For months now I’ve been dodging the subject every time Audra and Miky brought it up. “Are you coming? We’re renting a vehicle! You HAVE to come!” I’d side step it with a brief, “We’ll see!”

After my Skanska USA interview on the Nike off-Campus Business Center, while I was on the MAX heading back into Portland, Audra called me with a funny-funny problem of hers regarding a message she had fired over to the P.I.G. list. After some initial panicking, I was able to sooth her fears to rest and assure her everything was ok. She mentioned she was in town meeting up with Miky at a coffee shop in the Pearl to distribute funds for the Front 242 concert. Since this is in my neighborhood I figured I’d sneakily stop in and bug them. It was cool seeing Miky’s fashion drawings and after Audra ran off to get to work, I walked Miky back to Portland Art Institute and we discussed portfolios, which is something I’ve never really conversed about. It was refreshing.

Still, I hadn’t told anyone that the chance was high I wasn’t going.

So, Friday rolls around and Audra pops into my place really early with a yummy double shot espresso (none of that Americano crap for me! Straight up espresso thank you!) and some doughnuts. We layed around for an hour and half, feeding each other doughnuts and laughed about random shit until I stood up and walked to my balcony to see the evil-evil parking lot attendant ticketing her vehicle. I yelled, and grabbed my jacket as I ran out the door. By the time I had run down to my management office and got the day pass for the tenant loop, and got to her car – he was gone and the $50 ticket was in place. So, I pulled the ticket, plopped the day pass on her dash and headed back up. She was straightening her hair. While I was running around, Miky had shown up. I stuffed the ticket into my pocket and assured Audra that I would take care of it and she shouldn’t worry about it at all. Lynn was on the case!

Then came the moment of truth; I had to break it to both of them I wasn’t going. Miky’s face fell and I dared not look at Audra. I felt so bad, but more so – I felt anger at Portland and how little opportunity there is here.

This was the worse part of my day. Not all the phone calls, CV addendums and cover letter writing, but the look in their faces as I had to tell them.

They started gathering up their stuff and I pulled my 40Gig iPod (Smive) out of its cradle and snapped the iTrip into place. Once we were downstairs in the car, I showed them how to use Smive, I had to say my goodbyes.

Once they left, I ran upstairs and called the parking patrol and got them to clear the ticket (yay). Then I set about working the next job prospect from all angles and then did some much needed groceries and house supplies shopping. I was on the phone pretty much all day pounding the virtual cellular pavement.

Later that night I received a call from the Fenix and it was fireesin calling to say that everyone missed me! Len yelled hello in the background once Audra took over the phone. It was cool hearing from everyone. HI back at everyone! I did miss ya all. I’m sad I missed Derek’s set, he always spins good current stuff!

Audra knocked on my door at 6 this morning after Miky dropped her off. I’m glad everyone got home safe and sound, that’s some dedication to the scene to drive to-and-fro all in the same day and night, just to get back to work the next.

But, of my busy day – that was the worse, having to say goodbye to everyone. I’m not a huge Front 242 fan, but I am a fan of my friends.

DJ Carrion’s Opening Playlist for Front 242 in Seattle:

01. Netz – Zeit
02. Snog – Real Estate Man(Hecq remix)
03. Pail – The Rage of The Angels
04. Analogue Brain – Fly In An Amber
05. Soman – Divine(remix)
06. Reaper – JagD(I-Rec-C2 remix)
07. X-Fusion – Guilty Mass
08. Centhron – Front Angel
09. Unterart – Just You Wait(Feil/Stein)
10. Infekktion – Human Nature(X-Fusion remix)
11. Terrorfakt – Arsenal(E-Craft remix)
12. Genital-A-Tech – Suck Hysteria(Long & Dirty remix)

Unter Null 9:30-10:00pm

Dj Carrion:
13. Solitary Experiments – Fast Forward(Total Rewind)
14. Les Anges De La Nuit – Reborn
15. Lights of Euphoria – One Nation(Le=Rav Vs. Massiv In Mensch remix)
16. Combichrist – Like To Thank My Buddies
17. E-Craft – Gerichtet
18. Powder Pussy – Cryogenic Pussylover

From time to time I’d pull out the camera and snap a pic, but it was mostly dance-dance-dance. Then we moved upstairs to the bar area above. It was all black lit and was playing some awesome Psy-Trance. Was introduced to a friend of Audra’s, then it was dance-dance-dance. That girl is an animal. She’s in shape, however I am not, and I thought my heart was going to explode just as she finally tired out and decided we should go do something else. (by this time it was 4:30AM, 5:30AM if you don’t account for Day-light-savings)

The best costume I saw was someone dressed as the villain from The Incredibles. He made the hair in a color so under the black lights it looked just like the crazy fire hair he had in the movie. The guy’s body was the same stubby kind of figure and it was awesome. I had to tell him how much I loved it. I didn’t get a picture though.

Bartender Jason @ Noir had said the previous day that he seriously hoped he saw a Storm Trooper this year. Well, I saw this one and took some photos for him. I love the one of him getting some ‘action’.

* Audra made it herself; some say she did it just so she could play with the double-boning.

…We all know how to interpolate what boob looks like, but there is something amazing about having a second layer of mystery…

…So how can we combat the summary execution of bushiness? First off, I think we need to unleash a public relations campaign unseen since the days of the “Syphilis Isn’t A Greek Philosopher” campaign of the 1950’s. …

It is for this reason I pushed Frosty to start up his own blog. The man is one funny S.O.B, honest to a point of hilarity.

I’ve been begging Woofie and Mike to come see me in Portland for a few months now. I have a big project I need their help with but they just seemed to busy to take the one and a half hour drive over.

Yesterday they finally showed up! It was great.

We first headed to Old Town Pizza, just up the street from me and while drinking a pitcher of beer we talked about old times. Considering the project I am working on is related to our old Dungeons & Dragons campaign we played in high school, the table talk was pretty verbose in high jinks and geek speak.

The Plan was for us to drink a few drinks and then end up at The Backspace playing some X-Box. The Plan never came together. Instead, we walked up to Ringler’s Pub and had more beer and French fries. Talked more but this time the subject was sex and Woofie’s new favorite body part (well, not NEW). [sniggle] I ran and grabbed a Mercury to root for something to do. Mike is like me, more open to dancing and socializing, while Woofie is quiet and likes hard rock. So, I was trying to find a balance for all of us, but then I noticed that The Mercury I was using wasn’t good until the next day. I though maybe The Fez, but Woofie might not enjoy it. When I was putting The Mercury back I noticed a huge truck with all these big men hauling equipement out of it, then it struck me! That Redhead Girl (Audra) had mentioned a head-banging rock concert and it was just up stairs from us. I threw the idea out to see if they wanted to do that. It was go.

We bought tickets and headed up to the Crystal Ballroom. Opeth was just hitting the stage, and Mike leaned over to me and said, “I feel a bit out of place”. He was wearing a bright orange outdoor jacket, while everyone else in the venue were wearing black. I giggled at that, and we moved over to the 21+ crowd and started drinking more. I walked over to an attendant and asked if I could take pictures and they were unsure, but didn’t see a problem. So I pulled out the 20D and started snapping pictures. In about 5 minutes a big tall security guard came over to me demanded I stop taking photos, because no professional photography was allowed. I retorted that I wasn’t professional, but just an amateur and he said: if it has a lense, it’s professional. Oh well, I managed to snag a few good shots before the smack down.

Woof loved it. He was bobbing his head in no time and I was happy to be there with them and the drummer for Opeth can kick some skin. I enjoyed how conversational the lead singer was, he engaged the audience between almost every song. One funny comment was “I’m going to play 13 Minutes of the same beat at differing variations.”

After Opeth finished up, Mike was antsy and wanted to hit another place, so we ducked out and grabbed a taxi to The Devil’s Point. Mikey had mentioned it when we stopped in to say hi while he was working at Spartacus. If I’d have known it was as far out as it was, I’d probably have just had the taxi take us to Acropolis. Oh well, it was fun! I drank more and had a lapdance from Stormy. I was pretty buzzed at this point and ended up just talking her ear off in the private dancer room instead of ogling her body, and when I came out both Mike and Woofie said to me, “Did we hear you giggling in there?!” While I was at the stage, Mike and Woofie pulled out my camera, took pictures, and quickly got into some trouble. I later apologized to the bartender and DJ who both were really cool, and just wanted to see some photos on the camera. I showed them the shots from the Cruxshadow show and when the bartender heard what kind of music I liked, he handed me a flyer for some of his events. Yay for future funness!

We then took a taxi over to what was once Doc’s, but is now The Safari Club. Woofie, all night, had been sheepishly sitting in the back and didn’t seem to be really having that much fun after we left the Opeth show. Here he got right up in front and the dancer loved him! So much so that the bouncer came up and told HER to quit dancing on him, she pouted a bit and then whispered into Woof’s ear a question. “Do you mind getting a little wet?” Who’s Woof to stop a naked woman? She poured his drink in his crotch via her leg – like Salma Hayek in From Dusk ‘Til Dawn. [sniggle]

From there we headed home and were generally dorks taking embarrassing photos of ourselves until 4AM.

It was a lot of fun to see them, but next time we need to just go play video games, my head hurts and so does Mike’s wallet!

From time to time when she visits you’ll see us make these faces. Make your own title, what was this one?

For those who don’t know what the Allies section of the site is all about: it’s a resource for everyone to be able to put faces to names when I talk about different people from my past or now in my present. There are Allies, with acquaintances, maybe even some Axis! The goal isn’t to measure who my friends are, but a simple pictorial guide of those people in my life!

I was invited to Noir’s monthly fetish night, found out it was queer fetish night, but there weren’t a lot of queers there. Over all it was a pretty timid night. Had dinner and talked business with DJ Non, galloped around the block with DJ Adam Mohawk*, and was served drinks by the lovely bartendress Michelle. The Cancer Fags played a set, but I couldn’t help but constantly look at the lead singer and think: “He looks like the villain from Hudson Hawk. ‘I’ve got myself a new goal…….World..DOMINATION!!!‘”

* UPDATE: I wanted to flesh this out a bit. MohawkAdam and I walked down the street to a pretty cool bar called: The Slow Bar. What makes the Slow Bar stand out isn’t the nice atmosphere, the cool massive-sized old-school bar, the big deep cavernous circular booths, but it’s the jukebox. This thing is great! (So, great I took photos.) Electric Six, Minor Threat, Descendents you name it. Ahhh.

This week raced past like a smiling, rape-ready bum!

First, a little background: Last October, prior to my jaunt to Boise to see Ministry and Hanzel Und Gretyl (damn Thrill Kill for not being there!); I called Sarvas while I was in town and we spent some time at a pub having a beer. As we prattled on like ninnies, I handed Sarvas (myspace) my PDA and he started scrolling through the images I had stored on it. He stopped at one particular image and asked, “Who is this woman?” and pointed at an image of Sharon.

“That’s Sharon! That’s who I’m going to see this week.”

Sarvas got really excited. “There is a guy in Portland who showed me a picture of her when she was a model in Italy, and asked me if I knew her. I said that she looked familiar, but I wasn’t sure!”

“Really? What was his name?”

“Aristai.” Sarvas answered.

Hmmm. I picked up my cellphone and called Sharon, “Sharon do you know anyone named Aristai?” The other end was silent. “Sharon?”

She blurted back, “Are you screwing with me?”

“No, Sarvas is sitting here telling me there is a guy named Aristai, who lives in Portland looking for you.”

“Oh my god, that’s K! My best friend from when we lived on the Oregon Coast and were club kids! He kept his club kid name!!”

That’s where it started, via Sarvas; that Sharon and Aristai began communicating after over a ten year absence. This past week, they met here in Portland for the Run Hit Wonder. They never made it to the run.

Instead we had a blistering week of shopping, gaining weight via great food, hitting the bars and dancing like freaks (I simply CAN NOT dance to anything but my music – I look so silly out of my element, to the enjoyment of others.)

It all started out Thursday at the airport as Aristai and I picked Sharon up, then it was straight to the Oregon town of Seaside, where they both worked in the summer of yore to make enough money to travel into Portland and hit the clubs. We booked into our hotel and headed down the Seaside promenade, past the aquarium, down the street to this little narrow concrete wall enclosed pathway that ended at a rickety door. This is where they had lived. After a nostalgic moment we headed back to the strip and gorged ourselves on ice-cream, fudge and taffy.

My father and Woofie drove down from Warrenton and hung out with Sharon and I in the restaurant, where tales of my troubled-youth surfaced.

The next day Sharon, Aristai and I drove back to Portland.

Friday Night: Ember’s & Egyptian Room.
Ember’s was ‘dead’. Sharon and I arrived and met up with Honeybucket. The dance floor had maybe twenty people on it and the side bar – where the drag-queens do their stand up routine – was equally as lame. Honeybucket suggested we leave and head to the Egyptian room. Once we arrived there (after a long drive) we found the company there less than epic. One woman wouldn’t stop hitting on Honeybucket and Sharon and I both wanted to deck her in the head. We left and called it a night.

Saturday Night: Saucebox – Dementia – Spring Roll – Dan – Jenny – Viper Room – The Tube – CC Slaughters

There was so much crammed into this evening. Sharon and I had a utterly stunning dinner at Saucebox.

While we were there we met a couple that was Sharon and I in 35 years. They were seated at a table right beside us when a waiter attempted to take the man’s bowl of salad. He stated that he wasn’t done yet, and the waiter apologized. Sharon and I really were doing nothing but getting our napkins settled into laps when he said pointedly to Sharon, “Did I offend you which what I said?”. We were confused and answered that, no he had not offended us in anyway.

He looked at me and asked where I was from and I answered in the typical, “I’m originally from Warrenton, but I just recently moved back here to Portland from Montana.”

He paused, sighed sharply as he said to me, “I was born in Transylvania.” The woman who was sitting with him shuffled and made noises like he was pulling my leg.

“Really?” I retorted, knowing that he was playing with me, but he nodded in confirmation and continued.

“Actually my mother was born in Transylvania, that’s where she had my sister and me. My mother was a vampire.” The lady with him just smiled at him, shook her head and continued to drink her water.

I quickly asked, “where you born before or after she became a vampire? Because in one way you could be a ghoul.”

He turned to me, looked me up and down, “Boy, you’ve really thought about this haven’t you?”

“Well, I am dressed all in black. I myself may be a vampire, or a ghoul.” He simply nodded at me.

As our dinners proceeded, from time to time, our conversations would cross again and more information was gleaned from them. He and the lady, were but friends; friends for the past 40 years who were in town for a funeral of a work colleague. He made a quip about her abandoning and not supporting him when he was trying to stop drinking. She said they fought from time to time, and he gruffly responded, “but making up is sooo much fun.” She blushed. It was all a very cute encounter and really made my and Sharon’s night start out on a good note.

From SBX we wandered around waiting for Jenny and Dan to show up, who were walking downtown from their apartment on 23rd, both very drunk. Jenny kept calling me and asking, “Where are you?”, “We’re at Saucebox, just like I said already 5 times silly!” We ended up meeting them at Dante’s, a bar on Burnside that has yet to impress me at all – but for some reason people really like it. From there we grabbed a taxi to Noir, my favorite bar, where on Saturday nights they hold a Gothic Industrial dance night. I had been really excited for Sharon to come to this event. Once we arrived, Honeybucket showed up with his friend Spring Roll. The bar was really dead, which was a great disappointment to me, because usually it was really lively (I found out later it was because of a SCA event). Spring got bored quickly and so I got up and danced with her while Honeybucket and Sharon watched us. From there we attempted to get into the Viper Room, but there didn’t seem to be anything going on worth paying a cover for, so we scrammed.

While Spring Roll talked on my cellphone to Sarvas (myspace), we drove across the river to The Tube. What a joke this place is. It houses about 40 people in this cramped room that glows like a TV tube. It once was a tube for skaters to get drunk and skateboard in, I hear (like there isn’t ENOUGH places for skaters to do that. Where’d all the straight-edgers go?). Anyway, the manager of Tube is a real bitch, and kicked us out because of a mistaken identity issue with Honeybucket (she believed that Honeybucket was responsible for throwing a martini glass at the bartender, when it was really just some other jerk in the party. The crappy part is, that dude is allowed back in, because they can’t remember his face, but HB isn’t. Everyone always remembers the drag queen!)

Sunday Night: Crush – Hive

Dinner was nothing special, considering our previous nights was the best, we ate sushi at a sushi resturant in the Pearl. Eh. From there Sharon and I walked over to a little Italian restaurant and had deserts before rushing across the bridges to Crush.

Crush had just reopened after a renovation, and I must say I loved the place! They made the yummiest Ginger Ale I’ve ever had. It was real ginger root. Mmmm. Sharon was additionally happy because of the clientele and the fact they had alternative drinks besides alcoholic beverages. Soon Honeybucket and his friend Andrea arrived. We had a few delicious drinks called: Green T and Black T (I loved the Black T drink) and then all of us scooted off to Hive.

Hive was everything I had told Sharon to expect and a bit more. There was a ‘safari’ man that continued to creepily, lustfully stare at Honeybucket. Andrea bitched out a boy, in the girls bathroom. That same boy then decided he wanted to get to know Sharon a bit more and moved to her shoulder and said into her ear, “I want too get to know you [insert breathy pause]…” Honeybucket saved the moment by hauling him away and saying that Sharon was his girlfriend. The music was terrible and undancable. Just when one good dancey gothic track would load, the next song would be a deadpan, slow floor killer. I moved up to the request list and was going to write down a few songs I figured they’d play, before I wrote mine down I glanced above to see what others had desired to hear and written across the sheet in HUGE LETTERING was the following request: STOP PLAYING SHIT! I chuckled, and wrote my request down. As the evening winded down, and the last booze kicked in, people started to exit.

This is where mayhem erupted.

Honeybucket and I were exiting just ahead of Sharon and Andrea, when to our left we saw a really tall guy and a little goth/rivet girl ‘rolling on the ground. At first, I thought they were playing. Then the guy kicks the girl in the hip, so hard, that it launches her up into the air and upright to her feet. I gasped and started to move towards it to see what was going on, Honeybucket took the same initiative. Moving towards them Honeybucket asked what was going on and the goth/rivet girls response was a scream of: “Back off you TRANNY BITCH!” Now I fully realize that everyone was drunk, Honeybucket, this girl, her boyfriend (who ‘heroically’, slammed Honeybucket into some people and then scampered away like a little coward) and the guy that kicked her; so I understand her response. If I had just got attacked and then a really tall drag queen came walking towards me to help (how am I to know?), I’d probably scream out something defensive too. But Honeybucket really was only trying to help the girl from this tall guy. I see no fault by anyone except the guy that kicked her, unless she had attacked him first (and still…) There were words exchanged, but it all smoothed over in the end. As we walked away, the creepy ‘safari’ guy started following us, or more exact: Honeybucket. So, Sharon turned around and confronted the guy: “Where are you going? Why are you following us?!” “I’m not, my car is over here.” “Really? Where are your keys? I don’t think so, you back the hell off and leave us alone.” He did. Hell, I would too. Sharon and her new guns, who wants to be on the receiving end of those suckers? Not even women in Disneyland. After that we took Honeybucket home and woke up poor Foofie. On the taxi ride back to my place, the driver mentioned he knew Aristai. Small world. It had to do with the lead singer from Interpol. Like I said: a very full evening of events.

Monday: Sharon misses her flight home – Night Light

The next and last day of Sharon’s trip, we walked around Portland, got insulted by Saks Fifth Ave employees (lost some commissions there – and future purchases) had a GREAT lunch with Aristai (I had nummy pesto basil gnocci) and then headed to the airport. Well, that didn’t work out so well, Sharon missed her flight. Not that we complained, that meant she got to play one more night! So, Aristai took us to the Night Lite Cafe where we met up with Andrea and played Connect 4 and consumed more fattening good food. Sharon and I couldn’t stay late because her flight was leaving really early in the morning, so we bailed out relatively early.

I had so much fun, and I can’t wait for Deviltissue to come back!

The best places we went to:
Crush
Saucebox
Andina’s

Maybe better on another night? places we went:
Egyptian Room
Viper Room

Not so cool places we went to:
Tube
CC Slaughter’s

I made an embarrassment of myself as I pulled my camera out and I couldn’t figure out how to adjust it for the dark lighting (If it’d have been Kimber’s Nikon D100, it wouldn’t have been such a pain). Cedric gave me a hand and soon I was snapping pics. Here are a few of them for everyone’s viewing pleasure.

Fell is an 8 year old Warforged Artificer. He was created in the Creation Forges of Karrnath, and during the war he was under the leadership of Voldorv The Pike. During the Battle of The Lurching Tower at the Thrane & Cyre front, new born Fell was struck and incapacitated. He laid on the field for weeks until, under heavy attack, a group of mercenaries from Breland (Under the command of House Deneith) required assistance and repaired him to fight with them. Fell has continued to assist this merc group to this day – changing allegiance.

Fell, Male Warforged Artificer5: CR 6; Medium Construct Living (Living Construct); HD 5d6+5(Artificer) ; hp 29; Init +2; Spd 30; AC:18 (Flatfooted:16 Touch:13); Atk +5 base melee, +5 base ranged; +5 (1d8+2, Mace, heavy); +1/+1 (1d8+2, Mace, heavy; 1d8+1, Mace, heavy); +5 (1d3+2, Unarmed strike); +5 (1d4+3, Slam); +5 (1d6, Acid (flask)); +5 (1d4, Acidic fire (flask)); +5 (1d6, Alchemist`s fire); SQ: Immunity: Poison (Ex), Immunity: Sleep Effects (Ex), Immunity: Paralysis (Ex), Immunity: Disease (Ex), Immunity: Fatigue (Ex), Immunity: Exhaustion (Ex), No Natural Healing (Ex), Immunity: Nausea (Ex), Vulnerability: Chill Metal (Ex), Vulnerability: Heat Metal (Ex), Vulnerability: Repel Metal or Stone (Ex), Vulnerability: Repel Wood (Ex), Vulnerability: Rusting Grasp (Ex), Can be raised or resurrected (Ex), Light Fortification (Ex), Immunity: Energy Drain (Ex); AL LN; SV Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +5; STR 15, DEX 15, CON 12, INT 16, WIS 12, CHA 17.

Skills: Appraise +4, Concentration +5, Craft (Alchemy) +8, Craft (Blacksmithing) +10, Disable Device +12, Knowledge (Arcana) +9, Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering) +4, Open Lock +9, Search +11, Spellcraft +13, Use Magic Device +11.

Feats: Armor Proficiency: light, Armor Proficiency: medium, Brew Potion, Craft Construct, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Wondrous Item, Mithral Body, Scribe Scroll, Shield Proficiency, Simple Weapon Proficiency, Two-Weapon Fighting.

Infusions Known (Artificer –/4/4/2): 1st — Armor Enhancement, Lesser, Energy Alteration, Enhancement Alteration, Identify, Inflict Light Damage, Light, Magic Stone, Magic Vestment, Magic Weapon, Repair Light Damage, Resistance Item, Shield of Faith, Skill Enhancement, Spell Storing Item, Weapon Augmentation, Personal; 2nd — Align Weapon, Armor Enhancement, Bear`s Endurance, Bull`s Strength, Cat`s Grace, Chill Metal, Eagle`s Splendor, Fox`s Cunning, Heat Metal, Inflict Moderate Damage, Owl`s Wisdom, Repair Moderate Damage, Toughen Construct, Weapon Augmentation, Lesser; 3rd — Armor Enhancement, Greater, Construct Energy Ward, Inflict Serious Damage, Magic Weapon, Greater, Metamagic Item, Power Surge, Repair Serious Damage, Stone Construct, Suppress Requirement.

Infusions Prepared (Artificer –/4/4/2): 1st – Armor Enhancement, Lesser, Armor Enhancement, Lesser, Magic Weapon x2, Repair Light Damage; 2nd – Bull`s Strength, Repair Moderate Damage; 3rd – Stone Construct x2.

Possessions:
Weapons: Mace, heavy (12 gp); Acid (flask) (10 gp); Mace, heavy (12 gp); Acid (flask) (10 gp); Acid (flask) (10 gp); Acid (flask) (10 gp); Acidic fire (flask) (30 gp); Acidic fire (flask) (30 gp); Alchemist`s fire (20 gp); Alchemist`s fire (20 gp); Alchemist`s fire (20 gp); Alchemist`s fire (20 gp).
Armor: Mithral Body (feat) (0 gp).
Goods: Coin: gp (193) (193 gp); Warforged repair kit (50 gp); Blacksmith`s tools, Masterwork (55 gp); Thieves` tools, Masterwork (100 gp); Alchemists`s tools, Masterwork (55 gp); Case, map or scroll (3) (3 gp); Letter of marquee (500 gp); Arcane signet ring (150 gp); Rope, silk (50 ft.) (2) (20 gp); Flint and steel (1 gp); Grappling hook (1 gp); Paper (sheet) (10) (40 sp); Parchment (sheet) (10) (20 sp); Sealing wax (1 gp); Flask (20) (60 cp); Torch (5) (5 cp); Coin: sp (3) (3 sp); Coin: cp (5) (5 cp).
Magic: Wondrous: Elixir of Truth (500 gp); Wondrous: Bag of Holding, type I (2,500 gp); Wondrous: Arcane Key (500 gp); Ring: Protection +1 (2,000 gp); Wand: Magic Missile (3) (Charges: 48) (2,160 gp).

UPDATE: In answer to the question, “What happened?” I’ll let the person who had it happen to answer that.

Zoltan (Z) wrote:

It was on Saturday, May 1st, late at night. Past midnight, so technically it would be Sunday, May 2nd. My bedroom is above the garage in the house, and I ‘fell’ through the window and landed in the driveway below. I shattered three vertebrae in my back. Two thoracic vertebrae (T11 & T12) and one lumbar vertebrae (L1). I also smashed my spinal cord, but did not sever it. But I smashed it good, and that was enough. I am now paralyzed from the waist down. [Click here to read his full journal post]

“We may be the generation that sees Armageddon”
~Ronald Reagan.

Wade had been smeared across a car by a SUV. After the collision his sneaker was left sitting inside the interior of the car along with shattered glass and blood, while Wade laid outside. The bicycle he had been riding – damaged – his body along with it. I’ll leave the details to him (email).

The first time I spoke to him over the phone after that accident, through a lisp of sucking saliva, he humoringly said: “My scars kick your’s ass!” (In reference to my lawnmower leg aka: hoof) In the midst of it all, we both laughed and smiled.

Keanu said it best Wade: “Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory lasts forever.”

I want that button: Chicks Dig Scars.

Here are the pictures I promised to put up for ya. I’ll see you soon buddy.

Monday (5 hours): 27 games.
Sat-Sun ( 2 days): 84 games.

For a total of : 111 games in three days.

A true moment of glory can be seen here.

UPDATE: In the annals of Halo2 time, there are moments so glorious, that a warcry is warranted. Here are a few of ProfX’s warcries:

“SNIGGIDY SNIPED!“, after sniping.

“I beat down day-old-pussy!”, after pistol-whipping.

“Due-blay!”, after scoring a double-kill.

Unrivaled friend.

I love that. That is a fantastic way of describing a true friend.

These sometimes, in passing social forums, are called ‘best friends’. I have always had a problem with the term, it has always seemed a fleeting title for someone. Depending on your location and time from one another, you can have diffrent ‘best’ friends involved in your life. I’ve had many people that were the very center of my life in regards to interaction and they greatly affected my decision making process. It changes though. Distances grow greater, both physically and emotionally over time. They move away. Trust is sundered.

Unrivaled friends to me are not unlike the cosmos. No matter the distance, they are always there and affect your decisions.

That is staggering to me. I love it.

I feel a bit guilty, because he was so excited to go and eat lunch away from the building and have me pay. He really had no premonition of what was to transpire there at the Applebees in Kalispell. I had tactfully waited for our orders to be taken before I quickly threw the subject out onto the table; from the look on Dwight’s face, you’d think I had threw it straight at him. It didn’t take but a second for the sentence to sink in that I’d quit, but it took a bit longer for him to coherently begin discussing the matter.

Once we had returned to the office and he was confronted with his computer screen of work, it must have finally sunk home. He asked me into his office and directed me to close the door. His face and eyes were puffy and red, he brushed his eyes as he stated that he seriously, personally, wanted me to remain at the company.

I was kind, and stated there was no way I was staying. I have put so much of my life on hold for a company I helped build, but never saw any of the rewards for.

I am surrounded by examples of how much good this company has done for people. In the eight years I have been in Kalispell Montana, I have seen so much change and growth happen to the people around me even beyond Kimber. Ryan is now married and has a wonderful newborn baby boy named Lander. Sharon has moved to a new town, transformed her body and begun a business to call her own. Mark has completed school, is a fireman with his wife and has moved into a new home. Robyn is in her last year of college and is awaiting a new life as an actress. My comrades from Kalispell have carved a niche for themselves in Seattle, and are enjoying the life that city brings them. Me? I am still living alone making the same amount of money and am hiding in a town that has no entertainment for me. It’s time I put me ahead of everything else. It’s time I started living.

I have no regrets at this point, but I hope that I am rewarded someday.

The prom was not unlike it’s 2002 incarnation, that was held to benefit a local girl with cancer. The bands were pushed into a little corner of a cramped room, the humidity was high as well as the volume. This year the bend had a lottery month earlier and whatever band they pulled out of that hat, they covered two of their songs. It wasn’t just an event for the masses, but the bands enjoyed hearing reinterpretations of their own songs, performed by differing genred bands. My personal favorite was Bacon & Egg’s cover of Ass-End Offend’s: Skateboardings Not A Sport.

After cleanup and a few drinks down at the Union Hall, we made our way over to Tom’s house for an after prom party. click for images &

Here’s what Wantage had to say:

Just this past Friday was the Punk Rock Prom, the fundraiser to help get Ass-End Offend to Eastern Europe this Summer, went down really positively! 6 bands played, and with the exception the beneficiaries’ botching of one of their covers (insert akward laugh-cough here), the music was par excellence. Highlights are hard to hand out, but mine go like this:
the International Playboys handled some Live At Leeds styled Young Man Blues, Bacon and Egg slammed out a killer version of Becoming Our Destruction, Sasshole tore up Playboys Incorporated, Oblio Joes played Super Confident Guy without cracking an ironic smile, Volumen slayed the Sasshole theme, and Ass-End Offend’s take on Roll On Kentucky Moon was a fist pumper. The photo booth was great fun, the raffle was sweet too. Muchas gracias to all the bands, organizers and business sponsors.