A Boat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yfISlGLNU&feature=channel
This one was courtesy of Blu_harvest, and I love him for it, not just because the guy is adorkable, but I'm seriously considering the benefits of ASL both as dance-moves and as a fantastic way to communicate in a club instead of trying to yell over the music. Hhmmmm....
Womanizer in Sign Language:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BGfO693pME
We also went through Orangerful's super-fun DVD collection and watched a dash of Looney Toons, a spinkle of Fraggle Rock, and a helping of Flight Of The Conchords http://www.youtube.com/user/flightofthconchords?blend=5&ob=4
Good times, for sure. =)