Walking the Dog

A couple of days ago my mom and I took our dog Angel, who is a white boxer and sooooo cute, out on a walk. Not too far, just around my aunt's neighborhood.

If you go down this one street for awhile you get to a dead end, and then there is only hills rolling along. It's really cool actually. Sort of like a whole seperate world. It really reminds me of the way Columbine st. used to look in the winter, early morning, when I was walking home after taking Emiko-chan to the bus stop. ^-^

who knows, maybe it will inspire a story! That would be pretty awesome, since I can't seem to write right now...

Oh yes, and I took a bunch of planty/scenery pictures, look!

<--- a beech tree I think <---"I am the Lord of the Oaks!

Book Mania

I must be feeling more myself recently, cause I've been buying a lot of books. XD A LOT! It started when I went to Barnes & Nobles with my Mom. Specifically, I was going there to pick up the new Eragon book... which I have yet to read...

Here's what I ended up with at the counter:

Brisingr, by Christopher Paolini (yeah, third Eragon book)
Castle in the Air, by Diana wynne Jones (sequel to Howl's Moving Castle! whooot!)
Dragonhaven, by Robin McKinley (okay, first off, a new McKinely? oh YES!)

and a few little books for my sisters and other relatives for Christmas. ^-^ (which, obviously, I cannot divulge at this time.)

You'd think the book madness would have ended there... at least till I finished reading those. XD However, you'd be wrong... so very wrong.

Yesterday, I hit the thrift stores with my Mom... here's the treasures I unearthed after going through TONS of romance titles. lol

The Great Good Thing, by Rodevick Townley (I actually read this already, and it is really good!)
Swan Sister: Fairy Tales Retold, assorted authors (Yes, I am a sucker for fairy tales.)
King Lear, by Shakespeare o' course! ^-^
Canterbury Tales, by Chaucer
Night's Daughter, by Marion Zimmer Bradley

and a few more book gifts for Christmas.. including one for Loralin! Shhhh. *wink* Lesson learned from this experiance? If you're going to go book-crazy it's best to do it in thrift stores, because $5.00 beats $60.00 every time. XD

Renaissance Fun

Ohmygosh, DRAGON! ^-^

I have no problem admitting that I love renaissancey stuff... the clothes, the crafts, and of course the fantasy/mythos elements. ^-^ It's why I've been so interested in joining the SCA and stuff like that... though my only real experiance with anything like that is the people that walk in the July 4th parade in Kenai, and do fighting and whack-a-knight at the festival.

So, you can imagine how excited I was last week when Lucasa asked if I wanted to come along to the Renaissance Fair! *bounces* Course, one must follow the right steps to truely enjoy a Ren. Fair...

Step one: Buying the right stuff - For me, this involved sitting in the car for several hours, but was otherwise not that difficult. XD Lucasa tipped me off about this really great little thrift-store in Redding called 'Rags'. They sell costumey stuff and they even rent really awesome costumes just for Fairs and things. ^-^ I just bought some simple things though - a black skirt and a red corset-ish bodicey thing, to go with my grey peasant top - cause I'd rather have my own... (and I'm not nearly so handy with a sewing machine as Loralin!) I also went to Wal-mart and bought a pretty aquamarine umbrella, since it's been raining a lot recently... and was supposed to keep on raining the whole weekend of the fair.

Step two: Getting there - It's pretty funny, but this was probably the hardest part. XD See, Lucasa was going to pick me up on Saturday, after church, but there was a little mix-up about WHERE he was picking me up, heh. So, there I was on the church steps last Saturday, all changed into my peasanty outfit and wielding my umbrella against the intermitant drizzles... waiting... and waiting. I was there for about an hour and a half, and Lucasa and friends had to drive out to Cottonwood, and then all the way back into Redding... and then back out towards Anderson again.

However, we did reach the fair eventually. ^-^ And it was even sunny by then! We buckled on our swords (well, the boys did), slung our packs over our shoulders and headed in. Which brings us to...

Step Three: Just take it all in! - I've only been to the one, but so far I think that the best thing about a Ren Fair is the people. There's just people everywhere! And almost ALL of them are in costume of some kind. I saw scotts, vikings, irish folk, fairies, and even GNOMES! ^-^ Not to mention that I myself came with two pirates and a farmer.

(Chad and Amber, pirates)

(Lucasa, farmer)

Everyone was just walking around, chatting, usuing accents, listening to music, and generally having a fabulous time.

Not only that, but there were tons of things for sale! Costumes, weapons, eating and drinking untensils. You name it, they were selling it. They even had suits of chainmail that people had made! O.O And of course food, and mead. ^-^ We looked through everything. I actually ended up buying a metal circlet dealy, and an iron pin that says 'Evil Apprentice'. (I still owes Lucasa some moneys....)

Aside from buying, there were a couple of other things to do. We watched a 'danger' show that was actually quite funny. And I shot a few arrows over at the archery range. ^-^ Lucasa got some good pics of that... which he neeeeeeeeds to send me... *shiny kitty eyes*

All in all it was very fun. I am sooooo going to the next one! ^-^