Well, yesterday started Friday off with something good- a fan site forum which disappeared something like two years ago is back, my login still works, and all my old friends are back there again. Yay! It's called the Madagascar Community, a forum for fans of the movie. It was the first furry forum I joined after getting into the fandom, so it has sentimental value. And, now it's back. Was on there too late last night, hope I don't repeat that again tonight, I need the rest.

Thursday night, went to my niece's elementary school band concert. Last night (Friday) attended a Christmas play at a local theater.

This morning I went to the fairgrounds to see some of the flyball tournament, my third year of attending. This is a relay competition for dogs & their owners; the dogs are released and run down a straight track leaping over hurdles, catch a ball at the end, then turn around and return down the track to their owners, at which point another dog is released. This is a timed event, with seconds to 3 decimal places.

Saw the original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer tonight, the 1964 animated Rankin Bass one. Earlier this week, drew a picture of Clarice, Rudolph's girlfriend, ha, on deer Monday it was actually. She's so cute. Not used to drawing deer, gave her a horse's butt, that doesn't look right, gotta fix that up, then finish it- would love to ink & color, but not sure I'm ready to try that just yet... may stick to pencil only for now. Will eventually post it on FA, will announce it here when I do.

Attended a really cool Jazz Ensemble today at a local college here. Excellent, professional level performance!

Tomorrow morning, first rehearsal for the Christmas Eve ensemble, I'm playing alto sax in it this year.

Okay, here is a short video clip of the flyball tournament; it's one I took back in fall 2007, but it's the same thing they did today and held in the exact same place:

Good morning and happy Thanksgiving day to abrahmlion , bighooves and kyraeus , bucktowntiger , cadpigjr , chakatsunstreak , firestormsix , li_tak , light_lion , mrianti , nbowa , and stria_inbiri !! Cuddly warm lion hugs to all who will receive them. Have a great day you wonderful furries!

Two My Little Ponies came home here from McDonald's restaturant about two weeks ago. They are, as I am guessing, of the newer latest design, which is in my opinion significantly different from how I am used to seeing them:

My shed that was constructed here a month ago was painted last weekend, we did it in the nice sunny weather with decent temps, made the whole thing white. Going to be painting the trim boards grey, but that can wait until next spring when the weather temps are more predictable. But, the entire wooden structure has paint on it now so is ready for the winter months. Told ya I'd post some pics eventually, and here they are:

Wishing a very happy birthday today to Stria the Snow Leopard, stria_inbiri . Hope you're having a good one!

Just got my "Dreamsong" 2010 calendar in the mail today, and it looks great!!  Ordered it from Zazzle, was shipped via UPS safely packaged, and arrived in perfect condition.

This is my first furry calendar; in fact, it's the first one I've seen in print ever.  Professional quality photography, nice big clear pics on 11"x 17" sheets, cover is glossy.  Wow.  Would easily compete with any commercially available calendar.  Dreamsong is so beautiful!  I'm putting it up on the living room wall right next to my computer.  Yay!

( 2 pictures... )

Just went to AC Moore crafts store tonight to get some craft paints.  Holy crap, there is Christmas music playing in there, nothing but.  It's too early for that yet, I don't want to hear it right now.  Artificial Christmas trees, Christmas lights, decorations, all for sale now in the aisles... well, that's fine, but I don't want to hear the music.  Turn it off!  November 27 or 28th I might be ready, definitely by Dec 1.  But not now!!  So, guess I'll be avoiding shopping more than I usually do, until that time.

We've been talking about getting a shed here at the house for oh, say the last 5 years.  Without going into it all, a number of things always seem to stop us from making it happen, but the worst of these was the foundation.  What do you need for one?  How do you make it?  We've gotten answers ranging from "can't be bothered to give you the time of day" to "just sit it right on the ground" to "well, it really doesn't matter what you do."  Yes, it does matter.

  Finally was able to piece together a plan for using cinder blocks that would get the wooden shed floor off the ground and keep it dry.  For the past several weeks I have been digging little 8"x16" 'graves' and mounting cinder blocks in them, struggling to get one done every evening the weather was decent, after work, racing against the quickly diminishing daylight.  My body is not used to this type of work, and I really ****ed up my lower back hauling them around.  Those of you who know me in person know I generally don't use or throw around such strong explicatives, but it hurt bad for a week and a half, so yeah, it was ****ed up.   Wasn't sure for a while if it was ever going to get better, but thank God it did.  Messed it up again though, and it hurts right now.  Btw, yard is not level and I had to deal with that... laser level and square that I borrowed from a friend worked great.  Finally completed laying the blocks Saturday afternoon. 

Today, the shed manufacturer came and built the whole thing on top of my foundation.  Holy crap, they only sent one man, but he did it!  Very courteous, professional, and did the job right, with care.  It looks great!!  And holy freaking crap it's huge... looks like a barn... even has a loft in it.  So now I can put hay up in the loft and keep my miniature horse in the little barn, right?  Just kidding, I don't have a mini, but one would fit in there no problem.  Hoping I can now clean up some junk out of the basement to clear out the nice 8' workbench I've got down there to put it to use as a sewing / project table for fursuit stuff.  And, clear off the back porch.  I love my new shed!!  Will post pics in a couple of days after I get them uploaded.

One more thing, you'll notice I'm using a new "non-furry" avatar in this LJ post.  This avatar is a picture of me taken at the PA Renaissance Faire, wearing a chain mail vest and hooded cloak (both of which I made myself), and a sword which I borrowed from a friend.  As my profile states, the primary purpose of my LJ is to log my furry lifestyle, though occasionally unrelated RL stuff I may put in.  In the future, whenever I post about something that has no relation whatsoever to furry, such as this one talking about my shed, or a RL rant, I will use this avatar to indicate such.

If I had the time, I'd log these things as they happen.  But, I have to be selective with what time I do have, and trying to post pics of events is rather involved in that I've got to resize the pic and upload it to photobucket- that alone stops me from journaling often.  And for some things, it really is nice to share pictures.  So anyway, time to catch up here on my life since AC09.

Labor Day weekend, 2009:

I already had Monday off as a holiday, so I took that Friday off from work to make it into a 4-day weekend.  I had a few things I definitely wanted to work on over the extended weekend, including my Tower Fortress furry fanfic story, do something towards getting my fursuit started, do some LJ posting, and maybe even get back on a project I set aside a long time ago.  But, didn't get to do any of these.  As a friend of mine once said, "The plans of mice and men."

( my labor day weekend, with cat sanctuary pics )

Wishing a very happy birthday today to chakatsunstreak .  Hope you're having a good one!

Finally got chapter 19 of my Madagascar fanfic done and uploaded on Wednesday night.  It's a work in progress, don't know yet how many chapters it will take to finish, but I'm hoping I can wrap it up in 30.  I've been working on this on and off for quite a long time now.  Link for the story is www.fanfiction.net/s/3440577/1/The_Tower_Fortress in case anyone is interested.

One of my souvenirs from Anthrocon 2009 was a white t-shirt with sexy Tiffany Tiger (from The Suburban Jungle) on the back.  I've worn that t-shirt quite a bit this summer, and noticed that it had recently disappeared.  Well, it was actually in the laundry, and got washed along with a brand new pink sheet.  Guess what happened?  My nice white Tiffany t-shirt turned pink.  Ahhh!  Tried to reverse the unintentional dye job by soaking it in some kind of concentrated detergent, didn't all come out the first time so it's had a second round in there, and then through the washer again yesterday.  Holy crap.  I haven't seen it yet so I hope it's okay.  I don't hate pink but the shirt is supposed to be white!

And, on a positive note, I am feeling quite good today.  I haven't been feeling right since just before labor day weekend, actually I have been feeling rather poorly the last 3 weeks, but this weekend I suddenly noticed that I'm feeling a lot better!  Almost normal, even, today.  Yay!  I hope it lasts.

Took half the day off of work today, went to Red Lobster for lunch with my mate.  Had a Ceasar salad with tiny shrimp in it, a scoop of mashed potatoes, and flounder stuffed with crab meat.  The portions were rather small I thought, but I didn't feel overstuffed at the end of the meal which was good.  Plus the yummy rolls, of course.  It was good, I was not disappointed.  Great company, too.

I got cards from the family, a homemade cake, and the B-52s Time Capsule CD.  Mom called around 6:00pm and wished me a happy birthday.  Everyone I care about most and that values me wished me a happy birthday today.  So, in summary, I had a good day.

Happy birthday, Leo!  *smacks self on the behind*

Taken from... abrahmlion

☞ Anyone who looks at this entry has to post this meme and their current wallpaper.
☞ Explain in no more than five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
☞ Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on!
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This is a screen capture of what's currently on my computer at work.  Desktops on my computer are one way I express my interests, and this one complements the furry fandom.  I love furry wallpapers, and this fursuiter is beautiful!  Desktop found on FurAffinity.  Picture is of Dreamsong.

Wishing a very happy birthday tomorrow to bighooves !!  Hope you have a good one!

Went to the SPCA today.  Saw a dog in the paper a week or two ago and he's been on my mind ever since.  It's kind of crazy, not the type of dog I was planning on, opposite sex, not house trained, outside dog, and he's 9 years old.  House isn't really ready for a dog yet either.  Everything's opposite, but I think about him every day, so I finally went out to the SPCA to "just look".

( Read more... )

Wishing a happy golden/grand birthday to Nbowa lion today!

I went for a bike ride on Friday at 3:40pm.  Hadn't been out to get exercise for a very long time, any at all, finally got out there and did it.  I have a number of factors discouraging me from doing this, however.  I live in/near the city, so to get where I really want to ride, I have to either pack up my bike on a rack on the car and take it there, or just ride all the way there from home.

( ramble/rant on about Friday & my joys and woes of bike riding + pics... )

I grew up with a lot of television... in fact in my high school years the TV was on almost all day every day, whether I wanted to see it or not.  I'm glad I was able to see lots of TV shows growing up as they influenced my interests to the positive, particularly sci-fi, but these days I watch very little television.  For me the internet has replaced TV for the most part, as it caters more to my creativity, and I don't care for the shows that are on these days either.  And, regardless, I simply don't have the time for it.  Hadn't watched any TV (except for a few occasional DVDs) since Anthrocon... that is, until yesterday.  Apparently, there's still some stuff out there that appeals to me.

( some cute kid's shows on Saturday morning... )

Wishing firestormsix  a very happy birthday (July 21st)!
*birthday hugs*