I am so sad that last night was our last night on vacation! We had so much fun, I wish we could have stayed longer! But, a vacation isn't nearly as fun if you stay all the time, right? At least... that's what I'm telling myself right now. I will definitely miss it, but at the same time, I love being at my home. Anyway! The day started well, a very gorgeous day (as every day is in the rain forest, I assume), as I took my daily "waking up" photo.

Turned out cute! It was always so hard to get photos, because everywhere is gorgeous, I could never decide on a place to snap the photo! I wanted a photo in like, all the places! I really, really, really can't wait for out next vacation here!


But! Last night, was our "formal night". I set up the dance area with photos from the duration of our vacation, and some snacks. Jeffry DJ'ed country love songs to me. I really wanted to do a formal night, because I never get to dress up, and I really enjoy doing it. It was also a way to really celebrate the end of our vacation, and Jeffry had a surprise for me. He was talking about the "surprise" for the entirety of our stay, so I was really anxious to see what it was. As I touched on in a previous post, he had been sending me on a hunt through the sim, searching for bottles with messages in them. Then with a clue to the next one. He had also put codes in the notecards, that spelled something out... but I wouldn't know what it said until I had gotten to the last bottle.


So, what did the notecard say? When I got to the end of the bottle hunt, I put all the codes together, and found out that he had asked me to renew our vows in SL! We have been SL married for almost 7 years and married in RL for over 2 years now. I think it's about time we did so. We probably even should have done them at 5 years together, but RL got in the way, and all. We weren't really in SL at that point very much. Naturally, I said yes.

He already has plans, for our vow renewal ceremony. When we married in SL, we kind of eloped (much like our RL marriage at the courthouse). And we want it different now, filled with fun, friends and family. And afterward, he said we can go to Greece as our vow renewal honeymoon! So, with that being said, I think that I might talk to Lolita soon, and see when Greece de la Oleander will be open and prepare our ceremony around then.

Happy November! I hope everyone is having a great one so far! Last night, my family and I went trick or treating! We had a ton of fun looking at everyone's decorations, and grabbing the treats that everyone set out! At first I was kind of nervous about how I had decorated. This is our first year being part of the family community, I wasn't sure what kind of "treat" we were supposed to put out, I didn't know if we weren't decorated enough, or decorated too much. I had no idea what to expect!

However, it all turned out well, and when we went to the other houses, I felt our decorations were right on track. For us, who haven't been in SL for the past few years, had no mesh things, and our first year as a family - I think it looked like we've been doing it for years. I was worrying and stressing for weeks for nothing. LOL!

We went, and I was having so many issues last night. I was having issues with my Catwa head not blinking and animating properly, things were not rezzing for me, and I was lagging so bad! I've been having internet issues, which appears to be our router. So, until we can get a new one, I really tried to handle it like a trooper! I was also extremely tired, only getting about three hours of sleep the previous night. I was exhausted!

We went as "Cops & Robber" type of theme. I was really struggling with finding a costume, because Halloween isn't one of my favorite holidays, so I didn't want to spend a fortune on something I was only going to wear for a couple hours. Also, I was having trouble finding a "themed" costume which was family appropriate. So... well, I tried.


We even got to trick or treat at some of the family community sims. I really, really love the family communities! I tried to bring it up to Jeffry, seeing if maybe we can move to one or look into it, but he prefers our sim. He says the only way he'd move to a family community, is if he owned it. Hmmm, my wheels are turning!


Our last house of the night - our home.We had SO much fun, and I'm already looking forward to Christmas! As our first year as a family, I can't wait to see what kind of family-things we can do this year! House to house looking at lights, maybe? One can hope, right?!

Yay, my graphics drivers have been fixed on the upgrade to Windows 10! It was terrible, instant blue screen of the computer crashing as soon as it booted up. I only had about 15 seconds to end all AMD processes before it crashed, then I had to disable the graphics card. Luckily, updated graphics drivers fixed the issue and I was only complaining about it for about half a day before they were fixed. Woo! Apparently it was affecting my particular brand of laptop. Who cares, I'm not broken anymore!

Anyway, ages ago, I found myself in need of a prefab, and was wandering around looking at these huge, mansion homes. It was incredible. I kept thinking: Who really needs more than one bedroom? Who would pay over $4,000L for a house? Who really needs that much SPACE? I was boggled. I hunted down a post where I briefly touched on it. (Dang, I was really depressed back there in 2008, wasn't I?)

The funny thing is: I seem to have become exactly *that* person. With us wanting to adopt a child, I find that our current house is not as big as I wish it to be. Plus, the longer I have the house, I keep noticing a gap here, a bigger gap there. I like room to grow with, a room where my alt can do her thing, and large, spacious rooms. I have been actively looking for a house like this, and ironically - Could not find a house that I really liked that was big enough. With us wanting a family, obviously we wanted a dedicated kitchen, dining room, living space, bathroom and at least two bedrooms. I had other specifications that needed to be met as well. I wanted the mouldings to be mesh, and not just be a texture, tintable walls, an optional snow add-on, and baked shadows.

I hunted and looked until I came across a particular one from Roost. It was love at first sight for me, and met every prerequisite I had for a home. The downfall: the price, at $5,100L. I TP'ed Jeffry over who gave me the linden to buy it, and told me to just "get it if you like it".

Of course, I hunted around a little bit more, looked through over 75 pages of listings on the marketplace... I'm going to try to break my habit of changing homes so often, so I really needed to LOVE this house, and know that it's the one that I am going to stick with. I did not really want to spend so much $L on it just to find a home I like better in the next couple days.

I couldn't find another that I liked as much as this East Ives house. I bought it, and eventually plan on getting the matching guest house. I put it down on the land, and it was so much bigger than my house I had before, I had to terraform. I eventually just leveled the hill behind the house, so now the back porch has a great view as well.

I love it now even more than I did before I bought it. Right now, it's completely perfect for us, and hopefully, our family. I'm not going to complain about the price either, as it's a very beautifully done house. I have yet to come across any issues with it, unaligned textures, gaps, anything. It's got several different options with it (two attic rooms, vs. one giant attic room) - and... well, it's just freaking gorgeous.

We are talking boats today! I have always loved having a boat on my land, even if it's really a waste of prims. I don't care about driving it, I really just love the look of having a boat. Purely for display, and they make fabulous props to take photos on, or around. Boats in SL are really beautiful, and SecondLife is all about what makes you happy, right?

A long, long time ago, I first decided that I wanted a boat. I searched, and came across this beauty. At the time, it was top of the line, and one of the best. It has made several appearances on this blog, one even dating back to July, 2008.  I paid a lot of $L for it at the time, though I can not remember how much exactly anymore. I still think it's gorgeous... even now. I'd be happy to keep it out, and continue to enjoy it... however, this boat is 205 prims. It's made mostly of actual primitives, and it looks like the only sculpty parts in this boat are the seats. You really have to appreciate the beauty of a creation like this, how creative people can get with just the tools they have available to them at the time. This boat, I feel is a fantastic example of that.

Because of the high prim count, I decided to look into getting a new boat, and doing a little "updating." The first place that I wanted to look at, was obviously where I originally purchased this boat, MaxMarine. I looked up the creator in-world, hoping that he was still around and making boats. Unfortunately, I don't think he is. A little disappointed, but that's okay, there are many more boats in SL!


I started just flying around some of the popular boating sims, with the intention of looking at the variety of different boats out there. However, the first sim I visited, I came across a boat, docked on someone's land. Intsa-love. I felt like this was a really close version to the MaxMarine boat I came to adore. So, I inspected it, found who created it, and off I teleported to their store. Bonus was that it's only 50 land impact!

I found myself at A.E. Worx.  I ran around, searching for this boat, got hit by 2 automated forklifts in the process, but I found it. And it looked even more gorgeous than it did on the boating sim. The price was $2,250L. There was a point in SL, when I wouldn't have cared, I had a very reasonable linden income from running ImpEle, but now - the RL Jeffry buys $L's for us, and I have to make my little "allowance" that he gives me last for a couple of weeks. But even still, I decided to purchase it. Imagine my glee, when I go to pay the boat vendor, and it comes up saying $899L! Sold! I couldn't pay it fast enough.

I rezzed it once back on my sim, and realized just how spectacular it is. It's tintable to literally any color, it's got a really fabulous control panel, and drives beautifully. It's even got particle waves that splash out when you start driving it. I don't really intend on driving it, but it's still cool that I can if I want to.


While I was tinting it, and getting it ready to drive... Jeffry started playing the "I'm on a boat!" song. So, I had to find the most ridiculous dance I had, to go with that music. Needless to say, we both ended up changing into our swimwear, and dancing on the boat to that song. I totally took a video on it. Was definitely one of the silliest things I have done in SL for a while. It was totally worth it though, I was practically rolling on the floor laughing.

So, I've been doing my hosting job, and I actually really like it! I feel like this is really what I needed to get back into SL. It was depressing logging on everyday, with nothing to do besides staring at my land. I've been blogging more - and actually, I have so many pictures that still need to be blogged, there's not enough time in the day to do them!

I really enjoy hosting. It forces me to come out of my shell, talk to strangers. Before I was kind of awkward with it, I didn't know anyone, and everyone seemed to be friendly and know everyone else. I didn't, so it was hard trying to be part of the conversations. However, I'm starting to know the regulars now, even becoming more familiar with the DJ's, and rest of the staff. It's getting easier, and much more fun.

Now, to be honest, I feel like the only thing missing for me is a good group of friends (as depressing as it sounds). I'm really hoping that this interesting group of people will become those much-needed friends to me.

I host here at Club Zero Fridays through Mondays (and again on Wednesday!) from 10-12PM SLT. If you're interested in coming to dance with me be sure to come on by!

Remember that post I did last week? About my new skydome, and house? Well, forget it, because... We rented ourselves a Homestead sim! One of my fondest memories of SL was when we owned Chey's Cove, our previous homestead. I adored it, and a lot of my best memories are on that sim.

I was kind of joking to Jeffry, saying I wanted my own sim, and he told me to start looking for one. So I did! I went to several, and decided on one that I wanted. The sim owner came, added me as an estate manager. I was excited, I started terraforming and changing the land textures. Things went downhill from there.

Once I got dressed for my hosting job, and TP'ed away, suddenly I get a message from someone, asking me if I had bought that particular sim, and I told him I did. Apparently, the night before, the sim owner had agreed to hold the sim I bought for him to buy that night. And just like that, I had become the bad guy in all of this. It wasn't long before the sim owner was asking me to give up the sim. Reluctantly, I agreed, and she offered me 3 days free on whatever other sim I chose. While I was working, she set the land up for sale for me. But no, it really doesn't end there.

Once my shift at the club was over, I quickly teleported to the sim that she set for sale for me. I bought it, and she soon came to change the terrain to the file that I requested. Well... I'm not kidding, it took forever for her to do.


I was looking at this for about an hour and a half. During that time, she had told me she was "still looking" for the terrain I requested, and had asked if there was another one I wanted instead. I gave her a couple other options, but let her know that I really wanted my first choice. Eventually, she found it, and TP'ed away. But, here I go to change the land textures to my beach/grass favorite combination. And hey...... no estate manager rights. My this time, my mood shifted from "YAY! We have a sim!!!" to "..... Really?"

She came back eventually and added me as estate manager By this time, it was past 4am for me, and all I wanted was to go to bed.


By the end of the night, I had finally gotten my terrain the way I wanted, and the textures set up. This was how it looked when I logged off last night!

I feel like this fiasco has scarred me from being willing to rent a sim from this land baron again. Apparently, she doesn't keep promises to other customers, and can't keep track of what she has already done and/or still needs to do. Maybe I'm just an obsessive double checker, I don't know. However, I do know that I'll be working on beautify-ing up my new homestead the next week!

Last post, I showed the blog the outside of my home, today, we'll explore the inside! Yay! Keep in mind that I have a small-ish prim budget, so I don't have as many decorations as I'd like, but really, who does? Anyway, on to the inside!

My living room. I'm slowly replacing things and adding new things constantly, my inventory is pretty outdated, from being out of SL for so long. But as I hit more sales, and events, the bigger it grows, and more possibilities I have. I LOVE the french doors leading into this room, they really do open like real french doors!

The wall has a bunch of pictures, detailing various bits of our SL journey together.


Next, we move into my dining room. I had a smallish set from LAQ to match the bookshelves, but when I went to the Trompe Loeil sale earlier in the week, I fell absolutely in love with this dining room. Honestly, I probably would have been fine with my old set, but once I saw the paisley tablecloth.... it was mine. There is never enough paisley in the world for me. And naturally, I had to get the matching chairs, right? Currently looking for a beautiful set of mesh flowers to finish this room out.


Kitchen. Yes, yes. It's small, sad and uneventful. However, why waste prims when I don't cook in the first place? It's functional for heating up leftover prim takeout, that's all I need! Again, another sale purchase.


The staircase that leads upstairs. Every girl needs a washer and dryer, right!? These are very old cube versions, I'm holding out until I find some fabulous mesh ones to replace these!


Upstairs is a series of 3 rooms. When I first rezzed the house, I gave Jeffry an option to pick a room. He is scripting in world now, and doesn't like to pick up his prims. No one like random plywood cubes scattered around their land! So, as long as he's in his room, I won't complain. And that's what he does. Rezzes prims. Soon, there will be so many boxes on the floor, I wont be able to open the door.


Across the hall from his mancave, is the bedroom. Lots of seating, for lots of photo taking. I like this room!


And as for the last room upstairs, another work in progress! This is the bathroom, still adding to this room as well!

My inventory has been a constant battle pretty much ever since I first rezzed in SL. It got worse and worse, until I started fashion blogging and creating poses. Then it completely exploded. There was a point when I tried to keep it under control, tried to organize. I realized that it was futile, and then completely gave up. There was one point where I remember it being over 60,000 items. That's a HUGE number!

Every time I tried to come back to SL, I'd sit and clear some stuff out, organize, try to get it manageable. It's sooo difficult, so time consuming. With the addition of mesh, I've put a really effort into my inventory lately. I've been looking at things differently, literally asking myself... "Will I ever wear this flexi skirt again?" If I think about it, it's moved to the trash. I did, however, have a REALLY hard time deleting my Last Call items (Last Call closed way back in 2008). I think because they were my first "real" clothes I purchased, they were so ahead of their time, and it was probably the first real sale that I experienced, and camped out on the edge of the sim for. But, I finally had the courage to delete them.

I can finally say that my inventory is 100% organized. I never thought I would say that. I have my items down to 17,380 items, most of which are full permissions textures that I have purchased over the years. I have no objects in my object folder, no stray categorized folders. Everything has a place now in my inventory, and there is nothing I don't want in there. I am so incredibly proud of myself for accomplishing this. It was a mountain of a feat, and so relieving to get done with it!

I've also been pretty good at keeping it managed as well. Rez something to unpack it? Delete the object from objects folder. Just buy something? Rename the folder and put it in it's category right away. Of course, this helps without fashion blogging anymore, I don't have to keep separate folders filled with the stuff that is waiting to be blogged. I can just put things right away now.

Now I find myself in my skybox, looking around and wondering what to do. LOL!

My in world profile has been so outdated! I took some time today to take a good photo to add to my profile. I have also updated the old photos on this blog to reflect the newer photos of me. It had been so long since they were updated, it was long past time!

I mentioned previously that on my return to SecondLife, Sai will not be creating anymore. However, I need something to get me out of my skybox and in the world. I have decided to get a job - a hosting job, specifically. All my talk about SL lately has also gotten my RL/SL husband considering coming back to it as well. When I told him I was considering a hosting job, he started contemplating DJ'ing again. So we'll see how that pans out.

I, however, had applied at a couple of clubs in SL, and arranged an interview today. It went well, and they had decided to hire me, yay! So, I'll be officially hosting in a club from now on. I am actually excited for it, excited to have a reason to come off of my land, and socialize with people. Even before I left SL, I never really talked to people, and was really in my own little world. I'm hoping to change that now. The fact that I'll be making enough money to feed my horses and pay my tier is definitely a bonus!

Be on the lookout for photos from the club I'll be working at soon!

I did one of these not to long ago, but figured it couldn't hurt to do another, after Laleeta blogged her brave then/now picture. Here's mine: