The Winter Los Angeles, CA and Portland, OR changed places continues. We had a bit of a break this afternoon but the deluge has started back up again. I mean, it's a good thing...we've been in a serious drought for years, and we've needed the rain. But getting it all at once has been a slow-motion catastrophe. It seems like every day there is another report of another hillside enclave with houses in peril. The entire little village of La Conchita may be condemned, and houses are slipping in Orange County, Culver City and in the Hollywood Hills so far. We're going to see rain from now until Wednesday, so nobody gets a break.

Umm...except for me, that is. Because of Presidents' Day, I'll not have to go in for school until Wednesday, and hopefully by then the rains will have calmed down some.

Presidents' Day weekend meant a sale at Jo-Ann's, so I dragged Richie there and got some sewing goodies. However, most of the good deals were already gone by the afternoon. And I got a rude awakening about something: most of the women (and one guy) who were cutting yard goods today had wrist splints on one or both wrists. I've only seen that in one other line of work, and that was working tech. I'm sure none of the people there get paid anywhere near the code geeks I worked with were, and they are fucking their wrists up for the pittance they are paid. Sobering. I got more fabric to give the Kimono thing a second go-round. This time I'll be working from a pattern, (McCall's 4247, out of print but snarfed on eBay) and I'll be using 100% cotton fabric more suited for Summer Con-going. I also have a bit more inspiration, in the person of the character Fuu from Samurai Champloo.

Fuu is way younger and skinnier than me, but there's something about her character that is appealing. Yeah, she's ditzy and impulsive, but unlike her Cowboy Bebop counterpart she has a big, open heart. That is most apparent in the second episode on the new Region 1 DVD that just came out, where she is the only one to give a hulking, obviously mentally disturbed guy that everyone calls demon (Oni) or monster (Bakemono) consideration as a human being. There's something touching about that. And her simple consideration of the poor slob as a fellow human winds up saving not just her life, but the lives of her fellow travelers too. I like Mugen and Jin too...they're the Spike and Jet of this series by Cowboy Bebop director Watanabe Shinichiro...but so far it's Fuu that's grabbed me. You gotta check out Samurai Champloo...it rocks hard.

Fuu's kimono is kind of a salmon pink with raspberry accents. And a pale pink four-petalled flower motif in strategic places on the kimono. And she wears the bow of her Obi in front rather than in back. Oh look, someone who really looks like her is already cosplaying her. Yeah, I'm way too big and way too old, but screw it...I like the character. At least I'm not a guy cross-playing her. Unlike the sweet young thing who really did a great job on her Fuu costume, I'm going to paint the flowers on with fabric paint rather than try to applique them on. That means, of course, that I have one shot to get the painted flowers right. Hell, maybe what I'll do is have someone do fusible vinyl cuts of the motif and iron the damn things on. Or something.

Oh yeah, I'll finish that experimental one...maybe turn it into some sort of fantasy Chinese robe or something like that. Who knows.

One other thing, I hardly know how to sew at this point. Sewing on the little chibi machine I just got is easier than sewing on those hulking monstrosities they had at Van Nuys Junior High in 1976, that's for sure. But I still don't know what the hell I'm doing. All I know is that I am *not* going to take classes at Jo-Anns. I have to agree with Richie, the place is starting to give me the creeps. Worse than Wally*World, if you can believe that.