Mittens and I survived the road trip. I do not think I will drive over 1,300 miles in two days ever again.

There's a cat who wanders into Broos' backyard, which is where my bedroom window faces. The other morning as I got dressed, I heard a loud *whump* at the window and looked to see the cat stretched out on the screen, peering in at me and mewing.

Won't Mittens have fun? :)

Tomorrow night I'm flying up to Seattle, then Saturday driving down I-5 with the rest of my shoes, my house plants, my computer and Mittens. Poor Mittens nearly drove Rob insane the first night in Rob's new apartment, so Rob trundled Mittens back to the condo where he's lived all his life. The moving, the packing and no mommy have given him (Mittens) a lot of anxiety. I may have a totally grey kitty by the time I get back there to rescue him. Rob may have grey hairs, too, poor guy :(

Hopefully, Mittens will be kind to me and Bruce and not keep us up all night yowling. :/ Rob thinks Mittens just needs me to comfort him, which is my job. Rob is the wrestler so when he picks Mittens up, it's usually for playtime. When I pick Mittens up, it's to snuggle and coo over. Typical parents :)

I am sunburned and happy. It's like being a kid again. :)

Yesterday we went to the Scottish festival. A very exciting day. I was nearly kidnapped, had my shorts yanked off by a stranger and got to sit in the grass and toast my legs.

Being a Scottish festival, I of course meandered to the Boyd booth. An elderly gent told me the entire history of the Boyd clan, despite the fact that I was edging away when we finished with Robert the Bruce's part in the clan's history. The gent vigorously encouraged me to join the clan (I look so incredibly Scottish), they have camping! They have cook-outs! It's good, wholesome fun! And then he says, "Oh, is that a wedding ring? Or do you just wear that to look married?" Whereupon I said, "My husband is over at the caber toss just now, I'd best catch up to him," (my husband not being there, but Broos was over at the caber toss, putting the young laddies to shame) and sidled out of the tent as Mr. Boyd the kidnapper looked suitably disappointed.

There was much shopping as well. I fondled tea cozies and discussed the virtue of lavender with other shoppers. Then I found the object of my affections, the UtiliKilt booth. Near the tent, Kevin stood beside his girlfriend Candace with his jeans around his ankles and a kilt about his hips. I asked a salesman to measure me (I have always wanted one...a utilikilt, not a salesman). His female assistant measured me, he pulled an appropriate garment off the rack, whipped it around my hips and said, "Now hold here." Then he reached up under the kilt, grabbed my shorts and pulled them down so the kilt would lie flat. When I decided to try on a different colored kilt, he wrapped that kilt over the one I had on, reached up under it, and yanked off the old kilt. I decided on the dark grey model I tried on last. He asked, "Do you want to take off your shorts or do you want me to do it for you?" By then, Bruce, John, Michelle, Kevin and Candace were waiting on me, so I said, "Well, you've been under my kilt before..." and the cheerful salesman grabbed my shorts and riiiiippppped them away (to my momentary panic of, what if my cheerful undergarments came away too? but whew, they stayed on).

Immediately after being kilted, I called Heidi to tell her because our goal was to each buy one. Turns out, she'd been to the Fremont Fair that very day where her husband teased her out of getting one. But now that I have mine... :) Go, Heidi!

And so, there you have it. My first Scottish festival with a true Scottish dude. I'm toasted, un-kidnapped and kilted. :)

Broos got my laptop talking to his wireless network, so now here I sit in my room Chez Broos after the second night of socializing this week. I have only been here since Tuesday night. The first Tuesday night since about 1996 that I haven't had a meeting in either the Big or Little games. Wow.

This is so surreal to me. I am doing something I really enjoy for the first time as my full-time job. It's such an incredible feeling to actually want to work late (which is fortunate as poor Broos works like a madman). And despite the long hours, I've had more social life this week than I have in years. Rob and I are pretty sedentary creatures, but he might enjoy this kind of socializing, too. Broos and I went over to his friend Kevin's house after work Wednesday for their game night. We've just gotten in about ten minutes ago from John and Michelle's, where we had dinner and more games.

I'm so very lucky. And in one of those ironic twists, Monday I'd received an email from another big game company that was interested in interviewing me and I told them pretty much, "Thanks, but you lost me already!"

Tomorrow...or really, today...I am going apartment hunting. I need to get someplace so that when the movers pack and ship my stuff next Friday, it has a place to arrive. Next Friday I am flying back up to Seattle, picking up Rob's car and Mittens and driving back to San Diego.

Have I mentioned I love my job? If not, I mention it now. I love my job. :)

We held our annual post-Con forum tonight, which is the forum I host. Announced stuff to the players.

Now I'm going to go upstairs and cry.

In this past week, my entire life changed. So now I'm sitting surrounded by half-packed boxes, half-empty shelves and the realization that everything is, well, different.

On Wednesday last week, our realtor came over for some paper signing. She listed the condo the next morning and brought over someone to look at it at 11:30AM. Later that day, another realtor brought someone by to look at the condo -- twice! By 9:30PM that night, there were two offers for the condo. Rob and I reviewed them both and picked one. So my condo is sold, except for the paperwork, the inspections and the chaos.

Rob got an apartment at Uwajimaya Village in downtown Seattle. It's the place we've been lusting after ever since we decided to sell the condo and live in the city. I will be Broos' live-in maid for a couple few weeks until I can find a place of my own.

One of the biggest changes I'm making is that I'll be leaving the little game and going to work for a Really Big Game, at the entire other end of Interstate 5, starting next week. Lucky for me, Broos has a futon with my name on it. I hope he also has a passenger seat in his car with my name on it, or it'll be a loooooong walk to work.

Possibly some folks may see this post first, then find the email that I sent (likely in their spam trash folder!). I was hoping y'all would get the email first, but if this is where you read about it first, then you know it must be true :)

I must go back to packing, though. While Rob got me enough boxes to put all my hanging up clothes, there is probably no one box big enough for all my shoes. Which of course, when I talked with a moving company about what I'd need to pack up the apartment and told the guy I needed about 3 - 4 wardrobe boxes, he asked, "And how many boxes for your shoes?" Men.

No, I'm not at the convention. I'm at home. My stoodints have a take-home final, which was awfully good of two of them to be unable to come to the in-class final originally scheduled for next Monday so that we had to do it as a take-home instead except that I am trying to sell my condo and there is associated, assorted mayhem.

Fortunately, Heidi had a trial in June but we're not going to trial...but I was ready to not go to the convention if she needed me. As things got closer, though, it looked less and less that I'd be able to go...so I didn't.

Karen, my assistant who is more organized than a legion of Caesar's finest, is doing my seminar sessions for me. I do not know what I would do if not for Karen. She is the best thing that ever happened to the little game as far as coordinating crap, taking crap, organizing crap and backing people who give her crap into a corner. I adore her :)

She will be, with her brave assistant, partner and cohort Sharon, handling the Inside the GM's Studio event on Saturday's radio program. I sent along the questions I was going to use in my guise as James Lipton. As usual, I'm charmed by my own wit. One of my questions for our guests is "Full-text or room briefs?" I hope it comes across as funny to the listening public as it did to me writing it. :)