Kevin's Watch

Wait...I thought Andelain was a forest...

Parts of it is forested, but it's mostly rolling hill-land. I think.

Yes, the Andelainian Hills are part of Andelain.

All it needs is a river flowing through.

Weren't they swimming in the river?

no we were swimming in the pool at the bottom of the small waterfall at Jemez Falls (Furls Falls ). What is up with Cagliostro lately?

Finally figuring that out, eh, Danlo?

Wow, that's a beautiful place!!! Thanks for the pics Danlo!

Sea, danlo's pictures are awesome, but they don't do Valles Caldera justice at all.

:::sorry danlo:::

It is so much...more...than what the photos show.

I don't know how else to put it...

Well, then, you guys need to get a BIG camera...I'm talking the monstrous large format one Ansel Adams used. Sure, you can't really slip it into your pocket, but hey, it's the ultimate wide-angle camera and it's got the equivalent resolving power of 60 million pixels!

*Finally*, I have a chance to get online and post about Elohimfest! (Long story, having to do with stupid phone companies here, and children hogging the Internet connection at the hotel in Santa Fe....)

First -- it's been said before (heck, *everything* has been said before, since it took me so long to post ), but it bears repeating ad infinitum: THANK YOU, Danlo and Lady Tam, for being such gracious and excellent hosts! I told Tam at one point that I think she and Romeo's wife are both extremely tolerant, to have us crazy fanboys and fangirls descend on their homes and take over their lives. Danlo and Tam let me sleep on their couch Friday night and pitch my tent in their yard Saturday night, in addition to hosting all the parties and arranging all the events, and cooking for (it seemed like) about half a million people. I'm sure I could not have been nearly so gracious in a similar situation. Y'all rock!

Next -- it was soooo fabulous to see all the old faces and meet the new ones! MagickMaker and I had a great ride down from Denver on Friday with Damelon and Wadds. We met up for dinner in LoDo Thursday night. I had to talk them in by cell phone. MagickMaker and I were standing outside the Tattered Cover bookstore, and I was talking to Wadds on the phone; Wadds instructed me to jump up and down, so I did, prompting MagickMaker to say, "You know, she's probably not anywhere around here -- she's just telling you to do that so you'll look silly!" But she was, in fact, right there -- which was a good thing, because I still can't remember whether I was supposed to be Midnight Scorpion or Scarlet Viper (or whatever it was). (BTW, if you're ever in Denver, the Capitol Hill Mansion B&B is the place to stay. Nice innkeepers, fabulous breakfast, a beautiful building that is neither hoity-toity nor overpriced, and the location is unbeatable.) (/commercial)

Dinner with SRD on Saturday night was -- wow. Just wow. It was kinda cool to sit at the same table with him for the book signing, with my kid in between. Y'all don't know how close I came to babbling about how she's a creative writing major, and about how her dad and I got white gold wedding rings because of Covenant, blah blah blah. I did tell SRD that it was all his fault that all of us at the Watch are friends, and I thanked him for that.

Oh! Before dinner, as SRD was sitting down, he mentioned that he was working on the copy-checking of Fatal Revenant. I kinda shouted out that if he needed any help with that, we'd be glad to volunteer. He said no, it was really boring work. I tried to tell him that we wouldn't mind. Hey, I did my best, guys....

After dinner, I skipped most of "Princess Bride" to sit outside with a bunch of folks and talk *some more* about SRD. And about Steven Erikson, too. I dunno whether I get bovine stares (what a great description!) from friends when I talk about my favorite authors -- more like tolerant smiles, I think. But it was still beyond awesome to be able to talk with other Watchers in person all weekend.

And btw, I would be remiss if I did not mention, again, what a GREAT GROUP OF PEOPLE we have here on the Watch. I loved seeing Luci and Creator and Romeo and DLB and Danlo again. Of the new-to-me faces: Dear gods, Wadds is *so* much fun, and iQuestor is one of the funniest human beings on the planet! Whoever made the comment about Damelon's laugh is right on -- as soon as you hear it, you just start laughing, too. Fist -- yeah, what you said -- after 4 1/2 years, it was cool to meet you, and Christy, too. Menolly, you are way cool, and dammit, if I had to get *my* picture taken, it's only fair that *you* did, too! Dukkha, thanks for the chat about biotech careers on Sunday morning. Wayfriend, it was so cool to meet the Living Index of the GI , and I apologize if it sounded like I was yelling at you Saturday night after the dinner -- I didn't mean it the way it sounded, honest! Believer, it was great to meet you, if only briefly -- and, yeah, c'mon, *dish* about the dinner-table conversation, already!

The trip to Andelain was awesome -- tho I must say, when Danlo misses a turn, he *really* misses a turn. The girls and I continued on to Santa Fe and had a lovely couple of days there. I *finally* got to visit the O'Keeffe Museum, yay! We also did the Museum of Fine Arts, which had its own O'Keeffe exhibit, so I was O'Keeffed to the max, I guess. We power-gift-shopped at Jackalope before heading back to the airport on Tuesday; as we stepped off the airplane in DC Tuesday night, the East Coast humidity descended, right on cue, and immediately I wished I were back in New Mexico. Ah, well. We'll be back....

Wow! Just watched the entire 1 hr 15 min interview and it's amazing! Avista really did an incredible job. Incredible answers from SRD, great questions and lots of fun had by all. The THOOLAH chant is priceless! Sorry you have to wait until the webmaster gets ahold of it (probably) on Monday and edits and does his thing before it's uploaded-but you will be impressed, as will all SRD's other fans that frequent, or stumble upon his official website.

AWESOME -- can't wait to see it!!

I couldn't hear half of what SRD was saying, so I'm gonne be real happy to get the vids! I guess Christy has better ears than I do. The next day, she'd say things like, "I really liked when he said, 'Yadda yadda.'" And I'm like, "Oh, is that what he said?? I couldn't hear a word of his answer to that question!"

Fisty prolly cos I was yammering in your ear...

About Wayfriend, aliantha wrote:it was so cool to meet the Living Index of the GI

Yeah, Marvel's got their Living Tribunal, we've got our Living Index! Cosmic, baby!

aliantha wrote: Next -- it was soooo fabulous to see all the old faces and meet the new ones! MagickMaker and I had a great ride down from Denver on Friday with Damelon and Wadds. We met up for dinner in LoDo Thursday night. I had to talk them in by cell phone. MagickMaker and I were standing outside the Tattered Cover bookstore, and I was talking to Wadds on the phone; Wadds instructed me to jump up and down, so I did, prompting MagickMaker to say, "You know, she's probably not anywhere around here -- she's just telling you to do that so you'll look silly!" But she was, in fact, right there -- which was a good thing, because I still can't remember whether I was supposed to be Midnight Scorpion or Scarlet Viper (or whatever it was). (BTW, if you're ever in Denver, the Capitol Hill Mansion B&B is the place to stay. Nice innkeepers, fabulous breakfast, a beautiful building that is neither hoity-toity nor overpriced, and the location is unbeatable.) (/commercial)

Oh, well, hell...if I had known you folks were going to be in Denver, more than just to have a place to sleep for the night, I would have been happy to show you all some hospitality and joined you. Poo.

Love the Tattered Cover, by the way.

Damn. I missed out all the more.

Matrixman wrote:

About Wayfriend, aliantha wrote:it was so cool to meet the Living Index of the GI

Yeah, Marvel's got their Living Tribunal, we've got our Living Index! Cosmic, baby!

Chr-st on a Cr-tch!

Download the RTF file, open it in Word, and search for "Staff of Law".

And you, too, can amaze your friends and fellow Watchers!

Wayfriend wrote: Chr-st on a Cr-tch!

:::shaking head and giggling:::

Guys, I recently posted something similar to this to danlo's attention in The Galley...

If this substitutiting hyphens in a name for HaShem is being done because of my own craziness, it truly isn't necessary. I do it as a Jew, but we accept that Jewish law only applies to Jews, and that we live in a world not populated mostly by Jews, so we accept that others won't do what we do.

If you are doing it to show support for my craziness, the thought is appreciated. But again, not necessary. Only if for some reason you have decided you agree with my reasons for doing it (and so far, I have never found anyone else who has) will I no longer giggle when I see it done by someone else.

But I do appreciate the kindness and communal embrace I assume is implied by such actions from the posters who have taken it on. Thanks...

Menolly wrote:

Wayfriend wrote: Chr-st on a Cr-tch!

:::shaking head and giggling:::

If you are doing it to show support for my craziness, the thought is appreciated. But again, not necessary.

OK ...

Christ on a Crutch!!!

(The possibility of other vowels being used did leave me a bit disturbed.)