Mundane on the outside. Evil on the inside.

6:33pm: Got books?
Many of you are avid readers. Darling Nephew's birthday is rapidly approaching and, once again, I'm giving him books. I've already given him all the books I remember loving as a little kid, so I'm looking to broaden my horizons. What were some of your favorite books when you were under the age of 10? He's already got every Dr. Seuss book currently in print, so you can leave off Hop on Pop, Fox in Socks et al.

Thanks in advance!

9:46pm: UFO Day - Saturday 7/26
Last chance before Costume College ;)

Saturday 7/26 here at the House of Pewter from Noon until whenever.

Bring your crafty project and lavish my poor neglected kitties with affection while they help.

I need to put the clasps on the Victorian bodice and finish up the Faire bodice which, if I'm a good kitty, I might be able to finish this week The skirts will be easy, and I can whip those out in one day if I'm diligent and don't allow myself to get too distracted.

*yawn* Need more weekend. Last weekend was crammed full of good fun with friends as was this weekend.

5:35pm: UFO Day - Sunday 7/13
Here at the House of Pewter from Noon until whenever.

Have sewing machines, serger and loads of crafty stuff along w/ a fair amount of horizontal surface space. Oh, and helpful felines. Need more cat fur on that fabric? Need a four-legged fluffy assistant to hold the pattern down on the fabric?

Depending Casa de Faire workshop schedules, I might be able to host one more UFO Day on 8/9 or 8/10 before Faire eats my life for 1.5 months

8:19pm: Need More Weekend
Took off toodamnearly on TH morning to catch my 7 am flight out of SFO to Vegas for WesterCon. No problems, but sheesh United Airlines "Economy" seats are really squishy! I'm not tall by any stretch of the imagination, but when MY knees are 2" from the seat in front of me and I can't get my small, half-filled rolling bag under that seat, they're too close together.

WesterCon was probably about the same size it was last year - 350 or so total bodies, including staff. Aside from two minor incidents with a drunk who wanted into the art show/dealer's room it was a total relax-a-con. Two ConOps staffers spent more time at the Casino's craps tables than they did on duty. Not that there was really anything for them to do, mind you. The Con Parties were all pretty quiet and well-behaved. Ops shut down one party by request, so the hostess could get some sleep. Ops staffers, OTOH, were shut down by Hotel Security for talking too loudly after hours. Twice. ;)

goth_bunnyy and companions had to leave early Monday morning to get home so they could get into work while it was still daylight. A stayed for a bit longer and I helped her pack up. She left around 9 am or so to visit family before heading home. That left me to my own devices for the day. I couldn't find the movie theater I'd scribbled directions for the night before, so, after a tour of several unexciting strip malls, I headed to the Las Vegas Strip.

I hadn't been on The Strip in about 10 years. Lots of new construction going on. Weather was HOT HOT HOT, so I bought an overpriced bottle of water before I left the "Miracle Mile" shops to check out the other themed casinos. Caught one round of the dancing fountains at Bellaggio to Elvis' "Viva Las Vegas." and saw the large, sleeping felines in the MGM Grand. Perused the various souvenir shops looking for a delightfully tacky plush toy for britgeekgrrl's upcoming birthday, but was unable to find anything on a par w/ M'sieu Eiffel. :( I'll just have to find something nice for her instead.

In to work at 7:30 this morning to find 103 e-mails in my mailbox and 2.5 big fat projects awaiting my return. WTF?! C'mon people, it was a three day weekend! Worked through lunch (bad idea) and left about 6:15. Well, that's a few of hours of vacation time I won't have to use. I was a little tired before, but now I'm wiped.

Must get back to sewing tomorrow night. Deadlines are rapidly approaching.

4:33pm: Pass the Clue by Four, please
*** THIS EMAIL WAS AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED BECAUSE ONE OF YOUR SUBMITTALS HAS BEEN DENIED ***

SUBMITTAL TYPE: GEO_REPORT
SUBMITTAL DATE: 6/24/2008 10:37:01 AM
CONFIRMATION_NUMBER: xxxxxxx


DENIED BY
---------

(Intern du jour) ALAMEDA COUNTY WATER DISTRICT


REASON FOR DENIAL
-----------------
Cannot open report in geotracker, please resubmit


Uhm, it's a .pdf document. Opens for me just fine on both my personal and work computers. Do you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on the computer you're using, Ms. Intern? If not, please ask you IT folks nicely if they would download and istall it for you. Kthanks.

It's summer. ACWD will once again, I fear, have a hoarde of random interns mucking with things they've not been trained to deal with and about which they are clueless. {sigh}

9:18pm: Costume Lust
Want the lovely goth ensemble worn by "All that remains of Miss Evangalista"!

12:15pm: 3 Things Meme
Okay, this took some serious brain-wracking as I've led a terribly uneventful and not terribly interesting life so far.

1. Flown cross-country from SF to Boston unaccompanied at age 6

2. Been Fan GoH at a SF Con (CossaCon II sponsored by the Sonoma State University Science Fiction Society. I was the pre-paid membership and they lost my check.)

3. Owned and operated my own booth at Ren Faire.

7:26am: The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well, let's see.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've only read 6 and force books upon them.

[I think this meme should also have included a method by which to note those books we started to read, but didn't want to finish, so I’m adding an * for that purpose.--seamstrix]

[I have chosen to add this > to indicate books that were IMNSHO such crap (for any number of reasons) that the only reason that I finished them was because I had to for one reason or another and would sooner happily eat said book rather than read it again--psyop6]


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy*
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Well, I got considerably more than the alleged 6.

8:13am: Random Sewing Blather
Nearly done w/ the commissioned Victorian bodice. Need to re-cut the undersleeves as I stupidly stitched lovely plackets at the top of the sleeve instead of the bottom. D'oh! And I need a bit more of the cheap lightweight taffeta to finish the lining and a bit of lace for the cuffs.

Need to find some heavy weight taffeta for the skirt of this ensemble. Can't find anything online, it's all lightweight. Garment District should have what I want. If not, I suppose I could use satin.

amiwithani and racerxmachina came by for several hours yesterday with their respective crafty projects and brought the lovely weather with them. Hmmm... last time amiwithani came to UFO Day was in the winter, and she brought sunshine and lovely spring-like temps. Definitely need to invite her over more often ;)

Ryobi was, of course, delighted to have new people to lavish him with attention. Poor racerxmachina is accustomed to demure, little girl kitties, not this beast. She fell for the "rub my fluffy tummy" trap. He even helped amiwithani with her writing project. How does one account for cat butt in computer code?

This afternoon is the GBACG's Victorian Artworks Picnic in Redwood Park. Now that the temperature is back to reasonable, this should be lovely. I have put no thought into what to bring. I don't paint, and I don't have any embroidery projects. Maybe I'll bring a book.

8:16pm: Indy Rocks!
Saw Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull last night. That was great fun! The motorcycle chase scene and the "bar" fight were fabulous. My only gripe was the "Tarzan" scene with the kid. Heh, sword fighting while on moving jeeps in the Amazon rain forest!

britgeekgrrl You simply MUST do the Russian woman's costume! You've got the cheekbones for it and it's not elaborate at all. Hardest thing would be to borrow a sword and we both might know one or twelve people w/ collections of sharp, pointy objects who'd be willing to loan you one for a con ;)

2:17pm: 2008 Hugo Nominees
Best Novel )
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins; Fourth Estate)

Brasyl by Ian McDonald (Gollancz; Pyr) Available online to Worldcon members

Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer (Tor; Analog Oct. 2006-Jan./Feb. 2007) Available online to Worldcon members

The Last Colony by John Scalzi (Tor) Available online to Worldcon members

Halting State by Charles Stross (Ace) Available online to Worldcon members

Best Novella
"The Fountain of Age" by Nancy Kress (Asimov's July 2007)

"Recovering Apollo 8" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Asimov's Feb. 2007)

"Stars Seen Through Stone" by Lucius Shepard (F&SF July 2007)

"All Seated on the Ground" by Connie Willis (Asimov's Dec. 2007; Subterranean Press)

"Memorare" by Gene Wolfe (F&SF April 2007)

Best Novelette
"The Cambist and Lord Iron: a Fairytale of Economics" by Daniel Abraham (Logorrhea, ed. John Klima, BantamSpectra)

"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang (Subterranean Press; F&SF Sept. 2007)

"Dark Integers" by Greg Egan (Asimov's Oct./Nov. 2007)

"Glory" by Greg Egan (The New Space Opera, ed. Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan, HarperCollins/Eos)

"Finisterra" by David Moles (F&SF Dec. 2007)

Best Short Story
"Last Contact" by Stephen Baxter (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, ed. George Mann, Solaris Books)

"Tideline" by Elizabeth Bear (Asimov's June 2007)

"Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?" by Ken MacLeod (The New Space Opera, ed. Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan, HarperCollins/Eos)

"Distant Replay" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's April/May 2007)

"A Small Room in Koboldtown" by Michael Swanwick (Asimov's April/May 2007; The Dog Said Bow-Wow, Tachyon Publications)


Oh, and britgeekgrrl and iamradar, 2? 3? eps of Dr. Who (Blink, Human Nature/ Family of Blood) and one of Torchwood (Captain Jack Harkness) have been nominated along with the BSG episode "Razor." I'd have a really tough time picking just one!

4:08pm: Public Service Announcement
Costumes! San Jose Stage Company is opening its costume vaults and making them available at fire sale prices! Period, Uniform, Vintage, Futuristic, and Specialty, 25 years of lovingly cared for Shoes, Shirts, Dresses, Hats, suits and pants!

All money is donated to San Jose Stage.

San Jose Stage Company
490 South First Street
San Jose CA 95113

Friday June 20th Noon to 7 pm
Saturday June 21st, 10 am to 5 pm

8:13pm: For those following along
baronlaw FAILED, after 20 questions, to guess the gift that Rumcake and I bought him this past weekend.

The following facts have been determined:

It's roughly the size of my fist,
It's a statuette of a real animal that is roughly horse-shaped.

Do NOT post your guesses, but you may e-mail them to me. No fair spoiling the surprise when I do give it to him.

11:36am: UFO Day - Saturday 6/21
amiwithani and racerxmachina - Bring your respective Super Hero projects and well get working on those.

I have a serger which is the best way to sew stretch fabric.

If anyone else would care to join us, you're more than welcome.

6:20pm: Tahoe Road Trip
Last Friday, Lady Jane, Rumcake and I hit the road to spend the weekend playing in Tahoe at the Valhalla Renaissance Faire.

After a few delays, we finally got on the freeway and on our way. Crawled through random bits of slow traffic to arrive at our motel. Got checked in and schlepped all our bags up to the third floor. Uff. I've lived my entire life at roughly sea level. High altitude and I don't get along well. Two flights of stairs and I was huffing and puffing.

Once we settled into the room, then came the question: Where do we want to eat? We selected the Brewery At Lake Tahoe as their menu offered many tasty things and they didn't seem to be too far away. We decided to walk. Bad idea. It was further and I'd anticipated and the altitude was really having an impact on Lady Jane. Upon completion of our very tasty meal (I highly recommend this place!) we decided to be lazy and catch the bus back to the motel. Hmmm. No bus schedule posted at the stop. Called the number on the sign only to learn that we'd just missed the bus and the next one wouldn't be along for another hour. {sigh} Well, the exercise will do us good, I thought. Yes, the exercise did us good. Upon returning to the hotel room, we all got ready for bed and proceeded to zonk out in short order.

Up bright and early Saturday morning and out to Heidi's Pancake House for breakfast. The food was tasty but nothing spectacular, the service was mediocre and the coffee horrible. After they shortchanged Rumcake, gave her attitude when she pointed it out, and finally relented and gave her the $ she was owed we went back to bodice-up and head off to Faire.

Caught the shuttle driven by a grumpy fellow who announced that it would be at least an hour before he would be back and to wait out front at the end of the day. Fine by us since we plan to be here for the entire day. Paid our admissions and Rumcake was shortchanged. Again. At least these folks were much nicer about it than the cashier @ Heidi's.

It's Faire!! Lost track of Lady Jane shortly after Rumcake and I stopped at the braiding booth only to get delayed by Queen's Progress. Shopping! Other than food, I only bought one thing at Faire: a pretty brooch that's very art-nouveau in style. Rumcake found lots of stuff she liked and would have bought if it had been in either a color she liked or her size. She and I had entirely too much fun heckling the various acts (not the singers or the dancers, mind you). When you get a seasoned Faire performer to lose his place in his patter due to your wiseass comment, it's a good day.

Found Lady Jane after the last joust of the day (Knights of Avalon put on a fabulous show, even in cramped quarters). Once more around in case there were any treasures we'd missed and then back out front to wait for the bus with surly driver. Had a nice chat with other folks waiting for the bus which arrived in a few minutes driven by a new, non-surly driver.

Arrived back at the motel room and had the Out of Bodice race. Rumcake settled down with her laptop while Lady Jane and I availed ourselves of the motel hot tub. Sometime later we set off in search of dinner. We headed up to the buffet at the top of Harrah's only to discover that it's now $32 per person! Ouch! We were hungry, but not $32 worth of hungry. Back to the motel to consult the menus and choose a more affordable establishment. We decided on Murphy's Irish Pub not too far from Faire site. Good call. Food was scrumptious and service was very attentive. Back to the motel for a good night's sleep.

Was awakened by sun streaming in the window Sunday morning. Rumcake had been up and moving for a few minutes and had settled down at the table with her laptop. I grabbed my book and sat in the chair in the sun. Sometime later, after Lady Jane was finally awake, we checked out of the motel and headed off to breakfast at Ernie's Coffee Shop. Yum! Better than Heidi's by far. Better food, better service and (most important to me) better coffee.

Stuffed with tasty breakfast goodness and fortified with coffee, we headed back to wander around the overpriced tourist shops for amusement. Rumcake and I wound up buying a small gift for baronlaw because it amused us greatly. After wandering around the shops, we got on the road again and headed home. While waiting at the stoplight in Placerville, Rumcake said, "We should call baronlaw and say "hi!" Lady Jane piped up and said, "And ask him what he's wearing!" Damn good thing the car wasn't moving or we might have driven off the road!

Arrived safely home around 4 pm. Rumcake and Lady Jane headed off to opposite sides of the Bay and I had garb to wash and neglected cats to lavish with affection.

Am considering doing Tahoe Faire as a vendor next year IF I make enough $$ at Northern to buy my own Underhill Pavillion. Since Foundry is also a vendor there and it's just a 2 weekend show, they use the small one they've been loaning me.

Also have thrown my resume at two jobs in the past two days. One looks really really cool, but even though it's in SF, it's a bit of a hike from the BART station. The other is pretty much what I'm doing now, but not dealing exclusively with dead gas stations.

4:23pm: Wine Party Pending
Okay. I stumbled over this: http://tinyurl.com/6m3bh9

As soon as the cases arrive, everyone on Team Evil is invited to my place to help me drink it!

Maybe we can get baronlaw to pour. ;}

6:02pm: UFO Day - Sunday 6/8
Bring: your UnFinished Object (sewing, knitting, or otherwise crafty) and come keep me company and Ryobi entertained. A contribution of a tasty snack would also be welcome.

When: Sunday June 8 from Noon until whenever.

Where: Here at The House of Pewter. If you need the addy, drop me a note.

I've got 2 working sewing machines, a serger and loads of other supplies if you forget something.

May I expect the pleasure of your company?

7:27pm: BayCon 2008
The Good. The Bad. The Evil.

Good - Free and plentiful parking. Bad - no automatic doors so I had to put down what I was carrying to open the door, hold it open and then pick up the object to carry it to the next set of doors where the yoga move was repeated. 5 trips to get everything schlepped to the room

Good - Reservation was correct and check in was a breeze. Bad - rooms were small, no closet (just a steel bar in an alcove) and only 3 smallish drawers for storage. Good thing I didn't pack lots of elaborate costumes this year. Hotel doesn't have rooms w/ 2 queen beds. The only rooms they have w/ 2 beds are double beds.

Good - Hotel layout. All the program rooms were close together. Bad - programming time issues. Uhm, two different panels scheduled in the same room at the same time? Bad bad. Masquerade was a total pain. 1.5 hours late opening the gorram doors. Attendees turned away due to overcrowding. They wanted to do a live simulcast on BCTV, but couldn't due to tech difficulties. Masquerade entries were all great fun. iamradar and ladyaxum showed off their dancing skills in the masquerade and got Best of Class for Presentation. Yaay!

Good - Seeing many friends all weekend. Bad - Saying goodbye as we all went our separate ways today.

Evil - Tormenting baronlaw. I think that's going to be a new BayCon tradition ;)

Home again to lavish poor neglected Ryobi with affection and get unpacked before dragging myself into the office tomorrow.

7:53pm: Climate Change
When we broke down our booths and loaded our stock out of Faire site on Monday, temperatures cooled down to the high 90's from the 100+ temps we experienced Saturday and Sunday.

Today saw rain and hail at Faire site. {shakes head in disbelief}

4:33pm: Life -3 days and counting
Okay. Heading home to round up the inevitable last-minute stuff before heading off to the airport for the FINAL weekend of Southern Faire. Temps expected in the 90's this weekend. Bleh. Well, I've got lots of water and some Gatorade at the booth.

Had a good faire. Reasonbly profitable despite the crappy booth spot and cost of airfare. Have requested a different spot for next year. Hopefully I'll get it.

iamradar If you're up for sewing on Monday night, I should be home around 7-ish, life allowing. Call my cell any time on Monday afternoon.

11:59am: UFO Day in June
Okay. I've got two different commissioned sewing projects I need to get finished. One must be done by late August for Casa de Ren Faire, the other by end of Casa de Faire for Dickens.

Anyone interested in bringing along a crafty project of their own and keeping my company on any of the following days:

Saturday, June 21

Saturday, June 28
Sunday, June 29

I have loads of horizontal surface space (if we set up in the front room), a serger you're welcome to use, thread in nearly every color (except black and white, and helpful cats.

8:04am: Engineer's Guide to Cats
http://tinyurl.com/6s7gkr

It's a hysterically funny YouTube video.

9:38am: Your Tax $$ at work
INTERNAL SERVER ERROR
I thought the State's database had been grumpier than usual this morning. I just broke it. Again.


There has been an unrecoverable internal error on the Web Server.


TECHNICAL INFORMATION FOR SUPPORT PERSONNEL Error Type:
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Time:
Friday, May 09, 2008, 9:35:33 AM


CONTACT GEOTRACKER@WATERBOARDS.CA.GOV

9:26pm: Geek Moment du Jour
Am sitting in the comfy chair watching A Knight's Tale.(Yes, I know it's cheezy. No, her outfits are not even remotely period. I think of it as Rocky Horror for the Ren Faire crowd)

Is that Wash from Firefly with carrot orange hair and a silly British accent?

consults IMDB Yes. Yes it is Alan Tudyk as Wat Falhurst.

3:47pm: But why is all the Rumcake gone?
Waaah! Rumcake just got an offer for a better job closer to her house. She's taking it.

I'm happy for her, but sad for me.