Hey, Mystery Mommy, why the heck aren't you posting?

Because I'm doing this instead.

Eight days until the election!

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?

I love Amtrak (which is something I might have mentioned before)

I love riding the train to New York or Vermont or wherever* and making friends with my seatmates and the folks nearby. My most recent two adventures led to long discussions with: a professor of English Literature (the Romantic period) from Scotland; a professional rock-n-roll violinist; and a woman who lives less than a mile from my house.

My conversation with the English Literature professor involved us talking about Noel Streatfeild, Frances Hodgeson Burnett, Jane Austen (of course), Georgette Heyer, Josephine Tey*, The Bronte sisters, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy Sayers, George Eliot, Reginald Hill, and World War One. She's not on Facebook or Twitter, but she said she'd check out my blog. So here, my dear new friend, is a post for you, with links galore. Thank you for talking with me on the train. I hope you have a terrific time visiting your friend!!!

*More links to related content contained therein

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.

Yesterday

Yesterday was this blog's ninth birthday.

When I started posting here, my son was three. He's twelve now, and enough of a person that he asks me not to blog about his life - or conversely and much more rarely TO BLOG about his life. He emails his grandparents, he has his own phone.

When I started posting here, I was only involved in politics extremely peripherally. Since then I've earned the title of Doorbell Queen, been a candidate's spouse, and a candidate myself. I'm on the board of NARAL Pro-choice Virginia Foundation, and tweet politics daily.

When I first started posting here, I posted nearly every day. Well, that's turned into tweeting daily instead. Which isn't quite so nice for the blog, but it certainly fits into my schedule better.

I've written over 1500 posts, had over 60,000 visitors, talked about everything under the sun.

I don't know what will happen next, but I know that I love this blog even if I haven't maintained it well the last couple of years. I love the friends I've made here, some of whom I've met in real life. I love reading everyone else's blogs, too.

What I'm saying is, thank you for nine years. I hope to still be writing here, even if only on occasion, for the next nine.

What a weekend!

Jim Dean of DFA canvassed for me! JIM DEAN OF DFA CANVASSED FOR ME!

And in other canvassing news, Steven Colbert's brother canvassed for me too!

And I got to thank them both in person!!! And they are both so incredibly nice!

SQUEEE!

While I'm writing thank you notes and canvassing...

Muffin Man's with QuiltsALot and TellsDonaldDuckStories. Swimming, playing Uno, maybe catching a movie, and having a playdate with his (actually my) cousin.

I am anticipating getting at least 15 texts.

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.

Muffin Man is at Middle School Orientation

Just thought you should know.

[Gulp]

New glasses prescription

Whoo! The world looks so wonky! But at least the floor looks level.

Oh, and my new frames are a BIG change.

So big that not one person has noticed that my frames are no longer brownish purple, but are now greyish brown.

Yeah.

Same shape.

Yeah.

But the world! It's fresh! It's new! It's shiny!

Bringing lunch

So, the new office building doth not have a cafeteria, neither doth it have any kind of food purveyor within a 10 minute walk. It does have a snack machine in a very creepy machine room near the elevators in the lobby. How creepy? I expect someone to smash through the door with an axe anytime I'm in there. That's how creepy.

So! I've been bringing food. I filled up a jar with snacky items and invited people to share. I've been bringing healthy lunches and leftovers and fruit.

Today it was leftover tempura and sushi from last night's dinner.

Yesterday it was wee baby artichokes and barbeque chicken.

What have you been eating for lunch?

What I'm wearing again

This outfit, only with a different tank top (boat neck instead of v-neck) and different shoes (ones I can walk in comfortably for more than a stroll from car to desk and back again).

Spring has sprung, y'all.

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.

It's polite to be selfish with your germs. Seriously, no need to share!

Here's your annual reminder to think of others and spread the word about keeping ones germs to oneself.

Cough and sneeze into your sleeve, wash your hands with soap and HOT water, and stay at home if you're sick.


Which safe sneezing technique video do you like best?

"The purpose of this video is to make coughing into one's sleeve fashionable, and even patriotic! It's the right thing, the polite thing to do!"


Or the Mythbusters' colorful experiments?

Random on a rainy Tuesday

(original title, "Random bullets on a rainy Tuesday" and then I read it over, and realized that the phrase "random bullets" has only one meaning now, and it's not "items in an unordered list that have nothing to do with each other.)

• Muffin Man won his classroom spelling bee last week. Which surprised me, not because he's not a good speller (he's a terrific speller), but because he'd told me a few weeks ago that he'd participated in a classroom bee and he'd done terribly. Turn out that other bee was geography. Okay then. His winning word was "necessary".
• This means he's now going to compete in the school spelling bee on the 24th. Not much time to study. I printed out the study guide from Mirriam-Webster, and he's pegging away at it.
• He's super excited, because if he wins the school spelling bee, he'll be joining his friend ReallyTheyCouldBeTwins*  at the county-wide spelling bee, since she won her school's bee a couple of weeks ago. The county-wide bee will include middle-schoolers, too.
• We brought banana cake to services this weekend. This time, I made a banana filling for it. Wow! Delicious.
• Speaking of services, Rev. Anya came over to our house to have a confab and I made latkes using a different recipe. The one I used to use was from Kosher Gourmet, and don't get me wrong, it was good. But the one I used this time was from this past December's Bon Appetit, and it was phenomenal. Oh. My. GOD.
• My left eye is itching. It's been two days now. What is UP with that?
• Everyone in my office is wearing blue today. Including me. So far as I know, there wasn't a memo.
• Even though the weather is gloomy, I'm kind of glad it's raining. It gave me an excuse to wear my silly rain boots and poncho.

*formerly known as "SheIsAlmostAsTallAsMe", which is an out-dated name. She's 5'4". Turning 11 next week

First sentences

It's (past) that time of year again.

Time to list the first sentence of the first post of each month from last year.

January: Starting the New Year off right.

"New Year's day was spent getting some hardware sorting boxes from BigBoxHardwareStore (and a rug to cover the speaker cables in the living room, because I was sick of tripping over them), and then helping with Muffin Man with the sorting of the pieces of his brand new Lego Mindstorms NXT set."

February: DOUBLE DIGITS!

"Muffin Man is 10 today."*

March: My son got excited and made something for me.

"The best part is that he made it using something that his dad got excited and made."

April: A fairy tale.

"Once upon a time two days ago, a wicked mother offered to go with her good and handsome son to buy a new two-wheeled steed for him to ride upon while slaying dragons in the surrounding kingdom."

May: What I've been reading, OMG I love my Kindle edition.

"The latest books in several series came out, and I got 'em that very day sent to my lovely lovely Kindle,"

June: Vacation review and wrap-up.

"I was away on vacation last week (sorry no notice, ever since I stopped blogging anonymously, I've stopped giving advance notice on absences). "

July: Maisie Dobbs is my new obsession.

"Just finished book 5 this morning"

August: Do you like my hat?

"This is the hat I've talked about before. "

September: Brief bullets of Labor Day

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

October: "I don't suppose you have any sushi?"

"Muffin Man the other night at Bonefish."

November: It's election day. I'm at Dominion Trail Elementary handing out sample ballots.

"VOTE"

December: December holidays are here again

"Which means I'm bringing the music and the hand-made chocolates."**

*(The first February post is always about MM's B'day. He was born on the first)
**Boy oh boy did I ever bring the hand-made chocolates. 37 dozen. THIRTY-SEVEN DOZEN.

For those who may have over-indulged this week