Happy Halloween! I am wearing pink bunny ears today. I know that isn't really a costume but it is the best I can do while traveling. Sparky on the other hand is dressing as a deranged physician, "Will Chopham, M.D." He has a wig, well really it is a bald thing with a wild fringe of gray hair. Think Albert Einstein... Anyway he will be wearing his dress shirt and tie and regular dockers underneath a very blood stained white lab coat. Stuffed in the bloody pocket is a severed hand and in the other his meat cleaver. Of course he has an official name tag clipped to his breast pocket - complete with his name and photo and the name of the hospital - Graves Spiritus Hospital... And you've all been apprised of son#2's viking costume. He was over Friday night to paint runes on his shield. I had to leave before I saw the end result.

Last night was the opening ceremony with a red carpet theme. We were all supposed to dress up "glam". Well the best I could so was a skirt with a slit and a velvet flocked top. I wore my black and white rhinestone earrings - that's as "glam" as I get. I took a couple photos but the net book doesn't recognize my phone so I can't add them (imagine me pouting). It is a busy day today so know that I'm thinking about reading your posts and answering your comments even if I can't get to them today or even tomorrow. I will catch up eventually!

As you read this I'm at the airport waiting to board my flight to Charlotte, NC. Sometimes things run smoothly and other times, well, not so much. My flight leaves South Bend and goes to Minneapolis where I will have a 2 hour and 2 minute layover before leaving to fly to Charlotte. I am anticipating a relaxed and unhurried trip through the airport to get to the departure gate. I have my carry on all packed and ready to go. I pre-weighed it and it is under the weight limit. My backpack is stocked with goodies for during the flight including some gum and hard candy to help with the ear pressure during the take off and landings. The return trip however is not likely to be so easy! I will depart Charlotte and end up in Detroit. Once at the Detroit airport I will have a scant 41 minutes before my flight to South Bend takes off. That is barely enough time to sprint through the airport from one gate to another. There will not be any time to grab lunch so I will have to survive on a pack of pretzels and a small swig of watered down juice. I'm just hoping there won't be any screaming and crying babies next to, behind, or in front of me. I am sympathetic to the struggles of traveling with small children. However I really believe in pharmaceutical intervention when a child can't be soothed with traditional methods. I'm telling you a little Benadryl makes life better for every one!

I'm apologizing ahead of time - I'm not sure what the internet situation will be and I don't know if I'll be able to post while there. I have a pretty full schedule so I may not be able to respond to any comments. I'm going to "play it by ear" and "fly by the seat of my pants" which is not my preferred modus operandi!!

If you look closely at the clump of pine needles just to the left of middle you might be able to spy my little friend.

Every once in awhile you spot one of the miracles of this world. In this case I was able to briefly hold it in my hands. the little thing was so tiny. Barely as long as my pinky finger nail (which is pretty small for an adult) it was new to the world.

It was a newly emerged froglet having recently metamorphosed from a tadpole. He was not alone. As I tried to hold onto him as Sparky tried to get a photo, I noticed that there were dozens of them in the grass. We stood very still and let them move away from our feet. After what seemed an eternity the blades of grass were no longer bending and bobbing as the little frogs hopped over and under the green grass. I hope they can get big enough to survive the winter. This spring was strange with snow in April and May that delayed the garden and obviously threw the frog breeding off a bit too!

Last Tuesday I attended a lecture at work. It was on awareness of the factors that create gender-related advantages and disadvantages in negotiations. If you are able to understand and more importantly recognize that there are gender biases then you can help promote a more egalitarian workplace. The title of the talk was "Gender and Negotiation in the Workplace" presented by Dr. Susan G. Williams, Professor Emerita of Management at Belmont University. The sponsoring group was a new one called Thrive Professional Development Committee. There has been a big push on campus for diversity education and gender equality this last year. Currently there is a mandatory diversity training workshop that every single staff member must attend. It was a 4 hour session. I enjoyed it but then again I'm not faculty or one of the powerful people who were required to do an eight hour workshop. But back to the lecture on Tuesday. Professor Williams had a charming southern accent that didn't diminish her message that there were and are gender differences that can become barriers to advancement for women. She spoke on the history of women in the workplace. This included some rather startling statistics on the earning power of women in the 1960s verses today. I would have thought that we had come further than we have. She then got to the meat of the matter and gave examples of how gender differences can affect the outcome of negotiations for everything from pay increases and promotions to sales pitches and business proposals. Although she gave some general strategies for sidestepping some gender pitfalls, a more comprehensive discussion was warranted. After the meeting a second opportunity was announced - to have one on one sessions and small group support meetings. Still it didn't address my big issue of women putting on their "man pants" and trying to out man the men....

Warm afternoon sun
Icy morning wind
Nighttime frost
These are the signs
Emerging fall palate
Red burning bush
Colors drip from leaves
Orange, yellow, chartreuse
Mounds of raked leaves
Enjoy the sun
Soon winter comes

I do enjoy fall. I like the crisp air and beautiful colors. There is something immensely satisfying about walking through piles of crunchy leaves. I was shifting my summer wardrobe into storage and pulling out the heavier clothes and coats. There is a little bit of melancholy associated with putting the short sleeved tops away. The subtle shift from the exuberance of spring and the satisfaction of summer to the anticipation of autumn and the dread of winter. I am trying to live in the moment and not have the creeping cold of winter spoil the still sunny days of fall.

I completely forgot about this orb until I was moving things around to dust. You see I put the orbs in my computer room until I have photographed and blogged about them. After I've documented their existence I move them to the sewing/art room where I have many shelves and display racks. As I was cleaning and making the big shift to the other room I discovered this little orb forgotten behind my computer speaker. I feel bad that I overlooked it sitting patiently on the desk...

This is Syracosphaera molischii type3 which is found in the Gulf of Mexico. It is almost a local coccolith!

Here is my interpretation of the above coccolith. I used a mixed clay body incorporating one quarter porcelain clay and half white stoneware and one quarter scrap clay. The scrap clay is in a large trashcan where everyone tosses their trimmings and slip from the wheels. The glaze has Royal Blue accents with a Shaner Clear (contaminated) base color. The contaminated clear has a lovely translucent pastel blue color. The camera combined with the horrible incandescent lighting doesn't really show off the delicate colors on this orb.

This last Saturday night Sparky and I joined some friends at church for a Trivia Night. Our team name was Mad Hatters and we all wore crazy hats. Sparky wore his Purdue Pete hat.

I had a really hard time deciding which hat to wear. I considered wearing my bear hat but that would get really hot fast. I have a lighter weight one - the chipmunk crocheted hat. But that isn't very "mad". I decided to take several hats. In the first round I wore my Swiss Army hat. The second round I unfolded the hat into the winter version. Third round was time to pull out the chipmunk hat which I wore through the 4th round too. I switched to my big floppy hat in the 5th round. I got serious in the 6th round by putting on my dino-duck hat. The seventh round saw is in 2nd place so I switched to my "all business" hat with the yellow lightening bolts. We pulled ahead in the 8th round while wearing the same hat. In the last two rounds I switched to my Yoda hat and we pulled into a commanding lead.

Here is the group photo where we displayed all our millinery.

Last year our team took home first place. We were the defending champions going into the evening's competition. That is a lot of pressure. Luckily we had a lovely spread of snacks to take our mind off the reality that everyone was gunning for us!
It was a great evening and yes, we won 1st place again! That means that we each get $20 in prize money which is $10 more than we spent to enter.
A shout out to Mary and Dave who were the organizers:

Mary's hat was adorned with sparkly antennae and googly eyes. Dave had a camo bucket hat with the brim flipped up. Mary was the official score card writer and I kept the team copy.

This shows two new team members Janice and Bryan, newlyweds who are wearing big brimmed hats suitable for sunny days. At the far end of the table is Mary's sister Janice in the large hat with the fringe. The hat actually belongs to her mother who wore it for her 86th birthday party.

This smiling couple are Rob and Abby who are new to our team. Rob was wearing a polka dot engineer's hat while Abby donned a army cap blinged out with a diamond tiara and hot pink satin ribbon and bow topped with pink fuzzy antennae.

Here we are in our fine hats. Sparky had good karma even though Purdue lost (again) and my hat meant business! The only person not pictured is Janice's husband Hank. He was the runner taking our score sheets up to the scoring table and he was the most enthusiastic team member. After each round he would come back and make a circuit around the table dispensing high fives and congratulating everyone. You might be able to discern him in the group photo wearing a yellow hardhat bedecked with lime green and yellow feathers and a glitter ghost on the front.

My husband, Sparky, plays guitar and bass. Son #1 played clarinet (and still owns 2) and has dinked around with a guitar. Son #2 plays violin, viola, bass, guitar, and piano (at least well enough to pass 4 piano classes at college). We have lots of instruments in the house - 2 guitars (one acoustic and one acoustic/electric), 1 electric bass, a snare drum, 2 violins, a euphonium, an accordion, a ukelin, a banjo, a guiro, wooden spoons, castanets, 3 recorders, and 2 electric keyboards. We used to have a trombone but he loaned it to a guy at church and it kind of became a gift. Anyway, Sparky has a thing for instruments. We haven't spent a lot of money for most of them having either found them at garage sales or resale shops or in some cases having been gifted with them (the banjo from my mother). Still it is hard to resist an instrument that is abandoned and looking sad. Which is why I didn't tell Sparky about the Fender Statocaster or the Fender Squire Strat that just showed up in the Salvation Army store. Although they were in tune and in pretty good shape for being older models (made in 2000), we needed them like a another hole in the head. I had taken photos and texted them to Sparky's long time friend who happens to be in a band and is always on the lookout for vintage instruments!

I am scheduled to travel to North Carolina for the national meeting of the American Association of Laboratory Animal Science. I will be flying. Since I will be gone for 7 days I will need to pack judiciously if I intend to get everything into the suitcase. The big issue is the weather. Right now they are having a high in the mid 70s to 80s and the low temperatures are hovering between 60 and 45. I think layering is the way to go but that takes up space in a suitcase.

My clothes are in neat stacks and have been arranged by day and anticipated weather conditions. I wasn't going to pack more than one pair of shoes but the prospect of the opening ceremony red carpet theme will require "glam attire". That of course will require a pair of fancy shoes. And a fancy and possibly sparkly dress. Hopefully something that doesn't shed glitter in my suitcase and doesn't wrinkle either. This is what happens when you fly instead of drive.

The plan also includes doing some geocaching in downtown Charlotte. I've looked at caches online and selected some likely ones close to the convention center and near the hotel. I will travel light and only take my GPS and a few TOTT (tools of the trade). Again I am limited by airline and TSA regulations. That means I likely won't be bringing my telescoping mirror, big magnet on a stick, my walking stick, and the multi-tool with a variety of sharp pointy things attached.

I have the suitcase open and ready to receive my final selections. I'm delaying the actual packing until the 10 day forecast is available. I will have everything ready to go by Oct. 27th at the latest! So you can see that I've planned ahead. I just don't like to "fly by the seat of my pants" like some folks.

All this gnashing of teeth is probably unwarranted. The bottom line is that I will be dressed professionally. I only hope that others representing our facility dress appropriately.

Son #2 has always had big ideas and had difficulty in following through with them. About 5 years ago he was going to make a costume for a Comicon or Gencon (I can't remember which one). It was a reproduction of the body armor from Gears of War. He bought power tools, foam, special floor padding, PVC pipe, spray paint, and the list goes on. He started making it and when he ran into difficulty he gave up. We still have bits of it in the basement, the parts we forgot to box up when he moved out.

Now he is making a Viking costume. He came over a couple of weeks ago and had Sparky help him use the circular saw to cut out a shield. He had several wood planks that once cut and stained have sat in the garage. He ordered some sort of metal piece for the front of the shield (a boss) and is waiting for that to arrive. He is still looking for some fur to wrap around his legs. He figures that a fur coat will show up at Goodwill sooner or later. In the meantime he asked me to make him a gambeson. What is a gambeson I asked. Son #2 then educated me via Wikipedia:
"It is a padded defensive jacket, worn as armour separately, or combined with mail or plate armor. Gambesons were produced with a sewing technique called quilting. In medieval Norse, the garment was known as vápntreyja, literally "weapon shirt,"("Vapn" means Våpen-weapon+"trøye" means "shirt" in Norwegian)."

I countered that I'd make one if he provided the pattern and the fabric. I had one provision - He needed to get everything to me before 11:00 AM on Saturday October 15th as Sunday would really be the only day that I'd have to work on it. I figured that this would be another project that wouldn't get off the ground. I was wrong. He asked me to go with him on Saturday morning to buy the fabric. He arrived to pick me up at 8:30 AM and he had the pattern in hand. We picked out fabric and were home in record time.

Here is a photo record of my progress:

This is the pattern - he wanted the jacket the guy with the hat is wearing only shorter and without the sleeves and no buttons.

This is the fabric he picked out. I had suggested some cheaper stuff but he wanted it to be brown or black or even forest green and the cheap stuff only came in white, tan, and pastel yellow, pink and blue. The pattern called for 3+ yards of 60" fabric and this was 45" width. I wanted to get 2 yards but the sales clerk suggested that it might not be enough. He bought 3+ yards at $10/yd. Ouch.

There are a couple things that I dislike about sewing. The first is cutting out individual pattern pieces from the giant sheets of tissue paper they are printed on. Then there is the pinning of said tissue paper pieces to the fabric. Because my sewing room doesn't have a large table suitable to work on big projects, I end up using the dining room table.

Finally they are all cut out. This is when the fun can begin!

I got so excited I forgot to take some of the intermediate steps. I've got the front, back and the little caps over the sleeves sewn together and I'm putting the peplum on the bottom.

Here it is assembled but the edges still need to be hemmed. I had to have Sparky try it on at this point to check the length and to double check the amount of room at the waist. He requested that I not take a photo...

It took a bit of time to sew the neck and sleeve edges. I had to hand baste them and then machine stitch a second turn to hide all the raw edges. The front and bottom edges were easier since they were straight.

Here is a close up of the leather strips I sewed on as closures. I had an old belt that had been braided that I had salvaged to use in a ceramics craft (to tie around the neck of a vase). I think this was a better use since it looks pretty rugged in a medieval Viking way.

I wasn't feeling particularly perky on Sunday and had a terrible sinus headache. I still managed to get this finished. I didn't want to be blamed for the costume not getting off the ground. So son #2 owes me. Big time debt. The kind of debt that will cost him dearly at some point. The possibilities for payback are endless.