Zerker! Welcome to the forums! I hope you find chorrol.com as warm and friendly as I have.

Oooh, Seattle's nice.

I love the desert, but I admit it's a suble or even acquired taste. I find the low humidity makes such a world of difference, at least for me. I'm also up in the mountains at 3000 feet looking down on Vegas (2000 feet) so we always get a 5 degree (F) break.

As far as Cyrodiil, we like everywhere there except Bruma (Brrrr).

I prefer Washington D.C but yeah, until we get a lucky break with a business deal, we're staying in Seattle.

Thank you, Acadian and Buffy. I'm looking forward to a nice stay in this website.

The three of us hate Leyawiin. Too humid...

Yup- we have been running +30 C (over 90 F) for most of the last 2 weeks here in East TN, with very little rain- until today. Despite that, the mosquitos have been terrible this summer.

The good news- there has been no need to mow the lawn- as it is rather, ahh- crispy.

@minque- I left a "surprise" for you in the latest Interlude- a relationship that was not previously known.

@DarkZerker- Welcome. Pull up a spot near the window. I thoroughly enjoyed the fish market on my 2 visits to Seattle.

In other news, my computer appears to have packed it in for good... Overheating because of a failed exhaust fan appears to be the culprit. The graphics card is definitely fried, so I tried a different AGP card (it pays to be a computer nerd and have 5 or 6 old PCs sitting around). Still no joy. Tried the hard drive in a different machine- no boot. Tried it as a secondary in the other machine- the BIOS sees it, but Windows does not....

This is very bad, as it has both of my older stories on it, as well as all my Morrowind and Oblivion saves. Athlain's journal is safely ensconced on my USB drive, but he may be in limbo for some time if I cannot unlock his prison.

I have one more- well actually 2 more- tools to try. The first is a remote connect cable that can read the drive via USB port. The second, which I just remembered, is a commercial data-recovery program I own.... Hmmm- the weekend just will not get here fast enough...

Ugh, PC problems. Sorry treydog. At least you know about such things. Heck, I can't even spell compeuwteurz.

Best of luck as you reforge that precious and tenuous link to Tamriel. Try not to use your hammer.

This post has been edited by Acadian: Jul 12 2010, 08:10 PM

Hard drive problerms are my least favourite (barring those nearly impossible to diagnose pull everything and try it with a known working box ones), I tend to back up everything which I don't mind losing remotely as well as on a second drive. A bit obsessive but it does mean that I never lose much data... If the bios can see it then that's certainly a good sign though so best of luck.

As for weather here it's ideal. Well maybe a bit of heavy rain at night would be nice if it was forecasted but... I've just finished (I think, this has been said many, many times) building a boat from scratch and the warm (about 20C here which counts as warm) sun and strong wind have been great for getting the various paints, oils and sealing gunges dry quickly and with minimal fuming of my brain. It hasn't been tested since the project was put on standby *cough* years ago but it floated well then and now it has a floor, mast, sail and somewhat more convincing waterproofing.

The next job is to find someone mad enough to go sailing in it...

@Olen:
Huh. And you're not?

@ all: Warmish, but not too much so here. Def cooler than minque and trey! Little rain, though - most of the storms keep passing by north and south of us. There must be some kind of energy field over this part of the Midwest - it's not the first time that's happened.

@ trey: Sorry to hear of your PC problems, trey. In the fifteen years I've owned computers, I've been lucky - no hard drive failures ever. I can always argue that's because all I've owned are Macs. Heck the 15 year old one probably still runs fine, though the CRT gave up the ghost years ago. The 13 year old is hunky dory, as is the 10 year old - I've kept those to play old Mac games (think Rainbow Six) that don't do well on my Intel Mac. The only reason I get new ones is because the software I routinely use for my photography and graphic design outstrip the processors every couple of years. Otherwise I think I'd be happy still with the old G3.

Even so, I still live in fear of that catastrophic hard drive failure. I've got the laptop set to back up my fiction (all of it) once a week so if this kitty dies, I won't lose Julian! All my photography are backed up onto external hard drives and DVD's. Yeah, overkill maybe, but I don't want to take any chances!

As for the XBox, well, I have the games saved onto a removable memory card. Saved my butt already once when the hard drive failed on it (dang microsoft machine!).

So best of luck to you trey. Hope to see Athlain and Athynae roaming free again soon!

@Zerker: I was in Seattle last summer, left the first day of that monster heat wave they had there. It was gorgeous there, and I really enjoyed the little bit of the city I got to see. I'd love to go back again. Someday. My other favorite place to visit is Northern New Mexico - Santa Fe and Taos. The high desert is something else. Both the Sangre de Cristo Range (including Taos Mountain) and (more recently) the Olympic Peninsula are recurring themes in my writing - those places are special.

Monster heat wave? More like Dante's last level of Hell! I mean wow...was it hot. I was so close to just stealing an AC unit from my neighbor. Heck, I wanted to cleave my neighbor who refused to give us just one minute of AC.

I keep up with Maxical outside of the forums via e-mail. I think she is dealing with more than just her ex-husband. I sent it two weeks ago, I think she too may be deathly ill. Wherever she may be, I hope she is okay...

All you can do is hope for the best I guess.

Good luck.

I'd personally rather not hope. She is one of my closest friends. If anything happens to her, I just don't know what I'll do...

If she's sick, you got to trust the doctor to do everything in his power. Trust modern medicine, it saved hundreds upon thousands of lives including my own.

Ok so...tomorrow the journey begins! First visiting my mother, then my brother and his family...and after that....GERMANY! Here I come!

Our annual camping-holiday will last for nearly three weeks this year, it will be awesome as usual.

Update on Bolzmann The Cat: He's recovered very well and is now acting like an old gentleman as he should. Mostly ouside in the garden, lying on the veranda in a big sun-chair with a thick cushon on it. Very comfortable! The heat-wave has declined just a bit, much better temperature for a fur-ball like The Bolz!

Dear kitty has resumed his old habits of craving service during night-time, and I just love it! I love getting out of bed and feed my baby, caress him and see to that he has all he needs. This morning he was sleeping beside my bed on the "camoflage-carpet" It's a black-ish carpet and when Bolzie is lying on it. it's hard to see him...same color.. . He's eating regularly again..not much each time, but many times a day! Of course he's a bit to skinny for my taste, but older ones often get skinnier!


My dear son is going to take good care of Bolzie during our absence, as well as of my private "jungle". He might even get the kitty a bit fatter..

@minque: Be sure to tell your son to PM me if he has any questions about Bolzie while you are gone!

Oh, and have a great trip! Which part of Germany are you going to visit? My family roots trace back to Bremershaven (in the 1870's, likely have a different name now) and to East Prussia (now part of Poland).

This post has been edited by haute ecole rider: Jul 19 2010, 04:42 PM

@hautie. Of course I'll tell him! He knows you're a vet btw. You know him from here he's "Bolzmania" As if you couldn't guess...

I sort of feel bad for leaving him now, he's my little baby-kitty and I know I'll miss him terribly! But then again I also know that he and my som will have some quality-time when they're on their own!

Mine is the same way! I only give her dry food now, because she got tired of all the wet food (I tried every brand, she gets tired of each after a while and won't eat it anymore). Even though I keep her bowl full, I still have to go and stand next to her while she eats. If not she won't eat. Except when I am not home, then she can eat just fine without me!

hehe...I recognize that! If I sit beside Bolzie and talk to him he eats more.....but of course if I'm not present he eats anyway! Cats are so clever...He doesn't like the dry food so much at the time, I give him dry food suitable for "old neutered cats who have access to the outside!"...very expensive, genuine Royal Canin! Then i have "Food for just neuterd cats" and the special diet food for sensitive digestion...but he's more into wet food now...and tuna! tuna is delicious! Also full fat sour milk...and an egg-yolk occasionally

But best of all...are the small prey he himself hunts during night time! ahhh yummy. Beetles, small birds and so on. One evening a small bird flew right into our kitchen window and was unconcsious, it fell down about 2 metres from Bolzie...he didn't believe his eyesight....and really got himsekf a delicious steak!

The two of you are classic examples of cat people - people who exist only to serve their kitties!

My two get fed twice daily, that's it. 50-50 dry and canned food, grain-free formulas (Wellness brand). Both are indoor only cats. They don't bother me at night (mainly because I throw them off the bed when they do), but do bother me starting about 5 am for their breakfast. One is particularly persistent!

I find that feeding them grain-free products makes them less "hungry" through the day, and they feel more satiated. As they have innate insulin resistance, it makes sense that the 'diabetic' diet is better for them (low carbs). The pest isn't scavenging as much for scraps as he was on the old food. He's not picky about what he eats, though. The cat thinks he is a Labrador retriever (notorious among vets for eating anything). The retired queen, on the other hand, is picky, picky, picky. She loves dry food, and will only eat turkey flavored wet. If it has anything else, or gets 'contaminated' by anything else, she won't eat it!

A mistake I see people making a lot is keeping the food bowls full. Cats don't need that much food to begin with. Mine only get about a quarter ounce of dry food and a quarter of a 5-oz can of wet food per feeding. They're both at their ideal weight, though I think the pest is a little on the heavy side (mainly because he finishes off what Her Highness doesn't eat). They're not small cats, either. Both are about 10 lbs (average size).

I'm taking off now! Have a great trip, minque!

Have a great trip! Try not to worry 'bout kitty - sounds like he is in great hands!

He Surely is!

So bye bye everyone.....Try not to miss me too much!

Safe travels, minque!

I should have a new (used) computer later this week. I "think" I have salvaged my saved games for the story... And I have found my Morrowind and Bloodmoon disks. Tribunal is MIA- but then, the Tribunal actually IS missing by the time of Athlain...

Turns out I do have a saved version of Trey in Mournhold, but the only places the first Trey story exists are on the deceased hard drive and my 2 eBooks. Well, perhaps transcribing it will give me the opportunity to polish it a bit- and a reminder to BACK UP MY STUFF!