"Fireplace"

There's an unusual space in our library that we've had lots of great ideas for since we opened nearly two years ago, but for various reasons, none of them worked out. An aquarium would require too much upkeep and extra technology installed; a real working fireplace required too many changes to meet fire code requirements, and because of its location in the building, is not easy to keep an eye on. For a while, the space served as a display case for a local history collection of objects, but now, it's a "fireplace" made of glass pieces by a local artist. And it's beautiful!

That's about 2/3 of the case (there's more to the right). I don't know how many glass pieces are in there; I haven't asked (or counted).

Blood Drive

There's a blood drive at our library today. While Poe couldn't donate (the Red Cross didn't need stuffing donations today) he helped me through my first blood donation.

The only Poe-sized sticker was the calendar reminder sticker for the next
time I'll be able to donate! But it works... "Give Blood Today!"

You can see my red bandage on my arm, which matches nicely with my
Scarlet Witch (Age of Ultron) costume - we were encouraged to dress as
heroes to honor the blood drive - and my bigger-than-Poe-sized stickers!
(Actually you can also see the little hoop I got from Mountains & Clouds
in the last LV swap on my office wall, too!)

To Broadway and Back

No, we didn't go to NYC... we went to Broadway, VA, which is a little town near Harrisonburg. We helped our friends put up a fence in their backyard. I wouldn't let Poe help, because there was so much danger for an LV: red clay everywhere, sweat and sunscreen, wet concrete, power tools, plus so many bugs. But he enjoyed the car ride!

A scenic view of the Blue Ridge Mountains
(we've never stopped at this in all the times we've gone this way!)

Another shot of the Blue Ridge Mountains

Poe's seat in the car

From the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel
(usually I'm driving, so I can't get a good LV picture here!)

Heading into the tunnel

Hold your breath!
(The tunnel goes under the water, so that was the game
we played as kids... try to hold your breath through the tunnel.
It's 3.5 miles... we never succeeded.)

Here we go!

Fence building is very hard work, so we're taking it easy for a couple days, but this is actually a pretty busy week! Let's hope we remember to take pictures of all the fun things coming up...

Spoiler-Free: Game of Thrones Season Finale

We've been hanging on to a bottle of Three-Eyed Raven (Ommegang's season 5 beer) so we cracked it open for the finale last night.

Cheers!

The NorVa

We have a small music venue in Norfolk called the NorVa (Norfolk VA). My brother-in-law's band played there last night in something called the 757-804 Mashup (some bands from the 757 - Hampton Roads - and some from 804 - Richmond).

I drove, so I let Poe have my "over 21" wristband.

It's difficult to get a good shot of Poe in a dark venue!
The drummer is my brother-in-law.

Outside the NorVa. The top line of the marquis says "Tonight: 757-804 Mashup."
And you can see the mermaid on top (Norfolk has locally-decorated mermaids everywhere.)

It was a fun time! I haven't been to the NorVa in a while (and the last couple times I've been, I saw Opeth, so it was extremely loud... this was a little more chill, rock-meets-country).

BattlePoe

Well, we've begun the super-exciting, super-fun adventure of packing up our apartment in preparation to move! We aren't going far (just up the street) but we'll have more space, which as you Craftsters know is very important. (I don't have any space in this apartment large enough to cut dress patterns!)

To start with, Poe found this little chainmail shirt my husband made several years ago... a little big, but not by much! I assured Poe he wouldn't run across any orcs in our apartment, so we've packed it away.

TWCC and TCC

My goodness, we're behind on sharing adventures!

Well, Tidewater Comicon (TWCC) was last weekend, and we had a great time. Although I didn't get a lot of photos with Poe, because I was too busy having my own photos taken (ah, the life of a cosplayer). I did get a couple, though.

Outside the convention center

Helping me get ready by preparing my quiver
(I was Sera from Dragon Age: Inquisition)

The admission wristband fits! Albeit a little unconventionally...

Veterans' Memorial outside the convention center

Then on Wednesday, we had a big college-wide library training day at the Portsmouth campus of our school (TCC). I started off working at that campus, but I haven't been back in about two years, and they have a new statue of Fred Beazley (who, among other things, donated the land that campus was built on) so we visited that.

Poe can't... quite... reach... the hat...

...so he gave up and posed on the base.