February 9, 2010
I made tunics for the two puppets I posted about yesterday. I still need to make accoutrements for six more, and I also need to build a puppet theater. And get some gloves for the other two soon-to-be puppets I have here at the house.
I also knitted a bit more on my sock. It’s getting close to the toe now, and maybe I’ll get to that later tonight. Other than that… I got nuthin’.
February 8, 2010
For Pathfinder Sabbath, the Friend class (my unit) will be doing a puppet show. For that, we’re going to need puppets. I went to Walmart yesterday and bought some plush toys with the intention of turning them into puppets. I must say that step one is the most satisfying, which is when you cut them off at the waist. Step two was to remove most of the stuffing (leaving it in the head). Tonight I took it to the next level (which provides a workable puppet) which is to sew a sock into it. That will hide the puppeteers arms as well as prevent the head stuffing from coming out. Here’s how two of them look so far:
Plush toy puppets
They are just about usable in this state, but shirts that say “Love you” and “Hug me” do not exactly advance the plot of our puppet skit. So they will get garments.
I sent two puppets home with two kids (four puppets in all) after giving the parents some rough instructions for making them. I shoulda given them some cloth too so they could make the costumes, but that didn’t occur to me until tonight.
February 7, 2010
It has been a long weekend. Camp-in went well Saturday evening. It was well-attended, and all the helpers showed up. The scenery was ready, though if we had started sooner, it would have been more elaborate, But it was more than sufficient. I forgot to bring my camera along, so I have no pictures of it.
When the program ended, Va suggested that she might just go to Walmart and get a couple of pillows instead of sending me home for them. The plan was for me to bring the boys home so Penny wouldn’t be all alone, grab the pillows, head back to the church, and spend the night. We didn’t have room on the car for the pillows on the first trip (it was crammed full of props and food). But Va thought I should just sleep at home. I didn’t argue.
She went to Walmart and we started taking stuff down (including the canvasses we had painted). The boys and I got home around 10:30pm I guess. I washed the dishes and then went to bed. I got up when Va got home this morning.
Then I needed to turn my attention to the next project. Pathfinder Sabbath is in two weeks, and I need to get ready for that. I went to Tilton to buy some puppet-makin’s. I read that a decent approach was to get stuffed animals and disembowel them. As it turns out, Valentine’s Day causes a flood of cheap stuffed animals to appear. I bought eight at $3.00 a pop. Mostly bears and dogs, but there’s a chimp in the mix for good measure.
At the Pathfinder meeting tonight we cut them open and removed most of the stuffing. The next step is to sew a sock or a glove into the innards to keep the rest of the stuffing inside. Then I’ll make some clothing for them.
The other part of my plan is to pre-record the audio portions of the puppet show. That accomplishes several things. First, we can edit out the mistakes. Second, I don’t have to worry about anyone flubbing their lines or ad libbing in an inappropriate way. Third, even though one of the kids was sick tonight, she will still get to participate – we won’t use her voice, but she’ll get to work a couple of the puppets. Fourth, I’ll know exactly how long the performance will be.
The only problem is that we only got about 70% of the dialog recorded before we ran out of time. We’ll finish it (and the puppets) next week. Then we’ll need to practice. Oh – and I’ll need to build a puppet stage.
My old friend Warran was back again tonight as well. He’s pitching in with the Pinewood Derby which we worked on some more. I think he’s going to stick around afterwards as well, meaning that my oldest unit will now have a counselor. Yay!
So that bring us up to date. I think I’ll spend the evening working on the sock I’m knitting.
February 5, 2010
I left the house this morning at 7:20 to take Beth and Jonathan to school. When I got home I assembled a fifth canvas for the backdrop we were making for Camp In. I loaded the rest of the canvasses in the car, plus the paint, brushes, and some tools. Then Va and I headed over to the church (two cars).
The first order of business was to hang the canvasses. But I needed some hardware for that. We went to Home Depot and bought some eye screws and some ceiling hooks. By then, Jonathan’s class for the day was over and it was almost lunch time. So we went and picked him up and then partook of the buffet at Pizza Hut.
My best joke of the day: Hut cuisine. So now you know how hilarious the day must have been.
Back to the church to hang the canvasses (with Jonathan’s help). Then we painted the fifth one light blue and then started painting grass on the others. Eventually, Beth got out of class too, and she helped paint grass as well. I gave her my outer shirt to wear as a smock which kept her from ruining her shirt, but it did not keep her from ruining her jeans. Oh well.
We painted all afternoon. And all evening. Va took Beth home at 7:30, and I stayed and painted until 9:30. Our backdrop now features a barn, a grape arbor, two apple trees, two other trees (species unknown), a pair of peach trees, and four pineapple plants. The pineapples turned out the best. Then Jonathan and I went home. I am tired now, but I still need to make a CD for Va and get ready to teach my class tomorrow.
February 5, 2010
Yes?
Last month Va called me at work and told me “Yes is coming to the Capitol Center. I thought you might like to go.” She was right, but I didn’t want to go alone. I asked her if she would go with me, and she said something along the lines of “Sure. I don’t hate them TOO much.” So I bought a pair of tickets.
After looking to see which members of Yes would be there, I got some of the cheaper tickets. Jon Anderson was not in the line-up, nor was Trevor Rabin. If Chris Squire hadn’t been in the line up I prolly would have passed. Anyhow, the concert was tonight, and I was stoked about going.
No,
Then Va called me at work again today. “Can you find someone else to go with you?” Hmmm. I didn’t think that sounded too hard. So I started asking all my “old” friends (young friends aren’t into old bands). Nope. No. Can’t. etc.
Va decided not to go because she has so much to do to prepare for Camp In. Then I got to thinking about how maybe I should help her. I decided that I shouldn’t go either, because if I helped her instead, it might ratchet down her stress level a couple of notches. Only I couldn’t give the tickets away on such short notice. Everyone thanked me for the offer, but between spelling bees and baby sitters, it just wasn’t going to happen.
So I thought maybe the boys might go, only I couldn’t figure out how to get them there and back without taking two hours of my time. Turns out David was completely uninterested, but Jonathan thought it might be fun. When I got home, Va told me I should most definitely go. So Jonathan and I went.
Yes!
They had two new guys in the band, which is typical for Yes. I’m not sure, but I don’t think they’ve ever released two consecutive albums with the same line up. Yes members come, and Yes members go. Then they come back again. They been operating this was since the late sixties.
One of the new guys was Oliver Wakeman, the son of former member Rick Wakeman. He did pretty good! My only complaint was that they didn’t have him mixed loud enough (or they had the rest of the band mixed too loud).
The other new guy was Benoit something (didn’t catch his last name). He did a very convincing Jon Anderson imitation. In fact, his performance more closely matched the studio recordings than anyone elses. He was excellent.
On the way there, I popped in a Yes CD and we listened to two songs (Siberian Khatru, and Onward). And when the concert started, those were the first two song they played. In that order. That was cool. I don’t remember all the songs they played, but there were only three that I was unfamiliar with. From what I recall, in addition to the first two I’ve alread listed, they played these as well:
There were probably more. Anyhow, I enjoyed the show, and Jonathan did too.
February 3, 2010
Today we started to get ready for the Adventurer’s Camp-in that’s coming up… this weekend. Actually, Va has been getting ready for it for at least a month, but today I got involved too. The theme this year is “The Fruit of the Spirit” and it’s based on a passage in Galatians. The setting is in an orchard, so we have to turn the church basement into one of those. We figure the best approach would be to hang a bunch of canvas drop cloths and paint them up to look like a scene from an… orchard?
At first we were going to do this at the church, but I figure we might be a little more productive here at the house instead. I thought maybe we could pin a canvas on the dining room wall and paint it there. Finding no push-pins anywhere in the house, I went to the Staples Tilton to get some. Then I came home and we ate. As we ate, I had a better idea.
I decided that if I could assemble some furring strips into a 12-foot section, I could staple the top edge of the canvas to that. Then use two more 8-footers to wedge the canvas to the ceiling. I also thought that the whole concept might work better if we painted the entire canvas light blue (to serve as both sky and gesso). So I went to Tilton again. I bought a gallon of light blue paint and four furring strips. I got the cheapest paint I could find (ceiling latex, $7.97/gallon).
Then I assembled them as planned, and it worked perfectly. Va starting laying in some blue, and I took Beth upstairs to put her to bed. When I was done with that, Va had half the canvas painted. But she thought that maybe I should go get a couple more. Also, it looks like it takes almost exactly one gallon to paint a 9×12 canvas, so I should also get more paint (same color please). So I went to Tilton. Again.
When I got home, Va had nearly finished painting the canvas. She reserved the top foot for me, so I finished that off. Then I assembled a second canvas and wedged it against the ceiling, right in front of the first one. I might ought to paint it tonight too so we can do the artistic part tomorrow and Friday, but I’m pretty tired now.
February 3, 2010
I’ve made progress on my sock. The heel is done now, kinda sorta. Now I’m working on the “gusset”, which I guess covers the ankle. Problem is, I’m using circular needles instead of double-pointed needles, and now the instructions say I hafta knit onto a point I don’t have. I think I can work around it though. We’ll see.
But first, I need to get to the basement and clean up around the furnace, because the furnace guy will be here in the morning.
Last night I fashioned a frog for my plane-car. If you don’t know, “frog” is the name of the thing that holds the blade onto its bed.
February 1, 2010
Maybe I chose a bench plane for my Pinewood Derby car because I heard planes are faster than cars?
Pinewood Derby car in the rough
Nothing much to report today. I did work on my car a little when I got home. I should have gone down to the basement and cleaned up around the furnace though, because I invited our fuel oil supplier to come over and do the annual maintenance. In my case it’s more like the biannual maintenance.
I worked a bit on knitting my sock too. It’s about six inches long now. Two more inches and then I can work on the heel.
Yesterday during the Pinewood clinic I was also handing out fruit orders as people came to collect them. A young man dropped by to pick up his mother’s order and he told me she had ordered a case of oranges. Before I hand any of the fruit out, I slap some mailing labels on them (that Va prints up for me) telling me who it belongs to, if they still owe money, and how many boxes are in their order. I couldn’t find his mom’s order among any of the orange cases. So I assumed that maybe I had overlooked it and had accidentally sold it to someone else thinking it was an extra. No worries though, I have extras to cover my stupidity. I gave him one of the spares and sent him on his way. A few minutes later, I found his mom’s box – it was tangelos, not oranges.
I called her house when I got home, but she was already in bed. I left a message for her to call me, and she did call me around 3:30 this afternoon. I made arrangements to deliver her tangelos. And then I delivered her tangelos. Luckily she lives pretty close to my office (about a ten minutes drive) so I didn’t hafta go very far out of my way to take care of the situation. I retrieved the navels and gave her her tangelos. Then I came home.
That’s all the excitement I have to report from here today.
February 1, 2010
We had our Pinewood Derby Clinic tonight. It started off on the rocky side. Ken and I had swapped vehicles yesterday so I could fetch the fruit from Portland. His wife was to bring it to the Pinewood clinic, but she was not able to get there until an hour after it had started. That normally wouldn’t be a problem, except that I had 25 Pinewood Derby kits in the trunk. I had three left over from last year on the closet (and seven kids to dived them among). We did what we could.
Once the cars arrived things got hopping. Warran came out for the event and had his Dremel tool singing. When everything wound down, I asked him if he would consider coming back as a full-time staff. He didn’t commit, but it sounded pretty good to me. He won’t be able to camp with us, but I really need an extra counselor. Camping I can handle. If he comes back, maybe his son will too, and I know David misses him terribly.
This year I will be making a car too. It’s coming along pretty well, and is shaped (or is destined to be shaped) like a bench plane. Dunno where that idea came from, but there it is. I’ll take a picture when it’s done.
January 30, 2010
Today was delivery day for our citrus fruit. I had ordered only 34 cases though, far less than the minimum of 100 to have it delivered to the place of my choosing. Instead, I asked that it be delivered to Portland, ME, which is the next closest place. It was to be there at 5:00pm.
Jonathan, Beth, and I borrowed my friend Ken’s truck, and we got there a bit before 5:00. The truck was already there. But no one from Portland was. We waited. A friend from Portsmouth (not Portland) showed up a few minutes later. Still no one from Portland though. We waited some more. Beth needed to use a bathroom (it was a three hour drive to get there). Eventually (after some phone calls) someone showed up. The coordinator from Portland had failed to coordinate. No one from there would be coming. So we drove north another 20 minutes to their second drop site in Freeport where they DID have a cadre of volunteers. We ended up getting our order loaded onto Ken’s truck and we left at 6:30. A full hour later than I had intended. But what can I do?
We drove back to Concord, and Jonathan and I unloaded Ken’s truck. I had called Ken and left a message for him saying we would be there at 9:30 (he had my car, and I figured we could swap again after unloading). But Ken wasn’t there. I called his wife, but she wasn’t at the house. I told her I was just going to drive over there so there was no need for Ken to come out – we had already unloaded the truck. Just as I was about to pull out of the church parking lot, Ken called me. His mother is sick (she’s in her 90’s). He suggested that I just drive his truck to my house and we’d swap tomorrow before the Pathfinder meeting.
The Pathfinder meeting will not be a “meeting” meeting though – we’re just going to work on Pinewood Derby cars. My friend Warran will be coming out to help, and I’m hoping he’ll come back to the club to serve as a staff member (he was a staff member for the past 5 years or so, but opted out for a variety of reasons). I could sure use his help again though, so I’m hoping this will become permanent.
Also – I had the sermon at church this morning. I think it went pretty well.
I’m pretty tired now, having driven for six hours and unloading a truck twice. So that’s it for tonight!
