I was on set all day today being the live hands for one of the characters. It was wonderful and exhausting. Being back at work feels great, but it means lots of poses that would make a yoga master wince. Fortunately I only seem to be facing standard fatigue and show no signs of trouble from my fall last October. Whew.

Today I was hanging laundry. The problem is that I enter the puppet’s arms at her elbows, which means that she can’t raise her arms above her waist without my arms showing. Make sense? So we had to do lots of very interesting cheats, using different things to mask me. It was challenging and fun and we did some good work, I think.

While looking for the results of the Icelandic team in the Winter Olympics, I stumbled across this article called Learning a lesson about Iceland which is fairly amusing.

Oh, by the way, it’s been warmer here than it was in Chattanooga when we left.

Sort of…really, today was the first day the puppets were on the call sheet, but we were the last shot scheduled. As you might guess, we did not get to that shot. They wrapped right before we came up. Julie had her headset on and was on deck; we were that close. So we’ll be up first in the morning.

Things seem to be moving very quickly, but because there are a lot of new items of equipment, we’ll go quickly and then slow down while we figure out how to deal with the new thing.

This is the house that we live in. The windows on the ground floor are ours; that’s our kitchen in the corner, next to it is the bedroom and then the living room is that section that bumps out. The other half of the ground floor belongs to someone else. I think each floor has four apartments, except the ground floor. The back half of our building has the storage and laundry rooms in it. You know that Rob loves the easy laundry access.

Today was gloriously bright, with clear blue skies. It seemed like a shame to be in the studio and waste the daylight. Of course, soon enough we’ll have twenty hours of daylight.

What, I say, what was up with the thousand brides wandering around at the end of the Olympic Ceremony. The problem with not having commentary is that I’ve got no idea what they thought that would represent, or what the seemingly random burlesque/clown/royal court was about.

Okay…and now there’s someone dancing in what gives every appearance of being a carpet. Why?

Rob thinks it’s all to drive people out of the stadium. I suspect that it’s perhaps a dadaist choreographer–find order in random chaos.

Oh wait, it’s not a dancing carpet. It’s a dancing playing card. I’m going to bed now.

“Mary Robinette Kowal’s Portrait of Ari is a bittersweet tale of a couple, one of whom is perhaps not quite human, and how that fact alters their happy relationship.”

–Rich Horton, Locus

Last night we got a note in our mail slot, in Icelandic, which invited us to the collective housemeeting. After a bit of conversation, we decided to go knowing we wouldn’t understand anything, but figuring it was a good idea to be neighborly. The couple we are renting from also came. They won’t leave the country until March 5th, and had a vested interest in attending the memory.

It was about some renovation that is planned for the house. It very likely won’t start until after we’ve left but the meeting was still interesting. When it started, I could follow about 10% of the conversation which I felt pretty good about considering I haven’t been here for a year. As the evening progressed my brain started to fatigue from trying to understand and it became just a wash of sound.

I think that Elli and Elfa were impressed that we came to the meeting. Elli thinks he might have a lead for a job for Rob in, get this, the wine industry. No really. In Iceland. Granted, it’s wine importing and distribution, but still it’s kind of funny. It’s actually a long-shot, but Elli’s brother works in the business and is very excited that someone with actual wine-making experience is in the country. The brother isn’t in a position to hire anyone, but is going to talk to his boss about Rob.

So the moral of this story is that even meetings in a foreign language can be beneficial.

We all needed to get physicals to qualify for medical care in Iceland, so the studio took us to a clinic today. My exam went like this.

Me: “Hi, I’m afraid I’m sick.”
Dr. “Ah. What’s the trouble?”
Me: “Well, I saw a doctor yesterday who said it was a viral respiratory infection.”
Dr. “I see. Other than that are you in excellent health?”
Me: “Yes.” (cough, cough)
Dr. “Very good.” (He signs my form and sends me out.)

The other puppeteers’ physicals were even faster because they didn’t have the sidetrack about the cough.

I went to the doctor today and he said that my lungs sound clear and that it’s probably a viral infection and I’ll just have to wait it out. If I develop a fever I should come back. I’m wondering why the fever I had when this started doesn’t count.

If you are curious about the going’s on of the dog we adopted and then abandoned with my parents upon our departure for Iceland, my father has started Buster’s Blog.

This article from the covers the production of Arabian Nights for which I did the set design.

I’m tired of it already. I had a fit today that sounded like I had consumption. Okay, not really, but it felt like someone ought to be concerned that I might have consumption. Basically, my sore throat has become a nasty chest cold which is aggravating my respirtory infection induced asthma, which is further aggravated by the fumes in the puppet shop all of which means I’m probably heading for bronchitis.

Now, I have taken steps, such as moving the sewing machine to green room, away from the fumes, (I did finish the prototypes today) and visiting the pharmacy and using my inhaler. Unfortunately, it seems that things are so aggravated right now, that I can’t be in the kitchen while Rob is cooking because of the pepper and onions. This is the point where I realize how fortunate I am that I have a house-husband to cook instead of having to fight with these things while trying to cook.

Besides that, the day was good. I got the prototypes made, the New York cast arrived today. Tomorrow we get the rest of the cast. Then the team will be complete. Our first day of filming is Monday. We’re spending the time until then working in our rehearsal room.

All the puppets have working eyebrows now. Ooooo! It’s taking us a little time to get used to using them.

So far we’ve found the German, Danish and Italian coverage of the Olympics. The thing that they have in common is that they don’t comment during the events, only before and after each competitor goes. We’re watching the Italian channel because they sound sexier.

The other thing, and this is really cool, is that they show everyone competing in an event. In the US, we only see the top ten, the contenders. We’re watching the Women’s Figure Skating right now and seeing the foks who are coming in at the 18th and 22nd spot. It makes me really appreciate the top competitors in ways that all of the commentaries never do. I mean, this woman, who is the best figureskater in Uzbekhistan comes to the Olympics and sees what? 21 iceskaters who are better than she is. We’re talking about iceskaters so good that they win a medal even with fall. It’s not that the lesser competitors fall more, but the whole program is not as good. It’s very interesting. And you can see it in their faces when they finish. They know that they’ve got no chance of medaling; it’s just a matter of seeing how far down the ranks they are.

My house-husband is making dinner in the kitchen while I sip tea and write. He’s making peppers stuffed with massaman curried rice.

Today I went in around eleven o’clock to consult with Rosa and Sigga, our puppet wranglers, and Gummi Thor about new gloves for our puppets. Thor has come up with this new system so we can have wrist-entry for the live hand puppets instead of just elbow entry. It looks good, although there’s some questions about which way will be the default. I suspect it will be the elbow entry for the kid puppets because they are constantly throwing things.

I made a prototype glove using the new fabric they got for this season. As soon as I did that, we realized we might have a problem. When the new fabric stretches, as it does when it’s being worn, it shows the knit understructure through the nap. It makes it look like it’s threadbare. So we need to do a camera test to see if it’s going to work.

That gave me a great excuse to come home. My cold seems to have taken a turn for the worse after the airplane flight. Still have the sore throat, but have added a hacking cough accompanied by other details that you don’t want. We start shooting on Monday, so I’m trying to take it easy until then.