What a cruise to remember! I'm sorry there are some painful memories attached to it too.

Painful memories are part of life. I should put my big girl panties on and just deal with it once and for all. I'm easing into it. My 11 yo loves Big Bang Theory and especially Sheldon. It blows her mind that I've partied with Sheldon's arch nemesis Wil Wheaton. (He also flirted with me a bit, but that's a whole OTHER story!)

While I don't really want to go to another Star Trek Convention ever, I would kill to be able to take my kid to Wales for a Doctor Who convention.

Painful memories are part of life but we all have to deal with them in the way that is right for us and move on when we are ready. I'm sure you are dealing with it the way you have to right now.

You do have some fun stories. You are the first I've talked to that has actually been to one of the famous Star Trek conventions and I didn't even know about the conventions on water!

• moxiegirl23 Said:

That sounds so neat. I went to a Star Trek convention in 1998, but I only saw Marina Sirtis before we had to leave for the day. My husband and I have spent most of this year watching the Deep Space Nine DVDs in 15- to 30-minute chunks during dinnertime.

• aquabunny Said:

I broke my arm in 1988 right before she came to Boston. She signed my cast. I still have it.

Lol who'd have thunk there would be a bunch of geeks like me on my scrapbooking forum I would have loved to have been on that cruise. The closest we've come is some of the comic cons around here. Wil Wheaton??? Really?!?!?! Swoon!

We geek out over pretty much all the Dr Who, Dr Horrible, Star Trek, Star Wars, pretty much anything.

• Henri Jean Said:

Henri, I sent you the story on Facebook. Unfortunately I feel that it's too long to post here. But it really is hilarious. I can't wait to scrapbook that one of these days. Unfortunately I haven't been able to scrap any of our adventures. Our wedding is the first thing I've worked on since we met.

Yes, we live in North Texas so we get lots of tornadoes here. It's not a very far drive to get up into the panhandle and Tornado Alley, so we usually get up real early in the morning or leave the night before and are up there when the storms hit. My husband is very, very good at forecasting so he always has us in the right spot before a breakout.

• stick Said:

Yes, his armor is all metal. Most of the guys have kind of stainless finish brushed armor and some of them have black armor, but Rob's is very shiny. I always tell people I have a real life Knight in Shining armor! I'll see if I can dig up a photo real quick.

Btw, my BFF and I totally plan to get dressed up as Elphaba and Glinda. Wicked is one of my top 3 favorites and I have seen it 9 times now I think. LOVE it!

I read every word of what you sent to me. I have to say - it was very suspensful and I love the tornado photos! They were both awesome - especially the cone-shaped one!

What an absolutely fascinating hobby! I can just imagine the adrenalin rush you get. Not I can't.

I would love to have a hobby like that but I'm probably too much of a chicken.

Big plane just took off from near us - John Travolta lives about 5 miles and his plane stays on the run way outside his back door. His 747 is an old Quantas and sometimes we can see the Kangaroo on the tail. This time I spotted it to late and it was climbing to quickly to see clearly. We see his smaller plane too but this was the big one. I'm guessing it was hi. No one else at that airfield has one that big. ANd this one had just take off and was getting up to altitude so it was most likely his.

Jarvae - it sounds like you and your husband never have a dull moment!

• Henri Jean Said:

Thanks for reading it! I'm glad you enjoyed it. That's actually the condensed version. When I originally wrote it, it was probably 3 times as long and I didn't feel like anyone would want to read a novella. It's still quite long but I just couldn't cut anymore out. Too many things were going on!

Of course, if anyone else wants to read it let me know. Basically the story of a chase weekend where everything that could go wrong, did, but it still ended up being one of the most amazing weekends. And definitely the most memorable.

I feel quite safe with Rob. He chases the ones that are "predictable" as much as one can be. He checks to see how fast they are moving to make sure it's not going too fast for us to keep our distance. He checks the rotation and everything to make sure we stay out of it's path, until we WANT to be in the path. I'll admit, there were a few times when I thought we were too close but he was always calm and we were always safe.

Well I found some pics. These are a bit older but you get the idea.


My knight in shining armor
By Jarvae


DH in armor
By Jarvae


DH fighting
By Jarvae

I know what you mean. I do things now that I have never done in my life becasue I feel so safe with my husband. I just feel protected and I feel like he knows what he is doing. Its a wonderful feeling!

I laughed at the add and thought it would be fun to take the cute lil fuzzy bat shopping with me... have him sit on my shoulder, or hang from my purse.

LOVE Ren/Fest -- my favorite part of going this year was dancing to the bag pipe perfomance.

DH makes chainmail now and is trying to use his skills toward a profit in jewelry making.

That army is Kick Keester!

I don't follow Star Trek, but even I'm jealous of that cruise experience.

The armor is AMAZING! Wow! Will you be Elphaba or Glinda, Jarvae? I love the play, but Billie Burke remains the absolute best, imo, I studied lots of movie stills when making my costume.

I love bagpipe music, have a secret desire to learn to play.

I thought the whole thing was funny. They made fun of a lot of things. Glad the walrus wasn't the scrapbooker. I think they were just trying to find something unfreakish to compare to bloodsucking. To anyone that does not scrapbook, I am sure our hobby seems mundane.

Jarvae - That is a very impressive looking Knight you have there!

DH and I watched all the Star Trek spin offs ( Next Gen, DS9...) Loved them all! That would have been a dream cruise for sure!!

I thought long and hard today about why this commercial bothers me a little and why I feel put-down when that isn't the general consensus of most of the people here. I think I've figured it out.

My husband is the only non-scrapbooker who supports my scrapbooking.

Maybe the reason it bothers me - I have so much trouble getting my family to accept it and have a better preception and appreciation for what I do -my mother has finally beginning to stop criticizing my scrapbooks (although she still thinks its a stupid waste of time and money and won't look at any of my books). I feel like I'm constantly defending my scrapbooking with the family as being a real and legitimate hobby. Not just a way to spend time and money.

I would not like them to see this commercial. They already think I'm a moron for scrapbooking.

If my mother sees the commercial I can hear her saying, "See, it isn't just me, even a bunch of fake animals on a commercial know scrapbooking is weird.

Bill's family seems to view it as me wasting Bill's retirement money (they don't seem to realize I have retirement money coming in to) but they seem to pity Bill because I waste his money like this.

I'm sure that is why the commercial hit a nerve with me.

But, I'm over it now. Still don't like the last line but as I said before, I won't loose sleep over it.

But having a family that has no respect for what a do, then a commercial call scrapbooker freaks. I think it just hit me as being too much this morning.

But seeing that not many here are bothered by it tells me that I'm probably just being overly sensitive or defensive about it.

Tonight when my son comes over I am going to show him the pictures. He will be so jealous! That armor is awesome! Joe started making an entire chainmail and I think the hood is complete down to the collar and then he quit and that has been a lot of years. It really is heavy!

• stick Said:

I would be Elphaba. My friend is very blonde and we both naturally kind of fell into our roles. I always have had a darker side... dry sense of humor and whatnot. One of my favorite t-shirts says "I'm the evil twin".

And I'm right there with you. I LOVE bagpipes. A good dirge will bring tears to my eyes every time. I don't know if it's because my family is mostly scottish, or if they just rock, but I love bagpipes.