No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on February 8, 2010

Well the creek ain’t gonna rise but the snow fall may make it a little tricky to get down there and back. I think everyone is going to bring a shovel with them just in case. Funny thing is that the last time we had this much snow around Farpoint, Ariel wasn’t coming with us to Farpoint because she was off with the other side of her family at a bar mitzvah I believe. So I have my compact shovel all ready to go.

I am having fun with the critters I am working on for the art show. They are a little different for me. I have them in my head. Now I have to see if I can make them a reality in this dimension. I may start posting pictures to motivate my art.

Coheed and Cambria put up a pre-order for a deluxe pack with their new CD and the book that Peter did with Claudio. More information can be found here. I am quite proud of this collaboration between my husband and this kick-a** band.

Superbowl was fun. Saints won and the crowd went wild. It was nice to have a game when the game itself was as interesting as the commercials. I think my favorite was punch buggy but the Letterman ad was one for the ages. I also liked the Simpson’s ad and hope I see that a couple more times. Most of the Coke ads were pretty good. The Budwiser ads were an interesting mix.

OK back to sculpting and a few other chores that do need to get done today.

I am grateful that we had such a nice family evening watching the Superbowl.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 7, 2010

Peter will be blogging the commercials this year so feel free to join in the fun at www.peterdavid.net.

I have no vested interest in the game other than one set of boxes at the bowling alley for which I got really sucky numbers so no wins for me this year.

We have the food for the game. I have all kinds of fun nibble food to eat. Caroline is even going to try a couple of new things.

But first Bowling! The Chris Paul Celebrity Invitational is on at 2 pm on ESPN. It promises to be silly fun.

I got the start to a project done. Now onto the next part which I can do during the Super Bowl. Bwahhahaahaaaaaa.

I am looking forward to Farpoint if we can get down there which will be the only reason we don’t make it down there. We will be leaving early Sunday due to other obligations in New York City.

I am grateful that we watch the Superbowl to watch together as a family.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 6, 2010

It didn’t start snowing until 8:00 am and most of it is just blowing around in the wind. A dusting is a generous term for what this is. Thank goodness Farpoint is NEXT weekend because they got dumped on. I remember the 2003 Farpoint (Caroline’s first convention) very well.

So today is about keeping warm and indoors. Tomorrow will probably be the same but with a Superbowl to watch in the evening.

Trying to walk evenly but not succeeding much. I am favoring my hurting heel and I know that I really should avoid doing that.

Off to get something done in this grey dreary day. Hope everyone is OK and if you are shoveling snow, then remember to lift with your knees not your back.

I am grateful that we aren’t getting a lot of snow this weekend and it looks snow free for next weekend.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 5, 2010

Wednesday afternoon my heel started to hurt. I recognized the pain that had been there before when I thought it was a heel spur. But it was not that but plantar fasciitis. Thursday morning was even worse when I got up after a lousy night’s sleep due to the pain in my heel radiating into my ankle. I know what I have to correct the problem it will just take a while and some patients on my part.

Timing kind of stinks. I have a few things I want to do before next weekend and Farpoint (if we can get down there). I heard from my local meteorologist (they lives on our block) that unless things change (which they may) we might get 2 inches if you stretch the definition of 2 inches. So I am not worried about the storm that is going to slam realms south of us (Sorry Popfiend). Even if we do get hit, I am off the snow shoveling team due to my heel.

Internet went out for about 6 hours yesterday but it wasn’t us it was them. Apparently when they were fixing one of the larger boxes, they managed to disconnect a number of towns that were east of the box. Yes, you read that right towns. In fact there are a couple of towns east of us that service is still not restored but they hope it will be this morning sometime. I feel better about that than I screwed something up with the new modem or (worse) the new modem is FUBAR’d after less than a week.

Saints by a field goal. I already got our food for Superbowl Sunday. Peter is going to get our traditional cake. And Peter got me a case of really great beer. When he went to see Jeff Combs as Poe (so worth the ticket price according to him), they had Raven beer which is a very nice lager. Peter drove out of his way to get some for me and I have been enjoying them since.

Off to do foot exercises.

I am grateful that I realized what was going on with my foot before it got much worse.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 3, 2010

We have been having some problems with our Internet connection. Some bandwidth problems and other things that seem to be increasing in frequency which were just frustrating every time there was more than one computer using the wireless. I called our provider a couple of times and was told that everything looked fine from their end and it may be a local problem.

I finally got someone who looked back at the closed tickets on the account and told me that they were going to run a 24 hour test on the line. They also got me in touch with someone to upgrade the modem since they don’t even service the model we have anymore because it is 10 years old. I got the modem ordered. Less than 6 hours later my provider was calling to schedule a technician because there were problems with the line. Gee, imagine that. So it was arranged for Monday which is one of my busier days but I figured I could get back from any local location.

The technician did find some problems with ambient noise on the line so he re-arranged some stuff in the phone wire junction box and added a dampener to the system. That seemed to speed things up quite a bit.

The new modem arrived yesterday. I did all the steps that I had including the stuff that the technician had walked me through. I could get the Ethernet connection to work but not the wireless. I called for tech support and this time got the Mac side of the aisle. It took us about an hour to get the thing working. It came down to a very simple fix with the modem recognizing that it was OK to be wireless. I went in and set up the admin codes and voila, it worked.

With some trepidation I went to Peter’s office to set up his wireless. One password later, he was online too. I set up the other laptop and my iPhone.

It does seem to be moving faster and, so far, we haven’t had a drop out. The other aspect is that we can only use the wireless because it is now under a password where as we were an open link for the longest time. So anyone that had been using our Wifi now will find themselves without that service which may also help our ability to use the bandwidth.

I am grateful that I can sort through tech problems and understand the solutions.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 2, 2010

And you what that means, Oscar nominations are out! Overall not too bad. The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus got two nods for art direction and costuming but deserved so much more. And Avatar got way too many but didn’t get one for script so that is something. I can’t say that having 10 nominations for best picture is a good idea. Sure that would allow more films to say nominated for best picture but it dilutes the brand name. Although “Up” is nominated for both animated and best picture this year so that is a move up for animated films. Joseph Gordon Levitt yet again gets no love from the Academy. His performance in 500 days of Summer was just wonderful.

So have you seen Parnassus? Is it still showing anywhere close to your area? Inquiring minds want to know.

Caroline had a hard time getting to sleep last night and, therefore, had a hard time getting up this morning. Peter drove her to school to give her about another 15-20 minutes to get herself together. We had packed her school bag the night before and picked out her clothes so once she was up, she moved right along.

We have predictions of snow for this evening and tomorrow but no meteorologist is rubbing their hands together with glee. I think they know that we are both use to and sick of the cold and the snow. And there floats a snow flake through the air.

I am out of sorts right now. Nothing bad has happened, in fact I got some great news about a friend’s health that has me doing the Happy Snoopy Dance. I guess it is just one of those “waiting for the other shoe to drop” paranoid feelings especially since seem that some of the plates that haven’t been spinning are back up again and in play. Think good thoughts for us. It would be nice to get some more good news.

So six more weeks of winter, I guess I’ll just keep the woolies where I can get to them the next time the temperature goes back into the deep freeze. I will say that my Uggs have done a yeoman’s work keeping my feet warm.

I am grateful that Caroline was feeling better this morning.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 1, 2010

I showed the Alice in Wonderland Artist Trading Dolls a little while back.

The other two challenges were Merpeople and a Harry Potter Bookmark.

(Photo of Melvin the Merman shot on a sheet of paper with shells. Melvin has a blue body and a green tail with scales)

(Photo of my Monster Bookmarks to go with the Monster book that is described in Harry Potter. Brown fur, lots of sharp teeth and many eyes)

Which will be off today in the mail to the various people that they need to go to.

Yesterday was a very interesting day in a good way. We went to the city to spend some time with Gwen. We took Caroline to the American Natural History Museum where she spent time admiring the dinosaurs, the gems, and the artifacts in the Northwestern Peoples exhibit (Think Inuit). She had so much fun hopping from exhibit to exhibit. She and Gwen went over the information cards about the various exhibits she found interesting.

We then went to see Caroline’s first non-Disney musical, Wicked. Neither Gwen nor I had seen it either. It was quite good. I was lukewarm on the idea because I didn’t think much of the source material. But I was impressed. I agree with Peter that the musical solved a lot of problems with the original. The staging was spectacular. I liked all the stage effects and Defying Gravity worked very well. Of course I admired the puppets and the shadow work. Caroline really enjoyed it. She felt sorry for the animals which I think they were trying to do. She had a very good Caroline Day.

Today is a bit of cleaning and then onto the next set of projects. And dealing with Cookies for the Girl Scouts. I took a bunch of pictures of skeletons for some structural ideals for my critters. I am working on what I am going to call them.

I am grateful that we had such a nice, all be it cold, day.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 30, 2010

Two weeks to Farpoint. Two more days until February and I have three things due.

I have stuff to finish up today along with a project with Caroline that I promised to do with her today.

I also want to visit the Library today and trade some books out.

But I have to get back to what I want to do for Farpoint and LunaCon because they tend to be one of a thing.

Time is creeping up on me as there is a lot that needs to be done around here as well.

But I can do this. I have done it before and can do it again. I believe in me and my family believes in me.

I am grateful for my family’s support and belief.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 29, 2010

Caroline is still coughing. It has been a month. So we are going to see where we should take her next to get this cleared up. She has been a miserable little girl but, because of the coughing, has developed a six pack in her abs. I really don’t recommend it for ab exercise.

Saints 24-21 over the Colts. It’s going come down to a field goal.

One of our cats is currently in his little kitty nirvana. He on the back of the couch draped as long as he can get over the heating vent with the sun warming his back. He has a happy look on his face.

Took Caroline to the bus. I can’t feel my right ear. We looked like a group of penguins this morning. The children huddled for warmth around their parent. Caroline had her head under my jacket to keep her face from freezing. The wind just cut through any clothing we were wearing and made it just that much colder.

I am glad that people liked my piece for Rabbit Hole Day. It was fun to write and who knows, I might just see where it goes from there.

I have to go to the local craft store today and get some more of a specific kind of paper that I am really hoping I can find again for the project I want to finish today.

Broadway Bears auction is Feb. 14th at BB Kings in New York again. They have some of the bears up and, as usual, they are fabulous!

Working through what is next on my plate. I think I know what it will be but I have some options.

I thought Supernatural was quite fun last night. We learned a couple of things and the actors got to play around a bit with the characters. The only problem was that I was left craving a really good bacon cheeseburger and a decent beer.

Disney is launching their Alice in Wonderland boutique for the new film on February 11th and they are marketing it to adults with high-end stuff or at least as cool as the stuff you can get at hot topic (love the Queen of Hearts bag). I really want to know what Disney Couture is.

I am learning a lot about Ball-Joint Dolls both Asian and otherwise. I find it amusing that I have found a new level of what is acceptable and what is considered trailer trash in the BDJ world. I though that the Lolitas has the brass ring for snubbing off brand wares but I was wrong.

Mets have shorn up their outfield but are still short on the pitching end of things. What are they waiting for a fire sale?

I do want an iPad since I already have a PAD. Yeah I know that the first version will have bugs and doesn’t work as a phone but it is the first time in a long time that a piece of tech as interested me as much as this one does. I do have an iPhone and love it a lot although I seem to be having a battery problem that it drains really really fast. I noticed this when I was at Disney but it seems to have gotten worse.

I can feel my ears again so it is time to wrap this up.

I am grateful that I could keep my daughter warm this morning.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 27, 2010

January 27

Watson had asked me to look in on Holmes while he was off on the continent with his wife. He didn’t like to leave Mrs. Hudson without means to deal with any incident that might occur while he was gone. After the incident with the cat and the canary, he had promised that he would never leave her without help close at hand.

It was a relatively brisk morning when I stopped by Baker St. People were hurrying down the street all bundled up moving quickly from one warm store to another. I was about to knock on the door of 221b when the door flew open and I found myself being dragged across the threshold by Mrs. Hudson.

“Oh Sir! I am so glad that you came. I am really at my wits end with him. He hasn’t left his rooms in days and there have been all kinds of strange sounds and smells emanating from the sitting room.”

“There, there Mrs. Hudson, “I said while patting her hand gently, “I’m here and I will deal with whatever is going on there. Now why don’t you go get us some tea along with those lovely tea cakes and some toast while I go see what is going on.”

Her visage brightened immediately, “Oh thank you Sir. Thank you.” As if on cue, there was a muffled BOOM from the rooms above. The crystal rattled and pictures went slight askew. Mrs. Hudson absent-mindedly straightened the pictures as she walked to the kitchen.

I went up the stairs with a little trepidation. The fact that he hadn’t left the rooms did nothing to calm the little voices in my head about what frame of mind I would find my friend in. I took a listen at the door and heard Holmes muttering in a rapid pace that he reserved for himself when he was working through a problem or when he had gone to the needle to calm his brain. I steeled my courage to the sticking place and knocked on the door.

The door opened and I found myself dragged over a threshold for the second time that morning.

(more…)

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