No Strings Attached

Kathleen David's weblog

Last Day May 2018

Posted By on May 31, 2018

We are almost halfway through the year. It is both hard and easy to believe.

We have packed a lot into the front of the year and the rest doesn’t look much slower.

Caroline is winding up her first year in High School. She has another two weeks of instruction then two weeks of exams. We have agreed that other than travel, this will be an unstructured summer for her. There are things that we will be doing like the gym and bowling.

Puppets are haunting me.

Most of today is all about getting Peter ready to go.

Tomorrow I deal with the next thing on the list.

I am grateful for helpful news.

RTBTCKI Adjusted

Posted By on May 30, 2018

I think my time adjustment happened rather quickly. I felt sleepy when I usually feel sleepy last night and woke up pretty much when I wake up in the morning. Caroline is muscling through her time change because she has school.

Caroline has Regent’s exams soon. The last day of instruction is June 11th. The exam period is the next two weeks and then summer vacation begins along with all the travel that includes.

My puppet time got cut by various things and activities so I have to go back and figure out what I can and cannot do. That’s a calendar and panic activity.

The cats are sprawled in their usual morning nap places. It’s fun to watch them have their little hunting dreams with the muzzle twitching and paws moving.

Right now I am giving myself some recovery time to get my act back together.

Peter is off to Niagara Falls this weekend for a convention. Caroline and I are going to stay put since Caroline has those exams coming up. She can use a quiet weekend just to study for the upcoming regents. That gives me sometime to plan and get some stuff done.

No, I haven’t seen Solo yet. Once I do, then I will do a non-spoiler review. I have managed to stay spoiler free other than what was in the commercials.

Now the cats have migrated into a cat pile.

I am grateful for things I understand.

Phoenix Comic Fest… Phoenix Fan Fusion 2018

Posted By on May 29, 2018

Rarely does a convention change its name halfway through but Square Egg marches to the beat of its own ocarina.

Last year, as some of you may remember, a couple of not good things happen at the convention.

An individual decided that the way to impress a girl they were stalking was to kill a Power Ranger and then as many cops as they could before the cops killed them or as some call it suicide by cop. They were stopped before they could do anything thanks to someone in California who saw what was going to down on the individual’s Facebook page and communicating with the object of the individual’s obsession. Cops managed to get the individual before anything happened. I remember seeing them sitting on a bench on the 3rd floor apparently before everything went down. I was trying to figure out what their costume was from and decided it was probably a game I hadn’t heard of.

So the next day they were checking everything and the kitchen sink and did a blanket no weapons policy so there couldn’t be any rules lawyering. This led to long lines in 104 degree Fahrenheit to get into the convention. They sent out staff with water for those waiting in line. By Saturday they got everything sorted out and they got people in and out of the oppressive heat.

On a personal note, Peter’s mother passed away the day after our wedding anniversary so we were dealing with that last year. Peter finished his morning of his mother according to Jewish law this year.

This year there was a frozen block around the convention center with entrances on three of the four sides. They had chips in the wristbands that were scanned at the entrance to the convention center. They had props check before you scanned your chip so if it didn’t pass muster, then you could take it back to your hotel room or car or store it somewhere. Once through that you had four lanes, no bags, VIP, bags, and a cos-players lane. Then into the convention center and the convention.

Except for the beginning of the day at the convention, it was not difficult to get in and out.

The convention itself was a lot of fun this year.

I would like to thank Matt, Kelly, Sara, and Jenn from Square Egg for all their help and all the volunteers who also gave us a hand. Also thanks for the food. Lunch was amazing all weekend and the convention center folks were on top of everything and very helpful.

Shout out to the Bard Tower gang for making us part of the family. I had so many good conversations with so many people there. Got to catch up with old friends and make a few new ones.

Thank you to Jae Lee, Todd Nauck, and Billy Tucci for all the lovely art. Peter and I got each other drawings for our anniversary. I now have some cool Dr. Strange Art and Peter had an Incredible Mr. Fixit.

I went up to the Hall of Heroes to see my friends at Cos A Commotion who were raising money for Pets for Vets. We got a fun photo with the Nick Fury puppet. That was my only foray there due to other things I had to do. A number of groups had some serious backdrops/full sets for people to take pictures on. It was pretty amazing to look at.

Caroline had fun breaking out the beta version of her costume from the series Homestuck. We know what we need to change/improve the next time she does it. I am proudest of the ears that I made out of cloth but they worked so well with the rest of the costume. She got a lot of compliments and photos taken.

Peter signed a lot of autographs and did some really cool panels. He made a lot of fans happy.

It was a good convention for all of us thanks to a lot of people.

Travel was uneventful and I love when we have that.

I am grateful for a convention that reminded me why I go to conventions.

17 Years Ago

Posted By on May 26, 2018

Peter and I stood up in front of family and friends and pledged our love for each other and that we wanted to be married.

Dear Peter,

It’s been a hëll of a ride so far.

There have been ups and downs and many of them have been big ups and downs. But we have managed to get through all this with our love even stronger.

We thought we were compatible when we got married since we have found that we were even so.

We have laughed a lot of laughs, cried a few tears, hugged, and been each other’s cheering squad.

We know each other so well that things happen without words because the other partner does because they know it is needed.

We have seen a lot of films and TV shows. Some of them we review on our web logs and others we just debate between ourselves. The nice thing is that if there is a show that the other doesn’t care for, they are not made to watch it but also the fan of the show watches the show without any derision.

And that’s a big part of why I think our relationship works. We have a give and take. We are there for each other. We know we are not going to like all the same things but allow each other to have that which the other doesn’t care for without comment. We definitely have each other’s backs.

We are partners in all things as we agreed to on this day 17 years ago.

As I write this, we are in Phoenix for the Phoenix Comic Fest. Caroline is getting ready for her cos-play for the day. I am letting you sleep in a bit before you get your day started. We have plans of what we are going to do today.

I love you my dear. And each day that love grows even stronger. I am so very grateful that I have you in my life. I cannot imagine it without you.

Love
Kath

Crafty Tuesday: Constantine the Puppet

Posted By on May 22, 2018

There are times that an opportunity shows up which allows me to make something that has been in the back of my brain for a while.

This was one of those occasions.

Peter was going to a smaller convention in Virginia Beach called Tidewater Comic Convention. Matt Ryan who played John Constantine in the cancelled series Constantine and went onto playing the character in so many different things was also going to be at the same convention. I have enjoyed his version of Constantine. I think he nailed the character and mannerisms.

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First picture of Matt Ryan as John Constantine

So as a thank you I decided to build a puppet for him.

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The foam layout

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Heads and bodies the foam part

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He’s arm-less
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Ready for face and clothing

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Ready for Hair and Trenchcoat

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Constantine the Puppet but something is missing…..

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There we go. A cig and we are complete.

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He liked it

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He really liked it

I am grateful that the puppet went over so well.