Currently Daydreaming about...

I constantly daydream about future plans.  Things, perhaps, that I would not be really interested in if I actually looked into it. Maybe??  Daydreams are an outlet.  I can imagine myself as a congresswoman, a town mayor or city engineer.  I come up with ways to save the planet! Or at least show the way.  And sometimes they are practical...involving no mind-control powers or flashy cape.  But vastly over-simplified in how easy or hard they would be...
My current daydream revolves around a concept to have a brick and mortar puppet theater that would also be an indoor fun play place to help pay the bills.  So here is the idea.  In the Pacific Northwest, we get a lot of rain.  So we have these places in malls and commercial settings that offer large safe toys for kids to play in and around.  Some of them are paired with cafes so that the parents can get a coffee and let their kids play somewhere safe and dry.  They charge you about $15 per child to let the child play all day.  You just have to stay on premises and are not required to hover.
So I like the idea of this...first of all, no place like this exists in Sammamish.  So the front of the store would be a coffee place, the middle would be the large safe toy area and the back would have the puppet theater.  It would primarily be a glove puppet theater and would feature a cast of characters similar to France's Guignol, who basically is similar to Mr. Punch but far more Bugs Bunny like in story line.  I'm inclined to continue the use of my Puppet Heap puppets...the characters of Spudbottom. But, of course, if I am to use the Puppet Heap puppets professionally, I'd probably need to get them remade for it. The $20 and $80 versions of them I have would wear out.
I envision the front being used more as a third place...we'd host game nights for parents.  We could host parenting classes...workshops etc.  I imagine, we could sell memberships like gyms.  We would host birthday parties. We would supply strong wifi for parents who need to work while their kids have Teacher In-service days and bank holidays inside.  We'd also supply a list of babysitters parents could use to leave their kids there with older kids from the community.
I envision the whole thing being a worker co-op so I'd need about 5 partners.  Because I don't know what I don't know...but to staff a place like that I imagine 6 would do the trick. Need someone who knows coffee, someone who knows kids, someone who knows financial and insurance stuff, someone who knows how to clean, and maybe another someone who knows puppets.  How could we fail if we had 6 people pulling for success!
Of course this would take a lot of research to start...I'm not sure how worker co-ops are best set up.  I don't know what sort of capital we'd need to begin. I'm not sure if such an enterprise would supply a living wage for 6 individuals.  I'm not sure which 5 individuals other than myself would wish to join this co-op. Also, to do this...I would have to retire from my engineering job.  So perhaps this is nothing more than my current daydream that gets me through the long boring meetings.

Life Goals

Every now and then I think: If I could retire early, what would I do? 

The answer at the top of my list these days is spend more time with my girls. But then the follow-up question naturally would be: Doing what?

My head always dreams of more puppet shows, man I love puppetry!  I'd like to do Puppets in the Park, all around Washington state.  Go from little town to little town and do puppet shows in their parks.

Everyone dreams of buying stuff, I mean, STUFF is always on a retirement list.  But if I could retire early, while still in my 40s, I'd buy an E.L.F from Organic Transit and a PEBL from Better Bike...make sure to get the ones that fit small kids in back.  These are competitors in the realm of hybrid bike and electric vehicles.  I'd like to attach 2 bike cargo trailers to each full of camping gear.  Have Dad and one girl in one, and Mom and one girl in the other and camp all summer long--spending the first half driving as far as we could get away and the second half meandering back in time for school to start.

I'd like to spend the school year volunteering in my daughter's schools and running my daughter's Campfire groups.  I'd do puppet shows on the weekends and other than that, I'd like to dabble in Stop-Motion animation and post silly videos on YouTube.  I might like to have a small Etsy store where I could sell puppets and occasionally strange hand-made costumes (these are the few things I like to make).

And I'd like to be good with money...really really good, so that I never have to go back to work again.  I've worked on other people's dreams long enough.

Parent Elly

Yes, my friends, I have become a parent.  Now I declare that I have added to my Polymathic abilities.  I am an expert on one little girl.  Yay!  I can understand her beginner speech better than anyone saving only my fellow polymath, her father.  I know when she first rolled over, slept through the night, walked, and her first word.  I know which books she likes and which are her favorite toys.  Though I can say all this, am I an expert on parenting...oh heck no!
Don't expect any parenting advice to turn up on this blog.

Bucket List Check-in

Still don’t have terminal cancer like in the movie, but looking back over that old post I thought...well, have I done any of them since 2009?

So, here is my old list of the things I’d like to do before I kick the bucket:
1. Own someplace to make and perform with puppets (Nope)
2. Pass the Level 3 Japanese proficiency test (Nope)
3. Go to an international puppetry festival (Nope)
4. See the Great Wall of China (Nope)
5. Visit Australia (Nope)
6. Write a novel (Nope)
7. Make a self-published book online (Nope)
8. Build a Punch and Judy set of puppets (Yes)
9. Enter a puppetry competition for an award (Yes, and won too)
10. Go back to Japan (Nope)
11. Visit Outer Space (Nope)
12. Find & Frequent my own Harmonia Gardens or Cheers bar (Nope)
13. Make a Victorian Costume (Yup)
14. Go on a Kayak overnight trip (Nope)
15. Perform in another Shakespearian Play (Nope)
16. Make a YouTube Web Show (Nope)
17. Live in a really big city for a while  (Yup)

So there it is...not bad.  Of course, now my life has changed.  I think I'd remove things and add things now.  I'll have to think it over more...

Paris Part One

We arrived in Paris on a Tuesday morning in time for the morning commute.  I didn't sleep at all on the plane and it was just 11pm back home so I was starting to be sleepy.  To win against Jet Lag, we figured we had to stay up until the sun went down.  That was a long time away.
The RER train and Metro got us to the hotel with little difficulty.  But Kayak.com had let us down.  They didn't tell us that the hotel had informed them that the credit card did not go through and the reservation had been canceled.  So beware of booking hotels with Kayak.com!  The hotel was fully booked by this point but there was a room in a nearby branch just two stops down the M6 line.  That was fine...though the rooms were smaller it was closer to the Eiffel Tower.  We made it there, and got into our very tiny room.  I wanted to collapse, so we took a walk.
Paris is so much better for having hundreds of years of history.  So many different cities in the US disappoint me by being cookie cutter versions of each other...the same box stores and fast food dives block after block.  But Paris is not like that for all it's McDonald's and Starbucks locations.   
We found a baker we thought we'd try and had two of the most yummy baguette sandwiches which would serve to set the bar high for the remainder of the trip.  I filmed a bit of the bustle at the place...definitely a popular place with the salary folks.
We continued to walk around window shopping until Dylan declared that he had hit a wall.  My feet were beginning to talk to me too so I agreed to return to the hotel and crash. We did nothing but sleep that day.  I was up quite early to chat with Mom via iMessage but I kept trying to sleep some more.
By 6am, we both agreed it was impossible to lie in bed further.  We showered and headed down to breakfast in the hotel.  Got there at 6:45am, and they served us even though the breakfast started at 7am.  I had to ask them if it was too early.  I suspect they did not wish to attempt to explain it to us.  The breakfast was yogurt, a basket of bread which included a baguette and a croissant, coffee and orange juice.  I was pleased to practice greeting everyone in French.
That morning, we walked to the Eiffel Tower and took many pictures from the Peace memorial to right under it.  We marveled at the length of the line and agreed we would need to stand in it at some point.  We walked to the bank of the Seine river and down to the area with the river boats.  At this point a Foxity bus which was parked nearby began moving toward the road up and our location.  I pointed to it and mentioned to Dylan that such a tour would be a good idea to get the lay of the land.  The bus driver spotted us and pulled over to ask us to board.  We took little convincing as a trip around the major areas was only 13 euros each and there was an included audio tour in English.  So we saw all of the places we would go back to in the next few days.
I had found and chatted with by Facebook, a local puppeteer who did regular shows in a permanent puppet theatre at the Buttes-Chaumont Park. His company is called "Les Petits Bouffons de Paris"--isn't that a great name?  The website said we could see a show at 4:30pm in good weather.  I messaged back and forth with Pascal about the weather, and in the end we determined to go to the Park because the rain had not yet come.  The show went on!  It was delightful.
The story was about the Marquis' Singing Competition in which he insisted that Guignol, the black-capped hero, participate. Guignol had planned to spend the day chasing butterflies but alas, he had to instead deal with a slapstick wielding Professor of singing!  He convinced his pet cat to sing as well.  Guignol's cat spoke very little, mostly "Meow put put".  This phrase lived in conversation between Dylan and I from that point forward and should anyone ask you to do karaoke, I suggest you too say "Meow put put!"
Guignol and his cat had all the children torn as to which puppet should win the singing competition...they easily triumphed over Madame Begoody (her name means Mrs Curlers) and the young boy, Felix.  I think the Marquis had to call it a tie between them but I'm not sure.  Either that or the cat won...hard to tell.  But the Professor had to make one more attempt at seeking revenge...this time both Guignol and his cat worked together to see the professor off with a soundly smarting pate!  The end!  Hooray! Meow Put Put!
After the show, Pascal asked me back to see the stage and puppets.  He and I talked for some time and I gave him a Hobey Ford Peeper puppet as a thank you.  He gave me several posters of Guignol to take home.  I think both Pascal and Bernard were pleased to have the Peepers.  I gave Pascal a brown pair and Bernard a yellow and blue pair.  Bernard did not talk to us much until that point.  But he was very pleased at the gift and found many different ways to use the peepers.
We spent the rest of the day exploring the beautiful Buttes-Chaumont Park until my feet hurt, then we had another sandwich at a baker just outside the park.  After that, we headed back to the hotel.

Book Recommendation

Eaarth by Bill McKibben

Really interesting book.

Read it on my Kindle that I got for Christmas.

If my Leaverton/Stembridge Book club was going, I'd pick it for the next. Hint. Hint.

Sign now before it is too late

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