Thursday, July 30, 2015

Plums, and senorita elephant bum

Yesterday I was admiring the plum tree in our backyard that is growing very heavy with ripe fruit. They fit in your palm and are wonderfully sweet and juicy, but their skin tastes like tomatoes. Upon eating way more than I should have, I thought "OOH! MIRACLE OF NATURE! LET'S GO GET THAT ONE DOLL WHO IS A FOREST SPIRIT AND DO A SHOOT!"

Monday, July 27, 2015

the tomatoes are coming

So earlier this week Barrett's doll Saige came out to visit. She and lilly had been planning this elegant tea party and meeting of sorts for months. They made for fancy teas and matching cups and cute dresses and flowers, etc.etc.etc... 
Anyway, Saige arrived at the door at about 2 in the afternoon, and Lilly skipped over to the door and did an excelent job at showing proper manners, full of prim exuberance that plainly said "I want to be a princess, and I'd be darn good at it too." Saige, seeing how the game was to be played, replied to Lilly's chattering with an eloquent display of posh conduct.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Space adventure-an adventure in spaaaaace!

Remember a few months ago when I told you guys about going to the planetarium and observatory with my brother's Cub Scout troop?
Yes. And I told you I was going to become a Star Guide, which means I'll help out at Star Parties, telling the kids (and now we have adults and even seniors coming too) how to use the telescopes and helping them find things in the night sky.

On Tuesday I did my first star guide training!

Who the other star guides are:
A guy with a small head and a big nose, who's name I forgot. He was the first star guide and has been there for 4 years. He did some astrophotography using the observatory telescope and entered it in a big photography contest. 
Then there's a kid from my grade, John. He's the king of the nerds. Been there for two years.
Another newbie like me, a few years older, was positively shaking with excitement. I forgot his name too, which is stupid because we all had name tags.
And finally me, the first girl star guide. (Mr. And Mrs. Pauly have been trying to tell everyone old enough to use the telescopes but young enough to still speak "kid language" about how they could become a star guide, but it seems that only boys have wanted too, until now.)

What we did:
We went over what to do at each star party. The boring part was setting up the cones so the hypothetical people (this was a training after all) wouldn't try to park down the driveway.
When things got a degree more exciting was moving the telescopes out and finding where to put them and how to use them.
The coolness was bumped up a few notches when we had to align the lasers. These lasers are used to point the telescopes. When it gets dark, you can see its green line extending far away into the sky (we have to be careful of planes with those lasers. If you point it at them you get arrested and a hefty fine. These can damage your little eyeballs pretty badly.) and if you were paying attention, you'll approximately know where the thing you're looking for is supposed to be, so you move the telescope around until the lazer is pointing to the right place, turn it off, and look through. Bam! You found the wild duck cluster! Hopefully. Anyway, they have to be aligned so that where they're pointing is the same place where we're looking.
After that, we went down to the planetarium where Mr. Pauly (we'll just call him Tom, now, ok?) showed us all of the things we were supposed to be able to find, and help the people who come to the star parties be able to find. 
We had to find each thing using every telescope, so we could learn how to use all of them. So we (as in me and the other newbie) found Polaris, the North Star, the star that doesn't move, by simply pointing (with our handheld lasers, of course. Which are not to be used as light sabers. No no no.) Then we found the Summer Triangle, comprised of 3 bright stars Deneb, Vega, and Altair. (Just a constellation again, only need your eyeballs, nothing fancy) 
Deneb is part of a constellation called the Cygnus, and it is the tail of the bird, while Alberio, in about the middle of the triangle, is the head. Alberio is really a binary star system. Two stars are orbiting around eachother. When you look through the telescopes you can see the two "close" together. One is orange and one is blue.
Finished with Alberio, we found the wild duck cluster: hundreds of young stars 6,000 light years away. That looked pretty cool through the big telescopes. (We only got around to finding those few consolations and the mere two things through the telescopes because the clouds were starting to come and it was 11:00 anyway.) When I say big telescope, I mean small cannon. It was around 4 and 1/2 feet tall with a 15 inch diameter, if I remember correctly. It's just a big cylinder so it catches a lot of light. This one uses mirrors instead of lenses. Light comes in, hits the mirror at the bottom, is bounced back up to a small mirror in the middle at the top again, which bounces it to the eyepiece. It's really important to have those mirrors all line up perfectly, which is another one of our jobs before star parties.

There are lots of kinds of telescopes. Two of them are the big ones I explained above, plus two more similar to that, but a lot smaller and metal. Their lasers didn't like being cold, so we didn't use them much. Then there's the kind everyone immediately thinks of when you say "telescope"; the classic tube on a tri-pod. But fancier. The tube bit is fatter and shorter. There are knobs you can fine tune where you want to point it. When you get really fancy, sometimes you need counterweights. We had one that needed weights and a car battery, because it had a remote control sort of thing used to move it around. (It might have also been used for astrophotography, but I really don't remember. Lucky me there's another training in August.)

IM SO EXCITED.
We all have vests and landyards with the logo and our names. I feel so professional.
And there was cookies and coffee and astronomical exuberance, with Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Star Treck references flying thick and fast.
I had a good time.

~Gwen 

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

A lazy Tuesday afternoon

Preview:
"And old Johnny Dashwood was like "Oh shoot. Me ol daddys done dead and now I've got all this money on my hands, which I should totally give to my sisters and mommy 'cause I'm a kindly old dude. It really beats me why he couldn't have divided up the money so they and I could have equal parts and do just fine, but it's the 18th century, for god's sakes, we cant be fair to the womenfolk!"
It was rather hot yeaterday, but the somewhat comfortable sort of hot, not the "oh-dang-we're-stuck-in-a-pit-of-hell-I-think-my-eyebrows-got-singed-off!" sort of hot. In the afternoon it had cooled down enough to have an enjoyable time outside for any length of time. 

Monday, July 13, 2015

night

I wish
The night would wrap me up
So tightly
In a blanket of stars.
I would gaze at the moon
And smell the nighttime breeze
And hear the hooting of owls.
From beneath my comforter 
Of midnight blue velvet
And fairy dust,
Or scattered diamonds
I'd drift away
Into the cool stillness of the night.

Friday, July 10, 2015

A reunion

Today was a very happy day in North Dollworld. For you to understand the happiness, I would like you to remember this:




"Sit down. you look pretty in a skirt anyway."


Andie and Rylan have been pretty much inseparable ever since Rylan came to live with us. They had been having a great time together before I tried the eye swap thing. (which Andie is still mad at me for. Seeing rylan without eyes freaked her out.) I got one of her eyes back in, but not the other. I messed up the plastic backing and was not having much luck getting it positioned. But after a while Rylan told me "It's fine, stop worrying, I'll do it myself." Her plan was to embark on a quest to visit a sacred place aways south of here where a forest spirit dwells who might help her get her eye back in. (that redhead who's name is still unknown)
So she packed her bag and walked off into the forest alone, which I didn't document because Lilly and I were too busy keeping Andie from racing after her.  If you're questioning my judgement on letting one of my dolls wander off into the woods alone, i'll remind you that 1) Rylan is the most responsible doll I know, 2) nothing wants to eat a girl made of vinyl, and 3) you have no idea how many protection spells Lilly cast on her before she left. She was practically glowing.
The weeks without Rylan had been tough on Andie. At first she spent her time frowning at the ceiling, and then a few days crying at the floor. The rest of the time she looked a mixture of bored and sad. It got to the point where whenever she was doing something other than moping around I was like WOO HOO YEAH LET'S GO TAKE A PICTURE OF THAT GREATNESS!

That was a lot of unnecessary explaining. I can do it again in Caveman Talk if you want.
RYLAN NO EYEBALLS
RYLAN LEAVE
ANDIE SAD
anyway, on with the story

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Florence The Gender-Ambivalent Plastic Dragon goes to Whidbey Island

Yesterday my family met up with mom's friend Tracy on Whidbey island. Tracy is one of those people who won't let you burn oreos on the campfire or wear shoes in the house. And if you chew with your mouth open you have to "go outside and eat with the animals". (oh please. I live in the woods. That's not even a threat!)
So yes. Tracy is an interesting duck and a tad bit creatively stifling. It is me and my dad's job to keep ourselves sane by seeing just how silly we can be  before we have to fear for our lives. That silliness will come later. Right now let's focus on Florence.
This is Florence the Gender-Ambivalent Plastic Dragon.
I found it in Cole's room, and since i have been wanting a plastic dinosaur for months, I picked it up and put it in my pocket. (A plastic dinosaur is something I actually do want. but for my dolls to play with. Yeah. A dragon will have to do for now.) I decided to bring him with me on the trip. Here's Florence on the rock outside my fence

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Andie teaches you what to do with unwanted food

Today I was presented with this item here that is pertending to be food.

I can see past it's disguise and can definitely tell you it is one of those Cookies That Isn't Really Food.
This particular species of cookie is not really food, but fluffy, squishy, dry and tasteless bread topped with sugar slime from the Swamps of Confection.

Friday, July 3, 2015

Goggles Tatooine Ice ax Girl tells you a story in her own weird way

Good morning, everyone! Gwen couldn't be here, so for today's story I am standing is as the third person not-quite-omniscient-narrator. Actually, I'm talking in first person right now. Wait till I do third person! I can do funny voices if you like.

My name is Goggles Tatooine IceAxe Girl.
Only I don't know if im a girl. You can't really tell with Legos, can you? 
I seem to be wearing makeup and I am bald. I haven't got any idea what I'm doing here. 
But I will be getting paid, I know that much.

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Filbert


A very long time ago, when I still used my google+ i posted this picture
wondering about the paintbrush named filbert.

Maddie mentioned that I should make it.
So I did. it's poorly put together. 
And sappy. 
Oh well. 
I'm proud

























and that is the story of filbert.


Wednesday, July 1, 2015

The Egg

Remember this girl?
The one who is a forest spirit?
Her name does not translate into English well*, but I need some way to reffer to her other than "the forest spirit". So I gave her a boring english name that we can pronounce and remember. Now she is known as Morgan. 
Anyway, Morgan was sitting in her favorite maple tree pondering various aspects of the universe (is the universe expanding? Where did the mythical creatures of old go? Would it be nice to have someone to talk to? Do Gwen's photos look grainy?*). She was talking to the maple tree about most of these things and was getting nowhere. Both of them were fairly young, and therefore inexperienced. It would be better to talk to the Old Trees, but there were only a few of them left who Remembered.