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Maker Faire 2011

Maker Faire 2011, a set on Flickr.

Way too much fun!

Maker Faire 2011

We went to San Mateo for this year's Maker Faire.

SUPER FUN TIME!!

I went to Swap-a-rama-rama to start my Maker Faire project.

I took a blue T-shirt and used a serger to make it into a shrug for my 9 year old.

Many thanks to CC and Katy who helped.

CC was a wiz with the serger and made the whole process not so scary and Katy was wonderful at showing me how to do a button hole. I just may have to break down and buy one of those new fangled sewing machines because making a button hole now is SUPER EASY!

Right next to Swap-a-rama was the booth doing silk screening. M chose to do the flowers.

Then, while waiting for a demo on soft circuitry, I ran into Dia from SparkFun. She was great and gave me some supplies to try to sew in some LilyPad LED's. Here's what the soft parallel circuit looks like:

And the coolest part - what it looks like with a battery in:

SWEET!

Mochi Rocket by M

Mochi Rocket by M
Originally uploaded by civilgrrl

Went out to the October DARS launch this weekend. M decorated her rocket with some Mochi stickers. Had a good day but am paying a price - allergies are raging!

J's "I go whoosh" whooshing

J's "I go whoosh" whooshing
Originally uploaded by civilgrrl

This will be the last we see of the "I Go Whoosh". This flight went well and we were able to recover it with some problems - it got caught in the power lines. After tugging on it a couple of times, it came lose.

The next day, J flew it on an I 195 - which was not as strong a motor that this video had. It separated at apogee. The wind the third day was BAD.

I did help out with range duties at AIRFest and had a short lived time as Launch Safety Officer (LSO) - something I've done quite a lot - even at a large rocket launch. Granted, I was a little rusty, but I picked it up fairly quickly. I'll just say that it wasn't the most fun experience and leave it at that. The launch got called for high winds (you shouldn't launch in 20+ mph winds).

We hung around the launch site another three hours hoping that the wind will die down - and it didn't. We didn't have shade, because our EZ Up took a hit because of the high wind. The hotel, which was supposed to have a pool, was terrible and M started saying that she was homesick.

We also found out that the next day was supposed to be high winds (over 20 mph) again.

So I made the call - we were going home early. After 3 nights, none of us had had a good night sleep and it was time.

So we're home again and it was nice to get a good night sleep. We're all unpacked, washed, and have eliminated all traces of Kansas dust.

Can't wait till the next HPR launch (High Powered Rocket)

My rocket flying

VID 00003.3GP
Originally uploaded by civilgrrl

This is a video of my pink and black rocket I call the Starry Night. It's flying on an nice little black jack motor by Aerotec (I 195)

It went really fast and I didn't keep it on camera all the time - it really kicked off that rod!

Flying with your big girl

M and mom with the Starry Night Sept 2010
Originally uploaded by civilgrrl

After a very long 6 year hiatus, I finally have started getting back into High Powered Rocketry. We are currently in Argonia, Kansas getting ready to start day two of Airfest. It was really nice getting reacquainted with people we hadn't seen in quite a long time. I forgot just how friendly and helpful everyone is out on the airfield and the Kansas guys are super nice.

We have a superb location looking directly on to the air field and our neighbors are super. I'm not surprised at how many Texans we had out yesterday - seems like you were either from Kansas or Texas with a few Oklahoman's mixed in.

I tried flying my "Starry Night" yesterday on a motor that's OLD (gotta be over 8 years) - an Aerotek I 355 Redline - would have been super neat to see that. But after three attempts (and the final one with a very good igniter) and some consultation with some guys who cast motors for a living, we decided that it was not meant to go up.

So we bought another one - and I like these motors - SUPER black and smokey. I'll send my rocket up on day two.

We did fly J's "I Go Whoosh" on a J 355. Perfect flight! But we had a bit of a scare at the end. It got fouled in some electrical wires coming down. I tugged at it a couple of times and we got lucky - it came loose.

Day Two starts in an hour - gotta go.

Great Weekend

My company (which I have officially hit the one year mark at) had a pool party with all my co-workers on Friday. I have to say a lot of work went into it and all I did was show up. School is officially on and I found myself leaving home at 7 am and not returning until 9 pm all week long. The pool party was officially a wonderful way to end a very busy week. Thank you to all my co-workers who put it together. Good job.

Saturday was spent over at Frisco at a mid-powered rocket launch put on by the Dallas Area Rocket Society (DARS). Years ago I used to be VERY involved with high-powered rockets and had to take a break when my little one was having sensory overload issues. I got to spot the Range Safety Officer for about an hour and had a great time. It was really nice to re-connect with past friends. We are thinking seriously about going to Air Fest this year up in Argonia, Kansas. Should be a good fun trip and it's been 6 years since we last went. I'm also due some time off and after this semester, I'm gonna need to blow something up.

Today we ran by a new home brew store in north Dallas today because I needed some more bottles - I have a German Light and a Koelsh in the buckets and needed to bottle this weekend or risk losing one of the buckets. 72 bottles later (which, by the way, were good, but the best bottles are the ones from Sam Adam's bottles) I bought some ingredients for my very first non-kit beer. It's a Stone IPA recipe, but with a liquid malt extract instead of whole grains. The house has a wonderful hoppy smell right now!

Knitting: Well, I have the body and hood done on a Central Park Hoodie. I had to do some serious modifications to the sleeves - 8 1/2" is not wide enough for a plus size gal. I added about 5 more inches. I'm currently knitting the sleeves. Slow going as I have LOTS going on. I also always have a wash cloth going in my purse and have a number of them knitted up waiting to be distributed to others when the time is right.

Best part of this weekend is seeing M get the rocket bug. I hated leaving the hobby years ago, but I know we're going to start up again - M loved it too much and we had too much fun to not do it again. Next launch: Frisco (August 21st).

Dallas ComiCon

J saw that the Dallas Comic Convention was going on today, so we ran over to Richardson this afternoon.

You see, M is currently in a writing mode. So much that she gets into trouble at school for not doing her other work. It's something her teacher HATES to discourage, but M's writing *is* interfering with her other work.

So we are encouraging her as much as we can here at home, and it's working. She will disappear into her room to write.

So today, we went to Comi Con and actively sought out the writers - she wanted to take notes. These guys were SO great towards her and really listened to her and encouraged her. One even said he'd follow up with her over email. M even told them some of the stories she's been working on.

Good weekend.