domstargazer

As many of you on my flist know I travel extensively for work. Over the last couple of years I have had the opportunity to conduct meetings in some pretty interesting places, places that are part of American culture and history. I have conducted meetings near Ground Zero in NYC (sad place to see), mere steps from the Capitol building in DC, in the shadow of the Gateway Arch in St Louis,on the bridge at Niagra Falls, in Idaho where Evel Knievel attempted to jump the Snake River canyon, at the site of the Texas City chemical plant disaster, near Mt Rushmore in SD. I got to see the giant Superman statue in beautiful downtown Metropolis, Ill (pop 6482). I got to go to The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. I have seen over 50 football and baseball stadiums.

I got to ride on an airplane with Kareem Abdul-Jabar (and said to the guy next to me "at least if the pilots get sick Roger Murdoch can fly the plane" Kareem kind of shook his head and smiled). I have had the opportunity to spend some quality time with friends who live too far away and I don't get to see nearly often enough. I have met some people that I have known only on line. I even had a few random slutty encounters (shocking huh?)

I have now conducted meetings in 36 states and DC. I have seen most of America's major airports (ok so it isn't all sunshine and puppy dogs). I spent 200 nights in hotels last year alone. I got to use my airline miles to fly kitten and her daughter to FLA for spring break.

In short.....I have done and seen an awful lot of stuff over the last two years or so. This week was by far the most unusual. Guess what I saw? No peeking until you have made at least a half-hearted guess.

Here are my babies that need lots of love and attention (although clicks are good too). I forgot to mention that bonus points are awarded if you can figure out the naming theme of my dragons. (It's not that hard so there are not lots of points)

I finally got off my ass and named my dragons! I wish you could go and change the names though, as I had a better name for one of them afterward. Once I finally got them named, I bred them. And yes I did watch all the dragon fucking going on in my cave! (I am SUCH a perv) Anyway, clicks for the babies are always appreciated.

Travel and stuff.... my travel schedule somehow managed to get even worse than it was before. I really didnt think that was possible. There I go thinking again. Next week I am in Marshfield, WI with meetings from 8 AM til 6 PM Monday til Friday. Didnt seem too brutal until I saw where Marshfield is.....3 freakin hours from the nearest real airport. So I get to fly out Sunday afternoon and fly home on Saturday, only to return again on Sunday. Then I am in Stevens Point for a week. Then, I am off to such thriving metroplexes as Eagle River, Rhinelander, and Tomahawk. I may not see much of New England til Thanksgiving or later. Some of those towns dont even have a hotel, just those mom and pop motels. I booked a room for the month of November in the Bates Motel. I hear its a nice quiet place run by a woman and her adult son. Sounds lovely.

On a more personal note.... I am really going to miss the girls. Too much time away and such a short turn around between leaves me little QT for either of them. GRRR and sigh. On the other hand, I came home to a nice clean house and kitten had even gotten a HUGE head start on my weekend project so that makes me very happy. fishie has been busting her dorsal fin getting ready for the grand opening of the new store and I am very proud of her. We are going to finish the halloween costumes this weekend and have some "family time" YAAAAY

I got to spend some QT with an old friend this week and last, catching up and having some fun. I had almost forgotten how much fun it is to kick a girl in the crotch.....over and over and over. Happy fun catch ups are good! And as usual I got another of her cherries...lil miss I dont have many left....yeah right. lol

All in all life is hectic as hell but goooooooooooooood.

OK I am gonna try one last time to raise some baby dragons. If these dont hatch I will run out of space in the back yard to bury them.

I went to Chicago and Cleveland this past week. Nothing too exciting in and of itself. Chicago was a fly in and fly out the same day kind of thing. Ho hum.
Cleveland on the other hand.....well that was something completely different........

    The Hotel was downtown right by "The Jake". It was late at night around 11:30 PM and the streets were deserted. I spotted the hotel and saw a police car parked out front with its lights flashing. I went to park by the door to check in, but there was another police car there. As I started to finally park my car I saw 2 more police cars approaching (at a very high rate of speed) from the rear. They pulled in and ran inside the hotel. Then 2 more cars approached from the other direction and also ran into the hotel.
At this point I am thinking "ok it is nearly midnight and I have been up since 3 am but do I  REALLY REALLY want to stay here?" I decided that trying to find another hotel at that hour was not really an option so I parked and went to the front desk to check in. By this time there were over a dozen uniformed officers at the desk. At least 3 were wearing patches that identified them as SWAT. By the elevator doors were three paramedics and a gurney. Now I am REALLY starting to question the wisdom of checking in.

     The desk clerk asked the "wall" of cops to move so that I could check in. I told him i was not so sure that was wise. The cops laughed. While i was checking in one of the cops asked me if I had heard what was happening. Cops NEVER tell you what is going on so I was of course deeply curious. He deadpanned, "This hotel serves free donuts after midnight." The other cops started laughing hysterically. I replied that they must be awfully fresh to get this big a crowd.
 
    After finally getting settled in for a long delayed sleep a loud knocking on the door gto me out of that oh so sosft and squishy bed. It was the donut cop! I opened the door and he asked if everything was ok and if anyone in the room had been shot. UMMMMM excuse me?? "Has anyone in here been SHOT?" Did you seriously ask me that question?!?! Apparently a crazy woman called the front desk from her cell and said she and her husband had been shot in their room. Since it was her cell it could not be traced to the room. She "didn't know" what room she was in, or even what floor she was on.

   So Cleveland's finest had the unenviable task of knocking on every door in the 12 story hotel (after midnight) to make sure no one had been shot. I can only imagine how much fun that had to be for them. Not to mention how many people laid awake the rest of the night wondering what the heck was going on. 

   Me???   I slept like a baby.

Frogs swim much much faster than toads. That is all.

The bad news is that all my eggs died. Apparently they were not kidding about needing people to click on them. I must not be cut out to raise baby dragons. I'll be ok (sniff and small lip quiver). Hell, who wants to scoop dragon poop out of the yard anyway?

Good news.... I was asked by a friend to do a fire demo for the Albany TNG party this Saturday. If it is half as much fun as the last one I did (for WMPE TNG) it will be a blast. I also get to see "the blue dude" this weekend which totally rocks!! He has such amazing energy and is a genuinely fun person to be around. So the girls and I (kitten and koi) will be heading to Albany on saturday to set peoples on fire!!! YAY!!

The last two weekends in a row the space has been flooded.

On potluck munch night it was flooded with people and presenters and wonderful energy and great scenes. We had over 100 people on Saturday night. If you werent there you really missed out.

On a more personal note, kitten and I hosted one of the presenters and a friend of his. They came home with us after the night was over and we talked til the wee hours. The following morning we had breaky and talked some more. We barely knew each other when the night started but felt as if we had known each other for years by bedtime. By the time they left to head home I was sure we had made lifelong friends. Yay! Cant wait to see them again.

Last weekend however the flooding was so very much less good. Mother nature dumped several inches of watery goodness in the area and the storm drains backed up and into our Space. So today kitten and I are heading down to shampoo the carpets (aren't we lucky?)

This brings me to flooding in other ways. Can a sub be "flooded" with sensation? Flooded with emotions? Flooded with thoughts, ideas, tasks?
Well of course they can....but is it a good thing as the flooding was on the 9th or a very bad thing as it was on the 16th?

I am thinking of turning over a new leaf and actually posting in here once in a while. What do you think? Do people really care about the weird shit that crosses my mind? Assuming that you do (else why are you on my LJ flist?) is it because you truly care what I write? Is it like that train wreck that you just cant look away from? Is it an insatiable appetite for voyeurism? All of the above? Something completely different? What makes my LJ friends tick? OK to be fair there is no one on my flist that I do not consider a true friend (checks flist to be sure lol) so I guess I know some of that already, but do you know (or care) what makes me tick? Are you SURE you want to peek inside this orb that passes for a head?

If you are still here......check back often, I am gonna start posting random thoughts. I sure hope it doesnt lead to my arrest.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY:
nilla girls are like Kleenex....use them once then throw them away.

You Are a Lime Flavored Popsicle

You are an outrageous person. For you, summer is all about going crazy - even if it means getting in trouble. You are daring and adventurous. You have a real taste for the edgier things in life. A true wild child, there's no hope of you ever slowing down. You've got too much sass and spunk to ever behave.

visited 39 states (78%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or determine the next president


Snagged from the cutest lil pony I know!

You answered "yes" to 346 of 400 questions, making you 13.5% sexually pure (86.5% sexually corrupt); that is, you are 13.5% pure in the sex domain.
Your Weirdness Factor (AKA Uniqueness Factor) is 57%, based on a comparison of your test results with 120808 other submissions for this test.

The average purity for this test is 65.3%.

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

I am a Canna What Flower Are You?

"You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."

So 6 of the most intense weeks of my life have finally passed and we held the Grand Opening of our new space Sat the 14th. Thanks to a lot of hard work and some seriously long hours from lots of people the place looked AMAZING! We had over 100 people show up and the place didn't even feel crowded.

6 Intense weeks?? Why yes...yes they were. Just as things were really starting to get busy at work we got the letter from the landlord telling us to "Get the f**k out". As chair of the facilities committee I was put in charge of finding us a new place. Thanks ever so much for that piece of happiness.

I started with an on-line search and then contacted commercial real estate agents, most of whom said "You wanna open a WHAT?!?! in my building?" Not exactly a promising start to the conversation. Now, gentle reader, you may be asking yourself, What kind of moron TELLS someone they are opening a dungeon? The very same moron who doesn't wish to get tossed out on his (pretty cute if I say so myself) ass again once the landlord finds out what we are. So after exhausting the possibilities with the commercial real estate folk I decided to drive around Hartford.

Driving around Hartford randomly looking for a dungeon space is less effective than it sounds. It even less fun. The good news is that I was rarely shot at and only twice subject to arrest. Seriously though, I spent a good deal of time peeping in windows which is sooooooo much less rewarding if there isn't a pretty girl in a shower to look at through the window.

I had honestly just about given up and had many pep talks from our esteemed facilitator "b" when what to my wondering eyes did appear? (no it wasn't a mini sleigh and reindeer) On my way home from work (which I drive by every freaking day!) was a sign that held some promise. I called the building owner and set up a time to see the place. I called "P" and asked him to come as well.

The appointed hour arrived and Wow!!! we were stunned. The layout was truly amazingly perfect. I wont bore you with the details of the place (yet) as most of you know already and those that don't NEED to get their butts to Hartford to see it. I excitedly called "b" and told him about the place. I should mention that we also did a LOT of math to figure out how we were going to PAY for this much more expensive place. The following morning I called the landlord and started a very lengthy negotiation process. We also had several conversations about who we are and what we do, starting off gently and moving slowly forward into the realities of our activities. The landlord gave in to all of my requests (except to add a hot tub at no extra charge) and he sent us copies of the proposed lease.

Then we had to present the lease and the place to our membership. I was amazed at how easy everyone thought it would be to find a place. Questions like: well what else is available? Is this the only place you looked at? Why weren't we given a choice on other sites? Where will we go if we vote no? Where will you go?.... back to meeting in Hotels! I am thoroughly convinced that this was the ONLY place that was available and met zoning reqs and neighborhood reqs and privacy reqs and and and that we were seeking.

Now after my little mini rant there you are probably thinking I was pissed off huh? I sure was. But once again the membership amazed me. We voted unanimously to take the new place and raise our own out of pocket expenses. A couple of times now in the last few months the membership has voted for the long term health of our group over their own wallets. No one ever votes against their own wallet and yet here we did AGAIN. And that is why (well part one of why) The Society is my family. Truly amazingly wonderful people that care deeply about the organization.

Next.....preparation and moving day