No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on May 21, 2011

On May 26th of this year it will be our 10th Wedding Anniversary so in celebration of this I am doing a series of entries about Peter and me. There might be double entries on a couple of days or I might put the weekly stuff on hiatus. I am still deciding. But this next week I am writing about my husband and me.

Today’s topic is how we met

Peter and I first met at the 1992 Atlanta Fantasy Fair, which was being held out at the airport Hilton. I was stage managing something or other at that point so I wasn’t around in the evenings but there during the day. I entered the art show for the first time and got my artist ribbon which made me feel very good. I hadn’t gotten one of those before.

AFF for me was the go to convention from high school all the way through college. We, being my siblings and friends, would save and plan for it most of the year. It was the one of three times of the year I would see a number of people that I called friend. The others were ChattaCon and LibertyCon with an occasional KublaKhan thrown in for good measure. But unlike the other conventions, AFF was media and comic heaven. I got my Buckaroo Banzai headband there. I had met Chris Clairmont and Stan Lee there. We gamed and we ruled the costume call which was one of the biggest in the Southeast with its own rules and rituals (Tastes Great/Less Filling). It was our con. I was in grad school up at Yale when the whole DragonCon/AFF thing went down so I only know what happened from hearsay. I got back from Yale and started going to both convention.

This was my first time showing my puppets to the public. I had done a set of Klingon puppets (or the Klingon quartette as I liked to call them) for sale. I had painstakingly recreated everything I could find in magazines and photos. (before the Internet kids when research costumes could be very time and money consuming) I had the Klingons, Barnabus and Quentin Collins, and one or two other puppets. Somewhere I have a picture of the display but it is lost at this point. Two things happened that weekend that I will always remember. The first is that the Klingons won a ribbon for best 3-D and the second is that I met Peter.

Now the puppets in the Art Show were for sale. I had stated, time permitting, that each came with a half hour lesson in how to operate it. I can teach just about anyone how to operate a simple hand and rod puppet in half an hour and proved it more than once over the year. I came back to the convention Sunday Morning to pack up the Art Show. I had a show that evening so I was kinda on the clock. I was greeted by the con committee who, very excitedly informed me that Peter David had bought one of my puppets. I thought, “Yea! A Sale!” but the reason that they had come to find me was that Peter wanted the lesson since he was going to use that puppet in a sketch he was doing at another convention called Shoreleave. We worked out the schedule and I agreed to meet Peter at his table in the dealers room.

Peter was seated behind a table with his daughter Shana. We shook hands and I pulled out a couple of simple puppets for all of us and proceeded to teach him and Shana how to operate the puppets. I spent more time teaching Shana because Peter had to keep pulling out his hand to autograph various things for fans. I wasn’t paying much attention to that because I was busy in teaching mode. We had a good time playing around with the puppets. I had to go because of the show so we again shook hands and parted ways.

On the way to the show I was puzzling through why the con committee had sought me out to make sure that Peter got his lesson. I knew from his badge that Peter was one of the guests of honor at the convention. But I couldn’t place the name.

I did the show and went home to collapse after a very long week but before I went to sleep I looked up at my bookshelf which was in my room. On the top shelf were my Star Trek Books that I had bought over the years. On the top of the stacks were my favorites of the series. I glanced over a title “Q-in-Law by Peter David”. The bolt of realization hit and I said out loud to no one, “Oh THAT Peter David.” Peter David the clever writer who had written some of my favorite Star Trek Books and the Hulk among other things. It did amaze me how much over the next couple of months his name kept popping out at me in various places.

We would run into each other at conventions and catch up on news. We became what I call convention buddies. We would make time at a convention to at least have a conversation if not a meal with other friends. He introduced me to some of his friends and I introduced him to some of mine. He bought a couple of custom puppets from me over the years for friends. And that’s how it was for the next 5 years.

Tomorrow Our First Real Date

I am grateful that I went to that Atlanta Fantasy Fair.

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Posted By Kathleen David on May 20, 2011

Which is why I am drinking coffee so late in the morning.

Peter got up with Caroline and took care of her morning routine so I could sleep in. Yet another one of the bazillion reasons he is a keeper in my books.

Next Thursday is our 10th Wedding Anniversary. It is hard and easy to believe that 10 years have past. And it moved so quickly too. I am more in love with him than I was on the day that I married him. He shows me in so many ways how he loves me and I try to do the same for him.

So for the next week I think I am going to talk about Peter and me.

I open the floor for questions about us. Sort of a version of Ask the Wife on my own weblog but having to do with us rather than just him or just me.

Fig is doing well. She has recovered from her surgery and the fur on her belly is now growing back. I was concerned that she lost one of her more unique vocalizations (Ariel has described it as Fig’s Tribble sound) but she is back to making all her noises again. She curls up next to me and naps or sits on my shoulder and watched me type often. Caroline is her human. The first person she gravitates to in the morning for skritches and the like but the next human that she must lay attention to is me.

I am finally up on the DragonCon site. Now I need to e-mail the usual suspects and offer to be on panels. I know that I will be judging the Friday Night Workmanship contest and there is a Puppet Slam in the works which I will talk about more once it comes more into focus. I will also be in the Art Show.

Next convention looks like it will be Shoreleave which is always fun.

Ariel is adjusting to being back at home. It is a bit of a transition for all of us. There is another person in the house. She is not in the dorm anymore. Yesterday we went to see Thor because Caroline was out of school for the day. Today we have tickets to Pirates which we are going to see this afternoon.

Finally George Takei is a good friend of my family. He was at our wedding 10 years ago and we were at his wedding too. Recently he created a video in response to a piece of Tennessee legislation which would forbid teachers to use the word “gay” in the class room or discuss homosexuality in any way.

I will say that his wedding was very Takei.

I am grateful for the past 10 years and for the next 10 as well.

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Posted By Kathleen David on May 19, 2011

A couple of different things I have been thinking about.

DragonCon heads the list because I need to figure out what I am going to show there because that needs a lot of lead time.

In this mix I need to put things for Shoreleave including costumes for Mystery Trekkie Theater (And they have picked a good one this year). Costumes for the girls for Shoreleave if they want to which I would rather figure out now rather than at the beginning of July which has happened a couple of times.

Also for DragonCon I want to get one spiffy costume done for me. I haven’t made myself a costume in ages. I have a couple of ideas but nothing really jelling right now.

In other time commitments I have the DiscWorld dolls, my ATC doll commitments, and a few other potential projects.

It is a good idea to know how much space you have in a show and try setting up your display before hand. See if you can figure out what is going to go wrong and what looks appealing to the customer.

I have one idea that would take up most of my table and I am trying to figure out if it would be worth my time. The WOW factor would be up there but I have to get permission from the original artist to sell it. I do have permission to create it. Also there is the economic question of sales and price points.

There is a discussion in an artist group I am part of about pricing and how scary it can be to raise prices. The assumption is that if you raise prices, your customers will go away or constantly complain about your raising prices. And maybe it happens on occasion but you should have such problems. And, in my experience, raising prices will weed out those who wanted cheap stuff rather than your work in particular. I decided a number of years ago that I would price my stuff at a reasonable cost point so I would make back materials and something for my labor. I also know that those who have bought my pieces really wanted them. Making things shoddier because it would be cheaper is not the way to go.

I do need to make a list of what I want to get done by DragonCOn since I am going to have to submit my paperwork soon.

I have a wacky idea for a plushie that might have to be made to get it out of my head. I do know that I will be making a Ship from Ben 10 this year. There will probably be a Phluzzie or two in the mix. Maybe a Sarah Jane puppet in honor of Liz Sladen. Plus I want to give a go at Steampunk dolls again.

So that’s where my brain is at right now.

I am grateful for a plethora of ideas.

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Posted By Kathleen David on May 18, 2011

Just FYI, the New Who Review went up yesterday afternoon for the Doctor’s Wife. Crafty Tuesday will be on Thursday this week.

This past weekend was a busy one filled with family and fun with a healthy dose of excitement some of which we could have done without.

The reason for all this was Caroline’s First Communion. She has been working towards this for the past two years in religious school very hard.

I am putting photos behind the cut. I don’t think anyone is still on dial-up but I don’t want to take over the screen.

The beginning of the week was getting the house Mother Clean. There is clean and there is clean because Mom is coming over to the house. So we super cleaned and spring cleaned at the same time. Peter was a big help getting things done as was Caroline. I also had to get Ariel’s room in good order for two reasons. The first was that my sister Sheila would be staying there for a couple of days. The second was that Ariel would be back from college on Monday.

Thursday on our way to bed we decided to use the auto-clean on the oven to clean the oven so we could have a nice oven for anything we needed it for. The oven had other ideas and we heard a “pumf” noise as the lights flickered. The oven was deader than a dodo. The stove top worked but we had also lost the clock on the stove. So it was possible to boil water if need. We made an executive decision to deal with it AFTER Saturday was done.

Friday saw the arrival of my parents and sister. We had a pleasant afternoon catching up on stuff. My mother and sister accompanied me to the bus stop to pick up Caroline who was overjoyed at seeing both of them but went to Sheila with the tackle hung. We had a nice dinner at a local seafood restaurant and lots of pleasant conversation. Sheila and I ran an errand to the local bookstore so she could pick out a bible for Caroline that would be on Caroline’s reading level.

Saturday was cloudy but the rain itself held off until after the ceremony. Our guests arrived through out the morning. At 1 pm Caroline had to be in the gym ready to line up.

The service itself was fine. The kids did great. We took lots of pictures of the kids in their finery and then went home.

We had a luncheon set out for everyone with something that everyone liked to eat. Things were going well when the fridge stopped working. We figure out that it was not only the fridge but a couple of other things on the circuit that had gone. So down I go to the basement to fight my way to the fuse box. Fuse box #1 is easy to get to but Fuse box #2 is a little more off the beaten path. I reset the breaker and it seemed to work for a while but then it would trip again. So we called a local electrician to see what the problem was. He showed up and found a couple of faulty breakers in the box that needed to be replaced because they were a fire hazard.

Meanwhile our guests ate and talked and had a good time. Caroline enjoyed being the center of attention. We caught up on stuff, told old stories and new jokes and just relaxed in each other’s company.

Other than our power problems, it went very well.

I am grateful that the weekend went so well.

Photos behind the cut (more…)

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Posted By Kathleen David on May 17, 2011

As usual no spoilers before the cut but afterwards and in the comments, all bets are off.

This was an episode that moved around a bit. It could honestly be dropped in just about anywhere in the Doctor, Rory, and Amy saga with little re-jiggering. In fact I believe it was suppose to be for last season and came into this season and got moved around again.

It was also what is called a bottle episode. Not many sets or character and utilizing a lot of things that they had hanging around.

Also a small disclaimer, the author of the episode is a long time friend of Peter’s and mine. In fact he is what we call a mutual before friend meaning that we were friends with him before we got together.

Overall it was a love letter to the series. It was the kind of episode that fans could embrace without worrying that their fellow fans would look down on them. For me it felt more of a sort of “what if” episode. Also Old Who and New Who can join hands on this one and all feel good about it and the implications of it. Again it would have worked with just about any of the Doctors but better with each incarnation.

I enjoyed and enjoyed the implications of the episode going forward.

I am grateful that Neil finally got his shot to write Doctor Who. (more…)

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