Excitement and Adventure and Really Neat Things!

So it has been a while since my last post, but that while has been far from boring.  I suppose for the sake of structure I'll try to go chronologically (I have no idea if that is spelled right but I hope it is).

First off, in the land of Ceylennor, tragedy has struck our band of adventurers.  They were successful in getting Satura home, however both Deeka and Gerb were killed in the ensuing battle. So while they were successful in thier quest, their rewards were few and they have been left wondering if it was worth it.  Once they left the caves they found a party of Vrill who explained the reason they wanted to kill Satura, possibly placing the characters in an even more akward predicament.  Finaly, as they started the return journey to Horvath, they met Skull coming across the Blighted Hills in his airship and were invited aboard to spend the night.  A perfect place to end a session and it leaves my characters in a precarious situation.  Excellent for character development.

The next item of interest, I graduated from HVCC on the 17th...  And I'll be going to PACE for Environmental Studies starting next semester!  Ok, moving on.  

Sunday May 18th, 5am
I am awakened by the insistent banging of Fuzzy's fist against my door.  
By about 6am, Dan, Laura, and I were on the road and headed for our grand adventure in Tennessee.  We were going to meet up with 4 of Laura's friends from Wisconsin, and the seven of us would be hiking almost 50 miles over 5 days through the back country of Smokey Mountain National Park.  The hike included climbing over Clingmans Dome, the highest point in the park (and in the state I think).  We started our trek at about 3pm on Monday, after finaly getting all the cars in the right places.  We climbed about 2000 feet over 5 miles to reach our first camp and we were exhausted.  Tuesday started better than Monday ended.  We got a fairly early start out of camp and were making good progress because the trails were mostly flatish or slightly downhill with occasional uphill sections.  Sadly our good fortune was not to last.  As we discovered, the trail we were on was apparently one of the least popular in the park, and so was convered in several inches of leaves in many places.  This means that things like tree roots are not always apparent.  Laura found 2 of these roots the hard way, rolling her left ankle not once, but twice.  Even so, it seemed like we would be able to make it through until we stopped for lunch.  The three of us got as far as the next available camp site and had to stop.  The three of us managed to set up the tent in record time and even kept it fairly dry  dispite the thunderstorm that had started up.  We spent the rest of the day and that night in the tent and then hiked out 7 miles to a ranger station the next morning where we were lucky enough to get a ride back to Dan's car from one of the rangers.  Not wanting to miss what would have been the high point of the trip, we drove up to Clingmans Dome and climed up to the observation tower at the peak (pun totaly intended).  

Now as it happens, my family had plans to go to Havre de Grace on the shore of the Chesapeak in Meryland for sailing lessons, and they had planned to arrive there on Thursday night.  And since we were out of the woods several days earlier than planned we had lots of free time.  We spent Wednesday night at a motel and drove the next day to meet my family in Havre de Grace.

When we arrived that night I was made an offer I couldnt refuse (I might not have survived if I had).  Dan and Laura left the next day to visit Joe and go home.  I stayed and learned to sail over the next three days.  So now if ever I say I'd rather be sailing, don't laugh, I'm being serious.  Sailing is a lot of fun, and now I'm certified to rent a 22 to 30 foot sailboat and take it out for a day of sailing.  

The final event of note was yesterday when my dad and I went up to The Duck for the last time to finish packing up my room.  Dispite all the quirks (some of them quite major) I'll miss Troy, though I fully intend to visit everyone.  

and now summer projects call, lounging is not something that will happen often...

Darn it, I'm Gonna Live if it Kills Me!

At the end of the summer of '06, when I started moving into my room here at The Duck, there were several items of mine from Sharp left in Dave's room over the summer.  Among them was an African Violet (of unknown origin) which, dispite being left on its side in a dark room for the entire summer was not only alive but blooming.  This plant was then moved to a spot on our kitchen table where it was periodically watered; usually by Melanie when she remembered if she happened to be doing her laundry.  However, around the middle of this year, the violet looked like it was finally through.  Very few of the leaves were still green, and the ones that were had started to die around the edges.  I watered it a couple of times, not really expecting it to survive but lo and behold, when I looked at it today I realized that at the center of the plant, surrounded by dead and shriveled leaves, was a cluster of new growth leaves!  If that isn't an example of Darwin at work I don't know what is.  

On an entirely unrelated note, I've begun packing operations.  I'm sure there will be many people pleased to know that a repeat of my freshman year packup is very unlikely to be needed.  I'll be going home tomorrow and bringing most of my clothes in addition to a number of other items which I will be unlikely to need during the remainder of my time in this appartment.  Saturday night a few more things will be sent home with my family since they are coming up and I'll be going to see a musical with them.  The end goal is to have only a few things left in my room when I get back from backpacking a week from Sunday.  Idealy there will only be one trip worth of things to go.  But since when do I ever manage to execute a plan in the ideal way.  

And the last item of interest.  My PCs have finaly arrived at the edge of destiny for good or evil and on Friday we will finaly see how it plays out.  Emily will be here to take on the roll of Lyra and depending on how things go the plot may thicken in unexpected ways.  Hopefully I will be prepared for all the possible unexpected things that could happen, but for as much work as I put into creating the world, the world creates itself even more.  It's eerie, sometimes I don't feel like I'm quite in control of my own universe.  And now having said that I think I will have worred my players enough for this post.  

Sightings and Exciting Stuff

So it has been a few days since my last post, but it has also been a few days since there was anything I considered post worthy.  

I have once again seen the Corvette that looks like a DeLorean.  The thing about this 'vette is you only notice the resemblence in passing.  If you spot it out of the corner of your eye your gut reaction is, "Hey cool, a DeLorean!", but if you go back to look at it you see it is a Corvette.  And it isn't a 'vette that is trying to look like a DeLorean, it just turned out that way.  And once you notice that you can't look at the car without thinking you saw a DeLorean.  And while I'm on the subject, I googled the name to make sure I was spelling it correctly and look what I came up with.  http://www.delorean.com/sales.asp.  That is correct!  Now you too can own your very own DeLorean, either a used one from 1981 to 1983 or your very own brand new one.  Though I would personaly go for an old one, both for the geek cred and the fact that they are considerably less expensive.  Crazy I know but the used ones are all around $30,000 while the new made ones start at $57,500.  

In other news I went and got my cap and gown for my Hudson Valley graduation, which will be on the 17th at 8:45 am (Oy!)

And in some incredibly exciting news, I'M DONE WITH SCHOOL! Well, for this semester anyway.  I handed in my last final project today and I have no exams!  So now it is time for some fun.  Fun may involve explosives if no one else has better ideas, though I wouldn't say no to some frisbee.  

Christmas in May

Now many people are of the oppinion that since there is Christmas in December, there should be Christmas in June (or July?), at the half-year point.  But yesterday was like a mini Christmas for me, not only did I get my newest group of Slivers, I also finaly got my Damascus steel pocket knife.  For those who don't know, Damascus steel is often reguarded as a mythical substance of awsome power, and the best choice for the blade of a weapon.  However it isn't actually steel mined in Damascus, it is a complex process involving folding many layers of steel into a single item.  My knife blade is made of 78 individual layers of folded steel, twisted and shaped red hot from the forge.  There is no blade on earth that matches the appearance of mine.  Pictures will follow later today.