Lost_Warrior

Well, with 'quite a bit of pure gold and silver', as you say, I imagine it wouldn't be too hard for them to "rent" from one of the townspeople, even if they didn't know them.

That makes sense.

I've never seen that before.

I won $2 on a scratch ticket- by way of finding said scratch ticket in the gas station parking lot. I went in, cashed it and took the two bucks. One school district not to far from here accidentally sold a trailer that had been used as a classroom on Ebay for $.01. They tried to back out of the sale but couldn't.

I was away at my dad's this weekend and had a great time! We visited my grandad in the hospital (he broke his back and is not doing well ...) on Saturday morning, then after that we went to New Hope, where I got my ear pierced again... Shiny new inner conch piercing: (and of course kick ass spirals as well). Sunday was our picnic- we had an amazing time there as well! After that we had a Wii tournament- word of advice: Wii tournaments make it really hard to walk or do anything a couple days afterward! LOL It was so much fun though. I found out my dad and Katie and I have way more in common than we thought. I'll probably be going back next month for my cousin's School of Rock concert.

That is so cool!!!!! I'm curious about the Initiation Ceremonies they mentioned. I doubt there's any record of what they actually did, but maybe. I'll do some digging.

Frohliche Geburtstag lieber Ursus!

*laughs* I tried Yuengling on tap the other night- it was really good! Definitely a repeat for me if I'm out somewhere and they don't have anything better. To a girl who's used to stout, though, it goes down easy. LOL

Hey!!! Good going NN, congrats!!!

The passage says they KNEW each other when she was seven years old and that they were involved in some way...but was it romantic? It's hard to tell (I've heard 'embraced' used to mean something else entirely but I'm not sure this is the case here.) I don't see what's shameful or even questionable about two people meeting- one at a very early age- and later coming to be romantically involved. While eyebrows may be raised at huge age differences between partners in modern Western countries it wasn't always that way, nor is it that way in much of the world.

Agreed. Though, if these were the only three people left in the world to have sex with, I'd have to go with Britney too.

That's really awesome! Thanks for posting it!

I love that commercial! LOL It's been around for a couple of years. I think it's because I always thought that song should be combined with Gladiators somehow and thought it was awesome that they went and did it. And the look on the emperor's face at the end is classic. "Oh shit."

ROTFLMFAOPMP I used to do stuff like this but I never went that far. I don't think I could and keep a straight face.

Prima!!!! If I lived in Germany I would SO be there!!! Thanks for linking me Nephele.

Frey Vinyards. The only organic wine that my local store carries- Frey 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon- is EXCELLENT. I liked the last Cabernet I'd had but I wasn't overly impressed, but I bought this because it's organic and it's the only such variety they had- and I LOVE it. It's not as dry as the Barefoot stuff. It goes down much easier. It's really fruity. Lot of flavors going on there. The best thing, for me, of course, is that it doesn't make my skin blister. I also don't notice much in the way of ill effects from the tannins (red wine has previously made me feel downright ill- whereas no other alcohol did that.) though I'm approaching it cautiously. It's $15 a bottle here (and I know as wines go that's actually not a bad price- but it's still not something I want to pay too often) but I would definitely buy this again. (I wanted to use REAL wine in my ritual last night, didn't currently have any issues from sulfites going on, so I thought I'd give it a shot.)

I have to agree with NN on this one....unfortunately. "It's very physical...it's all about fighting and being on a horse"... GAH!!!! I still want to see it, but I don't have high hopes.

I'm not sure. I think coal might get TOO hot for bricks and roof tiles. At least, I've never heard of anyone using something other than wood (or in modern times, gas) for that purpose.

The one I apprenticed under told me that every smith burns down at least one shop in his lifetime.

I would say it was used for metal working. Coke is produced in a forge by burning coal- I have forged iron with 'fresh' coal and also with a good bit of the coke that tends to build up in the fire- yes, until the coal burns down into at least some coke, you have a big, smokey, sulfuric mess. (A good smith will tend the fire in a way that encourages the buildup of coke.) The first coal fire of the morning is a "light and run" sort of deal...that is, at least if you had the kind of crap chimney I worked with. (Fresh coal is routinely added to the fire a little bit at a time to keep it burning once it gets going as well.) Coal, and better yet, coke, is the best material that the Romans likely had to forge weld- you need a VERY hot fire to do that- one that's easily achieved with coal and coke and not so easily achieved with wood and charcoal. Just don't breathe the yellow smoke mmkay? There will be a lot of yellow smoke. I would never personally recommend building a smithy with a thatched roof...the most fireproof materials available are recommended.

Yay!!!! *grins* Big thanks to everyone who is on that list- and big encouragement to future list members.

Nice pictures!!! Thanks for sharing them. That "no entry" sign cracks me up. It seems to be saying NO RICHARD SIMMONS.

I saw something about this on a TV documentary one night. Actually it was more about the evolution of birds from dinosaurs, and microraptors. But they mentioned T Rex might have had feathers. I thought that was funny. They also had a model/recreation of something that looked for all the world like a prehistoric chicken.

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I envy you. Go! Have fun! Learn lots!!! We'll still be here.

I don't know if they were designed to bend (though I do recall hearing that, as well as that they were designed to break so that they could not be thrown back) it's just that, when a relatively thin piece of metal with a large heavy staff attached to it gets stuck into something at a funny angle and at high speeds...bending tends to happen. With that logic, I would say that some inevitably bent and some didn't.