Rob and I went to the Celsi’s last night for pizza and a movie. I had ordered Strings from Netflix as part of a trial membership so that was our selection. It is visually stunning. The world-building is unbelievable, but there are places where the sheer bombastic melodrama overwhelms the story.

Even so, it is well worth watching.

I’ve picked up a gig building a new set of puppets for the Portland chapter of Kids on the Block, which wants to upgrade the kind of puppets they use.

I’ve begun the construction process. We started with drawings and I’ve made clay sculptures of those.

For the next step, I cover the clay sculptures with masking tape to make a thin skin. I cut the skin off the puppet and make a series of cuts in it to flatten it out, creating a pattern. It’s like the paper sculpture I do in reverse.

Next I slapped it on a copy machine and enlarged it. Now I’ll cut the pattern out of foam and glue it together. In theory, I’ll wind up with a foam replica of the clay original. Nifty, huh?

I’ll show you photos of the next steps when I do them.

Fabulous Girl’s Boudoir: Speak Truth to Power

Powerful words, I think.

Rob is making another step in his efforts to sell the wine that he has made. This has been on our front window for the past two weeks and we get to take it down today. Hurrah.

I think I might have neglected to mention that Harvest preperation has begun, so Rob has been away at the winery since Monday. He came home tonight around 8:30 and will be gone again by 5:30 tomorrow morning. I’ve missed him.

It’s not often that I say, “I had a really great day on the boat.” But tonight’s cruise was a lot of fun. I worked lunch, which was fine. It was a very, very easy cruise. Then dinner was a blast. It was a tour group of retirees. They were in town from Ashland to go see Lion King. So they were all theater fans, and loved the fact that the wait staff sang. In fact, at the end of the cruise, we just started going through songs like it was a caberet. It helped that Jill was on the piano. She’s got a really good sense of fun.

During every spare minute I am working on getting Shimmer ready to go to press. I think we’re pretty close to the final draft now.

If you like science fiction and fantasy, buy a copy.

I worked double-shifts on Saturday and Sunday. This seems to be the way my weekends work now. All told, I biked forty-eight miles this weekend. So after my last shift I took a hot bath and went to bed.

Rob made a nice, very light dinner from Farmer’s market produce. He tried to replicate a beet dish that we had at the Harvest Vine. I think he did fairly well on taste, but the presentation was…um, distressed.

The last rumor we had heard suggested that the start date was being pushed back until March. It’s been frustrating trying to make plans. But today! Thora, from LazyTown, called and said that we will be starting in January. She said we’ll start shortly after the New Year. Hurrah.

I went down to Westry Winery with Rob to help with the bottling line. This was my first time working on an assembly line and boy, it was as dull as one might expect. My job was to put the capsules on the top of the bottle. This is the piece of foil that goes over the cork. It looks like a film canister, minus lid, before it’s smoothed into place. A machine does the smoothing. I just do the placeing. We did 1600 cases of wine today.

I worked a double on the boat yesterday. The second cruise was for a 60th birthday party. The birthday boy’s wife gave every appearance of being a trophy wife. I’d give them the benefit of the doubt and say it was a May/December romance, except that he hit on me twice. Once at the end of the party.

How classy is this. B-boy says, “What about my gifts, we need to remember to pick up my gifts.” Then, spying me, points at me and says, “Is that a gift?” He saunters across the room. “Will you be my gift?” Then he wraps an arm around my waist and kisses my cheek.

So inappropriate.

I know how the poor chambermaids felt in gothic romances. I’m staff! What am I going to do, slap the $6000 client?

sigh.

It’s not usually like this. Most people are very nice and keep the flirtation to a very mild banter if it happens at all.

In other news, I got new tires and new brakepads on my bike. The weather is starting to turn and I thought that some stopping power would be good. And traction. Why not try something new? Oh, and while I was there they had a “fit specialist” look at my bike and adjust it. I’m astonished at the difference it made in my ride home. It was much easier.

I sent Orson Scott Card the link to Rampion and he wrote back to say, “Wonderful story. And a good, low-key, but chilling reading.”

How cool is that?

I didn’t have to work today. It was a very strange feeling. I responded by mopping the floor and pruning some plants. I’m thinking about baking some zuchinni bread.

Today is my Dad’s birthday!

He’s old.

Ah, and then today I’m back to my normal humdrum life. I worked on the boat, Rob made wine. I did work on the typesetting for Shimmer but that was not complicated or particuarly exciting.

Oh. I made a marinara from yellow tomatoes out of our garden. It’s pretty, but I don’t know when we’ll have time to eat it.