Learner's permit

My son holding his temporary permit

In Virginia, you can get your Learner's Permit at 15 years, 6 months. That was yesterday, but there was a two-hour wait at the DMV, so we got there before they opened this morning.

And now I'm all verklempt.

Good old reliable NATHAN NATHAN NATHAN NATHAN NATHAN NATHAN DETROIT

Muffin Man is in Guys and Dolls at his Drama Camp. Guess which roll he's playing?



Go on, guess!

From Gold to Pink

Muffin Man goes from Blue to Gold.

What color will  he choose next? No one knows. But whatever he does, he'll take a terrific selfie.

Woman of Mystery

Me at the mystery bookstore

I've posted about the bookstore before. Here are some links:

• Why MysteryMommy?
• So why aren't I working at the book store?
• Laura started it
• Book Meme
• Murder Ink is closing
• What I wanted to be when I grew up
• Mr. Spock
• Blogging for donations: Murder Ink

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.

Merry Christmas!

Our tree is covered with ornaments we've made or been given, so it feels like love. I hope your holiday feels like love, too.

Konban wa!

Muffin Man came up with the idea for his costume this year.

He loves all things Japanese and wanted to be something uniquely Japanese, easy to recognize, but not a human.

So...

I present to you, the Sakura tree (Japanese cherry tree)!

Here's how we made it:

First, we cut the flowers out of tissue paper (there's an origami fold for this). Three at a time works best.

Then we scrunched them into a pleasing shape.

Then we made the branches (this is three layers of out of a utility box glued together with hot glue. A finger may have gotten burned at this stage). 

Then we used a drill press to make holes for the harness, and hot glued on the flowers. A different finger may have gotten burned at this stage. 

Made the helmet. We scored the cardboard to make it bendy.

Added more flowers, put some reflective tape on the back of the branches, attached the branches to the trunk (attired in brown pants, an outgrown brown sweater, and a brown t-shirt), and the costume is complete.

Here he is outside: 

He's out right now with his friends. What costumes are happening at your house?

The thrifty and non-crafty parent's guide to successful Halloween costumes - Ninja edition

Ingredients, black sweat pants (outgrown, but still workable), black shirt, black socks (mine, so that no bare leg shows), black shoes, black gloves (worn backwards so that the gray 8 bit skulls don't show), my black fancy scarf (held on with the help of some black hairpins).

Not one new purchase for this costume. Not. One. According to MM and Mr. Spock, his costume went over very well.

Science Fair

Muffin Man's school has a science fair every year, and it's mandatory for 4th and 5th graders to participate.

Last year, his question was "which do gerbils like better, sunflower seeds or corn?" (answer: sunflower seeds).

This year his question was "How fast does ice melt on different surfaces?"

Mr. Spock and he worked together to do the set up, which involved a camera doing time-lapse photography. Here's Muffin Man's description of the materials needed:

8 ice cubes, 1 wooden cutting board, 1 brick/rock, 1 cast iron griddle, 1 glass casserole, 16 pipe cleaneres, 1 tripod, 1 lamp, 1 timer, and two cameras. 

And here's his description of the variables:

The surfaces must be the same temp. so I put all the surfaces in the same place for about 20 hours, the ice must be the same temp. so I did them all at the same time to ensure that the air temp. will always be the same, and the ice cubes must be the same size.

I won't tell you which melted first, but I will tell you that the first ice melted at 18 minutes, 19 seconds. The last ice melted at 3 HOURS, 7 minutes, and 33 seconds.

The time-lapse video is a little over 3 minutes long, and the first 20 seconds are really cool. Muffin Man brought it in as part of his presentation.



We were a little concerned that maybe we'd helped him a bit too much with this one, until we saw the other kids' projects at the fair. It was pretty obvious that we were actually quite hands-off, comparatively.

Muffin Man, a year in pictures

Beach in Puerto Rico, Feb 18, 2012

Sleeping in Puerto Rico, Feb 18, 2012

Cousins! In Puerto Rico, Feb, 2012

At Chicon, with Prince Zuko, Labor Day Weekend, 2012.

Chicon. Best. Playdate. EVER.

The Joker, Halloween, 2012

Laughing, December, 2012

Spock, before haircut, January, 2013

Spock, after haircut, January, 2013



Help me! MarsCon, January, 2013




With costume judge, Wade Cutrell (a movie make-up artist),
after winning Best of Beginners
at MarsCon's Masquerade, January, 2013.

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?

His first assignment

Today was Open House at my son's school for kids to meet their teachers. My son's teacher this year is Mr. TallKindFormerThirdGradeTeacher (not his real name), a gentleman my son knows and likes but didn't have as a teacher himself (he had Ms. Marvelock).

Mr. TallKindFormerThirdGradeTeacher gave the kids an assignment. Below are Mr. Spock's pictures of the intructions

and here's what Muffin Man wrote:

Excuse me, while I go be verklempt on my own for a little while. It looks like I might be raising a mensch.

Do you like my hat?

This is the hat I've talked about before.

And this is the one I wore to Walt Disney World long ago. Alas, it got hopelessly crushed on the way back.

Muffin Man wore it best.

Sixteen

Palms, a photo by Doorbell Queen on Flickr.

16 years ago today, Mr. Spock and I got married.

11 years ago today, we celebrated our anniversary by taking this picture.

I love you, Mr. Spock. I love our life together, and I love our son.

Happy Anniversary.

Uncanny Resemblance

People often remark on Muffin Man's resemblance to me or Mr. Spock.

But then they will ask, "Where did he get the dark brown eyes? Where did he get the curls?"

Cousin Muszka 1964 - 2012

My cousin died Monday night in Paris after a long and valiant struggle with cancer.

Born September 18, 1964, in Paris, Cousin Muszka (family nickname, I didn't make it up) glowed with life.

Muszka (left), at 2 months old, meeting my sister (center) for the first time. Her  mother (right) supervises. My sister is 14 months old in this picture.

She had wonderful almost-black curls, dark brown eyes, and deep dimples. Her laughter was infectious. She was fluent in at least 3 languages, spoke French with a Parisian accent, and English with a Brooklyn accent. It was hilarious to hear her talking to her mom going back and forth between French and English in the same sentence.

Muszka at play. I don't know when or where this picture was taken.

Whenever she came to visit, she and my sister were inseparable. They were as close as two people who are usually separated by an ocean could be.

Muszka and my sister, probably in March of 1969, when I was born.

I don't remember being jealous of their closeness at all, but I do remember wishing I were older and could be like them.

Passover, 1972. From left: Me, my sister, Muszka.

Passover weekend 1972. Back porch of my mom's house. From left: Muszka, my sister, me.

Muszka often came for long visits in the Summer, and for shorter ones in the Winter. It was like having another sister, one who lived far away sometimes.

Summer of 1978. We are on the porch of a house on Fisher Beach in Cape Cod. From Left, Muszka, my sister, me.

Muszka on a winter visit. My sister's room.

Muszka was a professor of American History at a University in Paris. She was highly regarded in her field. She has a beautiful, smart, wonderful 14-year-old daughter (I couldn't find a picture of the two of them together this morning).

I believe this is from my grandma's 80th birthday party. From left: Grandma, Muszka, my aunt (her mom).

She leaves behind an empty space.

July 1989. My sister's wedding. 

I will miss her so much.