Member LiveJournals

I brought a lot of food back from the family reunion, my mom sent me back with all her leftovers.

Which means we now have a refrigerator full of food labeled, in bright red sharpie,  "grandma."

I like to keep my room-mates guessing about how I identify.

awww. The saxophonist from the Dave Matthews Band died from an atv accident. I havn't followed these guys in years but ugh what a loss!

I stayed up way too late the night before.

Here's my hotel room. Not bad.


Up in time, joined the crew for breakfast and then piled into the hotel van to get to the location - just minutes away. Ivan drove us. Ivan was also the night desk clerk, the bar tender, DJ and on the breakfast staff. Does he sleep?
On the way saw a big huge round bale thing of hey on an ancient wagon pulled by 2 beautiful horses. Contrast: The modern machine to make the big round bale thingies vs the old Czech delivery of said bale.



Location: A farm house and mill in continuous use since 1557 AC. Gorgeous!








We made a new friend too - a little black barn kitty. We found her and her sibs in the straw strewn attic of the barn, pretty dehydrated. (The food and water bowls were empty). Turns out all of us, except one, are cat lovers - so out came the water, cooing noises and pets. The 2 sibling cats had pretty bad eye issues going on. I hope that the water at least helps. Hard not to want to help. We were all softies.





What is it with cats and my luggage? Every single cat I've met have been into my luggage. Interesting smells? Love of stringy, ropey things?



Good shoot. A bit slow in getting started, but if I had to sit around and wait, a gorgeous farm house, sitting under the fragrant apple tree with cold bottled water and travel magazines, is not a bad place.






Several sets shot.
Mistress Absolute enjoyed her mad "Lucille Ball" gingham corsetted domme scenario... It want something like this - Sexy Inn Keeper greets young female guest. Invites her to the garden for some water on the hot day. While the guest is playing with the kitten (Black kitty makes starring appearance and delivers fab performance as a very authentic kitten), the Inn Keeper drops a "pill" into her water. (Ok so in reality it was a fizzy vitamin C tablet but it made for a really fun role play). Drugged, the blonde guest is dragged to the bed, tied up, kept there, flogged. She then tied to the metal gates in the stables over night. She comes to accept her place in submission. Cut to next scene of blonde girl in chastity belt and collar serving tea to the Inn Keeper in the garden. The whole joke was (remember, Absolute IS English), how hard it is to get a decent cup of tea in the Czech Republic and what she had to do to get one.

I haven't shot in a while so it was lovely to dust off my camera. LSG/TheFetishSaloon people didn't mind me shooting as well. Super! So I'm working on more images for my portfolio. I need more female images anyways. Maybe something will turn out perfect to submit to the Seattle Erotic Art Festival

( Tasteful LJ cut for somewhat naughty photos of bound lasses )

After the shoot... Back to the hotel, freshen up and grab a taxi with Absolute and Survalan into the old city square. We were going into town for dinner and to catch the 10pm Ghost Walk, but then well laid plans of mice and men... It's the detours that's the fun in travel.
Were were being shameless tourists. It's such a touristy area but it sure is beautiful... Just great for walking.








Watched the amazing Astronomical Clock strike 8pm...


Wondered down an alley and ended up at the Sex Machine Museum. The collection of items were really good. The video was good. The little theater of 1920's porn was fun. The text and curating had much to be desired. They could use to hire a qualified and current sexologist to go over their material. (How can I get a contract with them?) Absolute and I critiqued the exhibit like only veterans of the underground could. We saw many manufacturers' products that we were personally familiar with - and manufacturers that we knew personally. We saw images of people familiar to us in the videos.






















We did see one line of kink/sex furniture that we didn't recognize the maker. Lovely detail and solid engineering. Interesting visual puns and signature of a woman's silhouette. We wondered if this wasn't yet another amazing furniture designer who left the scene in frustration... anyone know this maker?





Over all we gave the museum a B for collection quality and range but C- for educational value.

Dinner at an over-priced tourist restaurant. But it was really good food. I had the boar in barolo sauce. Pilsner Urquel is really yummy.

We decided to eat leisurely instead of rushing to the Ghost Tour. So after dinner we just wondered around town a bit before catching a taxi back. Saw a public photo exhibition called Alive by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, who also did the profoundly moving Earth From Above show that I saw in Berlin. Really beautiful and deeply impacting photos. I'm so glad that these are publicly displayed. When will they be seen in the US? These are much much needed in the States. Put all 3 of us in a solemn mood.

Tomorrow is a loooong shoot day as we'll do both day and night shoots. (So why am I not asleep yet?)

Lovely weather all day today - beautiful rain with thunder and lightening to fall asleep to now....

Oh my gosh, Possums, I'm ready to become a mountain man!!!



I would knit and make jams.  And probably freeze my ass off :-)
XO
BP

The intern for Circlet Press did a lovely little interview with me. (oh yeah, there's an on line discount for my smutty sci fi book "Master Han's Daughter" at the end of this too.)
If you ever wondered about my filthy fiction writing process, here it is.
Oh and it's work safe because it's just words, no filthy photos.

http://www.circlet.com/?p=102

This past Saturday I along with fellow team mate Sandy participated in the Holstein 100. Uh, that would be a century (aka 100 miles) for you non-cycling types. >>: )

The Holstein 100 is a fundraiser for the West Marin Senior Services. They assist more than 650 seniors and their families.

The route was beautiful, but really what route in our area isn’t. We went North to Bodega Bay, East to Occidental, South to Chileno Valley, East to Petaluma, West to Marshall (and yes I climbed Marshall Wall again), and finally North to Tomales. There was roughly 5500 feet of climbing.

The morning started, as always, at the butt-crack of dawn, that would be 4:00a.m. I had to be at Tomales High School by 6a.m. as registration started at 6:30a.m. I prepped the night before so I was quick getting out the door. Driving to Tomales was a different story as I got lost a few times. I didn’t get there until about 6:40a.m. Consequently we didn't roll until 7:00a.m.

Most of this route was not new to me thanks to my many cycling adventures with the ALC. I’ve either hit some of the route with Ben and his CAT 2 crew or with the Positive Pedelars and their Jon Pon ride.

There was a moment prior to rolling that Sandy and I thought about doing the 65 mile route. Oooooh it would have been so easy. There certainly were moments on the ride that I wish to the gods I had taken the 65 mile option.

This was especially true when I found out that there was no lunch stop on this ride. It was probably around rest stop three (Valley Ford) that I realized the organizers weren’t serving lunch on the ride. Our big meal at the end was it. I’ve never ridden 100 miles only on rest stop junk food. I tend to eat very little at rest stops mainly because I can’t eat a lot when I ride but I do try to eat more at the lunch stop. So much for that.

When you are half way into your ride and things aren’t going your way you try to make the best of things. So Sandy and I did our best to keep our humor and our smiles.

Take for example the older gentlemen running the SAG trucks, Sandy and I stopped to take pictures of the cows when a SAG vehicle stopped to check on us. The two guys started chatting with us and then proceeded to impress us with their cow making noises…so realistic the cows were actually looking at us. Since we kept running into them one referred to us as the purple twins (funny since we were in pink but cute nonetheless).

The weather was great too. It was foggy in the morning but not cold like ALC mornings. It started heating up as the day progressed but never got unbearably hot and there was always a cool breeze. Toward the end of the day though the fog came back and it was getting a bit wet and cold.

At mile 61 we hit Coleman Valley Road. It’s a hill. It’s not unlike many hills I’ve climbed....long, with a few easy bits followed by a few steep bits. I climbed it with the exception of the last tiny little bit. E’ffer was so steep it stopped me dead in my tracks. I couldn’t even budge the pedal standing. That’s about all I can say on that.

I think the worse part of this ride was the smells….hellooooooo cows. Oh and tons of dead critter smells, bleached bones, and the other wonderful smells nature has to offer. Nature!....I got nature on me.

By mile 70 fatigue was starting to set in, Sandy was slowing down and my back was on fire and running down to my knees (okay maybe weight lifting before a century isn’t the best idea, but I’m crazy like that).

At mile 86 we were told that we wouldn’t make it to the last rest stop before it closed. They offered us an alternate route which shaved off nine miles. Yeah, shaved off nine miles but added a few more hills. We decided to take the shortened route I think mainly because I was starving and Sandy was tired. It was a short five miles but as I said a hilly five miles.

I’m sore. I’m so sore my muscles’ soreness is sore. My eyes even hurt. Mainly because every time I looked up and saw a hill coming up my eyes would bug out, which was promptly followed by an “E’FF ME!”.

The best part of this ride was watching a father/daughter team on a tandem. The daughter couldn’t have been more than 15. At times she seemed in her own little world, listening to her iPod while Pops made sure she was eating and drinking. They were the last two riders to come in but rode every mile.

I could be down because I didn’t make the full century but I’m not. I rode 91 miles, took on some grueling climbs (which I tried to enjoy as my cycle buddy suggested), rode along some beautiful routes (love, love riding along highway 1 and all the ocean cliffs) and spent the day riding with a friend.

Seriously what could be better than that?!

Again my commentary really isn't needed. But if I must all I can say is this is a must read blog. It's E'FFING AWESOME. It made me cry-laugh........

http://www.cakewrecks.com/

>>: )

How do I find these things????

I've finally settled into the hotel here. It's 11pm on Sunday, Aug 18th.

Started my travel at 5pm on Saturday. Glad to have the upgrade. I hope I can get it on the return as well. Sat next to a charming older Swedish woman. Flight from SFO to Frankfurt was uneventful and on time.
At FRA airport - it's kind of a duh, but the Lufthansa lounge is much better then the United lounge.
Flight from FRA to PRG, also uneventful and actually got in early.
Taxi to hotel. Staying at Hotel Wienna / Galexie Praha. Nice, modern and efficient business hotel. None of the issues that I had with that recent place. I changed my room from a shower room to a room with a bath. Bath and wifi - deal breakers for me. We're in the suburbs, but it's closer to the 15th century mill that we're shooting at so it's good. We have transportation options in town so no complaints.

Met up with the 2 guys from theFetishSaloon.com, Mistress Absolute and Survalan (the gal that I suspended from the cherry picker last time I was in London). The 2 gals are the UK models. Both totally fun to work with. We'll also be working with Czech models, 2 new faces each day, for the next 3 days.
I'm here as the rope stylist but I'm also doing photo styling and brought a bunch of leather gear.
The gals and I are talking about going on a late night Ghost Tour in town. Cheese fun!

It's a cool spell with the weather here, for which I'm grateful.
I've got the window open. All I hear are crickets. The full moon is beautiful.

Anyone know a site for tourist phrases in Czech with audio play of the phrases or at least spelled out phonetically?

It'll be early on set tomorrow - off to a bath and sleep.
G'night

meh. called in sick to work this morning.. since I really was sick this morning.. though I think the sickness was caused by the idea of having to go back to that job. Portland was a nice break. spent most of the time camping out at Saj and Grace's house reading and WOWing and generally being lazy since they where both working. And really came to the conclusion that if I dont like my job I really need to do somthing about it. what that is though and what I want to do is a complete mystery to me. after 7 years of beeing a respected tech I find that I really dont have anywhere to go since what the skills I learned at that job arn't used anywhere other then the phone company. go back to school? try for an office IT job? Do I still want an IT job? dunno.

Anyway spent this morning catching up on diggnation and tekzilla and what? Veronica from Techzilla has a sci-fi Fantacy book club and does pod casts? yay! http://swordandlaser.com/

My sis and I went to visit my  She is 87 and on NO medications. She broke her pelvis and can't walk perfectly, so she's in assisted living for now but is otherwise super healthy and complained about the "old people" who were living there. No female in the past generation on either my dad or my mom's side has died before 93. The same cannot be said for the men but the smoking and drinking haven't helped with that.

This means if I don't get attacked by a tiger while visiting the Bronx zoo, or hit by a snowmobile (to offer two rather disparate scenarios) I am anecdotally, if not statistically, likely to spend at least another 53 years on the planet.

Which means I need to either take up drinking/smoking or start saving more for retirement.

..most everyone in the family was starting that "oh man, we have to go back to work soon" chorus.

I was starting to grumble along and then I remembered "oh, I LOVE my job!"*

Tee hee.

Remind me of that when I am stranded in the Atlanta airport after storms delay my flight to Gayslam, Alabama.

In other news, the cabin we stayed in had one of those singing fish. Not a real fish, a fake one. You know, as seen on TV. Now the "Don't Worry, Be Happy" song (sung fishie style) is stuck in my head. Not a bad thing, all in all.

The decor of our cabin was very interesting. I think it could have been from the early No Buying Impulse Control Era.



Welcome to Camp Animal Visitation!



Close Up of The Raccoon Who Apparently Wants a Tip



Um, if polar bears are as far south as Michigan, what does that say about global warming?

And I didn't even get photos of the bear mouth toilet paper holders and moosehead lamps!
It was an amazing place, we slept 19 in the main cabin alone and cooked for 55 at dinner at one point.
I'm not even sure how many kids were there. At some point, with all the little blonde kids running around, I thought I was in Swedish daycare.

The view from the cabin:


Rough, I know.

And I'm sorry, but I just couldn't bring myself to put the picture of the Raccoon Who Wants a Tip under an LJ cut. If it's NWS for you, should totally quit your job because they TARFW (Too Anal Retentive For Words).

This post brought to you by the friendly folks at Make Fun Of Your Vacation House On-line But Not Too Much Because You Really Want Your Family To Be Able to Go There Again. Inc.

* Please note, I don't know that all my family members hate their jobs. I am just saying they weren't looking forward to going back.