Been gone, but you knew that...

I've had visitors from Korea, family events, a massive heat wave that left me useless, a massive move of offices and materials, plus, a complete crash of my beloved home computer *sniffles* that caused me to 'lose everything' for a couple of weeks despite the mirrored backup I thought was adequate. I lost my UO screen settings! *ohno!* We lost the recall . I've been absent for weeks and weeks. I have missed UO and Stratics!

My friends, the Koreans, are returning home next week. I'll miss the lovely young twins I was teaching English conversation to (mainly using wild gestures that made the coffee shop staff giggle! LOL). The office moves are nearing completion. I'm watching them start to tear down the beloved historic building the old offices were in, *cries* however; I have an issue with the planners of this move since I've learned that I will need a hard hat to walk into my 'new location' which, it turns out, is inside the construction zone! (Can you believe it?!!) Family events are over . It even rained! In addition, I now have a brand new ASUS gamer's laptop that I'm breaking in... but frankly its spiffy 'stealth bomber' look doesn't compare to my previous, comfortable and familiar ASUS glossy 'batmobile' model! "Stealth Bomber" IS faster though and 8 processors truly do rock .

Enough smilies. Has anyone trained up any battle chickens? What is going on in the shard? I see Atrocitus has a new event area... did you completely leave Zento for Cove my friends? Luna City Vendors has FIVE current castles placed? Must be a record! Who is leading in the Cora Count? What great Fel battles have I missed witnessing? (I love showing up as a ghost to these things... saves the time and trouble of being murdered!) How mangled has everyone gotten at the latest EM events? Has any trammie managed to get the full set of City Banners? How's the faction world with the new patch? Does anyone actually have a full set of seeds in their seed bin? I have to go check it all out... plus I still have 4 banners to go!

I apologize for my absence. I didn't see it coming. I had thought none of the things I could foresee would impact my life as much as they did and take me totally away from reporting or even getting online! I hate computer crashes... The really cool thing though is, and Basara please take note, I found my old Stratics files from when I was Asst Editor and before as LA Reporter. I thought they were lost in my last big computer crash, but they were mixed in with my other backups! I have old articles and stuff that might have been lost in the great server crash a couple of years back. I think you had asked me once if I had any of them and I couldn't find them. Now I have them .

Please let me know what is going on in the LA world. I 'owe' you guys some newsy posts that aren't about the boring events of my own IRL life! *yawns*

*waves hi*

-- El.

EL!!! We have missed you!

As nice as Zento was, we have fully moved to Fel Cove to establish Fortune Harbor.

Glad to see you back!

Yea .. missed seeing you guys
I'll come visit!

Dear shard friends,
I thought I was going to be able to return and report, based on having finished the personal business and project I had been working on. Then, over the last two weeks, two members of my immediate family were diagnosed with cancer. I simply have to say that reporting while the family issues overtake me will just not be in the cards as I've already missed another two events to this and I don't want to feel anymore like I'm letting all you guys down. I am sorry, but my time needs to go to my family right now and everything seems to be reinforcing this.

I am logging in really late some evenings and just fidgeting with my characters briefly for relaxing, so if you see me stumbling around somewhere please stop me and say hi. I'd love to hear from you all and know how things are going and what is going on. I love my castle, surrounded by Fenster, Wild Bill, and others I have known over the years. I'll put a bulletin board on the front door and hope to hear from people! There is already a mailbox there too. I may take down the LA Player center though as I won't be able to take the time right now for the events I had planned to sponsor.

I love the reports I've seen... I'll keep reading 'em! If I can report something I manage to get to, I'll happily write it up!
I love ya LA .

You take care of what you need to El, we understand and our hearts go out to you and your family over this news.