Recently in Travel & Adventure Category

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Stay tuned!

My winter has been all about low profile. We've had a rough and wonderful year, hard to take it all in. But now I'm hibernating in what little downtime I have. Work has been non-stop, so the quiet moments are like tiny baby birds that are easily squashed! I'm busy though, just not online much. Lots of writing and research, it gives me some awesome pleasure. Rainy days with small dogs and kitties and books and needlework. One is never too young to be grandmotherly.

And I uploaded a bunch of our pictures from the trip to London last June. Click thumbnails to be magically wisked away to Flickr!

Favorite:

Needless to say we are preparing fun postage for the severed head gallery. Woot!

Ok, these dollga leeke collab wigs are KILLING ME. Too. Many. Wigs

And I just got last pre-order where they threw in a free wig. I was totally expecting an ugly leftovers or something, and they sent a long super cool pink wig. They knew!

also, best website flash evar:
http://www.club-internet.fr/le-duel/

When life gets ya down, just think of the moat bunnies.

Taken in June 2007, Château de Saumur, France.

Moat bunnies.

Something weird, aside from myself, going on with my blog. For some reason ImageMagick and NetPBM aren't being recognized on my server so the MT software can't process images into thumbnails etc. I also upgraded to MT4, but it is barfing on my old templates. So I've moved to a slightly modified default for now and will be cleaning it up as I time allows! I hate doing things in stages this way, but it was brokey. *whine*

Also, what eeediot (me) thought it was a good idea to have a tooth extracted and then move the day after? This was my first bit o' tooth surgery, I guess I've been lucky... but holy crap! That was horrible. How come I only got nitrous during the needle part, and not the pulling, smashing, banging and stitching??? I've never taken so many pain killers in my life. My face ballooned up very unattractively, and I had to stumble around directing my 70+ year old parents in moving token boxes up the hill to the new place (they insisted on helping, it was very sweet ♥).

I get my stitches out this morning... dude, I have stitches IN MY MOUTH o_0

Any way, welcome to the worst month of my life. Seriously. This entire year (except for that whole trip to Europe fabulousness) has bit the big donkey schlong.

But this morning on the way to work, as I was turning down Moeser and confronted with the AMAZING view of the bay from the end of our block, I felt the first glimmer of optimism since that poor man was murdered on our lawn.

It is not over, but there's hope. And orphaned hedgehogs and a brush.

I still have to cancel DirecTV and eat the $175 contract cancellation fee they tricked me into 6 months ago for ordering their useless DVR that I returned anyway and ate the $99 non-refundable fee on already. As well as the preliminary AND final walk-through with our previous evil landlord and hope he doesn't try to withhold our deposit beyond reason. Oh, and we have to eat another $150 contract fee from Earthlink because they don't offer DSL at the new location. WTF, indeed.

I did manage to snag 5 pairs of shoes from the Haute Doll MA collection. Rawr. The dollies are still packed. I'm going through withdrawal. And my mother-in-law arrives on the 6th for a holiday!

meh.

I'm in a happy place. I received tracking info from Volks (no, not Masha, who has been delayed til late July, but another baby), and I've been alternately lazy and crafty about the house.

After the previous few months of utter madness and thriftiness and selling, I'm so relieved!

I've sewed two new dolly dresses, from my own patterns (go me!) and finished one of the corsets I used as a sample for Dollectable. And there is lots of laying around in between watching BBC costume dramas I picked up in the UK that won't even be released here for another year or so. Gads, I'm so happy!

Oh, and season 3 of Dr. Who started. And Torchwood is coming in September.

And all the animals follow me from room to room, I feel like Cinderella.

I know I am slow with my travel diaries. We're waiting for a cd from a friend who was kind enough to offload 2 gigs of images in Switzerland onto his laptop. So I have earlier images, and pix from the end of the trip, but I'm missing the middle o_0. You know what that does to a storyline, yikes!

In a Swiss farmhouse on the top of a mountain drinking absinthe and vintage vermouth and eating fondue with loved ones. Life just don't get much better.

But there's been a ton of pix uploaded to flickr, with more to come. You are welcome to browse.

I'm still in awe of the magickalness of the trip. But there was still so much to see, especially Paris. Didn't have nearly enough time. Half a day lost in Les Halles totally scarred me for life with all the Burger Kings & Footlockers and GAPS and UGH! Stab the eyes out with hot pokers. We were looking for the Marais and took a right instead of left at the Pompidou Center and were DOOOOMED. We did find porn and sausages eventually though. So it worked out in the end.

I'm reading an amazing book, "Liberty: The Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France" and there are numerous mentions of Les Halles as the market center of Paris. I guess it still is, but where are the fishwives? They're hocking Nikes and burgers these days. It hurts my soul.

or, Kallisti Fest 2007

"I'm sorry I caused all that absinthe." —Kallisti

Click here to skip to the flickr album! 204 pix and counting

Since I started the absinthe website, now FeeVerte.net, friends from the forum there have been poking me to join in the fun at the annual Boveresse Absinthe Festival, or at least to visit and see the absinthe and related sights. I'd refused up until now. I'm a total scaredy cat when it comes to flying.

2007 is the ten year anniversary of the Fee Verte website and forum. Ten years! I made a new header banner to celebrate! Oxygenee, who has since taken over the site (though I still help), finally convinced me that now was the time. They'd hold a fund raiser to help with tickets etc and arrange a special fun absinthey activities. How could I refuse!?!?!

KallistiFest 2007 was born.

Madame Tussaud's was surprisingly very fun.

We're back, and recovering from jet-sleepy. Again, Virgin Atlantic is the awesome. Left London 11am Saturday, arrived 2:30pm in San Francisco same day. Since we were chasing the sunset on the way back, there was no dark sleepy, so they just kept feeding us yummy snacks, juice, drinks, water etc for ten hours. I watched "Miss Potter" and "The History Boys"... two movies I totally wanted to see, they were both very good.

We have a couple thousand pictures to sort and edit and choose from. We'll get right on that.

So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, good night, I hate to go and leave this pretty sight. So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, adieu, Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu.

So long, farewell, Au'voir, auf wiedersehen,
I'd like to stay and taste my first champagne
So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, goodbye,
I leave and heave a sigh and say goodbye,
Good bye

Ok, so this was supposed to be posted before we left over a week ago, but I ran out of time. It was very hectic! The flight went well. I recommend Virgin Atlantic's Media Wonderland for anyone who is nervous or bored on long flights. And about 328,000 mg of Xanax. Does wonders.

The Pan European Absinthe Safari is over! Just back from Paris-Saumur-Paris-Pontarlier-Couvet-Paris! Shacking up in London for the next five days. Staying in one place for the last leg of the trip is the best decision I've ever made. Wow.

Not too much shopping, but we've eaten our entire bank account. It is awesome. I think we had all of one meal that didn't consist of sausage. There will be pictures.

More when we're rested. Or home... I can't decide. Ha!

Heading to the Tower of London first thing in the morning for the London leg of the Kallisti Severed Head Tour 2007™. And then over to the Borough Market to get Mr. Kallisti some for real South African biltong.

What does one need for one's first trip to Europe?

Cyber-shot® Digital CameraDSC-T20/P

Tha's right! The world's greatest pink camera. Sony is da bomb when it comes to styling. Makes nice cameras too. That picture makes it look huge. It is tiny. 4oz w/o tiny battery.

Saw it at the Metreon Sony Store last week. Became obsessed. Had a bad day yesterday. Needed shopping therapy. Big box stores are retarded and worse, do not stock pink cameras. So we ordered it online. Saved some tax, yo.

If anyone is interested in my fab little Nikon Coolpix 4300 for $110 + some shipping, let me know. When the new cammy gets here (a week I hope) it'll be going on ebay. Here are the specs: Nikon Coolpix 4300 - 4 megapixel!

It comes with manual, small nylon camera bag, extra battery, charger, and prolly some other stuff if we still have the box ^_^ We've used it well, but it has never been dropped or abused. And it got really great CNet reviews a couple years ago!

It seems quiet here, don't it. Well looks can be deceiving! All the action is IRL and I can barely keep up.

I lost the Volks lottery for the BtSSB Alice & The Pirates outfit, so if there is anyone out there who wants to let a hapless girl takeover their lottery or what have you, pleeeease let me know!

I just paid for my tickets to Europe in June! OMG. First time going, I'm completely freaked (hate flying) and ecstatic (dream come true) at the same time. Mostly I'll be on tour to the Kallisti-Fest in Boveresse for the Absinthe Festival... but the Mr. and I will be in London for five days on our own.

I need suggestions for the absolutely coolest things to do for a art-history-lit geek like me! Tower of London, Madame Tussaud's & the V&A are a given. What else?

And maybe spend two of those nights in another town? But where?

In any case, there will be more coming from me soon. No worries. This is a big, busy year!

For Ondine.

And then:

for Christmas? I'm waiting for more peektures. And there's a whole slew of Dolpa 16 goodies we haven't seen yet. *smacks head*

But for sure:

Hurrah! & 3-6 months would be good. Some time next year Ginevra & Ermengarde will get their Dollstown body!

And not to mention the eventual release of the Hypermaniac dollies. Ugh!

In the meantime: Reno this weekend with Toddums and Switzerland in June for the 10th Anniversary of FeeVerte.net at the Boveresse Absinthe Fest.

Seriously. I hate to fly, the only reason why I waffle. I must pray to ye gods of dutch courage and get my ass on that plane. Gar.