That Was The Weekend That Was
Friday -- I took the day off from work. I had an appointment to have the car looked at to have a MINOR problem fixed. We ran the errands we usually run on Saturday. We did all the shopping for Easter. I took the car to Valvoline to have the fluids topped off. While under the car, he noticed my brake pads were thin. He recommended Midas/Monroe muffler. M/M started selling us snake oil. I took the car back to my mechanic, he confirmed the brakes were thin, and replaced them for half the cost. But it still took a chunk of change out of our wallets. I've been on the lookout for a cheap used guitar. Naturally, when money is tight, we find one. A Montana 104 in the local pawnshop $60 with three strings missing. Hopefully, it will still be there next week. The car was packed and I left for Pittsburgh to attend the My Kingdom for a Stage event, an event dedicated to performing arts. Thirty miles outside of Pittsburgh, my car started losing power. The minor problem had gotten worse. I limped in to my hosts cellio at midnight.
Saturday -- Dani dropped me off at the event and then went back home to pick up his wife from religious services. The event was two hours late starting because the park was closed for a 5K run to pass through. I had a wonderful time. One of my reasons for coming to this event was to give my bunraku puppet an alpha test. It worked far better than I hoped. People did not recognize me in the black mask, but were perfectly willing to interact with my life-sized puppet. A list of changes I need to make, this is mostly for my benefit: Some of the stitching needs to be re-inforced, it started coming loose, pilgrim bags for both of us because neither of us has pockets, the grip inside the head was workable, but uncomfortable, I'll have to pad it or something, the mechanism to make him wink and blink worked, but the system was a little snug, I need to loosen it just a bit, the mechanism that makes him talk fell apart and dropped into his neck, I need to create something different, the lanyard that hooks to his skeleton and around my neck was too long, it draped, I need to tighten it. But all in all, I'm well satified with it.
After the event, we went to a post-revel. An old friend of ours who moved to the West Coast was there. She was attending a conference and surprised everyone.
Sunday -- We all slept in. We went out to breakfast. I tried to pick up the tab, but the place my hosts chose didn't take plastic. My host grabbed the check. I'll remember that trick for the next time. )
Monday -- I took the morning off from work. Took the car back to the mechanic. A defective sensor was giving false data to another sensor which we thought was the problem originally. Still waiting for the part, I'll have to limp in to work the next couple of days.
Saturday -- Dani dropped me off at the event and then went back home to pick up his wife from religious services. The event was two hours late starting because the park was closed for a 5K run to pass through. I had a wonderful time. One of my reasons for coming to this event was to give my bunraku puppet an alpha test. It worked far better than I hoped. People did not recognize me in the black mask, but were perfectly willing to interact with my life-sized puppet. A list of changes I need to make, this is mostly for my benefit: Some of the stitching needs to be re-inforced, it started coming loose, pilgrim bags for both of us because neither of us has pockets, the grip inside the head was workable, but uncomfortable, I'll have to pad it or something, the mechanism to make him wink and blink worked, but the system was a little snug, I need to loosen it just a bit, the mechanism that makes him talk fell apart and dropped into his neck, I need to create something different, the lanyard that hooks to his skeleton and around my neck was too long, it draped, I need to tighten it. But all in all, I'm well satified with it.
After the event, we went to a post-revel. An old friend of ours who moved to the West Coast was there. She was attending a conference and surprised everyone.
Sunday -- We all slept in. We went out to breakfast. I tried to pick up the tab, but the place my hosts chose didn't take plastic. My host grabbed the check. I'll remember that trick for the next time. )
Monday -- I took the morning off from work. Took the car back to the mechanic. A defective sensor was giving false data to another sensor which we thought was the problem originally. Still waiting for the part, I'll have to limp in to work the next couple of days.