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I'm in the middle of my busiest time of year, so I may not be replying to messages for a week or two (at one point, I may not _see_ any messages for a week), but things should get less rushed toward the end of the month. I'm not moving any new works into the Unsold folder until then, and items in that folder may get sold several days before I can post changes. Some things made just before Costume-Con got sold without being photographed, due to my habit of choosing construction over documentation, so I've made sure to scan and upload some things, and hope to do some more.

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I've been getting ready for a bunch of events I'm selling at, and one I wanted to sell at, but couldn't get a table for.

Two weekends ago I was at Costume-Con (#26) [link] [link] which is at various locations around the US. I was mostly in the dealer room, but got to the Fantasy Masquerade, the fashion shows, the Museum of Mad Science, the swap meet, and a few other events, and missed the Historical Masquerade and the panels and workshops. The beauty, complexity, humor, and workmanship in the various costumes was mindboggling. And, as a fan of the web comic Girl Genius [link] , I was delighted to see Master Payne and several other characters wondering the convention hotel.

And last weekend I was at (but not selling at) Maker Faire [link] (last years was nice, too: [link]) I got to shake hands with *missmonster in her amazing werewolf outfit [link] and wonder among the SWARM orb-bots [link] and, in the steampunk courtyard, talk to the members of steampunk band Abney Park [link] [link] and tour the Neverwas Haul [link] and see ~porkshanks' matched rayguns [link] and Sinister Device [link] in person, and much else besides. And there were lots of amazing robots, and robot kits, and crafts, and alternative technology, and so on. One of my favorite events.

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Well, catching up with various things took longer than I thought. House repairs are proceeding nicely. I'm making mainly Indian or Thai food for dinner. Still working on the camera stuff.

ConSonance was a lot of fun, with much music and conversation, and the Chaoswolf-Selkit wedding (The concert harpist snuck in a few bars of the Imperial March from Star Wars at the beginning of the processional, and the father of the bride sang "Ferret Went A-Courting", referring to Selkit's fursonna. Chaoswolf was in a dress instead of her usual battle gear, and Selkit in a suit with a scale mail gorget he'd made for the occasion; they looked great}.

There was an interesting CD album, _Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers_ for sale in the ConSonance dealer room. It seems that the next CD in that series will be _Whiskers in the Jar_ with album art by *Illahie which is very lovely: [link] [link] (and those have a link to the album site.)

And more dental work. At least it's boring; I hate exciting dentistry.

A few weeks back, in response to some remarks about what's on deviantART, I did some quick searches to see rough proportions of art subjects on the site:
Naruto - 589,076
nude - 299,434
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cat - 977,987
dragon - 634,251
wolf - 456,895
snake - 109,495
centaur - 13,583
splotch - 1,468

And... back to work

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I seem to have working scanner software again, and will be posting more art shortly. And I've acquired a garage-sale digital camera. It's scratched-up, dented, and discolored, but I've got most of the gunk off of it, and it's working; and its "best" mode looks to be good enough for the web. Just after selling off all my staffs. I also am now able to access the pictures on some older digital cameras given to me by friends; despite issues of non-maintained proprietary access software and no-longer-made storage media (which do not apply to the garage-sale find, though the issue of the maker going out of the digital camera business does.). These things are what I've been working on instead of commissions for various patient people. Those are next on the agenda. Maybe also fitting in some more information on carving things. (And cooking. And house repairs. And....)

But first I'm going to Consonance, the San Francisco Bay Area filk music conference. (Filk is the musical tradition of the science-fiction community, see Wikipedia for more information.) There will be lots of music, singing, workshops on music and singing, and a wedding. I'm packing my songbook and drums.

Meanwhile, the dental work continues nicely. Trees are blooming on the local streets. I've been getting more fresh air and sunshine, and am feeling well. Mmmm.

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Today was the start of my tooth restoration work at the dental school. They've done some emergency extractions, and my assigned student has cleaned my teeth, but now the real work begins. So, root canal today; seemed to go very smoothly. Digital X-ray sensor connects over the school network to the student's laptop computer at the work area. I've seen 60+ years of progress in dentistry (and am very happy that anesthetics were discovered before I needed my teeth drilled), and it's impressive. Modern equipment seems very spare and compact, procedures simpler and faster. I suspect much of difference is subtle, and I haven't even seen it. Sadly, veteran's benefits don't cover dental work except for the totally incapacitated, or as prep for medical work.

UPDATE: Root canal has been followed by prep for post (a metal pin to hold the new tooth top in place), and installation of the post, and an impression taken for the crown (which should be installed in early April). Plus a couple of small fillings and exams. Still going well.

I'm going out of town for a few days, going to try to sell some of my stuff. Then I'll be able to start on commissions, and will answer those of you who have inquired. My brain isn't quite up to speed yet, but is much less fuzzy.

UPDATE: Sales were good. I got back tired, and have been sleeping a lot when not at the dentist. Back to work now.

Thank you for various advice, encouragement, and information. More real soon now....

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