We are making cool things over here.
In the foreground you see Chase. Chase was a fantastic guy to work with. He has decided to move on with his life and from Qiagen and we will miss him very much.
We all hope he has such success and joy back home in California.
I love my coworkers.
We had an unsuccessful start and then a retry at taking the kids to board game night at Haven. The first time we went they were (mostly Megan was) too rowdy and we had to leave.
I was embarrassed and sad and wanted to never go again. I did the good mom thing and talked to them and chose a shorter game and tried again a week later.
It went better and I will continue to try to take them for board game nights when they want to go.
It is super stressful for me to go to board game night at all because of the enforced talking to and being near strangers. The kids are a good buffer for that as I just play with them. I love playing games but am always afraid I wont get something quickly enough or that I will screw something up or that I will say something dumb. It is honestly almost more stress than it is worth. On the other hand It is good practice for me just as it is for them to push my comfort zone, especially for things that I ostensibly enjoy.
Kiernan was getting shaggy and needed a haircut. For the first time we tried a barber instead of the usual hair cutter place we go to.
Success
I made a cool bowl with the laser cutter at Haven. A woman named Heather was making them and I was admiring them and then she gave me the pattern. I think I will make many more.
We got a good snow.
During which we had a fancy tea party.
We went accidentally (because we were trying round two of kids at board game night in coincidence with the event) went to Frederick Fire and Ice festival.
It was very crowded but the ice sculptures were great and the fire dancers and demos were great and i have wanted to see Fire and Ice but been to lazy to get by butt over there before.
Here is Megan by the sweet little fire truck sculpture.
I took a metal (sand)casting class at Haven.
We used the laser cutter to make acrylic medallions as we have done before but this time we used those medallions as the stamp to form the sand (this is a special kind of sand called green sand (it feels just like kinetic sand)). We put a little cornstarch on the acrylic so the sand would come out easily.
Once we got the form looking right in the sand we stuck pen through the bottom to make a path for the hot pewter. We poured waited 1 minute and then crossed our fingers and brushed off the sand to reveal our masterpieces.
I am very happy with how it turned out.
After than we worked on the handles.
We used the silhouette technique which works very well if you actually paste the paper int eh center of your wood bland.
/facepalm
We used purple heart for the handles and it is beautiful and I got to use the band saw (my favorite of the wood working tools I have leaned in the past year.
I quite want a band saw.
We filed and sandpapered and polished the parts up and glued them together.
Then we got a nice lacquer/epoxy spray thing over the whole thing and let it dry for a bit.
I really enjoyed learning this stuff and love my stamp even though my handle is uneven. I want to do more with metal but not by self yet for sure.
We watched the worlds slowest Superbowl.
We took inspiration from Megan's favorite cooking show Nailed It.
We made a great spread in recognition of the fact that until Washington dose better the Superbowl will be a food holiday for us anyway.
Erena got her great handwriting displayed in a very official and lauded manner.
Also we are now a semi Japanese household.
Erena did a giant international flight then played hard for the entire day. She and Megan collapsed at the end of it of shear exhaustion.
David has figured out how to do a nifty recessed port thing on the electric guitar he is building.
To see more of his guitar project stuff go see Kuehnert Strings
Kathryn went straight over to her folks place (she is staying with us) to visit.
The weather was so nice there. We saw snowdrops and I thought about spring and gardening.
They were a bit short on wood.
The girls played on their kindles.
Mrs. Scearce had started her first flat of seeds.
We got home and had a fancy tea party with more kindles.
On valentines day we had chocolate and flowers and a trip to the mall.
We had fancy science ice cream (liquid nitrogen cooled).
We finally did Kiernan's birthday bowling.
That was super fun.
The kids wanted to do a lot of things and so a lot of things we tried.
We also went ice skating.
We had a big ice storm and I got liberal leave off of work.
The trees started throwing things at me.
Look at the ice next to its branch.
We got a Valentines basket from Davids dad.
This was the only healthy thing in the house for a bit there.
Thank you Opa!
During the ice storm Kathryn's dad went out to cut some wood and had a bad fall.
We were all afraid something like this would happen. They just need to heat their house though. Some people have been critical of his cutting wood but there isn't much of an alternative when your house is heated by a wood burning stove and you are out of the cut stuff.
We went to the hospital to see him and learn of his very badly broken leg. Thank God the chainsaw didn't cut him on the way down. He broke both bones in his lower leg. One of them in two places and the other basically shattered. He has a new titanium rod and a no weight bearing order.
He was ok otherwise but it sucks.
We took Yoshi to the airport for his return flight.
We went to Scearce's and worked on making the house a little more orderly and livable generally.
We took some things from Licia's move and we cleaned and we collected some wood.
We were forbidden from buying wood.
Boo!
The weather was good again though and I had taken a few days off to see Kathryn so we were able to do quite a bit.
Carolyn is here and Licia is around and with Kathryn in town too its a good time to "have at" the house.
I can drive the truck so I drove loads of things places.
Plus I like chainsaws.
We got a great care package from Hawaii. Look at these candy leis and goofy children.
For the bardic at haven for Feb I sang Ca' the Yowes.
I love that song and hopefully David will be accompanying me on guitar for my new YouTube channel of Missy music.
Krishna's parents cut down a tree in their yard so we drove the 2ish house out to their place and got some free wood there.
Krishnas mom fed us all the good foods!
We got home pretty late and there are about 2 more loads to get but yay free wood.
We have been working on some new 3D printer projects.
The one above is a 3D scanner. Minus the motor that is just a turn table and a device bracket. They cost like 300 bucks so I am quite happy to try to make one myself!
The one below is a light switch plate.
It is adorable and I love it and will be converting many of the light switch plates in the house to creative cute things.
Megan worked a cookie booth.
Oh how I love Girl Scout Cookies!
If you want to order some you can check the blog entry before this one for the link.
on Presidents day us girls went into DC for some fun.
We went to the Smithsonian Botanical Gardens.
We ate at nice patisseries.
We ran through the sculpture garden like a gazelle.
We did some more ice skating.
It was windy and chilly but great for February and also because it was presidents day we got free parking!
We got Fasnacht doughnuts. They have a weird cool history please follow this link.
David and mom had their birthday. It was a small affair as we have so much else going on. When Davids big gift gets here I will tell you more about it.
I got a great set of pictures from Mary and Dad about their first coffee harvest.
If i get permission from them to share the whole sequence I would love to show you how the coffee went from bush to cup.
Neat stuff!
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