Coasting through the winter.

My conspicuous markings in Donner. Friend Marianne has a place in Dasher

Not via a bobtail nag.

I invested recouped medical money on a piece of land in Second Life's Winter Holiday Marketplace. It was exciting about the whole week of auctions. It was like my old eBay days, hovering over auctions and - well I didn't usually get outbid the last second. That was usually my triumph.

There were two things going: First, I wanted snowy land for winter. Second, being that four regions were named for reindeer, one was called Donner. I HAD TO HAVE A PLACE IN DONNER! You know us artists - when we have something in our heads there's no stopping us. And I had a triple entendre going full throttle.

I actually had this spot in my sites at the foot of two mountains (a pass! Oh, rapture). Being how I lost a piece of land the previous day by $L5, and the pass land was the very last Donner plot being offered, I went for a bigger one at the water in an earlier bidding wave. Booyah! It's a shame about that other plot I wanted; the winner did nothing Donner Pass related.

In fact, no one else in Donner really had anything in mind other than plopping what they already had built for their island or whatever to promote it. Once they made their spot, you never saw them again.

Being the newb, I had no holiday or winter content from any previous seasons. But I was AN ARTIST. And I was enjoying some time off from work. Except I really didn't rest. I *SLAVED* that night over Photoshop to make each texture file for a gingerbread house, which was assembled like one of those that come in kits. By the weekend the house was done. It was time for my piece d'resistance...

Behold it in its absurd glory. Gosh I'm so proud of myself. I made it look like the real thing. It actually looks delicious if you're not a vegetarian. Ride on the donner kebab sammiches or dance Zorba style on the top over the tomato. It's all good.

Next came the music. Sure Sky had an "okay" holiday channel most were tuning into. But I had a great collection of mp3's and I wanted to share the sound of holiday pop. After struggling with Mediamaster, which happened to run out of server space THAT WEEK, I managed to squeak on my tunes for an awesome playlist. We're talking Bing and Phil Spector meets The Kinks and Stan Freberg. It had everything. Yes, even Charlie Brown stuff.

Had holiday pools all ready, and free holiday food in the gingerbread house.

I didn't sell a thing by the way. Had vendors for the flying foods and pools but not a single purchase. Story of my life!

It was fun anyway, and some friends shared in the New Year Countdown there on Dec 31st.
The Marketplace is deserted except for my puttering around on my land and some folks hugging the Infohubs elsewhere. There are plenty of other holidays to celebrate before I lose the land.

Right now I'm setting it up for the inauguration next Tuesday. The plan is to have freebie stuff people can fish out exclusively there. It would be my first time with the new kit from 7Seas. Be sure to stop by and check it out; I'm hosting a new Superchicken cartoon :)

Sevhen says the Chicken Dance is our dance.