Linda, Tony & Albas

Erich and Ian drove down to Monterey early this morning to pick up Linda (Luci in WoW) before Erich went to work. Ian and Linda headed up to San Francisco for the day.
We made plans to go out to Tony & Albas (pizza) for dinner with Cliff (Devinoch), Sean (Kimbrey), Ricky (Alyssa), Mia (Mirshana), Ian (Fuzzywunkins), Linda (Luci), Erich (Kanduseldar) and myself (Jalith). So far, the largest gathering of exclusively United Order of Virtue (I say exclusively as I went to Sydney in 2006 and there were 12 of us players there, but not all from UoV)


After dinner we ended up back here where the guys all got on their laptops did 5v5 arenas (played World of Warcraft).
It was pretty amusing, and very typical of us gamer-nerd types :p

Capitola Village & Fast Eddies

Saturday Ricky and I walked & shuttled down to the Capitola village to take a look around while Erich stayed home as his parents were coming down - his mum to buy orchids, his dad to fix the brakes on the car. It was Ricky's first view of the Pacific Ocean, though he's seen the Atlantic. He's from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

I decided to try taking a few pics with my phone camera, but I'm not very happy with the quality,

so I guess I'll have to get the batteries checked for my Canon and an American charger. Right now it will only take half a dozen photos before the battery pack dies.

Erichs parents stayed for dinner, which was quite cool. Ian and Danae turned up just as we were finishing dinner, so once Erichs folks had left the four of us walked to Fast Eddies, a local pool hall. After a few games (in which I didn't do TOO badly in) we were ready to head back home.

Visitors

Ricky, who plays as Alyssa, Ithna and other toons on WoW with Erich and I arrived last night. He's staying for just over a week. In a couple of days Linda will also be arriving, she plays Luci on WoW.
Today we had BBQ for dinner and Ted (another WoW player, remember?) came over to share it with us. I'm not sure what the plan is for the weekend, or the week for that matter, as Erich is taking a week off work, but I'll keep my camera handy!

California Fire Season

So it seems that the California fire season started pretty early this year. There is another wildfire nearby which they're calling the Martin fire. Its only 600-700 acres, but it has destroyed 10 residences and has been burning for two days now. Unfortunately for us, this one is a bit north of us, and the wind is blowing the ash and smoke this way - its pretty faint, and the ash is really just like heavy dust, but still.... the sky is pretty dark and grey, and the ash is settling everywhere.

Erich's gear after a short ride:

Erich and I are Engaged!

Erich has asked me to marry him, and of course, I have said YES!


There is of course some practical matters that we have to take care of, the most worrying being my immigration and the paperwork and all that it entails, and the other being the weddings themselves - yes, weddings plural.
Erich and I have discussed the pros and cons with an immigration lawyer and it looks like we will marry first here in California. Then all the paperwork for my immigration needs to be done, which may take a couple of months before I can leave the country and be assured of getting back in, but once that is sorted we will be coming to New Zealand and having a ceremony and reception and of course honeymoon vacation.

We don't have exact dates yet, but we are both very happy and excited about sharing our future together.