Happy Halloween!

DH realized that we have an unintentional theme to our Halloween costumes this year, Australia. I am supposed to be Miss Fisher, an Australian detective from the 1920s, and Blaze is supposed to be Scrooloose from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, an kid from post-apocolyptic Australia.

We went out to Railroad Square to take some pictures and very short movies of Blaze in his costume yesterday afternoon.









Last night, we went to Wakulla Springs for The Black Lagoon Ball.





It was a free event and ended up being very overcrowded. There was standing room only for the movie. Blaze and I stood in the back of the room for the movie trailers, a cartoon, and the beginning of the movie. DH was standing back by the door and couldn't hear anything because the live music in the lobby was far too loud and didn't stop during the movie. He finally gave up and sat out in the lobby reading. Blaze and I stayed for the whole movie and our perseverance paid off, first when a nice older couple offered Blaze a seat, and then about halfway through the movie some people left and we were able to get seats together.

In the lobby:











The unveiling of the creature head made by Jim Henson studios (not the original, which has been lost, but cast from the original):

Homeschool Halloween

Yesterday was the local homeschool group's Halloween party at the park.  Every year it seems to be a little bigger.



There were so many wonderful costumes:

















Blaze went as the character Scrooloose, one of the children from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.



There were also three tables full of Halloween snacks and several games for the kids to play.

Blaze volunteered to run a beanbag toss game that was built by the family of one of his friends.










The parade of costumes:




Back at home, I made a jailed pirate carved pumpkin:

Splendid Teapot Racing Florida's First Event

We had a great time at Renninger's Industrial Show over the weekend and the teapot race was a success and very funny to watch.



I really enjoy seeing all the creative ways that people went with the concept of using a remote control chassis and a teapot to build their racers.

Renninger's Antiques and Flea Market were very generous! They had two large tents set up for us and a table. They also donated a trophy for the grand champion.

The grass course was difficult for some of the racers, but really those were the most entertaining to watch.

Another fun, surprise addition to our race was live musical accompaniment. Daniel O'Ryan from the band Clockwork Knotwork played his steampunk electro-bagpipes for us. His large repertoire of songs added a lot to the races. I now think all teapot races need a bagpipe player.

The Ramp of Doom

This is the "Ramp of Doom" as designed by the members of Splendid Teapot Racing New Zealand. It is also the piece of the teapot racing course that I have been most intimidated by. I put off building it as long as I possibly could, in hopes that someone else would take pity on me and build it for me, but race day is quickly approaching. I couldn't procrastinate any longer and it turned out being something I could do. Curves are not easy to create and it's not perfect, but it's a lot better than I imagined it would be a couple weeks ago, when I was suffering from complete lack of confidence.




For the edge of the ramp, I used plastic canvas, held in place with upholstery tacks.

The non-skid surface is sand sprinkled on wet paint and then painted over again.



Being able to fit the ramp in the car is important, so I made it in two parts. The wedge-shaped support piece in the middle has two bolts that run through it, holding the two halves together.



The kids testing the new ramp and having fun with the teapot racer:

Asian Festival

Yesterday was the Asian Festival in downtown Tallahassee. It was our first time going and we didn't get a very early start, but there were still plenty of things to see. The festival covered two city blocks and had two stages and several food vendors.