jaina | Entries tagged with friends

Hello internet! Time for the write-up of this year's Princess Half Marathon weekend! ( Follow the cut for 60+ pictures, the running Avengers, and Indiana Jones being chased by a boulder with legs )

My fifth Princess Half Marathon weekend was a lot of fun! While I'm glad I did the inaugural Glass Slipper Challenge, I don't think I'll be doing it again. Racing two days in a row sucked, plus it took up a *lot* of time. We spent way less time in the parks than usual, which was a bummer. But we had a good time, met some great people, and laughed a lot, and that's always a great thing.

But I would like it if the weather gave us a break next year.

Look at me, writing a post about my weekend before the weekend is even over!

( Tinker Bell Half Marathon 2014-- a Star Trek tea and a superhero race! )

Race Stats:
Chip time: 2:14:03
Pace: 10:14/mile
Overall: 1269/11490 (top 11%)
Age Group: 238/1997 (top 12%)

(cross-posted from my blog)

Last year, J9 asked me if I would make a shirt for Ron. She'd already made a skirt for herself out of some TARDIS and Dalek fabric that she had bought from Spoonflower, and she figured there was probably a shirt's worth of material left. There was-- just barely! I gave Ron the shirt when I saw him at Christmas, and all was well, by which I mean my mom was kind of horrified by it, but Ron loved it. They wore their matching outfits to StellarCon in North Carolina (ADORABLE!):

I looked at the pile of scraps I had left, and I thought, "I bet if I pieced these, I could make a skirt for their daughter. Then they would ALL match!" And then, because my mind seizes up when I try to design something original, I scoured the internet for pictures of colorblocked and patchwork skirts, and I drew sketch after sketch until I was finally satisfied it wouldn't look terrible. I really didn't have that much of the Who fabric left, so I picked up some coordinating solid cottons at Jo-Ann. And so-- skirt!

( all the rest of the pics under the cut! )

(Cross-posted from my blog)

A few weeks back, my friends and I had a fabulous, silly, incredibly relaxing girls' weekend in the mountains of North Carolina. The main event was a tea party on Saturday, and of course we had to dress up in our very best historical finery. And by "our," I mean "Janine's," because we were all wearing her dresses! (The Regency dresses were made by

elvishtard and the chemise dress was by Hollie, whose LJ name I don't know.) I'm working on my first Regency dress, but it's not finished yet. Hopefully by Costume College!

We hosted the tea party at the bed-and-breakfast where we were staying, the Andon-Reid Inn. This place is amazing, you guys. If you're ever looking to vacation in western North Carolina, this is absolutely the place to go. The rooms are gorgeous, the three-course breakfast is unbearably delicious, and the owners, Rachel and Ron, are warm and generous beyond compare. Rachel took care of all the food and preparation for our tea party, even going so far as to research the proper kinds of sandwiches to serve!

We spent the morning dolling ourselves up. Conley was wearing Janine's new 1780s chemise a la reine, while Janine had loaned me her white-on-white striped Regency gown. I don't have proper Regency underpinnings yet, but my Laughing Moon Silverado corset worked well enough to allow the dress to sit nicely. My hairpiece was originally bought for Padme's family gown-- it worked perfectly for my Regency hairstyle! J9 just curled my front hair and tied a ribbon around my head, and I was good to go!

( More pictures of rampant silliness and tea parties under the cut! )

Today was my birthday, and a delightful birthday it was. To wit:

- Woke up to find a present sitting on my laptop: Glee Season 1, Part 2! (OMG IT HAS A VID TO TEACH PART OF "REHAB" AND YOU CAN SEE THE DRESSES SOOO WELL!!!) Do I have a good

sirrogue or what?
- Fantastic 8 mile run this morning at a 10:10 pace
- Birthday presents of new running shoes and running hat at Roadrunner's grand re-opening sale, plus a bunch of free energy gel/cube/bite samples
- Registered for next year's San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon, and hopefully convinced my Disney-loving salesgirl to run the Princess Half next year
- Treated myself to the cutest skirt ever from SkirtSports
-

aviendiora and

rhynndavrie came over with birthday Chick-Fil-A and we had nuggets and cupcakes for dinner
- I made lemon cupcakes and delivered them to the boys' Star Trek CCG tournament. It's a hobbity kind of birthday. Except for all the stuff I bought myself.

Also:

rosiewook called me "Caitlin Jaina Robin Sparkles" on Facebook. I DEMAND THAT HENCEFORTH EVERYONE SHALL ADDRESS ME AS SUCH.

Also also:

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

aviendiora and

rosiewook called me "Caitlin Jaina Robin Sparkles" on Facebook. I DEMAND THAT HENCEFORTH EVERYONE SHALL ADDRESS ME AS SUCH.

Also also:

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Long, fabulous weekend-- too long to post about now. But! We were able to briefly visit with Dan and Wee Cordelia (and Dan's mom and Wayne) this evening, and we took a few pictures.

( Cutest baby ever, Y/Y? )

Announcing the long-awaited arrival of

blusurfer and Dan's baby girl, born this morning...

(drumroll please)

...Miss Cordelia Elizabeth! 7 lbs 4oz, 19.5 in.

( picture under the cut! )

All three are doing great, but tired.

HOORAY!

Announcing the long-awaited arrival of

Soooo, as some of you know, my friend

miana_dude is a film student. Back in February, she needed a couple actors for one of her class assignments, so

sirrogue and I helped her out. I would describe myself as a marginally competent theater actress, but this was my first experience with film, and it was kind of weird, you know? Very very very different from theater. Anyhow, Rachel cut together a blooper reel from the film, and it made me giggle, so I thought I'd share with y'all:

I'm only sorry that the camera wasn't rolling when Rogue completely lost it during a dead-serious take. That was some good stuff. :)

Soooo, as some of you know, my friend

miana_dude is a film student. Back in February, she needed a couple actors for one of her class assignments, so

I'm only sorry that the camera wasn't rolling when Rogue completely lost it during a dead-serious take. That was some good stuff. :)

(that's right! I'm busting out the old-school Charlie and Claire icon for this post!)

Soooo, as previously mentioned, Tree and I co-hosted Dan and Debby's baby shower on Sunday at her house. We promised them that it would just be a regular party, except with presents and cake-- no games involving diaper pins or toilet paper or anything scary like that. This ensured that 1) our circle of friends would come, even the single gamer boys, and relatedly, that 2) Debby and Dan would actually attend their own shower. :D

I had promised cake, so I had to live up to my end of the bargain. I ended up going maybe a liiiiittle bit crazy, because I apparently felt the need to make a cake, cupcakes, and cake pops. I'm sure you are all shocked, shocked! to hear that I was still up at 2 am on Sunday, sticking chocolate ladybugs onto cake pops. No? Yeah, me neither.

ANYWAY! I'm not gonna be working at Charm City Cakes anytime soon, but I am pretty damn excited about how these came out:

D&D (ha) announced the news to the gaming group by passing around a character sheet that looked something like this. It took awhile for the guys to figure it out, but they eventually caught on. So this is my tribute to that. :) (On the name thing-- D&D neglected to provide us with a baby nickname, so the guys came up with one. Reasoning: baby girl = pink, pink = lightish red, lightish red = Donut.)

( cupcakes, cake pops, and many more details under the cut )

I leave you with a quote from the party:
Me: "What do you say to people at a baby shower, anyway? 'Congratulations'? 'Happy baby'?"
Rogue: "'Nice knowing you.'"

Let me tell you internets about what an AWESOME Friday I am having:

It's Friday!!!!
I am going up to the garment district with aviendiora and llyrafantasyfae tomorrow!
I am wrapping Christmas presents!
- While drinking hot apple cider
- And burning actual German incense cones in my actual German smoker dude (mine is a little guy in lederhosen, with a trumpet) that makes me super-nostalgic for our Munich Christmases
- And watching my *favorite* Christmas special of all time, Christmas Eve on Sesame Street! Big Bird waits for Santa! Bert and Ernie reenact the Gift of the Magi! They play crack-the-whip! Cookie Monster eats the Christmas tree! (And how much did I want to be that little girl who teaches Big Bird to skate?)
- Next up is Muppet Christmas Carol!
I ran four miles today, 11-minute miles the whole way! No more 12-minute miles for me! for me. Run faster = done faster, right J-9?
- While finishing the last two eps of Disc 1, Season 1 of NCIS. I'm only allowed to watch while I'm working out. :)
I mailed off my family's presents today, and hardly had to wait at all. Yay, automated postal center thingies!
Oh my gosh, this video of an R2-D2 dance company (via Club Jade):

There's magic in the air this evening, magic in the air...

Let me tell you internets about what an AWESOME Friday I am having:

It's Friday!!!!
I am going up to the garment district with aviendiora and llyrafantasyfae tomorrow!
I am wrapping Christmas presents!
- While drinking hot apple cider
- And burning actual German incense cones in my actual German smoker dude (mine is a little guy in lederhosen, with a trumpet) that makes me super-nostalgic for our Munich Christmases
- And watching my *favorite* Christmas special of all time, Christmas Eve on Sesame Street! Big Bird waits for Santa! Bert and Ernie reenact the Gift of the Magi! They play crack-the-whip! Cookie Monster eats the Christmas tree! (And how much did I want to be that little girl who teaches Big Bird to skate?)
- Next up is Muppet Christmas Carol!
I ran four miles today, 11-minute miles the whole way! No more 12-minute miles for me! for me. Run faster = done faster, right J-9?
- While finishing the last two eps of Disc 1, Season 1 of NCIS. I'm only allowed to watch while I'm working out. :)
I mailed off my family's presents today, and hardly had to wait at all. Yay, automated postal center thingies!
Oh my gosh, this video of an R2-D2 dance company (via Club Jade):

There's magic in the air this evening, magic in the air...

Things making me happy today:

- I'm all registered for Costume-Con
- I hit Premier Executive status on United this weekend, thanks to my first mileage run
- My mama and I are going to go to synchro skating Nationals again this year! A whole weekend of lovely, lovely skating, woo!
- NYE party tonight! Good food and good company, and

blusurfer's bringing champagne. *g*