So, right after the party I was exhausted.
Then it was my dad's birthday, which involved, among other things, a 200-mile round trip and something called "sky sailing". (It involves a small fiberglass aircraft, and a tow plane. Mildly terrifying but wholly exhilarating. Go Dad!)
Then, a week at work compressed into four days of random busy-ness. Why on earth would you call your accountant from Spain to ask why the logo of the carrier on your mobile phone did not match the one on your wife's? One - why would you care? Two - how the frak would I know? Three - you're in Spain! This call is costing you a dollar per minute!
Now I'm sick and head-coldy. New updates as I feel up to it.
Coming soon - the Renaissance Faire!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Volume II
Some of the male guests.
Some of the female guests.
The trivia quiz winner! Her prize: the LAST tube of Tauron toothpaste in the universe!
The motherfrakkin' seal, on which I spent at least six hours, all told.
Many BSG-clad guests. Yay!
Wonderful party kitten. Greeted all the party guests politely, made no attempt to cozy up to the allergic few, and spent most of the episode on the back of this chair, quietly watching with everyone else. (His comrade, the other cat, spent the entire party under the bed, not even sneaking out to go to the bathroom.)
More decor.
The whole spread.
Just a chips-and-dips platter. But the chips are all hexagonal, and there's toast!
I needed something vaguely healthy. I called it "reconstituted algae".
Cylon raider crescent rolls, stuffed with ground turkey and chorizo. Adorable and, apparently, delicious - it was the one food item I had no leftovers of!
Scotch cake, in a vague dogtag replica style. And I stayed true to the spirit of the show - there was Scotch in the batter, Scotch in the glaze, and about half a cup of Scotch just poured directly onto the thing. Tasty but potent!
The food item I am proudest of: the Eye of Jupiter fruit tart. Behold its wonder. (And, miraculously, it tasted good too. Not bad for a first try.)
Some decor. I made signs for everything.
Cleaning for the party. (In my Battlestar workout clothes, of course! And it was a good thing too, as several party guests were distressingly prompt...)
Monday, March 16, 2009
Battlestar Galactica Frakkin' Finale Party, Vol. 1
Volume One
Step 162 of 350. Or something like that. These posts will be quick and dirty, because it's about the content, and not the usual flights of writerly effervescence that I like to indulge in. Just for form's sake, I'll bring you up to speed: this Friday, March 20, 2009, the SciFi Channel will broadcast the two-hour series finale of the best show on television, Battlestar Galactica. As I did for the painfully long-ago series finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I will be throwing a party. A big, extremely geeked-out, wonderfully obscure party. (As with all my parties, it seems it will be somewhat less well-attended than I'd hoped. But that's what the internet is for, right? So that multitudes of people I've never met can appreciate my genius? Yeah, right. And I'll be joining the Evil League of Evil anyday now.)
I've been preparing to throw this party since the fourth season began in spring 2008, but beyond some brainstorming and setting aside money (I figured if I took $20 out of each paycheck, it would pay for itself by the time the finale came around. It almost worked, too. I'm only going to come up a little short after I buy all the booze. But you can't skimp on fun!), I didn't really get started until February. That's when I started buying BSG-related stuff, figuring out how to decorate my apartment, and putting together costumes.
There have been some setbacks and misses along the way, but with some help from my boyfriend, my geek friends (I'm looking at you, Piratical!), and my minions (did I say minions? I meant parents. Parents. I've got to say, being an only child is nice work if you can get it), it's really starting to come together. A brief rundown follows with pictures, and I'll update as the event gets closer. Good Hunting!
The decor:
While I flirted with the idea of trying to recreate one of the cooler sets in my living room, I was ultimately foiled by price, time, my lack of carpentry skills, and the basic shape of my apartment. So the interior of a basestar was out, as were most of the interiors from Galactica. I considered a sort of tent/quonset hut theme meant to evoke New Caprica, but the ease with which my apartment became that depressing was, well, depressing. So I settled upon the easiest theme locale to recreate - the large open area occupied by Baltar's hippy-dippy-slutty acolytes. They took a largely unappealing and stark space (hello, my apartment!) and draped it with blankets and curtains and cloths in rich colors to make it a faux-Eastern-meditation style retreat. They also had throw pillows and pictures of Baltar, and possibly some Christmas lights. I can do that!
That took care of the living room. The rest of the apartment will be more of a hodgepodge. The bathroom and kitchen are function rooms that are for obvious reasons hard to disguise. They'll just get signs in the BSG font ("head" and "Joe's Bar" respectively, although I need to rewatch an episode to see if there is a sign for Galactica's restrooms, and if so, what it says). The bedrooms I don't want people in will get "Munitions Locker - Authorized Personnel Only" signs. The hall, being a hall, will become the memorial wall from Galactica, with all the pictures I can find of characters who died throughout the series. And maybe some of those electric candles, if I can figure out how to stick them to the wall right side up.
The rest of the open space, which is not quite part of the living room but not quite not part of it either, will contain an army-green mess table with themed food, a blue-curtained wall with a seal meant to evoke Colonial One, and a games table for poker, pyramid cards, and trivia entries. Plus all the BSG posters, toys, magazines, and prints not included elsewhere. Oh, and the shadow box containing the costume I bought from the Propworx auction (I DO own a piece of Battlestar Galactica, thank you very much!). Hmm. That room seems a bit crowded now. Well, as the apartment needs to remain functional for two people and two cats until Friday, major decorating probably won't commence until Thursday. I guess we'll see then.
Next was costumes, which to my shame are still in progress. The fact that they needed only minor alterations from army surplus wear caused me to leave them ridiculously late. One set of duty blues and one set of green BDUs still need pins, patches, shoulder suede, and pocket alterations. The workout clothes still need patches. (Note: I have all of those items, I just haven't attached them yet. I received my last BSG online orders last week - I never trust estimated ship dates.) Oh, and the blue curtain needs to be curtainized. At the moment it's just a big piece of fabric. Oh, well, that's tomorrow's task.
Then - the food.
I think this was the part I had the most fun with. A friend was kind enouigh to link me to some blogs where people had already created some amazing BSG food, and I copied some of their ideas, modified others, and came up with one or two of my own. The finalized menu follows tomorrow.
As do pictures, I hope...
Step 162 of 350. Or something like that. These posts will be quick and dirty, because it's about the content, and not the usual flights of writerly effervescence that I like to indulge in. Just for form's sake, I'll bring you up to speed: this Friday, March 20, 2009, the SciFi Channel will broadcast the two-hour series finale of the best show on television, Battlestar Galactica. As I did for the painfully long-ago series finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I will be throwing a party. A big, extremely geeked-out, wonderfully obscure party. (As with all my parties, it seems it will be somewhat less well-attended than I'd hoped. But that's what the internet is for, right? So that multitudes of people I've never met can appreciate my genius? Yeah, right. And I'll be joining the Evil League of Evil anyday now.)
I've been preparing to throw this party since the fourth season began in spring 2008, but beyond some brainstorming and setting aside money (I figured if I took $20 out of each paycheck, it would pay for itself by the time the finale came around. It almost worked, too. I'm only going to come up a little short after I buy all the booze. But you can't skimp on fun!), I didn't really get started until February. That's when I started buying BSG-related stuff, figuring out how to decorate my apartment, and putting together costumes.
There have been some setbacks and misses along the way, but with some help from my boyfriend, my geek friends (I'm looking at you, Piratical!), and my minions (did I say minions? I meant parents. Parents. I've got to say, being an only child is nice work if you can get it), it's really starting to come together. A brief rundown follows with pictures, and I'll update as the event gets closer. Good Hunting!
The decor:
While I flirted with the idea of trying to recreate one of the cooler sets in my living room, I was ultimately foiled by price, time, my lack of carpentry skills, and the basic shape of my apartment. So the interior of a basestar was out, as were most of the interiors from Galactica. I considered a sort of tent/quonset hut theme meant to evoke New Caprica, but the ease with which my apartment became that depressing was, well, depressing. So I settled upon the easiest theme locale to recreate - the large open area occupied by Baltar's hippy-dippy-slutty acolytes. They took a largely unappealing and stark space (hello, my apartment!) and draped it with blankets and curtains and cloths in rich colors to make it a faux-Eastern-meditation style retreat. They also had throw pillows and pictures of Baltar, and possibly some Christmas lights. I can do that!
That took care of the living room. The rest of the apartment will be more of a hodgepodge. The bathroom and kitchen are function rooms that are for obvious reasons hard to disguise. They'll just get signs in the BSG font ("head" and "Joe's Bar" respectively, although I need to rewatch an episode to see if there is a sign for Galactica's restrooms, and if so, what it says). The bedrooms I don't want people in will get "Munitions Locker - Authorized Personnel Only" signs. The hall, being a hall, will become the memorial wall from Galactica, with all the pictures I can find of characters who died throughout the series. And maybe some of those electric candles, if I can figure out how to stick them to the wall right side up.
The rest of the open space, which is not quite part of the living room but not quite not part of it either, will contain an army-green mess table with themed food, a blue-curtained wall with a seal meant to evoke Colonial One, and a games table for poker, pyramid cards, and trivia entries. Plus all the BSG posters, toys, magazines, and prints not included elsewhere. Oh, and the shadow box containing the costume I bought from the Propworx auction (I DO own a piece of Battlestar Galactica, thank you very much!). Hmm. That room seems a bit crowded now. Well, as the apartment needs to remain functional for two people and two cats until Friday, major decorating probably won't commence until Thursday. I guess we'll see then.
Next was costumes, which to my shame are still in progress. The fact that they needed only minor alterations from army surplus wear caused me to leave them ridiculously late. One set of duty blues and one set of green BDUs still need pins, patches, shoulder suede, and pocket alterations. The workout clothes still need patches. (Note: I have all of those items, I just haven't attached them yet. I received my last BSG online orders last week - I never trust estimated ship dates.) Oh, and the blue curtain needs to be curtainized. At the moment it's just a big piece of fabric. Oh, well, that's tomorrow's task.
Then - the food.
I think this was the part I had the most fun with. A friend was kind enouigh to link me to some blogs where people had already created some amazing BSG food, and I copied some of their ideas, modified others, and came up with one or two of my own. The finalized menu follows tomorrow.
As do pictures, I hope...
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