Friday evening Michael invited over some friends, we had a great time.

arrived around 7:30, and showed up soon after, with a couple gifts for me! They’re so sweet %) In the big red bag they brought along Scene It? Deluxe Disney Edition. I had no idea that Scene It? was a whole line of games, so when I said I’d do great if a Disney one existed I had no clue a Disney one actually did exist. It was a very thoughtful gift, we had to play it.

It was fun. I fell on my face when it came to live action Disney movies, but was sickeningly good when it came to most of the cartoon ones. Still, and Michael came very close to beating me! It made for a very fun game.

We ordered some pizza and had a great night. Spent some time talking, and took the opportunity to invite the 3 of them to our wedding. This was a big thing, we had previously thought that we’d only have 3 people at our wedding, but the logistics of the castle wedding made it easy to invite more of our close friends and fill up the place. I’m so excited, we now have our wedding party!

They left around 1:30, after watching the three Wallace & Gromit shorts (which hadn’t seen, gasp!).

Saturday we got up early for no reason. We didn’t have solid plans for the day and I was in a lousy/sad mood. We wanted to go hiking, but weren’t sure were. I messaged to find out their plans for the day, changed my mind about what I wanted to do about 324 times (that’s a symptom of my lousy/sad mood) while talking to her. After much thought and talking with Michael over a yummie pancake breakfast Michael and I decided to go to Hawk Mountain, just the two of us. They were holding an educational event, teamed up with Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center to show off 3 birds of prey, the most notable being a Golden Eagle.

Most people who know me, know all about my fear of birds. Most of the fear is completely illogical, but I was perfectly fine to live with it until we started studying Shamanism. There is a lot of bird stuff in shamanism. Spirit guides that can be birds, smudging with feathers and whole wings of birds that died. At first I just toughed it out and tried not to freak out when I had to touch a feather, but it quickly became apparent that I needed to deal with this fear. So recently, parts of my journeys and some of my waking thought has made use of spirtual guidance to explore this fear and deal with it properly.

Seeing a golden eagle up close was a huge step, I thought it might be too big of one. The last time I saw one was this summer, I freaked out and it was in a cage 1000 feet away from me.

We left home slightly later than I wanted, but arrived at the center early enough to catch the final, 2PM show with the birds.

I took pictures and didn’t freak out.

The golden eagle has a 6-7 foot wingspan, and weighs a mere 12 pounds. They’re powerful birds, can kill baby deer and lambs, but often stick to rabbits and smaller birds as their prey. They fly 45-60MPH, but when they dive they can reach speeds of 120MPH. Yowza. See, there is good reason to be scared of these! The golden eagle that they had was a female (which are larger than males) who had a pretty sad background. She was born in captivity, but raised so she could be released in the wild. Once released she lived fine for a while until being electricuted (from powerlines or something similar). The center found her badly hurt, and today she’s a 15 year old bird that suffers from permanent damage from that, she has a talon missing, part of the bone in a wing is missing (she can’t fly), and her beak is crooked so she can’t tear up meat like she used to be able to so they need to cut up all her food for her. Poor thing! I let my sympath
y emotions take over.

I was able to get relatively close to her without being too scared, something I wouldn’t believe was possible a few months ago.

The next bird they brought out was a Screech owl. She was SO CUTE! We only got one little picture of her because she was so small and wasn’t out for as long. She had the feathers on the top of her head up in a defensive pose, trying to look as large as possible, which as adorable for an animal her size. She had a similar sad story though, after being hit by a car she was brought to the center for help and when she was all patched up they learned that she had lost sight in one of her eyes. The center also has two other screech owls, same injuries from similar accidents. The owls like to hunt in open spaces, and quite often the open spaces they find are roadways which also have prey that come for the trash people throw out of their cars. It’s a bad combination, they said that many of the birds treated at the center were brought in after accidents with cars.

The final bird was a barn owl. He was a nice looking bird, injured somehow and so he’s lost the use of one of his wings. We got very close to him.

It was a little after 3 when we left the presentation area and headed for the trails. It costs $7 per adult to walk on their trails, and that seems to be the only thing they charge for, the whole presentation we watched was free. The walk wasn’t nearly as nice as some of the ones we’ve been on in West Virginia because there were so many people. The birds migrate at this time of year so this is the busiest time for the park. There were a lot of people and most of them were being noisy, even the adults. We got some nice view pictures.

So, people aside, the trails are nice and the views are great. We’ll be keeping this place on our list of good places to go, it’s only about an hour from home. Perhaps next time when it’s not one of the busiest days of the year.

We left the park around closing time at 5. Our plan was to just go home, but we decided to go meet up with Bob at The Drafting Room in Spring House. There we were able to tell him about the plans for the wedding (he’s Michael’s best man). The food was good, beer was great (I wasn’t going to have beer, but how can I resist the Lindemans Framboise on tap?), and for once, the service there was really good. We had a nice evening and went home around 8:30. About halfway home I realized that I didn’t have my purse – I had left it at the restaurant! We turned around and I called them to see if they had found it, they had it and when I went to pick it up a quick inspection proved that nothing was missing. Phew.

Today the only solid plans we have are to do some work in the yard.

For lunch I’m enjoying chili.

This is chili that Michael made, using ‘s recipe for the crock pot. I don’t have the recipe here, I’ll have to grab it and post it sometime.

This is some great chili.

Yum yum yum.

I’m such a lucky girl %D

And now I have heartburn, but it was so worth it.

First, and most important, we chose a minister for our wedding! We’ll be going with the woman we met Monday evening, El Sybesma. We sent her the deposit for her services yesterday.

We also contacted the owners of The Castle in Maryland to discuss pricing for our little wedding, and they had no problem working out very reasonable rate. We’ll be sending out our deposit tomorrow.

We picked a date too, in October of 2006. But I’m keeping the exact day secret until the plans for our location are solidified, which will be sometime next week. Besides, it wouldn’t be fair to tell the whole world before personally telling the people we’re inviting ;)

This feels so real now.

A few weeks back there was a thread on the PLUG list about starting a northern-suburbs-of-philly LUG. I haven’t had a lot of time time for mailing lists lately, but this sparked my interest.

I want more local friends.

But I’m a geek. I don’t go to bars, I don’t feel like I really connect with most people I work with. I’ve already found a few local friends using the internet. Getting involved with a local LUG seemed to be the most logical thing to do.

So when the interest in a local LUG seemed to be fizzling out due to lack of organization I hopped on the BCLUG list and started working with some people to make plans for a meeting.

It feels so good to get something like this going, and it takes surprisingly little time to organize if you know what you’re doing. The plan now is alternating between Montgomery County and Bucks County meetings, perhaps setting up a website for each (bclug.org exists, and the montcolug.org is bought but not yet live), but a shared mailing list.

I made a logo for the Montco LUG part.

We’ll see how it goes, I understand the dynamics of small LUGs and how difficult it can be to keep people interested. Our first meeting is this upcoming Monday the 14th at Borders in Montgomeryville, details here.

The meeting Monday evening with the second minister on our list went quite well. We were a bit unsure at the beginning when she pulled out her wedding planning binder (we’re just here to talk!), but as we spoke with her it became clear that she had some really great ideas and knew what she was talking about.

Deciding is going to be tough, but I’m very pleased that it’s tough because there are such good candidates rather than our previous worry of not having any that would work out.

There are so many other things we need to begin thinking about. Location is a big one, we wanted to do it at The Castle, but for such a small wedding paying so much for a location might not be the best choice. Michael is going to give them a call this week anyway to discuss what would be included. If we don’t do it there I really don’t know where we’ll do it. We’re planning on a fall wedding, and want it to be outside (with the option of a nice place inside if it rains). Again, we need to decide soon so we can get things rolling.

I thought deciding on the music for the ceremony would be difficult and that I’d mostly leave it to Michael since that’s his thing. But after leaving the meeting on Monday I realized that Jonn Serrie’s Spirit Keepers would be perfect. The site describes it as “a musical offering that combines the ethereal world of space music with ancient Native American tribal music” and it’s very good. Upon mentioning it to Michael he agreed, and said that it was on his mind as well. One decision made! Yay!

We grabbed dinner on our way back from the meeting and discussed some other things. An important one was what we’ll wear. I had started looking at the “traditional white wedding dresses” but nothing was jumping out at me the way wedding dresses from India did. I remember the first time I saw a picture of an Indian wedding, the bride was wearing the most amazing red dress – she was absolutely stunning!

That’s what I want. Weddings are about vibrancy and the beginning of a new life together, the traditional style white dress just doesn’t do it for me. Besides, we’re already taking wedding rituals from Europe and North America, why not reach around to Asia as well?

Just a quick google search for such dresses brings me here where I get to say “OMG SO PRETTY OMG SO PRETTY!” I’d like to find a local place that sells these.

Saturday was spent at our Shaman class. A lot of interesting subjects were touched upon, it turned out to be quite an enjoyable meeting.

We came home and were feeling somewhat restless. While we were sitting around the livingroom trying to figure out what to do I took a look in the fishtank to find the yellow angelfish (it’s always hiding and I look for it often) – only to discover that it was dead! Oh no! This was quite a shock, it was always quite a runt and never ate much but there was no indication that it was sick %( Poor fishie.

We decided just to head to the video store and pick up a couple movies. I’d never seen “Naked Gun” (yeah I’m a FREAK!) so we got that, and got “Kentucky Fried Movie” since it’s a bit of a comedy cult classic and I hadn’t seen it. We also picked up a case of Hopdevil and a pizza and some wings on our way home.

The evening turned out to be nice and relaxing. I didn’t even end up having any beer. I got tired around 10:30 and went to bed. Michael spent the night doing his radio show.

Sunday was more productive. I got up at 7:30 spent the morning puttering around on my computer as usual. When Michael got up around 11:30 (he’d been up past 4AM for his radio show) I headed outside to get to work on the yard.

I was able to finally tackle my gardens, chopping down all the dead flowers so it was back to just mulch and ready for winter. Then it was time to clean up leaves. The leaves are still falling, I should have taken pictures of the leaves falling there were so many each time the wind blew. I got to try out the new attachment for the leave blower/mulcher that puts leaves directly into a garbage can rather than the small bag that it comes with. This was very nice. When Michael joined me he got out the lawn mower (which also mulches) and we worked together to get piles together and mulch. We spent about 4 hours out there.

I was tired at the end.

For dinner I made some veggie burgers and fries, and finally got to enjoy a beer. We finished watching “Kentucky Friend Movie” and then watched The West Wing. The West Wing was horrible, it was their “live debate episode” which was – you guessed it – a live debate. I am already quite well-versed in this country’s politics, and watching fictional characters debate today’s issues was strange. Not only strange, but stupid. It’s like the show has become the director’s private podium for political comment, and that’s really not what the show was originally about, the actual issues used to be secondary to the characters and engaging plot. ARG!

Now it’s Monday. This evening we’re meeting with another ordained minister, she was recommended by someone we really respect too, so I am hopeful that it will go well.

As I mentioned earlier this week, Michael spent some time working on the Magic Room this week. I finally was able to enjoy it tonight, and took a picture.

Yesterday night Michael helped me make my journeying mask that we were asked to make for the Shaman class. We don’t have pictures of that process, but it was messy! To make the plaster of paris mask you first cover your face in vaseline, and then have someone start applying the strips to your face. Michael applied the strips and I just lied on the floor. It took about 20 minutes for him to complete it, and then I had to wait for 20 minutes for it to dry. The mask has no eye holes and no mouth, so I just had to chill out for a while. Took the opportunity to go on a Journey.

The mask is supposed to dry in 24 hours, but it hadn’t completely when I got home from work. So I popped it in the oven for a bit (following directions on packaging – 200 degrees for 15 minutes). Then it was ready.

I painted it green.

I let it dry while checking email and getting things squared away on the computer for the evening. Then I took the project out to the Magic Room.

I added ears to it (still need to work on how to secure these, I used glue but it doesn’t seem to be holding very well)

And then for the really fun part, painting designs on it! We journeyed for this during our last evening class, and this is what my spirit guide showed me:

Reality was a bit different.

I’m not much of an artist, but I’m proud of it and I had fun!

I did get my quiet time too. Michael went to the men’s sweat this evening so I really got the place to myself. Was able to journey, do a runecast and some meditation. I’m feeling good.

But now it’s bedtime.

The absurdity of it all aside, the daylight savings time change has never really “bothered” me. Until now.

Maybe it comes with age?

Maybe it is because I’m on a more normal sleep schedule?

Maybe it’s not the time change at all?

Whatever it is, I’m sure feeling weird this week.

Not really a weird I can put my finger on either. I’m not depressed, not particularly unmotivated, not restless, haven’t had a problem sleeping, not feeling moody, not tired.

I’m just… disconnected.

I think what I need is some meditation and quiet time. That’s not happening tonight though, we have many good plans!

During my lunch break I’m headed to Michaels to pick up some Rigid Wrap plaster cloth and other decorating stuff for the masks we need to make for our Shaman class on Saturday. October went by too quickly, this class came up fast.

At 7PM tonight we’ll be meeting with a minister to discuss wedding stuff, see if he’s the right type of person to marry us. I have high hopes, he was recommended to us by someone we really respect and has done many non-christian weddings.

When we get home we’ll have to get going on the masks since they generally take 24 hours to dry before you can decorate them, and they’ll have to be ready for decorating Friday night.

But then after all that decorating on Friday I’ll have some quiet time! Michael spent the evening on Tuesday cleaning up the Magic Room above the garage, putting down some carpets and bringing a bit of furniture and some blankets up there. I haven’t gotten a chance to enjoy the fruits of his labor, but he tells me it’s a wonderful place to go and reconnect.

Last night we attended a “Dia de los Muertos” party in Malvern at Jim Frank’s house. It was fun, we met some new people.

We arrived around 7PM, brought some breaded chicken that Michael made, yummie! It went well with the chips, dips, salsa and quesadillas that were provided when we got there. Mmmm quesadillas.

About a dozen people showed up, the first couple hours were spent just chatting, eating and listening to mexican-style music (with some James Brown mixed in because it’s “good party music”). We also decorated an alter with candles, confetti, flowers and trinkets and photos from people that have passed. I didn’t bring photos or anything, but it was meaningful anyway, and really beautiful once it was all set up.

The big event of the evening took place at 9PM when we made our “tombstones” and buried ourselves. The “Tombstones” were just pieces of paperboard that we cut out and stapled to sticks, and then we wrote on them. The variety of what was written was interesting, some people were serious, writing their favorite quotes or dates of life-changing events, others were funny. I couldn’t help being part of the latter group, since I’ve done quite a bit of thinking seriously about mortality lately and I was using this night to celebrate with laughter and happiness. My tombstone said:

Elizabeth Ann Krumbach

“Oh no! There really is a God after all!”

*flames at the bottom*

Hahahaha! I crack myself up.

Once the tombstones were complete we went into the room with the alter and told each other what we could do “in remembrance of us” and then went out to stick our tombstones in the ground out front to “bury ourselves.” It was all very interesting, more so because none of us really knew what to expect when Jim said the plan was to “burying ourselves” and everyone was able to make up what they wanted it to mean for ourselves.

We left around 10:30. I wish we could have stayed and visited longer, but I was tired and I had to get up for work this morning and all that.

The Halloween party on Saturday was a lot of fun, you should read Bae’s entry because she has pictures.

We spent the day cleaning the house and gettings things ready for the party, then carved our pumpkins. By 5 we were ready for guests, and got our costumes on. Around 6 and showed up with little in tow. was wearing an adorable lion costume made by ‘s mother. Around 6:30 and came by. We all filed into the TV room to play Tv edition Scene It?

Playing Scene It? was fun, even though I was terrible at it. Amazing how little popular TV I’ve watched in my life, I was absolutely ignorant about so many things that others took to be obvious. We played this all through the evening, taking breaks for pizza and stuff. dropped by for about an hour before he was called back to work (stupid dumb being on call!), but it was nice that he came by, things just wouldn’t be the same if he didn’t.

At some point we decided to make popcorn. We don’t have a microwave, so and picked up a popcorn popper for us (so sweet!), which turned out to be more fun than it should have been. I don’t know who designed it, but it has a horrible tendancy to throw popcorn all over the kitchen rather than getting it in the bowl. A napkin to guide it into the bowl will fix this problem, but it was still pretty funny. I’ll have to practice with it by making more popcorn ;) At least it’s healthy because it doesn’t have butter and all the junk JiffyPop stove top popcorn has.

and came by too – with cupcakes! makes the most amazingly tastey cupcakes, and she decorated every one. Such talent! I don’t think I’ve ever done anything like that %) She also brought us a gift of some soap she had made – apple soap shaped like a skull, yay so cool!

Late in the evening our neighbors from across the street came by to see if we were interested in going to their party. Michael did the neighborly thing and accepted the invite, joined him, but I stayed back with our own party and enjoyed some Simpson Halloween episodes with everyone.

I didn’t end up “drinking” much, the guys had beer, but I was perfectly content with my Cherry Pepsi. I ate so much pizza and chips though, and probably 3-4 cupcakes.

Michael and came back from the neighbor’s place around midnight so Michael could do his radio show. We spent the rest of the evening watching movies and talking. It was much fun! People left shortly after 2AM.

Sunday was uber lazy day. I don’t think I got anything acomplished. Instead we enjoyed the cool fall weather by snuggling on the couch with a big blanket and some horror movies. It was a good day.

Tonight we’re headed to Malvern for the Dia de Los Muertos celebration, should be fun.

I should write a big ole post about how much fun I had last night, but it’s a chilly fall day and we have a few horror movies downstairs to snuggle in blankets and watch. The writeup can wait, this is just a quick post to give the link to our pumpkin carving Pictures for the year:

Michael (Time) And Lyz’s (pleia2’s) Pumpkins 2005!