Fleet Week Opening Dance

I went.  Of all of the non-New Babbage parties I've been to, this one was the most fun.  There were people from all of the Steamlands, and the Armada Scoundrel Fleet made an amazing entrance.  They arrived on a barge, all wearing noise-making instruments, belting out some insanely loud song.  It was fabulous.  At its busiest, I counted 42 people there - probably the largest event I've been to in the Steamlands so far.  New Babbage had a decent showing - I counted 7 of us at one point, but a couple of them came as part of the Armada fleet.

I'll be buying some New Babbage tartan for the next event.

While I almost always have fun dancing, I had a bit of extra fun this time with a tin cup of warm rum.  I seem to remember yelling something about "destroying everything," but I was really just going along with the crowd.  I believe I also may have saved Nat Lorefield from a washing with a spittle-covered hankie.

Oh.  And then there WAS that thing with the Emperor. 

Later in the evening I decided to begin a new project.  As I mentioned to Emerson earlier, it will involve Arnold, Tenk's cow, a violin, and some naked urchin butts. I'll be sure to post my progress.

I should drink rum more often.

Snow and Spies

My rezday party last night was, I believe, a success.  Everyone seemed to have fun, and I know I certainly did!  Edward played a great set with a lot of entertaining commentary, and he kept us all dancing the whole time.  I don't think anyone touched any of the pie or liquor I put out, but that's fine with me - I'd rather have people frolicking and dancing than sitting around running pie-eating animations.

Oh, did I mention there was snow?  YES!  One night when a bunch of us were sitting around at Sky and Scottie's bar, 'Cuffs, Ms. Kimika Yang pulled a snow machine of of her inventory.  At the time there was still a serious heatwave going on in the United States, and it was fun diversion to be sitting in a room where it was snowing.  I decided then that I would buy one of the snow machines and put it out at my party.

So last night when I put out the snow machine, I realized that the particle effects were much too small for such a large hall.  But when I turned around, Nat had piled snow up all around, and there flakes were falling throughout the hall.

We had a marvelous snowball fight, lots of dancing and goofing around.  We broke in Ms. Lia's Liberty Hall (without actually breaking anything), and generally had a good time.  I couldn't have asked for a better rezday.

Edward Pearse, in his DJ booth.

(Incidentally, I was unable to lob a snowball

up and over his booth. Lucky for him!)

 Rowdy fun in the snow. 

That's me holding a snowball in the foreground.

Rolling, spinning, and dancing in the snow.

Jed and Kimika sharing a slow dance while Scottie and Sky goof around.

(Oh, sure, they were probably dancing, but doesn't it look like they're playing?)

Michael O'Mainin dancing.  He was a lot of fun!

Vic, Hono, and Lia, dancing.
(And an igloo...where did that come from?!)



 Jed came over to shoot the breeze later on, I stayed up too late, and woke up early for Breakfast in Babbage this morning.  This month's theme was Spies!  As soon as the theme was announced last month, I knew who I would dress as:  Mata Hari.  I've been fascinated with her for a long time, to such a degree that there are two pictures of her in Ruthorford House.  Even though I doubt she was really a spy, she was executed as one, so she counts as a spy in my book (at least for the purposes of a spy party...)  Anyway, there were some great costumes this morning, and two hours of sneaky spy theme music!

New friends!

I was in and out of world a number of times yesterday.  Attempting to focus on a short story that occurs in New Babbage, I kept finding myself needing to go check out something or other in the city in order to maintain continuity.  This, of course, would lead to distractions and I ended up spending more time in the city than working on my story.  *sheepish*

On one such interval in the city, Master Nathaniel Lorefield introduced himself.  He was working on a house in the Academy square as I walked by.  I was headed into the Academy of Industry building and somehow managed to walk right past the house without really registering that it was something new.  We chatted for awhile about his build, and he asked if I'd yet seen the sewers.  Thinking I had, since I'd seen the area beneath city hall I said yes, but didn't know about an empty space beneath the square.  We went down to check it out and then spent some time walking through the tunnels.

I was amazed at just how extensive the system is.  When we reached water too deep to wade, since I can't swim (yet), he rezzed a raft and rowed us through.  We traveled like this all the way up to the Palisades train station, and I must say - for someone who is familiar with the sewer system, it was much quicker than walking.

At some point in the evening I parked myself in my house while working on my story, and was surprised by a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Melnik - Scotty and Sky.  They came to the house for the express purpose of paying a visit, which I found immensely kind.  We lounged comfortably in the sitting room for a good long time, drinking tea and plotting world domination.

Okay, so maybe not the world domination part, but I felt that we got along famously. They're fun people, and I look forward to seeing them in-world more often.

I've been spending more time in Caledon Kittiwickshire.  Matthieu and I ended up sitting in the cottage there for awhile last night, but earlier in the day I went alone.  I feel that this snapshot captures almost entirely my reasons for wanting the property: