Business Update

There is *News* in my quest to become a professional crafter and small business owner: It took two attempts but I have successfully registered "Geek Chic Knits" as a trade name with Fairfax County. Huzzah!

Now, on to the next set of paperwork, which I believe should be the Business License and Tax Number Registration.  Lets see how many tries it takes to make that one go through...

A walk in the Purr-ambulator

Gilly is an indoor cat. And we have a pretty small apartment. Its not surprising then, that every now and then he makes a break for the great outdoors. Usually, this takes the form of him bolting out the front door under our feet and making us chase him all the way up to the top of the stairwell.

Its four flights up.

Eli and I really do not appreciate this little game as much as Gilly does.  The little jerk...

One time when Gilly got out, our upstairs neighbor was coming home from a late shift and Gilly managed to slip into his apartment without his notice. He locked his door, turned around, and voila! a cat he had never seen before was sitting in the middle of his living room, acting like he owned the place. The situation was rectified pretty quickly, but ever since then, those neighbors have been convinced our cat is some sort of minor demon.

"For lo, orange tabbies are born into trouble as the sparks fly upwards..."

Since then, I've tried to find ways to cure his wanderlust without terrifying the neighbors or having to make mad dashes up four flights of stairs. And plus, I don't actually want my cat to be living in a haze of mind-numbing boredom for his whole life. What seems to work best is a walk in the "purr-ambulator.  I put him in his harness and leash,  pop him into the laundry cart, attach the leash with a carabiner so he can't escape, and take him for a ramble through the woods. Yeah, that's right.  I'm the crazy lady who takes her cat for walks in a stroller.

I can't quite tell how he feels about these excursions. From his expressions it appears to be a mix of fear, over-stimulation, and extreme fascination. Kind of like a human on a roller coaster. But he usually doesn't try to escape, and he usually doesn't meow pathetically (unless I stop the cart for more than a few seconds). And usually for a few days afterwards he'll hop in the laundry cart when he sees he heading for the door and then glare at me expectantly. I take that as a sign that at least I'm not committing any sort of animal cruelty. And it does usually stop him from trying to bolt out the front door for a few days. 

Today was a gorgeous day.  Almost like spring despite what the stupid groundhog said. So we went out to the golf course and watched people chase little white balls around for a while. Gilly seemed to sympathize but I wouldn't let him join in. And we watched the flocks of birds migrating back from warmer latitudes. And we watched the squirrels waking up from hibernating trying to figure out where they buried all those nuts last fall. And afterwards Gilly took an especially heavy nap on the recliner. But he didn't try to get out the front door when he woke up again.  

Life Lessons I have learned from playing way too much Civ V

Like many nerds, I play way too much of a computer game called Civilization V. Its a history based game where you play as a leader of one of many global civilizations and you can win based on global domination, scientific prowess, diplomacy, or culture. I highly recommend it - its got a lot of educational value. Honest! *wink*


1) When attempting to take over the world, it is first necessary to have a first rate interstate highway system.

2) Nice Dictators finish last.

3) Mahatma Ghandi is a bastard.

4) Beware of Germans bearing gifts.

5) Never underestimate the power of Fertilizer.

6) Ignore scientific advancement at your own peril.

7) Chopping down all your forests to achieve your short term goals is a really bad idea.

8) Its all fun and games until someone completes the Manhattan Project.

9) Don't use the city states as resources. Unless you WANT to get into a fight with every other country in the world at the same time.

10) Distance, not fences, makes good neighbors.

Self-washing cat

The apartment complex has to turn off our water supply for like 5 hours tomorrow for repairs or something. I wouldn't be surprised if a pipe burst somewhere in the blizzard on Monday. Having grown up in a house with a well, I know the protocol for situations like this.  We have several pitchers of water in the fridge and I filled up the tub for emergency washing and toilet flushing. Gilly treats the tub like his own personal jungle gym and saw no reason to stop just because it was full of icky water.

What is this watery disaster which has overtaken 

my domain? Is that a speck of dirt I see floating in

 this sea of madness?  I must murder it!

The results were as you might expect. 

ABORT! ABORT! I'VE MADE A TERRIBLE MISTAKE!

It'll be interesting to see how long it takes him to decide to try sitting on the edge of the tub again.  Gilly is pretty bad at learning from his mistakes.  I give him 45 minutes. Tops. 

Update:

(15 minutes after posting)

Yeah, that didn't take long. *sigh*

 Don't judge me, hooman. 

Things I saw today (Magfest Edition):

Life is much more fun when you treat it like a scavenger hunt with no list...

-About 10 men and women dressed as spiderman posing for a picture together

-An impromptu  techno dance party  including a Monty Python knight, a guy wearing a horse head, Skeletor, and an extremely talented young break dancer

-The CEO of one of my favorite game companies who wanted to buy a scarf and ask advice on being a vendor at Magfest  *blushes*

-A smattering of fascinating light up twirly thingies that apparently you're supposed to swing around while dancing?

-A man with a purple squid on his head

-Furries

-A guy conducting a video interview using a smartphone and a selfie stick 

- No less than 6 men in skirts. Not kilts, not as cross dressers, but because they wanted to wear skirts. Because why the hell not? 

- A baby in a hand made metroid hat

-A really terrifying set of twins (you know who you are!)

-This sign 

Magfest Madness

My husband runs a video game convention.

 Well, that's not exactly true. Magfest is run by hundreds of crazy talented dedicated people willing to put in thousands of hours of work for little to no pay. Eli happens to be one of them - also he's on the Board of Directors which is why I sometimes claims he "runs" this ball of crazy.

What started out as an excuse for some gamers to party for three days straight in Roanoke Virginia over a decade ago has turned into a gigantic undertaking that sold out every hotel in National Harbor Maryland months ago. Its more than a little overwhelming.

I can claim absolutely no credit for this.  If I'm completely honest, for most of the history of the convention I've been a grumpy Magfest widow. But since I escaped from grad school its finally become my convention too. Its sort of become a marker to measure my health progress from year to year. (eg. This time last year I spent 48 hours unable to tolerate even the most bland of foods. This time two years ago I was getting around the con in a wheelchair.) And its become a really amazing venue to be a vendor.

Geek Chic Knits does a booming business here. I share a table with a few other ladies who craft. Collectively, we call ourselves the Stitch Witches. Its amazing: I get to sit at a booth crocheting for multiple days straight - people I know and love and only get to see once a year come by and talk and give me hugs - I get to wear ridiculous costumes and no one cares because its a video game convention - and every now and again something truly amazing happens like having an honest-to-god rock star buy one of my scarves. Last fall, my favorite artist's husband dropped by and bought her one of my hats. I swear I started crying, I was so happy.

A couple of Stitch Witches set up at Magfest X

It should be a good con this year - we're a little nervous because we're running 3 weeks later than we usually do. Most colleges have already gone back into session so we might miss out on our usual student-on-holiday-break crowd. Pre-registration statistics look like we're going to be getting a huge crowd though. 

Since Eli's biggest job is keeping the Magfest computer programs up and running we usually end up being some of the first people at the con for set up. We pretty much move into the Gaylord (yes, that's the actual name of the hotel, don't judge.) for a whole week. I have a couple days before the con starts to sleep whenever I want and read my heart out. Also, I have half a dozen types of loose leaf tea, a teapot and a water boiler at my command. 

It should be an awesome week.

Speaking of costumes - Yes, I do usually just wear Plain dress pretty much everywhere. This was an amazing contrast in modesty. This poor girl must have been so cold. Hell, I was cold.

Even though I'm a Quaker, I still observe the 12 days of Christmas on the liturgical calendar - mostly by procrastinating about taking down my decorations. But Epiphany and Olde Christmas are past so I'm finally out of excuses.

Since we live in an apartment I really didn't want to drag the thing up the stairwell and down the hall. Its pretty dry at this point and it would have ended up leaving half a Christmas tree's worth of pine needles for my neighbors to trip over and track into their homes. Our unit is only one story up so I decided to dump the thing off the balcony.

But its tricky - the neighbors below us don't like it when people above them dump stuff on their patio - so it involved attaching a guide rope and lowering the tree over the one corner of the balcony that doesn't overlap the patio below.

I feel like I've just successfully executed some complicated covert maneuver. "We have achieved Christmas Tree Extraction. Operation 'Drag it to the dumpster' is now a Go! Let's MOVE MOVE MOVE!"

#AdventuresInHomeMaking

And yes, my "Guide Rope" was in fact a dog leash. Theo was not amused.