Mom's Guide to the Galaxy

As winter ends…

gardening season begins. We’ve hit 60 degrees already – though it’s about to drop again – and you’d better believe that I’ve been outside tending to my garden. I started with the new solar path lanterns that I picked up at Costco with my annual rebate, a perk that comes with having a Costco-branded credit card. They were actually a filler, my big rebate purchase was an outside storage cabinet that still needs to be assembled. I think the box doesn’t do the lights justice; they are way cooler when lit than I expected.

Solar lights with a sun pattern — Check out the cool sun pattern.

Then I set up the long overdue rain barrel in my back yard. I could have placed it by a gutter and installed a rain diverter, but realistically, I need it by my back garden beds, which are the furthest from the hose. It would collect more water attached to a gutter, but it wouldn’t be as useful. I started it off with a bit of water from the hose to weigh it down, to prevent it from blowing into the neighbor’s yard before it rains again. Conveniently enough, it rained on and off for the rest of the day, so it has some additional water supplementing what I started with.

As long as I was out there, I found myself pulling a few weeds and some plant remnants from last year’s garden. Soon, I’ll be out there regularly, trimming off the old dry mint to let the new growth peek through, and getting seeds into the ground. Spring is just around the corner, and not too long after the start of gardening season, we get grilling season.

The City of Lost Fortunes by Bryan Camp

Near the end of 2017, I reviewed The City of Lost Fortunes by Bryan Camp. In my notes about the book, I wrote “Not expecting a sequel, but would like to read more in this world.” To my delight, I recently received the next Crescent City novel, Gather the Fortunes. That review isn’t ready to share… OK, I haven’t finished writing it. But the second book was as delightful as the first, so here is the review I wrote about The City of Lost Fortunes for the February 2018 issue of Booklist. I highly recommend keeping an eye out for more fabulous writing by Bryan Camp.

Bryan Camp’s debut novel, The City of Lost Fortunes, fashions a supernatural world that barely hides on the fringe of society, manipulating the city of New Orleans. Six years after Hurricane Katrina, Jude Dubuisson is still struggling to control his magical ability to find lost things; it went haywire when the hurricane hit. The ability was somehow inherited from his father who was more than human; unfortunately, that’s all Jude knows about him. Having worked with the supernatural crowd before the hurricane, Jude is dragged back into that world by a debt owed to Dodge, the Fortune god of New Orleans, where he finds himself playing a poker game with rules, stakes, and (tarot) cards he doesn’t understand. The situation is aggravated by Dodge’s murder, which Jude is forced to investigate to avoid becoming the primary suspect. He’s fairly sure he didn’t do it, and hopes that investigating will clue him in to the rules and stakes of the ongoing poker game, assuming the dark presence that’s stalking him doesn’t kill him first. There isn’t a dull page as Jude determines who his real friends are and the extent of his abilities. Anne Rice fans will enjoy this fresh view of supernatural life in New Orleans, while fans of Kim Harrison’s urban fantasy will have a new author to watch.

For a good cause.

Frances with hair in February 2018 — Frances with hair (February 2018)

There are two charity events I try to participate in each year: the Hustle Chicago and the Brookfield ZooRunRun (or ZooRunWalk, as I call it). The Chicago Hustle is a stair climb, walking up the building formerly known as the John Hancock Center to raise money for lung disease research. In our case, we opt for the half climb, which is only 52 floors.

The Brookfield ZooRunRun is, not surprisingly, an event that supports Brookfield Zoo, one of the two large zoos in the Chicagoland area. It’s a 5k within the zoo, including along some paths that are normally restricted to zoo vehicles, before normally opening time. Some people show up wearing animal headbands or hats, or even in animal costumes, so you never know what you’re going to see as you walk or run the route through the zoo. It’s a lovely way to spend an autumn Sunday morning.

Less frequently, but just as eagerly, I sometimes participate in a St. Baldrick’s event. No, there isn’t really a saint named Baldrick; the event name came from merging “bald” – for how people look after shaving off their hair – and St. Patrick, because the first event was held at a St. Patrick’s Day party. Participants raise money for childhood cancer research by shaving their heads. (You don’t have to shave all of your hair off… but I think it’s more fun that way.)

This year will be my third time participating in a St. Baldrick’s event. The second time I did it, I had been at my job for under a year and only warned a couple people in my office that I was doing it. I have learned not to freak people out like that.

There are an assortment of creative and fun ways to give to various charities. And, as the founders of St. Baldrick’s proved, if there isn’t one, you can create one. In my case, that means three more weeks of hair keeping my ears warm, and then hats until spring finally arrives.

Trying something new at Capricon: hosting a party

Last weekend, I attended my 19th Capricon. Yes, really… 19 consecutive years at the same convention. Wow! Capricon was the first convention that I discovered the room parties at. (I had attended DragonCon before that, but didn’t encounter the parties until after my first Capricon.) I’ve assisted at parties with various groups over the years, but just with on-site stuff… checking IDs, supplying some fresh baked cookies, that sort of thing.

At last year’s Capricon, as I was wandering the parties with friends, I wandered straight into their party idea – building a box fort in one of the party rooms. Letting people decorate the boxes after we built it. And, of course, having drinks. Really, the core concept was the boxes, and those are easy to collect over the course of a year. One of our organizers studied theater set design, so he’s quite capable of building a set… pretty quickly, as it turns out.

A box fort flyer, a decorated box with "Just Another Box in the Wall", the Party Staff Choice award, and part of the wall — A Box Fort flyer, a decorated box, the Party Staff Choice award, and part of the wall

We had on and off discussions throughout the year, mostly about what drinks to serve, then eventually what entertainment to include for a castle-themed box fort. We considered what style cups and wristbands we wanted for the party, and what snacks to serve. And how much of everything to buy.

That’s the hard question, really… you have an idea of how many people will come to the convention based on previous years (just over 1,200 this year), then guess at how many will come to the parties, how many cups each person will use, and what drinks they may prefer of the ones you’re serving. We ran the party for two nights. Few people, myself included, keep their party wristbands on from night to night, so you have to account for double use on the wristbands. Some people want a new cup for each drink, some will reuse their cups.

To say we had a blast, well, that’s an understatement. We’re looking forward to doing it again at next year’s convention, the Tropics of Capricon.

Try or learn something new.

At the beginning of the year, I mentioned that I set goals for the year and for the week. One of my weekly goals, with no correlation to an annual goal, is to try or learn something new. That’s it, no restrictions on what. It can be a new food, a new restaurant, random trivia that is somehow useful, or a new game… anything that I look at and go “oh, I didn’t know that” or “I tried something.”

When I visited California in December, most of the restaurants I went to were new to me, so rather than counting those, I looked for new (to me) foods on their menus. As a result, I tried a seared ahi salad one night, and Wild Alaskan sand dabs another. Locally, I’ve tried a couple new restaurants – including my recent visit to Balmoral – and explored a couple places in Valparaiso, Indiana last week.

Learning applies to work as well. Working in IT is a constant opportunity to learn, both about the software that I work with, the business processes our assorted clients use it for, and other software that can tie into it. I’ve spent the last week or so learning software that I’ve owned for several years (as part of a package), but never had a reason to use. The added bonus in this case was succeeding at what I was attempting to do, which involved repeatedly searching online for tips on the software as I struggled to customize one bit or another.

And that’s the reward for trying something new… accomplishing my work goal was satisfying, just as learning a new game can be. Trying a new food… well, that depends on whether I like it or not. So far, so good.

Swords and Fire trilogy by Melissa Caruso

About a year and a half ago, I received The Tethered Mage as a review book. I was thrilled when I read it, and was even more thrilled when I received the sequel, The Defiant Heir, a few months later. The trilogy reaches its exciting conclusion in The Unbound Empire, coming out this April. I won’t share the individual reviews here – suffice to say that I like all three books and highly recommend them. Instead, I want to look at why I like these books as much as I do.

Let’s start with the world… you are either born a mage, or you’re not. Certain kinds of magic are favored over others, at least within the Raverran Empire. Raverran mages, called Falcons, are each bound to a Falconer with a jess, a magical bracelet that allows the Falconer to suppress the Falcon’s magic. This isn’t a big deal if your Falcon creates artifices – magical devices, like the jesses, that can be used by other people – but when your Falcon wields balefire, or can call and control storms at a whim, then their magic is sealed unless at training or desperately needed.

Neighboring Vaskandar has a different approach to magic, favoring vivomancers, who control different aspects of life magic. The Vaskandran mages, called Witch Lords, are intricately tied to the lands they govern, to the point where they can drain the life from their subjects to heal their own wounds. More subjects means more power for the Witch Lords, which is why Prince Ruven, a Vaskandran skinwitch, is looking to invade Raverra.

The protagonist, Lady Amalia Cornaro is heir to one of the ruling families of the Raverran Empire. Over the course of the trilogy, she evolves from a young scholar who defies her mother to sneak into the poorest district of Raverra in search of a book, to proposing a new law freeing the Falcons – the magicians of the Empire – from the archaic laws that bind them, and accompanying her Falcon, Zaira, into battle. Amalia is tasked repeatedly with saving the Empire, and put in the unfortunate position that leaders face of having to decide who is expendable to achieve that goal.

The twists and turns in this trilogy will keep you guessing as to who will survive, and they’re so well-written that you won’t want to put them down. When you finish, you’ll want to pick them back up to re-read the bits and pieces that connected the clues for Amalia, then back to each of those clues to see if you missed any others.

Balmoral – a Scottish delight in Chicagoland

For a recent celebration, we made our way on a snowy night to Balmoral, a Scottish restaurant in the far west suburbs of Chicago. Before learning about this delightful restaurant, I had bemoaned only being able to dine on haggis at the annual Scottish festival in Itasca, particularly since I don’t make it to the festival every year.

The ambience of the restaurant was lovely, we were seated in a neat little nook about midway through the restaurant. We were barely seated when a basket of breads was delivered, and spent a couple minutes deciding which kind to try first. Every so often, I noticed the drifting sound of bagpipes. The owner was wandering throughout the restaurant, talking to people, and every employee seemed genuinely happy to be there.

Haggis Drambuie served with three kinds of crispy toast — Haggis Drambuie at Balmoral restaurant in Campton Hills, IL

Balmoral’s menu includes two haggis dishes, one as a starter and one as an entree. I’m not particularly fond of turnips (aka “neeps”), which is a key ingredient in the entree combination of “Haggis, Neeps and Tatties,” so I ordered the Haggis Drambuie. It was a tasteful treat to start us off, with three different kinds of crispy toast perfectly proportioned for the amount of haggis and sauce that was served.

In the interest of trying less commonly available dishes, we ordered the Great Granny’s Rabbit Pie and the Perthshire’s Pleasant Peasants Pheasant. Both were delicious. In the interest of exploring the dessert menu, half of the rabbit pie came home with me.

Saving space for the desserts was well worth it. Unfortunately, the trio of mini-desserts we ordered looked so lovely, I forgot to take a photo. Well, that and we were distracted by the bagpipe rendition of “Happy Birthday”. We will definitely make it back to this fabulous restaurant.

Crafting inspiration

At any given time, I probably have half a dozen craft projects in progress across various “crafts” – sewing, painting, crocheting, writing music – yes, I’m counting it… it flexes my creative muscles. The hard part isn’t finding ideas… the real challenge is finding time to finish them. Though sometimes it’s finding time to start them too.

All of the fabric for a TARDIS dress before sewing begins — A TARDIS in the making

For example, I’ve been saying for a couple years now that I was going to make myself a TARDIS dress. But it wasn’t until we decided to have a Dorkstock Halloween party that I actually started looking at patterns and fabrics. (Because, of course, John Kovalic has drawn the big blue box before.) After picking a pattern – and buying it just after New Year’s, when patterns typically go on sale at the craft store – I struggled with the fabric choices at the store and ended up buying fabric online instead. As of last Saturday, I was at the Ikea level for the dress… I had all of the parts ready and just needed to begin assembly. It’s not done yet, but it’s past the initial Ikea phase, and I’m gradually working in tidbits that will transform the dress from a black and blue dress to a TARDIS dress.

Intricately carved wooden wheel with somewhat Aztec designs — Carved face at a restaurant

Watercolor rendition of a face from the carved wheel — Painted Face

Sometimes inspiration jumps out at you. We were at a restaurant in the fall and I noticed this awesome carving on the wall across from me. I took a couple photos. I knew I wanted to do something with it, though I wasn’t sure what. I focused in on a face near the bottom of the wheel and drew that onto a canvas, then picked a small selection of colors that I wanted to use for the painting. I have to say, this was a fun painting to do.

More recently, when my Dad passed away, Cassandra was inspired to write a poem, linking the nearby erupting volcano to our family’s sadness. Volcanoes are stunningly beautiful and dangerous parts of our world, particularly for those living near them. If you want to see the stunning beauty of Fuego during an eruption, Google it… the photographs show far more than I can in a painting. But this was another one I felt I had to paint, my version of Fuego’s Lament.

Watercolor rendition of the volcano Fuego erupting — Fuego’s Lament

Inspiration is all around us, and there’s no real limit on the crafts you can choose to express yourself.

Making the most of winter

It can be difficult finding the urge to go outside when it’s cold, and it’s certainly hard to stay out there for an extended period. Here are some of the reasons (other than karate) that I’ve gotten off the couch so far this winter.

Mooseheart holiday lights, a drive through display

Mooseheart holiday lights with the word "JOY", a drive through display — Mooseheart holiday lights, a drive through display

Holiday lights – tons of places do special light displays approaching the holidays, including various zoos in the Chicagoland area, and as of this year, Six Flags Great America. I didn’t make it to those. I did make it to the nearby Mooseheart campus holiday lights, which runs from Black Friday through New Year’s Eve every year. This is a driving route, rather than walking, though it includes an option to stop for hot chocolate and a visit with Santa.

Fabyan Japanese Gardens 2018 Winter Solstice celebration, with luminaries lighting the path and lights strung along the bridge — Fabyan Japanese Gardens 2018 Winter Solstice celebration

Winter Solstice celebration – my first visit to the nearby Fabyan Japanese Garden was for their first Winter Solstice celebration. They’re usually only open from May to October, so this seemed like a prime opportunity to explore. The event took place after dark – which made parking in a minimally lit parking area interesting – with a mix of lights and luminaries outlining the paths and architectural elements of the garden. The bridges were decorated, but off limits because of the risk of slipping with the combination of darkness and cold temperatures.

Two snow leopards lounging at Brookfield Zoo — Snow leopards lounging at Brookfield Zoo

Close-up of a sea lion that was playing with visitors through the glass — Sea lion playing with visitors

Brookfield Zoo – While we missed the zoo lights this winter, we did make it to Brookfield Zoo in January. The indoor creatures aren’t exposed to the temperature change, which makes visiting them a good spot to warm up, in between seeing the animals that were clearly enjoying the cooler weather. On that particular morning, some of the aquatic creatures were remarkably active, even interacting with visitors through the glass. Sadly, there wasn’t snow on the ground at the time; snow adds a layer of beauty to the zoo.

How do you get up and moving when it’s cold outside?

Road trip for literary heroines

Just after Christmas, I realized that there was an exhibit at the Putnam Museum titled Literary Heroines: Their Times, Their Fashions. The museum had been on my radar for the past few months; it’s just across the border in Davenport, Iowa, about a two hours drive, and neither of us had been to Iowa before. It was the next to last weekend of the exhibit, so our last chance to see it.

The Putnam website described the exhibit as “Strong and influential female protagonists spring from the pages of some of literature’s most iconic books with the Putnam’s the newest exhibit, Literary Heroines: Their Times, Their Fashions — open NOW!”

The exhibit featured “the apparel and interests of exciting and memorable characters, as they come to life through vignettes,” with a range of heroines form Hermione Granger (Harry Potter, of course), Laura Ingalls (Little House on the Prairie), and Scout (To Kill a Mockingbird). I can only imagine how hard it was to narrow the list down to these twenty titles. Every exhibit included information about the book and the heroine, along with a mannequin outfitted appropriately.

I came out of it with a reading list; while I’m familiar with most of the titles, I think I’ve only read three of them. This is the list of books represented:

The Age of Innocence (Edith Wharton)

Putnam Museum: Literary Heroines exhibit
The Atomic City Girls (Janet Beard)
The Color Purple (Alice Walker)
Daughters of the Dust (Julie Dash)
The Forest Lover (Susan Vreeland)
Harry Potter series (JK Rowling)
The Help (Kathryn Stockett)
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
Like Water for Chocolate (Laura Esquivel)
Little House series (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
Miss Fisher Mysteries (Kerry Greenwood)
Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker (Jennifer Chiaverini)
Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
The Nightingale (Kristin Hannah)
The Plague of Doves (Louise Erdrich)
Pride & Prejudice (Jane Austen)
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (Lisa See)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
Wonder Woman comic books

The rest of the museum was entertaining, with many hands on activities for children of all ages (including those of us who are children with jobs, aka “adults”). We took the time to watch a 3-D movie about Oceans; it was one of three choices in the time we were there. And we played a bit… infrared pictures are fun.

Putnam Museum: infrared picture of two people — Putnam Museum: infrared picture