Summer Time!

We've had some quiet summer weeks around here.  Everyone's been working and doing little projects.  We painted a couple of bedrooms, sorted and got rid of a lot of junk,  and Ruth and Becky worked on cosplay projects.  We don't have any large family vacations planned this year but we did spend a good day at a local fun center.

Jared's First Job

Jared got his drivers license a few weeks ago and he also started his first job at Little Ceasar's Pizza.  So far he says he likes working in the back and making the pizza but he doesn't care for helping customers at the cash register.  His work is really close to home and he's been driving himself to and from.   In addition to working, I hear Jared practicing music of all kinds.  He is still drumming but his guitar playing is getting really good as well.

Chuck's Patent

Seven or so years ago Chuck worked on a team at eBay that submitted a patent for a virtual dressing room.  Wearing VR goggles you could see yourself wearing different clothes that were for sale.  The patent included a standardized sizing system where the computer would determine your body size to get a good fit for you.   As far as we know this idea was never adopted or put into use by eBay, but we did get notice that the patent was approved and filed.  So that was kinda cool.

Ruth's First Graphic Design Job

Ruth has continued to work at her marketing internship through the summer, even though she is not attending classes.  In addition, she got hired to design some mailers for a candidate for Salt Lake City council. This has been a really good learning experience for her as she's never worked for a client like this, and it's been a frustration to find the balance between meeting the client's wants and providing good graphic design.   Either way, it's a great resume builder.

Kate's Birthday Party!

Ruth and I drove up to Rexburg to be with Kaitlin on her birthday.  Kaitlin had planned a really fun Avitar: The Last Airbender party including snacks, games, and watching some episodes on a big screen.  Ruth and I had a great time making a creative, if not technically impressive, cake, and some elemental cupcakes.  We had to move the party inside because of rain, but everyone still seemed to have a good time and Kaitlin seemed super happy.  We had a great visit!

I Got to Meet the Voice of Pharah

Ruth and I went to Gaming Con last weekend, where I got to meet the voice actor that did all the lines for the character I cosplay.  She was super gracious and took pictures with me and signed my rocket launcher.  She even commented on my Instagram post!  It was pretty cool.


The second day of Gaming Con I competed as Hippolyta and finished second in the masters division.  Overall it was a good experience.  Ruth and I always have a great time at these events and we both got some pretty cool photos taken of us.

Jared finished the school year strong with an end of the year band concert and earning an academic letter for his great grades this year.  

The next weekend was Pride weekend here in Salt Lake City.  I spent one day of Pride volunteering at the FanX booth and then the other day Chuck, Ruth, and I went to the parade and out for lunch.  

Ruth and I had five minutes of fame this past week when we were featured on the cover of both the KUTV news story and the Salt Lake Tribune for the FanX Press announcement.  FanX offered us free tickets for showing up to their press conference in cosplay, so we did.   The photo captured by the tribune was my favorite and I printed a copy for the family cosplay wall.   Ruth and I also did a HEROIC event this week, a children's cancer run,  which was quite fun.   

Chuck's mom, and sister Liz, have been visiting with us for the past week.  They traveled out here via train, which they said they really liked.   We've gone on adventures like going to Costco and Target, thrifting, and taking walks.  They especially enjoyed walking around a local Fairy Festival. Jared even went and was a good sport! 

Last Week of School

Jared and I are on our last week of school.  Jared had his concert band concert last week and has one more percussion concert this week (who schedules a  concert on the 2nd to last day of school??) Jared finished the year with mostly A's and was awarded an Academic Letter for his high gpa.    I only have two days left of work and I am so ready to be done with my job. I will miss teaching. It was super satisfying to expose students to hands-on science and engineering and see them get excited about it.  But there isn't much future in my job and the pay vs stress ratio is a little out of balance.  I've put my resume together but don't plan on looking for work until the fall.


Happy Birthday and Mother's Day to Me

The weather has been downright depressing but I did have a very nice Mother's day and birthday this year.  For Mother's Day weekend we found a short break in the rain and planed the garden.  For my birthday we went out to dinner and then played Guitar Hero as a family (Jared is the best Guitar Hero Drummer Ever!).     Also during my birthday week, I appeared at a childhood cancer fundraiser gala at the aquarium.  The charity provided princesses and asked my group to provide Disney Villans. I got to spend the evening tormenting children as Mother Gothel and I even sang at the event.  It was tons of fun.

Spring was late in coming this year. While we usually enjoy several weeks of blooming trees and tulips, because of cold rainy weather, blooming was delayed and most of the trees' blooms came and went within just a few days.  Still, the longer days and warmer weather is a welcome relief.   We've spent several days in the last few weeks doing yard work.   Chuck built a box for our motorcycles trailer and we filled it with branches and prunings to take to the dump.  Because of my bad back last summer the garden boxes had gotten all grown over so I spent several days digging them out and turning the soil for a new growing season. 

Jared competed in the State Ensemble tournament with the same piece that I posted a video of last month. He also found out that he made it into Jazz Band at the new high school for next year. 

Ruth finished the school year at the U and finished Business Scholars. She got good enough grades to keep all of her scholarships and her internship agreed to keep her on over the summer even though she isn't taking summer classes.  Ruth is really excited to have a break from school as she didn't take any time off after her high school graduation.

Ruth and I have been busy with cosplay stuff. Ruth joined as a "prospective" member of HEROIC and went with me to a couple events this month. We put on a Marvel movie night for the Ronald McDonald house and then we also went to an elementary school fundraiser.   Ruth and I also competed in a little fanexpo cosplay contest this last weekend.  Ruth took 3rd place in her category with the Mandalorian costume she made a few years ago. and I won Best in Show which came with a cash prize. 

Chuck and I took our dual sport bikes out for our first off-road this weekend.  We had no experience and there was a steep learning curve.  We both dropped our bikes in separate incidents, Chuck hit a rut with his and I just took a big patch of sand too slowly.  We are a little scraped and bruised but fine, and our bikes are fine too.  It was a learning adventure.  Chuck got both spills on camera so maybe he will post them soon.

Spring FanX 

It's spring con season again. The spring comic con is smaller than the fall one but still pretty fun.  We were able to see panels by Zach Levi, John Cleese, Tom Felton, and Billie Piper. We went to a panel with the voice actors from the video game RDR2 that we've been playing for the last six months, and I was able to ask them a question.   Here are some photos. 

A week before FanX, Heroic was invited to a special preview party along with other prominent fan-centric groups in the area.  I got free tickets for attending as well as a t-shirt and free food. 

Heroic is a featured group at FanX and somehow I made it to the center of the promotional logo.  My cyberman is on there too! 

Chuck and I went together on Friday to some panels. 

We were dressed as Doctor Who characters.  I was Missy, Chuck was the War Doctor

Missy takes over the universe.

On Saturday I spent some time volunteering at the FanX booth.  We generally raise money for a charity, but this time for the first time we raised money for ourselves to help us cover operating costs for the year. 

Ruth and I had a great time hanging out on Saturday. We were stopped for a lot of pictures. 

This was my first time taking Hippolyta to FanX.  I expected to take lots of pictures with people dressed as Wonder Woman but I only found a few, which was surprising seeing as Linda Carter was one of the guests. 

Ruth worked super hard on her casual cosplay of SheRa. Her swords lights up and everything! 

Easter and Other Things

Ruth and Jared are getting a little old for baskets and egg hunts so we spiced it up this year by filling the eggs with cash. 

Chuck filling the eggs. 

Ruth has been working on several end-of-the-year projects.  This was a presentation for a business her group created for business scholars class.   

I've spent the last few months practicing with Kensington Choir.  We had our spring concert this last week and it turned out really nice. 

And on a side note, in the last entry, I mentioned that Ruth had been asked to make a powerpoint presentation for business presentation group that was going on from her college to compete at the national level (Ruth's group had gotten 3rd place).  We got word last week that their group won!  They were super grateful for Ruth's contribution and it is a nice feather for Ruth's cap. 

Leadership Conference

A couple of weeks ago Ruth took a trip with the business college to a leadership conference in southern utah.  As part of this trip she was able to spend the afternoon in Zion's park in the rain and attended a luau with fire dancers.  She said there was also a dance party but she skipped that and played Yahtzee instead. 

Then last week the marketing and communications department where Ruth is an intern received a special award for a marketing campaign they ran.  Ruth and her plus-one got to go to a fancy event at the aquarium where her team received the award. 

Ruth's been busy working on a lot of group projects this year and has gained notice for her beautiful powerpoint presentations.   A couple of months ago I mentioned that her team had placed third at a competition. The first place team approached Ruth last week and asked her to design a new powerpoint presentation for them to take to the national competition this month.  She sent them the finished product this week and they were really happy with her work. 



Regional Band Competition

Jared's band participated in regional band competition last week.   They didn't do well enough to go on to state, but Jared got complimented in front of the whole band for his 'magical" snare drum playing. 

Two Months To Go

I'm counting down the days until I am finished with my job.  While there have been some aspects of my job that I've really enjoyed, there have been other things I've hated about it and I will be glad when it's over. 

I've been putting more time in my workshop and have made slow but steady progress on my competition piece.  I've also done a few HEROIC events.

Oh, and some other exciting news is that I started therapy this month. I've never had therapy before and so far so go.  Would recommend.   I probably should have started years ago.