Dozing with the Dinos 2020

This year was the final time my son was able to participate in the annual Dozing with the Dinos event at the Field Museum. The event is for kids age 6-12 and their adults, but my son will turn thirteen at the end of May. Although I've enjoyed going behind the scenes at the Field Museum, I will not miss the poor sleeping conditions.

Saturday afternoon, Alex and I took the Metra downtown to connect with my husband.Since my husband works on Saturdays, it's easier for us to do this instead of making him drive back home to pick us up before we go to the museum. We ate dinner, then drove to the museum. We got there early, which made check-in easier and allowed us to pick a prime spot in the evolution exhibit.

After orientation, we had a special behind-the-scenes tour of the lab where they prepare fish specimens for study. We don't get to choose in advance which tour we take. We hadn't been in this part of the museum before, and since Alex likes fishing, this was a good match for us. We got to see many specimens prepared in different ways. Some were preserved in formaldehyde, while others were treated with special stains to make different parts of their bodies visible. We saw several sharks, a puffer fish, and my favorite, a coelacanth.

After snack time and buying a few souvenirs, we explored the museum, both with and without flashlights. By the time we were done, we were so exhausted we went straight to bed. Unfortunately, our air mattresses all had leaks, despite my attempts to patch them. My mattress was so bad I just deflated it completely instead of having to deal with a rocking mattress. At least it was ready to pack in the morning. We had breakfast, then left. We may not able to sleep over again, but we'll always have the memories.

C2E2 2019

I have to admit I wasn't sure about attending C2E2 this year, since we're going to Star Wars Celebration in Chicago next month. However, when I learned Paul Rudd was going to be one of the guests, I knew I had to take Alex, who's a big Ant-Man fan. Alex is also on Spring Break, so he and I would be able to attend all three days.

Friday got off to a rough start when Alex's badge came off his lanyard and was lost. Fortunately, although the event was almost sold out, I could still buy a replacement badge for him. (At least the kid badges aren't as expensive as the adult ones.) I dressed up briefly as a Jawa, but I spent most of the day going around with Alex on the show floor. There was a Dinosaur Parade scheduled for Friday, so I bought an inflatable costume so he could participate. By a lucky coincidence, the dinos ran into a group of Flintstone cosplayers, so that made for some great photos. The best part was when the parade trooped out to the "C2E2" sign, and the DJ played "Walk The Dinosaur." Later that evening, Alex and I went to an autograph signing for Paul Rudd. It was a long wait. (I had enough time to almost finish crocheting a Porg, and we didn't get out of there until after the convention closed.) Paul Rudd was gracious enough to stay until everyone in line got a chance to meet him. I gave him a crocheted Ant Man I made last week, and he seemed to like it. Alex was also happy to get a picture signed.

On Saturday, Eugene joined us and drove us in to the convention center. I wore my Jawa in the morning, and in the afternoon, I switched into my Imperial Officer for Droid Hunt. I spent nearly three hours walking the show floor, searching for people with special badges. (This is why I get my highest daily step counts at C2E2.) Even when I bought a pretzel and lemonade for Alex, I still encountered several people with badges. I also saw a couple of friends.

Sunday was a more laid-back day. We did present a toy landspeeder to a non-profit organization in the morning, and afterward, I changed into my Jawa and walked around with a group of other Jawas, a R2-D2, and a Tusken Raiders. We were quite a hit. One of the garrison members has a new O-O-O (evil C-3PO) costume, so we also got to take pictures with him. Hopefully I'll get a copy soon.

I didn't buy much at C2E2 this year, but I do have some good memories of it, and that's even better.

More Crochet Photos

Although I keep coming up with more writing projects than I have time for, I keep on crocheting as well--and coming up with more projects that I want to do. As long as I do a little both of both every day, I make some progress. I don't like sharing my writing projects when they're still in the rough draft stage, but the smaller crochet projects work up quickly. Here are some of my recently completed ones:

I started this pterodactyl right before the comic con at the end of September. I think it took about a week or so to finish. He's actually a darker purple in person.

 These are Halloween-inspired porg. From left to right, they are a jack-o-lantern porg (though my family thinks he looks like Deadpool, so maybe the next one won't have black eye patches), a vampire porg, a black cat porg, and a ghost porg. If I can figure out how to make a turkey tail, I might make some turkey porg next month. And yes, I have some ideas for Christmas....




I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Now to decide which writing project to tackle next.

Comic Book Mania Convention

I'm pleased to announce that I'll be participating in Gail Borden Public Library's Comic Book Mania Convention. It'll be Saturday, September 29, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. I'll be there as Solar Unicorn Publishing, the imprint I use for publishing my books. In addition to my books, I'll also have crocheted characters and fabric Porg, Harry Potter, and Pokemon lanyards for sale. Buy a book and get a raffle ticket for a chance to win Tyrone the T-Rex! I'll add more details as they become available closer to the event. Hopefully I'll be able to schedule an online sale around this time for those who can't make it.

Solar Unicorn Stitching

I've finally started a site for my crochet and sewing projects. So far, it's only a Facebook page called Solar Unicorn Stitching. (It ties in with Solar Unicorn Publishing, which is how I publish my books.) Thanks to Maria Zannini for designing the logo to the left. There's not much else on the page at the moment, as I need to get some good pictures of my crochet projects. I plan to build it up over time. In the meantime, here's a picture of my latest project: a blue stegosaurus. I crocheted most of it while we were driving last week; now I just need to sew everything together.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kindom--Review by Stan, Rex, and Oscar

Stan: Hi, I'm Stan, the T-Rex. I was named after an actual T-Rex fossil.

Rex: I'm Rex the brachiosaurus. Don't confuse me with Stan. I was actually named after Captain Rex from The Clone Wars.

Oscar: And I'm Oscar the Orca. I'm the oldest, and I wasn't named after anybody.

Stan: So, last week, our family took us to see Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. It was awesome! There were T-rexes and raptors and...

Rex: ...and not enough sauropods. (sniffs) How could they leave the sauropods behind? So tragic....

Oscar: They didn't have enough room on the boats for such big creatures, Rex. And Stan, you know the people only wanted the carnivores to make money from them.

Stan: Well, you know what I want from humans, Oscar? Lunch!

Oscar: Yeah, there was a whole lot of lunching going on, though I think it would be more accurate to say midnight snacking.

Stan: There were people running everywhere, afraid of us!

Rex: And there were a whole lot of dinos and other animals on the island...

Oscar: But really, it was just like all the other movies in this franchise. Sure, they threw in a couple of twists at the end, but they didn't discuss them in detail.

Stan: This is an action movie, Oscar, not a thinking movie!

Oscar: Well, next time, can we see a thinking movie?

Rex: I think it's usually what the kid wants to see, Oscar. So we'll probably go see this again and again while it's in the theater.

Oscar: Sigh.

Stan: T-Rex wins! T-Rex always wins! Rrrrarrrhhhrrr!

Clawfoots or Clawfeet?

A couple of months ago, I posted that I was having trouble coming up with a suitable name for some animals that will appear in Fifth Season, Book Four of the Season Avatars series. These animals are based on dinosaurs; they're smart as velociraptors and physically resemble Deinonychus. My heroine, Ysabel, initially called them "mixups" since they resemble lizards mixed with birds. Since "mixup" isn't exactly a fear-inspiring name, I struggled for a long time to come up with something better. Finally, as I was editing Fifth Season last week, I went back to the description of the beasts and came up with "clawfoot" for the long sickle-shaped claw Deinonychus had on its feet. However, that leaves me with a dilemma: do I use "clawfoots" or "clawfeet" for the plural? While "clawfeet" might be technically correct, to me, the "feet" in this term seem to refer to actual feet, not the entire animal. I prefer "clawfoots" myself, but I'll have to do some research to see if there's a preferred way to handle this plural.

Would you use "clawfoots" or "clawfeet" as the plural? Or should I come up with a new name that avoids these issues?