Second Couple

So Many Changes - Part 3

2009-05-06T15:52:00.000-07:00

She Said Yes!!

(Even though Atia and I have been RL married for a dozen years, there is still something special and touching about our SL relationship, and this night was no exception. We truly did "cry for happy".)

"You have something to say to me?"

"Yes...*cough, sputter*, um..I want...I mean...will you marry me?"

"What?! You can't be serious!"

"I mean...ahem...you can't be serious."

"No! I mean, yes! I am serious!"

"You make me cry for happy!"

"You mean...you will marry me?"

"Well...hmmm...YES!"

And they lived happily ever after

~B~

So Many Changes - Part 2

2009-05-06T13:59:00.000-07:00

Atia and I have tried a few different business models in SL - we want something that we can work on together, enjoy and have some chance of success (measured in small amounts of SL income). Though we've had the collaboration and fun, we've had nearly zero of the "success". So we are trying our hand at building romance suites.

Our first (and so far, only) attempt is hosted by Lavanya's Fantasy Suites and is called "Celtic Arbor".

The story line, as I wrote it for Lavanya's site, reads:

As the lord and lady of the manor, enjoy a sanctuary in the woods away from the castle from the tribulations of court life. Accustomed as you are to pomp and circumstance and formality, here simplicity and quiet reign. Steal away whenever you can to your secret hideaway to enjoy even an hour of respite from your sober duties to talk, laugh, and enjoy the pleasures of your love and devotion to one another.

Break away from the stuffiness of castle life and reconnect with nature. A simple dwelling, built of stonework from a local green marble quarry and carved with Celtic designs, shields you from the cold and rain of north island nights. Resplendent with flowers and plants, there is a spot to sit and talk of the day's events, and enjoy a glass of cheer.

Rich rugs help warm the stone floors, and behind the gauzy veil of Celtic patterns lies your ultimate sanctuary, a richly carved wooden bed where you may wile away your time in intimate touch (taken care of by a SexGenUltra multi-poser with over 600 animations) amid hanging vines of lavender.

More intimate dances aside, you can delight yourselves with time spent lost in the strains of fine music, moving together in one embrace as you hold one another close and smile into each other's eyes. All provided by the finest dance balls to be found in Second Life.

Beyond the house, in the garden, amorous love play extends to quiet talk and touch in an ivy-covered garden bench replete with ornate stained glass depicting the Dove of Peace. Sometimes the chill of the evening is best kept at bay with time beside a vine-domed firepit, set in hewn brown marble, and surrounded by carved wood pillars and intricate Celtic patterned inlay. Strewn throughout the space are some of the most romantic poses to be enjoyed on the grid.

Still playful as in youth, you and your love can find yourselves laughing like children as you enjoy simple pleasures like a swing from an old oak tree (complete with a multi-poser) and the natural setting, filled with forest life such as fawns, Monarch butterflies, and the sounds of birds, crickets and owls.

Lavanya's Fantasy Suites has lots of great romantic getaways, but of course, we hope you will visit Celtic Arbor!

Here's the SLURL to the gallery.

~B~

So Many Changes - Part 1

2009-04-29T07:40:00.001-07:00

Been away too long, because Atia and I have been very busy working on so many things. Don't know if I can catch up, but here's a first go.

A new castle!

This is a Castle Q by Qabalah Quintus. He has a wide range of great offerings, from simple huts to massive fortresses. Visit his huge display area at Qabalah Island

~B~

Our First 7Seas Fishing Party

2008-11-04T14:46:00.000-08:00

While the PMG party was the first time we hosted friends at Merrywood, Our SLU 7Seas Samhain Soiree was the first event of our own. Despite some lag it was great fun.

ABout a dozen denizens of SLUniverse attended. We held two competitions - a limited contest which levels all players regardless of XP, and an unlimted fishing smackdown so the pros could out their experience and bait buckets to good use.

The "Dock o' the Bay", as we call Bard's Landing, was jumping through the night and into morning.

SLU's Resident fishing pro, Beebo Brinks joined us:

Along with Carthalis Rossini

Dimitrio Lewis

Aisuru Rieko

Beatrix Noel

And Rosie Barthelmess, who spun us some great tunes while she fished.

And while I was too busy playing host and referee, my lovely Atia joined in

In the end Beebo and Dimitro took Gold...

Rosie and Beatrix garnered Silver...

And Aisuru and Carthalis earned Bronze

It won't be the last time!

And all are invited to come to Merrywood and enjoy the fishing, the gardens, and the pub any time.

~Bard~

Bard's Landing is Now Open!

2008-10-27T14:12:00.001-07:00

Well, it took us several months of building and tweaking but we've finally opened our seaside wharf pub to the public. Please drop in sometime to Bard's Landing (yay!)

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Desperation%20Vivienne/112/46/22/

We opened it by being allowed to host the Oct 14 gathering of the SLU gang - The PMG Cafe was still in transit to New Paris so we were honored to invite everyone to our little corner of the grid.

The theme was India/Bollywood, and my lovely Atia found the most beautiful sari at Vintuition (Bejaia (171, 71, 27). Despite some serious and unexpected lag, she and I danced until our pixel feel hurt.

Our gracious hostess, Brigid McDonnagh, came out in full Bollywood regalia and had the dance moves down.

I couldn't snap enough pictures to capture everyone - we had close to 35 avatars at the height, but here's a few of the revelers - Parker McTeague:
Ann Launay

Scrim Pinion

Duke Chaparral
And me, taking a break at the hookah and watching the pretty colors swirl around me :)

We have lots of diversions, like 7Seas Fishing, Darts, Arm Wrestling, Mud Wrestling and GogoModo Trivia. Come by anytime for a quiet moment by the sea or bring a gaggle of friends and blow out the jams.

~B~

Visit Mexico Virtually

2008-09-05T17:17:00.000-07:00

Atia and I scour our favorite forums at SLUniverse for recommendations of great places to visit, and we recently came on a winner - the Visit Mexico sims.

Three sims together provide some beautiful virtual renditions of ancient Mayan ruins like Chichen Itza and the walled city known as Tulum. In between are rainforests, waterfalls, breathtaking beaches and more recent cathedrals.

It's a great place for riding - and there are free horse rentals available. Atia and I brought our Fresians (Radish and BuckToo) and rode them until our pixel rear ends were sore. The sims offer some well-made and very complete Mayan costumes as freebies, so we couldn't resist playing the parts of Mayan chief and queen.

My First Shirt

2008-09-01T17:25:00.000-07:00

Silly thing to tout, but hell, I'm a n00b!

Merrywood T-shirts will be available free at the soon-to-be-opened Bard's Landing

This is Merrywood

2008-07-11T11:06:00.000-07:00

I'm playing around with creating a video tour of our property, and threw this together as a test - it might end up being the opening sequence of something longer, but I just wanted to share what I have so far.

Sim Ho! – An Atia Adventure

2008-06-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

As Bard once mentioned we’ve been looking for a tall-mast ship, something along the lines of a pirate vessel. The harbor at Merrywood is very small, however, so given that we were reduced to buying a fishing boat.

(Note from Bard: That is not a “fishing boat”. It is a Blackspot Spray sailboat by Lia Woodget, a sleek and seaworthy craft that carries five people and has five different mast colors. You can find this and full-sized tall mast ships by Woodget at the Blackspot Shipyard. “Fishing boat”...indeed!)

Darcy Steward, a junior member of Merrywood (Knighthood notwithstanding), found a small ship in his many travels that he thought might fit the bill both in size and style. Bard and I rushed to the sim he traveled earlier that day and saw what Darcy had found. Sure enough it was exactly what we had been looking for. We searched on the creator’s name (Felixx Shepherd) and TP’d to his store, Garden of Da Vinci.

What a fun sim. We didn’t have time to tour all the offerings but we did have a chance to check out the huge telescope, take a ride on a feather and a gondola (dunked a time or two) before we bought “The Little Pirate Ship”. There were many other sights to see including a volcano exhibit so we’ll return one day soon.

But I digress. “The Little Pirate Ship” is the perfect combination of tall-mast ship and say, oh a canoe. And it’s also a perfect match for the harbor at Merrywood and our adventurous spirits.

So rez her we did, (arrrrr), and a-sailing we did go, (arrrrr), just around the sim, (arrrr). Right off the bat we discovered that although there are pose balls for sitting and lounging on the main deck, they would not allow me to do so. Bard was able to sit and steer as the ship’s owner but I kept getting ejected each time I tried to sit down (we will take this up with the creator at a later date). It was quite embarrassing, to say the least, to keep getting tossed overboard in front of the neighbors.

(Note from Bard: We contacted Felixx Shepherd, and he graciously sent us a new copy with working pose balls. He also sent us a static copy with many more goodies, pictured above. He’s one of the good ones)

Now I pride myself on being very adept in all situations and graceful beyond words (teh Bard, for some reason, has a different take on me in this regard). (Note from Bard: No comment) So after being tossed overboard a half a dozen times I finally resigned myself to standing beside Bard, balancing myself against the heavy tossing of the ship on glass-smooth waters.

(Note from Bard: And she looks good doing it!)

Oh, and I also changed into a bathing suit and flip flops just in case…

As tradition dictates, no respectable ship captain and his first mate would ever set sail without ample grog aboard. Well one thing led to another on this long, endless journey around our little sim, and the next thing I knew I was, wait for it… three sheets to the wind (arrrr!!!!!!). Bard remained stone cold sober in order to navigate the heavy seas with a clear head. And good thing too. We found ourselves in deep trouble trying to negotiate the neighbor’s dock.

For some reason my recall at this point is a little fuzzy but I believe my balance improved significantly after swilling a fifth of JD. Bard says I was swearing like a drunken sailor and staggering to and fro. Methinks he exaggerates although I do have a couple of new bruises I can’t explain. (Note from Bard: I respectfully decline to answer any inquiries).

I don’t remember how I got back to the castle and upstairs to bed. Bard said he had to carry me. Pffft! However, I do remember our first pirate adventure as being the most fun I’ve had dripping wet and drunk on a little ship, hugging the shore of our sim, in a long, long time.

(Note from Bard: Since it was our first such Atia Adventure, it won’t be long before we are cruising the waters of Caledonia or some such, flying our pirate colors among the blue blood vessels, staggering around the deck swearing loudly, with Atia chumming over the side).

Carnivale Royale - Another Atia Adventure

2008-06-08T14:15:00.001-07:00

Atia and I love carnivals, except for the travel, the heat, the walking, the bad food, the scary rides that creak as if they're falling apart, the lines and crowds, and the...

Wait a minute...we hate carnivals! But we would love carnivals except for all that, so we've found just the thing...carnivals in Second Life. So, our first outing was to Carnivale Royale.

As usual, it turned into an Atia Adventure. First, she got a bit woozy on the merry-go-round (she's prone to it when she spins). Then in the "Weird Rolly Ball" ride, instead of staying on the track, she went flying off across the park. It took several clicks of Stand Up, removing all her HUD's, and eventually a relog to get her out of the bubble and back on her feet.

She threw up on me on the Hammer (after promising she wouldn't) and finally, went flying out of the Bumper Car arena and crashing into an abutment.

We had a great time! We took so many pics, I thought I'd throw them into a slide show with a little music, to make them even more boring and self-indulgent. Enjoy!

Second Squirrel

2008-05-11T10:28:00.000-07:00

After hours of discussion, weighing pros and cons, recognizing the advantages or disadvantages of having children, Bard and I decided not to have children. The reasons we each brought to the table were many and varied but ultimately the choice was a mutual agreement. Second Couple will remain, just that, a couple - not a trio, not a quadruplet, not a quintuplet, etc.

However, being the loving couple we are, we both agreed our lives would not be complete without someone to bestow our love and affections upon. Nutcracker came to us on one of our many adventures in a sim far, far away. We had no idea how he would steal our hearts. He scurried up to Bard, tossed an acorn at his feet and stared up at him with that adorable wide-eyed expression of his. That was it. Bard and I looked at each other without saying a word. We knew in that instant we could not walk away. Nutcracker had us at hello.

After making endless arrangements for travel documents, transportation, shots, packing of prims and the like, we were able to finally get Nutcracker home to Merrywood. Little Nutter, as I like to think of him, has adjusted nicely to his new digs. Moreover he has proven to be quite the watch squirrel. He alerts us to visitors any hour of the day or night in the most clever way. Pitching one acorn against a tree to make a loud whack sound means a friend has arrived. Pitching two in quick succession is the signal a stranger of unknown origin is near.

Nutcracker's fierce protective nature is heartwarming. I think he understands how much we love him and he's now an integral part of our family. Bard says it is really only about protecting his food source. Whatever the reason I'm so happy to see the little guy each morning when I walk out of my front door.

I give you...Nutcracker!!!!!

Atia Likes Cannons!

2008-05-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

We've been looking for a cool tall-mast ship (preferably pirate) to put in the harbor at Merrywood, so we visited the Black Spot Shipyard (SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Black%20Spot/145/108/25/?title=Black%20Spot%20Shipyard) and found some really good ones.

While checking them out, Atia manned the top deck guns and started blazing!

Turns out that Atia likes big things that go boom!

How can you not like a woman who enjoys weapons and uses them well? (and looks good doing it!)

God, I love a woman who loves the smell of gunpowder!!

~B~

We're Partnered!

2008-05-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

Well, we finally went and done it - got "SL Hitched" - we are now officially listed as partners in our profiles. Not that it is any great stretch, seeing as how we are RL married and all, but it's a step. A wedding - a big, white, blow-out-the-walls wedding (that we never had in RL), is somewhere over the horizon, but for now, we have our names in our profiles and rings on our pixel hands :D

We spent the rest of the night celebrating at Dancien Grave's Club - "Baby Seals" - (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hawks%20Landing/62/107/22) at his Cinco de Mayo party.

Adale, arriba!

Moving Day - An Atia Adventure

2008-05-02T12:22:00.001-07:00

Atia is my love, my life, my reason for being. She is intelligent, witty, fun, strong, caring and beautiful.

She is also a bit of a klutz.

When we got our first parcel from Wildefire, we didn't get as much land as we wanted, and placed our castle on a small corner of the property, bounded by water on one side and very little room between it and the neighbor's parcel line. When more land became available, we snapped it up and now have a pretty good sized lot. This also afforded us a corner on the water, and we wanted to move the castle there.

Atia wanted to help.

I told her I could take care of it easily myself, please don't feel obligated. But she insisted. I relented, and this led to yet another Atia Adventure.

Always proper, she donned her work clothes in preparation for the heavy lifting and hauling. After all, our castle (a lovely Castle Tiberion from Elgyfu Wishbringer's Tin Teddy store) is a 40x40 meter three storey affair of stone and marble. So there was going to be some serious hefting to do.

She also smartly warmed up her avatar, to avoid muscle pulls and back trouble later. A few basic stretches and isometrics got the blood moving and her lovely body loose and ready to start dragging the building over the couple of hundred meters necessary to place it in its new location.

She really wanted to move it herself, so I started giving her tips about selecting and moving objects.

"OK Honey, right click on that first section and select 'Edit' from the menu"

"Like this?"

"Yep. Now, hold down the SHIFT key and click the next wall section. You should see them both selected."

"It's not working."

"Are you holding down SHIFT?"

"Yes."

"And when you click on the other section, it doesn't select?"

"Which button? Left or right?"

"Left. When I tell you to RIGHT click something, that means the right button. If I just say 'click' that means the left button."

"So, which button?"

"LEFT!"

"Don't yell at me. I'm trying to help!"

"I'm not yelling. So, hold SHIFT and LEFT click the next wall."

"Something happened."

Something had happened all right. The first major section of the castle front suddenly rotated about 45 degrees.

"You must have been holding down the CTRL key instead of SHIFT."

"Was not! I did what you said!"

I decided not to argue further. Moving Day had begun only ten minutes before. It was likely to go on for some time.

So I began explaining about the various tools and their key commands - CTRL for rotation, SHIFT for copy, etc. She caught on right away.

"Great! I can fix it now"

With those words, the Great Rotational Disaster of the Merrywood Castle begain.

First, she rotated the front back into correct aspect, but took her hand off the CTRL key (going back into position mode) and kept going so that the walls were set back 20 meters inside the castle interior.

Then, she moved the wall back to the front of the castle and rotated it on the X axis 180 degrees.

As she so often does, she said, "But don't I look good doing it?"

"Yes darling, you look wonderful!"

Next, she discovered the Z-axis rotation control, and experimented with its limits.

Then, she found she could control rotation with the value sliders, and began teasing me by setting the wall back in place meter by meter.

"You love, me...you want to kiss me.."

"Yes love, I do." (That and a few other things...)

So, she finally got the wall rotated into position correctly. But before I could start instructing her again on how to select the whole castle, she started dragging the single wall toward the new location, leaving it about 15 meters out in the courtyard.

"See how strong I am?" she said with a mischievous grin.

"Yes my sweet - you are a relocation goddess."

So then she grew bored and gave up. Luckily, the castle has a Faux Rez system, so I simply deleted it and re-rezzed another copy in the new location.

"You mean, we didn't have to move it? You could just throw a new one over there?" she asked with wide eyes.

"Yep."

"Then why did you make me move the damn thing?"

("Make me" move the damn thing. Uh-huh.)

"I just thought you could use the practice."

"Oh you did, did you? I'll give you some practice!"

I suddenly found myself orbited to the other side of the island, landing with an ungraceful thud into the water.

I forgot I'd given her quite a bit of instruction and practice with her MystiTool.

~B~

A Shout Out to Wildefire Walcott

2008-03-31T13:51:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to acknowledge the woman who was instrumental in helping Atia and I set up Merrywood, and Lady Atia's Keep, Wildfire Walcott - one of the nicest people we've met in -world and certainly the most successful, experienced and professional of SL business people.

She has been kind and helpful in all ways, quickly assisting with problems (even the ones I created myself), and has given us a great deal on our land parcels that make our virtual life such a joy.

We can't recommend her enough - if you are in the market for land, you can't do better. Check out her land offerings, as well as very helpful land management hints at her Desperation Isle Estates blog. And get to know her and her take on virtual life at her personal blog, Wildefire Walcott's Mistressy Musings.

She's one of the good ones.

Lady Atia's Keep

2008-03-24T16:23:00.000-07:00

Our store...

SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Desperation%20Vivienne/147/38/300/?title=Lady%20Atia%27s%20Keep

Five castle floors offering some of the finest designers in SL:

Men's and women's Medieval and Renaissance fashion from Medieval Designs.
Formal attire from Briar Rose Ballgowns
Goth and Gorean wear from Intoxication
Scriptfire weapons from Nightfire Forge
Period, Goth and Gorean furniture from Loon & Jewell

Welcome to Second Couple

2008-03-24T00:25:00.001-07:00

Being the most excellent adventures of Atia Merryman and Bard Jameson, as we wind our way through this virtual world called Second Life.

We, Atia and Bard, are a couple (wife and husband) in RL, who extend our relationship into SL as, again, wife and husband, Lady and Lord of the land we call Merrywood.

Here we hope to offer you a variety of worthwhile information, interesting places to visit, amusing anecdotes of our travels, and oh yes, to promote our ventures.

Please drop back in again soon for more...we're just getting started.