Making the Most of My In Service Days: Thursday Live Blog

It's darned early, 5:03 AM.  I have today off, courtesy of my principal, the much revered Brian Lowney and the Puyallup School District.  October 6th and 7th are district and state in-service days.  In the old days we had these days off to participate in teacher trainings offered by districts state wide.  Now they're pretty much used for catching up or taking a break after the first month of school.

I plan to use my day mostly for painting little men, so I'll keep you posted throughout the day on what I get done.  Warning*: this will be live blogging, little snippets of info, hopefully accompanied by pictures as the day goes along.  It will also be largely unfiltered.  I'll mix in various other activities as the day goes along.

5:10 My day begins with our pets.  15 year old cat Daphne, mini-Australian shepherds Jack and Lucy, nine and ten respectively get fed and then I take the dogs for a walk.  Nothing long, about 15 minutes in our development.  It's been pissing rain the last 24 hours, but I managed to get them out in between most of the raindrops.  It's dark, so picture taking is out (besides my iPhone is charging and my pics will be with my phone today. Probably.) After we get back and dried off a bit, I'll settle in to read and maybe a nap until Lorri heads off to work at7:00.  I've been a bad sleeper for a number of years now and the best I can manage is 6 1/2 or so hours per night.  Last night was worse than usual.  Pretty wakeful after 2:30 and wide awake at 4:00.  Definitely a nap in the cards.

For now I'm going to read An Artist in Treason by Andro Linklater .  It's a biography of James Wilkinson, general in the American Army during the Revolutionary War, but more importantly in the period from 1784-1813 or so.  It is a 2009 biography about one of the most extraordinary rascals in American history, and covers the era of my Mississippi project.  It's a very accessible work about Wilkinson's role as a spy for the Spanish during this critical era.

7:25 Emerged from the shower to howls of protest from Daphne, the dogs had their daily savaging of her food from her dish.

Today I have two chief goals.  The first is to finish basing the Space 1889 Martian swordsmen and Wayne's Legion figures I have on my desk.  You can see them here.  I used wood putty on their washers and Litko bases respectively as build-up.  Shouldn't be a big job.  I'll write more about them later.  The Wayne's Legion figures are from Old Glory's range.  Serviceable despite some errors.  The Martians are from RAFM.

I also want to finish painting the big critters. These are Gashants, riding beasts of Mars, again from RAFM.  I really like this particular version of the Gashant.  They appear large and fierce.  They are the mounts for some Martian native light horse, er, native light gashant, um, irregular mounted forces.

10:10  I'm off to run some errands--library and a haircut.  Worked on my Gashants while watching Khartoum.  Definitely one of my favorite movies.  I worked hard to even out the color on the critters.  They've been washed at least three times now.  First with a lighter color, then a darker shade of the base color, then with a black wash.  Started on the horse furniture, er you know what I mean.

 

2:00 Got back from my errands had some lunch and plugged in The Outlaw Josey Wales.  Probably my favorite Western and definitely my favorite Eastwood.   I've worked for about an hour adding details to the Gashants.  Painted their beaks, saddles and reins, their head armor in addition to blanket rolls and strapping.  Probably another hour's worth of work to go.  Unfortunately I have to take a break to make the dog's food (long story,) and clean up the kitchen. 

5:05 I've finished the Gashants and the basing for the Martian swordsmen.  I'm getting dinner ready which will keep me busy for a while.  

 8:30  Finished basing all the figures, and I'm probably ready to call it a night.  Maybe read for a bit, and check back in with finished figures tomorrow.