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.

Hinamatsuri!

Happy Girl's Day!!

It's like a little army of "KAWAII" coming to take over the world!

I used this tutorial, slightly modified, to make the little girls.

Piko deGallo has a summer birthday, and I always feel bad that she never gets to take cupcakes to school. I had a summer birthday, and I never took cupcakes to school either...hmmmmm....projecting much?!?!

Happy New Year!

Coming out of my cave today.
Something interesting and post worthy finally happened.
Check out the fireworks we bought in the German grocery store!

This was just small spinning things, and sparklers. So I guess I can understand the name. And, as it turns out our kid is kind of a budding pyro. She set most of these off herself.
You can imagine it was a pretty noisy night.
Next time we're geting some of those rockets that were as big as Piko de Gallo.

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.

My Girl

So this morning, Piko deGallo tells me to vote for John McCain.

"Because he's handsome."

Yeah, that's my girl.

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.

Tourists

We live in an area that is fairly well known for it's wine. Much of the wine region is along a wide and long river called the Mosel. This past weekend we attended a wine festival in Bernkastle-Keus called “Weinfest der Mittelmosel”(wine festival of the Mosel river). It was lovely, and enjoyable even though Sarge and I are not big wine drinkers. We started out at the midway, where Piko deGallo got to jump on this jumpy...thing. She was having a great time, and the rest of the "jumpy things" were not busy, so the guy let her jump a little while extra, and even slingshotted her high up in the air once.

We then walked along the hand crafters market to the bridge that spans the Mosel, and got a great view of the castle ruins.

We crossed over the river to the opposite bank where all of the wine booths were. The town is beautiful. The streets are cobbled, and the houses and buildings all look like they just had a fresh coat of paint. There were many examples of what I would consider to be German architecture. I don't know the exact term for it, but they are those kind of stucco houses with the wood beam inlays, it might be called "half timbered". I know, I'm a real expert. Winding narrow streets, and the occasional traditional band playing were awesome, we're planning another trip back there just to view the town. Unfortunately it was also filled with hoards of obnoxious drunken Americans.

Since we are lame, and don't drink wine, we got some ice cream and headed back over to the other side of the river. We got there pretty early, and wanted to wait for the fireworks. So we bought some fantastic antipasto from a vendor, and spread out our blanket on the bank directly across from the castle. Piko deGallo of course was only interested in the swans. Really, looking back on it, I suppose I'm not the best person to give advice on the whole Wine portion of the festival. But it was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon, and the fireworks were spectacular!
Gotta love fireworks set to the Star Wars theme.

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.

Tasty...

So I know that kids are picky eaters, that's normal. But I swear my kid is not normal.

She does not enjoy anything that is made from potatoes. That means no mashed, scalloped, or baked potatoes, not even potato salad. And possibly most surprising no french fries! No french fries. Can you imagine that? She does not even care much for potato chips, and would rather eat some kind of corn chip, even plain Tostitos. Weird.

And then this is what she brings me to have as a snack yesterday.

Yeah, that's DRIED SQUID.

She better brush her teeth before Sarge comes home from work.

Now to people brought up in Hawaii this is really not an unusual snack. Someone sent this bag of Ika to me from home. I was even surprised when she started eating this stuff, because it smells exactly like what you would imagine, and has a very unusual texture. I'm pretty sure it is a case of monkey see, monkey do, because my dad always has this stuff at his house, and on our last visit Piko deG always wanted to do whatever G-Pa was doing.

Back to School

WOOO!!

I actually feel kind of bad that I'm so happy that school is starting again.

But I am.

I think that Piko de Gallo is just as happy to be seeing her friends again, and having something new to do.

Anyway, BTS shopping is not quite as good here as it is back home. I guess I'm just a little surprised that the BX on base does not coordinate with the schools a little better. It seems like they should carry whatever is on our school supply list. But not so much. And it's not very easy to shop locally since it is considerably more expensive, and there are different size/dimension standards. It's not horrible, but they did not bring in any pencil boxes, fat pencils, or plain pink erasers. All of which were on our list. Most people end up having family or friends back in the states send them stuff, but really, what a hassle. Not "I'm so mad about this that I want to kill someone", but more like "What's the deal man."

On a more positive twist, since there were no pencil boxes I did get to try out a new sewing skill.

I sewed my first zipper. I'm sure I did it wrong, but it zips properly and that's all that counts.

I made Piko deGallo a pencil pouch.

Here is a detail of the little bird I embroidered. It's actually chirping her real name, but I decided to block that out.

Hotel Limbo

We're currently in a La Quinta Inn about 20 miles outside of Baltimore.
Just waiting to catch a plane to Germany.
Sarge, Me, Piko, Dog. One room.

Take Me Out!!

The view the instant you step out of the Metro. The stadium is literally half a block away off of the Navy Yard stop.

This was the view from our seats. Piko was intrigued/obsessed with the big "W" on the grass. Sarge did a pretty good job with our seats. They were waaaaaay up there, but they were still very good. That guy in the blue hat kept blocking my view of home plate though.

Piko was having a great time.

We watched the first three innings complete. Then since we were on the verge of horribly under dressed, it was pretty windy and cold. Piko and I set off in search of some hot chocolate. Wouldn't you know, we walked around the whole freaking stadium, and there was only one vendor who had hot chocolate?!??! It took so long for us to find it that by the time I thought about it, all of the potato knish's were sold out!! BAH! We finally made our way back to our seats for the end of the 6th inning. By the 7th inning stretch Sarge was ready to go, so we made our way down to the main concourse.

Here they are, stopping to view the game from another angle.

Of course we stopped briefly at the "Strike Zone" and let Piko have a go in the bounce house. But we had to be quick to get outside to line up for what was surely the highlight of the day.
Kids run the bases!!!! It was mighty awesome to go out on the field. The Rushmores were at every base cheering the kids on as they ran around.

All and all, Piko gives a day at the Park the thumbs up!

Big Sigh

Well, only 2 more weeks until our house is packed up and loaded on it's way to Germany.

I got the reality check when a friend dropped by yesterday to pick up some of my container gardening items. Librarian, you will be happy to know that the planter "Turkey Dinner" gave to you, and you gave to me, is going on to a new good home. It's funny to look out into my yard and see those bare spots where things used to be. It's also kind of sad because the weather is slowly coaxing my garden back to life. Too bad too, because last year was a transplant year, so much of what I had was very sad during the growing season. This year, I was really hoping that my peony bush would actually bloom. Not to worry though, I'm sure I'll be able to have a great garden in Deutschland.

In other busy deGallo news. Sarge has taken to calling me "The Sewing Hermit". That's pretty much what I'm doing all the time these days. Teachers at the school found out that I'm leaving, so 4 of them put in orders for seat sacks. I had to cut it off after those 4 were done. Uniform orders keep showing up at the door, literally. I opened the door this morning, and a bag of uniforms was there. I told Sarge that they've taken to just leaving them like orphans on our doorstep. I'm trying to bang all of this "work" stuff out so that I have time to finish some personal projects before I lose my BFF for a couple months. Not that I'll be able to use it much over in Germany. Sarge did say that I could buy a 220V machine though. WOO!

In between relocating appointments and sewing, Sarge has managed to convert me over to the dark side of his exercise plan. CrossFit. And while I am always bitching and moaning about exercise, I actually kind of like this program. The exercises are extremely varied from day to day, and some workouts are long, some are short. And hello, yesterday, I deadlifted my body weight. Well, my body weight -10lbs. But that's still pretty good, cause I'm no 98lbs!

And on a creative front, I've made these water bottle holders for the kids in Piko deG's class.

We are going to miss the "Field Day" celebration at the school. So I thought that these might be good for the kids to carry their bottles of water in. That way they can keep their water with them, and they don't get misplaced as easily, or mixed up with each others.

Here is the action shot.

I hope that they use them.

Henna Party!

Last night we had a Henna/Movie/Pizza night at our neighbor's house.

Awhile ago my neighbor came back from a trip to Florida. She and one of her daughters had visited an amusement park there where they were doing henna tattoos. They didn't have time to stop for one, but brought a kit home. I was over at their house one day and noticed the kit. I love doing henna!!! The librarian can attest to this. When we were roommates after college the whole Madonna/henna thing hit the mainstream, with her Ray of Light album. I spent some time decorating myself and my roommates. It was some fun.

Anyway, that first henna kit she bought from the amusement park was for crap, and didn't take. So, she went to AC Moore and bought this kit. This kit is awesome! The henna powder is very fine and has no clumps or debris. They provide a great applicator bottle, with an awesome fine tip that makes wonderful lines. There's lots of eucalyptus oil, and the mordant liquid they provide is pre mixed and does not stink at all.

And though the amount seems very small, it was enough to do all of these designs.

Plus, my own left arm, and my feet.
I don't have any "after" pictures yet. but just based on Piko, and my results, it came out very well.
Is it bringing back memories Ms. Librarian?

I forgot to add the funniest moment of the night. A couple of us were in the kitchen applying henna, and the rest of the children (3, 1 of mine, 2 of hers) were in the living room "playing". Suddenly there is crying and yelling. It went something like this.
Kid 1: Waaaaaaa!!!! She broke my wand!!!
Kid 2: I did not!!!
Mom: What happened?
Kid 1: She broke my wand! WAAAAAAAA!!!
Mom: Kid 2, did you break her wand?
Kid 2: Well, yeah....
Mom: Why would you do that?!? I think you should apologize.
Kid 2: Yeah, but...
Kid 1: She broke it!!! She didn't even say sorry!
Mom: Tell her you're sorry!
Kid 2: Yeah, but she was hitting me with the wand, and that's why it broke!!
Mom:................You kids are going to make me crazy!!
Me: (in the kitchen, to myself) Too late.

Well....Thanks, I Guess.

I came home from marketing the other morning and Sarge greets me with:

"I got you a present!!!! Well, actually it's more of a presnt for you that's for me."

You know I don't like Victoria's Secret! I tell him.

"I know that!!" He says. "It's much better! I got baseball tickets!!"

Well. Yay?

"They're for the Nationals, at the new stadium!"

Ok, I'll admit, this does kind of sound like a good time to me. We used to get tickets for an Orioles game about once a year whenever the Red Sox would play in Baltimore. But we have been slacking quite a bit the past two or so years. I know that Sarge probably bought the cheapest seats available, and is bringing me along so that I can keep Piko deGallo entertained, but I'm easily swayed by overpriced hot dogs, lemonade, and cotton candy.

Anyone want to take bets on how many innings we get through before Piko and I end up here?

Oh! My Aching Shoulders!!!!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Sarge is trying to kill me.

Thursday at the gym we did this workout. I think my time was something like 17:35, but I substituted a 25lb dumbbell for the kettleball, and had about 110 on the pull-up weight stack. Since I couldn't do a pull up to save my life, seriously. Then we played about 20 minutes of tennis. Man, we suck at tennis, that's the reason we play tennis, we are equally sucky, so nobody gets mad, it's fun and not competitive. But COME ON!!! That was a combined run of .75 miles, 63 dumbbell swings, and 36 pull-ups.

The previous day I had been working on this for a friend:

I guess her church is having some kind of singles luau/dance.
So my shoulders were pretty achy already. That freaking thing was bout 9 feet tall, and 12 feet long.

Thursday afternoon after I had gotten the approval on the finished mural, the friend reminded me that I was going to do a Tiki mural as well. Well, crap. So I got started on that one as well. As I was finishing up with the coloring and shading of that one, a PTA friend called an let me know that the dance Piko deGallo's school was having the next day needed decorations. I agreed to show up for that after dinner.

I show up at the school, and the only person there to decorate the cafeteria besides me is the friend who called me. Dude, we must have blown up about 500 balloons that night. Thankfully she had these little hand pumps that did most of the work, but AGH, again with the aching shoulders. We get mostly done there at about 9:30, and I head home.

Crap! The Tiki still needs detail outlining. Shoulders again! I wish I was ambidextrous. But it turned out freaking awesome! I want to paint one of these in our house, but Sarge says not. Though as you can see, it is totally Piko approved.
This gives you some idea of the scale I was working in.

Back to the school on Friday for the "dance". Pre-K, and Kindergarten are first, so Sarge and I attend. Balloons popping galore. I guess we have to replenish the stock for the other classes. Which means more using of the hand pump. Ow, OW! OW!!
But the kids had a great time, (however the DJ kept playing that damn "Apple Bottom Jeans" song, which is another rant entirely!) and by the time the 2nd graders got into the dance there was less popping of the balloons. Thank goodness.


So I guess I'm blaming Sarge, but it looks like he was only about 25% responsible for my current state of pain. My own stupid volunteering self is responsible for the other 75%.

Though last night, he was trying to convince me to do the split jerk workout. Um, NO.

Maine Photolog

As you can see, there was quite a bit of snow built up. Piko deGallo is standing at the top of a snow bank (or "snow hills" as she calls them) on the edge of the in-law's driveway.


Funny enough, I checked the weather in Sarge's town this morning, and guess what?! IT WAS SNOWING!! LOLerskates!

Piko deGallo and Sarge put up a pretty impressive snow person in the front yard. And then that was pretty much the end of the outdoors for us. It got very cold overnight, and rained, so that nice snow turned into slick ice.


The first of some wonderfully fresh seafood we had. Though this was the only bit that was not battered and fried, as is the way in Downeast Maine.

Yum, fresh steamed clams!


Piko deGallo learned to ride a bike without training wheels. Thank you so much Grandpa deGallo!!! She only dumped seriously once, and I got it on camera.

And then I couldn't go a week without being a tad bit crafty. I reeled Piko deG, and her cousin off of the computer and we created some very festive Easter egg trees. I didn't feel like blowing a whole bunch of eggs, so I bought a bunch of fun foam and cut out egg shapes, then had the girls decorate them. I then cut out some cute birds from some cheap scrapbooking paper. So cute!

Holy Crud!

Well, we're back!

And we're leaving in a little more than a month!

I've officially had to start thinking about the fact that we're really moving to Germany, and all that entails. Crud. Packing, yard sales, last minute appointments, dealing with the dog, cleaning my house. All things I thoroughly enjoy of course.

Maine was pretty good though. Lots of snow, fried seafood, chocolate milkshakes, Piko deGallo milestones, and family. Low on privacy, high octane coffee, companionable silence, and privacy, did I mention privacy? I'll post some pictures later.

We also drove up (in 13 hours!! a deGallo personal best!!) in our Sienna, and drove back in an Outback! Seriously, Maine must be the Subaru capital of the universe.

We're off! Yay?

Maine ho!!!!

Woo-freaking-hoo. It's finally starting to get warm here, and we're heading off to the land of 6 foot snow drifts.

It's better than here though I guess. Monday night the PTA imploded, the new board cut funding for almost all of the student activities the previous board was supporting. They blamed the previous board for mismanaging the budget, and for sabotaging the latest fundraiser (whhhaaaa????). I did get my money for the Science Fair refunded though, so there was a plus for me. I'm seriously hoping that the next school we're at has a PTA that can actually work together, and do, you know, work.

So away from here, to the frozen north. It's going to be a great visit, I can already tell. The other night Piko deGallo tells Sarge.

"Do Grandma and Grandpa have more than one TV? I don't want to have to watch CRAP IDOL with them."

I swear, Sarge must have peed his pants from laughing so hard.

I'm looking forward to going to the discount fabric store. Thank goodness we got our tax return!