Ruins

I follow a number of crafting web sites for D&D ideas. One of my favorites is Black Magic Craft, and a recent video on modular ruins showed such a nice looking end product that I actually decided to try this out for myself. The video is here.

Two things I will say up front. First, the end result really looks great. Second, this is a time-consuming, fiddly, pain in the butt project. But worth it. If you are into this sort of thing.

Without the Proxon table hot wire cutter, I wouldn't even consider attempting this. With the Proxon, it is fiddly but possible.

You begin by milling a great many individual stone blocks. A great many... I did both large and small sizes. You then build walls, stone by stone. Mine, as in the BMC video, are based on heavy duty cardboard. Some model railroad talus is glued on in bunches afterward.

Building ruins from single foam bricks

When the pieces have been built, they are then base coated with a mixture of Mod Podge and cheap black craft paint. This serves as both a base coat and a level of protection for the foam.

Undercoat black-tinted Mod Podge

To have a useful amount of these pieces, you need lots of them. Lots of stones. Lots of gluing. Lots of painting.

Lots of pieces in various stages of progress

Painting of the pieces, for me, is the same as my painting scheme for generic Underdark terrain or any other stonework. A dark gray heavy brush. A medium-light gray dry brush, fairly heavy. Then a light grayish-white dry brush to pick out the highlights. On some pieces, perhaps not those shown in the picture below, a final wash of brownish-black tones down the brightness and makes the ruins a little dingy.

A couple of finished pieces

A good project, with a very very nice end result, but not for the person for whom this degree of fiddly-ness would make them run screaming from the room. Admittedly, I have a high tolerance, at times, for this degree of relaxational fiddly-ness. But at times I felt like running screaming from the room.

I have done a decent number of both large and small block walls, pillars, etc, and will post another pic of a final set-up soon.

Thing 2 Turns 14

Somewhere recently, Thing 2 turned 14, which is very hard to believe.

Grace, Ryder and Julia

Grace is in the summer between middle school and high school. Always one of the smallest girls in her grade (maybe 3rd shortest out of ~150 girls), she has had some growth spurts, and is now somewhere in the middle of her classmates in terms of height (ok, well, maybe not the statistical middle, but certainly well above the bottom end now...). Grace is only an inch shorter than Julia, who is in turn a couple of inches short of Amp. Grace is looking forward to the day, somewhere in the future, when she is taller than both of them. As unlikely as this always seemed, it now seems quite likely.

High school starts in ~10 weeks. Marching band camp is in 7 weeks. Braces are expected to come off in ~4 months.

Changes all over the place. She thinks it's all great. It spooks me a little bit. I'm happy for her.

A Special Wedding

We had the great honor to attend a very special wedding this weekend. Emily, founder of the BYC Spirit special needs cheerleading squad, got married.

Emily founded the Spirit squad while she was still in high school, and Julia was one of the original members.

BYC Spirit with the Happy Couple

The Spirit squad was, and still is, an amazing thing. Kids with all sorts of disabilities get to be part of a cheer squad, have very nice uniforms, practice every week, and attend 5 or 6 weekend cheer events over the course of a school year.

Grace and Bella

They generally open the competitions with their routine, get big trophies and standing ovations wherever they go, and serve as an opportunity for these kids to be special. In the good way. As I have written before, the reception the Spirit squad gets everywhere they go is amazing, and never fails to bring a tear to my eye.

Kings Mill, Aston PA

Emily graduated high school, went of to college, and never missed a beat with the Spirit squad. She comes back for practices, and still runs the whole thing. Designs the routines. Organizes the volunteers. Runs practices. Runs fundraisers. Schedules competition appearances. Goes to the competitions.

As I told her Dad at the wedding, Emily has done more in her young life to help others and have a true impact on their lives than most people have in their whole lives.

The wedding itself was wonderful, on a hot day in June. It was at the King's Mill renovated old mill building on 452 in Aston, along the creek. The facilities were very nice (and I loved the old building). The wedding was outside, and then we headed in for the reception as it started to drizzle.

The importance of the Spirit squad as a thing in Emily's life was apparent. Maybe a third of all attendees were past and present Spirit squad members and their families (including us). As befit the occasion, there was music and dancing, food and drink, and a good time was had by all.

It was an honor to celebrate the big day of someone who has had such an impact on Julia's (and our) life.

Footnote: Julia stopped doing Spirit a year ago, but Grace continues on as a helper coach volunteer. Grace helped out in Julia's last couple of years, and when Julia stopped doing it Grace surprised us a little bit by saying that she wanted to continue. So for one practice a week during the school year, and 5 or 6 weekend competitions, Grace goes and is the helper-buddy of a few of the littler ones.

Turning Pages...

It's been a busy week around here, with Grace finishing up her middle school days, and looking ahead toward high school.

Hard to believe.

Doors close. Others open. Time passes. It's the way of life, but sometimes difficult to wrap your head around. Especially for parents...

And pardon the gushing to follow, but she has made us very proud.

Last night she had her last practice for the Xcel Gold gymnastics team at Roth's Crosspoint Gymnastics. She loves gymnastics and would like to continue to do it, but the team practices are a 100% overlap with marching band practices in the late summer and fall, and it is more important that she be a part of this school-based activity with all of her school friends. So after the practice last night, there were many tears, lots of hugs, and a generally bittersweet time. It's nice to know that so many of the team members like her.

CPG team banquet, early June

Leaving something behind that you still care about is difficult. To say the least. But the friends she has made will continue to be her friends. While many of them don't go to the same school as her, they live in the area, and she will be able to keep in touch. Some will inevitably fade away. A few won't. That's life. There is already a sleepover on the calendar for next week...

Grace and her buddies

She has grown a lot through her short competitive gymnastics career, and made a lot of good friends. She is part of a gymnastics team, but ultimately, when it is time to perform, it is just her and the judges, and facing that challenge for two years, and ending up on the podium often, has been terrific for her self confidence. And there have been those handful of times when she was number 1, at the top of the podium, when mommy and daddy pride really got to shine.

And I can't say enough about Coach Bill and Christina at the gym. Bill was an olympic caliber gymnast for over a decade, a member of the US national team for many years, the first US men's gymnast to score a perfect 10 in international competition, and he has a skill named for him in the "book of rules". Beyond all that, he is a caring and compassionate coach. CPG is what you would want a gymnastics program to be - a community.

Grace and Coach Bill Roth

Today she had the final 8th grade awards assembly, and the official end of middle school. She's had a good run, and has done herself proud. Today she got the team Social Studies award (4 people selected out of ~90 kids), to go along with a team English award in 6th grade and a team Science award in 7th grade. I'm proud that she has done so well in different subjects over her three middle school years.

Social studies subject award

She also got a distinguished honor roll award (straight A's in all 4 quarters of the year), making 11 out of 12 quarters of distinguished honor roll in middle school. She's still bitter about that one B+ in math for one quarter last year... Which doesn't bother me at all, but I kinda like the fact that it bothers her.

Distinguished Honor Roll all 4 quarters of this year

A note on parental expectations. We like that Grace does well. She is bright, and we expect her to do well. At this level, if she doesn't do well, it only means one thing - she didn't put in the basic amount of work necessary to do what she should have been able to do. Things may well change as the years go by and things continue to get more and more difficult. And that's OK. As long as she is putting in the effort, and doing the best she can, then I am OK with that.

Lastly, I have greatly conflicted feelings as I watch my little girl grow up. Maybe we should have put her in the pickle jar when we had the chance, but that opportunity is gone. So I guess we just have to watch her grow up and enjoy it for what it is.

8th grade send off dance (Grace at right)

But as for today... It's been a good 36 hours. A very good 36 hours.