... Made Some Stuff...

I made refrigerator pickles.

With cucumbers grown in some persons real garden...

... somewhere in Indiana

This jar will be gone in a day or less.

Ryan came home from visiting his grandfather in Indiana with little cucumbers grown by one of his neighbors and destine for picklehood.  This is my second batch of pickles.  I "used" this recipe (scroll down to almost the bottom of the page).  I will admit that I don't really use recipes so much... they're just sort of a guideline.  The first time I made spicier pickles (which I really enjoyed).  This time they ended up more like the dill pickles you'd get at the grocery.  Ryan likes these better.  They don't have quite the kick.  I like kick.

I made two jars.  The second jar is destined for my mother-in-law.  I promised her some of the next batch I made... probably why she sent her son home with pickles... I am so on to her!

Also, today at work I made hardware jewelry as a demo for a craft I'm doing on Monday...

Stylish, eh?

Sorry for the picture of my gnarly arm.  Turns out owning and angry cat for like ten years has a serious effect on your skin.  Also, that's my sun damaged driving arm...

So, there it is.  I did some stuff.

...Taught Creative Writing at Work

Today's Creative Writing class was based on this book:

It has no plot.  If I was in a classroom setting, this would be a perfect example for the introduction of prepositions.  Simple drawings take us from the front door of a house, though fairy tales, into outer space and eventually back home again.  Each page uses a preposition (in front, behind, next to, among) to get us from one place to the next.  A classroom book where each student makes a page and it all gets put together would be in short order, but I don't have a classroom... What's a children's librarian to do??

Make each kid make their own book, get as far as they can in an hour and send them home to "finish it" (yeah, right!).  I don't have to evaluate their understanding and they were pretty wicked proud of what they accomplished.  You know you're running a good program when the get panicky when you announce 10 minutes left.

And now...

Student work!

A grizzledragondino...
Be afraid.

 And there it is.  What a bunch of kids can accomplish in an hour.  It was fun for them, I think.  I was bored out of my mind... They worked so diligently, I didn't have anything to do.

... Went to Musecon

Musecon was my first convention ever.  It was held at the Westin in Itasca. 

A rather impressive structure.

As far as I can understand this particular convention is basically a group of people that either pay themselves or pay to (depending on a terribly loose system of judging who has the most knowledge...) hang out with each other.  I say that the system is terribly loose because in almost all of the panels we went to at least one "audience" member (all part of the musecon club) knew more in at least some area than the presenter.  I would have probably enjoyed more of this convention if I (or Ryan) hadn't take college level courses in almost every subject that was being presented by (self-proclaimed) aspiring amateurs.  It was  still a good time, though.  I wish we had been more outgoing. 

There wasn't a lot of good photo ops.  So here are a few from Friday night:

Look!  A funny picture!

Hard to get a picture of Tesla coils in action.

 Have video!

We didn't go at all on Saturday (Ryan didn't feel well and I wasn't super set on most of the panels, though I am a bit sad that we missed Cooking Like an Anarchist... not that I need permission to break the rules in the kitchen.)

On Sunday we watched a guy do some science and I got to see this little contraption:

Do not be afraid.  It is not a torture device.

This can be used to put an electric shock into a insulator which when dusted with powder will show you path the electricity took across the plastic.  Very cool.  May turn up in a library program so stay tuned.

Of the panels we attended on Sunday, the most beneficial to us was probably the one on studio lighting in photography.  Ryan got to play with some light boxes and take pictures of a strange woman.

Look at the awesome shadows!

 They same principals applied in our living room.  Only with the sun instead of subtle studio lights.

It's burning my retinas THROUGH my eyelids 

Dramatic dog doesn't need dramatic lighting.

Fun Fact: I realized that when I try to smile casually in a picture, I totally look like I'm being sly.  Like perhaps just out of frame I am holding something dangerous or inappropriate... 

It's a dildo...
kidding.

...Decided to Not Be an Adult After Work

This week has been a very adult stuff heavy week.  We had to renew our lease.  Ryan had to go to the dentist and get his back adjusted (twice).  It's just been lousy with adult responsibility.

So we decided to not be grown ups and to do what we want...

and to that end...

I got a sweet new gaming setup!

Dining room tables are so totally for adults!

Then we played a couple solid hours of Borderlands.

Fun Fact: I have managed to keep up with Ryan level-wise over the first 3 hours of game play... without knowing that right clicking let you, you know, actually aim your gun... I am pretty much a badass.