Yay! Four articles up this afternoon for me! :)

Five Things I Wish I Would Have Known Before I Got a Cat (or Two)

And it even features an adorable picture of Vlad! :)

Star Wars Original Trilogy Released on DVD, as Original Theatrical Versions

Han. Shot. First.

Making Your Own CD Cover

Because it's fun.

Costuming at DragonCon 2006

Mostly about the Dawn look-alike costume contest, though that didn't make it into the title.
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I probably neglected to mention this on our return, but while we were at Dragon*Con, we heard on a couple of occasions, straight from Rogue's mouth, that the Cruxshadows were poised to make their debut on the Billboard charts with their newest single, "Sophia." I am proud to report today that they did it!

Hot Dance Singles

The number one Dance Single this week? "Sophia" by The Cruxshadows!!!!!!



Hot Singles Sales

And they're #7 on the overall singles charts!

This is amazing, so this gets its own post. Regular post later!
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Back from DragonCon, but barely recovering from the nasty cold that I seem to have obtained in the process. DragonCon was awesome; the cold is not. :(

In my absence, Cindy published a whole bunch of articles:

Eye Doctors Can Find More than Just Visual Problems

Pre-Katrina Visit to New Orleans Makes Me Wish I Could Go Back Again

Eight Ways to Save Money Even on a Tight Budget

The Basics of Cataract Surgery: What You Need to Determine If You Need Cataract Surgery

Southern Illinois City Fights for a Drink of Water

And the link to mine will be here as soon as I get it. I'm just awaiting final approval at this point... and I've got at least a couple more planned... I just need to find time to write them!

Busy busy busy. I'll maybe post something of some sort of substance when the busy-ness subsides... if that ever happens...
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Two new articles by Cindy this week:

Turn Your Craftiness into a Profit at Craft Shows

How to Plan a Perfect Yard Sale

Which are both great articles, with great tips, and I'm mentioned in both of them. Yay me! :)

And yes, we'll be doing a yard sale next month, and 3 official craft fairs throughout the fall, plus the Ren Faire. Possibly one more craft fair, but we're undecided on that at the moment. And this time, we're gonna sell stuff. Dammit. :)

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In other news, it's a week till DragonCon. All my costumes are ready to go. Hurrah! :) I need to pack still, but there's no sense in packing now. I'm off next Thursday, so I'll do all of our laundry, and then pack. And then we'll leave around 6 a.m. on Friday morning. And drive all day. But it will be so worth it! :)
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Cindy has three new articles up today:

Nationally Known Sculptor John Medwedeff Finds Small Town Charm in Southern Illinois

Bawdy Wenches Take Over Southern Illinois Ren Faire

My Mistakes in My Multiple Sclerosis Diagnosis

Personally, I'm extra excited about the second one, because it looks like we're going to be selling crafts at the Ren Faire this year, which should be both a good time, and hopefully profitable. It's also the day that our friends Steve and Amber are having their medieval style wedding. They actually got married in May, but I missed the church wedding cuz it was the day of the TMBG concert. So I get to go to their "fun" wedding. And there's gonna be a pig roast, or so I'm told. :)

But check out all of her articles, because they are kewl and well written. :) There will be more to come, I'm sure. :)

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In other news, I'm getting really psyched about DragonCon! I still need to come up with one other outfit and/or costume. And I need to decide for sure if I want to do the America McGee's Alice costume. I really should, because it gets more use out of that costume, which I have worn all of once, but it's one of those costumes that usually takes explanation... *sigh*... then again, not like my dark Green Fairy costume doesn't... :)

I also need to work on a couple of hat designs, and see about getting some business cards drawn up. If I can get them done, and get Jerome to be kind enough to model them for me at the Con, I may be able to start doing orders... and that would be sweet...

One of these days, I'm hoping to have a list of all of the craft fairs I'm gonna do this fall... but three of them are still pending... so... we shall see...
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Hmm... well, that worked out nicely. Jerome applied for a job on Monday, got a call on Tuesday, had his interview yesterday, and starts today (well, orientation today). I guess my plan of "find Jerome a job" week was a good one. :) Of course, this means he'll be going to work while I'm still at work, and won't get home till my bedtime, but he should still have a couple of nights a week off, and I may start going home at lunch so that he can have the car to get to work (I can catch a bus home from here very easily), so I should still get to see my boyfriend. :)

Not a whole lot else going on in my world right now. We finally got our bedroom arranged nicely, and we rearranged the front closet last night so that I can get to slightly more than half of my craft supplies without too much difficulty. My fabric is pretty well inaccessible, but I don't really sew with that very often anyhow. I have no clue where the dice bags I made to sell have run off to, but ah well. I've got plenty of yarn to play with. :)

Listening to a band called The Futureheads at the moment, which I found through reading a discarded People magazine at the laundromat. I like them. British new wave, except they're fairly new... :)

And all the preparation for DragonCon is more or less done. I still need glow sticks. I think that's it. :)
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Crazy busy gaming weekend, involving three LARPs. This ended up equaling Jerome and I losing our characters (and making new ones), me becoming a Harpy again, and me becoming a Ductus through the cunning use of lies (not flags). But hey, no one has checked me yet to see if I'm a big liar. Because that character is. :)

It's a month to DragonCon now, and Abney Park and Ego Likeness are confirmed. This means I'm going to be seeing 3 of my favorite bands/artists in the world, along with 2 bands that I like quite a bit. I am happy. :)

With DragonCon a month away, this means I'm working on costumes like a madwoman. Right now, it looks like I'm doing four costumes and one other outfit over the course of three days.

Friday night, it'll be Death from Sandman. I had to find a new pair of black jeans, but I still had everything else I needed for that costume.

Saturday day, it'll be Kaylee from Firefly. I still need to find one or two patches for her jumpsuit, and make sure that I can do my hair in the little buns that she does in the pilot episode. And sew the patches on. And maybe find a necklace that looks good. Maybe.

Saturday night, it depends on who is playing. Most likely, though, this will just be the night that I goth out.

Sunday day, I think I'm going with Alice from America McGee's Alice, only because I already have every piece of that costume. :)

Sunday night, which is when I suspect AP will be playing, I will probably revive my Dark Green Fairy costume that I wore for their last show that I got to see, though it will be undergoing some serious modifications, mainly for the different season and climate. I want to try to make some yarn hair falls, but I'm not sure how feasible that will be. I need a different shirt, so I may go back to Goodwill to pick up something I saw on Saturday. And I really should rethink the stripey tights, because it's likely to be too hot for those... I'm definitely rethinking the armwarmers. :)

But yeah, that's gonna be a lot of clothes to pack, particularly as it involves a couple of large dresses/poofy skirts. The good news, of course, is that Jerome will prolly cram all of his stuff into one bag, leaving plenty of trunk space for Jesi and I. w00t! :)

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In other news, you would think that putting three adults and two cats into a tiny two bedroom apartment would get a bit crowded, but we're making a pretty decent go of it. Still need another bookcase, but we're working on how we can get that... :)
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It's beginning to look like I only post about once a week. Ah well, I guess that's okay, since my day to day life is rarely exciting enough that it requires daily posts to keep you all updated.

So, stuff since the last time I posted...

1) Jerome, Jesi, and I are going to DragonCon in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend. So far, this is looking to be an exceptionally good and interesting time. I haven't been to a REAL con in ages, and the last one of those I was at, I was running a temperature of over 100 degrees, and was basically delirious the whole time. Getting sick the day before you're supposed to leave for a con sucks. :(

Any rate, yeah. We will be seeing The Cruxshadows, Voltaire, and The Last Dance play, along with the possibility of also seeing Abney Park and/or Ego Likeness play. Just the top three make me happy. The possibility of the other two as well make me super happy! :) Aside from the bands, there are a whole crapton of panels to go to, and there will also be drum circles, which equals belly dancing. w00t! :) Gaming? Nah... we prolly won't do much of that... just because it's a gaming convention, that doesn't mean a damn thing... ;)

2) Moxie is doing well after being spayed last week. She's still sorta walking slower than usual, and not jumping around as much, and we have to keep telling Vlad that he can't play with Momma how they usually play, but other than that, she's good. :) I suspect that when the time comes for Vlad to get neutered, he'll have a much easier time of it... :)

3) Been doing a lot of cleaning and getting rid of crap I don't need recently. And if anyone who reads this is interested in a pair of womens' size 5 black Doc Martens, E-mail me. :) I've got someone they MIGHT fit, but I think her feet are actually smaller than that...

4) Gaming all around is going pretty well. I'm in 4 LARPs now, and trying to get a TT game started. Still playing Daisy Green (Malkavian Prince) in Ashes and Dr. Luisa Dunsirn (Ventrue Seneschal... soon to be Prince) in Riddles. I started playing Mehnit (Serpent of the Light Priestess) in Echoes in the Night, which is a new Sabbat game in C-dale, and I will soon start playing Anastasia (Ravnos antitribu) in a new Sabbat game in Marion... or at least that's the plan. There's also a "waiting in the wings" LARP, in which I'll be playing Lola, a Daughter of Cacophany. w00t! :)

As for the TT game, well, it's supposed to be a Firefly / Serenity game. Unfortunately, only Jerome has finished making his character so far... and I technically only have 2 players... and I don't have a night to run that, either... *sigh*... I also wanna run Werewolf, and I started a one-shot Sabbat TT game that never got finished with Jerome, Bobert, and Morgan.

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And that's about it in my life... well, at least the bits that I'm sharing with the world... :)
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