Preparing to sprint

The lineup: Great Lakes, then Pennsic, then Gen-Con and then opening Michigan. It's gonna be fun, especially since our van has decided it needs yet another expensive repair. Sweet!

Right now I am working on a new system to get swiped credit card transactions to work out at Great Lakes. It involves a laptop, a usb card reader, a printer, and Lindseys' new Verizon phone used as a modem by tethering it. All I have to do is get all of these items to work seamlessly together and I'm in business. Piece of cake.

Rossana got the results of her tests back and she seems to be doing okay. Apparently she had an ulcer at one point, but it healed up. She's taking some previcid and trying to keep her stress levels down. Thanks the Gods she got the go ahead to eat some of her favorite foods again. if this woman doesn't get some chocolate soon she will flip out.

I try to respect other beliefs, but sometimes I think its important to listen to some of the faithfuls actual words. So here they are:

Playing hookey

I looked out at the deck. It sat there, mocking me in its ugliness.

"You'll never get rid of me" it said. "There will always be more pressing projects."

"But I hate you." I said to the wood and brick monstrosity.

"I know, but it's too late to do anything this summer anyway. You open Great Lakes in a weeeeeeeek" it hissed at me.

And then I got the crowbar and screw gun.

In a couple of hours the railing was gone and I was working on the flooring. But the weather kept threatening rain. Also, tearing out the deck turned out to be...you know...work.

"We need to get out of here!" I said.

"Are you talking to me or the deck this time?" my wife asked.

"What? You, of course. Pack a bag. We're leaving."

And so we did. We grabbed our passports, some money and a change of clothes and took off for Niagara Falls. It's been many years since my last visit and I've never done a lot of the touristy things there. That was about to change. We took the more western Peace bridge and sailed through customs. Then we drove along the lovely Niagara Parkway. Once we hit the town we parked and set off for adventure. We rode the Maid of the Mist, which was awesome. In the morning we drove North into wine country. We visited a butterfly conservatory, a printing museum, bought some fresh cherries and indulged a dream of mine, a helicopter trip.

You know how I've blabbed that I wouldn't have a problem sitting next to a 'brown person' on an airplane because fear mongering in stupid? Well, I got the chance to put my money where my mouth was.

It seems a nice Muslim family wanted to take a helicopter ride. Ok. Cool. But then the men didn't want to go along. Just the wives (wearing burkas) and kids. Ooookay. Then the fuss started. You see, any time you go to an attraction at Niagara Falls, someone will snap your picture for the inevitable souvenir photo at the end. I knew this wasn't going to go well. The dutifull young woman tried to take shots of all of us and the women kept trying to tell her that they DID NOT want their picture taken. It was, in a word, awkward. Once the copter arrived we piled in. Strangely, they put one of the mothers in the front next to the pilot, and me, Rossana, the other mom and the two kids in the back. Why not keep that group together? Why not put the one male adult in the front? I don't know and there was no chance to debate when there are whiling blades of death above you.

Off we go, and it was AWESOME. I took some video with the new phone which I'll post soon. It was a trip flying high above the Falls. The helicopter was buffeted a little by the winds which gave it that slight roller coaster feeling. I can't tell of the ladies enjoyed the trip, and the one little boy sitting across from me spent most of the trip eyeballing ME as if I might do something crazy.

We crossed over to the American side and parked on Goat Island. I wanted to visit the cave of the winds (where you walk right up to the bottom of the waterfall and can also go behind it. But the wait was between 2-3 hours. Fail.

We strolled to the Amercian and Horseshoe edges before deciding to head home (with a quick stop to the Anchor Bar in Buffalo for some take out wings, of course).

I'm glad we took the trip, it's our last chance before the season starts and it's all work.

Update! Pics are Here.

Nothing happened today..

I was keen to see what was happening in Iran over the weekend, but I couldn't. Apparently the death of Michael Jackson was the ONLY goddamn thing worth covering for four days straight.

But I don't want to be disrespectful of the dead, so here a small bird moonwalking.

Post-Party.....

Wow.

That was a good party. If you missed it, well...what can I say that will make you feel better? Nothing. That's what. If you missed it I feel very sorry for you. Your life is poorer for it and I hope you can join us next year.


I had a blast. We launched our newest boat onto the pond and not only did my repairs work we had ship to ship water battles. That helped us keep much cooler. Bison Burgers? Tasty. Lots of Frisbee hacking. Some friends dropping by who I haven't seen in literally years.

My friends Joe and Christine from Monolith Graphics put together a VERY cool scavenger hunt over the entire property with a sweet map and prizes. I've wanted to do that for years but never had the time and focus. It was a blast.

Ed brought some amazing ribs and let me take his 911 for a spin at VERY LEGAL AND REASONABLE SPEEDS WHILE OBEYING ALL TRAFFIC LAWS.

So much food and drink...

Showed off some new corsets materials and the scarves from Turkey.

And fireworks? The theme this year was "Hard times". We did a short and fairly lame routine to a polite applause, then brought out round two. More boom, a couple of mini mortars. More applause and the crowd assumed that was it. Tthen we brought out the big stuff. Lots of bangs, big finale. Looked great. And all while sticking to a much smaller budget this year.

Drums were produces and two musicians played guitar and fiddle. I took a few people for candle lit rides in the darkened pond.

Clean up this morning wasn't too bad. Items left behind include some flip flops, a car key,a silver wrist bracelet and two people we found sleeping on a futon in the back of their car.

I can't thank everyone enough who came out to our remote little Hobbit Hole. I hope you had as good a time as I did. If you took pictures please send me a disk or post them to flickr and send me a link.

Father-Son moment

Last week my Dad drove down from Boston, on his motorcycle again, at 72, despite having broken his neck a little over a year ago.

This act of sheer ballsiness shamed me into getting my own bike up and running again. It wasn't a huge project. I needed to actually order the new battery I'd put off and go get an oil filter. I didn't expect much. The bike hasn't run for quite a while. But with an oil change and some elbow grease, she fired right up. I spent a few hours cleaning her up and helping my Dad change the oil on his Honda Pacific Coast.

The experience was very strange for me. My parents were divorced when I was quite young, my brother went to life with my Dad while I was raised by my Mom and her second husband (who had his own son). But they eventually divorced when I entered Jr. High. As such, I never really had any of those father/son moments as I hit my teen years. My Mom, bless her heart, was amazingly cool with my strange hobbies and friends and did a great job as a single parent. And I learned to travel and to appreciate history and many other subjects from Jack Ellis, my Big Brother (Mentoring program). But he was more of a kindly Uncle or Grandfather figure. I just seemed to miss out on that special kind of cool bonding that some kids get with their Dad. And to tell the truth I'm sorry I did now.

I have never looked back at my childhood and regretted much of anything. I had a roof over my head, clothes, an allowance. I wasn't abused. Things were, for me, pretty good. But some of these kinds of moments would have been pretty nice too. I'm glad I had the chance to share one, even if it did take a while to happen.



So when we sat in the shop talking and working on our bikes it took me a while to even recognize we were having one of those special moments.

I am a huuuuug dork.

Of this there can be doubt. The proof? Check out 8 things you didn't know about the Enterprise. But this is not enough. Have an article on the Smithsonian restoration of the original 11 foot prop. Need more? Here are detailed pics of another restoration (there have been three)

Please stop being stoooooooopid.

There are certain advantages to being a self employed member of the Merchant Class. I tend to awaken late (if at all), my off season schedule allows me to travel to strange and exotic lands and showing my "Member of the Merchant Class" ID card allows me to get out of some very sticky situations involving the disposal of dead hookers.

But one thing that we are at the mercy of is Other Peoples Stupidity. This year, it was looking like the last weekend of the Great Lakes Fair would overlap with both the opening of the Michigan faire and GenCon. This is what we in "the business" call "teh suck" as it means I either split my stock 3 ways (with too little stock at all three shows)or split it two ways and leave my minion Jesse with at Great lakes to sell pictures of corsets from and empty booth. But wait! A ray of sunshine. A fellow merchant tells me Michigan moved back its opening one weekend. Sweet! This means I don't have to pack up Pennsic frantically, unpack, repack for two events, leave Ohio, drive up to Michigan, set up a booth, leave stock, and then drive to Minneapolis. Horay for sleep!

But wait! The contract for the Michigan fair arrived today, with a prominent sticker declaring the earlier starting date. The contract within also confirms the earlier, more sucky date. This begins a small flurry of mental activity, as we will once again have to make the grand tour of middle America AND rob one of my booths to satisfy the hunger of two big shows. There's nothing for it, we just have to bend over and take it.

By sheer chance I called the Michigan Ren offices to let them know that their website was incorrect and that they might want to fix that. 'No, No' I am told "the dates on the site are correct'.

"But by contract says otherwise, and my contract trumps a pimply 17 year old part timer on the phone."

"No, the Craft coordinator didn't have the correct dates and is now working to correct the mistake."

Now I know the craft coordinator has a lot on her plate. But really. The one thing you should really have a farking grip on is the dates of your event. Some merchants are on the road constantly, getting mail very infrequently. And contradicting info will surely mean that at least ONE merchant is going to be VERY pissed when he opens his booth on Sat Aug 15 and NO ONE IS F@CKING THERE. It will happen, of this I am sure. Some of these guys leave one show and roll in the night before the next show opens, working all night to prep their booth and set up stock.

I'm glad I won;t be one of them.

Awesome

The Coolest House in the Neighborhood (And Maybe the Galaxy) -- powered by Cracked.com

At long last...

Last season they did a lot of location filming at the Michigan Ren Faire for the movie "All's Faire in Love". It looks like the trailer is out and it's getting a distributor.

It's weird seeing a place you know in movies. Some of the humor is pretty stupid. The lead actor also annoys the hell out of me. I mean really, I just want to punch him in the face. Take a look...

Memorial Day

Last weekend we did MarCon in Columbus. Set up just behind us was a merchant I have known for a number of years. I would not call him more that an acquaintance. To say that we are on different ends of the political spectrum would be an understatement.

There are some who look askance at him for showing off pictures of his 12 year old daughter brandishing a pink AR-15 rifle. I do not. From what I can tell he has taught her a great deal about gun safety and handling. His sense of humor is a bit quirky. Not only does he sell shirts that say 'Infidel' it's also spelled out in Arabic.

But on Sunday morning even I did a double take when I saw his t-shirt which read "I'd rather be waterboarding".

Wow. I know there are far more offensive shirts over at places like t-shirt hell. But for me that once packed a bit of a punch. But unlike so many fat armchair quarterbacks and fighting keyboardists, this guy has actually served. So has his wife. Both have done multiple tours in 'The Sandbox'. So I'll give him some leeway. He's one of the people fighting for his country, for his family and for what he believes is right.

even if he is a bit of a dick...

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly...

Our last full day in Istanbul had only two items on the agenda. A visit to Topkapi Palace and to hit the Grand Bazaar for The Big Score.

One of these tasks went off pretty well, the other...

Despite an early start our guide quickly let us know that this wasn't going to be pretty. Two large cruise ships had pulled into port the night before. He counted about thirty tour buses in the immediate area and more pouring in. But that wasn't the fun part. Apparently THAT day was "Lets bring every goddamn school kid in Istanbul to Topkapi Palace day".

Awesome.

There were thousands of 'em. The place was thick with them. When I had visited 7 years ago in February my friend and I wandered the grounds with few others in sight. We strolled through the treasury rooms at a liesurely pace, taking our time. This time every building, every room was choked with people. I eventually gave up and sat outside, sending Rossana to see some of the wonders of the palace that was once the heart of the Ottoman Empire. She's wanted to see this place ever since watching a 1970's film of the same name. She was very dissapointed. It wasn't the Palace that dissapointed, just the crush of people. I did manage to meake a friend though. A pretty orance cat came by looking for food, but when he saw I had none he determined that I might still be good for something and promptly climbed into my lap.


We left the area and were led to one of the entrances of the Grand Bazaar. We were told the bus would leave in 2 hours. 2 HOURS?? We knew that that wasn't going to work for us. But we also couldn't stay too long as traffic could very likely trap us as the afternoon wore on. We headed off, having taken note of the exact route to take to the street of the scarf sellers. Then we promptly got turned all the hell around. The Grand Bazaar isn't just a large collection of streets that go in all directions, there are levels. Streets, passageways, gates, alleys and ramps. We backtracked slightly and I took us down a road that I SWORE went downhill last time I was there but was now uphill. I proved to be right and we at last found the shop we had visited two weeks earlier.

The young man we had spoken to recornized us immedielty. (I wonder how many firery red-heads he gets accompanied by 6'2" Arab types). No haggling needed to be done. We set about finding what we wanted. It quickly became apparent to our man that we were very serious and that picking out 1 or 2 items at a time was too slow. We found a color and he sent a minion to get us a stack of ten. When we looked at the velvet scarves he beconed us upstairs to his private stock room where we poured over dozens of designs and colors. When something wasn't available a boy was sent to his other shop to fetch it. When we were finished there was a serious pile of scarves and pashminas on the large table in his shop. He sent his boy off for the last items and he offered us tea, which is the custom of the Turkish people everywhere.

We did some number crunching using a calculator plus my iphone for currency and weight conversions. Then we counted eveything up. Our man started to pull out bags to put the stacks of scarves in but we waved him off. Rossana pulled out her uber duffle bag and rolled it out on the table with a flourish, much to the suprise of the owners. We began loading our goods and counting up money. I had stupidly left a wad of Turskish Lira in my shirt pocket that morning but we managed to scrape up what me needed and cram everything into the duffle. I noticed that a LOT of small merchants had wireless credit card machines now. Last time I visited we had to get a friend of a friend to run a card. Always a dicey proposition. We stuck with cash though because there would be no extra fees for either party.

Almost all of this was done without any of us being able to speak the others language.

I hefted the duffel onto my shoulder and we set out to get something to eat. Although there were other shops on the street we simply had no more room and we were getting worried about weight. Going over our weight allowance could lead to serious fees.

We grabbed some small souveneers and had to come up with a plan to get back across the Golden Horn and to our Hotel in Taksim. Istanbul is a massive city some 65 miles from side to side and as such has a lot of commuters. Luckily this means they have a very good mass transit system. We found a tram platform and with some pointing and maps were directed to the right tram. It was very crowded but much faster than trying to cross any of the bridges by bus or car. In a short time were over the bridge and somewhere closer to our hotel. We flagged down a taxi who rushed down back steeets to avoid the ever thickening city traffic. We made it back just in time to dump our booty, change into clean clothes and head out for our farewell dinner.

Back home

Long flight from Turkey, miserable flight from JFK. Got some solid sleep and am just starting to look at the pile of crap to do.


I'll post about our last day in Istanbul and our mission in the grand bazaar later. There's a lawn that needs mowin'.

Back in Istanbul

We only has a short time in Bursa, the cradle of the Ottoman Empire. One of the cities chief products is silk (in addition to ceramics and fighter jets). We hit the 15th century silk bazaar and got to work. I'd like to tell you that we sat in a small shop in the oldest part of the bazaar, the Han, sipping tea with a old Turkish man wearing a well worn Fez.

Alas, this was not the case. The shop we settled on was fairly modern looking, and our contact was a young woman in Bell Bottoms. (Oh, and the Fez has been illegal in Turkey since 1924). Still she was a good bargainer and we walked away with over 50 silk scarves and wool pashminas. We left the bazaar which exits near the 13th century Grand Mosque just as the afternoon call to prayer began.

"I like the way we get to shop" I said to my wife, smiling.

We did the tourist thing today, visiting Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. Both are beautiful buildings. I learned a few new things, but the crowds were a real distraction. We ate at the legendary Pudding Shop where the owner notices me taking picturess of some of the old photos and letters on the wall.

"Where you from?" the older man at ther register asked.


"From America."

"Why you..?" he made the picture taking motion.

"This the the famouse Pudding Shop. I read about it in a book. Magic Bus. All the hippies started out for India and Nepal from here. I've only seen Turkey this trip, but I wanted to eat here in their memory."

He smiled knowingly and reached behind the counter. He handed me some postcards with the Pudding Shop on the front along with the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. There were also two stickers touting the 'World Famous' restaurant. He shook my hand warmly. "Good travels". I left very geeked.

We took a cruise on the Bosporus to see some of the many Sultans palaces and other buildings that line this historic seaway.

Later, we crawled through Istanbul trafic to our hotel. The last time we did this we flew across in record time, then we remembered it was May Day, the day of the riots.

Tomorrow is the Topkapi palace and the one BIG chance to buy everything we've been holding back on. And we have to do in in a narrow window of time or we'll get trapped in the same traffic we did today. Right now we're sitting in our room roasting. No AC and no breeze outside the window. We're testing the capacity of our luggage to see how best to pack. Already some clothes have been jettisoned, more will go tomorrow.

Little things

A long haul today from Cappadocia to Ankora. We left the ancient silk road and traveled north and west along the "Kings Road", the route Alexander the Great took on his hit world tour. We passed lake Tuz, a massive seasonal lake that is only 2 inches deep and stained red with plankton.

In Ankora we visited the Mausoleum of Mustapha Kemal better known as Attaturk, the founder of the republic. The large marble buildings are inspired by the Hittites and surrounded by a large wooded space. After that, the Anatolean Museum.

Very tired. I think my brain is full.

Here are some observations. Nothing detailed, just things I have noticed during my time here:

• Turkey has embraced energy efficiency. Every bulb I've seen has been a CFT. Often, the lobby and hallways of our hotels are unlighted until late afternoon.
  
  
• Their selection of candy and junkfood is quite good.
  
  
• Imams are not allowed to wear their clerical robes outside the Mosque. Sounds great right? Go secular state! But wait, Imams are actually civil servants. Tax money actually pays them a salary (though it doesn't pay for Mosques). This blew my mind at first and seems a complete contradiction. But think of it like this, how many civil servants do you know who are fanatical about their job? It makes a bizzare sense.
  
  
• The roads are pretty good here and the drivers are not maniacs. I could feel pretty confident renting a car here and driving it, even in the city.
  
  
• Turks like to keep their vehicles clean. I've seen taxi drivers washing their cars lovingly.
  
  
• I think its forbidden to show people smoking on tv. I saw a movie a few nights ago and they blurred out a characters hand as he smoked a pipe. Wierd.
  
  
• Youtube is blocked in Turkey
  
  
• Most homes use a passive solar water heater. A large tank sits on the roof and feeds water through a dark glass panel then into the house. These tanks are on the roofs of both the poor and the middle class
  
  
• When touring Cappadocia our guide 'Mus' told us that some of "Return of the Jedi" was filmed here. This, I knew, was complete B.S. but I just checked the web anyway. I am not sure how big a geek that makes me.