Artist/writer/singer/cheese connoisseur darkwolfie (05/01/1968—12/15/2009) passed away this morning after a long illness.

Darkwolfie had served on the Anthrocon Publications Staff as an artist since 2002, providing the artwork for the Table of Contents and Staff Bios pages and "blurb" graphics for the conbook. He is survived by his wife, tashabear.

He will be missed.

Renfield and Cheryl are unfortunately no longer a couple. I spent a few days last week helping Renfield shuttle his things (books, clothes, car parts) from Cheryl's place in West Virginia back to Mom's place.

Renfield's currently looking for work (I can sympathize, since I'm currently on the bench as well) and kinda down about things in general. But a new year's coming. New year, new start.

That's about all the news I've got, really. I'm thinking of baking some banana bread this afternoon. Nom.

Here's a cool link or two. Cartoon/illustration blogs: Drawn! and The Little Chimp Society.

Another Update: Renfield called, said he might have a job! Hray!

Old news: I gave Renfield a durian candy to see what his reaction was. He said it tasted like toes. -=)

I've got a paid account, but I don't use the poll creator thingy nearly as often as I should.

I'm actually using this to kill several birds with one stone:

1) I'm on Facebook and Twitter. I'm probably linked to most of y'all with accounts there already, but a lot of the time I know people better by their online pseudonyms instead of real names, so half the time on Facebook I have to guess who all these weird people are who wanna link to me. -:)

2) Someone put together a webpage with links to other furry webpages, and I realized I don't have one of those (as such). And rather than going through 500-something profiles hunting down URLs, it'd be easier if y'all just drop me a line here if ya want a link.

3) I'm rebranding a bottle of Gordon's Dry Gin that I found out in the woods while exploring the abandoned house on Sycolin Road (for those of you who have been following along, apparently it isn't being torn down, it's just Dominion Power putting in power lines elsewhere on the property). Anyway... it's gonna be Gordon's Invigorating Elixir of Yak Strength... but I need ideas on what it does and what it contains. No right or wrong answers to this one. I basically need some text/content to include on the label. Will post pictures when it's finished.

Many thanks!

Poll #1494488 Data Gatheringz!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None, participants: 34

Arrr you on Facebook? If so, what's your name there?

Arrr you on Twitter? If so, what's your name there?

You gots a furry webpage somewhere? What's the URL?

What does Gordon's Invigorating Elixir of Yak Strength do?

What does Gordon's Invigorating Elixir of Yak Strength contain?

rotating kitchen from Zeger Reyers on Vimeo.

Edit:


The Unrotated version is here.

So rigelkitty and I met up with Renfield yesterday and explored Wild and Wonderful West Virginia. Plenty of abandoned buildings and stuff out his way. Our first stop was the abandoned Paw Paw railroad station.

Then we went across the Potomac to check out Paw Paw Tunnel on the C&O Canal. Someone's cows has escaped from a nearby farm and were wandering around in the parking lot. We went to the dark and scary Paw Paw tunnel, but had left the flashlights in the car so we couldn't go too far in. Then I went to check out the abandoned railroad bridge and tripped over some barbed wire. Ouch.



We took a break for lunch at Grandma's County Kitchen and Inn (103 Winchester Street, Paw Paw, WV 25434). The food was quite good and reasonable priced, fed the three of us for about $20.

After lunch, we attempted to drive down the abandoned railroad grade to our next destination, but had to turn around after the NO TRESPASSING signs and Rigel's advice that it wasn't exactly suitable terrain for a Prius. Instead, we took a long, winding, single-lane road called "Detour" that led us to our next stop, Magnolia, WV. Magnolia was quite a bustling town back in the day. We stopped just north of Magnolia and wandered down an abandoned railroad grade to an old bridge over the Potomac. Renfield found a broken insulator that said "HEMI" on it, so he was happy.



We made a brief stop at Cherry Orchard Cemetery. I couldn't find a lot of information on it on the internets, other than Elijah Shambaugh was buried there. We found his grave, as well as a really old handcarved one nearby that read "MARGRET ATHY DIE MAY THE 10TH THE YER OF 1859."

Our next stop was going to be Jerome. I had read on Wikipedia that Jerome was an uninhabited community and there was an abandoned train order office leftover from when the Western Maryland Railway was abandoned. Eventually the road we were on ended, so I started cautiously driving down the abandoned right-of-way over ballast stones. As we reached our destination, Rigel expressed concerns we might actually be on someone's driveway. It looked like the path ended up ahead, so I figured it might be a good time to turn around.

I started backing up to a little side path, but apparently we had attracted the attention of whoever lived at the end of the driveway. They started yelling at us. Not a good sign...

bang-bang-bang-bang-bang!

"They're shooting at us!" said Rigel, and we made a hasty retreat back down the driveway as fast as my Prius could safely go on railroad ballast.

So that was our excitement for the day. We stopped again in Magnolia and consulted maps. I wanted to go to another abandoned railroad bridge further out, but we gave up on it and turned around about halfway there. Instead, we unexpectedly found yet another abandoned house right on the side of the road. While I was taking pictures, a guy in a pickup truck pulled up alongside.

"Ya thinking of renting it?" he asked.

"It is cheap?" I replied.

He told me it was his buddy's place and there were deer in the backyard in case I wanted pictures, but after our previous encounter with the locals I thought it best to stay on the road.



We made it back to the main road and then off onto another winding dirt road up a hill. Sitting in the middle of absolutely nowhah was an old abandoned church, with a little graveyard behind it.



We dropped off Renfield and played a bit with his dog, Hemi, and then headed out, stopping for more pictures of some of the abandoned buildings we say on the way in. All in all, it was a pretty full day and the best part was we made it back alive! -:)