O My!

Ok, I seriously want this t-shirt! Of course I can only find it online in a Men's Large and up. And, to boot, it's fracking $25!!! Could I pay $25 for a tshirt?!
Oh, heck yeah, when it's as awesome as this one.



Of course all you bastards who get to go to things like DragonCon, and freaking Star Wars Celebration. I hate you, hate you all.

Geek vacation!

Where would us dorks choose to go on vacation?

Where we can all be geeks!

LegoLand!!!

A pretty good deal for this time of the year. I think we paid about 511 Euro for 3 nights at a nice hotel, and two day passes to the park for all three of us.

This is why we don't go on many holidays, Sarge has a heart attack whenever we have to shell out for vacations. He's been watching our savings grow, and whenever we make a large purchase, I think it physically hurts him.

The he had a second heart attack when I reminded him that we would probably come home with another 100 Euro in Legos.

I hope they have all the Star Wars figures!

Awesome!

Spending time at the German hospital I tend to notice the little changes. No, this is not a picture of a weird European toilet. It is a Dyson Airblade!!
I love most things Dyson, Dyson himself is pretty freaking cool.

Of course I took a video of it drying my hands, but I could not get it to load on Blogger. Boo!

You can actually see the skin on my hands rippling! Crazy!

Decisions...decisions...

Today Piko deGallo and I were discussing next year's costume for the Star Wars mini-convention held here on base.
She wants something a little more girly than last year.
And we cant decide between

Queen Amidala's Parade gown

Or Senator Amidala's Lake Dress.

Oh my, both are pretty difficult dresses. I'm thinking I'm glad we started discussing it early.

I'm sure further updates will occur. I'm thinking I might document this one in a tutorial of sorts.

She also wants to be Xena for halloween...WOW.

FYI

This is the cake I want for my birthday.

It's an AT-AT cake, YO!!

This one is by Jennifer Luxmore of Sin Desserts.

I seriously want the motorized Lego AT-AT too, but it's about $200. I just can't justify that level of Geekdom.

OH MY WOOKIE!!!

AAAA!!!! I want to put this on my MP3 player!
This might possibly be even better than the Weird Al Star Wars tribute!

More proof

I know I keep going on and on about how I'm turning Piko de Gallo into a mad geek.

Well, the Halloween season was ripe with opportunities for her true (unprompted) geek-ness to shine through.

Here are the cakes I made this year for the school's cakewalk.

Piko deG sees them. "Ooooh!! The eyeball cakes! One normal, and the other one THE GREAT EYE!!!! But Mama, the Great Eye is all red!"

Geek.

Piko Want Big Boom!

So.

The lovely Mrs. S stood in line for me, not once, but possibly THREE TIMES!!
You can read how much she loves lines here, and here. So you get the picture of what a big deal this is.

Anyway, when she went to this tech-convention last month she got signed t-shirts for Piko de Gallo and myself. Big deal? You bet. Because of who was there!!


Naturally we had to officially "break it in".

Piko de Gallo's "Cola Cascade"

Of course we did not deploy our Mentos very well, so our cascade was not that great. The second one we did was as tall as Piko deGallo, but of course I missed that picture.

And then to add pressure to my life (as if). Look at what else she sent!

A rainbow pyramid of HFC!! I feel the pressure to make something nice. Nice and yummy!

I'm feeling the bloggy love people, feeling it!

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

So today was the Star Wars convention on base.

Piko de Gallo made a new friend.

Practiced her saber technique.

Defeated an old enemy.

WON FIRST PLACE IN THE COSTUME CONTEST!!!!!!

Scooped some swag.

And went grocery shopping.

Busy Jedi day.

In A Galaxy Far Far Away...

...dun-dun-dun-DUN-da-DUN-dun-da-DUN!!!!



She's so spoiled, this is not even her Halloween costume. This is for the Star Wars convention we are going to on base next weekend.

I used the patterns from The Padawan's Guide. The over tunic and obi are muslin, the inner shirt is a thrifted sheet, the tabard is a thrifted pair of men's pants, and a couple of old belts for the utility belt. The robe is made from a dark brown sheet. I wish I could have found a flannel sheet for that though.

Oh, we have the best ammunition for when she gets older.

Geeky Movie Madness!!

Though we still have not had our TV service hooked up yet, we are enjoying our lovely new TV. We watch alot of movies. Alot.

Luckily the video place on base has a great rental deal, and the library has a pretty decent collection as well. A couple of weeks ago was "early 80's movie week" for us.

We got Krull(1983), which is surprisingly still pretty awesome after all this time. The special effects are pretty impressive considering the age of the film. The story is pretty good, and the acting decent. And did you know that Liam Neeson was in that movie?!? I had no idea. I wish I could find a good picture of him from this movie. I didn't recognize his face at first, but I was thinking "That really sounds like Lian Neeson!"
I did find this picture, that's him on the left.

Krull got the thumbs up from both Piko deGallo and myself.

Then we rented another childhood favorite.

I'm sad to say that this movie did not stand to the test of time, or adult taste. The acting was pretty mid-range, and the effects were laughable. But to be fair, this movie was made in the early 80's, 1981 to be exact, and I remember absolutely loving it when I was a kid. Sarge and I were only amazed by Harry Hamlin's super large lips, and crazy hair, and then he fell asleep as soon as Perseus chopped off Medusa's head. And so Sarge missed the best part of the movie. The Kraken!

Which, looks surprisingly like Paul Sr. from American Chopper!

How could I not find a picture of him yelling at his kids?

Clash of the Titans got thumbs down from me and Sarge, and a thumb's medium from Piko deG (mostly because she didn't understand what was going on, but liked the owl and Pegasus).

Piko deG seems to like treasure hunting movies (she loved Sahara, and enjoyed Fools Gold...maybe she just likes Matthew McConaughey..shudder...), so I picked up Romancing the Stone(1984). Unfortunately I forgot that there was very little actual treasure hunting, and several references to drugs, alcohol, and a scene where Kathleen Turner, and Michael Douglas are obviously naked in bed together. Oops!! Piko de Gallo had it all figured out though. She knew that they were getting married at the end of the movie since they kissed THREE times. Obviously!!! Still a great movie though, and I enjoyed seeing it again.
Romancing the Stone gets a thumbs up from me, and a ?? from Piko deG.

Unfortunately neither the library or the video store has the true best of 80's movie geekdom.
TRON!!!Oh, this is such a truly good and geeky movie of the 80's. I'm dying to see it again. Maybe we should get a NetFlix subscription.

AAAAGGGHHH!!!

Ok, so it should come as no surprise that I'm a tad anal retentive.

But look at this!!


AAAA!!! This is one of the library books that I checked out this week. AAAAAA!!! All of the dates are stamped on AAAAAA!!!! not on the lines!!!! The guy that was checking out the books did this to every single one! Then the kicker. He gets to the last book, and there are no more lines at the bottom to stamp the new due date in. So he heaves a big sigh, AND THEN STAMPS THE NEW DATE IN A SPACE BETWEEN TWO OLDER DUE DATES!!!!!

WHAT?!

Life Without the Internets

Well, say what you like about Germany (that's for you Mrs. S. You can start ragging now), there may be no internets, and phone service is slow to be hooked up. But oh, we have ice cream!

Delicious ice cream. I'm so glad that this shop is not in our town or we would be huge and fat at the end of the summer.

So what does one do without internet service? Well, normally I would be a couch potato, or work on one of my many sewing projects. Unfortunately we have no TV, no service, and no actual TV to hook up. And my BFF is still in route (delivery is scheduled for the 12th!!). So we've been tackling the garden, unfortunately I have no pictures, but imagine 20 years of free growth. And I don't know what's a weed and what's a plant, so I've just been pulling everything that does not look familiar. I have dirt impregnated into the palms of my hands, and that's the way I like it. Hopefully we'll be able to wrestle it into submission soon enough.

Wildlife spotting so far:
A hedgehog, a jackrabbit, and a huge ass buck.

Some things

I've noticed that the Germans are obsessed with their plants!! Not just their gardens, which are very wonderful as well, but house plants.


I remarked to Sarge the other day that when you drive past the oldest, ex-barn, tin roofed, run down house, there are always tons of plants in the windows. It's like they see an empty windowsill, and feel the need to fill it. Fill it with plants.

I have not taken any photos as examples, because I think it's kind of weird to take pictures of peoples front windows.

As a comparison, there is the front window of out American friend's house.

Only a few plants, and quite afew of those are dying. I laughed at her, but she said she warned her landlord when she moved in, and told him that she was death to plants, but he still left them.

Another funny/geeky thing.

These are the trash cans in the laundry room at the hotel we are staying at.
EXTERMINATE!!!!EXTERMINATE!!!!EXTERMINATE!!!!

I'm such a dork. Though in the photo they don't look quite as Dalek-y as they did when I initially saw them.

Piko deGallo's School Sucks! With Tutorial!

Also known as, how I'm stupid enough to spend $90.00 of my own money so that the kids in the FIRST EVER science fair (which Piko deG is not even participating in!) can have nice awards. Hello!!! How do you even plan a competition without some kind of budget for awards?!?! So dummy me, goes ahead and buys what the teacher in charge says she "WANTS" to give out, thinking that's what she has money for. Surprise, surprise, she has not been approved anything for awards. Oh, did I forget to mention that the Science Fair is on Thursday??!?!! AAAAAAAAAGGGHGHGHGHGG!!!! Sarge is going to kill me.

I am The Awesome though, I was able to get a donation for 3 First Place trophies for the winners from the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes, on their individual projects. If you're ever in the area and need trophies, may I direct you to the nicest trophy shop ever!!

This is actually my tutorial for making Rosette Ribbon Awards.
I forgt to mention what you get for $90.00. I was able to make 7 -1st, 7 -2nd, and 6-3rd place rosettes. And I bought about 24 "honorable mention" type flat award ribbons.

Materials:
Double sided satin ribbon. I used 1 1/2" wide ribbon in 1 yard lengths.
Marking pen
Ruler
Fabric or craft glue. I used this stuff:



Make your own pinback button. I purchased mine from AC Moore for $1.00/ea, because I needed them right away. You can order them from Oriental Traders for a better price. Create an appropriate image for your award using your graphics program and insert into the pinback.
Flat Award ribbons. Again, I paid about $1.00 a piece for my flat ribbons at the dollar store, but if you plan ahead you can order them for a better price.
Heavy thread in a coordinating color to the ribbon you are using.
Sewing needle
Hot glue gun.


Step 1.
Lay out your ribbon, and with your ruler and pen, mark out 1" increments. Remember I used 1 1/2" ribbon, if you use a wider or thinner ribbon, you may have to adjust the width of this mark.

Step 2.
Place a small dot of glue on the bottom tip of the WRONG SIDE/unmarked side of the ribbon, and fold the edge backwards to meet up with the first 1" mark.
Step 3.
Turn the ribbon over to the right side, and place a small dot of glue on the first 1"mark. Fold the second mark over to meet the first mark, and hold in place while the glue dries.

Repeat this process along the length of the ribbon.

When you get to the end, the second mark from the end will be left.

Fold the end edge backwards to the wrong side of the ribbon, and glue into place where the last 1" mark is.


Your 1 yard of ribbon should be smaller, and naturally starting to spiral a little.

Step 4.
Starting at the beginning of your now ruffled ribbon, fold the first ruffle in half, and sew it in place. This might be a little hard because the glue makes the ribbon a little tough.

Step 5.

I've placed the pin here to demonstrate where you should be folding your next ruffle. This is about half way between the two ruffles.

See here, I've folded it at the pin, and have created a more ruffly section. Sew these areas into place.
Repeat the folding and sewing along the length of the ribbon. When you get to the end, match up the edges so that they form a nice circle, and you've hidden the edges. Sew into place.

Ta-DAH! Your finished rosette.
Step 6.

Ribbon assembly. Using your hot glue gun, glue the flat ribbon to the wrong side of the rosette. Make sure that you check from the front to make sure that the wording on your flat ribbon is properly displayed, and not covered up by the rosette.

Step 7.
Draw a bead of hot glue along the inner edge of the front of the rosette.

Step 8.

Place your decorated pinback into the open circle so that the pin part of the button is showing through the center hole of the rosette. Press into the hot glue so that it stays in place.

TA-DAH!!! Your finished rosette ribbon award!!
2nd place was decorated with extra thin ribbon son either side of the flat award ribbon. I used wired ribbon for this one, and it didn't really make much of a difference in folding and sewing the ruffles.
1st place was added to with 1 1/2" satin ribbon and thin gold ribbon.
I pinked the edges of all the ribbons so that they would match the flat award ribbon's edge.

So...

So yesterday Piko came home crying. I though it was because we were making her come home so we could run errands. I'm all "Suck it up girl, you can play with them when we get back!" Not so much. Apparently her "friends" were calling her the "Queen of Losers!" And threatening to "tell on her" for what, I have no idea.

WHAT?!?!WHAT!!!???!!!

Now, I am the first to recognize that my kid can be somewhat of a namby pamby, and needs to grow some. But she's really not used to being called names. These girls that she plays with are sisters, and they can be pretty mean to eachother. Who knows, maybe the fact that they are now extending the name calling to Piko means that she's part of their family now.

I try not to get involved in this kind of crap when it goes down with my kid. But this time I'm a little torn between telling her to deal with it herself, and going over to talk to the mother. This mom's oldest child is being bullied in school, and she's under the impression that her daughter is not sticking up for herself, and is totally blameless in this bully situation. But based on what Piko is telling me, either she is not totally blameless, and/or it is affecting the way that she is interacting with other children.

Who the hell knows. I wasn't there to witness the interaction, so I don't know what exactly went on. The middle daughter is the one who walked Piko home, and was telling me a little bit about what happened, but I'm sure that she didn't really want to rat out her sisters.

Anyway, I'm really just venting, because it's anoying.

I ended up telling Piko that she was not going to be playing with them for the rest of the weekend. And that if they ever start calling her names again she is to stop playing with them immediately and come home. I don't care how much fun she was having, do not stay over there and take it. What else can I do? On a normal day she gets along very well with these girls, and they are the only kids on the block her age to play with.

Should I talk with the Mom? GAH!

P.S. We ended up staying inside, so we worked on Piko's science project.

VOLCANO!!!!