Big Bear Faire, Highland War, and a pool table

Did the Big Bear Renaissance Faire again this year. It was the best year yet. I took the dragons. It was Kaida's first REAL faire. She went to Market Night in Redlands a couple times for practice, but this was her first full-on faire/camping event.

We weren't there the first weekend.

SECOND weekend went really well, except that I tried a new kind of heat supply for the dragons, and it ran out during the night. They were fine, no ill after effects, but they were VERY happy to be left out in the sun for a bit in the morning. I put them on the little folding stool I re-furbished using the scraps from Kevin's vest.

While they were out on the little stool in the guild yard, Tia thought it would be a good idea to go on a little adventure. She attempted to walk off the edge of the stool, but Smaug stopped her. He put one of his big dragon-hands on the base of her tail, then flopped his head down on the middle of her back as if to say "No, you stay HERE!". It worked, she stayed. Smaug keeps his girls in line.

Gallows Humor's CreEPy CD: Gypsy tested, DRAGON approved!

THIRD weekend was much better. I brought backups and more backups of the heating stuff, and they had lasting heat through the night. Tiamat popped out of the travel carrier like a little Jack-in-the-box in the morning, followed by Kaida. Smaug is a lazy bum and didn't want to come out right away. He isn't a big fan of mornings. They also had wings for third weekend. During second weekend, I had a little girl tell me that they couldn't be REAL dragons, because they didn't have wings... well, I solved that.


Smaug wanted nothing to do with the wings, but Tiamat wore hers for a good 45 minutes before she stepped on one, and decided they weren't so great.

Kaida is still too little for hers. Once I had them finished, I realized they probably weighed as much as she did. Maybe next time when she is a little bigger.

That CreEPy CD was the last one we had for the weekend, and was auctioned off. It went for $40. I should have had Smaug do an ink-print of his foot on it... Everyone ELSE signed it, and he's kind of become the official un-official mascot for Gallows Humor.


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


Went to Highland War (an SCA event) in Victorville over the weekend.

Yes, I took the dragons. Of COURSE I took the dragons. They would never have forgiven me if I left them home.

They got a LOT of attention. So many people came over to love on them, and snuggle them, and carry them around camp. It was great.

And Smaug got to pretend to be the Pirate King.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I finally got a pool table. Highland War didn't have a lot of booths for shopping, so when I got home, I still had pretty much all of the money I had set aside for shopping over the weekend. I hit up Craigslist and found a nice pool table for cheap.

Craigslist rocks!

A day late...

Around 8am this morning, I was stuck in traffic for about half an hour or so. When I finally made it to the... obstruction... I saw a small, red, rather fast looking car (couldn't tell what kind anymore) wrapped around a signal post. There were something like 4 ambulances, 2 fire trucks, and maybe 5 or 6 police cars/motorcycles.





I desperately wished my cell phone camera still worked (stupid phone)...




...because that signal post...



...was right in front of the big Kaiser Hospital sign.

...I guess if you HAVE to wrap your car around a pole, the pole in front of the hospital is probably the best one to use.

Cabinets and steam sale antics...

The dragons have their new cabinet. I set it up... ish... today. Have been waiting on replacement doors for the bottom half for awhile, and I finally got them today. Cost $94 and 3 days of "Hey, you said pick them up today, what happened?"

And when I got them home, I found out they had been cut 1/8 of an inch too long.

Rather than take them back, have the guy fix it, and spend half of next week chasing him around to get them back, I 'modified' the cabinet to make them fit. I had to carve down parts of the track guard enough to let the glass pane in, but not so much that it couldn't still keep the glass in the frame.

It worked.

Smaug has the top cabinet to himself, and the girls get to share the bottom. I still need to put in the wood bits and some better decorations, but for now, it looks pretty good.

On another note, this totally happened tonight:

Yea. Steam does that. I still don't remember buying Fallout III or New Vegas.

...Not that I am complaining  :)

Reptiles are an addiction

Hi, my name is Katie, and I am a reptile addict...


Seriously, I just got 2 more. Not beardies this time though. This time, I ended up with a pair of leopard geckos.

It was their eyes. Their eyes burned into my soul and haunted me. A few weeks ago, I was at a PetCo, it was night time, and the geckos were awake. I looked into the tank, and a little gecko looked back at me.

I wanted to take it home, but I already had the 3 beardies

Yesterday, I was at PetSmart. I was entertaining the dragons by taking them out into public to meet people - they love that. I asked the girl who works in the reptile and fish department what the geckos feel like, and she opened up the tank and told me to feel for myself. One of the bigger ones in the tank climbed right into my hand. She was almost velvety... I was done. She climbed up onto my shoulder and I put my hand into the tank again. A second one climbed up onto my hand as well, but I put it back.

I took the first one home.

within an hour, I had decided I didn't want her to be lonely, so I went back for the other one too. The girl was still there, and when I put my hand back in, the same little gecko hopped up. She said "Look, it remembers you!" 

I took that little one home too.

Now I have to come up with some names...

Pirates and sabers and... dragons? Oh my!

My church had a murder mystery dinner a few weeks ago. Pirate themed.

I took the dragons. Smaug is no stranger to the people at my church, he has been there several times - but it was Tiamat's first time.






She handled it quite well








She had a great time meeting all the new people, and had to explore EVERYTHING. At the end of the night, though, she was completely worn out.


She really did like my hat  :)







On another, not entirely related note, the dragons ALL seem to be fans of World of Warcraft...

Smaug wants to play

The girls like to watch

Here there be DRAGONS!

New dragon. We named her Kaida.

...well, actually, KEVIN named her Kaida. I just approved the name. He said it is Japanese for "Little Dragon". Good enough reason for me.









She gets along with the others QUITE well.

Dragon Harem

Picked up two more dragons. Both female, both Italian Leatherbacks.

Kaida. Female Citrus Tiger Italian Leatherback, Approximately 1 month old.

One is barely a month old,

Tiamat. Female red Italian Leatherback. Approximately 3 months old.

while the other is probably about 3 months.

Tiamat has developed a taste for piggyback rides from Smaug, and for SOME odd reason, he tolerates it.