Magic Kingdom shenanigans

Woohoo, made it to Florida! Navigated the airport all by myself and didn't die! And only got a little bit lost. Oops, that's a secret.

And guess what. The house we're staying in, Castle Camelot, has a sword in it.

 In fact, all the decor is very nice. Still need to take pictures of my room. It's chuck full of fairies. I really would have loved it when I was a kid.

Check out the backyard. There's a swimming pool in it. And a lake. Because that's not redundant or stuff.

My grandma has already taken over the coffee table for puzzling. After we finished the edge, there were so many pieces left for the middle that we decided it must be bigger on the inside.

House. It's a pretty sweet place.

Then we finally got out the door and waddled off to Disneyworld! And of course we arrived in the middle of a crazy street party and were forced to duck into the nearest restaurant for very expensive sandwiches.

After we'd enjoyed our noms and watched Hatter making very good use of his swirly coattails on his float in the square, we headed for Tomorrowland. Lookit, there's me with some spacethings.

SPAAAAAAAACE!!! We didn't ride this thingy, but we thought it was cool anyway.

And then I purchased this fantastic hat. And I would have worn it all day, too, but it has this hideous chinstrap and what I really needed was a couple of hairpins. By the way, I looked it up, and apparently the 10/6 card on the Hatter's hat is a price tag for ten shilling sixpence.

We did Space Mountain, and we both screamed our heads off, I woulda done it a bunch more times, but Brennie wanted to move on. So. Random castle picture time!

Onward to Adventureland. There's my awkward brother. He's at the age where he's all gawky limbs and enormous feet.

The Swiss Family Robinson tree house was friggen awesome. I want to live there when I grow up.

They had an organ in there. Dude.

'Sup. Just chillin' in mah tree house.

Pretty.

The Crow's Nest has a stunning view of the rest of Adventureland.

The kitchen. A classy affair, to be sure.

I always wanted a tree house when I was a kid, and I never had one. Makes me sad. My kids are having a tree house. They will get no say in the matter. I'm just gonna build them one. And if they don't want it, I'll live in it myself.

Cute little bazaar. And my brother, stuffing his face as usual. I don't think he stopped eating even once the entire day.

Look, it's Captain Jack Sparrow. The actor had the swagger down pretty good.

The gift shop outside the PotC ride had some nice stuff. I purchased this pistol. And my brother is a terrible photographer - why do I look demonic all of a sudden?

We also did the jungle river tour, which was a nice break from walking.

I was a huge fan of the animatronic elephants.

On the way to Fantasyland, we were unable to cross the road because they were having another parade. I didn't mind, though, because they had Peter Pan, Alice, and Hatter on the same float. I was so busy watching them that I forgot to take a picture until they'd already passed, so here's the backs of their heads.

We took a quick jaunt through Fantasyland, but didn't stop for the Haunted Mansion or the Peter Pan ride because Brennie was getting irritable. But we did pass the Tangled tower! Want.

More pretty.

Dragged Brennie on the teacups. He pretended not to enjoy it, but I know he did, 'specially once we got it spinning.

And then he pooped out on me, so it was back to the house with our loot.

All around, it was a marvelous day and I could have stayed until closing instead of coming back at dinnertime. I'd still like to go back sometime in the next few days and catch the rides we missed. And go shopping some more. So much cool stuff. I loved seeing all the little girls in gowns. Man, I wish they sold adult-sized princess dresses. I'd be all over the Rapunzel dress so fast. Anyways, I think we're doing Universal Studios tomorrow, and I hear all the best rides are there, so that oughta be great.

Now I'm gonna go scrounge dinner and maybe play some more Unreal Tournament with the bro on the PS2 in his bedroom. Because this house is just that awesome.

Oh, and I hope my dorm is still standing when I get back. Apparently, Regular Ordinary Kildahl Mealtime has involved katanas and flaming toasters so far. Can't wait to hear what they get up to on the morrow.

OH OH OH, and that reminds me, we had an Avatar marathon after the Great Con final and finished the last season. EHRMAHGERD, it was so mind-blowing. Fire flying everywhere, and feels, and then awesome bending, and more feels, and epicness, and just holy crap. So wonderful.

Commander Kip
"My first girlfriend turned into the moon." "That's rough, buddy."
Normal is overrated!

Dude.

This. My brother just sent me a link to this. THIS, YOU GUYS. It's happening. It's a thing!



You don't even know how excited I am. Although, what's up with Jace's British accent? Oh well, it's sexy and I don't care. This movie is gonna be awesome. Jaaaace!!

Just had to freak out about that for a minute. Now back to the friggen Jesus paper.

Commander Kip
"I have awesome hair today." "Yes, you do. It's like sex hair, but without the sex."
Normal is overrated!

With my freeze ray

I will STOP the world

With my freeze ray I will

Find the time to find the words to

Tell you how

How you make

Make me feel

What's the phrase

Like a fool

Kinda sick

Special needs

Anyway

Thank you ever so much, Brenticus, for making this shirt possible. It's pretty fantastic.

I said I was gonna, and I did.

On another subject, this is Rasputin. Say hi!

Matt was a lifesaver on this one because he let me steal a bunch of his rubber bands and paper clips with which to string the little bugger. Hurray for boyfriends who conveniently let you steal their stuff!

 Rasputin was my final project in 3D Art. We had to make a "performed object" and perform it in front of the class. I made this awkward gargoyle thing and made him jump around for a while until he looked like this:

Yes, he exploded at the end. But he had a good life. It's okay. At least I didn't take Leif's suggestion and give him a gigantic penis. That would have been silly.

So, right now, there's too much Great Con happening to think about much else, but we have managed to finish Season 2 of Avatar, and the finale was epic and depressing, and apparently we're gonna have to do all of Season 3 basically in one sitting because once you start you can't stop. So that'll be happening after the Great Con final next Wednesday.

Some of us have also found time to start up a Kildahl D&D campaign on Sunday afternoons. You'll be hearing about my new character. Her name is Valandra, previously known as Exhibit 39, and she's a hippie wind elemental with sort of a "don't step on the grass" attitude. In D&D-speak, she's a Genasi Warden who was kidnapped by fortune hunters and sold to an arcane academic facility, where she was imprisoned and studied for several hundred years, watching the creatures in the cages around her getting hauled off for dissection. She eventually escaped by turning herself into a shifting whirlwind of sand and pouring through the keyhole of her cage. Now she's joined up with our ragtag band of adventurers on her way to find the sacred grove she had sworn to protect. I suspect if she runs into those fortune hunters, she wouldn't be averse to taking a few chunks out of them, but we'll see. For the record, I'mma always play tanks from now on. It's fantastic. I do actual damage when I hit stuff. I love it. Although it is weird to have such a low Charisma stat - Ileana could seduce her way in and out of anything, but Valandra can barely keep up a civil conversation. Should be interesting. Good thing we have a sexy Cleric on the team, as well as a Dragonborn with ridiculous Charisma. We'll just leave the seducing to them, I suppose.

Back to the friggen Jesus paper! Hurray, Jesus paper. *dies*

Commander Kip
"I do hope I'm interrupting something."
Normal is overrated!

procrastination!

I'm doin' it! I should be reading Cicero right now. And I will be reading Cicero very shortly, but first, have a few doodly bits.

Anastasia

Anabeth slicin' up some spiderwebs in Mark of Athena

a pretty chick

Dr. Horrible color test

an elf lad with strange hair

more wonky hair

Ivy Dale from the steamverse mess

Genesis Pike, holding... something?

baaaaaangs

some kid whose name is probably Paco

a few faces

Holly Short, elfin badass

Sokka from Avatar sulking about his lack of cool powers

Mmkay, back to ze Great Conz. Later, all.

Oh, and Downton Abbey is killing me, just for the record. I have a few more episodes left in Season Two. Last night I ended up crying on Anna's floor yet again because FEELS. How can we care so much about people who are (a. not real and (b. perfect idiots? Because they're gorgeous perfect idiots, that's why.

Commander Kip
"If it loses, we eats it whole." *beatific smile*
Normal is overrated!

birthday, hobbitgasm, & other news

All right. It is actually, officially, and unfortunately my birthday. I'm getting sick of aging now. Can't I just be nineteen indefinitely? That would be a pretty nice indefinite age. 

So, I've seen the Hobbit twice, once at school and once at home. And OH. EM. GEE. I can't even. What. It is so friggen fantastic. Check it out, there's my friend Elinor in front of the hobbit door at the theater.

I shall make sure to always sit next to Leif in movies now, because the entire time he kept flapping his hands and whisper-shrieking things like "HOBBITGASM" and "DWARFGASM" and "ELFGASM" and "WIZARDGASM" in my ear. It was the greatest. But seriously, have you seen Thorin's FACE? He has, like, the best nose ever. He comes in the door of Bag End and he's all like "I am Thorin Oakenshield" and I'm all like "Good gracious. Since when are dwarves allowed to be hot?" Apparently, ever since Thorin and Kili showed up onscreen. Who'd 'a thunk?

Remember that snippet-of-a-thing I showed you several posts back? This was the thing. It's a forty-foot Smaug made out of cardboard and zip ties, jointly created by my sculpture class for the Hobbit-themed dinner in the Caf. Boy, did we have a blast putting that beast together.

There he is lookin' saucy amidst the Caf tables.

Hello, handsome. My art professor stuck a fog machine in his schnoz.

And there's me in my elf costume. Classy, I know. See, I knew I'd have a use for my pointsy earses in college!

Also, we had a bit of snow on campus right before finals week. Anna, JC Aly, Lil'nea and I built a snowman. The snowsquirrel on his head was Anna's idea, and a brilliant one at that. We also had a pretty epic snowfight once the rest of Kildahl got back from lunch. Lol, I think I had a studio class that morning that I didn't warm up for because I was too busy playing in the snow. Also didn't eat lunch, but that's nothing new. That's Aly in the picture. She's spectacular.

More snow pictures.

Because we live on a hill and the winds are of the prevailing variety, every snowman on campus was listing rather severely by midday.

We also went midnight sledding on appropriated Caf trays and acquired a nice assortment of minor (and less minor) injuries. Poor Sarah went home with a concussion and missed all her finals. Nothing that drastic happened to me, although I did come down with a cold.

Got a Barnes & Noble gift certificate for my birthday and spent it on pretty books, including The Fire Ascending and Rain and Fire by Chris D'Lacey and Princess Academy: Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale. I also discovered that there are apparently six more Merlin books (T.A. Barron) that I didn't know about, released after the original five? What? Can has?! Anywhoo, I continue to sneak more books back to college by wrapping them in clothes and stuffing them waaaay down in the suitcase. It's the bringing them back home in the summer that's going to cause problems, because I'll clearly have way more than I initially took with me in the fall. Whatever, we'll deal with that later. Oh, I'm reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell at the moment, in anticipation of seeing the movie eventually, and it's pretty fantastic. I'm enjoying the timeskips rather, although not so much the devastating cliffies.

In other, less celebratory news, my poor dear dog died two days before Christmas. It was sudden and horrible. None of us were expecting it. The emergency vet said it was probably an internal blockage, as if he swallowed something and it completely stoppered up his guts. In other words, his own dumb fault. He was whiny and smelly and stupid, but I'll miss the wooly lunatic all the same. He loved us. We loved him. Even my dad admitted it.

Back to cheerier fare. The Doctor Who Christmas special was, in a word, fantastic. I made the questionable decision of watching the tail end of Angels Take Manhattan right beforehand because that's what was on the channel, and I definitely watched the first few minutes of The Snowmen through a wretched trickle Pond-related tears. Also, disillusioned Eleventh Doctor is so very painful to watch. But Clara is gorgeous and cheeky and awesome, so it's all good. Lady Arin paid me a visit yesterday, and I was delighted to discover that college has transformed her into a true Whovian, hurray! And she also watched Smith before Tennant, because we're sisters and that's how we do.

Hokay, off to do birthday things. My goals today are to finish Cloud Atlas and play through Portal. We'll see how far I get.

Commander Kip
"It's smaller on the outside!" "Now, that is a first."
Normal is overrated!

Merry Hannukwanzmas!



Hey dere, peeps! Sorry for vanishing during the hollydays; finals happened, then break. I fail at internetting. Anyways, Anabeth and Thaelen want to wish you a merry Christmas, if you celebrate that sort of thing. And even if you don't. 

 

 

Do note that they're both wearing clothes. That's gotta be a first for them. Lol.

Break has been all right so far. There's been good stuff and bad stuff, but I'm gonna save all that for later. It's Christmas, and that's nice, so everything else can wait till later.

You're all fabulous. I don't think I say it enough, but you really are.

Also, guess what I'm going to my grandma's house to watch this evening? DOCTOR FREAKING WHO, that's what. Should be pretty great.



Off to chill with mah family. Later!

Commander Kip
"If it loses, we eats it whole."
Normal is overrated!

Captain Ripley's Portable Steam-Powered Communicator

Made this little beauty for class. The assignment was to make a product that would fit in one of those environmentally unfriendly plastic packages and create packaging to advertise that product. With my usual tendency towards over-complication and shenanigans, I made up an entire kid's tv show about steampunk aerial antics called Ripley's Dirigible Adventure and created a "prop" from the show. You know how they sell Thor's hammer and Hawkeye's bow in stores as kid toys? This is like that. Also, I made it out of found objects and Apoxy, because that's how I roll.  

So that was a fun assignment. Now, to practice. My jury's tomorrow. *freaking out*

Also, I'm just a ball of bruises from sledding. I have bruises on top of my bruises. It's spectacular.

Commander Kip
*garbled attempt at speech* "Yes, I English well." *mimes stabbing self* "Augh, right in the grammar!"
Normal is overrated!

beginning to look

a lot like CRHEESTMAAAS around here!!

(Okay, that was cheating, those last two pictures are from like before Thanksgiving, but it's snowing again as I speak and there will be pictures of it later. It's a lot more legit this time. Like, I spent my morning hurling snowballs at my friends and getting pelted in return kind of legit.)

Speaking of Thanksgiving, we took this picture right before everyone left for break:

Starting with the lanky dude on the left, this is Matt the boyfriend, me, Christopher the endearing one, Tim who is good at life, Mads the French one, and Phil of the magic hands. There are more influential Kildahlians, of course, but they didn't make it back from class in time to be in the picture.

For example, here's one: Josh the kilted Jedi. (Somehow, a good chunk of Kildahl's residents own ultrasabers now. Because we're that cool.)

Anna the wife. She was buried in a Great Con paper at the time.

A box containing the boyfriend, who was hiding from math homework at the time. He's very foldy.

 Speaking of cardboard boxes, we're doing a thing in art class and it's going to be awesome. More pics of that later.

Last night was our last session of D&D this semester, and the end of the campaign. And I am so furious. My character exploded! And it wasn't even a heroic death. Okay, so there was this guy, Gravelord Nito, who convinced us to help him fight the Ancient Horrors that were threatening to take over the world. Nito needed Arturus to use his necromantic powers, and half of us were like heck no and half of us were like why not, so we did as he asked. Consequently, we did get to use some of our old enemies as soul sacrifices, which involved Ileana finally getting to punch that stupid brain surgeon in the face a few times, but then Arturus turned into a portal and started spewing minions everywhere, except we didn't know they were minions. We thought they were Lesser Horrors, because that's what the DM told us. Because he's a liar. But anyway, Alaura had the Stone of Ultimate Lightness or whatever, basically the Holy Hand Grenade, and she was refusing to throw it because she wasn't convinced that all the Horrors had emerged from the portal yet, so Ileana used her badass amber blood powers to stop time for ten seconds, grab the grenade from Alaura, and wipe out all the minions, potentially saving several people's lives. But then the actual Horrors started coming out and we'd used our only weapon. So Makazee and Boobs McGee both turned into dragons and started squashing the actual Horrors, and there was much sloshing around of Goblin Gear Greaser and just barrels of it flying everywhere, and then suddenly we were surrounded by Greater Horrors and everybody started dying. Boobs McGee went down first, and Tyler blew himself up in the same turn because he was her Rider and he didn't want to live without her. Makazee committed suicide and squashed a bunch of Horrors with his huge dead dragon corpse, and then in the very next turn Ileana (who had 78 hit points) took over a hundred damage and also exploded, taking out five Greater Horrors with her. This was after blowing an Encounter on switching places with Arturus-the-portal, thinking that she could use the portal as a shield, or possibly turn into the portal, but no. She just exploded and that was that. Basically, our party lost miserably, the Horrors took over the world and terrorized everyone for five billion years, and the thri kreen were only able to resist them because apparently they stole some of Ileana's amber blood while she was unconscious during the last session. Rude. Alaura was really the only one who survived in her original state. She got to go get married to Gavin and live in his secret tower and have adorable children and lead the resistance while the Horrors were doing a number on the rest of the world, Makazee was resurrected as a Dragon Horror in charge of several demonic legions and gave her and the resistance no end of trouble. Arturus, meanwhile, continued to be the portal for the remainder of the five billion years, at the end of which he regained his true Shardmind form and found himself the only magic-user left alive in the entire world. He then ruled as immortal emperor for the next five billion years. And Tyler and Ileana were just exploded in the corner because they friggen drank too much Goblin Gear Greaser. It was terribly unfair, and basically it was a reenactment of the last fight scene in Avengers, except there was no way to blow up the portal. Trust me, we tried.

So poor Ileana is dead. In this campaign, anyway. I might resurrect her for other purposes if I feel like it - she was a blast to play, and her amber powers still have potential.

Now, finals. Better go deal with those.

Commander Kip
Skeletons: Only in D&D to you have to specify whether they're dead.
Normal is overrated!

screamy face

Forgot about this one too! It's Thaelen, being his usual melodramatic self. What a surprise.

One more day of Christmas Fest! Then back to regularly scheduled life. My boyfriend was ushering last night, so he got to hear the concert, which was nice. My family's listening to the audio stream today. *kettlesquee* Christmas!!!

Dude, Friday night was marvelous. I was up until 3am geeking out and talking about superheroes with five other dudes in the basement lounge. I missed this. Yay.

And then last night was marvelous as well because I more or less finished Chapter 5 of Birthright! It's come to the point where the premeditated plot has dissolved entirely and I'm just letting the characters run the show. We'll see how that goes.

Off to read some Job. Later, peeps.

Oh, oh, and Anna made me the best Christmas present evar because she's awesome and she loves me. I CAN'T WAIT TO SHOW YOU GUYS. There will be pictures. Count on it.

Commander Kip
"Hang on, I need to go take off my cupcake." "Your choir robe?" "No, my cupcake."
Normal is overrated!