Hey!
I wandered up into canada this weekend with the snowy dog. Had a minor bit of trouble at the border as Snowy forgot A) Who he was going into canada to meet and B) Where he met the people he couldn't remember. Ended up having to speak up a bit from the passenger seat to get things straightened out. Poor husky just was a bit worried after having some crossing troubles in the past (At least he had an EDL and a job this time, wooo!)

Once up in canada, I chilled 'round the Doghouse for a bit, watching Torwin play a new furry MMORPG, and chit-chatting with Rainrat and crew until the rest of the breakfast group got back 'round 3PM. Once people got back, I was able to meet a few new people I'd only seen in name before - DrumminRoo and Damien, which was nice. Also met a fellow (Ethan) from Sweden, who also brought his Jakal Fursuit (Jake) all the way from way over there. Here he is, just chilling in the middle of us:



Once getting a chance to chitchat for a bit, we arranged our own food group, with me driving and Jake waving nervously to the entirety of Vancouver. With a bit of urging I got him barking and bouncing, even saying "AWrrroof" to some police checking out a fatal accident.

Ended up with a bit of time on our hands as we went to a burger king much further away than needed, losing the second car which chose to go to the one two blocks from the Doghouse [where's the sense in that?].

While waiting for them to catch up, there was ample time to play 'round in the not-so-ample playground at Burger King, as the gals behind the counter just laughed and cheered Jake on.



After getting back to the Doghouse we all crashed on the same couch (Whoops!) where I fended Marfles off with a valiant defense of licks and tickles, managing to wander off for a bit with Jake [who wasstill suited! Yay endurance], to wander 'round the neighborhood, getting funny comments from one or two of the neighbors [The father came out with all his kids - looked nice at first, but then he asked us if we were selling crack? Maybe he was just joking]. Anyway - sat in grass in front of that guy's house for a bit telling stories of FC until he interrupted with his crack joke... shortly afterward, some black dudes pulled up in their car, making some cracks about my 'boyfriend'. Heh, whoops! Wandered back to the Doghouse after that, laying in the grass and tumbling around a bit with nervous laughs and nosings, seemingly making the night of a certain Jackal <3

After getting tired, we transferred to the deck, kicked some couches together and make a rather squareish looking bed for ourselves to hide on, cold and quite and snuggly under the stars. Yay.

Halloween is treating me excellently this year, and it's not even quite over yet!

I started out with a trip down to Northwest Trek for the 'Hoot and Howl'. Due to lighting, it was mainly a performance event - go around, be bouncy, and just assume people liked what they saw. (Couldn't see their reactions until reviewing photos and hearing stories afterward - rumor is that people loved us!). Pics are up at: http://www.meetup.com/furlife/photos/468637/ I have a few photos I rather enjoyed: (Click for Bigger)


Turns out that Jango is a super-bunny, capable of carrying me around with barely any effort. By the time I couldn't see straight, this was a more than welcomed service.


An excellent idea thrown out from one of the group members - I found our my enormous foxy muzzle was a bit big to fit through though - so instead I had to just bear the taste of wood [icky!] and open my mouth to push the top of my jaw through. It took quite a while for it to stop feeling sore.


I have much love for the glow rings that the bunny and dragon were sporting - there are more photos of this in the gallery. It just seemed fitting somehow :)

I had a complete blast at RF. I treated it very much like a social con. Saw a ton of people, met a ton of people, and saw then tons over the course of the weekend.

Operation Scratch (scritch) and sniff was a success. Mostly the entire con (when I wasn't on my kennel) gave my chest a whiff, and it was decided that Vanilla has a lot to recommend it, especially compared to stale BO.

I made a couple Kennel runs (pics forthcoming), and want to make special a shout-out to Friday's Kennel team. You guys didn't even break pace when told to get the kennel off the ground. Bam, up in the air, and back to the run :)

I also want to thank the other masters that made pet loans to me. Saturday night's run was ALSO a blast, especially once I got those spurs away from the auctioneer.

Was cool chilling at the Bellfurs party - by now, that crew has plenty of practice keeping things flowing, and I think a lot of the con leftovers swung by at least sometime that night.

Attended a rather successful craft night at Rocky The Foxie's place, and got about 3/4th done on a pair of bodysuits for Scruffy / Fenrir, plus a DTD done for myself, which was drawn all over by the ladies, to come up with some lovely curvy white belly/leg markings. Great start.



Early part of the following week was spent cleaning my workshop in prep for hosting the craft night at my place.

Except... then I became a lazy git, and on the next weekend, I spent most of my time:
* Cooking and laying around (Friday)
* Sleeping/Playing DDR X (Saturday)
* Complaining About Zippers (Sunday).

Whoops! Current progress is that the test suit is done, proving the duct tape pattern is fitted enough.
Now to try to cram a head-refur (to match the new bodysuit), and a bosysuit in, before RF this Friday. Anyone care to wager on this? I'm willing to take either side :)

--Michael J Fox(ie)

AFF was a week ago, and I had myself a properly exciting time :)
Photos are posted here [ http://furries.meetup.com/290/photos/ ], with at least 3 people contributing to the pile.

Suiting endurance is getting better, with the new tailoring [closer fit] on Kip, plus the removal of the fake leather backing on the bodysuit. (It used to wick the sweat off the under-armor, and into the fur, halving the time before soak-through happened). I think I pulled ~5-6 hours this time, before finally de-suiting. Water intake was absolutely silly. 20oz every hour on the hour = a real actual gallon of water, all of that went to sweat.

Alliteration aside, I'm looking for advice on taking a claw shape I'm happy with [used in a couple sets each of forepaws and hindpaws], and making some fashion of cast / mold so that it's simpler to make large sets of it.

I currently work with Fimo / Sculpey clays, hand-forming claws to be as similar as I'm able. It's a process that I havn't really been able to ramp up to "efficient speeds". My goal is to be both faster at production, and to have the claws look more regular.

I'm open to other suggestions, if going after a mold is considered a dead end.

Links to tutorials work too.

Thanks!
--Michael J Fox

(Cross-posted to fursuit, comments will be in the post there)

I managed to catch some video of a pair of irresponsible suiters swimming in the pool at FC08.
Video Here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8Clrg6fSIc

I had a mid-sized pile of fur in my house this weekend [13, myself included]. The Kitchen Overlord prepared a huge mexican feast, and my Movie-Rabbit had Ricky-o on hand for much head-crushing, eye-gouging enjoyment. Plus bad dubbing. Yay.

A few lessons learned:
 * Dishes suck - Find something disposable, or get a working dishwasher :)
 * A wall of beds is awesome for movie watching.
 * It is less awesome for sleeping. Next time, at least two bedrooms for sleepifying.
 * Furries love scritches. Oh yes.
 * Soups are full of awesome people-feeding power.
 * Kids love fursuits.
 * Doing "repeat what I do" with a kid is a great idea.
 * Involving a metal pot attached to an amp is a "Horribly Great" idea :)

Overall, I'm super-satisfied with the weekend. There were enough people, that Drew and I were happily occupied the entire way [There was always more than one thing going on. Potential for boredom is hugely reduced].

Somewhat over a week ago was the Fur-Life bowling event.
Many pictures taken [mine at http://furlife.eartwitch.com/2007-December/ ], and fun times had.
I was super-happy with how much help Arnie [lane manager of Kent Bowl that day] was able to offer.
I really wish I could have spent some more time talking with people - really the only thing I would have changed, would to have been not bowling, so there would have been more time to get to know people.

I was able to do that after the event, though.
SirCrimsonFox, Gusty, MousePaws, Lapine, Fractal, Drew and I all wandered off to a mexican restaurant across the road. Lots of stories to hear, of furry-ness in other parts of the USA.

Pet store owners seem to be better prepared than most people, to interact with furries.

While in the Northgate area, I stopped by Crown Hill Pet Supply to find a Squeaky Toy [I was handler on this trip]. As we walked in, she thanked me for using a leash [1 point]. After giving us some time w/ the squeaky toys, she asked if there was anything else we were looking for. After pointing us to the other side of the store, she then slapped the back of her leg, and dashed off to the items (with the Fox in fast pursuit, of course <grin>). I think it was the first time someone really treated my pet as a pet. We were both happy.

I had an urge to go suiting over the weekend, and headed over to the Mill Creek Shopping Center to do a bit of frolicking about.
After making it to Central Market, some time was spent outside trying to find a pumpkin. A nearby cub paid absolutely no attention to the fox imitating her pumpkin-finding procedure. [Lift, shake, hold up next to head, stare at stem].
A few moments later, my spotter and I headed inside, to the Halloween candy display (yay!). The jaw's grippingness is currently limited to a pez dispenser package [a few ounces]. So, I grabbed a cat, and headed over to checkout, where I opened wide to drop it on the conveyer belt. [following it carefully the whole way <grin>].
General Response was quite good, with many of the other cashiers smiling at the spectacle.

The next day, my spotter and I swapped, and I took him through Northgate.
Display and Costume was definitely the highlight, where we picked up a wig for halloween, and got pounced by an employee. After other customers stepped away, she excitedly asked "Have you ever been to Anthrocon?" - unfortunately no, but I did invite her to the Halloween invasion of Alderwood Mall. Many other people in the store "got" the (point at their ears, point at fox's own ears), and many shook hands and patted my pet on the head. The other pretty awesome response was from a gal in an Espresso shop on 15th [near Mr. and Mrs. Wok]. She was in a kitty ear/tail, and was adoring the fox, and even gave him a giant hug. And an amaretto coffee. :)