My grandmother's memoir of her oldest sister

My grandma wrote a beautiful memoir of her sister Emma. Emma was the oldest of four daughters born to a rabbi and his wife. They immigrated from eastern Europe in the early part of the 20th century.

Here it is, just as she typed it, with her hand-writing on it. Published as 5 jpegs with her permission and also the permission of my cousin, Emma's daughter.

Say hello to Beast Boy!

This weekend was MarsCon, and we did it up in style. Muffin Man wanted to be in the costume contest again, and chose Beast Boy as his character.

Our inspiration

Since we won the Beginner's Division the last time we entered, honor compelled us to enter in the Advanced Division this time.

Which meant we had to kick it up a notch. Or, actually, more than a notch. This time, more than half the costume had to be hand-made. And nicely made at that. This is not a Thrifty, Non-Crafty costume, people.

Muffin Man worked hard practicing his stage routine, to a soundtrack Mr. Spock put together. And Mr. Spock and I spent about 40 hours over several months on the costume.

Mr. Spock does the sewing in our family, and he went above and beyond on this costume. The purple leotard, the belt (including the device on the belt), the cuffs and devices on the gloves, and the cuffs on the shoes are all completely hand-made. He didn't even use a pattern. Engineered from scratch, folks. All the grey fabric you see is that color because he dyed it, It was all originally plain white cotton. The black body suit is an Under Armor compression suit. Mr. Spock added stirrups to the sleeves and leggings to keep them smooth and tight.

I'm particularly pleased that Mr. Spock was able to design this so it wouldn't need a zipper to spoil the line front or back.

Beast Boy Front View

Beast Boy Back View

Beast Boy Side View

I was, as always, responsible for the make-up. Which included painting the boots. For this performance of Beast Boy, the boots are played by a pair of Rugged Outback shoes from Payless. These were darn near perfect. They've got beautiful outlines right where I needed them. We removed the laces, I taped over everything I wanted to stay black, and then painted them with grey and amethyst leather paint.

After several coats of paint, we glued on the Velcro straps. I do think they came out rather well.

After

Before

For Muffin Man's own make-up, I tested out the routine a couple of times at home, and found out that the ears and neck are tough spots to do, and that one should leave the nose for last unless one is going for a Rudolph look. Also, I realized I needed to brighten and widen the eyes, and that a base of chapstick on the lips does wonders.

First attempt at makeup. Including hair gel.

For the contest, we gave ourselves 90 minutes for hair and make-up. First, we pretty much swathed Muffin Man's body in plastic wrap, paper towels, and my own over-sized bathrobe to protect the costume. Then, I put gel in his hair to get that messy look. Next, I did his ears. I've never done prosthetics before, but I watched a lot of videos and did a pretty good job for a first timer!

Then, I used up a can of green hairspray, and deliberately got it on the ears and neck, see tough spots, above.

When I was satisfied with his hair, I began on his face. I used a base of Nyx green primer, all over his face and neck, covered by Mehron green pancake (next time, I'll try their liquid instead. The powder doesn't really last long enough). Because Mehron's green was a tad too dark for what I wanted, I did a highlight layer of Nyx green primal color (not eye safe), which is much lighter. Then I blended in the bright green on his ears with a mix of the two powders. When everything else was green, I put a thick coat of chapstick on his lips and then covered them with Mehron alone, to keep them slightly darker than the rest of his skin.

I used a Super Fat Eye Marker on his brows, and for that little crease between the brows. I brought his brow line out just a bit beyond where it naturally ends.

Through all this, I left his eyes alone. When I was happy with how the rest of the make-up looked, I used a green Jumbo Eye Pencil on his upper eyelids, and a thin darker green pencil next to his upper lashes, bringing the line out beyond his natural eyes. Then I used a white slim eye pencil on his lower lashes and a white jumbo eye pencil on his lower lid. Again, I brought the line out beyond his natural eye. I finished his eyes with a black Super Skinny marker just under where I'd drawn the white.

Then I put a boatload of transluscent fixative powder over the whole thing, and finished it all off by spritzing fixative spray over that.

Finally we unwrapped him and put on his gloves. And went down to be judged, and do the performance, and walk around getting photographed. Not necessarily in that order.

The Beast Boy team, admiring our handiwork

We didn't win the contest this time, but we sure got a huge amount of audience approval and people wanting to take pictures. It was a blast! Plus, we got to see a wee little Dalek (won Best Overall), the cutest little cosplayer EVER (she won the children's division), and a Steampunk Buzz Lightyear.

I'll post a link to the performance video once they post it.

Yesterday was blogging for LGBT families day...and I didn't know it.

But unrelatedly, Muffin Man came home from school with this poem he'd written, that he's going to read in front of the whole middle school later this week.

I'm so proud of him for standing up for his friends and the members of our family who are LGBT. I'm so proud of  him for already being the person I hoped he'd be when I imagined him as a grown-up.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get some dust out of my eye. Talk among yourselves. And check out Crunchy Granola's post from yesterday.

Just a brief note about Awesome High School Friend, his Awesome Wife, and their Awesome Children

You remember how, two years ago, Muffin Man was Aang for Halloween?

Same costume as for ChiCon. Different make-up technique on the arrow.

Yeah, well, that same Halloween, Awesome High School Friend's Awesome Daughter was Katara in a costume made by Awesome High School Friend's Awesome Wife.

That week, Awesome High School Friend and I started making plans to get our kids together for a play date. It took a little doing, what with the different time zones and all, but we finally made it happen.

ChiCon. Best. Play date. EVER.

Brief Bullets of Labor Day Weekend

• Muffin Man is awesome and has an award to prove it.
 

 
• We met someone who is also awesome and has TWO awards to prove it.
 
• I met up with an awesome high school friend, his awesome wife, and their two awesome kids. 
 



Steam Punk meets Air Punk, picture courtesy my awesome high school friend. Steam Punk outfits by his awesome wife.

 
• I met John Scalzi. And Neil Gaiman. John Scalzi was the one I got all tongue-tied and nervous about.
 
• I listened to Gardner Dozois, George R.R. Martin, Mike Resnick, Joe Haldeman, and Robert Silverberg tell stories of WorldCons past. And it was...AWESOME.
 
 
 
• And then we came home, and I did mundane things like being on TV and getting my ear repierced. How was your Summer vacation?

Where I'm From

I am from ugly flowered curtains, from Goldfish Crackers and tuna sandwiches and lemonade for lunch on the beach .

I am from the house across the street from the school I never went to, with the mulberry tree, and the ivy, and the stepping stones around the gas-lamp that still shines in my memory.

I am from the phlox, and the apple tree, and the roly-poly bugs under the bricks

I am from all the children playing Elijah, and from flat feet, from Jenny, and Mom, and Dad, and David, and Roz.

I am from the people who talk openly about illness and loudly about politics.

From Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.

I am from Jewish Atheists who celebrate Passover and Hanukah and Christmas and who were fine sending me to a Quaker camp

I'm from Brooklyn and all over Eastern Europe, from chopped liver and potato latkes and steamed lobster in the Summer.

From the friendship of Bubbe Hoffy and Bubbe Yetta, and how Bubbe Yetta never knew Bubbe Hoffe wasn't Jewish. From my father's lifelong friends from Camp Kinderland. From blended families, and thirty cousins.

I am from rolodexes of photos on my mother's coffee table that my son and I look through everytime we visit.

for Magpie, who started it this time. Can also be seen at Crunchy Granola, among other places

Where gerbils run wild

Muffin Man's science class is talking about habitats, the environment, the food chain, and all that kind of stuff. This weekend, for homework, he built a diorama of how gerbils live in the wild.

Mr. Spock put up a beautiful picture of it on his blog. It looks better in the picture than it does in real-life!

5 days ago

3 of my friends whose blogs had been silent for months all blogged again on the same day about totally different things. I don't know what happened on January 26 to cause this, but I am grateful.

My blogroll and earworms

Angie wrote this post, so now I've got this song stuck in my head.

My blogroll and earworms

Purple Kangaroo wrote this post, and now I've got this song in my head.

My blogroll and earworms

Crystal wrote this post, so now this song is in my head and will. not. leave. So I generously invite you all to hum along.

Today, I'm just happy. Very happy.

Yesterday, Judge Walker Vaughn overturned Prop 8 in California. Yesterday, my Twitter feed exploded with joy, laughter, and relief.

Today, I'm sending out love to all my gay and lesbian friends and family members, and hope - such a big hope - that this verdict will be upheld by the 9th circuit and by the Supremes. And thus overturn my own state's Jim Crow amendment.

I can't wait to live in a country where any two consenting adults can marry each other.

Experiments

I baked this bread this weekend and had moderate success. However, I didn't notice until late that the first temp is in Celcius (my stupid stove is only in Farenheit), and I didn't use enough yeast.

So next time: More yeast (and maybe more proofing the yeast) and higher heat.

What I was hoping for was a crusty loaf. What I got was a slightly moist ciabatta. Not bad, just not what I was looking for. I hope that my corrections will turn this into the crusty loaf I'm looking for. But if not, ciabatta is still a good bread.

It's Mario Time!

via Tiffany Leigh

SCIENCE!!!

As seen at WWDN: in Exile

Read it for point #5

Even if you're not a knitter, you really need to go read The Yarn Harlot today. Read it for point #5.

Because she is so right.

The Shuttle is available as a free download!!!

Girlie books has it! YAY!!

You may remember that I reviewed The Shuttle two years ago in this space.

It is one of my favorite books of all time, read and re-read and re-re-read. Download it!

Admin stuff

I've redone my blog roll and divided it in two: people who are still posting (up at the top); and folks who have gone silent (on their blogs, though they may still be active elsewhere). If I've moved you mistakenly, please let me know!

My criteria was longer than 3 months without a posting.

Also, links on my other blog are no longer duplicated at this one. Some more links may shift over there soon.

Profgrrrrl, I couldn't get your blog to link in the blogroll. I'll work on it and make sure you're in there!

Division of (household) labor - baking bread edition

I baked bread today - three loaves (from the Little House on the Prairie Cookbook). Start-to-finish, it took about 6 hours, though only really only one hour of that was me interacting with the materials.

So, at around 0830, I mixed the ingredients for the sponge (warm water, yeast. Stir. More water. Stir. 4 cups of flour. Stir. Cover and set in a warm place for about an hour). After it was covered and set in a warm place, I tidied up a bit and Mr. Spock made breakfast (pancakes). We cleaned up the kitchen together.

That took us to 9:30, whereupon I mixed milk, "drippings" from a pot roast MS had cooked (we cooled down the gravy in a container on the back porch back when it was freezing out, pried off the layer of fat that rose to the top, and stored it separately from the gravy in the freezer), sugar, salt, and a cup of flour together. Then I added the sponge, kept mixing. Added more flour, kept mixing. Then I turned it all out onto a cutting board and pounded it with graceless abandon (my knuckles are still sore). Three minutes kneading, three minutes resting, three kneading, three resting, three kneading. Then I put the whole thing into a bowl greased with more "drippings" and covered it with a towel. And I greased the pans.

I was exhausted. I don't know how Laura did that and milked the cows and whatnot.

MS cleaned up the kitchen.

We played a game of Bananagrams, we argued over whether "zot" is a word (it's not. We checked). Ninety minutes passed. I punched down the dough, divided it in three (relatively) equal pieces, put them in the greased baking pans and set them to rise for another 2 hours.

Then I took a shower while MS made lunch. We ate, we watched a bit of TV, we played Set. I called my grandma.

I put the bread in a preheated oven and baked them for 30 minutes. Decided they could brown up a bit and gave em another 5 minutes. Then another 5. Took them out of the oven. Left them to cool.

Went to do some phone-banking for Cesar del Aguila. Ran some errands, and ate dinner out (MM loooooooves that Sushi!). And then came home to freeze two loaves and put the other one in the breadbox (well, it's a cupboard, but we call it the breadbox).

I was thinking about all this in the context of the post at Global Comment by Sarah Jaffe on "Rethinking Work: Cooking as Labor. And how I would probably NOT baked bread today if I'd been responsible for all the other cooking, or if I'd been responsible for the cleanup of the mixing bowl. How grateful I am that I have a spouse who a) likes to cook and b) doesn't wait to be asked to clean the mixing bowl.

Add to that, the context of Laura Ingalls Wilder. How grateful I am to have ingredients to hand that require very little work on my part. I did not have to grind the wheat into flour. In fact, I had white flour in great quantities. I didn't have to twist hay to make enough burnable sticks to both heat the house and bake the bread. Baking bread is a leisure activity for me, not a necessity.

All of this is bubbling in my head, while I nurse my sore knuckles.

Attention: My Canadian Readers!

Have you had a procedure done under general anesthetic? Then you probably got a pelvic exam at the same time, even if your procedure had nothing to do with needing a pelvic exam.

Do you know what this would be called if the woman were given roofies? Rape.

First reported at The Globe and Mail, sign on to the petition against it at The Bad Mom's Club.