Mom's Blog Book

The book I made from Mom's Blog and gave her a copy for Christmas:

Sirius

Thoughts from a Tra...

By Dannielle Leaverton

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The Cat Lady Observation

On Saturday, at approximately 12:15pm, my fellow explorer, Pamela Clark, and I departed for the wild unknowns of Puyallup. There had been a report that a flock of Cat Ladies were descending upon the Puyallup Fair Grounds. As this was a rare opportunity for sighting this often sequestered segment of the population, we were determined not to miss this opportunity.
At the entrance of the enclosure where the Cat Ladies were thought to be flocking, we were arrested by the sight of an even rarer specimen…the volunteering boy. He was clearly the gatekeeper of the enclosure for he looked directly at us with expectation on his face. We had come prepared for this encounter and were well stocked with the proper greens to sate this voracious specimen, but for good measure, we also included some of our provisions to sweeten the deal, namely: a can of chicken broth and a can of string beans. The volunteering boy went on about his business when the deal was struck, after giving us a map and manual for the wilds beyond that we were to face in our quest for the Cat Ladies.
We did not have to look far before we came upon our first sighting of a flock of Cat Ladies. I must say, the first ones we encountered were fine examples of the population. The mission of these particular cat ladies was to find unattached felines in the wild and bring them back to the collective for use in converting the unwary to their way of life. We skillfully dodged their overtures. Pam used the feline allergy tactic and I used the two feline max rule for apartments. Everyone knows that to become a Cat Lady, one must possess a number of felines which, in total volume, requires more food than the average human male. Ergo, apartment dwellers that are compliant with rules are safe.

The second flock we came upon we could only assume were Cat Ladies because though they had no felines present, their knowledge of felines in general was extremely vast. Other confirmed Cat Ladies brought forth their felines to be inspected by this flock. In fact, all who were present treated this flock like revered village elders. They spoke in whispers around them and took all compliments or insults from them with either great joy or great disappointment. They never challenged the opinions of this flock of elders either. We can only conclude from this evidence that they were not only Cat Ladies, but what we must now refer to as Super Cat Ladies. It is assumed that Super Cat Ladies are in possession of extremely large numbers of felines at their respective domiciles.

We spent most of our time observing and photographing the Cat Ladies who had evidence with them of their membership to the population. Next to each Cat Lady, was a folding table on which was placed a large cage. The cages held large numbers of felines in all stages of growth. The cages were highly decorated as is the practice of the Cat Lady culture. Most decorations reflected a traditional upcoming holiday which most of the present population were known to celebrate. Routinely at periodic intervals, a super cat lady would step up to a device which would increase the volume of her voice and issue orders. Several of the Cat Ladies would uncage only one of their felines and bring it to the Super Cat Ladies and a cycle of inspection followed by compliments to a select few of the Cat Ladies with which a decorative ribbon would be given. If the Cat Lady had already received a decorative ribbon, she would instead be given a small metallic gold piece of paper which was sticky on one side and had writing on the other. This would be fixed upon the decorative ribbon under the original paper given with the ribbon.

Surrounding the main flock of Cat Ladies, were the expected predators, who would lure a Cat Lady into their lair by displaying what we could only term as bait. After the Cat Lady had provided the predators with the proper greens, they would be allowed back out into the flock. The Cat Lady got to keep the bait and therefore did not seem upset at all at the behavior of the predators. This symbiotic relationship seemed to please all involved. We came up with a theory that the predators where in fact mislabeled by previous explorers and we opine that the proper term for them would in fact be “enablers” (paper and proper documentation to follow).
At 3:15 pm, we concluded our observations as we had gathered sufficient data. We departed the enclosure with mutual satisfaction of a mission well executed. We successfully navigated out of the wilds of Puyallup, which required no small amount of skill and equipment. I attribute the success of our departure to the skill and foresight of my companion. We thoroughly debriefed the mission in transit. We then adjourned to a local establishment in civilized territory to seek some sustenance.

Two New Demos for Dad's Website

I don't know if the people who bookmark Dad's website pay this much attention but we always do new demos at Thanksgiving. And this Thanksgiving was no exception. I did a little card weaving for the first time EVER...and we filmed it. Heh...weaving it isn't the trick though. Stringing it is. But the fun for the demos is the weaving--seeing the tool in action, you understand. We also went to an assisted living center to listen to Dad's neighbor, Jack the engineer, play in a Bluegrass band. I striped off the music for the card demo. So it's our first demo with music:

Card Weaving on The Roller Beam Loom @ Yahoo! Video

For the second one, Mandy and Beth need a bunch of straps for some bags they are making done. Dad and I brought another Nakadai to her place and I started a pattern Mandy has never done before on it. I made the demo super quick like, so that she could finish the project on her own.

It's another silent one and the pattern is pretty easy but turns out rather cool and strappy:

A Pattern Demo for the Takadai @ Yahoo! Video

So...what do you think?

Etsy

Well, I'm an internet seller consultant here in Pomeroy, WA. I just helped Anna, one of Dad's Neighbors, make an Esty Shop. See:



I made the banner for her (above), and walked her through posting items. The first two mini-boxes we did together.

If you feel so inclined, send Anna some feedback, okay?

Neck Less Army

Everyone, who is not a spelling genius, has a word that—no matter what—they always need the spell checker to get right. At least I hopes so. For me that word is necessary. Hmm…that’s a bit confusing way to put it. I know…quotes. For me that word is “Necessary”. I can’t begin to fathom all the ways I’ve misspelled that word and I swear I never get past it without that red zigzag line showing up under it. So I am determined to banish that word from my spelling handicap. It is nessissary..er…crucial to do!
But how to do it…nine letters…three squared. I could play the license game with it. We used to do this…WA state plates are three numbers and three letters and as we’re driving, Mandy and I would come up with words that use all three letters in order (they can be divided by other letters but not rearranged). For example, my license plate has SSR on it—therefore necessary would actually be a winning word for it. So since my word has nine letters that can be three license plates: NEC – ESS – ARY
That’s easy. NEC just needs a K to be ‘NECK’. ESS also just needs one letter to become ‘LESS’ and if you add an M to ARY, you’d get ARMY (Mary is a proper noun). So to spell NECESSARY you’d just think “Neck Less Army” and remember to drop the K, L, and M.
Hmm…kinda tricky. I think it’s neseccary…er…essential to try something else. Jimmy Cricket taught me to spell encyclopedia by singing it. Nine letters would necessessitate...er…call for a three note song. Not a lot of those out there that ends after three measures. I thought “Three Blind Mice” immediately but only 9 note sort of leaves you hanging: En-Ee-See, Ee-Es-Es, Aa-Ar-Why…Why am I caught up here on a high note…where’s the rest of the song? A longer word is nesscary…er…needed.
NEC-ESS-ARI-LY is 2 more with is eleven and a prime number…divisible by one and itself. Yuck! NEC-ESS-ITA-TED has four bars of three beats…easier. Still…not much further in the song. Alas! We’re losing focus here.
Another method is necceccary…er…required
Could always go with the old stand-by: the super long acronym. Just gotta come up with a title or better yet a sentence that starts with the letters of NECESSARY. N could be nice. That’s nice…lot’s of them use nice. Adjective. Very flexible. E followed by C…well I love cats so I know I want to use Cats for C so that means I need another adjective for E….hmm…Excited? Yes, cats can be excited…maybe…if they’re toying with their food before eating it. E equals eat. You should see Eve with a spider. Wait…I need an S! Spider! Two SS…silly spider? Not bad…okay. ARY…already got subject, verb and object…if I go with And for A I could add another object R Y…what’s some cat food that begins with Y? Difficult. I can think of an animal…a yak…Sesame Street Standby for Y limericks. But cats don’t eat Yaks…unless they were really small and we’re talking about a big cat like a lion. Small…R…Runty! Runty Yaks…but why would a lion bother with Silly Spiders.
Oh well…better not think too hard on it.
So we have: “Nice Excited Cats Eat Silly Spiders and Runty Yaks”.
Whoa…now that’s really REALLY dumb.
One begins to wonder if all this is neccessary…er…obligatory. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to spell it without the nesescary..er…indispensable spell check? Well…could always write it over and over again.
But if I’m going to do that, might as well not waste it. I should blog it! Yeah! What a good idea! Let’s try that…(continued at the top of page)

Faux Glass

My latest polymathic pursuit is making faux stain glass using Deco Art's Liquid Rainbow. How did I get started on this? Well I was wandering through the paint section of the Joann's and I saw this blank plastic sheet. I wondered what it was for. It didn't take much looking to find an instruction book explaining that this plastic sheet was for paint which would dry into a window cling. It starts with Leading Paint:

You wait a couple of hours for it to dry then you fill in with the color paint. It's cloudy to start and looks like this:

But it dries to a surface that mimics stained glass. The colors take a lot longer to dry and they'll tear if it's not thick enough so I often add another layer if I can. You then slowly peal it off the clear plastic and it's ready to go up on a window like this:

And Ta-Da! Elly has a new fad hobby which should keep her happy until Christmas at least.

Mom's Trip to the ER

Mom had muscle pains in the muscles attached to the top of her rib cage and collar bones. They were sharp piercing pains which were worse when she breathed in and out. They could be controlled by pain killers and moving slower. She’d been moving boxes from one storage stall to the other for the past two days and she’s more than a little stressed. They persisted for a few days so she was worried. Finally, she called the 800 Nurse on the back of her insurance card and asked what to do.
She heard: ‘chest pains’ out of that whole description, but she said it didn’t sound like a heart attack. However if someone has chest pains you send them to the hospital period, end of story. If you don’t and it is a heart attack, then you get sued big time. “Just in case,” she told Mom.
So we went down to the emergency room in Auburn.
In triage they heard ‘chest pains’ and also ‘good insurance’ but still we waited for 1.5 hours to get in to see a doctor. There was a long line, you see, and lots of ambulances coming and going which you couldn’t see from where we were.
The doctor said, “It doesn’t sound like anything more than pulled muscles, all the evidence suggests I should just give you pain medications and send you home, but this is the emergency room and here we must handle ‘chest pains’ by thoroughly checking that it is not your heart. So I will give you a blood test, an electrocardiogram, and a CT Scan before I release you.”
So we read our books for an hour then they came by and took her for one of the above. He came back and said “All clear on that one. Here have some morphine for the pain.”
So we read our books for an hour then they came by and took her for another one of the above. He came back and said “All clear on that one.”
So we read our books for an hour then they came by and took her for the last one of the above. He came back and said “All clear on that one. You can go home.”
It was now 2:15 am in the morning. We’d arrived at 6:45pm.
The next day Mom went to her primary care doctor who said, “Yep, muscle pain and stress. FYI that machine of yours you are walking around in has been running for over 60 years—go easy on it. No lifting. That’s what young people are for.”
Memo to Dr. Turner from this machine I’m walking around in: “Thanks a lot! Ouch!”
So let’s look back on this experience…they say:

Single payer will mean long lines

• long lines now, check

Single Payer will mean tons of bureaucracy

• Triage—scanned insurance card
• Second Triage—signed some papers
• While lying in room—paid $75 co-pay for emergency room visits
• Tons of just-in-case policy-says tests—there until 2:30am
• Need I say more?

Government will mess it up

• Someone with chest pains waits for 1.5 hours to be seen, I think we’re doing a fine job of messing it up already.

My Bucket List

No, I don’t have terminal cancer like in the movie, but Mom encouraged me to do this the other day because, right now, I’m feeling adrift in the waters of life. It’s time to get my boat pointed in a direction and go.
The nice thing about a healthy person’s bucket list I find is that they can be filled with single experiences like the movie as well as life-long goals.
Without further ado, here are the things I’d like to do before I kick the bucket:
1. Own someplace to make and perform with puppets
2. Pass the Level 3 Japanese proficiency test
3. Go to an international puppetry festival
4. See the Great Wall of China
5. Visit Australia
6. Write a novel
7. Make a self-published book online
8. Build a Punch and Judy set of puppets
9. Enter a puppetry competition for an award
10. Go back to Japan
11. Visit Outer Space (why not?)
12. Find & Frequent my own Harmonia Gardens or Cheers bar
13. Make a Victorian Costume
14. Go on a Kayak overnight trip
15. Perform in another Shakespearian Play
16. Make a YouTube Web Show
17. Live in a really big city for a while

Ms. Leaverton goes to 915 2nd Ave. Rm 2988 Seattle

These Organizing for America emails I’ve been getting lately really sort of pull you into the notion that you matter in this whole thing, don’t they? I’m just one person…just one voter…but if I call my senator or send her an email or post to her Facebook page or visit her office, I could make a difference in how she votes. What are my odds, huh? Sort of like playing the lottery…accept there’s some skill and effort involved. What skill? Well, I think to be heard you’d better have something unique to say and be able to say it with style. Then add a little luck…that what you wrote or said has enough style to catch the eye or appeal to one of her staff. That staff person might then have the power to bring it to the attention of another staff person a little closer to Her Senatorialness who can show it to her. And if what you said has true impact and sound-byte quality perhaps she might remember it…use it in a speech if it jives with how she wants to vote. If it doesn’t jive, well it won’t make it past the first staff person, let alone influence her vote.
These are the things you tell yourself when you get those emails. It’s the way you justify sweeping it into your trash folder. But sooner or later, they’ll get to you. You see, we all want to believe that our opinion matters. So if someone keeps telling us it does enough times…we might be tempted to go forth and take some sort of action—as I did when the Chief (hale to him) asked me (and a million others) to visit my Senator’s office.
I had one more road block to overcome…that being the classic “Who has the time to go all the way over to their senator’s office?” especially in Seattle, where going anywhere is a chore, I mean…how dare they ask me to take some of my valuable time and go…how far? I don’t know. Better google it…um…let’s see, a click here and a link there and…TWO WHOLE BLOCKS! So much for that road block. *grumble grumble* All right, all right all ready! I’ll go. So today, on my way to get my mail from the UPS store, I detoured to the office of Senator Patty Murray.
There’s a metal detector you’ve got to go through…yep…show some ID. Then you gotta ride the world’s fastest elevator (be sure to pop your ears) up to the 29th floor (not quite the highest room in the tallest tower but still)! And then there you are, facing two lovely receptionists…who have by this time collected quite a stack of fliers Organizing for America asked you to fill out and bring with you. With a little prompting & some friendly banter, you can get them to tell you all about the other yahoos that Organizing for America sent in. They’ll even show you the stack of fliers. Some people signed up on the website thinking that they would get a meeting with the Senator…walked right in and announced “I have an appointment.” Some expected to meet with a staff person! At this, I had to ask the young lady who she thought she was if not a staff person of Senator Murray? She smiled and said the others wanted to talk to a Senatorial Staff Person (with a capital SS&P). I told her that once again, I was pretty sure she counted for that too.
I then asked the question that all probably do at some point, “Does it matter more that I showed up at the office with this flier filled out and handed it in in-person than if I say…mailed it or called it or emailed it in?”
She smiled again and replied, “Oh yes, I’ll tell Senator Murray that every one of these fliers was brought in. She’ll enjoy reading them.”
See? I knew I was talking to the right person. Who wants to talk to some inflated ego SSP? They’d bungle the job no doubt, they have no paper skills and they’re busy writing clever speeches on their High-Powered Laptops anyhow. It’s the front desk lady you want. She’s the master of paper…and she’s the one the Senator smiles and greets every single morning she’s in town because she’s the only guaranteed one to have a desk that the Senator has to walk by to get to her own. She’s the gatekeeper for the masses. Diss on her to your own detriment—this woman is the true conduit to power for the little people. She’s really nice to you too, if you are really nice to her. I even found out that her mom’s an engineer too.

My Monday Morning Mystery

Yesterday, I lost my keys…not an unusual occurrence in my life but that’s the only part of this story that is. Sandy came over to try out puppetry with me. She and I also tried out my new rolling seats that Dad got me. I decided that they were a valuable thing behind stage. That means that I need two more. So we googled where the nearest Sears was…turns out that the Seatac Mall still has its, so we determined to go there. At this point I began the key dance. It’s set to the tune “Where are my keys?” chanted over and over again.
They are not a small set of keys. They have a huge green carabineer, my scion keys and the keyless entry remote, there are 2 retractors, one with Mom’s house keys on them and one with my UPS mail box key and all the store user cards on it, and finally, on a ring with no retractor is my luggage key and my key for my rolling file at work. The whole thing is huge and extends about a foot long—I have to remove the car keys from the carabineer to use it to drive, otherwise the long dangling keys hit my knees over and over again. So…not small.
I looked everywhere I could think of. Sandy helped too after it seemed to be taking me so long. We must have been at it for at least 20 minutes with no luck. Finally, we gave up and she drove us to the Mall. When I got home again, I was determine not to sleep without finding them. I looked for hours…I folded and cleaned…I unmade and remade the bed. I tried to put myself into a trance telling myself to retrace my steps…I lost a few hours there to sleep…heh. I one point I put on a re-enactment of the night before when I got back from the movies and arrived back home. Finally, after hours and hours of cleaning, rearranging, and searching, at about 2 am, I decided to get more sleep. As I drift off to sleep, instead of counting sheep, I repeated over and over “I will wake up remembering exactly where I last saw my keys”. This sort of thing has worked in the past and I was at my wits end.
I woke up the next morning to the chicken alarm, which I didn’t set, to find my keys in bed with me. They were under the covers next to my leg. If you read back a few paragraphs, you will find that I did at one point unmake and remake my bed. How did they get there? That’s my Monday Morning Mystery.
I have some theories…first, I walked in my sleep and continued to search, found them and took them back to bed with me. If I can do that, then I certainly can also set the chicken clock, too. I’m not someone who has been known to walk in my sleep, however. But the rest of my theories are crazier.
My second is the cats played with the keys the night before, hid them, then retrieved them last night, played with them again, then brought them to bed and tucked them under the covers with me. Yeah…oh and set the chicken clock. Are cats that amazing?
The third, and most scary is that some evil stalker stole into my room Saturday night, took my keys and copied them, then returned them last night…tucking them under the covers with me. His motives unknown, but somehow he was able to pick a locked door the night before because I do remember locking it. This nefarious person has also to be in possession of the fact that I am a deep sleeper—so they would know that tucking keys in bed with me would not wake me. They would also need to be aware that I am sleeping in a strange room of the house—not a huge leap if one considers this person should’ve been watching me for many nights. Plus they should also know how to work the stupid chicken clock, which is some what counter intuitive.
Fourth, some friend or family of mine played an evil joke on me…like that’s in character for any of them. Plus all of my family are over six hours drive from me, except of course if it was my estranged husband who did it. That would be less out of character than you think…he’s known as a practical joker. Except, who plays jokes on someone they are desperate to get free of and clearly do not love?
Fifth, call the Ghostbusters, because there’s always the supernatural angle to consider. A poltergeist is enjoying itself by taking and moving things. If I believed in supernatural phenomena, I might be intrigued by the idea. But I don’t.
Alas, we must consider that all things being equal, the simplest theory is the most likely, so the only thing that makes logical sense is that I continued to search in my sleep. But that raise more questions…why was I better able to find something while asleep? Why did I disturb nothing else? Why did I decide to take the keys back to bed with me? Lastly, why did I set the chicken clock when I knew that there was 2 other clocks already set?
What do you think?

On Laughing

My friend Pam is a very loud laugher; she's also very easy to make laugh. When she came to see my show, we were all energized to have her out there laughing. I have now been to three theater productions with her, and she is free with her laughter at all times. This last Saturday we attended The Comedy of Errors free in the park in Bremerton. She thoroughly enjoyed it. I did notice once again that most of the audience twittered, giggled, or snickered softly, sometimes behind a hand as if they were watching TV or a Movie. Not Pam, and Pam was the only one that the actors came up and thanked for laughing. More than one said she had a great laugh and it was wonderful to hear it. It gave them instant positive feedback, you see, made them walk taller in spirit and do even better on stage.
We've all been trained to laugh quietly by movies and TV. "How?" you ask. It's because TV and Movies never stop and let you laugh anymore. The older ones used the laugh-track which folks were bothered by, now some of the better ones perform before a live audience. But most of the time the shows just proceed merrily along from one laugh line to the next with the merest pause in between. So you've got to laugh softly or you might miss something. In a movie it's even worse. They tell you "Silence is Golden". We are so programmed to laugh softly, that we get annoyed if anyone does laugh out loud.
My cousins once went to a movie with my mother Mary and afterwards told her they would never got to a funny movie with her again because she laugh so loud it embarrassed them!
When it comes to live theater though, laughing softly is the worst thing you can do. The actors get no energy from the soft laugh which can easily be considered a polite chuckle. To an actor, the polite chuckle is the sign that your show is falling flat. Theater is not TV. Those actors can see and hear you. They are trained to pause during a laugh so you don't miss anything. So don't be afraid to open the pipe and let out a guffaw, a roar, an LOL or even a ROTFLMAO. The show will be even better for it and the actors with thank you--and as we discovered, if the setting is small enough--they will literally thank you and shake your hand.

Two New Origami Videos

I'm trying out decorations these days. The following videos I made feature two decorative balls.

Origami 4 sider (20 sider) @ Yahoo! Video

This second one I call "Origami Christmas Tree" but it also is the basis for a decorative ball which I show at the end. The reason I choose to call it a tree, is because some feel that any origami creation which involves gluing is not an Origami creation. I stop at the tree, but I also show how many of the trees glued into a ball make a lovely decoration at the end.

Origami Christmas Tree @ Yahoo! Video

Why I want to stay with Frank forever

When I married Frank, there were no fireworks or deep attraction like those of the fairytales. There was a really good friendship. He was kind, friendly and thoughtful. He also seemed to have what I lacked: he wasn’t forgetful. He was incredibly observant of everything around him. I enjoyed going over an event with him afterward because it often was a completely different story from the one I’d experienced. I seemed to supply the things he was lacking. I was outgoing and gathered people around me. He relied on me to start things: friendships, networking, events, trips, haunted houses, clubs, and so on. I relied on him to keep things going. With friendships, I would get forgetful and distracted and wouldn’t remember to communicate. Frank is the ultimate loyal friend and good correspondent.

Also, we never seemed to argue…we’d have these intense discussions where we’d present things from our point of view in, I’m sure, what each of us thought was a logical manner. He was unflappable for the most part…he wasn’t the type to rage or hit. He also had what seemed like an infinite amount of patience—something anyone who would dare to brave a relationship with me would have to have. He also wasn’t intimidated by me. He’d always gone toe to toe with me in the dorm committee if he felt he was right. He wouldn’t back down. But he also listened to me…gave weight to what I said and was grateful for the conversation. He came to me in a difficult moment in his life, and I was surprised to discover that not only would he listen to my advice he would value it as well.

He was the first person in my life to do a very wonderful thing…he picked me to be on his team. He asked me to be on the swim team in fact. I know that seems childish—but all my life I was picked last for anything athletic. I was the one seen as a dead weight on any team. He believed in me. Not only that, but he helped me learn. He taught and encouraged me in the way to swim in races and never once did I ever get the feeling from him that he regretted his decision to ask me to join—and I looked for that—I dreaded finding it. I thought I would sooner or later but he never did. I don’t think he’s ever understood what that meant to me.

He was also willing to open up his hobbies to me and let me join. God, I loved every one of those gaming sessions! I still have my first character. He has a way to totally wrap you up in the world of his making…they were always his. Maybe a few ideas came from a book or two, but the creativity and imagination was all his. For the first time I realized that a good fantasy book or a day-dream wasn’t the only thing in this world that could transport you into another. He helped me build characters I truly loved in the same way I loved every role I ever played on stage. I didn’t think that wonderful feeling could be replicated elsewhere before I met him.

He and I could talk for hours. He was a practical joke player and I never got tired of hearing him tell the tales of his adventures in High School. I think I’ve made him tell every single story at least three times. Also, he was in theater like me…in the drama club. He told me he liked to perform and wasn’t scared of it. Then he proved it by joining me to play recorders during a Christmas program in front of a huge audience. He has a natural gift for music that I have always envied greatly. He’s never feared performing with me, and he’s willing learned new things to perform with me…like dancing. He’s taken classes and learned to do some ballroom dances—and then, once again, proven himself by trying it out in a public setting. It was at one of my company parties, or maybe a wedding. He danced with me, when others would’ve cowered and insisted they needed more lessons. He knew maybe five different steps, we did them over and over again and we smiled the whole way through. With the amazing confidence he approaches things like that, we shouldn’t have been surprised when people complimented us. (But we were!) It didn’t stop there…he learned contra-dancing too—something that was his and mine from the start. And if I ever had any doubt that he wanted to do it, they were put to rest by the fact that he went out and found the perfect shirt to dance in—he bought more than one too.

He got along great with my mothers too, except when they ragged on me, then he would rise to my defense immediately. I never doubted for a moment that he was on my side, and my mothers liked him even more for that. Plus he put up with my father…not an easy task for any Son-in-law. My father tested and tried his patience to the extreme, but Frank never asked me to step in between. (Dad did.) He dealt with my Dad without putting me in the middle and starting a tug of war. (Dad tried.) For that I am forever grateful and profoundly sorry for those nine months I made the two of them live together.

He also is someone who could let me putter…be alone and work for hours on a puppet. He didn’t mind listening to the same movie over and over while I worked. He encouraged me then left me to it. Best of all, he would always give me excellent constructive criticism whenever I asked it of him.

Another thing I love about him is his willingness to go out and read up on a subject. When he learned I had ADHD, he got a book and read about it. When we had difficulties in day-to-day areas, he’d find a book to read on it. Before we got married, we went through one of those “Things you need to know about your future spouse” books. I truly believe that the information we learned there was one of the things that got us this far.

He’s not one for touching, but I used to catch him staring. He had this look in his eyes that made me feel like the most loved creature on the planet. He’d even do it in front of other people. Mom mentioned it to me several times. She marveled at the love there.

Though it wasn’t a clear communication to me, perhaps, as a hug or a held hand, he would find other ways that spoke volumes of love. Poetical cards and flowers—always what I wanted and who cares what all the guys in line buying flowers thought.

I loved to make things for him. He was so appreciative. I remember with crystal clarity the day I got his Greenwood costume done. He liked it so much that he wanted its exact copy if a part of it wore out from that point on. I also remember the day I gave him some Jedi robes. I was so glad I was able to make him so happy. Making him happy like that is something I’ve tried to do over and over. He tells a person that he doesn’t want anything and that making Christmas lists is a real chore for him. But the projects I’ve done for him…when he opened them…you’d think that it had been the dearest wish of his heart for his whole life.

Japan was a real test of our marriage. It was something I’d wanted to do all my life and when Frank learned I was looking into it…I wasn’t really committed to it then…he went out to dinner with a good friend of his who had done it. He learned everything he could from him and he determined that it would be a good thing for me. He was so concerned about my depression at loosing my job and the deep funk I’d sunk myself in, you see. He selflessly encouraged me to go. He reported all that his friend had said. He’d found out that I would be safe there. But none of that would’ve done the trick until he promised me he would visit me there. I was stunned…and in love…and overwhelmingly grateful for my luck in finding him. He was lonely without me, but he hid that from me. Our correspondence by email and chat was regular and he did come and spent nine of the most wonderful days of my life with me (not at all lessened in my mind by the fact that I got sick during it). I looked forward to returning to him…and, you know, I was never homesick before he visited, but after I fell into a real low point and at one time I called Mandy because she was the only one I could get a hold of and just bawled. Then when I got back, he was waiting. He threw a huge party for me and he tucked me back into his life as if I had never left. It was such an amazingly special occasion.

But it’s not just the special occasions that I love him for—sometimes I find myself in absolute joy over a simple dinner and a movie. I think fondly of our usual order of food at a Thai restaurant—two Thai Iced teas, Chicken satay and tom kai gai soup with a side of rice. It was perfect. We never had leftovers. It became comfort food for me. Even when things were tough between us we could go out for that meal and just talk.

That’s another thing…we could talk. We always could talk for hours…we never lost that. We’d talk about gaming, friends, or politics and a three and a half hour car ride would be over before we knew it. He’d come home every night and give me a (usually entertaining) account of his day. I may not have tracked the whole story because I’m not the same type of engineer but he’d make it easy for anyone to understand. I now know a great deal about a subject I have no interest in—Soil Nail Retaining Systems—and I don’t regret a moment of it.

I don’t know why I’m writing this…I don’t really know what’s going on. But I do know this…that I love that man. I want anyone who’ll pause to read this to know it too. I hope it isn’t a futile thing to explain but sometimes you get going along so fast in the here and now that you don’t look back at what was. Or I should say I don’t look back and I need to. This marriage wasn’t created out of the blue. There were good reasons; beautiful reasons and I don’t want it to end. I don’t want to loose him to anything…folly, depression, steamrolling, or my shear stupidity at times. Though I may have seemed discontented with this or that from time to time, I know now that I was happy. I was so happy and now…I’m not. Signs don’t get anymore plain than that.

Mom's Estate Sale

So my folks are shaking the dust off their heels, starting with house, furniture and a huge collection of antiques. So if you've a mind to, stop by this weekend and have a look at their Estate Sale:
5703 South 320th
Auburn, WA, 98001

I've seen books, electronics, really old dolls, jewelry, and a metric ton of Christmas Decorations on the block. It's starting on Friday and goes to Sunday--9am to 5pm

Update: Friday went really well for them. They sold a lot. If you're considering it, better come on Saturday!

Cleaning and Typesetting

I don’t know what it is but I get super distracted by learning about software. This week I have gotten pretty intimate with my art program: Paint Shop Pro 9. Not to be confused with Photoshop, this is the Corel competitive software. Now, I’ve done a fair bit of playing with PSP9 before. I like to take Yahoo Avatars and make invisible men for Frank’s Facebook profile picture. This involves a whole lot of screen captures including turning on something that is difficult for Yahoo Avatars to load so that the avatar box is empty for a few seconds and I can get the background. (The headless ghost works best for that)

Very little of it do I have to redraw…the back of his empty shirt, sometimes the empty sleeves or if the hand is in front of the torso, then a little bit of that too. The clone tool works great for that. Probably the one I changed the most is the Elizabethan one because I wanted it to look like his Greenwood costume.

This week, on one of my manga Yahoo Groups, a request for cleaners and typesetters came out. No experience is necessary! So I thought…cleaning a scanned newsprint page of manga and adding text would be an excellent way to learn PSP9 better. So I volunteered. It wasn’t a huge commitment. I would be cleaning maybe 5 pages on the 5th and 20th of the month when the newsprint version of the manga is released. The major bonus has been that the person in charge has been writing up these long descriptions of how to do it in Photoshop…from that point I end up searching my program like crazy to find the PSP9 equivalent of whatever she was describing at the time. As a result…boy have I learned PSP9!

I do have a few gripes for PSP9 now though…Leveling…Photoshop makes this nice graph that you can move the selection in to. PSP9 makes a bar slider that’s much harder to manage:

But I should hardly be complaining. I never used Levels before this point. It’s all good.

Knitting

A great tragedy struck one of the nine scarves I made for my entire family one Christmas a few years ago. Namely…it was washed and it happened to be one of the 2 I made of slightly more expensive yawn. This one, in fact, had a large percentage of wool in it. Yep, it was felted. See:

So I am once again knitting a Harry Potter scarf. Mostly I knit on the bus…this I find is a great way to get strangers to strike up conversations with you. Especially since I knit continental-style and very fast. My Great-Aunt Thelma taught me to knit that way and it’s actually a very expedient way to knit. American style requires a person to drop the right needle to wrap the string for every stitch. I don’t think I’d have the patience to knit if I had to do it that way. I put together a demo of my style for this blog:

Continental knitting, German knitting, European knitting, or left-hand knitting @ Yahoo! Video

The source of my pattern for the Harry Potter scarf is:
Free Pattern for HP scarves
Try it.

The Art of Paper Folding

I have always been a fan of Origami ever since I was in middle school and my parents took me to meet a Japanese exchange student. The only thing I remember about her was that she taught us how to make a crane. I was really excited by it so that same year when my parents left us with our Great Aunt Thelma to go to Ashland and watch Shakespeare, they got me a book about Origami as my souvenir. I love that book…I still have it.
These days I’m into making Origami decorations. I like to make Origami quilts:

Also, when I started making lucet and kumihimo demos for Dad’s website and I got bit by the video-making bug, I made a series of how-to videos for some of my favorite Origami folding projects.
The Crane:

Folding an Origami Crane @ Yahoo! Video

The Frog:

Origami Frog @ Yahoo! Video

The Peacock:

Origami Peacock @ Yahoo! Video

The Fish:

Origami Fish @ Yahoo! Video

The Ninja Star:

Traditional Origami Ninja Star @ Yahoo! Video

The 4-Petal Flower:

Origami Ninja Star @ Yahoo! Video

Jr. High School Drama Reunion at “The Music Man”

I thought the Cascade Jr. High School Drama Reunion at “The Music Man” was very fun! Bonnie Bensen found about a dozen of us on Facebook. She also found the director of Cascade Junior High’s drama club from our years there—Mrs. Semen. When she learned that Mrs. Semen’s next school show was coming up she put together a group to go see it. Both Mandy and I went.
We all met at Round Table Pizza. There was a whole table in the party area full when Mandy and I arrived. We were a tad…well more than a tad late to the dinner due to my last online class I had to teach.
There were five or so children running about, but other than that, it seemed like everyone was just the same. It didn’t take long until we were once again making each other laugh. Amy and Scott were there with their three children, a girl and two boys. Anna brought her two daughters who were both uniquely named. Monika brought her fiancé to meet us. Rachel, Kat, Bonnie, John and Heidi were also there but they were alone. So that’s a pretty nice crowd huh?
When we got to the high school, the parking lot was packed full. We were pretty impressed until we marched into the school and found out we were at the basket ball game. Alas. The theater was on the other side of the school and the parking lot was a little bit more what you’d expect for closing night of a musical in high school.
It didn’t take long until we were all greeted by Mrs. Semen. She was very happy to see us. Teachers don’t usually supply much of an audience…directors even less. We weren’t able to do much more than say hello and give her a hug because the show was about to begin. We sat in the back of the very small theater on Audience Left. They weren’t bad seats.
The highlight of the performance for us all seemed to be the Wells Fargo Wagon. It was quite a nice prop and it marched in right in front of us.
The weakest part of the performance was the band. They were extremely weak…especially the brass section which is the most important part of The Musicman’s key song “76 Trombones”. I don’t blame Mrs. Semen. There are two possible reasons why this happened I would guess. In my senior year, we fired the band of “Guys and Dolls” for zero commitment to the show and, in general, playing awfully. You see the director of the musical that year was a community volunteer and she didn’t have work ramifications of such an action. Our band director consistently put the high school musical on the lowest priority bracket beneath his own performances, competitions and football game pep band performances. If that was the case here…who could blame Mrs. Semen? The other possibility is the WASL. My sister says that if a kid doesn’t do well in the WASL then they aren’t allowed to take any electives and must take remedial courses. This has severely depleted several bands in high schools…because how well do you think a kid with musical or kinesthetic intelligence is going to do in a test like that?
If that was the case then the kids were trying their best but weren’t capable of pulling it off. I do have one suggestion for Mrs. Semen though in either case. As a member of an ensemble…there is nothing that makes us play our best more than when we are recorded. Since you can’t see the band anyway—pre-record them. Trust me…they’ll play it over and over again to make sure they don’t miss a note.
After the show, we were reluctant to part from one another. But we had to bid adieu to the parents with children in the crowd. The remaining eight of us went out for deserts and drinks at a local restaurant. As a completely unplanned bonus, Mrs. Semen showed up there with a small crowd of her own and told us once again how pleased she was to see us all. Before we parted ways for the night, we pledged to get together once again. I hope we do. The reasons were all still there why we all became friends in the first place, even after all these years and a great deal of maturity was added to us all. We are still birds of a feather.

Weekend Alone Report

With Frank off to visit his cousin Mande and spend a few days in Portland (and see Wicked), I was faced with a weekend alone with the cats.

Saturday:

I had a class to teach virtually…so my voice and my computer made an appearance in Greater Prudhoe Bay. But though we offered 4 classes total for the weekend, only the first one on Sunday filled. So I was free after that. I got an invitation to a birthday party be a new acquaintance in the puppet guild. As I would like to turn that acquaintance into a friend, I determined myself to go.

You know what that means, right? Yep, I showed up at yet another party where the only people I knew walking in the door were the host and hostess. theBut I struck up a few conversations and wouldn’t you know it? There were actually 2 people there I had met before…at an SCA event with Dad where I demonstrated the Takadai for them! Amy and Alex knew my father from other events as well…of course…in the SCA we all dress so differently that you can hardly blame both Amy and me for not recognizing each other out of that setting. Guess what? I’m almost convinced that Amy is a polymath! She is a knitter, for one. She has a few lucets too also one could argue that knitting and luceting are the same subject. But as the conversation went along, I wasn’t thinking she was much into costuming, since they stick to the basic tunic in the SCA, until she told me she was also planning on going to the Steampunk Convention in Seattle and was currently working on her costume too. How about that? Two subjects at least!

Oh as for the party, you’ll be proud of me, Mom…I brought a whole plate of homemade deviled eggs. I dressed up a tad…the host had originally asked in the invitation for people to wear something different, so I wore the Chinese top Mandy gave me…I’m glad I didn’t go too crazy though. No one else wore anything “Different” but the host and me. He wore a very tall top hat, in fact.

Sunday: Put on my Sunday clothes, there’s lots of world out there! We saw the show at 5th Avenue and we closed the town in a whirl! Yes! Mandy and I saw Hello Dolly at the 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle. We began our evening by putting on nifty clothes…I wore my little black dress with my silk michiyuki over it…Mandy wore hers with a black and red Chinese top and a red shawl. We looked good. Check us out! We had dinner at Red Lobster because Mandy was dying for their cheese bread rolls. I enjoyed the clam chowder like I always do. I got stuffed mushrooms too but they weren’t anything special. Our waitress was very envious that we were off to see Hello Dolly and said “I wish you were just coming back from it so you could tell me how it is!” Well, I think both Mandy and I could now tell her that we enjoyed it very much! We had cheap seats way up on the balcony. But it was a good day to go because right before the show began we could move way down. The balcony was only 2/3 full…maybe less. We rented binoculars, which I would do again now having done it once. It was so nice to see close-ups! During the show we giggled, laughed, and mouthed along with the songs we love. Oh! Musicals are wonderful and Hello Dolly is nothing short. The costumes were great and I was taking notes for my Victorian costume. Mandy and I both agreed that it would be a great thing to show up at the Harmonia Gardens and have a Hello Dolly welcome. Hello Elly and Hello Mandy would both work in the song, you know. So we had to take top-of-the-stairs pictures in the lobby. Note to Mom: you would have loved it too! They are doing South Pacific next year. I’m just sayin’…

How Interesting!

At Scrabble on Monday night, my father told me that my Aunt Sandy got invited to a Steampunk party. She had turned to him for help with costuming as Dad is pretty active in the costume scene, but it was not a costume style covered by the SCA--where Dad sells his lucets. He'd never heard of Steampunk in fact...Aunt Sandy said he thought she was saying "Steam Trunk". Well, Dad passed the information off to me and asked if I would give Aunt Sandy a call. So I did. It seems she has some time...the party isn't until June. So I gave her the numbers off of the patterns I've gotten so far.
You see, the Steampunk style costume is my next big costume project. There's a Steampunk Con being given in Seattle in October. I am planning on build both Frank and I outfits for this event. So I am doing what I usually do--collecting patterns! You see, Steampunk is loosely based on Victorian costumes and there are lots of patterns for that era out there. I am going company by company as they go on sale for less than $2 a pattern at Joann's. As you can see, I've got the Butterick ones! Unfortunately...I may have to spend the big bucks when I pickup the Folkwear patterns. But there is no such thing as too many patterns! So Aunt Sandy lucked out.
However, I do plan to delegate two tasks. Namely, I don't plan to build my own Victorian corset. Nor do I plan to make hats if I can avoid it! Buying the Elizabethan Hat from Tall Toads was just too cool not to do again if I can. Plus the costuming stores online are usually Made-in-America small business production companies who more often than not create one-of-a-kind items...can't hand-make two identical hats!
Plus...there are some pretty awesome hat makers out there!

Frank-Con 2009

My husband and I went out to Thai last night and while we were talking some how the subject of Frank running a Frank-Con at our place (we expect some gaming guests the weekend after next). Then it occurred to me that we’ve already run a Frank-Con!
When everyone visited us to go to the Shrine for Hatsumode, one could argue that was a Frank Con!

Evidence:

1. There was a Role-playing room…our dinning room
2. There was a CCG room…Justin and Robin in the living room
3. There was a costuming workshop: I dressed the girls up in kimono
4. There was also a Japanese cooking workshop
5. Nicky and I had a costuming panel
6. There was a planned excursion that could inspire fantasy books and art
7. We carpooled to vendors—both gaming and Japanese items.
8. Some of us attended a party with famous pillars of the gaming community—at the Grubb’s. (Covers the celebrity requirement)
9. It ran for several days and over a weekend
10. Many new board games were introduced

:) What do you think? Am I right or am I right?
(For my family, who are not gamers, a con is short for convention. It’s the practice for most gaming conventions to come up with a snappy name that includes “Con” like “Rad Con” in the Tri-cities or “Spo-Con” in Spokane.)

The Masquerade Report or “All LARPed up and no place to go”

The Masquerade in Pullman was said to be a murder mystery masquerade. I had many ideas of what that meant, especially since we were all required to come up with Clue-like names, but my ideas were all wrong—it turned out to be a puzzle and a riddle-solving exercise. It was not my cup-of-tea, but—as it was rightly pointed out—it was not created with me in mind. Frank, you see, dislikes Live Action Role Playing or LARP games. A good example of that form of gaming would be a How-To-Host-a-Mystery game, where people take on and act out a character in the game. Those styles of games are limited to 8 people, sometimes only 6. They are tightly control with 3 rounds. Each round a person gets to open a sealed envelope for their character. No judge is required. On the larger scale there are game-setting-inspired LARPs, the most successful of which is based off a table-top role-playing game by White Wolf where all the LARPers get to play angst ridden vampires. Neither Frank nor I would touch that one, but I have found a few game settings I did like. The first one was also a White Wolf setting but it was about fairy courts—which inspires cooler costumes and a whole lot less angsty black gothiness. The second one even attracted Frank, who dislikes LARPs in general as I mentioned. It was based off of the 7th Sea Role Playing game and was created to star movie-inspired swashbuckling characters (but mostly pirates) and was loads of fun.

The personality of a polymathic Leaverton is well suited to playing in this type of game and I love them. I subscribe to the philosophy that if doing something in game is fun for me, it will be even more fun with another person involved, and if that’s even more fun, then it stands to reason that it will be even more fun to get a whole group of people in on it. That way everyone has a great time. I usually find some person like me…dressed up and friendly, to make friends with and then we begin recruiting all the timid folks who just showed up that day and wanted to play but have no costumes. These are the folks most other LARPers ostracize but their characters are completely equal and with a little push these people can shine. If you can overcome their timid barriers, that is. I can. Mostly by being so outrageously in-character that people feel that they can’t be nearly as silly looking if they stand next to me. Also, I’ve noticed a phenomenon that I have no name for other than proxy costuming. People who are around me and watch how I act in my costume begin to move as if they were dressed like me. For example, I once played a French noblewoman. One of my draftees was also playing a French noblewoman but she was in jeans and a t-shirt. It didn’t take long until she was bending at the hips not the waste, moving as if she had skirts in the way and fanning her bosom as if it were exposed. I never knew jeans and a t-shirt could be that sexy and flirtatious! Sort of bothered her son, who had talked her into doing the LARP…I guess Moms shouldn’t move like that.

The structure of this type of LARP is a little different from How-To-Host-a-Mystery. The LARPers are given a character, a primary goal for the evening and a few tertiary goals. A pirate might be given the goal of getting hired on to a ship with one of the captains present plus side goals: to cheat so-and-so at cards and pass on a secret to so-and-so. A noble woman might have a goal to steal something important plus the side goals: hand out a particular item of gossip and get so-and so to like her. Some people are set up as targets…they know so-and-so is out to get them so they must avoid being alone with that person while trying to accomplish their other goals. Most of the characters will be able to achieve at least one goal, so you can end the night with everyone feeling accomplished.
The downside of this style of LARP is that you need judges (AKA referees, storytellers, or Non-player Characters). So if a victim ends up in a room alone with the guy who was out to get him, they can “fight” and the judge says who wins. Sometimes the fighting is just rock-paper-scissors, other times a dice or coin might decide the outcome. The more people you have in the game, the more judges you need. Often these judges play bit parts like a servant or a wall flower, and so blend in until they are needed. Often they take on majorly powerful setting based characters that you couldn’t let just anyone play and very often must do something to move the story along…like the king of the fairy court who is scheduled to die at precisely 11:15pm!
That’s the thing with the Pullman Masquerade…Frank had 21 people to deal with and no judges but himself. He was tasked with the job of involving everyone too, so How-To-Host-a-Mystery was out because there would’ve been only eight principles and all the rest would’ve been detectives. It would’ve turned into dinner theater.
If everyone had a character and a goal to do all at once, how could he alone judge all that? (Plus he dislikes LARPs) So he made it puzzles and riddle clues, which everyone worked on together and no one solved…not so much that they weren’t getting the riddles but that they were letting other people talk them out of the right answer. I was both frustrated with it, and anxious for Frank being successful in this. I shouldn’t have bothered…these were his allies. These kids were his friends and his gaming groupies, long used to picking up whatever gauntlet Frank choose to throw down. Plus, they are enough like him that the things he enjoys are the things they enjoy. So they saw puzzles and riddles and said “Yay!” and got to work on them. I have never felt so out of place in my life. At least there was Nicky…my fellow polymath…to be my refuge. She was the fabulous hostess of the party. She and I gave the game a chance—more than an hour actually—but when the gamers began to debate, we retreated to the other room and played with the cat, talked arts & crafts, discussed costuming, touched on mask & backdrop design, talked about cooking a little, and took pictures. Every now and then we’d look into the other room and watch all the gamers in their element…grinning ear-to-ear…just to make sure they were having a good time (which I was no longer in any doubt that they were), and then go back to our pothmathic topic-hopping discussion. I have to say that I was glad for two things…that I stayed in the game longer than Frank thought I would (he told me this after) and also that I was the only one all LARPed up with no place to go.

Hello Dolly

Mandy and I are going to put on our Sunday cloths on Sunday the 15th and go see Hello Dolly at the 5th Avenue Theater. I’m really looking forward to it. I do enjoy musicals very much. Frank will also be seeing a show that day. He’s going to Wicked in Portland with friends. I’ve already seen Wicked and enjoyed it very much, but I have never seen Hello Dolly done live. I’ve seen the movie, of course, but going to the theater is a whole different thing.
Mandy and I also plan to go see “The Music Man” in Auburn the following Saturday. A group of old school mates of mine proposed going to see the show together. We found each other on Facebook, you see, and naturally that lead to a desire to meet once again face-to-face. Mandy and I both moved in the drama club circle in school, so we both know people who are going to be there. It should be interesting. Mandy has kept in touch with a lot of her school chums, I haven’t so there’s a lot of catching up to do. The drama circle was more my thing than Mandy’s, so she won’t have seen this crowd in a long time either. Oh yeah…and “Music Man” is one of our faves too. Let’s not forget that!
To round out our theater month and to get in one more blast from the past. We also plan to see “The Merchant of Venice” that weekend as well. The Seattle Shakespeare Company is presenting it at the Roundhouse Theater. In high school, Mandy and I were both in it. We played Solanio and Salerio, the two *male* gossips who serve as an effective substitute for a Greek chorus in the show. I still have old picture of the two of us with glued-on goatees.

So how about that for a theater-going month!

Goal: I wanna be the Voice of the Light Rail

I think I could do it. I'd be great I'm sure. "Mind the Gap", "Next stop, International Station" and "The doors will open on the left".
Alas, it's probably already done by someone. So I did the next best thing...I read the Sound Transit article on Wikipedia. There's a new project up there for spoken articles. I've been playing around with it. I've learned to use some new software too (I love new software). It's called Audacity and it's a sound editing program. Up until this point, I've been using Camtasia Studio only.
I've also learned that if I want to silence the fan on my laptop--I must put an ice pack under it. Something to remember for sure.
Oh, the first Spoken Wikipedia article I read was kimono but the sound quality was bad. So, I wouldn't want to excite your anticipation. I must redo it without the fan noise some time.

Polymathic Mandy: Mardi Gras Party

In a fabulous display of her diverse skills, my sister gave her annual Mardi-gras party. I’d heard stories of this party and her bread making skills she employs for the king cake. It has to be kneaded and let rise twice, rolled into a ring, baked and decorated. I was rather happy at this picture of her mid-sprinkle:

I dressed her up in my purple 7th Sea LARP costume. She looked great in the purple…much better than me. I wore the blue one, which I think is the better of the two colors for me.

There were about a dozen people in attendance and we didn’t do much besides eat, drink and be merry. I took pictures, of course. So did Dylan, but he had to borrow my camera to do it…he forgot his.
Why is Mandy a polymath? Check out her kumihimo:

And her scrapbook pages:

A Piggy Idea

Some people know that in addition to the various other things I'm up to, I also volunteer for Big Brother Big Sisters in the school based program. My little sister, CS is a 2nd grader at Highland Park Elementary school in White Center Seattle. I've done many things with her over our year and 2 months we've spent together. A second grader is just beginning and she has no idea what hobby or pursuit will become hers in the future. Luckily I have more than a few to share. I've taught her to play the Ancient Chinese game of Go...and she surprised me by being naturally good at it. We've tried recorders...not her fave. We've done origami, which she seems to like as well. We've done friendship bracelets as well as other games. Also, she really seemed to enjoy the times we've done photography together. I got her a starter kids camera for Christmas and she was pretty pleased with it.
Both of our two school years we've been hanging out, she has had the same teacher...a Ms. Norris in what they call a looping program. Ms Norris is a diminutive teacher who is forever smiling and happy. Her students seem to adore her and I, myself, think very highly of her. So when she asked me to teach her class to do Papier-mache, I said "Of course".
But she didn't want to teach them puppets...she wanted pigs. Why pigs? Because the next field trip is to the great Pike Place Market which is famous for the large piggy bank located in the center. So to fit the theme...we are going to make piggy banks. I've never made such a thing before so I sat down with Dad and we put our heads together. I love to brainstorm with Dad. So here's the idea so far...water balloon base:

Because I did try a large balloon but I wasn't happy with the shape. Also, this little guy has got to hold heavy pennies. Even with my special rock hard recipe for papier-mache--paper can never measure up to ceramics as far as strength goes. So smaller means stronger as well as lower capacity for heavy pennies. I did plan to use toilet paper tubes for the legs , but with the smaller size comes the need of reducing the tube size...that might be a tricky step--so will covering them with paper. But Ms. Norris thought it might be okay when I ran it by her.
When I added paint, wiggle eyes, a pipe cleaner tail and some fun-foam ears and nose, here's what I ended up with:

Kinda cute, huh? Plus it's a chance to clear out some serious over stock I have of wiggle eyes and fun foam. Don't ask where I got so many wiggle eyes, because I don't remember myself.

Why Polymathic?

I've often referred to myself as a 'Jill of all Hobbies, Master of One'. So I thought I should name this general blog of "what I'm up to these days" something like that. But when I read the Wikipedia page of 'Jack of all Trades, Master of None', I came across a word: Polymath.
It's an all-together better name for this blog...why? Because it is a goal to work towards.
"Jill of all hobbies" describes my hopping from one pursuit to another quite well. But in certain light, it is a put-down. A Polymath is a person who is good at more than a few subjects--which arguable I am now--but I am no Franklin or Edison yet! It's something to work towards.
I have tried an exhaustive number of activities. Every year I go through three or four hobbies. Of course, only Puppetry sticks with me...and I do loop back to ones that I've enjoyed in the past.
Currently, I'm knitting a new scarf for Frank because he felted the last one. I'm once again doing Contra-Dancing:

I'm also dabbling in Photography and Photo-shopping. My current musical instrument is a Native American Flute. I'm in the middle of planning my summer season for puppetry which looks like it'll be May to September. I've made several Yahoo Videos for Dad's website...speaking of websites...In addition to Dad's, I'm working on two others. One for the Puppeteers of Puget Sound and I'm consulting on Greenwood as well.
Add to this the fact that my doctor says I'm not getting enough exercise, which means I must start another activity, and you get a pretty tired Elly and one who is definitely on the path to becoming a Polymath!

Hatsumode and Kimono

One of Frank's groupies asked me to take him to a shrine event. I like going to the shrine although I, myself, am not a Shintoist. I go there to escape back into Japan. It's one of the places where you can truly leave America at the Tori. So naturally, when I go, I like to wear a kimono and attempt to at least greet people in Japanese. Sensei most likely knows why I come, but he's a generous person and unlike other religions, there's no requirement to do anything to prove yourself. It is enough that you show up.
Frank and I put our heads together and consulted the shrine's irregular schedule to find a time when John, the afore mentioned groupie, could come to visit it (and us). We decided that Hatsumode...a three day event at the shrine the first 3 days of the new year would be best because John would be between classes. He would have free time. Also there were 3 days to work with so even though he had to attend a wedding on the 31st, he'd still make it.
Now, I did mention that these are groupies, right? Who, by definition, travel in groups. Also, they tend to jump at any time when they might be able to persuade Frank to run a role-playing adventure for them. He is a master storyteller...so masterful in fact that he has acquired groupies. See? It all makes sense now, huh?
So because the group runs in a pack...it soon became not just a visit by John, but also a visit by Denise, Marissa, Justin, Nicky, and Robin. Most of the East-siders had other people to visit so they all came on the 31st. Denise stayed with us and we took her to the Grubb's for the annual new year's eve board game party. John, due to the wedding, was to travel over on the 1st with his parental units. But fate said, "No!" and the pass was completely blocked by snow barring his passage.
So we took all the people who came to game to Hatsumode instead of the one person for whom the visit was created. Don't get me wrong...most of them expressed geniune interest and just drug the rest (Justin and Robin) along with them. So that's four women, including myself. I only have under things for 3 kimonos, even then I must use a hakama and a mitsuyuki to hide some of the missing parts. However, Nicky luckily had a friend by the name of Elizabeth who has everything for one kimono. We borrowed her things and I was able to outfit 4 women in kimono. Awesome.
When I was in Japan, I learned several method of putting on a kimono, plus I came back with a magazine with wonderful step-by-step pictures. Thus, here is the result:

(P.S. Nicky...the one in brown, is not a groupie, she's the girlfriend of a groupie...is a polymath)