Having seen JKG's post...  I checked this a couple weeks ago and SHOULD HAVE BOOKED, what a loser....  Anyway, if anyone booked a con rate room they don't need at the Hilton, I wanted one and apparently missed the bus already.  They're all booked solid.  Please let me know.  Sam-sqaured needs a place!

LOOK WHAT CAME TODAY!!!!!!

Oh yeah, and apparently convocation was at 3 o'clock, so I officially got my PhD just now....

 And now we.....
Drink.  

And by the way dissertation defenses at 8 am that only your very very best friends go to are THE BOMB.  I finished my slides at 5:45am.  Didn't actually practice said talk.  Haven't eaten in two days because every time I did I threw up half of it....  Having good slides makes it impossible to really flub up...  Now I have two weeks of changes to my novello of isotopia.  And then I am free to quit this life of crime and do something I wanna.  SQUEEEEEEE.

Posse out.  Mojito time.

Because I think I love this picture...


The Tao of Sam: exude mellow at all times....

Password has been changed - mum and everybody who was given the password before: comment here if you want the new password to be able to read posts...

I haven't had much to post at all this week... Nothin fun happened after the crazy weekend of debauchery and deliciousness...

But - I finished with Joey's Predator armor, so here's some gratuitous photospam....
( Predator picspam )

So the time has finally come that I've let too many people in on how to find my livejournal.

It's my own fault for leaving up incriminating posts, posts written in anger, anxt, sadness, or whatever else.  Never occured to me that random people would care enough to read it at all, let alone backwards over long periods of time.  To avoid bad shit and bad karma from biting me in the ass in the future I'll be friends-locking everything except the least innocuous posts.  I'm not sure that the general public around here needs to even know how much time I spend reading/costuming/and doing other "not-work" stuff - so even that is not innocuous fodder anymore.

If you're a friend/family member who's been reading my livejournal from afar and want to keep doing so, comment and I'll email you the solution.  It's not that big a deal, but I need to have this be a more secure venue if I'm to keep posting about my shenanigans...

I pulled off a variety of feats of epic win this weekend. 
1. The first: was very drunk and bought a kite surfing lesson at the graduate student fund raising auction.  Epic win because: Now I have to go kite surfing.... 

2.The second: related to the first, and to the tequila shots Andy-the-instigator-of-all-disasters felt the need to purchase:  I woke up the next morning at my friends' on Key Biscayne, about 4 miles from my car and having  a panic attack about getting home to walk the dog.  In Epic superhero fashion I searched everywhere for 2 bucks for the bus, found nada, so I got up, waking nobody, and slipped away in my jeans, carrying my heels and my purse, and proceeded to run barefoot to my car.  Not that a chick in blouse and jeans running barefoot down the sidewalk isn't weird, but then in Crandon Park I missed the turnoff to get back to the visible road [I was quite happy to be running through the mangroves where only the odd runner in correct attire and a few bikers saw me and gave me the walk of shame look]  ANYWAY, I missed the turn, so ran an extra half mile into the beach dead end.  Crap.  So then I'm thinking, I'll just cut through the swamp.  So I was walking in knee deep water headed out to the highway, when I come to an 8 foot chainlink fence with barb wire at the top...  Yeah, I know, I should have climbed it...  But I didn't, I spent 10 minutes back tracking through the swamp, and then another couple backtracking on the sidewalk.  OOPS.  Anyway, I did finally get to my car.... I guess when Sam II woke up alone on the futon it was as if I'd never been there.  Hahahahaaa.  Anyway.  My calves have never been this sore EVER.  Running barefoot on sidewalk 4 miles:  Not brilliant.  But a great story for comic relief at #3.

3.  This is the biggie!!!!  In the heinously hung over state I nearly bailed on my own party.  But then Amanda helped me rally, and we went and got a 22 lb fresh turkey from a turkey store (seriously)...  And then Sunday I had a GIANT CANADIAN THANKSGIVING PARTY.  13 people, much turkey [which came out AMAZING] and Moosehead beer to a soundtrack of Great Big Sea to commemorate the auspicious occasion.
We had a fabulous array of yumminess...
( Cut for Gratuitous Tryptophan )  I think the funniest was the boys playing with Mogget until she threw up.  Seriously. [Obviously I'm 12, if I find that the funniest] Sam picked her up and she just went "bwlaaa" over his shoulder, somehow without getting any on SAM....  And Skeeter stalked around and randomly bit Taylor at any opportunity, which wasn't nice, but was still funny.  I told them right in the invitation, the place: Sam's Zoo... 

But that's not the last of the Epic feats of win.

4. This morning I gave a 1.5 hour lecture on Nitrogen isotopes.  The fact that I pulled that out having been plastered [you bastard], then hungover, then mad house cleaning/turkey maker extraordinaire, with no time to prepare [who's fault was THAT again?]...  And it went really well by some miracle, so not only am I the greatest Canadian Turkey Party host ever, but also I'm teacher made of epic win...  So, it's all good.

And now I'm tired.

ETA: and of course any day that seemed to be going so well would have to end in a flame of disaster.  As usual of my own damn making, but still. 

And Predator....
( Giant pics of predator progress )
Not much else is new...  House = disaster; must sanitize before Canadian Turkey Party Sunday....  And thin craft foam SUX, in case you're wondering.  You need full 1/8th inch to make good armor.  Michaels only had 1/16, so the chest parts don't look as good as they should....    Anyway, this is all for my nephew's halloween costume....

Drove through the coolest traffic snarl ever this morning... But as usual it made me sort of sad and wish I ahd a different life... Traffic was at a standstill because they were just about to shoot a chase scene for something - like so close I'm lucky I made it over the bridge - they film LOTS of stuff on the Rickenbacker Causeway... Because it's AWESOME...



ANYWAY, I work over to the left of the second picture, and cross the Bay Bridge every day one way or another [insert BIKE goddess here please: I went on a bike acquisition mission yesterday and was foiled...].. But so the shoot setup was AMAZING... They had a towtruck pulling a lowrider flatbed with a silver Lamborghini on it, giant spotlights on the it, 2 cameras on hydraulic arms going over to the two sides and one mounted on the towtruck... 4 stuntpeeps on black crotch-rockets wearing all black leather looking very badass with blacked out visors and shit with handguns... As I went buy at 2 miles an hour two of the guys were firing up the bikes and the one closest to the road was messing with the handgun... I was so busy staring at the bikes and stunt people that I didn't look around to see who was getting in the car.... Anyway, totally awesome. They must have shut down the road right after I got by too....

Le sigh. And then I got to an oil company sponsorts meeting where I'm supposed to schmooze (or not) and the first thing out of my boss's mouth was "you look nice, I thought you might make some sort of fashion statement, where are the motorcycle boots?" I'm wearing slick tight black everything and a grey very fitted vest... I'm surprised it doesn't actually constitute a fashion statement.... I wish I was a stunt man. On a cool black bike right this second....

Paul Newman's death makes me sad...

Wullll, I fixed my TV. All of a sudden it went all sucktastic and I could barely get CBS, NBC disappeared, ABC sucked, and all the 30's channels (WB, and 2 others that keep changing) all went caputty. PBS even sucked. Oh yeah: anyone who doesn't know - I don't have cable. I have rabbit ears. And find plenty of ways to waste time in front of 8 channels or so. But so all my condescending cable-having friends were like "well, you KNOW it's going digital and you'll be shit out of luck - maybe they've already started, you'll just have to pay for TV like everyone else." Ummmm, yeah, NO. I will either get the box, or just forgo TV - or by Feb I won't LIVE here and will have Canadian TV, probably somewhere that already HAS cable, like my brother's.... Anyway, the brainiac reason I suddenly had no TV was because the cat had knocked the VCR cable connecting the antenna/VCR/DVD to the TV out of the VCR plug. I've been lamenting the lack of TV for like 2 weeks - finally actually decided to mess with it.... lo and behold.

I then spent 6 hours watching the entire BBC Pride and Prejudice. When can I have a Colin Firth please? I think I love him more than Nathan Fillion. So now I want to finish the 3 regency dresses I have half made. One is dusty green with grey ferns printed on it, and the boddice is done, but then I screwed up stretching fabric and cut one of the skirt pieces backwards... I BOUGHT more fabric, but have no idea where all the parts of this is.... The boddice even already has trim on it... One is dark brown with tiny rosebuds on it and just needs buttons or [gasp] a zipper. And one is white with beige little flowers and is all cut out, but not sewn....

My friend and I went to ghetto junk yards today looking for a piece of wrought iron fence for her to make a headboard out of... Found some very cool pieces. Unfortunately I left my mig welder at home, and none of them would fit in the back of her jeep.... We also found the place where toilets go to die, which was presided over by a 12 foot tall statue of some god or another - I need to go back there with my camera, because it was such a piece of art waiting to be photographed. A giant field of toilets, with this giant statue in the middle. On this adventure though I found an old set of manky football pads, which I snagged for 5 bucks. Can you say PREDATOR ARMOR FOR SAM? hee hee. Another reason the camera would have rocked was me walking around a junkyard wearing old football pads for an hour... I find such dumb things amusing...

And now I'm in the lab running samples. For no other reason than to be able to say I did so at Monday morning meeting, and thus circumvent having to talk about anything else. It's called a preemptive strike.

I heart Colin Firth.

My Chinese tarot last night said that while "he" is unattainable for the moment, there will be happiness in the end - there's a young woman in my way, however the same young woman card showed up in the solution, so she's going to screw it up for herself (insert maniacal laugh). And the rest of the spread said A: do your goddamn dissertation (the scholar and jade cards), that I would move, get a decent job, and start a new life (Earth, the sword, and entering cards). hahaha, I love these diversions. A friend gave me a Mah Jongg tarot set when I was 16 and I still love them more than anything...

ANYWAY. I need to cut fun foam for Joey's armor and fight the urge to finish an entire regency wardrobe.

1. Because I'm wearing a River costume...



2.  because all my machines are working
3. because there weren't many ticks this morning...  [but last night was a HORROR MOVIE...  There were like 60 gravid females between the Mogster's toes, which I couldn't get to let go with bag balm suffocation, or with poison shampoo....  Shouldn't they all be DEAD if they were attached to her and she's had the stuff put on her neck???  WTF.  Anyway, I ended up in the bathtub pulling them off, which left like bloody gashes...  I slathered the whole disaster in yet more bag balm and am hoping for the best.  GROSS GROSS GROSS.]
4.  because I watched more Dark Shadows last night....  So BAD it's good....
5. because I have some Predator progress....  I'm making the armor for my nephew's halloween costume, building fun foam armor (is there any other kind?) on top of his old hockey pads....  By the way:  hockey pads = made of win.
( Predators ROCK.... )

Friday. 

The mild mannered scientist


Who questions if this is really all there is to life...


Loses it among friends....
( FUNKY TOWN..... )

This is what I really do for a living......  Did you laugh?  Totally OUT. OF. CONTROL.  S-C-I-E-N-C-E.....

YEAH, the Luna Pic I was waiting for!!!!


And one of my favourite moments of the whole thing....  The little ballerina....

This is what happens.  FIrst I poured bleach all down my pants, then I started running around in just a lab coat and running shorts, and then everything started being bizarrely hilarious...  The miasma of evil is at a strange low for a Monday.  Could it be the hugh-Grant-movie-style dinner-party  I had last night?  Perhaps.  I need to cook for humans more often.  Rosemary chicken, red baby potatoes, corn on teh cob and broccoli, plus salad, peaches and ice cream, and lots of wine....  6 girls, 2 cats, a dog, and 2 mice.  It was AWESOME.  And yet now I've lost it....

So.  I really tried the green thing this morning.  I took the train to work.  However, it takes almost 20 minutes with school zones and lights to get to the station - even though it is 3 miles from my house, then it's 20 minutes on the train, and I missed the shuttle to the island by exactly 2 minutes, so waited 30 more for the next one.  So Green yes.  one and a half hours to get 20 minutes down die-95.....  Not sure if it's worth it.  I so want to not drive my car though....  I think biking to the train will work faster, as long as I ignore traffic laws, which is pretty much what people do here.....  Anyway.  The feeder bands from Ike are ANNOYING.  The pooch and I got drenched and then blow dried on our walk this morning...

And Madeye Moody sent me this, which I love...  The Lupin was a sweetie [and such a cute baby with his GF Tonks - adorable family]...



Anyway, BLA.  I found a penny this morning, when's the good stuff going to start?