Wednesday, July 29, 2009

The Garden of Da Vinci (part 3)


Remember the curious structure in the picture of us hugging on the island? Well, it was a rocket ship. Yes, you heard me: a rocket ship. This IS the Garden of Da Vinci after all. It was a rocket ship to Mars, so we took it. Saying goodbye to earth, we set off for the skies once again to explore the red planet.


We tooled around the planet in the cutest little land rover, and then after making sure we had a landmark so we could return to this remarkable place, we took the ship back home.


I remember seeing a Jules Verne like submarine on the ocean floor, so I am sure we will be back very soon to visit this amazing place.

The Garden of Da Vinci (part 2)


After a very peaceful ride (I didn't end up in the water once, thanks to Tori's unusually careful handling of the boat) we arrived safely at a tropical island where we hugged for a few minutes and watched a whale cavort in the waves. Look over our heads for a glimpse of the whale. Note the curious structure in the left background. I will talk about that a little later.


Then we took a magic carpet ride way up into the clouds where we discovered a fabulous desert oasis with a huge tent that contained four smaller pavilions with curtains that could be drawn closed for privacy. You could change the radio to any one of several Middle Eastern stations and refreshments consisting of beer and green tea were available. Outside the tent was a snake that you could charm and another magic carpet which I tried to pilot. What fun that was!


The Garden of Da Vinci (part 1)

I knew I was in for either trouble or a great time when Tori started changing clothes. I mean, he donned a purple tee shirt and green sweat pants with black & orange engineer boots AND a checkered hat with a teapot pouring tea! I immediately insisted he changed the boots. Then he challenged me to dress wacky! So I put on a fluffy green mini skirt, an orange blouse, purple tights and red engineer boots. I had a matching hat, so I wore that too. Then he said: To the Zoo! Imagine our disappointment to find the zoo closed. We were all dressed up with no place to go. Not to worry, he had Plan B ready. "Dress Renaissance" he said. But then he put on a lovely 17th century baroque outfit complete with powdered wig. Not to be outdone, I matched him (I just love picking up random bargains) and donned my own curled and powdered wig. The carriage he sent for me arrived at a fantastic castle in the Garden of Da Vinci. What an amazing build. Be careful when you traverse the drawbridge! It can land you in the moat or the dungeon! The castle itself has three stories and lots of famous tapestries including parts of the Bayeux tapestry and several with the lion and unicorn on them which pleased Tori, of course.


After a few unsuccessful attempts to rez a working barge, Tori found a gondola in the lower depths of the castle and took me a boat ride. Along the way we saw primitive cave drawings and lovely scenery.





Monday, July 27, 2009

Busy Sunday (part 2)

Before the wedding festivities were over, I hurried home to Eirini and shape-shifted back to human. A friend of Tori had asked us to produce a video of her and her boy friend dancing to "The Way You Look Tonight." I spent about an hour on Saturday picking just the right dances to match the soft quiet mood of the song and was pleased with what I had chosen. Tori spent some time with her On Sunday morning choosing the right atmosphere, changing the texture on my dance floor (which was wood so I could practice on it) and generally cleaning up the area. He even made the flower pot into a "dance anywhere" remote so nothing ugly would intrude on the mood. Then the big problem was where would I put my dance ball (he said in the ground and I said NO WAY) and where I would stand so I would be out of the way as I drove the dances. I finally placed the dance ball on the patio where it would be safe and stood down on the beach which ws close enough for me to cam on the couple as they danced. Two and a half hours later (yeah, I was tired, but Tori was probably exhausted) he had enough footage to make a video. I am looking forward to seeing the finished product. I had a peek at the first 42 seconds he made - and it is so romantic I had tears streaming down my face. And I know his friend was happy because she told me about it! This is a cropped screen shot from raw video footage.


After the filming was over, Tori and I went to our favorite dance place to be alone and talk for about 30 minutes before he logged off and then I logged off to nap until my evening performance.

Busy Sunday (part 1)

I can remember when my Sundays were days to laze around, reading books and waiting for Tori to meet me and for my evening show. Well, yesterday was one of the busiest, but most rewarding, days of my life. It began with a wedding at 10 AM SLT. Another small fae and I were flower girls. Our job was to scatter white petals from our flower baskets and try to stay out of trouble. Which we mostly managed to do, but we were pretty bored at rehearsal on Saturday and I almost fell asleep. The bride was a beautiful fairy in white and her groom was a very handsome elf. It was an inter-racial marriage, but the only person who seemed to be unhappy about it was Linwe, the elf race leader. I personally have a preference for a male elf, so I am hoping Linwe doesn't find out and get upset with me. (I just love the shiny thing my elf gave me to wear. He says it is a human custom.) Anyway, the fae and elf race leaders both spoke at the wedding and addressed the couple. Linwe wrote the most beautiful poem for them. (She is a bard.) And the minstrel Swith (who had found a dress to wear instead of the rags she usually has on) played on her lute. Of course, I just had to dance 'cause Swith plays such beautiful music, so I invited everyone to join me. The cake was beautiful too, my piece was full of blue butterflies. Here is a picture of me in my flower girl dress. Xavia and I were so cute!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

A day in the life of a fae


Ever wonder what faeries do in the morning? I usually start out by thinking. Sometimes I sit on the top of a well.


Sometimes I sit on a mushroom.


And sometimes I sit in the eagles nest.


But those nests are pretty dirty, so then I have to take a bath.


After that, I like to fly around in the forest. But you have to be careful of the wild animals such as this boar.



You need to be quick because the deer like to chase you and knock into you.


But I sometimes meet up with friends, such as Etoile Soulstar. She is the cutest faun I know and likes to giggle and be silly as much as I do.


All that thinking and flitting and playing makes me very hungry so I look for something sweet to eat. The tavern always has fresh fruit and respberry pie. Doesn't it look yummy?


Of course, eating so much food makes me very sleepy so I look for my favorite flower and take a nap til lunchtime!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Mellow Blues

Tulsa's girl Feenix was online last night, so I gave him the night off. He brought her out to Blues on the Beach anyway, and it was great to see and hear him enjoying himself with her. I have spoken with her a couple of times and her humour is a perfect foil for his. I like her a lot. I sent out my usual "I need a date" notice, with the result that I have a partner for Thursday night dances (and I think he will be a regular, I will have to check.) But last night I danced with the DJ! I got lost in the music a few times and kept forgetting to switch dances (/me makes sad face here) but I had a lovely time. Winston's mix seemed to be a little more evenly balanced between slow and mid tempo this week and that suited me just fine. I love his selection of blues - in fact I have been "following" him for a long time, even trying to go out and dance/listen to him when he did sets at The Pink Rose. He is West Coast, so his sets tend to be late for me. Last night was no exception. With a little encouragement he can be induced to run over and it was 12.30 AM EST before I logged off with the result that I am very tired but happy. I apologize for the lack of pictures, but I rarely remember to take photos when I am working. If you have never been to one of Winston's blues sets, I advise you to try. They are perfect for mellowing out....

Friday, July 10, 2009

SL Woes

I have been struggling with serious SL troubles over the last couple of weeks. In most sims, everything I type in OC or IM is doubled. Whenever I pay for anything, the transaction occurs twice. Group notices are sent out double, too. When I try to rez anything that is copy, it rezzes twice. Dressing is nearly impossible. System clothes (shirt, pants, skirt, undergarment layers) usually do not load until I relog. Prim clothes either try to load twice - or not at all, in which case I have to choose each piece individually. To make things worse, my home sim is one of the sims that is affected. Fortunately, Linri has been allowing me to dress in her bridal house. And let's not talk about duplicate menus dropping down when I choose dances. SL is quickly becoming NO FUN at all. I really will be glad when LL has discovered what the problem is. As of this blog they are monitoring my av again. We have tried numerous things at my end of the connection and nothing seems to help. I even called the ISP and had them reset the connection at their end, with no improvement. And of course, they are clueless. OK Rant over....

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Fireworks on Capital Hill


Yesterday was Independence Day and Tori and I went in search of fireworks. I searched and found an entry in Showcase: Celebrate the 4th of July, Canada Day or any special occasion with friends and a firework show in Second Life. What a disappointment to find this was a shop and there were no samples or demonstrations to be had. We then tp'd to another club advertising the existence of fireworks, but the fireworks machine appeared to be broken. Finally, Tori located a place called the Capitol Hill South with a promise of continual fireworks. We arrived on a vast green lawn that reminded me of the park my parents always took us to so we could watch the fireworks show on the Fourth of July. We located some folding chairs, settled in and proceeded to see some amazing particles. And the timing was perfect; just as we settled in I began to hear the boom from my RL city's celebration! I remembered to take some pictures. I hope you enjoy them.




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