Scarlett Letters

I'm sitting at my kitchen table wearing a water-soaked tank top and underwear in this evening's heat. I live in the building attic, so this space has to baffle off not only the heat from above, but the heat from below as well. Ice pack's in the freezer and I'm going to be well hydrated before I hit the sack.

Worked until 8 PM tonight mostly to make up for time missed by my going to the vet this AM, but partly to get caught up on the writing we're doing at work. We're writing what may be the biggest area of the game and we all have far more work assigned than usual. With last week's diversion to other projects, we've fallen a little behind and are working hard to make up time. Overtime's been approved, so I'm using it, especially because it looks like this job could end as soon as August 20. I leave it to you to figure out how I feel about that.

Based on e_bourne's latest LJ post and my discussion with her last night, it looks like Mark's recuperation is going to be a long haul. I leave it to you to figure out how I feel about that, too. I so want him to get stable and get well. And I so want e_bourne to have her husband and her life back.

There are good things happening that I'm celebrating, too--the babies Scholes and the babies Burstein, for example, the less cautiousness required about jaylake's condition, jackwilliambell in general, and Sophie, of course. Perspective perspective perspective.

Here's something completely cheerful: Cleopenguin on display in a local gallery, ArtFX. Hey look! She's art!

Just got word from the Greenwood Collective that Cleopenguin has found a home. Apparently she's being displayed at Artfx Studio Gallery, 420 N. 35th St., Seattle, WA 98103. I'll have to try and get there this weekend to see where and how she's holding court. Word is that she'll be auctioned off on August 14 at the Greenwood Collective.

The same e-mail brought the news that markbourne and e_bourne's penguin, Ed Astra, is now located at : Greenwood Space Travel, 8414 Greenwood Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103. He'll be auctioned at Piper Village on September 11.

ladyjestocost and bedii's penguin, Professor Fishmort, is spinning his propeller at Top Ten Toys 104 N. 85th St., Seattle, WA 98103. Auction: Piper Village, September 11.

chaoselemental's pengie, Professor Herringbone, can be seen at History House
790 N. 34th St., Seattle, WA 98103. Auction: Greenwood Collective, August 14.

Go visit them! Keep them company! Post pictures of yourselves with them!

And here it is, ladies and gentlemen: The Sekrit Project Revealed!

At the end of April, while perusing the Fremont Blog, I found an entry, a call for artists for a project associated with Woodland Park Zoo: Penguins on the March: a celebration of the new Humboldt Penguin exhibit, to be composed of penguin sculptures decorated in fantastic ways. In a momentary lapse of reason, I RSVPed immediately, reserving a plastic penguin to decorate, and notified ladyjestocost, e_bourne and chaoselemental about the project as well.

I went through several conceptual iterations before settling on a final choice.

( Here she is in all her glory )

See the chronicle of creation at my Penguin Project Flickr set.

This morning, I completed the last decorative stage of the Sekrit Project. Now I must haul the bugger out to my balcony, don an air filter, and waterproof the thing.

After all this torture, I promise there will be pictures.

And yes, I'm really happy with it. It looks pretty damn great.

I've been conquered. I'm so tired I can't barely stand up straight. I've used so much epoxy and so much glue that I wouldn't be surprised if the skin on my hands started peeling off. And I'm not done yet. More epoxying, more painting, more gluing. And I still have to water-proof the thing.

I hope all this work is worth it. I hope I can finish it. I may have some phone calls to make to get a slight, couple-of-hours extension. We'll see.

I'll be up early tomorrow to do more work before going to the office.

My cat, he is so confused.

I worked on the Sekrit Project yesterday from 11:00 AM until 6 PM with a half-hour break for lunch. Got home around 7:30ish and worked until 9:00 PM.

During the day, I had company. e_bourne, God bless her, arrived at 11; she was my main monitor, keeping me honest. I then had visits throughout the day from brumbjorn, varina8 and oldmangrumpus, all of whom cheered me on with fruit, good humor, fine conversation and, of course, kibbitzing. Spanky supervised. I made significant progress on the Sekrit Project.

By 9:00 PM I was so tired I could barely stand. I was in bed and unconscious by 10. I slept the sleep of the virtuous, and I dreamed.

I dreamed that I was at some sort of party in my parents' living room. I found a litter of kittens in the drawer of an end table by the couch. jaylake and calendula_witch were there and scolded me about keeping my kittens in a drawer. (See, jaylake? We got to see each other after all!) I chose one to keep and offered to give the others away to the small crowd in attendance. I worried about how long the kittens had been in the drawer and whether or not I'd fed them--but they looked plump and healthy and unscathed.

And if kittens represent my inner artist, then all of this makes perfect sense. Being a cognitive dreamer is annoying enough; that I'm so transparent and so predictable is just embarrassing. I couldn't even lucid-dream my way into a more interesting situation.

I still have more to do today and, in fact, have already done some of said work. Disturbingly, I find myself--despite the applications of soap and hot water, breakfast, and tea--groggy, unsteady and a little cross-eyed. This condition does not lend itself to the precision and focus that my work today will require. Maybe I'm dehydrated from not drinking enough water yesterday.

And now I have hiccups.

Today I must hit JoAnne's Crafts for sparklies. I have a five-hour class at Fusion Beads to learn a new technique, then it's back to Chez scarlettina for more Sekrit Project work. It may be a long night. Tomorrow, my coworkers may, in fact, point and laugh at my condition.

And away we go....

I have to thank dianora2 for her delightful post tonight, which was filled with linky goodness and much pop culture squeeage. If you don't feel like clicking over there, here are a couple of the bits she shared most pleasing to me:

Milky Way galaxy 'tastes of raspberries': Raspberries and rum, apparently. See? If the religious right wanted to prove there's a God, they'd totally tell everyone that the universe tastes sweet and will make you a little tipsy. That's my kinda God right there. ::grin::

Can I ever love The X Files again?: A fan ponders whether or not the disastrous series finale and the most recent movie have forever poisoned the waters. I know exactly how he feels. Every now and then I pop an early-series X Files DVD into the player and feel that warm, lovely paranoia that Chris Carter created so well. It hurts to think about what came later.

The season finale of "Chuck" tonight made me happy as a clam. I recognized what was going on in the final sequence so that when Chuck uttered his last lines, I scared the cat with my outburst of laughter. I hope the series is renewed for next season. It's just terrific.

In other news, it appears that Seattle is about to be invaded by penguins. I have already written for an application and notified a number of artists of my acquaintance. Yes, I wish to be a penguin...or at least create a penguin to represent me.

On the subject of my little revolution of one, I wrote to the Fremont Universe blog, to Joel Connelly, and have mentioned it to several folks. A number of people have linked to the idea, mentioning it in their LJs. I also mentioned it on Facebook. With few exceptions, people seem to dig the idea. The question is: How to get businesses to buy into the idea. It has already been suggested that local business won't be willing to cut into its already razor-thin profit margin. Honestly, I'm not all that concerned about the short term. Local businesses who remember that my money--what little I have--is still legal tender even if I have less than usual will continue to get my enthusiastic business at full price when I return to work. Those who don't are likely to see less of me.

Spent the afternoon with brumbjorn and selinker enjoying the Pacific Science Center's exhibit on GPS technology and geocaching (using Entertainment Book coupons to help keep it affordable). It actually mimics the experience of geocaching very well and is a great deal of fun. It's a little text-heavy for this sort of interactive thing, but it's still entertaining. We spent some truly quality time in the butterfly house. (As brumbjorn said, if you go in there in a bad mood, there's no way you can leave without feeling better.) I smashed some coins (and am ready for trading!). We had lunch at T.S. McHugh's and then headed out.

Lots of walking, talking and catching up. I must sleep now, for I am beat.