We have had a taste today of how things might work once James gets to retire—that is, if the tradewinds continue to blow favorably, as Captain Daniel Gregg might say. (I can't go out and walk the dog on warm summer evenings any longer without thinking of all those evenings I had to rush home from the hospital and walk the dog and put the fids to bed and then rush back.) Yesterday we did grocery shopping during the week (a chore I would eventually switch to Tuesdays as that seems to be the day the stores are least crowded, based on my last year's experience), and today we had the totally novel experience of going to Ikea during the week.

We didn't rush anywhere. Last night we went to bed when we were tired (about midnight), rather than having to hustle to bed early (before eleven!) so James can get up at 6:15 a.m. (an uncouth hour unless one is going somewhere interesting like on vacation), and got up a little after nine. I notice he sleeps so much better when we do this. Then we had breakfast, and I walked Tucker, and we headed for Ikea around 11:30. Noticed on the way there that Sam Flax, the art store, is back on Northside Drive, after having relocated on Peachtree Street for a while. I suspect the Buckhead rents did them in. Ironically, they are now in a building that is pretty much across the street from where they used to be (which is now a Goodwill).

I wasn't out to buy anything at Ikea—we just hadn't been in a while and I wanted to take some snapshots for Alice of clever storage items, as she's having a bathroom remodel. But since you never know what you will find there, James did buy a little reading lamp to clamp on the side of the bed, as the one he has there now is large and awkward. Otherwise he rolled and I walked (the path through Ikea is one and a half miles, according to my Fitbit) looking at goodies. On the way out I bought ginger cookies. Ikea's are the best and I haven't had any since last fall.

We didn't eat there, as frankly my tolerance for Swedish meatballs isn't all that much, but were going on to West Cobb Diner. We haven't had their turkey dinner in three forevers. One of the things we would like to start doing on James' days off (and days he teleworks) is to eat our largest meal in the afternoon rather than at night. (This has the added advantage that, if we go out to eat, it's actually cheaper.) However, since it was already two o'clock and traffic was building, it looked as if it would take some time to get from Northside Drive to Dallas Highway, and we were both pretty hungry. So we had personal pizzas at Uncle Maddio's instead (ah, that exquisite crust!) and then finished the afternoon by shopping at Sprouts. They had steak on sale, and also their ginormous chicken legs for only 77 cents a pound.

We also got some chicken noodle soup at Sprouts and has a small portion of it for a light supper. It had an odd taste, not spoiled, but like someone had taken some of the clam juice from the clam chowder and slipped it into the chicken. So...not yum.

Ended up the evening watching some of the backlog of This Old House.

Labels: art, food, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:43:00 PM

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I ought to call this one "weekend without James," because he was not home for about half of it. This was no fault of our own, and we did the shopping at Publix after dinner Friday night, so the bulk of the shopping was done and what time we did have together was maximized.

On Saturday we woke up after getting a full eight hours sleep, and after breakfast and some dog romping, James went off to his monthly club meeting. (He brought last year's Hallmark jet ornament, which was 72nd scale—"his" scale—and which he'd decorated in appropriate decals. Apparently it was a hit with the guys and he wants to do the same with this year's F-16.)

I am hoping to get back into both my art and my calligraphy, and have been assembling new supplies piecemeal with coupons. I already had the Sharpies I'd bagged at a Really Good Sale at Office Max and a few coloring books to whet some creative movement, and then had bought a set of fifty Crayola colored pencils with a coupon last weekend. Today I went to Hobby Lobby intending to get some sepia pens, but the only package they had had been opened, so I settled instead for watercolor pencils and a clever brush with a water reservoir. I have never had patience with watercolors and end up making my paintbox cakes all muddy, but I love Susan Branch's work and hope the watercolor pencils will give some inspiration. They have a nice paintbox if I want it, but not as good as the British one Mother bought me so long ago with all the fascinating paint names—wonderful names like "chrome yellow," "red ochre," "vermilion," "crimson lake," "burnt sienna," etc.! Got a good eraser, and two tiny cross stitch kits as well.

Had a $10 off $30 coupon for Petsmart, perfect for a 33 percent off bargain, so I made my way across the street to the next shopping center. Got two bags of Tucker's food and some puree to reach the $30 limit, said hi to the budgies, including the wide-eyed babies with stripes lined down their forehead, and met the cutest Boston terrier puppy (brown and white rather than the usual black!) named Champ.

I thought there was a 40 percent off coupon to Michael's, and since I was almost closer to Hiram than to any other Michael's location, I just went there. Turned out it was a 20 off all including sale items, so I just got a pencil sharpener, but finally found buy-one-get-one free frames for the two Sherlock prints I bought last year at 221B Con. They are an odd size, 11x17. Came home by Barnes & Noble, but no clearance goodies left except small games, and stopped at Dragon 168 to pick up lunch.

Lunch was great, but I had to roll my eyes at myself. I'd forgotten 11x17 frames are actually 10 1/2 x 16 1/2. The prints are exactly 11x17, so the frames were too small. Luckily, James was wanting frames, too, for some prints he received at Christmas, so, after he arrived home from the meeting, we went back out to Hiram, exchanged my frames for the right size, and James got some of his own. I also picked up some cheap brush pens. Figure they won't last long but I can practice with them. Then we had supper at the IHOP and saw an absolutely spectacular sunset on the way home.

I started one of the little kits tonight while watching Britcoms. I'd bought it because it reminded me of someone, so I wanted to work on it to send to that person. Much later, when my stitching hand got sore, I wandered into my craft room, intending to finally put the prints in the frames.Arrgh! One of the frames was broken! It was not broken at Michael's, so all I can figure is that on the way home (my frames were sitting between us in the truck) one of us messed it up while buckling seatbelts. The frame had split at one corner and the plastic was cracked in two places. I fixed the frame up with superglue to use anyway; they're worth $16 each and I can't afford to replace it. I'll have to live with the cracks. (The second print I left to frame until Sunday. That frame was fine. Disappointing.)

James was working at home on Sunday, so he set up the computer before bed and it worked fine. But this morning, as I was getting up after a rather sleepless night with one of those nagging dreams, he came in the room disgusted—now he couldn't get it to connect to his work network, so he had to go in. The stupid dreams had made me very foggy. (I can't explain these stupid dreams because I never remember them well when I wake up, but this one involved two items with very similar serial numbers that did two different things. I kept getting them confused and doing them the wrong way.) Anyway, I wanted to get to Kroger early and was delayed by a trip to the bathroom, so I skipped breakfast altogether. Yeah, I know, that didn't make the foggy any better. Picked up the milk and some pork for dinner tomorrow night and the usual burritos and a newspaper and two Flonases for James since they were on sale plus I had a coupon, too. It was a beautiful, cool morning—I even had to put on a flannel shirt to walk Tucker—so I just stuffed everything in an insulated bag and went on.

By this time it was 10 a.m. and Office Depot was open, so I stopped there for a flash drive to back up photographs, checked out the Goodwill next door (mostly clothes and junk), then went across the street to Michael's. Today was 30 percent off everything, no sale items. I picked up the bright metallic pens I saw yesterday, a children's drawing pad (for scribbling) because they were half off, and some fluorescent pencils (also half price). I think I have my art kit topped off now! And, I confess, I stopped at Best Buy to check out the phones (the Droid Turbo 2 is very pretty) and the Surface Pro 4. The paint feature is fabulous. You pick a tool, a texture, and use the pen, and it is pressure sensitive. I was oil-painting a picture of a red panda.

Came home and re-watched the season finale of Big Bang Theory (like Penny, I am tickled with the idea of Leonard's father and Sheldon's mother hooking up) and finally watched the season finale of Sleepy Hollow. Bit of an anticlimax; Abbie got axed less than halfway through (the takedown of the Hidden One was pretty blah), then we got a "great beyond" sequence right out of the series finale of Quantum Leap, the Headless Horseman was resurrected just to kill off Pandora, and now Ichabod is being pursued by government types because George Washington set up a super-secret paranormal defense organization way back when. Hmmm. Well, I'll keep watching because Tom Mison is very, very cute. But I wonder which way they are going now. The show was really about the chemistry between Ichabod and Abbie.

Finished the cross stitch kit this afternoon, as well as a project for a gift and tidied up my craft room yet again—there are so many things in there I just have room for nowhere else, like a shape cutter for scrapbooking, and a gift someone sent me that I want to use, but we don't eat that kind of food anymore, and I wish I could put them anywhere else!—and got the new pens all corralled.

When James got home we had the leftover chicken stirfry for supper and watched the last three Hawaii Five-0 episodes of the season. The Steve and Danny bromance reached its peak when Steve got shot and Danny donated him part of his liver. I'm wondering of they ended up with this episode because they didn't know if the series would be renewed or not. At least Gabriel Waincroft is dead! Now I just have to catch up on Elementary.

Wonder if Alaska: the Last Frontier is coming back. Usually it has started up again by the time the network series are having their finales.

And finally the penultimate Call the Midwife of this season. I know the spoiler, so I am doubly sad the season is coming to an end.

Labels: art, cleaning, cross stitch, pets, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:30:00 PM

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Up late last night reading while James worked on John Campbell's Flying Wing downstairs (watching "The Antimatter Man" on Lost in Space and a black-and-white–read: decent–episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea), so was dismayed when I awoke at eight and then couldn't go back to sleep. I just lay in bed, eyes closed and mind working, then James stirred. Aha, he couldn't sleep, either. So I asked drowsily, "What time is it?"

10:45? Nope, couldn't go back to sleep, could I? Heh.

So, the usual: dress, dog walk, breakfast.

Then the good stuff: we were off to Buckhead. Had a nice ride through Paces Ferry Road, which is mostly residential and borderline posh, except for one shopping center near the old steel bridge, and lined with big, old trees until you get to the turn at the very end, when it turns back into commercial blah. Apparently they had some hard rain and wind through here last night as West Paces Ferry was smeared with leaves and had the occasional branch scattered at the side of the road.

We decided to go to Binder's first. Now, neither of us has been to Binder's since it was in the no-longer-existent Lindbergh Plaza (now a yuppified residential/business glom boxy with high rises). We followed the GPS directions and it turns out it is now right next door to what we used to call "the disco Kroger" (because there used to be a disco in the shopping center, natch). You actually enter at the Kroger level and have to take the stairs or the elevator down to the store proper.

I'd forgotten how much I love wandering around art supply stores and flitted in and out of the aisles happily looking at all the goodies. They had handmade paper in the most gorgeous colors—peacock and pale blues alternating in wavy stripes, vivid purples deep enough to drown in, shades of green to rival the leaves on the trees, fire reds and oranges, even luscious pinks (and I hate pink!)—and paper mache animals, gorgeous frames which were just what I needed but too expensive, rows of calligraphy pens and India ink (which is really Chinese) and even a bottle of walnut ink, one row full of colored pencils alone (Prismacolor mostly, but other brands as well) with the opposite side lined with differently colored markers, plus hundreds of paintbrushes, stands of canvas, scratchboard, highlighters, paint, Modge Podge, paper for decoupage...it was delightful.

Barnes & Noble was less magical, but I did get a "This England" out of it, plus I bought a sketch pad with the coupon I had. James bought a trio of magazines, and we had a nice look around.

Neither of us had eaten lunch, so we decided we were adults and could have dessert before dinner. We drove home past the stately homes of Buckhead, past electrical trucks working on a power pole that had lost its crosspiece, and up Cobb Parkway via Bruster's ice cream and each had a small cone, watching the steely black-grey thunderclouds boiling up from the north. Bruster's was crowded and the street noisy, but you could still hear the low growl of thunder over the usual street racket. So made tracks home after a stop for a Sunday paper, but got caught in about ten minutes of Georgia Monsoon Season. We'd covered the power chair and it stopped before we got home, so no problem.

This afternoon we watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Unfortunately we had to watch without benefit of surround sound, as our wheezy old receiver (it's about 20 years old and hasn't worked properly since we moved into this house; the volume numbers go backwards to zero when you increase the volume instead of the proper way, and for the past year the display numbers don't show up for the first five minutes the unit is on—plus any time there's a loud sound in the movie, like a boom or a crescendo in music, it shuts off) quit working during the first scene when the music swelled. I put the TV on "movie sound" and it was adequate. Looked great, though, and got to pause during Rey's flashbacks. I notice they play "Luke's Theme" every time she has a revelation; is that a clue to her identity?

We had Asian chicken salad tonight for supper with a chaser of Call the Midwife and an episode of Hill Street Blues showing on the newly acquired "Heroes and Icons" channel. This was a seventh season episode and you could tell the show was losing steam; what was crackling and fresh when it premiered looked tired by the time this episode aired. Amused by seeing Peter Jurasik (Londo Mollari on Babylon 5) in his recurring role of "Sid the snitch" opposite Dennis Franz as Lt. Norman Buntz. Noticed a familiar name in the credits: Cuba Gooding Jr as "2nd gang member." It was his third credited role.

Labels: art, books, movies, shopping, television, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:46:00 PM

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So James went off to work this morning, and I was soon up again myself. Turned the television on for Snowy, and headed cross-town, with breakfast second-verse-same-as-first, except I sat alone today and there weren't any bagels. I had bread and butter instead.

And since there was only one Doctor Who panel at this convention, you can bet I was at it. What does the good Doctor have to do with Sherlock Holmes? Well, several people who have played the Doctor have also played Sherlock, including movie Doctor Peter Cushing as well as Tom Baker (who also donned a Sherlock-ish costume in "The Talons of Weng-Chiang."). Plus Mark Gatiss does Sherlock as well as Doctor Who)...and besides, who cares—it's Doctor Who. We talked about the original series and the long gap filled by Big Finish audio productions and then the new series, panelists named their favorite Doctors, folks used to the new series asked for old series' episode suggestions, and all sorts of good Who goodness.

And since I never met a Watson I didn't like (even when Gareth David Lloyd runs into dinosaurs), the next panel had to be "Watsons Through Time," wherein we went from no Watson at all (the silents and William Gillette, because nobody else in the cast could be as important as...William Gillette) to avuncular and absurd Watson (poor Nigel Bruce, of course, who was a better actor than Watson's lines gave him credit for) and to the competent Watson of today. Lots more talk about the Russian series. Must look that up on YouTube.

Next came a panel I had been looking forward to, about the various illustrators of the Sherlock Holmes' stories when they first appeared, from the classic ones by Sydney Paget (sadly, Paget later died a painful death). His brother Walter, whom they originally wanted to illustrate the stories, did one issue, and then the illustrations were turned over to Frank Wiles and even Charles Dana Gibson (creator of the Gibson Girl), and several others. I was quite taken by an illustration of Sherlock Holmes among his books. [Looked it up after I got home and posted it on my Facebook page.]

Next, another fanfiction panel, and I did ask if and where the gen stuff was, and they said it was out there. Must do more digging. This was more about mechanics as well: finding time to write, improving your writing, beta readers, etc.

So now there was a choice. There was an Elizabeth Peters' memorial panel going on, but I found myself wandering toward the room where they were having the trivia contest. Remember the fellow who was on the radio panel, asking the difficult trivia questions? He was running trivia. But I did see Ken Spivey and his daughter Aubrey in the room, and mom Alice had said we ought to team up on the trivia contest. Oh, well, it's just a game.

They were making groups of five, and just as I was coming in, Aubrey asked two young ladies, Abby and Shannon, if they would join her and her dad. Yep, here comes me, the fifth wheel. Soon about six or seven other groups of five were formed, and off we went on a bewildering jumble of facts from canon, radio, films, television, and just about any Sherlockania that struck the "chairman," as the Brits would call him, down to Garfield donning a deerstalker. Luckily, it was multiple choice. Unluckily the scoring was just the way it was when we played trivia at Rockfords, six rounds, bet your high points on the sure answers and save the lower points for ones you weren't sure of. We found out Raymond Massey was Jeremy Brett's father-in-law and that Brett chose his stage surname from the label in one of his first suits, that of Peter Capaldi, Nicholas Briggs, Tom Baker and Colin Baker, only Colin Baker had never played both the Doctor and Holmes, and other such minutia. We held our own the first couple of rounds, had a bad third (or was it fourth?) round, and ended up...

...amazingly, winning! This was due to Abby knowing a bunch of Brett facts and Ken knowing the bonus question, which was about a short, silent spoof of Sherlock Holmes called "The Curse of the Leaping Fish" that had the star, Douglas Fairbanks, stoned on cocaine!

There was one more facet to the contest: the members of the winning team did a "Family Feud" game, and whomever got the most points got the grand prize, a clever jointed marionette that looked like Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch. The other prizes were colored pencil sketches of Jeremy Brett, David Burke and Edward Hardwicke (Brett's two Watsons), and Peter Cushing. Abby got the most points, but she had eyes for nothing but the Brett portrait, so Aubrey, who came in second, got the Cumberbatch prize. I was third and picked the Burke because he was such a good-looking Watson. :-)

And then it was it...the final panel, the "what did we do right/wrong" panel, which was packed. I was squeezed in the back next to New York Lady, and we could hardly hear most of the questions and half of the answers, so I slipped out after about 35 minutes since we were expected at Ken's birthday party and I hadn't wrapped his gift yet!

James had our steaks marinating and had gotten some watermelon to share, so I just had to wrap the gift and we were off. It was a nice party, but I was glad to get home and rest.

And so tomorrow work is afoot...

Labels: art, books, conventions, television, trivia

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:35:00 PM

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Well, at least Willow waited until right before the alarm to start barking. :-)

Anyway, the short, short version: A hurried morning, and then we got stuck in this morning's rush hour traffic, from the I-85 split all the way down past Courtland Street. We finally got off at the Georgia Dome exit and got to the garage through Ivan Allen Boulevard. Had a nice breakfast at Cafe Momo and Laura Hayden and her husband Dale came by as we were eating! They were dressed as Adric and the Doctor.

Since we'd both missed the beginning of what we wanted to see anyway, we joined the Big Bang Theory panel in progress. Talked about favorite moments, and what people wanted to see.

Told James I would be at the ARTC performance tonight and then went on my way to the Hilton for the "Everything Doctor Who Panel," guest starring the three Robs (Ray, Bowen, and Levy), Caro Brown,  and Aaron Sagers. Again, a selection of best and worst episodes, what might come up in the 50th anniversary special. Rob Bowen broke into song. Caro said in exasperation, "This is why I don't want them to sit together." And the usual hijinks ensued, including a mass raising of sonic screwdrivers.

I hadn't seen Mercedes Lackey at a convention in a dog's age, so I went to the panel with her and her husband Larry Dixon. They talked about the possibility of Diana Tregarde e-books, and perhaps more stories in e-book form, and the last of the Collegium Chronicles coming out in October, and the fact that they aren't rehabilitating hawks anymore, but still have an owl named Cheyenne that was thought to be a male until they took over ownership. "He" fell in love with Larry and started laying eggs!

Had a hard choice to make between the Ed Asner panel and the time travel on television panel, but went to the latter. Hadn't had a good palaver about time travel in a long time. This felt like a very short panel as we chatted about all the main series—Time Tunnel, Quantum Leap, Voyagers, etc.—and time travel elements in other stories.

My next panel was conducted by Lev Grossman, who wrote The Magicians. He also works for "Time" and was the only American journalist invited to interview J.K. Rowling. Unfortunately he had only two days to work on the article after the interview, the article came out badly, and he was roundly panned. What he talked about were some questions he asked of her that never made it into the article, including if she was too hard on the Dursleys ("Being attacked by dementors," she said, "was the best thing that ever happened to Dudley.")

Well, on the way down to the panel, I had run into James, who was heading for a panel in the room next door. I had thought about going to a panel at the Westin, but didn't feel like trudging all the way over there, and James didn't have a panel, so we went to the art show and Comics Alley instead. The first thing we saw as we entered was Andy Runton's familiar face and we went to his table and bought the new "Owly" picture book. He not only autographed the book, but drew an adorable picture of Owly, Wormy, and the new character "Batty" on the endpaper, and gave me a "Batty" button along with the purchase. He also told us about being in a haboob in Phoenix with his brother! James also bought me a hand-made stuffed "Lenore" from Bill Holbrook's table. Lenore is the pet raven in the comic strip "On the Fastrack." She's about the size of a cockatiel, shaped like a teardrop with felt wings and tail and big white eyes just like the bird in the strip. How cute! She even has a little charm in her mouth that she is stealing.

In the print shop I bought James one of the reproduction World War II nose art prints, and I bought a cool other print to use as a gift.

On the way to the Regency ballroom we ran into Alice, who was joined by Aubrey and Jessie, and we eventually all went over to talk around the ARTC sales table.

The final event of the night was the new Atlanta Radio Theatre production of "In Need of a Bard," the story of an ordinary guy named Brad, an aspiring musician who is having no luck selling his music. After one discouraging day, he creates a moody song about a "Queen of the Night"...and then blacks out. When he comes to, he is at what he thinks is a Renaissance Faire, where he's kidnapped by Vikings and rescued by what he thinks is a heroic woman—who turns out to be a female dragon! Thus begins his quest to find his way home. Daniel Kiernan particularly convulsed everyone playing a cherubic fairy/pixie cross with a deep voice and a Brooklyn accent (and he was in a green fairy costume to boot!). It was a neat story, even if I did guess the way it would come out.

We didn't stop to socialize because we knew poor Willow was home waiting for us. Thankfully, there was no one without money exiting the garage tonight and we were home safely. I was to go upstairs and "release the hound" so James could take her out, but Willow was already out and wandering around; she'd knocked down the gate. Not sure when it happened, and I didn't have to mop the bathroom as I feared; she used the potty pad to pee and did her other business outside. Cleaned the aforementioned pad off with Dawn and then could relax and watch a few episodes of Lassie.

Labels: art, conventions, dogs, food, friends, pets

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:58:00 PM

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Again, condensed version for now. Details later when I have time.

I was really excited this morning.

Back in the old, old days when the internet was a new thing and "social media" was something called Bulletin Boards that went by the name of Compuserve and Prodigy, James and I belonged to GEnie, which was—surprise!—run by GE. It was a little like Usenet as there were different bulletin boards. We mostly hung out at the SFRT (Science Fiction Round Table), which later split into three parts (literary, media, and gaming) because it was so popular, but there were other Categories like "Television," where I created a topic for Remember WENN. This is how I "met" Laura Hayden, who knew Rupert Holmes, the creator of the series, and who later told him about my web site devoted to the series.

So I've pretty much known Laura electronically since 1996-1997 sometime, but never met her in person.

Well, that omission was taken care of this morning, where, after the usual tumult of arising, making lunches, and gathering everything, we met her and her friend and working partner Pam in Peachtree Center. We didn't quite "squeeeeee!" over it, but it got close. :-) We talked about the old days on WENNchat, and Rupert, and what we were doing and just had a lovely breakfast hour.

Oh, never mind. Squeeeeeeeeee!

James went off to a panel about Cold War movies of the 1980s while I attended the "Timey Wimey" panel about time travel novels with Jana Oliver and Suzanne Church. They talked about mapping out time travel novels, and how much of your research you actually use in your books, and of a writing tool called "Scrivener" that sounds pretty cool.

Then back through Peachtree Center, since the Dean Cain panel line was outside and I don't intend to wait in any line that's outside in the horrible sun. I already have a rash on my back from the sun and the heat. Since I didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of now getting into the last Torchwood panel, I went to see the Michael Dorn and Jonathan Frakes panel. Michael Dorn was introduced first and started to tell us that Jonathan could not make the panel when a crazed fan started asking him all sorts of questions.

Of course the "crazed fan" was Jonathan Frakes himself. Crazy things happen when the Next Generation cast gets together, and these two proved it most admirably. They started singing jazz tunes and for a minute I thought I was back watching Ask the Manager during one of Dan Berkery's singing spells. They also talked about the tales of Riker's beard and how Worf got his voice. (Dorn has done an audiobook of Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Said it made him depressed! Imagine Dorn reading that book with that voice!)

The last two people who asked a question were a couple dressed in Trek costumes, she as a Klingon, he as a Vulcan. In character he asked if they would bless their marriage. Michael said sternly, "Do you know how to satisfy a Klingon woman?" The "Vulcan" replied, "I am fully functional!"

Brought down the house.

The next panel was "Theorizing the Doctor: Then and Again" and was unusual. This was one of several academic panels being done at DragonCon. An academic woman presented an essay about Rory's moral dilemma in "The Girl Who Waited" as a result of the Doctor's decisions, followed by Rob Levy's piece about how the fifth season of the classic series changed the dynamic of the Doctor from a cosmic hobo to someone who often made ethical decisions that hurt sentient beings. It was interesting, but not what I had expected at all.

I decided to go back to the Hyatt to check out the art show. I did find Andy Runton (and his mom)—James couldn't find them when he went into Comics Alley earlier in the convention—and bought the two new "Baby Owly" pieces and three buttons. I then looked around the rest of Comics Alley and then walked through the Art Show. A bit of the "intestinal art" we don't like has crept back in, but not much, and the rest was quite nice work ranging from supernatural pieces to straight fantasy to paper arts to three-dimensional art like steampunk pieces, statuary and soft art. There were two expensive pieces I liked: a lionfish marked-and-tentacled "sea" horse and a wonderful "Captain Mal" painting. Way beyond my budget, but nice to look at.

I did go back in to get a gift for James: a cheesecake print of a wholesome looking, smiling 1940s pinup girl with a scanty blouse tied under her breasts and shorts, with an Indiana Jones hat and whip in front of her. The artist didn't have anything to put the print in, afraid that I'd hurt it before I got it to James, I went back to Andy Runton's table. He dug up a plastic bag for me and a styrene sleeve for the print, too, which was really, really nice of him.

Still with time on my hands, I called James, who was in the truck with the air conditioner on, trying to cool off! He had his sopping wet shirt off and in front of the A/C vent trying to dry it off! So I had the print and the Owly stuff somewhere safe, and he came with me for the rest of the afternoon and evening, first to "Needcoffee.com vs. the Whoniverse," mostly talking about the new series. Rob Levy knew a lot of spoilers, but half the audience didn't want to be spoiled. Spoilsports! :-) At least one "Is Torchwood really dead?" question, discussion about the new season and companion, and any news about the 50th anniversary special (none besides the docudrama).

Next there were two panels in the American Science Fiction Classics track. The first was on one-season shows—we threw out a lot of names!—and the second was about the American spy series that resulted from the James Bond craze of the early 1960s, some background on Bond and then mention of shows like The Man From UNCLE, I Spy, Get Smart, Wild Wild West, The Avengers, etc. These were both a lot of fun!

We were still sorta awake by 8:30, so we attended one final panel, about Classic Doctor Who. The panel (Robert Ray, Rob Bowen, and Alan Siler) was a bit punchdrunk by this time and there was much "corpsing about" as they talked about different aspects of the original series. Most hated character? Adric, of course, who, Rob Bowen claimed, was reincarnated into Lucas on SeaQuest and then Wesley on Next Gen.

I wish I could draw caricatures! I would love to do a cartoon of Adric, Wesley, and Lucas sitting at a bar, each with a beer, looking gloomy and each thinking to himself, "I don't get any respect!"

Then it was homeward bound after a scary ride in a very rattly and smothery elevator (one of the two elevators in the garage that wasn't working during the day!), off to our fids and our e-mails.

Labels: art, conventions, Doctor Who, friends, television, writing

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:36:00 PM

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Here's a site with free clipart from Victorian/Edwardian-era magazines. I recognize many of the pictures from issues of St. Nicholas!

Labels: art

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:59:00 AM

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Wow, check THIS out. Each tile in this mosaic is its own individual picture. There are two others below it that are made the same way.

Thanks to Melody of "Christmas to the Max" for passing this on!

Labels: art

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:06:00 AM

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So much for the cloudy day with showers with a high of 61°F. I know it was in the 70s and only bearable when we were driving.

I was still looking for a St. Joseph statue, so we searched for a Catholic store that was supposed to be close by, but evidently it had moved long ago, although the sign was still out front. We just gave up, and, after a visit to the hobby shop, drove out to Conyers. We tread downtown carefully, since there is some type of sports event and also the big car show today, but didn't have any trouble with traffic. It was too warm, but otherwise nice: the sky that smudgy, low-contrasty blue that it gets when temperatures rise.

We stopped at the Hobby Lobby in Conyers on our way there and I found some inexpensive Easter signs to use on the front porch. They even had something religious; a nice Irish-looking cross with flowers in front of it.

The monastery was serene and lovely as usual. I found a small St. Joseph's statue to make my St. Joseph's table with—check out Holiday Harbour for a photo. They also had two lovely small fall-oriented stained glass pieces. I especially wanted the autumn woods scene but couldn't think of anywhere to keep it where the light would shine through it so the design would show through, so regretfully left it behind. I also bought a liturgical cookbook (recipes to go with each event of the church calendar) and some "Bible bread," which is flatbread. It came in several flavors; I chose honey. It will probably go well with the pumpkin butter—or maybe even the mint jelly—we bought at the Yellow Daisy Festival.

James got three jars of the Abbey jam which will probably keep him through the year.

We came home past Ikea to pick up two more bookcases; unfortunately they did not have the extra shelves for that particular color bookcase that we needed because this set was supposed to be for the paperbacks. I have a number to call to see when they are coming in. If it's not for a while we can do the opposite side of the room just as well. On the way to Ikea we stopped at Sam Flax, the art supply store, to see if they had an "O" ring for James' airbrush. Surprisingly, they didn't have any airbrush supplies, which was odd because they had everything else. :-) I haven't been in a good art supply store since Binders moved from Lindbergh Plaza and I'd forgotten how much I loved being around all that paper and all those pens! They also had quite a large amount of scrapbooking supplies.

I had one of the Trader Joe Asian noodle bowls for supper. It was good, but really could have used another tablespoon of the sauce! To say there was a paucity of sauce doesn't describe it.

And then came McBride and then wildly racing around the house changing clocks so I don't have to do it later on. I removed all the auto DST options from the computers and VCRs. For my PDA I didn't see a DST option, so I set it on Indiana time since they don't do DST and the clock won't change.

Labels: art, Easter, Holiday Harbour, holidays, St. Joseph's Day, television, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:53:00 PM

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