Gnome down!

This was discovered this morning.

If he didn't go down in the high winds over this past weekend, then I doubt any wind there was last night caused the fall.   My suspicion is that he got into a fight with a racoon and lost.

It broke at the same location it had before.  I'd superglued it back together.  Looks like it did not hold. After closer examination, there are a couple more holes and damaged spots.  I am of the opinion he has lost his last fight.

The dirt was in it for weight and stability. 

Anglicon

My apologies for not keeping up this blog.  I spend a lot more time on my sketching blog over on Wordpress.

I went to the re-boot of Anglicon back in mid-June.  All the photos are here. I tried something new.  I only went for one day and took the light rail and the bus over to the con hotel in SeaTac.  It's the same place Norwescon is held.  Since I wasn't wearing an unusual costume, it worked quite well.  I hid the replica weapon in a bag so as not to disturb transit riders!   I don't remember why, but I wasn't feeling very well so I didn't go the second day.

I developed a new costume for this con.  Since it was heavily focused on Dr. Who, I put together a costume for one of my favorite characters, River Song.    There was a home built Tardis there for posed photos and I took advantage of it.

  I didn't sew any part of this costume.  The jeans jacket and white blouse are from a thrift store.  I bought a wig on-line.  The replica pistol and holster I already had, purchased for use in a Firefly-ish costume.  There is also a pouch, not shown here, which I also already had. 

Several former cast members were there as guests, including the 6th Doctor, Tom Baker.  Photos are on my smugmug host, as linked above.

Some of the clever costumes I saw:

Kristen as a Dalek:  

Susie in a Tardis tutu costume made by her mom:

And another River Song

April Fool

For the past few years, the Museum of Flight has put up an amusing April Fool's day exhibit.  This year was no different.

 

You have to be a "certain age" to remember the flying toasters screen saver!

We're in another movie!

I'm a couch potato with a cold and I'm working through my Netflix queue.  Low and behold, I find out they were filming To Be Takei while we were presenting George with honorary Rebel Legion membership a few years ago at ECCC!  Chrystal even has a speaking part! 


Chystal is dressed as Queen Amidala and is actually recorded making the presentation.  I'm behind her and Amanda is behind me. 

Snow

Yup.  Got snow.  When I awoke at 0600, it was still dry.  But by 0730, there was this: 

 

Snow on the Gnome Noses:

 

Spaceflight Academy!

This week's volunteer shift at the Museum of Flight was quite interesting.  I spent the shift over in the Space Gallery where I watched the final push for installation of the new Spaceflight Academy. 

First, as I arrived, I caught this interesting view of the newly delivered Boeing 787 (# 3).

I had been a bit annoyed when I heard the Christmas tree was already up.  It was still a week before Thanksgiving.  However, the previous evening, at the volunteer meeting, it was explained that the Museum will have several groups hosting their holiday parties, starting right after Thanksgiving so the tree needed to be up early.  They are also dependent upon the schedule of the volunteer group that does the set up.  This tree celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the Museum of Flight!

While watching the Spaceflight Academy final build, I met Alfred.  He's a retired Boeing engineer.  And he built the fuel tanks for the model of the Space Shuttle!  He said he began the build nearly 2 years ago, in December 2012.

He was there to watch the installation of the tanks.  The model of the shuttle was built by AeroJet Rockadyne and donated to the Museum.   I waited as long as I could.  Next week, my shift falls on Thanksgiving and the Museum of closed.  So it's likely I won't be there again until early December.  I'll have more photos then.


Dieter is a Museum docent and a real Rocket Scientist.  He is an engineer for Aerojet Rockadyne of Redmond.  He presented at the Museum's Spacefest on the rockets built for NASA Mars missions. In the second photo, he's posed holding a plastic model of one of the engines. 

 

I meet such interesting and accomplished people at the Museum!  There were several astronauts there for Spacefest but, this time, I didn't meet any of them. 


All the photos are here.

Halloween 2014

The porch decor theme this year is Harry Potter.  JK is releasing a new bit of fiction on Pottermore today and AFK, the geek tavern, is celebrating Halloween with a "Death Eaters" theme. 

I dressed as  Professor McGonagall.  The thing on my face is a cat nose mini-mask.  Prof M was an Animagus who could morph into a Tabby Cat.

More photos here.

On the last day of my Michigan trip (29 Oct), I took a drive to a neighboring small town.  I saw three houses that were over the top for Halloween.

All those photos are here.