Real Life

Stormcrows vs Paris (Day 3)

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Yesterday we went to the Lourve.

I’ll pause for a minute to let that sink in.

The Lourve is big. By big I mean massive. By massive I mean gi-fricking-normous. By gi…you get the idea. Much walking was done. Our legs and feet were still sore and tired from the Day of Stairs so we managed to stumble through the Lourve, stagger outside, and sit down going “boy, my feet hurt.” We did get to see the Mona Lisa and I now have a costume idea if only I can find some thin, supple leather and learn how to press designs into it. For those of you of the more perverted bent (ie: most of you), get your minds out of the gutter. 😛 I’m going to try to make a Roman-style warrior costume patterned after the painting “Minerva.”

One cool thing about going to the Lourve was getting to ramble on about Greco-Roman mythology. Hey, I spent four years getting a degree in history and a minor in Classical languages. I spent an entire year in high school translating Ovid’s Metamorphoses. I have earned the right to brag about my knowledge of such things.

Today we’ll be heading over to Versailles. Pictures from yesterday and today here: http://picasaweb.google.com/reggydejongh/StormcrowsVsParis#

Stormcrows vs Paris (Day 2)

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Yesterday we had a lot of fun with stairs. My legs still hurt. 😉 We decided to go see Sacre Coeur over in Montmarte.

There are a lot of stairs to get up there.

After that, we headed over to the Arc de Triomphe and proceeded to go up to the top of it. 284 stairs. By the time we got down, we were all pretty worn out. We walked down the Champs d’Elysses and got some drinks, sat for a while until our legs weren’t shaky, and then came back to Bourg la Reine for supper. After supper (and washing up) we headed back into Paris to see the Eiffel Tower at night. We decided not to climb the stairs there and came back home (well, it was creeping up close to midnight, too). 😉

Pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/reggydejongh/StormcrowsVsParis#

Stormcrows vs Paris (Day 1)

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Grog and Crit arrived today. I went to pick them up from Gare du Nord. I actually made it to the Thalys line before the train got there so we missed the fun of playing telephone tag trying to find each other. We came back to Bourg la Reine and got them settled in to their hotel before heading back to my place for lunch. I knew, even though they had lunch on the train, that they were going to be hungry again when the smell of macaroni and cheese and roast beef hit them so I made plenty for everyone.

After lunch, we went into Paris and did a bit of sight-seeing. We went to the Luxembourg Gardens first. They really seemed to like it there. I showed them the Fountaine de Medicis where I used to read and feed the ducks. We looked at the statues of the queens of France and saw all the pretty flowers. We sat there for a while, just relaxing and enjoying the scenery. We’re definitely going to go back there and have a little picnic lunch. I’m hoping my husband can join us. After that, we walked down Boulevard Saint-Michel to Notre Dame. We stopped and saw the fountain at the place de Saint-Michel and then crossed over the quai to the church. There was a mass in session when we got there so we had the fun of seeing the processional start. 🙂 We went into the Treasury and saw all the cool stuff back there and walked all through the church. We wanted to go up to the top but by the time we were done, they had closed that off for the day. We’ll go back another day and see it.

We sat outside for a bit, our feet all hurting from all the walking we’d done. We came back home, picked up my husband, and went out to this great Morrocan resturant nearby. After we stuffed ourselves on food, I took them back to their hotel. Tomorrow, they’ll come over again and we’ll hang out for a bit before deciding what we want to go see. We’ll probably try to go to the towers of Notre Dame if we can and may go see the Eiffel Tower in the evening when it’s all lit up. I think we’ll hit the Arc de Triomphe as well and walk down the Champs d’Elysee and the Champs Mars.

Pictures coming soon. 🙂 It’s so cool to have my guildies here!

Edit: You can find the pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/reggydejongh/StormcrowsVsParis#

Raid Drama Redux

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Well, our PuG managed to clear Naxx 25. We one-shotted everything up to Kel’Thuzad, wiped twice on him but managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat on the third attempt. Thanks to everyone who came, was on time, and helped us clear this dungeon.

And, speaking of being on time: if you /w me at 13:59 for a raid that starts at 14:00, don’t bitch when I tell you “the raid is full.” Even if you did come on Saturday, if I looked for you up until 13:45 and you weren’t online, I’m going to assume you couldn’t make it. Especially if you did not tell me you were coming. Now, once I’ve told you “I’m sorry, the raid is full. We looked for you but didn’t see you and you didn’t say anything to us so we went on,” don’t keep /w’ing me QQing about it. I will ignore you for a while but if you keep it up, I’ll add you to my /ignore list and put your name down on my “don’t invite” list. Seriously: if we say “the raid starts at 14:00,” that means you need to be logged on before then.

Meh. Stupid people are stupid. I probably would have been better about the whole thing if that guy hadn’t kept it up and if I hadn’t managed to pull a whole friggin’ shelf down on myself while cleaning my apartment this morning. I managed to bruise myself up pretty good, twist my ankle, bang my head, and create a bigger mess than the one I was trying to clean. Go me. It scared the shit out of my downstairs neighbors, too. He came running up the stairs and started buzzing the doorbell and banging on the door, afraid I was being attacked or something (there’s a “zone sensible” not too far from us). I managed to crawl out of the mess and tell him “no, I’m a klutz.” He stayed and helped me get the shelf back up and offered to take me to the hospital if I needed it. Since nothing was broken or bleeding, I told him I’d be fine, finished cleaning, and then dug my painkillers out of the medicine cabinent and proceeded to go raid lead my Naxx 25 run. Now I’m relaxing on the couch, comfortably buzzed from pain-meds, and am working on the next updates to Alayne’s Story and The Unexiled. If I can keep up the workload, I might actually finish The Unexiled by the end of the fall. I hope I can find an agent to help me get it published. I’m pretty excited about it.

Migraines suck

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Yesterday, just as I was getting ready to leave work for home, the pressure dropped. That cued an all-night-long-no-holds-barred-let’s-torture-this-woman migraine. Migraines, for those who don’t know, suck. I wound up not being able to go to Ulduar last night because all I could do was think about how much my head hurt. I was asleep by 8:30 pm, praying that when I woke up this morning, the pain would be gone.

So, 7 am this morning and a glass of aspirin down and I’m considering filing a report on God for being a lazy sod. 😛

At least it’s gone now. I just hope the weather stays calm and we don’t have any more violent drops in pressure like we had yesterday. I really hate spending my evening in bed with a cloth over my eyes contemplating whether or not I really need my skull. I’d much rather be writing or raiding or reading my new “Arthas: Rise of the Lich King” which arrived yesterday! I’ll post a review once I’ve finished devouring this book.

Oh yeah…

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It’s Mother’s Day today in the States. I just called my mom to tell her Happy Mother’s Day. Yesterday, she got the flowers my husband and I sent to her. She and my dad are going up to the lake to do some skiing, jet-skiing, and swimming. I’m really looking forward to going over there this summer and visiting them (not to mention getting to fish, ski, and swim in the pond myself).

First!

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Welcome to my shiny new website. 🙂 I’m hoping to actually keep this one up-to-date and to provide news on Alayne’s Story and The Unexiled more often than I have been. The forums are still there and the registration between this blog and the forums is separate. I suppose there is a way to link the two but as I have a full-time job, am an active raider in my WoW guild (maintankadin ftw), and spend my free time writing or playing Guitar Hero, I simply do not have the time, skill, or energy to combine the forums and the blog. So, if you want to post on the forums, you’ll have to register there.

The progress bars on the upper-left will tell you how far along I think I am when it comes to the weekly updates on Alayne’s Story or how far I am in general on The Unexiled. I will not be posting The Unexiled on the Internet as I do have vague hopes of actually publishing it. Since publishers tend to dislike competition with things that are free, I’m afraid it won’t be available for free on the ‘Net. However, I am looking for readers to proofread and provide feedback on it so I can improve it as much as possible before I send it off so, if you’re interested in doing that, drop me an email at alayne AT magisters-terrace DOT com.

Also, I will be posting reviews of Warcraft books I’ve read, talking about my guild, my thoughts on things in WoW, and just general stuff that’s going on in my life. You may eventually find a lot more than just my stories here. At least, that’s the current plan for me. 🙂 Who knows?

Anyhow, that’s enough for right now. Welcome to my website and thanks for reading!

Alayne