June 6, 2013

Jeez....almost a whole month has passed by again.  May was a month that saw me doing not much but working on different projects.  Hmmmm....that sounds about typical.

I did a LOT of work at my prairie restoration site earlier in the month at the invasive garlic mustard was growing full steam and flowering.  I managed to get as much of it sprayed as possible before the never ending rain and threats of rain started.  Can't spray in the rain or before it is going to rain and the later weeks of May it was all about the rain. 

I also spent a good deal of time working on selling off a good part of my Star Wars collection on E-bay.  It is amazing how much time that actually takes to do photos and listings.  I would sometimes turn around and a couple hours would have went by.

Since I could not do outside painting with the weather so crappy all the time, I did get some inside painting done.  I painted the computer room.  Brother, that room has not been painted in a long time and needed a fresh coat of paint.  As always, emptying the room and masking things off takes longer than actually painting and then there is giving everything a good cleaning before it gets moved back in.  I really hate painting, so I am glad to have that room done but also need to do my bathroom.  That hasn't seen any work in a very long time too.   I also have outside painting that needs to be done.  Ugh!

I finished planting the vegetable garden too and the weather has been just kicking the crap out of that.  My yard has been flooded more times this year than I can remember and all of the plants look sick because of the water logged soil.  I think I will be lucky to get much out of the vegetable garden this year. 

One of the things I spent copious amounts of time on was the Joliet Library Star Wars Day event.  I wanted to make the Rebel Legion display the best I could so I finished up a few pieces that I had laying around for quite a few years, made signage, and started packing totes full of costumes and props.  The display filled the Jeep front to back and floor to ceiling.  That did not include Artoo who was hanging out at the Joliet Historical Museum since the morning of the television taping and my lightsaber collection that was put in the display case at the Library about a month ago. 

The event was June 1, 2013 and it was insane!  I went to the Joliet Historical Museum on 5-31-13 to set up the Rebel Display and got up the next morning and headed to Joliet again.  The rest of the day and the event is really a blur.  I went from setting things up, to getting people to where they needed to go, to doing the shifts of volunteer work that I signed up for, putting out fires, and before I knew it - it was time to pack everything back up again. 

We ended up with something like 85 costumes and 5,000 visitors.  Crazy!  After the event was over, there was also an "after party" that I worked on putting together.  Things got nutty for that the last couple days.  All of that display stuff had to all be put away again and that seemed to take forever too. 

On Tuesday, I was back in Joliet to pick up Artoo at the Historical Museum and from there we headed straight to Silver Cross Field for the Joliet Slammers game.  They were having Star Wars night at the ballpark and had asked the SW costume groups to come out.  So, I figured that I would kill two birds with one stone if I picked up Artoo and dragged him along with me.  Worked out great because Artoo assisted Dan of Bug's Pals with his fundraising to buy books for the patients at Hope Children's Hospital which is another event coming up in August. 

Wednesday I was back in Joliet...again...this time to pick up my lightsaber collection out of the display case at the Library.  One thing is certain, I no longer need Google maps directions to get to either the Joliet Historical Museum or the Library....I am on auto pilot now when I go there.