Free Comic Book Day

Blaze dressed as the Tesla Ranger to visit the Bookshelf on S. Monroe St. in Tallahassee this morning. Free comic book day was a big deal there, with super heroes out in front of the store and customers packing the inside.









After lunch, we took the toddler with and went to two more comic book stores, Fall Out Comics on Apalachee Parkway and Cosmic Cat Comics in Railroad Square.



This is the combined haul of both children today:



I purchased one comic book for Blaze, all the rest were free.

This was a really good way to get new people into these stores, because I had never entered any of these stores before today.  I will definitely be going back to The Bookshelf, because it has turned out to be more than a comic book store. It's actually a well-stocked used bookstore that just happens to also have a nice comic book section.

Homeschool Field Day

We are very lucky to live in a community that has such a large and active homeschool group. Today was the annual homeschool Field Day.

Blaze's New Facebook Page

My son has a facebook page, mostly so he can play games. I insist that all friend requests are approved by me and I'm very picky, so he doesn't have many friends on fb. He enjoys costuming, especially steampunk, and enjoys sharing the pictures of his costumes and costumed events, so this past week, I created a Facebook celebrity page for him. It will use only his online/steampunk persona name and I will help him moderate the site.

He's very excited by the the response he's already been getting from family and our friends in the steampunk community.

If you are on Facebook, please go take a look at the page and give it a "like" if you enjoy it and want to continue to see the updates. The page is only a couple days old, so we still have plenty to add.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Blaze/1463585623876456

Thank you!

Sunday, April 13th, at Alt*Con Tallahassee 2014

Alt*Con is our local science fiction convention. This was our first year attending, so I didn't know what to expect, but was very pleasantly surprised by the large number of venders and the quality of the costumes worn by the attendees. It's a fairly small convention, but that meant there were no crowds to deal with and there were more opportunities to meet new people and have actual conversions.

As far as fandoms go, there was a little bit of everything:



Art by Mandem:







The huge Japanese junk food and manga selection:



Star Wars:















Dr. Who:






Battlestar Galactica:





Star Trek:



The SCA:



Steampunk, which included my panel of "Steampunk on a Budget":









And more amazing costumes:













Tap dance troupe preforming at Alt*Con:

A Field Trip to the Field Museum

This past weekend, we made the long drive from Florida to Northern Illinois for my Grandmother's funeral. The funeral was Saturday and I'm very glad that we were able to go, because it gave me a chance to reconnect with family members who I had not seen since I was about 12 years old.

It took two full days of driving to get there, so we stayed two full days, before making the long trek home. Sunday, we took my mom to the Field Museum in Chicago, mostly because I really wanted to see the 1893 Chicago World's Fair Exhibit, while we were in the area.

I had read Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson, a few months ago and DH is reading it currently. The book is based on the true events of the Chicago World's Fair and America's first serial killer. This exhibit was the perfect follow-up to the book.












Napping, Egyptian style:
















I like that at least some things never change. The hall of dinosaurs looks the same as it has looked my whole life, even though much of the rest of the museum has changed.




The 1893 Chicago World's Fair Exhibit: