Drummer's Corner of the World

Since I'm seeing a lot of duplicate posts now, between here and DW, I'm starting to drop people from my Friends list on LJ whose posts I see on DW. So don't be alarmed if I've "unfriended" you... I promise it doesn't mean anything. :-D

Hi, all!

I know I haven't posted here in ages, but I really won't be now... I've migrated over to Dreamwidth at https://tollermom.dreamwidth.org in order to at least retain copies of my old stuff and keep following the rest of my friends who've wandered there from here.

If you're actually looking to keep up w/ me on a semi-regular basis, I'm much more likely to be found on Facebook (tollers) or Google+/Hangouts (tollermom) or Telegram (tollermom).

I'll probably still read/reply here sporadically, but new posts are much more likely to be on G+ if they're long or Facebook if they're short. If it's long and not Ingress-related, I might remember to post to Dreamwidth. We shall see...

See y'all around.

So... I haven't posted here in forever, and I don't expect this to be the beginning of a trend. I do still read, at least occasionally, but am much much more likely to be found hanging about on Facebook (where I am also Tollers) and occasionally on Google+. The latter is mainly because I've started playing Ingress, and much of our local team's interaction is through Google communities and hangouts, so I revived my never-used G+ account and occasionally actually post there (certainly more often than I post here).

Outside Ingress, I'm still working at the same place, having survived three rounds of layoffs now. Nick and I re-certified for pet therapy yesterday, so I hope to start doing more of that again after taking a few months off. And of course I'm still happily hanging out in Wild Mercy. :-) We had an awesome time at Consonance last month, and will be at Marcon next month. Beyond Marcon, I think the entire band will be at OVFF this year (the first time in a couple of years that I have been able to stay all weekend instead of day-tripping), and I'll probably at least day-trip to WindyCon.

So that's what's up w/ me.

OVFF... lots of riding in car with little girls interspersed with OMGPegasusOMG! (Wild Mercy tied for Best Performer with the fabulous Betsy Tinney), music, hugs, more music, more hugs, not enough conversation (or music) with some people who I seemed to mostly pass in the halls all weekend, but that's kinda how OVFF goes, so it's okay.

Wild Mercy was only scheduled for two songs during the weekend... One Small Boat in the Pegasus concert and Morning Song in the Cath Benefit CD concert. Both are pretty, but after the awards announcements, we rather felt the need to rock. :-D Since there was a theme filk Saturday evening of Cover Filk, where you played songs written by other people in the room, we made sure vixyish came down to the room for a few minutes and we finally got to perform our arrangement of Thirteen for her. I think she liked it. I know we love it and have fun playing it. Later that night, as the remnants of two filks converged in the hall outside the con suite and went from hallway conversation to hall filk, a fellow I hadn't met yet wandered up and chatted for a bit, then sang us a wonderfully funny song about Lady Liberty. He'd mentioned in passing that it was on his CD, so after a couple more songs, I prompted him to tell us about the CD, and several of us bought it on the spot. If you didn't get to hear him this weekend, check out Glen Raphael.

Frankenstorm's fringes were making Columbus cold and blustery, but the worst of it held off 'til we left on Sunday, meaning most of it hit while we were on the road rather than while we were walking back and forth between hotels (we stayed nextdoor at the Sheraton Suites, which is imminently dog-friendly). I did bring Nicky over to the con for a snuggle on Sunday afternoon, having had several people in his fan club request a visitation. He's a fabulous ambassador for the breed (Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, for all the people who asked) and had a good time being loved on. After that it was time to pack up and leave.

All of Wild Mercy is safely home, and I'm watching the Twitter/Facebook/LJ feeds to make sure all the East Coast filkers manage the same (or stay safely ensconced west of the storm). Please, all of my friends in the affected areas... stay safe!

So... haven't been around here much (been reading... just not posting). Wild Mercy's had something of a break while we all dealt with Life Stuff and we've enjoying rehearsing for OVFF's Pegasus concert. I'm actually going to be there all weekend this year... woohoo!! Staying next-door at the Sheraton Suites 'cause I had a boatload of Starwood points and getting the room for free makes the whole thing affordable. :-)

Looking forward to seeing everybody there on Friday!

Short post, since I haven't said anything here lately...

Working Anthrocon with the Dorsai this weekend. Having lots of fun. Now becoming horizontal for awhile before I go back on duty at 7 a.m. :-)

In about 30 minutes, I head out for Chicago and Capricon. We've got a ton of great music planned... I hope I see some of y'all there! :-)

We finally got enough snow to take pictures, instead of just the little dustings we had earlier in the winter. Since this was Petey’s first real snow, I naturally had to take pictures. The shot of Petey play-bowing at a stick may be one of my favorite pics of him so far… it completely captures his personality and his boundless enthusiasm for play.

Click through to the blog to see the pictures!

Originally published at reddogs.com

I spent a great portion of 2011 in a state of near-panic about financial issues, which tended to overshadow other things on a day-to-day basis, but when I look back at the year, it was really a pretty good year (especially when compared to 2010, which definitely overstayed its welcome).

( So, what did I do with my year??Collapse )

So yeah... eventful year, and one that I could look back on and find a lot of negatives, but instead I look back and realize that I have amazing friends (both new and old), I have challenging volunteer opportunities that I enjoy and which get me out of my house and interacting with people, I've got four healthy dogs (counting the visiting Nick) and four healthy cats, and I got to spend the year making really incredible music with Wild Mercy. So I'll count 2011 as a win for me and challenge 2012 to be even better for all of us!