We drove a way I'd never gone before, taking I40 to asheville, then turning north to Johnson City, where Azura's Dad and Step-Mom live. I saw some beautiful scenery, not the least of which was a small cloud, just below the peak of one of the mountains. The sun was casting it's shadow down on the mountain. I imagined myself on top of the mountain, looking down at the cloud, and the changing leaves. It was very nice.

On the way up to Johnson City, we decided to stop at Blowing Rock on the way back. Azura had never been there, and I hadn't been since I was a kid. Anyway, the leaves were beautiful, so it was hard to resist.

When we got to her house, only Azura's Dad was there. Her half-sister and stepmom were at church. It only now strikes me as odd that they were at church on a saturday, but I think step-mom's traditions are a bit different. She's from Korea, and that in and of itself leaves a large culture gap for me to deal with.

Azura told her Dad almost immediately about the engagement,and he knew already, or rather had guessed. In retrospect it makes sense. Azura had told him that she had good news that could only be told in person. That limits the possibilities. Since he was busy with his computer, we decided to go shopping again, still in search of the elusive RoboRally.

We didn't find it, only finding a place called 'Serious Hobbies'. I told Azura that there was no way RoboRally was a 'serious' hobby. And I was right. It was one of those model train/model/rc-car/rocket hobby places. They had a nice lionel collection, but I figure that will have to wait until I get a train set (and a house to put it in).

I bought a couple more Teresa Wenzler cross stitch patterns. [Autumn Faerie, and Fantasy Triptych] at a nearby Michaels. Then we headed back to her Parents.

This time StepMom and little sister were there, and we talked to them. StepMom actually said 'hi' and carried on a decent conversation. I found out that she had panic disorder, and was taking meds now. I guess that might explain some of the coldness on my last visit.

We were going to tale little sister to see some Faerie movie, but it wasn't playing at the theatre we went to (or anywhere else that we could find--we had listings for everywhere else..), so we went to the nearby arcade.

This one had some old games (Ms. Pac Man, Gorf, Galaga) as well as some of those throw the ball-get a ticket type games. Azura rigged it to make sure LittleSister got lots of tickets, and she got two planes and a tiny stuffed fish, about the size of a quarter.

That evening we ate Kentucky Fried Chicken, watched a movie--"Turbulence", and cheated at Candyland. Ok, so we cheated so LittleSister could win. I can just barely remember playing Candyland with my mom, and I remember her acting like we did with LittleSister, so I imagine Mom cheated for me, too. There goes one of my illusions.

We took about an hour on our bucket of dirt, and got quite a few useless looking rocks. We had three decent sized emeralds (more than 1ct), and lots of smaller stones, rubies, garnets, amethysts, peridot. We left one of the emeralds with the jeweler up there. If it turns out nice, it'll become Azura's engagement ring.

Tonight I'm going to try to install Linux on my computer, and hopefully that won't go too-awful bad. I'd like to move the journal over there, if I can. If not, I'll move it to somewhere I have a bit more cgi access. Somewhere that isn't free.

Generic Joe's A Typical Male