I spent last weekend at CostumeCon 24 in Des Moines. I saw some really amazing costumes, both those competing and those that were on display. Also I got to know some of the DMSFS people better. Why the heck I didn't get to know them when I was living 30 miles away instead of 250 I don't know.

Today I took the day off work and spent the day sleeping in a bit, and then Eric came over and we tore the surface boards off the deck. Now I'm down to just the frames. Some part of them will require a saw or something to take them apart. Becaue there are about a million nails driven in all directions. So if you have a reciprocating saw and want to come find an excuse to play with it let me know.

insomnia, dunno what's up but this sucks. I should go to bed.

the miracle of frosted tape

Well after I got off work this morning I met up with Erik. You my loyal readers will then be shocked to learn we went trap shooting. Once again I employed frosted tape over part of my right glasses lens. It's amazing how much easier it is to shoot when you only see one barrel. I really think I need to go talk to an opthamologist, or optometrist or somebody about getting the persrciption for my glasses fixed. Currently everything in my right eye is clear, and my left eye is slightly fuzzy. This doesn't work out so well for the left handed shooter. Also I seem to have drifted away from having any sort of eye dominance. Every eye dominance test I can find instructions on how to perform either result in me seeing two of both the near and far object or being able to make either eye dominant. Thusly scotch tape. I got the idea because Browning has these Magic Dots that are very expensive static cling circles of frosted plastic. They want $15 for 6 of them in all 6 shooting glasses colors, that's a lot of tape, or tape flags. I'm still working out how much tape is necessary. Because the less tape the better the peripheral vision which is handy for those targets that run to the right.


If the only eye that can see is the one over the barrel, good scores result. 16 and 15 today. And in the first round I know why I missed several of them. Including the nap at the thrid station where I missed them all, because as near as I can figure my mind was wandering in the critical seconds between calling for the target and shooting it. Really, once I realized I was thinking about cleaning the fish tank, and the next shot I was thinking about work. Dumb. Anyhow, if I can manage to get around to not having a third station stretch I might get some really presentable scores soon.

43: 16
44: 15

Mein Hut, der hat drei Ecken,
Drei Ecken hat mein Hut.
Und hätt' er nicht drei Ecken,
So wär's auch nicht mein Hut.

That catchy little tune which so elequently demonstrates many cases, and is the title of my brother's oft neglected blog, also describes the fine fine hat I'm wearing. I'm going to start a revolution. I'm going to bring back the tricorn! Or maybe I'll just look like a dork. But mine isn't as silly as my friend Heidi's. One has to love the fur on that. Mine fits, unlike the last picture, where it came down over my ears. Maybe I'll get a new picture of it all finished and shrunk. It's getting a red ostrich plume eventually. And I might just stich on a bit of black braid on the edging. I think that will give it's pale grey self some more flair.

pirate hat 2a

here are some photos of pirate hat prototype 2A. Mist and Fog colored knitpicks wool of the andes. Might get one more attempt to felt smaller, it's a bit too big for me yet. But I think I overcame the not substantial enough brim problem of prototype 1. I can't wait for photos of prototype 2 (aka the gayest pirate hat ever) being knit in WA at this time.

It's not had it's ends trimmed or anything, and it still has thread tacking the brim in place right now as it's not quite dry.

Are my expectations too high?

If someone agrees to be around for dinner. And leaves with a "If you haven't heard from me by 6pm call" and I call at 6:20 and get told "I'll be there in a bit I'm leaving." And 7:20 arrives, and they're still not there. So I call, and you're not particularly suprised to find they haven't actually left yet. Am I wrong to be angry? Or feel like I'm not being respected? Am I just overreacting because I should have eaten dinner a while ago and I'm hungry and cranky?

I don't think so. I think if a person agrees to something they should carry it through. I expect I was just raised with higer standards of task completion, and honesty than most though.

Cutest Kids Ever!

Here we go, the long awaitied kids picture post! Without further delay my nephews, and goddaughter!

Well it's another trap update, since this is half knit blog, half trap blog, half wild idea blog. Yeah I know three halfs for an almost never updated blog. I'm just so intimidated by it being a three halved blog I can't manage.

Erik and Peter and I went shooting at lunch today, since we weren't going to get to go this Sunday, that being Mother's Day and all. Once again I had a full choke and tape over part of my right glasses lense. Hit 13 the first round and 10 the second round with a pretty strong gusty wind coming in from the left side of the field. I'm happy. I think the tape is bringing my scores up, and the choke probably bringing them down a bit. No little near breaks or chips for me, it's either dust or nothing right now. I am however getting a really good idea of what things should look like to get a break. I'm still shooting over the clay a lot. (Clay touching/behind the bead or barrel) Also I was falling behind on shots crossing to the right. I think that's probably enough boring trap blogging for you all.

On to knitting. The swift worked great last night, and breaks down for transport as expected. I'm working on the pirate hat at my desk, because it takes too much concentration to work on the heel of Mom's sock at work. And I can knit a hat and read techical documentation, but I can't do the same with a heel.

Oh and I sent flowers to Mom for Mother's Day.

41: 13
42: 10

This afternoon I went out in the garage and mocked up a yarn swift. It definately shows that I didn't bother to find a measuring stick and instead used the Mark I eyeball. Also my lack of a drill press shows. However I suspect it will work. and I got the important holes really square (the ones that contain the axle). Also the finish on it is distinctly um.. workmanlike. yeah that's a nice way of saying I built it out of scrap I had in the garage. The only new purchase for it was the dowels, for the arms. Maybe I'll get a picture of that up too.

You! There with the pitchfork, and Sparky! over there with the torch! Look see the blog now with more updates. I would post pictures of my adorable niece and nephews but my brother isn't sending me any. I'd post pictures of my knitting but... um well I don't have an excuse there, except that there's this sock I'm knitting for Mom, for Mother's Day. But well.. um.. yeah.. I'll post some soon.

Tomorrow more not too interesting trap shooting stuff.

I've sort of been sucked under by AI related stuff and bacon related stuff. Also work not the funnest thing ever right now.

Busy Sunday

This morning I slept in a bit. Then got up and went trapshooting with Erik. We're going to try to go more often. Since we're not quite managing once a month. We've set Sunday morning at 10:30 as our time to go, since the range isn't crowded yet and as the summer wears on it won't be so hot. This trip to the range was um... Fraught with experimentation. I put in a full choke, I'd been shooting with improved cylinder which means for those who don't speak gun geek, now my pellets fly in a much smaller group. No more breaking occasional clays on sloppy near misses. Either they're really broken, or they're missed.

Also because I'm opposed to good science apparently, I put a bit of frosted tape over the right lens of my glasses. Not over all of it but a one inch square right on the nose side centered top to bottom on the lens. That left me with peripheral vision, but eliminated seeing two barrels. YAY! The end result was a lot of missed birds in the first round, but I really knew where I was pointing when things broke. Finally I saw the classic clay with a little gap over the barrel when things were breaking. Clearly once I had time to digest this knowledge (while the slowest foursome in all of trapshooting history went It worked out pretty well since I hit 14 the next round. (For those playing along at home that's my highest score, excluding the one where Charlie loaned me that BT-99 Micro.)

After we got done shooting Erik and I wandered over to the brand new Gander Mountain. We looked for replacement guylines over in tent land. (the rope is easy, it's those little plastic idiot proof sliders that are hard to find) Then of course over to guns. They had in stock a Browning Ladies Gold Sporting Clays, (Which is NOT the longest name ever for a gun that honor goes to the "Browning Ladies Gold Sporting Clays Golden Clays Edition." Where you pay more for prettier decorations) a Browning BT-99 Micro, a Mossberg International O/U, and a whole potload of Stoegers. Also some nice shortish Berettas and... anyhow there was shotgun lust. And Erik had some pistol lust.

Then I headed home, changed into scruffy clothes and DeNae and I laid a bunch of mulch. It's amazing how much better fresh mulch can make your landscaping look. We have a long way to go yet.



39: 6
40: 14