So...I've decided that I'm going to go ahead and do a kiriban thingie, since I'm closing in on 20,000 page views. Since I can't be normal and since it's now 2010, your target number is 20,010. Send me a screen capture to claim a prize.

What would be that prize, you ask? I will color something for you. You can request a character or give me line art that is yours or that you have permission from whoever drew it to color. Or, I will create an icon/avatar for you. Give me a character and a size you want and whether or not you want it to be animated. What I won't do is write a story for you. I'm afraid I'm useless at writing on demand. Whatever prize you choose, I will do my darndest to get it to you in a timely manner.

So...there you have it. That is all. I've overdosed on Photoshop today and am running on 3.5 hours of sleep. *YAWN!* Need to go do some writing now...

So what did Nightwind (and Frostbite) do on New Year's Eve? We drove/rode down to Albuquerque and then turned around and drove right back. I drove down, Frosty drove back. 10 hours on the road, all told, non-stop. Why? To pick up Frosty's kids at the Amtrak station down there. They got back from visiting their grandfather in Chicago for the last week-and-a-half(ish) or so. Yeah. Real exciting. But this is the sort of thing that old farts do on New Year's Eve, I guess. I'm just happy we got home before the drunken yahoos hit the road. We'll see if I stay awake until midnight after that whirlwind trip. It's 9 now, and I'm a dragging...

In other news, I notice that I'm closing in on 20,000 page views. Given that I haven't been active here, "art"-wise, in about...oh...over a year now, I'm kind of surprised. So, I'm considering doing a kiriban thing. If nothing else, it might motivate me to stick around for a while. Hmmmmm...

Anyway, Happy New Year, all. May it be better than 2009. From my point of view, it can hardly be worse.

So what, you might ask, has Nightwind been up to? Because she, you know did a disappearing act again?

Well, Nightwind has mostly been writing. And most of what she has been writing, of late, involves Dinobots in one way or another. Yes, Nightwind's brain has been eaten by Dinobots, which is perhaps why she is referring to herself in the third person... So yeah. Writing. About Dinobots. And since Nightwind hates DA's fanfic tools, you will find none of the stories here. You will find it at the Pit o' Voles, and in case anyone's interested who hasn't seen 'em yet, Nighwind will even be so kind as to provide links. So, two Swoop stories, one canon-y(ish) fresh and one...uh, seriously not-canon and decidedly cracky. *dies laughing* Both will be updated in the next few days. And a Snarl story which isn't there yet but should be before next week(ish) is out.

But then, just the other day, the "art" muse woke up after a long hibernation and starting banging around in Nightwind's brain. Thus, she started drawing...a Dinobot. Of course. It's all about the Dinobots in Nightwind's brain of late. Nightwind hopes that both muses can live in peace and harmony instead of battling over every last cranial neuron until one emerges victorious. That way, she can work on both kinds of creative endeavors. At the same time. What a concept.

In other news...Well, it's Christmas. You'd hardly know it from looking around Nightwind's domain, though. Nary a decoration to be found. She just...wasn't into it this year. S'Been a tough emotional year, all in all. So...it's just another day at Nightwind's house. Frosty's kids went to visit their grandfather in Chicago. They left on the train on Tuesday and won't be back until New Year's Eve, so the house is amazingly and blessedly quiet. No teenagers pacing around and moaning about how bored they are. A friend who is similarly not doing anything for Christmas is going to come over in a few hours and then movies and eating will commence. That's about the extent of the "celebration" here.

Bah. Humbug.

BUT, the good news is that Nightwind's place of employment closes (with pay) for the week between Christmas and New Year's. So, Nightwind is off until Jan. 4th. YEEEEEEE HAW! She hopes to achieve much creativity, but we shall just have to see how that goes.

Finally! After almost two weeks of Qwest sitting on its butt, they finally came today to turn on our Internets! Yays! So, I will now proceed to spend the entire night surfing the Web.

...Well, OK, maybe not. But I could! If I didn't have other stuff to do, that is...

Also, more good news. For the past four or five months or so, my roommate Lisa has had a pending custody fight for her kids looming on the horizon, which has had her very stressed and worried. The hearing had been set for late October. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about it because...well, because. I'll just say that the whole thing had the potential to be extremely ugly. In fact, it was already ugly. The court had ordered a Family Investigator to interview all of us, even, because of certain issues and allegations. But then, today in the mail, we get court paperwork indicating that Lisa's ex has entirely withdrawn his motion to take custody of the kids. Just like that. After all the fuss and drama he and his freaky new wife created, just...poof.

We think it's partly because the court was ordering him to pay for the investigator since he was the one who brought the motion to court in the first place. The retainer for her alone was $3000 and had to be paid by September 1, which exie-poo is not able to do, financially. So...we think he's given up. Which is kind of sad because it means that he's not going to see his kids and they're not going to see him. His and his wife's plan is to move to Florida, from whence she came. (And good riddance, sayeth I! Back to hell with you, bitch!) He wanted custody so that he could take the kids with him, and then Lisa wouldn't have seen them. Ain't gonna happen now.

Anyway, that's a huge relief. Between that and finally moving...life's pretty good right now. 'Specially because we haz internets again. Yays!

Hi, guys! Sorry I've been away. Not that any of you probably noticed or anything, of course.

Anyway, we moved on August 14. Finally! We didn't move far, only about 7 miles away from our old house. We moved into the little town of Bayfield proper, and boy does it make a difference. I now live a 1.5 minute drive from my workplace. I could walk to work, if I wanted to, but I often run errands that aren't within quick walking distance, so that would make it problematic. The kids can walk/ride their bike/skateboard to school. Main Street and the rather large town park is a block away. The library, where the kids hang out with their friends, is a short bike ride away. It's amazing what a difference seven miles makes. No more carting kids into town to hang out with their friends and then having to pick them up. No more having to drive a few miles to dump the trash in the subdivision's dumpsters and no more trying to get there when it's actually open! Curbside trash pick-up FTW!

The house is old, built in 1915, which in this area of the States is considered pretty darn ancient. (Which is pathetic, but...Well, it's the West, so it is how it is. The town itself was only founded in 1896.) As such, the house has its issues. Like, we has mouses. And the exterior needs to be painted badly. And the yard needs lots of work because it's been totally neglected. But that's cosmetic and can be dealt with in time. It's got a big eat-in kitchen with lots of windows and therefore lots of light. It's got a big woodstove and a natural gas furnace, so cheap heat. (No more stinky, expensive freakin' propane!) It's got a BIG front porch, which we all really like since it's something we didn't have anything like at the old house. I miss porches from my Midwest upbringing, so it's nice to have one again. All we need is a swing. There's a church with a big yard next to us, so no neighbors on one side. It has a one-car garage with a workshop, which we didn't have before. It needs work, though. Like, a new roof. But it's excellent for storing things, at the moment. And since we're not surrounded by gigantic Ponderosa pines anymore, we can actually see the sky and the billions of stars visible in our area since there's little/no light pollution. I need to get me a good set of binoculars...

Pretty much the only downsides of the place are the mouses and the fact that it only has one bathroom. We were hoping to get away from one bathroom, but nothing in town that we could afford had more than one bath, and we definitely wanted to be in town.

And it's funny: Although the subdivision that we used to live in was considered "rural," it was quite noisy. Over 1500 people lived in the 800-and-some houses in the subdivision, far more than the number of people/houses in town. Cars and construction vehicles constantly went up and down the (dirt) road, dogs were constantly barking, kids screaming, people having loud parties, etc. Now that we live in town proper...it's very, very quiet. Pretty much the only traffic the street gets is from the people who live on it. That's about 15 houses. If people around us have dogs, they're quiet. I think I've heard like three barks in the week we've been there. So far, no one's thrown a party. We do have two cats who visit us regularly, but we don't mind that since we're cat lovers.

So, anyway, we're quite liking the new place. Sorry to blabber on about it. I need to take some pics...

But! We has no Internets at the new place yet because Qwest, the only phone company in the area, is a pain in the butt, but that should get resolved this week. Or at least, it had better get resolved. Until then, I've only got Internets at work.

So, that's what's been up with me.

Oh! I wanted to say that, for those of you who like my writing, I've been posting new stuff at the Pit of Voles. Not here. DA's fanfic tools make me want to hurl things. So, my FF.net profile is here. I've got new stuff up there that isn't here and more new stuff -- including the Sideswipe story -- to post once we get Internet at the new house. So...go there, 'cuz you won't be finding it here.

And that's all for me.