Live from the Galaxy Far, Far Away

January 14, 2012

2012-01-14T06:16:00.008-06:00

Well, winter finally came on Thursday of this week. After enjoying a winter so far that had no snow on the ground, the ground is now covered in about 8 inches of snow. I am not sure whether it is a good thing or not. One good thing is that since there IS snow on the ground, we can burn brush piles at todays restoration workday. I don't know if the snow will still be here for the Frozen Butts workday (which is a week from today) because the weather forecast calls for rain on Monday and rain really melts snow quickly. I am good with it either way.

I have spent the last three weeks feverishly working on my Naboo Pilot costume. I got nearly all the pieces done when I found out that there were costume standards for the costume and I have to re-make the undertunic completely and need to add mock pockets to the large outer jacket. So, my progress is set back a bit.
I have almost got the undertunic finished, I have been working on it this morning. I am almost done also with the boots. I have everything glued up and applied, I just need to finish the straps. It always seems as though there is something to "finish up".

This coming week I really have to concentrate on getting ready for the "Frozen Butts" workday. I have door prizes to buy, food to make, and a check of supplies and needs for the pot luck. I think I have mostly everything I need except door prizes. Since money has been extra tight this year, I have not been out looking for door prizes. I know that I will end up giving some of my homemade canned goods/jams as door prizes.

I did do a birthday party troop event on Sunday night in Tinley Park. I wore my X-Wing Pilot costume because I needed to be wearing that costume to see if the Hoth Snowspeeder Pilot jacket that I had Heather finish up for me fit...and it did. So, that is yet another costume that needs a few things and it will be done as well.

January 1, 2012

2012-01-01T04:24:00.004-06:00

Happy New Year?

Well, we will have to see about that! Each year for the past several years I have been hoping for a better year, and it just has not happened. The economy has taken its toll on my ability to go places and do things and and at this stage of my life, after working non stop for 45 years, I have just hoped for better.

So...

New Years Resolutions 2012...

I resolve to end the year weighing less than I did when it began. I ended 2011 weighing less than I did January a year ago....so I hope to keep this trend.

I do vow to try to eat better overall...my eating habits are random and not as good as they should be. I need to do at least some cooking rather than eating the prepackaged foods that make up most of my diet....the Lean Cuisines and canned soups that I live on.

I resolve to take a better look at what money I have and currently earn, how I spend it, and how to make what I have go farther.

I resolve to get to Celebration 6.

One thing that I have been working on the last week or so has been my latest costume adventure, the Naboo Pilot costume. I hope to have this costume ready for the release of "The Phantom Menace" in 3D next month. I am moving along pretty well and should have the leather harness done by the end of this weekend. I am awaiting the shin guards and hope those come in the next two weeks so I can concentrate on finding the necessary boots to pair the shinguards with.

The only other piece needed will be the large outer jacket. I am not sure that piece will be 100% necessary to present the costume...so I will leave that for "if I have time" before the movie is released.

Yesterday I took down the Christmas lights outside and took a nice fitness walk and did actually cook something. Also, I made a "smoothie" out of an orange, apple, banana and some strawberries....no juice added...just a few ice cubes. It was really good!

Today I am heading over to Brookfield Zoo to take down the items from the Midwest Garrison and Nar Shaddaa Base community Christmas trees that we put up. It will be interesting to see what is left.

I also plan to finish up on the leather harness for the Naboo Pilot today. I had to glue up several pieces yesterday and now that those are dry, I can move on to final assembly and adding the "greeblies". The greeblies might require some sewing....dunno...will have to play that by ear and take yet another look at what reference photos I have on that piece.

December 25, 2011

2011-12-25T03:51:00.004-06:00

Well, I guess a Merry Christmas is in order. This is going to be a very quiet Christmas as I am spending it at home by myself. No big deal....got lots of projects and things to keep me busy. Yesterday I ran errands, took a fitness walk, worked on my latest costume effort and even cooked a little. I am also trying to get more of those extra material Star Wars Bluray discs watched.

Last weekend I spent both Friday night and part of Saturday at Martino Junior High School in New Lenox at a fundraiser for Toys for Tots. Two of the teachers at Martino did this event last year and repeated it this year. They had one of the teacher's massive Star Wars collection on display and had Star Wars inspired games and activities. Us Star Wars costume geeks attended to enhance the atmosphere of the event. I brought Artoo on Friday night and then left him there until Saturday which was much easier than lugging him back and forth both days. This event was lots of fun and I really enjoyed the laid back atmosphere.

Well, almost another year shot to hell. I take comfort in that I did, after all, keep all of my 2011 New Years resolutions...

I purged the house BIG time

I finished a bunch of costume projects

and

I ended the year weighing less than when I began.

So, what of 2012....

Well, I resolve to try to end the year weighing less again...and I resolve to make it to Celebration 6 in Orlando in August....and that is about it.

December 13, 2011

2011-12-13T03:43:00.002-06:00

December is flying along at breakneck speed. Why am I not surprised? Christmas is not such a busy thing for me as I don't get into the holiday shopping thing. My family does a really subdued Christmas grab bag that is actually rather fun instead of stressful. I finished up the cookies I intend to mail and have those packages ready to be shipped out today.

On December 4th, I co-ordinated the annual Toy Con Charity Toy Show. We raised about $180.00 for Children's Treasure Chest for Pediatric Oncology. This event is always laid back and we had a large number of costumes turn out. I brought two costumes this time as I needed some photos taken of each of them. The Endor costume needed photos for a trading card and the Rebel Vanguard needed photos to submit the costume. As always, it was great fun and we raised some money also.

I did a restoration workday on Saturday. I didn't bring my chainsaw as I am really trying to cut back on sawing because of the damage to my hands that has been done already. I ended up leading the workday because the FPDWC employee ended up in afib right before the workday. Everything turned out ok and we got a lot of work done and prep work was accomplished in advance of the Frozen Butts workday when we will likely finish the project there.

I went into Walmart to return something last week when a display of Bluray players caught my eye. I did it...I finally purchased a Bluray player to play my latest (and hopefully final) release of Star Wars. I purchased the Bluray edition the night it was released at the event we did at the Orland Walmart but was never able to play it. This LG Bluray was really easy to hook up and Sunday I watched the first disk that I wanted to see which was the deleted scenes and extra material from the Original Trilogy. WOW! There is so much on that disk! It took me most of the afternoon to get through it all.

I also got to the movies last week on Tuesday to see the latest Eclipse movie "Breaking Dawn". I was kind of a snooze but is a set up for the final installment (which should be MUCH better).

November 26, 2011

2011-11-26T04:16:00.003-06:00

Thanksgiving Day was once again a little unusual this year because I started out the day with the Chicago Thanksgiving Day Parade on State Street. I was up at 1:00 AM because I usually find it difficult to sleep normal hours around this time of year. I kept busy till it was time to leave the house at around 5:00 AM to make my way to the CTA Blue Line station in Forest Park. I was to meet up with two other members and we then rode the train to the Loop. There is always a lot of standing around before a parade, and this year was no exception. The parade is really short in length but the streets were absolutely packed with on-lookers. After the parade we went back on the Blue Line. It is always fun to see the reaction of people on the train to our costumes, especially since I carry a large Hoth rifle. Then it was Thanksgiving Dinner at my sister Joan's house. My older sister Stef was in town from Utah this year to join in the Thanksgiving day festivities and it always sucks that I have to get up for work the day after, so I went home relatively early. Friday at work was tough and I came home pretty tired.

But this morning, it is up and off to my first prairie restoration workday in quite a few months. I have taken some time off from doing workdays as I had been sick and then some of the workdays I was already busy. Where I plan to stay active, I don't think I will be doing as many workdays as I used to.

November 24, 2011

2011-11-24T01:10:00.006-06:00

For some reason, I can't seem to sleep and I know that I have to be "up" in a few hours to head downtown for the Chicago Thanksgiving Day Parade. It is likely to be a long day! After the parade is over, I will be heading to Joan's house for Thanksgiving dinner and to hang out with the family a bit. Fortunately, I have my dish all prepared for later and it will have to sit in the car while I am off marching.

On Saturday, 11-12-11, I participated in a Star Wars event that held special meaning for me. A few of us were asked to appear at the Max Lacewell Foundation Gala fundriaser. Max was a little 6 year old that died of a rare form of brain cancer several years ago. Before he died, we did a fundriaser and big party for him. We were also asked to appear in costume at his life celebration after he passed away a few months after the fundraiser. In his memory, his parents started a foundation to further research on his cancer and to help other parents dealing with this deadly disease. We were asked to mingle, take photos, do a flash mob and also were part of a live auction for our services. An appearance by us at a private party was part of the live auction and the high bid for us ended up to be $700.00. Afterward, we found that another couple promised another $700.00 if we did a party for them also. Not too shabby for a bunch of Star Wars geeks.

Last Sunday (11-20-11) I participated in costume for a tree trim at Brookfield Zoo. Nar Shaddaa Base purchased a community tree at the zoo and on Sunday we went to decorate it. I had made up a bunch of hand painted ornaments and utilized action figures and trading cards to decorate the tree. It was a lot of fun and a bit on the brisk side to be walking around in my X-Wing costume. I had no layers on underneath the costume. There was a time a couple months ago that there was no room to put any layers under the flightsuit. Thankfully, I have lost some weight over the last months and there was room to put on layers...but I already look like a blimp in that particular costume so I didn't want to add to the "blimpi-ness". I REALLY have to try harder to lose another 10-15 pounds, but it is just sooooo hard.

Today's parade should be interesting in many ways. Right now I am a bit down on the whole costuming thing and have to start thinking of what direction I want to take that endeavor in. Certain recent animosity has left me wondering if the whole thing is worth it...but then I do think of things like the Max and Vincent events and hope that things like that can sustain me.

I guess maybe I just need a change.

November 5, 2011

2011-11-05T08:11:00.007-05:00

November already! Sigh...that means putting Christmas lights outside in the next couple of weeks...one of the jobs I really hate. Each year I seem to put fewer out there, but I think last years bare minimum will have to be met again. Where I hate putting them up, they seem to add some light to what is some of the darkest parts of the year.

I traveled up to Milwaukee on 10-22-11 for the Discovery Museum event and it was hectic like last year. This year I did leave Artoo home but brought two mannequins, copious amounts of costumes and props to both display and to wear. I displayed my X-Wing Pilot and Hoth Trench Trooper costumes and wore my Endor and Rebel Fleet Trooper costumes. I spent the day doing photos with patrons in front of back drops, answering questions and guarding some of the props in the activity room, and generally roaming the halls.

The Museum is a really great backdrop for all of the Star Wars stuff, and the patrons always are very enthusiastic.

The three little girls in their Ewok Costumes were really cute. Whoever made them did a really nice job on what I assume would be Halloween costumes for them.

There was a huge group of participants for this event, but with all that was going on, each pair of hands was needed.

Last year I got a room at a hotel with Cheryl and Dee and stayed overnight after this event, but this year my budget just would not allow for that, so I drove home after the event was over.

I was indeed tired!

On 10-27-11 we had a repeat of an event we did last year at the Homer Glen Library. The place was packed last year and we were invited back again this year. This year was packed also. I brought along Artoo this time as he was a big hit last year with all the kids and families. But, unlike last year when I wore Stormtrooper, this year I wore a costume that I could actually see in...I wore Jedi.

We did the usual posing for photos, signing autographs and I got the opportunity to lead the Star Wars Trivia. All great fun.

During our "photo ops" I did cause a minor bit of chaos. One of the kids asked for Artoo to sign an autograph and I told him that Artoo didn't sign autographs due to his restraining bolt but that Artoo had his trading cards...lol...that was a mistake. Artoo got rushed by a group of kids who wanted his trading cards and the photo op went to hell in a handbasket. Order was again achieved and the evening moved along.

This little boy made the cutest little Yoda!

We found out mid week that Timothy Zahn was going to be doing a booksigning and talk at the Library in Lombard on Thursday night, so it was back into the costume closet and off to Lombard on Thursday. This time I brought along my Imperial Gunner costume as I hardly ever wear that one and it looks like no one is interested in buying the helmet...so I might as well wear it. It was hot under that bucket and when I went outside at one point to "mill about" outdoors before the event began, I found that in the evening darkness I could not see a thing!

We stood behind Mr. Zahn as he gave a talk and then milled around for photos while he did the signing of the books.

Today I was up early and finished up two Endor Bandoliers for some of our Base members...and now it is off to the Post Office and then I have yard work to do.

October 18, 2011

2011-10-18T12:04:00.008-05:00

It has been about a month since I posted here, so I have probably forgotten half of what I have done.

I guess I will start with the White Sox game on September 24th. The Midwest Garrison was invited by the White Sox to come in costume to the game and appear for "Stand Up Against Cancer". I had not been to the new US Cellular field yet and there were spots open to sign up, so I did. As always, we were asked to get there early, suit up and do some hand shaking and posing for photos around the outside of the Ball Park. And, as always, there were plenty of Star Wars fans to be found. We all had to wear stickers on our costumes that allowed us to go just about anywhere. Right before the game, we were part of a "parade" that took a lap around the field. I looked at all of the empty seats and thought that no one was coming to the game. I guess we were out there quite some time before the game and all of a sudden, the place started to fill up. From the first inning until the 7th inning there were lots of people to meet and take photos with. Near the 7th though, you could tell that a good number of people had been "over served" and that was as good a time as any to head for the exits. It was a unique experience to be at the ball park in Star Wars costume.

A couple days after the game, I started to get sick. I felt really lousy and was barely making it through each day. By the Friday after the game, I didn't go to work and went to the doctor instead. Turns out I had pneumonia, bronchitis, and a nasty sinus infection. Life doesn't seem to allow for being sick as I tried to continue doing things as best I could but would wear out fast.

I had set up our Mokena Making Strides Against Breast Cancer "Donation Station" at Berkots for October 1st and was not going to miss that...sick or not. So I did make it to Berkots in costume and managed to stay for the hours we were there. Thanks to several members of the MWG and NSB, we raked in $325.00 for MSABC. As always, the people at Berkots were good natured and a lot of people were excited to see us there.

Bill Biksacky was in from Utah for his sister's funeral and decided to stay here in Mokena the last night before he headed back home. We had a nice visit. It worked out good ...he was able to use my bed because I was still sleeping sitting in a chair...doctor's orders.

I started my annual fall canning like mad over the last two weeks also. I have made 3 different kinds of jam for giving to my family at Christmas as I am big into homemade gifts. I also canned tomatoes and salsa. Canning is very time consuming but rewarding. It is also one of those lost arts that I don't think should "die out". I also went out to the Barrens to pick Autumn Olive berries and made jam out of that for the door prizes for the Frozen Butts workday.

In addition to the canning, I still had a lot of garden to clean up. We had a nice stretch of great weather so I did a lot more garden clean up. I feel I am pretty ahead of the game in that department. Linda and I got out to Hickory Creek Barrens last week and did a little work and nosing around now that the contractors have begun work in earnest there.

On Saturday I turned 60 years old....ugh. It was a day I have been dreading for quite awhile. I just don't want to be 60...period. I know I am slowing down, even though I do try hard to keep forever in motion. I didn't plan much for the day because that is part of my "over 60" philosophy...I don't want to plan every minute to death. I sometimes get tired of endlessly running around. My family in the area don't really celebrate birthdays except for the "big ones". This being a big one, we made some small plans. Sister Laura and brother Jim met me at Camp Sagawau and we explored the Environmental Center there and also took a walk. We all then met up with sister Joan at Del Rhea's Chicken Basket. The Chicken Basket is a restaurant from the 40's that is positioned on what once was Route 66. It is famous for its chicken and the place has been featured on the Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" show and has also been in the local papers. Since they are famous for chicken...that is what I got. It was a very laid back day.

The next day was our annual "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer" walk in Aurora. I fundraise and do projects for MSABC for months. This year again we had a GREAT turn out of participants in costume. One of our Stormtroopers even wore a pink undersuit with his Stormtrooper Armor. It was raining as we got ready in the parking lot...and it rained the whole first lap of the walk. We all got soaked. I have to admire our team. While the other walkers hid under umbrellas...we walked without them! This year our team came out 3rd for total donations out of 65 teams. We raised $4,779.00. My personal quest for donations put me in second place out of about 150 individuals as I was able to raise $3,220.00. Everyone did a great job on this event and I was really proud of our team...as always.

This morning I did more canning and jam making and got a few packages out to Utah for Christmas early...can't ship that stuff when the weather starts to freeze. I think I might go to the show this afternoon.

September 18, 2011

2011-09-18T05:19:00.004-05:00

Yesterday Artoo and I made it out to the Indiana Dunes State Park for the Midwest R2-D2 Builder's gathering.

The weather was GREAT and the State Park was just beautiful! I am so glad that I went. I had a chance to meet some new people and also got a rare opportunity to take some great photos that will help in some modifications and improvements I would like to make on my Artoo.

We hung out and had lots of time for chat and many Park employees and others came by for a look at these strange "hikers".

Today it is supposed to rain...and I am REALLY glad for that as it will force me to stay inside and do some things. One of the things I need to do is clean Artoo...

man..

has he gotten filthy and weathered from the last events he has done. And, I noticed that I lost a piece off of one of his left battery box that I can't replace at this time, so I am going to have to remove one off the right side to make him even again.

I did a little walking up a huge sand hill at the park before leaving...but since I was standing for several hours prior...my poor broken foot was complaining the whole time. I would have liked to do a little more hiking around since it was such a nice day, but hit the road for home instead.

September 17, 2011

2011-09-17T04:35:00.006-05:00

Wow, getting caught up on everything has been really hard. It is now mid September and I haven't had much of a chance to sit down and regather since I left for Utah for Meryl's wedding on 9-1-11.

The trip to Utah was fast, furious, and fun. It was great to hang out with my family again. I don't seem to get much of a chance to see them while at home as I am always running in 10 directions at once. But, with this trip, we shared a house and got a chance to hang together 24/7 for several days. The wedding was AWESOME! Meryl and Ryan did an amazing job of keeping it light but also still meaningful.

Their backdrop for their ceremony of the red canyons of Utah was stunning. The reception was outdoors and very laid back. I can honestly say I haven't danced that much in a long time.

I got a chance to get out and hike even though I am 95% sure that I broke some bones in my foot on the Sunday before I left for Utah. It was painful the entire time (and still is) but, I managed to hike with lots of help from Ibuprofin! One hike was really amazing as it was almost straight up for quite a long time. I am really surprised I made it because of my age, my foot, and the heat of the day.

Getting back from Utah was another matter. A rock kicked up from a truck and hit the windshield of the rental car that I had. I am still waiting to see if I have to pay for that. I also came home to find that the house had no power for several days and the basement was flooded and the fridge full of rotted food. So, that was just a great welcome home. Also, as expected, when I walked back into work, there was so much work piled up that it had to be put in a huge box that was placed on my desk.

This past Thursday night was the release of the complete Star Wars saga on Blu Ray. I did a troop for the release which was scheduled for midnight. I got a few hours of sleep when I got home from work and then woke up at 10:00 PM and loaded up Artoo and headed for the Orland Hills Walmart. There were not as many people at this midnight release as in previous ones, but the die hards were out and it was a LOT of fun. I got home at 1:30 AM and just stayed up as it was time to get ready to go to work anyway.

Today I am headed for Indiana to the Dunes State Park for the Midwest Builders Gathering. Should be fun and hope to get some advice on my dome motor project.

August 21, 2011

2011-08-21T05:43:00.008-05:00

Less than two weeks and I will be headed for Utah for Meryl's wedding. Seems hard to believe it seemed so far away...yet like every other event...it is here before you know it. Frontier changed our flight departure time and that is making a mess of everything. New planning will have to be done. I am going out today to try and find something else to wear. I bought (of all things) a skort and a top a couple weeks ago, but I find I don't like the top much so I need to buy a new one. There is also a problem with footwear...as in I have nothing. I am also going out to check out the Borders liquidation sale and also make a stop in Joanne fabric. I really HATE shopping, so this will not be a fun day.

Last Sunday I made it down to Wizard World. Not one of my favorite places but wanted to go to help out with our group's booth. I ended up taking the booth home and then had to deliver it to Plainfield on Tuesday. I do love to see the other costumes, thought I have to admit that there isn't much to see at Wizard World. A lot of the costumes there are kind of amatuerish...but not as bad as it was years ago. I think that there are a lot more people getting into costuming.

I was proud of myself for not spending any money past just gasoline to get there. I even, through a stroke of luck, got parking free as the parking structure had an oops in their machine. I went to pay in advance and the lady said the ticket was not scanning....so she said I would have to scan when I left and when I left, that person said it was paid.

Friday I left work early to do an event at Hope Children's Hospital. I had loaded up Artoo the night before and he was along as well. We went there to pass out toys that we had been collecting at the past few events. The toys were collected in honor of a little girl who died at 15 months of a heart defect and her dad came to see us Star Wars geeks at the Joliet Library event. Hospital events are serious business as there are a lot of really sick kids there and certain protocols need to be met. Thankfully, we had no issues and made it through the day without problem. I had the Parts Department deliver me and Artoo and then pick us up. I lost one piece of Artoo and broke one of his holo-eyes. Fortunately, I was able to fabricate the piece I lost but am still trying to secure Artoo's holo eye.

I made more cherry jam yesterday with cherries I still had in the freezer and today I am going to process some tomatoes. I am getting a little bit of a late start on the canning. I usually like to be done by now, before it gets hot out, but I slept in this morning till 4:30 AM.

I also got more garden cleaned up yesterday. My goal is not letting anything set seed! I also nuked a few plants in the back of the garden that are too close to the spruce. I started the paring down of plants last year and will continue this fall and into the spring. Things were a lot less crowded this year for sure and it seemed to have worked out well.

August 14, 2011

2011-08-14T06:31:00.002-05:00

We got some releif from the hot weather this past week. Several days it just got into the upper 70's and was good sleeping weather at night. We also got some rain and it is actually weird to see the grass this green in August. It is usually all burned up around now.

Last Sunday I did an event for Lutheran General Hospital called "Peds in the Weeds". This event is for pediatric patients and their families and is held at a Cook County Forest Preserve in Morton Grove. The day started out with rain as I made my way to Morton Grove, but then the sun came out and it was miserably hot and ungodly humid. I wore my X-Wing costume and brought along Artoo. We didn't use Artoo so he ended up staying in the Jeep. We did our usual thing with photos and interacting with all of the participants. The Morton Grove Fire Department was on hand with a fire hose....I took advantage of a good wet down...costume and all. Where it was refreshing at first, after the initial "cooling" effect....you ended up just feeling clammy....lol.

On Thursday the article came out in the Chicago Tribune about our Star Wars group. It came out pretty good and didn't make us look like a bunch of geeks....always a good thing.

Sally and I went out to butterfly monitor on Tuesday and got some of our best results this season. It really has been a dismal monitoring season so having a good day was a nice change.

I made more jam last weekend...a LOT more and this morning I managed to make 4 pints of "Whimpy Ass Salsa". I am finally getting some tomatoes in from the garden but don't see this as a banner year for canning tomatoes.

I got to the show last week to see "Cowboys and Aliens" and was surprised that I actually liked it. This week I went to see "Captain America" (gotta love those $5.00 matinees) and it also was pretty good.

I am going to clean up the house a bit and then head down to Wizard World for the day. This will be a busy week. On Tuesday afternoon I have a meeting with Marcy from the FPDWC regarding the Dick Wunderlich memorial and on Friday I have an event at Hope Children's Hospital and I will be leaving work a little early.

More garden clean up is on the agenda for this week also.

July 31, 2011

2011-07-31T16:07:00.004-05:00

Last day of July....and another hot one. I got up early to do chores and work in the garden and it didn't take long to be soaked in sweat so I came indoors to work on costume projects.

Yesterday I spent the day at Cyphan, a local Science Fiction and Fantasy convention. It was great to hang out and see everyone. It was also another opportunity to "clean house" as I brought along with me a whole garbage bag full of toys to donate to the "Bug's Pals" event at Hope Children's Hospital. I also brought along a whole box of those Star Wars books to donate to the Joliet Library and to other members who requested them. So yet more "stuff" purged out of the house. Slowly but surely, the year long purge continues!

I wore my Rebel Fleet Trooper costume in the morning at Cyphan and my Imperial Gunner costume in the afternoon...and...egad...someone posted a photo of me in the gunner from behind...I REALLY have to step up my efforts to lose weight....that butt shot was absolutely ghastly. Where I have lost some weight the last couple weeks...I need to lose a LOT more. It has been hard to be motivated lately because of the extreme heat we have been experiencing. It is hard for me to be really active enough when it is over 90 degrees every day and even uncomfortably hot and humid at 4 in the morning.

Also at Cyphan I picked up my "Read" poster. This poster was made by the Joliet Library from a photo taken of me in Hoth costume in front of a green screen. That photo was then photoshopped into the poster (as were all of the other participants) and the posters are supposed to be put up throughout the Library. It came out pretty good...I was sweating it thinking I would look absolutely horrid...but...all in all...I don't look hideous....

Last weekend was the Master Gardener Garden Walk and I spent all day on Saturday at one of the gardens being the "butterfly expert". Butterfly counts have been down this year as a whole. I haven't seen many at my restoraton site, and have not seen a lot of butterflies in the yard either. It has been a disappointing butterfly year.

July 24, 2011

2011-07-24T15:43:00.002-05:00

This past week was certainly yet another character builder. It would seem that Mother Nature is really pissed as she has given us (and the entire planet) one hell of a year of weather so far in 2011.

Thursday it hit 100 down here near Joliet and with the humidity it was supposed to be something like 110 degrees. It was just plain REALLY hot all week, but Thursday was the absolute worst.

On Tuesday, Sally and I did go out to butterfly monitor and by the time we were done, I thought my body would just explode. They always tell you how much butterflies like the sun and heat, but it was honestly eerie that a lot of the flying critters were not flying on Tuesday either. Was it too hot even for them?

It has also been dry....very dry. We hadn't had any measureable rain for quite a long time and with the heat, the garden was literally burning up. Blessedly, we had a storm roll in Friday night that dumped quite a bit of rain (also tore a huge limb out of the neighbor's tree out front) but didn't put out our power. Last night and into this morning we got another really good rain shower. That should keep the garden going for a week or two and then it will already be time to start cutting some of it down. Where did the summer go?

I volunteered all day yesterday for the Will Co Master Gardener's Garden Walk. I was stationed at one of the gardens in Joliet and was there as an educational "feature" doing butterflies and hummingbirds.

Today I just mowed the lawn and made a new pleated piece for Crix's Endor Commando. I had to give away the one I made for him so I needed to make him a new one.

I also finished the Nar Shaddaa Base Powerpoint. I just need to re-check the music timing in one area and it is ready to copy. It runs about 8 minutes long. Not too long...and not too short.

July 17, 2011

2011-07-17T03:28:00.005-05:00

The summer is heating up..both literally and figuratively as we are about to head into a week of dangerously high heat and humidity.

I have been struggling to keep the garden watered. It would seem that the garden went from the endless flooding in spring to the drought of summer. We have not had any really measureable rain for quite a while.

This weekend will go down as one that has been pretty sad. More than a few tears have been shed.

On Friday night, I wore my new Gunner costume to the New Lenox Relay for Life as I met up with fellow costumers for this annual event. As in the past few years, the luminaria ceremony contained the names and photos of the three little boys that we had done events for though Make-A-Wish. All 3 boys have passed away. It is hearbreaking to view the Luminaria ceremony as the photos and names speak of all of the loss and the misery of cancer.

On Saturday, I shed a few more tears as I found out at our annual mid-summer Forest Preserve District of Will County Resource Management volunteer meeting that the memorial project for our fellow volunteer Dick Wunderlich is not going to be realized in the manner that we intended. This is a bitter pill to swallow and now I must figure out something else. I feel that I have let Dick's family and all of the volunteers down. I do plan on moving my efforts into another direction and let the Will County Board know exactly how I feel about their lack of support for their volunteers.

Today I am going to try to survive the heat and be a participant at the Mokena Park District's Flea Market. I had packed up a bunch of Star Wars stuff for the flea market on the Memorial Day weekend, but that one was cancelled due to the fact that the area where the market was supposed to be conducted was under water. Now today's market is going to be just plain HOT>

7-10-11

2011-07-10T16:55:00.008-05:00

Fouth of July came and went...wow...time continues to fly.

It has been an interesting couple of weeks....busy as usual...but even I am getting tired of hearing myself say that.

As noted - the Fourth of July usually means a parade or two for me. And this year it was indeed two parades. On July 3rd we did the 9th Annual "4 Mile Death March" aka the Bartlett 4th of July Parade. It wasn't as hot as years past, and this year I actually drove instead of walk. Usually, I decorate my Jeep in the colors of the Rebellion and have someone else drive it while I walk the parade. This year I could not get anyone to drive it...so I drove it myself. This year I also didn't shuttle people to our staging area and that was less stressful as I could get the Jeep decorated and in line without fighting with the parade people. I didn't stay too long at the BBQ that follows as I had to get up very early the next morning so I could be in Racine WI for their 4th of July Parade by 5:30 AM.

I made it up to Racine on 7-4-11 with no problems...found my way to the marina where the float was hooked up behind a big Kenilworth. WOW, the Wisconsin Garrison did a great job on that float. It was amazing. A few hours later we found out HOW amazing. We headed off for float judging with everyone on the float then stopped down the block before judging so that we could all get into position. I decided to walk the parade which is nearly 4 miles. I was in Jedi costume and hoped that I would not melt but figured it would be ok as it was not really, really hot for this parade either. We went through the judging area with everyone playing their parts on the float and we walkers led the Kenilworth past the Judges. While we were in staging waiting for the parade to actually start, we found out that our float had won one of the highest awards for the parade. The Racine Parade is billed as the largest 4th of July parade in the Midwest and I can tell you that has to be true. As the parade finally stepped off, I could not believe how many people were lined along the nearly 4 miles of parade route. One of the other Jedi and I carried the banner that stated the award that the float won and were out in front of the float. After the parade was over, I locked my keys in the Jeep but fortunately, a broken vent window allowed us to get it open. The drive home was very hot as my ac in the Jeep does not work.

I also had off on Tuesday and just finished up some projects. One BIG project I finished was the rebuilding of the helmet for my new costume. The helmet was shipped by the guy who made it and arrived a mess. It took a LOT of sanding, putting, priming and painting to get it to look decent. The new costume is the Imperial Gunner and it IS my last Imperial costume. I don't think I will hear that I am too short to be a Gunner...though I suppose it is possible. I will be able to sit in it, there is no hard plastic and it has a very cool bucket. I sent off the photos to see if the costume would be approved, but found that the bibb for the costume was too long and I did get called on that so I had to re-make the bibb this morning and get some new photos. I had the girl next door take the photos again and after I was done with the new photos, I found I forgot to put the gloves on....sigh...I hope I don't have to re-take them again.

I also have done butterfly monitoring, a lot of weeding and watering of the garden, and some more jam making among a thousand other things.

Also had another gum infection. The dentist said it might be due to exhaustion and stress...lol..gee...ya think?

This weekend coming up is going to be another killer...

stress?

exhaustion?

6-29-2011

2011-06-29T04:06:00.006-05:00

I am starting to fall behind posting here again. I keep putting it off and then find out that I have forgotten much of what I have done the past couple weeks. Oh well, I guess what I forgot could not have been too important.

I have just been busy with the endless amount of projects I always seem to have. On the homefront I have been making a LOT of jam. Fruit has been great and inexpensive, so I am taking advantage of that to make jam to sell at a Master Gardener meeting coming up with proceeds going to Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. I went to the neighbor with the cherry tree several times to pick cherries and I think I have enough of those!

I also found that I needed to cut down the staghorn sumac up near the house. It started to die off like the other one on the front lawn did this spring. It was a pain in the ass to cut down as I didn't want to harm the redbud in front of it. My chainsaws were giving me grief also. But, I finally did get it down and put most of it through the chipper/shredder. Wow, does that chipper work great now that it has fresh blades in it. I could not believe how fast it works going through endless limbs. I will try not to let the blades get so dull again as it just makes for more work. With all the rain we have had this spring, I seem to have a full time job managing weeds in the garden this year. I weed every day for at least some time. I have also finished spraying invasives at HCB for the spring season....that was months of spraying any time I could get the weather to co operate. Also have done several butterfly monitoring sessions the past couple weeks. Not much to report, seems butterfly counts are down. I don't know if that is in response to the burns conducted this past fall and spring.

I finished my part time job project and was stunned to get a check for $200.00 for the work I did. Welcome money that will (sadly) help me with the second portion of the real estate tax bill coming up in August.

I got to the movies last week to see Super 8. I enjoyed it but found it hard to "buy in" to certain things in the movie.

I did a library event at the Lemont Library on 6-18. It was a short trooping event that really went fast. I wore my Jedi costume which is a costume I have not worn much lately. Boy...forgot how HOT that costume is. When all the kids came into the room at the Library that we were "working" in....I just exploded in sweat and couldn't stop. Thank goodness the event was not a long one. I have also been doing some small costume projects.

Some of the projects have been on my "to do" pile for years. I started working on the Naboo Pilot costume and at least got the helmet started and the only thing I need to do is work on some sort of modification to the built in ear muffs on the helmet....that could be a challenge. I think I will start next on the custom harness as that looks to be a challenge too. I am hoping to do the harness cheaply by using belts that might be on clearance at WalMart or Target. Sometimes buying those clearance belts is much cheaper than buying leather blanks. Will have to decide the overall design and what widths and lengths will be needed first.

My Imperial Gunner helmet has been shipped and I can't wait to get that and then that costume will be finished also....yah!! I think at the same time that I take photos to submit of the gunner costume, I will also do Imperial Crew...I have all the pieces for that too.

Well, the Bartlett Parade is Sunday and, yes, it is going to prove to be another HOT one. The weather has been beautiful the past while but it figures that it will be miserably hot for the 4th of July weekend. If I have enough money for gas, and I am not "wasted" from the Bartlett Parade, I might try to drive up to Racine WI on Monday to do the Racine 4th of July Parade with the Wisconsin Garrison and WI members of Nar Shaddaa.

June 12, 2011

2011-06-12T16:26:00.004-05:00

Wow...this week was a real character builder! Early in the week the temperatures soared into the 90's and then Thursday morning...the power went out...and we got another 100 year rain. My power went out just before I left for work. I quickly went into the basement, got a few things up off the floor, ran an extension cord from the sump pumps out to the garage where the generator is. I fired up the generator and plugged in the sump pumps. In only that amount of time, water started backing up into the basement before the generator started running the pumps. Since my neighbor is always up, I went next door to ask him if he would just check my generator every couple hours so that it would not run out of gas because I needed to go to work. I got to work and things hadn't hit hard yet but around 9:00 AM the storm hit with a fury. I left work early and all of Oak Lawn was practically under water. It took me an hour and a half to get home - it usually takes about 40 minutes. When I did get home, my neighbor told me that he forgot and let the generator run out of gas. So, thanks to that idiot, my basement flooded big time. The garage also had a couple inches of standing water. Thankfully, at least the rain had stopped by the time I got home and I could start the massive clean up.

The basement got so wet and my old dehumidfier was barely working anymore, so I did end up having to buy a new dehumidifier. I got the biggest one that Lowe's carried. It is amazing how many buckets of water that dehumidifier has pulled out of the basement already.

Friday I left work early to do a wedding in Stormtrooper costume for a donation to Make-A-Wish. The wedding was a Friday afternoon affair...very odd. The couple were very nice and it was kinda weird to do a wedding again in Stormtrooper. I have not done one of those in several years. Due to the fact that the wedding was early on a Friday, only 3 of us were there in costume. The photo on the right shows the groom with me behind him. And the photo above is me on the left, Tom Schaefer in the middle, and Remo on the right. All in all, it was a nice and laid back event.

I got up very early on Saturday morning and got all of my running around done before 7:00 AM. Thank goodness for 24 hour Wal-Mart and Dominick's and also Lowe's that opens at 6:00 AM.

At 7:30 AM I went to the workday at HCB-Schmuhl School. I didn't bring my chainsaw as I am trying not to use is so much anymore....my hands are shot from all those years of sawing. I loaded up some herbicide and went down to the sedge meadow and worked down there for a time and then joined the others where they were working after I got done. When I got home, I did some clean up around the house.

This morning I got up really early again and made three kinds of jam. The stores had some great fruit on sale for really cheap so I had blueberries, strawberries, peaches, blackberries and raspberries. I made peach jam, raspberry-blackberry jam and blueberry-strawberry jam. I think all of them set up pretty good so I will have more stuff to auction off for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer in a couple months. I also bought a pineapple and some mangos as I wanted to make mango/pineapple jam. The pineapple was very ripe, but the mangos...well...not so much. So, I had to cut up the pineapple and freeze it till the mangos are ripe enough to make jam out of...besides that...I am out of jars...AGAIN!

I then mowed the lawn, did some weed control and packed up my butterfly net and went to butterfly monitor. Conditions were pretty miserable again to day and while out, I noticed some wild parsnip in flower...not good. I went home and mixed a batch of herbicide and went back to HCB to spray the parsnip, some teasel and reed canary grass.

By the time I finished all that, it was starting to get late...so I am about to wrap things up for the day.

June 6, 2011

2011-06-06T04:00:00.003-05:00

Things are heating up temperature wise and with some of the first waves of hot weather the garden is doing the "explosion" thing. Seems like everything just explodes out of the ground around this time of the year. I watch the garden slowly make some progress over the course of a month or so and then, seemingly overnight, everything is double the size in a few days. Of course, the weeds also explode out of the ground! I still have a few things to plant and just can't seem to get around to doing it.

I am trying to get in some butterfly monitoring sessions. Sally and I went out last Sunday and I went out again yesterday. I have also been busy at work trying to get some invasives sprayed at Hickory Creek Barrens before it sets seed. I have been out spraying mainly reed canary grass but also encountered a huge area of Canadian thistle that I sprayed yesterday. Between spraying and doing monitoring, I was at HCB for nearly 5 hours yesterday.

I also worked on my part time job on Saturday and spent several hours at the pastor's house. What a mess! I am almost to the point where I can consider putting down the mulch and told the pastor to go get some. I will try to do a little more spraying this week (weather dependant) and then put the mulch down. Then it will be maintenance for the rest of the summer.

Friday night I did a Star Wars event in Plainfield at Eagle Pointe School. It was a small event, but lots of fun. The school was doing a fundraiser by showing "Star Wars-A New Hope" on a screen set up outside of the school. It was a lot of fun but it got REALLY hot out. At one point, I looked down and saw the front of my costume was wet from sweat dripping down from my head. The ride home was really hot as well since my ac in the truck does not work and I was still in most of my costume since I didn't bother to bring a change of clothes. I didn't think it would stay that hot.

I also did a few other things this weeked. One of the things I have always hated about my RFT pants is the gusset at the knees. So I took a seam ripper, opened up both sides of both legs, removed the gusset and had to try to sew it back together. I had to sew them back up in a different manner because of the way the leg seams were sewn on a commercial machine. The pants came out pretty good and hopefully they will fit a little better.

I also made jam VERY early yesterday morning. Fruit was pretty reasonable so I purchased a pineapple, peaches, blueberries and raspberries. Simultaneously I made pineapple jam and blueberry jam and put up a few jars of that fruit separately. I then combined the pineapple and blueberry into one pot and processed them together. Also, I made a few jars of raspberry/peach preserves. I think all of it set ok and I will be selling raffle tickets on the jam at the August or September Master Gardener Pot luck with the $$ going to Making Strides Against Breast Cancer.

It is going to be HOT for the next couple of days, so I will be limiting my activites but I hope to get the last few things planted tonight as rain is predicted almost every day this week.

6-1-11

2011-06-01T03:19:00.006-05:00

I guess summer is officially here! The garden is planted, Memorial Day has passed, and the weather is getting hot.

On 5-21-11 I attended the "Autism Speaks" walk and fundraiser at Soldier Field. My Star Wars costume groups have been asked to do this event the last couple of years, this was the first year that I was able to do this event. It was also the first time I was a the new Soldier Field. I have to say that home of the Chicago Bears looks much bigger on TV. We were asked to get there pretty early and spent the morning taking photos with participants. The weather was good to be in costume as it was on the cool side though was threatening rain all morning.

When I got home I met with the Pastor that lives in the next block who wants to "hire" me as a gardener. I reviewed with her what I think needs to be done as she has left the plantings at her house go to total weeds. I started spraying the next day to get some control of her weeds and start the process of re-claiming her plantings.

I also tried to stop by my old neighbor from Artesian Street's birthday bash. Joe Dudzik turned 60 and his wife threw him a surprise party. To my surprise, I could not find the house. I used Mapquest but due to some known confusion over Valley View Drive and Valley View Trail, I could not actually find his house so I had to go back home.

Sunday, besides working on the Pastor's garden I also went out to butterfly monitor with Sally. We didn't find much again as I guess the cool/wet spring has been hard on the butterflies.

Finally, I got the call that my chipper shredder was fixed so I picked that up on Tuesday and put it back together and it works great again. I had a pile of stuff that needed to be shredded and dispensed with that.

Memorial Day weekend was pretty much a bust. I really didn't have any money to go anywhere so I had planned on spending the weekend finishing the garden, doing chores, and on Sunday I was supposed to have a space at the Mokena Park District's flea markent. There was rain predicted for much of the weekend so Friday night I got the lawn mowed and gathered all of the items I was bringing to the flea market. I was mostly going to sell some Star Wars stuff and mainly books. Saturday morning it was not raining so I got out and trimmed the boxwoods. That was time consuming as they have gotten really big and I tried really hard not to hack them to pieces. I finished more planting and then the rains came. It rained so hard on Saturday that I got a call later in the evening that the flea market was cancelled because the grounds were under water. So, I had to put all the stuff I gathered away again-though I kept it bundled as there will be two other flea markets this summer-so I will try again.

Also on Saturday my flightsuit for my Imperial Gunner costume arrived. It actually fit really good as apposed to the same size X-Wing flightsuit I bought from them that fit horribly. Sunday it rained pretty much of the day so I worked on doing a few adjustments to the flightsuit, finishing the bibb for the costume and re-working one of my neck seals for it also. That took quite a bit of the day. I am almost done with this costume. The bucket is on order and the only thing I need is the gloves.

Monday (Memorial Day) was due to be HOT. So I got out early and did a fitness walk and then went to work on my Malibu lights in the yard. Many of them were burned out or didn't work anymore so I changed some bulbs and replaced some fixtures that I could not get to work. Also, I replaced the entire set of lights out front. The old ones never worked well and I had a set of Malibu lights in the basement for years that I was going to replace the ones out front with....it took years, but I finally got around to it. I went to Lowe's to pick up a few things and bought some uber cheap annuals in the 75% off area and finished my planting.

That was pretty much it...back to work on Tuesday and have my day off today instead.

I have been asked by a number of people to help them with costumes so looks like I will have some adventures in sewing ahead of me.

5-16-2011

2011-05-16T03:59:00.005-05:00

Spring certainly has been reluctant this year. Just last week it hit almost 90 degrees a few days and this morning there is frost in some of the western suburbs. Also, where it didn't actually rain much last week, rain was in the forecast just about every day.

This spring I am concentrating a lot on working at Hickory Creek Barrens doing restoration. My co-steward and I have been getting out as much as possible and as much as the rain will let us. I hope to get out tomorrow with Linda and get some more of the garlic mustard sprayed. Where we had mostly been working on woody invasives, we have to switch gears to garlic mustard as the plant is already flowering and seed formation is next. I did get out for my first butterfly monitoring session this past tuesday but results were really dismal and I wish I had got my net on one butterfly as I think it might have been a new one, but alas, I was so busy just looking at it and running the list of butterflies I have already found at HCB through my memory that by the time I figured out that this was not a butterfly we had recorded at the site it was too late. As I went for my net, the butterfly took off and I could not find it again.

I chainsawed at the huge Comcast workday at Rock Run on the 30th and after that figured it was best to retire from a lot of chainsawing in the future. My hands barely withstood all the sawing at the workday and were in pain for two weeks following.

Yesterday I was at the FPDWC offices for a "New Invaders" class. It was actually the long version of an abbreviated class I did several years back. It was a nice refresher course and a reminder to myself to be ever vigilant and on the watch for new invasive species and try to get a handle on them before they take too much of a hold.

Since I have been putting so much available "good weather" time at HCB, my own garden has fallen behind. I did manage to get some more seed planted last week which was mainly direct seeding of vegetables. The beets, turnips and peas are up and I am sure there is more up now. I haven't checked for a couple days because I have been busy with other things. I dug up last years parsnips that had stayed in the garden all winter. I also bought a few things at the Home Depot garden center. Boy, it does not take long to run up a $75.00 bill! A few vegetable plants, a few flowers, some fertilizer and Round-up and my bill was over $70.00. My tomato plants are getting large and I do hope to get them in the ground soon. I took my vegetable plants in Saturday morning as it has really been windy and cold.

On the costume front, I worked on several different things. I finished (well..as far as I could finish) the ANH-15 soft helmet for Crix's Endor Rebel Soldier, shipped off to WI John Hartley's RFT items, and did some ejection harnesses for someone else in WI. I started to do some research into Han Solo for someone else and started work on my Imperial Gunner. I worked on the bibb for the costume and found that I did not have enough nylon strapping for it, so that was put on the side till I can get to Joanne's. I also made the com pad out of foam. Where I was going to make my own flightsuit, I kinda got lazy and since I had a credit at E-bay, I purchased a Costume Base flightsuit. I know I will have to probably have to tailor it a bit but figured it was worth a shot and I still have a pattern and fabric should I choose to start from scratch.

This past Saturday, I did two Star Wars Library events. One in Lockport starting at 11:00 AM and from there we headed to the Crest Hill Library for an appearance at 3:30.

I had Artoo along, so quite a bit of time is always spent dealing with his needs. It is always worth it though because kids and adults all seem to get a real kick out of Artoo. Another thing about Artoo is that he bridges the gap between "The Clone Wars" cartoon series and the original movies. For young kids, Star Wars is all about "The Clone Wars" and since we don't have a lot of characters from that series yet..it seems to be a good idea to have Artoo.

I broke my chipper shredder last week when I cut down one of the staghorn sumacs outside. The chipper litterally broke in two. I took it partially apart but soon found that fixing it was past my level of comfort so I brought it to J&R's in town. They were not sure they could actually fix it and told me it would be awhile before they could get to it. I hope it can be fixed but understand that the shredder has really been worked to death over the probably 12-15 years I have had it. I know I will have to budget for a new chipper if it can't be fixed as that is probably my #1 tool of choice with a garden as huge as mine.

April 24, 2011

2011-04-24T02:05:00.005-05:00

Happy Easter!

This Easter is likely to be very laid back for me as I stick around the homefront today and work on projects. My sleeping schedule is way off track for this time of year. I have been up since midnight and only grabbed a couple hours of sleep last night (or this morning...not even sure anymore).

Last Saturday, I did the Joliet Library event. The turn out was huge by the public. Estimates are well over 1,500 participants for the day. I brought my R2-D2 along as we made our way to the library to be there when doors opened at 9:00 AM. I set up Artoo in the Children's Library and went to suit up. This time I wore the Hoth Trooper as it was a decently cool day. The Library had a professional photographer on hand to take photos of us against a green screen to be used in posters throughout the library for their "Read" campaign. One of the photos taken of each of us was with a book that we brought along. Hopefully I didn't look hideous in my "Read" photo. I have not seen the completed poster yet. We wrapped up at 3:00 PM and I had quite a bit of stuff to bring home. In addition to my costume pieces and Artoo, I had all of the stuff that I put in the display cases at the library last month. The Jeep was full!

I have also been trying to get out to my restoration site as much as possible (weather permitting) the last couple of weeks. With the burns that were conducted on the site, it has made working out there much easier, so my co-steward and I are trying to take full advantage of the current working conditions. Yesterday, since there was no previously scheduled workdays, I had a "spur of the moment" workday. The turn-out was small, but that was ok as it made the workday less hectic. We worked on a last span of invasives that was begun on another workday and the area looks great now. After break at 10:00 AM we moved on to a project that has been nagging me for a long time. In one of the upland forest areas of Hickory Creek Barrens was a downed shed. It may have been occupied by a "squatter" many years ago. Those downed shed walls have been laying in that area of the forest for as long as I have been steward at the site. With the help of the volunteers that came out yesterday, we finally hauled all of those pieces of wall out of the woods and up to the trail for the Operations Department to pick up.

It has been raining here a LOT. When I got home from work on Friday, my yard was underwater yet again. The weather has been all over the place this spring. Many, many still very cool days and LOTS of rain. I have been trying to get some of the cool season vegetables into the garden (both plants and seed) but that endeavor has been complicated by all the rain. Since it was sunny and dry yesterday when I got home from the workday, I did manage to get beet, snap pea and snow pea seeds planted and also got my onion plants set out. I started the onion seed back in January and they were ready to get out into the garden.

Well, I guess I should try to get some sleep before heading to Easter morning Mass. It appears to have rained a bit again overnight so working on the garden further today will probably not happen so I will work on some costume projects that I have scattered around.

4-17-11

2011-04-17T08:53:00.005-05:00

Wow...I keep saying that things have been busy...but they just keep getting busier...sometimes I am not sure how that is possible. Last Saturday I did a workday at the other end of my site at Hickory Creek Barrens. We had a decent number of people show up...it was drizzling a little when we started out but the weather straightened out. Chainsaw in hand I dispatched a lot of invasives at the woodland edge while others worked a little more in the interior. As we were just finishing up the 4 hour workday, a group working on the interior found a most welcome sight. They found a large stand of virgin and native American Hazlenut. Bingo! This is what restoring the Barrens is about!

Straight from the workday I packed up my stuff and went to the Earth Day program at the Frankfort Square Park District. I gave a talk on gardening for butterflies. There were not a lot of people in the audience...but there were enough and several that asked questions which is always a good thing.

The next day (Sunday) we were supposed to get a major heat wave day (near 90 degrees) with possible heavy storms coming through in the evening. With that in mind, I decided to tackle the last of the major purging projects...the garage. I wanted to dig out my generator since storms were possible and get the generator out where it would be easy to fire it up. Well, one thing led to another and I got much of the garage cleaned up and had to work on the generator a bit to get it running. I spent all day that project and when I got home from work on Monday I finished up by hauling a bunch of junk to the curb for pick up. I also decided that since I can barely afford gas in my Jeep these days that finding money to run my GTO (after getting it running again that is) will be pretty much impossible. The tires were starting to go flat so I jacked up the GTO and put it up on jackstands...a sad day.

Tuesday Linda and I went out to the Barrens to get some more work done. We went back to the "Clone" and I was blown away by the look of it since that area got burned a couple weeks ago. All of the stumps looked like blackened tombstones and further back into the clone there was a lot of trees snapping off at the points where they were girdled by us. In a few more years, that area is going to look unbelievable. Wednesday I went out again by myself with 2 gallons of herbicide to start spraying the reed canary grass back at the clone.

Yesterday we had a Star Wars event at the Joliet Public Library. WOW...there were a lot of people that came by and the Library went all out to produce and run games. I brought my Artoo along and he lasted the entire 5 hours with his batteries. You could still hear him "talking" and blinking at the end of the day. The Library also had a professional photographer take photos of us in front of a green screen with us reading a book that we brought. The photos are then going to be photoshopped into posters around the library that encourage kids to read.

Today I am headed out to the Barrens again. It will be a chainsaw day as Linda and I are going to tackle some slightly larger sized invasives. I don't know how many hours my back will hold up to the sawing as I am pretty tired today.

April 3, 2011

2011-04-03T03:43:00.006-05:00

As usual, the last two weeks have been very busy. Last Saturday I spent most of the morning volunteering for the U of I Extension's Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser. I volunteered for a bunch of morning duties of loading and hauling all sorts of supplies, decorations, and silent auction items from the Unit Office to Lincolnway West. Then helped with set up and a little work in the kitchen. I had donated a bunch of items for the raffle and silent auction and was happy that the items I donated made some money.

On Tuesday, Linda and I went out to Hickory Creek Barrens to work on an area of very large invasive honeysuckle. This stuff was chainsaw sized and mixed with endless masses of grapevine and even downed tree...so it was particularly challenging to cut and herbicide.

Yesterday I helped Don and Espie burn Lilly Cache. Really a pretty good fire. The backing fires and flanking fire took quite a bit of time as early in the am, the moisture levels were still pretty high. But, as the morning wore on, things dried out a bit and the head fire really took off.

Today, well, not so sure what the weather is going to do. If the rain looks like it will hold off then Linda and I need to get to HCB to put up some new eastern bluebird boxes to replace ones that are falling apart.

Also, I have a Rebel Fleet Trooper helmet to start on and an Endor commando capped sleeve vest to finish.

I am pretty close to finishing the vest, but one of the hard parts is coming up and oddly..that is the hem. Usually the hem is a piece of cake, but with the pattern for this vest has always been problematic as it was a homemade pattern from someone else and the scale is off on some of the pieces so I am really going to have to check the piece to make sure that the hem is even because the pattern pieces don't line up properly.

March 20, 2011

2011-03-20T04:37:00.005-05:00

Yesterday was C2E2 - a big comic con and expo down at McCormick place. I was running around the house in the morning and gathering up the things I needed to bring...and...in my haste (with bare feet) slammed my foot into the storage locker in the middle of the front room. It hurt..but I thought it would be ok. As I made it down to the con...that foot started to hurt more and more. When I finally got home last night and took off my Endor boot...yes...the one toe is probably broken...it is swollen, red and no longer pointing in the right direction...lol..

But...no sense going to a doctor..they can't do much with broken toes anyway.

The Con was interesting. I received a really nice rememberance from CV from my fellow Rebels for helping them with their costumes. I have proudly hung it up in the living room. I may hate to sew..but LOVE to help others achieve their costume aspirations and mostly to have them ENJOY wearing them. I have had so much fun over the years with Star Wars costuming and want to share my good fortune.

I got a chance to see all of my fellow Nar Shaddaa Base-mates. I don't get a chance to see our folks from Wisconsin nearly enough. But, in reality, cons are not a great place to be able to have time to "schmooze" as the folks from the Outer Rim of Chicago also want to make sure that they get to see everything at the Con while they are there...things at the booth always get crazy and one does not always have the time for casual conversation.

Anyway...I do enjoy getting out and seeing everyone...that is the best part of all of this stuff.

March 13, 2011

2011-03-13T12:48:00.006-05:00

Spring has sprung! Well, let me back up on that a bit and say Spring might have sprung.

Yesterday was certainly NOT spring-like as the Star Wars groups participated in the Naperville St. Patrick's Day Parade. The sky was overcast, the temps in the high 30's...maybe low 40's...but the winds were gusting to 40 mph....so it seemed like winter was still hanging in. I drove my Jeep (decorated in its Rebel flags) so I didn't have it so bad for the parade, but I sure felt sorry for those who were walking. Many were prepared with lots of layers, but winds of that velocity just seem to cut through everything.

This morning I spent a few hours with my co-steward at my restoration site. We did some removal of honeysuckle and did some scouting in areas we concentrated on last year. I was happy to see that the garlic mustard is at a minium in much of the area we scouted.

When I got home, I unloaded the prairie stuff and took a look at my yard...

low and behold...

the first sign of spring....

the snowdrops are blooming!

Snowdrops are the first thing to bloom and that is always a welcome sight to see....BUT...

it also means that spring yard work looms ahead...and there is always lots of that. The yard is a mess from downed branches, melting of all that snow, flooding from recent rains...the usual.

I do plan on gardening with herbicide this spring and will be "nuking" some of the garden that is out of control. I need to scale back a bit on all of that yard work. Can't wait to see if the cherry tree I planted in the fall blooms and also will be thinking of putting in the water feature soon.

I have several indoor projects that I hope to finish this week. I am doing some painting of images on to wood discs for a new target shoot game being made for cons and other Star Wars events. I am also working on a couple of Rebel Fleet Trooper shirts and NEED to get them done in the next couple of days.

I also have to go for my annual chainsaw safety training this Wednesday. What a pain to sit through that each year and hear how in the blink of an eye I will cut off an appendage....lol...

March 1, 2011

2011-03-01T08:15:00.006-06:00

Wow....March already. It still seems like winter outside though.

I got so much done between last night and this morning that the rest of the day will be a breeze.

Between last night and this morning I got the basement cleaned out pretty darn good. A lot of stuff went to the curb to be picked up by the garbagemen this morning and I actually cleaned the 50 billion cobwebs in the basement. My basement is one of those that people are usually afraid to go down into...dark, dank, and pretty darn crummy. My basement floods from time to time so nothing good can be put down there and what is down there is usually put up. Things have gotten a bit messy down there, so I got rid of a lot of junk and am recycling more. Vacuumed the floor and the cobwebs with the shop vac and it looks MUCH better down there...and ready for the next flood....lol.

Also, I got my items ready for the Extension fundraiser and someone will be by today to pick up the items pictured on the right. Everything was made by me...homemade jams, needlework, terrarium and the flower arrangement (using an old vase that I was going to recycle anyway). Even if the items don't make a lot of money..it will still be a few dollars more than our Extension Office had before.

Also, something arrived yesterday that I have waited nearly 10 years for....a volunteer jacket from the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. I attended the Olympics in Salt Lake because my sister lives just outside of the host city and I saw all those volunteers in their neato jackets and always wanted one to remember my Olympic experience. After the games were over, there were many jackets up on E-bay but all were too expensive. I got my jacket (with e-bay credits from the things I sold) for only $40.00. It is a men's medium and I do wish it was a large instead...it fits...but not as baggy as I would like it too. But...I have my jacket....shown on the left...I will wear it proudly!

I also finally made a doctor appointment in April...yeah...getting old and need to start think of my operating systems...lol. I rarely go to the doctor and I have no clue about my blood sugar or my cholesterol levels...also waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay overdo on a mammogram. I have been feeling really crappy all winter and have gone from one cold to another so I guess it is time to look at trying to feel better.

Well, it is actually looking like it will be a fairly nice day...so will be taking a looooong fitness walk today!

February 27, 2011

2011-02-27T04:31:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was a good day. I am still on my quest for information on my Great Grandfather and finally made my trip to the Kankakee Library where they have a really complete genealogy department.

I asked my friend Caroll (who LOVES libraries) if she wanted to come along. Caroll will be moving back to Seattle soon, so I thought it would be a nice opportunity to spend some time with her before she moves away again. I usually would have done a prairie restoration workday yesterday but hey, I have done hundreds of those. Either way, I would be committing gasoline dollars to a drive.

Kankakee Library has the complete set of 64 or so volumes of "Germans to America". This series of books documents millions of German immigrants, what port they left from, what ship they took, what port it arrived at and when it arrived. This was to be my last ditch effort to try to find a little more information on my great grandfather. I knew approximately when he arrived so I scanned through the many books prior to when I know that he filed his papers for intenet for citizenship in St. Louis in 1893. Sadly, I could not find him referenced in any of the books. I am starting to believe he dropped from the sky.

Caroll and I also hit a small mall in Kanakee...more for her sake than mine....I am on a strict "no buy" policy! We then hit the Mokena Library on the way home and she picked out a $1.00 book for me on sugar in your diet called "The Sugar Solution". Since Caroll was recently diagnosed with diabetes, she has read and researched much on the subject and said that the book "The Sugar Solution" was an outstanding reference book on the whole subject. Since diabetes runs in my family and my dad was my age when he collapsed and found that he was diabetic, I figured I better start paying more attention to the hidden sugars in my diet.

I also dragged Caroll into the digital age and convinced her to purchase an inexpensive Vivitar digital camera as opposed to the disposible camera she was going to buy. I showed her how to use it and how to extract photos.

That pretty much ate up my entire day.

Today it is onward and upward to my purging project. I am going to tackle some containers in the basement and go through my Star Wars costume bins with extra fabric and costume pieces. I want to start getting rid of the excesses as I really don't plan on making more costumes...I think that 17 costumes is really enough....lol...

January 21, 2011

2011-02-21T05:19:00.002-06:00

Well, last week was another back breaker for my financial situation. In one 24 hour period I had to shell out over $1,000.00 - almost $700.00 to fix the Jeep and over $300.00 for yet another sump pump....sigh...

I did finish up part of the massive project of scanning my slides. I finished the family and friends stuff and then went through the 10 boxes of my car club and car show days. I am taking some time off of doing that before I takle the 19 boxes of my old vacation slides....that will be a mind-numbing task!

I started work on cleaning the basement for a bit this weekend. The basement and the garage are two areas that I really dread. I was able to get rid of a couple of gallons of left over paint from a previous house painting project, I put them up on Freecycle and was amazed at the response I got for those. I will be bringing some of my potting stuff from the basement to the MG Pot luck tomorrow...I have way more than I need!

I also completed a workday on Saturday with the Forest Preserve District. The last two got cancelled because of the deep snow and with the thaw this past week, it was amazing that there was little snow on the ground and that the ground was not a soggy mess.

Well...wonder what this week will bring?

2-6-11

2011-02-06T04:48:00.004-06:00

Wow...lots has happened since my last entry. Blizzards, crazy e-bay auctions, and a few events for the Master Gardeners and for my Star Wars hobby.

First up, the crazy auctions. I had decided to put up a whole bunch of stuff for auction on e-bay and started all of the auctions off at 99 cents. I really didn't care if the stuff sold for big bucks...I just wanted to get the stuff out of the house and have it NOT end up in a landfill. To make a long story short, a collection of old car magazines sold for the most incredible amount of money I could possibly imagine. What I put up for sale for 99 cents as the starting bid sold for $479.00! I also sold a few other things for much less, but in a way, I am surprised they sold at all. I have been getting rid of boxes full of things from the house and have been creative as possible in finding new "homes" for as much of it as I can.

Next, I did an event with my Star Wars group at Legoland Discovery Center. I really haven't done much in the way of events. My last costuming outing was to Toy Con in the beginning of December. It was fun to get out again, but I do have to admit that since I have done so many events over the past 10 years, I am not nearly as giddy about them as I used to be. Also, the cost of gasoline just to get to and from events that are a distance takes away from the enjoyment somewhat. I seem to ask myself if fueling the Jeep and driving greater distances is really "worth it".

Next came the blizzard of 2011. I planned in advance to swap my usual Tuesday off for Wednesday. The blizzard was due to roll into town late on Tuesday into Wednesday so I worked on Tuesday and got home just before things started to get bad. The storm hit with a vengeance and I spent Wednesday shoveling...and am still shoveling. My driveway is so long with the garage set back so far. I first just shoveled the driveway from about the middle of the house to the street so I could get the Jeep out and am slowly shoveling out the rest of the driveway and patio so that I can access the garage and use the back door. Right now I have the garbage and recycling totes in the kitchen because I knew that I would not be able to get them back into the garage for a while...and I seem to be using the totes quite a bit with the on going purging. Since most of the area was still digging out, work was very slow on Thursday so I decided to take a vacation day on Friday to continue digging out myself and to continue work on all these home projects. Sad to take a vacation day and spend it doing stuff I didn't enjoy, but it has been so long since I took an actual vacation day from work without the threat of unmanageable piles of work waiting for me when I got back that...well...as usual...I "settled".

Our restoration workday that was scheduled for yesterday got cancelled...go figure...because of the blizzard also. You can't cut and herbicide what you can't find! I went to Midewin yesterday instead in my capacity as "Master Naturalist" to assist in a 4-H program on the national bird count.

I also started the huge task of scanning over 7,000 slides (transparencies) into digital format...where this will certainly be mind numbing project, the first tray of slides is almost done and it didn't take as long as I expected...one tray down....about 50 more to go.

Today I am working on that slide project and more shoveling. Blah...

January 24, 2011

2011-01-24T17:26:00.006-06:00

"Frozen Butts 2011 is in the history books and a good time was had by all. We went back and worked at the locust clone and tried to steer clear of all of the standing dead which was pretty tough because there is a LOT of standing dead that we girdled in previous workdays.

The day started out incredibly cold at about -4 degrees with the wind chill, but I had on so many layers that I really never felt cold and most everyone agreed that it sure could have been worse.

I continued purging the house this weekend....god...what a pain...and I haven't even gotten to some of the biggest challenges of the basement, garage, photos and Star Wars room. I really dread those areas. But, I have done many of the other storage areas and closets and have gotten rid of probably half of what was here. A lot got recyled and shredded and I have given away goo-gobs of stuff. I am heading to the Master Gardener office tomorrow and have several boxes of things going there. I gave away a bunch of books to the "Usual Suspects" and I actually made some money on E-bay selling a couple Mopar things I had been given over the years at work.

I also have an e-bay auction going on some of my old 35 mm SLR stuff...and have some other things to put on e-bay. I hate doing auctions...so I will do them one at a time.

It never ceases to amaze me when I watch these home improvement/home selling shows and people buy huge houses and always talk about storage, storage, storage. Huge houses and also the proliferation of all of these storage places where you can put all your overage. Maybe folks need less things instead of more storage. I really never thought that I had a lot of junk...I think I changed my mind....lol.

One more thing I have to do tonight is a quick going over my clothes closet for items for the Morning Star Mission resale shop. I don't have much in the way of clothes...so I don't think I will find much....and so much of my clothes is so beat up that I don't think I could possibly give it away. It will have to go to the garbage. :)

January 19, 2011

2011-01-19T03:53:00.002-06:00

The purge continues! I finished the closet by the front door and went on to my filing cabinet and to the bottom shelf of another cabinet. I say "bottom shelf" because that was all I could finish before being overwhelmed with stuff to toss and to shred....mainly the incredible pile of stuff to shred. Generally, I never use my garbage tote to put out the weekly trash because I usually only have one tiny bag. Even my recycling tote only goes out once a month....but yesterday both totes were at the curb and they were full! I had to wait to do more purging until the garbage men came and I could start out with empty totes again.

The filing cabinet and the cabinet I am currently working on purging are two of the most dreaded areas but are coming along surprisingly well. I am getting rid of like over 50% of what was in these two areas. The MOST dreaded of all will be the Star Wars room, the garage and the basement. I plan to do the garage when the weather warms up.

I am also trying to find homes for some things and have met with some successes. I had a collection of old Illinois Chapter of POCI Newsletters (of which I am one of the original members) and asked the current secretary if she wanted them....she said that she would love to have them because most of the current members were not around at the start of the club so the early years are missing....not anymore.

I have a few things up on e-bay too....they are not doing well....but that is ok. I am not trying to make money on the stuff...just find homes for it rather than toss the items in the garbage.

I also picked up a new printer/scanner yesterday. I bought a HP on Sunday that I could not get to work so I had to go back and return it and this time I picked up a Kodak...let's see how that works out. One thing that will be interesting to see is the software that comes with the printer/scanner that is supposed to renew the color of old photos. When going through the one cabinet yesterday, I found a pile of photos from another of my old car clubs - Street Machines Unlimited. Some of those photos have really lost their original color. I think that medium blues seem to lose color the most.

Anyway...I will have to put purging to the side for a few days to get ready for the 17th Annual Frozen Butts workday...it is supposed to be VERY cold on Saturday...should be a real character builder.

January 17, 2011

2011-01-17T05:37:00.002-06:00

I finished up the kitchen project yesterday, it looks so much better that I can't believe it.

My friend Caroll and I also did some looking on-line to see if my grandmother's pottery was worth anything..sadly it is not.

I purged more items yesterday and tonight I tackle the front closet before the garbage pick up tomorrow morning. I know there is stuff in that closet that will hit the garbage.

Also, one of the last things I plan on tackling and it will be a long term project is all of my slides, photo albums etc. The last time I looked into digitizing all of my slides, the cost was through the roof. Like all things it the world of digital, costs have come way down on equipment and I found a machine on-line that will allow me to digitize all of my slides myself. Where I will save thousands of dollars, I will be spending a lot of time on this project. I did purge hundreds of slides years ago, but I think when I go to digitize them that more will be thrown away and I will save only the best. I also plan on trying to scan all the family photos...this too will be very time consuming....very!

This coming Saturday is the annual "Frozen Butts" workday, so a lot of this week's focus will be getting ready for that too.

January 16, 2011

2011-01-16T05:05:00.005-06:00

About 6 years ago I painted my kitchen. I tried to really do a good job and went through all the steps. Taking down cabinents, removing hardware, spackling, using TPS before...etc. I went to Home Depot and poured over all of the color choices and found a combination of colors in one of Behr paint's kitchen suggested combos...it looked great in the photo...so I finally deviated from having a mostly all white house and added color.

The photo above was the result..it turned out like a bad acid trip from the late 60's and was hideous...I hated it but tried to learn to like it.

6 years later...I still hated it and it was time to go...

it went...

on the right is what it looks like now.....still have a few things to finish. The kitchen re-do is part of my year long rennisance that I hope to continue with the same fervor I have started with. I have already packed up and gave away a lot of boxes of "stuff" and the purge will continue till I have hit every nook and cranny and looked at everything I own.

There are several other rooms that will receive paint too....next will be the bathroom.

My friend Caroll helped me finish up yesterday and I will be sending her home with a box of stuff too. She also is good with antiques and I have asked her to help me research a few items that I want to sell that were my Grandmothers. It is hard to part with things like that....but one does not have to keep EVERYTHING...I will select a few pieces and the others will be sold on E-Bay.

I am off to a pretty good start!

January 14, 2011

2011-01-14T05:21:00.004-06:00

Well, it has been awhile. I have not updated my blog in a very long time. I am determined to do better this year as I enter a "new phase" in my life....that of someone about to be 60 years old.

Hard to imagine that I will hit the big 60 this year and hard to face the fact that my "days are numbered" and that in all likelyhood....I have already experienced the best years.

This year I plan to embark on getting my "house" in order....both literally and figuratively.

I started the year by re-painting the ghastly nightmare paint job in my kitchen that went so horribly wrong years back. I am about 50% done and it looks 100% better already!

While starting to do the kitchen, I also started to purge, purge, purge. I don't have a lot of "stuff" to begin with. When you walk into my front door...the room echos because there simply is not much in there....but I am still purging a lot of what little I have.

I already gave away via "Freecycle" three boxes of stuff and also removed that "glider" exerciser from the basement and found a home for that. I plan to continue to go through every cupboard and closet over the next few weeks and get rid of a LOT of stuff.

I also plan to go through my pathetic wardrobe. So much of what I have is just plain tired....worn out...out dated. Why do we keep stuff around that we don't use? This past summer I gave 3 huge bags of decent clothing to a local charity re-sale shop. Mostly what I have left I either wear or the clothes is too pathetic to give away.

Eventually, when the economy improves, I plan to sell off some of my extensive Star Wars collection.

After I get the kitchen painted, I also plan to move on to a few other rooms...the bathroom REALLY needs re-painting.

Also I plan to re-vamp a lot of the garden this year to try to cut down on the maintenance of it.

And lastly, try to figure out a way to stretch what income I have as far as it can go. I am in terrible need of a vacation....I have not had more than one day off of work at a time for over 2 years....I am exhausted.

This fall I will be headed to my godchild Meryl's wedding in southern Utah...so I do have that to look forward to.

2-9-2010

2010-02-09T10:01:00.011-06:00

Well, the last week has been dominated by the fact that I am sick and just have been finding it very difficult to work, concentrate and get anything done. I really hate being sick and sometimes it worries me that I will completely sink into nothingness if I encountered a really bad disease. I have been lucky for a very long time that I am reasonably healthy and where I have days of feeling lousy, or aches and pains, for the most part I still feel like I can make my way through the day and accomplish something. However, the last week I have barely made it through work and all I want to do when home is sleep...which proves difficult because of all of the congestion and coughing...I feel constantly worn out
Well, thank goodness I was feeling ok for the 16th Annual "Frozen Butts" workday that was held on 1-23-10. As you can see by the photo above of workday participants, we had a lot of people show up. Rain had threatened the day but thankfully held off so that we could get the workday in and head over to the Environmental Learning Center for the pot luck afterward. We did have a record number of participants this year and we got a lot of work done. Many more locusts in the clone will be standing dead after the winter season two workdays spent at the clone. I am looking ever forward to being able to stamp this project done....but I think that is still a few years away.

On January 31, 2010 a few of us went down to the old neighborhood of 2121 W. 21st Street in Chicago to look for fabric at the huge wharehouse fabric store that can be found there. I went in with the usual hopes....but also was prepared for not finding what I was looking for...not finding won. But those of us who went still had a good time and going to that fabric store is always the equivalent of a scavenger hunt of the highest degree.

One of the projects I did finish was Crix's Jedi costume. It had to be tweaked in a few areas, but overall, I guess it came out pretty good. I did start a sleeveless Jedi tunic...but as usual...made a couple mistakes as in using the worst possible fabric and not adjusting the arm hole of the outer tunic to be smaller. So....I will have to start that project over again....lol...typical...I always forget something.

I think Crix likes it. I have had quite a number of people ask me about sewing costumes for them. It is difficult to say no....but truth of the matter is I hate sewing and my time is limited....so I will take on a few and help them but with spring on the horizon and the start up of work to do outside as well as a whole bunch of projects and costume opportunities coming up...I just don't see me having any time.

I also just applied today for the Master Naturalist program. If I indeed get accepted...there goes my Tuesdays for a couple of months.

The R2 project is on hold for a while too. He is done for the most part, stands straight and is as stable as I can make him for now. I have moved him from the direct sunlight in the front room as I have seen that yellowing thing on some plastics and I don't know about the sintra.

1-17-2010

2010-01-17T03:16:00.004-06:00

Happy New Year? The new year looks suspiciously like the old year but lets hope for greater things in 2010 - of course 2009 was so lousy that it would not take much to make an improvement. This time of year is usually pretty laid back. Christmas is over, we don't have too many trooping opportunities and the early part of the month usually has no workdays. Things do start to really heat up from here though.

This coming Saturday is the "Frozen Butts" workday and that usually is the start of the year's restoration activities. We have LOTS of workdays in the months of February and March. I also have quite a number of Star Wars trooping events starting to fill my calendar for the upcoming summer months and many of them look to be a lot of fun.

One of the projects I can cross off my list is my X-Wing Pilot costume. I finished this costume in pretty good time. I started on it in September and it is now done. I had some of my Star Wars friends over last Saturday for a little get together and a "challenge". The challenge was made by the Rebel Legion and was to have a person in Pilot costume and others not in costume watching the pilot briefing scene from "A New Hope" and take/post a photo. Steve, Crix, and Jim came over and we took the photos for the challenge.

It was also a good time to get my official photos taken of my new Pilot costume. After the photos we watched "Saving Star Wars". None of the guys had seen the movie so we popped that in the DVD and there was quite a bit of laughing so I think they enjoyed it.

Speaking of movies, I have been trying to get to the movies as much as possible. In the past weeks I have seen "Avatar"-which was AWESOME-I want to go see it again. I also went to see "Sherlock Holmes" and "Leap Year" - both of which were very enjoyable. I usually get to the movies a lot this time of year also as there is no yard work to be done so I have time.

I also worked the past couple weeks on Jedi costumes for Crix and his son Luke. I am just about finished with both costumes. I made each of them an outer tunic, tabards, obi and cheater undertunic. The last things I need to do at this point is to make Luke a belt and Crix "cheater sleeves". I am making myself a "cheater undertunic and cheater sleeves" while I am at it. I have always wanted the cheater sleeves for really hot weather so that is something I am glad to finally get to!

12-24-2009

2009-12-24T07:37:00.003-06:00

Christmas Eve.....
I am not much of a Christmas person anymore. Since Mom and Dad are both gone, Stef is in Utah and Jim has other obligations, Christmas and Christmas Eve really have little meaning for me. I still search for meaning...but I can't seem to find any.

At any rate, the last weeks have been busy as usual and the winter weather is starting to get on my nerves already. At least one thing is clear and that is the days will be getting longer from here on in.....a big YAH to that.

Dec. 6th was a truly busy day in the Star Wars universe. In the morning I donned my "Hoth Trench Trooper" costume and made my way to Toy Con. Toy Con is an annual affair with my SW group and is a charitable event that we have done the past 6 years that benefits Children's Treasure Chest for Pediatric Oncology. This event marked the first time I ventured out with my newly completed Trench Trooper backpack for my costume. It was annoying and hard to get used to...I kept bumping into things but the pack held up through the Toy Con outing.

The photo on the left is of me in my costume and a couple of my favorite Snowtroopers that was taken at Toy Con. The most fun of wearing this costume is most definitely goofing off with the Snowtroopers!

I had to leave Toy Con early because I had a ticket to see "Star Wars In Concert" at the United Center. I had purchased a ticket to the 1:00 PM performance and was scheduled to volunteer in costume for the 6:00 PM performance. Since I decided to wear the Hoth Trench Trooper to both Toy Con and to the United Center, I just left most of the costume on to actually watch the show. Talk about feeling like a real geek....lol. The people sitting around me up in the nosebleed section at the United Center took me and my costume in stride though. Heck, we are Star Wars fans and used to just about anything.

On the right is a photo of me and some of the other Rebels taken at the 6:00 PM performance when we were "out and about" on the first level of the United Center and taking photos with people coming to see the show. The guy in the photo with us is "Rebel Doughboy" one of our Rebel Legion/MWG forum members and soon to be full member as soon as he turns 18. I saw soooooo many people at the performance that I have met in Star Wars circles over the years...kinda like a homecoming.

Monday night was the annual celebration of the Winter Solstice at Bartel Grasslands. I went to the celebration around 5:30 PM and hung around the bonfire with some of the Forest Preserve volunteers. There is something so "basic" about hanging around a campfire...very primeval.
Anyway...
Merry Chirstmas....from me and R2 - that is about all of the Christmas joy I can muster up.

12-4-09

2009-12-04T04:29:00.003-06:00

It has been a whirlwind lately. I guess for now I will start out with my bitter disappointment that the next Star Wars Celebration will be in Orlando Florida in August 2010. I was so hopeful that it would maybe be in Rosemont or perhaps back to Indianapolis. I could afford either one of those two places....but not Orlando. Yet another bitter disappointment and another blow to my current level of depression.

Well, one thing I did do was to finish up my R2 D2 to the point where all he needs is to stabilize his new stance. Man, I worked day an night on this project and just wanted to finish. R2 has been in pieces since January of this year. There were a few pieces that I really didn't think I could actually re-make. The photo on the right was just as I finished his left leg. I have both legs done now and everything is back on. I hope to have Crix over next weekend to stabilize the legs in their current position. R2 still has a tendency to kick out his legs when you try to move him. That could be a disaster! It will be a lot easier to accomplish the stabilization with an extra set of hands to hold things in position.

I held the "Work Off the Turkey" workday at my site last Saturday and we got a lot more done. It turned out to be a beautiful day for late November. Sunday was pleasant weather also but I had the Chirstmas tree to put up and Stef paid me a visit.

On Tuesday I got the call in the early morning that the FPDWC was burning part of my prairie restoration site so I grabbed my Nomex and headed out. The burn was incomplete because there is still a lot of Kentucky Bluegrass in with the native stuff and things were damp. I did spend several hours in the woods burning brush piles from previous workdays.

Tomorrow I have another workday and Sunday is the big "Star Wars in Concert" event at the United Center....part of me is looking forward to it...part of me is not. I will be at Toy Con for a few hours in the morning..then I have a ticket to the show...and then I will be volunteering in costume for the later show. I swapped my weekly day off next week so that I will be off Monday and will be at work on Tuesday...

11-18-09

2009-11-19T17:10:00.003-06:00

Wow....next week is Thanksgiving. Stef will be coming home on Thanksgiving day and I will probably head to Joan's house for Turkey Day. As usual, it will be a shorter day for me because I am the only one in the family who has to work the day after Thanksgiving and with the end of the month coming on the Monday following, I have no chance of taking a vacation day to be off.

I have been busy trying to finish up nagging projects, as always. I am really proud that I finally have finished the last project of the Hoth costumes - the backpack. As the photo on the left shows, I have gotten the pack to be wearable. I plan to wear this very hot costume to the "Star Wars In Concert" event simply because it will be a chance to have one of each of all of the "fighting Rebel" costumes on display all at once...that has never been done as I am only one of two Hoth Trench Troopers in the continental US.

This past Saturday I did an event at the Glen Ellyn Public Library. It was a "Star Wars" Spectacular and I brought along all of the "Star Wars" games in my bag of tricks. It was nuts!
The room we were in was fairly large but it was packed to capacity. I was in the one corner with the "Lightsaber Training" game and had a non stop line for almost two hours. Even without the full Jedi undertunic on it was a sweat-fest in my corner. Where it is always fun to get together with everyone, crowds like we had can be stressful.

On Sunday, I finished up a project that I have been working on for over a month. The 3 X-Wing Pilots in the photo on the right were part of that project. I completely re-did my flightsuit and made modifications to all 3 of the flak vests. Added extra pockets to all 3 flightsuits, made 3 belts with mini-flares, 3 ejection harnesses and 4 leg flare holders. I think everything came out pretty good.

While I was sewing on Crix's flightsuit (Crix is the Pilot on the right in the photo) he was working on straightening out my R2's legs. Thanks to Crix, my R2 is back standing straight! Now the rest is up to me. I still have to stabilize R2's legs as they tend to "kick out" when you roll him. Crix gave me some ideas on how to do that and I bought the necessary items but first I have decided to fix up some of the things I had to tear apart when I put the 3rd leg on. I just want to see R2 looking like his old self again.

I was going to go down to Navy Pier on Saturday for another Star Wars event, but the truth is I really don't have the time nor the money to do so. I can't afford to spend the entire day down there as I am so far behind on everything at home. If I go just for a few hours in the morning, I could not afford the gas and parking to go down there alone and I would not want to ask anyone to leave early if I car pooled. Oh well, there will be other days and other events.

11-5-09

2009-11-05T05:07:00.002-06:00

The roof is finally done and I now have the bill too...lol...$7,520.00! The green roofs look really nice and where they will generate extra heat in the house in summer...they will also collect heat during the winter. Around here, the furnace is on a lot more than the air conditioner, so I hope I made the right color choice. I figure that spending that kind of money I wanted to see a difference so I didn't want to put another white roof on again.

For sure, between the house and the Jeep I have been driven to the poor farm. At least I feel over the years I have been smart in as much as I followed my parents lead of always saving money for a rainy day...and this year it has poured on me.

I keep thinking that "next year will be better" but somehow....they seem to get worse.

Tonight I am meeting my siblings to "celebrate" (and I use the term loosely) sister Joan's 50th Birthday. Boy, we are sure all getting old. It is hard to imagine that yet another sibling is over 50 years old.

Saturday I will be heading out to Goodenow Grove for the annual "Mike Deardorff Memorial Workday". We have been working on that area near Plum Creek Nature Center for a number of years now. When you only get there once a year, progress is slow.

10-23-09

2009-10-23T06:18:00.002-05:00

I feel hopelessly depressed today..
I guess the only thing good about today is that it is Friday...

The roofers didn't come out yesterday to finish the roof on the garage and there are also a few pieces missing on the house...but at least for the most part the house is done.

Tomorrow I will be chainsawing at Joliet Junior College...though I don't know what the weather is going to do. Sunday will be busy as I have a meeting at work on Sunday morning...then straight to Lionel and Emmas for the "armor party"....somehow...
I don't feel like partying....

10-20-09

2009-10-21T16:55:00.006-05:00

Yah! Finally...the new roof is underway. The roofers were here today and got the house mostly done. I was amazed to find that the heating guy was out today also to replace the old battered brick chimney with just a pipe and cap. The old chimney was falling apart and to fix that with brick again would be over $1,300.00. The metal pipe was a LOT cheaper...though I still don't know the price but it was supposed to be between $400.00 and $700.00. The garage roof will be done tomorrow...weather permitting.

It has been another nutty few days of doing Star Wars events. Sunday was the "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer" walk. Our team did manage to pull off quite a fundraising effort this year and we went over $4,000.00....which is amazing. It was pretty cold in the morning when I got there but then again the sun was not even up yet. With all of the work needed with the memorial armbands and running around, I was warmed up in no time. Sister Laura and brother Jim showed up to do the walk also. I had brought my Stormtrooper armor for Laura to wear. It was weird to see her in it and I hope she enjoyed herself. I don't think she had too much trouble with the thigh pieces causing Trooper tracks..at least I hope not.

I got all of the memorial armbands packaged up and mailed off between Sunday afternoon to Tuesday. I know they are just pieces of cloth, but to me they represent much more than that. I am just glad that how little it might be that I have done something that Mom as a victim of breast cancer would have been proud of.

Then Monday I brought my Armor with me to work and did yet another event. I went straight from work to the Borders Books in Oak Brook to do a booksigning for "Death Troopers". It was an enjoyable troop mostly because I knew I did not have to get up for work the next morning.

I spent Tuesday finishing up the garden clean up and working on costumes for others.

10-12-09

2009-10-13T03:07:00.006-05:00

I know I say this all of the time, but it is really frightening how fast time is going by as I get older. It is now already just about the middle of October and I feel like October just started. It is already getting cold and I am not looking forward to winter anymore. Last year winter was brutal with all of that snow. With my thermostat set on 60 degrees in the house to save money, it already feels cold in here. This has been a brutal year for me and just does not seem to be getting any better. I am still waiting for signs of life from the roofer. Since the squirrels chewed open a piece of my roof it has been a real sore spot for me. The roofer was supposed to close up that hole temporarily till he could get here...of course he didn't show up so I went up there and did some temporary repairs.

I have to say that if it were not for all of the Star Wars events I have done lately, I would probably be sinking into a pretty deep depression. I do slap myself from time to time and remember that there are others that have it much worse.

Work has been extremely difficult since the other dealers lost their franchises I come home every day feeling mentally exhausted.

At any rate, I am in the midst of yet another costume production...lol...that will help me keep my mind off of things.

With the freeze we got this weekend, I will be putting the rest of the garden "to bed" hopefully later on today. Where I have been "cleaning up" the garden since the end of August, it is just such a huge task these days. I know come spring, some of the plants are going to get nuked....the job is getting to be really large.

At any rate I have done so many events the last two weekends that I found myself coming and going. Last Sunday we Star Wars geeks were on hand for the Ron Santo Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. It had rained a lot in the days preceding so the area was a huge mud pit and it drizzled a little while we were there, but not too bad. As always, it was a good day with my fellow geeks and I had fun with some of the kids games. The event was in Orland Park so at least I didn't spend a lot of money on gas!

Then this past Saturday I did two events. The first one was at the Pottery Barn in Oak Brook. It was a corporate event with Pottery Barn making a $10,000.00 donation for our participation nationwide. It always feels good to make a differnce like that. We were there for about 3 hours. One hour early to get dressed and then the doors opened. What a mad house! I literally did nothing but take photos and sign autographs for two straight hours. Every time I looked the line was out the front door. Weird. One thing I can't figure out is who can afford ANYTHING at Pottery Barn. Everything was so expensive!

Straight from the Pottery Barn event I went to the Borders in LaGrange for a book release from DK Books on the the "Star Wars Legos" book. There was a nice crowd there but not nearly the amount of people at Pottery Barn. We did some trivia, some Q & A and more photos. Joan and Laura stopped by to see me and it was certainly nice to see them. We wrapped up pretty quickly and I was able to get home in time for 5:00 PM Mass...always a good thing as I had to get dressed again Sunday morning for the last of the triple header.

I had set up a little "Donation Station" here in Mokena as a last effort to raise funds for "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer". I will be doing the walk this coming Sunday. There were supposed to be like 5 of us for this event but several people had to cancel. The morning started with just Tom "Crix" and I. I wore my Stormtrooper and he wore his X-Wing Pilot (the new costume I am working on) as the "light" and "dark" sides of the Force. There was a blurb in the local paper that we were going to be there and I did have one person come by to purchase a memorial armband. We even got $20.00 off of the Mayor of Mokena...lol... We were joined later by Steve in his Imperial Officer costume and we ended up collecting $120.00. Not great...but not bad either. Today I am home for my 4- 10 hour day thing and I have so much garden work to be done and I do hope to work a little on the X-Wing costume project as I am doing this not only for me, but for several others as well.

This Sunday is the Making Strides walk and I am hoping for some decent weather. We got rained on for the Dwight Parade, drizzled on and cold for the JDRF walk, and I was certainly cold in white plastic on Sunday. So, I am due for a little good weather.

9-27-09

2009-09-27T14:21:00.005-05:00

Egad....20 days have gone by and I have not posted to my blog. In my advancing years, I probably have forgotten half of what has gone on in the last couple weeks. I do remember that I have been very busy!

On Sept. 12th we did a "Sharefest" workday at my prairie restoration site. There was a lot of people at this event. I did chainsaw duty for this workday and since it was a warm day to begin with, I got really tired out from the heat and sweating after 3 hours had gone by.

Last Saturday morning I did an event in Wheaton at the Gauthier Clinic for Make-A-Wish. Apparently Dr. Gauthier is a "Doctor to the Stars" and in addition to all of his effort for Make-A-Wish on this event (which involved many different stores at a Mall in Wheaton) he also brought along a surprise for us Star Wars geeks. He had a screen used Darth Maul double saber that was given to him by Ray Park as a "job well done" for work that the good Doctor did on Ray. We had a great time goofing off and went down to the Pet Smart, the Game Stop, and Dominicks stores in our costumes and got a lot of looks and laughs.

The next day we had a parade in Dwight IL for their Harvest Festival. The weather forecast was questionable, but the rain was supposed to hold off till evening...WRONG! As our group was staged and waiting to hit the streets of Dwight it started to rain. It just seemed funny to see all of those expensive costumes getting soaked. Everyone took it in stride and it stopped raining while we actually walked the Parade. Everyone had a great time, as always. The crowd along the parade route was very supportive and cheered us on. Many who were hiding from the rain in their garages along the parade route came out to get a closer look as we went by.

Yesterday I volunteered a couple of hours at the annual "National Public Lands Day" workday for the Forest Preserve Dist. of Will County. I spent the morning stacking brush and herbiciding. In the back of the Jeep was my R2 D2 because straight from the workday I went to Bolingbrook to the home of Tom Jozwiak-master builder! He had a little gathering for the Midwest R2 Builders and several of the Droids were present. Tom also had an amazing array of other Sci-Fi Robots, Droids and memoribilia that would blow your mind! I was glad that the rest of the Builders did not see a problem with my R2's new stance so I am a little more jazzed about getting back to finishing the repairs and upgrades to my little buddy and get him back on event duty again.

Also, the last week has been consumed with roof issues. The squirrels took a "bite" out of my roof and were making a mess. I did not want them starting to get used to getting into my attic or rafters. I had called a roofer a couple weeks ago for a quote....and now it was serious. The roofer came out and it will be around $7,500.00 for a new roof! My god! And there are also chimney issues that a mason will have to come out to fix.

fun fun fun..

9-7-09

2009-09-07T16:39:00.002-05:00

Labor Day Weekend....aptly named as far as I am concerned as I have "labored" all weekend. In the course of the last 3 days I have:

Removed the mildew/washed the outside of the house.

Cleaned and powerwashed the deck and fence.

Trimmed the shrubs on the west side of the house.

Mowed the lawn.

Did laundry.

Cleaned the house.

Worked on the costume book project.

Finished my Hoth Hangar Soldier/Gray Yavin Tech jumpsuit.

Began my Hoth Tech Hat (as seen on the left).

Cut down more of the garden and put it through the chipper.

Took a couple fitness walks.

Grocery shopping.

Organized part of the Star Wars room.

and....

the only fun I had was meeting my friend Carol at Panera this morning for chit-chat and breakfast.

Where it was a pain, the removal of mildew and cleaning the outside of the house really did go well. I thought that I would have to re-stain but the Jomax cleaner did such a great job that the house looks "new" again and I won't have to stain! The only thing I have left to do is put a sealer on the deck and fence now that it has been cleaned and "brightened".

I feel I am at least a little ahead of the game because the next two months are going to be "killer". I have so many things on my agenda through the end of October that it is a good thing I got so much done this weekend otherwise I would be really far behind.

8-28-09

2009-08-28T05:12:00.002-05:00

Wow...next week it will be September already. It has already been a week today that members of the Midwest Garrison visited Hope Children's Hospital (photo on right). Our visit to Hope Children's Hospital was a huge success if you gauge the reaction of the staff, doctors, and some of the patients. One boy in particular got out of his bed and walked for the first time on his own to catch up to our group in order to get an "autograph" from us. This fact was related to me by the little boy's mom. Things like this always continue to blow me away. What began for me as a journey to a costume that I just HAD to have (a Jedi costume) has ended up 10 years later as something more than just an hobby to have fun but also a serious way to make a small difference in the lives of others...

who knew?

With it almost September, my time has been spent on garden clean up and canning of the vegetable garden's bounty. I had a woman come all the way down to my house from the Wisconsin border on Sunday for me to teach her how to do canning and jelly making. She brought with her some peaches from her property and we went about to make peach preserves. Apparently, she learned a lot from our little canning project and has already gone on to making more preserves on her own. I have pickled beets, made salsa and canned tomatoes. This weekend I will pickle carrots and probably put up more tomatoes.

It has been raining for the past several days and this morning my roof could not take anymore...yes...what else but the roof started leaking. Oh joy! It certainly has been my year for home meltdowns. On Tuesday I had a plumber in because the kitchen sink plumbing collapsed.

I also worked this week on the armbands for the "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer" walk that comes up in October. I managed to cut, press and sew 37 armbands and now comes the task of personalizing them with the iron ons. I hope I don't have as much trouble with the iron ons as last year. Last year I ruined a number of them by burning the fabric with the iron because I was having trouble with the backing paper peeling off. I don't want to ruin a lot of them this year as I don't want to have to make a bunch more armbands...lol.

This weekend will be more garden clean up...and maybe on Sunday I can actually go someplace.

I did get to the movies on Tuesday to see "The Time Traveler's Wife"...strange movie...I didn't get it.

8-17-09

2009-08-17T05:42:00.002-05:00

Tough weekend! I left work Friday really sick...and with a toothache. I somehow managed to finish the RFT shirt that one of the guys from Indianapolis sent me to modify on Saturday morning and then off to the dentist. I thought the tooth would have to be pulled, but for now it is haning in there.

I also went out in the early morning to cut down more of the garden. I got a lot of that done too. Everything is so overgrown right now. I definitely need to pickle the beets soon and will probably need to do some tomato canning this coming weekend.

On Sunday I just did stuff around the house again. I had gotten some new equipment in from Comcast that had to be added to my TV because of the new digital stuff coming out. What a pain to get behind the TV and re-cable stuff. Then you had to use the new remote from Comcast and I had to figure out how to get that to work with my older TV and remote system. Fortunately, I got it all to work.

I also had to trace the Hoth Hat pattern for someone again and started work on Augie's gaiters for his ERS.

In addition to other small things, I did manage to get the garden watered...so ...of course...it rained later in the day.

8-10-09

2009-08-11T17:25:00.004-05:00

Well, another year of Wizard World...only this year it was called Chicago Comic Con. I am not a big fan of this Con but usually go to show my support for my Star Wars costume groups. For me it is usually a couple days of non-stop walking and sweating and this year was no different. Where I love seeing my friends and getting out in costume, it is just not my kind of Con for it is all about Comics and I am just not a big fan of comics. In addition, I had no money to spend on collectibles this year either. We Rebels did do a costuming Panel this year and I was afraid that no one would come. It turned out pretty good and the room ended up filled with standing room only. Everyone who attended seemed interested and asked questions...always a good thing.

On the down side, I ended up with a huge case of Con Crud...I started to get sick on Sunday afternoon and by Monday night was in the throws of a really miserable cold. I don't know how bad this one will be. The last couple colds were not that bad...so I am due for a real "screamer".

Even though I was sick, I did begin the ardous task of garden clean up. I cut down quite a bit of the over run garden and put it through the chipper shredder. EGAD...this is the time of year when I dread having a garden at all. I am going to try to make sure to cut everything down before it sets seed...except for some of the plants that folks asked me to save seed for them.

I also managed to get to the movies to see "Julie and Julia". It was surprising to see older people at the theater for this movie. I usually see so many sci-fi and fantasy movies that older folks are not interested in so it is rare to see older people at the show at the same time I am there. The movie was good, but I did nod off for a few minutes.

8-6-09

2009-08-06T05:10:00.005-05:00

Wow....things got really crazy the past week. For one, I quit Master Gardening. Without putting all of the sordid details here, I just found that doing my volunteer work for both the FPDWC and the Master Gardeners is about dealing with bureaucracy. Since I can only handle so much of the bureaucrats, I decided to choose one and am staying with the FPDWC but due to current Unit Leader at the Extension, I am quitting Master Gardening.

That being said I was in Indianapolis this past weekend at the Indianapolis Children's Museum. Cheryl, River, Augie and I left Friday after work at around 6:30 PM. We all piled into my Jeep with our costumes and made it down to Indy around 9:30 PM - which is 10:30 PM down there. We checked into our hotel which Augie provided us with two hotel rooms free because of all the traveling he does he had a lot of hotel points. We then went out to find something to eat and a liquor store for a beer. I konked out immediately...I was up for nearly 24 hours and did all the driving..so I was tired. We got up early to a partial black out in the hotel Saturday morning but got ready and headed down to the Museum for the "Clone Wars" event. WOW! Indianapolis Children's Museum is AWESOME! We had a great time trooping and left for home around 2:30 PM.

On Tuesday night I went in Officer costume to the TGI Fridays in Tinley to see fellow MWG member Patrick Higgins compete in a bartender's "Flair" competition to benefit MDA. Boy, I don't go out often and have never even been in a Fridays...things are a LOT more expensive and different from the days that I hung out in bars...lol. It was fun and interesting but I only stayed a couple hours.

Tomorrow starts Wizard World and I will REALLY get my fill of costuming lol. It is supposed to be VERY hot starting on Saturday so I know that Saturday will be toasty even inside the Convention Center in Rosemont-it is always hot in there anyway...especially in costume.

7-24-09

2009-07-24T05:06:00.003-05:00

Wow....it has been a week already since members of the Midwest Garrison and Midwest Base did the Relay for Life in New Lenox. We met up at the Relay around 6:30 PM 7-17-09 and got suited up and then made it to the track. Everyone in attendance seemed glad to see us and I think that all our members had a good time as well. We walked the track, participated in the Team Photo for Mark and Sally's Relay team. We also posed for lots of pictures and were on the track for the very solemn luminaria ceremony. After the Luminaria Ceremony (where they read the roll of all of those people who had a luminaria placed along the track by family and friends) then we walked another loop in silence. I made armbands for all of the participants that had Max and Isaac's name on them along with the event name and the participants name. Everyone seemed to like the armbands. At any rate, it was a long day but I am always glad to participate in anything regarding cancer.

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to ride along with Sally to Momence Wetlands. A unique ecosystem down in Momence IL that has some plants of interest like "Pumpkin Ash" which has the big water "knees" like the Baldcypress down in Southern IL. The area is a wetland, so we wore rubber boots as somtimes you were deep in mud and muck.

Thank

goodness it was not hot out because it would have been a real steamy place to be with the mosquitos even worse than they were. I was really glad to be able to get there to see this strange ecosystem. When you were down in the wetlands, you could not see any civilization or hear any traffic. It was wonderful.

Work continues to deteriorate and I am being stressed past what I can handle...and the boss wants to "talk to me" today...that can't be good. I don't know how much more I can stand to lose at this time.

I also had a pretty bad week healthwise. I sustained a trauma to my front teeth and one of my poor remaining top front teeth is now dislocated and the gum was all swollen up. The dentist wanted to pull the tooth but for now I am getting the swelling down with antibiotics and we will see how it goes. I also got stung by a yellow jacket in the ankle and that has been painful for most of the week. I don't remember the pain ever lasting this long.

This weekend will be laid back as I have no money with which to go anywhere. But there is next weekend to look forward to! On Friday night after work, Cheryl, River, Augie and I are heading to Indianapolis for the "Clone Wars" exhibit at the Indianapolis Children's Museum. We will be costuming the Museum on Saturday. With the free hotel room that Augie got and splitting gas costs, it should not be a strain on my budget.

7-10-09

2009-07-10T04:21:00.008-05:00

It has been a very hard week....very hard. While we SW geeks were out having fun at the Bartlett 4th of July parade on Sunday we were not aware that one of our favorite little people had passed away the night before. Max Lacewell died of his brainstem cancer on July 4th.

I will always remember Max. The brief time I spent with him and his family will remain with me always. He and his family had amazing courage and I have spent the balance of this week depressed.

My Star Wars costume groups had done a fundraiser and early birthday celebration for Max back in March and we had hoped that Max could beat the odds for his cancer. Sadly, the odds were too overwhealming. His chance for survival was a mere 10%. After Max passed away, his family friends got in touch with us again to come to Max's Celebration of his life at the same church where is fundraiser was. They asked us to come in costume as they knew that Max would have loved that.

They asked...

we came...

simple as that.....

It was gut wrenching.

I removed my bucket to give my condolences to Max's father and just lost it. When I first went up to David (Max's dad) I had my helmet on...when I removed the helmet David's eyes lit up when he recognized that I was the Jedi who sewed Max's robe and gave Max his lightsaber at the March event. I tried to say how sorry I was, but just broke down. Max's father consoled ME....

how extraordinary....

Something else occured to me through this whole thing...where I am very angry about my pay cut...I think I figured out that I am most angry about the fact that I will not be able to have the money to spend on things like Max's lightsaber and robe anymore. I think that hurts more than cutting back spending for my own needs. I have come to realize that I don't need much but I do love doing something special for others....I will miss that.

7-6-09

2009-07-06T04:46:00.008-05:00

I survived another "4 Mile Death March"...lol..

Yesterday was the annual Bartlett 4th of July Parade and I was glad that this year it was not as incredibly hot as it has been the past several years.....hot...but not oppresive.

Had a great time and got my exercise for the day.

Saturday I just spent working around the house as it rained pretty much all day. I did walk up to Wolf Road to watch the Mokena 4th of July Parade but could not get out to butterfly monitor because of the rain. I was glad it rained though as I was going to have to water the vegetable garden if it didn't ....and I hate to spend the time and money on watering!

6-28-09

2009-06-28T16:10:00.002-05:00

The photo on the left was taken last Saturday at a party that I was event coordinator for. We were asked to come by in costume for a 4 year old Star Wars fan. Only TK8114 and I (in Jedi) were available so we suited up and brought some games and prizes to the party. The kids were all a little shy so getting everyone "going" with the games was a little difficult but it went pretty well and I left with a $200.00 donation to Make-A-Wish for our effort.

This week was very hot and humid and was certainly a character builder. I forgot how miserable high temps and humidity can make a person feel. I had a headache for 4 days but finally got rid of it. Today was pleasant but is windy. I wanted to go out and butterfly monitor today, but the winds were too high so I worked at some small chores around the house as I can't afford to go anywhere anymore.

Friday I had a vacaction day and took a class with the Master Gardeners on problem solving. I thought I had signed up for a weed ID class....lol. The class was not what I thought it would be but was interesting none the less. We had 20 samples of bugs and plant diseases that we had to work through and I have to admit that I knew most of them. I am getting more comfortable with that.

Yesterday I went with Caroll to visit her brother and sister-in-law. We had a nice visit and played some Scrabble. Caroll's brother Mike recently moved into a mobile home park. Their house is a very nice double wide and you really can't tell it is a trailer. Caroll and I also took a walk in the morning and hit the Farmer's market.

I began the morning with laundry and housecleaning and then finished up the painting of the windows I had re-glazed a couple weeks ago. I also mowed lawn and worked on the garden. I find that I have my first ripe tomatoe on the vine and it is NOT a cherry tomatoe...it is a full size! Last year I didn't have tomoatoes till the end of July and this has been a VERY wet and cold spring up until this past week.

I also worked on a little sewing-or should I say de-sewing. I decided to finally start on ripping apart my current Hoth Hangar Trooper coveralls as they are too big and too short now that I cut the bottom off to make the second set of pockets...lol. Anyway, fortunately I had purchased a smaller pair before my pay cut that I have to alter a bit and then add the second pockets to that. Since I can't afford to go anywhere anymore I can devote some time to my stack of unfinished projects....well...projects that I already have supplies for anyway.

Along the budget lines, I am doing pretty darn well with my cutting back on smoking. Again, since I can't afford cigarettes anymore I have cut about 1 1/2 packs a day out of my smoking habit which can really save me some money.

This coming Sunday is the Bartlett 4th of July Parade already....wow....can't believe it is time for that already.

6-15-09

2009-06-15T05:29:00.003-05:00

Well, another weekend gone...

Another Star Wars event...

and another week ahead. What terror will it bring?

Friday night I went downtown straight from work to costume at the Gene Siskel Theater for a special showing of "The Force Among Us". Rather than go all the way home, I left straight from work after killing some time down at the Body Shop.

I was still way early so I went to Borders and poked around and then wandered the street a little. Downtown Chicago is alwasy fascinating. I had my suitcase and RFT helmet in tow, so I didn't wander too far. At 5:00 PM I was able to enter the theater and I hung around till others got there. We were on duty on the street out in front of the Theater from around 6:45 PM till 8:00 PM. In retrospect, it was a lot of travel and money for gas and parking for such a short troop. But, as always, it is fun to be downtown...you get the strangest looks.

Saturday I began one of the jobs I have been putting off for several years. I re-glazed a couple of my old, tired windows. The stuff is a pain to work with but I got the two worst windows done. Now the stuff has to dry and then I can paint it. I also have some other trim to paint like the bay window and the frame around the garage door. Better get to some of that painting tonight as it is supposed to rain tomorrow.

I also worked on my garden and the Lincolnway garden over the weekend. Sunday I went butterfly monitoring and got a GREAT surprise. I netted a Viceroy butterfly...we have never had one of those documented at HCB before. It is always a big deal to me to add another butterfly to our list.

6-12-09

2009-06-12T05:40:00.003-05:00

Yet another horrible week in my life this year. I got called into the office where I work and the owner told me that he was cutting my pay $200.00 a week. That is pretty much devastating...and the end of my "life" as I know it. At this point, I will be just making enough to pay the bills and little else. Such is my reward for 30 years of hard work at the same place. I think people are right in as much as you should not stay at a job for more than a couple years. There are no rewards anymore for hard work.

Well, this past weekend I did go up to Wisconsin to the Timber Rattlers game and Wisconsin Make-A-Wish celebration. We Star Wars geeks were there to add a little excitement to the Make-A-Wish festivities before the game...and then be on hand for the Timber Rattlers "Star Wars" night. Mother Nature was not kind to us at all. Our time on-duty started out with a little drizzly mist and then escalated to pouring rain. We pretty much all got wet and cold as it was only in the 40's in upper WI. But, as usual, getting out in costume and just being a goof is always good fun and the Star Wars fans never make me sorry that I go to an event.

The weather this week has been horrible...rain...rain...more rain and cold for June. Personally, I don't mind the cooler temps but my garden and the Lincolnway garden are not liking it at all...well..at least the vegetables aren't liking it.

I can only hope that things get better. This year has been awful with the furnace, hot water heater, sump pumps and work on the Jeep just flattening me ...and now the pay cut.

I guess my "best years" are behind me...

5-29-09

2009-05-29T05:35:00.002-05:00

My god...where has the month gone?

So much for me keeping up with my blog. I have a second blog to worry about now...
I started a blog for the Master Gardener project at Lincolnway East High School...
that can be found at
plot66and70@blogspot.com

That has been a huge project and has kept me busier than I anticipated.

I have also been working on my own garden, which is also a huge undertaking.

The news on my job front is mixed. For now I am still working, but I don't see much future ahead.

In addition the "restoration" of my Jeep has been going at a snail's pace. I finally have the two new quarter panels on the Jeep...but they are still in black primer...I still have no passenger seat and no back seat bottom...and most of the interior trim is missing. I am kinda getting tired of the mess the Jeep is in...I hope it is all worthwhile.

Stef had her 60th birthday last friday....wow...it is hard to imagine that it has been 10 years since all of us siblings surprised her for her 50th birthday...
Where does the time go!

In July, I will be at my same job for 30 years...

5-6-09

2009-05-06T05:31:00.002-05:00

Caroll came over yesterday and our plans were to brainstorm on our job issues. Caroll has been out of work and with Chryler's current status, I really don't know what future I have.
Before Caroll got there, I spent Monday night and Tuesday morning working on nagging small projects that I have all over the place.

When Caroll got to the house it was very early morning and we had coffee at the little table in the garden and just discussed our lives as a whole and various job strategy things. We then went on line and she asked me some questions on how to do things and we also reviewed my resume and I put her in touch with my sister Laura and looked through my massive text book from my class at JJC in "Office". Hopefully, it helped her.

After that we started work on all the Barbie items that Hans brought by for me to sell on e-bay. Wow...what a project. We both worked for hours on looking through everything and trying to make sense of it all. We took a break at 11:00 AM and went to Panera for lunch. I had some gift cards, so it was a cheap outing. When we got back we finished the Barbie project and I launched the first auction. I don't think the stuff will sell for much. Sadly, the dolls were well worn, the playsets were all missing pieces and a lot of the clothes was torn and dirty. Even the boxed Barbie Hallmark ornaments don't look like they are selling for much. So, it looks like it will be a lot of work for nothing. I really wish that some of it would have made some money for Hans...and I could be proven wrong still..but with the current economy I don't think that a lot of people who might have bid on the items have the spare $$ these days.

I have a "free" weekend this weekend! WOW... no SW events, no restoration workdays! I would have liked to go out butterfly monitoring but it does not look like the weather will cooperate!

5-4-09

2009-05-04T04:11:00.002-05:00

Life just keeps speeding ever faster. This past week, Chrysler declared banruptcy and the future is very uncertain. Where I still have a job for now, I really don't know how long it will last. I know that I need to make changes in my life and for certain need to find a job that will take me to whatever time in life I could entertain the notion of retiring.

This past weekend was hectic with my time scattered over various projects. I am still working on the signage for the Lincolnway gardens and did some transplanting into larger containers of some of the plants I started from seed. I also worked on fulfilling that raffle prize from Max's Wish fundraiser with Master Gardener services. I had raffled 4 hours of Master Gardener services and I really got one hell of a project to do. I ended up being at the winners house for 5 hours of back breaking hard labor and am really not done. The homeowners instructions were not clear and I am not sure she knew what she wanted.

I also started a bit on my friend Han's Barbie project. To make a long story short, Hans dropped off 6 boxes of Barbie stuff that his ex-wife left behind. I am going to try to sell those items on E-bay but there is a lot of work to be done prior. Some of the large boxed items are missing pieces and I have two large boxes full of just clothes and "stuff" - so I am going to try to see if the missing pieces from the large sets might be in those other boxes. A LOT of it is unknown. I am not sure that all of it is actual licensed "Barbie" so some of the stuff will go into a "lot" sale.

Yesterday I went into the city to Lionel and Emma's place for an "armor party". The weather was beautiful and it was an enjoyable day. We viewed Lionel's tanks...his current pride and joy. After that we went down to the Maxwell Street market. I had never been there...so it was fun to see that. We then went for an authentic Mexican lunch. By the time I got home, I did a little more gardening and then called it a night.

04-24-09

2009-04-24T05:28:00.002-05:00

Wow...scarry times.

I have a lot to think about these days. Primarily that I will probably be out of a job in the not to distant future. Not a big deal in terms of the "big picture" but quite a large deal for me as someone who has held the same job for the last 30 years.

It goes without saying that I am more than a little rusty at job hunting, job interviews, and all of the things connected with that. I am sure things have changed dramatically in the last 30 years. Then there is the whole lack of education thing AND the pushing 60 years old thing. Needless to say, my future does not look very bright.

I have know for quite a number of years now that there was no future in what I was doing for a living. I have not seen a raise in pay in 10 years and only received a pay cut. I also have lost vacation and my health care this past year. Where I used to get half of my healthcare paid for, I now pay for it all if I want it.

I guess I need to be glad for the good years that I did have and try to do the best I can to keep my chin up and try to find some kind of meaningful employment.

I will be doing a workday tomorrow at my restoration site and Sunday is an unknown...will probably work on projects at home as we are supposed to get rain.

4-14-09

2009-04-14T14:01:00.002-05:00

Well, I did manage to finish my Hoth Hangar Trooper costume last week and had Linda come over to take the photos of the Hoth Trooper costume and photos of the RFT for Disney. I don't know that I will make it to Disney for Star Wars Weekends. I am starting to lean towards saving the trip for the winter.

We finally got a few days of decent weather. On Saturday I went out to Hickory Creek Barrens and spent a few hours working on the area along the west trail from the pond to the area across from the meadow we cross when we go to the clone. The area is staying much cleaner now that Linda and I have gone through and done follow-up a few times. I also didn't see much garlic mustard in the wooded are north of the pond ...a very good sign!

On Saturday night I went to Joan's house for a get together with the siblings. I really don't see them much anymore.

Sunday was spent in the garden doing clean up, digging natives for the Lincolnway garden, readying the vegetable plots and other small tasks. The weather is still not ready for much in the way of planting yet. We are due to have a few nice days starting tomorrow so I may get some of the cool season veggies planted.

Last night Arturo dropped off his Boba Fett vest for some alterations. I am really nervous to work on it as I know that he has incredible attention to detail. I am going to try to have Sue take a look at it this weekend as I have a few questions for her before I touch too much of it.

I also started to work on my Hoth Hangar Tech hat. This will be a very interesting project and I can only hope that it comes out ok.

Today I spent the morning at Woldhuis Sunrise Farm and got a lot of the items needed for the Lincolnway garden and some for my own. Ouch - spent $160.00 and I have so much more to get.

4-6-09

2009-04-06T04:55:00.002-05:00

Well, by the calendar it says spring but by the weather outside it says winter! We got a lot of snow again last night in Mokena. I know that I had a lot more snow on the ground at home than when I got to work. I guess this time the deeper amounts of snow were further south. I can't believe that this coming Sunday is Easter! Wasn't it just Christmas?

I went to the new Four Rivers facility in Channahon on Saturday to do a workday. I spent the first hour or so planting seed and the next two hours cleaning up shoreline. Egad...the stuff that washes up from a river! I am sure that additonal garbage has been deposited at the shore because of the high water and all the rain/snow we have had this winter. Lots of flooding.

Yesterday I just worked on things for the Lincolway Gardens.

I know what I will be working on tomorrow....the Hoth Hangar Trooper. The coveralls I ordered have arrived. I still have to try to get photos taken of my Rebel Fleet Trooper costume to submit for Disney SWW. I honestly don't know whether to go or not...but am trying to at least submit my costume.

4-3-09

2009-04-03T05:46:00.002-05:00

Time is getting away from me more and more.
I have so many projects going on I can't see straight anymore.

I am working on the Lincolnway Gardens project for the Master Gardeners. Lots of seed starting, planning on paper, gathering of needs, meetings and building projects.

I am working on the 2010 Goestenkors Family Reunion. Just trying to set a date can be a problem with everyone's busy schedules. At least that part is now done at June 19, 2010. Now I have to reserve St. Rose Park and then I can put that aside.

I am also working on a few new projects for the Star Wars Groups. It took me hours this past weekend to get the complete Hoth costume tutorials, patterns, fabrics and what not assembled and sent to Germany.

Tomorrow I will be helping the FPDWC doing seed and plug planting in Channahon.

I also need to get new photos taken for the possible outing to Star Wars Weekends.

The Jeep has been in the body shop each day this week as I struggle to start work on the rust. The floor of the Jeep started to get several large holes and the carpeting was always soaked. The bodyman is doing an awesome job cutting out the rust and welding in new pieces. There is still some to go. I decided to fix the Jeep rather than look for a new vehicle. So next step is to get two new quarterpanels as they have big rot holes also.

I received a bunch of stuff from Camp Quality this week too. So I am working with that a bit and trying to see what our Star Wars group could do to help at Camp this year. I don't think we will be needed as costumed "entertainers" as the Camp likes to do new things each year and we were there in costume last year.

Well...
lots to do...better get to it.

3-25-09

2009-03-25T06:09:00.001-05:00

Busy...busy...busy...

I think I am finally done with plumbers and what not. I do have a new problem though...

looks like I am fighting a nasty bout of pleurisy...it is very painful.

At any rate. Friday night I left the house at 11:00 PM and went to the midnight DVD release of "Twilight" at the Borders in Orland Park. It was insanity...lol... there I was in a sea of screaming 13 year olds...feeling more than a little out of place. But, hey, if there is something goofy going on...I am usually in the middle of it. The line went quickly and I was out of there by 12:20 AM.

On Saturday I helped Don and Espie burn their prairie restoration project at Lily Cache. I lugged around a backpack sprayer for most of the burn and did some torch work. It was fun but the fire just didn't want to burn good. We abandoned the back and flank fires after we were not getting good clear burn and went straight for the headfire. There was still a lot of "bare real estate" so the fire was not carrying well.

I got home in time to go to Mass because I wanted to go out and spray garlic mustard at HCB Sunday morning. I met Linda at 9:00 AM and we worked till around 11:30. I came home rather sore and my ribs were killing me from the pleurisy. It went downhill from there and Monday and yesterday I was in extreme pain.

Yesterday I began the project for the Lincolnway Gardens. I will be heading up that project as a Master Gardener. I taped together graph paper to lay out the one garden plot and went through my seeds. I also started some additional seedlings and went out to Lowe's to check on some additional seed and a new tank sprayer. I also went to Target and finally purchased "The Clone Wars" on DVD. From there, I went to the movies to see "Race to Witch Mountain". It was "meh"....there were some funny parts featuring Stormtroopers...I wonder if they were 501st members.

Tonight I have the Aaron Allston booksigning in Oakbrook straight from work...it is going to be a LONG day!

3-19-09

2009-03-19T06:06:00.002-05:00

The plumber was by on Tuesday night to install the two new sump pumps and they work fine, but differently. They seem to kick on early and don't pump much at one time. I guess it will just be something to get used to.

Yesterday I spent all day at the FPDWC Cherry Hill facility taking 7 hours of mind numbing mandatory classes. What a waste of a day! Much of the stuff I sat through I have never encountered.

Friday night the DVD of "Twilight" is scheduled to be released and Borders in Orland is having a big midnight deal...think I will go check that out.

Monday was the series finale of Kyle XY - the ONLY television program I have gone out of my way to watch the last couple of years. It was a fascinating show and the last episode was ubrubt and unfulfilling - I was majorly disappointed.

Saturday I will either be helping the Nelsons burn Lily Cache or I will work a couple hours at HCB. It is for certain I will get little or no help from the District in restoration of Hickory Creek Barrens...that is becoming apparent.

3-16-09

2009-03-16T05:55:00.002-05:00

EGAD! This is just not going to be my year!

I did the volunteer workday at Hickory Creek Barrens on Saturday (my site) and while trying to get over the creek my foot sank in mud and I landed full blast on my left knee. The ground was still frozen and very hard so my knee took quite a hit. It was kind of like when you hit your thumb with a hammer. The pain was intense, but subsided enough to finish the workday. Don Nelson and I girdled about another 50-75 black locust.

After the workday, we all had lunch and I was talking about what a crummy year it was so far. The furnace going out in January and the hot water heater last week. I said that the next thing was probably the sump pumps. Sure enough, when I got home the sump pump was running and would not shut off.

I unplugged it and removed the cover off the sump hole. I managed to get the pump working...but for how long? I was going to just replace the one pump myself but decided to look into the other sump pump hole (I have three pumps in two holes) and found that neither of the other two pumps were working either. Time to call in an expert. I hope to get the problem resolved quickly as we are due for more rain this week.

One thing is for certain...Spring is here. The official start of Spring is when I put my water feature back in the ground. I did that yesterday. Pumped out all the old water, filled the drum with fresh water and installed the pump and the "spitting carp". I also cleaned up all of the mess from all of the flooding of the past couple weeks.

I also took a nice long fitness walk...guess I didn't do too much damage to the knee.

3-10-2009

2009-03-10T14:50:00.003-05:00

Well, I guess I am not keeping up with my blog very well. It has been a busy few weeks. Carol's dad passed away on Friday February 27th and I went to his wake last Tuesday. I also went to the show that day and saw "Confessions of a Shopaholic". It was okay. I needed something brainless and it was funny in spots.

This past Saturday (March 7th) was the Star Wars event for Max Lacewell. Max is a 5 year old with a very rare brain tumor. We were putting on a "Fun Fair" and fundraiser for Max at the Naperville Presbyterian Church. It was a hectic day but came off very well. The fundraiser netted over $4,000.00. I donated my green UltraSaber lightsaber and myself (Master Gardener Services) into the raffle. I had also donated a child's UltraSaber and sewed Max a Jedi robe. Sadly, after only having his lightsaber for about an hour, it burned out. I was so embarrassed. After the event, we all went for dinner but I just had a beer and left.

It has been doing nothing but raining for a week now. I am so flooded that everything feels damp. I also found out that I must have a hole in the floor of the Jeep as the carpet is soaked under my feet and won't dry. Hard for it to dry when one is always driving in the rain. The backyard is sooooooooooo under water. The garage has water and if all of that were not enough, I found that the hot water heater in the basement finally let loose so the basement is all wet.

I had to call a plumber today and it cost $860.00 for a new hot water heater -installed. Well, I knew it was going to go soon anyway. I had looked into a tankless model but was finding that no one included Lowe's or Home Depot would install. When I checked with the plumber who did come today then I found out why. The installation is difficult and requires a lot of extra work with stainless steel venting and on and on. So, sadly, I had to go with another regular hot water heater.

Tonight it is supposed to stop raining, but is supposed to be terribly windy and temperatures are supposed to plunge. This will leave more ice on things and possible power outages. I think it is going to be a long night.

2-27-2009

2009-02-27T07:57:00.001-06:00

Blah! I am still sick and getting sick of being sick. I have not accomplished much this past week. I did finish the MWG Bucket project. It turned out crappy...but it was the best that I could put forth. One thing is certain....I am NOT an artist.

I plan on going to the prairie restoration workday tomorrow. It is going to be cold and windy again.....as always. It will be March soon, you would think that the weather would at least be above freezing.

I did manage to start some vegetable seeds this past week. Got my tomato and peppers started. The seedlings are up as of last night.

2-19-09

2009-02-19T04:50:00.003-06:00

All I can say about this week is that I have been sick! I did manage to finish hemming Max's robe and glued the lenses into the MWG Bucket project...but beyond that....not much. I did go to the movies on Tuesday to see "Push". It was ok. The one thing that stuck with me after seeing the movie was the utter congestion of Hong Kong where most of the movie was filmed.

2-16-09

2009-02-16T02:48:00.002-06:00

This weekend has kinda been a blur. I went to the workday on Saturday at Romeoville Prairie. As you can see by the photo on the left, my "new" chainsaw was behaving as I brought down the large box elder that I am now removing the stump in the photo. We had a great turnout for this memorial workday for Dick Wunderlich.

I had been up early in the morning fighting with the helmet project again. I epoxied the one ear cap on and it looked terrible. I ended up pulling it back off on Sunday and just hot gluing on a MWG patch on each side. I give up!
Anyway, I started feeling sick on Saturday afternoon and by yesterday morning I was in the throws of a full blown sore throat and the start of yet another cold. :(

I didn't accomplish much of anything else yesterday. I did work on R2 a little and went out to find some pieces for the helmet. I am tired of going to the store to find all the things that the DON'T have....I came home pretty much empty handed as I could not find the foam for the bucket project and had to settle for something for the rim of the bucket that I didn't really want.

I just didn't feel well yesterday, and this morning I feel worse.

2-11-09

2009-02-11T04:37:00.002-06:00

Wow...what a superb day (weatherwise) yesterday. I was able to open windows again and the temp inside the house went up to a balmy 65 degrees...which is warmer than it has been in there all winter.

I was able to finally get outside and finish the fall garden clean-up yesterday too! A few months late, but I am glad that I was able to get it done before the rain moves in today. I had tons of leaves to clean up. A lot of them were floating in the standing water that is in the backyard at this point. They were continually clogging up the chipper/shredder. I also found that the water feature collected a sizeable amount of water this winter, even though it was covered. I chopped and removed a huge block of ice from the water feature. I am hoping that the drum didn't crack from the ice. The water looked pretty clear-as in nothing disgusting/dead floating in it.

I also got a chance to do some tree pruning. I removed a couple very large low limbs from "Al" and a couple off of "Chick". I also pruned the dead stuff out of the Highbush cranberry shrubs and off of the wafer ash. I am still trying to prune the wafer ash to put more growth to the east side of it.

In between all of the yardwork I also worked on the MWG Helmet project and I also finished Max's Jedi robe on Monday night. In addition to those projects, I removed the pockets from the jumpsuit for the Hoth Hangar Soldier/Tech costume and put both jumpsuits through the laundry to shrink them and to get the sizing out of the fabric.

After all of that, I took a 3 mile walk to try to enjoy what was left of the day.

2-9-09

2009-02-09T05:53:00.002-06:00

A very busy weekend, yet not terribly productive when you look at the big picture.

I worked on 3 projects and 2 of them went badly.

The "Bucket Project" went bad....I had no luck with trying to get the earcaps on the helmet...I did manage to do some repairs...and decided to get it into paint.

The R2 project went badly. After several tries making wood wedges to help reinforce his new leg "stance", I gave up on that and put all of R2's piece back into the Star Wars room.

Max's robe did go well. I have the body of the robe made...and the hood made...and the neckband made...all I have to do is attach the hood to the robe body. I am going to leave it un-hemmed for now in the hopes that I can get some of Max's measurements.

2-6-09

2009-02-06T02:52:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was a very busy day. I was at work shortly after 3:00 AM to get payroll done and left work at 8:30 AM to go to a class at the U. of I. Extension on plant disease. As always, Nancy Pataky of the Plant Clinic was worth the effort to get to class. In between running all over, I tried to work on the MWG Helmet project. It is definitely more work to try to get the bucket useable than I anticipated and I am running into problems. I did manage to get a few pieces dealt with, but the ear caps are going to be a REAL problem.

2-4-09

2009-02-04T02:51:00.003-06:00

Best laid plans. I had intended to work on R2 and Max's robe today when I got a last minute request to help burn brush piles at Hickory Creek Barrens. I really needed to get work done at home but getting those piles burned was huge also. We got about half of them burning at the time I left at 1:30 PM. I don't know if the crew set off more of them after I left.

Getting these piles burned will make life a lot easier at the workday in March and when I go out and spray reed canary grass and other invasives out there.

I came home really sore and tired and didn't get much else done in the evening.

2-1-09

2009-02-01T06:25:00.004-06:00

Oh happy day! R2 is on 3 legs...wobbly for now...but on 3 none the less.

I went to Carpentersville yesterday for an "armor party". I wasn't building armor but was there to install the 3rd leg that I had been assembling. About 10 minutes into the project I found that I was already going to have a new problem. The old outer legs were assembled incorrectly so that the new battery boxes were not going to fit. This would have been a problem regardless of the center leg project.

I had to rip apart parts of the outer arms and succeeded in making more work for myself but it had to be done. I will still have to build out the inside surface of the outer legs in order to have the battery boxes sit flush in there. This necessitates rebuilding a lot of the skin again on the outer legs too as I had to demolish the sintra covering and the pieces at the bottom of the leg are uniquely built pieces that I am reasonably certain I will have a tough time reproducing.

One step at a time though. Later on today I plan on getting back to R2 and secure his legs with screws a little better. They are kind of floppy right now so they need a 3rd screw and also I plan to insert little wedges in the "valley" were the legs sit in just to keep them more stable. I still need to install L brackets on the center leg and lastly I would like to put the casters back on as it makes R2 much easier to move around the house to work on him.

Today I plan to visit Catherine Blair at the extended care facility and hopefully get fabric to make Max's Jedi robe.

Never a dull moment!

January 30, 2009

2009-01-30T02:36:00.004-06:00

I think last night could be a turning point for my R2 journey. Like most things that are new and unknown, I have spent weeks sweating taking apart R2's legs. Since I didn't build the legs, I was not sure how they would come apart. Were they glued or nailed? So I went slowly. I found that the battery boxes were just glued in place. After doing way too much work on the first leg so that I could figure out how they were attached, the second battery box came off quickly and cleanly. I did have to take apart the new foot for attaching purposes and had to carve out a little of the channel on the foot that the center leg fits into a bit, but it looks like it will work. I did break one of the knurled fittings for the leg hoses, but that was not too big a deal, I just glued it and re-painted all 8 of them as they were difficult to get out and sustained paint damage.

All in all, I hope to come home from tomorrow's armor party with R2 able to stand in the proper stance. I will really have to make a good list of things I will need to bring along so that I am not stymied by forgotten or needed tools/pieces.

If I continue to work on R2 I am reasonably sure I will lose my right thumb. I injured it again...it is the same thumb I nearly cut off at the beginning of the month.

Jan 29,2009

2009-01-29T05:04:00.003-06:00

Tom Hawk stopped by with a cd full of photos he took at the "Frozen Butts" workday. He took the one of me on the right as I took care of a very small black locust I dropped. Boy...am I the height of fashion!

I finished assembling R2's center leg last night and will probably try to attach the leg to the foot tonight. I will also try to put the extra piece on the bottom of the foot with the cut-outs for the casters and put the casters on. Then, if I feel like it, I may start to disassemble the two outer legs/feet.

Right now I am very grumpy. I was greatly disappointed by two things in my volunteer life yesterday. Sometimes I wonder why I frustrate myself for volunteer projects. It is not like I am getting paid to do these things.

January 27,2009

2009-01-27T08:23:00.003-06:00

Well, it is back to R2 today. I received a "kit" form of the center leg and now it is time to assemble it. Kevin sent me the center foot he made, and I had to take a little of the sintra off so that

I could see what was going on inside. The center leg is a bit different, but the guy who cut the pieces did a great job, everything lines up nicely and I have begun the gle and dowel process....taking my time as I go along. With the armor party coming up on Saturday, I should have this project off to a good start to bring the pieces along with me.

I also finally ordered the jumpsuit for the Hoth Hangar trooper. I had gone back and forth on choosing the jumpsuit for weeks. I finally went with the all cotton jumpsuit in gray and hope that I can effectively cover up the two zipper pockets at the top with the "half moon" pockets that I see on the Rebel Yavin and Hoth tech jumpsuits.

I hope to make quick work of that jumpsuit once it arrives. With the vest done, and completing the jumpsuit, I will have Hoth costume #2 done. All that will be left is the Hoth Hangar Tech and the only unique piece that will have to be made for the Tech is the hat. Bummer....hats....well...I guess I had to start somewhere.

January 25, 2009

2009-01-25T04:23:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was the 15th Annual "Frozen Butts" workday at my prairie restoration site. It was probably the most difficult Frozen Butts yet.

Where you might think that it was diffcult because it was very cold (temperature was about 5 degrees when we began at 8:00 AM) but actually it was the snow that was the bigger issue. The snow was not seriously deep, but deep enough to exhaust you as we trudged back to the worksite carrying and dragging equipment in sleds. As you can see in the photo on the right, the black locust was fighting back as one tree ate two chainsaws. I am happy to report that neither of the chainsaws caught in the tree are mine....my saw got the other two out! In addition to the workday, I host a pot luck afterward. So in addition to chainsaws and herbicide, I was in control of cookies and crockpots. This workday is always huge and a lot of fun in addition to back breaking work. I also treat the entire workforce to door prizes that I shop all year to provide.

The volunteers in the photo on the left are some of the most remarkable people I have ever had the pleasure to know. Their dedication to preserving what is left of Illinois' natural heritage is absolute. For them to volunteer their Saturday in below freezing temperatures and using mostly their own equipment is something one does not see everyday.

In addition to the workday and pot luck, I got presented with a copy of a thesis by Jessica Prince that she completed for her Masters of Science and Environmental Biology degree. In the acknowlegement page was my name...I was shocked and thankful. As the one person who probably knows Hickory Creek Barrens better than anyone, I took Jessica out in Spring 07 to show her where two varieties of trout lily are found. Trout lily is a native Illinois wildflower that comes in white and yellow. Usually if you find that an area has trout lily, it has either/or. Hickory Creek Barrens is a place where both varieties live together which is rather rare.

Today I plan on just working around the house and trying to give my poor muscles a break. My body is screaming at me right now and I think I need to listen.

January 23, 2009

2009-01-23T04:10:00.002-06:00

It has been a busy week. Tomorrow is the annual "Frozen Butts" workday and that usually entails a lot of work on my part. I cooked Black Bean Soup on tuesday (which is really involved as I am trying to duplicate the Black Bean soup at Panera bread) and also went cross country skiing again. I also baked cookies for the workday and had to do some last minute shopping for door prizes and began to gather all of the tools and supplies together.

Where it actually feels "balmy" right now, the bottom is about to fall out again. It was 34 degrees yesterday when going home but for tomorrow's workday, it will only be around 12 degrees and obviously, a lot colder than that when we start out.

One thing I did notice yesterday was that it was still light out at 5:30 PM. Well.....it ain't much...but it is something.

There will be yet another change at work. They hired back the other Body Shop manager so I will not be going down to the Body Shop in the afternoon anymore. Where it was kind of a pain in the butt....it still broke up the monotony of the day a bit.

January 19, 2009

2009-01-19T04:18:00.002-06:00

Monday morning....ugh. Well, this weekend I was not home getting aggravated with projects. I went to Herb Day in Champaign/Urbana on Saturday. Will County Master Gardener co-ordinator Nancy rode with me to split gas. We had to leave at 5:00 AM because the roads were dicey. We encountered freezing rain for a while and a little more snow. The Champaign area had very little snow on the ground. There were several seminars on herbs and most were enjoyable. There was one speaker from Texas that had two of the talks and she just wasn't very good and very few of the audience seemed interested....I almost nodded off.

There was a monk there from St. Bede's Abbey who had a TV show on PBS for many years who is a baker. He was very interesting and entertaining. I bought one of his books and made raisin bread from the book yesterday (Sunday) since I was actually home for a change. I used to bake all of my own bread years ago. There was a lunch you could purchase and it was all herb based recipes. Some of the dishes were good and others were "meh". I used to have an herb garden with culinary herbs but found that some of them were downright pushy and since I don't cook much at all, the herbs were rather useless. I do plan on putting a few herbs in this spring besides basil and dill though.

The trip home was yet another character builder as I encountered freezing rain, more snow, and high wind conditions. The Jeep was getting kicked around pretty good. I decided to get off of I-57 and finish the trip home on Rte 45 because of road conditions.

Yesterday (Sunday) I didn't really do much. I had another splitting headache-probably from the tension of the drive home on Saturday-trying to stay out of the ditch can be nerve wracking. I shoveled out the deck and patio again and baked bread. That was pretty much it. Not too exciting, but it was nice to just be home for a change.

January 16, 2009

2009-01-16T02:36:00.003-06:00

When I got home from work yesterday I tacked down the collar and secured the bottom of the zipper on the new Hoth Hangar Trooper/Tech vest and then pulled out the pieces of the Hoth Trench pack-the bane of my existance for over a year. The photo on the left with me with the old pack testifies how it does not hang right. The other photo shows the piece piled on the "new" frame-the Boy Scout pack frame. I won the frame on E-bay 8 months ago and had it piled in a corner. Upon trying to mount the boxes to this frame last night, it does not seem like this pack frame is correct either. The horizontal braces on the scout frame are bowed in the middle and the boxes wobble around. I am just about fed up with this project. Nothing seems to work right. I would probably weep if I kept track of how much time I have spent on this project in the last year or so.

The R2 Builder that I had contacted regarding my R2's center leg said that he shipped the leg pieces out on Wednesday. Something tells me this pack project will go back to the pile in favor of working on the R2 center leg project. Where part of me is excited to get to this project on R2, something tells me it is going to be another exercise in frustration as I have to take apart the other legs also to correct the stance, assemble the center leg and get that stance right. Then I will need to replace the battery boxes-which means also re-doing the copper braid hose.....blah, blah, blah.

Sometimes I wonder why I do this stuff. It usually ends up to be nothing but aggravation and I somehow am never pleased with the way things come out.

Well, tomorrow I won't be dealing with costumes or props or anything of that nature. I will be heading to Champaign-Urbana at 5:00 AM tomorrow morning for the U of I Herb Day program.

Ugh....time to head out the door for work. I just hope an appendage does not freeze off as the temperatures are positively brutal this morning.

January 14, 2009

2009-01-14T02:45:00.004-06:00

The new furnace is in. This is good news especially because this week is going to be one very cold week. By tomorrow, the high is supposed to be single digits.

I got out to cross country ski again yesterday but conditions were very different from Sunday. We had gotten a few more inches of snow and there had been no one out at all on skiis to lay track. At least when I went out on Sunday, there was track for about half of my journey. Deeper snow and no track makes for getting tired a lot sooner. There were people walking the trail and of course they walked using the track I laid. If anyone reads this and goes walking in the winter....if you see track laid by a cross country skiier....be kind and don't walk all over their track!

I finished the Hoth vest yesterday too! Yah! I feels good to put the sewing machine away for a while! Next I have to order the gray coveralls so that I can put together the jumpsuit for this costume. Then the Hoth Hangar Trooper will be done and all I have to do is the hat for the Hangar Tech!

January 11, 2009

2009-01-11T11:37:00.004-06:00

Ugh! Not a good day today. I have been having trouble with my furnace and it finally pretty much quit. Yesterday it was below 50 degrees in the house. I did manage to get the furnace to kick in later in the day and it managed to run all night.

I had a repairman in today and we played taps for my furnace. I am getting a new one installed tomorrow to the tune of $2,400.00. Ouch! I was saving that money for the new roof I need. Homeowning...bah humbug! It is always something.

I did manage to get out this morning to cross country ski before the repairman got here. It never ceases to amaze my how much sweat you can work up while skiing. It was only about 15 degrees when I started off on skis this morning and in no time I was sweating profusely. I tried to concentrate on my form and look around a little more while I was out. It seemed to work pretty good as I was not as fatigued when I completed my hour and 15 minute ski session. I pretty much ski for exercise only as I don't find it all that enjoyable. The condiditons were great today and there was little wind so that helped my enthusiasm. I did encounter two other skiiers when I got to my half way point. For most of the skiing, mine was the only ski tracks out there and as I suspected, the two other skiiers immediatly used my tracks.

Well, clearly I am no too broke to do anything today, so I think I will just "chill".

January 9,2009

2009-01-09T04:30:00.000-06:00

ohmigod....I almost did it again!
After seeing the previews for the new Star Trek Movie, I have (more or less) decided to do a Star Trek costume...even decided on a red shirt for Engineering. So, I started doing a little on-line research. I found a pattern for the shirt on E-Bay with a patch and bought it. I will probably have to buy another patch though as I think the patch that comes with the shirt pattern is for "command" rather than "engineering"....different colors...lol

I started to also research a little on fabrics and props. I do have a phaser that I purchased at one of our outings last fall but need a communicator. I found custom dyed fabric for the shirt....then I skidded to a halt. The fabric-guaranteed to be spot on-was $45.00 per yard. Hell! I didn't pay that for the wool on my Jedi costumes. I came down from the "ether" and where I still want to do the costume, and do a good job, it does not need to be full blown accurate as I probably will not wear it but a couple of times. The simplicity of this costume just cracks me up when I compare it to my "Star Wars" Rebel costumes. The Star Trek TOS don't even have a holster for their phasers...it is just attached via velcro to a velcro strip on the hip of the costume pants. You also have no goofy hat or millions of greeblies and do dads.....easy!

Whew....thank goodness I have curbed my initial enthusiasm and have scaled down this project. I didn't order anything else...just the pattern....no $45.00 a yard fabric!

Last night I worked on R2's other dome. I haven't been doing much on that project. I worked on preparing the "sit and spin" ring to be attached to the acrylic dome. This weekend I should hopefully finish the Hoth vest. I don't really have to much to finish on it. I think I will re-do the pocket flaps....hey...go figure...me re-doing something!

I also have to attend the Resource Management Volunteers annual meeting tomorrow. That should only take a couple hours at best and the rest of the weekend will be dedicated to finishing the Hoth vest and maybe getting back to the Hoth backpack. I can't work on the Hoth Hangar jumpsuit because I never ordered the jumpsuit yet. I am waiting till my next credit card cycle for that.

January 7,2009

2009-01-07T02:38:00.000-06:00

Success! R2 has his skin back on!

What a pain in the butt!! While cutting the plastic skin I was litterally taking off slices of sintra sometimes only the thickness of like two human hairs. Cut, fit, cut, fit, cut, and fit. The thing now is that since the arms actually come out that you can see R2's innards. I guess I will have to paint the inside white or cover in sintra as well. I don't know how much I will have the arms open though. The kids are tough enough on poor R2 as it is. With the arms open, I can visualize them yanking on the utility arms trying to pull those out of poor R2's sockets. For the most part, I am happy with the results.

After finishing R2 I went back to my Hoth vest project and got the new back sewed on and got the collar on the vest. I had to put that aside as I wanted to get to the movies. I also stopped by my friend Carol's dads place to drop off homemade soup for him and was surprised to see that John Crimmins (Carol's brother in law) was staying there from Seattle to help out. John wants to attend the "Frozen Butts" workday. He wants to chainsaw too but sadly I can't allow him to as he is not certified here in Will County.

Anyway, I went to see "The Day The Earth Stood Still". It was "meh". I don't think it lived up to the original movie. I still remember seeing the original on TV back in the late 50's or early 60's. I think the original was in black and white. We had a black and white TV so everything was in black and white. My parents didn't get a color TV till probably sometime in the 80's. For all of the special effects in the new movie, it did not have the impact of the first one.

2009-01-06T05:53:00.000-06:00

Tick-tock-tick-tock....time flies....even when you are not having any fun!

One thing I have figured out about costuming and R2 building is that everything takes 5 times longer than you think it will take! My philosophy has been build or sew what you can and buy what you can't. I think after the years and projects that have gone by that my new philosophy is buy what you can....and make what you can't.

Last night and early this morning it was all about making the new sintra skin for area where I installed the utility arms. It is important to try to get the sintra cut as cleanly as possible and I had some "oops" areas in the wood to cover. God, it took forever to get the bottom piece cut and then the thrill of contact cement... :(

But after hours of diddling around, the bottom sintra is on and I have the top just about cut.

The result is in the photo here.....R2 is beginning to look like his old self again.

Through a post I made at Astromech.com I have found someone to cut the center leg for me. That is a huge deal as I have only crude tools. I don't have any of the fancy stuff like table saws and routers which would be essential to making that center leg a clean and crisp affair. So...I will buy what I can. I am having him make it only in "kit" form and I will complete the leg myself. It will save about $90.00 to at least assemble and paint everything myself.

The center leg project will be huge as it entails more than just shoving a leg in the middle. Usually, with that 3rd leg you have to alter R2's stance completely. I will have to take apart the two outer legs and pitch them back at an 18 degree angle and then have the center leg forward. I will have to pretty much disassemble everything on the legs as I also have new battery boxes that I can install at the same time. Should be interesting.

Well....I have some sintra and contact cement calling my name... :(

January 4, 2009

2009-01-04T07:52:00.001-06:00

I went to Joan's house last night for a last visit with Meryl as she will be heading back to Utah. The entire gang except for Ray and Caroline was there. It was great to see everyone since we don't seem to get together as much as we used to. I laughed so hard at all the stories about the recent ski trip that Joan, John, Jim, Kevin, Joe, Tom and Caroline went on recently. I really wished that I was able to go. Though I was not asked to go, I am sure that they probably figured that I wouldn't be able to anyway because of work. I haven't been downhill skiing since the 70's. I am sure that it has changed quite a bit. It was fun to listen to all of the other hilarity and discussions.

Sadly, I woke up this morning with one of the sneaky "killer" headaches where even my eyelashes hurt. I thought a cup of coffee would help...it didn't. So I took some aspirin and laid down for awhile. Thank god it has abated somewhat and so I headed to the basement to the R2 project. I had my bandage off of my thumb. Mom always said that wounds should "get a little air". Within minutes the cut from the jigsaw was bleeding again. Oh well, so much for sage advice. Bandaged up again I completed the second utility arm. It now has to dry before putting the sintra skin back on...well...I have to cut that first.

Next up is to continue working on the Hoth Vest. I did start the new back piece with the new quilting pattern. Ugh! Why couldn't I have gotten lucky and did the large diamonds first? After all of the tedious small diamond quilting I now have to re-do with large. Well, when confronted with a 50/50 shot at something, I usually lose.

The weather outside is pretty crummy but I hope to get to the store for a sympathy card for Mary Ellen Watson on the loss of her husband Terry. As I mentioned in my Christmas letter, it seems to be sickness and death from here on in when you start getting in that late 50's age.

One of my other New Years Resolutions was to start my "Bucket List". What are the absolute and most pressing things that I want to do before I "kick the bucket"?

Still thinking about that one.

January 3, 2009

2009-01-03T09:40:00.000-06:00

Last night and this morning have not gone well to say the least. I worked on R2 last night and began to cut the holes for the utility arms. It was difficult work and my tools were not up to the task. Where the first hole was not terrible, it wasn't that great either. Then I dropped the utility arm and, as anyone who works with resin parts will tell you, dropping it was fatal. The arm broke at the narrowest point. I then had to stop and make repairs to the arm and let the epoxy dry overnight.

This morning I was back at it again and started the second hole. The second utility arm went better until I slipped with the jigsaw and nearly cut the tip of my finger off. I cleaned that and bandaged it but it is difficult to work now because it was my right thumb. I did manage to get the first arm into the "socket" and it is now drying. The arm was attached with dowel into a piece that I kind of glued in like a sandwich. The arm will move on the dowel in a pocket that I sanded into the two pieces of wood.

Well, now I am leaving the world of droid building and back to costuming. As always, there is yet another sewing project nagging me. Something I have redone several times-the Hoth Hangar Trooper's vest. Hopefully, this time it will be right. I had to completely re-do the back of the vest because the screen capture I was using showed a smaller quilting diamond on the back. After I had finished quilting the whole back and assembling the vest, I saw a better capture that showed the same large quiliting diamonds as the front. So, again it was time to grab the seam ripper and start over. Hopefully I won't cut another piece of my anatomy.

A New Years Resolution

2009-01-02T11:42:00.000-06:00

One of the things I decided to do this year was to keep an on-line journal.

I think of Face Book and My Space as pretty "iffy" sites...lots of viruses floating around.
This blog site was used by the Science Museum of Minnesota and a professional photographer that was at an event I costumed, so I have a little more trust in the site.

So far, the New Year has been quiet...but then again it is only January 2nd.

I spent New Year's Day just working around the house, taking down the Christmas Tree and decorations and working on my R2 D2 project and ripping apart my Hoth Hangar Soldier vest...again. I had quilted the back with too small of diamonds because one screen capture made it look like the quilting was small. BUT a new screen capture with a good shot of the back showed that the quilting was actually as large in the back as it is in the front. So, I have to re-do the back of the vest. While I am at it, there are a few other things I will probably change in the vest.

I also finally drew the outline for the utility arms on my R2. Next comes the nail biting part-actually taking a jig saw to R2.

This will be the only quiet weekend I have for the month of January so I hope to get a LOT done on both projects this weekend.