Pirate FAC

WELL --

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End was very cool, both times I saw it. I know, I am a geek.

I made a new enemy this weekend, and it is all because a certain mayoral candidate does not know how to be a gracious winner.

FAC this week? Who is coming? Last week was very successful at the microbrew party, if you missed it you should feel sad.
This week I think we should go to:
BELIZE!
A country with no McDonalds and 700,000+ speakers of Mayan! You didn't even know people spoke a language called MAYAN! They also have some delicious rum, and cool things to do, like snorkel and lay around in the sun and eat fish (so essentially make like a sea lion).

Barring the actual delivery of me to Belize at 5:00pm on Friday, I will likely be at the good old Surfside for a little bit. AT 5:00 THIS WEEK.
I took too many days off so I have to be late. Of course get there at noon if you like, but I won't show til 5:00.



Bear "I have a Doctorate in Applied Richology" Bonney

FAC Microbrew Partay

Wow, there is a lot to write in this FAC announcement.

First I will say that there is a typo in my calendar. It says "15" for Friday's date so apparently there are two 15ths this month. This is the "Backyard Biosecurity" Avian flu calendar -- it has USDA APHIS VS all over it. I am sad for us.

What else? The internet makes everything seem to move so fast but the biggest things are the HD DVD decryption movement, Diet Coke Plus, and Midnight Cool Flavor Eclipse Gum.

Diet Coke Plus has vitamins. B vitamins and zinc and stuff. I want to quote (not an exact quote but close enough) something I read in Newsweek from some Coke guy:
" We are not promoting it as 'healthier' because that would perpetuate the false idea that soda is bad for you in the first place."
Um, hellllloooo..... is saying that soda is good for us, or --- excuse me-- NOT bad for us?

Midnight Cool Eclipse Gum is NOT good for us. No matter what Wrigley says. Unless you like black licorice or Black Jack gum, mixed with mint. Do not buy this gum if you do not want the refreshing taste of minty licorice.

Okay -- product review segment over.

FAC!!
What are we doing this week?

Well this Friday after I spend a couple of hours basking in the glow of epic pirate sea battles, I will by enjoying many fabulous micro brews at a MICRO BREW PARTY!

Here is how it works:

Every person brings a six pack of a micro brew. The point is to try to have no two of the same six packs. A growler counts as a six pack.

Party is at 6:30 pm. (I will be later than that due to my obligations to Captain Sao Feng.)
Address is Stover and Del Clair -- about halfway between Drake and Swallow on Stover.
RSVP to me if you want to come and we will meet together, or you can just show up and introduce yourself to Cecil and Marsha, our gracious hosts for the evening.
Call me if you want more info.

Happy long weekend Y'all!
Don't get caught breaking the law!


Bear "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0" Bonney

Gay Coke

So we have a new product in my area, since we are a test market for many companies you may not see this product in your area EVER.

It is Diet Coke Plus. As you can see the "Plus" is written in rainbow colors.

Diet Coke Plus is better because it has vitamins! Each 8-ounce serving of Diet Coke Plus provides 15% of the daily value for niacin and vitamins B6 and B12, and 10% for zinc and magnesium.
So it really is good for you, right? Hhahahahahaha. I make joke.

And the beauty is, it tastes exactly like Original Diet Coke!
The thing is I do not care about Diet Coke at all. I prefer Coke to Pepsi in general, but I will drink just about anything. But I have a friend to whom Diet Coke is his third food group (after PBR and Camel Lights). This product may actually make him healthier! So it is for him I christen it "Gay Coke". Welcome to the future, where you never have to actually eat food.

FAC -- lack of interest?

HAY GUYZ! LOL!

Alright, so there is a little too much of the internet chat-speak. (which is not even correct because you can't 'chat' because you are not 'speaking', like a sign doesn't SAY Keep off the grass, it READS Keep off the grass! Don't Do Drugs, I write!) Enough semantics, let's get on with it....

I want to know if any one wants to do FAC this week. I know the weather is getting better all the time and the prospect of spending all Friday afternoon in a dark bar is not so appealing to some. SO if you really want to garden or walk your dog, or go for a bike ride or take a nap on your lawn -- well DO IT!

I think FAC this week will be canceled. Unless I hear riots of dissent. I am taking Friday off because it is the day after my bday, so I will not be around anyway. Audrey Anna is out of town to see some sort of infant human or something. I don't know what everyone else is up to....

BUT if anyone wants to hang out Friday night, just give me a call. Also don't forget that some of us are going regularly to the Geeks Who Drink trivia at Coopersmiths on Sundays at 7:00pm.

Lazy days of summer loom ahead, where I will play with a new pet that is just my speed!














Bear "IT'S MY BIRTHDAY TOMORROW!" Bonney

FAC -- look how early i am!

Okay FAC-ers,

This past week(end) was marked by a small but stalwart group at FAC. We got to have a lot of fun at the brewery, saw some cool art, ate some tasty Surfside cheese fries (the fries there are the BEST), and even took over Elliot's for a brief time. We also coincidentally re-convened at Coopersmith's on Sunday night for the Geeks Who Drink trivia. Without Luke, our team "LEGION OF DOOM", would have never won. We knocked the "Frosted Prom Virgins" skirts in the dirt. There was some unrest about our win, but we will certainly be back next week right up front to show those chuckleheads that we are not a fluke! (Wouldn't that be a great villian? 'The Fluke', it would look like that leech-man from the X-Files and have the power to emit a horrible gas....)

ANYWAY, on to the upcoming FAC and what are we doing this week??

Well I am taking votes for Pitchers or Sliders. I think we should get some more trivia on. Plus those places are close and not too expensive. Despite the uncomfortable time I had at Sliders last time, that is my vote.

Tell me what you want or we will default to Sliders. OR if you have another place you want added to the voting list for this or future weeks, let me know.

I am including the whole Ken Jennings trivia for this week at the very end of this post.

But first a word from our sponsors:

This is a picture from Burning Man, supposedly this car resides during the other 11 months of the year right here in Ft Collins!:











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Tuesday Trivia XLV! Accept no substitutes! I just wrote the questions for this week and I'm starting to think they're too hard. If you agree, just write TOO HARD on your submission, followed by the profanity of your choosing, and you will be given full credit.

Congrats to our perfect scorers last time. Was that you? Find out at http://www.ken-jennings.com/messageboards/viewtopic.php?t=2235 . And since this Sunday is Mother's Day...a big Tuesday Trivia shout-out to all the moms out there. Kick out the jams, Mother's-Day-ers.

(Also, speaking of Mother's Day, shouldn't the apostrophe come *after* the 's'? Is there one particular Mother we are meant to be honoring now ? If it's Mother Earth, why didn't my local Wiccan bookshop inform me of this development?)

THIS WEEK'S QUIZ

1. In which EU country is the first national language spoken fluently by fewer than a tenth of its people?

2. What movie was originally titled $3,000, for the size of Vivian Ward's paycheck?

3. Which signer of the Declaration of Independence was a brewer by trade?

4. What optical component is named, in the 17th century, for the legume whose shape it resembles?

5. What crime were "resurrectionists" guilty of?

6. What Fort Payne quintet is the only band ever named Entertainer of the Year at the Country Music Awards?

7. In the four major North American sports organizations, what unusual distinction is shared by these teams and no others? Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers, Indianapolis Colts, New York Jets, and Toronto Maple Leafs?

LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS

1. What media company's logo is a dog whose left eye is a five-pointed star? Dog + star = Sirius Satellite Radio, soon to merge with XM.

2. Why did Joseph Hazelwood spend three years working at Bean's Cafe, an Anchorage, Alaska, soup kitchen? This was part of his community service for running the Exxon Valdez aground in Prince William Sound, causing the infamous oil spill.

3. What novel's narrator is only referred to as "the second Mrs. de Winter"? Rebecca is the first Mrs. de Winter.

4. Who's the only person to land atop Mr. Blackwell's "Worst Dressed" list three times, in 2001, 2006, and 2007? Britney Spears, though she shared the latest honor with Paris Hilton. Maybe the two can celebrate by going underwear-shopping together.

5. What word, from the Greek for "uneven," refers to a triangle whose sides all have different lengths? Flashback to 6th-grade geometry: those are scalene.

6. HO scale is the world's most popular size of what? Model railroads.

7. What unusual distinction is shared by these countries, and no others? Afghanistan, Australia, Burma, Canada, French Polynesia, India, Iran, Nepal, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka. All have (in whole or in part) really kooky time zones--the kind that are offset by 15, 30, or 45 minutes from UTC rather than a whole number of hours.

Bear "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation" Bonney

FAC May 4th

Greetings all,

Well big news in the arena of imbibing and geekness (you are all geeks, face it). Last weekend Steven and I went to "Geeks Who Drink Trivia" at Coopersmith's on Sunday. It was awesome and our team ('Legion of Doom') took second ( losing first by ONE point.) This was because of distractions like me falling out my chair while I was overexcited about obscure theatre knowledge that I possess. And when Giganta falls, people notice. Kelley and Steven and I are going this coming weekend, so this is kind of an dual invite, come to awesome trivia on Sunday too!

Now to the meat and potatoes (not a medieval vegetable): FAC!

We had a brilliant suggestion to go to Odell's for FAC, which will be short because they close at 6. they have fabulous beers and we can sample some "UNO MAS" or "DOUBLE BROWN". I do not know what those are yet, I am excited to find out.

SO we will go to Odell's for a beer or two, then proceed to the vicinity of THE BEAN CYCLE (coffee shop) to peruse some lovely art by college students (and someone we know!)

After that there are numerous bars available for our drinking pleasure, including Surfside 7, the Vault, East Coast, Elliot's, and so on.....

Odell's map here

BEAN CYCLE is at 144 N College, just a couple of doors South of Surfside.

To prepare you for the joy that is trivia, just in case, here is the Ken Jennings Tuesday trivia for this week, no need to make your response in the form of a question:

THIS WEEK'S QUIZ

1. What media company's logo is a dog whose left eye is a five-pointed star?

2. Why did Joseph Hazelwood spend three years working at Bean's Cafe, an Anchorage, Alaska, soup kitchen?

3. What novel's narrator is only referred to as "the second Mrs. de Winter"?

4. Who's the only person to land atop Mr. Blackwell's "Worst Dressed" list three times, in 2001, 2006, and 2007?

5. What word, from the Greek for "uneven," refers to a triangle whose sides all have different lengths?

6. HO scale is the world's most popular size of what?

7. What unusual distinction is shared by these countries, and no others? Afghanistan, Australia, Burma, Canada, French Polynesia, India, Iran, Nepal, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka.

After that there are numerous bars available for our drinking pleasure, including Surfside 7, the Vault, East Coast, Elliot's, and so on.....

Bear "CHESS! *crash*" Bonney

In case you wanted to know:

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Which might make you say "Why bother?" and
I would say "Because I can."

KILT part deux

So here is the second kilt making blog. Finally.


To re-cap a bit, here is the kilt with the framing square, the box pleats laid out and numbered, fall line chalked in.

Below is the end of my 15 pleats and the under apron, plus the excess fabric to the upper left in the pic.






Below is the kilt with all box pleats neatly pinned for sewing.










Here are the pleats sewn, see how the edges stand up!












Here are two good picture of the tapers pinned and pressed.
Next is the sewing.

















Here is a crappy blurry pic of the sewn down tapers, note how even the seams are and how close together. Again, I am trying for a formal appearing garment.
















And finally for this blog, a picture of the finished tapering. Note the curve in the kilt as described in your directions.