Aren't you a little short to be a Storm Trooper?

Well, the costume finally got finished. And if I do say so myself, it is an awesome costume.



Danny really liked it and it got LOTS of "That's the best costume we saw all night!" comments when we were out trick or treating.

If you want to make your own, go here and get the full scoop. It only took about 20 or 30 hours or so. If you like watching contact cement dry, this is your project.

Friends

I have a lot of good friends. Here are just two of them.

I like to know what my friends like and what amuses them. I like to know what is important to them and how their lives are going. I like to spend time with them and learn something new about them that I never knew. I like to do things for my friends. I like to hear them laugh and see them smile.

My life would be so much less without my friends. That's why I invest so much just to be with them. The time I spend with friends is precious to me; in the moment, I never want it to end.

If you are my friend, thanks. It really means a lot to me.

Fun at Faire

In contrast to all the non-fun that I had at faire last year. THIS year, I have had fun. Lots of fun.








Step 1 - Middle Class, not noble. I just couldn't carry off the improvisation without the history and remembering lots of names and other facts that would make it work. In Middle Class, the costume is more comfortable, the acting is easier and I can be more at ease.

Step 2 - Keep moving. Staying stuck to one place isn't as much fun as hamming it up in the street.

Step 3 - Pick a role that you can really inhabit. I'm playing a steward - the fellow in charge of the lord's household. That suits me. I end up playing *host* a lot, which I really like to do anyway.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Folsom Faire, the last renaissance faire this year. I'm looking forward to it for the playing and for being with friends. In two weeks - Dickens Christmas Fair begins, well workshops start, and that's when the fun begins anyway. Wheeeeee!

Yay it works again!

Our router here at the casa was going sicko on us about a few times a month, then a few times a week, then about five times a day. Internet connection would drop and sadness would grip the household. So we got a new one. Of course it arrived while I was at work, then since I stopped along the way home to pick up a pop up travel trailer, Andy got home from work first and proceeded to set it up and rescue us from disconnection hell.

Oh yeah, the trailer. It's a biggun as far as popups go and we're storing it for a friend. So I backed it into the driveway. Yes, it was tricky. It involved 2X6's and a neighbor. There is a reason that I'm not a professional trailer backer upper.

And our honorary daughter Amy pointed out that I failed to blog about the gardening exploits in the pool yard. So here goes:
Medium sized tree - out
thorn-less fruitless overgrown blackberries - out (Sharon did this and it was amazing)
Fence - built
Gate - built
7 plants - planted (I only dug two holes on this one)
drip system - check
pavers - check
GIANT pile of brush to be removed - still in the yard

Just in time for the holidays

(Picture from here)

The holidays are coming like it or not. In less than a month, the second biggest holiday in the USA will be celebrated, and it's all about dead people and candy. Because dead people and candy go together at least as well as someone rising from the dead and candy.

Now, I like holidays as much as the next guy; really, I do. It's just that the whole basis and meaning and practice of holidays is such a jumble of myths and symbols and rituals that it just seems a skosh weird to me. The pagan traditions were co-opted by the Christians and then the mass commercialization came into play in this century, then the political corrections crept in and the attempt was made to *mainstream* other cultural holidays, and to create new ones for balance... It's gotten out of hand people.

I'm not proposing any solutions here, like the metric system for holidays. But I would like to see things get simpler. I'd like to see holidays in the latter part of the year get separated, and celebrated for just one day instead of a whole month at a time. I'd like to see Halloween decorations for a few days before the end of October, not beginning on October first.

Of course I'm not helping things by participating in the Dickens Christmas Fair, which runs from the day after Thanksgiving to the day before Christmas eve this year. I wouldn't miss it for anything, but it does feel a wee bit premature to pretend that it's Christmas eve on the day after Thanksgiving.

But rest assured that the holidays will come and go, just like every other year, starting on October first and ending in April when the Easter candy runs out. In the middle there will be lots of celebration, Jimmy Stewart movies, eating and drinking, reflection and forgiveness, presents, SALES, travel, family reunions, cards, and lots and lots of candy. (Who doesn't like candy?)