Greetings all,

We're back... for all of a week. The we have to drive to Michigan, drop off the trailer that we will need for the renn faire there. Then we drive to Pennsylvania and do Anthrocon. (We'll have dealers tables and space in the art show too! Look for Fate Laughing Illustrations... or just look for all the dragons. That will be us! Come by and say hi! I'll be doing at show commissions. <No take home stuff though. My plates too full!>

After Anthrocon we drive back to Michigan and do Silverleaf Renaissance Faire for 5 weeks. (FIVE WEEKS in a tent. Ack! Not that we don't do this every year, but ACK!) We put up three pavilions. The stuffed animal/dragon tent, the artwork/wings/sculpture tent, and the tent we live in for a month and a half. We will have spotty access to a computer during this time whenever we can hit a Library.

Hope your all doing well. Sorry contact has been spotty.

you all!

Stef

Greetings all,

It's been quite a interesting week here at the Greater St. Louis Renn Faire. We had a huge severe storm. It just rained and rained. I think I heard that we got over 7 inches in 4 or so hours. Anyway all the itty, bitty, tiny creeks that wind through site became raging rivers that completely destroyed some of the tents down near the fron gate.

We had gone to dinner after faire closed and it was barely raining at the time. An hour later when we got back we couldn't cross the bridges to get into site. The water was waist high or more on the driving bridges, and the pedestrian walking bridge (the highest of the bridges) was halfway up the rialing and completely impassable. There was no way we could get us or our car across.

...And the worst part. We still don't have a roof. We have most of a roof, but it isn't tar papered or shingled, so it isn't water proof. I covered as much as I could with tarps and plastic, but with the hail and the sheer amount of driving rain, both Sandy and I thought we were out of business. We had to to go to Walmart for some cheap dry clothes, and toothbrushes and get a hotel room for the night. We also had an accident due to the poor visability. (I took out the turn signal and the running light on the drivers side...but that post will never attack anybody else again!)

Monday (Memorial Day) the entire faire was closed despite the fact that we were supposed to be open for the holiday. Cars still couldn't get across the bridges, however the water had receeded enought to allow us to get across the walking bridge and access the damage. Despite everything we feared, we only lost around two totes worth of product! (We're having a rain sale!) Somethings had to be dried, but all in all we faired very, very well! Thank the Gods! The parks department is wonderful down here and by Tuesday they had dump trucks full of gravel and bulldozing cats making the site walkable and wonderful again.

Rain is threatening again this weekend (but the weather report keeps changing!) and we're hoping for the best. We also have a $1500 repair to the car NOT related to the accident that has to be done before we can drive it back on the 10 hour trip to the Wisconsin. :sigh: So everybody keep you're fingers crossed for us... It's going to be a bumpy season!

I'll try to keep you all updated!

you all!

Stef

Greetings all,

I'm headed to the Greater St. Louis Renn Faire! [link] I'll be gone about a month. I'll be able to check in via the library computer and a friends laptop. I'm also taking my pencils and commissions with me.

Hopefully the booth will actually have a roof this year. (Important for keeping out the rain!) I'm taking my camera and I'll upload pictures of the booth later.

If you're in the area stop by the booth at the crossroads on the top of the "hill". (And trust me, you'll know what I mean.) We'll be the ones with all the bright sarongs and all the dragons!!!

(Yes, I mean you too, Glen!)

you all!

Stef

Greetings all,

Computers are bad, M'kay. You try to treat them nice. You run virus software. Every once in a while you make sure to delete your cookies. Then when it gets sick you try to do your best to help it. You try to repair whats wrong. And how does this miracle of the modern modem react?

...It eats my HP drivers.



In translation, that means that though I have artwork to upload here, my printer/scanner has become a very large paperweight.

I actually have a disk marked HP/Lexmark drivers. It won't load. Don't know why. It just sits there in my CD driver making that little whirling noise. So I go to My Computer and hit the CD drive and get Program Not Responding.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok. Deep Breath. I just needed to vent. So I won't kill the silicon traitor in front of me.

I'm going back to my color pencils... At least I'm the only driver they ever need!

you all!

Stef

Greetings all,

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE!!!!!
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I FOUND THEM!!!! I FOUND MY FILES!!! ALL MY PICTURES!!!!

Oh, blissful relief!!! I was so sick with all this. Thank the gods they're still there. Hidden...but still there. Now I just have to figure out how to get them where I can use them easily! If I can get the my documents, my picture and my bloody bookmarks to where I can use them all will be good in the world!!!! Ideas appreciated!

Thanks to all of you for your support and help!

:whew:

Now I can go to sleep!!!
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Our computer died today. Or I should say window, that overbearing, data eating, space hogging, microsoft whoreson Windows XP died today. AND IT TOOK ALL MY DATA WITH IT!!!! I know for most that this is a bad thing.

But I had years of PICTURES saved on my computer. Originals that I don't even OWN anymore. I'm just sick with it. Gods.... And all our tax information. Everything. All our websites, all my scanned sketches, because I always lose, or crimp them, show info, commission info.... Gods.

We tried to repair windows with the disc, but it wouldn't repair the missing config file so it had to be completely reloaded.

If you heard a noise reverberate outside, that was me screaming in absolute frustration.

:takes a deep breath:

Sorry for the rant guys. I just needed to vent. I'm too pissed to do artwork. I'm going to go watch zombies try to take over the world and stuff the snot out of dragons.

you all!

Stef