I still need to get a hunting season report up. >.>

Before that, though: Plum pie! I'm making a grand total of four pies for Thanksgiving this year, one for my folks, one for Star's folks, and two for a work potluck involving three or four departments (I lost count). Three of them are going to be this plum pie, with the fourth to be a Super Sekrit surprise. :3
I think I've finally got this recipe nailed down, thanks to several cooking sites out there. This is a 9-inch two-crust fruit pie - pretty standard in the world of pie, really, but the fact that it's made of plums and the combination of spices makes me really happy. I also make my own crust - it just tastes better and it's fun to do.

( Crust Recipe )

OK! Now the fun part: rolling it out. Flour up your rolling surface, your rolling pin, and your hands, and divide that critter about 2/3 to 1/3. Take the larger piece and roll it into a circle, then add to your pie plate. The top crust comes later and rolls out the same way. I like to crimp down the edges and dust the top with granulated sugar before cutting the vents.

This recipe also doubles nicely, with none of that proportional nonsense things like mousse will throw at you.



And that is the exhaustively long plum pie recipe, with all the notes. (Well, this one does not have what my handwritten one has: measure conversions in the margins.)
This stuff is delicious, but I keep messing with the spice mix. Next time, I think I'd like to change up the nutmeg for garam masala - the flavor seems like it would be complementary. :3

I am kind of on the fence about abortion, but can see that it is medically necessary in some cases to save the lives of the women involved. It's not an easy discussion and I'm not going to get into it in this post, but I see no reason that a state-sponsored health insurance program should literally stop people from using their own money to get coverage for a necessary, legal procedure.

Whether or not taxpayer money, to use the catchphrase, should go toward it is another question: what if I don't agree with Viagra, but taxpayer money, some of which I contributed, goes toward that? I don't get to opt out.

What about people who believe that all medical procedures are unnecessary or morally wrong (I am not making this up) but who still pay taxes? Should they be exempt from a medical program they can't support without compromising their own beliefs?


...The House amendment would tell women who participate in the new health insurance exchange that they can't even use their own funds to buy a policy that offers abortion coverage.

In short, the Stupak Amendment would take away health insurance coverage that women already have. This is a huge step back for women’s health.


The petition to stop this trainwreck is here.

I am very very very angry right now.

This article should neatly explain why. Here are some excerpts (emphasis mine) and why I am angry.

"None of the bills emerging from the House and Senate require insurers to cover all the elements of a standard gynecological "well visit," leaving essential care such as pelvic exams, domestic violence screening, counseling about sexually transmitted diseases, and, perhaps most startlingly, the provision of birth control off the list of basic benefits all insurers must cover. Nor are these services protected from "cost sharing," which means that, depending on what's in the bill that emerges from the Senate, and, later, the contents of a final bill, women could wind up having to pay for some of these services out of their own pockets. So far, mammograms and Pap tests are covered in every version of the legislation."

Right now, my insurance covers the standard annual well visit under the usual copay. That's great; I'm glad they do. I am not sure if they're doing it because it is required or not, but not requiring that coverage will mean that insurance companies will not offer it, or will offer it as an extra, requiring extra payment.

No, I don't assume any basic human decency in the insurance industry; I have seen far too much evidence to the contrary to assume they have the wellbeing of the real live people they cover in mind at all.

"Granted, Congress can't--and shouldn't--get into the business of spelling out every possible cause for a trip to the doctor. No one wants the process to collapse under a mountain of requests from special interest groups à la the Clinton mess in 1993. But women, half of all adult patients, are not a special interest group."

DUH.
So how come every time this comes up, it gets brushed off as "catering to special interests?"
I am not a special interest. I am a person like every other, and dismissing the care of my organs as "special interest" is ridiculous. For instance, I don't believe I've ever seen Viagra or its many cousins being dismissed as "special interest," despite the fact that they are designed for and sold to only half the population.

"Because some essential care for women wasn't included in the list, HELP committee member Senator Barbara Mikulski proposed an amendment that would require the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to stipulate that basic women's health services would be covered. The language said nothing about abortion, referring only to "preventive care and screenings." Yet the voting on the amendment went exactly along pro- and anti-choice lines. The amendment passed by just one vote, with all the committee's Republicans as well as Pennsylvania Senator Robert Casey, an anti-abortion Democrat, voting against it. The committee's discussion of the amendment was dominated by Republicans' worry about the possibility of government money winding up in the hands of Planned Parenthood."

Why are Republicans so worried about this? Are they so dreadfully concerned that Planned Parenthood may do preventative care and screenings?
Who else is supposed to do it, if one cannot afford a non-Planned Parenthood doctor (note that, even if the reform passes without coverage of the above preventative care and screenings, it will still be a matter of what one woman can afford when she needs it) or does not have access to a non-Planned Parenthood clinic? Is this one organization so foul that they should be refused legitimate business, or is it the women themselves who deserve to have their needs neglected?

The denial of coverage for services used exclusively by women is every bit as much sex discrimination as the (illegal) practice of firing women as soon as they became pregnant, for fear that they would miss too much work.

Is coverage being denied to prostate exams? How about erectile dysfunction screenings?

The great thing is that this is being pushed by Democrats; I've come to expect flailing about, shaming, pearl-clutching, and general stupidity from the Republicans when it comes to anything involving GIVING MONEY TO SOMEONE ELSE, but coming from the party who claim to care at least a little bit about women's rights, bodies, and healthcare, I feel betrayed. I am registered as Unaffiliated, and will continue to vote for the people I perceive as being helpful. At the moment, that is resoundingly NOT the Democrats, and absolutely not the Republicans. So who can I vote for with even a chance of being actually represented?

I do believe that I will be contacting my congresscritters to point this out. This is utterly ridiculous, and I can only assume that they haven't heard about it (otherwise, they HAVE heard about it and either don't care (evil) or are intentionally leaving this out (worse)).

Shall we make some noise?

I've been doing a lot of research on various kinds of webcomics and the businesses behind them recently, and The Star Thrower looks really cool.
Rather than a business, it's a fundraising site for a Canadian relief project in Haiti.
Go read the intro. I dare you.

I found it through webcomics.com.

Yesterday, when we checked on the cattle, they were there. Whew.

We ended up giving the relative who'd finally gotten them put back (one at a time in a small trailer, with them fussing, shying, and kicking the whole time) a jump start for his dump truck - it wouldn't raise as one of his friends had messed up the electronics trying to haul 7 tons of manure in a 3-ton truck. Then, of course, he had to dump the manure.

I went to the lapidary club for an hour, which was well worth it - I'm working on polishing a bone, and all it needs now is the final polish; all the hours with sandpaper are paying off nicely.

When Star came and picked me up, he seemed to be in a hurry, which is really unusual. I understood it when we got to the parking lot and I heard:

sssssssssssssssssss

Uh oh.

Today's adventure will be changing a tire.

Apologies to everyone for whom I am not posting at the moment. Real life's been kind of insane.

My in-laws are out of town, meaning that Star and I are watching their house, their cats, and their cattle, four steers and a bull calf. Last night, we went over to check the house, and the pasture had..
no cattle.
No fresh cow patties.
No significant lowering of the water trough. (They usually drink three or four inches down a day.)

We walked the fence, discovered that the gate to the property behind them was open, and found a cloven hoofprint headed through the gate. That gate has a chain latch - someone opened it, and then either didn't close it or didn't latch it, and nobody has ANY call to be using that gate.

That back pasture is someone else's land, and has two pretty friendly horses. Fortunately, they left us and the grain-bucket alone. We called the in-laws to let them know what was up and went cattle-hunting.
No cattle in the pasture.
No cattle in the scrubby forest by the side.
We dropped down to the river and there they were, on the opposite bank.
The river at this time of year is only hip-deep on me and flows slowly. We tried to call them across by baiting them with grain - they'd obviously crossed once, and left big deep cow footprints in the mud on both sides. They wouldn't come.
Star crossed the river first - stripped to shorts and shirt and waded across, trying to coax them back. Four cattle went up one side of the hill and into a thistle patch. One cow went the other way and stood on a sandbar looking stupid.

Star got him all the way to the water's edge. He got his forefeet in the river and suddenly the river was Scary and he wouldn't cross. Bah.

To make a long story short, we cajoled, called, tried to bait them, told them how much we were going to enjoy eating them. Tried to push them. Tried to get them to follow the grain bucket. Nothing worked, and trying to get close to Lead Cow made Lead Cow very jumpy - they've never been moved, really, since they just live on that one pasture. Star was afraid he was going to get kicked if he tried anything more, and then it got dark, and cattle will just not move after dark.

At least, not without more help and experience than we had. An experienced person on an experienced horse could have had them home in no time.

Did I mention we've never moved cattle before?

On the way back across the horses' field, they suddenly figured out what people-with-a-bucket meant and came and begged for the grain. They really are friendly horses. We left them with a snack and booked it out of the field before they decided to follow us further.

We made a bunch of phone calls, finally got in touch with the in-laws, who called the neighbor who owns the back pasture and a bunch of other relatives. After a good hour of phone calls, arrangements, and general uproar, we got it figured out - another relative was going to come catch the cattle this morning, and we are off the hook.

There were no cows in the pasture this morning.
Hopefully they'll be there this evening.
Stupid cattle.

filter?

I reworked the Reception 10-gallon tank last weekend, an event that deserves its own post (there are pictures, when I get them processed). At the end of the day, Star and I went to the LFS and traded a couple handfuls of plants and a small amount of cash for half-a-dozen White Cloud Mountain Minnows. They're cute little minnows - colorful and lively, and they swim up top. They'll be great dithers in the 55-gallon at home, along with the four from the work tank.
We went home, acclimated them into quarantine, and headed back into town for more errands.

When we came home, there were five minnows present.

No missing minnow was hiding in the wad of moss in the quarantine. No minnow on the stand. No minnow on the floor, behind the stand, caught in the wires somewhere. So where was minnow number six?

About that time I realized I did not have a prefilter installed. The quarantine is only 5.5 gallons, and is filtered with an AquaClear 20 - about the same ratio of filter to actual water that the display tank has, if you go by the manufacturer's stats, and more filter than it really needs. (That's fine. I'm a believer in over-filtration.)

The poor little guy (I'm pretty sure it is a male) had gotten into the intake slits, somehow avoided the impeller (!) and spent a max of almost three hours stuck UNDER the filter media, which fits very tightly in the chamber. I suppose it could have gotten in by swimming up the outflow, but then, how would it have gotten under the media basket? ACs fit their media in very tightly (good, since the water has to be forced through the sponges) and recirculate water through the sponges as well, meaning that the spot in the entire tank with the most current is... under the media basket.
That is also, thanks to the nitrifying bacteria that keep all the fish alive and happy, the spot with the least oxygen - the bacteria use it! So the minnow had to work really hard, took some injuries somewhere in the process, and had very little air to do it on.

We coaxed the poor minnow out into the main tank and took a good look at him. He had two popeyes (swollen, "popped-out" look, for those not familiar with fish ailments) and blood in his fins and gills. He proceeded to spend the next half an hour hanging vertical and near-motionless at the surface, gasping air for all he was worth. I installed a sponge prefilter and kept an eye on him; since nobody else was beating on him, and there isn't a secondary hospital tank, leaving him alone was the best option.

By the end of the night, he was swimming in midwater again, albeit with a bit of a list.
This morning, I could no longer tell which fish had gone up the filter - he's feeling better.
Whew.

Today I have gotten to play mad scientist, and it's only 8 AM.
The houseplants at home have a problem with fungus gnats, and so do the plants at the office. I visited our local hydroponics shop, since the lady who owns it seems to know everything about stuff like this. She offered me a spray repellent, something with pyrethrin in it (which is great, but would cause problems the fish and bird) or a packet of predatory nematodes.
I bought the nematodes.
They're little soil-dwelling predators that love nothing more than to eat other bugs, the packaging claims. Some online research before the store visit said the same thing.
This morning, I ran around and stealth-watered every plant in my area and Star's area with nematode concentrate.
Eat up, little buggies. *evil grin*

Over last weekend, we attended a little local Renaissance fair. It's not nearly the size of the BIG one that happens in the north part of the state, but it was fun none the less (there were birds - happy me).

There was a gyros vendor who also had dolmades. Happy me; I love dolmades, especially with the lemon sauce. Yum!

Star and Rivven split a funnel cake - happy them! (I can't stand the stuff; makes me sick.)

A couple other friends got a break from moving - happy friends! (And we helped them move, too.)

We shopped around at the stalls, I had an interesting conversation with an SCA member regarding the fabrication of bone needles, and there was plenty of good food to go around.
There was also a raptor rehabilitation project, present with a Screech owl, a Great Horned owl, a Merlin, a Red-tailed hawk, a raven, and a Swainson's hawk. I was totally fascinated by the Swainson's. Her name was Heather, and I have a sketch of her taken while she was preening. She seemed to know she was being watched - she'd look at me, ruffle up, and go back to preening, then repeat the process.
The raven was a real character, and kept wanting to be the center of attention. She also enjoyed some scraps of turkey leg donated by an admirer, and demonstrated that a raven can, indeed, drink from a cup.

I also found a pair of nice black leather boots that fit. This is unusual as I do not come in standard sizes - I have seriously big calves, thanks to walking everywhere. They're a bit loose in the foot and ankle, which can be fixed by maybe some gel pads or a careful layer of sock. They rise up over my knee (!) without a zipper.
I look forward to wearing them with my snazzy denim skirt (as suggested by Rivven) and...
... it's official; I'm reworking the Treize costume.
With quality fabric, this time.

All in all, it was a great weekend.

What a fun little con!
Comparing NDK and Otakumex would be like comparing zucchini and kumquats, so I'm not going to do it.
I'd be surprised if there were more than 300 people there. It was teeny. The conference center, Sandia Courtyard, was nice; it was definitely the right choice to stay the night there as we needed a safe place to change.
We spent some time squeeing over how little and cute everything was (seven dealers!) and then got down to the srs business of enjoying the con. They had a viewing room, a main event room, and a panel room. We spent some time in each.
The dealer room was a lot of fun. They had a bunch of hard-to-find and weird DVDs, manga, books... and the sticker dealer we've been missing at NDK! We each got a sticker that says "P!" as well as some other stuff. Strangely, there wasn't a Traditional Japanese Tasty Thing stand, though there was a lady specializing entirely in yaoi. She did surprisingly brisk business.
I found the first three discs of Haibane Renmei and all of Shrine of the Morning Mist. Star found Kitchen Princess vol. 6 and a couple other manga he was after. Score.
They showed the first few episodes of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi s.2, which we watched until I fell asleep on Star, and had to go fall asleep in the room instead.
We also entered the costume contest. It would not be nice to enter in Novice, even though we'd never won a contest - this is my 8th year cosplaying, and Star's 6th, I think. We are getting pretty good at it. We entered in the Journeyman rank instead.
There was tough competition at both Novice and Journeyman rank (I don't think there were any Master-class submissions, but more on that later). Novice rank featured some good skits, a lot of Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy characters, and a few skits. Novice rank also featured Little Sister from Bioshock (wow!) and Amaterasu from Okami, fullsuit style.
In the Journeyman rank, we were up against some Hetalia folks, most notably ChibiTalia who kept trying to take us home, Rena-style, and some more really great Kingdom Hearts (Xigbar and Demyx! Squee!) who had made their own props. They were truly impressive. Just as impressive were Cloud and Sephiroth from Kingdom Hearts 2. We were almost last in line - we went up, did our thing, and then it was awards time.
Some KH folks got 3rd. They were awesome. Star and I put our heads together afterward - we were both thinking good for them! Bummer we didn't get third but they really did a great job!
Then Cloud and Sephiroth placed. Wow! Bummer, we didn't even place... must be Xigbar and Demyx for 1st... great work all around and we had a good time!
Then they called Absol and Lucario for first place.

Xigbar and Demyx got a guest award - one of the guests was totally (properly!) blown away that they'd made their own props. They were awesome.

We won a signed artbook and some shirts, and are eligible for higher-level competition at some of the larger cons now that we've taken a prize. Woot!
... prize-winning costumes.
I like the sound of that. :3

Sunday was pretty slow. Warky (awesome self-taught synthesizer player) had a concert, which was well worth seeing (and a CD which was well worth buying). Jan Scott-Frazier had a panel on improving artistic ability, which we attended; there are now notes in the back of my comic sketchbook, and I have an interesting new tool in my mental toolbox (that being using the rule of thirds in comics layout).

All in all, it was a great experience and a great little con. I'd go back next year.

4 hours later - almost exactly - Absol has a full face mask attached to the helmet. The head is significantly harder to get into, fits significantly better (!) and has very little ventilation - I'm having issues with glasses fogging, but will have to cope with that. Since it does not have an open mouth, the only air exchange happens through the (large) eyes.
No pics tonight, I'm wiped out. It's done in time for Otakumex. I'm happy with that.

NDK-2009

Follow the Espeon for all the con photos! These aren't all of them - I still need to trade pics with Rivven and Arashi, but I am burnt out on processing photos for this weekend.

What a weekend that was. We got to hang out with friends, visit the Mexican restaurant across the way both nights, cruise the dealer room, and see some awesome panels. We also gave the fursuits their first exposure to the real world - if a convention can be considered such. XD

We left for NDK around 6:00 Friday morning ("we" being Star, Rivven, and I) and narrowly avoided an accident - about five minutes after we passed Star's parents' house, there was a terrible accident involving an SUV, and someone was killed (r.i.p.). We were driving Rivven's SUV. Thus, Star's parents were reasonably upset. They tried to call us; unfortunately, by the time they tried, we were already on Wolf Creek Pass, which has no cell phone signal until the other side. We did not call back. They got really upset, called my mom, called Rivven's mom, mobilized the Mom Brigade, and left voicemails on Star and Rivven's phones (and if I had a functional one, doubtless they'd be there, too.)

Apparently, we also missed a terrible accident on Wolf Creek by about the same margin. We sure did get watched over on that trip.

When we got the various moms' calls, we called them all back and reassured them that we were all alive and well, if sleepy, and got back on the road. Unfortunately, Arashi and her husband and friend did not pass Wolf Creek before the accident, and had to loop around the long way - all extra three hours of it. Ugh.

We arrived safely in Denver, found a close parking place by some miracle, and got to the con. What fun!
The first thing was Star's first photoshoot, for Super Smash Brothers: Brawl. Since Lucario is a character, he got into it. Mr. Game and Watch got a bunch of pictures with him.

That was our first experience in the suits, and I am very grateful to Rivven and Moon, our excellent handlers. :) We handed Star off to Moon (ha!) and they took off to the photoshoot. I was in the process of discovering that Absol's makeup takes a good half hour to put on, and was somewhat later; Rivven stayed with me. We can't spend more than an hour or so in the suits without some form of cooling - and our super-high-tech cooling system is.... those little neck wraps. The kind with the water-absorbing polymer crystals in them. (We didn't actually use those until Sunday, when we really needed them.)
A fursuit, it turns out, acts like a giant bellows if given half a chance. I have concealed vents at the back of my legs, and Star has some under Lucario's big "shorts," so as long as we keep our legs moving, it keeps the air circulating, exchanging the very hot air inside the suit for the only moderately hot air outside. It gets really, really hot in there - Absol is about 20 pounds of fitted insulation, and Lucario is about 15 pounds of same.

Also, everyone wants to hug a furry, 'cuz you're.. well, furry! Maybe it isn't everyone. Maybe it just seems like everyone. We used nice, soft fur, and we got a lot of interest.
I got a lot of anonymous back-pets, and when I looked over my shoulder, a lot of sheepish looks. I am not normally a touchy person, but that really wasn't so bad.

We also hit the dealer room. Star was wanting some Famicom games, since he has a system that will play them now. I was wanting a copy of Xenogears Perfect Works (ha ha, right?) and a box set of Haibane Renmei. Rivven was after a copy of Final Fantasy VII: Last Order. Nobody had any of it, so we got some traditional Japanese tasty things (Daifuku! I love daifuku!) and strange ramune (Octopus! I love octopus!) instead, and resolved to check again the next morning. Sadly, the Summer Piplup dolls I have been slowly accumulating seem to be out of print(?).

The Mexican restaurant right across the way was really packed. They have a marvelous thing called Pollo Fundido.
Oh.
We went back Saturday night, too. I got Seafood Fundido that time. :3

Arashi and co. got in very late Friday night. We felt bad it had taken them so long, but we were glad they made it...

Saturday morning brought on panels we wanted to see, photo safaris to be had, and of course the Art Show! We put on the Pokemon again, for about an hour and a half, and Rivven took many pictures of us and various other con-goers, costumed and not. We also staged a Pokemon battle in the hallway, which got a lot of attention. Afterward, a Pocky Ninja snuck up on us - but we caught her!

We discovered that neither of us can eat in suit. Not only can my big clumsy paws not manipulate something as small as a pocky, but thanks to my fangs, I can't actually close my teeth all the way - I had to throw my head back and nom-nom-nom until I could get it into my back teeth, and then I was OK. Star can't work a pocky stick through the little flap behind his mouth - though we could probably get a sufficiently long straw through there (that's what it was designed to do, after all). We did not have occasion to try.

Star and I bid on pieces in the Art Show. We won them; a particular artist does lovely chibis and full-size sketches of various angels, and we each got one. I also ended up with a piece with a beautiful and strong lady rallying a flight of dragons, which is going to have to go where I'll look at it a lot.

We hit the "Japanese Cooking with Bob" panel, which was totally worth the wait in line. Bob turned out to be the chef for the hotel the con uses - the poor guy had to run to work right after the panel! Most of the stuff he went over was very basic, but there was quite a bit I hadn't known (did you know it takes dried mushrooms to make a good mushroom broth, or that seaweed comes in four major types?) He also did not have printouts, which was sad, though the recipe handout should be available in .pdf from the NDK website sometime this week.

Just before that, we caught the second half of "Safety in Costumes," which is more important than one might think in a) 20 pounds of fitted insulation or b) 130 pounds of plastic, metal, and wiring, which is what the presenters had. The gentleman doing most of the talking had a full Gundam costume, which was beautiful. The lady who didn't say much (that I heard) had a Gundam half-suit, which she wore over a black unitard-lookin' thing. Apparently some catty girl or other had the nerve to say she was too big to wear that suit; the response to that was "you'd break in half, honey."

Star and I have concluded that our aspirations to making Gundam costumes will have to wait until we have a garage of our own; and have reconciled ourselves to the fact that a full suit will probably weigh as much as either of us (just shy of 200 pounds, for the curious). Fortunately, like full plate armor, it can be built to be self-supporting to some degree. You just have to move it.

We tried to hit "Plush Doll Making for Beginners" but the line was about to the moon and back, so we skipped it. We also skipped the AMV contest (or at least, I did; Star went to the reshow, and said I didn't miss much) and all the viewing rooms - they really didn't have anything I wanted to see this year. Only two rooms running, too! There wasn't any of the really obscure stuff - that's normally what I'm after. If I haven't heard of it, and it's only maybe subtitled, that's what I go to the con to see.

Saturday went way too fast. We were in the suits for two sessions of about an hour each (well, the second may have been an hour and a half), that's when most of the pictures happened, lunch was a sketchy thing mostly made of tuna kits, and there was a nap. Half the fun I have at the con is the madcap atmosphere - it's 6000 nerds, finally let off the leash, for two and a half days. It's just a giant party.

I did find a Piplup that I did not yet have. It's laying over on its side, bein' all cute. I got one... and since the dealer room continued to disappoint, more nontraditional Japanese tasty things.

We are so taking some of those hunting. They're small, compact, nutritionally dense, and pretty tasty. Good trail-food.

Sunday was the end of the con, but not the end of our break; we took Monday off, too. That was the day of the Pokemon photoshoot, which some numbskulldude scheduled for 11:30, when the sun was up and blasting. Being costumed as the Disaster Pokemon, I got blamed for the previous day's rain, which turned our intended area into mud. I was somewhat flattered, but wished the mud wasn't there. After all, I have fuzzy white feet. Scyther was awesome.
Sadly, Flareon was the only fire type present, and the only Fighting types were Star and another Lucario. That one was a partial rather than a full suit, and had used a brighter blue. The color was truer to the Pokemon, but I thought Star was better-constructed.

The photoshoot was great; Rivven went to a panel on Female-to-Male crossplay at the same time. I am very interested in seeing her notes!
The director of that panel is in costume as a male in the pictures. I did not spot her in person; she was really convincing. Kudos if you can catch her out; I couldn't, until Rivven pointed her out to me. I wanna learn to do that.

The rest of the trip was spent hanging out with friends, cats, and more friends. What a great time. I am very grateful to Moon for letting us sleep on her floor Sunday night. She even kept her kitty from pouncing on our faces as we slept, which was v. nice.

We drove home Monday, I got sick Tuesday, and am just now not sneezing much any more.
Our first fursuit experience led, logically, to our first fursuit cleaning experience - we have an antibacterial spray, which gets used inside the suits after every time we wear them, and then we shower, because we come out of those literally dripping. That does not accommodate for anything that's gotten on the fur (combing) or mud on feet (spot-washing and more combing). Still, as they hang now, they are almost as clean as new - the soles sustained some staining I could not get out - and smell like clean fabric rather than sweaty people. This is so the way to go.

Next year, we are doing something EASY for costumes. Like maybe the Turks.

We're going to OtakuMex!
Two cons in two weeks, here we go. Hope I don't get the plague again. We'll be cosplaying as Absol and Lucario again. Both of us want to get as much wear as we can out of these suits after all the time and effort that went into them.
but... but... it's so little! 300 people... awwwww.
NDK this year had somewhere over 6000.

Con is over.
Six got the con plague (but, as Moon points out, not the bacon fever).
Con report when I quit hacking up a lung long enough to type coherently. Oog.

MY POKEMANS....

( LET ME SHOW YOU THEM )

oh look it's 1:30 again

Absol's pads are glued and lookin' sharp. Fur is cut. We're about to start attaching Absol's fur and then we are DONE BLESSED DONE.
... aside from a few small tweaks, which will happen tomorrow night. You know, small things like Absol's mane closure and the touch-ups on Lucario's neck piece, which is a bit wonky.
We're gonna make it!

Edit 1:08 AM:
Absol's suit is 90% done. We need to do some more work on the legs and clean up the seams, and then it's final touchups and done.
Tomorrow we finish. Yay!

We are one sleeve and a neck piece away from being done with Lucario.
1:20 Wednesday morning and we are STILL NOT DONE.
I feel like punching something.
I'm going to bed instead. I'm too tired, making mistakes, getting frustrated. Star does fine late at night. I'm not so lucky. Can't even type straight.
We'll finish Lucario tomorrow and hopefully Absol will go faster, since it only has one color of fur instead of three.

Foam pads are cut- all of them - and ready to attach.
Lucario's chest spike, hock pads and knee pads are attached.

We still need to:
Attach Lucario's thigh pads and shoulders
Attach Absol's hock and knee pads
Fur.

Everything is taking much too long, and I'm frustrated we were not done tonight. We're going to push to the end, and try to finish them; at this point, it's not worth it to stop or to try and make partial suits instead.

That leaves us Tuesday and Wednesday evening after work.
Wish us luck...

Hour count: 85
Hour count this weekend: 30