A little over a week ago (11/20/09) was rieshal’s birthday :). For his birthday present I bought him a new Nvidia GTS 250 graphics card to replace the two old ones in his computer. Flight Simulator 9, 10 and X-Plane have never looked better on his computer hehe. For dinner that night I wanted to give him a really nice steak experience, so I took him to Morton’s Steakhouse ;). And trust me when I say it was a dinner neither one of us will forget! Everything was very fancy, and they even took a complimentary picture of us because it was his birthday (see below).

Afterward’s we headed back to his place for cake. I found out Publix now has more options for custom cakes, so I asked them to add cheetah spots to his :P. Rieshal couldn’t stop thanking me nor stop calling me crazy the entire time, so there is no doubt in my mind that I gave him a wonderful birthday *giggles and snuggles his cheetah tightly* :).

P.S. I’ve got several LJ entries that I haven’t got up due to being so busy as of late :/. I should have them up soon though.

Current Location: Rieshal and Han's House
Current Mood: happy

A little over two weeks ago (10/10/09) rieshal and I went to the unveiling of the Aviation Station Phase 2 at the Museum of Discovery and Science in downtown Ft Lauderdale. Rieshal is a big aviation nut so we made sure to get there early for the preview :). At 11 AM they had a ribbon cutting ceremony with a good amount of local press coverage. The unveiling of Phase 2 included the addition of more flight simulators running X-Plane (pictured below) as well as a full motion simulator (the only thing you have to pay a few bucks extra for each ride). New additions also include a real turbine engine cut-away (pictured below) and more displays showing how aircraft function.

 
 

Old displays that still remain are the full scale Boeing DC-9 cockpit and Airbus A380 landing gear (currently the largest commercial passenger aircraft in the world), both pictured below. The new Phase 2 did open with a few flaws, mostly with the new flight simulators. Some kept crashing while others had unresponsive controls. By the end of the day though, most of the kinks got worked out. Afterwards we walked around the rest of the museum before heading out. Was a fun day for sure, and I know my cheetah really enjoyed it too hehe :).

 
  

Current Location: Out and About
Current Mood: geeky

Yesterday (10/21/09) is the date that marked rieshal and mine’s two years together as good and more recently close furiends :). He and I met on that day at Elliot’s Fall Festival back in 2007. From the very beginning I could see just how sweet and caring he is, always going out of his way to make me happy and I always strive to do the very same for him :). I guess you can say we are great example that canines and felines can get along so well hehe :D. All joking aside, he’s always been an amazing furiend :).

A while back we both saw just how far we’ve come as furiends and how deep our true feelings for each other became. Our furiendship grew ever stronger since then knowing our journey together would lead us to this point :). Last week we decided on the date of our second anniversary as furiends to celebrate this very special moment in our lives.

We have had our differences in the past but we’ve worked threw them, and I know very well that no relationship as mates can ever be perfect. But as Rieshal and I take that next step paw in paw in our long journey ahead, we know we couldn’t be happier together as mates :). Rieshal, you mean the world to me and I love you with all my heart!! *Holds you close and kisses passionately* :)
 

Current Location: Work
Current Mood: loved

The festivities started out with my drive up to wildwolf4paws place Friday night (10/2/09). Him and I hung out for a bit before li_tak was able to get out of work. Seeing how exhausted he was and how much I missed him, I made sure to give him a big and comforting snuggle :). Early the next morning we all headed out to Sea World, a theme park I haven’t been too in many years. It changed so much from the last time that I remembered it that it didn’t even look like the same park to me.

The first thing we ran right into in the park was Manta. I wasn’t really up for scaring the crap out of myself that day so I didn’t go on with them heh. If I was up for riding Manta, the zebra wouldn’t have had much trouble talking me into it :P. From there went thru the shark tunnel, then a couple of the shows. The one thing I noticed about the Believe show is that Shamu himself has a very small role in it as the other two killer whales are out the majority of the show. The last thing we did at the park was getting the chance to feed the stingrays. While it looks kind of scary (yes, I pulled my hand out of the water the first few times :P) all they do is suck the fish out of your hand with their mouth. Believe me it was a strange feeling to have something latch onto my hand just to suck the fish off of it hehe.

After spending the day at the park, we stopped into Little Siagon which is the same place Takala took me to on my trip back in March of this year :). There is nothing like a big bowl of hot Pho, spring rolls, and a mango bubble tea to help celebrate a birthday hehe. Afterwards we hung out at Wild’s place watching some ghost hunter shows before crashing back at Takala’s for the night. As he had to work early the next morning at both of his jobs, I headed back home to make it back in time for the FPS. Again, thank you Takala and WildWolf for a great time on my visit for my birthday! *Snugs you both tightly* :)

  
 

Tuesday night (10/6/09) was my actual birthday, which meant I was in far too much of a good mood to attend class that night hehe ;P. After a long day of work, I headed out to meet up with rieshal and SpringStar for dinner. Rieshal surprised me by taking us out to a nice sushi restaurant he found in our area. This was very sweet of him not only because he knows I love sushi, but because he doesn’t really like any fish at all. But he didn’t let that stop him from taking me out to a dinner he’d know I’d really enjoy for my birthday :).

Rieshal and SpringStar got cooked chicken rolls and I got my favorite, various types of sashimi plus a blue crab roll (Yummm!) :D. We accidently ordered cooked muscles as well due to not being able to understand the waitress when she told us about the specials. So of course I just had to persuade them both to try a few hehe ;). When we got back to Rieshal’s, Han and Darkwolf were also there when I was surprised with a birthday cake :). In many ways, it was a very sweet way to top off my birthday celebration *giggles*. I can’t thank Rieshal enough for making my birthday feel so special! *Pounces and snuggles his cheetah* :) I would also like to thank everyone else who called and/or texted wishing me a happy birthday *snugs you all* :).

  
 
 

Current Location: Home
Current Mood: happy

September was a nice month of relaxation for the most part. Rieshal and I saw District 9 on 9/13/09 and it was good. But in a twisted way I mostly enjoyed the movie for the way it portrayed the uglier of side of how humanity could be towards another race of highly intelligent beings. On the 20th we saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in 3D. It was a pretty funny movie, but lets just say I didn’t leave the theater hungry afterwards hehe :P.

My job has been going pretty well so far. Though this past Monday my job put myself and the friend I work with to the test. While installing Windows updates on a server in Jacksonville, the main hard drive completely crashed. Unlike all of the other servers currently running in our company, this one was the last to not have RAID configured hard drives. After looking over our options, we took an early morning flight up only to get stopped by TSA for a “random screening” which made us miss our 7:25 AM flight. We took the next 11:30 AM flight up, installed a new hard drive into the server and rebuilt everything we needed on it. Luckily everyone’s work related files were on separate hard drives inside the server so none of it was lost. Due to how long it took to rebuild the server, we missed our 6:30 PM flight out so we ended up having to stay overnight at a hotel. The next morning we jumped on an early flight back down and straight into a full day of work.

Thankfully I have a nice weekend to look forward too as I’m about to drive up to visit li_tak to celebrate my birthday a little early (as my actual birthday is 10/6/09) :). He has to work a double shift on Sunday though so I’ll be driving back down early in the morning to spend the day with rieshal :). More soon!

Current Location: Home
Current Mood: excited

Two Saturdays ago (8/29/09) rieshal and I drove up to visit Rascal in the Orlando area. It was something of a last minute trip as Rascal was suddenly in the possible transition of moving back to Florida. We hung out for a bit, ordered those Domino’s Pasta Bowls (holy crap those things are evil :P) for dinner before heading out to Old Town for the Saturday Night Classic Car Show. Many beautiful examples of high quality classic American muscle and foreign cars were there. Honestly, I’m not quite sure what happened to all of these American car manufactures after the 1970’s as most everything they made up until about 2005 has been mediocre for the most part, with only some exceptions in that timeframe.

Kevian (a friend of Rascal) came over the next day just before heading over to Downtown Disney. For the first time since the Characters in Flight balloon ride opened in April of this year, I happened to be there a day when it was actually operating. The past two times I went the balloon was tied down due to the possibility of rain. So Rieshal and I jumped on the opportunity, and I’ll tell you it was a lot of fun :). Seeing as I’m afraid of heights I was a bit nervous at first but Rieshal helped me to calm down hehe. For anyone that likes a great view and/or enjoys taking photographs, this ride is a must when you’re in the Orlando area :). Later that night we said “farewell for now” to Rascal, then swung by to say hi to Herbie before heading back home.

Was a great weekend for sure, and was very happy to spend some time with furiends again *hugs you all* :). Later on this past week Rascal told us everything fell into place and he now lives in the Orlando area (yay!) :). As for other updates, I’ll be starting back my computer courses tomorrow (9/8/09) which means my free time will be very limited again :/. Weekends I’m mostly free when I’m not out or on a trip but during the week its “Work, school, then sleep” for Monday thru Thursday. It’ll all be worth it in the end but it’s hard to see that when going thru a sleep deprived schedule 4 days a week :P. And for all you geeks out there, I’m looking to get the new Blackberry Storm 2 when it comes out within the next two months :). My 4 year old Motorola E815 isn’t cutting it for work anymore so I’m holding out for this all-in-one device (email, full web browser, remote connection, etc) to be released. Think of it as a business oriented iPhone 3G S *hides* ;D.

Current Location: Rieshal and Han's House
Current Mood: happy

You work hard, you play harder! :D Spending time with furiends has been keeping me going when I'm not working and that continued to be true a week and a half ago. On Friday (8/14/09) rieshal and I drove up to wildwolf4paws for a house party him and javu were throwing. When we arrived li_tak was hard at work cooking up food for all of the party-goers before he kicked back for a few rounds of Rock Band hehe. Playing some Rock Band myself I quickly found out how much practice I need :P. Rieshal seemed to do a bit better, but that probably has to do with the fact that he plays the guitar :). Throw in movies, drinks (no alcohol for me hehe), and fluffy critters and you have a house party that’s very hard to top! Thank you again Wildwolf and Laphin for a great time *hugs* :). And thank you again Takala for cooking dinner, I’ll be seeing you again soon! *Snugs* :)

The next morning Rieshal and I headed over to Elliot’s Summer Celebration with Han and Zorin. Inside the pavilion was a recently redone but unfinished (so far) interior. To me, I felt the unfinished interior gave the party a unique atmosphere.  The only project Rieshal and I had was to swap out the messed up monitor in the DDR cabinet. What was only supposed to take three hours ended up taking most of the party due to the replacement monitor malfunctioning and us having to put the old one back in. But we did have fun in-between fixing the DDR cabinet, including making it the next morning for some of Simba’s famous pancakes hehe :). It was a much needed weekend and was happy to have shared with furiends *hugs* and the entire trip with Rieshal *snugs tightly* :).

The only downside to this trip was the fact I almost lost all of the pictures and videos I took due to a data transfer error. But thanks to a data recovery software Rieshal found and some careful rebuilding, I was able to get everything back!
 

Current Location: Home
Current Mood: happy

Hardly two weeks since I was back from AC 2009 and off I had gone to another con with my furiends :). Megaplex is my home con, one that I’ve made a top priority to attend every year since attending for the first time 2 years earlier. Not only was Megaplex 7 my very first furry con, it was where I met many of my current furiends :). The last two years kicked major fluffy butt, so you may read below to see how this year was no different!

Thursday evening (7/23/09) rieshal and I made the drive up to the Radisson Worldgate Hotel in Kissimmee Florida, Megaplex’s new and current location. We got in and registered (as we forgot to months ago :P) before meeting up with fyrdawg. Haven’t seen him since October of last year and really missed him :).

Managing to wake up early enough, we make it to Opening Ceremonies Friday morning in the main ballroom. Shortly afterwards we meet up with li_tak, who needed to get things ready for the Fursuit Games later that day. The zebra was on staff at this year’s MP doing his part to ensure everyone was having a great time, and sneaking in time to enjoy the con himself whenever possible hehe :). Speaking of Fursuit Games, that was next. The turnout was huge, and the games looked pretty fun including a gift unwrapping game. The Fursuit Games is just one of many reasons I want a fursuit hehe. Afterwards was Bucktown Tiger’s Concert, then Uncle Kage’s Story Hour. Both of which were a must-see! Ending the night was a dance by Santa Paws, but Rieshal and I were too tired to go.

Saturday morning included quick breakfast at the hotel before watching all of the critters gather for the Fursuit Parade. There were 80 total, the largest for MP so far and it showed when trying to get everyone in frame for the group shots afterwards hehe. Next up was the C.A.R.E. Presentation which is a favorite of mine. Not only for learning about a variety of critters, but the challenge (and frustration :P) of trying to get some great pictures of them during the presentation. Afterwards was the first very first official sushi outing of the Sushi Furs LJ group  to Wolfgang Pucks for dinner, which included Takala, r_bear, darktiger77, Zuri, Rieshal, and myself

Time flies when you’re having a blast. Sunday seemed to come all too soon but that didn’t mean the fun was winding down. Fyr Dawg got ready for fursuit go-carting at Fun Spot early that morning Funspot is known for its multi-level go-carts tracks and after riding the Vortex I found out why. After riding up the spiral part at the beginning and watching the cart in front of me suddenly disappear out of sight at the top……let’s just say I held on for dear life going down the steep incline the first time heh O_o. Cooling down from the outing, we settled in for another must-see at MP, the Funday PawPet Show! :) While being on the show at yappy’s house can’t be beat, watching it at a con is the next best thing IMO. Ending the con with a bang, Fyr Dawg let Rieshal and I borrow two of his suits so that we can join in on the fursuiting fun :). We were out for a bit before attending Closing Ceremonies in suit. Again thank you my friend for letting Rieshal and I wear your suits *snugs* :). Rieshal’s and my night ended early as we had to drive back for work the next morning :/.

Saying “Farwell for now” sucks majorly especially when it’s a friend like Fyr Dawg who I don’t spend much time with. I did have a wonderful time my spotty furiend though and I’m looking forward to spending more time with him in the future *snugs tightly* :). A huge thanks to Takala (and the rest of the staff and volunteers) for all of the hard work and dedication put into making this year’s MP possible! Was also wonderful spending our second MP together my stripey friend when you weren’t busy hehe *snugs tightly* :). Nearly never-ending snuggles to Rieshal for sharing our second incredible MP together. You are too sweet hon! *Kisses* :) And also thanks to everyone else who I met and shared this MP with (too many to list, but you know who you are) *hugs*.

Work has been busy again lately but thankfully I’ll have a chance to travel and unwind this coming weekend with some furiends. More about that soon :).

Current Location: Home
Current Mood: excited

Over two weeks after the con ended and it’s still very fresh in my mind (hundreds of pics help too hehe). I can thank my job for sucking up the time to type this out sooner. I’ll try to keep my first AC experience with my friends short and sweet, but I’m not making any promises ;). Before that though, there was the matter of celebrating a zebra’s birthday a bit early on Wednesday (7/1/09) :).

My journey started out early Thursday morning (7/2/09) as li_tak and I were driven to the airport by lillibug (thanks again hon!). Flying up wasn’t something I was looking forward too, especially when the connecting flight from New Jersey to Pittsburgh was in a turbo-prop plane O_o. Thankfully having Takala next to me gave me the comfort I needed to get thru the flight :). Once we landed, it was off to the hotel by a shuttle service. We unpacked a bit before getting our sponsor registrations in the convention center. wildwolf4paws drove in a bit later and we headed downtown to the famous Primanti Brothers for dinner. Our last roommate, Steelclaw Fox got in late due to a broken alternator on his trip up. Later on that night the zebra couldn’t help but roam around the hotel for a bit before we headed to Images, a gay bar where we ran into foxwell and talked with the locals about the con.

Friday began with a heavy breakfast at the Steel City Diner while Takala went to see if anyone was looking for an extra at the Masquerade rehearsal (no success :/). Fueled up, we headed to Opening Ceremonies then I went to a panel called “So this is your first AnthroCon” ran by Uncle Kage. Afterwards I met up with the ZiB and Pred Panther (honestly two of the best character costumes at the con!) in the dealers room. After roaming around with them for a bit, I went to an R/C panel features R/C helicopters, an R/C plane simulator and an example of R/C fursuit wings.

As hunger started setting in, we gathered a large group of friends including aceswild, ramensnax and his girlfriend April for sushi at Sushi Kim (yummy as hell!). Our kickass waitress turned out to be an internet radio DJ who would later broadcast about the con. Full of fresh fish, the zebra decided to crash the Hyena’s panel flashing a sign saying “Hyena’s Suck! And Blow!!” :D. They got a kick out of it, though most of them wanted to eat him afterwards hehe :P. unclekage’s Story Hour after the Hyena’s panel was a hit! Still going strong our group gathered again with Tenkai and Ditto for another trip to Images. Much dancing was had by all, even me :D.

Saturday began day two with another heavy breakfast (hey, it kept us going all day!) and the zebra was going to need it. There was some tough competition at the solo fursuit games but he walked away with first place! (Yay!) :) Next was a fursuit construction panel by WildWolf, which was quite informative. The massive fursuit parade followed with 640 suiters and a 20 minute time span from the first critter to last as they passed by me O_o. Hilarity ensued at the Ezra and Poink show with special guest Rummage. After another sushi dinner, some suiting was done by the zebra and I around the hotel late into the night :).

Sunday was the last day of the con, and with that a third heavy breakfast (all diets go out the window at a con :P). The Hoofers panel was a much stop as well as the advanced fursuit construction panel by WildWolf that morning. We then spent much of the early afternoon scooping out various tables in the dealer’s room. Pred Panther and the zebra made another appearance later on, including some photos on the convention center rooftop level. On our last sushi run for dinner, Sushi Kims was packed (someone must have let the word out!) so we found a Vietnamese place called Vietnam’s Pho. I recommend this restaurant as delicious and affordable alternative to the typical food places around the hotel. We missed 2’s Rant and Closing Ceremonies but suited up one last time later that night for the huge deaddog party on the second floor of the hotel. Interacting with hundreds of people and critters while in suit was a blast and a kickass way of ending the con! :)

Monday came with an early morning flight back home with Takala. It was a bit depressing having to say goodbye to most of the furiends I spent my first AnthroCon with :/. I’d like to thank WildWolf again for lending me one of his suits to wear during the con, it really helped to make my first AC experience all that much more amazing! *Snugs tightly* :) Thanks to everyone else who I met and interacted with as well, you were all part of the magic too (sorry to many to list, but you know who you are) *hugs you all*. And I can’t thank Takala enough for all of the wonderful time spent with him threw out the con (and trip up and back) as well! And of course everything he did to help make AC one of the most amazing experiences of my life! *Snugs his stripey friend tightly till he squeaks* Hehe :). It’s tough to say that my first AC ranks higher than my very first con experience (Megaplex 6, which was where I met Takala for the first time) but is sure as hell right up there with it! :D

Speaking of Megalex, that is where Rieshal and I are currently heading! Will be spending this year’s Megaplex with rieshal, Takala and fyrdawg :). More on that when I get back! ;)
 

Current Location: Florida's Turnpike
Current Mood: Indescribable! :)

Happy Belated Birthday to my bestest stripey furiend in the whole wide world, TAKALA!

His birthday was on the 4th of July, but I didn't have time to post this as I was too busy at a certain convention hehe :D. Picture of Mr. Stripeybutt taken on top of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. I'll have much more about our trip to AnthroCon 2009 soon! :)

Current Location: Orlando International Airport
Current Mood: Indescribable! :)