I found myself.

Okay, I think maybe a handful of people are wondering why I've dropped off the face of the earth for the past couple of months. It's not your imagination. I just realized I had an unfinished post I'd set to private for when I could finish it... from JULY 11. Yeah.

Explanations... well, nothing specific. Work has been CRAZY for the past three months. And, as I've mentioned before, I started the fall semester.

This time, I'm taking two classes, six credits' worth of work.

And I'm working full-time.

Every time I sit down to blog lately, or read through more than two posts on the friends list, no matter where or when, something else comes up.

I'm not dead, and I'm hanging in there. I'm mostly on top of things right now, but it's a very very very big stack of things that needs more time than I have.

Until things clear up...

Happy birthday, jennies!

I'd like to apologize to the friends list for cocooning for so long. I will try to remedy this in the near future.

Meant to post this yesterday, but allergies, cleanup and thunderstorms delayed it.

Otakon was fun and busy; I spent a lot of time running around the Artists' Alley trying to find artists I knew and hanging out at jennies and indigoangelcat's table. Passed Caroline Curtis' booth five times before I found her (she was right up front, figures), and stumbled across Garth Graham with a surprised squeal of "Hey! You're here!" and got him, Aido and Mookie to sign the copy of "City Limits" I picked up.

A lot more people identified my costume this year, and I actually ran into the one other person cosplaying as Yukino Miyazawa in slumming mode (she had a Peropero!) so we had to get our picture taken together. (My camera did survive this time around, thankfully.) I also discovered that the costume could quite easily be mistaken for the teacher in Gokusen since the outfit, hair and glasses were very similar. Fortunately, the guy who told me this could read my patch and verified that I did copy the name "Miyazawa" reasonably well from my DVDs.

I went moderately nuts in the Dealers' Room - not so much as I did in 2004 but I wasn't as cheap as I was in '05. I think I wound up spending more time in the Artists' Alley than anywhere else; I only really went to three viewings (Ouran High School Host Club, the Fullmetal Alchemist movie premiere and the AMV contest).

Also, for those who are curious, the rumors are untrue - Otakon 2007 is going to be in Baltimore, on the weekend of July 20-22. That's going to be an interesting birthday, let me tell you... and maybe, just maybe it won't coincide with the worst heat wave of the year. :)

But anyway, I feel compelled to wrap this up with a list:

( Things I've Learned From Going to Otakon )

Okay, need to finish cleaning things, company tomorrow... *runs off*

Had a great birthday yesterday, spent the afternoon today attacking the jungle of my yard and organizing stuff, but wanted to stop for a second to show the best birthday card ever, courtesy of jennies:

( Who let Beak into the kitchen to begin with? )

I'm kind of afraid of what sort of cake Beak would have produced had he succeeded. (Go see Bob Kiwi and Company if you want to really get the joke. You know you want to.)

I am so going to frame this. :)

*pauses mid-mad scramble to get stuff squared away*

So violetbloom and I are taking off tomorrow for Cleveland, and when I get back, I'll have finally met kevenn and (hopefully if we can get our acts together) fikgirl. *bounce*

*hurries off to find missing sandal*

Six hours' work. Two water heaters (because the first one we bought leaked).

But now I have a working water heater.

To my cousin Mike - you rock.

*thud*

Discovered when I was trying to leave the mall this afternoon that something was embedded in my front left tire. After getting the tire patched at the service center right there, I was very surprised when they told me just WHAT had punctured the tire.

A pen cap.

A silver pen cap punched through my car's tire.

Insert "The pen is mightier..." joke here.

Got this link from greenbaron and HAD to pass it on to the friends list:

If you didn't take 'Beware of Cat' seriously before...

*snicker* Twice, no less!

(Edit: In case the news story expires when you see this, the full text can be found at Tarazet.)

If you haven't been checking in at thegeekstatus, the Geek Forums are back up. For the moment. (I say that because I don't want to jinx it.)