I have to admit, Sunday afternoons are nice.  No one feels like they should be doing anything (even though my bathroom could probably use a good scrub down, but that's what Monday's are for) and it's all about kicking back and relaxing.  Maybe watching a little baseball and eating burgers and hot dogs.  Well, the Mariners game went into extra innings, so there's still a ball game on, but I'm just not interested in watching right now. 

Late this morning (which then became early afternoon) was spent soaking up a little sun.  I found my pool float, put some air in it and then lounged around in my bikini, attempting to tan.  Sadly, my European genes outweigh the African/Cuban genes so I don't tan worth a damn most of the time, but I can at least try.  It was nice, just laying back, soaking in the rays - until my younger siblings and my step-dad got into a waterfight around me.  Sure, they avoid mom but I'm fair game.  I was splashed, a LOT.  But I had already fully dunked myself so it wasn't really an issue, but when you're all hot, even water that's 87 degrees feels cold.

After spending a couple of hours in the pool, we all came inside and ate.  I took a shower to try and get all of the cholorine off of me since my sensetive skin screams bloody murder if I don't wash it off - not to mention that my hair becomes a giant frizz ball I couldn't hope to contain.  Thank goodness for leave in conditioner.  Once I was out of the shower I crashed on the couch, where I remained until about fifteen minutes ago, playing Animal Crossing on my Gamecube.  It was nice to be able to play, especially since my younger siblings have become extremely attached to the game and won't let me play even though it's my game and I paid for it. 

Yup, nice, easy going Sunday afternoon.  This is the life.

SPAM!

No, no SPAM. I jest. Instead . . . I'm going to do a little showing off. This is what happens when I get bored.



Mmm, many, many hours of hard work went into that. And this one too. Everyone tells me she looks like Ariel from The Little Mermaid which is pretty funny since I wasn't even thinking about that as I drew her.



In anycase, I do have a lot more works and whatnot loaded onto DeviantArt. A couple of my friends managed to talk me into it. So feel free to browse my gallery.

Mercy Angel's Art Gallery

Sheesh it's hot around here. Today's reported high, 106 degrees. Welcome to the desert. I suppose technically we're not a desert because we get more than the maxium 10 inches of precipitation (epecially on those rare occassions where we get a foot an a half of snow!). We're actually a steppe/scrub landscape, home of the world's tallest, treeless mountian. What does that mean? It means, that unlike Mt. St. Helens or Mt. Rainer, there are no trees anywhere on the mountian. From base to summit, not one tree. Oh, but it's covered in sage brush a plenty. And shrubbery. Lots of shrubbery. (You must bring us a shrubbery! Ni!) And if you really want to get technical, Rattlesnake Mountain isn't even a mountian! It is defined by geologists as an anticline, a folded section of bedrock that has become mountainous in appearance, but isn't actually a mountain. (Eh, that definition will do, but if you really want to know what it is, click here.) Interesting place, I live. I also live on the world's largest basalt flow (Hawaii, eat your heart out). You know Yellowstone National Park (really pretty place, I want to go back sometime)? Yeah, the hotspot that's under it used to be where my town is located. So there was a lot of basalt magma flows that have now created huge, barren landscapes that's affectionately known as the scablands around these parts. I'm located about a two hour drive from Dry Falls, which make Niagra Falls look like a leaky faucet. Four times as long and twice as high, to give you some sort of perspective on it. Ice age floods, you know. Hundreds, possibly thousands of them.

Wait a sec, this blog started out about the temperature and now I've moved on to the geological features? What's wrong with me? Gah! I'm such a dork!!!

To you, I dedicate this Danny Phantom Music Video.

Danny Phantom - Collide

I hope you enjoy! Please leave any comments here at this blog unless you have a YouTube account, in which case you can comment there! I wanna know what you think!

I rather enjoyed myself today at the Ye Merry Greenwood Renaisance Faire, I just didn't go all dressed up in full wench garb 1) because at 96 degrees, it's pretty hot to be laced into fourteen layers of clothing, and 2) because I was right and my corset needs to be let out a little but I didn't want to have to talk my mom through the finer points of tying a corset. Instead I wore my teal peasant skirt and a camisole (with gypsy jewelry and a pair of huge earrings my dad found for me in Prague, Czech Republic) and sandals and enjoyed the feel of the breeze drifting up from the Columbia River (now try and figure out my location based on that little factoid).

Made some lovely purchases though. I found two pairs of lovely earrings that match my costume (being that they're silver; one set is made up of silver links with the bells at the end while the others are a delicate wire work with blue crystals), a white hip scarf with silver coins sewn on to it so I make even more noise when I walk around, and two pewter pins. One says "Kilt Inspector" (:wink:) and the other says "Wenchy Goodness". They will be brought out for next year's faire, I'm sure. I really should have gotten the pin that said "Why is the rum gone" but alas I didn't. I could always use a good Pirates of the Carribean pin, right?

Anyway, I'm just chilling out, trying to cool off since I've spent most of the afternoon in the sun and I'm still overheated. I even have this lovely sunburn. Not bad, but just slightly toasted . . .

So it's that lovely time of year here in the armpit of Washington State and between Cool Desert Nights (our local car show) and the Ye Merry Greenwood Players, there's enough to do this weekend to keep anyone busy. And in honor of the Greenwood Ren faire, I've decided to suck it up and post my wench costume.



That's really me and I'm really wearing a corset. Why, I'm not sure . . . well, I know why, because it makes my figure look amazing but sometimes I wonder if it's worth the pain. I didn't make the corset or the jewelry, but the rest of the costume I lovelingly constructed after spending hours and hours in front of my mother's sewing machine. Of course, depending on how hot it gets determines wether or not I actually wear the costume to Ren faire tomorrow. Wearing a corset in 100 degree weather is not fun. In fact it's downright miserable! :cry: *sniffle* But like I said, it all depends on the weather . . . and push comes to shove - I just jump into the pool when I get home. ;)

5.) Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Gotta love lots of senseless cartoon violence. Besides, it's fun to beat the crap out of your friends using Pikachu or some equally cute/obnoxious Pokemon.

4.) Soul Calibur II

Yay! Another fun game where you can beat up your friends, or if you're bored, the CPU. Personally, I like taking out my frustration on Raphael (the French [edit]). And playing games like, "Ask Mitsurugi."

3.) The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker

Weird sounding title, yet strangely addicting. There's so much to do, and such an expansive overworld . . . yes, most of it is water, but that half the fun is just sailing around, plundering treasure. Aye, booty ahead! Avast! (don't do that . . .)

2.) Tales of Symphonia

With multiplayer RPG action, a great storyline and some of the greatest voice actors and actresses this side of the Rockies, this game pwned my soul for several months. The best part is that there are multiple variations in the story line, which is entirely dependent on who you happen to have the highest relationship with. Will it be Regal, Zelos, Collette or Kratos? Only the fortune teller in Triet knows . . .

1.) The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time

By far this is the Zelda game to end all Zelda games, or so we thought. But with the looming presence of The Twilight Princess OoT may be booted from the premiere place of honor in the Zelda hierarchy. No matter how many times I play this game, it just doesn't get old. Excellent replay value with an excellent storyline makes this the one game that everyone who owns a N64 should have in their collection. Me? I don't have a N64 ( :cry: ) but I do have it and the master quest on my Gamecube. Huzzah! The light at the end of the tunnel!

1) I nearly lost my right eye when I was four and a half. The lesson: When your parents say ,"Stop horsing around, or somebody could lose an eye!" they mean it. I got lucky though, and ended up gashing my temple instead, but I still had to get six stitches and as a result have this cute little scar by my eye.

2). At 22, I still have baby teeth. That's correct, baby teeth. My adult canines never came in, in fact they don't even show up in the X-rays!

3) I'm missing my top incisors. Okay, the "front teeth" I have, but the incisors that flank those are not there. As to what I have there, I'm not entirely sure . . .

4.) I have five wisdom teeth. When people are missing teeth, it's usually their wisdom teeth and that's not a big deal. You really don't need them so whether or not they actually come in isn't a huge issue. However I have five, four in each normal placing and one extra floating like a UFO over my top right wisdom tooth. Go figure.

5.) I share a room . . . with a ghost. We're pretty sure that he's a previous owner of the house, but I can't remember his name. A man, with glasses and a beard. And apparently a penchant for rearranging my dolphin figurines and running his fingers (or whatever) over the keyboard on my computer. True story: One night I was laying in bed, trying to get to sleep when I heard the very distinct sound of someone running their hands over my keyboard. The problem was, it was 11:00 at night and both of my siblings were already in bed so it wasn't them. It would last for about ten seconds and then it would stop for about five before starting up again. Finally, fed up with the racket I mumbled, "Knock it off, I'm trying to sleep!" and it stopped.

6.) I want to get a tattoo. My parents shudder at the idea, and I can't say I'm overly fond of pain. Actually, the pain factor is about the only reason why I haven't done it yet. And that I can't actually decide on a tattoo design. Being indecisive has saved my skin. Perhaps I should stick with henna tattoos.

7.) I'm allergic to cigarette smoke. My one allergy. My eyes start itching and watering whenever I'm around it, so thank God that Washington passed the act to ban all indoor smoking. I can finally go to a bar and not have to suffer if I want to dance and have a couple of drinks.

8.) I started college at age 16. As an active participant of Washington's Running Start program, the state paid my tuition and I was taking college level courses at 16. We're not talking the 90 day semester long Advanced Placement classes, we're talking four days a week for ten weeks. Forty days to cover what most people have 90 to do. I liked the challenge and managed to get my Associates of Arts and Sciences degree at 19, just one year after I graduated from high school.

9.) I didn't get my driver's license until I was almost 19. Didn't really see the reason for it. I rode the bus or bummed rides from friends (think of all the gas I saved!), but eventually it became a requirement and two months before my 19th birthday I got my driver's license.

10.) My parents have been divorced for 17 years. I'm one of those unhappy statistics, but honestly I can understand why my mother walked out on my dad. The man isn't exactly the most truthful, honest, or faithful person on the planet. I say good for my mom.

11.) Of my six siblings, only two are full blooded. I have two older half-siblings from my dad's first marriage and two younger half-siblings from my mom's second marriage. I'm not very close to my two older half-siblings, but I can't imagine life without the younger two.

12.) My favorite sport to watch is figure skating. The grace, the elegance, the balance, the stamina . . . I could never do it, but I wish I could. Actually, I'd be pretty happy if I could design the costumes. In any case I think about things that might have been, and if I had decided not to actually follow through with ballet but figure skating, I could have done it. Of course, then again I'm a total klutz so maybe it's better that I didn't.

13.) I know the son of author Patricia Briggs. Patricia Briggs wrote Moon Called, by the way, a novel about werewolves in a little corner of Eastern Washington called the Tri-Cities. Well, guess what, I live in the Tri-Cities. Incidentally, I met her son at school and he's quite the character. A total screwball, but I love him anyway. He's my favorite fanboy.

14.) I have my own fanboy army. I was known as the "Princess of the CBC game room" because all of the boys who hung out in there knew me, and whatever I wanted, I got. Food, massages, whatever, they got it for me. Once I said that I needed to get home and have lunch, and one of them walked over, handed me a five dollar bill, and told me, "Go buy lunch." I don't know if it was a ploy to get me to hang out longer or what, but I didn't mind. Heck, I didn't even need to pay him back.

15.) I can stick my tongue up my nose. 'Nuff said.

16.) My blood type is A- (negative). I found this out doing a lab for my anatomy and physiology class in high school. In fact I have a scar from one of the many attempts from pricking my finger to draw blood. Okay, it's a really small scar, but it's still there, and it's been six years.

17.) I enjoyed being a teacher's assistant so much, I decided to become a teacher. When I discovered that I could wrangle a room full of freshman, I knew I had found my true calling.

18.) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is my favorite video game. Period. Tales of Symphonia is a close second.

19.) I am half-Cuban. In these parts, we mostly have Mexicans because of the fields and orchards, which leads everyone who sees my last name to automatically assume that I'm a Mexican. A white Mexican, but a Mexican nevertheless. Hate to burst your bubble, folks, but my father was born in Guantanamo (right across the bay from the Naval base) and I'm very proud of my Cuban heritage. Down with Fidel!! Viva la Cuba!!!!!

20.) I am hopelessly addicted to anime, manga, and books. Honestly, I don't think I could survive without them. My manga collection keeps growing, and only by being very choosy to I manage to keep the anime collection down. Paper back books, mostly vampire romance novels, are a constant fixation in my hands, but I'll read pretty much anything so long as it doesn't suck.

So I'm pondering all of the little things of my life. Little things like:

My grandmother went to grammer school with Desi Arnaz . . . in Cuba.

My brother has stood in Paulina Rubia's shower.

My friend Raven has Scott McNeil (voice of Duo from Gundam Wing) as a fanboy.

I went to a live taping of the Cristina talkshow, for free, and used the guest entrance instead of the audience entrance.

I've met Marcos Avila, husband of Cristina Saralegui and a former member of the Miami Sound Machine.

I've played the bells on the clock tower at Bryan Hall at Washington State University.

I've been to Vizcaya Museum and Formal Gardens, which was used as Johnny Tapia's house in Bad Boys II.

My best friend Ericka has litterally run into Wendee Lee on two occasions.

My friend Katie glomped Crispin Freeman . . . and then proceeded to tell him that he smelled nice.

The grand papy of the them all:

I met Tony Danza in New York City when I was fourteen. He shook my hand and then told me, "If I had eyes like those, I would be a big movie star."

Honest to God truth, all of those.

So remember how I said that I had this Danny Phantom fanfic in the works? And that I was asking everyone under the sun if they had the lyrics to "Remember"? Well, I decided that Ember needed a few more songs in her show so I got those creative jucies running and wrote a couple of songs myself. Okay, not really songs, but some lyrics that I wish I had the talent to put to music, but sadly while I can play the piano/violin I can't actually write music of my own. So I'll just stick to the lyrics.

**Blaze of Glory**

You always said we would be
Together, forever, one and the same
Now I can clearly see
That I'm not the one to blame

My heart you ripped out
And you left me her all alone
Wondering what it was about
Why'd I'd been burned to the bone

I'm not going to take this sitting down
I'll go down in a blaze of glory
They'll be talking all around this town
Of my fantastic story
Going down in a blaze of glory

I've wiped you from my mind
And I've started to move past
That box of memories was left behind
Teen love just doesn't last

Don't worry about me
I'll be fine
It wasn't meant to be
You were never mine

You broke my heart that I know
The flames of anger consuming me
Now they're consuming you and they show
Because what you're losing now you see

I'm not going to take this sitting down
I'll go down in a blaze of glory
They'll be talking all around this town
Of my fantastic story
Going down in a blaze of glory

**Light The Fire**

My heart was broken
Into a million pieces
But it's time that I moved on
There's more to life than you

I've struck the match
And watched it bun
Those memories of yore
To nothing more than ash

The fire has been lit
There's no going back
No way to salvage
What once was

Like the legendary phoenix
I'll rise from the debris
Just watch me fly away
And do the impossible

Now deal with it
You blew your chance
Yesterday's dreams were consumed
All that's left are ashes

The fire has been lit
There's no going back
Now way to salvage
What once was

You can wish for the
Past to be the same
But it went down in
Flames of orange

The fire has been lit

Yup, so there you have it folks. Ember inspired poetry, if you can believe that. Okay, the main reason I wrote it was so that it could serve as other songs in Ember's set, but I like to think that she's a pretty deep person. The best villans often are. Except Vald. Vlad's pretty shallow but I guess that's what makes him so much fun.