dancerjodi

I've been enjoying the cooler air, getting excited about fall. I love summer 'stuff' but hate the heat. Fall is surely my most wonderful time of the year. I do regret not getting to the drive-in yet this season, though we still have some time. We only made it to the beach once. We did enjoy our neighborhood spray park a good deal. And walked a lot. And ate a lot of local ice cream. We've been enjoying the free concerts on the common a good deal. Mina has a 'boyfriend' there that she calls "Bat". He had a Batman shirt on the first night she met him, a month or so ago. Last night's band was really kickin', called "Legit", they are a huge wedding band. That girl was ripping up the dance floor, getting a lot of attention from the locals.

Our summer ballet hasn't come back which makes me feel lazy, but the studio will open again for the year in a little over a month. Mina will start lessons in the baby class. Just nuts! She is growing like a weed, so I'm hoping she can get away with wearing the size 7 tap shoes I have for her. She is just almost out of a 6 now. We went to buy her some more shoes this week, a 6.5 and a 7. The girl loves shoe shopping. I am doomed! She picked out some BRIGHT aqua blue Saucony sneakers. The bigger ones are Stride Rites. Investing in proper footwear is important to me, because I want to keep her walking well.

She is talking up a storm. And counting! At school yesterday the director said "look at these two pretty girls!" and Mina replied "Kyla 1, me 2". She counted them! We talk all the time, do our abcs and 123s and count things out for her. All kids reach things at different times and by kindergarten they are all pretty on par with each other. It is just nuts to hear her conversing in sentence-like phrases and she's 19 mos.

Sleeping is getting better. She's staying in her bed more, and we are putting her down awake, though still sitting with her, holding her hand/rubbing her until she is asleep. She is surely a snuggle bug.

Work is getting interesting with lots of people leaving and things up in the air while we are in the process of a potential merger with Partners and are waiting for new IT systems to go in (unrelated to the Partners thing). Last year I had a reading from a reputable psychic/medium, and she told me that she saw great change/upheavel in my professional life coming, but didn't see me moving location. This could surely be it (if you tend to believe in those sorts of things). One thing is for sure, I am never bored here.

I'm looking forward to a few days in the White Mountains and then some local day trips for our (finally) vacation.

Convention season is ramping up. I need to figure out what I want to wear.

And I want to get sewing and knitting again. And cooking and baking. And cleaning/organizing our house. Fall/Winter is the best time of year for these kinds of things for me.

We are back! I'm crazy busy but I'm putting this down for future reference, very quickly.

Brian was going to http://chefconf.opscode.com/ so we decided to make a family trip out of it. We love San Francisco and have met many awesome folks there through the 501st and Rebel Legion, in addition to various LucasFilms folks/locations. Going with a toddler was surely a different experience, but Mina did great!

Pics/Video

Mine and Terry's: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dancerjodi/sets/72157633401486144/with/8694774001/
Dale Tolosa's: http://s16.photobucket.com/user/Anasian_Skywalker/library/Anderson%20Visit%202013#/user/Anasian_Skywalker/library/Anderson%20Visit%202013?sort=3&page=1&_suid=1367498051652023524187947328762
A video Dale made:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG-582ethHM&sns=em
Brian's: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tk7602/

Mina did well on the plane. She got a bit bored around hour 4 or 5 heading out, and a nice flight attendant entertained her at the front of the plane and shared a clementine with her. On the way back it was a bit tougher. She just couldn't get comfy to sleep, until she ended up falling asleep on us (including, sleeping through the entire landing). Her ears had no issues with the pressure changes.

New things this trip: Japantown! Palace of the Fine Arts! Disney Museum! The Playground at Golden Gate Park! Met up with Lizzy Goat and her gorgeous daughter in the Lakeshore area in Oakland and walked around the Lake there. We got to spend more time with some of our Star Wars CA friends than in previous trips. Bought things at the LDAC office store at The Presido and had dinner with some Clone Wars peeps. Also played in parks with stranger's kids and dogs. Kids really do break down barriers.

We are at Star Wars Celebration in Orlando. Having a good time and it is great to see friends, but we are missing Mina. She is having a blast with Auntie C and her cousins in NH! I'm thankful for smartphone technology that makes it easier for us to keep in touch.

We arrived yesterday and took it fairly easy, checking in, setting up Jabba for tonight's big bash and wandering the convention a bit. We took in a panel on bullying, with Ashley Eckstein (Ashoka Tano's voice actress on the Clone Wars cartoon) and a woman whose daughter became an overnight internet sensation when she was bullied at school for carrying a Star Wars water bottle. I've gone to practical panels at cons before (it is kind of my thing), but it was odd to go to one that was specifically created for parents and teachers. We have a child that we need to think about this kind of stuff with. Oh boy!

We saw a bit of the exhibitor's room and caught up with lots of friends. We hit the 501st pool party at the hotel. Brian and I had been up at 4:00 to get ready to head to the airport in time, so we turned in relatively early for us at a convention. We slept "late" for us lately - I woke at 6:30 and went back to sleep, planning to get up in an hour.

I'm still breastfeeding Mina after work and over night, and first thing in the morning. Usually based on her last daycare bottle and how things work out sleep wise, it means I feed her 3-4 times a day usually. I've been planning on pumping 2x at night (once around 4:00 give or take, based on my schedule), once before bed (again, based on my schedule), and once first thing in the morning. We thankfully have a hotel fridge. I brought a couple of ice packs and an insulated lunch bag with me, but our fridge does not have a freezer. I'm going to need to talk with a hotel concierge about giving them something and asking them to freeze it for me (either my stash of milk or my ice packs) on Saturday night. We fly home Sunday. Our flight is only 3 hours and mom's milk can actually sit out at room temp for 6 hours before going bad. 12 hours is good with an ice pack in an insulated container. Freezing would keep it even longer, but you have to use frozen milk once thawed within 24 hours, and I'm sure it would thaw by the time I got home. Oh the things to think about when you are lactating and traveling without your baby. Weaning during the day made this SO much easier, otherwise, I would have been back here every few hours to pump. In some ways, it is a nice way for me to connect with her while we are apart.

I'm wearing my RSO costumes today: the new Field Uniform and the classic Dickie's shirt/black skirt later tonight for the group photo, banquet and bash. I am always so intimidated by doing the hair! The outfit is based on 40s pinup/ISO with victory rolls and all of that. I'm not so skilled at the do', and taking out a curling iron and hairspray makes me think that I'm 14 again.

My birthday is mid-week this year and there is something on 6/24 that I wanted to go to, so I'm turning it into a birthday gathering of sorts. You're invited!

We'll be going to see a friend's KISS cover band play at a club/bar/lounge in Saugus, MA. These guys are awesome, and some of you may know Ruby from the 501st Empire City Garrison (he's their Ace). The show starts at 9:30 at http://www.maddyslounge.com/fr_home.cfm and the band's website is http://www.kissnation.com/intro.cfm. Maddy's does have a bar menu of sorts so there is food for people who don't have time to get something before (apparently the family that owns Kowloon also owns Maddy's - I had no clue). I know that KISS isn't everyone's thing, but the band puts on a great performance and I thought it may be fun to hang out there with a crowd (besides, you can't go wrong with dudes in long hair, makeup and spandex). Besides, the townie/mullet watching should be in its prime! There may or may not be other NEGers going but either way, Brian and I will be there for sure.

Since some of you have asked:
-The gift of your presence is plenty, but if you feel like you must bring something for me please make it A) something homemade (use your imagination) or B) a donation for Zev and Frani's daughter http://skygunbros-custom-creatures.com/leah_donation OR a donation to our Relay for Life Team in honor of a fallen NEG member Jen, http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=team&fr_id=31286&team_id=950268 .
-I don't like a lot of fanfare for birthdays or holidays in general, but I love spending them with the people I care about (so please no singing, cakes or decorations or that kind of thing).

The NEG lost one of its members this year to breast cancer. Our group's fundraising efforts over the next few months will be dedicated to Jennifer's memory, in the hope that our costuming activities can help bring some more support to the efforts to cure this terrible disease.

We will be at Granite State Comicon in Manchester, NH http://www.granitecon.com/ this Sunday. Come visit our table and shoot us with NERF darts, in exchange for a donation to our Team.

You can also donate directly to Team Panda Bear at our team's fundraising website: http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=team&fr_id=31286&team_id=950268

We will be at this walk in June in Salem, NH http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=entry&fr_id=31286 if you would like to join us there.

Thank you for your support.

This weekend has flown by! We hung out with Tember and Corey on Friday, I had ballet and we went to a birthday karaoke party on Saturday, and today was a lot of running around at getting things done at home.

We dropped my car at the Fresh Pond Honda/Chevy this afternoon to get some work done. I've had the check engine light on for a while, because one of the tire pressure monitors is busted. Yes - these new fangled cars have monitors in them to measure your tire pressure (the right rear one on my car isn't working). I'm sure it's complicated and expensive, and presumably covered by my warranty (hence the dealer). It's frustrating that a lot of the Chevy dealers have closed and I'm left to go to this one. I'm assuming that they won't have the part in-house and preparing for the worst, not having my car for a few days. Thankfully we have Brian's truck and he can get to work via the bus. Eddie will also get an oil change while he's there. It's so dusty inside - I waver between wanting to get him detailed and doing a quick clean myself. Maybe this year I'll treat him.

As the weather gets warmer I think of cruising, Hampton Beach, Dairy Joy, camping. Things are filling up in our schedule so I'm hesitant to make a lot of plans. I have this weird balance of wanting to go out and see people and do things and liking having chunks of unscheduled time. This is part of the reason why we haven't been jumping all over every trooping opportunity we've had. I'm organizing two events over the next month (Anime Boston Blood Drive with The Heinlein Society and the Higgins Armory troop in May). I think I'll be ready to take another break from event planning after that.

There are a bunch of silly and annoying house projects that have been waiting for quite a while that I'd like to get a jump on. Our bulched is rotted away. We need new gutters and downspouts. Our chimney is leaking. Ceilings need plastering and painting and we still haven't painted our hallway a purposeful color (it's still the odd red and yellow that the former owners put up). The trim in our upstairs bathroom needs priming and painting (I was a dummy and didn't prime before I painted, so the paint just soaked in and now you can see all of the knots in the wood). Our tub needs recaulking. We need a new bedroom door since ours is broken. I'd like to take photos of the stuff in our house so that if we ever had a fire we'd have things documented for insurance purposes. I'd like to build some emergency kits for the same reasons (water, nonperishables, pet supplies, the 'needs to come with me if we have to run out of the house' box). Our poor, poor yard (front and back) is a mess! There are things stashed in corners of our home not visited frequently (the attic, the basement, the garage, stacked plastic bins with who knows what in them) that I can always weed through and find things to rid ourselves of. I feel like "stuff" doesn't have such a hold on us anymore, but there are still treasures to be found and passed on. I actually enjoy taking care of this kind of stuff and I know that it will never all be done, but in list form it can be quite overwhelming.

Along these lines, when going through some old boxes in the attic today (oh boy did I make a huge pile of things to donate to Sister Thrift!) I found something from high school that I thought was long gone, yay! It will make its appearance at a costume party in a few weeks (yay for unexpected inspiration, because I was really struggling with what to wear - I did not want something Star Wars related or super obscure, which seems to be my MO)! I also found one of my grandmother's vintage hats circa 1940 which is PINK with white feathers on the top. If it fits with my Umbridge wig, it may be a perfect way to complete the costume! I'm waiting for some shoes to arrive at my house and then I'll take a picture to share the whole frightening getup. I have some neutral-colored shoes fro work that just aren't comfortable so I ordered some new ones from Zappos to replace them that I think will work well for Umbridge (not pink, but complementary and something I'd wear elsewhere).

We leave in a couple of weeks for our St. Thomas weekend - crazy! Going from Boston to San Francisco was a bit of a shock weather-wise, so I can't imagine how we will feel in St. Thomas. Bathing suits and sunblock! Despite it being spring, I was in flannel PJs last night - brr!

http://www.501stlegion.org/podcast/

You can hear me at 4:42. Fair warning: you need some tissues for this one!

This http://www.telegram.com/article/20100523/NEWS/5230439/1003/NEWS03 is one of my favorite events. What a great time. :)

Brian has been working on building a vac table in our basement for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoforming .

For his birthday, I gave him a sign for our basement door that I've been threatening to make for a long time. It's from an Easter decoration with a piece of shimmery scrapbook card stock, which I finagled through my printer. The shiny paper isn't meant to go into a laser printer, so when I decoupaged the thing (in my car no less, since the jerk was home sick from work the day I was planning on doing this) I got a nice aged/weathering effect. Note the bunny shaped hanger at the top.

Along with it is a 'survival kit' of sorts: gloves, bandages and inner-soles for long times on the feet. The Burt's Bees stuff is for his late night post-building hot tubbing (Brian is particularly fond of ginger).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dancerjodi/4349173539/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dancerjodi/4349933406/

A very yummy, totally homecooked dinner.
Laughing with Brian about "Would you like to date my avatar" being stuck in our heads all night.
Spooky Halloweenie t-shirts from Target (check the pajama section).
True Blood (all caught up now, wow).
Catching up with an old THP colleague (now at PCHI) while he restored my ODBC connection on the new computer.
Seeing Allegria tomorrow night, finally.

I am going to finish sewing my placemats tonight. I am also going to get dolled up and take my ISO http://imperialserviceorganization.com/ photo. I figure, if I tell you people, I won't wimp out on it. Crazy hair be damned! I'm creative and I'll figure something out. :)