The Jedi Council

I woke up a little early this morning to finish some last minute spray painting before I went to church.  My armor is so close to being done.  I have a feeling that by next weekend I will be able to put the entire costume together and should be able to take pictures of my full costume.  That’s my hope, anyway.  We all got ready for church, ate some breakfast together and loaded up the car with girl scout cookies and some things we needed to take to the church for their rummage sale.  We got to church a little late, but it was my fault as I’m not used to trying to get the kids ready for church by myself.  Lesson learned, my wife does a lot behind the scenes to get the kids ready for church, including doing the girls’ hair.

I got stuck doing the sound yet again.  I just can’t ever seem to get out of doing that.  I took the kids up to the balcony with me and they helped me a little, but tended to be a little disruptive in the pews in the balcony just because every move they made seemed to echo throughout the church.  A little more than three quarters of a way through the service, Heather text messaged me and let me know that she was almost home.  I text her back and let her know that I was heading to PA after church to get gas and then Lowe’s to return an item and then would meet her at home.  I did all of those items and met Heather at home.  She took a brief nap while I worked on some more of my costume.  She then joined me downstairs and decided to help with the costume building.  She put the Velcro on my vest and helped me get all the chest pieces on and placed.  We also worked on other aspects of the costume and came up with ideas.

We worked well into the evening getting portions of my costume done and together.  It truly is amazing how far the costume has come in one weekend.  My gauntlets are close to completion and the costume itself may be done by the end of the week.  I’m so excited I can hardly contain myself!!  A good weekend and things are looking up.  To make my upcoming week even better, my new lightsaber from Lind Lightsabers should arrive tomorrow as well.  Can’t wait to test that lightsaber out either.

Okay, almost done with this book.  I’ll have two more posts on it and then I’ll review the book and give it a rating out of 10.  Then we’ll move on to Timothy Zahn’s “Star Wars:  Outbound Flight”.  Okay, until then, let’s talk about Part 5 of Chapter 20 of “Star Wars:Republic Commando - Hard Contact” by Karen Traviss…..

Chapter 20 (Part 5):  As they walked back to the gunship, Etain was bothered by several things.  She couldn’t believe how realistic Niner mimicked a dying clone and figured he had seen that at least once.  She also realized why attachment was forbidden to Jedi now.  Etain got to the ship and handed Zey, Fulier’s lightsaber and told him that Omega Squad and recovered it.  Zey told Etain that he knew what she was going through and attachment would be rough as you will look troops in war.  Etain said there was no way to turn off the fact that clones are still sentient beings.  Zey said this was all part of being a commander.  Etain asked if she could follow Omega Squad on their next mission.  Zey said The Republic would not abandon the Gurlanin on the surface of this planet and implied that Etain join their fight.  Etain asked when support would arrive and Zey said they would need to dissappear from the planet.  This made Etain wary about helping Qiilura.  Zey then told her she had the choice to stay or go with Omega Squad……

Heather didn’t get a chance to sleep in today and in some ways, I didn’t either.  Heather got up a little after seven and headed out to Enterprise to get the rental car to go to New Jersey.  On her way back, she stopped at the bank and got me and Austin some money to go through our day today.  She even had my day mapped out, in a way.  Once home, she finished packing and then took Austin over to the church to drop him off for a Boy Scout trip to a museum in Utica today.  After that, Heather left for New Jersey.  I went back to bed for a brief while.  I got back up and painted my armor some more and then started working on cleaning up the house with the girls.  We ate lunch together and then decided it was time for us to go shopping.  I started at Lowes and got some extra lacquer that I need for my armor and some tools that I need to finish my custom gauntlets.  I then headed to Radio Shack. 

I had a few plans.  First, I needed a fan for my helmet to get some air circulated in the helmet and to keep the lens from fogging up (hopefully).  The second plan was to find an antenna that would fit onto my custom gauntlet.  The computer fan I found rather quickly and I was able to find all the parts that would make that fan work.  Basically you have a fan hooked up to a nine volt battery and a battery holder in the helmet.  I put the fan on in intake hole and try to blow air into the helmet to help circulate the air inside the helmet.  I looked around for an antenna for my gauntlet and was coming up short.  I found plenty of larger antenna to end up putting on a custom backpack that I plan on making later, but I wasn’t interested in that size of an antenna for now.  Then it dawned on me.  I found a really good deal on a range extender for my home wireless router.  In order to put the bigger antenna in, I would need to remove the smaller antenna which is about the size I was looking for.  The good news is that I got the extender for $9.99 when it would normally cost $29.99.  I’ll take a $20 discount any day!  I came home and started to work.

After a while, I got a call from the Boy Scout unit and they said they were running late.  We got another phone call when they were getting closer to home and I went and picked up Austin.  We went out and ate dinner at McDonalds since Ruth had a coupon she had earned at school for a free meal.  We then went out to Wal Mart to get some more Unleashed figures for my collection and to search for some 30^th anniversary packaged figures.  I had no luck with Wal Mart, so we headed over to Target where I hit a jackpot.  Found Unleashed figures for less than five dollars and an R2 in 30^th anniversary packaging.  I also found some cheap Star Wars pencils, pens, and all sorts of stuff for a buck a piece.  We then came home and I got back to work again.  We all went to bed early as tomorrow I need to got to church with the kids by myself.  No other adult to help me at church.  It should be okay.

Let’s talk about Part 4 of Chapter 20 of “Star Wars:Republic Commando - Hard Contact” by Karen Traviss…..

Chapter 20 (Part 4):  Niner told Darman that he cut that close and looked at Fi and asked him where he was.  Fi said he saw Darman and Etain approaching and figured he was okay. Fi then went over and took Master Fulier’s lightsaber and gave it to Etain.  Etain was still in shock at having killed the Mandalorian and Fi held off from making any remarks about it.  Instead he collected the helmet he had been promised.  Niner saluted her and said thank you and she replied saying that it was an honor.  Darman radioed General Zey as they trotted off toward the gunship…..

Friday.  End of the week, but my day was not going to be easy and I knew that from the minute I woke up this morning.  I woke up a little late because I was just so gosh darned tired from this past week.  I snoozed the alarm twice which I haven’t done since long before Christmas.  I got myself ready and headed to school.  I kept my lesson plans simple for today.  My eighth graders watched videos on the “History of Jazz” by Ken Burns.  My seventh graders did a lesson on music history and my sixth graders watched video of Season Six of “American Idol”.  This helped my school day go along smoothly.  One of the tech crew that has been helping me this year is a high school-er.  He’s a student I had in Marching Band and it’s been good to see him again.  Well, he showed up right after school and offered to set up the sound and light systems while I went home for a little bit.  I was glad for the help and thankful that he was willing to do this.

I came home and took a very brief nap, just to get through tonight.  I also worked on spray painting armor and then we all ate dinner together.  We got back to the school in plenty of time for the musical.

The students did another amazing performance tonight as well.  It was a great send-off to such a hard working cast and crew.  I was very proud of both performances and can’t believe that the performances are over.  Tonight, Ruth ended up being my camera person and I hope she did okay.  She really seemed to know what was going on.  She became really worried because she ran out of battery on the end of the last song.  I told her not to worry about it and that it was far beyond her control.  At the end of the musical tonight, we all got our “thank you” cards and Heather and I got one to AppleBees.  So, we figure we’ll go out on a date night while my parents have the kids in June and go to AppleBees and then a movie.  Haven’t even decided which movie yet, but it’s a good time away.

We got done packing up the essentials tonight after the performance.  For me, this took some serious amount of time.  I had a lot to take care of.  Dry ice, crock pot, mics borrowed from the church, radios, and much, much more.  While I did this, Heather took the kids home to a neighbor who was supposed to meet her at our house to babysit the kids.  Well, she was running late and I ended up locking the doors and turning out the lights to the auditorium as well.  I left a mess behind in my room, but figure I have Monday morning to take care of that mess.  Heather came back to the school and helped me get a bunch of the equipment into our car.  We then headed over to an “adult” party at Ruby Tuesday’s where we had some adult beverages and had some nice conversation.  It just felt good to wind down after such a long week and stressful month.  Heather even got invited to a day of “pampering” while I go to Rochester for the Lilac Parade in a few weeks.  This will help her not remember that I’m gone with the kids.

Okay, let’s talk about Part 3 of Chapter 20 of “Star Wars:Republic Commando - Hard Contact” by Karen Traviss…..

Chapter 20 (Part 3):  Ghez Hokan had little ammunition left.  He had a vibroblade, lightsaber, and two Verpine rounds left.  He felt a pain in his arm and realized he was bleeding.  He wondered what kind of wound it was that would make his adversary scream like that.  He heard the soldier screaming for his sergeant, and equal to screaming for his mother Hokan thought.  Hokan couldn’t help but end his life because he couldn’t let a Mandalorian die in such a wimpy way, even if it was a clone.  Hokan got close to the clone and decided to pull out the vibroblade.  The lightsaber would be too earily like Jengo’s death on Geonosis.  As he raised his arm, Hokan heard the sound of a lightsaber.  It was too late!!…..

Thursday and it was play premiere day.  My day started like any other day would expect to be started.  I was still exhausted when I woke up this morning but got myself going, as late as it was.  I got to school and told myself that I would not go out on stage till later in the day.  I held my promise and checked the temperature for later tonight to see how cool that stage was.  It was plenty cool which is important for the dry-ice to work.  Once school was over, it was time for me to work on other aspects of the auditorium.

My crew showed up to my room right after school and we went out and did what needed to be done for tonight’s performance.  We set up the microphones and the light system and got things going.  We also taped down all the cords on the floor to be OSHA compliant.  That took some serious time as we were dealing with all the cords for the light and sound system.  The cords backstage as well as all the cords for the crock pots for the dry ice.  We prepped everything and then Heather showed up with more materials we needed.  Including a huge block of dry ice that we’ll use tonight and tomorrow night.  After we were done getting the auditorium ready for tonight’s performance, we all took some time to eat.  We had pizza, chips, soda, and cookies.  All the things a growing teenage boy needs!!  After a while, the cast and directors started showing up.  My crew got a little over excited, but that’s to be expected.

The performance tonight went amazing!!  The cast surprised even me.  Honestly, they put my heart and mind at ease.  I was really proud of both the cast and crew.  The tech crew did as well as I had expected of them.  It really was a well put together performance and all the audience gave us a standing ovation at the end of the performance.  I always tell myself that this is why I do this and volunteer on top of it all.  We got done with tonight’s performance and I was exhausted.  I came home and went downstairs with Heather and pretty much crashed for the rest of the night.  Tomorrow night is another performance and I  know I’ll be exhausted all day tomorrow.  But, tomorrow is another day.

Okay, even in my exhaustion, let’s talk about Part 2 of Chapter 20 of “Star Wars:Republic Commando - Hard Contact” by Karen Travis.  BUT, BEFORE WE DO, AND IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT NEEDS TO BE MADE.  TO MAKE YOU ALL AWARE, THE NEXT BOOK WE WILL BE REVIEWING WILL BE “STAR WARS: OUTBOUND FLIGHT” BY TIMOTHY ZAHN.  THE CHANGE HAS COME BECAUSE THE BOOK WAS RECENTLY RELEASED IN SOFT COVER.  MY BLOG WILL REFLECT THIS SOON……

Chapter 20 (Part 2):  Suddenly Darman realized he wasn’t getting a response, just like on Geonosis.  He told Etain that their helmets were offline.  Etain insisted they were alive, but Zey said they had to go.  He reminded her that the Trade Federation now knew of thier presence and Uthan needed to be treated.   Etain insisted that they can’t abandon these clones, she knew they are alive.  Zey looked upset and told her she was comprising the mission.  Etain said that these men are not expendable and Zey said they are all expendable.  Etain retorted saying that she is then expendable too.  Then Darman stepped in and offered to go and told Etain to stay with Atin.  Suddenly, Etain pulled out her lightsaber, ignited it and held it close to the power conduit.  She told Zey that either they all get off Qiilura or no one does.  The two Jedi argued further about the lives of soldiers, men, and clones.  Zey then backed down.  He told Darman to follow her and the others.  Etain said she knew this was gross disobedience and that this would probably mean she would not become a Jedi Knight.  As they left into the woods, Darman looked back at Zey who looked on with a proud grin……

Wednesday and things are starting to slow down a little.  I had a typical day in the morning.  I got up and got ready and headed off to work.  I had to change my schedule a little for school this week as I can’t get in the library Friday for research for students’ video and podcasting projects.  So, that means I’ll have to double up on research days next week and catch up in that regards.  My students took this change well considering it will alter how much time we have for the videos and podcasts.  Heck, it may even limit our time.  Hopefully we’ll be able to catch up next week.  Last night, amongst my painting I did for my armor, I also painted some of the props for the musical at our school.  I brought them in today for the director and took them up there to her this morning for her approval and she really liked how they came out.  The day went as expected and I had a little bit to do after school.

We got done with the school day and I joined our two directors to sit down and talk with the cast about tomorrow night’s performance.  We just talked and did not practice at all.  We decided to do this a few years ago as we’ve found that a practice the day before a performance is just not productive anyway and the adults leave frustrated at the situation.  So we talked them through the situation and then let the cast go.  I called Heather right away as I realized that I forgot to tell Heather about the meeting and let her know what was going on.  I got home and I took a brief nap with Heather.  We both needed it as we were both exhausted from the last month.  Once we got done, we all ate dinner together and did our “Girl Scout” scramble as I like to call it.  While Heather was out running girls around, I continued to tape and work on my Mando armor.  It’s starting to look pretty sweet.  I’m now onto the shoulder bells and I’m brainstorming what I need from Radio Shack this weekend. I want to add an antenna to my custom gauntlet and I also want to add a fan to the inside of my helmet.  All in good time, and since Heather will be at a wedding this weekend, I figure it wouldn’t be hard for me to run to Lowe’s and Radio Shack and start putting some extras on the costume as I’m going.

Once we were done with all of that, Heather and I actually went to the basement together and relaxed for the first time in a while and watched our usual Wednesday night T.V. shows (“Jericho”, “Criminal Minds”, and “C.S.I.:  NY”).

Okay, let’s continue this discussion on Star Wars.  Time to talk about Part 1 of Chapter 20 of “Star Wars:Republic Commando - Hard Contact” by Karen Traviss…..

Chapter 20 (Part 1):  “I know that the true enemy is when you compromise your principles.  Your primary principle is to look out for each other.” - Kal Skirata - As Darman approached the gunship a medic met him and put Atin on a stretcher.  Darman explained the wounds and what he did.  The medic told him to get on the ship as another trooper took Uthan from Etain’s shoulders.  General Arligan Zey also came off of the gunship and nodded in the direction of Etain.  A Valaquil also came off the ship and commented that Atin was collecting more scars.  The Valaquil told Darman that it was anxious to meet with Jinart to discuss their adventures.  The Gurlanin left and disappeared into the woods.  Zey told Etain she has done very well without a Master to follow.  Etain asked where Niner and Fi were at.  Zay asked who and she explained that it was the other two clones.  Darman said they’d be here and radioed fo the others to get moving…..

Okay, it’s Tuesday and it’s the last chance.  It is the last chance for us to go over the play before performance time which will be Thursday night.  I’m nervous and excited all at once.  I got up for my day today and everything went as normally expected.  I got to school and the pressure was on to clean up from last night’s practice and get ready for my classes as well.  Needless to say, I’ve been running behind with getting things prepped.  My classes went as well as expected.  I’m actually enjoying this quarter so far as I don’t seem to have a class that is really getting on my case.  But, it is only the second week of the course and things have been messed up schedule wise since last week.  We got done with school and ran play rehearsal.

Things went amazingly smooth.  I am now excited about Thursday night because there were few to little problems with the rehearsal today.  The dry-ice seemed to work very well today which excites me.  The only problem we ran into is one of the church’s back-up mics has started to become staticy.  I thought I would let pastor know about it, as it has been this way since we got the mic from them.  We tried to do some repairs but couldn’t seem to find the problem with the mic.

I got done with rehearsal and the family and I went to Wendy’s to eat dinner.  We did that because that was the only fifteen minutes Heather and I got together all day.  We finished eating dinner, Heather went to work and the kids and I left and went home.  By this point in time I was totally exhausted.  I even went downstairs and simply crashed in the chair for a little bit.  Normally I would work on the Mando armor first, but tonight,  I just didn’t have the energy right away.  Once I took a little nap (fifteen minutes) I then got up and started working on my Mando Armor.  It’s quite possible that I’ll start putting a majority of the costume together by this weekend.  Hopefully, when Heather gets back from New Jersey on Sunday, we’ll be able to put all the armor onto the vest and start piecing this costume together.  I’ve decided that I’m not going to post any more pictures on here until I’m closer to putting the costume together.  As  soon as I have a “full costume” pic, I will be putting it on a post on this blog.

Okay, let’s talk about Part 6 of Chapter 19 of “Star Wars:Republic Commando - Hard Contact” by Karen Traviss…..

Chapter 19 (Part 6):  Then they lost sight of Hokan.  Fi was regretting having ditched the E-Web.  As shots two shots were off target, Fi told Niner to go right of him while he keeps Hokan busy.  Niner crawled through the grass as the Verpine gun singed the grass tops.  Niner knew that once Uthan got to the EP, the gunship nor “The Majestic” would wait on them.  Niner then radioed Darman and found out they were ten minutes from EP.  He told them to wait for him and Fi to say goodbye to Ghez Hokan.  Darman offered to come and help, but Niner refused.  As Niner moved for cover he saw a flash of gunfire and then everything went black.  He thought he was hit, but realized his helmet’s HUD went dead.  He took off his helmet and found out that Fi had done the same, using his night vision scope.  He realized they got hit with an EMP grenade.  Niner crawled back to Fi and explained the sit. rep.  He told Fi that the Deeces still work at least.  Fi then found Hokan and asked Niner how far he could throw and I.E.D.  Fi decided to throw as Niner drew his fire.  Niner went to detonate the I.E.D., but nothing happened.  They continued to try to come up with ideas.  Finally, Niner told Fi he would draw Hokan out by acting as a severly wounded soldier.  Hokan couldn’t resist slitting his throat.  This would bring Hokan out for Fi to shoot.

Okay, it’s a Monday and it’s a half day so I figured my life would be a little slower today.  But, that just didn’t seem to work out.  I should figure on such things during play madness week.  Things could never be normal on this week!  Anyway, I got up this morning renewed quite a bit but a little tired because we stayed up lat to watch “Tudors” last night as well.  It’s tiring to watch the show until midnight, but I can’t help it because I’m totally addicted to the show now.  I got ready for school and had quite a few things to have to carry into the building, so I grabbed another bag to grab all the equipment I needed.  I got to school and you could see that all the kids just didn’t want to be at school.  It was spring-like weather outside and it was only a half day.  For kids, it was a win, win.  For the teachers, we lost all around as we were at school and couldn’t get a chance to get out and enjoy the weather.  I taught my two classes for the morning and got caught up on quite a few things, including this blog.  I should be completely caught up with it by tomorrow.

I watched “Building of an Empire” on DVD while doing some work this afternoon and continued to try to catch up on paperwork, grades, and other projects at school.  I even got a chance to get some things prepared for play rehearsal tonight and I was able to set everything up so I could attempt to work with the dry ice tonight.  Unfortunately, I lost most of the dry ice over the weekend because of the abnormally warm weather.  That’s okay because we had planned on having to buy more before the first night of performance.  Play rehearsal went okay tonight.  We had our share of technical difficulties, and mics not being on or cutting in and out and dropping on the floor (which always makes me cringe).  But, these are all things that can be fixed for tomorrow night and can especially be fixed before the first night of performance.  I think a lot of the mic problems will be solved with brand new batteries which we already have for the two performances.

We got done with play rehearsal and Heather and I headed home and scrambled to eat dinner on time.  We mowed our dinner down because we had to get to a Franklin Graham class this evening that started at seven o’clock.  We didn’t get home until 6:30 this evening, so we had about twenty minutes to eat and get out of the house.  We got to the Nazarene church and that’s when it hit me.  It hit me just how tired I was from the day today.  I stayed awake, but it was a struggle.  But, the message tonight was enjoyable and I’m looking forward to the next three classes that we have to take.  I now have homework for this class.  That’s right, I’m a teacher and I have homework to do before next week.  I guess it’s a good thing that Heather is going to New Jersey this weekend to a wedding so I can concentrate on my homework.

We came home and while we watched our usual Monday night T.V. shows, I continued to spray paint armor and my first gauntlet.  Man, if things work out the way I plan, I will be ready to put this whole costume together by next week.  It’s looking pretty good!!

Enough Mando talk, it’s time for some Clone talk.  Let’s talk about Part 5 of Chapter 19 of “Star Wars:Republic Commando - Hard Contact” by Karen Traviss…..

Chapter 19 (Part 5):  Niner knew that Hokan was still out there.  He saw his armor come out of that facility.  Hokan seemed to be doing what Darman’s captain was not, tracking them by the gunship.  Fi said they had one more klick to go.  They both dreamed about their next assingments.  Niner wanted a Urban one while Fi wanted a jungle locale.  Fi wondered why they just didn’t blow the facility form space, in the first place.  Niner said there would have been no way to know if they destroyed the virus.  Niner told Fi that Atin was still alive thanks to Jedi healing.  Suddenly, Fi shouted, “down!” from  his point position.  He said he saw a speeder and may have a clear shot.  When Niner looked over, he saw a flare of energy as Fi shot the bike.  They waited a few seconds to make sure that Hokan was down and then advanced.  Hokan raised onto one knee and fired.  Fi asks if the could have Hokan’s armor if he kills him and Niner agrees.  Fi said that was great motivation……

This Sunday was quite busy yet again.  We had a lot to do as a family and I had a lot to do individually.  It was quite action packed and I know this is just beginning as this week is going to be nuts with the play performances this week Thursday and Friday.  We got up at our usual times this morning and started getting ready for church.  Before we took off for church I was able to peel the tape on some of my armor and I have to say that it came out looking better than even I thought it would look.  That’s really cool!!  I can’t wait to get pictures on here of all of it put together.  The end is SO close!!  Anyway, we left for church with a trunk full of Girl Scout Cookies.  We had a very nice church service and were surprised with a little gift from our church.  They gave those of us who are going to the Franklin Graham classes (which start tomorrow) a Bible, pen, notebook, bookmark, and a little bag to put all of our stuff in.  It’s pretty cool and I thought it was a nice gesture for those running the project for our church.

We got done with church today and raced out of church because Heather had a lot to do this afternoon and a time crunch under which to get it done.  We went to Aldi’s first and shopped getting some much needed food supplies for the house.  We raced through the store because we felt that we had to get home ASAP as Heather’s mom was set to call when they left their house so Heather could meet them in Norwich to exchange for Girl Scout Cookies.  We get home and expected to find a message, but alas, nothing.  So Heather called her mom thinking it would be safe to at least let her know that our church got out.  Heather’s sister answered the phone and told her that mom and dad had just dropped the turkey in the deep fryer that they plan on cooking for lunch.  That’s right, you read that correctly.  They were planning to deep fry a turkey for lunch!!!  Today!!!  When we’re supposed to meet them in Norwich .  Heather’s mothers reaction was that she didn’t think it was a big deal.  It was a HUGE deal.  We had plans on having dinner later in the day and I was going to do some of the cooking while Heather was gone.

So, change of plans.  I scrambled to get the food cooked.  In particular, to get potatoes ready for a potato salad that we had decided to do.  Austin was a trooper and peeled potatoes while I helped Heather by unloading the car and putting things away.  I then cooked up hot dogs and Heather got everything else ready.  And, as I had predicted, we no more than got to sit down to eat all the food than her mother called and said they were on their way.  Now I got pissed!!!  I told her and the two girls to sit down and that we were going to have a nice family Sunday afternoon dinner.  They ate for a little while and scrambled to get out the door to meet Heather’s family.

While they were gone, I literally finished my first custom gauntlet.  It took some ingenious custom ideas and a little bit of “Bond-O” to make it all work, but it’s done and it looks pretty sweet!  Heather decided to cheer me up on the way home, to get me some Taco Bell.  When she got home, she found me working and watching the first season of “Farscape” yet again.  I went to eat the Taco Bell and then pointed out to her that they messed up the order.  So, we called the Taco Bell in Johnson City and they were kind enough to agree to fix the order so we didn’t have to drive all the way back to Norwich .  We took the kids, left the house and headed over there.  While we were there, Heather got some dinner for herself.  On the way home, we decided to stop at “Suzie Q’s” and get some ice cream for later.  We all came home and ate dinner and had ice-cream.  By now, it was pretty late in the day.  We had the kids go to bed and then Heather and I sat down to watch our usual T.V. shows.  “Amazing Race”, “Sopranos”, and “The Apprentice”.  “The Apprentice” had a great finale tonight, but I had a feeling who the winner would be and I was right.  All in all, a busy but rewarding day.  Tomorrow starts the real madness of this week.  I keep telling myself that I only have one more week of play madness and then I may get my life back.  At least for a little while anyway.

Let’s talk about Part 4 of Chapter 19 of “Star Wars:Republic Commando - Hard Contact” by Karen Traviss…..

Chapter 19 (Part 4):  Darman told Etain that it was one of Hokan’s captains and that he’s dead now.  Then both their attentions went to Atin.  As Darman lifted his body, there was a rather large gap in his armor below his right armpit with blood dripping out.  Darman took out a field dressing and dressed up the wound and taped it.  Atin told them to get Uthan and get out of here.  Darman refused.  He told Etain that this is what a Verpine projectile can do to their armor.  He pulled out two syringes and injected Atin in the thigh with both of them.  He then marked Atin’s inside helmet with P and Z.  He told Etain the the P was for Painkiller and Z for blood - loss control agent.  Darman then got Atin on his back and told Etain that she was now responsible for carrying Uthan.  As Etain went to pick up the doctor, she noticed a piece of Atin’s armor protruding from her and she was bleeding rather rapidly.  She told Darman to look, but noted that Uthan was still alive.  Darman insisted they get her to the Extraction Point and hope they have a medic on that gunship.  Etain felt that she had learned so much more from Darman in the last few days than she had learned from Master Fulier over a lifetime.  She knew they had a strange bond now, held together by the fear of fighting.  She grabbed Uthan and insisted they hurry…..

Saturday.  As I like to refer to it, Mando work day.  Not only did I work on my Mando costume all day today, I got a chance to watch some movies and catch up with my parents.  Heather and I started out our day by sleeping in until nine o’clock or so.  We were just so tired from the past week and we know that next week is going to be just as insane if not worse.  When we got up, Heather went downstairs to work on the sewing project that she’s been hired by a seamstress to do recently.  While she did that, I worked on my custom Mando gauntlets.  First, I worked on putting paint on my armor pieces and taping other pieces together.  Then I pulled all the tape off of my Mando helmet and it is now completed.  I also put in the ring at the top of the helmet to have a padded ring to hold it on at the right angle.  Basically I took out the adjustable ring out of a cheap hard hat and inserted that into my Mando bucket.

Then I worked on my gauntlets.  I used the heat gun in the house to start heating up pieces to build up the center of the gauntlets and then I PVC glued the pieces together.  It was along and tedious process that took most of the afternoon, but it looks like it’s going to come out looking pretty cool.  I then took the calculator apart in between drying time for the PVC glue.  I then replaced all the “human” numbers with Mandalorian numbers and symbols.  I then started to work on planning more parts of the gauntlet.  While I was doing this, Heather took off to go to a friend from work’s baby shower.  She had made a quilt for this lady and Heather said she had a good time.  She even managed to talk to one of my former marching band students who happened to be there as a guest at the party.

She came home and took a nap while I continued to work.  Once Heather got up from her nap, she had to go to work.  Once she left, the kids and I grilled up some hamburgers and had that with some mac salad and Honeydew for dinner.  It was a great end to such a nice spring like day.

I then called Heather and asked if I could go to the dollar store because my calculator concept was going to work as it was previously planned.  So, after a quick jaunt to the dollar store, I was back in business.  I was able to redesign the gauntlet and now I think it is going to work with the new concept.  We’ll have to see once it’s all together.  I kept working all night while the kids worked on laundry and got ready for bed as we have church tomorrow.  I did get interrupted by my sister in law and brother calling to talk to us and to catch up on things.  I then also decided I should call my parents as I haven’t talked to them in a while and I thought they may want to know that we still exist down here in Binghamton .  My mom couldn’t believe we had snow on Monday because all they got up in the Rochester area was a little rain.  I also forgot to tell my mom that Girl Scout cookies had come in this week Wednesday and my wife pointed that out to me when she got home tonight.  Heather didn’t have to close tonight as one of the “Managers in Training” was actually doing that for her.  So she was home at midnight and we went to bed together. 

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 3 of Chapter 19 of “Star Wars:Republic Commando - Hard Contact” by Karen Traviss…..

Chapter 19 (Part 3):  Etain was sensing a powerful disturbance in The Force.  As they walked through the woods, they heard Atin’s favorite sound.  The sound of a gunship dropping from the sky.  Darman then told Atin that they tracked them by thier transponders to their helmets.  Atin told Uthan that her chariot has arrived and she writhed in anger.  Atin told Darman that it was now his turn to carry the doctor.  Then Etain lifted Uthan using The Force whne Atin suddenly had a cracking sound  coming from his back.  He was now on the ground, Darman followed suit with his weapon drawn and Etain dropped instinctively.  Darman yelled, “man down!” as he returned fire.  Atin was having a hard time breathing and Etain began to realize that this was partially her fault for goofing around and not focusing.  The whole fight took no more than thirty seconds…..

Okay, it’s Friday and the end of the week.  I couldn’t get into the library to get research done for my podcasting and music video projects today, so I had to revamp how I’m handling those projects.  I guess I should be prepared for these kinds of things.  Anyway, with that in mind, those classes are working ahead in their music history for class and I worked on the “American Idol” project with my sixth grade classes.  Everyone seemed to be okay with the projects and the idea of putting projects off in order to make things work for later.  My classes seemed to go very well and we got right into play rehearsal.  Things went well for play rehearsal, but my sound student didn’t show up again, so I moved another student onto sound and now I don’t have a student to run the video camera.  Bummer!! That was going to be the part of the performance that I thought I could provide for the students that I haven’t been able to in year’s past.  All, well, that’s the way the play cookie crumbles.

Heather joined me at rehearsal and we talked about some things, including the belt that I had to send back on Monday.  I didn’t get a chance to write about this because of talking about all of the power outages, etc.  I got a military style belt for my Mando costume, except the idiots sent me a army green colored belt and it even clearly says on the order form “black”.  So, we sent the belt back and I should see it very soon.  We were hoping it would be there by today, but it wasn’t at the house.  But, she was able to get ahold of someone who could solve my pop rivet gun catastrophe of last night.  Evidently sintra is too soft to try pop rivet directly into.  So, we needed to buy washers to make the other side of the pop rivet stronger for the rivet to “pop” against.

So, we got done with play rehearsal and things seemed to go okay, considering it’s a week before performance.  I didn’t get a chance to play with the dry ice, so I’m praying that I can get it to work next week without too many hitches to have to worry about.  I got home and got to pop riveting away and got the skeleton of my gauntlets put together.  I’m pretty excited as this is starting to do the last part of the costume and I honestly just didn’t think I would have time to get the gaunts done before the Lilac Parade.  While Heather was gone, I worked all night on my Mando costume and did very little else.  Lots of painting and designing of the custom gauntlet.  I’m hoping to use the heat gun tomorrow and start working on the custom gauntlet that will have the “calculator” communication device on it.  I have many ideas for this gauntlet.  We’ll have to see if I can make any of those ideas come true.

Okay, so it’s hard to believe I’m almost done with this book now too.  Let’s talk about Part 3 of Chapter 19 of “Star Wars:Republic Commando - Hard Contact” by Karen Traviss…..

Chapter 19 (Part 3):  Ghez Hokan got knocked to the ground with his speeder also knocked over!  He tilted the speeder bike back to rightside up.  As he went to get on, he saw a red, wet spot on his glove and realized it was blood from Cheva from when she got cut down by blaster fire.  Hurati came up behind Hokan and apologized for the scientists not dropping.  Hokan said civilians have a tendency to do that.  Hokan pointed out that this particular blast was an implosion and it was very unlikely tht any of the nanovirus survived the implosion.  this mane finding Uthan even more important now.  Hokan decided to power down his speeder bike to see if he could hear the power drive of the gunship that was surely to extract the clone commandos…..