The After Party

I still haven’t quite finished unpacking from the show; when I got home Saturday night I fell asleep trying to watch a movie, then I went to bed and slept another twelve hours. And then I spent a good chunk of my Sunday working on gardening things. 

(I have way more ornamental peppers than I was expecting, LOL. I expect at least half of them are going to get rehomed at work.)

I did both better and worse than I thought I would. While I didn’t get as many placings in Mini as I had hoped – only 12 out of the forty or so I brought – three of them either Champed or Reserved their Sectionals, and my lovely Dark Dapple Gray G1 Saddlebred ended up being Reserve Overall in Minis:

Good job, Mignonette! 

And while I still haven’t quite figured out the mystery that is Stablemates Foals, I did get three of my placings there, including a third with this cute, wee one as a Quarter Pony Foal:

On the other hand, I had 32 placings in Collectibility, most of them first through third. Several Champs here: Stablemate Sectional Champ (Black Pancho), Vintage Sectional Champ (the Airbrushed Misty), and both Animal Champ and Reserve (Ghost Moose and the French Perfume Poodle). 

Some of the models I expected to do better did not, but I worried about it less because, well, it was a conscious choice I made to focus on it less. I feel like I know what I’m doing there, and I’m confident enough with my models to just have fun with it and show off some of my pretties this time.

It also looks like my decision to avoid Traditional Breed paid off: those classes were huge, and the placings sometimes… odd. Not as odd as placing second to an Old Timer, but some of ones I did get a chance to review were a little confusing. 

(And I repeat myself: judges, man…)

When I woke up Sunday morning-ish I compiled a short list of must-takes for BreyerFest Live: I ended up with about twenty? If I have the ambition and the time, I might even add a couple of customs to the list, but I’m not going to sweat it if I don’t. (There’s a “crazy custom hairdo” Fun Class, and I have this FAM I use to deposit my excess epoxy on. She’s looking… pretty shaggy!)

Anyhoo, I have to go finish my taxes and call some places to get some work done on the car this week. (Relax: it wasn’t my fault and the issue is mostly cosmetic. More of a nuisance than anything else.)

The Entropy of the Season

Not dead, but a rough week nonetheless.

Whatever was in my eye is no longer in it, but the eye doctor diagnosed me with something else that may require a second opinion.

(I’d rather not talk about it right now, except to say that I ended up having a panic attack in the examination room.)

But dealing with that potential problem will have to wait at least a week, as I have literally DONE NOTHING FOR NEXT WEEK’S LIVE SHOW YET. So my weekend will largely consist of me slapdashing my showstring together.

For funsies I might do some quilt prep too, because it’s that time of the year and I derive some small pleasure basting things together. (My small, valiant effort to battle the entropy inherent in the season, I guess.)

I did buy a Maelstrom from the Halloween Sale, because after the week I had, I deserved a Metallic Green Desatado that Glows in the Dark. I threw in a couple of Spooky Surprise Blind Bag Stablemates, even though I know there’s a high likelihood of me getting two identical ones and I’m in no mood to negotiate trades. I’ll just throw the inevitable duplicate in the sales pile and call it a day.

(Bleh.)

On a more cheerful note, I am oddly more optimistic about Breyer’s chances at the Toy Hall of Fame this year. It was pretty weird to have nonhobby people asking me if I had heard the news about Breyer being nominated!

I went online and saw that Breyer was actually called out by name – and even featured in the title! – of several stories about the nominees this week. We didn’t quite get the same treatment last year, which leads me to think that the news people and/or museum publicists think that we’re a stronger contender?

It’s interesting that the announcement of this year’s winners will occur on November 10th, the day before the Ponies & Palm Trees Exclusive Event in Florida. It’ll make for an interesting (and possibly more drunken?) weekend if it does happen…

(FYI: Stay away from the Absinthe, guys!)