No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on June 24, 2015

RTBTCKI stands for Random Thoughts before the Coffee Kicks In for our newer readers.

It uses to be here in the village that Wednesday was recycling day. You separated your paper and plastics into two bins and they picked it up. A couple of years ago we went to a ‘plastics one week and paper the next week’ system which means that it is two weeks between pick-ups.

This house generates a lot of paper for various reasons. This morning I put out a lot of boxes and things for recycling. The pile was bigger than usual because I finally got the left over paper for recycling from the winter because of the snow. It is a lovely pile but it is out of my basement too.

That means tomorrow is trash day and all the moving around of trash cans and the like to get that to the curb.

It also means that today will be litter box day for the cats.

There is also the issue of no fresh food in the house so I have to go food shopping and will bring Caroline with me because she wants to learn how to pick out good fruits and vegetable.

Yesterday Peter and Caroline went off together to see a movie and have lunch for a Daddy/Daughter day since she is now out of School. While they were gone, I tackled two of the six corners of the living room.

Speaking of Caroline, I am very proud of her. She was picked as one of the student’s of the month for her academic and civic achievements. I am one lucky mother with such a clever and kind girl.

This weekend Caroline is going to be going to a Relay for Life events with her best friend. She is excited for it and seeing her friend.

It’s another weekend where we are all not home.

I think next weekend will be the first weekend we are all home at the same time in about two and a half months. We will be home the following weekend and then Caroline will be off to Florida to spend some time with Shana. I will be flying down to get her and go spend time with my parents, brothers, sister, wives, and nieces.

It has been a busy year.

Inky’s meow is no longer at its kitten pitch. It still happens at times but we are also hearing her adult meow now. She still has the really bad habit of knocking stuff off of flat surfaces to the floor.

The Mets lost to the Brewers the second worse team in baseball. And the Yankees lost to the Phillies who are the worst team in baseball this year. Hate seeing the Mets take such a slide before the All Star Break. They had been doing so well.

I am grateful to get all that paper out of our basement.

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Posted By Kathleen David on June 23, 2015

Progress was made this week. Not as much as I would like, but at least some.

I did find the illusive cloth I needed to make Robin’s tunic so I have all that to work with.

I have probably more ideas for puppets that I want to make than I have room for to store.

Occasionally I am inspired by something I see and that puppet tends to jump line.

While in Hartford, I went to the very large local Jo-Ann’s Fabrics and crafts. I found this cloth that I debated about for a while before buying. It is red and has an interesting pattern. I have been watching the Richard Lester Three and Four Musketeers and the other day the Return of the Musketeers. So the characters are rather fresh in my mind. This cloth is so perfect for Rochefort. I am going to embark on making a puppet of the character for walk around at Dragon Con.

Creativity is not my problem. My mind is always going interesting places and finding things it wants to do. Time is my issue and I know it. Well that and a seriously over developed ability to procrastinate.

I have found ways to counter-act these tendencies but they are not fool proof.

One of the ways I hold myself responsible is to post about it here in my blog. I put it out in the public that I am going to do (fill in the blank) and it becomes more real.

Not that the real always translates into physical real which has been my past week. But I will do better this week.

So this week is all about Robin, Chris and two other puppets. Then onto the next four and so on until I have to pack for Dragon Con.

Right now I am feeling very Inspired. Let’s see how I am doing in a week.

I am grateful for Inspiration in all its forms.

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Posted By Kathleen David on June 21, 2015

Also, as we say in the south, Happy Solstice Y’all. Hope ya enjoyed the longest day of the year.

This year we decided to come up to Connecticut to spend some time with my Mother-in-Law since this is the first Father’s Day without her husband who was the father of her children.

We took her and my nieces to see Inside Out. It holds up very well to a second viewing and I got all kinds of nuances I didn’t get the first time around. It is a very clever (in the good sense of the word) film. I think I enjoyed it more the second time and was amazed at how the film managed to explain some pretty complex ideas in terms that even younger children can at least have a grasp on if not complete understanding.

Jurassic World is wonderful as well. Chris Pratt is quickly becoming the Harrison Ford of his generation with a slightly better sense of humor about the whole thing.

I did see my father earlier this month when my parents came up to New York City to see some ballet. It was a nice visit where we all got to see things we were interested in. Caroline got to spend some time with her Grandfather.

Copyright Helen O’Shea 2015
(for the VI: I am to the left wearing a shirt that reads “Keep Calm and let the Stage Manager handle it” with a blue bowling shirt over the black t-shirt with white lettering. I have the strap of my shoulder bag across my chest and it is khaki. Next to me is Caroline with a pink shirt and white lettering. On the right is my father wearing a straw hat, a light blue jacket and a striped blue shirt.)

I am proud to call my Dad my Dad. He did really well raising four children with very different personalities to be responsible, law abiding, adults. He led by example. He showed us what excited him and let us show him what excited us. He read to us and instilled a love of the arts in all its myriad forms.

I am proud of my husband for being a good Dad to his girls. He works very hard to be the best he can be for each of them. Again he leads by example showing them how to be good people and good citizens.

I am proud of all my friends who are Dads and have done so much to insure that their children have opportunities that serve them well in life.

It is not an easy job and not everyone can be a Dad but those who do it well are a shining example to the rest of us.

So Happy Father’s Days.

I am grateful for the men in my life who are good Fathers.

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Posted By Kathleen David on June 20, 2015

I will start with my prayers and sympathies are with everyone in South Carolina who has been affected by the events at the Emanuel A.M.E. Church. Let us remember who was killed not who did the killing. Their names were Susie Jackson, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, DePayne Doctor, Ethel Lance, Daniel Simmons Sr., Clementa Pinckney, Cynthia Hurd, Tywanza Sanders and Myra Thompson. I honestly don’t give a flying flip about the shooter or why he did it. These people need not to be forgotten.

Caroline is finishing up her first year of middle school. It is interesting for me since we didn’t have a middle school where I grew up. In my district elementary school was first through seventh and the high school was eighth through twelfth. The eighth graders were called sub-freshman that led to all kinds of teasing/ bullying by the older students. Being a subby was not fun but we got through it.

Caroline is thriving at middle school. She likes the format. She is proud that she can do so many things now. She likes having different teachers for different subjects. She says that the days fly by where they dragged in the fifth grade. Also she has friends to hang with where she doesn’t have to worry about if she was going to be kicked out of the group because of the queen bee. She is calling it a new start and is very happy with it.

Which has been reflected in her grades since she has gotten straight A’s for three marking periods. She is self-motivated to study and get her homework done. I think I have said the words, “Have you finished your homework” maybe a dozen times this whole school year. We are working on pacing long-term projects so that she isn’t going nuts towards the end but that is a skill set that has to be learned. She is working through her first set of final exams and is feeling pretty good about them.

Caroline has a number of projects she wants to do this summer. I am going to see what I can do so she can accomplish what she wants. She has really nice hand-stitching abilities that will serve her well as she get older. By the end of the summer I want her to be able to use the sewing machine when she wants to.

My left hand is back to normal except an occasional twinge or two. I am now working on rebuilding strength in that hand but being careful so I don’t have a set back. Stretching it is important too. I can feel it stiffing up on me at times. The only time it is giving me real problems has nothing to do with the injury and everything to do with the tremors.

I will say knowing what is going on and that it is not my imagination is rather nice. I still have to deal with the tremors and occasional weird ticks but I know how to deal with them for the most part. The only one that can be a real pain is when my eyelids are flickering a bit. Makes it hard concentrate on something. The world can go off kilter a little so I compensate and go on.

Peter has been hard at work on about six different things for a number of different companies along with his own projects. This has been sandwiched in with conventions, a store appearance, and family business. This weekend again we are traveling but it is for good reasons. Caroline is looking forward to seeing her cousins this weekend.

But first she has a party with her Girl Scout troop at a local entertainment center. She is tall enough to drive a go-cart on her own now since she is over five feet. If I was to take a guess probably about 5’ 2” at this point which means she has gained about three inches this school year. She loves Girl Scouts with an absolute passion. The leaders of the troop have done a really good job of being inclusive and making sure that all the girls have a good time. She takes great pride in that she is a third generation Girl Scout since both her Mother and Grandmother were Scouts too.

I, as usual, have too many things on my plate but I am working towards being able to get chunks of things off. Some of creative and some are things that just need to be done to keep house and home in order. Housework is not my strong suit but I muddle through.

But first I have to make pancakes for the family for breakfast and then onto the rest of the day and what it brings.

I am grateful that my left hand is recovering so nicely.

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Posted By Kathleen David on June 16, 2015

OK I have DragonCon and three commission pieces to do by Labor Day.

It is 80 days away.

In that time I plan to make 20 puppets so if I work every day, I have 4 days per puppet which is not realistic because I have about 20 days of being away from where I can work on puppets so I have 60 days or partial days to make 20 puppets or 3 days per puppet but it is really two since life happens.

So that is my reality. A puppet every two days. Now I can work on them in sets that is what I tend to do but this time I plan to make no more than four at a time because of the need to focus on just those four puppets.

I also need to dig into my puppet storage and make some puppets reappear that have vanished or I have to add those puppets to the rebuild.

That’s my goal and my reality all wrapped up.

And I am going to use this web log to keep me honest along with Facebook and Tumblr.

I’m not going to do a list. I have a list for me.

Today I want to make a couple of bodies and go from there.

Tomorrow faces will emerge.

Then costumes.

By Saturday I would like to have three puppets done or mostly done.

Let’s see if I can do this.

I am grateful for the ability to build puppets.

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