Gentle friends & visitors,
I use this site for keeping up with friends & people with common interests.  Dont expect much in the way of posts. I'm not much of a writer.  You can find me on Facebook and Skype, under my real name.    I keep my website elsewhere called Cynthia's Laptop Unlock'd. There you'll find photos, notes and events.  It's where I keep things like:

The 24 Hour B-grade Fantasy and Science Fiction Movie Marathon a party I throw most years. Movie Marathon (The site's on googlepages.)

By far the largest section there is Compleat Costume Companion my costume brag book.

Photos of the neverending project restoring our 1918 house in the San Jose Rosegarden 1918 House Restoration

The archives of The News from Tokyo, illustrated letters I sent home while living in Japan. Old letters sent home

I spend alot of time on h-costume, an old listserv for historical costumers.  You can also find me on Facebook.

Drop me a line,
--cin
 

Answers to the questions from Vittoriosa - the Borg Questions meme. If you’d like to play, post “resistance is futile” or some variation as a comment.

Vittoriosa asked:

1. Where do you want to travel to that you haven't gotten to visit yet?

Hyster1a says: Somewhere with lava. I’ve never seen the stuff in person. I’d like to go somewhere with the Aurora Borealis and sunlight all nite long. That’s probably Scandinavia or Alaska. I’m always happy to see more of Europe especially anyplace with a fabulous fine arts museum and some castles. More of Japan would be good. When we lived in Tokyo, I never managed to get south of Kyoto.

2. Of the numerous places you have traveled to, which is your favorite and why?

Hyster1a says: Anywhere my pelpals, online friends and relatives live. It’s just so much fun to go with the locally knowledgeable folks. You get into different places that you never would have found or noticed. London has been quite fun, Paris is thrilling, Tel Aviv is fab.

3. When did you start dancing and how did you get interested in it?

Hyster1a says: In second grade, my first crush was Jeff Coverston (if memory serves). Whenever the weather was too awful for outdoor recess, we did indoor activities. The best was square dance. I’d run across the room to be his partner. Much, much later, at Dicken’s Faire I discovered dance in costumes. I’ve never looked back.

4. Favorite Tuesday Dinner Club menu -- the one you most enjoyed hosting, and the one you most enjoyed attending?

Hyster1a says: The most fun to make was probably the Southern Trash Cooking nite. Since none of the guests were Southerners, it was kinda fun to inflict my native cuisine on you.

The best Dinner Club guest experience was a pretty early one. I’d had the Most Horrible Boss in the World (we didn’t pick each other and never would have). He’d been treating me in a particularly demeaning way all day. My best defense, all day was to repeat: Someone right now is cooking me a fancy dinner. At 7p, I got to eat that dinner and be in the company of welcoming people. Even more delicious, the Most Horrible Boss got fired a few weeks later.

5. Of all your fantastic sartorial creations, which is your favorite?

Hyster1a says: *head explodes in a frenzy of indecision”

I've been on the phone with WaMu/Chase.   If you dont bank with either then ignore this msg; it's not relevant to you.

Holy Crap! If you dont claim all your bank accts (by doing something with them) the FDIC can take possession of these inactive accts Real Soon Now. WaMu/Chase forgot to send reminder notes out to all Calif acct holders.  I have fixed this for my personal & biz accts.  You should do the same.

Claim your WaMu/Chase CDs & inactive accts by calling 1.877.242.7305
   Identify yourself either with the acct # or SSN.
   Verify that you have claims on all accts tied to your SSN. 
   Get the FDIC service request numbers.
It takes just a few minutes & you might want to tell your friends who have CDs in California WaMu/Chase accts.

Background as I understand it: Because Chase was stupid, reminder letters went out to businesses, but not to individuals with static accts (like term deposits, CDs & MMAs).  Business got notes on their statements explaining the above.  This is supposed to be done by 1 Sept or the FDIC gets all unclaimed moneys. FDIC has granted an extension because of this error, but dont wait. Otherwise you're in for a fight thru paperwork hell.

Had a little party last nite, the invite went like this:
Neighbors & friends, you're invited to a Latte drinking Liberal Elite Election Watch party.
Bring your sympathetic spouses, spices & friends, but do warn them first!

Starting 5p on Election Night, until oh maybe 10p since it's a school nite.
Please RSVP, I'd like an idea how many are coming.

Drink plans: Liberal Elite Latte, of course!
Pre-dinner snacking plans: whatever little pastries I find in the freezer.
Dinner plans:  Nothing fancy.

Following the noble format of the B-Grade F&SF Movie Marathon, there will be a projector, large screen, plenty of horrible monsters to yell at, underdogs & heroes to cheer.  Bring your laptops, we'll open up
the wireless network and find our favorite election sites to track. Cool stuff goes up on the big screen.

... if you're not a latte drinker, elite, liberal or even a citizen, you are still welcome.

¨°ºø„   ¸¨°º¤ø„¸¸„ø¤º°¨ „ø¤º°¨
¨°º¤ø„      The        „ø¤º°¨
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Well, turns out, the dinner plans got thematic very early on..
There was:

• Liberal Latte and decaf chai latte
• Ballot Checks Mix
  
• Barack-olli
  
• Barack-us (boureckas, a mid-east pastry stuff with mushrooms, potatoes, etc)
  
• California Voters (a dish of fruits flakes & nuts)
  
• Johnny Cakes with McCain sugar sprinkles
  
• Stuffed Ballots (dolmas)
  
• Lame Duck (smoked)
  

• Greens with Big Oil (green salad w olive oil and dark balsamic)
• Pork (spare ribs)
  
• Freddy Mac and Cheese
  
• Sloppy Joe Biden
  
• Chicken in a Pot pie
  
• and the Afghani Quagmire (rather like a Mideast Quagmire, but from Kabul, a wonderful local restaurant.)
  

The Chicken in a Pot pie had letter-candles spelling "Congres" with the 2nd "s" written in frosting.  You see, Congress is not quite perfect.

Dessert was

• Puffed Egos (merangues)
• Pie Charts - two varieties decorated with fruit leather strips and sugar writing
  
• Freedom Silk (French chocolate silk)  decorated with useless data "Yes, 2, q, XIV, * and pi"
  
• American Pie - apple, of course decorated to read Us (1/3) and Them (2/3)
  
  ¨°ºø„   ¸¨°º¤ø„¸¸„ø¤º°¨ „ø¤º°¨
  ¨°º¤ø„     Wow!     „ø¤º°¨
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