Just got back from the San Diego Comic-Con and it was (in the words of Dr. Who) FANTASTIC! My travel party consisted of myself, Clay (my hub) and Terry (College roommate of Clay). The trip started out with a good omen...none other than the great Wookiee himself, Chewbacca, (Peter Mayhew) was on our flight out to San Diego. To the right was Terry's reaction to having Chewie on our flight:
Another good omen? The lady with the three kiddos, (ages 1,2&3) sat no where near us. We landed about 5 minutes ahead of schedule and got our luggage and hopped a bus to get our rent car. The car we got was a 2007 Nissan Altima and it was nice! Our Enterprise helper, "Randy" sweetly bullied me into the extra insurance..."It's only $8.95 per day and will cover what your insurance won't..." I know, I know, I'm a sucker. Off to check in at the Sheraton Suites, Symphony Hall
Our room was awesome! Anyway, we dropped out things off and, since Terry is a big fan of In-N-Out Burger
we were on a mission to find and conquer the elusive "Double-Double". And Conquer we did! Yumm-o! Terry must have known the secret handshake to order "off-menu", cause he came to the table with this double, cheese, grilled onion and bacon topped burger with matching fries! I didn't get a double-double, but the cheeseburger I had was way delish! I did conquer the chocolate milkshake...
With our tummies filled, our next mission was the Comic-Con Preview Night. We hopped the shuttle to the convention center to pick up our official San Diego Comic-Con 4-Day Badges. (the crowd goes wild) To our utter shock, there must have been 10,000 people there. Usually at Preview night, there are maybe 2,000...the place was packed! It was like Saturday at the con in previous years. I was fearful of what Saturday was going to be like. Anyway, Clay was able to get his hard-back edition of Absolute Authority signed by his idol, Warren Ellis.
Clay is still walking on air about that one.

I'm really excited because the one comic that I have followed for the past 10 years is Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore...and he was there, with the final issue of the book (sad). Needless to say, I bought the book and he was nice enough to sign it for me. I have most of his graphic novels and they are all signed by terry Moore himself. I love this book and it's characters...they are real people that you can relate to. I recommend this to anyone just getting into comics, or anyone who is in to comics but wants a change. (especially the she-gender)

Okay, this will have to do for now, as I took an Ambien to try to get back onto my normal sleep schedule and it is now kicking in. I'm not finished yet, but I'll post what I have and add to it tomorrow.

toodles

Okay, so went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix over the weekend...LOVED IT!
But then I knew that I would. I've enjoyed all of the movies...I'm one of the n3rds that has read all of the books like 5 times. In the movie there are several "flash-backs" showing Harry in all the previous years at Hogwarts. I liked that-wow has he grown up. He has his "first kiss" in the movie and that kiss didn't look like any "first kiss" to me! You expect a first kiss to be a quick peck on the lips. This was one of those perfect (no tongue) long kisses, that's not really just one kiss, but several long kisses. Who's first kiss was like that? Not mine that's for sure! My first kiss was with David Tung, in a session of Spin the Bottle. Poor David, I was that person in a group that NOBODY wants to kiss. They just let me play cause I was part of the group. My kiss with David was tight-lipped and a nano-second long. It was more like a facial collision in the general area of my lips. It left me bruised in more way than one.

I'm starting to focus on getting ready for a San Diego vacation. I'm a major "List" person. I make lists for everything I do...I tend to micro-manage. I know I am this way, so I take full responsibility and don't expect anyone else to do it "my way" or really even to lift a finger. I do it all. I've started my packing list. I have a "Loli List" and a "Clay List", as well as a list for the grocery store for groceries for Spen, who is house sitting for us and a separate list for things I need from the store for our trip. Each list is done in outline form. Everything is totally organized...
I'm sick, aren't I? Each item is checked marked when it is actually packed, the re-checked after the list is gone over one last time before closing the suitcase. Every item should end up with an "X" next to it. I know it's weird, but I HAVE to do it this way. I guess I suffer a bit from OCD...you think?

Clay is in the other room right now watching "Victoria Beckham-Coming to America". I sat and watched for a bit...lifestyles of the rich and famous. Curiosity got the best of him, I think. He has this obsession with David Beckham. It's not like his "Man-Crush" on Jack Bauer or Bruce Willis, but it's up there. Oh, wait, he just called out to me that he's about to watch the "Scott Baio" reality show....He thinks he's "The Man" cause Scott's bedded most of the hottest women in Hollywood..........BOYS!

Well, my World of Warcraft buddy, Icemilk has left the game for good. Yup that's right, he's throwing in the towel and moving on to bigger and better things. He's reached the pinnacle...He's Level 70, you can't get any higher than that. I'm sad to see him go...

Anyhoo, gotta get back to my lists....

I know you all are wondering about how my WoW character Alagaesia is fairing in the world of Azeroth, so here's the update:

Alagaesia is now level 45 as of yesterday. With major props going out to my pal Icemilk and all of his assistance zipping me through my quests. Ice is a level 70 Gnome Rogue who kicks major arse!
Alas, still no mount...I'm holding out for a black stallion. This means getting Exalted reputation with the human race...still working on that one. (I'm more than halfway there)

The countdown has begun...San Diego Comic-Con in 12 more days! So close and yet so far away. Clay is going crazy with anticipation. I'm not sure I'm going to see very much of him...his schedule sounds pretty full. I had reserved a car so that I could hit the beach, not sure if that is going to work out. My finances are coming up a bit short--"best laid plans" and all. It will totally suck if I don't get a car while out there, I don't think that I can do 4 days of Comic-con. The whole San Diego comic-Con vacation works like this:
Lori = San Diego Clay = Comic-Con.
Usually he leaves for the Con b/4 I wake up, I do my thing, he does his Con-thing, we meet up for dinner, then I do my thing and he does his Con-thing. Repeat 3 more times. I actually go to the Con usually Saturday...but with my bad feet, not sure what I can do....that's a lot of walking.
Don't get me wrong, I love the whole Comic-Con experience, I just don't get out of it what Clay does. He's definitely in "Fanboy Heaven".
Toodles!

Well, all things must pass, so let us mourn the passing of the 2007 World Series of Video Games. May I have a moment of silence please.


Okay, so, I had a blast! We arrived at the Gaylord Texan which is about an hour away from where we live, at about 10:15 am. We pulled up to an army of cars unloading boxes and boxes of computers and paraphernalia. It was a techie convoy. We waited for about 45 minutes in line to check in and get our "Competitor" badges that gave us access to EVERYTHING. Then it was off to find our station in the BYOC area. (Bring Your Own Computer) Got all set up, used a little "Lolivision" to make my space "Lolified". I think that I did pretty good. Like I always say, "There's nothing like a little Hello Kitty to brighten up war, death and destruction." Did a once around the competition and vendor area and settled into the World of Warcraft. There were food vendors present to keep us gamers nourished...Here's our very first meal:
This picture is actual size! Only paid a mere $8.00! What a deal. LOL
We weren't going to compete, but Clay and his bud Beck wanted to give it a try, so, off to compete we did. Our team name was "Smells like Wet Tauren". I know, awesome name. We got a giggle every time someone said it. For those that don't know what a Tauren is: The Tauren are huge bipeds generally bovine in appearance resembling Minotaur of Greek mythology. They weigh, on average, 340 to 500 kilograms (750-1100 lb) and can grow up to 3.65 metres (12 ft) tall. He's one I sketched to give you an idea...
Anyhoo, the competition was in arena style, 3v3. Clay and I had never played arena, since you have to be level 70 to play and we are levels 30 & 44, respectfully. We were approached by another gamer without a team, so he joined ours. The first thing that we had to do is spec our characters. Everyone starts out with a Level 70 character and you just have to decide whether you want to be a warrior, priest, rogue, etc...Everyone gets Epic armor and weapons, we just had to pick our buffs and talents. Then they save your character and we wait for our turn to compete. We played on kick-arse Dell XPS computers! There's a stage set up with play by play and color commentators Looked to be that only the "sponsored" teams got to play the stage, until the finals. Well, the guy we were playing with plays a lot of arena so I was relieved that we weren't going in blind. He thought we should play Warrior, Warrior, Paladin. Which apparently is a sucky way to go...Everyone else was like Warrior, Shadow Priest, Rogue or Shadow Priest, Mage, Rogue. This guy thought that two tanks could do the trick. Well it didn't. Out of 5 potential rounds, we lost the first 3 in, I believe, record time. The up-side is that we made it into the "Losers" round, scheduled for the next day.

I fear that I have over-stimulated (or unstimulated) you with my N3rdy replay of WSVG.
So for now, I bid you adieu.

Loli