Some hugely drastic changes -- part 2

It's about time I got around to posting this entry. In memory of Violet, of course:

Best. Cat. Ever.


October 1, 2010:

My fiance/Sensei Lucas is starting his third dojo in our living room (yes, he has a license)! We were hoping to get space at our gym, but another martial arts instructor, which the gym owner agrees isn't as good as Lucas, got to it just before he did.

Anyway, the first class went great! It was me, Alex and Michael, who kept having to lie down until we realized he was forgetting to breathe! I know I've had this problem myself with other things, but the concept is so funny -- don't we normally breathe? How can we forget?
` All in all, we were having a somewhat awkward and comical time. Lucas is a great teacher, and I think we'll be doing much better by next week.

The coolest part is, our living room is easily-convertible back into its former state, except now we have this mattress for making sure no one falls into the fireplace during class. Violet likes it well enough.

Also, I drew the two fighting dudes for Lucas' dojo sign:

Looks more official with ancient karatikas on it, doesn't it?


October 8, 2010:

At about 4 in the morning, Lucas is often woken up by our ex-roommate, Restraining Order-Rick, driving slowly driving through the cul-de-sac, stopping by our house, and then going back out again. He knows it's Rick's car because of the distinctive engine noise, and the bald tires making a grinding noise on the pavement.
` Also, who else would be that devoted to harassing us by stopping by at four in the morning so that we wouldn't know?

Lucas has been talking about this to the police, and they said that Lucas should actually go outside to confirm that it's Rick, then call 9-1-1. They should be able to stop him because there are only a few ways Rick could drive out of the area, and because his little 1990's red Honda with a black hood is distinctive.
` Also, taking a picture if possible would be really useful if they didn't catch him.

In other RickNews, we've figured out that although the meth-heads that had been visiting months ago could well have taken Roommate Troy's radio with his WuTeng Clan CD, we suspect that Rick had stolen the other things of Troy's that disappeared -- especially since Rick was always the one to point out to Troy that they were missing!

In More Exciting News, yesterday was Landlady Roberta's first day of karate class. She was clearly feeling odd at the idea of saying, 'Hai sensei' to her tenant! The rest of us are doing much better at karate already, so it was even more awkward for Roberta!
` Her daughter was supposed to come in today, but she didn't, although this time, Troy got home in time for class, so he got to see Alex, Michael and me doing our first day of shiko dachi ('sitting stance'). Don't let the name deceive you -- it involves 'sitting' in the air with your legs bent at right angles out to the side!
` I think we all did okay, though, and Troy is very much looking forward to his first day of class. Also, we all laughed when Lucas was demonstrating a kata to us and punched very near Troy's face, which took on a quite-unnerved expression!

Also, other people have expressed a desire to take Lucas' class -- it seems everyone wants to get in on the action -- even the morning glory vines are in our dojo!

October 9, 2010:

This morning, I was doing my homework on the bed and Lucas came in, crying, and snuggled up with me. I asked him what was wrong and he said that Rick's threats and then stalking us has been driving him up the wall.
` He's been keeping Rick Rael's childhood friend (and founder of SkullCandy) Rick Alden, updated to what's been going on and said that since Alden and his company are partly responsible for Rael's rotten behavior and feeling of entitlement, that he might have to sue SkullCandy.
` For one... million... dollars!
` Wellllll... probably not, unless it keeps going on like this. Let's just say, comforting Lucas has taken a couple hours out of my homework time. I've honestly never seen him cry for that long, despite the fact that we've had much worse troubles than this in the past (as my past bloggings will attest).

Let's just say... we're feeling a little... trapped.

Lucas, of course, is a black belt, but even a black belt is no match for a dumbass who might have a gun, for all he knows.

Then again, at least he isn't in our house anymore, constantly sabotaging us and pretending to have a job and fricking trying to poison my poor cats! Plus, the utility bill is only a small fraction now compared to what it had been with Rick maliciously wasting electricity and water!


Other News for which I don't have a date:

Lucas has applied for the role of a dwarf in The Hobbit and is planning to take out a huge ad in the Wellington Times that says "Peter Jackson, Call Me!"

We were thinking that our mail had been somehow sabotaged by Rick until, precisely when Michael and Alex came over for karate at 5:30, the mail carrier finally delivered the mail -- after the post office was closed and everything! Even though it was time to begin class, Lucas had a long discussion with the mail carrier to make sure everything was in order.

By the way, karate is changing my life already!

Did I ever mention the crazy construction going on at college? It's kind of annoying, since the cafeteria's closed, but now there's a really great taco stand near there where I can order tacos in Spanish!

Lucas has since tried out many more realistic ways of getting a job. For one of them, he went into a trailer with a big sign outside that says 'Now Hiring', and the guy behind the counter said, "Go home and apply online."
` If you're supposed to apply online, then why didn't they just make a big sign that says to apply online and not bother with spending money to move a trailer into the spot and hire a person to tell everyone that? What is the point? Are they trying to piss people off?


October 14, 2010:

Though Lucas had swept all the sawdust from his woodcutting off the carport floor the previous night, there was a huge piece of metal stuck in one of his truck's tires in the morning.

How could that have happened?

Well, he remembered having woken up at 4 a.m. the night before, hearing the sound of Rick's car stop on the street, then a noise in the carport, and then a few seconds later, the vehicle drove around the cul-de-sac the wrong way!
` Why the wrong way? Because if he was driving the correct way around (counterclockwise), you could see his taillights and his license plate from our house. However, since he drove around clockwise, the headlights would obscure one's view of his car, especially the license plate.
` Since it's clear that there's only one person we know who would dedicate his life to such patheticness, and since we have got to do something about it Lucas has hatched a plan....


October 15, 2010:

Starting at three in the morning, Lucas actually slept on the reclining lawn chair/lounge in the carport, with Violet on his shoulder and my camera in his hand. Sure enough, a car that sounded like Rick's car pulled by, with the grinding of bald tires and everything, just as it has been doing at four in the morning all this time!

Lucas got the camera ready, but then saw that it was a white car, not Rick's red Honda! But then... it swung around the wrong way and drove off! Rick must be using another car! Lucas said he got a picture of it, but none were recorded, despite the fact that he had spent a while practicing turning it on to the right setting.

Drat.

Later on today, however, we went to the celebration of Queen Ananda's 28th year reigning over faerie court. For some reason, I didn't write anything about this, but I did take plenty of photos.
` At first, I was going to get some white cardboard constructed into a 'Mukilteo Ferry' costume -- there's another one around here now!

In the end, though, I resigned to being the 'Karate Fairy' -- here's me, and Justin, who was rocking out on his guitar so hard I almost ejaculated. Luckily, my karate gi survived his jamming.

Michael and Alex were there, but they weren't nearly so freakish-looking as Jake... who's wearing a Vulcan shirt, by the way.

Even Jesus was even stranger-looking than usual, besides looking like Reniassance paintings of Jesus.

Finally, Ananda showed herself -- while Lucas was jamming out on his guitar and didn't notice, and then she got to teasing him:

And, in addition to jamming out on his guitar -- HOLY FRAK IS HE AWESOME! -- Justin was working on his looking sad and horrified at being Trapped Here Forever! (And there's Michael with the top hat.) What do you think?

No, can't escape, sorry!

Even Troy showed up, as did Elizabeth, despite the fact that she lives in Canadia-land now. Here is a bad picture with them:

That's already enough photos to seriously slow down my browser, but there's more where that came from....


October 16, 2010:

Roberta volunteered to us some security cameras and a recorder-monitor, which we're trying to hook up to one another, but we're missing some cables.
` Also, we have two new roommates -- Mike the mechanic, his two collies, and Joel, The Other Guy. Lucas is enlarging the downstairs studio fake room -- originally for the TV show which isn't materializing -- for Joel. Unfortunately, it cuts off the downstairs sliding glass doors, so there will be no dragging the exercise bike inside when it rains.

Also, the other morning I couldn't find my sturdy military grade cell phone, whose battery lasts 3 weeks. 'Oh well', I thought, and I just went to school anyway.
` We did hilarious skits in Spanish class -- mine was Ropa de Muerte. The guy who sits next to me, Kelvin, sold me a tie of doom (corbata mortal) for my crazy killer dad, and a suit for the funeral. I think we were the first to erase Juan's awesome van, which he was dealing out of in his skit.
` As I was on my way into the house, I noticed that my school bag was dripping -- my jar of iced tea had come unscrewed! So, I took everything out of the bag and left it open on the living room floor, then set about looking for my phone.
` I didn't find it again, so I just started on my homework. It wasn't until three hours later that both Lucas was home and I thought to use his cell phone to alert me as to where mine was.

And where do you think I heard it ringing from?

My school bag -- and it was a wonder that it was ringing because both the displays were broken! It had been in my school bag all day, and it could have rang in the middle of Spanish class skits -- although not math class because the teacher wasn't there today -- and now it's broken!
` The next morning was Saturday, and the phone didn't even turn on, so I went to the Sprint Store and got a free phone -- a flimsy one that barely holds a charge. Ah well, at least it gets slightly better reception than my other one, but it still doesn't always work.

(Lucas' cell phone is the same military-grade one that I'd had, but he always got perfect reception at our house.)

One of the employees at the Sprint store said to put my old phone in a bag of rice and it would probably at least turn itself back on so I could get my phone numbers transferred to the new phone. I did, and took it back to the Sprint store, and it worked!
` So, at least it has all my numbers on it, too....


October 17, 2010:

Mike's collie, Max, jumped out his bedroom window yesterday, and Mike and Joel looked for him for an hour. A few hours later, Mike got another dog! This dog doesn't get along with Sylvia, though.
` Reminds me of the 'Ice Man' episode of South Park, where this guy falls into an ice cave and people searched for him 'all afternoon' before giving up, so his wife 'moved on' with her life. (Except, her children with her new husband were older than they should have been....)


October 18, 2010:

Now convinced to look for Max, Mike found him at the pound -- after almost getting hit by cars -- and took the other dog back to its former owner.

Also, Lucas put the ad in for Peter Jackson. It was expensive.


October 19, 2010:

And then... and then... IT HAPPENED!

Well, okay, Lucas was convinced by 'Sebby' down at Wingnut Studios to take back the ad in the Wellington Times, but that's not what I'm referring to.

This was something that happened to me! What was it? Well, you'll have to wait for Part 3!

In the meantime, enjoy some more photo-y goodness from the rest of my October photos on my Flickr account. You know, the ones I didn't have room to add.