Rita Mariner and the History of the Sunweavers

By Bixyl Shuftan

Every community in Second Life has a history, and this includes the Sunweavers. Living in the sims Sunweaver Isle, Sunweaver Bay, Sunweaver Space, Sunlight Bay, HV Community, and Pacific Waters, the "Sunnies" as they are sometimes called go back several years. They've been the home of some noted persons in Second Life, such as Artistic Fimicloud, Lomgren Smalls, and Alleara Snoodle. Also the Second Life Newser's office is in the Sunweaver sim of HV Community.

Recently the Sunweaver leader Rita Mariner and I met up to talk about the history of the group.We met up in the Southwest corner of the Sunweaver Estates in the sim of Sunweaver Bay, on top of the tall apartment building in the sim.

"So, how did the idea for the Sunweavers come about?" I asked Rita.

Rita answered, "It was simple, we were living in (the sim of) MUD at the time and starting to acquire land. Having a group, made owning land more benefical. I had a friend named, Shane Fisher, who had a comic of sorts and in that comic, he had a religious group called The Sunweavers. The Sunweavers idea of religion was PARTY!, singing and dancing, jojfulness. So I borrowed it for our group. We started ... a core group of us, most of whom are still with us. Once we bought all the Land on MUD we could get, we still wanted more."

"And whom was the core group?" I asked.

Rita replied,"Jenni Greenfield, Dusk Griswold, Shockwave Yareach, Windy Lurra, Brolly Field, Robin Hyacinth, and me." She handed over a couple images of the group, "Not the best pic, all I have." Then came one of an area, "One of the Sunweaver's First creations, Sunweaver Park. The group lived on one side of the road, in MUD, we used the land on the other side as a park to get creative and built a park."

It was about this time we were joined by one of the Sunweaver Estates' residents, Becky "Sha" Shamen, after some friendly greetings, she stuck around to listen, "loves the community."

Rita continued, "Anyways, while we lived in MUD, we were having fun calling ourselves 'MUD's Women,' spoofing the Star Trek episode."

"So all girls, except for Shockwave?" I asked.

"Pretty much," Rita answered, "One of the early conditions I put on the Sunweavers to set us apart from other groups, was we did bellydancing, therefore, we all needed to get at least, one set of decent silks, preferably EROS silks, even though, at the time, they were pricey. ... We would then showup at various dance clubs, in our silks and dance, getting a lot of praise, those silks were very nice. But when EROS stopped selling the silks, I dropped the requirement."

"What year was this?" I asked.

"2007," Rita answered," Long time ago. Once we maxed out on how much Land we could get in MUD. I started looking elsewhere. I settled on POCKWOCK, and slowly started to buy up land there. Once we had a decent amout of land there, we created Club Cutlass and Club Zero Gravity. Shockwave had a blast creating the scripts for Zero G," Rita described the space club then, "you could dance on the walls, the ceiling, float in the air and still dance."

I asked, "They looked much different then, did they not?"

"Yes," she answered, "we built our first shopping area there, airfield, pirate ships, fort, etc. secret tunnels, we had fun."

"Sounds interesting. So the tunels were secret passages between places?" I asked.

"Mostly secret escape or entrance," Rita answered, "Just for fun. We liked to get creative. ...  I almost owned the entire sim, but there were a few holdouts, and they wanted ridiculous amounts of lindens for their land. Of course all of this was taking place just prior to LL pulling the plug on gambling."

"So after the gambling ban, land was cheaper?" I asked.

"Land prices dropped into (the) trashcan," Rita answered, "Casinos no longer were profitable and people were bailing out of SL so fast, they didn't care. That's why today it's hard to get renters, (the) aftermath of the land boom and bust."

"At that time I decided it was about time to get a private estate. They weren't cheap. (But) the idea of having total control over it and no neighbors with banlines and PORN everywhere appealed to us. Sunweaver Isle was our first estate."

"How fast did the community grow?" I asked

"Once that was filled up, we had alot of demand for another," Rita answered, "so soon we added Sunweaver Cove. Still more demand, but for public sims. I then added sunweaver Air, Sunweaver Space, Cape suzette and Buccaneer Bay. I had enough renters to at least keep the bleeding from my checking account manageable. (I) Never had enough to break even. Then when LL decided to add the Homesteads I had several folks approach me about getting one."

"How did that go?" I asked.

Rita answered, "I said, 'you pay for them, tell me where you want it. I'll order it.' So I had three different people order them. That worked out fine, until LL changed the rules on them. Raised the tier and limited the use. People started dumping them."

"Did any of the Sunweaver homesteads close?" I asked.

"Only one," Rita answered, "I gave up one Homestead."

"I recall the Sunweavers have included some creative people whom were known elsewhere," I brought up, "such as Lomgren Smalls and Alleara Snoodle."

"Yes, Alleara is still around," Rita told, "but as for Lomgren, not sure what has happened to him. I guess real life got him."

"And Artistic Fimicloud," I also brought up.

"Yes, we still remember Fimi," Rita reflected, "she is one of the inspirations for why we Rally in the RFL. She used to have a nice treehouse on Sunweaver Cove, across from Tremi. We had hoped to put the treehouse back up on Sunweaver Bay, but not sure who has it."

Rita handed me a few pictures. I noticed one in particular, "Oh yes, I recognize your house."

"The house next to mine was a co-worker and friend," she told me, "He was a skunk on SL."

"Is he still around?" I asked.

"No," Rita answered, "he passed away a few years ago."

"Oh, sorry." I told her.

"Eugene Chandrayaan (was his) SL name," Rita told me, "(his) profile has been wiped."

"It seems only a handful of Second Life residents have a friend from real life coming in with them," I commented.

"Dusk brought me here," Rita informed, "and when I was going to Furry Cons alot, I use to let folks on SL know and we had Sunweaver Parties."

"How many from Second Life, and the Sunweavers, would you meet there?" I asked Rita.

"Varies," Rita answered, "I have had anywhere between 5-10 showup, say Hi and then some of us would go out to dinner. Met Kaarla, Twilight, Shockwave, Zorro, Fyremane, Lomgren, Dusk, probably many others whose names I have slipped my mind."

"You mentioned Dusk brought you here?" I told her, "How did that come about and how were your days before the Sunweavers?"

"I knew Dusk from meeting her at the Warner Bros Store, In Chicago," Rita answered, "I had driven up there to meet the voice over actors for the Animanics. During over chats, Dusk invited me to try out SL, It was a stepup from E-Muck. a Muck with PICTURES!"

"I started out in Nueltin. I had to borrow the Lindens from Dusk and Twilight to buy my first land, house, etc. Since I was on probation, with LL. for the first 30 days. My land was out in the bay, so I floated my house. It was the same house I still have, by the way."

"Oh really? How did you come up with the design?" I asked.

"I didn't," Rita answered, "I bought it. I like it, the inside is an open layout, so you can install walls and stuff as you like. The idea for the Group didn't come about till we needed it for Land Purchases. Then I thought about it. Sunweavers came out from that and we decided to have fun with it too."

I decided the change the subject, "Earlier the Relay was mentioned. How did you find out about the Passionate Redheads?"

Rita thought for a moment, "I think it was members of the sunweavers that mentioned it. Probably Dusk, so I joined up. Being both a survivor and caregiver, I fit right in."

"What year was this?" I asked.

"2009," Rita answered, " I keep all my stuff in folders, and 2009 is the earliest RFL stuff I have."

I continued, "As I recall, quite a number of Sunweavers joined up with the Redheads."

"Yes, The Redheads was a great team," Rita added, "lots of us were in it. Pity that it had to disband, but I understand why and I support Sabine's decision."

I nodded, "What were some of your favorite events that it held?"

"Heck, I don't remember that far back. You would have to ask Dusk."

"With the Redheads gone, you stepped forward by founding a new team," I recalled.

"Yes," Rita answered, "Someone needed too. Pity that I haven't been able to attract all of the old Redheads back."

Becky Shamen, whom was nearby, commented, " ...and somebody...ahem...made clothes for the new team (smile)."

Rita briefly glanced over, then commented, "Yes, we have to thank Becky here for the classy Team Clothes she made for us."

"One group that often gets mentioned in the same sentence as the Sunweavers are the Angels" I brought up, "Do you consider yourselves the same community in Second Life, or two close ones?"

"Two close groups," Rita answered, "Nydia created the Angels for her own purposes, as I created the Sunweavers for mine." There was a slight typo, followed by an odd gesture, "Oops. Darn caps lock, didn't even notice until after (hitting the 'Enter' key)." Rita laughed, "I guess I was too busy staring at Sha's chest."

After a few jokes and snickers between the three of us, Rita got back on track, "but the Sunweavers are family. We look out for each other, help each other, care for each other. Like right now, several of us are working to get Jenni's PC working again."

"It's been having trouble?" I asked.

"It died, or at least the video card part," Rita answered, "but nothing we sent her as far as cards, worked. Her PC is just so OLD! I looked at my PC, the motherboard is $22, the processor $14! My PC was bought in 2006, Gateway GM5076E. One is a Dell, the other a HP."

"Besides the Relay," I brought up, "recently the Sunweavers have recently gotten a place in the InWorldz grid."

"Yes, a toehold in Inworldz," Rita esplained, "Not really going to get a huge following until more sellers see a market there and put in vendors, especially for avatars. I have a purple vixen, on PMS."

I chuckled, "Oh yes, your everyday avatar is a purple kani ... was there a special reason for this look?"

Rita answered, "When I saw the Kani bunny I loved the look. And since I am not a lover of PINK, I chose purple for me, just to be different. I have several other colors too, I can put on if needed. I wear pink, only on special occassions. ...  I don't mind Pink on others, just doesn't work for me."

Rita then turned to another subject, her squad of alts, "As for the Sawyers, when I decided to create them, I went totally Black for them."

"Oh yes the Sawyers, Why were they made?" I asked.

"Primarily to help out on Tiny Empires and Tiny Empires 3000," Rita answered, "To give folks with no subjects or subordinates someone."

"I've noticed there's often a few around at Cutlass parties," I commented.

"Yes," she told, "I am personally maxed out on ships and credits in TE3K, so I have one of them around to feed ships to them, as the offer comes up. I cycle through them, bring each one up to a certain level, before swapping them out for the next one."

"And dressed in theme, I've noticed," I recalled.

"Oh, each sawyer represents a major investment in time and Lindens." Rita informed.

I commented, "I've noticed a few different avatars among them, bunny, bat, pony ..."

"Each Sawyer has a Kani, EP Pony, Felis," she told me, "plus I am trying to find them a unique avatar for themselves, but it needs to be available, in black. Plus I send them out for clothes shopping too."

Becky, who was still nearby, wryly remarked with a grin, "I think Rita likes the smell of burning money."

Rita laughed, "They burn 5-6,000 (Lindens) in clothes. So by the time I am done with each Sawyer with avatars, AO, clothes, etc, I have 20,000 lindens in them. Also the Tiny Empire HUDS they aren't cheap, when you get the compacts and fed hud, plus bookkeeping add-on.  So my Sawyers are a major investment. And a couple of them have already been claimed," she laughed again, "Momma Gil has Claimed Sawyer 017, and Brandi has claimed Sawyer21."

"So when they're claimed, what happens," I asked.

"In a way, they are like their pets and/or sister/cousins," she answered, "Sawyer21 is my mouse and looks like Brandi."

"I imagine the Sawyers must mean quite a bit of multitasking," I commented, "and computer power.

"I have two desktops running," Rita explained.

"And the newer one handles the most?" I asked.

"Both desktops are roughly the same," she stated, "one has a little more RAM than the other. I bought the second one off eBay for $600."

"So, after the Relay is done, were there any future plans you had with the Sunweavers?" I asked.

Rita brought up a slideviewer show she was working on, "I try to talk those Sunnies who haven't contributed a photo of themselves, to do so. So I can put them in the slideviewers."

Becky brought up another issue, "You recently mentioned another trolly line. Albert and I were hoping for a road that connected the estate sims."

Rita answered her, "I would have to check with landowners about putting a bridge across the sims to their land."

"Most have cars or bikes," Becky expressed, "It would be fun to drive between all the sims."

"I will have to check with Nydia too," Rita stated, "She might build a road, don't know. ... they don't have the extra prims for a road."

After that, Rita got a call, "Well, Jeremiah needs my help, she is moving to here." She then  gave her farewell, and we went our separate ways.

If you want to meet up with the Sunweavers, drop by one of their parties at Club Cutlass on Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday at 6PM, Sunweaver Space (176/62/125). If you want to live at the Sunweaver Estates, contact Rita, Shockwave Yareach, Dusk Griswold, or Nydia Tungsten for information.

Image credit: Rita Mariner, Artistic Fimicloud

Bixyl Shuftan

Rita Mariner, Head of the Sunweavers

By Grease Coakes

I heard about the fledging Relay for Life group the Sunbeamers and that Rita Mariner has never been interviewed (gasp)! I figured I’d be the first furry to interview her as furries and humans have been dying to know all about Rita. One afternoon I saw Rita online and asked could I interview her. She said sure.

Rita Mariner, the head bunny of the furry group of the Sunweavers, took on the role of heading a new RFL team to combat cancer. She named her team the "Sunbeamers" and so far has five members. Rita worked hard for Sabine’s team the "Passionate Redheads" and was hurt when the team disbanded.


Rita is frustrated that her head builder Shockwave Yareach is busy with other things. But she seemed happy that in two events she raised $L50, 000. With a team of only 5 members? That’s really good, considering how 50K Linden equals $200 in the US dollar. That averages out to 10,000L per member. Imagine if Rita had 20 members she could get 200k Linden easily. Rita hopes to get more people to join her team the Sunbeamers over time. She said in the near future that the Sunbeamers might hold an event at the New Bastogne Sim. She wasn’t sure of the date and I didn’t want to type something that wasn’t concrete.

Rita Mariner, "Bixyl Shuftan, Gil Otaared, Jenni Greenfield, Acis Tigerpaw, Cynthia Farshore, Shockwave Yarearch, are the main members. I added a few of my Sawyers to flesh it out."

Rita describes her alt account Sawyer bunnies as pretty faces to promote her Sunbeamers like arm candy. I joked I wouldn’t mind a Sawyer bunny and Rita answered some aren’t bunnies though. One is a mouse the other is a chinchilla.

Rita Mariner, "You are getting to be as bad as Gil and Brandi. They have already stolen two of my
Sawyers." *laughs*

I told Rita her Ritaness is rubbing off on me.

Rita spends a small fortune on her Sawyers which number over 60. She buys her Sawyers nice
clothes a nice AO along with nifty HUD/s.

Rita also plays "Dungeons and Dragons," the popular role playing game with her buddies with Skype and maptool. I told her I also roleplay with the MLP/Fallout crossover in SL.

Rita Mariner, "Ranchan, Kaarla, me and Windy. Shocky is on hiatus, at the moment." Rita plays bi-weekly as the ranger, which is the only ranged attacker. Rita says the game has been pretty rough as she added this, "I was expecting to die for the 3rd time, last game, but somehow I survived." Later on while DJing, I played "Staying Alive" the disco song for Rita at a Club Cutlass event in her honor.

I asked Rita what her fave hangouts were. She said Club Zero Gravity, the Bubblegum Factory, as well the Lighthouse. Rita said Club Zero Gravity was from one of her older sims called Pockwock.

I noticed that Rita’s Sawyer bunnies were holding the MLP dolls.  Rita told me that you can try once per day at 3 different vendors on a MLP sim. Rita said that Applejack is her fave pony having the most common sense of all the ponies on the MLP show. She also shared this video with me which is really funny.

Rita Mariner seems like a confident leader to inspire her new RFL team and an interesting bunny to hang out with who likes roleplaying and the MLP fad. She changes avatars on occasion, but is almost always a bunny and likes to hang out with her fellow Sunweavers. I’d say the Sunweavers group is lucky to have a great bunny as Rita to be their head bunny.

Grease Coakes

After the Redheads, Not One Team But Two

By Bixyl Shuftan

It was last week in which the Relay for Life team the "Passionate Redheads" officially disbanded. Although this move was expected by some in the group, the reaction was still sadness, even tears. One expressed that the Redheads were her introduction to the Relay For Life, and this move made her feel she was saying goodbye to a good friend.


A few days later, there was another announcement from  Redhead Co-Captain Dusk Griswold, whom felt there was a need for further explanations.


First off, this decision was not done lightly. I gave it a lot of thought ever since the end of last year's Relay, and after several months, my thought was it was time to start fresh.  Lom, Sabine, and I discussed things, and we were in full agreement that it was time for a change.

I do want to make it clear it was not any single event that lead to this decision. I don't feel it is the Redheads way to point fingers or place blame on anyone, and I will not do that. I will say that several events from last year contributed to the decision, but was not the only factor.  A big factor is just plain burnout. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes, and I know Sabine was seriously burned out. I am also burned out, to the point where I may not even join a team this year, although I will still be attending events and helping when needed. 

Even before the decision to disband, there was some talk among some about a new team. And on Friday Jan 25th came an announcement from the Sunweaver community, of whom many of their numbers were part of the Relay team. Rita Mariner, the community's leader, would be forming a new team to take the place of the Redheads.


Sunnies:  For those of you who know what the Relay For Life is, It's the International Fight Against Cancer.  We Relay once a Year to raise money to continue the fight.  Anyways, the Passionate Redheads Team has disbanded, so I have started up a new team, the Sunbeamers, to replace it.  If you are an old Passionate Redheads member and want to join the new team, welcome.  New member, join up?  Contact me.


Rita Mariner wasn't alone in planning a new team. The following day, there was an announcement from Redhead Co-Captain Lomgren Smalls.

I know Rita has already announced her new RFL team following the retirement of the Redheads, but I have also been planning on captaining a new team this year.  That's what happens when we don't talk about our plans, heh.

I am planning on calling the team "Micro Madness," and everyone is welcome to join, micro or not, human or furry/etc.  If you have already joined Rita's team, that's great, and I'm not intending this to be a competition about which team is better.  Let's fight cancer TOGETHER!


These wouldn't be the only two teams to come from the Passionate Redheads. In 2011, a number walked off and formed a team of their own, the "Inspired Dream Walkers." In a 2011 interview, then Co-Captain Daaneth Kivioq commented they thought the team had become too large.

Dusk commented in the second part of her announcement that in her opinion, it didn't matter whom was on what Relay team, as long as they were in the Relay.


... I feel that the RFL and the teams are really about people, not the teams. It doesn't really matter what you call yourselves, we are all in the same fight, and I do hope everyone will still keep fighting. We had a great run, and have a lot to be proud of.  I don't see this as quitting or giving up, but rather a chance to renew and start fresh. It's always been a personal belief that even good things eventually come to an end, but I also feel when one door is closed, another opens. I don't know what the future will bring for us, but I am excited about it, I am looking at this as a chance to move on and do great things.

As long as we Relay and fight cancer with passion, the spirit of the Redheads will live on. Let's never forget that passion, and why we do this. It has been a great honor to have you all on the same team, and I look forward to working with you  again as we keep fighting the good fight.


And so, the former Redheads are starting to adjust to going to the Relay without the banner they'd Relayed under, for some the only one they knew. With the Kickoff still a month and a half away, much can still happen. But what is certain is the struggle to fight cancer goes on, and the former Redheads will be going ahead with the Relay.

The Second Life Newspaper office makes it's home in the HV Community sim, next to the Sunweaver sims.

Bixyl Shuftan

Shockwave and the Sunweaver Movie Night

For a couple of years Shockwave Yareach has been treating the Sunweavers and any guests on their land to a movie night here in the land of Second Life. "Movies in SL? Never!" Well, actually it’s true. Shockwave every Sunday night at 6pm SL time, 9pm east coast time of the US, has picked a movie to show the Sunweavers. The Sunweavers being the furry group headed by Rita Mariner. I joined her group long ago and I never had a reason to drop them.

Long ago when I first learned about Shock’s movie night, the first movie I saw was the "Star Wars Christmas Special." I remembered a friend’s warning in real life to never watch it. Be warned though this movie is completely wretched I was only able to watch it with friends to make fun of it.  It also came complete with retro commercials. In Shock’s words it’s a neat time capsule, "Oh it's epically bad.  But it's so bad it's funny and with all the commercials, it is a great time capsule."

But don’t lose heart. Shockwave plays excellent movies as well as bad from new to old school. One time I mentioned I never saw the old animated movie “The Last Unicorn.” My friend Tantari Kim said it was a good movie that was a little scary for kids. Shockwave was nice enough to play that movie for me. I was surprised as it was like a bottle of old wine that aged well and was a joy to watch.

A couple other movies that come to mind was "UHF," the classic movie with Weird AL the oddball songwriter which makes parodies of popular songs. "Summer Wars" was an excellent Japanese animated film. It explored a near future where everyone had an avatar to explore the Internet, with someone’s avatar wrecking it. The animation was wonderful with amazing action. Shock also played “The Avengers” which just came out on DVD. I saw that in the theater recently and enjoyed watching it a second time.

Shockwave said the movie night for the Sunweavers was started by Jaxx Tardis. Sadly Jaxx was laid off in real life, so Shockwave took over. The pair still work together on the file conversions for every movie. I wished Jaxx good luck on finding a new job.

In addition to being the movie man for the Sunweavers or as Shockwave says “The Sunnies,” Shockwave also composes music parodies. Nydia Tungsen told me that he also wrote a funny song. Everyone might have heard the song “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” Shock wrote a parody of it one Christmas season. All I can say was Grandma was drunk and regretted doing something with a reindeer. 

Shockwave has played lots of movies almost every week for his fellow Sunnies. If you would like to check out a movie night ask Rita Mariner for an invite to her group the Sunweavers. Shockwave has started a trend as the Disney cartoon movie "Robin Hood” was played at the furry club Anthroxtacy. Shockwave also takes requests. I mentioned not seeing "The Last Unicorn" and he put it as the movie the following week. He generally plays sci-fi movies, animated movies, and anything that goes with the season. Shockwave announces in the group chat what movie is showing and he’s a friendly guy to boot.

Grease Coakes

Editor's Note: Middle picture from the showing of "Madagascar 3." 

Passionate Redneads’ “Bid Rita Human” Raises Nearly 75,000 Lindens

Rita Mariner, the owner and “Chieftess” of the Sunweaver Estates, has emerged as this year’s champion fundraiser among the Passionate Redneads. But this honor came at a price. Her coat of fur.

Rita, the proud and confident leader of the Sunweavers, has been known to change her avie on occasion, but has always been known for her purple kani bunnygirl look. Following the success of two “Bid Me Human” events held by the Passionate Redheads, Rita volunteered for one of her own. If anyone would get a lot of attention from those among the Passionate Redheads also in the Sunweaver group, surely she would, and in the process raise a lot of Lindens.

The two previous events of this kind had gone differently. The first resulted in the volunteer having to spend a month without his fox avie (a few events excepted). In the second, the three week period the vixen would have had to gone furless was suspended after a larger donation came in to keep her foxy.

One thing was gone to make sure this event would be a bit different from both. There would be two kiosks for the event, one for those voting with their lindens to bid Rita human. The other would be for those donating to keep her a “purple bun-bun.” A minimum of 5,000 Lindens was needed to get her to change, both kiosks counting to the total, plus an additional day for every 1,000 raised. *But* the total on the “human” kiosk had to be at least one linden over the “furry” one. Otherwise the bunny would escape without as much as a moment as human. The event was set for Tuesday from 5 to 7 PM SL time.


Join the Passionate Redheads Relay For Life of Second Life team for “Bid Rita Human ... or NOT!” Tue Jun 28, 2011 5-7 PM SLT Come party with the Redheads while the bidding war for Rita Mariner becoming human begins! 5000 L$ for a week, then 1000 L$ per day after, but only if the human kiosk wins! Which will it be?


There was a little confusion about where the party would be, SL Newser mistakenly hearing it would be held as a special event at Club Cutlass. But instead like the first Redhead’s Bid Me Human it was held at Southern Colorado near Fimi Falls.

And at 5 PM, the Redheads, from the Sunweaver lands and elsewhere, began gathering at Southern Colorado. Friends from other teams were also there, such as Fuzzball from Team Steelhead whom showed up in the enormous wig he had promised to wear if his team went Platinum, this time dyed red. Besides the mix of human and furred avatars, there were a few of the “bronies,” plus one of the Sunweavers went feral fox for the night, musing he thought someone should represent the local wildlife. DJ Nydia Tungsten and Jenn Chant, normally foxy and feline respectively, went human for part of the event to symbolically "pass the torch," Nydia being the previous volunteer for a bid event.

From the start, the Lindens were coming in. Unlike the event with DJ Nydia, the money to bid Rita human was coming in quite fast. The tough landlady wasn’t exactly drawing the same reluctance from those in furry avs to make her go tailless for a while, nor from the normal humans, “Skin her! Skin her!” The $5,000 was soon raised, and Rita was set to spend at least a week as human. But the purple bunny wasn’t going down without a fight. She added some cash to the furry kiosk, sending a message if the Relayers if they wanted a little fun at her expense, they’d have to fork over a lot more for it. And over time, the amount was slowly matched.


It's close (21:09:49 )The bidding is hot and heavy to get Rita human. 26149L's for her to be human, 25153 for her to stay furry ( but she put in 25K in that one). So come help us keep the balance in human favor!!


The party went on for a while with more coming in. Then with ten minutes to spare, Rita put in another six thousand Lindens. Unless almost 5,000 more was raised, her cottontail would get away. So the Redheads and friends reached a little deeper in their pockets. But with one minute to go, they were still 1,000 short. Last-minutes amounts came in from tens of Lindens to a few hundred came in, and at the last second the human kiosk won.


And It's HUMAN! Well, looks like the Sunweavers will be having a human Chieftess for a while. The results are in, 36903 vs 37909. It's Human by a nose. A final total of 74812, which is 76 days as human for Rita. Let's hope she has plenty of sunscreen for those days at the beach. Thanks again for your willingness to take one for the team Rita, or in this case take seventy-six, and Go Redheads!

And as promised, the Sunweaver leader went from bunnygirl to human lady. Like the first event, it was an ethnic look. This time it was East Indian, with a silky gown. She was not exactly acting thrilled over it, despite a bunny whom tried to console her by dancing with her, “I was hoping to get friends to save my fur. Instead they bid me bald. ... 76 days, I think I will kill myself.” Other friends tried to reassure her as well, “Samara knows the best places to shop.” “Thank you to everyone who came over to make this a huge success. Its always scary to put yourself on the block!” “After this, we may end up with lower stakes, such as ‘ Bid me Mousey.’ “(How about) bid me barefoot?” “Heh, I'm already barefoot. (grin)”

The total in US dollars raised was impressive as well, Team Captain Sabine McGettigan announcing, of the total raised this year, “$2199 is what we have raised so far! That's REAL MONEY! Can you believe it? It’s like ... a CAR!” Daaneth Kivioq soon had an announcement of his own, “Actually - its 2500 USD now by the website.” It was also announced that since the founding of the Passionate Redheads team, they had raised a total of $30,500 US dollars.

Already the team was looking forward to further events. Lomgren Smalls announced his new RFL microkitty would soon be available for purchase, in male and female versions. And of course in Sabine’s words, “Less than three weeks to Relay!” The Walk would be soon.

For those of you wishing to meet Rita Mariner to give her a few words of thanks, she frequently appears at Club Cutlass on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 6 to 8 PM.

Bixyl Shuftan