shopping – Ahuva’s Blog

Passing the Time

sunrise Let me say first that I do NOT know WHEN we are leaving. This is apparently highly confidential, top-secret, “we have to kill you if we tell you” information that the moving company does not care to share. No, I don’t understand why not and I’m not pursuing it. Yes, they ARE a national moving company with franchises across the country. Trust me – when I know I will tell you.

We DIDN’T leave yesterday (obviously). Honour spent the day packing and running errands and in general, I think, running about like a crazy person trying to do everything that needed doing. I, always eager and willing to do my part, stayed out of her way. *grin* And who says I’m not helpful and thoughtful???? Clair and I went shopping and running about town. Ah, a note about my “running about”. One of my friends was soooo concerned about me being in the great vast wilds of Canada. She wanted to microchip me so that I could be found. Instead I got a cool app called Life360 on my phone. My sister and niece put it on their phones and we all had fun playing with it and seeing where we were going and where we were. My husband has a flip phone. That means, for those of you who don’t know what a flip phone might be, that he cannot put apps on his phone. I know – it’s a bit like a rotary landline kind of phone. *grin* I thought that maybe he’d like to be able to see where I was so I gave him my login information for the website version of the app. He was like oh yeah whatever. I spoke with him yesterday and he was having such fun tracking me all over the Vancouver area. *grin* Who knows, maybe this will help convince him that a smart phone might be a good idea.

Clair and I went shopping and I found a present for Honour and me – an army knife. scary bridge It was at a store that sells used items so it was VERY inexpensive. It was Tuesday, which apparently is discount day in Canada, and that meant an additional 30% off the price. I have to leave my wonderful Swiss army knife home when I fly so the TSA doesn’t confiscate it. I miss it terribly because there are so many times I need a blade for opening something, or a little scissors, or the tweezers. This knife is nowhere near as good as that but it does have the blades so we will have it handy if needed.

While we were driving about we had to cross water a few times – sometimes over, sometimes under. logs along the river If you look at a map of Delta, BC, you can see why it’s named Delta. Or as my friend said – a highly original name. Not. Some of you know the stories of me and my nightmare bridge. The original nightmare bridge is the Delaware Memorial bridge connecting NJ with Delaware. Clair and I were tootling along in her adorable red convertible (with the top down of course) when I looked ahead and saw this bridge LOOMING in the distance, rising up like the Dark Tower of Sauron. I asked “Are we going over THAT?” and of course the answer was yes. I did what any sensible person would do – started taking pictures so that I could blog it. 🙂 I have to say that although it looked nightmare-ish from a distance, it was the effect of the tower, and the actual rise and fall of the road was not that bad. But it did trigger the “nightmare bridge” quiver.

I’m a terrible travel blogger because I never remember to get the names of places and things (like that bridge). open bridge We had a lunch and then headed home the scenic way – along the Fraser River – hence another picture of the logs stored along the river banks. 🙂 As we cruised along, I saw another bridge – the kind of bridge that interests my husband (as opposed to the kind that makes my stomach turn over). We once used up 2 or 3 rolls of film in Maine taking pictures of the underside and sides and bridgekeeper’s booth of some bridge that was the last one of its kind in the country (see – I really stink at travel blogs. I’ll try to ask him what kind of bridge it was.) So this railroad bridge is for my husband. 🙂

Life being what it is, we ran into a huge traffic jam. Remember all that water that needs to be crossed? bridge for jim There was an accident in the tunnel that we had to take. Traffic was crawling on the approach (I felt right at home 🙂 In a red convertible, stuck in traffic, but with the sun and fresh air on and around me feeling great). I missed another perfect opportunity as we passed a vineyard with a great sign: Sips happen – Come in and Wine. That sign would have been a great picture. And I don’t remember the name of that place either. 😦 Something meadows maybe?

We made it through the tunnel eventually and back home where Clair needed to prepare for arriving guests. We met up on the front porch this time for spritzers and sat there chatting and laughing until Phil (guest) arrived. He joined us for for a spritzer and we compared notes on travel, work and life. He confirmed that not only do Jersey Girls Not Pump Gas but Oregon gals do not either. That is the other state where attendants must pump the gas. He headed off to do his thing, I verified that Honour was alive and well (but not interested in dinner) and Clair and I headed out for Greek food. There was a nice little restaurant about 3 blocks away where we sat outside on the patio. We had a pleasant upbeat waitress and we wined and dined and then headed on back home.

I think I’m adjusted this morning to the correct time zone as I was sound asleep by 10:15 and woke at about 5:30. I got up, washed, brushed my teeth and got dressed (that last list was all for my sister, who will get the joke. Oh okay – I’ll share. Our mother always used to enumerate those tasks as things that ‘had to be done’ whereas to us they were/are things that just get done without mention). I took my phone and laptop out to the front porch to blog. (See the sunrise picture up above). As I wrote the latest guests, who arrived well after I was asleep, came out onto the porch to say good morning. But that’s a post for another day.

clockvine flowers — Clockvine flowers on the front porch (they’re also called Black-eyed Susan Vine)

Seven in the Sky with Platinum

As many of you know, getting my cat to take his meds can be a drawn-out process. I was waiting for him to finish ingesting and so of course I drifted over to the computer. If I’m on the computer, I may as well login and see who’s inworld, right? Dale was in world! We’d not chatted in a bit so I IM’d hello. (And Dale is used to me having to go afk to encourage the cat to eat more.) Dale was on a hunt. I groaned and covered my metaphorical ears with metaphorical hands. I do NOT need any more stuff. Most certainly I do NOT need to go on a hunt. I never even open most of the boxes I get on hunts. Even though I get some pretty fantastic things on hunts, come to think on it. And I know that there is a horse-y hunt coming up one of these days and I suspect I will do that.

Dale is doing the Platinum Hunt. He was in the ninth store on the list, which is No.07, a men’s clothing store. You can find it on Mushroom Island. number seven also sells skins. He’s not all that far along yet unless he’s hunted more since yesterday. This sounds like a high-class hunt as well as an interesting hunt. Many of the stores are places where I have shopped successfully. But even so, I wasn’t really registering the hunt part of our discussion until Dale mentioned that there was a freebie: I ❤ Plurk. Now THAT I had to have. *grin* I know, I'm odd. Love me anyway. So Dale sent the taxi and I hurried over and scored a freebie I ❤ Plurk shirt, heaven only knows why. Dale wanted to rez his Hunt prize so he wandered out of the store. I followed and found myself in a lovely lovely courtyard.

I'm not sure what makes this spot so special. Perhaps it's the warm glow of the lighting. Or the vines on the walls. Or the stones in the courtyard. Maybe the arches? The big tree? I saw the checkercloth-covered tables and I had to sit. Dale joined me and we both cammed about, pointing out features that pleased us. It was a brief visit, but thoroughly enjoyable. I would love to go back and sit and shmooze there again. Sip some wine, maybe have a little cheese and crackers. The merchandise was fun and good quality (check out Dale's new rolled up pants). Be sure to schedule your shopping trip so that you have time to sit and check out your purchases in the courtyard at number seven!

I Love Cheeky Pea

Just a few months ago I wrote about how Midnight Mania boards really do work. That is how I discovered Cheeky Pea, a store full of wonderful furniture and items, with some of the best pose scripts that I’ve seen in SL. Isla Gealach is the talented creator behind Cheeky Pea. I have bought many of Gealach’s items since first discovering the store. I belong to the Cheeky Pea group and head over there often to see what’s new.

The other day Oura sent me a message saying that there was a great new item, a memory board with clock. I went over to check it out. As usual, I started wandering about. I found the beach chairs. Ahhhh. You know, almost anything that uses the word “beach” will get my attention. I’m predisposed to like “beach”, “shore”, “ocean”, “coast” and more. My skybox is done as my fantasy beach house (okay, it’s missing an outdoor shower, that is true). When I saw the Cheeky Pea Beach Chairs I was hooked. I do NOT need any more inventory!!!! Isla Gealach, you must STOP making inventory that I find irresistable. I WANT those chairs. No. I NEEEEEEEEED those chairs. I made Oura come and try out the poses with me. As we were testing the various poses (there are TWO pages of options), Morgan Trevellion happened by on a hunt. I asked Morgan if she would mind posing with us. I must also say that I admire Morgan’s taste in hair, as she was wearing one of Queue Marlowe’s Analog Dog styles. I LOVE Queue’s hair and am nearly always in one of her styles. Morgan was a good sport and the three of us posed and worked our way through all the chair options. It was great fun and one of those moments of serendipity in SL.

One of the things that I particularly like about these chairs is that you can buy them with a variety of options. Although the chair is usually sold “no copy”, you ARE able to buy a copy version. I find that a BIG plus. I am grateful to merchants who sell their items with a variety of permissions, enabling me to either make copies, or to transfer or give a gift. I wish more merchants did that.

I have many pics here of us in the chairs. I also have a shot of Isla’s dock (the ducks requested that I hang out with them more) and a kitty chair. I also have a bed, a yoga mat, a photo rack, rocking chairs and of course the wonderful pillows I mentioned back in June. I find that more and more of my sky box is filled with Cheeky Pea items. I wish I could bring them into my physical house as well! Keep up the great work, Isla! Thank you for sharing your wonderful creations with us all! And thank you Morgan, for helping out! 🙂

Neeeeeeeeeding Boots

I don’t always have to be enticed from my skybox. Sometimes I am DRIVEN out by urgent NEED. I decided I wanted a more risqué look. I have one friend whose avatar is always on what I would call the risqué end of the spectrum. *grin* I figured if she could do it, so could I. Well, okay, NO ONE can do it quite the way SHE can. But I figured I would do an Ahuva-version.

I knew what I wanted. I was going for a gold top, gold boots, gold jewelry and black pants. Except… I didn’t have any gold boots. And I didn’t have the “right” gold jewelry. I assembled what I could and called Dale in to check it out. We agreed that my boots, wonderful though they are (I LOVE my Bax boots – don’t get me wrong – they almost always work for my outfits) weren’t quite the look I wanted. Dale was playing with inventory, trying on different outfits. I liked one set of boots, so we tp’d to that store: Dark Eden in Olive.

I was in boot heaven. *grin* After much deliberation, I settled on the Vagabond boots in black. Of course in black. I ALWAYS buy black, it seems. In my atomic closet I have THREE pairs of black suede boots. Okay, I have purple also. And others in leather. But I do seem to have a special affection for black boots. After buying my boots and wearing them, I decided that I liked them with that top and pants, I no longer NEEDED gold boots. We wandered about the store which was a LOT of fun! All sorts of goodies. Dale’s inventory was increased by many indulgences, including a great mega pack of tops in many colors and variations. Had we found it again in time (that is, before I spent more money), I probably would indulged as well. It was too late for me, however, because I’d found the discount area. I indulged in another mega pack: the Nyx boots mega set – 9 pairs of boots, INCLUDING gold!

We also found the room with furniture! Dale has taught me well – always sit everywhere. LOL. So I tried out the chair. I liked it, it had some good sit selections. And you can get a good look at my Vagabond boots! I love the carton. I think I really have to go back and buy the carton, the poses are so cute. There is a pose sitting on the cushion, back against the carton. You can kneel on the cushion resting your elbows on the crate. Or, of course my favorite, lie down and relax on your belly on the crate!

I still thought I needed a gold necklace. I IM’d Calli to ask where I should shop. She sent us the taxi to come to her so she could check out the outfit first. When she saw what I was wearing she told me she would not wear gold with that. We discussed possible options and she said that my steampunk collar would be fine. *grin* (I bought the collar at Le Petit Prince on LPP, but neither the sim nor the store appear to be with us anymore. 😦 ) With that, the three of us settled down on the grass to chat. Perhaps we were tired, perhaps we were truthful, but a great deal of our conversation dealt with the lack of civility among SL (and net) citizens, and the perceived lack of honesty and clarity from LL. O tempora o mores!! But you cannot keep the three of us down for long, and we did cheer ourselves up and laugh before saying goodnight!

Why MM Boards Work

I hate shopping. I resist the lure. But every now and then I go on a MM board craze, tp’ing around and slapping the boards. I usually end up with all sorts of items that I don’t really need and often never even unbox. I rarely end up buying anything else, because I usually tp in and out. Last night the tp for a cuddle basket MM board came up. It was at 8/25. I was not doing anything other than chatting, so it was easy enough to head over. I was chatting with Chestnut, so I tp’d her to join me to slap the board. While I waited for her to rez, I looked about the store and realized there were lots of interesting items. What caught my eye was the pile of pillows. So I tossed myself onto them. What a great animation! The pillows have couple, single and friend poses. You can change the fabric. Chestnut and I went through all the poses. I loved it. And so….. of course…. I bought it. Ah, the beauty of shopping in Lindens….

The store was Cheeky Pea in Floyd. I bought the CP: Old Pillow Pile. It’s great fun! Ches and I sat there on those pillows and spent a good part of the evening in Girl Talk. *grin* Just like being back in high school. LOL. Ches and I seem to have been having reliving a lot of our high school behavior lately. *grin*

Go buy yourself some pillows and have fun!

Sometimes You Need a Professional

We’ve all heard the admonishment: Kids, don’t try this yourselves at home. *grin* I ignore that ALL the time when I take pictures in SL. I really am not a good photographer. That’s okay with me – I don’t have to be a good photographer. It would be NICE of course, but usually all I really care about is showing you a glimpse of my life. And for that “okay” is sufficient. Until last week.

Honour gave me a gorgeous outfit last week. She’d been shopping at Bare Rose, saw the Black Salamander Lady outfit and says she thought of me. Apparently something about the red garters, or so she said….. Excuse me a moment while I tease Honour. For someone who claims to HATE shopping, Honour spends more time shopping in one week, than I spend in a month. *grin* It’s true. I swear it’s true. But Honour has great taste. She is also friends with some of the best fashionistas in SL. And so I’ve learned to trust Honour’s fashion sense. *grin* I know, Honour, I’m killing you here. LOL.

Of course when Honour dropped the folder on me, I had to wear the outfit IMMEDIATELY. It was sensational. I loved it. Honour was shopping for a skin so I went to keep her company. She actually wasn’t shopping. She was going to stare and either talk herself into or out of that skin. If you read her blog (as you should), you already know how that ended up. She bought that skin, a drow skin called Chromatic from [][]Trap[][]. The store is located on The Twilight sim. I couldn’t resist – I bought a skin also. Considering the last time I bought a skin was over a year ago, and I think I dithered for days, finally going to Calli for advice, buying a skin in less than 20 minutes is quite remarkable for me.

So I had this sensational outfit and a new breath-taking skin. Of course I went to take a picture to show you all. Except…. drow skins are dark. I couldn’t get the lighting correct. The pictures were okay. But this time, this look, “okay” was not okay. I am fortunate to be friends with one of the best photographers (if not the best) in SL – Callipygian Christensen. Calli was logged on. I IM’d her and asked if I could hire her to take my picture. In the interests of keeping this post to a manageable length, I won’t detail how LONG it took for the 2 of us to actually have time to be logged on at the same time to do a shoot. *grin*

The difference between a professional and me. I thought, okay, yeah, we’ll go downstairs where there’s no furniture, or down to the beach, take some shots. Oh no, no, NO. One gets posed in a proper LOCATION. I love Calli. She found a sim – we were at Rustica, a wonderful furniture store in a castle (Quality Medieval and Castle Furniture). She found a window and managed to walk/talk me into the right spot and then she took pictures. I took pictures too – of us doing the shoot. But Calli – she captured exactly what I wanted to show you. The incredible package: outfit and skin.

The photos in this post are by the incomparable Callipygian Christensen. My deep thanks to you, Calli, for capturing the essence of what I feel when I put on that outfit. *hugs* You are amazing.

Excellent Customer Service

I have been working product support for a VERY long time now. I will not even TELL you how long because it is painful to me to realize how long. For many years I have been the person my manager sends out to soothe the irate customer. What that means, however, is that I think I know a little bit about providing good customer support. I know it from being a customer and from being support. Both sides of that have their ups and downs, trust me. The customer is NOT always right, but it certainly helps to talk to them as if all their points are valid. It helps to “feel their pain” as the saying goes. I was in pain the other night.

I broke my pool table. Yes, yes, the famous pool table I bought for my coworker. (Who, by the way – has YET to show in SL – has still not even proposed a date to come inworld. /me nods – yes, he is on the “not in favor” list.) I have been running out of prims on my land. So I decided it was time to move the pool table to the office. I “took” the table into inventory. Except….. only the top of the table came. The rest stayed there. Probably I SHOULD have read the directions. Probably would have been a good idea. I rezzed the top back out and moved it into position with the other parts. There. Right as rain. Then Oura came by and tried it. It didn’t work. It seemed to work fine for ME. I, of course, am the owner. That always means different rules. Sean dropped by a few evenings later. Sean is WAY techie. I asked him to give it a try. The verdict: Broken. The table was not dispensing the HUD. When I gave Sean the HUD myself – it didn’t work. We agreed. It was time to contact the creator of the table: Fred Wardhani.

Fred built my pool table. He runs the store French Touch Design and FW Supplies, over in PixelFashion He has other games and lots of very nice furniture. After Sean and I tried and failed to make the table work, I IM’d Fred. I figured that I would write up a notecard explaining the problem and drop the card on him. I sent him the IM as a courtesy to say the notecard was coming. Fred was online and replied immediately. He asked what kind of trouble I was having. I explained that I appeared to have broken the table by taking it and rerezzing it. Obviously I had done one of those steps incorrectly. Fred listened to my story and asked if I would like him to come by and take a look at the table. OMG! Would I???? Of COURSE I would. If I’d had any clue what to do, *grin*, I wouldn’t have been IM’ing him. I told him I’d be thrilled. He asked me to give him a few minutes to settle up what he was doing. In just a short time he called for the taxi.

Fred came to the house and we used voice. SO much easier in these situations. Fred is a dynamite looking guy, with a lovely voice. Not only that – but he was kind, patient and very, very gracious. He grasped the issue immediately and told me how we could fix it. He not only explained how to fix it, but also explained how it worked and what I was to do in the future if I wanted to move the table about. He waited while I ran through the sequence a few times. 🙂 He noted that although I had the pool sticks, I had the modern cue stick stand whereas I had the rustic table. He offered to swap stands for me. 🙂 I took him up on the offer. He was absolutely gracious, completely helpful, and made me feel like an important client instead of the bumbling newbie I really was in this instance. Let me be clear – *I* did the wrong thing. The fault was NOT in the product. But Fred never touched on that. He stuck to helping and explaining and offering other ideas. A class act, for sure.

A few mornings later I went by the store. I wanted to take photos so I could tell you all about Fred and the pool table, and how gracious he was. Fred was there, working on a new version of the pool table. A customer had wandered into Fred’s work area and was asking questions. I joined them and asked Fred’s permission to post his name and picture. Fred remembered me right away, greeted me warmly. He said he would be delighted if I mentioned him here. And – without my having actually posted anything yet – he gave me a gift certificate for the store. Again – gracious, good customer-relations. He certainly did not have to give me a gift coupon, especially as I’d not done anything but ask him to come and help me take my table into inventory and re-rez it. *grin*

So Fred Wardhani gets my vote for “Excellent Customer Support”. I thought he made an excellent product before I ever met him. Now that I’ve had this experience, I can say to you – Buy from Fred. Great products, EXCELLENT customer relations. That is something that works for all of us.

Thanks again, Fred! *hugs* For the rest of you – c’mon by the office. The table is up and ready. 🙂 BYOB.

Postcards from SL

Some weeks I have nothing much new or interesting to report about my life. Other weeks – I can’t catch my breath. Last week was breathless. I got half of what I wanted to report posted a few days ago. 🙂 Now here is the rest. Shengri La turned 3 years old recently. It is my great fortune to be friends with Shenlei. I attended most of the celebratory events. They ran the gamut: unveiling of the FRI’s Spirit Opensim, fashion show, art gallery opening, special surprise tribute to Shen, musical concert and of course a Rave.

We had a rehearsal for our dancing fairy fashion show. 🙂 That should probably have been a post in and of itself. But that’s not happening. Just know that we had fun hanging out and meeting each other at the rehearsal. Oura had already enlisted, but we got Krissy to come and join us as well. Besides the dancing fairies we had fairies perched on leaves and on bunnies. I can’t help but smile everytime I see those bunnies. LOL. We had such an amazingly fun time stalking those lucky stumps for the bubble chairs. And then collapsing all over the bunnies. Hey Shen – we haven’t cut loose and done anything quite that ridiculous in awhile. I think we are overdue. We both need to take a break from work and go PLAY! So here I am as a fairy. Not my usual look. I find that the wings tend to make my back itch. 🙂 I even turned my eyes blue to match the dress. Although the hair isn’t my typical look either, I find it’s growing on me. Most of the other fairies had updos or, if they didn’t have to wear wings, flowing locks. I chose the Defiant Punk Fairy look. 🙂 Maybe if I feel really daring I will post my private Defiant Fairy IMs. If I weren’t so opposed to personal pain and puncturing my body – I’d have been wearing a nose ring. 🙂 I don’t think that I am really fairy material.

As you know, I am really really fond of wearing jeans and boots. In SL and RL. I like my hair down and curly and I like my jeans tight and straight and I like high heeled boots. But sometimes even I concede that a change of outfit is necessary. I was invited to the special sneak preview of a new exhibit of images of Shengri La Spirit (FRI’s OpenSim) shot by Callipygian Christensen. That event certainly required a bit more flare than jeans. So I knew I had to go shopping. LOL I turned to Honour for help. Now if you know Honour you KNOW that she ALWAYS says how much she hates shopping, how it takes a gun to her head to make her go. Well lately – Honour has been taking ME shopping. She got me looking for clothes at the RFL a few weeks ago. And she gave me the name of two stores where I could find cocktail party attire – Vindaloo and Baiastice. Not only did she steer me to the stores – she joined me there to help me decide. 🙂 So now I feel I am fully justified in teasing Honour – calling her my personal shopper! But you know what – I got compliments on both outfits. So you did good, Honour! Thanks! You can see the Baiastice outfit in one of the pics below. What was truly funny about this FRI event was the contrast between the male and female guests. *grin* The women had ALL dressed for the event – formal or cocktail attire. The men – nearly all in scruffy jeans and T-shirts. It was really very very funny. Even funnier to me on a personal note… As I’ve mentioned, I’m in charge of a mall in OpenSim. Well, the gentleman who asked me to take on that responsibility was at this party. I IM’d him and said “Hi! Great to see you!” He replied “Have we met?” rofl. Um, yes. So I wrote back and pointed out that this was the REAL me, and that if he ever got hair, boots and AOs working to my standards in our sim, this is who I would be and how I would look. *grin* Until then – he gets Summer. Sigh. Poor Summer.

Callipygian Christensen is not only a phenomenal photographer. She is brilliant. Calli and Shenlei have been friends forever. *grin* That’s a relative “forever”. Calli had an exhibit opening at Shengri La, timed to be part of the Shengri La Emergence Day celebrations. Calli wanted to do what so many of us would like to do: thank Shen for all the wonderful things she has done for both her friends and the community and world at large. Calli didn’t only want to do it – she figured out the most fantastic, personal, wonderful, special present a person could have. Calli commissioned Kyle Beltran to write a piece of music, inspired by and about Shengri La. We all knew that Calli was going to surprise Shen at the art opening, but we did not know WHAT the surprise was. It was breath-taking. Kyle’s composition is truly wonderful: moving, evocative. You can hear the waves on the shore, see the butterflies, smell the flowers. Shenlei is truly blessed to have such wonderfully thoughtful, creative, caring friends. We stood about toasting Shenlei with champagne as we listened to Kyle’s music, surrounded by Calli’s art. (Can you see Oura’s pictures on the walls? And find me in my Baiastice dress.) Honestly – I know that the Shenlei was not the only one with tears in her eyes from the beauty and love shown in that gift. Calli and Kyle – you are amazing.

In the afternoon, Kyle Beltran entertained us with his singing and music. Kyle gives a wonderful show. He is witty, charming, good-natured, plays the piano wondefully and I love listening to him sing. There were many of his faithful followers there but we also had a fairly steady stream of newbies coming through as well. Remember – FRI Shengri La is an official SL Gateway. 🙂 It is interesting to watch the newbies mingle with the oldies. *grin* I DO remember what it was like to be a noob. Believe me – I am NOT laughing at them. I think that part of me smiles because I think what a great adventure they have ahead of them. Part of me smiles because I’m glad I finally learned how to walk across a room without crashing into everyone. (well, usually) And certainly some of the outfits they put together are no odder than ones I’ve seen by people who have been in SL a long long time.

No celebration would be complete with a Rave. 🙂 So the evening ended with a Fairy Rave in the fairy fashion grove. Yes, the attire was fairy. 🙂 So I put my wings back on, took off my boots, and flitted my way to the Rave. Had a wonderful time chatting and dancing.

12 Hours in SL

Yesterday and this morning were a great example of the fun you can have in SL. I logged in relatively late last night. I started IM’ing with friends, catching up on their news. Honour was shopping. Oh my yes. Honour. Shopping. I had the correct noun, the correct verb. 🙂 She was supporting the Relay For Life fund raiser that has been going on in SL all week. She described some of the clothing that she was seeing. LOL. We both agreed that it sounded much more like Ahuva clothing than Honour clothing, so I tp’d over to join her. Many of the outfits did indeed appeal, but I realized quickly that I wasn’t really in a spend-money mood. 🙂 So I simply tagged along, checking out outfits.

Honour was searching for the House of RFyre store. VERY nice clothes at RFyre. We were searching about in a fairly unorganized fashion, not having much success. I realized that Oura knows EVERYTHING. 🙂 That if I IM’d Oura, she would undoubtedly know exactly where it was and get us there. I was in luck – Oura was online. She did not know where it was. But being Oura – within 10 minutes she got the information. LOL. She went to the main store, spoke to a designer, who tp’d to the RLF and then sent the taxi for Oura. Who sent for me who sent for Honour. Success!!! And the RLF scored more donations! All in a good cause.

We wanted to thank Oura for all her help. I remembered that we could vote for Oura. *grin* Hey, you want to know more than that – YOU contact Oura and tell her to tell me to blog about it. So Honour and I headed over to vote. Just then DARCEY logged in!!! YAY!!!! DARCEY is back!!! Darcey is my niece. 🙂 She used to hang out a lot in SL, then took a break. But she came back just this week. So I IM’d Darcey and said “come vote”! And Dale logged in and I IM’d Dale, who came to vote. Sammy and Jonah showed up there too. We were all hanging about and admiring the surroundings and realized that we had an impromptu party going.

So we headed over to Indolence, Dale’s club. We changed into party outfits and sent out more IM’s to folks to join us. 🙂 And they did. We even managed to convince the hard-working Shenlei to stop in for a bit as well. We had fun dancing and chatting. Now there are SOME people who simply have no manners. You might be among the people who say that *I* have no manners, because I opted for my tattoo instead of …. well, um….. instead of, shall we say, proper undergarments. Hey folks – it’s pixels!!!! I LIKE my tattoo. I, however, say that the people with no manners are the people who tried to take photos of me for blackmail purposes. I think that is VERY tacky. Thank goodness I had a counter-defense. I maintain my own supply of blackmail photos. 🙂 The best defense is a good offense. It was a short party, but fun.

This morning I logged in early. In one of my groups, someone was offering evil bunny slippers to the first 4 IM’ers. Too funny for words. I really didn’t think I needed evil bunny slippers. But after a few minutes, when the last pair was still available, I took them. 🙂 Not only that – I learned something new. I’m sure you all know this. I learned that if you click on someone’s name in Chat, their profile appears, so that you can IM or give inventory. I never knew that. I learned it because I wanted to send my benefactor a photo of me enjoying my new evil bunny slippers (with vampire teeth, no less).

What a fun 12 hours!

Ahuva, Landlord

“My” opensim mall is ready for tenants. 🙂 If ever there was a misuse of a pronoun, my first word is that misuse. “My” mall is not really mine, of course. It belongs to work, to my co-workers. Not only is it not mine, but I didn’t build it either. Let’s see…. for what CAN I take credit/blame? I picked where it would sit in the sim. I modified the original proposal, reducing the size. I solicited comments from the future tenants and passed those comments to the builder. I supplied the textures. (Well, we could actually say that isn’t true either. A dear friend GAVE me several textures, knowing for what they would be used, but said that we could have them free and clear. So I supply textures much as I build trees. With help!) And, of course, the color scheme is MINE!!!

ROFL. Yes – I proudly admit that the color scheme is mine. So there. I don’t CARE if you think it’s wrong. 🙂 Mine, mine, mine. Some of you might actually recognize those colors. I used them in my dining room when I had the house repainted. IMHO, those are warm welcoming colors. *grin* Deal with it. (Hmmm, as I look at the picture I just added, I notice that some things look odd. The gray areas are signboards that have not yet been completed. But there seems to be something else wrong with the walls…. sigh. A landlord’s job is never done.)

We (the committee of three) were putting the finishing touches on the mall the other day, just before I posted the notice that vendors could come stake out a store. We put out balloons to welcome everyone. We put up signs to show people the way from the entry point to the mall. We covered the pond in the middle so that people wouldn’t fall through. Oh my, did we have trouble with OSHA and the local code officer. /me sighs I considered bribing them, buying them off, but that is soooooooo against company policy. They objected to no railings, to failure to comply w/ ADA, lack of bathrooms, steps the wrong dimensions, lack of sprinklers….. You get the idea. I looked at them. I looked at the money sitting in my bank account. I looked at them checking off violation after violation. I did what any sensible landlord would do. I shot them! LOL Hey – this is MY fantasy world. I get to have a little fantasy here.

Anyway, after we had the building looking spiffed up and ready for prospective vendors, I took a few snapshots. I passed one of them to a friend who is a very good builder. She approved the build. But then she added that I “might want to find some colors that are a little different”. I started laughing and told her “I picked the textures”. She said “I’ll shut up now”. Ah, you never have to shut up. I’m a big girl. I can take it. And besides…. I did tell the vendors that they could change the inside colors. 🙂 Of course, *I* don’t know why ANYONE would want a DIFFERENT color, but there you have it.

I don’t know what will happen with this mall concept. I think that most of the people in this opensim really don’t have time to do much in the way of being retailers. Not only that – everything is free. The wares are being “sold” for $0. The purpose is to add content and pleasantness to OS. I have 8 stores available but only 38% occupancy. Good thing that I don’t have to pay tier, or this mall would be closing for sure.

What’s my personal interest in all of this? (1) Learning. This process has made me much more interested in learning about textures and building. The mall needs railings and chairs and tables. I made the stairs and learned a lot about repeats of texture patterns. I also had to do some more terraforming. Now THAT is definitely an acquired skill. I need more practice for sure. 🙂 (2) Friends. I love meeting new people. Jaymin – you are a joy! Thank you and thank you again. Not only are you kind and helpful and encouraging – you make me laugh. I enjoy your sense of humor immensely!! (3) I’m REALLY hoping that SOMEONE puts up a decent AO for ‘sale’. I simply cannot STAND how Summer walks. Sigh. This must be why everyone else chooses to fly. I don’t like flying. I like to walk. *grin* With the appropriate AO. AO, skin, hair, boots. In that order!!!!