No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on April 15, 2016

I have been staring at the cursor for longer than I should so stream of contentiousness it is.

When I hit these blanks, I tend to poke around the Internet to see if I can find something at jumpstarts my mind. Not much today that I am inspired by.

I had something yesterday that I thought, ‘Yes! That’s it!’ but the though didn’t stick around apparently because I can’t remember what it was.

This morning there is a lot going on around the house. Caroline is studying for a test. The cats are working through the pecking order. I have dishes in the sink and on the counter. Laundry is piling up a little faster than I expected. Next Friday is the first night of Passover so there are things that need to be done within the week.

I think a couple of lists are in order to sort some stuff out in my head which may be part of why I can’t grasp a topic for this entry. That and I am trying to avoid certain topics.

My village survived Trump’s appearance. There were only a few incidences through out the day including one jáçkášš in a truck with flags flying in the back including a confederate flag that was going around slowly behind Hispanic children walking home from school honking his air horn. The police had some words with the guy who is not a local but from New Jersey and a big Trump fan.

We bugged out to the movies and saw The Jungle Book. It is superior to the animated film in so many ways and Neel Sethi is just amazing as Mowgli. I will caution that of you have a tendency to motion sickness that the 3-D can get to you. But it does need to be seen on the big screen just for the scope of it. And amazingly they worked some of the songs in that don’t feel intrusive.

Today is leg day for me at the gym. I hope I can complete my routine since arm day didn’t go too well between the shakes and tossing my cookies into a garbage can. Stomach feels better today so it shouldn’t be a problem.

Larder stocking, laundry, and kitchen will be the adult part of my day. Exercise will be my time of the day. Puppet making will be the creative part of the day.

Let’s see how much I can get done.

I am grateful that everything last night went well for the local constabulary.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 14, 2016

Welp it is a batten down the hatches day as my village as the political circus decided to land in my backyard. Trump is coming for a Republican fund-raiser and there is a counter demonstration in a venue up the street. We have gotten emails from the school district and the village about how this is all going to go down and what the frozen zone is and when. As long as we keep to the back roads that only the locals use, we should be fine for what we need to do.

Heard around the house (these are actual conversations that have been said in these four walls).

“Screw you Derpy….hey get back here”.
“Ya know if I was Derpy and I heard that I’d say ‘Hoof You!’ Punches the air with her fist and leave.”
“Well she left.”

“Has anyone seen my eyeballs?”
“I think the cat was playing with them.”

“What are Hipster Donuts?”
“Donuts with little hats”

“You know what’s funny?”
“A cheetah in a bonnet?”

“I appreciate your existence.”

Happy Birthday to Peter Capaldi, Robert Carlyle, and Terrance Ðìçkš. I have met one of them and hope to meet the other two by years end.

Inky is shoving her nose in the crack of the door and sniffing the outside air. If it warms up, I plan to open a window, which will create a cat pile up.

I am grateful that we don’t really have anywhere to go today and the one place we do have to get to, we can go the back roads and avoid the village entirely.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 13, 2016

Last night on Jimmy Kimmel they showed the Dr. Strange teaser

I have stated before that I have a great love for this character and what I was seeing from the photos and the like indicated that they were doing right by Ditko and Lee. This trailer gives me great hope that this will be the Marvel Movie I have been waiting to see for over 40 years.

I am surprised the number of other Dr. Strange fans I am finding on my friends list on Facebook and elsewhere on the Internet where I lurk. For years I thought it was just me who loved this character and the ideas of this character so very much.

It was interesting to show it to Caroline because she doesn’t have the context I have for Dr. Strange. She has read the current comic but it hasn’t really, other than passing, talk about where Stephen Strange comes from.

Chris the puppet was well received. I am glad that he was. I can say that I learned a lot from that one project.

Today a couple of things need to be accomplished. I think I can get it all done before end of day but it is with a health serving of ‘we’ll see’.

I have noticed that “please don’t suck” has replaced “please be good” as our chant of wanting. I use to feel like that was lowering the bar but now I feel it is more like “please be such that others can see why I like this so much.”

In other news I am proud of Caroline, as she has been accepted into the National Junior Honors Society. She works very hard at school and her extra curricular activities. She performed her flute solo for the NYSSMA panel yesterday, which she has been working on for about three months now. This Sunday she is making her pledge as a catechumen for her conformation next fall. She needs 50 hours of community service, which we are trying to figure out how she is going to accrue it.

I say that she is growing up so fast but that is my perspective. I feel like my life has been put on fast forward since she came into the world and it shows no signs of slowing down.

I am also looking forward to Captain America Civil War or as I call it, Avengers 3. Whether or not there will be a Marvel Screening is up for debate as the Zigfield has closed and that was the perfect venue for us.

I did see Batman vs. Superman. It was a decent film but I have no urge to see it again or own it on DVD. Nothing against the performances, which I thought were top notch. Caroline adored Wonder Woman. I think I am suffering from something I am going to call Too Much Dark Knight Syndrome. The movie, visually, was very drab and very dark. And that depresses me while I am watching it. I am not saying I need lots of color to make a superhero film watchable, but some of it being not grey would help.

I am grateful that the Dr. Strange trailer gives me some real hope for the film itself.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 12, 2016

This one was a challenge.

(For the VI: This is the puppet of Chris Parker. He has brown hair and a brown van dÿkë and brown eyes. He is wearing a grey suit with a white shirt and black tie)

Looks simple right?

Chris Parker is a character in the Marketplace series by Laura Antonio, which is a series of erotic novels with serious world building. She created a secret society where there are Masters and Servants. The Servants are part of it by their own free will and are trained to serve their owners by trainers and then sold to the highest bidder.

Chris is a trainer with a couple of secrets that are revealed during the books.

(for the VI: Chris in just a white shirt that is open revealing a phoenix across his stomach.)

Chris has a series of marks all over his body mapping his life and choices. He has tattoos, brands, cuttings and piercings, which made this a very interesting project.

I decided that for the cutting I would embroider the symbols.

(for the VI: This is a Rose embroidered in red with a blue Japanese chop on top.)

For the branding, I would use puffy paint to get the raised texture of a brand.

(For the VI, this is a side view of the puppet. There is puffy paint on his upper arm and flame tattoos on his lower arm. )

For the Tattoos, I used a combination of pens to get a tattoo effect on the skin of the puppets.

(for the VI: Chris without his shirt. There is a phoenix across his stomach with flame wristbands around his wrists and forearms)

The back of puppet.

(For the VI: In addition to the rose, there is a pennant on his left shoulder that reads “Go Swallows” in Japanese and there is on the lower half a samurai cutting through a waterfall)

Like I said, it was an interesting project.

You can find the Marketplace books on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and other book sites.

I am grateful for a project that really challenged my abilities.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 10, 2016

Our long hair probably part Maine Coon kitten had one heck of an area of matted fur on her back and it was driving her crazy. I finally got a hold of her and chopped out the fur. Brushed her fur back and you can’t tell that I took out the mess. Millie is doing OK for a cat with a tumor behind his eye. He isn’t in pain and still eating and drinking. Fig is being ornery. She gets very upset if Caroline pets Inky and will put herself between the two of them and her head under Caroline’s hand.

Today I plan to continue on the next puppet I need to get done. Then I sort out how I am going to do both the puppets I want to do before SDCC, Caroline’s costume and Peter’s challenge (which has to be done by DragonCon). Not to mention the puppet slam for Dragon Con, which is getting even sicker and more twisted. I just have to sit down and do the designs.

Caroline is working on a Dragon for her soon to be born nephew AJ. Today we go full throttle on that one. We have the fabric and pattern.

But first the larder is close to empty so I need to figure out what I need to buy to restock it and do so.

I am grateful for making the cats comfortable.

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