October/fall shenanigans

Amanda didn't want October, our Anniversary, or even Halloween to be uneventful this year and I think she was also trying to erase some of the negativity I still have left over from last year and our wedding disaster. I mean let's call it what it was, a disaster. Nothing worked out right and I was hurt pretty badly and still haven't managed to really get over it. Even with all the good stuff that did manage to happen around our wedding, all of which I am incredibly thankful for, I still have a hard time with the bad. Moving on. 

So, we both planned some stuff to do. Amanda's was more successful and exciting than my idea. I don't think she really liked mine too much. I wanted to drive up Mt. Spokane for an afternoon and see what we could see, explore a bit. I thought it would be fun to find places to have picnics and sit in nature, forest bathe, and so on. She was in a mood that day and when we found out that to go up was going to be ten dollars for a whole day, she was less than thrilled. Mostly because a discover pass is thirty dollars and gets you into all the Washington State Parks for a whole year. So, we turned around and came back down. 

But at least on the way I got to see a few things I didn't know were out and along the way. And I got some cool art reference photos.

On another day during October, Amanda got a groupon or something for tickets to go on a Haunted lake cruise on Lake Coeur d'Alene. Our friend Fiona was coming for a visit, so we went to pick her up and went to the lake early. I put my foot in the water to see how cold it was and decided swimming in the lake in October would be great for thirty seconds and only if I had a nice warm car to run to with hot cocoa waiting for me. 

I love how clear the lakes are here compared to the ones back home in Kansas. 

Rock!

I thought this view was really pretty and managed to catch the sun beam.

A picture of the Coeur d'Alene resort from the boat.

One of the lovely sunset photos I got.

I thought this one was very gloomy and pretty.

And my camera still didn't do the blazing pink in the sky justice.

A zoom in shot.

Some fall trees 

A pretty leaf.

The Twins took us to Silverwood for our anniversary and because they really like going with us. It was a lot of fun and I did get some pictures and even some video, but I think they are all over on my Instagram. Meaning, I was dumb and deleted them from my phone. 

Also during the month we went to see the Hobbit house in town. The owners of this big house and the little Hobbit house put on a free Halloween "come and see" and partnered with some trick or treat group that, if I remember correctly, does a safe neighborhood kind of thing. Anyway it was free to go to and you could see the Hobbit house for free with a donation of a children's book for needy kids.  We took a couple and it seemed that a lot of the people who came did the same.

This is a poster for the group they were collecting the books for.

A ring wraith, this guy managed to sneak up and scare the crap out of me twice! 

Just some of the cute decorations. In fact, each decoration had a little story to go with it. We didn't realize that until after we had seen the Hobbit house and I was cold and worn out. There were a lot of people and we stood in line for quite a while, both of which are hard on me. 

And here is the little Hobbit house. It is so cute and yes, that is a dragon above it.

a barrel!

I loved this metal door decoration they had.

I wanted to get more pictures of the interior and take more time to look around but there was still quite a long line behind us and I wanted to let the kids have time to get in and see the place. It was getting late and a lot of the kids were little, and we all know how cold, tired kids can get cranky. 

Some of the outside. I loved all the little decorations. 

Moving on to Halloween...

Here is some of the Halloween decor we had in our house

Amanda found what she calls her 'opera singer' at walmart this year. It's a tree topper and we kept it out to put on our Xmas tree.

We had candles aplenty and I decorated two jars I found at the dollar tree, not that you can seem them that well.

I found this pretty Witch tree topper at Ross. I've always wanted a 'pretty' witch. People seem to think that witches needs to be green or old or look like creepy old ladies, but that's not the case. So when I saw her for a reasonable price, I snatched her right up and brought her home. She too, was kept out and is hanging out in the office. 

Narcisa was hanging out on the kitchen table with me on Halloween night. This was before dinner and after our trip to the Campbell house here in town. They were a rich family and their house is a historical point of interest and museum. I didn't take my phone with me so I will just have to go back and get pictures another time. It is a beautiful Victorian era house and I pretty much want live there. But back to my house...

My friend Felicia gave me this cute cat and we set him on one of our pumpkins!

Amanda's luminary made from card stock, tissue paper, and a big pickle jar. We made them with our friend Rachel two years ago.

Here is mine. 

I had made little cauldrons for friends for something that got cancelled. So we enjoyed them over a couple of days.

I really liked this project and want to do it again, especially since I know how 

I did have more candy in them, it was just under the cotton candy. 

And here is me, I was a demon. I had black wings, my horns, and had done my make up.

This was just a beautiful display at Fuego in the mall. I loved the masks and would like to use them as inspiration for making some of my own. I've made a mask before and really loved it.

One day I went to work to see Amanda and took a picture of one of the halls in the old chronicle building. I love the decor.

This is a poster Amanda got me of Shiro from Voltron. It was done by Missy Pena and you can find her on twitter.

This was the very last bit of the Halloween Season activities. We went down to Moscow, Id to visit the twins and also go try out a spooky escape room at Puzzle IQ. What we learned was that I will look in a bucket of icky water and know there is something in but not put my hand in and make someone else do it. That Amanda moves stuff she's not supposed to, and that when they say look at everything, Amanda and I take them very seriously and go as far as taking apart furniture to look for clues. LOL! They told us we didn't have to take apart the furniture. Also, that the Twin, Amanda, and I actually make a pretty good team when doing this. We each find things the other miss. So we managed to do the escape room without a single hint with 16 minutes to spare. The total time we were allowed was 45 minutes. It was a lot of fun and needless to say, we are hooked. We've been looking at other escape rooms around, checking prices and themes and such.

Lastly, on a more recent trip down to visit the twins, we stopped in Potlatch, Id. Along I 90 there is a little dinner called Dad's Diner. It didn't used to be called that. Back in the 1940's my Grandmother's Dad's cousin worked out in the area and his wife worked in the diner. At some point the cousin died and eventually his wife bought the diner and ran it for many years. That was the cup "Ireland's Inn" that was in another blog post. Anyway, her son, my Grandma's cousin, apparently still lives in Deary. Which is kind of cool. The family doesn't own the place anymore, but it's really neat to see where my family has been and walk where they walked. 

KuroNekoCon 2018

For the last ten years Spokane has put on KuroNekoCon. I haven't lived in the area as long as that, but since I learned about it, I've wanted to go. It is one of the less expensive anime conventions I've been too as well as one of the smaller ones. I've been to bigger and while those cons are a blast, they are packed with people and have long lines. I tend to prefer the smaller cons so I can get to and from places, see the panels I want easier, and well, there are less people. 

Side note: you may or may not recognize this park- which is across the river from the convention center, as the one that hosted a World's fair in the 70s and it was also where they shot some scenes for Benny and June. And no, I still haven't seen that movie. 

I  also haven't been to explore the park proper. I've been to sections on the south side of the river and enjoyed those, but never managed to cross over the bridge or park on the north side to explore there. I am hoping that this spring, I will be in better shape physically, won't have had any surgeries, and can go play there. But for now, on to the con...

First I'm going to say that we had a full house. Our friend, the Twins and their two brothers came up from Moscow, Id for the con and Amanda's  friend from her MFA program in Boston, Marilyn came for the con and to see us as well. 

Here is the KuroNekoCon program. I really liked the cover art for this year it was really cute.  I think one of the reasons I like anime so much is because the art styles appeal to me. 

A picture of the some of the programming available for the first day. Amanda and I both noticed they had a bit of a problem, there were errors all over it. Which meant they either rushed to get the programs printed or whoever put it together, didn't proof it and edit well enough. It bothered Amanda so much she decided we HAVE to join the committee for the con to fix this for next year. I would love to help with that too. 2019 spoiler alert, we are going to see about joining the KuroNekoCon planing committee or board to and see if we can't bring some of our ideas in to help the con run smoother, because its something we enjoy and want to see flourish.  

One of the things I like is Moe Maid Culture (its half fashion, half cute stuff), so I went to a panel about just that. This adorable lady came all the way from New York to talk about a Maid Cafe there. She was super cute and she said the anime Maid Sama was probably the best, most accurate representation of a real Maid Cafe, although not totally like it. Still, that is helpful in knowing what to expect when going. The Maids want their customers to feel like they have come home and to relax and have fun.

One band was present at the con this year and it was Kazha. I didn't know much about them, so I thought I would check them out since I like hearing new music. My friend Tomi was at the Con too and she said she really liked them. Since Tomi and I have a lot of the same tastes in music, I definitely wanted to see them. 

It didn't seem to matter where I stood, I could not get a good picture of Kazha herself. But you can take a listen to her and the band here.

BB-8 was there, rolling around and paused for a photo op!

One of the panels Amanda, her friend Marilyn, and I went to was on Taiko Drumming. We've seen this group preform at the Perry Street Fair a couple of years ago and really liked them. As it turns out, not only were they letting people try it out, but they let people come and learn how to drum and join their group. I got way too shy to go up on stage, so Amanda (in the pink dress) went up. Even Marilyn went up. We'd like to go try it out in 2019.

The must see panel for me was the one on Kendo. I've always been fascinated by it since I learned of it through anime, but didn't figure I would ever get the chance to learn something like that. Guess again, there is a club right here in town and they have classes. I won't be able to go to them for awhile, we don't have the money for it, but I am hoping that I can soon, even if it is just a beginners class. 

One of our Twin friends and her younger brother. We were waiting outside the gaming hall, trying to decide what we were all going to do next.

Someone cosplayed as the Goddess in Moana, her cosplay was beautiful!

An Aggretusko cosplayer. 

This girl dressed as prisoner Shiro from Voltron and since it was just after the Voltron people had confirmed that Shiro is gay, she wore a gay flag too. I loved it, so I asked if I could take her picture. Apparently, I was the first person to do so and seemed to know who she was playing.

Had some girls cosplaying Voltron cheerleaders.

My other must see panel was a Voltron Monsters and Mana (Voltron's version of D&D) game. It was so much fun and this group did an amazing job. The cosplayer playing Lotor was hilarious!

there were three of the T-rexes running about  the con. They were pretty fun too.

A better look at the Voltron cosplayer panel I enjoyed so much.

We took the bus one of the days we went to the con. In sunlight, I really do look pale. 

The beautiful Marilyn

Amanda being silly and going to the con Goth style.

I didn't have a costume for the con but I did decide to make myself a stencil of the Fairy Tail guild's tattoo (from the anime Fairy Tail) and used eye liner, eye shadow, and a setting spray. It came out pretty good and lasted all day! 

One afternoon we went to Sushi Sakai for lunch. Because I can't have any shell fish and don't like fish in general, I was pleased to find vegetarian sushi on the menu.

We also shared a bottle of sake.

This artist, Charamath, has some beautiful work. The blue, yellow, and orange elf picture in the bottom left corner came home with me. When I saw it, I knew it was mine. Here's a link to her shop on etsy if you want to see more Charamath's Art Corner.

I can't recall the artist who did this print, but I made Amanda get it. It was the best Keith print at the whole con.

Two key chains Amanda and I bought. Mine is Shiro and her's is Keith. 

When I walked into the Vendor hall I saw this Dakimakura and had to know what the character was from. I love his design and as it turns out, he's from the web comic Phantom Paradise. Its in the fantasy genre. As soon as we came home from the con, I looked it up and so far, I am really enjoying the comic, which you can find here if interested.

We bought more art and a few trinkets from the vendor hall and went to the gaming hall a few times to either sit and relax or play games. We also sat out in the convention center's 'cafe' area and watched people come and go. It was a lot of fun and reminded me how much I miss doing things like that.