On Your Mark

Well, the first order of business in today's blog posting is to congratulate my k for finishing her first long-range assignment for me. *huge Dom-grin* I'm really so proud of her and just dazzled by the fact that she'd plug away at this so diligently for such a long time.

A few months ago, I had the idea - half-borrowed from a Domme I know, actually - to have k work up a couple of lists for me - one of rewards, one of punishments. The purpose of this was threefold (yeah I can never have simple, straightforward motivation for anything):

1. to peek into her mind a little and see what sorts of things she'd come up with.
2. to have a handy reference list to spark my own imagination when it comes to encouraging/discouraging her behavior.
3. to see how devoted my sorta-ADD girl could remain to a long-term project.

Happy to report it was a success on all three counts! In another post, I may go into a few more details about how things went and all the many interesting things that came out of it, but one thing that I learned:

My incredible k, on (almost) no prompting from me, has taken to writing my initial on herself most days. Sort of a mark of ownership, or a physical manifestation of the connection we have, or a little reminder, or a focal point when she's feeling frazzled during the day. The very idea just fills me with so much lust for her and so much pride that I occupy such a place in her daily life. When I read it, I so wanted to jump on a plane and be with her - the urge to do that was never stronger.

It was a little startling to me when I first discovered this fact from something she said on one of her list-items. Writing my initial on her body is something that I'd asked her to do two or three times as a sort of fun long-distance play thing, mostly right after I collared her. Again more recently I'd asked her to do it as part of an exercise in concentration and focus, but I certainly never dreamed that she'd actually go about doing something like that voluntarily, without some kind of "order" from me. My heart soars and swoops when I think about it.

So now I've started writing her initial on myself as well, and wow it's a pretty special feeling. I just take a ball-point pen and scribble on my body somewhere and I can feel her with me more "clearly" somehow. It's silly, I know, but as the letter starts to fade over the course of the day, I actually get upset sometimes - have to re-ink it.

I guess the idea of an outward expression of our relationship is very attractive to me. I mean, we don't have matching wedding bands or anything, and she doesn't have a real collar. We don't have tattoos or any of that. And in fact, our relationship is really a secret from everyone else in our respective real-lives. Maybe that's why it's such a turn-on. From time to time, I think about what it would be like to be out in the open about us, not just that we are a couple, but also that we are a D/s couple - being able to introduce k to people as mine, my subbie, my obedient girl.

And then there's the typical Dom need to mark. To make clear my ownership, make her my "property" in a visible way. This drive manifests itself in my spanking her ass red, or giving her bright hard hickeys on her neck (how highschool!), or biting her supple skin from time to time. While it's my domination of her heart and mind that truly rev my motor, I'm still not beyond enjoying the physical expression of it: my body dominating hers, my body overpowering hers, my body marking hers. The letter she writes on herself definitely fills that need too.

I feel a deep pull of longing in the pit of my stomach every time I think that there's a gal a couple thousand miles away who writes my initial on her skin every day because she likes it, because it gives her pleasure or comfort, because she likes to be reminded of me.

yeah, I've got something of an ego, I guess... But wow, every time I think I've got a handle on how much I treasure this girl, my k goes and knocks me off-balance again and I find myself rocketing to new heights of love.

soul stuff

because pet asked so nicely...

You Are a Visionary Soul

You are a curious person, always in a state of awareness. Connected to all things spiritual, you are very connected to your soul. You are wise and bright: able to reason and be reasonable. Occasionally, you get quite depressed and have dark feelings. You have great vision and can be very insightful. In fact, you are often profound in a way that surprises yourself. Visionary souls like you can be the best type of friend. You are intuitive, understanding, sympathetic, and a good healer. Souls you are most compatible with: Old Soul and Peacemaker Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

Hey that's what i am too - k

Well that's cool, sweetie. Now if only the quiz actually meant something... lol :P

When Brats Attack

So my sexy k posted here a while back about discovering her own bratty tendencies. How she may sometimes act up to get attention or whatever. Well my first reaction to it all was that she was overstating things a bit - reading her own sarcastic and brilliant sense of humor as a less-than-ideal character trait, only because it bumps up against the usual D/s ideas of formality and respect. Our particular relationship has never been that kind, though. Frankly if we couldn't poke fun at D/s in general (and if she couldn't poke fun at me in particular), it would lose a whole lot of meaning for me. I'd never want to suppress her natural wit.

Anyhow, it took me a little while, but I'm now able to detect the subtle differences between when k is being her adorably sarcastic self, and when she's really "bratting out." It's not as obvious as you might think to see it (remember that this is really mostly a text-based relationship, without the visual and auditory signals a Dom might pick up on in real life), and the very subtlety is part of her charm.

You see, it all comes back to this intermingling of D/s "scenes" and daily life, which is still pretty new for both of us - kind of a new space we're exploring.

There have been many times in the past, especially when we have longer stretches of time together, when we've been able to slip imperceptibly from normal banter about whatever into a passionate scene. And those times always feel so good and so right. Now I'm starting to view my k's bratty behavior as one instance of that - a way of "extending backwards" from the scene into the preceding conversation. Especially effective if she's craving a spanking, of course ;) And it's often more than just the build-up right before a real scene too - she may slowly work her way up to full-on ultrabrat mode over the course of a day or two, even.

I don't mean to make it sound like k is just acting out a part either. This is what's quite fascinating about the whole thing - this seems to be a real part of her. Maybe a sort of extension of her usual ironic wit into the realm of D/s, or maybe an aspect of her submissive nature that was hitherto below the surface. Yes, there's a conscious element to it, but that doesn't make it any less a part of her real personality. My k is one complex and marvellous creature, and I love every facet of her.

I also don't mean to make it sounds like we're playing a game or performing a ritual of "k gets bratty, Irch punishes her, passionate sex ensues, everyone sighs contentedly," or anything like that (though yeah it does work like that sometimes, and I ain't complaining heh heh). We've both got enough drama in our lives and have no need to add layers of it to our already-unorthodox relationship. If it does feel like a game sometimes, it's only because it's a way of pushing D/s play out of the "bedroom" and into our normal daily interactions. Easier to try this out in a half-joking kind of setting. My k is learning about boundaries of behavior, pushing against them, feeling out what she can get away with - and she's doing it in the most adorable light-hearted way she can. And it starts as a subconscious thing. Well most of the time, anyway.

So we're growing a lot in D/s together, k and I, and learning about each other and ourselves along the way of course. I'm sure I'll make mistakes as we keep working more strands of D/s into the fabric of our daily lives. and we'll recover from those mistakes and move on. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying every aspect of being her Dom, learning just how and how much she desires my control. In that sense, every little bratty comment or action is another expression of trust and love.

Outs and Ins

Well I figured I'd write a sort of response to k's lovely post. And yes, I realize this blog has been short on graphic sex and/or soul-baring confessions of late. OK, well not just "of late," but pretty much always. What do you people expect for free?!?!

So what k said about us having that city mouse - country mouse thing going on is very true. I had a pretty urban upbringing and love just about everything that comes with big-city life. Well, except maybe what I have to pay in rent. The rest is all good, though. I actually happen to think that if my k found herself suddenly forced to live in someplace like New York or Paris or Tokyo, she'd become a convert to metropolitanism pretty quickly, but maybe that's my wishful thinking lol.

One thing my wonderful woman did not bring up was the fact that this urban/rural difference is really only one of many fairly stark contrasts between us. We have some fundamentally diverging views, I'm pretty sure, on things like politics, religion, and art. Things that are important to me and to her.

I say "I'm pretty sure," because we tend to gloss over such subjects in conversation. Well, maybe not gloss over, but sort of treat delicately anyway. These things have come up more and more often as we've grown more comfortable with each other, but generally we don't think of them as great conversation-starters or anything. We respect each other's views, and kinda steer wide, to make sure nobody's toes get stepped on.

From time to time, I wonder if I'd feel differently about my k in real life because of issues like this, if our relationship would be altered somehow. Such topics would be unavoidable in daily life, whereas in IM (and especially when time together is limited) there's always something else to talk about. But when it comes down to it, I'm confident we'd work things out, for a few reasons:

(1) I have a greater appreciation for diversity of opinion than I used to. Guess it's partly from growing older (and partly from living in diverse urban environments - see above). A decade ago I wouldn't have had the patience or the broad-mindedness to spend long periods of time with people who had opposing viewpoints from my own - let alone eagerly seek out the company of such a person. I can see better from this vantage point how each person's beliefs really are the result of so many factors, and can shift and change so much over time. Of course, I'm still right, and the rest of the world is still wrong, but I'm willing to let them all take the time to learn now...

(2) k and I have been very good at learning from each other and negotiating some difficult waters over time. Bit by bit, we've gotten closer and more intimate, and various barriers that I thought would always remain standing have just crumbled and crashed. There are more to go, and possibly some will always remain there, but I can deal with that too. The point is that we've been able to work out our own language for talking about things, created our own ways of interacting. These are constantly evolving, just as they do in a r/l relationship, but they are good and strong and flexible. (Also, they are sometimes based in D/s power-exchange to some degree, but I'll blog on that another day.)

(3) I just love this girl to within an inch of madness.

So yeah, mostly I find the differences between us a source of excitement and inspiration and opposites-attracting and all that. Being with my k has made me re-think and re-formulate my own viewpoints on things, and some of the best times we spend together are exchanging opinions and ideas. We are easily as intellectually engaged as we are sexually engaged. And that's saying a whole hell of a lot!

Ins and Outs

So i've got a bit of free time this evening and i've been meaning to make a post over the last few days, i just haven't actually sat down to do it. So along with alphabetizing the links (was that driving anyone else nuts?) i've decided now is the perfect time to make that post.

I think one of the nicest things about the relationship that i have with Irch is how different we really are. I mean, yes we obviously share a lot of things in common with one another (i think you have to in order to make any relationship work, online or not), but we also have a surprising amount of things that are different. Things that make us each unique which i wouldn't change for the world. I think one of the funniest is something Irch brought up recently.

I am a country girl, 100%. I've lived in a town with a population of less than 100 people for the majority of my life; i grew up with chickens for pets and catching turtles on the side of the road. I had to ride a bus for an hour every morning and every afternoon to get to school in the nearest big city, because when you only have 5 teenagers in your town it doesn't make a lot of since to have a high school. Big cities scare me, i don't like crossing the street even at the crosswalk - i hate feeling crowded in by large numbers of people. I am a country girl, most comfortable with my shoes off walking through the grass looking up at the stars.

Irch, on the other hand, is a city boy. Grown up having lived in a number of cities much larger than my home town and living in various big cities across the country, which only appear in my nightmares. He seems to thrive in those big cities, loving everything about them. Where i would feel completely lost and alien He seems to feel right at home.

And as cliche as it is, here we are city boy and country girl together and happier than either of us could have imagined.

I never would have thought that i could ever have enough in common with a boy from a big city to actually be able to form a relationship. How did that happen? City boys weird me out, or at least the boys from the only big city i've ever spent any time in. They're wild and crazy and outspoken and seem to enjoy all that hustle and bustle that big cities seem to bring.

I think that is part of the reason Irch and i work so well. It is our similar traits as well as our differences which make us fit together just right. If we were exactly alike how could we grow? If we shared all the same taste in music, who would i tell about the new band i've discovered. If we read all the same books, who would introduce me to wonderful new authors? There is so much in Him i don't see in myself, and those things push me to new places i would never even dream of going on my own. Through out all the years that i've known Him i've felt little bits of Him rubbing off on me in ways that surprise me daily. I am such a better person for having known Irch at all, let alone being His.

Who would have known that a city boy and a country girl could do so well together.

Nutritional Value

One of the things that's so fun about my k is that she brings out sides of me that I didn't know existed, and inspires me to do stuff that I'd never have thought to do otherwise. Last week we were chatting and, as often happens, we got sorta caught up in little domestic fantasies about what life would be like if she and I actually lived together.

Now I really like to cook, and on this occasion k brought up a kind of food that I'd never heard of before, told me about how it was something she used to get all the time in her hometown and she missed it and all. So I was intrigued, looked up a recipe, found it to look plain delicious. I decided that my girl really needed to have this for Valentine's day.

So I cooked it up, and it was even tastier than I thought it would be. Luckily it's the kind of thing you can mail, so I overnighted it to her and she's been eating food that I cooked her for the past day or so.

Woah.

I really didn't expect that to be such a power rush. I mean, it's not like I've never cooked for others before, and others whom I've been in relationships with. But there was something really ultra-special about this. I felt more silly than anything else when I mailed it, and it made me happy to think of her getting something she wanted. It wasn't until she tasted it and told me about it in IM that this whole weird sexual thing struck me about it.

Part of it definitely stems from the long-distance relationship thing, combined with the general sensuality of the act of eating. Flavor and scent are big parts of sex and intimacy for me, and it kills me sometimes that I can't taste or smell my k. And I know she has similar feelings. I want to taste her, and want her to taste me. By the way, when is someone going to figure out a way to send taste and smell over the internet? Any engineers out there want to tackle this problem?

Anyhow, making food for her felt in a strange way like bridging that gap a little. Here was a taste and smell that I worked to create in my kitchen, and sent off to her - passed from one of us to the other. Of course, there was a two-day time delay lol ... And of course there was the thrill I got from knowing that she put something of mine inside her mouth - sure, not my first choice of what to have her savor and swallow, but I'll take what I can get ;)

The more surprising aspect was the D/s end of it. There was a very powerful feeling of dominance in feeding her. Providing sustenance, filling her stomach, satisfying her appetite. Maybe it's some silly cro-magnon hunter-gatherer thing, I dunno. I often think of the way we interact during a scene as me "reaching into" k, filling up the hollow spaces inside her, establishing a sort of control-from-within. And I knew that, in a tiny way, that metaphor had become literal truth.

Yes, all that, but mostly it was just so darned fun to cook for k. And she liked it, so it certainly won't be the last time I do that either!

Happy Valentine's Day to All

Happy Valentine's Day to our readers, to all the lovers in the world, and most especially to the most perfect, arousing, scintillating, fascinating, adorable, delectable valentine a man could ever ask for, my glorious k.

This is the first v-day since I collared k, so it's a very special day for me. since I'm kind of vibrating with lust over here right now, I'll make this a brief post today.




Please note that the links to the left have been expanded and modified to include all the nice folks who (1) link here, or (2) comment here, or (3) k or I read regularly, or (4) all of the above. If I left somebody out, please let me know! And yeah, it's not exactly organized, is it? Well I'll get to work on learning the alphabet or something one of these days...


Smell roses, taste chocolate, kiss your lover, enjoy the day!

Capital Improvements

Lately, a few things about D/s that used to make me just laugh are starting to make more sense to me. Or at least I'm taking them more seriously than I used to, let's say.

One bit of D/s "protocol" that never resonated with me before was the whole deal with capitalizing the names of the Dom/mes and lower-casing the those of the subs. I got why it was helpful in a chatroom to be able to identify who's who, but when people actually got offended by typos it was pretty silly. I mean, once you've established how things are, why do we need to keep all those details straight? And don't even get me started on the more esoteric complexities of using slashes (Y/you, W/we, etc.) or possessive pronouns (If I say k is "mine," do I capitalize it because "Mine" refers to Me? or do I lowercase it because "mine" refers to her? or ... please no ... is this another case for a slash?)

Anyhow, getting past all that, the capital/lowercase thing is actually starting to work for me now. And it's all because of my k, really. When she first started using capitals to refer to me a lot, a few months ago, at first I didn't take it too well. Saw it as a sort of "distancing" or formalizing of our relationship, a way to keep it compartmentalized away from the rest of her life. And maybe there's still a bit of that in there. But now I see it more clearly I think ... as a sort of generous gesture. Not a respect thing, really, at least not in the formal D/s sense of respect (the day k starts treating me with that kind of formality will be the day I know I've lost her). It's more of a loving reminder of our special kind of relationship. A little alteration in the way she types that keeps the fact that I'm her Dom front and center all the time.

And in our conversations I've started to do the capitalization thing myself. Still not doing it here, though who knows maybe some day I'll get to that. And of course I'm no stickler for it at all - don't think anybody'll be spanked for forgetting or anything (though hmmm...) For now, I get a warm feeling in my chest every time I see my lovely and wonderful k using the capitals, because I know it's a tiny communication of love.

Crisis Mode

So wow, it seems like subbies are in crisis mode lately ... taylor is taking a break from blogging to wrap her head around stuff. ling seems like she's asking to be released from her collar. Even my own sweet k had a little loss of faith for a while yesterday. These things always seem to happen at times when I can't be there to reassure her and remind her how perfect and special she is.

One of the worst pitfalls of the long-distance online relationship, I guess. There's always a tiny microscopic shred of doubt behind things when most of the relationship takes place as words on a screen. Even with the voice and the webcam and other such enhancements, it's still not the same as sitting next to someone and being able to gauge from their eyes if they're telling you the truth. And we all know how tiny doubts can spin out of control in a very short period of time, given the right conditions.

Those conditions, sadly, are more easily met in an online relationship, especially between two people who have crazy, ever-changing schedules. When things are getting stressful and I need reassurance that k is mine, I can't always just pick up the phone and call, nor can I look forward to lying next to her all night and feeling her closeness that way. Instead, I have to pick out a memory of her (and luckily there are hundreds of wonderful ones to choose from), or just think about who she is and how she is with me.

Takes a little more effort to sit and meditate on stuff like that. It's way easier to have the physical memory of your last kiss still tingling on your lips, your partner's scent still faintly clinging to your clothes. At our most intimate times, I feel those true physical impressions when I'm with my k, but there's a certain amount of mental energy required to call up the memory. Not a lot at all, but a bit more energy than it would take, I think, than if we were a r/l couple in regular physical contact.

And of course when you're stressy and anxious, the last thing you want to do is spend any effort at all to do anything. So the doubts and negativity get free reign for a while. Eventually you get a grip.

Nobody said that having a relationship like this one was going to be easy. But god it's so beautiful and rewarding and simply sublime. k is worth a thousand times more than I could ever give her in a lifetime, but that won't stop me from giving her all I can.





as an added bonus today, I'd like to point you all to a couple of very nice postings on how to have quality cybersex. Fun, with a sense of humor, and mostly very good advice (and I like to think I'm experienced enough to know...)

Dante's Guide to Cybersex Part I: Ground Rules

Dante's Guide to Cybersex--Part II: Descriptive Writing

as if there were any doubt...

oh yeah, you know it...

Bugs Bunny! You scored 42 Aggression, 71 Sophistication, and 71 Optimism!

You have all the sophistication and charm one would expect from such a high-class hare. Very upbeat and generally laid-back, you are remarkably calm and peaceful even in the midst of the most stressful of situations. On those rare occasions that your anger is aroused, your retaliation usually results in embarrassing the aggressor and laying-bare how foolish he or she really is -- rather than doing any real harm. You likely have many friends and more than a few admirers and would make an excellent leader, if you had any interest in being one. But, being a leader would require hard work and attention to detail, both qualities you are lacking in. In fact, if you are not careful, your laid-back attitude will often lead you to drift through life completely oblivious to the changes happening around you. You also tend to have a horrible sense of direction.

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 23% on Aggression You scored higher than 53% on Sophistication You scored higher than 53% on Optimism

and also .....

Scooter! You scored 51 Mood and 48 Energy!

You are cheery, energetic and achievement oriented. You are a hard worker and you are proud of your accomplishments.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 18% on Mood You scored higher than 15% on Energy

\

Nothing to Sneeze at

Alright, so my k is sick - caught a flu bug or something. I tell ya that's not exactly my favorite thing in the whole world. I've got this fundamental urge to always keep her healthy and safe from harm, and it irks me to no end that I can't really do anything to help her from this distance. What the hell good am I as her Dom if I can't care for her, make tea, fluff pillows, purchase kleenex?

Oh yeah, you can all tell just what an extremely harsh Dom I am now. Not exactly the kind of stuff you'd expect to see in a BDSM singles ad is it?

But this is a big part of the love side of things, and I find myself reaching out to help my k in D/s ways (or trying to at least), telling her that she needs to rest and drink her fluids and all. Basically demanding that she tend to and take care of her body, because it belongs to me like the rest of her. Yes, I know she'd do these things anyway. But geez I gotta feel useful somehow! I flatter myself into thinking that if I didn't lay down the law, she'd be tempted to overwork.
This is one of the harder parts of being in an online relationship. I'm pretty darned impotent when it comes to stuff like this. Sure, last time she got sick, I mailed her a box of herbal tea and sudafed, but that's no replacement for having someone there with you to run errands and take care of little stuff you don't have the energy to do.

One thing that I'm able to do, and am happy to do, is sympathize a lot. Let her know that she's not weak for skipping this or that activity. Let her know that even though she may feel like hell, she's beautiful and mine, that I own and treasure every aching braincell and each swollen sinus and every feverish shiver. She's all mine, always loved.

Hope you feel better soon, my lovely girl.

Honest to Goodness

Something I haven't spoken about here yet is the depth of emotional honesty I've reached with my k. There was a time when I wasn't representing myself online as who I really was. It was easy at first, then got progressively more difficult as I became better friends with people, and it became excruciatingly difficult (and ultimately impossible) when I realized that I was falling head-over-heels for k. So I changed things for the better a while back - it was a really tough leap to make for me, and I know that it hurt k immensely for a while. Probably it still reverberates to this day to some degree. But I just can't be anyone else with her other than who I really am.

What's sort of funny is that the process actually started in our online scenes before it reached our more "normal" interactions. Backing up a bit: when I first started going to scening chatrooms, the scenes I would be part of were mostly an exercise in spontaneous fiction-writing. I loved the excitement and arousal from them, and the way that I could get "lost" in the flow of text when with a good partner. But I'd pretend sometimes that I was having an intense experience when I really wasn't. I could get very aroused from scenes, but rarely would actually cum in r/l, and hardly ever when I said I did in my typing. First and foremost in my mind was to make sure the scene was a good one on the screen - it didn't have much to do with the tempo of my own libido.

That all changed with k. I loved playing with her so much, so we did it a whole lot, and gradually we discovered rhythms that we shared and that worked for us. I found that my body was reacting far more intensely to what we typed back and forth because (1) the way she has with words just really speaks to me, and (2) we were able to communicate where we were on our arcs of arousal throughout the scenes. Now I'm not sure if k had the same feeling in those days as I did (I am certain she does now), but it was a revelation to me.

Pretty soon I reached a point where I couldn't lie about what I was feeling. I wouldn't "fake" orgasms with her just because it was part of the proper form. I would make no secret of the fact that I was interested in getting off fast, or that I craved a slow sensual build-up. I'll sometimes climax two or three times during extended scenes with her, and she hears about each in great detail lol.

The result of this is that it made every moment more intense, more real. What we shared on the screen was more connected to my true experience, and I know that's a small part of what forged a bond between us. Soon I couldn't go back to the old "fictive" scenes and wanted to spend all my time with k, because with her I was reaching a different level. Yes, it was all wrapped up in our friendship and everything too, but it's sort of funny to think that if we hadn't connected in that immediate sexual-timing way, things might have played out differently.

So so so glad things progressed as they did, though :) k has always been perfectly wonderful to me, and being open and honest with her about all aspects of life has been a profound joy.

Poetic License

In the last couple days, my k and I have found odd moments here and there to mess around on the phone more than usual. It thrills me every time, it goes without saying. And one of the more exciting things about it lately is that we've become very comfortable with each other on the phone - the stilted awkwardness of our first couple of conversations is mostly past, though a certain nervous excitement remains of course.

Her voice is so clear and bright and textured. We had a nice happy phone-sex scene the other night, and I got to enjoy the delicious tightness in her voice as she approaches her climax - the pitch and keen, the gasps and whimpers. nnn could revel in that all day. Oh, and then afterwards - k's voice just purrs and oozes and pours through my ears like honey or something. It's the most arousing thing in the world, the sound reaching into the pit of my stomach and resonating through my spine and cock. I'd forget to breathe except for the fact that I need to keep prompting her so I can hear more of her pretty curling cooing tones, each syllable bespeaking her submission and her pleasure.

Then last night, we had a phone scene that was even more special to me. My k read me poetry over the phone for like 20 minutes or so I think. To tell you the truth, I really lost track of time, feeling totally blissed out and lost on a cloud somewhere. In my mind's eye we were lying naked together in bed, perhaps in a post-coital lazy haze, and she was reading romantic poetry to me while I drowsily stroked her hair and bare back in slow counterpoint to the meter of the poem. Don't think I ever felt more relaxed and loved and Domly. It was a powerful and deeply heartfelt oasis in time, what they call a locus amoenus, for me. I really kind of let her words drift over and through me, felt her desire to serve, her comfort and trust, her devotion and love.

Oh and it was William Wordsworth, in case you were wondering. A great choice for our first time doing that. And oh yes you can bet there'll be another go-round very soon :) That k of mine is a treasure I will never let go.