2005 Back to Work and Play

Leading up to the Tennessee Christmas trip, Mel and I were receiving updates from Arinne and Tim’s Disney Cruise Adventure.

Arinne and I have discussed a sibling vacation this year. Which I’m still pushing for. Be nice to get the sibs and their lovers off on a big adventure.
And as Hollywood shut down for the Christmas season Mel and I had the time to dive into Warcraft with much passion. The game is a fantastic escape from real world worries and thus the reason some are referring to it as WarCrack.

I continue my lone adventures where I mainly explore and take screenshots.

It’s fun to do stuff with the guild but at the same time exploring the world is wonderful and pressure free.

Just log in and take off running until you end up somewhere new.

You simply never know what you’ll find.

For instance, an evil goblin driving and robot.

The trip to Tennessee was lovely.

We had us a semi-white Christmas…could have used about a half-inch more.

Grandpa Robert was an engineering Santa throughout the vacation. Not only was he building the toys out of the box…within minutes they’d be broken due to feverish play and he’d be out in the garage fetching the hot glue gun. It should be noted that he’s turned down many offers to work in Santa’s toy shop.

While there we had to do Captain D’s. Don’t ask me why. Mel has some twisted need to go there as often as possible.
While on the trip I did get some work done. I finished my graphic novel pages and shot those off to Steve and Tom.
Then the day after Christmas we were on a plane back to Cali. Man was it a long flight. I’d give all my DVDs to Mel’s folks and while she slept I sat there staring off into space. I never have been able to sleep on a plane. Turbulence, you know?
Mel and I returned home to the beginnings of California’s rainy season.

And would you have thunk it? Turns out we live at the Beginning of the Rainbow.

And oddly enough, the end as well.
Once back in town we dove back into Warcraft.

Mel and I joined forces to kill the Abominable Greench. He was trying to kill Christmas. It was actually pretty great. They’d implemented lots of Christmas stuff into game play.
Before the trip, Ravane had invited Mel, Dean and myself to journey to a place called Scarlet Monastary.

The journey led us passed a giant dome…still no idea what it’s all about.

And later we ran across humanoids who’d been hung from the trees. You gotta know when you see something like that, that you may be in for it.

Once there, Ravane, very seriously applied poison to his daggers…while Mel, Dean and I danced.

Later while taking Ravane to a small town he’d been visited…we had to kill everything along the way. Seems the elf never met a giant he didn’t want to kill.

I covertly met a man about an underground purchase from the Horde Blackmarket. I got the info I needed and then journeyed across the world.

…where I bought a chicken on the blackmarket.

And I bought my mighty steed. Very sweet indeed.

And not to be outdone…Mel learned to ride a horse and bought a Pinto. Each race gets a different mount. Elves ride Cats, Humans ride Horses, Dwarves ride Rams and Gnomes right Robotic birds.

It certainly makes travel faster as well as safer. Last night we hooked up with Edo, Benski and Lessa and it reminded me of the old west as we galloped across the sands of Tanaris.

Melanie has become a Weaponsmith Specialist and she’s very excited. Together with her armor/weapon crafting skills and my leatherworking skills, gold doesn’t seem to be an issue for us.
Shepherd has gone through some changes.

He’s gone from Cowboy Shepherd to…

Dark Shepherd. I like Dark better.
On New Years Eve, our guild, the Guardians of Goldshire (those silly enough to be playing a game on New Years Eve) met up in Goldshire…

…got drunk on Dwarven Ale and danced. In the real world Mel and I popped the bottle of bubbly Dean and Elizabeth gave us for Christmas and I’d like to think that’s the reason the dear Ms. Purity…

…took all of her clothes off…
So, overall it’s been a good Christmas.
I’ve jumped back into work. We’re back into Negotiations on “Riddle Me This”. Awaiting notes on the graphic novel. Got a meeting to discuss “Narcosis” and the outline I sent Pre-Christmas. Magnus (now under and different name) is back in full force. “Scarecrow” starts shooting next month. And the list goes on.
And today Olga and I had a chat about doing some website updates. She did some hacker dances which hopefully will stop the comment spam I’d been getting. I’m excited about making some changes. We’ll see where our talks go.
So, I’ll keep writing while the sun’s up and playing while the sun’s down. Dean gets back from the Bahamas next week and with his hiatus I’m sure we’ll be warcrafting and screenshots will be taken.