Virtual weddings, monster dolls, and Twitter

Thanks to Jen of All Things Jennifer for inviting me to a Virtual Wedding Shower for Erin and Rand. I contributed the cartoon above plus a couple of very silly Photoshopped pics including the real story of how Rand and Erin met.

Only a few days until The Wedding!



I forgot to mention that I made my first stuffed doll! It was a birthday gift for our friend, Helen, and has different faces on each side. I used the sewing machine AND my serger, plus some of the buttons from my Mom's collection.



Sue and Tom came by yesterday to drop off a wedding present for Rand and Erin. They also brought by DVDs of our Balticon concert and children's concert for Allison, Jodi and me, a Grahams Leathers CD ("Graham Leathers Bears All"), plus an extra gift for me: a 'how to live with squirrels' instruction booklet and a stuffed squirrel toy that chatters if you poke his belly.

The stuffed squirrel is both cute and evil at the same time.

Then again, so are Sue and Tom.



Many thanks to Walter for coming over early on Sunday to hammer a steel pole into the ground with Jeff:



Afterward, of course, they sat on the deck and talked about manly things while smoking cigars and drinking beer. Ok, just kidding about the cigars and beers. And manly things, unless you count weddings as a "manly thing." Walter, Jeff and I are driving up to the wedding together.

Thanks to John and Kristen for giving me permission to post this photo I took during Wetstock:



I played badminton with their eldest at the party. I'm pretty sure he thought I was Ruth at the time, but we still had fun. :-)

I've finally caved, by the way, and signed up for a Twitter account. Lord help me.



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Wetstock 2008

Crisis! It turned out that my Super Soaker Max Infusion Backpack hose wouldn't fit my Hasbro Super Soaker Liquidator.



While Jeff fiddled with the connector, Ray was hurriedly arming his and Jeff's Super Soaker Bottle Shots; we were just down the road from the house of Reid and Luisa, where we knew that others were already engaged in the battle...

I ended up ditching the backpack and using two Liquidators instead:


Photo by John.

Ray and Jeff, however, made a triumphant entrance (helmets from Toys'R'Us):



Photo by Iain.

Jeff later experimented with sugar-free Coke:



This year, part of the watergun skirmishes focused on a large-scale attack. Here, Reid prepares to launch a water-filled balloon at the second floor of his own house:



While Luisa, Jeff, David and others hurled water balloons out the windows:



...As Michael launches a surprise assault from the next room:



Photo by John.

Happily, the weather was perfect for "Wetstock," an annual small watergun gathering hosted by my friends Luisa and Reid. Participants are always warned to bring a change of clothes; as soon as you step out of your car, you're fair game.



The safe zones: on the back deck where people were barbecuing and eating, inside the house (unless you were part of the attack group above) and at the refill stations:



Photo by John.

Below: a young watergun battle recruit receives training:



Photo by John.

Below: creating a mini-whirlpool by walking/swimming around the swimming pool in one direction. When the people-made current is strong enough, we all try changing direction at the same time (it's remarkably difficult!).



I also got to try out Rock Band for the first time! A lot of fun, though I totally sucked at playing the drums. :-)



Below: Jeff and Luisa prep the Mentos in Diet Coke experiment:



I never get tired of watching Coke explode:



Many thanks to Luisa and Reid for a fantastic day!



You can see some of my other photos from the event here.




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Birthdays, monsters, and Firefly

Happy birthday to Scott Snyder today! I'm looking forward to getting together with the Snyders when I'm in Texas for BoardGameGeek.CON this November. Here's a Guest Blather that Scott did when he visited us in 1997.



Inkygirl update: I've posted an interview with Rob Hummel-Hudson, whose book, Schuyler's Monster: A Father's Journey With His Wordless Daughter, was just published by St. Martin's Press.



Photo courtesy Rob Rummel-Hudson.

Rob commissioned me to do some artwork for his book site; I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I hope to meet Rob in person someday.

Thanks so much to Parki and Kim for the fine dinner last night. Jeff and I have been watching Firefly with P & K recently; Kim's never seen the series. I am SO enjoying re-watching this series. I loved the movie (Serenity) but have heard rumours that it didn't do well enough to warrant a sequel. :-(

I've been enjoying reading the posted comments to my first Waiting For Bilbo strip. One of my favourites: "Oooh Yeah! Rock on with your bad self! Bring on the hobbits! :D"

Heh.

Some of you have asked if Rosie and the old gang are going to show up in the new comic. My answer: You'll have to wait and see. :-)





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Voiceovers, Geodesic Domes and Teachers

As I've mentioned before, I feel very lucky in that the other two women in my music group, Urban Tapestry, are my friends as well as my music partners. This year marks our FIFTEENTH YEAR together as a group; we've had the same group members throughout.



Jodi (pictured above, on the left) launched her own voice overs and vocals service, and has just uploaded some new great demos. Please do go over and check them out.

Jodi is actively seeking new gigs right now, so if you know anyone who may be looking for voice talent (commercials, singing, narration, voice over, book trailers, cartoons, radio, etc.), please do tell them about Jodi.

You can find out more at Voiceoversandvocals.com.

But back to the original inspiration for this Blatherpost, which was inspired by this LJ post by Allison.



I envy Allison's students; she is the coolest teacher in the world. I'm constantly impressed by the creativity and effort she puts into her classroom activities. Just recently, she decided to have her students build a Geodesic Dome!



She puts an enormous amount of effort into her lessons, constantly looking for new ways and revamping old ways of helping her students learn as well as enjoy their lessons. Here are just a few examples:

Studying Ancient Greece: salt and flour maps
Canadian Elections: in-class elections
Canadian Parliament: mini-governments
Human Brain: sculpted clay brains
Christmas activities

These are only a few, selected at random from Allison's Livejournal, and doesn't include all the musicals and choir events she's organized.



Some people don't realize how much money the average teacher puts into their classroom activities each year. I was floored when I realized that most of the crafts and other activities that Allison plans are funded out of her own pocket. She gets a small amount of money from the school, but pays for most of it herself.

And while most 9-to-5 types can leave the office behind when they come home, Allison does marking and grading, report cards, and other prep. I've heard some people envy teachers for their summers off but you know, I strongly suspect that if teachers DIDN'T have that downtime, you'd see a lot more teachers quitting from burnout...and a growing shortage of teachers because fewer people would be willing to enter the profession.



But one common thread I've noticed running through all of Allison's teaching posts is her passion for teaching; this isn't just a job for her. She genuinely cares about her students and their learning experience. I'm sure this comes through in the classroom and has an impact on the kids she teaches.

So here's a question for all of you:

If you had to name ONE TEACHER from your school days who had the greatest positive impact on your life, who would it be?



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Tom Smith

Just found out that my friend Tom Smith badly injured his leg this past weekend and had to be operated on. The surgery went fine, but he's out of commission for a while. :-(

As I've mentioned in an earlier post, Tom makes his living as a full-time songwriter and musician. Unfortunately because of this accident, he's had to cancel a bunch of upcoming gigs...this is exactly the sort of thing a fulltime musician DREADS happening. And Tom has no health insurance.

Please do visit Tom's 'Buy Stuff' page and consider downloading and paying for some of his music, which ranges from 75c up to $9.99. The page has lots of sample excerpts you can listen to for free. Most individual songs are 99 cents each.

If you don't want to buy anything but would like to show your support, even in a very small way, please do consider throwing something into Tom's Virtual Open Guitar Case.

Leslie is posting updates in Tom's Livejournal, for those interested, and his LJ also gives details on what happened.



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